May 30

Prosecutor's Office

3:00 PM

Lily Shield

"Really?" I asked. I admit, I would be lying if I said part of me didn't see this coming. There was something about Detective Ghunshotte that just felt off to me. No regular detective would actually be gutsy enough to kick out the district's chief prosecutor and those with him. Plus, it would explain why she so desperately wanted to get rid of us. If we discovered any new information, we could easily use it against her.

"That makes sense. I mean, nobody normal would want to kick out my beefy boyfriend here. He scares the living crap out of people," Prosecutor Lin remarked, crossing her arms. "You'd have to be either seriously courageous or seriously determined to even attempt that."

"There's not much we can do to prove that now though. I don't even want to imagine how hostile she could get if we tried to go back," Chrysalis frowned. "Plus, Lily, your older brother can call us if he finds anything. He seems pretty nice and helpful."

"You wouldn't happen to be the same Lily related to Prosecutor Roberto Shield, would you?" Prosecutor Lin asked.

I nodded in response. "I am, as a matter of fact," I confirmed.

"I remember him talking about you. He thinks the world of you," Prosecutor Lin smiled. "And that means he'd totally help us out if we needed it! Perfect! I guess everything is going to work out in the end after all!"

"I think it's safe to assume she's the one who owns the garment found at the scene of the murder. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it would fit her. I just don't see how it could tie into the murder. It seems somewhat random to me," Cassidy frowned. "If we want to find the truth though, we need to figure it out. I just have no idea how we can manage that when we're already going off so little evidence to begin with."

"Wait a moment... I remember the prosecution saying something about the victim," Chrysalis said, playing around with the hem of her jacket sleeve. "They said that the victim had been making unwanted advances on Neptune. If you ask me, that could bring us to two conclusions. First, maybe the same thing happened with Detective Ghunshotte. If the garment does belong to her, then maybe it ended up in the water when the victim tried to make some sort of advance on her. I don't know about this one though. After all, why hide it like this if that was the case? Why frame someone if it was out of self defense? Plus, something about her demeanor seems far too malicious to be just this explanation. I can't quite put a finger on it, but she sort of bothers me in the way that she carries herself. Is anybody else getting those sorts of vibes? I hope it isn't just me who feels that way..."

"No, I feel it too," Prosecutor Lin assured her. "Something about her seems a bit weird... but you said you had two ideas for why the garment was there. That was number one. What's the second one?"

"Maybe the opposite happened. Detective Ghunshotte is most certainly the picture perfect attractive woman for anyone who's into that type. She could have alluded him by the water, which is when the garment was removed, before throwing him in. I just don't really have a motive in this scenario. Does anybody else have ideas?" Chrysalis asked, tapping one foot on the ground mindlessly.

"Both the defendant and victim were looking into Oracle, right?" Prosecutor Wood questioned softly. She looked about ready to up and run. Perhaps she needed a little bit of therapy at some point. "Maybe Detective Ghunshotte was too."

Prosecutor Lin let out a gasp. "That's a great idea!" she chirped. She threw her arms around Prosecutor Wood, picking her up and spinning her around. A few choking sounds managed to escape the teenager's lips.

"If she was looking into Oracle, maybe she was after the bag that the victim stole from Ms. Mercure," I suggested. "I mean, the victim seemed to think there was some important information in there. If she thought the same, she would want to get her hands on that bag as soon as possible. It seems the bag full of seemingly useless junk is going to be able to help us out a bunch after all."

"I wonder how Ms. Mercure figured out so much," Chrysalis murmured. "She seems to know a lot more than she's letting on. I guess that the victim and Detective Ghunshotte can see it too. If she really does know as much as they think, she might know exactly who Oracle is behind he mask."

"Really?!" Prosecutor Lin gasped. "But how is that possible? Unless Ms. Mercure is an associate like Venus was, there's no way she should know who Oracle is. It makes no sense. Oracle is amazing at staying hidden. It seems a bit weird to me that a rookie private investigator would know the truth."

"I don't think we should ask about it. If Oracle really is who Ms. Mercure suspects, then they could wind up in a lot of trouble if Detective Ghunshotte figures out. If we want to question them, we'll have to stay quiet for the time being," I said. "That being said, I think that about covers what we wanted to talk about regarding the case. I had been hoping to do a little more investigating, but since we were cut off, it doesn't seem like that's going to be happening."

