Take Responsibility.

[wordsmithery]

The ride up to the courtroom occurs, as before, after an allotted period of time for investigation; the elevator waits patiently for you at each floor - third, second, first - before sending you upwards and on your way to the courtroom high above. As always, the trip is a smooth one; granted, after everything that the morning had been, any small comfort that fact may bring is likely not helping much. There are three less of you this time around, a fact reflected in the podium circle standing in the middle of the room; Alani, Milla and Chiyuki have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black and their portraits in greyscale keeping a watchful eye over the rest of the trial circle. There's still no one present in the lectern above; however, once everyone has found their place in the circle, the Wordsmith's voice can be heard throughout the room. "I can see that matters are beginning to seem dire for you, Apprentices. I am sure that you all cared for Sympathetic in some measure—all except the guilty party. And now it falls to you once again to determine who that is. For your own sake as well as Sympathetic's, hold her killer accountable and have them take responsibility for their actions." Twenty-four Apprentices remain. We'll see how many remain at the end of the day.

Comments

[introspects]

It's...possible they did fight, actually; I found some of Chiyuki-san's shards in the game room, so that might be a sign of a struggle that may have happened before the explosion...

[avoidcomplications]

Ah, that's right--I did happen to see some paint flakes on the floor in there as well. They could have had an altercation in there first, followed by Chiyuki fleeing to the pool hall.

[introspects]

Paint flakes...

[ ... ] So... Maybe the damaged pool stick was used by Chiyuki-san out of self-defense; caused the bruising; and the killer used the cold pack to ice it down?

[avoidcomplications]

That sounds reasonable to me.

[oyashiromama]

But... That explosion, it- it had to have been planned. Could the culprit have meant to use it in the game room, and...Chiyuki delayed it?

[introspects]

That's true... Maybe the culprit could have left the shards and the paint there after the explosion happened instead.

[foundfate]

The pool stick was in the billiards room, right? What if it went like this: the killer and Chiyuki fought in the game room first, and Chiyuki got hurt there. She tried to run, and she ran right into the billiards room, which is where a bomb was. Which then exploded and killed her. The killer then let the pool stick in the billiards room to make it seem like it got damaged in the explosion, rather than in a fight.

Does that sound possible?

[neverheardofhim]

Sounds like the killer would have had to rely on too much chance. There's more than exit from the Game Room.

[quadruples]

Exactly. If I were Chiyuki I would head for the stairs and not the billiards room.

[foundfate]

I guess that depends on if the killer had planted the bomb in the billiards room, or if he was carrying it and threw it into the billiards room after Chiyuki ran in there.

Also, depending on how they were standing in the game room, she might have been forced to go up into the billiards room to get away from the killer.

[feistytrader]

...What if she was knocked out?

[It's... Not a perfect theory, but here he goes anyway.]

The killer left the explosive chemical stuff in the billiards room, because they didn't want to risk it exploding. Then later, after hanging out with Chiyuki in the game room, they knocked her out, dragged her back into the room, and threw it at her.

[foundfate]

Why not just leave her in the game room and blow up the game room, then? It's a lot easier to just walk over, grab a bomb, and throw it than it is to drag her over, take the bomb, walk back to the other room, and then throw it.

[feistytrader]

[...That's a good point.]

But she couldn't have fled to the billiards room, right? At the same time, something happened in the game room, because her shards and paint flakes are in there.

[Damn. What the hell?]

[avoidcomplications]

Why blow up anything at all?

[thus spoke the neat freak]

It doesn't make sense. Surely they would have known the scene would be discovered regardless.

[foundfate]

Maybe a frame-job?

[He's not saying that Kimbley generally looks like a guilty motherfucker, but.

Kimbley generally looks like a guilty motherfucker.]

[avoidcomplications]

...Or maybe that was just their specialty.

[kimbley usually does look like some measure of guilty motherfucker.]

[neverheardofhim]

I think Kimbles is too smart for that. He would have known that all eyes would be on him.

[foundfate]

If I were known for something specifically, I would probably take extra care to not use that way to kill someone.

[It's safe everyone, you'll never have your food poisoned by Watanuki.]

No, this is probably someone who knows about chemicals, but has been keeping it quiet.

[alchemicals]

If you've got something to say, Kira, go ahead and say it. You're not going to hurt my feelings any.

[feistytrader]

Probably to frame Lord Explosions.

[avoidcomplications]

That's an unimaginable risk to take just to frame someone. As I said--they would have to know what they were doing with a chemical like that.

[feistytrader]

So someone knows more about chemicals than they let on. It's only been three weeks. It's not like we all intimately know every detail about each other.

[quadruples]

Maybe they wanted to destroy evidence?

[foundfate]

That might not have been enough to stop her from running? Unless it was Varric or Judy or Nick who did this- which I sincerely doubt, by the way- whoever attacked her probably would have been tall enough to hit her on the upper part of her body. That wouldn't keep her from running unless it knocked her out entirely.

Actually, were there any spots on her that looked like they had been damaged before the explosion?

[tsugomori]

[ ... ]

That's a little odd.

[ His eyebrows furrow, but he'll accept the explanation for now. He probably is just a little slow at following. ]