#suntetsu shirasu

[shockersalvage]

Salvage Showcase: Sachi Mizuiyama

Welcome to the next showcase!! As promised I’ll be doing one on one of Danganronpa Kirigiri’s cast and what better one to start out the DRK portion than one of the more relevant side characters - Sachi Mizuiyama.

The Summary

Sachi Mizuiyama debuted in Danganronpa Kirigiri in its 3rd novel and is apart of the Detective Library. She is listed under technological crime and specializes in architecture, holding the current rank of 527. Sachi was called to the Takeda Haunted Mansion Duel Noir, under the pretense of her inspecting the architecture of the building. However, she and four other detectives would find their proxy to be a no-show. After one of them, Suntetsu Shirasu, disappears, the remaining four reveal their status as detectives to each other and tried to figure out what was going on. This would lead them to a locked room that they manage to get open with help from newcomers Yui Samidare and Kyoko Kirigiri. However, when they do get it open, they find Suntetsu dead, propped up by suits of armor and impaled by a katana. No culprit in sight.

As the case progresses its discovered that Sachi, seemingly, was the one to kill the guy and is arrested, despite her panicked claims otherwise. In truth, this was a plot to lure out the true culprit, Korisu Kakitsubata, and Sachi is let go.

The next day, Kyoko calls out the remaining third party detectives from the Takeda case in order to recruit them for aid in tackling the remainder cases of the 12 Duel Noir Challenge. Sachi is hesitant and holds a bit of a grudge for being framed, but nonetheless goes and joins the group in Salvador’s car. While the girls request the other three’s aid, Sachi initially doesn’t want to, but gives in after a combination of peer pressure, hearing Salvador’s tale of his lost partner and wanting to regain some pride over the framing debacle. She opts to take on the Museum of Medieval Torture Duel Noir, since she has been at the museum before.

During this time, she uses her ability to read people and decieving even the likes of the police and uni students in order to acquire information that leads her into not only discovering the culprit, Koriyasu Karisuba, but also figuring out how he killed his target: a university professor who murdered his girlfriend. She even meets one of her teammates, Licorne, who warns her not to go too far since the others wouldn’t want there to be anymore victims...

Which leads into one of the twists for the 5th volume. Sachi is one of the 12 Victims, being a Libra and the culprit of the Libra Girls Academy Duel Noir. She killed a student she had an altercation with in the past and kidnapped two others as well for her ploy. Prior to attending to her case, she used her Ally status to gain information on both the Museum and Bar cases, as well as killing Hajiki. From there, under the guise of a Black Cape, trapped Yui and the two innocents of her Duel Noir in the academy - which used the likes of a scale trick. With help from Salvador, Yui and the others escape...only for Sachi to ambush Salvador, beating him in the head with her pipe and heavily injuring him. While Yui does manage to expose Sachi as a Victim, Sachi doesn’t care and holds her up with a nail gun. She reveals herself to be a fanatic to Gekka, the Host of the 12 Duel Noir Challlenge, not wanting him to step down from his role as an Executive for the Victims Catharsis Committee. Ultimately, interference by the Mystery Research Society Sal brought with him has her knocked out and arrested. In jail, she gives out the information of the two Duel Noirs she looked into, wondering if Yui’s method is right before hanging up to face law’s judgement.

As a person, Sachi is cautious, keen and holds a fierce deception game with a knack for reading people. She can quickly get a read on the character of a person and exploits it to gain advantage in her situation, easily crafting lies on the spot to get people to drop their guard. In contrast, she is also adept at hiding her true nature up until she needs to personally get involved. While she tries to hold up a front of being a dutiful, if reluctant, prideful and easily flustered, detective that loves her culture and even a bit of a romantic (if her interaction with Salvador was genuine), behind it is a woman that holds a fierce, crazed, murderously loyal, devotion to Gekka - the person she admires the most since he embodies upholding conviction the most from what she ‘read’ from him. A trait that she herself admits she lacks, which is why she can’t be someone of justice. When it comes to this she holds no care for others lives or even her own Catharsis, valuing only the person she holds dear and only wants to give him the Catharsis that she believed he deserved.

The Rundown

In DRK one of the main themes concerning the novels concerns what drives a detective forward. For Yui Samidare its justice, for the seedier individuals it would be fame and prestige from their Library rank.In this case of Sachi her drive and theme is attachment. Though if you want to go further, its ‘toxic attachment’ or even ‘parasocial attachment’.

Now Sachi as a concept is also interesting since she serves as a foil to Yui. What do you get when you have Yui, who holds an utter passion for justice and protecting nature for those she cares about, but boil it down to just the latter trait? Well, you get Sachi - a person that can empathize with those she’s attached to and think of them worthy of being saved, but has no real concern for those who are outside that attachment. AKA pretty much everyone else that are not Gekka.

Anything for someone that, as far as the novels go, she actually doesn’t have a real bond with. Sachi is giving it her all to someone who she knows nothing of personally aside from his image and in turn he knows nothing personal of her. She’s more akin to an obsessed fangirl in that regard or thrall if you want to fit in with the Triple Zeroes having a monster/supernatural theme to them. This contrasts greatly with Yui doing her best try and save people from the Duel Noir. She doesn’t know them personally, but its her care for the lives of others that has her try to ensure their safety, instead of measuring their worth based on a personal standard. A line that separates selfishness (Sachi) and selflessness (Yui). It’s also ironic that Sachi, someone who knows little of Gekka personally, is willing to go through extreme lengths to stop someone who actually has met Gekka and know of him long enough have some sort of respectful relationship with, even if they were enemies. Heck, on thate note, Sachi even seemed jealous of Yui for it, wondering why it couldn’t have been her chosen instead.

