[video]

[glassinine]

[The thing about employing text is that when you start using it when all your broadcasts are in video, people tend to question why you've suddenly switched. So he makes the decision to instead compose himself as best as he can and use video instead.

Unfortunately, he always sort of overestimates his ability to compose himself. He certainly doesn't seem distraught, or panicked, or anything of the sort, but he's definitely shaky. This is definitely a far cry from his normal, slow, quiet, lengthy broadcasts.]

I'm leaving on a business trip abroad for...some length of time. I'm - not certain how long. Please don't try to contact me; I'll be far too busy to answer any messages.

Good day.

Comments

text; private

[attainment]

Mr. Edgeworth, do you truly believe a person is defined by their powers?

text; private

[glassinine]

No. But one can be defined by the good or the harm one does. I'm only capable of the latter, it seems.

text; private

[attainment]

What defines you is whether you take responsibility for your mistakes and are willing to reevaluate your life in order to avoid making them again. Perhaps you're convinced that's what your self-imposed isolation is. In reality, though, you're avoiding the true cause of the problem, namely understanding the nature of your powers and what you must do to control them. This is normal behavior for newly-awakened NEXTs, not unlike the stages of grief, but is no way a viable long-term solution.

You've had this ability for about 1% of your total lifespan. How are you so certain that it doesn't have any constructive uses?

text; private

[glassinine]

[All of this, though, is too rational. He doesn't want rationality. So he writes back, bitterly:]

I didn't ask for a psychoanalysis, Brooks.

text; private

[attainment]

[Barnaby freezes when he reads that message, his pale fingers helplessly hanging over the device's keypad. Part of him had already known it would come to this, but he'd at least wanted to try dissuading the man from doing something foolish.

There is nothing else he can say now. There is no reasoning with someone who doesn't want to see reason. Barnaby knows this all too well because he's been blinded by his own false perceptions before, is probably still blinded by some of those distortions even now.

In the end, he doesn't send a reply.]

text; private

[glassinine]

[An hour ticks by; finally, it becomes clear that Brooks isn't responding. So Edgeworth - bitterly satisfied with his victory, such as it was - sends one last message. The final words.]

The "heroic" thing to do is keeping people safe, isn't it? So keep them away from me. That is your responsibility, Mr. Brooks. Observe it well. I'll be counting on you.