Morix Origins: Journeys

The Adventure Across the Sea, Part 5

March 25

Supreme Court of Judicature

Courtroom

11:10 AM

"I don't see why you're so determined to point the finger at me for this," Mr. Akagi said with a frustrated sigh. "I went to the place I work at on the day of the crime. I don't think it's that suspicious. Anyone would want to make a stop by there. In fact, I knew Yurie was planning on it too."

"But this wasn't just any other morning," I argued. "If you were there on the morning of the crime, then you could have just as easily snuck into the victim's office, killed him, and left the suspect to take the brunt of the fallout. You had to know she was in there at the time."

"I did know she was there, but that's because that's exactly where I would have expected her to be," Mr. Akagi fired back. "She was working on paperwork exactly as I knew she would be. She hasn't ever set foot in a courtroom with the intention of defending a client. She doesn't know how to do that, so she handles a lot of behind the scenes work. Of course she would be in her room filling out the paperwork for the last few cases we've been working on."

"You could have mentioned this sooner," Prosecutor Shimada said slowly. "If you were really in the office at some point on the day of the crime, then you should have brought it up. Even if you are not the culprit, hiding something like that hardly paints you in a favorable light."

"I didn't think I would have to say that I didn't kill him!" Mr. Akagi snapped. "I had no reason to kill him, and even if I did, do you really think I would? I wasn't the one who killed him! I can tell you that much without a shadow of a doubt!"

"But you didn't tell any of us that you had been there!" Ms. Machida countered, her voice cracking on the last few words. "Iemasa, just what did you--"

"Of course you're turning on me now," Mr. Akagi muttered. "I would have thought that the greatest attorney in Japan would know better than to stab her coworkers in the back."

"Quiet with the arguing!" the judge cut in, hitting his gavel against the podium before Ms. Machida could turn this into a full fight in the middle of the trial. "Witness, you were at the crime scene at one point on the day of the murder. Are we correct in saying that?"

Mr. Akagi thought about his words for a long moment before he nodded. "Yes... I was," he confirmed. "At the time, I thought Yurie would be meeting me there before we headed out for our investigation for the day. We usually met up there before we left, but sometimes, when one of us is running behind, we'll just go straight there. I noticed that Yurie wasn't there by her regular time, so I decided to just leave. At the time, I just left. I spoke to Mr. Enomata in passing, but we didn't talk about anything too intense. He went into his office to prepare for some meeting he had to arrange that day, and I left to go start on the investigation."

"Wait... A meeting?" I asked, my eyes going wide. "Did anyone else involved with the case know that he was planning on hosting a meeting on the day of the crime?"

Mr. Akagi opened his mouth to respond, but he cut himself off after a few seconds of silence. "I... I don't know," he admitted. "He just said that he had an important meeting to worry about. I didn't want to stick my nose in a place it didn't belong. If he really wanted to talk about it, then he would have said something about it before then, but since he didn't, I thought that meant it was none of my business."

"I see... I think we should continue our investigation into this strange meeting," Evander interjected. "I can only imagine it has some significance on the case at hand. If there is a connection between the victim's plans for the day and the fact that he wound up dead... We need to know who this meeting was with and what happened during it."