MPC 41 - Courtroom Chaos! [Junjo]

    Uh-- oh! It looked like Junjo had no idea what was even going on! "You didn't check your e-mails, did you?" Asher gave an almost awkward smile. Maybe it had gone to Junjo's spam filter! Ah well. It was far too late for anything useful now! Wouldn't it be awfully embarrassing, if nobody had actually remembered to even send Junjo any sort of message about this event?

    "An important court trial is going on! Why else would we be here?" Eyebrow raised, looking over the purple suit of the other man. Asher's outfit was far more standard, in a black suit with a tie that matched his hair, and glasses frames with zebra-stripes that really couldn't match anything, even if it was black and white! "You have to look prepared for this kind of thing, don't you?" Asher found himself questioning, while making a small gesture at Junjo's suit. Talk about a hypocrite! "Why; are we overdressed?" Was there such a thing as overdressing, in this situation?

    Leaning away from the other man's panicking motions, a small smirk fell across the redhead's lips. "Too much? Nah, I think it looks great on you!" It wasn't like Asher had picked it, or anything! That would just be weird! Carefully reaching out, the teen gave a pat on the shoulder, "you've got this! Just read your case file, and everything should be fine!" Or not! "You're a professional, you know?" Then, there was a small hesitation, "you're going to be alright, right?"

    Oh man, Junjo was going to have a total breakdown, wasn't he? E-mails!" Asher repeated, cheerfully. If this was the beginning of a volcano erupting, the teen definitely wanted to be a part of it!

    But, now the redhead had to raise an eyebrow. "Since when haven't you been a professional? You graduated law school -- how old are you? Doesn't matter. You were like ten when you graduated. Youngest in your class. Broke a world record, or something." Whether this would actually convince the suit-wearing man was beyond Asher, but apparently someone had bought it, if they were thought to be professionals enough for a case like this!

    Looking over the file, Asher tapped a finger against the words. "Not just any toy! A squeaky toy! Murder! Don't you see how important this is? The wife says he killed that toy in cold blood!" Surely, it would make more sense as a Labramon was led in, front paws cuffed together.

    Leaning close to Junjo's ear, the young man breathed, "play along with me, will you? I'm going to fall asleep if this is as lame as a real world trial." This was followed up with a soft click from Asher's tongue hitting the roof of his mouth, "not that it will be." And with that, he gave Junjo a quick pat on the shoulder, backing away. "You've got this! You're the number one prosecutor in this half of the Digital World!" Okay, so that was definitely stretching things! How hadn't anyone checked these guys' credentials?!

    Now, as Asher reached his seat near the Labramon, the courtoom began filling up. Unchained, and quite irritated, a Dobermon strode up to sit alongside Junjo, seemingly the wife of the rookie. A disembodied voice boomed, "all rise for the honorable judge, Lottie!"

    Immediately, a very recognizable orange feline began her way to the stand, hopping up into her seat, before Asher found himself blurting, "are you serious? That is not your name."

    "Quiet, hyooman!" Whiskers huffed, pointing her gavel at the defense lawyer, "will I have to rawrmove mew, before the trial even begins?"

    With a roll of the eyes, Asher quickly shook his head. "No, Judge." How the heck had Whiskers procured such an important position for this? Ugh! Depending on her mood, the redhead was in serious trouble!

    With a throat-clearing sound, that still emanated from who knows where, the case continued on. "Today's case is abduction and suspected murder of Mr. Squeakington The Third. Missus Ruhmon, one of our finest contributors to numerous charities-" there was a pause, while spectators murmured approvals, and the Dobermon looked around in some attempt to appear modest, "-for things such as the 'Lost Baby 'Mon' fund, 'Stop Sending Rookies Into the Dark Area Association' and the 'Dismembered Digimon of the Western Flatlands'-" he added, unnecessarily, "-is here on behalf of her missing, and probably destroyed squeaky toy."

    This was not going in Asher's favor at all, was it? "You've got to be kidding me," the Defense mumbled, shooting an irritated glance at his incredibly nervous client. Of course, he was quickly silenced by the death glare received from the 'judge' at the stand.

    "Is everyone ready to begin?"

    Unable to contain it, a grin quickly spread across the redhead's face. Once he leaned back away from Junjo, Asher lightly placed an index finger between the other teen's eyebrows. "If you keep face like that, it's going to freeze that way. Who's going to take a lawyer seriously if his face is scrunched up all the time?" Way to sound like a mother! Of course, given how weird Digimon looked in this world, surely a contorted-faced Junjo would be one of the less terrifying 'monsters' around! "No joke, though! Squeaky toy's dead, Wife is pissed. You get to deal with her! Isn't that fun? If that's what Asher's idea of fun was, Junjo probably wouldn't want to spend any vacations with the teen!

    Surely, Junjo's case file was just as concerning. It mostly just repeated the information that Asher had already stated, clarifying that a high-class Dobermon's husband had kidnapped her precious toy, and had surely murdered it! ...While there wasn't much actual information to go on, it appeared that it was entertaining enough that a legitimate case had been made on it! A few random photos were included, of the floor with a squeaky-toy shaped chalk line, a dog bed with an arrow pointing at it stating 'Sir Squeakers lived here', and a chewed up dog bone sticky-noted with 'he murders everything else, why not Sir Squeakers, too?' Along with these, a recent news article of, 'Labramon framed?!' was cut out, and slapped in the back of the folder.

