Monogatari Series - Volume 11 - Chapter 1.15

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As i wake up the next morning, i find Tsukihi sleeping next to Nadeko.

“………”

While i don’t scream, that isn’t to say that i’m not surprised.

i’m so surprised that i can’t make a noise.

i’m super surprised.

You could say that i let out an ultrasonic scream.

i thought Nadeko’s throat and lungs might give out.

It seems like wanting to sleep next to Nadeko is something that runs in the Araragi family… Tsukihi is sound asleep and holding onto Nadeko like a hug pillow.

Nadeko can’t move.

Nadeko’s going to repeat herself here because some explanation might be needed. Tsukihi is scary. It’s common knowledge in the middle school community just how brutal she is.

How she can get so out of control that people even compare her to a nuclear weapon.

Who else can claim to know just how frightening it is to wake up and find yourself in the arms of a nuclear weapon? But i guess the image of being in the arms of a nuclear weapon is kind of a “sirreal” one.

i don’t like being touched by people, it makes Nadeko feel icky no matter who it is, even if it’s her parents. But there’s nothing i can do when i’m being restrained like this, especially when it’s Tsukihi doing the restraining.

All i can do is turn ashen.

“Mmh…”

Then, as i’m doing all of this─in other words, nothing─Tsukihi wakes up with Nadeko in her arms.

“Wh-Whoa! Nadeko!”

“…”

“You scared me there!”

Tsukihi leaps out of bed.

She tries to get away from Nadeko and rolls off the bed in the process. She’s overreacting… She really is different from Nadeko, isn’t she?

Are we really the same age? Are we really both girls?

“Wh-Why are you in my big brother’s bed, Nadeko?! I thought I had my arms wrapped around him, not you!”

“…”

She’s made an extremely awkward statement.

It seems that around dawn, Tsukihi sleepily rolled into Big Brother Koyomi’s bed─he’s always being woken up by Tsukihi and Karen, but…i guess that wasn’t all there was to it?

i guess there was more to it?

Anyway, i look around the room.

Hm. Karen doesn’t seem to be here…

“Good morning, Tsukihi,” i say.

i ought to, it’s morning.

“Y-Yeah… Good morning, Nadeko.”

By the way, while Tsukihi and i used to call each other “Sen” and “Rara” when we were in elementary school, that started to feel a little too juvenile and lately we call each other by our given names.

N-No.

This isn’t the time to be providing that sort of commentary.

Rising, Tsukihi straightens out the hemline of her yukata, which got ruffled when she tumbled out of bed, and stands. Her yukata matches Nadeko’s, and it feels somehow weird.

Of course, the same must go for Tsukihi, or rather, seeing one of her yukatas worn by Nadeko without permission (timewise, i doubt Koyomi explained the situation)─

“?”

She looks puzzled.

Her expression says she’s wondering if she’s still half asleep or in a dream.

Koyomi mentioned this too, but Tsukihi’s notable for her droopy eyes. She looks very sleepy, though she probably isn’t.

“Uh. Um… Th-This isn’t…what you think,” Nadeko tries to excuse herself incoherently.

Her biggest fear right now is Tsukihi misunderstanding and thinking, Nadeko borrowed one of Tsukihi’s yukatas without asking and just went ahead and slept in Koyomi’s bed.

Tsukihi has the strongest possible tendencies towards having a thing for her brother (sorry), and if someone like her got that misunderstanding, i could even end up on the bad side of every middle schooler in the neighborhood.

That would be scarier than getting possessed by any aberration.

“Er, um… Tsukihi, Big Brother Koyomi told─”

“Nadeko! Did you disguise yourself as me and assault my big brother?!”

“…”

Her misunderstanding easily exceeds what Nadeko “antissipated.”

Seriously, what a scary little sister…

No, what scary siblings.

She is her big brother’s little sister.

“Now, that’s bold!”

