Monogatari Series - Volume 27 - Chapter 1.01

Ougi Light

001

If I had to say it, then Jouraku Ochiba was indeed the originator of this disturbance, but even now, I still feel that that truth does not sit right with me. Far from being difficult to swallow, it was as though I couldn’t swallow it at all. Neither the heat nor the cold of that truth could pass through my throat. If this were the usual, then I would list some special characteristics about her to get things off to a good start, but when it came to Jouraku Ochiba, I had no idea what to write, what I should write, and what I didn’t want to write about her.

Because she had no special characteristics.

There was nothing special to note about her.

There was nothing to note about her, not even “not special”.

There was no way to fill in this blank paper.

Just between us—I, or rather, we are entertained by those that are entertaining, and interested in those that are interesting. We’re crazy about oddballs and freaks, and abnormally in love with abnormal people. We like geniuses, and love idiots.

We hold special feelings for special people.

And we want to write down their stories.

But for Jouraku Ochiba, that was not the case.

She was not a young lady that wielded stationery, she was not a lost child that came biting at you, she was not a superstar beyond one’s reach, she was not a middle schooler that was nothing but cute, and she was not a class representative among class representatives.

She was Jouraku Ochiba.

Of course, in trying to track down the origin, or perhaps the culprit, of the situation, I was able to get somewhat of an understanding of her profile. And while it took a long time for us to meet due to the sparseness of the information, I get the feeling it wouldn’t have changed much even if the contents of that profile had been entirely different.

There was no precedent for such a development.

Or so I’d like to say, but there’d been heaps and loads of these sorts of things in the past... And I simply hadn’t realized due to my own inattention. There were surely more people like Jouraku Ochiba besides the person herself... A massive amount of them.

To an immeasurable degree.

Though she was the true culprit, or the villain of this story, it didn’t actually need to be her—the mastermind could have just as easily been anyone else. It could have been him, or her, or anyone, or even me.

In fact, I would even think like this... It’s strange.

Why hadn’t it been me?

It wasn’t as though I didn’t feel any anger—it wasn’t as though my blood hadn’t been boiling due to her having stirred things up around me. And letting one’s anger get the better of them was a situation that could happen to anyone.

No.

It was a mistake that could happen to anyone.

So—I suppose I had to forgive her.

No matter how extensive and devastating the harm was, no matter how many problems would occur in the future as a result, and no matter how much unrecoverable damage she had done—I suppose we had to forgive her.

Even if she did not utter a single word of apology.