The Case of the Island Observatory Murder Pt. 2

**The Case of the Island Observatory Murder Pt. 2** (孤島天文台殺人事件②, *Kotō tenmondai satsujin jiken ②*) is the 10th chapter of the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga.

## Summary

In the observatory dome, the guests find Onodera face down and bleeding from her back, and Ron face up with a gun near his left hand. Jumonji immediately asks if Ron did it, but Toto emphatically says they do not know yet and need to make sure.

Grizzly walks in first and kneels beside Onodera, shining the flashlight on her face. They find Onodera with eyes wide open and pupils dilated. Unno screams: Onodera is dead. Grizzly says he was foolish, that he had predicted something like this would happen. Toto asks Grizzly if he thinks Ron did it, but before he could answer Donzawa points to the gun, saying it should clears thing up. Unno backs it up: she thought he was suspicious from the beginning, what kind of weirdo asks for a brown sugar dish?

Then, Ron says there is nothing wrong with brown sugar. Without moving from the floor, he adds that Princess Ori's scream woke him up. He does not remember anything about getting back to his room and lying down after dinner. But he can tell from the conversation that things look pretty bad for him right now.

Donzawa exclaims there has been a murder, and Unno says to hurry up and hold Ron down. Grizzly tells them loudly not to move, that they are all suspects. No matter what the case, Grizzly will confront it with an objective and unprejudiced view. Right now, he has no choice but to suspect everyone on the island.

Ron has begun to sweat, and remains on the floor. Just as he expects from the instructor who embodies BLUE's noble spirit, he says. That is part of why he acknowledged Grizzly's superiority. He tells him to investigate thoroughly, asks this of the "top-tier detective and officer team," meaning Grizzly and Toto. Grizzly, however, tells him that it does not mean Ron is no longer under suspicion.

Grizzly and Toto begin investigations. Examining the victim first, Grizzly notes that the corpse is still warm, which means Onodera only just died. The bullet struck her heart directly from behind. They will need to wait for the results from the forensics lab, but the bullet is the most likely cause of death. He then moves on the gun, and confiscates it, placing it in a zip-lock bag. Donzawa notes that it is the model gun displayed in the lobby, but Jumonji had no idea it was a real gun.

Grizzly notes all the of lights in the observatory dome are broken. There is no ladder so it would be impossible to escape through the dome's ceiling. Also, there is a motion detector that sets off an alarm if anything passes through in order to keep out wild animals. So, Toto deduces, it could not be the ceiling. Grizzly continues. They could not escape through the exhaust port either, and Toto adds it is too small. Grizzly says that apparently there are no other exits. Thus, Grizzly says, there is no denying that all of these facts point to a single truth: It is unthinkable that the culprit is anyone but Ron.

Unno and Donzawa are convinced of this, saying the famous detective confirmed it. Ron meanwhile is at least composed, saying that is not the conclusion he was hoping for. Toto however defends him to Grizzly, saying Ron does not remember anything about it. Even so, Grizzly says, Ron must be the killer, because there is inescapable circumstantial evidence, just like in the training exercise five years ago. Ron twitches, and Toto turns to Grizzly. When Toto and Grizzly investigated the dome, they confirmed that there are no other ways in or out besides the main door. Only the door was locked, which means the dome's observation area was a perfect locked room situation.

Ron sits up, and now begins to panic. He was passed out, so he did not hear anything about the door being locked. He panics, saying he if he is the culprit, that he killed someone? But something jangles, and when he brings it out, he has one key on a keychain. Jumonji says that key is the single master key that they keep in the lobby. Ron panics even more: what was the key doing in his pocket?

Donzawa exclaims that is conclusive proof, and Unno adds that Ron looks the part. Toto defends Ron, asking them why Ron would do that. But Grizzly tells Toto to arrest Ron. Toto objects and begs Grizzly, but Ron interrupts saying it is fine. If he is the one arresting him, he does not mind. Toto objects again, loudly telling Ron if he does not have anything to say about it. Ron says no. But as Toto says that is unlike him, Grizzly tells him to bring Ron's boots, that it is dangerous to walk barefoot on broken glass. Toto grumbles, but obeys.

