Author's Note: So, at the beginning of this school year, my language arts teacher decided to have us write a response/reflection/journal-y thing every day of school, for the rest of the year. I kinda freaked out, since I'm terrible at consistency. (Which I'm sure you've noticed if you've read any of my other stories.) I'm still trying to get used to it. On the upside, though, he said it would be alright if I wrote fanfics for some of them! Whoop! So that's what this story is going to be. Anytime that I have a prompt that I think is possible to write in a fanfic, I'll do that and post it here. Enjoy! :D

Oh, and for my story wide disclaimer: I don't own Ace Attorney or any of the characters or anything.

An Objectionable Proverb

POV: Miles Edgeworth

Prompt: Pick one of William Blake's "Proverbs from Hell" from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and explain it.

Context: Edgeworth, Kay, Gumshoe, Franziska, and Lang have tracked down a criminal to Gatewater Mall, and are searching fruitlessly for the USB he stole from the US government.

Notes: I chose "If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise" as my proverb. It seems to fit a certain prosecutor well, huh? ;D Also, I apologize for the ending...I know it's lackluster, and I couldn't figure out how to conclude the whole thing.

Why do I always have to get these cases? I shoved aside still more plastic balls, desperately hoping Kay wouldn't pull out her camera phone. It wouldn't do to have a picture of me standing in the children's ball pit at Gatewater Mall.

There was, of course, a legitimate reason for my being there. A week ago, an undercover agent had stolen confidential defense plans from the military, along with a recently developed poison. While Franziska and Agent Lang were searching for him, he used that toxin in the seemingly random murder of a young woman who lived nearby. Gumshoe and I were assigned to that case, and, of course, Kay had insisted on helping us. Once the connection between the two incidents had been established, the five of us worked together to find the suspect, and cornered him in the mall. At the moment, Lang's subordinates were surrounding the area, and a few were searching the seven-floored building for his whereabouts. That left just the five of us to search the ball pit, where we deduced the killer had thrown the USB containing the critical stolen plans. So far, however, there was no sign of it.

I sighed as a ball whizzed over my head. "Kay, we're here to investigate, not play."

"Aww." She pouted, dropping the ball in her hand. "I can't have even a little fun?"

"As long as it includes actually searching, feel free."

She groaned. "We've been at it for over an hour, though!"

"And we'll be continuing until we find that flash drive."

"Whose idea was this, anyway?" she grumbled. I was about to answer when Franziska, now wading towards us, spoke up.

"Lang's. It seems to be nothing more than pure foolishness, however, spawned by foolish desperation and hope rather than logic. It would have made more sense to join his subordinates in their search, and then have them help us here."

"Heh. Wasn't this a group decision, sis? You seemed to think it was 'perfect' when we started looking." He, too, was making his way over. Only Gumshoe was still searching, happily digging through the balls in the corner while softly humming to himself.

Franziska readied her whip while I backed up slowly, trying to surreptitiously get out of range. "That may have been true. However, after only a few minutes the foolishness of this plan was clear. It is nothing more than a fool's plan, and to continue would be a foolish idea more foolish than those of a certain, foolish defense attorney."

Lang smirked. "Lang Zi says: 'If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.'" I'm pretty sure that wasn't Lang Zi.

"How could foolishness of this degree ever reach perfection?"

Lang tilted his head, gesturing with his arm. "I never said it would be perfect. Only wise."

"Explain this so-called wisdom, then." Her hand twitched, and I moved faster.

"Fine. Once we find that USB, won't this seem like a great idea? We'll all be glad we hadn't just joined my subordinates, since they'll still be searching."

"Hmm… He does have a point." Kay chimed in. Franziska glared at her in return, but, thankfully, her whip didn't strike.

"That conclusion is simply more foolishness. We will still have foolishly wasted over an hour of searching that could have been used to find the culprit."

"I wasn't done yet. There's also the fact that the girlie and Mr. Prosecutor over there haven't been trained in how to properly detain a suspect. And I don't think either of us have much confidence in that oafish detective."

Franziska grimaced, relaxing her hands. "I suppose I must admit that I agree with the latter statement. The chances of Scruffy competently making an arrest are similar to those of Little Brother watching a children's show." I cleared my throat and looked away. Well…

She tensed again, not ready to admit defeat. "However, that doesn't change the fact that this foolishness will not ever seem wise."

At that moment, there was a loud "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" from the other side of the pit, and Gumshoe came barrelling over. "I found it, pals! I found the flash drive!" There was, indeed, a small, red object in his hand, and all of us held our breath. On his way over, however, he tripped and fell, the USB flying out of his grasp. Everyone gasped as it flew into the air and arced towards the hard floor, too far away to catch it in time.

Then there was a sharp crack and before we could blink it was safely in Franziska's hand. Huh, maybe that whip is useful for something after all. "Perhaps something useful did come out of this search."

Lang's response wiped the smirk off her face. "Told you."

The noise she made was something close to a growl, and there was another crack as I felt a sharp pain on my arm. "Nghaaa! What was that all about?!"

She glared. "Had I aimed at him, he would have simply caught it." And how, exactly, does that make me the target?! I glared at Kay, who was clearly stifling laughter.

Though, I had to smirk when Franziska opened her hand and the flash drive was split into two halves.