He looked down on the letter in his hands. A part of him was excited, the other part however, a tad anxious.
Finally, he grabbed a kitchen knife and opened the letter addressed to him, and read it. It had come with a big packet, which was currently on the floor besides him, various fees attached to it.
It read: "Congratulations, Mr. Spiegel, We have hereby finished our psychological examination and trials of the tests you have taken these past weeks. And so we are happy to announce you are in the top 15% of those that were a correct match to the systematic makeup we try to deliver."
He let out a breath of relief he didn't even knew he had been holding. Indeed, for the past 2 weeks, he had taken the time to come down to a local testing center ("local" meaning 3 hours of traveling in public transport). But, even as he ranked nicely, he was also told nothing was for certain yet. so for now, he relaxed, and deposited himself on the couch.
"You know of our NDA, but as recent results and questions show, this proved too hard to maintain when family and friends are involved. So hereby we extend that request: 'Any family members and acknowledged friends are allowed to know of the AEAI System, but are prohibited from using it, as unauthorized usage will interfere with both the gameplay and system.' You can find details of this amendment on our website."
He snorted, 'tell that to my little sister, she'll probably put it on the first chance she gets'. Like her brother, she was a Ace Attorney Fanatic, and had even helped bring in some extra dollars for the entry fee.
He mentally made a note to lecture her on this, and to put the "AEAI system" somewhere safe, like a locker.
Reading the paragraph again, he stopped and blinked at the word "AEAI system". Even with all the talk from the "doctors", and his personal mentor, they never explained to him what it exactly was, or showed him pictures, or even schematics of the device. It was one of the reasons that package would be opened as soon as he was done with the letter, and waited till his sister was out somewhere with her friends for the night.
"Have fun with the Active Engagement A.I. System, Mr. Spiegel. And don't forget,"In Justice we trust!""
He snorted, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes, companies can be too cheesy for their own good.
"Kind regards, Eve Valate, Head of the AEAI experiment. Capcom."
Eager to begin unpacking, he almost missed the fine print. Frowning, he put the letter close to his glasses.
"Disclaimer: We are hereby not responsible for any discomfort or irregularities AEAI might bring you, any further questions can be asked at our special help desk."
Frowing even deeper on reading that, and while folding the letter, he pondered the implications from that statement.
He sighed and muttered, "Well, guess that's a small price to pay for something awesome, sounds fishy though…"
He grabbed the package and placed it on his desk. Looking and flipping it around, before grabbing a knife from the kitchen, and starting to cut through the tough tape.
My name is Alexander 'Alex' Spiegel, Dutch Immigrant, living in Britain for almost 6 years, and a devoted Ace Attorney Fan. When I heard about a exclusive program Capcom was offering some fans (I swear I've checked the email about 6 times for any phishing tells or viruses), I immediately signed up for it.
I guess I'm somewhat of a nerd…? Not really sure myself, but my sister Judith likes to remind me of the strong difference between my room and hers. While she's doing a minor in Law, I have mine (and my major) in "something nerd-related", as she likes to put it. I always have to remind her it's called "IT", not "nerd-school".
Alex grabbed a glass of soda after having broken the tough tape, and then finally opened the box.
When he pushed his hands inside, the first item he grabbed was a… charger. Grinning for a moment and setting it aside, he grabbed the next thing, which was much more interesting.
It surely looked like a headset, but at the same time… it really didn't. He flipped it around, and put it on, staring at the black, unpowered back-lenses. Then it suddenly dawned on him, and face-palmed the front of the lenses. He was wearing a VR-headset, or at least something like it.
Shaking his head, he quickly pulled it off. And looked at the other things inside the box; Some cables, a pamphlet, a manual (he flipped through that one before continuing, only boring disclaimer stuff), a pair of headphones, some gloves, and what seemed like another disclaimer ('The manual's already full of it, jeez').
Emptying the soda, he began to put all the pieces in place, turning on the laptop (not the desktop computer upstairs, the manual promised that the headset was self-sufficient with computing power, which earned another raised eyebrow), connecting the USB cable to it. And just then, he saw light shining through the eye-lenses of the set.
Alex hesitated before putting it on, and quickly sent a message to Judith that the headset came in. Yes, he was trying it out. No, don't scare him when he's in the middle of a game. Or they'll not have pizza takeout for a week, and she'll have to cook.
When she replied with a ":P" emoji, he sighed and turned on silent mode before throwing the device onto the couch.
Alex then walked to the middle of the living room, between a stool, their regular couch, and Judith's bean couch, cables flowing from the back of the device like he was plugged into the matrix. He then pulled the lenses down.
Alex had never tried VR before, seeing his friends bump into tables, couches, chairs, and even each other at college parties made him hesitant to try before.
But just at that moment, when he pulled the device over his eyes, he forgot where he was, and instead of his dark living room, saw a blindingly white space, with some letters floating a few meters away.
Adjusting his eyes to the brightness, Alex squinted at the letters. "Please put on your gloves", oh… right.
Letting out a little chuckle, he pulled the headset off, and walked over to the table. Alex found the gloves on the table, between dozens of unneeded cables, connecting the little wires into the sides of his headset, and then resumed.
The text had changed, and it now required Alex to do some basic reachability tests, making sure he could reach this and that, Alex complied. Then a female voice began reading the disclaimers.
Groaning, Alex put up with it for a few minutes, till when he was crossing his arms and tapping the sides with one finger ('edgeworth-style' he noted, 'heh.'). But after groaning, he muttered, "Yeah yeah yeah, I've read this and heard this a thousand times already, I don't need to hear it again, thank you very much…"
"No problem, Mr. Spiegel, have a nice day."
That made Alex freeze on the spot.
"Wait, wha-!? AHHH!"
The light brightened and he felt like his eyes were about to split open his skull. Even behind his closed eyelids, it was too strong.
It was over in about 3 seconds. He blinked, and turned his head around, seeing nothing but a less brighter white. But slowly and surely a shape formed in front of him, and then some color, and then… wait a minute.
'Is that… Phoenix Wright's beanie?'
Indeed, it was his… hat, for the lack of the better word, sitting on top of a trophy, sitting on top of a… magic cut-out box…?
Looking around, he concluded was definitely at the Wright Anything Agency, only more… colorful that he could remember.
'Woah, this looks so much better than through a tiny screen.'
Staring around him in slight awe, Alex grinned widely, taking in the sight. Thus he didn't notice the door opening and closing behind him. Reminiscing into remembering every little detail he could, he only snapped out his thoughts when someone clapped a hand on his shoulder, and he felt like he shot 10 feet in the air.
"Dammit Judith! I told you not to disturb me while I am- oh…"
Turning around, thinking it was his sister attempting to scare the living daylights out of him, ('again'), Alex met face to face with Apollo Justice, his unusual brown haircut as real as his weirded-out expression, which was looking into his direction as if he suddenly grew a second head.
"…Didn't sleep well?" He asked, his expression changing a little into a concerned face, but his eyes refused to stop staring at him.
"Uuuuuuh…" All Alex could do was stare dumbly at Apollo, Apollo Justice, as they shared some awkward silence until he was suddenly hugged from behind.
"Al! 'Pollo! You guys are early! Making an early start today?"
Already used by people suddenly scaring them within the last minute, he turned around and saw Trucy Wright smiling up to him. 'Woah, even if she's… around 17 by now, she's still smaller than me, heh' he thought with a grin.
Apollo had apparently already found his voice, and was now glancing smugly at trucy, adjusting his tie. "Yeah! This is the first real job I've had in a while after all!"
Trucy smiled at him, and turned to Alex. "And you, Al? This is your first real work day at the office after all, even though you've been here for aaaaaages."
'I have?', "Al" was about to blurt out, till he thought about it, and cleared his throat. "Uuuuh, well, I just didn't want to be late on my first day of the office… right?" he said with a nervous tone, scratching the top of his head.
Trucy smiled at him too. Apollo grinned, "Well, either that, or you didn't want to miss the work Mr. Wright gave us over the phone yesterday evening." He turned to Trucy. "What kind of work is it anyway? Mr. Wright didn't mention any details."
"Hmmmm, work, is that how he put it?" Trucy mused, putting a finger to her chin. Alex was suddenly reminded what Apollo's "normal" job at the office was; cleaning toilets, and he strifled a laugh. Apollo apparently noticed, and his expression changed accordingly. Alex again chuckled at that, before Apollo gave him a half-glare for it, groaning.
That put him out of the daze he had been in since he came here. Looking at Trucy Wright and Apollo Justice in front of him, he suddenly remembered who, what and where he was. He turned to Trucy, hyperventilation seemly around the corner. "Trucy, where's the bathroom?" She looked puzzled, but gave instructions to go down the hall, and while walking out, Alex heard Apollo and her flare up a conversation again.
