Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 26 ( Chapter 26 )

It was not even nine in the morning as Aiacos walked into the Prosecutor's lobby for the case against Gendo Ikari. A perfect blue suit on and his hair combed back as much as possible, he held an envelope in his hands with a collection of papers in it.

Hopefully, it would be the dirt he needed to bring Ikari to justice.

"Getting pumped up for your first case in six months?"

He turned to see Fenrir and the others standing there, a few bandages here or there on their bodies where Minos's sewing job hadn't fixed everything, but they all seemed otherwise fine.

"You should be recuperating. Incidentally, how'd you get out of the hospital?"

"On leave... that von Karma lady vouched for us," Charybdis explained. "You should have heard her in the car... she was singing your praises like none other..."

"I'm the best," Aiacos answered before flashing a grin at them. "I may get penalized now and again, sometimes I don't even get a guilty verdict, but in every single case I've ever been in, the guilty party has been brought to justice. I can sleep much easier each night that way. And if you want to watch..."

"She already arranged seating," Cecil said as the four of them walked off towards the spectators booth, located two flights of stairs above the floor of the courtroom.

Aiacos grinned again as he took a nice deep breath and walked in to the court... this was going to require his all.
_
Franziska, deciding not to let Aiacos go it alone, had offered to side-bar Aiacos for the case, and was impressed by the air of professionalism that Aiacos held. He wasn't in it for his pride or ego, but for his conscious, to defeat the previously undefeated and ensure justice was served in the process.

On the other side, out stepped Gyakuten, smirking with an air of superiority rather than modesty, with a pure-white suit and a cravat. He had nobody side-barring. His jet-black hair was slicked back, forming a number of spiky clumps.

"Thus begins the final day of this case," the Judge said, sitting down in a box six feet high. "I see..." the man looked at Aiacos and blinked once, "Oh... Prosecutor Higashi... you returned."

"Indeed I did," Aiacos answered. "Six months, like clockwork."

"Six months out of a whole year practicing law?" Gyakuten snorted, "Must be rather shoddy..."

"You're talking to the man that's going to get your client hanged," Aiacos shot back clearly. The courtroom went dead, spectators, Fenrir and the others included silent as Aiacos and Saiban stared at each other.

Then the Judge's gavel rang loud.

"Very well then... prosecution, you may make your opening statements."

"Thank you, your honor," Aiacos said. Taking out a series of papers, he then began reciting the information he had poured over last night. "Two months ago, on January 3rd, the three students of M-- High School were brutally killed, stabbed in the throat once each outside their own home. They had recently won a series of scholarships to study in the United States Ivy League colleges, incidentally beating out Shinji Ikari, the defendant's only son. Evidence obtained from the defendant's own belongings-"

"OBJECTION!" Saiban barked out, pointing at Aiacos. "Completely irrelevant!"

"Sustained," the Judge said, "Mr. Higashi, please understand that you should wait until witness testimony to present issues that could be deemed inflammatory."

"I'm sorry," Aiacos responded, "But due to my only witness's nature, I have to bring this up now."

"OBJECTION!" Saiban barked again, "We've all heard the story before, so why say it again? A pocketknife that was discovered to be planted by the authorities with the Sage children's blood was found on Mr. Ikari's person... what of it?"

"On the contrary," Aiacos answered, "I wasn't going to talk about that..." He smirked and look down at his papers before sneaking a glance at Gyakuten... but I am saying these things because they are my theory of what really happened. My witness is merely to verify these things to the court."

The Judge looked at him and then nodded. "Very well then... objection overruled, Mr. Saiban. Mr. Higashi, is that all?"

Aiacos thought for a moment before answering. "No... as I was saying, evidence found on Mr. Ikari's person shows he possessed the knife that had the blood of all three of the Sages on it... in spite of what the defense has stated, previously, I am iron-clad in my belief that Mr. Ikari did kill those three children."

The Judge then looked at Gyakuten, who just smiled and folded his hands together.

"The prosecution would like to convince us all..." Saiban started, "That Mr. Ikari was the responsible killer... but remember! Every piece of evidence presented so far has only ended in tragedy and the suicide of three prosecutors... I doubt number 4 and her savior can do any better proving that Mr. Ikari was anywhere near the crime scene at all!"
_
Jeez... I can't believe nobody is taking what all the other people say serious... Ryuuchi Takane thought as he milled around outside the court, noticing two girls standing nearby, one with light-brown hair while the other's was completely black.

"I hope Julien's okay," the short one said to the other.

"Of course he is... there's no way he could have done what they said he did... he had barely even arrived that day!"

Suddenly the door opened and a court bailiff walked out. "Mr. Takane, would you please come with me? The court is ready for your testimony."
_
Ryuuchi walked into the courtroom and sat at the witness bench as Isaac noticed five girls all come up into the viewing area.

The one that stuck out the most was the tallest, her pitch-black long tresses seeming more straight and feminine than Chary's, but she still seemed younger. Her school fuku also seemed a little more thrown on... probably had just come from work or something.

The other four seemed about the same at first... but he quickly spotted the differences among them.

The second was the second tallest of the five girls total, only a few inches shorter than the other, but like the other three that Isaac was now inspecting, her hair was cut short. It was brown as well, but with a slight dullness to it that didn't make somebody's eyes bleed from brightness if they looked at it long enough. Around her neck was what looked to be a small pendant with a sword on it.

The third was the shortest, and her fiery-red hair was hanging freely. Isaac quickly realized that she, like the second girl, wore a necklace, although it had a magatama on it instead.

The fourth, most noticeably, wore a white trenchcoat, hanging open over her uniform. A pair of pink-lensed sunglasses were on her head, and like the other two, she had a small necklace as well, although only a simple piece of glass hang from it.

The last seemed the least fancy, no necklace or anything, and she looked rather plain, her light-brown hair cut short as well.

"Confused as to the way the trial is going?" the tallest asked as Cecil, Charybdis, and Fenrir all turned to see her walk towards them with the other. Due to the observation deck's height and a padded ceiling, they could talk quietly without disturbing the case.

"Kinda... I don't remember anything like this when I was little..." Charybdis answered. "You'll have to excuse them too, they most definitely missed what I did as well..." she outstretched her hand, the black-haired girl shaking it. "Charybdis Tiamet."

"Mizuki Rajoshin. I'm enrolled at M-- College, so this case sorta has all our attention... the Sage kids were extraordinarily bright..."

"Yeah... we're here to root on Higashi... we met him only about a week ago," Charybdis answered.

"Your Japanese is impressive... but I think... Greek?"

"From Athens," Charybdis answered with a smile. "Who're they?"

"My friends," Mizuki answered.

"Horoki Hikari," the one wearing the sword said, reaching out and shaking Cecil's hand slightly forcefully.

"Asuka Soryu Zepplin," the one with the magatama jewel said as she shook Isaac's hand.

"Mana Kirishima," said the one wearing the trenchcoat as she followed the pattern with Fenrir.

"And I'm Mina Yuki," the last said as she smiled and bowed to them all.

"But to answer your question," Mizuki said as she looked down at the proceedings, Takane going over what had happened about an hour before he had seen the crime, "About two years ago, criminal cases were taking too long, so they set a limit of only two weeks on all cases. This is day number 14 for this case... we're hoping Ikari finally gets convicted. But we're also really worried about our friend..."
_
"Thank you very much, Mr. Takane," Aiacos said as Ryuuchi finished up his account for the beginning of the day. "Now would you please tell us about what happened the day of the murder?"

Ryuuchi nodded, waiting a moment to speak in order to arrange his thoughts. "I'd always walk down to my local bar for a drink or something after dinner... something to give me some exercise. I ended up passing those three kids as they were heading for their home."

"Did you see them often?" Aiacos asked.

"Yeah, I'd talk occasionally with them. That girl really had a thing for my kinda scruffy look too and-"

"OBJECTION!" Gyakuten barked. "Completely unnecessary! A simple yes would suffice!"

