Rei Ryghts: Ace Attorney
The High School Turnabout
By Derald Snyder
Trial, Day 1
Court Record:
-Ghost Article
-Byleth's Sword
-Byleth's Planner
February 16, 8:39 AM
District Court
Defendant Lobby No. 1
"Good morning, Nagato-san," John Smith greeted, standing with Itsuki Koizumi and Rei as Yuki was escorted in by the bailiff, who then unlocked her handcuffs. "How're you doing? They've been treating you all right?"
"N-nothing abusive or anything," Yuki sighed. "Actually, one of my fellow prisoners was a woman who murdered her classmate in college. Sh-she said that she hoped I got off, because what she did was a massive mistake, and she didn't want me to go through the same thing..."
"The difference is, you didn't actually do the crime," Kyon pointed out. "That was nice of her, though... by the way, I've got a card here with greetings and messages from from all our classmates..." He promptly handed the large greeting card to Yuki, which had scribblings all over the inside and outside. "Also, a lot of us are going to be watching from the gallery, too..."
"...oh, wow..." Yuki said as she skimmed over the card. "Thank you... I had no idea I was so... supported..." A single tear ran from under her glasses.
"Still, this isn't going to be a walk in the park," Koizumi noted. "A lot of the circumstantial evidence seems to lay against you at the moment..."
"Speaking of which," Rei spoke up, "Miss Nagato, which direction d-did you enter the intersection where you found the p-professor?"
"Um... I th-think it was the east I came from," Yuki grunted, trying to recall.
"And you d-didn't see anyone b-besides Professor Eisner and th-the security g-guard?"
"No one," the student shook her head. "It was really dark, though..."
"So we can safely assume that the actual attacker fled in a different direction than you or the guard," Koizumi summarized. "Good. Knowing their escape route should help us establish what actually happened."
"B-but can you convince the j-judge of that?" Yuki looked up at Rei hopefully.
"I hope so," the CPU nodded grimly. "It depends on what evidence the p-prosecution p-presents, though..."
"Yeah, it sounds like you've faced this 'Mr. Badd' in court before," John said.
"Once, in my very first trial," Rei confirmed. "From what I remember, he's good at making up convincing motives out of whole cloth... He's not called the 'Rookie Destroyer' for nothing."
"But you are no rookie now, are you, Ryghts-san?" Koizumi smirked.
"No, b-but that doesn't mean I should g-get too c-cocky, either..."
"Miss Ryghts! Court is about to begin!" the bailiff by the courtroom doors announced. "Please bring the defendant with you and take your place at the bench!"
"I'll be right there!" Rei called back. "Well, this is it..."
"Like I said, we'll be watching from the gallery," Kyon nodded as he and Koiaumi turned to leave. "Good luck, Nagato-san!"
"Thank you!" Yuki called after them.
"And I'll be watching from your side at the bench!" Sothis' voice suddenly spoke up from nowhere. "Let's see if you're really the 'Ace Attorney' everyone claims you to be!"
February 16, 9:00 AM
District Court
Courtroom No. 1
The gallery's muttering was promptly silenced by the judge's gavel. "Court is now in session for the trial of Yuki Nagato."
"The defense is ready, Your Honor," Rei asserted.
"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor," Mr. Badd stated from his bench on the opposite side.
"Ah, hello again, Rei Ryghts," the bald, bearded man greeted warmly. "I haven't seen you since your successful defense of Oracle Neon Evangelion. I was almost afraid they'd abducted you to defend trials in outer space!" There was a rumble of laughter from the audience.
"N-no, Your Honor, th-there just hasn't b-been much work at the office lately," Rei ducked her head, sweat-dropping.
"Oh, please," Mr. Badd grumbled. "Somebody's getting a bit too big for their britches if you ask me. Looks like it's up to this old veteran to give you a refresher course in down-to-earth law!"
"Big words from the first prosecutor I ever defeated in court," Rei deadpanned.
"That was ages ago!" Badd shot back. "Things are different now! I'm... different! And I won't show you any mercy this time, rookie or not!"
"That was the best retort he could come up with?" Sothis sighed as she floated beside Rei, invisible to everyone but the CPU. "Still, this is the first time I can recall being inside an actual courtroom... Not exactly impressive, but I guess it serves it's purpose well enough."
The judge then banged his gavel. "I think that's enough 'trash-talking', as it were. Prosecutor Badd, your opening statement, please."
"Certainly, Your Honor," Badd assented. "The crime happened around midnight on the 15th. Byleth Eisner, a professor at Garreg Mach Military Academy, was viciously stabbed in the halls of Lowee North High School, where he was acting as a substitute history teacher. The victim is currently in serious condition at the local hospital, and it's up in the air whether he'll survive or not... But before the attacker could flee the scene, she was caught red-handed by the security guard! And it is my intention to prove that Yuki Nagato is the only possible perpetrator of this savage attack!" The gallery started muttering at this.
"But why would the defendant stab this professor to begin with?" the judge inquired.
"The prosecution believes it was a crime of passion," Mr. Badd asserted. "Upon meeting with the Professor in the hallway, her anger at his strict discipline got the better of her, and the rest is history! Even if she harbors regret for what she's done, she must still face the consequences of her actions!"
"But that doesn't explain why they were meeting in the dead of night," the judge pointed out.
"That will become clear in time, Your Honor," Badd replied. "So, allow me, to call my first witness to the stand. Agent Sonou, if you would please." The twin-tailed woman from yesterday walked up to the stand, having swapped her maid outfit for a short long-sleeved gray coat over a white blouse, with a matching skirt that went down to her knees. "Please state your name and occupation."
"Yes sir. My name is Mori Sonou, Special Agent of the Lowee Guild," Mori bowed her head solemnly. "At the request of a fellow agent, I took over this investigation from Detective Robert Brightman."
"The Lowee Guild?" the judge gasped, nonplussed. "Why is the Guild involved in a simple stabbing case?!"
"It seems that one of the defendant's classmates is an agent of the Guild himself," Badd harrumphed. "He clearly pulled some strings out of paranoia that Detective Brightman was corrupt, though that couldn't be further from the truth!" The crowd muttered in confusion at hearing this, the judge banging his gavel in response.
(Koizumi doesn't seem like the paranoid type to me, though...) Rei sweat-dropped.
"I assure everyone here that I have conducted my investigation in a completely impartial manner," Mori bowed again. "I personally have no connection with the defendant, so her fate is of no concern to me..."
"Talk about cold as a cucumber!" Sothis snarked.
"A-actually, it's 'cool as a cucumber'," Rei whispered to her companion.
The judge banged his gavel again, before stating, "Very well, then. Agent Sonou, please testify as to the results of your investigation."
"Yes, Your Honor," Mori assented, before pulling a laminated poster and stand from hammer space, setting them up to be visible to all. "This is a diagram of the crime scene. The victim, Professor Byleth Eisner, was found here," she used a pointer to indicate a spot slightly off-center to the right. "The intersection only goes in three directions- west, east and south. The security guard who discovered the victim came from the south. The defendant, Yuki Nagato, was found standing over his body."
"As I said in my open, caught red-handed," Badd spoke up. "And what condition was the victim in?"
"He was lying on his front side, slightly to the right, with a combat knife in his gut," Mori replied. "The guard and Nagato-san carried the victim out the main entrance to the school on the south side, the guard administering first aid until the ambulance arrived. The blood trail we found confirms the guard's testimony."
*Crime Scene Diagram has been added to the Court Record.*
"What about the knife?" Rei inquired.
"It was extracted after the ambulance arrived, and promptly preserved in an evidence bag by the guard. I have it here, in fact." Mori pulled out the bag containing the knife, which had some blood remaining on the blade.
"What kind of knife is it?" the CPU asked next.
"It's a standard combat knife, mass-produced, which makes it difficult to trace," Mori replied. "Also, I should mention, there were no fingerprints found on the handle. That doesn't rule out the possibility of the defendant wearing gloves, however..."
*Combat Knife has been added to the Court Record.*
"HOLD IT!" Rei slammed her palms on the bench. "Did you find any gloves at the scene?!"
"...No, we didn't," Mori admitted. "But given that several students were at the scene when I took control of the investigation... who's to say some of them didn't have sticky fingers, so to speak?"
"Urk!" Rei recoiled. (That's... that's a good point, actually...)
"Indeed, some children just don't know to keep their hands to themselves," Sothis sighed beside her. "They could have easily contaminated the scene before you or she arrived..."
"Are you saying that Detective Brightman was having trouble securing the scene?" the judge said with a stern look on his face.
"I can testify to that," Rei said aloud. "It wasn't until I yelled at them that they finally cleared out..."
