TURNABOUT DESPAIR - AN ACE ATTORNEY/DANGAN RONPA RP

Two killers working together? That's a theory, alright. Might explain some things, like the two sinks being used... the out-of-place sandbag... and Nayo, at least, seems willing to take Aurora's alibi at face value. That's nice. If she were a nicer person she might actually be touched. The question of why two killers would work together is still a pretty valid one, though.

"Half of you guys are already buddy-buddy and bleeding-hearty enough that I wouldn't put it past you losers to try and work together on a stupid murder plot. Even if only one of them would get anything out of it. Hell, maybe that's why Tiger Boy went running off to god-knows-where. Trying to hide 'cause he can't take the guilt? Pff. Fucking coward."

Anyway. Back to the evidence. She glares at Bacchus.

"Sure, evidence includes testimony, I guess, but no one's got any good fucking testimony, either! Someone waltzed on down two floors with blood on their hands, and apparently no one fucking noticed! No one's got shit on this murder, aside from the fact that no one can back up my alibi!"

She gestures briefly at Sabine before she places a hand on her already rolled-up sleeve, pausing for a moment with a frown before pushing it up even further.

“Welllll, with where he is right now, he may as well not be included in your little group. Mr. Ichimonji decided to go poking around where he shouldn’t, and will be dealt with accordingly.”

Bacchus drums his fingers against the table. Hiiro's absence is a noticeable oddity, and while Bacchus has been doing his best to focus on the murders, it's impossible to avoid the absence altogether. "Unfortunately," he says, "Monsieur Ichimonji is probably dead. We all saw what happened to Mademoiselle Leeps. It is strange that we have no confirmation on it yet, though, so anything is possible, but the odds do not seem, mm, favourable." He shrugs. "Unless it appears he is tied to the murder cases, I think it best we leave him for after."

He swivels to Nayo. "Using the sandbag as a sort of trap does make sense. It was certainly not a weapon in and of itself! It is heavy, yes, but it would not be suitable for a blunt weapon, I think. You would just as well smother someone with it than strike him. However, there are enough similarities in the two deaths, as I pointed out previously, that I believe their killers to be the one and the same. Ah, but I have been wrong before! Feel free to poke holes in my... arguments."

Wow, she was asked about her alibi and that was it? No further comment? She felt like she was being ignored and that made her bristle with some kind of indignation.

"Okay, well, like. I'm just gonna say what everyone's thinking. I wouldn't put it past a clown to kill someone. I mean, they all have that feral gene in them so it's always just like, a matter of time before it gets funky."

She speaks confidently, as if this is a fact. As if debating it is akin to debating that you need oxygen to breathe.

"And secondly, why on earth would anyone collaborate, like? There's already a TON that can go wrong in a murder, you're basically handing half your life to someone you don't know that well. It seems hashtag TooMuchTrouble if you ask me."

Nayo didn't, but she's going to say that anyway. Selphie goes on to fold her arms, cheeks puffed out.

That's it. The piece that cracks this all open.

You can't be daunted now, Ganaiyo. They're counting on you, even if you can't imagine it being that way, even if you're not a hero. . . you're a person, too!

"It's strange, isn't it? Why clean off in two separate sinks? There's no logical reason to it."

"Unless. . ."

It's here that Nayo's voice picks up a bit.

"Let me present to you the possible scenarios behind this killing.

One: There is a singular killer, still alive, that did in both Kin and Pierette, and stands in the room.

Two: There are two killers, separate but simultaneous.

Three: There are two killers, working together.

Four: One of our victims is a killer in and of themselves, and the last killer standing remains with us."

"In two of those scenarios. . . Alibis would be meaningless. Even if the killers weren't working together, they would've caught onto each other's alibis by now, wouldn't they have? They'd have collaborated to seem completely innocent. We can't trust any of our testimonies. We've been assuming the one killer, two bodies scenario- but if they were associates the entire time, it'd justify the usage of two sinks, wouldn't it?"

There's something different about this tin can.

"Here's my proposal as to what transpired. The sandbag, nor the bottle, could have been used as weapons. The blood would've seeped into the fabric, and the victim would smell distinctly of the minty cough syrup in the bottle, as it would've broken over their head, spilling the contents. Rather, the sandbag was part of a trap.

Take this: The killers collaborate. A trap is set up in the crime lab, just after Aurora leaves, let's assume she's telling the truth. The locks on the wheels of the filing cabinet are all undone, and the sandbag is placed to stop it from rolling. They somehow create a scenario that when the door is opened, the sandbag is pulled, releasing the filing cabinet and having it roll down and strike whoever walked in, killing them. Suppose Kin opens the door- but the contraption misfires, running the cabinet into the diorama instead. After all, if Kin was in a struggle, wouldn't he have bruises in his body from falling in?"

"Contingency plan! They have to quiet Kin, so they strike him over with the microscope. Who else is there to witness it but Pierette, whom the accomplice hunts down? Pierette cracks open the bottle to defend herself. The second killer does her in, silencing her. The cabinet is moved back to the wall, tracking in the blood on its wheel. The two have not time to reconvene- they split off where they can, cleaning off themselves and there instruments, and cleaning up the evidence."

A pause.

Bacchus actually seems disappointed by this answer. Oh well, more information is never a bad thing, except when it is. "That must be where the murderer clean themselves off. It helps us make a timeline, at least. I still believe that Monsieur Oshiro was the intended target, after which the murderer went to the infirmary and was spotted by la clown, and had to kill her too. Afterwards they must have gone downstairs to wash up. Using the neutral washroom was a clever move - we cannot determine gender based on the washroom, at least." He grins at Sabine though bc I was in the middle of this post when she said more- "Perhaps the blood in the washroom is not the victim's, but the killer's! There was a scuffle in the crime lab, after all, as evidenced by the squashed diorama."

Back to the stuff i'd already written. He taps his chin. "This still does not lead us closer to the murderer, alas! What of the sandbag, though? It is from the concert stage, non? I still do not understand how it fits into this."

She murmurs, under her breath:

“The bloody sink in the infirmary, though, why would they rinse off there and in the bathroom downstairs, there’s no reason to spread evidence, unless—“

Just like that, the answer comes to her, and Sabine draws a sharp gasp.

“… I think the killer is injured.”

Oh, shit. That’s important, apparently. Sabine’s eyes widen as she combs her two braincells to find that memory.

“I, um—it was in the sink. Not a lot at all, it was kind of hard to see, and it looked pretty diluted with water, but there were some drops of regular blood there. Like someone was trying to rinse it down the drain.”

Oh, she doesn't like that at all.

"Listen, you condescending piece of shit!" she snaps back at Manny. "I said I didn't see anyone because I didn't see anyone! It's not like I was up there the whole time, anyway! You really think I'd admit to being the only one who was on that floor at all if I'd actually done it?? Dipshit?? Call me a little kid one more time and I'll climb over this prosecutor's bench and prosecute your face with my fist!"

"Christ, you're really gonna pick at alibis to try and solve this shit? Why don't we try solving the actual murder, you useless himbos! You think if someone wanted to kill someone - hell, two people - they'd pick up a fucking microscope, of all things? They could have used that broken bottle on the floor, or that sandbag, even, you could bludgeon someone with either of those, it'd be way easier! Either way, there's literally no evidence that I was involved, so. Take your accusations and shove them up your goddamn ass. Y'know, if the word ass is in your big boy vocabulary."

Bacchus leans forward, suddenly intrigued. Piggy-backing on Nayo's question he asks, "And how much blood was there? More or less than at the crime scenes?" You can hear gears turning in his head as he thinks things through.

Though he's trying to piece together the parts himself, there feels as though there's always a key element missing. Something that would tie together the case's loose strings. They can talk about alibis all they want, but even then, it's not like everyone has a get out of jail free card. Somehow, somewhere, there's a hole in someone's story waiting to be punctured.

Sabine's statement causes his ears- sensors? Ears, to rotate a bit, paneling over in her direction. Perhaps this is the breakthrough he needed.

Alibis, alibis, alibis... Emmanuel glances from juror to juror as they share, his expression mostly neutral.

But then Aurora shares, and the same smile from investigation comes back.

"Ohh, look who finally decided to join us at the grownup table..."

But he shuts up for a minute at least, letting Sabine summarize so far.  He cups a hand to his chin in thought.

"Taiho, I'm also curious about the Ichimonji situation.  I can't imagine you would let him take a sick day without good reason?" he taps his other hand on the defendant's stand.  "... well, if he's not here to testify..."

Turn up the heat. 

Something's eventually going to come to a boil. 

His eyes open and he fixes his eyes on one juror in particular.

"Borealis." what a lame nickname.  "You're the only one who's testified to having visited the crime scene.  Are you absolutely sure nobody was in the area at the time?  Furthermore, you're the only one who said anything about seeing Ichimonji.  Did you see him at any point between the announcement and the start of the trial?  Use your big girl words and convince me you had nothing to do with this."

He cocks his head to the side, almost smiling.

“Seems like this trial’s taken a turn for the interesting, hasn’t it? I’m on the edge of my seat... or I would be, if I could sit there without falling off.”

Normally, Sabine might shrink back at the aggression directed her way for her less-than-tactful alibi request. She certainly feels the urge. But she doesn’t act on it. They’re running out of time, she can feel it, and the thought of what might happen if they don’t find out who did this…

She squints at Aurora.

“So… nobody can confirm where you were. Is there really no way to, uh, get Ichimonji—Hiiro—um, to get him in here? Because if we can’t, that’s…”

A sidelong glance in Taiho’s direction.

“I don’t think it was Ganaiyo. And I don’t think it was Riesling—oh, Choux’s secret wasn’t broadcasted, either, I forgot to mention—but when I used the restroom, I saw Choux outside of Riesling’s door, so it couldn’t have been either of them, because… I didn't bring it up earlier because I was hoping the killer would screw up their alibi and I could go, 'oh, that's not true, it must be you,' but...”

"The neutral bathroom was locked when I tried to use it. And when we investigated, we found blood in there.”

What a time to bring that up!! She’s more thinking aloud at this point.

“So, suspects... It couldn’t be me, because Choux saw me come and go between my room and the bathroom, and I didn’t have any blood on me. It wasn’t Splain, he was sleeping—and he said DePlumme should be able to vouch for him. It probably wasn’t Bacchus, or Stickland, or Ganaiyo—unless anyone mentioned in their alibis is lying or hasn’t spoken up. If not, um, that leaves…”

“… Maybe Riesling, if he wasn’t actually in his room? Ichimonji, maybe, but he’s not here, and, um… Taiho, if Ichimonji did it, would you let him skip out on the trial? Other than that, um… I guess Costa-Ryde could be lying, but…”

She rubs at her face.

“I don’t know. I’m not good at this. I just want to know who did it. I don’t want to have to resort to extreme measures.”

Ugh, gross. Aurora hasn't had to actually explain herself at a trial yet and she sure as hell doesn't feel like starting now. Mostly because she spends so much time ignoring the people around her and it doesn't make for great testimony. But, Sabine's probably gonna get on her ass if she refuses to talk, so.

Nayo isn't nearly as vocal as he is in this sort of arrangement. He doesn't view himself as a necessary factor, after all. But deep down, he can't help but feel like something is deliberately being danced around here. Before he can open his mouth to interject, though, his alibi is called for. Not like a robot has much to do these days, anyways.

"I spent my time in the library, for the most part. Kin was. . . he was with me there, but said there was. . . 'something worth checking out', I believe, and then left. That was the last I saw of him before," he pauses, swallowing his own words with a throat that can't swallow at all. "Eurydice came in after, if I recall- someone had botched their cooking attempt, so she came to spend time in the library instead. We were there up until the announcement."

With that out of the way, now he can get to what's bothering him.

"Huh?" The sound that exists her mouth is more like a demand. "Huh? Huh? Huh? What's with that tone?"

She puffs up her cheeks and places her hands on her waist, eyes narrowing.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going. Like, the implication? Wack. Just 'cause someone didn't get outed doesn't mean they're guilty, right? I mean, like. Sounds to me like you just want to know where I was, which is, I get it, I'm an insta-star, sure, you wanna know what's hip and hot, but that's still stalking and it's still totally weird! Or worse, you're after my secret... which I don't have, but if I did, that'd be a total violation! So you... leanbean, scenebean, whatever bean you are, you mind your tone!"

Her eyes skim over to Bacchus. She's not quite sure if he's getting her name wrong on purpose or not but she frowns anyway. She's an internet celebrity! She doesn't deserve this kind of harrassment.