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DRT1.2.8-9: EVE burst error, sections 8-9
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
8
Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. This had nothing to do with trees, but it was a more simple and efficient explanation to say that the townspeople went into their own homes, as opposed to being spirited away en masse.
But why weren't they coming out of their homes? Was the situation such that they couldn't come out?
Unpleasant notions kept filling my brain, so I decided to stop using my brain and start using my body.
We laid eyes on a house. It had a large garden, and a red roof. The lights weren't on. Aoba pressed the button for the intercom. No response. Again. No response. She tried to turn the doorknob, but in a development that probably should have been obvious, the door was locked.
"H-Hey, let's give up," I said nervously. "If the door is locked, there's nothing we can..."
"Step back." Aoba lifted her carry-on bag, and flung it towards a window. The noise was about seven times louder than I was expecting, echoing throughout the empty town. "Now we can get in." Aoba pulled along her bag, which now had glass shards stuck to it, entering the living room.
I couldn't turn back now. I followed her in. I turned on the lights, and started investigating the first floor. I tried opening doors one after the other, but I didn't find anything disastrous or out of the ordinary. It was just a regular old house with regular old furniture in it.
There was just the bedroom left. Aoba was already standing in front of it, turning the doorknob before I could say anything. The door opened.
There was a middle school student... maybe a high school student? Well, it didn't really matter. He was dead, after all. Crucified against the wall. Scissors were stabbed deep into both of his hands to hold up his slender body. There were several more stuck into his abdomen, too, with one or possibly all of them likely being responsible for the fatal wound. A large amount of blood was seeping out from that area.
Bloodstain Fever
That was written next to the crucified corpse, in what was probably the victim's own blood.
We rushed out of the house. The town was shrouded in silence, as if the tragedy we'd just witnessed with our own eyes had never existed at all. Since there was no wind, the clouds hung still in the air; since there were no people, there was no sound; and with all of the houses' doors closed, it seemed like a spectacularly well-done miniature replica.
There were two choices left. To look, or not to look?
"Let's take a look."
Thought so. I knew Aoba was going to say that, but I still felt a wave of nausea. There was no point in either resolve or resignation.
After a brief discussion, we decided to aim for a house down a side street. Suggesting that moving to a different residential area would up the probability of finding a survivor was a thoroughly optimistic outlook to take, but we couldn't possibly perform a check like this without some hope to sustain us.
Just like last time, we smashed through a window, and just like last time, we trespassed through the living room. But this time, the corpse was in the bathroom.
There was a middle school student... maybe a high school student? Well, it didn't really matter. She was dead, after all. Immersed in the bathtub. Her neck had been pierced through with a knife. It was stabbed in deep enough that no one could say it had been a conservative or gentle affair, and there was a suspicious glint from the other end of it in the dim bathtub. The corpse's clothes were so bloodstained that I couldn't tell what color they were originally.
Again, we rushed out of the house, and before we knew it, we were standing back on the street where we had first met. How much time passed, I wonder? How long did we stay dazed in silence? We just stood there, looking at each other, gasping for breath.
Finally, Aoba said, "...The first corpse was by Genocider Syo, wasn't it?"
"Then wouldn't the second one be Stabbin' Jack?"[1]
Genocider Syo.
A serial killer menacing Japan. Targeting young men in their teens and twenties, they use scissors to stab with reckless abandon, and then write "Bloodstain Fever" at the crime scene using the victim's own blood, like a dog marking its territory. Twisted. Brutal. With a strangely trendy methodology, and the skill to evade leaving any evidence, people have gone so far as to call them an "urban legend".
Stabbin' Jack.
This serial killer's specialty is young women. Their chosen method of murder is a simple knife through the neck. To date, 77 girls have fallen victim. Elusive like a phantom, they're extremely unpopular with PTA and human rights groups, but they're also responsible for skyrocketing viewership ratings, and globally command long-standing TV shows, satire, and 3-minute "Today's Stabbin' Jack Forecast" programs.
Both Genocider Syo and Stabbin' Jack were serial killers representing Japan, their true identities shrouded in darkness.
I've heard that, naturally, the police, and even the Zero Class detectives registered with the Detective Library, have been unable to untangle the mysteries and crack the cases. There are rumors that investigation may or may not have been passed off to the JDC—the Japan Detectives' Club.[2] It may or may not have been passed off to the ER3 system Comprehensive Research Center.[3]
"But it's probably a copycat killer," I added quickly, averting a number of issues with that theory. What were the chances that, coincidentally, two serial killers went to the same town, and coincidentally killed someone at the same time? It would be completely absurd. Well, it was already pretty absurd to think that a serial killer copycat went wild in this town, but if Byakuya Togami got serious and planned that absurdity, it could happen.
But why would he do that? World domination? Was he actually serious about that? If so, then I'm disappointed in you, Byakuya Togami.
Why should anyone give a siiiingle shit about world domination?
As soon as you get your hands on control of the world, you're just a glorified landlord. What the hell is fun about collecting rent, or listening to people's complaints, or renovations? Ruling the world isn't the same as just making the world turn with your talent. Byakuya Togami of all people should already know that. It was really bugging me that I didn't know the details of that World Domination Proclamation he threw out in Prague.
"Let's try looking in the other houses, mister."
That was a veritable parade of depressing words.
Desperate for any information, we continued our tedious investigation. The result: we investigated fifteen houses, and found fifteen corpses. One of them was in a wedding dress with the arms and legs cut off. One was pierced deeply through the chest with a Japanese sword (a dotanuki, to be precise). One was drowned in a goldfish tank. One was frozen in a commercial refrigerator. One of them wrote a message in their own blood. Maybe I should just skip the other ten. They were dismembered, or missing their necks, or other weird stuff like that.[4]
The weirdest thing about it was that all fifteen houses that we checked were locked. The front doors, of course, but they were even locked up above the ceilings or in the tiniest windows in the bathrooms, too.
They were locked rooms.
But those weren't the only locked rooms. Birds died in birdcages, and dogs died in doghouses, but the doors to the birdcages were wired shut, and the doors to the doghouses were boarded up. And I'll stop talking after this, but there were chains around a microwave with a dead baby inside, and an electric kettle that was duct taped shut with a dead kitten inside.
Uhhh... Maybe it's safe to say that every living creature besides me and Aoba had all been killed in locked rooms. Assuming that's the case.
9
The world's fucked.
Translator's Notes
[1] Stabbin' Jack - it appears that Stabbin' Jack (Tsukisashi Jack) is a character from Flicker Style, which was the debut novel of Yuuya Satou, the novelist writing this very Danganronpa Togami novel series. From novel summaries, it seems the original novel had murders much like the one ascribed to Stabbin' Jack here in DRT.
[2] JDC - the JDC series, focused on the Japan Detectives' Club, is a novel series by Ryuusui Seiryouin.
[3] ER3 system - this one is from the Zaregoto series, by Ishin Nishio.
[4] fifteen corpses - wedding dress is Subete ga F ni Naru; dotanuki is from volume 3 of Danganronpa Kirigiri; goldfish tank is Baika Hyouretsu; ...it's past midnight and if you want to find the rest on your own, you can, but you get the idea that they're probably references. The dying message is probably too vague to pin on anything in particular anyway.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 2: EVE burst error
8
Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. This had nothing to do with trees, but it was a more simple and efficient explanation to say that the townspeople went into their own homes, as opposed to being spirited away en masse.
But why weren't they coming out of their homes? Was the situation such that they couldn't come out?
Unpleasant notions kept filling my brain, so I decided to stop using my brain and start using my body.
We laid eyes on a house. It had a large garden, and a red roof. The lights weren't on. Aoba pressed the button for the intercom. No response. Again. No response. She tried to turn the doorknob, but in a development that probably should have been obvious, the door was locked.
"H-Hey, let's give up," I said nervously. "If the door is locked, there's nothing we can..."
"Step back." Aoba lifted her carry-on bag, and flung it towards a window. The noise was about seven times louder than I was expecting, echoing throughout the empty town. "Now we can get in." Aoba pulled along her bag, which now had glass shards stuck to it, entering the living room.
I couldn't turn back now. I followed her in. I turned on the lights, and started investigating the first floor. I tried opening doors one after the other, but I didn't find anything disastrous or out of the ordinary. It was just a regular old house with regular old furniture in it.
There was just the bedroom left. Aoba was already standing in front of it, turning the doorknob before I could say anything. The door opened.
There was a middle school student... maybe a high school student? Well, it didn't really matter. He was dead, after all. Crucified against the wall. Scissors were stabbed deep into both of his hands to hold up his slender body. There were several more stuck into his abdomen, too, with one or possibly all of them likely being responsible for the fatal wound. A large amount of blood was seeping out from that area.
Bloodstain Fever
That was written next to the crucified corpse, in what was probably the victim's own blood.
We rushed out of the house. The town was shrouded in silence, as if the tragedy we'd just witnessed with our own eyes had never existed at all. Since there was no wind, the clouds hung still in the air; since there were no people, there was no sound; and with all of the houses' doors closed, it seemed like a spectacularly well-done miniature replica.
There were two choices left. To look, or not to look?
"Let's take a look."
Thought so. I knew Aoba was going to say that, but I still felt a wave of nausea. There was no point in either resolve or resignation.
After a brief discussion, we decided to aim for a house down a side street. Suggesting that moving to a different residential area would up the probability of finding a survivor was a thoroughly optimistic outlook to take, but we couldn't possibly perform a check like this without some hope to sustain us.
Just like last time, we smashed through a window, and just like last time, we trespassed through the living room. But this time, the corpse was in the bathroom.
There was a middle school student... maybe a high school student? Well, it didn't really matter. She was dead, after all. Immersed in the bathtub. Her neck had been pierced through with a knife. It was stabbed in deep enough that no one could say it had been a conservative or gentle affair, and there was a suspicious glint from the other end of it in the dim bathtub. The corpse's clothes were so bloodstained that I couldn't tell what color they were originally.
Again, we rushed out of the house, and before we knew it, we were standing back on the street where we had first met. How much time passed, I wonder? How long did we stay dazed in silence? We just stood there, looking at each other, gasping for breath.
Finally, Aoba said, "...The first corpse was by Genocider Syo, wasn't it?"
"Then wouldn't the second one be Stabbin' Jack?"[1]
Genocider Syo.
A serial killer menacing Japan. Targeting young men in their teens and twenties, they use scissors to stab with reckless abandon, and then write "Bloodstain Fever" at the crime scene using the victim's own blood, like a dog marking its territory. Twisted. Brutal. With a strangely trendy methodology, and the skill to evade leaving any evidence, people have gone so far as to call them an "urban legend".
Stabbin' Jack.
This serial killer's specialty is young women. Their chosen method of murder is a simple knife through the neck. To date, 77 girls have fallen victim. Elusive like a phantom, they're extremely unpopular with PTA and human rights groups, but they're also responsible for skyrocketing viewership ratings, and globally command long-standing TV shows, satire, and 3-minute "Today's Stabbin' Jack Forecast" programs.
Both Genocider Syo and Stabbin' Jack were serial killers representing Japan, their true identities shrouded in darkness.
I've heard that, naturally, the police, and even the Zero Class detectives registered with the Detective Library, have been unable to untangle the mysteries and crack the cases. There are rumors that investigation may or may not have been passed off to the JDC—the Japan Detectives' Club.[2] It may or may not have been passed off to the ER3 system Comprehensive Research Center.[3]
"But it's probably a copycat killer," I added quickly, averting a number of issues with that theory. What were the chances that, coincidentally, two serial killers went to the same town, and coincidentally killed someone at the same time? It would be completely absurd. Well, it was already pretty absurd to think that a serial killer copycat went wild in this town, but if Byakuya Togami got serious and planned that absurdity, it could happen.
But why would he do that? World domination? Was he actually serious about that? If so, then I'm disappointed in you, Byakuya Togami.
Why should anyone give a siiiingle shit about world domination?
As soon as you get your hands on control of the world, you're just a glorified landlord. What the hell is fun about collecting rent, or listening to people's complaints, or renovations? Ruling the world isn't the same as just making the world turn with your talent. Byakuya Togami of all people should already know that. It was really bugging me that I didn't know the details of that World Domination Proclamation he threw out in Prague.
"Let's try looking in the other houses, mister."
That was a veritable parade of depressing words.
Desperate for any information, we continued our tedious investigation. The result: we investigated fifteen houses, and found fifteen corpses. One of them was in a wedding dress with the arms and legs cut off. One was pierced deeply through the chest with a Japanese sword (a dotanuki, to be precise). One was drowned in a goldfish tank. One was frozen in a commercial refrigerator. One of them wrote a message in their own blood. Maybe I should just skip the other ten. They were dismembered, or missing their necks, or other weird stuff like that.[4]
The weirdest thing about it was that all fifteen houses that we checked were locked. The front doors, of course, but they were even locked up above the ceilings or in the tiniest windows in the bathrooms, too.
They were locked rooms.
But those weren't the only locked rooms. Birds died in birdcages, and dogs died in doghouses, but the doors to the birdcages were wired shut, and the doors to the doghouses were boarded up. And I'll stop talking after this, but there were chains around a microwave with a dead baby inside, and an electric kettle that was duct taped shut with a dead kitten inside.
Uhhh... Maybe it's safe to say that every living creature besides me and Aoba had all been killed in locked rooms. Assuming that's the case.
9
The world's fucked.
Translator's Notes
[1] Stabbin' Jack - it appears that Stabbin' Jack (Tsukisashi Jack) is a character from Flicker Style, which was the debut novel of Yuuya Satou, the novelist writing this very Danganronpa Togami novel series. From novel summaries, it seems the original novel had murders much like the one ascribed to Stabbin' Jack here in DRT.
[2] JDC - the JDC series, focused on the Japan Detectives' Club, is a novel series by Ryuusui Seiryouin.
[3] ER3 system - this one is from the Zaregoto series, by Ishin Nishio.
[4] fifteen corpses - wedding dress is Subete ga F ni Naru; dotanuki is from volume 3 of Danganronpa Kirigiri; goldfish tank is Baika Hyouretsu; ...it's past midnight and if you want to find the rest on your own, you can, but you get the idea that they're probably references. The dying message is probably too vague to pin on anything in particular anyway.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
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(Anonymous) 2016-04-11 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)Writing in Their Own Blood
(Anonymous) 2016-06-19 02:39 am (UTC)(link)Re: Writing in Their Own Blood
(Anonymous) 2016-10-06 06:13 am (UTC)(link)