Pearl Wright: Chapter One

The Day Of Her Funeral

Not a speck of sunlight shone through the dark clouds on that day. It felt almost like she was in a movie, in both how the weather made the scene look chiche and the situation she was in overall.

Dozens of people who she knew stood next to her, most of them were from the village's branch family's. The other people who attended were Phoenix Wright, Larry Butz, Dick Gumshoe, and Miles Edgeworth. Of course there was also herself, still shocked at the monumental event that lead to this day.

There wasn't a single smile across the the group of people who attended. Nothing but frowns and tears. Some were so sad they couldn't bear to even make a facial expression through their sadness.

She was one of them. Right now she felt dead inside. Her whole world felt like it was torn away to be replaced with nothing but sadness.

Instantly she knew that nothing would ever be the same and she read the name on the grave in her head once again.

Here lies Maya Fey 1999 - 2019.

The image of that gravestone could very well be carved into her memory forever. The memory of Pearl Fey.

A soft hand was placed upon her shoulder causing Pearl to look up and be met face to face with Phoenix Wright.

"Pearl, are you alright." Phoenix said. "You haven't spoken in days, I'm worried about you. We are all worried about you."

Pearl didn't have the motivation for a response, so instead she just shrugged his hand off of her shoulder in protest. She wasn't in the mood to talk right now.

Miles Edgeworth walked up behind Phoenix and ushered the defence attorney to the side.

"What is it Edgeworth." Phoenix asked, Pearl just barely able to hear his voice.

"What do you think is going to happen to the girl now that Miss Fey is gone." Miles said, hoping that Pearl didn't hear that. It was pointless though, because she could. If she had wanted to Pearl could tell them that she could hear everything that they were saying, but she didn't have the energy or motivation to do so.

"I Have no idea." Phoenix responded. "Maya meant everything to her. And nowadays with Pearl in an orphanage, she grew even closer to Maya."

"What about the other branch family's Wright? Won't one of them take her in and care for her?"

"None of them took her in when Morgan Fey went to jail. That might be different now due to Pearl's line becoming the main family now, but I don't want a huge responsibility like that to be put on her after something like this."

"I agree. I'm not the best when it comes to emotional things, but you're the closest one to Pearl now. You need to be there for her."

"I know that, but it's hard when she won't even speak at all. I'm serious, she found out about Maya's death a week ago, and she hasn't spoken a word sense."

"Do you have any plans for her future?"

"I have an idea, but I'm not one hundred percent sure about it. I highly doubt it's going to happen though. After all Pearl is very dedicated to her training as a spirit medium, and me going through with my idea would only get in the way."

"Just to be clear what is your idea?"

"I'll tell you later in private. I don't want to take any chance of Pearl eavesdropping on it. I have to be one hundred percent sure on it before Pearl knows."

"Very well then. You know my number if you need to talk. Normally I would put my work above my social life, but this is a situation that takes top priority for me."

"Thanks Edgeworth. I'll probably discuss my idea with you, Larry, and Gumshoe sometime this week."

Pearl tried to listen in more onto their conversation when she heard someone kneel right beside her. Looking over she saw that it was Detective Gumshoe. Usually she'd call him Mr. Scruffy Detective, but once again Pearl wasn't in the mood to talk. He was wearing a clean expensive looking funural suit that Edgeworth must have bought him. After all, there was no way in which he'd be able to afford it himself.

"Hey Pal. You've haven't spoken to anyone sense this whole thing started. Just like Nick said, we're worried about you. You shouldn't bottle your emotions all in, you just need to let it all out. It's ok to do that, I'll be a shoulder for you to cry on if you need it, and I know for a fact that Phoenix would let you cry on him to."

Pearl said nothing. Instead she just looked at the ground.

Gumshoe continued. "You're a sweet little girl Pearl, I hate to see you like this."

Choosing to ignore him Pearl just stared back at the grave thinking back to the fateful night in which she learned about Maya's death.

Maya had gone out to pick up some burgers from a nearby restaurant. She had just recently gotten her drivers licence after she heard that Phoenix got his.

It was raining hard that night, and according to Phoenix Maya's car started hydroplaning. She lost control of the car and hit a tree. The doctors said she died instantly.

Reaching out deep into her soul Pearl tried to contact Maya. Nothing… Pearl didn't even have the willpower anymore to contact the spirit world.

Diverting her attention away from the tombstone Pearl noticed that some people were starting to leave. The funeral must have been coming to a close. Soon after it was just Phoenix, Edgeworth, and herself.

"I believe I shall take my leave now Wright." Edgeworth said. "Call me if you need me, and you both have my deepest condolences. Maya was a very good person, and I shall miss her."

