April 9

Train Station

Loading Platform No. 3

4:30 PM

With our discussion with the trio of detectives finished, Trucy and I started to make our way across the loading platform to where we thought this witness of ours was going to be. I still didn't like the idea of us having to talk to someone who was intimidating even int he eyes of the other investigators and witnesses on this case, but I knew that we didn't have much of a choice if we wanted to learn what had happened at the time of the murder. Speaking with this witness was the best chance we had, and I steeled my resolve before starting to look around in full, ignoring the anxiety that was starting to mount in my stomach.

"What are you two doing here?"

The sound of the voice snapped me out of my daze immediately, and it took me much longer than I would care to admit to force my heart to slow its suddenly rapid pace. I turned around to see that Trucy and I had been approached by a man who I could only describe as wolflike. His teeth were sharpened, and his hair was spiky in a way that was smooth and almost a bit too perfect. I could have sworn I felt my soul leave my body for a split second, but I shoved it aside as I concentrated on the man in full. As far as I could tell, he was one of the other investigators on the case, not that I had much evidence to back that up.

"We're the defense team on this case," Trucy explained, responding long before I would have ever been able to. "We're looking for one of the witnesses who might be able to tell us more about what happened at the time of the crime."

The man reached up and pulled a pair of sunglasses off his face. I had been so distracted by all the other sharp edges of his appearance that I hadn't even noticed them, and as soon as he had pulled the lenses away from his face, he tucked them away into his pocket. "I'm probably the person you want to start with then," he said. His voice was somewhat rough around the edges, and once again, the wolf analogy felt all too accurate.

"Would you mind telling us your name?" I questioned carefully. I hadn't heard about there being any other witnesses aside from the character Ms. Byrde and Detective Jade had mentioned, though I supposed a lot of people could have been involved with this case, especially given the number of passengers on the train.

The man examined Trucy and me carefully before he seemed to decide it was alright to respond. "Shi-Long Lang," he replied simply. "I'm an agent working with Interpol."

Suddenly, his intimidation factor made a lot more sense, and I nodded at that. "You're the one we're supposed to be talking to, as a matter of fact," I murmured, though I could already tell Agent Lang didn't find it quite as awkward and mutely entertaining the way I did.

"We can talk after you two say what you're doing here," Agent Lang said, his eyes narrowing as he continued to stare long and hard at Trucy and me. "We can go over the details once you've explained more about why you're here."

"My name is Apollo Justice, and this is Trucy Wright," I replied. "Like Trucy said before, we're the ones taking care of this case as the defense team. Since you're a witness, it would be really helpful if you would share your testimony with us. That would make our lives a lot easier."

"Wright..." Agent Lang muttered under his breath before he glanced up to Trucy. "You wouldn't happen to be related to one Phoenix Wright, would you?"

Trucy's eyes went wide. "That's my daddy," she responded. "Do you know him?"

"We've met a few times, though it's been a long time since I saw him," Agent Lang explained. "I didn't realize he had a kid... You two said that you're the ones looking after the defendant, right?"

I nodded. "We are," I confirmed, though I wasn't sure why he was asking us about it so many times.

Agent Lang chuckled to himself with a light shake of her head. "Sis has good taste..." he said under his breath, his voice oddly fond as he released the words. After a moment of further contemplation, he glanced up to me and Trucy once again. "Alright. I'll talk. What do you want to know?"

"If there's anything you think we should know, that's a good place to start," I answered. I didn't understand what he was talking about when he mentioned 'Sis,' though I could only assume that was Prosecutor von Karma. In other words, these two knew each other, and if that was the case, he likely wasn't going to outright testify against her when the case went to court the following morning. That had to count for something in our favor, especially given how damning the case had proven itself to be up to this point.

Agent Lang sighed, and everything about his expression seemed to twist to become something oddly bitter. "I was supposed to be looking after the evidence involved with the transfer," he said simply, not bothering to explain the details of it. I assumed he thought we already knew that much given our position, and since he was correct, I simply allowed him to keep talking. "It was supposed to be a secret operation, but I was there in case something went wrong. Unfortunately for us, someone managed to figure out what was going on and used that as a chance to attack."

"Do you know who it was that attacked you?" Trucy questioned, her expression overcome with determination. "That would help us out a lot in proving Prosecutor von Karma didn't do it."

Agent Lang shook his head. "I didn't get a good luck at them, but it seemed to be a smaller woman with light-colored hair. Everything happened so quickly that I wasn't able to pick up on much more than that... Though I don't think Sis was the one who did it. I've known her for a long time, and not only is she not the type to do something like this in the first place, but I would have recognized her if she did do it. The officers I've talked to have seemed more than ready to ignore that fact though. They think it's still possible she was responsible for the murder even though I'm saying she couldn't have done it."

"I'm glad you think she's innocent," I smiled to myself. At least there was someone who thought Prosecutor von Karma was innocent; given the circumstances of the case, it was relieving to know Trucy and I weren't alone in thinking somebody else must have committed the crime. "Could you give us any more details about the time when you were attacked? Anything at all would help."

"I can't tell you much, but the person who did it was on the shorter side. They had chloroform on them, and they used that to knock me out before I had the chance to respond. When I came to, there were two detectives looking over me. I hadn't ever met them, but they did what they could to help me out of it," Agent Lang replied. "I looked through the evidence after that, and I noticed that a few pieces of crucial evidence from the transfer had gone missing. I still don't know where they are, but I think it's easy to assume that the person who attacked me was the one who took them. Why else would they go to all the trouble of knocking me out in the first place?"

"I think the person who committed the murder was probably the same one who sabotaged the train and attacked Agent Lang," Trucy told me, shifting her attention squarely in my direction. "That just begs the question of who could have done that to begin with... Prosecutor von Karma was suspected because she was at the back of the train when the crime took place and gave the victim the teacup, but maybe we can prove she wasn't responsible by starting from the other crimes that took place at the time."

"If the culprit was responsible for all of the incidents that took place at the time of the crime, then it would be best for us to start from the back," I agreed with a small nod. We clearly weren't going to be making any progress in this case unless we turned our thinking around from the start. The circumstances surrounding Prosecutor von Karma's arrest were just too incriminating, so it would be for the best if we thought about this creatively from the outset. I didn't know what frame of mind we were going to need to address this, but we were going to have to change our way of thinking somehow.

"Can you tell us anything about the victim that might explain why she was killed to begin with?" Trucy asked. "I don't understand why she was the only one who was murdered in the evidence transfer. If the culprit wanted the evidence that badly, there was no reason to kill people when knocking you out with chloroform was clearly more than enough."

"I don't know, but I can say that Fleur was doing a lot of research on her own outside of her work with Interpol," Agent Lang started to explain. "With the recent rise of Oracle, she decided to try and learn what she could about the case that started all of this, GC-9. I don't think she was able to find anything, but she followed every lead she could get her hands on to try and figure out what was going on. Part of the evidence transfer was bringing the evidence from GC-9 to Interpol headquarters for her to work on her investigation to try and figure out who Oracle was. I don't know all the details about the evidence that went missing, but I'm sure some of it was from GC-9 and other cases that could have been involved with it."

"Oracle..." I murmured as I shifted my attention down to the ground. I didn't know what to do with this information, but I could tell that once again, the Oracle of the Law was going to be a note of import for this investigation. I supposed that the exposure of Prosecutor Turner was already having profound consequences even going beyond the case where he was killed.

"She kept a log of everything she thought she might be involved with the case, and she had her notes with her when she came onto the train," Agent Lang continued. "I've looked through them a few times, and I've got a copy of her notes here... Unfortunately, the copy was made after the murder took place, so it's incomplete."

"Why would the copy of the notes being made after the murder have anything to do with something concerning?" Trucy questioned.

Agent Lang reached into a bag slung over one shoulder before passing us a small stack of paper. "I told you before that I've looked through her notes before, so I can tell you conclusively that some of her research went missing when the murder took place. I can't say where the notes went to, but some pages are gone. The pages are even numbered, and some of them are gone. You can see it for yourselves if you look through the papers I just gave you."

I did as he instructed and started to flick through the pages bound between my fingers, and sure enough, there were a few pages that were missing as per the numbers in the corner. "I wonder if the culprit had any interest in taking her notes," I murmured. "Well, they must have wanted them for some reason if the notes are gone to begin with, but... It makes me wonder what their logic was. They must have had some reasoning behind it, and it could have something to do with the specific pieces of evidence that went missing too."

"I don't know for sure, but we're doing all we can to figure out what happened," Agent Lang replied. "Speaking of, I should probably get back to looking around here. If anyone thinks that a bit of chloroform is going to stop me from uncovering the truth behind this case, they're kidding themselves."

"We should probably go and see who else we can talk to around the train too," Trucy agreed with a small nod. "Thanks for everything, Agent Lang! We're going to do what we can to find the truth! You can count on that much!"

"I'll be looking forward to it," Agent Lang said. He started to walk away from us, but he paused and shot us a final glance over his shoulder. "Do what you can for Sis for me."

He was gone before I had the chance to respond to that, and I turned back to Trucy a moment later. She stared up at me with determination glittering firmly in her eyes. "Let's see what we can find around here. We still haven't found Aunt Maya yet, so we've got a lot of looking around to do," she said.

I nodded at that and started to follow her back in the direction of the train. I don't know what made her so sure that we were going to find Ms. Fey in the train specifically, but I decided to follow her lead for the time being. It was as good a lead as any given how crowded the loading platform was with witnesses and investigative personnel.

Much to my surprise, it didn't take us long to find her, but she wasn't the only person that we found inside the train. Her younger cousin (Pearl, I believe her name was) could be found at her side, and on top of that, they were accompanied by a rather tall man I recognized as having been involved with the last case somehow. Trucy dashed off toward them before I could fully register what was happening, forcing me to trail after her as she weaved effortlessly through the crowd.

"Pearly!" Trucy exclaimed as she slid to a stop in front of the trio. Her grin was endlessly wide as she bounced on the spot from her excitement at seeing the group.

"Trucy!" Pearl gasped, her hand coming up to cover her hand. "What are you doing here?"

"Polly and I are on the defense team," Trucy explained, gesturing to me as I finally managed to come to a stop beside her. "We wouldn't have heard about this case at all if not for Aunt Maya."

Ms. Fey smiled down at Trucy, and she reached one hand out to rustle Trucy's hair the best she could around the top hat obscuring much of Trucy's brown tresses from sight. "I thought Nick was going to be the one to lead the defense team here," she admitted. "But I'm still glad to be able to see you two. It's nice to see you again, Trucy."

"We've got a lot to talk about," Trucy said as she looked between Ms. Fey and Pearl. Eventually, her attention drifted up to the taller man beside Ms. Fey, and I was forced to register just how tall he was. I would have been lying if I said it wasn't at least a bit overwhelming. "It's nice to see you again too, Mr. Morix."

"The same to you," the man, Mr. Morix, smiled to her casually.

Before he could say anything else, Ms. Fey clapped her hands together, determination gleaming in her eyes. "Alright! Let's get started with talking about what happened at the time of the crime then!" she declared, her voice edged with something I couldn't quite figure out. Her words were strained, but I couldn't exactly specify why or what was making her so anxious.

"You were on the train when everything happened right?" Trucy asked. She was met with a nod from Pearl at that. "Then go on and tell us about what happened then."

"We were on our way back from another channeling school out of town," Pearl began to explain. "We were going there to learn what we could about their technique, but on the ride back... The train started to go off the tracks."

"Everyone started to panic, but we stayed where we were since that was the instruction we were given by the people working on the train," Ms. Fey continued, picking up seamlessly where Pearl had left off. "In the chaos, Mr. Morix dropped his Magatama on the ground, and Pearly and I found it. After that, we got to talking and decided to wait out everything together since we couldn't exactly leave our seats as long as the train was trying to slide off the rails. We were waiting for his younger sister too, though it took a while for us to actually wind up finding her."

"Did you see anything of note that could lead to the culprit?" I questioned, though given the basis of what they were telling me, it was safe enough to assume that they probably didn't know all that much about the murder, especially if they weren't allowed to leave the passenger car they were in at the time.

Ms. Fey hesitated before shaking her head. "No, but I know Franziska didn't do it. There's no way she would kill anyone," she said firmly. Her confidence was impressive, I had to admit, though I didn't know how she was able to be so passionate on the subject. I got the feeling there was something more when it came to her relationship with Prosecutor von Karma that was fueling her confidence, though I chose not to pursue it. After all, that was hardly a priority as long as we were talking about everything involved with this case.

"I suppose we've still got a long way to go before we're going to be able to find out much more about the crime then," Trucy frowned as she glanced over to me. I nodded, and she turned her focus back to Ms. Fey, Pearl, and Mr. Morix. "I do have one other question though, if you don't mind."

"What is it, Truce?" Ms. Fey questioned her head tilting slightly to one side.

"You mentioned waiting for Mr. Morix's younger sister," Trucy began to say. "Does that mean that Chrysalis was on the train with you? Or was it Prosecutor Lin instead?"

Mr. Morix was the one to respond to that, though I saw his posture grow tighter as he replied. "It was Chrysalis. The two of us were riding the train by chance, and we didn't expect to be wrapped up in something like this," he replied. I felt my bracelet pull on my arm, and I rubbed at it gently. I didn't know what he could have been lying about, but I knew there was something amiss about what he had just told us. But why would he hide the truth about something so basic?

"Where is she?" Trucy asked next. "We haven't seen her since the case where Polly was the one accused of murder."

"I'm sure she's around here somewhere. I'm not sure exactly where though," Mr. Morix admitted with a small shake of his head. "It took her a while to get back to us because we were separated just before the train went off the rails. She said that she was going to the bathroom, and as I'm sure you can imagine, it took a while for everything to calm down after the train was tampered with. At least we were able to get back together in the end though."

"It's a shame. I think we could have used the extra testimony..." Trucy commented, but she shook her head a moment later to dismiss the thought. "Thanks for telling us all that though. We're going to make sure that we win this case. If you think she didn't do it, Aunt Maya, I believe you."

Ms. Fey's eyes narrowed as her hands clenched into fists. "I don't know how anybody could think she did it. She would never hurt anyone... Okay, maybe that's not true, but she certainly wouldn't stoop to murder," she said confidently. "I didn't even know she was supposed to be on the train. She never mentioned it to me... I guess this entire operation really was intended to stay quiet."

"That's the impression we've been getting," I replied with a vague nod as I looked down to the ground. "We're going to do what we can to show that she didn't do it. As long as someone else committed the crime, there has to be evidence left behind, and we'll do what we can to find and expose it as soon as possible. I promise."

"We're probably going to be able to head out soon too," Ms. Fey said. "That's what I'm hoping for, at the very least. We've been here for ages now, and I want to be able to sit down for a while somewhere that isn't filled to the brim with people. I didn't realize it was possible for so many police officers to cram their way into a train car, but I guess you learn something new every day."

"I guess it's going to be a while before we're able to get back home," Pearl murmured, her thumb coming up to press against her lips. "The trains have all stopped coming through here until the murder can be solved, so unless we want to catch a ride otherwise to get back home, we're stuck here for a while."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem at all," Trucy assured her with a loose wave of one hand. "You can come and stay with me and Daddy for a little bit. I'm sure he wouldn't mind, especially since you two can't get home. It's all going to be fine. Promise."

"Nick won't be able to resist the combined charm of his two favorite spirit mediums," Ms. Fey smirked to Trucy, something about the gesture knowing yet still somewhat terrifying. I had no idea what Mr. Wright was going to find himself at the heart of as a result of this, but I was glad I was going to be able to stay out of it. This certainly seemed like something he was going to have to take care of with his own unique touch, and I was more than fine with the idea of leaving it to him.

Pearl clapped her hands together as she smiled at Trucy's words. "That sounds amazing!" she beamed. She took a step toward Trucy to hug her at the offer, and when she did move, I could see something behind her that I hadn't noticed before.

As Trucy and Pearl hugged, I focused my attention on a service cart that had previously been obscured by Pearl's body. I frowned at the sight of it before walking around her, Ms. Fey, and Mr. Morix to examine it closer. I wasn't familiar with the other service carts that could be found on the train, but something about this one felt almost barren. There was no tablecloth on it for one, and it seemed somewhat worn down, showing its age easily.

The service cart had two tiers to it, the top one at waist level while the other layer was much lower. I assumed that the bottom segment was meant for storage, though I had to admit that I found it rather strange how it had been stripped of any recognizable traits. Perhaps I was jumping to conclusions, but I felt like there was something more going on with this service cart than met the eye.

By this point, Trucy and Pearl had pulled away from one another, and the young magician looked up to me with a frown. "What are you doing with that service cart, Polly?" she asked casually.

"I don't know... I guess something about it just feels odd to me," I told her with a loose shrug. "It looks kind of rundown and worn out, though I guess that could be the case with all the other service carts. It's not like we would know; we haven't seen any others around here."

"You know, there were a few people walking around with service carts at the time of the train ride," Ms. Fey chimed in. "All of those service carts had tablecloths though. I don't know what could have happened for this one to wind up without anything on it, but this isn't how the service carts looked when they were going around the train."

"I guess this is something we should keep in our back pocket then," Trucy concluded as she glanced up to me. "I don't know why this service cart would wind up without a tablecloth all of a sudden, but I guess we're just going to have to keep it in mind from now on."

I nodded at that before letting out a small sigh. "I think that's going to be about everything we find for now," I told her. "We haven't heard anything else about people who require our attention or areas of the train that we should be searching through."

"I heard that a few officers were looking through the conductor's car on the train, but not much of note has been found yet," Mr. Morix frowned. "They're trying to find out more about the interference that caused all of this in the first place since somebody must have hacked into the system directly, but there haven't been any new details revealed quite yet."

"I don't know how any of this happened in the first place, honestly," Trucy frowned. "This evidence transfer was supposed to be a high-profile secret within Interpol, but someone who was involved wound up being killed during the transfer. Nobody should have known about it if they weren't directly involved, and yet... Well, you can see where all of this led."

"Franziska's worked with Interpol for a long time, so I bet she was told about it because of how long she's been collaborating with them," Ms. Fey cut in. "I don't know anything else about this though... She's never told me anything about her work with Interpol. She says that she wants me to stay out of it, and she's too good at keeping secrets for her own good..."

"You two are close?" I questioned, finally hitting my turning point in curiosity when it came to their dynamic.

Ms. Fey smiled at that before nodding, though her grin was slightly bittersweet as she spoke. "Yeah. We've been dating for a few years now," she confessed. "And I know she would never do anything like this. She can be stubborn and kind of abrasive sometimes, but she wouldn't ever cross a line and kill somebody. That's just not her. I thought Nick would be the one to take on her defense, but I know you two are going to be able to handle it. Do what you can for her, alright?"

I was admittedly surprised to learn that Ms. Fey, a ball of walking sunshine, was dating someone as terrifying and intimidating as Prosecutor von Karma, but I knew that pushing it wasn't wise. Instead, I simply nodded at her words. "We're going to do what we can," I assured her. "I know Mr. Wright will do the same thing... He's not going to leave this case be as far as I can tell. He's probably going to do at least something to try and find the truth."

"He had better. If he doesn't, then I'm going to make sure he understands my full wrath," Ms. Fey muttered with a huff. I couldn't tell how much she was joking on the matter, and I decided I didn't want to push it.

Mr. Morix cleared his throat before the conversation could continue, and he offered us a small wave. "I think I'm going to try to find my sisters now, if that's alright. It was nice to speak with you all though," he said kindly. "I'm sure we'll talk more over the course of the investigation, but I should see if I can figure out where Chrysalis disappeared to. I'll see you again later."

There was a general chorus of farewells as he vanished from view, and I found myself glancing over to Trucy once he was gone. I didn't know what this trial was going to have in store for us, but I could already tell that it wasn't going to be an easy case to solve. Then again, it seemed like no cases were ever easy for us to take care of, so at least everything was remaining on brand.

"We're going to figure out what happened here today no matter what. I'm sure of it," Trucy said, her determination easily falling in to fill the silence.

I nodded at that. "Yeah... We will," I murmured. I would have been lying if I said I knew anything when it came to the details of this case, but we weren't going to let that stop us. The truth had to be out there somewhere, and it was just a matter of time before we figured out a way to prove it to the rest of the world. Prosecutor von Karma was going to be free of the detention center soon as long as we had something to say about it, and the trial would act as proof of our resolve.

If only we had any ideas as to who the true culprit could have been. That would have made this a lot easier, but then again, when was anything ever easy when it came to cases we took on? At least the universe was consistent, for better or worse.

And there's the end of the first investigation!

Since this chapter brought back more returning characters, I feel the need to highlight dynamics that were shown within the chapter but might need a bit more of an explanation. Maya is 'Aunt Maya' to Trucy because Maya might as well be Phoenix's sister given the bullshit they've had to put up with in the past, and I figured it was the best way to describe their connection. Maya has met Trucy many times, though she and Apollo have only met a small handful of times, hence his formality when addressing her. Pearl and Trucy are self-explanatory, and the only reason Pearl is going by her first name to Apollo is because having two 'Ms. Feys' running around would be confusing as hell. Pearl is around the WAA much more frequently and spends a lot of time with Trucy, so first name basis. There you go.

That aside, there's not all that much to say about this chapter. Old faces are back, and they've got a lot to do with this case in a variety of ways. There's still a lot to unpack with this case as I'm sure you can imagine, and the reappearance of old favorites is just the beginning. Also, yes, Phoenix will see Maya and Pearl again later on in the case. I'm not going to deprive you of that.

Next time, we'll get started with the first trial for this case. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital