Hey, kiss-freak...
We're going home.
Shut up.
Go home by yourself.
Don't try and stop me.
I told you...
How mad he made me.
And I told you to leave the rest to me.
I...
I never said I would.
Don't push yourself...
You should rest right now.
I'm not going to talk about this.
You won't listen to what I have to say anyway.
I'll listen later.
I'll sit beside you, peeling apples,
while you rest.
Come to think of it,
it's been a long time since I've had a real, serious
fight with you!
Episode 7: Karen Bee, Part 7
Don't be stupid.
I've never been serious against my little sister.
This isn't the dojo.
And you're not in great shape,
Stung by Supernatural Bee
right?
Great shape?
You've got that right.
My head's all stuffed up, and my whole body is hot.
It feels like my clothes are about to catch fire.
My muscles ache, and I can barely walk.
And maybe there isn't enough moisture
in my eyes, 'cause you look all blurry.
The next time I blink, I might never open my eyes again.
So I'm in the best shape of my life!
Pretty cool...
If you weren't my sister, I'd fall in love with you.
If you weren't my brother, I might be able to hold back!
Thanks, Nii-chan...
That woke me up!
There are twenty minutes till the next bus comes.
Nii-chan, should I call you an ambulance?
Hell, no.
The one who'll be taking the ambulance...
is you!
No way.
How can he stand?
That could've killed him.
I was told never to use it outside the dojo...
Then I think it's time they kicked you out!
Don't try and stop me!
By the way, Nii-chan...
When Your Body Feels Hot
When you say, "Your body feels hot,"
don't you think it seems kinda naughty?
I don't...
Because
"hot" is the first three letters of "hotel"!
Are you my junior?!
Naughtiness in the Athletic Storeroom A beast of lust arrives!
Talk to us about anything
Your junior? Who's that?
The biggest pervert I know!
Kanbaru Suruga
Recreation
Hey, master...
Recreation
Did I not tell you?
Just as your fears are transmitted to me directly,
I feel your pain, as well.
Put up with it for a little longer.
Recreation
If you order me to, I will act.
Here's your order: do nothing.
Recreation
You ask the hardest things...
I'll pat your head later.
Recreation
That isn't enough.
I request a ritual one level higher.
I didn't know there was one.
Recreation
Out of curiosity, what is it?
Don't pat my head...
Rub my breasts.
Recreation
Why didn't you say that to me
when you were still an adult?!
Punch
Give it up, already.
It hurts my fists when I punch you...
Forget that.
It hurts me when you punch me.
You can't beat me, Nii-chan.
You can't beat me, Karen-chan.
This is your chance to surrender, Nii-chan!
It's way too late for that line.
My fists hurt, so I'm going to stop punching you.
Not bad, Nii-chan!
Hey!
You get it now, right?
You can't beat me, Nii-chan!
You're the one who needs to get it...
You can't beat me, Karen-chan!
The good guy always wins, right?
Doesn't that mean that whoever wins is right, Nii-chan?
So if I beat you, I can go?
That way of thinking is dangerous.
It's about as far from justice as you can get.
What are you talking about?
You always say that, don't you?
Like a big arrogant jerk.
What do I say?
About Tsukihi-chan and me...
We're right, but we aren't strong.
And the good guys always win, so you can't lose.
Fakes
You always talk like you're so much better than we are!
So I tried to make it so I wouldn't lose...
Oh, that?
That's correct.
You're right.
But you aren't strong.
I am strong...
Stronger than you, if nothing else.
Physically strong means nothing.
To be the real thing,
you need a strong will.
When you say you can't forgive Kaiki, where is your will?
You two are always trying to help others.
You're always doing it for someone else.
There's no will of your own there.
No!
We're doing what we think is right.
Everyone else is just the reason.
Don't make me laugh!
How can someone who seeks
a reason from another person be right?
While you're forcing that reason
on someone else, how can you take responsibility?
You're not good, and you're not heroes.
You're just kids playing a game!
Fakes
Fakes.
You never go after evil people, just villains.
Am I wrong?
You are!
You don't know anything, so shut up.
Tsubasa-san would understand...
She knows everything!
She doesn't know everything.
All she knows
is what she knows.
If you can't give up the idea of self-sacrifice and be content with self-satisfaction,
you need to shut up.
It gives me a headache to hear you talk.
What's wrong with doing something for someone else?
What's wrong with self-sacrifice?
Even if... Even if we're fakes, what's wrong with that?
Has it ever caused any trouble for you?!
For a long time now.
But...
I never said it was wrong.
If you're prepared to live with a sense of inferiority for the rest of your life,
then even if you're a fake, isn't that the same as being real?
Just so we're clear, I hate you two.
But I'm always proud of you.
Nii-chan.
You said he made you mad, right?
I heard you...
However, I'm much madder...
He hurt something I'm proud of, and he'll pay.
Leave the rest to me!
I'm mad, but I also feel pathetic.
Making you clean up after my mess...
You can't even clean up your own sweat. Don't worry about it.
Cleaning up after their
little sister is an honor for a big brother.
This time, I'll show you being cool.
Make sure you don't fall in love.
It'd be incestuous...
I'm already in love, Nii-chan.
You take care of the rest.
Black Scene
7/30 Sunday
After that, I carried Karen home on my back. I don't think she'll be running off again, but just in case, I wrote "Any man will do" on her face with permanent marker, so she can't leave. (While I was at it, I wrote "Wearing a bra is a pain, so I'm not" on Tsukihi's. She shares responsibility, too.) Then I went to meet up with Senjougahara again. Then...
Aren't you the one I met in front of the Gaen child's house?
Fine-ground and Deep-roasted
You're here about your sister?
Naughty Ferris Wheel
A very manly child, then. Rare these days.
Your charm is gone, Senjougahara.
You've become a normal girl.
What?
I never wanted to see you again.
Actually, that's a lie.
I never wanted to see you in the first place.
But I can say this now...
I've been wanting to see you, Kaiki-san.
I didn't want to see you,
now that you're just a normal girl.
Naughty Ferris Wheel
The last time we met, you shone like darkness.
No, better to say you'd attained a level of enlightenment.
Someone well worth deceiving...
Stop. Let's talk.
I've come to talk.
So did you, right?
Am I wrong?
Very well. I get it...
I'll stop cheating the middle schoolers.
And I won't spread the charms anymore.
And that lively little girl,
your sister... Don't worry about her, Araragi.
It's called instant hypnosis.
She'll recover her health within the next three days.
And, Senjougahara...
I'll officially apologize for what happened with your mother.
And I'll do my best to return the money
taken from your father.
That's quite gracious of you...
Did you really think I'd believe it?
You don't seem repentant at all.
Not the slightest bit.
Don't I?
Come to think of it, I didn't actually apologize.
Or beg for my life.
Sorry, very sorry, guys.
I'm very repentant.
Very sorry.
I'm supposed to believe that half-hearted apology?
Every word you say is a lie.
Perhaps.
I'd prefer if you didn't upset me.
I'm doing everything I can to hold myself back right now.
Refraining from killing you is very difficult.
So it seems.
And it's in that respect that you've become normal.
The old you would never have held back.
I won't ask you to return the money.
That won't bring my family back.
You won't?
That's great.
I go through money fast.
I barely have any on me.
A I U E O
Open the mind's eye
Gotta drink the medicine. Gotta peel the apples. Hurry, gotta do it.
If I were going to repay you,
1 8 O 7 E
A 3 I 4 U 5
Oh, how horrid. My beloved daughter's hands and legs are warping into something awful.
Gotta sever Gotta sever Gotta join Gotta join Oh, so busy Busy
Tooth Bloomed Bloomed Cherry
Nose Flower Flower
With All My Heart
I'd have needed to think up a new con.
Flashback
Toward intercourse like an animal
Lust writhing atop the girl's body.
Palm
Rising Sun
8 7 6
1 2 3 4
Broken
Leave this city.
Now.
Very well.
What's wrong, Araragi?
Why do you look at me with those eyes?
I hurt your sister.
Shouldn't I see more hatred in them?
She got what was coming to her.
It's her fault for getting involved with someone like you.
That's not true.
Her mistake was coming to see me alone.
If she wanted to get me, she should have
come with greater numbers, just as you have.
In most other respects, she was right.
Or, Araragi, did you decide on your own that she is a fool,
thereby denying her?
I think she's right. Just...
She isn't strong?
True, she isn't.
But denying her kindness is a mistake.
And...
And without girls like that around,
I'd be out of business as a con man.
So why is a con man like that
doing what I want?
It would be easy to talk me into doing whatever you wished.
Like before.
Senjougahara,
you have the wrong idea about me.
No, you have the right idea. You merely overestimate me.
The person you view as your enemy
is just a pathetic, middle-aged man.
Even as a con man, he's a minor and shabby one.
Or did I seem to you like some sort of monster?
Of course not.
Black Scene
You're just...
...a fake.
Yes, that's right.
I'm a fake.
I'm no one special.
Nor are you.
There's nothing dramatic about me
or about you.
Araragi, what about you?
I'd like to ask you a question.
Naughty Ferris Wheel
Is your life dramatic?
Tragic
Tragic?
Comedic
Musical?
Musical
I feel an unpleasant presence from your shadow.
And it appears
you've taken half of your sister's pain onto yourself.
Madness...
To do something so risky for no money.
Which are you?
Which am I?
Do you know about the supernatural?
That's a less interesting question than I expected...
You're ruining my fun, Araragi.
For example, do you believe in ghosts?
You understand the mind of someone
who doesn't believe in ghosts,
but is still scared of them, right?
I'm something similar.
So let me answer your question this way...
I know nothing about the supernatural.
But I know those who do know.
That is all.
More precisely, I simply know those who think they know.
The wreathe-fire bee.
Ever heard of the wreathe-fire bee?
A monster from around the 15th century or something, wasn't it?
When a strange plague was explained
as the work of a supernatural monster.
Correct.
However, wrong.
The wreathe-fire bee is a monster recorded in Chapter 15
Wreathe-Fire Bee
18th-Century Work
of the 18th-century work,
Illustrated Codex of Eastern Disturbances, Chapter 15
The Illustrated Codex of Eastern Disturbances.
However, the truth of the matter
is that there was no such plague during the Muromachi era.
Falsified History Bee
Falsified history.
Those who came after the author
foolishly believed the tale he'd written.
My sister...
My sister who was stung by the wreathe-fire bee...
Any Man Will Do.
Wearing a bra is a pain, so I'm not
Is it true that she'll recover, even if we do nothing?
Of course.
There are no monsters.
Victim
And thus, no victims.
Monster
You think that they exist,
so you feel like they're there.
Let me be clear...
Don't involve me in your delusions.
It's a nuisance.
He's a fake.
Just like Senjougahara said
and he said,
he's decided to live his entire life with a sense of inferiority.
A proud fake.
And you've taken half of it upon yourself.
It may not even take three days.
I don't know how you did it, but that's impressive.
But that means, Araragi,
Naughty Ferris Wheel
that you and I will never accept one another.
It's far worse than water and oil.
We're fire and oil.
Who's fire and who's oil?
I don't know.
Since neither of us really seems like fire,
why not rubidium and water instead?
And I'm the rubidium.
So I'm water?
Then the fire is Karen and Tsukihi.
Fire and fire...
Together, they become an inferno,
the Fire Sisters.
Your phone.
Give me your phone.
That was horrible of you.
Now I won't be able to help those poor middle schoolers...
I wouldn't know how to reach them.
I'm not asking you to help kids I don't even know.
Araragi-kun, I'm about to say the most horrible thing in the world.
It's their fault for being tricked.
I'm not a hero or a good guy.
I'm just an enemy of evil.
You can't do anything for the victims, anyway.
Even if you tried,
you'd only end up stealing more from them.
I'm sure I would.
I'm a con man.
The whole atonement thing was a lie, as well.
You probably don't want to understand this,
but for me, making money isn't a matter of profit and loss.
