March 11

Blackgate Ice Center

11:05 AM

Cotoli Morix

The next hour and a half or so passed in a dizzying haze. Police officers arrived on the scene and started questioning everyone on what happened. Chrysalis and I were separated for a while when that happened, and I found myself anxiously drumming my fingers against my leg as I waited for her to come back from the session of questioning. I had an awful feeling about this. What was going to come next? Was the stream of interrogations going to reveal who the suspect was going to be?

"Ah, excuse me..."

The sound of a voice from nearby made me look up, and I could see that there was a familiar man standing above me. A gasp left my lips, and I rose to my feet from where I had been sitting on a chair within the lobby of the ice center. "Detective Erikson!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

The person in question was Detective Toby Erikson, someone who I had met once in the past. It had been three years since our initial encounter that happened back when I was nineteen. Unfortunate circumstances had brought us together for the first time. I hadn't realized that we were going to be seeing each other again here of all places though, so I had to admit that his appearance caught me by surprise.

"It's been quite a while, hasn't it?" Detective Erikson questioned. His hands were pressed into his pockets as he watched me with a gentle smile on his face. He was just as serene and laidback as I remembered.

"Yeah," I agreed. The last time that I saw Detective Erikson was a few months ago after his daughter, Mukuro, spent some time with Chrysalis as they worked on a school project. Mukuro had since become busy with other obligations that left her with little time to spend time with her peers, so I didn't see her or her father as often as I once used to. Still, I had to confess that seeing him here was welcome since it gave me the opportunity to embrace a familiar face amidst all this uncertainty.

"As for why I'm here..." Detective Erikson began, his voice trailing off as he looked down to the ground. "I'm the leading detective on this case, and I came down here to arrest a suspect. Apparently, the police believe that they've figured out who committed this crime, and I'm going to be the one to take her down to the station for further questioning."

"'Her'?" I questioned. I was certain that I had a right to know who the suspect was given my involvement with the case. Chrysalis and I had been there when the body was uncovered, after all, and that meant that we were witnesses to this case. Even if we were less crucial than the girl who had first opened the closet, we were still important to the truth of this mystery.

"Yeah," Detective Erikson sighed. "She's an ice skater here who was meant to be performing in the show today. Her name is Venus Rinko."

My eyes went wide. "Venus?" I echoed, not wanting to believe it. Chrysalis was not going to like this in the slightest, I was sure. I didn't even enjoy the implications of what he was saying. We hadn't been able to get to know Venus all that well, but she seemed to be a nice enough young woman. Why would she be suspected for a murder of all things? I was positive that there was a reason behind this, but just hearing that she was the suspect already made my stomach began to churn.

Detective Erikson nodded. "The murder weapon was an ice skate that was found lodged into the victim's head. Said skate belongs to her, and her fingerprints were all over it. The victim in question, Aes Cater, has never gotten along with the suspect either. Apparently, they had a huge argument about an hour and a half before the body was found, and others within the production overheard them. We're still looking into the details regarding the motive and the relationship between the victim and suspect, but... It still seems like Venus Rinko is the most likely suspect that we've got so far," he explained.

"I see," I murmured. It hadn't been all that long since the crime took hadn't even been arrested, if what Detective Erikson was saying was to be believed. I trusted him as a source of information, so I allowed my mind to continue racing for better or worse.

Venus had seemed to be so kind and genuine when we first spoke to her. Chrysalis and I had both always had a knack when it came to deciding on who we can or cannot trust, and Venus didn't see to trigger alarm bells for either one of us. Chrysalis certainly seemed to get along with her well enough, and after the brief but notable kindness that Venus had shown us, I felt as if there was something that we could do to make all of this easier for her.

"She doesn't have an attorney yet, right?" I asked, my eyes narrowing. My heart was starting to pound fiercely in my chest. I had only become an official lawyer recently, and there was much that I had yet to understand. Even so, I felt as if I still had to try and do this. Even if it was my first case, I had to put my all into this. It was the right thing to do, and I wasn't about to leave Venus high and dry just because of my own personal doubts.

"No, not yet," Detective Erikson replied. He raised an eyebrow in my direction before realization dawned across his face. "You said that you were training to become an attorney, didn't you?"