"Maybe we can use our time for something else useful," Prosecutor Lin suggested. "Oracle seems to be important to this case, right? We could always do a little digging to learn more about them. Even if we don't use that knowledge here, it might be useful to have sometime in the future, you know?"

"That sounds like a good idea to me," I grinned. "We can't do anything at the crime scene without Detective Ghunshotte finding out, but we can look around through old files to learn more about Oracle! I'm eager to do this. I haven't done anything of this sort before. It'll be interesting to see what it's like to dig a little bit and learn things for yourself. Of course, I'm sure it'll be more fun than a research paper at school. After all, we're entering this willingly."

"I really wish we could just go back and look into the case at the murder scene. If we didn't suspect Detective Ghunshotte of being a killer, I'd be tempted to return for more investigation. Of course, we have no idea what could happen if we make her angry. Killers definitely don't have the best tempers, seeing as they resorted to murder, which means it might be best to just stay away from her until the trial when she's unable to escape the sins of the past," Chrysalis said. "I suppose that looking into Oracle a little bit wouldn't hurt though. Seeing as how they're involved in this case's motive, it might be a good idea to learn all that we can, but we must be sure not to get too close. Learning too much could result in death, in case the death of Jackson Blocker wasn't already strong proof of that."

"It'll be fine. We'll be careful," I assured her. "Where should we start this off? Any ideas?"

"I know where we can go to look into this stuff. The evidence room in the local police station is filled with all sorts of files. Since a certain someone here is the chief prosecutor, we can get in there easily. It won't be a problem," Prosecutor Lin grinned. I saw her shoot a wink at Chief Prosecutor Bespoke.

"I was planning on taking a nap though... I've been doing paperwork all day. I need a break," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke complained with a sigh. "Why don't you guys go ahead without me? I can catch up with you later on."

"Come on, Ghastly. I can't just let you laze around all day. Life is more than just constant napping. Plus, you can hold off your sleeping for a little while to spend time with your lovely girlfriend and sweet daughter, right?" Prosecutor Lin asked. She nudged his arm with her elbow, giggling like a kid in a candy store.

"Fine," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke groaned after hesitating for a moment. "Just don't wake me up ridiculously early tomorrow, and we'll have a deal here. How does that sound, Sora?"

"Sounds good to me. Now, let's get to it!" Prosecutor Lin chirped. She took Chief Prosecutor Bespoke's wrist in one hand and Prosecutor Wood's in the other before dashing out the door. Cassidy followed after her, so just Chrysalis and I were left standing in the lobby of the Prosecutor's Office.

"She sure is a peculiar creature," I told her with a small yet awkward smile. I didn't even have to specify who I meant for her to know I meant Prosecutor Lin.

"Sora's always been like that. Even when we first met, I knew a few things about her instantly. First, she's eternally optimistic and motherly. Second, she can get a bit hyperactive at times despite being in her twenties. You'd never believe I'm the baby of the family," Chrysalis said with a sigh. Despite her exasperated expression, I could sense something akin to pride in her sister. "Let's go make sure they don't get into trouble."

I smiled and nodded. We both walked out of the office lobby to go and figure out where the prosecutor trio (and Cassidy) had gone off to.

May 30

Police Station Evidence Room

3:30 PM

Sora Lin

Ghastly managed to get us past the Chief of Police, a young man named Hunter Bright, rather easily. I hadn't ever met him myself, but he seemed to be an awkward kid with good intentions. Well, I call him a kid, but he definitely seemed a few years older than me, maybe even Cotoli. We got into the evidence room not long after arriving. I hadn't been in there in a while. It still smelled like dust and paper as it always did. The last time I had been in here was before we adopted Niamh and before I started training her to be a prosecutor. Even so, it was exactly as I remembered it. The files were stacked from the floor to the ceiling, making the room feel cramped, like you were boxed in or something. It was enough to give anyone slight claustrophobia, but I pushed that aside. We were on a mission, so we couldn't get distracted until after we were finished doing our job.

"Where should we start off?" Ms. Shield asked, glancing around the room. Judging by her wide eyes and shocked expression, she seemed to be a bit overwhelmed. I couldn't blame her. I had been the exact same way the first time I saw the evidence room. It was a huge place (though it certainly didn't feel that way with all the files making the place like a maze), so it was easy to find yourself in awe of the files and other evidence stored within the four walls.

