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

[modernmedicine]

I suppose it's best to start with the condition of Chiyuki's body. It was unusual in that it was more like a mannequin than a human body. There was evidence of an explosion near where her body was found. I believe that was the cause of death.

[neverheardofhim]

[Here's Varric, and he's brought the out of place bottles of alcohol down. At present, he's skeptical of what role they'll play but hell. If nothing else, they'll get him through another shadow murder.]

[tsugomori]

[ Well, here they are again. It's scary how these proceedings are slowly becoming routine, isn't it?

Anyway... ]

Well, let's get ourselves started off, shall we? Sharing our investigation results always proves to be helpful...

So, while I was looking around in the bar with a few others, I noticed that a bottle of alcohol and a cocktail glass was missing. Curious, isn't it?

[ Where in Carmen San Diego did those go off to? ]

[officerhops]

[Judy can't help but raise a brow at Varric when she sees him just...bringing bottles in.]

Either you have quite the evidence to present or you chose an interesting time to do a tasting, Varric.

[acherontiastyx]

Yeah, just rub it in, why don't you, like you had nothing to do with it at all.

[grumble, grumble.]

Right. So what do we got here. I didn't find anything.

[introspects]

So...those shards surrounding her body really were from Chiyuki-san...?

[quadruples]

...What? Chiyuki was a mannequin?

[ WHAT THE FUCK ]

[neverheardofhim]

[Varric lifts a bottle, the gin. At the very least, it'll draw attention to the rest of the alcohol, the blue curaçao and white sweet vermouth on his podium.]

All of these were out of place and had something taken from them too.

[officerhops]

A...a mannequin, doctor?

[WELL Judy almost regrets not going to where the body was, but not just through sheer, morbid curiosity.]

[plentyfriendly]

A mannequin? Was she a robot this whole time?

[An explosion, though...]

[feistytrader]

There was a pretty strong chemical smell in the room. The whole place was a mess, and one of the pool tables took a pretty hard hit.

But there was also this- [He holds up a broken cuestick-] and some broken... Pool balls.

[He's pretty sure that's not what they're called.]

None of them looked like they were part of the explosion.

[neverheardofhim]

Evidence, Officer, I promise. [And present it he does]

[modernmedicine]

It was a shock to me, as well. I had no idea.

[acherontiastyx]

...wait, so that freaky ghost story she told the first week we were here was about her?

[alchemicals]

Technically, he didn't. Yeah, he's pushing us, but if we do something stupid that's on us.

[modernmedicine]

They were the same kind of material, yes.

[feistytrader]

...That's what the bandages were for.

[He says that much, but he's a little reluctant to say anything more. It doesn't feel right to blurt out all of Chiyuki's secrets just because she died.]

[neverheardofhim]

[He's with the rest of the crew here.]

A mannequin? [It doesn't help that he... really doesn't know what that is.]

[modernmedicine]

A mannequin or a porcelain doll. I checked the inside of her body as best I could, and everything appeared hollow.

[oyashiromama]

[Hanyuu speaks up, first quiet but then voice raising.]

No, it... That wasn't her original body. It was a temporary one...so it makes sense it was like that.

[Like Silver she's hesitant to say much more.]

[uncouthhatcher]

She's a doll.

[... That's all. He looks uncomfortable saying it, but. She is. He's also notably at Silver's podium today, because though he promised Guzma to look after Lusamine, Watanuki and Silver are surrounded by death and that is not cool.]

So, well, fire's my damn specialty, see? And that explosions was definitely her cause of death -- there was an area of the room that looked like it'd been scorched, basically, not just some stream of it either. More like a big flare. I found some glass around there too, even in the walls.

[Which he will take out! of his... jacket pockets, very carefully, I'm sorry. Just a few.

It's notable that there's two kinds of glass he's setting out; a thinner one, that's certainly reminiscent of a cocktail glass base and a little of the connecting bottom, and pieces he arranges to show they've got a rounded shape.]

[iaspis]

That's....

[...]

I guess that makes sense, in a way.

[modernmedicine]

She must have been. I can understand why she wouldn't necessarily want that to be public knowledge.

[introspects]

Then...

[ Orihime reaches down onto the floor and pulls up her blazer. Inside of it are more shards. ]

The shards, they looked like this, right? I found these in the game room, underneath one of the tables.

[officerhops]

Goodness...

[That's. That's something that's what it is.]

Are you absolutely sure that was her, and not something planted by the killer to throw us off? I don't know where else on earth they could have hidden a body, but it's something to think about.

[Of course, Judy didn't see...her head.]