Calendar
Story
Koyomi
Dead
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The real sword - sliced me.
My fingers,
My wrists,
My elbows,
My two arms,
My shoulders,
My ankles,
My shins,
My knees,
My thighs,
My chest,
My collarbone,
My neck,
My throat,
My nose,
My eyes,
My brain,
My head
Cut.
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Early morning, I ascended the mountain staircase to the Shrine of the Polar Snake at the summit.
It had already become a habit over the past month.
Kagenui Yozuru had disappeared from the Shrine of the Polar Snake,
and since then, almost a month had passed.
Naturally, I'm in no position to worry about Kagenui.
But even so I had, unhonorably, gone to the shrine every day.
Unhonorably isn’t even a word, is it...
This wasn’t good.
Even though I had an exam today, I was losing confidence in myself
Well, at any rate, Senjougahara was going to escort me to the university,
so I had to get off this mountain before our meeting time.
…For her to think that she needed to escort me to the university,
wasn’t giving me a whole lot of credit…
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Look,
as a dog that walks can run into a pole,
if Araragi walks on a path, he’ll encounter an oddity.
Senjougahara Hitagi
Hands Free
You’re already on the path to success in terms of grades, Araragi.
So as long as you can avoid any trouble that keeps you from taking the exam itself,
then the campus life is already in sight.
A month was about to pass uneventfully, without anything happening.
Without any oddities.
No urban legends.
No street gossip.
No idle rumors.
And naturally, no school ghost stories, nothing.
As if everything had ended.
Gaen.
Hey, Koyomin, good morning.
Good morning.
Your body. It’s gotten pretty serious, hasn’t it? Koyomin.
Well… It’s something that’s still manageable.
I suppose, what’s gotten pretty serious would be...
Yozuru.
To think that she would be targeted.
Really, it was unexpected. Even for me.
Aren’t you supposed to be able to expect anything?
You know everything, don’t you?
Woah woah, what’s with the sarcasm towards a friend you haven’t seen in a while, Koyomin?
As for why Kagenui was elimiated, It’s because she was simply in the way.
Not Kagenui Yozuru herself, but her familair, Ononoki Yotsugi.
In order to render her powerless and ineffective,
the master was taken care of instead.
By taking out the master, the top of the chain of command,
there'd be no need to be afraid of that posed look girl.
Sending Yotsugi into your home, Koyomin,
although she is capable of protecting you as a genuine manmade oddity,
it seemed there was someone who didn’t particularly like that.
Well, even so, that person wouldn’t make a move on Yotsugi herself since she is a genuine oddity.
That’s why she went after her master instead.
From here, the story can diverge into two possible paths.
Yotsugi remains a powerless, meaningless bodyguard just as it was planned,
or somehow, Yotsugi awakens to human nature and ends up protecting Koyomin of her own free will…
Though she would lose sight of the oddity part of her.
As for what would happen if she lost sight of the oddity part of her,
I don’t need to explain it to you, do I?
Since you should’ve seen it with your own eyes.
If that happened.
If Ononoki Yotsugi stopped being a genuine oddity,
she would be something that you could lay a hand on, and you wouldn’t need to fear her.
What was the reason for going so far?
It felt like they were trying to keep me from doing something…
Or were they trying to get me to do something?
Is Shinobu...
sleeping soundly at the moment, Koyomin?
Yes…
She’s been completely nocturnal recently.
She’s usually asleep around this time, at least.
Well, it does sound like something she might think of.
Trying to draw closer to the essence of being an oddity, in case an emergency happens.
Although, it doesn’t have much meaning, since she’s already started to stray from being an oddity.
The Kissshot-Acerolaorion-Heartunderblade of right now,
who is no longer completely immortal or completely a vampire,
at any rate, cannot protect you twenty-four hours a day.
So you aren’t really protected against assassination.
As a comparison,
it’s almost as absurd as trying to win in Shogi without having any of your pieces taken.
Even if you’re a proud, passionate commander, there are still pieces that must be sacrificed.
…If you try to protect a pawn, you’ll lose your king, is what you’re saying?
