TURNABOUT CURSE
(An Ace Attorney Fanfic)
by Adrimarie
First Interlude: The Deauxnim Curse
(Phoenix Wright)
My very first attempt at an Ace Attorney-themed fanfic. Alternate Universe (AV) fic, where many of the characters' ages and relationships (somewhat) are a bit altered just for the sake of the fic. And of course, I love majority of the characters (as in the regulars) that I couldn't afford not including them or mentioning them at all.
A bit of a warning. Despite that this is an AU fic, spoilers from all five games are heavily present in this story. Pairings? Not important in this story, plus I don't follow "fan" trends when it comes to pairings. I just go with the flow with the plot and see where it heads at, then if necessary I'll work with the pairings accordingly, and when I do create pairings I'll make sure that they do make sense and use the basis of the original storyline of the games instead of creating out of the blue pairings that make no sense at all. But please do read just for the sake of the story.
Reviews, comments, questions, suggestions, or even constructive criticism are always welcome. ^_^; MAJOR SPOILERS are indicated in this fanfic from all current five games (that includes the latest release, Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations.) Don't forget to read the Author's Notes below. Very important stuff for anyone to read before you review. ^^;
May 17 1:30 pm
Atticus Finch Junior High School
Los Angeles, California
Larry Butz and I leaped for joy once we received our test scores from the California Institute of Law and Order admissions test. I was overwhelmed with how well I did, though Larry barely passed his admissions test, but either way we were still happy that we would still get to hang out right past after junior high. He still wouldn't let me in his reasoning with why he wanted to attend The CILO when he had little or no interest in law enforcement in general. I still had this inkling feeling that he was out to party independently and try to score some girls in to his life once we start our high school years there. How he was going to survive The CILO still remained a mystery to me.
I kept gazing at the document that broke down the results I had from the admissions test. My biggest goal in life was to become a defense attorney after a childhood incident that almost got me in to trouble. If it wasn't for that old friend, who displayed such wit and charisma to the rest of the class, who knows what may have happened to me right now. Still celebrating, we had another reason why we were both happy to get in to The CILO. We both sensed reunion with our longtime friend from elementary school, Miles Edgeworth, once we get there in the next school year.
Man, that Miles Edgeworth. He was kind of quiet but his cool demeanor really got him really popular among the kids in school that Larry and I sort of got jealous. Just a bit, but no more. That kid wasn't just popular but he was also open to everyone and his organized plans to his goal really inspired a lot of kids to determine their own goals too. Like me, he wanted to be a defense attorney, just like his famous father in the public defense office, Gregory Edgeworth. Any kid of a famous lawyer also meant that kid was seriously loaded and he can have as many toys and stuff as he wanted. All the boys in our class back then wanted everything that Miles Edgeworth had. In addition, there are others who all wanted to be like Miles Edgeworth.
For Larry and I, there was only one Miles Edgeworth. No substitutes accepted. After that incident, the three of us hit our friendship off and we were just rocking our days like any kid would.
But one day, Edgeworth had to move out of town for some mysterious reason. His enthusiasm and his openness simply disappeared one day, only showing signs of sadness and worry. Larry and I tried to cheer him up, even tried to get him to talk to us even if it wasn't about his problems. The only thing he said to us was that he was going to move out of town for family reasons. Larry tried to extract his true reasoning out but I decided to just leave it at that. A week later, he was gone, but the day before he left, he did tell us one thing, which gave Larry and I a signal of sort. He said he planned on getting in to The CILO to pursue his career in law. It was because of his ambition that got Larry and I in to pursuing admission to The CILO too.
Maybe when we start attending The CILO that we would find Miles Edgeworth again. And then it would be happy times with just the three of us just like before. Maybe we can even reap some rewards on the so-called typical high school life like Larry suggested during our days at The CILO. Maybe all three of us may even graduate out of The CILO and get in to law school in order to earn our attorney badges and our Juris Doctor at the same time to get in to our own practice. I don't know what Larry's real intentions are, but I know that Edgeworth and I will be heading right at the top!
There was also another reason why I wanted to go to The CILO so bad for the remaining of my teenage educational days. In fact, I think those who were seriously passionate in pursuing a career in law enforcement would agree with me with this reasoning. I wanted to be one of the first people to uncover the real story behind a very popular urban legend regarding The CILO. There had been books, news reports, and such about this particular urban legend. For us locals here in L.A., the urban legend is known as The Deauxnim Curse.
What is The Deauxnim Curse? Well, I'll just give you the basic story behind all this. It took place some few centuries ago about a mysterious spiritual medium named Amaryllis Deauxnim who was called forth by the law authorities to summon a particular spirit in order to solve an unsolved mystery regarding a hidden treasure believed to be buried somewhere in the grounds of The CILO. Eventually she was able to channel that spirit and revealed the location of that treasure. Immediately, Amaryllis Deauxnim and two detectives from the local police department were assigned to head to The CILO to locate that buried treasure. Once they arrived at the spot they began to dig that spot. However, once they dug it up, from out of the blue the two detectives were stricken and were killed instantly. How they died remained a mystery. The spirit medium, however, was the only one spared and felt that the entire area was cursed. She attempted to escape, but when next day came, some students and faculty of The CILO found Amaryllis Deauxnim's body hanged at the front flagpole at the courtyard. It was like she was killed right before she was lynched up at the flagpole. The police were not able to determine what really happened here. Very little evidence was found regarding the causes of death and whether Amaryllis Deauxnim's death was considered a suicide or murder.
