"Let's start simple," Stolas announces. "The location and the full report on the injuries. Marzy?"

"Of course." Marzy clears his throat. "The body was found in the Pharmacy, with severe blunt force trauma that had quite obviously become penetration trauma after a few hits against the shelf. The only blood found on En's body was on the head and face. The rest of the body was clean. And judging by the positioning of the injuries, En would have been facing the shelves, most likely meaning that they were caught by surprise."

"What were they doing down there in the first place, though?" Caim asks.

"Yeah, the time of death was pretty late at night. And how would the killer have known they would be going down there?" Furfur adds.

"We actually figured that out upon searching En's cottage," Evangeline answers, removing the note from her pocket.

"What's that?" Azrael leans forward on his podium in attempt to get a better look.

"It's a note we found for En. It gave them the time and location to meet their killer," Dana explains. "We can assume that they went down to the Pharmacy for that reason."

"But why would they go in the first place? If anything, they should have brought someone with them," Iris comments.

"You know how En is. The note was mocking their Ultimate and taking a jab at their skills, and they would not have such a thing," Stolas says.

"Damn, what did it say?" Furfur questions.

Evangeline smooths out the letter and reads, "You've played your cards, and now I'll play mine."

"Sounds like En got pissed that the writer was suggesting something about their abilities," Marzy says.

"Okay, so En received a letter to meet someone at the Pharmacy," I repeat, making sure that we're all on the same page. "Then they must've gotten there before the culprit, because they were taken by surprise."

"This also means that our chess board culprit had to have somehow known about this whole exchange, because there was just simply no way for someone to have come across it this morning given the chess board was already missing from the lobby," Stolas confirms. "And after that, I stood watch nearby to make sure every single person came out of their cottage.  Which everyone did, so the culprit would only have known about the body if they had seen the events go down themself."

"Alright." Furfur slams her hands on her podium. "Anyone wanna come clean?"

"Do you really think they will come clean?" Stolas retorts.  Furfur crosses her arms and looks away.

"Right, well," I say, attempting to break the tension, "We know how En got down there and how they were killed.  But there's some other things that aren't accounted for just yet."

"Correct," Stolas agrees. "It appears that when En's head was hit against the shelf, some of the bottles fell.  And our killer took the time to reorganize them exactly where they should have been.  We know this because of the faint traces of blood on some of the bottles."

"Maybe the killer was just trying to clean up the scene?" Caim suggests.

"Why would they take so much time to do that, though?" Iris reminds him.

"I mean, everyone was asleep, so they definitely could have taken their sweet time," Dana shrugs.

"Why clean up the scene in the first place, though?" Will asks, confusion present in his expression.

"Maybe the killer's just a clean freak," Zeben offers.

"I mean, I put stuff back out of habit if it falls," Dana agrees. "Not that it was me or anything."

"Hang on, why En in the first place?" Caim asks worriedly. "Did they have any enemies on the island?"

"No." Stolas shakes his head. "The killer knew that they could use En's pride to their advantage, likely much easier than someone else.  Also, pardon my French, but En was a bit of a prick, so one could likely feel a little less bad than if they killed, say, Caim."

Caim's face turns pink at the compliment.  Although he was just used as an example for murder, so I'm not entirely sure how he can take it in such a good way.  Guess that's just one of the good things about him- he's too pure for such a terrible killing game.

Stolas continues, "Now the difficult part is the fact that nobody has alibis given this happened at night.  Unless anyone has any rather interesting objections, we can assume that everyone was alone in their cottages."

"So everyone's a suspect," I mumble.  Fun, that makes things so much easier.  Thanks for making me point fingers, Stolas.

"Well, not quite everyone." Stolas turns his stone-cold gaze back to Caim. "May I just say that there is no way that Caim could have physically committed this crime?  En is around five-foot-eleven, if I had to guess.  Someone like Caim could not, without use of a stepladder, have properly carried out the murder."

"That's a really nice way to call him short," Furfur remarks.

"So am I cleared, then?" Caim squeaks.  Stolas gives him a nod.

"I don't think anyone ever considered Caim a suspect in the first place," Zeben admits.

"Well perhaps you should not forget that assumptions in this game are quite deadly," Stolas warns him.

"Well, Mr. Mortal Combat, you earlier basically confessed to having solved the whole crime.  Can we not extend this trial just for the sake of it?" Dana reminds Stolas.

Stolas bows his head. "Yes.  I will not drag this out longer than it needs to be.  This crime was perhaps even easier than the first."

He reaches into his pocket and removes the small bottle I'd seen him take from the Pharmacy.  He tosses it to me, and I nearly drop it, seeing as I'm an artist, not an athlete.  "BuT sOpHiE, wHy NoT bE bOtH-" Shut up.

"Now Sophie," Stolas says, "I was the first to this island yesterday and was the last to leave, exactly at ten o'clock.  The Pharmacy was completely untouched as of then, but this morning, there was a single bottle missing.  It was sitting on the shelf next to this one, so either it is quite close in type of medicine or the exact one taken.  This was the true deciding factor in my decision of who I believe to be the killer.  I believe with this, you can make your decision."

Oh, great.  Now I'm on my own.  I look down at the bottle and read the label. Eprinomectin.  MKA-approved.  Travel-size.  For bovine.

That's a lot of big words for someone who speaks in images.  But it clicks pretty quickly once I realize what this is for.

"Should I start from the beginning?" I ask Stolas.  He gives me a small nod.

Okay.  Here we go.   Everyone is looking at me, waiting for me to start.  So I do.

"Last night, En received a weird note mocking them and asking them to go to the Pharmacy.  Confused but moreso annoyed at the jab at their pride, En did as they were told without much thought.  When they arrived at the Pharmacy, it was empty.  En decided to wait, and while taking a look at the shelves, the killer crept up from behind and bashed their head against the shelf until they were dead.  However, this caused bottles to fall off the shelf, which the killer quickly put back out of instinct, but also because they were familiar with medicine and it wouldn't take them long.  Before they left, however, they spotted a bottle they needed for other purposes and took that as well.  Once gone, the chess culprit, who had probably seen it all go down, set up the chess board and left. 

While the identity of the chess culprit still remains unknown, the identity of the killer doesn't.  Because little did they know that Stolas would realize that the sudden disappearance of the bottle didn't match the time frame of when the killer could've gotten it normally.  Especially because the killer had never even gone to the second island in the first place.  Instead, the killer spends all of their time at the corral, using the bottle of cow medicine they grabbed to help give nutrients to the orphaned cow they're looking after.  Isn't that right, Ryn?  The Ultimate Veterinarian?"

Ryn looks appalled as the last of my words linger in the air.  Finally, she narrows her eyes.

"That doesn't make any sense!" she spits. "If I've never gone over to the second island, how on earth could I have possibly known about the Pharmacy, much less known where it is??"

"That's where you're wrong," Stolas interjects, "Our student handbooks all have digital maps of the island we have access to."

Even I didn't know that.  Wow.

Ryn is taken aback. "W-well then, what if someone is trying to frame me, huh?  Isn't it too obvious??  Why would I even resort to killing En, even if I thought they were a jerk?"

She makes a good point.  I really don't think Ryn would kill without reason.  I think for a long moment, then meet Stolas's gaze.  As if we have some sort of shared telepathy or whatever, I realize something.

"I'm not the only one who was offered something if I killed someone, am I?" I ask everyone.

"I mean, there's no point in lying about it.  Monokumace gave me an incentive," Furfur confesses before adding, "Of course, I turned it down."

"Yeah, me too," Caim chimes in.

Everyone gives some form of agreement.  Ryn included.

"But I rejected it too," she insists. "How can you be so sure that someone isn't lying?"

"How can I be so sure that you aren't lying?" I shoot right back.  God damn, since when am I so smooth with my comebacks??

Ryn goes quiet for a moment before she says, "It's not me.  I wouldn't.  You're making a mistake that will cost you not only your own life, but everyone else's as well."

Now that causes me to stop and reconsider.  Is she right?  Are we really just jumping to conclusions?  Can the evidence really prove that it was one hundred percent her??  The only thing that could really do that would be if the chess board culprit suddenly comes clean and explicitly says that they saw Ryn kill En.  But either they are choosing to stay silent or Ryn is the culprit, and in either case they're certainly not helping our case here.

