Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 2.02

002

As you may have guessed, society has transitioned into the period known as summer vacation, but as someone who had been a truant and a shut-in for quite some time, it had nothing to do with me. Remarkably, I had already forgotten what it felt like to attend middle school—but this meant I probably wouldn’t be able to draw a school romantic comedy manga in the future.

How troubling.

But that was assuming that my dream of becoming a mangaka in the future would be fulfilled—but what was troubling me currently was that the road to achieving my extravagant goals had become closed off for construction. Otherwise known as a “slump”.

My, my.

Simply put, it had been decided that I would be kicked out of my home that I grew up in as soon as I graduated from middle school (on paper), and the “reality” that I was facing in real time was, of all things, house-hunting.

My parents had told me that if I didn’t want to go on to high school, I should go to work after graduation and earn my own money to support myself, and somehow I was able to find a way to do just that (refer to Nademonogatari)—but after realizing that I had established my own financial plan, my parents came up with a new condition, one that I’d never heard before, that of course I needed to start living on my own after graduation.

As a bonus, I needed to find my own co-signer—seriously, that’s not a condition you give to a fifteen-year-old girl, right?

It was way too big of an about-face.

It was true that I was an aspiring mangaka, a shut-in, and somewhat of a deadbeat, but it wasn’t like I was lounging around my parents’ house day in and day out without working until I was over forty years old.

Their way of disciplining me was just too strange.

Or rather, even if telling me to work after graduation was fine, I could have sworn it was illegal, both under civil and criminal law, to tell a fifteen-year-old child to “leave the house after graduation”.

“That’s why I think they’re just waiting for you to come crying to them after making those unreasonable demands. They must be pretty eager.”

That was Ononoki-chan’s analysis.

For some reason, she had recently become a character that wore a maxi dress and sported an eyepatch, but her words weren’t wrong.

“I get the feeling that even if you meet all their demands, they’ll just keep finding more things to complain about. They’re probably just waiting for you to give up and start attending middle school, and then move on to high school.”

“That’s pretty harsh… The backlash from being pampered is intense.”

Putting aside the legality of things—as their only daughter, I suppose I had to recognize their efforts to make up for how much they’d been spoiling me all this time… If I were a parent and my child were to say that they wanted to abandon their education to pursue a career in art, I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t try to do something about it.

“Although I feel like you halfheartedly understanding your parents like that just lets them take advantage of you. You should just beat them up.”

“That’s domestic violence! That would be fatal!”

“You should learn a little from Araragi Tsukihi’s selfishness.”

Speaking of which, it seemed that Ononoki-chan was kicked out of the Araragi household for some reason—and she’d come directly to my place.

It made me happy, but maybe I was getting too attached to her.

“Tsukihi-chan’s an exception. When she was in elementary school and the teacher set the usual frightening conditions of ‘Okay, now split off into pairs,’ Tsukihi-chan objected, saying, ‘I work better on my own.’”

“That phoenix sure has plenty of dark episodes, doesn’t she.”

Incidentally, Ononoki-chan was (for now) visiting my house as a model for rough sketches, so she was currently posing at this very moment… As part of the series of masterpieces, her pose was of the “Grande Odalisque”.

The way the twist of her spine peeked out from her dress that exposed her back—it was exactly the same!

“So, what are you going to do? Wave the white flag? I can refer you to a ‘job’, but this isn’t a problem that money alone can solve.”

“Of course not. I won’t give up. I’ve heard that there are share houses for people aspiring to be mangaka, too.”

“How would a shut-in with stranger anxiety like you manage to live in a share house?”

“There’s also the option of wandering around different manga cafes every night.”

“You’d be lucky if you only ended up being told off by the police. Don’t forget. Your cuteness can cause crimes.”

I used to hate being called cute in the past… And I still hated it even now, but for some reason, I was okay with it when Ononoki-chan called me cute… It was probably because she was expressionless and monotone.

The other reason was that I could tell she seemed to be seriously worried about me… It was pretty thoughtless to speak as if the victim was the cause of the crime, but it was true that there was no need to step out into obvious danger.

It would turn into a sting operation.

“I’ve thought of the worst-case scenario… If I don’t manage to find a place to go by the time I graduate, then…”

“Then?”

“I’ll go crying to Tsukihi-chan and freeload off of the Araragi family. Apparently, Sodachi onee-chan did that in the past.”

“That’s even worse than the worst. Using the Araragi household as a shelter is not just an obvious danger, but a pitch-black one.”

Ononoki-chan stood up. She stopped posing and took a daunting stance on top of the table… A daunting stance in that dress was pretty cool.

I wanted to make a drawing out of this, too.

“If you’re choosing to owe a debt to Araragi Tsukihi, then I can only assume you have a desire to fall into ruin. Plus, I’m sure you don’t want to see oni onii-chan’s face again, right, Nadekou?”

She was more worried for me than my parents were.

What a good girl.

Although it was a bit twisted.

“Ah, um, yeah. But, well, it’s probably fine now, kinda like there’s no point in worrying about it so much. It’ll work out somehow. If we run into each other, then we run into each other. I’ll get over it.”

“How easygoing you are. You really are a girl.”

But I like that transparently pretentious side of you—said Ononoki-chan.

“However, even if I did leave the Araragi household, I’m still technically a friend of oni onii-chan. If you end up freeloading at their place just as I leave, then when I think about how uncomfortable it will feel for that specialist of child abuse, it warms my heart… I mean, it pains my heart.”

“Specialist of child abuse?”

Is that what they were calling him these days?

It seemed he was as active as ever.

“Okay. For now, let’s set aside the meddlesome expectations of your parents. I’ll do something about your housing problem. If you buy some time by clearing their conditions, I’m sure you’ll be able to think up some countermeasures for your eventual parent-child confrontation.”

“You really do spare no effort for me, don’t you, Ononoki-chan?”

For whatever reason, she really was devoted to me.

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not doing this for you. If you really do end up moving into the Araragi household, then because of my restraining order, I wouldn’t be able to come over and play with you. That’s why I’m so devoted to this.”

“Even the tsun of your tsundere is dere.”

She was just deredere.

“Of course, I’m not going to make it easy for you. I won’t make the same mistakes your parents did. I’ll have you do some work for me, Nadekou—and if you can get both money and a place to live, it’ll be killing two birds with one stone.”

“Will I be able to use it as research for manga?”

“That’s up to you. Now, get ready to go out, you shut-in.”