Danganronpa: GHOST TOWN

Chapter Six, Part Two: Self Denial and Temperance

~ALL RISE~

The interior of the trial room had changed yet again. The falling stars and false windows were replaced with paintings of many birds. Some were caged while others were mid flight, shedding all their feathers only to become skeletons. It was eerily beautiful.

When I reached my place I did a double take. I had forgotten that we would see the crossed off portrait of Renji and now...Chikara. I felt bad for Mae and Kyofu who stood across from the photos. But I was mostly sorrowful for Kyofu.

"Shall I explain the class trial?" The bear offered for the third time.

"No thanks." Mae glared.

Kiyoshi leaned towards the center with earnest. "Is everyone alright?" He asked, ignoring Monokuma.

"What kind of question is that?" Ryu criticized.

"A kind one." Kaz stated, wearing a surprisingly hard expression.

"It's nice but we don't have time for things like that." Toshiro pointed out. "We have a murder to solve."

"Another one." Kena added.

"Then let's start with what everyone knows." I proposed. "The third Monokuma File." The place we always started.

"Right." Toshiro agreed. He turned and looked at the bear expectantly. The next moment the file and diagram were projected on the large screen.

"Time of death was around 9:50pm." Toshiro began. "Chikara Ishikawa's body was found in Kyofu Mashima's private house in his fireplace." My eyes flickered to the rogue who remained still. "Cause of death was exposure to fire which began to burn the victim immediately. The victim also suffered a blow to the back of the head resulting in deep lacerations." As he came to the end he turned towards the circle. "The victim would have died of blood loss even without the exposure to fire."

"If he would've died anyway, why burn him?" Kimiko proposed.

Ryu scoffed. "I doubt the killer knew the blow to the head would kill him. They probably only hit him to incapacitate him." He gestured towards us. "Everyone here is fairly small compared to Chikara except Kiyoshi. Whoever attacked must have decided it was smarter to knock him out before they let him burn."

"I agree." Saori eyed the File quizzically. "The blackened wouldn't want to take the chance that he could still be alive."

"Hang on, from your wording Ryu it sounds like you disregarded Kiyoshi as a suspect." Toshiro looked between the Hitman and Inventor suspiciously. "Does he have an alibi?"

Kiyoshi shrugged. "I went to bed early." He offered.

"You live next door to Kyofu." Kena said doubtfully.

The Inventor looked across me to the Comedian. "I did! I went to bed early, right after I checked out the garage!"

"Garage?" Haruko's interest was immediate. "What about the garage?"

Kiyoshi turned to me. "Hon'yomi?"

His attention pinned me beneath many intense gazes, Haruko's being the hardest one. "Last night- or uh, earlier this night before the nighttime announcement, I saw someone sneaking into the garage."

"Sneaking?" Toshiro asked. "And you saw them?" He looked at me oddly. 

I nodded. "Well yeah, they weren't doing a very good job of it if you ask me." Instinctively I looked at Kyofu. "I decided to follow them."

"Hon'yomi!" I jumped, alarmed at the disapproval in Akemi's voice.

"You could've been hurt!" Kimiko exclaimed.