Ace Attorney: Criminal's Masquerade

The Winged Turnabout, Part 10 (Aya) FINAL

I could just see the fury of Ms. Killa from where I sat. I clung onto Arena as tight as I could without hurting them. They wrapped their arms around me as well. I looked up at them and rubbed my eyes. The smoke in the air was starting to sting at my lungs and eyes. Arena seemed to notice, which resulted in them brushing the tears away from my eyes. Despite the dire situation, I smiled up at them out of happiness. 

"You don't know what you're talking about!" yelled Ms. Killa. She angrily puffed on her cigarette, which did nothing but send more and more smoke up into the air. I even saw the judge trying to fan the smoke away from his face. I guess that everybody in the courthouse was affected by now. 

"I think I do," Mr. Devine said. He slammed his hands on the bench before him and pointed at Ms. Killa. "You killed the victim for some reason and you're trying to cover up for it!"

Ms. Killa glared at him. "You say some reason. Do you know what reason that is? If you don't have a reasoning for me to kill the victim, then I'm afraid that this all means nothing. You need a motive if you want to accuse somebody of murder, you know. I'm pretty sure that everybody knows that," she said. 

Mr. Devine froze up for a moment and looked at Ms. Starr. She seemed to have an answer for this, which I was glad for. If she didn't have any ideas, we were as good as doomed and my coming here meant nothing. Ms. Starr placed one finger on her chin and stared at the witness. "You seem to be rather addicted to smoking those cigarettes, witness," she said. 

"What does that have to do with anything?" huffed Ms. Killa. "I don't think that my relationship with cigarettes has anything to do with this case. You're just trying to change the subject so you don't look like idiots. Well, it's a little bit late for that if you ask me."

Ms. Starr shook her head. "I'm not trying to change the subject at all. In fact, this is very related to the subject at hand involving your motive," she said. "You seem to be addicted to smoking. An addiction such as smoking must be rather expensive. It's not like cigarettes just appear out of thin air for you to puff on all day long."

"Yeah. This stuff isn't free. You figured out that things cost money. Congratulations, genius. You figured out what everybody else already knew," Ms. Killa scoffed. She rolled her eyes. "I still don't understand what this has to do with you proving me guilty."

"You mentioned earlier that you are unemployed when it comes to occupations. This means that you're going off of money that you earned in the past. Cigarettes must take up a rather decent amount of that money. I'm shocked that you can even get by without earning any new money," Ms. Starr said. 

"Talking about my personal life isn't going to fix your broken case," Ms. Killa told her. "This conversation has no meaning. I might as well just leave now so that I don't have to listen to you guys going on and on."

"You need money to live off of. But where are you going to get the money to get by with the bare necessities and also have enough money to buy cigarettes for your addiction? Perhaps there's a way that you can get money without working," Ms. Starr smirked. "I think that it's rather clear what I'm going at."

"I think I understand..." the judge said with a small nod. "You're trying to say that somebody paid the witness to kill off the victim. The witness had no choice to do it realistically, as she needed the money to hold up her addiction."

Mr. Devine slammed his hand down onto the bench once more. "I think that spells it out crystal clear, witness. We have testimony against you and a motive. I believe that this is enough for this case to be closed once and for all!" he cried out. "Confess to your crimes!"

Ms. Killa huffed on her cigarette, which was blowing smoke dangerously close to her apple. Eventually, the smoke brushed against the side of the apple. A few more huffs and it meant that the apple was practically bathing in the smoke. The tip of the cigarette hit the apple, which set it on fire. Ms. Killa dropped it onto the floor and screamed. She raised her foot to put out the fire, which she succeeded in doing. However, when she stepped on the apple, it pretty much exploded and went all over her. The juice from the apple put out her cigarette and left mascara on her eyes running down her face. 

A pair of bailiffs walked up to Ms. Killa and dragged her away. Everybody looked up to the judge. He raised his gavel and hit it against his bench to be sure that he had the attention of everybody in the court. "I believe that is enough to assume that Ms. Killa is guilty of this crime," he declared. "I think that it's time for my verdict."

"There are no objections here," Mr. Devine said with a smile. 

"In that case..." the judge said, his voice trailing off. He raised his gavel and prepared to hit it against the bench before him. "This court finds the defendant, Aiden Healy, not guilty. Court is adjourned!" 

He hit his gavel down onto the bench. I looked up at Arena. They smiled at me. "Let's go out for lunch. I think that we could use a little bit of food," they said. 

I nodded. "Okay," I replied. I rose to my feet, still holding their hand. I waved to the defense briefly. They were all practically skipping from the courtroom. I giggled their direction before walking out with Arena. Finally, it was all over...

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last week I said that I would update twice today but I decided not to so that my stress would be a little bit less since I have to type more these next few weeks

-Digital