SIXTH TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, same as every week before this - gather at the Vault Door so my Assistant can let you in. And I can start hoping to salvage at least the aquarium.

[ The Assistant, nee Failsafe, stands in her armor at the ready when you arrive, not saying a word and simply unlocking the door and elevator for you to head on down to the trial room. Second verse, same as the first five verses, but a whole lot quieter and a whole lot meaner.

The elevator is a lot emptier now, isn't it? Your number has fallen yet again since the last time you were here. Feels like yesterday, or maybe forever ago? Time's feeling pretty weird right about now, but trial days are for getting locked into the moment. You're here, you're present.

You're running out of allies.

The screens are the same as ever, though, and lower as you enter. ]

I see you haven't decided to continue to increase the number of bodies this week. Perhaps something to be thankful for, in all of this. Hotshot is dead, and the responsibility of finding his killer falls to you. Hopefully this is all old hat to you by now, no?

[The screens rise.

Welcome to your sixth trial. ]

Comments

[mouflon]

So, like the Professor said, the aquarium was a mess. Several tanks smashed open, and one with bullet holes. Based on the spread, we're looking at an auto or semi-auto weapon, and... I can't be as sure about this, but given the caliber of the bullets, I'm going to guess it's a rifle over a pistol.

There was also a lot of other damage that I'm... less sure about. Claw marks gouged into the walls, and spots that looked... melted?

[ Alas, she knows less about acid damage than she does guns. ]

[blackmass]

Corrosive damage, most likely. There was some in the hallway, along with several bullet holes as well.

[ladygeryon]

There were claw marks on the wall of the weapon room in the museum as well. The weapon case was also smashed open, with one of the swords being missing.

[nothingcanstop]

Everywhere got a little messed up, huh...? I was going to ask you about the bullets. [ Della places a few on her podium. ] Found these in the garden. They were in the pond, but that's not the only place. There were bullet holes on the walls, as well as claw marks and scorch marks.

...The rest of the garden didn't get off well either, since there was kicked up dirt just...all over the place. And the plants--most of them got hit by something. Except, it was weird...there was a lot less damage to the poison plants.

[bolderfell]

...Is a "rifle" a big gun.

[bolderfell]

[First thing, Therion lays a rifle across his podium. He'll come around to it eventually.]

I looked around where we found him while Zerinda checked the body. Think everyone saw how badly the place was damaged. The walls, the ceiling--and it was particularly bad over by the entrance to the weapons display. Like something exploded, or something hit the floor hard enough to make shockwaves. And that's not the only thing that did damage.

[He takes out a Ziploc bag with some weirdly corroded rock samples inside.]

Anyone familiar with different acids? Because I can't figure out what melted these rocks. Smells sharper than the acids I know. Metallic.

[Finally, he gestures at the gun.]

Also, someone who knows more about this should take a look at it. I already dusted it. No prints on it at all.

[bogwife]

Vincent was killed by a fairly large stab wound in his chest. He may have been there for a bit, there was a lot of blood pooled under him. Based on how destroyed the entire area was I think we know there was a fight but there was blood scattered around the museum lobby and there were tears and rips in his cape that looked much newer than the rest of them.

[She folds her arms across her chest, closing her eyes to visualize what she saw better.] He was already cold when I got to him and he was positioned in a bit of an odd way. He was on his back and one arm was set across his chest? [She opens her eyes again and chews her lower lip in thought.]

A few people already know this but Vincent was alive when I found him. He looked at me before he died and he said "I'm a mo-" and then he died. [She frowns suddenly.] I wasn't terribly close with him but does anyone remember what color his eyes were?

[blackmass]

...We only spoke a time or two, but...red, I believe. Why does that matter?

[ladygeryon]

Did you find any blood on his metal hand? Or residue that looked like he'd been scratching up the walls?

[bolderfell]

[Therion scribbles for a minute on a piece of notebook paper before holding it up for the others.]

Hey. Does this seem about right for the weapons and types of damage everyone saw?

Mods?

[ladygeryon]

[Did Nira see any swordlike slashes on the walls, or was it just claw marks?]

[nothingcanstop]

Looks right with the garden.

[blackmass]

That seems a fair approximation given what we know.

[blackmass]

That's...quite enough stalling, isn't it?

[Kirei laughed under his breath, a hand resting on his podium as though he found he needed support to stand.]

It does strike me as remarkable. How many times has this happened, in the brief span of weeks we have spent together? Líf, Alice Cullen, Seteth, Rose Quartz, Rhea, and now Vincent Valentine--

How many of us have been hiding what we truly are?

[Kirei spoke as though he were merely holding an ordinary conversation, even in a situation that was the furthest from it. Calm despite how pale and unsteady he looked, as though he was prepared for this very thing.]

[As though he never expected to get away with anything at all.]

I despised Seiros because she went to such lengths to justify herself. Twisting all logic and reason to paint herself as the moral superior, no matter what she did or what blood she shed in the process. I was disappointed in her, because she held the conviction to sacrifice everything for her single purpose and yet ruined such resolve by daring to justify it as for some imagined greater good.

Foolishly, I dared to think we were similar, and the disappointment I felt at realizing I was wrong can not be measured.

[Something flickered around him then; the same trick of the light that had been seen only for a split second when Rhea had angered him the week before was clearer now: forming into animate shadows twisting like intangible serpents and radiating an aura of pure curses and malice. Where it brushed against his podium, it corroded the structure as if its mere touch was antithetical to existence itself.]

There has only ever been one desire that I have held. To attain it I have taken many lives, and to pursue that desire is the only way I have known how to live. For that reason I could not truly condemn the morality of Seiros' acts even as I hated her demeanor, and because of that reason I would not curse or even blame the mindless demon once named Vincent Valentine.

[low I kneel, with heart's submission,
see, like ashes, my contrition,
help me in my last condition.]

For I also am what others would call 'a heartless monster'.

[bolderfell]

[Well. Birkin's off the hook for smelling the rocks, then. Yikesies.]

...So what did happen to the museum floor?

[fivestagegod]

[WHY THE FUCK IS HE THE ONE STANDING NEXT TO THIS.]

You're mad at us for being liars and hypocrites. Oh my god, get in line.

[hardnosed]

You weren't misleading us before, then. He was already a mindless beast when you encountered him.

[mouflon]

Hey, so can we just hear in plain terms whether or not you killed Vincent? You can grandstand all you want after that, I don't really care.

cw: death

[blackmass]

[There was really nothing else to do about it. This trial had been decided the moment he'd hesitated and Vincent had fired. It was always a shot through the heart, wasn't it? The heart he didn't have, the heart he'd never had.]

[Kirei Kotomine had been nothing like Kiritsugu Emiya. Nothing like Seiros, nothing like anyone here or in all existence. He had lived alone, and even in a room full of people he would die alone.]

Give the Professor...my regards on your way out of here. And-...

[A weak, bitter laugh. Was he smiling, in his last moments? With Kirei, it was always hard to tell. The twisting cursed shadows abruptly stopped their motion. Flickered like a candle in a hurricane, and...disappeared.]

...well, I suppose that I did not detest these past weeks so much.

[With what was--to someone as emotionally backwards as Kirei--a glowing bit of praise, he tasted blood in the back of his throat, stifled a cough...and collapsed to the floor.]

[Kirei Kotomine is dead.]

[hardnosed]

... So do we just leave now.

[fivestagegod]

[what exactly is an appropriate response to some guy just keeling over next to you]

...are we certain that he's dead, and are we going to want to make sure he stays that way?

[PROBABLY NOT THAT]

TIME TO VOTE!

[bathymetric]

[ There's a long few moments before The Professor speaks. He sounds... annoyed? Frustrated. ]

... I suppose a slight change in the proceedings is in order. Please vote for the culprit or culprits behind the deaths of Hotshot and the Perish Priest. Up to two answers are allowed, and ah... majority rules, you know the drill, get on with it. Just a formality at this point.

[mouflon]

...Wait, are you making us vote for Kotomine as the cause of his own death, for stalling? Or...

[bolderfell]

...

> Kirei Kotomine
> Vincent Valentine

[Hey. How high up are the screens right now?]

EXECUTION......?

[bathymetric]

[ There are another batch of long moments following the entry of the votes, and the Professor lets out a sigh. ]

I know I'm not a man of high moral standing, but I do have standards. I'm not trotting out the corpses to go through the motions of killing them, no one here gets anything out of that.

[ The elevator dings open. ]

You're free to go, but please note that Area D is off-limits until further notice. Don't get clever about it, it's for your safety and that of my staff. Preventing you all from dying in a flood seems the very least I can do for you at this point. On with your Friday.

[bolderfell]

[Okay but like, if Therion climbs up on his podium, can he reach the nearest screen.]