The judge's gavel struck, her swift motion calling all to silence and attention.

"Court is now in session for the trial of Ms. Minuette Chrona."

His finger idly played with the rose protruding from his suit as he stared across the room at us.

The judge took note of my stumble.

"You seem quite nervous. I understand this is your first trial?"

"You understand that your actions will play a part in determining your client's fate today. For her sake, I hope you can keep yourself composed."

"Very well..." The judge's attention switched over to Blueblood.

"Would the prosecution begin with an opening statement, then?"

"On the night of July the fourteenth, Ms. Indigo Zap was found dead in her home, and Ms. Minuette Chrona—the defendant—was found at the scene of the crime near her body."

He then gestured to his side, where a uniformed officer took the court's center stage.

"SRAPH Agent Sweetie Drops, the leading detective on this case, will give further detail of the findings from the police department's investigation."

"The autopsy report states that the time of death was 9:45 PM," she began.

"She suffered blunt force trauma to the head followed by lacerations from the glass of the clock. The victim died almost instantly."

In a large, sealed bag, Sweetie Drops produced the murder weapon and placed it on the table, a hefty, silvery cup mounted to a base with a plaque screwed onto it. She gestured to it, presenting it as evidence to the court.

"The weapon used was the victim's own second place trophy from the previous Spring Regional Track and Field event."

"The victim was an athlete, yes?"

"Correct, Your Honor," Blueblood interjected, "And a promising one at that. She planned to compete in the Summer Regionals next month... Oh, what a shame it is we won't be seeing that.."

His tone shifted slightly as he feigned his disappointment, and then slipped right back into his detached demeanor.

"Radiological examinations showed the victim was under the effects of a timeslow spell before being struck. Details of the spell in question are included in the police records."

"And you're certain it was from this incident?"

"We radiation-tested the surrounding area in the crime scene to the body and got a match."

"Then I believe the implications are obvious, Your Honor, clearly the defendant has abused her arcane talent to murder this... poor young woman."

"Hmm. So it would seem."

"And I'd also believe everyone in this room would agree," he added. "We all showed up, after all..."

The judge didn't seem to be as perturbed by his behaviour as I was, but she didn't seem to be moved by his attempts at emotional appeal either.

"Yes, but that's what were here to sort out, Mr. Blueblood. If that's all you have, the prosecution may call its first witness."

"Of course, Your Honor. The prosecution would like to call Ms. Chrona to the stand."

Ms. Tia nudged me. "Pay attention to what she says. You'll be given the chance to respond to the prosecution later."

"She can get excited, and this prosecutor looks like he's about to push her buttons..."

Minuette took her place at the witness stand, looking to Blueblood nervously as he gave his first question.

"Let's begin with your name and occupation, for the record."

"Minuette Chrona. I make and sell clocks with my father."

"Ms. Chrona, you were found kneeling near the victim's body on the night of the murder. Would you mind explaining what you were doing at her house?"

"Indigo called me over that night, she wanted to talk to me about something."

"And, do tell, what was that 'something' she wanted to talk to you about?"

Minuette looked very uncomfortable to that question. She glanced over to me.

As much as I wanted to step in here, I nodded, silently urging her to just tell the truth.

"Well... She wanted me to help her cheat in the next set of track races she was doing."

The judge was the only one who looked surprised to hear that.

"Oh my! She would do that?"

"You are a time mage, correct? It would certainly be doable for you." Blueblood said, fiddling with his rose a bit more as he spoke. There was a very subtle accusation in his tone...

"Such races often come down to the mere hundredths of a second, yes?"

"But I'd never use my magic for something like that!!" She shouted, crossing her arms and giving him a scowl. "I told Indigo to forget it! I ain't cheatin' for nobody!"

"But yet, Ms. Chrona, it would seem she had proof against that claim, which leads into my second line of questioning..."

There it was, off of his side of the table came the note in question, preserved in a laminated film as he walked out from behind his table and waved it in Minuette's face.

Minuette's eyes widened in surprise, then glared at him again.

"You think this was intended for me!?"

In a panic, Minuette's eyes darted to me again, and I returned the panicked gesture.

