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

[wokeupdead]

[ . . . ]

OH! YOU'RE RIGHT!

[oops looks like Yosuke just reminded her of something important.]

There was washed out blood pooled at the bottom of the sinks in the art room! They totally cleaned something off in there!

[garudynamic]

They could have washed up.

...though I would think they'd wash up the murder weapon too.

[wokeupdead]

Was the sword clean? What else would someone wash in a sink at the scene of the crime?

[garudynamic]

No, it was bloody. But if they had the time to wash themselves it's weird they didn't wash that too instead of tossing it in the incinerator.

[wokeupdead]

Was there a point to leaving it dirty? Maybe the cleaned whatever they used to hit her head?

Or something else entirely we didn't find.

[garudynamic]

The only reason I can think is if it's not the real murder weapon, but a plant. But that's a stretch . So we can probably assume it was just themselves until we have more clues.

[capyper]

I think you're wrong, actually! The killer was trying to make Mion's cause of death less obvious, right? So they would've needed to clean up the wound.

... Oh, and there was also, like... a ton of blood on the floor at some point, right?

[ratingspoint]

[...]

So they washed her off. That's what you're suggesting?

[dios mio why]

[garudynamic]

Yeah, that makes sense!

[capyper]

It's either the wound or the blood puddle, if you ask me. In fact, why not both?

[wokeupdead]

I guess this just points to the importance of the strip search.


...Except we aren't finding any injuries here.

[penduli]

...unless the injuries aren't on anyone's torsos? [ Maybe it's the legs or something. ]

Also, if Mion was knocked out, what caused that? I don't remember hearing of anyone finding a weapon that could've done the job, unless they... I don't know, hit her head against a table or something...

[ratingspoint]

The pommel of the sword, maybe. The non-business end. Backhanding her with it would have done well enough.

[wokeupdead]

I lot of things were knocked over in the art room. It's not too hard to assume she got knocked into something during a struggle.

[You know, expect for the fact that she has no bruises except for the ones on her head.]

[penduli]

You'd think she would've had more bruises if that was the case. [ Hmm. ] Mettaton's probably right that it could've been the sword's pommel that did the job.

[ignorantly]

Are we going to end up stripping to our underwear... [ I mean, if somebody has an injury on their legs... ]

[penduli]

[ SORRY, SHIRAZU... ]

We could probably just get everyone to roll up their pants or something. [ People with skirts are excused, we can see your legs just fine. Unless you have stockings, roll those things down. ] ...the whole strip-search thing might be a total waste of time in general though. It's certainly seemed that way so far.

[cherryblooded]

[The sword, which presumably Sigrun still has? is bloody.]

Not the sword, and not the blanket, so maybe their own injuries...?