When I woke up this morning, I forgot what I'd dreamed of
Now the rest of my dreams are waiting for me to go to sleep again
I can't ignore you and all you are
The reason I have
for that
h
is that I'm a hero
The burning heat of my skin
blasts apart your answer to my question
and in my memory they are all 'yes'
That's pretty awesome, right?
Let's hold hands and go through thick and thin
We are faster than our thoughts
When we are together, we can make it through anything
Forever, through anything
Calendar
Story
Koyomi
Tree
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It’s this tree, bro.
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Late September.
I had come with my younger sister, Araragi Karen,
to the dojo that she frequented.
Well, it really is a tree.
It has a pretty alluring presence.
Is it true?
The fact that this tree was here and apparently, nobody had realized it until now.
Let’s rewind the story.
I was alone in my room, studying for entrance exams.
Hey, bro. It’s the boobs you love so much!
What's up?
Is there something you need, Karen?
A very good question, but not the appropriate one.
The question you should be asking is, ‘When should we go?'
Don’t talk with the assumption that
I’ve agreed to help you, and I’m going to accompany you somewhere.
Take your enormous chest off my head right now and answer my question.
Do you need something?
Let’s see, do I need something?
But you already know what it is, don’t you?
Okay, you don’t need to say anything.
Just remove your enormous chest,
from your brother's head!
Fine. I’ll surrender this time.
I said they're enormous,
but they don't come close to Hanekawa's.
Now, don’t feel up your little sister’s boobs so much, bro.
In return, you must listen to what I have to say.
I don’t know what you heard from Tsukihi,
but in this instance it has nothing to do with me, all right?
You’re the one's who both unilaterally take advantage of me, you know?
Saying it's unilateral is unthinkable.
They say 'God dwells in an honest man's head.’
But for you it's just a matter of 'Boobs dwell in bro's head.' Right?
Please don’t apply such a ridiculous proverb to me, Karen.
What is it?
Spit it out.
You want me to tell you? I guess I have no choice.
The truth is, I want you to help me.
Deary me.
Karen, it’s impossible for people to help other people.
One can only help oneself of their own accord.
Don’t spew such meaningless shit.
I’ll punch you.
Stop saying all that boring stuff and listen to what I have to say, idiot.
Want me to beat you up a bit?
All right, I’ll listen.
Black
I’ll listen, so spit it out already. Speedily.
Thank you, bro, I’m so happy!
I’ll let you peek at my boobs while I talk!
Peek! Peek!
Hey bro! Feel free to feel up these legs while you listen!
They’re big and buxom.
You'd describe you legs as buxom?
The word's lissom.
Buxom
Lissom
And I’m not going to feel you up!
If you don’t want me turning into the quiet type of character,
let's hurry this discussion up.
It’s about a tree.
A tree was discovered at our dojo,
and now everyone is saying it's in the way.
That’s why I want to do something,
but I don’t have that kind of power, bro.
So you do something!
What, you don’t get it?
You really are dense, bro.
A tree was discovered at your dojo?
Um, do you mean those wooden boards that you break in karate?
No.
There’s a yard behind the dojo. And, we discovered a tree there!
And what I’m not getting is what you mean by you discovered it…
Like, you discovered some branches that had fallen in the backyard or something?
You really don’t understand anything, do you?
I never said anything about that.
All you think about are the boobs you're staring at.
Don’t look at your sister with those eyes!
I’m not looking, and regardless,
all that’s in my head right now is concern for my sister!
Thanks for your concern!
She hears only the good points.
It’s not branches. And it’s not the boards we break either.
It’s a growing tree.
A tree rooted in the ground!
No? You still don't get it?
I'll think it through, Karen.
Basically, in the backyard of the dojo you go to, a tree was growing…
and you hadn’t noticed that it had been growing there?
It wasn't just me.
Everybody.
Including my master who owns the dojo,
everyone only noticed a tree was there recently.
So, the other day, I discovered it.
It was a huge incident because nobody had noticed.
'Eh? What’s this?'
'Did someone plant it here overnight?'
Everyone was talking about it, and it was really rowdy.
But, you know… It’s kind of scary.
Despite using that backyard for all this time for training and stuff,
nobody ever noticed that a tree had been growing there.
That’s exactly it, bro!
That’s what everyone else is saying! That it’s scary.
Well, not scary, more like ominous or something.
Obviously Master doesn’t say anything like that,
but my less disciplined seniors and juniors are all getting the shivers and stuff!
So the fact that the tree had been growing without you noticing wasn’t ominous to you?
Nope.
I was surprised, but I wasn’t scared.
Rather, as a martial artist, it’s almost embarrassing that I never noticed
something like that after all this time.
It’s so embarrassing I could almost kill myself!
Your martial artist mentality is way too weak.
I thought everyone else would feel the same way...
but I was wrong.
Since nobody felt that way.
They said that they were going to chop it down because it's scary.
We never noticed because we weren’t paying attention.
And once it's finally noticed,
we say it’s ominous and want to chop it down.
That's super unreasonable, right?
So basically, you want to settle this somehow in a way that prevents this tree
from being chopped down, right?
Yeah. My wish is for this tree to stay here forever, just the way it is.
Forever, huh…
I understand. Karen, feel free to rely on your reliable brother.
Specifically, what'll you do?
I’ll do something.
Do something, Hanekawa!
Don’t delegate everything to me…
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
Please!
I’ll let you do whatever you want with your boobs!
My boobs are already mine in the first place.
Well, alright.
It’s for Karen, after all.
First off I’d like to hear what you think about the whole thing.
Between Karen or those around her, who do you support?
That would be Karen, of course.
It’s terrible to think of getting rid of a tree that’s still living,
without a justifiable reason.
If you asked me why nobody had noticed the tree’s existence until now,
rather than noticing or not noticing, it’s just that nobody was really conscious of it.
But when it was noticed for even a moment, it became really noticeable.
And it’ll be more noticeable in one's eyes than it needs to be.
When you learn a new word, and you see that word in a sentence,
that word seems to stand out more.
Something like that?
Right. Well, I wonder.
I’d like to confirm something, Araragi.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
Right now at that dojo, the panic is a pandemic-like situation, right?
Saying panic seems exaggerated…
But I suppose it is kind of like a mass infection.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
Then, it just needs to be brought to an end.
Well, that’s true.
But it’s hard to keep a pandemic in check, isn’t it?
That’s what’s troublesome.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
No, there’s a way.
A way of stopping a pandemic.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
Rather than a way of stopping it,
it’s more like a way for it to stop.
No choice this time, I guess.
And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punch line.
Firstly the conclusion.
In the end, the old tree that Karen was trying to protect, wasn't chopped down.
In order for a pandemic or a panic to stop,
it has to arrive at its destination, then it will stop.
In short, no matter the virus, once it spreads until it can’t spread any further,
the infection will stop, and the situation will naturally begin to resolve itself.
But it was pretty clear that we couldn't let it arrive at its destination.
If this pandemic was allowed to reach its ‘destination’,
then the result would be the disposal of that old tree.
Therefore, we simply extend the goal.
Right now, everyone thinks the tree is at the level of 'ominous’, right?
Or possibly a level above, at 'scary'.
That kind of recognition, right?
We just need to take it a step further.
That will be the goal.
Araragi Koyomi
Hands Free
A step further…
Reverence, right?
The next day,
D
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Karen told rest of the dojo students this:
That the old tree was made of the same wood used to build the sacred dojo.
That the god who protects the dojo
made the tree grow in the backyard.
That’s why such a bizarre phenomenon occurred.
For many decades up til now, whilst hiding his prescense from the dojo's students,
the god of martial arts, who watched over the dojo
used all his strength to take physical form.
It would be outrageous to chop the tree down.
This fabrication that Hanekawa came up with was adopted almost word for word.
With the truth being what it is, there’s no way they’d think to hurt the tree.
Of course, this wasn’t a lie meant to fool Karen’s master.
Considering it normally,
The wood used to build the dojo, and that old tree,
couldn't be the same.
But, the master probably won’t point that out.
As promised, Karen did manage to persuade the others, after all?
For now, that old tree’s life was tethered.
Karen, having 'discovered’ the tree,
made it her duty to protect it to the end.
But no matter what, telling a lie makes you feel bad…
But it’s not necessarily a lie.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
It’s possible the tree may actually have been an oddity.
To begin with, it's not completely impossible for the wood used
to build the dojo and that tree to be the same.
The probability isn’t zero.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Hands Free
What are you talking about?
The probably of that is still way too low.
Just because it’s low doesn’t make it impossible.
Also,
because we created an explanation like that,
Isn't it possible the tree may actually have become an oddity?
The kind of oddity that watches over those undergoing training.
I kick a stone away to get rid of my worries,
I'm downplaying the flutter I feel this April.
We were happy children full of curiosity,
I was the one who pushed you forward,
from that day onward.
Let's escape our confines
and take our time along the way
Let's ride our bikes to far away
carrying our hopes and dreams in the basket
Is the future we heard so many rumors about,
A nice place to be?
Even if we ask our extending shadows about it,
we'll still be none the wiser