[Idk who gathered all these dweebs but once they're here, Van Zieks is slamming his leg on the table. Is this necessary? No but he's in a mood let him have his legjection.]
I would like to make it clear that at this point, to my knowledge we do not have decisive evidence to convict anyone in Mr Salazar's murder. What is most important at the moment is that we make sure everyone with something to say about it is on the same page. Therefore I would like to hear people's arguments as to why you feel one way or another. Please back your statements up with evidence.
[The despair's gone by now, but he's still pretty dejected.]
Right, first off, to settle personal affairs. [He looks at Susato.] Sorry for calling you a naive little moron, that was uncalled for. I was being suffocated by some depression curse. [He also looks at Sholmes.] ...I think I got a few things to apologize to you for, but... same excuse.
But in future, if you want us to keep something quiet, asking us directly about it and then loudly declaring we're completely wrong is not the way to go about it. Yeah, you've proven that Yukio's guilt wasn't a sure thing, but that's not how these executions work. Our not proving anyone guilty for Rex's murder was us failing Rin and choosing to string him up for lack of a better candidate.
Whether or not he was guilty's sort of irrelevant now, though. [And he's not sure how to feel about that!] But still, it's worth settling, just to check if the culprit survived the week, yeah?
I feel that, even though you apologized for saying it, you are still treating me as though you believe I am objecting out of naivete, an unwillingness to accept that someone is guilty and must pay for this.
...Naivete isn't the word I'd use when I'm not being forced to have a breakdown. More like... you're idealistic, optimistic. You want to protect people and you don't want anyone getting scapegoated. I respect that, genuinely, you're a very admirable girl. But you have to understand that these aren't courtroom trials, they're witch hunts decided by mob rule and designed to be cruel and unfair.
There's never going to be any right answer. If we're too hung up on being fair, we'll never get anywhere and things like what happened this week will just keep happening. I get that I'm speaking as someone who was nearly strung up by the mob myself last week, but even that would've been better than what happened here and I was entirely innocent there.
I'm afraid that you may not know me as well as you think you do, Mr. Spike.
[She hesitates.]
I agree that poor Yukio Okumura-san and Rin Okumura-san didn't deserve this. And we will likely have to make accusations to get anywhere, and some will be wrong. So why not explain why you were so certain about him?
I know most of it's just how you present, yeah. I don't know what goes through your head, I barely know you. But optimism and faith is at least what you put forward. I've seen that much. [He shrugs. Live your life.
He just chews on his lip, considering.]
Well, for one, nothing in his fight with Rin was a complete and total lie, at least not from his perspective. Rin says Yukio's upright and moral, but Yukio obviously doesn't agree. He's a lot more cruel, bitter, jealous and cunning than I think Rin wants to admit. Of course, he still loves his brother. You can tell that just by the way the critters were cuddling while they were killing one another. But even when Rin was defending him, all his defences seem like we can conclusively say they're fragile at best.
I'm not judging him, for the record. I'm worse in just about every stretch of the imagination. But for one, his arm's not really broken, meaning he could've caught Rex unaware, he's telling Rin he's not a better or more moral person at all, and I think even if the kid's never seen a hookah before, he's probably at least read about it.
I know the footprint could've been planted, but it really was our only remotely solid clue for narrowing things down.
[Ok but actually since this is technically a separate topic than whether or not Yukio is a murderer, new thread.
Van Zieks flips open his notebook and lays it on a table, showing that he's copied down Allen's reproduction.]
I understand that there was a consensus arrived at that this message in fact reads "binch" when viewed upsidedown. However given the... apparent nature of that message, combined with the alledged importance of it, can we perhaps consider whether this is really its true meaning? [He is begging for it to not just be binch.]
...Well, it looks more like numbers. At least the first letter does. Might be a cipher of some kind? But if Rex's last moments on this mortal plane were to write a bloody cipher, I'm bringing him back to life to kill him again.
But, I suppose he could have been trying to hide the message from the killer, yeah?
There would be no reason to hide the message, though. It was found in the back room that had been sealed up, with the theory being that it was written by Mr Salazar's daemon, given the Dust found next to it.
But I agree that... a fair few of these do resemble numbers. Not only the four, but that could be a "19" at the end, rather than letters.
[Alisaie's not even bothering to look at the notebook, sorry fam.]
This message had been scratched into the floor, yes?
[...
Wait.]
Mayhap we've been looking at this the wrong way the entire time. What if the reason for the footprint was not because our culprit made a careless misstep, but because a crucial piece of evidence had been left that they had no way of hiding? They would seek to redirect our focus by planting something from which we would easier draw conclusions.
What if Rex's message did not truly say "binch," but was altered by our culprit to disguise its true meaning?
That is true. It is strange someone would leave a footprint when they should know from previous trials we will check such things. While it is entirely possible it was simply a matter of planted evidence to frame someone, given they could have easily walked outside to make use of Mr Turner's shoe, this is also possible.
