"T'm glad to hear that." So we were just going to have to find Shinobu, after all. No surprise that there was no convenient solution. "But...I wonder if it's also the case for Hanekawa. If it is, then attacking her like I just did might be a little harsh..."
"Hrm? Whatcha talking about?"
"Oh, you know—I might be a mockery of one, but I'm still kind of like
a vampire. And vampires have this ability, the power of fascination...which
is why I've been so popular with girls ever since spring break. You must know about this, Hanekawa was the one who told me."
"We might share knowledge, but we don't share meowmories. Like ya said, I only know about things related to her stress."
"Oh, right."
Still, I was already a vampire when I met Hanekawa. And not any mockery, either—it was before I became human again, during my genuine, full-fledged vampire days—you couldn't begin to compare my powers of fascination and whatever else now to the ones I had then. Hanekawa fell face-first into the middle of that.
"She's a serious girl," I said. "If that's why she started brooding over me, I think it'd make her a complete victim—"
"What's wrong? Why'd you go quiet?"
"Nyo—that's nyot true," replied Black Hanekawa. "Yes, it's true that vampires can charm people—but even among true vampires, only certain types have that ability. So there's nyo way a knockoff vampire like you, who went from human to vampire, could ever use it."
"What? But—"
"And fascination isn't like some handy love potion ya might see in a myanga, anyway. The targets lose control of their will. It's the power to make puppets out of people."
"Make—puppets out of them? Not enthrall them?"
"Tell me, human. Is there a girl around you who's purrfectly obedient to your orders? Someone that does exactly what ya tell them, never once defying you>"
There wasn't a single person like that.
There absolutely wasn't.
Even Sengoku, the most docile of the bunch, inflicted unthinkable acts on me like handing me volleyball shorts and a school swimsuit in front of my own high school's gates.
But was the aberration saying that based on Hanekawa's knowledge?
After all, it was Hanekawa herself who'd told me—
That was mean of me, wasn' it.
Oh...that's what she meant.
It was a lie.
A lie—something she claimed never to tell.
In that case, I knew what that meant about me and Senjogahara—but Hanekawa, too.
But given what I now knew, it seemed less like a case of being mean than a sort of lament—Tsubasa Hanekawa's doleful wish for that to have been our reality. She'd have been able to relieve some of her stress had it been the case—because she could blame it on an outside force.
But there was no one else for her to blame.
"Ya can't change someone's feelings—meow. I see, though. That
wasn't like my myaster to do. Hmph, looks like not being able to lie caused
me to let the cat out of the bag."
"T guess it's another instance of forcing the hard work on you."
It wasn't a good thing. The relief I felt, though, overshadowed that. It wasn't thanks to any vampire's, any aberration's power, it was me, as myself—
It was because I'm Koyomi Araragi.
"So—I can feel proud."
"Hrm?"
"That Hanekawa fell in love with me—"
What was that if not an honor?
I felt like that fact alone was enough to keep me going.
But to think that things would turn out like this... What would I have to do, at this point, to repay Hanekawa?
"Well, for now, we need to focus on tucking you away—damn it, where did Shinobu run off to? I haven't heard a word from anyone helping, either... Oh, and I need to order Sengoku to pull back soon..."
Wait, how would I do that?
She didn't have a cell phone.
Oh no. She could use a pay phone to contact me, but I had no way to contact her... What was I going to do? She could be stubborn in her own weird way, so she wasn't going to head home of her own accord without finding Shinobu, no matter how late it got...
Maybe...Kanbaru?
I could get her to temporarily stop looking for Shinobu and try to find Sengoku instead. Was that going to be it? Agh, why was I always having to rely on her when it mattered the most... I wouldn't ever be able to pay Kanbaru back at this rate. I was feeling ready to do anything she told me.
"Hey, human." I had my cell phone in hand as Black Hanekawa spoke to me. Her tone seemed somehow different from every utterance she'd made so far. "There's—one more way."
"One more?"
"A quick and effective way to get me back in there without relying on any vampire—the easiest way is for ya to date my myaster, but this might be the second easiest."
