Chapter 1: The Trial

[Chatt]

Axel rises up from the roulette table, spinning like he's matching it. Then, he slows down and stares at everyone before zooming off toward the murder scene with a "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Satone flops onto the table and faints for an hour before suddenly jolting awake, woken by her rumbling stomach. She shakes her head to try and clear it before pulling out some Pocky like snack and wolfing down what remains. She slumps back onto the table and lays her head to the side while speaking, “That Axel idiot made the hole in rooms 1 and may have done so for rooms 2, 3, and 7 as well.” Satone wearily waves an arm pointing accusingly at the general direction that Axel's body is at before grumbling, “Someone was making so much noise thumping and sawing on the floor below that I couldn't rest, so I decided to give them a taste of my phoenix's wrath. I didn't skip breakfast just so an idiot could interrupt my rest.” She slowly rolls so her other cheek was on the table. “Anyway, the idiot opened the door as I approached and started to panic when he saw me. Another creep sneaked up behind me with a chloroform rag and grabbed me over the mouth.” Satone slams her hands on the table and pushed herself up. She starts flailing and her voice becomes tinged with annoyance, “It just gets worse from there. They decided to bind, gag, and blindfold me. Then they left me hanging for hours until someone up above cut the rope. I got out of the sheets and found myself in the laundry basket of the Head Maid's room. Shortly after, Cessair said something about a body and I stumbled to the fifth floor with everyone else.” Satone sighs and sinks back onto the table.

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy listens to Satone with his eyes and mouth... Still in same shape actually, weirdly enough. But his voice sounds horrified when he starts talking.

"That's practically kidnapping! Who could've done such as thing?! Mishy's so glad you managed to survive! But if it was culprit, why would they not..."

Mishy starts saying something but quickly shakes his head realizing its not something a mascot like him should be saying.

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo was shocked by this information. Had Axel REALLY been the one to make the holes? None of it made any sense.

"If Axel really did made the holes, why would he need to make one in my room? We were basically working together to break down doors on the fourth floor. I would more than likely have let him inside my room and take whatever if he really needed me to. Plus, Axel would not have had time to break into my apartment and move a certain item right as we got here. I had arrived at my room about 20 minutes after arriving at this place. I received a mysterious note and left. By the time I got back, which was about 35 or forty minutes after this game of ours began, there was a dagger laying on my bed."

Ryo pulls out the dagger he had been hiding on him the entire time. This is the dagger Ryo is referring to. The dagger has a '7' on it.

"I didn't realize this until after the fact but my room and the room Axel died in are the 7th room. So this was definitely my dagger. So then, why did Axel or whoever broke into my room make my dagger obvious? It's like they wanted me to find it. It has been on me the entire time we've been in this place since I've found it."

Ryo carefully concealed the dagger again.

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy looks at Ryo with unchanging expression but somehow you can tell he is very confused.

"Uhm... Mishy's sorry if he sounds a bit... Absent-minded, but... Mishy can't tell how is that story about dagger is related to current case? If you had found the dagger almost right as we arrived to this complex and had on you the whole time since... Then how is it related in any way to this case we are trying to solve? Or were you suggesting that the hole between your room 7 and room 7 downstairs was there from before we arrived? Or if you are concerned about somebody entering your room, maybe you just forgot to lock the door again just like Mishy often does, you can't seem to remember if you locked it last time either..."

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo shook his head.

"I'm not insinuating that the dagger is part of this case. However, we do need to keep the possibility open. Besides I DEFINITELY remember locking the door behind me. Meaning whoever moved my dagger had to have either picked my lock or the hole in my closet was made earlier than we thought."

He then thought some things through.

"If the murder weapon and the tool used to create the holes came from the casino, then how did the culprit or Axel manage to buy them? Axel and I had a giant chest full of chips from the Casino Manager A's room and Cessair would only allow us to buy one secret or two weapons. Axel was very insistent on buying the secret but I REALLY wanted something to bust down doors with so he settled on weapons. Which means the culprit or Axel would have needed a significant supply of chips to buy whatever weapons were necessary for this murder."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Satone slowly gets up and wearily mumbles, “Silly familiar, they probably realized that they could not defeat the Magical Devil Girl and took the easy way out... It could have been that they never intended to kill and were simply working together, but... a disagreement broke out while they were carving up the rooms.” She pauses for a while before remembering something, “Oh yes, about the puzzle of individuals reaching the holes in the ceiling without something to stand on. The taller and more athletic could reach the hole without assistance. I believe that this group would be Axel, Ryo, Caster, Day, Lloyd, Owen, Yoff, and Pierrick.”

