Monogatari Series - Volume 31 - Chapter 19

Yotsugi Future

"Momo by Michael Ende."

"Don't push yourself Ononoki-chan!"

"Shouted some devilish looking boy whose name I don’t even know with all his might."

"What do you mean you don’t know my name. I'm Araragi Koyomi. You totally know me. And don't say stuff like 'said so and so', I thought you wanted to leave that past behind you."

"Come on, we've already got a lot of these short short stories so I have to try to change up the style a bit. Change is important you know."

"You're an oddity and you're saying that?"

"Shinobu and Mayoi already broke the rule that oddities can't be the narrator so at least I want to follow it."

"Why get serious about the rules only there? You should show right here, now, the rule that there are more exceptions to the rules. Also don't call Shinobu and Hachikuji just 'Shinobu' and 'Mayoi'."

"Ah, who cares about all that. On that note, let me hear about it until the conclusion, that famous piece of children’s literature.”

“I told you not to push yourself, you're not up for it seriously, it's too much for me to talk to you about Momo. Remember, wasn't Momo one of those? One of the two most famous books that a lot of kids read when they're little, but they get traumatized from it because they can't understand what it’s about."

"That's not a very nice way to put it. By the way, what was the other one?"

"The Little Prince."

"I see. I get the feeling that's more of your own experiences than an actual statistic, Devilish Big Brother."

"It's not just Momo and The Little Prince, a lot of kids have people tell them to read famous books that are too sensitive or mature for them when they're little, and they feel frustrated because they think they 'have bad taste' and stop reading books while they're still young."

"I guess that just means that books each have a right age to read them at."

"Yeah. People like Hanekawa are the exception I guess, but honestly I'm not confident that I'm even at the right age to read Momo or The Little Prince yet."

"Unlike me."

"It’s just like you. Ononoki-chan, whether you can even read is something I find doubtful.”

"And that doubt would be spot-on."

"You can't read?"

"That's how my character is supposed to be now."

"Your character changes too much! At least get that straight. You've got way too much freedom as a character."

"It's fine, I got my sister to read it to me so I know what it's about. Sometimes you get a better understanding of a story from listening to it instead of reading it."

"What are you getting Kagenui-san to do for you? That person, isn't she your master? ... But maybe if one gets to her level, they’d understand Momo."

“Devilish Big Brother, don't try to be so modest, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too hard for you to read now. Couldn’t you actually have fun reading it?"

“Well you can say that because you've already read it... But it's not like I've never read it, I read it and I gave up... I'm a bit hesitant about trying it a second time."

"Just remember that the main character Momo is a little girl whose age is off limits and I'm sure you'll enjoy it, Devilish Big Brother."

"Listen now, never tell me that 'I'm sure you enjoy it if you just think of her as a little girl' again. Even if I don't get the book, I'm not so low that I would look at a great piece of literature like that."

"That doesn't sound like something someone who got all worked up by Marilla reading Anne of Green Gables would say."

"How did you know that!"

"Still I guess you have a point, Devilish Big Brother. It might not be the case for Momo but children in children's literature are all really children from an adult's point of view, the same way how the adults that children talk about are all adults from a child's point of view. Maybe the reason children have trouble reading Momo or The Little Prince is because they know that they aren't Momo or the Little Prince."

"That might be the case... yeah. But what was Momo about again? I at least remember something about a mystery that comes up. What else was there, time thieves or something?"

"The Men in Grey from the Timesavings Bank. I would say that having read it, as a dead body who time is meaningless for, I can empathize more with the Men in Grey than the people getting their time stolen."

"Don't say 'having read it', Kagenui-san was the person who read it."

"In it, there was a line like this: 'If people knew what death was, they would stop being afraid of it.' If you really think about what time is, ultimately it's just slowly going towards death. That's why everyone values time so much. But if you ask me, as someone who's already dead, it all seems so stupid. Devilish Big Devil, what about you?"

"Don't call me a devil twice, how much of a devil do you think I am? Either 'Devilish Big Brother' or 'Big Devil', pick one. Actually don't call me either of those."

"You want me to just call you 'Big Brother'? You pervert..."

"I never said that. So you're saying that all the future holds is death? That seems a bit too pessimistic for me, though I am following you so far. I know Momo was by no means a very cheerful book, but it wasn't that dark, was it?"

"That's right, but it's not about treasuring your time either. I was actually expecting the book to be about that when I heard the phrase 'Time Thief', but it turned out to almost encourage you to waste your time. When you think of it like that, instead of a children’s book, I figured it was more like a book written by an adult for adults who had their time stolen from them. So, it makes sense why adults would recommend it to children. They're telling them to read this book and not make the same mistakes."

"I don't really agree with recommending a book for that kind of a reason... Don't you think that reading is more about empathizing with the characters than learning some lesson?"

"I wonder. You sound sort of like Big Brother Kaiki when you start talking about lessons. That’s just what I think. When you read or see or hear a story and you feel moved by it, when you feel excited by it, that means that it's a story that you wouldn't normally experience, a story that you wouldn't find near you. The more you're moved by a story, the more you realize that it's not something that could exist in the real world. When you think of it that way, reading books is something to think about, huh. They are a waste of time."

"Don't mess with me. Don’t read Momo and take that kind of feeling away from it.”

"But that waste of time is exactly what makes it seem beautiful."

"Don't think that just by saying 'but' you managed to change your image at all."

"By the way, I don't have a cool line or a cool pose anymore, so how should I finish up this story?"

"You never had a cool pose in the first place."

"Ononoki Yotsugi here, a stoic who never smiles no matter what good things happen."

"And I'm Araragi Koyomi... wait, don't end it like we're commentators or something!"