Week 3 Post-Trial

[xxxx_me]

[It's hard to feel much cheer after finding out the culprit. Everyone's welcome to do whatever brings them peace after such a tense time, whether it's jotting down memories before the next loss or finding other things to occupy themselves with.]

Comments

[strictura]

[ Oh... He feels a twinge of guilt now at bringing this up, and frowns. ]

...I'm sorry. This must have made you remember that all over again.

[ He remembers how sick he'd felt looking at his own mother's dead body, but...

He shakes his head slightly, trying to shove that memory away. ]

Was anyone with you when you found her?

ai spoilers

[ballooncaged]

My friend Ota was with me, but he freaked out and ran away. Date had to find me. He actually works with the police. When we used that dream world technology I was talking about a couple meetings ago... it was to help me speak again, especially since I couldn't answer their questions in writing or anything.

[Heavy burden...]

After that, we were investigating, and that's when we found Daddy. So it was terrible, but not as bad as the first time. Kind of like now.

[As in, matter of fact and tough!!]

I did... remember that all over again. It was pretty weird. I still felt bad, even though I could think more clearly after all the support I had.

[strictura]

[ So that's what that was for... hm. He's not sure how he feels about law enforcement using something that sounds so invasive on a traumatized kid like that, but if she's okay with it...

He nods. ]

It does... get easier, the more you see things like that.

[ He'd like to be able to say maybe she won't have to keep seeing them, but he's sure they both know that won't be the case. ]

It was an especially weird feeling this time because it was her, though, right?

[ It seemed like they'd both come to associate her with their abusers to some extent, whether that was really fair or not. This felt weird for him too. ]

[ballooncaged]

[SOMETIMES YOUR DE FACTO GUARDIAN TURNS OUT TO BE PART OF A WILDLY UNETHICAL SPLINTER CELL]

Yeah.

[Let's start turning the jukebox around the corner of this door.]

I... didn't want to say anything bad, especially because Dark Dream is pretty terrifying. But... I felt a lot of different feelings.

[Maybe even not one hundred percent guilt, then?]

[strictura]

Yeah. Me too. It's not like it's any secret that I didn't get along with her, so having her die on what was supposed to be my birthday was...

[ He gives enough of a shove to help get the jukebox fully into the hallway, and then pauses, thinking about how to put this. ]

You know that story about wishing on a monkey's paw? It's not like I actually wished for anything, obviously, but it kind of felt a little like that anyway.

[ballooncaged]

I totally understand.

[She's from an Uchikoshi game, there's almost no cliche story like Schroedinger's cat that she hasn't heard of.]

Especially with the way that... it wasn't like Sajyou-san even hated her. She just had her own issues and took them out wherever. [SIGH. At least Nagisa is putting his back into it, so she doesn't have to breathe too hard.] I know that's not what you wanted at all, but is that the best we can hope for now?

[strictura]

If we had to lose someone... she may have been useful in investigations, but her stubborn and selfish behavior put everyone at risk. Even setting our personal feelings aside, I think her presence here was a liability. So... it probably was one of the better outcomes we could have hoped for in that regard.

[ Losing someone with knowledge about Servants and the Holy Grail Wars seems like the bigger hit. ]