Monogatari Series - Volume 8 - Chapter 1.59

059

“Fire? What do I think of when I hear the word? Isn’t it obvious? The blazing heart that resides in my chest,” Karen replied to my question with a somewhat dashing look. The certainty in her voice made me think she’d answered it often enough.

Quicker than I could’ve imagined.

It was like she’d answered before I even asked.

“So the short version would be passion,” she said.

“Huh…”

I heard we’d be playing cards and expected poker, or blackjack, or sevens, or some other game like that, but to my surprise, Tsukihi proposed that we all build our own house of cards.

The rules were that we would share ten decks and that whoever built the highest house the quickest would win.

I’m sorry, but that’s not fun.

It was like playing with building blocks, only with most of the creativity removed.

At the very least, it didn’t seem like something to do in a group…but maybe that’s what they call a generation gap speaking.

Still, this was a designated time and place for the three of us to play cards. I couldn’t phone it in, and I’d build triangles out of cards as I asked the two questions disguised as small talk.

“In that case, what do you think of when you hear the word ‘flames’?”

“Blazing passion that’s even hotter,” Karen declared. She really was certain about this. “Justice. To put it in a word, justice.”

“Hmm. I see.” I nodded vaguely, uncertain to the point of contrast. At least, it wasn’t a definition that I could agree with given my current mental state. “So is that why the two of you call yourselves the Fire Sisters?”

“That’s right!” affirmed Karen. “The Fire Sisters, or in other words, the siblings of justice!”

“If we’re being precise about this, she’s completely wrong.”

Karen’s affirmation was blithely negated by Tsukihi, who sat next to her.

Negated with a smile.

How merciless.

“We’re called the Fire Sisters because both of us have the character for ‘fire’ in our names, that’s all. I feel bad for how plain the reason is, though. People have been calling us that since we were in elementary school. Even before we began acting in the name of justice.”

“Really?” asked Karen, tilting her head.

Her memory seemed to be cloudy.

I knew that was probably the case, but I supposed it was better than if they had named themselves the way the Valhalla Duo had.

“By the way, I personally associate words like ‘fire’ and ‘flames’ with romantic love,” Tsukihi said.

“Love.”

Indeed.

In fact, the story of Oshichi the Grocer referenced romantic love, too, though it deviated a bit from the theme─and it was also common to speak of someone’s “burning love.”

………

Then I was distracted from the thought by how incredibly fast Tsukihi was building her house of cards. She was outstanding when it came to tasks that required precision.

It seemed she possessed casually superb powers of concentration.

I had actually been playing this fire-based word association game by myself all the way back from the park─but had come up empty-handed on my own.

I’d only hit upon words that seemed to miss the mark, like “red,” or “heat,” or “civilization.”

One person only being able to devise so many patterns, a lack of imagination─it couldn’t have been because of any such generic-sounding reason that I’d come up empty-handed.

I was probably thinking in a way that intentionally avoided the word that would prove decisive.

My thoughts were proceeding in a way that avoided any hints.

So instead of continuing to deliberate further on my own, I’d transitioned to looking for an answer while playing with Karen and Tsukihi, but─

“Romantic love, huh?”

That was indeed something my mind wouldn’t have associated with “fire”─not even while I was thinking of Oshichi’s story─but as with “justice,” it wasn’t hitting home.

Somehow it felt─off the mark.

Tsukihi gave me a cute nod. “M-hm. You might not know, but the Fire Sisters don’t just act in the name of justice, you see. We also give romantic advice.”

“You do?”

That was indeed something I was hearing for the first time.

Araragi always emphasized how they were “defenders of justice,” so I’d assumed that was their main field of activity. Now that I thought about it, they were something like the faces of our local girls’ middle school (which really is an impressive feat), and it actually seemed to make more sense for that to be their focus.

“M-hm. We’ve even given our big brother advice about his love life.”

“What? Araragi?”

Had they, now.

Araragi was asking his little sisters for romantic advice…

That was creepy.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess we did. Was it around May?” chimed in Karen, searching through her memories. “I want to say he asked us something naïve like what it meant to be in love.”

“Huh… So I guess that means he went to you two for advice about Miss Senjogahara?”

Putting aside how reliable Karen’s memory was, that’s what it had to be if it was in May.

Those two first decided to go out on Mother’s Day in the park I’d just visited─though, at the time, I’d mistakenly thought they were going out from before then.

…Hm?

What was this unnatural feeling?

Like I’d forgotten something─or rather, an easy feeling, like my thoughts had forcefully shut down and I’d leapt straight to the most convenient conclusion I could find.

Had I─looked away again?

