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

[heritrix]

I'm less concerned with dirt, and more with the extra blankets I found. There was a complete set of sheets strewn about on the floor, along with extra blankets from the storage room.

Mm, in the end it might matter less, however. In addition to that, I also found a second pillow. There was one dry left on the mattress, stripped of a pillowcase, but the other was also on the floor. So far as I know, our rooms come with one pillow standard, so this second one is extra.

[She also brought all of the bedding with her, for the record, gathering it up in one of those basins. Probably conscripted someone to help her, since the blankets and second pillow were completely soaked and thus would have weighed a lot.]

[introspects]

...If this all took place in Kirisaki-san's room...

[ hmmm. ]

Do you think the culprit might have been invited to stay over in her room?

[blackmass]

If the murder transpired in her room, it stands to reason that the culprit would already have been someone she trusted enough to allow inside.

[introspects]

Right, and...to me, this sounds like it could have been a sleepover...

[blackmass]

Precisely.

[oh, this just got interesting.]

So, here is my question: had anyone noticed anyone Chitoge Kirisaki may have spent an abundance of her time with?

[introspects]

...

[ orihime looks like she wants to say something, but... ]

[chessturner]

Inoue-chan, if you know something, you should tell us. Everyone's lives are at risk here -- yours included.

[introspects]

I...

[ she can't just-- ]

I...I've only seen it in passing, but... I've seen Kirisaki-san with Maizono-san a lot...

[blackmass]

Oh...? Is there something wrong?

[introspects]

[ well. ]

[notaccurate]

So we can narrow this down a bit. Who here was Chitoge particularly close to, especially to the point where she would allow them to sleep over for the night?

[heritrix]

So we're most likely looking for a female culprit.

[chessturner]

That would give the killer access to Kirisaki-san's key.

[matchbreaker]

It would, but the key was still locked in the room? I don't think the Tohsaka girl's dumb enough to miss any of us hiding under the bed - so... does that matter?

[ Maybe she's the stupid one?? is she missing something??? ]

[perpend]

If the door was locked behind them while they were inside the room with Miss Chitoge, they would be able to open the door and leave while it was locked.

[matchbreaker]

... Oh, right, that works.

[ Nod. ]

[heritrix]

[Rin nods.]

That's been my suspicion. And it would explain why the room was locked, wouldn't it? If the culprit was in the room before the crime took place, they could still let themselves out and lock the door behind them, without needing the key.

[introspects]

How sad... It was someone Kirisaki-san trusted, too...

[sleepytimegal]

...Dammit...

[ Don't be reckless she'd said. She didn't think "being reckless" meant "trusting someone to stay over," but here we are. ]

[destage]

...That's so horrible...

[How could someone use that sort of trust against a person? Not even she trusted Chitoge like that, but she still didn't deserve this.]

[chessturner]

Another possibility is that the killer did lock the room with the key, and when the body was found, they put the key in the room while everyone else was in confusion over what happened.

[This is a closed room but it doesn't mean it's a perfect closed room]

[evilfrenzy]

Oh, well that would be interesting. Quite the risky move on their part, considering how many of us were present. Though, not all of us went in at the moment of discovery.

[It could narrow things down if they ventured down that route.]

[sleepytimegal]

There were a lot of us there, but we were all focused on...well, her.

[notaccurate]

Who was in there, exactly? That sounds like a good place to start.

[destage]

...That's...extremely strange.

[What the hell. Like, the extra blankets aren't a problem of any kind, honestly, because she's got some with her too, but...]

Maybe that means the culprit was the one washing the sheets, then. Or used them to clean up...

[...she's trying not to look like she's getting lost here. If it didn't take place in the laundry room, then the only other thing would've been having it take place in Chitoge's room, and that's...huh.]