Chapter 2: The Trial

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Pierrick cackles wildly as he cartwheels in place....somehow-
Pierrick: "Alright alright! So the truth is....I saw the Dagger being used to hold the sheets in place on the 5th floor! That is how I know who did it. Buuuuuuuuttttt........Cause I didn't get the fun of solving it you guys need to help me enjoy it! So! If you want the number on the dagger.... Tell me how it all played out!"

[Daiwa Scarlet]

Satone daydreams about a cat and mouse flying over a dying world on a hang glider until the jester's crazy laughter bring her back to reality. She listens to the arguments going back and forth, wondering whether to comment. Seeing how the others had stopped after the jester proposed his challenge, she decides to add a little more to talk about. "I wonder if anyone else noticed that around the Iron Stars there are two abandoned buildings with the boards around the entrance cleared up. One of the buildings is four stories high while the other is five. With a hang glider, it might be possible to reach the fourth story window of the tower. The two unlocked windows face North and South, so it would work quite well with the Iron Stars in the South. There is also a scrape along the side of the dropped piece of PVC pipe as if it hit something hard."

[King V]

-RIN continues shuddering from hangglider ptsd. Finally she musters enough will to speak-

"This witness is... appalled by the culprit. They must be annihilated without hesitation... without mercy..."

-another shudder-

"How the murder occurred must be something like so... the culprit prepared pipes, duct tape, and sheets for... the apparatus which shall not be named... before the day began. After breakfast, the culprit went up to the 6th floor, and was about to head down, but found the elevator was malfunctioning. So, the culprit was forced to use a roundabout method to reach the 4th floor where they had prepared their materials. They entered Axel's room, jumped down, and shifted a nightstand over to climb back up. They then proceeded to pin a set of bedsheets to the ground with the dagger they took from Yoff's room, and used this makeshift rope to climb down through the laundry chute. This brought the culprit to the 4th floor, where they proceeded to assemble... the apparatus which shall not be named... and used the mechanism to descend to ground level. The culprit most likely waited for some kind of timing with the meeting note they had set for 11am before committing the crime to ensure that there would be as few witnesses as possible, but the murder could have realistically been committed anytime from 9-11am when witnesses weren't present near the iron stars. Afterwards, the culprit ascended to the 4th floor using... the apparatus which shall not be named... and used their roundabout method to ascend back to the 6th floor, disposing of evidence through the laundry chute along the way. The culprit then remained on the 6th floor, gathering near the elevator alongside everyone else until the body discovery was announced. It seems that everything has been found except for the dagger, which this witness presumes was kept on the culprit's person or disposed of in some other way during the ascent after the murder was already finished."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Pierrick nods as Rin explains the scenario-
Pierrick: "85%! A passing grade! Alrighty then! If you are ready to earn the last of that score its time to deduce the Culprit!"
-Pierrick does a pirouette before speaking again-
Pierrick: "The Dagger I saw on the 5th floor had the number Six emblazoned on its oh so magnificent crosspiece!"
-Pierrick bows-
Pierrick: "And with that, I rest my case! If you all remember the right truth then this trial is OOOOOOOOooooovvvveeeeeerrrrrrrrrr!"

[Ryo Asuka]

"If that's the case...did anybody see Yoff's dagger before the culprit took it?"

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Itriot: "Yoff's dagger does not currently exist. It was obliterated when he was.....cast into the flame."

-He nods at Cessair-

Itriot: "Since we were technically responsible for destroying it, its existence is outside the scope of this case so we will reveal this information."

[Ryo Asuka]

