It's another Rei Ryghts story! This one is a 'prequel' of sorts, taking place some time before 'The Mech Suit's Turnabout', hence, the 'Rookie' in the title. Hope you enjoy!

Rei Ryghts: Rookie Attorney

The Ten-Year Turnabout

By Derald Snyder

Prologue

October 31, 5:49 PM

Lowee Basilicom

Reading Room

It was time for the annual Halloween party, and by drawing of lots, Lowee had been selected to be the venue for the CPUs to celebrate this year. All the Hyperdimension CPUs were in attendance, save Uzume, who had stated that 'costume parties aren't really my thing.' The nations' Oracles had also remained at their respective Basilicoms in order to 'hold down the forts', so to speak. As for Lowee's Oracle, Mina Nishizawa, she and Financier were handling the catering for the party.

And there was one more guest, who probably wouldn't have been invited had the party been held anywhere other than Lowee, but deep down was quite flattered to be invited in the first place...

Rei Ryghts sighed as she adjusted her red business jacket, before checking to make sure her fake left horn was properly secured. She'd been invited on such short notice that the only costume she could throw together was going as a 'demon lawyer from hell.' Fortunately, Rom and Rom had dressed up as little demons themselves, and quickly established themselves as her 'evil legal assistants'. Which was quite fine with Rei, as she felt this would hopefully inoculate her from any pranks the two might've had planned...

"Aughh! Help me, Reeeeiii!" Neptune suddenly ran towards the trio and hid herself behind them. She'd gone as a vampire, with white face-paint and fake fangs, dressed in a dark-purple variation of her parka dress.

"From what...?" the lawyer asked as she looked forward, seeing Nepgear dressed in a witch's costume. "I-it's just your s-sister..."

"Look what she's holding!" Neptune cried as she cowered on the floor. Sure enough, the CPU Candidate was holding the bane of her sister's existence in one hand.

"Yes, cower in fear!" proclaimed Nepgear. "For I am... the EGGPLANT WITCH! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Your evil laugh isn't very scary..." Rom observed.

"Yeah, you should take lessons from Rei herself," Ram deadpanned.

As for the lawyer in question, she took a defensive stance as she prepared her index finger... "Take one more step, worm, and I slice that eggplant in half!"

"Don't you dare, Rei!" Blanc shouted from the other side of the room. "Or else you'll be cleaning the eggplant out of the carpet yourself! Ah-AH-CHOO!" she suddenly sneezed, knocking her fake mustache off. "Dammit... I should've gone as anyone other than a plumber..."

"It's your own fault, for being unable to think outside the box," Vert taunted.

"Says the one who just dressed as her 4 Goddesses Online avatar!" Blanc shot back.

"Don't worry Neptune, I'll save you!" Uni's voice suddenly spoke up... then an arrow with a plunger end came out of nowhere, knocking the eggplant out of Nepgear's hand! The 'witch' turned to see her fellow CPU Candidate, dressed in a angel costume, and holding her bow out with a triumphant smirk. "Bulls-eye! You lose, eggplant witch!"

"Grrr!" Nepgear shook a fist in faux anger. "Nice shot, angel... but I'll be back! And next time my eggplants will be... ORGANIC!" With that, she subtly tapped on the screen of her mobile device, causing a scare-chord to play as she retreated.

"Pheeeewww..." Neptune breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thanks a lot, Uni! I owe ya one!"

"Uni!" Noire scolded, dressed in one of her many cosplay costumes. "What have I told you about discharging firearms indoors?!"

"B-but, Noire, it's just a bow and arrow!" Uni stammered. "And the arrow didn't even have a pointy end on it!"

"You still could've put someone's eye out!" her sister retorted. "After all, you don't have much experience with a bow, even with your sniper's eye...!"

"Now, now," Vert cut in, "I think you've gotten your point across, Noire... and besides, Uni was just trying to help a friend."

"Y-yes, and she s-saved me the t-trouble of c-cleaning up eggplant f-from the c-carpet," Rei added as she walked up.

