Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1 Chapter 3 part8

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

"A-At any rate, there's nothing we can do but wait for that proxy to show up—Ooe, or whoever. If they're acting this high and mighty, the client might be a seriously big name," said Amino.

We looked at each other, and then let our eyes wander, not looking at anything specific. My chest now felt like it might let out an audible creak from all the small doubts and insecurities I was holding pent up inside...

"If the owner isn't here, let's just give up on being polite and search the place." Apparently, Inuzuka wasn't letting himself be discouraged quite yet. Maybe this is where I should be saying that you could tell he was Class 3. He opened the nearest door and peered inside the room.

"Hey, Kirigiri-chan, why don't we look around too?" I called out to her.

"It will be more efficient for us all split up," she responded calmly, moving further into the hall. Just when I'd started to think that maybe we were friends, she goes and does this. It felt like I was being scolded by someone younger than me.

Crestfallen, I peered into a random room.

It was just like the room from the magazine article. The room itself was triangular, but since there was a closet on the right and a bathroom on the left with a toilet and shower, in practical terms it was more like the shape of a home plate stretched out. The bed was next to the closet, and across from that was a dresser and a mini-fridge.

The two legs of the isosceles triangle were almost half glass, probably designed to give guests a good view. But even when I drew back the curtains and looked outside, all I could see was white snow swirling in the dark forest. Even if it were midday and not snowing, I don't think the view would have been all that great. These windows probably weren't there to look at things on ground level. They were there to look up at the starry sky.

At the very far end of the room, around where the legs of the triangle met in a point, there was a telescope. Unlike the larger telescope that had been taken in collections, this was the kind of telescope made for personal use. Though, it was bigger and thicker than what I would imagine as the standard telescope. I guess this is what a large aperture looks like. I'm sure the price is proportional.

After opening the curtains, I looked in the eyepiece experimentally. But, of course, all I could see was a hazy darkness. No stars. With some effort, I changed the angle of the telescope, pointing it into the room. Now when I looked in, I could see through the open door into the hall, though the image was severely blurred.

"Gettin' up to no good already, huh?"

A giant monster appeared in the lens. I let out a short shriek, tearing my eyes away from the telescope. Inuzuka was standing in the doorway.

"Don't scream like that. People are gonna get the wrong idea," said Inuzuka, flustered. Sure enough, Amino came running into the room just a moment behind.

"Did something happen?"

"No, nothing to see here, unfortunately." Inuzuka rubbed at his forehead, trying to make himself look non-threatening. "The rooms are all set up the same. Great place for astronomy."

"Honestly, if only it wasn't for the weather out there, maybe I could discover at least one star," clucked Amino.

"They're still good telescopes. German 200mm Newtonian reflecting telescopes. Look, see here? There's no lens at the end of the tube, is there? You can see right through to the concave mirror there in the back."

"Right, and unlike other telescopes, the part you look into is on the side of the tube. I tried looking through one earlier in a different room, and I could just barely manage to see Building B." Amino gladly went along with Inuzuka's talk.

"Right, right. Those other telescopes you're talking about are your average, garden variety refracting telescopes. That type uses a lens to converge the images inside the tube. That's hands down the easiest for a beginner to use since it's a straight line from the lens you're looking in to where the star is."

Inuzuka had gotten started now, rambling on about telescope trivia in his slurred drunken speech. I didn't care about telescopes, so I checked in the closet and bathroom. Nothing really caught my eye.

"On the other hand, a reflecting type like this one can have a larger aperture for cheaper. 'Cuz you're not using a lens, you're using a concave mirror. The image gets reflected in the mirror, and then another mirror inside reflects it again off to the side, so the eyepiece is on the side of the tube. No points for guessin' Newton's the one who invented it."

"You certainly are knowledgeable about astronomical observation, Inuzuka-sensei..."

"I was in Astronomy Club back in school. Hahaha!"

By which you mean, all your info is over twenty years out of date.

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

Chapter end