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

[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.