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[notspikyenough]

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[mentis_reae]

[Ring, ring...]

[notspikyenough]

[A few rings before he finally steels himself to answer.]

Wright here...

[mentis_reae]

Wright. It's Edgeworth.

[notspikyenough]

(...I figured I'd have to deal with it eventually.)

...All right.

Were you going to explain yourself?

[mentis_reae]

[A slight pause.]

...Explain myself? What about myself, precisely?

[notspikyenough]

[His voice sounds like it's taking a certain amount of effort to be carefully measured.]

...I understand that people here can come from different times. But you said that note was a lie... So you're from after that.

What did it mean, then? Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death... Because you lost, right?

[mentis_reae]

[Yes. Right...That's right. That's the last thing Wright remembered of him.]

...No. That wasn't it. I didn't do it out of pride, nor spite. If anything, it was out of...cowardice.

[notspikyenough]

Cowardice?

[A rather longish pause.]

Then... What were you afraid of?

[mentis_reae]

Of everything, Wright. Of turning into everything I despised. [A slight pause.] And of shame, as well - but not the shame of having lost. The shame of having to look people in the eye and know that they knew everything that had happened.

For what it's worth, I apologize for that. I knew at the time it was the wrong thing to do, but I did it anyway. And for that, I am deeply sorry.

[notspikyenough]

(...)

[Edgeworth is suddenly disarming most of Phoenix's problems, as if he knew what he was going to say, fluidly.]

That... That was never a good reason...

(But he just admitted that, right? What more can he or I say about it?)

...How long have you had to think about this?

[mentis_reae]

For a variety of reasons, it's difficult to put an exact number on it. But...roughly three years.

[A slight pause.]

For what it's worth, also...We've had this discussion before.

[notspikyenough]

(......!? Three years... Well, of course we'd have had this discussion before! That also explains how he knew what to say...

I did think he looked older, but I have manners, okay?)

...I don't think I like being behind on these things.

[His tone is still slightly sullen.]

So... Why do you prosecute today, Edgeworth?

[mentis_reae]

I don't, Wright.

[notspikyenough]

(That's it, I give up on being surprised.)

...You don't? But... What do you do?

[mentis_reae]

[He clears his throat, suddenly embarrassed - and, truth be told, nervous. No, more than that - afraid. Afraid that his reaction will be incredulous.]

I'm...a defense attorney, actually.

[notspikyenough]

[It is incredulous. Edgeworth? The new demon prosecutor? After seeing Franziska, and von Karma himself, and what he'd been like...

He keeps the incredulousness as much as he can to himself, though, because... That's what Edgeworth was supposed to be, right? In the first place? It still comes out in a stifled noise of surprise, though.]

...When did that happen?