NisiOisiN - Bakemonogatari, Part 1 (Bakemonogatari, #1, Part 1)

Bakemonogatari

Monster Tale

Part 01

NISIOISIN

Art by VOFAN

Translated by Ko Ransom

Vertical

Hitagi Senjogahara occupies the position of the girl whos always ill in our class. Shes not expected to participate in P.E, of course, and is even allowed to suffer morning and school-wide assemblies in the shack, alone, as a precaution against anemia or something. Though weve been in the same class my first, my second, and this, my third and final year of high school, Ive never once seen her engaged in any sort of vigorous activity. Shes a regular at the nurses room, and she arrives late, leave: early, or simply doesn't show up to school because she has to visit her primary care hospital, time and again. To the point where its rumored in jest that she lives there.

Though always ill, she is by no means sickly. Shes graceful, like her thin lines could snap at a touch, and has this evanescent air, which must be why some of the boys refer to her as the cloistered princess half-jokingly, half-seriously. You could say earnestly. That phrase and its connotations aptly describe Senjogahara, I agree.

Senjogahara is always alone reading a book in one corner of the classroom at times that book is an imposing hard cover and at others it's a comic that could permanently damage your intellect to judge from its cover design. She seems to be one of those voracious readers. Maybe she doesnt care as long as there are words in it, maybe she has some sort of clear standard.

Apparently quite smart, shes among the top in our year.

Whenever test results are posted, Hitagi Senjogaharas name is one of the first ten on the list. Whatever the subject. It's presumptuous of me, who cant pass a non-math test, even to compare myself to her, but our brains must be Structured in fundamentally different ways.

she doesn't seem to have any friends.

Not a single one.

I have yet to witness Senjogahara exchanging words with someone. The shrewd take might be that her constant reading is a behavior intended to tell you not to speak to her because she is reading, a way of building walls around herself. In fact, Ive sat in the same classroom as her for two years and change, and can state with certainty that Ive never spoken a word to her in that time. I can and do. Senjogahara voice is synonymous, for me, with the reedy I dont know that she utters like a catchphrase whenever a teacher calls on her in class (whether or not it's a question she clearly knows the answer to, she only ever replies, I dont know). Schools are strange places where people without friends routinely form a sort of community (or a colony) of people with our friends (myself included, until last year), but Senjogahara seems to be exempt from this rule too. Of course, its not like shes getting bullied, either. She isnt being persecuted or avoided in any deep, or light. way as far as I can tell. Like thats her natural place to be, with a cool face, Senjogahara goes on reading in one corner of the classroom. She goes on building walls around herself.

Like its natural for her to be there.

Like it's natural not to be here.

Not that its any big deal. At our three-year high school, with two hundred students in each grade, you end up sharing a living space with about a thousand people in all during your Stay if you include the graduating and incoming classes and the faculty. Start wondering how many of those people mean anything to you. and the answer is going ml): bleak for just about anyone.

Even if I meet the odd fortune of sharing a class with someone three years, and still dont exchange a single word with that person. I dont find it sad. Id simply look back on it someday and think: Oh yes, I guess thats how things were. I have no idea what Ill be doing a year down the line, after graduating from high school, but I certainly wouldnt be conjuring up Senjogaharas face-I probably wouldnt be able to.

And thats fine. Senjogahara must be line with that, too. Not just her, but everyone at my school has to be fine with it. Actually, its feeling gloomy about the matter thats fundamentally misguided. That's what I thought.

But.

One such day.

To be precise, the eighth of May, after my hellish joke of a spring break came to an end, I became a third year, and my nightmarish fantasy of a Golden Week wrapped up.

I was dashing up the school stairs, latish as usual, and just reached a landing, when a girl came falling down from the sky.

That girl was Hitagi Senjogahara.

Again, to be precise, she wasnt so much falling down from the sky as simply falling backwards after having missed a step--and Im sure I couldve dodged her, but instead I reflexively caught Senjogaharas body.

It was probably the right decision over dodging her.

No, maybe it was the wrong one.

Why?

Because Senjogaharas body, which I reflexively caught, was so incredibly light. Unfunnily, bizarrely, eerily light

As if she wasnt here.

Thats right.

Senjogahara weighed so little that she nearly didn't at all.

Senjogahara? Hanekawa tilted her head in response to my question, Is something the matter with Senjogahara?

Nothing like that... I answered vaguely. I was just kind of wondering about her.

Huh.

I mean, you know, isnt that a weird and interesting name? Hitagi Senjogahara?

...You do realize that Senjogahara is the name of a place.

Er, no, not that part. I was talking about, um, her given name.

Senjogaharas? You mean Hitagi? Is it that strange? I want to say its a term related to construction.

You know everything, dont you?

Not everything. I just know what I know. While Hanekawa didnt seem fully satisfied with my explanation, instead of pressing me any further, she said, Youre interested in someone other than yourself, Araragi? "Thats unusual.

Mind your own business, I told her.

Tsubasa Hanekawa.

The president of our class.

More than that, shes a girl who embodies what a class president should be. Her prim and proper braids, her glasses, her good manners and good behavior, how incredibly serious and loved by the teachers she is, puts her on the endangered species list in this day and age even if you count manga and anime. The way she holds herself makes you wonder if shes been a class president her entire life and is going to be one in some capacity even after graduating. In other words, a class president among class presidents. Possibly a class president chosen by the gods. As one person has been rumoring like its the unvarnished truth (that would be me).

We were in different classes our first and second years, but for our third year, we were placed together. Though I had heard of her before that, of course I had. If Senjogaharas grades are among the top in our year, Tsubasa Hanekawas are at the very top. She regularly pulls off unbelievable stunts like scoring a perfect 600 across six courses in five core subjects, and yes, I still remember her utterly monstrous results for the first semester finals our second year like it was yesterday, when across every single subject, including P.E. and Art, she missed only one question, a Japanese History fill-in-the-blank. You hear about celebrities like that whether you want to or not.