by Nisioisin
What a horrible person.
She never showed any signs of letting up, even on the phone.
“Anyway, Senjogahara─could you hear me out?”
“No. In fact, you’re the one who needs to hear me out. So I went to a video rental store the other day with my friend.”
“So you’re ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Found Dog’?! You haven’t had a single friend for years! Now that I know you pretended to have one to write in to a radio station, what was meant to be a funny letter just sounds sad to me!”
And what kind of ratings was this radio show getting?
Was everyone listening to it?!
Everyone except me?!
Popular culture had left me behind!
“Please, Senjogahara. Forget about that and listen to me.”
“I guess I have no choice if you’re getting down on all fours.”
“I’m not!”
“So, what is it?”
“…Shinobu disappeared.”
“Shinobu─that blond kid?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmph.”
No thoughts.
Indifferent and insensitive.
Of course, while she may have been acquainted with Shinobu, it wasn’t as if she’d ever spoken or socialized in any way with her─and not just Senjogahara. Kanbaru and Sengoku, too. Of us all, the only people who knew what Shinobu was like on the inside were me, Oshino, and─Hanekawa.
“You went so far as to play hooky to find this girl?”
“Yeah. Which is why I want you to help out. The only people who’ve met Shinobu in person─”
“But,” Senjogahara cut me off, “that couldn’t have been what you meant by ‘humanitarian aid’ this morning─you’d never refer to that kid as human.”
“……”
“Hanekawa took today off from school,” Senjogahara added impassively.
She didn’t betray any emotion. I could practically see her ever-expressionless face from across the call. Had this girl really called Kanbaru to brag all night about what she’d done?
“Could it be related in any way? Oh, you don’t have to answer that. Your silence is eloquent,” she said.
“Even if it is, I’m going to answer you. Yes, you’re exactly right. Hanekawa’s─”
“Now that you mention it, Mister Oshino did say something about that─the girl did good work during Hanekawa’s case, or something. Is that what this is? You need that girl’s abilities for Hanekawa’s sake, but she’s absconded for other reasons?”
“You have really good intuition, you know that? And a good memory, too.”
“I’m confident about my memory. I even remember when the Kamakura Shogunate was founded.”
“Only the most generic Japanese history question ever…”
“In eleven hundred ninety-two, they formed that useless bakufu.”
“What a mean mnemonic!”
“You know, Araragi, you sound equally worried about the two, Hanekawa and the kid─impartial in your concern, even though it’s obvious whom you ought to be prioritizing. That’s so like you.”
“……?”
What was she saying?
I was supposed to be prioritizing?
What did that have to do with the situation we were in?
It wasn’t like what happened with Sengoku. We weren’t in a position where we had to choose who to save─were we?
“I’m not going,” Senjogahara repeated. “I won’t be going anywhere.”
“Hey, Senjogahara─”
“I need to prepare for the culture festival, after all.”
“Well, okay…I understand that, but right now we’re─”
“Hanekawa entrusted me with this.”
Those were powerful words.
Powerful and steadfast─like a drawn sword.
“How could I possibly sneak away? And the more danger Hanekawa is in, the more I’m needed here to fulfill my role.”
She was right─
It was no ordinary case of being asked to help.
Hanekawa had entrusted Senjogahara with those duties under pressure from an aberration. How could Senjogahara skip out on that to look for Shinobu?
“Not to mince words, the chain of command is in chaos without Hanekawa here─nothing is working right. She was dealing with all of this? She has to be insane to put together this schedule. And you’re not here, either, the one person who was supporting her─honestly, I can’t even afford to be wasting time on the phone like this.”
“Well, Hanekawa was doing most of it by herself─”
Just how much of herself had she devoted to our class? And─just how hard had she worked to keep them from noticing? Did she never show them any of the toil she was going through? She could have easily been swamped with all the work she had, yet she never showed any sign of being busy─not a single complaint escaped her lips. It was that way with everything she did─what was impressive wasn’t how hard she worked, but how she never allowed anyone to catch on. I was right by her, supporting her all this time, and even I had a hard time saying I fully grasped everything she was going through.
