January 23

Defendant Lobby No. 3

12:00 PM

Venus Rinko

When I arrived out in the lobby with Mr. Morix, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "We're still hanging on!" I exclaimed, flopping onto the couch before anybody else could have the chance. "I have to admit, I was a little bit worried since we started off not knowing anything, but we're doing pretty well here!"

"I have to agree," Mr. Morix nodded. He sat down beside me on the couch, looking through a few of the papers on his lap. "I'm glad that nothing horrible has happened thus far. If the universe is kind, we'll be able to win this trial without any grand logical battles. It all depends on this third and final witness."

"Yeah... I just hope that we're going to be okay. Ms. Amaya seems pretty nice. Granted, we've never talked to her, but I know somebody nice when I see them," I said. "Speaking of, do you know where she is? I don't have a clue. We should probably talk to her a bit before going back into the courtroom."

"You're right. I don't see her anywhere though... Perhaps she's still in the courtroom. I can imagine that it would be easy for her to be caught up in talking to her brother, Ghastly, or Detective Erikson," Mr. Morix said. "We have fifteen minutes, so we'll hopefully have enough time to chat with her about the case."

"Another thing we should do is talk to Ms. Burns," I suggested. "She said something about somebody wearing gloves, but she doesn't know who. Maybe we can get the information out of her with a little bit of pressing. I don't think that she'd have a reason to hide something like that from the court. Unless she does..."

Mr. Morix seemed to understand. He nodded solemnly, but he didn't say anything else on the matter. "She has important information regarding the murder. It's vital to our case that we speak to her about what she knows. Any information she has will help us free Ms. Amaya. I don't see her around either, unfortunately."

"I can go and look for her if you want," I offered. I rose to my feet and glanced around the room. "Hm... She's got to be around here somewhere... Damn, there's too many people here. The lobbies are never this crowded, even if it's only about twenty people. Since she's so short, it's hard to tell where she is..."

"Um... Are you looking for me?"

I turned upon hearing a voice from beside me. Sure enough, it was Ms. Burns. She was messing around with her white gloves silently as she stared at the floor.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact," I responded. "Mr. Morix and I just wanted to ask you a few questions about the time of the murder. If you'll offer us a moment of your time, we can get this over with rather quickly and send you on your merry way. Does that sound good to you?"

"Well... Alright. I guess that would be okay," Ms. Burns nodded. "Go on and ask me anything. I'll try to give you an answer if I'm able to do so."

"You said that you saw something involving gloves at the scene of the murder. Can you go into detail on that any?" Mr. Morix asked as I knew he would.

"I can't exactly talk about it here... I'm sorry," Ms. Burns frowned. "It's... It's a long story. I can't get into it. The point is, there were gloves there that day."

"Why can't you talk about it?" I couldn't help but question. "There has to be some reason that you just can't talk about something this vital to the murder."

"You'll just have to bear with me. I can't talk about it, alright?" Ms. Burns asked, her voice growing increasingly agitated. "I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out this case regardless of what happens involving the gloves. I've dropped enough hints by now that you'll be able to figure it out. I can't tell you anything more than that. Please, try to understand. It's a lengthy and complicated story that we just don't have time for. I need to go... Bye."

With that said, Ms. Burns hustled out of the room, messing with her gloves all the way. I couldn't help but frown. She seemed different now compared to how she had been before. Unlike how she was in the courtroom, she was dodging our questions. It was obvious that something or someone was trying to keep her quiet. I couldn't tell if it was Ms. Burns herself or some outside force that was blackmailing, threatening, or otherwise scaring her into submission. Whatever it was, I'd need to get to the bottom of it with Mr. Morix if we wanted to have any chance of getting through to the end of this trial.

"What should we do?" I questioned, turning to Mr. Morix. "There has to be something we can do about this. We can't just go in there not knowing anything about the gloves. It's obvious that she knows something, but what can we do to get it out of her? If we let this chance slip away, we don't know if we'll be able to prove that Ms. Amaya didn't do it. We need to hear what it is that she's keeping from us. What chance do we have if we can't get the answers we seek?"

"Calm down, Venus," Mr. Morix instructed of me. "She obviously isn't in the mood to say anything to us. No matter what we do, we don't have the time to get her to talk. If she was afraid to say something so simple to just two of us, the chances of her spilling it to an entire courtroom are minimal at best. We'll just need to find a way around it. If she's right about having dropped enough hints for us to figure this out on our own, that's just what we'll need to do."

