fifth trial

[airlockedmods]

[Ricky and Kurumi are dead, bringing the list of surviving Champions down to the single digits from their original twenty. When CECE's announcement sounds, it's with heavy hearts that the Champions file to the teleporter to get to the courtroom. It only takes one trip this time.

When they get to the courtroom the podiums have once again been updated for the recently deceased. Rukia, Kurimi, Ricky- their portraits await their friends where they stood just several days ago. It's a mite chilling now to see the twelve empty podiums and realize nearly everyone has a dead Champion on at least one side of them.

Jamie and Bolton are there waiting as usual, suited up and ready to oversee the trial. In a depressing repeat of the first trial, Jamie looks like hell. His tie is knotted wrong, his hair is haphazardly pulled back into a messy ponytail and, though it's hard to tell from a distance, but his face is red and splotchy like he's been crying. Bolton doesn't look much better - his clothes, at least, are impeccable, but his beard is scruffier than usual and there's something lacking from his usual extravagant personality.]

Welcome, Champions, to the courtroom. Eight of you have entered, but - in the best case scenario - only seven of you will leave. You all know the drill by now: compile your evidence and figure out who the killer is. If you vote correctly, the culprit will be executed and the rest of you will be allowed to go back upstairs.

Remember, there is no time limit but I'd advise you to keep things interesting.

Comments

[stitch_in_time]

Kurumi's body was definitely tampered with.

[Even without Bolton's subtle confirmation that there was indeed a culprit involved with that "only seven", the evidence sure pointed that way.]

She had blood on her hands, but it was all on the palms, none on the back. And Yurika, you found some kind of handprint on her back, yeah?

[bylight]

Why would it be on the palms, but not the back of her hands?

[refusedtoleave]

Doctor, when you were looking, did you see any wounds on Ebisuzawa's neck? It might explain the blood on the cord.

[ratherdoweddings]

You're right. It was bigger than my hand, so it couldn't be Ricky-chan either.

[cyan_maid]

[She's all alone.

Well...not really. Jane knows there are others in the courtroom, but she's the only one with death on all sides. Seth's absence hadn't bothered her, but Ricky's...Ricky had been with her since the beginning, offering comfort. Offering friendship. Kurumi hadn't been next to her, but her presence was still a stone to hang onto in a raging river. And now there's nothing but red. She's really starting to hate that color.

Still...they must persevere. If only to make it through another day. Jane breathes in, out. Puts Ricky's sketchbook on the table.]

...Someone asked Ricky to meet her in the diner. I found this note in her sketchbook on the floor of the diner. [A pause, as she takes another fortifying breath.] Does...anyone have the handwriting samples so we can compare?

[kingshaming]

I do.

[Including the more in depth 'samples' he was using to pass messages- of course he was actually using them for this as well. He passes his book to Jane]

[imnotfat]

The culprit tried to get rid of evidence. There were ashes in the incinerator, but the culprit was sloppy.

[Togami presents his findings. Here's black and white cloth, here's a bloody broken cord]

[cyan_maid]

[That cloth...]

K...Kurumi's gloves...they were black and white striped...

[Who took off her gloves? Who took them off, she needed them, her hands would get so cold they were her gloves-]

[refusedtoleave]

How long is the cord? The one we found was too short

[She's just going to hold it up for him.]

[kingshaming]

I investigated Ricky's body. It was clear that she was strangled as the report states- and by a tool of some sort. The bruising matched a black cord that Natsuhi found and should still have. But even though it matched it was too short to strangle even someone Ricky's size.

I also found bruising on her arm that seemed to come from being roughly grabbed. The imprint seemed to come from a hand smaller then my own, but larger then the girls in question.

The scene was, frankly, a disaster. There were two settings for breakfast, but the food and drinks were all over the floor and it seemed that something was dragged through her food and she had a small amount of syrup on her clothing.

[bylight]

Bruising on her arm? [That sounds odd.] How could you tell? Doesn't she usually wear her sleeves long?

[ratherdoweddings]

If it was larger than their hands, it probably matches the fingerprint from Kurumi-chan.

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi's just going to place the whistle and cord on her podium. And wipe her face with her clean hand.]

This was in the mess in the diner. I think it was Kurumi's but I'm not sure...

Mods~

[kingshaming]

If it matches with the piece Togami found, then that might be enough length to be our murder weapon.

[He checks the two pieces of cord against each other- are they from the same cord, and is it long enough to strange Ricky?]

cw suicide

[bylight]

I went into Kurumi's room. I didn't even realize I made it there till the door opened. [Light takes a soft breath.] I found two things in there.

[She takes a note out of her pocket and unfolds it. It's flattened out carefully before she goes on.] There was blood in the sink in her bathroom. I don't know where it could have come from since there wasn't any anywhere else in the room. The other thing I found was this note... I'll spare anyone the pain from having to read it unless someone wants to.

[Once more it's flattened out carefully as she hesitates.

After another minute or so of silence, she folds the note up and pushes it away from her.]

Her secret. It's all in there. I knew it already since she had told me a while ago, but she was afraid of anyone else finding out. Of targeting her because they might see her as a danger to everyone here. Kurumi... She explained how she received the bite, the one she's been hiding under the bandages. She's been taking medication for it apparently, to keep herself from turning, medicine she received directly from the Overseers. [Lightning glances sharply at Jamie and Bolton.] ... It's a suicide note. She admits to killing Ricky, and then herself... There's more if someone else wants to read it.

[She takes a step away from her podium and crosses her arms. Anyone who would like to read the rest can feel free to take it.]

[kingshaming]

[He comes to read it, his face tensing the further he gets]

Kurumi...

This postscript- It seems like it was possibly written after the attack on Ricky?