"So you admit that any gloves at the scene could have been stolen by one of the students," Badd stated smugly.
"That's not fairs!" Tsuruya yelled from the gallery.
"Order! Order!" the judge banged his gavel thrice. "Another outburst from the gallery, and the offender will be pulled from the courtroom!" Tsurura went pale at this, swiftly sitting down and falling silent. "Now then, is there anything else you would like to share, Agent Sonou?"
"We had security footage pulled from all the entrances," Mori nodded. "We currently have footage of the victim speaking briefly with the security guard at the main entrance to the south, and footage of Nagato-san entering from the east."
"And there was no one else that entered or exited the school?" Mr. Badd pressed.
"Not as far as we could tell," Mori shook her head. "Let me say, that there are several emergency exits that have no cameras, but they only open from the inside, and doing so would set off alarms all over the school. So it's unlikely anyone snuck in or out that way..."
*Security Footage has been added to the Court Record.*
(No one other than Miss Nagato and the professor... that's not good,) Rei thought to herself, sweating in mild despair.
"Of course, who's to say that somebody didn't sneak in during the day, and simply hid until nightfall?" Sothis pointed out. "Of course, you probably have no way of proving that, do you?"
(Not yet, anyway...) Rei groaned internally.
"You've gotten awfully quiet, Ryghts," Mr. Badd addressed his rival. "Perhaps you should spare yourself any further embarrassment and concede now..."
"HOLD IT! Not so fast, maggot!" Rei slapped her hands on the bench. "I'm not conceding anything until we hear from the security guard himself!"
"Hmph... put on a brave front all you wish, but it won't change anything!" Badd said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Agent Sonou, thank you for your testimony. You may step down now." Mori nodded and bowed to the judge, before quietly walking off. "Now then, my next witness is the very security guard we've been talking about at length. And his testimony will remove all doubts that Miss Nagato was the one who committed the stabbing!" A man with combed dirty blond hair walked up to the stand, dressed in the standard security uniform. "Now, please state your name and occupation."
"Yes, sir!" the guard saluted. "Bobby DeBeats, reporting for duty! I'm a security guard who keeps North High safe during the night! No one gets past me!"
"Obviously Nagato got past him, though," Sothis snarked.
"Mr. DeBeats," Badd began, "You met with the victim briefly on the night of the attack, correct?"
"Yes sir! And I'm the one who found him collapsed, with that student standing over him!" DeBeats agreed.
The judge then banged his gavel. "Very well then. Please give us your testimony on what you witnessed at the time of the attack."
(Okay, this is it! If I don't find a contradiction here, it's all over!) Rei thought grimly.
"So... it was about ten to midnight," the guard began. "I was doing my usual walk around the school, when I heard somebody knocking at the front entrance. I immediately recognized it was Professor Eisner, so I let him in. He said he had come to pick up some papers that he'd forgotten to grade, and couldn't afford to wait until tomorrow. So after I let him in, I remained by the door, when I suddenly heard a girl screaming! I immediately ran down the hallway, and that's when I saw the professor on the ground, lying on his side with a knife in his gut! And there was a girl standing over him!"
"And who was this girl you saw?" Badd inquired.
"That one, right there!" Bobby pointed at Yuki. "To her credit, she helped me carry Mr. Eisner outside, and stayed with us until the ambulance showed up!"
"So you were the one who called 911?" Badd asked.
"Yeah, that's right! I kept an eye on uh, Miss Nagato, was it? Anyway, she just stood there, looking horrified..."
"That doesn't seem like the actions of a guilty party..." Rei cut in.
"OBJECTION!" Mr. Badd bellowed. "As I said before, it was a crime of passion committed in a moment of rage! The defendant likely screamed in horror upon realizing what she'd done, and assisted the guard out of guilt for her actions!" The crowds chattered at this, forcing the judge to bang his gavel to quiet them down.
"I see... that seems plausible enough," the judge concurred, his eyes closed in thought.
"So, Miss Ryghts, will you still proceed with a cross-examination?" Mr. Badd asked with his arms crossed.
"I will," Rei replied without hesitation. "I've never given up on a client before, and I don't intend to start now, worm."
"So be it. Please proceed with your cross-examination, Miss Ryghts," the judge said.
"So, are we going to hit the guard with what we found in Byleth's planner?" Sothis asked.
"Not yet," Rei whispered back. "There's probably a reason the professor didn't tell the guard. I want to see what else we can get out of him first."