"Mr. Morix, are you crazy?" I couldn't help but ask. "Figure this out on our own? We barely know anything about the case! This is our one chance to figure out the truth, but we can't do anything about it? How can we get Ms. Amaya out of trouble if we can't learn what Ms. Burns is trying to tell us?"

"We just do what she wants us to. We figure out what she means through simple deduction. If she's really dropped enough hints for us to pick up the pieces, we can simply do so. For whatever reason, she's being kept quiet. At this point, I highly doubt we'd be able to figure out what is keeping her from speaking up. Instead, we'll just need to deduce what message she's trying to get across. With a little bit of brain power, it'll be done easily," Mr. Morix responded.

"Alright," I sighed. "This is a bit demoralizing... I just want to know the truth behind this case, but it appears that it simply wasn't meant to be discovered that easily. The gloves at the crime scene are important, and while there's somebody who knows the truth, she won't tell us. Thanks for that, universe."

"Is this a bad time?"

Mr. Morix and I halted our conversation upon hearing Ms. Amaya from nearby. She was standing alongside her brother, who was staring down at the floor like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. She smiled to us and waved. I wasn't entirely sure how she normally was due to our lack of interactions, but I was surprised that she was being so bubbly in the face of facing life sentences in prison. I have to admit, I wish I could be that way all the time...

"No, not at all," Mr. Morix said. "Is something on your mind? We didn't expect you to approach us. We thought we'd have to come and find you ourselves."

"I just wanted to thank you for this," Ms. Amaya told us. "I can't exactly defend myself and Sky here is a witness, soooooo... Thanks!"

"It's our pleasure," I smiled to her. "Don't you worry one little bit. We'll have you out of that stuffy detention center in the blink of an eye!"

"Great!" Ms. Amaya chirped. "I don't think I ever caught your names... I didn't hear them much in the trial either."

"I'm Cotoli Morix. This is my assistant, Venus Rinko," said Mr. Morix. "It's nice to properly meet you, Ms. Amaya. You, too, Mr. Amaya."

"Those names are rather nice... Yours in particular is rather coolio," Ms. Amaya remarked, looking at Mr. Morix. "I might have to call you that from now on."

Mr. Morix stared at her in confusion, blinking in shock. "Um... You'll call me... Coolio?"

"Of course! I think it fits," Ms. Amaya went on. "As for you... Hm... Venus... Venus... How does Veenie sound?"

Now I was the one blinking in shock and confusion. "Veenie?" I echoed. I had always been told that the name Venus was rather elegant and fancy, but I got the feeling that calling me 'Veenie' sort of took the fanciness out of it... I didn't have a clue why anybody would even want to call somebody else that. I'd never be able to call someone something similar in good conscience. I'd be far too embarrassed unless I was their close friend, like how I am with Chrysalis.

"Yes! Veenie!" Ms. Amaya grinned. "Also, you work for a law agency, right? Well, obviously... I think that's clear since you're here in court as lawyers."

"I own one, yes," Mr. Morix nodded. "Why do you ask? Is there something regarding that bothering you?"

"No, I was just wondering... Would you happen to be hiring?" Ms. Amaya asked. "I mean, if I get out of this alive, I'm going to need a job..."

"Um... No, we aren't hiring right now," Mr. Morix frowned. "I don't think I'd be able to take on any employees at the moment. Sorry..."

"It's alright," Ms. Amaya shrugged. "It was worth a shot at least. I'm sure I can find somewhere else. Maybe the new owner of Blocker Law will let me in."

"Speaking of Mr. Blocker... Why didn't you get accepted for the job?" I questioned with a frown. "He must have said something really intense to you."

"He said that he didn't want somebody as ridiculously goofy as me working for him. He told me that he only wanted serious employees," Ms. Amaya sighed. "I can be serious... It's his fault if he isn't able to see that. It seems abundantly clear to me... Don't you agree, Sky?"

Mr. Amaya jumped slightly upon being addressed. "Um... Sure?"

Ms. Amaya rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh, whatever..." she mumbled.

"Was there anything else he said to you?" Mr. Morix asked.

"He said that he never wanted to see me again if I couldn't take my job seriously. I was just trying to ease up on the intensity of the interview... There was a heavy atmosphere and I wanted to change that. That's going to be the last time I crack a joke at an interview," Ms. Amaya sighed. "I wonder what his deal was. He seemed to be really angry, even if he was stressed out. I don't have a clue why that would be though... Everything was going well before then."

"Hm... That's rather odd... I didn't speak much with Mr. Blocker, which is to say we never spoke at all, but it seems odd that he'd switch so suddenly like that," I admitted with a frown. "Do you think that maybe something was pushing him? Perhaps he was a bit stressed over something else and grew irritable."

