Morix Origins: Journeys

The Adventure Across the Sea, Part 10

March 25

Supreme Court of Judicature

Defendants' Antechamber 2

11:40 AM

I wished I could have said I felt any sense of relief when I stepped out of the courtroom and back into my regular life... But I did not. My chest was still tight with anxiety and tension from the trial, and I had a feeling it was going to stay that way for a long time. I felt sick to my stomach, and it didn't want to go away no matter what. 

I knew exactly why I felt so miserable too. This was very similar to the serial poisoner case whether we wanted to admit it or not, and I hadn't liked it the first time either. On top of that, Sumire had told us that she wanted us to do what we could to help everyone at the office... But we had failed. We had known going into this trial that Ms. Noguchi wasn't going to come out of this unscathed, but we still had to lie to Sumire in the name of seeing it through. 

In a way, I felt worse about all of this than I had back in the serial poisoner case. I had known we were getting ourselves caught up in something big and bad back then, but it had stung. Even so, I had already known that Matilda was not a good person going into this. She had been hurting and killing people for a long time, and she didn't seem to care at all about the people she had to hurt. Now though... Ms. Noguchi didn't particularly seem like a bad person. If anything, she had been a good person who wanted to look after her children before all of this. Even though she killed Mr. Enomata, I didn't think she was a bad person necessarily. She wanted to look after her children, and I knew I could sympathize with that. I may not have had kids of my own, but I wanted to be able to look after those who needed it most, and kids... They were vulnerable in a way the rest of us were not. I would want to go out of my way to keep them safe if I had been in her position too. 

Sumire's shoulders were slumped when we arrived out in the defendant's lobby, a heavy frown on her face. "I can't believe the way that ended," she murmured. "I really thought all of us were innocent... Ms. Noguchi..."

"I don't think she meant to hurt anyone," Evander assured her. "I know that doesn't seem like it means much after everything she did in this case, but... She legitimately cared about you. She wouldn't have wanted us to look after your defense if she didn't care about you."

"Still, I didn't think she was capable of doing something like that," Sumire sighed. "I don't know how to react to any of this, but... I know I have to try and push forward, don't I? This isn't going to be the end of my life even if it feels that way."

"Everyone is capable of doing things we never thought."

Mr. Akagi's voice cut through the silence after Sumire's statement, and I glanced up to see him approaching us with Ms. Machida at his side. "You did a great job during the trial," Mr. Akagi went on. "I never thought that was going to be how that ended, but... I suppose there's not much we can do about it now. Ms. Noguchi made her choice the same way I made mine."

"But... It wasn't supposed to go this way," Ms. Machida muttered stubbornly. "We were all supposed to come out of this on the other side. Mr. Enomata never should have died in the first place. You shouldn't have stolen anything. Ms. Noguchi shouldn't have... She shouldn't have..."

Mr. Akagi shrugged loosely. "I guess all of us were hiding things from each other... But we're still alive now, I suppose. That has to count for something."

"But are we all okay?!" Sumire cried out. "Mr. Enomata is gone, and now, Ms. Noguchi... She's not going to come back ever again either. We're all on our own again, and... You won't ever be able to practice law again, will you, Iemasa?"