Both Sachi and Yui even contrast design wise. Yui is a girl of moderate-reasonably taller stature that has athletic legs. One of her deign choices is that she wears shorts instead of the usual school skirt, better suited for her detective work and showcasing more of her unorthodox nature in a profession full of people either lost their way or not really doing it for justice. Frequently throughout the novel, we get to see just how caring she is and willing to help those in need, holding a virtuous heart inspite of being unconventional looking and wouldn’t want to harm anybody if she could help it. Sachi, meanwhile, is a short woman dressed in kimono, seemingly weak, and appears as traditionally elegant as one could get. Yet, by her actions, it shows that such a design is hiding her twisted emotions and how the seemingly traditional look is not as benevolent as it seems. She holds no care for those outside of Gekka, and is not above brutally attacking and killing people with blunt force if necessary.

There’s also a degree of tragedy in here given that Sachi goes through great lengths, effectively ruining her life for someone she rarely knows. She kills two people in cold blood, gravely wounds a third, kidnaps two that didn’t have anything to do with her plight beforehand and was planning on keeping Yui hostge. She did all of this, only for the audience to find out later on that Gekka died before the girls even reached his castle. She gave her all for someone that was already dead before she knew it. Effectively making her actions pointless.

Personal Thoughts

Now, what do I think about Sachi? Well, its  of a bit of Madarai situation where I can appreciate the concept surrounding her and, unlike the Madarai, I do like her personality....just not so much the execution concerning her roles in the story.

Sachi’s case is...weird. You see, when you have the summary in mind and knowledge of her role in 3 out of 7 of the novels, on-paper everything seems to click. But its when you prod at each novel case by case does things fall apart. Sachi appears in the ending case of Volume 3. While she was the framed party for the case, ultimately she, Salvador and Hajiki mostly take a backseat as the cases’s third parties, good for some more worldbuilding or alibi piecing together, but not much in the way of development yet.

Volume 4 sees a bit more of her character shown off such as her cautious nature, love of Japanese culture and even how much she values her pride in terms of being slighted. But volume 4 is not focused on her. Hajiki and her leave the novel early on in favor or Kyoko, Yui and Salvador getting spotlight with their cases and stories.

It isn’t until volume 5 where I can consider Sachi to be a fully fleshed out character since we get her background concerning her counselor life, how she handles investigations, own philosophy concerning her ‘readings’ and, naturally, her attitude as a devoted fan of Gekka and ruthless Victim. The problem with her comes when you try and stick the reveal portions of her character with her prior depictions. They don’t feel cohesive and for several reasons.

1. Sachi’s role in 3/4 is greatly lower than that of most of her teammates, only barely beating out Hajiki in terms of character relevance and scenes at this point. And this is to be expected given the others are the main characters, a Triple Zero and the partner of a dead side character. Sachi never had time to shine much until 5, but this also means that (if the twist planned in advance mind you...and personally I think otherwise) her reveal as a villain was going to be rocky from the get go.

2. The ‘foreshadowing’ of her villain status is...shaky. Now I don’t want to say, ‘oh its just Volume 5 where it hinted’, since looking at volume 4 (with the benefit of hindsight) you could probably guess she’s suspicious given that she joins the team last and maybe for not wanting to believe Gekka is a criminal. But in defense of that, it was never really was a stand-out extent and even Hajiki/Salvador didn’t quite want to believe Gekka was crooked. Vol 5 is where it's more concrete, like bringing up her school counselor status, using a pipe which is the Libra Girls’s weapon of choice or Lico’s line, but I also feel it still isn’t enough to match with how drastically she changes and her motivation reveal. Actually, that might just be the biggest ‘sin’ here...

3. The reveal set in place is too drastically different for her character to take on to really match her character. It feels tacked on, partly for the sake of an out of left field swerve and partly a reason I’ll get to later. For the former it kind of leaves a bad taste for me since it feels like the story is kicking you for being sane and agreeing with logic that itself set up. ‘Yes, DRK, I should have pieced together that one of the three guys in the 3rd novel who, according to the Duel Noir set-ups, was specifically a framed party meant to go to prison for Korisu and with logic from Kyoko herself stating that she was very likely not to be a culprit or with the enemy.... just so happened to be a culprit in the Challenge and supports the enemy!’ forgive me for expecting the author wouldn’t be the type to do this. It does a disservice to both the reader and even Kyoko since its not a twist that happened based on the cast making a logical mistake or not considering the options but the wriitng equivalent of the author going back on their word. It also makes the story feel rather contrived considering how unlucky the others were to just so happen to have the enemy just so happens to be in another active Duel Noir.

3. Too much roles at once. She’s a member of the Allied Detectives, except she’s actually a Victim...oh no wait that’s not actually important. She’s a devotee for Gekka....for some reason. She has never shown this level of insane passion beforehand. And now she’s out of the story for good. You can see the issue right? She’s slotted into too many parts, with both the Victim and Fangirl role being slotted in abruptly late in volume 5 to ever feel natural. It’s even worse for the former because not even the story gives a shit about that role, in preference for the Gekka reveal...which doesn’t work given the aformentioned lack of buildup or naturalness to it. It’s less of enhancement to Sachi’s character and more of another piece the author seemed in a hurry to shove in.

4. Now for the other partial reason why I think her villain status exists, and it kind goes back to the unused potential of the other recruits, Salvador and Hajiki. DRK is a story centered around both Yui and Kyoko. While others like Lico and the VCC Executives exist and can have their own stories told, its centered about those two first and foremost. While the Challenge required helpers to aid them since they couldn’t tackle all twelve realistically, the issue comes with utilizing the Recruits beyond it in a story mostly centered about the mentioned two. An issue that the author likely opted to resolve by just writing them out as fast as he could. Perhaps plans had to be changed and/or maybe the author didn’t quite know how to get these guys out of the stories cleanly, but I believe Sachi being a villain that takes out Hajiki and Sal was a hasty way of getting all three recruits out wihout stopping to wonder about their contributions to the story.

Dead, hospital or, in Sachi’s case, prison. It would explain why the story brushes aside her being a Victim with ‘Gekka may/may not have pulled some strings’, she herself having no care or bothering to explain her past with her Target (which stands out sorely considering every other Victim in this story is very affected by their lives being wrecked by their Targets), and the whole abrupt nature of her Gekka’s devotee reveal. It feels unnatural because its likely the author’s way of getting her out immediately nstead of a more organic method.