That's the part of you...
The "part of me" you what?
No answer?
You really have grown up to be boring...
Dramatic or not, you used to be wonderful.
And now you're just boring.
Heavier and fatter, though.
Shut up.
I don't care what you say about the old me.
But don't insult me as I am now.
Araragi-kun says he loves me.
He loves me as I am now.
Therefore, I like me as I am, too.
So I cannot ignore anything you say that would damage me.
What?
So you two are like that.
I see... I see.
So that's it...
Then I've nothing more to say.
I don't wish to interfere with a budding relationship.
If you're not going to ask for it, I won't attempt to atone.
I don't want to do anything that won't get me any money.
I'll leave town.
I'll be gone tomorrow.
That's good enough, isn't it, Senjougahara?
Oh, yes... Senjougahara.
Let me tell you something.
I don't want to hear it.
The man who once tried to rape you...
He was hit by a car and died.
In a place that had nothing to do with you,
in a way that had nothing to do with you.
And with no drama at all.
That's all there is to the past that
you spend so much time worrying about.
There's nothing even worth settling.
The lesson for you here is not to expect anything dramatic from life.
That's another lie, of course.
The man who'd forgotten about me until this morning
wouldn't know a thing about the man who tried to rape me.
Senjougahara, try to see past the surface of things.
It's possible that the fact that I'd forgotten
about you was a lie, right?
A lie...
That's a lie.
Black Scene
Does it matter if it's a lie?
There's no such thing as truth in this world.
Don't worry.
The fact that you were once in love with me
doesn't count as cheating.
It isn't fair to me if you hate me, in an attempt
at loyalty to your current lover.
I'll say it again.
The past is merely the past.
There's no value in overcoming it or catching up to it.
A woman like you shouldn't be bound by such stupid emotions.
Just be happy with the man you have.
Farewell.
You fell in love with him?
What was that?
Araragi-kun, did you just attempt
to confirm the virginity of the girl you're dating?
Of course not.
That would never happen.
He's simply mistaken.
What an insult.
Disgusting...
But at that time,
anyone who attempted to save me would have seemed a prince,
no matter what kind of person they were.
I won't deny that I did feel somewhat positively toward that con man.
He was still the first...
I've discussed this before, so I won't dwell on it.
If anyone other than you had saved me,
it's possible I would've fallen in love with them, too.
When I think about that, it infuriates me.
I'm so glad you were the one who did...
Oshino would say that you just got saved by yourself.
Possibly.
Let's go home.
It's getting late.
Oh, right, Senjougahara...
Before we leave, tell me that request you had.
What are you going to make me do?
Nothing special.
I didn't need that con man to tell me.
It's possible that my past isn't worth settling things with.
But I just did.
That's what I think.
Settled, huh?
Compliment me.
That's your request?
No.
A compliment from someone like you means
absolutely nothing to me.
But you seem to have forgotten to fulfill your obvious duty.
I simply reminded you.
Really, are you made of iron or something?
Iron?
Of course not.
I am a soft, cute girl.
After everything that scum said to me, I am terribly hurt.
I can barely stand...
Liar.
Are you a con artist, too?
It's true.
So...
Be gentle to me tonight.
Black Scene
The next day,
without even waiting for the three days Kaiki had stated,
Karen had recovered.
After that, I gave a general explanation to Karen and Tsukihi.
That Kaiki was gone from the city.
And thus, there would be no more victims.
Nii-chan, we'll be gone for a bit.
Onii-chan, we'll be gone for a while.
Where are you two yuri sisters going?
Even with the con man gone,
that doesn't mean the charms will just disappear.
And the damage they did
to people's relationships won't heal itself.
The fact that there are no more victims
doesn't help the victims already there.
So we want to start cleaning up the mess.
Don't let your game get out of hand.
It's not a game, Nii-chan!
We're not good guys.
We're goodness itself, Onii-chan.
Bye!
My prides.
My little sisters I'm so proud of.
Fakes...
But because of that, closer than anything to the real thing.
The Fire Sisters ran out of the house
like a lit firecracker.