Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1 Chapter 1 part5

Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1
Chapter 1: Murder at the Sirius Observatory 1, part 5

"If an uninvited guest is in fact present, there is no doubt that that person is a man. And he may still be hiding in the building." Kirigiri looked a little worried.

"Yeah, I'm gonna check to see. By myself. Sorry, but I'm gonna have you stay like that for a while. And, I'm gonna bind your right hand too." If she was the culprit, then she had to have been the one who prepared the handcuffs, too. If that was the case, there was a chance she had a spare key hidden somewhere. If I left her unattended, she might unlock the handcuffs. So I needed to restrict the use of both of her hands. "No offense."

"None taken. Actually, I'd be more concerned if you weren't the sort of person who would think of that," Kirigiri said with a cold expression.

But... even if I wanted to restrain her, I didn't have any extra handcuffs, or rope, or anything to tie her hands with.

"Use my ribbon."

"...Is that okay?"

"If it's used to prove my innocence."

I nodded, and loosened one of the ribbons tied around her pigtailed braids. I used the ribbon to tie her right hand to the arm of the chair. And with that, both of her hands were secured to the armchair.

"I'm going to go around and investigate each of the rooms one by one. If our unwanted guest is around somewhere, he might try to move between rooms and hide himself somewhere else so that I don't see him. But if you're here in the central hall, you should see right through him."

"So I'm serving as surveillance?"

"You got it. But our guest could be super dangerous for you, with both of your hands tied up like that. I mean, he's a filthy murderer, after all. If he shows up, just scream at the top of your lungs. I'll come rescue you in a flash."

"You'll rescue me?"

"The existence of an unwanted guest would prove your innocence. I'd protect you with all I've got."

"I see... But I believe it will already be too late at that point." As always, Kirigiri acted like this had nothing to do with her. "But, if you would allow me to say so, I don't think you can logically conclude that I'm innocent simply because an uninvited guest might be present. That person's reason for hiding would not necessarily be related to the murders; for example..."

"That doesn't matter! Geez!" I interrupted. "In a situation like this, if someone's here sneaking around, it's just common sense for me to kick their butt instead of doing anything else!"

"...I suppose," she responded meekly.

"I really doubt someone's coming in and out of this building out in the middle of a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night... But whatever. I'm investigating."

I left Kirigiri behind, and went to investigate the closest room first. I opened the curtains, checked the locks on the windows, and investigated the state of the snow outside.

It didn't take long for me to go around and check the windows in all of the rooms. The conclusion was that all of the windows were locked from the inside. There wasn't anything amiss with the snow near them.

None of the guest rooms had any air conditioning vents or anything that would lead out except for the three windows. So, following that train of thought, it was impossible for anyone to make it out with the windows locked.

Next, I investigated the entranceway. The front door was locked, and even when I checked the snow outside, I didn't see any signs of anyone entering or exiting through it.

In the end, I couldn't find any evidence of anyone going in or out of the building. And I didn't sufficiently detect the presence of the hypothetical unwanted guest, either—which is to say, anyone other than me and Kirigiri who was alive.

Kirigiri was waiting for me in the hall, still restrained on the chair.

"Unfortunately, it looks like there's no one here except you and me after all."

"There wasn't any sign of anything in the snow outside?"

"Nah, I mean, in a storm like this, traces of anything would probably be wiped away by the snow really quick, but if a person was walking through that, there would definitely be a dent in it at least. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary like that."

And so, the murder mystery became even more baffling.

No, you could say it makes it a lot more simple.

You could compare Sirius Observatory to an airtight bottle. As long as the bottle remains airtight, there won't ever be any more or less inside of it. So if there are three corpses and two survivors, one of the survivors has to be the culprit. Therefore, Kyouko Kirigiri is the culprit.

The person in question looked up at me expectantly. It was too bad, but I couldn't release her from her restraints just yet.

If my reasoning was correct, then there was no doubt that she was the culprit. But it was also true that I couldn't come to terms with that answer. Would it really be possible for a girl like her to kill three grown men and arrange their corpses on the beds?

"I don't know what's going on anymore... What is with this case?" I complained unthinkingly. "This weird building is one thing, and the weird request we got is another... But now, finally, I at least understand one thing. The incident described in that black letter wasn't an incident that we were requested to solve, but an incident that we were getting involved in ourselves."

"...Yui-oneesama," Kirigiri interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

"Huh? The written request. There was a black letter with it, right? And it had the place, the weapon, and all that other stuff written in it."

"...Show me the black letter you're talking about."

"If you want?"

I left Kirigiri sitting on the chair, going back to my room and digging through my backpack. I pulled the black letter out, and returned to the hall.

"Unfold it and show me."

I unthinkingly complied with her tense and urgent request. I took out the folded black washi writing paper from inside the black envelope. The contents of the letter were written on it in white brushstrokes.

Kirigiri looked at those brushstrokes, and then it seemed as if her body temperature dropped significantly, her face growing pale. "Yui-oneesama... This is no ordinary murder case."

"What? What do you mean?"

"This is most likely... a game."

(click for fullsize image that was too difficult for me to clean so I gave up)

Stay tuned for an all-new chapter and an all-new POV, next Sunday (PST)!

Chapter end