Something that is kind of upseting since I really love the Allies recruited for the 12 Duel Noir Challenge, Sachi included because it gave the sense of proper escalation. The girls can’t take down a crime organization by thesemselves so gaining detectives they know are clean (at least that was the plan) was a nice step towards maybe forming their own organization of stopping the Duels. Being more strategic in their planning and proactive? We can even explore more group dynamics now and see how their different specliazations clash or enhance their investigations? Nope. In about two days their new team went from six back to one so darn quick its unreal. It’s sad and reeks of so much more, but its a done deal.

Beyond her roles, I really do love Sachi’s personality. She’s a smol woman whose quick wits and improv tongue can get in her good graces or out of jams. It’s really enjoyable! What’s not to like!

Another showcase down, hopes these are enjoyable for you guys. For the next one, a look into a character from the manga of Killer Killer!

#Danganronpa #Danganronpa Kirigiri #drk #sachi mizuiyama #salvador yadorigi fukuro #kyoko kirigiri #yui samidare #hajiki yaki #duel noir #salvage showcase

[edogawatranslations]

Danganronpa Kirigiri (3) - Chapter 4, Part 6

Table of Contents | Previous: Chapter 4, Part 5

3:00 AM.

The lifeless Takeda Haunted Mansion finally faded into the darkness, transforming into a gathering place for spirits. With no warm bodies to halt its advance, the brisk air creeped into the hallways and swallowed up the building.

At that moment, one person was approaching the mansion. The night didn’t reject them, for their heart had long embraced the darkness.

Veiled by the shadows, the figure steered clear of the mansion doors, crossed the fence towards the cliff, and walked through the bamboo thicket. They were likely hoping to avoid leaving footprints, or perhaps, to avoid detection on the chance that officers were patrolling the area.

Before long, the figure reached the backyard. Their destination was in sight. They carefully inched their way to the water wheel, pulled out a crowbar, and raised it above their head—

“Stop right there.”

The moment the girl’s voice broke the silence, floodlights hidden in the bamboo lit up the scene.

The veil of darkness shrouding the figure was cast away. Standing exposed in the light was none other than Korisu Kakitsubata.

Blinded, she stared blankly towards the floodlights. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she slowly made out the figure of the girl standing in the light with her arms on her hips.

It was Kyoko Kirigiri.

“Wh-What’s the meaning of this?”

“I asked the police to assist me.” Kyoko gestured towards the officers lurking in the bamboo. “I knew you would return to destroy the lingering evidence of your crime.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kakitsubata replied, playing dumb.

“Then enlighten me. What are you doing back here at this hour?”

“I lost one of my earrings. It cost me a pretty penny, so I came back to look for it. Is there a problem with that?”

Her swift answer made me wonder if she had prepared excuses in advance or if she thought of it on the spot. Either way, her airheaded demeanor from before had vanished; she sounded much more alert and clever.

“What’s that in your hand?”

“You know how an earring can fall somewhere unreachable? I brought this with me just in case.”

“It looks to me like a tool to destroy something,” Kyoko continued, with her hands still on her hips. “There’s no point in hiding it. I’m well aware of everything you did.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You killed Suntetsu Shirasu.”

“Is that what you think?” Kakitsubata shook her head in disbelief. “So that’s why the police are standing there looking all grumpy. I’m shocked they’re convinced of a child’s silly little theory. The killer was that Mizuiyama woman. Wasn’t she the only one who fit through that door?”

“Yes, at least according to the true culprit’s plan. I imagine the killer invited detectives they found in the Detective Library archives, intentionally including a person small enough to escape from the locked room who could be framed for the crime. But choosing Mizuiyama was a fatal mistake. On paper, she could fit through that door, but in reality, it was impossible.”

“Impossible?” I subconsciously blurted out. I was standing behind the floodlights with the officers in the bushes.

“Her clothing. She wore a kimono that severely restricted her movements, making it impossible for her to squeeze through a space that narrow. Her obi would get caught.” Kyoko turned back to Kakitsubata. “The information you read in her file made her a perfect candidate for your scapegoat, but I doubt you imagined she would arrive in a kimono.”

“Th-That’s assuming the rubber bands were stretched to their limit earlier!” she countered. “Her kimono is irrelevant; she could have used the jack to widen the gap even more.”

“By that logic, anyone could have escaped from that room, as long as the gap was made large enough.”

“The gap couldn’t be forced open for anyone else; the rubber bands would snap!”

“We can’t confirm that without experimenting. This reasoning won’t lead to a definite answer; perhaps anybody could have fit, or perhaps nobody could.”

“The same applies to me; the gap could’ve been too small for me. Can you really call me guilty because of that?”

“There’s other incriminating evidence pointing to you.”

“There’s no way any of that can be real.”

“Then let me ask you, what were you doing here in the backyard yesterday after three?”

“B-Backyard? Why do you think I was here? Don’t spout nonsense.”

“It isn’t nonsense. I know for a fact you wore the armor’s sandals into the backyard.”

The revelation rendered Kakitsubata speechless.

“So the sandals were dirty because she wore them outside?” I asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kakitsubata finally retorted. “What’s this about sandals?”

“Creating the locked room involved a substantial amount of setting up,” Kyoko explained. “Completing the trick required you to enter the backyard, but you didn’t have your shoes with you. Because you had a reason to finish your preparations as quickly as possible, you had no choice but to wear the sandals outside.”

“What’s this reason?”

“The snow. As long as the snow continued to fall, any footprints left outside would eventually be covered up. You needed to finish setting everything up before the snow stopped, or else the illusion of the locked room would be incomplete.”

The murder occurred around 11 PM, and we confirmed there were no footprints in the snow at that time. Any setup in the backyard would have to be completed several hours before the murder, in order to allow enough time for the light snowfall yesterday to cover up footprints and other markings.

“After luring Shirasu into the dojo and putting him to sleep, you realized you didn’t have any shoes. You could have made a detour to the entryway to grab your shoes before returning to the dojo, or you could have headed directly to the entryway and left through there. Unfortunately for you, neither of those options was possible, since Yadorigi was in the entryway most of the afternoon.”

