After four months of constant coming and going between Khura'in to America, Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi had finally requested for Detective Ema Skye to leave the States for good and come to work with him on Khura'in in a permanent position for the foreseeable future. Ema had to think long about it, and after fulfilling her dream of working in a case with Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, she finally decided staying in Khura'in and helping to rebuild the country alongside Nahyuta and Apollo would be an interesting challenge and a step forward in her detective and forensic career. However, she didn't hide her sadness at leaving everything behind. Mostly her work with Miles Edgeworth, but she knew they had to follow their own paths, and just like Edgeworth said, it wasn't goodbye forever.
So with all this in mind, Ema packed her things and took a one way trip towards the Kingdom of Khura'in. Her new home.
As soon as she arrived at the one airport she knew very well, she started her almost typical road for maybe the last time in a long while. Unlike her many previous trips to this same country, this time her hands were quite full and with no room to move quickly, for she was coming with very big suitcases filled with pretty much all her belongings, and so she was having a hard time dealing with them all among the crowds of people. Slowly but surely she moved until she finally saw the one person she was looking for since she left the plane.
"Detective Skye. Welcome back. On behalf of The Renewed Kingdom of Khura'in, I offer you our fondest and kindest regards. Our people is deeply honored by your decision of setting your residence inside our country's blessed borders. May The Holy Mother grant you all the strength and resilience you need to achieve your endeavors and may Her pure light guide you through all paths you desire to follow across your lifetime on this realm."
Ema smiled at hearing those words. After four months, she knew very well what to expect from him after all, "You and your long speeches… I knew I could count on you to make this a bigger deal than it really is." Nahyuta smiled as well, a soft smile, not showing any readable deep emotions, but one of courtesy mostly. A few seconds later, he turned his head towards his guards and moved it in a quick silent side motion directed towards where Ema was standing. His guards quickly moved straight to where she was standing and picked all her suitcases.
"Allow my guards to help you with your belongings Detective, it is the least these humble servants of the Holy Mother could do for you now that you are part of our modest community."
Ema couldn't do much before Nahyuta's guards were picking all her stuff already, "Wow, careful there, my lab equipment and other fragile stuff is there." Nahyuta, still soft smiling, closed his eyes and moved his arms to form his meditation pose, with both hands's thumbs joining his middle and ring fingers in order to create small circles. "I have arranged for transportation waiting on the outside. It is quite humble in nature so I hope you find it comfortable and pleasant Detective.", Ema was now feeling a bit overwhelmed by the unusual welcome. Nahyuta always received her on the airport but as soon as they were out, she always had to find her way to the prescint or her hotel on her own, sure she asked him to help her with her things on arrival this time, but never expected he would bring an special vehicle, or his guards. Maybe she didn't want to expect much on purpose, after all he was still her boss and he didn't owe her anything, but the fact he was this interested, made her feel confused. She was kinda stressing as she, once again, couldn't read Nahyuta's intentions in the slightest. He always did this to her somehow and she hated it. Nevertheless, she wasn't going to deny his hospitality. "Ehmmm, Thanks. I really appreciate it prosecutor but, you didn't have to do it. I could've been fine on my own."
Nahyuta now sighed and moved his head, perhaps condescendingly to outside eyes, but never such intention from his part. "Ms. Skye, you are an outstanding detective and a remarkable person. Providing aid is the very least this lowly monk could do to honor your decision of accepting my invitation to reside and help in the reconstruction of our honorable nation. I can assure you the Holy Mother will always look for your well-being as She will always be in debt with those who decide to help the many lost souls in need of guidance, even when such endeavor would mean leaving thy most precious treasures behind. Needless to say, I am eternally grateful as well."
Ema felt like blushing, as a matter of fact, she probably was and Nahyuta surely noticed it. She just looked away to try and hide it. "I-It's nothing. I told you not to make a big deal out of it." Nahyuta looked in her direction. "It actually means a lot for the people to have such a pillar of morality and great justice working to improve the strong but weakened police department. I assure you, there will be not a single person disheartened by your arrival Detective." Ema felt like hiding. He was doing it again. He was being way too nice with her. And she hated that, because she would turn to look his face and be met with a complete enigma. An impossible puzzle hiding the meaning of every word. His face, stoic as always, completely polite in its expressions, and annoying at times, but never readable. She hated it, and it stressed her to no end. She quietly took out her bag of snackoos and started eating slowly while looking how Nahyuta's guards picked her luggage and transported it to where their transportation was waiting. She didn't move from her spot however. Nahyuta on the other hand, moved his arms again into his meditation position, closing his eyes at last. Ema casually gazed in his direction and, after confirming he wasn't staring at her anymore, finally turned to look at his face. He looked in peace. Undisturbed. He always looked like this with her, even though people surprisingly told her this was a side of him they hadn't seen in ages, he was always like this with her. Honestly she didn't know what to think, and the many different ideas invading her mind, made her arm reach for more and more snackoos faster.
