Susato Mikotoba/Synopsis

The story of Susato Mikotoba from The Great Ace Attorney.
==First Encounter With Ryunosuke Naruhodo==
During Naruhodo's trial for the murder of John Wilson, Susato decided to enter the courtroom after Satoru Hosanaga claimed there was no poison inside the bottle that the victim had drank in order to give Naruhodo and Kazuma the curare research book from Jezaille Brett as curare was a poison that was unknown in Japan at the time. After giving them the research, Naruhodo and Kazuma managed to prove that Brett was the true killer. As she was getting ready to leave with Kazuma for London, she noticed a box on her father's desk named "The Hound Of The Baskervilles". Yujin noticed that she saw it and told her not to mention it to anyone until the time was right.
==Murder on the S.S Burya==
On the ship, she stayed in a seperate cabin to Kazuma possibly at his request as he had secretly brought Naruhodo on the ship with him. Unfortunately on the ship, Kazuma was apparently killed and detective Herlock Sholmes who she was a big fan of was on the case. They found Naruhodo inside a closet and came to the conclusion that he was responsible for the murder. After Ryunosuke awoke, he asked Susato to give him a chance to prove his innocence which she agreed to under the condition that she would keep a close eye on him in case he murdered anyone else.
After investigating the cabin for a while, the two eventually moved to the neighbor's cabin with some assistance from Satoru Hosanaga with Sholmes coming in to tell everyone that he knows the identity of the neighbor named Grimsby Roylott but after some help from Naruhodo and Susato, they deduced that Roylott was actually a Russian ballerina named Nikolina Pavlova. After some more investigating, Naruhodo and Susato were cornered until Herlock came to their assistance and claimed that he had solved the case.
But Susato realised that Sholmes had it all wrong, saying that snakes do not drink milk and that it must have been a different animal. With some help from Ryunosuke, it was deduced that the animal was a kitten and that it had climbed into Kazuma's cabin and while Kazuma helped find the kitten. Nikolina panicked and thought that Kazuma was going to call the captain by ringing the bell. But Susato disagreed and said that Kazuma was really going to open the closet so that Naruhodo could be a third party. Feeling bittersweet over Kazuma's death, Susato decided that she would aid Naruhodo in taking Kazuma's place as the defense attorney on the trip and decided to become his judicial assistant and asked Naruhodo to inherit Kazuma's armband and his katana named 'Karuma'.
==First Case With Naruhodo==
After finally arriving in London, the two decided to go and meet Lord Chief Justice Mael Stronghart who gave them a deal. If they could get a not guilty verdict for the case he gave to the both of them, then he would make Ryunosuke into a real lawyer. The two accepted the deal and went down to the courthouse to start the case. The client was a man named Magnus McGilded, who was a well liked businessman but was secretly a loan shark and the real culprit behind the murder.
During the trial, all 6 jurors requested a guilty verdict but Susato claimed that Ryunosuke was entitled to a summation examination. The prosecutor Barok Van Zieks said that they should not as the summation examination has not been used for decades but Susato countered this by claiming that despite its obsolescence, it was never removed as an option. The two managed to get a Not Guilty but they felt conflicted over their victory as they felt that McGilded was the one who did it. Not having anywhere to go, Susato suggested that she and Ryunosuke go to sleep in McGilded's park which they presumably do.
==Defending A Japanese Citizen==
A day after McGilded's trial, Ryunosuke and Susato both learn from Stronghart that McGilded had died under mysterious circumstances so that their verdict no longer mattered. Stronghart decides to make Ryunosuke into an actual lawyer and gives the two a case involving Soseki Natsume, who was accused of stabbing a woman named Olive Green in the back with a knife. They went to get information on the case from the Yard and Susato noticed that the detective in charge of the case was Tobias Gregson, who was Herlock's rival in the short stories that he appeared in. After learning that Sholmes was the one who arrested Soseki, she told Naruhodo that they had to meet him to ask him about the case, not because she actually wanted to meet him again.
When the two arrived at Sholmes's flat, they met Iris Wilson who was the author of Sholmes's short stories and Susato was disappointed to find out there was no real life assistant of Sholmes named John Wilson but she decided to accompany Naruhodo to John Garrideb's flat where Sholmes was.
