Kizumonogatari

Kizumonogatari
Novel Information
Season	First Season
Author	Nisio Isin
Artist	VOFAN
Translator	Ko Ransom
Release	May 7, 2008
English Release	December 15, 2015
ISBN	978-4-06-283663-0
English ISBN	978-1-941220-97-9
Pages	358
English Pages	354
Cover	Shinobu Oshino
English Cover	Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade
Novel Guide
Previous	Bakemonogatari
Next	Nisemonogatari

Kizumonogatari (傷物語) or KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale in the English publication, is the second part of the Monogatari series. It is the third book overall, and contains the story Koyomi Vamp (こよみヴァンプ).

It is the first book to be released in English, and the first book to be released as an English audiobook.

Etymology

The title is a portmanteau of two terms:

• 傷物 (kizumono: defective article, damaged goods, "deflowered girl", "unvirtuous girl" - the latter two which are slang terms, because the girls are "second-hand")
• 物語 (monogatari: legend, story, tale)

Synopsis

This prequel novel features the life of Koyomi Araragi before the events in Hitagi Crab. It details Araragi's encounter with the vampire Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade and his journey back into humanity from being a vampire.

English Release Synopsis

Around midnight, under a lonely street lamp in a provincial town in Japan, lies a white woman, a blonde, alone, robbed of all four limbs, yet undead. Indeed, a rumor's been circulating among the local girls that a vampire has come to their backwater, of all places.

Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they'd lower his “intensity as a human," is naturally skeptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over," beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals.

Always disarmingly candid, often hilariously playful, and sometimes devastatingly moving, KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale is the perfect gateway into the world of author NISIOISIN, the bestselling young novelist in Japan today. The prequel to BAKEMONOGATARI (“Monster Tale"), this is where the legendary MONOGATARI series, whose anime adaptations have enjoyed international popularity and critical acclaim, begins. A theatrical feature based on KIZUMONOGATARI is due to be released in Japan in January 2016.

Plot

Koyomi Vamp

Koyomi Araragi warns the reader about the chain of events he is going to narrate. He has a duty to fulfill for a certain someone. From March 26th to April 7th, referred as Spring Break, Koyomi learns the existence of aberrations especially Vampires. In short, Koyomi tells the reader the story of a vampire will end tragically.

One afternoon on March 25th, Koyomi was aimlessly wandering around the Naoetsu Private High School's gates. Koyomi hesitated to go home by bike until he came across Tsubasa Hanekawa. While Tsubasa is adjusting the braids on her hair, a gust of wind blows her skirt upwards exposing her panties to Koyomi. In an instant, the wind petered out and it triggered an awkward first impression between the two. They have their first conversation in which one of them involves Koyomi wanting to become a plant so he can’t talk or walk either way. Tsubasa brings up a rumor she has been hearing in school about a certain vampire. Koyomi thought of it as a ridiculous one but Tsubasa wanted to meet her. She told him where she will study in the library and she gave Koyomi her contact number as being his first friend.

It was already night time and Koyomi was walking around town. He wanted to buy a porn magazine because of Tsubasa’s panties. Koyomi bought two magazines and wondered why he can’t stop thinking dirty thoughts. At the stroke of midnight, Spring Break officially starts. Suddenly, a power outage occurred and only one street lamp was brightly lit. While Koyomi was strolling, he heard a voice. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw an adult woman collapsed under the only lit street lamp. The woman wanted Koyomi to aid her but she had already lost all of her limbs. Instead of him calling an ambulance, the woman wanted his blood and introduced herself as Kiss-shot-Acerola-orion-Heart-under-blade with cold eyes. Koyomi was horrified to his discovery and he ran away from her causing to cry tears of blood. She was afraid to die and Koyomi also threw away the porn magazines too. However he was reminded of his only family and he has no worth being a human. To make things better for Koyomi’s next life, in his seventeen years of existence, he let her suck his blood and lost consciousness.