"Tl have my doubts about any plans you and your brain would come up with...but Ill listen. What is it?"
"Walk for me a bit. Over there, to below that street lamp."
"Like this?"
I did as she said.
I wasn't getting my hopes up, but I needed to try any plan I could get my hands on. Still, I didn't see what moving a dozen feet would do.
"Ah, a little to the front. You'd be right below it otherwise."
"Right below?"
I tilted my head as she continued to talk nonsensically, but still took a step forward—and then.
She embraced me from behind.
There was no sound of her footsteps—there was no sound at all.
She had moved like a cat on the hunt.
She passed both of her arms under my armpits and wrapped them around my torso—as she held me. A sabaori, no, a sabaori is done from the front, and it's used to bring an opponent to his knees, not to crush his internal organs—and.
It's not used to drain an opponent's energy.
And instantaneously—it was being absorbed.
Whatever clothes we may have been wearing didn't matter.
Those two large cushions didn't matter.
I could rapidly feel my entire body weakening.
"C-Cat—you—"
I didn't have the energy to turn my head toward her. I didn't even feel like I could scream the way Hachikuji had when I'd done the same to her that morning.
I couldn't lift a pinkie.
But I didn't need to look behind me to know—it was Black Hanekawa holding me. My moving away from her had been a ruse—all she wanted was for me to turn my back to her—
To let my guard down.
So she could suck me dry.
"Remember what I said? Don't ever think ya've gotten nyused to us. Humans can't ever get along with us, nyo matter what."
"Guh... Urgh, urrg—"
"The more we play nyice with you humans, the worse off we are—looks like we know who the bigger idiot is nyow."
It was true—I hated to admit it, but the Hindering Cat was right.
The situation was already hopeless. I could never put up a fight against the Hindering Cat even if I faced her head-on. All I had were some lingering aftereffects of being an aberration, I had no means to oppose an actual one. But to make it worse, she had come from behind—
It seemed ridiculous.
It seemed past ridiculous.
"B-But—what are you trying to do? Why do this to me here and now? It's not as if absorbing just me would get rid of Hanekawa's stress—"
"Like I said, it's one more plan—about the second easiest. Of course, it's the sharpest one from my purrspective," Black Hanekawa said—before slurp, licking my nape. I say lick, but the feeling wasn't what I'd call sensual—cat tongues are barbed in order to scrape meat from bones. The skin on my neck was torn from my flesh, and I could feel my blood gushing.
The cat monster drank that blood—and laughed.
"You're the cause of the stress—it's you who's the stressor. Get rid of you, and I don't nyeed to be here anymore. It's not 'just you' I'm absorbing—you're the only one I nyeed. Ya myight nyot be able to change someone's feelings—but you can erase someone's existence."
"Th-That's—"
Her ability to drain energy.
There'd been no case of it being bad enough to kill someone—but that by no means meant that it couldn't. No human could have their energy and their core exhausted—and continue living.
But...would this make your master happy, Black Hanekawa?
"My myaster doesn't remember anything I do—okay? She won't think of it as something she did herself. She'll be sad if you're gone, of course, but even then—it'd be better than now. I can feel it—sucking ya dry like this is making me fade away—"
"T-I thought you said you'd learned—after you attacked Hanekawa's parents over Golden Week... It still wasn't enough? A person's stress isn't that simple of a—"
"Nyo, that's nyot it—my mistake then was nyot killing my myaster's parents. I went wrong when I tried to be considerate in some weird way to my myaster—not killing anybody was what I did wrong. That's what I learned. And I'm nyot going to make the same mistake again—I'm killing you nyo matter what."
"Kill me..."
I couldn't believe the words.
I couldn't believe the words were coming out of Hanekawa's mouth—but perhaps even these were her own, coming from somewhere inside of her.
Flip it around, and the reverse was the obverse.
In that case.
Hanekawa, in fact—might feel happy about this. She'd never wish for this to happen—that thought might have been nothing more than an illusion I projected on her. It could have been—the result she wanted. She might be getting this—because it's what she wished for. The Hindering Cat's earlier proposal of going out with Hanekawa, even if it meant lying, had to have come from somewhere inside of her.
