Chapter 2: Mistrial

April 19th, District Court No 7, Defendant Lobby No 2, 9:25 AM

Phoenix Wright kept calling. It was desperate, as the phone was never answered but he knew he could never give up. It wasn't in his nature to do so, regardless of how stubborn it seemed.

"Come on answer already!" Phoenix commanded his phone. "Why are you still ignoring me?" But the phone gave him only the same brief monotone dinging beep on repeat, as it had for most of the last night. Phoenix was pained as he knew he had to silence the phone as he entered the courthouse, especially right now. Not only was he about to be defending in the case to come shortly, but he was still relatively clueless about what exactly had happened.

"All we did yesterday… was play cards!" Phoenix said to his client, Zak Engimar. Engimar just laughed. "And that's all you need." Came the rather relaxed man's reply.

No! It really wasn't!

Phoenix had been in this defendant's lobby several times in his career. It had been here where he'd faced some of his darkest moments, having to drag out a guilty man's trial too save Maya despite knowing the truth. It had also been here he'd seen his greatest vistories, saving his childhood friend from an unjust death. And yet in none of those moments did he feel as duly unprepared as he did right now.

Sitting there reading case files for what seemed to be a pitch perfect case, finally got to him. The frustrations within Phoenix were finally beginning to pile up. His situation with Maya where she literally ran away and avoided him, this case were destroying his patience. Mr. Engimar's previous attorney (Some guy named Christopher I think) had literally dropped off the case files at the last possible seconds.

At his office.

At seven that morning.

So not only was Phoenix stressed out about his friends, but now he had to learn a case on the fly. All this was too much and he was about to get angry at Mr. Engimar. No longer was he just politely sitting down with him on the defendant lobby's ugly piss-like futons, but he was standing up face to face with the man, nearly about to chew him out.

"Mr. Engimar! Why can't you just give me a little bit of inf-!" Phoenix had begun when suddenly the entire room's attention turned to the far right corner of the room.

"You little brat!" A strange man had yelled towards a little girl who was talking to him. The girl was Mr. Engimar's daughter, Trucy. In her hand was a ripped halve of a piece of paper, the other part of which was in the strange man's hand. The man was instantly familiar to almost everyone in the room. Mr. Engimar didn't think about the man's identity as he ran instinctually to subdue the man, tackling him to the ground. Only then did he recognize who the man was.

"Mr. Gavin!" Came the surprised reply. Phoenix right behind him, also knew quickly who he was, although more as the man who dropped his case files off earlier that day and little more. Usually known as one of the most composed men around law, he was just profusely sweating as he was being held down.

"Mr. Engimar," Came the calmest reply he could conjure, although still greatly shaky compared to his reputation. "I was just, just…"

"Planting your trap?" came a voice from the doorway. There stood a young man with a striking resemblance to Mr. Gavin, with a detective by his side. "Kristoph, you have created my worst nightmare out of thin air. I just hoped maybe you weren't behind this, but…"

"Klavier Gavin?" Phoenix said out of the blue. "Aren't you prosecuting today?"

"Well, I was indeed to be your opponent Herr Wright." Klavier said. "The night before my brother, Kristoph here, called me and said you had created forged evidence. However, he went completely mum when I asked how he knew, so I ordered a surveillance."

So he was going to plant me with faked evidence!? Man, talk about escaping unscathed… But why?

"Was?" Came Phoenix's reply. Klavier merely nodded.

"Yes. These circumstances have forced the trial to be cancelled, or officially a mistrial." Klavier stated. "Your client is free to go… for now." Klavier came off as a little glum about the cancellation, but he changed his attention toward Kristoph after his statement.

"Kristoph, how could you betray your standards like this?" He told his brother, still shaken although now free to stand. "You were the one who taught me to win with the evidence you are given and nothing more. Where is that man today?"

Kristoph spat back at his brother, hitting straight down the middle of his nose. "That man never existed. I just never had a great need for created evidence. But this was different brother!" Kristoph pleaded, but sounded unsympathetic with a control to his voice that came off as robotic. Klavier merely shook his head in response.

"Goodbye brother." And Klavier walked back out the door as the detective handcuffed Kristoph and escorted him out of the courtroom. It turned out to be Detective Gumshoe, the daily detective Phoenix encountered throughout his cases.

"Hey pal, we'll need a statement since you were a witness." Gumshoe asked. "I'll need you to come down to the station…"

By the time Phoenix entered his office, it was already half past two. The police station was jammed packed, so giving a statement was far more difficult than it had sounded. It had been a long and exhausting day and despite having been a witness, he was still not entirely sure what had happened. He'd won in the trial in the sense of Mr. Engimar being set free, but he hadn't actually done anything. So Phoenix did what he normally did when everyone and everything failed him in a sort: He pulled out the notebook he hid in the smallest file cabinet drawer and began to write.

April 19th entry

Today something odd happened: Another lawyer was arrested for forged evidence that was for my case. Very strange, but now he's lost his badge likely. The most peculiar thing was he was caught trying to give it to… well to me. Not directly but through another person.

He stopped there, not sure what else to add. Everything was still so much of a mystery. Phoenix read it back to himself as if to gleam some new knowledge out of it. He gained nothing however and threw it back into its secret spot. He'd always thought it a miracle that Maya had never found it considering her snooping ways. Now he just sat down and pulled out his phone.

NO NEW NOTIFICATIONS

Uggh, why won't you answer me? Call me back? Please Maya! PLEASE! Slamming his hand into the mirror as he thought to himself, breaking it in the process. The shards all ended up on the floor. He just sighed down at the ground.

Guess that doesn't help my luck…

XXX

Meanwhile In Kurain Village…

Being master was just as hard as Maya Fey had feared it would be. Although peace existed between the main families following the Hazakurain incident if for no other reason than sympathetic unity, the day to day operations of the village were greatly time consuming. Maya was responsible primarily for overseeing the teaching and efficiency of the teaching of the Kurain technique, if at least in theory. In truth, the village lagged significantly in modernization and as a result, things moved quite slowly. Not only was the latest computer a Windows XP, but it was running on a wired connection meaning the speed was significantly weakened. It didn't help that the only working landline was a payphone just outside the train station a full mile away. Maya already implemented plans to bring in more recent equipment, but it wouldn't be until May that they'd be in, so for the time being the village ran at a dial up pace it seemed to Maya.

At this moment, Maya was pouring over village documents when the phone rang for the umpteenth time, Maya had counted. It was a text, from Nick. She moaned, having been up since six and he'd been texting on and off since seven.

Can't he give it a break? Opening it up, she was confronted with the words "Call me :(" Maya was simultaneously revolted and amused by the smiley at the end of the message. It was more genuine then words could explain but at the same time it seemed so childish.

Really Nick? She just put the phone back down with no reply. Not even a minute passed when a new reply buzzed in. "I almost got fired. This is important." Maya visibly gasped as she read the message. It was much louder than she expected as an older lady walked into the room to check on her.

"Mystic Ma- I mean Master Maya, are you alright?" She asked.

Maya wiped her forehead before responding. "Yes Mystic Allison. I just hurt my back a little on the chair, it's quite uncomfortable after a long time."

Although Maya was fidgeting with her hair nervously, Allison either didn't catch on or chose to say nothing and simply walked out of the room without a word. Maya then decided she had to break her silence and figure out what had happened today with Nick. She wasn't ready after just one day, but whatever was going on was clearly disturbing her, so she wasted no time in calling. He answered after three rings.

"Maya!" was the greeting of a gleeful Phoenix. "Thank goodness you called finally."

"Master Maya." Was her stiff reply. "Master Maya now, Nick."

"S-Sorry." Now sounding much glummer. "You haven't really used that much around me, so it slipped a little." Now she just felt bad as she knew this was the truth. "For the future."

"Why did you have to leave yesterday?" Phoenix sprung upon her without wasting time. "I just don't kno-"But he didn't get to finish before she interrupted him. "No, you can't say you almost lost your job today and ask about my issues! Gotta tell me what's going on with you."

Phoenix, sitting on the couch in his room, privately thought she was being much more forceful than usual. She's rarely this direct and critical. Something about it is kind of att- Phoenix killed that thought instantly, but didn't realize how badly he'd left her hanging.

"Nick!"

"Sorry. Anyhow there was another lawyer arrested today. He had evidence related to the case I was involved in today. I think he was trying to give it to me." Phoenix began. "We're pretty sure it was forged though."

Suddenly Maya lost all her irritation at that moment, now she just had regret. "Wow, so if he had given it to you and you were caught… that would have been awful. But how would they have known?"

"Prosecutor was his brother, he was feeding him." Phoenix said. "He just happened to catch on."

"Wow, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you." She said. Phoenix saw this as his opening. "Yeah, why did you leave?"

Mr. Edgeworth is right, you are stubborn Nick. "Official business Nick." She said. "Can't really talk about it right now."

Nick pouted on the other end. I know it's not that important, but fine. "When will you be back?" He asked.

"May." She said. "New phones come in May so communications will be easier with the village. I'll be back then. Ok?"

Nick was quiet for a moment. "Fine. But don't just ignore me. I don't like it. I'm getting too old to be alone." He sounded much more upbeat then his words were giving away. Maya just played along and laughed. "Alright Nick, I won't. Bye." She forced herself to hang up the phone. Her tone of voice couldn't show the tears in her eyes.

He's not ready to know yet. She reminded herself. I have to make sure it's not just a phase of mine.

A/N: Sorry for complete negligence of writing lately, work has been a pain this past week and a half. This is a lot shorter than my original hopes were, but doing my best to keep the story up to date and alive. Let me know how I'm doing, romance arcs aren't normally what I write so it's new territory for me. Thanks to everyone!