#chiketsu

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Oh... | Chiketsu | Chapter 4 Motive Reaction

Well, this was a lot to take in. Apparently people's worst secrets were going to slowly come to light? Until someone killed? That was... quite something. But currently, there was only one train of thought occupying Chiketsu's mind. "Wait... The ghost thing was real!? Hey! HEY! GRIMMZB! WAIT UP!" Off she went, sparkles in her eyes.

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What I Didn't Do | Chiketsu | Trial 3-3 | RE: Himiku | ATTN: Himiku

After her spiel. Chiketsu had fallen silent once again, idly staring around the room. Chiketsu hadn't said anything until that last part of Himiku's ramblings. Even the gum trick didn't make her flinch. "I didn't have anything to do with this." Chiketsu said through gritted teeth as she stared down at her hands, which were gripping her podium tightly. It was hard to make out her expression.

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Malice without AL | Chiketsu | Trial 3-2 | RE: Himiku, Vermillion | ATTN: Toshiko

"Y'know... There've been a lot of unanswered questions, here. Maybe I can shine a light on things?" Chiketsu seemed to be very solemn as she stated this. Totally not like her usual self. "Firstly. The bust. I think it's pretty obvious by now that Aiko was struck in the head by it. Why are both noses broken? Because they met face to face. When two faces meet, the noses tend to touch first. That being said... I think that puts to rest Himiku's little 'bust hammer' theory. It would have to hit her in the chest to even be viable as a hammer. In fact, I think Aiko was unconscious when she was dropped onto the poker. She was dropped onto it after being struck over the head and passing out." She crossed her arms over, frowning. Suddenly, she turned to face someone. Her target seemed to be the one-armed strategist. She locked eyes with her, staring intensely. "Vermilion... About your testimony. The person you heard... Definitely had to be the killer. The killer was likely heading back to clean up their prototype, don't you think? But bad luck struck. You were there, and they couldn't afford any witnesses seeing them. So they... Ran away." Chiketsu mimed two legs running away with two of her fingers. "In truth, I have my own little story to share, too. I told Hibiki about it, but not in specific detail." She nods. "I was in the library around 3:30. About twenty minutes later, I hear the sound of someone coming in. But when I looked, nobody was there. It's as if the person saw me and ran! Just like in Vermilion's story. Minutes later, we discover the fire and body. Odd, isn't it? Paired with what VV just said, it sounds to me like someone was running around, looking for a place to hide. After all, both of those rooms were in the recreation wing." Her attention turns back to the group as a whole. "But I would like to bring up something else that may explain our unanswered questions. Have we not even considered our killer may have used magic? I think it's likely, and here's why: The prototype makes no sense. Why would you even need to set it up? Everyone here knows how gravity works, right? If you let go of the rope, of course the bag of flour will fall onto the X. What was being tested, here? That gravity still works? But if they were experimenting with their magic... Suddenly it makes a lot more sense to need to test your plans." Chiketsu nods... pausing for only a few moments. She closes her eyes before she speaks again. "One other thing. Those breadcrumbs by the ship... It was strange. Was somebody there, eating? It seemed irrelevant. But then... I thought about it a little harder. You know what's often on ships? What often loves to eat bread? Rats." She smiled a grin, but one full of malice. There was none of her usually bubbly self here. Her eyes had opened and she was staring directly at Toshiko now, as if nothing else mattered. "So if someone were to lay out some breadcrumbs and wait for some rats to congregate around them... Well, what purpose would that serve? Who would do something like that? Well, going back to what I said earlier... Perhaps that person wanted to use magic in their plans? Perhaps that person's magic just happens to involve being able to control rats?" "Then, all of a sudden, the locked room stops being so mysterious. The rats just ran out when the door was broken down and we were all distracted. They'd be so small, it'd be easy to miss in all the chaos. Regardless of whether a chair was blocking the door or not, it wouldn't matter. Because the culprit was using a proxy." She closes her eyes again. "Just a thought."

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A Deadly Descent | Chiketsu | Trial 3-1 | RE: Himiku | ATTN: Toshiko

"Oh sheesh..." Chiketsu had seemed deep in thought this whole time. "Well, uh... It was mentioned earlier that Aiko could've fell on the poker, right?" She nods, already knowing the answer to her own question. "So... Here's my thoughts. That whole flour rig? It was a prototype. A test of sorts to see if the killer's idea would work. It would explain the X mark on the floor, as well as why they needed a bag of flour. It was far too obvious for it to be a legitimate trap, don't we all think so?" Chiketsu did seem deep in thought. "The killer could've used the same mechanism to drop Aiko on the poker. The rope in the room had a loop around it, yeah? Maybe that loop was around an object as a counterweight, and then that was let go, to drop Aiko? The killer then probably tried to burn the part of the rope with the blood on it in the fire. Maybe the tapestry got knocked down in the process, even." "As for the door situation... Are we sure it was even blocked? It's true that Toshiko barrelled the door down, but if the chair had been broken ahead of time... Well, it'd be a neat trick to make it appear like a locked room mystery. That being said, do you have an alibi, Toshiko?" Chiketsu looked at her, a smirk on her face.