"That's a possibility... If you ask me, it would have to be involved with the man who appeared to him after Ms. Burns left," Mr. Morix said. "If she was really so close with Mr. Blocker, I can't think of much of a reason for her to leave him in such distress. If she's been lying to us about her chat with him, she's been doing it well. There's been no evidence thus far to disprove her statements. We need to speak to this man who entered the office when court goes back in session."

"I agree. Whoever he is, he has to know something. I can't think of an explanation for why he wouldn't," I agreed. "We should probably head back in there before the bailiff shouts for us. I get the feeling that he's not in the best of moods given his tone when he called us in earlier."

"I don't know if this will do you much good," Mr. Amaya began, "but I've spoken with Mr. Blocker a few times before now. I came in to pick up application forms a few weeks ago and spoke with him. He seemed to be a rather kind man, even if we didn't know each other well. With the way he was interacting with his other employees, he seemed to be patient as well. I can't think of a reason that he'd get so snappy unless he was under an immense amount of pressure."

"Thank you for telling us, Mr. Amaya," I smiled. "I'm sure that will help us out somehow. If he was really so mad the day he died, there had to have been a reason. If we can figure out that reason, we might have something of a motive for the man who went to talk to him. Was he all mad and stuff when you first arrived? Did anything about him seem off to you?"

"He was a bit tense, if that's anything," Ms. Amaya frowned. "I didn't think much of it at the time. I figured it was just somebody in a bad mood. We all have those days. He did seem to be a bit brittle though, like he was thinking about something bad. He'd space off a bit too."

"Something he learned that day put him into a state of unrest. We can certainly use this," Mr. Morix nodded. "Thank you for telling us this."

Both the twins opened their mouths to say something, but they didn't get the chance. A gruff cry from the bailiff left them both silenced. "It's time to go in there, I guess," I shrugged. "Next time we're out here, you're going to be heading home free, Ms. Amaya! That much I promise!"

"I hope so!" Ms. Amaya grinned before entering the courtroom, her brother at her side. Mr. Morix and I followed a small distance behind.

January 23

Courtroom No. 3

12:15 PM

Cotoli Morix

A man was already standing up at the witness stand when we arrived in the courtroom. He had dark brown hair that hung low over his eyes. He was wearing a dark shirt with somewhat torn-up jeans. He also had on a large trench coat that reached down to his knees. Again, it was incredibly unclean and looked as if he'd been wearing it for years. His shoes were scuffed and messy. His eyes showed no emotion, though I couldn't quite tell the color due to his hair.

"Please state your name and occupation, witness," Judge Diaphan instructed. As always, she was getting down to business immediately.

"Colin Asasm," the man responded in a monotone voice. "Currently not employed. Is that good enough for you?"

Judge Diaphan frowned, clearly not fond of his attitude. I had to admit, I wasn't going to like him much either if things continued this way for much longer. "You are here to tell the court what you did the day of the murder when one Jackson Blocker was shot. A camera saw you enter and leave his office that morning."

"I was there," Mr. Asasm grumbled. "What about it? Is there something wrong here? Are we going to have a problem? You got a bone to pick?"

"N-Nothing like that," Ghastly cut in quickly. Cassidy was staring down at the bench, trying to hide a fear she couldn't disguise easily. "We just want to hear your testimony. It's going to be important if we want to solve this case in a timely manner. The sooner you cooperate, the sooner you can go home."

"Fine, I'll go on and get started," Mr. Asasm said with a roll of his eyes. "I have better things to do anyways."

"Then begin your testimony," Judge Diaphan said sternly. I got the feeling she had more than a few improper remarks about his behavior brewing in her head, even if she was saying nothing. Oftentimes, she was rather unreadable, but now, she was clearly in a bad mood, which definitely was not a good thing.

~ Witness Testimony ~

~ Why I Was at the Office ~

- "There's no huge reasoning behind my being there."

- "I was just there to talk to the victim about a few things."

- "I had some questions to ask him. It's as simple as that."

- "What we discussed is unrelated to what happened to him."

- "Is that good enough for you?"

- "There aren't any problems here, so you should just let me leave."

The courtroom was silent for a few moments after Mr. Asasm finished his testimony. I looked to Venus, who was simply staring at him in shock. "Is... Is that it? Is that really all you have to say?" she asked. "For crying out loud, he was at a law agency the day of a murder, and all he can say is that he had questions?!"

"There's nothing else to say," Mr. Asasm shrugged. "If you have issues with my testimony, just spit them out already. I have places to be, you know."

