Danganronpa Kirigiri

Chapter 3: Murder at the Sirius Observatory 2, Part 2

The next day, in class, I was busy thinking about the request. Even though finals were coming up soon, almost all of the class material just went in one ear and out the other. Even though I was sitting in my desk, lined up next to my classmates, I felt isolated, as if I alone was in another world entirely.

During my lunch break, I looked up information on the Kiba family in the library. My school's library has a larger collection of older books than any other library in the area. But it didn't seem like I was going to find any crucial information in the short period of time I had for my lunch break. I left for the time being, resolving to come back after school.

I noticed that the view outside the window was darker than usual during my afternoon classes. The sky looked like it was going to start snowing any minute. A wintry low-pressure system was hovering over the east, and from the north, a chill of negative 40 degrees was advancing towards us through the upper air. No wonder my lips were chapped. As I applied some lip balm during break, I found myself staring down at the plans for tomorrow written in the letter. Tomorrow was the day.

After school, I finally got the information I was looking for in the library. In a ten-year-old back issue of a monthly astronomical journal, I found the words "Sirius Observatory".

It was an article about visiting private observatories: four pages long, with pictures, and about Sirius Observatory. I made a copy of the article and brought it back to the dorm. I'd managed to get hold of a pretty good bit of data to look over, hadn't I? Maybe it wouldn't have anything to do with the request, but at least I felt like I had enough information to answer questions in the interview without a problem.

That night, I packed up my notes and data, along with a change of clothes and so on just in case, ready for the next day. My mental preparation also seemed perfect. The only thing I was worried about was the poor weather. The forecast said there would be some snowstorms starting tomorrow.

The next day, I skipped school and headed towards Hatesaki Station. By the time I got there, it was already snowing a little. The surrounding area was full of rice paddies that were dried up for the winter, and despite the daylight, the snow made it dim and gloomy, with just the occasional faint light from private residences filtering through.

The time was 2:00 P.M. It was an hour earlier than I was supposed to arrive, but the train only ran there twice an hour, so I played it safe when I left the dorms, and wound up arriving extra early. Only two people got off the train with me at this unmanned station.

I went to wait in the waiting room. There were only two benches lined up in the small room, with a cylindrical stove burning between them. I parked myself in front of the stove immediately, warming my cold hands.

Then, the two men who got off at the station with me earlier came inside. They both sat wordlessly on the benches, each checking their watches before looking around themselves. At this dead-end station, with no signs of life, seemingly at the very edge of the world, three whole people sitting around and killing time was clearly an unusual situation.

"Um..." I was the first to speak. To be honest, I was afraid. Right then, I was nothing more than a high school girl surrounded by two unfamiliar men in unfamiliar territory. "Are either of you Yoshizono Ooe-san?"

Both of the men reacted to my timid question at the same time, exchanging glances as if fumbling for an answer, before looking back at me.

"Hmm, so, you're a detective too, miss?" The first man to speak had hair neatly parted at a precise 7:3 ratio. He was wearing a suit and a long coat, along with a tightly fastened glossy necktie. He was the very picture of a capable salaryman, without any trace of individual personality in his appearance. If we had been in the business district, he probably would have melted into the background instantly. He was just that mundane to look at. "I may not look it, but I'm a detective, too." He pointed at himself with his thumb. "You probably are too, huh?" he asked the man sitting across from him.