"Now, then... Let's see what you've found."
Keys fall abandoned to the ground, glittering in the light provided by the world nearby. A gloved hand reclaims them with wary and insecure caution in mind.
"Damn it! Where is it?! It has to be here somewhere!"
Papers fly through the air, torn and intact alike. Remnants of a desperate search flutter wordlessly to the ground, the byproduct of primal frustration.
"Um... Sir? Are you back yet? I was wondering if we cou-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"
SLAM!
Blood spreads slowly and carefully across the floor, seeping into all that happens to rest in its path of eerie exposure.
"We have much yet to discover... Who are you really? I believe that it could be..."
Fingers close around a lighter. Sparks breathe into life and consume the pages placed above, leaving nothing behind but the bitter treachery of memory.
"Wrong answer."
February 16
District Courthouse
Defendant Lobby No. 1
9:37 AM
Well, this certainly isn't how I was hoping to spend my morning.
I let out a small sigh as I entered the defendant lobby, a hastily put-together case file tucked under one arm. This trial was already making me nervous, and I hated that I had been put in this position in the first place. "This is bound to be... Interesting," I murmured to myself, looking down at the folder pressed between my torso and upper arm. I hated how thin the file was given that the trial was set to be starting in roughly twenty minutes. It wasn't going to be easy to do much of anything under these circumstances with how little I knew.
My name is Apollo Justice, and I'm a defense attorney. I've been going down my current line of work for two years now, though I must admit that it's rare for me to find a trial that leaves me this blatantly unprepared. The system of not having much investigation is something I'm all too familiar with, but this was really pushing it.
I heard a scoff from off to my right, and I glanced up at the imposingly tall figure of a redheaded woman in yellow clothing. "I'm sure that we'll find a way to work it out, Apollo. After all, our client is counting on us," she assured me, placing one elbow on my shoulder casually. It could be considered a jab at my height, and while I would have normally just rolled my eyes and displaced her arm, I found myself too worked up over the trial to even dream of it.
My harasser in question was one Athena Cykes, another defense attorney at the firm I work for, the Wright Anything Agency. The name aside, it was a place that offered good work, and Athena had been with the rest of us at the agency for roughly a year. She's strong in her field, and as far as I could tell, luckier than me. I had the sneaking suspicion that we were going to need that as we went into this trial.
I unfolded the file and flicked through it after I pushed Athena's arm off my shoulder. All that we had were a handful of basic files about the case at hand, and we had barely been able to even skim them before being pushed off to take care of the trial. The client in question wasn't able to contact her attorney in time for the normal cutoff time, so Athena and I were thrown onto the defense at the last minute. I didn't know anything about the case or our client beyond her name, and that wasn't exactly something I took pleasure in given how supposedly incriminating the prosecution's evidence was.
"We've got twenty minutes left until the trial starts, and we still haven't met our client," I muttered under my breath, trying to keep the clear agitation out of my tone even though I knew that Athena was going to notice it no matter how hard I attempted to mask my true thoughts on the matter. "I don't know how we're supposed to do anything when we have no evidence."
Athena let out a gasp rather than offering a true response to my words. "Hey, Apollo! Look over there! I think that might be who we're waiting for!" she said in a stage whisper that did little to mask the words she was speaking from the rest of the world.
I followed the point of Athena's finger to a short young woman with bright red hair and glasses. She was wearing a green jacket over a white shirt with pale jeans and simple gray shoes. Black fingerless gloves covered the palms of her hands. She was fiddling with a few threads of her curls, wrestling her tresses back and forth between her fingers. Everything about her screamed that she was anxious, and she didn't seem to belong in comparison to the other people in the lobby who were preparing to go into the courtroom to watch the trial's proceedings.
After a brief glance down to the case file, I realized that I had seen this face before: it matched the picture that we had been given of the defendant perfectly, meaning that this was likely our client. I closed the folder with a sigh before walking over in the young woman's direction, ignoring the way that she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of me and Athena. "You must be Eileen Liyle, right?" I questioned.
The woman stammered wordlessly for a moment before letting out a nervous chuckle. "That's what it says on your paper, huh?" she asked. She stopped talking for a moment to fully release her anxious laughter, but when she noticed that Athena and I weren't laughing along, she let out a heavy sigh. "S-Sorry about all of this... I'm not used to being a murder suspect... Then again, I guess it would be worrying if somebody was used to that..."
"Don't you worry a bit, Ms. Liyle! We're going to make sure that the truth is revealed once and for all!" Athena exclaimed, flashing Ms. Liyle a grin as bright as the sun. "After all, I'm willing to assume that you didn't commit the crime, right?"
Ms. Liyle shook her head vigorously. "I-I would never dream of killing anybody!" she cried out. When she noticed how loud she had been, she clapped her hands over her mouth and deflated. "Ugh... I'm really messing this up..."
"You're fine," I told her, trying to not sound as awkward as I felt. She certainly was the dramatic sort. "If you don't mind my asking, could you tell us a bit about the crime? We weren't able to investigate before being assigned to this case."
Ms. Liyle nodded. "Of course! The crime took place at a law office, you see. The victim was the owner of the firm. I've been working there for the past few months as an intern trying to train to become a legal assistant," she explained. "He was found dead in his office yesterday, and everybody seems to think that I did it... B-But I didn't kill him! I promise you that I didn't do it!"
"Don't worry," Athena assured her. "We believe you when you say that you didn't kill the victim." She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, and I could tell what she was thinking already. She was trying to tell me that she hadn't caught any traces of discord in Ms. Liyle's voice, a sign that she wasn't lying to us about not being the culprit. I had come to the same conclusion on my own as well; after all, my bracelet hadn't responded to her behavior either, so she couldn't have been the murderer. I was certain of that much.
I was on the verge of opening my mouth to continue when I was cut off by a bailiff instructing us to head into the courtroom. Athena winced at the noise the man made before glancing down to Ms. Liyle. "Well, I guess it's time for us to head in there and see what this case is all about," she told us. Her gaze shifted over to me. "Are you ready for this, Apollo?"
"Y-Yeah... Sure," I replied, hoping that Ms. Liyle couldn't see how unprepared I felt deep down. "W-We're going to be fine!" My voice echoed throughout the lobby with those words, and I felt renewed confidence spreading in my chest. That was just what I needed, I supposed.
"I-I'm counting on you both!" Ms. Liyle cried out, her hands clasped together over her chest. "You can totally do this! I-I hope! I don't want to find out what will happen to me if you can't!" She started to laugh nervously before trailing off once again.
"We're going to be fine!" Athena repeated, her eyes sparkling with encouraging light. Ms. Liyle nodded up at her, stowing her nerves immediately. Athena grinned to me with the victory and started to walk in the direction of the courtroom. "Now, let's go do this!"
February 16
District Courthouse
Courtroom No. 1
10:00 AM
The gavel slammed down to silence the chatting gallery as Athena and I got settled behind the defense bench. I glanced up to see the judge was sitting in his regular spot and setting aside the gavel in preparation for the upcoming trial. "Court is now in session for the trial of Eileen Liyle. Are the defense and prosecution ready?" he questioned.
When attention shifted to me, I did what I always did when I was under pressure: I faked it and pretended I didn't feel like I was going to explode inside and out. "The defense is ready, Your Honor!" I shouted, pretending not to acknowledge the way that my voice echoed mercilessly throughout the courtroom.
After I declared such a fact, I glanced in the direction of the prosecution. The man behind the bench was one that I didn't recognize. He was on the taller side, though he wasn't quite as tall as Athena. His hair was dark brown and was combed almost too neatly to frame his symmetrical face perfectly. He wore a crisp dark red suit that was the color of wine. Everything about him was ominous to me, and I felt as if something about him was wrong on a base level. "The prosecution is ready, Your Honor," the man responded, his eyes falling on me and Athena. He looked us up and down before arching his eyebrows in disbelief, and a smirk spread across his face. I knew what that expression meant easily: 'easy prey.'
"Who in the world is that?" I asked, glancing over in Athena's direction. It wasn't as if I expected her to know given the fact that we hadn't been able to acquaint ourselves with the details of the case before being shoved into the courtroom, but I questioned her on it anyways on the off chance that I would have a name to match with that twisted expression.
"I asked Simon yesterday when I learned we were going to be on this case. He says that the prosecutor on this case goes by the name of Huber Turner. He's been prosecuting for twelve years or so now, and he hasn't ever lost a case. He doesn't take many cases on, but those that he does tackle, he doesn't lose," Athena replied. A sly smile spread across her face. "I guess that's going to make things more interesting for us!"
"Great. Just what we needed," I muttered, shaking my head. I already had a bad enough feeling about this case, but this was only making things worse. Of course our rival was a prosecutor with a perfect win streak. That just felt like a natural extension of the messiness that we had already been granted on a silver platter.
"Prosecutor Turner, please give your opening statement to the court," the judge announced, seemingly unaware of the conversation that Athena and I had been sharing.
Prosecutor Turner cleared his throat, and his directed slyness towards myself and Athena was shelved in favor of something much more smug. "Of course, Your Honor," he declared. "The crime took place at Lenard and Co. Law Offices. The victim is Aloist Lenard, the owner of the agency. He was found dead in his office due to blunt force trauma to the head. The prosecution is here to prove that the defendant is the one responsible for ending his life at such an untimely moment."
"What is it that caused the defendant to be suspected?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in Prosecutor Turner's direction. I already had a knot in my stomach, but it was only growing larger as the seconds crawled on.
"The defendant is an assistant working at the victim's law office as an intern. She lacks an alibi from the time of the murder, and on top of that, she was seen leaving the scene of the crime the day of his death," Prosecutor Turner went on. "Her fingerprints were found on the doorknob that leads to the victim's office as well, and given that he was found dead in that room... It should be quite clear what she did."
"Wow," was all Athena could whisper in my direction, her expression crestfallen into something disappointed. "I'm already starting to see why it is that this guy hasn't lost a case. This is a very thorough basis that he has already... But we're just going to have to poke a hole in it."
I nodded, already having an idea as to where we should start with figuring out what was wrong with this case. "What motive would the defendant have to kill the victim in the first place? If she was working at his agency, then she would seemingly have little reason to hate him, much less turn to murder," I pointed out.
"I wouldn't be quite so sure," Prosecutor Turner said with a simple chuckle and a shake of his head. "The prosecution will call its first witness to the stand to testify about just that, but for now, I will submit the autopsy report to the court as well as the murder weapon and a photo of the scene of the crime."
The murder weapon in question was a vase just like he had stated before. Much to my surprise, the vase was intact even after hitting the victim over the head, its shining blue surface only splattered with a small amount of crimson on one corner. I would have expected it to shatter completely, but instead, it was still in one place.
The autopsy report was the next subject of my fascination, and I flicked the file open with a frown. Athena looked over my shoulder. The details were easy enough to put together after a brief read of the page. The victim died due to blunt force trauma to the top of the head, and his death was instant. He died at roughly 9:30 in the morning on the day of the murder: yesterday.
Last but not least, there was the photo of the crime scene. The first thing I did when I saw it was blink a few times to make sure that what I was seeing was real. The crime scene could only be described with one word: messy. There were files strewn on the floor and papers covering every notable inch of space. There was a table next to the door that had the bloodied vase sitting on top of it, the blue surface of the antique innocently shiny under the influence of the overhead light. The door was left ajar, and the victim's body was sprawled out facedown on the ground.
"The crime scene sure is... Disorganized," Athena remarked as she stared down at the picture. "I guess that the victim could have used a housekeeper or something... Or would it be an office keeper given that this wasn't exactly his house...?"
"Why was the crime scene so much of a mess?" I questioned, holding up the picture in Prosecutor Turner's direction as I tried my best to ignore Athena's all too pressing question.
Prosecutor Turner let out a small chuckle, and I felt the overwhelming urge to wipe that smug smirk off his face. It wasn't going to help anything, but it would at least get rid of my frustration of being given a case like this on such short notice without even a moment to investigate. "That will be explained when the detective on the case elaborates on what happened regarding the motive. All shall become clear soon enough," he assured me, though it was hardly calming coming out of his lips.
The judge didn't seem to mind though, and he nodded his understanding. "Please call your first witness at this time then," he said.
Prosecutor Turner smirked and snapped his fingers. The sound was piercing and echoed throughout the courtroom for a long moment. "The prosecution summons the leading detective on the case to the witness stand," he announced.
A man walked up to the podium at the center of the courtroom. He had dark brown hair that was mostly hiding beneath the brim of a pale blue fedora that was too clean for its own good. He wore a white jacket over a dark shirt with a bright blue tie and dark trousers. The smile on his face was certainly more genuine than what I was used to from the prosecution, and I was willing to take that as a point in my favor.
"Please state your name and occupation for the court, witness," the judge instructed.
The detective pulled his hat from his head, and he bowed his head in a formal gesture before pushing it back into its regular place. "You may call me Gordon Ponce. I'm a homicide detective and the one behind the investigation into this murder," he explained.
"We would like to hear from you about the motive behind the crime. I take it that you are aware of why the murder took place, yes?" Prosecutor Turner questioned.
Detective Ponce nodded. "I do know, as a matter of fact... And if there are no objections from the defense, I would be more than happy to explain," he replied, glancing over in my direction.
"The defense has no objections," I told him, my eyes narrowing. I already had a bad feeling about this motive; if it was significant enough to merit the first testimony of the trial, then it had to be something special, and I doubted that was a good thing.
"Then let us begin," Detective Ponce said, his smile growing a fraction of an inch larger for better or worse.
~ Witness Testimony ~
~ Motive for Murder ~
- "The victim, Aloist Lenard, was looking into one of the most intriguing subjects of the past few years, you see."
- "The files from his investigation went missing around the time of the crime, as a matter of fact."
- "He was investigating the one and only Oracle of the Law."
- "Anyone and everyone seems to be interested in learning more about the Oracle these days."
- "Information is certainly a compelling motive given what the victim had at his disposal, hm?"
If I was being perfectly honest, the only thing that testimony really did was confuse me even more. I glanced over at Athena out of the corner of my eye, and I saw that she was fiddling around with her moon earring, a regular habit of hers when she was lost in thought. It seemed that she didn't understand what was happening either.
"If you don't mind my asking... Who exactly is this 'Oracle' figure that was mentioned in the testimony?" I questioned, my hands finding a home pressed against the bench before me.
Prosecutor Turner chuckled to himself once again, and I found myself with the overwhelming urge to glare until he stopped with that obnoxious smile of his. "You haven't heard? Oracle is perhaps one of the most interesting little tidbits of news from the past few years," he explained. He held up a newspaper clipping a moment later. "This article should explain all that you need to be aware of."
When the clipping found itself between my fingers, I started to scan my eyes across the page with a frown. The article seemed to detail the exposure of a detective to the press. The detective went by the name of Samson Barnes, and he was revealed to have forged evidence at the hands of an anonymous figure going by the title of the Oracle of the Law. 'Oracle' had submitted hard proof that Detective Barnes had falsified evidence during his work on past cases, and that ultimately led to his dismissal not long after the fact.
"Oracle is a mystery, wouldn't you say?" Detective Ponce prompted. "Nobody knows who holds the title. Oracle just appears every once in a while with proof that someone has been involved with illegal activity, and when the truth is revealed to the press, their targets' lives are ruined."
"According to this article, it looks like Oracle has been active for the past two years now... How have we not heard about this before now?" Athena questioned, her voice edged with agitation.
"That would be because of other cases seemingly trumping this story as of late. After all, the past few years have been quite busy within the legal world, and Oracle's work has been so secretive that people didn't gain an interest until recently," Prosecutor Turner explained. "Other cases have snagged the intrigue from the public, but I suppose that Oracle's time of peace is drawing to a close at long last."
"And the victim was looking into all of this?" I asked, though I already knew the answer given the previous explanation we had received.
"He was, as a matter of fact," Prosecutor Turner told me. "Though you'll have to follow through with the cross-examination if you wish to learn more. After all, I've heard that's something you lawyers are fond of doing, and it would be wrong of me to steal all of your thunder, wouldn't it?"
"I agree with the prosecution," the judge announced. "Defense, please begin your cross-examination at this time." I nodded in response, and the next step of the trial kicked off as I did my best to ignore the pounding in my chest.
~ Cross-Examination ~
~ Motive for Murder ~
- "The victim, Aloist Lenard, was looking into one of the most intriguing subjects of the past few years, you see."
- "The files from his investigation went missing around the time of the crime, as a matter of fact."
"Hold it!"
"His files went missing?" I echoed. "Do you have any details regarding the disappearance of these files?"
"He was seen with the file earlier in the week," Detective Ponce replied. "He's been adding to the file for quite some time as a way of trying to figure out who Oracle is. According to his coworkers, he's been rather desperate to figure out who's behind all of the recent exposures. However, when the police arrived on the scene of the crime, the files had completely disappeared."
"A picture was taken of the empty place in the victim's cabinet where the file would have been. Our thief was quite precise with taking exactly what was needed to find out more about the Oracle case," Prosecutor Turner said. "The prosecution now submits this photo to the court as evidence."
Sure enough, the picture in question did show a gap in the files. It was amazing how perfect the hole was that was left behind, a perfect gap for a thin file that would fit investigating such a mysterious figure. It seemed that even though the victim was making progress in his search, he still had a long way to go before he was able to find anything truly conclusive that would point to who was behind the mysterious mask of Oracle.
"There were no fingerprints found on the surrounding files, so the person who took them knew exactly what they were looking for," Detective Ponce said. "The defendant just so happens to work at the law agency that the victim owned. Wouldn't it be easy for her to figure out where the files would be located and then take them?"
"By that logic, anybody at the agency could have taken the files," I pointed out, my eyes narrowing. "That's hardly conclusive proof that the defendant was the one behind the theft."
"You make a solid point, I suppose," Detective Ponce shrugged. "Oh, well. I'm sure that we'll work through that soon enough. For now..."
- "He was investigating the one and only Oracle of the Law."
"Hold it!"
"What exactly do we know about this Oracle figure right now?" I questioned. Given how clueless I had been about this apparently crucial subject, I figured that I might as well use this chance to try and gather as much information as possible. It would probably be helpful later on.
"Oracle first appeared two years ago when a prosecutor was shown to have forged evidence in the name of getting guilty verdicts," Detective Ponce began. "They revealed the forged evidence anonymously to the press, though at first, not many people believed in their actions. When a deeper investigation was carried out though... That was shown to be the truth. The prosecutor had forged evidence, and that ultimately led to his dismissal. From there, others involved with back alley dealings have been revealed to the public as being suspicious. Oracle doesn't cut corners, and nobody knows who it is that's hiding behind the name."
"Two years ago... I guess that would be around the time that Mr. Wright started working on the jurist system," I murmured to Athena. That would explain why neither one of us had heard about it. After all, I suspected that the jurist system was more than willing to hog all the limelight at the time. Little had been heard from it since then, but it had made quite a stir at the time.
"And after that, there were the incidents with the space station," Athena said, picking right up where I had left off. "I guess that sort of allowed this spy to slip right under the radar until all of that had been taken care of and sealed away."
"Oracle's motive is unknown at present as well. They seemingly just want to eliminate corruption where it exists, though this is still something that we have no confirmation on. After all, everything that Oracle does is very thorough and deliberate to ensure that their work is completed. No other information about them has been revealed, though it seems that there were people out there who were ridiculous enough to try and track down this mystery spy," Detective Ponce went on.
"I can imagine that there are many people out there who are curious about what happened!" the judge exclaimed. "I already find myself wondering about who this spy is and what they're after, and I've only just heard of them a short while ago!"
"Good to know that His Honor was just as clueless as we were," Athena whispered in my direction with a small snort. I nodded my silent agreement.
"It's a risky job," Prosecutor Turner commented with a loose shrug. "There are many out there who could potentially seek blood over what Oracle has done. The disgraced people themselves hold a grudge against Oracle, and there could be those connected with those who have fallen from grace that are angry at them as well."
I nodded my agreement. "It sounds to me as if there are many people out there who could very easily fall into this category of disliking Oracle... On top of that, there are many people who work at the agency and would potentially be curious about learning more about Oracle and the victim's theories about them. What you have proposed is a potential motive for murder, but it's hardly exclusive to the defendant," I pointed out.
"You forget yourself," Prosecutor Turner told me. "The defendant was seen leaving the scene of the crime on the day of the murder, and her fingerprints were found in multiple places that tie her to the victim's office. You say that the motive is general and easy to apply to others, and that might be true... But the defendant is the only one with the means to enter the office, and we have evidence that she did so."
"And here I was hoping that we were starting to get somewhere," Athena muttered with a shake of her head. "But I guess that was a bit too much to dream of. We're just going to have to figure out how to knock a hole in the prosecution's reasoning otherwise!"
"Detective, the prosecution would like to hear your testimony once again. This time, I believe the court should hear about the details regarding why the defendant came to be our suspect," Prosecutor Turner instructed. "There are many details that come together to make the defendant the clear culprit for this crime, and your testimony should be more than enough to close this case and lay the victim's soul to rest once and for all."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I murmured, my eyes narrowing. I could tell that there was more to this case than met the eye, and it was my job to prove it. I had faith that Ms. Liyle was innocent; the hard part was proving it, but I wasn't going to step down just because I was faced with a challenge.
The judge nodded his agreement to Prosecutor Turner's words. "I agree. Detective, please tell the court about why the defendant has come to be the suspect for this murder," he announced. Detective Ponce nodded his understanding, and I felt something inside of my stomach come to light. We were going to find the truth no matter what happened, and that was a promise.
I have no good explanation for this. Oops? My finger slipped?
So... Yeah. If I'm being honest, I've been thinking about doing a story like this for the past six years or so. On and off, of course, but I've been thinking about it. This story is essentially an all-new Ace Attorney story set in the main timeline, but this time, I've got a healthy sprinkling of 'overarching plot' and 'original characters make up the supporting cast' (since it's impossible for me to write an Ace Attorney story without making up a few minor characters oops). Yay for that!
I said that I've been planning this fic for six years, right? Yeah, well, that means that my plans for this story are older than Spirit of Justice. So there's no Spirit of Justice in this universe. I don't want to have to change all of my old plans to fit with Spirit of Justice when I don't even really have a reason to incorporate Spirit of Justice in the first place. So... This is a universe where Dual Destinies happened but Spirit of Justice did not. Sue me, but I'm not changing my old ass fanfic plans just because Capcom decided to inconvenience me by sending Apollo away at the end of Spirit of Justice. He's here because I like him, and that's that.
This story is going to essentially be a full Ace Attorney game but in prose format and set in my little hellscape of an AU. There will be five full cases that have already been planned out since I'm a sucker for an overarching plot Prosecutor's Path style. One thing that I always do in my Ace Attorney-styled stories is come up with an overarching storyline that is so in-detail that it is liable to make somebody's brain explode (probably mine since this story has 30+ pages of notes across five cases), so I just had to go for that here.
Speaking of Ace Attorney-style stories, I am going to make one humble request before we go beyond this point: please do not spoil Morix, my Ace Attorney-styled fic series that's written in a similar format to this story. I doubt that this is going to be an issue, but I want to point it out just to be on the safe side. Morix is very plot-driven like this story, so I don't want anybody's experience on either story to be ruined because of spoilery comments, you know? There will be a few characters from Morix that appear in this story later on as part of the supporting cast, so I want to get that little disclaimer out of the way sooner rather than later.
With all of that said, I think that I'm done with my little introductory ramble! There will be more chapters for this story as time goes on, but for now, this is what you're all getting with the first chapter! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed! Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital
