Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

The Explosive Turnabout, Part 4

April 24

Defendant Lobby No. 5

9:30 AM

Yuri Rinko

The next morning, I arrived relatively early to the courthouse. Well, I say relatively early, but that's on Yuri standards. I know myself as someone who's late a good chunk of the time, so this is a good thing for me. I was somewhat on time since early equates to on time for me. I smirked to myself, flopping down onto the couch and waiting for Lily to come.

My mom had been able to drive me to the courthouse today, so I didn't need Lily to be my chauffeur all day... Just most of the day. After the investigation kicked off again, she would have to drive me around everywhere, but that hadn't happened yet, so I could save her a little bit of gas, at least for now.

Lily wasn't the next person to arrive, surprisingly. It was Deirdre, who was oddly on time compared to how early she regularly tried to be everywhere. Deirdre sat down next to me. "I want to find the traitor," she said simply, not hesitating at all to jump into what was on her mind. That sounded like Deirdre, always straight and to the point... Despite really not being all that straight.

"I do too," I nodded, looking down at my feet. "I don't want to deal with this any longer. It's so annoying to think that we can't talk to each other because of something that might not even be true."

Deirdre looked down as well, and she swallowed dryly. "I... I have something to say here, and I feel like it's going to be rather controversial..." she murmured, not sure of how to go about saying this.

"Go on ahead. I don't mind controversial. I mean, I feel like my existence is controversial, and knowing you, you won't fly too far off the handles when talking about a serious subject like this," I told her.

Deirdre nodded. "Alright... I think Cormous might be the traitor," she muttered, her voice barely audible above the regular stir and hubbub of the defendant lobby.

I looked at her in surprise, not because I was shocked with her accusation, but instead because she seemed to have read my mind. I had been up late thinking about this the night before, not wanting to believe it but thinking the possibility was there. Cormous was the one outlier in the agency, if you wanted my opinion. He was the only one who didn't believe in Oracle's wanting to help others. I didn't know why he thought this way or how this ideology slipped through the cracks. I would have expected that to be part of the interview process, but I guess not.

"What's that look for?" Deirdre asked, her voice only halfway defensive. The other half was sincere and gentle, and it reminded me of the days when she had been so kind to me at the agency. It felt like that was years ago despite only being a few weeks into the past.

"I just find it funny that you're saying that, because I was thinking the same thing just last night," I told her with a small yet awkward smile. "I mean, I was thinking that it might be the truth... He thinks so radically different from the rest of us. Where did he get that idea from? Why did he decide to come and work here despite all of that?"

"And if he is the traitor, then what could that possibly mean for the future of the agency? What did he come into the agency to find out, and how much did he reveal to the enemy?" Deirdre asked, ever the philosopher. "I feel like the second question already has a clear answer though."

She wasn't wrong. She knew exactly what was going on, and I did just the same. Cormous, or whoever the traitor was, came to the agency wondering about Oracle. Even before the cases the year before we had taken on related to Oracle, the spy had always been oddly connected to the agency. Anybody who wanted to know more about Oracle knew there was a connection to the agency.