Ace Attorney 1
Phoenix collapsed into the nearest chair as soon as Maya was distracted by Pearl. He’d never been so thankful for the sofas in the defendant’s lobby. It had been a very long few days.
‘You’re okay, Feenie.’
His eyes widened and it took him a moment to realise it was his dæmon speaking and not Dahlia, returned from the grave again. Sheria smiled at him, resting her head on his knee.
‘She’s gone Phoenix, you’re okay.’
He smiled, running a hand through her fur. The Bernese Mountain Dog jumped up, paws resting on his knees to press her nose to his forehead.
‘She almost killed Maya. And Pearls, I-‘
Sheria shushed him and he wrapped his arms around her. ‘Come on, let’s go see the others.’
Phoenix looked past her, smiling at Edgeworth struggling not to yell at Larry and Gumshoe, at Maya trying to convince von Karma to join in some strange game Pearl had thought up. Maya looked up at him, smiling widely and beckoning him over.
‘Come on, Feenie, let’s go have some fun.’
Phoenix smiled at his dæmon, standing up and heading over to his friends. Dahlia couldn’t hurt him anymore, everything would be just fine.
Roho scuttled around the room, trying to find some way to escape. Maya was sat on the stairs, keeping calm throughout everything or at least appearing to. The tiny dragon flapped his wings, small though they were, and floated down to Maya’s side. Fey women- especially heirs to the title of Master- often had strange dæmons, mystical or mythical creatures. Roho had always thought he’d avoid that, get to be normal and live a normal life with Maya, until Mia died.
‘How are you staying so calm?’ Roho said, landing next to Maya and placing a claw on her knee.
Maya smiled softly, running her thumb along his dark scales. ‘Nick’s going to do the right thing, Ro. I know he will.’
Roho sighed, crawling onto her lap and curling up. ‘Nick doing the right thing doesn’t exactly end up well for us though. The right thing is to lose.’
Maya’s hand froze briefly on his back before continuing. ‘I know. So there’s no point worrying, because Nick will lose and then we’ll… well, we’ll figure that out later.’
Roho unfurled, looking up at Maya. ‘I don’t think we’ll have much to figure out.’
Maya went silent and Roho sighed.
‘Pearl, Pearl, Mystic Maya and Mr. Nick are going on a date!’
Pearl looked up as her dæmon flew into the room, Shifting into a large fluffy dog as he did so. Mtoto had yet to try out any mythical forms, but he liked copying Sheria and Shetani sometimes. He wouldn’t Settle that way, Pearl didn’t think but they were both fun.
‘What? Where, when, tell me everything!’
Mtoto shrunk down- a bunny- and jumped into Pearl’s arms. He’d been hanging around by the Manor entrance, just outside the edge of their bond, listening in to their cousin on the phone.
‘Mystic Maya said she’d arrive for dinner about 7 and they could talk about the case then. They’re going out to dinner together, Pearl!’
‘Oh, yay, that’s so exciting!’
Mtoto flew into the air as a robin as Pearl started jumping up and down in excitement. The dæmon fluttered around her, equally excited. They knew Mr. Nick liked Mystic Maya, he was her special someone and she was his. They were going to get married and it would be wonderful.
‘Wait, Mtoto!’ Pearl gasped. ‘We need to go with her, make sure it goes right!’
And so they would.
The raven flew onto her man’s shoulder, looking down at the message he had written. She tilted her head, clicking her beak softly.
‘Bit dramatic, don’t you think?’
Her man picked up the note, lip quirking. Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death. It was a bit much but would get the job done.
‘Well, you know Wright. He’ll follow us anywhere out of some strange sense of justice.’
‘I don’t think it’s justice.’ Shetani said, as Miles put the paper back down and moved towards the sofa. ‘More like duty, a promise he has to fulfil.’
‘Either way, whatever it is that drives Wright, he’s definitely driven.’
Shetani laughed slightly, shaking her head. Miles’ smile stayed for a few seconds before fading away and he looked away. Shetani tilted her head towards him, trying to get his attention. When he stayed looking away, she sighed and flew off his shoulder, landing on his desk next to the message.
‘I don’t want to leave Miles.’
He didn’t look at her. His right hand squeezed his arm and she knew he was grimacing, thinking about the trial, the elevator and-
‘Tani.’ He finally said. ‘Breathe, we’ll be fine.’
They went back to silence.
Gumshoe dropped a stack of papers in front of Kuchunguza, sitting down next to his own stack. They were having a rare break between cases and needed to get through as much paperwork as possible while they were off.
‘Is it me or has the paperwork got more complicated recently?’
Gumshoe looked up at his wombat dæmon, eyebrow raised. ‘You know it has. Ever since Wright started defending our cases, everything’s gotten far more complicated.’
Kuchunguza chuckled, looking down at the paperwork in front of her. Dick had already gone through it and she just needed to double check it. ‘Look at this one. The murder weapon turned out to not be the murder weapon, just happened to stab the victim exactly where murder wound was.’
‘How did he even prove that?’ Gumshoe said, shaking his head.
‘I don’t want to think about it.’ Kuchunguza said, pawing at the paper until the first page moved. She picked it up lightly with her teeth, moving it away from the pile. ‘We just need to get through this and hope for a more normal case next time.’
Gumshoe laughed, allowing himself to dream for a second. Then he shrugged and kept working.
