May 2

Courtroom No. 3

10:40 AM

Cotoli Morix

It took me a moment to regain my sense of what I wanted to ask before I glanced back up to Sora. "If you don't mind my asking, witness... Was there anything in particular that you were able to see at the time of the shooting?" I questioned.

Sora shook her head. "I didn't see anything that could have been used to identify the culprit. I know that's what you're really wondering, but that question isn't quite as easy to answer. I didn't see anything that could be used to figure out what was happening at the time of the murder."

"You know... This might be the perfect time for us to dive into something a bit different," Prosecutor Bespoke commented. "There was a video recorded at the time of the murder, and I believe that it could be one of the things that points us in the right direction. Perhaps we could go on and call the witness to the stand that recorded the video."

"We're probably getting closer to being able to watch the enhanced footage from the time of the murder," Yuri pointed. "I guess that this testimony did one thing though... It confirmed exactly where the gunfire was at the time of the murder. I wish that it did a little bit more to help us to clear KJ's name, but I guess that's going to have to wait a short while longer..."

I nodded my agreement before I glanced back up in the direction of the witness stand once again. "I do have one more question, if you don't mind," I began to say. Sora tilted her head to the side, a silent way of her telling me to continue. "Did you happen to see anything of note as you were getting out of the gymnasium? Was there anything at all that caught your eye at the time?"

That gave Sora a bit more pause, and she frowned as she glanced down at the ground. "I remember being pretty focused on just looking straight ahead on getting to the door, but... I did hear something as we were on our way out now that I think about it. I didn't entirely remember this happening at first, but I guess that I was a tad frazzled as everything was going down," she said with a light laugh in a desperate attempt to break through the tension in the courtroom.

"What did you hear then, witness?" Judge Diaphan questioned, leaning forward slightly in an attempt to hear what Sora was saying even just a tiny bit better.

Sora hesitated before she shrugged. "Well, it sounded a bit like a heavy door was shutting... The judge's table was against the wall that went between the two locker rooms for the main gymnasium. That meant that we were able to hear about what was going on in the vicinity of the locker rooms. I was closer to the women's locker room at the time, and I think that was the door that I heard shutting as we were on our way out," she explained. "I didn't fully process it at the time, but looking back on what happened at the time of the crime... I'm sure that there was a door that closed as we were on our way to the door."

"There was a door that shut from nearby?" Venus echoed, her eyes going wide. She glanced over to me a moment later, her eyes going sharp and hard with determination. "You have to know what that means, right? We know how this fits into the greater puzzle already."

I nodded. "The defense believes that it has an explanation for the sound that was heard when the door closed," I announced. "At the time of the murder, the defendant claimed to have been cleaning the locker rooms as per the directions of those running the competition. He only exited the locker room when he heard the gunshot go off, and that was when he found the gun sitting on the floor."

"And you mean to say that the door that I heard closing is actually a sign that he was being honest about all of that," Sora realized with a light nod. "I think that would make sense."

"Wouldn't you expect to see the defendant as he made his way out of the locker room if that was the case?" Prosecutor Bespoke questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest. "If he really did come out of the locker room, then surely he would have been spotted by at least someone. It only makes sense that somebody would have seen him at the time."

I shook my head. "I want you to look at the defendant for a moment," I declared. "He's currently wearing rather dark clothing, isn't he? It's was likely his way of staying comfortable at the time of the competition. On top of that, his hair is a deep purple color. Think about the circumstances of the crime scene at the time. The area was nearly completely black because of the lights being off for the current round of performers. In other words, it's perfectly sensible that nobody saw him at the time of the murder!"

"In a way, I suppose that would also explain the fact that nobody saw him until after the lights came on," Yuri concluded. "If the lights were really off, then it would have been pretty hard for anybody to spot him, much less realize exactly who he was."

"It seems like we're starting to get the pieces to come together with all of this," Venus murmured as she nodded. "I think that we're getting closer to figuring out the truth and everything that it means for us from here on out... Of course, we still have quite a ways to go before we're truly able to show that KJ wasn't the one who did it, but... We'll just have to keep pushing. There has to be evidence out there to back this up."

