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Quote:
Originally Posted by ickem
Heh, never realized that there was a character limit to a post...
Spoiler for subasa Cat chapter 3 and ep12 of the anime part 2:
By the time I noticed, we were getting off the freeway. Looking out the window I noticed that we had gone far outside of our town and were deeper into the countryside and what appeared before me was a rural landscape.
Where is this.
Where have I been brought.
While I was in the middle of a stupid conversation...
"Just a little bit further," Senjougahara says while looking out the window in the same way. "About thirteen more minutes I think. The timing is just right. I am quite impressed with myself."
"......"
I don't know what you mean by that, but I think the timing is all thanks to your father--you're not going to thank him?
No.
I wonder if they not close.
Speaking of which, Senjougahara and her father haven't said much to each other.
No, but they shouldn't get along badly. After all, they worked together while she was trying to save 100,000 yen to pay Oshino and he paid her that much.
It's only to be expected for relationships with our parents to be complicated at our age. That's how it is with me and Senjougahara did grow up under less than normal circumstances.
Hanekawa is the same.
............
Which reminds me.
What about Hanekawa's headache.....after the fight about the bloomers and school swimsuit it seemed to have faded away....but to go away over something like that gets me thinking....headache.
Her head hurts.
I guess I should discuss it with Oshino.
But I shouldn't really rely on Oshino so much--I've said it before, but it's not like he'll always be in that old building--
We'll eventually part ways.
I don't know when, but it's not the distant future.
"Hey, Senjo--Hitagi-san."
"Be silent."
Even though I stopped and corrected myself, Senjougahara silences me without even taking notice of it.
"Blahblahblah, you're so noisy."
"Blahblah?"
"We are almost there so just be quiet for a little bit."
".............."
Convenient excuse....
"I am not a person with the leisure to take part in your foolish conversation, nor am I a Martian."
"A Martian would join me in my foolish conversation?"
You say arrive, but where are we arriving at?
It's about time you told me.
If you wanted to have fun, haven't you had enough already? But even with that, I'm at the limits of my ability for that type of torturous conversation in front of Senjougahara's father so I'll just follow her orders. So with an, "I got it," I let myself sink into the car seat.
"You're so loud."
"Huh? I didn't say anything."
"I am saying that your breathing and heartbeat are loud."
"That would mean that you're saying for me to die, though."
What an end to the conversation.
Senjougahara stops talking.
Why though?
It's not like she looks nervous.
Is she planning to take me to a place that would make her nervous?
It seems the car turned onto a mountain road.
Mountain. This isn't like the small hill that Kanbaru and I climbed the other day, but a true mountain. Using the jeeps horse-power we scale the mountain as the road winds through it in large spirals. The road is well maintained, also unlike the hill from the other day.
The top of the mountain...?
Another shrine?
Our first date is going to be a visit to a shrine...
You've got to be kidding, right?
"Now might be a little late to ask....where in the world are we going??
"Someplace nice."
"............"
"Some. Place. Nice."
"..............."
Even if you say it in such a sexy voice....
It's definitely a lie.
"Araragi-kun, how should I put this. You ask where we are going, but we are already here. Look, the parking lot is right there."
I do as she says and she's right.
We're here.
Right now it's about ten 'o'clock....so we've been driving for over two hours. The drive was so terrifying that I could hardly breath, but now that we have finally arrived it seemed to have passed by so quickly. Senjougahara's dad, with remarkable skill, stops the jeep at the edge of the parking lot. With an expression of relief I was about to get out of the car, about to, when Senjougahara stopped me from doing so. She did not stop me by grasping my hand, but by sinking her nails into the thigh that she had been stroking. A wondrous way of stopping me.
Is she a beast or something?
It's not like you're a cat.
"Wha...what's up?"
"Please wait here a little bit, Araragi-kun," says Senjougahara. "I'll go first to get things ready then come back."
"Get things ready..."
There's a need to get things ready?
But, Sejougahara, in this situation, if you go first and leave me here to wait then--
"Just chat with Father while you wait."
You say it so easily as if what you said wasn't outrageous.
Just as she said, Senjougahara gets out of the car by herself.
She left....
I never expected to describe myself this way, but this reality leaves me no other way to say it....I feel like a dog whose owner has just discarded him.
What kind of person are you, Senjougahara.
Leaving me alone in a situation like this....
Did she betray me? Did she switch sides?
Or is it that she turned me inside out!
...I'm so confused that I don't even know what I am saying.
Of course, she didn't betray me or switch sides on me. Now that I think about it, she is the one that put me in this situation in the first place.
But I still can't believe it....
Stuck alone in a small car with my girlfriend's father....
This is no longer even torture.
This is the punishment.
Even if you looked all over Japan for a third year high school student who has had such a cruel experience, you probably find one other than me..... What an unhappy reality.
But, a pleasant chat?
Still, being silent creates a bad atmosphere too.....but having said that, I don't want to give a bad impression to Senjougahara's father. But....I don't have any experience talking to someone who is so much older than me that wasn't a relative or a teacher....
But.
While I was at a lost, contrary to my expectations, Senjougahara's dad started talking first.
"Araragi-kun, was it?"
"............"
Was it, he says....
Immediately I feel a high wall.....
But even with that, this person really is like a famous actor, what a cool voice....I haven't found very many people that have had a cool voice.
"Ye-yes...My name Araragi Koyomi," I answer.
"I see," Senjougahara's father nods.
"Please take care of my daughter."
Whaaaaaat!?
This person just said it so suddenly!
"Just kidding," Senjougahara's dad continued.
....Just kidding....
Old Man joke?
Is this really an Old Man joke?
But saying that without breaking into a smile--it doesn't seem like he enjoys seeing me be unsure about how respond....what am I supposed to do. Whatever it is, it's not like I can do it.
"Araragi-kun. I think you've heard, but as you can see, I'm the very picture of a workaholic. I have almost no time to spend with Hitagi."
"I see-"
Hitagi...
It's only natural, saying you own daughter's name without an honorific.
On top of that, it sounds totally natural.
This is what it means to be parent and child.
"That's why having this come from me may not have much persuasive power, but I haven't seen Hitagi enjoy herself so much in a very long time."
"........"
Do you really understand what you are saying...? You're saying that your own daughter seems to really enjoys tormenting a fellow classmate...
After that, Senjougahara's dad says, "Ummm" before faltering. It feels like he is looking for the right words. It seems that Senjougahara's dad, unlike his daughter, is not very eloquent--on the contrary, he seems to be rather awkward with words.
"You've already heard about Hitagi's mother I take it."
"...Yes."
"Hitagi's illness as well I guess"
Senjougahara's illness--in a way it is an illness, but in this case, he can only be referring to the Kaii.
Crab.
The crab Kaii.
With Oshino's help her illness has been cured--but it's not type of simple problem where everything is settled just because it has been cured.
Just seeing her family can tell you that much.
"Well not just that--of course being so concentrated on my work, I deserve much of the blame, but...Hitagi became a person who had completely walled off her heart."
"Yes, I know."
I know quite well.
I've been in the same class with her throughout high school.
Throughout the first year and the second year.
Through the first month of the third year.
I know quite well just how much she had shut herself away.
"I won't make any excuses for that--a parent must bear responsibility for what their child has done, but a child is never responsible for what their parent has done."
"Responsibility..."
"People who have closed themselves off separate those who they interact with into two groups. One group consists of those people whom the closed off person doesn't mind being hated by. The other group is for those whom the closed off person never needs worry about being hated by."
".........."
The stapler wielding Senjougahara that I first came in contact with definitely put me in the first group. In throwing off the mask of the secluded aristocratic young lady and exposing her terrifying true face, she could only have considered me an enemy who had discovered her secret.
But what about now.
Does she really truly trust me so much. Am I worthy of such trust...
"There was the thing with her mother--along with her illness. She is someone that wants to love--but she doesn't how to show it," Senjougahara's dad says almost as if in soliloquy.
If I analyze it closely, it isn't really that extraordinary, but with such a cool voice I really can't help thinking it's really poetic.
"Araragi-kun. I feel that you deal with even such Hitagi wonderfully."
"Do you really think so?"
I get cut over and over...
I always feel as if I being minced...
If it had been from my heart, I would have bled out a long time ago...
"It's always like this. I can't help but think that she brought Father along just to humiliate me."
Oh.
I automatically said 'Father'.
At this point will he say those words...? The legendary "You have no right to call me Father!".
"Not at all."
He didn't say it.
It's the generational gap...
"Well, there's a possibility that she wanted to use this against me, though."
"Use it against you...?"
...Huh?
Oh--I see.
It's only normal for a father not feel good about having his daughter is in the backseat with a boy that he only just met. Of course, though it was all I could handle, if she really had any intention of teasing someone, even more than, it was her father...really?
"I don't think that is the case...even if it is Hitagi-san, to do that to her own father..."
"It's because I'm someone that she doesn't care if she's hated by," says Senjougahara's dad. "It doesn't matter if I hate her or not because I'm her father. Hitagi's mother and I fought over and over right in front of her...now she probably no longer has any memories of parents who got along."
Divorce by consent.
Motherless household.
That's right.
He hasn't said "wife" even once, only Hitagi's mother.
"That's why--she's throwing it my face. I could almost hear her saying, 'I will never be like you two.' It's exactly as she says. The two you were really enjoying yourselves."
"Well...saying that I didn't have any fun would be lie....she was really over the top, but that's just how she normally is."
Um?
Will this be taken as rude?
What if lets my badmouthing of his daughter pass...I was meaning to praise her, but if I look at it from his point of view it would seem that I am badmouthing her instead. Depending on the situation, he may even think I am complaining....no, I just don't how he will take it.
But why am I working myself up.
Aren't I just being incredibly lame?
"Hitagi is someone that wants to love," says Senjougahara's dad, "that's why she devotes herself entirely when she finds the right person, she allows herself to depend on that person wholeheartedly. It's because she is seeking to love someone. Even though she is my own daughter, having her has a lover maybe too great a weight I think."
"Too great a weight..."
The conversation seems to have a taken cynical turn.
"It's shameful of me to admit this, but I couldn't support her when she needed me. That's why she stopped depending on me a long time ago."
"........."
"When was the last time I wonder...ah yes, it was when she waved her stapler around while in a rage."
You even did that to your father?
Isn't that domestic violence...
"But recently Hitagi asked me for a favor for the first time in a very long time. 'I want to help you with work' she said," Senjougaraha's dad says with a wondering expression. "And this time. Involving you. To be able to change that girl, you really are something, Araragi-kun."
Finally unable to bear it anymore I say, "....I am happy that you have such a high opinion of me...but that really just happened by accident."
It feels as if he misunderstood and mistakenly thinks more of me than I deserve. To be honest, I can't say this makes me feel very good.
"Really? But I heard that you played an important role in Hitagi's illness being cured."
"Actually--I think that it would have been the same even if it wasn't me. It just happened to be me is all....It would have been fine with anyone other than me anyway, and of course it was Hitagi-san who saved herself in the end. I did nothing more than just stand there."
"That is all you needed to do. That you were there when she needed you is enough, and for that I am truly grateful," says Senjougahara's dad and seemingly to smiles for the first time.
"I'm a father that couldn't live up to my role, and I don't feel as if I am looking after my daughter even now. It is as if she is living by herself. I wasn't there for her when she needed me most. To be honest, I am at my limits just trying to pay back the debts that Hitagi's mother accumulated. Even this jeep is something that I borrowed from my friend. But even for a father like me, my daughter is someone I am very proud of. I trust her judgment. If that led her to you, then there is no mistake."
"................"
"Please take care of daughter, Araragi-kun."
"....Father."
This has become a weird exchange.
But I think...
Most likely--she wasn't trying to use this against him.
Instead, Senjougahara wanted her father here, even though it was her first date, because she wanted to let him know that she was fine now.
She didn't want to say, "I will never be like you two."
She wanted to say, "You don't have to worry about me anymore."
That's the voice I hear.
...But this isn't something for me to say. An outsider should not butt into this. On top of this, I feel that I don't have the right to place myself into the relationship that Senjougahara shares with her father.
That's why it is not my place to say this.
No matter how I look at this, you aren't part of the group that she doesn't mind being hated by, but the group that she isn't worried about being hated by.
No way I can say this.
There is only one person in the world that can say this.
"...By the way, where are we?"
