He's being nasty.
It doesn't feel good, but of course it doesn't, that's what being nasty does.
i doubt it's even possible to be nasty in a feel-good way.
"In that case, Mister Serpent... To summarize, Nadeko...just needs to go out every night.. .and walk around town.. .until she finds your object of worship."
"Yep, that would be the summary. I wish you wouldn't make it sound so pastoral, though."
"i don't need to fight any weird enemies or compete with rivals over what i'm looking for?"
"Yep... Hold on. Were you expecting a big adventure or something, Nadeko?"
"i wasn't, but..."
i did imagine something like that—more anxiously than expectantly.
Which is why.
It's—a letdown. Like i'm being left empty-handed.
"By the way, what happens when i find your object of worship?"
"What happens? Well, I leave you and repossess it instead, I guess... Of course, it's my original body, so more like return into it?"
“…And when that happens, we part ways."
"That's right. Hmm? Why do you sound disappointed, dear?
Don't tell me you've gotten attached to me."
"That's not it..."
We've only been together for a day, not long enough to get attached, and frankly i have a hard time dealing with rough types like Mister Serpent.
It's a matter of personality, though, and not because he's a snake or an aberration.
"It's just that i'm bad at goodbyes."
"Hmm?"
"When someone. ..anyone, really... When they go away...it's tiresome, isn't it?"
"Tiresome? That's a weird way to put it—almost sounds like you're…"
Mister Serpent begins to say something in a suspicious—a very "doubious" and doubting—tone, but doesn't finish, which might be fortunate for Nadeko.
Because at that moment.
"Vzzzzzzzzzt♪"
Mister Serpent's white body, wrapped around Nadeko's right wrist, starts to shake rapidly—he compared it to a vibrating cell phone earlier, but i'm not sure how accurate the analogy is because i don't have a cell phone.
So if i were to compare it to anything, it's the way Nadeko's Dad's portable massager vibrates—to be honest, stronger than i imagined.
So strong it almost hurt. To use a scary figure of speech that isn't pastoral, i thought it might tear Nadeko's wrist off.
"Wh.. .What?"
"Hsshh, hsshh—look at that, a reaction already. Head toward your five o'clock, Nadeko!"
"N-Nadeko's five o'clock?"
Which way is that?
i'm not going to understand him if he suddenly starts talking to Nadeko like we're in some kind of movie.
"Make a clock in your mind. If the direction you're facing, dear, is twelve o'clock, then go to five o'clock—in a diagonal direction behind you and to the right!"
"D-Diagonal behind Nadeko, to the right..."
i don't quite get it even then, but Nadeko turns around as she's told and starts going that way.
You could call Nadeko a yes-girl.
Of course, i'm walking in a town with streets, not in a desert or a jungle, so i can't move diagonally behind and to the right in a beeline.
Going around the houses, with Mister Serpent giving slight corrections each time (he's annoyingly detailed about it, telling Nadeko to go in this hour and that hour when there's no point in telling her to go diagonally), i finally end up in a park.
Widely recognized as an indoor person, Nadeko never really played in parks even when she was little, but she still knew of this modest one.
i notice playground equipment like a jungle gym, a see-saw, and horizontal bars—apparently, they're rapidly being removed from parks these days, but the "mewnicipal" government here must be putting it off.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
"Okay. Around here," the Serpent says.
"Around here... But this is a sandbox."
Yes, his dowsing, or maybe his navigation, has put us in the one ace in the park you could just barely call safe in that sense, the sandbox—no, maybe even sandboxes are "inperilled" because there could be glass buried inside or for sanitary reasons or because it's dangerous if you swallow sand.
…
Well, maybe not because it's dangerous if you swallow sand.
Anything can be dangerous if swallowed, even food.
"W h... What? So your corpse is buried in this sandbox?"
i said "corpse." i didn't mean to.
i could get in trouble if i don't pay attention to how i phrase things—but it doesn't feel quite right to call anything buried in a park's sandbox an object of worship.
"Yep, I'm sure of it—hsshh, hsshh! Or, what, do you doubt the precision of my dowsing ability? Hmmmm?"
"i more than doubt it..
Right.
Well, you could say doubt, but it's more like not even wanting debate the matter.
If it's buried in a sandbox, it's practically like some child hid it... no, it's even at the level of a dog or a cat hiding it.
“...But, sure, if that's what you say, Mister Serpent...i guess i'll look."
"What's with the lack of enthusiasm?"
"i'm full of enthusiasm," Nadeko counters as she takes the gardening trowel out of her knapsack.
i brought it because it seemed like the sort of item to take on a search (i have a lot of other things too, like rope and chisels).. .but i never thought i'd be using it so soon.
"C'mon, hurry up and get digging. I'm certain my object of worship is buried down here."
“…”
"Hsshh, hsshh—it's like winning the lottery with your first ticket, hmmmm? Aren't you lucky, Nadeko. Just a half-hour stroll and you're already going to be free of me—"
He sounds so thrilled, he seems to have forgotten what Nadeko was saying. Mister Serpent generally comes across as a surly cynic, so i'm a little surprised to see him this excited.
Well—maybe it's only natural when you've discovered your own body.
So soon, too.
i don't know if the lottery analogy is appropriate, lacking, or exaggerated.. .but it's true that the chances were pretty low.
No wonder he's happy.
i stick the tip of Nadeko's trowel into the sandbox with a scrunch.
In any case, i'm already going to be saying goodbye to Mister Serpent, believe it or not—and when Nadeko thinks this, it does feel tiresome.
Nadeko's feelings aren't the least bit important, though—to be honest, you don't need to feel motivated just to dig up some sand, and in the end, it's just a later of sooner or matter, wait, no, a matter of sooner or later, because we were going to have to say goodbye at some point.
That point is now, that's all.
Our time together was brief, but it's not as if i wanted it to be long—and that isn't a snake joke.
Time to say goodbye to Mister Serpent.
If i find his object of worship here.