Still Chen's Day Out! =^_^=

[Chaore]

> "The victim was surrounded by hundreds of fairies and bugs, with a cat, an oni and yours truly leading the strike, with only her familiar as back up. In a situation such as this, you'd think she'd pull off all stops, and use projectile attacks to fend off the army. She'd have all reason to use these projectiles, and it would've surely given her a major edge in the grand battle. That she didn't use these valuable powers and attacks at critical times means she couldn't use them at all!"

Lunasa goes silent for a bit before calling on Cirno's testimony.

"Hold on. Explain a bit more, why was Chen distracting the victim for Wriggle specifically, wouldn't it be for the entire assault?"

Cirno answers truthfully, and you think you notice where shes going with this. "Well... The two of them were kinda squaring off for a while on the back of her familiar before we ganged up on her. The familiar was kinda a big worry..." "So the familiar was taking on an entire army?" "Pretty much."

Lunasa then turns back to the court. "Alright, from there, we can assume she didn't use projectiles because she had her familiar. Her main threats lied in those close to her, she didn't have a reason to use anything other than her sword. If she was say, worse with magic then her sword, or drained from using her familiar so much she needed to save those shots, she would be better off trying to have her familiar deal with the army. If they're explosives, its worse- It'd go off right in her face.

Unless the defense has a good explanation for why they came from someone not the victim, I think we can see this as a fair conclusion, correct?"

You think you can tear this down. Maybe...

[Kuma]

> From what we could tell, Meira could only use Danmaku with her sword, wich was destroyed in the battle, and the shots she fired did not explode

[Chaore]

> From what we could tell, Meira could only use Danmaku with her sword, wich was destroyed in the battle, and the shots she fired did not explode

You haven't actually fought against Meira before all this, You're not sure -what- her powers exactly our.

Your strength here is no one else does, until today she was mostly a null factor in the power rankings of Gensokyo.

[Kasu]

> Hmm...  Suika might know something...  Are we able to call her to the stand?

[Chaore]

> Hmm...  Suika might know something...  Are we able to call her to the stand?

You could... Unfortunately, Lunasa has the cross-examination here. She chooses when it ends. If you don't have any further objections, she'll either continue or end it here.

[Hello Purvis]

>"That doesn't make very good tactical sense. Why would she throw her strongest weapon, the familiar, at a group of enemies who are rather well known for not taking a lot of power to vanquished, then try to fight the rest of us, who are the real threats to her, without it? Would it not significantly improve her odds if she threw the familiar at us, then used attacks that would do particularly well against dense groups on the gathered faeries? I think it's plainly obvious that if she had such a resource, she would have used it. Who would just sit on their tools when a posse comes after them? And for all her faults and intellectual short-sightedness, we can conclude, I believe, that Meira knew how to put up a fight, given the resources we had to throw at her."

[Chaore]

>"That doesn't make very good tactical sense. Why would she throw her strongest weapon, the familiar, at a group of enemies who are rather well known for not taking a lot of power to vanquished, then try to fight the rest of us, who are the real threats to her, without it? Would it not significantly improve her odds if she threw the familiar at us, then used attacks that would do particularly well against dense groups on the gathered faeries? I think it's plainly obvious that if she had such a resource, she would have used it. Who would just sit on their tools when a posse comes after them? And for all her faults and intellectual short-sightedness, we can conclude, I believe, that Meira knew how to put up a fight, given the resources we had to throw at her."

"Weren't you ON her greatest weapon? You can have the greatest weapon in the world, but if your opponent is riding on it, you can't swing it at them. You were a threat she couldn't just throw the familiar at. Then everyone else managed to bypass it, leading it plausible that you found a way to simply get past her familiar. The point stands, You were up in her face. She -couldn't- just ignore you to shoot at the pretty fairies. That would be a worse mistake.

Once again, I repeat. What would the point of this sidetrack even be? Why is it important that she apparently didn't have a projectile attack?"

[Kasu]

> "Because Chen relies on black magic.  She has no projectile danmaku attacks at her disposal either."
> Don't say this if it isn't true.  I kinda went out on a limb here.

[Serela]

>"The point of her not having such an attack is that does not coincide at all with your description of the murder scene. You stated Meira fired explosive projectiles at her assailant, breaking the trees; however, she did not actually have such an ability. This would make it assumable that her assailant caused the damage; however, Chen has no such ability either. In addition, your witness Mystia did not notice the assailant wearing Chen's large and quite unique cape, which she is unable to remove. This leaves a large hole in your evidence."