I nodded. "And as of a few weeks ago, I'm ready to start actually defending people in court," I answered. "Please pass along the message to Venus... I'm willing to defend her if that's what she wants."

Detective Erikson watched me for a moment before smiling in response. "I'll be sure to tell her," he said softly. "For now, you might want to see what you can find out around here. The case doesn't have a prosecutor yet because of how new it is, so you should try to take advantage of that and get as much searching done as you can."

"Of course," I told him. Detective Erikson gave me one final nod before turning on his heel and walking away, and I watched as he rounded a nearby corner. As soon as he was gone, I let out a small sigh. This was certainly one way to get involved with a first case. I don't know what it was that I had been expecting, but it wasn't this, that was for sure. Still, I knew that I was going to have to try and do something for Venus' sake. She deserved a fair chance, and I wanted to do what I could to offer that to her.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, prepared to text Chrysalis in case she was out of questioning and simply didn't know where I was. In the end, I was cut off by a small cough from behind me. I turned to see who it was that had made the noise, and when I did, I could see that there were two young women standing nearby.

One of them had incredibly pale skin and white hair that fell gently down her upper back. Her eyes were a piercing blue color, and they would have likely pierced my soul if there was any sense of confidence behind her gaze. The other girl was shorter and clearly younger than her companion. Her hair was black with white edges, and a large mint green bow sat atop her head. Both of them were watching me with concern, and I was left to wonder just who they were.

"You said that you were going to defend Venus, right?" the younger girl of the two asked. I winced upon noticing that they had likely been listening in on my conversation with Detective Erikson from around a nearby corner.

"Y-Yes, I am... If she accepts me as her attorney, I would be more than happy to defend her in court," I replied. I somehow doubted that these two girls were part of the ice skating group, if I was being honest. Their clothing was so normal compared to the elaborate costume that Venus had been wearing. Plus, Venus seemed to be on the younger side as far as performers in this show were concerned, and if that was the case, these girls couldn't have possibly been involved with the production.

The older girl let out a heavy sigh, and she rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her hand. "Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried that we wouldn't be able to get anybody to help her... We heard that she was a suspect during questioning, but I-I know that she didn't do it! Venus would never hurt anyone!" she cried out.

I frowned at her words. It was clear that she was connected with Venus somehow, and if that was the case, then she might have been able to explain a few extra details that I was missing out on. "If you don't mind my asking... Who are you?" I asked. That seemed to be a nice place to start with this session of conversation.

The older girl gasped, one hand coming up to cover her mouth in her shock. "I-I'm so sorry for not introducing myself! I'm Cassidy, and this is Yuri. We're Venus' younger sisters," she explained. "I didn't catch your name either..."

"Cotoli Morix," I replied, extending my hand for Cassidy to shake it. She accepted my grasp hesitantly, though I could tell that she was still a bit nervous about all of this. "I'm a lawyer, though I'm sure that you already knew that... Now that we've gotten the introductions out of the way, could you two tell me a bit more about what you know? I can use all the information that I can get to make sure that Venus isn't found guilty of this crime."

The younger girl of the two, Yuri, nodded in response. "Of course! Well, we came here to see the show for Venus... Our mother couldn't come since she's busy with work and all that, but the two of us were able to get tickets for free since we're related to Venus. She was really excited to show us how the show has been going, so we got here super early. I think that she was going to give us a preview of her skating," she explained. She had so much energy that it was almost difficult to comprehend. I got the feeling that her quick speech patterns had everything to do with the adrenaline that came with suddenly being tied up in a murder.

"We didn't really see anything, if I'm being honest..." Cassidy murmured. "We just came here early because we were hoping to see Venus, but that didn't wind up happening because she got busy with other things. I guess that practice wound up taking a bite out of her time like she feared."

"What time did you get here?" I asked, trying to set up a timeline in my head. Chrysalis and I arrived at the rink at about nine-thirty. If Cassidy and Yuri arrived before then, that would imply that Venus had been busy even before Chrysalis and I saw her skating on the ice of the venue.

"Probably about nine-fifteen," Yuri replied with a loose shrug. "I'm not entirely sure, but that's my estimation. "We spent a while trying to wander around and find Venus though, and we were together the whole time. Obviously, we didn't wind up finding her..."

