Monogatari Series - Volume 5 - Chapter 6.22

022

The epilogue, or maybe, the punch line of this story.

The next day, in a reversal of our usual roles, I was the one to rouse my two sisters, Karen and Tsukihi. They were both on the top bunk, naked, holding each other in their slumber. The idea that the warmth of skin-to-skin contact could help cure a cold was, itself, a kind of urban legend, but as the one waking them, I must say it was a shocking sight.

You guys are way too close.

But─an aberration for an aberration, an urban legend for an urban legend, and, to borrow from Shinobu, a charm for a charm─indeed, just as Kaiki had said, we didn’t have to wait three days. Karen was already back to her old self that morning.

If anything, she was too energetic.

I guess for Karen, the picture of a healthy kid, being under the weather must have been pretty stressful.

“Hai-ya!” she shouted senselessly in kung fu mode.

Seriously, though, what kind of dojo was this? I needed to check it out sometime.

By the way, Tsukihi was more than a little cross at Karen for sneaking out despite being ill (not for the sneaking out, but for not telling). How they managed to make up and wind up sleeping lezzie sisters-style remained a mystery.

Well, it must have been a right and fine fight, too.

After breakfast, my parents left for work, so I called Karen and Tsukihi to my room to give them a quick rundown of yesterday’s events.

Kaiki was no longer in town.

As a result, there would be no more victims.

Those two points.

As for the aberration itself, I thought long and hard about it but decided that for now, at least, I should leave it out. Karen’s condition could be explained well enough in terms of the placebo effect and instantaneous hypnosis, and for the moment, telling them about Shinobu just seemed reckless. It may have been indirect, but Karen had given Shinobu a major beating. I didn’t think now was the right time to introduce them.

But I had a weird hunch that I’d be doing so before too long.

Keeping a secret from my sisters─was probably beyond me.

Monday, July thirty-first─it was an odd-numbered day, so my tutor was Hanekawa. I was curious as to how she’d make up for Saturday’s cancellation─but it also scared me.

As I prepared to head to the library and reminded myself that I needed to get my bike back from Hanekawa today, Karen and Tsukihi slipped past me.

“Koyomi, I’m heading out for a little bit.”

“Koyomi, I’m heading out for a lot of bits.”

Karen was dressed in her school jersey, and Tsukihi was dressed in her school uniform.

“Where to, lezzie sisters?”

“Just because the conman is gone doesn’t mean all the charms are suddenly gone, yeah? Or that all the relationships he ruined are gonna suddenly recover? There won’t be any more victims, but it’s not like all the kids who fell victim have been saved, am I right?”

It was Karen who said this as she slipped on her shoes.

Tsukihi was already standing outside the door.

“I suppose,” I admitted. “He did say that with his phone smashed, he couldn’t help─not that he was ever going to.”

“Exactly. Which is why it’s up to us to take care of the aftermath,” Tsukihi stated with a crisp smile. Her words didn’t betray the slightest doubt.

“Don’t get carried away playing at defenders of justice,” I warned like always.

“We’re not playing at it, we are the defenders of justice.”

“We’re not defenders of justice, we are justice itself.”

See ya─they left with parting words that didn’t remotely hint at having learned anything the hard way, my little sisters─

My pride and joy─

Quite possibly closer to the real deal than anything, thanks to their fakeness.

Like fireworks lit by a spark, the Fire Sisters made their sortie.