Hyouka:Volume 2 Chapter 6

Status: Incomplete

27% completed (estimated)

   

6 - "The Blind Spot of 10,000 People"

The next morning, after making sure I had the video cassette in my shoulder bag, I departed the house.

After making a promise to review the movie yesterday at the Hifumi tea house, Irisu handed over a video cassette she prepared beforehand and said, "We do not have much time left. I shall meet you at a place designated by you tomorrow at 1pm and hear your conclusion about this matter."

After considering my own house or the Cafe Pineapple Sandwich which I so frequent, I decided to meet her to at the Geology Room.

Right now, I was heading towards the Geology Room. It was nearly ten o'clock when I exited the residential streets and moved on to the main street. For the next fifteen minutes of passing through various cars and people, my mind was blank, save for a favourite folksong of mine which constantly played while I move my legs. I'd more or less forgotten about the details of the movie. It was inefficient to think in such a state.

At the end of the main street, a glimpse of Kamiyama High School could be seen. As I arrived there, a voice called behind me, "Hmm, Houtarou?"

Small town this was. I turned to find Satoshi, wearing his standard Kamiyama High School summer uniform and carrying a drawstring bag, getting off his mountain bike with a smile. I waved my hand in lieu of a greeting.

"You're heading to school as well today?"

He nodded and raised his brows.

"How rare for Houtarou to come to school of his own will during vacation. You have some business?"

"Am I not allowed to come to school if I don't have any?"

"Not at all. It's just that it's so out of character for you, something must be up."

I bit my tongue. I never thought about this, but it would seem my energy-saving behaviour was just as easy to read as Chitanda's curiosity-driven behaviour.

I had no reason to hide. No, I was thinking of letting them know, which was why I've chosen to meet at the Geology Room in the first place. So I said, "I'm on official imperial business from Irisu. She commanded me to designate a killer for Kaitou's death."

Whether it was on purpose or not, Satoshi went stiff for three whole seconds upon hearing that. For some reason, he then revealed a very cheerful face as he said with a raised voice, "Wow! Who would have thought? You were the last person in my mind who would accept such an errand."

"Oreki Houtarou's righteousness and compassion know no bounds."

"Nice quip there, Houtarou."

"I'm in a hurry."

Satoshi started walking alongside me as he pushed his mountain bike. As the road wasn't wide, I ended up leaning towards the side of the road.

"That's some change of heart from you. I wonder if it could have something to do with that? Want me to tell you what 'that' is?"

He prodded me, to which I remained silent.

"It's for Chitanda-san's sake, isn't it?"

He said something matter-of-factly. To begin with, it was a conclusion made in light of the results of the past few months. Nearly all the troublesome incidents which the Classics Club got entangled in were started by Chitanda. A pattern developed where she would coerce me to be deeply involved. Though there was one exception.

This was the second exception. I shook my head and said, "No, it isn't."

Though it was indeed Chitanda who brought the case forward, it was not due to her request that I came to school today.

Satoshi raised his brows at my unexpected response.

"It wasn't Chitanda-san? Then was it a whim? Or you're doing it out of charity... nah, can't be. While you didn't say it out, this is also in line with your motto 'If I don't have to do it, I won't. If I have to do it, make it quick.' right?"

Of course, that was my original intention. As a result of Satoshi being completely frank about it, I got even more displeased. I said bluntly, "Must I explain even that to you?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Not really. But I didn't want to pretend I wasn't interested in knowing why. Should I apologize?"

I smiled and let the matter rest.

We walked silently together for a brief while. As there was nothing else to say, Satoshi moved to get on his bike in an attempt to ride on ahead. While I found no need to stop him, I still called out to him.

"Satoshi,"

"Hmm?"

Though I called him, I didn't have anything in particular to say. Realizing this, I tried to be frank about the predicament I was in.

"...Do you think, do you think there's some things that only you could do?"

It was an ambiguous question. He tilted his head and replied cautiously, "I'm not sure why you're asking, but... amongst every person that ever lived in this world past, present and future, I do think that there's one thing that only I could do."

Could he, even in such conditions?

"And that is?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's the 'passing on the genes of Fukube Satoshi'," he said and smiled. He didn't sound like he was joking. It was his way of poking fun at his own Average Joe inadequacies.

"My bad. Allow me to rephrase,"

I thought for a little while.

"Within Kamiyama High School, is there a talent in which you consider yourself to be second-to-none?"

