June 4

Wright and Co. Law Offices

(Ah…another day at the office. Smells like burgers. Maya must have heated up leftovers in the microwave.)

(I haven't been here much lately. After that case with Edgeworth's future at stake, facing the best prosecutor in the country, the phones have been ringing nonstop with clients asking for me, but…)

(…I just haven't felt like taking a case.)

(Maybe I just need the right client.)

"Phoenix!" Maya's voice calls from out of sight. "Check on the grill, will you?"

"The…the grill?"

"The burgers, dummy! Do you want them to be burnt?"

(Is she cooking burgers in the office?!)

I dash toward the smell of burning meat when everything begins to slow. My legs feel like they're running through knee-high mud. "Maya!" I say, but my voice doesn't seem to come out at all as the bright office is replaced by darkness all around. Sourceless pressure squeezes my whole body, and everything goes black.

?

?

I wake up with the sensation of falling with a painful thump on the floor.

"It worked!" an unfamiliar voice shrieks. "Weiss, you're brilliant!"

Blotchy lights cohere into a ceiling. Two female faces peer over me. One is pale, white-haired, and looks faintly disgusted. And the other is—

"—so excited! Are you really a lawyer?"

Blinking, I sit up cautiously, my back against the wall. The girls are crouched on either side of me. "I think so?"

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"Er…is it?"

"My name's Ruby." She stands up and holds her hand out to me. She's shockingly short, or rather, younger than I had expected. It becomes clear that this is some kind of dorm room. Beds, desks, books….

Oh no.

Oh god.

I'm a grown man in a schoolgirl's dormitory.

Frantically, I struggle to my feet, pressing myself against the wall as if her hand is burning hot. I'm a lawyer, I know exactly what happens to people like me. "T-that's all right! I'll see myself out!"

Her face falls. "No, you can't go. I need your help!"

I try to get past her without touching anything. "I have to go now, very big case, I'm going to be late!"

"Please," she says. "No one believes me."

I sigh and stop. I've heard that line before. Needy clients, desperate enough to hire a lawyer. I've been turning them down lately. Maybe this one just took matters into her own hands.

"What's going on?" I say cautiously. "And don't touch!"

She drops her hand, looking confused. I can already hear Maya scolding me. "Nick, she's a kid!" And despite how weird her black-bodied one-piece top-skirt thing with red fringe complete with a red cape and cross accessories is, she's clearly a kid. Only kids have fashion that weird.

"This was a bad idea, wasn't it?" she says, hanging her head.

"That's because you have no idea what you're doing!" scolds the other member of the bizarre duo, the white-haired girl with a ponytail and a face as white as snow. She has a skirt-top combo thing like the first girl, but it's white and tinged with blue, like ice.

She faces me. "I'm terribly sorry," she says in a refined voice. "We didn't mean to disturb a barrister such as yourself. My friend here is in need of legal advice, you see, and my family, the Schnee family, ahem, is more than capable of compensating you at a generous rate."

"I need to know where I am and how I got here," I say slowly and carefully, like I'm talking to children. "Also, who are you two?"

The pale girl winces. The red-and-black-skirt girl sniggers, and earns a "Hey!" from Pale Girl.

"I'm Ruby," says snigger-skirt. "This is Weiss," she jerks a thumb at Pale Girl."

"Nice to meet you both," I say with questionable honesty. "I'm Phoenix Wright."

Ruby sniggers again. Weiss smacks her arm.

(Children. Why does it have to be children? And worse, teenagers.)

"Sorry," Ruby says when she has control of herself. Her face turns serious again. "I need a lawyer. That's why we summoned you here."

"Summoned me? Here?"

"I can summon things," Weiss says quickly. "It's a Schnee family tradition."

(A family tradition? Sounds familiar. Weirdly, I'm okay with being summoned. If a Fey can summon the dead, why couldn't a Schnee summon the living?)

(Or maybe I just don't believe it.)

"And where have I been summoned?"

"This is Beacon Academy," Ruby said. "We train to become Hunters here."

I sigh. "Okay, and what's a Hunter?"

"People who fight Grimm." Her face lights up. "I've got a badge and everything." She shows me, beaming proudly.

(And what's a Grimm?!)

"We can fill you in on the details later," Weiss intervenes before I can snap at Ruby. "Um, Ruby, why don't you show Phoenix around, and I can, um…give your dog a walk." A furry, sausage-like creature hops off the bed with a bark and waddles over to Weiss, tail wagging.

Weiss grabs the dog and hurries out the door.

"I take it you're in some legal trouble?" I say to Ruby. "Do people always summon their lawyers around here?"

Her expression takes the wind out of my already weak joke. Despite clothing that makes Maya's spirit medium garb look tame in comparison, her face is young, and tired. Very tired.

"No one believes me," she says in a small voice. "No one is willing to help. So Weiss thought…if no one in our world would be the defender…."

(I hadn't meant it as a serious question. I was still coping with the idea of summoning and Hunters and and a dog that was clearly an animate stuffed toy.)

(I was going to leave, go home, and maybe sue. I'm a lawyer, I know how to sue.)

(I don't know why I stayed. At the time I told myself it was because I had no idea where I was or what was going on, or how to get back home. There was some truth to that.)

(But, like most of the witness testimonies I had ever cross-examined, it was mostly a pack of lies. I stayed because she reminded me of Maya.)

"What's going on?" I say in a kinder voice. "What're you accused of?"

"It's my sister, Yang," she says. "She's accused of murdering a friend of ours."

"A friend?" (What could the motive possibly be?)

Ruby nods. "Her name is…was Pyrrha. I know Yang didn't do it! Please help her, no one else will!"

"Don't worry." I show her my badge, the one thing I always carry with me, even to the toilet. I've presented it to everyone I meet, and now she's part of that happy group. "My name is Phoenix Wright, Hunter of Truth, Slayer of Grimm Contradictions. That's why they call me the Ace Attorney."

"Really?" Her eyes are wide and swimming with tears, gazing at me like I'm a guardian angel.

"Really," I say. It's a bunch of of lies.

As is everything the accused tells me when we go to visit her.