March 3

Prosecutor's Office

Room 708

3:00 PM

After Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth left with his two detective companions, the room was left temporarily to fall into silence. Detective Skye had reached into her bag and pulled out a small container of what appeared to be Snackoos if the cartoonishly colored logo on the plastic was anything to go off. She shoved one into her mouth, holding the Snackoo bag so close to her face that it seemed to cover up the lower half of her features, but I could still see the slightest traces of pink sneaking their way through. I had no doubt that the culprit of such was none other than Detective Faraday, though I chose to not say anything about this aloud.

In the end, the shift that the conversation required came in the form of Detective Skye glancing up to me, Mr. Wright, and Trucy. "You know, while you're here, you might as well go to see the prosecutor on this case," she remarked, no doubt wanting nothing more than to move on past the encounter with Detective Faraday from a few moments prior in all of its teasing glory.

"Who is the prosecutor on this case?" Trucy questioned as she glanced up to Detective Skye, also wisely choosing to not make any offhand comments about the way that Detective Skye was so blatantly embarrassed.

"Sora Lin is her name. She's in an office not far from here, and I'm sure that she would be more than willing to talk with you all," Detective Skye responded as she reached for another Snackoo. "She's the most normal prosecutor that I've ever worked with, and she'll probably get along well with you all."

I nodded to myself, deciding that it would be the best course of action as I turned in the direction of the door. Mr. Wright and Trucy prepared to offer their thanks to Detective Skye for the suggestion, but they were ultimately cut short by a familiar voice reaching our ears.

"You wound me, Fräulein Skye."

Prosecutor Gavin was standing in the doorway, and a few feet away was none other than Simon. His gaze was just as stony as ever as he looked at all of us, not making direct eye contact with anyone.

Still, he didn't have to look at me specifically for me to smile brightly in his direction. "Simon!" I exclaimed, my hand clasping together excitedly. I would have thrown myself at him for a hug if I had any less restraint, but I knew better than to embarrass him in a public space like that. Instead, I simply grinned at him, hoping that he understood the sentiment without me having to do anything directly to him.

"I figured that you would wish to speak with both of us at once, ja?" Prosecutor Gavin questioned, his signature smile finding a home on his features as he pushed some of his hair out of the way of his eyes. "I brought him here as soon as I found him."

Simon simply nodded his confirmation at the words Prosecutor Gavin had spoken, not saying anything beyond that. However, that was more than enough for me, and I nodded excitedly. "In that case, let's get right down to it! I don't see a reason for holding this off any longer than we already have," I told the two.

"The prosecutor on the case finished questioning me a few minutes ago," Simon explained in his normal rolling and low cadence. "I doubt that I would be able to tell you anything that you haven't already heard though."

"There is one thing that you have that I wasn't able to share with them," Prosecutor Gavin pointed out. "He was with me when I found the scene of the crime, but while I was looking after Herr Forehead, he took a picture of the crime scene. You do still have a copy with you, ja?"

Simon nodded. As he began to sift through his pocket for it, I found myself frowning in Prosecutor Gavin's direction. I could tell that he was still worried about Apollo whether he chose to openly show it or not. He was using his regular nickname for Apollo, or at least the title that he used around the rest of the world, but that didn't change the sadness that was laced in with his words. He was worried, but he was trying to outwardly seem as if that wasn't the case. It felt like a stab to the chest on my end, but I did my best to keep it from allowing it to show. I hardly thought that this was an appropriate place to bring it up, after all, and the last thing that I wanted to do was embarrass him by accident.

Before I could fully think through what I was meant to make of this though, Simon pressed a small picture into my hands. I gasped and looked down to see the photo that he had taken at the time of the crime's discovery between my fingers. "Thank you!" I told him with a firm nod. He simply returned the nodding gesture before he took a step back, offering Mr. Wright and Trucy the space that they needed to come in around me and see what I had been given.

For the most part, the picture looked almost exactly the same as the one that we had already seen from the time of the police's arrival. However, there was one major difference that I could see: the evidence cabinet's doors were shut where they were open both in the other photo and on the scene of the crime. Aside from that though, there weren't any notable differences, and I didn't know if I would be able to find any other distinctions by flicking back and forth between the two.

"The two pictures look really similar, don't they?" Trucy questioned with a light frown. "I guess that's to be expected though... The only difference is the cabinet. Why is it open in one picture and closed in the other?"

