THE THIRD TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE THIRD TRIAL
(~SK. 17-18)


[When the investigation ends, the D O N G rings throughout the ship, followed by Zero's voice.]

It is time. Everyone, come to the theater. Time is...wasting.

[And so it is. The seating has once more changed to reflect the fallen-Moriarty and now Brain's podiums are draped in black. And, of course, there is no food-

The screens come up, and the mask of Zero appears, ever inscrutable. Their instructions are brief.]

Your Brain is gone, I'm afraid. Cut into pieces and cast aside...and someone here knows why. Now, it's time for you to discover the truth as well...if you can.


[The trial for the murder of Brain, the Blue, has begun.]

Comments

[pegasinister]

[He spreads his hands slightly in a 'there we go' gesture]

Of course I could have threatened him or forged his handwriting. But that seems... over the top.

[autonomousthought]

That seems logical, provided they match - so it's probable that a fight began, and moved elsewhere.

We don't know what the evolved versions of anyone's powers are, do we? So, maybe our next step should be considering...if fire didn't cause these burns, then what did?

[superstylishsquid]

Diabetes doesn't have that weird aftertaste, yeah. So we can be pretty sure the blood on that sword came from him. Didn't taste anything like that from anyone else.

[pegasinister]

A hot item would be my guess. Or a intense light or beam?

[He's seen a certain Slither-y machines do just that. He doesn't know the word 'laser' but...]

[superstylishsquid]

I didn't smell anything like burnt marker in the oven, so either someone put it in the incinerator, or there was some other source of heat involved.

[godspiousjasper]

I agree. I can only guess that the culprit knew he had this information and when they came into the lounge? Brain must have heard them coming and that's why the note was stuffed into the cushions, to ensure the culprit wouldn't know about it.

[ Again all guesses but it didn't hurt, right? ]

[yesorwoof]

...we do need to be absolutely sure. I will start my attempt at a timeline as soon as I can after this.

I'm sorry, Brain-kun.

[Hands it over.]

[pegasinister]

We certainly have enough burns going around this case that it could be anything.

CW: Implications of Suicide

[godspiousjasper]

[ He's been thinking things through ever since he looked at all the evidence, exhaling a hum as he tapped a finger against his podium. ]

Given there was nothing nearby Brain's body, I doubt he did that to himself. [ Since, y'know. There would have been maybe a tipped chair or something. ] Barring any interference from another, that is.

[ Though he's giving certain people some level of leniency for now. ]

That said, to be able to lift another person's body up, ensure they aren't going to fall and let them hang from the ceiling? Wouldn't that require a lot of strength to pull off such a feat?

[voidseeing]

[Another thought.]

The hammer and scissors were underneath the sofa. I'd assumed it was because the killer was trying to hide them, but what if that was also Brain's doing?

[onychomance]

[Kira tires of these outbursts.]

Prove it then.

[autonomousthought]

[Oh hey this is her area of expertise-]

A skilled hacker can breach any system, with enough time and effort, much like a skilled lockpicker can pick any lock - it's only a matter of how much trouble they have.

AI such as myself are far more difficult, since we can respond to the attack in real time, but it's still possible. Even I've been hacked before. ...It's very...violating.

[yesorwoof]

It seems he was alive when he was using his musical power. First in the halls angry over being chased with a heated weapon that marked the walls? Then fearful as he was being hung and his clothes burnt. At this point he was dismembered and taken to the relatively nearby bathroom, kitchen, and weapons room, then finally the extremely distant workshop.

What remains unsolved to me is the time at which the culprit prepared and disposed of the notes. Perhaps simply prepared in advance?

[superstylishsquid]

Yeah. You didn't say you found a note on it, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one that was already discharged into someone else.

[somuchshipping]

Would he have been able to use his powers when he was being hung?

[exequte]

I... guess you can't rule me out, since cold can burn as well, but... um... is the fact that he doesn't have frostbite good enough for that?

[voidseeing]

... maybe that's why they tried to hang him. If his powers relied on being able to play that saxaphone, then stopping him from breathing would be a good way to extinguish that ability.

[superstylishsquid]

[He nods and takes the knife to open a slit in the arm's wrist. Is there blood, and does it leak out?]

[yesorwoof]

As much as I would have rather stayed off this topic, this does make me think of the underwear modeling we've been doing lately.

Firstly, we can readily observe that many of us have such strength. I don't think there's a single man that can be eliminated on those grounds, [well, Aoi-kun, but mentioning him would send the room into another commotion] and I wouldn't rule myself out if I were sufficiently determined.

The more interesting question is, would Brain-kun not struggle if he was still alive at the moment the suspension was prepared? Did the culprit manage to prevent themselves from being kicked by him?

[exequte]

I... I couldn't read it before today, but I took the time to study it, and have cracked the cypher, so I can confirm the contents.

For what it's worth, the materials that Hubert provided so that I was able to do that didn't seem like they'd been tampered with, and Hubert was able to understand a note that I wrote him in said cypher, so it's probably genuine.

[superstylishsquid]

And I tasted his blood last trial. It was kinda gross, but definitely there.

[yesorwoof]

He most likely needed to breathe to do it. Perhaps it would be more precise to say that he was expressing his fear as the culprit was approaching him in the lounge and about to hang him.

[voidseeing]

[Gai nods.]

I was thinking the same thing. But there's one thing that puzzles me-- the bruising on his neck. That would seem to indicate that he was still alive when whoever it was tried to get him down, so why would they hang him and then try to get him back down again?

[godspiousjasper]

Hm. I mean that is possible, but i'm not sure what he was doing with them... unless we take it to mean he was the one cutting up the book that Hubert found.

[superstylishsquid]

It's...worth a check. That honey badger would complicate things if we were looking for bleeding wounds, but it wasn't exactly headbutting people.