THIRD TRIAL

[bathymetric]

[ Two bodies this week. As a result, it's a little longer before Mayor Fontaine's voice calls out over the loudspeakers. ]

All right, that'll do, all of you. Get to the bathyspheres. Trial time.

[ There's fewer bathyspheres this week, aren't there? It's starting to get really noticeable. One by one, alone or in pairs, you descend into the depths. The bottom of the seafloor, a place no human life was meant to travel to unassisted. It's dark, until it isn't, the same bio-luminescent slugs as before lighting up the area and revealing the great glass dome in which the trial takes place.

Within, three more podiums have gone dark. They remain empty as you all gather around into the circle.

The projector clicks on, and you see the silhouette of Mayor Fontaine above you. ]

We all know why we're here. Florida Man and Cryptobro got themselves got. Up to you to figure out who did it, or... well, you know by now.

[ Welcome to your third trial. ]

Comments

[pairtner]

We have two cases to solve today. Don't let yourself be swayed by despair. If we take this piece by piece, the cases can be solved. I will now provide the findings related to Jason Mendoza's case.

[Aiba displays a map of the church. Don't ask me how it looks like because I have no idea, haha]

I have marked the location of Jason's body. As you all can see, it was located quite some distance from the scorching marks from, presumably, an explosion. There also were no signs on the body he ever was hit by the explosion itself -- or perhaps it was a kind of explosion that wouldn't release a shockwave or a heatwave.

Jason displayed signs of having consumed some of the Mayor's plasmids. [Injected, but yeah, same thing] Both of his hands showed effects: his left hand had an artificial plastic appearance, while the right hand smoldered with fire coming from inside.

Other points of note involving fire are present on his pants and the bottom of his shoes. [Aiba shows her memories of those] Determining the exact source was impossible at the time -- it could be from his own fire powers, or perhaps from the explosion.

Finally...

[Aiba shows a picture of a blackish scrap of fabric, scorched as well]

There also was this clue. After comparing with Jason's clothes, I determined it is not a match. There's a chance this belongs to the culprit.

[This scrap of fabric was physically brought to the trial, yup]

[visiblepattern]

Because I know this came up last time, the only piece of clothing I've finished and delivered that was black was given to Rossiu. Everything else that may be black is something I've been struggling with this week, and so haven't been delivered yet.

[onemillion]

I can confirm this, though I unfortunately didn't bring it with me.

[He wasn't going to risk getting that ruined by blood???]

[bootyhunter]

Hey, I can't say I see any, baby, but... Is there liiiiike...?

[He's squinting at that piece of fabric- Yes, with the exact idiotic expression in the icon.]

Any hair or sweat on that thing?

[Mostly, he is trying to learn from Obi's trial! And all that running around they did with the piece of clothing.]

[pairtner]

I scanned and analyzed it upon finding it. There's none. Any traces that could be usable were destroyed by the fire, most likely.

[It was most likely an incidental thing instead of intentional, but yeah, no hair or sweat she could work with, yup]

[bootyhunter]

So that means this person probably has DNA.

[Dandy's eyes narrow. He's remembering something, but it's blurry.]

I know it sounds nutty, but those scans don't run good for everybody.

It sorta feels like there was a scuffle, so I'm not sure if this is actually gonna be a thing, but what if they used the fire to cover their tracks? We don't have to go down the rabbit hole just yet, but it's a thought.

[pairtner]

Unknown. But they wouldn't need to worry about DNA or anything similar -- I'm not a crime laboratory, so it's not like them leaving any around would be enough for me or anybody else here to pinpoint a culprit.

However, it's possible the destruction and scorching some have talked about are indeed an attempt to cover their tracks. [Fire is good for that, after all. Not infallible, but in this place where they don't have tools for detailed analysis it's more than enough]

[fuckingguy]

I am not licking that thing.

[bootyhunter]

There's no blood on it!

[He sounds snippy, sorry Nandor... He wasn't going to suggest it!]

Save those kinds of displays for your girlfriend, my dude!

[he means zinda rip]

[fuckingguy]

Hey, Aiba only said that shit five seconds ago! [ DEBATABLE... ]

[bootyhunter]

[Dandy looks at Nandor gently, his smile a lot subtler than usual.]

Hey, don't sweat it, Big Guy! Well, if undead people can sweat, I dunno.

I'm happy for you two. Have fun.

[hotpaprika]

... Wait do vampires consume sweat as well? Do vampires simply drink the bodily fluids of humans?

[Dandy didn't mention blood so can only assume.]

[fuckingguy]

... Jonathan, not right now.

[ Listen, Dandy didn't find the fabric!! He just asked the question! ]

[hotpaprika]

S-sorry, I was simply curious!

[And if it's true it might be useful for other investigation purposes!!]

[allatonce]

Hey, Aiba: can you, like, calculate the probability this was one or two killers?

[She's just wondering.]

[pairtner]

Not with certainty. Analyzing both corpses to determine if the same blade caused the stab wounds could give more answers, but I didn't examine Yasuhiro's body. It's unknown to me. [She would have, but there's only so much time available for investigations. She probably didn't get to do it in time]

However...I do think that, if we determine the traces of fire in Yasuhiro's case were caused by Jason, then it would mean both incidents are tied together and were likely caused by one single culprit.

[Doing that without any doubt is going to be difficult, though]

[allatonce]

[Yeah, that's about what she expected. Still, good to know.]

Yeah, you're probably right. What's the timeline there, though, if we think that it was caused by Jason? Like, how do we get from the arcade to the lobby back to the church?

[pairtner]

According to Rossiu, the barricade was set on the inside of the lobby, meaning it was destroyed from the outside with fire. It seems likely it did go from the arcade to the lobby back to the church.

[Hm...]

Is there any proof of who was in the arcade? If we determine it was Jason or Hagakure or both, then perhaps the timeline will be clearer.

[bootyhunter]

[Pops back in here-]

Hey, sorry- You said you didn't look at his body, yeah?

Well, I did.

[From his crumbling expression you can tell this isn't gonna be fun.]

Whaddya wanna know?

[pairtner]

How were the stab wounds like? Shape, length, any details like those would be useful, even if it's just an estimate. If...you can handle it, please be as descriptive as possible.

[.......]

Will you be alright?

[bootyhunter]

[He's not going to answer that second question, thank you.]

It looked like they were all from the same weapon.

Couldn't really get a good idea of what kinda weapon it was, but it was definitely a sharp, pointy thing.

[Dandy snorts.]

Which he hated.

But actually, now that I think about it...

[And you best believe that he doesn't want to!]

The gashes were pretty big. Whatever they used to get his ass, it definitely wasn't a kitchen knife.

Y'know, I picked up a spear outta the vending machine a while ago. Seems like a whole buncha weapons drop through there. Maybe it was one of those?

[Dandy holds up both hands in a truce.]

I don't wanna go 'round pointing fingers until we've got more info, though. Not now, not again.

[He shakes his head.]

I've learned my lesson, baby.

[u kno from last time... gomen mielle]

[onemillion]

The vending machine also contains swords; I received one of those not long ago.

[So like. That would probably do it.]

[daimakaicho]

Well, it's not like only one person has been getting them, so it's not as easy to immediately point a finger.

[ He gets what he means, but like, still. ]

It's a good point to be bringing up, regardless.

[pairtner]

It could be a spear, although using those for so many stabs isn't an easy task. It's a possibility.

[Aiba nods, trying to draw as much information from what Dandy said. Bigger than a kitchen knife, huh...and all wounds were from the same weapon.

Thinking back to the corpse...Joy examined the stab wounds]

Joy, please confirm this is what we saw.

[She displays to Joy's eyes a pretty rough mock-up of a stab wound like Dandy described, and one from what she scanned on Jason. Pretty much only shows the shape and length, no idea about the depth -- but it's pretty clear it's likely both were from the same kind of weapon]

[pairtner]

[Alright! Now that wound comparisons have been made and Joy informed they were from the same kind of weapon, Aiba again turns to Dandy]

...you're doing well so far. Hold strong, Dandy. This won't end in any other way than the culprit getting revealed.

I'm glad you...you're able to hold your head up and cooperate as much as you can. Well done.

[She thought some encouragement would be fine]