Monogatari Series - Volume 27 - Chapter 1.22

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“Of course, the law isn’t all-powerful.

“It’s full of holes, and loopholes.

“Riddled with holes.

“I’ve already mentioned how, depending on the person interpreting, it can be interpreted however they want, but before that, since the law wasn’t unchangeable, it wasn’t absolute.

“If anything, a constitutional government was worse than a lawless zone.

“There existed all sorts of situations where you had no choice but to comply with rules that you wanted to avoid looking at, and just because they existed, that didn’t mean you approved.

“Being forced to give an insincere apology definitely had to be humiliating—however, even without holding any feelings of gratitude towards life or ingredients, you might readily say ‘Thanks for the food’ upon sitting at the table, without resistance and with no intention of lying, because that’s how it’s been passed down in tradition.

“And ‘it was delicious’ is just etiquette, I suppose.

“Even if you’re not grateful, you’ll say ‘thank you’, and even if you don’t feel bad, you’ll say ‘sorry’.

“It might even make you feel as though you’re doing something good—if you’re aware that you’re following the rules or doing the right thing, is that uplifting?

“Instead of apologizing because you did something bad.

“You apologize because it’s the right thing to do.

“Apologizing is the right thing to do, so I am in the right.

“If anything, thanks for letting me apologize.

“It’s an extremely positive form of self-esteem—denying or criticizing yourself might feel good, but the sense of justice you get from thinking that you’re in the right, that you’re not in the wrong, that it’s not your fault… That can lead to feeling all-powerful.

“The law may not be all-powerful, but it makes us feel all-powerful.

“You may be lowering your head, but inside, you’re puffed up with pride—pride that you have complied with rules of righteousness.

“Even if you apologize, it won’t hurt your pride.

“If you think that way, then it becomes easy to apologize, doesn’t it? If apologizing is more beneficial, then you want to apologize constantly, right?—you wouldn’t be able to go without apologizing.

“You might even start to intentionally make mistakes in order to apologize for them—intentional mistakes. That sounds almost like Munchausen’s syndrome, but getting drunk on justice is dangerous, isn’t it?

“For you, who has the girls that were once the Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School Fire Sisters as your little sisters, I’m sure that's something you feel constantly—you should be well aware of the dangers of advocating for justice.

“However, there are people that are unable to apologize without borrowing the power of the dangerous monster of law.

“If you were to say that those people are the real monsters, then I have no words to refute that with—in the same way you have no words to say to me.

“In the same way you have no magic to cast upon me.”