After a tense vote with much higher stakes than the first, Iustitia held up a hand. You found yourselves at the edges of your (for some, metaphorical) seats. Youād heard all of the juryās votesā
Jack: Not Guilty from all but Dexter, Jack, Matsukaze, and Taran;
Fenna: Guilty from all but Abel, Haruka, and Taran (and possibly Melvin, depending on how that got sorted);
and the sole consensus of R.N.A.: Not Guiltyā
but you couldnāt be sure what the judge would do with them.
āTHE JURYāS VOTES ARE ACKNOWLEDGED. DEFENDANTS, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE STAND FOR THE READING OF YOUR VERDICTS.ā
With widely varying levels of readiness, Fenna, Jack, and R.N.A. finally left the jury box, though none of the rest of you could. Once theyād made it to the stand, Iustitia verified they were all present and began.
"IN THE CASE OF THE MURDER OF THE PASSENGER KNOWN AS ATSUKO SAMUKURA, THIS COURT FINDSā¦
THE DEFENDANT, R.N.A., NOT GUILTY.
THE DEFENDANT, JACK, NOT GUILTY.
THE DEFENDANT, FENNA VAN DAALENā¦ GUILTY."
It seemed the judge had respected your votes, or at least the majority of them. But what about Neko-Neko?
āThe defense has no objections, Your Honor.ā
āYeah, yeah, the prosecution believes this to be the case or whatever fancy wording weāre supposed ta use here.ā
Agreement, then. Neko-Neko had already mentioned their cameras watching you all, so if they were being honest, there was little room left for doubt. No use trying to deny itāFenna had killed Atsuko.
āTHE GUILTY DEFENDANT SHALL NOW BE DELIVERED TOā¦ā
Iustitia hesitated, as if caught off-guard by something in her script. She tried to move for a moment, but her legs seemed bound to the podium.
āWHAT IS THIS? THE PUNISHMENT CHAMBER? Iā¦ā
āā¦I CANNOT SEE, I CANNOT ACT, I MAY ONLY JUDGE. FORGIVE MEā¦ā
With that, the statueās voice trailed off weakly, and she returned to her original, intimidating pose. You heard a door creak openāthe wooden one on the other side of the courtroom. Those of you so inclined to experiment would now find yourselves free of the odd little forcefield keeping you in the jury box. But there was still something between you and the next room.
āā¦ā¦..ā
ā¦You werenāt sure you wanted to proceed that badly, anyway. Perhaps this was a better time to share some last words.