"Since Hitagi is keeping it secret, I can't just tell you. But...the three of us used to come here a long time ago."
"The three of you..."
Senjougahara, her father and -- her mother?
"But to choose this place for the first date with her boyfriend, that girl is pretty -- oh. The princess has returned it seems."
That sounds just like something a father would say.
I'd be able to say that if the person I was saying it to were my age, but I'll refrain from doing so here.
But Senjougaraha is back? Ah he's right, I can see her through the windshield walking calmly back.
Really, only a little while ago I was planning to complain to her about leaving me behind, but now it's as if angel has flown down from heaven.
I'm being tricked...
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Araragi-kun," Senjougahara says in a level tone without taking notice unease and proceeds to open the back door. She then turns toward the driver's seen and says, "Father, from here on out is time for the two young people to be by themselves. Thank you for bringing us. It will likely take about two hours so please be diligent about your work."
"Okay," Senjougahara's dad says while pointing to his cell phone.
As I thought, he is busy with work and only took a break to bring us here and take us home....it seems like he will continue with his work on the phone.
But.
That means this is it for the parental chaperon?
"Let's go, Araragi-kun," Senjougahara says as she holds out her hand. I timidly take her and exit the care as if she were drawing me out.
Senjougahara immediately releases my hand.
She's definitely very obstinate.
"Thank you, Father."
I am finally able to offer my thanks.
Senjougahara closes the jeep's door.
But--really, even if it isn't that grand...anyway we're finally on a normal date.
Having Senjougahara's dad stay in the parking lot after he brought us here feels a little awkward, but since he seems to have work to do, I'll just leave it as it is.
"...So, where is this Hitagi-sa--"
Oops.
I don't need to do that anymore.
Well I do regret going back using her last name a little.
"Senjougahara, where are we?"
"Hmph," as Senjougahara suddenly turns away. "Have I answered any of your questions up to this point?"
"........."
No, I think you have....
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm in the group of people she does care if she's hated by as Senjougahara resumes her apparent indifference.
"To think that you would actually try to ask me a question, there is only so much leeway I am will to give you."
"I don't have permission to ask questions...?"
"You are not allowed to do anything other to kneel,"
"I have no plans of kneeling!"
"So you have plans of prostrating yourself before me?"
"So I can't even stand!?"
Now that we're not in front of her father I can counterattack as much as I want.
This is Araragi Koyomi at full power.
I follow behind Senjougahara as she walks briskly. Even though we are on a mountain, the parking has street lights so it isn't that dark. ...But are they still called street lights when there is no street? This is the kind of stupid thing I think about.
"But, it's really fortunate that we have good weather."
"Good weather? Are the weather conditions important?"
"Yes."
[a pun about the weather and Koyomi's head]
"Like it's possible to mishear something like that!"
"Look," Senjougahara says as we leave the parking lot. "There is a sign over there. Read it."
"Huh?"
From her tone it's almost as if she's pouting...is what I think, but just like she said, there's a sign right where she pointed: Hoshi no Sato Observatory.
Observatory...?
Does that mean...?
"Right."
Senjougahara's right hand stops me as I reflexively try to look at the sky. As I try to look up, she prevents my head from moving.
"What are you doing."
This is pretty humiliating...
To have someone grab the top of my head like this at my age...
"You can't look up yet, Araragi-kun. You can't look forward either. Just look down at your feet while you walk. This is command."
"Like I'll follow such an unreasonable command!"
"If you don't follow my command I'll scream and my father will rush here from the jeep."
".............."
"Or it will be that Kanbaru will meet an unfortunate fate tomorrow. Having her go to class while cosplaying as a kindergartener or having her stand in a hallway while wearing a placard around her neck that says 'I'm was a very naughty girl so I am being punished,' which would you prefer Araragi-kun?"
"....I will obey."
It's often said that one must be hard when implementing strategy, but it looks like she is nothing but hardness...so with amazement I lower my head and stare at my feet as I walk. But it seems that this isn't enough for her as she doesn't take her hand from my head and says, "Well then, let us proceed," and starts walking again.
Aaargh.
This is just like walking a dog.
"....You really are ostentatious."
