Owarimonogatari

OWARIMONOGATARI OUGI FORMULA

Do you know about the "most beautiful formula in mathematics history"?

It's eiπ+1=0, what people call Euler's Identity.

The natural logarithmic base e,

the ratio of circumference to diameter pi, the imaginary number i, 1, and 0

all fit into this equation with nothing superfluous, and fit in such a way that it was meant to be.

If there is a god in this world,

this is a piece of evidence that will be listed as one of the most credible.

WHAT'S AMUSING, OR AT LEAST BEAUTIFUL, IS THAT THIS FORMULA WAS "PREDETERMINED."

IT'S BEAUTIFUL, BUT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, IT'S ALSO SCARY.

And yet, Ougi Oshino - that transfer student - just might throw out some candid advice

even for the beauty of Euler's Identity, just like this:

Yes. It indeed is beautiful, Araragi-senpai.

Beautiful, so beautiful, it just makes me swoon.

The most beautiful part about it is that the answer is zero.

That said, someone like me thinks that if the answer is going to be zero

there's really no need to go out of your way to make the calculation.

Hearing that, I reconfirm my belief;

Ougi Oshino is Ougi Oshino, and there's no way to express it.

Before her, everything is zero.

No matter what she does that may seem out of character,

it always ends up being something characteristic of her.

And so, this time, we have a story about mathematics.

Let's study.

People tend to brace themselves when they hear "mathematics".

So we can break it down and say this is a story about "arithmetic" instead.

While we're at it, we can be more blunt and say this is a story about "numbers."

After all, this is a story where strength in numbers provides a solution.

In other words, it's a story about majority rule.

Majority rule.

The only method that can turn even a mistake into a truth.

A formula of building blocks that pursues conspiring instead of happiness.

Our inequality. Our unfair equation.

INEQUALITY

UNFAIR EQUATION

What can truly be said as something humanity has invented is probably this and only this.

And, this is the ugliest formula in human history.

OUGI FORMULA, PART ONE

OWARIMONOGATARI OUGI FORMULA

If you were with an underclassman you've just met,

and you found yourselves trapped within a mysterious classroom, and an hour had already passed...

If you've ever had such an experience, I'd definitely like to seek your advice.

It's no good, Araragi-senpai.

Oh, that just now... I didn't mean that you're no good at all, okay?

I've tried lots of things, but neither the big windows or the upper ones will budge one bit.

That's what I meant.

No...

A misunderstanding where I feel like I'm no good?

I hardly think this is a situation where I could do that.

It's no good on my end either.

It doesn't feel like they're locked or anything...

Somehow, it feels more like they're held in place by something like glue.

Yes. Just like I said before, the window will not budge, even a tiny bit.

As for the locks, the crescent locks that are fixtures of these windows do move.

However, the actual window frames don't move.

Right, so it "feels more like" they're held in place by something like a glue.

We have no choice. Let's wait for help from outside, Ougi.

Fortunately, the fact that we're here is something Kanbaru knows about.

I don't know about that.

You're relying on someone else to help you, Araragi-senpai?

All people can do is save themselves on their own.

Yet...

Excuse me. This was a principle that my uncle used.

It has nothing to do with me or with you, Araragi-senpai.

But in any case, Araragi-senpai, it's not a bad thing to rely on one's comrades.

But fundamentally, I don't think we should give up trying to escape by our own strength.

Because...

The hands of the clock, from the moment we entered this classroom...

They hadn't moved a minute... not even a second.

Out of batteries? I don't think it'd be anything like that.

OWARIMONOGATARI OUGI FORMULA

Everything began on a certain day at the end of October,

NAOETSU HIGH SCHOOL

roughly six months since spring break,

when I was assaulted by a vampire with blonde hair and golden eyes.

Hey, Araragi-senpai! It's me, Suruga Kanbaru!

Are you alone? Yeah, you're alone!

Actually, there's someone I want to introduce to you, Araragi-senpai!

Isn't she cute?

So, what's with that girl? You said you wanted to introduce her to me...

She said she had something she wanted advice about. From you, Araragi-senpai.

So I want you to go meet her.

So, what's this advice that she wants?

I didn't hear all the details either, but it's apparently some advice about apparitions.

Yeah, it somehow seems like she knows something.

She knew about my left hand, and also about your blood, Araragi-senpai.

She said she heard them all from her uncle.

Uncle...

She's a first-year that transferred into this school just the other day.

Surprisingly enough, she's apparently the niece of old Oshino.

Her name is Ougi Oshino.

This is strange.

Strange.

It is mysterious.

Mysterious.

In other words... It's suspicious.

Suspicious...

...and different.

This is strange...

Um, will you listen to me, Araragi-senpai?

Oh, well...

Too many school buildings, or something like that?

Like how you can save costs enough for one whole building if you think about the total number of students...

That's not it at all. Are you a fool or something?

This is where I'm talking about.

Where?

Here. The layout is a bit odd here.

I guess more unnatural than odd?

See, look at the floors right above and right below it.

Each of them have proper rooms here, right?

Then, this place which is in-between both of them needs to have a room here, or it ends up being strange.

Strange...

But, there is a proper room here on the 3rd floor, too. The audiovisual room.

AUDIOVISUAL ROOM

That's because the floor plan is mistaken.

Instead of mistaken, more like it was drawn based on reality,

but the actual audiovisual room isn't this long.

Compared to the others, it's drawn to be about 1.5 times longer than it actually is. Don't you notice it?

What's this? By any chance, do you doubt me, Araragi-senpai?

It hurts me that you'd doubt me, Araragi-senpai.

No, you don't like me enough to be hurt by me doubting you.

No, no... I do fancy you quite a bit. I fancy the fool that is easily deceived.

In mystery novels, when the floor plan and reality don't match like this...

A majority of the cases ends up having a hidden room at that location.

However, if this is some sort of phenomenon caused by an apparition...

I thought it'd be better to investigate before there's any damage done by it.

OWARIMONOGATARI OUGI FORMULA

What? I wonder what this classroom is.

When I walked by here to make the floorplan, this place didn't exist.

Such a mystery!

In any case... Let's try going in.

And that's how we got to where we are now.

What do you think about this, Araragi-senpai?

What do I think? Well, nothing of any note, really.

But Ougi, if this was a phenomenon caused by an apparition... what kind of apparition is it?

Who knows? Unlike my uncle, I don't have much quaint knowledge.

I only know about the major apparitions that show up in manga and in movies.

OUGI / KOYOMI

But, Araragi-senpai, there is one thing I can say.

That is, an apparition has a reason befitting it behind it...

WHICH MEANS, UNRAVELING THE REASON WHY WILL LEAD TO OUR ESCAPE FROM HERE.

Even so, what meaning is behind this situation where we can't get out of this classroom?

And about how the clock has stopped, too.

Perhaps the clock being stopped is the key to all this, surprisingly enough?

Because it showing such a random time does give a feeling of wrongness after all, right?

Speaking of 6:00PM, that's when we have to leave this high school campus.

At a time when students must go home from their classrooms,

this phenomenon locks students inside the classroom.

What's the meaning behind it?

It's time to leave school, but not being allowed to go home...

I guess you could call it an overtime class or something?

Overtime...

Have you ever had it before, Araragi-senpai?

An experience of taking overtime supplementary lessons.

I may look like this, but I do have pretty good brains, so I don't recall anything much like that.

Me neither.

Oh, is that so?

In my case, even if I'm told to stay overtime or to take supplementary lessons,

I end up ditching most of them.

But, yeah, last year, or two years ago... especially when I was a first-year.

Back when I was a first-year?

What's wrong, Araragi-senpai?

Your flag color looks a bit off... no wait, your facial color is a bit pale.

Is that so? Sorry, I just had a slight dizzy spell.

No need to apologize. Not at all. You don't have to apologize.

I'm sure that with an unreliable underclassman before you so, your nerves must be strained.

Perhaps you've gotten a bit tired?

How about you sit in one of those chairs?

Why did you sit there?

What? You ask me why, but... Wasn't it because you recommended it, Ougi?

No, no, I mean... There are a lot of chairs in this classroom.

I'm asking why you chose that seat.

I just felt like it.

You just felt like it? That seat was easy to sit at?

It looked like it was going to be comfortable sitting there?

No, how comfortable it is won't change much no matter which chair you pick, I think...

But, well...

But, well?

I'm used to sitting here.

That's how I felt.

Is that true?

What? What was that, Ougi?

No, I am merely going through every single possibility.

One possibility is that perhaps you, Araragi-senpai, sat in that chair in the past.

So once it came time to settle down into a seat, can it be that you chose that seat without hesitation?

No, that's way too wild an idea.

Until just now, I didn't even know that there was a classroom in this location.

As for me, when I investigated around here for the first time,

a classroom like this didn't exist.

However, when I came here with you, Araragi-senpai, this classroom appeared.

Then, to think that this classroom is somehow associated with you is something very natural to me.

I guess that's how it works out.

Besides, you said so yourself, Araragi-senpai...

that you somehow felt like you've seen the scenery from this window.

Did I say such a thing?

You did. Right when we entered the classroom, before we realized we'd been locked in here.

I don't recall saying so... But since she clearly asserts so, I'm sure I did say it.

It's true that somehow...

My memory... is being stimulated.

My oh my. What's wrong, Araragi-senpai?