She could, though.
And she did.
Often overshadowed by the world-class core muscles of Karen, her sister a year older than her, Tsukihi’s physical condition was nothing to scoff at. Standing on the pegs attached to the rear wheel and stretching her arms out to the side (her too-long hair wrapped around them so it wouldn’t get caught in the wheels), she looked ready to guard Ogi’s six.
Okay, more like just stand there.
It was very much like her to take an already risky situation, riding two to a bicycle, and make it even more dangerous for no good reason─but if the pilot was worried by the circus stunt taking place behind her, she didn’t betray her alarm.
Tsukihi, herself, naturally enjoyed performing the trick, a believer in savoring fun to the fullest.
“My brother would love this bike!”
“Ah, right, he likes bicycles, now that you mention it─though it seems he lost both of his for certain reasons. Yes, you might say that’s why I’m riding one.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“No real meaning, more of a metaphor. Pay the right amount of attention to it, and maybe you’ll be rewarded.”
“Huh…”
“Was Sengoku doing well?” asked Ogi, apparently acquainted with not just her brother but Nadeko. Was she in the area to see how Nadeko was doing? Had Tsukihi cut in line somehow?
It was very much like her not to feel any kind of way about this.
Her moral code did include not cutting in line or skipping people’s turns on purpose, but feeling bad over doing so by accident required a self-critical bent that she didn’t possess.
“Maybe that’s where you’re different from your older brother.”
“Hm? What?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing. Anyway, Sengoku’s condition. How did her bill of health look? Clean? Or was it a death certificate?”
“…I guess she’s doing well.”
She’s doing great!
Tsukihi had nearly blurted that out, but her friend had yet to go back to school and needed an alibi.
A thoughtful girl, in that sense. Not just wise, but sly.
“She’s not dead. Actually, she was deader before.”
“Perhaps. Well, yes, no one’s ever just cute─the way I see it, girls like her are cuter when they’re not being cute,” Ogi remarked, not making much sense. This bit of banter must have seemed perfectly logical to her because she continued without going into detail. “Good, good,” she came to some understanding that was all her own. “So, for her, being a pretty girl was only ever self-harming─sad, no?”
“Sad? Aren’t you lucky if you’re cute?” questioned Tsukihi, innocently─maybe insensitively.
“Take how you don’t get to choose what family you’re born into. You might envy people born into class or wealth, but from their perspective, it’s also a heavy burden to carry since day one─for instance, they might not be allowed to become manga artists, even if that’s what they want. You’d call that unlucky, wouldn’t you?” explained Ogi, but Tsukihi─or rather, a fourteen-year-old girl didn’t seem to get it, and the older girl must have noticed. “It’s not what you can do that decides your future, but what you can’t do─because you won’t know where to focus if there’s too much you can do,” she shifted the topic a little. “Thanks to a lifetime’s worth of shame and other avenues getting cut off, Sengoku can now chase after her dream like mad─that’s what I’m saying.”
“…”
“Cuteness must have been a chain holding her down, but it was also too precious a talent to cut loose─so drastic measures were needed.”
“Drastic measures? What do you mean?”
“Who knows. Beats me.”
Ogi held out her hands. In other words, took them off the steering.
Both riders of a bike seating two had both of their hands free─they were reaching for the freedom to cause a traffic accident.
“I don’t know anything─it’s Araragi-senpai who knows.”
“…”
“But maybe it wasn’t about any drastic measure but learning from a bad example. Still, I feel bad for that conman…I didn’t mean for it to go that far. Your brother might not forgive me, even if I showed remorse.”
Ogi then put her hands back on the handlebars.
“It seems Sengoku wants to become a manga artist.”
She began pedaling faster.
“Tsukihi Araragi. How do you want to become?”
“How?” Recalling her conversion with Nadeko about this, Tsukihi replied, “I don’t have anything like that.” Her friend was keeping her manga-drawing pretty secret, but she must’ve told this person? “If I’m having fun, then I’m fine. Maybe that’ll keep going and be my future?”
“You might not know everything, but you can do everything. Omnipotent but not omniscient, you have too many choices, and your goals are scattered all over the place. That’s why you’re always content with the number-two spot. It’s easiest for you to be pulled forward by someone else─but when it comes to your future…” Ogi said, like she knew all about her─how much had her brother told her? “It’s just too grand and remote,” she divulged with a smirk.
“…? Are you saying I’m depending too much on other people?” She let slide the comment about her future since it was just confusing─but the stuff about being number two and whatnot piqued her interest, and she wanted to dig deeper. Maybe it was just a continuation of the conversation back in Nadeko’s room.
“I wonder. Considering how cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, I’d say parasitism more than dependence… Despite that nature, your personality is also kind of unique. Could it be your big brother’s influence?”
“Cuckoos.”
“Tsukihi. It’s true that you’re living your life thanks to other people’s support─that they’re giving you life. You could’ve died during summer break if not for your siblings’ concern.”
“…? Summer break?”
What could she mean?
Another metaphor?
“So, people can’t live all on their own,” Tsukihi interpreted it in her own way and reworded it as a cliché, but─
“People do live all on their own,” Ogi quickly contradicted her. “The ones who can’t─are monsters.”
You and me for instance, Ogi Oshino appended─it made no sense to Tsukihi Araragi.
At first, she’d found it unusual that her brother had a friend like this girl, but now that they’d talked, she was the type, her mysteriousness would click with him.
“Wait, huh? Hold on, Miss Oshino─”
“Miss Ogi is fine.”
“Miss Ogi, we’re going in the wrong direction.”
Her odd position as she rode tandem on the bike had made the scenery look different─or maybe not, maybe she’d just carelessly failed to notice until now, but at some point, they’d strayed far from the route between the Sengoku and Araragi residences.
It wasn’t so far that their conversation could last this long─where were they now?
“Oops. Sorry, looks like I got lost─why don’t I stop for a moment and look at a map on my phone.”
Ogi hardly sounded embarrassed as she looked for a good place to park─and soon settled on a building and used her feet to brake in front of it.
The spot didn’t seem remotely ideal to Tsukihi─the area was abandoned and untended, or maybe rundown was the better word. You only needed to glance at the building to tell that it was no longer in use. If her companion wasn’t a girl, Tsukihi might have worried that she’d been abducted by a wicked scoundrel claiming to be her brother’s friend (it’d be the scoundrel walking away the worse for wear in that case), but she felt no such danger as the girl fiddled with her smartphone. Instead, she looked up at the abandoned building with curiosity.
It wasn’t worth more than a glance. Nor was it a place you’d ever come to, unless you were lost─her curiosity sedimented as soon as she had the thought, proving just how much this girl lived in the moment.