April 10

District Courthouse

Courtroom No. 3

11:15 AM

~ Cross-Examination ~

~ Guarding the Evidence ~

-"The evidence transfer involved taking a few pieces of evidence from past cases locally and bringing them to Interpol."

-"It was for the sake of keeping them safe and so we could do our own investigations into what was going on."

-"Oracle's been causing a huge stir lately, so the evidence related to them was involved with the transfer."

-"That was what wound up going missing too, so I guess whoever was behind all of this wanted to know about them."

-"I was guarding the room where the evidence was being stored when someone rounded the corner and attacked me."

-"When I came to, I was being shaken awake by a pair of private investigators who found me unconscious in the back of the train."

-"Everything happened so fast, and the details are kind of fuzzy... But the one who did it was a small woman with light-colored hair. I can say that much for sure."

"Hold it!"

"Do you think you would be able to tell us any other details about the person who attacked you?" I asked carefully. I could already see that this was going to be one of the most important moments in the trial, and that meant I was going to have to attack it with everything I had if I wanted to find the truth.

"I don't remember anything about her aside from what I already told you," Agent Lang replied, his posture going tense as he stared at the ground. "If I did recognize her, then I would have mentioned it already. As far as I can tell, I had never met her before she attacked me, and I don't think I've seen anyone who fits the bill since then either."

"I see," I said simply, a small smile spreading across my face already.

"Is something on your mind, Mr. Justice?" the judge questioned, shifting his attention to me in curiosity.

I nodded. "You heard the witness; he said that he didn't recognize the person who attacked him. He and the defendant seem to be on familiar terms, and as far as I can tell, they have a lengthy history. If she was the one who had lashed out at him, I believe he would have already figured out that she was the one behind it," I explained. "This should clear the defendant's name of suspicion on the matter of the assault."

"She didn't do it," Agent Lang announced a moment later. His expression was still pulled in a tight frown, but he forced himself to keep speaking regardless. "I know she wouldn't do something like this. I've known her for a long time, and if she had attacked me, I would have recognized her. It's not like I would have a reason to protect her on this either before anyone suggests it; if she really attacked me, I would want to keep her as far away from me as possible to make sure it didn't happen again."

I smirked at his words, allowing my hands to come to rest on the bench in front of me. "That should say everything that we need to hear right now," I declared. "That should make it loud and clear that the defendant was not the one who attacked the witness. If she had done it, she would have been recognized, and beyond that, the witness has no reason to protect her. She wasn't the one who attacked him. No matter how you look at it, she's innocent of the assault."

The gallery began to chatter in excitement at that, and Trucy smiled in my direction. "That's a great place to start," she told me in the midst of the haze around us. "I don't know where it's going to take us next, but it's good to know that everyone has no choice but to accept the fact that she didn't commit the assault now."

"Order!" the judge shouted, forcing the people in the gallery to silent with a few slams of his gavel. "Prosecutor Lin, how do you respond to this? Do you believe that this is sufficient evidence to claim that the defendant is not guilty of the assault?"

Prosecutor Lin was quiet for a long moment, and I could already tell that I wasn't going to like whatever she was about to say. Her posture relaxed, but I could still tell there was something on her mind as she next spoke. "Up to this point, we have been acting under the assumption that the culprit was alone in what they did," she announced. "Every debate up to this point has operated using this philosophy that the culprit was the only one who was acting on the train to try and carry out the myriad of crimes. However... This does not mean that an accomplice is completely out of the question. In fact, I think we should all consider that possibility for a short while as we try to find the truth behind what took place that day."

"You really think that there was a person who could have helped the culprit to commit the crime?" I questioned, my eyes narrowing. "Do you have any proof that this could be true?"

Prosecutor Lin shook her head a moment later. "I'm afraid I don't have any solid evidence, but I think it's still a train of thought that we should consider. It's hardly a conclusive accusation right now, but we need to explore every potential avenue," she announced. "We have to remember the circumstances that led to the defendant being arrested to begin with. She was acting in a way that was seen as incredibly suspicious, and her fingerprints were still found on the teacup used in the crime regardless of any outside factors that could influence the way we look at such a piece of evidence. We have a lot to keep in mind as we move to the next stages of this trial, and if we must consider new possibilities, then so be it."

