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Summary
After getting a call from Tomoe, Houtarou realizes that the mystery involving Sekitani Jun had more to it than he thought, and decided to review the information again. The next day, he decides to call the Classics Club together and they go down to the library to meet with the librarian there, who turned out to be an alumni of the school from 45 years ago.
Impression
It turns out that there was more to the story after all, and it’s nowhere near as heroic as what Houtarou initially described. Well, it’s the same story, but given finer detail by the librarian, Yuuko, who was coincidentally a student 45 years ago back when Sekitani Jun was there too.
In a way, one could say that the entire incident was indirectly the fault of the students, since without them being rowdy and making the fair seem more like a riot than a celebration, the principal wouldn’t have to have done anything in retaliation to try and calm them down. When Sekitani was expelled, none of the students decided to help him and just watched – again, something which turned out to be their fault.
It’s quite cruel actually, scapegoating a student who was unwilling in the first place to act as their leader, then have him take all the blame while the real leader works in the shadows. None of them wanted retribution, and so they decided to pressure one person to take it all – nothing close to a sacrifice, since that word implies that the person decided to act out of their own will. Obviously, there were people like Yuuko who felt bad, but siding with Sekitani meant going against the rest of the students, and so there was that sense of self-preservation stopping anyone from helping him. I guess he must have felt really bitter, and named the anthology Hyouka to express his anger, which is fully justified now that we know the whole story.
That was what made Eru cry all that time ago, so that’s solved itself nicely too. +5 Eru points for you, Houtarou! Speaking of Houtarou, he’s started to change hasn’t he? Maybe he isn’t admitting it, but secretly he might want a colourful life as well, after having a taste of what it can be like. He’s not opposed to it but is just too lazy to bother – his sister probably knew that the Classics Club would solve that. She definitely knows more than she’s letting on. Are there still mysteries of the Kotenbu left undiscovered?