I've been wrestling with this one for a bit now. See, no matter how many changes I make to each mystery, due to the overall structure of my story this chapter will be axing both Gundham and Nekomaru. The only question is, do I keep the original set-up (minus Nekomaru becoming a robot) or swap the two victims' positions. I finally decided, as you'll see. Disclaimer: I don't own Dangan Ronpa.

Chapter 9: Sonia Nevermind

"How do we keep getting into these situations?," Hajime asked. He wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, just upset at what was happening. The remaining students had been exploring the newly opened amusement park on the fourth island. After Monokuma promised them all files that could reveal their missing memories, Hajime jumped at the chance. Up 'til now, his own Ultimate talent had been a mystery. At first he chalked it up to the shock of being dragged into a situation that seemed beyond belief. However, he had long ago gotten over that shock, and he still couldn't remember. He had convinced the group to go ahead and chance it, only to find it was a trap. Now Monokuma had them all locked inside the Funhouse, and the only way out was for someone to kill another student. The whole situation made Kazuichi, who up until now had been one of closest friends on the island, very suspicious of Hajime. Luckily, the rest of the students didn't share Kazuichi's suspicions.

There were two different parts to the Funhouse. Strawberry House had a small playground with growing sunflowers on the third floor, guest rooms on the second, and the entrance to the Final Dead Room, behind which was something called the Life-Threatening Game, on the first. The Final Dead Room was supposed to open to something called the Octagon, within which could be found the Ultimate Weapon. Grape House had a statue of a muscular woman titled "Ogre" on the first, more guest rooms on the second, and the Monokuma Archive on the third. Both houses had halls leading to two towers, which later proved to be the same tower after an experiment using Chiaki's e-Handbook. As for the guest rooms, they were divided by quality, with the Deluxe Rooms having the best air and sound insolation. It was soon decided that the boys would take the Strawberry side, while the girls took the Grape side. To make things even more dangerous for the students, they would not be allowed to have food until a murder happened, so as to set a time limit.

The next few days were grueling, especially since there were no time announcements and Monokuma was putting the the students through physical exercises that only made them hungrier. "This is not healthy at all," Mikan complained, "And worse still, I'm pretty sure Monokuma shouldn't be allowed to do this to us. Didn't the rules say we could explore the island without limit? Not to mention he's essentially punishing us for no real reason." "He must be getting desperate," Chiaki said, "Otherwise he wouldn't go this far." With only the Monokuma Tai Chi lessons and several clocks to determine what time it was, it was hard to say how many days were passing. And Monokuma was threatening to punish everyone should even one person be late to his lessons.

Wracked with hunger, Hajime found it tough to sleep. Stepping out into the lobby, he saw Mayuri sitting there. "Guess that extra mass is going to come in handy," Hajime said. Mayuri smiled weakly. It was clear despite his extra weight allowing him to last a little longer, he was just as hungry as everyone else. "By the way," Mayuri said, "I saw Nekomaru go down to the first floor earlier." He pointed at the clock, which showed the time as five in the morning. "If he's trying to be early for that stupid Monokuma Tai Chi session, he's about two hours too early." Hajime sighed and sat down. "Mikan is right. Monokuma shouldn't be able, or even allowed, to do this to us. How on Earth is he able to alter the rules to his advantage?"

Mayuri just shrugged. About a half hour later, there was a sudden shaking noise, like an earthquake had struck. Hajime and Mayuri looked at each other. "Wasn't me this time," Mayuri said. At that moment, the alarm on the nearby clock went off. "What the hell?!," Hajime said. He grabbed the clock and tried to shut it off. "What's going on?," Nekomaru said. He suddenly stepped into the lobby. "Someone must have set the alarm on the wall clock," Mayuri said, "Where's Kazuichi?" Nekomaru shrugged. Suddenly the body discovery announcement went off. "Great," Mayuri said, "Who was it this time? Please tell me it wasn't one of the girls."

"Who knows?," Hajime said, "We don't know where Gundham or Kazuichi are, so it could be either of them." However, Kazuichi chose that moment to enter the lobby. "Who was killed this time?" The answer would soon come as the phone in the lobby rang. "Hajime," came Mikan's voice, "Where are you and the other boys?" "Still in the Strawberry House," Hajime said, "We heard the announcement. I'm assuming you and the other girls discovered the body." "Yes," Mikan replied, "And... It's Gundham!" Hajime's eyes widened. "Well?," Mayuri asked. Hajime covered the receiver. "The victim is Gundham..."

"Gundham...?," Kazuichi said, "Who could have killed him?" Hajime talked back into the receiver. "Where exactly is the body?" "In the Grape Tower," Mikan said, "And we can't get the contact elevator to work." Hajime closed his eyes. "Okay, find what you can and we'll try to fix the elevator." At that moment, Monokuma showed up. "Looks like you guys got separated. And you're late too. Oh well, nothing I can do about that." He handed out bread and water so the guys would have some strength for investigating. He then handed out the files. "Whoever the killer is this time," Mayuri said, "They wanted to keep the two groups away from each other so it would be harder to work."