"There's no evidence of there being an accomplice, and we've been able to poke holes in the idea that the defendant was behind these crimes multiple times," I pointed out after I slammed my fists against the defense bench. "There are too many factors building up against the case positioned toward the defendant for us to ignore. There are far too many holes, and we can't consider her to be the one behind all of this conclusively."

"I agree," Prosecutor Lin nodded. "However, that does not change the fact that you have no yet been able to come close to disproving the murder accusations. You have shown that the defendant was not the party behind the hacking of the train or the assault, but the murder remains the heaviest accusation of the group. Until you are able to say conclusively that you have proof that she did not commit that crime, she will remain the primary suspect in this case."

I opened my mouth only to press my lips shut again a moment later. As much as I hated to admit it, there was still a lot we didn't understand about the murder. In fact, the other crimes that took place had a variety of mysteries as well. I still wasn't sure about how the culprit could have known so much about the inner workings of the train to hack the system without being caught, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot that we had yet to work out, and I could tell that it was just going to get more complicated from here as long as we considered the fact that there was so little we knew about the murder. I hated that Prosecutor Lin was right about the murder still being a problem, but I knew that the most productive way to solve that issue was to figure out what was going on behind the scenes.

If only I knew where to start.

"What do you propose we do from here then, Prosecutor Lin?" the judge questioned, his eyes going wide. "It sounds as if you agree with the defense on this matter, but there's still something holding you back from saying that they're entirely correct about their assumptions of the case..."

"I believe the best option for us right now is to adjourn the trial and go into another period of investigation. If there are holes being poked in the idea that the defendant was the one behind the assault and hacking of the train, then that means that we need to search for someone who could have been responsible for it. On top of that, we need to attempt to narrow our scope of the case to see if we can find any other evidence regarding the murder. We've learned a lot about the assault and the hacking of the train during the trial today, but there are no new facts about the murder yet. The best way for us to gather something new in terms of information is to try and investigate the scene of the crime once again," Prosecutor Lin replied. "If there are no objections, the prosecution requests that we be given more time to investigate the facts of this case and see what is revealed in this timeframe."

The judge closed his eyes thoughtfully. "Hm... I must admit that the imbalance of facts revealed during today's segment of the trial is unsettling," he murmured. "Perhaps it would be best if the defense and prosecution both did their own investigations into what was happening at the time of the crime... Mr. Justice, how do you respond to this?"

I nodded immediately. I was overwhelmingly glad that Prosecutor Lin seemed to be the generous truth-seeking woman she had made herself out to be up to this point, and if she was giving us a chance to gather more information about this case, I had to take her up on her offer. "The defense has no objections to the prosecution's suggestion," I told the judge confidently. In fact, I was sure that this was exactly what we needed. I may not have known what we were going to find when the trial was adjourned for our search for information, but I wasn't complaining in the slightest that we were being given another chance to continue digging deeper.

The judge nodded at that. "In that case, I see no reason for us to remain here any longer. Both the defense and prosecution will dedicate their time over the next day to investigating as much as possible when it comes to the details surrounding this case. I expect both sides to come back with substantially more proof than we had today so that we may solve this incident once and for all," he announced. "With that, court is adjourned." With those words, he brought his gavel down, and just like that, the first segment of the trial was over.

April 10

District Courthouse

Defendant Lobby No. 3

11:35 AM

I let out a heavy sigh of relief once I was out in the lobby, and I glanced over to Trucy after we were settled. "I'm glad Prosecutor Lin decided to throw us a bone there," I said softly. "There's still so much we don't understand about what was going on at the time of the murder, and looking around the train is the best way for us to figure out more about it."

"It seems like she really is interested in the truth above all else," Trucy remarked, placing one finger on her chin as she looked up to the ceiling. "I mean, her behavior when you were arrested made that clear, but it's nice to have a bit of backup with it all."

"I would suggest that you not place too much faith in her."

The voice of Prosecutor von Karma ultimately pulled me and Trucy out of our quiet musings, and I jumped ever so slightly as I glanced up to her. "P-Prosecutor von Karma!" I exclaimed in surprise. It took me a moment to get a grip on myself after being caught so off guard, and in that time, I was forced to recognize what she had said. "What do you mean? You don't think we should trust Prosecutor Lin?"

"Something about her has always struck me as odd," Prosecutor von Karma frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can't say for sure what it is that she's up to, but that woman never does anything the way you would expect. As far as I can tell, she has to be hiding something."

I couldn't help but frown at her words, and I thought over them for a long moment as I tried to figure out just what Prosecutor Lin could have been hiding. It wasn't as if she had set off any red flags previously that made it seem like there was something overtly wrong with her, but I had to admit that her behavior was strange when compared to that of other prosecutors. She was so excited to work with the defense team, and she practically jumped at the chance to talk to us where other prosecutors preferred to remain antagonistic. It was somewhat strange, but I didn't know if that was enough to say that there was something wrong with her that needed to be investigated.

"What are you talking about, Prosecutor von Karma?" Trucy questioned a moment later, seemingly just as confused by this sudden change of topic as I was. "I don't think she's done anything too suspicious... She's been a huge help so far. She really does seem to want to find the truth behind what happened at the time of the crime. That should be a good thing since you didn't do it, right?"

Prosecutor von Karma's fingers went tight around her upper arm. "A case took place a few years ago, you know," she commented, seemingly changing the subject even though I could tell this had to be related somehow. "She was involved with it. The culprit was never found, and she would have had more than enough in terms of a motive to kill the victim... Nobody was ever even arrested for the case. It was left unsolved long before it could even touch the courtroom. I never thought I would hear her name again after that, and then she came to work as a prosecutor."

"Wait... You can't mean to say that..." I began to say, my voice trailing off before I could find the words to phrase what I was trying to get across. "You don't think she did something back then, do you?"

Prosecutor von Karma was silent for a long moment before shrugging. "There's no evidence that could prove it one way or another. In fact, I believe I heard that some of the evidence for that case was involved with the transfer. It could have very easily been taken at the time of the crime," she replied bluntly.

"But the evidence involved with the transfer... Didn't a lot of it have to do with...?" Trucy started, her eyes going wide as the implications of what Prosecutor von Karma was saying started to sink in.

"Oracle? Yes," Prosecutor von Karma answered. "Fleur wanted to know more about them. In fact, she was practically desperate to figure out who was behind the exposures. She was always the curious type, and she saw this as a perfect case to try and solve. Nobody else could figure it out, so she tried her hand on it. She got all the evidence she could find and started digging. One of those cases... Prosecutor Sora Lin was involved with it heavily. What a strange connection, isn't it?"

"What exactly do you know about the victim's investigation into Oracle?" I eventually forced myself to ask of her. "It sounds like you heard a lot about this from her before she was killed, and if there's anything you think might be able to help us find the truth..."

Prosecutor von Karma thought about it for a long moment before she let out a sigh. Her body grew tense, and I could tell that whatever she was about to say wasn't going to be pretty. "Nobody knows much about Oracle. Ever since they appeared though, there have been people who want to know the truth. I would be lying if the matter never crossed my mind as well... But there were few who were ever able to even come close in finding out what was going on with them behind the scenes," she eventually replied. "Fleur was the person I knew who came closest to uncovering the truth, and even then, she didn't really get as close as she would have liked."

"What cases was she investigating to try and track down the truth of what was going on?" Trucy questioned. "Maybe that would be a good place for us to start. I mean, there has to be something out there that we can use to our advantage when it comes to learning the truth, and that sounds like as good a place to start as any."

"It started with the GC-9 Incident. I feel like that should be obvious enough given the fact that everything happening with Oracle didn't start until after that case was over," Prosecutor von Karma replied. "As for the other cases that caught her attention, they were tangential relations. For example, Prosecutor Sora Lin was involved with GC-9 in a way. It was a vague link, yes, but it was still something. As it turned out, there was another case that found her in a similar situation before GC-9 took place, and that was enough for a parallel to be drawn. It was a thin connection, but Fleur was more than willing to look into it if she thought it might lead her to the truth behind Oracle."

"So nobody who was investigating them really know all that much about what was going on," I concluded. "Fleur did what she could to try and gather as much information as possible, but there was only so much she was able to get her hands on even if she had access to Interpol resources."

"That wasn't going to stop her though. She was determined to figure out what was happening, and the cases that she investigated..." Prosecutor von Karma trailed off for a moment before she looked up to me, her gaze deadly serious. "The prosecutor of this case was involved with all of them to some degree. In one of them, she would have had a motive to do something unsavory. The case was left unsolved, but I suggest that you keep this in mind as the rest of the investigation plays out. That woman is hiding something. I might not know what it is, but I can say conclusively that there's something beneath the surface that she isn't telling anyone about. If you can figure out what it is that she is trying to mask, then you might just find yourself wrapped up in the truth behind Oracle themselves."

"Is this your way of saying that you think Prosecutor Lin could be Oracle?" I asked carefully, lowering my voice to make sure that only Trucy, Prosecutor von Karma, and I would be able to hear it.

She decided to shrug after a long moment of silence. "I can't say anything of that nature for sure, but I'm confident that there was something hiding beneath the surface with her motivations behind this case. You can call it an instinct of mine. I would have thought a prosecutor of a higher rank to be placed on it given its connections to Interpol, and yet, she seems to have jumped at the chance to try and learn more about what was happening. I find her behavior suspicious at best and worrying at worst. I'm not going to tell you how you should feel about her or how you should interact with her now or any other time in the future... But I will advise you to be cautious. You never know who's going to be watching or what's going to be hiding in the shadows. Be careful of what you're getting yourselves into before you charge into something larger than yourselves."

I was still dumbfounded and unable to find the words necessary to speak as she started to walk away. It wasn't until after Prosecutor von Karma was well out of view that I was able to get a hand on myself once again, and I glanced over to Trucy with a heavy frown. "I get the feeling there's a lot more going on with this case than meets the eye," I whispered carefully. I could tell that if what Prosecutor von Karma said was correct, this was just the tip of the iceberg. There was probably even more out there than just the matter of trusting Prosecutor Lin as well, and I had no idea where it was going to lead us.

"It looks like the true identity of Oracle is at the middle of this case too," Trucy remarked. "I mean, the last case happened because Oracle exposed Prosecutor Turner for his evidence forgeries. The verdict of GC-9 was cast into doubt then, and now, we're hearing that Prosecutor Lin could have been involved with something that we don't yet understand. I know that we shouldn't jump to any conclusions about if she is or isn't involved with something, but..."

"It's something to keep in mind," I finished for her. "The idea that Prosecutor Lin was involved with GC-9 does make a lot of sense though. She seemed upset and distressed when it was brought up during my trial. I don't think she's been that flustered or nervous before or since then. I don't know what's going on with GC-9, but I think it's safe to say that Prosecutor Lin has something to do with it."

"I wonder if we're going to be able to learn more about the case now," Trucy mused. "Before, the only information we had at our disposal was what Chrysalis gave us, and she was pretty picky with what we were able to get our hands on. She made sure that we only had what we needed and nothing more. I guess that made it easier for us to figure out what was going on with the case when your trial entered the courtroom, but it doesn't really help us out all that much now when it seems like GC-9 is at the heart of all our problems once again."

"We can ask and see if we can get the case file from Detective Skye when we get down to the crime scene," I suggested. "I somehow doubt that Prosecutor Lin is going to be willing to pass it off to us quite so easily after how nervous she got last time... I wonder how she's supposed to tie in with all of this too. I'm sure that there has to be some kind of connection, but I would be lying if I said I had even the slightest idea of what she could have been involved with. I mean, she wasn't the prosecutor on the case. We can say that much for sure... Maybe she was a witness."

"I don't think she was the mystery witness who claimed someone else was the culprit... After all, she would have already been an adult by that point, and Chrysalis said that the one who testified was a minor at the time. That's why nobody knows who testified at the time," Trucy pointed out. "But I guess we're not really going to be able to make all that much progress on this by just guessing, huh? We're going to have to actually get out there and see if we can find any evidence that could help us out with finding the truth."

I nodded. "We should head back to the train and see if there's anything else there we can find that could be considered out of the ordinary," I agreed. "Maybe we'll be able to get a few updates about the evidence that went missing at the time of the crime too... It seems like that's going to be another huge issue for us to solve if we want to figure out what really happened. I don't think Prosecutor von Karma was the one who killed the victim, but that begs the question... Who could have done it?"

"Whoever did it must have wanted to get their hands on her research and the evidence at the back of the train," Trucy frowned. "Maybe this is just me getting ahead of myself, but... I think it wouldn't be too out of the question to say that Oracle would have wanted something like that."

I frowned at her words. "What do you mean?" I asked carefully, once again sure that I wasn't going to like whatever she was about to say.

"Think about it. Oracle doesn't want anybody to figure out who they really are. That's why they've been acting so secretive about everything since their operations started. They want to keep as much secret as possible. It would make sense if they wanted to get their hands on the research that could eventually go on to show just what was going on with their actions. If the victim really did get close to finding the truth, then that would put a target on her head that Oracle could have hit the day of the murder," Trucy explained.

"Prosecutor von Karma made it sound like the closest the victim got was a tangential relation to the case. She didn't seem to have actually figured anything out about who Oracle really is or what they've been up to lately," I murmured.

"But that's not really important here, is it?" Trucy pointed out. "What matters here is what Oracle thought was happening. If they really were involved with the death of the victim, then they just had to think that the victim was close to figuring out who they were. The idea of that threat would be enough to spur them into action if they were really that desperate. Even if the victim was nowhere close to finding the truth, the idea that it could reach that point sooner or later could have been enough."

I hummed at her words. "The idea that somebody could have found the truth..." I murmured to myself. I had to admit that Trucy had a point with bringing up this line of reasoning even if we didn't have any proof that would tie Oracle to this case or not. Even if they were the factor that fueled everything that took place, they could have had nothing to do with what was happening. After all, Oracle hadn't gotten involved with my case beyond exposing Prosecutor Turner. Everything that happened was out of their control even if they were the catalyst that pushed Ms. Russell over the edge.

"It's just something for us to keep in our back pocket," Trucy told me with a shrug. "I guess we'll just have to see how accurate that is. For now, we should head back to the train and do what we can to keep looking around. After all, the clock is already ticking, and we can't afford to come back to the courthouse again tomorrow without any new evidence. This could be our last chance to show that Prosecutor von Karma wasn't the one who did it, so we have to take advantage of it."

I nodded at that before starting to walk for the door. "Then let's get to it," I said simply. I didn't say anything afterwards, but my mind was spinning with a million and one different theories revolving around what she had said. She seemed to think that Oracle being the culprit of this case was still a distinct possibility, and as much as I hated to admit it, she probably had a point there. The idea that the victim was getting close to finding the truth of their identity could have caused Oracle to lash out.

Even if they weren't the culprit though, the fact remained that Oracle was involved with all of this. Whoever they were beneath that alias had to mean something to this case, but where did the pieces come together? It had to have something to do with the stolen evidence, but it felt like there were still a few parts of the picture that were missing to make sure that we didn't find the truth quite yet. Trucy and I certainly had our work cut out for us if we wanted to figure out just what had taken place when the time of the crime came and went.

For the time being though, getting ahead of myself wasn't going to help anything. We had an investigation to focus on, and as tempting as it was to reach past our initial ideas and try to figure out more about Oracle, that wasn't the objective of this trial. We had to figure out what was going on with the murder first and foremost. Prosecutor von Karma was counting on us to make sure that she was found not guilty, and we had to find the culprit in order to come anywhere close to that point. I didn't know where we were supposed to find the person who did it, but the one responsible must have been on the train at the time of the crime. The idea of the culprit behind all the crimes being a single person was still on the table, and that only left me wondering as to who in the world could have possibly been capable of all of this by themselves.

I didn't have the answer yet, but I was going to figure it out soon enough no matter what came next.

And so ends trial segment one!

This part was a lot of fun to work with, especially when it came to the conversation with Franziska near the middle of the chapter. Sora's been really nice up to this point, and I think it's time everybody started getting a little suspicious of just what she's after. She has to have some kind of goal outside what we've seen thus far, right? Hm... I wonder... Well, no, I know what's going on, but I do like to throw out subtle hints every now and then to see where it takes you all in terms of theorizing.

On that note, I would love to hear from you guys about what you think so far regarding the plot. There are a lot of major details that are going to be revealed in the second investigation when it comes to the overarching story since that appears to be a tradition in this story. The second investigation is always the most important part, I guess. This is really going to amp things up in terms of what's going on, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you all think is happening just behind the curtain of these murder cases.

Next time, we'll kick off this pivotal second investigation segment and move into the latter half of the case. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital