Hostile Action Trial

[mockmods]

[As you all finish investigating, an electric chime rings out across the PA system.]

I believe that should be sufficient time for you all to prepare. Assistant, please escort everyone to the trial room.

[Penny emerges from the Security office again, head down, and slowly collects everyone; she leads you all to the east side of the common room, to the short hallway between dorms B1 and A2, that’s dead ended through your entire time here. As your group approaches, the wall seamlessly slides up to reveal a hidden doorway. Passing through leads to another short hallway and a small, round room, just big enough to hold all of you. Penny passes her ID over a small pad near the doorway, and it blinks green before the room lurches slightly beneath you; an elevator going down.]

[A short trip down leads you to a larger chamber, with a series of twenty-two podiums set up in a ring; in the center is a column of computer stations with large monitors, behind a set of thick metal beams with occasional faint flashes of energy arcing between them and a constant, low hum.]

Welcome to your first trial, Participants. You will use this time to determine which among your number killed the Legendary Bassist, and send them to justice. Failure to choose the correct culprit will have dire consequences for you all.

[Trial: commence.]

Comments

[doppelanger]

The knives were bloody on all sides. You see how they are piled. Was there blood on the wheel, too?

[mightdoriya]

[Somehow I completely read over the knives being present still pls forgive my brain lapse] There was. But if the knives were actually used on the victim as part of the machine, wouldn't his wounds be different?

[doppelanger]

This may be. I have never seen knife wheel before.

But it would be very messy, like his neck. Why else get all the knives bloody?

[mightdoriya]

[Izuku brings his hand to his mouth again, thinking.] It sounds like the knives were definitely most likely used as the main murder weapon. It would be a lot of trouble to just bloody up a lot of knives to fake evidence, but...there was also a wine bottle full of blood, so.

[doppelanger]

Especially if they were bleeding, too.

The bottle is curious. [ She pauses, considering. ] Why collect the blood and not use it?

[mightdoriya]

[...Might as well just nip this in the bud now, since it's bound to come up, he figures.] Beyond just doing it for the purpose of faking evidence in some way...the fact that it was put into a bottle makes me wonder... Sonia-san, you don't happen to know anything about that bottle of blood that was found, do you? I'm not accusing you of anything, I just want to clarify since...you would have had a practical reason to put it in a bottle like that.

[aragona]

It looked like the killer was putting in the entra effort to get it all off, but they didn't succeed. [A shrug.] They could have tried out different knives to see which ones worked the best.

[doppelanger]

Stupid. [ It's not directed at Sonia, just a comment! ] A knife for good steak is not a knife for bone.

[ Although, now that she's looking at her... ]

He was dead already. So, why exert?

[aragona]

Not all of us know that.

We should be here all day explaining why killers do things a certain way.

[doppelanger]

Mm.

How does a vampire killer do things? I would like to know how that is done.