The Lastation goddess heaved a sigh. "Fine, I'll back off for now. But this had better not happen again!"

"I-I understand," Uni assented with her head bowed.

"Y'know, Rei..." Neptune spoke up, "Seeing you dressed like that, it kinda makes me think about how people around here musta seen you when you were first starting out with your lawyering career and stuff... I mean, sure, you got me off on assault charges, but..."

"I-it wasn't easy," the former final boss admitted. "I had a l-lot of t-trouble g-getting anyone to hire m-me at first, e-even when my b-boss put in a g-good word for me... but, there was a case I soon got involved in, which ended up putting me on the map, so to speak..."

"The Peterman case, right?" said Blanc. "I'd only read about it in the paper, but that was damn impressive, nonetheless..."

"How so?" Vert inquired.

"I'm kinda curious, too," Noire spoke up.

"Maybe you should just tell the whole story from the beginning," Neptune suggested.

Rei gulped at being put on the spot so suddenly... "O-Okay... everyone g-gather around a-and sit d-down, p-please..." This the goddesses did, Vert quietly retrieving the fallen eggplant and rolling it away, drawing a grateful nod from Neptune as she and Nepgear sat next to each other. "W-well, it actually began when a f-friend of m-my b-boss showed up at th-the office one d-day..."

*Two years ago...*

March 20, 1:43 PM

Civil Court

Courtroom No. 2

"O-Objection!" Rei grunted, slamming her fists on the bench for emphasis. "Ms. Dorothy Glover, m-my client d-did not k-kill your d-dog, and I can p-prove it!" Said client, Jake Dockson, was a caretaker that had been hired by the plaintiff to care for her beloved Corgi when she was busy, and had been sued for an insane amount of money.

"Then who?!" the large, elderly woman demanded. "Who killed my darling baby bunky bumber boo?!"

"YOU did!" Rei pointed at Ms. Glover. "You t-testified th-that you fed your C-Corgi a bunch of ch-chocolate before leaving f-for the day... but a d-dog's digestive system c-can't handle chocolate very well, especially in s-such a l-large amount! You may as well have f-fed him p-potassium cyanide!"

"Wh... wha..." Glover gaped in disbelief. "It was... me?" She then abruptly threw her head back, clutching in her hands as she let loose with a long, mournful wail. "NOOOOOOOO! My darling! My baby! I didn't know...! I'm so sorryyyyyyy!" She collapsed over the plaintiff's bench, sobbing and begging for forgiveness. At this, Jake Dockson threw up his hands as if to say, 'Finally, someone points out the obvious!'

Rei felt her heart twist with sympathy at the elderly woman's emotional breakdown, before taking a breath to clear her mind. "Your Honor, at this time..."

"No need, defense," the judge sighed. "Ms. Glover, your case is hereby dismissed. Judgement for the defendant." He then banged his gavel to signal adjournment.

"Thanks for the help," Dockson muttered as he and Rei exited the courtroom. "Can't believe I had to have an ex-villain defend me, but no one else wanted to stand up to that lady. Money talks..."

"S-speaking of money..." Rei spoke up. "Y-you are g-going to p-pay me, right? E-even villains have t-to eat, y-you know..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll make sure you get paid," the caretaker sighed dismissively. "Don't expect me to hire you again, though, if I can help it..."

The former goddess winced at hearing this. (So much for asking him to put in a good word for me to his friends...)

March 20, 3:25 PM

Samson & Co. Law Offices

"You did good work today, Rei," Bartholomew Samson stated to his subordinate. "Don't let your client's attitude get you down. Besides, he did promise to pay you, at least..."

"I j-just hope you w-won't have t-to send h-him a letter t-to remind him, like the l-last c-couple of times," Rei sighed in despair. "I really wish p-people would s-stop staring at me l-like I'm g-going to k-kill th-them if I look at th-them the w-wrong way..."

"It's going to take time, Rei," Her boss reminded her. "After all, what you did wasn't exactly petty theft, even if you have no recollection of the event..." Just then the door suddenly slammed open, revealing a man dressed in a red business suit, with cobalt-blue hair and a pair of glasses over black eyes, an angry expression on his face.

"Well, well, if it isn't Bart Samson," the man stated in a scoffing tone of voice. "Still doing your best to get criminals off scot-free, are we?"

"Back off, Millhouse!" Bartholomew challenged as he stood to his full height. "Everyone deserves a fair trial, guilty or innocent! But all you prosecutors care about is keeping up your perfect conviction record!" He marched up to the other man, standing a few inches taller then he.

"Oh yeah?!" the prosecutor retorted, not intimidated in the least.

"Yeah!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"P-Please stop!" Rei cried out. "Th-there's no need t-to fight, is there?!" The two men looked back at her for a moment, before looking each other in the eye again...

...and suddenly bursting out into raucous laughter as they embraced each other jovially. "Looks like you still got it, Bart!" the prosecutor stated between guffaws.

"You too, Mike!" Bartholomew gasped out as he belly-laughed.

"H... huh?!" Rei gaped, her eyes shrinking to circles in disbelief at the sudden 180.

"...I think we broke your subordinate," Millhouse pointed out as the laughter finally died down.

"Ah, right..." the larger man grunted as he calmed himself down. *Ahem* "Allow me to introduce you, then... Rei, this is Prosecutor Michael Millhouse. He and I have been friends since junior high..."

"Oh... OH!" Rei gasped in realization. "Th-then your f-fight earlier was j-just..."

"Yeah, we were just BS'ing with each other," Millhouse confirmed. "We used to do that all the time when we were kids..." Turning back to the former goddess, he put a hand to his chin as he eyed her critically. "So... Rei Ryghts herself, in the flesh."

"Y-yessir," Rei nodded nervously.

"You're... a bit smaller than I imagined."

"I-I was only t-tall when I w-was a g-goddess... b-but I c-can't do that anymore. And I d-don't want t-to, either..."

"Well, that's good to hear," Millhouse nodded. "Of course, I'm sure Bart wouldn't have hired you if he didn't think he could trust you on some level..."

"You know me, Mike," Bartholomew shrugged. "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance... even final bosses. She's already been a great help around the office, handling paperwork, cleaning the toilet..."

"Because there's no way you can bend low enough to scrub that thing, right?" Mike ribbed.

"Watch it, Millhouse. If I were to swipe those glasses off your face, you'd be stumbling around here like a blind man!" Bartholomew shot back.

"I'm not THAT near-sighted..." Millhouse sighed. "Anyway, I'm curious... how has Miss Ryghts handled herself in actual court cases?"

"Decently enough," Bartholomew said, "though she seems to get too easily intimidated sometimes... also, she's mostly been handling civil cases... apparently no one wants to risk hiring a former villain for more serious offenses."

"N-not to mention I have t-trouble even g-getting p-paid..." Rei sighed forlornly. "I s-still c-can't afford a p-place of my own..." She gestured to the visitor's couch, where a pillow and folded-up blanket were sitting nearby.

"You sleep in the office?!" Millhouse gaped. "You... you have my condolences, young lady..."

"I'm n-not sure 30 is th-that young..." Rei muttered.

"Well, you're still younger than me by about seven years," the prosecutor shrugged. "Anyway, the reason I came here was to give Bart's new employee- i.e. you- a chance to raise their profile, so to speak."

"R-really?" Rei gasped in mild disbelief. "H-how so?"

"There's a mock trial being conducted at my and Bart's old alma mater in about a week," Millhouse explained. "I have a protege of my own who attends that school, and he'll be acting as the prosecutor. Problem is, none of the other students are confident enough to go up against him as the defense... so, that's where you come in."

"B-but what if I c-cause a p-panic in th-the school?" Rei couldn't help but point out.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Mike chuckled. "I'll be sure to explain everything to the administrators beforehand... Also, I'll see if I can't have one of the security guards escort you while you're on campus. That should help put the students' minds at ease..."

"I c-certainly hope so," Rei sighed...

*To be continued...*

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