“Hmm, I wonder. It was a while ago, and I forgot what he was talking about. I don’t even remember what we told him,” Tsukihi said dryly.

But her tone also made it feel more like she was glossing over something.

In fact, unlike Karen, Tsukihi seemed somehow suspicious about my line of questioning─or mystified by it.

Like she couldn’t get a read.

That made sense, of course─if someone who’d been left without a place to stay after a house fire started asking about what you associated with the word “fire,” you didn’t have to be the strategist to find it unnatural.

“Anger also seems like a ‘fire’ word, but that connects to what Karen said about justice. For her, justice is anger.”

“That’s right!” Karen declared again.

So vigorously that her house of cards crumbled (though she was only up to a second floor).

Talk about flushing your progress down the drain.

“In other words, anger equals flames, and flames equal justice!”

“I guess in either case, you could say that Karen and I are thinking about heated emotions.”

“Heated emotions…”

Hmm.

Then again, phrases like “frozen justice” and “cold feelings of romance” almost felt like you were talking about a sewing machine on an operating table, so Tsukihi’s words made at least more sense than Karen’s─

But were there any “heated emotions” in me?

Heated…hot…heat…no.

It felt off in some way.

“Actually, wait, Tsukihi. What do you mean? If anything equals justice, it’s heated emotions,” Karen clung to her sister’s remark.

The older sister seemed to have the stronger attachment of the two to justice─I understood that it was Tsukihi, the younger sister, who was normally more passionate about their work, but to me it looked like she was just going along with what Karen did.

It was an easy arrangement to understand, though, the big sister having an influence on her little sister─but having no siblings, it was also difficult for me to understand the easily understood relationship.

“Mm, yes, you’re right.” And possibly for this reason, Tsukihi seconded her sister before continuing, “Still, Karen, your feelings for Mizudori aren’t justice, but they’re still heated, aren’t they?”

“Hmm. I guess. Sorry, I was wrong.”

Karen apologized.

How abnormally straightforward.

She was so amenable that I could understand Araragi’s concern─of course someone like her would be deceived at will by someone like Mister Kaiki.

Wait, but who was Mizudori?

“Karen’s boyfriend,” Tsukihi replied openly when I asked. “By the way, my boyfriend’s name is Rosokuzawa.”

“Huh? What? Both of you have boyfriends?” Well, that was something I was hearing for the first time. Mark me surprised. “Araragi never told me.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s because he likes to act like they don’t exist,” Karen said.

Ah. Concise and easy to understand.

Too easy, in fact.

If you wanted to say it was something Araragi would do, it was─because at the end of the day, he doted on his little sisters.

I could feel it in every word he spoke about them, and there was also his explosive rage when Mister Kaiki duped Karen.

Really, what a big brother.

“So, out of curiosity. What’s he like?”

Although it didn’t feel like digging into the subject would help with my current problem, I asked anyway, simply interested in the Fire Sisters’ boyfriends.

But then came their answers.

“Guy’s like my big brother.”

“Someone similar to my big brother.”

I regretted having asked.

These siblings…

However, if what they were saying was true, maybe I couldn’t blame Araragi for wanting to pretend they didn’t exist─he’d be tormented by his hatred for people who were like him.

The same had to be true for his dim view of the Fire Sisters’ activities, and you could even call it self-hatred.

Yes.

He fought while lost, while feeling regret.

“I don’t know what to do with him.” Karen shook her head like she really didn’t know what to do. “I want to get his seal of approval somehow, but he won’t even meet Mizudori or Rosokuzawa. He can be small when it comes to that kind of thing.”

“You’re right. But then he has the nerve to introduce us to Miss Senjogahara. The nerve!”

“Ahaha. That’s cute, though.” I felt bad, but Karen and Tsukihi sitting there looking legitimately troubled was a bit amusing. I even forgot the situation I was in and laughed. “At the end of the day, it’s just that Araragi feels like his two cute little sisters were taken from him, and that’s making him envy those guys, right? Like he’s burning up inside, with jealousy─”

Gulp.

My own words─made me gulp in shock.

Burning up─with jealousy?

Burning?

Envy.

Ah, yes.

That was another one─another keyword so clearly related to fire that it should have been one of the first things to come to mind.

Burning─envy.

Even if Araragi was doing it as a joke, the fact that their boyfriends didn’t exist to him was equivalent to looking away from the truth─just like with me.

It was the one way we were the same.

Looking away.

Turning away from reality.

And the cause was one of the most powerful human emotions, one of the seven deadly sins, even─envy.

Heated emotions─consuming envy.

Thus I was burning─with jealousy.

My hands, shaking from the truth thrust before me so abruptly that I didn’t have the time to turn away─brought my fresh house of cards crashing down.