I nodded, unsure of what else I was supposed to do. Ghastly was frowning to himself. Cassidy didn't look much happier. I got the feeling that neither one of them had been particularly excited to call Mr. Asasm to the stand. From what I could tell, he was incredibly stubborn and wasn't going to give up the truth very easily. It was going to take an immense amount of pressure to get him to finally spill the beans. "I-If there aren't any objections," I began, "I shall start the cross-examination. Is that alright with you, Judge Diaphan? Prosecutor Bespoke?"

Ghastly snapped out of it upon hearing his name. He nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure," he said. "If that's alright, I mean."

"Go right ahead," Judge Diaphan told me. She was even less satisfied now, and I couldn't at all blame her. Not even I had a clue as to where this was going to be going... I'd need to look through the evidence if I was going to find an issue with it.

~ Cross-Examination ~

~ Why I Was at the Office ~

- "There's no huge reasoning behind my being there."

- "I was just there to talk to the victim about a few things."

- "I had some questions to ask him. It's as simple as that."

- "What we discussed is unrelated to what happened to him."

- "Is that good enough for you?"

- "There aren't any problems here, so you should just let me leave."

"Objection!"

"I somehow doubt that's the case, witness," I said. I wasn't entirely sure where I was heading with this, but I didn't have much of a choice at this point. I wasn't exactly using conventional evidence, but regardless, I was going to roll with it until I ran into some sort of issue, assuming I did at all.

"What makes you say that?" frowned Mr. Asasm, crossing his arms over his chest. At this point, I wasn't even sure if he had hands. They were hidden rather well beneath his jacket, and that was putting it lightly. "I didn't say anything that you should have a problem with. Let me go already."

"I spoke with the defendant and her twin brother out in the lobby before court came back into session. They offered some testimony that I personally think will be valuable to this case. It disputes your statement about the questions you asked the victim being unrelated to the case," I explained to him.

"How are you going to say that seriously?" Mr. Asasm asked. "She's a suspect for murder and he's probably her accomplice. You can't take anything someone like them says to be the truth. That's just a recipe for disaster and you know it. You can't actually be about to do this, right, Prosecutor Bespoke?"

Ghastly shrugged. "I'm going to let him talk. He knows what he's doing. Plus, I personally interrogated them both. If he says something that seems different from what I heard, I'll just call him on it. There's official records of what I heard and everything. This won't hurt," he said, clearly to the anger of Mr. Asasm.

"The defendant and her brother said that the victim seemed to be acting off the day of the murder," I began to say. "Mr. Amaya had briefly spoken with him and deduced that he wasn't the angry type of person. He seemed to be rather patient with others, and yet, the day of the murder, he was on edge and seemed irritated with the world around him for some reason. This sounds like what you heard, I assume, Prosecutor Bespoke. Am I wrong on that front?"

Ghastly shook his head. "No. That sounds about right. They both mentioned that he seemed angry the day he died, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I doubt that this was a case of self-defense if he was so well-liked by anyone. Somehow, I don't think his anger resulted in his attacking someone and forcing them to commit murder in order to get out of that alive. No, this was definitely done with malicious intent," he agreed. He shot a brief look at Mr. Asasm. The man behind the witness stand had his hands shoved in his pocket as he stared down at his feet. I could tell he was a bit irritated with my words.

"Earlier, we spoke with the other witness to this case who saw the victim the day of the murder, one Estelle Burns. She told us that she spoke with him briefly before taking her leave of him. The main difference between the testimony of Ms. Burns and what you're telling us is that she gladly explained what she spoke of the day of the murder. Her conversation with the victim was open to us the second she got up in front of the stand. However, you seem to be rather keen on hiding the truth from us for whatever reason," I said. "If you don't mind my asking, why do you want to keep it secret so badly?"

"It's none of your business. I just don't want to go out spilling my private information about my conversation with the victim that day. It has nothing to do with the murder, which means that you should just let it go and move on," Mr. Asasm told me. A harsh glare was in his eyes when he looked at me. I must admit, it was enough to make me feel like crawling beneath the defense bench to hide, never to come out again, but I wasn't going to back down just yet. I got the feeling that we were about to discover something incredibly important to the case, which meant I had to keep pressing onwards to find the truth.

"I think that it is important. There's a reason that you have to tell this court about your conversation, and it has to do with the testimony of the defendant and her brother," I explained. "There had to have been something that angered the victim so much. He was already in a bad mood when Ms. Amaya arrived for her interview. We got testimony from Ms. Burns about her conversation with the victim, which means that she's out of the picture on the matter."

