Work Text:
“Excuse me, Mr. Edgeworth?” A young chap’s sheepish voice entered the microphone. “Hi, uh, I just want to say how much of an honour it is to be able to hear you speak; I am a great admirer of your work and you greatly inspired me to become a prosecutor myself.”
The old man couldn’t help but grin a little. The 2067 Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Forum had seen him appear to give a talk before an audience of green, wide-eyed prosecutors wanting to meet and greet the old guard like himself. Franziska had been invited to speak for later that afternoon, but if Miles knew his sister, she would either fiercely decline, or turn up completely unexpectedly without having either accepted or declined the invitation.
“I just wanted to ask,” the man continued, struggling to keep his composure. “I, uh, know he isn’t a prosecutor, but would you mind telling us about Phoenix Wright?”
The veteran attorney chuckled. “I had the privilege of knowing Wright when he was very young. We were both 9 years old when we met, and we are still very close friends.”
The longest serving chief prosecutor in the USA’s history leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling as he began to recount:
“Wright was, and always has been, a strange man, but very friendly.” He then looked down at his audience. “There are a lot of very… funny stories about him.” He pointed up in the air for a moment. “I will tell you one:
“Naturally, he had to take the bar exam, which he did at his alma mater: Ivy University. It is very long: 18 hours. Those taking the exam were permitted to take a suitcase with them with food for the duration, along with other necessary supplies. They started at 6:00 AM and finished at midnight.
“In addition to the invigilators, every so often, someone would come into the exam hall—IU had their own dedicated hall if memory serves—and they would ask ‘is everything alright?’ and so forth.
“For Wright, that was probably the only time in his life where he made it on time for 6:00, where he was given a desk and a copy of the exam. At 8:00 AM, the man who’d been assigned to come in to check on the hall did so, and he asked Wright ‘is everything alright?’ to which he replied ‘yes.' At 10:00, the man asked ‘is everything alright?’ to which Wright replied ‘no.' At noon, the man asked ‘are you better now?’ The answer was ‘no.'
“This went on every two hours until 4:00 PM, when the man finally asked ‘what’s wrong?’ Wright said ‘I need to eat.’ Of course, the man then said ‘but you need to eat!’ to which Wright responded with ‘yes, I would like that very much.’
‘Well, why don’t you eat?’ the man asked, confused.
‘Because I can’t open my suitcase.'"