Butterfly
by Cyberchao X
Summary: It's amazing how drastically the course of history can be altered with just the slightest difference in a single event. In the world of Ace Attorney, the first quarter of the 21st century was shaped by one single moment.
CCX: I've realized that one of the events I'd been hoping to see changed may have actually occurred prior to December 2000, so I'll have to get creative. But it's for the best that it didn't happen, anyway, because then we'd be out a great character.
…You won't see the fruits of this decision in this chapter, though.
December 25, 2000
9:00 AM
Courtroom #2
"Court is now in session for the assault of Dane Gustavia. The accused is Pierre Hoquet, also known as 'Isaac Dover'. Is the defense ready?"
"Ready, your Honor, and willing to make a plea."
"Your client is willing to plead guilty?"
"But of course he is," boomed the prosecutor, Manfred von Karma. "To do anything else would just prolong his suffering."
"The plea," Gregory Edgeworth replied, "is justified self-defense."
"'Justified self-defense' is a plea to be entered in a murder case. Your client was at least fortunate enough that his intended victim survived. If you plead guilty to assault, I won't push for attempted murder."
"Attempted murder?!" Hoquet burst out.
"Quiet! You'll get your chance once you're on the witness stand," Edgeworth told him.
"I was told that 'assault' was the charge being filed," the Judge said. "Is that not correct?"
"Given the amount of blood loss suffered by the plaintiff, along with…certain other circumstances…the police are now calling this an attempted murder."
"Very well then. Will the prosecution call its first witness?"
"Of course. The prosecution calls the plaintiff, Dane Gustavia, to the stand."
The Incident
"Hoquet and I had been collaborating on the contest; my talents as a chef and his talents as a sculptor. Just before the finals, he informed me that he was reneging on our deal. I needed the prize, so I went to Master's room and attempted to get a copy of the Angel's Recipe. Hoquet caught me and threatened to expose my secret if I didn't buy his silence. I made to leave, but Hoquet was blocking the exit. When I tried to rush past him, he threw me headfirst into the rock lamp."
Cross-Examination
"Just before the finals, he informed me that he was reneging on our deal."
"HOLD IT! 'Reneging' how?"
"He refused to sculpt my entry from the materials I provided, after having already sculpted his own."
…
"I needed the prize, so I went to Master's room and attempted to get a copy of the Angel's Recipe."
"HOLD IT! 'Needed' the prize? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're already a very wealthy master chef, are you not?"
"I am. The 'Angel's Recipe' is not in fact a recipe in the culinary sense. I have a non-fatal illness, and the Angel's Recipe is actually a recipe for a cure for this illness."
"OBJECTION! If it's non-fatal, then you don't need to cure it!"
"OBJECTION!" Manfred boomed back. "The nature of this disease has been revealed to me out of necessity to try this case, but it would be very detrimental to his career if word got out about it."
(…Right. His inability to taste. Better leave this line of questioning for the moment.)
"Hoquet caught me and threatened to expose my secret if I didn't buy his silence."
"HOLD IT! Wouldn't revealing your secret also prevent him from winning the grand prize?"
"…"
"Or was your collaboration, entirely against the rules of the contest, not the 'secret' to which you were referring?"
"…It was not. I would rather not have this secret in an official court record, but the secret was the reason I needed the Recipe."
"…The disease."
"…"
"I made to leave, but Hoquet was blocking the exit."
"HOLD IT! And so what did you do then?"
"I planned to push him out of the way. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm both larger and more muscular than Mr. Hoquet. I could've easily merely shoved him to the ground and gone right past him."
"That sounds like a good reason for him to think he needed to defend himself."
"…That's why Mr. von Karma was reluctant to try this case as mere assault. By exerting potentially lethal force when I had done no such thing, his reaction becomes criminal."
"…"
"When I tried to rush past him, he threw me headfirst into the rock lamp."
"OBJECTION!" Present: Injury Report. "If you had been thrown 'head-first' into the rock lamp, you would've been injured in the front of your head!"
"OBJECTION! That's mere semantics! He suffered a single blow, to the head. Logic follows that his head was the first and only thing to hit that lamp!"
"Objection overruled. Mr. Gustavia's testimony stands."
"…Very well then, Mr. Gustavia. I have one question. What motive would my client have for attempting to kill you?"
The Motive
"His motive was nothing more than greed. As long as I had those pictures, I had nothing to lose. I could've revealed our collaborative fraud and gotten us both disqualified. I told him that the money he'd get from his victory should be payment enough for his silence. I even offered to turn in the other cheater in the competition so he'd have no competition for the top prize."
"Other cheater? So there's someone else with motive for this crime?" the Judge asked.
