Danganronpa: Digital Daze

Chapter 33: Third Class Trial

We each took our respective seats around the Courtroom table to discuss Sayaka's fate, and who was to blame.

Chihiro was tending to Kaede, who still looked a little dazed from her concussion. Everyone else seemed to be alright, as we awaited Monorakun's announcement to start these proceedings.

Sure enough, Monorakun scurried up to his little seat, up above us, and started his little speech.

"Alright, students! Sayaka hit the mosh pit, and the mosh pit won. Now it's up to you to figure out what happened, and whodunit. Did Sayaka join the 27 Club too early? You tell me!"

Kaede started to say something, but stopped, grabbing the back of her head and groaning.

Kaito looked over at her. "Hey, is she gonna be alright for this?"

Mukuro shrugged. "Grade 2 Concussion. Temporary loss of consciousness, likely less than five minutes. She's as OK as she's gonna be."

Kenchikka glanced over at Kaede mournfully. "Concussions suck. Hopefully, Kaede recover soon."

Meanwhile, Celeste resumed the trial.

"So, Theo overheard several loud thuds coming from the Jam Room. Entering, Theo discovered Sayaka deceased near a broken speaker, and Kaede unconscious, with a broken bass guitar near her unconscious body. Then, from what I have gathered, Mukuro and Bera happened upon the scene, independently of each other. This triggered the announcement."

Celeste glances around at the rest of us. "Have I missed anything thus far?"

Theo shakes his head. "You have the right of it, Celeste. Do proceed."

Celeste nods. "Very well. As I was saying, the rest of us arrived afterwards, followed afterwards by Monorakun."

Kaito piped up. "Yeah! Mukuro was over by Kaede, and Bera was near Sayaka."

"And we discovered that Sayaka received the Game Over," Chiaki added.

"Man, this sucks," Leon complained.

"Yeah, I agree. Sayaka was cool," I lament. "But we still have to get to the bottom of this."

Celeste tilts her head at me. "Which brings me to my next question. I couldn't help but notice you up above the stage, searching about. Mind sharing with us what you discovered up there?"

I nodded. "Quite a bit, actually. For starters, it looks like there is an emergency release for the harness. I noticed it on the strap connected to the pulley. It looks like, if you got stuck, you could press a button on the back of the harness, and it would release the harness, allowing one to escape."

"An emergency release, you say?" Theo asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. Looks like it was designed to let the harness's wearer disconnect from the tether, without having to take off the harness."

"Yeah, well, someone definitely let her go," Makoto commented. "Sayaka was still wearing the harness when she died, so it's likely someone released her from it."

"Unless someone killed her and then put her in the harness," Mukuro commented.

Kenchikka considered this proposal. "Hmmm. You suggest someone kill Sayaka, then put her in harness and release her? Interesting setup, if true, but one problem. How did Sayaka die, then?"

"Sayaka fell... the speaker..." Kaede muttered. She was still dazed, so none of us really caught everything she said.

Makoto and Celeste both looked at Kaede.

"Did you say Sayaka fell on the speaker?" Makoto asked.

Kaede nodded. "I... She fell..."

It was Kaito's turn to pop a question. "Wait a minute. You said you saw Sayaka fall, and hit her head on the speaker?"