Clock Tower Parade

Chapter One- Foreign Assaults

“W-What are you doing?!” The woman shouted at her attacker before he tied a piece of cloth between her jaws to silence her. She breathed quick and heavy through her nostrils, inhaling every valuable piece of oxygen she possibly could as she stared up at her attacker with begging red stained eyes.

“Number six.” The man replied, messing around with a thick piece of rope between his hands. The woman whimpered loudly with tears rolling over her cheeks when he placed the rope on her shoulders with her head located in the middle.

He leaned to her ear, chuckling softly because he couldn’t contain his laugher any longer, “A fake suicidal death.”

The man harshly gripped her arms and hoisted her up to her wobbling feet so that he could tie the other end of the rope to the staircase. The woman watched with horrified eyes and tried to shout for help, scream for help, cry for help but all was effortless. When he was done, he retrieved a large step from somewhere within her apartment, placing it nicely under the staircase.

“Stand on it.” He ordered his victim while lifting the sharp blade from his pocket in a manner to threaten her, “I wont repeat myself again. I’d like to avoid cutting you and spill needless blood for a second time.”

She did as he ordered. By now she had completely given up any kind of small existing hope that she would get out of this unharmed. It was her time, she realized. And to make it as less painful for her as possible, she decided to just do whatever he ordered her to.

The man quickly snatched a glass containing some kind of drink from the victim’s table in the living room before he returned back to her trembling form, “Drink this.” He ordered, ripping the piece of cloth from her mouth and putting the glass up to her lips.

“N-No! What do you want from me?!” She screamed, trying to break her hands out from their restraints. But that only caused her to lose her balance and almost fall towards the ground. And with the rope around her neck, she immediately remembered what would happen if she did so. She clutched her eyes tightly, preparing for the torture she’d go through the next moment.

The man quickly caught her though, pushing her back in her standing position. “There there, calm down.” He hushed the woman, holding the glass up to her lips once again. “Trust me. This will give you the rest you’re longing for.”

She eyes the substance in the glass with horrified eyes. If that really contained what she thought it would, then she realized that it was really over now.

She stuttered out her next words with difficulty, “W-Will I notice when it happens?”

“You wont notice a single thing. Be assured, you’re the first one who will leave peacefully.” He pressed the glass against her lips for a third time, pressuring her into drinking the content.

After a mental battle with herself about the odds of surviving this, she surrendered herself to her fate and slowly sipped from the drink. Expecting it to be absolutely terrible in taste, she was relieved to discover it just had a regular taste of water.

After she was done, the man threw the glass into a random direction, completely destroying it in little pieces over the ground before he made his leave from the woman’s sight. It would only be a few minutes now before she would fall asleep and his set up would be just like he imagined it to be.

There were only a few things he would have to leave here to make the scene perfectly complete.

After carving some things in the wooden door of the apartment with his blade, he smiled and wandered off.

It was about time he got to number five.

----

Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth was not pleased. Not one single bit. Out of everything that could go wrong, this had to happen to him. Guess it was his own fault for stepping out of his usual daily schedule to experience something new and refreshing. This would be the first and certainly last time he would take detective Gumshoe’s recommendations on where to have his lunch breaks.

With a big glare plastered on his face and a frown to match he walked determinedly through the hallways of the Prosecutor’s Building. Once he stepped out of the exit of the building he took a turn to the right, on a path that would lead to a park close to the building. Edgeworth figured that what he was searching for so intensively would be located there.

He had lost one of his most valued possessions. The evidence of his prosecutor profession, his prosecutor badge. For someone like him that was the one possession he couldn’t afford to lose. Without it, he had no proof that he was actually a prosecutor. Not that he had much use for it in all honesty. Everyone in this country was aware of his name and his occupation. But to make it official, he still needed that god-awful tiny badge.

What bothered him even more, was that he had no idea how he actually lost it. For personal reasons, he always kept the badge safely in his pocket instead sticking it on his red blazer for everyone around him to see.

Edgeworth grumbled to himself once he finally reached the large park. Casting a look around, he could only wonder how in the world he was going to find something as small as a badge in a place like this.

“Where to start?” He wondered out loud before shaking his head and walking to where he had been himself during lunch break.

It had been detective Gumshoe’s idea for Edgeworth to spend his lunch break at some other place instead of his office all the time. Especially since it was such a nice warm and bright day. Normally Edgeworth would have dismissed his suggestions but today he decided to accept one. With all negative consequences to haunt him afterwards.

“Last time I take Gumshoe’s suggestions for granted.”

Looking around, he realized why he never bothered to come into the park. The place was crowded with people, kids and dogs. Little children playing here and there, while they should probably be at school. Part of the crowd being as noisy as they could be, while others tried to get their calm and peace here.