In that case.
" ,.Hanekawa."
In that case—this would be a good way.
She'd saved my life.
I'd do anything for her sake.
I may not be able to change how I feel—
But I could think that I wouldn't mind dying.
"Ya oughta be happy—ya get to die in the embrace of my myaster's naughty body. Nyow shrivel in bliss."
It was going to be hard for me to feel that way while all of the feeling was leaving my body—and anyway, my most immediate sensation was the pain in my torso—from the sharp claws at the end of those arms around me stabbing into my abs—but even then.
If I could die for Hanekawa's sake.
No—I couldn't.
I couldn't do it.
There was what Senjogahara had said—so I couldn't let myself be killed. If Hanekawa killed me—or even if Hanekawa's body killed me, Senjogahara would kill her in turn. This was no projected illusion, this was certainty. Senjogahara wouldn't hesitate, I knew that. And there'd be no way to prevent it when it came to that. Senjogahara wouldn't even give Hanekawa the time to feel stressed.
So—I couldn't do it.
This was the absolute worst way possible.
"L-Let me go."
"Hrrm?"
"Just—let me go."
I didn't have room to explain. The Hindering Cat didn't know Senjogahara—no, she'd have had some knowledge of her, but Hanekawa's knowledge of Senjogahara was limited. Unless you knew her as well as I did, or at least as well as Kanbaru did, you wouldn't recognize the danger Hitagi Senjogahara posed...but I'd be like a sheet of paper floating in the wind by the time I spelled it all out.
"Begging for your life? That's good—I wouldn't mind letting ya free if ya say you'll go out with my myaster."
"Gah... Like I said, that's impossible—"
"1 thought as myuch," Black Hanekawa said—casually, once again.
"Fine, then. Just die."
"Or do ya want to try asking someone for help? You've saved so many people up until now—maybe someone myight come save you."
"Someone?"
Like who?
Hachikuji? Sengoku? Kanbaru? Senjogahara?
"There's no way—anyone could save me."
"No? Why nyot?"
"Because people just go and get saved on their own—"
"That's nyot your own opinyan, is it?" she retorted, gently. "Those are just words—nyot how you feel. If you're just parroting the words of others, it barely means a thing—the question is how you feel, meow."
".,.Guh, gurrh—"
"Yes, people do go and get saved on their own—but why should people who help others care? They can go and save as many people as they please." The cat's voice was throaty. "Tell me, how many people do ya think are out there—who want to help you? And are ya gonna reject every single one of 'em—?"
The strength—left my body.
I couldn't stay standing anymore.
It was like Black Hanekawa's arms, wrapped around my body, were the only thing supporting me—like I'd entrusted my body to her completely.
My mind grew hazy, too.
I could do nothing.
I could do nothing—on my own.
It made me want to laugh, but I didn't have the strength for that, either. I didn't have the strength—but still, I wanted to laugh.
Yeah.
I guess...she would be sad.
Hanekawa...and Senjogahara, too.
And Kanbaru, and Sengoku.
Maybe even Hachikuji.
If I died.
"Help..."
I mustered the words.
I mustered the words together—and spoke them.
"Help...Shinobu."
At that moment.
A single girl leapt out—from my own shadow.
A blonde.
A helmet with goggles on top.
She had a small build—but she tore Black Hanekawa's hug from my body in the blink of an eye. A breath later and she'd sent Black Hanekawa's body flying. The cat couldn't even turn its body in the air and slammed into the lamp on the opposite side of the street. The streetlight bent—no, it wasn't that hard, but the impact was enough to make it sway.
Then she landed.
Shinobu Oshino leapt out from the shadows—
And landed as she shook her blond hair everywhere she pleased.
Shinobu.
She was hiding...there?
But when I thought about it—that was about the only possible place left. It was impossible not to have received so much as a report of a sighting after searching this town for so long—and the Hindering Cat's sense of smell shouldn't have failed so utterly.
So.
I should have assumed what followed, that she was using some kind of vampire ability—but I'?d convinced myself that she couldn't because her abilities were limited.
