Chapter 1: The Trial

[John Dark Souls]

But then before Ryo even gets to answer, Mishy is distracted again by Satone's statement next.

"Knocked out before noon..? But then... Axel appeared in afternoon to bring some food for lunch as apology for running off... Then if Satone was caught on catching Axel during hole cutting thing and then Axel just casually went and made lunch and brought it for us then..? Mishy doesn't get what is happening at all! Nothing makes sense!"

[Exusiai]

"Starless lords are really helpful in a challenge about murder and trials!"

Nanashi comments, attempting to find a silver lining in the situation.

"According to the Magical Devil Girlthen, Axel probably started making that system of holes on the day Ryo and I were exploring the staff quarters. On that same day, I asked everyone for breakfast soon after I got up. I heard that eating together is a good opportunity to become friends!
If I remember correctly, Axel told me on that morning, the day before there we found him in an abandoned apartment room, that he had things to do first.
Axel eventually came down to the restaurant, but he left just as quickly. I'd imagine he started sawing after that encounter.
I'm not sure about anyone else, but Ryo and I did wander around through the staff quarters together until 5:30 PM—just like he said. We made a Search & Search team!

Clearly enthusiastic about this accomplishment towards friendship, the boy grinned from ear to ear, but he withdrew his excitement after the contrast of his tone to the current situation became evident.

"What I meant to say is that—I don't think Ryo and I had the time to have ambushed Satone. 
Pl-Please, forget that statement.
When I think about it, Satone wouldn't have to be carried to the staff quarters, though.
Satone- Ah, I mean—the Magical Devil Girl said she was captured while she was at the empty apartments, which are on the fifth floor. The place where Satone woke up in was on the fourth floor, though. I'd imagine that it would be risky carrying an unconscious body through the elevator, so it's likely she was dropped down the laundry chute from the fifth floor instead.
On a 'mission,' I tried entering the laundry chute, myself, and it's definitely large enough to fit someone frail like me!
'Nanashi,' you may ask, 'Would the person who attacked Satone have to have been somebody who didn't attend breakfast then?"

"Err- that may have been too blunt.  I meant to say that the assaulter could possibly have been someone who attended the meal, regardless of whether Satone was captured during or after breakfast.
Although nearly everyone was at breakfast and we all left around the same time... from what I can vaguely recall, there is one other way that the culprit could have easily slipped in and out of the restaurant without being noticed!"

Bringing up a fist as he clears his throat, the boy begins making grand gestures in the air in front of him. As expected, these gestures do not actually aid the point he had been attempting to convey.

"The restaurant is on the third floor. As you may already know, the restaurant is linked to the kitchen. The kitchen has an oven that is unused for the most part.
Mmm... that might not make sense. Sorry, I'll rephrase that then: the kitchen's oven is actually a portal!
I'm sure that some of us saw a weird drawing by our rooms on the sixth floor before the murder occurred. You see—that whole glowing drawing on the sixth floor is actually a doorway that leads to the kitchen on the third floor.
Out of curiosity, I poked my head through after noticing it, and I ended up in the oven of the restaurant's kitchen.
The person who ambushed the Magical Devil Girl could have easily crawled through the oven to the sixth floor and then proceeded to take the elevator down to the fifth floor.
And just like that—the culprit could have returned to breakfast with us none the wiser!
We're still missing the time that Sat- the Magical Devil Girl was knocked out, so I can't actually make any conclusions about how the culprit snuck up on her yet."

[Xaniks]

"Listen well, I do not like to repeat myself. After breakfast, I did the natural thing for one of my class: to camp, in the Kitchen of course. I do not like to give out the skills of my trade... but I was well-hidden in a cabinet. At one point, Axel entered through the magical door in the oven and grabbed kitchen towels, exiting via the portal. Owen spent a good portion of his day here as well. I myself exited the Kitchen through the portal at night, it was quite the useful doorway. I did the same thing the next morning, but we were all called to investigate, so you should know the rest."

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Satone ponders for a bit before saying, "There was an odd discovery in Nanashi's room though. He has three daggers, two being Lloyd and Axel's. Normally this could just be passed as a crime spree, but possessing the dagger of the victim is quite suspicious."

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo looked at Satone. It sounded logical, but it was wrong.

"Nanashi couldn't have knocked out Satone! I was with him from breakfast to about a minute before the elevator broke. There's no way he could have been in two places at once."

After thinking for a bit Ryo remembered something about the night before.

"Oh. Maybe I should have mentioned this earlier. But When I arrived at my room at around 5:45pm, not only had my nightstand been moved to my closet but also all my toilet paper was gone and there was a wet spot on the floor as if somebody had tried to wipe something away. In fact, when investigating, the toilet paper was definitely missing. Meaning whatever the culprit tried to wipe away had been done so before 6pm. I don't know if that helps but it might so!"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Satone scratches her head while thinking. "With the chloroform requiring a significant amount of chips to obtain and how long a certain individual had remained in the casino, Pierrick, would you care to tell us what you had done with your chips and whether you had seen anyone else gambling for a considerable amount of time."

[Ryo Asuka]

Ryo began drawing a map on some paper Cessair had given him, but lost motivation and made a spreadsheet instead.

"So. After reviewing everybody's alibis, there are five people that I believe is safe to remove from the suspect list. Since Nanashi and I were together from breakfast until I left to go back to my room, there is no way either of us could have knocked out Satone. Since Satone was knocked out from before noon to right before the body discovery announcement came on, there's no way Satone could be the culprit. Due to Caster's account, we know that Owen was in the restaurant and kitchen during the murder, so it is reasonable to assume that Owen did not commit the murder. Lastly, since Caster was the one to be hiding in the kitchen, it is reasonable to assume that he did not commit the murder either."