She seems happy for some reason and gives Nadeko a thumbs up─while there may have been some amount of misunderstanding, the situation seems to be acceptable.

i can never get a read on Tsukihi…

i can’t even guess what might affect her mood.

“Wh…What about Karen?” i ask hesitantly.

The Fire Sisters are advertised as always acting as a pair, so just because one of them isn’t here, Nadeko can’t afford to relax.

Nothing extreme should happen as long as Tsukihi, the brains of the operation, has given her blessing, but i still want to be careful.

If things go poorly, Nadeko is going to get kicked with no room for excuses.

“Hmm, I dunno… I think she might be jogging…”

Oh?

A vague answer, somehow─are the Fire Sisters not as joined at the hip as i’ve heard?

Or did something happen recently, something that changed the Fire Sisters’ dynamic─even if it wasn’t a fight or a rift?

“Anyway, Nadeko. Great to see you again,” Tsukihi greets Nadeko after all that─however late, though, manners are manners.

She’s staying polite regardless of how close we are, having just shared a bed. While the two of us might have been classmates in the past, we’re in different schools now. Nadeko and Tsukihi aren’t really that close, and a proper greeting is a must.

“N-Nice to see you again,” i say. Nadeko holds her head low─but part of the reason is that i’m embarrassed to have my face seen right after waking up.

“Yep.”

Tsukihi grins.

Speaking of being late to it, i notice now that Tsukihi’s hairstyle changed while we didn’t see each other in a while─well, she changes hairstyles the way you change outfits, so i really am being late to it.

Nadeko isn’t fashionable, so i don’t know what the hairstyle is called, but it feels all jaggy everywhere.

It’s perfectly between stylish and avant-garde… i could never manage such a hairstyle, which must attract a lot of attention.

Actually, all Nadeko does with her hair is grow out her bangs. The rest she trims herself without much thought.

i’ve never been to a salon or anything. i don’t like it when people touch Nadeko’s hair or her scalp… Apart from that, having to socialize with the hairdresser throughout would be too much for Nadeko.

Of course, never having been to one, her image of the socializing you do at a salon is all the product of her imagination.

“Oh, I get it,” Tsukihi says. “My brain’s finally starting to work. So Koyomi found you and brought you here. Which means he let you have his bed and is sleeping on the first floor. Aw, what a gentleman.”

Wow. No wonder she’s the brains of the Fire Sisters.

Her shot made it onto the green.

Aside from the part about him being a gentleman, she was basically right.

“S-Sorry, Tsukihi…for the trouble. For making you lie for Nadeko. That must have been annoying, right? Getting a call from Nadeko’s Mom and Dad in the middle of the night…”

“Hahaha, it wasn’t that late. And I was listening to the radio, anyway. Plus, I’m used to coming up with alibis for my friends. Don’t worry about it.”

“…”

It’s not very proper of her, but it’s her impropriety that saved Nadeko, so there’s nothing i can say to it.

Still, as far as Nadeko’s parents go, they were fools to have believed her.

“I told Koyomi you’d be fine on your own since you’re not a kid anymore, but I guess he went to look for you anyway─and while I think he worries too much and is overprotective, what’s amazing about him is that he did figure out where you were.”

“Y-Yeah… Big Brother Koyomi is amazing,” i nod.

But Tsukihi’s words stick with me─no, it’s not the words themselves, but they make Nadeko think about what happened last night…

Worries too much. Overprotective.

A meddler.

Big Brother Koyomi.

Knowing that he thinks about Nadeko that way, though…

“Hmm? What’s the matter, Nadeko? Not feeling well? Keeping your head bowed like that. I can’t get a look at your cute face.”

“P-Please.”

Don’t say that, Nadeko begs, lowering her head even more.

Last night, i couldn’t even manage that weak of a reply.

“Don’t say that… i’m not cute.”

“Hmm?” Tsukihi tilts her head further.

