Dangan Ronpa: Unser Sommerende/Chapter 5 - Deadly Life

Continued from Chapter 5 - Daily Life (2).

Poor thing. That poor, poor girl.

I pushed lightly against a couple people to make way, and entered the room. The girl was facing away from us, so I had to walk around the chair to see her face. Her eyes were shut, and her lips curved so that they were barely frowning, as if she was only somewhat miffed at her passing.

I held my hands together, reassuring myself that I existed. I took her hand, which was abnormally cold, and the warmth of my own hand was sapped by hers.

“You idiot.” I whispered to myself, and tightened my grip. “You had one fucking job.”

No response. Of course there was no response, but I stupidly expected her to say something back, maybe even to tell me off for cussing at her. I just stood there for a while, nothing happening.

“... It’s time to investigate, Archibald.”

He didn’t say anything back for a few seconds, before mustering a weak voice, just to say “Investigate what? It’s too late, right?”

“You’re kidding me.” I turned as I spoke, getting a look at his sorry face. “You’re actually going to give up. Wow.”

“... I don’t need to deal with this.” He said, and left abruptly.

I got a good look at his face just before he was out of sight, and all I got was a defeated expression from him. I then looked at the other three, who were still just standing at the doorway, and got the exact same defeated looks I was expecting. But there was a catch to that, wasn’t there? One of those faces was a lie.

One of those faces killed my girlfriend.

And that was enough to commit to an investigation, wasn’t it?

Take something away from me, I’ll take something from you.

At the very least, I’ll die trying.

“... Would any of you be interested in monitoring the crime scene? You know. As usual.”

“Not really.” Jo said, before shrugging with a sigh, and walking off.

“... I’m sorry, Jane.” Rocky shook his head. “There’s really no point. No hard feelings, I guess. I just need a drink.” He turned to leave as well, the tail of his hat shaking.

This just left Mary. She just kept staring at me, silent, letting out the occasional breath.

“... Don’t worry, Mary, we can’t really monitor the scene with one person. It’s not even necessary at this point, huh? I’m just going to do... Something. I don’t know what, but I’m going to do it.”

“I believe in you.”

“... Are you serious?”

“Yes, Attebury.” Her breathing pattern gradually relaxed, and her posture sank slightly. “As painful as it is to say, you’re a lot better than I am. Much sharper, braver, you even seem to hold yourself together better than I do. This is just another example. It’s reminiscent of the Battle of Tarvis...”

“And what exactly happened there?”

“You haven’t heard?” She sounded genuinely surprised that I wasn’t aware of it. “To summarise, it was a battle in 1809 in which, facing an army six times its own size, about 7,000 Austrian soldiers were bested. Around 250 of them were surrounded in a fort, of which, each of them died fighting, rather than surrender... There are plenty of similar battles in history, but that’s the first one that came to mind.”

“... I don’t plan to die, though.” I turned back to view the rest of the room, and started examining the scene.

“Understood.” As I heard her walk away, I glanced at Lucy’s face once more, and rubbed her head.

“... Get some rest, sugar...”

The one thing I was sure of now is that, if I solved this case, the mastermind would have no idea what to do about us. If we could circumvent their plan to end the killing game, we'd have some amount of power against them, maybe we'd even earn our freedom.

[1]

This would be the final investigation.

Okay, so, first thing’s first, Lucy’s body **didn’t seem to have any bruises, cuts, or wounds**. I moved her around a bit, examined her throat, checked under her sleeves, and found nothing. I glanced at the table, and noticed that there was an **empty vial**, the kind she usually uses to store her chemicals. The vials on her outfit were all full, so this must have been one she stored somewhere else. I could see the other side of the glass had a small label over it, and turning it over, I could make out the **number 34 written in marker**. This clearly matched it up to one chemical or another, though I wasn’t sure which.

Having checked the central part of the scene, I was now finally able to look away from her, which was relieving. What wasn’t relieving was what I ended up looking at; I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it until now, but there was some sort of **damage on the wallpaper** adjacent to the door. A slit or a hole, made with something sharp, no doubt. It was made at a height **level to my eyes**, and there were some noticeable **splinters sticking out of the side of said hole**. There didn’t seem to be any other forms of damage in the room, so it didn’t seem to be evidence of a fight of some sort, but that just raised questions as to what it actually signified. As I looked around the other walls to verify that there wasn’t a single other hole, I noticed that Lucy’s scythe was still hanging in its usual spot, overlooking her lifeless body. I approached it, and looked closely at the edge... It was the only apparent sharp object in the room... And sure enough, I could see **a few splinters resting on the tip of its blade**.

It wouldn’t have been the first time someone used the scythe for violence, I suppose. The question was whether it was Lucy trying to use it in self-defence, as she said, or if it was her assailant. Again, since I couldn’t find any injuries on her personage, it seemed much more likely that Lucy was using it, but why she failed to protect herself, or why she even let the killer in was up in the air. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anybody to discuss that with until the trial, but, considering the vial that was sitting on the table...

No, that couldn’t be right. Did Lucy try to poison herself?... The thought was hard to bear, but if she thought that her life was endangered, and her murder would bring about the death of the rest of the class... Maybe she really would rather take her own life, to stop the killer from fulfilling Monoyaki’s plan. I tried not to picture it, I couldn’t let myself get emotional, not during a time like this. But, just to make sure, I walked over to her drawers. Maybe her alchemy book would have some more information about whatever liquid ‘34’ was indicating.

I didn’t realise how much effort lifting her book would require, but I managed to get it onto her desk. I opened it up, right where she placed her bookmark... After all, it almost seemed like she was pointing something out to me, when she got the book out in front of me earlier. It seemed that the bookmark hadn’t been moved since then. I opened the book there, and the page on the right was boldly labelled ‘**34 - Arsenic**’. The page described its structure, process of formation, and various other things I had trouble understanding, but there were parts of the text that were underlined in pen. Skimming past these, I learned that an acute dose of arsenic does ultimately lead to death in high enough concentrations... The symptoms leading up to death were quite unpleasant, but one in particular was also underlined, that being hair loss. I looked up from the page, and turned to Lucy. **Her hair was as full as it had been on the day we met**.

So... If it wasn’t a suicide, how did she die? The fact that arsenic was marked out for me, and that hair loss was underlined so strikingly, it made me wonder if Lucy really did know more than she would let on earlier... Clearly, she was killed by some sort of chemical, if there wasn’t any physical damage to her body, but... Was she responsible for making it seem like it was arsenic? If she had poisoned herself with something else, then she wouldn’t have been able to hide the vial that housed the actual poison, unless she emptied the arsenic vial and filled it with the real poison. But since it seemed so intentional, there must have been a deeper reason for her to misdirect us. Or perhaps she was misdirecting her killer? It was tough to wrap my head around at the time, so I decided to pick the book up again, grunting from its weight, and decided to show it to someone else for a second opinion. As I was walking out of the room, I heard a crack from under my foot.

Curious, I lifted my foot, and saw a tiny amount of white porcelain, shattered beneath my shoe. Weird. It was sitting pretty close to where Lucy was. I stopped to think about how it ended up there, and looked over at the small bin in the corner. I walked over to it, and opened the lid, and there I saw a pile of **shattered porcelain** of the same colour. I couldn’t make out what it was originally part of, but I committed this to memory regardless. Actually, on second thought... Since there was nobody with me this time, there wasn’t anyone who could verify that the evidence I had found was real, and that I wasn’t making it up. So, I picked the bin up, awkwardly holding it between the book and my body, and I also made sure to pocket the empty vial on Lucy’s table. I took one last look at her still face, and resolved to solve this mystery for her sake.

My hands were full, so I couldn’t close the door on my way out.

The only person whose current whereabouts I knew was Rocky, since he mentioned that he was going to go get a drink, meaning that he’d be in the cafeteria, of course. True to his word, he was savouring another cup of cactus juice, though when he noticed his head, hearing me walk into the room, I could see that he probably wasn’t enjoying the flavour all that much. He then turned away again without saying anything, as if to dismiss me.

“I’m sorry to bother you.” I said. “I know that you probably think it’s a waste of time, but I just need you to mind a couple of things for me. You don’t even have to bring them to the trial, I just need you to verify that I showed them to you, okay?”

“Gotcha.” He nodded very slightly. The young man looked like he wanted to say something else, but didn’t bother with anything more than a “Keep doing your best.”.

“Thank you. All it is is this book...” I let down my cargo on the table in front of him, arms already tired. “And the contents of this bin. You don’t have to read the entire book, of course.”

“Damn, if only I had the time.” He forced out a laugh, as he surveyed the items before him. “You took the bin, huh?”

“Yeah, heh, the bin.”

“Funny...” He leaned over to get a good look inside. “... Hang on, that looks really similar to the teacups in the kitchen.”

“You mean the broken shards, right?”

“Yeah. No idea how this one got broken, but **there was another teacup sitting in the kitchen sink**. I saw it while getting my drink, it was probably used recently.” He glanced down at his cup. “... Do you think I should quit this stuff?”

“Uh, it doesn’t seem unhealthy. I mean, I’ve never had it, so... Anyway, the only other thing is that the bookmarked page in the book right here talks about Arsenic.”

“And that’s important because?”

“It’s, uh, Lucy’s book. Look, I don’t know how much time I have to explain this stuff, just make sure you remember that, got it?”

“Whatever makes you happy.” He sighed, looking off at nothing again.

I was tempted to sigh back at him, but, not wanting to be dragged down, I just put my hand on his shoulder with a slight amount of force, catching his attention again.

“Hang in there, okay? I’m going to figure this out, Rocky.”

“... Can you call me Cody instead?”

I’d forgotten he even had a real name, though I just nodded and smiled in response.

“Thanks. Anyways, try not to get sidetracked, got it?"

“... O-oh, yeah, I’ll get back to it.”

Leaving the cafeteria led me to the realisation that I couldn’t think of anything else to search for. I stood there for a minute or two, thinking of anything I could accomplish with my remaining time, and only really came up with one particular idea, and it was pretty small, but I figured it was worth a shot.

I went back to the crime scene, collected a few of the splinters off of the wall, and headed to the most likely place where I could find someone who could analyse it, and maybe identify what sort of tree or item it came from. Granted, he didn’t seem to be interested in trying to solve this case, but I didn’t have anything else to do.

Archie was sitting by the water storage, taking in the tulips and strawberry bushes one more time. I knew that he could hear me arriving, his response being to turn his gaze away from the entrance, slowly, as if to fit in with the rest of his smooth movements and not give away his avoidance.

“... I promise I’ll be quick.”

“Mm.”

“I found some splinters in Lucy’s room, on the wall and on her scythe, and I was wondering if you knew anything about what type of wood it is.”

“They’re splinters.” He raised his voice a small amount. “You can’t figure out a species of plant from that.” I could make out his eyes shift, like he was trying to look at something in a super subtle way. “... I think it’s **spruce**, though. Probably from Norway. Please leave, Jane.”

“Thank you. Sincerest apologies.”

“There’s no need to apologise.” He said in a marginally friendlier tone, apparently not catching my sarcasm. “I just don’t want to be around people right now.”

“Well, we don’t have much of a choice. I understand, it’s-”

[2]

“Aaaaalrighty! Time’s up! I’d like everyone to head to the back half of the hallways on the ground floor, thank you very much!”

“... Okay...” I took a deep breath, reassuring myself that I had collected a sufficient amount of evidence for the trial. I could think of anything more to look for, anyways, so I just had to make do. I looked at Archie, trying to gauge his confidence or lack thereof in the outcome of the trial, and he looked completely drained. “It’s time to go.”

