Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

For the third time, those elevator doors at the end of the first-floor corridor open up at the end of the allotted investigation period; the ride down is, as ever, smooth and quick-moving. You're down by five. When the doors slide open, the podium circle still stands in stark contrast to that now-familiar black void of a courtroom, and once again, it's changed to reflect your losses – Caren and Mion have joined those with podiums draped in black, their framed greyscale profile portraits staring out at the rest of you. (The portrait of Pearl hasn't been removed from her room, but it seems the Kingmaker has replaced it with another; either way, her photograph is in the courtroom along with the rest.) As before, the Kingmaker waits until everyone is settled at their podiums before he speaks; he still isn't visible, but he can clearly be heard, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "Capable has been taken from you. I'll confirm one thing for you so no one will waste time asking – the killer wasn't me. Looks like the guilty decided to take a shot at Rule Seven after all – and whether they succeed or not is up to you." Twenty-two Survivors remain. We'll see how many the group has lost at the end of the day.

Comments

[capyper]

[ he cares so much now take your shirt off ]

[notjustawriter]

I think it's likely the killer was lookin' for something.

[cherryblooded]

That would hold up with the mess - most people would try to hide whatever weapons they got out of the vending machine.

[ratingspoint]

...If the sword was Mion-darling's, why couldn't she have been the one who brought it?

[cherryblooded]

Most people don't carry around large, obvious weapons they're not intending to use.

...Unless they were gambling?

[sleepingkogoro]

[Mouri scowls. Dang it, stop making him think!]

I-It would be the same, unless she could think of an excuse to drag a sword around I think anyone would get suspicious of that. A sword is not the first choice for self-defense weapons.

[capyper]

You don't think she could've been intending to use it?

[garudynamic]

Yeah, there wasn't enough blood there.

[garudynamic]

To use the sink maybe?

[notjustawriter]

Maybe it was Mion's, but the killer got it from the machine instead.

They offered to give it back to her if she won a game of cards.

[cherryblooded]

If she was planning on using it from the start, then there'd be no point in playing cards first. Anyway, I'm sure her opponent would get suspicious if she didn't have a legitimate reason to have it there.

[wokeupdead]

...Would someone normally bet a sword?

[I mean it's nicely made. It's probably expensive.]

MOD PAGING

[cherryblooded]

That's a possibility...

[Cherryblod's gotten a couple Double-edged Swords out of the machine already. How close a match is the murder weapon?]

[ratingspoint]

Exactly! Mion liked penalty games, whatever those were - isn't it possible that she and her killer were playing a betting game of some sort?

Lose and you die. It's simple, right? I mean, it's also really "who the hell does that", but look at Zagi and Kamui and tell me someone in this group wouldn't think to do it.

[happysweets]

Do you think maybe she got something from the machine that the killer wanted?

[cherryblooded]

What else is useful here? Money is worthless.

[notjustawriter]

Yeah. That's what I'm thinkin'.

[capyper]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but... the bloodstains weren't near the cards, right?

So that means the bloodstains weren't there before Mion died.

[cherryblooded]

I don't know if Mion was the type to do that, except -

The motive. We'd already thrown out the idea of competing to see which of us should be sacrificed. Mion might have thought her chances were better with a game than with a tournament.

[capyper]

You're assuming what any one of us would find weird or not weird when we're... well. When we are all very unique beings?

[ ... we're all weirdos is what he's getting at. ]

[cherryblooded]

...Can't argue with that one.

[ratingspoint]

See! There you go.

So it's possible the sword did belong to Mion after all.

[shitdamn, he is proud of himself.]

[sleepingkogoro]

Then what, Sonozaki-san regretted taking part in that because she lost, they somehow got to the Art Room and she was knocked out there?

[trustharder]

[An exact match.]

[cherryblooded]

But in that case, what's the mess in Mion's room for? They took her key and rummaged around in her room to do... what, exactly?

There wasn't anything like a fake suicide note, was there?