When Apollo woke the next morning, he didn't know where he was. The sheets didn't smell like his and the pillow was too soft. He also didn't smell Mr. Gavin's normal breakfast he made for himself, but instead steamed rice and—
The memories of what happened yesterday felt like they punched him in the face and beat him with a pillowcase full of bricks at the same time, and now he was feeling horribly sore in his hospital bed. It probably hit him harder than he'd hit Phoenix Wright the day before. …Actually, it wascertainlyharder than he'd hit Phoenix Wright. At least he still probably could go back to his relatively normal life, full of illegal poker and forged evidence.
Mr. Gavin on the other hand probably had to spend last night in a jail cell while Apollo was embarrassingly breaking down on the phone at 2:30 in the morning or whatever, calling his brother who had told him to never speak to him again.
Speaking of…
He could hear Yuta (at least he thought so; he was pretty sure he'd progressed past the need for roommates now) clanking around in the kitchen. When Apollo checked the clock on the nightstand, it read 7:30. It wouldn't be long until Yuta had to leave for work, and staying in bed until he left sounded pretty damn nice right about now. He was probably going to have a lot of questions and Apollo wasn't ready to talk about them.
I probably don't have a job anymore,he thought, rolling over in bed and closing his eyes to go back to sleep. He may as well sleep in, right?
The next time he woke, it was from the alarm at 11:55 with a note in Yuta's neat handwriting sitting under it.
Don't sleep in past noon. Help yourself to whatever you'd like. I want to talk to you when I get back so make yourself at home until then. I'll be back at ~5:30.-N
It wasn't like Apollo had anywhere else to go, even if he wanted to. Clay was still at school and there was no way he was going back to Mr. Gavin's house any time soon. If he was remembering the geography right, it would probably take around forty-five minutes by car, something that he did not own. And not something he would own for a while longer, now that he was without a job.
When he sat up in bed, he finally noticed that Nahyuta had put him in his own bedroom instead of his guest one. It probably wasn't ready at such short notice. There weren't any decorations to speak of—just a nightstand, a lamp, and a small bowl, probably for his jewelry.
Did he not hate him anymore?
That was probably one of the things that he wanted to talk about.
When he reached down for his phone still in his pants pocket, he saw that he had two missed calls and several texts from Clay.
Sorry, man,he thought blandly while he blearily read through his texts.
CT:Hope ur able to sleep ok, or figure out what you're gonna do. Text me tmrw, ok?
CT:What'd you end up doing?
CT:Hey, don't tell me Mr. Gavin murdered you too :(
CT:Sorry, that was insensitive
CT:Are you okay?
CT:Pick up your phone, you're worrying me
CT:I got the story from Yuta and have confirmed with him that you're neither dead nor in mortal peril. Crisis averted. You're just sleeping in for once.
CT:Glad you're on speaking terms again, but text me back soon or I'll think you hate me too
AJ:I'm going to stay in Nahyuta's apartment for today
AJ:Not like I have anything else to do, but I'll let you know what happens
He switched his phone back off and sat back down on the bed. Maybe he would give Clay the whole story, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to describe it twice over to separate people.
How had things gone so wrong so fast? It still felt surreal, and he felt like the only thing that was keeping him from going into the office like normal was the fact that he was in an apartment instead of Mr. Gavin's house.
Would he need to look for a job now? Who would hire him when he sent his boss and mentor to prison? What kind of recommendation would that be? He hadn't worked for anyone other than Mr. Gavin, so it wasn't like he had a ton of references to fall back on. He had his professors from school, but he never even met any of them in person. Of course, his client from yesterday offered him a job—the same person that had just risked his entire career to be found innocent, so he didn't think it would be unreasonable to not want to be his employee.
Apollo groaned and rubbed his face. He didn't have the energy to think about it, so he laid back on the bed and decided to go back to sleep. There was nothing else to do, really, and he didn't want to melt his brain by watching TV all day. If it made Yuta mad, then he could get over it. He wasn't going to throw him out. This had to be as good as saying sorry for their last fight and making fake promises that they meant in the moment but would never keep.
Nahyuta doesn't even need to ask about what happened with Apollo yesterday. In fact, Apollo's courtroom debut had caused such an uproar, that he receives a text message from Edgeworth at six in the morning requesting that he come in as early as possible to help with handling his case.
He doesn't wake up early enough for that, so the normal time will have to do. Normally, he wouldn't allow himself to sleep in as much as he did today, but his rest had been…interrupted,so he had made the executive decision to sleep in until he needs to leave.
Immediately after arriving at the Prosecutor's Office, Edgeworth tells him to turn around and prepare to transcribe a long interrogation with Kristoph Gavin. He promises to reimburse him for gas, but Nahyuta has heard that before and the chances of that are about sixty-forty.
The long-awaited pay-off of his warnings to Apollo (and Clay, to some extent) regarding Kristoph Gavin is not nearly as satisfying to him as anyone had expected. Knowing Apollo and Clay, they probably think that he'll be internally gloating all day. What Nahyuta hadwantedto happen was that they all realize that he is right and has legitimate premonitions of the future from the Holy Mother, and they abandon Kristoph Gavin before he hurts them and then they learn later about how he's a bad person, in one way or another. After that, they would never doubt him again, then thank him for being right and strong-willed enough to push back, despite his unpopular opinion.
The very last part is unlikely to ever happen, but having a categorical answer prepared makes him feel better. Given, he takes no small pleasure in being able to say "I told you so," but the consequences have been so dramatic that even Nahyuta finds reveling in it to be in bad taste. Someone has, quite literally, died because everyone had misjudged Gavin. Even he never would have imagined he would be a murderer—an embezzling forger at worst, but notthis.
Other than the murder, seeing Apollo so broken-down last night was the worst part about recent events and being right had not been worth it in the slightest. Nahyuta doesn't think that he's seen him at his wit's end like that since middle school. Since picking him up, he can't bring himself to honestly feel even a crumb of the resentment he'd grown accustomed to when thinking about his brother.
Before now, he'd had no idea what a few tears from Apollo can still make Nahyuta do, even as adults who can barely maintain a relationship with each other. It would be heartwarming if he isn't still so worried about him and can't shake such horrible feelings of guilt.
Everything that went down with Gavin should have never happened. What he could have done to prevent it, Nahyuta isn't sure, but simply going along with what had been the easiest was clearly the wrong move. Apollo would resent him for blaming himself for this, but whether he likes it or not, he's still responsible for him, to some degree; if not because he's his older brother, then because they are still family and are obligated to look after each other. And he feels especially horrible for allowing their argument to have lasted as long as it did. Thinking about it as objectively as he can manage, he may be the one who screwed it up—even if Apollo did call him crazy and delusional, and everything else he knows that Nahyuta is sensitive about; he is always quick to hit below the belt with him. Telling him what he did about Dhurke was much worse, and he should be more used to Apollo saying things he usually doesn't mean.
While waiting for Edgeworth to arrive at the detention center, Nahyuta's phone rings. He glances down at the screen.
Clay Terran?
"Hello?"
"Finally!"
"Is something the matter?"
"I've been trying to call and text you and Apollo all morning."
"I've been at work," he says shortly. "Is something wrong?"
"Is Apollo okay? I haven't been able to get a hold of him all morning. I heard about what happened with Mr. Gavin."
Ah."He's with me for the time being. I picked him up from Gavin's home at three in the morning. And Mikeko too," he adds.
A sigh of relief on the other end."Okay, good. I was really worried. Especially since he didn't want to call you at first."
"I'd imagine not."
"Why didn't either of you tell me that you were fighting?"He demands."You two can be so secretive for no reason."
He notices Edgeworth and his garish suit from the corner of his eye. "I need to go," he says. "I don't want Edgeworth to see me
"Okay, okay. Stay in touch."
"I will," he says, but he doesn't think that he'll have the time to keep his word. If the reporter in front of the detention center is anything to go by, this could turn into a media firestorm; Phoenix Wright being involved usually does those kinds of things, if history is anything to go by. He hopes that Apollo is shielded from the bulk of it, but it's hard to say what kinds of things that the media and social media will latch on to.
He prepares himself for a migraine, and follows Edgeworth in to begin Gavin's questioning.
When Apollo woke again, it was presumably Nahyuta unlocking, then entering the apartment. Suddenly, he regretted making the decision to sleep nearly the entire day away. He felt so horribly groggy, and he was not in the headspace to have a serious conversation with Nahyuta about their last fight.
Mikeko bounded off the bed and ran towards the door to greet her favorite person who didn't so lovingly feed and groom her for the entirety of her life. He heard her yowl loudly when she was presumably getting scratched on her head.
Eventually, "Apollo? Where are you?"
"I'm here!" Apollo grumbled. The apartment wasn't exactly big enough to hide for longer than about two minutes. He sighed and sat up in the bed in time for Yuta to walk in.
His hair completely altered his appearance; he looked like an ethereal spirit the Holy Mother sent to walk the earth. If he learned later that she'd reincarnated into him, Apollo would not be surprised. It drew attention to his bright, green eyes and exaggerated the judging expressions that were still very much Apollo's disapproving big brother. His waifish figure hadn't changed that much since he last saw him, but it certainly added to the "spiritual being" look. But if he looked at him a little closer, he could see the hastily blended makeup that covered his eye bags: a trait that Nahyuta had developed in high school and stuck around for the long-term.
Apollo could almost picture little Yuty over this Nahyuta's face though. It was a better look than his black dye.
"Did you spend all day sleeping?" Nahyuta asked critically.
And there he is,Apollo thought sarcastically.
"No," he lied, averting his gaze.
When he glanced up at him, his lips were pressed together, his eyes wrinkling in what seemed more like concern than judgment. He leaned down to pick Mikeko off the floor, and when he straightened again, he looked kinda like some supervillain from one of Apollo's manga. "I learned what happened with Kristoph Gavin," he said, looking down at Mikeko.
Of course you didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. Or what was appropriate.
"When I saw him today, he told me that he wanted you to vacate his premises. Per section 9.4," he continued.
Apollo frowned. "You interrogated him?"
"Prosecutor Edgeworth intends on prosecuting him. He is worried about him being given preferential treatment from the police," he explained. "I was present with him while he did the interrogation, and he wanted me to deliver a message to you."
Apollo scoffed and examined the wrinkles in the bedsheets. "You don't hate him too much to ignore all his requests?"
"No."
As the silence continued, Apollo looked up at him. "Do you want to get your 'I told you so' out of the way now, or later?" He wanted to sound defiant, but it came out as resigned instead.
Nahyuta sighed. He gave Mr. Starbuck a run for his money with how often he sighed, even if they were less dramatic. (Yuta was dramatic in different ways.) He looked down at Mikeko, stroking her back as she purred loudly. "I never could have imagined that your mentor would turn out to be a murderer," he replied flatly. "So there is no 'I told you so' to be had. And I know that you aren't interested in hearing what I have to say about him either, considering our last conversation."
"Whatever," he mumbled, looking back down at the sheets. He sighed. "I really jinxed myself by comparing him toAmerican Psychobut without the murders all those years ago," he muttered bitterly.
"What?"
"Never mind."
Yuta let Mikeko jump from his arms into the bed, and she ran to the kitchen, probably still waiting for her dinner. "She has the right idea—it's time for dinner," he said, looking after her. "Get dressed and come to the table."
When Apollo finally came to the table, not without dragging his feet and checking his phone to see if Clay had said anything else (he did—but mostly related to his recent homework that Apollo couldn't understand), everything was already laid out. A lot of it was steamed rice and cabbage, which was a meal Apollo had not had in a while; it smelled nostalgic.
As he sat down, Yuta started immediately, "I'm sorry for what I said about our father."
He didn't even give me time to start eating first.
"Nothing about it was true. Not in the way that I meant it," he continued, his face pulling into a grimace. "I'm sorry."
