T̢H̢҉̴E̢͝ ̡S͝E҉̡C̡̢O̵N̡̕͠D̵͡ ̕͠T̀͢R͞IAL

[strangerpeople]

T͝HE͘ S̴̸E҉̶̀C͜Ơ̷̢N͏D̡͟ T҉̧R͘I͟A̧͟͠L̢

Heyyyyyyyyy, Strangers! How's Valentine's Day going? Unfortunately we have to start the trial soon if you want to get any dinner dates in before midnight!

I know some of you have a very special day near today, too! So let’s get a move on, shall we? You know the drill! Though you know… since we saw one of those clues, you can bring your pets in today.

[And so it is. Just like last week, the elevator shoots everyone down to the trial room. Lala's podium, now, is Xed out in red. And like last week, five of the podiums' dot matrix name plates suddenly flash with a red border.]

THE BRITTLE	THE CIRCUIT	THE ENEMY	THE NOODLES
				THE UNKNOWN

[And clashing with the borders whether red or not, on each Stranger’s podium is a little piece of candy: A gray heart, printed with a message in nearly black capitals. These candies are similar to the pills in that they taste like nothing at all rather than sand; while a pill is meant to serve as a full meal, one candy is about as filling as a single apple.

The messages are as follows.]

KING: BEST FRIEND	ARTHUR: LOOKING GOOD	OSOMATSU: ONE OF A KIND	ESTELLE: BRIGHT SPARK	MCBURN: NEVER MEANDER	JONATHAN: DOUBLE THE FUN
AMBROSINE: QUEEN OF MY HEART	CALEB: HOT	KARMA: YOU’RE A DOLL	VITA: TRUE BLUE BEAUTY	KURAMA: FOXY	ERIC: SEW NICE

I'd call what you had to look at "inhumane", but Lala Hagoromo wasn't human, was she?

Now, now, Hiyori. I’m not human, either.

Doesn't change how sad it is that she lost her chance to be happy... Oh, why don't you give them a good look at what you have there, Link?

[Link holds up the heart labeled "OUT OF / THIS WORLD". The hosts are visible behind the glass of their sterile observation room this time by the way.]

We made too many because we hoped all of you would finally join in on the fun by today... So, if you retire, culprit, you can eat this one!

[...Well, maybe the evidence will cause the Hosts to eat their words. BOOM. Burn........or...well, it doesn't matter. The clock is ticking.


The trial for the murder of Lala Hagoromo, The Chance, has begun.]

Comments

HOST TOP FOR YOUR HOST TOP NEEDS

[mermaidkin]

[About an hour into the trial, you can see a platter of sandwiches in front of Link and Hiyori: eight clean right triangles on crustless white bread, four each of ham-n-cheese and egg salad. Hiyori takes a bite out one of the latter. Mmmmmm!!!!! Delicious!!!!!!!!]

Whoever eats any of the company food at the trial this time, can get a free sandwich the next time we meet! Let's give a big hand to Link for making these!!!!

[Apparently the mayonnaise in all these sandwiches is a gray paste.]

[illusionarymelody]

[Hey Hiyori and Link, right at the start of the trial when they say what day it is, Vita is going to flip the bird at them as in the hand gesture. She's not going to be mean to Grianos who is here even if the paw prints were clearly not his.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ He'll just yawn... ]

...Whatever.

[unwittingking]

['And this is why I brought food from the vending machine,' King thinks, as he looks Hiyori in the eyes while crushing the candy heart.

He does not give a shit.]

[backuphero]

Why is it all gray?

[The candy he could almost understand, but what is WRONG with this hell world, egg salad is supposed to be yellow, not... Like That....]

[poorlovefool]

Wait... so you wanted us to eat the pills, but now you want us to eat the food? And there's a candy heart?

[He's holding his head in confusion.]

You...!! Your reverse psychology won't work on me, you bastard!

[otherworldlyking]

[ ...Well this sure was happening again. ]

What a pain, going through this again.

[backuphero]

Welcome to Hell, I guess.

[He's deeply unhappy about this - more frustrated and disappointed than anything else.]

Get used to it, if you live. I ended up a suspect every single time....

[carryabigstick]

There's no way I killed her!!

[This is just making her sad. She's the last one of their group. She likes the others but-- two weeks in a row of watching old friends go is pretty painful.]

After we fought so hard to save her... there's no way.

[But she's a suspect so if you want to ask her anything she's. Here.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ That sure was a list. It was kind of ironic seeing someone like Estelle up on there. ]

Friends, or something like that?

[backuphero]

You're a Bracer. You're sworn to protect people without killing, right?

[He's just going to leave unsaid the "if possible" that ought to be after "killing" there.]

[poorlovefool]

What the fuck... Do any of you guys even have pets??