Honestly.
She, and no one else, really was the real deal─
……
Though I did wish Miss Hitagi wouldn’t dismiss speaking to her boyfriend on the phone as a waste of time…
“I doubt I’ll be able to go home until pretty late,” she said, “and it looks like there’s no way I’d be able to finish by the time school closes. I’ll probably have to take this home with me and work on it there. I’m almost astonished she was doing this much during school hours. Listen, Araragi. You just need to do what you always do─and I’ll do what I always do.”
“Yeah… All right, then,” I relented, having understood the situation very well. “You take care of school. Let’s make this a good culture festival.”
“Yes. I’d like that.”
The same flat tone as ever.
She seriously didn’t betray a single emotion.
That was still what Senjogahara said, though.
“Okay─I’ll call you again later,” I told her.
“Oh, Araragi. Just one more thing?”
“What is it?”
“Your tsundere bonus,” she wrapped up. In her flat tone. “Don’t misunderstand, it’s not like I’m worried about you or anything─but I’ll never forgive you if you don’t come back, okay?”
She cut the call off there.
She nearly took my consciousness with her, but I somehow managed to endure.
Oh, god… I really didn’t know what to say. Every single time I talked to her, she… No, I don’t mind being told my vocabulary is lacking… I just don’t have any other words for it.
I loved her so much.
So much I didn’t know what to do.
Of course I’d come back.
If she was waiting for me, of course I would.
“…Don’t worry, you can count on me.”
In any case.
I had now asked everyone I could for their help.
It was the extent of my third-year high school network.
It may have only been a consolation, in perspective─the situation may not have shifted by much, but still─
My confidence was on another level.
I pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled─then continued for another three hours.
I had now been searching for nine hours.
Seven p.m.
Before I knew it─it was night.
I hadn’t eaten, and I hadn’t drank.
I hadn’t rested─
And I was finally feeling tired.
“Still…what is Shinobu thinking?”
Running away from home─really?
Absconding─really?
A journey of self-discovery─really?
When you shouldn’t be able to go anywhere─
Just like me.
“……………”
; It all started─during spring break.
It all started with my second-year closing ceremony.
It was a while ago by now.
I learned of the existence of aberrations─
I became an aberration myself─
And it’s been that way ever since.
A demon.
A cat.
A crab.
A snail.
A monkey.
A snake.
And then, once again…a cat.
A Changing Cat─a Hindering Cat.
Black Hanekawa─another Tsubasa Hanekawa.
In most cases, cat monsters turned into humans─countless legends all went the same way. It first eats an old lady, changes into that old lady, enters her house, then eats everyone else.
A cat changes into a human.
And then─eats them.
But a Hindering Cat did the opposite─no, perhaps you could call it an interpretation of the same legends from a different angle. Cases where a cat doesn’t change into a human─but where a human changes into a cat. Cat monsters who turn into humans are spotted because of their odd behavior─but with Hindering Cats, that unnatural behavior is understood as a case of multiple personalities. If you focused on only that element, it was similar to cases of foxes possessing humans. There’s a way that most folk tales about Hindering Cats go─night after night, a virtuous wife turns into a harlot and walks the streets─then a traveling monk (or maybe a warrior, or maybe a hunter) declares that it’s the work of a cat monster and takes action─only to discover it was just the wife all along.
If you were to take only the ending of the stories into consideration, then yes, at no point does a cat ever appear in the tale. The reader is given a little peek at a white cat with no tail, but it’s nothing more than a plot conceit, or something used to make the story more engaging─but the theme, the anchor, is humanity itself.
The obverse and reverse sides of humans.
Hanekawa in reverse─the black, awful Tsubasa Hanekawa.
No─should that be white?
Either way, there was no arguing she’d been consumed, but─
I wanted to hear what Kanbaru had to say.
