Hyouka:Volume 1 Chapter 6

6 - The Old Days of the Glorious Classics Club

It was the end of July and Summer Vacation had begun. Today I was riding my bike along the road towards Kami High as usual. It would take 20 minutes to get there from my place by foot, though I have no idea how long it'll take by bike. I stopped to buy a can of black coffee from a vending machine while resting. I then followed the riverside and turned at the hospital before arriving in front of Kami High. And there I stood with an amazed look.

Summer Vacation was supposed to have started already.

Yet the sports ground was filled with prop equipment and students in their summer uniforms. I could hear music played by various wind instruments, electric guitars and bamboo flutes. Even though the Special Block was some distance from here, I could tell there were many students there as well. They were of course all here to prepare for the Kanya Festival. The energetic side of Kami High has only gotten more active now that Summer Vacation has started. Crowds of people were crawling around like a group of ants as though saying "Alright guys, the festival is coming up soon! Now that annoying classes are out of the way, let's give it our best!"

I gazed at these people overflowing with energy while noticing a person trotting towards me. It was Fukube Satoshi, dressed casually in short sleeved shirt and shorts, while carrying a sporty-looking mini-rucksack over his back.

"Hey,"

"Sorry, man. Kept you waiting?"

I was happily listening to the A Capella Club practicing their singing in the central courtyard, and Satoshi had to make me turn around with such a creepy voice. I contemplated turning my bike around and going home, but then I changed my mind and proceeded to walk towards him and acted as if I was about to kick him.

"Whoa, Houtarou! What's with the sudden ferocity?"

"You sure are one to talk! Have you no shame in not knowing when not to disturb the peace?"

Satoshi shrugged his shoulders.

It doesn't seem like he has any.

"Sorry man, the Handicraft Club meeting went into overtime."

"Just what on earth were you discussing anyway?"

"We're going to knit a Buddhist-like Mandala carpet for the Kanya Festival. But we've run into a few problems, so we had a contingency meeting just now."

Well, tough work you had there. Not just you, but Toogaito, or even the whole school for that matter.

"So, you got your notes ready?"

As I ask dryly, Satoshi merely bounced back the question to me.

"What about you? It's not something you're used to doing. You thought of something yet?"

I felt a bit embarrassed at having to answer that, so I said, "Well, sort of."

"Oh? Now that's rare. Normally you would try to find an excuse and deny such questions... Anyway, I'll go get my bike, so hang on a bit longer."

And so Satoshi insolently left me waiting while he trotted towards the bicycle parking lot.

As to why I was waiting for Satoshi out here when I ought to be sleeping like there's no tomorrow during such a precious Summer Vacation, we'll need to go back to a week ago, the day when we were so close to finding out the truth about Sekitani Jun, which should be written in the first volume of the club anthology "Hyouka", only to find out that that specific volume was missing. As we couldn't get anywhere without that first volume, I thought to myself that I was not going to go all out to pursue the answer. But it was already too late, for I had crossed the Rubicon without even realizing.

I knew it was pointless to dissuade Chitanda from this, so I proposed a compromise solution. If we're going to investigate the past, just the two of us was not going to be enough. After all, "Three's a crowd" as the saying goes. It may be a bit hard for her, but I told her that we had a better chance of solving this with Satoshi and Ibara's help.

Thereupon Chitanda nodded in agreement.

"I guess we have no choice then."

Even though she requested to keep it between ourselves during our discussion in the Cafe Pineapple Sandwich, I ended up letting her down. I could not tell if it was because Chitanda realized deeply that she would need all the support she could get, or because she no longer regarded the clue that appeared before as important anymore, or it could be possible that our lady here was simply whimsical; at any rate, she had called for an emergency meeting with the Classics Club the following day.

There, Chitanda repeated what she told me before and concluded, "I'm very curious as to what happened to my uncle 33 years ago."

Ibara accepted the challenge right away.

"The cover illustration interests me. If we can solve this and find out the story behind that, I could even use it as publishing material for the Manga Studies Club."

Satoshi followed, "The Fictional Heroic Tale to be solved by their juniors 33 years later, huh? I just happened to be researching into stuff from that period."

And approved with both hands raised. While I had no intention of speaking since I had no power of veto, I decided to say something anyway since we were at it.

"Since we're still deciding on what to write for our essay anthology, why don't we use Chitanda's story to help fill up the pages... um, I mean, killing two birds with one stone... sorry, I mean, write something meaningful for it?"

My energy-saving proposal, though quite forward-looking, was accepted unanimously. And so investigating the incident of the Kamiyama High School Classics Club 33 years ago became the Classics Club's priority.

Satoshi rode a mountain bike. As he was wearing shorts, sturdy muscles could be seen on his legs that didn't match his short stature. For a polyglot like him, the only sport that I knew he was interested in was cycling.

