Game 98: Trial 3 - End of a Friend

[Sachi]

"The Storage Room was a huge mess. There was a huge scatter of human bones and broken angel statues everywhere. Some of the statues were crying tears of blood. Personally, I thought they looked really pretty, so whoever did that isn't very cool. That's all I saw. You already heard the body. Also, I'm small now, because I've got a lot to say."

"Here are my map results, but only for Actions 2, 3 and 4. I lost a lot of skillpower since the last trial. So, now I can only look at it three times a night. I guess it's better than zero. Ask the ghost or something if you don't believe me."

imgur.com/a/Ne0MQWi


"You'll notice a few slots where I have nothing, so let me explain those. I woke up in the suite, the complete other end of the train, so I spent Action 1 and a lot of Action 2 actually getting to the Viewing Room. I went the route of Kitchen, Storage, Transport, Room Hall B. I glanced into the Platform and saw some people, but couldn't make out exactly who. I didn't see anyone else, but I did feel eyes watching me the whole time. That was a recurring theme tonight."

"...The train then shook, and I headed left... except this was into Room Hall A. So I went back the way I came, into Room Hall B, and finally ended up in Viewing Room A. I spent so much time getting there that I could only get the last 15 minutes of Action 2. Once that was over, I felt a heavy shake, even worse than normal, so I also missed the first five minutes of Action 3... But thankfully, I've a special feeling that no one moved during that time anyway. You have my word."

"Nothing special happened for Action 4, but I still felt something watching me. I heard a gurgled noise, and so I turned to see a corpse walking into the room... creepy stuff. It disappeared into fog before it got to me, but I felt this creepy, foreboding feeling for the rest of the action. Still got in all the results, though, cause I'm efficient like that. Oh yeah, I saw absolutely nobody from action 1-4."

"I headed left starting Action 5, then immediately bumped into Kiryu and Majima. They got into a fight with a weird ghost that showed up, so I went with them into Viewing Room B once that was over. Makomo showed up once I was there. Finally, Action 6, I stayed in Viewing Room B the whole time, but couldn't use my skill since, you know, I'm not super skillful anymore. The others have probably told you everything else."

[Evie The Bat]

Majima will stop trying to remove the doll and just act like its not there.

"Well, who are our top suspects? Standing yelling at the leader ghost isnt gonna help anyone. In fact I suggest that if people start throwing us around with red herrings, they might as well be the murderer scumbag right?"

[peterparker]

Apr 19, 2021 12:51:06 GMT -6 Evie The Bat said:

Majima will stop trying to remove the doll and just act like its not there.

"Well, who are our top suspects? Standing yelling at the leader ghost isnt gonna help anyone. In fact I suggest that if people start throwing us around with red herrings, they might as well be the murderer scumbag right?"

"That was a good accusation, but it seems highly unlikely that Ken is the murderer. He never went into Dining Car B, where the steak knife was taken from, and neither did his most likely accomplice, Rinko. Also, around the time of the murder, it seems Ken was busy getting blown up. 

"The people who did pass through Dining Car B are Kiryu, Chika, Neptune, Miyuki, Neferpitou, Steve, Makomo, and myself. I can vouch for myself and Neptune. I think we have established Kiryu's innocence as he was with both Majima and Red at the time of the murder. Based on what information I have, it seems like Chika and Neferpitou were in Dining Car B all night so they seem less suspicious. Miyuki and Kaguya were supposedly in their room for some time, and it seems Ken and Rinko would have seen them if they had come out. That leaves Steve and Makomo. I don't see any way for Steve to have gotten to the forest without anyone seeing him pass by the Room Halls again. But, I'm hesitant to accuse Makomo because we don't know very much about them."

"Can anyone disprove anything that I've said? It would be really helpful."

[crazynuto]

Apr 19, 2021 11:13:44 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Dazai has been listening to all this go on without replying. Let's say the sleeping pills left him a little woozy. 

"If everyone truly wants to hear about my time with Neptune, I can tell you.

...

"A4: I must have slept for quite some time. I'm not sure of the exact time but I was definitely asleep between 1:30 and 2:00 AM. I remember dreaming that I tasted something bitter, and hoping it was poison. 

"A5: Finally, I woke up, maybe not exactly at 2:00 but a little bit after? I'm not sure, but Neptune was lying down next to me, fast asleep. I'll admit, I was hoping that she was dragging me to her room to kill me and herself, but I guess she just wanted to sleep. What's the point of sleeping with an attractive woman if you eventually wake up alive? 

"A6: Neptune and I were both very confused at this point. We wandered out into Room Hall B and then we went into Viewing Room B, where we saw Red and the yakuza gang. And then we all heard the phantom's message. 

"So you see, neither Neptune or I could have committed this murder. We were completely unconscious for most of the night. Also, if I were to be involved in a murder, it would be a murder-suicide."

Kiryu points his dramatic pointing finger at Dazai now.

"Oi, wait a minute. If we look at the map, Room Hall B was right next to the Forest Car at the time of the murder. (2:00-2:30/A5-A6)

Who's to say you or Neptune didn't sneak off and kill Ishigami while you both were "asleep". It would be a convenient alibi, drugging everyone and pretending to be drugged yourself.

So the way I see it we got two options here. Neptune and/or Dazai were involved in this killing somehow, either could have sneaked off through to the Forest Car and killed there.

