Ace Attorney: Web of Mistrust

Turnabout Masquerade Part 3 (Yuri)

//December 9, 2029. Hidden Evidence Room, 12:30 AM//

Niamh and I walked into the evidence room again and eventually made our way through the swarm of police officers to the body. It looked just as bad as before: blood pooling around the head, the neck a dark color from strangulation bruises. I observed her left wrist was also covered in blood. There was a small slit in the glove the victim wore on this hand. The blood seemed to be originating from there, so she must have gotten a cut there. I guess I didn't notice it when Niamh and I first came here. The blood on the victim's head snatched away all the attention.

Niamh crouched down next to the body and picked up the victim's left hand. "This cut is pretty oddly shaped... It doesn't look like a knife cut it. A sharp, jagged object would be the best assumption."

"Seems like an odd choice of weapon," I frowned. "Knives would get the job done ten times easier."

"It is an odd weapon, especially since as far as I can tell, this murder was premeditated," Niamh told me. "But wait... Didn't Ms. Lesa mention a piece of blue glass? Maybe that's what slit the victim's wrist."

"Seems plausible enough," I nodded. "Especially seems premeditated since the statue Prosecutor Bloom, Mr. Morix, Satoki, and Shane were attacked with wasn't at the agency. It never was. It belonged to the Umber twins, if I recall correctly."

"Correct," Niamh nodded. "Now, onto the issue of the body."

I took a closer look at the strangulation bruises. They were dark, as expected of strangulation bruises. I brushed my finger against one of the smaller, discolored spots. A small amount of it stuck to my fingers, something I noticed when I felt a wet splotch on my index and middle fingers. I held up my hand to my face.

My entire hand was covered in dark ink.

"I-ink!?" I gasped. "Why would there be ink on the strangulation bruises?!"

Niamh did the same thing I did, fading out the 'bruises' even further. I frowned. This was making no sense.

None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

"I have no idea," Niamh answered, just as puzzled as I was on this odd subject. "Wait a second..."

She pulled a small section of hair up from on top of the victim's neck. Underneath it was yet another scratch, but this one wasn't red, or even remotely a flaring color.

The scratch was...

White.

"A white scratch... Hm... How perplexing..." Niamh muttered. "This isn't normal."

"It's not natural. Your skin is supposed to turn red or start bleeding if you get a cut. White is just creepy. It's like the victim was some sort of zombie or what not," I told her.

Wait.

Are Niamh and I really solving the murder of a zombie?!

Before I could propose this whimsical (and terrifying) idea to Niamh, she cut me off by shaking her head. "We are not solving the murder of a zombie, Yuri," she said.

I swear this girl can read my mind.

"How did you know I was going to suggest that?" I asked, suddenly believing my partner was telepathic. Or, she knows me too well.

The first thing sound more fun, so we'll go with that.

Niamh shrugged before looking at the body once again. "Now, we just need to figure out what sort of explanation there could be for something like this. It's highly irregular."

"Not to mention impossible," I chimed in.

Niamh nodded. "Exactly. How would we solve this logically?"

"It's like the victim was never alive in the first place! Freaky!" I announced. You would say the same if you found a body that had white underneath the skin.

"Wait... Never alive in the first place," Niamh murmured with a gasp. She picked up the victim's right arm and tried to squeeze the skin together to see if it even worked.

It didn't.

"Her skin... It's as if it's stuck down or something weird like that," I continued.

Niamh frowned and got a faraway look in her eyes, the kind that just screams 'lost in thought.' She placed her right index finger on her cheek as she whispered, "Not alive in the first place... Skin stuck down... Under the skin is white..."

I stared at the victim's face a little more. I attempted to open an eye.

Again, it didn't work.

Opening the mouth...

Nothing.

"Niamh, this is weird. What could it mean?" I told her, feeling concern worm its way into my face.

"I think that the only explanation here involves one of our initial thoughts to being wrong right from the start," Niamh said. "Our assumption... About the victim being dead."

I gasped. "Really?!"

Niamh nodded. "Yes. If the victim was never dead in the first place, what would that mean about this body that would align with all of our findings so far?"

"That the body isn't real...?" I questioned doubtfully. It didn't make sense. A fake body hadn't happened since... Ever. Plus, I wasn't sure if my conclusions matched up with Niamh's.

Niamh nodded again. "Exactly. Something happened to the victim that made her feel the need to fake her death. Something big. Something huge that made her feel the need to leave her entire life behind to go and start over."

"What sort of thing would make somebody do that? There's always a way to figure things out instead of running from it," I frowned.

"Who knows what was going on in the victim's head? All we know is that she's out there somewhere. We need to find her as soon as possible. Unless Ms. Lesa can really tell us about the crime, then the victim is the only one who can provide us with the answers we need. And I'm not all that sure about an amnesiac girl being the solution to this," Niamh continued.

"What should we do now? I mean, with this information... What are we supposed to do with it?" I asked.

"I have no idea, Yuri," she replied. "I wish I knew, though."

Why can't any cases the people at our agency work be easy?! Seriously!

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Idk Yuri why can't I come up with a simple case

-Digital