Game 93.1: The First Class Trial

[Codeskull]

SPOILER: Click to show

{The Gathering}

DING DONG BING BONG!

Ok, that's enough time! All residents, gather in the Courtyard!

You all filter in one-by-one. The courtyard is dark now, it being about 21:00 now. The sky is cloudy; the moonlight is dim. The mood is the same.


A spotlight shines up from the top of the fountain; the water shuts off. A rumbling can be heard; and felt.


The circular fountain rises, being pushed up by a circular elevator.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get on in!"

One by one, the cast enters:
Mr. Watoshi, seemingly sober.
Miles Edgeworth, with a look of determination and pain on his face.
Naomi Watoshi, holding her belly.
Kyle Rosenthal, right hand wrapped in cloth and duct tape.
The Battler Twins, looking as identical as always.
Karen Rosenthal, with a broken, bloody nose.
Amaya Winterstorm, carrying her sling bag.
Greater Arm Seven, silent and watching, with craftily painted nails.
Judy Check, clutching the arm of her deputy.
Todd Cross, wielding a golf club over his shoulder.
Cedric von Asweigan, wearing Ned the Puppet - and both wearing gas masks.
Tyler "Beast" Stryder, wearing his stylish red jumpsuit.
Suzume Saotome, quietly watching.
Nao Tomori, wearing a backpack.
Akira, hands in his pockets.
Ayano Fujikawa, timidly behind Suzume.
And Dio, without his shiny yellow buttons, much more silent than usual.

The elevator sinks into the ground. Going... going... going...


It stops.


You arrive at a tall, circular chamber. In the middle are 20 wooden podiums. One of these podiums bears a picture of Phoenix Wright's face, with a blood-pink X across it.

Separate from the podiums is a throne, fit for a Duokuma. Though, he's currently standing by the entrance. Before saying anything, he hands Ayano and Dio their late Kumabooks.

"Welcome to our Trial Grounds!"

"Come on, everyone step up to a podium! Get all nice and cozy, you don't need to worry about getting sick! Place doesn't matter either, this time; but remember where you're standing for the future!"

Everyone takes a place. Suspense, doubt, and uncertainty is growing in everyone's minds. Will everyone really die if you get this wrong? Was it even really one of you in the first place? Who knows.

CLASS TRIAL START: ALL RISE!

[Codeskull]

"Let's start with the basic rundown of the Class Trial!"

"You all have to figure out and vote on who killed Phoenix Wright, the Ultimate Ace Attorney!"

"If you vote correctly on whodunit, that person will be executed for their crimes!"

"But if you get it wrong..."

"Whoever you voted for, as well as 4 other residents, will be executed instead! Then, the Blackened will get to leave forever!"

"By the way, you might want to check your Truth Bullet apps! They'll be useful to have; also some of you still have to add ones you found during the Investigation! Get on it before time runs out!"

[mao]

Kyle seems to be in an awfully cheerful mood for someone who just examined a corpse a few moments ago, as he walks into his podium. He is looking at the Truth Bullets, which whoever else investigated the body submitted, through the screen of his Monopad. As he puts it down, he coughs fakely to get everyone’s attention.

“Let me tell everyone about my findings~!”

“There are a lot of details, that we can get to a bit later. For now, let’s focus on the cause of death!” His tone makes it seem like he thinks this is a fun topic to talk about. “First of all, as the Kumafile reveals, the cause of death was indeed a laceration to the neck, that caused him to bleed out and suffer an agonizing death.” Kyle pulls out a paring knife out of his pocket using his left hand. His right hand seems to broken, bandaged up using duct tape that is holding it up in a comfortable position. He spins the knife in his hand adeptly.

“Given the circumstances under which he died, it is safe to say he was assaulted or committed suicide. Perhaps the poor fellow was so filled with despair, that he decided to kill himself to save everyone else.” Kyle smiled. “What a noble idea! And not very surprising. Lawyers are four times more likely to commit suicide than your average citizen, after all.”

He brings the knife to his own throat. His eyes are shining with excitement. He’s getting to the good part. “Look closely! The laceration was made from left to right.” He moves the blade from left to right to demonstrate the wound, but doesn’t cut himself. The motion seems awkward, the blade is twisted into an unnatural position. “As you can see, I am right-handed, and due to certain events during the killing hours, I am unable to use my right hand. Using my left hand, the position of the blade is awkward and I am unable to exert the needed force to pull it off. If I were to attempt to kill myself by slitting my throat, using my left hand…” He moves the blade from left to right. The motion is smooth and the blade moves across his neck gracefully.

