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 only book to be released as an English audio book.
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.[2]
Introduced Characters
Plot
Koyomi Vamp
As he narrates, Koyomi Araragi warns the reader about the chain of events he is going to recount, stating he has a duty to fulfill for a certain someone. From March 26th to April 7th, the full length of Spring Break, Koyomi learns of the existence of creatures called aberrations, and vampires in particular. Just in case, he says, he is unable to finish telling the story, Koyomi spoils the ending for the reader: the story will end tragically, with everyone involved becoming utterly miserable.
On the afternoon of Saturday, March 25th, Koyomi wanders around the gates of Naoetsu Private High School, hesitating to go home on his bike as a way of killing time. He comes across Tsubasa Hanekawa by chance, recognizing her; as he watches her adjust the braids in her hair, a gust of wind blows her skirt upward, exposing her panties to Koyomi (who, to his later dismay, spends several pages describing the sight in detail). This creates an awkward first impression between the two, who have their first conversation: she reveals that both know more about the other than they knew (they both not only know the other's name and how to write it, but he knows details of her exemplary school record). Tsubasa turns the conversation to a rumor making the rounds through the school, that a vampire is wandering the streets at night; she expresses a strong desire to meet it, "an existence greater than humans", as she finds the concept intriguing. Realizing that Araragi is fairly easy to talk to, she asks him why he has no friends,and he tells her that he pessimistically believes connecting with others would "lower his intensity as a human", and asserts his desire to be a plant, free from having to talk or walk or relate with others. As their talk winds to a close, she tells him she will be studying in the library and puts her number into Koyomi's phone, saying, "You just made a friend."
That night, Koyomi leaves his house to buy a few porn magazines, theorizing he can overwrite the now-ever-present image of Tsubasa’s panties in his head with something else. At the stroke of midnight, as Spring Break officially starts, a power outage occurs, leaving only one street lamp lit on the road. As Koyomi walks down the now-darkened road, a voice calls out to him; looking in the direction of the voice, he sees a woman on the ground under the only lit street lamp, lying in a pool of her own blood, her arms and legs cut from her body. When a panicked and horrified Koyomi tries to call an ambulance, the woman tells him she does not need one, instead ordering him to give her his blood. As he realizes she is the rumored vampire, she introduces herself menacingly as Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade. Unable to accept the reality before him, he runs from her; realizing that she may die, the now-terrified vampire herself breaks down, crying tears of blood. A short distance away, Koyomi, upset with himself, throws his porn in a trash can and ponders the situation further. Thinking about the growing disconnect between him and his family, and also with those around him, he decides that she needs to live more than him, and that his existence is worthless. Resolving to be a better person in his next life, he allows the vampire to suck his blood. His last thoughts before the world fades to black are of Hanekawa.
Koyomi abruptlly regains consciousness in a room on the second floor of the Eikou Cram School, with a very young blonde girl sleeping on his arm; checking his cellphone, he finds it is March 28th with the time at 16:32, and realizes he has been unconscious for several days. After failing to rouse the girl, he explores the building. The moment he steps outside, his entire body explodes into flames; hearing his screams of anguish, the little girl awakens and races to him, herself aflame as well, and drags Koyomi back inside, where, away from the sunlight, the flames vanish. The little girl then names herself as the same vampire whom he met several nights before. Koyomi's skepticism, quickly swept aside, leads to Koyomi questioning if Koyomi can ever become a human, and Kiss-shot agrees to do so, with a catch: before she can fulfill her side of the deal, Koyomi will have to defeat the three vampire hunters who stole her limbs, Dramaturgy, Episode, and Guillotine Cutter. Koyomi also receives a message from his sisters Karen Araragi and Tsukihi Araragi; to explain his disappearance, he replies to them that he is taking ”a journey of self discovery”, which they do not question. While Kiss-shot casually predicts that their problems will be settled that night, the truth is nothing of the sort; Koyomi is cornered by all three of the vampire hunters at a fork in the road, and has no idea how to deal with them. The three belittle Koyomi before launching an all-out attack on him. The only thing that saves him from them is the sudden appearance of Meme Oshino, an odd stranger just passing by, who blocks their crushing attacks with apparent ease.
They find Kiss-shot eagerly waiting for Koyomi. Seeing Oshino, who tells her that he has met her before, she has trouble placing his face, and he clarifies that he was the one who, several days ago, told her about the cram school. Koyomi tells Kiss-shot what happened, while Oshino reveals he has already set up a protective barrier around the cram school. As Koyomi wonders to himself about Oshino's role in , Oshino formally introduces himself as someone with no permanent address whose specialty is working as a "balancer". Describing their situation as unbalanced in favor of the three vampire hunters, he offers to lend his services to them by negotiating with the three to give Koyomi three one-on-one fights, rather than fighting all three at once. Oshino asks for 2,000,000 yen as compensation; as Kiss-shot has no means of payment, she asks Koyomi to pay the price for her when he is able. Oshino decides to stay in the cram school until the battles are concluded. Midnight strikes, and the day becomes March 29th.
