Justice legal system academy's deadly killing game (Ace Attorney)

Chapter 22 : The letter of despair

*3rd Person's POV*

It was a few minutes before the morning announcements went off when Phoenix woke up. His shoulder felt heavy, when he looked down he found his closest friend Miles Edgeworth fast asleep on his shoulder. Phoenix smiled to himself, he and Miles had been friends ever since fourth grade when Miles defended him in the classroom. Over the years however they lost contact with each other due to the DL-6 incident in which Miles lost his father.

Phoenix was happy to see that his friend had gotten some sleep after yesterday's very eventful day. Phoenix carefully moved away from the couch putting Miles' head on a pillow so he could allow his friend some extra sleep, it wouldn't be much though as the announcements were about to go off throughout the entire school. Before that happened Phoenix decided to get ready for the day and headed into the bathroom. As he prepared for the upcoming day the morning announcements filled the room with Magmakuma's annoying voice.

"Gooooooood morning everyone! I hope you all have a killrific day." The morning announcement message was always different each morning. He groaned in annoyance at hearing the stupid bears voice so early in the morning. Miles began to shift on the couch and slowly started to wake up.

"Morning sleepyhead!" Phoenix called from the bathroom. Phoenix appeared in the doorway and Miles rubbed his eyes. "Good morning, what am I doing here?" Miles asked, Phoenix blinked at him. "You mean you don't remember?" Miles shook his head. "Well forget it then, it wasn't really important anyway." Miles could see right through Phoenix's pathetic bluff but decided not to question him about it.

"Shall we get ready to meet the others then?" Phoenix nodded, signalling that they should leave right now. "We should make a stop at your room before we get to them." He said, the other nodded and got up stretching in the process. They made a quick stop at Miles' room so that he could get ready. Waiting at the door for his friend to come out of his room, Phoenix got lost in thought for the tenth time that day and it was only 8 am!

Over the past few days he had picked up on the little habits his best friend did when they were around each other. Miles would alway fidget or look uncomfortable when around him. 'Does he not like me? Am I a bad friend ?! Phoenix started to panic thinking that the cause of his friends' habits was because he was a bad friend. It was at that moment that Miles chose to leave his room.

"What's wrong? You look like someone told you something horrible." Phoenix laughed nervously. "Something wrong? With me??? Hahah yeah no way! I'm absolutely fine." Miles made a face that said 'I don't believe you.' He rolled his eyes and they started making their journey to the dinning hall.

The walk was mostly silent and Phoenix was getting uncomfortably nervous. He couldn't bear it anymore and blurted out. "You don't think I'm a bad friend do you?" Immediately after he said that he wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. "What are you talking about? Of course you're a good friend! What made you think you weren't? Or who for that matter?" Miles asked.

They continued walking in silence before Phoenix mustered up the courage to answer. "No one, I just thought that, I don't know. I haven't been able to do anything about our current situation and I wasn't able to prevent anyone from dying." The dining hall was now in sight but Miles stopped him before they went in.

"Phoenix you're just one man it isn't your fault. You can't save everyone, I had to learn that the hard way. But you are doing everything in your power to keep us united. Just remember you aren't alone. There are other people trying to keep us together too, your assistants are very cheerful. You are more than a good friend to me, you're the best, who takes on two murder charges without hesitation even if it looks like it will be impossible to get them acquitted?"