Chapter Text
"This court finds the defendant... Innocent. Court is adjourned."
Makoto discreetly breathed a sigh of relief at the verdict. It had been an arduous three days, but in the end his client was proven innocent, and the real killer had been dragged away from the witness stand.
Next to him, his assistant gave a small smile. "That was a close one. Should we meet up with Ms. Nosint?"
"Yeah, let's go." He responded, gathering his things and leaving the defense's desk. He followed the other as they entered the Defendant Lobby, where they were greeted by an energetic young woman.
"Ahhhh! Thank you so much! Ima thought she was gonna die!" Ms. Nosint was moving around; between bowing, dancing and shaking his assistant's hand, it was a wonder she had so much energy left.
"We're happy to help, Ms. Nosint" smiled the blue haired woman at his side.
"Please call her Ima. You saved her from execution, you can be on first name basis!" His client exclaimed with a smile and stars in her eyes.
E-Execution?!
"I'm... sure it wouldn't have come to that, Ms. No-Ima." He tried reassuring, waving his arms infront of himself as if attempting to dispel her thoughts of a horrible fate by sheer will.
"You never know! Ever since that 'Dark Age of the Law' thing, the court has been ruthless! Ima heard some people from the audience crying out for her blood!" Ms. Ima was now frantic, gritting her teeth and tugging at her green hair in an overdramatic show of pure desperation.
As Makoto thought of a way to reassure her that she wouldn't be sent to death, the other woman calmed down and looked towards the ground.
"Ahh... but it's fine now, right? My brother may be gone, but... I'm sure he wouldn't want me to be stuck over his death. His real killer was caught... and it's all thanks to you! Ima thanks you both, Mr. Plensait and Ms. Cuzin!" With hope shining in her eyes, Ms. Ima replaced her sad frown with a bright and sincere smile.
A warm feeling spread through Makoto's chest as he stared in awe at her expression. No matter how many times he's heard those words, being able to help others and receiving gratitude for it always reminded him of why he became a defense attorney: To help those in need and give them hope.
Lost in thought thinking about how to celebrate the conclusion of this case, he barely registered his companion and his client arguing over their first-name status. Footsteps came from the hallway as a figure suddenly appeared in the corridor.
"Mr. Plensait!" A brunette stepped through, a serious expression adorning his young face. He had his arms crossed as he approached the trio with a confident gait. His red coat tails were billowing behind him.
"Mr. Debeste," Makoto was snapped out of his thoughts and proceeded to smile warmly. "I can't thank you enough for your help today."
The prosecutor looked taken aback for a second. Seems like I'm not the only one still not used to receiving compliments.
"Ah, yes of course! It was thanks to me, Sebastian Debeste, that the truth of this case was found out." Modest as ever. "But, I'm not here to talk about the case, I'm here to... uhh..."
The baton that Debeste was clutching slipped from his grasp, hitting him in the face and leaving a red angry mark on the prosecutor's cheek.
"M-Mr. Debeste! Be more careful with that!" Makoto approached to take a better look at his face. As all the other times, however, the mark only lasted for a second before disappearing.
"I'm fine." His self-proclaimed rival waved him off. "I just wanted to give you this." From the vest under his coat, the brunette acquired a small paper that he handed over.
While Makoto examined said paper, the other continued. "It's uhh... a coupon for that diner three blocks down, the one with the burgers advertisement on its window? Maybe you can use it to go out with Ms. Cuzin. Celebrate another victory and stuff."
As the defense attorney looked up, he noticed Debeste looking away, unconsciously bending his baton in nervousness. At once, he realized the other's true feelings. "Thank you, Mr. Debeste. It's very thoughtful of you. Do you mind if I use it now?"
The other's posture tensed slightly before deflating. "Go ahead. I'll uhh... leave you two to it then."
Before the other could leave, Makoto held the sleeve of his coat. "Wait a moment please." Turning around, he spotted the two bickering women, whose conversation had moved onto TV shows, for some reason.
"Hey, Loth." The bluenette stopped her argument before turning to her boss. "I'm going to eat with Mr. Debeste. Want to come?"
Ignoring the surprise coming from the prosecutor, Makoto stared at his assistant, silently conveying a plea.
"No, thank you. Go ahead." She caught his silent words. "Ms. Ima and I were discussing watching a marathon to celebrate in order to discuss which classic show is better: Steel Samurai or The Nickel Samurai. It is plainly the Steel Samurai."
"Wh- Huh? The Nickel Samurai is clearly better!" Ms. Ima exclaimed.
"Alright then. See you back at the apartment. Have fun!" Makoto smiled before turning around to look at Debeste. "Shall we go?"
Before the brunette could respond, however, a shout from the bluenette caused him to turn around. Instantly blinded by her phone taking a picture, Makoto sighed. "Seriously? Another one?"
"Of course! I have to take a picture for every end of a case! It's tradition at this point." The woman replied, showing their client past photos that she had taken.
The defense attorney only looked at her with a deadpan expression before addressing the taller man at his side, motioning with his head towards the door. "After you."
Debeste shook himself out of his stupor, and hurriedly left the lobby, too confused to properly say goodbye to the two women. Makoto smiled as he bid them farewell, not even bothered by the fact they were too busy looking at Loth's phone to respond.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed a blonde turning the corner. He resolutely ignored the approaching woman as he walked faster to catch up to his rival.
...
Sitting across one another in a booth, with their meals infront of them, the pair ate in silence. The noise from other patrons and a TV in the corner filling up the quiet atmosphere.
"Ohhh... do you remember the way she cried? It would have been amazing to see her actually getting the Guilty verdict, don't you think? Her despair as she believed she was going to die would have been glorious!”
Or well... relatively silent. Makoto did what he always did: ignore the voice in his head. His face retained a placid smile as he ate his food, not even hinting at having heard the persistent woman.
“And don't forget about that little flinch you did when she mentioned the execution. Can you imagine? That pathetic client of yours getting to experience one of my beautiful deadly contraptions? Let's brainstorm!"
At the very detailed and gory explanation of how Ms. Ima would be killed in this hypothetical scenario, Makoto finally managed to tune her out completely. He had let his guard down, not expecting his client to mention something that reminded him of his past; giving a way for the blonde who haunted him to appear for a split second before leaving the courthouse.
Thankfully, the man he had invited to eat accidentally interrupted the quiet atmosphere. Debeste had failed to realize the napkin he was reaching for was under his glass, resulting in said glass tipping over and spreading its contents onto Makoto's fries.
"Shoot. I'm sorry! Here, let me–!" Makoto raised a hand, interrupting the other's panicked rambling and stopping him from using his gloves to clean up the water that managed to spill onto the table. "It's okay. It was an accident." He reassured with a smile.
But as he finished soaking up the water on the table with his own napkin and turned to look at the prosecutor, Makoto noticed the downtrodden expression Debeste possessed.
"Hey, it's okay, you can go refill your water while I clean this up; I am incredibly unlucky so this kind of thing happens all the time. And the fries weren't that good anyway–"
"Why?" Makoto's own rambling was stopped by the soft question. "Why did you invite me? I don't– It's just– Wouldn't Ms. Cuzin have enjoyed it more?" Debeste had taken out his baton, unconsciously bending it in confusion.
"Well... Loth doesn't really like burgers, and it would have been a shame to let this gift go to waste." When the other still looked conflicted, he continued in a softer voice. "Besides, you're my friend, why wouldn't I invite you?"
Debeste's ahoge unfurled in surprise, before going back to its curly shape. "You... consider me your friend?"
"Of course!" He smiled softly. "I thought we established that during Ms. Faraday's case?"
"I thought you had said that to reassure Kay about my social life." The brunette snorted. "And to get access to Mr. Edgeworth's office without my presence."
Makoto's eyes widened slightly as he hurried to reassure the taller man of his sincerity. "No, no! What I told Ms. Faraday was the truth. I've considered you a friend ever since that trial with De Killer. Remember? When you proclaimed to the Judge and her son about our rivalry?" At the other's unchanging conflicted expression, he continued. "Besides, Mr. Edgeworth wouldn't have let just anyone take Ms. Faraday's case. If you don't trust me, at least trust in your mentor's judge of character."
At last, Debeste sighed. "No, no, it's fine. I know the type of person you are. I'm sorry for doubting your honesty."
"It's okay." Makoto tried to reach the other man's eyes. "If you don't mind me asking, what brought this on? I can see something has been bothering you since the end of the trial. As your friend, I'm here to help."
It took a few seconds for the prosecutor to reach a decision in his mind. During which, Makoto waited patiently, letting Debeste organize his thoughts in silence.
"I guess... it's something Kay said." The brunette fiddled with his baton once again. "You know how she is, claiming that an older sister responsibility is to tease me about the most random things." Makoto felt hurt squeeze his heart. "She noted how many times my witnesses tend to be killers and how you manage to unmask them every single time. I don't know... I guess I just felt incompressive."
It took a second for the defense attorney to decipher the source of the prosecutor's troubles. "You're not incompetent, Debeste. If anything, it's thanks to you that these people had their crimes exposed. Without your thorough investigations and drive to uncover the truth, all of these people would get away with framing innocents." Makoto softly put his hand in between the other's clenched gloved ones, on top of where the baton was bending, in an effort to stop the other man from accidentally hitting his face with said instrument. "In this last trial, remind me again who found evidence of the killer's attempt to dispose of the real murder weapon? Who stopped the Judge from handing down an early verdict? Who didn't flinch at the madman's desperate attempt to escape?"
