THE SECOND TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE SECOND TRIAL


[Soon enough, once the final clues have been uncovered, the telltale DING echoes through the Mall. The elevator in the food court has opened once more, and it will not close until all of the remaining Titled have gotten in it. And, as before, a thought comes to them, the realization that they needed to get on the roof, and get to the bottom of this.

Soon enough, everyone is back on the roof, and they will find that their platform arrangement has changed to reflect those who had died since last week. The podiums of Dio, Torri, and Yuuri are each all lowered and covered with white cloths. Otherwise, everyone else's platforms also have food and drinks, just like last week.

It's probably still not much comfort, especially with what everyone knows must happen. They must look at the evidence they have gathered, and once more, they will have to figure out the truth, putting their lives on the line to do so. Hopefully, their luck will hold.

So, get ready.

The trial for the murders of Torri Feiji, The Bliss, and Yuuri Katsuki, The Future, has begun.]

Comments

[foolishjustice]

[Akechi pauses to give Torri's podium next to his a frown before he takes his place. Once again, he's ignoring the provided drink in favor of his own conjured coffee.]

I investigated Feiji-san's remains. The cause of death was very clear, a single, hasty cut to the throat. It looked as though she fled the killer, using her power to delay them and knocking over displays in the process, then put up something of a struggle when they caught her. The dresses around her corpse were disorganized, as though they had been knocked off and hastily replaced, and she had a bruise on the underside of her wrist.

It's all fairly straightforward, there was a deleted photo on her phone, so she probably caught the culprit in the act and was able to take a photo. The culprit then chased her, removed the witness, and destroyed the evidence. The strange part...is that there was also gauze around her neck. It almost looked like someone tried to stop her from bleeding out, except there was so little blood on it that she must have been nearly dead anyway by the time they put it there.

[thegreenhornet]

I found a knife in the trash in the bathroom in the men's bathroom. That must be what killed Torri, so that means the culprit is a guy!

[foolishjustice]

Possibly. But does anyone know if it's actually impossible for women to enter the men's bathroom? It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that someone might dispose of evidence somewhere they're not expected to go, just to throw people off of their trail.

[theirmagic]

I don't know. I've never tried, or thought to try it. I don't think it's against the rules, though, is it? If so, we could probably enter. It'd just be more a... social faux paus.

[foolishjustice]

I doubt anyone would have tried. Unless they were annoyed by that smoke smell that was lingering in the men's room early last week...

[thegreenhornet]

Maybe, but if a woman was trying to plan the knife there, maybe she'd put it like, I dunno, on the sink or something instead of in the trash.

[foolishjustice]

What makes you say that? The less hidden misleading evidence is, the more obvious it is that it was left on purpose.

[theirmagic]

Not necessarily. The trash makes sense to me. What makes you say the sink?

[theirmagic]

... Why would someone do that if they wanted to erase a witness to their murder?

[foolishjustice]

Under some circumstances, I might consider they had second thoughts...but if they had to chase her through Yotsukoshi and, from the disorganized rack and bruised wrist, drag her out of a hiding place...they would have had plenty of time to reconsider before dealing the finishing blow. In this case, I think we can count the gauze as evidence someone else found the scene of the crime.

[theirmagic]

... If someone else found the crime scene, why not tell us? Why just put, essentially, a band-aid on a person you couldn't save?

[foolishjustice]

I can't be sure. But...given last week, we can't even be sure that saving her was their intention. It could have been meant as planted evidence.

[thegreenhornet]

You don't think it's like what happened last week with the sleeping pills, right?

[The huge beast thing may not have done it, Britt can't imagine her trying to apply gauze on anyone here]

[incrediblystressedout]

I mean...points for trying, there? Does anyone here want to say anything about putting the gauze on? Presumably that person either isn't the killer or immediately felt bad about it and should confess anyway.

[foolishjustice]

It wasn't me, of course. If it was, I would have been thorough enough to find Katsuki-san too. Then again...whoever left the gauze there might have found him but recognized that it was too late, if he was the first victim. A cut throat is lethal very quickly.

[incrediblystressedout]

Anyone who knows how to cut throats effectively like that probably knows that, right? The killer probably didn't leave the gauze...

Huh. Different topic, but...we know if anyone has experience using a knife like that? Torri didn't get slashed up like Yuuri did, so that means they knew what they were doing and weren't just flailing that thing around.

[theirmagic]

I know how to handle a magical blade, but less so a knife. But I probably wouldn't be using a weapon like that even if I had to, with my bad arm the way it is, it would be too difficult to hold someone down and also hurt them...

[beguiledcard]

I know how to use a knife, but I haven't bought one since I got here.

[scienceofmagic]

...I'm not exactly strong enough to efficiently slit the throat of a moving person.

[thegreenhornet]

I use my fists and harmless guns, nothing like a knife.

[Well, not harmless, but killing people is not his objective during his vigilante activities]

[totalbullshit]

I definitely don't. As much as it humiliates me to say so, I grew up in such an environment that I never even had to use knifes to cook for myself.

[comesaround]

I can handle a knife pretty well, but i've never used one to actually hurt anyone.

[ Besides the green one he uses to try and kill his teacher back home but the point still stands. ]

[foolishjustice]

I have...

[He glances at Akira, briefly.]

Some combat experience, but my preferred weapon is energy swords. I'll explain how that's possible later, if anyone's curious, but I've never fought with a knife before.

[eyesofdespair]

I use swords, not knives. The culprit also would have to be fast since they'd need to be able to run faster than she can to catch up.

[byanyother_name]

I do know how to use a knife, but it's not my preference and I haven't bought one here.