Danganronpa Zero

Chapters Ten & Eleven

The dust in the room was thrown up in the air, along with a roaring, ground-rumbling noise. The colorful cans of paint that were lined on the shelves had splattered their contents all over the walls and the ceiling, making the inside of the shed seem like it was lifted straight out of Wonderland.

I inhaled some of the dust, and managed to cough violently while giving a sigh of relief. I had predicted that Madarai's vigilant nature wouldn't let him leave the vacuum cleaner alone right after hearing about a dust explosion. It seems I was right.

I threw the shed's window open, grabbed a shovel and stepped carefully toward the fallen shelves in order to check the condition of the crushed boy. I had to feign bravery while I was confronting him, but my feet were still shaking with nervousness. The hand holding the shovel was already dripping with sweat.

"Hello...?"

I peeked nervously through the gap in the shelves, and saw Madarai pressed between them and the floor, as if he was the filling of a strange sandwich. It seemed he was still conscious, though, because he managed to look at me weakly.

"I...I can't believe I fell for that..." It seemed talking was painful for him, perhaps because his chest was under heavy pressure. "B...But... why wasn't there an explosion? T...There must have been static electricity and sparks from such a huge impact..."

"Ah. This is cement powder, so it won't explode," I answered, still brandishing the shovel. "...Cement powder?"

I adjusted my hold on the shovel, and opened my notebook with my free hand.

"Um, let's see... The necessary conditions for a dust explosion are flammable dust, oxygen, and a source of fire... But cement powder isn't oxidized so it doesn't burn. In other words, it isn't flammable dust so it can't cause a dust explosion... That seems to be the explanation."

"And you... knew all that..."

"It seems the old man in charge of this shed really loves to talk... He sometimes catches random people and makes them listen to him ramble on... By the way, don't you think it's kinda shady that he told all that to a random high-school girl? But, I guess it ended up saving my life so I should go thank him once this is over..."

I flipped through my notebook some more, and continued.

"Anyway, it seems this old man is really into DIY projects, and loves to build anything that isn't too complicated on his

own. It looks like that's why he bought a large amount of cement powder, and stored it here in this shed." "A...And you used that as a decoy..."

"Yes. I wanted you to pull that vacuum cleaner."

I dropped my eyes to the notebook again and nodded vigorously.

"Ah! By the way, have you heard of a movie called Home Alone? I used one of the traps from it as a basis for this one. I tied the vacuum cleaner and the shelves together with a rope, so that when you pull the vacuum cleaner the shelves come down after it... Oh, that's right - the dust's secondary purpose was to keep the rope hidden. I used a white rope, you see..."

"...You can stop now." Madarai interrupted me with a weak voice. "S...So... was this trap the ace up your sleeve...?"

"No... I have a different one. After all, in Home Alone, it wasn't Culkin-kun who ultimately stopped the robbers. It was the adults who came to save him. It was that way in both the first and the second movies. So, you see - the ace up my sleeve would be when someone comes to save me and..."

"...Yes, I get it. Please stop." Madarai twisted his face as if he was getting bored. "B...But, don't you think it's still early for you to think you've won?"