"I believe we have all the facts necessary to decide whether it was Monika or Lloyd that committed the crime. So, for the final time, here is Owen Theory 3.0! I think the culprit had already prepared a make-shift hangglider with the PVC pipe found in the fourth floor and the corner joint piece found outside. This is made evident by the A shape it forms along with the duct tape residue left on the PVP pipe. The culprit also made sure to cut the wire to the fourth floor early in the morning, which keeps the elevator from going to the fourth floor from the inside buttons, before sliding the notes under all of our doors. Then, the culprit went to breakfast like normal before going up to the sixth floor. Then, they probably planned on using the elevator to go down to the third floor to use the passage up to the fourth floor, but realized the elevator wasn't working due to Rin's shenanigans. So, they needed another way down: the laundry chute. They couldn't use my room since Pierrick was inside, so the culprit instead went into Axel's room. From there, they went through the hole in the floor, the hole that leads from Axel's closet to the fifth floor. Then, they used bedsheets from some of the rooms to make a rope. After making the rope, they stabbed one end into the ground with their dagger, as seen by the hole in the floor on the fifth floor. Then, the culprit tossed the other end of the rope down the chute along with the other length of rope; this would also serve as to keep the chute door on the fifth floor open since the chute door cannot be opened from the inside of the chute. They then went down the chute and gathered the rest of the bedsheets from the fourth floor to make a second rope. However, there was one major flaw with their plan: Pierrick came to the fifth floor via the hole in my closet. Pierrick saw the number on the dagger: a 6. Meanwhile, the culprit stabbed something else into the end of the rope to pin it to the ground, hence the hole in the floor by the window on the fourth floor. The culprit then made their way through the window and out down to the first floor outside. After that, they went over to the gym, being careful not to be seen by Mishy who was cleaning outside. After entering, the culprit snuck up on Owen while he was lifting the 245 pound bar that was found at the crime scene. Owen struggled, hence the look of agony, the scuff marks on the ground form his feet, and the death grip on the bar. Then, after killing Owen, the culprit needed to make it back to the 6th floor to establish their alibi. However, the rope could not have been long enough to reach all the way to the first floor. Luckily, the culprit had their backup: the hangglider. They simply climbed up a nearby building and glided through the fourth floor window. Unfortunately for them, the tip of their glider fell off, which is the corner piece found outside. The culprit then broke apart their hangglider and stuck the duct tape inside one of Itriot's cloaks, the one we found with duct tape on the inside, to make the method of the hangglider not obvious. They also pulled up the makeshift rope and closed the window behind them. Then, the culprit climbed up to the fifth floor via the rope in the chute, pulling up the rope behind them. This explains the bedsheets left behind on the fifth floor. After that, they simply climbed back up through the hole in Axel's closet by using the nightstand. This would allow them to come back out at 11am, blending in with everybody, since everybody on the sixth floor who was there at the beginning of the elevator being stuck was at the elevators at 11am for Cessair's announcement. Then, they simply went back to Axel's room and waited for the body announcement at 11:20am to come back out and go down to find the body with us."

Ryo took one last deep breath.

"This means, the person who committed the crime was the person with a 6 on their dagger! However, Yoff's dagger was the one with a 6 on it, and it was destroyed. Of course, there is the next best thing: 16. 16 has a 6 in it. And do you know who has the 16 dagger? Our lovely suspect Monika has the 16 dagger! Meaning...

"THE CULPRIT IS JUST MONIKA!"

[King V]

"Your theory doesn't stand, person with the white hair. That pipe piece on the ground in front of the apartment complex has no duct tape residue on it. If that had been part of the hangglider as you claim, it would definitely have some residue on it."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Pierrick: "I bet the culprit avoided getting it sticky so they could pull it off quickly and shrink the glider! Besides, it clearly didn't stay on since it was on the ground outside later!"

[Ryo Asuka]

"That may be true, Mrs. Nothing, but there was something else used on the hangglider! There was also pieces of bedsheet which could be used on the hangglider. These pieces of bedsheet would not leave residue on the pipes. So the hangglider theory would still work."

[King V]

"As this witness recalls, the theory about bedsheets being used on the hangglider was merely the insane man's rambling, you have no actual evidence that bedsheets were used to hold the hangglider together."

[Ryo Asuka]

"True, but there is no other way the culprit could have gotten inside the fourth floor. The wire to access the fourth floor via the elevator is cut, so it is impossible for the culprit to reach the fourth floor via the elevator. The elevator was stopped by you, making it impossible for the culprit to use the elevator to reach the third floor and use the passage to the fourth floor. And, the makeshift rope would be too small to climb back up from outside to the fourth floor. Which means the ONLY way the culprit could access the fourth floor is by using the hangglider. Unless you found some other way to access the fourth floor that you haven't told us about?"

[King V]

"Simple, the culprit never went to the 4th floor. The culprit only set things up on the 4th floor prior to the elevator going down. The culprit simply used the portal that exists between the locker room and the 6th floor after finding out there was no way to the 4th floor."

[Ryo Asuka]

"Actually, there is one piece of evidence to prove that the culprit was there. Monika, if you would be so kind to show us your dagger! Since Pierrick saw Monika's dagger holding the rope up between 9am and 11am, if Monika has her dagger on her now, it proves she went went back to the fifth floor after Pierrick left to retrieve her dagger. The only person that could have removed the dagger afterwards would be the same culprit to put the dagger there in the first place."

[King V]

"Monika going back and forth between floors has no relation to the murder. The murder can be done without entering the 4th and 5th floors at all by using the portal between the 1st and 6th floors."