Koyomi regains his consciousness and realizes he is now at a room on the second floor of the Eikou Cram School. He checked his cellphone and it is already March 28th with the time at 16:32 while a little girl was sleeping in his arms. Koyomi tried to wake her up but to no avail, he decided to go down and exit the building. Once he went outside, his entire body went up in flames and the little girl from before dragged Koyomi back in the building. When they went back inside, the flames went out and the little girl refers herself as the same vampire who turned him into her second thrall. Koyomi asks her as Kiss-shot if he actually turned into a vampire. Kiss-shot didn’t mind reminding him again and was questioned if Koyomi can turn back being human. In fulfilling the deal, Koyomi has to deal with the three vampire hunters who stole Kiss-shot’s limbs to become human again. Dramaturgy, Episode, and Guillotine Cutter are the ones who stole each of Kiss-shot’s limbs and Koyomi needs to face them one at a time to fulfill the deal. Koyomi also receives a message from his sisters Karen Araragi and Tsukihi Araragi on what is he doing during Spring Break. He replied to them where he is ongoing through ”a journey of self discovery”. They believed his message and Kiss-shot predicts everything will be settled tonight. Unfortunately, when Koyomi saw each of the vampire hunters at a fork in the road, he does not have any idea how to deal with them. All of the three vampire hunters belittle him and initiated an all-out attack. Just when they are about to take action, Meme Oshino passes by to block their attacks and saves Koyomi. One hour later Oshino and Koyomi went back to the cram school.

When they got back, Kiss-shot was eagerly waiting but cannot recall the other time she met Oshino. Koyomi tells Kiss-shot the entire situation and Oshino had already set up a barrier around the cram school to keep everyone safe. He still had doubts to Oshino despite being saved by him in the first place. Oshino formally introduces himself as someone with no permanent address who specializes in balancing things out. He also lends a helping hand to them to keep each fight on a one-on-one match tomorrow. To do it, Oshino needed 2,000,000 yen as compensation for all he has done. Kiss-shot had no means of payment and she relied on Koyomi to pay the price when he has the money. Starting today, Oshino will be staying in the cram school for the time being. Once again, midnight strikes and it was now March 29th without Koyomi’s attention.

At around nine in the evening on March 31st, Kiss-shot talked about Dramaturgy, who stole her right leg, being a pure-bred vampire to Koyomi where he wondered why Dramaturgy is a vampire hunter. After their small talk, Koyomi looked up into a martial arts manual and a guide to play baseball before his first ever fight. One moment later Tsubasa saw Koyomi again. They had short but fun conversation however he started to get away from her. Tsubasa caught up to him and Koyomi warned her to not wander around at night ironically. Koyomi questions to Tsubasa why she wanted to meet a vampire in the beginning. She was simply curious to meet one but it pissed him off. Tsubasa was confused and Koyomi blamed her up to the point of deleting her contact number. What she did was apologize after what has happened and left. Koyomi has regretted what he has done so far and even questioned himself if he wanted to become human again. With Oshino’s support, he has set the battle at the school’s track field. Before the battle even starts, Dramaturgy wanted Koyomi to join his fifty-three brethren by killing Kiss-shot. Koyomi refused and the battle had already started when his left arm was gone. In an instant, his arm was regenerated and he ran away from Dramaturgy. When he pushed his fist forward, Koyomi used the technique taken from the martial arts manual and it worked for the first time. Dramaturgy retaliated by shape-shifting his two arms into swords which severed Koyomi’s arms. Koyomi ran again from him towards the P.E. shed to get the baseballs and used them to hit Dramaturgy’s body. For the final blow, Koyomi threw a hardball towards him and it had a direct hit. Dramaturgy surrenders and swears to Koyomi to deliver back Kiss-shot’s right leg and vanished completely where asked one last time if he wanted to join. Koyomi flatly turned him down and there was no response afterwards.

As he was cleaning up, he saw Tsubasa who watched the fight in the shadows. When she went up to him, Tsubasa gave back his bag containing the two books and decided to help Koyomi with his secret exposed. To make up, Koyomi demanded Tsubasa to show her panties. Now for the first time he apologized back to her and wanted to become friends again. Then Koyomi came back to the cram school where he was greeted by Kiss-shot and Oshino. Oshino said to Koyomi eventually he saw the fight in the shadows. He also pointed out him making a girl pull up her skirt in front of Kiss-shot with disapproval. Koyomi told Oshino about the girl as a friend being the class president. In particular, Oshino suggested to him to explain the entire situation to Tsubasa for clarification since Oshino’s impression of her is a smart person. Kiss-shot stepped in the conversation to open the Boston bag Oshino brought. As he opens it the bag contains the bare right leg in which Kiss-shot eats it to regain a fragment of her power. While Kiss-shot is having her meal, Koyomi expressed his doubts to Oshino if Kiss-shot was lying about severing her limbs to regain her full potential. Oshino sees it as ungrateful for Koyomi since he was saved by her. Koyomi recalled the rules of becoming a vampire once she sucked his blood and Oshino views it as Kiss-shot already telling a lie from the start. Koyomi grasped what Oshino keeps saying to him however Oshino warned Koyomi to not play as the victim. Their conversation ends with Koyomi’s decision to face Episode and he saw Kiss-shot grown up two years older.

