Editing Hyouka:Volume 4 Sappy New Year (section)

===7 (side A)===

"Satoshi would understand. The meaning of a purse that's tied up at its opening and base."

Since I had done what needed to be done, I was free to give Chitanda an explanation. To be precise, I was explaining while being barely conscious after being driven to the wall by the cold.

"Because he knows a lot of trifling things."

Chitanda was also shivering from the cold. But it seems that her physical suffering was being outweighed by her curiosity. She drew closer and urged me to carry on.

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"The purse is a bag. If the opening and base are tied up, it means that the insides are trapped. This implies that we're 'trapped like a rat'."

In the darkness, a white head tilted in puzzlement.

"I...see?"

She clearly doesn't understand yet. I smiled.

"I didn't come up with it. It came from an episode in history. You know the Battle of Anegawa, right?"

Chitanda, with her exceptional grades, was strong when it came to memorizing details from the textbook. She answered smoothly,

"The Battle of Anegawa was fought in the year 1570, between the Oda-Tokugawa coalition and the Azai-Asakura coalition. Oda Nobunaga won that battle."

"It's a famous story from just before that... Do you know the Siege of Kanegazaki?"

Since this didn't appear in the textbook, Chitanda, even with her superior grades, did not know about it. She shook her head.

I then gave a concise explanation.

"When Nobunaga was attacking Asakura, Nobunaga's brother-in-law, Azai, betrayed him. Nobunaga's sister sent a small bag tied at both ends to Nobunaga, who was at the front lines. Upon seeing the bag, Nobunaga realized that his sister was trying to convey the message that he was 'trapped like a rat'. I don't know how much of this actually happened, though."

This explanation made me seem very knowledgeable, but I only knew about this from the manga I borrowed from Satoshi. I read it at the hot spring inn during the summer holidays, I believe. I also watched that same story unfold in the "New Year Drama Special - Winds of Change : Odani Castle" in the afternoon. I did doubt if just one bag would work, and I thought that perhaps putting the effort to write a letter would be better... Anyway, if it doesn't work now, it'll be extremely troubling for us.

Well, it should be fine. In any case, Satoshi would be free, and like us, he would definitely go over to see Ibara. He should understand when he sees the purse. He's the one who lent me the manga, and he also watched the New Year Drama Special earlier. He's the type to be easily influenced by something he sees. If he sees the purse tied at both ends, he'll definitely think back to that historical episode.

"I never knew that such a story existed..."

Finally convinced, Chitanda nodded deeply, as starlight illuminated her profile.

Since the wallet was also picked up and sent to Ibara, I could rely on the patrolling parishioners to deliver the purse as well. If not, I wouldn't have been able to throw the purse out.

But in order to get the message across, we needed a string to tie around the base of the purse. It's impossible to convey the message using the purse alone, no matter how you look at it. However, we couldn't find a suitable piece of string to use in the outhouse. Without the tools, it would just be an empty theory. And then I realized that I was following a mistaken assumption... The string that we needed to find was not necessarily inside the outhouse.

The walls of this shack are brittle. Using the shovel, I broke off a corner of the wall, while apologizing in my heart. This brought the number of small holes I made to two. Since the hole was just small enough to put a hand through, Chitanda consented tacitly,

After that, I climbed onto the taiko platform. My aim was to get to the area near the ceiling of the outhouse, right under the eaves. 

I pushed my hand out of the hole to get the string. A white "Arekusu Shrine" flag was placed near the outhouse, as if cuddling up to it. The flag pole seemed to be too short, so to stabilize the flag, a vinyl string was used to tie it to the eaves of the outhouse. I was aiming for that string. As expected, the solution was waiting outside the outhouse.

This way, I managed to produce the message "trapped like a rat". The rest is up to Satoshi. Well, it should be fine.



The door clattered. And then, a loud voice sounded.

"Houtarou, are you there?"

Chitanda stared at me with widened eyes, as if not being able to believe it. I shrugged and replied,

"Thanks for helping, I was about to freeze to death."

"There's some hot sweet sake waiting for you in the shrine office. Right, I'm opening the door."

Sweet sake, huh. It was the reason we got in this mess, and I don't think I want to see a cup of it right now.

Clatter, clatter, clunk. The aluminum door slowly opened.

Illuminated by the moonlight and the blazing bonfire, Satoshi smiled.

"Yo. Happy new year!"

"Hey. Sappy new year."

Buffeted by the winter wind, Chitanda sneezed.

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