"I see," I murmured under my breath. Cassidy and Yuri had arrived at the venue before Chrysalis and I did, but they got lost along the way and weren't able to find Venus. Suddenly, Venus' habits of practicing even when she shouldn't have been were starting to make sense though. Venus was probably hoping that she would be able to attract Cassidy and Yuri to come and find her if they were out in the audience. I assumed that they had probably been circling the venue in other ways though, such as going through the large ring of concession stands that surrounded the actual ice rink via the outside hallways.

"I don't even know who the victim is, if I'm being honest," Cassidy remarked. "Aes Cater... It's not a name that I've heard before. Venus doesn't do too much talking about the other skaters in the show. When she does talk about the show, she's most of the time discussing the actual performance rather than the people that are in it with her."

"I'll have to ask her about her connection to the victim then," I said softly. I didn't know what I was going to do about this investigation, if I was being honest. Cassidy and Yuri seemed to believe passionately in their sister's innocence, and I wasn't about to dash their dreams by saying that I thought she did it. Besides, even if her fingerprints were on the murder weapon, that didn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Of course her prints would be on the weapon; they were her figure skates, so it only made sense that she would handle them on a regular basis.

"Cotoli! There you are!"

Chrysalis' voice pulled me away from my conversation with Cassidy and Yuri, and I realized belatedly that I hadn't been given the chance to message her to say what had happened. Judging by how out of breath she was, I assumed that she had been running for quite some time to try and find me. "Did you hear the news?! Venus was-"

"Arrested," I finished for her. "Yeah, I heard. Detective Erikson is the one on the case, and... I volunteered to defend Venus. I don't believe that she did it, and she deserves a fair chance for her innocence to be proven."

Chrysalis began to smile at those words, and she rose back to her full height as soon as she was able to fully regain a grasp on her irregular breathing patterns. "I'm glad to hear you say that. I was going to say that if she didn't have a lawyer, we should take the case, but... I guess that you were ahead of the curve on that front," she commented before letting out a hollow laugh. I could tell that she was falsifying the sound since she sounded so anxious that it didn't even feel real, but I didn't bother to call her on it, knowing that she would never admit to such a thing as long as there were other witnesses present.

"Who are you?" Yuri questioned, a frown appearing on her face as she glanced over at Chrysalis. I watched as her arms crossed over her chest, and Cassidy gave her a transparent gaze asking for Yuri to be a tad less confrontational. Yuri either didn't notice or didn't care, though I suppose this made sense given the circumstances. It was only natural that Yuri was going to be more on edge than she likely would have been otherwise.

Chrysalis hesitated at first, looking to both Cassidy and Yuri with a gaze of brief concern before she was willing to offer a response. It was only after she noticed how relaxed I seemed that she decided to reply. "I'm Chrysalis," she answered. "Cotoli here is my older brother. I'm going to be helping out with the investigation."

"I'm glad to hear that he's going to have extra help then," Yuri smiled, her expression softening with the flip of a coin. "Do you really think that you're going to be able to make sure that Venus isn't found guilty? I know that she would never kill anybody, and the rest of the world needs to know it too."

"We'll make sure that everyone knows that she isn't guilty," I assured her. "The innocent deserve to be given the chance to press on with their lives regardless of other misconceptions. I'm going to make sure that she's found not guilty when this case goes off to trial. Consider that a promise."

"Thank you again for everything," Cassidy said with a gentle smile pressed onto her face. She closed her eyes and let out a weary sigh, and I got the feeling that the day had already been too much for her in terms of overwhelming activity, though it wasn't as if I could blame her. "I'm going to stay here with Yuri. We don't exactly know all that much about this sort of thing, and I doubt that we'll be able to go home yet, so... We're just going to stay here, if that's alright."

"Of course," I told her. "In fact, that would be for the best. That way, Chrysalis and I will be able to come back and talk to you in case we wind up having other questions. Best case scenario, that's ultimately unnecessary, but having that extra bit of security could help us out."

"Then we'll stay put and try not to think about how awful this situation is!" Yuri proudly declared. After a moment, she let out a nervous laugh and shook her head. "Good luck in the rest of your investigation, I guess. There's not much to say aside from that."