After sundown on April 1st, Koyomi explained the entire situation to Tsubasa at the same room on the second floor of the cram school. While Kiss-shot is sleeping right next to them, Tsubasa realizes that she was indirectly at fault for saying the rumors to him. Koyomi asked her why she wanted to meet a vampire again. Her actual reason was she wanted to have a change in her life going on circles. Tsubasa also brought new clothes for Koyomi and he was nervous in changing in front of a girl. She then notices something different to Koyomi’s physique. He has muscles and looked more sharp; Kiss-shot suddenly wakes up to say vampires’ healing power was its cause before she dozed off. Tsubasa thought she didn’t notice her then stroked Koyomi’s body. Koyomi put on his shirt and thought if it was her experience with other men. He then sees the present from Tsubasa. Her present is a manga series about a boy who uses superpowers where it was used to test Koyomi’s vampire abilities. Tsubasa also brought out a gift card for the bookstore as well and Koyomi expressed his gratitude to her. As Tsubasa picked a paper bag from the corner of the room, Koyomi finds out that one contains the two porn magazines thrown away on the first day of Spring Break. Kiss-shot, sounding half-asleep, said she brought it with her while it was clung on the side of the road. When she was back to sleep, Tsubasa took one of the books and opened it to a feature about “Bespectacled Class Presidents”. Tsubasa questioned him, but forgot to say he was going to face the half-vampire Episode next.

Three days later on the evening of April 4th, Episode is late for his match at the school’s track field. While Koyomi waits for him empty-handed, he looks back to his advice with Kiss-shot. As Kiss-shot forgot what she was going to say, she dug her nails into her own brain to remember it. After she remembered it, Kiss-shot tells to Koyomi about half-vampires having near lack of weaknesses in exchange for half of their strength. To defeat Episode, her advice is simply to be his usual self. Koyomi also recalled seeing Oshino three days ago where he mentioned the barrier he set up will cause Tsubasa to get lost on her succeeding trips. Oshino then bluntly discloses to find someone else if Tsubasa stops helping. Afterwards, Episode finally appeared. He reveals Oshino’s negotiation to not have a fight to the death, but a proper match instead to gain Kiss-shot’s limbs. At one moment, Koyomi made the first move. In a blink of an eye, Episode turned into mist and threw his cross towards Koyomi. Koyomi barely dodged it as it hits his shoulder engulfing in flames; in effect, the cross slowed down his regeneration. Episode threw it for the second time, luckily, Koyomi was able to miss. However Tsubasa interrupted the match causing Episode to toss his cross to her with no hesitation. The cross gouged her body and she can’t stop the severe bleeding. Koyomi desperately went to her and he received his cellphone from Tsubasa in which he forgot. Her word to Koyomi is asking his long jump record and mist is notably water. He ran then leaped with all his might to the sand pit at the edge of the field. Accordingly, the sand exposed Episode himself until Koyomi pinned him down. The match was already over when Oshino appeared again. Koyomi wants to find a way to save Tsubasa since the fight. To cover the costs, Oshino needed 3,000,000 yen and hinted him to use his head. What Koyomi did was exactly how Kiss-shot used her head immediately to use his blood for Tsubasa’s life. Shortly, Tsubasa was alive by the time him rubbing his cheek to her stomach.

Later in the early hours of April 5th, Episode gave back Kiss-shot’s left leg in a Boston bag received by Oshino. Due to the changes after consuming it, Kiss-shot takes form of a seventeen year old like Koyomi but only taller than him. When Episode woke up, he apologized and admitted his match with the thrall of Heart-under-blade is no joke. He also thinks that Koyomi next match with Guillotine Cutter will be on a completely different level. He gave what he promised, Kiss-shot then discusses about the only human vampire hunter Koyomi’s going to face. From what she can recall, Guillotine Cutter is an archbishop from a new religion that denies aberrations. Before she slept, her advice to deal with him was to leave it in Koyomi’s hands. It was early morning by then and Koyomi slept as well. When Koyomi woke up, it’s already evening where Tsubasa sat in a chair. As they talked, Tsubasa saw Kiss-shot’s new form as well as asking Koyomi if he gets urges to suck blood. He has no recollection of it whatsoever since becoming a vampire. Koyomi then tells her to stop coming to not feel hurt like the last time. His reason was he is scared of Tsubasa doing everything for someone she got to know the other day. For her, it is not self-sacrifice but self-satisfaction. The last thing Koyomi asks her is to wait for him until the next year at school starts. To make sure, Tsubasa gave Koyomi her panties and tells him to give it back at school. Whatever happens, they said good luck to each other. Unexpectedly, Oshino returned to the cram school in distraught to say that Tsubasa’s been kidnapped by Guillotine Cutter.