"Detective…" Nahyuta spoke. Ema was startled by the sudden sound after some minutes of silence between them. "Y-Yeah, what is it?" She asked murmuring a bit.
"I believe my guards have taken all your belongings to our designed transportation and are waiting for us. Please, let us not take away their precious time, remember the Holy Mother is wise and awarded us a limited amount of time on this realm for a reason."
"Oh, right. Sorry." Ema said realizing what he had meant. They were wasting time standing still in the middle of the airport. Knowing exactly where the exit was, she started walking. After a few steps however, she noticed Nahyuta wasn't following her. Slowly she stopped and turned to notice the monk still meditating in silence on the same spot he was before he told her to hurry. "You coming?" She asked puzzled, he spent a few more seconds in silence. God he could get on her nerves when he wanted to.
"Do not feel the obligation of having to wait for me Detective, I'm immersed in a prayer expressing my absolute gratitude to the Holy Mother, as such, my faith demands me to stay in this spot until my sacred ritual is complete." He spoke softly but loud enough to be heard by her. Ema frowned to him, why would he pretty much scold her for not hurrying if he was gonna stay anyways. He truly was a mystery and really, really irritating when he wanted to be. Ema didn't move, she remained in silence, looking at him praying while thinking about how much he irritate her. Eating and eating she continued waiting for him. "Detective, I am absolutely sure I spoke loud enough for you to hear my words the first time." Nahyuta spoke, Ema felt like he wanted her to leave. After that welcome, he was now dismissing her? How dare he? Part of her wanted to storm out, but a bigger part just wanted to disobey him, irritate him and show him he didn't control her in the slightest. She noticed her bag was half empty already. She walked to a store nearby and asked if they had some more bags of Snackoos. She knew of course, that Snackoos where being sold on Khura'in, Nahyuta had made it possible not long ago, but she needed an excuse to stall for time because she would've been damned to the tickling hell if she had let Nahyuta get his way. She had enough of that when they were working. While on the store, she tried her best to fake indecision between the different Snackoo flavors. Of course she was buying the chocolate ones, but Nahyuta simply didn't finish his prayer. After stalling on the store to the point of it being awkward, she bought three Chocolate Snackoos bags and slowly walked towards him. He was still meditating in silence, eyes closed, completely motionless. Ema looked around and found a bathroom nearby. The perfect place to stall for time. She carefully left her new bags and her half-full bag next to Nahyuta to enter the bathroom. She spent something close to 7 minutes inside. Once out, she moved her sight towards the spot where Nahyuta was, only to find out he was still there. Annoyed, she moved closer and noticed her bags of Snackoos were gone. Surprise turned into anger quickly as this occurrence annoyed her even more. She wanted to scream at him, even though she knew it was her fault for leaving her bags next to Nahyuta. As silent as possible, she searched for them nearby in hopes they were just hidden or… or something. She moved around Nahyuta looking everywhere to see if he himself had hidden them but no such luck. 'Maybe someone took them when no one was looking' she thought. Sighing and pouting, she resigned to having lost that many bags of sweet candies. She wanted to explode, yell, hit something, and maybe do all three to Nahyuta for being so desconsiderate and not realizing someone stole her snackoos even when they were literally next to him. But the civil side of her knew it would be extremely rude if she interrupted his prayer, and him being the religious man he was, who knew what he would do. 'Well, not everything sucks', she though, for now she had a perfect excuse to stay around until he had finished. No way he was gonna get away with not being scolded.
Ema felt like an hour had passed, even tohugh her watch said less tan fifteen minutes had actually gone by. During this time, she had gone to buy a new snackoo bag to wait close to him. She was getting more and more anxious with how much he took to finish his prayer. At one point believing he was doing it on purpose. A likely explanation if he just hadn't suggested her to go ahead without him in the first place. She took a snackoo and moved a bit far from Nahyuta. Then, with one eye closed, tried to calculate how strongly she would need to throw the snackoo to reach him, she wasn't going to really throw it but it was something to do while he still prayed. She was making a lot of funny poses trying to figure out a way to reach every part of his body with the snackoo. People passing by looked at her weirdly, but she was having too much fun to notice. It wasn't until one guard moved behind her to ask, that she realized where she was still.
"What exactly are you doing miss?"
Ema instinctively threw the snackoo forward, and it reached Nahyuta in the head, the throw wasn't strong enough to disturb his prayer though, maybe she would've laughed at it in another occasion but now she needed to provide an explanation.
"I-It's nothing officer. I was just, you know, having some fun." Ema said trying to explain herself. She was smiling embarrassed. One arm on the back of her head.
"You shouldn't attack the regent while he's meditating. That can very well be interpreted as an act against the kingdom." The officer explained, and Ema felt a bit threatened now, however at that moment, a soft voice spoke loud enough so both could hear it.