"You added an extra syllable. Well, I think I do want to make you cower a bit, though. This is a gift from my generous heart."
*ostentatious and cower sound similar in Japanese
"You added an extra syllable! You keep saying all these mean things. Don't you have any compassion."
[kanji pun]: "I have that."
"You don't have a heart!"
"You really are so grandiose. It is only polite to give explanations."
"This is too much suffering for a high school student to take..."
This is "esprit" itself. I'm suffering too much and carrying too much.
Now that we have left the parking lot, it's gotten very dark.
However-- because we are at an astronomical observatory in the mountains there is plenty of starlight even without looking up so it's not completely dark. Our hometown is in the countryside so we can look at the stars at night too, but I guess that can't be compared to this.
And.
I just thought of something.
"That's right, about Kanbaru."
"What? You want to discuss Kanbaru's unfortunate fate?"
"Who the hell wants to discuss that!"
"Very good Araragi-kun. It appears that you are saying that you will leave the decision up to me."
"I won't forgive anyone that does that to Kanbaru, even if it is you! I'm not talking about that!"
"Then what is it?"
"I talked to Kanbaru about the constellations the day before yesterday."
The Serpent Bearer constellation.
I can't go into particulars or I will end up letting the details of Senjougahara's birthday plans slip. I'll have to stick to being vague.
"Kanbaru told me that she would go to an observatory in another prefecture about twice a year to attend the events there. Could this be the place she was talking about?"
For Kanbaru Suruga, who was so influenced by Senjougahara that she even assumed her pervertedness, this seem pretty logical.
Senjougahara confirms my suspicion by saying, "That is very likely."
"It has been a long time since I have come here myself....but I did tell talk to her about it before. I see...Kanbaru, hmmm..."
"That's right, I said that it didn't seem like something she would do. I guess this was why. Geez, she really is an adorable kouhai."
"Really. So much so I always want to do it."
"Do what!?"
Oh....speaking of which, something else comes to mind too. The first time I went to Senjougahara's place...I tried to act like I knew a lot about astronomy. I talked about the patterns on the moon and tried to show off my meager knowledge only to have Senjougahara turn it against me. Ugh, so embarrassing. I wish I hadn't remembered this. Having it turned against me. This is the first time I've ever come to an observatory.
"...But really, no one's here."
"It is because there is no official event now. It is a weekday after all. All the people who have come are likely inside the observatory.
"That one?"
I try to raise my head, but she pushes it back down.
Not only that, but she just pushed her nails into my scalp.
"You know, Senjougahara...you do know that what you're doing is crueler than what you think it is, right?"
An unconcerned Senjougahara responds to my gentle admonishment with."Is that so?"
"Don't you feel fortunate to have my hand, which as white as a whitefish, hold your head?"
"A whitefish is a whitefish, but you are more like a great white shark...Jaws."
"Oh my, I am so happy. You are quite the flatterer to say that my cheek is so white that it is almost transparent. Now I want to be nice to you."
Her nails dig even deeper into my scalp.
This was quite an effective pain.
Is she really a great white shark...speaking of which, her eyes are as emotionless as the den of said beast, which makes the comparison all the more fitting.
So that's it, my girlfriend is a great white shark....
Hitagi Shark.
"So there is an observatory, right?"
"Yes. It has a very large refracting telescope."
"Hmmm. I don't really know how great that is, though...so are we going in?
"No," Senjougahara immediately replies as she shakes her head. "There is an entrance fee."
"............"
"I am poor, you know," she says with pride....
Well, there is that.
"If it's only the entrance fee, I can pay...I brought that much at least."
"Wanting to spend money on me is a good mentality, but I will decline this time. The spot I have in mind is better than the large telescope in the building. This way."
Senjougahara moves away from the path and begins to head up a hill. I push through the short grass as I follow Senjougahara.
Halfway up the hill, Senjougahara' stops.
There is a picnic blanket spread on the ground.
I see, so this is what she meant when she said she was getting things ready.
"Close your eyes and lie down."
Having come this far, there's no point in not following her orders now. Doing as she said to, I close my eyes and lie down in the picnic blanket and she moves her hand away from my head. Then someone lies down next to me. Though I say someone, if it is anyone other than Senjougahara, it would be an outrageous illusion.