"Well, you're the lawyer," the ghost sighed.
"Mr. DeBeats..." Rei spoke aloud, "If I remember, doesn't the school have an outer gate? I assume it's locked at night."
"Yeah, it is," Bobby nodded, "but certain members of the faculty have keys to that gate, and Mr. Eisner was one of them."
"So how could the defendant have gotten in?" Rei pressed.
"Well, the gates were still unlocked when we carried Mr. Eisner outside," DeBeats responded. "So anyone could have come in after him..."
"And you failed to notice anyone else entering the building?!" Rei pointed out.
"OBJECTION!" Badd interrupted. "Nice try, Miss Ryghts, but as it turns out, the club leaders have keys to the east side where said clubs are situated. Miss Nagato could easily get in that way! And if you look closer at the security footage, you'll see she clearly had a key in hand!"
"Ahhhh!" Rei recoiled in shock, causing the gallery to mutter amongst themselves...
"Order! Order in the court!" the judge banged his gavel repeatedly. "This sounds pretty decisive to me..."
"W-with all d-due respect, Your Honor, I th-think there's still room for d-doubt!" Rei stuttered.
"You're starting to falter, Ryghts. Even I can see it," Badd shook his head. "I'll give you one last chance to bow out gracefully. If you do, I promise to go easy on Miss Nagato during sentencing..."
(I can't do that! I know Yuki Nagato is innocent!) Rei thought to herself. "I-I'm not finished with my c-cross-examination yet!"
"...Fine then. You can only bang your head against the wall so many times before you pass out," the prosecutor sighed.
"Bobby DeBeats!" Rei cried, "What did Miss Nagato seem like when you found her?!"
"Uh... Like I said, she was horrified," the guard put a hand behind his head. "She swore up and down that she didn't stab him... At the time, I was almost inclined to believe her... but who else could have done it?"
"Do you remember if she was wearing gloves or not?" the CPU pressed.
"Not that I can recall," Bobby shook his head. "I went back and checked the scene later after the professor and Miss Nagato went off in the ambulance, and I didn't see anything like that... believe me, I would have noticed something like gloves!"
"Ah...!" Badd began to sweat a little.
"So, if there were no gloves at the scene... how do you explain the knife having no fingerprints?!"
"Whaaaaa?! N-no fingerprints?!" Bobby recoiled in shock.
"Were you even paying attention to the agent's testimony earlier, you fool?!" Sothis shook her head.
"OBJECTION!" Mr. Badd cried. "The defendant likely had plenty of opportunity to dispose of the gloves before going in the ambulance!"
"OBJECTION!" Rei cried back. "If she was with Mr. DeBeats and the professor until the ambulance arrived, what opportunity would she have had?!"
"Gaaahhhh!" Badd recoiled, turning to the side defensively, setting the gallery abuzz.
"Order! Order! Order!" the judge cried as he banged his gavel several times. "Miss Ryghts! Just what are you getting at, here?"
"If my client had no gloves on her at the time of the attack, then she could not have been the one who stabbed Professor Byleth in that hallway!" Rei asserted with an outstretched pointer finger! "Otherwise, her fingerprints would have been all over the knife's handle!"
"OBJECTION!" Badd protested. "Miss Ryghts, might I remind you that the security footage proves that only Miss Nagato and the victim entered the school that night?!"
"You may be right about that," Rei ceded, "but that doesn't mean that no one else was in the school!"
"Y-you're talking nonsense!" Badd grunted.
"Fine, I'll spell it out so even a senile maggot like you can understand," Rei said with her hands on her hips. "Isn't it possible that somebody could have entered the school during the day, then hidden themselves until nightfall?" Slamming her hands on the bench, she finished, "That would perfectly explain why they never showed up on the security footage!"
"You're welcome," Sothis muttered under her breath.
"OBJECTION!" the prosecutor cried. "And are you going to suggest next that they went back into hiding until the morning?! They would have been discovered!"
"Not necessarily," Rei shook her head. "After all, as you know, there were quite a few students gathered at the crime scene the next morning! If the real culprit was wearing a school uniform, they would have blended in perfectly, and slipped out without anyone noticing!"
"No wayyyy!" Bobby De Beats recoiled, falling over in shock. "I... I never even thought of that! I'm a failure as a security guaaaard!"
"Order! Order! Order in the court!" the judge gaveled down the gallery again.