He replied at once, "Nope."

I was at a loss for words at how fast and precise his answer was.

Satoshi said with a carefree tone, "I told you before, Fukube Satoshi possesses no talents whatsoever. Take my passion to become a Holmesian, for example: there's no way I can become one. I do not have what it takes to enter an endless maze of knowledge just to pursue it. If Mayaka were to take up an interest in Sherlock Holmes, I can guarantee you that she would overtake my knowledge in three months' time. I'm the sort that only takes a peek at the entrances and takes a pamphlet or two to read. I wouldn't call myself second-to-none on anything."

I never thought I would hear Satoshi say such things. Yet Satoshi said it calmly as though he were talking about the weather. As I remained speechless, he smiled mischievously.

"Now I get it, the reason why Houtarou wants to try and solve the movie mystery."

"......"

"Irisu-sempai has recognized your abilities as a 'detective', hasn't she? She must have said you were the only one who could solve this, and you ended up agreeing, right?"

Damn, was he a telepath or what? So I nodded.

"But this sure is some risky business, to lend your skills based on the words of 'the Empress' concerning your knowledge."

"But you aren't suspicious of it yourself."

"Maybe... Anyway, I'll be going ahead and setting up the video player."

Satoshi got on his mountain bike and proceeded to ride off. As he was about to step on his pedal, I noticed I had something I wanted to say. It would feel bad if I ended up not saying anything.

"Satoshi,"

"Yeah?"

"I don't know what you'll think of it, but I think you're worth more than that. I think there'll come a day when you'll be one of the best Holmesians in Japan."

Satoshi blinked his eyes, but soon returned to his default smiling expression.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned to say to me, "Rather than a Holmesian, I'm just very fascinated by Sherlock Holmes, that's all. Besides..."

"?"

"...Besides, I now feel it was worth it for me to give that answer to you just now."

The movie was coming near to its climax.

The six members each took one key and went on separate ways. We await for the tragedy that was to come, where Kaitou's mutilated body was to be discovered.

Using the dust-filled television in the Geology Room, I watched the still nameless movie. The screen showed Kaitou's body being discovered.

Sitting some distance from me, Ibara said in admiration,

"They've done quite a great job with that arm of Kaitou-sempai's. They made good use of the dim illumination to convince the audience that it's a real arm."

When she found out I had come to school for no particularly surprise, her reaction was one of surprise. When she heard my declaration to challenge the mystery left behind by Hongou, her eyes widened. Speaking of which, she came because she couldn't stand the thought of being left hanging by Irisu-sempai and decided to try to seek out the truth once and for all. She too could be quite a formidable person to deal with.

Satoshi added with a smile,

"Now if only their acting's a bit better. In the end, it was the props division that performed the best."

And so I ended up watching the video, for the second time. While I've heard that a scene of crime must be visited at least a hundred times, but I wasn't going to watch that for a hundred times. Neither would Satoshi or Ibara, who merely came along just to watch the movie. And thank goodness for that.

As Katsuta ran towards the Left Stage, only to discover that the path was completely blocked, he was astounded and said,

"No way......"

The scene fades to black.

And the video ended.

Never tiring of menial tasks, Ibara stood up right away to rewind the video as well as turn off the TV.

To be honest, I had thought Chitanda would have come as well before I finish watching the video, as she does have an amazing powers of observation and good memory. Though indeed she was unable to use her observation and memory to good analytical use, I was thinking of borrowing those talents of hers today. However, she never came, so I asked Ibara,

"Ibara, what's happened to Chitanda?"

Upon being asked, she gave a difficult expression. It was a smile mixed with some regret,

"Chi-chan's still sleeping."

"How come? She got summer cold again?"

"No,"

She paused for a bit,

"...... Hangover."

......

"Now that's...... rare......"

I nodded in agreement with Satoshi's excellent remark.

"Anyway,"

Trying to get back on topic, Satoshi shifted in his seat,

"Watching this again, I still don't see anything complicated about it. And it more or less shoots down any remaining bits of those three people's theories."

I agreed totally. After three days of revision, despite realizing that the mystery left behind by Hongou was not easy to solve, yet upon watching this video, I had only a mere light impression of it.

"It's hard to find something easy in something that's hard."

I muttered alone. Though having heard me, Ibara looked at me as though seeing a fool, puffed her chest and said,

"You're wrong, the mystery was filmed in too easy a manner."

