Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

This investigation seems to have been difficult for many; while your time here hasn't been particularly easy on anyone, it's been eight straight weeks of people dying, of losing those you care about - or at least, losing those you had some sense of solidarity with. There's only about a quarter of your original number left. Either way, however, there are some things that remain constant, even if your numbers do not - the corridor down below the dorms, the way the door sounds when it unlatches, the gentle outward swing of the door. The darkened stairwell that it leads to. The courtroom. The podium circle remains in the center of the room, the spots marked out from the dead having increased in number yet again; Aligula, Hibiki, Sayaka, and Alex all have had their podiums altered, draped in black with greyscale portraits set atop them. They'll be keeping an eye on the proceedings today, for better or for worse. As always, the thirty-sixth podium remains blank. 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. "Attentive and Submerged are gone - and trust me, for at least one of them, it's better for everyone that way. Maybe you disagree with that, maybe you don't, I don't really give a fuck - and at least for the guilty party, their deaths might be their ticket out of here. So it's probably better for them, anyway. Either way, I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you what you're here to do. Once again and as always, it's the innocent versus the guilty. Whichever side wins is mattering less and less every week, isn't it? Even so, you should still put some effort in, just to satisfy the dead - so you know what, do your best!" Nine Participants remain. However many leave here at the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[notaccurate]

If they come in sets of two, then there's no reason why you couldn't have two sets total. Or even more, I suppose.

[chessturner]

I never received a second set of grenades

[She's not lying, she never did -- although she can't prove it]

[notaccurate]

Sayaka also carried stun grenades on her. How do we know that you didn't use yours, and then take hers?

[chessturner]

Oh? But I never approached Sayaka-chan, remember?

[She throws the grenade up, catching it in her hand again]

Rideaux-san and Tohsaka-san would stay with the bodies until the end of the investigation. Would I have time to steal a grenade from the body? Did they ever step away from the body?

[When would Kyrie have a chance to loot Sayaka for a stun grenade?]

[notaccurate]

[Oh, that is a good point. He considers that for a moment.]

They both searched the area around the bodies, and one of them had to turn the electricity off. Perhaps there was a short window of time when both were not looking at them?

[chessturner]

But I left the library. I even said it aloud before I left -- that I'd leave to investigate.

Even if I stayed in the same floor, I'd have no way to know if they ever left the body alone, and there was never a distraction or anything that could get them to leave the library.

[Or was there a way for them to leave the library without fail?]

[notaccurate]

Then that leaves two points during which you could have gotten one: either before Sayaka went up to the library, or after everyone left to go to the trial but before you yourself went there.

[chessturner]

[Kyrie looks away when Luca mentions the part about everyone leaving to go to the trial]

...

[notaccurate]

That's it, isn't it? You waited for everyone to leave to go to the trial room, and you returned to grab a stun grenade before you went down. Sayaka always carried them on her, so nobody would have thought to take them as evidence. You knew they would be there when you needed them.

[chessturner]

[For a moment Kyrie says nothing...and then she starts laughing. She hides her mouth behind her hand, laughing softly]

...from the moment I noticed the paint on my shoe at the start of this trial I knew I had lost, but I didn't think I'd lose so thoroughly.

[notaccurate]

When you play games with people's lives, you will always lose.

Give up, Kyrie. You have nothing to gain by fighting at this point, and I will not let you harm anyone else here.

[chessturner]

Alright, I surrender. I admit having caused the latest incident. Congratulations...I admit my defeat.

[heritrix]

[And with her piece said to Elda...]

What was it you were striving to get out here for, Ushiromiya-san? This might look like a dead end, but it's not. Your self-preservation instincts are second to none, so for you to say something like, "I must get out of here"... I think there's more to it.

What did you hope to find going forward?

[Because regardless of everything that's happened, those words did resonate with her.]

[chessturner]

Everything. A new world...a new home...and since our worlds are destroyed, a new family. Not that it matters.

I remembered all of our deaths. Rudolf, Battler...and now Ange, since the timer is over. They're all dead.

[And therefore she has clear space to start over, but she's not mentioning that]

[heritrix]

[Her son died before she could even see him again... Rin's eyes pinch with visible sympathy at that, but she holds her head high once again.]

Listen to what I'm telling Elda, okay? It might not be. And if it isn't... [She frowns, remembering the story Kyrie told her once. Honestly, in some ways their worlds are pretty compatible, so this might work.] Give me a message to pass on to your daughter, and I'll make sure she gets it.

[chessturner]

...if by some turn of destiny I die here and you see her, please tell her I'm sorry I won't see her again.

[Sure, why not, may as well keep Ange unaware of what happened]

[heritrix]

[She will. Just to prove it can be done, she will. And she'd probably say as much if not for that selection nonsense going on above and holy shit, Kyrie, what are you doing.

...actually, Rin has a good idea. Shit.]

I will! [Time to run.] Just you watch!

[evilfrenzy]

[Rideaux sees this and just-]

You seriously waited for myself and Rin to leave? And I imagine your definition of "leaving to investigate" in the meantime was "arming yourself for the possibility of us figuring you out". You saw how Elda took those deaths. You needed to be prepared for a possible confrontation.

[bloodisthicker]

...They would've left to come down here, though. And I know Rin left early enough to come speak with me in the stairwell.