“N-Nadeko…isn’t cute.”

“Whaaat? What the heck? You’re cute, Nadeko, you really are. You’re so cute, you’re super cute, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that you’re the cutest thing alive on the entire planet. You know why it’s spelled that way, right? Because everyone wants to C-U. You’re cute, cute, cute, cute, cute! I thought it as soon as we were put in the same class that April in second grade. I thought, whoa, she’s cute!”

Tsukihi attacks with a surge of cute’s as if to snuff out Nadeko’s already faint objection. i don’t just want to shrink, Nadeko wants to cover her body in bedding and roll up into a ball. “Feeling shy” doesn’t begin to describe it.

“Yeah, second cutest after me!”

“…”

She follows up with the same remark as that vampire.

Tsukihi looks like such a sleepy girl, but she has a frighteningly strong sense of pride and so much self-respect.

Could she even be an aberration, too?

She actually might be. She does seem supernatural, in various ways.

“I mean, I knew it the moment I saw you,” she continues. “‘Oh, I need to be friends with this girl! It’d be a huge loss if I can’t become friends with her!’”

“Th-Then…” i say. Something that i shouldn’t. “I-If Nadeko wasn’t cute…we wouldn’t have become friends…maybe?”

“Hm?”

Nadeko asked her question with her eyes still cast down, but i don’t have to see Tsukihi to know that she’s openly doubtful.

“Doubtful” makes it sound better than it is.

Despite the girlish “Hm?” she replies with, it’s so much like the “Hmmmm?” that Mister Serpent likes to tack on to mean, What is this dumbass even talking about?

This is the scary Tsukihi.

A dalinquent is a pushover compared to her.

“Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“i-i’m sorry… I-It’s nothing.”

“No, I didn’t ask for an apology. I didn’t ask if it was something or nothing. I asked you what it’s supposed to mean. Think you could tell me, Nadeko?”

“…”

i’m scared. Why is this happening to Nadeko first thing in the morning?

“What, did you not hear me? Are you not listening? Or is it that you can’t answer my question or don’t want to?”

“i…i’m sorry.”

“Like I told you, I didn’t ask for an apology. What, am I phrasing it wrong? Is it my fault? Or are you apologizing because you feel guilty about something? Did you do something to me that’s making you feel bad? Are you thinking something that’s making you feel bad?”

“N-N…”

i’m scared i’m scared i’m scared.

It’s so not how a middle school girl picks fights.

i mean, Tsukihi has her fists clenched.

The angle of Nadeko’s downturned eyes means that i have a clear view of Tsukihi’s knees, instead of her face, which i’m avoiding, and on top of them she’s balling up her fists tighter and tighter.

Moreover, she’s not doing it out of anger. She has her thumbs on the outside like you would in martial arts. Tsukihi’s making a powerful statement: I might punch you depending on how you answer.

And also: If you don’t answer, I’m going to punch you all the same…

i’m scared.

Though i am, i also think something else, which is, Wow─it’s hardly the time, but i can’t help it.

Wow. Really, wow.

How is she popular with such a personality?

There must be lots of good things about Tsukihi that more than make up for it─that’s what i think.

Yes.

Meaning, of course─it’s not just her cuteness.

“All right. I’m punching you. In the stomach.”

“Wait! i’ll tell you, i’ll tell you, i’ll tell you!” Seeing Tsukihi pop up without any hesitation in her movement or indecision on her face, her anger boiling over all too easily, Nadeko holds her own hands up toward the ceiling and submits loudly and fluidly like you’d never expect of her under normal circumstances. “Y-You see, Nadeko was told that by someone. This person said to her, ‘Aren’t you glad you happen to be cute.’”

In fact, it was a vampire, not a person, but i’m not going to be that honest─it’ll just sound like a lie even though i’m telling the truth.

Nadeko would get punched. In the stomach. The fact that it’s not her face proves Tsukihi’s not bluffing.

