THIRD TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

To the court room. Make it quick, alright? I don't really know about any of you but I don't want to waste more time on a couple of bratty teenagers.

[The Queen still is silent as you descend to the court room. There are ten less of you than when you began. The podiums look empty as you go to them. Even if the podiums are getting empty, though, there is a new jury box near the Alices that is rather full... of ghosts of all the participants of the previous round you've discovered and of your dead compatriots. They don't talk but they're there. Judging. Always judging.

There is someone who doesn't notice this addition, though. Queen Alice.

The Queen is quiet but she's next to the Cat. Her head is bowed to her chest as she seems to sleep quietly. Then as movement she jolts up, smiling vaguely as she nods.]

Yes, a tea party--that's what we...need...

[Her head drops back to her chest as she falls asleep again. The Cat glances at her then back at the crowd with agitation.]

Someone is responsible for Lena and Neku's deaths. Do something about it, will you? Why did you even bring one of those ghosts in with you, anyway?

Comments

EVIDENCE

[whimsicalism]

[Oh where did all the evidence go? Here.]

Re: EVIDENCE 1/2

[seventhlittlemonster]

[The ghosts seemed to keep him on his toes. For a bit, anyway. He's energized enough to list his findings in the pit.]

Other than all the knife wounds, Neku had a bullet shot through the side of his head. Another bullet was in the pit, which might indicate it had missed. The gun itself, despite all the blood, was completely clean and has three bullets left in it.

There was bruising on Neku's arms, but otherwise, he died without a struggle. His headphones were playing music, even.

Two other things I found in the pit is this drawing - it's covered in blood, though - and a torn-up bedsheet.

Re: EVIDENCE

[imozon]

I took a look at Lena's body, which we found under the pirate ship.

She had a small hole in her chest with some traces of blood around it. Most of it had washed away underwater but what was left looked like it had been smeared. She also had some scratches on her, and some clay stuck to her fingers.

I found this in her pocket.

[She pulls out the combat knife, still in its sheath.]

[xxxx_me]

[Allen sure did drag a ghost in with him. That is a thing that happened.

He spends a moment staring at Seven and absorbing his words before speaking.]

I checked Nanako's room and found this. [Gesturing to the cardboard ghost.] It was checking the room for coins because they're shiny and knocked over a TV onto itself.

...

The gun... is probably Neku's. I got it from the vending machine and we took the bullets out. He hid the gun somewhere, and I hid the bullets in Nanako's room. I think someone noticed the ghost in the room and found the bullets when they checked on it, because all six bullets I hid were missing.

[He looks. So upset.]

...I brought the ghost, but it said it didn't notice anyone coming inside because it was too busy being trapped.

[prescience]

[Oriko has gone through a quick outfit change after her dip in the cove, but she hasn't fully dried off yet: Her still-damp, very long blonde hair is droopy in its side ponytail.]

The source of the purple light in Lion Cove was this amulet... I find it perplexing that light still emanates from it, but nothing else seems to be attached. I observed Lena-san wearing it before...but it appears the chain here has been broken.

There was also an intact bullet, near the pendant, and two casings, some distance away on the Cove floor.

[strictura]

Uno and I looked at the playground and along the shore. The swimsuit rack had been knocked over and most of the swimsuits were thrown in a wet pile, with a mix of smears and drops of blood.

It didn't look like any were missing, though the large and dog-sized suits were still dry and not in the pile with the others.

Even though the rack was knocked over, it didn't really look like there had been a struggle there. The blood on the swimsuits wasn't enough to account for that. It seems more likely to me that they may have been used to move a body or clean up.

Lena's Room

[golden_king]

The room was a mess; like a struggle happened in here.

There were knife holes in the walls; made from stabbing with the same knife. Also even if there was white feathers clearly from Lena lying around, and the bedding was ransacked, along with snacks everywhere, there's no blood or tipped over furniture.

Oh and I found this journal jammed into the mattress. I think it'd be best if you all take a look at this page. There's some torn out pages too.

I also found her friendship bracelet in the toilet sink. Like someone just threw it in there.