"We'll have results soon, I'm sure," I said firmly before turning to Chrysalis. "Come on. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and it would be best if we took care of it sooner rather than later, wouldn't you agree?"

Chrysalis nodded without a beat of hesitation, and she gave Cassidy and Yuri a flash of a wave before starting to walk away. I trailed after her, waiting for her to say something that would break through the silence. Once Cassidy and Yuri were out of earshot, she most certainly spoke up. "So... They seem to know Venus from somewhere, huh?"

"They're her younger sisters," I explained, and Chrysalis nodded with a vague hum in response. "The one with white hair is named Cassidy, and the younger of the two is named Yuri. They said that they wanted her to be found not guilty, and I'm willing to trust them if they believe that she didn't do this. Plus, she... She's seventeen, and it would be pretty damn cruel if someone so young was capable of something like that."

"You never know what people are truly capable of until it's too late," Chrysalis told me, another piece of her sage advice that I already knew to be true. "But I agree that she likely didn't do this. I just... I guess I have an instinct that there's more to this case than meets the eye. It's up to us to get down to it and figure out just what's going on when the curtains are pulled back once and for all."

"You aren't just saying this because you think she's pretty, I hope," I teased her, giving her a nondescript nudge with my shoulder. Normally, Chrysalis was the one of us who was prone to teasing me on the subject of love, but since she had finally shown signs of romantic connection after neglecting it for so much of her life, I had to take full advantage of this. Who knew when I was going to get this opportunity again, after all?

Chrysalis flushed immediately, and she let out a huff of a breath before shaking her head. "You're being ridiculous," she muttered. "I'm just... I want her to be found not guilty. If a person is innocent, then they deserve to be proven as such in court. The evidence will ultimately reveal the truth, and whether or not I'm personally satisfied with it doesn't matter."

I laughed to myself, knowing fully well that this was her way of saying that she wasn't going to actually admit to anything until after this case was over. "Alright, alright," I said, finally yielding the advantage in our war of banter that had been going on for seemingly our entire lives. "Let's start off by checking out the scene of the crime. How does that sound?"

Chrysalis nodded her agreement, and her cheeks finally began to lose some of their bright pink luster. "Okay," she agreed. She allowed me to take the lead after that as I took her in the direction of the closet where the body had been found in the first place.

By the time that we had arrived, I could see pretty clearly that we weren't going to be able to investigate on our own terms without any snooping. There were officers in the area that were looking at the spot where the body had been found, and I bit down on my lip out of instinct at the knowledge that we were going to have to juggle our personal investigation with trying to not catch the attention of any others.

This did give me the chance to look at the scene of the crime without surprise in my heart. I had neglected to notice many of the details when the body was first uncovered because of my shock, but that was all about to change. I could see first and foremost that the victim had the beige ice skate from before lodged into her skull, and that was most certainly the cause of death. In fact, I didn't think that it had ever been a question.

"I wonder how she died," Chrysalis scoffed with a shake of her head. "I wonder what her connection is to Venus. There has to be a link between the two of them, and if they're in the show together then maybe others know that there's something going on with their dynamic. There has to be some sort of beef between them if the police arrested Venus for the crime. I like to think that police officers, as incompetent as they are, at least know how to figure out a supposed motive for a crime."

I did my best to not snicker openly at Chrysalis' snarky comments before explaining. "Detective Erikson said that the victim and defendant were heard arguing before the time of the crime. I guess that we'll have to ask Venus what that was about when we go to see her at the detention center later on."

Chrysalis nodded her agreement before looking back to the body. "There has to be something here that we can use for the trial... I'm sure that there's some evidence left behind from the time of the crime," she murmured. "I can see that there's not all that much blood here though, so that begs the question... Where did the crime actually take place? The body was likely moved here from some other location."

"The back part of the closet has spare costumes for the show, I believe," I said. "That's my personal theory, anyways. I can't imagine that there would be any other reason for there being so many costumes on the rack in here aside from that... Perhaps the body was moved here because it was a less incriminating location than another spot, such as where the crime actually took place. I do agree that the body was likely moved. An injury like that... It must have caused quite the blood splatter, and I don't think that it would be possible to limit the blood flow to such an extent."

