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βMirror mirror on the wall, who's the most wretched of them all?β
γΙΞΉΞ±ΖΟgΟ Ρ cΟΖΟΡ:#762D73 β ΡΠ½ΟΟ gΠ½Ρ cΟΖΟΡ #BF3B3Bγ
|| Metaphor || Shoujo Byou ||
γΙΞΉΞ±ΖΟgΟ Ρ cΟΖΟΡ:#762D73 β ΡΠ½ΟΟ gΠ½Ρ cΟΖΟΡ #BF3B3Bγ
|| Metaphor || Shoujo Byou ||
Yui's trial was the first of them and Haruka Shoku was called up to the stand by the lawyer, a certain man going by the surname Ekomov, a friend of Viktor's and former Prometheus agent. Raven resisted all it took to look at Yui, she couldn't bear it, because it was all her fault that Yui had to suffer, it was all her fault that this was happening at all. Mizuki was one of the three in charge of this whole trial, as was Kirouac, and third was a man Haruka didn't recognize, he seemed happy to be called Strauss. "Haruka Shoku, can you describe to us,, for the jury, what your abilities are like? Without removing the inhibitor." So this was his strategy? Hopefully it would work because otherwise they would be in trouble.
"Sure." Haruka said quietly, frowning. "But first, Court, may I say something of my own?" Kirouac and Mizuki both gave her permission before Strauss could say a word, making it a two against one. "You may speak." Mizuki said, her voice not revealing any of her secret intentions she must have been spinning this very moment. So Haruka looked the jury in the eye, each and every one of them. "I'm sure you all have to know this." She said as emotionlessly as possible. "Aria Matsuri, one of the Heroes of Bismark. She's in the audience, and with my in here and Yui with an inhibitor, Aria's the single most powerful person in the world. I'm not saying this as a threat, but as a promise. If her precious Yui is locked up, a mere child, you'll look back on my chaos and realize how lucky you were that it wasn't Aria who rampaged instead."
Once that was done Raven told all about how her powers worked, Mizuki said with a lofty smile that they should show them an example so that they all knew what it was like. "Since the main focus of the trial will be on Haruka's powers, we need the Jury to understand to the fullest what it is. We have purifiers to remove the seeds afterwards, so please, go ahead, Shoku." Strauss shook his head then. "I can't allow that, for obvious reasons." But then K grinned a sneaky grin in response to that. "But Strauss, don't you think the best way for the Jury to truly have a fair judgment is that they know precisely what Shoku's seeds can do?" Strauss was once again overruled and Haruka did it, making the members of the Jury dance and sway and tell inappropriate jokes about llamas and frogs until Strauss applied the purifiers. It was just minor seeding so there was no pain.
"And now they know the helplessness of being seeded." Mizuki seemed to be taking absolute control of the court then. "Jury! I'm a dying girl, I don't want to waste more of my life in a sham of a trial. Now that you know what it's like to be seeded, you know you had absolutely no control of your actions, correct?" The jury didn't say anything but Mizu knew the game was already over. It was won the moment she beat the other Judge in gambling, meaning she and K would be able to dictate the course of the trial. "Let's make this quick. Justice Strauss wants to lock a child up for life for being manipulated, for being forced to do horrible things, and no matter how much she tried to cry and scream and to fight, it was impossible to break out of the control." She grinned and K rolled her eyes, no longer taking this seriously. "Why are we wasting time trying a victim?"
Strauss slammed his gavel in anger. "Be quiet." He nearly barked. "We have more witnesses, we have-" But Mizuki sighed, having already seen this move hours ago. "They don't really matter. It was Raven who ordered the deaths of the families of the witnesses. Your witnesses, sir, their losses are truly tragic, but Yui was a tool, she had no control. You don't blame a tool, you blame the one wielding it. It's silly to put a gun up on trial, isn't it? While Yui was corrupted and seeded, she didn't have a mind, she was just like a gun." Mizuki had total and utter control and only the stress lines on her heart monitor and the bags under her eyes betrayed how many scenarios Mizuki had practiced all week for, how many different moves Strauss could make to try and beat her, and Mizuki planning fifty different plots for each thing he might try to do.
With this amount of preparation, it was impossible for the Gambling Queen to lose.
So then the Jury decided unanimously that Yui was innocent and K decided that the best therapy to help the child would be dream therapy, with Allyana assigned to give it to her, since no one else really could. "A poor child forced to do things against her will." Mizuki fake cried. "How could anyone ever want to hurt her? Only a truly awful person would try to pin the blame on her!" These tears were absolutely fake, deep down she felt a feeling of thrill at having won a game at this level. And that was when her head slumped tiredly, her heart was beating too fast, too erratically. But there was nothing to regret, nothing whatsoever.