I agreed. But a nod wouldn't do, I needed to make more distinct gestures to get my point across while I still had her eyes.

Minuette's eyes changed, like she suddenly understood.

"Okay. I'll read this as clearly as possible."

"Hmm," Ms. Tia commented. "Seems you need to work on your non-verbal communication skills..."

Minuette, however, was already clearing her throat.

"I know what you did, altering the time like that would get you in a lot of trouble if anyone found out."

"I've got hard paper proof, too. But nobody has to find out, so long as I don't catch you doing it again."

"So keep your little victory, we both know how you really got it..."

Minuette's tone dropped.

Blueblood turned away from the witness stand and held up the note, passing it to the judge for further examination.

Looking over them, she gave her initial conclusion.

"So the victim was blackmailing the defendant..."

"In addition to that note, the police found several documents confirming an alteration of several times of the last set of races..."

He passed a beige folder of documents from his table to the judge for her to look over.

"Hey!!!" Minuette called out. "Nothing in that note addresses me! And that folder of papers were on the table when I showed up, but that note wasn't even there!"

"A predictable reply, but we've arrived at my last question, Ms. Chrona..." Blueblood said, sounding prideful in the way he was making Minuette squirm like this.

"If, as you claim, you weren't the one who killed her...

"I..." Minuette looked down again, and then over to me. The look she gave me was almost... shameful?

Still, I gave her a nod to tell the truth. Hopefully she knew that lying on the stand would only create more problems.

"I..." She closed her eyes for a long moment.

"I had to step outside. She was getting upset with me, so I put her in a time bubble and left the room."

The judge looked intrigued, but also slightly lost. "A time bubble..." She repeated. "Could you better define that for us?"

"Uh, yes ma'am, I- uh..."

"If I may: Ms. Chrona is referring to the area that her temporal distortion affects. Her magic causes time to move at a fraction it normally does in a spherical area. A bubble, if you will."

The judge nodded. "I see. So you admit to casting this spell on the victim when she got upset with you for refusing to cheat for her?"

Minuette nodded. "Well, yeah... She was kinda.. scarin' me."

"It would seem that Ms. Zap wasn't as good of a friend to you as you thought..."

"Quiet, you!" Minuette snapped. "Me and her were besties, even if she is a bit hotheaded that doesn't mean we weren't tight!"

Her outburst set the gallery achatter, which was quickly silenced by three strikes of the judge's gavel.

"Order! We will have order in this court!" There was a certain trill to her voice that brought all eyes to her when she raised her voice. "Witness, please continue."

"I put her in a bubble and went outside. I was gonna let her go after I'd calmed down, but before long I heard the clock smash..."

"And that's when you came back to see what happened?"

She nodded. "Yeah. That's about it."

Blueblood immediately stepped in before anyone could say anything else.

"Your Honor, I'll put it bluntly..." He began, pulling his rose from his shirt and pointing to Minuette with it. "The defendant is lying."

Silence washed over the entire courtroom.

"WHAT!?!" Minuette usually could keep her cool, but that accusation made her lose it.. "How can you say that?!?"

I almost lost my cool as well, but I felt Ms. Tia's hand on my tensing shoulder.

Wait, wasn't there something they were overlooking? There was one particular thing Minuette had told me the day before, and that I in fact found recorded in the police report.

So I did the thing every attorney is supposed to do when they notice a fact has been overlooked.

The judge addressed me expectantly in my silence.

"Ms. Moondancer, do you have some kind of problem with that statement?"

I did have a problem, and I wanted to say why, but... I couldn't! It wasn't my fault, I felt my throat start to choke up! All of those eyes on me...

"There's one piece of evidence that proves the defendant couldn't have hurt the victim..."

Amidst the documents I was just searching, I pulled out a single page, titled 'SRAPH Arcane Analysis'.

"Right here, it reads... 'Due to only partially understood properties of spellcasting, a low-level caster of this timeslow spell cannot impart force on objects affected by the spell itself.'"

Putting the page down, I slammed my hand against the table and pointed across to the prosecution.

"In other words, if the defendant really did slow time down for the victim, she couldn't have applied any kind of force with that trophy!"

