Take Responsibility.

[andexecutioner]

The door at the northwestern corner of the foyer is open. It's hard to say when it opened, but the fact of the matter is that it seems to have; it leads to a separate hallway that seems to run alongside the dormitories. The hall is long and dimly-lit, but it's illuminated well enough to make it plain that the walls and floor in here are different; they're far less designed to give off an impression of grandeur - if anything, it's claustrophobic back here: the walls are close and darkly-colored, and the entire area is barren until it opens up into the room serving as your destination. The room is circular and high-ceilinged, covered in more of the exposed wood that lines the rest of the building; there aren't any visible lights, however, which is...odd, given how bright the place is. It lends the entire area a sense of unreality; it's easy to distract yourself from it, however, once you notice this place's centerpiece. In the center of the room is a circle of podiums, thirty in total, arranged so that everyone standing at them can see each other. So everyone can look each other in the eyes, if they so choose. The podiums are interlocked - there's no cutting across the center of the circle, and for good reason, it looks like there's a lot of nothing down there where the floor should be - and each is bearing the title of the person who's assigned to stand at it. No names, just adjectives, emblazoned across two brass panels on the very top and the front of each podium. Affixed to the podium itself is a panel with buttons on it, and again, there are thirty in total; next to the buttons are smaller strips of engraved metal to serve as labels, bearing the titles of everyone that's been present in the facility, living or dead. All of the podiums are identical, except for the one intended for Sayaka. The podium that should bear Attentive's title has had a black cloth draped over it, and a copy of Sayaka's profile photo is sitting on top of it, framed and colorless, an image in greyscale. Juri is nowhere to be found in here, but that doesn't mean you're alone down here; the feeling that you're being watched is strong, and he'll wait until you've had time to take in what you're looking at before he addresses you - over the public-address system again, from the sound of it. "Attentive's dead, and somebody's to blame for it - but you guys get to decide whether Rule Seven's carried out or not. It's your job to hold them responsible for what they've done. Good luck in doing it."

Comments

[meanttobe]

[His face falls.] Not you too... Come on, can't we focus on something else and come back to this if it's the only thing left?

[gorira]

Oh, for sure. Like I said, I really don't want to think that's what it was. Sayaka may have been tender, but she was also really scared...on her first day here, she was in such a panic. I felt so bad for her...but after I talked her down, she was nothing but sweet. So I want to believe that maybe it was a list of people she could trust, if she ever gets riled up like that again.

...But, Brady, just because someone's sweet doesn't mean they aren't capable of doing things you and I may not consider right. And in a place like this, where it's our necks on the line, if we don't go over every option, it might mean we won't get to see another day. You get me? So, if it comes down to it, it could just be my jitters talking, but we need to think about every single possibility. Even if they're ones we may not like to hear.

Right now, though, our top priority is finding the bastard who killed her and making sure he doesn't get away with this. That's the most important thing. ...I'm not saying we shouldn't trust Sayaka. I'm just saying we have to be smart.

[meanttobe]

[He mulls it over, and he looks slightly away from Chitoge and Mahiru- ...in fact, he looks to Sayaka's podium.]

Yeah, okay. But only if it's the last thing we have left.

[gorira]

Totally fine by me. Innocent until proven guilty, right?

[meanttobe]

Right.