Week 3 - Trial

[cartesio]

Week 3: Trial

April 20th. It was now time for the trial.

When everyone arrives at the trial room, the tribunes are already filled with townspeople. Compared to last week, there's less morbid curiosity and more quiet outrage. Everyone's glaring at the visitors while they enter the courtroom.

The number of podiums draped in black has increased dramatically. Nine's, Mako's, Sandalphon's, and Bakugou's have joined Moloch's, raising the number to five. That's one sixth of the available podiums. How many more will be covered in black velvet before these two months end?

Once everyone is at the right podium, the Sergeant bangs his gavel. He doesn't seem to be in better mood than before.

"Today the victim is Katsuki Bakugou. Solve it."

Without even bothering to taunt or be as antagonistic as usual, he waves the gavel. Five small photos appear on the podiums.

            

"When it's time, you shall cast your vote. Write it on paper or put the photo inside the slot, I don't really care about how you do it. What matters is that you actually do it. Start your discussion."

The trial room went completely silent, all the visitors can feel the attentive stares of the townspeople gathered to watch. It's up to them now to find the culprit.

Let the trial begin.

Links

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Voting

[Welcome to the trial! Please remember to cash your votes here!. Your deadline is 8:00 PM EST. Good luck!]

Comments

[yonosoymaria]

Combat, yes, but killing someone you've known, at least in passing... killing is different from fighting.

[He just... makes a little frustrated noise, then.]

I'm not speaking well enough. I don't know if I'm making sense.

[pecker]

Um, in other words, you believe it is someone who's never taken a life before, yes?

That's quite an awkward question to have to ask of everyone...

[doublelammy]

We already asked everyone to strip. You think this is awkward?

[pecker]

W-Well.... true. And I didn't say that we shouldn't ask.

[she's just timid]

[snideper]

Oh, you don't need to ask.

[likes: murder]

[doublelammy]

I really hope no one was thinking of actually asking you.

[snideper]

You could. Have I ever got stories to tell.

[don't]

[doublelammy]

Yeah, don't think I've ever cared less about anything.

[carbide]

Your ability to kill is already firmly established. We have no need to examine it further.

[pecker]

[masterfully suppressing the urge to laugh.]

Yeah I guess.... You'd be a pretty bad assassin if you hadn't.

[yonosoymaria]

Not necessarily never, but... someone who cannot justify away what it feels like to watch someone die and know it was by your hand. Someone capable of regret.

["Someone like me," he isn't saying.]

[pecker]

[Someone not like me, is what she thinks in response.]

Ah... Bakugou-san's eyes had been closed for him, hadn't they? So you may be on to something with that.

...CW: Christianity?

[yonosoymaria]

His eyes were closed and he'd been... his eyes were closed and they perverted the sacrament of baptism by leaving him where they did. It is meant as a rebirth among God's children, the way the Protestants do it with being submerged in a font like that. Leaving his body there, of all places... I'm suddenly wondering if any among our suspects would know only enough to think they were uniting him with a decently friendly god in doing that....

[burgerprince]

[Jughead has a feeling, and thinks a moment before speaking up.]

You think they'd tried to get to grips with Christianity and didn't study hard enough?

[amburere]

If you knock someone unconscious half the time their eyes close in reflex.

[pecker]

True. Well, why not humor the possibility anyway?

[They don't really know either way, and you can't get insight on a killer from a reflex.]

[streetwolf]

[Ughh he likes you too. So he'll try.]

...I don't think I have. There's been a few close calls but normally everyone just runs away when they know they're beat.

[pecker]

[thanks salt buddy... she doesn't really think he did it anyway, but might as well follow up just for clarity's sake.]

And you're mostly talking about street fights, right? Have you ever fought someone as strong as Bakugou-san?

[streetwolf]

Kinda hard to rank it when the kid could explode shit... [But he scratches his head to think.]

I guess Miguel? He was quick and had a gun, that lasted a while...Only reason we're both alive is cause the bosses wanted to settle things themselves.

[pecker]

So it would be fair to say you couldn't take him for that long...

[unfashionably]

... It is, and I think I know what you're trying to say. The thing is, the amount of damage there is... Do you think someone would fight that hard if they weren't trying to survive?

[yonosoymaria]

No. No, there's no way, and that means he really was facing someone who could give him a hard time in a fight.

[unfashionably]

That's what I thought at first too. Now I'm thinking I might've been wrong, instead of facing someone who was strong enough to compete with him? He was facing someone with killing intent. The bottle of hemlock and motor oil prove that.

[yonosoymaria]

Yes. Whoever it was fought with the intention to kill, but the potential methods besides drawing him into combat also make it look like they didn't necessarily plan for that. It doesn't add up in my head unless they took someone who could generate explosions as a target of opportunity.

[unfashionably]

They probably went for whoever they saw first and took it one step at a time. The stuff in the junkyard was their attempt at planning ahead that didn't lead to anything.