Take Responsibility.

[kingmakereffect]

And once the allotted time for investigating comes to a close, those elevator doors at the end of the first-floor corridor open up; the ride down is fast, smooth, and understandably tense as far as atmosphere goes. You're down to less than half of your original number. The doors slide open and the podium circle comes into view, standing stark against the black-walled courtroom and encircling that pit in the center; Misa and Aqua have joined the ranks of the deceased, photographs in greyscale watching the proceedings from their podiums draped in black. Of course and as always, the deceased aren't the only ones watching; the Kingmaker will make his presence known once everyone has settled at their podium, his voice sounding out through the room for all to hear. "Resilient has been taken from you. Maybe this time the guilty party will actually succeed at fulfilling Rule Seven, seeing as this is the sixth try and all. Whether they manage it is up to the rest of you." Thirteen Survivors remain. However many will be down by the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[trustharder]

[...Yosuke. Buddy. Pal. Speedwagon does have the toolkit right over th-

Okay, you know what, sure, go ahead and try to unscrew it. The battery's still there, though.]

[garudynamic]

[LOOK USUALLY THOSE THINGS DON'T HAVE TINY LITTLE SCREWDRIVERS OKAY look it's Yoosk he dumb]

Okay, so they didn't take out the battery.

[He pops it out and does a quick pat around for moisture and any obvious damage just in case before putting it down]

So something else fried it.

[trustharder]

[Yeah, it's. Kinda wet in there, I'm just a tool and somehow didn't note this, god I'm sorry]

[garudynamic]

[No worries bro]

Okay yeah, someone dunked this thing. It's a little brick, no way water would get in it unless it was submerged... and they didn't close her door so no way they were trying to keep us out.

I was thinking, I wonder if the killer was trying to hide something on her phone?

[cherryblooded]

What would he have to hide on there? It's not as though any of his own conversations are there.

[garudynamic]

Probably not, though I guess they could have talked to the KM with it during the murder if they didn't want us sniffing around theirs. But that's a stretch... maybe hiding something Aqua was talking about? It's the only real reason to fry the thing.

[sleepingkogoro]

Hey. Do me a favor and smell it.

Check if it smells like hydrogen peroxide.

[Just in case]

i love paging mods so much

[garudynamic]

Huh? Oh, sure thing.

[Snort electronics Yosuke, just do it]

[trustharder]

[It...sort of does? In a weird residual sort of way that might imply someone was handling hydrogen peroxide and then the phone, not in a "this was straight-up submerged in that stuff because somebody was trying to bleach their phone for some inexplicable reason" sort of way.]

[garudynamic]

Yeah, a little. But not a lot. So they might had smelly hands while working on it.

[While he has the thing open he looks around to see if the phone has a SIM card or other memory storage he can take out. He doubts it, with how secretive the KM is, but you never know!]

[trustharder]

[It does not.]

[garudynamic]

[Oh really... does it look like it *should* and was removed, or just isn't part of the phone at all?]

[trustharder]

[Just not part of the phone design! Sorry, bro.]

[garudynamic]

[Good to know, but like I said, he didn't expect much else]

[pokexplorer]

[Huh! Well that came up again quicker than he thought it would.]

If anything, it tells us that someone actually used the peroxide...though not necessarily on the device, of course.

[amygdalae]

That means that the restroom is heavily tied in to what might have happened.

[sleepingkogoro]

Yes, it seems it wasn't a red herring of sorts.

Now that I think about it, the location fot the peroxide is worth noting. It was found in a women's restroom, wasn't it? Could it be possible the location was some sort of...framing attempt against the last female person among us?

[Either that or Aqua for some reason went to a bathroom to use peroxide for something. That doesn't seem likely]

[garudynamic]

Yeah, but we know Sigrun wouldn't know enough about phones to know how to kill it.

[captainobnoxious]

If you dunk anything electric into water it dies.

[SHE KNOWS THAT MUCH.]

[garudynamic]

Okay, fair enough.

[cherryblooded]

Either that, or they for some reason thought we would refuse to go in the women's restroom during a murder investigation just because most of us are men.

[As though he'd avoid it just because of a reason like that.]

[isafraid]

Or it was the closest place to hide some evidence?

[....But Speedwagon is a gentleman, just saying.]

[sleepingkogoro]

Eide-san also pointed the place smelled of peroxide. The culprit most likely used it there. What I'm not sure is what for, because it doesn't seem to have been to damage electronics or clean wounds. If it was to clean the murder weapon I don't think they would have bothered to make so many false clues.

It wouldn't be possible for anyone here to guess the weapon just from looking at the wounds unless the weapon left distinctive wounds.

[Maybe he got too tangled in his words?]

What I mean to say is that the peroxide's use may be something vital to deduce in this case.

[captainobnoxious]

[Wow, she upgraded to possible framing. You have come a long way since implying her for murder the first round.]

Maybe. I mean, I do like the music room too, it's one of my favorite places to be.

... Or, well, was.

[garudynamic]

Yeah, but they definitely used it in a way that woulda gotten on their skin.