Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

This particular investigation was likely a difficult one, for various reasons; whether through frustration or sheer disgust at the level of depravity involved, it's been a long day already. It doesn't seem like it will get any easier by the time the door to the courtroom unlocks, gently swinging open to allow everyone downstairs. As always, the stairwell is dark, but the courtroom is already lit up down below, a thin amount of light bouncing up the corridor to guide everyone downstairs; the podium circle stands stark and silent in the center, marking spots for both the living and the dead; by now, the latter far outnumber the former. Kirei, Milla, Angel, and Susan have all had their spots altered, their podiums draped in black cloth and their portraits set atop them; they'll be joining those watching all of you in greyscale as you work today. Do you think you'll do them justice? Either way and as always, the thirty-sixth podium remains empty and unadorned. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system; he doesn't seem to have settled any from the investigation. "Peerless, Edifying, and Adroit have all been taken from you - and hey, it looks like you found all of them, we appreciate that. But even if you hadn't, you'd still be down here, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what you have to do as a result of everything that's happened. This is another one of those things that's either gonna be great or it's going to be terrible, though maybe I'll add in a third option of 'interesting' this time, just due to the setup. As always, you know what's going on here - the innocent versus the guilty. Seventh time lucky, maybe. As always, do your best!" Thirteen Participants remain. We'll see how many leave here at the end of the day.

Comments

[innocentloveholic]

Bzzt-bzzt! Half of that's right, half of that's wrong! Try again, Courageous.

[heritrix]

...I don't think I'm wrong about Susan. It lines up nicely with your headache, and the blood Alex found on her medical kit.

[innocentloveholic]

Well, it's true she did get a good hit on me... [ ...She'll push up her bangs carefully; there's some gauze and medical tape there, obviously covering a head wound.

Guess the headache wasn't from hunger, huh. ] But that's not really how it went down at all. I guess you wouldn't be able to really guess it though, so I'll give you a hint!

Adroit needed a good reason to come out last night, and I had one for her. Can you guess what it was?

[heritrix]

Angel. You lured her out with Angel.

[innocentloveholic]

Yep! I told her someone attacked Edifying and I totally needed help with her, so we went upstairs. She was a lot harder to kill than Edifying though—she really put up a fight despite being an old hag.

[ Hence, well. The injury here. She drops her hand again, this time to her apron pocket. ]

I realized it wasn't so bad though, since... [ A little drumroll with her heels, here. ] I could use this injury to get someone else! And that one was...?

[heritrix]

Well, it wasn't the tooth fairy. [Huff.] So what, you lured Milla out too, but she caught on?

[innocentloveholic]

That's riiiiiight~! Let's see, was there anything else left...?

[ ... ]

Oh, yeah! Courageous, I'd say "do me a favor," but this is sort of good for the group as a whole, soo....

That secret hallway in the art storage room, behind the shelves there! It goes to a room with a file cabinet. That's where I found Observant's Conductor file. It might be nice to see if anyone else's turned up, right?

[heritrix]

What, you think more are just going to drop in there?

[...]

Nevermind, it's Jericho running this place. I'm not sure how useful it'll be, but I'll check.

[innocentloveholic]

It's worth looking into, at least! [ ... ] Thanks though, that's super nice of you~! Find some way to tell me if I'm one of 'em okay?

[ .......that's exactly why she's asking Rin for this, oh my god. ]

[heritrix]

[Worse is probably Rin doesn't hesitate at all in answering.]

I'm sure Jericho will merrily tell us if it's you, just as he has for the others. If it turns out that way, I'll conduct a seance or something. You can consider it repayment.