September 15

Courtroom No. 5

10:45 AM

Sky Amaya

For a while, there was only silence as the court watched 'Prosecutor Wood' carefully. She let out a heavy sigh before shaking her head. "Really can't have anything around here, huh?" she questioned. Her voice was different all of a sudden, being far rougher and deeper than it had been just a moment before. She shoved her hand beneath the hair that was covering her eye before she shoved it away, and she shook her head once again. "You're all getting in the way of this. You really don't know what you're getting into."

I frowned to myself as I watched Nevada fully shift into her regular persona. She was glaring at the ground angrily, though it didn't seem to me that she was mad at any of us in particular. It seemed as if she hated the world at large more at that moment. Nevada crossed her arms before glancing up, and she addressed me, Victoria, and Lily a moment later. "Well? What is it that you want to know?" she inquired, her words still bitter and filled with chained rage.

"Why did you hide all of this from us?" Prosecutor Burke asked, jumping in before any of us had the chance to respond. "This is complicating everything about the case, and if you had just been honest from the beginning-"

"I have my reasons, okay?!" Nevada suddenly snapped, shooting an angry glare at Prosecutor Burke before managing to compose herself. She seemed more like a caged animal than before, as if stripping away the mask of being Prosecutor Wood had completely changed everything about her. She was no longer anywhere near as comfortable or strong as she once had been, instead falling into something that was nervous and constantly on edge. It was certainly a drastic change, and I have to admit that it caught me by surprise.

"Why don't you give your honest testimony about what happened at the time of the crime?" Lily asked with a light smile on her face. It was clear to me that she was trying to calm Nevada down enough for us to talk to her. After all, getting confrontational when Nevada was already upset wasn't going to get us anywhere closer to figuring out the truth. We needed her to take a deep breath so that she would actually be willing to say anything about what happened.

Nevada hesitated for a long moment, staring down at the ground as if she had been filled with the rage of a thousand people. She took in a slow, careful breath, almost as if she was scared that she was going to break something if she wasn't cautious enough. Nevada eventually glanced up, allowing her arms to fall back by her side as she did so. "Sure," she said, though I could tell that it had taken far more energy than it should have to ensure the syllable was calm instead of snappish and angry.

"Something must have happened to upset her to this degree..." Victoria commented from my side. "I'm not sure what it could have been, but... She's been pushed too far by something bad. If you want my opinion, she isn't even mad at us. There's something else that's got her upset to this extreme degree. We need to make sure that she's honest about what that thing in particular is."

"I remember hearing before that Nevada comes out because of Prosecutor Wood's fear of knives," Lily said, nudging me gently with her elbow to make sure that I was paying attention. "I can't be the only one who thinks that the knife at the scene of the crime, the one that was hidden underneath the victim's body, was what brought her out in the first place, right?"

"The knife was shoved so far underneath the body, and if you want my opinion, Nevada did that on purpose so that none of us would realize that she was the one that was out. After all, without the knife, there would have been no reason for her to swap in. She's been dormant for so long, but the sight of the blade was enough for her to finally step in after being away for ages," Victoria remarked. "She was trying to hide that she was here."

I glanced up to Nevada once again, a frown on my face. I realized that she had removed her glasses while I was distracted with talking with Victoria and Lily. I glanced over to the witness bench and realized that Chrysalis was sitting there despite her claims of not remembering what happened. Her eyes went wide with some sort of realization, though I couldn't say for sure what could have sparked such a reaction. Afterwards, she managed to somewhat control her response by looking down to the ground, but her expression remained unrecognizable and unreadable to me.

"Do you think it has anything to do with Chrysalis?" Victoria suddenly asked when she realized that I had been staring at our coworker. "After all, Chrysalis was how we were able to connect Nevada to being at the scene of the crime, and for all we know, that's the reason that Nevada has been so stressed this whole time."

"It's possible," Lily murmured in agreement, her eyes closing as she considered the possibilities. "I really don't know for sure what's happening, but... I think that hearing about what Nevada says about the time of the crime is our first step to learning more about what took place at the time of the murder."