"I believe that we should hear the testimony of one other person before we go beyond this point," Judge Diaphan. "There was one other person who was present with the current witness at the time of the crime, so we should ask her if she's able to back up the matter of the door having been shut as they were on their way out of the gymnasium."

Prosecutor Bespoke nodded. "I simply request that we don't hold her any longer than we have to. She doesn't want to testify for long, and she saw the same thing that the current witness did. There wouldn't be much of a point to her repeating everything that we've already heard from the current witness," he announced.

I had to admit that I was taken aback by this. I was fully aware of the fact that Chrysalis wasn't exactly fond of the idea of testifying, but I didn't think that Prosecutor Bespoke knew that. I didn't think that she had been given the time to tell him that before the trial started, so that meant that he had simply picked up on this on his own terms. I was certainly going to have to thank him for this when I got the chance, and I knew that Chrysalis was going to do the same when the opportunity presented itself.

Still, the trial continued despite my surprise, and Judge Diaphan nodded. "Of course. Call your witness at this time."

Sora stepped away from the stand and offered a small wave in my direction before she returned to the bench where the witnesses were set to stay. Chrysalis was sitting on the far edge, putting as much distance between herself and Mr. Middleton as she could manage. This was simply part of her daily routine, and she didn't seem to be entirely paying attention to the trial at hand until after Sora sat down beside her, nudging at our sister with her shoulder.

"Witness, you know what to do," Prosecutor Bespoke announced, pointing to the witness stand with a light smile. He didn't even need to glance over in Chrysalis' direction for her to get the picture, and she took Sora's place at the stand a moment later.

Judge Diaphan, ever the neutral party in any trial, chose to not show any signs of recognizing Chrysalis when the girl stepped onto the stand. Instead, she simply watched Chrysalis with a passive posture. "Witness, state your name and occupation for the court," she announced.

Chrysalis nodded, her eyes so detached and emotionless that I could tell she was trying to put up a front. She wanted to make it seem as if everything was fine regardless of how true that was. It was simply part of how she was, and while it didn't surprise me, I still found myself wincing internally. Her default defense mechanism was to block out her own emotions, and this situation certainly seemed to merit that in her perspective if her response was anything to go by. "Chrysalis Starr. I'm a student," she said simply, not bothering to mince words in the slightest.

"Can you corroborate the story that we heard from the previous witness?" Judge Diaphan questioned, not hesitating in the slightest to press on with the trial much the same way that I expected her to.

"I can," Chrysalis confirmed with a small nod. "I didn't realize it at the time, but I definitely did hear something when we were on our way out. I was in a state of chaos as we were running out of the gym, but... I did hear something."

"I take it that you're the younger sister of the previous witness then," Judge Diaphan remarked. Chrysalis nodded, and the judge took that as her cue to continue. "I understand... If we have multiple people backing this fact up, then we have no choice but to consider it as fact for this case."

"Then that means that we've proven that KJ didn't do it, right?" Yuri questioned. "I mean, we might not know who the actual culprit is quite yet, but... We're on the right track, and this is a great first step for us to take."

I shook my head. "I'm afraid that it isn't that simple. We've still got a lot to prove before we'll fully be able to say that KJ isn't the culprit," I told her. "Even if we know about the locker room door closing, we can't be sure that he was the one who closed the doors. Until we can find evidence of that, then we'll simply have to wait a short while longer to make it clear everybody knows he didn't do it."

Yuri seemed to deflate slightly at the reality check, but she was cut off when Cassidy suddenly let out a gasp as a ringing noise pierced the air. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device that I recognized to be a phone. However, it didn't seem to fit her in the slightest with its leather case, and I understood that this assumption was correct when Cassidy passed it over to Prosecutor Bespoke. It seemed as if he had asked her to look after his phone during the trial so that they wouldn't miss out on any calls that could have been related to the case.

"I believe that I know exactly what this is," Prosecutor Bespoke smiled as he accepted the call. His volume dropped significantly as he began to speak into the phone's receiver, and everyone waited intently for him to finish glance up once again. After he had bid the other party on the call farewell, he pressed the button to end the call before he looked up to the courtroom once again. "The data from the video has been enhanced, and we're going to be able to analyze it shortly."