Apollo gritted his teeth. Until that argument, he had successfully gone over a year without thinking about Dhurke. He thought that he'd successfully moved past his hurt feelings and utter betrayal, but he clearly hadn't. Not when the mention of him had been enough for him to swear off ever speaking to his only family member ever again, and when he was sitting on the kitchen floor wishing that his dad was around to pick him up and make everything better again. He didn't want to think that those feelings would haunt him for the rest of his life, but he didn't notice that Mr. Gavin had turned into a Dhurke stand-in until he abandoned him too—by doing something so much worse than what Dhurke had done.
"It's fine," Apollo said finally, tightening his hands into fists into his lap and looking up at him. "Let's just forget about it."
Yuta regarded him carefully, like he usually did. He looked like he was trying to see through his skull and into his brain but wasn't doing a very good job of it. "Is that what you want?" His expression didn't waver, and Apollo was once again reminded of the similarities between his brother and his (ex?) mentor.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Apollo said. "Everything with Dhurke is behind us now. I don't want to drag it out when we don't need to. It's time we moved on. And I'm not upset with you about the fight anymore either but I appreciate your apology." He tried to make it sound sincere, but those words strung together and directed towards Nahyuta would always feel sarcastic. This wasn't how they apologized anymore; this was how the people at Sunflower forced them to apologize. It made it feel a little more sincere in their mother tongue, but not by much.
"You want to forget about him?" Nahyuta asked evenly, his brows furrowed and a bemused expression on his face while he stared Apollo down.
Apollo squirmed in his chair, picking up the fork from the table and using it to stir the food around on his plate. "He forgot us, didn't he?" He felt like a child once the words were out of his mouth—a fact that he couldn't stand. Even without being there, Dhurke could make him feel like an abandoned ten-year-old. Too many things could make him feel like that, which wasn't a comforting thought. His current company wasn't helping the feeling either though. It was probably one of the reasons that Nahyuta's company could put him on edge so easily.
"I'm not sure," he admitted slowly, then a sigh. As the first sign he was fazed by their conversation, he drew his hands to his head, rubbing his temples and resting his elbows on the table. His eyes fluttered shut. "I don't think you will ever reach a place where our father's actions will no longer affect you."
"Maybe not," Apollo admitted. "But the more distance from…from all of that, the better."
He moved his chin to rest on the backs of his fingers and gave him a pointed look. "So says you, in Khura'inese."
Apollo huffed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He rolled his eyes. "But… We're good now, right?" He asked, eager to move on.
Yuta nodded the bit he could while still resting his chin on his fingers and closed his eyes. "Yes," he said tiredly.
"I promise to not bring Dhurke up again either when we fight," Apollo said, and tried not to get offended when Yuta snorted at it. "You don't think I can keep that?" He challenged.
"Not at all." He opened his eyes and looked down at his food, beginning to eat. It was probably lukewarm at this point and needed to be heated up, but Apollo doubted that Yuta would go to the effort of getting up and putting it in the microwave.
"I will! I've kept the other promises I've made," he insisted.
"Do you have somewhere to stay?" He asked instead.
Apollo swallowed. "Are you kicking me out?"
"No, of course not," he said immediately with a shake of his head. "But if you need me to take you somewhere tonight, I can do that."
He'd almost forgotten about how he'd uprooted his entire life and career yesterday. He didn't have a jobora home anymore. No thanks to Phoenix fucking Wright who gave him a forged—
Apollo nearly choked on his mouthful of rice. After getting the rest of it down, he asked, channeling as much stoicism as he had in him, "Did Mr. Gavin say anything about the trial when you interrogated him?" He asked. He didn't know what Nahyuta would do if he knew about the forged ace. Would he turn him in and try to get his badge taken away? He worked for Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth so he certainly had friends in high places, but maybe he'd turn the other way for the sake of nepotism? Would that even be good?
From the look on his face, Yuta could tell something was wrong, but there was still the hope that he would neither figure it out or ask about it. "He was interrogated, so he said a lot," he replied slowly. "I'm not permitted to speak on the case either until it has been dismissed."
Apollo swallowed and cleared his throat. "Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry. Uh…"
"He didn't say anything about you, other than the message I delivered earlier," Nahyuta said, "if that is what you were wondering."
"Oh, okay."
"It should be settled soon and if you're interested, I can bring the case file here for review," he continued.
"No thanks."
Nahyutahm'd softly and didn't say much beyond that and let them finish their dinner in peace. Maybe he got the idea that Apollo didn't want to dwell on anything that had happened to himever,be it twelve years ago, or yesterday before lunchtime.
"So you stopped coloring your hair," Apollo for the conversation to be about you and your decisions, for once.
Nahyuta reflexively touched his hair, tugging it softly between his thumb and index finger. "I did," he said.
"Why the change?"
He grimaced, slightly. "I don't have the time to keep it properly done anymore. If I leave my roots for too long, it looks like I'm graying."
"I remember," Apollo said, a smile pulling on his lips. "Clay thinks it's funny."
"Yes, I know," he deadpanned.
Well that wasn't the right thing to say."I like it. I'm looking forward to when Clay can see it too. He's never seen your natural hair before."
"Thank you," he intoned flatly, not welcoming any further comment.
Once they were finished, Nahyuta began to clean up, and Apollo went to move his things into the guest room. The world would keep spinning and Apollo couldn't let it leave him behind. That was what Mr. Starbuck said whenever he got asked about how he felt about the HAT-1 mission.
After making the guest bed, Apollo sat down on the edge and sighed in, then out.
Since eating his first meal over the course of more than forty-eight hours, what happened to Mr. Gavin didn't feel like the end of the world anymore—so long as he didn't think about him anymore.
On cue, as always, Apollo's phone buzzed from a text message from Clay.
Clay Terran:Holaa .any updates? How's it going? what'd u do today? I've been waiting all day to hear from you
Apollo Justice:Sorry about that.
AJ:I'm going to stay another night with Yuta
AJ:I think we've patched things up now
CT:Good
AJ:Since Mr. Gavin was my boss and my landlord, I got evicted and fired at the same time so I'm going to go over there and pack my stuff up this weekend
CT:kinda short notice, but I'll clear my schedule
AJ:You don't have to. I'm pretty sure Yuta will want to help me too.
CT:What's that thing you tried to say in english again? the hands of your ancestors will touch you just as much as your sister-in-law?
Apollo made a face at the memory. Mr. Terran had exploded into laughter and Clay's aunt looked at him like he'd grown a second head.
AJ:That's not even what I said. And it makes more sense in Khura'inese.
CT:But it just means that many hands make light work, right?
AJ:That's usually how it's translated.
CT:so I'll be over early on Saturday so have yuta's couch ready for me to crash
AJ:Thanks, Clay
CT:np man. I've been meaning for us to hang out again soon
AJ:Yeah. it's too bad it's not under better circumstances
CT:We can still celebrate you winning the first case you worked on!
AJ:No.
Apollo looked up from his phone when he heard Yuta knock on his door.
"You can come in," he said, dropping the phone on the bed.
"This won't be long," Nahyuta started after pushing the door open. "I just was going to ask you what your immediate plans are going to be."
"Oh. I was just texting Clay about them," Apollo said. "I need to get my stuff from Mr. Gavin's house since I got evicted," he said with a sigh. "And then…I guess I'll need to look for another job and place to stay."
He furrowed his brow. "You're free to stay here for as long as you need," he said slowly. "And there are a few openings at the Prosecutor's Office, if you're interested in that.
Apollo shook his head at that. "No, that's okay," he said.
"Do you have a place to start looking?" Nahyuta asked critically. "It won't be easy to find somewhere in your expertise without some kind of contact."And your main contact landed himself in the slammer,he probably finished in his head.
"Well Phoenix Wright offered me a job," he muttered under his breath, then sighed. "Mr. Gavin wasn't my only contact in the field. I've met a few different people while working under him so I'm sure that one of them would be willing to give me a shot."
Yuta crossed his arms. "That may be your problem."
"What do you mean?"
Apollo noticed his fingers tense around his sleeves before he spoke. "You did the right thing," he stated, "but it may have not been the ideal decision for the shareholders of the Gavin Law Offices."
"We didn't have shareholders," Apollo said dubiously. He stared at him, trying to see what he was getting at. "What are you trying to say?"
He sighed. "Even if you've proven yourself experienced and capable of successfully representing a party as counsel, your prioritization of justice over your place of employment may be seen as less ideal."
Apollo repeated the words in his head. Then tried to translate it into English. Then back into Khura'inese. "You're worried about someone not wanting to hire a whistleblower."
"Yes," he affirmed plainly. "Kristoph Gavin is not a low-profile defense attorney, and it won't take long before the details of his case become common knowledge in the legal world. I'm sure you know how everyone knows someone."
Apollo waved his hand dismissively. "But a lot of them will understand. I doubt that most attorneys are actual murderers who will be worried about that."
"I suppose," he admitted. "Just… If you still want to work in law, you can probably do so, but just from the prosecution's side of things."
"C'mon, I passed the California bar to be an attorney, not a prosecutor," Apollo said. "I'll figure something out and be out of your hair in less than a month."
Yuta's mouth pulled into a deep frown to match his brow. "For your sake, I'm not going to hold you to that."
Apollo rolled his eyes dismissively. "Okay, Nahyuta," he said. "I'll have you say you're a bird-eater before you know it."
"Whatever you say, you red pepper," he said, his tone becoming marginally less severe in response to the badly translated English idiom. "I have some work to do so try your best to not be too loud, but you can get me if you need anything."
Being right about Gavin proves to make him feel bad about himself; personally, but also professionally. It is most likely a reminder from the Holy Mother that even though shehasblessed him with a good sense of other people, Nahyuta should, under no circumstances, be eager to flaunt such a blessing. Apollo not only had been made unemployed and homeless, but Nahyuta gets to see firsthand how deep Gavin's influence goes. He'd made friends with a lot of people in high places, and even Edgeworth struggles to outweigh his influence with his own. It's one delay, one loophole, after another, and Edgeworth has mentioned more than once about reaching out to his international prosecutor sister; nearly everyone in the prosecutor's office has been personally involved with Gavin, himself included, and the judges are suddenly issuing orders against conflicts of interest.
There is a real chance that Gavin will be allowed to walk free because of the lack of prosecution.
"This may cause an even greater upset than Wright's disbarment," Edgeworth says, knocking on the side of Nahyuta's cubicle. "It's unlikely, but if any reporters ask you about the case, don't give them any information."
"I won't," he promises. He'd gone almost two months without smoking, and recent events have made him want to start again so the threat of reporters is a good deterrent from leaving the office.
"I'm half-considering re-instating convicted felons to prosecute Gavin's case," Edgeworth tells him, a sneer on his face and his arms crossed.
Nahyuta can't tell whether he's being serious. "That would certainly make a statement about our current judicial affairs," he replies.
"Exactly. And it would resolve these issues of Gavin's deep-rooted connections and…rot."
He's serious.
He shakes his head, scowling and muttering under his breath. "Nonetheless, Justice, you are forbidden from giving any sort of information to the press."
"Yes, sir."
Press probably meant that Apollo could very well become the villain of the month for the media. Or maybe the hero, depending on the outlet. Neither sounds like a positive thing for the long-term health of his career. Even if he hadn't been in the public eye while working under Gavin, he certainly will be now. Even though Edgeworth is the formal prosecution, Apollo's debut case will be a large aspect of his case. With any luck, his residence won't get leaked. He's gone this long without that happening, and he hopes that won't change any time soon.
"How is your brother?" Edgeworth asks.
Nahyuta blinks in surprise and tilts his head up at him. "He is as well as can be expected," he says. "He's staying with me until he can find something else."
Edgeworth nods in acknowledgement, a grimace on his face; deeper than usual. "I understand the feeling of being betrayed by a mentor all too well," he says. "Please give him my well wishes and deepest sympathies."
Manfred von Karma,Nahyuta thinks distantly. He tries to picture the man's face from an old family photo hidden away in Edgeworth's car once, but all he can picture is the man's abundant frills and teal highlights. "I will let him know," he says. "Thank you."
Edgeworth nods again, stiffly. "I will see you later this afternoon. With any luck, the issue of conflicts of interest will be settled by the end of today."
