March 28

Courtroom No. 2

10:45 AM

Victoria von Graye

"Please state your name and occupation for the court, witness," came the announcement of Prosecutor Shield once Deirdre had come to stand beside Hiroko.

"My name is Deirdre Brigit. I'm a defense lawyer," Deirdre began to explain. "And it is this job that has led me to what I believe to be the truth when it comes to the crime that took place on the day of the murder."

"Do elaborate, witness," Judge Frost told her with a firm nod.

"About two years ago, we witnessed the death of the defendant's father at the hands of assassins who were part of the Emsthorpe crime ring. That case is the basis for the motive that we see before ourselves here today," Deirdre went on. "However, I believe that the Emsthorpes are involved with this investigation, albeit in a different way... I propose that the one who killed the victim was one of the members of the crime organization."

"That's certainly a bold statement to make," Prosecutor Umber commented. "I assume that you have something to back up a claim so sudden, yes?"

"I lack any hard evidence, but there is little hard proof of the defendant's guilt either. Him being found with the body doesn't mean much since anybody could have found the body and be labeled as equally suspicious on that front," Deirdre replied. "However, I can say that I believe the Emsthorpes are involved because of the nature of the crime that was committed."

"The nature of the crime?" Pieter questioned. He still seemed tense as could be from having to think about assassins in such a dark, sudden way, and I reached out with one hand to take his fingers gently between mine. I didn't realize his hand was shaking until after I was holding it, and I did my best to keep the heartbreak from showing on my face at how awful I felt for all the pain he had suffered through.

"The victim was killed in a park far from the eyes of anyone who could have seen what happened. It makes me wonder... Who would have known that he was going to be there? Who would have a grasp of his routine that could have been used to kill him when they knew that nobody else would be around?" Deirdre asked next. "The Emsthorpe assassins seem to know how to get information about their targets before committing their crimes, and I have no doubt that this was the basis for the current case as well. They were fully aware that the victim would be at the park alone and decided to strike when they knew that he would be alone."

"In other words, you think that the victim was being watched by the Emsthorpe assassins for quite some time before he was killed," Judge Frost concluded. Deirdre nodded her agreement. "I understand... That's certainly a bold claim to make, but I have no doubt that you make this declaration with thought put into it."

"I've begun to research the Emsthorpe assassins over the last few weeks because they've returned to the limelight," Deirdre frowned. "There was recently a killing that took place at their hands, and I have no doubt that this was an omen of things to come. I may not know why they chose to act now, but I have no doubt that the Emsthorpe assassins have returned to take care of some dark breed of business or another... And that could include starting off with killing one of their old business partners who managed to get away from their work as killers."

"It wouldn't be entirely unheard of," Prosecutor Shield agreed. "Let's say for a moment that the defendant isn't the guilty party in this case. That leaves you to wonder just who would have wanted to follow the victim out so far. Hell, they brought a gun to the scene of the crime and knew that nobody would be around to hear the gunshot as he was killed."

"And that leads me to believe that they've been watching over the victim for quite some time to figure out when the perfect moment to strike would be," Deirdre said with a nod. "I understand that this is a lofty assumption to make given that we haven't seen any open traces of the assassins since this case began, but I think that we should keep this theory in mind as we move to the next stages of the case."

"We've already heard firmly that the defendant couldn't have done it," I pointed out. "The previous witness made as much clear in her testimony. She said that the defendant was with her at the time of the murder, and there were two other witnesses to agree to that fact."

"Can we be sure that they're being honest about the timeframe and not simply lying to cover for somebody they care about?" Prosecutor Umber questioned. "We need to consider every possibility here, and that includes asking if they could be protecting their companion rather than being honest about what they really witnessed."

"If we were going to lie about what happened, then why would we call the police?" Hiroko pointed out. "On top of that, we would have said that Vito was with us when the body was discovered since we wouldn't have had a reason to uncover the truth of the victim's death. There would have been no reason for everything to proceed the way it has if we were lying about too many factors of this case, and that includes our alibis."

"I must admit that the witness is right about there being a concrete and conclusive alibi for the defendant," Judge Frost murmured. "And that means that we have no other suspects that can be considered for this trial."

"I think I know what you're trying to get at here," Prosecutor Shield muttered. He glanced up to meet her gaze before continuing. "You believe that it's time for us to do what we can to investigate the scene of the crime and try to come up with the truth along the way."

