Phantom Veil (Klavier x Apollo One Shot)

Final

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace Attorney or any of its characters. All copyright belongs to their rightful owners.

Written for Klapollo Week 2021 with prompts set by @klapollo-week on Tumblr.

Day 7: Catharsis

I FINALLY FINISHED.

It's hard not to look at this prompt and not make it angsty, and unfortunately, I'm just evil like that and had to embrace my own bittersweet side. It's post-Apollo Justice. I kind of took this one and ran with it. I will not guarantee that it all runs together well, but I hope you enjoy ^^

Also, do you guys remember when I made these 500-1000 words? Hah. Weird how far I've come now.

The evening song of cars honking and city chatter rode the breeze slinking in and out of the windows. Streetlamps spoke in flickers that danced among the illuminating moonlight trailing the night. The smell of coffee overtook the other smells as a cup was set down next to me.

"Are you sure you want to stay up by yourself for this? Tomorrow is still another day. It doesn't hurt to rest after such a complicated trial," Phoenix stated. He ran his hands over the cabinet, propping his head up with his chin as he observed me. I hummed as I filled out another page and moved on to the next.

"I'm positive, Mr. Wright. I just... I need to do this myself or I won't be sleeping anyway," I explained.

"Alright, if you say so. Trucy and I will be heading out, then. Remember to lock things up well."

"Goodnight, Mr. Wright."

"Goodnight, Mr. Justice. And... Good job." I turned and saw Phoenix give me an approving smile as he called out for Trucy. We made quick exchanges before I followed both of them out the door and waved.

There was a sense of pride, a deep strong feeling in my chest that bubbled inside my chest. It rumbled and stirred growing wilder and more contorted, almost in a sickening yet joyful way. And it continued to fester until the ground of my spirit split open and sent a geyser high into the air. Rising above everything else, the center of attention, this victory overshadowed the other cases and marked the turn of a new era.

But, something was wrong. It wasn't like wrong in a legal sense. Everything had fallen into place with a determining factor that really could have gone either way. The jury system had given that opportunity. The efforts Phoenix put forth all these years had not been in vain.

So why? Why did I have this weird feeling like there was a veil over our eyes? Why do I feel like this ending is still foggy, filled with something with no apparent answer? An invisible wall was lying in front of me with no way through. Everyone else so easily walked around it, avoiding it, leaving it with no intention to see what was hiding on the other side. I'm sure that they didn't even realize they were avoiding this wall. The other side...

I think there's someone else that sees it, too. It's the person this is probably affecting the most. Klavier puts on a strong face and has a strong will. But, without everyone, I wonder how much he's truly suffering. Kristoph had ended up being a staple in both our lives, despite being in different ways. And maybe, he was the root of this all.

That devil we all saw had a darkness behind it. And I feared it as prey could feel the eyes of a predator closing in. Was Kristoph the hunter or had he already been hunted? Did the devil trap him as it had ensnared us?

Camouflage, mimicry, illusion, et cetera.

Concealment had been the heart of all of my cases. And seeing what laid behind those paintings had been bone-chilling. If something else were hidden, we would have missed it. We had no time. The truth had spanned years already, and I had to wonder if maybe we needed more. We pressed for the truth, squeezed it out of certain uncertainty.