Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And after a given amount of time, those elevator doors at the end of the first-floor corridor open up; as it was last week, the ride down is smooth and quick-moving, even if there are less of you this week. (Technically, you're only down by one in the elevator; Bruce has ensured that Pearl is with you in some way, albeit unconventionally and by the grace of Ziploc.) However, when the doors open up to the podium circle standing in the middle of that black void of a courtroom, there's no mistaking the fact that there are fewer people present than there were last week – Kamui and Pearl have joined those with podiums draped in black, their framed profile portraits watching the proceedings in shades of grey. It's still impossible to tell exactly where the Kingmaker is watching the proceedings from, though it's obvious that he is; he'll wait until everyone is settled before he speaks, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "Devoted has been taken from you. All of you know what the stakes are now, but this happened anyway – looks like someone's determined. Whether they succeed or not is up to you." Twenty-four Survivors remain. We'll see how many are still standing by the end of the day.

Comments

[lackinginfaith]

So let's hope we have all the evidence down here, then.

[cherryblooded]

Ah, there's one other thing we have - we discovered white clothing fibers on Pearl's...pieces.

Detective Mouri put a few of them in his handkerchief.

[Good job, detective.]

[sleepingkogoro]

Indeed! I have brought some here.

We could use them to compare to the clothes we may be wearing right now, although it won't be easy just with our eyes. Thankfully our options for clothing are rather limited, so it is possible the culprit has the same clothes than in the moment of the crime.

[garudynamic]

Or they used something white to carry the pieces to the stairs... but I doubt anyone grabbed anything white from the sewing room to compare?

[sleepingkogoro]

I went there but I found nothing to report. Besides most of the fabrics there are of those garish neon colors.

[garudynamic]

Okay, that helps. If it was something grabbed at random it likely wouldn't be white. SO we can probably assume it was worn.

[prismbloom]

I did find a towel in the storage room. It didn't belong there--and when I went to the laundry room, there seemed to be a missing towel.

[garudynamic]

Wait, really?! Do you still have it?

[prismbloom]

[ OF COURSE SHE DOES

She pulls that out to show. She also has a towel from the storage room, and one from the laundry room. (They're marked, ftr.) ]

See? This is what I found in the storage room. It's slightly different than the ones that are usually found there.

[prismbloom]

Unless our culprit is very good at sewing--remember, one of the rooms we found after last week's trial is a sewing room, with many options for fabric.

[capyper]

Uh... just wondering, but were the fibers more... on top of the pieces? Or mixed in with them? If it was possible to tell...

[cherryblooded]

On top of the pieces, if I remember right.

[lackinginfaith]

Like they were snagged by them?

[cherryblooded]

Like that.

[notjustawriter]

Was some kind of cloth used to clean up the scene? Why would you bother, if there's no body?

[cherryblooded]

Why would you bother moving her remains if she'll be discovered either way? It's not as though the stairwell is particularly hidden.

It's possible there's something about the actual crime scene that made the culprit want us to think the murder happened elsewhere.

[sleepingkogoro]

They were mixed with them! The chances of they being a red herring of any type is very low.

[capyper]

I see! So judging by the fact that there was a struggle somewhere else... maybe the fabric got on them if the killer moved the pieces...?

[pokexplorer]

That could be. There were other pieces in the Laundry Room, correct? Were there any fibers on those?

[He looks to Yosuke since he reported about those.]

[garudynamic]

Not that I saw.

[pokexplorer]

I see. That could mean that the culprit moved the pieces to the stairwell which may have caused the transfer of fibers...or vice versa, if they chose to bring some to the laundry room to wash down. Though the latter seems a bit more tedious.

[garudynamic]

...!

You... think they might be a plant?

[capyper]

Could be, I guess! But there are other ways that fibers could've ended up on the pieces after they were already broken. I was just tryin' to figure out when the pieces got there.

[garudynamic]

Yeah, point. Hell, if anyone was wearing white already it could just be transfer.

[capyper]

That seems pretty likely at this point.

[ ... Guess who's wearing white ceremonial robes, haha. ]

Well, I'm not the killer here, but you can check my robes. No tears or anything, I promise!