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Owarimonogatari (終物語) or OWARIMONOGATARI: End Tale in the English publication, comprised of three volumes, is the twelfth part of the Monogatari series. The fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth books overall, they contain the stories Ougi Formula (おうぎフォーミュラ), Sodachi Riddle (そだちリドル), Sodachi Lost (そだちロスト), Shinobu Mail (しのぶメイル), Mayoi Hell (まよいヘル), Hitagi Rendezvous (ひたぎランデブー), and Ougi Dark (おうぎダーク).

The English release for the first volume released in December 2019.

Etymology[]

The title is portmanteau of owari, "end", and monogatari, "story".

Synopsis[]

Book One[]

The transfer student with pitch black eyes, Ougi Oshino. As she explains with a smile on her lips, what is Koyomi Araragi's "starting point"? On that day during his first year in middle school, the boy tastes despair—These are the modern-day oddities! Oddities! Oddities!

A shadow that tells of the end of youth pierces through.

Book Two[]

"Suruga Kanbaru is the daughter of my elder sister, you know—a precious gift sleeps within her."

"The lady who knows everything", Izuko Gaen. As she lectures Koyomi Araragi, what is the test that aims to reach the end? Four hundred years after, a resurrected warrior—These are the modern-day oddities! Oddities! Oddities!

Youth cannot end until "his" story is told.

Book Three[]

"That is—the end of your youth." On the morning of the appointed day of the college entrance examinations, Koyomi Araragi headed towards Kita-Shirahebi Shrine. What awaits him there with an unexpected smiling face is the gunshot that marks the final decisive battle—All of the "stories" now meet their resolution!

Overview[]

The first volume of Owarimonogatari contains Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle, and Sodachi Lost. Ougi Formula describes how Araragi Koyomi meets Oshino Ougi for the first time. They become trapped in a mysterious classroom that looks identical to Araragi's classroom two years ago when he was a freshman, reminding him of a fateful event involving his former classmates. Sodachi Riddle describes how Araragi meets Oikura Sodachi in middle school. Araragi delves into his past in order to find out why Oikura holds so much hatred towards Araragi. In Sodachi Lost, more about Oikura and her family is revealed.

The second volume contains Shinobu Mail, and it describes what Araragi and Oshino Shinobu were doing during the event of Tsubasa Tiger. It takes place immediately after Shinobu Time and before Ougi Formula. Gaen Izuko wants Araragi and Kanbaru Suruga to help her confront an ancient Oddity which is possibly related to Shinobu.

The third volume contains Mayoi Hell, Hitagi Rendezvous, and Ougi Dark. In Mayoi Hell, Araragi, to his disbelief, meets Hachikuji Mayoi again. Then Araragi learns of Gaen Izuko's plan to fight "the enemy". In Hitagi Rendezvous, Araragi and Senjougahara Hitagi go on a date to celebrate the end of the college entrance exam. In Ougi Dark, Oshino Ougi's true identity is finally revealed, and Araragi must decide whether to help Ougi or fight her.

Introduced Characters[]

Plot[]

Volume 1[]

Ougi Formula[]

Several months after the events of Shinobu Time, Kanbaru introduces Oshino Ougi to Araragi in school. Ougi wants to talk to him regarding Oddity related matters. Ougi shows Araragi a map that she drew of Naoetsu High School. She points out that there is a room that should exist according to her map, but she can't find the room in the actual school. Believeing it to be Oddity-related, Ougi wants Araragi to help her investigate. When the two reach the place indicated on the map, they find that there is a classroom. They enter the room, but then realize that they are unable to get out. Ougi tries to break the window to get out, but she is unable to damage anything in the classroom. While they are trying to figure out how to escape, Araragi pulls out a notebook from the desk that he is sitting in, and notices that it has his name, "Araragi Koyomi, first year" on it, with his own handwriting. He then realizes that this classroom looks exactly like the one he was in during his freshman year. This causes him to remember a tragedy that happened in this classroom, an event that caused him to believe that having friends will make one weaker, therefore making him antisocial throughout high school until the events of Kizumonogatari. Ougi becomes very curious about his past so Araragi decides to tell her this past event.

Two years ago, during his freshman year, when Araragi was about to leave school, he was stopped by his classmates. His classmates told him that the entire class has a mandatory meeting that day so he had to go back in his classroom. Once back in the class, Araragi is confronted with the class rep, Oikura Sodachi. Oikura has an unnatural hatred towards Araragi, and Araragi has always thought that it was because he was better at math than she was. Oikura as class rep organized this meeting because she suspected that someone was cheating during the last math exam. Before the math exam, Oikura organized a study session to help her classmates prepare for the exam, and about half the class attended. After the test scores for the exam were posted, Oikura realized that those who attended the study session scored unusually higher than those who did not, which caused her to suspect that someone leaked the actual test questions to everyone in the study session. Therefore, Oikura organized the after school class meeting in order to determine who the culprit was, and she didn't allow anyone to leave until then.

