Hyouka - Volume 03 - The Kudryavka Sequence - Welcome to KANYA FESTA! (1)

"It would be you, Tanabe Jirou-sempai. ([TA]NABE [JI]ROU)"
"That's amazing. I would never have thought anyone else besides Mune and
Anjou-san would be able to decipher such a message,"
Tanabe clapped his hands. I meekly accepted his applause, as I didn't expect
to be praised for this. Leaving that aside, I began to speak more frankly,
"What I don't understand is why you would go through such lengths just to
convey a message? Surely you could have just told him directly,"
As I said that, I began to guess what his answer would be. And as expected,
Tanabe smiled bitterly,
"I would have told him already if I could. And besides...... you must have
vaguely guessed it yourself, as to why I would use such a method,"
While he flatters me too much, it's true that I've vaguely guessed the reason,
"This Cultural Festival is exactly one year since you've published Ashes at
Dusk, so could this act be your way of expressing your sentiment to Anjou
Haruna's departure?"
"Heh, sentiment, huh? That could be true, and since it's the Cultural Festival,
it could be a desire to pull a prank as well. It's boring being stuck in the
conference room all day, you know. So I decided to have some fun,"
Sentiment and fun. For him to carry out the "Juumoji" Incident just for these
reasons, Tanabe's values sure contrast largely with my own energyconserving
ones.
Speaking in a faint voice that was hard to hear, he added,
"...... But the most important reason, was because I was unable to tell him so,"