Danganronpa Kirigiri Volume 3 Chapter 4 Part2

We were too late. Had we arrived a little earlier, the man might still be alive.

I bit my lip. My frustration was short-lived, however, as my attention turned to the bizarre crime scene. It was a truly ghastly sight to behold.

Towering over the corpse, as if mocking the man’s misfortune, were two armored warriors.

“Eeeeek! Wh-What are those?” the brunette woman screamed, pointing a finger at the figures.

The souls of fallen warriors—

Except these warriors weren’t souls, nor were they ghosts. They were physically standing before our very eyes, equipped with helmets and full sets of armor.

The warrior on the left was wielding a katana in its right hand. The one on the right had its elbow bent as if brandishing a weapon, but its hands were empty, as was the sheath hanging from its back.

Did the katana in the man’s back belong to that warrior?

“Both suits of armor appear empty,” the man in the sungla.s.ses said, as he stepped into the room.

No person was wearing either set of armor. Inside each was a mannequin-like torso propped up from behind by a support pole, standing on a makeshift pedestal.

The sight rendered us speechless, but standing in shock wouldn’t get us anywhere. One by one, we stepped through the doorway, hoping to discover answers to the questions racing through our minds.

Kyoko made a beeline for the body and checked it for a pulse. Without uttering a word, she shook her head.

The spectacled woman pulled out a cell phone from the sleeve of her kimono and dialed the police. The call connected as normal.

“Ask for an ambulance too,” Kyoko requested. “Although… I think it’s probably too late.”

I walked up to one of the suits of armor, which intrigued me more than the corpse.

It was a complete set from head to toe—sleeves, trousers, gauntlets, shin guards, hand coverings, straw sandals, a helmet featuring a magnificent crest, and a face guard. I hesitantly peeked inside the helmet. It was hollow. The other armor was empty as well.

“Was the armor here originally?” I asked.

“Yes,” the man in the sungla.s.ses responded. “Except it was on display against the wall, not in the center of the room. The katanas were fully sheathed.”

“Which means someone intentionally moved it and set it up like this…”

“Or those warriors coulda walked over there by themselves,” the man in the Hawaiian shirt said with a grave look on his face.

Indeed, at first glance, it looked like the two warriors had a.s.saulted the victim.

That aside, the room sparked my curiosity.

The room was rather plain. It was about 30 by 30 feet in size and was almost completely unfurnished, aside from a couple of old paintings in stained frames hanging on the walls. Two vertical wooden posts were attached to the wall next to the door we entered through, each with a number of hooks that I a.s.sumed were used to hang up katanas and wooden practice swords.

The floor was wooden, with the floorboards at the center of the room worn down and darker in color. This place was most likely a kendo dojo. Two framed banners on the walls read “Fight with Pa.s.sion” and “Step Beyond Despair.”

And then, there was a dead man on the ground with an actual katana sticking out of his back.

The warriors stood as a pair behind the corpse, one on the left and one on the right. They were angled towards the center of the room, where the body was lying. One of them was grasping onto the handle of a katana with some sort of artificial hand.

Kyoko approached the suits of armor. “There are bloodstains on each torso, likely from when the victim was killed. The blood is still fresh, no more than a few minutes old. There’s some splattered on the floor too.”

“Hey, Kyoko, is that katana really the murder weapon?”

“Probably. The body doesn’t have any other visible injuries.”

“The weapon listed on the challenge card was a ‘dotanuki katana.’ I don’t see how this sword has anything to do with a tanuki though…”

“I believe that’s the name of the katana.”

“Oh, okay.”

I was still curious, so I looked it up later and discovered that dotanuki was a school of swordsmiths.

“Hey, somethin’ don’t feel right about all this. If it ain’t those warriors, how’s it possible for anyone to have stabbed that guy?” the man in the Hawaiian shirt said with a stern expression. “If someone else did it, where’d they go? They ain’t here anymore.”

“Didn’t they, like, run off somewhere?” the brunette responded with a slightly airheaded tone.

“Huh? Take a good look around. Both windows are locked, and even if the perp did open them, there are wooden bars blockin’ the outside. You can’t even squeeze a baby through them.”

“The other set of doors has been sealed tightly with rubber bands,” the man in the sungla.s.ses reported, as he walked up to the double doors in the back of the room. “The lock isn’t engaged, but the rubber bands around the handles prevent anyone from opening these doors.”

