Ace Attorney: Criminal's Masquerade

The Winged Turnabout, Part 7 (James)

When we arrived at the crime scene after the trial, Mukuro was practically bouncing around with excitement. Chrysalis instantly asked her why she was suddenly so happy and joyful, Mukuro shot us one of her typical grins. "I got a witness who told me a bunch of stuff about the case!" Mukuro cried out, clapping her hands together as fast as was humanly possible. "If you guys want, I can tell you guys what she told me before she had to go home!"

Of course, as any normal person would, we asked her what she had found out. It took a while for her to explain what the young girl, the one she called Aya, had told her about the day of the murder and who committed the crime. Chrysalis grinned when she heard Aya's name. I guessed that they knew each other or something. 

That fact hardly seemed important when it was compared to all of the things of importance that Mukuro had just told us. "So... Now we know who the victim is and that the killer is a female," I declared. "But how exactly can we use that to our advantage during the trial tomorrow?"

"We don't even know the killer's name," frowned Chrysalis. "We only know that it happens to be a female who was here the day of the crime."

"Even if we don't have a nam quite yet, I'm sure that we can find a way to figure something out," Mukuro said, determination shining in her gray eyes. 

"A female who was here the day of the crime? Perhaps you are talking about me?"

We all turned to see a person chewing on an apple. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this person was a woman. She had dark hair of a rather ugly green color. Yes, I am well aware that calling her hair color ugly is rude, but I don't know if you're supposed to describe that shade of green any other way. The woman wore a long dress of a black color with heels that looked so sharp that they could kill a man. There was a cigarette in her other hand, held by lengthy nails of black. 

The woman's dark eyes found mine, which made me gulp. I was best with eye contact if I knew the person well and if they didn't scare me. Since I didn't know this woman, and she scared me, I had to look away so I wouldn't scream in my panic. "Who might you be?" I asked. 

The woman took a bite of her apple before giving us a response. "My name is D.K. Killa," she responded. "And who are you supposed to be?" 

"My name is James Devine. These two here are Mukuro Erikson and Chrysalis Starr respectively," I responded, still not daring to meet her dark and threatening eyes. "You mentioned that you were here the day of the crime. What exactly were you doing here?"

Ms. Killa puffed on her cigarette, which made Chrysalis and Mukuro both cough from beside me. Ms. Killa didn't seem to care that she was causing them breathing problems. Instead, she looked at me. "I was walking around, like you do, when I saw this brown haired kid killing somebody. I ran away as fast as I could, so he didn't notice me thankfully. However, that doesn't change the fact that I still saw him taking the life of an innocent person. What sort of monster would do that?" the woman asked of us. She breathed into her cigarette a second time, which once again made Chrysalis and Mukuro cough. Mukuro was practically leaning on Chrysalis for a form of support. She was having trouble breathing, and it showed, which made me hate this woman even if we had just met. 

"Is your friend okay?" Ms. Killa asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "She looks as dead as the victim I saw being killed not long ago."

"I-I'm fine," Mukuro choked out, but I could tell that she was faking it. Chrysalis was starting to look rather nervous, so she helped Mukuro walk away from the scene. The black haired girl looked blue from lack of air, so I didn't object to Chrysalis taking her somewhere else. 

Ms. Killa slowly walked a little bit closer to me. I did my best to keep my fear hidden so that I didn't run as soon as she came within three feet of me. Soon, Ms. Killa was practically on top of me. I looked up at her, as she was much taller than me in her tall and expensive heels. "You're probably thinking something stupid about me, aren't you?" she snarled into my face. 

I caught her cigarette breath full on, which made me cough wildly. "N-no!" I managed to say in between my coughs. 

Ms. Killa inhaled a breath from her cigarette yet again before releasing the damaged air. "You had better not be. You know, so many things can happen with a cigarette... It can burn people quite easily, Mr. Devine... You'd best be careful if you want to stay out of harm. Not just you, as a matter of fact. Those girls who were with you. Everybody in the court tomorrow. It would be best if you didn't say a word to them about me showing up, unless you want to see what hell really looks like, child, she whispered into my ear. 

I felt my skin tingle out of fear. I nodded slowly and numbly, not sure of what else I was supposed to do. 

Ms. Killa smiled a sickly sweet grin before turning on her heel and walking away. I watched her go, her words echoing in my mind. Was she threatening me?

Soon, Chrysalis and Mukuro returned. "Did you learn anything else?" Mukuro asked once she was near. She looked way better now, which I was extremely relieved about. 

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I learned that she's the one. She's the one who killed the victim the day of the crime."

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ah yes fun stuff woo

-Digital