Ace Attorney: Secrets beneath Secrets

Turnabout Below, Part 20

May 31

Morix Law Offices

9:45 PM

Chrysalis Starr

A few hours had passed since the rest of the lawyers had left the agency, and I was finishing up the paperwork for this case. Victoria probably should have been doing it, but I needed something to do in order to keep myself occupied after all that had happened. 

Now that the case was over and done with, it couldn't be used to distract me from the issue of Cormous. I couldn't help but think about how he had been invited into our agency and caused so many problems. None of us could have been aware of such, but it was still my job to be aware of big issues like that. I was the damn Oracle of the Law, for crying out loud! I had to be aware of the darkest, deepest secrets in the city to make sure that things didn't get much worse. 

Cotoli was working on something else, though I wasn't sure what it was exactly. We were both being quiet, and I didn't want to disturb his focus. I stared down at the papers before me, my vision slowly blurring as I lost focus. I began to drift off into space, not out of exhaustion but rather disappointment in myself. 

Looking back, it seemed so obvious that Cormous was going to betray us. I had to figure out things like this before they went too horribly wrong, but I failed this time. Cormous got away with everything, and I couldn't save anybody from trouble. 

In the end, it was somebody unexpected to save all of us. I didn't even know Nevada existed in the back of Prosecutor's Wood, but I was glad she did, because if she hadn't been there, the Prosecutor's Office would have gone down in flames because of Cormous. I was going to have to give her a sincere thank you as soon as I got the chance to. The conversation would probably be rather awkward, but I didn't care. She needed to know that she did something great. 

"Chrysalis? Hello? Earth to Chrysalis?"

I let out a small yelp of surprise as I jumped, looking over to Cotoli. The book that had my papers on it fell to the floor with a resounding thump, and I sighed before reaching down to pick it up. I realized my pencil had slipped in between the cushions of the couch as well, so I stuck my arm down there and pulled it out, shaking it to get rid of the stray pieces of fuzz that had attached themselves to the sides. 

"Sorry," I told him, trying to focus on getting the paperwork done again. I didn't know how I had let my thoughts to get so out of control that I lost it upon being spoken to. If it had been anyone but Cotoli, I probably would have been embarrassed as hell, but he was used to me having problems like this, so I doubted he really cared to see me like that. 

"Are you alright? I haven't seen you this spaced-out in a really long time," Cotoli remarked. "Not since Venus... Yeah. You know what I'm going to say, so I'm just not going to finish that sentence."

"Yeah. I'm fine. I've just been... I don't know. I've been thinking about what would have happened if Cormous wasn't stopped when he was, I guess. I mean, we were the ones who went over the applications to figure out who was going to be joining the agency. I feel like I should have noticed it sooner that Cormous wasn't who he said he was," I replied. "I just... I don't know. I can't get it out of my head. We don't have nonstop action to keep me from thinking about it, so now, all the demons are crawling out of the woodwork."

"I'm sorry about that, Chrysalis. I... Would it comfort you at all if I said that I felt bad about it too?" Cotoli asked. "I do, to be honest. I was the one who interviewed him, and I didn't think that there was anything off about him, but if I had just looked a little bit closer... Maybe all of this could have been prevented."