"You... Do you know who I am?"

"Am I supposed to recognize your face?"

"You had better know me! Look me in the eyes, and tell me that you remember me! That you remember all of the people that you've sent to death!"

"To death? Aren't you being a bit dramatic?"

"You took away everything that I had. You stole everything that I loved, and you still deny the fact of the matter."

"Would you please leave? I'm incredibly busy at the moment and don't have time for fools trying to bait me into an argument."

"You won't be leaving here at all."

"Excuse me?"

"You made your choice, and I've made mine... Do you not recognize me even still?"

"Wait... You're... I see. You don't understand that the guilty are punished for their crimes no matter what. All defendants deserve nothing less than death."

"You will die for what you have done! Get out of my sight this instant!"

The flash of a knife.

The cascade of books.

The splatter of blood.

March 3

Wright Anything Agency

Lobby

12:10 PM

The morning at the agency that day was just as I expected it to be: clear skies and smooth sailing. I was sitting with Trucy and Mr. Wright in the lobby area as Trucy practiced one of her magic tricks in the silence and Mr. Wright flicked through a few case files. The only one among us who was absent was Apollo, who had departed from the agency a few hours ago to meet with Prosecutor Gavin and Simon about dropping off a few files in preparation for the upcoming trial of Samuel Barnes for the murder of Aloist Lenard. I had just finished signing off on the last little piece of information that was needed for the case from two weeks ago to be filed away in our cabinet.

The news about Oracle had come two days prior, and it caught all of us by surprise. The case file from the Eileen Liyle case that had previously been tucked away out of sight was ultimately unearthed to offer updates to whoever may wind up reading the file in the future. I was more than happy to write down all that we had learned about Prosecutor Turner, and if anything, each new word that I scribbled onto the page only made me more overwhelmingly grateful that we were able to find the correct verdict during that case. After all, that was seemingly the tipping point that allowed the truth about Prosecutor Turner's bad habits to come to light publicly.

It was still ridiculous for me to think about, if I was being honest. That case was all it took for Oracle to be able to expose him once and for all for forging evidence and lying in his past cases. It was surprising, but I knew that this was for the best. The truth had been revealed, and it meant that we weren't going to be crossing paths with Prosecutor Turner again in the courtroom any time soon. He was bound to have to stand trial for his crimes of forgery and obstruction of justice sooner or later. I didn't think that the chief prosecutor was going to let something like this slide, and Mr. Wright didn't think that either. I didn't know much about the details beyond that, but I was confident that the consequences were going to be severe for the high crime of forging evidence and setting up false verdicts in the name of a win record.

Beyond all of that though, I had to wonder about Oracle. It seemed like they were just made of mysteries layered on top of each other, though I supposed that was partially the point of all this. Oracle had to remain anonymous in order to reveal the truth. Having their identity exposed would only cause problems for them and get in their way. Still, that didn't stop me from wondering about just who was beneath the mask. There had to be somebody behind all of these exposures, but just who was it? I didn't know if I was ever going to find out, but I couldn't help hoping for a chance to come close to grasping the truth at some point or another.

I used my thumb to flick the case file shut as I let out a small exhale and rose to my feet. It was time to put this file back where it belonged in the cabinet. Sifting through the old file cabinet wasn't exactly an easy task given how many folders were crammed inside, but it was an obstacle that I was going to have to overcome sooner or later. It was best to get it out of the way sooner rather than late.

I was halfway to the back room that acted as Mr. Wright's office when I heard a knock at the door. I paused with a light frown, glancing over to Trucy and Mr. Wright. Trucy immediately halted in her card trick to perk up at the door, her head tilting to one side. "Were we expecting company?" I asked of her. Trucy simply shook her head, and something in the back of my mind realized that this could be the first step to bring us a new case. That was enough to spur me into action as I reached for the doorknob to pull the entrance to the agency open.

The person standing on the other side was a familiar face, and I just about did a double take at the sight of Prosecutor Klavier Gavin of all people. His regular posture, relaxed and loose, was not present in the slightest. His easy smile had grown tense, his lips pressed together in an unsettling way that threatened to send a shiver up my spine. He hadn't even spoken, but I could still tell that there was something seriously wrong going on. I didn't think that I had ever seen him looking this upset, and if that wasn't a sign of something awful happening, I didn't know what was.

"Prosecutor Gavin!" Trucy gasped as she rose to her feet. That was enough to pull Mr. Wright out of the case file he was reading, and he shut the folder before sliding it onto the table before him. He got to his feet as well, following Trucy to the door as she continued to speak. "What are you doing here?"

