February 23rd, 2017

District Court

Defendant Lobby No. 2, 11:56 AM

Ema's POV

Ema: Um… Mr. Wright?

Phoenix: Huh? What?

Ema: Are trials… always like this with you guys? Like you're swimming up from the bottom of the lake, about to reach the surface… But no matter how hard you paddle you never seem to get there…

Phoenix: Pretty much.

Judy: Expect where it's usually a lake, I feeling today we're swimming in quicksand.

Phoenix: So what happened to your sister, anyway?

Ema: Apparently she got called off to the judge's chambers.

Judy: They're probably asking her about that piece of cloth.

Ema: So! This is where we turn this trial around, right? Our only weapon, a tiny, insignificant piece of cloth!

Phoenix: I'm the one who's starting to feel tiny and insignificant to tell the truth.

?: Hola, Pardner! They say you show a red cloth to a bull, it'll fire up its temper! That's what they told me when I was a young'un, at least.

Ema: Officer Marshall!

Marshall: Thought I'd come take a look-see at how the trial's going. Looks like I'm late. They've got the place locked down tighter than a fort in enemy territory!

Phoenix: What's going on over there, anyway? All the police I've seen these last two days have been really on edge.

Marshall: Don't you got enough on your plate without worrying about other people, compadre? You could be worrying about the chief prosecutor's taste in mufflers, for example.

Ema: Um… Officer Marshall? The whole "muffler" thing didn't have anything to do with scarves… She wasn't even wearing a scarf!

Marshall: You don't say? Now don't that just beat all.

Ema: …?

Marshall: I've seen the red breeze blow at her slender neck many a time… I saw it that day, too. She was wearing a red muffler.

Ema: What!?

Marshall: At the awards ceremony that afternoon. Edgeworth's seen it too, I'd reckon.

Ema (Thinking): So Ms. Starr wasn't lying. Did she really see my sister wearing a red muffler!?

Judy: But in the photo that Ms. Starr shown to us, she wasn't wearing a scarf around her neck!

Marshall: Well, it's about time. Remember, pardner, sometimes you gotta grab the bull by the horns… and sometimes you just gotta let that bull go where it will. Time will tell!

Ema: So… what are we swimming in now, Mr. Wright?

Marshall: If it's stake sauce, I can hook you up with some fine ribs! Ooh-wee!