Sometimes, when I was alone, I would close my eyes, and all I could hear was the air conditioner rumbling through the walls. But it was more than in the walls, it was in my head, and my skull vibrated with it. And my ears were filled with the buh da buh da buh da of it, like a heartbeat. Or a wind tunnel. Yeah, a wind tunnel.

This was what I thought of when Yuka asked me how I was doing, but at least I knew when I was thinking crazy. So, I eyed my friend and partner intensely from the desk in my home office and decided on a firm "Alright."

"You didn't come to the office after the pre-trial yesterday," Yuka continued, gliding to the bookshelf and running her fingers along the spines.

"Sorry. I was tired and came straight home." My head lulled with the ceiling fan watching over us to keep myself awake. Sure, I was tired, but that didn't mean I got any sleep.

"So, how's the jury looking?"

"Could be worse. Could be better. It seems there aren't any hermits or coma patients in recent recession because they all seemed to have seen a great deal of press coverage."

"Tomorrow's the big day. You think you can persuade them?" Yuka plopped down in a loveseat and refused to arc her worried eyes my direction. It was times like these when the air conditioner came on.

"Yes, I think I can," I replied as confidently as I could muster, "because I have to."

"That's the Mayu I know… sort of. You know I'll sign on as your legal aid if you need any help. I'm totally free."

"What about that other murder case?"

"Dropped at prelim."

"Ah, that's good. You've always been good at this."

"You've always been better." Before I could object, she went on, "Now, I know you haven't forgotten about tonight."

"Tonight, tonight," I repeated. My mind was a haze of dates and times and names, and I tried to push it all out of the way. Then I drew it all back close to myself, afraid I would lose them all. "Tonight."

"Rin and Len? The reunion of our ultimate childhood friend entourage as a last hurrah before the gauntlet? 7 P.M.?"

"Ah, yes, of course. Hurrah. Gauntlet. 8 P.M."

"7 P.M."

"7 P.M."

"Seeing you in your hoarder's den depresses me. I'm going back to the office now."

Alright, there may have been boxes and files strew about all over the place, but hoarder was a little harsh. Maybe she meant a hoarder of negative energy. I wasn't making myself feel any better. "Bye, then."

"Before I go, how do you really feel?"

I thought about it for a moment, hands behind my head just like how Kaito was positioned when I went into his chambers that first arraignment. I quickly threw my hands in my lap and replied, "Like an air conditioner."

"Good to know, Mayu. Good to know."

Closing my eyes, I waited for her to leave the house. Her footsteps echoed down the wooden-floored hallway, and then there was a crash. "Damn it! Why is there a trash bag here?" she shouted.

"It's a self-portrait!" I called back. Actually, it was all the alcohol I had left in the house. It was useless to me now and made me sick to my stomach. I could have sworn I had thrown it in the dumpster, though… Then again, that might have been daydream.

There was a rustling noise then the slamming of the front door. Yeah, totally a daydream. Just as I was about to pull out a file, when the doorbell rang. Creating a guttural noise, I stood and stormed toward the door, tripping myself over the trash bag of alcohol. After the frustration with myself became a lesser to my frustration with Yuka, I finished my storming and opened the door.

"Good morning, Ms. Hidari. I hope I come at a convenient time." Meiko stood with sunglasses gleaming on my front porch like a federal agent about to ask me some hard questions.

"No, it's a perfect time," I replied, voice taking a moment to revert back to its professional setting. Then again, the rest of me wasn't so professional either. Bare feet, let-down hair, jeans... "You're free to come inside."

"Thank you. I think I'll take you up on that offer." With a smile, she sashayed in, spared a glance toward the trash bag on the floor, and let me lead the way to the socially acceptable living room. I only realized then that she was wearing gloves as she took them off along with her sunglasses and held them clenched in her right hand as she sat on the sofa. A lot of thoughts about Meiko Ursa weaseled into my mind in the past weeks, but I couldn't bring myself to resent her in the purest sense. She wasn't the enemy, after all. That's what I thought, at least, at the time of her grand entrance into my home.

"Quaint place," she commented, looking around.

"Thank you," I said not without a hint of sarcasm.

"Don't worry. I won't stay for long. I just thought that, considering the severity and passion surrounding this case, it would be proper to shake hands with your opponent on the eve of its commencement."

"How… thoughtful of you."

"Well? How do you feel?"

