Eighth.

[trustfellows]

Friday morning dawns like the rest of the week before it, with the chiming of the clock and the doors to the kitchen unlocking; however one usually wakes up in the mornings in this place – slowly, anxiously, whichever – it seems that you're not going to be allowed to sleep in. Not because there's a body announcement to get you out of bed, but rather because there isn't. Eventually, Jericho can be heard over the public-address system. Again, he doesn't seem quite as excitable as usual, but once again, that can likely be explained by what he has to say today. "Good morning, guys. Just so you know, we've got something going on this morning that you're probably going to want to know about. Get in the foyer so you've got some idea of what's going on. We'll be waiting." And once again... Well,you might want to go.

Comments

[trustfellows]

[And when people manage to make their way to the foyer, they'll be greeted by two people there; one is Hilda, as is probably expected. She's looking as stonefaced as usual, facing the wall near the clock, and while she doesn't have her notebook with her, she's holding something else in one of her hands – it's thin and white, and it looks almost like a conductor's baton.

She's pointing it at the girl standing halfway across the room from her, near the wall; it seems that whatever's happening today has to do with Hibiki.

Hibiki is standing with her back to the wall, her body shaking as she tries to remain calm; her head is tipped up apprehensively, however, and she looks for all the world like she's trying very hard to not cry. It's a brave face that she's putting on, she's absolutely doing her best, but she's shaking a bit because really, there's only one thing that being dragged out of bed by the Coordinators on a Friday morning can imply.

And once enough people have gathered, Jericho speaks again.]

So, it looks like nobody died last night. Good for you guys! That's either really great or kind of disgusting, depending on your point of view. You're all surprisingly more cavalier than I'd thought about how willing you are to let billions of people die – but you know what, that's your problem, not mine.

And this? Is also your problem now. After all, you're out of time.

[Hilda shifts position a bit; Hibiki watches her warily, keeping her eyes on that white baton in her hand as it sways through the air, and when it's aimed at her again it's with a fair amount of strong conviction and surprisingly little flourish.

Bright blades materialize in the air, appearing out of nowhere and looking as though they're made of some sort of crystal; they glimmer for a second before firing forward, all of them shooting forward at once as though they'd been launched from some sort of weapon, the majority of them centered on Hibiki's chest. They pierce easily – they're sharp, intensely so, cutting through Hibiki's body as though there's no real resistance to be had there; the entire strike happens in an instant, and the ones that don't stab through her chest hit her in the abdomen, resulting in an alarming amount of blood flowing forth onto the floor.

It's difficult to watch, but it's quick; at least there's that much by way of a small mercy. Either way, however, it's not much of a consolation in the end.

Hibiki Ganaha is dead.

Jericho is quiet for a moment after it happens; he'll speak up eventually, however.]

No trial for this; we'll take care of the body. You have eight hours until the next one.

[destage]

[...You know, Sayaka needs to stop expecting things to go even somewhat smoothly when Friday comes around, because holy shit.]

Hibiki--!!

[Oh god, no--anyone but her, that's...that's a ton of blood, that's just so much, it's too much.]

[chessturner]

...

[The timer is over. Kyrie isn't sure what to think about someone not having murdered during the night, given that whole worlds were at stake, but...yeah, what's done is done: someone was randomly chosen to die]

Only eight hours until the next one...

[Grim, Kyrie leaves the foyer. With so few people, anyone's odds for survival are rather low, unlike when Tabby died. It's not a fun situation]

[sleepytimegal]

No--!

[ Alex claps a hand to her mouth, eyes filling with tears. They've only had to watch something like this once before, without the...fanfare of the execution, it's...still horrifying. ]

No... No, shit!

[perpend]

[Oh... oh my god.]

This... this is evil, all of it!

[bloodisthicker]

[it's.

it's kind of. hard to talk about this one. like, say anything at all. maybe punch a fucking wall? he's gonna punch a fucking wall over the fucking timer, the fucking fake guilting, the fact that someone's-]

...

Alright. I'm going back to my room.

[evilfrenzy]

[Rideaux was fully prepared to deal with another body this morning, but having this happen again...

Oh shit. Oh shit.]

[notaccurate]

[He's up early, and he doesn't even need to hear all of what Jericho says to get what is going on.]

No!

[But she is dead before he can do anything. And now they have only eight hours left once more.

This sucks.]

[hesperos]

...Hibiki!

[ Yuri finds himself shouting this, despite everything, despite knowing that - damnit. ]

[heritrix]

[They hit timer again? Rin's shocked, honestly, though any thoughts of that go right out the window when she sees who's there, and her blood turns ice cold. No. Of anyone here, it can't be her. This time when Rin's feet propel her forward, it's before Jericho has even finished speaking. She doesn't even know what she plans to do, but it can't happen like this. It can't. Hibiki's just a normal girl, and it's too cruel.

