It felt like I had cried a lot while I was sleeping. What was it again that I was crying about? Did something sad happen? Or did I have that dream again?
I didn't really know the reason why. But my cheeks were completely drenched with tears. When I tried to wipe them, I got the strange feeling that something was off.
My right hand couldn't reach my face. My wrist hurt. And so, springboarding off of these facts, I became dimly aware.
Still groggy, I slowly lifted my head to look at my right wrist. I was wearing an unfamiliar bracelet. A sturdy-looking bracelet, with a black luster. And just in case I was still inclined to call it cute and fashionable, there was a chain attached to it that made that rather difficult.
This really isn't the kind of thing I'm into.
The chain was the biggest problem. When I tried to move my right arm, the chain went taut and prevented me from doing so. My right arm was restricted and incapable of reaching my head. I followed the chain with my eyes, and saw another one of the bracelets attached to the leg of the bed.
In my hazy state of consciousness, I finally started to realize the position I was in. I wasn't on top of the bed, but lying face down on the floor. I guess somehow my right wrist got handcuffed to the leg of the bed, so I couldn't move from that spot. It appeared that my right arm was the only thing restrained, so I could move the rest of my body freely.
I crawled closer to the bed until I could move my right arm as freely as possible, and put both hands on the floor to push myself up gingerly into a sitting position. I felt dizzy.
What exactly had happened here? Why had I collapsed in a place like this?
I tried to remember, but my memory was obscured by meaningless noise. I tried adjusting my mental frequency, searching for recent memories.
The first thing I remembered was that abominable sign. I briefly flashed back to the letters that were written on it.
"Welcome to the Picturesque Sirius Observatory".
Looking at that sign in the dim dusk light, I'd seen the result of someone's prank, where they'd crossed out the beginning of the word "picturesque" with red spraypaint, writing "despair" instead.
"Welcome to the Despairesque Sirius Observatory".
Oh, right, this building was called the Sirius Observatory. It was a privately owned astronomical observatory, and the building itself apparently had a distinctive star shape. Each of the five points of the star was a guest room shaped like a glass-paneled isosceles triangle. The center, a regular pentagon, was a hall with a domed ceiling, where once upon a time you could also supposedly observe the galaxy.
I had apparently collapsed in one of the guest rooms. Gradually my memory became more distinct.
It's okay, I can remember.
My name is... Yui Samidare, age 16. I'm a detective.
By the request of a prominent figure, we five detectives had been gathered here at the Sirius Observatory. A detective lives for requests like this one. All the more so if they're requests that imply hidden secrets; we can't avert our eyes from the allure.
But the person who made the request never showed up.
At this point it was already a little past suspicion. We were tricked. Someone was plotting out a crime when they gathered us here, and that's how I ended up in this mess.
Now that the situation was clear, dread began to settle in. I didn't know who was responsible for this, but these strange circumstances had stolen my freedom from me completely. More than anything, the fact that I was toyed with while I was unconscious gave me goosebumps. I wondered if they did anything weird to me. For the time being, my only solace was that I had no pain or external injuries.