A month later, there was another body found dead at the same area the detectives died. The month after that, another body was found at the flagpole, also hanged. Both of them were either faculty member or student. And it went on and on for centuries, alternatively from that same area as the detectives' deaths and then hanged from the flagpole, even today. The interesting part was that none of these monthly deaths--- if they were really real--- were even reported on the news and such. A lot thought there was foul play involved within the closed doors of The CILO, but there were the skeptical ones who believed that there were wandering spirits, both good and evil, one of them most likely be Amaryllis Deauxnim. The superstitious pointed out that because any one of these spirits made an appearance to whoever was wandering around campus at late night and frightened them to their deaths.
I've heard a bit of these rumors and urban legends when I was a kid from Edgeworth, who also got these stories from his father. Apparently around the courthouses and throughout the LAPD and the CHP, The Deauxnim Curse was and still is a widely-known story for them. Despite of these rumors, The CILO's enrollment rate still continued to grow every year, admitting more students highly interested in law enforcement. Once I get there, I want to investigate to see if The Deauxnim Curse was seriously for real or just another rumor some idiot spread to scare people and discouraging them to attend the institution.
"Yo Nick! We should head out to our usual hangout and PAR-TAY!" I heard Larry breaking the peace of my contemplation with a huge smile on his face. "Dude, you, me, Edgey, The CILO... we're seriously set to a wonderful life forever, man!"
I raised an eyebrow of suspicion, still wondering how Larry managed to pass one of the educational system's most challenging entrance exams in the country, if not the world. Though he only missed the threshold mark by just one point, still. Maybe his addiction to those crime dramas on TV on prime time finally gave him some kind of education about law enforcement. Whether he was going to study law or join in the criminal justice system, I just hope he doesn't start stealing lines from those TV shows expecting those lines would actually intimidate anyone in real life.
"The usual hangout?" I wondered, scratching my head. "I think we should save the celebration after we graduate out of junior high, Larry. It's a lot more fun that way."
Larry suddenly clung on to my arm with that begging expression on his face. "But... but... but... the babes! They're gonna be there, dude! I overheard the Sweet Chix crew earlier at lunchtime that they're gonna stop by there! And... and it's Steel Samurai Hotdogs special too--- cheap and good, man! Come on, Nick..."
"But I got homework to do and I don't want to miss my favorite show tonight!" I continued to protest, trying to drag my arm from him.
"Your favorite show? What, the local news and CNN? You gotta have a life too, Nick! I don't want you wasting the rest of your junior high life looking like a zombie and mumbling about someone getting killed and all--- that's just horrifying, dude!" I felt Larry continuing to tug my arm to him. Unfortunately, there was no stopping Larry Butz when it comes to girls and hotdogs.
"Fine, fine... but just this once, Larry! I could use a good Steel Samurai hotdog or two..."
Larry grinned happily and abruptly dragged me out to the school gates, where those Sweet Chix clique of girls were spotted across the street from the gates. Another school day has ended, but as for me, seeing my overwhelming high scores on The CILO admissions exam was the one and only reason why I'm leaving school with a smile on my face.
Ace Attorney © CAPCOM. No copyright infringement intended.
AUTHOR NOTES:
Thanks for taking the time for you to read my first attempt at an Ace Attorney fanfic. This is an alternate universe/AU fic, obviously, with a lot of fictional (and sometimes derived from real life) concepts here. Here's just another take of how our favorite characters from the Ace Attorney series would solve a murder mystery. Anyway, notes below:
[CHARACTERS & AGES PRESENT IN THE INTERLUDE]
Phoenix Wright – 16
Larry Butz – 15
#1 - "The CILO" (pronounced "see-lo") is just a local nickname for The California Institute of Law and Order. This is a fictional name and place. (I live in California myself and I can assure you there's no such thing as this specialized criminal (and civil) justice school here)
#2 – Atticus Finch is a character from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This character is one of the more famous defense attorneys in the literary world, known to defend an African-American man accused of raping a white woman taking place in the very racist deep Southern U.S. In the early 20th Century. The actor of the movie version, Gregory Peck, became an inspiration to the CAPCOM character designing staff (?) to model Miles Edgeworth's father, Gregory Edgeworth, after him.
#3 – Juris Doctor (JD) is the highest professional degree in Law. It's an equivalent to a Ph.D., except this is exclusive for attorneys, both prosecution and defense. In the real world, all lawyers who want to be in the profession must have a Juris Doctor degree as they can only earn this from graduating law school. In the Ace Attorney world, I assumed that the attorney badge is the equivalent to a Juris Doctor. In this story, because not everyone in law school becomes a lawyer (there's also the judges too, though I also heard that one has to be a lawyer first before becoming a justice in court in real life), anyone who wants to have a profession in law must have a Juris Doctor degree, with the attorneys from all sides (prosecution, defense, counsel, etc.) earn their attorney badges.
#4 – LAPD is the acronym for the Los Angeles Police Department. Since the localization of the game did state that this takes place in Los Angeles, it'd only make sense. Wouldn't that make our beloved detectives like Gumshoe, Ema Skye, and Tyrell Bad be part of the LAPD?
#5 – CHP is the acronym for the California Highway Patrol. Not closely related, but they're still part of the state's law enforcement.