"I don't really know. Do you have any ideas, Ghast?" I asked Ghastly.

He yawned and stretched one arm up. He was likely tired since I'd forced him to skip his afternoon nap. In all fairness, could you blame me? Ghastly needed to get out more often anyways. Plus, you need to take any chance you can get to have family bonding time. I just had to drag him out of his office for a little bit of hands-on stuff. "Maybe we could look at GC-9," he suggested.

"I suppose that sounds alright," I said with a nod. "I can't really think of any other ideas of where to start this all off. From what Occisor said a while back, that case started everything for Oracle. The beginning is the best place to start, so let's find that file."

I turned around and began shifting through the files in the cabinet behind me. It only took me a few seconds to find GC-9, which was a miracle considering how messy the evidence room could get when it wasn't cleaned for a while (and judging by the number of papers scattered on the ground, it had definitely been quite some time since the last appointment to tidy up). I held the file above my head with a triumphant smile to signify my victory. I walked over to a nearby table, cleared a few pieces of evidence off its surface, and set down the folder. I flicked it open and pulled out the first page.

"This page seems to be about the basic case details," I remarked after scanning over it. "It says who the victim of murder was, who the assault victims were, you get the gist. Who wants to read over this part?"

"I can," Ms. Shield volunteered. I handed her the paper and turned around, leaning my hips up against the table with my hands up against its edge to keep from falling over. I closed my eyes as she looked over it for herself for the next few moments.

"This case isn't exactly a pleasant one for most of us," Cassidy said, looking down at her toes. "I think we should finish up with reading the case file as quickly as we can so we can move on. GC-9 was definitely one of the worst cases I've ever tackled. Between the escaped culprits and Ghastly being in prison, it was far from being enjoyable... Plus, there was that whole incident with Yuri, which only magnified the severity of the whole situation..."

Ms. Shield gasped, seeming to have reached that section of the file. "It sounds like this case was a nightmare on countless levels," she whispered, shaking her head. "The murder took place at the Sparx Factory, which I already heard about. I also knew about the victim being Mr. Morix's mother, but it sounds like a lot of other stuff went down during this case too. The cause of death was a crushed windpipe due to strangulation by rope... The victim was dangled from the ceiling afterwards by said rope, making it seem like a suicide to the common eye... That alone doesn't sound very fun to deal with in court."

"It wasn't. We already knew it was a murder due to the rope indicating such, but it was still rough," Chrysalis frowned. "Perhaps we should move on. I-I just think there are more important factors to this case we need to discuss. We can't focus all our time on this topic alone. This case is a large one, so we can't stay on any one subject for too long." Despite what she was saying, I knew the real reason she wanted to move on. Before Ms. Morix had died, Chrysalis had been very close with her since she went with Cotoli to her house often. She hated thinking about Ms. Morix's death. Strangulation was a touchy subject for her and Cotoli because of this murder too.

"Alright... Hey, you're on this list of assault victims, Chrysalis," Ms. Shield remarked. "Yuri is here too."

"And I'm there, right?" I asked, knowing she was about to say something about my presence on the list. One thing about GC-9 was that there were a lot of assault victims, and coincidentally, all of us knew each other too.

"Yeah, you are," Ms. Shield nodded. "Wow, from what I can tell here, this was definitely set into motion by a group of people. Five assault victims? That's wild. I doubt any single person could pull that off, especially considering the small interval between the attacks. I don't know how many people would be needed to do this, but there had to be more than one."

"I agree," Chrysalis nodded. "From what I could tell, Pieter seemed to know Occisor well. He only ever mentioned them briefly, never saying their group's name, but I'm sure of it. Back when the case was going on, he said that he had an inkling as to who the killers were, though he also said he didn't know their names. They seemed to have some sort of history. I didn't know a thing about them myself until they stepped forward during Yuri's trial. I think there were around four at the scene. I can't say for sure. When I was attacked, one of them forced a pill down my throat that made me fall unconscious not long after. I was stumbling around like mad due to its side effects, so I couldn't clearly see much of anyone, though I do recall seeing around four distinct figures."

"That sounds about right to me too," I agreed. "I got hit in the head, but I thought I saw about four people before I passed out. Yuri would probably say something similar, though I doubt you'd get much more out of her. As I'm here you can see from the file, she was cut in the eye. She barely survived the attack. I don't think she'd be able to fill us in on the gaps in our memories since her wound was much more severe."

"There are five victims listed here though... Do you think the other two could help us out at all?" Ms. Shield asked. "Any help at all would be great. The more we know about Occisor, the better. Even if we came here to learn about Oracle, learning about Occisor wouldn't hurt. I mean, they seem to be pretty closely tied with Oracle from what I can tell. If we can hear about them, maybe they can lead us to Oracle. And Oracle can help us out in figuring out all sorts of things. It sounds good to me."

"You don't want to know about Occisor," Chrysalis cut in. "I don't know much about what happened to Pieter before he ended up as part of the family. Before he was adopted by Cotoli's mother, he apparently went through some unspecified tragedy. From what I can tell, it had something to do with Occisor. We could end up in trouble like he did before he was taken in. I don't want anyone around here to get hurt because of some ridiculous spy who doesn't know when to back off. After having gotten two people killed, you'd expect Oracle to understand not to mess around anymore, and yet, they're still pressing on with all of this garbage..."

"You really hate Oracle, don't you?" I asked. I already knew the answer perfectly well, so I really didn't need to ask, but I did anyways.

"Oracle causes nothing but trouble for anyone. I don't understand how anybody can actually like Oracle these days," sighed Chrysalis. "But that doesn't matter right now. Let's focus back on our investigation of GC-9. Is there anything else that we should look over before moving onto the next case Oracle was involved in?"

"It says here that you were the defendant on this case, Chief Prosecutor Bespoke," Ms. Shield said in shock. "What had you as a suspect in a case like that?"

"It was chance that I was arrested," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke frowned. "You see, I was caught on video carrying who everyone thought was the victim. It was not. The police department looked a little bit foolish after that move, but all's well that ends well, I suppose. No reason to dwell on it now after two years have passed since then."

"I think that's about it for this case. Anything else we should dig into?" Chrysalis asked, crossing her arms. She seemed just as eager to finish up with this conversation as I was. I knew it made her uncomfortable to think about since that case was something of an emotional rollercoaster for her and our brother. Well, the older one at least. I wasn't sure about Pieter. He'd always been a bit difficult to read in my eyes. I had never been able to tell what he was thinking while he was still around.

"I have a few more questions about GC-9, if you don't mind my asking," Ms. Shield said. "Maybe I'll have some good luck since we have a few other people here that were involved with the case. Occisor said that Oracle started the whole spy deal because of this case. It means they had something to do with it. Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, Prosecutor Lin, and Cassidy all had something to do with the case. The photo taken during the murder investigation says that loud and clear."

"Photo?" I echoed. I thought I knew which picture she was talking about since there was really only one possibility, but I didn't have a clue how she knew about it. Had anyone ever shown her that image? Last time I checked, it wasn't in plain sight at the agency. I mean, maybe Chrysalis or Cotoli had set it up in their room, but I highly doubted that Ms. Shield had been in there since barely anyone got clearance to head in there to begin with.

"She means the picture that we took during the murder," Chrysalis explained. She dug through her belongings for a moment before producing the photo. She handed it over to me, confirming my suspicions about it. Sure enough, this was the exact picture I had been thinking of. I still remember when it was taken. We had been celebrating a new beginning now that Pieter was with us. Ghastly had just been freed from the detention center after having been suspected as the killer who murdered Ms. Morix. It had been a bittersweet time for us all. On one hand, Ghastly was free and Pieter was now a member of the family. On the other hand, Ms. Morix, the primary motherly figure to Cotoli and Chrysalis, was dead. Her killers had gotten away on top of that. Plus, Yuri was recovering from a horrible wound. It was an emotional case for all of us, if you want to sum it up in a word.

"I see. Well, I'm afraid I can't tell you much of anything about Oracle. I know that my sister had to do with Oracle before she died, but I don't know much besides that. I've been informed of the basic details, but anything deeper than that has definitely escaped me," Cassidy told Ms. Shield. "I apologize if that's an inconvenience for you. I would help you out more if I could."

"I don't know much either," I frowned. "I mean, what I have heard is pretty basic. Oracle was revealed last year. Their associate was killed when he refused to reveal Oracle's true name. Occisor wants them dead now. I've been talking a lot with my brother on the matter, but I can't really say that either of us has much of anything conclusive that could lead to a serious deduction. If that's what you're looking for, I can't really help you."

"That's not exactly what I was thinking about. You see, I think it goes like this: I'm pretty sure Oracle started the spy thing because of the death of Ms. Morix. I want to know if there's any worker from the factory or anyone otherwise involved with the case who could be Oracle. I heard that she was liked by most people at the factory, so this probably won't lead us anywhere, but it's worth a shot in my eyes," Ms. Shield explained. "Any ideas at all would be much appreciated. I'd love to learn even more about Oracle. They really catch my interest."

"Oracle is really dangerous," Ghastly frowned from beside me. His eyes narrowed. "You don't want to grit caught up with them. People who get tied up in the Oracle business can end up hurt or worse. I don't want a fate like that to befall one of Cotoli's new employees. Plus, I'm nearly positive your brother would kill me if you were to get hurt. He's the protective sort, just like Cotoli. As sweet as it is, it can be terrifying at times, especially with Shield..."

"Speaking of him, I have a question now. This one's for you, Ghast," I cut in. "Why in the world would you put him with Prosecutor Cruz on a case together? They're the two angriest people I know. Them working together could be awful. Do you want the world to catch fire or something? It's like you've got a death wish."

Ghastly sighed. "Sora, this really isn't important. I just put them together since I was hoping they'd both calm down afterwards. Of course, I heard about their outburst during the trial. Maybe that wasn't a good idea after all," he murmured with a shake of his head.

"It's fine. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end. Robbie can calm down. I can get him to relax. If it happens again tomorrow, I'll be sure to work on his temper," Ms. Shield grinned. "I know him well enough to have memorized his sole weakness: me!"

"You sound pretty confident. I'm thankful for it. He and Prosecutor Cruz can be terrifying at times when they want to be. Most killers crumble under the pressure of interrogation when one of them is at the helm," I said. "Putting them together was like playing with fire. I'm just glad we haven't had any major explosions. I suppose even their fight in court can be considered a success since they haven't thrown punches yet."

"I just hope we can find someone to keep Prosecutor Cruz under control soon. Maybe he's got a little sister with a heart of gold we can rely on. Well, either that, or we could bring in his father," Ghastly yawned. Of course. He was still longing for his afternoon nap.

"We can figure that out later. The point is, we've looked into GC-9 for now. I don't think we got much of any big information out of it though... The incident from two years ago doesn't seem to tell us plainly who Oracle is. I suppose that makes sense, given how the identity of the spy is a secret. It wouldn't really be a secret if it was so easy to find out," I said. "I don't think we can say much else about Oracle now. However, I guess it filled Ms. Shield in on the details of the murder."

"Yeah. I was pretty clueless on it before... I'm glad we came here," smiled Ms. Shield. "I guess this is going to bring our investigation to a close though. I don't think there's much of anything else we can investigate here. I mean, I already know the details of the case a year ago. Mr. Morix explained that to me already. As for the other cases that have taken place recently, I know a bunch about them, even the part about a disguise Oracle has."

"What?" I asked. "You know one of Oracle's aliases? But how is that possible? They're kept under lock and key, only known to Oracle's closest helpers." A small grin appeared on my lips. "Maybe you're one of Oracle's assistants. I mean, I don't know how anyone would be able to figure it out otherwise. It doesn't make sense... Do you have something to tell us, Ms. Shield?" When I noticed the shocked and confused expression on her face, I let out a laugh. "I'm just kidding. I know you're not involved with Oracle. You'd be more nervous if that was the case."

"I have nothing to do with Oracle. Promise. I just happened to deduce a few things with my brother. We think that a witness from one of our past cases is Oracle. I might be able to tell you more about it, but we can't do it now. It could be risky and stuff. Plus, we need to go and get ready for the trial tomorrow," Ms. Shield said.

We all agreed to go our separate ways for the day. Ghastly was inevitably going to start complaining about not having slept if we didn't get a move on anyways. Plus, I could sense the anxiety coming from Niamh. She wasn't the best with tons of people. It was the best for everyone.

Even so, I couldn't help but wonder about if she really did know about an alias of Oracle. If that was the case, then I was definitely curious. We'd be one step closer to Oracle with that information to help us out.

I just hoped the whole Oracle situation wouldn't end in disaster.

I am very tired and in a lot of pain so I'm not going to mince words here.

Fun part of this author's note: I'm rewatching Miraculous Ladybug. Love this show.

Other part of this author's note: I'm going to sleep. I hope you liked the update.

- Digital