Date: August 4

Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: District Court, Hallway

Phoenix glanced at Franziska. "So, um... what do we do now?"

Without even bothering to look at him, Franziska whipped him twice across his torso. "Fool," she grumbled. It was almost like she wasn't even bothering to be upset anymore. "You're going back to the scene to investigate. You only have today to find something definitive, or that foolish defense attorney is going to show you up again."

Phoenix rubbed his chest in an effort to ease the pain. "You keep saying 'you' instead of 'we'," he said. "Does that mean you're not planning on investigating?"

Franziska huffed. "This is your case, you take care of it. I only agreed to help you at trial because I felt like it. But now I'm busy." She grinned slyly. "I am going to see a certain merchant about negotiating the price of a custom-made cat-o-nine-tails..."

Phoenix shuddered. "Um, maybe you should just buy a purse or something instead."

Franziska glared at him. "You're hiding something from me," she announced suddenly, folding her arms. "All day you have been acting strangely." She raised an eyebrow. "Though I hate to admit it, you are not usually this stupid."

Phoenix blinked. Should I tell her? She won't believe me... and then I'll probably get whipped again. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly.

Franziska glared at him. "A von Karma's knowledge of any given situation must alvays be perfect and complete," she stated firmly. "I vill find out vhat you are hiding, Miles Edgeworth!"

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. What was she gonna do, tail him everywhere with a pair of binoculars? "I'm not hiding anything," he said, adjusting the weight of the case files under his left arm. Franziska had pushed the whole stack on him after court was adjourned.

Franziska snorted. "Vhatever." She headed for the door. "I vill see you here tomorrow... at 8:30 a.m. sharp." She glanced over her shoulder. "If you are late again, I vill whip you until your skin falls off."

Phoenix watched her go and sighed. He suddenly felt really bad for Edgeworth. Looking around, he noticed that some people from the gallery were still filtering out of the courtroom. He didn't see Edgeworth and Mia anywhere... they must have already left, or gone back to one of the defendant lobbies.

He was just turning to leave when suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt something collide with his back as someone pounced on him from above and tackled him to the ground. He hit the floor face-down and simply lay there, unmoving; the shock and jarring pain from the impact were just too much this time.

He felt pressure between his shoulder blades as whoever had attacked him placed a foot on his back. "The Great Thief Yatagarasu strikes again!" his assailant shouted gleefully. Phoenix thought he recognized that voice from somewhere...

He strained to get a look, but he was firmly pinned to the floor. He wriggled around in an attempt to free himself, but the person simply sat down on his back and pinned his left arm to the ground with a foot. "Heya, Nickles," she said cheerily. "I saw the trial. You weren't half bad in there! More like three-quarters bad."

Phoenix groaned. "Kay?" He tried to lift his head. "What are you doing..?"

Kay huffed. "Sitting on you. What do you think I'm doing?"

Phoenix let his forehead rest on the floor. "But WHY?!"

Kay shifted her weight. "Do I really need a reason?" She bounced on his back. "I'm gonna help you investigate! Aren't you excited?"

Phoenix ground his teeth. "I'd be more excited if you'd let me get up."

Kay huffed. "Fine..." She stood up. "Spoil-sport... hey, why aren't you wearing that fluttery thing?"

Phoenix groaned. "It's a cravat..." He slowly pushed himself up to a standing position. If Franziska's whipping hadn't been enough to make him sore for a week, Kay definitely finished the job.

As soon as he got to his feet, Kay punched him on the shoulder. "Alright, where are we going? Are we gonna ride around in Mr. Edgeworth's wicked-sweet car?"

Phoenix winced, and rubbed his shoulder. "Just stop hurting me... please..."

Kay pouted. "Aww, you're no fun at all! I hope you have a thicker skin than that in court!"

Phoenix sighed. He wasn't going to argue with her. "Well, apparently the D'angelos live in the suburbs..." He gestured to the case files. "The address is in here somewhere. Just give me a few minutes to find it."

Kay grinned. "So, can I come with you?"

Phoenix nodded. "You know how Edgeworth does his investigating, right? I'll need your help figuring things out."