By the way, my bike was what you'd call a family wagon, so there's not much to elaborate upon.

We rode along the river and away from the main street. Slowly the distance between houses was replaced by huge rice paddies. Stopping under the shade of some tobacco store to hide from the sun, I took a towel out of my bag to wipe off the sweat that's been constantly dripping out.

Ahh, such a good sweat.

Was not something I would ever say. Rather, I wonder why people have to move in order to get to their destination. "The information revolution has not yet succeeded. Comrades, you must carry on!"

"Satoshi, are we there yet?"

Satoshi placed his hankerchief back in his pocket and replied, "Yup. We're pretty much there. According to your speed, of course."

He then smiled.

"You'll be surprised when you see their mansion. The Chitandas are one of the biggest farm owners in Kamiyama City."

Guess I'll be looking forward to it. I'd sure like to hear how they do their spring cleaning in such a big place. After wiping more sweat with my towel, I put my foot on the saddle and rode on.

Once we restarted, Satoshi took the lead and guided us. After crossing numerous traffic signals, we then came to a long straight road, where we rode parallel to each other. For some distance now there was nothing but farmland on both sides of the road.

As Satoshi spun his pedal, he began to hum joyfully. Smiling was his default expression, though he seemed particularly delighted today. I decided to ask him, "Satoshi,"

"Yeah?"

"Are you happy?"

Satoshi turned towards me and replied cheerfully, "Sure I am. Since I like cycling. Look at the blue skies! And the white clouds! No matter how dull they look, the joy of looking at them while riding at full speed is like..."

I quickly interrupted Satoshi's attempt at joking.

"I thought your high school life was average at best."

Suddenly looking sullen, Satoshi replied, "Oh... you mean the rose-coloured thing."

Great memory you have there, especially when we last spoke about it nearly three months ago. Satoshi slowed down somewhat and faced forward while saying, "You know, basically I think my high school life is pretty rose-coloured."

"No, it's more like shocking pink."

"Haha, that's good as well. If that's the case, then yours is grey."

"You already told me that."

As my voice was hardly raised, Satoshi didn't go whistling in glee.

"Did I? Don't take it the wrong way, I didn't mean it as an insult when I said the colour of your high school life is grey."

"..."

"For example, if my life is shocking pink, then no one can paint it rose. I won't let them."

I ridiculed his smiling face at once.

"Really? I thought it's already been painted."

"Of course it hasn't!"

Satoshi said with a surprisingly firm response and continued, "It hasn't, Houtarou. I'm already busy with the Student Council General Committee as well as the Handicraft Club, you think I'd say that? You gotta be kidding me. Whether it's helping to organize the timetable for the Kanya Festival, or knitting the Mandala carpet, I have enjoyed every moment of it. Otherwise, who would want to sacrifice a joyous bicycle ride during Sundays or Summer Vacation just to go to school anyway?"

"They won't?"

"There exist occasions where one has to lend their skill and presence for the sake of the greater society. But even so, you're not the sort who would budge an inch, right? For a grey-coloured person like you, if a flag-bearer declares that 'everyone is rose-coloured', you would wave your hand and say 'count me out.'"

After saying all that in one breath, he calmed down a bit and went on, "If I really wanted to offend you, I would have called you colourless."

Satoshi went silent after saying that. I ruminated at his response while getting my skin burned by the sun.

"..."

And made a sullen face.

"I'm not going to say I wanna like you or something like that, you know."

"Nah, that's not what I meant."

Satoshi raised his voice and laughed. He then said, "Look, Houtarou, we've reached the Chitanda residence!"

As befitting of its description, the Chitanda "mansion" was built in the middle of a vast paddy field. It was built in a Japanese-styled bungalow surrounded by hedges. The sound of water flowing suggested the presence of a pond in the garden, which was surrounded by well-trimmed pine trees. And in front of the large opened gate, there were people sprinkling water ritually.

"How about that? Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

Satoshi said while puffing out his chest, even though I was no expert in Japanese architecture or Japanese gardening. While I had no idea how impressive this estate was, I did feel that it had an elegant and dignified feel to it.

As we were marveling at the estate, I had a look at my watch. We were just about on time... No, seems like we're a little bit late.

"Let's go, the girls are waiting for us."

"Ah, yes... By the way, Houtarou,"

"What now?"

"Aren't we supposed to wait for some servants to come out and greet us?"

I decided to ignore him. I stepped up to the front porch and rang the doorbell.

"... Coming~"

After waiting for a while, the door was opened by none other than Chitanda herself. Her summer cold seemed to have healed as she was now speaking in her usual voice once again. She let her long hair flow down her shoulders without tying it, and was dressed in a fitting bright green one-piece dress.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

I could hear Satoshi click his tongue, as though disappointed that there was no servant out to greet us.