Blueblood was taken completely aback. I must've taken him off guard. "Wha-"

"Good job, Lumina!" Ms. Tia gave a simple nod and smile. "That's all you have to do right now—point out contradictions."

Minuette smiled as well, realizing the contradiction present.

"That's right, I can't interact with anything in the bubble!"

After reviewing the same pages, the judge looked shocked.

"Ah, I see the issue here. Mr. Blueblood, do you have a response to this?"

"It's a simple explanation, Your Honor... Our rookie seems to be slipping already."

"Is it not entirely conceivable that the defendant simply ended the spell right before she attacked?"

"Please, Ms. Moondancer, how did you not consider that?"

The judge's eyes shut in understanding, her head lowering for a moment. "Hmm..."

"Yes, that is entirely possible," she said. "Unless the defense has any evidence otherwise..."

"Of course," The judge looked to Blueblood. "Likewise, the prosecution would have to produce some sort of evidence that contradicts the defendant's claims to prove that."

"I'd like to call another witness to the stand, one that saw Ms. Chrona at the scene of the crime!"

Who else was there? There were no other reports of anyone else being at her house at the time... Unless...

"Very well, Mr. Blueblood. Who is this witness?"

A woman with a remarkably athletic build and a slightly impatient look on her face took the stand as Minuette returned to the defendant's seat. This witness wore a green track jacket with a yellow bolt pattern running down them and had spiky, slicked back golden hair, with even more golden highlights.

"Witness, please give your name and occupation for the record."

"Lightning Dust," she said, tapping her foot as she looked over the trial's participants unamused. "Professional athlete. Won gold in the Spring Regionals one hundred meter dash this year- This isn't going to take long, is it?"

"Not at all, all we need is for you to recount what you saw the night of the murder."

"Look, I don't want to be here all day..." Lightning Dust lifted her arm, showing off the blue glowing numbers on her digital wristwatch. "I have a workout alarm on my watch set for 11:30—that's about forty minutes from now—and if I'm not out of here by then..."

The judge gave support to this notion. "Very well, witness. Forty minutes is more than enough time to give a testimony. If we take longer than that, you may leave."

Before she began, I started skimming over everything I could remember from Minuette's testimony. If there was any time it was relevant, it was about to be now.

"So I was headed over to Indigo's house that night. I'd been a poor sport about my win over her and was feeling bad about it- I wanted to apologize."

"I got there around 9:40, but someone else was already there. That kid there with the blue jacket. They were arguing about something."

"I saw Indigo get all tense, and I thought I'd go in to calm things down. The door was unlocked, but when I went inside, that's when I saw it, she was dead, and the kid I saw through the window just a second before was gone."

"I couldn't believe what I'd just seen, so I got out of there and called the police as soon as I could."

"That's what happened." She concluded.

I was still in a bit of disbelief that the detail of there being a witness escaped my attention. How could I have not noticed that?

"Ha!" Blueblood let out a condescending huff. "To be expected from an attorney of such low calibre. Do you not know the meaning of 'anonymous source'? She didn't want to be identified at first."

The report did note that whoever called the police remained anonymous... But why would she step up now?

The judge turned her gaze to me expectantly.

"Now, Ms. Moondancer, you may proceed with your cross-examination."

"Now's your chance to press her, Lumina. Review everything she's said, look at your evidence, then find a contradiction in her testimony."

Her eyebrow rose slightly. "There has to be, if your client is really innocent."

She was right. I turned to the witness stand, and looked Lightning Dust square in the eye.

"So I was headed over to Indigo's house that night. I'd been a poor sport about my win over her and was feeling bad about it- I wanted to apologize."

"I wouldn't say friends, but we've been competing against each other the past year. Had a bit of personal rivalry going on."

"She's invited me for lunch a few times. She was a real people person."

"I got there around 9:40, but someone else was already there. That kid there with the blue jacket. They were arguing about something."

"Yes, I saw it on the big grandfather clock in Indigo's living room, and confirmed it on my watch."

She nodded, flashing her wristwatch again.

"It's perfectly accurate, I make sure it is."

"Don’t waste this court's time with pointless questions."

The judge nodded in agreement with Blueblood.

"Is the reason they were arguing important to the case?"

Way to put me on the spot... but I had a suspicion I needed to confirm or dispel.

"Very well. Witness? What were the defendant and the victim arguing about?"

"Something about cheating at the races. There was a big thing of papers on the table from what I could see. Probably whatever dirt Indigo had on her."

The judge nodded. "Indeed. Please add this to your testimony, witness."

Lightning Dust nodded "Of course, Your Honor..."

"I don't know what they were arguing about, but I assume it had something to do with the folder on the kitchen table."

"Okay," I began, taking the blackmail note from the available evidence. It was on a different kind of paper from the other documents, surely it would've stood out if it were on the table. I presented it to her.

She glanced over it, but after another flash of nervousness she shook her head.

"Uh, no, this one wasn't on the table."

Minuette said she didn't see it beforehand, but it had to have come from somewhere...

"You said you saw the defendant through the window, which window?" I asked. "There were two, one by the front door, and one by the back door."

"Hmm." The judge mused. "Do you really think this will lead somewhere, Ms. Moondancer?"

"Yes, Your Honor. These details will give a picture of what she might have or might not have seen!"

"So, witness, which window was it?"

"It was the window by the front door. Walking there from my house, that's the way facing me. I think the prosecutor had a good question, what does it matter?"

"Yes, Ms. Moodancer," The judge added. "Did that question really give you any insight to this case?"

Lightning Dust's face momentarily shifted to shock, but then it settled on resentment.

"What? How could you say that?"

"That is a bold claim, indeed." the judge concluded.

"Baseless—Unless you have evidence, Ms. Moondancer? Because that's what we operate on here. Evidence."

I looked down at the papers on the table in front of me. I could see diagrams of the house, where the victim and suspect were supposedly standing, but I didn't need those to see the gaping hole in her statement.

"If they were in front of the clock, you wouldn't have been able to see either of them. There's a wall separating the front entryway from the living room!"

This time, the shock on Lightning Dust's face stuck around.

"That's ridiculous! They were arguing—They easily could've been moving around!"

"Oh no, she identified the time as well. You could easily see that clock, since it faces the back window, as well as the kitchen table. The table was right by that window, too, that's why you saw that folder of papers so easily!"

"So what if she did see in through the back window? What does that prove?"

His right hand had been idly adjusting that rose on his jacket, but by the way it suddenly tightened and bent it out of shape I could tell he’d put two and two together.

I could hear Ms. Tia smiling with a wordless hum beside me. I was feeling confident. I had this. I just had to keep up the pressure.

Blueblood bit his tongue and sneered at me. He knew I was right. "I suppose it does... If the court would allow, could my witness clarify this contradiction?"

The judge gave Lightning a suspicious look, but then nodded her head. "By all means, please do..."

"Right! Yes! I just forgot about what I did before I went in, that's all..."

This time around, Lightning Dust looked a bit more frustrated with herself, rather than annoyed with the rest of us. She fidgeted with the band of her wristwatch as she began.

"So I heard something going on when I walked up on Indigo's house. Rather than go in the front right away, I went around to take a peek in the back to see what was up."

"That's when I saw the kid in the blue jacket, the time on the clock, the papers, all of that. I could see the time clearly, too. Again, it was 9:40."

"When Indigo froze up, the kid went for the trophy, and I took that as a cue to head inside and see if I couldn't calm things down."

"But by the time I got in there, there was nothing I could do."

"That seems like a reasonable alteration." The judge nodded.

"Ms. Moondancer, your cross-examination."

I nodded. I was starting to put a picture together out of all of this, but I needed to prove the pieces fit together. She lied about where she was, and she was bound to do it again...

"So I heard something going on when I walked up on Indigo's house. Rather than go in the front right away, I went around to take a peek in the back to see what was up."

Something seemed wrong about this statement, but I didn't have the evidence to make any claims. I let it pass.

"That's when I saw the kid in the blue jacket, the time on the clock, the papers, all of that. I could see the time clearly, too. Again, it was 9:40."

"When Indigo froze up, the kid went for the trophy, and I took that as a cue to head inside and see if I couldn't calm things down."