“‘Aren’t you glad you happen to be cute’?”

“Y-Yes… R-Right. Y-You did a good impression. Perfect.”

“Um, I wasn’t trying to do an impression…”

Still, the praise doesn’t seem to offend Tsukihi, and she looks a little bashful as she sits back down.

So praising her works. How easy…

Actually, i fudged the diction, so it wasn’t even possible to do an impression.

Aren’t ye glad ye happen to be cute.

Those are the precise words Miss Shinobu spat out─with a faint smile on her face.

“B-But…it, this, wasn’t Nadeko’s first time… People have been telling her for a long time. Th-That all i am is cute… i’m all looks… Things like that.”

All you are is cute.

It was─a friend who said so.

A girl i thought was Nadeko’s friend.

Who i thought was Nadeko’s best friend─

The girl who put the “charm” on Nadeko.

“That ‘it’s not fair, when you never do anything’─”

“Huh… But in the end, isn’t that just jealousy?” asks Tsukihi. “Try rephrasing it, and you’ll see what a weird thing it is to say. Like, ‘Aren’t you glad you happen to be smart,’ or ‘Aren’t you glad you happen to be fast,’ or ‘Aren’t you glad you happen to be rich’─once you put it that way, there’s nothing in the world that doesn’t just happen to be the case.”

“Yeah. That’s true, but─”

“What about me? I ‘just happen’ to be my big brother’s little sister.”

“…”

So the first thing Tsukihi comes up with for her strong points is having Koyomi as a big brother?

How terrifying. Just how does she see herself?

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t think you’d run away from home or anything when you were taking that walk last night, but actually, did you? Because someone said that to you?”

“N-No…”

She has the order backwards.

But it’s true that Miss Shinobu saying those words to Nadeko was such a big shock that it made her want to run away─not the words themselves, but something like the hostility in them.

A hostility meant to hurt Nadeko.

It was a shock.

“Nadeko. The question of whether or not I’d have become your friend if you weren’t cute doesn’t have anything to do with reality, and I think it’s meaningless. In fact, I think there’s all kinds of issues that come up the moment you ask that question, so I’m not answering it.”

“…”

“But if you still want me to answer it, I’d have to tell you that I wouldn’t have become your friend. Well, is that what you want me to say? Are you satisfied, does it make you happy? Is that what you’re trying to get me to say? Do you win if I do?”

“N-No…”

“No? Then do you hate yourself for being cute?”

“Th-That’s not it… But when they make it sound like that’s all Nadeko is…”

i don’t like it, i say.

i said it quietly, so Tsukihi might not have heard Nadeko.

Which is why i continue. Like it’s an afterthought.

“i-i want Nadeko’s worth…to be more in a place that isn’t visible.”

“Your worth?”

“B-Being smart, or athletic…or having a great personality. Something with more…value, even if it just happens to be the case… Oh, um, yeah, something more like a talent…”

“I don’t think that’s any different.” Tsukihi shrugs, like she’s gone beyond anger and has just given up. “And people with something more like a talent might feel the same way. They’d probably feel hurt if they were dismissed for not being cute. That’s no reason to reject who you are.”

“B-But Nadeko…isn’t cute because she wants to be cute.”

So.

i’m lucky because i’m cute, it’s not fair, it’s cheating─i hate it when people say those kinds of things.

No, i don’t hate it.

It’s─tiresome.

It makes Nadeko tired, both physically and mentally.

“Being treated special just because i’m cute…”

“Makes you feel guilty,” Tsukihi finishes Nadeko’s line.

She’s sharp─but doesn’t need to be in this case.

Anyone could figure it out. As long as you aren’t Nadeko.

“Is that why you grow out your bangs to hide your face?”

“…”

“I thought it was because you’re shy and don’t like making eye contact…but Nadeko. While you can hide your face, you can’t hide the way you act, okay? You can’t hide your voice. I mean, everything that makes its way out of you is cute, Nadeko.”

