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

[amygdalae]

[Well.

Here we go.

He knows that this will hurt - and it will hurt. But they have to do this. There's no way to turn back.]

A wouldn't apply because she most likely didn't attack you back in the first place.

[Not to mention that while yes, she did put up with a struggle, all there are on her are injuries on her.]

[captainobnoxious]

Shut up! He wouldn't have in the first place!

[amygdalae]

I don't want to believe it either, Captain. But there's too many suspicious clues stacked up against him right now.

Either we clear this up right now or let this mistake spell the end of us.

[ratingspoint]

BZZT! Wrong!

[...He just made the fucking noise, god help us, he just made the fucking noise.]

From what it sounded like, her body showed clear signs of a fight that spanned a lot of the room. Think again! Do you really want to try to tell me that she didn't fight back?

[garudynamic]

But wait, you're made of metal- even if she did would it even hurt you?!

[amygdalae]

She was injured, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she had been fighting.

There was a giant bruise on her left shoulder. In all likelihood, she was merely defending herself. That would explain why her right side was more significantly bruised in the first place; she was using her right to defend.

[ratingspoint]

Wrong again! You're really bad at this, aren't you?

Here's the thing: Rooms don't end up trashed like that if the fight is one-sided.

[amygdalae]

They would be if she was using the instruments to hinder you.

[Some of them were pretty big, after all.]

[isafraid]

Plenty of things lying around to distract someone with in there.

[....course, half of them are broken now.]

[notjustawriter]

That's right.

Aqua would never strike first.

[ratingspoint]

Answer this for me, then! Why does it matter who struck first?

A. It doesn't!
B. It doesn't!
C. It doesn't!
D. It doesn't!

What matters is that it obviously became a fight, not who made it that way in the first place!

[notjustawriter]

What matters is Aqua is dead and you're the prime suspect.

[ratingspoint]

And that's a shame for all of us, because I maintain that I couldn't have done it.