No.
There was a hole in my logic.
I'd known, hadn't I? She could use a little bit of her powers if she was near me—which meant she had to be hiding near me. That was all there was to it.
A psychological blind spot—one of the fundamentals of the mystery novel.
If you want to hide something, hide it in plain view.
Not only that, the hiding spot was extremely effective against a cat's sense of smell, too—because her scent would be masked by mine.
My presence was weak and in the background—
Shinobu took advantage of that.
It was probably in the afternoon—or maybe the moming. As I was
looking for Shinobu—she found me first. To make a random guess, I'd say it
was around the Mister Donut. And that's where Shinobu—hid in my shadow. She belonged to the world of darkness, and hiding in someone's shadow was a vampire specialty—but that was the old her. Now mine might have been the only shadow she could hide in—
Oh.
Right below it—that's what she meant.
Because that would cause my shadow to be directly below me—so telling me to go under the streetlight... It was obvious who would win in a fight between a Hindering Cat and a mockery of a human like me, and there was no need for her to go to the trouble of attacking me from behind. She didn't have to toy around with any complicated plans, she needed only to attack me fair and square. Which meant—
I looked over to Black Hanekawa as she sat cowering under the streetlight.
Black Hanekawa—grinned.
But that too was only for a moment.
Shinobu had no mercy—the moment after the Hindering Cat landed, Shinobu sprung toward her and attacked. Extending her short limbs as far as they could go, she entwined them around Black Hanekawa's body—and sunk her teeth into her neck.
Black Hanekawa never stood a chance.
From there—Shinobu sucked.
If a Hindering Cat had the ability to drain energy—so did a vampire.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an aberration for an aberration, an
energy drain for an energy drain. Even then, Shinobu's vitality was being sucked away by the Hindering Cat simply because the two were touching—but Shinobu was sucking away even more vitality from the Hindering Cat.
As utter food.
As aberrations, a Hindering Cat and a vampire are made from different stuff.
As aberrations, a Hindering Cat and a vampire are made of different stuff.
The scene was a rehash of what I witnessed during Golden Week—a perfect recreation. Though it took quite a fitting amount of hardship that time to force her into this position...Black Hanekawa wasn't fighting back this time.
Because she had neither the chance nor the will now.
While there was no way to prevent her always-on energy drain—the Hindering Cat was surrendering to Shinobu. If she felt like it, she had the strength, endurance, and mobility to take on Shinobu as she was now (and only as she was now), and yet—
For Hanekawa.
It was for—her master.
Of course, I shouldn't pretend that I understood. Just as Black Hanekawa said, I couldn't act like I was used to them, too familiar or overfamiliar—and I find it hard to believe that it was what Black Hanekawa
wanted from the beginning.
While her intelligence might have been that of a cat, she must have realized that Shinobu could be hiding in my shadow—and also that there was no easy way to lure her out. To that end, she'd used me as bait, as a hostage, moving me under a street lamp where my shadow would be isolated even at night, before using her energy drain on me. That much was clear—but.
Would Black Hanekawa not have minded really killing me there? If Shinobu wasn't hiding in my shadow and truly had left town, would she have been fine sucking up my entire existence?
It only happened to end up this way.
She didn't have the brain to tell a lie.
Everything the Hindering Cat said—she meant.
It was how she really felt.
And-—it was also how Hanekawa felt inside.
The hard work—that she was forcing on the Hindering Cat.
She was right.
Looks like we knew—who the bigger idiot was now.
",..Ah."
Black Hanekawa's hair—gradually regained its color.
It turned gray, then brown—then black.
Her cat ears, too, slowly dwindled.
That existence, the aberration—was being sucked away by Shinobu.
Aberration slayer.
That was the curse spat at Shinobu until spring break.
Whether it was a Hindering Cat or anything else, she sunk her fangs in and sucked—ripping its very existence out from the world. A genuine, fullfledged aberrant creature—
A vampire, the king of aberrations, the ruler of unlife.
"Time to stop—please, Shinobu. Stop," I said. "If you keep sucking, Hanekawa will be gone too. And I—don't want that."
