Chapter Text
Maya Fey was enjoying the benefits of the modern world, now directly piped into Kurain Village: a decent broadband connection. If the spirit mediums were to thrive in a modern world, they needed to keep up with the times. Maya was planning to set up a booking website for spirit channeling requests, maybe post on a Kurain Channeling Twitter. She already knew her way around the internet, having previously had a phone with a limited browser, and having used the computer in Nick’s office (until she was inevitably told off for hogging the dial-up.)
There were additional benefits to having reliable internet. Streaming The Plumed Punisher directly from Khurainsese TV was fantastic. It was a nice way to wind down after training, and Pearls sometimes enjoyed the episodes too, though she found them difficult to follow with subtitles.
It was also much, much easier to access all of her favourite Steel Samurai fansites from her new desktop than from her phone’s tiny screen. And now artwork didn’t take a decade (or all of her data plan) to view. She could also actively participate in more of the conversations, which led her to new websites, artwork, and fanfic to explore.
She was also very glad when someone told her how to set up a private account, because she did not want Pearls to know some of her favourite works. There was definitely a more… hardcore section of the Steel Samurai fandom that she enjoyed.
She scrolled through the recently-created list of fanfiction. One fic caught her eye; this author had written a number of things, with the curious pairing of The Steel Samurai and The Evil Magistrate. That implied all kinds of unpleasantry and in the past she had scurried away from such stories in favour of the softer Pink Princess/Steel Samurai pairing, but a few fandom members had spoken about the fic author, that the written Evil Magistrate was not, well, as evil as the actual TV show. Indeed, there had been a redemption arc to the whole story. Apparently, quite the romantic one. And a little sexy, had been the general consensus, which Maya could see by the fic rating.
Maya liked romantic fiction, and she paused at this particular one. This fic was a “oneshot”, not part of the main series by the author, thank goodness, because it was already pretty late in the evening. Intrigued, she opened it, and settled down to read.
Oh. Oh oh oh.
The writer had a good grasp of language. A little florid in places, and was teased for some of the characterisation of the Steel Samurai himself in the reviews, which Maya agreed with - The Steel Samurai was a hero, but The Evil Magistrate had put him on a pedestal in this story. Maya supposed she couldn’t complain too much about the characterisation, since it was probably also wildly outside the premise of the TV show that the Evil Magistrate would tenderly strip the Steel Samurai of his garments, promise him undying devotion, and call out his name softly on the breeze of a field outside Neo Olde Tokyo.
It was hot, though. The writing simmered with sexual tension. And for all its exaggerations of The Steel Samurai and Magistrate as people, the actual writing felt… real. She had a sneaking suspicion the author might be a man, as he carefully navigated the very real concerns of two men in the feudal era, and how their mutual social statuses confined their love.
She bookmarked the author, intending to review the rest of his or her works tomorrow. She should really go to bed.
After a pause, she opened the entire catalog of fiction by the author, starting from the earliest works back from 2012.
*
The author did not participate greatly in the fandom, but having read the entirety of the series, Maya needed to tell SteelEdge92 that she was blown away by their works. It wasn’t all perfection, especially the earlier works, and she disagreed with some of the ideas proposed in other fics, but overall, this SteelEdge92 author wrote some absolutely gorgeous scenes.
She was fast becoming a regular participant in the major Steel Samurai congregation, and eventually, their paths crossed in a forum discussion - apparently, SteelEdge92 was old-fashioned that way, and didn’t use real-time chat. It was, however, very convenient to check their post history that way.
He - confirmed a he, off-handedly in a post - was not particularly chatty when questioned about anything outside the fandom, but would write lengthy essays on the themes of The Steel Samurai, and how he saw the characters, which explained quite a lot about his writing. Something about the perception of evil, what true evil was, and the importance of the truth versus perception. Maya didn’t read much of it; she was in the fandom for the awesome fight scenes and animations, not for philosophy.
She was surprised and pleased to discover that SteelEdge92 was local to LA. Wouldn’t it be cool if she could meet this guy? Not on a date - she didn’t want to make this too weird, she just really liked his work and wanted to buy him a coffee, maybe some burgers. He probably didn’t even swing her way. Or did he? He could be bisexual. But he could also be a total weirdo. She decided to dig a little deeper into his posts to look for clues.
She was able to draw a few conclusions. Judging by the date of his first forays at writing and his mentions of moving over from a previous fansite (now offline), he was in his thirties at least. He wrote like a professional, even in posts - no shorthands or internet lexicon to be found. Someone asked how he had come by his handle, and he evasively admitted he regretted choosing it at the time. A few people speculated it was close to his real name and the “92” was his birthdate, and he had refused to respond to those posts. Under continued pressure, he had replied that he refused to confirm anything. Interesting.
Someone had once bluntly asked about his sexual experience and availability, as only someone anonymous on the internet could. Maya grimaced at the inappropriate post. To her surprise, SteelEdge92 had replied, with an underlying irritation to his refined phrasing, that he would like to stop these types of questions permanently (having apparently been asked by many) and to point to this post as his answer. He was attracted to men (insofar as he ever experienced attraction), was not interested in casual hookups, and had an interest in a specific man who in fact, served as his inspiration for his writing, which he claimed had started as a way to blow off steam after work.
A few more incidental pieces of information came together from different post topics, and Maya’s jaw could have hit the floor.
He worked long hours, now in a leadership role. His favourite colour was red (“in its various hues”), he had travelled extensively, especially to Europe, but had once visited Khura’in “out of necessity”; he had been to court before or had some knowledge of law (in reference to his portrayals of The Evil Magistrate), and was proud to own a rare, limited edition Steel Samurai statuette that he refused to photograph for fear of identifying himself, which he had received as a gift (“from an unwanted admirer”).
No. Way.
Maya planned to keep her suspicions to herself. It was a bit weird, thinking that the Chief Prosecutor and her sort-of-friend wrote smut in the evenings, but she supposed as she was reading it, she couldn’t really be judgemental about it. It was actually sort of sweet, that Edgeworth was actually a secret romantic. He wrote sex scenes, sure, but most of them were wrapped in context and “SteelEdge92” spent a lot of time writing about feelings.
Feelings. Maya half-wondered, half-hoped, that the man who inspired his writing was Nick. Those two needed to get together already. She had high hopes after the Sprockets’ wedding that the two of them would finally give in to all the romance, but apparently not. Curiously, she opened SteelEdge92’s catalog, and noticed that two nights after the wedding he had written an angst-laden story for his favourite characters: how they could not be together, for even in a now-peaceful land fate conspired to keep them apart, until a ceremonial error of floral arrangements revealed the Magistrate - no longer Evil - as a secret supporter of the Steel Samurai, and the hero confessed his long-concealed desire for his adversary.
She sighed at its obviousness. It explained a lot about how SteelEdge92 characterised The Steel Samurai in his works. The obvious conclusion was to stop reading Edgeworth’s stuff - it was too weird to think about, knowing who the author was.
She ran in different circles within the Steel Samurai fandom anyway, and she was curating a nice The Plumed Punisher crossover community. Membership was growing rapidly. She was delighted to have the break from her serious day duties with channeling and comforting those who required her services. It was also lovely to nurture new and younger fans of The Steel Samurai, and she frequently would email them tidbits and links if it helped them.
A topic broke out in her community about favoured romances, and a newer member, PinkPlume, asked whether there were any good Steel Samurai male/male romances. Well, Maya was always happy to help out a new member, and her awkwardness of discovery aside, Edgeworth wrote excellent romance.
She copy-pasted a link to SteelEdge92’s fanfiction into an email, with a quick note: “here ya go. Enjoy!”, let auto-complete do its thing, and fired it off to PinkPlume. She helped several others in her little tribe over the next hour, feeling pleased she could do this for them.
In the midst of her happy task, she received an email from Nick. They texted pretty frequently, so this was unusual. She opened it.
It read: what the hell Maya????
What did he mean by - oh.
Autocomplete had not picked up <PinkPlume>, but <Phoenix Wright>. At his work email address.
“No…!” Maya gasped. She grabbed her phone. Damage control, STAT! Her fingers flew to write out a text to Nick.
meant to send to a friend disregard that email, she wrote.
She thought that was the end of it, until a reply pinged a couple of hours later.
[Nick]
wow, is this stuff yours?
[You]
NO!
[Nick]
oh good or this would be weird
because its pretty hot.
Maya slumped to let her face mash into her keyboard. The only saving grace is that there was no way Nick knew his best friend and rival wrote flowery gay romances. And that Nick wasn’t really a Steel Samurai fan. He might not even notice anything amiss.
Meanwhile, at the Wright Anything Agency, Phoenix was forwarding that link to his home email address. He had some reading to enjoy later tonight.