There's only one thing in the world that could make her hesitate, and by pure accident it probably saves her life. The blades that materialize make her skid to a stop with an audible gasp, a different emotion flashing through her wide eyes one after the other. Recognition. Confusion. Dawning horror.]

Hibiki—!

[By the time she's realized they're not Archer's blades or Shirou's blades, it's too late to shout anything else to Hibiki. Not even to say goodbye.]

Dammit... [Hand to her mouth, Rin drops to her knees. For once, she doesn't even try to hide her tears, and if no one stops her, she's going to crawl close enough to Hibiki to hold her.] God dammit!

[trustfellows]

[It takes less than two minutes this time, after Hibiki dies; even from the foyer, a loud bang can be heard reverberating through the stairwell.]

[destage]

[--Holy shit, what the fuck--]

What--what on earth was that?!

[Oh god, what the actual hell? Sayaka's gonna go over to the stairwell and see what's up...]

[bloodisthicker]

[



OH WELL OKAY TIME TO MAKE A DETOUR TO THE STAIRWELL

[bloodbiter]

[MMMMM NOPE

off she goes in that direction]

TRUST HAS BEEN BROKEN.

[trustbound]

[It actually takes Jericho a moment to say anything in response to everything that just happened; when he does, it sounds like the usual manic energy is back in his words, and – oh, god, he's kind of laughing, though it's that sort of weird, breathless laughter that tends to happen because you don't know what else to do with yourself and for some unknown but horribly inappropriate reason, your body has decided on that.]

Oh.

[Just.

Oh.]

Well... I guess that's one way to do it! Okay, then, uh... Right. Right, okay.

Attentive and Submerged are both dead – and unless Indomitable actually puts her money where her fucking mouth is for once and ends up doing something to join them, hopefully you can keep there from being any others. You guys probably aren't just going to let all of that stand either way, yeah? Go ahead and look around, investigate however you see fit. As much or as little as you want, as long as you're happy with the result; after you're done here, go ahead and meet us in the courtroom. We'll be waiting; as always, do your best!

[...]

Oh, and incidentally? Great job doing our work for us, guys, really.

That's four out of four.

[trustfellows]

EVIDENCE LIST

18/18

SECOND LIBRARY (11/11)
- Sayaka did not deserve this
- Alex did not deserve this
- Yikes
- Double yikes
- Someone went to a lot of trouble here
- It's a shame Alex never found the key
- Well that's probably important
- What's this for?
- Interesting...
- Where did these come from?
- What about this?

ART STUDIO (1/1)
- That's definitely worth noting

ART STORAGE (2/2)
- Missing paint...?
- And missing clay!

CHEMISTRY LAB (1/1)
- There's a lot of missing stuff in this case

SEVENTH STAIRWELL (2/2)
- At least it's not blood?
- And a smear!

FIRST STAIRWELL (1/1)
- What's this doing here?

SECOND LIBRARY

[trustfellows]

[evilfrenzy]

[After the situation with Elda gets diffused(?) and the initial burst of adrenaline wears off, well. It's time to look into what the fuck actually happened here. But before Rideaux can get to Sayaka and Alex, he needs to find the source of that electricity.

Is he going to be able to carefully move around the pool of water to check for said source?]

AREA CLEAR

[trustfellows]

ART STUDIO

[trustfellows]

[hesperos]

[ As he steps right out of storage, is there anything here that's immediately noticeable as being off in here? Now that he's looking around, anyway. ]

ART STORAGE

[trustfellows]

[hesperos]

[ Well fuck. That. That happened.

...Might see what's going on in here. Is there anything around that's obviously out of place in here? ]

CHEMISTRY LAB

[trustfellows]

[perpend]

[He knows he should be helping look over the bodies, to get... some kind of justice for Alex and Sayaka, but...

Well. Maybe he can do some good here. He's been keeping stock of the chemisty lab every so often. Is there anything immediately off?]

SEVENTH STAIRWELL

[trustfellows]

[bloodisthicker]

[Tarrlok doesn't want to go too far from the second library in case Rin and Rideaux need extra help, so he's gonna check this out!

like. he needs some air, too. but. okay. anything... immediately off out here.]

FIRST STAIRWELL

[trustfellows]

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda's not sure where she's going, maybe Hilda's office. Maybe Sayaka's room (that needs a key, doesn't it, who cares)? Maybe her own room? Either way, she's going as far down the stairs as possible.

But after six flights, she ends up glancing around a little, even if she is like a zombie.

What's amiss here, anything obvious? ]