Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1 Chapter 3 part11

Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1
Chapter 3: Murder at the Sirius Observatory 2

I went out into the hall to try and raise my spirits. Kirigiri was the only one there, standing as still as a statue, facing the wall.

"So uh, what are you up to?" I asked, and Kirigiri turned to face me, looking like she wanted to say something. There was a recessed cabinet embedded in the wall in front of her, the cabinet door sitting open. "Oooh, did you find something?"

Inside the cabinet were rows of different strange switches. There was a panel that looked like it had written instructions, but it was all in a foreign language. German or something? There was one button that stood out from the rest of the controls. It was surrounded by a square that was striped in black and yellow as a warning signal.

"C-Could this be... the self-destruct button...?"

"It's the switch to open and close the ceiling dome," said Kirigiri, in awe. "The instructions tell you how to move the telescope, too."

"You can read German?"

"I'm not fluent; I only understand a little. It's only because I've been on numerous trips to Germany."

That's a pretty big deal. I already had enough trouble with just the English exams at school.

"Let's try pressing it."

"Ah—"

I pushed the button without waiting for Kirigiri's permission. Out of nowhere, I heard the sound of a motor running. I looked up at the ceiling, where a gap was opening up in the concave mirror. It looked almost as if the mirror had been cracked. By no means was it a mirror world that I could see through the gap... it was the dense ashen night sky.

All at once, snow began to blow in. The snow that had piled up on top of the roof fell down in thuds, too. We were enveloped in freezing cold air.

"Whoa, cold—!" I frantically hit the button again. But the dome didn't stop. "W-Wait, how do we get it to go back?"

"You have to raise that lever and then push the button again."

I did as I was told, and the dome gently closed. It took less than a minute for it to shut completely, the last remaining snow fluttering down as it did.

"Hey! What was that noise just now?" Amino fearfully peeked out from behind his door.

"The ceiling opened."

"The ceiling?" Amino came out of his room to look up at it, before shooting me a look that demanded to know what kind of nonsense I was up to.

"My, my, what a pleasant surprise to see you folks all here together." Inuzuka came out, too.

"Is something the matter, Inuzuksensei?"

"Nah, I tried, but I just don't do well with sittin' still. I was thinking I could do a little more investigation around the building, but..."

"Didn't we investigate enough earlier?"

"I was gonna start over and test a hypothesis that there's some hidden door or passageway somewhere."

"I sincerely doubt we'll find anything like that."

"These girls just found a switch to open up the ceiling not five minutes ago, didn't they? Anyway, try using your head sometime. Even outside the fact that there's no sign of anyone going in or out, the lights were already on in the building, and the front door was even open. Can't help but feel someone's gotta be in the building somewhere."

Inuzuka had a point. I nodded in agreement.

"Let's all go through and do a thorough investigation. But we'll split into two teams. If we all travel together, we're leaving an opening."

We called Enbi out from his room, too, interrupting his rest. For some reason, he was staggering when he came out, looking like he might fall over. He held his head in his hands, leaning against the table.

"Are you all right?" I asked, and he nodded silently.

It didn't take long for us to split into teams. I proclaimed I would team up with Kirigiri. She was my underclassman, she was cute, she was a better detective than me, and most of all, she would be the most endangered if I didn't keep an eye on her. She didn't object to the team-up.

"So I guess the three of us in the Middle-Aged Man Squad..."

Amino hurriedly interrupted Inuzuka mid-sentence. "I'll go with the girls. Look, don't you think they should have an adult?" He shifted closer to me.

"Guess so. Then I'll leave them to you. I'll go with Enbi-kun."

We split up in the hall to begin our search.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of Chapter 3 next Sunday (PST)!
You are encouraged to comment and form theories on the mystery,

Chapter end