"Do not worry officer. The Detective caused no harm and was simply entertaining herself as she explained very well. That candy she threw was but a nuisance. Please, continue patrolling the airport as you were doing, this prayer is almost finished so we will be leaving soon as well."
After Nahyuta finished speaking, the officer saluted him and left. Ema felt more relieved, but not even a few seconds passed before a new wave of more annoyance at Nahyuta resurfaced, as she realized he had been conscious of the events on his sorroundings the whole time. Meaning he had let her snackoos get stolen on purpose. Not happy about it one bit, she moved closer and closer until her face was really close to his. A few inches apart. Frowning and pouting, she was gonna wait for him to finish right there, so the first thing he saw was her angry face, so he knew she was angry and dissapointed at him. However after a few seconds of silence, Nahyuta spoke once more, startling Ema again. "Detective, you should respect what you Americans call 'the personal space'." Ema backed away a bit from the startling, and frowned more, this time mad at herself for having let Nahyuta catch her off guard like that. She really hated how she was so unable to read him. After a few more minutes of Ema pouting and eating, Nahyuta finally opened his eyes and released his pose of meditation before standing up.
"Finally! That took ages! No prayer can take that long!" Ema wasted no time to scream. She was angry. At this point she didn't know why. Nahyuta, of course wasn't shaken by this a bit and remained calm, without showing any clear emotion. Ema continued. "You know I left my snackoos next to you right?! I know you know! You were aware of everything that was happening the whole time!" She screamed, waiting for an explanation inmediately. Nahyuta, softly started responding.
"That is correct Detective. Even while in prayer, this humble servant of the Holy Mother is always conscious of every event transpiring on his surroundings. Plenty of meditation techniques and years of training made it possible for me to attain this achievable ability that was surrendered to us commoners by the grace of Her Holiness who…
"Okay okay okay. I get it! Gee." Ema cut him out. Now really starting to wonder why exactly she accepted to come here and spend pretty much every single day of her life with this… individual. "I didn't pay attention to anything you said, I just Heard some bable that made it clear you allowed my snackoo bags get stolen! Right next to you!" She spoke loudly, demanding a real answer. Nahyuta kept his gaze on her eyes and Ema was staring back. For a few seconds that felt like years, they gazed into each other eyes. Ema never blinked but, after a bit, Nahyuta simple closed them again without any worry.
"They weren't stolen." He responded calmly.
"Oh yeah? Then where are they?" Ema challenged back.
"I asked one of the humble workers of these stores to provide assistance in taking them to where your transportation has been waiting for what I believe have been fifteen minutes already."
Ema's frowning and annoyance disappeared. "Y-You… you did?" She was so sure she was gonna explode after his answer but now, now she was confused.
"While I completely disagree with your attitude in making those respectable men wait, and greatly believe a sermon about the virtues of empathy and acquiescence is what you need, I cannot do any less than express my humble and sincere gratefulness at your complete trust." Nahyuta was soft smiling again, Ema's brain simply broke. She was completely lost. "Leaving your bags of sweets under my supervision was a wise choice and one I felt happy to honor. I feel deeply flattered to have earned such magnificent belief from you and I bow, with the Holy Mother as my witness, to always honor it in the highest capacity a demanding person as yourself would require."
Ema heard his every word. Mesmerized, lost on her mind. That way of speech, the way he said every word, it all felt so sincere. She knew he meant every word. How was it possible that he could irritate her so much and then calm her in a second? She felt vulnerable. And his soft smile, his intense stare, it all made it harder to hide her happiness. Looking away to one side, she ate her snackoos slowly. "O-Okay. I mean, I appreciate that you… that you think that way about it." She kept eating. Nahyuta would not look away. She felt like she needed to do something. To release all this happiness in some way, and he was making it more and more difficult to hide it every second his gaze remained on her. It went on and on, a lot of crazy ideas going on her mind. Could it be possible this was the answer to that question she asked herself? Why did she accepted to come here and spend pretty much every single day of her life with... Him. He made her feel like no one else ever had. Angry and happy and annoyed and safe and, strangely, at peace.
"I believe we have a 'ride waiting to take us home' as you Americans say." Nahyuta said, not a single readable expression on his face but a polite smile. Ema, on the other hand, almost exploded in laughter at his expression and the monotone way he said it. He was truly something else. "I believe that's true Prosecutor. Hopefully home won't be far away from the palace."
Nahyuta moved his head in denial, "The Holy Mother guides us and with her sacred words tells us that 'Home' is where your mind and heart feel at peace."
Ema's lips formed a little smile at that comment, Nahyuta kept his polite smile as well for a few seconds before turning to face the road and start walking. Ema proceeded to walk next to the prosecutor straight to the exit, adding one last bit before silence fell over them.
"Yeah, it really is."