“Oh yeah, seems like there were rubber bands wrapped around the k.n.o.b of the door we came through and one of those hooks on the wall,” the brunette woman added. Severed bands were lying on the floor by the door.

“A locked room murder…” the spectacled woman added with a calm tone. “Unless the murderer is concealing themselves somewhere in here.”

Looking around, I couldn’t spot anywhere for a person to hide.

“Kyoko,” I whispered out of earshot of everyone else. “If this locked room is the trick in the Duel Noir, then the Crime Victims’ Salvation Committee is involved, right? What if they set up some kind of trap door in the floor or a revolving door in the wall for the criminal to escape through?”

“That’s not the first time you’ve thought of that, Yui. Although you weren’t entirely off the mark last time.”

She was referring to the Norman’s Hotel case. I figured that no possibility was too outlandish to rule out.

“By the way,” Kyoko said, turning to the others. “Including the man who was killed, is this everyone who came here today?”

“Yes, that’s right,” the spectacled woman replied.

The four people we found standing outside this room were Hawaiian shirt guy, sungla.s.ses man, gla.s.ses woman, and brunette lady. They were worried about the victim not coming out of this room. Adding in me and Kyoko made six. Seven, if you counted the dead man.

Was this really everyone?

“Thank you,” Kyoko replied curtly, before starting to examine the floor nearby. “Let’s investigate everything we can until the police arrive.”

“H-Hey, who the h.e.l.l are you guys anyway? You don’t seem like normal kids…”

“Yeah, aren’t these girls, like, totally suspicious?”

“We’re not suspicious! We’re actually—”

As I was about to reveal our ident.i.ties, Kyoko tugged on my shirt to stop me.

“We can explain later,” she cut in. “For now, we should focus on the investigation.”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right,” I stammered.

Kyoko and I thoroughly checked the floor, walls, and ceiling, but we couldn’t find any secret escape route. We then decided to check outside before the police arrived, hoping that some clue was preserved in the snow.

Back in the hallway, I looked out a window that faced the mansion courtyard. Although it was dark, there was enough light to faintly illuminate the snow-covered ground. No footprints were left in the undisturbed snow, at least from what I could see.

We moved to a spot in the main building that gave us a view of the entire exterior of the dojo. The backyard was enclosed by a bamboo thicket. A set of double doors was connected to the crime scene, but as we had discovered, rubber bands had sealed it shut from the inside. From the lack of footprints, we could conclude that n.o.body entered or left through those doors.

The scene was a perfect locked room in the snow.

Moments after the clock struck midnight, sirens and flashing red lights surrounded the haunted mansion. Officers in uniforms, police detectives in suits, and forensic officers in work clothes streamed into the mansion.

This was my first Duel Noir where the police intervened.

Since the murder had successfully been carried out with the items listed in the challenge card, the criminal’s turn was over. Now, it was our move.

However, the arrival of the police stripped us of our freedom to investigate the scene. All of the guests—including Kyoko and me—were gathered in the living room.

The stern-faced officers began their questioning.

“Like I said, we all got a black letter callin’ us here. We were waitin’ for some Takeda guy to show up,” the guy in the Hawaiian shirt said while sitting on the sofa.

“A black letter?” My incurable habit of subconsciously verbalizing questions that popped into my mind struck again. The officers turned their glares to me. “Oh, ignore me… Please continue.”

“It’s true,” the Hawaiian shirt guy continued. “I can’t show you since I left it back at my place, but…”

“I have mine with me,” the spectacled woman said, timidly pulling out a black envelope from her sleeve.

It was an envelope I had seen many times before, with one small difference—it lacked the insignia of the Crime Victims’ Salvation Committee.

She pulled out a black piece of paper from the envelope and laid it out onto the gla.s.s table.

The officers grabbed it with curious expressions.

I peeked over one of their shoulders to read the letter for myself.

Invitation to a Birthday Reception

On January 10th, we will be celebrating the 100th birthday of Saiun Takeda, the head of the Takeda Household.

We are truly grateful for your continued friendship and cordiality that has made this occasion possible.

To mark this momentous milestone, we are planning to host a soirée at our mansion, featuring world-cla.s.s cuisine prepared by a master chef. You are hereby invited to attend.

We would be honored by your presence, and we will be preparing family artifacts as gifts for your attendance.

Sincerely,

The Takeda Family

A Duel Noir wouldn’t be complete without a fishy letter.

“Are you all acquainted with this Saiun Takeda?” an officer asked.