“I don’t want to...”

“He’ll probably just kill you if you don’t come down. We’re lucky that he’s even letting us hold a trial, alright?”

“I might as well just stay, and let him kill me, right?!” He stood up as he shouted, only to shrink back into himself as he realised his emotional state. “... I’ll just follow you down and stand there in the room. I’m just going to stop paying attention to anything. I’m just going to stop.”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“... You’re angry with me, aren’t you?”

“There’s no time to be angry. Come along.”

Archie then looked at the ground, whimpered softly, and started following me down to the ground floor. I was being too harsh with him, and it made me feel like shit, but I had to go through with this. It wasn’t even about my own survival at this point, moreso avenging Lucy’s death, although whether revenge was a noble cause wasn’t on my mind then. Point is, I was going to solve this case, and maybe then I’d have time to think.

[3]

“Look at that! You’re all here!” Monoyaki proudly observed, once we were all outside the lift door. “Ain’t that nice?”

“Shall we get on with it?” Dan said.

“Hm, dying to die, huh? That’s what I like to see.” He kept looking at each of our faces, like he was expecting a smile. “Anyways, yes, let’s get on to it! It’s time for the final struggle, so I want all of you to be trying your very best this time!”

None of us bothered to give him a response. He just kept alternating between us, with an awkward expression.

“Guys... I know you’re feeling bummed out about basically being dead meat, but can at least one of you try to figure out the entrepreneur? It’s no fun if all of you are just resigned to it. I mean, yeah, this murder’s completely fool-proof, and you’re not going to solve it, but can I have at least one of you trying to?”

“Okay.” I said, losing patience. “I’ll do it, just let us start.”

“Yep, sounds good!” He clapped his hands in satisfaction, left instantly, and the doors opened in front of us.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

The last descent. Nobody said anything. I couldn’t make myself care about what they thought about this situation, even if I only had a slither of what happened the day before, I was going to fix this. I just had to breathe slowly, process what I’d seen, and present things for discussion, in the hopes of getting a few secondary opinions. I prepared for the trial, perhaps the only one who wasn’t prepared to die.

[4]

As the doors opened again at the bottom, it was revealed to us just how sorry of a state the trial garden was in; the stone fountain in the centre was now nothing more than a pile of rubble, as if someone had intentionally destroyed it... At least, that was the only possible thing, though it almost felt like it had fallen apart naturally, on a much longer timescale than what little time had passed. The grass was dead, brown with a slight hint of yellow, forming an olive shade, drooped and blanketing the circular field. Even the fencing around the perimeter had fallen apart, meaning there weren’t any real barriers between the students. The podiums were still intact, complete with a now extreme amount of portraits of our former classmates. We filled in the remaining podiums, standing under the throne at the back of the room, which Monoyaki occupied as always.

“Ah, you six have come so far since we started this whole thing off... It’s gonna be real sad saying buh-bye to you guys! But I hope we’ll be able to enjoy one last tango, right here on Earth!”

“You can keep bringing that up,” I stated, “but it won’t dissuade me at all.”

“You’re saying that a whole bunch, Jane.” Jo said, unnervingly serious. “Are you trying to hide something? You sound afraid.”

“I’d rather be afraid than resigned.”

“Enough one-liners, guys!” Monoyaki said, before yawning obnoxiously. “We’re gonna start in just a moment, so stop trying to be a show-off, and get ready, you hear me?”

The seconds before a trial started were always more tense than the trial itself, at least to me. That’s why you always had to throw in everything you had from the start, so you could get rid of those nerves and actually think straight. Even if, as a wider group, we had collapsed entirely, time and time again, the actual traitor who caused our failure was tracked down successfully. We were able to work as a group, and the only thing I had to do now was to convince everybody to think together, through proving that there was a way to solve the unsolvable.

Granted, I wasn’t entirely sure if there was a way. There were plenty of other things I was sure of, though, and I’d put them to as much use as I could.

Continued in Chapter 5 - Class Trial.