"I took the picture as soon as we arrived on the scene of the crime," Simon replied as he glanced over to the cabinet in question. "I didn't disturb the crime scene or anything of that nature before I went to look after Justice-dono. Even after he woke up, I didn't do anything to interfere with the scene of the murder."

"That's certainly something that we're going to have to check out while we're in the trial itself," Mr. Wright said as he looked down at the picture with a darkened gaze. "I don't know if we're going to be able to find an explanation for that right now."

"The evidence from the cabinet is already scattered on the floor in the first picture too," I noticed. "I guess that the cabinet would have been empty even if the doors were closed, and that certainly matches up with how the crime scene looks right now."

"The police didn't open the cabinet before they took the picture, did they?" Trucy questioned as she looked over in Detective Skye's direction. "Maybe they opened it for their investigation and simply forgot to close it again after the fact even though there was no reason for it to be open like that..."

The woman in question simply shook her head. "I heard from Detective Ponce that nothing was disturbed when the police took that picture. The scene was exactly how they saw it at the time of their arrival," she replied. "In other words, I have no idea where the cabinet's discrepancy could have come from. I didn't do anything to it, and I doubt that Detective Ponce would have left out something that important when passing the case off to me when he was heading out."

"It sounds like we're going to have to resolve that much during the trial tomorrow," Mr. Wright said. "For the time being, we should go and speak to the prosecutor on this case. If we're being given this chance, then we might as well take advantage of it and see where it leads us."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Trucy exclaimed. "Thanks for all your help, Detective Skye. You too, Prosecutor Gavin, Prosecutor Blackquill. I'm sure that we'll be able to use all of this to show the truth behind this case."

"I'll look forward to seeing you when the time comes," Detective Skye remarked, a light smile starting to play at her lips. "Good luck in the rest of your investigation. I'll take care of Prosecutor Blackquill and the fop." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Prosecutor Gavin offer a half-hearted smile and shake of his head at the comment, but I could tell that he was much wearier at the remark than he was willing to admit openly.

"See you then," I smiled to her as I offered a final wave and turned on my heel to leave the room. Trucy and Mr. Wright trailed after me, and I began to search for the room that Detective Skye had pointed out to us as the prosecutor's office.

It didn't take long to find the office with the nameplate of 'Sora Lin' on it, and I glanced to Mr. Wright and Trucy before shifting my attention to the door once again. I raised one hand and knocked at the wood before taking a step backward, not wanting to do anything that could potentially overwhelm the other party in our inevitable conversation.

"Coming!" came a melodic voice from inside the office. It didn't take long for the door to open from there, and I was able to get a full view of the one who was going to be our rival in the upcoming trial.

The first thing that I noticed was her hair color, bold teal and tied back into two simple ponytails. Her bangs were dyed blonde and swept off to one side, and pink streaks ran through the bulk of her hair. Her shirt was on the loose side while still remaining formal, and it was a white color with hints of pastel yellow at the edges. Her three-quarter jacket was a turquoise color as well, and her prosecutor's badge was on full display where it was pinned to her lapel. She wore fingerless black gloves as well. Her trousers went straight down and were pink in color, cutting off just above black ankle boots with heels so prominent that it was almost terrifying. I didn't know how she was able to balance herself in such exaggerated shoes, and it took more effort than I'm willing to admit to not stare at her shoes.

Prosecutor Sora Lin smiled as she took a brief glance over all of us. "You must be the defense team for this case, yes?" she prompted. She didn't even wait for an answer as she pivoted on her heel and gestured for us to follow her into the office. "Come on in."

"How did you know that we were the defense team?" I questioned, my eyes going wide with surprise. I hadn't expected her to have already heard about us being the ones on this case given how we hadn't interacted with her up to this point. Had somebody managed to tell her about us without any of us even realizing what was happening?

"I've heard a lot about your agency, and given the fact that you're here just after a murder took place, it's easy enough to put the pieces together," Prosecutor Lin replied with a nonchalant shrug. "Anyway, I take it that you're here to discuss the incident, yes? In that case, I suppose that I should go on and introduce myself properly. My name is Sora Lin, and I'll be the prosecutor overlooking this trial."

"I feel as if an introduction on our end would be somewhat redundant," came a chuckle from Mr. Wright. He watched silently as Prosecutor Lin sat down behind her desk and gestured for all of us to take seats on the couch positioned elsewhere in the office against the wall. "You already seem to know quite a bit about us."

