Danganronpa: Digital Daze

Chapter 32: Third Murder Investigation

Eventually, Kenchikka was able to wake up Kaede, who stirred, grabbing the back of her head. Kaede eventually stood up, dazed, and leaned on Kenchikka.

To my horror, that meant Sayaka was gone. I glanced at her crumpled-up figure on the floor, a stone forming in my stomach.

Kaito returned, his gaze turning to Kenchikka and Kaede. Relief briefly spread across his face, before he turned to me, standing by Sayaka.

"So, we have to do this again?" I lamented.

Kaito turned his eyes to me. "There's only one way to get through this awful feeling. Wait for Monorakun to give us the Monorakun File, get our evidence and testimony, and find out what happened here."

Chiaki was the next to show up, followed by Celeste and Mukuro. While Mukuro went over to Kaede, taking over her care for Kenchikka, the others showed up, with Monorakun scurrying along behind them.

"Alright, shitbags. Here's your Monorakun File," Monorakun stated, as our E-Handbooks went off at once. "Looks like Sayaka's Reunion Tour isn't happening. Pity."

Monorakun glanced over at Sayaka. "Ah well, we can release your tribute album later. Now, get to work!"

As Monorakun scampered out of the room, Celeste and Mukuro were already bickering with one another. Our E-Handbooks went off, and we took a look at the Monorakun File.

"Victim: Sayaka Maizono. Cause of Death: Stage Dive. Time of Death: Around 3pm. Sayaka's head made contact with a speaker prior to her death. A harness was found attached to her body. No other notable injuries found."

"How do we know Kaede's not faking her injury, hmmm?" Celeste queried Mukuro.

Mukuro responded, with very little emotion in her voice, "Because you cannot easily fake having different sized pupils, as Kaede currently has."

Sure enough, as Kaede looked at the both of us, her pupils were different sizes, and she seemed to look through us instead of at us.

"Whatever happened here, Kaede's concussed," Mukuro concluded. "I'll tend to her. Someone examine Sayaka. The rest of you know what to do by now."

I volunteered to look over the scene. Theo went to examine Sayaka. The rest started speaking with one another, or left the room, likely to search other rooms for clues.

My eyes first went to the damaged speaker. Examining it, it looked like something struck it from above. There was some blood on the speaker, too, and it was very close to Sayaka's body. I concluded that Sayaka must have struck the speaker, somehow.

I looked up, and saw a cord dangling directly above me, on a pulley, with some sort of attachment connected to it. I remembered seeing one of those in a play before; Peter Pan. It was usually attached to a harness, and then it was made to look like Peter Pan or Tinkerbell were flying through the air.

Remembering that Sayaka had some sort of harness on, I wondered if maybe she was connected to that harness, and perhaps fell, hit her head on the speaker, and died.

That raised another question, though: How did it happen? How did Sayaka get up there, and plummet down? Or did something else happen, perhaps?

My eyes moved to the stage. There was a built-in ladder to the top of the stage, likely for easy access to change light bulbs, fix wiring, and the like. There were a few platforms going across the top, as well. I decided to climb up there to investigate.

"Do be careful, good sir," Theo called out.

"I will," I replied as I climbed the metal rungs to the top.