"You seem to know quite a bit about all this Oracle business, don't you, good sir?

"Y-Yes, I suppose I do."

"If you don't mind my asking, could you tell me a little about it? I want to hear about your thoughts. After all that's happened since last January, I'm looking into the matter as well. I want to know all that you can tell me about Oracle. Can you do that?

"I-I can... Ah, but first... I require something in return, if you don't mind."

"Oh? What is it?"

"If you'll just allow me to..."

*SPLASH*

"Or we could do this. Things are a lot simpler now, wouldn't you say? Now, let's just go on and get into that bag..."

May 29

Morix Law Offices

9:45 AM

Chrysalis Starr

I was stretched out on the couch in the main room of the agency, the TV playing in the background. I was reading through a few old short stories that I had written around two years ago. A lot had changed since those days, it seemed. Most were fictional, but the few that weren't had figures that I was familiar with. I won't bore you with the details, but to say the least, they were always a bit peculiar. My writing back in those days wasn't necessarily the best, but I could grin and bear it to find the content I was searching for. There wasn't much to do in the agency these days due to a general lack of crime, so all of us were left fumbling to find anything to fill our time with. For me, that consisted of looking back on times a few years before since there wasn't much else to do.

"A murder has been reported at the lake in town. A body was found drifting out into the center of the lake. The police that arrived on the scene confirmed the victim was dead. A murder investigation is currently underway. The suspect is a young woman in her early twenties who was said to have met up with the victim earlier on the day of the murder at a boat race out on the lake. The race has since ended, but you can't help but wonder if maybe she tossed the man into the water for some reason... Her name is Neptune Mercure. She is currently in police custody on suspect of murder. No attorney has been chosen yet, but the prosecutor is a young prodigy showing what she can do for the first time. The Chief Prosecutor himself recommended her for this case."

I sat up at hearing all this. For one, hearing the name 'Neptune' reminded me of Venus. They were both planets, so can you really blame me? Even after all this time, I still couldn't forget about the case, no matter how hard I tried. If Lily was right about the witness being Oracle, then I had a bone to pick with her.

The next thing of note was that Ghastly had suggested a prosecuting prodigy work on the case. That had to be his adopted daughter. We had met a few times before when I went over to the house he shared with my older sister, but we rarely said much to each other. She was a freshman at the same high school where I was a junior (or had been this past year), so we spotted each other in the halls from time to time, but no words were ever exchanged. If she was on this case, Ghastly had to be pretty confident in her. I had heard from Sora before that she had about as much self-esteem as I did, which is to say that there's barely any of it. If this case was really so simple as the reporter on TV was making it sound, perhaps there was some sort of confidence that she could gain...

The phone rang to snap me out of my thoughts. I got up from my place on the couch to where it was sitting on the nearby counter. Since Venus could no longer work here, we didn't have anybody to manage the front desk, nor did Cotoli want to hire anyone to do so. He was still getting to know and trust our newer employees, so he didn't want to throw anybody else into the mix until he was sufficiently prepared. I couldn't blame him. Because of the fact that we were lacking in a secretary, however, we had a new phone system. Previously, just the one working the front desk had a phone that one could contact with the agency's number, but we've since gotten a set of house phones to station around the agency for easier access. I picked up the nearest one and checked to see if I knew the number. I didn't know it, but I still shrugged and answered. There was always the chance it would be a client. "Hello?" I asked into the speaker.

"Is this Morix Law Offices?" the voice on the other end asked. It was rough, loud, and masculine. I found myself flinching and yanking the phone away from my ear with the noise. Whoever it was on the other side needed to learn how to speak a little bit softer, that was for sure...

"Um... Yes," I said. "Why do you ask?"

"You sound a bit young to be a lawyer," the gruff person sighed. "Get a real lawyer on the phone, will ya, kiddo?"

I let out an angry huff. "I am an assistant here at Morix Law Offices. I deserve just as much respect as our courtroom representatives. Tell me, what do you need?" I asked, almost tempted to just hang up the phone. Unfortunately, that wouldn't give us a good reputation, so I would have to deal with it.