“...I would simply start the cut from the right! Do you see?! It’s so much easier!”

“This tells us something about the culprit. You would use your dominant hand to deliver such a clean laceration, wouldn’t you? The culprit is most definitely right-handed like me.”

Kyle is making a lewd face, seemingly lost in fantasizing about the murder, but soon moves on to explain about the wound itself. “The cut was shallow. It only managed to open up the veins by his neck, leaving the arteries and the windpipe untouched. This is why the blood was flowing down, rather than splattering all across the room! See when you open up an artery, the blood pressure is high - Even higher if you are being murdered or about to commit suicide! - and the blood sprays out of the wound rapidly and violently like from a well-shaken champagne bottle.”

“But when you cut the veins, the blood pressure is low and it flows out slowly but steadily down his body, soaking his chest. It’s not even lethal, if you stop the bleeding quick! But poor Mr. Lawyer didn’t do what every sensible person would in his situation: his hands had no blood on them. It didn’t look like he even tried to stop the bleeding.”

“The blood formed a puddle underneath the body, probably from after passing out. His windpipe was not damaged, so he could have screamed out for help or at least outed his murderer… but instead, he chose to fight his assailant, if there was one to begin with. His face was strained and there was a small scratch on his mouth, suggesting a struggle with the assailant, if there was one.” Kyle finishes his exhausting, long monologue. He puts down the knife on his podium and smiles cheerfully at everyone. It seems he lost his composure there for a bit.

“The Truth Bullets are all accurate. I did not submit any of them, however. That would be the other person, who investigated the body. I wanted to know if they would tell the truth or leave something out. It seems they did their job like a good little citizen they are~! Hahahaha!”

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Karen looks uneasy at her podium. Not only because of whatever the hell her twin just did, but also at the prospect of following this conversation. Reading eighteen people's lips -- nineteen with Duokuma -- will be tough, especially if they all talk over each other.

[crazynuto]

Edgeworth takes a deep breath, it's now or never, time to find the truth behind this incident.

"First off, the notion that the victim committed suicide is laughably absurd. As you yourself have stated Kyle, the victim would need to be right handed. And Phoenix Wright is on all accounts..."

"LEFT HANDED."

[Codeskull]

"Epupupu~~~ What a great point! I hadn't even mentioned that after this Trial, we'll be taking some personal data like height and dominant hand for this very purpose! Yes, Phoenix Wright is left-handed."

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Karen's eyes dart between Edgeworth and Duokuma. If she takes the opportunity to give her alibi, it'll give her eyes a break from having to read lips.

She pauses for a moment, looking for the right words, then gives up and signs something to Kyle.

[mao]

Kyle looks at his sister. Kuma! He can't sign very well with his left hand only. It takes him noticeably longer to make a reply in sign language, compared to the aggressive smacking that was happening earlier during the day.

[Ame]

Nao looked tired and generally done with everything, but she slowly went up to the podium and began to speak.

"Hello, now that we can say for sure it wasn't suicide, I think the next thing to do would be look at people who knew about the secret passage. I believe those people are Phoenix Wright, Dio & One of the Battlers. It's possible someone else knew about it as well, but I doubt someone entered, killed, then left without investigating ealier. Though it's possible the killer saw Phoenix in there, and followed him, I think it's more likely that they independently found it."

Nao takes a step back, she really doesn't want to be here, rather she just wants to go to sleep.

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Karen clears her throat before she begins. "I began my night with my brother in our dorm room. We were having..." She pauses to sigh at his choice of words. "...girl talk. At 17:15 we moved to the Television Room to set up our movie night. There we saw... I still do not know his name." She gestures to Mr. Watoshi. "I attempted to converse with him, but he was clearly inebriated. He did not seem to respect the fact that, because of my deafness, I must be facing someone in order to read their lips. He did this to me." She points to her clearly broken nose with a shaking finger.

"He threatened my brother as well, but left soon after. Then Kyle said he heard a metallic noise from the hallway, so we went out for a moment to investigate, but saw nothing. We re-entered the TV room, and approximately fifteen minutes later, Amaya entered. At this point, it was around... 17:50, I believe. The three of us spoke for a few minutes, then Amaya left again. My brother and I left as well; we went to the warehouse to get a DVD for the movie Mean Girls."

"In the warehouse, we saw... the victim, Mr. Wright." Her eyes drift sadly toward Edgeworth before continuing, "We put in our order and waited for approximately ten minutes. Then the puppeteer came in with his puppet. They received..." She falters, seemingly looking for the right words. "...many, many, many carts of strange building supplies and snacks. Eleven carts, if I remember correctly. The puppet left its master to wait for the carts, and Kyle and I were quite curious about how it could move on its own. So we decided to not wait for the movie, and instead follow the puppet."

