It was March 13, 2029.

It was hard to believe that it had been 10 months since Apollo had made the decision to stay in Khura'in to help fix its legal system. Phoenix missed him. Athena missed him. Trucy sure as hell missed him. Even Maya missed him. But they were soon about to see him again.

March 21 was a special Khura'inese holiday known as Ta'lentahn. It was meant to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the Holy Mother and her husband, Ta'len Tcho Khura'in. According to legend, Ta'len and his close friend Putani were a pair of extremely talented entertainers, who were able to woo the Holy Mother and Lady Kee'ra with their variety of spectacular performances, which included singing, playing instruments, dancing, and acting. When they began to see each other more and more, Ta'len supposedly used his performances to rescue the Holy Mother after she was possessed by a demonic spirit, after which he was declared more than worthy to receive her hand in marriage.

After that, it became a tradition for the people to come up with performances ideas and perform in front of an audience while the royal family acted as judges. Originally, each performance was meant to be done by a male and female in a relationship with each other. However, as time progressed, this rule became less and less strict. Now, any pair of people was permitted to perform. Sometimes, individuals or groups of 3 performed. The performances were televised internationally.

Phoenix had known about this holiday even before he visited Khura'in. It was important for the Kurain villagers to watch the performances, and Maya and Pearl would invite him to watch with them. Sometimes performances were awe-inspiring, and other times they were cringe inducing, but one constant that Phoenix remembered was the fervent excitement of the audience and the village. Apparently though, Ga'ran was deeply uninterested, while Inga enjoyed mocking the mistakes that some performers made.

Trucy desperately wanted to perform with both Athena and Apollo. It had been so long since she last saw Apollo, and she was determined to show off to him the magic tricks she had done with, or rather, done on Athena. She was excited to do tricks involving 3 people rather than 2, as she rarely had the chance to do so. Twice the victims, twice the fun, at least for her.

She also really wanted Phoenix and Maya to perform together, so they could "display their love for one another in front of the rest of the world".

Edgeworth and Ema were already in Khura'in to practice their performances. Edgeworth had told them: "Normally, I would have refused to participate in the performances. However, my outrage at that sham of a television show has compelled me to arrange a performance with Mr. Are'bal". On the other hand, Ema was excited to perform. She had brainstormed for days on how to show off her scientific prowess to the masses. Athena suggested that she also wanted another chance chance to impress Nahyuta with her skills, but Ema denied "such a preposterous proposition".

Athena begged Blackquill to join them, but he refused. He told her he would rather watch her "fail in spectacular fashion" from the comfort of his own home. She also asked Juniper, but she was so busy that not even the temptation of Apollo could get her to come. In the end, she had no choice but to join Trucy and Apollo in their endeavors.

Now, they were all on the airplane headed to Khura'in. There was no going back now.

"What are you going to be doing, Daddy?" Trucy asked.

"I don't know yet, Trucy. I'm still not sure if I really want to perform in front of so many people," Phoenix replied.

"Come on Nick, we have to!" Maya said.

"Yeah, Daddy, you have to. Ooh, I know! You should write a song about how much you two love each other. You can even play it on the piano. Here I'll help you get started with the lyrics."

"No, Trucy. I'm pretty sure singing a love song is the last thing I'd want to be doing. Besides, I thought you said I sucked at the piano!"

"Y'know, boss, you two could also re-enact Dhurke and Amara's married life. After all, you are a defense attorney just like Dhurke. And Maya, you're a spirit medium just like Her Mercifulness!" Athena suggested.

"But we aren't married! We're not even dating!" Maya responded.

"It's just a re-enactment!"

"How about we worry about our performance and you worry about yours?" Phoenix asked.

"Fine," Athena said, followed by a long sigh.

After a short period of silence, Trucy said, "I wonder how Polly is doing right now."