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During the Mayoi Snail arc in Bakemonogatari we eventually learn that Senjōgahara couldn't see Hachikuji while Araragi could, because only those who didn't want to return home would be able to see her.

But while Araragi was waiting for Senjōgahara to get back from seeing Oshino, Hanekawa turns up and is able to see Hachikuji. Later in Tsubasa Cat we learn that the stress which caused Black Hanekawa to appear was from Hanekawa's repressed feeling for Araragi and not from family problems which caused Black Hanekawa's original appearance.

So I am wondering, was there a particular reason why Hanekawa didn't want to go home or were things getting worse between her and her parents?

Maroon
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Memor-X
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2 Answers2

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In the middle of the last episode of the "Mayoi Snail" arc, we are told that Araragi is being led astray by Hachikuji after he didn't want to go home, because he was:

feeling awkward because it's Mother's Day, fought with [his] sister, and didn't want to go home

Moreover, past 14 minutes into the episode:

The condition for encountering a lost cow is to have a desire not to go home. But everyone feels that way at some point. After all, everyone has family problems.

So it doesn't have to be a particularly strong lack of desire to go home -- it doesn't have to be something "big" enough to lead to another appearance of Black Hanekawa.

Having thus obtained an explanation for why he saw Hachikuji from Senjougahara, Araragi thinks of Hanekawa, and concludes to himself that Hanekawa was able to see Hachikuji because of her family problems:

And so did [Hanekawa]. Carrying the weight of bad blood and strain within her family . . .

So it simply looks like while Hanekawa's stress with her parents dissipated somewhat after the first Black Hanekawa possession, the underlying problems were never resolved. For instance, in the beginning of "Tsubasa Tiger", which is in the second season of the series and which is after Bakemonogatari

we learn that Hanekawa (still) doesn't have a room of her own in her house, and sleeps on the floor

So, at the very least, it looks like Araragi thinks that Hanekawa's ability to see Hachikuji is entirely to be expected, and not a cause for concern about new developments. It's possible that Hanekawa is keeping her friend in the dark about things -- if I'm not mistaken, in the "Suruga Monkey" arc, we see her lying to Araragi about where she is. But even if something new has come up between her and her parents, it probably isn't anything out of the ordinary, at least in that we never see any more detail go into this in the anime and in that it never turns into a massive crisis on its own.

Maroon
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3

Just because she wasn't stressed by her family situation doesn't mean she was not bothered by it and didn't want to return home. The situation with her parents was still same, but as Araragi notes, it would take some time before her stress built up enough from that. The stress from her unrequited love was much worse and accumulated much faster. Most probably because she spent all her time outside so her family situation was not on her mind all the time. But she met Araragi all the time.

Things started getting better with her family only after Tsubasa Tiger.

Euphoric
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