"Without further ado, it's time for us to let the show begin!"

"I don't know what you want from me. I told you that I didn't want to talk, but you don't seem to get it."

"Will all the performers please make their way to the stage now?"

"I want the truth. If you refuse to cooperate, then there will be consequences.

"This is the last call for anyone who will be taking to the stage!"

"Enough of this. Just... Leave it alone, would you? I have more important matters to take care of."

"If you insist on leaving me so soon, then so be it... But don't say that I didn't warn you."

*BANG*

May 1

Morix Law Offices

3:45 PM

Venus Rinko

I sat on the couch of the agency's primary lounge area, swinging my legs back and forth as I focused on the assignment sitting before me. It was getting close to final exams, and since I was a high schooler, that was as good as a death sentence in terms of my social life. It seemed like every minute of every day had to be dedicated to studying, especially given the fact that this was my junior year. You know how it is; junior year is supposedly the most important year out of high school when it comes to getting into college, so I had to crack down and really make sure that I knew everything that was going on.

Yuri wound up joining us today, though I didn't exactly hope for something like this. I didn't think that I wanted her to associate with the agency if it could be avoided. It wasn't as if I held anything against her or the people at the agency. Chrysalis and Mr. Morix were more than lovely, but I wasn't exactly fond of the idea of my twelve-year-old younger sister hanging around a place that specialized in finding the truth behind murder cases. Even if we had only solved two cases, that was still two too many as far as I was concerned, and I didn't want Yuri to have to be around that at all if it could be avoided.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice today. Mom was off at work focusing on picking up an extra shift at the hospital, and that meant that either me or Cass was going to have to look after Yuri. Of course, that duty ultimately fell to me when Cassidy said that she was off to take care of some 'secret business'. I didn't know what it was, but she wound up getting picked up in a car that I hadn't seen before. I didn't like that in the slightest either, but Cassidy assured me that everything was fine before she left the house.

Of course, that ultimately meant that she couldn't look after Yuri for the day, so the duty fell to me one way or another. I wasn't happy about having to bring Yuri into work, but it wasn't as if I had a choice in the matter. If this was how it was going to be, the very least I could do was be glad that we weren't in the middle of a case. I didn't want to have to drag Yuri all over creation investigating a murder trial. That certainly wasn't appropriate for someone her age, and it didn't feel right for me to do anything related to gruesome death while my sister was around.

Yuri was scrolling through her phone, her bow shifting as she tilted her head from side to side to pass the time. She had been pretty quiet ever since we settled down, recognizing that I had a lot to do. I couldn't even give her the chance to hang out with Chrysalis either; Chrysalis was out for the day at Mr. Morix's insistence. He claimed that she was getting too tense for her own good and needed to get out of the agency for at least a little while so that she could get rid of her lingering anxiety. Chrysalis had seemed a bit more antsy and on edge to me as well, so I was more than okay with letting her take a break from all of this. It was what she deserved. Mr. Morix said that Chrysalis was going to hang out with an old friend, though he had chuckled to himself when he spoke the words. I had the feeling that there was more to it, but I didn't press the issue. I had to get some extra studying in, and if there was nothing going on at the agency, then this was the perfect chance for me to do my own research.

The room had been quiet for quite some time when Yuri got to her feet, one hand clapping over her mouth suddenly. The motion came out of nowhere, and I almost jumped out of my skin at the sight of her so rattled. "No way!" Yuri cried out. She glanced up to me, her blue and red eyes boring into my soul. "Venus, you're never going to believe what I just found out about!"

"Does it have anything to do with a celebrity?" I questioned with a light chuckle. "I know that you've been particularly fond of that one star your age as of late... What's his name again? He's the blonde one, isn't he...?"

Yuri shook her head. "For the record, his name is James Devine, but that isn't anything close to what's going on," she told me. She dashed over to my side before sitting down next to me, pushing my history textbook onto the ground unceremoniously to make room for herself. "Look at this! It's a news headline!"

I frowned as I took her phone into my hand to look at what she had pointed out. It seemed that Yuri had gotten an alert on one of her news apps talking about what seemed to be a crime in the area. Most other kids her age didn't care much for news, but Yuri had practically every news app under the sun downloaded. She claimed that it was because she wanted to be able to know everything that was going on in the lives of her favorite stars. She had to be ready if she had something to find out quickly, or at the very least, that was what she claimed to be the case.

My eyes went wide as I read a bit deeper into the report. "There was a murder at the Blackgate Community Center..." I murmured. My voice trailed off soon afterwards, and I swallowed dryly. "I don't know if there's something I'm supposed to be noticing here aside from that."

"It's a murder case, isn't it?" Yuri questioned. I nodded slowly, still not understanding what she was trying to tell me. "And your job just so happens to involve looking into murder cases, doesn't it? Well, I think that it would be perfect if we called it quits here in terms of just sitting around to go off and investigate whatever went down at the community center! It has to be more exciting than studying, right?"

"No," I told her immediately. Yuri opened her mouth to ask why I was turning her down so quickly, but I simply shook my head. "I know what I said, Yuri. I don't think that it's right for you to be exposed to something so gruesome at your age. I know that you claim that you're all grown up now, but you're still my baby sister. Cass wouldn't approve of you getting involved with something like this either, and Mom would probably lose her mind if she heard."

"You and Cassidy got involved with this sort of thing though," Yuri countered, her expression devolving into a pout. "You're denying me all of my curiosity and its benefits just because I'm younger than you are? That's messed up, Vee."

"Cassidy and I did not get involved with murder cases of our own free will, Yuri. Being arrested for a crime is very different from going into it voluntarily, and I think that you're still too young for it. You aren't even a teenager yet, and I don't want to put you at risk of being traumatized because of what you could find there," I insisted. "Please just... Trust me on this. I want you to do what you can to stay safe, and it's my job as your sister to push you in the right direction."

"What's going on in here?"

Mr. Morix walked in soon afterwards, papers in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. He sat down on the other couch in the area, the papers between his fingers sliding onto the table nearby. He took a sip of his tea before he leveled his gaze in my direction curiously.

"Yuri here just found out that there was a murder near here, and she was asking if we could investigate it. To be more specific, she was asking if she could join us on the investigation, and I told her that was not an option," I explained. "I'm not going to put her at risk this way when she's as young as she is."

Mr. Morix wisely chose to not get involved with the bickering between me and my sister, instead taking yet another sip of his drink. "Where was this murder?" he questioned passively.

"The Blackgate Community Center," Yuri replied. "That's what the news article says anyways."

I was immediately glad to see that Mr. Morix wasn't taking a drink of his tea when Yuri spoke those words, as he almost definitely would have spat out the tea as soon as he processed what Yuri said. His gaze rose in her direction, paranoia overcoming his eyes. "The community center?!" he cried out.

Yuri nodded. "There was a gymnastics competition being held there today, and there was something that happened during the contest that caused someone to wind up being killed... Why do you look so pale all of a sudden?"

Mr. Morix set down his unfinished tea on the table and rose to his feet. "I have to get down there," he said quickly. I was about to question why he was so agitated about it, but he answered my inquiry a moment later without even batting an eyelash. "That's where Chrysalis is. I have to make sure that she's alright."

There was a call to action if I had ever heard it. I jumped to my feet a moment later, Yuri doing the same beside me. "I guess that we've got to go and check it out then," I told him. Yuri's expression swelled with excitement, but I quickly glanced over in her direction with a frown. "It's still not going to happen. I'm not going to let you get wrapped up in something like this. We're just going to speak with Mr. Morix's younger sister. Don't get any ideas."

"It's a start," Yuri insisted with a smile. She turned her phone off and shoved it into her pocket as she dashed off in the direction of the door. It didn't take long for me and Mr. Morix to trail after her. Mr. Morix couldn't seem to calm his nerves no matter how hard he tried, not that I could blame him. If I was in this situation, I would have been overwhelmed too. My sisters meant the world to me, and I didn't know what I would do if anything ever happened to them. For the time being though, all we could do was hope that Chrysalis was alright. She was a tough girl, and I had to have faith that she would find a way to pull through.

May 1

Blackgate Community Center

4:15 PM

Venus Rinko

The community center's parking lot was almost completely full, and all I could do was stare at the countless cars parked in the area with pure surprise. The police cars that were cordoning off the entrances only made things more chaotic, and I could only imagine that things were going to be worse when we got into the building itself. I swallowed dryly and took Yuri's hand in my own. She looked up at me with a dissatisfied look in her eyes, not at all happy with the way that I was babying her, but I didn't allow myself to bend under the weight of her youthful charms. I had to look after her, and I was going to do that no matter what she tried to pressure me into doing.

Mr. Morix started maneuvering through the crowd with expert precision, not at all stopping even when he thought that he had accidentally bumped into someone. He simply offered a haphazard apology before he kept pressing on. It was a bit of a chore to keep my eyes on him, but luckily, his height made it easier to see him than it would have been otherwise. I tightened my grip on Yuri's fingers just to make sure that she didn't get away from me.

Mr. Morix only stopped his path through the building when he found someone that he was satisfied with. At first, all I could see was a flash of turquoise in the heat of the crowd, but as we got closer, I could tell that this was a tall person with teal hair. I wasn't entirely sure who they were or how they were connected to Mr. Morix, but I figured that I was going to find answer soon enough.

As Yuri and I broke through the crowd to arrive in the vicinity of the person in question, I gazed at her from head to toe. It was a woman who appeared to be about Mr. Morix's age, though she was probably a few years younger if anything. Her hair was teal and tied into twin ponytails with pink streaks running through her tresses. Her bangs were a bright yellow color and swept to one side, pinned out of her face by a few white barrettes. Her clothing was casual and bright to match the colors of her hair.

"Cotoli!" came a familiar voice from nearby. Standing right next to the tall woman of turquoise was none other than Chrysalis, one hand covering her mouth in her surprise to see Mr. Morix. She looked over to me and Yuri a moment later, though she refused to meet either one of our gazes after the initial glance. I chose to not take it personally since I knew that she was stressed out, and the atmosphere of the situation wasn't helping that in the slightest with all of the constant chatter and yelling of the crowd. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard that something happened, and I had to come make sure that you were alright," Mr. Morix replied. He shifted his attention over to the teal-haired woman a moment later, a sigh leaving his lips. "Sora, thank you so much for looking after Chrysalis. I'm glad that both of you are alright. When I heard that there was a murder, I couldn't help but fear for the worst."

"It's fine, Cotoli," the woman, Sora, told him casually with a wave of her hand. She threw one arm around Chrysalis' shoulders before pulling her close, and much to my surprise, Chrysalis did nothing to protest the action. "You know that I wouldn't let anything like that happen to either one of us. What kind of babysitter for the day would I be if I let something bad happen to my baby sister?"

"Sister?" I echoed, my eyes going wide. That was news to me; I had only been aware that Mr. Morix and Chrysalis were siblings, and if there truly was another member of their family, I certainly hadn't heard about them up to this point. I glanced over to Yuri, but she didn't seem anywhere near as surprised as I was, likely because she had nowhere near as much experience with the siblings as I did. I shifted my attention over in the direction of the two sisters(?) next.

"Ah, yes," Mr. Morix explained, glancing over to me. "Venus, Yuri... Allow me to introduce you to Sora Lin. She's my younger sister. She's two years younger than I am, so she's still older than Chrysalis."

"It's nice to meet you," I nodded in Sora's direction. "I'm Venus Rinko, and this is Yuri, my younger sister."

"Rinko?" Sora echoed, her eyes going wide. "There's a name that I recognize... You wouldn't happen to be related to Cassidy Rinko, would you?"

"I'm her older sister," I replied, my face slipping into a frown. "But I don't understand... How is it it that you know about her? I don't think that she's ever met you before. I feel like I would have heard about that if it was the case."

"She's been around the Prosecutor's Office quite a bit lately. That's where I work, you know. It's funny, isn't it? Cotoli and Chrysalis wound up going to the defensive side of the courtroom where I went to the other end of the spectrum. It's pretty ironic, huh?" Sora questioned with an easy smile.

That almost made my eyes bug out of my head. "What?!" I cried out. "You mean... Cassidy's been at the Prosecutor's Office lately? But that's not... She hasn't been..."

All of a sudden, it hit me in the face like a punch to the cheek. Cassidy had been picked up that morning to go somewhere, and that was why I wound up looking after Yuri for the day. What if she had been going to the Prosecutor's Office? That didn't make any sense though. I didn't want her involved with this any more than I wanted Yuri tied up with these sorts of things, and I hated the idea of her going out to learn more about prosecution and such, especially if it went behind my back.

"She's been working a lot with another prosecutor that I collaborate with sometimes. His name is Ghastly Bespoke. Cotoli's said a few times that they've faced off against each other in court, and Ghastly's mentioned it too. I don't think that he's ever been this passionate about his work before, but here we are!" Sora laughed.

"I have to wonder why I didn't hear about this until now either," Mr. Morix frowned. "I didn't realize that Cassidy was going out of her way to go to the Prosecutor's Office..."

"I think that we can ask her for answers when we see her next," Chrysalis suggested. "For now, I want to try and get out of the crowd so that we can talk about what happened... After all, this isn't exactly the best situation to be in, and I think that we should go on and get all of our discussion about the case out of the way sooner rather than later."

Mr. Morix nodded his agreement, and he carefully took Chrysalis' hand in his own. From there, he started to lead us away from the crowd and to a somewhat secluded area that I concluded was a hallway leading to the bathrooms. I was immediately glad to not be surrounded by so many people, and it was like a weight had been pulled off my chest. Of course, that still didn't take away the fact that I had no idea what was going on when it came to Cassidy. Just what was she getting up to? Why didn't she want to do anything to talk about it? I didn't understand what was going on, but I wasn't going to let Cassidy keep this a secret from me any longer than she already had.

"Well... I guess that we should start off by talking about what we saw," Sora began. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall behind her. "To be perfectly honest with you... We saw the exact moment of the murder."

"What?!" Mr. Morix cried out. "Sora, I don't know how you can be so casual about all of this...! Seeing something like that isn't at all a joke!"

"I know that it isn't, but before you freak out, it wasn't as if we just so happened to get unlucky enough to see this murder alone. We weren't the only ones to see what happened," Sora told him, speaking quickly to cover for her tracks. "The entire crowd saw what was going on, as a matter of fact. You see... A gymnastics competition was being held here today, and the victim... The victim was in the middle of her routine when she was shot in front of the crowd."

"Wow... That definitely makes for a lot of witnesses," I murmured with a shake of my head. "I don't know who the culprit is, but they must have a lot of confidence to feel comfortable committing a murder in front of an entire audience. I don't like the sound of that in the slightest."

"I can't blame you in the slightest," Sora sighed. "As soon as the gunshot rang out, everybody tried to evacuate quickly. I grabbed Chrysalis and started to get out of there. I didn't want anything bad to happen to either one of us, and I think that I made the right choice... Anyways, the gym has been cordoned off ever since we first left the place behind. The police arrived, and a detective has been looking after the scene of the murder."

"Do you know anything else about what happened?" I questioned, my eyes going wide. I didn't like what I was hearing, but it wasn't as if we were going to be able to learn more if I kept on clamming up and refusing to listen to what Chrysalis and Sora had to say.

"Not really," Chrysalis confessed. "We were here in the first place because a certain pair of siblings of mine insisted that I had to get out and get rid of some tension or whatever. Cotoli and Sora that I was working myself too hard, so they said that I had to take a break from the agency... Sora just so happened to be a special celebrity judge for this competition, so we were sitting away from most of the rest of the crowd. She said that it would be the perfect chance for me to do something out of my comfort zone, and she practically dragged me here this morning to see what was going on."

"A celebrity judge?" Yuri asked, her eyes going wide. She glanced over Sora's body in full once more, and her hands clapped over her mouth. "Wait a moment...! You said that your name was Sora Lin, right?" When she was met with a nod from the woman in question, Yuri let out a high-pitched squeal. "I was wondering where I recognized you from! You're a famous singer online!"

Sora grinned brightly and snapped in Yuri's direction. "You're pretty sharp! It's true. I do have something of a music career online. I record music on my own time and post it online for people to see. Of course, I tend to focus more on my legal career above everything else, but... I do sing online in both English and Japanese. Being bilingual sure does make performing even more fun than it would be otherwise," she explained. "They wanted to have a special celebrity judge for finals here today, so I was invited to come and see what was going on."

"I do have to wonder why finals for a gymnastics competition would be held here," I admitted with a shake of my head. "I don't know... I guess that I just didn't realize that this was a place where people would want to host a large event like this. It doesn't seem to be the type of building meant to hold large crowds like this, and yet... Well, look at the crowds out there. It's gotten a lot of visitors here anyways."

"That's because the competition wasn't supposed to be held here," Sora told me. "It was originally going to be at a college near here, but an unexpected incident wound up causing the gym to need construction there. One of the basketball hoops wound up being... Well, let's just say that it was much more fragile than people thought at first, and it fell from the ceiling to hit the ground. The floor of the gym and the ceiling are going to need some renovations because of the weakness in the basketball hoop that fell over, so it was moved here at the last minute."

"The other plan was going to be for it to be at the high school in town, but that wound up not working out because there was an event at the school today," Chrysalis said. "That was what Sora told me earlier, at the very least. This was the third choice for the event, and... Well, here we are."

"I see..." I murmured. "It sounds like whatever happened here was planned in advance. I somehow doubt that anybody would just randomly decide to shoot a gymnast to death while they were in the middle of their performance. This was definitely a premeditated crime."

"I guess that our only option at this point is to start looking around and see what we can find," Yuri grinned as she nudged me with her elbow. I shot her a small glare to silence her, but Yuri didn't seem to care in the slightest, instead simply crossing her arms with a defiant sheen to her eyes as she looked away from me.

"I don't know who they've even arrested, and I don't know if we would be able to get into the scene of the crime to see what's goin on in the first place," Chrysalis frowned. "It might be best for us to just stay here. There are going to be some interrogations, you know, so we have to be ready to listen to what the police have to say. Maybe we'll get lucky and have the chance to talk to someone that we actually like speaking with."

"Don't you worry about that," Sora told her. "I'm a prosecutor, and if I say that I want to get onto the scene of the crime, I can do that. Of course, I'm only going to be doing that if Cotoli thinks that he wants to investigate that case. It's not like I can prosecute this case, and Chrysalis won't be able to do anything in terms of defending either. We're both going to be witnesses for this case as far as I can tell, so that means that it's up to you if you want to look into this, Cotoli."

Mr. Morix hesitated for a long moment, lost in thought as he tried to figure out what the best option was. "Alright," he finally agreed. "We aren't guaranteed to take this case, but we can at least do a little bit of looking around for the time being. I'm counting on you to be able to get into this place, Sora."

His sister simply nodded and gave him a saluting motion. She took off into the crowd soon afterwards, dragging Chrysalis along with her. Mr. Morix followed in their footsteps, and I did the same thing. Yuri remained at my side, her smile practically glued to her features.

"Would you look at that?" Yuri asked excitedly. "It seems like we're going to be able to investigate this case anyways. Isn't that just a funny little coincidence? I didn't see this coming at all, but I'm certainly not complaining about it."

I sighed and shook my head. "If you think that I'm going to let you do anything risky, you would be sorely mistaken," I told her sternly. "You aren't going to be looking at any dead bodies today. I know that you think all of this is fun times, but things can get pretty gruesome here. I'm going to make sure that you don't wind up getting hurt in the shuffle of all this. You have to do exactly as I say if you want to be here. Do we understand each other?"

Yuri scoffed. "You act like I'm still a little kid, Vee. I can look after myself, and I'm not going to get into any trouble," she assured me. "I'll just stay close to you and see what we wind up finding. How does that sound?"

I nodded at her words, though I had to confess that I still wasn't entirely convinced by all of this. I hated the idea of Yuri being involved with a murder investigation like this, but I didn't think that I was going to be able to force her away from the scene no matter how hard I tried. Yuri was a Rinko just as much as I was, and unfortunately, that meant that she inherited our firm stubbornness along the way. I was just going to have to put up with that whether I wanted to or not. For the time being, all I could do was make sure that she didn't find herself in significant trouble while we were looking around. I owed that much to both her and myself.

It wasn't long before we arrived outside the gymnasium where all of this took place to begin with. Sora flashed her prosecutor's badge to get us inside, and we were given the chance to move behind the police tape keeping onlookers away from the scene. I kept one hand firmly linked with Yuri's just to make sure that she stayed out of trouble. I didn't like that this was happening in the first place, but it was too late to go back on it. All we could do for the time being was see what exactly had taken place at the time of the crime. I just hoped that it didn't wind up blowing up in our face one way or another. Yuri deserved better than that, and so did the rest of us.

Case three time!

-Digital