“…”

“Then again, wanting what you don’t have is human─Karen worries about how she’s too tall, and I have times when I think, If only I wasn’t Koyomi’s little sister.”

Her strength and her weakness is the same thing, and that thing is Big Brother Koyomi?

Seriously, how awkward.

Could you please not be so frank?

What would have happened to Tsukihi if she weren’t Koyomi’s little sister?

“I see. So that’s why you grew out your bangs,” Tsukihi says, as if to make sure. “And that’s why you normally never dress up and always wear lame-looking clothes.”

“…”

Uh-uh.

Nadeko’s clothes aren’t─

“That’s why you have a tacky scrunchy on.”

“…”

“That’s why you do all of it─fine. In that case, let me give you one piece of advice that takes all of that into account.”

“A-Advice?”

“Yep. Listen carefully. Umm…” Tsukihi nods before continuing. With a broad smile on her face. “I understand what you’re saying, but still, you, just-cute Nadeko, didn’t do anything wrong, stupid.”

“…nkk!”

As decisive as could be.

It’s such an awful remark that i can’t even react with shock.

i know there’s no room for it, but i feel like i heard her wrong.

Actually, i’m impressed by her all over again. Talking to a depressed Nadeko, Tsukihi hasn’t said a single kind or comforting word yet.

Wow. She really, truly is amazing.

Meanwhile, despite everything, in the end i want to hear a kind or comforting word, which makes Nadeko feel so ashamed.

“If you hate it when people favor and praise you just because you’re cute, then just work on improving other parts of yourself. Give it some effort, try your best. Why try to cancel out your cuteness instead? You’ve got it totally backwards, I don’t get it.”

“G-Give it some effort, try your best?”

“Yeah. That’s what everyone does.”

“…”

There’s nothing i can say to that when she slips it in so casually.

Well, i know she’s right, but…

i know she’s very, very right, but.

“B-But, Tsukihi.”

“What?”

“G-Giving it some effort, trying your best…is…tiring.”

“…”

Tsukihi is silent for a moment, then says, “Nadeko, that’s so you. It’s that laziness of yours…or maybe lethargy, that I like about you.”

“…”

“But I wonder. I don’t really know, how does it feel when someone seconds your faults like that?”

“Huh?”

Tsukihi’s words make Nadeko snap out of it.

Second your faults?

“Like, ‘You’re sloppy but I like that about you!’ Or ‘I love how you’re so foulmouthed,’ or ‘I like how there’s always a shadow about you!’ or ‘I like how you’re so clumsy!’ I wonder what it feels like to be told that kind of thing. Does it feel bad, or does it make you feel better, which is it?”

“…”

“Who even said that to you, anyway?”

“Wh-Who…”

Tsukihi just went to her next question without waiting for Nadeko’s answer to the first one.

“i, um, can’t really tell you…”

“Was it Koyomi by any chance?”

“N-No… Big Brother wouldn’t,” i deny firmly before any false doubts get cast on him. Then again, it was a vampire mentally linked to him, Miss Shinobu Oshino, who said it to Nadeko, so maybe i don’t sound too firm.

It’s not like that’s why, but i stick on something like a footnote.

“B-Big Brother Koyomi is kind…”

“Yeah. I know he’s kind. I know that better than you. But it’s exactly why he sometimes says things you don’t want him to.”

Things he shoudn’t, you see. No, maybe things that─he doesn’t need to, Tsukihi adds.

“…”

“Wait, so you have a crush on him, don’t you?”

The ace up her sleeve comes from nowhere.

And she’s laid her hand right on the table.

It feels like the game changed right as i thought we were playing poker.

No, her straight question is making Nadeko want to flush, so maybe it’s still poker. Right, Tsukihi doubled down.

“Wh-What might you possibly mean by that?”

i’m so shaken that i speak in a stilted way. i sound like the culprit in a classic detective novel.

Then again, that’s pretty much the position i’m in…

“Wh-Where is your evidence…”

“Hey, you don’t need to hide it. Everyone can tell, anyway. It’s so obvious. The only person too dim to notice is probably Koyomi.”

“…”

“I thought you might be happy you got to sleep in Koyomi’s bed last night─”

Tsukihi says this.

No way.

Nadeko isn’t such a shameful girl and didn’t take off her yukata and sleep naked in his bed for just a second─i want to say so but can’t get the words out. i’m not panicking, but i’m a step away from it.

Well, sure, for a number of reasons, Tsukihi, if no one else, would have figured it out by now…

“─And I thought it’s because Koyomi said ‘aren’t you glad you’re cute’ or whatever that you’re feeling bothered.”

“…It wasn’t him,” i correct, but maybe Miss Shinobu’s words did cast a gloom over Nadeko’s heart.

Still.

“Still, i wonder if Big Brother worries about Nadeko the way he does, even spending the whole night looking for her, only because she’s cute…”

“Maybe, if you’ve got nothing else going for you.”

Tsukihi is ruthless.

She really doesn’t have an ounce of “ruth.”

What part of her makes her Big Brother’s little sister? Well, true, their faces do look very much alike.

“My brother has a thing for cute girls… No, no, I’m kidding, I don’t think that’s true. Because he’ll help anyone. Your cuteness doesn’t mean a thing to him.”

“…”

“That doesn’t satisfy you, either? My, you’re selfish.”

“No, that’s not it…”

i was just trying to figure out who’s right, Miss Shinobu or Tsukihi. But─it’s not like only one of them can be right, i’m sure.

Shinobu, whom he’s linked to.

Tsukihi, his little sister─each of them sees things in her own way, they each have their interpretation. Which is why Nadeko needs to have her own way of seeing Nadeko, her interpretation of herself, but─

Nadeko has nothing. No interpretation at all.

Her own feeling. Her own thinking.

i don’t even try.

“By the way, Nadeko, in that case, the flip side might be that you’re being my friend just because I’m ‘Big Brother Koyomi’s’ little sister.”

“What? Th-That’s…”

i panic.

Then i remember the rumors about that girl who supposedly became friends with Nadeko just to get closer to a boy.

Remembering─only makes Nadeko panic more.

“That’s not true… i mean, the order’s all reversed… i-i came over to your house to play because we became friends in second grade, and that’s when i met Big Brother Koyomi…”

“Hmm. But you started to hang out with me again during first semester this year because of Koyomi, right? In other words, because I’m my big brother’s little sister?”

“…”

“That kinda stuff,” Tsukihi drops her serious tone after realizing that Nadeko has gone silent. “It doesn’t feel good when someone asks you that kinda stuff, yeah? Regardless of whether it’s true or not─see, that’s what you were asking me a minute ago. You didn’t even consider how it’d make me feel.”

“i’m sorry.”

Yikes.

Again, Tsukihi isn’t looking for an apology─

“B-But it’s not like i hang out with you only because you’re Big Brother’s little sister… Though i do think you’re scary.”

“What?”

“E-Er, i meant to say you’re slary.”

“Slary…”

Nadeko has failed to talk her way out of it.

Still, i have to admit i can kind of see Tsukihi’s point now─while things did happen in a different order, second-grade Nadeko, who didn’t like dealing with people just as much then as now, came over to play at Tsukihi’s house every single time she was invited─not only because of how pushy Tsukihi was, but also because of Koyomi, no mistake.

So in that sense.

Nadeko isn’t in a position to complain or grumble.

Yes. Not even about that friend.

“I’ve always wondered about that, actually. I was waiting for my chance to ask─Nadeko. Why did you start to like my big brother so much?”

“Wh-Why?”