"Are you trying to accuse me of something here?" asked Mr. Asasm. If it was at all possible, his glare got even more harsh. Venus bit her lip and looked away. I assumed it was because she as a bit unsettled regarding his expression. I couldn't at all blame her. I had no idea how I was remaining relaxed.

"I'm not saying anything of the sort," I assured him, but deep down, I wanted to say that I was. I mean, at this point, I couldn't think of any other explanation for why he was refusing to share what he had spoken of. What if the chat he had shared with Mr. Blocker provided a potential motive for him?

"Then why are you demanding that I talk? There is no damn reason that I should be forced to chatter on and on about a conversation that doesn't have any impact on this murder. I talked to the guy. So what? He was mad afterwards. So what? He died hours later. So what? I have nothing to do with this situation and you can't say or do anything to prove otherwise. Now, if you'll allow me to, I have to go do other, much more important things."

"Your silence on the matter implies that you are hiding something, witness," Judge Diaphan cut in. She seemed to be ready to slap Mr. Asasm, though I doubt that she would ever admit it due to her fondness of being much more proper. "I'm afraid that you're going to have to tell this court what you spoke of that day. If you are unable to tell us, we'll have to find you to be a suspect in this matter. You could be arrested and put on trial. You have no choice at this point."

Mr. Asasm didn't say anything after that. He let out a brief sigh with a roll of his eyes. "Fine, I'll tell you about what we talked about. Would that make you happy? Would you all finally shut up if I did that?" he asked. "I told you, I have better places to be, more important things to do..."

"We can determine if that's the case after you deliver your testimony," Ghastly told him. "Once you've finished, we can see if you'll be able to do your 'more important things' or not. This testimony is crucial to discovering the truth behind this case. At this point, you're a more likely suspect than Ms. Amaya. If you don't say something, like what Judge Diaphan said, you could be sent to jail in her place. I never got to hear what you spoke of with the victim due to the interrogation being cut short. Just know that lying will not be tolerated. I'm not going to allow you to deceive this court here today. Are we clear?"

"Crystal," grumbled Mr. Asasm. "If it'll get you all to be quiet, I'll get right to it... Just don't get too pissed off when you finally hear the truth."

"Prosecutor Bespoke really came through for us there," smiled Venus from beside me. "He probably would have been able to scuttle away from this without being interrogated if not for his words. I doubt that he would have had a chance at leaving without his interference. We should thank him after this."

"I have to agree," I said with a nod. "He really did help us out there. Even if we haven't been together for a year or so, he's still the best partner-in-crime a guy could ask for. Polly is nice, incredibly so, but I somehow doubt she'd be the type to come in here and threaten witnesses in such a subtle way. She'd probably just snap at them until they started behaving well. You know how she can get. She's great to her friends, but only the gods, wherever they are, can help those who find themselves on the receiving end of her unbridled rage." I let out a small chuckle at this, remembering the days when I had been in that situation...

God, that was completely and utterly terrifying.

"You're right. Prosecutor Bespoke is great. I can see what you saw in him when you were dating and what your sister, Sora, not Chrysalis, sees in him now," Venus smiled. "Maybe we can treat him to lunch after this. I'm sure he'd like a burger or two once this has all been wrapped up."

"If you're done chatting over there, I have to start my testimony," Mr. Asasm cut in with a roll of his eyes.

"W-We're finished," I stammered, feeling my stomach drop upon hearing him speak. I still couldn't help but feel fear when I listened to his voice... I hoped desperately that I wasn't the only one, though I was sure Venus would be able to assure me that I wasn't.

Another update. Yeet.

In addition to this chapter, a lot of new content is coming your way soon. I hope. For one, I posted an Octopath Traveler short story collection along with the first chapter. That's pretty neat.

Second, I've started to do an Awakening rewrite for Fire Emblem after getting a few requests for it! However, the format is going to be a bit different this time. Long story short, I'm going to put down notes and then start doing dialogue for it instead of a summary. If all goes according to the current plan (which hasn't yet been set in stone), it might end up being the script for a GBA Awakening ROM hack. That's pretty neat too.

Another announcement: I'm going to be back in school as of Wednesday. I'm not excited about it at all. However, I am going to try and keep up my two updates per week schedule instead of only doing one like I did last school year. There's going to be QATH each week along with something else. Next week, we're going to finish off this case and then the week after probably update Evolution Adventure since I haven't done that in ages. Demon of Desire will be soon after.

That's about all I have to say here. I'm going to go to sleep now since it's almost one as I'm typing this. I hope you enjoyed!

-Digital