And when I said those words.
Shinobu moved away from MHanekawa's neck with surprising nonchalance. Hanekawa's neck—had two clear fang marks carved into it, but I didn't need to worry about those. It was different from the bite mark on my own nape. Unlike with me, Shinobu only sucked the Hindering Cat's vitality, in order to feed—she was simply eating.
Vampires suck human blood—but it means different things when they suck it for food and when they suck it to create thralls.
Maybe that was why Shinobu ran off.
So said the Hindering Cat.
The aberration that had just been sucked away.
Shinobu plodded back toward me, done with her meal—and sank right back into my shadow.
Had she taken a liking to it?
Living in my shadow?
And then—
It was just me and a black-haired Hanekawa.
She wasn't conscious—her eyes shut, she was sleeping.
She probably wouldn't wake up until the next morning.
And with that, the incident was settled.
But—that of course didn't mean the problem was solved. We had rid her of the Hindering Cat, but nothing else had changed—we had only eliminated the Hindering Cat, and not her stress itself. Not only that, this new stress had taken shape over little more than a month—so there was no small chance it would reappear. Even if it didn't, Hanekawa had her longstanding family issues, so—
No.
That wasn't true.
Putting her family stuff aside.
What happened this time—was an issue I could do something about.
I could make things a little easier for Hanekawa starting from the very next day, all depending on how I behaved. Of course, I didn't think I could change the way I felt—but those feelings of wanting to repay her were certainly my own.
I wanted to save Hanekawa.
Her given name conjured up images of taking others under her wing, but that didn't mean I couldn't take her under mine.
I'd go and save her as I pleased.
No matter what anyone said, just as I pleased.
"Phew..."
A sigh left my lips
I did have to admit, though, I was tired... My energy had been drained down close to its limit, after all. Even my mock-vampire body seemed like it was going to need time to recover. I doubted I'd be able to budge until the next morning, too. Sheesh, and I needed to be thanking everyone who'd helped me out...
Well, it would be fine.
I did get to see Hanekawa in her pajamas.
Going back to "The North Wind and the Sun," this made me closer to the North Wind, but...there was no better sight than a black-haired, slowbreathing Hanekawa in her pajamas under a street lamp, as though a spotlight had been placed on her. Not only did her present state make me twice as happy, it felt like you could double my joy again on top of that. As compensation for the day's hard labor, it was bliss. Spending the night with Hanekawa there, as I saw her from the side of the road, didn't seem so bad now...
The stars in the sky.
They were so beautiful, after all.
"Mm, mmmh," Hanekawa made a sound.
Like she was talking in her sleep.
"Araragi..."
Or maybe—she wasn't talking in her sleep as much as words were spilling from her mouth in her hazy state of mind. Shinobu had sucked only
the Hindering Cat's existence from her, so perhaps she still had trouble
separating Black Hanekawa and Hanekawa in her head, putting her in a state where the two intermingled.
So she wasn't talking in her sleep—she was giving voice to her feelings.
Tsubasa Hanekawa's unadorned, honest feelings were spilling from her lips.
"What do you mean, paying me back is more important to you than our friendship—don't say that. What a sad, lonely thing to say."
Hanekawa kept her eyes closed—as she murmured the words.
"Araragi... You need to shape up."
And then—she fell back into a deep sleep.
My goodness, even when she sleeps.
Serious until the end—a master in the field.
It was no time to be worried about someone else.
Even so, my reply to her was immediate and candid, like a conditioned reflex. I hadn't been trained by Hanekawa in the two months since becoming a third-year for nothing. Despite it all, I knew how I needed to reply.
"Okay."
AFTERWORD
This was a really a hectic chapter this is technically chapter 7 of Tsubasa Cat but like I said this chapter became much longer than expected so took me a bit of time to cut down and registered for like the problem either way this who is really one of my favourite but also want to be longest chapter..... so yeah this was the Final fight... Hope you guys really enjoyed it and thanks to my Friend/Editor SDK for helping me out.....
Thankyou
BHARATH _SHYAM