Scene no. 1
Tsubasa
Isn't this Hanekawa's room?
Oh, welcome ba—
Whoa?!
There were six rooms in the Hanekawa household.
However, none of them, not a single one of them belonged to Hanekawa Tsubasa.
She's done for.
Nothing's going to come of it.
It's beyond repair.
Completely beyond reason.
That home,
that household,
that family,
is completely done for.
Geez, you're so hopeless.
There, there. You must've been really scared.
All right. Go ahead.
Gross!
Is that how you respond to your sister's devotion?!
I'm taking disciplinary action!
Just how impulsive can you two get?!
It's in our genes! Like brother, like sisters!
I have to say I was really worried.
You took so long to come home,
Karen and I were worried you'd run into a monster or something.
A monster?
To be more specific, a monster cat.
Monster cat...
Yup.
It's only a rumor, so I don't know how much of it is true,
but there's apparently a monster cat attacking people all over town.
Energy Drain
Scene no. 110
How long ago was that?
I heard it through the grapevine this afternoon.
Then I got really worried and went nuts trying to call you.
I'm glad you're safe and all,
but as avatars of justice, the Fire Sisters can't just stay quiet about the situation at this point.
Karen's been making preparations to go monster cat-hunting as we speak.
No...
Hmm? What's wrong?
What do you mean, no?
No, well,
I was just thinking about how I'm in a tight spot.
Riding my bike home at night was scary enough, and to make things worse,
you just told me a really scary story involving a monster cat.
Now, I'm so terrified I can't even go to sleep alone.
I was thinking I'd ask you and Karen to sleep with me for the next few days,
but if you two have to leave in order to fight for justice,
I guess I'm on my own, even if you're the only ones I can rely on.
What?!
We're the only ones you can rely on?
Oh well, we have no choice then!
Seeing you this scared has made me feel sorry for you,
so I'll go convince Karen to stay!
We'll let the police deal with the monster cat!
Thanks.
Scene no. 126
Indiscriminately attacking people with its Energy Drain...
I can't figure out what the Curse Cat's objective is.
Do I really have the right to know, though?
Actually, before that...
Do I even want to know?
Given how shook up I was just sneaking into her house and finding out what it was really like,
do I even want to know?
Aren't there things in the world that are better left unknown?
If you're going to selfishly admire someone only to be disillusioned later,
then maybe you shouldn't try to get to know them better at all.
Maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't have gotten involved in Hanekawa's business back there.
Maybe I should've pretended the bruise didn't exist.
But, y'know...
Wouldn't that just be cherry-picking?
Do I really just want to like, admire, and have high hopes for her, but nothing more?
After all she did for me over spring break?
I racked my brains, but I just couldn't figure it out.
If there's one thing that's for sure, though,
it's that I knew absolutely nothing about her.
And here I was rattling on about love and what not. Ridiculous.
Now that it's come to this,
I'm ashamed of that conversation I had with Tsukihi.
But still, even now,
my chest feels like it's going to explode when I think about Hanekawa.
1st May
Hanekawa didn't come to school on the first,
2nd May
or the second of May.
2nd May (Sat)
Rumors of the monster cat, including several eye-witness accounts,
Naoetsu High Sch
had spread all over the school by the end the second day,
which showed how active the Curse Cat was being.
The holidays started again the next day, but before that,
I decided to go visit the abandoned building Oshino lived in.
O-Oshino!
Hey, Araragi.
I got tired of waiting for you.
I was thinking it was about time for you to show up.
I did want to make a complete recovery before you did, though.
But I used up all my miracle bandages to heal you the other day...
What on earth happened to you, Oshino?
What happened, you ask?
Nothing, really.
I lost, that's all.
L-Lost? To what?
Black
Unnumbered scene
To the Curse Cat, obviously.
It's been nearly three days since the night of April 30th.
In that time, I fought it around twenty times...
And lost around twenty times.
You lost every single time?
Yeah, every single time.
I was a mere shadow of my former self.
Good grief.
A high school girl in her underwear is way too tempting a sight for an old man's sore eyes.
I couldn't fight her properly at all because I kept getting distracted.
Really, why would you suck all the energy out of an exhausted and withered old man like me?
Are you serious? Is the Curse Cat that powerful?
Strong enough to overpower even a specialist like you?
Nah, it's not.
I mentioned it in passing the other day,
but it's a low-level Oddity that's no match for the vampire that attacked you.
More like, the very comparison is an insult to the latter.
What? Wait a minute.
Yeah, you did say the other day that there was a clear disparity between the Curse Cat and a vampire,
but you never said anything about it being a low-level Oddity.
I left that part of the explanation out,
because you probably would've offered to help.
That's why I didn't tell you.
Provided they put their brains to good use, even a rank amateur can deal with the Curse Cat.
That's how weak it actually is.
What? But...
Of course, that doesn't mean I took the gas off the pedal.
I threw everything I had at it,
but I lost.
The Curse Cat's a weakling.
It plays dead, pretending to be run over, and possesses anyone who approaches it out of pity.
It's a monster that replaces those it possesses.
An Oddity that usurps the body.
And like a god of misfortune, it drags both the body and its original owner down to the very depths of hell.
It's a monster that fits the usual template.
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What makes this an unbelievably exceptional case though, is that it's Ms. Class Rep that's been possessed.
She's turned the Curse Cat, normally a total weakling, into an incredibly strong Oddity,
one that could possibly even rival a vampire.
Sharing a body is one thing, but the fact that they're sharing a brain makes them dangerous.
My traditional anti-Oddity measures,
techniques and methods have no effect at all on her.
That's because she holds specialist-level expertise in even this field.
She knows everything.
I've never even heard of an Oddity that uses tactics and strategies to attack people.
It's something we've known all along, but Ms. Class Rep really is extraordinary.
The skills she displays when attacking people aren't the kind you see out of an Oddity.
Hold on a second.
"The skills she displays when attacking people?"
You're making it sound like Hanekawa's attacking people of her own free will.
Well, that's what it boils down to.
The Curse Cat is not that kind of Oddity.
However, Araragi.
It might not actually be a bad thing that I'm having such a hard time dealing with her.
You could say this proves that Ms. Class Rep still exists inside the Curse Cat.
That's what I think.
At the very least, this wouldn't've happened if it had completely taken over both her mind and body.
A considerably large part of her consciousness is probably still intact,
which is exactly why she's that strong.
This is really bad news.
But at the same time, it also tells us that there's still hope.
How? What part of it does?
Well, I mean...
She'd be done for if she'd been completely taken over.
We'd have to kill her.
What I mean to say is,
we'd better salvage Ms. Class Rep's consciousness while it still exists and exterminate the monster cat.
Or else Hanekawa Tsubasa, your precious friend, will disappear completely from this world.
Scene no. 212
Once upon a time, there was a white cat lying dead on the road.
Finding that cat pitiable, a passerby buried it and prayed for it.
From that night onward, that virtuous man's behavior took a turn for the worse.
Admitting that he was now out of control,
the people around him summoned an exorcist in a bid to exorcize the cat that had possessed him.
Now here's the punch line.
This is where the Curse Cat bares its fangs.
It turns out that the virtuous man hadn't been possessed by a cat at all.
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A twist, or an absurd conclusion...
Call it what you want, but this is an Oddity Tale that comes with a lesson of sorts.
A human being made exclusively of virtue cannot possibly exist.
Kindness is nothing but the tip of the iceberg that is a human being.
There is always a counterpart.
If there be light, then there is darkness; if white, black.
It's an anecdote that sees right through human nature.
Why a cat, though?
That's because humans wear facat es all the time.
That's because humans wear facades all the time.
That's because humans wear facat es all the time.
Ms. Class Rep was likely wearing one too.
A human who is perfectly fair and virtuous does not exist.
Instead, it's because she insists on being one that her stress becomes piled up,
unleashing her dark side.
Normally a facade would only serve as a mask, but for whatever reason,
Ms. Class Rep has pretty much become united with the Curse Cat.
If we consider the cat to be the dominant party, then maybe it would be better to call it assimilation.
A formidable opponent indeed.
Or should I say, invincible.
It'll spell big trouble if we don't end this soon.
We're in real danger of reaching an outcome where it turns out she hadn't been possessed by a cat at all.