Yadorigi did mention he was investigating the paintings hanging in the entryway.

Kyoko continued. “If you had nothing to hide, you could simply walk past him to grab your shoes, but that wasn’t possible. Naturally, he’d wonder where you were headed with your shoes, thereby ruining your murder plot. You couldn’t wait for him to leave either, since you feared that the snow could stop any second.”

Kakitsubata had been ready to parry Kyoko’s statements, but she was quiet now.

“You had no shoes, but you needed to go outside. What, then, could you do?”

“Walk barefoot,” I answered.

“Of course, that would be the alternative. But I imagine it would be painful walking on the snow on such a cold day.”

“Couldn’t she just grin and bear it? It’s not like she’d need to be outside for hours, so if she hurried a little...”

“Of course, that would be possible, but there was an overwhelming psychological reason preventing her from doing so.”

“A psychological reason?”

“What if the snow didn’t end up covering her footprints? She wouldn’t be able to explain why her footprints were in the backyard. To avoid that predicament, she knew she needed to wear some kind of footwear outside. Any objections?”

Nobody said a word.

Kyoko turned to Kakitsubata. “And that brings me back to my original point—you noticed the armor’s sandals and wore them yourself.”

“Wait, why are you accusing me of that?” Kakitsubata cut in with careful timing. “Nothing in your logic proves it was me who used the sandals.”

“I checked everyone’s shoe sizes. The armor’s sandals were 10.5 inches long, but waraji sandals aren’t normally associated with a size. People typically wear waraji smaller than their feet, with their toes sticking out from the front.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that!” I exclaimed. “Why do you know so much about waraji?”

“I’ve always been interested in traditional Japanese culture,” she said while staring off into the distance. “Anyways, Yaki and Yadorigi were the only ones whose feet were larger than the sandals.”

“Th-Then one of those two wore them!” Kakitsubata protested.

“No, that’s unlikely. If either of them was the killer, they would have ruled out wearing them to avoid leaving toeprints in the snow—as I mentioned earlier, the culprit was psychologically hampered by the fear of leaving behind evidence. That means whoever wore the sandals had smaller feet.”

“So it was that Mizuiyama woman!”

“Her shoes were 8.5 inches. That brings up the opposite problem—her feet were too small for the sandals.”

I thought out loud. “Then that leaves...”

Kakitsubata and Shirasu. Since Shirasu was the victim, he could be excluded.

All of our eyes trained on Kakitsubata, who had turned pale.

After wearing the sandals outside and finishing the necessary preparations for the trick, she returned to the dojo and replaced the sandals. Unfortunately for her, the stains left on the shoes became a crucial piece of evidence.

“But what then...?” I asked. “Wasn’t the door to the hallway already sealed? She couldn’t leave through the backyard without shoes...”

“While setting up the trick, she passed through the bamboo and stopped by the parking lot. The small red car probably belongs to her. Driving in stilettos is quite difficult, so I bet she had an extra pair of shoes for driving. She could use them to return to the main building.”

...Kyoko really didn’t overlook anything. She was amazing.

“Wh-Why does any of that waraji stuff matter? Isn’t it cruel for you to accuse me of murder based on that nonsense? Besides, none of it proves anything—all this ‘psychological’ talk, the shoes being too small, can you say any of that with certainty? Beyond any reasonable doubt?”

“I cannot. That’s why I asked the police to assist me in setting a trap for you. If nobody showed up, I would have admitted defeat.”

“I told you, I came back to look for my earring...”

“That’s a lie. You came to destroy the remaining evidence of your trick.” Kyoko pointed a finger straight at Kakitsubata. “Back then, while outside the locked room, you killed Shirasu with a trick that stretched across the entire backyard. The evidence of that is in that icicle on the water wheel.”

Kakitsubata gritted her teeth.

“What was the trick?” I asked. “She was with us in the hallway. Did she control the warriors with a remote control or something?”

“Nice try!” Kakitsubata shouted with renewed vigor. “The armor was empty when we entered. There wasn’t any device like that.”

“There’s no need for a remote control,” Kyoko said. “All you needed was some string, the water wheel, and a katana.”

The water wheel? What purpose could a frozen water wheel serve?

Next: Chapter 4, Part 7

#dr kirigiri #danganronpa kirigiri #danganronpa #kirigiri #novel #light novel #translation

[ao3feed-danganronpa]

Proficiency Theory

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3alyHu3

by Siknakaliux

Specialty-Based Duel Noirs.

Words: 6603, Chapters: 3/11, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of Custom Duel Noir Scenarios

Fandoms: Dangan Ronpa: Kirigiri, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Suntetsu Shirasu, Enbi Shiita, Amino Eigo, Korisu Kakitsubata, Mizuiyama Sachi, Hajiki Yaki, Salvador Fukuro Yadorigi, Samidare Yui, Inuzuka Kou

Additional Tags: Organized Crime, One Shot Collection, Kidnapping, Attempted Kidnapping, Minor Character(s), Minor Character Death, Hacking, Scams, Scamming, Phishing, Animal Abuse, Harm to Animals, White Collar Crime, business crime, swindling, Religious Cults, Cults, Disguise, Sex Crime, runaways - Freeform, Forced Prostitution, Art Crime, Theft, Forgery, Murder, Attempted Murder, Terrorism, national crime, Genocide, Detectives

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3alyHu3

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #dangan ronpa #danganronpa #dr

[edogawatranslations]

Danganronpa Kirigiri (3) - Chapter 4, Part 5

Table of Contents | Previous: Chapter 4, Part 4

“Yui, let’s go take a look outside.”

“...Yeah, good idea.”

The quickest way outside would be through the double doors, but since our shoes were in the entryway, we had to circle back through the mansion. Leaving the crime scene, we passed through the hallway to the main building.

Numerous pairs of leather shoes were lined up in the entryway, all belonging to the police officers. Finding my own shoes wasn’t a walk in the park.

