Chapter 1
His friends stared in shock. Time seemed to slow as he fell back, a gaping hole where his heart was supposed to be. The demon's claw was soaked in his blood, dipping beside his chocolate-brown hair.
Raine looked up at the newly released Neblim, the demon king, her eyes wide. Her little brother shouted beside her, but she did not hear what he was saying, she was too numb. He tried to run at his friend, her student, but Sheena was able to stop the crying boy before he threw himself into trouble. They all knew the sad truth, right in front of their eyes.
Lloyd was dead.
He could not believe he lost. It was just a tiny little mistake; no one would have seen it…. Well, except for her of course.
"Oh, come on, Polly," she had tried her best to comfort him the night before. "It's only for one day!"
Yeah, Apollo thought, if I have to listen to you laugh like this anymore today I think we might have yet another murder on our hands.
It's true. Apollo actually lost… a game of poker against his own little sister! What did they play for? Well, the loser would have to do one thing that the winner wants, no matter what it was. What did Trucy say he had to do? To go through the whole day without hair gel…
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…HAHAH….haha….ha…." After the five-minute fest of laughing from the magician, she was finally calm enough to talk, though she was still chuckling a bit. "W-What kinda of hair is that? Haha… it straight up defies gravity! Hahahahahahahahah!"
"Trucy….." Apollo could just feel his fingers curling up.
"Now, now, Trucy," Phoenix Wright, former ace attorney, said with his hands inside his sweatshirt pockets. He could tell where this was going and really did not want his office to become a murder scene… or his beloved daughter to become a victim. "It's not nice to make fun of the way people's hair looks, no matter how unnaturally weird it is."
Uh, thanks, Mr. Wright… But you're not really one to talk.
"I know it's not right, Daddy!" she argued and then put her fists on her hips, pouting a bit. "But it serves Polly right. He went against the bet and put gel in his hair anyway!"
"W-WHAT!?" Apollo shouted. "I did not! Do you think I would purposely style my hair like this?!"
"You would to get out of the bet."
H-How are those two related…?
As if to answer his question, Trucy continued, "This is my theory of what happened: When you got up, you decided to style your hair in the craziest way you could think of. So, when you get into the office, I will see how your hair looks "without hair gel". After seeing this, I would feel sorry for you and then call off the deal so that you wouldn't have to walk around with that "naturally" crazy hair doo of yours."
"Y-You really think I'm that devious?"
"Well you are a defense attorney." She giggled then tuned to Phoenix. "No offence, Daddy."
"None taken," he said in his nonchalant way.
"Ob-Objection!" That was Apollo. "Where is your proof? Proof that I did indeed put on hair gel?"
"Ha! Like you have any proof that you didn't put on hair gel?" Trucy retorted.
"Ugh…" He started to sweat profusely. It's true that he didn't have proof, none that he could think of at least. But it was also true that he didn't put any gel in his hair… it really does naturally defy gravity, which is why he always put on hair gel. It was the only thing that would make his hair seem at least a bit natural. So there had to be something he could use. …! That's it! Apollo then crossed his arms, a smug grin planted across his face. "I actually do have proof."
"Wha-?" Trucy put her hand in front of her mouth in shock.
He pointed his index finger to nothing in particular. "It's my own hair! If I did put hair gel on, it would feel crunchy, would it not?"
Father and daughter looked at each other in shock and confusion, though in Phoenix's case it was only a bit of confusion. The ex-attorney just shrugged then walked up to Apollo and ran his fingers though his employee's hair.
"Yeah," Phoenix sighed as he out his hand back down. "It's pretty soft to me."
"Objection!" It was Trucy's turn to point but Apollo just stared at her, bewildered at what the girl was thinking. "Don't think that I haven't felt your hairwhen you had gel in it. It's almost at if there is no gel in it at all!"
"Ack!" The red-clothed attorney took a step back and put his hands up in surprise. Calming down a little (though shock was still evident on his face) he thought, It's very true. I don't put that much gel in my hair, especially the "horns" because it already sticks right up.
"Therefore," she wriggled her finger at her brother, "you still have no proof that you didn't gel your hair."'
"B-But you don't-"
"On the contrary, Mr. Justice," Trucy was just having too much fun with this now… "the fact that it is impossible for your hair to defy the laws of gravity without gel is proof enough."
