This is based a little theory I made back in Return to Kurain. "Was ? ? the real culprit in Bridge to the Turnabout?" There's plenty of evidence so I decided to present it here. You'll never see the culprit the same way again. Of course, still writing it in the style of a courtroom debate to fit the definition of "fanfiction".

Disclaimer: I don't own Capcom, Trials and Tribulations, or any of the characters.

It was after the victory in tres bein that the group were called in for Godot's trial. It was almost instant. Wright was about have a prosecution track record better than Manfred Von Karma. 100.00% victories. The judge declared his verdict.

"I hereby declare the defendant, Diego Armando:"

Hold it!

A boy, no more than 7 years old, stepped down from the gallery. "This man's explanation doesn't quite work. Godot can't see without his mask, so how did he find it after it was knocked off? Also, the killer was still hit by a small blood splash from the wound in Misty's body. It wasn't him!"

Phoenix cringed at this well made explanation. (This is even more insult to injury than losing to Payne. I need to think of a counterargument!)

Objection!

"If Godot didn't do it; who did? May I ask?" Phoenix bluffed. He prayed the boy had no answer.

He did have an answer.

Profiles - Pearl Fey (Age: 9) "Younger cousin of Maya Fey. Next in line for master of Kurain. Channelling prodigy. Was unwillingly plotting to assassinate Maya at the time." Take That!

"The real killer is Pearl Fey! She's the only suspect left."

Phoenix was shocked. "WHAAAAT! I know she said it was all her fault but... But... But she couldn't have done it because umm... She urr... She didn't have a light source with her! How did she see in the dark without a torch?" (Please work? This may be my last chance to save Pearls. Please don't let this fall through...)

The boy simply replied, "trick question. She did have a torch. I had a look around the garden while the police were busy unlocking the gate with Iris. I was bored OK? Anyway, I found this green pocket torch." (For the record, this green thing was just in front of the cleared out snow. You can't interact with it but it's there.)

Green torch submitted into evidence.

Phoenix was quick to reply, "And how can I know this evidence isn't forged?"

The boy simply replied, "What's forged evidence? And how do I get some because it sounds awesome!"

The judge interjected. "It seems as though this boy does not understand the concept of forged evidence, Mr. Wright." He then turned to the boy. "Forged evidence is where a person gets a piece of evidence by making it himself or making an irrelevant piece of evidence 'relevant'. They then lie about the evidence to make their case.

"Some people lie in court just to make a case? And they call this the halls of justice and other posh stuff? Why can't we just let the truth come to light here? And nothing else!" The boy still failed to grasp the concept of forged evidence.

Phoenix tried to save the case, "Maybe one of the police members wanted to cover for Godot, and brought the torch to the crime scene. The technical term for that is 'evidence planting'. That way, someone else, you in this case, can bring it into the court, genuinely thinking the evidence is legitimate, and they'll end up taking the punishment if people find out it's forged."

They boy was shocked. "THAT'S SO MEAN! I can't think of any members of the police force nasty enough to do such a nasty thing, now that Chief Gant and Manfred Von Karma are gone and Lana is in jail."

"In other words, there's no motive for forging the evidence. I hereby sustain your objection." The judge was taking the boy's side, he knew of the goings on in the police department.

Phoenix was now sweating like a pig at the slaughterhouse. "So there was a torch at the crime scene. Are you sure it wasn't accidentally dropped. I wouldn't put it beyond Gumshoe to mess up like that."

The boy replied. "Fair point... Or it would be if there weren't bloodstains on the torch!" He smiled sadistically as he knew he pulled out a trump card. Gumshoe wasn't injured.

Phoenix knew he was out of hope regarding this argument. "OK, the torch is valid. However Pearls has an alibi. She was asleep. She told me herself. Can you prove otherwise?"

Evidence - Stone lantern (Type: other) "Has Maya written in blood on the side" Take That!

"The stone lantern has writing on the side. Who wrote it? Not Godot, he can't see the writing; not Dahlia, she was either busy attacking Maya or locked in the sacred cavern; not Maya, she had her back to the lantern; and not the police force investigating, they wanted it to not exist! Who's left? Pearl Fey. She was awake enough to write oLoW on the lantern, so she was awake enough to impale someone!"

Phoenix was caught off guard. (Th-that's... Completely decisive if you look at it like that!) He then decided to throw out a bluff. Objection!

"Pearl Fey isn't strong enough to lift a sword bigger than her!"

"She is. One, Godot is unable to lift the sword due to his central nervous system complications. Two, she is able to run from Kurain to the courtroom in under two hours, if legends are to be believed."

"A legend? She just did that because she didn't know what a train was! Oh wait... That makes her a marathon world record holder and more than fit enough to hold the sword. Darn!"