As Kazuichi got to work on the elevator, Hajime got what he could from Mikan. It seemed someone had chained up the door to the Strawberry House. The central tower was designed so that each door could only be opened one at a time, making the contact elevator the only way to move between the two buildings. Mayuri noted someone had managed to break the button to open the Strawberry Tower. "They already chained the door," Hajime said, "What's the point in breaking the button?" He handed Kazuichi a swiss-army knife. "I got this off Nagito after we found his body. Should make fixing the elevator easier." He pointed at the compass. "And see if you can get the exact orientation of the contact elevator using this."

He then headed into the Final Dead Room. It was the only thing that was going to have any answers. Inside was a simple puzzle, but at first it didn't seem like much of a survival game. Until the last piece of the puzzle caused a lift with a gun on it to raise up. Hajime closed his eyes. "So it's Russian Roulette." He placed the in the chamber and spun it, then placed the gun against his temple. The empty click of the chamber when he pulled the trigger told him he won. The door to the Octagon opened after that. "Very interesting," Monokuma said, having been apparently waiting inside, "You made you're way in here after all. Here. I think this will prove useful in your hands. This was meant for someone who passed the highest difficulty of the Life-Threatening Game, but since it's you I'll made this one exception." He handed Hajime a set of files.

Hajime decided to look at them later, since the investigation was more important. The variety of weapons in the room was staggering, but none of them seemed like they would qualify as "Ultimate". Then Hajime looked out the window, and gasped. "So that's it." Using the camera he got from the puzzle, Hajime took a picture of the view. "Okay," Hajime said, "Now I need to find a way to get to Grape Tower." Luckily, there was a small panel in the Octagon that led to the third floor of Grape House. The girls were very shocked to see Hajime show up when the contact elevator had only just been fixed. "How did you pull that off?," Chiaki asked. "I'll explain during the trial," Hajime replied, "Could you show me the body?"

Sure enough, Gundham's body lay in the center of Grape Tower. "I've already conducted the autopsy," Mikan said, "And it seems Gundham died due to blunt-force impact. Judging from the shape of the wound, he somehow fell from a very great height." Hajime looked around the tower. On the floor was a hammer, but it had no blood on it so Hajime disregarded it as the murder weapon. There was, however, some blood on the nearby column, which had fallen over. Sonia was kneeling in a corner, apparently trying to comfort Gundham's pet hamsters. "They're sad," Sonia explained, "They just lost their master." The hamsters did seem to be shivering.

"Take a look at this," Chiaki said as the rest of the boys finally showed up in the tower, "Gundham's body has been tied up with some sort of wire." Hajime looked near were the wire ended and found what looked like a door handle, similar to the ones found on the door to the Strawberry House. "I checked all the clocks," Mayuri said, "In case someone tried to tamper with them. They all seem to show the same time." "Here's one that doesn't," Mikan said, and she presented a small, handheld radio clock, "It's two hours faster than the other clocks." "Is that where my radio clock went?," Nekomaru said, "Strange for it to show up here." Hajime raised an eyebrow. Kazuichi was able to use some of the parts lying near the entrance to Strawberry Tower to fix the open button. To most of the students' shock, the crime scene did a total one-eighty.

"This one might be a toughie," Monokuma said once everyone was in the trial room, "But good luck anyway." "I think the first thing we should discuss is the murder weapon," Mahiru said, "It should be that giant hammer we found at the crime scene." "Impossible," Mikan said, "The hammer didn't have any blood on it, and the fatal wound didn't match it." "There was blood on the giant column," Hiyoko said, "Could someone have used that? Mikan did say Gundham died because he fell from a great height." Kazuichi scratched his temple. "Yeah, but how is that possible?" "I can answer that," Hajime said, "The answer lies in the Octagon, which I had the opportunity to enter during the investigation."

"And were you able to discover the Ultimate Weapon inside it?," Mayuri asked. Hajime nodded and held up the camera. "This is a picture of the view from a window found inside the Octagon. It points to the true identity of the Ultimate Weapon." The others took a look at the picture. "So," Nekomaru said, "What's the big deal?" "There are two inconsistencies in this picture," Hajime said, "First, there's no sign of Grape House, despite the fact that it should be right next to the Strawberry House. Second, the view is several stories up, despite the fact that I was supposedly on the first floor of Strawberry House. There has to be a reason for this contradiction to what we know about the funhouse, right?"

"It's not too hard," Hiyoko said, "Obviously Strawberry House is on top of Grape House, rather than next to it like we thought." "But what about the tower between the two houses?," Nekomaru asked, "No matter which side we enter from, the crime scene is still there." Mayuri thought for a second. "I think the answer to that lies in the way the crime scene seemed to rotate when we entered from Strawberry House as opposed to Grape House. Everything, even the bloodstains on the floor, perfectly rotated one-hundred and eighty degrees. I'd say that's proof that the two houses are on top of each other, and that includes the towers."

"Which means the tower itself is one giant elevator," Kazuichi realized, "But the door also seemed to change when we entered from the Strawberry House." "Perhaps only the floor of the tower moves," Chiaki suggested, "That would solve that contradiction." "That still leave the matter of the contact elevator," Nekomaru said, "Based on the orientation of the rooms each time we switch houses using it, it's impossible for it to move up and down." "I got the answer to that one," Kazuichi said, "Using the compass on the swiss army knife Hajime gave me, I checked the orientation of the elevator. And it wound up spinning around with the same one-eighty the crime scene seemed to make."

"So in other words," Mahiru said, "The connection elevator moves in a diagonal line as it wraps around the Funhouse. That makes sense." "But that still doesn't explain how Gundham could have dropped from a great height," Nekomaru said. Chiaki tapped her chin. "I wonder if the wire he was tied up with had anything to do with it." "It had been wrapped up in a loop," Mayuri said, "Indicating he was hung from something. Judging from the fact that we saw a door handle on the floor, I'd say that would be it. I did note that the very edge of the handle had scratch marks on it." "But how could anyone tie Gundham up without him fighting back?," Sonia asked.

"They didn't," Mikan said, "I forgot to mention this, but Gundham's body showed signs of defensive wounds. It's possible he got in a fight with his killer, who then rendered him unconscious and tied him up." "It must have been in Strawberry Tower," Kazuichi said, "Then, once Gundham was properly tied up, they went down to Grape Tower and hit the button, leaving Gundham high and dry." Hiyoko tapped her temple. "But Gundham would have to be awake for him to drop, right? The scratch marks on the handle show he had been struggling, which lead to him dropping." Hajime snapped his fingers. "Nekomaru's radio clock. It was found on Gundham's body."

"Wait," Mayuri said, "How did Gundham get hold of Nekomaru's clock?" Everyone in the room turned their gaze at Nekomaru. He scoffed. "Akane was right. The second you guys narrow your options to one suspect, you do wind up looking right at them." "I remember you heading down to the first floor prior to the incident," Mayuri said, "Where exactly were you headed?" "The Monokuma Tai Chi of course," Nekomaru said, "I was a little surprised no one else was heading there with me. I had my radio clock at that moment, so I know it was the correct time."

Mayuri looked flabbergasted. "But wait. When I saw you going down there, it was five in the morning. I even checked the clock. And all of the clocks throughout the funhouse had the exact same time, so none of them could have been tampered with." Hajime rubbed his chin. "Or maybe... They were all tampered with. Nekomaru's radio clock is designed to always show the correct time. Something that would come in handy for the Ultimate Team Manager. Which means it wasn't two hours fast. Rather, the other clocks were two hours slow. That explains why Monokuma said most of us were late." "Oops," Monokuma said in shock, "I accidentally gave you guys a hint..."

"But who could have changed the clocks?," Sonia asked, "It could not have been Nekomaru... Could it?" Chiaki closed her eyes in thought. "Actually, I think the person who changed the clocks... Was Gundham himself." "What makes you think that?," Hajime asked. "It's simple," Chiaki replied, "The hammer, the chain, the wire. Where could those have come from? Not the supermarket, since we don't have access to it." Hajime realized what she was getting at. "It must have come from the Octagon. There were several types of weapons in there, and hammers, chains, and steel wire were included among these. So the killer has to be someone with access to the Final Dead Room and the Octagon."

"But how could anyone get from the Octagon to Grape Tower?," Mayuri asked. "There's a trap door in there as well," Hajime said, "It leads right to the third floor of Grape House. That's how I was able to move from the two houses in spite of the contact elevator being broken." "So Gundham went through the Final Dead Room," Mahiru said, "But why?" Sonia closed her eyes sadly. "I believe... I may be part of that. For some time, my affection has been split between Gundham and Hajime." The look on Kazuichi's face at not being included was priceless. "So," Mayuri said, "Gundham intended to kill someone else. And I suspect that someone may have been Nekomaru."

Nekomaru closed his eyes and smiled. "There's no need to say more. At this point any further debate would only delay the inevitable." "Oh," Monokuma said, "Shall we get on to the voting then? Very well. Make sure you all vote, now." The votes were tallied in favor of Nekomaru, resulting in more confetti and fanfare. "Wow!," Monokuma said, "Not only did you get it right, it was a unanimous vote. It was indeed Nekomaru Nidai who killed Gundham Tanaka." "So," Mayuri said, "What exactly happened between you two?" Nekomaru smiled. "I'll give Gundham this much. He went into this plan not expecting to survive either way."

He crossed his arms. "I was trying to go down to Grape Tower for the Monokuma Tai Chi, but found the contact elevator broken. Since I knew the two towers were one and the same, I decided to try Strawberry Tower instead. I was surprised to find only Gundham waiting there. He explained no one else would be coming since he had already moved back all the clocks throughout the Funhouse. He then went into detail regarding his plan to kill me. Then, to my surprise, he challenged me to a fight, stating the winner would earn the chance to survive. He was a tough opponent, but I was able to knock him unconscious in the end. I could have simply killed him then and there, but I knew deep down his reasons for wanting to murder someone."

"So you chose instead to carry out his murder plan in his stead," Chiaki said. Nekomaru nodded. "I placed my radio clock in Gundham's pocket, then carefully made sure his hamsters would be out of danger. I then entered the Final Dead Room myself. I then entered the Grape Tower to confirm the setup. I waited until Gundham awoke due to the special vibration option that I set ahead of time. As one would expect, he became disoriented, and in his thrashings wound up slipping off the door handle. I couldn't be sure whether or not he'd take it with him though. He immediately hit one of the columns next to the door, and died on impact. However, he did not fall off, so to ensure he could be discovered, I knocked the column down myself."

"That explains the earthquake sound," Mayuri said, "Everyone who wasn't in one of the Deluxe Rooms in the Funhouse heard it." "The alarm had been set by Gundham as well," Nekomaru said, "Gundham was in one of the Deluxe Rooms, so if he had killed me, his alibi would have been worthless, since Mayuri was still in the lounge. But I knew it wouldn't matter with me since I was in one of the poorer quality rooms." Hajime closed his eyes. "In the end, you followed through with the plan so the rest of us could live. But it was more then just that, wasn't it?" He looked over to the portrait of Akane, and Nekomaru followed his gaze. "It's true," Nekomaru said, "Akane was someone I cared about a great deal. To lose her as a result of this game..."

"As tear jerking as this is," Monokuma said, "We have an execution to get out of the way. And I have the perfect one set up for the Ultimate Team Manager." And with that, he hit the big red button, and Nekomaru was immediately dropped into the execution chamber. He found himself lying down on an exercise bench, a large weight labeled "one ton" hanging over him. When it was released, he instinctively held up his hands to stop it. It worked for a while, but his arms quickly gave way, causing him to be squashed beneath the giant weight.

"So that was a Golden Makango," Hajime said, "Never thought we'd see one on the island." Sonia blushed. "Well, considering how things are likely going to go now, I figured I should take advantage of the situation. It's actually forbidden by my country for an unmarried woman to have sex. I mean, Hiyoko, Mahiru, and Mikan are one thing. But as for me..." Hajime rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Don't get me wrong," Sonia said, "I will always mourn what happened to Gundham. But there's no denying Nekomaru's actions made my choice much easier."

She finished undressing and sat on the bed, holding her legs like a child would sit on a toilet. Hajime blushed. "Well this is bold..." Sonia giggled. "It's a custom in Novoselic. Once a man and woman are bound together in marriage, this is to symbolize that the woman can no longer hide anything from her husband." Hajime smiled. "And still you don't lose that image of purity..." He gently licked at Sonia's pussy, making her yelp in pleasure. "Oh wow... That feels amazing." Hajime looked up at Sonia's blushing face as he sucked at her labia. "You're very sensitive, Sonia."

"I did lead a sheltered life before coming to Japan," Sonia explained, "I haven't had much contact with the outside world..." Her words were cutoff as Hajime gently massaged her breast in his hand. He traced his finger across her skin, barely keeping contact. "Ah... Hurry Hajime," Sonia said, "Let's become one." Hajime nodded and gently pushed his manhood inside Sonia. He smirked as he saw the trickle of red. "So you were joking earlier when you suggested you weren't a virgin." Sonia winked. "I thought it would ward off Kazuichi. Don't get me wrong, he seems nice. But his constant misunderstanding of who I am as a person is a little off-putting."

She then wrapped her arms around Hajime. "You may not be a prince by birth, but it will not matter to my family. It is my decision who I marry. All that matters to them is that I continue the royal line." Hajime gently kissed Sonia. "Then let me help with that." And with that, he slowly began to move. Each thrust made Sonia cry out in joy more and more as the movements became faster and faster. Finally, she hugged Hajime tightly as felt his load brust deep inside her womb. Collapsing on the bed together, the newlyweds panted happily as they gazed at each other. However, at that moment, a sudden thought occurred to Hajime. "Wait... What did I do with those files I got from Monokuma?"

To be continued...

Yeah, you're gonna see how those files can still cause problems next chapter. Read and review.