[I mean, he's pleasantly surprised he, Caleb and King are all off this list, but this just makes the evidence more confusing.

Maybe he didn't need to bring all these clean-pawed cats and dogs and aliens after all...]

[carryabigstick]

Nope. I've never had a pet, even back home.

[...]

...unless you count the time my dad brought a boy home.

[Don't ask. Joshua's status in her life is a mystery.]

[otherworldlyking]

Nah.

[unwittingking]

[King doesn't answer at first, as a cat rubs against Eric's legs after he says that, before giving a small 'meow'.]

I, uh...have one, I think.

[It's still weird to think about.]

[necroyalty]

My daughters both care for a dog, but I wouldn't exactly call him mine... and I'm not sure if familiars count.

[relieable]

[hm. that's sure him on the suspect's list. and he sure is next to an xed-out podium. Osomatsu sighs then pats the pokéball at his hip, maybe asking it to be a good luck charm today. anyway, he sets the medieval-looking alembic on his podium as evidence]

Okay. I looked at the laboratory and the room next to it. [he doesn't remember what the conservatex is called] When I first walked in there, I noticed that the plants had been picked at. Like, someone was picking their leaves, and stuff. I submitted pictures for the ones I didn't know, but I at least recognized the wheat.

After that, I found... This thing. [gestures to the alembic] It stood out because it had some liquid in it. I'm not sure what it's used for, or what the liquid is.

[ask questions, he supposes]

[poorlovefool]

If it's a potion with wheat in it, they must have been making healing ones. I remember that one pretty well.

[because it's this potion's fault Papyrus brought all that wheat that he wound up turning into terrible bread.]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama is, surprise surprise, still not breathing as he walks in and takes his place. He's quiet and distant, though there are soft beeps as he takes care of Akira's Tamagotchi.

The candy heart barely gets more than a glance.]

[unwittingking]

[Trial time yet again. This time, he might actually feel worse about it, considering what he's thinking about...but, he needs to focus. Say his piece and get everyone up to speed on what he knows happened. So even if he has trouble standing on his pedestal this time (he brought so much food...), he's still standing there to give his report.]

Like I said in the report, Lala got shot, but that didn't seem to kill her at first. She had time to try to stop the bleeding and get healed by someone magically, before someone decided to cut her throat. One of her antennae was longer than the other, and she had some white hairs on her arm.

Now...does anyone know where her 'pet' is? Kyu, I think she called it?

[And that...sounded like some tranquil fury. Interesting way to end his report, but okay.]

[comesaround]

[ Something unpleasant twists in Karma's gut as he hears what King says, and eventually after a moment? He has to say it. ]

What I don't get... is she got shot... but nobody found a gun like what they did with Akira, did they?

[ He's been thinking this since he saw the evidence list but this just does not make him feel great. ]

[poorlovefool]

Uh, yeah.

[his list of pets he brought was dog, cat, and alien, you see]

[backuphero]

There's something that bothered me, about the way we found the knife.

[Knives scattered... a saboteur... no. Focus.

Anyone looking at his thoughts probably heard that loud and clear.]

If someone's in shock after having killed somebody, why carry it back there and leave it out in the open? And if they're not in shock, why wouldn't they have cleaned it up and put it back where it came from? It looked like it was put there deliberately.

[illusionarymelody]

[Well, Vita is going to come over to his podium and come hold his hand because at the very least, she's still here to support him for this and neither of them are suspects this time.]

And if they returned the gun rather than keeping it on them, they took the time to put it back exactly as they found it when they didn't do the same with the knife.

[poorlovefool]

Can we PLEASE. Get back. To solving the CASE. PLEASE!!!

[relieable]

[yeah]

...Do you have any other ideas on what happened?

[comesaround]

[ He's quiet for some time, looking like he might be physically sick to his stomach, hands clenched tightly on-top of his podium. ]

Guys... I was trying to hold off on this until I had a little more to go off of... but since there wasn't a gun found at the scene and Lala has a gunshot wound to her stomach? With what Kyuubey told me, I can only guess that it was Kurama that came across Kyuubey speaking with Lala, trying to make a contract with her.

[ Yeah he's just processing everything and he wants Kurama to somehow tell him he's wrong. ]

Due to his mindset and that both of us know what Kyuubey is capable of doing, I'm positive he used his power to try and shoot Kyuubey. That's when I bet Lala stepped in and took the hit instead. [ He shakes his head, pounding a fist on the podium. ] I can't say if he's the one who cut her throat but... i'm sure it was him on the stomach injury.

[ He then looks to Kurama, expression torn between anger and sadness. ]

Please. Tell me i'm wrong. I don't want to be right.

[otherworldlyking]

[ Finally...time for a nap while waiting ]