((A/N: Welp, here we are! Me and my stupid old ships. This first chapter's entirely platonic, so if you don't want the horrid excuse of a ship that follows, just read this chapter. This probably isn't that good, seeing as it's short and I'm only mediocre on writing. Well, regardless, have fun reading a good ole fashioned gayfic!))
May 19th, 2026: Nine-Tails Vale
Trucy Wright had just taken her dad's bike. Well, it wasn't as if Phoenix Wright had told her she couldn't go, but she just wanted to go on her own for once. Besides, if Nick wanted his bike back, he could just as easily walk the half-hour to Nine-Tails Vale to take it back. He'd have to wait for her, though, and she knew that she would have forced Nick to wait for a fair while.
She stepped foot into the village, and practically felt the magic around her. Not the parlor stuff she wanted, nor the pulling-your-panties-outta-nowhere magic that she often used, but more of a weird, superstitious and folky sort of magic from myth. She looked around, noting the odd feeling the village seemed to emit. She noted, right as she started walking to one of the stores, that there was this odd… monopolization of that weird folky-superstitious magick, with cardboard cutouts decorating many of the facades she saw around her.
The store she entered was a small one. It looked like any average supermarket: white tiled floors, aisles of shelves, the whole shebang; only difference was that it was tiny, maybe the size of two rooms in a house. Despite the small size, the building seemed dead-set on using a dozen aisles, even if each was only about one-man thick.
She decided to pick an aisle at random, and examined its wares happily. She found a box of what looked like cards, and examined them. "Ah! These are… things. I don't really know what they are. They aren't, like, playing cards," she murmured to herself, noting how they were similar to sticky-notes, as well. She was interrupted from her ponderings by a timid voice coughing for attention. The voice spoke just as Trucy recognized the cough, asking "C-can you please move, miss? I-I need those protection charms…" Trucy turned around, startled a bit. She still held the cards in her hand, but she held it out to the timid figure, inspecting her as she did so.
The other girl was around Trucy's age-range, maybe a year younger or so. Her face was mostly hidden behind a silver platter she was clenching in front of her, but she could see her black hair and pale skin. She was wearing something like a maid's uniform, and she stood there in confusion for a moment. The timid girl lowered her platter for a moment, and saw the charms in Trucy's hand. Trucy, thinking that maybe the girl didn't understand, told her that she could have them. The girl nodded and nervously grabbed the charms and retracted back behind the platter. "Are you okay?" Trucy asked, never one to consider how polite she sounded, to which the silver plate on legs nodded a bit. "I-I just am not a people person, y-you never know when they might be… might be a y-yokai or other demon…"
Needless to say, Trucy could hardly cough into her hand to hide her laughter, but managed to choke down the oncoming waves of laughter. "So, *ahem*, you believe in… yokai? Those weird li'l Japanese boogeymen?" she asked, about as sensitive as a hammer. "I-I mean, I s-see them e-every now and then…" the girl stuttered out. Trucy was, in all honesty, now a hundred-and-ten percent more interested in this girl than she was before. "Well, I'm not one of those ghoulies, don't even worry about that!" Trucy said, somehow believing in yokai if it concerned her, "I'm just a magician-in-training, and the best one at that, too!" The person behind the plate lowered it just a bit. "I'm Jinxie, i-if you really w-wanted to know. I-I work as the a-alderman's maid in this t-town…" she murmured. Trucy nodded, and had an idea suddenly: "Would you want to see one of my acts?" The girl lowered the platter a little bit more, nervous to look directly at the bubbly magician, but still nodded a tiny little nod. Trucy smiled, deciding to pull out the good ol' Mr. Hat. "That silly girl considers panties a good magic act! I doubt she's gonna make it in the business world, unlike me!" she made the puppet say. Jinxie only managed to jump back, looking rather nervous. Trucy was confused for a moment, but remembered that the maid "saw Yokai," and realized her mistake. She hid him back away and apologized to the girl, explaining to her over and over that it was just a bunch of wood she made talk. Trucy checked her pockets, found a couple bucks, and asked Jinxie if she wanted some ice cream, as an apology. Jinxie thought to herself, before nodding.
April 17th, 2027: Nine-Tails Vale
Trucy smiled to herself. Ah, the memories of her first time at Nine-Tails Vale. Since that day, less than a year ago, her and Jinxie had become fast friends; although the alderman's maid was oftentimes paranoid and definitely suffered mentally from stress and hallucinations (perhaps one caused the other, Trucy would ponder to herself sometimes), Trucy often noted how Jinxie seemed to let her guard down when with her. To think, Trucy thought to herself, that this wonderful friendship started itself over a table of cheap five-dollar ice cream, poorly made to look like some fake Japanese boogeyman-demons.
"Trucy, next time you take me out and about, at least engage me in conversation." The voice shattered her train of thought for a second; it was Apollo Justice, the man who seemed to take the place of unofficial brother and best friend in Trucy's life.
Oh yeah, Trucy thought to herself. The festival's today! Jinxie invited us, but Daddy was too busy. Guess Polly'll do, she said. It was half-an-hour past one.