[Chaore]

> "Because Chen relies on black magic.  She has no projectile danmaku attacks at her disposal either."
> Don't say this if it isn't true.  I kinda went out on a limb here.

>"The point of her not having such an attack is that does not coincide at all with your description of the murder scene. You stated Meira fired explosive projectiles at her assailant, breaking the trees; however, she did not actually have such an ability. This would make it assumable that her assailant caused the damage; however, Chen has no such ability either. In addition, your witness Mystia did not notice the assailant wearing Chen's large and quite unique cape, which she is unable to remove. This leaves a large hole in your evidence."

The court begins to rustle.

"Then, you're claiming the assailant, who would not be Chen, did the damage?"

There is literally no wriggle room, pardon the pun, here. You're going to have to hope she can't pull something out of her ass here...

[Kasu]

> "Precisely.  If Meira wasn't capable of projectile attacks, and Chen wasn't capable of projectile attacks, then the assailant couldn't be Chen."

[Chaore]

> "Precisely.  If Meira wasn't capable of projectile attacks, and Chen wasn't capable of projectile attacks, then the assailant couldn't be Chen."

You lay it out straight, and everything goes straight to bedlam. Komachi has to scythe the Judge's stand to get everyone to shut up for a moment.

Lunasa...does not look amused. "That...is impossible, The attacks were blasted towards the direction they came from, not the way they went. What kind of attack loops around backwards? Why would you even use it in a chase? Especially for so long. The trail only stops a bit away from where the victim was found, hardly enough time for all the scratches to be inflicted."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Could you provide some evidence of this? Perhaps the investigative team can produce a rendition of the scene for us?"

[Serela]

>"Perhaps, Meira was not being chased at all. She could have been unknowingly moving in the direction of her assailant, who then unleashed this deadly attack on her that destroyed the trees."

[Chaore]

>"Could you provide some evidence of this? Perhaps the investigative team can produce a rendition of the scene for us?"

Lunasa nods. "Very well. Someone get the Tengu out there with them to take some pictures."

You hear a squeal of joy from the audience. Figures Aya still couldn't avoid good gossip.

But it looks like a hole in your plan may be popping up. How the hell are you going to close this up?

You've got till Aya and the investigation team get back to think something up. Best make it a good one.

>"Perhaps, Meira was not being chased at all. She could have been unknowingly moving in the direction of her assailant, who then unleashed this deadly attack on her that destroyed the trees."

You pop one for testing.

"Along an entire path, and -still- missed her? That is a pretty bad attack..."

[Kasu]

> QUICK!  Does anyone we know have danmaku or abilities that match the description?

[Hello Purvis]

Lunasa nods. "Very well. Someone get the Tengu out there with them to take some pictures."

>Look to the Judge.
>"I presume your honor has ways to ascertain nothing has changed on the scene between the investigation and the photographing?"
>Nice to see Aya's still about.
>How's Chen holding up?

[Chaore]

> QUICK!  Does anyone we know have danmaku or abilities that match the description?

Well, When it comes to explosions, Utsuho comes to mind for one. But Marisa has proved time and time again, ANYTHING can be made to explode. Even healing spells.

>Look to the Judge.
>"I presume your honor has ways to ascertain nothing has changed on the scene between the investigation and the photographing?"
>Nice to see Aya's still about.
>How's Chen holding up?

Komachi nods, pulling her scythe out of the podium. "'course, they fool around, the mirror catches them. They know -that-."

So she CAN use the mirror...

You glance at Chen, she seems to be taking this as a relief.

You imagine Aya is ecstatic about being able to use her camera again, good to know she can move her legs for once.

[Kasu]

> Deep breaths.
> Ponder how Marisa may fit into this.

[Serela]

>As I was about to say before House came on (darn Mother forced me to go to her room to watch it instead of the living room with the computer >: ), perhaps the destroyed trees were from Marisa's battle with Chen. Not that we know that happened, but we DO know Chen went into the forest to see Marisa, right? And one can guess how that went.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Out of curiosity, your honor, why are we not using the mirror for this case?"
>Ponder the idea that the attacker may have come from the other direction.

[Kasu]

> Ponder the fact that we may have struck a nerve when Suika told Marisa that *someone* was desecrating the shrine before the big battle, and that between the SDM and finding Marisa, she took vengeance into her own hands.

[Chaore]

> Deep breaths.
> Ponder how Marisa may fit into this.

