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

[zomgboom]

Uh-huh, Mr. Lawman?

[perpend]

There must have been another way.

[He doesn't sound angry or disappointed. He just sounds incredibly sad.]

[zomgboom]

Do you know another way to get down there?

[icysemblance]

...blowing up doors? Breaking in here? Staying after a trial?

All of those, any of those, would be better than murdering two people.

[zomgboom]

Can't remove doors, this is the only place I can't get into - and believe me I tried - staying after wouldn't help me anyway. You can't get down there.

[clearasmud]

Then why two? You only need one to get caught.

[perpend]

There must be a way down there!

[housenurse]

... There is. And she's done it.

I... I think Tabby-chan could win! Or at least hurt it enough where it'd be easy to beat it ourselves! She could save everyone this way!

[perpend]

That's... that's right.

[Dying to save all of them...

Tabby is made of some strong stuff, isn't she? ...She killed two people, but...]

I... I hope this works.

[housenurse]

We just need to rally behind her, stick together with a united front! We can't go in scared anymore-- we need to go in fighting!

[announcemyvictory]

Or she could fail, and then where would we be?

[perpend]

....

We don't have many chaances left.

[clearasmud]

We have more than you think.

And Tabby's was selfish, Cabanela. She wouldn't have tried to get away with it, otherwise.

[perpend]

[What can he say to that?

It's the truth, isn't it.]

We have to fight. It's the only way.

[clearasmud]

Of course.

[ that they can agree on! ]

But there's more than one way of fighting. [ ... ] I know that best!

[icysemblance]

Exactly. Look what happened when Logan fought that thing, and he's familiar with them. I -

[She clenches her fists, banging her right one down on her podium.]

- It's suicide, and we've seen enough of that today.

[housenurse]

Exactly where we would've been anyway! At least this way we have a fighting chance!

[clearasmud]

We're down the man who could bring back everyone, when powered.

[ WHAT THE HELL, SUKUYO ]

[housenurse]

Mordecai-san isn't the only one who can do it! Once... Once we get past these shadows, once we get at Conductor-san, we'll have the powers of gods!

We can bring back whoever we want!

[clearasmud]

I know, Sukuyo. But Mordecai was our most easily accessible option.

[housenurse]

And now he's dead, and that's not something any of us can change right now.

... Work with us here, Youko-chan. This won't work unless we're all united on this!

[perpend]

There's another way.

There will always be another way.

[clearasmud]

We don't have to lie about what happened to be unified.

Of course I want Dynamic to fight and win. But if we don't talk about it - if we pretend things are better than what they are, raise them up - then this is going to HAPPEN AGAIN.

[withabigsmile]

Of course it's going to happen again. It's been happening for six weeks.

Our attitude won't change that.

[announcemyvictory]

She's right. All we've done, all we're doing, all we keep doing is risking more and more.