Before grabbing her own pair, Kyoko peeked inside the shoes of the five guests.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking their shoe sizes.”

Yadorigi - 11.5 in Yaki - 11 in Shirasu - 10.5 in Kakitsubata - 9.5 in Mizuiyama - 8.5 in

“Are shoe sizes that important? You’ve been oddly interested in them.”

“They may be one of the few pieces of evidence that will help us corner the killer.”

She sounded steadfast in her belief, but I couldn’t possibly imagine how shoes were related to the case.

We grabbed our shoes and headed towards a separate door to the courtyard. The moment we opened it, a piercing chill assailed us while flakes of snow fluttered in. Although the snowfall was fairly light, the frigid weather had caused it to slowly accumulate.

I pulled out a flashlight from my backpack and turned it on. A pale circle of light shined onto the snow.

“It’s freezing... Kyoko, come closer.” I latched onto her right arm and we braved the snow together.

We walked down the narrow path between the main building and the dojo. The police had left behind countless footprints over the course of the investigation.

I peeked in the barred windows of the dojo. It would be impossible to make out anything if the lights were off, so nobody could have seen anything when the victim was being killed. On the other hand, the culprit would be forced to commit the murder while deprived of sight...

We continued down the path to the backyard. Like in the courtyard, multiple sets of footprints dotted the snow. Before the police arrived, however, we confirmed that the snow was undisturbed.

The temperature steadily dropped. The howl of the wind was accompanied by the sound of flowing water coming from somewhere beyond the dense bamboo thicket surrounding the backyard.

We hopped over the waist-high fence and followed the sound of the water through the bamboo until we reached the edge of a perilous cliff. My legs froze up as I stared down the steep cliff face.

“One wrong step and I could’ve fallen in...”

It was about a 15 to 20 foot drop into the ravine. I shined my flashlight downwards, revealing a swiftly flowing river at the bottom. Anyone who fell in would surely meet their doom.

We reversed course through the bamboo and went back over the fence.

“Yui, look.” Kyoko pointed to one of the fence’s horizontal planks. I shined the light on it.

There was a fresh scratch on the top of the plank, probably left behind by a wire of some sort. No other part of the fence had snow shaved off.

“Maybe this is related to the murder,” I commented.

Kyoko turned towards the mansion. Straight across the backyard was the dojo entrance. Minutes earlier, we had tried pushing open those double doors. They were completely shut now. Although the doors opened outwards, the small elevated covered porch outside would prevent them from disturbing the snow. Still, anyone hoping to reach the main building from there would leave a trail of footprints.

We moved onto the porch and turned around to face the backyard. To our right was the main building and the path leading to the courtyard.

I shined the flashlight to our left, illuminating a stream and a water mill.

“Wow, it’s a water wheel!” The old-fashioned machine astonished me. The darkness had prevented me from noticing it before.

The stream stretched through the bamboo thicket down to the ravine, but in the middle of winter, the water was frozen solid. The water wheel stood perfectly still. Judging from the thick icicles hanging from it, it was probably out of commission for the entire winter.

“Let’s look inside the mill,” Kyoko suggested, narrowing her eyes to protect them from the wind.

“Huh...? Is there something in there?”

“We’re going to find out.”

We huddled together and headed for the mill. The entrance was across a small bridge, on the other side of the stream. The stream was no more than three feet wide, so it wasn’t impossible to jump across.

Flanked by bamboo, the thatched-roof water mill would look suspicious even in daytime. Yet, under the veil of night, it appeared more likely to house profound secrets.

“It’s not like an assassin will ambush us... right?”

“Don’t say scary things,” Kyoko said with a blank expression.

I opened the rickety wooden door and swung the light around like a weapon. A millstone normally powered by the water wheel rested in the center of the room. Shovels, brooms, and other garden tools were stowed away in a corner. Nothing stood out as particularly dangerous.

However, one object caught my eye. A jack resembling a giant spring, a tool that people would use to lift up a car when changing tires.

Kyoko pulled it out from the corner. It was light enough for her to carry by herself. Something like that would ordinarily be stored in the trunk of a car, but it didn’t seem particularly out of place here.

“Figure something out?”

“Yes, this seems usable.”

She walked out of the mill with jack in hand and went to investigate the water wheel.

“It’s pretty suspicious, isn’t it?” I trudged up to Kyoko while exhaling warm air onto my numb fingers. “Snow, a water wheel, and a katana are three perfect tools to concoct a murder trick with.”

“...Right.” She sounded uninterested and changed the topic. “Look at these giant icicles.”

“Want one? I’ll break off the biggest one for you.”

“No need.”

“Come on, I’ll grab the second biggest for myself and we can have a fencing match.”

“Don’t.” She shook her head. “These icicles are important pieces of evidence.”

“Huh...? These icicles?”

“Yes.” Kyoko had on her usual look of pride. I bet she had wanted to hide it, but it was plainly visible on her face.

“Does that mean you’ve solved the locked room trick?”

“Yes. The answer is clear,” she replied with a composed expression.

Even though we had witnessed the exact same things, I had absolutely nothing figured out. I was supposed to be the detective for this case...

“Look carefully at this icicle. Notice the white line running across the middle?”

“Oh, I see it!”

“This is immovable evidence of the trick.”

“...R-Really?”

The line could have resulted from reattaching the separated faces of an icicle that was snapped off horizontally. But I had no idea what that could mean. The water wheel wasn’t moving, and the stream was frozen over.

Seeking refuge from the cold, we crossed the yard and returned to the mansion. Although the interior wasn’t warm by any means, it was substantially more comfortable than being outside. We walked down the hallway with our shoes in hand.

“I’ve figured out the trick behind the locked room, but it’ll take quite some time to identify the culprit.”

“How long?”

“To hear and corroborate everyone’s complete accounts, three days, at the very least...”

“We don’t have that kind of time!”

“I know. I wanted to solve this case entirely with logic, but considering the time limit, taking shortcuts is inevitable,” she said, narrowing her determined eyes.

We gathered Yadorigi, Yaki, Kakitsubata, Mizuiyama, and several officers in the dojo.

