Take Responsibility.

[antitrust]

And when the door at the bottom of those stairs unlocks and it swings open gently of its own accord, allowing everyone back down into the courtroom, there are decidedly fewer of them than there were just a few days ago. The change in the podium circle is massive this time; Dio, Logan, Marty, Yuuri, Hibiki and Mordecai have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums adorned with black cloth and greyscale photographs. Furthermore, the mass of shadows in the pit at the center seems agitated again, shifting and breaching upward toward the glass if one looks at it long enough. It's been something of a bad week, to put it gently. Not that it's evident from the Conductor's behavior; as usual, the proceedings are being watched from behind that panel of translucent glass behind podium 30, and he'll speak as soon as everyone has found their place in the circle. His words are a bit more rapid than usual; he seems interested in this one. "Temporal, Lucent, Vivacious and Universal...all four of them have been taken from you. Does whomever is responsible for this really deserve your compassion? There can be no hesitation; you should offer no mercy. It's you against the guilty. Take control of your fate, and hold them responsible." Thirteen Participants remain. You've lost five people this week, and eight since the last investigation; we'll see how many more you lose today.

Comments

[blazeit]

... So, we're looking at two sets of two bodies pretty close to each other, then. The fourth floor hallway and the billiards room. The art room and art storage room.

[rickdiculous]

...Huh.

So preeeeettyy close to each other.

[ninehundredlives]

Whoever killed Marty spent some time there with him. His body was burned.

[rickdiculous]

Maybe he was the original target and - and a witness got iced, yo.

[blazeit]

... That opens things up to a bunch of possibilities. I mean, we could have anywhere between one and five murderers on our hands, but I guess it's pretty likely at least one dead person was also...

[ Ugh. He doesn't want to think that of any of them. ]

[clearasmud]

Yeah, and I found darts and billiard balls in the hallway.

[blazeit]

Well, that's fucking weird.

Could they have been used in one of the murders? Did anybody have... I don't know, stab wounds?

[ DON'T STAB PEOPLE WITH DARTS ]

[ninehundredlives]

Marty was stabbed twice in the back. One of the wounds was smaller, but I doubt it was a dart.

[clearasmud]

Wellll... Mordecai had a healed-over stab wound, probably from a knife.

...Although given how people have kept some of their powers, who knows what that means. Maybe he was struck there first before he was slashed with a sword. Maybe it's just an old injury! Who knows!!!

[ SHE'S SO FUCKING SALTY AND SHE'LL NEVER STOP ]

[ninehundredlives]

...I know.

He showed me that stab wound before. We were talking about our memories - he'd just remembered getting it, and wanted to know if I could tell how long ago that had happened. It was old.

[clearasmud]

[ maybe she shouldn't be so pleased to hear that

but god help her, she's pleased ]

That's one mystery solved, then.

[blazeit]

Slashed with a sword?

... How do you know it was with a sword for sure.

[clearasmud]

Oh! I found it. It was shoved behind one of the cabinets.

...Swords have been on my mind so my mind kind of jumped there when I saw the slash, but then I found it.

[withabigsmile]

What about the way they died?

Yuuri... His chest was smashed. Probably by that hammer Weiss brought up.

[blazeit]

... I have so many fucking regrets right now.

[ HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE ASKED THE CONDUCTOR FOR WARHAMMERS ]

Anyway, yeah, causes of death seem like a good next step.

[perpend]

The same is true for Hibiki. It looked like she had extensive blunt force trauma on her torso.

Something very heavy hit her.

[icysemblance]

...was it only their bodies that had heavy blow damage?

[ninehundredlives]

Marty's didn't.

[icysemblance]

What about Mordecai's?

[blazeit]

Youko says slash wounds.

So the murder method for the art room murders kinda lines up? It's the fourth floor murder methods that are... weird.

[withabigsmile]

Most of the art studio was smashed too. There were easels, canvases, and supplies everywhere. Someone even flipped a table.

[icysemblance]

The music room had some damage, especially to the piano, but it doesn't seem like overall the damage was bad.

[rickdiculous]

...If it was only their bodies, as - as fucked as it sounds, it coulda bee-[eeerrghhh]-n somebody who gave two shits about em. To the point where they were too big a pussy to cave - cave in their skulls.

[icysemblance]

That makes sense. At least the person that killed Yuuri was strong enough to use the hammer, clean it up somehow, and hide it. We're looking for someone with the strength to do all that.

[rickdiculous]

I tried lifting one of 'em. I couldn't. Noodly ass arms.