Meanwhile the other guests are concerned, with Donzawa saying the observatory is cursed. Princess Ori asks him not to say such scary things. Jumonji agrees, since they have caught the culprit. Unno asks why did he invite a murderer here. But Jumonji says it is not his fault, Officer Isshiki brought him along. Then, Grizzly tells Jumonji to contact the police on the mainland, because this requires an official investigation.

In the first-floor storage room, Toto asks Ron if he really does not remember anything. Ron, handcuffed to the pipes, says that last thing he remembers is falling onto his bed. The next thing he knows, Princess Ori's scream woke him up and he was in the dome, along with the dead Onodera, who he supposedly killed. Toto gulps, then directly asks if it feels the same as the Bloody Field Trip Case from five years ago. Ron asks if Grizzly told him about it, and Toto admits that he did during dinner. Ron says it is exactly like that, even the crime was the same. Toto asks if Ron really thinks he killed her. Ron only says, sweating profusely that it has to be it, he does not remember anything, so it has to be.

Toto yells at Ron. That is not like him at all! Has his brain busted or something? Ron weakly says Toto sounds like he has some kind of basis for that. Toto says of course he does, think about it! Onodera is an ordinary person. The ones Ron tries to pressure to death are always murderers! Ron pauses. Toto continues: Ron never once tried to kill an innocent person. Did he not say Ron is not the type of person who could do that? Ron always gets depressed when this happens so he will say it as many times as he needs to! Toto knows, even if Ron does not!

Ron looks up at Toto. He says his words have helped to untangle his frozen brain a little bit. He just remembered something about himself that seemed strange. He has a secret he has not told Toto about. Which he does now: Ron is a terrible shot with a gun. He got perfect grades in all his other courses. But in the firearms class, he could not even graze the target and got nothing but failing grades.

Toto finds it hard to believe that Ron has something he is not good at. More importantly: Onodera was shot precisely through the heart from behind. Ron thus says, with his aim, he could not have hit Onodera even with a thousand shots. Toto confirms, so there is no way Ron could have shot her. He also asks why he did not say that sooner as it is vital information.

Ron says that after the Bloody Field Trip incident, he spent the last five years trying to convince himself to accept what happened during the period he did not remember as an accident, even if he did not actually agree with it. If he did not, he would have hated the victims, and BLUE, and the whole world, and probably would have become a criminal himself. Thus Toto realizes that deep down, Ron does not believe that he was the culprit in the Bloody Field Trip.

Ron gives his thanks. With Toto's help, 1% of his frozen brain has started working again. He asks Toto: if he is not the culprit, is there anyone else he can think of who might be the real one? Toto gasps at this, but Ron says is Toto really dumber than 1% of his brain? After complaining about the rudeness, Toto gets the point: If the real killer is someone else, that means one of the other people killed Onodera and framed Ron.

Toto heads to the door, telling Ron he will be back soon. When Ron asks where he is going. Toto says he will investigate, obviously, as he slams the door. With Toto gone, Ron sighs and lays down on the floor. When he got arrested five years ago, he was crying and screaming. But now he finally figured out whey he is not panicking like he did before. It is because Toto was not there five years ago.

Toto returns to the observatory dome. He notes that there really is only one entrance. He wonders if there is some kind of hidden door behind the lights, but instead notices a bullet hole at each light panel. All the lights in the room were shot out. All the shots are also incredibly precise, making it even less likely to have been Ron. But Toto wonders because they only heard one gunshot. Anyway, they will have the local police look into it further.

Meanwhile, it has begun to rain. Jumonji is told that the police will not arrive until tomorrow morning, because they are delayed by a typhoon.

Toto moves on to the victim's corpse, and he first prays the sutras at the body, thanks to his grandmother. Then he lays down beside the body the way Ron typically does, but balks on seeing the corpse's open eyes. He could not do it like Ron.

He tries to look for some kind of security camera, then they would know right away who the culprit is. He recalls Jumonji telling them about the telescope being able to automatically follow and record the stars. Toto realizes that he has found the one thing that was recording at the time of the crime. Toto heads to the telescope's computer, thinking there might be some kind of important lead recorded into it. He is sure they will be able to prove Ron's innocence with it. But as Toto is intently facing the computer, someone raises a ladder behind him.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Ron Kamonohashi
* Takumi Jumonji
* Totomaru Isshiki
* John Grizzly
* Eisaku Donzawa
* Minami Unno
* Princess Ori