Chapter Text
“Pathetic,”
he says to himself, walking down the street, stepping in puddles as he goes. “She never tells me anything.” He runs a hand through his hair the moment he sees the grand doors of the courthouse. Taking a deep breath, he enters.
23rd October, 8:50 a.m. Supreme Court of Judicature, Defendants’ Antechamber 4
Ryunosuke Naruhodo sits bitterly, waiting for his judicial assistant, Susato Mikotoba to arrive. Usually, she isn’t this late; which makes him nervous. What makes him even more nervous is that she knew everything about the case. Meanwhile, he didn’t.
It didn’t help that his client was standing across from him, not saying a word.
His client was a French model by the name of Theia Noire, living in Japan, who was accused of murder two days ago. She was thin, wearing a simple white dress, with a black neck corset. She had light brown, shoulder length hair. She also had dark sunglasses. ‘Perhaps she is blind,’ Ryunosuke thought.
Her height stood at around 166 centimeters, around the same height as Ryunosuke himself. She was a very beautiful woman, there was no wonder she was a model. Even the way she stood seemed like people were taking photographs of her.
He decides to clear his throat, which catches her attention. “Yes?” She replies, with her noticeable accent. He awkwardly runs a hand through his hair. “Ah, my name is Ryunosuke Naruhodo, I’m your lawyer…” He says in English. She gives him a curious look. “I see. You were very… quiet. I didn’t notice you were there.”
He gives her an awkward chuckle. The room falls into awkward silence again. Ryunosuke wonders if Susato is even coming to the trial. Which, of course, makes him more nervous than he already was— his leg bouncing against the floor. Noire takes notice.
”Are you alright, Monsieur Naruhodo? You don’t think I’m guilty, do you?” He puts a hand up in defence, though she doesn’t see it. “Wh— no, of course not! Just nerves, is all! I mean, you must be nervous too, right..?” She hums, whether that be in agreement or not, looking calm.
She then gives him a weak smile, speaking once more, twiddling a newspaper in her hand. “Theia Noire. I assume you know me.” He hums in agreement weakly. He technically hasn’t learned of her until today, as Susato was the one who convinced Ryunosuke to accept her case.
A few more minutes pass, and the bailiff by the door speaks. “Court is about to begin. Proceed to the courtroom at once!” Ryunosuke nervously stands up, freaking out internally. ‘Bloody hell, Susato…’ Noire follows suit and makes her way into the courtroom– having dropped the paper from her hand. Ryunosuke opens his mouth to tell her, but she’s already inside. He picks it up, saving it to give it to her later… Hopefully.
23rd October, 9:00 a.m. Supreme Court of Judicature, Courtroom 3.
Ryunosuke is more nervous than ever, standing alone in court. Taketsuchi Auchi, the prosecutor, stands across from him, a smug look on his face. The judge speaks up, everyone’s eyes on him. “The court will now hear the trial of Theia Noire.” Auchi bows slightly. “The prosecution is ready, Your Excellancy.”
“The defence is ready as well, Your Excellancy.” The judge nods. “Now, kindly state before the court the name of the victim in this case. “A-Ah, the name of the victim. Yes.” He realizes he doesn’t even know that, checking the court record. He looks it through, finding the victim to be a man by the name of Omi Scient. He continues, “…Omi Scient is the victim's name.”
Auchi chuckles, tapping his fan on his head. “Well, at least you remember that, counsel.” Ryunosuke ignores him, continuing what he was saying. “Mr Scient was a journalist, studying the, ah, model company.”
“And, just how was this journalist killed, counsel?” “He was electrocuted by faulty wiring in the defendant’s dressing room…” Ryunosuke trails off, slowly realizing how his case will be quite hard to prove. Auchi gives him a cocky look, not saying anything, but it’s obvious what he’s thinking.
The Judge clears his throat, “I feel this is an obvious case. Prosecution, bring in our first witness for today. Ryunosuke practically groans at the fact that the judge is already on the other side’s favor, but he chokes it down. “Right away, Your Excellancy. Bailiff!”
Two men approach the stand. Ryunosuke only recognizes one– that is, an inspector named Satoru Hosonaga. What surprised him the most was that he didn’t have any sort of disguise on, only a normal looking suit. He was a tall, slender man with dark hair and glasses. His hair had gray streaks, despite only being thirty. He was very pale, and always had a sad look in his eyes. He is a visibly sickly man, but the inspector likely doesn’t realize that himself. Next to him was a man that Ryunosuke didn’t recognize.
The man had tanner skin, and wore a smug look on his face. He had brown locks, somewhat long for a man. He was shorter than the inspector he was standing rather close with, but he did look more muscular. Baton shaped earrings swung any time he tilted his face. Ryunosuke wasn’t sure if they were just rods, but they certainly looked like batons from his perspective. Perhaps he was watching too much theater.
“Please state your names and occupations to the court,” the Judge says. Hosonaga clears his throat. “Inspector Satoru Hosonaga, I work at (non-existent-station-lmao).” “Inspector Kogoro Akechi, his–” the inspector coughs aggressively, nudging Akechi. “...partner,” Akechi continues.
The Judge nods, and Auchi speaks up. “Now, inspectors, tell me what you concluded that night.” He tilts his head up, showing respect; though he probably couldn’t care less. Hosonaga gives a nod, and Akechi adjusts his tie. “Of course, good sir.”
“As the defence said,” Akechi starts, “the victim was killed by faulty wiring at nine-twenty-five o’clock that morning. The burns appeared on and around his neck, as shown in this photo.”
Akechi showed the court a photo of the victim, leaning against a table, his neck completely burnt. His face was contorted in utter anguish. Next to him was a puddle of water, the shown ‘faulty wiring’, and a knife clasped in his hand.
He continues, “The fact is, it couldn’t have been an accident– with the placement of the burning and where the wires were.” Hosonaga speaks up; “The victim and the accused were the only ones around– until someone found the body thirty minutes later.”
“Yes!”
Ryunosuke shouts, “Even though the accused was there, there's no proof she did it…!” Auchi snorts. “There you go running your mouth, counsel. Won’t you listen for once?” Ryunosuke staggers, “Uah, umh…” “Witnesses. Go on to explain to this imbecile why the accused is accused in the first place.”
“Right away, sir.” Hosonaga says, adjusting his glasses.
Witness Testimony
“The accused Ms. Noire was found wandering the agency around twenty-five minutes before the body was found.” Akechi begins, “what caught her coworkers eyes was the fact she was drenched.” “There were puddles forming from her dressing room to the path she was taking; which one of her coworkers found suspect. The same coworker discovered the body.” “We later found a stab wound matching the knife the victim was wielding on her.”
Thus ended their testimony. It was simple, and Ryunosuke couldn’t deny that his case would be hard to prove. He didn’t even know what his case was yet. All he could do was press what was said.
Cross Examination
“--Hold it! You say she was wandering. Where exactly… to?” Ryunosuke interjects. Hosonaga is to answer, “the people who found the body claimed that she usually is accompanied by her makeup artist everywhere, due to her blindness. But she wasn't there for her at the time, and they just found her blindly wandering around.” “Where was her, ah, makeup artist at the time?” Ryunosuke asks. Hosonaga begins to speak once more, but Akechi has a weird look in his eye, and he then whispers something to him.
“Right!” Akechi crosses his arms. “It wasn’t her shift during that time, of course! Knew that!” Ryunosuke can’t find anything contradicting, so presses the next statement. “Drenched in water, you say?” “Yes,” Akechi nods, “her dress was wet when she had been arrested, along with her shoes. There was even blood near the rims of her dress. Here, look for yourself!” He grins, showing the dress to the court.
“Who… ah… found the body?” Ryunosuke says, trying to remember the order of the testimony. Akechi whispers a quiet: “Who was it, again..?” to Hosonaga. The man next to him whispers back. Akechi grins once more, pretending he knew that the whole time. “Of course! It was the defendant’s cosmetologist herself, named… ah….” Hosonaga leans over and whispers again. “Mackenzie Ige!” Hosonaga corrects him, “Illage.” “Illage.” He repeats.
Ryunosuke presses the other two statements, but finds nothing of importance. He nervously looks at everything he has; the post-mortem report, the photo of the victim, the dress, notes on the wiring, but nothing comes to mind. Well– he does have that newspaper. He hastily inspected its contents.
His hands are shaking. He has an idea, but it’ll be hard to bluff for so long. “Inspector Hosonaga, could you repeat what you said about her makeup artist?– Her, ahm, wandering without her?”
“The defendant’s makeup artist did not have her shift yet, and only came after the murder.” He rephrases calmly, pushing up his glasses. Ryunosuke soon finds his voice, and yells out,
“OBJECTION!”
He… doesn’t say much after that, losing his voice. Auchi flicks his fan. “If you have nothing to say, counsel, then keep your puny mouth shut.” Ryunosuke chooses to ignore him, finding his words. “This newspaper here, if everyone can, ah, look at it,” he starts to read from the paper, “‘Journalist Omi Scient speaks with cosmetologist Mackenzie Illage this morning about their company.’ It states…” He pauses, realizing that Auchi was looking at him as if he were stupid. He then thought he was stupid himself. “...uhm…” The prosecutor snorts. “Defendant, for the counsel’s sake, just where was the interview?” Noire, sitting down, peaks up. “It was at his office.” Ryunosuke wants to get swallowed whole.
“I don’t even know where you were going with your bluffs, but I fear it just blew up in your face… boy.” Auchi remarks. Ryunosuke can’t find his voice, just standing there. ‘God, there’s no proof. I have nothing… I guess this is it– sorry Susato…’ he thinks, burying his face in his hands, slouching over the desk. The Judge announces. “Well, I find no need to continue this trial any longer–”
The courtroom doors then fly open, and an ever familiar man walks in. “My apologies for the interruption, everyone… I fear I’m late. I’m the defence’s partner for today.”
It was the ever famous consulting detective, Herlock Sholmes, here, in Japan. “...SHOLMES?!” Ryunosuke practically yelps. Herlock stands next to him behind the defence desk. “Shh, my boy. I have the evidence you need. No need to fret about my appearance now, we can catch up after we win this trial.”
Auchi immediately sucks up to the sight of an English gentleman, clasping his hands together, blabbering out poor English about how much of a pleasure it is to see a man such as him. The judge speaks up.
“Well, if you’re a part of the defence, you may show your evidence, mr..?” Herlock tilts his deerstalker hat up, smiling. “Sholmes.”
“Now, let’s see here…” He takes the newspaper from Ryunosuke, flipping through the pages. Peeking over at him, he speaks up, “You’re aware of the heavy rain from this morning, my dear fellow?” Ryunosuke nods. “...yes?” Herlock gives him a smile, and he seems to catch on.
“That dress is quite drenched to be formed by a mere puddle, yes?” “Are you saying that it was from the rain? But it was raining at 5am today, why would she be up, Sholmes? The blood as well?” Herlock smiles, knowing something he doesn’t. Standing up straight, brushing against the other’s shoulder for a moment, he speaks to the Judge directly.
“May I request a witness to come up, Your Excellency?” The Judge takes a moment, before nodding. “Just who do you request?”
He does his stupid pose that he always does, putting his hands up, looking away, before looking at the judge directly. “The defendant’s makeup artist, of course. That is, Mackenzie Illage.”