[cyan_maid]

[So Light knew, too...?

Jane comes over to read it herself, shuffling over hurriedly, like the note will disappear if she doesn't. She reads...]

...Oh God, Kurumi...

[She thought she was all cried out, but nope, there's tears in Jane's eyes. She could never have hated Kurumi. Not for this, not for anything. The only person Jane hates right now is herself for being unable to help.

She manages to get to the end of the note, though, and has enough sense to pause and notice something, even though her name there is like a stab through the heart.] What's...what happened to her handwriting? It gets so strange at the end...like she couldn't think straight...

LEMON PARTY

[curdle]

There were something, in the gardens.

[ Thomasin has held back from discussion, more from a lack of things to say than anything else, but when she senses a moment of quiet she ventures in. Her hair hangs loose around her shoulders, and she's got her basket at her podium. ]

This. [ She holds up a... bloody, squashed lemon. ] Someone trod on it, going from the tree. There are tracks upon the rind... and there were footprints too.

[ She produces an equally gross and bloody ribbon, knotted somewhere near one end. ]

I took their measure.

[cyan_maid]

[Okay all this speculating that the twin tail squad wanted to murder each other is great actually terrible and all but Jane's fixating on that.]

I-It could have been...when someone took Kurumi's gloves and the cord...somebody had found her...

[stitch_in_time]

Okay, so, summarizing what we actually know, for solid fact. Kurumi invited Ricky to the diner early this morning, where someone, possibly Kurumi herself, attacked and killed her. They made a hell of a mess of the place, but there was no blood spilled there, just a whole lot of syrup and lemonade.

Afterwards, Kurumi's found her way to the garden, where she either stabs herself in the gut, or has someone do it for her -- the angle's right for it to have been in her own hands, but we know there was a third person involved somehow.

She or Ricky or both of 'em might've been drugged on Oxycodone, maybe to make their deaths a little less painful or maybe to just make it harder for them to fight, we can't say for sure.

And at some point, someone took Kurumi's gloves, and burned 'em along with part of the cord that was used to strangle Ricky. Probably after, since the cord had blood on it, and there was none in the diner.

And whoever it was washed up nice an' tidy in Kurumi's room, maybe leavin' her confession note in the process.

[The next part gets a little bit of consideration.]

...An' at some point in all this someone who might've been Lightning stepped on a fresh lemon, which might or might not actually be relevant to all this. Am I missing anything?

[imnotfat]

I'd like to know why Lightning didn't admit she had been the one to step on the lemon, if she has nothing to do with the murder. There was more than enough time to do it once Thomasin presented the lemon here.

mods

[kingshaming]

There's also the bruise on Ricky that indicated she was manhandled while likely still alive.

[He compared it to his own hand while investigating it about how big was it? Kurumi sized or bigger?]

[bylight]

[The evidence is against Lightning, even if there are those who refuse to believe it. Good on them. Having faith, having hope, was important. She puts her hands on the sides of her podium and looks at everyone in turn. May as well get this over with.

Survivors. That’s who she is looking at. ]

Kurumi’s note was correct. She was the one to kill Ricky. I tried to save her. Ricky was already dead by the time I cut the cord. I thought I could make it. I thought I could heal her, save her…. But this damn magic of mine only works on myself…. Kurumi Ebisuzawa was a rash and idiotic girl who didn’t think things through before she acted on what she thought would solve everything. And just like Seth, she targeted the one person she was close to that would trust her not to kill them. Ricky… she shouldn’t have died. Kurumi was going to kill herself after. Her nerves caught up with her.

[I would pray to the gods to give me strength, but that means I would be praying to myself.]

I didn’t kill Kurumi. What makes you think I would?

[MTB]

[kingshaming]

...

[He just stares. Then says nothing.

He made a promise]

Voting Time

[theoverseers]

[Bolton's voice is muffled by the fact that his sobbing partner is still blocking his microphone, but the way that the podiums light up should let everyone know what time it is anyway.]

We- You have a confession, it's time to call the vote.

[Not that he sounds too eager about it.

Anyone looking at him will see his arms tighten around Jamie, turn his head and whisper something into his ear too low to be heard. Though they're both on their feet, it's easy to tell that if it weren't for Bolton holding him, Jamie would be crumpled on the ground.]

[ratherdoweddings]

>Champion Sister

I'm so sorry.

Execution: The Dying of the Light

[theoverseers]

[Once the votes are in, everyone knows what comes next. The glass cuts off Jamie and Bolton from the others.]

Everyone, stay at your podiums. [Bolton's voice holds a note of pleading, like an unexpected death might just push Jamie off an edge that he's afraid to follow.]

Votes have been tallied. Commencing execution.

[The bubbles come up and close around every single podium but Lightning's. She closes her eyes in acceptance, as the floor opens up beneath her. Thomasin's basket is whooshed out into the vacuum of space first, and then Lightning falls.

CW: Space Death

Her pale skin burns and blackens, the radiation making her hair that's fanned out around her start to drift away. As the fluid in her body expands, she swells up like a balloon. Ice crystals form on her blackened fingertips and on her cheeks and eyelashes. There's no choking, no blood. In fact, it's hard to tell when, exactly, she dies.

End CW

But that matters little to the computer, which only cares how long it takes for someone to be swept out into space. The glass floor closes again as Lightning's body drifts beneath it, and the bubbles release their podiums, freeing the Champions to head for the teleporter.

At least they can all get away at the same time.]

[cyan_maid]

[Jane doesn't move. She promised. She doesn't look - she can't handle it. She just cries, letting her sobs grow loud as the bubble closes over her, one hand clenched tight around the survival knife. As the bubble comes down, she trembles, and as soon as she can, she makes a break for the teleporter.

We have lost the ability to can.]