[Semi-Private] Court Is Now In Session!

At exactly 9 AM, the bailiffs call both the prosecutor and the defense attorney into the courtroom. Each is assigned to their respective benches, while Kuriko is placed on the defendant's chair. There's quite a huge audience gathered in the gallery - after all, Kuriko has gotten quite a lot of popularity after the murder of Tiberius Hawke Sr., so a good number of his old fans have gathered to see if their idol's killer is finally going to get the death penalty they believe she deserves. A few minutes later, the judge enters and takes his own place on the central platform.

'Court is now in session!' the bailiff announces.

A rather bored-looking Eric takes a seat in the central platform and leans back in his chair, chewing a nail. Removing the offending nail with a final bite, he leans forward and clears his throat.

"Settle down now." He calls out over the courtroom, and the various characters shouting abuse at Kuriko quieten down, being well aware of Eric's reputation when it comes to dealing with unruly audience members.

Once satisfied with the quiet in the packed courtroom, he leans back once again and picks up his sheaf of papers. "Today we decide the fate of one Hatsuhara, Kuriko: accused of the murder of Hara, Ayame on the night of November 22nd by stabbing with a..." He shuffles a few more papers, looking for the offending weapon. "A shiv. How original." He lowers the papers and shoots Kuriko a bored glance, "This should be pretty short."

He sighs and places the papers to one side and crosses one leg over another, glaring once again at his nails. "I can see this case is very personal to some in the room, so if we could have as little interference from those that are attending this will be much easier for everyone." He looks towards the prosecutor's side of the room, "Mina Hamm, please continue."

*Ehem*

One, so definitely not a 'miss Hamm', sits in the seat of the prosecutor.

Messy hair plagues-as well as the air around his-face and neck. A clean, grey suit drapes upon the man's shoulders and a grey tie hangs around the collar of a black shirt.

He sits in a heavily relaxed posture on the chair.

A smirk rests lightly upon his cheeks and his eyes upon his lids.

Until they open, by default, upon the focal point of the room.

"Excuse me, your honor, but the previous prosecutor could not make it here today and I was asked to fill in."

I sit up more. Still in relaxed posture but more alert.

"In my possession are recordings of her past interviews with the witness, and I have indeed reviewed them. So, I should be a suitable replacement."

"If I may have your permission, that is?"

"Well, a monkey could prove her guilty... Why not! Prosecute away, Mr?"

Eric lazily waves his hand in the air in the new prosecutor's direction.

"Veach."

The sound of my voice moves through the room as I stand.

"My name is Veach, Satoshi."

I start to slowly walk to front center of the room.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to keep this trial very short and sweet so that all involved with the victim may have their closure."

I reach my destination.

Pause...

...And begin to slowly pace.

My words are spoken in a slow demeanor. Emphases on points that matter most for a powerful use in sound.

Clearly talented in the vocal arts.

"The story is simple with few, if any, loose ends to tie up in the time this trial extends through."

"A convicted felon-a murderer..mind you-is being transported by a detective, son of the quite famous, Hawke, Tiberius Sr., Hawke, Tiberius Jr., and his loyal partner, the young Ms. Hara, Ayame."

I halt.

"Their transport breaks down in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Det. Hawke exits the vehicle and the defendant utilized that time to make her escape."

My feet turn and I face the court room. [To the jury as well, if the defense decided on a jury trial and not one decided by the judge. My back is to the wall corner side opposite to where the jury would be.]

"Between this time, 19-hundred hours-that is seven-o'clock, and 21-hundred hours-nine-o'clock, on the evening of November 22nd of this year, Hara, Ayame's body was found by our witness, a local high school principal by the name of Kida, Kiyonori, with a lone stab wound to the heart and signs of blunt trauma to the back of the head."

I make my way, one slow step at a time, to the center floor.

"There were also signs of a struggle and the sole person with any type of motive for murdering her-to escape the rest of her sentence-was the woman sitting in the defense chair here, a Ms. Hatsuhara, Kuriko."

My eyes do not look at the woman I am accusing.

"As told by the police records recorded after the incident."

I pay less attention to the crowd and loosly watch the space in front of me.

"Without the handcuffs she removed from her wrists, it was easy to do away with the threat to her freedom but, apparently, wasn't very easy to not get caught after the dreadful deed had been finished."

I look at the judge and then back to the crowd.

My voice becomes softer, a gentle sorrow almost hidden between the lines of my speech.

"Lets let common sense determine the fate of this here trial..so all involved may get the justice...

I look at the family of the victim for two seconds.

"...or punishment-"

I look at the accused for a second.

"..they deserve."

I look back at the crowd.

"That is all for my opening statement."

Like clockwork, my feet carry me back to the prosecution's table.

"Thank you, Mr Veach." Eric says, stifling a yawn with his papers. "Like I said, open-and-shut case."

He simply drops the papers on his desk and les a lot of them fall to his feet, "First witness, Kida, Kiyonori."

As Kiyonori made his way to the witness stand he did so with some difficulty due to a rather noticeable limp.

I stand back up and approach the bench.

"Mr. Kida...You are a..principal at a local high school around here?"

"Correct, I am the principal at North High here in the city." He replied.

