WEEK 3 INVESTIGATION

[foundationmods]

Three weeks had gone by, and even with the other Witch being revealed, Friday came.

Waking up on this day began to feel like the prelude to something horrible.

To a horrible sight...and some kind of deep betrayal, knowing that one of them had ended the lives of someone they'd been speaking and laughing with just the day before...🗈

...But, they had no choice. This was the game, and it had to be played - set in motion by the pair of Witches.

No matter how they felt, they had to search, to gaze upon cruel death in it's many forms.

No matter....how dear the person once was to them, today...they would be nothing but a corpse to gleam clues from, in preparation for the trial.

And so...they had to push forward. Forward...to find a terrible truth.

Comments

[byanyother_name]

[Hope you don't think he can't recognize one of those bodies even from up here. It's one pretty damn familiar to him.]

Akira!

[He lowers his head, shaking a little, body tense. One of his fists is clenched, the other gripping the railing tightly.]

Whoever you are, start. running. now.

[goldenmaniac]

Kurama-san...

[Takumi has enough self-preservation to not touch him, but he's here regardless]

[byanyother_name]

I wonder what happens when you commit murder mid-trial?

[The words are bad enough. The tone is worse, light and musing and as casual as someone contemplating what a button might do if pushed.

Kurama uncurls his fist and glances at the bloody marks left by his nails. He pulls out a handkerchief and presses it over them.

Time to examine the footprints.]

[foundationmods]

[For once this entire game, they're clear.

They look like Akira and Ryuji's footprints.]

[goldenmaniac]

You'll be executed instead of the culprit.

[Takumi gets it, but please don't. He'll look around for other clues]

[byanyother_name]

It might be worth it.

[goldenmaniac]

And leaves one less person to stop Nirrti and not actually avenge anyone at all.

[Yeah, Takumi is not having this]

[byanyother_name]

[That's not exactly surprising but it is kind of infuriating. Not. That Kurama isn't in basically an unbroken state of infuriated anyway.

He's going to look around the rest of the balcony.]

[foundationmods]

[He'll see two teacups out on the table there, with a little tea left in each.]

[goldenmaniac]

...check it for poison. That'd be an easy way to kill people from a distance. Easier than pushing two in shape teenagers without a struggle.

[byanyother_name]

It looks like they were already standing on the damned railing like a pair of idiots. But I will.

[Kurama is going to sniff the tea traces. His nose is not what it's supposed to be but he's pretty sure he can still tell if the tea smells the way it should.]

[foundationmods]

[It does indeed look like the tea smells like how it should.

However, since Kurama has experience with herbs, he'll be able to tell one smells like chamomile and the other smells like both chamomile and valerian root.]

[byanyother_name]

...

[How much valerian root? He's well aware it's used for relaxation and help sleeping but too much is poisonous.]

[foundationmods]

[Enough that would be good for tea - a normal dose if you'd want to sleep.]

[byanyother_name]

[So not poisoned but almost definitely groggy...]

...it isn't poison. But these teas are for help with sleep. Akira- he asked me to help him with this...

[Kurama's breathing hitches for a second before evening out.]

If they drank this before whatever happened, they would have been groggy. Slow to react. One of them more than the other.

[Any sign of who might have been sitting where?]

[foundationmods]

[Not really, no. Beyond the teacups and a blanket on one of the seats, there's nothing to tell who was where.]

[byanyother_name]

[Any signs of someone else on the balcony? Anyone he can't account for, that is.]

[foundationmods]

[No.

It's almost like....this whole thing happened, and the culprit just....vanished.

...

Did....Nirrti do this?]

[byanyother_name]

[Kurama doesn't believe Nirrti did this at all but he doesn't like the other possibility.

At all.

He's going to go back to the railing and check the direction and any pattern to the prints there.]

[foundationmods]

[Here's where it gets interesting. The prints are facing towards the balcony and each other, like they were being stupid teenage boys and balancing on it.

...However, it's clear that they both got very close to each other and then -

from the marks, it looks like they were pushed off. At the very least, one set definitely looks that way.]

[byanyother_name]

[He doesn't like that one set part. Kurama is actually going to do that balcony math himself, judging the position of the bodies from here and what that says about their arc of fall, based on them standing on the railing.]

[foundationmods]

[It's consistent with someone being pushed off from the balcony, not a fall, though it seems a little short, most likely due to two people hanging onto each other falling instead of just one.]

[byanyother_name]

[......which set of prints looks pushed? Akira or Ryuji?]

[foundationmods]

[Ryuji.]

[byanyother_name]

[Looking at the prints and the various angles, could he get an idea of where the person pushing might have been?]