Trial on Fire
Chapter 1: Sudden Turn
by Izumi Ishtar alias izzu
o
o
Mitsurugi heaved a long sigh as he took an overall look around the office alias crime scene.
Damn, this going to get messy pretty soon, he thought to himself as he glanced on the folders left on the desk. Probably those were the very thing that Naruhodou had been meaning to bring home before being interrupted by this unknown assailant. His ears caught the sound of someone approaching as he recognized the presence.
"Prosecutor Mitsurugi, I'm here already. Is there anything I can help?"
Mitsurugi turned towards the man as Detective Itonokogiri flashed him a smug smile. He shrugged.
"You do seemed to like barging into cases that suits your fancy, don't you?"
The man grinned.
"I overheard that you were around and I also heard about this case on the wire. There's no way that I would not get my hands on this. I don't want some other no-name detectives messing with this case and let the culprit free! So is it true then? Is Naruhodou—"
"Naruhodou should be alright... now that help have arrived. Did you hear anything from Akane?"
Detective Itonoko gave him a puzzled look before letting out a sigh.
"She's on her way. She's a bit preoccupied for tomorrow's trial. Do you need me to ask her to come here faster?"
Mitsurugi shook his head.
"No. Tell her to concentrate on tomorrow's case. Send me all the information regarding the case to me by tomorrow. You, help me on this investigation. Have your men ask around to see if there's anything else that might shed light into this case."
Detective Itonoko frowned.
"Is there something bothering you, sir?"
"Everything that's happening right now is bothering me, Itonoko-san. I suspect that this attack was not so coincidental nor was this just a random attack. I had a suspicion that this has something to do with the new case Naruhodou was handling..."
"Naruhodou-san's case?"
Mitsurugi gave him a look-down as the detective recoiled.
"Naruhodou was the defense attorney for tomorrow's case. We happened to talk about it a few days ago, considering that this would be the first case that he would be handling since he reacquired his bar. I never expected that this could happen to him just the night before the trial started."
"Before that... erm, Mitsurugi-san. How did you happen to come here so fast—?"
He snorted.
"Itonoko-san, don't ask stupid questions. Naruhodou called me right after he's been shot. Now go do your work! I need to make some calls." he said sternly as he walked out of the room to get some air.
"Ah... right!" exclaimed the detective as he hastily looked around among the scattered objects to look for clues. As he gathered the bloodied phone and some shattered remains, he looked over towards the prosecutor as the man started grumbling aloud.
xxx
October 24, 9.45 AM, Defendant Lobby 2. Trial Day One.
"Sorry sir... today's trial have been postponed till half an hour later." said the bailiff as Odoroki and Minuki arrived. Both of them excused themselves as they waited at the waiting area.
"Ahh! So many things to do..." Odoroki groaned aloud as he flipped back on the folders that he had been holding.
"—where is Naruhodou-san? Why did I have to get suddenly shoved into this task—I've just finished a case trial a few days ago and now I had to run another one in the same week! What troublesome luck—"
"Chin up, Odoroki-san! Papa also used to get these kinds of days... think of it as practice!"
Odoroki leered towards the girl.
"Minuki-chan, the one shoving this case on me was your father. This case was supposed to be handled by him, you know?"
"Ah, well..."
"Hmmm... I hadn't expected to see you guys today. Hello there little missy... hi there, Odeko-kun!"
Odoroki gritted his teeth at the sound of that voice as he turned around to greet the said person. The man was smiling as he sauntered towards them.
Garyuu Kyouya. Prosecutor-at-law and former lead singer of the rock band group, Garyuu Wave and the only one person who would still call him names just to jeer at his big forehead. Due to an incident almost a year ago, the group have been disbanded due to the involvement of one of its member in a smuggling and murder case. How he despised seeing his face. Regardless of what had happened between them, the fact that Garyuu still maintained this little habit of his made him feel very annoyed every time the man opened his mouth.
Odoroki glanced at him blankly as he greeted him casually.
"Err... good morning to you too, Prosecutor Garyuu. Fancy meeting you so early here in the morning. Are you the prosecutor for today's case, I—"
The young man flashed a smile towards Minuki before frowning back at him.
"Nope. I mean... I was supposed to be prosecuting for this case but now I am not. I've been removed from handling this case so there would be another prosecutor to replace me. I just came here to watch you guys, though I was expecting to see you mentor instead."
Both Minuki and Odoroki gave a loud cry as they heard this revelation.
"Removed? W-why? And... Papa cannot come today—" said Minuki hesitantly as Garyuu shrugged.
"—did something happen? Have you done something bad or—" Odoroki started to say as Kyouya cut him off.
"No... no, of course not! Who did you think I am? And what about you two? I thought the defense this time would be that mentor of yours. Why did you took over the case instead? Where's Naruhodou-san?"
Odoroki frowned as he scratched the back of his head.
"I... I don't know. I've received a call last night saying that I should take over the case and read up on everything for today's defense. It was so sudden but the tone of Mitsurugi-san's voice had been urgent so I didn't have time to refuse. And Naruhodou-san did not return home last night so we had no clue on what was going on. He also forbids us to go to the office and just head straight to the courthouse right away. Do you... know anything about this?"
Now the frown returned to Prosecutor Garyuu's forehead as he pondered over this explanation.
"Weird... he said that to you? That doesn't make any sense! But then again... the one who ordered my removal was Chief Prosecutor Mitsurugi as well!" he exclaimed in return.
Odoroki gave a cry.
"Huh? That's... strange—today's trial had been postponed as well but why—? All of this can't be a coincidental!"
"Everything would be explained later. For now, you have to do your job in place of Naruhodou. Reiji will take over for the rest on this case's proceedings but for now, I'll be standing as the prosecutor today."
The three of them jumped as they turned around towards this new voice. Minuki gave a cry of delight as she recognized the person.
"Karuma-san!" cried the girl as Karuma Mei smiled bitterly towards her.
"Karuma-san? Why—why are you handling this case? Do you know what happened to Naruhodou-san? What—"
The young woman placed a hand on Minuki's shoulder as she turned towards Odoroki.
"I'll explain in detail later, Odoroki-kun. But for now, we have to settle today's proceeding first. This case is not as simple as it seemed. And Prosecutor Garyuu, I apologize for this sudden arrangement. But Reiji wanted to handle this case himself to make sure that the case will not end prematurely."
"Is there something wrong, Prosecutor Karuma?" asked Kyouya as Karuma turned towards Minuki.
"I'm not sure yet about this... but Minuki, I hope you'd be calm about this. Both of you as well, especially Odoroki-kun; since you're the one who's going to be defending. I hope what I'm telling you right now will not affect how you would handle this case."
The three of them went quiet as Karuma Mei explained.
"Last night, Naruhodou had been shot." she said as Minuki gave a cry, "—Reiji had another team investigating this incident but we had a suspicion that this was related to the case you're handling. We suspected that culprit doesn't want Naruhodou to handle this case."
"Mei-san! Papa... is Papa all right?" cried Minuki as she started to get teary. Karuma turned towards her to give her comfort.
"Calm down, Minuki. Your father is now in Intensive Care at the moment but he's fine. I'll take you to see him after this. Don't worry too much right now... for sure Naruhodou would—"
"But why? Does it mean that my client was innocent after all? Then why—"
Karuma Mei straightened up as she faced the young man.
"We can't say that for sure. Perhaps your client is indeed innocent but we still had no proof of anyone else who could be the real murderer. So that was your job today. If you could prove that there is a reasonable doubt concerning this case and convince the judge to prolong this case, we may be able to investigate deeper into this case and solve it. I'm sure by then Reiji would be able to gather enough evidence to connect these two cases together by tomorrow—"
"But I don't get it. Why attack Naruhodou-san? This case itself was still too vague. There are too much unexplained details and holes in this case. That was why the defendant had been detained. Even if he could bluff his way like he often did anyway, there's no guarantee—"
Karuma Mei cocked her head towards Garyuu as she flashed him a smug smile.
"You've forgotten something, Prosecutor Garyuu. Naruhodou-san... was not just any lawyer. Even if half the time in court he had been grasping for his case, most of his instincts were almost right on track. That's probably what our unknown assailant's worry most. He feared that Naruhodou would stumble into the truth while investigating this case."
"B-but... I'm not like Naruhodou-san, I—"
Prosecutor Karuma glanced back towards Odoroki.
"You can do it. If your skills are as good as I've heard from the rumours, you'd be fine. And we'll talk later. The proceeding's starting!" she said again as she stormed out of the room.
Odoroki bit his lips as Minuki grasped his arm tightly. He turned to glance at her.
"Don't worry... Odoroki-san. You should do well. I trust in your ability." said the girl as he frowned. He almost forgot that the one person who would be more distraught over this case more than himself, would be Minuki. It was her adopted father after all who have been shot.
Odoroki nodded weakly.
"Yeah, my bad. Let's get inside... we need to get the case going!"
xxx
October 24, 10.30 AM, District Court
The atmosphere in the courtroom was as intense as usual. It had just been a few days ago since he had finished resolving a case, he had not expected to be getting another one shortly after that. Not to mention after hearing what Prosecutor Karuma had just told them earlier, Odoroki felt as if today's case going to be another troublesome one.
He looked around among the audience to see Garyuu Kyouya sitting inconspicuously on the defense side. Apparently, during the short time after they have parted, the man had donned some sort of disguise so that his fans would not be able to recognize him. Although the disguise was not all that great, he wondered why such a weak attempt could still fool the lot of his fans that came for today's case. Odoroki also could not help noticing that most of the fangirls that had come to the trial were now subdued due to the lack of presence of the famed rock-star prosecutor, or so it seemed. Such occurrence was rare in his experience as a lawyer to date and Odoroki found it hard to get used to this.
The courtroom quieted down immediately as the judge entered and assumed his post. After the formal announcement for the court to proceed, the judge calmly slammed his gavel down before speaking.
"The court is now in session for the trial of Ms. Itou Kaoru."
"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor." said Prosecutor Karuma briefly.
"The defense is ready, Your Honor." said Odoroki as well.
The judge gave out a surprised cry.
"Eh, I was not informed of this change! Wasn't this case supposed to be handled by attorney-at-law, Naruhodou Ryuichi and Prosecutor Garyuu—?"
SNAP!
Odoroki gave a start a he watch the judge get whipped by the female prosecutor.
"It's foolish to be answering a foolish question at the start of the day. There's been an accident befalling Naruhodou-san prior to today. In light of this new development, the District Prosecutor's Office decided that this incident needed to be handled more carefully thus the reason for Prosecutor Garyuu's replacement. Starting from tomorrow, this case would be handled by the current Chief Prosecutor, Prosecutor Mitsurugi Reiji."
The judge blinked.
"B-but... right now the one standing at the prosecutor's bench was you, Prosecutor Kar—!"
Another whiplash hit the judge as Prosecutor Karuma appeared agitated.
"I'm standing in for Prosecutor Mitsurugi today. He could not attend to today's proceeding as he had another investigation underway. Was that explanation enough for you, Your Honor?"
The judge blinked again before replying, "A-ah, very well. Miss Karuma, please give the court your opening statement."
"Thank you, Your Honor." said Karuma Mei promptly and she took out a file from her folders.
"The defendant, Ms. Itou Kaoru, was the only person at the scene of the crime when the eyewitnesses found them and called the police. There weren't any evidence of any other suspect aside from the defendant thus the prosecution can safely assume that defendant was indeed the murderer. Therefore, the prosecution sees no reason to doubt the facts of this case, Your Honor."
"I see. Thank you, Miss Karuma. Let's begin then, you may call your first witness."
Miss Karuma made a slight bow.
"The prosecution calls the chief investigator at the scene, Detective Houdzuki." said Karuma Mei as the crowd around him started to settle down into a whisper.
Within a few minutes, Detective Houdzuki Akane entered the courtroom and stood before the witness stand. Seeing the detective appearing calm and not grumpy was quite new to Odoroki; having to always be at the mercy of her moodiness. But then again Prosecutor Garyuu was not prosecuting on this case thus her having been in a better mood was of no surprise. After all, with the lack of the rock-star prosecutor; the ruckus coming from the rabid fangirls would also be nonexistent.
Anyhow, Odoroki's musing stopped abruptly as Prosecutor Karuma began her questioning.
xxx
"Witness, please state your name and profession to the court."
Miss Akane smiled as she nodded towards the prosecutor. Odoroki stared at her in wonder. The detective was definitely in a very pleasant mood!
"Yes, of course. My name is Houdzuki Akane, I'm the one in charge for the homicide investigation for this case." said the detective briefly.
"Detective Houdzuki, you may describe the details of your findings to the court regarding the murder."
"Very well, let me use this floor plan to explain. The victim had been found here at the centre hall of her mansion—" she said as she pointed on the display panel. "The victim had been shot once to the chest and hit the heart squarely. That was the main cause of death. We could not find the gun that could be the murder weapon but we also found a kitchen knife covered with the victim's blood nearby. We've also found that the victim also sustained several cut marks in her left arm and right shoulder. This is consistent with the evidence that we've obtained."
The judge nodded. "The court accepts this kitchen knife into evidence."
Prosecutor Karuma continued her questioning.
"You've also apprehended the defendant, Itou Kaoru on site. Can you explain to the court on why did you make the arrest?" she asked again as Akane replied.
"We've found decisive evidence that could connect the defendant to this murder. There is no doubt about it, the defendant is the killer."
His heart sank as Odoroki listened attentively to the testimony. This case was definitely going to be like those numerous case that he had handled in the past. No doubt about it. This was going to be another bumpy ride for him, that's for sure. This case was perhaps the first case so far that he had taken where he had nothing else to go by aside from the files he had acquired from Naruhodou. Suddenly he thought about the last case Naruhodou-san had taken before he had been falsely accused of forgery and disbarred, just because he had been careless about one piece of paper. Would the same thing happen to him?
Ah, as the thought passed his mind the knot inside his stomach started to tighten. He should remind himself to not be careless. Yes, he should do that.
Silently, Odoroki prayed.
He prayed that nothing bad would happen today. Hopefully, nothing will.