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Klavier Gavin did not belong in Courtroom 4. Not on this particular day. But nobody else needed to know that.
He’d spent the past two weeks planning it out carefully: what to wear, when to arrive and leave, where to sit, how to sit...all to make sure that nobody recognized him.
I am just here to see a trial take place, like any other citizen. I am not studying law at Themis Academy. I have no idea who will act as the defense attorney today. I’ve never seen or heard of Kristoph Gavin before.
He’d curled his short hair and put a beanie over it, just in case. It took hours and hours of shopping to find a suitable outfit. Nothing too obvious - if he wore a T-shirt for a band that he hated, Kristoph would notice. Nothing flashy or expensive, but not too shabby either. Otherwise, everyone around him would wonder how security let some random teenager wander into the courtroom unattended.
At last, Klavier settled on dark jeans, a sweater from the local community college, and a touch of eye shadow applied underneath his lids to give off an impression of someone who had just pulled an all-nighter. He kept a bag slung over his shoulder and pretended to sip from a thermos full of coffee that had all of his attention. He was not Klavier Gavin, the rising star in the prosecutor course, coming to watch his brother at work. He was an overworked student who only came to the trial to earn some extra credit for a class.
Other people filed into the courtroom gallery and took their seats around him. Klavier acknowledged those on either side of him with a bored half-wave, taking another pretend sip of coffee in the process. Nothing to see here. He had no desire to get to know these people or find out why they’d come. Why should he? The only thing he cared about was passing his class. He pretended to nod off in his seat when he heard a door opening on the defense attorney’s side of the courtroom.
The judge pounded his gavel. “Court is now in session for the trial of Ms. Evie Wyman.”
Kristoph’s voice carried across the room, strong, calm, and clear. “The defense is ready, Your Honor.”
Despite Klavier’s pleas to watch him perform in a real trial, Kristoph had been adamant: under no circumstances should Klavier show his face in the courtroom on this particular day.
“But Kris, you told me I could come once I got into Themis! You said you wanted me there.”
“I don’t remember having that conversation with you. Are you making this up so that I’ll feel guilty?”
“What? No, I wasn’t…”
“Please understand, I do want you to see one of my trials. It would be highly beneficial to your legal career. But not this one. I will invite you when I feel that the time is right. Understand?”
Klavier didn’t understand and he could have sworn that Kristoph did say something about wanting him to attend a trial after getting into Themis. But he didn't have the energy to press the matter.
Only one conclusion came to mind: something about this trial bothered his brother, something he didn’t want Klavier to see. He’d looked through some news articles about the case, but no strange details jumped out to him. And so he’d set to work finding the perfect disguise to attend incognito.
The judge nodded to Kristoph and turned his attention to the other side of the room. There stood a girl who could only be a few years older than Klavier himself, if that. “The prosecution is perfectly prepared, Your Honor,” she announced.
“Prosecutor von Karma, your opening statement, please.”
Von Karma? Klavier leaned closer to get a better look at the woman as she bowed to the judge. She held a whip in her hands- what did she need that for? Personal security? Thinking about it now, he could imagine that a prosecutor’s life must come with more risks than defense attorneys. They were the ones responsible for putting people in prison. And her name had weight to it; everyone in the legal community knew about the legendary Manfred von Karma, who never lost a single case for forty years before a rookie attorney discovered that he’d committed an unsolved murder and had him arrested. This woman had to be his daughter, Franziska, who’d developed a reputation of her own as a prodigy.
On the other side of the courtroom, Klavier could see his brother watching Prosecutor von Karma carefully. He couldn’t recall whether Kristoph had ever faced Manfred before. At the moment, he had his arms relaxed at his side, with one eyebrow raised: the kind of look he gave a person when he wasn’t impressed by the words coming out of their mouth. Prosecutor von Karma either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Klavier almost hoped it was the latter, for reasons he couldn’t quite explain to himself.
“Well, Mr. Kristoph Gavin?” Franziska wagged her finger at Klavier’s brother after finishing her opening statement - which Klavier realized that he’d missed entirely. He remembered from the newspaper articles that it concerned a murder inside the local wax museum, where the defendant had recently been fired for undisclosed reasons.
“Well, what, Ms. von Karma?” asked Kristoph, his voice steady and calm. He hadn’t received the title of “Coolest Defense in the West” for no reason.
“Are you even remotely prepared to take me on in court with such an obviously guilty client?”
Kristoph chuckled. “I thought I might see this kind of behavior from the so-called prodigy. Such ill-placed arrogance does not become you, Ms. von Karma.”
Franziska clenched her teeth. “So-called prodigy? I suppose you aren’t aware that I began my career at age thirteen and left Germany with an undefeated record?”
“Please excuse me if I’m not impressed by what you accomplished in elementary school. This courtroom is strictly for grown-ups, and from what I’ve heard, your track record in this country has been less than impressive. You’ve lost...how many trials has it been? To a second-rate rookie attorney?”
Klavier held back a sigh. She’d started out strong, but Kristoph knew exactly how to get under a person’s skin. With the way that the trial was proceeding, it wouldn’t be long before he had her tripping over her own sentences and second-guessing every argument that she made.
CRACK!
It happened so fast that if Klavier had looked away at the wrong moment, he would have missed it entirely.
Franziska von Karma unleashed her whip and struck Kristoph across the shoulder.
“Insult my record, or the talents of Phoenix Wright, and it will be the last thing you ever do, Kristoph Gavin,” she declared. “I know exactly what kind of world I have entered and I do not intend to lose to a smug fool who never had the courage to face my father in court. Perhaps you accepted this case because you thought I would make for an easier opponent, hmm?”
Klavier drew a sharp breath that echoed throughout the courtroom, which he stifled with a gulp of coffee. That exchange meant nothing to him, an exhausted, unknown college student who hadn’t slept well in days. He wasn’t hiding his face behind his thermos because he worried that Kristoph might be scanning the gallery right now. He definitely didn’t feel shaken over what he’d just heard or seen. He was not dying to see Kristoph’s reaction to the whip or Franziska’s accusation.
He risked one quick peek over the top of his thermos. Kristoph had his back facing the gallery, although Klavier could see him fiddling with his glasses. That was never a good sign. “If that’s what you believe, you are sadly mistaken. You must not place much value in yourself if you think that everyone sees you as an easy opponent.”
Franziska smirked and brandished her whip. “Oh, we’ll see who’s mistaken by the time this trial is over.”
By the time the trial was over, Klavier had witnessed Prosecutor von Karma whipping his brother half a dozen times. Kristoph tried to time it so that he would dodge her lashes, but she had a way of flicking the handle so that it caught him in the back every time. And while the two of them both claimed to have perfectly prepared cases, the judge declared himself unsatisfied and requested another day of investigation.
All around Klavier, people got up and filed out of the courtroom. He stayed in his seat, eyes fixed on Prosecutor von Karma. She’d never lost her cool with Kristoph, not once, aside from using her whip. He actually had to listen and respond to her arguments, not brush them off. One thought stood out in Klavier’s mind:
I want to do that.
Not the whipping part. The part where he got to face off against Kristoph and they could have an honest, fair battle to determine the truth behind a case. The one place where Kristoph would have to give him his full respect.
He couldn’t wait to graduate from Themis Legal Academy.