by Nisioisin
In the ten-plus years since my little sister Tsukihi was born, I’d never said anything so supportive towards her, but I did now.
To which Tsukihi, or should I say Atlas, responded, “That’s what I thought. But it still bothers me.”
“…”
Not changing your tune, even when someone guarantees that you’re right?
Not so different from those other people, are you?
004
Not so different.
Everyone has that side to them, of course─just as, in real life, questions can’t always be taken care of with a simple yes or no, the reality of human sensibilities and emotions isn’t always as simple as right or wrong.
People might be shown what’s correct and what isn’t and still opt for the latter knowing full well what they’re doing.
And in the course of everyday life, sometimes you can’t help but “worry about things that are pointless to worry about,” as Tsukihi was currently in the process of discovering.
The advice I gave her basically amounted to embracing the idea that “there’s no point in worrying about it, so don’t”; while there might be someone somewhere in the world who can do that, it’s basically impossible for the rest of us.
We regret things that are pointless to regret.
And we keep on saying things that are meaningless to say.
Human life boils down to that brand of hopeless monotony.
I recalled the matter Karen had come to me about the previous month─the inconspicuous old tree growing behind her dojo. Thinking back on it now, how many of the students actually thought the old tree was freaky, how many of them were actually frightened?
Them too.
They must’ve realized that their own reaction, to hell with this old tree, cut it down, was excessive and known they were over the line.
But that feeling had been unstoppable. It never stopped until it ground to a halt thanks to Hanekawa’s proposal.
Changing how you feel.
Switching mental gears is no easy thing─it might even be utterly impossible.
“This might sound overblown,” I said, “but it’s really more common than you’d think. Take hyenas, for instance. We have a negative image of them, right? They can’t seem to shake their reputation as cunning creatures that scavenge a lion’s kill, snatching whatever carrion they can get. But hyenas actually do their own hunting, and if anything it’s the male lions, with their big manes, that are often too lazy to hunt… Listen, I’m not trying to show off my knowledge of trivia here. I mean, this isn’t trivia, it’s the kind of thing that people who know stuff know without having to go to the trouble of looking it up, just common knowledge─and yet it doesn’t make any inroads, doesn’t ripple out into the general consciousness. Once a perception of something has taken root, once it’s got a label slapped on it, that never goes away even after the truth comes out─people go on with their lives pretending that they don’t know the truth, pretending that they don’t know they’re wrong. I wonder why.”
“People avert their eyes from inconvenient truths, Araragi-senpai,” answered Kanbaru-kohai.
The next day, at the Kanbaru residence.
To give a slightly more detailed description of the situation, the next day I went to Kanbaru’s to clean her room, a kingdom descending anew into chaos that I was attempting to restore─and as always showing no inclination whatsoever to help, that was the answer she gave from the hallway.
“What was it called? Senjogahara-senpai told me about it… Something-bias. Even in emergencies, people refuse to accept inconvenient information and keep on telling themselves, ‘I’ll be okay’…”
“Maybe this isn’t the same? Since in this case, maintaining a belief in monsters─in the ‘eighth person,’ doesn’t actually put the tea club members at ease or benefit them.”
“But isn’t believing in monsters even though it’s illogical more fun than logically denying their existence? Sure, it’s a bit different from people’s views of hyenas…but don’t you think that might be what’s going on here?”
Kanbaru and I shared an understanding of so-called aberrations─of demons, and monkeys, and snakes─that Tsukihi lacked, so we were able to have a somewhat more in-depth discussion.
“What Senjogahara was talking about was probably normalcy bias.”
“There you go again, calling her by her last name. There’s no need to try and keep up appearances with me. Why don’t you just call her Hitagin like always?”
“Not with other people… Wait, I never call her that!”
“Oops. It wasn’t Hitagin? Was it Leggings?”
“Why’d I call her that when she doesn’t wear leggings? Anyway, in terms of the fun factor─from what I understand the tea club members aren’t enjoying this rumor about the ‘eighth member’ all that much.”
“What exactly is the rumor? If Tsukihi’s already dealt with the tale itself for this aberration, maybe there’s no point in hearing it─but depending on the details, we might actually find a satisfactory explanation,” Kanbaru suggested.
From the hallway.
Seriously, how did it make her feel…standing in the hallway with her arms folded watching her senpai clean her room?
Or maybe that kind of thing doesn’t faze rich people. Seems like appropriate behavior for a monarch, sure.
“Araragi-senpai, what if it’s like the case at Karen’s dojo you were telling me about─the students were able to accept the tree once they thought of it as a ‘guardian deity,’ right? Wasn’t this ‘eighth person’ like that? The tea ceremony club’s eighth member…turns out to be the god of the tea ceremony.”
