FIFTH TRIAL

[whimsicalism]

Is everyone finished? Good. It's time for a trial.

[The ride to the court room is uneventful this time. There's no breaking of bones or porcelain when you land. The podiums are rather empty, especially now that there's only twenty portraits even if there's twenty one podiums still. Huh. Fancy that! It's almost as if the Storyteller was still bitter.

Though, there definitely feels something off about the court room. It sort of feels like you're being watched but you're not sure.]

Seven is Dead. Time to find out who's responsible. Time for a trial!

Comments

THEORIES

[ballooncaged]

Okay, so, looking at all the evidence, I'm going to just... imagine what happened. I might be assuming a lot of wrong things for now, but that should make it easier for us to look at everything together.

I think Seven went to the zoo and took off his head of his own free will. The culprit didn't leave marks from climbing up and pulling off his head, and the canopy in the jungle is nice and soft so Seven would have left marks with his horns if his head fell off like it used to when he bumped into the ceiling. There aren't even marks from his head falling down suddenly onto the ground or anything. Seven bringing his stuffed animal with him to the zoo would be pretty normal. We're not even sure the culprit took anything from his room, so maybe Seven was just... writing and thinking. Then, I think the culprit pierced his eyes with the darts. Maybe they had lured him out because their disgusting plan used his body, [and just to be clear Mizuki hates you a pretty significant hypothetical amount] maybe they just realized he had a perfect opportunity. The thing is, Seven's head was always hollow. Maybe he could have gone on without it forever. Guess we'll never know.

Headless Seven probably dropped his friend and ran away. He'd prefer to have both hands free to try to sense things, but he probably wasn't actually crawling yet to go faster in a big stride and keep a height difference from the culprit. The culprit could have known what a problem it would be for him to survive an injury and run away and prepared the trap in advance to immobilize him. We're also pretty sure the injuries to the arm are because of the height difference. I think Headless Seven pulled the tree out of the ground. The rope would guide him to the base of the tree, which is big enough to grab. Two birds with one stone: he could free himself and defend himself at the same time.

...honestly? I almost just think the culprit blinded Seven before everything else, because otherwise he would have written something down dramatically.

[nothingposh]

Eyes're squishy though. Darts're bent.

[It's weird, that's all he's saying.]

[ballooncaged]

Were his eyes squishy? It said they were pierced, not that they were leaking fluids. If it was like that, then fine, but it wouldn't be weird to me if he had hard toy eyes or something. He literally had a big poetry cubby where you'd think he'd have a regular brain.

And... and maybe the darts got bent while they were being forced into the dart gun in the first place! [Mizuki that doesn't make sense, the barrel means they would have to be straight]

[nothingposh]

Can't shoot them if they're already bent, and if something got pierced means it was punctured. Things bend when they can't go through whatever they're hitting.

[ballooncaged]

Or when... you're trying to put them into something that won't let them in, like the dart gun!

[nothingposh]

.......... But if it's a gun for darts, why wouldn't the darts fit?

[ballooncaged]

It was a water gun that's broken now and has all these little scratches inside.

I'm not sure the darts ever did fit in the end, but I do think the only explanation for the water gun's current condition is at least trying to put the darts in it.

[strictura]

"Written something down"?

...Using the darts that way would make sense. If he pulled up the tree himself, though, would he have ended up under it like that?

[ballooncaged]

Yeah, written the killer's name or whatever. I think he never saw them. —maybe the black fabric was a mask. I'm having trouble coming up with another way it could be important.

Like, there was a long time when he was getting hit with the axe. Writing something in his right arm's blood, with his left hand? That would actually be super him. [HE THREW UP ON NATSUO AND YOUJI???] But... we do know he wasn't doing that.

I think he pulled up the tree himself, kept getting hit with the axe, and fainted because of losing all the blood. I guess those gestures would be pretty weird so we might be able to figure out that it couldn't happen that way. The last part seems to be something we know for sure, though, that the cause of death was something like gradually slipping away. He... suffered tremendously. [CAN?? THIS CULPRIT?? CHILL??????? IF NOT FOR SEVEN'S SAKE THEN FOR MIZUKI'S? PLEASE?]

[golden_king]

A mask, hm?

That's an interesting thought, but I could see it. It'd make it easier for the culprit to get by without any identifying dying messages being left behind without them knowing, I guess.

[ballooncaged]

Maybe wearing a mask and blinding Seven would be redundant, but I think they had to put darts into his eyes from the front at a distance, instead of playing "Guess Who!"

The culprit... washed up afterwards. They must have known that using the axe would get them covered in blood.

If the stuffed animal was the bait, then the fabric wasn't the bait. And it wouldn't have been a note, either. Still, if anyone has a better idea for the fabric, I totally wanna hear it. I'm just... trying to think like them.

[strictura]

Well, the "covered in blood" part could explain that, right? It might have just been what they were wearing at the time.

[ballooncaged]

Would it have burnt weird if the blood was on the clothes...? Guess we do have to think about where their outfit went, anyway. But it might even just be in their room. There was no trail of blood, so they could have carried it there just as easily as to the furnace.

[strictura]

So... the killer was in some kind of fight with him, you think? While he was using a tree as a weapon? Even if he couldn't see, it seems like it would be hard for them to avoid getting injured themselves in a situation like that.

[ballooncaged]

[FROWN.]

It's true that the culprit was probably close to him the whole time because they had to hit him with the axe over and over until he fell down.

[strictura]

[ Nods... ]

So if they were able to do that, that would point to someone who was probably good at fighting, right?

[battlestations]

Good at fighting... or dodging.

[battlestations]

I wonder why he used a tree anyway. Once the axe swings he'd know where they are. He should have just punched them!

[LIKE HE WAS TEACHING HIM TO DO :T]

[ballooncaged]

I actually think that his self-defense training focusing on empty hand is why he would use a tree instead of having something else more lethal on him. [SHE DID NOT FORGET!!! SHE CARE THEM BOTH] I don't think anyone else besides me is all that sure he picked up the tree... Wouldn't punching the person with the axe just bring your hand even closer to the axe, though? Or had he learned a way where he could be that precise?

[octopups]

Um... I think your theories sound pretty good, but... I don't think even Seven could have pulled the tree out of the ground by himself.

The dirt around it seemed like... like maybe someone had loosened it up on purpose, for some reason? Maybe they wanted that one tree to fall over?

[battlestations]

You mean like... if the rope was tied around the tree so it could be easily pulled to fall?

[octopups]

Yeah, like... maybe the trap was tied to the tree, and the person led Seven to the trap, somehow, and they knew that when his leg got hurt he would try to run away, and so they made it easy for the tree to fall over on him when he did?

[battlestations]

They could have lead him to the trap with Mr. Stripey-pants if he was looking for it. Although it'd mean they threw the head and the toy in the zoo as misdirection, and I'm not sure how likely that would be.

[octopups]

Hmm... [Pondering]

The zoo is downhill from the tree, right? Could... could his head have... rolled?

[ballooncaged]

I think Seven would have dug up the tree and then lifted it, but whatever.

If the tree fell over, I guess that would be a big enough shock for his head to fall off and roll away. Maybe even the animals eating it covered up the marks you'd expect in that situation. Though it wasn't even that round...

If the culprit fed it deliberately, then I think it's because they wanted to make sure the head was decisively injured too.