The courtroom was filled with stunned silence. "I think you've been on too many murder cases, Your Honor," Gregory Edgeworth finally managed. "While this is the first I'm hearing that there was a third cheater in the competition, there is no doubt that the altercation occurred between my client and the plaintiff; the only thing to be determined is whether or not my client committed a crime in doing so."
"Uh, yes, of course, I knew that."
Cross-Examination
"His motive was nothing more than greed."
"HOLD IT! That's just speculative!"
"OBJECTION! The witness has already testified to the defendant attempting to elicit a bribe. Furthermore he has also testified that the defendant was not even a chef, yet he entered a cooking tournament under a pseudonym in order to obtain the valuable grand prize."
"Ob-objection upheld."
"As long as I had those pictures, I had nothing to lose."
"HOLD IT! What 'pictures' are you referring to."
"As stated previously, my interest in the Angel's Recipe was only a specific portion, pertaining to the cure for my disease. I took photographs of that portion when it became clear that I would not win the contest. Naturally, Hoquet took the photographs after he attacked me, since the competition would be canceled."
"Is this true?"
"The police confiscated the camera and photographs as evidence after the charges were filed," Manfred von Karma stated.
Camera added to Court Record.
Angel's Recipe Photographs added to Court Record.
"The defense requests that this statement be added to the witness's testimony."
"Witness, please amend your testimony."
…
"I could've revealed our collaborative fraud and gotten us both disqualified."
"HOLD IT! Why would you willingly get yourself disqualified?"
"I no longer felt I could win if Hoquet remained in the contest, and I no longer needed to win because I had what I needed. Yes, my reputation might take a slight hit if I revealed myself as a cheater, but the talent that I lacked that Hoquet brought to our partnership was not one that I would need on an everyday basis, and if anything revealing that my culinary skills had been responsible for not one but two of the contest finalists could bring me even more renown."
"I told him that the money he'd get from his victory should be payment enough for his silence."
"HOLD IT! There was no cash prize for this contest!"
"No, there wasn't. But the prize was worth a lot of money. Hoquet's motive for entering the contest was to profit off the sale of the Angel's Recipe."
"Can this be confirmed?" Edgeworth asked.
"It can," confirmed the prosecutor. Angel's Recipe added to Court Record.
"I even offered to turn in the other cheater in the competition so he'd have no competition for the top prize."
"HOLD IT! Who was this 'other cheater'?"
"Delicia Scones, who wasn't really a chef. Her works were in fact created using inedible materials, which violated the contest's rules."
"How do you know she wasn't really a chef?"
"She lacked even basic knowledge, such as the temperature to keep cream at."
"What was her real reason for entering?"
"I know not. Perhaps she just wanted to sample the other contestants' works."
"Hoquet took the photographs after he attacked me, since the competition would be canceled."
"OBJECTION!" Present: Angel's Recipe Photographs. "I hardly think that these photographs would've been sufficient to satisfy the motive you've provided."
"Well, Mr. Edgeworth? Do go on. How is this a contradiction?"
Present: Angel's Recipe. "This is the entire Angel's Recipe. The prize that Pierre Hoquet was after. The camera only contained photographs of a fraction of this prize. And the witness has already stated that had the competition continued without incident, my client would've likely won. Therefore, he has no motive for potentially stopping the competition!"
"OBJECTION! The witness has stated that he would've revealed the deception. The defendant needed to silence him!"
"OBJECTION! The witness had stolen part of the Angel's Recipe, and my client knew this. The only way that the witness would've been able to get away with his crime would've been to remain silent! …Unless, of course, he silenced my client."
"But he didn't," the Judge pointed out. "The only one who was injured was the witness, Mr. Gustavia."
"Yes, because my client defended himself. But I maintain that the witness was the one who attacked my client, not the other way around."
"…Objection sustained." Manfred von Karma growled in anger at this. This defense attorney had actually successfully stood up to him. But it wouldn't last, of course. "Any further questions for this witness?"
"The defense has no further questions for this witness."
"The prosecution may call its next witness."
"HOLD IT! The prosecution is not finished with this witness."
"…It isn't?" Raymond Shields asked.
"Perhaps the witness would like to elaborate on why he was so certain that the defendant would win the competition if it had continued uninterrupted."
Dane Gustavia looked nervous. "…O-of course."
Hoquet's Competition to Lose
"As per our partnership, I prepared the ingredients, and Hoquet sculpted them. Lacking any aesthetic sense of my own, I would not have been able to defeat him, since in theory our entries should've tasted the same. Hoquet also knew of Ms. Scones' cheating and would've revealed her if she'd somehow won. Jeffrey Master was also competing, but as the host who already possessed the Angel's Recipe, the prize would still be up for grabs had he won."
(CCX: I always thought it was weird that he had been competing in his own contest.)