The Hindering Cat and Kanbaru’s monkey did seem similar─though they were probably only similar and not the same. The biggest difference was that all the monkey had done was grant Suruga Kanbaru’s wishes according to a fair and reasonable contract─while the Hindering Cat was on Tsubasa Hanekawa’s side, thoroughly and through and through, unconditionally and without reserve. During Golden Week, it attacked me, Oshino, and even Hanekawa herself in the end, with both malice and hostility─but even that was for Hanekawa’s sake. It may not have been what she wanted or wished for─but the cat was on her side.
It wasn’t just on her side─it was her, after all.
That was the difference with Kanbaru’s monkey.
Kanbaru. She’d still be running around.
But─she hadn’t called.
No one had called.
We hadn’t just failed to find our first hint, we were clueless.
What did it mean?
A blond girl would be the most conspicuous person in the entire town─yet we didn’t even have an eyewitness?
Could she have already skipped town somehow?
No, her legs were a child’s…at least, they should have been.
She shouldn’t be able to do anything─without me at her side.
I looked up at the sky.
Night.
No trace left of dusk.
There were stars in the sky─it was nothing like the one I’d seen the night before by the observatory… Even so, the stars were pretty. I had a feeling I’d be making a habit out of looking up at the sky─since it was a memory that I shared with Senjogahara.
Everything.
So she said.
That’s about everything I can give you─
But no, she was wrong.
Just look. She’d given me these memories.
Not only of that starry sky─of it all, from our first contact on the stairs to the present moment.
Memories… And memory.
Hanekawa’s memory─would never be wiped again. Personally, I thought losing all memory of ever getting involved with an aberration might be for the best─but maybe Oshino was right in the end.
Not just in the way he meant.
Me, too─I didn’t want to forget, either.
That spring break.
That hell.
It all started from there, after all─
“…Shinobu─Shinobu Oshino.”
I’d find her, no matter what.
I’d find her, and I’d show her.
I decided to be responsible for you for the rest of my life─
“Okay… That’s enough of a break.”
I started pedaling again. I’d recovered most of my stamina from the breather─I really did have an absurd body.
The stars in the sky aside─it was getting to be late.
A little longer and I’d need Sengoku, a middle schooler, to go back home. We were already short-handed, and that would cut down on our forces. Filing a police report about a missing child was out of the question, given the circumstances…
The night part was a little concerning, too.
It goes without saying that vampires─are nightwalkers. You couldn’t call Shinobu a vampire any longer, but it was true that her activities were less limited at night. As it deepened, so did her powers.
And so did the danger.
It was past seven now… The next two hours were crucial.
I need to hurry, I thought, standing up from my bike’s saddle and pedaling as hard as I could─until, with a thunk, both of my pedals grew heavy and my speed dropped like a car whose emergency brake had been pulled.
I thought I’d broken my bike at first after going too hard on it. Either my chain had broken or my tires had blown…but that wasn’t the case.
Someone had jumped onto my back seat.
No, “someone” might not be the right word.
If I had to say, it was a cat.
“……”
“Meow.”
“……”
Right…
Just like vampires…cats were nocturnal, too.
White hair, cat ears, still in her pajamas─
A woman I knew well.
She’d taken her glasses off─she saw well in the dark.
The look she was giving me, though, was awful… And it wasn’t just her eyes. Her entire expression was so sour that I couldn’t believe she could make it with her face.
She’d taken off her long-sleeved sweater─she must have felt hot.
So, “The North Wind and the Sun” was right after all. I finally happened to get a glance at Hanekawa in her pajamas from head to toe, but I’d have been twice as happy had she not been in her present state.
And so.
Black Hanekawa was there.
“…Why are you here?”
“Rolly-meow.”
“Answer me.”
I didn’t want to hear some fake cat sound in reply.
We’d placed Black Hanekawa under tight bonds in that abandoned cram school and under Oshino’s tight watch. So why─
“Don’t be such a sourpuss, human. Rolly-rolly.”
“And I’m not going to let you pussyfoot around my question.”
“Hmph. No purrticular reason. So stop giving me that fishy look, human. Not sure why, but I clawed myself out of those ropes like it was nyothing when I was pawing around just a minute ago.”
“Just a minute ago…”
Oh─right.
She was nocturnal.