Prosecutor Lin offered a shrug at those words. "I've done my research. I can put it that way. Your agency has solved quite a few cases, and I like to think that I know a thing or two about notable cases that happen around here," she explained casually. "Either way, it seems that my suspicions about you being the defense team for this case were confirmed. We have quite a bit to talk about then."

"It's odd to have a prosecutor talk to us so casually about the details of a case, I must admit," I frowned. I normally wouldn't have said something of this nature out loud, but I couldn't help my curiosity regarding her actions. It seemed so out of the ordinary that I simply had to point it out.

"I'm looking forward to being able to cooperate with you all on the investigation of this case. That's all there is to it," Prosecutor Lin responded simply. "I know that you all have a duty to the truth, and that's something that I aim to find as well. I believe that we're all going to get along incredibly well, and if you think that there's a fault in the logic of the murder, then we can work through it together and ultimately determine what it is that caused such a discrepancy."

"This entire case feels like a contradiction," Trucy commented, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. "Polly would never do anything to hurt anyone, much less kill somebody!"

"I wasn't the one who was given the option to arrest him, unfortunately," Prosecutor Lin said with a light wince. "The police handled that before I was offered the chance to look after this case by Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth. There are still a few details that have yet to be fully worked out, but the presumed motive right now involves the fact that the victim forged evidence in a trial against your agency that the defendant was leading."

"That's what we heard during our investigation too," I frowned. "But there has to be something wrong with that idea. I know that he didn't do this, so there has to be somebody else who's setting him up. It's just a matter of figuring out who that could possibly be."

"Then we'll figure it out together," Prosecutor Lin smiled. "I don't want the culprit to get away with murder, let me assure you. The defendant of this case deserves justice, and the culprit will have to face it one way or another as well. I'll make sure of that much. Until the time comes for that to be shown in full though, all we can do is continue to investigate the case and move closer to revealing the truth for everyone to see. It's just a matter of time before everything comes together to show us just what happened at the time of the murder."

"Speaking of the time of the murder, I do have to ask..." Trucy began to say. "We heard that you weren't in the meeting with the rest of the prosecutors at the time of the crime. What exactly were you doing when the murder took place?"

"Oh, that's an easy enough question to answer. I was meeting with a few people who came up to see me at the last minute," Prosecutor Lin replied. "I was with the two of them the entire time that the meeting was going on. Still, don't think that's going to stop me from finding the truth behind what happened at the time of the murder. I'm not going to let the truth get away from us, and I'll make sure that it's found one way or another."

I had to admit that all of this earnest honesty was starting to put me off. I knew that it was a strange thing to find odd, but given the way that past prosecutors had been less than forthcoming when it came to speaking with the defense outside of court, it felt almost natural for me to doubt her on instinct. Still, her voice didn't show any signs of lying about her ideals, and that was at least somewhat reassuring, right? Well, it should have been, but there was still something that was bothering me about this.

It seemed as if I wasn't the only one who was feeling this way. Mr. Wright rose to his feet and started to look at both myself and Trucy a moment later. "We should probably get back to our investigation for now," he said. "Thank you for speaking with us, Prosecutor Lin."

"Oh, it's no issue at all," Prosecutor Lin replied with a smile. "I'll see you later then!" She waved to us, her expression so overwhelmingly bright that it caught me by surprise. I didn't think that I had ever met a prosecutor who was so forthcoming and obviously nice about everything. It was certainly different from going up against Simon the way that I had in the past, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to continue nagging at me even as the case went to court.

We got out of the office quickly from there, and I shut the door after Trucy had come out into the hallway. I glanced over to Mr. Wright and Trucy before I let out a small sigh. "That is not how I expected that to go," I confessed. "I don't think that I've ever seen a prosecutor be that... I don't know... Shamelessly nice."

"She sort of reminds me of Prosecutor Gavin," Trucy remarked with a light smile. "But I suppose that even then, they're pretty different with how they handle trials and investigations. At least she isn't trying to chase us off the scene of a crime for any reason. That's certainly a refreshing change, huh?"

Mr. Wright nodded. "You can say that again. For now, we might want to wrap up our investigation. I can't think of anything that could be considered out of the ordinary, and there's no reason in us sticking around here for any longer than we have to," he pointed out.

I agreed with him on that much, and I started to walk away from the office from there. However, I was a bit focused on getting out away from the hallway that I wasn't entirely paying attention as I rounded the corner that would take us in the direction of the elevator leading downstairs. As such, I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

I hit something without anything resembling grace, and a gasp left my lips as I stumbled backwards. Trucy and Mr. Wright had stopped walking behind me, clearly looking at whoever I had just bumped into. I swallowed dryly before starting to examine the new arrival for myself.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were there!"

