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

[incendiarize]

What's your evidence that points to only one person then, 'cause I see evidence for two. Unless you wanna risk executing Kurama when he might've only tried to save her, and someone else finished her off?

[poorlovefool]

[he really doesn't appreciate the insinuation there, so he tenses up a bit more.]

Are you stupid? I'm talking about specific people, I don't see any way of telling who that second person would be!

[incendiarize]

Are you stupid? You're just gonna go for the first person there's any evidence for?

We look at the knife injury. See if it's someone who knows what they're doing or not. The knife wasn't cleaned and was put back messily, so probably not someone who's used to killing. Then we look at motive - whether they wanted it for themself, or just wanted to make sure the shooter didn't get it, or just wanted to put her out of her misery - we talk about it instead of just going for the first person who comes up!

I don't wanna get it wrong ever again!

[otherworldlyking]

Looks to me like he's been thinking about this and working hard to figure out who did it.

[relieable]

Maybe we should let them grill us.

[er, let him rephrase that]

For questioning, and stuff.

[otherworldlyking]

[ HE'LL SIGH. ]

Wouldn't care if they did so they can question whatever they want. This trial is also shaping up to be a big pain in the ass.

[ So complicated... ]

[poorlovefool]

Yeah, well, where there's smoke there's fire. Don't push your group's mistakes off on me.

So you want to talk about people who aren't used to killing? That'd just be Estelle and Osomatsu, wouldn't it?

[are you sure you want to blame them]

[illusionarymelody]

The knife was also put back after the blood was dried. Jonathan and I found it and no blood got on anything else. Maybe let's try to figure out the answer to another question. If there were two attackers, how did they not see each other? A second attacker would likely have acted to eliminate a possible witness of the first attacker trying to heal her wounds. Can we think of a timeline where it is possible they didn't accidentally meet up?

[poorlovefool]

Yeah... it'd be one thing if person 2 killed her while person 1 was brewing the potion, but it actually got used on her. There's no way person 1 would leave person 2 alone if she wasn't okay, right? No one would just splash a potion at her and run for it.

[illusionarymelody]

Yes, we know it got used on her, so person 1 did get a chance to use a potion. If they came back and saw her throat was slashed, that seems less likely. That's why this is getting difficult to narrow down how many attackers there were because each possible set of events has something that doesn't fit with the evidence.