“No, wait, you don’t have to tell me. I’m sure there was one thing or another. A long time ago. When we were in elementary school. After all, my big brother’s cool. He’s kind. He’s dreamy. And he used to be smart.”

“…”

Such smooth praise for her own brother.

i’m a little frightened, no, not just a little.

“You don’t need a reason to like someone…and you can also take that to mean you can like someone for any reason. From being cute to being someone’s little sister, any at all. But─Nadeko. What made you keep liking him for six years straight?”

“Wha…”

“The only time he and you had any contact was back during second grade, right? When he was in sixth grade. He started to try to act cool once he got to middle school and mostly stopped playing with girls younger than him… You probably didn’t even see him for six years. So how did you manage to keep liking him?”

“…”

“To me that seems, how do I put it…way beyond simple devotion…”

In fact.

When Big Brother Koyomi saw Nadeko again after six years─he’d forgotten all about her.

That’s natural, it’s not like he’s particularly cold or has a bad memory─at least, i don’t think you can blame him.

It’s just that Nadeko remembered him, one-sidedly.

Abnormally, i remembered him.

“Th-That’s…but,” i say. Nadeko is in excuse mode. “But i heard rumors about him even after i was in third grade… Y-You know, he was the most active when he was in middle school, right?”

Just like how you and Karen started operating as the Fire Sisters once you got to middle school, Nadeko blabs on.

i’ve suddenly turned talkative, and just as you’d expect, Tsukihi doesn’t hesitate to give Nadeko a suspicious look.

“I guess,” Tsukihi nods anyway. As Big Brother’s little sister, she must know better than anyone just how active he was during middle school─how mischievous he was, you could even say. So.

As an excuse.

Nadeko’s words must have been pretty convincing.

“True, even after he got to high school…my brother was something of a celebrity. He seems to think that he’s a regular, average high schooler for some reason, though.”

“Big Brother Koyomi’s concept of a regular, average high schooler seems pretty different from most people’s…”

“Yeah… I suppose you consider yourself the norm. Insisting that you aren’t cute, for instance, even when you are.”

“…”

Sure, Nadeko misspoke earlier, or even vented her anger, but still, Tsukihi is being rather persistent.

In contrast to the laid-back Karen, Tsukihi tends not to let things go.

i wonder if she’s about ready to free Nadeko.

“Y-Yeah…so it’s not weird,” i argue. “It’s normal to keep on liking someone for just six years.”

“Just six years… That’s nearly half of a middle schooler’s life… Hmph.”

Tsukihi snorts, and then─

“I know I don’t have to make sure, but just in case.” She crawls over, approaching the bed on all fours to look up at Nadeko, whose eyes are downcast─this way, Nadeko can’t hide her expression. “When you say that you like Koyomi, you don’t mean as a kind and caring big brother or as a friend, right?”

“…”

“You mean you like him in a sexual way, right?”

“S-Sexual…”

“Oops. As a member of the opposite sex, right?”

“Y…Yeah.”

“You don’t want to be in my position or Karen’s, you want to date him or be his lover. That’s what you mean by liking him, right?”

“Y-Yeah… That is.”

“You want to snuggle and cuddle with him, right?”

“i-i do…i think.”

“You want to do this and that.”

“i do…”

i have no choice but to answer this way when she’s grilling Nadeko.

Mister Serpent, on Nadeko’s right wrist─

Doesn’t say or do a thing.

He acts like he’s not there.

i wonder what he thinks about Nadeko and Tsukihi─upon hearing this conversation between two girls in their second year of middle school.

“N-Nadeko…likes Big Brother Koyomi. i like him…as a man.”

“Okay.”

Tsukihi nods, then continues, still staring at Nadeko’s expression from below.

Given the situation, you’d think she’d follow up with something like, Then you’ve got my support! Don’t worry, I’ll be your go-between! But wait for it, what she says is almost the complete opposite.

This is Tsukihi after all.

“But you know he has a girlfriend, right?”