October 3
Wright and Co. Law Offices

When Phoenix returned to the office, he found the office empty after having to use the office keys upon finding out the office was locked. There was a note on his desk saying that Athena and Mercury went out for lunch and would be back within an hour. He had not felt the eeriness unsettling but had been in this situation since the time Apollo pursued against Athena for the murder of his best friend a few years back.

Phoenix wanted to begin his investigation but felt worn out after dealing with the character of his client (and all the horrible memories with it). He was thankful that the first day of trial would begin in three days since the District Court staff would be having some sort of a day-long teambuilding activity somewhere.

("Those two have been getting close lately.")

In his office space, Phoenix continued to look up the Tech Agreement, resuming his research that morning and thinking on the circumstances of the current case. Unless he could access the crime scene, he could not finish the investigation. As he read the article, he also pondered certain questions from his meeting with his client. What secret was Vincent hiding? How did Devine end up in the back of the truck? If Vincent didn't commit the act, then who did and how? The questions building in his head triggered a light headache.

In that precise moment, there was a knock on the door.

("Back already?")

Halfway to the door, Phoenix realized that it couldn't be Athena or Mercury on the door since they had their office keys. Who could it be?

When he opened the door, he almost had a heart attack.

"Hi, Mr. Wright."

Apollo Justice was standing on the doorway.

"A-Apollo! You're here already?"

Apollo chuckled. "You make it sound like I'll be arriving a little later."

"Believe me, I didn't think you'd be here this fast given the unstable conditions there."

"I have my ways," said Apollo proudly, adjusting his tie, and entering the office.

("I bet Nahyuta blackmailed him into a prayer session in order to let him leave.")

Apollo was still wearing the same suit that always fit him for his line of work as well as the gold bracelet around his waist. His hair still had the signature horns that unreasonably stood out whenever he was the defense attorney. However, he had a new accessory: on the other collar across his attorney's badge was a pin that looked like a majestic bird. Phoenix recognized this bird as a warba'ad during his visit in Khura'in. Apollo would explain that the pin was the old badge given to attorneys in Khura'in.

Apollo looked spellbound as if he were entering a new location in a case. "Looks like a lot has changed here." He remarked on the arrangement of the furniture and the cubicles that stationed papers and computers for each attorney working there. There were five cubicles, three of which were occupied and the other two serving as storage areas. His remarks filled with excitement and impression turned into sadness with a dose of nostalgia on saying that he missed the magic paraphernalia that usually littered the main room.

"All of Trucy's gear is in a separate room," Phoenix told Apollo. "She still finds time to perform her magic acts, but she's committing herself to studies."

Apollo knew that Trucy was doing studies in the university. He was equally impressed that Trucy was pursuing psychology. Phoenix explained that she wanted to specialize crowd psychology and talent performance psychology (which wasn't a real study but Trucy would find ways to make it work).

"So what's happened lately?"

"It's probably best to hear it from Athena and Mercury," said Phoenix.

"The new attorney?"

Phoenix nodded. "He's shown great promise in the few months so far. He's just completed his first trial, you know."

Apollo nodded, a gesture showing impression. "I guess he's a hotshot around here."

"It'll be a while before he lives up to your standards."

The hair-horned attorney's eyes shone. "R-Really?"

Phoenix always never passed the opportunity to jib his subordinates. "He'll be screeching just as loud as your Chords of Steel, I'm afraid… just with a little more confidence."

Apollo did a double take. "T-That hurt where it hit, you know."

Over midday sodas, the two attorneys, owners of their respective law offices, exchanged a few stories. Apollo shed light on the guerrilla attack on Khura'in a few weeks ago but he could not give a plausible explanation on the cause of the attack. He also shared that some defense lawyers who exiled themselves to escape the tyrannical rule of the former queen returned to the country and began setting up or reopening their own offices. All in all, Apollo said, life was normal and only very few spectacular cases became talk of the town ever since the end of the revolution.

"What have you been up to lately, Mr. Wright?"

"I'm working on a case. In fact, it just started today." Phoenix gave a rundown on the case so far. He took the case ultimately to find out if it had anything to do with Mercury's past. "In a while, I'll be going to the scene of the accident. I'll have to find clues."

Apollo looked at his former mentor thoughtfully. "Looks like you might need to find the real crime scene if you want to prove him innocent, huh."

"Looks like it." ("I'm getting the uneasy feeling that I'll be discovering something monumental… that's going to throw me off the scent.")

"You said something about cyber-terrorists, huh?"

"Yeah." Phoenix took another sip of his soda. "Do you know something about it?"

"As a matter of fact, I actually do."

The lawyer in blue nearly spat out his drink. "Y-Y-You do?"

Apollo explained that Nahyuta had investigated a group of rebels that were planning to launch an attack on the country of Zheng Fa. However, due to Nahyuta's investigation, the rebels were intercepted. Upon investigation of the rebels' base, an unusual weapon was retrieved from the hideout. The consensus was that the weapon would be used as a test for something sinister. It was never fired.

"A weapon," muttered Phoenix as he received a photograph from Apollo. The weapon was long and bulky. It looked like a sniper rifle since it had a ranger's scope and a long and thin barrel where the bullet would launch out, but it also a rocket launcher due to the canister-like container and the way the weapon would be handled. It was indeed a weapon that was not available. "Does Nahyuta know how the weapon works?"

"Unfortunately, no," answered Apollo. "The rebels were interrogated but they refused to shed any information. However, one of them let slip that they were a small faction, part of a large organization dealing with cyber-terrorism. Nahyuta had to explain the whole concept to the royal family."

("I wonder if this weapon is connected to this case in some way.")

Photo of Unusual Weapon received from Apollo.

A few seconds later after Phoenix pocketed the photo, the door opened and Athena and Mercury stepped inside. They were busy in conversation about Facebook versus Twitter and were getting worked up when they saw the two attorneys on the couch.

When Athena saw him, she almost erupted in glee. "APOLLOOOOOOOOO!"

Within seconds and without a chance to say hello, Apollo found himself on the end of a bear hug by an excited and relieved Athena.

"You're… still… too…"

"I'm not letting go until I've told you I missed you," squealed Athena.

"I missed you," chirped Widget.

Apollo felt like he was being crushed by a compressor. "Alright, now… let… go!"

When Athena let go, Apollo caught his breath. "I've been away for nearly a year and the first thing I get from you is like being crushed to the end of the world!"

Athena laughed and playfully punched her former coworker's arm. "You still need to do a lot of workouts if you want to survive another bone-crushing hug!"

Apollo slumped. "Believe me, I'd have that rather than get thrown in the Hell of the Perpetual Justin Bieber's Baby, as Nahyuta calls it."

Mercury, who was behind Athena, was struggling to hold his laughter.

Still overwhelmed, Athena hugged Apollo, this time more acceptably. "I really, really missed you here."

Over Athena's shoulder, Apollo spotted Mercury, who had managed to contain his temptation of laughter.

"So this is Mercury?"

Mercury smiled and nodded as he reached out a hand. "Pleasure to meet you, sir. I heard lots of good things from Mr. Wright."

"Call me Apollo," Apollo introduced himself as he shook Mercury's hand.

Phoenix looked proud as he saw the three young attorneys quickly warm up to each other. ("I really hope the three of them will become successful in their own way someday.")

"Mercury just finished his first trial with the office," said Athena excitedly.

"Uh huh. Mr. Wright told me."

The next five minutes were spent on discussing Mercury's first case as Mercury and Athena exchanged details on how the murder was carried out and how Mercury caught the murderer.

While this was happening animatedly, Phoenix received a text message from Detective Gumshoe saying that the prosecutor-in-charge was already at the accident site and was concluding his investigation.

"I'll be heading off to the crime scene," Phoenix told them as he prepared to leave. "I'll leave you guys to catch up and… bond with each other, so to speak."

As Phoenix closed the door behind him, the conversation among the attorneys shifted to Khura'in with sodas and smiles among them.


October 3; 1:45 PM
Highway 29 Underpass; Accident Site

It took Phoenix nearly thirty minutes by taxi to reach the accident site. The traffic jam earlier in the morning was already dispersed as vehicles continued to be redirected to other roads. Traffic barriers were set up near exits and road enforcers continued to monitor the traffic status while police officers were working in the crime scene. When Phoenix arrived, he had to remove his coat in the sweltering afternoon heat. Detective Gumshoe's patrol car was stationed nearby.

The accident site itself looked the way the morning news flash reported it. In a regular accident, the vehicles involved would simply be towed or moved away within minutes after police completed their investigation. However, the truck remained in the site as it became a crime scene when Devine's body was pulled out from the truck's container. The truck was larger than a regular delivery truck but slightly smaller than a six-wheeler carrying a storage container. The front of the truck angled after the underpass while the container was lodged against its wall. There were also two other cars that seemed to have been caught in the accident but didn't suffer any major damage. Since Phoenix did not receive any word about the drivers of these cars, he presumed that the drivers were unharmed. He was only interested in the truck, but he made a mental reminder to investigate the other cars as well.

Detective Gumshoe was talking with the prosecutor-in-charge and Phoenix already knew who it was despite the prosecutor's different appearance. While he expected Prosecutor Seraph Angelique to lead the case, he was surprised to find out that the other person with Detective Gumshoe was a short-haired Simon Blackquill.

"Wright-dono," Blackquill greeted with a respectful bow. He had accepted Phoenix's lawyerly skills ever since he was saved from execution a few years back.

"Prosecutor Blackquill?"

The samurai-crazed prosecutor cut his long raven hair. At the prime of his performance as the prosecutor behind bars, Blackquill's hair reached the length of his waist. Right now, the hair was cut down to his shoulder.

"So, you two do know each other," said Detective Gumshoe.

"He… saved my life," Blackquill said to him gruffly. "However, I will still exercise my skills as a prosecutor for a swift fine-cut justice."

"I was expecting Prosecutor Angelique to be here," started Phoenix.

Blackquill folded his arms and spat. "I had hoped to see the two of you cross swords here, but… she won't associate herself with the case."

"How come?"

"Professional reasons," he answered brusquely. "As if she has a lot of time on her hands."

("I might need to question her about this.")

Phoenix sighed. The fact that Prosecutor Angelique would not be leading the prosecution for the case despite it being a high-profile case meant that something else may be going on. That was what he felt anyway.

"I have some questions to ask you, after all," Phoenix told Blackquill.

Blackquill grunted. His hawk was nested comfortably on his shoulder. "Anything I can answer as long as it's not the crime scene."

("I had not planned to ask anything about it anyway.")

Phoenix's first question was about Blackquill and Angelique's working relationship. Throughout his answer, Blackquill seemed to express some level of disdain and respect. "That cobra-manic woman sure knows how to keep a defense attorney on the edge of their seat. She and I are just prosecutors."

"Have you worked on cases together?"

Blackquill scoffed. "If crossing katanas is your idea of working on cases, then I'm afraid you have the wrong idea."

("Just get straight to the point.")

"No, we have not," answered Blackquill. "But it seems inevitable that it will happen – as long as Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth has his hold." He walked around for a moment before turning his attention to Phoenix once more. "Ever since the trial two weeks ago, your office has been the talk of the town among the prosecutors."

"H-How so?"

"The new attorney with you," he said gruffly, "he's got some spunk, I tell you that. Cobra-girl told me that he investigates with style."

Phoenix almost had to hunch over. "Oh, r-right." ("He must be referring to the cellphone.") However, this made Phoenix remember another important detail. "Prosecutor Blackquill, the two of them personally know each other – even way back before Mercury stepped foot inside my office."

A flash streaked across Blackquill's eyes. "Y-You don't mean it, Wright-dono!"

"There is a case the both of them are personally involved in," continued Phoenix, unfazed by Blackquill's reaction. "I guess you can say that the case in front of us right now could be a continuing development of that one." ("Although, I don't have proof yet. However… could this be a possible reason why Prosecutor Angelique did not want to get involved? Does she know about the circumstances? And if that's the case… does Mercury also know about the implications of this case as well?")

Blackquill had nothing to answer from Phoenix's observation. He simply grunted, then took one look at the accident scene. "Well then, Wright-dono. I'm done with my investigation. The scene is yours, but I doubt you'll find anything new. We'll draw our swords come court time."

He then barked at Detective Gumshoe. "Keep him company, will you, Gumshoe-dono?"

"Yes, pa-, I mean, yes, sir!"

Blackquill, without taking off his black leather jacket, which was a new clothing accessory for him that made him look like a motorbike thug, stepped into the unbearable heat away from the crime scene. He did not flinch.

"He's got issues," remarked Detective Gumshoe, just out of Blackquill's earshot.

Phoenix sighed. "It goes a long way." He turned to the container's door, open ajar for an investigation. "Well, I guess I can begin my investigation here."

The two of them boarded the container. The place was an OCD person's nightmare. Scraps of metallic parts and materials were scattered everywhere, some of which were spilled out from unprotected boxes. The more secure boxes seemed to be stacked neatly before the delivery but were dislodged into different places when the truck's container collided with the underpass's wall. At the back area of the container, where it would be adjacent to the driver's compartment, there was a chalk outline of the victim as well as a knife placed nearby.

The knife was Phoenix's first point of interest. ("A pocketknife. Could it be the murder weapon?")

"What's the cause of death?" Phoenix asked Detective Gumshoe.

"The autopsy isn't finished, pal" answered the detective. "But if you ask me on my personal findings, I'd say an obvious loss of blood due to a stab wound."

Phoenix was given surgical gloves to examine the crime scene and preserve the evidence. With a flashlight due to the dim container, he examined the knife closely. It appeared to be a pocketknife, just as Vincent Kudo mumbled. "This knife. It has some blood on its tip."

"It's the victim's blood," said Detective Gumshoe. "And if you're gonna ask, pal… Yeah, the suspect's fingerprints are in there."

("No surprises there. I've handled cases too many that had something like this.")

Pocketknife added to the Court Record.

With the inspection of the knife complete, Phoenix turned to the other parts. He shone his flashlight on the scattered parts, most of which didn't pique any interest. However, he noticed something in one of the unmarked boxes.

("Hmm… some of the boxes have alphanumeric codes, but this one doesn't.")

The odd-one-out box was a little larger than the others and was also unmarked. It seemed to have fallen over and some parts were scattered. Upon closer inspection, Phoenix noted that the box seemed to hold very few parts for its large proportions.

"This is a strange box, if you ask me," muttered Phoenix.

"How so, pal?"

Phoenix explained how there were only very few parts that spilled from the large box. If the box were part of the delivery despite being unmarked, the box should have been filled to its brim.

"You wanna know what I think?" Detective Gumshoe presented his theory. "I think something else must have been placed in that box but somehow disappeared from the crime scene before we got here."

Phoenix nodded. ("Since when did my goofy detective friend become this insightful?")

Large Unmarked Box added to the Court Record.

With new pieces of evidence, Phoenix proceeded to investigate the surroundings. With the flashlight and the afternoon light illuminating parts of the container's interior, he could see the Summerbridge name and logo engraved on the interior's walls. At the back of the container, he also saw what seemed to be a door handle.

"A door?"

"It leads to the driver's compartment," explained Detective Gumshoe. "I don't get why the company would put these things, but they wanted the driver to make quick inspections of the products so that they wouldn't need to open the container's main door."

("Huh… some truck it is.")

Phoenix tried to pry the compartment's back door open, but it was locked.

("Hmm… locked from the other side? I can't seem to find a key handle.")

"Looks like the culprit locked it from the other side," said Detective Gumshoe. "However, it doesn't explain one thing."

"And that would be?"

Detective Gumshoe scratched the back of his head. Even in the semi-darkness, Phoenix could tell he looked flustered. "The suspect was found here in this container."

("So if it's locked from the other side… then it should open from the driver's compartment.")

"I guess only Mr. Kudo would have an explanation for all this," said Phoenix. "I would need to question him a little more."

After further inspection, Phoenix decided that nothing else inside the container was worth interesting for now. With this, he stepped out of the container.

"The heat's unbearable," remarked Phoenix.

Detective Gumshoe winced as soon as he felt the afternoon heat upon exiting the container. "The container made the heat even worse."

("Right… I can examine the driver's compartment or the cause of the crash.")

Phoenix remembered that his client was hiding a secret. ("What caused the crash?") He remembered that the locks appeared when his client claimed that the crash was caused by a flat tire. To be sure, Phoenix checked the tires of the truck. ("As I thought. No flat tires. That would most likely mean that the crash was caused by driver error.")

"What caused the crash, Detective Gumshoe?"

"I'll let one of the investigators fill you in." Detective Gumshoe barked for attention on one of the investigators baking in the afternoon sun and inspecting the road tracks. The investigator seemed to be relieved to step inside the overpass's shade. "Hey pal, please fill in Mr. Wright here about the tire tracks."

The investigator saluted. "Yes, sir! Skid marks caused moments before the crash indicated that the truck was steadily steering to the left lane before it tried to make a sharp right attempting to return to the original lane." He then pointed at the damaged front of the truck. "Unfortunately, the truck collided head-on with incoming traffic, causing the accident."

Phoenix visualized the investigator's result. ("So, Mr. Kudo was driving normally in the highway until something happened that caused his truck to move steadily to the left lane.")

"Did you discover something in the driver's seat?" Phoenix asked.

The investigator saluted again. "Yes, sir! The brakes and steering were in perfect condition!"

("I wouldn't describe that as something unusual.")

Detective Gumshoe stepped in as he took out a piece of paper. "This will probably help you, pal."

Phoenix received the paper and scanned its contents. ("This is…") The paper described the result of a test. Meanwhile, the investigator returned to his investigation on the road tracks.

"We did a breath analysis to check Mr. Kudo's alcohol content and saw that it was over the legal limit," said Detective Gumshoe. "You could say that he was drunk…"

("Did the alcohol impair his driving ability that night? Seems like it…")

With the report, Phoenix had the answer he needed to unlock his client's secret. Despite this, even if he proved his client's innocence of murder, he knew that this report would damage his client's job. Now that he knew his client was drinking on the job, he had to know why.

"Did you look at his history?" Phoenix asked Detective Gumshoe.

The detective scratched the back of his head. "As a matter of fact, I did, pal. See, he's been through his drinking habit ever since he lost his wife in an accident many years ago. His kids are nowhere near him either."

("That must have been tough for him.")

Breath Analysis Report added to the Court Record.

"Will the truck be towed away?" Phoenix wondered.

"Not until the first day of trial, pal," answered Detective Gumshoe. "It is a crime scene after all."

Phoenix smiled a little. ("At least I can return here tomorrow. The trial won't start until three days' time.")

This made Detective Gumshoe wonder about something. "Ya know, pal, you're always investigating with some companion. Usually, it's that quirky girl in strange purple clothing."

Phoenix chuckled, knowing fully what he meant. "She won't be assisting me anytime soon now that she has responsibilities of her own."

Detective Gumshoe shrugged. "Them responsibilities catch up with age, huh pal."

("My ratio of responsibilities to age is sadly proportional.")

This reminded Phoenix of something. "I was expecting Prosecutor Angelique to be the prosecutor for this case after watching Mercury's trial."

Detective Gumshoe frowned. "Yeah, about that, pal. See, the prosecutor's currently traveling abroad to a country in the east."

"Any idea what she's doing?"

"Investigating, I guess."

("She is an international prosecutor, after all.")

"The black birdman's got a lot of free time, pal," said Detective Gumshoe dryly.

"Is he treating you well?"

The detective sighed. "Look, pal. I've gotten used to being treated like total trash by many a prosecutor, but Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth's assignment of Blackquill is a little over the top, even for me."

Phoenix had a horrible mental picture of Detective Gumshoe being sliced open by a katana. ("I'd not like to think about that again, ugh.")

"But it's okay, pal," continued Detective Gumshoe, this time with a smile. "At least I'm comfortable knowing that you're on the case."

"Why is that?"

"Ever since Mr. Edgeworth's commitment of both sides of the court working side-by-side to uncover the truth, a lot of things have been changing."

"And Blackquill's comfortable with that?"

The detective did not respond.

("I'm not sure that many prosecutors would be warming up to Edgeworth's ideology. But then, Prosecutor Angelique is an international prosecutor. She doesn't need to be held in his clout.")

"Anyway, pal," said the detective. "Is there any other place you'd like to examine?"

Phoenix asked Detective Gumshoe to accompany him to the other side of the accident site, where the front of the truck collided with two other cars. One of the cars seemed to have the inflatable emergency bag still activated. Phoenix knew that this car was the one that took the most impact. The second car behind the first one only had a minor dent. Detective Gumshoe explained that the second car braked heavily to avoid a hard collision as evidenced by its skid marks.

He cautiously approached the other side of the first car and noticed something. Under the baking sun, he crouched down and peered the mysterious area closely.

("It smells like… oil. It must have leaked through a punctured area when the car collided. Looks like the sun dried it up.") Phoenix noticed that the car lost a significant amount of oil and a puddle had gathered near the truck driver's door. ("But there seems to be more…") Somewhere at the northern part of the puddle, there seemed be a set of footprints. ("These look like a set of footprints. If I can trace them, it seems someone must have passed over the oil from the truck.")

"Could it have been the driver of this car?" Phoenix asked Detective Gumshoe.

"I dunno, pal," answered the detective. "Seems farfetched to go out that way when the driver's seat is on the other side."

"Good point," muttered Phoenix. ("Let me just take a good photo of this area.") He took out his phone and took a picture of the scene.

Accident Site Picture added to the Court Record.

Once his investigation was complete, Phoenix looked around the area once more before focusing on the evidence he collected. ("So this accident scene is also a crime scene. Ms. Lopper's body was retrieved from the back of the truck. The truck's driver was accused of the crime. However, Mr. Kudo claims to not have stabbed her, that much is true. The murder weapon seems to be the pocketknife with the suspect's fingerprints. If the crime played out as it did, then it leaves a big gap…")

After collecting his thoughts, Phoenix muttered, "What happened after the crash before Ms. Lopper was stabbed?" To find an answer to the question, he would need to speak with his client once more.


Author's Notes: Apollo is back! Blackquill is back! Apollo will be around for the investigation, but he needs time to catch up with Athena and warm himself to Mercury, so I left him in the office. This investigation is going to be quite long (possibly split into two parts) since we'll be going to Summerbridge and we'll be interrogating Prosecutor Angelique when she returns from her investigation abroad.

To sum up what's been happening in the investigation so far, it's like this: Lopper comes to the office to discuss about the presence of cyber-terrorists. Next day, she is found dead at the back of the Summerbridge truck just as it makes its delivery to New York across the country. Early in the delivery, the truck met an accident in the highway and dislodges the contents inside. It is not yet clear how the truck driver managed to stab the victim, but a clue behind a door at the back of the container (not yet unlocked) provides a possible method.

See you in the next parts of the investigation!

PowerZone