Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

Once again, as people finish their investigations and make their way toward the door at the bottom of those stairs in the dorms, the door down there is unlocked once again. It opens as though of its own volition, with a loud clicking sound and a soft outward swing, not firmly enough to harm anyone who might be standing in the way but enough to give them some slight encouragement to move. The stairwell it leads to is once again dark, the only light coming in from the courtroom below, if it can really properly be called that. It stands as cold and unforgiving as it did last week, all concrete and steel and the podium circle in the center, surrounding the darkened pit in the middle. Nothing can be seen down there for the time being; it simply seems like a large black hole leading nowhere. Three more podiums have joined Jean's in being arranged differently from the rest; Caren, Yosuke, and Chitoge have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black with their profile portraits sitting atop them, greyed-out and watching the room with unseeing eyes. The thirty-sixth podium remains empty and blank, as always. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system comes to life once more, and after a moment Jericho's voice can be heard "Dexterous has been taken from you; seems like a lot of you were friends with her, and you all know why you're here by now and what you're supposed to do. So hopefully you guys won't be disrespectful assholes again and expect me to make you give a damn this time! Be self-centered about it all you want, just do your jobs. After all, it's in your best interests to do that. As always, do your best - I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes." Thirty-one Participants remain. However many are left at the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[chessturner]

Could she have been knocked out?

[At least that seems like a reasonable possibility to consider]

In any case, I think it's safe to think those among us who aren't used to technology and electricity are much less likely to be the culprit.

[perpend]

She had to have been. The scenario would be impossible any other way.

[matchbreaker]

That's a bold statement. What's your evidence?

[perpend]

The door to the room was locked.

[matchbreaker]

Couldn't the killer just've locked it on the way out?

[notaccurate]

Those are my thoughts. Did anyone find Chitoge's room key?

[perpend]

Depends.

Where was the key? Did anyone find it?

[zomgboom]

[oh right there's a trial going on]

I did. [Aren't you all glad?] It was, like, on her desk. I checked to make sure it was Blondie's key and everything - Tiny Grandma and Pigtails saw.

[One day, Tabby will actually remember more than three people's names.]

[matchbreaker]

-Wait, I did see you pick it up, but that was her key? Like the room was locked with the key in it?

[ And the only person being in there dead??

(she apparently wasn't paying attention when she tried it on the door look I can do comedy) ]

[notaccurate]

[Wait. What?]

How in the world would that even work? There's only one key per door, so unless one of the Coordinators helped out by locking the door after the murderer left, then this shouldn't be possible.

[zomgboom]

No, it's pretty easy to lock a door without a key. It's just, like, the opposite of what I did to open it.

[Sorry to kill the magic, but you can also use lockpicks to lock a door.]

[notaccurate]

Can anyone here even do that?

[Besides Tabby, of course. Because Luca is pretty sure that she wouldn't be explaining this if she was actually the murderer.]

[explosivecombat]

Well, it would be stupid for Miss Tabby to point this out if she were responsible, and I doubt anyone else will admit to it now.

[zomgboom]

Uh, yeah? Why do you think I went over to the door to, like, check if it was the right key? I'm not, like, a total idiot. I picked the lock in the first place so it would, like, be weird if it was the key for her room.

cw suicide

[evilfrenzy]

[...what. So her key was in the room with her?]

If it wasn't for the mysterious head injury, I would almost want to say she may have done this to herself.

[Kind of bluntly put, but...]

cw suicide

[perpend]

Maybe that was the intention on the part of the killer, making it look like a suicide.

[chessturner]

If that was their intention, then the killer screwed up the moment they hit her over the head. Not that I'm complaining.

[zomgboom]

If that's what they wanted, like, they did a really job.

cw suicide

[evilfrenzy]

Probably. It's not exactly an uncommon method for it.

[...]

And the toaster's been missing for a few days, hasn't it? So they could have been thinking of this for a while.

[bloodisthicker]

Oh good, it's a locked room murder mystery! Just what we all needed in our lives.

[heritrix]

[She's a little annoyed two people have settled with calling her that nickname now, but whatever, now's not the time.]

[perpend]

....That's bizarre.

[destage]

...I think that makes some sense, actually. It may say something for how relaxed Chitoge-san was, but...

[...Hmm.]

What if she didn't think she needed her key, and left without it when she went out to clean her sheets?

[matchbreaker]

Wouldn't it still be weird that the room got locked after the fact? I mean, she's going on about lockpicks and all, but.

suicide cw

[destage]

...If anything, I'd think that it'd add more to what the culprit wanted us to think about her death.

[...but...honestly, now she's just kind of confused as hell.]