Back in the school’s track field, Koyomi found Guillotine Cutter holding Tsubasa hostage in one arm. Oshino claimed responsibility for underestimating Guillotine Cutter’s tactics. He was the one who decided the time of the match – tonight, ignoring Oshino’s negotiations. Oshino then says to Koyomi to forget everything including his humanity to settle it. Before it even starts, Guillotine Cutter tells to Koyomi about Dramaturgy and Episode leaving to their home countries which led him to kidnap Tsubasa in order to balance the situation. This enrages Koyomi and Guillotine Cutter proclaims himself as God who doesn’t allow an aberration like him to exist. To Koyomi, the reason he’s doing this is him driven by his own duty. Guillotine Cutter arrogantly declares the match will be over once the hostage will be set free. The outcome has already been decided when Koyomi shape-shifted his arms into plants subsequently growing to trees rescuing Tsubasa in the process. In consequence, Guillotine Cutter was ensnared by the branches of the tree then slammed him to the ground. Tsubasa was thankful but was trying to get away from Koyomi because she was not wearing panties.

The next day, on a rainy afternoon of April 6th, Koyomi roused out of bed and was greeted by Oshino. He suggested going to the fourth floor of the cram school to get something important. When they went there, Oshino held the last Boston bag carrying Kiss-shot’s arms. Koyomi was amazed that Guillotine Cutter gave it back even though he wasn’t actually interested in doing so. Oshino had to convince him otherwise. He also congratulated Koyomi in accomplishing the mission but Koyomi was skeptical of Kiss-shot’s limbs stolen in the first place. With Oshino now seeing Koyomi aware, he gave Kiss-shot’s heart and said she fought the three vampire hunters without it. Koyomi thought one of the vampire hunters also stole the heart too when in fact Oshino was the one who did it. By that confession, Koyomi was speechless. He admitted in committing it to balance the situation yet did not expect Kiss-shot to create a thrall. Even if she got her limbs back, Koyomi had to fight Oshino except he already gave back her heart. Nevertheless, Oshino felt sorry to Tsubasa for her actions and sees her kindness as disturbing. He eventually asks Koyomi if he’s been hungry lately. After Koyomi realized two weeks had passed, Oshino tells him to be careful next time. With that, Oshino headed to the exit to wander around town for a while longer though he did not say his farewell.

It was night time where Kiss-shot is now in her top form. Koyomi explained how Oshino stole her heart and his departure. Kiss-shot forgives him whereas Koyomi felt uneasy since he wanted turn back human. Likewise Kiss-shot will do it after her discussion with him. Her place to talk is at the rooftop of the cram school. Under the stars, Kiss-shot reminisce her first thrall with Koyomi and revealed that she lied to have someone collect her limbs. She also arrived in Japan 400 years ago when she met her first thrall; as a memoir of her first thrall, she drew the Kokorowatari from her own stomach. The sword Kiss-shot owns is a replica made from his flesh and original material. The first thrall was not able to live because he committed suicide by throwing his body under the sun right in front of her. He did this only after a short time being a vampire with no changes happening to him at all. After talking her life story, Koyomi tried to talk about something in his life but ended up in uninteresting humor. While talking, the clocked ticked to midnight bringing the date to April 7th, the last day of Spring Break. Koyomi perceives this as his most vivid memory with Kiss-shot. At the end of their discussion, they decided to have a meal first before turning Koyomi back to human. Past two in the morning, Koyomi bought food and was shocked to see Kiss-shot eating Guillotine Cutter halfway through.