The clock had struck two in the morning. Everyone looked exhausted aside from Kyoko, who managed to look as cool and composed as usual.

“Now... What did Mr. Ryuuzouji say?” one of the officers asked politely, still viewing us as Ryuuzouji’s messengers.

Kyoko started to speak. “This case appears fairly complex, but the murder trick was actually quite simple.”

“Is that Mr. Ryuuzouji’s assessment, or your own?”

Kyoko ignored the interruption and continued. “All doors leading here were sealed from the inside with rubber bands. This severely restricted them from opening—it took the full strength of a grown man to create a small gap.”

“Yes, and we used that gap to sever the rubber bands and enter the room,” Yadorigi added.

“That begs the question—why did the killer use rubber bands, instead of a sturdy chain or wire? When you dive into that, the mystery of the locked room begins to unravel.”

“Hmm... Why don’t you show us how it was done?” an officer requested.

Giving Kyoko free rein over the scene, the police officers stepped away from the door. In her hand were the previously severed rubber bands, now restored to their original condition.

“The illusion of the locked room is reinforced by making everyone believe the doors were sealed firmly shut. But in reality, by employing the properties of rubber, the killer created a very flimsy locked room.”

“A flimsy locked room—I see.”

The officers nodded in understanding, swiftly scribbling down notes into their handbooks.

The four suspects remained silent, watching attentively as Kyoko continued her demonstration.

“First, sometime after three in the afternoon, the killer called Suntetsu Shirasu into this dojo. I don’t know how they invited him here, but once the two of them were alone, the killer put the victim to sleep. We can only hypothesize what might have happened. The victim may have been offered some food or drink laced with drugs, or forced to inhale an anesthetic or laughing gas. Regardless, the killer needed to render the victim unconscious.”

“Would that really work?” Yaki crossed his arms. “Why jump through so many hoops? Why not off the guy then and there?”

“That would draw unwanted suspicion. The killer devised the locked room trick to deflect suspicion away from themselves.”

“The hell was this trick they used?”

“Here’s how it happened.” Kyoko linked her hands behind her back and faced the double doors in the back of the room. “First, the killer sealed off the doors to the backyard with rubber bands. They could have simply locked the door, but they used rubber bands to not make the other sealed door look out of place—in other words, to make the locked room feel consistent.”

“So the door to the hallway is the key to the trick, right?” I asked.

She nodded. “Next, the killer moved the two suits of armor to the center of the room. They were no more than red herrings, meant to redirect the police into investigating the death as a suicide. In fact, the police had fallen for that trap.”

“Considering the facts, we had no reason to believe otherwise,” one of the officers said with a look of shame.

“Everything went according to the killer’s plan. As long as the locked room remained a locked room, none of the suspects could be thought guilty. Additionally, no outsider could possibly exist. The theory of suicide naturally arose, and it was plausible enough.”

“There have been cases where suicides were disguised as murders for life insurance fraud, though it’s rare for a victim to set up the scene themselves. But none of that applies to this case, right?”

“Correct. Besides, assuming the victim wished to disguise his death as a homicide, there would be no reason to turn this into a locked room. Doing so would make murder appear less likely. Indeed, this case is not one of those cases.”

“Then was this really a locked room murder?” I asked. “I can’t see how anyone could’ve done it...”

“Nope. It’s possible for one person among us.”

The police officers instantly turned towards the four suspects. Yadorigi, Yaki, Kakitsubata, and Mizuiyama glanced at each other with panicked faces.

“There’s nothing difficult about it. The killer simply took advantage of the flimsy locked room. First, between ten and eleven, they stabbed the unconscious victim, making sure some blood splattered onto the armor as evidence supporting the theory of suicide. Next, they placed this jack in the doorway before wrapping rubber bands around the doorknob and a hook on the wall.”

She inserted the jack we found in the mill into the gap of the slightly ajar door. The gap was about the width of a fist.

“They wound the rubber bands as tightly as possible and then used the jack to pry open the door.”

She operated the jack, and the gap slowly widened. The rubber bands were stretched thin, but they didn’t snap. Once the gap had gotten quite big, she stopped.

“This is the limit.”

“But that’s only big enough for a child to fit through...”

Kyoko could probably squeeze through. It didn’t seem possible for me.

Out of the four suspects, only one person was small enough.

“Ms. Mizuiyama, please try squeezing through the gap,” one of the officers urged, grabbing her elbow.

She refused, frantically shaking her head and yelling in a shrill voice, “N-No, it wasn’t me!”

“Come on, it’s just an experiment. See if you fit.”

“This is nonsense,” she wailed, drawing closer to Kyoko with a look of frenzy. “Are you trying to frame me? Even if I’m the only one who could use the jack to leave the room, I was with everyone during the murder! If you’re accusing me, how do you explain the noise we heard?”

“That noise could easily be faked.” Kyoko rebutted. She gave me a small nod.

As I had been instructed, I took out my cell phone and dialed a number. Not a moment later, a phone lying on the floor by the armor started vibrating.

“For example, if you had two phones, you could leave one here and trigger its ringtone by calling it. By setting the ringtone as that noise ahead of time, you could make it sound like the victim was being killed at that moment. While we were distracted by the corpse, you could retrieve the phone.”

“N-No... It wasn’t me!”

“Save it for the station.” Two officers grabbed Mizuiyama’s arms and led her out of the room.

As if still in disbelief, Yadorigi, Yaki, and Kakitsubata stared dumbfoundedly as Mizuiyama disappeared through the door.

“I can’t believe it was her...” Yaki looked flustered. “Didn’t seem like that kinda person at all. Man, women are scary.”

And thus, the locked room murder at the Takeda Haunted Mansion came to an end.

Immediately afterwards, the police demanded that everyone leave the mansion. Two policemen remained at the front gate to stand guard, but the other officers left with us.

The police offered a lift to anyone without a way of getting back. Kyoko and I rode in one police car, while Yaki rode in another. Although the police reassured him they weren’t bringing him to the station to be questioned, Yaki was so shaken that he wouldn’t stop talking.

