"As of right now, our prime suspect...is Shimura." I declared with a firm nod. I expected everyone to hear me out, yet when I opened my eyes and saw each of my friends' reactions, I got very mixed signals.
While Satoshi and Kenjiro were momentarily frozen from confusion, Shouko grinned and cheered. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I knew it! I...I actually knew it. I did!"
"Y-You knew what?!?" Kenjiro blinked, still not understanding a thing. "How could you have known? I mean- Shimura! He's...dead."
"Nuh-uh." Shouko shook her head with an exaggerated sigh.
"Nuh-uh? W-What do you mean nuh-uh?!?" The psychologist helplessly repeated, oblivious to everything.
Satoshi on the other hand was still frozen, yet not from his usual panic or fear. Instead, the utter bewilderment he was feeling was enough to make him as still as a statue as he desperately tried to make sense of what Shouko and I were saying.
Honestly, I can't blame Satoshi and Kenjiro for acting this way. If I was a normal person who had assumed Shimura was dead for literal weeks, the sudden idea of him killing someone last night would freak me out too.
Actually...I'd make fun of such an idea instead of freaking out - but same difference.
Too bad I'm not a normal person.
"It's finally time for my talent to be useful in a trial!" Shouko grinned, the happiest I had seen her in ages. Although I'm pretty sure her happiness derived from the fact that she could blabber on about ghost hunting rather than actually purposefully help the case. Good thing she's technically doing both, even if the accidental helping wasn't intentional.
"Your journalism, forensic and psychology knowledge may be...uh...way more useful than ghost hunting," Shouko admitted. "But in situations like these, I-I get to shine!"
"Shimura's...the killer?" Satoshi mumbled, finally snapping out of his puzzled daze a few minutes late only for his confusion to skyrocket once again. "More importantly, Shimura's alive?!? T-That's...that's just not possible! I mean, he...you saw his body!" He pointed at me.
"He was convincing." I shrugged.
"Shouko...how in the world is Shimura alive? It...it makes no sense." Kenjiro struggled to comprehend it all.
"I was ghost hunting one night- Er...actually, it was more than that." She stumbled with her words. "Crap...this is a long story."
"Might as well get on with it. There's no point in trying to shorten it all. Besides, you were going to have to explain it to them at some point." I guided Shouko.
"W-Wait, Chiyo?" Satoshi faced me. "You...also think Shimura's alive? H-How?!?"
"Not for the same reasons as Shouko. I can assure you that." I stated, directing my attention back to the ghost hunter. "Go on."
"Oh, well...I was investigating the state of our dead classmates." She attempted to explain.
"State? You mean...how they're all dead?" Kenjiro claimed the obvious.
"No- Uh...Yes! But no at the same time." Her explanation grew flimsier by the second. "Just let me explain!"
"...Go ahead?" Satoshi replied, questioning everything.
YOU ARE READING
Danganronpa Midnight: Lantern Lament (Fanganronpa)
FanfictionChiyo Yagami was looking forward to the first day of her final year at Hope's Peak Academy. That is until she is knocked out and transported to what seems to be a campsite in the middle of the woods with her 15 other classmates who she no longer rem...
