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

[isafraid]

Not unless we're planning on giving the whole room a pat down for whatever they've got!

[Might be difficult, considering how some of them aren't even human.]

[sleepingkogoro]

I gave up on that some time ago.

[ratingspoint]

Correct, darling! If I were going to stab someone, I would go for the chest or the face or something - somewhere that would make sure they died when I killed them. The most I know about humans otherwise is that they bleed if you poke them hard enough.

[...Buddy.]

[garudynamic]

I think so, but someone in a rush might not have remembered. Or cared. But it's just as likely they just ran out of time and intended to come back and turn everything on after they were done cleaning.

[capyper]

Yep, no two ways about that! My cute Yukine turns into a pair of hiltless swords. They're really beautiful too, on a whole other level than anything the Kingmaker could come up with.

[isafraid]

If there's not, then someone using them can only be so lucky.

[He would know.]

[notjustawriter]

Thanks for the confirmation. I appreciate it.

[he never doubted you, shrimpdad]

[cherryblooded]

[You're lucky he knows this about you and isn't surprised anymore.]

[capyper]

Well, A plus for effort, detective!

[cherryblooded]

I'm sure they are.

[Incidentally, does Yato have pockets on anything he's wearing right now?]

[sleepingkogoro]

To try to make it look like a suicide, I suppose. Nobody would think somebody with a hole on their chest - visible in plain sight- died by hanging, not even for a moment.

[That would have been an even worse attempt than the one found right now]

It was a pretty bad cover-up but there was an attempt. Finding the wound on the thigh needed some examination.

[penduli]

The neck would be the first place to think about cutting if you were going for blood. That's how you drain the blood out of a sheep after you kill it--it helps with preserving the meat.

[ He never helped with that part of the life cycle, but uh. Yeah. ]

[capyper]

[ He does not! He's back in his ceremonial robes for the trial, given that his low-effort yukata is... a little casual for something like this. ]

[cherryblooded]

This is mostly out of curiosity, but since you don't have pockets right now, where do you have your own key?

[isafraid]

At this rate both can be possible. That blasted machine tends to spit out horrible weapons at us whenever it likes, doesn't it?

[capyper]

You're really asking me to give away some serious secrets!

[ He gives his right sleeve a shake and out tumbles... his key and some of those nice candies you can find in the kitchen. ]

[cherryblooded]

Oh, I see. Good idea.

Do you have more of those in your left sleeve?

[captainobnoxious]

Got it.

[It's a shame, this is a pretty nice sword. She weighs it in her hand a moment before pointing at the gory blanket with it.]

So was that really used to clean up the blood, or just to catch the blood when they cut her leg? Because we usually have something to catch livestock blood since it tends to be, well, everywhere.

[ignorantly]

That'd make sense. I was kinda thinking that they knocked her out, and then took her key to get the sword from her room so they could kill her with it, but that doesn't seem likely... [ He's just throwing whatever comes to mind out there. He's not good at this stuff. ]

[captainobnoxious]

[Yeah. That's her boy.]

Guess there's no real reason to preserve her though since everyone's still really against the idea of cannibalism for survival.

[capyper]

... Just for you, I'll share this once!

[ And out comes... man, how many candies is he hiding? Like five more candies out of his left sleeve. ]

What color do you want?

[prismbloom]

She must not have been-- suspended for too long if the only bruising was on her head, correct?

[cherryblooded]

Red, if you don't mind.

Thank you for indulging me.

[At least if he's the killer, he's not stupid enough to have an extra key still on his person.]

[goodforsomething]

If they were plannin' it anyway, they could've just got a knife from the kitchen beforehand. Or anything else, there's a lotta ways to kill someone without a sword.

[captainobnoxious]

[-- Sigrun sees that.]

Oh! Oh oh oh! Me! I want one! Let me have one! I want a blue one! Me! Lemme have one, fancy toes!