Danganronpa: Reincarnation

A Strange Encounter

It was another day of work. The weather wasn't bad, bright sun and a normal amount of clouds. The workaholic woman was glad to be back in business. Kyoko Kirigiri had been forced into a break for the previous 3 days and she had to admit, it was the most boring three days of her life. She had a great time with her husband, but when he was busy she had nothing to do. Kyoko had never picked up any hobbies in her lifetime, not any that she could remember.

The woman got off her car and thanked the driver. She then walked through the doors of her detective agency. Unlike her husband, she didn't have much to do with Hopes Peak Academy. She was just the vice principal. Her husband, the principal, did most of the school work, she just helped when she could.

Once she got inside the agency, she sighed happily at the familiar sound of scribbling and the smell of paper. After saying hello to her fellow colleagues, she went to her own office to work.

Work was rather uneventful; only two murder cases and the rest were just infidelity and missing animal cases. The woman had to admit, she missed solving murders and a small, selfish part of her hoped that something bad to happen. There was that one case where an entire school was slaughtered, teachers and students alike, but there wasn't enough evidence to arrest anyone. Actually, there was hardly any evidence at all. They couldn't even get their hands on the list of students and teachers so there were no big suspects.

Kyoko finished another case, putting the file on top of a huge stack, and headed out of her office for lunch. But as she stepped out of her room something, or someone, hit her. A bunch of papers went up in the air and a thud could be heard, a small "oof" following shortly after. 

Kyoko saw a young boy on the floor and her eyes widened. The boy seemed confused and detached from reality, he looked dazed. He didn't say anything, he got onto his knees and started to pick the papers up. That wasn't what scared her though. What scared the stoic woman was the fact that this young boy had dark blue hair, an ahoge and shiny grey-gold eyes.

A man she didn't recognize then ran up to the two.

"Miss Kirigiri! Please, I'm so sorry. Please forgive us!" he said, bowing and apologising profusely. "Qiqi! Are you ok?!" he got down and helped the boy with his papers, then helped him stand up.

"Qiqi...? Is that a nickname?" the woman thought to herself.

The boy suddenly snapped out of his supposed daze and looked up at her, his face blank and devoid of any emotion. At his appearance, Kyoko found herself speechless.

"Did I bump into you...? Sorry..." (Can you just imagine that sentence but in Japanese? I imagine that it would sound very cute)

His voice sounded drowsy. The boy looked down at his shoes, looked around, then looked at Kyoko with big eyes.

"Have I seen you before...?"

The man perked up and put the stack of papers on a nearby table. He then smiled at the boy and ruffled his hair. The boy leaned into the man's touch and hugged him.

"Qiqi, this is Kyoko Kirigiri. You've seen her on TV before. She was also an Ultimate Detective when she was younger. Come on, introduce yourself." the man said. His voice was kind and it was clear that the man cared for the boy very much.

"My name is..." the boy said, then paused. He put his svelte fingers into the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out a golden badge. He then read the words on it. "S-... Shuichi Saihara... I think that's my name."

"So... Qiqi," Kyoko said. "That's an interesting nickname."

"It was actually Chi-Chi at first, spelt C-H-I—C-H-I, but I decided that Q-I-Q-I was faster to write, besides, the pronunciation is the same." he chuckled.