I should say, I did already intend to share what we have discussed here with Lieutenant Kitsuragi, but now even moreso, as he was present at the scene. I do not know if it would be possible to discern such a thing, but I will ask him if he could possibly hazard a guess as to whether some of the marks might have different in som way from the others.
We made a crucial error with the message. It was not written by Mr. Rex's daemon. I have discussed this with the Lieutenant.
You see. Mr. Rex's body was found along with his sword. The sword itself had wood dust and grain on the tip, indicating that Mr. Rex carved the message himself, which further indicates Mr. Rex was within the storage room, carved the message, and perished there along with his daemon due to the smoke inhalation from the burning hookah in the back. This is proven by the dust found from his daemon. Then, following his death, someone pulled his body out of the storage room and knocked over the other hookah.
So this now brings a question to mind - why leave Miss Susato in the storage room, then? How did she not perish, while he did? But these are the facts I have arrived at so far.
What I am starting to worry is...recall the case of how Mr. Suigetsu was discovered? Wasn't there evidence placed there that framed him, by someone else?
Could this whole affair have been tampered with by a third party, outside of our murderer and victims?
If it would be helpful to you, I have organized my observations somewhat. I would be happy to share my notes. I am afraid they are rather rudimentary, particularly the notes that relate to Rex as I was forced to write them from memory after the fact.
[i'm just gonna put a little thing here so we all know at what point these nerds decided that HEY MAYBE HAVING OTHER PEOPLE WITH BRAINCELLS WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA :') that's all]
Thank you for the invitation. I've taken the time to look over Miss Susato's notes. For the most part, they are excellent. I only have a few things to add. Regarding the murders from the previous week...
The bloody knife in the mansion is likely not related to the murder of Revali. Mr. Houzuki claimed he only had two knives: the one he brought to trial, and the dust-covered one left in the garden.
The reeds and vines found with Revali's body came from the gardens, where he died. Mr. Houzuki supposedly used the reeds to "play a song to lure him in"... a power use, maybe? This was the source of the "whistling" sound Mr. Kijima reported. My understanding is that the body was then dragged through the garden foliage before being discarded in the canal.
Additionally, Revali was the one who was moving abnormally fast, due to the use of a power.
As for the physical examination results in that case, I kept notes on the leading suspects at the time. All major injuries were accounted for. Spike and Nero had a number of smaller injuries that had plausible explanations, but were not thoroughly scrutinized at the trial. Tsurumaru had no visible injuries.
[Spike is probably like, right fucking here? And he's talking about him as a suspect? It's cool, Kim doesn't mind.]
I'm afraid I don't know about the women, which is a shame. If Yoo Joonghyuk's hint is to be believed, one of them was likely scratched by Miss Mulberry.
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I would like to make it clear that at this point, to my knowledge we do not have decisive evidence to convict anyone in Mr Salazar's murder. What is most important at the moment is that we make sure everyone with something to say about it is on the same page. Therefore I would like to hear people's arguments as to why you feel one way or another. Please back your statements up with evidence.
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Right, first off, to settle personal affairs. [He looks at Susato.] Sorry for calling you a naive little moron, that was uncalled for. I was being suffocated by some depression curse. [He also looks at Sholmes.] ...I think I got a few things to apologize to you for, but... same excuse.
But in future, if you want us to keep something quiet, asking us directly about it and then loudly declaring we're completely wrong is not the way to go about it. Yeah, you've proven that Yukio's guilt wasn't a sure thing, but that's not how these executions work. Our not proving anyone guilty for Rex's murder was us failing Rin and choosing to string him up for lack of a better candidate.
Whether or not he was guilty's sort of irrelevant now, though. [And he's not sure how to feel about that!] But still, it's worth settling, just to check if the culprit survived the week, yeah?
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You are correct about that. I agree entirely - we failed Okumura-san and Rex as well, and it is unacceptable.
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You can speak your mind if you've got something to say.
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I feel that, even though you apologized for saying it, you are still treating me as though you believe I am objecting out of naivete, an unwillingness to accept that someone is guilty and must pay for this.
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...Naivete isn't the word I'd use when I'm not being forced to have a breakdown. More like... you're idealistic, optimistic. You want to protect people and you don't want anyone getting scapegoated. I respect that, genuinely, you're a very admirable girl. But you have to understand that these aren't courtroom trials, they're witch hunts decided by mob rule and designed to be cruel and unfair.
There's never going to be any right answer. If we're too hung up on being fair, we'll never get anywhere and things like what happened this week will just keep happening. I get that I'm speaking as someone who was nearly strung up by the mob myself last week, but even that would've been better than what happened here and I was entirely innocent there.
[When in doubt, just kill him.]
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[She hesitates.]
I agree that poor Yukio Okumura-san and Rin Okumura-san didn't deserve this. And we will likely have to make accusations to get anywhere, and some will be wrong. So why not explain why you were so certain about him?
