The show starts with the explanation of the Fire Sisters. It is an introduction of both Karen and Tsuhiki. Well then, what was Araragi up to last time? Oh yes, off to visit Sengoku’s house! Give the doorbell a ring, but you’ll only be greeted by arguably one of the cutest sights you’ll see in the wide world of animated productions. Sengoku Nadeko has escaped her everyday getup and has even pulled her bangs back with a hairband just for Araragi’s arrival. Her stuttering words only add to the adorable meter as she tries to hide the fact that she had dressed up and prepared this entire time. Sengoku’s parents are at work for the day, so with just the two alone in the house together, they head up to Sengoku’s unbelievably pink room. It doesn’t take long for Little Miss All-Grown-Up to start teasing poor Araragi with her cutesy charms and surprisingly bold maneuvers. She even suggests playing a King Game (generally ends up being played in a sexual nature), but even that doesn’t work with just two people (nice escape, Araragi), so they end up playing The Game of Life instead. During the game, the two end up talking about the curse that had literally wrapped itself around Sengoku in the past, but that is currently fated to become a forethought and nothing more. The Game of Life comes to an end and Sengoku suggests playing Twister afterwards (Sengoku, you sly fox), but an abrupt homecoming of her mother leaves Araragi no choice but to make a strategic retreat before Sengoku is viewed as a pervert.
So with that series of unfolding events, Araragi’s day off isn’t spent yet. What to do, what to do? He gives the athletically charming Kanbaru Suruga a call to offer a house cleanup assistance that he originally planned to commence the day after. The chat can’t go twenty seconds before Kanbaru’s wild personality kicks in, and soon after she’s engaging in this conversation in the nude (don’t ask, she really wanted to in the name of “courtesy”). Okay, that’s all good and fine, but poor Kanbaru is soon spotted by her grandmother, having left the partition to her room wide open. While in a state of concern over how she’ll ever face her grandmother again, Kanbaru accepts Araragi’s offer to help clean her room that is infinitely riddled with literary content.
The path to Kanbaru’s house should be a normal one, but it isn’t long before Araragi spots a young girl clad in yellow sports wear handstand-walking on a nearby rooftop without a care. He takes a small jump on his bike and attempts to throw her off balance, but it is not you who gets to knock Araragi Karen off balance. Landing safely, she acknowledges her brother’s existence before her and a family’s battle of wits ensues. Of course, this battle does not come without a little bit of physical skirmishing as well, but nothing phases Karen. According to her, she’s the “slayer of a thousand demons- Hell’s guard dog, the Gumshoe Master”, and since this proclamation comes from the mouth of a teenage girl performing martial arts stances whilst bridged-up against the ground, it just has to be 100% true. While Karen would love to continue this ridiculous tete-a-tete with her equally matched older brother, she has things to attend to and backflips out of sight after sending a cool “Hasta la vista!” his way.
We finally made it to Kanbaru’s house! But wait…she’s still not clothed?! Araragi opens the door to find a fully nude Kanbaru sulking into her pillow surrounded by hundreds of books. Araragi apologizes for intruding with malicious intentions and manages to cheer Kanbaru up using his quick wit and questionable charm. She finally gets around to concealing herself (barely), and the cleaning is set to commence. Almost immediately, Araragi finds Kanbaru’s basketball uniform and wishes to see what Kanbaru looks like in it, but not before she admits that with her hair grown out so quickly due to a supposed perverted mind, she’ll look a lot different to Araragi than he remembers. My favourite line here from Kanbaru is: “I once misheard ‘family rate’ as ‘family rape’”. There is no way in heaven or hell that somebody can construct a reasonable response to something like that, so hats off to you, Kanbaru.
The uniforms slips over Kanbaru’s upper body and Araragi definitely seems to approve. Without further delay the pair get to organizing the books (on a mysterious conveyor belt in the middle of the room, no less), but it’s simply impossible for these heroes and heroines to get by without some sort of verbal jousting. Out of nowhere, Araragi and Kanbaru find themselves in the middle of a debate to determine whether Kanbaru is a big pervert or not. One would quickly ask why that would need to be debated in the first place, but one must also realize that they’re in the world of Nisemonogatari- it’s scarier than you think here, so watch your step. Speaking of scary, the episode comes to an end when Kanbaru places Araragi in a situation where he becomes the Hachikuji to the pedophile-trickster Koyomi. After experience what it must have been like for poor Hachikuji, Araragi vows to never greet her in such a direct manner ever again. Oh, and by the way, we’re finally getting the ending credits! The song is Naisho no Hanashi: composed by supercell‘s ryo and performed by the popular duo ClariS.