Like an air conditioner. "I want you to know, Ms. Ursa, that though I am young and my performance so far in this case has not been altogether amazing, I am good at my job, and if I were to win one case during the entirety of my career, I would win this one." I don't know exactly where that came from.

Meiko's smile only widened. "You remind me of my past self. Young, passionate, aiming towards the top. I hate my past self. You've given me all the more fuel to my fire. Now, I must admit, there is one other thing I wanted to discuss with you here, and that is the subject of a certain His Honor."

"Kaito Taro certainly has been a handful recently. He's made all the headlines."

"Yes, well, I am a bit confused, to be honest. I am the first to admit that the preliminary hearing certainly seemed tilted in my favor, but I want you to know I did not steep so low as to pay the man. I thought, because of his low bail set, that you had succumbed to temptation first, and I hardly put up any fight in the prelim. I thought the trial would be over now, but here we are."

"I wouldn't give Kaito Taro a quarter to put in a gumball machine."

"Yes, I see that now. I don't know what he is planning in regards to this trial, but I am willing to vow pure means of pursuit if you are. Between adversaries."

"Of course. That would be ideal."

Meiko stood and looked me in the eye as we shook hands. Ah, my adversary, the gauntlet awaited.

The bar Rin so graciously picked out for our last hurrah was dim and noisy but not altogether unpleasant. And as I stood there in my jeans with a bag over my shoulder and bags under my eyes, staring at the table tucked away in the corner where the three people I spent my childhood with sat, I felt like time had finally caught up with me in one swoop and became overcome with a bout nausea. However, before I could run away and crawl into my bed for solace, Rin was waving me over with that wall-to-wall smile of hers, and there was no escape.

As I edged closer, a small smile of my own spread across my face. "Hey, guys," I half-shouted over the general murmur of the room.

"Mayu, you didn't shrivel up and die in your hermit hovel!" Yuka teased, patting the seat in between Len and her. "Still feeling like an air conditioner?"

"An air conditioner?" Rin asked, leaning over the table in ever-flowing interest.

I took to my chair. "No, an air conditioner cannot possibly thrive in such an environment." It was true. It was hot as Satan's greenhouse in July in there.

"Hello, Mayu," Len said.

"Hello," I replied. "All set for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I—"

"No!" Rin interrupted, her wine sloshing precariously close to the rim. "No talk of tomorrow! Not in my courtroom! Mayu, I already ordered you a wine."

Len cocked his head to the side. "I thought you hated wine."

"It's a complicated relationship, but I have given it up now."

"Eh? Since when?" Rin pouted.

"A few weeks ago."

There was a silence here where no one knew what to say. We had been together and apart for so long, words hardly came to mind. Just as the lightness of the conversation was fizzling out for good, Yuka began laughing hysterically. "What?" I asked, grinning despite myself. "What?"

"I'm sorry," she gasped out between half-sobs, half-giggles. "All I can think about right now is Len and Rin's 21st birthday."

Now I began laughing too, because God, now that's all I could think about. Rin was grinning broadly, but Len was completely confused. "Our 21st birthday? I don't even remember it too well…"

"I would think not!" Yuka replied, still struggling to catch her breath.

"Oh no, what happened?" No one answered, merely giggling like the school girls we were. Len sighed, turning to me with big eyes. "Mayu, please tell me."

Willing myself to calm down enough to answer, I said, "Do you remember after the speech, Rin gave you that bottle of beer?"

"Yeah, I think I remember something like that…"

"It may or may not have been the strongest whiskey I could find!" Rin finished for me, completely losing it.

Len looked horrified, looking around with betrayal in his eyes. "You're not serious."

We all nodded.

"I didn't do something embarrassing, did I?"

No one made eye contact.

Well, court be damned, we just gave him the death sentence right there. He buried his face in his hands as his mind went wild with possibilities. And there his knowledge of that fateful night remained. At least, for a very long time.

"Don't worry, Len. We've all experienced embarrassing things." Yuka's words offered little consolation. "Even darling Mayu, here."

"I don't like where this conversation is going," I intervened.

"I do!" Rin exclaimed. "Tell me more."

"Well, it was finals week in the last year of law school…"

The night continued on as such, a single gleam of happiness in a time of immense burden. As we laughed and shared stories of our shared and singular pasts, the future slipped away from my mind until for the first time in a very long time, I felt like myself again. That night I never slept better, despite what the morning was destined to bring.