"See. I have a point. She could have done it, and she is the only person who could have done it." The boy had the upper hand. Again. "While I'm at it, has she denied committing the crime to anyone? Is she a little worried someone may catch her lying."

"Criminy! I... She... How did you know about the magatama?"

"Maga-what-a? She knew you had a lie detector? That explains her lack of denial."

"How did you...?" Phoenix was creeped out by the boy's lucky guess.

"I can hear emotion in people's voices, meaning I know what people are thinking some of the time. It can get really awkward. My name is Justin Cykes. I knew Pearl was hiding something by how she was so quiet. Lie detectors only work if a person actually says something." This was just to get around how Justin shouldn't be able to read blue text normally, and the fact he doesn't know about the magatama.

"I think we all know what this implies." Justin continued, "She's trying to distance herself from the case, so the court, the gallery, and the media are played for fools." The media... Both sides of the fourth wall.

"Everyone was covering for you, Pearl Fey. However, the truth will always come to light!"

Evidence - sacred urn (Type: broken) "I've broken it, Mia's broken it, Andrews has broken it. This might as well be a pinata!" Objection!

Pearl was now defending herself. "This urn, I was clumsy enough to break this and mess up fixing it. If I were to wield the sword, I'd miss and fall over!"

It was the boy's turn to be caught off guard. "Ack! I can't say you're lying on this one! But... Maybe you got lucky and hit by sheer chance?"

"Unlikely. I'd have to be facing the right direction first, which I wasn't. If the spear was thrown as the evidence suggests; I would be hitting Misty from the side. This contradicts the autopsy report."

"Well, if you were really focused on saving Maya, you would go for Dahlia's flank, probably miss and trip, and lunge at her again. Two attempts should be enough for even an amateur to hit an open target with an unwieldy sword. Besides, doesn't your argument also apply to Godot, as he had damaged his everything with poison."

"Oh..." (How does he know about everything? Not only does he figure out that I did it, but also how I did it?! Impossible!) "Well, um, ah..."

"While I'm at it, I might as well mention that Godot is too weak to clear up the crime scene himself, so you had to have helped shovelling the snow and swinging the body over eagle river. That's also when you wrote oLoW on the lantern. But, I need to ask one question: why write on the lantern?"

"...!" (Time to feign ignorance. I actually signed the crime scene just in case Maya were indicted so I would be the one who's implicated for the whole thing.) "Umm.. I-I can't tell you as I didn't do it. However, I can tell you one thing...

The fact that two wrongs don't make a Wright!"

Blue and white lines appeared behind Pearl as the camera zoomed into her hair. The cornered theme started playing.

Justin was stuck. "I-I guess revenge is just as bad as committing the crime yourself but... Doesn't the law protect us?"

"No. It certainly doesn't protect the ones on the wrong end of it!"

Justin then saw an opening. "Aren't political discussions supposed to be left for the court of appeal? The job here is to find out who murdered Misty Fey. And that is you! You'd need a miracle to worm your way out of this one..."

He then dealt a finishing blow. "Your fans will never forgive you! Never! EVER!"

Pearl was stuck. She had been proven beyond all reasonable doubt as guilty. The judge decided to end the trial.

"That was quite the turnabout, but I see no need to further prolong this case. I hereby declare the defendant, Diego Armando:"

NOT GUILTY

Confetti rained down on the courtroom as the innocent Iris walked free. However, "the steel samurai's ballad" started playing in Phoenix's head as he walked out of the courtroom.

These were Phoenix's thoughts afterwards:

And just like that, the case came to an end.

I ran away from the courtroom... and wandered the streets alone.

I never saw Maya again.

The police are men of their words, so I'm sure they released her as promised.

I heard the verdict of Ms. Fey's trial a few days later.

She was found guilty, of course.

The "miracle" never happen.

Maybe it was never meant to.

Because a "miracle" is something that doesn't exist.

I, as a lawyer, can cry. Because it's all over...

No-one ever found the reason why Pearl Fey eluded everyone in the whole court. Only the fact that she did. Of course there had to be one person in the gallery who can make an observation that good. I won my case and the truth got out, but the end doesn't justify the means. There was more evidence placed against Pearls in her trial. She used Maya's uniform to cover the bloodstain on her clothes, which is why she had filled up the incinerator enough to not burn her letter properly. It was also found that she did confess the crimes to me.

However, at the end of the trial: Maya apparently pulled out a trump card. She channelled Misty and Misty forgave Pearls, thanking her for saving Maya. I may want to see them again at some point.

Maybe I'll meet them in future, but for now I have no companions. It looks like I have a new client: Zak Gramareye.

Yes, the whole Zak thing was to make this whole story fit into the canon. It would explain why Phoenix made no attempt to claim his forged evidence was planted, and was disbarred. It also explains why Phoenix doesn't meet up with Maya and Pearl much over the following 8 years. He had no motivation.