Kay pumped a fist in the air. "Yes!" She grinned. "You know, Mr. Edgeworth usually puts up more of a fight."

Phoenix sighed. I am a bit of a pushover, aren't I? He flipped open the case file on the top of the pile. Luckily, this one just so happened to be dedicated to Marie and her personal life, so it was easy to find her address. Still, there wasn't exactly a set of directions... he'd just have to hope that either Edgeworth's car or phone had a GPS.

"Alright, Kay, let's go," he said, and reached into his pocket for his keys. "This is my first time investigating as a prosecutor, so we can't afford to waste any time."

Kay nodded seriously. "It's okay, I understand." She looked at him with something like pity in her gaze. "You're kind of an idiot, aren't you, Nickles?"

Phoenix folded his arms. "Okay, we don't know each other nearly well enough for you to be doing this to me. Who's been telling you about my 'idiocy'? Edgeworth?"

Kay nodded, and smiled mischievously. "Him, Ms. Franziska, and Gummy..."

Phoenix blinked. "You mean Detective Gumshoe?" Geez, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Kay bounced on her heels. "Welp, I hope we'll be ready to go sometime this century..."

Phoenix turned towards the door. "I'd like to. The only problem is, I don't know if Edgeworth has a GPS or not..." He shrugged. "I really don't remember how to get there since the last time I investigated at the scene."

Kay snapped her fingers. "Aw, who needs a GPS when you have the Great Thief Yatagarasu?" She pulled some kind of gadget out of her pocket; it looked kind of like an over-sized laser pointer. "This is Little Thief," she proclaimed. "It can be used to recreate crime scenes and simulate the inside of a building from only the plans." She grinned. "It also gets Wi-Fi signals and has a GPS feature."

Phoenix stared at the gadget. "How convenient..." he muttered.

Kay grinned. "Little Thief is flawless! We should get there in no time!"

As they headed for the courthouse doors, Phoenix turned to Kay. "You know, there's something I keep wondering about..."

Kay raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Why does Edgeworth let you help him investigate," Phoenix questioned, "if you're a thief? He keeps telling anyone who'll listen that he hates criminals..."

Kay shrugged. "You know, I'm not sure." She grinned. "Maybe he wants to get a foothold on the Black Market! You know, because he's secretly a Mafia boss!"

Phoenix stared at her. "How the heck did you get from 'hangs out with a thief' to 'Mafia boss'?!"

Kay shrugged again. "Edgey is just way too serious for his own good. It fuels the imagination, you know?"

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. Well, there always did seem to be rumors swirling around him... maybe... He shook his head. Now was not the time to get sidetracked! He only had the rest of the day to investigate, and this time he had to find definitive proof or the Judge would ground him!

He turned and jogged towards the courthouse doors. "Just come on! There's a lot of stuff that needs to happen today!"

Kay grinned. "Alright! Time to go filch us some truth!"

Date: August 4

Time: 11:30 a.m.

Location: ?

Franziska von Karma shifted the car into 'park' and glanced over at the teen in her passenger's seat. "Vell? Just vhat in Himmel are they doing now?!"

The blonde teen shrugged as he watched, through a pair of black binoculars, as the red sports car came to a screeching halt some ways down the road. "Ich hab' keine Idee..." he said. "No clue at all. Either they're very, very lost, or they've spotted us and are leading us on a vild goose chase."

The kid was an intern at the prosecutor's office. Franziska hadn't taken the time to learn his name, but he was Deutscher, so she felt a little more comfortable with him than most of the other prosecutors. They spoke the same language, after all. So, since he was an intern and had to do everything she told him to, she'd told him to help her tail the uncharacteristically foolish Miles Edgeworth.

Franziska sighed. "Give me those." The intern nodded. "Jawohl, baby," he said, and handed her the binoculars. She groaned and inspected the red sports car. Maybe the intern was more foolish than she thought.

Miles Edgeworth had been driving atrociously; it was almost bad enough to make her wonder if he was under the influence. There was a familiar girl in the car with him (Franziska had forgotten her name), and she was constantly waving some kind of stick-shaped machine around. The car had circled through this development nearly five times before stopping by the side of the road here in the suburbs; apparently, they were trying to get to the crime scene. Still, they were about three streets off.

