everyone turned their heads to the witness stand, the source of where the objection was raised, surprisingly, it was phoenix, who looked as serious as ever, apollo had no words, ..why was mr wright objecting?!, he was about to get off free!!
'M-Mr. Wright...'
he mumbled, phoenix looked at him once, then looked back up at the judge, who was just as surprised as everyone
'your not ending the trial your honer!'
even payne had no words
'What nonsense is the defendant spewing now!?'
phoenix then shot a glare at him
'for once in your life payne, get your head out of your smug ass and think!!, One of the cards had a different colored back, aren't you wondering what that means?!'
'OBJECTION!!, Wh-What are you doing, Mr. Wright!? Raising objections right when you're about to get off the hook!? Ridiculous'
'Mr. Payne, you of all people should know... Mr. Wright has a talent for taking matters into his own hands! and once he demands something, he won't let up'
he then banged down his gavel
'Perhaps we should get to the bottom of things. Let's clear up the facts about the game that fateful night'
apollo had no idea what to think, ..what was mr wright doing?!, and why?!
'as we said before We alternated between two decks of cards that night, The two decks at the club have different colored backs, Blue and red. One color per deck'
'Why use different colored backs?'
apollo asked, writing this down in his notebook as fast and neatly as he could
'If we used the same color, the two decks might get mixed, even though that shit still happened'
apollo mentally agreed with him on that
'We used the red deck for the last game'
the judge nodded
'Hmm... I see. But... that's odd. For some reason... I have this impression that you were using the blue cards!'
"Yeah, me too... I'm sure someone said something about blue cards..."
payne then interjected
'Whatever. In the end one card of the wrong color got into the mix... Which means there was cheating.'
phoenix rolled his eyes at him
'whatever smug-ass just said here is correct, yes, a card slipped into the deck would indicate cheating, but this card raises two serious questions. ...Apollo?'
apollo quickly straightened up his back when he felt mr wright's terrifying beautiful eyes glare into his own brown ones
's-sir?'
'In the last game, when was the card swapped?'
"When...?"
phoenix explained further
'There are three possibilities here, It could have been swapped before the murder, during the murder or after the murder'
'Well, yeah! Thanks for the news bulletin, Mr. Wright! Of course it was swapp--'
phoenix shot him down with a death glare, payne shuddered as he backed down at once
'yeah that's what a fucking thought!!, i was asking apollo on his thoughts on the situation, so unless your apollo, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!'
'nnnk!!'
payne hid a bit under his bench, apollo winced at his yelling, ...geez he was scary
'apol-'
'SIR!!'
phoenix blinked at him once, then asked again'
'When do you think the cards were swapped?'
apollo had to re-think this over and over, ...it couldn't have been before the game, the back would've faced the person against the other player, instant cheater caught, and it couldn't have been during the murder either, it was when the cards were shown, the cheater was revealed and very moment the bottle came down on Mr. Smith's head, ...that left only one possibility
'Perhaps it happened... after the murder?'
he suggested
payne stood up from his hiding spot
'Wh-What's that? Ridiculous! What's the point of cheating after the hands have been shown? That's silly!'
'Yes! But tell me... How do you swap cards during the game!? I'll take "silly" over "impossible".'
'Take it from me, son. There's a lot of silly in this world, but very little impossible'
apollo tested him on that
'Oh? Even when the backs of the cards are a different color!? If you pulled that during the game, you'd be caught in no time!'
'Ah...'
the judge nodded his head, seeing how true that was, phoenix nodded his head approval
'good deductive reasoning, and yes, it's true, the cards were swapped after the murder'
payne had enough of this
'OK, this is going past silly and straight on to crazy. I ask again: what's the point of cheating after the game's over!? Who would do that!?'
phoenix slammed down his one hand on the stand to silence everyone up
'apollo!'
's-sir?!'
phoenix eased up on his glare as he asked him
'who was the fucker who swapped the cards?'
apollo thought very long and hard on this, ...phoenix wouldn't have a motive to help his own opponent win, and orly was a dealer for the cards, mixing one card from another deck, not even the judge could make such a novice mistake, ...that left only one possibility, ....it was insane, ...crazy even, ..but it was all he had left
'The one who swapped the cards wasn't Mr. Wright, of course. And, well, it doesn't seem like it could have been Olga Orly, either...'