At around nine in the evening on March 31st, Kiss-shot talks with Koyomi about Dramaturgy, the pure-bred vampire who stole her right leg; Koyomi wonders why a vampire would feel compelled to hunt his own kind, but Kiss-shot maintains the practice's normalcy, stating that no species in existence does not hunt its own kind. After their talk, Koyomi goes to a bookstore to find a martial arts manual, looking for potential advantages going into his first fight, As he buys the manual, along with guides on baseball and classical music to avoid "embarrassment", he runs into Tsubasa again. Their conversation is fun but brief; as Koyomi tries to physically distance himself from her, she follows him, leading Koyomi to warn her, highly self-deprecatingly, to not wander around alone at night, saying "You might run into a vampire, you know?". Koyomi asks Tsubasa why she wanted to meet a vampire in the beginning, to which she replies that she was simply curious to meet one. The reply, now seeming exceedingly petty to him, deeply upsets him; a confused Tsubasa watches as Koyomi, insulting her relentlessly, deletes her number from his phone. Sensing that something else is bothering him, she apologizes for passively forcing him to insult her and leaves. Koyomi is left with regret and confusion himself for what he has happened to him so far, and even questions whether he truly wants to regain his humanity, but he comforts himself with the belief that severing his ties with Tsubasa "must have done something -- to up [his] intensity as a human" as he makes his way to Naoetsu High's athletic field, where Dramaturgy is waiting for him.
Before the battle begins, Dramaturgy asks Koyomi if he would consider joining his fifty-three brethren by betraying and killing Kiss-shot; he expresses reluctance to kill something as rare as a thrall of Kiss-shot's. Koyomi's refusal to concede sparks the start of the duel, which opens with Koyomi losing his left arm. To his surprise, it regenerates in an instant, and he distances himself briefly from Dramaturgy before re-engaging him. Using a technique he picked up from the martial arts manual, Koyomi is able to slam Dramaturgy into the ground and put him into an arm lock, but the massive man shape-shifts, turning his arms into the wavy greatswords that are his signature weapons and severing Koyomi's hands. Running away again, Koyomi dashes to the P.E. shed, grabs a few baseballs, and begins pitching them at superhuman speed toward Dramaturgy. Koyomi, grabbing for one last ball before Dramaturgy reaches him, grabs a shotput ball instead; its impact with Dramaturgy's face sends him to the ground in immense pain. Intending to finish the fight before his opponent can get to his feet, and fully aware of his increased strength, Koyomi hoists the field's concrete roller in one hand, swinging it like a baseball bat. Realizing it would take days to recover form such a blow, Dramaturgy surrenders, begging for mercy, and swears to Koyomi that he will return Kiss-shot’s right leg before vanishing completely. Out of thin air, his voice asks, one last time, if Koyomi would reconsider joining him. Koyomi's words of maintained refusal meet nothing but silence.
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.
English Edition Color Pages
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.[3] It was later confirmed to be a three film adaptation, the first coming out on January 8th, 2016.[4]
References
The Monogatari Series by Nisio Isin
| ||
|---|---|---|
| First Season | 1. Bakemonogatari (One) • 2. Bakemonogatari (Two) • 3. Kizumonogatari • 4. Nisemonogatari (One) • 5. Nisemonogatari (Two) • 6. Nekomonogatari (Black) | |
| Second Season | 7. Nekomonogatari (White) • 8. Kabukimonogatari • 9. Hanamonogatari • 10. Otorimonogatari • 11. Onimonogatari • 12. Koimonogatari | |
| Final Season | 13. Tsukimonogatari • 14. Koyomimonogatari • 15. Owarimonogatari (One) • 16. Owarimonogatari (Two) • 17. Owarimonogatari (Three) • 18. Zoku Owarimonogatari | |
| Off Season | 19. Orokamonogatari • 20. Wazamonogatari • 21. Nademonogatari • 22. Musubimonogatari • Tsugimonogatari | |
| Monster Season | 23. Shinobumonogatari • 24. Yoimonogatari • 25. Amarimonogatari • 26. Ougimonogatari • 27. Shinomonogatari (One) • 28. Shinomonogatari (Two) | |
| Family Season | 29. Ikusamonogatari • 30. Tsugimonogatari | |