At the other's small smile and unclenching of hands, Makoto continued. "I don't think Ms. Faraday meant it that way. It's just unfortunate that the majority of the cases you take tend to have innocent people being apprehended. But hey, in the end, it's not about getting the verdict you want, it's about..." "Finding the truth." Debeste returned his smile. "You sound a lot like Mr. Edgeworth."
Makoto laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. "That's a new one. It's an honor to get compared to the Chief Prosecutor."
The brunette straightened his posture, hope shining in his brown eyes. "Well, it's the highest praise coming from The Best Prosecutor, so you better take it seriously."
As Debeste put the baton back in his pocket, the defense attorney smiled. The prosecutor tended to remind Makoto of himself, especially from when he was younger. Of those first days in Los Angeles when thoughts of his past reminded him of what he lost and the future seemed so uncertain, when he needed someone to reassure him that he wasn't a bad person for leaving everything behind.
And looking at the younger prosecutor, who struggled with things he couldn't tell his family, who struggled with speaking up at times but still tried his best and was often underappreciated by others... Makoto was going to make sure this man had a friend there for him, like the one he himself needed back then.
"Ugh... this is so mushy, how is it not making you sick! Hey, how about we ditch this hopeful facade and discuss an execution for Mr. Incompetent here!"
Makoto's smile tightened. If only he could get rid of her, then everything would be perfect.
As the two men resumed their conversation, their food forgotten and cold, the weather seemed to worsen. With signs of rain from the dark clouds outside, the majority of the patrons left the establishment in order to avoid the delays in public transportation and get to their homes in time. This let the workers relax and change the TV channel to their own discretion.
As the first raindrops hit the side of the glass wall, Debeste stopped his retelling of an adventure his sister in all but blood had dragged him to. Frowning, the prosecutor noted. "It looks like a storm. We better hurry to the station before the rain gets worse."
Nodding, the two of them gathered their garbage and deposited it in the appropriate bins before reaching the door. At which point, Debeste frowned and held Makoto's shoulder, stopping him from opening said glass door.
"Hey." Makoto looked curiously at the taller man. "I just... thank you, for... listening."
The defense attorney smiled. "It's no problem, Debeste."
"Sebastian."
At Makoto's noise of confusion, the other explained. "If we are going to be friends then it's fine if we call each other by our first names, right? Or maybe nicknames? Then again, Mr. Edgeworth calls his best friend by his last name, so I guess any of them are fine?"
"To each their own, I guess." Makoto beamed, glad the other also saw him as a friend. "Though if I can call you by your first name, you can use mine as well."
Sebastian smiled. "Alright then, Hidan. Let's go before we get sick from the rain–"
"This just in!" The News Channel the workers had decided to watch flashed a sign with 'BREAKING NEWS' before turning to a reporter standing outside an airport. A horde of people behind her could be seen being pushed away from the doors by police officers, a redhead in green being extremely persistent in trying to get inside the building. "A murder has just occurred at Hope Springs Airport. Though the identity of the victim and the details of their demise are unknown, the incident has caused all flights to be canceled for the day. Many people are protesting for their canceled flights, and are demanding for passengers of Flight 708 to be apprehended for the murder. The aircraft touched down minutes before the discovery of the body and contained the Japanese ambassadors that came to the country to discuss Japan's recently opened borders, after the incident known as The Tragedy plagued the country for years." An image of said ambassadors then appeared on screen.
The woman on the TV continued talking, but Makoto stopped listening. His face paling and his pupils constricting as he stared at the screen. His surroundings washed away, taking Sebastian's phone ringing and the diner's workers gossiping away, leaving a white noise behind.
His pulse quickened as the eyes of the lavender haired woman and blonde man from the pictures seemed to escape from the TV to stare directly at Makoto's soul, judging him for his past actions. He thought he would stay there forever, the moment frozen in time as a choked sound threatened to escape from his lips.
Only to be brought back down to earth by feeling hands that were not there grip his shoulders tightly, phantom nails digging hard enough to draw blood had they been real. And from the corner of his eye, a blonde emerged; now no longer a faceless aparition he sometimes saw from afar, but a perfect rendition of the woman who haunted his nightmares.
Her crazed smile was getting wider the more she stared at the conflict in his eyes, feeding off of the desp– the grief that threatened to consume him. Getting her face right next to his left ear, close enough that his bleached blonde locks mixed with hers showcasing the almost identical shade between the two, she drawled. "Upupu... this will be so interesting."