Koyomi and Kiss-shot argued about eating humans until Koyomi stormed out of the cram school and arrived at the high school’s P.E. shed. He shut himself in there for twelve hours until five in the afternoon. While hidden, Koyomi had a mental breakdown for ignoring what he saw right in front of him all this time. He failed to remember about Kiss-shot’s true nature including the fact he was also a vampire. Koyomi thought all hope is lost when he looked up his cellphone. Tsubasa’s contact number was there and he texted her to meet him in the shed. Tsubasa showed up to argue in not letting Koyomi die on her. She asserted his emotional and physical states trying to run away from what he has done. This crossed his mind to recognize he was being selfish. Tsubasa added to him being the only one who can beat Kiss-shot while she researched the master-servant relationship. In other words, if Koyomi fights Kiss-shot, he can turn back human regardless of her feelings. It is Tsubasa’s way of fixing things. To mentally prepare for it, Koyomi asked Tsubasa if he can touch her breasts. She accepted his offer to the point of stripping her bra. He soon realizes it cannot happen so he decided to rub her shoulders. Tsubasa called him a chicken and Koyomi complimented her. Koyomi regained his composure and heard a roaring sound outside of the P.E. shed.

Outside of the shed was Kiss-shot waiting for him to come out. It was night by then. As Koyomi stood in front of the shed, Kiss-shot wanted him to return to her side for eternity. He refused and yet she was happy to face her own thrall. Kiss-shot set the rules of the fight to not use any vampire ability but raw power instead. Similarly, Koyomi asked what are humans to her and she sees them as food. By that statement alone, Koyomi made the first move. Kiss-shot did the same thing where she was enjoying the fight. From raw power, they were able to destroy their opponents with blood spreading and evaporating everywhere. The match was going nowhere with their bodies being torn apart then regenerating again. Out of the blue, Tsubasa came out of the shed claiming something was overlooked. Kiss-shot glared at her but only sent the door of the shed flying. This gave an opening to Koyomi sucking half of her blood becoming weaker. However, he looked back if Kiss-shot knew how she will turn him human. Tsubasa stepped forth to clarify if she intentionally wanted Koyomi to kill her in order for him to be human. Kiss-shot finally confessed in searching of a place to die. Through Koyomi’s actions, it was the first time in her life that someone helped her even if she was unable to die for her first thrall’s sake. Ironically she wanted to die all for Koyomi’s sake thus uncovering her plans that crumbled his mental capacity. Instead of tears blood has flown his face in which she demanded Koyomi to kill her to finish all of this. He hesitated and cried out to Oshino and completely understood of not becoming the victim but the offender. Oshino was there sitting on top of the roof of the shed and laughed at his naivety. After he came down he officially met Tsubasa as well then made a compromise for Koyomi to decide. Koyomi wanted a way for everyone to be happy. In contrast, Oshino's deal was to evenly split the misery where no one’s wishes will come true. Kiss-shot's abilities will almost be nonexistent and Koyomi will still have few vampire traits to feel as close as an actual human. For the rest of his life, Koyomi will nurture Kiss-shot by sucking his blood to survive. Kiss-shot sees this as foolish but Koyomi decided to not help her in the end.

Koyomi’s life from now on, starting April 8th, his situation with Kiss-shot was resolved. He was roused by his sisters Karen and Tsukihi in which they laughed at him at his expense. When he went to school, he is now classmates with Tsubasa. She made a mistake in her lifetime in forgetting her bra at the P.E. shed. Koyomi wanted to get her bra as part of his collection back at home where Tsubasa wanted them back. Now, he still has vampire abilities but only the side effects were left. Tsubasa speculated if Kiss-shot actually wanted to have a partner just to find her reason to die. Koyomi considered it and was trying to hide his fang marks on his neck. In the end, Tsubasa promised to have a good year to him. Later, Koyomi went to the fourth floor of the decaying cram school. Oshino was there to look out to Kiss-shot now as a little girl who no longer speaks. Kiss-shot and Koyomi were not affected by sunlight anymore where he uses his blood to feed her everyday. Koyomi vowed to die with her if Kiss-shot dies tomorrow and live if she were to live today. Oshino lets Koyomi do whatever he wants and Koyomi declared to never tell anyone the tale of the wounded ones.

Illustrations

Illustrations by VOFAN.

Anime

Movie Edition Cover

See also: Kizumonogatari (movie)

An anime film adaptation by Shaft and directed by Tatsuya Oishi was scheduled for a 2012 release before going on a hiatus for years. It was later confirmed to be a three film adaptation, the first coming out on January 8th, 2016.