The person in question was on the taller side, and he certainly seemed like he was in his element in the Prosecutor's Office. He had black hair that faded out to blue and gray at the edges despite his youthful face. He was wearing a dark gray suit over a blue shirt with black dress shoes. Black gloves without finger sections hid his hands from my sight. His eyes were bright blue and gleamed notably even in the light of the unfortunate situation that we had found ourselves in.

"Are you alright?" the man questioned, his eyes overflowing with concern. Everything about him appeared to be somewhat nervous over the sudden encounter, but I could tell that he was being genuine with his concern.

I nodded, still not entirely sure who I had even run into in the first place. "Yeah, I'm fine," I assured him with a shake of my head. "Nothing is going to take me down that easily."

It was only after I went to observe the man a second time that I noticed that he wasn't alone. There was a second person standing at his side, small enough to seem as if she was being consumed by his shadow. She was about Apollo's height if I had to guess, and she was watching all of us with gray-blue eyes framed by thin bronze glasses. Everything about her gaze came off as somewhat critical in a way that I struggled to explain. She had lengthy light brown hair tied into a ponytail at the base of her neck, though upon closer examination, I noticed that her tresses were braided until they reached her neck. She was wearing a gray jacket over a teal shirt with black leggings and boots. Fingerless black gloves covered her hands the same way that they hid the man's palms from view. The last notable thing about her was a greenish blue charm that was hanging around her neck on a single piece of simple string.

"I still feel bad about that. I should have watched where I was going," the man insisted with a light smile. He glanced over the three of us before clearing his throat. "I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Cotoli Morix. I'm a defense attorney, and this is Chrysalis. As for you three..."

"I'm Athena Cykes, and these two are Phoenix and Trucy Wright," I introduced quickly. The other two offered smiles in the direction of the newcomer as well.

"I've heard of you," Mr. Morix smiled. "Your trials have become quite notable within local circles, and dare I say, even outside of that range. I never thought that we would meet this way though."

"It's nice to meet you," I told him with a conversational grin of my own. "If you don't mind my asking, can I inquire as to why you're here at the Prosecutor's Office in the first place? A murder took place here recently, so I don't think that people unrelated to the case are allowed inside..."

"Ah, I can explain that easily," Mr. Morix assured me. "I was here at the time of the murder, and so was Chrysalis. We were speaking with Prosecutor Sora Lin as of the time of the crime. We were just on our way to speak with her now, as a matter of fact."

"What a coincidence! That's where we just came from," I remarked casually. "Since you were here at the time of the crime though, I need to know... Did you see anything out of the ordinary at the time of the murder? We're the defense team for this case, so we're trying to find out anything that we can about what was going on when the murder took place."

"I'm afraid not," Mr. Morix replied, his expression slipping into a small frown. "I was in Sora's office the entire time alongside Chrysalis here. We didn't leave the office until after the body had been discovered. I can say conclusively that both of them can vouch for me on that much, and we can all assure you that we weren't involved with the murder because we were together the whole time."

"I see..." Mr. Wright murmured with a small frown. I could tell that he was slightly disappointed to not have been offered the chance to find more evidence on the case, but unfortunately, there wasn't anything that we could do about that. "If you just so happen to find out anything else that could help with determining the truth behind the case, please come and find us. We're willing to listen to anything that you might be able to tell us about the time of the murder."

"I promise that we'll both keep that in mind," Mr. Morix assured him. He glanced down to the smaller girl at his side, and I noticed that Chrysalis had been staring at us the entire conversation in complete silence. She hadn't opened her mouth once, simply watching in the quiet instead. Her eyes were impossible to read, and I could tell that there was something more going on in the back of her mind. I didn't know what it was that she could have possibly been thinking as we met gazes briefly, but I could tell almost immediately after we locked eyes that I didn't want to have to stare at her any longer than I had to. She was striking to an almost terrifying degree, almost as if she was somehow able to see straight through me to the wall that was stationed behind my back.

Chrysalis didn't break eye contact with me as she nodded at Mr. Morix's words, and he smiled at that small but important action. "I suppose that we should leave you to the rest of your investigation now," he said. "We don't want to keep you any longer than we already have given that we don't know much of anything about the murder itself. Still, I will wish you good luck. I hope that you're able to find the truth soon. We'll be at the trial tomorrow to see what happens next. Until we meet again."

Mr. Morix offered a small wave and smile to us before he started to walk past us, Chrysalis in his shadow even still. He walked into Prosecutor Lin's office without even bothering to knock, and a moment later, both him and the strange girl at his side had disappeared from view. I found myself staring at the place where they had been even after they were gone from my line of sight.

"That was certainly interesting," Mr. Wright commented under his breath, and I could tell that he was primarily referring to the strange way that Chrysalis had been watching us throughout the entire conversation. Even as Mr. Morix talked with us casually and kindly about what we were doing at the crime scene, she remained quiet, and we didn't know anything about her beyond her name. It certainly struck me as odd, that was for sure.

"We should go on and call our investigation there for the day," Trucy declared. "We said that we didn't have anything else left to look for, so we'll just have to have faith that we've gathered enough evidence for the trial tomorrow. At the very least, it seems like Prosecutor Lin isn't going to be pushing back too much against us. Well, she's not going to be easy to get past, but she's not going to be a blatant obstacle either."

I nodded. "I have to say, it's strange to not have to worry as much about the prosecution getting in the way of what we're doing," I told her. "I mean, I'm so used to the prosecution not wanting to give us the chance to do much of anything out of the ordinary. Granted, I'm not complaining about this, but... I don't know. I guess it's just kind of... Weird."

"I agree," Mr. Wright said with a small nod. I could tell there was still something on his mind, and Trucy could as well. We both looked over to Mr. Wright carefully, silently trying to prod him into saying whatever was continuing to plague him. He finally let out a sigh before shaking his head. "You know... I think that Chrysalis girl was wearing a Magatama around her neck."

I cast my mind back to the conversation that we had just shared with Mr. Morix and the strange girl at his side, and I realized soon afterward that he was right. The strange charm around her neck had been a Magatama just as Mr. Wright had claimed. I didn't have all that much experience when it came to Magatamas, but it was still clear as could be what the object had been when I looked back on the situation.

"That's odd..." Trucy murmured. "You don't see many people outside of Kurain with Magatamas. I don't think that I've ever seen someone with one aside from your friends, Daddy."

"It's odd, but there isn't anything that we can do about it right now," Mr. Wright declared. "I agree that we've concluded our investigation for the time being. We've found a lot of information about the time of the crime, and we'll simply have to rely on that when the trial comes around tomorrow."

"It still bothers me that there was the problem when it came to the cabinet door being open in one picture and closed in another," I confessed. "But I guess that we're just going to have to wait for that problem to resolve itself in the trial. It's not like we have a way of figuring out why that's the case right now, so... We'll do what we can tomorrow. Apollo is counting on us, and we can't let him down."

I received nods of determination from both Trucy and Mr. Wright with those words. Despite how even and confident I tried to sound, there was still something that was bothering me. I knew that it wasn't reasonable to allow my thoughts about the end of the investigation to color my views on the entire situation, but I still knew that I wasn't going to be able to stop thinking about the strange people that we had run into at the end of our search for quite some time. The more that I thought about it, the more I was convinced that there was something strange about that Chrysalis girl.

I did my best to shake that off though. We had to focus on the trial that was coming the next day, and Apollo was going to need us all to be on the top of our game. I couldn't let myself get distracted at a time like this. I was going to find the truth behind this case no matter what tried to get in my way. I wasn't going to back down after all that we had already done. The culprit was going to be revealed one way or another, and I would make sure of that much myself.

Another chapter in the bag! And this time, it knocked out the first session of investigation for this case!

I have to admit that this investigation wound up being handled a lot faster than I expected. My notes on this segment were pretty long, but I was able to take care of it in a pretty decent amount of time. Plus, I was able to get in the introductions for a certain pair of characters that are going to show their importance at a later point.

Speaking of that, this chapter marks the debut of the trio of characters that I brought over from Morix! For the uninformed, Morix is my other Ace Attorney-style series, though it's mostly Ace Attorney only in structure since it has completely different history, characters, etc. Chrysalis, Cotoli, and Sora are the 'holy trinity' of sorts out of my characters within the Morix series, and listen, if I'm going to write an Ace Attorney story, I have to involve them. Of course, these three aren't going to be the focus of the story since the central concentration is on the Wright Anything Agency at the end of the day, but they are here. Woohoo! Also, Sora got a new design for this story, and I adore it. I can't wait for everyone to see these three in full action, but for now, you all at least know who they are, and that's an important place to start.

Next week, we'll be starting off the first segment of the trial to try and prove Apollo's innocence. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated just like always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital