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

[sleepingkogoro]

[Mouri leaves the piece of metal on the podium, feeling a sense of accomplishment. He lifts his own nib pen in the air]

That piece came from a pen exactly like this one!

[This was it. The breakthrough that could lead to the trial's successful ending. Mouri looks at Yato]

You do have pens like these, don't you? Do you by chance have any of these here, right now?

[capyper]

I don't have anything like that with me right now, no. You can even check, if you want.

[sleepingkogoro]

[Mouri narrows his eyes. Of course it wouldn't be so easy.

Instead he directs it to everyone]

There's no mistake there was a pen in the Game Room at some point before Sonozaki-san died, but nothing like that was found there. The culprit must have taken it away with them, but why?

It's just a pen, I doubt anyone would have thought of comparing pens to that tiny piece of metal.

How can a pen have taken part of anything in this murder?

[happysweets]

Maybe Mion used it to wound the culprit!

[sleepingkogoro]

[Wound the culprit. Yes! Thank you, Misa]

That is it! Sonozaki-san could have wounded the culprit. The blood in the Game Room wasn't from her at all, it was the culprit's! A pen who caused a wound onto the culprit would have been an important clue. That would explain why one would get rid of it!

[capyper]

I'm not wounded. We've already established that. Really, if you're going to imply this and that without ever directly accusing me of anything... the least you could do is come up with better reasoning than that.

[cherryblooded]

...So you're just waiting for a direct accusation, is that it. I'll provide one, if no one else wants to.

Yato. Did you kill Mion, yes or no?

[capyper]

...

That's what you guys are here to figure out, isn't it?

But thank you for the directness, yes! I appreciate it.

[cherryblooded]

...You know, even if you didn't kill her I kind of want to punch you right now.

[ratingspoint]

Oh my god.

[Well, that's getting the slowest of claps out of Mettaton over here, holy shit.]

Well-played, darling, your passive-aggressiveness is absolutely breathtaking! At the same time, I'm not hearing a "no", which would be the easiest way to get out of all of this.

[sleepingkogoro]

You are not wounded right now. You did say you bled. You already said what was the difference between gods and humans, but it is nothing we can trust in a moment like this without seeing it by ourselves.

[The idea of repeating the method of the first trial does seem tempting to Mouri right now]

[capyper]

.... Okay, who's got the sword? Come over and cut me, I don't mind.

[sleepingkogoro]

...allow me.

[Mouri approaches but he is not bringing the sword. Instead he's bringing his own pen. The nib would be sharp enough to cause a wound deep enough to cause bleeding.

He doesn't expect a piece of it to break up like it happened to the pen in the Game Room, but he is hoping there'll be progress here.

As soon as Mouri is there he extends his hand, as if he expects Yato to just plop his arm there and let Mouri do it]

[garudynamic]

...no one was accusing you, Yato.

[amygdalae]

But if the the pen was used to injure anybody, wouldn't the metal itself be bloody?

[amygdalae]

Where did those pens come from? The vending machine?

[sleepingkogoro]

I did obtain mine from the vending machine. It's conceivable he has one or more.

He did already recognize it, he said that earlier when I took mine out. It's pretty obvious he must own one.

[amygdalae]

...that is the most logical conclusion, yes.

[prismbloom]

The friendship bracelet came from the vending machine, too, didn't it?

Is it possible that both items--the pen and the bracelet--belong to the culprit?

[amygdalae]

The possibility is there.

But we all have so many items from the machine by now it's hard to say who exactly has what.

[garudynamic]

Well, in some card games you have to keep score. So that's not that weird...

Though I thought all the pens could only say that one thing?

[cherryblooded]

That's a different kind of vending machine pen. These ones work - I have two myself.

[garudynamic]

Ohhh, got it. Then yeah, if they were playing something that had a score then it makes sense why one would be there.

[sleepingkogoro]

Maybe it was not for writing.

Maybe it was for betting. There was a friendship bracelet. What if the pen and the bracelet were bets?

[garudynamic]

... that makes sense. Hell, me and Cherryblod were talking about doing the same thing while playing poker a few days ago.