According to Araragi, they couldn't determine the real culprit back then, and the meeting ended in the worst way possible. Ougi realizes that they are currently in a very similar situation. She suggests that maybe just like back then, they can't leave the classroom either until they find the culprit who cheated on the test. However, They need to find the actual culprit, and not the culprit that was determined back then, in order to escape the room. Araragi tries to recollect the incident in detail in order to obtain more clues to solve this mystery. During the event, the class made Araragi the jury since he had the least amount of relationship with his classmates and therefore had the least bias. The class tried to determine the culprit by writing down who attended the study session, and which math problems covered in the study session overlapped with those on the actual exam. But in the end, no one was able to provide any convincing evidence about who cheated, and the discussion became increasingly chaotic. Everyone started to accuse each other of cheating, and the argument only escalated with time. Looking at this utter chaos, Araragi realized that it was impossible to have a productive discussion any more. He turned to Oikura for help, and tried to convince her to end the meeting since it was obviously not going anywhere. Oikura, however, replied with "I despise you", and told the entire class about her final solution. Oikura decided to have everyone "vote" for who the cheater is. The student's name was called one by one, and the class voted by raising their hands. Araragi thought this was the worst solution possible.When Araragi's name was called, only Oikura raised her hand. Araragi, who did not attend the study session, had scored a perfect 100 on this test, while Oikura scored 99. This led Oikura to suspect Araragi to be culprit, but everyone knew about Araragi's strength in math despite his weakness in every other subject. However, when it was Oikura's turn, roughly half the class raised their hands. Oikura was therefore deemed as the culprit. She has not gone to school since. The fact that everyone voted for Oikura caused Araragi to lose faith in friends and relationships in general. Oikura was the one who organized the study session as well as the class meeting for the sake of her class, and she was betrayed by her own classmates. It also caused Araragi to realize that anything, no matter how horrible, can be turned into justice by a majority vote.

After finishing his story, Araragi is still stuck with the problem of figuring out the real culprit so that he and Ougi can leave the classroom. Ougi, however, tells Araragi that she already knows who the real culprit is. Ougi also claims that Araragi himself already knows who the real culprit is, and he has been unconsciously protecting that person. Ougi reveals that the real culprit is the homeroom teacher, who was also present during the class meeting. Araragi never mentioned her as his teacher and talked about her as if she were a student in his story because he was unconsciously trying to protect her. The homeroom teacher, who was also the math teacher, helped clean up the classroom the day after the study session so he saw what math problems were written on the blackboard. In order to raise her class average so that she can better her reputation as a teacher, she decided to include some of the math problems she saw on her exam. It is revealed that what disappointed Araragi the most was not because Oikura was voted as the culprit, but because his teacher herself also voted for Oikura. After solving the mystery, Araragi and Ougi are able to leave the room. The entire room seemed to have been an illusion since that room is never seen again. The next day, Araragi is about to enter his classroom but is stopped by Hanekawa Tsubasa. Hanekawa tells him that Oikura Sodachi is in the classroom. It turns out that Oikura is in the same class as Araragi, but Oikura had been absent from school until now so Araragi did not know.

Sodachi Riddle[]

Oikura comes to school after a two year absence. Araragi carefully enters his classroom to find Oikura sitting on his seat. Araragi tries to start up a cheerful conversation with her, but finds that Oikura still despises him. In fact, Oikura's hatred for Araragi seems to have grown even more, almost to the level of insanity. Oikura tells Araragi that she hates a person who is happy, but doesn't appreciate the people who helped him become happy, just like a water that thinks it can boil by itself with no outside help. Oikura mentions Araragi's shoe locker back in 7th grade, and Araragi is confused as to what she is talking about. Oikura's words become increasingly hostile, and Araragi tries to calm her down. Oikura retaliates by stabbing Araragi's hand with a pen. This is seen by Senjougahara Hitagi, who has just entered the classroom. Senjougahara furiously confronts Oikura, and they start fighting. Oikura slaps Senjougahara, and Senjougahara knocks Oikura unconscious.

The next day, both Oikura and Senjougahara are absent from school. In order to find out why Oikura hates him so much, Araragi decides to follow the only clue Oikura provided, "shoe locker in 7th grade". Ougi accompanies Araragi to the middle school that he used to attend. They find the shoe locker that used to belong to Araragi. Ougi opens the locker, and finds three envelopes addressed to Araragi, labeled a, b, and c, respectively. As soon as Araragi sees the letters, he remembers an event back in 7th grade that he had forgotten all about, an event that made him like mathematics. The envelope labeled "a" says, "b is wrong, Do your want to change your choice to c?" Araragi knows that this is the Monty Hall problem, where changing your choice from "a" to "c" in this situation is statistically better than sticking to your original choice of "a". The "b" envelope is empty, while the "c" envelope has a map that leads them to an abandoned house. Araragi then tells Ougi about the story involving this house, which he used to call the haunted house.

5 years ago when he just entered middle school as 7th grade, he was behind in school. Classes suddenly got harder for Araragi, and he was especially struggling in math. One day during the summer he found three envelopes in his locker. Opening all three envelopes, he found the map in the "c" envelope, and went to the same abandoned house. A girl about Araragi's age came out of the house, and she invited him inside to learn mathematics together. In the house the girl explained to him about the logic of the Monty Hall problem and what the letters meant. Araragi became excited about this problem, and for the first time in his life he thought learning math was fun. The girl told Araragi she could teach him about interesting mathematical problems like this everyday. So from that day on, Araragi came to the abandoned house everyday to learn math from the girl. Oikura agreed to teach him math on several conditions. One was to never ask her name, and one was to never stop loving math. She never asked for anything in return, and she also told Araragi to not tell anyone about their meeting. However, one day, towards the end of summer break, he came to the abandoned house, but the girl never came. Araragi only found an envelope taped to the bottom of the study table, and the envelope was empty. From that day on, he never saw the girl again.

