Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 12.01

Chapter University- Mikoko Community

001 

Aoii Mikoko is a tomboyish college student, Emoto Tomoe is an ephemeral college student, and Atemiya Muimi is a former delinquent; now a college student—with that said and done, if I were to proceed with the same formula diligently maintained for over a decade, I would now start detailing how these girls possess queer and bizarre personalities and put in perspective how abnormal they actually are— however, exceptionally, I haven’t been provided with any more particulars about them this time around, sadly. 

They are not Forgetful Detectives, Humanity’s Strongest Contractors, magical girls from Shikoku, newbies from the Pretty Boy Detective Club, recluses shutting themselves in an infirmary, magical girls from Kyuushu, serial killers running away from home, high school students having received military training, triplet maids, great detectives with multiple personalities, nor professional killers with multiple personalities. 

They are normal college students. 

Commonplace college students. 

Mundane college students. 

Nothing more than that—no. 

Nothing is slightly off. That word is a good fit to describe their friend whom they call “Ikkun,” but I must choose a different term that would apply to these three close friends—to begin with, it’s an extreme rarity to be nothing; that goes for living people, dead people, and even immortal vampires. 

Being normal, commonplace, and mundane is of extreme rarity. 

My meeting with these girls happened in an ordinary and exceedingly common fashion: In line with them being modern college students—or perhaps followers of ancient traditions—it happened at a mixer. 

No aberration was involved whatsoever. 

And they probably won’t be revealed to be aberrations themselves. Let me tell you from the beginning. 

Right, that was a short while after my test studies had paid off due to me galvanizing myself—or turning myself into a test demon (to an extent I wouldn’t have thought possible back in spring break)— midway through the year, winning me a spot into Manase National University’s Science Department Math Section, where I became a brand new university freshman. 

Well, I passed, but through a wait list. That’s a thing, apparently. 

Those of you who’ve studied diligently might not know about that system (and I didn’t know either despite not studying diligently), but in short, someone vacated their spot and I took it. It’s like saying “Your efforts didn’t pay off, but they did,” which leaves a bad aftertaste and makes for half-assed closure, but passing is passing. 

Let me sincerely—even if just in appearance—be glad about it. 

Let me say “It’s not like I wanted to be accepted or anything, okay?!” 

Well, I wanted to. 

By the way, I wasn’t the only student from Naoetsu High, my former alma mater, to be accepted into my new one, Manase 

University’s Science Department’s Math Section—Senjougahara Hitagi was, too. However, she wasn’t on a wait list—far from that— she was accepted on recommendation. So don’t lump her with me. And since she also worked as my tutor for over half a year to stop me from failing classes, you could say she got accepted twice by herself. 

She’s really amazing. 

Soon I won’t be able to stop bowing to her. 

And in addition to her—though she wasn’t technically a student of Naoetsu High when she took the test, and there is no way for those of you who have only seen the movie to know about that character—the girl with a tendency to snap who was previously enrolled in the same high school as us, Oikura Sodachi, was accepted into the same section of the same university. 

“Reunions” with Oikura are, to me, surprise events that occur on a regular basis, so although I wasn’t that surprised, well, saying it didn’t make me happy would make me a liar—or a scam artist. 

And whatever the situation, I don’t want to be a scam artist. 

So, with all that, Senjougahara, Oikura, and I peacefully and merrily engaged in our glittering university life on the campus that became our new world—hold on. 

Hold on—said Senjougahara to me. 

“This won’t do at all. I can’t see any changes compared to our high school days right now. I can’t see any growth. This isn’t a fresh start. We were meant to reform, but we ended up reverting to our old selves. What is the point in only hanging out with old acquaintances? Why are we shutting ourselves in our comfortable, narrow world? Didn’t we get rid of our old selves altogether? Didn’t we change in character down to the bone?” 

She had a point. 

Although I had become a university student, I actually had fewer friends. 

Way, way fewer. 

I hadn’t met anyone new—to begin with, setting aside the studies aspect (and the aspect of immortality), neither of us had ever been much good at communicating, but now that we were free from the compulsory educational system, that became even more apparent. 

So that’s how it was. 

The three of us hung together more so by convenience than because it was fun. 

However, obviously, that wasn’t a good thing. University is where one is meant to prepare for partaking in society, but we were clearly headed in a bad direction. 

We had to get off those rails. 

Therefore, I went to my other tutor and second mother, whom I’ve recently been calling “mom,” Hanekawa Tsubasa, and begged her while bawling my eyes out. After graduating from high school, she set off on a journey overseas (I won’t give any more details. In short, rather than going out into society, she wanted to go out into the world as soon as possible), but at least she was somewhere with some signal at the time. 

“You leave me no choice. I’ll arrange a stage where you can mingle.” 

“Mingle?” 

“A way to not be single,  basically. Let me see...it might as well be with people from another university, don’t you think so?” 

That is how I came to meet Mikoko Aoii, Emoto Tomoe, and Atemiya Muimi—in a normal way.