Our town in the provinces is also out in the country.
It gets incredibly dark at night. Pitch blackness. The contrast with daytime is such that the interior and exterior of an abandoned building becomes nearly indistinguishable.
For me, having lived here my entire life, that hardly feels off or strange, and really, that’s how nature is supposed to work, but according to someone like Oshino, a drifter─the contrast tends to be entangled with the root of the problem more often than not.
It made the root easier to discern and comprehend─he told me that, too.
Either way.
It was now a little after midnight.
Senjogahara and I biked back to the cram school ruins. We used an actual cushion from Senjogahara’s home for the rear seat.
I was mildly hungry, as I hadn’t eaten anything.
When I parked my bike in the same spot I’d used in the evening and entered the grounds through the same hole in the fence, Oshino was there waiting for us at the entrance.
As if he’d been there for ages.
“Wha…” Senjogahara voiced surprise at his attire.
Oshino was wrapped in a white robe─a Shinto priest’s. His scruffy hair was set neatly in place, and he at least looked tidier and was barely recognizable from the evening.
The robes make the man.
That he somehow looked the part was, actually, offensive.
“You were─a Shinto priest, Mister Oshino?” asked Senjogahara.
“What? Um, no?” he casually denied. “I’m no chief holy or ritualist. It’s what I studied in school, but I never went to work for a shrine. I had too many objections.”
“Objections…”
“Personal reasons. Maybe the truth is that it all started to seem silly to me. These clothes are just a way of dressing up for the occasion. I didn’t have any other clean ones, that’s all. We’re going to meet a god, missy, so I have to look my best too. Didn’t I tell you? Setting the mood. For Araragi, it was holding crosses, dangling garlic, and fighting with holy water. The situation is what matters. Don’t worry, I might be lacking in manners, but I know what the deal is. I won’t wave around a rod offhand or toss salt all over your head.”
“O-Okay…”
Senjogahara seemed a bit daunted.
True, his outfit was striking, but coming from her, it seemed like a bit of an overreaction. It made me wonder.
“Yup, missy, you look clean and pure. Well done. Just to make sure, are you wearing any makeup?”
“No, I thought it would be better not to.”
“I see. Well, for now, that was the right choice. And you, Araragi, you did take a shower?”
“Yeah, don’t worry.”
I hadn’t had a choice since I was going to be present for this, and the little incident that ensued when Senjogahara tried to sneak a peek as I showered could stay a secret.
“Hmph. You, though, look your same old self.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I retorted.
I mean, even if I was going to be present, I was an outsider. Not having changed clothes too, unlike Senjogahara, of course I looked my same old self.
“Then let’s get this over with. I’ve prepared a space on the third floor.”
“A space?”
“Yep,” Oshino said and disappeared into the darkness of the building. Despite his glaringly white robes, he was soon invisible. I took Senjogahara’s hand just as I’d done in the evening and followed after him.
“You know, Oshino, you say ‘over with’ and are acting awfully laid back, but are you sure?”
“Sure? About what? I’ve summoned a boy and a girl of a tender age out here in the middle of the night. Any adult would want to finish up as quickly as possible.”
“What I’m asking is if it’ll be that easy to beat back this crab, or whatever it is.”
“What a violent line of thought, Araragi. Something good happen to you?” Oshino shrugged without so much as turning around. “This time isn’t like little Shinobu in your case or that lust-besotted cat in missy class president’s. And don’t forget, Araragi, I’m a pacifist. My basic policy is non-violent total obedience. You and missy class president were assaulted with malice and hostility. This crab is different.”
“That’s not true─” It’d done harm, in fact, so why not judge that it bore malice or hostility?
“Didn’t I tell you? We’re dealing with a god. It’s just there and hasn’t done anything. As a matter of course─it’s just there. Araragi, once school is over for the day, you go home too, don’t you? It’s like that. Missy’s been wavering all on her own.”
It doesn’t harm, it doesn’t attack.
It doesn’t possess.
“All on her own” sounded kind of mean, but Senjogahara said nothing. Did she simply have no thoughts pertaining to that, or was she, given what was to follow, trying not to react too much to his words?
“So Araragi,” counseled Oshino, “whether it’s beating back or up or down, lose those dangerous ideas. We’re about to ask a god for a favor. Be humble.”
“A favor, huh?”
“Right. A favor.”
“And if we ask nicely, it’s going to say here, and give it back? Senjogahara’s─weight. Her body weight.”
“I won’t say definitely, but probably. This isn’t like spending New Year’s Eve at a shrine. Well, they usually aren’t so hard-headed as to turn down a sincere request. The gods are a fairly undiscerning bunch. Especially Japanese ones. Putting aside humans taken as a cluster, they couldn’t care less about us on an individual basis. They really don’t, okay? In fact, in face of a god, you, me, and missy over there are indistinguishable. Age, gender, weight, none of that matters, and all three of us are the same to them, humans.”
We were─
Not just similar, but the same to them.
“Huh… So this is fundamentally different from a curse.”
“Hey,” Senjogahara said, her voice full of resolve, “is that crab─still near me?”
“It is. It’s there, and it’s everywhere. But if we seek its advent here─then certain steps will be necessary.”
We arrived at the third floor.
We entered one of the classrooms.
A straw warding rope had been hung around the walls. The chairs and tables had been taken elsewhere, and an altar sat in front of the blackboard. Considering that the space was complete with stands filled with offerings, it couldn’t have been slapped together after our earlier talk. Small lamps stood in each of the room’s four corners and filled it with a dim light.