PLAYGROUND

[battlestations]

[Nigel has been gazing flatly in the direction of the two victims' ghosts (and really all the ghosts) for a while. It's exasperating that they are here in the first place, but if they must show up, he's gonna judge. ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOURSELVES, YOU STUPID TEENS?? He's feeling a bit petulant since he did what he could to strengthen their bonds and keep rank, but it still happened anyway. Eventually, he clears his throat and speaks up with the evidence he found.]

There was a blood trail leading from the pit to the beach through the playground. Very odd, very odd. It zig-zagged all over, and... there were drag marks and feathers along the trail. Perhaps not so strange that she was moved considering where Lena was found, but I've been asking myself this. Just who would have needed to drag her? MOST of us should have been able to carry her, unless we've got somebody hiding a busted arm.

[it makes him pretty suspicious of someone in particular, but he doesn't want to accuse them without a clear picture. Just know that he is avoiding eye contact with the dogs rather pointedly.]

...Still, perhaps it's only a red herring. There was another matter of a bullet embedded in the slide. Casings were found in the gravel nearby. This is unusual as well, since the blood trail didn't seem to have much to do with it.

NPC QUESTIONS

[whimsicalism]

[For the Cat. Or the sleeping queen, I guess.]

[prescience]

[After some concentrated impassive staring at the ghost jury box:]

Still not feeling well, I see?

Re: NPC QUESTIONS

[imozon]

[...waves awkwardly at Franziskghost.]

Directed at the jury

[octopups]

[When they first walk in, Amdi looks for the as-yet-silent Queen, and sees that she's just sleeping. He was worried.]

[But then he looks around more broadly, and—]

Neku!! Lena! [These are shouted almost hopefully, but then—]

F-Franziska!? Manaka!

[Amdi will keep walking to the podium because he is too afraid to do otherwise, but almost all his eyes are on the the ghosts and the Alices.]

let's talk a series of unfortunate events (wait...)

[prescience]

[(Realistically she does not speak about this until all evidence has been presented, but the comment is here for when you need it because this one! is! a doozy!)]

We can start at the beginning, can't we? I suspect the truth is far less complicated that it appears, on the surface. Regardless, a lot seems to have transpired last night.

To orient ourselves, would it be worthwhile to discuss possible timeline of last night's events? Number One-san was adamant that we return to our rooms together, all of us who were in attendance at the party. That restricts the time in which things could have happened.

[xxxx_me]

I wonder when they got the gun and the bullets... Do you think Neku's the one who found all the bullets because he was planning to kill after all?

[strictura]

It sounds now like Lena and... her aunt, I guess, were planning this in advance. Dark Dream said there was clay in Lena's feathers, so that might have been from setting up the trap in the pit. None of us noticed anything like that when we were leaving the party, so it probably happened shortly after, once she'd left her room.

Though that raises the question of the struggle in her room -- when that occurred and who it was against. [ ... ] I'm not sure how her aunt would have manifested here in the first place, but... maybe if Lena was fighting her for control somehow...?

catherd

[strictura]

[ Ugh, they haven't made much progress at all after all this time, have they?

Nagisa sighs, crossing his arms. ]

All right... Let's try again to lay out what we know so far and narrow down our theories.

Lena's evil aunt, who may have been trapped in that amulet of hers before, emerged in one way or another this week when people's powers returned. She devised the knife pit trap. There was a struggle in Lena's room, and clay in her feathers -- this may imply that she was fighting her aunt for control of her body, and that her aunt won and set up the trap as planned.

Sakuraba formed a partnership with Queen Alice, presumably with the intention of having her die along with him in order to try to end the game. He was the one who brought the gun.

Both Sakuraba and Lena were shot. It's unclear at what point the gun changed hands, but Sakuraba had bruises on his arms, so he may have been restrained at some point and dropped the gun or had it taken from him. Since he had the power to levitate, the knife trap alone shouldn't have been able to kill him, so the gun would have been needed to do the job.

There was a bloody trail with drag marks and feathers in a zig-zag pattern leading from the pit through the playground to the beach. Presumably Lena was dragged this way after she was shot.

There was a pile of bloody, wet swimsuits at the beach next to the swimsuit rack, and it seems likely that they were used to transport Lena's body from the pit to the water. The only swimsuits that weren't wet and bloody were the extra large suits and the dog suits.

There was almost definitely a third person involved, because no one would have been able to drag Lena's body away if she and Sakuraba had both killed each other already. It also doesn't make sense for Sakuraba to have killed Lena himself if his intention was always to die to take Alice down with him.

The whole area was darker than normal, and according to Allen, Lena's aunt was some kind of shadow sorceress, so there was likely some kind of shadow magic in play, but I'm not familiar enough with magic to know what that might entail or how much it was involved.

[ Takes a breath... ]

We're still missing the most important details in the middle of the sequence of events. What should we look at to narrow things down further?

[golden_king]

She could've used dark magic to darken the area so she'd have the advantage over him in battle.

Though with narrowing things down...we could begin just start looking at people's clothing for stains? There's really nothing more obvious for us to start with otherwise.

Unless someone has a better idea.

[octopups]

[Clearly still shaken over having been declared low-key sus.]

U-um... didn't Lena's journal say something about "Tiffany" in the part that was written by her aunt maybe? Wasn't that the name of that money-eating shark thing?

[prescience]

If the chain on the amulet was broken, it was likely removed by force. If Lena-san did so, she may have been fighting against that control. If it was our third party, it might have made her unable to fight back without those powers.

Try as I might, I can't explain the trajectory of the blood trail here.

clothes check

[golden_king]

Well I think we should probably be looking at something. So let me take a peek at what everyone's wearing.

[ Gil will be checking people to see if they got unusual stains on their clothing ... or on them in general because there were dogs. ]

Re: clothes check

[seventhlittlemonster]

[He had a cut in his sleeve.]

I had to reach into the knife pit to investigate and get evidence.

[ballooncaged]

[Over the hours of the trial, Mizuki and her swimsuit have dried almost completely.]

[soverainty]

[Once her hair is down, Niko doesn't waste a moment -- she whirls around and heads back to her own podium, takes a clam(??) out of her pocket and slams it down on the thing like a gavel.

CLACK. CLACK.]

You know what? Fine. We'll end this farce where we started it. Me tryin' to figure out how the hell we got here.

First of all: the fucking dogs? Really??

Second of all: what the hell is the deal with you, Alice. Who the hell agrees to some shitty pact with a guy as shady as Spikes?

Anyway, let me just tell you, you're real lucky I took the damn duck out. And Spikes was probably lucky I took him out. Any questions?

[xxxx_me]

[Ah. There it is.]

...What really happened?

VOTING

[whimsicalism]

Now that the foul-mouthed rookie has been caught. It's time to vote.

[She glances at Alice.]

If you're still having trouble, think of this: would rather have Alice or Yuniko? I think we all the answer.

[xxxx_me]

[Yuniko]

EXECUTION: Git Gud Scrub

[whimsicalism]

[The Cat doesn't bring out her book this time. Both she and Yuniko vanish. The screen on the hedge wall is showing is the arcade in the second floor. Yuniko is nowhere to be see as the Cat looks at the various games.

She stops at a blood red cabinet with a cartoon-y wolf printed on the side. 'Little Riding Hood' is sprayed on the side of the cabinet. The 'camera' shifts to the Cat's point of view.

The screen is a cutesy pixel forest with a very realistic Yuniko in it. She kicks at the scenery as if to check it out. She looks very unimpressed by the whole situation. Even as the Cat picks up the machine's plastic pistol. Several shots are fired.

Yuniko stands in the middle of the screen still looking unimpressed. She crosses her arms and puts her chin up, looking like she's ready to go a few rounds with the so-called player. There's something sardonic in her grin, though -- maybe her usual smarm, maybe something else.

Then the Cat fires one last round. Right into Yuniko's heart, and her smile widens into a true one for a split second as she closes her eyes. There's a pause as the screen flickers and blood oozes from the cabinet's coin slot. Then the blood retreats back into the cabinet as the level restarts. This scene replays many, many times. Ten? Twenty? A hundred? All the time a cheerful song is playing.

Even if it repeats so many times it's clear Yuniko Kouzuki is dead.

Eventually, the high score screen shows and most of the names are Kouzuki except for the final one: Nursery Rhyme.]

Re: EXECUTION: Git Gud Scrub

[seventhlittlemonster]

[Nursery Rhyme. This is an important name, no doubt.

But he looks like he's... disappointed. In himself, perhaps?]

...I really am just becoming... a monster. Right? [He spoke aloud to no one in particular, but he was facing the ghost jury.]