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

[sunsong]

Tabby's got somethin' from her room I can use.

[ SO THAT WORKS. ]

And right? Like, what was even the fuckin' point of that? None of the bodies were even IN the fuckin' game room, so they basically had to just go in there to write the damn message, since that's all I found in there.

[blazeit]

And it probably happened after the murder.

... I wonder who the message was directed at. I mean, you'd have to be a real fucking piece of work to write a "you lose" message to somebody you just killed. They wouldn't even see it, so what's the point.

[sunsong]

It's probably directed at all of us, isn't it? I mean...we always check pretty much fuckin' everywhere after someone dies. So, if none of the victims could be expected to find it...

We're the only targets, right?

[blazeit]

... So the asshole doesn't think we can solve all of this. Man, fuck whoever that guy is, they can go — [ redacted for Bakugou going into obscene detail about where various items can be shoved ]

[sunsong]

Well, they're a fuckin' moron if that's the case. We haven't missed a beat yet.

[ SHE WOULD LIKE FOR THEM TO HAVE A TALENT OTHER THAN MURDER SOLVING, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, THEY CAN AT LEAST OWN IT ]