We have to do something before she completely merges with the cat.
3rd May - Constitution Day
Private Naoetsu High School
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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The well-endowed Hanekawa always pushes her breasts against this desk, doesn't she?
What are you, a purrvert without limits?
How furightening. You're scarier than an Oddity.
You just furvently licked a girl's desk and got all aroused.
No, that's not it!
More importantly, where did you come from? How did you get into this classroom?
More impurrtantly?
What on earth could be more impurrtant than you licking my master's desk, human?
I have no idea what you're talking about!
Say whatever you want, I'm not going to admit anything in court!
Meowhaha
Hmm? What?
I don't sense much hostility from your expurrsion, human.
Well, that's because there isn't much I could do to you anyway, Cat.
Besides, it's not like you're going to kill me,
right?
Who kneows?
My Energy Drain is an irreplaceable purrt of who I am,
and not a skill I can fureely use, let alone control.
I could go easy on someone, but the extent of which is out of my hands.
It's pawsible that I might kill someone without even intending to.
Still, I much prefer this to having you bite or claw away at me the moment we run into each other.
I'd be done for in an instant if you did that again.
Meowhaha
Vampire
A vampire, huh?
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
Meowhaha
Vampire
A top-class Oddity that I originally wouldn't even dream of locking claws with.
But thanks to my master's knowledge of strategy and tactics,
I've become an existence capable of overwhelming even an Oddity specialist.
I appreciate it, fur real.
I'm not one to return a favor.
I'm more the type of Oddity that'd pay one back with malice.
Fur this case, however, I'm so grateful to her I might make an exception.
Vampire
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Well, vampires and you might both possess Energy Drain as a special trait,
but I'm sure they don't work the same way.
A vampire's Energy Drain is a meal,
Meal
Scene no. 275
whereas the Curse Cat's is a curse.
Curse
Scene no. 275
Purrcisely.
What I don't get, though, is why you're indiscriminately attacking people.
If we're going to talk about different types of Oddities here, the Curse Cat isn't one that would do that, right?
Hey, Cat. You...
Oh, it's not impurrtant.
Just fur a distraction, that's all.
Huh?
I'm only attacking people fur a distraction.
This is basically the same thing
as ringing the doorbell and running away,
or clawing graffiti on the walls.
A stress buster!
A stress buster?
Wait, huh?
What does that mean?
"What does it mean?"
It means exactly what it says on the can.
You did notice the appurrance of that house on the inside, right?
That house?
Where my master lives.
I know you did.
Cats have a pretty good sense of smell, too.
I go back fur a change of clothes, and what do I find?
Your scent was all over the place.
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Fur fifteen years, my master has been in that home—that household.
You can just imagine how much purressure that was putting her under, can't you?
Playing purranks on the good people of this town purrovides her some relief.
That's all there is to it.
These purranks have nothing to do with curses.
How so?
Are Oddities even capable of such behavior?
Being a purrssessive type of Oddity, I've usurped my master's body.
Now, you might also say I've usurped her mind as well,
so I know what kind of life my master has led fur the past fifteen years in that house.
That's why I'm lending her a helping paw with her stress busting.
But if those are your reasons,
you don't need to attack people unrelated to this, do you?
Unfurtunately, this is the only way I know how to do things.
Evil deeds are fun.
It's fun because it causes trouble fur complete strangers.
There's no logic to it, but it's not inconsistent either.
At the very least, don't you think I'm a little more mellow
meow that I have a more stable personality?
Compurred to when I tore your arm off, I mean.
I did notice that, yeah.
It means what I'm doing is having a pawsitive effect.
That's how it is, so rest assured.
This stress busting will end if I attack another five hundred people or so.
And at that time, I, as an oddity, will disappurr,
having carried out my duties and repaid my debt.
So tell that old man with the Hawaiian shirt not to interfere.
I don't really get it, but he wants to help my master out, doesn't he?
So tell him to leave her to me.
Why would you go that far?
Aren't you just an evil spirit that's possessed Hanekawa?
You shouldn't have any reason to go out of your way to help her.
I've been telling you fur a while that this is all so I can repay my debt to her, even if it's out of character.
It was all a tall tail, though.
To be purrfectly honest, apart from her sharing her knowledge with me,
I don't really have a reason to feel indebted to my master.
What're you talking about?
Didn't Hanekawa bury you when you were lying dead after getting run over?
Isn't that how you imposed yourself on her? By taking advantage of her kindness and compassion?
Meow that's not true.
On the surface, the event itself happened fur sure.
My master picked me up when I was lying dead on the road,
moved me to a location with a nice view, and purried me there.
You aren't mistaken in your knowledge of the event itself.
The cat's grave
Scene no. 333
However, my master held no sympurrthy for me at all at the time.
She held a funeral fur me thinking it was the most obvious thing in the world to do,
in a completely unemotional manner.
It was like she had no pity fur me at all.
So in truth, nothing was there fur me to take advantage of.
But wait, Hanekawa was—
My master's only desire is to be a normal girl.
"If you find a dead cat by the road, bury it."
Well, that's the purrfectly right thing to do.
You could even call it a law, or a furmula.
So she obeyed that law. Followed that furmula.
That's all there was to it.
Normally, there's no way one can abide by those rules.
Most people wouldn't think about burying a dead cat,
even if they knew it was the right, lovely thing to do.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Scene no. 344
No, they might think about it,
but they wouldn't actually do it.
They'd find it impossible to, on both a physical and emotional level.
However, Hanekawa will pull it off.
Hanekawa can
Scene no. 345
never ever become
Scene no. 345
a normal girl
Scene no. 345
That's right. She'll pull it off.
Her emotions won't come into play at all.
She won't feel a thing.
She can carry out her morals like a machine.
I've been given several funerals, but none on purr with hers.
Almost too black
Scene no. 345
That's why I felt inclined to save her.
A Stygian blackness
Scene no. 346
Classroom
Scene no. 346
In short, it's just a whim of mine.
Cat-like, right?
So make sure to pass on my message.
Tell that Hawaiian bastard to overlook my pranks if he doesn't want to be sued for animal cruelty.
It's the least he could do fur me, considering I've let him do as he pleased all this time.
What's that supposed to mean?
You already know, don't you?
Scene no. 352
You already know, don't you?
If I
Scene no. 353
I would've killed him in the very first round if I,
or rather my master
Scene no. 353
had any
Scene no. 354
or rather my master,
real intention
Scene no. 354
to harm him
Scene no. 354
had any real intention to harm him.
I've been holding back in all of our catfights because he's an acquaintance of hers.
As for you...
Well, it doesn't look like you're planning on doing anything.
Yeah, that's the right answer.
The right thing to do fur you, if you want to help my master out, is to do nothing.
You don't purrrticularly want to die, do you?
See ya, human.
You... should try your best to lead a happy nine lives.
Wait!
Hmm?
If relieving Hanekawa of her stress is your objective, I'll tell you right now that it's impossible.
Huh? Why?
Hanekawa's parents are the ones causing her all that stress, right?
Even if you released all of it for her, it'd only start accumulating again once she went back home.
You could attack five hundred strangers,
or keep stress busting for a month,
but somewhere down the line it'll all reset.
Hmm?
Yeah, that's right.
In that case, I'll just have to keep beating them up fur her until they stop coming back.
I won't let it end with just the Energy Drain meow.
I'll simply respond to domewstic violence with some of my own,
if that's what my master purrefers.
As if—
Yup. That's the right choice.
You'll be cursed the moment you caress me.
That's why I'm the Curse Cat.
Stay away from me.
Don't put even a single finger on me.
The right choice here is to not get involved with me
and, probably,
not with my master either.
Cat, you...
I'll catch you later.
Lead a happy life.
This is hopeless.
I really do...
like Hanekawa.
I like her so much I can't bring myself to touch her.
I like her.
I wondered if I liked her, felt I did, and realized I did.
But in a way, Tsukihi was right.
I really do like her, unbearably so,
but these feelings of mine aren't what you'd call love.
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They'd gone past love a long time ago.
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Love
Curse cat
Hanekawa
Love
Curse cat
Hanekawa
Meowhaha
Vampire
Hanekawa
Meowhaha
Vampire
Hanekawa
Black
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Forget wanting to always be with her...
Right now I want to die for Hanekawa.