Monogatari Series:Orokamonogatari/Sodachi Fiasco 021

I’d quarreled with Lily Suzubayashi in front of the school gate, and besides, she’d given off a strong impression of a class leader, but... naturally, it’s not like I could match all of my classmates’ names to faces after just five days of being a transfer student.

So I’d assumed that the one unknown girl in the group was just “Ms. So-and-so from our class”–but somehow or other, she appeared to be none other than Ayakari Hatamoto herself, the girl who was truant before I’d even transferred.

Seeing her hanging out and having fun at a game center conflicted greatly with my mental image of her as a truant, but after hearing her surname being called many times after that by people other than Lily Suzubayashi, she could hardly be anyone else.

Well, fine.

Of course, this doesn’t matter.

I don’t intend to assert an irrational, superficial, prejudiced argument, like that it’s terribly imprudent for her to be hanging out and having fun with classmates after faking an illness and staying home from school. It’s not illegal for her to have fun, just like it’s not illegal for me. While I wasn’t going to school, I’d just about shut myself away from the world, but that’s just a problem with my personality; I just couldn’t live a cheerful lifestyle. Ordinarily, people have to find a way to reduce the frustration that piles up with the irregularities in their lives. There’s no essential difference between Amiko Yurugase studying at cram school and Ayakari Hatamoto hanging out at a game center.

After breaking up her friendship with Amiko Yurugase, Ayakari Hatamoto had gotten closer to Lily Suzubayashi and her group; that’s certainly not something that could be taken as a betrayal.

It’s completely fine for her to have fun.

However, if Ayakari Hatamoto and Lily Suzubayashi start talking in lively voices about how they’d driven Amiko Yurugase into truancy, like it was some kind of accomplishment, things become a little bit different–if they’d gathered at this amusement center as if to celebrate their achievement.

Ah, nah.

To tell the truth, I did think it would be natural for Ayakari Hatamoto to say “Serves you right” after hearing that Amiko Yurugase had become truant like herself–it’d be wrong to force an excessively ethical viewpoint onto her and say that she had to feel guilty about anything. It’s an ethical viewpoint that a nation ought to have, but it’s all but impossible for an individual. Yet if everything was an intentional contrivance of theirs, it’s a different story.

Well, saying that “everything” was a contrivance is just my typical assumption–there’s no way for me to know how much of it was accidental and how much was intentional just from eavesdropping like this.

I’m sure it’s closer to the truth to look at Amiko Yurugase and Ayakari Hatamoto’s quarrel as the result of many years’ worth of dregs accidentally overflowing–there’s a delicate line between whether her staying home from school the next day was due to malicious intent or not.

But what if Lily Suzubayashi had incited those two incidents to further her interests against Amiko Yurugase–setting Amiko Yurugase up as the villain and isolating her, while taking the truant Ayakari Hatamoto into her corner at the same time? Making Ayakari Hatamoto continue staying home to prevent a reconciliation–contrasting herself with Amiko Yurugase’s tyranny, and thereby settling her isolation?

Or perhaps Lily Suzubayashi hadn’t led her on, but Ayakari Hatamoto, who ought to have been bad with people, had made a deal with Lily Suzubayashi–what if Ayakari Hatamoto, dissatisfied with how Amiko Yurugase was treating her, had used the bellowing she’d received as an opportunity to finally bring about a revolution?

Of course, there were more possibilities–there might be a mastermind in that group controlling things from the shadows, or as an extreme argument following a twisted logic, I couldn’t rule out the hypothesis that someone outside of the group like Norika Kyakufuji was leading them all around by the nose.

As a transfer student and an outsider, I couldn’t understand the exact situation, it was unfathomable–all I could produce from casually eavesdropping was speculation.

But even if there are some approximations, it was the unshakable truth that Ayakari Hatamoto had colluded with Lily Suzubayashi to trick Amiko Yurugase.

The more I listened, the more unshakable it became.

The more I listened to those girls lording it over their cohort, talking as if they hadn’t a speck of guilt–the more I listened to their spite, to the point where I didn’t want to listen any more, the more unshakable it became.