I move toward the other side of the judge's stand from the witness stand, cross my arm over my chest to set my palm on my other middle arm joint, and loosely gesture with my other arm toward the witness.

"And you have no relations with Ms. ..Hatsuhara?-No connection to her before the night in question?"

"Again, Correct. I had never met Ms. Hatsuhara before."

"Not even a little?"

I make a gesture with my hand to emphasize the 'little.'

"So that means that you would have no reason in the slightest to blame such a horrendous crime upon her."

I let my speech float around in the air for a few seconds and begin to pace once again.

"Could you please explain for the court what you saw, Kida?"

"No, not even a little. Now for what I saw. I was on my home and heard a strange noise, it sounded almost like a struggle. Naturally I went to check it out, so as to make sure no one was in trouble or had gotten hurt. Once I'd gotten close enough I found that that the sound had come from inside an abandoned building. As I went inside I called out to check and see if any one was there,and if anyone was indeed there, to make sure they were alright. That's when that girl looked over in my direction, her hands were covered in blood. Thankfully I don't believe she got a good look at me, and as such I was able to hide until the police had arrived and were able to arrest her. That was what I saw on the night in question Mr.Veach."

Long since the start of the court shinto sat there, listening. Not really with any kind of emotion, not really with any kind of anticipation or visible stress. The ordeal about a replacement attorney confused him greatly, but didnt shook him too much. He watched and listened to the dialogue between The Judge, the prosecutor and the first witness when he first interrupted her after a short conversation.

"Allright hold it right there.
I got some things to ask of you here.
You said you had to hide till the police came to arrest Mrs Hatsuhara, is that correct?
Your statement sure gives that impression!
Did you saw the arrest happen?
And if yes, how many arrested her and how did they look like?"

"I object, your honor-if the defense has any questions for the witness, they may call him up to the stand after my turn."

Without even a single glance, I hurry through my statement.

Chilled. Bam.

"Sequenze is here to defend, Mr Veach. If he spots holes in your witness' testimony he has every right to question them. This is how courts work, is it not?" Eric says, brandishing his gavel at the prosecutor. He lolls his head to the side and glances at the defendant's attorney "Question away."

Like he can spot a hole. The evidence is stacked against her...

"Thank you very mutch, your honor. But since the question is not actually answered yet, so it still stands strong. Mr. Veach, i ask you for some more caution in the near future. Mrs Kida, your statement please."

"Very well. Yes, I did hide and I even stated as much. If you're asking how many officers showed up in total? I can't say with 100% certainty, but the one that actually preformed the arrest was the one that introduced himself as Detective Hawke. He was also the one who took my statement on the scene."

Hawke, running late as usual, enters the court room during Kiyonori's first testament and stands at the back, watching Kuriko with a dark stare.

When Eric speaks up, allowing the discrepancy, Hawke narrows his eyes.

What are you doing, Grimm?

He moves forward, and takes a seat in the front row, watching the proceedings silently.

"Let me make sure i understood it correctly.

You heard something, then you went to check. You saw Mrs Hatsuhara, and then you hide away. How long did it take for her to get arrested by hawke? How long were you able to see her before it happened and did she approached something? Perhaps the same direction you went to as well?"

"Hmmm, I'm not sure of the exact amount of time, but it did seem to happen rather quickly. When I saw her she was already crouched over the body, so no, I didn't see her move in any direction as she wasn't standing at the time that I saw her. I knew when the arrest happened because I could hear the voices from where I'd hidden."

"Wait, what?
Now she was Crouching over her Body? But i thought she looked at you and you saw her Hands being bloody.
Did you see what was inside her Hands? You said you saw her having bloody hands, hence i am asking if you saw anything else as well in them.

"Mr.Sequenze, it is entirely in the realm of possibility for someone to crouch and still be able to look to their left or right. Yes, she was crouched, and yes, she looked in my direction, and yes, there was blood on her hands. Now that you mention it though, that was all I can recall being in, or on as the case may be, her hands. So in short, to answer your question, no Mr.Sequenze there was nothing in her hands."

"Nothing in her hands."

Eric looks back down at the sheets in front of him, specifically at the sheet with the murder weapon.

Murder weapon: Shiv.

He glances back up to make sure nobody was looking, and slipped the sheet of paper into a loose panel of wood on the inside edge of his desk.

"Mr Sequenze, I think the bombardment of questions is getting ridiculous. It's quite clear to the court that Mr Kida simply saw the aftermath of the incident, and has been able to correctly identify Miss Hatsuhara as being present at the approximate time of the murder. Please let Mr Veach continue his presentation."

He motions for Shinto to take a seat, and looks towards the prosecutor and his witness, "Do you have anything else you would like to present, Mr Kida? Mr Veach?"

"No offense intended. I just thought there was some crucial informations left out. Figuring out, it was. Thank you very much. My questions are answered."

*Shinto starts noting down crucial details farily visibly about the current state of it all*
*With a fair and calm voice he expressed his concerns.*
"My Honor, if there are questions to be asked, and you know yourself they are fairly important, i will ask them. That is my job. Given the Circumstances, all those questions where fair. That being said, all my questions also are answered, and i do not need to ask any more. Please. consider that i never asked a question twice. "

*Shinto Sits down.*

"Please continue."