Follow the Fool (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Fanfic)

Chapter 1

It had been a week since the phone call. That unexpected phone call that threw a wrench into the gears of Franziska von Karma's carefully arranged life from a woman she'd never expected to want to talk to her again. A phone call that had interrupted her furious concentration in building yet another ironclad case, thrown her off her game, and made her look like a puerile fool in the eyes of the policemen who worked under her.

Come to think of it, it should have made her mad. But it didn't.

For what seemed like an eternity, there had been no sound on the other end of the phone, and Franziska had briefly wondered if the other woman had hung up. Then she spoke. Her voice was the same as the young prosecutor remembered, soft and subdued, though there was something different in her tone. Back in the investigation, every word Adrian Andrews had said had been laced with a sort of melancholy unease, a pervasive malaise that even she couldn't quite hide. Of course, it made sense given that when the two met, she'd just finished tampering with evidence; desecrating the body of a man she pretended to love in order to frame her own professional client.

Still, though it hadn't mattered to her at all at the time, Franziska was perceptive enough to hear something more in her voice—particularly with the reports she'd read not half an hour before about Adrian's suicide attempt. The shadow of CelesteInpax weighed heavily upon the woman's heart, even years after the fact.

Franziska wasn't quite sure what exactly she expected Adrian to sound like after four months in prison, but she did know she didn't expect the other woman to sound almost ... happy. Adrian's voice was still as soft as she remembered, but there was a tone in her words that sounded light, lifted—unburdened. It took the prodigy by shock, loath as she was to admit it.

"I... didn't think you'd answer the phone."

Trying to find her voice, Franziska at last responded, hoping that nobody would catch her brief stutter. "I-isn't this the phone number I left with Miles to give to you? Why would I not answer the phone I told you to call me at if there was trouble? I keep my word." Except when I told you that you'd be fine if you did what I told you. The blue-haired girl paused. "...is there trouble?"

"No! Not at all! N-nothing like that!" the older woman exclaimed, "And I knew that you would pick up, but I... nevermind, it's silly. I just... I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me."

Everything I've done for you? Land you in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice, and almost get you put squarely on Death Row? What's there to thank me for? "And I..." wanted to apologize to you. "I... think that maybe it would be best for us to talk in person, though."

"O-oh! Yes, maybe... maybe that would be best. Where are you? I thought Mr. Edgeworth said that you'd returned to Germany."

"Actually, I have. I'm practicing law in Hamburg." There was a long pause from the other side of the phone.

"Then... how could we...?"

She'd never say yes, to fly almost halfway across the world to see the girl who was responsible for such hardship. Still, even asking might help correct that mistake. "As a prosecutor, I am paid quite sufficiently. It would be no trouble to book a flight from Los Angeles to Germany, after all." Actually, it probably would be trouble to do so, though Franziska was confident that the travel agency would be persuaded by the crack of her whip, if necessary. "That is, if you would be interested."

Franziska heard a soft, long sigh from the other end of the phone. "Maybe... I'd... I think I'd like that. Maybe getting away from here is just what I need... if only for a little while. I... I don't really have any place to stay here for a while, anyway. But I can't ask you to do that! That's too much!"

No, it wouldn't be enough. Though she wasn't completely expecting Adrian's answer, it wasn't really a surprise. Perhaps she'd known the answer somehow, in some part of her that she couldn't really access... it would be a lot of money, and regardless of how well putting the scum of the earth behind bars paid, it was not an expense easily afforded for a girl who had not yet turned 19.