After taking off our shoes at the concrete entrance, Chitanda led us through a wooden corridor.

"Where did you park your bicycles?"

"Where can we park them?"

"Anywhere is fine."

Then why did you ask?

Before long, we were led to a pair of paper sliding doors, and a cool breeze escaped upon opening them. As the ceiling was high, the room felt refreshingly cool. The room size was about... 15 square metres. That's huge.

"You're late."

Ibara had already arrived. It seemed like she had some business at school beforehand, as she was dressed in her school uniform. There was a dark brown table which gave a dull light reflection, and on top of it were many pieces of paper. Must be Ibara's notes. She's quite fired up for this.

"Please sit anywhere you like."

I sat opposite Ibara upon being prompted. As Chitanda took the host seat, the remaining seat was taken by Satoshi. It was rare to have someone carrying a rucksack sitting in a traditional Japanese-styled reception alcove. Opening the rucksack, Satoshi took out numerous pieces of paper from it. I too opened my shoulder bag and took out my own notes. Ibara looked very ready as she toyed with her pen, while Chitanda stacked a pile of paper on the table.

"Now then..."

Chitanda spoke,

"Let us begin our investigative meeting."

We all bowed and took our greetings.

Naturally, the meeting was chaired by Chitanda, as she was the club president, after all.

"Let us confirm the agenda for today's meeting. It all started with a reminiscence of mine. Then, when we discovered the essay anthology 'Hyouka', I realized whatever happened with the Classics Club 33 years ago had something to do with this reminiscence. The purpose of this meeting is to speculate as to what happened 33 years ago. Furthermore, any facts that have been confirmed will be used as essay materials for this year's Classics Club essay anthology."

Though Ibara was mainly interested in the design of the cover illustration, she did not seem too dissatisfied with Chitanda's proclamation. Perhaps she realized it had something to do with the incident itself, or Chitanda had briefed her about it/

"During this past week, we have gone about collecting all kinds of material for research, and subsequently we shall report on our findings and speculate on the incident 33 years ago. We would then collate our findings and deduce the most likely conclusion possible."

Huh? Was that what this meeting's about? Last I heard, Chitanda only told us to bring any material we could find. I didn't remember anything about deducing a conclusion...... But Satoshi and Ibara did not look the least bit surprised, then this must mean I've not paid attention to listening. Damn, guess I'll have to get it over with somehow, but my stomach still felt queasy.

Without carrying any sort of agenda sheet with her, Chitanda looked at every one of us and smoothly explained,

"We shall take turns with reporting our findings, followed by questionings by other members, establishing a hypothesis, and review of said hypothesis. Asking questions during reporting is forbidden...... This is to prevent our words from getting jumbled, you see. Now then, let us hear the first report."

Hey, she's actually quite a good chairperson. Who knows, she may have the talent for such stuff.

No, she did tell me that she's the sort that would seek to understand the entire system, so it's not surprising to see her so well-versed in the rules of chairing meetings.

"Can we have the first report...... huh?"

"Chi-chan, who's doing the first report anyway?"

"Umm, who should it be?"

...... And then she says something strange like that. I do wonder whether she's easy to read or whether her systemisation is limited to her actions only. I spoke out to a flustered Chitanda,

"Anyone's fine. Why don't you start?"

Since it's usually the chairperson that starts doing the talking, no? It's not like Chitanda wasn't going to report anything. And since she did lay out the format for this reporting style, she may as well start first and get things rolling smoothly. She nodded and said,

"Oh, you're right. Alright then, now...... we shall report one by one in clockwise direction starting with me."

She began distributing her notes in the tray upon saying that.

A simple glance tells me that this was the source of this investigation, the foreword of "Hyouka Volume 2". I see, so she's starting from the beginning huh? Though I won't say this was her usual style. I once again read the paragraph that I saw before.

Foreword

And so we have a Cultural Festival again this year.

It has been one year since Sekitani-sempai left us.

During this year, sempai has fallen into legend and became a hero. As a result, the Cultural Festival this year will still be five days long.

However, as the legend spreads, I went into deep thought. Would people ten years from now still remember the silent warrior and the kind hero? All sempai has left behind is this anthology "Hyouka", of which he has provided its title.

As a sacrifice of the conflict*, even sempai's smile would end up along the flow of time into eternity. (*TL Note - DO NOT EDIT THIS SENTENCE)

No, perhaps it is better that we do not remember it. As it was not intended to be a heroic tale.

Once the subjectiveness is taken away, this story will become a classic as it transcends all historical perspectives.

Will the day come when our stories become a classic for someone in the future?

