Chapter Text
Athena’s eyes widened when Simon joined her by unceremoniously plopping his body on the chair, his forehead apparently stuck in a permanent frown.
“How about you stop that, you’re going to give me wrinkles,” she joked lamely. After not receiving a response for multiple seconds, she leaned forward and quietly asked,
“Are you okay?”
He blinked a couple of times. “I’ll manage.”
Liar, she thought, contemplated for a minute, and then stated, “Y’know, I have to admit that I have no idea how to get back to your place, since I headed out so quickly this morning. Could you lead me back there?”
One of the corners of Simon’s mouth twitched upwards.“I can tell that that isn’t your primary motive, Athena, but I appreciate the effort. Let’s get out of this echo chamber.”
He pulled the bottle of pain medication out of her bag once more and dry-swallowed another dose while he waited for her to rise from her chair, and they stepped out into the rapidly cooling winter air.
They began walking away from the imposing courthouse in silence.
Athena, watching Simon next to her from the corner of her eyes, contemplated how to strike up another conversation after a few minutes, as she was beginning to find the wordlessness oppressive. Suddenly, he preempted her by stating, “You did well today.”
She stopped walking and stared. “Did you just compliment me?”
Simon now came to a halt, as well, although he kept his back to her. “You deserve commendation for your work. Without you, this trial would have ended quite differently. That is all.”
“Thank you.” He could hear the warm smile in her voice.
“Additionally, I believe I owe you an apology for my own abysmal performance,” he forced out, getting to the point he had been trying to make.
Her voice sounded from behind him again, this time surprised. “There was nothing abysmal about it. You won and we got the right person indicted for the murder this time. Isn’t that what’s most important?”
That statement finally got him to turn around and face her. “If it hadn’t been for you and Justice…”
Athena shrugged, an easy grin on her face. “Welcome to my life, Simon. In case you hadn’t noticed, I do rely on people to help me out when I get stuck, so it’s not as though you made me look any more idiotic than I usually do. As for the note… consider it a small heads-up to make up for the fact that you had to do my job without having been on-site for the investigation yesterday. To be honest, I didn’t even know whether I could get Taka to understand where to deliver it when I came up with the idea.”
Simon’s tense posture relaxed somewhat when he realized that he was being absolved of his perceived failure.
“Birds of prey are fairly intelligent animals. Taka knows about 20 people by name at any given point, and he is very good at locating them, particularly on the courthouse premises, since that is his hunting ground, but also within up to a fifteen-mile radius, if necessary.”
She whistled through her teeth. “That is so cool! How did you test him on that?”
He barked out a mirthless laugh. “Nothing but time when you’re sitting in the clink.”
Athena cringed. Bad topic. Backpedaling to safer ground, she asked, “Anything else I should know about him? How to make him do things, how to care for him…?” I know he’s important to you, and I don’t want to accidentally be responsible for him suffering.
Simon, sensing her worry, threw her a quick, minute smile that actually contained some warmth.
“Taka is self-sufficient; he usually hunts for himself, and has never been sick or injured enough that a visit to the veterinarian would have been necessary. When he has been particularly helpful, I sometimes buy him a rat or two from the pet shop, though.” He figured that the bird deserved a treat on occasion, particularly since their relationship had been decidedly one-sided while he had been rotting away in prison.
“As for commands, you seem to have figured out most of the basics. Taka’s vocabulary includes the names I mentioned – you, Justice, Wright, the judge, my sister, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, Odd Bird, and a few assorted other people who should not have any bearing on your immediate delivery needs. Additionally, he understands ‘get,’ ‘bring,’ ‘find,’ ‘catch,’ and ‘attack,’ plus the words for assorted items I need on a daily basis.”
Athena grinned. “Nice low-maintenance pet you got there – I’m tempted to get one for myself once we’re back to normal.”
She began walking again, catching up with Simon, who shook his head at her impulsive announcement and fell in step next to her once more.
The silence that reigned between them now was a lot more companionable than before, and they simply continued walking for a while, now entering residential areas whose streets were mostly deserted on a cold winter day.
After a while, Simon spoke up again. “I just realized something. Your Widget didn’t pipe up once in court today.” His fingers went up to the little device on his neck; he had put it on this morning like so much jewelry, as Athena was never seen in public without it, but now he realized that it could have caused him a major headache, had it seen fit to broadcast his thoughts at the wrong moment.
She laughed. “I don’t think you have to worry about that for a while. Widget is currently attuned to my thought patterns, and it will probably take a few weeks before he can readjust. You can still access his functions though, including the Mood Matrix. I assume you know how it works?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen you use it a couple of times, so I can probably work with it, should the need arise.”
Finally, they arrived in front of a building that looked vaguely familiar to Athena, and Simon confirmed her thoughts by stating, “Here we are.”
She fished around in her pockets for the keys and let them into the building. His apartment was on the top floor, and they had to wait around a bit for the elevator to make its way down, but a few minutes later, they arrived in his rooms. Athena shrugged out of his coat with a relieved sigh, draping it over the chair as it had been this morning. Then, she turned around to look at Simon, who quipped dryly, “Make yourself right at home.”
She let herself fall backwards onto the couch next to the window, the ankle of her left leg coming to rest on her right knee. “Thanks, I believe I will,” she grinned.
Then, their conversation from this morning reasserted itself in her mind. “I don’t suppose you have checked whether we have gotten an answer from Mayor Tenma yet?”
Simon, who had just sat down in a nearby armchair which matched the couch’s pattern, shook his head and dug around in her handbag for her phone, checking the display.
“There is a new message from Tenma.”
Athena tensed. “What’s it say? Read it aloud.”
He pulled up the message and began.
“Dear Ms. Cykes,
I am familiar with the object about which you have inquired of me, as well as with its effects, if only by second-hand accounts. The records of Nine-Tails/Tenma township indicate that the soul exchange you are currently experiencing has happened at least three times, although the last such event lies twenty years in the past by now. Unfortunately, you will not be able to use the stone to change back, as it is still unknown to what sort of heart’s desire it responds when effecting the change. The good news is that all three recorded exchanges have eventually reversed themselves; the accompanying bad news consists of the fact that the time frame for the reversal seems to be related to the individual case. The shortest time period recorded until the reversal seems to have been 31 days, while the longest had the participants in the exchange trapped in each other’s bodies for 598.
I will continue to do research regarding this problem in the lore archives of the surrounding townships, and will contact you again, should I find anything useful.
With warmest wishes,
Damien Tenma.”
Simon looked up from the phone in his hands at Athena’s crestfallen expression, and commented pragmatically, “Well, shit.”