SSD III: Silver

61. How Does it Feel to Fall so Far

Judge Cheng was the kind of man who adhered to logic and absolute fairness. He was a stickler for the rules and never crossed them— no matter how much it pained him at times— for without the rules, chaos would reign.

In this way, he liked to keep an honest and ordered courthouse, hence his decision to refuse Miss Runt as a witness in this case. The evidence he'd been provided to discredit the young teenager was simply too powerful to ignore, he couldn't knowingly allow her to make a testimony with the risk of it swaying any decision on the innocence or guilt of Hecate Aurum. And so, if the case were to continue as it had been, it wouldn't be long before Judge Cheng pronounced Belladonna as innocent on all charges.

In fact, this would likely be the last day of this shambles of a trial.

Silence rang in the crisp air The Honourable Judge always liked in the early mornings. He was so glad of the closed proceedings this case took, meaning only those directly involved could be allowed into the courtroom.

"Today-"

A cool breeze brushed by as a short girl with piercing grey eyes and curly grey hair that shimmered in the early daylight bustled into the room, she stopped just at the end of where the public gallery normally was. She bowed respectfully as the door clanged shut behind her. "My apologies for my tardiness, Your Honour, please continue."

Judge Cheng blinked disdainfully at her, but nodded in acknowledgement as she took a seat unusually on the side of Hecate Aurum. Despite the cascading long strands of perfectly-sculpted hair now dancing around her shoulders, it wasn't hard to recognise the girl as Silver Runt, so it seemed strange that she would show support to the woman she was so desperately trying to get locked away by sitting on that side.

Odd. With Silver's hair lengthened and curled as it was, she almost looked like a monochrome version of the woman a few feet in front of her.

Aizawa, sat in the row opposite since she'd requested his presence, raised an eyebrow at the sight of her hair. It was remarkable what a simple hair change could do, suddenly the resemblance between mother and daughter was striking. It would be difficult to ignore, especially when they provided clear evidence for it. Silver smiled back at him sending Nezu beside him a small wave.

The two had ended up having a concise but enlightening conversation with one another the night before. It had gone a little like this:

"You sneaky bastard. You ran a maternity test and didn't tell me?"

"Yes."

So here they were, waiting for everything to get underway so the prosecution could bring up the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of one Lillian Aurum.

"Now, if the prosecution has no other evidence to call to attention-"

"Actually, Your Honour, we do."

Judge Cheng nodded once more, gesturing loosely for them to go ahead. He completely expected this piece of evidence to fall flat just like all the previous pieces had.

"With your permission of course, we'd like to call Lillian Aurum to the stand."

Whispers. Furrowed brows. Shared looks.

This was not order.

Hecate leapt to her feet, utter indignance giving her height. "My daughter is dead, I will not have you desecrate her name!"

The gavel slammed against the wood below, the noise echoing through the room and tearing down high-strung emotions. Normally Judge Cheng would be strongly against such outbursts; considering this was about a mother's child, he was willing to let it slide this time. "Ms Aurum, if you could resume your seat and please refrain from calling out of turn."