Hyouka:Volume 3 Chapter 5-4

5-4 Behind the Stage

060 - ♠17

Noon. The third day of the Kamiyama High School Cultural Festival.

The bicycle parking lot.

There's only four hours until the Closing Ceremony...... We don't really have a lot of time.

I'm feeling hungry, but I'm gonna have to hold it in. Though I may have my boxed lunch here, but it just wouldn't feel right.

The school radio broadcast should begin anytime now. Would Chitanda be able to perform as expected? If she was the same as the previous two days, then it'll be game over by the time the programme starts, as she'll probably right off the bat say "Please buy the Classics Club anthologies!"

Besides us, there was no one else around. There were no walls, just the lonely sight of an elongated roof covering the parked bicycles, a far cry from the lively atmosphere of the Cultural Festival. I put down the shoulder bag I was holding, as it was quite heavy, and instantly felt a relief on my shoulders.

"What's that for?"

He asked, I replied in a nonchalant manner,

"In short, I didn't come all this way just for nothing,"

"It's not a bribe, is it?"

"Well, not quite, but close enough,"

I smiled bitterly.

"I'll get straight to the point. You must be 'Juumoji', right?"

"Hmm?"

Unexpectedly, "Juumoji" smiled at my suggestion,

"Surely that's just a wild guess?"

"Chances of making a correct wild guess would have been less than one in a thousand. It's not that simple."

"As I don't really have that much free time, so I'll at least hear what you've got to say,"

As he said that, he leaned against a nearby pole. I took out a greeting card from my pocket,

"In a hurry huh? Well, so am I. I'll make this as short as possible.

"First, this is the card that's left in the scene of crime. Why would the culprit use the word 'lost' to describe items being taken? To be precise, what was the difference between 'lost' and 'stolen'?"

He showed some interest, though his expression remained unmoved.

"There wouldn't be much difference whether the A Capella Club had things stolen or lost. Yet along the way, something was not merely stolen, but completely destroyed. And that was a major hint. You have stolen everything from that, but why is that?"

While the "Juumoji" Incident was foretold in Ashes at Dusk, but the connection is still very weak. There must be some other meaning.

"The odd one out would be [KU]. You had skipped [KU] and didn't steal anything from that.

"Of course, had you followed the greeting card's procedure, then you wouldn't have 'stolen' from [KU], but make it 'lose' something.

"The question now would be, why would you not have [KU] lose anything? By skipping one character, you would have destroyed the meaning behind the word 'Juumoji' (ten characters). While Satoshi said it's because the Global Act Club was so heavily guarded that you've opted to avoid it, I do not believe that is the case. If we follow 'Juumoji's' modus operandum, it just wouldn't feel natural. It would feel totally random for you to just skip one character and then target [SA] as the final target," (TL Note [SA] comes after [KU] in the Gojuuon)

I took a brief pause. As my throat was getting dry from the low moisture,

"To abandon the aesthetics of keeping within ten characters would be too unnatural, no matter how I think about it, it doesn't make sense for you to skip [KU]. But what if you had not abandoned that aesthetic, what if you had stuck to the natural order of things? In other words, what if 'Juumoji' had actually worked according to plan?

"...... What if you had also made [KU] lose something?

"Based on the message on these greeting cards, your message would have been: '[KU] had already lost something to begin with, so there was nothing to take from it'. What if that were true?"

I took a glimpse at his expression, which remained unchanged. Was he prepared for me to turn him in, or did I guess incorrectly? No, there was no sign of weakness from him. Then I'll have to go on,

"How about this? 'The owner of [KU] has lost something on his own to begin with. - Juumoji' Indicating that it was not 'Juumoji' that had taken from [KU],"

Silence. Expecting that he would make no response, I went on,

"This is actually an accusation. Telling the victim that they have lost something on their own. In other words, the 'Juumoji' Incident actually contains a hidden message. A message intended for the owner of [KU],"

For the first time, 'Juumoji' replied,

"That would have been a very elaborate hidden message, there's no way it could be relayed,"

"You're right. Normally it would have been impossible,"

"Then we're not going where if it was impossible to begin with."

But that is not true,

"It would be a different story altogether if the owner of [KU] has a way of interpreting the message. You would send the message, and [KU] would decipher it. It would not be impossible then,"

"If,"

"But it's not just if, as you have already created such a method, which I believe can be found in the plot of Ashes at Dusk,"

He had been able to remain calm until now, yet his eyes widened upon hearing the title Ashes at Dusk, as though saying "How did you know such a title?" He would have lost had he uttered that loud. Calming myself, even if he had not reacted as expected, I decided to continue in my usual tone,

"The Kudryavka Sequence is inspired by Agatha Christie's best known work, from which the 'Juumoji' Incident is born. Using The Kudryavka Sequence as a benchmark, the hidden message would be solved and the owner of [KU] would be......"

I looked up at him,

"Kugayama Muneyoshi ([KU]GAYAMA陸山), President of the Student Council, and illustrator of Ashes at Dusk. Am I right?"

Concealing his unease, he placed his hand under his chin and began thinking. As though pondering his next time, slowly he began speaking,

"'Juumoji' only targets clubs, yet you say [KU] is a person's name? It doesn't make sense,"

A swift response.

"The name 'Juumoji' merely hints that there would be ten targets, no where does it say that he would only target clubs,"

"Now that's stretching it,"

"Not really. As the culprit, you have already provided a list of targets to begin with.