    But, now that the teal haired boy had given his consent to begin, Whiskers eyes turned to the other human in the room, impatiently. "Well?"

    Giving a small jolt, Asher forced himself to fall out of the daze that he had been in seconds prior. "Huh? Ah, yes. Ready for the defense," he began, feeling judging eyes on him still, "your honor. How was this happening to him? Whiskers shouldn't be allowed to be a judge!

    "Cats don't really like me," the Labramon mumbled, lowly, to his attorney. That wasn't a good sign. If cats didn't like Labramon, and cats (especially this one) didn't like Asher... Well. They were screwed!

    Soon, the jury was sworn in by a different disembodied voice than the first, and then the trial was underway! "Mr. Natsuki, would mew like to give your opurrning statement meow?"

    Hopefully, Junjo had taken a decent look at his case file! Or could he at least bluff his way into making the Labramon look as guilty as Dobermon was hoping?

    The Labramon looked at his wife, particularly distressed, "who's Clod? Is that who you've been inviting over, when I'm not home?" Scrunching his nose from frustration, the Digimon looked down at his table. "...Some people like me. Don't they?" Wait, was he seriously insecure about that?

    "It's okay. I like you," the attorney confirmed, giving the dog a pat on the head, before freezing up mid-pat. Okay, maybe that was weird. Was he actually allowed to touch his clients? And, was it even considered acceptable to pet dog-Digimon in this world?! He'd probably just made some terrible blunder! Though, if he had, the canine certainly didn't make comment on it.

    The awkwardness wore of quickly, though, as Junjo had given the jury a taste of his own awkward moment! Leaning against the desk, Asher face-palmed, trying to ignore the terrible attempt at being convincing. But, after a short silence, the jury actually began murmuring in agreement! Some even began uttering 'murderer' and 'how could he?' under their breath!

    After allowing the audience to murmur amongst themselves for a moment, gavel slammed on the podium. "Alright! And, your statement, Mr. Callum?" This was going to be bad, wasn't it?

    "Thank you, your honor," he hummed, before turning toward the jury, "surely, you all believe 'innocent until proven guilty', right? Per the law?" Was that the law here? Whatever. It was the law where Asher was from! Or, at least he thought it was. Maybe that was just from television. Whatever! "There is no proof that my client has taken, or injured, that squeaky toy. For all we know, it's simply misplaced, and they'll find it as soon as they get home!"

    This only received a small murmur of 'well maybe' and 'there was that one news article' from the jury, though nobody seemed quite as interested with siding with the 'evil' Labramon.

    Given that she didn't need to shush her jury, the Meicoomon looked to Junjo. "Yes, that was very nice. Mr. Natsuki, you may call on your first witness."

    ...Oh, crap. That file didn't say anything about witnesses. Flipping through his own paperwork, the ginger found himself cringing. Somebody had clearly forgotten an important piece of information for the duo! Sure, there were plenty of people in the room. One of them had to be the right witness, right?

    Soon, Ogremon rose to take the stand, awkwardly shuffling around while he debated on what he should be doing. He was soon sworn in by the mysterious booming voice, before Meicoomon looked to him. "What is your first and last name, and association with the crime?"

    Ogremon looked around, before settling to stare at Dobermon. "My name is O. Germon," he informed, slowly. Both Asher and Whiskers exchanged glances, trying to process if this was some sort of joke. "I garden for the doggies." Oh, good, it sounded like Ogremon was a really bright fellow! "And squash little bugs that eat the garden. It's okay, though. I have permits for that."

    "...Right," the feline uttered, unable to even begin to understand why an Ogremon was the choice that Junjo had gone with. "And, mew were working on the day of the alleged crime?"

    To this, he again began to stare at Dobermon intently. Was he waiting for some sort of instructions? The Ogremon's eyes remained entirely away from Labramon's vicinity, as he raised his fingers to count. "I, uh, think so."

    Oh, this was going to be a helpful witness. "You're wasting our time, if mew're not," the Meicoomon commented, with a flick of her tail, then looked to the prosecutor. "You are furee to begin questioning your witness, Mistpurr Natsuki."

    Asher began to doze off in his seat, trying to establish if this really was more fun than a normal trial in the human world. The answer was leaning toward a strong no. Occasionally, Labramon would lightly prod his lawyer, to avoid the redhead from dozing out too much. "Y-you can't be napping right now!" the dog whispered, "I can't go to digi-prison for this! I didn't do anything!" This warranted a small hum from the bored redhead, before he began folding up a paper on the desk. Origami at a time like this? Really?! Is this how Asher intended on keeping himself awake?

    Ogremon looked at Dobermon, nervously, before counting his fingers again. Ten years? "I'm not good with numbers," he admitted, slowly, "I think so?" Would his loyalty be rewarded, or useful, for this case? If it was that easy, he'd certainly be happy about it! This entire 'being in front of people' thing was freaking him out!