Monogatari Series - Volume 27 - Chapter 1.08

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“Mutual consent is required in romantic relationships beyond just the ‘exchanging of vows’—although, the fact there are so many figures that don’t recognize that as true is what troubles everybody.

“‘Figures’, again?32 Hilarious.

“It’s almost as funny as saying, ‘the esteemed populace’.33

“Victims, perpetrators.

“The masses.34

“It’s all so pretentious.35

“But a relationship can’t survive on just being funny or enjoyable—and though I mentioned mutual consent, I think it’s really interesting that you need the consent of both people when you start dating, but a breakup can occur with only a single side’s opinion.

“The reality is that vows can be unilaterally annulled.

“I suppose this is the difference between just dating and being married—people say that it’s easy to jump into a marriage without really thinking about it, but once it comes to divorce, it’s not so easy anymore.

“If one person wants to get a divorce but the other disagrees, it can become a considerable dispute—for example, the division of property or the matter of child custody—and in the worst-case scenario, the case will need to be handled by the courts.

“Judgment will be given according to the law.

“Even though no crime was committed, even though no one was in the wrong—they will still be dragged to court. It’s something unthinkable for an unmarried couple, to have to bring in an unrelated third party to arbitrate whether or not you will break up.

“Divorce by consent? More like a convoluted divorce.

“Like in shogi, one of them must resign.

“They have to end it.

“But it’s more like saying, ‘Sorry, I see no future with you,’ I suppose?

“There’s no referee—but it may be possible to run out of time.

“As a ‘person with experience’, I’d like to talk more about the breakdown of marital relations, but I’ll save it for next time—because while it’s still possible to sever the ties between a married couple, I wanted to dig deep into how difficult it is to do the same for the vertical case, the ties between parent and child.

“That also applies to the Araragi residence, that family of police officers, does it not?

“In the past, Araragi Koyomi had gotten all worked up about how he didn’t want to be considered his parents’ child, but in the end, his parents were his parents, and he was their child.

“He was not allowed to avoid celebrating Mother’s Day.

“Even for the Fire Sisters, he was their brother, and they were his sisters.

“There was no consent involved.

“The individual’s desires did not matter.

“It can’t be defied nor denied.

“Resistance is futile.

“You can choose your partner in marriage, but you can’t choose your family.

“Along those lines, it may ultimately boil down to making that childish complaint of, ‘I never asked for you to give birth to me!’—although, that was something I actually said once.

“Right.

“Naturally, I didn’t apologize for it.

“I wonder if I feel guilty about not apologizing—perhaps, after all this time, it’s fine to apologize for things that are too late to give an apology for.”