"What is it you want to know?" Nevada questioned, and I could tell that she had been listening in on our conversation. There was still something anxious about her, as if she was trying to hide the way that she couldn't stop fidgeting with the hem of her skirt or the edges of her hair. Her constant movement reached a peak when she pulled out the ponytails from the braids that she had been wearing before shaking her head out, allowing her strawberry blonde hair to fall in a curtain around her head. It was slightly curled due to the braids from before, but Nevada didn't seem to mind. She certainly looked different from Prosecutor Wood, and everything about her seemed simultaneously more put-together and more disorganized than her alternate counterpart.

"What did you see at the time of the crime?" I asked. I got the feeling that she was looking for something a bit more specific, but it was still a start. Besides, the rest of the group could elaborate if they had any better ideas. I wasn't sure of where to start, so I figured it would be for the best to leave it up to them.

"How did you and Chrysalis find the scene of the crime?" Victoria inquired, her expression kind and her voice conversational. "After all, we figured out that you were there because of her. If she doesn't remember what happened, then maybe you do."

Nevada was quiet for a moment before she shook her head. "I can't tell you... Not right now," she murmured. "It... It isn't the right time." She continued to stare down at the ground, almost as if she thought that it would be able to supply her with the answers she needed when it came to formulating a proper response for us.

"Right now..." Lily repeated, frowning as she examined the wood of the bench before her. "There has to be a reason that makes this a bad time in particular. If we can figure out what it is, then maybe we can convince her to open up. If she doesn't feel like it's safe, then we'll simply have to convince her that everything is fine, and that will help her to feel a bit more secure."

"Maybe we aren't asking the right questions to get her to open up," Victoria suggested. "We know that the victim was at the school because he was targeting somebody in particular due to the actions of a client that he was working for. If Nevada happens to know something about that client or target, then we can convince her to talk to us through that."

"But we don't know anything about who the client or target could possibly be," I whispered to her. "Detective Umber has been constantly investigating to figure out both, but she's come up short every single time that she got close to finding out anything. I don't know where we would even be able to start with all of this."

Lily paused for a moment before her eyes went wide, and she shook her head a moment later as if she was coming out of a trance. "I think I have an answer," she replied. She shifted her attention to Nevada, her expression carefully crafted to ensure that Nevada didn't wind up angry or otherwise upset with her. "If you don't mind my saying so, witness... I would like to know about the target of the victim."

Nevada looked shocked at first, as if she was going to try and lie her way out of it, but she seemed to realize that it was pointless a moment later, prompting her to let out a small sigh. "She was the reason he was there in the first place. What about it?" she questioned, crossing her arms as she glanced down to the floor.

Lily smiled, and she placed her hand gently upon the surface of the bench before her. "You said 'she'... That's not exactly the default pronoun that you would use when you didn't know a person's identity. If you didn't know who the target was, you would likely use neutral pronouns. You would have said that 'they were the reason' behind the victim's interference at the school. The change of pronouns makes it seem to me like you know exactly what's going on with the victim and his target," I told her.

Nevada's expression went tense with anger for a flash of a moment, but she managed to correct it a second later. The courtroom began to chatter, but Judge Frost let out a sigh and hit his gavel against the podium in front of him before it could get too out of hand. "Order in the court!" he exclaimed, prompting everyone to begin to settle down. "Witness, you will tell the court at this time about who the victim's target is and how you became privy to this information."

Nevada was silent once again at his words, as if she was considering if answering would be in her best interests. She let out a sigh before shaking her head. "Listen, okay? It was a slip of the tongue. Nothing happened. Everything's fine," she said, though it sounded to me like she was more trying to convince herself that it was alright than the rest of us.

Lily picked up on that as well, and she shook her head. "I think that it runs far deeper than that... In fact, I would like to say that you know exactly who the target of the victim was. After all, you did quite a bit to help her out in the aftermath of the crime. Wouldn't everyone here agree that she was incredibly nice to Chrysalis Starr, another witness who just so happens to not remember what happened at the time of the murder?" she questioned. "I believe that your actions the day of the murder involved you and the target, or to be more specific, you and Chrysalis."

Nevada let out a harsh sigh before shaking her head. "Listen, okay? I don't know what you're talking about. I came out by accident. This has nothing to do with the murder. You got the explanation for the damn memory gaps that you were so worried about, and that should be enough, but you still want to push and learn more? I don't get it... Please, just drop the subject already. I feel like we already know that the defendant didn't do it, so just declare her not guilty and let this all go away," she said.

"You came out by accident after being dormant for months upon months?" I questioned. "If you ask me, that shouldn't have happened. When you add in the concept of the knife being shoved so far underneath the victim's body, it seems clear to me that you appeared because you walked in on something that you shouldn't have at the time of the crime. You saw the knife and switched in as a way of protecting Prosecutor Wood from her fears, and that was what came next."

Nevada glanced over to me, her expression clearly dumbfounded. "Are you trying to imply that I did this?" she questioned, each word crafted slowly and carefully. There was something akin to a scowl in her eyes, and she shook her head. "You have no idea what you're talking about, you know. Why would I want to kill him? Besides, he's huge. Someone like me, a young schoolgirl, wouldn't have stood a chance. Even if I'm stronger than Niamh is, I'm not exactly as muscular or tall as the victim was. How would I have even begun to fight back against somebody like that?"

"We're looking to figure out who shattered the glass at the scene of the crime. The breaking of the glass caused the trophy case to smash, and the shelves broke as a result. That was what caused the trophy to fall on top of the victim's head, killing him soon afterwards. The crime could have very well been an accident. We aren't trying to imply that you killed the victim. We're simply explaining what we believe to have happened at the time of the murder," I assured her, doing my best to appease her anger before it got out of hand.

Nevada sighed and shook her head. "You're doing a lot here to try and push me as being responsible... I don't think that's a good idea, you know. Just step away from all of this and leave it alone. For the love of all things holy, drop this already. It doesn't matter, and it never has. I switched in for the sake of Niamh. That's all that you need to know. The victim's target... It doesn't matter anymore, okay? Everything is fine at this point, so just... Leave it alone," she muttered, unwilling to meet any of our eyes.

"If it's alright with everyone here... I have something to say."

I let out a gasp upon hearing that familiar voice, and I glanced over to the witness bench to see that Chrysalis was rising to her feet. Her expression was difficult to read, but I could tell that her eyes were wide and transparent. She swallowed dryly as everyone started staring at her, prompting to begin fidgeting with the black gloves that she always wore. I could tell that she hated the unwanted attention, but she still wasn't doing anything to keep people from staring after her declaration.

"What is it?" Prosecutor Cruz questioned. His expression was quizzical, and I could tell that Chrysalis interrupting was the last thing he had expected to happen. He watched slowly as Chrysalis made her way up to the witness stand beside Nevada, and his gaze hardened as he saw Nevada shift uncomfortably at her presence.

"I want to bring up what I know happened the day of the crime," Chrysalis replied. "It isn't much, but... I remember going to the school because I was planning to pick up someone there. She took a while to come out to the car, so I decided to go and investigate because I graduated from the school a few years prior. I was trying to find her when I heard something from behind me, but... That's where it all ends. I don't remember what happened after that, but when I next came to, I was at Nevada's house, and she was there."

"You heard something?" I asked with a tilt of my head. If she heard something, then that could have been the proof that we were looking for that Nevada had been involved somehow. If Nevada was going to keep denying until we had official evidence, then we were simply going to have to pin her down where she wouldn't have a chance to escape.

Chrysalis nodded. "I didn't remember that until after you started talking about what happened, but... There was a rustling sound from behind me. It all goes black after that, so I can't say what could have caused the gap in my memory, but... When my memory came back, I was at Nevada's house. I was laying down on the couch, and she was looking after me. She wasn't wearing her glasses either, and that seems like proof that it was her rather than Prosecutor Wood. She was here at the time of the murder," she declared.

Nevada went tense, and she stared down at the ground before shaking her head. "You really don't know what you're doing here," she murmured, and I couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about. I was certainly under the impression that there was something wrong, but I didn't yet have the information needed to figure out what exactly it was. Just what was she trying to hide from us?

I was silent for a moment after that as I tried to figure out what could have happened to make Nevada act so strangely. She seemed to want us all to distance ourselves from the case, and I was positive that there was a reason for it. There had to be logic behind why Chrysalis' memory went blank after she heard something moving behind her. What could have made her fall asleep at the school? It was clear that she didn't simply lose consciousness out of nowhere. Something must have caused this.

Suddenly, it hit me, and I felt absolutely ridiculous for not figuring this out sooner. My eyes went wide and I pressed my palm against my forehead. "No way..." I murmured before turning to face Lily and Victoria. "Do you remember the chloroform that was found on the victim's body? That could have very easily been used to knock Chrysalis unconscious. Nevada found her from there and decided to take her away because she could tell that something was wrong."

Lily gasped, and she nodded furiously. "You're right! The victim must have used the chloroform on Chrysalis before scratching her with the knife. That would have been about when Nevada walked in, and then she likely faced off against the victim for some reason," she agreed.

"The victim was going after his target, and said target just so happened to be Chrysalis," Victoria realized. "Nevada walked in on him doing something that he shouldn't have, and that's where everything starts to go away from the plan that the victim had created... This is certainly something strange, that's for sure."

Nevada glared daggers at us from her place behind the witness stand, and I could tell that she was far from being satisfied about the fact that we had managed to figure out the truth behind her encounter with the victim the day of the murder. "You should just leave this alone. I don't know what you're trying to accomplish here," she announced.

"She isn't denying what we're suggesting," I pointed out. "She knows that she can't deny it anymore, so she isn't even bothering to try. Instead, she's thinking about simply getting us away from finding out more about the case, but... I still don't get what her reasoning could be. We understand now that Chrysalis must have been the target of the victim for some reason or another... I don't know why he would have wanted to go after her, but..."

Lily and Victoria were quiet as I trailed off, and they shared a worried glance with one another that made my stomach churn. I didn't know what their sudden nerves were about, but I had an awful feeling about it all. I kept myself from saying anything about it all though, instead deciding that it would be best to ask them about it when we weren't in such an intense situation.

"Why would she want to keep us away from the case? That's the real question," Lily suddenly said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Unless she's trying to keep somebody safe from the truth... Ah! That's exactly what this is!"

I realized what she was implying a moment later, and I nodded my agreement. "You're right... Nevada is probably trying to keep Chrysalis from fully realizing what happened the day of the crime. If she really did walk in on something that she shouldn't have seen, then it's only natural that she would try to shove it aside. If Chrysalis was the victim's target, then Nevada would have probably had an instinct to make sure that nothing bad happened. It's something that most people would have done in her shoes," I told her.

I glanced up to Nevada a moment later. She had once again gone back to refusing to meet anyone's eyes, instead staring at the floor and examining every little pattern in the ground that would keep her from needing to pay attention to us. Chrysalis was watching her with wide, transparent eyes, and her hand was rubbing up against her cheek where the bandage over her cut could be found. When she realized that Nevada wasn't going to be returning her gaze anytime soon, she backed away from the stand and decided to return to her place on the witness bench. Nevada's shoulders relaxed as soon as she was gone, though I didn't think that she was truly glad to be alone.

"There's still one thing that you haven't figured out though," Nevada pointed out, her eyes falling upon me. There was something akin to a smirk on her lips, though it didn't reach her gaze in the slightest, making the gesture seem empty and insincere. "If I was really there, then why did the victim die? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm tiny in comparison. Besides, it's not as if I could have destroyed the glass of the trophy case if he was standing in the way. Look at where the body is positioned. He must have been between the trophy case and the killer, so how could I have broken the glass from where I was standing?"

"She's right in saying that we don't know what could have been used to break the glass," I agreed with a light sigh. I still didn't have any ideas as to what she could have potentially used, and if she was challenging us on it as her last line of defense, then she was confident that we wouldn't figure it out anytime soon. "What could a student have used to shatter the glass of a trophy case? What would a teenager be able to carry around without looking suspicious? It would have to still be heavy enough to throw at the glass and destroy it without any issues. It must have been done in a single blow too."

"I mean, the only object that most students really carry around with them at a school is a backpack, but I don't see how that helps us," Victoria remarked, shaking her head. She let out a gasp, and her eyes went wide as she looked over to me. "Maybe that's exactly it! She wouldn't have looked suspicious if she was carrying around a backpack, and I think that if there was enough stuff put inside, it would have been heavy enough to shatter the glass on the display case too!"

Lily nodded, and a grin spread across her features. "You know, Yuri still complains all the time at the agency about having to carry around such a heavy backpack between textbooks and homework. I don't think it would be out of the realm of possibility in the slightest to suggest that Nevada threw her backpack at the glass to break it. She would have had it on her person, and then she could have taken it out of the building without any issues," she explained.

"The defense has a proposed explanation for what the murder weapon is!" I cried out, and Nevada watched me with a carefully raised eyebrow. She didn't seem to be happy about this in the slightest, but she did her best to bite back her rude comments to keep from looking suspicious.

"The murder took place at a school, and many students at schools carry around backpacks with their books and such," Lily explained. "I understand that having so many classes in a day can really make the weight stack up quickly, and if there was enough paper put into a bag, it could have been heavy enough to break the glass when thrown with enough force."

Nevada glared at us, but she did her best to correct her anger a moment later. It didn't exactly work, and she was left to stare down bitterly at the ground in front of her feet. "I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered. I could tell that there was more to it than simply being a possibility for her to reject, but she was continuing to deny it an attempt to seem innocent for just a while longer.

"I believe that I have an idea of what took place at the time of the crime," Lily declared, and she pressed her hand against the defense bench. "If it's alright with you all, I want to explain what I think happened when the victim was killed at the school."

"Go ahead," Prosecutor Cruz told her. Both of his coworkers nodded their agreement, and Judge Frost tilted his head lightly to the side in a display of silent curiosity.

Lily nodded before taking in a deep breath and starting to talk. "I think that the victim first encountered his target at the scene of the crime, the trophy case area, to be specific. He knocked her unconscious using the chloroform that he had brought with him, but he didn't realize that he wasn't alone until it was too late. Nevada came out as soon as she recognized that the victim had a knife on his person, and she got his attention in the process," she began.

"Somewhere along the way, Chrysalis wound up being cut on the cheek, most likely through the use of the same knife that was discovered on the victim's person in the first place," I continued. "An argument likely broke out from there, and it ended when Nevada threw her backpack at the glass trophy case. That shattered the barrier on the case, and the shelves collapsed before dropping the trophy onto the victim's head, killing him. Nevada proceeded to hide the knife that had brought her to control in the first place as a way of making it seem as if she wasn't present, and she grabbed Chrysalis before taking her from the crime scene."

"You were trying to hide the truth behind the case because you didn't want the victim's target to remember what had happened. Am I correct?" Lily questioned, picking up where I had left off a moment later. Her eyes narrowed, and I got the feeling that she knew she was correct without even needing to ask for confirmation from Nevada.

For a long time, Nevada was silent, choosing to stare down at the ground instead of any of us. When she did finally glance up, she shook her head and sighed. "Fine," she grumbled. "You caught me. I did it. But... It wasn't supposed to end this way. He wasn't supposed to die."

"I think I get it," Victoria said next. "You threw your backpack at the victim to distract him so that you could get out of there with Chrysalis, but it wound up breaking the glass and causing the spiral of events that ended with his murder. The backpack was meant to act as a diversion to cover for both of you to get away from him, but it didn't end that way."

"He had a gun and a knife on his person in plain view," I recalled. "That explains why you were so panicked at the time, and it isn't as if anyone can particularly blame you. As soon as you came to control the body, you began to act in the best interests of the people who needed to escape from the victim's grasp."

Nevada nodded slowly. "I don't know what he was planning on doing, but... He made a lot of threats before I finally had enough of listening to him talk. I didn't want him to keep causing problems, so I did what I could to get him to shut up. Maybe he was planning an abduction. I'm not sure. All I know is that he didn't start getting violent or confrontational until he realized that he had been spotted. That's when the cut appeared," she replied with a jerky shrug. "Doesn't matter now though. He's dead, and everything's been solved and taken care of."

I gave a glance over to Chrysalis, and I could see that her eyes had gone wide as she stared at Nevada in confusion and terror. I couldn't tell what exactly had her so unsettled, but I had an awful feeling about the haunted look in her eyes. This was certainly quite a lot to learn about all at once, and I didn't think that anyone could even begin to fault her for being so upset. This case had taken a turn for the unexpected all at once, and Nevada's confession had been sudden and out of nowhere. Everything was moving quickly, and I didn't like it in the slightest.

At the very least, we knew that Mukuro was innocent. That had to count for something.

Update time!

-Digital