“Hey, Kyoko, is Mizuiyama really the killer?” I asked as we sat in the back of the police car. “I feel like there’s a lot that hasn’t been explained...”

“The police should be finishing up their questioning and releasing her right about now.”

“Huh?”

“I asked the police to help me put on an act. She’s not the culprit. I believe the true killer intentionally prepared the jack as a trap to mislead the detective into thinking it was used.”

No doubt, that was the theory I had jumped to. Actually, I had been ready to wrap up the case before even stumbling upon that trap, and I was summoned as the detective. Moving forward, would I really be okay?

“It isn’t usually my style, but I set a trap of my own. Without the time to gather evidence to properly reason things through, I had no other choice.”

Moments later, our police car made a U-turn and headed back to the mansion.

Next: Chapter 4, Part 6

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[edogawatranslations]

Danganronpa Kirigiri (3) - Chapter 4, Part 3

Table of Contents | Previous: Chapter 4, Part 2

“Now, we’d like to question you all individually,” the officer announced. “We’ll call you into a separate room one by one to hear your accounts. We ask for your kind cooperation.”

“Are you kidding me? We have to stay here?” the brunette protested. “My skin’s drying out. Are you going to do something about that?”

“You there, in the kimono. We’ll start with you,” the officer said, completely ignoring the brunette.

He led the spectacled woman into a separate room, with other officers trailing behind them. One uniformed policeman remained behind to keep watch over us.

“I didn’t expect things to turn out like this,” the man in the sunglasses said. He seemed like an easy-going person. His voice was calm and polite, and he didn’t look the slightest bit agitated. “But I’m surprised. I didn’t think the two of you were detectives too.”

“...'too'?”

“Yes. It turns out, every single one of us gathered here today is a detective.”

“R-Really? You’re also a detective?”

“Indeed.”

“Why didn’t you tell the officers?”

Was it something he wanted to hide?

“Detectives haven’t had the most cordial relationship with the police. We know from experience that flaunting our job title isn’t always well received. That’s all there is to it.”

“You Ryuuzouji grunts don’t understand,” the man in the Hawaiian shirt jumped in. “A run-of-the-mill detective like me ain’t got the same sorta standing.”

The industry sounded harsh... Once again, I realized just how inexperienced I was. I had no idea what the life of a detective was truly like.

“Well, it’ll come out during questioning, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to identify myself to you. I don’t wish to be on Mr. Ryuuzouji’s bad side.”

The man in the sunglasses pulled out a Detective Library ID from his inner suit pocket.

Salvador Yadorigi Fukurou: DSC Number [752]

“I specialize in art forgery crimes.”

He was even wearing sunglasses in his ID photo. The guidelines must not have been stringent, since it wasn’t an official document like a passport or driver’s license.

“Wow, you’re at Rank 2? I’m stuck at 8,” the brunette whined, leaning over with her legs still on the glass table.

I couldn’t picture someone like her as a detective.

She reached into her cleavage and pulled out an ID card. It was covered with sparkly stickers.

Korisu Kakitsubata: DSC Number [488]

“I handle animal cases. Or I guess more specifically, animal welfare cases?”

The stickers doubled her card’s thickness. I hadn’t heard of any detective who decorated their ID... Could that thing fit into the terminal at the Detective Library?

“My turn,” the guy in the Hawaiian shirt said, flashing his card.

Hajiki Yaki: DSC Number [666]

“Gamblin’s my forte, but I’m not the one makin’ the bets. My job’s to sniff out unlawful gamblers and make ‘em wish they’d never been born.”

“Did you share your identities with each other?”

“Yes,” Yadorigi answered while adjusting his sunglasses. “It came up in our discussion before you two arrived. We determined that identifying ourselves would be wise.”

“Someone musta planned it this way,” Yaki said, using the glass table as a mirror to fix his collar. “We all got the same birthday invitation, but we got sent different requests along with it. I was told this place was an illegal gamblin’ den. Since that’s in my line of work, the bait was meant for me.”

“I was asked to determine the authenticity of the paintings in this mansion,” Yadorigi added with overexaggerated hand gestures. “If that request was fabricated, then the person behind this must be quite familiar with detectives. The birthday invitation was suspicious, but that made us more susceptible to take the bolder lie at face value.”

“My letter said this place was the site of illegal wildlife trade," Kakitsubata added. "I didn’t want to bother coming here, but like, wouldn’t it be sad if that was true? Those poor animals...”

“So all of you took the bait and walked right into a trap.” I summarized.

“No, we didn’t,” Yaki snapped.

“No, she’s right. We should admit as much,” Yadorigi said. “We fell for the criminal’s trap and are now suspects in a murder investigation.”

This situation reminded me of the Sirius Observatory case from last month. The detectives received fake requests and were lured to the scene, and ultimately to their deaths.

But this time, there was only one victim. With the police on the scene, the likelihood of additional murders was low, but we still couldn’t rest easy.

“So? Is it true? Are the two of you really detectives?” Kakitsubata asked.

I showed her my Detective Library ID.

“You look so young, how old are you? Are you in high school? Really? Aren’t your boobs a little big for your age? Wait, you’re not even a homicide specialist, but you get to join the investigation? No fair, I want in on that!”

“Well, these are special circumstances...” It wouldn’t be appropriate to explain everything, so I changed the subject. “Oh, Kyoko over here is even younger than me; she’s in middle school. Isn’t she cute?”

“What’s your specialty?” Yadorigi asked curiously.

“Small talk won’t do us any good,” Kyoko replied curtly. “You all fell for the criminal’s trap and are being suspected of murder.”

“Hmm...” Yadorigi crossed his legs and threw out his arms. “You’re correct. We need to solve this case. It’s not just our honor at stake; we could be falsely charged.”

“Murders ain’t my cup of tea. You solve it.”

“Huh? Murders, like, creep me out!”

While Yaki and Kakitsubata started quibbling, the spectacled woman returned. She gracefully took a seat on the sofa.

“Miss Kakitsubata, the officer asked me to send you in,” she said.