"I believe that you three should head to the detention center as soon as possible," Prosecutor Gavin told me. "Something has happened, and you have your next client on your hands."

I glanced over to Mr. Wright, my ginger hair stirring along the way. I didn't know how to respond to this in the slightest, too overwhelmed by the sight of Prosecutor Gavin's odd behavior, but luckily, Mr. Wright was more than able to cover for me. "Who exactly are we going to be meeting with there?" he questioned, half of his words edging on anxious.

Prosecutor Gavin shifted his head down, refusing to meet any of our gazes. That action was enough to make me feel sick all over again with my awful feeling about all of this. "It would be Apollo," he replied simply. "He's been arrested for murder."

"What?!" Trucy and I shrieked in sync. We stared at Prosecutor Gavin with all of the desperation in the world manifesting in our eyes, pleading with him that this was some type of twisted joke. I knew that he was being honest about this, and both of my coworkers did as well, but there was still a deep wish for all of this to be false somehow. Prosecutor Gavin hadn't even used his regular playful nickname for Apollo, and that was a signal that this was very real. Apollo really had been arrested for murder, and that meant only one thing for the rest of us.

"Let's get to the detention center," Mr. Wright said firmly. He was immediately met with nods of agreement from both me and Trucy. I couldn't believe what we were hearing, but I knew that it had to be the truth. There was no way that Prosecutor Gavin would lie about something as serious as this. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on with all of this in the first place, but I had an awful feeling that I was going to find all of this out for better or worse soon enough.

March 3

Detention Center

Visitor's Room

12:40 PM

I couldn't seem to sit still when we arrived at the detention center, and even after chairs were pushed up to the glass from where they waited against the wall, I couldn't calm myself down. My foot was left to constantly tap against the ground below as I tried my best to ground myself in the face of this awful situation. We were going to have to do what we could to look after Apollo, but I had an awful feeling about what was going to be waiting for us.

Apollo arrived on the other side of the glass soon afterwards, and I glanced up with wide eyes. He hadn't been here longer than a few hours, but it still sent a shiver up my spine to see how suddenly dull he seemed in comparison to his normal bright demeanor. "Klavier... You brought them?" Apollo asked, shifting his attention to Prosecutor Gavin.

I had to admit that I was surprised to see him refer to his boyfriend by his first name openly. If there was one person who was cagey about their relationship, it was Apollo. He never seemed to want to share anything about his personal life, not that it personally surprised me. He was a much more private person than a first glance might admit. Ever since he got together with Prosecutor Gavin, Apollo had started to refer him by his first name, but he always got embarrassed when somebody caught him in the act, trying desperately to cover his tracks. He didn't do anything like that this time though, seemingly realizing that it didn't matter anywhere near as much as the other things that were taking place at the moment.

Prosecutor Gavin was not left as lost in thought as I was about this though, and he simply nodded. "They'll be defending you in court, ja?" he prompted even though it wasn't really much of a question to begin with.

"Of course we will be!" Trucy proclaimed, her voice not offering even the slightest opportunity for an objection. Her hands were placed firmly on her hips, and she seemed ready to glare at Apollo if he even started to imply that perhaps he didn't want something like that.

"But in order to do that, we have to hear all that you know about the case," Mr. Wright told Apollo. "Are there any details that you can share with us about the crime? We know that it's a murder, but the finer facts haven't been mentioned yet."

Apollo deflated slightly, his expression growing tense. "Then you don't know who the victim is yet," he murmured.

"The victim?" I echoed. I felt something in my stomach churn, and I prayed that it was nobody that we knew. "Is the victim supposed to be somebody notable?"

"Prosecutor Huber Turner was found stabbed to death in his office earlier today," Prosecutor Gavin replied, his eyes hard as stone.

My eyes immediately went as wide as saucers. "What?!" I cried out. That was the last person I expected to wind up as the victim in a case like this, and I felt a shiver sprint up my spine from pure shock.

"Isn't that the prosecutor who was exposed for forging evidence earlier this week?" Trucy questioned, looking over to me with wide eyes.

I nodded. "He was the prosecutor on the Eileen Liyle case that Apollo and I tackled. A few weeks after the trial ended, he wound up on the news for forging the autopsy report in an attempt to have the defendant arrested. Apollo and I were able to prove that the autopsy report was off about the time of death by a full hour, and apparently, that was because of the prosecutor. He claimed that the victim died at 9:30 in the morning when he actually died at 10:30."