"Somebody at the detention center wants a real lawyer from your agency to come and defend her in court. Her name is Neptune Mercure. If you're going to take the case, get down here soon. We might have to hand it off to a state lawyer if none of you come." The line went dead not long after, which made me sigh. I didn't know who this guy was, and though I probably wouldn't ever see him again, I wasn't exactly a fan of him. I decided not to let it bother me though. I mean, the only person I'm going to let be mean to me is me. He doesn't have an ounce of power over me. Out of spite, I was going to go and grab somebody and take on the case. I didn't know who to bring along. I mean, I wasn't quite the closest with Deirdre despite our time on a case together the month before. Cotoli was the obvious choice since he had practically raised me for over ten years now, but at the same time, I probably needed to get closer with Lily...

Speaking of Lily, she walked into the room as if on cue. "I heard the phone was ringing," she said, noticing that I was holding the device in my hand. "What was it about? Was it spam or do we have an actual case?"

"We have a case," I told her. I set the phone back into its cradle and went for the couch, picking up my bag. "One Neptune Mercure wants us to come and defend her. I'm not entirely sure how she managed to hear about our agency. We aren't exactly the most well-known in town, especially not when you have Blocker Law to contend with, but I suppose that if it'll get us a job, I can go along with it. Come on. We should head down to the detention center."

"Blocker Law?" Lily echoed. "That place is still open? I would have thought it to be closed after the owner died last year. Did somebody else take up the job of leading the agency?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I don't know who though. I haven't been there since before the incident. I doubt I'll be going there for a while anyways, so it's fine. The point is, we have to go and defend our client. Her name is Neptune Mercure. I heard about the case on TV. It took place at a lake near here after a boat race. The details were kept out of the report for obvious reasons about the public knowing too much, but those are the basics. I bet that this Neptune woman can tell us a bit more about the case when we see her. She's bound to know at least twice as much as I do, so that should help us out at least a little bit on the matter."

"Then let's go on and get going," Lily said. "We should probably leave a note for Deirdre, Yuri, and Mr. Morix though. We don't want them to freak out when they notice that we're not here."

"Cotoli will flip if he thinks I just left randomly. He's always been something of a protective brother. That's probably putting it lightly, truth be told. I'll send him a text. He'll be fine after." I pulled my cell phone from my bag and shot Cotoli a quick message about going out on the case. He didn't see it immediately after I sent it, but he'd notice soon enough, which was good enough for me. "We should go to the detention center before hitting the crime scene. We'll need as much prior knowledge as possible before diving into this investigation. Plus, the man on the phone said that if we didn't arrive soon, the case would go to a lawyer from the state. If our client specifically requested us, then she'd undoubtedly be upset if we didn't end up showing. It's not like we have anything better to do."

"Alright." Lily opened up the door and gestured for me to go through it. I nodded before leaving the room and heading for the stairs down the hall. After two and a half months of no cases, this was already rather refreshing. I preferred investigating to sitting around in boredom for sure.

May 29

Detention Center

10:15 AM

Chrysalis Starr

When we arrived at the detention center, there was already a young woman sitting on the other side of the glass. She had dark brown hair that fell down her back in puffy curls. She had blue streaks in her hair on either side that were tied together at the back of her head. She was wearing black leggings and black boots. A blue, green, and turquoise shirt that faded between colors was hidden beneath a black jacket that flopped over her wrists. White gloves covered up her hands and fingers. She was tapping on the table in front of her aimlessly as her blue eyes stared off into space. They contrasted greatly with her tanned skin.

Wow, she looked a lot like Venus.

I mean, I had seen people that looked like my best friend before, but the resemblance here was crazy. Not even Yuri or Cassidy looked as similar to Venus as this woman did. She seemed to be a few years older, at least judging from the exhaustion in her eyes, but they looked alike nonetheless.

"You two must be the lawyers," the woman said, snapping out of her daze. She stopped tapping on the table and stretched her arms up. "I was almost thinking nobody was going to show. I told the guards here to contact somebody about an attorney yesterday, but I didn't hear a thing about anybody coming by."

"We didn't get a call until just this morning," I explained. "Sorry about that. At least we're here now, right?"

"It's fine," she shrugged. "My name is Neptune Mercure. You two are from Morix Law Offices, right? I requested that I get somebody from there, so..."

"Yes, we are workers there," Lily said. "My name is Lily Shield. This is Chrysalis Starr. If you'll have us, we'll be defending you in court."

"I'd like that. I don't have anybody to defend me yet. No lawyers have come by at all, like I mentioned before. Plus, I hear that your agency is pretty good. I think I can trust you guys to get me a not guilty sentence. I heard your agency has a thing for trusting clients. Is that correct?" Neptune asked of us.

"Yeah. My brother, the owner, always has faith in who he defends. It's kind of his thing," I told her. "I just wonder how you heard of our little agency. I mean, it's not like everybody knows us all that well. Our biggest accomplishments had to do with that murder involving the Oracle of the Law last year."

"That's actually how I heard of you guys. I heard other people saying that you're pretty good at what you do, so I looked into you guys online. You seem to be honest people, so I decided to have you guys come in. There are other agencies in town that are a little bit larger, but the bigger they are, the more room there is for corruption. You never know what sort of dark secrets are hiding behind closed doors with those bigger offices, you know?" Neptune sighed. "Well, now that we've gotten the formalities out of the way, I should probably tell you about the murder and all that jazz. You'll want to hear about that, am I right?"

"You got it We didn't hear anything about the case before we got the phone call," I frowned. "Anything you can tell us would be appreciated, Neptune."

"The murder took place on a lake near here. It was after a boat race that the body was found. This was yesterday, by the way," Neptune began. "I was there to go and find somebody. You see, I have something of an interest in the Oracle of the Law. I heard that an investigator was going to be there. I was going to talk to him about the Oracle case in hopes that he'd be able to tell me something about it. That guy ended up being the victim later on in the day."

"Sounds like your meeting didn't exactly go as expected," Lily said. "Do you know anything else about the murder that we might find helpful?"

"The victim seemed to have a bit of a gambling habit. He liked to make bets at races and such on who would win, which earned him a bit of a negative reputation fro the debt that he's gathered up. He's a generally unpleasant man, but he gets the job done. I was hoping to have a quick little chat with him and then call it good, but when we did cross paths... I'll just say that it wasn't pretty. I knew that he wasn't the nicest of people, but he instantly seemed to want to start an argument," Neptune went on. "I wanted to just walk away, but if I wanted information, I didn't exactly have that option. It was really irritating."

"He really doesn't sound agreeable... What did he want to argue about?" I asked. "Was it to do with Oracle or was something else on his mind that day?"

"He insisted on looking through my evidence bag. I didn't want to let him since that's sort of my personal stuff. He kept on pushing it no matter how many times I said no. After a while, I got frustrated and walked off. He yelled something about how I could have been 'his little sweetheart' if I had just gone along. I was nothing short of disgusted, so I... I may or may not have given him the finger and gone out to my car," Neptune said, contorting her face to show regret. "That was the last time I saw him alive. He was all grouchy when we parted ways since I rejected him so many times. Can you blame me? All he wanted to do was dig through my bag. We had been talking for a whole two minutes and he felt entitled to do something like that. Anybody would get a bit angry at that."

"I bet that made you really uncomfortable," I muttered. "What exactly is your alleged motive for this case? Have the police come up with anything yet?"

"It has to do with my bag, believe it or not. When I went out to my car, I started talking to my friend. Her name is Cassidy Rinko. She had gone with me to go and talk to him as backup in case I needed it. We ended up separating upon arrival since she didn't want to be in the crowd of the race. She's a little bit claustrophobic, so she didn't want to end up having a panic attack because of the tight space," Neptune said. "I told her about what had happened with the victim. After that, we started to get into my car. I realized that I had set down my bag at my feet just outside the car since it goes over one shoulder and can get a bit heavy. I went to grab it and noticed it was gone. I began to freak out, scrambling to go find it. Cassidy and I split up to go and search for it. When we finally did find it... The victim was bobbing in the water, having been drowned to death. My bag was on the shore a few feet away from the corpse."

"That certainly sounds incriminating," Lily frowned. "What specific motive did they come up with for you? Was it because he took your bag from you?"

"Yeah. The police think that I had something important in there that he wanted, so he came up when I wasn't watching and took it. I went to go get it back, according to them, which is when I got murderous and decided to just kill him. I mean, I don't know why anybody would want to do that. Why not just go and talk to an officer on duty and say that your stuff was taken by a guy? You could get your stuff back and get him arrested for theft. The logic here is just nonexistent." Neptune let out a sigh. "The point is, they think I did it when I didn't. I'm going to need your help to get out of this situation."

"We can head to the crime scene to investigate soon. Do you have anything else to tell us before we head down there though?" I questioned of her.

"For one, be careful when talking to Cassidy. I heard she was a bit shaken up after what happened. It might take a little bit to open up to you guys, but I'm sure that she'll gladly talk if you say that I sent you guys. Do either of you know her?" Neptune questioned. "Her last name is Rinko like I mentioned a bit earlier."

"Yeah, I know her," I nodded. "Her younger sister currently works at our law firm. Her deceased older sister used to be with us as well before she passed on earlier this year. I've been close with their family for a few years now. I shouldn't have any issues getting her to talk to us about the case."

"I'm glad to hear it," Neptune smiled. "She's a sweet girl, but she can get a bit nervous at times. She's got a small issue with anxiety that keeps her from interacting with very many people. She seemed almost afraid of me back when we first met, though obviously things are different now. We've been close for a few months now. Come to think of it, she has mentioned a Chrysalis a few times... That must be you. That name isn't exactly common, so that has to be it."

"You're probably right," I affirmed. "I've been friends with Cassidy for a few years now, two to be exact. She's pretty sweet. If she's at all feeling unnerved because of what happened, I'll be sure to calm her down. Don't worry about her being all worked up. I can handle this until you reunite with her soon."

"Thank you." Neptune nodded with a small smile. "I should probably let you two go on and investigate. I don't want to keep you or anything like that."

"When we're almost done, we can come back here and tell you what we've found if you want," Lily offered. "I bet you'll want to hear about it, right?"

"That would be great," Neptune grinned. "Until then, I wish you luck. I'll see you soon enough."

Neptune was escorted from the room by the guard not long after. Lily and I didn't need to say anything as we headed out to the car to go to the lake for our investigation. This was where things got interesting.

May 29

Rhiza Lake

11:15 AM

Lily Shield

The crime scene was overrun with police, but by telling people that we were the lawyers of Ms. Mercure, we were able to get through security rather easily. A few people pointed us in the right direction towards the body when we said that we needed it. If all police at crime scenes were this helpful, this job wouldn't be as hard as I thought. Robbie had told me before that one of the hardest things for a lawyer is just trying to get authorization for the crime scene. Prosecutors can be a bit stingy with it, apparently. I didn't know who was on this case, but I hoped that my opponent would be kind to me when we crossed paths.

"Lily!"

I turned over my shoulder upon hearing the voice. To my surprise, Robbie was approaching, a small smile on his face. There was a man standing next to him that I didn't recognize. He didn't exactly look happy, so I made a small mental note to be careful about talking to him. I didn't want him getting mad at me.

He had short white hair with fringe that curled to the left. His skin was tanned. He had... He had eyes, but I can't say what color they were since he was wearing sunglasses over the top of them. He had a black leather jacket on with a gray shirt beneath it. His trousers were black and made of leather like his jacket was. He had on black boots. I have to admit, with the way he was dressing, it wouldn't surprise me if other people mistook him for a gangster from time to time.

"Hey, Robbie!" I chirped once my brother was nearby. "Are you the prosecutor on this case? I mean, I can't think of any other reason why you'd be here..."

"I am," Robbie nodded. "Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said he wanted me and Prosecutor Cruz to get a bit closer on this case. I don't know what exactly he's planning, but I doubt it's good. He's a bit of a unique character. That's probably putting it lightly, if you want the truth... He's strange, to put it nicely."

"I thought Niamh Wood was going to be on this case," Chrysalis remarked. "I heard about it on the news that a prosecuting prodigy was supposed to be working on this murder. Did something change to take her off?"

"She ended up getting anxious about it and backed off. She wants a case where somebody can support her instead of throwing her into the fray alone," Robbie explained. "Speaking of prosecutors, perhaps you should introduce yourself, Prosecutor Cruz. I don't think you've met these two."

The white-haired man, who I assumed was 'Prosecutor Cruz' removed his sunglasses to show that he did in fact have eyes. His irises were a delicate purple color that really contrasted with his whole biker gang look. With those sorts of eyes, he seemed to be a bit too gentle to actually fight somebody in the middle of a gang fight. I felt an odd sense of relief. Thank the heavens that Robbie's partner wasn't a gangster. He could have fooled me. "Prosecutor Vito Cruz here," the man said, crossing his arms. "You two must be the lawyers. How do you know Prosecutor Shield here? I'm curious about that."

"Robbie here is my big brother," I explained to him. "My name is Lily Shield. Chrysalis here is my assistant for this case. We've taken up the defense of Neptune Mercure to prove that she didn't commit this murder." I turned to Robbie next as Prosecutor Cruz put on his sunglasses once again. "Could you tell us anything about the murder? I heard a little bit of what happened from Ms. Mercure, but I could use a little more information to properly make my case."

I was lucky Robbie loved me so much. Most prosecutors would laugh in my face at those words, but he didn't seem to mind. He nodded and crossed his arms, which made him look a bit like Prosecutor Cruz in a way. "What do you want to know?" he questioned of me, raising an eyebrow in curiosity my direction.

"We heard from Neptune that she's being suspected of this crime over the bag that she was carrying around," Chrysalis began to say. "What can you say about that? She told us that the victim seemed to want to get his hands on her bag and went to extensive lengths to get it. Is that what you heard as well?"

"Yes. It's also what gave us our motive idea," Robbie said. "If her bag was really as important to her as she was making it sound, then one might be able to argue that she would even go to the lengths of murder to get it back. She made it seem to us that there was something vital inside of it. When we searched through it, we didn't find very much, but there were a few things of note. She had some case files regarding the Oracle of the Law in her bag. Her wallet was in there as well with her ID inside one of the pockets. The most interesting thing would have to be the photo that was in the side pocket though."

"I thought that you looked familiar," Prosecutor Cruz grumbled. I looked up with confusion written on my face. Surprisingly, he wasn't addressing me. Instead, his eyes were on Chrysalis, who seemed to be equally shocked. "I think you were in the photo found in her bag, if you can believe it. Where is the damn thing?"

Prosecutor Cruz began to rustle through his evidence. Once he found what he was searching for, he held up a small picture. He handed it over to me when Robbie gave him the nod of approval. It was small and rather nice, I had to say, like whoever owned it was keeping it safe and in good shape.

The picture had eight people on it. The first one I noticed was Mr. Morix, who had one hand on Chrysalis' shoulder. Next to him was a young woman I recognized as Venus Rinko. She had her arm wrapped around Chrysalis' back. On the other side of Chrysalis, a white-haired girl (who I guessed was Cassidy Rinko after hearing Mr. Morix's description of her during his summary of last year's murder) had her hands on her hips. She had a small smile on her face. Prosecutor Bloom was standing next to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. A woman with turquoise hair was beside him. Another person I didn't recognize, a man with an eyepatch, was standing beside her, hands in his pockets. All of them seemed to be smiling at the camera that was taking this picture.

The woman had aqua twin ponytails with pink streaks inside of them. Her blonde bangs swept to one side. She had a white transparent shirt that read 'PEACE' on over a black camisole. Her jeans started teal at the top and faded to pink. She had black ankle boots on. Her eyes were a bright blue color.

As for the man, he had brown hair that fell over his ears and forehead. His eyepatch was red, the same color as his visible eye. He had a black shirt with lengthy sleeves with matching trousers. His shoes were dark and dressy. A katana was strapped to his belt in its sheath, though I hadn't the slightest clue why he had such a thing in a photo like this. It seemed to be rather casual, so you wouldn't expect to see somebody with a sword.

"What is this photo about?" I asked Chrysalis, turning to face her. "And who are those two?" I pointed to the man and woman.

"My brother and sister," Chrysalis responded simply. "This picture was taken around two years ago. It was just after the murder case Occisor mentioned a while back. It later came to be known as GC-9. After everything seemed to be over, we got a group picture taken of everyone available at the time. It isn't anything important... But I do wonder why it was in Neptune's bag... I mean, there weren't many copies of this made, nor were any broadcasted to the public..."

"That's strange," I muttered. I was already getting the feeling this case was going to be harder than I had anticipated.

Wow? Me updating? Neat.

I don't have much time to type this since I have to finish up Evolution Adventure tonight too so I'm going to run off and do that really quick. Until that's done in about 30 minutes, enjoy this beauty. She took a lot of work to finish because of internet crashes and typing sites not working right. Yeet.

I hope you liked it! I'll be back next week with an update here and one on Demon of Desire (at long last!)

-Digital