Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

The elevator doors slide open at the end of the allotted time for investigating, and the ride down is quick-paced and smooth; there's a lot more space in here than there was at the start of the game, that much is obvious. But then, perhaps that's to be expected with almost a third of your original number dead. The doors slide open when the courtroom is reached, the podium circle waiting as always in the middle of what still seems to be an endless dark void; Yato, Taichi and Megumi have joined the ranks of the dead, their podiums draped in black, greyscale portraits set upon them. Watching the proceedings. And as always, they aren't the only ones watching. The Kingmaker waits until everyone is settled at their podiums to begin speaking; it's still impossible to tell where his voice is coming from – other than, perhaps, 'everywhere.' "Protective has been taken from you. Looks like the guilty thought their secret was worth more than her life... Or maybe they just wanted out and decided to be the one to succeed at Rule Seven where everyone else has failed. Whether they succeed or not is up to you." Nineteen Survivors remain. How many are still alive at the end of the day is your decision.

Comments

[garudynamic]

Or maybe not- it's possible they just went to town on the bar in a fit. Like... if they regretted what they did. And went to the bar to get hammered.

[captainobnoxious]

If they regretted what they did, they should speak up. They know the cost by now.

[penduli]

And be executed? They'd still prefer to live, I'm sure.

[captainobnoxious]

It's a matter of honor.

[garudynamic]

Unless it was an accident or a, what, crime of passion? I doubt that's happening. If the there WAS a fight in the bar that means they knocked her out, took her to her room to stab her then went back, trailing the blood from the knife.

That's way too much intent at least after the fact, right?

[captainobnoxious]

[crime of passion.....]

... Yeah, it is. Oh, but we found it stuck in the wall. I forgot to mention that. It was nicely in there too.

[Considering, you know. What this place is.]

[garudynamic]

Between that and the piano the killer had to be pretty strong too.

[captainobnoxious]

So let's let all the beefy people strip.

[cherryblooded]

...Would you prefer I give you my alibi or just strip?

[amygdalae]

[Bruce takes a moment to glance at his own arms.]

...I don't think I count as 'beefy'.

[notjustawriter]

[There's really nothing beefy about Gabriel, he's of very average weight.

Does he have to....]

[uro_cyon]

Again?

[psychoh]

[man he's almost grateful for the mortification of last week if it spares him humiliation this time!

just leanin' on the podium bc he is a weak noodle man.]

[ratingspoint]

And what are we looking for with this, exactly?

Don't get me wrong, I want to see everyone undress again as much as the next person. But this isn't going to prove anything.

[ratingspoint]

That's more of a reason to not speak up, if you ask me. Speaking up now would mean she died for nothing, after all.

[captainobnoxious]

[Mrrrrr.]

Well-- Yeah, but I mean... Eh.

[She makes a wavy hand gesture.]

It's honor stuff. At least, if it was an accident, which it's mounting up not to be.

[ratingspoint]

...I think it's pretty safe to say that no one cares about honor around here, darling.

[garudynamic]

Especially considering Megumi was likely the easiest target here. Unless she was hiding something there's likely no way she could have fought back, so yeah, doubt it was any real fight.

[captainobnoxious]

[she really is the only honorable one here.]

It's nice to have hope sometime.

[pokexplorer]

That may be the case.

When I observed Miss Megumi's room, I did not see blood coming into the room, only leaving it. I'm not so sure she was up herself.

[garudynamic]

Yeah that's what I thought too. So we can probably assume the stabbing at least happened there for sure.

The blood wasn't dragged through or anything like that, just dripped.

[amygdalae]

The amount of blood in her room supports that, at least.

[There was a lot of blood, after all.]

From what I can tell - again - the blood isn't very fresh, so a fair bit of time had passed between the killing blows and us discovering the body.

[garudynamic]

So they would have plenty of time to get the incinerator heated up and to smash the bar. I really think they were either destroying some evidence or in a rage.

[captainobnoxious]

And it's just ashes in there, huh.

[... Sigrun sets the knife on her podium and fishes out her eye-bleedingly yellow envelope. It's been opened.]

What if it was just one of these? I know a couple of people were tossing theirs away earlier.

[sleepingkogoro]

Destroying evidence seems the most likely choice. The incinerator also takes a long time to heat up, so it must have been something of extremeimportance for the culprit to destroy proof that way.

There was some rigor mortis, her death did happen in middle of the night. The culprit had several hours to do it.