Araragi realizes now that the girl back then was Oikura. She was the reason Araragi is good at math. He forgot about who made him who he is, and he also failed to recognize Oikura when he met her again in freshman year of high school. However, he still didn't understand why she suddenly disappeared in 7th grade and why she was in an abandoned house. At this point, Ougi helps Araragi reveal the truth. She suggests that Araragi's memory is distorted, and what looks like an abandoned house now wasn't an abandoned house back then. What Araragi thought was an abandoned house was actually Oikura's home. It looked abandoned because the house was in poor condition, with broken windows and furnitures. Ougi deduced that the reason why the house looked so abused despite people living there was because domestic violence was taking place in the house. Oikura at the time didn't want anything in return from Araragi, but Ougi reveals that it was a lie. In fact, Oikura desperately wanted help from Araragi to solve her parents' domestic violence. The reason Oikura chose Araragi was because she knew both of Araragi's parents were police officers. By inviting Araragi over to her house, Oikura hoped that he would report the poor condition of the home to his parents. Oikura told Araragi not to tell anyone about their meeting because she didn't want to be responsible for separating her parents. She wanted Araragi to take action himself. Araragi, however, took Oikura's words to heart, and so he never told anyone. He completely believed that Oikura wanted him to learn math, and had no ulterior motive. Ougi suggests that the reason Oikura suddenly left at the end of summer was probably because her family condition reached a breaking point, and they had to move.

Araragi finally begins to realize the reasons for Oikura's hatred. Oikura was desperately hoping for Araragi to help her, but Araragi's inaction and foolishness was a complete disappointment for her. In the end, Araragi gained the talent for mathematics, and Oikura gained nothing. After this revelation, Araragi decides to apologize to Oikura.

Sodachi Lost[]

It has been three days since the fight between Oikura and Senjougahara, and neither of them have still come to school. Hanekawa decides to take action by going to their respective homes and convincing them to come to school. Hanekawa asks Araragi to visit Oikura's home and she in turn will visit Senjougahara's home. Araragi tells Hanekawa about the events of the past few days involving the classroom and Oikura. Hanekawa becomes rather suspicious about Oshino Ougi, and wonders why she seems so close to Araragi. Araragi is about to head to Oikura's home when he is met by Ougi. Ougi attempts to accompany Araragi but is stopped by Hanekawa. Still suspicious of Ougi, Hanekawa decides to accompany Araragi instead of visiting Senjougahara. At Oikura's apartment, Araragi tries to apologize to her, but Oikura is still unforgiving. Oikura tells Araragi and Hanekawa about her past. Oikura reveals that it was her father who physically abused her mother. After Oikura moved during 7th grade, her parents divorced, and Oikura was left to live with her mother. Devastated by the divorce, Oikura's mother locked herself in her room and refused to go outside or eat. Oikura therefore had to take care of her mother and the house, living off of government assistance. However, she was too young to take care of household chores so trash kept piling up. Two years past, and one day Oikura comes home to find that her mother had disappeared. After that, the government provided her with a new home, and she started attending Naoetsu High School, meeting Araragi again as a high school freshman. Even now she has no idea where her mother is. Oikura says that even though Araragi isn't really to blame for her family condition, it was easier to direct her hatred and blame towards him. After some discussion, Oikura doesn't seem to despise Araragi as much any more. Before Araragi and Hanekawa leave, Oikura asks them to find her mother. She promises to come to class again, and even apologize to Senjougahara, if they can find her mother.

After leaving Oikura's home, Araragi and Hanekawa discusses where Oikura's mother may be. Hanekawa is curious about the fact that the day the mother disappeared, both the front door and the mother's room were locked. She finds it strange that a person who is about to run away from home will lock her own room. While the two are talking, Ougi appears. Ougi claims to know the answer, and mocks Hanekawa for still not figuring it out. Ougi tells Araragi that he should have brought her along instead of Hanekawa. Ougi agrees to reveal the answer if Hanekawa can apologize for "stealing" Araragi from her. At this moment Hanekawa also realizes the answer, and then tells Araragi that it is better if Oikura doesn't find out about where her mother is. After getting hints from both Ougi and Hanekawa, Araragi finally finds out the truth as well. It turns out that it meant very literally when Oikura said her mother refused to eat. Her mother refused to eat until she starved herself to death. Because of Oikura's psychological problems she didn't realize that her mother has died. Oikura had been living and "taking care" of her mother's corpse for two years. She didn't notice the smell of a decaying body because it was covered by the smell of trash that had been piling up in the house. Oikura came home one day and couldn't find her mother not because her mother left home, but because in a period of two years, her mother's body rotted until it completely disintegrated. Despite learning this horrible truth, Araragi still decides to go and tell Oikura, much to Hanekawa and Ougi's surprise. After Araragi told Oikura about the truth, Oikura took it surprisingly well. Oikura seems to have suspected this possibility. In the end Oikura appears to forgive Araragi. However, Oikura tells him that she still can't come to school any more. The government can't provide her anymore support for her to live in the current home so she has to move again. The next day, Araragi finds out that Oikura apologized to Senjougahara in the end. He also finds a letter from Oikura under his desk. The content of the letter is not revealed to the reader, but it seems to be of a positive note.

Volume 2[]

Shinobu Mail[]

As described in Shinobu Time, Gaen Izuko requests the help of Kanbaru Suruga for a certain job. Following Gaen's request, Araragi reluctantly contacts Kanbaru and asks her to meet him at the abandoned Eikou cram school building at night. Araragi and Oshino Shinobu's pairing had been severed from the events of Shinobu Time. The pairing still hasn't been recovered, and Shinobu is still missing. While Araragi and Kanbaru are talking in the building, a figure in full samurai armor appears before them. Kanbaru attacks the armor with her Monkey's Paw, breaking it into pieces, which reveals that the armor is completely empty. The armor quickly reassembles itself. Kanbaru tries to attack it again, but the armor uses Energy Drain on her. With Kanbaru weakened, the armor approaches Araragi, and attempts to strangle him. Araragi is saved by a sudden pillar of fire, which causes the armor to release him, (this pillar of fire is created by Kako, the tiger Oddity that Hanekawa Tsubasa created in Tsubasa Tiger). Before disappearing, the armor talks to Araragi, saying that it wants the Kokorowatari back from Kiss-shot. Araragi tries to escape the building with Kanbaru, but both of them have been weakened by the fight, and pillars of fire are blocking all the exits. They are finally saved by Yotsugi Ononoki.

After escaping from the building, Araragi and Kanbaru head for the park, where they are supposed to meet Gaen Izuko. They arrive at the park, and find that no one is there. However, they find the missing Shinobu. Shinobu explains that she was fighting against a monkey Oddity earlier with the help of Black Hanekawa. They struggled until Ononoki appeared and used Unlimited Rulebook to destroy the right side of the Oddity's body. As Araragi and Shinobu are talking, the monkey Oddity comes back. Its form has changed into a half-monkey, half-crab monster with a tail of a snake. Araragi and the others are able to defeat it with the help of Kokorowatari. They then find a message left by Gaen, saying that the meeting place has changed to the Kitashirahebi Shrine. On the way to the shrine, Araragi explains what happened in the cram school building to Shinobu, and asks Shinobu if it is possible that the samurai armor he saw is Shinobu's first vampire servant. Shinobu denies the possibility, because she saw with her own eyes how her servant committed suicide by stepping into the sunlight.

When they reach the shrine, they finally meet Gaen. Gaen explains to them the identity of the samurai armor. She reveals that the armor really is the resurrected first servant of Shinobu from 400 years ago. After the first servant, or the first Oddity-slayer, was burned to ashes by the sunlight, he never quite died since vampires are immortal. His ashes drifted through the air for 400 years until they all gathered inside the Kitashirahebi Shrine 15 years ago. The ashes settled there because that was his home village when he was still human. Because the first Oddity-slayer was such a powerful Oddity, it attracted other Oddity to the shrine, which gave rise to the high occurrences Oddity that Araragi had encountered. The Oddity-slayer in turn fed on the Oddity attracted to the shrine, and he slowly regained his power. Gaen speculates that the reason Shinobu as Kiss-shot came to Araragi's town in the first place was because she was unconsciously attracted to her former servant. Oddity-slayer’s recovery was hindered by the paper charm that Meme Oshino asked Araragi to stick on the shrine during the events of Nadeko Snake. However, when Araragi and Shinobu went to the shrine during Mayoi Jiangshi, the Oddity-slayer "saw" Shinobu, and his resurrection quickly accelerated. Now the Oddity-slayer has become powerful enough to take material form. Gaen plans to eliminate him before he gains back his full power, which is why she needs help from Araragi and Kanbaru.

Gaen then leaves the shrine to meet up with a professional that she hired to help fight the Oddity-slayer. Araragi leaves as well to buy food and run some errands, leaving Shinobu and Kanbaru behind. At a bookstore, Araragi meets the first Oddity-slayer (the samurai armor) in the form of a boy. The Oddity-slayer wants to have a heart-to-heart talk with Araragi, so they leave the bookstore. The Oddity-slayer seems to mean Araragi no harm, and even hands him a bottle of tea. While he was recovering in the shrine for the past 15 years, he has most knowledge of all Oddity related events that took place in this town. The Oddity-slayer wants Araragi to leave Shinobu, and let him replace Araragi as Shinobu’s servant. He claims to regret what he had done in the past, and he wants to apologize to Shinobu and be with her again. Araragi doesn’t believe his intentions, and thinks that he just wants revenge. Oddity-slayer says he is a much more qualified partner for Shinobu than Araragi. While thinking about how to argue back, Araragi decides to take sip of the tea he was given. Before his mouth can touch the bottle, a giant cross flies in front of him, destroying the bottle. Araragi turns to find that it was the vampire hunter Episode that threw the giant cross. He was the professional Gaen hired. Episode says that the tea was actually holy water, which would have been lethal even to Araragi who has miniscule vampire trait. Gaen also arrives at the scene, and the Oddity-slayer retreats. Before he escapes, Oddity-slayer challenges Araragi to a duel, and whoever wins will be the rightful partner for Shinobu.

Gaen and Episode leaves to track down the Oddity-slayer, while Araragi goes back to the shrine by himself. At the shrine, he meets Ononoki, who is eavesdropping on a conversation between Shinobu and Kanbaru. Araragi is surprised to find out that the two are arguing. Kanbaru suggests Shinobu should meet and talk to the Oddity-slayer, while Shinobu furiously refuses. Shinobu claims it is too late for reconciliation, while Kanbaru argues that Shinobu is too afraid to meet her past and face her first servant. Shinobu is afraid that she will choose the Oddity-slayer over Araragi. Kanbaru tells Shinobu that she can't run away from the problem. Araragi realizes that the relationship between Shinobu and Oddity-slayer is similar to situation with Senjougahara and Kanbaru described in Suruga Monkey. Therefore, Kanbaru understands Oddity-slayer's feelings better than anyone else. Upset, Shinobu locks herself inside the shrine.

Gaen and Episode arrives at the shrine, and explains the details of the duel tonight. As a former Oddity expert himself, the Oddity-slayer agrees to let Gaen set the rules of the duel. Episode was originally going to duel the Oddity-slayer since he has a better chance of winning. However, Araragi wants to face Oddity-slayer by himself for Shinobu’s sake. Episode is fine either way, and tells him that he doesn’t need to win the duel, since Gaen and Episode will be able to defeat the Oddity-slayer afterwards. Araragi just needs to make sure he doesn’t die from the duel; otherwise Shinobu will reawaken her powers as Kiss-shot. The location of the duel will be the Naoetsu High School ground, the same place Araragi fought the vampire hunters in Koyomi Vamp.

At the night of the duel, Araragi, Kanbaru, Gaen and Episode arrive at the school ground. Shinobu still refused to come out of the shrine, and the pairing still hasn’t been recovered, so Araragi has to fight without any vampire powers. Oddity-slayer arrives in his samurai armor form, and Gaen explains the rules of the duel. Gaen sticks a shinai into the ground, and has Oddity-slayer and Araragi to stand beside it. Then the two will walk 10 steps in opposite directions. At the 10th step, they will run back towards the shinai. Whoever can grab the shinai and strike the opponents body with it, (similarly to kendo), will win. Gaen figures using a shinai will minimize the chance that Araragi will die from the duel. Before they begin, Araragi receives a mail from Hanekawa Tsubasa. This is the same night that Hanekawa will face Kako the tiger, so she wanted Araragi’s help. Only then does Araragi find out that Hanekawa is in danger. Gaen adds that Senjougahara is in danger as well, since Kako will burn down her home just like it burned down Hanekawa’s home and the cram school building. Gaen says Araragi can abandon this duel and let Episode take his place so that he can go help Hanekawa and Senjougahara. Araragi, however, sticks to the duel and has Kanbaru run off to warn Senjougahara.

The duel is about to begin, and suddenly, Kokorowatari falls down from the sky, and splits the shinai in half. Araragi realizes that it was Shinobu who threw it, but she doesn’t show her face. Oddity-slayer doesn’t understand why Shinobu doesn’t want to see him. Gaen is surprised, but suggested that they have no choice but to use the Kokorowatari as the weapon instead, making the stakes of the duel much higher. The duel finally begins, and Araragi and Oddity-slayer takes their 10 steps. After the 10th step, Araragi turns around to run for the Kokorowatari, when he realizes that the Oddity-slayer has taken off all the armor in order to run faster. The Oddity-slayer gets to the Kokorowatari first, and he prepares to cut down Araragi. Araragi quickly latches on to Oddity-slayer’s body, and sticks on him Meme’s paper charm that he peeled off of the shrine. Oddity-slayer quickly disintegrates, and all the Oddity he had been absorbing over the years disperses. Oddity-slayer screams out Kiss-shot’s name, and only then does Araragi realize that the Oddity-slayer truly cared for Shinobu, and wanted to see her again. The Oddity-slayer eventually loses his ability to speak, and Shinobu finally shows herself. She apologizes to the Oddity-slayer, and calls out his real name, Seishirou, (Seishi means life and death). Crying, Shinobu devours the Oddity-slayer, and all the Oddity that made him up. Once everything is resolved, Araragi is presumed to have gone to help Hanekawa as described at the end of Tsubasa Tiger. At the end of the story, Ougi asks Araragi whether Shinobu also devoured the armor that Seishirou took off during the duel, but Araragi doesn't remember. Ougi suggests that the armor can be used to forge another replica of Kokorowatari and even Yumewatari. It is the morning of the college entrance exam, and after Ougi leaves, Araragi heads for school.

Volume 3[]

Mayoi Hell[]

Araragi heads for school to take the college entrance exam. Before going to school, he visits the Kitashirahebi Shrine, hoping to meet Kagenui Yozuru. Kagenui has been missing for a month. Before he knows it, he is standing in front of Hachikuji Mayoi. Araragi is extremely happy to see Hachikuji, but he is also confused since she was supposed have passed on to the afterlife after the event of Shinobu Time. Hachikuji explains that this is because Araragi himself is in the afterlife. He is in the lowest level of Hell, Avīci. Araragi then remembers what happened the morning of the college entrance exam. He went to the shrine, and saw Gaen Izuko there. Gaen cut him into pieces with the Kokorowatari, killing him. The reason why Araragi went to Hell is because he saved a vampire, Kiss-shot, back in spring break, which is considered one of the worst crimes. Hachikuji is in Hell as well because dying before her parents is also considered a crime punishable in Hell. The sentence for Hachikuji’s crime is very light, so she resides in the uppermost level of Hell. Hachikuji came down to Avīci in order to escort Araragi, because she knew he would end up here.

The Hell currently has the appearance of Araragi’s town, and they are in the park. Hachikuji takes Araragi to meet someone. On the way, they encounter past events replayed in front of them, including the injured and bleeding Kiss-shot on the street, the falling Senjougahara, and Sengoku Nadeko hastily running down the stairs of Kitashirahebi Shrine. Seeing these visions and looking back at the people Araragi has helped, he comes to the realization even if he chose not to help those people, another person would have helped them eventually. During spring break, Kiss-shot could have been saved by her former servant Seishirou, who was slowly recovering in the shrine. Senjougahara’s weightlessness would have been solved by Kaiki Deishu while he was in town. However, Araragi realizes that despite knowing this, he would still have chosen to help those people if he could redo his past.

They arrive at a place that appears to be the Kitashirahebi Shrine. To Araragi’s surprise, he finds Tadatsuru Teori waiting for them there. Teori was supposedly killed by Ononoki Yotsugi during Yotsugi Doll, but Teori has actually been dead long before that. After creating Ononoki along with others in the occult circle back in college, Teori was inspired to make himself an Oddity and become immortal. This was a forbidden ritual, and he failed, dying in the process. However the ritual didn’t completely fail and he gained the ability to control “dolls" from the afterworld. The one that Ononoki “killed” was simply one of his dolls. Gaen and Teori has been in contact with each other through his doll, and Gaen has been communicating with Hachikuji through Teori. Teori explains to Araragi that Gaen killed Araragi with Kokorogatari, and plans to resurrect him with Yumewatari, while Teori takes out the vampire traits from Araragi. This way, Araragi will revive as a full human.

Even though Teori had been outside of Gaen’s influence, he started to keep in touch with Gaen recently. Some time ago, Teori was contacted by Oshino Meme. Meme had predicted the various turn of events, so he told Teori that someone might contact Teori to kill Araragi and Shinobu in the near future. If that ever happens, Meme wanted Teori to set aside his past grudges, and contact Gaen. When Meme’s prediction came true, Teori decided to follow Meme's suggestion. Gaen and Teori decided that it was best to feign ignorance to avoid raising any suspicions by the “enemy”. So Teori pretended to follow the request to kill Araragi, and got himself, (or rather his doll), “killed” by Ononoki on purpose. Only Gaen and Meme knows about this secret. Everything was an intricate plan to defeat the “enemy”.

A rope comes down from the sky, which upon closer inspection is a tail of a snake. Gaen has dropped it down to Hell in order to bring Araragi back to life. As Araragi is being pulled back up, he instinctively grabs Hachikuji, dragging her back up as well. Before they leave Hell, Teori reveals to Araragi that the “enemy” they are fighting against is Oshino Ougi. Araragi is back at the shrine, and he sees Shinobu in her full Kiss-shot form wrapping her hands around Gaen’s neck. When Araragi was killed, the pairing between him and Shinobu was completely severed, causing Shinobu to transform back to her former self. Shinobu was planning to kill Gaen if Gaen failed to resurrect Araragi. Seeing as how Araragi is back safely, she releases Gaen. Gaen is shocked that Araragi brought Hachikuji with him, but she is also glad that he did. Gaen says all of the necessary pieces are set, and she is ready for counterattack. Araragi realizes that less than two minutes have passed since he was sent to Hell, so he heads to school for the college entrance exam.

Hitagi Rendezvous[]

Araragi finishes his entrance exam, and goes home. He finds Senjougahara waiting for him outside his house. Senjougahara wants to go on a major date with him tomorrow. Araragi had been too busy studying for the exam and dealing with Oddity related problems, that they hadn’t had a date for months, so Senjougahara wants to make up for it. Tomorrow is also White Day, a Japanese holiday a occurring one month after Valentine’s Day. Araragi agrees, and he goes home to rest after talking with Ononoki Yotsugi and Araragi Tsukihi.

The next day, Araragi goes to Senjougahara’s home for the date. To his horror, Senjougahara is holding a car key, and she is planning to go driving with him. Senjougahara reassures him that she already has a license. Araragi is still terrified since high school students are forbidden to drive. Senjougahara is not worried, and they head out in a rental car. While driving, Senjougahara informs Araragi that Hanekawa is coming back tomorrow from her travels in time for their graduation. She also says that Hanekawa may have found out where Oshino Meme is, and will try to bring him back, but Senjougahara didn’t ask for any more details. Their first dating destination is the planetarium. Araragi falls asleep during the program, and Oshino Ougi appears in his dream. They talk about constellations and the meaning of what’s right and wrong. Ougi tells Araragi that she is the law of the universe. Araragi wakes up to find that Senjougahara has also dozed off. They leave the planetarium and go to a science museum. After lunch, they go to play bowling. Senjougahara challenges Araragi to a bowling match, and the loser must obey the winner's order. Araragi has never played bowling before, but he manages to win. Senjougahara bitterly admits defeat. Araragi doesn't want to order Senjougahara to do anything so he settles with asking her a random favor. They then go to afternoon tea, where Araragi explains what happened on the day of the exam. Afterwards they go to sing karaoke. Senjougahara turns on the scoring system, and challenges Araragi to another competition. Whoever has a higher total score in a period of two hours wins, and the loser again must obey the winner's order. Araragi beat Senjougahara by just three points. Araragi is again reluctant about giving Senjougahara orders, so she suggests carrying (bridal carry) her to the car. While they are heading home, Araragi apologizes to Senjougahara for not preparing any gifts for her on White Day. Senjougahara doesn’t mind, but she suddenly pretends to be furious in order to get him to obey her one order. She wants Araragi to call her by her given name, Hitagi, for the rest of his life. Araragi realizes that Senjougahara challenged him to all those competitions just so that she could make this request. He happily agrees to call her Hitagi, and Senjougahara calls him “Koyomi” in return.

Araragi walks home to find Ougi waiting outside his house. Ougi asks him if he’s figured out the meaning of right and wrong. Araragi tells her he still isn’t sure. Ougi asks him to abandon Hachikuji and Shinobu, but Araragi refuses. Ougi claims that Gaen has set up a trap for Ougi, but she has no choice but to fall for it. She has something she needs to accomplish that is worth dying for. Ougi ends the conversation by asking Araragi if he will be on her side and help her.

Ougi Dark[]

Araragi and Ononoki go to the Shirohebi Park to meet Gaen, Shinobu, and Hachikuji. Gaen reveals her final plan to fight Oshino Ougi. First she explains the history of this town. This town was originally the village in Japan that Shinobu as Kiss-shot came 400 years ago. The villagers used to worship a snake god residing in the lake. When Kiss-shot arrived, she accidentally landed right on the village lake, instantly splashing every drop of water out of the lake. This caused the water to rain on the entire village, saving the crops from drought, but drying out the lake also killed the original snake god. Even though the villagers worshipped Kiss-shot as the new god of the lake for some time, most of them were devoured by “Darkness”. When Kiss-shot escaped to South Pole, the village was almost deserted with no god. The survivors wanted a new god, so they adopted a snake god worshipped by a small number of people living in the mountain. They built a shrine in that mountain, and that became Kitashirahebi Shrine. Since the lake has long been dried up, the fact that there used to be a god there was slowly forgotten. That lake is the location of the present-day Shirohebi Park. The Kitashirahebi Shrine was destroyed along with its god when the ashes of Seishirou gathered in the shrine.

Gaen says there are two things that must be done; find a new god for the shrine and defeat Ougi. A god is necessary in order to keep the peace and repel Oddity in this town, which is why Gaen initially wanted Shinobu to become a god after the events of Shinobu Mail. Gaen was still planning to have the fully-powered Shinobu become the god. However, because Araragi accidentally brought Hachikuji from Hell, she figured Hachikuji is a much better candidate. Hachikuji is still considered a ghost, so “Darkness” will attempt to swallow her unless she returns to Hell. If she becomes god, “Darkness” will no longer have any reason to attack her. However, Gaen says the real “Darkness” will not attack her, but Ougi, the “fake Darkness” will, so Ougi must be defeated, which leads into the second part of Gaen’s plan. According to Gaen, Ougi is an ordinary Oddity who’s pretending to be “Darkness”. Gaen asks if Araragi is willing to help her defeat Ougi. Gaen was originally going to defeat Ougi using the Kokorowatari, but only way to permanently destroy Ougi is for Araragi to do it himself. Araragi agrees, and Gaen reveals to him Ougi’s true identity. Ougi cannot be defeated unless her true identity is known. As soon as her identity is exposed, she will become a Oddity pretending to be something she’s not, and she will be devoured by the true “Darkness”. Gaen knows how to defeat this type of Oddity because she saw her sister, Gaen Tooe (Kanbaru’s mother), meet a similar Oddity.

Before Gaen tells Araragi about the true identity of Ougi, the scene shifts to Araragi Tsukihi. Tsukihi has been visiting Sengoku, and helping her draw manga. On her way home, Tsukihi meets Ougi, who offers to take her home with bicycle. Instead of taking her home, Ougi takes her to the abandoned cram school building, which has somehow returned to the state before Tsubasa Tiger. Ougi attempts to tell Tsukihi that she is a Phoenix Oddity, but before she can do that, she sees Araragi waiting for her in the building. Ougi asks Tsukihi to go back home. With Araragi alone with Ougi, Araragi proceeds to defeat Ougi by calling out her true identity. Ougi’s true identity is Araragi Koyomi himself.

The scene flashes back to the park, where Gaen reveals that Ougi’s true identity is Araragi Koyomi himself. She is an Oddity that Araragi created, similarly to how Hanekawa’s stress created Black Hanekawa, and Sengoku’s hallucinations created the white snake Kuchinawa. Ougi represents Araragi’s self-criticism. When Araragi saw "Darkness" for the first time in Shinobu Time, he realized that there is a law dictating over the world of Oddity. Araragi knows that he is too weak, too hesitant, too emotional to make harsh decisions, and he subconsciously wished for a being that can judge him, and "correct" everything wrong in this world. His desire came true as Oshino Ougi. This explains why Ougi knows everything regarding Araragi, even things that Araragi didn’t tell her, and he meets Ougi everywhere even in his dreams. This also explains why Ougi always says, “I don’t know anything Araragi-senpai; you do”. Araragi always criticizes himself for his shortcomings, and feels like he should be punished for what he’s done. Ougi acts as his ultimate critic, and forces him to remember memories that he wants to forget, as in Ougi Formula and Sodachi Riddle. Even when Araragi consciously wants Hachikuji to stay in his town, deep under he feels Hachikuji coming back is too good to be true, and he doesn’t deserve it. That is why Ougi will not allow Hachikuji to become god. The reason Oshino Meme and Kagenui Yozuru are missing is because Ougi put up a barrier that prevents them from entering the town. In addition Ougi used a Snail Oddity similar to Hachikuji so that they will get lost and cannot find their way back home. This is because Araragi feels bad about always depending on Oddity experts to solve his problems. He thinks this is “cheating”. Gaen, however is able to enter the town because she can cut down the barrier with the Kokorowatari that she forged out of Seishirou’s armor.

Gaen Tooe’s Oddity was also created by herself. Tooe had extremely high expectations of herself and those around her. Before long she gained a tendency to lose things. She realized that all the items she was losing had something in common, which were things that were desired but not necessary. Her Oddity was consuming everything that was deemed as distractions in her life. In the end, Tooe was able to identify the Oddity as herself, and gave it the name, “Rainy Devil”, before it could devour her friends and boyfriend. Tooe later passed down the remaining arm of the Rainy Devil to her daughter Kanbaru Suruga. There are several conditions that reinforced Araragi’s creation of Ougi. When Araragi first met Seishirou in his samurai armor form, Seishirou drained some power from Kanbaru’s Rainy Devil arm, which transferred some of the essence of Tooe’s Oddity into Seishirou. Afterwards, Seishirou was devoured by Shinobu, and Rainy Devil was transferred into Shinobu. Finally, because of the special link between Shinobu and Araragi, some of Rainy Devil seeped into Araragi, promoting him to create a similar Oddity. Gaen knew what Ougi wanted to do before Araragi’s graduation. Deep down, Araragi doesn’t think it’s right for Tsukihi to live her life without knowing about the fact that she is actually an immortal Oddity, so Ougi wanted to expose to Tsukihi the secret about the Phoenix Oddity. Knowing this, Gaen had Araragi wait for Ougi at the cram school ahead of time.

The scene switches back to the cram school. As soon as Araragi identifies Ougi as a part of himself, the real “Darkness” appears, preparing to swallow Ougi. Ougi admits defeat, and claims that Araragi had been right all along. Right when “Darkness” is about to swallow Ougi, Araragi runs up, and knocks Ougi over, saving her from “Darkness”. Ougi, showing real emotion for the first time, asks him why he has the urge to save people every time. Araragi replies by saying he’s not saving someone else. For the first time he’s saving himself, since Ougi is essentially himself. This is the first time Araragi acts out selfishly. Araragi wasn’t able to completely dodge “Darkness”, and it sucked away his right arm, causing him to bleed profusely. Ougi is able to stop the bleeding, but there seems to be no hope since “Darkness” is just about to swallow them both.

At that moment, Oshino Meme arrives at the scene, followed by an exhausted-looking Hanekawa. It turns out Ougi sent Meme and Kagenui to the South Pole and North Pole, respectively, where there are no Oddities. Hanekawa was able to find Meme in the South Pole and bring him back in time. To Araragi, Meme says, “Hey, what are you doing to my dear niece Ougi? Did something good happen?” As soon as he says that, “Darkness” disappears. Oshino Ougi is a fake name and the fact that Ougi is Oshino’s niece is a lie. However, since Meme himself admits that Ougi is his niece, it is no longer considered a “lie”, and “Darkness" disappears. Meme said that on purpose in order to save Ougi and Araragi.

Gaen is once again amazed at Araragi’s final decision, but she deems it acceptable. Hachikuji swallows the snake god charm, and becomes the official god of Kitashirahebi Shrine as planned. Despite Shinobu getting her powers back, she would still rather go back to her child form and have her pairing restored with Araragi again. Therefore, Gaen recovers the pairing between the two, and Araragi becomes a vampire-hybrid again. The next day, Araragi goes to graduation and meets Hachikuji on the way, who is now a god patrolling the town. He then meets Hanekawa at school. When Hanekawa was initially looking for Meme, she was constantly looking in places that Meme would most likely be. Later she realized that her approach had been backwards, and she should look in places where Meme was least likely to be, which was either the North or South Pole. On the way, they also meet Senjougahara. As they are climbing the stairs, a girl passes by. Araragi asks Senjougahara and Hanekawa to get his diploma for him, and runs after the girl. He catches up, and cheerfully greets the smiling Oshino Ougi.

Illustrations[]

Anime[]

See also: Owarimonogatari (anime series)

The first two volumes of Owarimonogatari were adapted into anime through a 12 episode series of the same name in Fall 2015. The final volume adaptation arrived in Summer 2017 with 7 episodes.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Book 15 (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Book 16 (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Book 17 (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Book 15, Part 1 Published by Vertical.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Book 15, Part 2 Published by Vertical.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Book 15, Part 3 Published by Vertical.

Navigation[]

v  e
First Season 1. Bakemonogatari (One) • 2. Bakemonogatari (Two) • 3. Kizumonogatari • 4. Nisemonogatari (One) • 5. Nisemonogatari (Two) • 6. Nekomonogatari (Black)
Second Season 7. Nekomonogatari (White) • 8. Kabukimonogatari • 9. Hanamonogatari • 10. Otorimonogatari • 11. Onimonogatari • 12. Koimonogatari
Final Season 13. Tsukimonogatari • 14. Koyomimonogatari • 15. Owarimonogatari (One) • 16. Owarimonogatari (Two) • 17. Owarimonogatari (Three) • 18. Zoku Owarimonogatari
Off Season 19. Orokamonogatari • 20. Wazamonogatari • 21. Nademonogatari • 22. Musubimonogatari Tsugimonogatari
Monster Season 23. Shinobumonogatari • 24. Yoimonogatari • 25. Amarimonogatari • 26. Ougimonogatari • 27. Shinomonogatari (One) • 28. Shinomonogatari (Two)
Family Season 29. Ikusamonogatari • 30. Tsugimonogatari
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