"In that case, we have another thing to ask Venus about... We need to see if we can figure out where the crime actually took place. She must have some idea about this. I'm confident that she has at least something in mind. She knows this space much better than either one of us does, so we'll have to rely on her expertise," Chrysalis told me.

"The fact that this is a costume closet could tie in with the reason that Venus was arrested," I commented. "Only those who are involved with the performance itself would be able to get in here. That's my assumption, at the very least. In other words, even if Cassidy and Yuri didn't have an alibi in one another, they wouldn't have been suspects in the first place. The same applies to the two of us."

"That's true," Chrysalis said softly. "Hm... I wish that there were other small details that we could use for the sake of the case... As it stands now, it doesn't seem like we're going to be able to get close enough. There are too many officers around here for us to get a decent look at the scene of the crime, and the smaller details are lost on us because of how far away we are from the scene."

"Yeah," I agreed quietly. I wished that there was a better way for us to look at the scene of the crime, but for the time being, we were going to have to take care of everything from afar... Hang on a moment. Is it just me, or does it seem like the victim is hold onto something in her left hand? Her fist is clenched pretty tightly."

Chrysalis let out a gasp before nodding. "You're right... I didn't even notice at first, but you're right," she confirmed. "I wonder if we'll be able to see just what that little object is... There has to be a way for us to figure that out, right? I somehow doubt that the police officers will be willing to let us sneak by given the circumstances, but..."

As if on cue, the trio of officers that was gathered closest to the door began to walk away. I didn't hear what they were saying in full, but I did hear a few mutterings of the words 'witness' and 'prosecutor', leaving me to wonder if perhaps our opposing force in the courtroom had been decided on. I assumed that the witness in question was the other ice skater that had initially uncovered the body within the costume closet, and we would have to speak with her sooner or later. For the time being though, I was seeing our chance to actually investigate the body, and we weren't going to get another chance like this as far as I was concerned. We had to take this opportunity and do what we could to make the most of it.

Chrysalis didn't hesitate to surge forward after the police officers were out of view from rounding the nearby corner. The victim's body was still crumpled on the ground as one expected it to be, and Chrysalis crouched down beside the outline of the victim. She reached out for the clenched fist before letting out a hiss when her skin made contact with the corpse. "This is uncomfortable," she muttered. "I swear, I'm going to need gloves if I'm going to feel at all fine with doing something like this, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and justice isn't going to wait for me to start feeling cozy."

With careful and deliberate effort, Chrysalis managed to unfurl the victim's fingers, and she pulled out a small piece of fabric from the body. She held up her spoils, giving me the chance to fully see what it was that she had uncovered. The fabric was a stark blue color, the same pastel color that the ice of the skating rink had been. The fabric was also heavy duty and thick, and part of me was left to think that perhaps it was a piece of a uniform. Even if the fabric was notably potent and meant to last a long time, with the right pushing, it certainly would have given way to human fingers.

"I think that we should keep this in our back pocket," Chrysalis murmured, handing me the piece of fabric. I nodded in agreement as I accepted the fabric and began to look at the rest of the crime scene. The closet was rather crowded, so I took special care to not actually step inside because of my longstanding discomfort with small spaces. I could see perfectly well from the door, and that was what mattered most, right?

As much as I hated to admit it, I had to confess that it seemed as if there was nothing else of note from the scene of the crime. It was a barren crime scene, and I was left with just as many questions as I would have had if we hadn't gotten closer to the victim's body. We still didn't know how the body had been moved, and I realized that we were going to have to do some extra digging if we were going to find out that much.

Chrysalis suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the door of the closet. I could see why a moment later when a few police officers came into view. They had likely finished up their business with the witness, and when I heard them muttering amongst themselves, I heard them say the word 'backstage'. In other words, we likely had the location of our witness, and that gave us a destination to continue our investigation from.

"Well, that sounds like a plan to me," Chrysalis murmured. I nodded my agreement and started to walk in the direction that the officers had come from. With enough luck, we would be able to figure out where the backstage area's entrance was, and from there, we could talk to the witness. Maybe this would be able to clear up a few details on the case. We could certainly use all the help that we could get if we were going to succeed in proving Venus innocent.

I care this fic very much

-Digital