If Maya's death was done by the hands of a criminal, at the very least Pearl would have someone to point a finger at and let out all of her anger towards. Her death was an accident through. Nobody to blame. No criminal whose life sentence would at least give her something to feel good about. All that there was was Maya's death, and the aftermath of it.

"Pearl?" Phoenix asked making her look towards him. "It's a little far to the orphanage, and I didn't want you being alone tonight after all that has happened. So I called the orphanage and told them that you'd be staying with me tonight. Is that alright?"

Pearl nodded in response.

"Ok good, I'll make your bed up when we get back to my place."

He reached his hand out for Pearl to hold it so he could take them back to the car, but Pearl just walked past him towards the parking lot.

Eventually they made their way to Phoenix's 1999 Honda Civic. It may have been 2019, but Phoenix wasn't exactly a rich person, so it was all he could afford. Besides, it was in good condition, and it was reliable.

Once Phoenix unlocked it Pearl climbed into the back and buckled herself in. Soon after they were driving in the busy streets of Los Angeles.

"This has been a rough day for the both of us Pearl. But my main concern right now is you. So how about I get you some ice cream to help you get your mind of off things?"

Pearl said nothing. It didn't matter to her.

"I see…" Phoenix finally. "I'll get some ice cream anyways because I'm actually pretty hungry right now."

It was almost un human seeing Phoenix act like this after Maya's death. He was probably just trying to put on a strong face for her right now.

Phoenix pulled into a nearby Dairy Queen and drove up to the drive through.

"I'm going to get us two small cones. If you want something different Pearl, just tell me."

It was obviously a ploy to get her to speak, but that was ok, a small cone was fine for her after all.

Phoenix stopped the car right up at a speaker where a voice came through.

"Welcome to Dairy Queen, may I take your order?" The female voice on the other side said.

"Yes, two small cones please."

"Is that all sir?"

"Yes, thank you."

"That'll be five dollars and seven cents. First window on the right."

Phoenix slowly inched the car forward up to the window. The window opened with a young woman on the other side. Phoenix handed her the money, and in return she gave him the two cones, one of which Phoenix handed to Pearl.

The rest of the car ride was uneventful as Pearl just ate her ice cream in silence. Occasionally at stop lights Phoenix would glance at her to make sure that she was ok.

Finally the two made it too Phoenix's apartment. It was a small two bedroom place in an old building. It wasn't much, but Phoenix managed to keep it clean and nice for her and….. Maya.

Immediately Pearl went to sit on the couch in his living room with Phoenix following in suit. The main living room was connected with the kitchen, and a small hallway beside the kitchen lead to a bathroom, and two bedrooms.

Phoenix handed pearl the remote for the tv in the living room and said. "You can pick whatever you want to watch Pearl.

Pearl took the remote and flicked on the tv which was currently displaying some random movie.

"Ah that's one of my favourite movies. It's called The Fast And the Furious. I saw it when I was a kid with Edgeworth and Larry. We were so young back then, and probably shouldn't have been watching it. I have it on Blu Ray if you want to watch it from the beginning?"

Pearl looked at the screen and saw a man and a woman in a restaurant talking about how bad a tuna sandwich was.

With nothing else to do Pearl just nodded. She hoped at the very least it would make Phoenix stop bothering her if she was ok or not.

"Alright then Pearls. I'll go get the blu ray."

Phoenix walked up to a nearby closet and opened it. Inside was a box where Phoenix kept his movie collection. After a few moments he pulled out a case with the movie's name on it, took the disk out, and put it into the blu ray player.

As the movie loaded Phoenix walked into the kitchen and grabbed two colas from the fridge and came back to sit down with Pearl just as the movie was starting.

Phoenix handed Pearl the cola. It was the store brand, but Pearl didn't mind. Normally she didn't let her have soda pop very often, but it was obvious that he was doing everything he could to get her mind off of Maya, which ironically make Pearl think about her more.

Just as the movie was starting, Phoenix's phone went off as she could hear the Steel Samurai theme coming from it. Instantly Phoenix declined the call and turned his phone off.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and Pearl said. "Why didn't you answer?"

Phoenix's eyes widened in shock hering Pearl speak, but he quickly calmed down.

"Spending time with you right now is the most important thing to me Pearls."

The scene on the movie switched to a group of people starting up a drag race. From what Pearl would tell, the main character's name was Brian. There were three other cars in the race, but the only two that really got any attention was Brian's car, and a car belonging to a bald man.

Each car in the race seemed to have really strange paint jobs on all of them. Each of the cars looked like a painting, which really had caught Pearl's attention. She'd like to drive cars like those when she was older, but Pearl at the moment was only ten years old, and couldn't get her licence for another six years.