Ryo cleared his throat and gave a slightly evil grin before continuing.

"This is the fun part. Since Satone did not find anything that the culprit could have used to climb up from the room Axel was in to my room, it is safe to assume that the culprit is tall enough that they did not need help climbing up. If we use that logic, then that means the culprit could not have been Mishy, Shinka, Rikka, Yuuta, or Monika. This only leaves four possible suspects: Day, Llyod, Yoff, and Pierrick."

Ryo took another moment to catch his breath before proceeding.

"Of course, there is some evidence which makes me think it wasn't Lloyd. If we go based on what Satone said about the gash in the comforter being made by a dagger, it could not be Lloyd, since his dagger was in Nanashi's room. As such, due to process of elimination, my current three suspects are: Day, Yoff, and Pierrick."

Then, Ryo thought back to seeing Satone and Pierrick gambling earlier.

"Pierrick. I too would like to know what you spent the chips on and if you saw anybody else gambling. Considering the weapons in the casino are expensive, it would have taken a lot of time to build up enough to buy anything form the casino. Meaning if the chloroform came from the casino, then the culprit would have had to spend more time gambling than they could have possibly done in the few hours before Satone was knocked out with it."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Pierrick: "Haha! I used all my chips playing more casino games! Any that didn't go back into the games I left inside the slot machines!"

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy seems to be conflicted about something while listening to Ryo's culprit deduction theory, but nevertheless doesn't seem to object to it, going along with it.

"Mishy finds it hard to think Mr. Yoff could be the culprit of Satone kidnapping. He most definitely isn't. After all, as soon as breakfast on the first day ended, Mishy and Mr. Yoff went together to commons to watch Koi fish. And we stayed there together until about an hour hour before elevator broke down, when Mr. Yoff seemed to head off, leaving Mishy and Mr. Itriot down. That's why, kidnapping Satone, or preparing the holes should've been impossible for Mr. Yoff."

[John Dark Souls]

Suddenly Mishy's eyes sparkle with flash of realization. Or not really, they look same, but you swear you could've imagined them sparkle as Mishy suddenly jumps as if about to get into dance only to stop self right upon landing.

"Vodka mister, are you really sure that what you said was everything that happened in kitchen? Judging by your words, you make it sound like you spent most of the day from breakfast until night in the kitchen and that in that time only other people entering kitchen were Axel who only took towels and left and Owen. Mishy clearly remembers the taste of mixed meal of veggies and meat covered in sea salt that Axel brought down to commons for Mishy, Yoff and Itriot in the afternoon. But if Axel never took the meals from kitchen or made them, who or how made them and handed them over to Axel and when, to make him deliver them to us in afternoon???"

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Owen: "Forgive me for asking another silly question but, how do we know the person who attacked Satone is the culprit? I trust Satone, but we don't even have evidence that this person exists, so I find it hard to assume they are the culprit. Besides Axel seeing them, I find it hard to believe they are even related to this case. It seems like a wild goose chase!"

[Exusiai]

"Arara- I haven't checked the slot machines, but if that's true, then the person who attacked Magical Devil Girl Satone wouldn't have to spend a long time in the casino.
Rather than spending a lot of time in the casino then, I think the assaulter probably exchanged the chips that Pierrick left behind.
Hmm... that really doesn't close the window for when Satone got attacked.
...
Th-There wouldn't happen to have been anyone who conveniently spent nearly the whole day at the casino before Axel's body was found.  Would there?"

"Well, Satone.  Even though I did have the victim's dagger, it would have still been impossible for someone like me to escape through the hole without a foothold.
When I took a picture of the crime scene, the nightstand in the room where we found Axel was not beneath the hole in the ceiling.
The culprit wouldn't have had the opportunity to move it back either.  When investigation began, several people stayed behind at the crime scene, meaning that someone would have noticed if the nightstand was moved.
I also only got Axel's dagger during the investigation. Ryo and I got similar notes from a person who called themselves 'Judgement.' We compared our notes and learned that they were near identical copies of each other, save for the recipient's name. I got mine much before Ryo did—it was snuck beneath my door as soon as I arrived to my room for the first time, but the person who wrote it ran away before I could check.
Even though, according to Satone, Axel had a hole in his room like Ryo and I had in our rooms, I couldn't find a note in his room, so I think that the self-proclaimed 'Judgement' was actually our victim—Axel.
I guess that deduction isn't very useful.
Right—back to the daggers! I found Axel's dagger in his nightstand, so he likely hid it in there. The fact that I found it in there means that the culprit must have brought another dagger during that blurry period.

Listening to Mishy's realization, Nanashi practically leaps.

"If Caster only saw Axel get towels from the kitchen, then Axel wouldn't have been able to successfully prepare a meal.
I may eat mostly junk food, but even I know that you can't make meat and veggies out of towels!
There was a point that Axel could have gotten the ingredients on the day that Satone got ambushed, though.
He shoved food in his pockets when he came down for breakfast and left right afterwards, but unless he's Dora*mon, it would be really difficult to fit enough meat, vegetables, and plates to serve three people."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Yoff: "....Explains why the buffoon used so much sea salt. To drown out the sawdust."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Owen: "I was in and out of the kitchen that day, but I recall seeing Axel in there making something. Maybe he was just in Caster's blind spot or something?"

[Xaniks]

”I must have forgotten. Axel came in the Kitchen at one point and made some food. A number of people came and went, I find it difficult to remember every litle detail.”