After visiting John's flat, the two found out that he and his wife Joan Garrideb had got into a fight at the same time as the incident involving books and knives which would be an important clue during the trial.
During the trial, Susato assisted Naruhodo as usual and gave him an important clue, saying that what Naruhodo proved with the knife falling from the window and landing in the victim's back seemed impossible at first, all they had to do was prove that it was possible so that they could prove Soseki's innocence. Naruhodo proved this fact saying that the victim had bent over to pick up a book and the knife ended up in her back with the tip of the blade inside John's tobacco pipe perfectly fitting with the knife handle with Soseki being aquitted. After the trial was done, Herlock offered Ryunosuke and Susato to live with him and Iris while they were staying in London. The two agreed to stay with them, and Iris and Susato became close friends but Herlock and Naruhodo mostly retained their neutral friendship.
Unfortunately, Soseki did not enjoy his freedom for long as Sholmes and Naruhodo proved he was a potential suspect of another case involving an actor named William Shamspeare. She assisted Naruhodo with the case again and they eventually met Olive Green at the hospital who was thinking about committing suicide by poisoning herself. Ryunosuke did not want to question her, but Susato encouraged him to do so which led to them getting a clue that would prove Soseki's innocence.
During the second trial, they deduced that Olive was the real culprit as the bottle she held in the hospital contained strychnine which was the same poison used on Shamspeare and that she had a motive due to Shamspeare killing her fiancee Duncan Ross. After the case was done, they decided to find Selden's treasure (who had told Shamspeare about it) hidden in Soseki's room using Herlock's skin print detector. They find a very bloody collar with a golden B on it but Herlock confiscates it and sends it to Gregson for an unknown reason and tells Iris she must not publish a story about this case.
==Returning to Japan==
Two months after Soseki's trials, Susato recieved a telegram from her father that he had fallen ill and needed her to return home. Naruhodo wanted to find out, but Susato tried to pass it off as irrelevant but Naruhodo convinced her to tell him the news. After heading downstairs, Ryunosuke and Susato noticed that Sholmes was depressed due to his violin being replaced by a viola and the others needed to go to a pawnshop as Sholmes's violin had been switched there accidentally.
During her stay at the pawnshop, Susato learnt that Sholmes had deposited an unknown manuscript from Iris's short stories and was excited to learn more about it but a man named "Eggert Benedict" and a pickpocket named Gina Lestrade, who the two had met at McGilded's trial were both in a heated argument over who McGilded's coat and music disks belonged to.
Upon returning to the flat, Susato in her excitement, accidentally revealed she knew the name of Iris's unpublished manuscript for the story named 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles'. Susato was forced to reveal the name and almost did but Gina had been invited by Iris for dinner and the five had an enjoyable afternoon with Iris revealing her invention made for Soseki's cat Wagahai named the Cat Flapomat and Gina teaching the others pickpocketing tricks. Later in the day, Susato informs Ryunosuke of receiving a telegram from Lord Stronghart to come to her office alone. She did not know why but went anyway after revealing to Ryunosuke and Iris that she couldn't bring herself to tell Iris how she knew about her manuscript but Iris understood her feelings. Lestrade grows suspicious of Herlock, saying that he must have sold Iris's story secretly as it was nearly impossible for a woman like Susato who came from Japan to know about a manuscript that was made in Britain.
Gina let her curiosity and her care for Iris's feelings get the better of her though, as she snuck over to Pop Windibank's pawnshop and took his gun to force him to show her the manuscript. Susato, Ryunosuke, and Herlock heard a commotion in the pawnshop so they ran outside the flat and inside the pawnshop. Upon entering the pawnshop, Herlock was shot by two burglars and injured which caused Ryunosuke to run after the two. While he was outside, Susato used Iris's Cat Flapomat on the backdoor of the pawnshop to see inside the room. She then returned to Herlock after Ryunosuke returned to the store and took him to the hospital with Ryunosuke.