"Would the defense like to cross-examine this statement?"
"Of course I will."
Cross-Examination
"Jeffrey Master was also competing, but as the host who already possessed the Angel's Recipe, the prize would still be up for grabs had he won."
"HOLD IT! Why was he competing in his own contest?"
"He said he wanted to bequeath the Angel's Recipe to 'someone he respected'. Had no one been able to defeat him in this contest, he would've merely held another one until he found a suitable heir."
"…But having already ended his partnership with you, my client wouldn't have stood a chance if the contest had been re-run."
"…Forgive me. That was merely an assumption. There was also the possibility that the prize would go to the runner-up had Master won the competition."
"I move that this statement be struck from the record."
"OBJECTION! The witness has stated why each of the other contestants was not a threat to the defendant's chances of victory."
"Objection sustained."
"Lacking any aesthetic sense of my own, I would not have been able to defeat him, since in theory our entries should've tasted the same."
"HOLD IT! 'In theory'? Was there a chance that they wouldn't?"
"…"
"Does the defense have evidence to support this claim?" von Karma asked.
(I don't want to be the one to present this…) "…Seeing as how this testimony actually strengthens the defense's case, I see no reason to challenge it."
"I see. You want to make me the 'bad guy', presenting the evidence that the plaintiff so clearly wants to avoid. Well, unfortunately, I don't care if I have to anger him a bit; he'll recover from any damage this revelation may do to his reputation." von Karma presents the Angel's Recipe Photographs.
"The pictures? Prosecutor von Karma, this evidence already has been presented!"
"Only in the context of it being 'a' part of the Angel's Recipe. Pay attention to exactly what portion was being photographed."
"…Hypogeusia? Ageusia?"
"The partial and complete ability to taste, respectively. A chef without the ability to taste would be a laughingstock."
"Then how was he able to do his job at all?"
"His son, Simon, assisted him as a taste-tester. While the renown that would come with winning such a contest would certainly be an asset, Mr. Gustavia's primary motive for entering this competition was to obtain a cure for this condition before anyone found out. I would ask that this portion of the court record be sealed and kept confidential following the conclusion of this trial."
"OBJECTION! Relevance?"
"Patience, defense attorney. At the time of the finals, Simon Gustavia was…incapacitated. If you have no further questions for his father, I would like to call him as my next witness."
"OBJECTION! I was not informed of this witness, and especially given the witness's young age, I would at the very least like to ask the court for a recess to prepare."
"The defense's request is granted. The court will take a 10-minute recess."
December 25, 2000
10:14 AM
Courtroom Lobby
"Mr. Hoquet, exactly what reason might the prosecution have for calling a six-year-old to the witness stand?"
"…As the prosecutor stated, Simon tasted his father's dishes. Since I had access to Dane's dish, I very easily could've sabotaged him further had Simon been absent. I had my own son, Horace, restrain Simon, though I did not actually sabotage Dane's ingredients."
"…Then why did you restrain Simon?"
"…Recall, if you will, that I was unaware of Dane's inability to taste until just before our altercation. I knew that Simon was helping his father out somehow, but I thought Dane was only using his son as a taste-tester to double-check that it would be well-received."
"…So then you wouldn't have actually thought to sabotage Mr. Gustavia until after the altercation. Hmm…while your actions certainly don't paint you in a positive light, I think we can use Simon's absence to strengthen our case. After all, once you'd learned of his condition, you would've been able to outright sabotage him."
"…Actually, since I had already ended our partnership when he went to take the photos, I no longer had access to his ingredients."
"…We'll still make it work. One last thing. Yesterday, you told me that Delicia Scones was a pharmacist. Gustavia knew that she was a fraud as a chef, but didn't know this fact. How is that?"
"…Gustavia lied when he said that I already knew of Scones' cheating. He was the one who mentioned it, just before our confrontation, and I questioned Ms. Scones on that matter while he was recovering in the hospital. She confirmed that she had been sent by the Master Group to try to retrieve the Angel's Recipe."
"'Master Group'?"
"Jeffrey Master was the heir to a pharmaceutical corporation. That's how he acquired the Angel's Recipe in the first place."
"…We're about to return to court. This is going to be tough, cross-examining a six-year-old…von Karma really is ruthless."
CCX: It's never really stated what Simon and Horace's names were prior to being locked in that car; they were sent to an orphanage and received new names, hence their last names not matching their fathers'. For ease, I'm going to assume for this story that they were able to remember their real first names, and thus, their first names are unchanged.
Also, I originally planned to have the defense call Hoquet to the stand prior to Simon taking the stand and have him eventually forced to reveal what he'd done, but couldn't quite make it work out. Also, it wasn't in character to have von Karma allow the defense a witness of their own prior to exhausting all of his trump cards.