by Nisioisin
She’d always been our little sister.
From the moment she was born─always.
Real or fake, she was still just, and real or fake, she was our sister.
Even if she wasn’t just, she was family.
The Fire Sisters.
My little sisters, my pride and joy.
So let me bother to answer now the question Ononoki asked me.
Even if it’s full of fakes─I think it’s a wonderful world.
Let that be my contrarian reply.
A la Deishu Kaiki.
“I was nervous you were going to kiss me again, but I guess not.”
Tsukihi had suddenly spoken.
At some point her eyes had sprung open. She looked as sleepy as ever with her drooping eyes, but it wasn’t because she’d just woken up. Apparently, she’d only been pretending to be asleep.
What a radical cue.
“If you did try to kiss me, I was going to ensnare you with my tongue,” she revealed.
“That sounds like something some kind of monster would do.”
“Morning. Welcome back. Where were you?”
“Ah. Actually, I was off fighting a monstrous human and a humanoid monster for your sake.”
“Oh yeah? Good work. Don’t overdo it, though.”
“Let me. I do it out of love.”
“I know, I know. Our big brother loves us so much.”
“Don’t put words in my mouth. I hate you both.”
“Anyway, Koyomi, how long do I have to stay like this? You told me to sleep so I’ve been trying my hardest.”
“You guys are way too faithful to directives coming from the likes of me. I really do worry about your futures,” I grumbled, hopping off the ladder. “Sleep until tomorrow. And then tomorrow, come wake me up like you always do.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“When summer vacation is over, I’ll introduce you to my girlfriend.”
“Hm?” Tsukihi seized on my words and immediately raised her upper body. “What, you mean you have a girlfriend?”
“Yeah. Since around May, actually.”
“That makes me dagnabbit mad.”
My back turned to her frank comment and reproachful gaze, I warned, “Don’t go tattling on me,” and stepped out into the hallway. It wouldn’t do to hang out in my sisters’ room for too long, and it wasn’t like me to linger. I’d go back to my room and change.
With everything that had been going on, it was getting pretty late─about time for a gracious monster to bow out.
Afterword
Obviously there are real and fake things in this world, but when you really think about it, the two concepts form a pair, and there can only be fakes because the real thing exists, and without the occasional fake making an appearance, I’m not sure you could call it the real deal. Just as how in superhero stories, an imposter always shows up eventually. The fake hero, as it were. But taking this a step further, it’s important to note that even though fakes exist, it is not in fact necessary for the real thing to exist. If the real deal represents an ideal and fakes represent attempts to realize that ideal, then perhaps it is actually better if the real deal didn’t exist. Well, maybe that’s going too far, but if the real deal is an ideal, then we can also wonder if it is an illusion. Of course, what people idolize as the real thing must have begun as the pursuit of an ideal, which is to say that it wasn’t the real thing from the outset. If we roughly define the real deal’s value as the impact it has on people, however, perhaps it is the real deal, after all, that gives rise to real deals. Given the above, rather than say that the two concepts of real and fake form a pair, it may be more accurate to say that they are just two sides of the same coin.
As with the first part, I wrote this book two hundred percent as a hobby, but whether they form a pair or are two sides of the same coin, they’ve come out feeling fairly different. Fiction is a scary business. In fact, both of them having been written as epilogues to the main story, these novels were composed presupposing the existence of BAKEMONOGATARI, and yet, as to whether they wouldn’t stand up without having read BAKEMONOGATARI first, surprisingly enough that doesn’t seem to be the case. Well, some people might claim that they don’t stand up as novels at all. But the Araragi sisters were extremely fun characters to write about, and my proverbial pen flew across the page. As sheepish as I feel that so many people were willing to give me such leeway in pursuing a very personal hobby─including VOFAN, who provided such beautiful covers, and all of the readers─this successfully concludes the epilogue, with all the members of the Araragi harem doing fine despite ups and downs. And so that was “Final Chapter: Tsukihi Phoenix,” NISEMONOGATARI, Part 02.
One more thing. For all of this book’s insistence on it being the final chapter, I must confess that I’ve decided to write about two more episodes. I hope those of you who’d like to learn more about Mayoi Hachikuji and Tsubasa Hanekawa will keep me company. Now, how many of you might there be?
NISIOISIN