By the end of the day, conflict of interest had turned into "conflicting informational sources." In other words: the trial will need to be delayed once again. Interestingly, instead of organizing notices and cancellation paperwork himself, Edgeworth drops them off on Nahyuta's desk to file and take to the police station the next day, opting to hole up in his office, in an hours-long meeting with parties that Nahyuta doesn't recognize.
At this rate, even if Gavin is sentenced, he'll probably receive bail in the coming days and only spend a handful of years in prison before being let out on good behavior.
It had been years since Apollo had spent longer than twenty-four hours not thinking once about work. It made him think about Clay's argument that Mr. Gavin had been overworking him. But Apollo had thrived in the constant rush of work. He'd always said it, and he was glad that he had been right about it—at least he would be if it wasn't currently biting him in the ass. He missed the pressure and constant work always occupying his mind, because sitting around stuck in his own headsucked. He liked always having a project to work on, but still being given relative flexibility on whatever it was he was working on. Instead, all he got to do was re-analyze his debut in court and try to see if there was something else that he could have done. Or if there was something that he could have done to make Dhurke keep him in Khura'in, but those thoughts were reserved for nights of insomnia that Clay texted him through. He regretted not allowing Nahyuta to explain what he meant about Dhurke more, but didn't know how to bring it up again. He kept telling himself that he would when he wasn't busy, but he was always busy.
Mikeko was good company, and Apollo didn't live alone—a small, small mercy—but most of his days were horribly long and boring. All he could do was look for more jobs, take a meal break, then go back to looking for more jobs.
Yuta was as tidy as Apollo remembered from when they were in the Home together, and even the surfaces in the entire apartment were dusted, historically his least favorite chore because of his arachnophobia; he'd stopped screaming and crying now, but he still hated them. He had little furniture that needed polishing, and all his silverware was stainless steel instead of silver so that didn't need polishing either. And cooking dinner was only something that he needed to do once a day.
He could only wait around for Clay to text him back for so hadn't been entirely derailed at no fault of his own, so he still had a life outside of going in between scrubbing the bathroom and writing cover letters.
Pulling away from his computer, Apollo rubbed his eyes and spent some time staring down at Mikeko. Not too long after, she returned his look with her big, green eyes. "What do you think about this, Mikey?" He asked her. The nickname didn't sound right for her, so he decided that he would keep trying.
She didn't respond. She probably didn't even know that he was trying to talk to her; her hearing had gotten better since she got over the ear infection, but it still wasn't very good. It was too bad—she was the only thing around for Apollo to talk to most of the time. After leaving the Home, he never kept up with any of his high school classmates, and that was too bad too. Talking to someone new sounded like an appealing option.
That evening, Apollo asked at the dinner table, "Do you want to go on a walk?"
Yuta frowned and was probably going through his to-do list in his head. "Well…" his face pulled into a grimace.
"It'll be short," Apollo promised. "You don't want me to just stay in here for days without going anywhere, do you?"
He arched a brow. "You can leave quite literally whenever you'd like."
"C'mon," encouraged Apollo, "what happened to breaks being good?"
"That was when I was actually performing challenging tasks and not spending half an hour waiting for the dry cleaning."
"The dry cleaning?"
"Mr. Edgeworth needed it last month."
Ah yes. Personal assistant. In practice. Going by the size of the apartment, it at least seemed to pay well so it had to be worth it.
"So let's go after dinner!" Apollo said. "We both need to get out. We haven't caught up since I've been here because you've been so busy."
"…All right," he relented.
"What have you been working on this week?" Apollo asked as Nahyuta was locking the door behind them.
"State v. Gavin," he replied. "The trial has been delayed for a few days and so Mr. Edgeworth has been working with different members of the Prosecutor's Office and the police department to make sure our case is strong."
Apollo deflated. He should have expected that. "That makes sense," he said slowly. Why did he think this was a good idea again? "You won't have an issue with conflict of interest?" He asked.
"That was a problem, but it has been resolved now." He began to walk down the stairs and gestured for Apollo to follow. "That was one of the many things that's delayed sentencing. Mr. Gavin certainly has friends in high places, including the chief of police," he continued dryly.
"Yeah…" Apollo acknowledged. "It helped with his investigations a lot. He got allowed in a lot of crime scenes he wasn't supposed to be in."
When they got to the street, Yuta continued the conversation. "Other than staying indoors for days, how do you feel about your boss having confessed to murder?" He asked.
"Oh—uh…" he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yes?" He prompted.
"I didn't think that you would ask about that," he admitted. "I mostly wanted to ask how you've been."
"You answer me first."
Apollo huffed and tried to go through how he felt. He had been thinking a lot about the things that he could have done to get Mr. Wright off, but not convict Mr. Gavin in the process, but he never thought about how the entire thing made him feel; it was still too new to put together an emotional response to something like that. "I haven't thought about it that much," he said. "I'm trying to get on with my life."
"Hm."
"We can't change what happened so there's not much use in overthinking it."
They stopped at a crosswalk and Yuta stared up at the streetlight. "There's wisdom in that," he agreed. "But there is nothing wrong with at least acknowledging how it made you feel."
"Okay, Mr. Stoic," Apollo retorted, amused. "I don't think I've seen you have a serious reaction to anything that's happened to you."
Yuta sniffed. "Just because I do not share them with you does not mean that it never happens," he defended. "It seems to me like you don't let yourself react to anything, even to something as big as accusing your own mentor, boss, and adoptive father for murder."
Apollo made a face. "In no way was he anything close to being my father," he said. "And… I mean, right after it happened, I was angry for sure. And I still feel betrayed. But that feeling isn't new, so…" he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "So I'm gonna do my best to move past it and get things done. Even if it feels good sometimes, feeling bad for myself won't fix any of the problems that I have right now. Like being homeless and jobless."
"Fair enough."
Yuta began to walk across the crosswalk when the walk signal finally changed. "On that topic, have you had much luck in your job search?" He asked.
"I've just started so I haven't heard anything back yet," Apollo answered. "But… hey," he continued, grabbing Yuta's arm to stop him from continuing after crossing the street. "Thanks for not pushing it with Mr. Gavin. I really appreciate it," he said sincerely.
"What do you mean?" He looked puzzled. "What were you thinking I would do?"
Apollo shrugged, letting his hand drop. "More smugness. Or gloating. Not letting me live it down. Like I've done with you. Sometimes." The last part was a horrible admission, but necessary to express the amount of gratitude he meant.
He considered him carefully, and licked his lips. Apollo was almost worried that he would make it more serious than he meant it, but he didn't. "I have a lot of other things to be smug and gloating about."
Apollo laughed at the response. "Okay, whatever," he said, relieved. "I'm still glad that you helped me after everything."
"Of course, Apollo," he said sincerely. "I'm sorry that I have not always made it clear that I'll help you, but I will." He closed his eyes. "We're both adults now, but I still take my promise to take care of you very seriously. When you actually need it, of course," he amended.
Apollo was caught off-guard at the frankness of his words and he shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He wanted to get out of the emotional funk he'd been in, not share it with everyone he talked to. "I'll still try to be out of your hair as soon as I can," he promised. "I know that you're probably eager to get back to living on your own."
"I've enjoyed having you with me," he assured. "You and Mikeko make for good company. And you encourage me to get out sometimes."
"You've been good company too," he said. For whenever he was around and willing to talk to him, anyway. Apollo began to walk again. "Other than State v. Gavin, what do you do at work? It can't just be that and then being a personal assistant."
Yuta continued as well, slowing his usual walking speed to keep pace with him. "It's not," he said. "It has historically been case management, but recently I have been studying for the bar."
Apollo jerked to face him. "What? Seriously? When did that happen?" He demanded. "I didn't know you were enrolled in law school."
He continued to walk, ignoring his surprise. "I started at the beginning of this year."
"Why didn't you say anything?" He demanded. "I could have been helping you!"
"We haven't been on speaking terms for half of the year, so far," he said dryly. "And I'm not enrolled in law school. You don't need to do that to take the bar in California."
Apollo hurried to catch up with him. Unfortunately, he'd slowly been returning to his normal pace and now he'd gotten there again. "I didn't know you wanted to be a lawyer!" He said. "As a prosecutor, right?"
He glanced at him from the corner of his eye and slowed down again. "I don't particularly want to be a prosecutor," he admitted, "but Mr. Edgeworth will likely be Chief Prosecutor by the end of the year, and he thought that it would be easier for me to continue working for him if I could legally provide legitimate legal counsel and head some cases."
Based on what Miles Edgeworth had been having Nahyuta do historically, it was unlikely that he'd keep to that, but for his brother's sake, he hoped that he would. Representing someone in court was not for the faint of heart. For example, your client could be a popular internet attorney who lost his badge but got accused of murder seven years later and turned out to be a shitty person who would let their attorney potentially take the fall for their use of forged evidence then get disbarred after their first court appearance.
Theoretically, of course.
"Well good luck with it," Apollo said. "I can definitely help you if you need it," he offered. "I did pass it myself you know."
Yuta made a noise that Apollo couldn't tell was a laugh or a snort. "I will certainly keep that in mind."
"When will you take the bar?" He asked.
"Next year at the earliest," Nahyuta answered, then added, "So you will not need to worry about seeing me as the prosecution for a while yet."
Apollo laughed at the idea of it. "We should go on more walks," he said. "At least while I'm still here. It's been good talking to you again."
He smiled faintly. "It has been."
"Andreallydo it this time," he added. "Not just say that we will like we have been for a while."
"Let's try then. You're right—a break has been good for me."
Apollo gave him an amused look. "Thank your past self."
He lightly pushed against him with his shoulder. "Thank you for reminding me then."
"You're welcome, Yuty."
"Don't call me that."
Apollo smiled at the familiarity, then swallowed, frowning. Did he want to ask him about Dhurke and potentially ruin his entire evening?
"What is it?" Yuta asked.
"Nothing. It's not important."
It wasn't. Dhurke was far behind them and they needed to move on.
It was like old times again when Clay showed up on Nahyuta's doorstep, informing them that he entirely expected to be allowed to stay at his apartment and eat his food. Apollo was finally reconnecting with Nahyuta after living with him again and Clay completed their little trio from when they were kids. It almost made up for the fact that Mr. Gavin killed someone.
The key word being "almost." It was a joke and they probably would have made up on their own eventually. Apollo was going back to basics by staying up to egregious hours with his best friend, and Clay even wanted to say hi to Mr. Starbuck while he was in town and Apollo had agreed to go with him. The years in between meeting Clay and being adopted by was a golden age that he hadn't realized he was nostalgic for, but here he was—wishing that he could go back to it.
When it came time to do what Clay showed up to help with, Apollo was struck by following nausea and unease; he didn't realize how uncomfortable he'd feel going back to Mr. Gavin's house. Even though it had only been six days since he was last there, it didn't smell like home anymore (the lack of Mikeko's food and litterbox may have played a role in that) and the house felt alien. If he knew that he was going to be so effected by this place, he would have started his Chords of Steel training fifteen minutes earlier than usual.
The knowledge that the house was owned by an actual murderer was not doing it any favors.
Clay nudged Apollo's shoulder as they walked through the living room. "You okay?" He asked quietly.
Apollo nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said firmly. "Let's just get this over with."
Clay didn't look convinced, but he agreed. He probably said something to Yuta too, because he wasn't as nosey as he usually was and left him alone. As far as Apollo could tell from the past week, Nahyuta was a lot better to live with compared to when he was sixteen. Maybe the cigarettesweregood for him, if they pulled the stick out of his ass that he'd had stuck up there since high school. He didn't even ask Apollo why he was being so quiet and seemed content to leave him alone and catch up with Clay.
Instead of eating at Yuta's apartment, they decided to eat at a Burger Barn before driving all the way back. It was a good opportunity to refocus before he had to struggle getting all his belongings up three flights of stairs.
At least I know that it's going to burn off all the calories from my fast-food dinner.
It was a lot harder than Apollo had thought it was going to be, with two moving boxes up and down the stairs while the third organized them (sit down in the air-conditioned apartment while the other two continued to work). When they finally finished, the three of them sat in silence on Yuta's oversized couch facing an empty wall.
It wasn't a good feeling, now that he wasofficiallyhomeless now. What would be the things that he'd need to do now? He'd probably need to change his ID. And that meant notifying the Bar too so they could fix his contact information on their website. Not that he thought that anyone would be trying to find him any time soon, but it still needed to be done. Something to break from the constant job hunt that he'd been doing all week. At least Clay and his flightiness was good at keeping his mind on other things.
Apollo had been too grounded to want to be an astronaut, but he wished that he had gone that way. Blah, blah, blah, grass grows better on the other neighbor's bathroom, but it sure seemed like Clay won out in the career choice, even if Apollo still technically beat him in their race.
He was sure paying the price for it now though. Maybe Mr. Starbuck would have some recommendations for him tomorrow.
Without asking, Yuta brought back the case files for Mr. Gavin's indictment. Apollo avoided them for a total of two (2) hours before caving and pouring over them. It turned out to be a waste of time anyway because there was nothing in them that he didn't figure out himself. He should have gotten some kind of commission from the Prosecutor's Office for all the leg work that he'd done for them. That joke had been good enough to make Nahyuta crack a smile. Apollo had forgotten how good it felt to be one of the only people who was funny and sarcastic enough to make him laugh.
There wasn't a single sentence about a potentially forged, bloody ace. Apollo had mixed feelings about dodging justice about winning his first case due to forged evidence, but justice wasn't being very kind to him at the moment so he'd accept getting away with unknowingly presenting forged evidence. Especially if it meant that he still had a shot at not having his entire life getting ruined.
Unfortunately for him, pouring over those case files and the weekend he spent with Nahyuta and Clay and catching up with Mr. Starbuck was the best time he would have for along time. Or, rather, the busiest that he would be for a long time. He would once again be left to be alone with his thoughts for the majority of the day. Nahyuta warned him about reporters, and it made Apollo nervous to leave. Maybe it was cowardly, but he did not want to appear publicly after seeing what people were saying about him online. They were making him second-guess his decision to go after Mr. Gavin, but talking about it with either Clay or Nahyuta—and even, once, Miles Edgeworth over an email—Apollo would flip back, deciding that he'd done the right thing.
After about two months, he'd finally gotten Nahyuta in trouble with his landlord who didn't like how he'd moved in another person and a cat without letting him know.
It was demoralizing, needing to clarify that he wouldn't be contributing to the rent. The rose-tinted glasses had vanished the moment Clay left, and he felt like Mr. Gavin had pushed him back in time to when he was a bitter fifteen-year-old still living in a 15 x 10 room with his brother. At least Yuta could get a tax credit for having a dependent.
"I can afford to pay for the pet monthly fee," Apollo promised after they returned to the apartment. "And the groceries too." Assuming they weren't more than $100 a week. Well… "Some of the groceries," he amended. Unemployment was nice, but notthatnice.
"If you want to," he replied distractedly, already sitting down at his desk. "You certainly don't need to until you find steady work. You're already paying the fee I got for not notifying him that you would be moving in."
"I don't want to sit here and not help with anything."
"You help with plenty. I've liked not needing to clean." Nahyuta was already scrolling through his emails and typing away at something.
Apollo chewed his lip. "Do you need help with anything?" He asked, shifting his weight to his other leg. His joints felt a bit like jelly and were telling him to run around anddo something.
"Not right now."
Even though he was trying to be patient, Apollo could hear a tinge of annoyance at the edge of his voice. He probably knew that Apollo was more bothered than he was by the situation, but he didn't have the time to entertain him anymore. Maybe he would regret thinking so, but he wished that Nahyuta was acting as annoying as he usually did. He felt infantilized—infantilized and proven wrong about being a child that needed looking after.
Nahyuta stepped inagainto be his lifeline without question or complaint, as though he'd expected to. He had expected it to the degree that he even came back to help after telling him that he didn't want to ever talk to him again. He had even offered to help Apollo find a job once more, but Apollo couldn't keep relying on him for everything. Feeling like a ten-year-old in America who couldn't speak a single sentence in English and waited around for Nahyuta to come back from wherever the adults at the time called him, so they could play Bullshit was not the best, and the fact that people wanted to broadcast it on TV made it worse. Being reminded that he was still the same person as that little boy was nauseating.
…
Upon that realization—that not having a job made him feel like a child, which made him remember what his childhood was like—working for Phoenix Wright didn't sound that bad. Maybe Wright and Co. was still hiring.
Apollo Justice:I should have checked to see if the Wright and Co. Law Office was still open before trying to get a job there.
Clay Terran:Were you lied to about the job offer or something?
AJ:No, but it's a magic show thing now
AJ:His daughter runs the whole thing, and they get their money from piano and poker playing and magic shows
CT:Oh, are you gonna go into the show biz?
AJ:Maybe
AJ:I do have a real client though, so maybe I'll be able to work as an independent attorney out of there
CT:That's great!
AJ:Yeah. Not ideal, but I'm tired of not having anything to do
CT:It'll just be until you find something better
AJ:Yeah. I didn't even get a formal offer letter from them so they play loose here so I can probably leave whenever
CT:anything for a resume builder!
AJ:I hope I won't have to be here longer than a year though
AJ:I don't like being a babysitter all the time either
AJ:Of all the things that I learned at Sunflower, I didn't think helping take care of the younger kids was going to be the most useful
CT:What do you mean lol
AJ:tI even spent the last two hours at the office helping mr. wright's daughter with her algebra homework
CT:She's still in school?
AJ:Summer school I guess. She must have failed it last year or whatever
CT:Aw. Hope she passes this time then
CT:Look at this as a chance to keep your math skills up to snuff!
AJ:I better get a good recommendation letter out of this
CT:Wait, how old is she? Is phoenix wright older than I thought he was?
AJ:she's a freshman in high school and was adopted, apparently
CT:Wow. Maybe I should come work there too if it's the wright orphanage lol
AJ:I don't even know what to say to that other than don't ever make that joke again
CT:sorry, too insensitive?
AJ:Too smooth-brained
CT:Ouch. Even worse.
The most unpleasant part about the entire State v. Kitaki ordeal was that Prosecutor Klavier Gavin had volunteered to go against him in court to test his mettle as the person who brought the hammer of justice down on his older brother.
Even though it seemed like a common theme lately, Klavier made him horribly uncomfortable, and he was constantly expecting him to explode and start shouting at him, but he never did. He knew that he and Mr. Gavin were close (at least that was what Mr. Gavin had implied, but Apollo knew better than most that he was a proven liar and manipulator), so he shouldn't have been surprised to be confronted by him at some point.
He was…not who he'd expected. He drove a motorcycle, and he was a rockstar (a far cry from Mr. Gavin's baroque violin music)andprosecutor, even though it seemed like he did more music than law. He liked to tease Apollo in a similar, but more brazen way that Mr. Gavin did, styled his hair in the same, kind of ridiculous ponytail, and worst of all: exaggerated his German accent and randomly sprinkle in German words and phrases that Apollo didn't understand and had to dumbly ask him what the hell he was trying to tell him.
It took one to know one, and Apollo could recognize when someone was speaking with a fake accent. Not thathiswas fake, of course. Even though the Gavins were from Germany, they were still American and were educated in the States. Was it a marketing thing? He knew that European accents were attractive to a lot of girls, so that could get him more sales for his rock concert. Whatever the reason, it ground Apollo's gears, and he enjoyed how much Detective Skye liked to complain about him—even if it meant taking a Snackoo or two to his extremely average-sized forehead.
"Birds of a feather flock together," Trucy teased when he admitted that to her.
"What?" Apollo looked at her, baffled by her response. "There aren't any birds here."
"It means that people who are similar tend to go to each other," she explained cheerily, bouncing on her heels. "Have you never heard that before?" She asked. "Daddy's parents say it so it might just be a southern saying!"
"Oh," Apollo deadpanned. "Yeah, probably."Stupid, American sayings.
"You and Detective Skye both hate Prosecutor Gavin, so you flock together!" She explained. "Just like birds who are the same species. So," she spread her hands, "birds of a feather flock together."
"Thanks." Truthfully, it was probably one of the clearest explanations of a saying he'd ever gotten, and it didn't even feature any questioning why he didn't understand.
Trucy wasn't so bad, even if her dad was a pain.
"Does Prosecutor Gavin speaking German bother you?" She asked.
Apollo looked up from his fingerprinting. "Why would you think that?"
"You tense up all funny when he speaks in German."
"Oh." Figures that she would know the same trick that she taught him in the courtroom the day before. Irritating, but something that he would need to remember in the future. "I just think he sounds stupid that he does that," he answered dismissively.
"Really?" She looked surprised. "I think it's cool!"
Of course you do."He knows that and is pretending to be cooler than he actually is."
"You just wish that you knew German, Polly!" She giggled.
"No," he denied emphatically. "I have no interest in learning German." If he did, he would have asked Mr. Gavin while he was still working for him. Not that he had time to learn a new language on top of everything that he was doing, but he could have squeezed it in there if hereallywanted to.
"But you want to be cool like him though."
Apollo scowled. "Are you gonna help me with investigating today or just make fun of me?"
"I can do both!" She said quickly, scrambling for the manila folder containing all the fingerprints they had on file. "Show me what you have, and I'll help match them."
Apollo found deep satisfaction in making the fingerprint powder go everywhere as he got more on the brush. It deserved such treatment if Apollo got to be the butt of every joke by the prosecution, the detective, his best friend, and now the high school student that was sort of his boss. "I'm not done yet."
"Be careful!" She scolded, placing her hands on her hips and pursing her lips. "We can't waste all of Daddy's special, white powder!"
Apollo jerked, nearly dropping the entire container offingerprinting powder, and nothing else. "Don't call it that so loud!"
The look she gave him combined with her too-innocent smile made him know that she knew exactly what she was doing. It reminded him of this one kid at Sunflower who liked to steal pens from Nahyuta's desk and hide them in different rooms to upset him. Apollo never helped, but he couldn't deny that it was funny—at least until he decided to do the same to Apollo and his belongings.
He decided to ignore her insubordination and returned to his fingerprinting. Was this what it was like to have your younger sibling following you around everywhere?
Maybe Apollocouldunderstand why Nahyuta got so annoyed with him as kids. She was, admittedly, a little bit like him when he was in high school. Just…without the bitterness or resentment to her father figure. His scowl deepened as he dumped another pinch of fingerprinting power onto the safe.
"Polly, be careful! You shouldn't use so much of the white powder—it'll get you sick!"
"Will youstop?!"
For most of his lawyering, Apollo worked on elder law at the Wright Talent Agency. On paper—that paper being his resume—it meant he helped prepare wills, go over life and health insurance, and hand off POA to children and grandchildren. In practice, it meant trying to explain over both email and phone how to open PDF files and calling for the millionth time to make sure his client would show up to their scheduled meetings, for real this time, pinky promise.
Murder cases were preferred, but Trucy offered those services as pro bono "for tax benefits" so they didn't pay his bills. The implications of her logic sounded like tax fraud, which meant Mr. Wright was a forger of evidenceanda tax felon, but Apollo tried not to think about it too much. He'd gotten enough good karma to afford looking the other way from his work in indicting Mr. Gavin to not go to Hell.
He also cleaned the office and helped Trucy with her magic shows, which were Apollo's least favorite office activities. They made his day go by faster, but they also made it so he didn't have time to tell Wendy Oldbag that she couldn't list Miles Edgeworth as a spouse beneficiary on her life insurance.
There were a lot of old people like Wendy Oldbag, and they hated not getting immediate calls back, the excuse of "magic show practice" often not being good enough for them.
"Aren't you a lawyer?" They would demand over the phone, email, and even once over text. That was when Apollo learned the hard way toneverhand out his personal cell number to a client. Mr. Gavin must have had a separate work cell that he would always keep on his person because there was no way that he could tolerate people knowing his personal phone number for as long as he had been an attorney.
Trucy was nice. She really was, but she didn't seem to understand that Apollo was hired to be a lawyer and couldn't be all the other things she wanted him to be too. Plus whatever Mr. Wright wanted him to do, always giving him the most inane errands, a surprising amount of them being deliveries to the Prosecutor's Office.
Out of spite, Apollo usually dicked around downtown, spending at least forty-five minutes in a manga store, and handed off the deliveries to Nahyuta for the next morning. If Mr. Wright knew, he never said anything, and Trucy, if she ever came with him, was easy to buy her silence with pudding.
It wasn't a nice demotion: a scrappy underdog, when he'd started out by working at one of the top law firms of the entire state. Probably even one of the best in the country, based on the amount of media coverage his arrest had gotten. And the amount of calls he'd received from nosey reporters asking him if he would be willing to either offer a media statement, or go on some kind of stupid, overproduced true crime show that people would listen to while scrolling on phones.
Apollo still recognized that he was supposed to be appreciative that he had a job at all, especially since he could contribute to the rent now in earnest. He was also gaining more experience in different parts of law, and he'd wonbothcriminal cases he'd been the defense on.
"It will get better," Yuta told him on one of their evening walks. "It just takes time for people to respect you more."
Apollo gave him a look. "Haveyougotten there yet?"
Pause. "It depends on who I'm talking to," he said delicately. "But my seniority is respected among most of the detectives and prosecutors that I work with."
"What detectives do you usually work with?" Apollo asked. "What do you know about Detective Ema Skye?"
"Why?" Yuta arched a brow.
"Just curious. I don't know. Is she always so gloomy at work?"
His eyes glazed over in response, going over his internal profile of her. "I don't usually need to talk to detectives very often," he said slowly. "The majority of people I work with I've never even met since most of what I do is send and receive emails."
"Is Ema one of those people you've never met?" Apollo asked.
"Yes," he said, stopping at the crosswalk and waiting for the "walk" light. "Based on the reports I read from her, she doesn't like the role of detective very much and likes to cut corners on investigations."
"I could have told you that myself," Apollo muttered.
"You asked me, and I answered." Yuta sounded slighted and it made Apollo want to apologize. Complaining made him moody and his brother was a good person to project his annoyance on to.
"Sorry. Old habits are dying."
"Old habits die hard,"he corrected in English.
"Whatever," he huffed. "Nothing in English translates to Khura'inese anyway." He should have known that Apollo wasn't in the mood to speak perfectly at the moment.
Yuta sighed tiredly. "Apollo."
Apollo didn't like the way his name sounded with Khura'inese phonetics. It sounded too much like the English word for apples.
"What?" He replied, not hiding any of his irritation.
He spoke in English,"Stop it."
"Sorry,"he replied in kind.
They crossed the street in silence, but Apollo began to speak again once they made it to the park. "I had a hard day today," he said apologetically.
"I can see that."
"But I feel better."
"I'm glad that antagonizing me never fails to make you feel better."
"Old habits die hard."
Nahyuta's lips quirked. "What happened at work?" He asked.
"Nothing specific." Apollo began the longest loop around the park. "I spent all day doing the worst parts of my job today. And that old lady kept demanding that I talk to Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth on her behalf for her, and was mad that I didn't pick up her calls."
"What does she want with him?"
"She's in love with him or something. I don't even know if she's sound of mind enough to legally sign anything at this point."
"I could try to ask Mr. Edgeworth about her tomorrow morning," he offered.
"Really?" Apollo brightened. "She's been giving me letters to send to him and I can't do much if he just throws them out."
"I can't promise you that he won't, but I could ask him to write a response for you."
"That would be great."
"I'll ask him then." He added, "After I finish cleaning out his car." Before Apollo could ask, he explained. "He had someone hide a body in the trunk, so he likes to have it cleaned out three times a week."
"I guess that makes sense."That is one of the most unhinged things I've ever heard of in my life.
"He lets me clean my car on his dime, so it is one of the better chores he has me perform."
"Guess so." He frowned. "Hey—have you met Prosecutor Gavin?"
"Once or twice."
"What do you think about him?"
Nahyuta lightly shrugged his shoulders. "He seems like an honest person," he said. "I haven't had enough interaction with him to have a real opinion on him."
"Whodoyou talk to?"
"The car and dry-cleaning people."
Apollo laughed. "Warbaa'ds of a feather come together."
"So youcantranslate things from English."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm glad you're in a better mood now."
"Yeah, me too."
The good feeling would probably go away the moment he had to say "good morning" to Mr. Wright, but he could always complain about it until he felt better. Or worse. It depended on how bad the day was.
Apollo didn't care for concerts, but whenever Clay offered, he agreed to go. Usually, he was required to pay for two tickets instead of just one, so Apollo would always end up mooching off his live show budget.
Even though he didn't like the noise of them, or the too-crowded stadiums of people pressed up against each other like sardines (he had read too much about the occasions where crowd control failed and people died), Apollo couldn't deny that screaming on a stage with a microphone, electric guitar, and pyrotechnics was at least slightly cool. If he had more musical talent, he could have made a great rock star. There was no way he couldn't do screamo metal just as good as the so-called professionals.
Nonetheless, against his better judgement, Apollo bought VIP Gavinners tickets for 20% off. He didn't want to, but when Trucy begged (nagged) enough, he got tired of her asking and caved. Maybe Mr. Wright would reimburse him, but once someone ended up dead, Apollo knew that he wasn't going to see a penny for those tickets back.
He could picture Mr. Wright's face in his mind laughing in that super annoying and evasive way, then say that getting to lead the defense for Lamiroir's pianist was payment in exposure or something. As if he needed more exposure.
Whatever.
At least she was nice and was a good translator for Machi Tobaye.
He reminded Apollo of Nahyuta when he was younger, just a little bit, and it made him feel more sympathetic for this client compared to his last two. He knew how lonely it was to be stuck in a foreign country not knowing how to speak the language, but at least he hadn't been accused of murder. It was too bad that Apollo had opted for Spanish in high school instead of Borginian; it would have almost definitely helped Machi open up to him a little more.
On a more positive note, since Apollo would be working with the Gavinners or something, this could be the positive change to his public perception that he needed. Then, maybe, some extremely fancy law office would offer him a nice job with a giant oak desk and his own office and extension. He would even consider a lawyer mill like Logan & Logan if it meant being able to work for a real law firm.
Then he would be able to make real, adult money and he could move out, and then buy a house, then maybe he could have his own firm…
Slow down, Justice,he scolded himself. First, he needed to finish investigating, and not forget to pick up eggs on his way home. Then after he had an amazing case that shone a positive spotlight on him could he start making long-term plans for the future.
Clay Terran:I heard about the murder at the Gavinners concert. were you there for that?
Apollo Justice:I heard the victim's last words
CT:Whoa, rly?
AJ:Yeah
CT:So is the prosecution gonna have to call you as a witness?
AJ:No, I'm going to be acting as the defense
CT:So who's gonna testify about the victim's last words?
AJ:Me, I guess
CT:What were the last words?
AJ:Can't tell
AJ:I don't want to get in trouble again for sharing information on a case before it's been publicly released
CT:Ok, fair enough
CT:I'm sure you'll win! ur score's 2-0 so far!
AJ:For murder cases, anyway
CT:The important ones
AJ:Yeah.
CT:lmk when ur out tmrw so I can congratulate you
AJ:I will!
AJ:I don't even know what the prosecution's argument is going to be to make this charge stick so I'll have to tell you about it
The Gavin family was,truly, responsible for ruining Apollo's life. Not only did they build up his career and tear it down just as easily, but another Gavin became his self-proclaimed rival and auditor, his bandmate and co-worker-best friend committed murder that Apollo outed him out for doing too and now he was being flooded with so many reporters, he could barely get through to the exit. He could understand why, now, Ema had rushed out of the courthouse as quickly as humanly possible. She came across as rude, but Apollo understood now.
"Polly, how are we going to get back to the office?" Trucy asked with a frown. "The bailiffs aren't going to follow us all the way back but I think that the reporters might."
"Them, or the gaggle of Gavinners fangirls," Apollo grumbled with a scowl. "They're probably getting their torches and pitchforks ready while we speak."
"Oh!" She gasped. She tilted her hat with a smirk. "One disappearing act for Polly, comin' right up!"
"I'mnothiding under the gallery bench until we get kicked out!" Apollo said defiantly.
"Well I can't use theothermethod without the right props…"
"Can your dad pick us up?"
She giggled and bounced on her heels. "Daddy can't pick us up, Polly! He can't drive."
Oh, of course not. Why would I have expected that from him?
"Well then doyouhave any bright ideas?"
"Hm…" she considered, crossing her arms in thought. "Doyouhave anyone who could pick us up?"
Apollo blanched. "If we have no other option, I could call my brother, but he's probably busy."
She was about to say something in response, but she instead suddenly spun around and waved, shouting, "Prosecutor Gavin! I have a question!"
What is she—?
"Can you drive us back to the office?"
Oh god, no. he was upset about Mr. Gavin still, he probably hated him even more for doing the exact same thing to his best friend too. The last thing that he wanted was to sit in a car ride with him because Apollo couldn't drive either and couldn't afford a car anyway.
"Trucy!" Apollo stumbled over himself, grabbing her arm to hold it down. She didn't seem to have gotten his attention yet, so maybe he wouldn't hear her over all the chaos—
Klavier turned and smiled.
He started to walk in their direction.
Dammit.
"How can I help, Fraulein?" He asked pleasantly, not looking the least bothered that his best friend had just been outed as a murderer.
He sure is taking it better than I would if I learned that Clay murdered someone,Apollo thought, remembering Mr. Gavin's cool and collected demeanor, even as he was being outed as Shadi Smith's must be genetic.
"Sorry, Trucy got confused!" Apollo tried to talk over her. "We're doing okay, Prosecutor Gavin—"
"Can you drive us back to the office? Polly's brother is busy and Daddy can't drive!"
She didn't seem to react to Apollo's protesting at all.
Well… Trucy Wrightwasa performer, after all. And a true performer could continue their act, regardless of the events around them, or whatever. It was rule something-something of the Gramarye code.
"Ah, is that so?" He leaned forward to her, his hands on his hips, glancing over at Apollo. "And how does your co-counsel feel about this, Fraulein Wright?"
I'd rather jump off a cliff."There's a lot of reporters out, so we were—"
Trucy grabbed Apollo's arm, hanging off of him. "He'd be happy to!" She interrupted.
Klavier chuckled, straightening. His laugh was more in his shoulders than in his face.
Is that a European thing? Or is it just a Gavin thing?Apollo found himself wondering, and banished the thought as quickly as 's right. Idoneed to get out should plan that trip to Idaho in earnest.
"You are not enjoying your infamy, Herr Forehead?" Klavier asked wryly.
"Not really."
"He's like a celebrity!" Trucy said. "I wishIcould get all the media attention that he gets. Even if him working for us has gotten us marginally more business this year."
Klavier laughed again. "Ja," he agreed. "Herr Forehead will be getting more media attention than yours truly will be."
Apollo rolled his eyes and reached into his did I even consider feeling bad for this guy?
While he opened his phone, trying his best to ignore Clay's text message notifications—shouldn't he be in class right now?—Klavier made swatting motions over the screen as best he could while still respecting his, albeit small, bubble of personal space.
"Nein, Herr Forehead," he scolded. "Don't do all that I'd be happy to drive you back to your office. I imagine that you still have a lot of work to get done today?"
"He does!" Trucy said at the same time Apollo said, "I'm sure you do too."
"I plan on taking the rest of the day off," Klavier said dismissively. "Since I'm going to be doing that, I may as well drive you both back to avoid the paparazzi. I'm quite experienced with that, you know."
Really? No way!
"A lot of them are probably here for you anyway!"
Klavier's smile turned to something less cheerful, but it didn't drop from his lips. Like Trucy, he was a performer too. And probably one who had a much worse day than Apollo did. "That may be true," he said. "Auchtung! Let's rock and roll to the parking garage—be glad that I took my car today instead of my motorcycle. Otherwise Herr Forehead would need to sit in my side-car."
That could have actually cheered Apollo up, but he didn't want to say that out loud. Trucy would probably volunteer him for a motorcycle ride the next time they saw him.
The walk to Klavier's car wasn't too bad, but Apollo was still crammed into the backseat while Trucy got shotgun. Maybe he should have been thankful for it because it meant that she was doing all the talking while he could text Clay and ask if he could call him when he got off work.
CT:Sure man. Everything ok?
AJ:Yeah, I just need to talk about what happened to someone
CT:Did something bad happen?
AJ:Kinda. Not really. I'll explain later
CT:oh okay.
AJ:Talk to you later, k?
CT:Yeah, sure. ttyl
Even though Apollo thought he had felt the effects of the corruption in the legal world by presenting forged evidence from his client, he hadn't; not really. It wasn't the actions of a single person in the case of Machi's prosecution, it was systematic, and everyone was in on it. From Daryan Crescend and the investigation, to the Judge, and to the prosecution. And the witnesses didn't do anything to help Apollo's case either, but he supposed that had more to do with people being difficult than a fundamental problem with the American justice system. Machi probably wouldn't be able to get true justice at his second trial because of his smuggling activities. Nahyuta once said that legal justice and karmic justice—fairness—were different, but Apollo hadn't understood what it meant until he found Machi innocent of murder, only to send him off to a supreme court that would sentence him harshly and unfairly. Nahyuta made it a point to not mix morality with the law, but Apollo didn't know if he could—or even should—separate the two of them. Maybe that was what made him successful in the legal world while Apollo was a part-time lawyer and full-time personal assistant to a high schooler and her unemployed.
There was no way that Machi should have even been the prime suspect to begin with. It was physically impossible for him to have shot the victim (even if he wasn't blind, and even if he could speak English), but because Daryan was a cool detective and in a rock band, everyone went along with it.
They almost got away with it too. If it wasn't for Lamiroir's testimony, Daryan would have been able to eke by with both his careers still intact. Everything was perfectly in place for some fourteen-year-old to take the fall for a murder of an Interpol agent. The worst part about it was that the international incident that this was probably going to cause was going to make politicians try to make the system even worse. More bribery was no doubt going to happen in regard to the smuggling case, but who knew when that sentencing would actually happen.
Why did he want to start this career again? Was it even worth trying to pursue if the very foundations of the justice system were broken?
"You want to quit?"Clay asked as Apollo explained the entire case to him over the phone.
After the car ride with Klavier and Trucy, Apollo spent the rest of the day sending emails to old people trying to understand their life insurance policy, and children wanting to take their elderly parents' assets without being charged for elder abuse until five o'clock. Neither were good activities to improve his opinion of humanity. Now he was sitting on the steps outside of the office building, ignoring how the summer sun was burning through his skin. He kind of liked it—it reminded him of when he was a kid playing outside.
"I don't know," Apollo confessed. "It seems so pointless now."
"You won though, right?"
"Barely."
"So justice was served and you were the one to do it. You're living up to your name,Pollo."
"You know, I'm starting to prefer 'Polly' over being called chicken."
"Sorry."
"I know that I did my job, but I don't think that anyone's going to be happy about it, and now my client is going to be convicted for something else and get a harsher sentence than before. I don't even know if I did the right thing. Should I have pled involuntary manslaughter? It isn't the truth, but it would have been a lighter sentence than what he's going to get now. I've just gone and made things worse." He sighed heavily. He was starting to feel as worn down as Klavier had looked (and tried to hide) on the drive to the office. "No one's going to let me move on from it either, any time soon. I had to get a ride from Prosecutor Gavin because reporters kept hounding me after I left."
"Are you serious?"
"You heard about this before I even got the chance to tell you, didn't you?" He wiped the sweat off his forehead and circled his shoulders in attempt to unstick his shirt from his back. Maybe he could ask Yuta to take it to the cleaners for him when he got back home. "This was a big deal and since the killer was a detective out of L. the Gavinners, the victim was an Interpol agent, and we were trying to make a good impression on Borginians. This was always going to be a serious thing and not just a cover to a bunch of tabloids."
"Between this and Kristoph Gavin, you're gonna be responsible for turning the entire justice system upside down."
"Lovely."
"Isn't that good? Won't someone want to hire you for that?"
"No, because they're all corrupt too! None of them want to be blacklisted from the court! And none of them want one of their attorneys to get worse punishments for their clientele just to solve a murder in the courtroom, but the courts are so biased against the defense, that's what you have to do!" He threw his hands into the air. "It's so backwards! I knew that it was bad, but I thought if I did what I was supposed to, it would be better but it's not."
"Didn't you get the right people found guilty, fair and square? Isn't that making things better? Even if Machi gets worse sentencing down the line—and he might not, you don't know that—then you're still helping set the precedence that true justice and truth can and should be revealed in the court. New lawyers don't have to be shackled by the status quo. Or whatever."
Apollo leaned against the wall of the building, closer to the limited shade. "I…" he drifted off, mulling over his words. He knew he was right, but it wasn't making him feel better, somehow. "You're right, and that's good, but I don't want to be a martyr for justice. I want a real career where I can move out of my brother's spare apartment and make a difference without risking my entire livelihood every time I step into court. It feels like the only way for me to move up in this line of work is to start playing their games too." He closed his eyes. "Is it too late to ask Mr. Starbuck if I can be an astronaut?"
Clay chuckled on the other line."No, but you're going to need some supplemental courses in high school physics."
"Figures."
"I'm sorry you're having a hard time, but I'm proud of you. I know that my dad is too, and my aunt, and they're going to be happy for you when they see all this in the news. I know that you're making a difference, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. You did the right thing. What happens next is out of your hands."
"I wanted to be an attorney to help people, not change the entire legal system. The people I'm helping aren't any better. My debut case made a lot of people lose their lawyer andthat'scaused problems, and now I got some kid who can barely speak English shipped to another court so he can do it again."
"I don't think that he's going to be unhappy about not getting convicted for murder."
Clay didn't understand the broken justice system. He couldn't until he was part of it. Hopefully he wouldn't end up accused of murder or something, then learn it the hard way. Instead of trying to explain it to him again, Apollo said, "He was a lot like Nahyuta when he was a kid."
"Was he?"
"He was kind of shy and kind of small for his age. A little girlish too, but don't tell him that I said that."
"No promises."
"He speaks around the same amount of English as Yuta did too, when he got here, but he probably had better comprehension."
"So he's like how Yuta is right now."
Apollo scoffed. "Nahyuta speaks better English than I do."
"No, he doesn't,"Clay said with a laugh.
"All of that is probably why it bothers me so much—not just the current state of our legal system. I am glad I was able to help him. And Lamiroir, for that matter," Apollo admitted, remembering her last words to him, thanking him for the bravery to undergo eye surgery. "I know that if I had still been with Mr. Gavin, I wouldn't have been able to do that, so I don't regret putting him in jail anymore. He wouldn't have touched this with a ten-foot pole." Image was everything to him, and Apollo had known that even before he started working for him.
"Good, because you shouldn't. I know that Mr. Gavin turned out to be a wash, but you are helping people. And you're making them happy by doing magic shows on the side."
"I'm doing elder law most of the time from my desk."
"I'm trying to give you a pep talk, here. You're acting like Mr. Starbuck right now. You're Apollo Justice and you're fine! You'll be just fine, because you're gonna figure out how to navigate this pit of snakes!"
It made Apollo smile. "You're right," he agreed. "Let's just see where the two of us are in a year and we can re-evaluate."
"Yeah!"He agreed easily."I should be done with my school by then so maybe I'll even be getting ready to go to space by then."
"You'll make a great astronaut," Apollo said earnestly. "Probably do better at making a name for yourself than I have."
Clay actually guffawed at that."Okay, when you seemyname on national television, then we'll be able to compete."
"Apositivename," he corrected. "I had to handicap myself to give you a shot since I won the race."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night."
Apollo forgot to get the eggs on the walk back to the apartment, but he was in better spirits than he'd been ever since the start of State v. Tobaye. Maybe Clay was right and he was making a difference.
Next big case, he knew that he would start getting positive media attention. For sure.
Trucy Wright was the brightest spot whenever Apollo came into work. He didn't like needing to drop everything he was working on to be one of her stage props, but he respected her work ethic. He sure knew overhissummer breaks, he spent a lot of the time slacking off and not trying to be an entrepreneur. Mr. Starbuck would like her drive, if they ever met. Maybe they should, the next time Clay was in town. He would probably like her a lot too.
She was good at marketing herself, and the entire company, online, and Apollo couldn't deny it was impressive. She also was very committed to keeping up the Gramarye name, even though she had happily taken her adoptive father's last name. It was a mirrored version of his relationship with Mr. Gavin but that thought made his stomach turn. Maybe Phoenix Wright was a forger, but Apollo really didn't believe that he would do anything to hurt her or betray her in the way Mr. Gavin did him.
Of course, Mr. Wright surprised him by giving him that stupid card, and he'd beenso wrongabout Mr. Gavin, so his track record of trusting people wasn't the best.
Trucy was adopted, and it seemed that she had been for a long time, but Apollo still could see himself growing up with her at Sunflower. She would have been the type to have been adopted quickly (girls were usually adopted more often than boys, especially ones with outgoing and cheerful personalities), but would have still made people happy with her magic tricks.
"Did you ever have to go into the foster system?" Apollo asked Trucy one boring Thursday afternoon. She had been scrolling on the couch for the past two these days,he found himself thinking.
She looked up from her phone. "No, Daddy adopted me right after my other daddy couldn't take care of me anymore."
"Oh, okay. That's good."
"Were you?"
Apollo shifted in his chair, so he didn't have to keep straining his neck. "For a little bit," he said. "My brother had to age out of the system though."
She frowned. "That's sad," she told him frankly.
"I guess. It wasn't too bad, looking back." It kind of was, but he didn't want to spell out why it wasn't an ideal situation. Not when it was kind of his fault to begin with.
"What happened to your parents?" She asked curiously.
Apollo made a face. "I don't really know," he said. "I just don't have any."
"Oh." She blinked at him in surprise. "I didn't know you had the backstory of an orphan from a movie!"
I wish it was that simple."A little bit, huh?"
She looked thoughtful. "How do you have a brother then?"
"He's my foster brother," he clarified. "We've known each other so long there's not much difference though.
"You should invite him over sometime! I'll do a show for him, free of charge!"
"Uh—yeah, sure." He didn't think that any of them would be free enough for that, but maybe eventually.
"I appreciate you telling me so much about yourself," she said earnestly. "I know that you're kind of secretive."
Apollo felt his cheeks burn, just a little. "I'm not secretive," he defended. "It's not important to talk about most of the time. But I was curious since Mr. Wright adopted you but you can still remember your real dad."
"Daddy is my real dad!" She said, puffing up her cheeks. "My other daddy is my real dad too though."
"Right—sorry."
"I thought you of all people would understand, Polly," she said with a huff.
"Sorry."Sheknowsthat's not what I meant though… Guess it's a sensitive topic for her.
A thoughtful look crossed her face. "I never had to go to a foster home or an orphanage or anything like that," she said. "So I guess I don't know what it's really like to be an orphan."
But she did know what it felt like to have her identity completely changed by the adults in her life. Apollo didn't want to explain how he went from having a dad in a foreign country, then having to adjust to being an American orphan, and then he had to pretend to be a good employee for Mr. Gavin who had legally adopted him. It was tragic that he would be his legal father for the rest of his life, but there wasn't anything that he could do about it now.
At the same time, Apollo couldn't relate to clinging so much to her birth family's profession. She did everything she could to remember her family's history, regardless of how bad they were. Apollo had thought Troupe Gramaryes was cool, but after meeting Valant, it didn't exactly do positive things for his opinion on the now-disbanded group.
He liked Trucy but it seemed like the entire troupe was a mess-and-a-half that he wouldn't want anything to do with if it was his family. Maybe he was too quick to leave situations when they made him uncomfortable, but that had been what people did to him when he madethemfeel uncomfortable, so Apollo refused to feel any sort of guilt about it.
"It must be nice to have a sibling though," Trucy mused. "It's like you have a built-in friend who understands you!"
Apollo forced a laugh. "It's not always like that," he said. "You're still different people at the end of the day."
She looked thoughtful. "But ifIhad a sibling, it wouldn't just be up to me to keep Troupe Gramarye alive," she said, then shrugged with a smile. "It would be a shared burden to carry on the family name instead of just me."
Apollo frowned deeply. "What if this theoretical sibling hated your dad for leaving?" He asked, tryingso, veryhard not to sound like he was referring to himself. He hoped that it worked. It probably didn't.
She pursed her lips and put her hand over her chin; probably something she picked up from Mr. Wright. "That would be something they would need to talk that out," she said slowly. "But they would still have to help!" She said. "Iwould be the big sis, and they'd have to help me keep the family tradition. Even if they didn't like Daddy, they would care enough about me to help."
Apollo felt like he would normally laugh at her taking over theextremely hypotheticalscenario, but it left a bad taste in his mouth instead.
Trucy must have noticed his face because she looked at him with a frown. "You okay, Polly?"
He cleared his throat. "Oh—yeah. I'm fine!" He said firmly. "I…uh…" he shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "It's nice having a sibling, but there are good things that come from being an only child too."
She looked at him. Like always, her gaze was intense and made Apollo feel like she was opening up his brain and reading his mind. "Do you ever wish you were an only child instead?" She asked.
"When I was a teenager, a little bit," he admitted. She didn't know Yuta, so he was safe in knowing that this would never get back to him. …Of course, he'd told him as much while they were kids, but he didn't want to risk bringing something like that up again. "But not anymore."
She wrinkled her nose. "So you're saying that itisbetter to have siblings than not!"
"There's a big difference between wishing that a person did exist and wishing that someone you know didn't," Apollo said dryly.
"I guess it's still not too late for Daddy to get me a younger sibling," she said with a giggle, and picked her phone back up to return to scrolling and texting.
That really wasn't an image that Apollo wanted in his that's how my attempts to open up would go,he thought. Although, Trucy was still just a fifteen-year-old—still a freshman in high school, so he should have expected something like that. Apollo could still remember some of the jokes he and Clay would make, sometimes only to see how red they could make Nahyuta. Freshmen in high school weren't going to be the source of deep wisdom or introspection. Maybe her opinion on her dad would change with time too, just like Apollo's had. It probably helped that she had a safety net that he'd never had at her age.
He hoped that she wouldn't change too much. Trucy's devotion to Troupe Gramarye was what made her Trucy; just like Apollo's mysterious background made him Apollo. It felt like she accepted her own history so much, she could do it for him too.
Apollo had known that "Nick" had been friends with Mr. Gavin for a long time, but he had thought that Mr. Wright had been just as shocked at Mr. Gavin's nature as everyone else had. What he learned, instead, was that he'd been plotting revenge against him over the forged evidence debacle for almost eight years and Mr. Gavin had no idea. He thought that Mr. Wright trusted him completely because of how he'd stuck his neck out for him back when it went down. He had even kept to his word when he was in private.
At first, Apollo's knee-jerk reaction was toeverythingwas to thinkdon't have enemies like that when you have friends—a saying Clay's aunt had tried to explain, but quickly got lost in translation. It was about having backstabbing friends, and that was what Mr. Wright sounded like.
Of course, Mr. Gavin wasn't much better himself. He had no (real) evidence that could have been used to indict him, and still had no issue with taking Mr. Wright's case or giving it freely to his greenhorn attorney. But also, Mr. Wright had been planning for that and thought that he'd been a snake all along, and so on and so forth. They were playing a game of chess with each other, and neither of them cared about using Apollo as their favorite piece to jerk around.
God, I need a new job.
For Nahyuta's sake, he hoped that Mr. Wright wasn't planning on doing the same to Prosecutor Edgeworth. They had a long history together, and worked with each other on several significant cases, so maybe Mr. Edgeworth did him wrong too and Mr. Wright was biding his time to get him tossed in jail.
The worst part about Mr. Wright's two-facedness, Mr. Gavin was worse than Apollo could have possibly imagined that his current boss seemed like an angel in comparison. He was obsessive and cruel, and he didn't care who he hurt along the way. He was alsoperfect. He was everything that Apollo used to want to be: stoic, but pleasant and silver-tongued and always knew what to say. He knew the ins and out of the laws like the back of his hand—except he used it to get away with murder instead of defending people who couldn't do it themselves.
It made him feel so stupid for never seeing it before. Maybe Mr. Wright was a bad friend for taking him down in the way he did, but Apollo didn't know how else he could have done it. Mr. Gavinwasa snake, and he had his hands in every aspect of the legal world. Apollo could still remember the beast of a time Prosecutor Edgeworth had indicting him at all, and Nahyuta had mentioned a few times how he was already earning privileges because of good behavior.
He wondered how Prosecutor Gavin was taking everything, especially considering he'd taken a break from prosecuting since Daryan was convicted for murder, but he didn't know how he was supposed to ask him. As far as Apollo could tell, he had looked up to his brother—a lot. He styled his hair like him, and even decided to go into the world of law because of him. He'd somehow become a prosecutor at the age ofseventeen, trying to catch up to his older brother, and thought he'd been doing him a favor when he told him about the forged journal.
Apollo didn't like relating to Klavier Gavin, but he did. Apollo was too close in age to Nahyuta to be able to look up to him in the same way Klavier did Mr. Gavin, but if his brother turned out to be a sociopathic murderer who manipulated a teenager into killing herself to keep her quiet…
Apollo didn't know how to say how that would make him feel without stating the obvious and risk sounding out of touch and stupid.
That was why he was texting Ema Skye and asking how he was doing, a little more than a week after the simulation trial.
She texted back shockingly fast. It was Monday at 11:30—he knew that she had to have been in the office. Maybe she was taking a break in between her eating her snacks.
Ema Skye:How did you get my cell number?
Apollo Justice:Can you answer my question and I'll answer yours?
ES:Ugh.
ES:Was it Prosecutor Gavin?
AJ:No.
ES:Mr. Wright?
AJ:Maybe
It was actually from Nahyuta's phone, but she would be less likely to submit a complaint if she thought it was from him.
ES:I don't know how he's doing, honestly
ES:He's obviously taken a leave of absence for a "family emergency" and the Chief Prosecutor let him
AJ:Yeah, not hard to imagine what the family emergency was
ES:I hate to say it, but I know how he feels
AJ:What do you mean?
ES:Long story short, my sister was sentenced to fifteen years in prison in 2017
ES:She's out on parole right now, but she was in there for a long time. It was hard and embarrassing to explain to my friends what happened.
ES:My sister is a better person than Kristoph, but it was still hard having her be in prison.
AJ:That's why I'm worried about him. A little bit. I know how manipulative his brother can be
ES:All right, how about this?
ES:I give you his cell number, and you can reach out to him
AJ:How am I supposed to explain how I got his number?
ES:Say you got it from Mr. Wright. He probably has it from the simulation trial
AJ:Fine…
ES:Hey, it'll be easier for you to check up on him than me. Me doing it would feel weird because I'm a girl
AJ:But you're his co-worker
ES:He's my boss whenever we work together. You 2 are coworkers more than the two of us
AJ:Yeah, yeah…
Apollo Justice:Hi Prosecutor Gavin, this is Apollo Justice. How are you doing?
Klavier Gavin:Ah, so this is your number, Herr Forehead
AJ:What?
KG:I asked Herr Justice—the other one, of course—for your number
AJ:What? Why?
KG:I was going to ask you about Kris
AJ:Oh, that's what I was going to ask you about
KG:I figured
KG:I had no idea that I was your uncle, Herr Forehead
AJ:You're not
AJ:It was so I could get my naturalization paperwork through the courts faster
KG:But legally? I should invite you to our Thanksgiving dinner this year
KG:Take your father's place at the table and brush up on your German, ja? Have you left the country before?
AJ:I shouldn't have bothered with you
KG:Nein, nein, I am sorry, Herr Forehead. It's putting me in better spirits than being cooped up in Kris' house
AJ:What are you doing there?
KG:The police are going through all his belongings again, in case his crimes were part of a larger conspiracy and I've been helping them
AJ:He probably wasn't
KG:Unlikely, but we can't be too careful these days
KG:Herr Edgeworth petitioned for it, and he is functionally our Chief Prosecutor at this point. What he says goes.
AJ:I thought that you were on PTO?
KG:I was, but Herr Justice kindly let me know that Kris' home was going to raided and thought that I would want the opportunity to be involved
AJ:Oh, that was nice of him
KG:You don't talk to him very often, do you?
AJ:We live together, but we don't talk about work very much anymore
KG:That's good. Thinking about it, school and work were the only things Kris ever asked me about growing up
AJ:Yuta used to bother me about it, but grew out of it
KG:I wish that Kris had done that lol
AJ:Sorry
KG:Don't apologize, Herr Forehead
KG:Your brother is a great deal like Kris, but I'm sure you've noticed that already
AJ:A little bit
KG:I hope that you have better luck with him than I've had with my brother.
AJ:Thanks
KG:Appreciate him while he's around
AJ:Hey, I reached out to see how you were doing, not to get a lecture
KG:Ah, haha. I'm sorry, Herr Forehead. I've been in an introspective mood the past week. I wish that I had appreciated what I had while it was still there.
AJ:Yeah, I understand what you mean
KG:Do you?
AJ:A little bit
AJ:I used to spend a lot of time in the countryside as a kid and I miss living out there. I didn't know that I'd never go back to it when I left
AJ:I remember feeling kind of lonely, and we didn't even have a TV back then, but I had no idea how good I had it
AJ:I had some great people around me. Or I thought they were good people as a kid. Who knows if they were
KG:Indeed. You'll never truly know what goes on in someone's head, is what I've learned this year
KG:My family has a larger estate in Germany and Kristoph and I would often go there to talk about the future.
KG:I can understand the need to get away, so I would hope that you do it soon.
AJ:Are you going to see them when this is done?
KG:They are coming here for the summer instead. As you know, Kristoph isn't capable of travel at the moment
AJ:Right
KG:I appreciate you and your brother checking in on me, Herr Forehead
AJ:Don't mention it
Please, please don't mention it.
KG:Of course not. I know that you have an image to maintain
AJ:Maybe something like that
KG:Daryan had been a very close friend, so it is good to know that I still have other people who care.
Apollo could feel his face burn as he turned his phone off and put it face-down next to his laptop. That was enough of that.
He was glad that Trucy's summer break had ended, because he could picture her leaning over his seat and asking him if he was texting a girlfriend or something.
Miles Edgeworth, for as long as Nahyuta has known him, has carved time out of his schedule to attend a Christmas party held by a few of his childhood friends. Afterwards, he typically flies out to Germany to see his family: Prosecutors von Karma, and Ms. Von Karma, his niece.
What he hadn't known until this year was that those Christmas parties are the ones held at Phoenix Wright's talent agency and he's only learning that because of Ms. Trucy Wright at his doorstep, hand-delivering Apollo's invitation.
"Make sure to tell him that it'll be extra exciting this year!" She says with a tip of her hat. "Since Daddy's name was cleared, some extra people are making sure to show up so the white elephant will be lots of fun."
That will not appeal him to this celebration in the least,Nahyuta thinks sarcastically, in a voice that sounds suspiciously like Apollo's and not his own. Nonetheless, he smiles politely and accepts the invitation. "I will deliver your message to Apollo the moment he returns," he promises.
She grins and clicks her heels together in a light bounce. She looks a lot like Apollo when he'd been her age. Maybe he would be more pleasant if he'd become a magician instead of a lawyer. "Thanks, Mr. Justice!" She says cheerily. In a rush of blue fabric, she skips down the hallway and down the stairs, hopefully heading back home. Before turning around the corner, she shouts, "You can come too, if you want to!"
"Well do you want to?" Apollo asks when he returns from the party store. Apparently, he had been there to sign for Trucy's order for giant containers of helium. "Go to the Christmas party, I mean."
"No," he says plainly as he scrubs behind the faucet of the kitchen sink. "Not at all."
"I'll just take Clay then," he says with a laugh. "Then maybe we can go to his dad's after we're done."
Nahyuta nods. "That sounds like a better use of my holiday."
Apollo crosses his arms, leaning forward on the bar kitchen counter bar. "Did Trucy make a bad impression?" He asks. "I thought you would have liked her. She's a lot like Ms. Rector's favorite when we were kids—Morgan."
Ms. Rector. I should reach out to her soon,he thinks as he continues to scrub with the toothbrush. "She made a fine impression," he says. "I don't want to attend a Christmas party that my boss will be at."
"Prosecutor Edgeworth will be there?"
"Yes."
"Well my boss will be there too," he counters. "And you like him more than I like Mr. Wright, don't you?"
"I do," he acknowledges, rinsing off the bristles of his cleaning toothbrush. "That doesn't mean that I want to see him over holiday break."
"Clay will want to stay here if he comes with me."
"That's fine, assuming he pays me back for all of the vitamins he ate last time he was here," he says mildly.
Apollo laughs. He doesn't like working for Wright as much as he'd liked working for Gavin, but he smiles and laughs a lot more. It's good for him to not act like an old man all the time. Nahyuta isn't really sure why. "Are you still mad about that?"
"Not really," he admits, putting the toothbrush away under the sink. "It's a matter of principle."
"Uh huh."
Nahyuta turns to face him and smiles. "Nonetheless, I hope you and Clay have a good time. And that it's an acceptable alternative to driving to Idaho."
"I doubt it, but I'm sure we'll have a lot to share with you."
"I look forward to that," he says, and he means it. He loves hearing about the different things that go on in Apollo's office—they're a lot more interesting than whatever Nahyuta does.
Apollo smirks. "Okay, but in return, you need to find out what's going on with that one security guard's affair."
He chuckles. "Deal."
Trucy and Clay got along remarkably well. He thought that her magic tricks were the best in the world, he liked Troupe Gramarye a lot more than Apollo did as a kid, and Trucy (unfortunately) loved hearing Clay's stories about their time in middle school together. A teenager, around Trucy's age with funny hair, also took a shine to him, although she was more keen on hearing him talk about space. Apollo was glad that Clay had found a couple of people to talk to; he'd been a little worried he would feel awkward, but Trucy was welcoming and outgoing enough to make him feel at ease, and her friend was curious and interested enough to ask about all the right things. He didn't have enough people at his family's Christmas get-together asking him about his work or school, so Trucy was making it worth it to cut out a day with his family.
I'll have to thank her later,Apollo , and her weird friend.
Truthfully, Apollo had never seen the agency so full of people before. Trucy hadn't been kidding about extra people coming for Mr. Wright's celebratory "I'm not a proved forger anymore-slash-Christmas party in lieu of Christmas bonus" get-together. They were probably breaking some fire code but based on the landlord's laissez faire methods of running things, he didn't think they would get in trouble for it. Not as long as they didn't set any fires anyway, and that was…more likely than it should be, but still unlikely nevertheless.
Mr. Wright and Trucy were there, and so was Mr. Edgeworth and his sister Prosecutor von Karma who'd flown in from Germany. A man in a worn trench coat was there, looking a little out of place, Ema Skye made it and looked like she was trying (and failing) to get Prosecutor Edgeworth's attention, and two women dressed like Trucy's weird friend. They were all dressed a little similarly, so maybe they were from some kind of religious convent or something. Maybe a LARPing group.
One of them—with long black hair pulled partially into a topknot—approached sat down next to him while Clay was telling the storyagainabout how he and Apollo accidentally started a fire in his aunt's backyard.
"I'm Maya Fey," she said, holding her hand out. Her body was angled a bit awkwardly to give them enough space to shake hands.
"Nice to meet you," Apollo said, shaking her hand. "I'm—"
"Apollo!" She said brightly. "I've heard so much about you from both Nick and Trucy!"
And I haven't heard anything about you."Oh, really?"
She nodded, then laughed. "Nick says you're the best employee he's ever had, even though you almost killed Charley."
Apollo blanched and ran his fingers through his hair. "Sorry about that."
"As long as he's still alive," she said. She looked nostalgic. "I can channel a lot of things, but not plants."
Spirit medium,Apollo thought. The most likely option was that she was from Kurain Village since it was the largest and the most legitimate practice, but technically, other villages were possible as well.
"I guess that makes sense," Apollo said lamely, not knowing how else to respond to Ms. Fey. She was a little bit like Trucy and he could see her turning into this in the next ten years. Either Mr. Wright only attracted a single type of personality, or Trucy got a lot of her personality from her. Both were equally possible, if he were being honest.
"I heard from Trucy that you're from Khura'in?" She asked.
"Uh—kinda," Apollo said with a grimace. "I wasn't there for very long, so—"
"What's it like there?" She interrupted.
She was smiling, but Apollo could still tell that she was listening to him closely. He didn't like it.
"It's…mountainy." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back. Something about the Wright Talent Agency took away every bit of professionalism he had, and he came across as dumb and uneducated to probably half of the clientele. It was pretty annoying, but at least most of his job was sending emails.
Nonetheless, Ms. Fey seemed invested while she nodded. "Hmm… I knew it," she muttered, writing something down on a notepad he hadn't noticed her taking out. "Like—how mountainy? Is it kind of like Kurain Village?"
"It's been a really long time since I've been there, so…" Apollo drifted off. "And I've never been to Kurain Village before either."
"Hm." She put away her notepad. "I guess that's fair. I'm going to Khura'in to finish my training to become Master and so I've been trying to prepare," she explained. "I've always been bad about putting things off, so this will be the thing that I get ready for ahead of time!"
"Right," Apollo said slowly. "How long will you be there?"
"A year," she said, then added a bit bashfully, "I won't be going for another year, but I've never been outside the country before. It's kind of exciting but pretty scary too—y'know?"
She was less airheaded than Trucy was, but she was also a lot less emotionally reserved. It was a strange combination and one that Apollo wasn't sure how to handle. "I guess so," he said slowly. "I'm not sure how much I can help you though," he said with a nervous laugh. "I was never an expert in the ins and outs as a ten-year-old homeschooler."
She looked sympathetic. "I was homeschooled too," she said. "I understand."
"And I moved to America young too, so this is home to me now, and…" he drifted off, hoping that she got the idea.
Her smile wavered for a moment, but then it returned and she shrugged her shoulders. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay," she said easily. "To be honest, I was just coming up with an excuse to talk to you. You're Nick's new protégé and I needed to make sure that he's doing Sis' legacy right!" She leaned towards him ever so slightly, a suspiciously playful twinkle in her eye. "He can be secretive and weird sometimes so I hope that he's not scaring you away!"
Hearing that it wasn't just him made Apollo feel marginally better. Maya Fey was presumably a long-term friend, and if she still thought that about Mr. Wright, that had to mean something. "He can definitely be really secretive," Apollo deadpanned. "I didn't learn about the simulation trial until the day before."
Ms. Fey leaned back into the corner of the couch, her arms crossed andtsk-ing with a shake of her head. "Nick, Nick, Nick…" she grumbled. "He needs a good kick in the pants sometimes so it's okay to give him some sass!"
You definitely have a very different relationship with Mr. Wright than I do,Apollo thought dryly, but thanked her for her comments anyway.
Someone said something that made her whip around and shout something aboutSteel Samuraito Prosecutor Edgeworth. With everything she was saying, it almost sounded like she was speaking a different language. Apollo had considered himself well-versed enough in theSteel Samurai(at least in the seasons that were dubbed before it got outlawed in Khura'in for lieu of thePlumed Punisher), but he didn't have a clue what she was talking about.
"It was nice to meet you, Polly—er, Apollo," she said in a rush. "But I can't let Mr. Edgeworth spread lies about the Jammin' Ninja!Hap'piraki!" She scrambled over the couch to start chattering in a conversation between Clay, Mr. Edgeworth, and the big man with a trench coat.
…Why did she say hap'piraki? Was that the only Khura'inese word that she learned? …What does she even thinks that means?
Ema had been all but pushed out of the conversation since it took a turn intoSteel Samuraidiscourse, and so she plopped down on the couch across from Apollo. She had a wineglass in her hand, but all that was in there was grape juice. It didn't stop her from downing it like a shot.
"Ugh," she muttered. "How're you doing, Apollo?" She asked. She was already digging through her bag, probably looking for snackoos already.
"Pretty good, all things considered," Apollo said. "What'd you bring for the gray elephant?"
She began to much. "You mean the white elephant?" She corrected. "I can't tell you that—it's against the rules."
"Is it luminol?"
He was awarded by a snackoo to the forehead. "Not so loud," she said with a sniff. "Trucy won't like it if we start telling everyone what we brought."
Believe me, Ema, no one will think someone else brought the luminol.
"Anyway," she wrinkled her nose. "Your friend Clay's fun," she said. "I didn't know that we had a plus one to this."
"We didn't. Trucy just invited my brother and he didn't want to come so Clay took his invitation."
"Hm."
MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH
"Did you have anyone you wanted to bring?"
She stopped, swallowed, then narrowed her eyes. "Like who?"
"I don't know. Like Pros—"
"No!" She chucked a snackoo at him, this time hitting him on the eyelid
"Ow! What the hell?!" He drew back, rubbing his eye, trying to get the crumbs off and out of his eyelashes.
"Don't even suggest that." She scowled. "He's having a hard time right now, but that still doesn't mean that he's invited to Mr. Wrights name-clearing party when he made him lose his badge in the first place!"
"That wasn't his fault."
"Maybe not," she acknowledged, "but that still doesn't mean that he's welcome. And besides, he's out of town."
"Oh?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. You'd have to ask Mr. Edgeworth. Or his little lapdog or whatever."
Apollo frowned. "Oh, you mean Yuta?"
"If that's Nahyuta Justice, then yes." She sniffed. "He sticks his nose into a little bit of everything."MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH.
"That sounds about right, actually."
"You know him too, huh?" She looked down in her bag, shaking it around and presumably looking for the proper snackoo to feast upon next.
Apollo shot her a suspicious look, hoping she would see it from her snackoo-hunting. "Are you yanking my chain right now?"
She shook it around some more. "No. Why?"
"Did you drink before coming here?"
She looked up from her bag andglared."No," she said. "Believe me, I would be a lot happier than I would be right now if I did." She paused. "Not that I'm not having a good time. I'm a happy drunk," she amended.
"Nahyuta is my brother."
"What?"
"I feel like we've had this conversation before!" He exclaimed, exasperated.
She shook a finger at him. "No, no—nuh-uh," she said, "I always knew that you lived with your brother, but you never told me that that brother was Nahyuta Justice."
"We have the same last name!"
"So what?" She grumbled. "A lot of people have the same last name."
"Whatever," Apollo said with a roll of his eyes. "You know now."
"Sorry for not memorizing the entire Justice family tree." Ema rolled her eyes.
Instead of provoking her further (peace and earth and all that), Apollo said, "Sorry he's being an ass."
She sighed, putting away her bag of snackoos. "No, it's fine," she said. "He's not that bad when you get to know him, and I know that he's overworked. I can see why Mr. Edgeworth likes him so much—he's good at his job, even if he overextends sometimes." She leaned back into the couch. "Mr. Justice being your older brother explains a lot about both of you."
Apollo blanched. "Does it?"
"Not in a bad way. Don't take it so personally," she said with a shake of her head. "I never put the two of you together until now though, but it fits."
That doesn't make any sense."I guess."
"So…adopted, or…?"
"He's my foster brother, but we still grew up together," Apollo said dismissively, hoping that she would get the hint.
Her face shifted to one of understanding. A look he'd received too much as a kid in Sunflower and not enough after leaving it. "Oh, okay. I get it." Based on some things she'd said before, it seemed like she'd been orphaned at a young age, so it made sense. She made a face and started digging through her bag. After a moment, she pulled out a folder with a card inside. "Here—sign Mr. Wright's congratulations card. I'm trying to get everyone's signature." She held a pen out to him.
"Sure."
Congratulations, Mr. Wright! Thanks for giving me a shot and looking forward to 2027. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -Apollo J.