Ace Attorney: Council of Crime

Part 7 (Celosia)

I rolled my eyes at the group of seven who stood in front of me. "Why are you staring? Is my name too weird for you or something?" I demanded. "And why does Four Eyes over there look like he's thinking too hard about something?" I pointed to the blonde kid, maybe a year or so younger than me, with a frown.

Four Eyes gasped. "You said your name... Was Quell?" he asked, eyes wide. 

I rolled my eyes once again. Thirty seconds with these fools and I was already tired of them. "Yeah. Maybe I did. So what? Why do you care?" I questioned fiercely. 

Four Eyes sighed. "My name is X. And this is Milan, F, Vesgate, Connor, M, and N." He gestured to his crazy gang as he did so.

I sighed mockingly. "Why are you here? And why are so many of your names letters? Could your parents not come up with anything else creative enough?" I teased, though this felt like a stab to the heart inside. I covered it up as best I could, because I didn't want them seeing how broken up I was over my single mother's death. 

All four of the letter kids looked offended at such. The weaker boy, who I think was named N, looked on the verge of tears. Same with X. For having such epic sounding names, they sure didn't act the part.

I sighed unhappily once again. "Just tell me what business you have with me and how soon you can leave me alone, okay?" I demanded. 

"You were a witness in one of the killings by the Kuranin," Vesgate told me. 

I groaned in dissatisfaction. "So what if I was a witness? Are you seven fools the investigative team? I can't believe so many children were let into the investigation," I commented, eyeing X and Milan, the latter of which pouted at me childishly. See what I mean?

"We are the investigative team," F snarled, a glare in her eyes. I had a feeling I'd like somebody hard as a rock like her. 

"And we can't leave you alone if you know even the slightest thing about the Kuranin," Connor continued.

"I'm not telling you anything," I told them with a growl. "You have nothing to do with me, so ta ta! See you later! Hope you catch the criminals without me!"

I turned to walk away, the charms in my hair jostling as I did so. I felt a hand on my shoulder, making me stop. I turned to see N holding his hand on my shoulder, a hurt expression coating his face. "Look, all of us are related to the victims, too," he told me, voice catching on his tears repeatedly. "F-for the people who were killed... Please help us out..."

I pondered his words for a few seconds. I did need to catch those scumbags who did this to Mom and the rest of the victims. But were these guys really fit to catch them? Not without me, I could tell.

"Fine," I agreed after about ten seconds of thinking through my choice. "I'll help you out. What do you want to know about the victims?"

"How did you discover the body?" M began, crossing his arms to show he was the person in charge. I almost scoffed at this action. Did somebody like him really think he could control somebody like me? Me, the rebellious Celosia Quell?

Instead of putting up a fight and making everybody in this weird gang hate me, I gave him a reply. "It was midnight, I went downstairs to get a drink, and then there's corpse. Happy now?" I asked impatiently. "Besides, that I don't know anything. I hadn't even heard any of the victim's names until this case came along, so I don't know what sort of connection they could have, before you ask."

"So it's true that none of the victims are connected in any major way..." X muttered, typing on his laptop. He was supporting it with one hand and typing with the other, though it was at an alarmingly fast rate for just one hand typing. Freaky.

"Of course none of them were. As far as I can tell, the Kuranin are just dirty rotten criminals who kill for the fun of it. One of these days, that joy for bloodshed will end up getting them into jail, and that's the day I'll never stop laughing," I told the group. "Those guys have no motive for doing this other than pleasure. If none of the victims had any sort of connections, then that's the only real reason behind all of this happening."

Deep down, I hoped my words were false. I didn't want to believe that there wasn't any motive. My mother had died because of these monsters and if there wasn't a good reason, then this was pointless. There was no point in her death. No point in me grieving. No point in anything involved with this stupid as f-

Before I had the chance to finish my thought, X gasped. "Guys...!" he whined unhappily. "My laptop is acting weird...!"

Everybody made their way to X's side, surrounding him in his dumb computer. I followed reluctantly, not sure if I really wanted to see what had gone so wrong. 

I expected something crazy and outrageous to be happening, but instead of something you always see in movies before things go sour, I saw...

A video chat request.

I blinked in confusion before bursting into laughter. "I can't believe you're afraid of a video chat!!" I hooted between giggles. 

I could feel everybody's glares on me (other than Milan, who was just confused in the moment), but their gazes soon diverted to look back at the screen. X hadn't even clicked on the video chat request, but it still appeared full on the laptop's screen. 

A chilling voice cut through the air from the laptop speaker, making me stop my laughing fit and get serious. My eyes went wide as I took note of what the person was saying.

"You're looking for the Kuranin?"

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THIS IS WHERE SUGAR STARTS GOING DOWN

AND YOU'LL FIND OUT WHOS TALKING NEXT CHAPTER

MAYBE

-Digital