Ah–gah.

Why did I end up hearing this.

After running this way and that, I ’d thought it was all finally over–I didn’t even want to know the truth.

Even if I can’t say I was fully satisfied, things should have been settled by my conversation with Amiko Yurugase–why are they trying to pull me into this sordid quagmire?

No, Lily Suzubayashi and Ayakari Hatamoto aren’t trying to pull me into anything–to those girls, I’m simply a supporting character. Setting aside the question of whether it’s a tragedy or a comedy, those two had no intention to do anything at all to me.

So I wasn’t being pulled into the sordid quagmire, I dove into it myself–I really shouldn’t do things that aren’t like me. I’ve met with this terrible turn of events because I did something like enter a game center–so from now on, I’ll act more like myself.

Impulsively, hysterically, reflexively.

Sodachi Oikura’s standard style.

The modest personality of a fool like me.

What’s normal for a non-special person like me.

I flew out from behind the pillar–not to run away; on the contrary, I plunged into the group of students at full speed.

My target was Lily Suzubayashi.

If I considered everyone in the group to be accomplices, then it wouldn’t matter who I was aiming for–other than Ayakari Hatamoto–but in the end, the best target was the girl whom even an outsider could perceive as a leader.

It’s not that I’m letting my rage take over and trying to sock her. To tell the truth, I was fired up and behaving incomprehensibly enough that I wanted to do just that; however, I just barely managed to hold onto my senses–indeed, I held onto enough of my senses to aim for the smartphone Lily Suzubayashi was fiddling with as she amused herself chatting.

I plunged into the line for the money-changing machine like a runaway car that lost its brakes, and, hearing to the boys and girls around me scream, I successfully snatched the digital device from Lily Suzubayashi’s hands.

Mission complete.

Or not, since this is only the start–I can’t stop here, I’m hopelessly outnumbered.

Maintaining top speed, I headed toward the exit at the other side of the game center–well, I say ‘top speed’, but the dashing speed of a former truant and hikikomori didn’t amount to very much.

I can’t sustain this, and I’ll use up all of my endurance soon.

I need to put as much distance between me and them as possible, and accomplish my next goal while they’re still taken aback.

Coming out of an alleyway, almost without thinking I circled around to the back of a nearby convenience store and crouched down–then, I hid inside a garbage bin installed next to a vending machine.

A masochistic smile escaped me. Taking refuge in a garbage bin on a byroad at a time like this is quite like me–it’s like I’m a genuine piece of garbage.

But, you people are even more garbage than me.

Muttering those words out loud, I started operating the smartphone–I didn’t own one, but the operating procedures fell within the bounds of common sense. It’s not like you needed an instruction manual for this kind of handheld device in the first place.

First, most importantly, I activated airplane mode.

It seemed that cell phone companies these days could use security procedures to find phones’ specific location and remotely erase all their data–but if you cut off the signal and put it in standalone mode, that security procedure is rendered meaningless.

Should be.

It’s not like I had any confirmation of that, and it wouldn’t be odd for me to be found by Lily Suzubayashi and her group as they searched the area after coming to their senses, so I can’t afford to be leisurely. I was confident that they wouldn’t report me, but there were a lot of people on their side… unlike me, they could perform a wide-scale search operation.

It’s already too late to get off with an apology.

Now that I’ve started, my only choice is to finish it.

After setting the smartphone in airplane mode, I slid it open and tried to unlock it; however, as I’d thought, it required a password.

Ah, of course.

I need to input a four-digit number.

I felt cold sweat trickle down my cheek–perhaps it might be a tear.

I couldn’t turn the testimony I’d heard while eavesdropping into proof. Since I didn’t have a cell phone myself, I couldn’t display any modern detective skills like recording their conversation or secretly snapping pictures.

But that’s because I’m a behind-the-times hick from the country–to all these city kids, smartphones are almost like a part of their bodies.

Part of their bodies–part of their brains.

If Lily Suzubayashi and Ayakari Hatamoto had joined hands to plot the downfall of Amiko Yurugase, then there’s no way they didn’t use smartphones as a communication tool for that purpose at some point.