Ugh… N-No way…
"I'm sorry, Apollo, but I'm afraid Trucy is right," Phoenix concluded.
"What?! Mr. Wright, aren't you suppose to be a defense attorney?! You know, defend the innocent? 'Cause I am innocent! I-I swear I didn't put any hair gel in my hair!"
The elder male looked away, the shadow of his beanie covering his eyes. "Well, as you know, I lost my badge years ago so I cannot claim to be one anymore." He looked back to Apollo. "So, with me being the oldest one here, for putting hair gel on when you promised you wouldn't, I hereby declare you…" He looked down a bit, looking at his junior with a very serious expression. "Guilty."
"W-What kind of reasoning is that?! If you lost your badge then what gives you the right to become the 'judge'?" When Phoenix just shrugged he could feel the annoyance bubble up in his chest. His face then flushed red, the blood rushing to his cheek as he contained his anger. "Fine." He turned on his heel and strode to the door.
"Pollyyyyyyyy, where are you going?" Trucy whined like a child with her fist up to her chest.
"Back home." He stopped in front of the door and turned halfway to look at the magician. "Since you don't believe that I didn't use hair gel, I don't see the point going the rest of the day like this."
"Nooooooooo!" She dash up to Apollo, jumping over the messy room, and grabbed a hold of his arm with a defiant but determined look before he could open the door. "I'm not gonna let you do that." Apollo gave her a look that would make puppies cry. She did her best to ignore it and continued. "Even if you did use hair gel, you should suffer the consequences of your own stupidity. Heehee." She stuck her tongue out, taunting him.
He sighed, exasperated. Without saying another word, he pulled his arm out of her grip and went to sit on the sofa.
After about a few seconds of silence, Phoenix decided to speak up. "So, are you ready to go?"
Apollo looked up at his boss, the annoyance gone and replaced by confusion. "Go? Go where?"
"Oh, Polly," Trucy giggled, "did you forget about it?"
Appearently…
"We are supposed to meet Ema and Klavier at the burger joint not too far from People's Park. You know… a little get-together among friends?"
Oh yeah… The defense attorney forgot about what they had all planned to do that day between the poker game, the fact that he can't wear hair gel, and this whole mess about weather or not he was wearing hair gel… Wait a minute… "Wait! Are you saying I have to meet them like this? I'm barely presentable to go to court!" It was true. There was no way they would let a defense attorney in with his hair almost looking like he just got out of bed.
Trucy put a fist on her hip and waved a finger from her other hand at her older brother. "As I said before, it's your own fault for styling your hair like that just so you could get out of the bet."
"I already told you I didn't put gel on my hair!"
"Sorry, Apollo," Phoenix shrugged, "but the evidence proved otherwise"
"W-What evidence?! That fact that my hair sick straight up cannot-"
"Come, on! We are going to be late!" Trucy interrupted Apollo with her cheerful tone while she skipped out the door.
"Hey! You can't just-"
"Trucy's right," said Phoenix with his hand on top of his beanie. "If we don't hurry we are going to be late… later than we already are." And there goes Phoenix walking out the door, ignoring him just like Trucy.
"Are you even listening to me?! I-"
"Hey, Apollo," Phoenix had poked his head back in when he noticed that his employee wasn't following him, "are you coming or are you just going to stand there all day?"
Apollo opened his mouth to speak but just ended up closing it back up. There was no way to argue with these two… The only thing to do was suck it up, so he did but he still grumbled his way out the door.
Ok, Apollo did not know how Ema and Klavier were going to react but at least he was prepared to be laughed at some more when he got there. What he got, though, was not at all what he expected.
"Apollo… What the hell did you do to your hair?" Ema finally spoke up after a few seconds of awkward silence, voicing both her and Klavier's thoughts. In front of them was this person with long hair that seemed to grow up instead of down. This person was Apollo, the same Apollo who always had his hair slick back with only two "horns" sticking up just above his forehead.
"Nothing!" Apollo had his arms crossed and looked to the side in annoyance. "Literally nothing. No gel, no hairspray, just a shower and a comb through."
"Or so he says," Trucy butted in with a teasing smile.
"Dammit, Trucy! I told you I did not put gel in my hair!"
"Didn't we already go through with this?" She covered her mouth to hide that she was laughing… and not doing a very good job at it. "You have no proof that you didn't and the fact that the hairstyle can no way be natural proves you did."
He could not believe this. There was no way he could win this if she kept brining up that stupid argument. The fact that it isn't even a good one made it even more stupid! How could his hair looking weird prove that he used hair gel? There could be others with unnatural-looking hair without the use of hair gel. Like… like…
I just know that there is someone else with hair like mine, I just can't think of them. Someone I know… "Look," he finally spoke up, "why don't we just drop it. I'm obviously not getting anywhere with this so-"
"Herr Forehead…" Klavier broke the formally-horned attorney's train of thought, making him look at the disappointed blond. "I can't believe you lost to such a weak argument." Shaking his head, he continued, "There is someone you know that has unnatural-looking hair without the use of any hair products." He looked over to a certain someone.
Ema gave the prosecutor/rocks star a puzzled look not liking being in the dark one bit. "Just where are you going with this, Fop?" That's when she noticed that he was looking at something other than his rival, so she followed his gaze only to realize what he was talking about. "Ah, I see now." She then got up from her chair and skipped/walked over to where the ex-attorney was seated, with everyone's, excluding Klavier's, confused eyes on her. Out of nowhere, she grabbed a hold of Phoenix's beanie and pulled it off, revealing his black porcupine-like spiked hair.
"H-Hey!" he shouted, trying to grab it back.
"See?" Ema laughed at the somewhat flailing man that was trying to get his beanie back. "Mr. Wight also has weird, unnatural-looking hair."
"Tell me, Fräulein," Klavier looked at Trucy, "does your daddy use gel or any other type of hair styling products?"
"Nope!" the magician stated proudly. "There isn't a single trace of gel of any kind!... Eek!" After examining her adoptive father for a bit, her hand flew up to her mouth in shock.
A confident smirk spread across the purple-clad man's lips as he snapped his fingers. "Achtung, baby! As you can see, Herr Wright's hair is not very natural looking. In fact, Herr Forehead's hair looks even more natural than Herr Wright's does. Therefore, that renders your reasoning invalid, Fräulein," he pointed at Apollo, "and makes Herr Forehead innocent of the charges against him due to insufficient evidence."
Apollo felt like he should hug the prosecutor in thanks at the moment, despite being lifetime rivals with the guy.
Unfortunately, a grin still played on Trucy's lips as she waved a finger at him. "Ah ah, not so fast, Mr. Gavin. I am not as ignorant of the law as you think I am. Polly has already been declared 'Guilty' and I know that once a verdict has been passed, the person cannot be put on trial again by the same charges."
Everyone stared incredulously at the 15-year-old. It was surprising enough that she knew of the law but to use it against a certified prosecutor, an officer of that very same law? That was just downright unbelievable for a girl her age. Phoenix, though, could feel the pride for his daughter swell up in his chest.
Klavier sighed in defeat. "She's right, Herr Forehead." He looked apologetically at Apollo. "I'm sorry that I could not get you off the hook."
Apollo felt like crying right there. The only thing stopping him was what was left of his pride…
"Wait a minute…" Everyone turned to the red-clad attorney when he spoke. "This… THIS ISN'T EVEN A REAL TRIAL! So what if I already gotten the 'Guilty verdict'. The fact is that we proved that I didn't put on any hair gel! Even if this was real, YOU," he pointed to Klavier, "are a prosecutor, which mean that you should have been against me and not for me. And you!" he pointed at Phoenix, who after a little struggle with the forensic investigator-wannabe got his beanie back on his head. "You were a defense attorney so why are you so proud that your daughter is on the road to become a prosecutor?"
Phoenix threw his arms up. "How is it that everyone seems to read my mind?"
"Um, Mr. Wright?" Ema started to say. "Even a little kid can read you like a book at times. I know I could when I first met you."
"Herr Forehead," Klavier said, totally ignoring the conversation between Phoenix and Ema and boring his eyes into his rival, "being a person of the law, you should not care weather the trial is real or not. The law is the law."
What the hell? "It doesn't matter weather the trial is real or not"? How in the world could that even be counted as a fake trial? The prosecutor acted as the defense, the detective (which is usually on the prosecutor's side) sided with the defendant, the "prosecutor" did not even have any license pertaining to the law, and there was not even a real judge present! Apollo could not understand their weird way of thinking. The thing was he thought that Klavier at least had a normal thought process, but now he sees that even his rival is as crazy as the Wrights…
"Gaaahhhh!" Apollo shouted out, ruffling his hair. "Why is everyone making such a big fuss about this?"
"We aren't," Ema snickered. "You're the one that's making a fuss."
Apollo looked at Ema with a look of betrayal. He thought she was on his side!... But it was true. He was the only one really freaking out here… I can't take this anymore. The rookie lawyer turned and walked back the way he came from, like the sore loser he was.
"And where do you think you're going, Polly?" Trucy crossed her arms and popped her hip to the side, pouting at her older brother.
"Home," was Apollo's reply. "I don't feel like dealing with this today."
"No, you can't! We've been planning this for a long time. It was supposed to be a fun day!" The little magician girl jumped to tackle the older male.
Unfortunately for her, Apollo was able to jump out of the way in time. He scoffed, annoyed. "Well, go ahead and have fun without me. As for me, I'm going home." He was about to turn away again but was stopped by Klavier's taunting voice.
"I didn't know Herr Forehead was such a sore loser."
Apollo scowled at the rock star. "For your information, I didn't even want to get out of the house today." With that said, he finally turned and left. It was true. This morning he woke up with a foreboding feeling, as if something was going to happen today. He did not think it was something bad, more like something life changing. And he hated it. He liked the way his life was. Nothing needed to be changed.
When Apollo left, Ema look at the rest of the group bewildered. "Is it just me or does Apollo seem very angry today?"
Trucy noticed that very thing when he walked into the office that morning. It worried her, seeing her brother like that, so she thought a day with friends would help him. She scrunched her fists by her chest and nodded, determined. She was going to bring him back and he was going to have fun, weather he liked it or not.
"Get back here, Polly!" she called out as she took off after her brother.
Curious, Apollo turned his head to see what that shout was. He was met with Trucy charging at full speed toward him. "Gak!" If he was hit with that, he would need to go to the hospital for sure, and he did not want to deal with that creepy doctor. So, he ran from the monster coming behind him as fast as he could.
"Polly! Stoooooop!"
"No!" Apollo shouted at the girl chasing after him. "I don't want to die!"
When he thought he finally lost her, he ran into something, causing him to fall backwards.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" a woman said, worried. "Are you ok?"
Apollo looked up from where he sat on the ground and all he saw were these big, bright blue eyes. Her long, blond, silky hair and blue and white sundress blew in the wind, making him catch her sweet sent. She had to hold the white straw hat on her head to keep it from blowing off.
"Oh, yeah!" He blushed when he realized he was staring. Then he stood up, brushing his clothes off, and smiled at the woman. "I'm fine!" He laughed nervously, trying to calm his nerves down. Why he was nervous, he did not know. "A-Anyway, you need not apologies." One hand went to his head, fingers rubbing his scalp and the other stayed on his waist. "I was the one who ran into you."
The whole time the woman just stared, wide-eyed, at Apollo as if she was scared. She stood silent like that for a couple of minutes, making him nervous even more. Finally, she spoke, but what she said was not what Apollo expected. "Lloyd…?"
"Huh?" He cocked an eyebrow, his mood dropping once again. For some reason, the name just made him angry, especially when it was this woman calling him that. "Sorry, I think you got the wrong person," he said although he did not sound "sorry".
"Collette!" another woman called from behind the blond. Her hair was black, tied up into a messy bun. She wore jeans with some gaping holes around her knees and a somewhat *ahem* reveling purple shirt. It made Apollo turn his gaze up in an embarrassed manner and look into the woman's brown eyes. When she finally caught up to the two, she stood there panting a bit with her hands on her knees. "What… what were you thinking?" She straightened up, wiping some sweat off her face. "Why did you run off like that…" She trailed off, staring at Apollo the same way the blond did. "No way…. Lloyd?"
Apollo could feel a vein pop in his head, but he kept his composer as best he could. "Why do you guys keep calling me that?"
The black-haired woman shook her head, as if trying to shake something off. "Oh, right. Sorry." She rubbed the back of her head. "You just look a lot like someone we knew." She turned to the blond. "Right, Collette?"
At the sound of what Apollo presumed to be the blond's name, she seemed to snap back into reality. "Oh, um, right." She turned her head away from Apollo and he got the distinct impression that she did not want to look at him any longer.
After a bout of awkward silence, Apollo was about to take his leave, but before he could even open his mouth to excuse himself, the black-haired woman spoke up.
"So what is your name?"
That got Apollo to raise a suspicious eyebrow at the two. The woman may be trying to hide her interest, but with his powers of observation (supernaturally and naturally) he could see it as plain as day. Why would she be interested in a stranger's name, especially one that almost plowed right over her friend? And why was said friend acting so weird? Were they planning a lawsuit? He highly doubted it as this was such a trifle matter and that neither of them seemed the type to cause such a fuss.
And the most glaring question of them all was: Why did he feel so happy seeing someone he's never met before?
Now Apollo has dealt with the supernatural before, which is why he was less inclined to trust them. They could be doing something to him, making him happy to see them despite never seeing them before, getting him to trust them, then turning around and stabbing him. It was way out there, a crazy-ass theory that he would have never thought of before this, but he felt like SOMETHING was going on, and that was the first idea that popped in his head.
So, it was no surprise that he crossed his arms and said the only thing that was logical to him at that time. "I believe it is polite to state your own name before you ask for others."
Silence. Then a snort. The black-haired woman burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. The blond next to her covered her smile with her hand, but there was something… sad in her eyes. That got another raised eyebrow out of Apollo.
The seemingly older woman tried to catch her breath after laughing so much. She waved her hand in front of her face. "Sorry, sorry. It's just…" She breathed out a few more laughs then sighed. Under her breath, Apollo thought he heard her say something like, "of course you would say that." Aloud, she finally states, "My name is Sheena. And this is my friend, Collette."
Apollo nodded his head at the two. "A pleasure." A few seconds went by with Sheena looking expectantly at the defense attorney. It was then he realized that is was his turn to give his name. "Oh! Right. My name is-"
"Poooooollyyyyyyy!" A bulldozer called Trucy suddenly tackled Apollo. He let out a strangled yelp as he was knocked to the ground. "You can't leave! We planned this weeks ago so you are staying and having fun!"
"Trucy," Apollo grumbled from the pavement, "now is really not a good time."
"Huh?" The magician looked up to see the two girls staring down at them. "Oh!" The youngest girl immediately shot up, her hands stiffly behind her back. "Heheh… hi!"
Sheena smirked at the male. "So your name is 'Polly'?"
Apollo picked himself back up as he brushed the dirt off. "Actually, my name is Apollo. Apollo Justice." For some reason, that brought an amused snort from Sheena. "'Polly' is just a nickname given to me by my sister, Trucy." He jabbed his thumb to the brown-haired girl next to him.
"You have a sister?" That came from the unusually quite Collette. However, why did she seem so surprised, Apollo wondered? It's not like they knew each other before this… right?
"Uh, yeah." The two siblings look as each other and smiled. They may be at each other's' throats every once and a while, but he really does care for the girl. "We recently found out ourselves, actually."
"Hm, interesting." Sheena brought a hand up to her chin in thought. "She would like to know about this."
"Huh?" Apollo had a feeling he was not supposed to hear that since she said that quietly, but he hear it loud and clear. Before he could get another word out, however, the older woman continued.
"Well, it was nice to meet you Apollo, Trucy!" She grabbed Collette's hand. "But we have places to go, things to do, you know how it goes. Hopefully we'll see each other again!" With that, she winked and continued on their supposedly set path. The blonde gave the siblings a small smile and wave as she was seemingly dragged off to whatever they were doing.
"Ok… yeah." Apollo stared off at the poorly disguised hasty exit.
"That was weird." Trucy had her fists resting on her hips.
"You can say that again."
"Anyways!" The girl grabbed a hold of Apollo's arm. "We have our own place to be! Time to make some fun memories with our friends!"
"Wait, what? No wait!" The defense attorney tried to struggle out of Trucy's grip and argued against her, but it all fell to deaf ears as she dragged him along the sidewalk, back to their group of friends.
So, has anyone noticed how similar Lloyd and Apollo looks? No? Just me? Ok never mind.
Anyways! What do you guys think? I wanted to post this cause I think it's interesting to share with you guys. Sorry I have not been keeping up with the other stories, I have been busy with the Zelda AU Growing Up Gerudo, and cosplay, and college... I can't promise that I will even keep up with this, but who knows. If I get enough reviews, I may get the motivation to type more. ;)