The rook, the bishop, the gold general or the silver general,
they’ll all possible sacrifies in the end.
The only piece that can’t be sacrificed is the king.
If you think about it, it’s a strange game.
Even if all the pieces except for the king are taken,
as long as the king survives, you can still win.
Anyway, Koyomin.
Do you believe yourself to be the king?
Ah, no, impossible.
Right? You’re very modest like that.
Right now, as for this town's king,
there isn't one.
Right now, the throne is vacant, in this town, that’s why so many problems are occurring.
It’s like a game of shogi without the king.
I’ve heard of games where you play without the rook or the bishop,
but it’s unusual to play shogi without the king, right?
How would you decide who the victor is then?
In such a case, there is no winner or loser, is there?
Since there are no conditions for victory or defeat.
That’s right, it’s a situation with no winner or loser.
People would call that a lawless zone.
Vacant.
As I recall, the one who said that for a chaotic state to arise, a void is needed, was Kaiki.
Oshino was able to bring spiritual stability to the town despite the vacancy.
What I want to do is fill up that vacancy, if by appearance only.
I entrusted that to you, Koyomin, and you failed.
That’s how it’s been so far, correct?
Really, I had hoped that putting Yotsugi close to you as a restraint would work.
But it doesn’t seem to have worked.
Kagenui has gone missing.
Kaiki isn’t showing his face.
And Oshino’s whereabouts is unknown...
so we're at an impasse.
I had no choice but to act personally.
…What do you mean by act?
This situation where the collaterol damage keeps increasing. I'd like to put a lid on it, Koyomin.
So instead of saying I was going to act, I could say I’d like to put an end to these actions,
specifically, Koyomin, your actions.
Mine? Um, it’s not like I… planned to act or anything.
Isn’t that why Kagenui sent Ononoki to me?
But Yotsugi is no longer able to carry out that job.
She can no longer protect you, and she can’t stop you, either.
Quite literally a dummy.
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So now you're able to act.
You’re already able to act— and there’s no one that can stop you.
And the problem is, if you act—
the other side will act too.
The other side?
You don’t have to think about who the other side is.
In short,
'someone.'
The problem is, it’s dangerous for you to act.
Or rather, the other side is waiting for you to act.
It’s a duel-like situation where the first to act becomes the loser.
Almost a dilemma.
A dilemma…
between what, exactly?
I can see a resolution strategy for it, but carrying it out is a little painful.
A resolution strategy…?
A resolution strategy for what?
It’s a resolution strategy to dispel the 'darkness’ that’s been enfolding this town.
And so the answer is...
for you to die.
Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt for a moment.
That sword. It resembled something I knew.
The sword she swung was...
the real thing.
Supposedly long since vanished...
The original Oddity Slayer.
That came to this is a shame.
It was as Senjougahara had said.
For a guy like me, rather than the exam itself,
being able to arrive at the exam itself was a bigger barrier.
And it seemed I had failed at that.
Araragi Koyomi
Hands Free
I kick a stone away to get rid of my worries,
I'm downplaying the flutter I feel this April.
We were happy children full of curiosity,
I was the one who pushed you forward,
from that day onward.
Let's escape our confines
and take our time along the way
Let's ride our bikes to far away
carrying our hopes and dreams in the basket
Is the future we heard so many rumors about,
A nice place to be?
Even if we ask our extending shadows about it,
we'll still be none the wiser
Now for the epilogue, or rather, the punch line.
Huh?
What was this?
What's going on?
Wasn't Gaen swinging the Oddity Slayer,
and had sliced me to pieces with it?
What exactly was going on?
No.
Gaen, what had she done?
Ah. You're awake?
Or perhaps, is this a case of not being able to let sleeping dogs lie, Rarabai?
Don’t say my name like some kind of lullaby.
My name is Araragi—
I see. Sorry, I stuttered.
It was a bright smile that I had liked,
that I had loved, once before.
Yearned for. I never expected to it see again.
So, is the punch line that Araragi couldn’t make it to the exam location, and failed the entrance exam?
No, a punch line like that wouldn’t work at all!