Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1 Chapter 5 part9

Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 1
Chapter 5: Murder at the Sirius Observatory 3

"Hidden... Hidden where? I mean we scoured the whole place and there wasn't any body... Was it buried in the snow outside? There would be traces of that."

"The answer is simple," said Kirigiri shortly, before continuing, "However—before we discuss the truth, I would like to ask you a favor." She looked up at me.

"What?"

"I want you to believe that I am not the culprit." Her expression was unusually serious. And, for the first time, it looked almost pleading.

Well, I mean... I do want to believe her, but... What if this is all one big lie of hers? What if I'm the last person she needs to kill to round out her crime? I can't believe her just out of sympathy alone.

But as she'd been cutting away all this confusion with her logical reasoning, I'd already begun to half-believe her. She had talent as a detective.

"If you can trust me, then untie the ribbon on my right hand. Just the right is fine."

What exactly is she planning on doing? I have no idea.

But I'll believe in her, as a detective.

—I untied the restraints on her right hand.

"Thank you."

For the first time, she flashed me an endearing smile—or it felt like it, at least. Her expression had barely changed, so maybe it was just me imagining things.

"Now, go get Amino-san's briefcase," Kirigiri requested. I did as I was told, picking up the document case from the floor and handing it over to her. She set it on her lap. "Now bring Inuzuksan's carry-on bag over here."

"Got it." I grabbed the kicked-over carry-on bag and rolled it up in front of the armchair. "This okay, Little Miss Detective?"

"Yes. Perfect." It looked like I'd made her blush just a little.

"So at the time that we all got here, was the body actually hidden here somewhere?"

"Yes. Thinking back, there are places that no one investigated. It's not impossible. At that time, the thought of a dismembered corpse hadn't even crossed our minds."

Not quite—I had gotten the challenge, so I could have predicted it. I felt a wave of regret wash over me as I realized that.

"So where exactly was that?"

"Inside the telescopes."

"Huh?! ...Inside... the telescopes?"

"Each of the five rooms had a 200mm aperture Newtonian reflecting telescope installed inside. If you understand how those are constructed, you should be able to see where the body was hidden."

"No way! That's impossible. There's no way you could put a body in those telescopes. Even if you could, we'd have found it right away. I mean, if someone looked in the telescope, they'd see right through the middle..."

Suddenly, I remembered Inuzuka's lecture on reflecting telescopes. Inside the large tube, there's a concave mirror that reflects the image until it hits the objective lens.

"Oh my God! No way!"

What if someone had adjusted the concave mirror in the telescope beforehand? Couldn't they create a hidden compartment inside the tube?

"Do you understand now? A human head could fit inside a tube with a 200mm diameter. A man's head is 16cm wide at most. With the four limbs cut into three pieces each, I imagine they could also be stowed without taking up too much space across. The head, the left arm, the right arm, the left leg, and the right leg—the culprit took these five body parts and distributed them between the five hidden compartments within the telescopes."

"There were... bodies inside of those... But I even looked through one of the lenses."

"You shouldn't have gotten a clear image. With the concave mirror repositioned, it should have been out of focus."

"Yeah, I could barely see anything."

"Perhaps someone who was very knowledgeable about telescopes would notice the concave mirror was strangely positioned when they looked inside the tube. But there wasn't anyone among us who would notice that."

Inuzuka seemed to have known a decent amount, but he didn't notice that key fact. Maybe he was working off memories that were too old, or maybe he just didn't have his head in the case.

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

Chapter end