Or they're telling the truth and the murderer most likely entered the Central Platform after the deed was done. Here's why I think so:

If the murder happened at 2:00, they couldn't have fled to Room Hall B, as they'd have nowhere to go aside from maybe hiding in their room. They would've been seen by everyone in Room Hall A had they continued past the room. If they continued on to Viewing Room A, I would've seen them. So they would've left to the Central Platform.

If the murder happened at 2:30, they would've been seen by Neptune and Dazai at Room Hall B. They could've fled to Viewing Room A at this point, but I doubt it since it's also a bit of a chokepoint. So they likely went to the Central Platform then too."

He points to the convenient map while explaining

"What I really think is whoever drugged everyone at the Dining Hall likely was an accomplice. Oh and I know it's not Makomo, as she was with me, Majima, and Red during the murder."

Whew what a theory. Kiryu's almost out of breath. TL;DR he is sus of Neptune and Dazai. They were conveniently asleep right next to where the body was found. It's likely one of them snuck out and killed. My money's on Neptune.

[Evie The Bat]

Majima nods to Kiryu-chan~'s accusation and adds, resting his doll arm on the podium thing, getting tired of this bs

"Not to mention Neptune has been acting rather strange and Dazai keeps talking about wanting to die. If you get caught with murder, the ghost punk kills you. So it gives him a motive. They both seem the highest possibility."

[peterparker]

Apr 19, 2021 14:11:04 GMT -6 Evie The Bat said:

Majima nods to Kiryu-chan~'s accusation and adds, resting his doll arm on the podium thing, getting tired of this bs

"Not to mention Neptune has been acting rather strange and Dazai keeps talking about wanting to die. If you get caught with murder, the ghost punk kills you. So it gives him a motive. They both seem the highest possibility."

"Hey, I didn't say I want to be killed by some ghost. I want to die on my own terms, next to a beautiful woman. And I'm pretty sure if one of us were an accomplice, that person wouldn't die, which would defeat the purpose. I have no reason to kill one of those teenagers. 

"I know my defense is flimsy, but I really have nothing to do with this. I don't think Neptune does either, because she would have to have killed Ishigami, came back into the room, and gotten back in bed before I woke up, which gives her less than half an hour to do all that. Steve and Kiryu both saw me when I first got drugged and they'll remember how woozy I was. So I really was sleeping all that time. I wasn't involved in any murder ... at least not knowingly."

[Evie The Bat]

Majima then asks

"Were only you two drugged? If not, who else got drugged?"

[Spell Craft]

Apr 19, 2021 13:50:42 GMT -6 peterparker said:

But, I'm hesitant to accuse Makomo because we don't know very much about them.

Makomo nods. "It would help if I mention more about my night, I suppose."

"It'll be a bit difficult for me, however."

Makomo removes her mask once more. She likes to make eye contact to show her sincerity in her eyes.

[A3] "I was with Neku here. Actually, let me explain that first."

[A2: ??? and Kitchen] "After the cars shook, I entered some bloody room with a torn wall and a piano in the corner. Some memories of mine come back. Moving into the next room, it's a kitchen with a body in the bottom left. There was a pot on the oven that I was curious about, then Neku walked into this area."

[A3: Kitchen] "Back to what I mentioned, Neku was here in the kitchen with me. I was looking into the pot of that was warm and with meaty substance, to which Neku7 mentioned that it had been there since the first night. He grabbed some spices out of the cupboard and handed them to some ghostly figure, cooking over nothing."

[A0: Living Quarters] "Before everything though, I found myself in the Living Quarters."

[A1: ??? and ???] "Neku entered from a diagonal path that had appeared in the room. Leaving the Living Quarters, I went left in search for my memories. I didn't find anything to jog my memory in this room, just a few things that belonged to dead people, so I continued left, clockwise, passing Ishigami and Kiryu as I entered a new room. It had an electronic table in the bottom right corner, some strange generator thing, and other items. Perhaps the operator room? Here, I remembered some rather disturbing things, but saw no one else other than a flash of a ghostly figure.

[crazynuto]

Kiryu scratches his chin

"Sleeping pills don't have much of an effect on me, so I could've been drugged and not known. I believe Chika and Neferpitou both had those desserts as well, although I don't know if they were drugged or not."

[Vaellin the Bard]

To Miyuki

Phantom seems genuinely confused by Miyuki Shiroganes question about Ramona. "While she may look and act differently, she is still the same person." And he gestures towards Makomo. "I am led to believe the previous form was a diversion."

[Spell Craft]

Makomo tilts her head towards the Phantom.

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Neptune pouts at the suspicion of her and Dazai.

“If Mister Dazai and I did this, why would we have drugged ourselves? I would never taint pudding... and if I did, why would we both willingly eat it? You know we werent faking cause pills really are missing from the bottle, right? It couldn’t be us! We really were asleep... and I don’t know where we could have gotten the pills from anyway... I started cooking in A1. Where would I have gotten them before that?”

[Spell Craft]

Makomo presents the sleeping pills.

"Here are the drugs in question."

[Ame]

[Source] Spell Craft said:

Makomo presents the sleeping pills.

"Here are the drugs in question."

Miyuki steps forward

“I’ll try them, I’m not sure what this what will accomplish, they are sleeping pills. I think we all know what sleeping pills do.”

Miyuki will take some of the pills from Makomo and swallow them whole

[Maria]

Apr 19, 2021 16:06:59 GMT -6 Spell Craft said:

Makomo presents the sleeping pills.

"Here are the drugs in question."

Rinko takes these definitely safe pills and puts them in her mouth, swallowing them whole :)