Whether they were text messages or SNS or SMS or group chats or whatever–this phone is full of evidence.

Because of the internet and smartphones, middle and high school students’ interpersonal relationships have become complicated, digitized, vicious and devious and such, and it seems to have become a problem for society–but on the other hand, using digital devices left unavoidable traces; 100 percent certain proof.

Anonymity isn’t worth it, so it seems.

If you succeeded in analyzing someone’s smartphone, afterward, one thing leads to another–just like that, an entire group could be destroyed.

Since they understood that, cell phone security was fundamentally rather rigid–that’s why it could be guarded by remote operation, and why, depending on the configuration, I’d heard there was a feature that would reset the device if you entered too many wrong passwords.

Even if that’s not the case, there’s no way I’d have time to try out all 10,000+ potential numbers. I had to unlock Lily Suzubayashi’s smartphone in one go–if I can’t, it’s all over.

After taking back her smartphone; in other words, after ensuring the safety of her and her group, Lily Suzubayashi might mercilessly hand me over to the police.

In a sense, I’m a fugitive on the run, who’s done even more questionable things than steal a cell phone, so that’s a situation I’d absolutely want to avoid.

A four-digit number. One out of ten thousand.

As the incarnation of misfortune and disaster, I’d probably get it wrong even if it were a fifty-fifty chance–even if it were a chance of 9,999 out of 10,000, I’m confident I’d still get it wrong. However…

Then there was an intense noise. The garbage bin that had served as my protector had been sent flying with a rough kick–the empty cans and plastic bottles pounded against me as they scattered.

As I was protecting my face with my arms, I saw the form of a male student blocking my way, with a facial expression like a demon–he called out to his comrades in a loud voice. In the blink of an eye, the entire group, including Lily Suzubayashi and Ayakari Hatamoto, had assembled and surrounded me.

I thought for some reason that the number of people had increased from when I’d seen them at the game center… I suppose they’d called everyone to gather here.

It’s so wonderful, having lots of friends.

Although they didn’t get physically violent, the boys and girls didn’t hesitate to start laying into me with words of merciless ridicule–it’s almost like they want to hurt me.

I’m getting hurt, though.

No matter how full of scars I am, I still feel pain when I get hurt–that’s why I can’t forgive people who pretend to be hurt, who pretend to be pitiful, who use weakness as a weapon.

I can’t forgive anyone who’s even more feckless than me.

In the middle of the storm of abuse, in a louder voice than ever, Lily Suzubayashi inquired, 'What the hell aya doin’–it was a much more violent tone than Amiko Yurugase’s.

It seemed like a question that could finally start a conversation; however, instead of replying, I returned the same question to her, 'What are you doing?’

The smartphone screen I showed her while answering was more than enough–it was unlocked, a communication app was running, and the screen showed that I’d finished my analysis.

Everyone fell silent. Especially Ayakari Hatamoto, who went quiet as the color drained from her face–regardless of how violent they’d been, how they’d pretended to have the upper hand by a wide margin, after all, they were normal high school students with decent intelligence.

They seemed to have surmised everything.

My goal in snatching the phone, and the fact that their own goal had been ruined.

…Strictly speaking, there was one way for these boys and girls to turn the tables. Now that they’ve surrounded me, they could all beat me up and forcibly take the cellphone back–that’d be easy.

But in that case, the affair would turn into something else.

If you people have the resolve for that, it’s my loss.

Do as you like. Do as you dislike.

As I let out a cackling laugh, Lily Suzubayashi stared at my defenseless form as if I were an apparition–grinding her teeth in frustration, she yelled, 'What the hell, you on Yurugase’s side, huh?’

Yurugase’s side? What does that mean… 'Does Amiko Yurugase look like such a virtuous person for you to help her out after I isolated her?’

‘If that’s the case, you aren’t qualified to stand above people either.’

‘Hauh? Then whose side aya, huh? Fah whose sake, undah whose influence, based on whose value system aya screwin around like this?’

As she continued relentlessly questioning me in that shrill voice, I got fed up, and thought of a suitable answer.

‘Araragi.’

Translator's Notes

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