“About that…”

Everyone in the room shook their heads.

“Why would you travel all the way here for a birthday party of someone you don’t even know? Didn’t you find the invitation suspicious?”

“I did, but…” the guy in the Hawaiian shirt answered, shrugging his shoulders exaggeratedly.

“Besides, Saiun Takeda died more than ten years ago,” a younger officer added. “If he were still alive, he would be turning 100.”

“I suspected as such.”

“Are you saying that a 100-year-old ghost invited us here? What a dreadful joke,” the man in the sungla.s.ses said. He was quite calm, sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed. If a bystander were to happen upon the scene, they would probably think he was the most important person here.

The woman in the gla.s.ses was sitting on the sofa in seiza style. In stark contrast, the brunette was sitting with both her legs propped up on the table, either forgetting or intentionally disregarding the fact that she was wearing a miniskirt.

“I don’t understand,” another officer said. “Why would all of you gather in a place like this?”

“Are your ears working? We were called here by some strange letter,” the brunette answered. “Can I go now?”

“We can’t let you leave.”

“Tch. This old man’s got an att.i.tude.”

“This is a murder investigation. A man has been killed. We would like you to take this very seriously.”

The officer’s stern warning caused the woman to pout and shut up.

“What about you two?” he asked, turning his gaze to me and Kyoko.

“Um, well…”

“Yeah, what’s the deal with those girls?” the guy in the Hawaiian shirt added.

“Well, we got one of those black letters too…”

“Really? That’s strange. A minute ago, you reacted as if you hadn’t known about the invitation,” the officer pointed out. “The two of you arrived much later than the others. Is there a reason for that?”

“We had afternoon plans, so we couldn’t make it here any earlier.”

“Come on, you ain’t just some normal kids,” the guy in the Hawaiian shirt blurted out. “Calmly examinin’ the corpse and searchin’ the room for some secret door…”

“Okay, fine, I confess,” I blurted out, half out of desperation. “We’re detectives, and we came here to solve a case. I can’t reveal our source, but we were warned a crime was going to take place. We rushed here as fast as we could, but we didn’t make it in time…”

I shook my head in frustration.

I felt a bunch of different gazes pointed at me. The officers’ gazes were especially cold.

“…Detectives, huh,” the officer said. He turned to Kyoko. “You included?”

“I don’t need to tell you who I am,” she replied with a blank expression. Her ability to remain calm in the face of the police may have been the result of years of training, or perhaps simply apathy.

“Little girl, this is a criminal investigation. This isn’t the place for playing make-believe detective. You understand?”

The inspector drew closer to Kyoko. The powerful glint in his eyes surely had made countless criminals shake in their boots, but she skillfully ignored it and stared off into the distance.

“Inspector, a moment please,” a younger officer called out, rushing onto the scene.

“What is it? Can’t it wait?”

“Inspector,” the officer repeated.

“What happened?”

“A call came in a minute ago…”

The two officers discussed something secretly amongst themselves.

After a short back-and-forth, their conversation ended. The two of them turned to me and Kyoko and deeply bowed their heads.

“I apologize for my behavior. I had no idea you were Mr. Ryuuzouji’s a.s.sistants. I wish you would have mentioned it sooner…”

“Ah, uh, don’t worry about it…” I nodded, not fully understanding what had happened. “What did Mr. Ryuuzouji say?”

“He said two detectives would be joining the investigation, and asked us to welcome you… But you too arrived rather early. My apologies for thinking you were playing make-believe detective. Just for formalities, would you show me your Detective Library IDs?”

I took out my ID and presented it to the inspector.

Upon confirming it, he bowed once again. “Thank you. Please, wear these armbands while you’re here. All I ask is for you to return them before you leave.”

Kyoko and I accepted the armbands, which had “police” written on them.

I tried bowing, and all of the investigators on duty bowed in response.

…What power.

But Kyoko had a small frown on her face.

“Kyoko, what’s wrong? You should put that around your arm.”

“It frustrates me that we’re under Ryuuzouji’s control.”

“Yeah, I had no idea he had so much influence over the police.”

A truly powerful detective commanded respect and trust from the police. Only someone celebrated as a hero of the people could be deemed a master detective. For that reason, Gekka Ryuuzouji was at the top of the detective world.

But because of that… none of the police officers would believe it if we tried to explain that he had a hand in planning the murder at this mansion.

Next: Chapter 4, Part 3 (Coming Soon!)
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