Ace Attorney: Crashing Fates

Turnabout Recollection, Part 4 (Clare)

I led the lawyers to the crime scene. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to look at ever but the fact that it was a serial killer's crime made me buzz inside. That was the whole reason Felix and I were on this case: because serial killers interest us so much.

"The victim, Ryu Chinami, was shot once in the neck. The bullet was so powerful that it impaled his neck. It's pretty gory, so I'd suggest bracing yourselves before you look at it, and don't let the little kid have a glance," I suggested.

The little blonde girl, who I later learned went by the name of Sophie Raine, screeched in shock and hid her eyes behind her hands once she laid eyes on the victim. Blood was everywhere along with glass shards and disheveled objects that had been around the victim when he died.

Even Mr. Lust was shocked his eyes wide. "That looks... Painful..." Mr. Lust commented, taking a cautious step back.

Kyo shoved him forwards to the body. "Don't be a wimp," she told him. "We have to investigate the crime scene one way or another, so you can't back out now."

Mr. Lust whined at her a little bit more before shuffling towards the body. "The victim had a cravat tied around his wrist, just like the first victim of the AE-7 Incident nine years ago," he deduced, not willing to look at the bullet wound quite yet.

"You sure do know a lot about that stuff," I commented. "Were you involved in that case or something?"

"Come to think of it, the first victim was named Komaru Lust... Were you two perhaps related?" Felix suggested. I shot him a smile. He had noticed something I hadn't noticed first! Make it a holiday!!

Mr. Lust looked down. "N-no... Why would you think that?"

Stammers and stutters give it all away. I think I heard that someplace or another. Maybe some old dead lawyer or something like that.

I shrugged the thought off and decided not to pressure Mr. Lust about the AE-7 Incident any longer. I could talk to him about it more personally later. I walked over to the victim and crouched down next to his body. We had left the car door open so that we investigators could look in, and I must say that the car looked so normal... It made my heart churn.

"Are you okay, Clare?" Felix whispered into my ear.

I nodded, using all possible lying skills I had built up over the years to my advantage. "I'm fine," I lied, not wanting to tell him that it made me sad to think that somebody, a civilian who did nothing to deserve this, was killed so brutally.

"So the broken glass shards we see here are from the impact of the bullet going through the glass of the car's back window?" Mr. Lust cut in, making me look back to the crime scene.

I nodded. "The culprit had some sort of business with the victim, as far as I can guess, and felt the need to kill him for this relation," I explained.

"Is there anything else that sticks out to you about the crime scene?" Felix asked.

I think I saw Kyo reach into the car and pull something out, but when I looked her way to check, she was standing just as she had seconds before. I guess it was just my mind playing yet another trick on me.

"Nothing in particular," Mr. Lust frowned. "I thought that there would at least be some trace of evidence pointing to the real culprit..."

I pulled out the gun, also known as the murder weapon, I had been keeping in my pocket ever since the investigation started. "This is the murder weapon used to take the victim's life," I explained. Felix gulped from beside me. I guess that he was thinking of the big blunder he had made that would prevent him from ever becoming an Interpol agent. Unless he got really lucky and found some way to make up for it...

"You told us that the defendant's fingerprints were found on it... Why do you think this is?" Mr. Lust questioned.

"She either did it or was framed by the real Gentleman Murderer. I hate him so much," Felix raged from beside me. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders to calm him down. Thankfully, it worked rather well.

"I suspect framing," Kyo cut in. "There isn't any real reason for her to have committed this crime. Fingerprints on the weapon are hardly decisive. Anybody could have planted those."

"Does this mean that somebody else is the mean one who attacked Chrysalis and killed all those people?" Sophie asked, still hiding her eyes behind her hands. She was so sweet... She reminded me of how I had been when the AE-7 Incident had taken place and my brother died.

"That's exactly what this means," Mr. Lust agreed. "There's somebody else who wants us to think Ryoko did it, but Ms. Kuda is living proof that Ryoko isn't the culprit and just an innocent bystander."

"Then why haven't we found any real evidence to prove it?" Kyo questioned of me. "We've been relying on nothing but your theories up until now, Thomas. That Isn't going to be enough to please the judge or Prosecutor Yin tomorrow and you know it."

"Maybe so, but we just need to talk to the witnesses, and everything should be a simple hop and a skip from there," Mr. Lust said.

"Yeah, because our cases up until now have obviously been a hop and a skip," Kyo muttered sarcastically. "Who even says that sort of expression anymore?"

I chose not to be offended by her rude and snarky comment.

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Nyooms away to do stuff

-Digital