"You may open your eyes now."
I do as she says.
And there is a sky filled with stars.
"....................Wow."
Honestly.
More than a beautiful starry sky, seeing a starry sky and thinking that it is beautiful, even if I turned into an octopus, the part of me that is left would still be surprised.
Can humans really be so moved.
The stars almost seem to be raining down.
If I were to do an unrefined analysis, lying down like this allows the stars in the sky fill my entire field of vision and spreads even further, making it all the more spectacular. Trying nail down why I feel so moved makes me a little self-conscious, but now I know why Senjougahara went so far as to push her nails into my scalp to prevent me from looking up too soon. She wanted my first view of this sky to be from this position.
This is an incredible place.
There really is no better place than this.
Oh-.....this is like the ultimate reward.
If feels as if all the hardships I've endured up until now have just been washed away.
"What do you think--Araragi-kun?" Senjougahara asks as she lies next to me.
She is most likely gazing up at the same sky as I am.
"Incredible--to be honest, I just at a lost for words."
"I think that is because your vocabulary is lacking."
She just dumped a little water on my passion with her verbal abuse.
But--something like that isn't enough to get to me right now.
Even the poison that she spews is not enough to affect how I feel under this sky.
"That is Deneb. Altaire. Vega. The famous Summer Triangle. Far across from it is the Serpent Bearer. The Serpent constellation is made up of the stars in that area."
Senjougahara points at and explains each object.
She does it without a light or constellation map.
But for some reason it is still so easy to understand.
"The conspicuously bright start over there is Spica...which means Virgo is in that area. In that direction is the Crab constellation...but it may be a little hard to make out."
"I at least know the Big Dipper."
"Right. The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major, and right next to it is the Lynx."
"A cat?"
"Right."
And so saying, Senjougahara goes though each of the visible constellations and their accompanying stories one by one. It is almost as if I were listening to a fairytale that sooths as it soaks into me.
If only she would allow me.
I would fall asleep like this.
"Don't fall asleep."
The timing of her criticism is so perfect.
She's so sharp.
"There's a saying amongst mountain climbers for when they are in a blizzard that I can adapt for this situation--don't sleep, if you do I'll kill you."
"You'd kill me!?"
"At any rate," Senjougahara says in a flat voice after finishing her descriptions the constellations, "this is everything."
"Huh...? What is"
"The things I possess, this is all of it," Senjougahara says as she continues to look up at the starry sky, "The ability to help you study. My adorable kouhai and my blunt father. And--this starry sky. That's about everything that I have. This is all that I can offer you. This is everything."
"Everything..."
So this was what all this was about?
The thing with Kanbaru the day before yesterday....no, has she been thinking about this since we started going out together on Mother's Day a month ago? Was this why she has been refusing all my attempts at asking her out on a date...though reconciling with Kanbaru was unexpected, has she been waiting for the aptitude test to be over and for her father to have time?
Hanekawa's words come back to me.
Senjougahara-san is complicated she said.
"Well strictly speaking, I also have my wicked tongue and abusive language."
"Those are things I don't want!"
"Of course, there is also my body."
"..............."
Her body....
A roundabout way to be frank.
"Do you not want that either?"
"Well, not that....well."
I can't really say that I don't want it, can I?
But in this setting I can't say I want it, but it's something else...
"But you know right? That I was almost raped by that lowlife in the past."
"Yeah..."
Crab.
That was the reason for the Kaii.
Or at least one of the reasons.
Kaii require the right reasons.
"To be honest, I am afraid of doing with you what that lowlife tried to force me to do. I do not want to use a fashionable term like trauma to describe this. I do not want to appear that weak. But...I am afraid. Before we started going out I didn't feel this afraid, but now I am so afraid of being hated by you."
Afraid.
Not of the deed itself, but of its aftermath.
"I am afraid of losing you now," Senjougahara says in a disinterested tone.
Her emotions are completely unreadable.
Her face is most like totally expressionless.
"Being afraid of being hated by the person you are going out with and being afraid of losing the person you are going out with, it sounds very silly, doesn't it.....it is like asking whether the egg came first or whether the omelet did."
"Well the egg came first."
"Being able to say it so straightforwardly, I feel as if I have become a worthless woman. I was supposed to be the beautiful girl beset by tragedy and struck down by an unknown disease--but now I am a beautiful girl that has become disconnected because all she can think about is a man."
"So in either case it's still 'beautiful girl'...."
"Anyway, for turning me into an uninteresting woman that can be found anywhere, I do resent you, Araragi-kun."
"I see...."
You're plenty interesting though...
It's too bad this had to happen in the middle of such good lines though.
"But, as you know, my life up until now can't be said to have been the most fortunate....but thinking of how I have come to know you, I think all of that unhappiness can just be brushed away."
"............"
"It was because of my misfortune that you were attracted to me, I think it was well worth it. That is how madly I am in love with you. That's why, even if there is even the smallest chance, I don't want you and that low life to overlap. Naturally, I won't always speak such sweet words.....I know that what I am saying is childish. Something like a bye-bye....Something like a naive bye-bye...."
Why did she correct herself to make it more lame.
"Simply speaking, losing you now would be as if I had lost half of myself. That is why I would like you to wait just a little while."
"Just a little while--"
"Yes, until next week would be good."
"That's it!?"
"So please refrain from partaking of Kanbaru's body until then."
"You just said something incredible!"
"I will use that time to rehabilitate with Kanbaru too, of course."
"That means that Kabaru will get everything she wants! Only her wishes will be perfectly fulfilled!"
"Well, next week would be too early--eventually I definitely will be able to deal with it, so please just wait a little bit. That's why at this point, this starry sky is the last of the possessions that this loose woman can offer you. ....When I was a child I came here with my mother and father."
Father and mother--the three of them.
From what I know of Senjougahara, that must have been a very long time ago. But even after all this, she still remembers.
No.
It just came back to her.
The memory that she had forgotten.
"This is my treasure,"
For Senjougahara, this is a very clichéd phrase--but because of this I feel that I have heard what it really means to her.
The starry sky in Summer.
The starry sky that they saw as a family in the Summer.
So this is everything.
"..................."
I don't know much.
But I am certain about one thing.
Senjougahara Hitagi...she is incredibly smart and always plots the right course, but in area of love she is powerless. Absolutely powerless. Even on that Mother's Day when we first started going out, it was obvious, this woman is completely reckless, like the main character of an RPG that enters a cave without a light. It's as if she is showing all her cards to her opponent and leaving it up to him to decide what happens next, but does she realize that she is basically engaging in diplomacy through intimidation? Emotions wouldn't matter in this case. Confronted with this, the opponent would run away ninety-nine times out of a hundred. That's why she's afraid. Even someone with absolutely no experience with relationships can see it....
Well.
If she can see that I'm the remaining one out a hundred, I have to tip my hat to her.
This is bad.
I'm really fallen for her.
So much so that I can't help it.
Truthfully, I want to just go with the moment and hold her, but I don't want to lose Senjougahara like that. I don't have any cards to show her...so I think our relationship should stay like this for now.
It's not like I don't want to.
Lovers who stare up at the starry sky together.
Our relationship is fine like this.
A platonic love.
"Araragi-kun," Senjougahara says in even tone, "Do you like me?"
"I like you."
"I like you too, Araragi-kun."
"Thanks."
"What about me do you like?"
"I like everything about you. There isn't anything that I don't like."
"I see. That makes me happy."
"What about me do you like?"
"You kindness. You cute parts. The you that would rush to save me whenever I am troubled, like my very own prince."
"That makes me happy."
"That's right," Senjougahara says as if it only just came to her now, "That lowlife was after my body so he didn't even try to steal my lips."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"In a manner speaking, that lowlife wasn't able to see this...Araragi-kun. That's why."
And.
Without even the slightest sign embarrassment, Senjougahara says, "We are kissing."
I'm afraid.
I'm scared, Hitagi-san.
"That's not right. Not like this. Can....can I.....have a kiss? How ab....about a.......kiss?"
"..............."
"Shall we kiss, Araragi-kun?"
"So that's how you finally calm down?"
To be honest, that was the right way.
There is nothing more fitting.
This is how today became a day of commemoration.
For the two of us.
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My speculation and hopes on how Shaft is going to handle episode 12 if they do this particular chapter.
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