"Miles said that he was going to be having him ejected from the Prosecutor's Office as soon as possible," Mr. Wright frowned deeply. "I suppose that he was supposed to be cleaning out his office to leave the place behind today. It's not like he could keep working at the Prosecutor's Office when he so brazenly forged evidence. He doesn't want to change his methods in the slightest either."

Prosecutor Gavin nodded. "He was found dead in his office when he was halfway through the cleaning process. There were files all over the floor, and... Apollo was unconscious on the ground beside him. The victim had written Apollo's name in blood as well," he frowned heavily.

"You were found unconscious at the crime scene?" I asked as I shifted my focus in Apollo's direction. That was the last thing I expected to hear, and yet, here we were.

Apollo hesitated before he nodded. "I don't remember what happened. I was going to drop off a few files from the Eileen Liyle case for Klavier and Prosecutor Blackquill to use from here on. After all, they're taking over the prosecution of Samuel Barnes with the exposure and now death of Prosecutor Turner," he explained. "There was nobody in sight at the time, so I kept trying to look around and find who I could. That was when... My vision went black, and I don't remember what happened from there. When I woke up next, I was with Klavier, and he said that he found me next to Prosecutor Turner's body."

"If you really don't remember, then..." Mr. Wright's voice trailed off, and I already knew exactly what he was going to be saying next.

"The prosecution is going to be using that to their advantage to make it seem like you did it," Trucy finished for her father. "But we know that you weren't the one to kill him! You would never do anything to harm a fly, much less a person! Even if Prosecutor Turner was an awful person, which we know to be true, that doesn't change the fact that you didn't do this."

"That means that it falls to us to prove the truth!" I declared, punching my fist into my open and waiting palm. "We'll go down to the Prosecutor's Office and look around to see what information we can find that will help us out in finding who actually did it. Still... The fact that the Prosecutor's Office was mostly empty does bother me. There are normally at least a few people moving around there, so why were you the only person wandering the halls at the time of the murder?"

"The chief prosecutor asked for us to join him in a meeting for a short while. He detested the idea of there being other forgers among the prosecutors at the office, and he decided that the best way to try and find new information would be to catch any potential forgers by surprise. No new information seemed to surface, but it did gather all of us in one room... Well, all but one," Prosecutor Gavin explained.

"All but one?" Trucy echoed. "In that case, it sounds like that's going to be our first lead. Who else could have done it but the one person who wasn't present during the meeting?"

"I'm afraid that she already has a watertight alibi for the time of the murder corroborated by a few other witnesses," Prosecutor Gavin told her. "Alas, finding her to be suspicious is not quite so easy."

"Well, there must have been some other person at the scene of the crime when the victim was killed, and we just have to figure out who that is," I declared. "We should get down to the Prosecutor's Office to see what we can find out about all of this. There has to be someone who knows what's going on, so let's go and figure out who it is that could have killed the victim."

"I'm counting on you all," Apollo said, his hands crossing over his chest. As far as I could tell, this was his way of getting out his traces of nervous energy that were left behind by his arrest. "I'm going to be here... Well, it's not as if I can really go much of anywhere else in the first place, so of course I'm going to be here."

"We'll go and do everything that we can to learn about the murder!" Trucy declared. "You might not remember what happened at the time of the crime, but we aren't going to be deterred quite so easily. Something must have happened, and all we have to do is figure out what it was. You don't have anything to worry about, Polly. We'll make sure that you're declared innocent at the trial."

"The case is set to be taken to court tomorrow," Prosecutor Gavin interjected. "You know how our legal system tends to be... It moves fast as can be."

"You can say that again," Mr. Wright murmured. "Still, I suppose that we're just going to have to go along with it for the time being. We don't ahv emuch of any other choice, so let's head down to the Prosecutor's Office to see what evidence is waiting for us there."

"I'll be here if you have any other questions for me about the time of the murder. I don't know how much help I'll be given that I don't remember anything, but I'll do what I can," Apollo said with a firm nod. "Good luck out there."

I gave him a wave and a smile to try and relieve him in the face of the pressing and awful situation that he had come to find himself in. Apollo offered me a smile in response, but I could tell that he was putting up a front. My expression changed as soon as I noticed this, my smile growing slightly more tender, but Apollo didn't give me the chance to say anything. "I'm Apollo Justice, and I'm fine!" he declared. "I believe in you, Athena."

"And I believe in you too," I smiled to him. "Now, you just sit and wait here, and we'll be back and ready to roll before you know it!" I flashed him a peace sign before I dashed out of the detention center's visiting room. Apollo offered me a final gentle grin before I disappeared from view. He knew just as well as I did that we were going to find the truth to free him from the detention center. Nothing was going to change that.