"Ryn, while there is not quite perfect evidence that it was you, all of the facts line up.  And even more importantly, there is no possible way that you could have acquired the medicine unless you went over to the island between last night and early this morning.  So unless you found the body and said nothing, then you are the culprit," Stolas explains.

"Hold up," I realize. "This is kind of weird, but wouldn't the body discovery alarm have gone off when the chess culprit found it unless it's Ryn?"

Ace giggles. "Nope!  A body discovery announcement only goes off once at least two people have discovered the body."

"Meaning there is no way that Ryn isn't either the killer, the chess culprit, or both," Stolas concludes. "And frankly, I highly doubt that she would kill the mother of the cow she's been so determined to take care of, so it's much more likely that she is En's killer."

"Yeah, I wouldn't kill the mother cow!" Ryn practically shouts. "But I wouldn't kill En, either!"

Her composure is faltering more and more with each second.  I know that she knows she's been caught.  I just still can't wrap my head around someone like her doing something like this.  Though as Stolas said earlier, we shouldn't make assumptions.  

"Sounds like our trial is coming to a close," Ace groans. "Frankly, I was hoping for something a bit longer, but pickers can't be choosers!  Load up your e-handbooks and cast your votes!"

With a heavy heart, I turn on my digital handbook to see the already-loaded voting screen.  I take a deep breath and click on the option for Ryn.  Then, I turn it off and put it back in my bag.  This is gonna hurt.

After everyone is done, Ace cheerfully announces, "The votes are unanimous!  And... you were all correct!  The blackened this time was Ryn, the Ultimate Veterinarian!"

"YOU PROMISED ME YOU WOULD TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!" Ryn screams, causing half of us to jump in surprise. 

Ace smiles. "I did.  Because that's what you wanted more than anything, right?  That's what I offered you in exchange for a life?"

Ryn's voice grows louder yet as she screeches, "YOU TOLD ME YOU KNEW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM AND THAT IF I KILLED SOMEONE, YOU WOULD TELL ME.  YOU NEED TO TELL ME, PLEASE.  I DID WHAT YOU ASKED.  I DID IT ALL READY, SO JUST... PLEASE..."

She sinks to her knees, sobbing. "Please, just tell me what happened to him.  I need to know."

All of us are looking between her and Monokumace, puzzled.  Ace seems to be enjoying her begging before they address the rest of us.

"Poor Ryn here would just kill to know what happened to her beloved older brother," they tease. "Wouldn't it be funny if I just held my end of the bargain?"

"Please," Ryn pleads, tears streaming down her cheeks.  I can't tell if she's begging for her life or for the truth.  My heart sinks as I realize that it seems to be the second one.

I want to say something, anything to her, or even to defend her right now.  But my mouth is dry.  It looks like everyone else is in a similar position, too.

"Well, I suppose I do have to talk a little about other students of mine sometimes," Ace says. "After all, her brother was one of the smartest kids I'd ever had."

"Monokumace, please just tell her," Mononity gasps, still hanging upside down.  Right, I forgot he was here.

"Everything you do is horrible, so just spare her the pain," he continues.

Ryn is sobbing on the floor as we all look back at her.  She's absolutely broken.  It almost makes me forget she's a killer and just want to hug her and tell her everything is okay.

Ace, on the other hand, seems to feel the opposite.  

"Are you ready?" they jeer at her. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, let's give Ultimate Veterinarian Ryn Everfell a special reward for her competence..."

I really don't want to hear them say it.  It was bad enough with Rori.  I can't do it again.  Yet I still hear the words cut through the air anyways.

"IIIIIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!"

***

(2436 words)

A bit of a long one, sorry!

Following the trend of the second trial always being emotional in every game, I knew without a doubt that I could at least make myself sad with this one.  Ryn actually wasn't a randomized killer; I picked her out specifically for this one.  This story is probably 50% randomized deaths and 50% my choice, just for a stronger plot.  

This trial was also hard to write because it was a lot of "Stolas knows everything already so I gotta find other ways to extend the trial and hit the 2000 word mark by other means".  AKA Ryn is much better at healing than killing.

Anyways, it might take a few days for Ryn's execution to come out because I'm so busy all week, but expect more chapters to be released quickly after it because I'll still be able to do plenty of writing.

Sorry, this is a long author's note today, but I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.  About 1500 of the words were written on my phone on the bus ride to a softball game :')