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

[withabigsmile]

...Why are we narrowing it down to you four again?

[openterrain]

The warhammers are really heavy. Being able to swing one hard enough and accurately enough to hit two different people square in the chest takes a lot of strength.

[withabigsmile]

And how to we know how strong anyone is? We didn't know Logan could heal holes in his chest until a few days ago.

[sunsong]

[ nodding along. ]

Also, it's bullshit so many other people kept their fuckin' powers.

[blazeit]

Seriously. God is a fucking asshole, can't even keep his standards straight.

[sunsong]

Right?! Our shit's totally biological, so where the fuck is it?!

[withabigsmile]

Kaneki was pretty strong too, wasn't he? I don't think we should be assuming anyone isn't strong enough based on how they look or what they say, except maybe Cabanela.

[Because his arm was literally broken.]

[sunsong]

Pretty much. Uh, I guess the person who'd be able to tell you I couldn't lift that shit is dead...Logan saw me havin' trouble with that stupid-ass sword I got early on, and I'm pretty damn sure that's smaller than the hammer is?

[announcemyvictory]

Perhaps we can demonstrate how much we can lift with something in here.

[ninehundredlives]

There's no reason someone couldn't pretend.

[clearasmud]

Logan didn't know that either, to be fair!

[ ...that's really not the point, youko ]

[openterrain]

Assume just anyone could lift it doesn't get us anywhere.

I'm not saying we should execute anyone based just on that, but if there's something else that ties one of us to the murders that makes it way more likely, don't you think?

[zomgboom]

In that case, like, I'm strong, but I'm not really accurate with, like. Mid-range weapons. I'm long-distance all the way.

[sunsong]

Yeah, I'm not sure we should do that, either...I mean...I'm pretty sure Jean thinks that's who could've lifted the hammer, but.