Ace Attorney Investigations: Virtual Despair

Chapter 4: Malnourishment or Murder - Part 4 (Deadly Life)

~ Ultimate Software Engineer Zachary Moore's POV ~

When the elevator doors opened, the courtroom was something like I had never seen before. The room was cast in a dim purple light while the walls had several hearts scattered all over. The walls themselves were made up of bricks of different colours.

"And so the fourth trial is about to start!" Monokuma began dramatically. "You all know the rules by now! Get in your places and buckle up!"

"This place looks ridiculous..." Jordan muttered as he took his place behind his podium. "Let's just hurry it along."

"I would explain the rules to you again, but that gets boring real quick, so I'm just going to let you kids jump in on your own!" Monokuma cried. "Can we get a correct verdict for the fourth time in a row?! Let's just wait and see!"

"There's something I'd like to bring up, if that's okay." Botan said. "If my understanding of the case is correct, Kazashi died from a lethal dose of poison. To add to that, the door to her room was locked. Does this not add up to suicide?"

"S-Suicide?!" Angelica repeated, her green eyes wide. "N-No! No way! Kazashi wasn't the type of person to commit suicide!"

"Yet she also didn't seem like the type of person to let her friends starve to death in a funhouse." Botan responded. "I don't want to believe it, either, but... the possibility exists that Kazashi sacrificed her own life to save the rest of us."

I looked towards Niamh. "What do you think?" I asked. "Could Kazashi have committed suicide?"

Niamh stood in silence for a few moments before looking up at the Ultimate Composer. "Botan, could you go into detail about why you think Kazashi committed suicide?"

"If you wish." Botan replied with a smile. His black eyes made the friendly gesture somewhat creepy.

-- NONSTOP DEBATE --

Jordan: "I suppose Kazashi could've killed herself."

Botan: "She had a bottle of poison..."

Botan: "... while also being alone in her room."

Botan: "She was also locked inside."

*YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!*

"Botan, Kazashi wasn't actually locked inside her room." Niamh pointed out. "Sure, Zach told everyone to lock their doors so that we'd be safe during the night, but Kazashi's room wasn't locked when her body was found."

"Ah, I see..." Botan nodded slowly. "But it still looks like that she drank the poison willingly. The bottle was still in her hand, after all."

"Y-Yeah..." Angelica agreed. "It did look like she drank the poison on her own."

"But maybe someone tricked her." Kyle suggested. "Like... maybe she thought it was something else."

"She was a bit stupid, to be fair." Jordan shrugged, which made Angelica glare at him across the room. Jordan held his hands up in a defensive position, pretending to be afraid of the redhead's wrath.

"So the killer tricked her into drinking the poison, while she remained unaware that it was poison." Kyle concluded. "But wouldn't the bottle have had some kind of label on it, detailing what it was? The killer wouldn't have known about it being poison without some kind of indication, right?"

"When we found it, the bottle was completely blank. There wasn't a label on it. Even if there previously had been one, the culprit must have ripped it off or something." Niamh explained.

"But where did the poison even come from in the first place?" Orno questioned. "If simple things like food and water were unavaliable to us, then how did the killer get their hands on poison of all things?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but it was actually very easy." Niamh replied. "With the Final Dead Room."

"The Final Dead Room?" Botan repeated. "I do remember Monokuma mentioning such a thing. What is it, exactly?"

"Why don't you go ahead and explain it, Jordan?" I suggested. "You've been there, after all."

Jordan rolled his eyes. "Fine. The Final Dead Room was on the third floor of Strawberry House. There's some kind of stupid puzzle thing you have to figure out to get to the other room, the Octagon. The Octagon is filled with all kinds of weapons and stuff."

"Which is why I keep telling all of you that Jordan is the killer!" Angelica exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes. "You all saw him when Monokuma told us we were going to starve! He went insane!"

"But he's been the first suspect in pretty much all the cases we've had so far." I sighed, running a hand through my pitch black hair. "Going by normal DR logic, the first suspect is never the real culprit."

"I don't really get what he just said, but... sure, I'll go along with it." Jordan shrugged. "He's right. I didn't kill Kazashi. Someone had already been to the room by the time I got there. I checked the poisons and I could tell that one bottle was missing."

"So the killer gets the poison, finds Kazashi, somehow convinces her to drink it and she dies." Niamh recapped, pacing behind her podium. "When you found her, Angelica, she never told you who gave it to her, right?"

"Wait, what?" Jordan gasped. "What's this about Angelica finding her?"

"I-I got up in the middle of the night, and as I was walking past Kazashi's room, I heard her gasping for breath." Angelica explained. "I was too horrified to move and get someone else, but... I still feel guilty for not doing anything..."

"It wasn't your fault, Angelica." Orno said, shaking his head slightly. "Even if the effects of atroquinine aren't immediate, she was finished the moment she drank the poison. None of us are medical experts, so we wouldn't have been able to save her."

Angelica nodded and averted her gaze to the ground, although I don't think Orno's words did anything to comfort her. Akari, on the other hand, suddenly came to attention. Her purple eyes widened, as if she realized something.

"Hold on, Orno." She began, holding up a hand. "Can I ask you about something?"

"Sure," Orno replied with a smile. "What's up?"

"You said that the effects of atroquinine weren't immediate, right?" Akari questioned.

Orno responded with a shrug. "Well, I'm not exactly a toxicologist, but I know that atroquinine takes at least 15 minutes before it actually harms the person who swallowed it. Why do you ask?"

Akari remained silent for a few moments, a strained look on her face. "I ask because... I'm pretty sure you weren't in the room when we found out that the poison was atroquinine."

Orno's expression changed from curious to horrified in an instant.

"Wh-What's that supposed to mean?" Angelica stuttered. "What are you trying to say?"

It took a few more moments for Jordan to catch on. "No way," he said. "You mean that...?!"

"That's the only conclusion that Orno's slip-up can lead us to." Akari monotoned. "Orno... you killed Kazashi, didn't you?"

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jordan y u always gotta cause the trouble

it'll get you killed someday

AceAttorneyFan over and out!