March 3

Prosecutor's Office

Room 708

1:45 PM

The inside of the Prosecutor's Office looked just how I expected it to. Everyone was bustling around, doing anything that they could to aid in the investigation. The halls of the Prosecutor's Office, normally feeling so vast and large, felt suddenly suffocating with how many people there were. I found myself yearning for earbuds or headphones to cancel out the noise with something a bit more pleasant, but I did my best to ignore everything that was happening around me to focus on the task at hand. Apollo was counting on me, and I wasn't going to be letting him down.

There was one conversation that seemed to pierce the area a cut above the rest, and it was between a man and woman standing nearby. The man was familiar to me, though I couldn't quite place where it was that I had seen him before. I attempted to dig through my memories as a way of figuring out who he was, but I ultimately came up short. A frown appeared on my face at the realization, but I forced myself to move on from the internal conflict for my own sake.

The woman he was speaking to was certainly someone that I recognized. Detective Ema Skye had been introduced to me a few months ago, and she was apparently a close friend of Mr. Wright, Apollo, and Trucy. She had been somewhat grouchy back then, not seeming to have much care for the hand that the world had given her, but she was much more animated this time around. I had to admit that the sight of her so perky intrigued me, and I found myself walking in her direction, Mr. Wright and Trucy following behind me.

"You're sure that you will be able to handle this case in my absence?" the man questioned of Detective Skye.

She nodded firmly. "Of course. I said that I wanted to investigate this case, and I meant it," she assured him. "There's nothing to worry about, Detective Ponce. I'll make sure that everything is resolved here."

That was who he was. The man with her, now revealed to be Detective Gordon Ponce, smiled with perfect serenity in her direction. "I understand. I'll be looking forward to the time I hear of your results," he told her. He tilted his hat slightly in her direction despite the hat not exactly being made for such actions before he walked away. He offered me, Trucy, Mr. Wright, and Prosecutor Gavin a respectful nod as he walked by, though he didn't show any signs of recognizing me from the last trial, and I was too slow to stop him before he was out of view once more. "Good day."

Mr. Wright walked toward Detective Skye from there, a light smile on his face. "Ema, it's been too long since we last spoke," he greeted casually.

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Wright," Detective Skye told him. "The same to you, Trucy and Athena." She deliberately didn't offer a glance in Prosecutor Gavin's direction, instead grabbing onto the strap of her bag as she looked up at Mr. Wright. "Well, given the fact that you're here, I take it that you've already heard everything that you have to about this case to want to take it on."

"Polly was arrested for the murder! Of course we were going to take it!" Trucy declared, her hands clenching into fists as her expression found itself becoming the pinnacle of determination. "Are you the detective taking care of this case?"

"I am, as a matter of fact," Detective Skye nodded. "I was just getting the preliminary evidence from the detective that originally arrived on the scene. He's got another case to take care of, so that means that somebody else has to step up to take over this trial."

"That's who the man was, huh?" Mr. Wright questioned with a light frown.

"Yeah. That would be Gordon Ponce. He was the first one to respond to the call for help after the scene of the crime was discovered by Prosecutor Blackquill and the fop over there," Detective Skye explained. She offered Prosecutor Gavin a roll of her eyes, and he simply shook his head from his place standing beside me. "He wound up being the one to make the arrest after doing his first sweep of the crime scene."

"I see," Mr. Wright murmured. "We've heard that there's a lot of evidence stacked against us already."

"And that would be the truth. The suspect was found unconscious next to the dead body. There was a lengthy struggle between the killer and victim, turning the office into a complete mess. There are files everywhere due to the tussle. The victim was ultimately killed by a single stab to the neck with a knife. He was left to die after the single injury, and the knife was not removed after the initial attack," Detective Skye continued. "I have the autopsy report right here if you want to see it."

She didn't bother waiting for us to confirm our wishes, already knowing that it was going to be a subject of interest for us. Detective Skye handed it off to Trucy, and she flicked open the folder before looking at the page in question. "The time of death... This is set during the meeting of the prosecutors, right?" Trucy asked, pointing down at the timestamp that noted the murder took place at about ten in the morning.

Detective Skye nodded. "The defendant was covered in bruises at the time of the body's discovery as well. A black jacket was discovered next to the corpse as well, and it seems to have been used to soak up the bloodstains from the murder. Apollo had no blood on his clothing, but Detective Ponce believes that he may have used the jacket as a way of keeping himself from being impacted by the splatter," she said.

