The 100 Things

I don't know about you guys, but Shi-Long Lang and Shih-na's relationship seemed deeper than just professional. This is my take on what happened before and after Shih-na gets arrested for the murder of Manny Coachen.

Disclaimer: Capcom owns the Phoenix Wright series—I just write about it.

Original fan fiction by: Michelle V.

One. Lang Zi Says:

One to Seven—The Past—Year 2012:

The two men were busy talking in the busy hall of the Interpol Agency. Though the other agents were curious as to what they were talking about, they were afraid of a certain wolf-man in the conversation.

"Lang," said his Interpol superior. He was holding a fat stack of papers.

Shi-Long Lang, wide-eyed and ready for anything, accidentally glared at the man. With his intense stare, he managed to growl, "Sir?"

His superior merely flinched. Geez, what is it with people from Zheng Fa and staring at others? Collecting himself, he proceeded. "As a reward for your remarkable arrest rate, Interpol has decided to award you a subordinate."

Lang was almost sent back. He had never imagined of having someone under him. He looked down, and growled, "Sir, I can't have someone under me. I've never even dreamed of it."

His superior sighed. "Lang," he began, your humbleness doesn't match your appearance. It's almost too out of character. You must have the behavior of a wolf—the leader of your loyal pack!" He shoved a pile of papers onto Lang. "You're going to need these. They're information on your very first subordinate."

As his superior walked away, Lang shuffled the papers and saw the information on his very first assistant.

She was quite calm looking—she had a natural poker face. Her eyes were a glowing red in a great contrast to her short, white hair.

She looks really dull… Lang thought. Maybe if she smiled she would look livelier. He skimmed over all the other details to find her name. He found it: Shih-na.

She's from Zheng Fa too? He grinned at the idea of them having at least that much in common. He rushed over to the conference room in which they were to meet right that moment. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea.

She sat in the room, waiting for her new superior to come and greet her. Her fingers lightly tapped the armrest. She also had papers on her new boss, and was amused. At least this time I'm working with a handsome, younger, twenty-year-old man, she said, chuckling a little. She stopped herself. She could not laugh—not like she did. She was not Calisto Yew anymore. She was Shih-na, an Interpol Agent… for now, anyway.

As she skimmed through the documents a last time, she looked for three things—his picture, his name, and his age. Shi-Long Lang. Twenty. He looks like a wolf, but apparently doesn't act like one. Great.

She heard approaching footsteps in the hall and stared at the door. She crossed her legs, and tried to look as serious as humanly possible. Here he comes, she thought, my new pawn. She let out one last sinister smile.

Lang opened the steel door, and in it sat a woman in her early twenties. He stared at her long and hard, and she did the same right back.

"Aiya," he said under his breath, "she really is from Zheng Fa." He closed the door behind him and sat in the chair opposite the woman. He tried to be friendly since he was so nervous. "Hello."

"…" The woman did not reply. Her stare was like daggers pointing at Lang, but he was already used to it.

"You must know already, but I'm Shi-Long Lang. You must be…" He shuffled his papers to look for his subordinate's name.

She raised a hand to cue him to stop. "Shih-na," she said in a serious, yet soft, voice.

He looked up at her, and smirked. "Right. It's nice to meet you."

Not smiling back, she replied, "It's nice to meet my new boss as well. I hope we can work well together." She continued to stare at him.

A drop of sweat started to fall from Lang's head. "Yeah." My first subordinate: hard to talk to, he thought, giving up on conversation and just shuffling through his papers.

Feeling a little bad for giving him her new attitude like that, Shih-na said something to pique his interest. "You're Lang, as in the House of Lang in Zheng Fa?"

Lang quickly looked up, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Yes," he said, showing his sharp teeth. "Can I assume from your familiarity that you're from there as well?"

With the slightest smile on her face, she said back, "Yeah." Looking down at her papers again, she said, "I'm glad that you're from Zheng Fa. Now I won't have any trouble being your secretary."

Lang gave her a confused look. He slowly said, "Secretary…? I thought you would be my first subordinate."

Still not looking at him, she said, "I am your subordinate, but I think it would be much more profitable to you as my superior if I was your secretary. I assume you don't have one, especially since I'm your first subordinate."

He was caught so off-guard, Lang thought aloud. He uttered, "Aiya, I thought you were quiet. Maybe looks can be deceiving, after all."

Shih-na could not help but chuckle. "I'm usually quiet," she said, "But there's something about you that's just different. That's a good thing, by the way."

Lang grinned. "I'm glad to know that you're already comfortable around me."

He extended his hand, and his subordinate shook it in return.

The Present—Year 2019:

Lang carried Shih-na to her cell; he had knocked her out cold to stop her constant struggles of being restrained. Aiya… he thought, smiling sadly, I just lost my best subordinate. He put her in the cell, still a bare and empty room, and placed her on the hard bed attached to the wall.

He thought about everything the two had done together. All the good they had done the world—and here Shih-na was, committing crimes right under his nose. It doesn't make any sense, he thought angrily, it shouldn't have ended like this. He sat on the floor and sighed.

"What are you sighing for?" Shih-na hissed, not moving from the bed. She was wide awake now. "Ugh, my head hurts. Thanks a lot, stupid agent."

"Shih-na…" Lang said, looking up at her. "You're awake already?"

She snapped. "Tch. My name's not Shih-na." She turned to glare at him. "And your loud sighs can be heard from outside. Of course I'm awake."

Lang merely said back, "I'll keep quiet, so go back to sleep."

"You think I can sleep in this showy dress?" She scoffed. "Do you see how deep this goes in the back? Of course you do, you helped me pick it out, after all. My back and my legs are completely exposed to this disgusting metal bed."

Lang bared his teeth. She was getting on his nerves. "You know, you're really different than I had originally thought."

She shot back, "You can't think anything of me—you only know one of me."

He raised his voice. "Only one of you? What the hell is even your real name?"

"My real name? Ha—that's easy. My real name is…" She trailed off. "My real name…"

He watched her—she was confused and angry. He softened his voice. "You don't remember your real name?" He raised a hand to touch her white, soft hair.

As he did this, her pale skin turned a soft pink. "G-get your hands off me!" She sat up quickly; but apparently, too quickly. She hit her head on the wall, and slumped back onto the bed, rubbing her dented head in pain and embarrassment. "Don't say anything. You don't need to insult me." She looked up at the ceiling, as she did not want Lang to see her face.

"I'm not going to insult you," he said, getting up to sit on the bed. "No matter who you are, to me, you're still Shih-na. You're still my secretary."

She chuckled. "Pathetic. Still smitten with me? Even after what you just witnessed? I'm nothing you thought I was. To tell you the truth, I'm nothing like Shih-na." She placed her head on his lap, and relaxed. "Go any deeper than this and you're going to regret it even more than now."

"I'm not in love with you," Lang denied. "Our relationship was strictly professional."

Shih-na said in a hiss, "Don't even try to deny it. You'll piss me off."

Lang growled, "What? You shouldn't even have the right to talk right now. What makes you think you can talk back to your superior?"

Shih-na closed her eyes. "Four reasons." She held up her hand weakly. "One, I'm older than you. Two, you're not my superior anymore. Three, I bet if I fall asleep right now, I won't wake up, because I'll be dead. And four… four… four…" She slowly closed her red eyes and nodded off to sleep.

Lang widened his eyes. Four? What could four be? He gently shook her. "Shih-na, wake up. You didn't finish what you were saying." Then, he tried blowing in her face. He even resorted to slapping her soft face a little. After many failed attempts at trying to waken her, he just let her sleep on his lap. He tried to unwind, but he suddenly got tense.

He had ignored the pain, but now he could feel the throbbing of his leg again. Don't start bleeding again, he thought angrily, I don't want to leave just to get treated again. He forced himself to doze off, to ignore the pain again, if just for a minute or so.

Yay! My third story!

I don't know why, but I got nervous posting this up.

Maybe it's because I know updates will be slow?

And apologies if you think it's boring... I can't write about sad things well.

Another thing: I don't know if I should make the ending good or bad.

Help me decide!

Well, review please, and tell me what you think about this work in progress.