Nisioisin rewards you for paying attention. Please only read this review after watching the anime at least because I will point out foreshadowing that is sprinkled throughout this titled tale of a nonsensically upfront story about time travel. Time travel is all about regrets. Nothing more simple than that. When you regret the way you did something talked to someone thought about anything and wish you could do it again you dwell in that feeling of regret. Everyone feels this way and how you handled that is the key component to happiness because just wishing that the problem was never there negates the learning of dealing with that regret. Mayoi is happy that she got to meet Araragi even if she regrets becoming a ghost. Araragi is happy that he got to save Shinobu even if he regrets losing his humanity. Shinobu is happy that she is tied to Araragi even if she regrets failing her suicide. This concept of parallel worlds breeds the idea of Ougi and the entire ending of the Final Season as this ending of summer break in Araragis eyes is equal to the ending of his adolescence in the future but if he didnt get to tackle his regret of saving a little lost girl here he would not be able to live with his regret of considering himself a failure. That reassurance from Oshino is everything. Because he wished for a world where he never met Hachikuji and thus creating Route X that allowed him to realize just how much of an impact he has made in the lives of those around him. That a world especially in the anime where no one else except those he cared about even appeared a world where not even those he cared for still where affected by his kindness because that could never be changed if he was an Araragi X Y or Z. Speaking of the endings we loop back to my favorite segment which is why does Isin write arcs the way that he does. Kabukimonogatari is sandwiched between a girls story of finding a home and family and a girls story of letting go of the past both of which are present here. It points us to the future ending of the final season but also talks about a swindlers death a god at the shrine and even points to another tale about the ones who he has touched go through heaven and hell to bring him back. This tilted tale points us back to the dynamics of that fated moment at the end of the First Season where one small absence affects so much as well as shedding light to the prior dynamics of a story told even before the beginning itself and its subsequent relevance to how the theme of a failed incomplete being is shown in all of the lineages of Kissshot and her thralls no one is able to die free of guilt. And looping back to the beginning of this review itself. The only reason I made this tiny connection is because I happened to be on the audio commentaries for Nisemonogatari at the moment and the short stories are fresh in my mind because of that. I love Senjogahara best and I respect Hanekawa more than anyone else. Hachikuji is the most fun to talk to. But if I had to choose someone to die with I would choose you. This response given here tells us the growth that Araragi has since the end of Nisemonogatari as in the Short Story Shinobu House she is annoyed that Araragi got to spent time with his sisters and Hitagi under the same roof that she asks an impossible question on who he would save. And although the situation was really lighthearted here in the short story and Shinobu acting like tsudere for being left out Araragi gives a much more heartfelt response that Shinobu is the only person he is happy to die with as one can truly only save themselves.