Alex shut the door, leaning against the door, and looked at the toilet. 'Nonono, nothing is real here, it's fake.' Alex reminded himself, before sitting on it, regardless of it being real or fake.
'Okay, deep breaths, what the heck just happened? This is nothing like the email or pamphlet said, or what the tests hinted against, just what kind of "system" is this?'
Alex knocked on the wall with his knuckles. But that didn't help any of his racing thoughts, as the tiles under his hands felt so real. 'Fake stuff shouldn't feel this real, not even dreams can get this close.'
Alex mused and thought about how a computer could even simulate this kind of real-ness, how it could even simulate people like Apollo and Trucy, how it could make such good conversation AI, how it could give him a sense of forgetting where he was for a second, how it could-
'I-I need a sec…'
Alex grabbed his head, hoping he had gotten the sides his headset "In real life", and suddenly the world shifted into the much darker background of his apartment, gone were the tiles, gone was the toilet.
Alex was still standing in the same spot he began in, and looked down at the headset with a frown, just what was this thing?
"Please continue with your play session, or confirm game pause" a voice in his ear said, just then noticing the weight of the headphones.
"Uhhh…" remembering how it responded earlier on his voice, Alex shrugged, "I want to continue in just a moment, I feel a little overwhelmed, I think."
"Acknowledged. Pausing play session… paused. It is normal to experience nausea in the first few minutes of Virtual Reality, do not hesitate to drink a glass of water, or any other preferred form of hydration, it is also advised-"
Pulling off the headset and headphones, Alex ran his hands across his face, and grabbed another can of soda from the freezer. Drinking it straight down in one go, and then throwing the can away.
Sitting on one the kitchen chairs, Alex suddenly grinned. Getting over the initial shock of the real real-ness the VR-headset provided earlier, he was now finally getting into what has brought him to this experiment in the first place: a chance to meet eye-to-eye with one of his many kid idols. 'Well, as real as it can get, anyway'
Effectively stumbling back into the living room, Alex quickly put on the headphones and headset. Looking at the white walls again, he said "Please continue". Then found himself sitting on the toilet again, inside the Agency, with his hands above the sink.
Leaving the toilet, he ran his hand across the wall as he walked back ('it feels so real, what the hell did they do with the gloves?').
"Ah, Al, you're back! Now we can finally go!" Trucy said with a smirk.
"Huh? Where are we going? What about the job Mr. Wright mentioned?" Apollo asked, confused.
"This IS the job, Polly! You two are supposed to keep me company today! Now, come on!" She rushed out of the door.
"Another day or not being a lawyer. Should've seen this coming." Apollo muttered.
Alex snorted. "If I remember correctly, recently this agency has been named the"Wright Anything Agency", and you gotta admit this is better than your usual job…"
"Hey, don't rub it in!" Apollo exlaimed with an embarrassed expression. "Where's Mr. Wright, anyway?"
"Uh… no idea." He lied. Alex did know where Phoenix was at the moment, he was out of the country, if he recalled correctly. Alex had groaned at first when he realized he was now playing inside the plot of 'Dual Destinies', one of his least-favorite Ace Attorney games. Not to say it was a bad one, just… not his favorite, for multiple reasons.
"Hmmm… Trucy?" Alex yelled across the hall, where Trucy was standing near the exit, and turned around at the mention.
"Yes? Oh yeah! Daddy said something about going to meet an acquaintance, someone new. Don't worry. Just focus on your job, and I'll tell you exactly what you need to know."
"Which means she gets to boss us around today…" Apollo muttered again, with a groan. Alex let out a snort, patting the back of the older Lawyer.
"Well, let's go! We don't have all day!" Trucy said, already out of the door, and signaling a wandering taxi their way.
The taxi ride was pretty long, and so was Apollo's face after he got the bill handed to him ("You guys are assaulting my wallet. I swear, if I wasn't a lawyer…"). But then they waved goodbye to the driver, and walked into the busy streets, till they reached a particularly busy one, Yokai lane.
"Whew… So, what are we doing way up here in the mountains?" Apollo asked, positively sweated.
"This is Nine-Tails Vale. Everyone's been talking about the yokai craze here." Trucy said, bopping up and down, holding her hat at the brim, looking smug ('does she really take her outfit everywhere with her?').
"Yokai? Oh, you mean like, Japanese monsters? Guess that explains all these weird things…" Apollo said in thought, as Alex next to him stared wide-eyed at the artifacts all over the street.
He got some brief flashbacks of him being a teen again, laying in bed late at night, the only light coming from a smuggled 3DS, where he would be playing deep into the night. He had raveled at the 3D effect, where every item on the screen stood out instead of being normal 2D textures.
Shaking his head out of his thoughts, he noticed Apollo and Trucy were talking about the history of the town, and some recent Yokai craziness, till Trucy gasped as she glanced at a clock. "Oh, it's almost time! Come on! Polly! Al! The festival grounds are this way!"
She grasped Apollo by the wrist, and he let out a small shout. "W-Wait a second! Trucy!"
"Wow, this place is really something." Apollo said between breaths.
"Yup, it feels like a different world here." Trucy agreed.
"I wonder how many tourists get here every day…" Alex wondered, more to himself than to anyone else.
"…Trucy."
They all turned around to see a young woman in red-white robes, black hair held up in clips, and two papers with Japanese markings on her forehead.
"Jinxie!" Trucy ran forward and hugged her quickly.
"And this is…?" Apollo asked, Alex was about to answer for him, till he remembered he, technically, actually wouldn't be able to know her name, and so stayed quiet.
"Guys, this is my friend, Jinxie Tenma. She's the one who invited us!" Trucy said, gesturing to her, and holding the other arm on her opposite shoulder. But she only didn't seem to notice that, and only had fearful eyes on Apollo, her hand slowly reaching under the plate she was holding.
"…T-Two horns. A love of red. Are you a demon?" she shuddered.
"What? No! Ha ha. I'm Apollo Justice, nice to meet you!" Apollo boomed with his chords of steel, grinning invitingly.
"EEEEEEK! He is a demon!" Jinxie screamed, and had already plastered a charm onto his forehead.
"Be gone, you foul beast!" She held up a hand full of charms, and Alex snickered behind his hand. Bad move, because Jinxie then noticed Alex.
"Ah! There! Another demon! Begone!" smack! "W-Woah!"
Before he knew it, Alex also had a charm on his forehead, and he looked at it with his eyes as it sat in the middle of his field of view, blinking rapidly.
"W-What? Why am I a demon all of the sudden?"
"J-Just look at your clothes, you're obviously a Witch-demon!" Jinxie shouted, as Apollo was torn between laughing at Alex, and hesitantly tugging at his charm.
Alex looked down at his clothes, and indeed, he was almost blinded by how green they were. Looking closer, he wore black pants, a purple t-shirt, with a green sweater which had a… symbol?
'…How long have I been wearing this?'
He fingered the symbol for a second, it looked like a swirl, and was printed in dark yellow leather in the middle of his chest.
Next to him, Apollo asked Jinxie about the charm, and then proved (or tried to) that he wasn't a demon. But Alex already wasn't listening, he noticed that whenever he stroke his fingers on any of the symbol's leather, he would feel something funny behind his navel. 'Odd.'
When he returned back to planet earth with his thoughts, Jinxie and Trucy were discussing what seemed like… Turkish baths…?
Shaking his head, he stepped (or butted) into the conversation.
"So, Jinxie, I heard about… Yokai? What are they, exactly?"
"How dare you! A witch like you should well know what they are! They are your creatures, after all!"
Taken aback by Jinxie's sudden outburst, he turned to Trucy, who giggled before explaining.
"I already told you earlier. Yokai are Japanese monsters, kinda like Polly over here ("Hey!"). They live in places like the underworld, but sometimes come above ground to terrorize humans. Isn't that right, Jinxie?"
Jinxie nods, and held her plate up, covering part of her face. "Uh huh, Today, a lot of them have been seen around the mansion, where I work…" she shuddered.
"Wait, you work at a mansion?" Apollo asked, intrigued.
"Yup, as a maid. I promised Papa yesterday I'll scare all of those demons away from over there while he is on that visit!" She exclaimed, waving around her hand full of charms, Alex and Apollo took a step back.
"…but my charms don't work on all demons, yesterday the Ding-Dong demon visited multiple times. It didn't matter how many charms I put around the button, or on the door, it just didn't stay away!"
"The Ding-Dong demon?" Alex asked, bemused.