"We caught up with the puppet and invited him to come to our room. He accepted, and Kyle carried him to our dorm. Inside, we searched him to see how he worked. Kyle requested that I go to the warehouse for some tools to see his inner workings. So I left him alone with the puppet. That was... a mistake. But I shall get there."

"On my way to the warehouse, I encountered the drunkard again. Naturally, I was nervous, after what he did to my face. But Mr. Edgeworth and one of the redheaded twins were there, so I felt better. However, the drunkard was upset. He told us that his wife was dead. So the three of us followed him into his dorm room... where we saw that his pregnant wife was only sleeping. The drunkard laughed in our faces and told us to leave. So we did."

"I went to the warehouse and waited for my tools. Once they were ready, I took them back to our dorm room. There, I found the puppet attacking my brother. It broke his hand." She gestures to the makeshift cast on his arm. "I made those wrappings for his hand, but before we knew it, the puppet was gone."

"After making sure my brother was all right, we went to the TV room for our movie night. Inside the TV room was: Edgeworth, the strange girl"-- She gestures to Seven-- "the boy in the jumpsuit"-- Tyler-- "and one of the redheaded twins. At around 20:15, the door opened and then slammed shut immediately. Those of us who were inside discussed the event, but decided to stay. We put on a movie."

"However, my brother was paranoid. He looked outside and found all of the building supplies we had seen earlier, and he believed that the puppeteer would try to wall us in. He left, and I followed. This was around... 20:30. We left, and saw the puppeteer. He threw a stink bomb at us, which Kyle caught and threw away. Cedric fled, and Kyle ran after him; I followed my brother, determined not to let his temper get the best of him."

"And then the Body Discovery happened."

She looks exhausted.

[Sachi]

May 4, 2020 17:14:38 GMT -6 Ame said:

"I believe those people are Phoenix Wright, Dio & One of the Battlers.

"Just to clear things up, she's definitely talking about the other one."

[mao]

"Everything my sister said so far is true. Mr. Boomer here..." Kyle gestures towards Mr. Watoshi. "...and that murderous robot puppet..." He points at Ned. "...both tried to kill us tonight."

"I was with my sister all night, except for when she went to visit the warehouse. I stayed in the dorm with the puppet for about 30-45 minutes, towards the end of which he tried to strangle me to death with his metal tentacles. My sister saved me and the robot ran away... If she had been a little late..." A little tear appears in Kyle's eye, but he swipes it away dramatically.

"We saw some other people during the night, too. Around 18:00, Suzume and Ayano passed by us as they were coming into the Game Room from the courtyard, while Miles and Amaya were walking there with us. Me and Karen headed straight to the warehouse, where we saw Cedric, Ned and..." He points at the crossed podium of Phoenix.

"I saw Miles and Amaya enter the south area, as I looked back before leaving the courtyard. She had said something about... the gym... or the kitchen? I'm not too sure."

"Later, when we headed to the TV room from our dorm, we saw Judy in the courtyard. It was 20:10 or so - she said it was about 20 minutes until night would fall and the courtyard would be inaccessible."

Kyle's trying to think of something else that might be helpful. "Oh, Naomi! He turns to Nao's podium. "You can add Suzume and Ayano to that list of suspects. They admitted to knowing about the secret passage, when I was starting my thorough investigation of the body!"

[Ame]

Suzume & Ayano, as potential killers? Absolutely not. Nao walked back to the podium and responded

"Hmm, No. Suzume & Ayano could have not been the killers. They didn't enter the library during the night, until the end. At that time, Phoenix was already dead. When I went to the games room, at about 19:05, both of them were there, as was Amaya. Then when I went back to the library at around 20:00, no one else alive was in there, though. Amaya, Suzume & Ayano all entered at the same time, sometime between 20:30-20:40"

She then turned to the battler that had just spoken up, and retorted

"I disagree, there is no way to be sure, both you and the other battler look the same, and unless you can have someone prove you weren't in the library at all, I cannot take what you said seriously."

[mao]

"Did you just..." Kyle gasps. "Literally confess to being the only one around the victim, when the murder supposedly occurred? Do you want to confess to the actual murder as well?"

He starts laughing loudly, but it's cut short from the pain from his broken hand.

"As for when the murder victim was found, I know for a fact the announcement was made around 20:30 to 20:35. If it wasn't, there would have been another victim to be found..." He glares at Cedric.

[Sachi]

"Uh, hey, Segaaaa other one! Tell them it wasn't me!"