"OBJECTION! Even if what you said is true, how would this 'real culprit' know that the professor was going to visit the school that night?!"
"Quite simple. TAKE THAT!" Rei cried, presenting the planner. "This planner belonging to the victim shows that he planned to meet with someone in the school at the very time of the attack! And it's marked 'very important'! This proves that Byleth's visit was premeditated!"
"Whaaaaaaat?!" Badd recoiled again.
"HOLD IT!" Bobby called out. "B, but, he said he was picking up papers to grade!"
"And it never occurred that he lied to you?" Rei deadpanned. The guard promptly fell over in shock again, causing the crowd to chatter excitedly.
"Order! Order!" the judge cried as he banged his gavel. "Miss Ryghts! Are you saying that this person the victim meant to meet with, was in fact the one who stabbed him?!"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Your Honor!" Rei smirked with her arms crossed. "And if you look at the crime scene diagram, you'll see that Miss Nagato came from the east, while the guard came from the south! Which means it's very likely that the attacker fled down the west hallway!"
"OBJECTION!" Mr. Badd interjected. "This proves nothing! Everything you've said is circumstantial, at best! You have no proof to back up your claims!"
"Even if that's true, worm, you still can't explain the fact that the knife used to stab the victim has no fingerprints, defendant's or otherwise!" Rei shot back.
"Argh!" Badd gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his partially-bald head. "Mr. DeBeats! Are you certain that you never took your eyes off the defendant, even for a moment?!"
"Ah... well..." Bobby grunted as he tried to regain his composure. "Th-the only time I looked away from Miss Nagato was when I was administering first aid to the professor, after we got him outside... But, I'm pretty sure she didn't go anywhere!"
"And what makes you so certain of that?!"
"Because I would've heard her walking off! My ears work just fine, you know!" DeBeats replied. "To be clear, she did stand up, and walk around a little, but I told her not to go too far, and she didn't!" Banging his fist on the stand, he continued, "Like I said, I would've noticed if she'd thrown any gloves away! We made sure to carry the professor to a brightly-lit area so the medics would find us without trouble!"
"Arrgh!" Badd growled in distress, bracing his hands against the bench.
"HOLD IT!" Another voice suddenly called out. Everyone turned to the source, to see a young girl with long blue hair and thick eyebrows, dressed in a North High uniform! "Your Honor, I have something to say..."
"Can it wait until the trial is over?!" Badd protested. "We can't have random teenagers running amok in this courtroom! Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?!"
"As a matter of fact, they did," the young woman responded with a smile. "And I'm not just any student, I'm the class president, Ryoko Asakura."
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Sothis muttered. "She's about to do something stupid, I just know it."
(I don't like where this is going either...) Rei thought grimly.
The judge banged his gavel. "If you wish to say something, make it quick, please, Miss Asakura."
"Very well then. Your Honor... I confess. It was I who stabbed the professor."
"Wh-" The judge's eyes went wide.
"Wh-" Mr. Badd froze in shock.
"Wh-" Rei recoiled.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAATT?!" The gallery was thrown into a tizzy at this, chattering confusedly.
"Order! Order! OOOORDEEERRRR!" the judge cried, banging his gavel repeatedly to no avail.
"O-OBJECTION!" Mr. Badd cried. "Th-this is clearly just a false confession to bail out her classmate!"
"Oh really? But I know the school like the back of my hand... it's child's play for me to hide somewhere that this newly-hired guard couldn't find me..."
"N-newly hired?" Rei gasped.
"Yes, he was hired after the previous guard was busted for theft," Asakura nodded. "Also, Nagato-san has no experience with how to handle a knife... but I do. I was taught by my father, he once served in the army..."
"OBJECTION! It's still circumstantial!" Badd protested.
"Asakura-san, stop! Don't do this!" Yuki cried with tears threatening her eyes.
"Ryghts! What are you doing, acting like a deer in the headlights?!" Sothis yelled. "This is your chance! Get this farce adjourned so we can find out what really happened!"
(...Right! Now's not the time to ponder, but to act!) Slamming her hands on the bench, Rei exclaimed, "Your Honor, given the circumstances, I move that it's not possible for a verdict to be reached at this time!"
"Y, yes! I must agree!" the judge nodded. "This court is hereby adjourned until tomorrow at 10 AM! Bailiff, please detain Miss Asakura for questioning!" With that, he banged his gavel, Rei promptly retreating from the chaotic scene with Sothis following behind...
*To be continued...*