Way too early. Soon as she knew you had a sword, she'd have to suspect you survived a point-blank master spark and go to the bird-youkai area to frame you.

You gather yourself.

>As I was about to say before House came on (darn Mother forced me to go to her room to watch it instead of the living room with the computer >: ), perhaps the destroyed trees were from Marisa's battle with Chen. Not that we know that happened, but we DO know Chen went into the forest to see Marisa, right? And one can guess how that went.

The Bird-Youkai live in a different forest than the Forest of Magic, you made very sure of that. Its not their fault you two are natural enemies, but the line has to be made.

>"Out of curiosity, your honor, why are we not using the mirror for this case?"
>Ponder the idea that the attacker may have come from the other direction.

Komachi raises a brow. "We've got reasons for that." That scythe suddenly looks a bit more menacing...

You'll have to see if they left foot prints before you get into that line, at that, Meira would be all dirty from being dragged to the 'killing spot'. You think even Lunasa would catch that.

It pains you to say, but you're likely just killing time to get something good with this line of thought.

> Ponder the fact that we may have struck a nerve when Suika told Marisa that *someone* was desecrating the shrine before the big battle, and that between the SDM and finding Marisa, she took vengeance into her own hands.

You may be stretching a bit there. She... didn't seem too interested when Suika talked to her, though. Her going out of her way like that is odd.

It'd be stranger if her broom could take off heads, at that.

[Kasu]

> Leave the "Marisa Option" open just in case.

[Chaore]

> Leave the "Marisa Option" open just in case.

You can't think anything would close it too easily...

[Kasu]

> Fast-forward to the Tengu returning.

[Hello Purvis]

>Consider the possibility of explosive thingums being obtained from Rinnosuke, or possibly scavenged from some doodad of Nitori's that have been left over.

[Chaore]

> Fast-forward to the Tengu returning.

You cut to the chase. The Tengu returns, and Momiji takes the stand again with pictures.

"Right then, lets paint the scene then, shall we?". You don't like the sound of that, she IS confident.

She pulls out the first picture, showing a patch of blood with a flag painted into it. "THIS is where we found the victim. As you can see, the blood stain is pretty much central to where we found the head." Momiji then pulls out a second picture from a different angle. This time its showing two more patches. "This is where the victim's stump and severed legs where. You can see a bit of a blood stain path between them, this leads us to believe the victim fell upon losing their leg, where the assailant overcame and chopped off their head."

Momiji picks up another photo, this time showing the direction the broken trees are. The damage isn't too severe, and besides energy burn marks, it could be made by almost any spherical object slamming into it with enough force. The flag is present, as well as in the corner, the two blood stains from the leg. "This is the direction from the body the marks are. As you can see, the shots were going away from the victim's final resting place." Momiji holds up a few more photos of broken trees. "And these are photos showing how long the broken tree path leads."

Lunasa pulls out another AIR VIOLIN solo. "Excellent job, Detective."

>Consider the possibility of explosive thingums being obtained from Rinnosuke, or possibly scavenged from some doodad of Nitori's that have been left over.

It IS certainly possible. The kappa are kind of Tengu landlocked, but Rinnosuke could have SOMETHING explosive. Lunasa could call in Tokiko or the man himself if it came to it, though.

She seems dedicated to proving this is true though. -why-?

[Serela]

>Meira COULD shoot spherical orb energy things. If that damage wasn't too bad, maybe she did do it. THEY don't know that however and cannot seem to prove it, so we can still use that  :V
>...why DOES Lunasa care so much about winning Meira's case, anyway?
>Okay, we need to find a new hole in this. We know Chen didn't do it, and Mystia might have, but we need to find a hole.

[Chaore]

>Meira COULD shoot spherical orb energy things. If that damage wasn't too bad, maybe she did do it. THEY don't know that however and cannot seem to prove it, so we can still use that  :V
>...why DOES Lunasa care so much about winning Meira's case, anyway?
>Okay, we need to find a new hole in this. We know Chen didn't do it, and Mystia might have, but we need to find a hole.

You need SOMETHING at the very least. At this rate, it could collapse in on you pretty quick. Cirno's testimony is good, but it can't hold up against Mystia's testimony.

You're fairly sure Lunasa may just be trying to win more cases. Hell, this could be how she pays her bills. You don't imagine anyone tips the sisters. In fact, You haven't heard them play in a while. They're probably on normal jobs for the moment.