“The god of the tea ceremony…”
Who would that be?
Though I’ve heard of the god of tea, and maybe some tea-related apparitions.
“No, it isn’t like that. Well, I only know a few tidbits, and I’m an outsider when it comes to their school so I can’t say for certain, but as a ghost story I think this one falls under the creepy heading.”
“Hmm. Give me the full rundown, then. I’m listening.”
“…”
Getting a little imperious, aren’t we?
Acting like she’s the ace of the basketball team─come on, you’re no longer an ace or a star. You’re nothing but a popular girl!
Okay, I suppose that’s reason enough to be imperious.
“Like I said, I only know a few tidbits so I can’t give you the full rundown… But maybe a ‘school ghost story’ got adapted from its original form. Adapted, or applied to a tea ceremony club─”
“And what’s the ‘original’ ghost story?”
“I think it’s the kind where there’s an extra classmate. Like, a class of thirty suddenly has thirty-one students… But you don’t want to be the one to notice, because then you trade places with that person…and have to carry on as the unnoticed ‘thirty-first student,’ watching helplessly as the ‘original thirty-first student’ cozies up to all your former friends…”
“Hmm. The replacement type. Or is it the spirited-away type? Scary either way,” commented Kanbaru, hardly sounding afraid─I mean, it’s a “scary story,” but not the kind that could scare a high school student. “So applying it to their own situation, they started to sense the presence of an ‘eighth member’? In which case, maybe I was wrong.”
“What kind of story did you think it was?”
“Well, even if it’s not a ‘guardian deity,’ wouldn’t some sort of leprechaun be pretty fitting? A traditional tearoom is a zashiki sitting area, seems perfect for a Zashiki-warashi. And if the ‘eighth member’ was an aberration that brings good fortune, then no matter how logically Tsukihi refuted its existence, the others would want to keep on believing.”
“True.”
If it was a Zashiki-warashi… In that case, it wouldn’t just be about the fun factor, since driving one out brings down ruin on your household─but that’s not what we were dealing with.
In fact, the
gist, or the highlights, or the “come-on” of this ghost story was that the eighth member might replace you, and that you yourself might vanish. You’d want to disprove it.
That’d benefit them more.
“In which case, this is something else Senjogahara-senpai told me about, but maybe we’re dealing with deviance amplification rather than normalcy bias. If nine out of ten people agree about something, even if it’s incorrect or irrational, it seems correct and rational and the tenth person appears to be wrong─maybe we should call it majority rule. It’s hard to change your opinion in the face of that kind of pressure.”
“Majority rule, huh…”
Senjogahara herself doesn’t side with majorities, but maybe that’s why she’s so knowledgeable about the theories behind them. She stands apart from the illusion of consensus.
“Still,” I said, “it’s a little extreme─you’d think at least one other member would agree with Tsukihi.”
That’d make things a lot easier. With seven members of the tea ceremony club, the majority rule stood at six against one.
Six against one, definitely not great odds─but if the ratio were five against two, she might have a fighting chance. If she could form a faction, it’d be harder for the group to ignore her.
If that wasn’t enough, one more would certainly do it─four against three, that’d be a proper fair fight.
“Right now my little sister’s in a pretty disadvantageous position because that ain’t happening. It’s stressing her out.”
“What’s her current mindset? We’re not talking about the illusion of consensus…but it must be quite a burden. Is she starting to think maybe she should just go along with the others?”
“The fact that she isn’t is what’s so amazing about her.” Or where she’s biting Senjogahara’s style─unlike my girlfriend, though, Tsukihi generally likes group activities. “She’s like the poor man’s Senjogahara.”
“Don’t call your own little sister a poor man’s anything…”
“Anyway, the situation isn’t as urgent as it was with Karen. Things aren’t so severe that accepting or denying the existence of this ‘eighth member’ is going to be the end of the club, it’s not going to destroy any friendships─it’s just that she’s hit a wall.”
“A wall?”
“Tsukihi claims the mantle of a defender of justice, so an environment where people are ignoring what’s right and true is uncomfortable for her─”
Although.
It wouldn’t be comfortable for anyone…
“─but actually it’s all too common for irrationality and illogic to rule for no good reason. Is Tsukihi still too young for that lesson?”
“Too young… We’ve been talking about Tsukihi and Karen this whole time, but what about you?”
“Hnh?”
“Whose side are you on this time?”
“This time it’s not a question of allies and enemies… I took Karen’s side, but that was, how can I put this, because things were moving in a bad direction. I did what little I could, though maybe it was too much.”