‘I cannot believe we lost!’
Maumivu half ran after Franziska as she stormed into her new office in the Prosecutor’s Office. She was yelling in German, so at least they wouldn’t have to deal with anyone listening in to their conversation.
‘We shall just have to strike back, the next battle will result in our victory!’
‘No!’ Franziska said, walking past her wolf dæmon. She slammed the door and Maumiva forced herself not to flinch. A von Karma could never show weakness. ‘We should be perfect, we shouldn’t have lost one.’
Maumiva’s tail drooped between her legs and she nodded slowly. ‘I know Fran, and we are. A von Karma is always perfect and so we are perfect.’
Franziska turned on her and for a second Maumiva thought she would start ranting again about how her dæmon was imperfect, unnatural for being the same gender as her. Their Papa had mentioned it a few times and they’d been dealing with it their whole life.
Instead of yelling, Franziska sighed and knelt next to her dæmon, running a hand through her fur. Maumiva smiled ‘We are perfect, we always have been. We will be perfect for the rest of her lives.’
Waliopotea uncurled herself as the verdict was announced, looking across at Trite’s dæmon as she rushed out of the room after her man. The dog looked back at the lynx and she snarled, the dog speeding up in fright.
‘Bit cruel, maybe?’
Waliopotea frowned. ‘You threw coffee at him earlier.’
Godot chuckled, carefully lifting her into his arms. She whimpered slightly as the movement jostled the injuries on her chest.
‘I meant you ignoring me the whole trial.’ He said, slowly walking towards the prosecutor’s lobby.
‘It’s our first trial, didn’t want Trite getting a look at me.’ She hissed as he sat them down on the nearest sofa. She squirmed out of his grip, stretching out on the rest of the sofa. He slowly held out a hand, carefully fussing the parts of her face and chest that were free from scars.
‘It doesn’t matter what you look like.’ Godot said. ‘What matters is us testing out the coward who let Mia die.’
Waliopotea let out a low whine, thinking of Vizuka, who would have still loved her with all her scars.
‘I miss them so much, Diego.’
Godot froze, pulling his hand away. ‘I know. I do too.’
‘That could have gone a lot worse.’
Mia chuckled as Vizuka flew off her shoulder, gliding around the room to land on Charley’s pot. The bird shook off his feathers, fires forming along his wings. The phoenix preened slightly and his human raised an eyebrow, shooing him away from her precious plant.
‘Well, Phoenix handed it all fine and Mr Butz got off scot free.’
‘I’m not sure that man can be declared entirely innocent but, yes, Phoenix did well. But, I expected nothing less.’
Mia laughed, pulling out her files and sitting down at the desk. Vizuka tilted his head, hopping up next to her.
‘Seriously? We just wrapped a case, you’re going back to work?’
‘Phoenix wrapped up a case, he can do the paperwork for that.’ Mia said, reading what they’d collected. ‘White can’t wait, we need to stop him before he hurts someone else.’
Vizuka sobered, his flames dying out. He leant forward, rubbing his beak against the side of her head. ‘Okay. I just don’t want him to hurt you.’
Mia smiled sadly, smoothing out his feathers. ‘He won’t, I’ll be careful. Now, help me, I’ve got idea of what to do with this Thinker.’
Hilahila buzzed around Larry’s head, excitedly chattering on about the trial they’d just left. Nick still had lots of things to prove and the case was far from over but Larry had, as always, swept in at just the right time to save the day.
‘Did you see the look on Edgey’s face?’ Larry said as Hilahila paused for breath. The beetle bobbed up and down, even more excited.
‘He was so shocked! He looked furious!’ She giggled and Larry held a hand out, letting her land on a finger. ‘We should be witnesses on all their cases, we always solve everything.’
‘Oh, like a professional witness!’ Larry grinned, letting his mind wander. They’d have to know where the crimes were going to happen in advance, maybe Maya knew a psychic they could work with. ‘Bet Nick would love that, we’d get him all the best evidence before the police could find it.’
‘Yes, yes!’ Hilahila said, wings fluttering even as she stayed on his finger. ‘Imagine how famous we’d get, the professional witness solving all kinds of cases, putting both the prosecution and defence to shame!’
‘Hey, they might even give us a lawyer’s badge!’
‘How could they not?’
Kuamua rested on the back of the judge’s chair, staring down at the empty courtroom. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. Gavin had left with a triumphant flourish but Wright had just stayed looking at the empty defendant’s chair until a bailiff had escorted him away.
‘Did that really just happen?’
Kuamua’s man said nothing, just slowly stroked his beard. The eagle jumped down onto the stand, looking up at him. Her man just shook his head slightly, eyes moving over to the Defence’s bench. Kuamua followed his eye letting out a low whine.
Her man sighed. ‘Do you think he’s done it before?’
Kuamua shook her head, not wanting to imagine. How many times had Wright brought up evidence no one had thought of, how many times had he somehow miraculously turned his case around? And how many times had they just let him get away with it?
‘I don’t know.’ Kuamua said. ‘I don’t think so, Prosecutor Edgeworth would have noticed something, surely.’
‘Yes, well, you know what everyone always said about Prosecutor Edgeworth.’
Kuamua went silent again, staring out at the courtroom. She suspected things would start to get dark for lawyers of every kind.