Houtarou finally figures out the true identity of the mysterious "Juumonji" thief who committed many minor thefts at the Kanya Festival. He decides to put that knowledge into good use.
Synopsis[]
As the school-wide broadcast goes on, the feet of an unknown someone can be seen walking, presumably being the culprit's. Eru answers to the announcers shout-outs, advertising both the Juumonji case and the Hyouka anthology. She even asks people to come to their club room to guard the last item Juumonji intends to steal, a "manuscript". During this, Mayaka in the club room notices that some more copies of the anthology are "missing", possibly sent out to sell somewhere else. By the end of this live broadcast, Eru wonders if it went well, even though the announcer himself stated Eru did well.
In the Classic Lit Club's room, Mayaka, Satoshi and Eru stand around a table, with the Hyouka's manuscript on top, while a large number of students and citizens surround and fill the room. Houtarou is quite astonished when the Hyouka anthology starts to sell well, until less than 30 or so copies are left. Yet, with so many people in the room, participants begin to become impatient, thinking that Juumonji can't steal the manuscript now.
From somewhere in the room, a phone rings, surprising everyone. Satoshi notices that it is his cell phone and apologises. With many of the people's eye off the manuscript, suddenly the manuscript goes up in flames. Satoshi immediately takes action and attempts to take the fire out as the other bystanders watch. Mayaka notices that there is water on the table where the manuscript was, but places her attention back to the burning manuscript itself. With the manuscript now illegible from the burns, Satoshi claims that they've been defeated. Near the desk, a "Hyouka" anthology lies on the floor, and when Mayaka looks at it, it says "The Classic Lit Club complete manuscript has been lost. The ten letters has been achieved."
"Mysteries" Solved[]
Houtarou's Deduction of Juumonji's Identity case[]
From the Kanya Festival Brochure, there's a page where all the clubs that have become victims are listed in alphabetical order and after magic club there's Muneyoshi Kugayama's name written on it. And, with the fact that "Juumonji" left notes that consistently used the word "lost" instead of "taken" and he skipped "Ku" despite he has been stealing in alphabetical order, Houtarou presumed that Juumoji used the incident as a message involving someone whose name starts with "Ku" and they already lost something that starts with "Ku" and that person is Kugayama Muneyoshi with the message says "Kugayama Muneyoshi's Kudryavka's Order has been lost". With this in mind, Juumoji is among the 20 members of Executive Members who has the power to manipulate the contents of the brochure.
Reason Behind the Weird Pen-name of "A Corpse by Evening" case[]
From the manga's afterwords, there are three people that made the manga together (a writer, an artist and a background illustrator) which makes the pen name Ajimu Takuha to be a group name instead of a pseudonym of a single person. And, knowing the fact that Kugayama is the artist and a girl named Anjou Haruna is the writer, the background artist is the only one who could be Juumoji since the incident is based on Kudryavka's Order which is also related to the culprit's motive. And lastly, Ajimu Takuha is actually a combination of the members' names first letters. By eliminating "A" and "Ha" for Anjou Haruna and "Ku" and "Mu" for Kugayama Muneyoshi, it would leave only "Ta" and "Ji" which gives the description of Juumoji's true identity to be a second year or higher student, a participant of Kanya Festival, a member of Executive Committee, names starts with "Ta" and "Ji", and a close friend of Kugayama who knew he could draw manga. The only one who fits this description is Jirou Tanabe, the president of the school's Executive Committee, vice president of school's Student Council, and Kugayama's best friend.
Houtarou's theory of Juumonji's Motive case[]
Houtarou has a speculation that Muneyoshi Kugayama lost the script for Kudryavka's Order and Juumoji wanted to blame Kugayama for it as his motive to cause the incident.
The Explosive yet Watery Manuscript case[]
Houtarou blackmailed Tanabe to buy 30 copies of Hyouka and sell them on the school's website. In exchange, not only Houtarou will keep silent of this case, he and Satoshi will also help him from the inside to conclude the case for both sides' benefits. He asked him to make the Classic Lit Club to be his last victim with a completed manuscript for Hyouka as his target which would boost their anthologies' sales, and he asked him to get some sodium and a water gun. Houtarou will slipped some sodium between the script and Tanabe will shoot it with the water gun which would make the manuscript to explode and burn. This will makes the case concluded with Juumoji never get caught by anyone.
Ayako Kouchi's Deacceptance of "A Corpse by Evening" case[]
Mayaka argued with Ayako Kouchi about their perspectives on manga's values. Mayaka strongly believed that there are mangas which are masterpieces from the start while Kouchi strongly argued that readers are the ones who decide whether a manga is a masterpiece or not. In order to prove her point, Mayaka wanted her to read manga titled "A Corpse by Evening" which Mayaka believed to be a masterpiece. However, she wasn't able to bring it to her since it was left behind at one of her relatives' house. Fortunately, at the last day of Kanya Festival, she was able to borrow a copy of the manga from Houtarou and brought it for Kouchi. But, she refused to read it because Anjou Haruna wrote it.
Kouchi then explained that Haruna was never interested in manga before, but, she was surprisingly talented at writing manga which make her frustrated since Haruna is better than her despite not being passionate about manga. And so, she stopped reading the manga halfway and keep it hidden in her closet so that she could deny that there is no such things as a masterpiece. She doesn't want to be overshadowed by Haruna's talent and accept the fact that she made a great manga even though she is more passionate and serious about manga than Haruna. After she left, Mayaka noticed Ayako's drawing at the metal fence. It was similar to the drawings in Body Talk, a manga that Mayaka also owned. She realized that Ayako is the author of "Body Talk" and she remembered that she once compared Body Talk to be on a lower level than A Corpse by Evening and her own manga is much worse than both. This makes Mayaka cry since she understand Kouchi's feelings as well and just realized that she has been hurting her feelings.
Juumonji's True Motive case[]
Tanabe asked Houtarou about his theorythat his motive is supposed to be because Kugayama lost the script. Houtarou claimed that it's just a theory with no proof. He honestly can't think of anything that could give Tanabe a motive. Tanabe expected Houtarou couldn't understand it, and so, he enlightened him about it. Kugayama is a talented artist, even better than Tanabe himself. He wanted him to continue drawing so that he could draw something better than "A Corpse by Evening", but, Kugayama only draw a manga for fun at that time and doesn't want to continue drawing at all. This makes Tanabe to be very upset since it's a waste of talent and he has a lot of expectations for him. However, from this incident, Tanabe realized that his message never reach him which implied that Kugayama never read the manuscript of "Kudryavka's order" that Haruna Anjou put her heart into leaving Tanabe with an upset face filled with despair.
Notes[]
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