Chapter Ten :: Caffeinated Turnabout

"Up."

I obeyed the voice, taking the helmet off and standing in the same movement. It was dark in the office; I had to blink a few times to adjust my sight again. When I did, Mr. Edgeworth was standing in front of me. "What's going on?"

"Go ahead and stretch," was all he said before leaving the room.

The short answer annoyed me for some reason. I jammed my hands in my pockets and paced around the room a little, trying to work off some of the bad mood. The morning had done little to make my disposition any lighter, however, and I felt a bunch of pent up energy in my chest, second only to the inertia that seemed to be keeping me here.

What the hell was I doing? What did this have to do with Kiria Nomura?

I paced around the room a few times, stretching my arms while I walked. I felt stiff today, probably as a result of all of the sitting I'd done yesterday and this morning.

That case hadn't even had Nomura in it, and I'd never met Nathaniel Price, although I'd heard of him. He was one of the first to disappear, shortly after Nomura committed suicide. Or more, allegedly committed suicide, if Mr. Wright and the others were to be believed.

The more I thought about it, the more irritated I got. Kiria Nomura was dead. She'd been dead for close to a year now. What did they expect me to do? Bring her back from the grave? Besides, I didn't know anything about spirit channeling. Maybe Maya couldn't channel her because of some other reason.

I sighed, slouching against the wall and tilting my head back. I wasn't cut out for this. I didn't ask for it either. Someone else should really be doing this.

"Mr. Justice?"

I flinched, and my head swiveled so fast I felt a muscle tear. Pearl Fey stood in the doorway, a cup of coffee in her hands. Her expression was shocked, probably mirroring mine, and she had a hand over her mouth. "Pearl!" I said when I'd found my voice again.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I-I just thought you might want, um," she paused, her head turning this way and that as she searched for a way out of this conversation. "Uh, here's a cup of coffee for you!" She thrust it into my hands.

"Thanks. I, uh, appreciate it."

This conversation was getting very awkward very fast. I'd known she was shy, and we'd never really talked much before, but I'd imagined our conversations to be much more interesting than, well, this.

She fidgeted with the hem of her robe for a second before turning towards the door.

"Wait!"

She turned back around towards me.

"Do you, um, well, do you-" Come on, Justice! If you can't ask her this question, how can you expect to ask anyone else? "Do you think Miss Nomura's still alive?"

A strange expression crossed her face. It was one of fierce determination and hope, but was tinged with something else. Sadness or anger, perhaps. "She has to be. Mystic Maya can't channel her, and I can't channel her, so she has to be alive." Her words were childlike, spoken with a firmness that reminded me of a kid ready to throw a tantrum. They were fierce and accented, her lips slipping into a small pout until she realized what she was doing and corrected it.

"There's no other way?" I asked.

She nodded resolutely and without another word, spun around and walked out of the room.

I stared after her, more than a little confused. There was a loosening of pressure around my wrist. I looked down and realized that my bracelet had been reacting. Something strange had just happened there, and it wasn't just my imagination.

"Are you ready?" I hadn't even noticed Mr. Wright come in. I took a drink of the coffee Pearl had shoved at me before nodding.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

He handed me the helmet. I sat down, but the coffee on the desk next to me, and prepared myself for another trial.

A/N :: After a bit of a break, here's the Apollo chapter. Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes and happy thoughts during my recovery. In case you're wondering, I am feeling a bit better from the last time I wrote. After posting that last chapter, my symptoms escalated until I would have panic attacks and couldn't breathe; they required medical attention and muscle relaxants in order for me to breathe again. I basically went to school, went to work, and went home for two weeks, which began to drive me crazy. Luckily, the panic attacks aren't as frequent, nor are they as bad, so I've been approved to start going places and doing things, and luckily to start jogging again in the mornings! Although this is the first week doing it again, so I'm pretty sore right now. Finals are over and I'm working full-time this summer, although my job is fairly low-stress this year (some of you know that last year I worked in a call center for a rental car company and hated it; this year, I'm an office assistant for my university). Overall, I'm feeling much better than I have the last few weeks, so thank you all again.

On a semi-related note, I try to keep you all updated as to what games I play and recommend, and I've got two on my most recent list. I've been addicted to Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS) since it came out; if you like watching characters interact, this is a great game. They've revamped the Support system from earlier games, and while I'm not much for the actual strategy, I love to see the cast interact (and marry each other. A friend remarked that I'm basically doing the human breeding farm thing because I'm so obsessed with the characters). The second one is an older game that I'm probably not the first of you all to play (warning, it is rated M, and for good reason), 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS). It's a visual novel by Aksys Games that has a fantastic storyline and great character development. Just suspend your disbelief for about an hour and you'll find yourself addicted. My best friend and I are waiting for the sequel to come in so that we can play that one too.

Comments from the previous two chapters! ::

Blaze :: Thank you for both the praise for Chapter 9 and the well-wishes. Concerning GS5 having Phoenix and not Apollo as the main character, I'm fairly torn (although new content suggests that they'll share the spotlight quite a bit). Phoenix is the character that I fell in love with playing through the series the first time; he was a fantastic protagonist whose epiphanies were timed well with the player's, and he was likeable. Apollo is a bit harder in that respect because Klavier Gavin, as much as I adore his character, tends to spell things out for you before you can present them. In that respect, Apollo is a slower character and I found myself a bit annoyed playing as him because I was like, "COME ON! He JUST said it!" and then having to wait as Apollo slowly worked it out. That being said, Apollo's storyline is far more interesting than Phoenix's. Phoenix's storyline was the Fey storyline (and we'd better get some indication of what happened to Maya and Pearl in this next game). When it was over, his series was over. Everything about him was resolved, so it's going to be difficult (like what happened with the GK [AAI] series) to motivate a plot around him that really speaks emotionally to the player. Because I haven't been impressed with Yamazaki's work on GK, I don't have high hopes for Phoenix's plotline, which is one reason why I think we're going to be seeing far more Apollo than we thought. That being said, Apollo's storyline could wrap up far too quickly if the writers aren't careful, so they're going to have to hit a very delicate balance. [Actually, if you want to know the truth, I'm not so worried about Phoenix or Apollo, but more the newest character, Athena. Kay's appearance in GK felt very forced, and so I never got overly fond of her, not like I did with Maya, Pearl, or Trucy. You'll notice that Kay doesn't get a lot of screentime in this fic, because she's really just the ninja version of Maya, which I thought was ridiculously sloppy of the writers and made Edgeworth a LOT less consistent of a character.] There's the short version of it, sadly enough. I have a lot of opinions concerning this new game, especially as new information comes out, and the more I hear, the less faith I have in it, but it will be a fantastic surprise if things go better than expected.

FeytedintheTARDIS :: I'm glad you liked the last actual chapter! You gave really good feedback; I love it when people do that! It tells me what I'm doing right. c: I'll try to keep it up. That art is going to be finished soon, I promise! I'm in the middle of coloring!

Feyfangirl :: Awwwwww, thank you. That means a lot to me.

KnightofDestiny :: Thank you again for both the praise and the well-wishes! Hey, they say that the more you read, the more you improve! As you might be able to tell, you're getting my first drafts, so I wouldn't take too much of a writing hint from them, but if it helps, it helps. I'm always willing to look at your writing as well, if you'd like to improve your style more! Just a bit of a warning, I'm not the kindest peer reviewer, and that's because I think it helps more if I'm brutally honest rather than stepping around points and not getting at what I'm talking about. But I'd be happy to read anything! As for the laughter thing, thank you so much. Just the thought was helpful. c:

Sakana-chan63 :: Thank you, dear! I try to put my health first, but it doesn't always go well. I'll try to keep a better eye on it!

OddWriter12 :: Thank you so much. I'm going to try to get back on top of this, and we'll go from there! I'll try to update far more during summer vacation. You guys deserve at least a few more extra updates.

Again, thanks to you all! Next chapter, and we might just be back to Kiria.

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