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Yoff: "...Why would anyone make a secret passageway into people's rooms? Considering our situation, I think the answer is obvious."


-Owen nods-
Owen: "It wasn't for any good reason I imagine. Also, I hate to ask a silly question like this, but why are we assuming that the same person is the culprit of all these incidents? We have a small army of people dead set on entering places with locked doors. What with the greathammer, pickaxe, and multiple lockpick sets. Unless we have some real reason to believe that the same person committed each of these crimes, I think we should approach them as separate incidents."

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo was in agreement with Owen.

"I can see your point. However, there is no doubt that the hole was used in Axel's murder. As such it is important to know when that hole was created."

Ryo thought back on when he found the dagger. Then something clicked.

"I DEFINITELY remember locking the door before I left. And when I came back, my door was still locked. Meaning that whoever moved my dagger could not have left my room after doing so. If that's the case then either they were still hiding in my room when I came back inside or they used the hole to climb in and out of my room without having to worry about locking my door. If the second one is the case, then it stands to reason that the holes were made soon after we arrived here.

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Cessair steps forward to speak-
Cessair: "Allow me to clarify something. I moved the dagger in order to help you find it, since you managed to walk into your room and completely miss it. With my abilities doing that is simple. And yes, that is within the realm of my permissions as a Starless Overlord. Can you confirm that Itriot?"



Itriot: "Indeed, such an action was taken to further help the Black Clash, but since all participants were provided such a dagger, it was not showing favoritism. It is legal within Starless Law."

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy while not as much as Satone during first day, still seems dumbfounded, even if it doesn't show on face much.

"Uhm... Does that make the chance of hole being there from start smaller..?"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Following some whispers discord, Satone speaks up again. "Ryo is the most obvious suspect of this case. There is a hole leading from his room to the room with the victim, there are sawdust covered kitchen towels and rags in the pocket of one of his spare clothes, and there is a bloody comforter that he claims had gone through the washing machine. The sawdust covered cloths were probably used in the cleanup process, quite a few locations had been wiped down to try and remove the sawdust. The comforter has a gash that appeared to have been created with one of those daggers that we had been provided with, creating an especially sharp cut. The hole had been blocked by a nightstand and the door of room 7 had been locked, so it is essentially a locked room. The only way out would have been through Ryo's room."

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo nodded his head at the worthless waste of space that was Mishy the perverted cat.

"It would seem so. Also, maybe it would be best to work on the timeline for the murder? I mean, the murder had to have happened before 6pm the night before we found the body. I was in my room from the time the elevator started working again to 8am when everybody woke up, so there's no way the culprit could have left without me seeing them. They definitely were not still in the apartment below mine either since they had to have been outside my apartment to start the washer and slip the note under my door at 5am. But do we have anything more concrete than just that the murder occurred before 6pm? All I remember from the day of the murder was I spent the entire day from breakfast until around 5:30pm exploring the staff quarters with Nanashi. That's when I left and got stuck in the elevator."

Ryo then shook his head at Satone.

"If I was the culprit, then how did I kill Axel? I was with Nanashi the entire day of the murder. In any case, there are still some questions we need answered. Like, what is the murder weapon? What was used to make holes in the floor? What was my comforter used for?"

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy seems to be trying to scratch it's head with it's paws while letting out a fairly loud hmmmmmm'ing sound."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm... Mishy is confused again... Mr Ryo... If you said that you went to Laundry after you got the note and found your bloody comforter... *pauses to cough twice* Found your comforter bloody in there... Why did you not immediately tell everyone at breakfast about it that day? Wasn't it uhhh... Very suspicious, at that point..?"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Following more whispered questions, Satone comments "The holes were probably made with the chakram, considering the dull edges. Considering the sawdust on the nighstands and the square without sawdust in the closets, Axel probably stood on them while making the holes. They would each take an hour or two to make, perhaps less so for two working together. As for the weapon, the marks on his stomach appear to resemble fists and, as I had not found an actual weapon, the broken rib may have been caused by a kick. The wound on his head was somewhat of a mess. The sides of the chakram were used to bash his head, possible in an attempt to hide the real wound. I would think that the comforter was used to keep blood from splashing on the culprit, but there is not much supporting or disproving that. As for the killer's weapons, it would take a lucky individual hours of gambling to get enough chips for chloroform. Considering how I had been knocked out before noon, they had either been gambling all morning or done so during prior days."