Brian's car was just finally passing the bald man's car when the bald man pushed a button that for some reason made his car go faster. Within a few short seconds the bald man's car passed Brian's and won the race. Immediately afterwards Brains car started to spin out of control. Seeing this, an image of Maya losing control in her car flashed before Pearls eyes making her gasp, and cover her eyes.

Phoenix immediately noticing this paused the movie and rushed to give Pearl a hug. Pearl could feel him squeezing hard as he hugged her.

"Oh god Pearl I'm so sorry." He said as a tear rolled down Pearl's face. "It was stupid of me to show you that movie after what just happened!"

After a moment he finally let go of Pearl as she wiped the tear off of her face.

"I think… I want to go to bed…" Pearl said.

"You do what you need to do. If you need anything just ask."

With that Pearl slowly got up and left for her room, leaving Phoenix just sitting there looking worried about her.

"And remember Pearls." Phoenix said just before Pearl opened the door. "If you ever need to talk about anything I'll be there for you."

Pearl just nodded and went inside her room, closing the door behind her. The first thing she noticed once she was alone was how stagnant the the air in the room felt and how silent everything was.

Nighttime had already befallen the city of Los Angeles. The only light that Pearl could see was the moonlight coming through the one window in her, its glow shining directly through the middle of the room lighting up little dust particles.

Walking up to the window Pearl could see that it was still a very cloudy night, the moon conveniently in a clear patch that had opened up in the sky. Pearl opened up the window letting in a breeze of fresh air along with the sounds of L. walking about, and taxi's honking at each other.

Feeling tired Pearl closed the window and turned around towards her bed. It was sitting right next to the door, just barely out of the moonlight. Slowly she walked up to it, took off her clothes, climbed under the pink covers that Phoenix bought for her, and laid her head down on the specially designed pillow that Phoenix also bought for her. It was a light pink pillow, with the word Pearl on it in a darker pink. It was a present Phoenix got for her on her tenth birthday a month ago.

Lifting her head up Pearl looked around the room and realized that most of the stuff in it was from Phoenix himself. From posters on the wall, to toys that she played with. Granted Maya coaxed him into buying most of the stuff she had, but that was still his money, and he did it with a smile. Infact Pearl had more stuff at Nick's place than she had at the orphanage she was forced to stay at for the past few years ever since her mother went to jail.

Pearl looked at the digital clock on her bedside table to see that it was only just past 8pm. Normally Pearl had a lot more energy to stay up late, but tonight she just wanted to sleep as she once again laid her head down.

While she indeed felt very sleepy, Pearl's mind was still cluttered with thoughts. In her current life she had so much to thank Phoenix Wright for. Most of her stuff was bought by him, he always tried to help her whenever he could with things such as homework, he always tried to make time for her, and he saved Mystic Maya so many times.

It was almost like Phoenix Wright was a father to her….

God dammit, what was he thinking showing Pearl that movie. He was so caught up with trying to get Pearl's attention that he showed her that stupid movie!

Phoenix sighed as he layed back into his couch when Pearl went into her room. Remembering that he received a phone call before Pearl left Phoenix lifted his head up and grabbed his phone.

On the screen of his phone it read "1 Missed Call: Miles Edgeworth". Also on the phone there was a button to call back which Phoenix pressed after putting in his password.

Placing the phone up to his ear Phoenix could hear it ringing on the other side. Finally after a few rings he got an answer.

"Edgeworth speaking."

"It's Phoenix, you called?"

"Yes I was wondering how you two were faring."

Phoenix gave a fake chuckle.

"You know Edgeworth, I don't think I've ever seen you showing concern like this before. Has all of that paperwork that you get stuck doing finally broken you?"

"...Very funny Wright. I'll rephrase what I said earlier. My work is very important for me, but a tragedy has befallen you and Miss Fey. I would be a horrible person and friend if I didn't take your situation as a priority. Plus I can't help but be really worried about the girl, she has no family left unless you count the ones in jail."

"I know Edgeworth, and I think I know what I have to do."

"And that is?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. There's a Tim Hortons that just opened up near the courthouse. Can we meet there at around 12Pm?"

"...Hmmm… I believe so."

"Good, I'll call larry and Gumshoe as well and get them to meet us there as well."

"Very well then, I just hope you have something good planned."

"I hope so, because right now I'm not one hundred percent sure if it's the right plan to go through with. Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow Edgeworth."

"I'll see you then." Miles said ending the call.

Phoenix sighed once again as he put his phone down. He knew he had to go through with his plan no matter what. Whether or not he was prepared to go through with it was trivial, he had to do it for Pearl's sake….