Take Responsibility.

[antitrust]

After a while, 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; it's not as bad as it was last week, but again, there are decidedly fewer of them than there were last time. The podium circle has changed once again, with Rick, Tabby and Sukuyo joining the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped with black cloth and adorned with greyscale photographs. The shadows are quiet down in the darkness of the pit; for the time being, it's hard to say what the pit itself looks like after the explosion last week. One way or another, we'll find out by the end of the day. As usual, the proceedings are being watched from behind that panel of glass behind podium 30; he'll speak as soon as everyone has found their place in the circle. "Familial has been taken from you. Regardless of what her affiliation was – whether she was with me or the lot of you – you know what you have to do by now. 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." Ten Participants remain. However many more we lose today is up to you.

Comments

[blazeit]

[ He'll wait for Jean to pass it to him before making further commentary, but he's already got something to add! ]

I searched her room and found a note there too. There were two weird things about it, the first that it was crumbled up and shoved under all the blankets on her bed.

It was a letter to the Conductor. Couldn't tell what she was trying to say, though, it got cut off.

[announcemyvictory]

To the Conductor? Do the notes match at all? Handwriting-wise, like when we were checking the petitions.

CONDUCTOR

[blazeit]

I'll give it a look.

[ Well, Jean's right next to Bakugou, so I'll assume Jean passed the note his way and he's got both in his hands.

Any concrete similarities? His note is really short, after all... ]

[antitrust]

[In terms of handwriting, they match.]

[blazeit]

... The notes match.

[ He frowns and pauses for a moment, passing the very... chirpy suicide note on, he'll hang onto the note from her room. ]

But I think there's a possibility somebody could've forced her to write the one in the dining hall.

[openterrain]

Or that the same person, who isn't Sukuyo, wrote both.

[blazeit]

I'm willing to bet the note in her room is actually hers. I found it crumpled and underneath the blankets of her bed, and besides her chair being fallen over, there wasn't a sign of a fight.

... That's right, though. Hey, Susan, did the body have any bruising on it? I was wondering if maybe she fell over on her chair.

[ninehundredlives]

There was a little on her face, but...it didn't really look like she'd gotten in a fight, or fallen, or anything like that. It looked like someone had done this a bit too hard.

[She demonstrates on herself, reaching up to grab her face and turn it to the side.]

That was all. She died peacefully...

[blazeit]

So maybe something happened in her room.

... Just checking, but was there a pen by her letter in the dining hall?

[icysemblance]

Can I take a look at the letter that was on her bed?

[blazeit]

[ He'll pass it on! All it says is:

Dear Conductor-san,

I qui ]

There's... a whole lot of ways that sentence could've gone, so I didn't really want to. You know. Jump to conclusions.

[icysemblance]

I don't want to put words in her mouth, but do you think she was trying to say 'quit'? If she had been working with him, maybe she had just had enough.

[announcemyvictory]

But that doesn't match up with the time at all, don't you think?

[icysemblance]

The fact that we didn't know who these supposed moles were until Tuesday, or something else I'm missing with the time?

[announcemyvictory]

Precisely. Just-- just think about it! The mole had already become "useless" to the Conductor at least three or four days ago. Any resignation letter would've already been written and sent. There's no reason why she'd have an unfinished one in her room!

[openterrain]

Unless she decided to start the letter over again. Telling this maniac you quit spying for him wouldn't exactly be easy.

[blazeit]

Like I said, I didn't wanna jump to conclusions... but the mole quit before Tuesday. Why would she be sleeping with the note under the covers with her for a couple of days after that?

It's really hard to tell, I don't think we should try and guess what she meant. The important thing is the handwriting in the notes match.

[withabigsmile]

...There's one more thing that's wrong with the letters.

[blazeit]

Wanna share with the class, or should I be trying to figure it out for myself?

[withabigsmile]

Sukuyo wasn't the mole.

[ninehundredlives]

It could have been faked, like with the Inspector. Did Sukuyo leave a lot of writing in the petitions or anywhere?

[Susan kind of...stopped paying attention to those after a while.]

[blazeit]

No, I don't think the one I found is faked, because of where I found it... crumpled up and underneath, the blankets of her bed.

[icysemblance]

That's a good point. Maybe she'd been wanting to quit sooner and this was a draft of a note?

Mm. Probably not.

[ninehundredlives]

I doubt she'd feel the need to sleep with it.

[icysemblance]

You're probably right.