"Uh-huh, I hear the doorbell ring, but when I open the door, nobody is there. It's that Ding-Dong Demon! How else could you explain it?"
Apollo scratched the back of his head. "Well… When I was a kid, my friends used to play this prank called Ding-Dong Ditch, if that helps any."
"Well, that doesn't prove the Demon isn't real! There's even one here at the manor. The evil Tenma Taro, he's imprisoned in the Forbidden Chamber!"
"Tenma… Taro? The Forbidden Chamber?" Apollo seemed skeptical.
Alex tuned out of the conversation, His thoughts turning to everything around them, how real it sounded, and how real it all looked.
Since he "arrived" here, he hadn't found one thing out-of-place, or something that didn't look "weird", nothing that suggested it was really a game. Everything looked… real, for the lack of the better word. And he mulled over it.
Even in the best games he played, the ones the developers always advertised as "real as reality", he always found things that made him realize it was just a game, or at least a simulation. Here, nothing seemed like it, and everything was real, or at least felt so, he didn't like it.
'Even some surreal games I've played have flaws, unless I'm not seeing one, this is a very, very special case…'
But he was shaken out of his thoughts by Trucy waving goodbye to Jinxie.
"She's a strange one, all right." Apollo mused.
"I think she's sweet in her own special way." Trucy commented. "Come on, we still have some time to kill! Let's see the rest of Nine-tails vale!"
Alex blinked, and looked around him. They were still in the garden, but one glance at Apollo, and he knew some time had passed, because he was carrying 3 bags full of Yokai stuff. Alex tried his hardest not to laugh at the sight, and Apollo's defeated expression.
Alex thought for a second. 'Woah, Time-skip? Huh, I didn't know they implemented that here.' He then grinned. 'Well, I asked for a unrealistic thing, and here is one.'
"I think I bought nearly every yokai souvenir that was for sale." Trucy said, looking over the bags.
"I know, because my wallet's running on empty," Apollo said, obviously having difficulty holding all of them, "and I'm glad Alex wanted to pay after that. I don't know how many more bags I can carry before my back permanently bends down." he groaned.
"Here, let me hold some of them." Alex offered, and Apollo gladly offloaded the heaviest bag onto him.
"Hm? What's with all the commotion over there?" Trucy put a hand on his eyebrows. "…Hey, that's Jinxie, right?" In the distance, Jinxie was running to them, plate shaking in her hands, face pale. She was stuttering as she arrived.
"I-It's t-t-terrible! Th-Th-Thththth…! The-! The—!"
Trucy placed a hand on her shoulders, which earned a slight wince from her, but she calmed down slightly. "Calm down, Jinxie! Tell us what happened."
"Th-Th-The demon T-Tenma T-Taro… …He killed Alderman Kyubi!"
"Whaaaaat?" Apollo shouted at her, while Alex frowned, he had played the game, he should remember this… right?
Alex ignored the heated conversation between the three, and saw Apollo take off into the mansion. But he wasn't paying attention and began to panic as he realized he could not remember anything from this part of the game'.
Alex grabbed the sides of his headset, and yanked it off.
"Warning, play session interrupted, it is not advised to pause the play session without forewarni-" At that, he also yanked off the headset, and rubbed his eyes.
Why did he not remember anything? He was sure he played it before, but where were his memories of i- ah, there they were.
Alex sat on the couch for a few minutes, slowly recollecting his memory. Then, he grabbed his phone, and called the help-desk number that was on the letter.
"Good evening, AEAI help-desk speaking, how can I help you?" A female voice answered.
"Yeah, hello. I'm curious about a little aspect of the… playing session, is there any way I can speak with a developer?"
"We can schedule an appointment, but we're not sure when there's time, it looks like there's a little hole in two months, or-"
"Nevermind then! I just need to know if, er, memory issues are normal when playing the… game"
The other side of the line was silent for a moment. "Memory issues, sir?"
Alex nodded, and then almost slapped himself as he realized she couldn't see that. "Uh, yes, I couldn't remember when I played the original version of this game a few years ago as I was a few minutes in."
"…That's completely normal, that is the AEAI engine trying to adjust your avatar to the world. We had a few people who asked this earlier today, and it's not too abnormal. You will only forget what is critical to the story, nothing else."
Still perturbed, but nodding in thought, Alex thanked her and ended the call, taking a few minutes and some drinks before he continued.