Disclaimer: Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and any other lawyer games do not belong to me. All rightfully belong to CAPCOM, and this person is simply using their characters for entertainment. Really.

February 2
Baron Mansion

"I'm really curious," Trucy started. Apollo looked at her with a questioning look, indicating for her to continue. "How much money are we just going to spend on the taxi?"

They were back at the crime scene, more tired than they were that morning. The sky was still a bright blue—it was only around 3 o' clock, and Apollo didn't remember getting lunch. (He did spot Trucy eating bits and pieces of a sandwich. That traitor.)

"This is going to be difficult," he mentioned as they stepped through the memorable foyer. "We don't even know what we're looking for." He turned his head to talk to Trucy directly, but he only found empty space standing on a tiled floor. "…Trucy?"

He turned around to find the girl still standing relatively close to the window placed on the side of the wide front door. "Polly, is it me, or does that motorcycle look familiar?" Sure enough, he saw the dark violet, heavy transportation machine parked outside.

"…How could we have missed that?" he whimpered.

Trucy chuckled a bit when she saw Apollo's hair slump down, matching his slouched shoulders. "C'mon, Polly, time for the cellar," she said as a matter-of-factly, walking over to him and grasping his wrist gently. She pulled him towards the hallways and grand rooms, passing the impressive paintings that were authentic copies of famous ones. (Authentic copies? What an oxymoron.)

"Hey, Polly," she started, already letting go of his wrist. Their pace had slowed down considerably—they were both in deep thought. "Was…well, do you think Maya was lying?

He could feel himself tense up and hoped Trucy didn't catch that. It was hard keeping a secret from a person who can instantly tell that you're hiding something. "I think that's something you should ask her instead," he reasoned. He didn't know whether Maya wanted him to disclose that piece of info to Trucy, considering she didn't want her in the conversation at all. Trucy nodded, accepting the fact that he didn't have the obligation to tell her.

However, he could still feel the bit of uneasiness coming from her.

February 2
Wine Cellar
Baron Manion

They reached the bottom of the cellar, and he suddenly felt like he heard rock guitar music in the background. Oh no, he thought, resisting the urge to hit his forehead.

Lo and behold, a glowing blonde rock star walked up to them, his princely smile a pleasant light in the dark, dank cellar. He noticed a disgruntled Ema in the corner, munching ferociously at her Snackoos. There was a terrifying sight: the bag was almost done. Great. Now who is SHE going to chew out when they're done…

"Herr Forehead! Fraulein!" Kristoph Gavin greeted, leaning forward when he mentioned Trucy. She noticeably brightened up a bit. On the other hand, Apollo's mood dampened. I can't ask Ema about the note now.

"Hello, Prosecutor Gavin!" she retaliated, tipping her hat cutely. "We haven't seen you in a while."

"Well, business is business, ja?" he said, nodding in agreement. "And look where business took me!" He looked around the room nonchalantly, used to the busy scenes of investigation. "It led me to the murder of a renowned businessman."

"What a lot of business!" Trucy said.

Apollo sighed. Get out of ours.

Klavier's whole-hearted laugh rang through the cellar (Ema's crunching rang louder), and he almost looked like he was going to ruffle Trucy's hair if it weren't for her hat. "Unfortunately, business is taking me away from this place. Those silly policemen want so much of me." He smiled, like it was a joke. Was it? "Auf wiedersehen!" That talk seemed a lot shorter than the talks they normally had, but Apollo couldn't complain. They watched as he walked up the cellar, skipping every other step, and the place suddenly seemed darker.

Ema wasn't making it any better, of course. "Glimmerous fop…coming here…" She was mumbling other sorts of insults against Klavier, but Apollo couldn't catch most of them. He was surprised that the bag wasn't done yet. It was like there was an endless wormhole in that bag, sending more and more Snackoos in there to keep her satisfied.

Explain that scientifically, Detective Skye!

Trucy nudged for him to go forward, evidently a little bit cautious treading around Ema herself. He sighed, giving in again. He hesitantly tapped the detective's shoulder and was ready to run, like he had woken up the mother-bear from her hibernation.

Ema's head snapped around, and for a good second, her eyes looked bloodshot and ready to kill. But as soon as she saw it was just Apollo and Trucy, she calmed down. …Just a little bit.

"Glad to see you guys again," she said, still munching away.

Your voice doesn't sound very glad. Apollo sighed.

"Well, uh, I'll be straight-forward then," he told her, and he took out the folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Can you do a handwriting analysis for us, Ema?"

It seemed like as soon as she heard the word 'analysis', she jumped. It didn't matter whether it was something as measly as a handwriting analysis or maybe as exciting as a fingerprint analysis—it was something to analyze. Scientifically. Her smile widened, and she practically snatched the paper out of his hands. Unfolding it, her eyes roamed through the paper, and her smile slowly disappeared.

"…Where'd you get this, Apollo?"

He sighed again, knowing this time was going to come around eventually. "I found it in the room the defendant's staying in," he claimed. "She herself doesn't know who wrote it; it sounded like she never even laid her eyes on it until today."

"You do realize," Ema said slowly, "that you are sharing evidence with the prosecution, correct?"

"Yes, I do," he replied, and she and Trucy could see the fire in his eyes. "It won't matter—all will be revealed in that courtroom, and Maya will be proven innocent."

Ema's smile gradually came back, and her eyes softened. "I'm glad she has you as a lawyer, Justice," she said, patting his shoulder. "Well, you guys can go around to investigate some more. I'm going to get busy with this note."

February 2
First Ballroom
Baron Mansion

They entered the grand ballroom again, finding it an identical state that it was in when they found it that morning. The plates, the tables, the decorations, even the woman they had talked to—they were all still there. The only difference was the presence of another person in the room: a man.

He was wearing a dark, royal blue turtleneck underneath a gray vest. He looked very professional, but his face was much kinder and softer than the harsh lines and angles of Contessa or Elliot's face.

Their sudden presence must have caught both of the unnamed peoples' attention, looking at the expressions on their faces.

"Excuse me," the man started, "who are you?" His voice was smooth, and the words came out like they had sung a lower tenor's part of a song.

"Hey, you know, Polly, they could have been here the night of the party," Trucy whispered to him. Oh, duh. Apollo thought, her words registering in his head.

He dusted some imaginary dirt off his own fiery vest. "I'm Apollo Justice—and this is Trucy Wright, my aide," he introduced. "We're Maya Fey's lawyers." He stuck out his hand alongside a friendly smile on his face.

The man seemed to have recognized Maya's name (who wouldn't?) by the slight widening of his eyes. However, he didn't hold the slightest hint of malice or a grudge in his brown eyes. There was just…recognition. He shook Apollo's hand with a firm grip, but it was equally as friendly as the lawyer's smile.

"Tako King, cousin of the victim," he replied. "I work for the family business."

Royalty Banking, I presume. Apollo turned to the woman and blushed sheepishly, his hand out for her to take. "I believe we haven't 'met' properly," he said.

She giggled softly and took his hand kindly. It felt light and soft like a touch of a feather. "Lillian Baron. I'm the younger sister of Elliot."

Trucy took another look at the two adults they just met. Lillian's voice rang like bells, and her face looked silky to the touch. They looked radiant and successful, but there was something holding them back. The little magician kept looking and looking until she figured out what it was.

There was hidden grief that shrouded their hearts, and they were too professional to show it.

Apollo swallowed the nervous lump in his throat. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said genuinely. For a good second, a buzzing silence occurred between the four occupants of the first ballroom. "Would you mind if we asked some questions about last night?

February 2
Wright Everything Agency

A teenaged girl opened the door to the agency, her blue eyes looking around curiously. Pearl Fey never got to see the inside of the new office exclusively when she came to pick up Apollo and Trucy. But now that she was inside, she can confidently say that it never looked as messy as this.

"Looking for something?"

She jumped at the sudden sound and snapped her head to the source. There, behind the desk buried with junk, stood Phoenix Wright, smirking with all his glory.

"If you're going to steal something, I believe I foiled your plans," he chuckled.

Pearl pouted cutely, crossing her arms in a huff. "Mr. Nick, you know I wouldn't do that!" He laughed whole-heartedly while he walked over to her.

"You've grown so much, Pearls!" he commented, placing his large hand on top of her head. "What a lovely young lady you've become."

Pearl smirked—something he didn't know she could do. "Save that tone for your daughter, Mr. Nick," she joked, gently removing his hand from her head. "After all, I just saw you last year. AND I'm turning 18 soon."

He looked half-taken aback, unconsciously wondering where the years went. "God, help us the day Pearls turns legal." She huffed again, her cheeks blushing with indignation. "What brings you around to this place?"

She glanced around the room again. "I was curious about how Apollo was doing," she answered truthfully. Her eyes landed on the dusty, ebony piano, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she recalled a memory full of wrong notes and incomprehensible melodies.

"Why not ask Maya at the detention center, then?" he inquired.

"I wanted to know if he shared any secret information with you, first." Pearl grinned, her smile an almost perfect U. As the years went by, her mind developed a larger sense of sneakiness. It was almost inevitable, despite the fact that she still wasn't a convincing liar.

Phoenix's laugh echoed in the office again. "Believe me, Pearls, I think he hasn't told me anything other than what Maya has been telling him." Or so he had expected. "How are the village elders treating you?"

"It's all fine in Kurain," she said airily. "The work is difficult—that's the main thing." She lifted her thumb nail to her lips and looked to the side with a bit of worry. "I never knew Mystic Maya had so much on her shoulders."

There was an uncomfortable silence after that statement. A bit of an accusation or an implication resided in Pearl's tone, and Phoenix had an idea what she was accusing him of. He knew she forgave him, and he knew she didn't hold a grudge against him. It was more of a small command to push him, to remind him of what he already knew. It was a request to take action before someone gets hurt.

He didn't know what to say.

He simply breathed in and let all the air out. "No one ever said being a leader was going to be easy."

February 2
First Ballroom
Baron Mansion

They were sitting at one of the tables covered with a lavender cloth—it had the least leftover food from last night. Trucy hid a small, light blue notebook behind the table across from Tako and Lillian. She was responsible for taking notes, a job put on her shoulders by…well, her.

"I take great notes!" She had told Apollo, who looked a bit skeptical about the idea. "My friends NEVER understand my handwriting!" He glanced over at her notebook and could only make out 'King' and 'Lil' amidst the scrawl. He suspected that she wrote 'cousin' and 'sister', respectively, but he couldn't even count how many letters she wrote.

He turned his attention fully to the two relatives, deciding to think about Trucy's notes later. "How close were you to Elliot?" he asked.

Tako sat silent for a moment. "Elliot was a production manager, and I was asked by him to help direct the team." He paused, causing a worried glance from Lillian. "I…eventually became his confidant and best friend."

Trucy scribbled something on her notepad.

"I am his younger sister," Lillian replied after seeing Apollo's expectant gaze. "As siblings, we were our…safe haven, if you will."

"Safe haven?" Apollo inquired.

"We'd go to each other if mother and father went a little too far," she explained nicely, probably not wanting to badmouth her parents.

"Too far?" Trucy piped up.

Lillian smiled at her. She hasn't once questioned about why a 15-year-old girl would be part of a defense team. In fact, she looked like she liked Trucy quite a lot. "We are, afterall, children of the big business world." She lifted her hands and played with the end of her dark hair, which was placed in front of her left shoulder. "We have an important image to keep."

Apollo noted the look on her face. She didn't want to continue with anything else about her parents, so he nodded and continued with the questioning. "When did you meet Maya Fey?"

At this, both of their expressions turned identical. Their eyes widened by a centimeter and the corners of their mouth twitched. "We both met her at the same time," Tako spoke. "It was at a family dinner, where we were supposed to meet the woman who Elliot was matched with."

"Who was there?" asked Apollo.

"It was just my father and mother, Tako, Elliot, and me," Lillian answered softly. "Maya and her cousin, Pearl, came soon after." She didn't bring her parents. She had none to bring.

"What did you think of her?" Trucy asked curiously.

It took a second for either one of them to respond, but they both ended up smiling. "We thought she was a polite, charming woman," Tako replied. "Not as professional as us, so we thought we could end up teaching her the ways."

"Then, we learned how much we couldn't," Lillian continued. She seemed delighted, recalling the memory. "When Father asked of her interests, Miss Maya came out with the truth: 'I love the Steel Samurai.'"

The table was filled with chuckles and smiles, thinking or imagining how the scene went.

"I think that was when Elliot fell for her, hard," Tako added, leaning on the table with his elbows, his hands folded neatly. "I saw the look on his face when she said that. He could have kissed her if he wanted to." Lillian's laughter rang like her voice: sweet bells. "Aunt Tessa looked less than pleased, but Elliot grew more attached to her than before."

"May I say something blunt?" Trucy asked. The two nodded their heads. "Your mother scares me."

Lillian and Tako both laughed. "She has a tendency to do that, yes," she agreed. "Maya must have been one of the only people who hasn't cowered in fear of her."

What a brave woman. Apollo thought, shivering at the image of Contessa in his head. "Your mother does have a presence about her," he contributed, smiling sheepishly.

"You noticed it, too?" Tako said in shock. "See, Lil? I told you! I thought I was crazy, being the only one in the family to notice that kind of abnormality." Lillian only shook her head and rolled her eyes, and Trucy giggled.

"So, all of you were present at the engagement party?" Apollo asked.

"Naturally," Tako replied.

"Did any of you go missing for a period of time?"

Lillian tapped her cheek in thought. "I think I was there the whole entire time, entertaining guests."

"I'm pretty sure I did the same, except the time when I went with Aunt Tessa to get more wine for guests…" Tako trailed off, as if he remembered something.

"…You found Maya along with Mrs. Baron, didn't you, Mr. Tako?" Trucy contributed softly.

There was a minute of suspended silence, and he sighed. "Yes." They both gave him a minute to rid the pictures of the blood and the body out of his head.

"…Were there any other people that you noticed may have gone missing for a while? Even for a few minutes?" Apollo asked, hoping they'd get something.

"…Well…" Oh my gosh, am I actually getting a real hint? "Remember my comment about Aunt Tessa?"

"And her overpowering presence?" Trucy asked.

Tako ran a hand through his midnight hair. "It was gone."

"What!?"

February 2
Guest Room
Baron Mansion

"Polly, why are we in here again?" Trucy asked, looking around at the room. It didn't look any different than the last time they were in here. "That hint that Tako gave us wasn't much, in my opinion, and we already looked in here."

"Contessa leaving the room for a good 10 minutes is pretty good to me," Apollo said, looking under Maya's neat bed cover. "It doesn't seem like a long time, but your whole life can change in a second. Why not 10 minutes?"

"I'm not old enough to think about stuff like that, Polly," Trucy argued, looking at the mirror again and fixing her hat.

"So you're calling me old?" Apollo asked, his insides crying rivers. I'm not THAT old! "Do me a favor, Trucy? Can you look through the garbage can again?"

She bent down to the small basket and raised a brow. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure," he said, having a staring contest with the open suitcase. He was having an inner debate on whether to look through it and not expect a flying undergarment at his head. "Anything that looks useful. After we look through here, we'll check up with Ema about that analysis. We're not allowed to be here tomorrow, after all."

Because that woman told the prosecution about us… He thought, scratching the back of his neck wearily.

Trucy took something out of the can. "Polly!" She held it up to him. "It's a receipt!"

February 2
Wine Cellar
Baron Mansion

The defense team found their favorite detective looking a mix of 'puzzled' and 'irritated'.

"It looks like bad news, Ema," Apollo said, going up to her. She jumped and turned around, sighing in relief at the sight of the two.

"Sorry, caught me off-guard there," she mentioned. She definitely mellowed out from the last time they saw her. She wasn't extremely mad—but she wasn't extremely excited, either. "…Mm, yeah, bad news."

"What is it?" Trucy asked. Her eyebrows were curved up in anxiety.

Ema gave them back the wrinkled piece of paper.

"We couldn't match anyone's handwriting."

Yes. Way over-due. Yes. A little rushed.

I had recently went to AnimeNext, and after taking a few pictures of some PW cosplayers, that fire in my heart burning for the PW fandom was ignited again. I'm actually glad—I really want to finish this story.

Thanks a lot, guys, for reviewing! Really, you all are just my incentive to keep going with this story.