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]

But we aren't talking about a case where you were looking to kill. We're talking about a case where you probably acted in self-defense. Didn't you basically just say earlier that the best way to defend yourself from a threat is to make sure it's dead?

[blackmass]

I did, and I stand by that fact.

But I have been killing heretics and demons since I was ten years old. Do you actually think me so stupid that I would fail to make absolutely sure one was dead?

[mouflon]

We don't know what Vincent was. We're all saying vampire, but last time I checked, vampires don't usually have acid blood or whatever it is we're discussing over there. [ She jerks a thumb in Therion's direction. ] It's entirely possible that... whatever his anatomy was like, it was something you were unfamiliar with. And that might cause you to slip up.

If you're going to say it wasn't you, then you could at least have the decency to stop taking everything so damn personally and contribute an alternate theory.

[blackmass]

I knew what Vincent was no more than I know what the rest of you could be capable of, and so I can scarcely provide such an idea.

Besides, I feel I've been doing the majority of theorizing these past trials. It's grown...very tiresome.

[mouflon]

Really, the majority? You helped out last time, I'll give you that. That's the whole reason I gave you back those Black Keys in the first place. But if you can't provide me with a better answer than I'm going to take my ball and go home, then I don't see any reason to remove you from the top of the list of suspects.

[blackmass]

I don't care what you do or do not see reason about, Rin Tohsaka.

[There was a sharpness to his voice then, something annoyed and perhaps a little strained. With it, the same brief trick of the light that had been seen in his argument with Rhea; a dark shadow, just for an instant.]

[mouflon]

You're the one who isn't seeing reason! [ Rin's own frustration breaks; she slams her hands down on the face of her podium. ] I'm giving you an out, Kotomine, and instead you're going to stand here and dig in your heels?

[blackmass]

It's just as you said, is it not?

I am not the Kirei Kotomine you know. If I were, this would come as no surprise to you at all.

[mouflon]

Which part. If you were the Kirei Kotomine I knew, I wouldn't be accusing you in the fist place.

[blackmass]

The part where I am, according to the you of another world, an insufferable person that you simply can't like.

[mouflon]

[ She snorts. ]

That's true regardless, and it doesn't change anything I've just said to you.

[blackmass]

Neither does it change anything I've said.

[Kirei laughed to himself, perhaps a little breathlessly.]

...It doesn't matter, Rin.

[mouflon]

[ ...Her posture stiffens. ]

Oh, yeah? Care to tell us why?

[blackmass]

...

Because...this trial was over before it began.

[mouflon]

[ It's a very normal and neutral gesture, probably, the way she shifts the shotgun she's had strapped to her back for the past two weeks! ]

Keep talking, then. You clearly want to.

[blackmass]

Don't bother with such a thing. Even were I able or willing to fight now...you can't kill me, Rin.

[mouflon]

I don't intend to. After all, that would just end with my head on the chopping block instead, right, Professor?

So, hey, no need to worry about me. You just tell us whatever it is you want to say, Kotomine.

[hardnosed]

What are you talking about?

[blackmass]

Is it really not that clear? I thought it was rather impressively laid out.

[bolderfell]

...Rin, we need to figure out what happened as much as we can before we start accusing people. That's why it took so long for us to get Nova that time. You said it yourself, it could've easily been a knife from the machine.

[mouflon]

All I'm asking him to do is bat me another idea. I'm trying to rule him out.

[bolderfell]

Might be too early for that either way. You were looking to make explosives earlier in the week, right? Do you know anything about the kind of... non-explosion that might've done the damage in the museum?

[mouflon]

I didn't get a good look at it. What did you say... No shrapnel, no heat damage? I'm pretty sure it would have to be something unnatural, in that case, if it's just force.

The problem is that we don't know what Vincent was capable of. Like I said, it seems most likely to me that the claws, the bullets, and the acid all came from one source, but I can't say much about any other kind of damage that have turned up.

[bolderfell]

There are a few of us that could have done the scorch marks. ...I'm one of them.

If we can't figure out what Vincent was capable of, we can at least tell one another what we saw people do this week. It won't be the whole picture, but we're not relying on anyone to come forward and prove themselves guilty. Something might still turn up.

[mouflon]

[ Ugh. ]

Therion, I hate to say it, but you're one of the most likely ones here. You probably use knives to fight, don't you? They're small and can be concealed well. Plus, your title is Dodger.

Other than that, I've seen... Zerinda used fire after the announcement, and Nira has her energy sword or whatever it is. And then there was all the stuff Jasper was doing.