"Oh, I think not," Aiacos responded. He looked over at Franziska and grinned. "Miss von Karma did some snooping around yesterday... perfectly legal, of course, but she took some photocopies of the late Raine Sage's journal entries... she mentions Mr. Takane no less than twenty times in the past two months..."

"Why go through all the effort?" Saiban asked.

Aiacos shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. Anyways, Mr. Takane, please continue."

Takane nodded, taking another deep breath before continuing. "Anyways, I noticed there was this guy about twenty feet away from them... I felt like he was following them and-"

"HOLD IT!" Saiban shouted. "Any proof of that whatsoever?!?" He looked at Aiacos, who sadly shook his head. "Good... then don't have your witnesses make statements they can't back up!"

"Yes, please, Mr. Higashi," the judge said.

Aiacos shrugged. "Penalize me if you want, but let's get through the testimony first, shall we?"

Franziska and Saiban both looked at Aiacos dumbfounded... a prosecutor's credibility hinged entirely on keeping as few penalties as possible. There were some occasions where a lawyer had managed to perfectly point out their case, but racked up so many penalties in the process that their "perfect" case had been discarded...

And here was Aiacos, completely cool, not giving a damn about it.

On the inside, the Garuda Specter was smirking at Saiban's shock. It might just give him the advantage to win this yet.

Saiban took in a nice deep breath before slamming his hands onto the banister. "Mr. Takane, one of the biggest problems I see in your testimony is your own lack-luster eyesight. Can you even make out how many buttons are on my jacket?"

"OBJECTION!" Aiacos shot back. "Ryuuchi walked right next to Mr. Ikari! His eyesight is crystal-clear up close!"

Gyakuten just shrugged as he skimmed through a few papers in front of him, letting the tension build as he refused to answer back.

"What's he planning?" Franziska asked Aiacos. The Specter just shrugged. "You don't know?!?" she hissed. "What kind of prosecutor are you?"

"The best."

Finally, Saiban looked up and cleared his throat before addressing the judge. "Your honor, I regret to inform you that Mr. Higashi is chasing after the wrong man, and I can prove it."

"How so?" Aiacos snapped back.

Saiban shrugged. "You just gave me the ammunition, Aiacos. Specifically, why would Mr. Takane not wear some sort of corrective lenses during a jolly little stroll down the road? The answer... somebody fed him this piece of crap of a story... probably you or Miss von Karma!"

Franziska flinched back, but Aiacos grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Don't look shocked, it makes it look like we falsified evidence. If it is, then it's the authority's fault. Not ours," Aiacos commanded. "You can't panic... during my very first case a friend of mine told me to keep Hope alive... no matter how terrible things seem, always search for the truth. He's just pulling at straws here."

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you, Mr. Higashi?" Saiban sneered. "Don't get me wrong, I am 100% sure that Mr. Takane did take casual little strolls and meet with the Sages regularly... Raine's journal verifies this. HOWEVER, I am just as sure that Mr. Takane DID NOT see my client that day! He most likely was just some witness dressed up by one of the previous, deceased prosecutors! Isn't that right," he slammed his hands down and then pointed at Ryuuchi, the witness with a horrified look on his face as the entirety of the courtroom was otherwise dead silent. "Isn't that right, Mr. Ryuuchi Takane?!?"

His voice rang strong, demanding, controlling... Abacus's eyes opening wide as he realized something.

This guy is just not an ordinary lawyer.

Slowly, Ryuuchi slumped down and silently answered.

"Yeah... I didn't see anything. No kids... no Ikari..."
_
Asuka snorted as she watched the proceedings above. "I'll be damned..."

"What did you see?" Horoki asked.

She looked over to Charybdis and the newcomers and shook her head.

"I can't say in front of them..."
_
The judge looked down at Ryuuchi and then at Aiacos and Gyakuten... not sure what to do.

As if reading his mind, Gyakuten spoke up. "Your honor... it seems yet again I have proved to the court that the cruel prosecution's witnesses are irrelevant to the case. Therefor, I demand a sentence of 'Not Guilty' for my client!"