'Wh-What are you suggesting!?'
kristoph had to agree, he wasn't even sure on were his own pupil was going with this
'That's hardly a logical conclusion, I'll admit. As the defense, I think it only makes sense for you to name Ms. Orly at this point.'
apollo had to agree with that, even he thought it was crazy, ..but what else was left?!
'Yes, yes, I know! But... But she was the one who dealt the cards, right? I... I just can't believe she would make the mistake of swapping the wrong color card!'
'And if the card was swapped during the game, it'd be obvious...'
phoenix smirked as he spoke in a dark low voice
'now your getting it'
'...er-mr wright?'
the judge asked, not sure on what phoenix was trying to say, and neither was apollo
'heh, just thinking about how, ...entertaining this is for me'
payne gwaked at him
'entertaining!? How about confusing!? I've no idea what the defense is claiming, Your Honor. If the one who swapped the card wasn't the defendant, and it wasn't Ms. Orly... Then who was it!?'
apollo weakly chimed in
'Er, yeah, well, that is the question, isn't it?'
'exactly'
was all he said
'huh?'
'this case is taking into another direction'
'A new direction?'
the judge repeated
'let me repeat to the court, after the murder, someone swapped one of the cards in the victim's hand'
he grinned sisiterly, it sent shivers down apollo's spine
'And that someone made two critical mistakes'
kristoph interjected as he took his best guess
'I'm sure you're going to tell us that the first was swapping the wrong color card'
phoenix narrowed his eyes at him
'Because the one who did the swap didn't know two colors of cards were being used, The other mistake was the number on the card'
apollo was beginning to somewhat understand
'Right... The person replaced the fifth ace with a king.'
'whoever swapped it wasn't expecting there to be a fifth ace, All they knew was that the game had been won with a full house. So they picked up a king from the table, and swapped it in, simple'
'OBJECTION!!'
payne yelled
'B-But! There's one problem... According to our case record this person doesn't exist!!!'
he insisted!!, however, phoenix immediately turned that record into nothing
'that record is shit then, because their was a fourth person their!'
'Wh-Whaaaaaaaaaat!?'
payne cried out, nearly loosing his hair, ...again, kristoph was the only one who wasn't shocked or confused, ..he was calmed, composed and collected as ever
'I believe the judge spoke truthfully earlier, You do take matters into your hands, Mr. Wright'
the judge banged down his gavel at once to silence everyone
'This trial has proceeded on one central assumption: namely, that, at the time of the incident, there were only three people in that room.'
'the new evidence overturns that assumption'
phoenix said matter of factly, the judge sighed
'The problem is that you chose to conceal this information from the court!'
'...i have my reasons'
was all he said as he crossed his arms tightly
'Court is adjourned for a brief recess! Mr. Gavin, I'll see you in my chambers during this recess'
'...Certainly, Your Honor.'
he promised
'Very well! The trial will resume in twenty minutes!'
when they all got into the lobby, apollo could feel the raising tension between the two men, even though kristoph was being calm and composed, ..something about his under-toning demeanour was really getting to apollo, and mr wright just kept on glaring at him through his eyes, his arms tightly crossed, ...apollo was really starting to question if these two were even friends..
'That was quite... unexpected, Mr. Wright. To suddenly claim there was another person at the scene of the crime like that... I must ask... is it the truth?'
'you know the answer to that, don't you?'
kristoph sighed at his stubbornness
'Ah, being mysterious, are we? Sadly, I've no time for mysteries. I'd only ask that you leave the defending to your defense, in the future. Otherwise... I cannot guarantee the outcome'
'i'm still a lawyer dumbass!'
he pointed out, kristoph shot his head towards his pupil
'justice'
apollo straighten up his back
'Y-Yes sir?'
'The judge has summoned me to his chambers, so carry on without me'
before apollo could even say anything else, kristoph walked off, ..leaving apollo alone with his client, he was half-expecting mr wright to say "you should've been more prepared" or "what did i tell you before entering inside of the courthouse?!", but instead, his expression eased up, and said in a very genuine, honest tone
'you impressed me apollo, you did well'
apollo had no words, ..he blushed a bit red as he struggled to come up with something, ..that's when the locket from his neck and wrist shined
'Um.. Can I ask you something?'
'yeah?'
apollo hesitated a bit but asked
'Those locket's you wear around your wrist and neck... are those, really yours, Mr. Wright?'
phoenix nodded in approval
'good, you're wondering about the victim's disappearing locket'
he praised, then held up the two lockets
'the one of my neck has a picture of my cousin, and the one on my wrist has a picture of my daughter in there'
he opened up the two lockets, apollo was surprised to see the neck one first, it had a picture of him, and some other girl, it looked like they were at some sort of festival, and in their teens, ...they both looked happy..., the second locket on his wrist, only had one face in it, it was a cute little eight year old girl
'I'm... just surprised to hear you had a cousin, ..and a daughter'
he admitted, phoenix closed up the lockets as he set the up straight
'most people are about the cousin part, the daughter one not so much, maybe you'll met her'
he shrugged, apollo however, had another question
'One more question., The one who cheated that night... Was it you?'
it was hard to ask that, ..apollo didn't want to doubt his own client was a liar, ..but after everything that happened, ..he was being very mysterious about the whole incident, he was expecting phoenix to get mad at him for ever insinuating that he was a liar, instead, all he did was just stare down at him and say
'what do you think?
'huh?'
'..i've never lost a game of poker for seven years, it's not unreasonable to think I might cheat'
he complied, apollo quickly shook his head
'I-I never! Honest! But...'
he trailed off, ...because what he said rang truth into his ears, ..it was odd, how could you never lose at poker?!, in seven years
'..i'm gonna give you advice, in poker and in law, even if you have really shitty bad cards or evidence, you can still win if you know how to plan ahead and strategize'
he didn't understand what he was trying to say
'...eh?'
phoenix explained a bit in more detail
'poker and law work the same a little, your given what your suppose to use to fight with, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's pretty shit, so you have to get creative on how to use it to your advantage, and it's also about reading your opponent'
'Poker.. is like trial law!?'
'poker and law is about reading your opponent, Figure out what your opponent is thinking, compare it with what you have, theorize, think ahead, and you win'
apollo now understood a bit better, ...made a little more sense
'Well, yeah, but that's harder than it sounds.'
'it's not'
'huh?'
phoenix chuckled as he explained
'i've lived, dealt and beaten up liars, and everyone reveals their true thoughts in the end, Their body language can become a valuable source of information, including their gestures, tones of voices and a lot more, sometimes it's int he words themselves in testimony'
apollo gawked at his idols skills
'That witness, for instance, Orly, She would touch the back of her neck during certain parts of her testimony. Did you notice?'
he blushed a tint red as he admitted
'Uh... No'
"C'mon, who'd notice that!?"
'like i said before, words, gestures, habits, it's all their, and not only do you have that, you also have the information, the facts, the evidence, that's when you start to theorize, plan and strategies, i've self-taught myself, and now, you know my secret to winning'
apollo however, doubted himself on his skills, ...he was only a anxious rookie, ...he couldn't fo even a fraction of what his own idol could do
'B-But, I'm not worthy! I mean, there's no way I'll pick up on these "signals"--'
'justice!'
he called out in a order tone, apollo shut his mouth up as he straightened up his back
'S-Sir!!'
'if you keep doubting yourself like that, then how the fuck are you supposed to be ever become "worthy", this is your first trial, of course your not going to get it first, or maybe even the third time perfectly, it takes a lot of time, and it's okay to mess up a bit'
apollo took in his words, ...maybe he was right..., maybe he could do this
'and besides, You can do it, You just don't know it yet, But you will. Soon'
now he was just confused again, ..what was this man going on about?!
'apollo, You should know right now, I haven't told the truth to anyone yet'
'Whaaaaaaaa--!?'
he knew it, he fucking knew it,
'I have my reasons, that's all i'm gonna say, ...apollo, breathe in and out slowly, clear your head, and breath, your gonna need that power'
'My um power?'
"I had no idea my Chords of Steel were that special..."
phoenix looked up at the clock
'the actual trial is about to start, Do your best, i wish you luck'
apollo still didn't understand a lot, ..he was still confused on the matter at hand, ..but he had to press on no matter what