"Precisely," Judge Frost agreed. "As far as I can tell, we're not going to make all that much progress here. We've done a lot to show that the defendant isn't the one who committed the crime, but we haven't found out anything about who else the culprit could possibly be. I think this means that we have to go back to the drawing board and continue the trial when there's somebody else who could potentially change the course of the case."

"In other words, we're going to need either a conclusive witness or a piece of evidence that shows what happened without a shadow of a doubt," Chrysalis remarked. She nodded to herself before glancing over to me and Pieter. "I think we're going to be able to find that eventually. It'll all start with an investigation of the scene of the crime though. Maybe there's something that we haven't yet heard about or noticed."

"I don't know if I would say that," I said uncertainly. "I mean, we looked around pretty thoroughly yesterday, and we didn't see even a trace of something that could have helped us to turn this case around. There's a lot going on here that we don't understand, and I don't know if we're going to be able to figure it out easily."

"We won't know until we try," Pieter pointed out. He glanced up to Judge Frost before continuing, raising his voice along the way. "The defense has no objections to your proposal, Your Honor."

Prosecutor Shield closed his eyes as he crossed his arms. "The prosecution has no objections either," he agreed, though I could tell he wasn't exactly satisfied with how little we had managed to accomplish during the trial. I couldn't say that I blamed him. Everything had gotten out of our control so quickly, and there was no way of saying how the investigation to come was going to turn out either.

"In that case, I believe the decision has already been made for us," Judge Frost said. She reached for her gavel before raising it. "Court will break up for the day at this time, and when we come back together tomorrow, it will be after both the defense and prosecution have thoroughly investigated the case at hand. I expect to hear the full details of your search when the trial reconvenes tomorrow. Until then, court is adjourned." Without missing a beat, she brought her gavel down, and I sighed to myself in silent relief. We had gotten through it. Even if the trial still hadn't gone particularly well, I was willing to consider it one of our victories, at least for now.

March 28

Defendant Lobby No. 2

11:15 AM

Victoria von Graye

When we arrived out in the defendant lobby, Chrysalis let out a heavy sigh. "I was hoping that we would be able to make a bit more progress in our investigation than that, but I suppose there's not much we can do about it now," she muttered.

"You can say that again," Pieter agreed with a shake of his head. "But we're not going to be able to change anything about it now. We've got a lot of work ahead of ourselves, and it all starts with going back to the scene of the crime to see what we can find from the people there. I'm sure there's a witness who saw something or a piece of evidence that will clear up everything that happened with the killer. I mean, it's not like the culprit could have gotten away with it all so cleanly."

"No crime is perfect, and that includes those committed by assassins."

I glanced up to see none other than Deirdre walking back in from the courtroom, her expression knit tightly in a frown. Behind her, I could see Moira being pushed along by Hiroko. Prosecutor Cruz was nowhere to be found, at least not yet, but I could tell that we would be seeing him soon enough.

"Deirdre," Chrysalis greeted. "I'm glad to see that you're doing alright. You certainly did quite a bit to help us in there."

Deirdre nodded. "It's no issue at all... I would be lying if I said that I didn't think the Emsthorpe connection the victim has is a coincidence. There has to be something deeper to it, and I'm determined to figure out what it is," she explained. "Plus, after the recent case that I was involved with, I couldn't help wanting to investigate it as soon as possible. I haven't made much progress, but..."

"If there's one thing you can be certain of, it's that the Emsthorpes are back," I concluded for her, feeling my stomach tie itself in a knot from pure anxiety. She nodded, and I let out a small whimper before shaking my head. "I can already tell that I'm not going to like whatever else you uncover in this little search for information of yours."

"You wouldn't be the only one," Deirdre admitted with a heavy sigh. "I'm not exactly looking forward to it either, but I can tell that this is going to be the best way for any of us to come close to the truth. There's a lot that we don't understand about the Emsthorpes, but I'm sure that it all comes down to them being back for some reason or another. I can't say why they chose to return after seemingly not doing much for two years, but..."

"The last time the Emsthorpes were involved with killing anybody, it was two years ago when somebody was killed in the prison," Chrysalis said, crossing her arms as she spoke. "He was found dead in his cell, and the killer was there to get rid of him after all that he had done years prior... Though I suppose that was their big burst of revenge, at least for the time. I don't know what could have changed after the fact, but I guess we'll just have to see where that takes us eventually."

"Until then, we have an investigation to take care of," Pieter agreed, though I could tell that he wasn't exactly looking forward to what was going to come next. As long as it had anything to do with assassins, he was going to want nothing to do with it, but it wasn't as if this was a choice any of us could make. We had already been locked into this course by the time we agreed to take on the case at all, and that meant we would have to deal with the consequences for better or worse.

And I think all of us already knew it was going to be worse.

"I think you might want to go and check out my office when you can."

I jumped at the sound of Prosecutor Cruz's voice, and I glanced up to see him walking into the defendant lobby with a heavy frown on his features. "If it's information about the Emsthorpes you want, then you're going to find it in my office. My old man was looking into them before he died because of the case that sparked a murder two years ago. He passed all of his research into Prosecutor Daegana's hands at first, but I got it back not long ago, and I'm sure that you would be able to find at least something about them in there."

"I guess we know where we're headed next," Chrysalis remarked with a small shrug. "Thank you for letting us look around in there, Prosecutor Cruz. It's certainly appreciated."

"As long as you can show that I'm not the one who killed that man, you can consider it even," Prosecutor Cruz assured us with a snort. "Speaking of that, you had better get going. The last thing I want is to hold you up when there's so much work that needs to be done."

"Of course," I agreed. I glanced over to Deirdre, Moira, and Hiroko. "Where are you three going to be heading after this?"

"Back to the scene of the crime, I'd imagine. We may need to be questioned by the investigators responsible for this case," Moira replied. "We'll have to see with time, I suppose... For now, I wish you the best of luck in your search for information. We'll talk to you later on if we happen to run into you."

"If you need anything from me, all you need to do is call," Deirdre said next. She glanced over to Vito with a small frown. "I wish I could come with you back to the detention center, but I doubt that I would be able to stay for long even if I was able to get inside without the police telling me to go back to the scene of the crime for potential questioning sessions."

"You don't need to worry about sitting and talking with me. You've got other work to take care of, and I'm sure that we'll run into each other again soon enough anyways," Prosecutor Cruz assured her with a wave of his hand. "Do what you can to help catch the bastard that did all of this, alright?"

Deirdre smiled before nodding, not at all deterred by Prosecutor Cruz's rough language. "Of course," she said simply. "I'll look forward to seeing you again." She shifted her attention up to me, Pieter, and Chrysalis after the fact, nodding once again in our direction. "And the same applies to all of you. I'll see you at the scene of the crime once you're finished in the Prosecutor's Office. I wish you nothing but the best of luck until then."

After everybody else had already walked out of the room, I let out a small sigh. Chrysalis crossed her arms and glanced up in my direction. "Well, I guess we know where we have to go," she said simply. She started towards the door without waiting for me or Pieter, so the two of us shared a brief shrug before trailing after her.

As was to be expected though, Pieter seemed silently anxious about it, not that I could blame him. I wished there was more I could do to help him, but for the time being, I allowed myself to shuffle along after him. There wasn't anything I could say when it came to the assassins suddenly infiltrating all of our lives, but I could still hope with everything I had that we would be able to work out the lingering details when it came with Chrysalis. What they needed most was to just talk about everything...

If only it was going to be that easy.

March 28

Prosecutor's Office

12:00 PM

Victoria von Graye

When we got to the Prosecutor's Office, Chrysalis was easily able to lead us up the stairs to the office that she knew belonged to Prosecutor Cruz. She had come by here more frequently than me or Pieter because of Sora working there, but on top of that, I had heard before that Chrysalis had an alias that worked as a prosecutor. She had to do a bit of work with that every once in a while even though she was generally able to take care of her Oracle work without coming by here. I was glad that we had her regardless of how she was able to guide us through the building though; we would have been completely lost without her there to help us.

Chrysalis knocked on the door, but as was expected, nobody answered. She pressed one ear to the door before shrugging and reaching into her pocket to pull out a small object that I identified a moment later as a lock pick. She crouched down and started to work away at the lock, not even giving me or Pieter a second glance.

I sighed and let one hand come up to pinch at the bridge of my nose. "Of course you know how to pick locks," I muttered. "I'm barely even surprised. Is that a mean thing to say?"

Chrysalis simply snorted. "No. I mean, if anything, it comes with the territory," she said, not bothering to elaborate as to what she meant on the matter. She continued to sift through the lock again a moment later before the door clicked, and when she rose to her feet, the lock had been taken care of. Chrysalis opened the door and walked away as she tucked the lock pick away in her pocket once again. I couldn't help wondering if she kept that on her no matter what just in case she needed it, though I supposed that made sense. A locked door couldn't stop her when she was in the middle of Oracle work if she wanted to get anything of note done.

The inside of the room was exactly what I would have expected from an office owned by Prosecutor Cruz. There were at least four pairs of sunglasses scattered across the room, though there could have been others there that were hidden underneath the piles that had been placed wherever they would fit. Prosecutor Cruz was hardly the cleanest person as far as I could tell, though it did make a lot of sense given his personality. After all, he probably thought that as long as he could navigate the area, everything would be fine. I had no idea how he could navigate such a messy office, though I supposed I was a little bit biased against his methods.

Chrysalis walked over to the desk before she found a notably large file hidden in a drawer. She was able to find its header a moment later, and as soon as she pulled the file out, she sighed and began to flick through it. "This seems to be what we were looking for," she murmured. "We had better get down to it."

"Hey! I know those voices!"

I glanced up to see none other than Nevada standing in the doorway, and she waved brightly at us. My eyes went wide as Pieter allowed himself to smile gently. "I didn't expect to see you here of all places, Nevada," he greeted casually. "Is there something that brings you back here? I would have thought that you and the others were heading to the scene of the crime."

"I was supposed to go with them, but Mama wanted to talk to me about everything that's been happening... I don't think she wants me to snoop around with the rest of this investigation," Nevada remarked with a heavy sigh. "Do you think that she would have found a way to hear about everything that was happening?"

Chrysalis shrugged loosely. "I don't know," she said simply, though something told me that Sora had found out from Mr. Morix. Even if we hadn't seen him in the gallery, I was sure that he was there, and he had been the one to pass on the information to Prosecutor Lin who then asked that Nevada stay out of the case. I had no idea why she would want to do such a thing, but it wasn't my place to ask questions either. After all, she probably had her reasons for it, and I wasn't about to push it any more than I had to.

"That sucks," Nevada muttered. "But what are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be back at the crime scene too?"

"Prosecutor Cruz told us to come by and look through his files about the Emsthorpe crime ring," Chrysalis explained. "We're going to take a look at what we think will be relevant before continuing our search."

"Emsthorpe..." Nevada muttered. She stared down at the ground for a moment before sighing. "I don't get it. I feel like I'm supposed to recognize that name from somewhere, but I have no idea where I could have heard it from. I guess that's just a question I'm going to have to ask later... I mentioned this to Mama, and she said that she didn't know about it either. I don't think she was being entirely honest with it though... Call it a gut instinct, but she seemed kind of nervous when I asked."

"I see..." Pieter said softly. "Nevada, what makes you think that you know the truth about the Emsthorpes despite the fact that you shouldn't know much about them?"

Nevada hesitated before shrugging. "I don't know. I mean, I think that was the name that came up about two years ago when I first started romping around again, but I don't think what happened back then has much to do with what I'm feeling now... I guess I'll just have to ask questions about it later. I mean, unless you want to find a way to question Niamh about it, but... I don't think that's a good idea either. Mama said that she wanted me and Niamh to both stay out of this investigation."

"It sounds to me like she was worried about you," Pieter commented. "Though I suppose we'll have to ask her about it another time. Perhaps the chance will come up after we've finished up with our investigations."

"Probably," Nevada shrugged. Her eyes dropped to Ikari once again, and she reached out towards it with one hand. "Maybe I can try and persuade her to talk to you about it if you let me hold your little friend there..."

"The answer is still a no, Nevada," Pieter told her without missing a beat. He glanced to the file sitting on the desk in front of him before eyeing Nevada. He wasn't saying anything, but I could tell what he was thinking. Was it really a good idea for us to look into the file with Nevada standing right there? After all, if Prosecutor Lin wanted to keep Nevada out of this investigation, then we couldn't really violate her wishes as long as she knew what she was talking about. That meant we would have to get Nevada out of the room before we looked deeper into anything.

Nevada huffed at that. "You're no fun," she muttered. She shook her head before looking over to Chrysalis. "You can talk to him, right? You could totally convince him to let me hold the sword, right?"

"I hold no such powers, Nevada," Chrysalis replied simply as she continued to stare down at the file. Just like the day before, she refused to make direct eye contact with Nevada, instead choosing to look at just about anything else that she could keep her attention on.

"Ugh," Nevada sighed, letting her head fall backwards in frustration. She was quiet for a long moment before she looked over to Chrysalis again. "Is there something bothering you? You seem to be acting a lot... Weirder than usual. Why are you trying shove me away?"

Chrysalis looked up, and I could tell that she was on the verge of saying that she hadn't said anything about wanting to get rid of Nevada, but it was a pointless effort. The other girl had already stubbornly, and correctly, come to realize that there was something wrong, and as she crossed her arms with a pout on her face, Chrysalis seemed to recognize that she wasn't going to be able to get Nevada to calm down so easily either.

An idea began to spark in the back of my mind, and I glanced over to Chrysalis before shifting my attention back to Nevada. "Well, that sounds like a pretty personal conversation," I commented, doing my best to make it all sound natural instead of like the worst acting that the universe had ever seen. "Maybe you two could go back to Prosecutor Wood's office to see what you can talk about there. I mean, we wouldn't want to do anything to interrupt you, right?"

Nevada glanced up to Chrysalis before reaching out and grabbing the other girl's hand long before Chrysalis had the chance to protest. "Good idea! I hate all of this dancing around the truth," she announced before she started to walk out of the room. Chrysalis, shorter and notably lacking in physical strength, was left to be dragged along, her eyes popping out of her head from surprise. "We'll talk to you a bit later! After we've worked everything out!"

Chrysalis seemingly realized that she wasn't going to be able to get away with this, and she shot me a glare out of the corner of her eye as she left the room and rounded the corner. I simply smiled back at her before sighing with relief and turning to look at Pieter. "Well, I guess we know what we have to do next," I told him simply. "I mean, we're not going to get anything done with this investigation as long as we're just standing around here."

Pieter nodded as he reached for the file and continued to look through it. He flicked through a few pages before starting to summarize what he was skimming through. "As far as I can tell, the Emsthorpe family has three daughters and a son," he explained. "It seems to me that most of them have been involved with assassinations aside from the youngest daughter because of her youth. Since this research was compiled two years ago though, I can only imagine that things have shifted since then to get the youngest child involved with the family business... Though I really hate having to admit that this is the most likely outcome."

I nodded my understanding at that. "I guess that also includes the father of the business, right?" I questioned. "I mean, that's the one man that we've met up to this point... Augustus Emsthorpe. He was trying to take our agency apart because he thought that we could have been a threat to his plans. That was how we wound up meeting Nevada to begin with."

"Augustus Emsthorpe is the one who began all of this, and he married his wife shortly before the business began... Though she's been missing for quite some time and is presumed dead. I can't say for sure what could have happened to her, but it seems that nobody else knows either," Pieter continued. "That's something for us to keep in mind, I suppose... We're going to be contending with four children and their father since it seems that the mother of the family is gone and has been out of the picture for a while."

"I guess that answers a few questions," I remarked. "But that still doesn't exactly explain the random dip in activity... I mean, if these assassins are as dangerous as we've been led to believe, then I would imagine that there would be an explanation for the random gap that they took recently. I mean, that doesn't really do all that much to help us with this case, but I can't help asking questions about it, you know?"

"We'll just have to keep this research close as we get ready for the rest of our investigation," Pieter said. "Prosecutor Cruz said that we could look through it, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind us bothering the evidence for as long as the case is going on. After all, he's not going to be able to look at it as long as he's in the detention center, right?"

"Exactly," I agreed. Pieter shut the folder before tucking it under his arm, and I glanced up to the door. "I do feel kind of bad about pushing Chrysalis out as a distraction though... I hope that she's able to come back soon."

"At least she'll be able to talk out one problem while she's out there," Pieter murmured, and I placed a simple hand on his shoulder. I knew that no words would make this any easier for him, so I opted for actions instead. He gave me a half-hearted smile, though I could tell that it was still going to be a while before he was able to fully decompress and relax around his sister.

But they would get there eventually. Even if I had to make sure of it myself, their relationship would be mended sooner or later. I was sure of that much.

Mmmm Morix

-Digital