Hyouka:Volume 1 Chapter 5

5 - The Hidden Seal of the Pedigree Classics Club

While Kamiyama High School does provide curriculum for university entrance exams, it does not particularly do much to improve its university entrance rankings. It only holds mock exams for prospective university students only once or twice annually, and they do not hold extra lessons during holidays. All in all, it was a pretty laid back school.

However, even so, Kamiyama High still has regular exams. If a high-school student's life is rosy-coloured, than the exam halls would be his natural enermy. And so the Classics Club activities had come to a halt as club activities are prohibited during the End of Semester Exams for the First Semester. Though it's not like we have much to do anyway, we still had to hand the club room key over to the school.

Today is the final day of the exams. I laid down on my bed in my own room and stared at the ceiling. And as usual, there was nothing particularly different about this white ceiling.

In terms of exam results, the members of the Classics Club yielded some interesting revelations.

First, Fukube Satoshi. Though he's well-versed in all sorts of useless trivial knowledge, he doesn't have much interest in regular studies. As the exams have just ended today, so I can't exactly tell how he performed, but I do know that he was terrible in the Mid-Term Tests. At any rate, back then Satoshi explained to me, "That's because I was busy studying why Japanese people nowadays no longer write their kanji in the cursive style." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_(East_Asia) ) If Satoshi thinks something is important, then it must be important enough for him. No disrespect to him, but in the long-term, I think it probably sounds foolish. Though I don't think Satoshi would care one bit. If I call him a free soul because of it, he'd probably take it as a compliment. To put it simply, he's just a generic fool.

Though she's normally with the Manga Studies Club, in order to continue pursuing Satoshi, Ibara Mayaka too has joined the Classics Club. She's probably the hard-working type. As she would usually make sure to check up on any mistakes made, her grades are in the upper half of the class. However, devoting so much time into studying does not seem to improve her grades at all. To put it simply, Ibara's a bit neurotic, you could say she's a perfectionist. Though her tongue may be sharp, her downside is probably that she is too obsessed with perfection, and would end up struggling to find the perfect answers to her exam questions. I think she applies the same standards to herself as well.

Then there's Chitanda Eru, who stands out among the rest with her high scores. A look at the score ranking board reveals she's ranked 6th in the entire grade. Though she doesn't seem satisfied with that, or even the high school curriculum for that matter. She once told me she wasn't content with just learning the parts, she wanted to learn the entire system. I had absolutely no idea what she meant by that. Though her words were vague, I could tell why this lady was so intent in getting her curiosity resolved. For example the case involving her uncle, she probably wanted to find out the entire "system" regarding the information concerning what her uncle said to her back then. She's the sort that wants to find out the cause by all means.

As for me, my grades were normal.

Out of 350 people, I ranked 175th. As though it was some sort of prank, I was ranked right in the middle. I was not concerned about Chitanda's curiosity getting her good grades or Satoshi's eccentricity getting him bad grades, neither did I think much about Ibara being unhappy with the mistakes she's made. While I wasn't that laid back as to not study for the exams, my studying was lukewarm at best. Occasionally, I would get people telling me how much I've changed, but to me, it simply means they aren't really that observant. I am positioned below the cream the crop and above the bottom of the heap. I have no desire to go either up nor down. I see, so that's why Satoshi said that he can't think of anything apart from grey for the colour of my high-school life.

Of course, colour isn't confined to academic grades. There's also club activities, sports, interests, romance...... The things that constitute our humanity. There is the saying that one can't see the wood for the trees, after all, and one result cannot be used to generalize for the whole picture. Though the Japanese dictionary defined life in high-school as rosy-coloured, these roses would still need to be planted in the right places in order to blossom.

Let's just say I'm not the suitable type of soil for roses to grow on.

As I lay on my bed thinking all these, I heard a sound coming from downstairs. It sounded like a letter had arrived.

After making sure it was indeed a letter, I was dumbfounded. The envelope was covered in red, blue and white stripes, that could only be an international mail. After checking the recipient name was correct, I concluded that the only person who could send international mail to the Oreki residence was Oreki Tomoe. Now where was this sent from...... Istanbul?

I opened the letter right there and found many letters inside, one of which was for me.

Dear Houtarou

I am currently in Istanbul. Due to some mishaps I'm hiding out at the Japanese consulate, so I haven't been seeing much of the city yet.

I'm sure it's an amazing city. If I could take a time machine and visit this place in the past, I think I'd want to try to lock the city gates myself, perhaps I'd change history as a result. I'm no historian, so I'm no good at speculating at these "what ifs".

It's an interesting trip, I'm sure I'll look back ten years from now and view everyday I'm out here with much nostalgia.

So how's the Classics Club? Has the members increased?

Do not be discouraged even if it's just you alone! Solitude helps make a man grow stronger.

If there are other people, then excellent. It's helps to improve one's interaction with other people.

Anyway, I'm writing because there's something that I'm concerned about.

Have you (guys) started work on publishing an essay anthology yet? The Classics Club always publish one every year, so I'm wondering if you're continuing with that.

If you are, I figured you're probably at a lost at what to write. After all, the anthologies aren't stored in the library.

You'll find them in the club room. The back issues are all inside an old first-aid kit. The key's broken already, so you can just open the box right away.

I'll call you when I arrive at Pristina.

With love, Tomoe.

Hiding in the Japanese consulate? Just what have you done this time, Sis? Anyway, not that I'm worried. The details are probably written in the letter for my old man. Now where have I heard of Pristina? I can't quite remember. Since it's my sister going, it's no doubt some ancient battlefield or something.

Anyway, I couldn't help but take a sigh. Does my sister have some sort of intelligence network that collects information about my activities? And I didn't know the Classics Club kept their back issues so secretly for generations either. Indeed, we were going to find the back issues but couldn't find where they were.

It was only a few days since Chitanda tasked me with a personal errand of hers, though she also has another errand for us for us as President of the Classics Club - the publishing of the essay anthology. Chitanda looked troubled when she found out the library archives did not store the back issues, but if my sister is right, then it could be of great help.

If the purpose is the result itself, then achieving the said result will fulfill that purpose. Though I sense another layer being added to such a bothersome definition, but it just felt cruel if I withheld such information. As usual, Oreki Tomoe is messing up with my life.

At any rate, I stuffed the letter in the pocket of my uniform trousers that I hung in the closet.