A Drop of Justice 5 - Or 'Playing Ace Attorney has never been so French!' (Genshin Impact AU, Lawyer!SI)
Ah, Fontaine's sweet food.
One of the best traits this country has in terms of culinary skills. The patisserie was originally a strange experiment that turned out to be a cunning idea of a few women to turn lab research into proper cooking. Turns out that this pretty much kickstarted the national focus on this sort of snack.
The issue being, as I was finishing a nice chocolate muffin, the Hydro Archon whose table I was sharing with. Out of all potential behavioral traits Furina could manifest so easily, her bratty mood was nothing short of irritating. She knew it, and she tried to pass it with pure and utter confidence. But after having been in this place for a while, I can detect her bullshit with ease.
So, with Maeve being back to the office to get things fixed up and put in the right cabinets and Clorinde deciding to 'take a break' or something while we were there, I had to endure the smugness of this bratty woman for the time being.
"Ahh, can't you taste it? The sweetness of a righteous plot tending to its closure~."
"More like a clumsy improvisation that could have backfired if the Gardes had been more wary of this deception," I argued, her smile twitching towards a scowl, but surviving this jab. "So, what do you want?"
"To spend time with my favorite lawyer."
…
"What do you want?" I pressed again and Furina huffed. "And I mean it. I have stuff to do."
"You could delay those-"
"I am not a pseudo-deity with a lot of free time to lazily deal with," I retorted flatly. "What is it, Furina?"
Her smile finally dropped. "I need you to keep away from handling cases which may involve the Gardes for a time."
"Why so?"
"Seriously, John?" Furina asked flatly, almost stunned by my lack of worry on the matter. "You have made their current leadership consider you as their enemy. They will not aid you in your cases."
"Which is why I will rely on Navia's organization for that business," I calmly rebuked. "After all, I have enough favors with her to guarantee a quality service with the right fee."
"It's not a matter of having substitutes," She suddenly snapped, sounding quite angry. "John, you don't get it. Something is very wrong."
I never saw Furina with such a furious look, and it wasn't aimed at me. That much I could tell but… that was rather perplexing.
"The Gardes are on high alert, they are being dismissive of Neuvillette's queries, and it's clear through this last trial that they are trying something very dangerous."
"And there's a big shot Fatui here," I added, gaining a nod from the Archon. "So, you think they will target me."
"I doubt they will stop even if you were to take a break. But I advise you to be very careful if you are going through other cases. They will be with you on most occasions."
I was actually surprised by Furina's genuine concern on the topic. For her to be this unnerved, it meant that the situation was indeed not one to treat with mere wariness. I guess the Gardes were indeed developing into a negative connotation- even more than I had expected.
Then again, this was the result of laws that barely regulated a centralized force like the Gardes. Although their existence had come to be through the idea of them working as the police, the arrival of other monsters had expanded their chores, their budgets and their armaments. The Gardemeks were also a worrisome element to keep an eye on.
The automatas were known to be quite sturdy and I am not exactly a guy with a vision to rely upon.
As I finished thinking that, I realized something about the place was already off. Most people had left, the light had been slowly lowered in intensity and Furina removed her hat.
"With that being said… I would like to personally reward you for your… contributions to the law and order of Fontaine~," Furina muttered mirthfully and slapped her lap. "Come on, take a rest. Let me grant you some-"
"You ruined it," I flatly remarked as I finished the content of my plate. "You had something nice going and you had to be a horny brat again."
Her jaw dropped as I stood up, ready to leave but… I paused for a moment.
"Although, I admit that your warning deserves a reward."
Her mouth opened to object to this, but as she felt my right hand reach for her head and settle in her hair, parting white and blue, I saw her freeze up.
"Good job."
And I was gone shortly after, leaving poor Furina to recover from what had been quite the 'rejection' by all means. I am not sure why she started to try and 'seduce' me, or why the Archon of all people would be interested in that sort of thing but…
I wasn't up for it. I knew too well that Fontaine was a place where romances, relationships in general, were the kind of rumor bread that created ramifications that were tough to handle. And that's ignoring the big status Furina had as the Hydro Archon.
As I started to make my way back home, I perceived a strange feeling in my stomach. At first I felt like it was a mere case of upset, then it grew a bit more severe but not enough to be worried about it, and it didn't see any major changes through the rest of the day.
It was as I fell asleep, and I started to feel the pain growing more intense, that I realized I should have paid more attention to it. Poison? Maybe the Gardes had put some of that in the snacks. I was feverish, unable to shift out of bed as I was heating up within the covers, sweat pooling as I felt something was happening.
And then, it happened.
Within a blink of an eye, I woke up the next morning. Gone was the pain, gone was the intense fever-like state of mind, gone was the… sweat. Yet, one thing persisted through the strange dream-like night I had.
Bubbles were floating about. And they all popped at once as I blinked at those.
…What just happened?!
AN
Furina is not to blame here! And neither are the Gardes. Or the Fatui! Someone else sees John as a threat and tried to have him killed. Sadly for them (or maybe not) the assassination attempt failed. And John's reaction is not just about Bubbles.
It goes deeper than that.