"Perfect," Judge Diaphan nodded. As if on cue, a few bailiffs came in with a television screen, and I realized that they had likely decided to use a particular program so that we would be able to look at the footage easily. It wasn't as if we were going to be able to see the footage all that well through a phone, so this was the better option out of those that we were given. If I was being honest, I did still have a few questions, but I figured that they were best left unanswered for the time being when we still had so much of the trial left to resolve. I could figure out the intricacies of video programs at a later point.

As soon as the television was set up, Judge Diaphan cleared her throat. Chrysalis had vacated the witness stand to go back to the bench where she was waiting with Sora. "We should begin our analysis on the video footage immediately," she proclaimed. "Defense, the video program that we will be using to view the footage of the match is going to allow us to zoom in and see specific parts of the video at any request. Given that it's your first time using this, I suggest that you ask as many questions as you have to in order to understand the program."

"Of course, Your Honor," I told her even though I knew that it wasn't going to be quite as easy as she claimed to do that. I wasn't exactly the best when it came to approaching other people on a subject along these lines, but I knew that it would be for the best if we simply focused on the issues of the video as they came up.

"Ah, before we continue, Your Honor," Venus interjected, "I would like to ask something of the defendant."

Judge Diaphan appeared confused, but she still nodded. "Go ahead."

Venus began to shuffle through the evidence that we had sitting out on the bench before she managed to find a pen and a pad of paper. She approached KJ and pressed both items into his hands. "Could you write down what you were doing at the time of the crime for me?" she questioned.

KJ seemed to be confused by what she was doing, but he still nodded and followed her word, grabbing the pen with his right hand before starting to write out everything that Venus had asked for. The court watched in silent confusion, and I had to admit that I wasn't really much better than them. I didn't know what Venus was trying to get at here either, but I figured that I was going to have to find the truth sooner or later.

When KJ was done, he handed the pad and pen back to Venus. She smiled in his direction and nodded. "Thank you," she said simply. She made her way back to the bench beside me and Yuri, seemingly uncaring as to the gazes of shock and confusion that she was getting from the others in the courtroom. "That's all I wished to do. We can continue with the video footage analysis now."

Judge Diaphan was very clearly perplexed at Venus' choice, but she didn't linger on it for any longer than she had to. Instead, she simply shook her head and reached for her gavel before hitting it down once. "In that case, allow us to proceed with analyzing the footage that was taken at the time of the murder," she declared.

Prosecutor Bespoke reached for a remote that he had been handed and began to play the video. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Venus cover Yuri's eyes with her hands, and her sister, much to my surprise, didn't even bother trying to fight back. I assumed that this was a condition that Venus had mentioned to her sister while I was not present, and I chose to not acknowledge it for the time being.

Instead, my attention was focused squarely on the video footage. I had to confess that it was much sharper when it was being shown on a television screen when compared to a small phone. It was impressive how well the image had turned out, and I found my eyes narrowing in the direction of the screen as I tried to see if I could find any details out of the ordinary. There had to be something that would lead me in the right direction to finding the truth behind this case.

Ultimately, everything played out much the same way as it had the first time. The victim was going about her routine and reached the climax of it when the gunshot rang out and she fell to the ground. The video went to chaos as Mr. Middleton started to sprint out of the gymnasium as fast as possible. It was as minimalistic as I had initially thought, but I knew that I was going to have to think of at least a detail or two that I could pull from this as soon as possible.

"Is there anything in particular that you would like to see from this video in detail?" Prosecutor Bespoke questioned. "We can slow the footage down and rewind it at your wish. Plus, as was already mentioned by our most esteemed judge, we can zoom in on specific parts of the video footage in case we have to find something from the given area of the screen."

I wasn't entirely sure where I was supposed to be going with this, but there was only one thing that I could think of looking at for the time being. "Can we zoom in on the segment of the audience where the gun was shot from?" I questioned. I somehow doubted that we were going to see the culprit in detail due to the distance between the one who was filming and the person who had shot the gun, but I still felt as if it was worth a shot for the time being.

Prosecutor Bespoke nodded, and he began to fiddle around with the remote so that we would be able to zoom in. I didn't know what he was doing in full, but I trusted that he was going to be able to figure it out in my place given that I didn't know what I would have been doing if I was in his situation. Everyone simply watched him for a while, waiting for the video footage to adapt to what he was doing to it.

A few moments, the screen shifted, and everything zoomed in on the corner where the gunshot had come from, and I nodded to myself. Prosecutor Bespoke rewound the footage to the very beginning, and when it was ready, he hit the play button once again. For much of the video everything was completely dark thanks to the lack of lighting in the area, but when the gunshot went off, there was a flash of light just as one would have expected.

The image that appeared in the light of the gunfire was brief, but it was still enough to make me gasp. "Can you pause it at the point when the gun goes off, please?" I questioned as I looked over to Prosecutor Bespoke. It seemed as if we had finally found our first major clue that would lead to us finding the truth behind this case.

Prosecutor Bespoke nodded without hesitation and shifted the image once again. He was careful to slow down the footage so that he was able to get the exact scene that I was asking for, and Venus finally allowed herself to pull her hands away from Yuri's eyes since the victim was out of frame and seemingly wouldn't be returning any time soon. We watched patiently as the scene came into view in full, and I couldn't help but smile to myself.

The flicker of light from the gunfire had been brief, but it was still clear that a small image had been displayed among the shadows. It was the silhouette of a person, and I already knew that this was going to help us to find the truth behind what happened at the time of the crime. "This is it," I declared. "This is the evidence that we need to show that the victim was not the one who shot the victim."

"I don't understand," Prosecutor Bespoke frowned. "We can't see any details in this image. Everything is lacking in detail, so how is it that you can use that as definitive evidence as to the fact that the defendant was not the one who committed the crime?"

"It seems as if you've caught on in full to what I was trying to get at earlier," Venus smiled as she nudged me gently with her elbow.

I nodded in response. "I take it that you saw this coming as soon as the subject of the video came up?" I questioned of her.

Venus shrugged. "I figured that it wouldn't hurt to look into. Either way, you should go on and make sure that everybody knows exactly what it is that we're talking about to begin with!"

I shifted my attention back to the courtroom as Yuri shot us both a look of confusion. "This image is definitive evidence that the defendant is not the culprit because of the fact that in this picture, the silhouette of the culprit clearly shows that they are firing the gun with their left hand. The defendant is right-handed as we learned just a few short moments ago, and as such, he could not have been the one to shoot the victim."

The gallery burst out into chatter, and I couldn't help but smirk as I glanced over to Venus. Yuri's face had dawned with realization, and she clapped her hands together excitedly at the words that I had spoken. Prosecutor Bespoke nodded and smiled from his place on the opposite side of the crime, and Cassidy watched her older sister with an admiration so complete that it was overwhelmingly sweet.

"Order!" Judge Diaphan announced as she reached for her gavel and slammed it down on the bench in front of her. "I believe that I understand now. You wished to see what hand the defendant wrote with. Asking for his alibi meant nothing to the situation at hand."

Venus nodded. "Pretty much. I wanted to catch him in his natural environment, and if I did it after we saw the video footage, then it would have seemed suspicious, like there was a chance he was going to lie about what hand he used when he wrote," she replied. "I thought that it was just best to take care of sooner rather than later."

"Wow, Venus! I can't believe that you figured all that out so easily!" Yuri cried out, clapping her hands together excitedly.

Venus let out a small chuckle. "I wasn't entirely sure if it was going to work, but I figured that I might as well follow my gut when it says that there's something amiss right in the place where the killer should have been," she said. "For all I knew, the handedness of the culprit was going to match KJ, so I guess that I was gambling a little bit, but... Oh well. It all worked out, didn't it?"

Prosecutor Bespoke cleared his throat to earn the attention of the others in the courtroom before he glanced over to Judge Diaphan. "The prosecution believes that this should be evidence of the fact that we need to investigate this case in more depth," he announced. "There's still more about this case that we don't know, and if we have reason to believe now that the defendant is not the culprit, then that means that we should adjourn the trial for the time being to start our search for more evidence."

"Defense? What do you think of the prosecution's proposal?" Judge Diaphan questioned as she shifted her attention in my direction.

To say that I was relieved would have been the understatement of the century. Still, I didn't let my gratitude show on my features too much, instead simply nodding my agreement. "I believe that it would be for the best if the trial was to take a break as we tried to find more evidence related to this case," I responded.

Judge Diaphan nodded. "I believe that this would be wise as well. There are too many doubts in the facts, and it would be best to resolve them before the problem can grow to be too great for us to handle. With that said, I expect both the prosecution and defense to split up for the day to investigate. Any new findings will be brought back here tomorrow for the second day of the trial," she announced. "Until then, court is adjourned!" She reached for her gavel and hit it down one more time, bringing the case to an end for the day in the process and offering us one more chance to find the truth behind this mess once and for all.

May 2

Defendant Lobby No. 3

11:20 AM

Cotoli Morix

Yuri let out a heavy sigh as soon as we arrived out in the defendant lobby. "Wow! I can't believe that all of that wound up working out in our favor!" she cried out. "If I'm being honest, I was a bit worried for a while there, but Venus was able to save us with her suspicions about the handedness of the culprit!"

"It was a risk, but I think that it ultimately wound up being calculated," Venus grinned. She couldn't seem to hold back her pride at her sister complimenting her to such a degree. Even though Venus had admitted that she had been the one to take the strange and potentially complex risk of not knowing the answer to her own questions, she wasn't allowing that to show too much, instead finding herself with a smile as bright as the sun on her face.

"Thanks to you, we're going to be able to look around the scene of the crime a bit more to try and find details about the murder," I told her with a light smile. "I believe that is a success. We don't have enough information to find out much of anything related to this case right now. Everything is simply too rushed for us to learn anything that could help us, especially given how much of a mess the scene of the crime was at the time of its discovery."

Before either one of the sisters could respond, KJ appeared before us, unable to keep himself from smiling. "Thank you so much for everything that you did for me in there!" he cried out. "I truly don't know what I would have done without you. Everything that you did was amazing, and I'm sure that if anybody is able to get me out of the detention center, it's you three. I can't ever properly say how grateful I am."

"Don't worry about it, KJ," Venus assured him with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "For the time being, we aren't going to stop. We have to keep pushing if we want to find the truth behind this case, so we've got a bit more to do in terms of searching for evidence. That way, we'll be able to actually get you out of the detention center next time that the case goes to trial."

KJ nodded, but he wasn't able to say much else before Sora and Chrysalis appeared before us. Sora had one arm wrapped around Chrysalis' shoulders. "Hey there, you guys!" Sora cried out with a merry grin and a wave. "I'm glad that we were able to get another day to investigate. I feel like there's still a lot that we have yet to find out about the murder, huh?"

I nodded. "We're going to head down to the community center as soon as possible to sweep the area for clues. There has to be something that we missed," I told her.

"Mr. Middleton decided to go and speak with Prosecutor Bespoke about the time of the crime," Chrysalis interjected. "I believe that it would be fine for us to leave them to it for the time being... I will have to thank Prosecutor Bespoke when he's less busy though. He seemed to know that I didn't want to testify for too long if I could avoid it, and I'm glad that he was able to figure that much out."

"He's a perceptive guy contrary to what you might expect. He's only ever really shown that much energy for his work around you though, Cotoli," Sora said with a shrug. "I guess that he really likes working with you."

"Well, he's going to be able to work with us a little bit longer as we get ready to go into the second stage of this case," Venus pointed out. "But for the time being, we're going to have to head down to the community center to see what it is that we can dig up there. KJ, we can come down to the detention center after we've finished our search to offer you updates on what we've figured out. How does that sound?"

KJ nodded. "That would be great. Thank you all again so much for everything that you've done on my behalf. I don't think that I'll ever be able to properly tell you how grateful that I am for what you've been doing for me, but I'll still say it as many times as I have to," he smiled. "I'll see you again later then!"

With that said, we all went our separate ways to continue with the investigation. I still wasn't entirely sure where this case was going to be taking us from this point, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. We were going to figure out who the culprit was, and when we did, we would free KJ once and for all. Nothing was going to stop us after all of that. I wasn't going to let it happen.

Update time!

-Digital