March 16

Morix Law Offices

8:00 AM

Cotoli Morix

I was feeling a bit better the next morning when I woke up. I was still a bit shaken from the encounter with Occisor the day before, but I was definitely on the way to feeling normal again. Chrysalis seemed to be able to sense my shakiness, so she stayed by my side, her hand wrapped tightly around mine.

The demons of the past were not ones I was fond of facing. I had thought two years ago that everything would be left behind at the factory after Mom died, but I was wrong. Now, everything involving her death was back and bigger than ever. The killers who ended her life were never caught, but now that they had resurfaced, they were trying to exact revenge on the Oracle of the Law for going after them to put them behind bars.

I could feel fear stirring deep inside of me. What would happen if Oracle did end up caught? Nobody would be able to say what sort of disaster would be unleashed. Oracle, odd as it was, seemed to keep our legal system sane in their own little way. Not one person out there knew who they were. I wanted to know now more than ever before because of the death of Venus and the Occisor incident, but at the same time, I was almost afraid of what I might find. What if Oracle was somebody that I knew? Venus and I had been close for years before she passed on. I knew most people she did as her employer. If I knew Oracle despite not knowing of their true identity, everything would change. Things were already crazy enough... Did I really want that for myself at this moment?

Chrysalis managed to snap me out of my daze by tapping me on the shoulder with her good hand. We had managed to fix up the cut one the best we could, but since neither of us was trained in anything medical, it wasn't anything special. Chrysalis insisted that it was fine and that it would heal on its own. I wasn't quite so sure, but I didn't want to cause any issues for her. Going to a hospital would reveal a few other scars of the past that I knew Chrysalis wouldn't be fond of bringing up. Even if it wasn't ideal, I chose not to object. It was already looking a lot better, which somewhat managed to ease my worries.

"The others are here," Chrysalis told me. I nodded and followed her down the stairs to the lobby of the agency where the others were. They didn't seem to be too bothered by what had happened yesterday. I couldn't put my finger on if it was because they were acting or they were genuinely carefree in regards to it.

"Hey, Mr. Morix!" Yuri chirped, waving to me. "If you don't mind, we have a few questions to ask you about the case from a year ago."

"We're getting right down to the point, aren't we?" I asked. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you think you could give us the details on what happened during that case a year ago? The one with Oracle?" Lily questioned. "Because of all this Occisor nonsense, we want to know a bit more. Maybe it could lead us to who Oracle really is behind the mask."

"I don't know if that's the best idea," Chrysalis frowned. "Oracle gets into all sorts of trouble, remember? I'm sure you don't want to end up hurt."

"Talking about this case shouldn't hurt too much though," Deirdre said. "Only if you think it would be alright to talk about, Mr. Morix. We don't want to force you into doing anything or remembering something you'd rather forget."

I paused for a moment, thinking about it. It did seem pretty harmless, so I might as well. "Alright," I responded with a small nod. "I'll tell you about it."

"That took a lot less convincing than I expected," Yuri said in shock. She shrugged. "Oh well. I guess it's better to be surprised positively than negatively."

"You weren't at the trial a year ago, right, Yuri?" Chrysalis asked, turning to the younger girl. "At least, I don't think that you were there..."

"Nope. I think I had to work on some group project for school," Yuri replied. "Whatever the reason was, I wasn't there. These days, I really wish I had been there though. Imagine how cool that would have been! I could have gone to school and told everybody all about what I would have seen at the trial!"

"Maybe it's for the best that you stayed away. That case was complete chaos," Chrysalis said, cringing slightly. "I wasn't there either, but I still remember hearing Cotoli and Venus buzz about it for the longest time. Venus seemed pretty shaken up by all of it."

"Why weren't you there, Chrysalis?" asked Lily with a small tilt of her head.

"I don't entirely remember the reason. I think I was doing something with my theater group. We put on a show not long after the trial, so I could have been in rehearsal. I don't quite recall," Chrysalis shrugged. "It doesn't really matter now though. The point is, that trial was a bit of a mess in the short and long term."

"I suppose I should start the story from the beginning," I suggested, sitting down in one of the lobby's chairs. The others all followed suit. "If there are no objections..." I looked over the group. They were all silent. With a small nod, I spoke again. "It was in January of last year..."

January 23

Defendant Lobby No. 3

9:45 AM

Cotoli Morix

I found my heart pounding as I made my way into the defendant lobby. Never before had I been this unprepared for a trial. For all my others, I had been given at least one day to prepare, but not this time. Instead of having a chance to look at the crime scene, I was called in by the police early this morning to come and defend a young woman who didn't have an attorney. I usually wasn't fond of being sarcastic, but more than a few snarky remarks filled my head each and every moment I spent thinking about this situation.

Her name was Felicity Amaya, from what I could tell. I had seen her name on top of one report regarding this case, so I wasn't entirely sure, but I could guess. She was being accused of killing the owner of one of the biggest law agencies in town. That certainly explained why nobody wanted to defend her. If she killed somebody from a large business, all the victim's employees would want to stay as far away as humanly possible. Even if she didn't do it, they'd still prefer to keep their distance. That meant that the job fell to me, the owner of a tiny little agency that barely anybody had heard of... Absolutely spectacular.

"Did I make it in time?"

I turned upon hearing the voice of the one person who I'd be able to talk to about this. Venus Rinko came running in, holding her chest as she panted for air. Her chocolate brown hair was puffy and reached down to her hips. Pink streaks could be seen on either side. She had a brown jacket on over a pink, purple, and orange gradient shirt. Her leggings were black, same as her boots. A messenger bag was over her shoulder, the same one that she brought to every trial we were on. Her brown eyes met mine for a moment until she was able to regain her composure.

"You made it, yes," I told her. "What took you so long? Was it because of the short notice?"

"Yeah... Cassidy woke me up saying that she had gotten a call this morning from you asking me to come down here. She's been on the prosecution from the very start, which means that she was already up and at 'em," Venus said. "On top of that, she's just always been the punctual Rinko sister. She's organized and controlled, Yuri is wild and fun-loving, and I'm flirtatious and lovable." She let out a small chuckle at her last words. "So, what do we have on the case so far?"

"The victim is one Jackson Blocker. He was a defense attorney who owned a large business, Blocker Law," I began to say, pulling out a sheet of paper from my tiny stack. "He was shot in the head by a large gun, which was left on top of a car outside the agency later that day. He's been well-known among people of the public because of a press conference not long ago. He mentioned an Oracle character, who he said was the Oracle of the Law. Ever since, the public has done nothing but buzz about this spy. People have been pressing him for ages, but he always stays out of the drama."

"I remember that. I hear about it a lot," Venus said. "What about the defendant? What motive do they have to kill the victim?"

"Her name is Felicity Amaya, I think. She was applying for a job at Blocker Law yesterday, the day of the murder. She ended up being rejected the position and left his office in tears. She disappeared for a short while, but when she was found again, she was with the gun that was found sitting on top of the car, which was revealed to be hers," I explained to Venus. "The only witness we have is her twin brother, but I don't exactly know his name... I guess we'll have to figure that out in the trial. I doubt the prosecution will spare a moment talking to us about the case before calling him in..."

"Don't say that. It's Ghastly. He might be Chief Prosecutor now, but he's still the same old Ghastly we know and love. He's a good guy," Venus reminded me. "You dated him for six months, for crying out loud. I doubt that he'd be as merciless as, say, your current girlfriend. She's fierce. He isn't."

"I didn't realize Ghastly was on this case," I said in shock. "In all fairness, I should have realized it when you said Cassidy was on the prosecution. She's been working with him since last year when they first met. She only ever helps him out in court since he's the main prosecutor that's nice to her."

"Aside from your sister, of course," Venus reminded me. She was right. Sora, the middle child in my merry little family, was a prosecutor too. She was pretty kind to everybody around her, so it was a bit jarring to see her in the courtroom at times. I hadn't ever gone up against her, which was probably a good thing, but I had still watched a few of her trials from the gallery. She was a perfectionist, but it worked for her. She always got the job done in court.

"That's true," I agreed. "Man, here's hoping Ghastly is willing to go easy on us... He probably will, since he's fond of the truth over victory, but..."

"You're worried about him winning since you haven't had time to prepare, right?" Venus asked. "You three are all the same. Sora's a perfectionist, you need to prepare, and Chrysalis rarely speaks to people she doesn't know without mapping it all out in her mind. It isn't a bad thing, but the resemblance sure does show with odd things."

Before I got the chance to say anything in response, a cry rang out from the bailiff, telling everyone to go into the courtroom. I let out a sigh. "Here's hoping we don't end up flopping around like a fish out of water once things get going. Since Ghastly is our rival today, he should be willing to go easy on us, especially since we were pushed into this on such short notice," I said to Venus. "I guess we should go on and head inside."

"Yeah... Man, this is going to be messy. Please, whatever god is out there, save us from this trial," Venus muttered, clasping her hands together in prayer as she stared up at the sky. "Big fluffy sheep god, I beg of you..."

"Sheep god?" I echoed. "Since when do you pray to a sheep god? Wait, no, I have a better question. Since when does anyone pray to a sheep god?"

"Why not? We need all the luck we can get. Plus, I like sheep," Venus answered simply. "Let's just go on in there."

I nodded and followed her as we went with the small crowd into the courtroom.

January 23

Courtroom No. 2

10:00 AM

Cotoli Morix

The gavel slammed down, snapping me out of my daze of fear. I looked up to the judge's podium to realize that she had arrived. I hadn't noticed before since I was too busy panicking. Today, it was Judge Ophani Diaphan on the case. She had been the judge for quite a few of my trials, but we weren't much more than simple acquaintances. Judge Diaphan was the serious sort who avoided most contact with lawyers and prosecutors outside of the courtroom to keep her judgement unbiased. As long as I had known her, which was roughly a year now, she and I hadn't ever spoken on our own time.

Judge Diaphan had dark teal judge's robes on. I wasn't entirely sure what was underneath, not that I'd ever find out. Her hair was a reddish-orange color and tied into a neat bun on top of her head. A few stray pieces of hair framed her face. Her eyes were turquoise, but you couldn't see them well because of the mask that she wore. I had heard one time from Ghastly that she wore the mask because of a few nasty scars near her eyes to avoid any questions. I never went any further than that, knowing that it was none of my business to ask further. The mask was a blue color with three slits on either side for her to see through.

"Court is now in session for the trial of Felicity Amaya," Judge Diaphan declared after setting down her gavel. "Are the defense and prosecution ready?"

I looked to the witness stand and saw a young woman standing there. I assumed she was this 'Felicity Amaya' that was on trial. She had short purple hair and eyes of a matching color. She wore a black tank top with sunglasses hanging down from the middle of them from the chest. A checkered sweater was wrapped around her waist, partially hiding the denim shorts she wore. She had red sneakers on as well, but those couldn't be seen quite as well.

"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor."

Upon hearing that familiar voice, I looked over to the prosecution's bench and was met with the gaze of none other than Ghastly Bespoke. He looked normal to me. His brown hair that fell over his right eye was the same as it had always been. His exposed brown iris looked into mine. He was wearing a black biker jacket with matching trousers and boots, otherwise known as his usual attire. A shark tooth was hiding beneath his jacket alongside his regular brown shirt and knife. He had always carried around that knife. Ghastly had once told me why, a year ago, but I never told a soul about it at his insistence. After an assault incident, he had begun carrying it around to defend himself should the need ever arise. He hadn't ever needed it as far as I knew, but he was the type to be safer than sorry in those instances.

Standing beside Ghastly was Venus' younger sister, Cassidy. She looked to be normal as well. She had on a black jacket over her sea-foam green dress. A white belt was around her waist. She had white flats on, I was sure, though I couldn't see them due to the bench. Her white hair was straightened and reached the bottom of her shoulder blades. It faded out to black at the tips. One of her eyes, the left one, was blue, the other red. Much like her younger sister, Yuri, she had been born with heterochromia, so she had two different eye colors. It ran in the family. Venus was the only one without this trait.

"The defense is also ready, Your Honor," I managed to sputter. Venus shot me a concerned look, but I brushed it off. I didn't want to make her freak out more by seeing that I was getting all panicky this early on in the trial.

"Good," Judge Diaphan said, getting down to the point quickly as usual. "Prosecutor Bespoke, if you wouldn't mind, please begin your opening statement."

Ghastly nodded and shuffled through his papers for a little while, searching for one file in particular, I was sure. Ghastly had always been a bit disorganized, so this didn't surprise me much. Cassidy's part of the bench was much neater, so she found what he was searching for with ease and handed it to him. Ghastly smiled to her and nodded. Cassidy grinned in response before beginning to clean up his part of the bench as he started off his opening statement.

"The crime took place yesterday earlier on in the morning, around nine," Ghastly began to say. "The crime scene was Blocker Law, a well-known and respected law office in town. The owner of the agency, one Jackson Blocker, was found murdered in his office, making him our victim. He was shot in the head and died instantly. The bullet entered through his forehead and broke through his skull since it was fired at point blank range. He was found slumped over his desk in his top floor office of Blocker Law. An escape ladder was dropped down from the window as a method of escaping. The murder weapon was a small gun that was found outside of Blocker Law sitting on top of a nearby car. It bears the fingerprints of our suspect in this case, new attorney Felicity Amaya.

"She was at Blocker Law applying for a job yesterday. Ms. Amaya's time to meet with the victim was around 8:30, not long before the crime took place. She was to be interviewed for roughly thirty minutes. However, the interview was cut short when the victim deemed her unworthy of his time. He cast her out of his office. The camera just outside showed her running out in tears. She ran from the building crying and went oddly missing for a short period of time.

"Gunshots rang out while she was gone. Two of them were heard from a witness, the defendant's twin brother who was at the scene with her. He was dropping her off and picking her up from her interview, so he was waiting just outside the office. He chased after his sister upon seeing her in tears, but he lost track of her. He heard the gunshots loud and clear from his new spot, which was down in the lobby of the agency. After hearing the first one, he called for the police. This bullet did not hit the victim, instead lodging itself in the wall of his office. A second one could be heard while he was on the phone. This bullet was the one to take the victim's life. After hanging up, he went outside, hearing police sirens. Upon arriving outside, he saw his sister holding the same gun used to kill the victim. It had been sitting on top of her car. Her fingerprints were all over it. Due to her motive of anger at not being hired, she was an immediate suspect. Her lack of an alibi and fingerprints being on the weapon were just the icing and cherry on the cake that resulted in her being arrested for this murder."

"Thank you, Prosecutor Bespoke," Judge Diaphan said with a nod. "Go on and call your first witness to the stand."

"The defense calls Toby Erikson to the stand," declared Ghastly.

Upon hearing his cue, Detective Erikson approached the witness' podium. He had his hands shoved in his pockets as he glanced around.

"Please state your name and occupation," Judge Diaphan instructed of him sternly.

"I'm Toby Erikson. I'm a homicide detective down at the local precinct," Detective Erikson responded. "What do you want me to testify about?"

"Please testify about the gun found on top of the car outside the victim's law firm," Ghastly told him.

"I'll get right to it," Detective Erikson nodded.

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ The Murderous Gun ~

- "The gun was found on the defendant's car outside the building where the victim died."

- "The gun is small enough to easily be hidden by, say, a jacket wrapped around one's waist."

- "Two shots were fired the day that the murder took place."

- "The first went off at about 8:55 AM according to the witness. We suspect this is the one that was found in the wall of the victim's office."

- "The second bullet was fired a few minutes later at roughly 9:00. This bullet was likely the one to kill the victim."

- "The gun had the fingerprints of the defendant on it when it was found.

- "Many see this as an indication that she must have committed this crime."

"Is that enough information for you?" Detective Erikson asked once he had finished his testimony.

"I believe so," Ghastly nodded. "Alright, Co-erm, Mr. Morix. It's time for your cross-examination. Are you ready?"

"He almost called you by your first name. Even in court, Ghastly is just as casual as he's always been," Venus remarked with a small shake of her head. "He'd be a good father with how all-around nice he is to people, especially you."

"Maybe one day," I shrugged. "In the meantime, we should get to the cross-examination. Judge Diaphan prefers it when we're as focused as possible."

"Go right ahead, defense," Judge Diaphan cut in, having overheard my words. "We're all waiting."

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ The Murderous Gun ~

- "The gun was found on the defendant's car outside the building where the victim died."

- "The gun is small enough to easily be hidden by, say, a jacket wrapped around one's waist."

- "Two shots were fired the day that the murder took place."

- "The first went off at about 8:55 AM according to the witness. We suspect this is the one that was found in the wall of the victim's office."

- "The second bullet was fired a few minutes later at roughly 9:00. This bullet was likely the one to kill the victim."

- "The gun had the fingerprints of the defendant on it when it was found."

- "Many see this as an indication that she must have committed this crime."

"Objection!"

"Your testimony is entirely factual, I must say, but I do have one issue with it," I declared. "Specifically, I believe that the defendant's fingerprints being on the weapon are completely unrelated to the killer. It's only in human nature that she did what she did when the gun was involved the day of the murder."

"I think I know what you're saying, and you'd be completely right," Venus nodded from beside me. "There you go again, Mr. Morix. You're using the power of logic to put everybody in this courtroom to shame. Even when unprepared like this, you're still as good as you've always been at your job."

"Don't speak in vague riddles, defense," instructed Judge Diaphan. "Get right to the point and tell us directly what you're saying."

"The gun was found sitting on top of the defendant's car, if I recall correctly. If anyone else saw something like that perched on top of their vehicle, I can say with certainty that they'd pick it up. It's in human nature," I told her. "Her prints could have easily gotten on the gun when she went to remove it to leave behind the agency completely. The police seeing her with it in her hands and observing her prints on the gun both mean nothing when you look at it this way."

"You can't deny that she still could have done this," Ghastly pressed. "You can't say for sure when her prints got onto the weapon. Plus, like the good detective said, she could have easily hidden the gun beneath her jacket. The police said that she was wearing it around her waist, which means that she could have easily hidden it. Nobody would have been able to see it if she had hidden it there."

"That leaves us with two questions. First off, was she found with a holder for the gun around her waist?" I questioned of Ghastly, though I was already sure of what his response was going to be. I knew how the police worked well enough by now to be able to predict how they operated during their investigations.

"Um... No..." Ghastly said hesitantly. "Nobody mentioned to me that she was found wearing something like that..."

"If she was a suspect for murder, then she couldn't have easily slipped away to dispose of the holder. It would still be on her person when she was arrested and taken to the detention center, and yet, I haven't heard anything about the police finding such a container in her detention center room or on her," I said next.

"You're right," Ghastly sighed. "You mean to say that if she had a holder to hide the gun..."

"She would have needed to dispose of it somewhere. The police would find it awfully suspicious that she just happened to have one on her, so she would have needed to get rid of it," I finished. "Nothing of the sort was found though. This leads into my second question. If she did have a holder, why would she bother placing the gun on top of her car? The police would just see her with it when they arrived, which would make her an immediate suspect. She would have disposed of it before they arrived instead of placing it onto her car. All of this goes together and tells me that she had no holder to hide the gun because she never intended to handle it in the first place. It was just there atop her vehicle, so when she went to remove it, her prints got on it, making her a suspect for this murder."

"That could be a distinct possibility we must take into consideration," Judge Diaphan nodded. "For now, we'll just have to think on it. I believe that it's time for us to call in our second witness. Prosecutor Bespoke, I'm sure that you have him prepared to testify, am I correct?"

Ghastly nodded. "Yes. He's all ready. That being said, the prosecution calls Sky Amaya to the witness stand to testify about the day of the crime," he declared.

At his words, a young man walked up to the witness stand. He was frowning as he looked around, arms crossed over his chest. He had red hair that was slightly spiked. His eyes were red as well. He had on a white shirt that was slightly unbuttoned near the chest area, exposing part of his collarbone. He was wearing navy pants and white sneakers as well. From the sound of his surname, he was related to the defendant. However, that was rather strange to think, as they looked nothing alike. He was all red while she was purple. Earlier on, Ghastly had said that the witness was the defendant's twin brother. That was even more peculiar. I had seen fraternal twins before, but none had looked so radically different... It was a little bit jarring, to say the least.

"Please state your name and occupation," Judge Diaphan instructed of him, still as stern as she had always been.

"My name is Sky Amaya," he said, letting one hand settle on the witness stand in front of him. "I'm a defense attorney, but I'm currently not working for any agency. I was set to apply for Blocker Law a few days after my sister, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to be happening now..."

"He heard the gunshots the day of the murder and called the police," Ghastly explained. "He came to the agency with the defendant to drop her off and pick her up for her interview. When asked why this was, Mr. Amaya explained to us that the suspect has not yet gotten her driver's license, so she has to be taken places by him these days. She recently got her permit but cannot travel on her own until she passes the test, which means that she and her twin brother here are attached at the hip as far as transportation goes for quite a while."

"I see... Witness, please tell the court what you saw the day of the murder," Judge Diaphan demanded.

"I'll get right to it," nodded Mr. Amaya.

Here we are with yet another update!

We're into case three now, which is another quick one like case one. The first three cases only take up a third of the whole story because of how meaty the last three cases are. It's important to the story despite its length, in case you couldn't already tell.

I'm going to head out for now. Another update is coming later on though!

-Digital