[TRIAL] Chapter 2 Class Trial

[Krampusuke]

After about an hour of investigating, the intercom sparked to life again. The ear piercing screech subsided after a moment and was replaced by Krampusuke's voice.

"Aaaalright everyone! Please get to the roof of the Lodge as fast as you can! And please, to everyone in the Eastern Area, please don't hog up the lift seat. I'm not patient enough to wait for three separate trips up the side of the mountain."

Once everyone finally made it up to the Lodge roof, they saw the sight of Krampusuke's large, cherry red sleigh again. Just like before, Santako was dangling on a rope at the front of the festive vehicle, flailing around. He didn't seem to like the idea of being one of Santa's reindeers.

Krampusuke instructed the remaining 13 students to jump up inside the sleigh. Once everyone was in, the sleigh launched off into the sky once again. This time, the daylight allowed everyone to see the vast scope of the landscape around the lodge. It appeared that there were still several other buildings and locations that were inaccessible to everyone.

Once the sleigh landed on the tower just as it had the last time, everyone was instructed to take the spiral staircase back down to the trial room.

Running down the spiral staircase, all you could think about was the fact that someone among you was a killer. Someone had brought Tenshin Sakurako's life to its end. And not only did you have to avenge her, but also you needed to seek the truth if you truly wished to keep on living.

Once everyone was down to the bottom of the tower, where the trial room lay, they all returned to their assigned podiums. This time the interior decor of the trial room seemed a bit different, though. This time it was an all red room with all sorts of old, gothic looking furniture. Like something out of an old, creepy mansion. You noticed that Tenshin and Karina's podiums now had their own portraits in their place, just like Mukizu had.

[Utazawa Fumio]

Utazawa speaks as soon as the mascot is finished explaining the trial, wearing an expression that only an idiot could have during a trial.

“So, guys, before we start, I have a like suuuuuuuper important question, ya know? Hear me out on this one!”

A pause, and then his expression melts into a serious look. Huh?

“…Who here believes Avril Lavigne is dead and has been replaced by a look-a-like?"

[Suzuki Hayato]

"Ah...bro," Suzuki swallows, "I don't think th-that's the...best opener to a murder trial. In my opinion."

[Osatsu Kei]

🐧 --- "Ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｅｖｅｒ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｂｅｆｏｒｅ ｙｏｕ ｓｐｅａｋ， Ｕｔａｚａｗａ－ｓａｎ？" --- 🐧

[Utazawa Fumio]

"Huh--? Oh! Sorry, bro!" He flashes a smile towards Suzuki and gives a thumbs up. "Didn't mean to distract, just thought it'd be good to lift the mood, ya know? But I getcha!" He pumps a fist upwards, getting pretty...excited. He really can't read the mood. "Let's get serious, folks!"

And then he turns to Osatsu. "Nah, where's the fun in that?"

[Osatsu Kei]

🐧 --- They let out a small chuckle at Utazawa's response to them, as they slightly tilted their head to the side, while idly playing with the doll in their hands.

"Ｙｏｕ ｍｉｇｈｔ ｗａｎｔ ｔｏ ｔｏｎｅ ｉｔ ｄｏｗｎ ｔｈｅｎ， ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ ｉｔ＇ｓ ｇｌａｒｉｎｇｌｙ ｏｂｖｉｏｕｓ．"

With that being said, they turned their attention to the rest of the class.

"But yes. Let's get back on track. Has anyone located the murder weapon? It would be best to establish that and confirm it so we don't have to worry about it."
its so fuckign cold --- 🐧

[Ishida Takane]

Takane sighed, and looked towards utazawa with an annoyed expression.

"If he thinks that we should get to discussing the real, actual murder, then maybe we should. Are we okay with that?"

He looked around the circle of classmates quickly, as if waiting for someone to try going back to the topic of celebrity doppelgangers. When no one did, he spoke once more.

"Alright. The victim, Tenshin Sakurako, was killed by a strike to the head and the resulting blunt force trauma. We can start there."

[Isayama Yaya]

Isayama could not help but flash a confused look after Utazawa had spoken.

"Um.... Who is Lavigne-san.... If I might ask Utazawa-san? Do you think they had anything to do with the case...?"

Afterwards, she had let a minute pass by before she had moved on to another subject.

"Everyone- um.... I would like to first apologize for not investigating as much as I had before- its just-"

{You never wanted to see another peer dead again, huh?}

Isayama had remained silent for just a moment, before she would continue on. With a deep breath and drawn out sigh- she had swallowed shallowly. Another moment had passed once she had found her voice again.

"No- never mind, making excuses now will not do any good."

"Besides my lack of discovering clues- I did however, find a couple clues that I hope will help us."

She had tried to once again wear her confident face- not trying to make the room feel anymore gloomy as it already felt.

"There were three sets of footprints leading into the deeper part of the wooded area- two sets of footprints seemed to make it back out of the deeper part."

She had swallowed again.

"I did compare my feet to the prints and found that one of them seem bigger then mine- and the other two were similar to my size but a bit smaller."


For a second, a grim look was shown on her face- but quickly dissipated in the next.

"Um- I did follow the sets deeper into the woods... I saw a figure prancing about and then saw- I had seen blood on the ground after I followed them... the footprints I mean- I- I think this was where Tenshin-san was hit..."

She had done her best to not imagine the scene- how it could have played out.

"I also- saw Shimakage-san found a golf club in the area too- I did not get a chance to take a good look at it, but I believe it is from the supply shed- where other sports equipment could be found..."

"I think- I think is all what I can contribute for now."

She had went back to being silent as she would await for more of her classmates to speak.

[Shimakage Seitaro]

For the second time in the span of a week or two (time tends to run together here), Shimakage disembarks from the sleigh and descends the staircase into the trial room. This time, however, in place of a concealed throwing knife, he finds himself in possession of a golf club - a fact which the rest of the class no doubt is aware of as well, considering how much he swings it around as though it's a baton. As soon as Utazawa's line of questioning is dropped, Shimakage drops the head of the club to the floor and takes a pretend swing, narrowly missing Nagareboshi's head in the process.

(His form is noticeably terrible; if they were there to judge athleticism and not guilt, Shimakage would have just guaranteed himself a sizable number of votes.)

"Isn't this a funny little clue? I wonder who this blood-splattered golf club could belong to! Maaaaybe you all should have believed me when I told you someone here was a danger to us all, hm? Hirase-san, you wanna take a look at this?"

For a few moments, Shimakage holds the club out to the lifeguard, showing that, yes, the head of the club is stained with blood. But then he straightens up, resting the head of the club on the ground and leaning his elbow against the handle. The dark expression is gone from his eyes, and once again, the conman takes on his teasing demeanor.

"Aaaaaaas fun as it would be to pin Ishida-kun to the wall right off the bat, might as well go through alibis again, mm? When the murder happened, I was in the SHSL Butler Research Lab for my shift. Preeeetty much no one was in the lodge, but around 2:50, Yanagi-chan entered the garbage room. I timed how long it would take to get from the central area to the eastern area on the lift, and it took about ten minutes! Since Sakurako-san was killed at 2:45, that means Yanagi-chan, as well as myself, are completely innocent. Since, you know, she died in the eastern area!"

[Isayama Yaya]

Isayama had quickly given Shimakage a conflicted- confused glance.

"Hold on- Shimakage-san, but, wouldn't that be incorrect...? I am sorry if I am a bit mistaken- but Yamato-san and Yanagi-san were the only two besides Ootani-san who did not go inside once our game had started."

What game? What the heck was she talking about?

"Although.....I could be mistaken... After all I am not sure of all the places we can enter the lodge from- and I was focusing more on hiding then anything else at the time...."


She gave Shimakage a worried gaze.

"I might have not noiticed him- but are you sure that it was Yanagi-san and not someone else....?"

Her gaze had gone to Yanagi

"Yanagi-san... Did you go inside at all once our game started? If so, I do apologize for my mistaken comments- and hope you can forgive me for not paying attention to such a important detail."

[Marugou Madoka]

The first thing Madoka did after the trial began was to facepalm - hard.

She could hardly restrain herself from heaving a deep sigh after Utazawa's absolutely useless contribution to the trial. Was this going to be a thing every time one of these started? Lord, have mercy on her soul, she can only take so much before wanting to kick against someone's shin.

Thankfully, it appeared as others weren't having any of this nonsense and instead, moved on to the actual reason why they were assembled here yet again. As always, Madoka first waited, listening to what everyone had to say. Isayama's evidence was acknowledged by a few nods, though she couldn't help but glance towards Shimakage, who... held the murder weapon in his hands.

Marvelous.

That aside, Madoka was curious about one thing that has been brought up thus far and therefore, opted to inquire about it:"Could you tell us what game you mean, Isayama?"

However, she wasn't done talking yet, because there was... quite a bit to cover:"Maybe we should wait with our alibis after laying out all the evidence. Otherwise, we're just gonna confuse ourselves which isn't preferable. Ishida's suggestion would make for a good start - and I can provide what I found about the dead body."

The detective harrumphed, before telling everyone in what kind of state the corpse was:"There were two bruises on her head, one bigger than the other. While the smaller one had an oval shape, the larger one was... not really defined in its shape. But it did take up most of the back of her head. I guess the golf club explains at least one of them, huh?"

"Anyway, aside from these wounds, Tenshin didn't sustain any other injuries. Her ID was still on her person and didn't contain anything of note. As for the missing ribbon, it was used to restrain the emergency break from pulling back, thus stranding everyone who was on the other side of the lift. All I can say is that Tenshin was definitely wearing her ribbon while being assaulted, because the blood on it only got perfectly together if you tied it to a bow."

[Yanagi Tsuneo]

He hated it, in this trial room. Hated the feeling of eyes on him, the feeling that everyone was scrutinizing his every movement- but of course, as soon as Shimakage mentioned his name, his, er, experience in the trash, Yanagi's cheeks burned, even as Isayama looked at him curiously.

    "... I went inside to hide, once I realized that, uh, being outside would be kind of dumb. I-" his cheeks burned, and he looks at his podium as though it was particularly interesting. "I... Decided to hide in the garbage room, because no one would look there. I. Yeah. It was me that Shimakage-kun saw, because, uh, no one else was there."

He clears his throat, humiliated, and instead of contributing anything further, decides to study his podium until he could, at least, make a worthwhile contribution.

[Hirase Marin]

Hirase watched wide eyed as Shimakage, who was directly to her side, swung the golf club. She ducked and covered her head. After waiting a few moments to make sure it was safe to stand, she popped back up from behind her podium and addressed her neighbor. 

"Shimakage-kun, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I didn't go to the supply room today, so I couldn't have gotten a golf club. Why would I, of all people, ever want to go grab a golf club? I hate the cold and golf is an old man's sport. Er, no offense, Ishida-kun."

Hirase crossed her arms, looking frustrated. Just because she was a jock didn't mean that she played every sport. There was no way she'd willingly play a lame, bougie game like golf for fun on her own time, especially when she had her own heated pool.

"I will admit that I saw Tenshin-san. While I was hanging out at my lab, I heard some noises coming from the woods, so I went to investigate. When I found her, she was already bleeding. I tried to get her to come with me so I could provide first aid, but I think she thought I was her attacker and ran away from me. She took the lift before I could get to it and I waited for the next one... that didn't come until after investigation already started. You all saw that I was stuck there."

Hirase looked away briefly in embarrassment, tugging on her hair.

"I know it's kind of pathetic that she managed to get away from me, given my talent, but I wasn't well equipped to be walking in the snow and she was in a frenzy. But either way, she was injured, but still alive when I last saw her."

[Shimakage Seitaro]

"Haha? What? Are you calling me stupid, I-sa-ya-ma-san? Maybe you're the stupid one if you think I'd mistake the boy I'm involved with for that buffoon? Yanagi-chan came into the garbage room at 2:45 and laid down. He was there until the body announcement played. Hey, hey, if you were playing hide-and-seek, why were you stalking other people? Doesn't sound like you were supposed to be seeking, based on what you said. Are you a t-r-a-i-t-o-r?"

He swings the club again, poor form and all, whilst staring menacingly in Isayama's direction. Thanks.

"Oh, oh, Marugou-san, I can answer that! Sounds like someone organized a game of hide and seek, which is kind of a genius thing to suggest if you're planning a murder! Nagareboshi-san came and asked me if I wanted to play, but I turned her down. After all, I had to be responsible and report for my shift!"

"...But if you'd like to wait on alibis, here's what I know. The golf club was buried in a pile of leaves in the wooded area. There was also a tree with blood splattered on it, aaaand a pool of fresh blood that was soaking into the dirt. Also, there were three sets of footprints leading into the area - one large and two small - but only one large set and one small set led out of the area. I think Sakurako-san was killed in the wooded area and carried out, and...there may have been an accomplice. Or else someone just watched and didn't care! Haha!"

"...And for the record, Hirase-san, I wasn't accusing you! Sorry for wanting to share evidence with the person next to me! I'll keep it to myself next time!"

[Yanagi Tsuneo]

Involved with.

The words echo in Yanagi's mind- and he's dazed for a few moments before his mind reminds him to listen to Shimakage- and as soon as the footprints are brought up, he shakes his head to clear his thoughts and clears his throat again- like he's trying to command attention, but everyone's talking at once, so Yanagi simply starts talking.

    "Of the three sets of footprints, the largest set was a really, really good match to my shoe size. I-... It's been established already that I wasn't there, but it's safe to assume that, ah, one of the people involved has the same size... Shoes, as, uh, as I do."

(Eloquent.)

    "So, uh. Maybe we should, compare? And those who are close to mine are, um. Pretty suspect, I think."

[Ishida Takane]

Takane's eyes widened in shock and disgust at the golf club that was brandished.

"You're quite right that I shouldn't be pinned for anything, what the hell is this? Using a golf club to kill someone, is that some kind of attempt to get eyes cast on me? That aside, now I'm a club down with no way to replace it!"

He huffed slightly, then turned his gaze towards Hirase. "I'll try not to take any." 

[Isayama Yaya]

Once Shimakage had spoken again, there was nothing Isayama could do to prevent the very vibrant and obvious red coming to her face and cheeks. How embarrassing and humiliating.

She did not know what to say.

"Stalking- I- I would never- I did not mean to Imply such- I-"

She had bowed her head and given both Yanagi and Shimakage a bow in apology.

"I offer the sincerest apologies for my mistake and rude accusations- I shall do better to prevent such a incident from occuring again..."

She really did not mean to cause such a horrifying offense- but she had, and all she could think to do was apologize.

"Yanagi-san, I believe you- again I am sorry for not noticing- I should have been more alert, so I sincerely do hope you can forgive me."

After she had finished apologizing, she had stood straight again and tried to gain back composer- and once she had- she had looked towards Hirase.

"So- Tenshin-san died on.... I thought at first she was carried or dragged to the lift after being hit- but I guess that explains why there were no drag marks or any kind of marks of a body lying on the ground."

She had looked towards her whole class now.

"Did we... Did someone find evidence as to why it took so long for the lift to get down? Also-"

"Why did she not have her bow on her when we found the body?"

She did her best to gain back her confident gaze- but it would have to wait a little longer- after going through her blunder.

[Osatsu Kei]

🐧 ---

"I wouldn't call it stalking in my own personal opinion. Even I saw that Yanagi-san and Yamato-san hadn't gone in by the time everyone else did. It's called using your eyes."

What a flimsy attempt at defending Isayama. 

"I pity Nagareboshi-san over there. Do try not to hit her with evidence, if you can." 

With that, they turn their attention back to their other classmates.

"Though Hirase-san's statement changes quite a lot, really. After all, she did just state that the victim was well alive and walking around even after being injured. At least, I assumed, since Hirase-san did say that she was bleeding. This does mean that the culprit probably struck Tenshin-san earlier than her time of death if we take this information to heart. I'm sure you guys know what this means. That's right, no one can probably be completely cleared off the table with just being seen at 2:45 pm."

A pause, before they let out a small chuckle.

"Though that's probably obvious. I'd like to address the other thing that I'm rather curious about-- hey, Ishida-san. So, why was your secret in Tenshin-san's room? Or well, her garbage can to say the least. I'm kind of let down with how predictable it was, really. Not trying to distract the trial, really, just curious on why that's over in her room."

--- 🐧

[Ishida Takane]

The question Osatsu directed towards Takane made him tense up. He remained silent for a few seconds, and then finally spoke up. 

"I had accidentally bumped into her after we were given our secrets. In that moment we accidentally switched cards. I don't know why she thought that was a good place for that...gah. And of course it was predictable, it was falsified. I have nothing to hide in my own life, so that detestable little thing had to make something up. The nerve of that thing, the slander!--"

As he'd gone on speaking, Takane had gotten more and more heated, shouting by the end of it and realizing around that same time just how he looked and sounded. He adjusted his clothing a bit, coughed, and straightened his back.

"You're putting me off track. When I realized this mistake, I asked for her to meet with me. We discussed our cards and agreed to keep each other's secrets, and hold on to those cards. After that, we'd parted. It's shocking to think that it ended up like this..."

[Marugou Madoka]

Albeit Madoka wanted to focus on the evidence first before diving into alibis, she couldn't help but be especially attentive when Hirase brought up the fact that she'd seen the victim shortly before her death. Brown orbs laid calmly upon Hirase's face, studying how the girl conducted herself.

Thus, she directed her next words to the blue-haired lifeguard:"Hirase, do you remember what time it was when you saw her? That would be good to know, though given that Tenshin died of blunt force trauma, it couldn't have been too long before her death..."

Then she threw a quick glance at Shimakage, looking a bit sour when he chastised Isayama for her inquiries - especially when Osatsu also claimed to not have seen Yanagi go inside when they themself did. That was already two people against an alibi... and quite frankly, she didn't like where this might be heading to.

"Shimakage, that's what I was talking about before - if someone's gonna aim for your life one day, it's 'cause of your behaviour", she reprimanded him, before sighing quietly. Afterwards though, she nodded at the explanation about this hide-and-seek game (and deep down, she's sulking a tiny little bit that she wasn't invited to this fun ride). "I see. So some of us were involved in a hide-and-seek game that has gone wrong horribly... if Tenshin was a part of it, that is. Can anyone who played give a statement to that?"

Oh dear, she could already see that she would do a lot of talking today as well. What a lucky gal she was... "Anyway, not surprising to hear that our culprit tried to hide their weapon away like that - and somehow, I could see that it was the tree that caused the larger bruise on Tenshin's head. Either way, it's pretty clear where the assault happened - but what we need to know is what happened afterwards."

And at that point, she looked at Isayama, who... asked something that she'd already stated before. Well, she could build on that with what she'd said a second ago:"As I already said, Tenshin's ribbon was found at the emergency brakes, which was used to prevent the lift from being operational. Someone must've taken it after Tenshin died on the lift. Therefore, if someone was seen by multiple people after Tenshin's death, they're clear from any suspicion."

The detective scratched her cheeks, deciding that she should offer more of her findings - even if it was pretty interesting to hear how Ishida's and Tenshin's secrets got swapped around (guess she didn't get to it because they were called back to the sleigh, huh?)

"Oh yeah, there were also lots of footprints, but only one of them were going away from the lift. They were headed to the Yukigassen field. Took a picture of it with my polaroid camera - to keep track of how much bigger it is than my own. And hey, maybe those who saw those footprints in the woods could see if this footprint matches with the ones they saw?", and with that, she produces a picture out of her pocket. It depicted two footprints - one of them was a bit larger than the other pair, which belonged to Madoka.