THE SECOND TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE SECOND TRIAL

[Soon after the failed attempt to contact the dead, the tell-tale alarm suddenly rings out, rattling everyone's teeth alongside Marie's voice.]

ATTENTION! EMERGENCY ALERT! PLEASE GO TO THE ELEVATORS IMMEDIATELY!! HMHMHMMM! I WILL NEVER GET TIRED OF SAYING THAT...!

[And so, once again, the elevators bring everyone back down to the trial room, where the table has been...altered, slightly, color-wise, to reflect those who are no longer among you. And once more, upon entering the force field, weapons disappear - and powers fail to work.

Bottson hops up onto the center of the table, transmitting the evidence found.]

heRe yOU Are eVerYBOdy! THe sUsPECt lISt!



YoU cAN Do THiS!


[Above everyone once more is Marie, floating around in her hover platform.]

WELL, WELL! FANCY MEETING YOU ALL HERE AGAIN! I GUESS YOU ALL FAILED TO KEEP THAT GUY ALIVE, HUH?? AHAHAHA!!

WELL, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN GET WHO DID IT THIS TIME, HMM??

Comments

[crouching_sin]

[... Ugh, really? Naoya leans against his platform and sighing. He does not feel awake enough for this.]

Whatever.

[leftthelighton]

You are awfully cool tempered for someone being accused of murder, Mister Naoya. What is your alibi?

[vividsins]

[ Well that sure as fuck is him up there. He looks vaguely annoyed. ]

Well. I've nothing to hide. I had no reason to kill him, especially for a motive as stupid as this, and I certainly wouldn't have killed someone in the only bath in this place that doesn't require one to jump through hoops. My power already makes me temporarily invulnerable, and Rosenkreuz was perhaps one of the most useful and smart people here. But go ahead and ask any questions of me you would.

[losergod]

I think we should start by asking how flexible you are, considering, if you'll take a look at my pictures, Mister Rosenkreuz was clearly kicked in the face.

[mementodagger]

[No... no no no, Nagisa is on the list again. Jonathan, too. Yurick wants to scream.

Somehow he keeps his outward demeanor calm but stern.]

Let's get this over with.

[earietale]

[...no one else is asking so I guess Barbara has to.]

Okay, then I don't suppose you have an alibi for when it happened?

[losergod]

[ Oh screw you, Marie. He looks really upset when she says that, sucking in a breath, but tries to ignore her. Moving on. ]

I think we should start with the body. When I examined it, I found blood on his shoulder. A few drops, and it was the only place I located any blood. There were no wounds of any kind on Mister Rosenkreuz, I checked thoroughly. No cuts, nothing like that. It's likely this blood belonged to our perpetraitor. I think we might want to begin by examining that avenue.

There were some other things of interest--mainly, he appeared to have been holding several somethings, using his powers. I found a few arms fallen off nearby in the water. Whatever it was was decently sized, that's about all I can tell you.

[toushiro]

Any idea what those "several somethings" are?

[theserpentsmiles]

There were several knives on the floor in the arcade; one of them was bloody. We might be looking for a knife wound.

[theserpentsmiles]

Again?

[Seriously? Oh well...]

I ran to the onsen alongside a lot of other people. I was in my room until then. [His roommate is also a suspect, though, so...probably not all that reliable for an alibi.]

[losergod]

I'm sorry, Mister Shiota...

[mementodagger]

I know you didn't do this, Nagisa. Despite what you told me before, you wouldn't kill again without reason. At the very least, you're not tall enough to have delivered a kick to the victim's face.

[backuphero]

Again. Both of us.

[backuphero]

[Jonathan's jaw drops at the sight of the suspect list, but he shuts his mouth quickly enough that his teeth click.

Oh. There's his anger, just when he'd been getting so good at pushing it aside. Hello, old... friend. Haven't seen you in a few days. He won't let himself be violent, not here, but...]

Let me guess: it's because the robe I found was red, isn't it.

[Bitter sarcasm with a look of absolutely murderous loathing aimed at their esteemed hostess, on the other hand... that, he can do. Better to fight than to just roll over and bare your throat, right?]

[commandurr]

WHAT, IS THERE ANOTHER REASON YOU SHOULD BE ON THE LIST?? LIKE MAYBE YOU DID IT?? AHAHAHA!!

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya, who's directly across from him, shrugs.]

Possibly. Where were you exactly when the murder happened?

[It's nothing personal, he just has to ask.]

[fashionfever]

That pile of knives we found probably belonged to Rosenkreuz.

Someone besides Rosenkreuz was injured with a sharp object.
The scalpel didn't have even a trace of blood on it.
The knives are the only other sharp object we found.
Rosenkreuz practiced a lot using his multiple arms and knives.

And why would the murderer strip a television, keep a scalpel around, and bring so many knives?

That "saboteur" probably took the knives into the arcade. The one Akira was talking about. There wasn't really a fight in the arcade - it's not where the stripped television was, and it's not where Rosenkreuz successfully drew blood. Someone probably left the crime scene soaking wet with that robe and the damp washcloth - but a different suspicious person might be the one who left the crime scene in the elevator, and that person mostly just removing the knives makes perfect sense. We already know adding knives is that guy's MO, it's the next step.

[vividsins]

To be fair, the scalpel was in the water. But you're right. The scalpel is more a culprit for stripping the wires. Speaking of which, someone wanted that water electrified badly. Not only did they strip the television, they seem to have added extra stripped wire.

[tiefleaf]

...this is getting ridiculous. Ask me anything.

[backuphero]

You... before here, you weren't familiar with the kind of machines we've got here, right?

time for a wound check

[losergod]

[ Clearing his throat to get attention. ]

... All right, look. We know the killer was injured very recently and bled. Which means someone among us must have an injury to match.

... We should check the suspects for wounds that might match the knife with blood on it. And that might mean removing clothes... I'm sorry.

[vividsins]

[ Baku's clear. No wounds here! You know, like he said. So basically ya'll got the handsome young man demon to strip. Way to go. ]

WOUND CHECK PART II

[fashionfever]

Okay, so Baku is saying that maybe the blood didn't come from the only cut we found so far, that it was """faked""". That means it could come from a saboteur that wasn't on the suspect list.

[As she speaks with clipped tones, she methodically strips until she's in underwear, clean.]

I'm putting my money where my mouth is. If we don't find any cuts like this, we're back to the theory it was Molly, which is a totally plausible self defense case where he didn't have anything on hand at the time and just kicked the victim.

[losergod]

... No. I'm not undressing.

[ NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. ]

[commandurr]

[UH WHY ARE PEOPLE STRIPPING]

OH MY GOD!! WHAT IS GOING ON!!? HAVE YOU FOOLS FIGURED OUT ANYTHING!?! OR ARE YOU JUST BEING NAKED IDIOTS!?!?

[mementodagger]

[Now that everyone is properly shocked, Yurick is calmly getting dressed again.]

Blame Angela, she wanted us to disrobe.

Herding cats

[vividsins]

All right. So. We're near to solving this. I can tell that much. We're down to Mister Naoya and Mister Molly. Both have a decent amount of evidence against them, and so we've reached an impasse. Naoya rooms alone now, so he had opportunity, he faked the kick, and he also has the ability and know-how to strip the wires. Molly has the cut and his weird blood magic that isn't working, but supposedly has an alibi. Neither of them were present at the scene of death. That's largely where we stand now.

[ He's putting his clothes back on, sorry. ]

Is there anything else anyone can think of?

[mementodagger]

If the killer is the one that set up the electricity, then it would have to be Naoya. If Rosenkreuz set the trap and the killer turned the tables on him, it could've been Molly.

[Yurick rubs the bridge of his nose and sighs.]

I don't like the odds of just blindly voting for one of them. There's equal chance of condemning someone innocent.

EXAMINATION - MODS... MAYBE???

[losergod]

[ Okay okay you know what, Molly? He's going to examine that cut on your chest closer to see if he can tell how long it's been healing. He has medical knowledge, he could probably make a reasonable estimate from the look of it.

How fresh is this thing? ]

[strangerpeople]

[It's pretty clear from C's examination that this injury is not fresh. Indeed, it's actually well on its way to being healed, so it's likely several days old.]

VOTING

[commandurr]

[As time goes by, Marie is looking bored.]

UGH, SOMEONE KISS OR PUNCH SOMEONE ALREADY, THIS IS BORING!! YOU GUYS AREN'T STRIPPING AGAIN, THOUGH, SO I GUESS THAT'S OK!!

[So she takes out, from her platform...a giant...Toblerone?]

YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE KICKED THAT STUPID ROBOT. AT LEAST THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN FUN!! ANYWAYS, I THINK IT'S TIME TO VOTE!!

[She shakes her giant candy at them.]

REMEMBER, USE THE TITLE!...OH RIGHT, YOU CAN USE THE SUSPECT NUMBER TOO, I GUESS!! BUT GET GOING!! I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!!

[om]

[fashionfever]

[in the awkward silence as nobody wants to speak first, Angela starts putting her clothes back on again. she ends with the same sleeve as the communicator on her wrist, and then taps a button.]

I voted for Naoya.

It's not because he's "cagey". It's not because he said creepy things about murder way before this motive ever turned up. I don't play favorites suspecting people, but if I did, Naoya wouldn't be the one to go. It's because he's the person we saw dodge attacks with our own eyes, and the person we didn't see with any kind of alibi while Rosenkreuz was still alive in the onsen.

You can blame me when you vote for him. I just tried to say what evidence painted him in a corner, maybe I stopped saying the other types of evidence, maybe I didn't see the real evidence. I'm not very good at this practicality thing, you know? I'm not taking it as far as Rosenkreuz would want, picking the best suspect to die according to the big picture. I just want the person who killed him to have a bad time. But I'm always going to listen to you. Like I've said before, you can tell me anything.

Whoever did it for real... Whoever moved the knives or some weird junk like that... [She makes a little gesture with both her hands like she's plucking two eggs out of a carton, then crushing them.] I hope you never wanna have kids.

EXECUTION: State of Shock

[commandurr]

[From her perch, as the votes are finally tabulated, Marie chuckles as she finishes off her Toblerone.]

OMM, OM...WELL, WELL! SEVEN OF YOU VOTED FOR THE SAME PERSON, SO...! GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS...!!

[She quickly presses a button, and a roar once more echoes from beyond the wall. A tentacle once more shoots out - and before anyone can even move, Naoya is being pulled out of the force field.]

DOWN! BOY!!

[Another button, and the tentacle quivers before it drops Naoya to the floor. Right into the path of Barney the Killer Robot, who is already approaching him. Standing up, Naoya throws a kick - a real kick - at the robot. Only to have his leg grabbed tightly by the creature's shape-shifting metal arm.

Curling around his leg, and then his torso, like vines of ivy, the robot's eyes flash red under his sunglasses.

And then yellow, as a massive surge of electricity pulses from Barney's torso. It's mere seconds before the electricity surges through the metal vines, and straight into the other's body. Naoya's eyes bulged out, and he lets out a shriek as he violently convulses from the shocks running through him, cooking him from the inside out.

The robot doesn't let go until the struggles and shakes from the body are clearly involuntary, and Naoya's eyes have rolled up to the back of his head. It's a long several moments, but at last, Barney drops the body to the floor, where it shakes once more, and is finally still.

Much to Marie's delight, of course.]

HA!

IT'S JUST TOO BAD, YOU ALMOST DIDN'T CATCH THE REAL KILLER! BUT YOU DID! AH WELL!! ALWAYS NEXT TIME, AM I RIGHT??

AHAHAHAHAHA!!

[And with that, she hopes off her perch and makes off in the elevator. Once she's gone, the force field gives, and everyone is free to go.]

[losergod]

[ He watches, but says nothing. This is vulgar and disgusting, and frankly he just... wants out. He leaves the room as quickly as he can. ]