Chapter Twenty-Nine: Demonic Conclusion

The Joker's trial would drawing nearer. May wanted to hurl into a corner in the hope that everything would settle down in time. She shook her head, it was something that would never go away until she sorted it out. It was like a debt, the more she left it, the worse it would get. May sat in front of Trucy in a small cafe surrounded with Italian portraits and the sweet fragrance of coffee. Gary did not join them. May stared at the black coffee in her white mug. She could see a faint reflection of herself. She closed her eyes and could feel the weight of tears trying to come out.

"How does it feel to know that you're related to a dragon?" Trucy asked May. "It sounds amazing."

"Yeah," May muttered. "It's great." May wished that she could be more enthusiastic, but she would never be fine until she could see Ash again.

"If only there was a way to get Charlie to testify in court as a witness," Trucy said. "He would be a brilliant witness."

"Would a court even take the testimony of a dragon seriously?" May asked.

"Remember what Charlie said?" Trucy reminded May. "He said that dragons don't lie."

"Can we really believe that?" May asked.

"Charlie was telling the truth about his wife and Iris. Come on May, stop being in a slump."

"Do you know who's the prosecutor in the trial?" May asked. "Did Gary mention anything? He left before I came back from the bathroom."

"I heard Edgeworth is looking for someone," Trucy explained. "There's a real shortage of prosecutors and lawyers at the moment. He's doing his best to cover all the trials. He might take this trial on by himself. Gary said he's going to speak to Edgeworth later on once he's finished his reports."

"Gary must be finding this hard too," May said. She took a sip of her coffee, observing Pikachu sleeping on the table. His tail quivered with every breath in his sleep. "And poor Pikachu, he's had it so rough."

"Pikachu can be a witness too!" Trucy cried out. "May, we know that Harley Quinn is the killer. And she said if The Joker was found not guilty that she would release Ash, right?"

May nodded.

"We've got two witnesses that actually saw Harley Quinn attack them and kidnap Ash."

"I don't think she wanted me to accuse her of the murders too."

"But we're not accusing her," Trucy said with a big smile as she clenched her fist. "We KNOW she's responsible."

"We haven't got any evidence..." May mumbled. "We've found out a lot of stuff today but there's nothing that we can present to the court to show how we came to that conclusion."

Trucy leaned her head over towards May and placed her hands on her shoulders. From the moment Trucy's palms had were placed on her shoulders, May remembered the time where Ash had done the same thing. They were on the cliff and she had missed the ferry to go to the grand festival. She remembered crying, thinking her whole life was over until Ash assured her that she was going to be fine.

"The evidence will come when it's ready," Trucy insisted. "We're gonna be fine. We're going to save Ash and give Harley Quinn and The Joker the great of justice that they deserve." May's head rolled over to the table. She found it hard to look at Trucy's eyes. "Look at me!" Trucy begged. When May looked up, she could see that Trucy also had tears rolling down her eyes. Trucy released May from her grip and sat back on her chair, shaking her head. "This isn't like you."

May wiped her eyes and smiled. Both girls said nothing, and then after a few seconds they started giggling.

"Why are you laughing?" May asked.

"I don't know,"

"Me neither."

"Do you have Iris' number?"

May shook her head. "Why would I have her number? She was a complete bitch before."

"Charlie seems to be very fond of her," Trucy noted. "I hope we get Iris as a prosecutor for The Joker's trial."

May dropped her mouth. "Why her?"

"You know how much she loves dragons. If one our main witnesses is going to be a dragon, then wouldn't it be great if we had the famous girl who knows the hearts of the dragons?"

"I don't know if I can forgive her after all the horrible stuff she's done."

"I know," Trucy said. "But if Ash can forgive her, then surely you can too. Remember what Daddy said, if we started working together instead of against each other, we will get the case solved quicker."

May nodded. "I haven't seen her since Serena's trial. Would she even come here?"

"I'm sure she'll show up."

"You're right Trucy," May said. "Iris is the only person who can prosecute in the trial."

"Did I hear my name being mentioned?"

Both girls turned around. It was Iris.

"Yes," Trucy said, smiling. "We were talking about you. You see Charlie witnessed two murders and a kidnapping."

"Wait!" Iris cried out as she pulled a chair from behind her and sat down between the girls. Her body faced a floral wall. "You know about Charlie?"

"We've only just met him today," May admitted.

"Bless him," Iris said sadly. "His wings are broken and his legs are stiff. He's been unable to fly or walk properly for a long time. If he was feeling better he would have burnt The Joker to dust."

"But Charlie said he saw a woman kill that couple!" May told Iris.

"It's a woman! So that means that The Joker couldn't have done it."

"It was his girlfriend, Harley Quinn."

Iris nodded, fiddling with her hair as she spoke. "The Joker can still be found guilty. Egging someone to commit a murder is just as bad as committing the murder yourself. But what was Ash doing with The Duke of Caloris and his wife? And what was Ash doing...there!"

May lifted her head and titled it towards Iris' direction. "There?"

"Outside Charlie's place, there's these horn shaped boulders," Iris explained. "There's a secret passage. You need a special code to get in and you can only get in at night. But it should never be opened...NEVER!"

"Is it the entrance to Hell?" May whispered.

"Shhh!" Iris hushed. "We're in a public place. We can't afford the likes of a gang overhearing us."

"There must be a way to bring Charlie into court to testify," May whispered. "But if he can't move far, how will we do it."

Iris got a pokéball out of her pocket and smiled. "I caught a chansey! I'll use it's egg to heal Charlie and then hopefully he'll be able to fly and walk again."

"Can a chansey's egg be so powerful?"

Iris's smile grew. "Even more powerful when it evolves into a blissey."

"Do you know who's the prosecutor for the trial?" May asked.

"You're looking at her."

May breathed out a massive sigh of relief. "That's good, you're the perfect prosecutor for this job."

"Other than Charlie," Iris said. "What other witnesses have you got on board?"

"Just Charlie and Pikachu, but we haven't got any evidence."

"You should be fine," Iris insisted. "As long as both Pikachu and Charlie's testimonies link to each other then we'll be good to go. I've got a feeling that Harley Quinn and The Joker could be demons from Hell."

"Can anybody that human attack people like that so senseless?" May asked.

Iris opened her handbag and got two pieces of paper out of her pocket. "I collected these this morning. These are death certificates. One for Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel also known as Harley Quinn. The other is for a Mr. Joseph Kerr also known as The Joker."

May had a look at both certificates and noted their cause of deaths were both identical: burnt alive. "Either they've faked their own deaths to start a new life, or their residents from Hell seeking to cause havoc to us mortals." May slapped the death certificates on the table. "Either way, they're both going down."

"If they are demons and they did in fact die," Iris said. "Then as a court of mortals, we cannot punish the dead."

"When I saw Harley Quinn she had no signs of burns at all. But she was wearing a lot of make up. Maybe that would cover it up."

"Ash has got to be in Hell,"Iris insisted. "There's no other way about it. But how could he have known about that dark league? That must be why was there and why The Duke of Caloris and his wife were there with him. That's why they were killed and Ash was kidnapped. He must be training in there."

"A dark league?" May remembered Ash talking about a dark league from the other timeline.

"The pokémon League of The Nether Regions," Iris said. "It's basically Hell's version of the pokémon league. My mother...Dahlia Hawthorne is a member of the Elite Four. She wanted me to enter it, but I'm afraid of what would happen if I won or lost."

May was surprised that Queen Elodie hadn't altered the timeline yet following the death of her father and stepmother. She knew at some point that she would cross paths with Queen Elodie again and would have a lot of things to ask her. What if the certain person's fate that Manaphy was referring to was Ash? Whatever Ash was doing or wherever Ash was, May could only hope that he was alive and well.