Tournament of Souls Chapter 15
Trial
"Then you don't think he's dead, then?"
He put on his hat. "Now I may be wrong, of course, but I think he's very alive. Shows all the symptoms of it. Go have a look at him, and when I come back we'll have a get together and decide." – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mocking Bird
"Where do you hide a red fish? In a pond full of other red fish." – Mercedes Lackey, A Shin'a'in proverb
"If you've a story, make sure it's a whole one, with details close to
hand. It's the difference between a successful lie and getting
caught." - Tamora Pierce, Trickster's Choice
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The trial was scheduled for Friday evening. After the "pre-trial" on Thursday (the official term for the "pre-trial" was hearing, but few non-reporters remember that) Adolfus Beurreginsky, Lucien's new lawyer, had questioned Lucien thoroughly as to what had happened. Lucien had left him in his office musing over the new information, and arranging, and re-arranging his notes.
The lawyer had enough notes to paper a room with, and they were all written in small, painfully neat print. He had notes on Lucien's story; Lucien's family, and just about everything else about Lucien. He had notes on the prosecuting lawyer, and all publicly available information on the accuser and the known witnesses. He even had notes on the judge.
When Adolfus was there to pick Lucien up from school, he wrote his lawyer down as "slightly obsessed" and got in the car. He wasn't going to complain about a free ride, and it was raining heavily. They got out at the lawyer's office, right next to the courthouse. Lucien was told that among lawyers one of the signs of success was proximity to the courthouse. If this was true, then Mr. Beurreginsky must have been the most successful lawyer in West City because his office was on the basement level of the building next to the courthouse- and was right next to a door connecting the two buildings.
He took Lucien into the office and outlined their case. "Your case" he called it, though the way Lucien saw it, it was as much the lawyer's as anyone's. After all, he had planned out their arguments, told Lucien what and what not to say. He even told Lucien under what conditions to lie at the witness stand.
"And remember, stay consistent. I don't care if you got knocked over the head and can't remember exactly what happened, or everything's gotten fuzzy with adrenaline and time, but keep the story simple. You and I know that things aren't as clear cut as we might like, but if your story has holes in it, or is the least bit fuzzy, you're just begging the jury to convict you."
"What of the law? Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
"That hasn't stopped anyone yet."
Lucien wondered if their star witness, Mr. Kiwasaki had gotten the same treatment.
After their conference, which included mock questioning, the pair went into the courtroom. Two things about the West City judicial system; the courthouse had two court rooms, and several judges; one courtroom was for the civil suits, and the other for criminal cases. Once there had been plans for a separate room for juvenile cases, but it had been decided that it would be impractical as there were not enough juvenile criminals to warrant it.
When they reached the courtroom it was empty. They were still a few hours early after all. The first thing they did was reserve seats for Lucien's friends and family. Adolfus predicted that there would be a bit of a crowd.
"You see, you're this town's celebrity, just as much as a star football player would be. Anything about you and anyone who cares about dueling wants to know it. Consider yourself lucky that we don't have a major newspaper or T.V. station based here. If we did, you'd have reporters all over this place. As it is, this will probably make the front page of the West City Chronicle but nothing else."
"Wonderful, and there can't be more than a few thousand people who read that. And most of those are old ladies, so it's not too bad."
"So you don't like the lime light?"
"Not particularly. I'll take it over a search light though."
Just before the trial started, Lucien looked around. The seats he had reserved for his friends were still empty. Maybe something came up. Maybe they have something better to do than watch their idiot friend get himself thrown into juvenile hall. Real optimistic aren't I? I have good reason to be pessimistic. I have a better lawyer than I have reason to be pessimistic though. When he looked to the back of the room, Lucien was surprised to see his mother's ex-husband and his unwillingly present son. No, not her ex-husband, my old step dad. His mother had divorced her husband after continuing arguments, often centered on Lucien's step-brother and money troubles. Lucien still saw him occasionally as they had gotten on well. Evidently he had heard about the trial and dragged his son, whom Lucien didn't exactly get along with, along. Thanks… dad. And he really is the closest thing to a father I've ever had.
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Aliya and Raoul were stuck in traffic. Aliya's mother was driving them from Raoul's house to the trial, but there was heavy traffic from about two blocks away from the park on down. Evidently there had been a fire down at a warehouse somewhere down the road, and the fire trucks and emergency vehicles had traffic backed up for a long ways. In the back seat (it had only taken one Chinese fire drill to get Aliya from the front to the back) Raoul and Aliya were mercilessly critiquing each others' decks.
When they came up next to the park, across from the courthouse, Aliya looked at the clock and cursed.
"Damn, the trial's about to start! We're going to be late, there's no way we can get through this traffic."
Raoul looked around. "We could just cut across the park. It would be a lot quicker for the two of us to walk than it would be for your mother to drive all the way around."
After getting her mother's permission, the two duelists got out of the car, and crossed the street in front of the orphanage, accompanied by the honks of the surrounding cars. Luckily it had stopped raining not long after they had left Raoul's house, but the majority of the park was a mud pit with grass on top. To avoid the mud, the pair walked along one of the more rambling paths up around the park, on the high side, and then back down to the courthouse. When they were about half way along, Aliya tripped over something, and went flying into the mud. When she came up, a bit of paper was stuck to her now muddy shirt. She peeled it off and made as if to throw it away when she saw what it was.
"Oh my god, Raoul, look at this!"
Her friend grabbed and rubbed some mud off of it, revealing that it was a picture; a picture that showed Lucien with a metal rod about to jam it into someone's face. "It can't be real."
"How can't it be?" Aliya's voice quavered.
"It must have had Photoshop used on it. Look here." Raoul said pointing. "Lucien's eyes in the picture are all wrong. And the lashes on the bottom are way too thick. If you ask me, Lucien had his eyes closed and someone edited in someone else's eyes. But they didn't edit out Lucien's eyelashes, so they're double thick on the bottom. And if Lucien's eyes were closed, then he couldn't have been trying to stab the guy in the nose with the pipe; which suggests that the pipe was edited in. Just look at Lucien's face. His mouth is cracked open. Would you do that as you hit someone? Probably not."
As convincing as Raoul's case was. Aliya still doubted it. Raoul wasn't a detective, no matter what insights he could make when under pressure. And right now, Aliya had things to worry about other than Lucien's guilt.
"Where did the picture come from?"
Raoul, still in detective mode was only too glad to reply. "It must have fallen out of a pocket or backpack. The foot prints keep going down the hill and towards the courthouse. And I think our suspect is on his way to collect what he dropped."
And indeed, a slim figure was making his way up the hill through the mud wearing a long raincoat. As he got closer, they recognized him as one of the witnesses for the prosecution, a gang member. Lucien had identified him as the one who stayed out of the fight along with the one who had cheated. When he caught site of the two friends holding the picture, he cursed and walked faster. When he reached them, he held out his hand for the picture.
"I see you've found something of mine. Would you be so kind as to return it?" The gangster was playing the kind individual who has lost something. Raoul slipped the picture into his pocket.
"And what if I don't want to give it back?"
"I need it as evidence in court. The trial is about to begin. Please, I must have it."
"Well I like this picture. I'm keeping it." Raoul had been forced into the role of bully. He looked like he was enjoying himself. The gangster glared at him.
"Then I'll just have to take it from you." The gangster tried to grab for the picture, but Raoul turned so that he was unable to reach the pocket.
"I'm stronger than you. You can't take it from me."
The gangster realized the situation just as another person came up over the hill. He outsized Raoul by three inches at least. Upon seeing the slim gangster, he spoke.
"The lawyer's waiting for you. Do you have the last picture yet?"
"I would, but these stooges won't let me have it back."
The big guy was another gang member, Aliya remembered that now. From the looks of it he was stupid. But he can still out-muscle me. Who can't? And I've got a nasty feeling that he's out of Raoul's league.
"I could take it for you. Should I take it?"
While the conversation took place, Raoul beckoned to Aliya and they began to make their way around the path. Unfortunately the skinny one wasn't as dumb as all that.
"You two, stay still. Or I'll set Angus on you. Won't I Angus?" The two friends shared a look that clearly said 'What was his mother thinking?'
"Sure, we won't move. But we won't give you the picture either. If your friend of the red meat comes after us, we'll rip it into shreds so small you won't be able to tell what it was." In Raoul's mind, guilt wasn't an issue. If Lucien had done it, he had good reason, to hell with the law.
Aliya's thoughts weren't as succinct. She wasn't sure if Lucien had done it or not. She wasn't even sure if he'd been defending himself. But Lucien doesn't do anything without a reason. The only question is the reason. Maybe he belongs in jail… no. I have to trust Lucien. He's helped me before; he's not a bad person. He's done good things. Maybe he's just made one mistake, why should he live to regret that for the rest of his life? And his being in juvi hall will disqualify him and the team from the State Championship as well as the outside tournament this weekend.
It looked like the skinny one had made a decision. "Unless you have a better solution, I'm going to have to tell Angus to beat you up and take the picture. And if you rip it before he gets to you, he's going to beat the both of you up anyhow. There's no one out here to see, and no one can see this far from the street. Plus, the hill is in the way."
Raoul wanted to run for all he was worth. He might even have made it out of there intact if he tried. Aliya could see it in the way he held himself. But he wasn't going to leave Aliya there. She wouldn't have a chance. She had to think of something before a fight was started. There's only one thing I can do.
"I'll duel you for the picture." All of them stared at her in disbelief.
"What?"
"You heard me, I'll duel one of you for the picture. You do play duel monsters, don't you?"
The skinny one grinned. "You bet I do. And I'm willing to bet the picture that I'm better than you are. I was just barely beaten by an eliminator in the early rounds of the tournament. Angus will keep an eye on you two while I get my deck. I won't be long."
With that, the skinny one walked off in the direction of the orphanage, and the street Raoul and Aliya had just come from.
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Lucien saw the prosecution's witnesses leaving. First he thought they were going to the bathroom, but when the second one left and didn't come back within the next few minutes he began to wonder. Well, it's all for the better I suppose; less witnesses against me. I just hope they've gotten into trouble or something that will keep them away for awhile.
Still, he wished Aliya and Raoul were there. Loath as he might be to admit it, he guts were acting like an angry bag of kangaroos. They were jumping just as high. The prosecuting lawyer was starting to look antsy too. Now that made Lucien feel a bit better; but not much.
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When the skinny one got back Raoul handed Aliya the picture 'just in case.' Evidently he wasn't about to trust the gangsters not to cheat and have the big one go for the picture anyhow. Each duelist inserted a deck, and the gems changed color accordingly. Aliya's went rainbow and her opponent's turned a dull yellow. The spinner appeared in the middle of the field and landed on dull yellow.
"Before we duel, allow me to introduce myself properly. You may call me Sanchez." Aliya's opponent drew his six cards with purpose.
Aliya: 8000
Sanchez: 8000
"And I'm Aliya. Get on with your turn."
"I will simply set a monster and a face down card before passing to you."
Aliya checked over her hand. It wasn't the best hand she'd ever gotten, but it was fairly good. And it had some of the new cards that she's gotten from the tournament. Raoul may have critiqued some of her choices, but this was her first real chance to test them out.
"First I'll play Soul Absorption. Now whenever a monster is removed from play, I gain 500 life points. I'll follow that up with Nobleman of Crossout, removing your face down monster from play." A crouching Throwstone Unit faded away.
Aliya: 8500
Sanchez: 8000
"Unfortunately it wasn't a flip effect, so no other copies were removed from play. But now I summon The Agent of Creation- Venus (1600/0). I'll activate its special ability three times, paying 500 life points each to summon some Mystical Shine Balls (500/500)." A long haired angel appeared with three orbs rotating around it. Slowly the orbs came down to the field.
Aliya: 7000
Sanchez: 8000
"Now I'm not too happy about your face down card, so I'm going to play have another nobleman take care of it; the Nobleman of Extermination." Negate Attack turned up, and faded away. Sanchez took one more copy from his deck and removed it from play as well.
Aliya: 8000
Sanchez: 8000
"Finally I will attack directly with all four of my monsters." The angel of creation looked sadly at her opponent before the three smaller fairies were sent whizzing toward him.
Aliya: 8000
Sanchez: 4900
"As a final precaution before I end my turn, I'll play the field magic card Sanctuary in the Sky." The roof of a heavenly palace with Greek architecture rose out of the dueling field.
Sanchez drew and smirked upon seeing his five card hand compared to Aliya's scant one. "I summon Marauding Captain (1200/400). Then by its effect I special summon Mataza the Zapper (1300/800), who has the ability to attack twice." The two monsters took to the field brandishing their swords.
"Mataza, attack two of her little fairies, and my Marauding Captain will take care of the last." Mataza dashed across the field, slashed one Mystical Shine Ball, and stabbed another in one smooth movement. Then it ran back to its side just as fast as it had come. Marauding Captain took his time, and stood over his victim before letting his blade fall.
Sanchez waited for his opponent's life points to fall, but they never did. Aliya giggled.
"Sanctuary in the Sky stops the controller of a fairy from taking damage from battles with that fairy."
The gangster snorted. "That won't matter when your fairies are all dead and gone. I set a card face down, and end my turn."
Aliya drew. "My fairies aren't going to be dead for a good long time yet. Venus, attack his Marauding Captain." As the warrior was destroyed by holy light she continued. "I'd have preferred to attack your Mataza, but Marauding Captain prevents that. I'll set a monster and end my turn."
Her opponent drew and immediately played the card he had drawn. "I tribute Mataza to summon Freed the Matchless General (2300/1700). Let me give you the low down on Freed's abilities. He isn't affected by targeting spell cards, and once a turn by skipping my draw phase, I can add a four star or below warrior to my hand. Freed will attack your Agent of Creation." Cool, calculating, Freed drew a sword, and skewered the angel just as if he had been hitting a cue ball in pool.
"End turn."
Aliya was disappointed at her monster's demise, but she hadn't lost hope yet. "I'll set a monster and end my turn."
Her opponent didn't draw. "I activate Freed the Matchless General's ability to add Blindly Loyal Goblin (1800/1500) to my hand. Then I will summon it directly to the field and it will attack your first face down monster." Banisher of the Light appeared and sent a beam of light at the goblin forcing it back.
Aliya: 8000
Sanchez: 4700
He narrowed his eyes. "That isn't much of a threat. I'm more worried about your face down, so that's what I'm going to attack with Freed." A gray haired woman appeared and was stabbed, but not before she had thrown a dagger at him.
Aliya: 10000
Sanchez: 3900
"You just destroyed my Lady Assailant of the Flames. By flipping her, I got to remove the top three cards of my deck from play to do 800 direct damage to you. She was removed from play do to Banisher of the Light, and all those cards getting removed from play triggered Soul Absorption."
"Your life points may be high, but you will still lose in the end. It's your turn."
"The best I can do is to summon Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer (1800/700) in attack mode. That's all."
"Again I will use Freed's ability instead of drawing. This time I will get D.D. Survivor (1800/200). Then I will summon him and have him attack Kycoo." After a brief struggle, both monsters disappeared.
Aliya: 11000
Sanchez: 3900
"They have equal attack and are both destroyed. Then Freed will destroy Banisher of the Light." The fairy tried to defend itself but failed and was skewered. "Now Blindly Loyal Goblin will attack directly before I end my turn."
Aliya: 9200
Sanchez: 3900
Just as Sanchez ended his turn, D.D. Survivor re-appeared on his field. Aliya scowled. "What's it doing back here? It was destroyed!"
Sanchez shook his head. "Yes, but it went straight from being in attack mode to being removed from play, so according to its ability, it came right back at the end of the turn."
Aliya cringed. I need something good just about now. I have a nice little pillow of life points, but those won't keep me alive for long if I can't destroy his monsters. She drew.
"I set a monster face down and pass the turn to you." The gangster smirked.
"In that case, you're about to go down. Again I skip my draw phase to take Legacy Hunter (1000/1500) and add it to my hand. Now I'll summon it and have it attack to destroy your face down monster." A metal box appeared and shattered.
"You just destroyed my Dimension Jar (200/200). Now we each choose three monsters to remove from each other's graveyards. You only have two and I remove both of them."
"I'll remove your Banisher of the Light, Venus, and one of the Shine Balls."
Aliya: 11700
Sanchez: 3900
"Legacy Hunter has a special ability. When it destroys a face down monster, you have to take a random card from your hand and put it back into your deck." Aliya frowned as the last card in her hand was returned to her deck.
Her opponent smiled, enjoying her discomfort "Now the rest of my monsters will attack directly."
Until now, Raoul had been having a staring match with Angus whenever he wasn't watching the duel. However, upon seeing Aliya be over-run by warriors, he cried out and ran closer to the duel station to try and see if she was ok. When he realized that this in fact made it harder to see due to the station's elevated position, he ran in the other direction up the hill until he could see down on Aliya.
"Are you alright?"
She stood up from where she'd fallen after the attack. "A bit behind on life points, but otherwise fine."
Aliya: 5800
Sanchez: 3900
She looked defiantly towards Sanchez. "Anything else you'd like to try?"
"I've got nothing. Your turn."
Aliya drew and broke a sad grin. "You don't stand a chance."
"You don't have anything that can stop me."
"Watch this. I play Chaos End."
On the field, time stopped as all the monsters on the field looked up at the vortex forming above them. Everything froze as the world went into black and white.
Raoul tried to climb the duel station when he saw Aliya pass out.
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The field was frozen in time. Everything beyond the field was black and white. The warriors on the far side of the field cried out in pain as after images of them appeared in negative as they were pulled up into the void. Freed tried to throw his sword and strike Aliya. The sword was swept up in the astral maelstrom. From within Aliya there was laughter in a voice that didn't belong to her as the world fell apart.
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Aliya woke as Raoul shook her with one arm while holding himself onto the side of the duel station with the other.
"Wha- what happened?" Aliya said, confusedly.
"I wish I knew; you just fainted. If you're ok, you'd better get up fast; Sanchez is trying to claim the win."
"I'll be fine."
"Good. I'm not sure I can hold on to the side much longer." Raoul grinned, but she could tell he was worried. Hell, she was worried. She had no business passing out in the middle of a duel. It had never happened before. But that dream was what really frightened her. She's had strange dreams before, but the only one that came up to that level of freakiness was the one she'd had the night of the tournament…
"Are you going to get up or do you concede?" Sanchez wasn't about to let her get herself straightened out though. Aliya stood.
"I'm up, and ready to crush you. It is your turn by the way."
He drew and scowled. "I set a card face down and end my turn."
Aliya drew, and smiled that same sad smile. "I summon Agent of Force, Mars (0/0) (1900/1900). Its attack is equal to the difference in our life points when I have more and Sanctuary in the Sky is in play. The Agent will now attack directly." The fairy of destruction flew over to smite Sanchez with its hammer.
"No! I chain Offerings of the Doomed. I give up my next draw phase to destroy your monster."
"Waste of a draw phase. Mars isn't affected by spell cards."
Aliya: 5800
Sanchez: 2000
The Agent of Force (3800/3800) flew back to Aliya and she looked around, dazed and unfocused. "Your turn."
"I… I can't do anything. I end. I surrender." Aliya's eyes snapped back into focus.
"You will do no such thing. Agent of Force, destroy him!" The avenging angel flew over and swung its hammer into Sanchez's skull and the illusions faded.
Aliya: 5800
Sanchez: 0
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Lucien was acquitted. The opposing lawyer had been unable to find any evidence to prove that Lucien had done anything at all, let alone that it wasn't self defense. Between Mr. Kiwasaki's testimony and Mr. Beurreginsky's case Lucien had gotten off Scott free. But there was still no sign of either of his friends. Somehow the victory wasn't the same without them. He excused himself from the courtroom as quietly as possible while Adolfus talked to his parents.
After he picked up his backpack from Adolfus's office, he walked out of the building and saw some figures down at the duel station. It couldn't hurt for him to go and watch a duel, or maybe challenge someone. It wasn't until he had almost reached the duel station that he realized who was there. He broke into a run.
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Raoul saw Lucien coming, but as he approached, Sanchez vaulted his way out of the duel station and hit the ground running. Angus jogged slowly after him, spraying up mud. Lucien, instead of going straight to his friends went up to Sanchez's spot on the duel station as Aliya came down. He returned momentarily bearing Sanchez's deck.
"He left this." Lucien handed it to Aliya, bottom up. The bottom card was Freed the Matchless General. She handed the deck back to Lucien, hands shaking.
"No you keep it, for the team."
He smiled. "Very well, these cards are the start of our team's joint card collection. Next we'll each add in our card pools. Now I'm not sure if that's fair to me, I've been spending all my pocket money on duel monster's cards for years…" He scowled in mock seriousness. "But as long as I get to keep the prizes, I won't complain!"
They all laughed and headed back to the court house.
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At home, Lucien began packing for that weekend's tournament. The plane tickets had arrived in the mail, and they were catching the red-eye flight in a few hours. He would have to pack snacks later as his mother had kicked him out of the kitchen because she was talking to relatives over the phone.
Three hours later, he was on the plane to the tournament.
Before he would get back, Rodrigo Sanchez, known to many as Sanchez would go missing.