Ace Attorney: Beginning of the End

Chapter 42: Turnabout Revenge - Investigation 2 ~ Part 3

November 13 9:30am

???????? ~ Anton Burke's POV

My eyes opened slowly, a cold feeling running up my arms. I sat up and rubbed my head slowly, which was aching with pain. Once I could keep my eyes open without it hurting, I glanced around at my surroundings. It was dark and the carpet I was laying on was dusty. The ceiling seemed to have collapsed in on itself. It felt like I was in a horror movie or something.

I stood up slowly, placing a hand on the dusty wall to give myself balance. "Hello...?" I called out, my voice shaking. "Hello...?" I repeated, desperate for an answer, any answer.

Without warning, a loud bang echoed throughout the room. I shrieked and jumped back, glancing around madly for the source of the noise. My eyes eventually fell on a door, barely visible due to the darkness. Another bang soon followed, the door rattling slightly. With the third bang, the door flew open and fell to the ground, scattering dust particles everywhere. An outline of a figure was visible, slowly approaching me. "Anton?!" They called out. "Is that you?! It's okay! It's me, Mukuro!"

I blinked in confusion. "Anton...? Mukuro...?" I echoed. "Who are they...?"

The figure gasped as they ran towards me, coming clearly into view. It was a girl with short black hair and grey eyes. "Are you okay?" She asked. "You look kind of pale... Remember me? Mukuro?"

I hesitated before shaking my head slowly. "Sorry..."

"You have amnesia...?!" 'Mukuro' gasped. "Oh, this is bad... Prosecutor Bloom won't like this at all...!! Well, let's just focus on getting out of here for now. We can sort your memory out after we get somewhere safe."

I nodded, wondering about who she could have meant by 'Prosecutor Bloom'. I decided to trust her, though, since she seemed nice. Mukuro took my hand gently and led me out of the room, taking me into some kind of hallway. The hallway was just as dark and gloomy as the room I had been trapped in, the dual staircases leading to the lower floor missing parts of a step.

"I think we've been held hostage inside Heritage Hotel." Mukuro deduced. "The place has been abandoned for a long time, so it's the ideal place for a bunch of assassins to hide us away."

I nodded despite not really having any idea what she was talking about. I didn't want to think about it, either; things about assassins and hostages sounded scary...

Mukuro gasped and dashed towards another door, her boots making the floorboards creak. She took some kind of hairpin out of her pocket and stuck it into the lock, an expression of intense concentration crossing her face. "I tried using this spare hairpin of mine to unlock your door, but it wasn't working, so I got frustrated and kicked it down." Mukuro admitted sheepishly. "Sometimes I let my angry side take over way too often."

Luckily, Mukuro didn't have to use any physical force to knock down this door, as the lock clicked open easily enough. The door swung open and we both peered inside. Crouched in the corner was a girl with honey blonde hair, her bronze glasses shining in the dull overhead light. Her eyes opened quickly to reveal blue irises.

"Chrysalis!" Mukuro exclaimed. "Are you okay...?!"

"Fine..." 'Chrysalis' mumbled, although I could tell she was faking it. "Just missing big bro... I want to see him..."

"It's going to be okay," Mukuro soothed. "We just need to find the other three and then we'll be out of here in no time."

Chrysalis nodded and stoop up, cleaning away any dust that had attached itself to her. The three of us crept around the hotel, not daring to split up despite doing so would probably help us find 'the other three'. "If my information's right, then Niamh, Byakuya and Ms. Cruz should all be here somewhere." Mukuro explained. "As soon as we find those three, then we can escape!"

The three of us stopped in our tracks when we heard a loud sound; snoring. I expected it to be shouting or something similar, but snoring? Who in their right minds would be sleeping at a time like this?

Mukuro followed the sound of the snoring and unlocked a room, where a girl with jagged dark strawberry blonde hair was laying on the bed, asleep. A sharp pair of scissors hung loosely from her fingers as she was sprawled out on top of the bed. The girl's abnormally long tongue twitched with every snore.

"GJ...!" Mukuro and Chrysalis gasped in sync, dashing up to the girl. They began to shake her awake, earning a couple of dissatisfied groans from the girl. Eventually, the girl's eyes opened, revealing one red eye and the other eye that was a greyish-white, a long scar running through it. It almost looked like the very iris of her left eye had been ripped in two.

"What'd you go and do that for...?" 'GJ' muttered, sitting up. "Thought I'd get some sleep in, but nooope... you guys have to ruin it..."

"Sorry about that." Mukuro apologised. "But what are you doing here, GJ? As in, why are you the alter that's awake?"

"Huh? Oh, must've been all the dust around here." GJ replied. "Miss Gloomy must've taken in quite a bit of it and let out an achoo."

We waited a few seconds before GJ hopped off the bed and stretched, a yawn escaping her mouth. "So... what's the big deal? Where are we?" GJ asked.

"Oh, yeah, you guys don't share memories..." Mukuro muttered. "Anyway, we're most likely in a place called Heritage Hotel. We're currently hostages to a group of assassins."

"Tch, assassins my foot!" GJ cried, taking the news pretty well. "They won't be able to keep a firm grip on us for long, that's for sure! C'mon, let's all get out of this dump!"

"We need to find Byakuya and Ms. Cruz first." Mukuro told GJ. "They're here as well."

GJ sighed, crossing her arms with a huff. "Fine... but THEN I get to pummel 'em!"

This girl is kind of scary...

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ANTON HAS AMNESIA SAVE HIM

AceAttorneyFan over and out!