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He just chews on his lip, considering.]
Well, for one, nothing in his fight with Rin was a complete and total lie, at least not from his perspective. Rin says Yukio's upright and moral, but Yukio obviously doesn't agree. He's a lot more cruel, bitter, jealous and cunning than I think Rin wants to admit. Of course, he still loves his brother. You can tell that just by the way the critters were cuddling while they were killing one another. But even when Rin was defending him, all his defences seem like we can conclusively say they're fragile at best.
I'm not judging him, for the record. I'm worse in just about every stretch of the imagination. But for one, his arm's not really broken, meaning he could've caught Rex unaware, he's telling Rin he's not a better or more moral person at all, and I think even if the kid's never seen a hookah before, he's probably at least read about it.
I know the footprint could've been planted, but it really was our only remotely solid clue for narrowing things down.
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binch
Van Zieks flips open his notebook and lays it on a table, showing that he's copied down Allen's reproduction.]
I understand that there was a consensus arrived at that this message in fact reads "binch" when viewed upsidedown. However given the... apparent nature of that message, combined with the alledged importance of it, can we perhaps consider whether this is really its true meaning?
[He is begging for it to not just be binch.]
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But, I suppose he could have been trying to hide the message from the killer, yeah?
Four... greater than... UIP?
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But I agree that... a fair few of these do resemble numbers. Not only the four, but that could be a "19" at the end, rather than letters.
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This message had been scratched into the floor, yes?
[...
Wait.]
Mayhap we've been looking at this the wrong way the entire time. What if the reason for the footprint was not because our culprit made a careless misstep, but because a crucial piece of evidence had been left that they had no way of hiding? They would seek to redirect our focus by planting something from which we would easier draw conclusions.
What if Rex's message did not truly say "binch," but was altered by our culprit to disguise its true meaning?
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That is true. It is strange someone would leave a footprint when they should know from previous trials we will check such things. While it is entirely possible it was simply a matter of planted evidence to frame someone, given they could have easily walked outside to make use of Mr Turner's shoe, this is also possible.
I should say, I did already intend to share what we have discussed here with Lieutenant Kitsuragi, but now even moreso, as he was present at the scene. I do not know if it would be possible to discern such a thing, but I will ask him if he could possibly hazard a guess as to whether some of the marks might have different in som way from the others.
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You see. Mr. Rex's body was found along with his sword. The sword itself had wood dust and grain on the tip, indicating that Mr. Rex carved the message himself, which further indicates Mr. Rex was within the storage room, carved the message, and perished there along with his daemon due to the smoke inhalation from the burning hookah in the back. This is proven by the dust found from his daemon. Then, following his death, someone pulled his body out of the storage room and knocked over the other hookah.
So this now brings a question to mind - why leave Miss Susato in the storage room, then? How did she not perish, while he did? But these are the facts I have arrived at so far.
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Mr. Sholmes! Your deductions are incredible as always!
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As always, I am here to untangle the whole affair with the power of deductive reasoning. I will see this matter through to the end.
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[But she seems quite happy to see him in action anyway.]
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Somehow in bringing us closer to understanding the true facts of the case you have given us more questions instead of answers.
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[And he frowns.]
What I am starting to worry is...recall the case of how Mr. Suigetsu was discovered? Wasn't there evidence placed there that framed him, by someone else?
Could this whole affair have been tampered with by a third party, outside of our murderer and victims?
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[Hmm.]
If it would be helpful to you, I have organized my observations somewhat. I would be happy to share my notes. I am afraid they are rather rudimentary, particularly the notes that relate to Rex as I was forced to write them from memory after the fact.
[She will hand out two sets of notes.]
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(Week 4) RE: Week 2 Trial
The bloody knife in the mansion is likely not related to the murder of Revali. Mr. Houzuki claimed he only had two knives: the one he brought to trial, and the dust-covered one left in the garden.
The reeds and vines found with Revali's body came from the gardens, where he died. Mr. Houzuki supposedly used the reeds to "play a song to lure him in"... a power use, maybe? This was the source of the "whistling" sound Mr. Kijima reported. My understanding is that the body was then dragged through the garden foliage before being discarded in the canal.
Additionally, Revali was the one who was moving abnormally fast, due to the use of a power.
As for the physical examination results in that case, I kept notes on the leading suspects at the time. All major injuries were accounted for. Spike and Nero had a number of smaller injuries that had plausible explanations, but were not thoroughly scrutinized at the trial. Tsurumaru had no visible injuries.
[Spike is probably like, right fucking here? And he's talking about him as a suspect? It's cool, Kim doesn't mind.]
I'm afraid I don't know about the women, which is a shame. If Yoo Joonghyuk's hint is to be believed, one of them was likely scratched by Miss Mulberry.
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[A smile - he's so diligent. She knew he was also good at taking notes.]
I did jot down some observations about the women's physical examinations, but I need to organize them a little better. May I share with you later?
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