poems & fic

"Hey, Trucy?" Phoenix asks.

"Yeah?" She looks up from where she's playing some kind of rhythm game on her smartphone or something.

"What does the word 'based' mean here?" He gestures towards his computer's screen, which is in a YouTube comments section about a recent Supreme Court decision. He knows it's masochism to keep looking at law stuff, but sometimes it's important. And he was never a civil lawyer -- just a criminal one.

"Oh, it just means that it's good," Trucy says. "Like...I think you're pretty based, Daddy!"

"Based on what?" he asks, smiling.

"My evidence is just because you're here, and you're Daddy!" she answers. "So it's based, like good, and based, like in having evidence."

"Great," he says. "Or should I say...based?"

"You got it, Daddy!" she declares. "Just like that."

A few years later, after his arrest for murder, he says it right in court again. That the defense's speculation is based.

And Phoenix thinks of that conversation he had with Trucy years ago. He wasn't sure he would be here, that he would ever get this chance -- but he has to take it, now that he has it.

And well -- it does have a strong basis in the evidence. That's the conclusion he's trying to make sure the defense reaches. A Not Guilty verdict, of course, but also the culprit behind this murder.

Yujin had met Kazuma before Genshin's passing, of course -- around the time the boy was first born. He had congratulated the happy couple, wishing them all the best.

Now, about a decade and a half afterwards, Yujin is forced to confront the reality that Kazuma, while still a child, is not a baby.

He'd been there at Genshin's funeral, as well, and the boy had been practically mute then, grief carved deep on his face.

Now, as Yujin takes him back home, all he sees on Kazuma's face is a stony anger.

"I'm sorry things turned out this way," Yujin says.

He doesn't know who he's apologizing to. To Kazuma? To Genshin? To himself?

He can't forgive himself for what's happened. If he manages to do right by Kazuma, perhaps he'll manage to.

Susato still loves him. He wonders how long that will last once he introduces Kazuma into the household. If she will grow to resent them both, or if she will still love them.

It is too late to go back on his word, at any rate. For Genshin's sake, he will do right by Kazuma. He has no other choice.

Rent in the city is pretty expensive. Especially when you’re still paying off debt from going through accelerated law school. Apollo thinks he managed to land himself a pretty good job just out of school — Gavin Law Offices is a big deal, and it pays well, even for rookies — but he also needs to be able to get in and out of work easily. He is so damn tired of the drive and parking. Public transit also sucks.

As kids, there was a brief time where he thought that him and Clay would end up living together. They’d been talking about getting something for college, and then he’d gotten a full ride to an accelerated program, and they went to different schools, and they got separate lives.

But not so separate that they can’t get a place that meets their lives in the middle.

So, in the end, moving in together works for both of them. Things are okay. Until Apollo loses his job.

The afternoon after losing his job to his mentor being a murderer, he comes home and screams.

He doesn’t want this to end. Without his job, he won’t be able to pay rent. He doesn’t want Clay to have to cover it all. And even if he takes Phoenix Wright’s offer, that’s not a guarantee. It’s not reliable.

He knows some of the more experienced lawyers at the firm will probably move to their own firm.

But he already knows he won’t be moving with them, no matter what.

Clay comes in through the door a few minutes after he’s done screaming.

“You okay?” he asks. “You’re back early.”

“Had a case today,” Apollo answers. “I lost my job. Turns out Mr. Gavin killed someone, and I’m on the goddamn losing end anyways.”

“That sucks, man,” Clay says, sitting down on the couch next to him, leaning against him. “But hey — wherever you decide to go next, I’m here for you, man.”