Ace Attorney Investigations: Virtual Despair

Chapter 2: Fatal Secrets - Part 5 (Deadly Life)

~ Ultimate Pokémon Master Akari Hinata's POV ~

I severely hoped I was wrong. I didn't want to believe that Ichiro had been planning to willfully end someone's life so he could keep his brother's name. To make matters worse, the culprit didn't even mean to kill him; they just wanted to protect themselves. If we managed to correctly guess the culprit at the end of the trial, they would be executed, regardless of whether or not they meant to kill Ichiro.

"Would he... really do that?" Kazashi squeaked. "Would he really... kill someone?"

"I-I don't believe it..." Trucy muttered. "There's no way I can believe something like that...! We'd been friends for years...!"

"If he was willing to lie to us about his real name, then it wouldn't be much of a surprise that he'd be willing to kill someone in order to keep a secret." Jordan grinned, obviously enjoying himself. "Now we just need to find out who killed him."

"I still think it was Jordan," Angelica pouted. "He's culprit material!"

"While I agree that Jordan is incredibly suspicious right now," I began. "I don't think he's the culprit. There's evidence pointing away from him."

"Oh, yeah, you're right..." Niamh nodded slowly. "Remember, Botan? You told us that Ichiro was arranging to meet someone. But you specifically said that he was delivering a letter to one of the girls."

"Yes, that's right." Botan nodded. "He was slipping a letter into the cottage that belonged to a female. However, I cannot claim to know who he wished to meet with. My deepest apologies."

"That settles it." I said. "The culprit is female. Are there any other clues? It can be anything at all at this point."

Niamh began muttering to herself, going over all of the evidence we'd presented so far. "The bloodstain means that the murder occurred in the library... Botan told us that the culprit is a girl... The calling card was to make us think one of us is a serial killer..." After a few moments, she gasped. "That's it! There's something we haven't talked about yet!"

"Go on, spit it out." Jordan demanded. "What is it?"

*HERE!*

"When Akari and I were investigating the crime scene, we discovered that Ichiro managed to grab something from his killer." Niamh explained. She held up a miniscule blue diamond, or at least what remained of it; the object had been almost completely shattered into tiny pieces. "Does this look familiar to anyone?"

Nobody said anything; several frightened glances were exchanged between person to person, but not a single person spoke. "Great, so no one's owning up." Jordan sighed. "Anyone got any educated guesses on where it could have come from?"

Okay, so I'm going to be honest right now: I had an idea of where the diamond could have come from. I didn't have any evidence, but it definitely looked very familiar and I knew who had previously owned it before Ichiro got his hands on it. And if Ichiro got that gem at the time of the murder, then it would place that person under suspicion. That person could be the culprit we're looking for: but accusing one of your friends of killing someone else was painful, even for someone like me. And if that person was the culprit, then they would be killed. Executed.

"It's pretty..." Kazashi whispered, staring at the diamond with wide eyes. "You know, I saw something similar on a costume once..."

"I wouldn't say things like that if I were you." Kyle warned. "Remember last time when you were actually suspected because of something we found at a crime scene?"

"I-It wasn't me!" Kazashi cried. "You guys know me! I'd never hurt anyone!"

"... I know." I said, looking down. Now or never, I guess. "You aren't the culprit, Kaz."