☆ WEEK THREE ( TRIAL - DAY TWO )

[raisingproject]

Trial Day #2

Sunday, Week 3

Victim

Suspects

At around the same time as yesterday - 8 in the morning - all characters will, once again, be brought into the same magical world as the day prior. As always, breakfast and lunch will be served to anybody who asks for it, and any requests from the day prior will be held. "Today is the last day to discuss the murder of Chiaki Nanami, also known as 8bit Wonder, pon! Please make sure to submit your votes in before the time limit if you do not want to get removed from the game!" Access to voting on their magical phones is now available, along with a warning for characters to vote, as is closes at 10 PM.

Naturally, the same song plays today as well. Thanks, Fav.

14 REMAIN

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Comments

[imitationsoul]

There was no rope at the crime scene. I looked over the entire area very carefully - if Nanami was bound at any point in time, the rope was removed later.

[crossingout]

Wouldn't there have been rope marks if she was bound, in any case? I mean, if you're going to tie someone up, you should at least do it right.

[OOC: I've noted this both on Discord and Plurk, but I'll note it here as well -- the rope is not viable evidence in this particular case.]

[hawthorned]

I agree that there was no rope at the crime scene. However, if there was any, it was likely removed from the area as the killer had also threw the mirror into the river to cover their tracks.

However, there are some contradictions in Zack's and Seraphina's accounts that need to be addressed, and I would suggest to any who choose to question them, to do so when they are separated from one another. As Miss Zange already mentioned - Zack claims Miss Nanami was bound up. Miss Seraphina denies this, stating that the dollhouse was too dark at the time for him to know for certain. Zack also agreed that the room was dark when he attacked them.

However, this calls into question why the dollhouse was dark in the first place. Given that Miss Seraphina had invited Miss Nanami to that location to examine a specific doll closely, one would naturally assume that the lights should have been on at the time. Of course, if that wasn't the intention at all... that would certainly clarify that mystery.

[zackthekiller]

Okay, maybe I remembered the rope thing wrong... I'm not sure.

[Zack is not that smart. He might have gotten a detail confused.]

But if there was a light switch, why the hell didn't Seraphina use it? It would have saved us all a lot of trouble if I could clearly see that was Nanami in there and not Syzael.

[We might be down one corpse toucher and one psycho killer, but shit happens.]

[hawthorned]

Even if you did misremember the detail about the rope, that still doesn't explain why the lights were off.

[....]

But that is the question we have to answer. Of course, I can only offer a guess, but it seems in that situation the most logical reason for the lights to be off would be to try and conceal something from Miss Nanami.

[shining_finger]

I think it looks a lot like Seraphina tried to ambush Nanami only to be interrupted by Zack. Nanami seems--seemed--to be really interested in solving mysteries, so pretending to have found a clue would be a good way to lure her out. It would explain why the dollhouse was dark, and maybe also why Zack said Nanami was tied up.

However, for Seraphina to be the final culprit, she would have to have Tamamo's mirror--presumably just to implicate Tamamo, because she wouldn't know anyone would end up needing healing--know how to use it, be in a condition to use it after Zack's attack, and have time to get the rope and the mirror away from the scene after the attack and get back in time to fake unconsciousness when the body was found. So it's not the simplest solution.

[hawthorned]

Ah, please don't misunderstand. I doubt it was Miss Seraphina who killed Miss Nanami, though I don't think she's as innocent in the matter as she portrays herself to be. Had she dealt the final blow, the soles of her shoes would have been bloodied, which they weren't.

[shining_finger]

Oh, yeah, I didn't think of that, but that's an even better reason why it's unlikely that it was her.

I guess my point is, that being the case, do you think it's relevant to finding the actual killer to try to get a confession out of Seraphina on why it was dark?

[hawthorned]

That depends on whether or not you believe it's likely that Miss Seraphina and the killer worked together, don't you think?

[shining_finger]

... Oh. Good point. I guess a third person lurking in the shadows the whole time because they planned with Seraphina to attack Nanami makes a little more sense than the killer just happening to come by the dollhouse in the middle of the night, huh?

[Moeka's doing her best, but mystery investigations really aren't in her wheelhouse.]

[yourdreamismydream]

[As a thought occurs to Taiki, he'll speak up in agreement.]

From the sounds of things... It seems like it could definitely be possible Seraphina was working together with someone else. Again, not necessarily to say that she's the murderer here, but... If we look at it from that perspective, then maybe the lights were off because it was a trap from the start?

[shining_finger]

Yeah. I thought at first the lights were off so that Nanami couldn't see that Seraphina was going to attack her, but they might have been off so she couldn't see the third person.

[yourdreamismydream]

That makes sense to me, too. We could try to figure out who was in the room, maybe? We know Seraphina was there, and it seems Zack was there to attack her with the scythe, but... That still leaves up in the air who the third person was. I know Zange and I were spending the night together when the crime took place, so that leaves... Tamamo or Joshua as the third person in the room.

[shining_finger]

Tamamo seems like the most obvious answer, but it also seems like it might be too easy. In the third-person-in-the-room scenario, the murder was definitely premeditated even if things went a bit wrong, so why would Tamamo not have a weapon on her other than her mirror, which is very distinctive and points straight at her?

There's no evidence pointing to Joshua, but I did see him at the arcade last week--it looked like he was playing his own game and he was really not happy about what was in it. So if we're thinking that was the motive for choosing Nanami specifically as the victim... well, it's something, anyway.

[yourdreamismydream]

That's... definitely a thread that connect Joshua to this. And even though we know Tamamo had the mirror until she supposedly lost it, it's only fair to give him the same considerations as Tamamo as being the culprit. [His voice drops into something softer for a moment.] After last week... We should try to examine all options thoroughly until we're as sure as we can be.

So it looks like... On Joshua's side, we have a possible motive involved to link him. On Tamamo's side, we have the mirror to link her. And from their reactions on Monday, they were just as panicked about their important person being killed as a lot of us were. We still need to examine both of them thoroughly, but if nothing else... The motive is strong enough for both of them. [He remembers the way his heart had felt like it was tearing when he saw Akari.] There are some reactions that people just can't fake.

[shining_finger]

At the moment it definitely seems like it could go either way. I mean, Tamamo is still the most obvious choice unless she can come up with some proof that her mirror was stolen, but... like you said, after last week, I don't want to jump to conclusions.

[buylowsellhigh]

Yeah... but, I think we did a better job investigating this week. Things don't feel as confusing.

[shining_finger]

That's good, at least.

[yourdreamismydream]

[Taiki manages a smile that's hopefully reassuring to both of them.]

We've narrowed it down to two already, so that's a good start. We just have to keep digging until we get closer to the facts, and then we should be able to prevent having a repeat of last time.

[shining_finger]

Yeah. I guess we do still have a couple hours. And... well, it does seem like we're getting close.