"Really? How so?"

"Here's what I think. As a movie, it's filmed in a quite boring way and hard to get the audience excited, which makes the mystery uninteresting. I thought if they put some effort into the acting and camerawork, they might have made this into a more interesting sealed room mystery."

Was that so? Though I didn't think one's impression on a literary work would change depending on its technical issues. Just as I was disagreeing, Satoshi suddenly smiled as though he's found a soul mate,

"A wise observation. It's true that when I first watched this and discovered this was a sealed room mystery, it didn't feel like one at all. If only they could put more effort into their acting...... But was the camerawork really that bad?"

Ibara nodded,

"It was bad."

"How would you have filmed it then?"

"Me? Let's see...... Take the first scene showing the Narakubo area for example. If the cameraman had stood further away, then he'll be able to film the actors together with the ruins for better effect. Besides, hmm, though I didn't think of this at first, the part where the rest of the members regathered after splitting up, Sugimura-sempai's face could be seen from the equipment room, right? I think it'd be easier for the audience to understand if that scene was shot from Sugimura-sempai's point-of-view looking down towards the lobby. Oh yes, and if that's done, we would be able to see Sugimura-sempai watch where the two members on the second floor went as well, and then switch the point-of-view to either one of those two. Besides......"

She went on and on. Ibara really does like watching detective movies, so it was just as appropriate that Satoshi motioned to stop her with a smile. If he hadn't done that, we'll probably not hear the end of it from her.

I sighed and said,

"We won't get anywhere if all we do is moan about how shoddy the movie was made,"

"True. In the end, the problem lies with the methods. How about we have a look at those? Maybe not all possibilities have been shot down. Though we may have a time limit, this should be fun."

As Satoshi finished, an intruder had arrived.

The door to the Geology Room was opened loudly by a guy whom I did not know. The mark on his collar indicated he was a first-year. Moving his eyes away from me, he found the person he was looking for and shouted,

"There you are, Fukube!"

Upon seeing him, a bitter expression appeared on Satoshi's face. Though I could hear him click his tongue, he quickly reverted to his smiling face,

"Why if it isn't Yamauchi-kun? You here to join the Classics Club?"

The guy called Yamauchi disregarded Satoshi's wise talk and moved towards him, grabbing him at the scruff of the neck.

"H, hey! There's no need to be so violent!"

"Oh don't give me this! I'm doing this for your sake! Omichi's serious! What're you gonna do if you end up repeating another year?"

The name Omichi rang a bell in my mind, he was the strict maths teacher. Now I see. I crossed my arms and smiled at Satoshi,

"Satoshi, you really should take your revision classes, you know? Weren't you saying you'll be busy studying for your exams?"

Yamauchi, whom I presumed to be one of Satoshi's friends, instantly grabbed him from his chair. Even so, Satoshi didn't lose his composure as he pleaded,

"That's the spirit, Houtarou! Keep it up and you'll soon be solving Hongou-sempai's mystery in no time!"

Seeing as he was unaware of the situation he was in, Yamauchi yelled,

"The revision classes about to start, idiot! Hurry up and move along!"

"Noooooo~~!!! What about the sealed room? The sealed rooooom~~!!!"

Satoshi disappeared leaving a trail of screaming behind.

Sigh. Now how should I comment on this? If I have to put it in one sentence: Was he an idiot? ...... Just as I was thinking that, he ran back here. Taking his notebook out from his drawstring bag, he stuffed it towards me,

"Regrettably, things are out of my control. As things have come to this, I leave the rest in your stead...... See ya!"

He ran off again. Well, good luck, here's wishing Satoshi gets promoted to second year.

As soon as the storm-like event had passed, Ibara too stood up,

"Well, I should be going as well."

"Really?"

"What's with those eyes? Irisu-sempai didn't ask me to help you, after all...... I'm on librarian duty at eleven. If I had known what you're doing today, I would have changed my shift in advance, so it's all your fault for deciding on such short notice."

She said harshly as she picked up her bag and proceeded to leave the Geology Room. Standing by the door, she turned and said in her usual apologetic way,

"But...... I'm sorry, Oreki."

I waved my hand to send her off.

I was now left alone in the classroom. I sighed, stretched my back, scratched my head, crossed my arms, and closed my eyes and I begun thinking.

If I slowly recall the movie I just rewatched, and the facts I deduced these past three days...... I attempted to link them together. If it were me, I would......

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