October 13th, 1968 Kooriyama Youko

After clearing her throat, Chitanda began explaining,

"This is taken from the essay anthology 'Hyouka'. In order to determine what sort of articles 'Hyouka' publishes yearly, one would have to read its foreword and find out what sort of topics it covered. Unfortunately, having said that, this paragraph was the only text that makes any mention of the incident 33 years ago. It may be that it's written in other places, but we do not have the first volume...... Anyway, I have summarized the main points of this foreword in these notes here,"

She then distributed copies for the second page.

1. "Sempai" had departed. (From where?)
2. "Sempai" became a hero 33 years ago, and has become a legend by the following year
3. "Sempai" was a "silent warrior" and "kind hero"
4. "Sempai" named this anthology "Hyouka"
5. A conflict happened and sacrifices were made ("Sempai" = sacrifice?)

"Wow."

Now that sure was brief and straight to the point. I couldn't help but sigh in wonder, but thinking about it, while Chitanda was the manifestation of Curiosity itself, she was also an honours student. If she did not know how to summarize things, she would not be able to get such high grades.

After making sure everyone had read through the note, Chitanda continued with her explanation,

"First of all, this 'sempai', in other words my uncle, had dropped out of Kamiyama High School. His final academic level was Junior High. I hope you're all following me."

While this was the first time I heard Chitanda mention Sekitani Jun had dropped out of Kamiyama High School, I wasn't particularly surprised. After all, it was not hard to guess from the opening sentence of the forewords "since Sekitani-sempai left us".

But then, Chitanda probably doesn't know the reason why her uncle dropped out...... No, she definitely doesn't know. If she had, she would have mentioned it already. Come to think of it, back at the Cafe Pineapple Sandwich, she did mention that the Sekitanis and Chitandas have become estranged.

"Second, the foreword makes a big issue out of how time has passed. The third point is interesting, besides mentioning 'sempai' as kind and silent, he's also described as a 'warrior' and 'hero'. What was he fighting for? The fifth point merely affirms that 'sempai' fought in some conflict and became a hero, and was sacrificed as a result. As for the fourth point...... while I'm curious about it, it's irrelevant to the current problem for now. This concludes my report, are there any questions?"

As it wasn't particularly offbeat, I didn't have much to ask.

While it would have been usual for our eccentric (i.e. Satoshi) to raise his hand during classes, in gatherings like these where there's little people and everyone knows each other, he saw no reason to do so. So instead, it was Ibara who started asking right away,

"Umm, why was this line 'As it was not intended to be a heroic tale' not considered at all?"

Satoshi knew the answer of course. Though he wanted to speak, he held back his words and looked at me. He can be quite polite when the time requires for it, not wanting to interrupt Chitanda as she answers.

On the other hand, as Chitanda was the one being asked, she replied right away,

"That phrase was just a mental image, as different people may have different views as to what a heroic tale means."

"Besides,"

Upon waiting for Chitanda finished her explanation, Satoshi added right away,

"It probably means that it was nothing as romantic as a heroic tale, but more of a dirty battle. So I think it's not just a mental image."

Somehow Ibara was convinced.

There were no other questions asked.

"Now, I will begin my hypothesis."

Chitanda sounded neither confident nor uncertain, but was just being her usual self. She did not hold any memos of the sort as she began,

"My uncle seemed to have been involved in some conflict, and after that, he dropped out of school. Though I'm not entirely sure, but I think the conflict was what led to him dropping out. There is one more point to consider besides the five points I mentioned, the opening sentence 'It has been one year since'.

In other words, my uncle dropped out one year before the Kanya Festival, meaning during the previous Kanya Festival. By the way, I heard a friend of mine who goes to Kamiyama Commercial High School that there was an incident in their Cultural Festival last year."

Satoshi said cheerfully,

"The Rampage of the Cultural Festival, I think it was called. Stalls were threatened while sale proceedings disappeared."

Chitanda nodded,

"There's a saying that as long as there's a system, there would exist entities that would go against it. Whether it's the Cultural Festival, Sports Festival or the Graduation Ceremony, there would occasionally be people opposed to these so-called annual events. One more thing, please have a look at page 24 of the Kami High Student Handbook."

Despite her saying that, no one could take out their Student Handbook. This was a matter of fact, as who would actually bring such a thing with them all the time?

"...... Is something wrong?"

Unfortunately we left our handbooks at home. So what was written in there?"

"...... Could it be that you never carry the handbook with you at all times? Oh, never mind. Umm, here's what it says, 'Violent behaviour is strictly forbidden'. So here is my theory,"

Without changing the tone of her voice, Chitanda went on,

"There was an unfortunate disturbance during the Kanya Festival that year, and it could be that my uncle responded to it with physical force. While he may have become a hero, he had to carry the responsibility of resorting to violence. The subsequent tragic outcome resulted in his lower classmen writing a eulogy for his departure."

... Hmm...

Translator's notes and references

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