“What, it’s my turn? I’m sleepy. Are the police going to do something if my skin cracks? Wait, isn’t this like getting in trouble at school and getting called to the principal’s office? This is exciting.”

Kakitsubata continued her monologue on the way to the other room.

“We were introducing ourselves to these young detectives,” Yadorigi said calmly.

“Oh, then allow me to do so as well.” The woman covered her mouth with her hand and smiled. “My name is Sara Mizuiyama. Have you been informed of the reason we came here?”

Sara Mizuiyama: DSC Number [527]

“My story is the same as the others. I received a request for advice on remodeling this mansion. My specialty is architecture.”

“Oh, I forgot to ask earlier, but do any of you know anything about the man who was killed?”

“His name was Suntetsu Shirasu, 52 years old,” Yadorigi answered. “We searched through his belongings. The only thing of note was his Detective Library ID. His DSC number was [126], which means he dealt with crimes of religion, specifically those involving oriental cults.”

“I wonder if this case has anything to do with religion,” Mizuiyama said, tilting her head.

“That’s a plausible theory,” Yadorigi replied. “Maybe he was killed because of his line of work.”

“What happened to him before we arrived?” I asked. “He seemed to be taking shelter in that room, but...”

“Taking shelter? That ain’t right.” Yaki reclined onto the sofa and waved his arm left and right. “He up and disappeared... ‘Cause of that, we started wonderin’ if he was the one who invited us here. That’s why we peeked at his things and found his ID. Then we started lookin’ for him and ran into that shut door.”

“I was able to enter the dojo earlier in the afternoon,” Yadorigi explained. “But when I returned later, the door wouldn’t open. Since the door has no keyhole, I surmised that someone was keeping the door shut from the inside. As I wondered who it could be, everyone else joined me, aside from Shirasu.”

Naturally, they concluded Shirasu was holed up inside the room. While they were struggling to open the door, Kyoko and I appeared.

Shortly afterwards, the case occurred.

The moment the victim was stabbed, Yadorigi, Kakitsubata, Yaki, and Mizuiyama were with us on the other side of the door. Logic thus dictated that none of them could be the murderer.

But the locked room presented a mystery—how did the murderer enter and exit the dojo?

“Would you mind recounting in detail everything that happened before we arrived?” Kyoko asked.

“Very well,” Yadorigi answered with exaggerated gestures. “I’ll have to explain everything to the police anyway, so a practice run wouldn’t hurt...”

They arrived at the Takeda Haunted Mansion today (or more precisely, yesterday), January 10th, at around 1 PM.

I had unsealed the Duel Noir envelope an hour earlier, at exactly noon. That meant all of the actors had gathered at the stage within an hour of the curtain rising on the Duel Noir.

It was impossible to lure everyone to the mansion in that short span of time. Did the criminal predict that I would open the envelope at noon on the 10th, and prepare everything in advance?

No, most likely the criminal had sent out the invitations in advance and was waiting for me to unseal the envelope before executing the crime. For better or for worse, that happened to be the same day everyone was to gather here, so the killer quickly set their plan into motion.

After arriving at the mansion, they quickly introduced themselves to one another. At that point, everyone was still wary of the others and hid their true identities as detectives.

They waited a full two hours together, until 3 PM. The host never showed up, causing them to grow suspicious of the situation. Everyone then decided to explore the mansion by themselves. We would need to ask for their accounts individually.

At 9 PM, they started questioning the legitimacy of their investigation request. Someone suggested they all leave. But then, Kakitsubata revealed herself to be a detective. In succession, the rest of them revealed their true reason for visiting the mansion. Except Shirasu—at that point, he had already gone missing.

The others now strongly suspected Shirasu to be the man who invited them all and began searching for him. However, they couldn’t find him.

At 10 PM, Yadorigi noticed something odd about the door leading to the dojo. It wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard he tried pulling.

In the next thirty minutes, Kakitsubata, Yaki, and Mizuiyama appeared. Another thirty minutes passed as they shared their findings.

That was when Kyoko and I showed up.

I knew what happened after that. While we were trying to open the door, a noise came from inside the dojo. We broke into the locked room, turned on the light, and discovered a man lying in the center of the room with a katana in his back.

“Was that noise we heard Shirasu being stabbed and collapsing onto the ground?” I asked.

“I believe so,” Kyoko responded. “When I rushed over to the body, blood was still seeping out from the stab wound.”

“Ain’t it weird that the killer wasn’t in the room?” Yaki asked with his arms crossed.

“The room was pitch black,” Mizuiyama added pensively. “What if the murderer used the darkness to escape through the door we opened?”

“Can’t be. My ass was still on the ground when you all went in and I didn’t see nobody come out. Nowhere for them to hide behind the door either, since it opened outward.”

“I had to feel around for the light switch, but that didn’t even take a minute,” Yadorigi explained. “If the criminal escaped under the veil of darkness, they couldn’t have gone far.”

“But there ain’t nowhere to run to.”

“Kyoko and I checked outside after that, but there weren't any footprints in the snow.”

“Then where did the killer disappear to?” Mizuiyama asked, bringing her pointer finger to her lips and tilting her head.

“Only one answer. Those warriors,” Yaki replied, furrowing his brows.

“The armor was empty. There’s no changing that,” Yadorigi refuted.

I had also inspected the armor. Nobody was hiding inside. And I didn’t find any suspicious device or tool either.

“Not that. You know what I mean...”

“What?”

“A ghost! You really gonna make a grown man like me say it?”

“You think a ghost possessed the armor and stabbed Shirasu with a katana?” Yadorigi asked sternly.

The possibility was nonsensical; it went against logic and science. A man couldn’t be killed by a ghost warrior...

Besides, this was a Duel Noir. Straying into the occult was a waste of time. The killer used some trick to carry out the murder for the sake of revenge—that much was certain.

But the question remained—how?

The room was completely sealed. When the victim was attacked, the suspects were outside. The lack of footprints around the mansion eliminated the possibility of an uninvited guest.

Everything pointed to the murder being an impossible crime.

Next: Chapter 4, Part 4

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