"Why would the culprit leave behind not just a greeting card, but a copy of the Kanya Festival Guide? The clue can be found in Christie's The A.B.C. Murders, the guide is actually a list of the targets. By leaving a page open when leaving behind each copy of the Kanya Festival Guide, you had wanted to give people a fair chance of guessing. I'm guessing The Kudryavka Sequence would also be something like that had it been published. The opened page contains not only a list of participating clubs and comments,"

In other words, it's this page:

Light Music Club Though we're more of a band, this time we'll be registering as the Light Music Club. All day in the Martial Arts Dojo.
Go Club Beginners Seminar in Preparation Room No. 2. There will of course be tutorial matches as well.
A Capella Club Stationed at Class 3-C. Will be performing in the School Courtyard on Day 1 at 11am. Please come listen!
Wall Newspaper Club Special Edition published every two hours during Kanya Festival. Featuring the latest and hottest topics being discussed.
The Cooking Club Cooking battle "Wild Fire" on the School Grounds on Day 2 at 11am! Seeking participants.
Gardening Club Cooking harvested sweet potatoes...... But this isn't gardening, it's farming! Are you sure this is okay, prez?
Brass Band Club Performing a different song everyday from 1pm in the Gymnasium.
Magic Club Stall at 2-D classroom. Stage performance Day 1 at 11:30am. Please look forward to it.
Fortune Telling Association Next to the stairs on the 3rd floor.
Classics Club Why is the Kami High Cultural Festival called the "Kanya Festival"? The answer is in our anthology Hyouka. 200yen per volume in the Geology Lecture Room.
Organizing Committee
Kugayama Muneyoshi (Student Council President, Kanya Festival Executive Committee President) You guys are overdoing this. That's all I'll say.
Yazaki Keita (Student Council Vice President) The Organizing Committee can be found in the Student Council Room. Do visit us if there's anything you wish to discuss.

"The list of targets can all be found in page 33. This explains seemingly random choices like how The Cooking Club ([O] RYOURI KENKYUUKAI) was targeted over the Occult Studies Club ([O]KARUTO KENKYUUKAI), or the Gardening Club ([E]NGEI BU) over the Film Studies Club ([E]IGA KENKYUUKAI). Rather than a declaration of crime, this Kanya Festival Guide is more like an advanced notice,"

"......"

"Furthermore, on page 33, there are no clubs that begin with [KU], yet there is a person's name, that of President Kugayama,"

I made a deep breath before going on,

"Let's take a brief detour. By this point, we can guess as to what sort of person 'Juumoji' is, and which club he belongs to. It would be too random for all the targeted clubs to fall so neatly into the same page. The only people capable of manipulating the order of how the clubs are displayed would be the General Committee, the greeting cards would be by the same people as well,

"By the way, concerning The Cooking Club. I had confirmed with their president that they had prepared a ladle before the tournament. For an item to be prepared before a tournament to go missing, the suspect must be involved with the tournament preparation somehow. Satoshi probably had so much fun that he probably didn't work much, but I'm guessing the General Committee had a hand in helping out with the tournament preparation, right?"

He could do nothing but smile bitterly. In which case, it makes my explanation much simpler,

"Well, there are like twenty people or more in the General Committee. So this would not be enough to pinpoint the culprit,

"On the other hand, I also know that Anjou Haruna, the author of Ashes at Dusk, and President Kugayama, whom she worked with, would also know about The Kudryavka Sequence. In other words, Kugayama should be able to decipher the message hidden in the 'Juumoji' Incident,

"Then what about the culprit, 'Juumoji'? Who is this person that was mimicking the plot of The Kudrayvka Sequence in an attempt to relay a message to Kugayama?

"We have a ten character rule starting with [A], and an accusation that 'something has already been lost to begin with'

"Now this is a bold speculation, but what if the message was Kugayama had lost The Kudryavka Sequence? Something which Anjou Haruna, who had left Kami High, had left behind. Perhaps the culprit could not forgive Kugayama, who had wasted the preview that 'Ajimu Takuha' had written, and thus instigated the 'Juumoji' Incident.

"In other words, the culprit's message would be: 'Kugayama has lost The Kudryavka Sequence '.

"Finally, the afterword of Ashes at Dusk was written by neither Anjou nor Kugayama, but by a third person in charge of the background drawings. So 'Juumoji' is none other this third member of 'Ajimu Takuha',"

From the shoulder bag on the ground, I took out a copy of Ashes at Dusk. I showed him the cover, which clearly shows the author's name "AJIMU TAKUHA".

" 'Ajimu Takuha' is a rare pen name. I heard it's named after some town in Kyushu. This may be a bit stretching it, but what if this pen name was a composite of the names of the three creators of Ashes at Dusk? For example, if Tarou ([TA]ROU) and Jirou ([JI]ROU) had formed a unit, its name would be 'Taji' ([TA][JI]),

"We have Anjou Haruna ([A]NJOU [HA]RUNA),

"We also have Kugayama Muneyoshi ([KU]GAYAMA [MU]NEYOSHI),

"From 'Ajimu Takuha' ([A][JI][MU] [TA][KU][HA]), we can deduce the third person's name by taking off the initial characters of the other two. That would leave [JI] and [TA],

"The culprit would be amongst the second years that have participated in last year's Cultural Festival, who is a member of the General Committee, whose names contains the characters [TA] and [JI], who is close to Kugayama, and who is familiar with drawing manga. There can only be one person who fits the above description,"

I spoke in a calm tone that even I'm surprised at,

"It would be you, Tanabe Jirou-sempai. ([TA]NABE [JI]ROU)"