"All of the other prosecutors in the office have alibis for the time of the murder," Prosecutor Gavin interjected. "Nearly all of us were in the meeting arranged by the chief prosecutor, and the only one who was notably absent already has an alibi. Prosecutor Turner was not invited to the meeting to begin with since he was set to be cleaning out his office for his departure at the time. He was likely in the middle of that when the culprit appeared."

"The crime scene was left as a complete mess because of the struggle between the victim and killer," Detective Skye told us next. She reached into her bag before she pulled out a photo and passed it in my direction. I examined it, seeing that it looked fairly standard for a prosecutor's office. There was a desk in the center of the room, an open cabinet on one wall, and bookshelves lining the space. There was a window at the far edge of the room sitting wide open, though nothing else was at all normal. Papers were scattered all over the floor, and there was blood pooled around the victim's neck. Apollo's name was written in blood, and the jacket could be found nearby. Apollo was gone from the scene, though I assumed that it was because he had already been removed from the area by the time that the picture was taken.

"When was this photo taken?" Mr. Wright asked, taking the words right out of my mouth before I could give voice to them.

"Right when the police first arrived on the scene," Detective Skye replied without missing a beat. "The glimmerous fop over there claims that Prosecutor Blackquill took a picture when the crime scene was first discovered, but I haven't had the chance to look at it yet. I've been focused on other things pertaining to the crime scene, and I haven't been able to speak with him about what he saw at the scene of the murder."

"It sounds like we're going to have to talk to Simon then," I announced. If he was one of the witnesses who discovered the body, then that was a given. I had to admit that I already had an awful feeling about this case. I knew that Apollo didn't do it, but there was so much evidence stacked against him. I was less afraid of Apollo being the culprit and more terrified of what the opposition could do to use all of this proof against us. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I hated the idea of anything happening like what almost took place during the trial of Eileen Liyle a few weeks prior. Apollo didn't deserve that; nobody did, as a matter of fact.

"For the time being, I think that you're going to want to look at the crime scene," Detective Skye remarked. "I've given you all of the basics, but there's only so much that I can tell you about without you having to investigate the scene of the crime yourself." She pointed over her shoulder to a nearby door that was cordoned off by police tape, the door wide open into the hallway while the others were all shut tight. "That's where we're going to be headed."

"Is the prosecutor on the case going to have a problem with this?" Mr. Wright asked with a frown. "Normally, they can be somewhat stingy when it comes to sharing information with the opposition."

"I don't think that she's going to mind it. She doesn't want to restrict anyone from looking at the scene of the crime," Detective Skye replied with a shrug. "If there's something that you have to know, it's fine that I share it with you. Besides... Even if it was a problem for the prosecution, I wouldn't care. There are some things that are worth a bit more than just following the rules of a prosecutor, and I think that this case is one of them."

Detective Skye's expression remained notably solemn for a few moments longer before she shook her head and pivoted on one heel to walk toward the room that had come to be known as the crime scene. "Now, let's go on and get this investigation on the road," she announced, not even waiting for a response to her previous statement.

I trailed after her along with the other three members of our little group standing in the hallway. I wasn't going to let anybody stand in my way when it came to finding the truth behind this case. Apollo was counting on me, and I was counting on his innocence being proven. I was glad to know that the prosecutor didn't mind us looking around, but I knew that wasn't going to be enough by itself to find the truth behind this case. We had a lot of work ahead of us, but it was all going to be worth it when we managed to prove that Apollo wasn't the one who committed the crime. The truth was going to come out one way or another, and I would make sure of that even if it was the last thing I did.

Case two is here! Hell yeah!

As you can see, the 'one third of our agency's lawyers have not been arrested for murder' record has been broken. Poor Apollo. He really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, huh?

All things considered, there's not all that much to say about this chapter. After all, it's a lot of basic setup, and there's only so much I can do to comment on all that. However, I will say that this is the first major appearance of the relationships in this story. Yeah! They exist. They're not a major part of the story since the plot is obviously the main focus, but they are most certainly present, and Klavier and Apollo just so happened to be the first one to come up.

This is an Athena case too. I feel like that was pretty obvious, but yeah, this is an Athena case. The case lineup is Apollo-Athena-Apollo-Phoenix-All for this story. Here's case two, so here's Athena! I refuse to do her dirty the way that Turnabout Storyteller did by not giving her enough competence in the plot, so you can look forward to me giving her the world that she deserves over the course of this case.

For the time being though, I'm going to call things here. Next time, we'll get into the first proper investigation of the story and of this case by checking out the crime scene. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital