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]

[ Okay, that...happened. Sol's going to just get up from checking over Rick's body, wiping her hands on her shorts. You're getting blood on yourself that way, Sol... ]

...He confessed to Hibiki and Yuuri, but - we still have one more case to solve, don't we? The person we're votin' for today, our next question: who killed Mordecai and Marty? Let's sum up what we know about those murders. All the stuff at the bar is probably related to those two, right? The chicken, the pepper, the broken bottle...

[ They don't have time to mourn. Or boggle. ]

We can ignore all the shit from Rick's murder. For now, let's assume they're not connected and work the next case.

[blazeit]

[ Once he's done with shaking angrily over the fact that Hibiki and Yuuri died and they deserved a better avenging, he snaps back to attention. ]

Yeah, you're right. What do we know about the fourth floor murders? Mordecai was slashed up, probably by a sword. Marty got burned up, but he also has two stab wounds that don't match. What else?

[sunsong]

Their rooms were both open already, right?

[blazeit]

Yeah, I managed to get into Marty's room without a key. Recap version, his key's not in his room, but I found one of Ashley's hats and a photo.

[perpend]

We can focus on what we know.

Both Marty and Mordecai were stabbed, and Marty was set on fire.

[sunsong]

Right. And unless we have three murderers, they were probably done by the same person...

[openterrain]

[ ... ]

Sol's right.

[ Jean feels oddly blank and mechanical at this point. There'll be time for emotions later. ]

... S-so, what about the dying message Mordecai tried to write. If Rick had nothing to do with that, then...

[sunsong]

Yeah. We can assume that Mordecai's message is important and not faked.

[ninehundredlives]

So we're back to S. That mostly likely means Sukuyo, Sol, or myself, if it was supposed to be a name.

[Susan's voice is perfectly level as she speaks, not looking at all towards the bloody Rick mess two podiums away. She's glad she moved over to stand at Byakuren's earlier.]

[icysemblance]

[Give her a minute. Weiss wipes her face down, and takes a few deep breaths. For all that she is Very Much Not All Right, Thank You Very Much, she knows that there's a job to do.]

Wasn't there salt around there, too?

[sunsong]

I don't think we found any. The salt shaker only had pepper in it, right Jean?

[openterrain]

No, it had both. That's what stood out to me.

[clearasmud]

[ salt.

salt. chickens.

"S"

salt, chickens, "S"- ]

Sukuyo...?

[icysemblance]

...it's possible. I don't know how likely, but it's possible.

[housenurse]

Eh?

[sorry wasn't nearly paying attention]

[clearasmud]

Hey. So if Hibiki-chan's death isn't connected... how does the chicken tie into things? We thought that was something to do with her.

[openterrain]

I really don't know... There wasn't much about it that was odd, aside from where I found it.

[sunsong]

We were probably wrong about those two things being connected...but if there was a salt shaker and shit, I still think it's likely someone was going to cook the thing?

[oftheland]

...right. About Mordecai... I really don't know what the significance of this could be, but when Sukuyo and I investigated his room, I noticed that his room seemed... strangely empty? The door was unlocked, the bed was made, and there was a strange oval-shaped dent on his pillow.

We sort of split up, and I didn't really get a chance to ask Sukuyo about what she found. So there's that to wait on, I guess.

[sunsong]

Seems significant to me...although I was never in his room, so I wouldn't be able to hazard a guess about what might've caused the dent. You said "strange", so I assume it wouldn't be from like, layin' his head on it.

[oftheland]

No, it was definitely smaller than that, so it caught my attention.

[blazeit]

Strangely... empty? What about his vending machine shit?

... Basically, I guess what I'm wondering is... did it look like somebody looted his room?

[oftheland]

I don't know if it was looted, necessarily, because everything did seem neater than I would've expected from something like that... But he really should have had more things in there, I think.

[zomgboom]

Oval? Like his [makes a weird hand gesture around her chest.] thing? The one he had at dinner after the past trial.

[housenurse]

I found a few things near Mordecai-san's desk! There was a very lovely letter to his wife, and some other typed papers, and a little notebook full of recipes!

[takes these things out of her apron and puts them on the podium.]

But, the most interesting thing was what wasn't there! There were two very conspicuous empty spaces, one next to the letter and one above it, but I couldn't figure out what used to be there!