Danganronpa: Boiling Point

Chapter 12: Second Floor Investigation

After Monorakun's morning alert went off, I got up, got dressed, and got ready to face yet another day here. One student was already deceased, only six days into our stay here, and I knew that would not be the end of things.

However, when I turned on my E-Handbook, there was an update to download. Upon completion, the E-Handbook rebooted itself, then showed a small Monorakun face under "Yearbook" and "Maps".

Opening "Yearbook", I saw that it was now split into two sections. There was "Active", which had all of us with green frames around our pictures, and "Deceased" underneath, which had Ryoma Hoshi with a red frame around his picture.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I decided to check out the Maps. To my surprise, there was now a "Second Floor" showing up. However, it only gave the layout of the rooms, and didn't really show what was inside the rooms.

So, now there was a second floor now, ready to be explored. I decided to head to the Dining Hall to meet up with the others, and figure out who was going with who. No one really felt like talking much, likely due to yesterday's events.

After we all ate breakfast (French Toast sticks with cream cheese filling, drizzled with maple syrup), we started the process of breaking up into groups of two or three, with the exception of Kyoko, who preferred to go alone, and Teruteru, who said his lunch special would take a few hours to prepare.

Before we got too far in our group-making, however, Monorakun showed up.

"Heidi-ho, neighbors and friends! Just want to give you a friendly update. I'm sure you've noticed that your maps now show a Second Floor. This is true; the gate to the Second Floor opened up at 7am today. Now, there's a stipulation to this map's function: You can see the layout immediately, but your map won't show you what is within each room until AFTER you enter it! There's a sensor at the top of each doorway that will scan your E-Handbook as you enter, and will update your map accordingly. So if you don't enter a room, your map won't tell you what that room is!"

Kyoko quickly spoke up. "Couldn't we just ask someone else what the upstairs rooms are? What's the point of this?"

Monorakun chuckled. "Of course you could ASK someone what the rooms were. Doesn't mean they have to answer you, when you could just walk your happy ass up there and figure it out yourself! Then again, this feature COULD also play into your advantage, come to think of it..."

Korekiyo responded this time. "So if one does not enter a room, then their map will not update for that room. Suppose one were to die in said room. If that person shows their map, and that room is blank, would that mean they could not have committed the murder?"

Kyoko thought, then shook her head. "No. It only updates when someone's E-Handbook enters the room. You could still enter the room, without your E-Handbook, so long as there's no lock that requires your E-Handbook."

Monorakun thought a moment. "Hmmmm...true. I hadn't thought of that. Oh well, it wasn't my idea to put those sensors up in the first place, so I don't really care. Have fun exploring!"

Monorakun then disappeared from existence, as he tended to do, so we split up into groups.

But wait...what did Monorakun mean, it was not his idea? Maybe it is because robot raccoons lack the intellect and capability to create and install the sensors...still, that line troubled me.

After Monorakun disappeared, we resumed breaking up into groups. Mahiru and Hiyoko teamed up together quickly. Tenko and Himiko paired up shortly afterwards, with Sakura joining with them. Fuyuhiko, reluctantly, joined up with Mondo and Nekomaru, and Gundham joined forces with Korekiyo, leaving me with Rantaro and Toko.