He really didn’t liked it. It was too crowded for his own liking.

Edgeworth didn’t came here with the purpose to relax though. He searched around, passing several paths, benches and rows of trees in hope he could rediscover the place he had taken a seat just a little while before in his break. Observing things were one of his talents, surely he would be able to recognize the place he sat before?

Searching with all his focus and concentration he wasn’t aware of the people walking around him until he bumped into one of them. “Oh!” was all that got forced out between his lips once he realized what happened. A young woman looked at the prosecutor with apologizing eyes as she tried to silence the child in her arms who had been greatly alarmed by the unfortunate collide and had began to cry.

“I beg your pardon, ma’am.” Edgeworth quickly apologized, brushing past the startled woman. Hoping to get away from the two as quickly he could, least he wanted was to get tangled up in any more unwanted matters. The woman looked at him with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head and moving on with what she was doing.

Avoiding a crowd of noisy kids with skateboards and a horde of charging dogs that apparently managed to escape from their owners. Edgeworth’s eyes finally landed on the location he searched for. A small place underneath a large tree, shadows falling over the patch of grass there. It was located closely to the pond, where there were a few swans drifting around by now. It was exactly as he memorized it.

He felt relieved. Now he could start looking around to see if there was anything like a shining badge on the ground there. However, Edgeworth’s frown did not alter.

There was someone else on that spot by now.

Another young woman.

In his mind, Edgeworth expressed an awful large groan. From what he witnessed and experienced with women so far was that they were a nuisance and always too full of themselves. His adoptive sister, Franziska von Karma got credit for making him think like that for the most part. Who thought it was completely ordinary to actually hit people with her whip when she thought they were being ignorant or ‘foolishly foolish fools’, whatever that could possibly mean in her mental dictionary.

The current question however, was how he wanted to approach this woman into letting him research the little spot she was sitting on? Wait, why was he even thinking about this? He was Miles Edgeworth! One of the most famous prosecutors known in the entire country. He figured he shouldn’t have one single problem with approaching this unknown woman and telling her to move so he could check if his badge was there. Yes, that seemed about correct.

He remained still for a moment though. Gazing into the direction where the woman was sitting, checking her appearance and behavior. Someone who had observations skills like himself would have no trouble in finding out what kind of woman this was.

From what he could see, she was sitting under the tree, probably to escape from the heat of the sun while enjoying a variation of small foods coming from out of her purse. The woman stared at the two lovely white swans swimming in the pond while she was listening to a music device of some sorts, an IPod, most likely.

Her grey colored eyes observed the two large birds from a small distance. She smiled at the sight. It wasn’t every day she would get the opportunity to see a swan. Not to mention a pair of them. So far she knew, they were a rare sight here at this park. And let it be that on her first visit to this place, she would encounter them right away.

The woman, Leah, shrugged her grey tinted jacket off, laying it nicely folded next to her purse as she sighed and wiped her head with the sleeve of her black blouse.

“Even in the shadows I feel like I’m getting fried to a crisp of toast…” She breathed, having trouble to endure this insane heat. “Why, oh why does this happen today? On my very first day… It’s impossible to make a good impression when there are fountains erupting from my armpits due this cursed heat.”

Staring down at the small leftover of her sandwich, she realized that she had had enough lunch for now and got up her feet, walking towards the pond where the swans were still roaming around in the water. The swans would surely like a nice snack. Maybe if she would feed them, they would tend to come around this pond more often?

With that thought Leah ripped the small piece of bread to even smaller pieces before she would toss them into the water one by one. Watching with envious eyes how the swans would stretch their wings and attempt to fly to get to the pieces as quickly as possible.

Edgeworth slowly stepped towards the destined location. His eyes only interested on the small area around the woman to see if he could see a sign from the missing prosecutor’s badge at all.

A sharp glimpse of light flashed into his right eye, causing him to blink instantly. Once recovered, he directed his gaze to where it came from—the woman’s jacket.

….Was that a prosecutor’s badge on there?

He squinted his eyes at the little thing.

It really was a prosecutor’s badge.

Miles Edgeworth frowned and began to think about the situation, searching for a good explanation. How could a prosecutor badge end up on this woman’s jacket? Surely if she were a prosecutor he would’ve seen her around in the building once or twice. But this woman was completely unfamiliar to him.

Not to mention she was on the exact same spot where he had taken his break moments ago. And seeing that he lost his badge during that time…

She must’ve found his badge right after he left. Thinking that it would be a nice decoration, she claimed it as her own and attached it to her jacket. All women are like that, never able to resist anything shiny and beautiful.

His eyebrows knitted together once he realized what was really going on here. The nerve of some people these days, he thought with boiling irritation as he began to march over to the woman to confront her with that fact.