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Crosses the Line Six Times Over | Chiketsu | Voting Results Reaction

She knew it was a pipe dream, but maybe Ceej would get enough votes! Then the voting results appeared, followed by a confirmation of the obvious. Matthew had killed after all. "..." She was speechless, filled with too many emotions to be articulate. Killing should only happen if someone wants to kill.

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Occam's Bloody Razor | Chiketsu | Trial 2-4 | Re: GrimmZB, Haruna, CJ | ATTN: Everyone

Ah, her theory was shot down. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly upon hearing GrimmZB's words. "Yeah, I guess you have a point. He fell the wrong way." Well, that left only one possibility remaining, thanks to a certain bit more info about magic being said. She hopped in place on her podium, clearly vying for some attention from whoever would give her the time of day. "It's like Haruna said. We've been running around in circles to avoid the obvious conclusion. Even I don't want to accept it, truthfully. Accepting such a lame and terrible murder is..." She shook her head fervently. "But as we've just heard, Matthew's powers could've been strong enough to knock the shelf over! Wham!" She shot up a peace sign, next to an awful grin. "So with that issue out of the way... There's no other answer. Two minutes just isn't enough time to escape the scene. Not unless you can teleport." Pause. "That's not an invitation to start trying to convince us someone here can teleport, either." "But... I mean... If Ceej wants people to vote for her... It's not like we can't do that." Her look became more sinister. "In the event of a mistrial, the executed will be selected out of the pool of people who were voted for. If we all vote for her... Then she'll be executed, with Matthew going free. If she wants it so bad that she's lying to make it happen, who are we to deny her the right?" She puts her hands behind her head, leaning slightly to the right.

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Brilliance? Unlikely. | Chiketsu | Trial 2-3 | ATTN: Seri, Hibiki

"Uhm... Something small has been bothering me, actually. Hibiki says he heard a loud crash, and that's why he was running towards the library. But Seri didn't mention hearing a crash at all. But if she saw Hibiki sprinting towards the library, she'd totally be in range to hear it too. Can you two please clear this up for me? Did you both hear a crash?" She looked expectantly between the two, seeming much quieter than usual. "Also, Hibiki... You were staring at the library doors as you ran towards them, right? You said you didn't see anyone leave. Wouldn't that mean nobody left after the crash happened? So if it was a third party... Where did they go? Did they just push the shelf and run? But then how would they even know the shelf would fall onto Shu Lan?" Suddenly, she gasps. "Unless... The shelf falling really was an accident! Maybe... Maybe Shu Lan did topple the shelf! But not in the way everyone is saying. He got scared by a hallucination in the library, and tried to climb up the shelf to escape it! That would explain all the fear talismans in the library!" Was she on to something? Who knows.

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Don't Look Away! | Chiketsu | Trial 2-2 | RE: Cracker Jack, Matthew | ATTN: Cracker Jack, Matthew

Chiketsu had sort of let the trial run ever since her first theory had been overturned. Whilst it may have looked like the blood artist was not even remotely interested in what was happening, the truth is that she was listening intently. Waiting for a moment to speak up. Eventually, that moment reached its tendrils out to her, so she grabbed on. "Apologies, Ceej, but I can't support your theory that Shu Lan got spooked at the docks and ran into the library, then collided with the bookshelf. After all... the paper trail had no "fear" talismans in it. But you know, I did see fear talismans, but only inside the library. Shu Lan did get scared, but only after he was already inside the library. If he had been scared beforehand, I'm sure we would have seen some in the paper trail, considering there were quite a few fear ones laying about in the library." She sighed and turned to face the breakclown (breakdown + clown), folding her arms over. "Unfortunately, Matthew... I think you're responsible for this. The extremely small time period between death and discovery already made you suspicious, but... Recall how the library looked when we found it. Whilst there was a concentration of mess around the shelves... Books and papers were scattered around elsewhere, too. A single shelf falling couldn't make that much mess, but wind magic certainly could." She paused, letting things soak in. "I imagine that if you were to see a dog coming up to you, like you claimed you hallucinated, you would likely try to stop it from getting close to you. Is it not possible you accidentally used your wind powers? If you blew Shu Lan back into the shelf, and it toppled over because he was thrown into it... Well, that'd make you the killer." No glamorous pose, this time. In fact, she seemed a little miffed as she said it, fiddling with a loose piece of hair. "But if that's true... That really pisses me off! It's not fair at all if the murder isn't at least a little planned out! Motives should make people want to kill, not accidentally kill!" She stomped her foot. "It better not be true. It better not be."