“Hm. Except, that little push actually came from Hanekawa-senpai,” Kanbaru reminded me. “Her travails never end, do they? Even in the second term. There was that thing with the tiger─”
“…”
“Well, it’s a tad bit tough to tell from the tidbits you’ve told me, but nothing seems to be affected by believing in the ‘eighth member’ or affirming its existence─it’s just about how people feel.”
“Yup. About how people feel─but whatever else you might say, they’re impressively strong-willed, my little sisters. Both of them. Not that I’m taking sides, but if it were me─if I were a member of the tea club, I’d totally cave and go along with everybody else.”
“Heheh. It all becomes clear. The ‘eighth member’ was you all along, wasn’t it, Araragi-senpai?”
“What the hell? Don’t go confusing the issue. Anyway,” I began to wrap things up.
Apologies to Tsukihi, but this was basically the stuff of idle chatter─it wasn’t something I wanted to talk about forever, and I was anxious to move on to the next topic.
I said, “Experiencing that kind of nonsense builds character, it’ll be useful for her down the line.”
“Nonsense, huh? Tsukihi could not have been more sensible, though─which makes me want to take her side.”
“When do you ever not want to take a cute girl’s side, Kanbaru?”
“It’s got nothing to do with cuteness. I mean, the other six club-mates might be cute, too.”
“…”
What a thing to be considering.
This whole time, was she factoring in the other girls’ looks?
“The question of who is cuter, Tsukihi or the others─the so-called Schrödinger’s Pussycat,” Kanbaru mused.
“‘So-called’? Never even heard of it. Take your so-calling more seriously.”
“But don’t you feel the same way? You and me…” She looked first at her bandaged left arm─and then at my shadow, as I cleaned her room. “We know aberrations. We know nonsense─irrationality, absurdity. Which is exactly why I want to take Tsukihi’s side in this. Your little sister, who’d try to deny the existence of aberrations─and martyr herself to reality.”
“…”
“Oh, um, I hope it’s clear I’m not trying to deny Shinobu’s pride of place? Her cuteness is indescribable. Truly, she is Schrödinger’s Imp.”
“Don’t call her an imp. What kind of a ‘truly’ is that? Gimme something a little trulier.”
“Trulier?”
“But sure─when you put it like that, I guess I agree, but still, there’s nothing we can do, is there? There’s nothing we can do for her, is there?”
“If you say it must be done, I’m ready and willing to storm the Tsuganoki Second Middle tea ceremony club.”
“I’m not going to say that.”
Kanbaru would have no problem arguing a bunch of middle school girls into submission…but that would clearly be going too far.
Was there no way to soothe Tsukihi’s feelings?
Without going too far, in other words, peaceably?
“Well, there is a way.”
“Huh?”
“If you’re just looking to humor Tsukihi for now, Araragi-senpai, there’s a way.”
“That’s not what I’m looking to do…but there is?”
“Uh huh. I mean, I’m with you, I agree that Tsukihi’s too young to face this reality head on─though there’s one little problem with my solution.”
“A problem? That doesn’t sound good… What’s this problem?”
“Ultimately, it’s going to involve fooling her. So, Araragi-senpai, do you have any objection to lying to your little sister?”
“Ha ha ha.”
As if.
005
The epilogue, or maybe, the punch line of this story.
Well, since Tsukihi already took care of the aberration tale, this whole story has been a sort of epilogue─so maybe I should call it the bonus material.
I accepted Kanbaru’s suggestion and persuaded Tsukihi─persuaded, or mollified, or something like that.
Why did the other members of the tea ceremony club─those other six girls, persist in believing in the “eighth member”? Even after the truth was clear, after they were shown reason, why did they let themselves be ruled by emotion and maintain their belief? Basically, if I could explain that, if I could rationalize their irrationality, Tsukihi would be satisfied.
So Kanbaru rationalized it: they all believed in the “eighth member” for Tsukihi’s sake.
Just as she did the other day when she came to me for advice, Tsukihi often made free with the clubroom’s supplies: the tea, the teacakes. Not that big of a deal, but strictly speaking, not aboveboard─if it became public, the club’s activities might even be suspended again.
So everyone affirmed the existence of the “eighth person”─as a kind of camouflage for the libert
ies Tsukihi was taking.
That’s how we rationalized it. By inventing this “eighth person,” they could explain away the speed with which the supplies were dwindling.
Not that they contrived to get their stories straight beforehand, but to cover for Tsukihi, they all allowed this “eighth member” to join the club─
“So that’s it! They did it for me!”
