Monogatari Series - Volume 25 - Chapter 3.03

003 

On the subject of why I was trapped in a nonexistent classroom with a magical girl in the first place, it doesn’t need much of an explanation. 

One day, as I was strolling in the city, I witnessed a girl with an unusual fashion sense, so I followed her and we ended up trapped here together. 

You might have misunderstood it as the slightly deranged behavior of following any girl who attracts my eyes, but I obviously don’t have a hobby that consists in stalking middle-school-aged girls. And, even if anyone else was in my place, if they witnessed her, they’d definitely want to follow her. 

I mean, after all, Chinou Nomi was traveling in the air. 

The magical girl was flying. 

In a straight line, and at a pretty high speed, too. 

I was literally doubting my eyes. However, in the past, I’d seen a few people fly through the sky—but none of them could be properly called “people”; they were oddities. 

Flying with bat wings, flying with powerful jumps from cat legs, flying from the force of enlarging their body, such various means… So then, was that girl an oddity too? 

However, I couldn’t tell at all how that fluffy fashion girl was flying from afar. If she were an oddity, I couldn’t ignore her, and even if she weren’t, I still couldn’t ignore her. 

I couldn’t not pursue her. 

Furthermore, since for whatever reason, that flying girl was heading towards Naoetsu High School, that made it even less of an option—”It’s a national holiday in Japan, don’t tell me that girl intends to go to Naoetsu.” Tch. 

To think the eyesight I got from transforming into a vampire during spring break would come in handy like that. Well, I can’t do anything about what comes into my sight. Also, I’ll say it while I’m at it, but when that girl was flying through the air with that short, tutulike skirt, I’d ended up seeing things I shouldn’t have, but the person in question didn’t seem to care much. 

If you’re flying high in the sky, at least wear leggings. 

So, as I was chasing the girl who had apparently illegally infiltrated the school from the rooftop, we eventually ended up trapped in this nonexistent classroom. Considering her identity was the magical girl Giant Impact, it wasn’t an illegal but a magical  intrusion, to be accurate. 

Good grief. 

It’s nothing out of the ordinary for me to get involved in something of the sort, but well, this case was a certified example of this. Can’t I even look at the sky in peace? 

“You know, I’m really sorry you ended up being involved in this graceful chosen one’s mission, commoner. I had no intention of involving a commoner, but I am pretty cute for having been unable to take your rashness into account.” 

The girl, apparently not the slightest bit willing to apologize, named herself Chinou Nomi. Certainly, I followed her and got myself trapped on my own accord, so I didn’t especially expect an apology. That said, it’s not like I wanted her to irritate me. 

To be honest, I couldn’t quite get the gist of it even after it was explained, but she came to this town as a part of the research and development project for The Absolute Peace League, the organization she apparently belonged to as a magical girl. 

Whether the plan was to analyze oddities to try using them for magic or something totally unrelated, I wasn’t privy to those kinds of details. But anyhow, the mission entrusted to the magical girl Giant Impact this time was to break free from the classroom she was trapped in. I don’t really get how that was graceful, but I probably don’t need to understand that. I’m sure I wasn’t meant to understand. 

What’s important is that we were trapped in this classroom—that we were trapped in this classroom ruled by death. 

A 4-digit password. 

A 4-digit password where an error in input invites death. 

“Not at all, Koyomi-san. In Shikoku, this sort of game is still on the reserved side. If you input the wrong one, the worst that happens is that your heart stops, right? We’ve played with rules where you explode to death if you use your cell phone, you know.” “…” 

Is this how things are like in Shikoku? 

I guess if I exploded, I wouldn’t be able to come back like earlier with the Multi-Stick Living Dead. Conversely, was the magical girl Giant Impact sent out on this case precisely because, with her magic of Un-Dead, errors in input can still lead to a rechallenge? 

What a great bother for this town. 

I wished from the bottom of my heart for her to go back to Shikoku as soon as possible. Although I got trapped on a whim, I had no intention to hold back on cooperating. However, it didn’t seem to go as smoothly as I wanted. 

“Although it’s unnecessary for my intelligent self, for Koyomisan’s sake, I shall take great pains and break a sweat to explain the rules of this game again. If we can manage to write the 4 correct digits in those empty squares written on the blackboard, the door will open and we will be free. However, if we write the wrong number, our lives will end.” 

End our lives. 

The pushy preface was so long that it didn’t quite register properly, but it would probably end our lives regardless of whether we were humans or vampires. Then this magic might have been able to kill the legendary vampire, the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade. 

Well, even if she was entrapped in this classroom, I don’t think that Oddity Slayer would follow the rules of this space and rack her brains thinking about the 4 digits… 

“So, in short, inputting numbers randomly like I did earlier isn’t the smartest option, huh…” 

Yeah, the probability is one in ten thousand with 4 digits, after all. 

It’s not zero, but with that number, you wouldn’t get it first try. 

You’d have a better chance of being hit by a car. 

“Yes. That’s the unsmart Koyomi-san’s method.” 

“…” 

Can’t this girl speak without annoying people? 

Although, it really was the unsmart Koyomi-san’s method. 

“By the way, what did I input earlier again?” 

It seems that even if my life is returned with magic, the memories I had from before I died have been lost, causing me to forget what I’d input previously. 

    “You wrote in      .” 

“So I was going to try them all…” 

Rather than unsmart, I was unsavable. 

Although I did get saved. 

“I’m sure there must be hints leading to a 4-digit code inside this classroom. If we can find those within the time limit, my mission will be a success.” 

“I see. Hints, huh…” 

It certainly started to sound like a game. 

Like one of those so-called escape rooms. 

Rather than the mystery novels Ougi-chan loves so much, it felt more like an adventure novel—mm? Hold on. What did she just say? 

“What’s that time limit? Is there such a thing?” 

As far as I could see, the clock hung above the blackboard was frozen as usual. Right before the time to go home from school. At this point it was like an afterimage, or even just a mere image. Even if it wasn’t in that state, I never had a time limit the other times I came here. 

It was a space which could entrap us for eternity. 

You can’t go home until the answer is found. 

This is this kind of classroom. 

“By time limit, I don’t mean it that way. I guess I should say it has nothing to do with your world, but with our world’s circumstances.” Chinou-chan said, while letting out an embarrassed laughter, “Ehehe”. You could even say she was laughing foolishly. 

“The plan is that, if this mission is deemed impossible to achieve, at that moment, this school will be burned down along with me.”