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It had only been two weeks since Phoenix had adopted the young Trucy Gramarye, now Trucy Wright, and he was already astonished how much faster food ran out when there was a second mouth. The fact that she was a growing child only made it worse. So, with her being watched at home by a helpful Maya, Phoenix was out on a grocery run to get enough food to last them the next week. Despite the fact that the sun was beginning to set, summer was starting early in Los Angeles, and the concrete jungle had absorbed enough heat to make the walk there awful for Phoenix, especially while wearing his trademark suit.
He was a few blocks from his apartment, about halfway to the SafeMart, when he heard someone call out to him from behind. Turning around, he saw a tall man, clearly past the prime of his life, wearing bland, slightly dirty clothes and with shaggy gray hair and a matching goatee. Something about the man rang a bell in Phoenix’s hair as he approached, but it wasn’t until he said something that Phoenix realized who he was. “Mr. Wright,” he gasped, breathing heavily from running up to the ex-attorney. “It is you, I’m glad to see I was right.”
Most of the time Phoenix had heard this man speak, it had sounded nothing like his voice now. It had been silly, cartoonish even, a caricature of an old, senile man. The only time he’d sounded this confident and self-assured has been on the witness stand, shortly before he was arrested. “Mr. Yogi,” Phoenix said, doing his best to look serious and not as scared and nervous as he was feeling inside. After all, the man had been arrested because of him. Phoenix had had enough revenge plots in the last year or so to last him a lifetime. “You’re looking...better.”
To Phoenix’s surprise, Yanni smiled at him. It was a worn, weary smile, the kind that only comes after years of hardship. “I’m feeling better, Mr. Wright.” Then, he looked over Phoenix like he was seeing him for the first time. “Ah, my apologies if I scared you at all. It wasn’t my intention. If you want me to go, I can-”
“Don’t,” Phoenix told him, raising up a palm. Starting to feel a least a little more calm, if not quite less cautious Phoenix looked down the road. “I was heading to the local grocery store. Would you want to join me?” The man nodded, his face stoic, so for a few minutes they walked in silence. Unable to take that anymore, Phoenix spoke up, “So, you’re not in prison. What happened since the trial?”
Yanni grunted, looking lost in thought, then began to explain. “I received a fairly light sentence, all things considered. It was partially due to my role as a pawn in someone else’s scheme, partially due to my revealed innocence in the DL-6 Incident, but mostly because I testified against that prosecutor at his trial. I was sentenced to five years, but got out after one and a half thanks to parole.”
That was a surprise, and Phoenix wasn’t really sure how to feel about that. After all, Yanni Yogi had murdered a man, even if it had been at the behest of someone else, and helped from Edgeworth for the crime. At the same time, Phoenix wasn’t really able to stop himself from feeling bad for the man. He’s been arrested in the prime of his life for a crime he didn’t commit, dragged through a media circus that led to his fiance’s suicide, and in the end he was only let off for pretending to have lost his mind. Unsure of what to say, all Phoenix managed was, “How’s Polly?”
The man winced, and Phoenix knew right away that he’d hit a sore spot. “In order to make sure she didn’t say anything he didn’t like, Manfred von Karma tortured her with a taser. She wasn’t the same afterwards, and when I got out, I was told she’d stopped eating and passed on.” That, at the least, hit Phoenix hard, enough to make tears stand out in his eyes. Before Phoenix could say anything, Yanni interrupted. “I don’t want to put you through the various miseries I’ve lived through, Mr. Wright. Honestly, I feel as though I deserve most of them.
“I bear you no ill will regarding that case. In fact, I am grateful. Thanks to you, everyone knows I didn’t kill Gregory Edgeworth, and I know who really did.” Then, he let out a long sigh. “I’m also thankful that you revealed my own crime. I...wish I’d had a man like you as a defense attorney, rather than Hammond. Maybe you could have prevented all that tragedy from happening in the first place.” Phoenix felt like that was overstating his skills, just a little, but he was also touched. Then, when Phoenix looked back to see what he was going to say next, he noticed that Yanni was gone. Turning around, he saw that the man was heading back the way he’d come. It was an odd encounter, Phoenix reflected. Still, it was good to know, even after all his recent struggles, that there were still people who remembered the good he had done. Now, it was time for him to brace himself for carrying back all the groceries without his arms falling off.