He looked over to Gendo, who had been sitting opposite of the judge and grinned. Too easy.

Franziska pounded her fist against the bench, tears welling up. "DAMMIT!" she growled. "We couldn't... we couldn't..." I couldn't... she thought... Reiji... Lune...

"OBJECTION!" Aiacos's voice rang loud and clear, his face showing no sign of weaknesses. "There's a huge gaping contradiction in your claim, Saiban!"

"How so?" he asked.

Aiacos smirked, folding his arms and looking at Saiban as he would a child. "Because Ryuuchi said he didn't see anything at all... including no kids! That only means neither the Sages nor Ikari were there... that only means Mr. Takane didn't see anything, not that nothing happened!"

Saiban looked at Aiacos, his jaw dropping.

Without wasting a moment, the Specter continued his verbal assault. "And if you can't prove that nothing happened, then obviously Mr. Ikari will be found guilty of murder!"

The judge suddenly hunched down, looking at Gyakuten. "That IS true... Mr. Saiban..."

"Shut up," Saiban barked back. "Because I have a witness of my own... someone that I was able to prove to be the real killer to the police... and I call him to the stands now... Julien Solo!"
_
Their wine glasses hit the counter at about the same time as Minos and Radamanthys finished their drinks. Hagan, on the other hand, just slowly nursed his own. They were still in the castle, although Radamanthys had redone the dungeons actually into quite the hospitable home-bar. Pandora was still missing, but Radamanthys knew where his wife was, and privacy wouldn't hurt her that much while she worked.

"So... pumped up since a new Pentane's around?" Radamanthys asked, Minos groaning at the word.

"Pen... trine?" Hagan asked, confused as to what the Wyvern Specter meant.

"Its name means 'Five and Three'... or something like that," Minos answered. "Four years ago, a sequence of events that I'd rather not talk about lead to me becoming the Basilisk Specter of the Celestial Swift Star. Aiacos and Radamanthys were already Judges. But eventually we -plus a friend of mine, Samuel Laimi and also Lune von Karma- had a series of battles too against enemies of Hades. Aiacos came up with the name 'Pentrine' since there were five different sets of three in the group."

"Weird..." Hagan answered.

"You'd be surprised how he thought up the name in the first place," Minos flatly stated.
_
Horoki slammed her fists together at the announcement of Julien's name. They couldn't believe it... they really couldn't...

But there came Julien Solo, their friend, walking in while wearing handcuffs like a criminal.

"What's the meaning of this?!?" Franziska shouted, but Saiban smirked.

"He's the real killer! He confessed it himself!"

"That's funny," Aiacos answered, his tone level and relaxed, "Why haven't we heard about this earlier?"

"Because..." Gyakuten answered back, "I only found out a few hours ago! With a little innocent... pressure... I convinced him to confess his crime. Your honor? The defense would like to call Mr. Julien Solo to the stand!"

Julien slowly sat up there, looking down at the ground as Saiban slammed his hand into the banister.

"Name and occupation!"

"Julien Solo... exchange student to M-- College..."

"Why aren't you objecting?!?" Franziska hissed into Aiacos's ear, her hand moving towards her whip. Aiacos caught it and shook his head.

"Gotta pick my battles if I'm gonna win the war," he explained.

Julien then looked around and then began his testimony. "I... I'd seen those three around now and again... M-- College is really just the next level in the M-- education program. They were looking into different colleges to see which one the really wanted... I just got fed up with them. Thinking I wasn't worthy of being there since I'm not Japanese and all.. And then... one day I saw them and I... I snapped. I-I grabbed," Julien's hands were shaking, tears welling up near his eyes, "I-I grabbed a knife and let them have it! IT WAS ME... ALL-"

"OBJECTION!"

Saiban glared at Aiacos, who stood there proudly like a stone wall.

"What do you mean 'let them have it'?"

Julien suddenly tensed up more than before, turning to Aiacos. Saiban was about to raise an objection, but a whip crack from Franziska silenced him.

"Answer the damn question!" Aiacos shouted.

"I mean like slashing them up and everything!" Julien responded, Saiban suddenly looking very nervous... although the judge did not understand any of what was going on.

Slamming his hands against the banister, Aiacos began. "I don't know what Mr. Saiban has done to you, Mr. Solo, but you're not the first man that he's broken! I assure you that this is nothing but a lie you've been fed and now you are spewing it to all of us! Why? BECAUSE THE SAGES WERE EACH JUST STABBED IN THEIR HEARTS, DAMMIT!"

"OBJECTION!" Saiban shouted back, looking Aiacos straight in the eye. "Are you sure of that? Are you 100% sure of that? Because I'm betting that the surgeons that did the autopsy were total quacks! Wouldn't you believe that, your honor?" He turned to the judge, glaring at him too as the judge looked at both the prosecutor and the defense attorney.

"I guess... no," the judge said eventually, "I'm sure that Mr. Saiban is correct on this account."

"OBJECTION!" this time it was Franziska, who was holding a stack of papers in her hands. "Suspecting something like this, I also called all of the top doctors in the country earlier today. I changed the names around, but their declaration was unanimous! Cause of death was SPECIFICALLY and SOLELY by impaled hearts!"

"WHAT?!?" Saiban roared. "You're lying, dammit! I'll prove it!"

"Your reign of terror on the court system is over, Saiban!" Aiacos shouted back, "Mr. Ikari is guilty, and all your influence and attempts at hiding the truth have blown up in your face! The one lying here is you! And I'll prove to you right now that Mr. Solo had nothing to do with this murder!"

"Impossible..." Franziska muttered. "You actually see something going on here that I can't?"

"Yeah," Aiacos answered as he looked Julien straight in the eye. "And what's happened to Julien, especially what Nerve has done to him, is the final nail in the coffin of Gendo Ikari!" Aiacos stood strong as he pointed out, first at Gyakuten, and then at Julien Solo. "Mr. Solo... have you EVER taken any pharmaceuticals produced by Nerve?"

Julien slowly nodded. "Yeah... some anti-depressants ten or eleven days ago... just couldn't stop crying."

Funny... that's the same time that Atlantis was totaled by Hilda's God Warriors... Aiacos thought before he continued. "When did you stop taking them?"

"Just today..."

"What about-"

"OBJECTION!" Saiban yelled. "What the hell does this have to do with my client?!?"

Aiacos turned back to Gendo, who still was absolutely silent. "Franziska... I'm not too good with a whip... would you do the honors? Aim for his right hand."

"Gladly..." Franziska said as she uncoiled her weapon.

"Now... now hold it!" Saiban stammered, "What're you doing?!?"

"Getting to the truth!" Aiacos answered.

With a triumphant shout of "TAKE THAT!" her whip lashed onto Gendo's right, gloved hand. The man screamed in agony as suddenly Julien jerked around slightly. Electrical sparks flew from Gendo's hand as he clutched it, looking at Franziska and Aiacos.

"DAMN YOU!" the Nerve CEO shouted as Julien blinked once... something small and metallic falling from his hair.

Suddenly the thunderous sounds of the judge's gavel pounded again and again, everyone looking at him.

"MR. HIGASHI! I WILL NOT HAVE YOUR ASSISTENT STRONG-ARMING DEFENDANTS!"

Aiacos shook his head and shrugged. "He was controlling the witness... I thought it was kinda obvious really... Franziska, would you mind picking up what's next to Mr. Solo?"

He turned and saw Gendo bowling over a pair of court bailiffs, trying to run for freedom, but Aiacos grinned.

True, he was on leave and had to leave his Garuda Surplice... but in exchange he was now allowed to use his abilities for more personal reasons.

"THE PRISONER WILL STAY EXACTLY WHERE HE IS!" the Specter shouted, charging at Gendo and tackling him before punching him once in the head. Ikari slumped, unconscious after just that.
_
Mizuki flinched as Aiacos said those fierce words. Mina, Horoki, Asuka, and Mana all looked to her.

"He's something else... something... evil..." she eventually stated. She looked over to see Fenrir and the others... they didn't sense it, most likely.
_
This can't be happening! Gyakuten thought as sweat streamed down his face. This... this was going to be my masterpiece case! I already got three prosecutors to commit suicide and another five witnesses too! This... DAMN YOU, AIACOS HIGASHI!

"Your honor..." Aiacos said very slowly as Franziska held up a small metallic apparatus. "This is what was controlling Mr. Solo... making him say what the Defense wanted him to. And here's the controller itself..." he held up a small device that had been in Gendo's sleeve.

"OBJECTION!" Gyakuten yelled. "This is completely irrelevant to the-"

"OBJECTION!" Franziska and Aiacos shot back. The von Karma's whip lashed out again, scathing across Saiban's wrist and cutting the sleeve off... another device falling to the ground.

"You were in on this too!" Aiacos orated. "It's pretty obvious that Solo picked up from drugs from Nerve... but with a little extra added to them... and then to finally shut Franziska up, this was going to be your trump card if she didn't give up and die like all of your opponents! Any arguments against that, Saiban?!?"

The attorney swallowed, his legs growing weak. Small cuts appeared, as if by magic, all over his body. And then the gavel pounded, the judge's voice cold but just.

"I deem... in light of these events... Mr. Gendo Ikari is...

"Guilty."
_
As Franziska and Aiacos walked out to the Prosecutor's lobby, they found four cheerful faces there for him to see.

"You... you actually did it!" Isaac said, utterly amazed. "You certainly did the right thing out there... even if it was a bit unorthodox..."

"Remind me to never kill somebody in Japan," Fenrir half-joked.

"Glad you could all see that... what did I tell you," Franziska said proudly, "He's the best of the best... Reiji and Lune really meant every word of what they said before..."

"Before what?" Cecil asked. "We met Lune about the same time we did with Aiacos!"

Franziska shook her head. "Nice try. My brother died in court case against Saiban two months ago... that's why losing Reiji was so painful too." She turned to Aiacos, raising an eyebrow. "Correct?"

"That's what the newspapers said?" Aiacos returned. "Wonder what they were smoking... Of course... they didn't see Reiji so..."

"WHAT?!?" Franziska said, looking at Aiacos incredulously. "But... what about Reiji? He was dead! I saw the body!"

"You gotta be kidding me..." Charybdis eventually spoke up. "Her own brothers never even told her?!?"

"Tell me what?!?" Franziska said to the pink-haired girl a few years older than her.

Aiacos checked the date and then grinned. "A month and everything should work out..."

"A MONTH?!? HIGASHI, WHAT ARE YOU PULLING!?!"
_
"Your boss botched this up... seriously..." a blonde-haired woman said as she sat opposite of a man in his mid-sixties on the top floor of Nerve's headquarters. "I can't get any more involved than I am... at least not without forcing my hand. Can you keep things running smoothly, Fuyutsuki?"

The Nerve vice-president nodded. "Certainly. Production of the T-Series Plagas, as well as Project Tear are running smoothly."

"And the three Sacred Treasures as well as Ambrosia and her priestess?"

"Easy enough to distract with some of the failed test models."

"Good... I expect complete success, as well as a perfect field test of the Hakkeshu within three weeks. If anything happens to Ambrosia... I will destroy Nerve as happily and easily as you would pick an annoying scab open. And I'll make it messy. Clear?"

"Yes, Lady Eurydice."

The woman stood up and walked away... deciding not to inform Kozo Fuyutsuki of the return of the legendary Garuda... nor of those four that had saved Asgard...

Sometimes, you wanted your own racehorse to lose.

 

A/N: This is, at the time of me posting it here, the longest chapter yet in the story. The fact it was four posts originally, all put together, is the reason for this. My obsession with Phoenix Wright is clearly to blame for this sequence… as well as the fact that Franziska exists in this AU. Lune's relationship with her seemed natural… both use whips and all… although this does change the Specter's nationality.