Franziska adjusted the binoculars, and the car came into focus. Miles Edgeworth was very animated, shouting and gesturing wildly at the girl next to him. He was clearly upset, no doubt because they were hopelessly lost. Still, Franziska had never seen him act this way in public... or in private, for that matter. It was almost like he was an entirely different person.

For her part, the girl appeared to be shouting back at him just as furiously. Still, for some reason, Franziska wasn't sensing any real animosity from either of them. She frowned and handed the binoculars back to the intern. "You keep vatching them," she instructed, and shifted the car into 'drive'. "I vill try to get us close enough to hear vhat they're saying."

The intern gave her a thumbs-up, and Franziska lifted her foot off the brake, letting the car slowly coast down the street. Once they were within hearing range, she stopped the car and turned it off.

Franziska could see the girl huff indignantly. "...can't blame Little Thief," she said. "You must have plugged in the wrong address!"

Miles Edgeworth smacked the steering wheel. "I already told you, there's no way I got it wrong!" he yelled angrily. "I tried it five different times! It has to be right!"

The girl folded her arms. "Well maybe it was just wrong all five times!"

Miles Edgeworth groaned and held his head in his hands with his elbows on the steering wheel, causing the horn to go off. Franziska raised an eyebrow. Something was definitely wrong with him... but what?

The girl rolled her eyes. "Great. What are we gonna do now?" She put her feet up on the dash. "We don't have much time, Nickles!"

Franziska blinked. Nickles? What was that? Did this mean that... that wasn't really Miles Edgeworth?! But it looked and sounded exactly like him... She gasped. Could that person be an impostor?!

Suddenly, the occupants of the red car went silent. Franziska felt a hand on her shoulder as the intern pushed her down behind the dash. She was about to protest when he held a finger to his lips. "Nein!" he hissed. "Sie haben uns gesehen!" The intern motioned for her to stay down, then grinned and sauntered over to the red sports car.

Franziska was silent. She heard the intern call out, "Achtung, baby! Are you and the Fräulein lost?" After that, the conversation became a little quieter, and she couldn't make out what they were talking about. She could only hear some of what the intern was saying; he appeared to be giving them directions.

After a couple of minutes, she heard the red car roar to life. The intern called out "Tschüss!", and the sound of the sports car gradually faded away as it drove down the road.

Franziska sat up and smoothed her sleeves. The intern sauntered back over to the car; the red sports car was nowhere to be seen. Franziska turned to the intern. "Vhat did you tell them?" she asked.

The intern shrugged. "Ach, you know... I just pretended I vas a concerned citizen and told Herr Bangs how to get to the crime scene." He grinned. "That Fräulein vas really something, don't you think?"

Franziska pulled her whip out of the glove box and gave him a good lashing. "Foolish fool!" she grumbled. "You're here for surveillance, not to pick up chicks!"

The intern squealed. "J- JAWOHL! Tut mir leid!"

Franziska huffed. Foolish fools and their foolish tom-foolery... I will find out what is going on, one way or another!

She revved the car's engine. "Ve're going to the crime scene!" she yelled at the intern. As she sped down the road, she narrowed her eyes. You can't hide from Franziska von Karma, whoever you are!

Date: August 4

Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: District Court, Defendant Lobby No. 1

Edgeworth closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief. The terrible courtroom ordeal was over... at least for today. Now he'd have to go back to the crime scene and investigate more thoroughly, this time looking for anything that might help Marie D'angelo's case.

Mia sat down at the table and smiled wryly at him. "Well, I guess that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," she quipped, resting her elbows on the table. "That's not to say it wasn't bad, though..." She glanced at him. "Face it, that was pretty bad."

Edgeworth groaned and turned away from her. "I never said I was going to actually try," he grumbled. "I do not understand why you can't just accept that." He glared angrily at the wall. "What does this one client matter to you, anyway? You're not even alive. Why can't you see that I have bigger problems right now?" He closed his eyes. "Besides, I thought I told you not to lean forward like that... It makes me feel uncomfortable."

"What are you talking about, Mr. Wright-werth?"

Edgeworth turned around. "GAAH!" Standing right in front of him was not Mia, but Pearls. The little girl had a quizzical expression on her face.

Edgeworth had to take a deep breath to calm himself down. "W- Why can't you ever tell me when you're channeling?!" he shouted. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Pearls gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Wright-werth!" She fidgeted sadly. "I don't have any control over when Mystic Mia decides to leave... I can only call her."

Edgeworth suddenly felt guilty for yelling. He sighed. "Forgive me... I was just surprised."

Pearls looked up at him. "So, how did the trial go?" She smiled. "Did you beat Mr. Nickles?"

Edgeworth grimaced. "Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as that. The Judge has ordered us to find more decisive evidence for tomorrow, so the trial has been extended another day."

Pearls grinned. "So does that mean that we're going to go investigate?"

Edgeworth nodded. "There's quite a bit more that I want to find out about this case," he said, holding up Wright's flimsy case file. Truthfully, there were several pieces of evidence that bothered him... like the severed finger, and the other ring that Wright found at the scene.

Pearls looked up at him expectantly. Edgeworth smiled slightly. She is SO much nicer than Mia... "Well, I suppose we should get going," he said. "Do you think there are subway lines that run all the way out to the suburbs?"

Pearls giggled and shook her head. "You really don't know what to do without your car, do you, Mr. Wright-werth?"

Edgeworth sighed. Please stop reminding me... "We'll get there somehow," he said, and guided Pearls towards the door.

Date: August 4

Time: 11:23 a.m.

Location: 6 Briar Avenue, D'angelo Residence

After an experience with the public transportation system that could only be described as an 'adventure,' Edgeworth finally led Pearls down the street towards the D'angelos' house; the scene of the crime. The house itself was rather unremarkable, with two stories, white siding, and cherry red shutters. The only thing that stood out about the place was a beautiful bay window next to the door... and, of course, the maze of yellow police tape. There seemed to be much more than was necessary, in places where it was not necessary. Like on the mailbox or the hydrangeas, for example.

Edgeworth sighed. He was already dreading plunging through that jungle; whoever put up all that tape deserved at least one good pay cut.

Pearls held tightly onto his hand. "Is this where the murder happened?" she asked. She looked a little scared, but not much. Edgeworth wondered if it was a good thing that she seemed kind of used to this.

He nodded. "Yes," he said. "The crime scene itself is in the backyard." Still holding onto Pearls, he pushed aside the police tape separating the front yard from the back.

Upon reaching the backyard, he spotted a female officer about to cover a birdbath in police tape. Edgeworth sighed. She seemed to be the only one not terribly occupied, so he approached her. "Excuse me, Officer...?"

The woman turned towards him, startled. "Oh, um, I'm Hammer," she said, and saluted. "Officer Hammer."

Edgeworth coughed. "Ah, hello there, Officer Hammer." He gave a little bow. "My name is Mi- er, Phoenix Wright. I'm the defense attorney representing Marie D'angelo."

Hammer nodded. "Yeah, I saw you here a couple of days ago. We're pretty much finishing up here, so you can investigate as much as you want." She bent down to address Pearls. "Are you Mr. Wright's assistant?" she asked sweetly.

Pearls nodded happily. "I'm going to help him investigate!"

Officer Hammer smiled. "You're awfully brave," she said. "I hope you have fun, okay?"

Pearls bounced happily. "Yes, ma'am!"

Edgeworth cleared his throat. "Ah, would you mind showing me where the body was found, Officer?"

Hammer stood up and nodded. "It's right over there by that big pine," she said, gesturing over her shoulder. "Just be careful not to touch anything without bagging it first."

Edgeworth almost chuckled. Since when did Phoenix Wright ever follow correct evidence procedure? He turned to Hammer. "Thank you for your help," he said.

Hammer nodded, smiled at Pearls, and returned promptly to her taping. Edgeworth sighed. That poor, irrelevant birdbath had no idea what it was in for...

He led Pearls towards the aforementioned pine tree. The body itself was no longer there, of course; all that remained now of Kyle D'angelo was a sloppy outline made of white rope, lying at the bottom of a two-foot grave. Thanks to police investigating, the pile of dirt around the grave itself had been trampled, spread-out, and scattered all over the place. Not that he would have been able to get anything particularly useful out of it, but still... Edgeworth always prefered an untouched crime scene. Hordes of policemen seemed to have a talent for destroying valuable clues.

He let go of Pearls' hand and squatted to inspect the grave. There was a shallow indentation next to the rope where the knife blade had been found. Surprisingly, there wasn't much blood in the grave itself; Kyle D'angelo had actually been stabbed about four feet to the left in the grass.

Edgeworth sighed and stood up. Just as he'd suspected... there was nothing here. The police had already picked apart anything that might have been considered important, and Wright had left him with the most useless "evidence" in the entire history of useless. How on earth was he supposed to find anything definitive here?

Edgeworth started to head towards the house itself. He was about three steps away from the backdoor when he realized that he didn't know where Pearls was. Slightly worried, he ran back towards the big pine tree, but the little girl was nowhere in sight. He started to get a sort of sinking feeling in his stomach... she seemed able to take care of herself despite her age, but... "Pearls!" he called out, scanning the yard. "Pearls, where are you?!"

Suddenly, he heard a rustling noise from behind him. "Mr. Wright-werth!"

Edgeworth jumped. "Pearls?" He spun around, but all he could see was a wall of needles; the edge of the backyard was lined with a veritable forest of pine trees.

Something rustled. "I'm back here, in the trees!" Pearls called out. "I think I found something important!"

Edgeworth let out a small sigh of relief. "Can you come out here and show me what you found?"

Pearls paused. "Well, Officer Hammer said not to touch anything..."

Edgeworth grimaced, and pulled on a pair of gloves. "Alright, I'll come find you," he said. "Are you back very far?"

"I think I'm close to the neighbor's house," Pearls called out. "It's actually not so thick back here; you just need to get past the big branches."

Edgeworth brushed aside a branch and ducked under the pines. Inside the trees, the needles formed a solid wall of green and brown; he could see a small clearing in the branches that ran towards the neighboring yard like a tunnel of sorts. That was probably where Pearls had crawled through... but it couldn't be more than a few feet high. Edgeworth frowned. I guess there's nothing for it... he thought, and got down on his hands and knees.

Crawling through the tunnel of branches, he felt his face become sticky with sap every time a clump of needles so much as touched him. He groaned. This had better be some GOOD evidence...

After a short time, he spotted two loops of brown hair bobbing about between the needles. He pushed aside a large branch, and there sat Pearls, happily humming something to herself. She perked up instantly as soon as she saw him. "Mr. Wright-werth, look!" she exclaimed. "I think these are really important!"

At first, Edgeworth couldn't quite see what she was pointing at in the shade of the needles. However, a closer look revealed the objects to be boots... two matching black rain-boots. Edgeworth reached out and picked them up; the soles had a strange flowery texture to them. He checked the bottoms for a size, and found that they were women's, size six and a half. He raised an eyebrow; Marie D'angelo's hiking boots had been a size eight.

Suddenly, he caught sight of something on the tips of the boots. Some kind of stain... in the dim light, it was hard to tell what it was. Edgeworth studied the stains carefully... they looked almost like... He gasped. "Eureka!"

Pearls chewed on a fingernail. "It's what I think it is, isn't it?"

Edgeworth nodded. "These are definitely blood stains... and pretty substantial ones, at that." He inspected the boots one more time, and smiled slightly. "Thank you, Pearls," he said, and tapped his forehead. "I think you've just found our decisive evidence."

Author's Note: Everybody's out investigating! Well, except maybe Nickles, 'cuz he's late again.

Just in case anyone is confused, the first two segments follow each other chronologically, and the Wrightworth part jumps back through time to right after the trial.

For some reason, I really enjoyed writing the Franzy-investigation. :)

Little Thief does everything. Seriously. It's like a smart phone... plus it might have a Swiss-Army-Knife function... and it turns into an umbrella...

Franslator (or Intern-slator in this case, I suppose):

Ich hab' keine Idee = I have no idea

Sie haben uns gesehen = They saw us

Tut mir leid = Sorry

Tschüss = See ya

Himmel = Heaven

Deutscher = German