Leah wasn’t aware of the impending complication surrounding her at all. Tossing the last small bit of bread, she returned back to her belongings by the tree, feeling replenished with good and positive thoughts. It was about time she would get back to the office.

Right when she suited her black purse on her shoulder, Edgeworth tapped her shoulder with his hand to get her attention rather bluntly. She sharply inhaled and gasped, whirling around on her heels to face the frowning man with serious eyes, “My goodness!...” She breathed, placing an hand over the location where her heart was located as she exhaled slowly. “Y-you startled me, mister.”

Edgeworth stared at her, his feature not altering one bit. “My apologies, ma’am. But there’s something I want to tell you.”

Eying the unknown man in a confused manner, Leah nodded cautiously. “Go ahead?”

His eyes lingered downwards to the grey jacket she held securing in her arms. Extending his hand, he pointed at it. “Do you find it necessary to claim unknown possessions for yourself?”

Leah blinked at him in confusion. The tone of this man did not appeal to her. He seemed rather irritated, angry even. But what had she done to cause that? And what was he even aiming at?

He crossed his arms, continuing his speech, “That badge on your jacket. It’s an important proof of profession for a prosecutor. And seeing that I lost mine exactly on that place where you were lunching just now, you must’ve found it and attached it on your jacket because you were impressed by it, were you not?” He pointed out, a sly smirk on his lips, knowing that he was completely right about this situation.

Leah stared at him with wide eyes. Struggling to find a good explanation she shook her head instead, proving his conclusion wrong. “No, you’re wrong.” She said strictly, “That badge indeed belongs to me, I’ve worked hard to obtain it, if you must know.”

Edgeworth mockingly raised his eyebrows at her statement. He began to lose his patience. Most of it was already spent on other matters earlier today and he was soon to run out of it. First his car broke in the morning, then some complications involving some papers from a case, Manfred von Karma who pointed out his errors once again, detective Gumshoe talking the ears off his head, him losing his prosecutor profession and now this, a woman claiming to own his badge.

“Spotting and picking it up to attach it to your jacket is barely any work.” He extended his hand to her, “Now, I’ve had a foul day and I’m a rotten mood, so I’m only going to ask this once, can you please hand me back my badge so I can get back to work?”

“I’m telling you, you’re mistaking.” Leah repeated again, “This badge is mine because I’m a prosecutor at the office nearby!” With raising her tone, she hoped he would believe her.

Unfortunate for her, the man before her was thickheaded and quite certain of himself. “If you were a prosecutor like myself, don’t you think I would’ve spotted you there a couple of times before? I know everyone who works there. So your claims are useless.”

Leah’s cheeks started to heat up in irritation. Now was her time to frown and display her own mood, “You want proof? Fine!” She gazed down to her purse, zipped it open and started to roam through the contents of it with her free hand. However, finding it seemed quite problematic. “I’m sure I had it!.... I didn’t left it back at my office, did I?” She mumbled worryingly to herself because without it this man surely wouldn’t believe her.

But before she could retrieve it, the man clothed in red before her had already seemed to run out of his patience and snatched the grey jacket from her arms, turned around and started to head in the direction of the exit.

“I’m not mistaken.” He grumbled, picking the badge loose from the jacket. “Ignorant tourists, think they can claim anything.” He commented, hinting at the little accent the woman had been using when she had spoken up.

Sharply inhaling at the unbelievable act made by the man, Leah opened her mouth and shouted at him, “What do you think you’re doing?!” She roared and marched right after him, completely set on getting her valuable possession back. Causing surrounding people in the park to give them cautious and worried glances.

Edgeworth barely casted a glance over his shoulder at her, “You’ve caused enough trouble so far, miss.”

“For me it’s completely the opposite, mister.” Leah grumbled under her breath, holding her purse firmly in her hand with the intention to hit the man with it if he showed any sign of acting aggressive. “I do not care if you’re in a foul mood, you’re the one causing trouble here!”

He halted in his tracks, his eyes directed upwards in an annoyed manner. He wasn’t going to get rid of this woman like this, she was more determined than he expected. He reconsidered acting harshly, maybe he could talk the woman out if it in a eye to eye conversation?

“I think I just gave you a good enough proper warning!” She called out behind him with a tone of venom.

He slowly turned around, his usual expression with the frowning eyebrows and glare still present on his face. “Listen, do you honestly think you have the right to--”

WHAM!

The purse filled with heavy content was hit straight across Edgeworth’s face. Giving him such a painful and harsh smack that he couldn’t remain balanced on his feet and fell to the side into the grass with a loud thump.

Leah stepped in front of him, her shadow looming over his crouching form as he tried to recover from the nasty blow he just took. But everything was spinning and dazzling, his head was aching with fresh intense pain. She huffed and spoke again;

“Now, give me back my prosecutor badge or I will have to assault you for a second time.”

Her words dug into Miles’ aching head as he glared at the ground. She had crossed the line now. Woman or not, this was not something he could overlook.

Returning the same glare the woman was giving him, he grumbled loudly, “Why you...”

“Mr. Edgeworth, sir!” A different voice called out, snapping the two away from their glare competition.

Both Leah and Edgeworth looked to the side, spotting a certain big build man with the familiar green trench coat. It was Edgeworth’s partner, detective Gumshoe who came rushing towards the scene in a hurry.

He halted next to the prosecutor, lightly bending down with hands suited on his knees to catch his breath. “S-sir!” He dug with one hand into a pocket, raising it out and revealing the content to Edgeworth, “You dropped your badge during your lunch break! I picked it up and wanted to bring it to you once you were back at your office, but when I checked, you were already gone again. ”

Leah crossed her arms and sent a glare at the prosecutor, who still had her jacket and her badge in his hands. Being aware of what really happened with his badge, it sunk into Miles’ mind that he made a horrible misunderstanding. Feeling the ‘told you so’ atmosphere growing with every passing second, he carefully peeked to the side at the woman’s mocking face.

“Oh.” He breathed, attempting to stand back up on his two feet without dropping back to the ground. “Thank you, detective Gumshoe.” And he took his missing badge from the man’s hand and buried it deeply within the pocket of his pants where it belonged.

Gumshoe grinned brightly, “No problem, sir!

Edgeworth tried to stand up, but the aching of his head made it quite hard for him to do so. When he wanted to look up to face the woman in an apology, he saw a hand in front of his face. His eyes moved from her hand back to her face, which hadn’t changed one bit and still showed a sign of irritation.

Feeling somewhat ridiculous, he glanced towards the ground and accepted the kind offer from the woman he had been causing trouble for, “I… beg your pardon, ma’am. It appears to be a complete misunderstanding, I’m sorry for giving you a hard time.”

Leah helped him back up on his feet. She figured it was her task after she had hit the man with her purse filled with her belongings. She couldn’t help but to feel a little guilty though, maybe she had overdone it? Tucking all the past events aside, she smiled at him.

“I figured as much. Don’t worry, it can happen.” She said, scratching the back of her head. “actually, I should apologize as well for hitting you… I don’t know what got into me. Normally I never hit people this quickly…” She admitted with shame.

Holding out the grey jacket with the badge still attached, Miles Edgeworth shook his head. Understanding her set of acts just now, “It’s understandable, miss.”

Leah took the jacket from his hands and hauled it over her shoulder, like she did most of the time. “Since we’re both prosecutors, I might as well introduce myself.” She held out her hand to him for a second time, “My name is Leah Jakobson. I’m a rookie prosecutor and started today with my very first case in court. Hence is why you never noticed me before.”

Edgeworth placed his hand in hers for a handshake, “Miles Edgeworth, public prosecutor and the understudy of Manfred von Karma.”

She smiled tenderly. Hoping that most of the misunderstandings could be forgiven now. The last thing she wanted was that she would have a horrible start due all of this. It was quite a big deal to hit an experienced prosecutor across the face with a stuffed purse!

“What’s in that purse of yours, if I may ask?” Edgeworth questioned while Leah quickly went back to her spot to retrieve some other objects before returning to his side.

She chuckled softly cautiously, not too certain if she should inform him about it. “Oh, uh, books about law. There’s still a lot I should learn, so I figured I’d take some books with me during lunch breaks so I can learn and eat at the same time.” She gazed with a worried feature at the man clothed in red, “Are you sure you’re alright? You might have suffered a concussion…”

Together with detective Gumshoe, who had been silent ever since Leah and Miles began to converse, he thought it would be about time to say their goodbyes and to get back to work. Which had been waiting for him for about half an hour by now…

Miles raised his hands, “I’m completely fine. It’s just a bump.” He assured her with a confident feature.

She didn’t believe him and continued to worry about him. Taking a small step forward she shouted at the backs of the two men, “Are you certain? You shouldn’t be left alone if you have one you know!”

Edgeworth raised his hand in a dismissing movement, not even taking the time to look back at her to convince her. Detective Gumshoe took his chance to help out his partner from the wave of worry of this woman, “He’ll be alright, pal!” he shouted, “I’m always around to keep an eye on him!”

Leah moved her hand to her chest, sighing softly. “If you say so…?”

A few moments passed and Edgeworth and Gumshoe had gone back to their offices while Leah remained in the park just a little longer.

Something was heavily bothering her and she was starting to panic and fear for the rest of her career in response. Pacing around restlessly, she bit her lower lip in panic.

Miles Edgeworth…

“Oh my God… I’ve assaulted one of the most feared prosecutors of the United States?!”

Gulp. This surely wasn’t going to help improving her career.