"Yeah, Indigo's silver from the Spring Regionals. The murder weapon."

"Yeah." She glared. "What of it?"

"Wh-what?" Lightning Dust's hand nervously scratched at her wrist. "H-How come?"

I pointed to the layout of the house in the reports, specifically, to how close the victim was to the trophy shelf, where a circle outlined the area affected by Minuette's timeslow spell.

"As we've established, the caster of a timeslow spell can't impart force on their target, and both the victim and that trophy shelf were caught in that spell..."

The judge's eyes widened as she put together the logic of what I was saying. "Oh!"

Again, I slammed both hands onto the desk for emphasis as I addressed the issue directly.

"If she was casting the timeslow spell, Minuette couldn't have picked up that trophy!"

The entire court was again thrown into a sudden chattering at this revelation!

I smiled. That was definitely a powerful point, there was no way she could refute it.

"Wait! I-" Lightning Dust's eyes widened, gripping her wrist tighter and cutting herself off.

"Order, order!" The judge's gavel again struck loudly against it's post as she demanded the room's silence. "Given the facts of this case, what you say is undeniable, Ms. Moondancer. Does the prosecution have any response to this discovery?"

Blueblood had very little to contest with, he was looking just as nervous as Lightning.

"I, well, I-" He sounded as desperate as he looked bewildered. "I think... the witness... Yes, the witness can explain this perfectly, right?"

"Uh..." Lightning Dust washed away her shocked expression and let her head drop, still tightly clutching her wrist in nervousness. But then, she suddenly came back up perfectly relaxed. "I can, actually, I just remembered something."

"Yes?" The judge asked, rather impatiently. She seemed to be as tired of this witness's backpedaling as I was...

"Right, so the very end of the trophy shelf was where the kid moved for. That's where the trophy was, after all!" Lightning Dust clarified, wringing her wrists with a look of clear regret on her face. "That must've been outside the reach of the... the spell."

"Hmm..." The judge genuinely thought this over.

"Ah, of course!" Blueblood nodded. "She must've known the radius of her spell. This does line up with the layouts we have..."

"Very well then, witness." The judge said. "Add this to your testimony."

"So the kid went for the very end of the trophy shelf. That's where Indigo's second place trophy was, and it was clearly outside the reach of her spell."

"Why would she not?" Blueblood asked. "She had all the time in the world..."

"The prosecution does have a point." The judge agreed. "If the victim was frozen, it's not like she could stop her..."

"And on top of that, the direction the victim was found facing implies she was struck from the direction of the kitchen table, and into the clock." Blueblood said. "Indeed it would seem she had to go behind her to knock her that way!"

"But by the time I got in there, there was nothing I could do."

I didn't think it would lead anywhere, but there was one more thing I had to check...

"9:40, haven't you been paying attention?"

My eyes widened... I had been paying attention, and I think Ms. Dust just made a fatal slip.

The one piece of evidence that had been nagging me this entire trial was that blackmail note. Minuette said it wasn't there before, she said she didn't recognize it. The time discrepancy was one thing, but the motive seemed all wrong. But...

"By the big clock's time, y'know, the one that got broken?"

Her reason for going to Indigo's house seemed fishy too... two rival racers, a time being messed with... but supposedly the one doing the meddling lost the last race?

Oh no, oh no. There was an issue here. Things were starting to line up in ways that I didn't like at all, and it all started with one question.

"Are you deaf or something?"

"Your Honor, this statement clearly contradicts the time of death on the autopsy report by five minutes! That's five minutes sooner than it could've happened!"

"Wait, what?" Right back into panicked mode Lightning Dust went.

"Preposterous!" Blueblood exclaimed, "You're saying she saw the murder before it happened?"

"No, I'm saying you saw the murder up close, close enough to see the time clearly on that clock..." I lowered my head, and looked into Lightning Dust's startled eyes and pointed right at her.

"Because you were right there when it happened! Minuette didn't kill Indigo Zap, did she? You did!"

Everyone in the gallery went wild.

The judge was completely stunned.

But of course, Lightning Dust's expression hardly changed, she was still speechless.

"O-Order in the court!" Another volley of gavel strikes rang out. "Ms. Moondancer, what would cause you to make such an assertion!"

"There's no way Minuette could've done it at 9:45, she wouldn't have been there!" I declared, putting my hand down on the desk as I looked up to the judge.

"What reason would this witness have for murdering the victim that night?"

The judge was the first to speak up. "But what does that mean, Ms. Moondancer?"

"Ack!" Lightning recoiled, tightly wringing her wrist as her story began to fall apart.

"And those documents prove the times were tampered with by someone... Someone who wanted said gold trophy!"

"You're claiming that it was the witness that the letter was intended for?" The judge asked.

"Exactly, Your Honor. She didn't go over to make amends, she went to take out a rival that had dirt on her! How else would she know right away what those papers were?"

Lightning finally managed a retort, scowling as she gave an angered response. "Oh yeah? Well how did I do it, then? If I got there at 9:40 how did I kill her five minutes before she died?"

"Have you lost it, rookie?" Blueblood asked, half-concerned and half-enraged. "You've just contradicted yourself!"

"No I haven't. There's a reason that Lightning Dust is so set on thinking she arrived at 9:40, and it's right here!"

I pointed back to the house's layout. Again, I ran my finger around the radius of the timeslow spell, and it's proximity to Indigo's body. Then, I pointed to the clock itself.

Blueblood let out another desperate gasp. "Wait, you mean-"

"Exactly! The clock would've read 9:40 for several minutes, because it was caught in the timeslow spell! Even if Lightning arrived at 9:45!"

"Ahh! No! That's not-"

"All she had to do then was take that second place trophy and do the job, all while Minuette was outside!"

"Oh!" The judge looked like she was coming around to this revelation. "That would explain why she saw 9:40 on the clock face the entire time, yes!"

Lightning Dust looked almost completely broken down. She desperately checked her wristwatch, and glanced up at me with scorn.

"You forgot one thing!" She called out. "You need proof! You can't prove I had that trophy in my hand that night, you can't prove I hit her—not when I saw that I kid do it!"

"She's... she's right." Blueblood finally got a hold of himself again. "Evidence! That's what we operate on here, Ms. Moondancer, not fanciful speculation! Without that this is all just meaningless conjecture!"

Ah, I'd just blown through all of the evidence available... What more ammunition did I have? I felt that anxiety start to creep up on me again, I didn't know what to say and I didn't like the feeling.

"So, Ms. Moondancer..." The judge jumped on board with the prosecution again. Was this not enough to convince her of anything? "Let's see your evidence, if you have it..."

"Yeah!" Lightning Dust growled. She looked down at her watch, and shook her head. "You've got 3 minutes until 11:30, and when that alarm goes off I'm out of here!"

I glanced back to Ms. Tia, and when I did I was greeted by the most serious expression I'd ever seen from her.

"Evidence isn't always something that can be filed or categorized, the truth can't always be touched, but know it can always be shown!"

In my nervousness, I threw my head down on the desk before me, staring at my own analogue watch as the second hand ticked away all hope I had left...

"Well? What've you got, Ms. Lawyer?" Lightning Dust crossed her arms as she turned away. "Nothing!! You lose!"

"If that's all, Ms. Moondancer," said the judge, "We will end this cross examination. If you can't prove that Ms. Lightning Dust directly committed this crime with something here in this court, then your hypothesis cannot hold weight."

And there it went. It was now 11:30, and the witness was free to leave... But I had her figured out, and she knew it. She'd be walking away having committed a murder while my friend faced punishment she didn't deserve.

"Now, if there are no further objections..."

My world seemed to stop when I saw that hand hit 11:30, but it somehow still kept going. There was a wall clock in the courtroom, that clock said 11:30 too.

Shouldn't Lightning Dust's alarm be going off right now? Shouldn't she be on her way out?

The judge lifted her gavel, and prepared to render her judgement...

"After seeing all of the evidence, this court finds Ms. Minuette Chrona-"

"O B J E C T I O N !"

"Your Honor, there is one last piece of evidence that proves Lightning Dust struck the victim dead last night!"

"I..." The judge, again speechless, took a moment to recover. "W-Well, then.. Let's see it!"

"No, Your Honor, the cross-examination is over! Hand down your verdict as is!"

"I can't, not if Ms. Moondancer really does have evidence! I must know, what is it?!"

"What?!" Lightning Dust nearly screamed in retaliation. She was visibly shaking from my accusations, because they were right. "You have nothing left!"

"I may not," I said, again taking her by her eyes and dragging her as far as my piercing gaze could manage. "But you do!"

"Yes, do explain!" The judge's eyes shot open as she leaned forward, she looked like she wanted to hear me out, but was still stuck in a state of disbelief.

"You have an important alarm set for 11:30, on a watch that you claim you keep in perfect order!"

"Wha- What of it?" Lightning Dust sputtered. "I do keep my watch in perfect order!"

I pointed up to the clock hung on the wall before us. "It's 11:30 now... I don't hear anything!"

"Ms. Moondancer," the judge asked. "What are you suggesting?"

"Your Honor, if she really keeps her watch accurate, there's only one reason it's not going off right now!"

"You don't mean-" the judge started.

Lightning Dust gasped as the realization hit her.

I stood fully as I pointed to her, my confidence returning as every single piece of this mystery finally clicked together in my head. It felt incredible, exhilarating, and most importantly, I was saving my friend. I was proving Minuette's innocence.

"Running slow, because you were at the scene of the crime last night, striking your rival with her own second-place trophy while she was caught in a timeslow spell—"

"Wait, you're saying..." The judge nodded. "You're saying her wristwatch was-"

Lightning Dust suddenly began to tremble, taking the witness stand tightly and grinding her teeth together as she began to vibrate with anger. She was unable to grip the fact that I'd figured her out.

"NO! You couldn't possibly think that's true!" Lightning Dust said through a clenched jaw, rage seeping through each exhale as her twitching-eye death glare slowly pivoted to me. "Prove it..."

"Easy." I concluded, a victorious grin on my face as I tapped my own watch. "Do you have the time?"

!!! ...... !!!!!!!!

"I... I..." She quietly choked, her hands balling into fists and her eyes watering. She looked down at her watch in horror. "11:29..."

beep beep. beep beep. beep beep.

She clutched her wrist watch with far greater force than she did before, trying to muffle the unrelenting alarm that only served to signal her undoing. She tried and failed fumbling with the buttons, unable to silence the deafening broadcast of her guilt. The hand crushing her wrist squeezed tighter and tighter, until eventually she let go and slammed the shrieking siren affixed to her wrist against the witness stand, smashing it to pieces and finally ending it's piercing cry.

Anger, regret, and guilt all trying to force their way out of her at once, all she could do was look at me in disbelief.

With a slight adjustment of my glasses, I stood and addressed her with a full sweeping point of a single index finger.

"Smash that watch all you want, but the one who's really running slow... is you!"

By the way they all took in a final gasp of shock, the entire room seemed impressed, too.

Lightning Dust disagreed, but she fainted before she could voice that opinion.

The judge was the first to break the awkward silence that followed Lighting Dust being removed from the courtroom after her breakdown.

"Well, that certainly went differently than expected. Mr. Blueblood, what is the state of Ms. Lightning Dust?"

"Uhm, well..." He was quite shaken by what had unfolded. "She's still unconscious, Your Honor, but is in police custody at the moment..."

"Very well... Ms. Moondancer?" The judge seemed to have some level of excitement in her after all that.

"Yes, Your Honor?" Even with the pressure of winning the case over, I still felt a lot of nervousness. How do I carry myself after pulling off something like that?

"I must say, that was impressive! Never have I seen such a thorough defense that also reveals the true culprit... Why, it's almost unbelievable!"

"Uh," There it was again, right in my throat. I couldn't believe it either, honestly. "Thank you, Your Honor...? It was... nothing?"

"It's more of a formality at this point, but I believe I'm ready to hand down my verdict."

With her gavel raised, the judge gave a short nod.

"After seeing all of the evidence, this court finds Ms. Minuette Chrona..."

Lumina Moondancer: Turnabout Attorney

by CrownofDissonance

Case 01-2: The Last Minute Turnabout (Day 1, Trial)