Susato and Ryunosuke where then questioned by the police and then released shortly after. Susato then attended her meeting with Lord Stronghart about her returning for her father's sake as she revealed to Ryunosuke soon after that he had fallen ill. She then accompanied Ryunosuke and Iris so that she could visit Lestrade in her cell and convinced Lestrade to admit her coerced defense of McGilded two months earlier and that she admitted it because she didn't want the others to feel guilty about not defending her. After Gina submits and lets Naruhodo represent her, Susato gives Ryunosuke some notes on McGilded's trial just in case they would be useful. Susato didn't want Ryunosuke to believe they were separating so she threw him on the floor so he would not say the words 'good bye' to her. After this, she would deliver the Cat Flapomat to Sholmes telling him to deliver it to Ryunosuke during the trial as a trump card.
Susato got up earlier then everyone else as she needed to catch her steamship home, leaving Iris to act as an assistant for Naruhodo in trial. After the trial was over, Ryunosuke and the others learnt that the steamships had been delayed due to bad weather and that if they were fast enough, they could meet Susato one more time before she left. Upon seeing Susato, Naruhodo noticed she was about to throw her encyclopedia about British Law into the ocean as she believed she was no longer fit to be a judicial assistant after tampering with the crime scene. Naruhodo convinced her that because she tampered with the crime scene, Lestrade's innocence was proven which reassures Susato that she did the right thing.
After Iris had studied the music disks. Susato and her came to the conclusion that the music disks where actually morse code for people's names which included A. Shinn T. Gregson. K. Asogi and J. Wilson. Once Susato left, she promised Ryunosuke that she would return and act as his assistant once again.
==First And Last Trial As A Defense Attorney==
After she returned to Japan, Susato noticed that her father had not fallen ill at all and was suspicious but she soon found out that her best friend Rei Membami had been accused of murdering Jezaille Brett and due to Japan and Britain's flimsy relationship, no lawyers would take Membami's defense so Susato decided to disguise herself as a male attorney named "Ryutaro Naruhodo" to defend her best friend.
Susato was heavily nervous before the trial began to the point where she felt ill and understood Naruhodo and Kazuma's nerves a lot more after her experience as a defense attorney but with the encouragement from her father as her assistant, Susato managed to provide a good defense for her best friend and continued to believe in her innocence even after Rei concealed the truth about the stolen poison from the lab and that she was caught on camera pulling a knife out of Brett's back. Susato proved that Raiten Menimemo was the true culprit and his motive was that he did not want Brett to get away with her crimes and felt he had to do it himself due to Japan letting Britain do whatever they wanted even when it was illegal.
After the trial, Susato finally had a chance to question her father about why he had lied about being ill but she did not get an answer due to Menimemo storming towards Yujin and questioning him that he knew about Kazuma's missing body but before he could reveal anything else, Seishiro Jigoku appeared and threw him into the air but complimented on Susato's performance and revealed he knew it was her the whole time but went along with it.
Soseki then revealed that Yujin questioned him about his second murder trial, possibly to tell him to not reveal anything about it to anyone before he sent the telegram telling Susato to return to Japan.
==Return to London==
After Rei's trial, Susato informed Naruhodo that he should read the files of Soseki's second case to find important clues about the bloody dog collar that Herlock had taken when they found it in Soseki's flat. She also met Menimemo in his cell, who revealed that Kazuma's body never returned to Hong Kong after he was accidentally killed, which made her believe Kazuma might have survived due to Kazuma's grave also being empty but she left it for now as she wanted to return to London with her father who was invited to the Forensic Science Symposium so she could meet Naruhodo again after 6 months.
She returned at the time Naruhodo got his right to practice law back from Stronghart and had taken the case of Barok's friend Albert Harebrayne but had hit a roadblock in the trial, deciding whether he should betray his client so his hypothesis would be true or to reveal it was just a magic trick in order to keep proving his innocence. Before he could choose however, Susato appeared next to him and threw him to the ground to remind him who he is fighting for in court.
After they had finished the trial for the day, Susato revealed everything she had learnt in Japan to Naruhodo and Iris, such as Jezaille Brett's real name actually being Asa Shinn and that Kazuma's body never made it back to Japan and that his grave was empty. She also finally told Iris about how she new the name of her unpublished manuscript. She said that she had learnt about it as she saw the name of the script as she was helping her father clean his study before she went with Kazuma to Japan, but Yujin told her not to reveal this to anyone.
When she and Naruhodo meet Van Zieks at the great exhibition, she thinks that his masked disciple is Kazuma and while he reacted to the name, he left before his identity could be confirmed so they went to Sholmes as he was the one who told everyone that Asogi had been killed while on the ship but Sholmes refused to give them an answer.
After investigating Drebber's workshop with the help of Gina, they questioned Drebber who then told them he intended to blow the workshop up but since they found him and entered his workshop they will all die together instead. Herlock manages to disarm the bomb in time and Drebber is taken to the yard for questioning and is told to be a witness at Harebrayne's second trial.
During the second trial, it is revealed that Drebber blackmailed Sithe into killing Odie Asman who was the victim during Harebrayne's scientific showcase but Naruhodo then disproved that and revealed that Sithe only worked with Drebber to kill Asman and that she directly killed Asman on her own will due to him surviving the fall that Drebber caused. Naruhodo also revealed her motive as she was blackmailed by Asman for money, leading to both her and Drebber being arrested.
After the trial, Susato learnt that Barok knew about her father due to him and Seishiro and Kazuma's father Genshin Asogi visiting Japan 10 years ago around the same time as 'The Professor Killings' and Barok revealed to Naruhodo and Susato that the professor was a Japanese serial killer and after unlocking the wax figure of the professor, it is confirmed to be a Japanese citizen. Suddenly Barok's masked disciple lets out a scream of pain and calls the wax figure 'father' revealing himself to be Kazuma who survived his encounter on the boat causing Susato to cry tears of joy. Kazuma then greeted Naruhodo and revealed that the wax figure was his father Genshin Asogi to the two of them and asked Naruhodo for his sword back. Asogi then cut the wax figure in half before leaving with Van Zieks, and Susato then revealed to Naruhodo that Kazuma was actually her older adopted brother after Genshin had died 10 years earlier.
==The Professor Killings==
A few days after Alberts trial, Susato and Ryunosuke went to meet Yujin and Seishiro getting off the boat from Japan so that they could talk about Genshin and 'The Professor Case' due to the recent revival of the topic due to Alberts trial. After taking a photograph together, the two also learned that Sholmes was broke and trying to earn money from a community service called "The Red Headed League" as Herlock had ran out of clients who needed his services. Sholmes then finally got a client, saying he would take anything but a kidnapping. The client who was revealed to be a woman came in and informed Sholmes that her husband had gone missing and possibly kidnapped. Sholmes reluctantly took the case anyway and asked Naruhodo and Susato to help him in his investigation by asking if anyone knew the man on the photograph that the woman had given to him.
Unfortunately, Gina would come in some time later and inform Iris, Sholmes, Susato, and Naruhodo that Gregson was dead and that Barok was the suspect for it. Hearing this, Susato and Ryunosuke both decided to pay a visit to Barok in his cell and offered to defend him, but Barok didn't want Naruhodo's help due to being prideful about a Japanese person helping him. Naruhodo came back later showing him a picture of his brother and Gregson with him which made Barok reminisce about the time his brother was alive and after some persuasion, Barok decided to let Naruhodo and Susato represent him inside court with Kazuma being the prosecutor for the trial.
Barok's trial was made top secret by the queen and only allowed members of the nation's judicial system to attend it in the audience. During the trial, a witness named "Gossip" was actually revealed to be Evie Vigil's (who was Sholmes's client earlier) husband who had been kidnapped and kept prisoner by Fabien De Rosseau and Peppino De Rossi in their hideout. Since he was the chief warder at the time of the professor incident, Kazuma requested that he try his hardest to remember what happened on the day of the execution. Unfortunately Vigil remembered a traumatising memory after he thought about the incident, where he attempted to commit suicide after getting fired from his job as the warden Barry Caidin wanted a scapegoat for the professor's failed execution causing him to collapse while in court.
The two visited Vigil in his hospital room wanting to know if he was ok. He said that he was and gave them some information regarding his current status and the professor case, but asked them if they could leave due to Evie coming to visit him which they agreed to. They also learned from Barok that Asa Shinn was actually Stronghart's top assassin. Susato then told her father about it in case he knew something, but Iris didn't want to hear about her "father" being murdered potentially so she stayed out of the conversation. Yujin then requested Naruhodo that he wanted him to come back to Japan with him due to Japan having a severe shortage of defense attorneys at the moment. Since this was a big and sudden request, Yujin let him have until the end of Barok's trial to think about it. After that the group travelled to the coroner's office to get Klint's autopsy report but the coroner, Maria Gorey, couldn't find it anywhere after Iris had taken it and snuck off without the others noticing what she had done.
However when Naruhodo and Susato returned home, they noticed someone was sleeping on the sofa with a mask on and Iris was just standing next to him. Naruhodo and Sholmes then had a dance of deduction to reveal what had happened and in the process, they found out that the man on the sofa was Susato's father Yujin Mikotoba and that Iris stole the autopsy report as she wanted to verify her father's handwriting to see if John Wilson really was her father, but in the process of comparing the autopsy report to the cases done by Sholmes before Iris was born, she found out that John Wilson had only signed Klint's autopsy report and that Yujin was the one who actually wrote it. This caused Susato to believe that Yujin was also Iris's father and that she and Iris might be actual siblings but she didn't get a confirmation as Yujin and Sholmes had to attend a secret case urgently.
After noticing that Sholmes and and her father hadn't returned from their case yet, Susato warned Naruhodo about this but they both decided to focus on getting Barok a 'Not Guilty' first. During the trial, Stronghart was appointed as the judge instead of the regular one due to facts of the professor killings being brought up previously for an unknown reason. During the trial, the two of them learnt that Asogi was not a part of an educational trip, but that he was part of an assassination exchange and that he was supposed to kill Gregson however he couldn't bring himself to do it so he escaped the ship before it departed. Susato felt betrayed that Asogi would take part in something like that, but they both decided to use the good luck charm given to them by Iris who told them to use it when things got bad in the courtroom. It is revealed that the good luck charm is actually a radio made by Iris so that the two could communicate with Herlock and Yujin. Naruhodo told the court that the trial would need to be postponed as Herlock and Yujin found Seishiro trying to flee for an unknown reason and that his testimony was required before a verdict could be made.
After Sholmes and Mikotoba returned home finally, they learnt from Sholmes that he knew about Asogi's given goal to kill Gregson so he lied about him being dead on the boat so that he wouldn't be able to make it to London to complete his goal, but he didn't know Asogi would still make it to London himself as he managed to escape the boat.
Jigoku testified about being on the boat and started accusing Asogi of killing Gregson. However all of his claims were rendered void when Naruhodo and Kazuma both proved that Kazuma had already left the boat before it departed so he couldn't have killed Gregson. Naruhodo also proved that Seishiro killed Gregson in his cabin, but froze the body in the freezer of the ship to prevent Rigor Mortis from kicking in, he then put Gregson's corpse in his suitcase due to being able to bypass security checks, and then took Gregson's body to the flat where Barok was found near and bought some firecrackers from a vendor and then attached them to a candlestick so he could create a fake timeframe for the death.
Due to this, Barok was aquitted but the trial still went on as Asogi believed Barok was the Reaper Of The Bailey and wanted to prove it. This eventually lead to Barok being proven innocent and Stronghart actually being the one who is behind the Reaper Of The Bailey, but Stronghart attempted to justify his actions by saying he worked tirelessly to reduce crime rates in London and that a reaper was needed, however no decisive proof was found at the time. Naruhodo and Susato then continued to find facts about the professor case, with Naruhodo eventually figuring out the truth behind the professor case that Genshin was not actually executed at all and was instead smuggled out of prison after a fake execution and was promptly buried but since a graverobber saw him coming out of his grave, the two men who came to get the will of Klint Van Zieks off him, decided to kill him instead so that no one would find out about them letting the professor live.
Ryunosuke and Susato then convinced Stronghart to keep going along with trial as despite the case being solved, they still hadn't found the will of Klint Van Zieks just yet. Stronghart denied the request due to nothing of relevance being left from the incident due to the three penned will and the ring already having been used to their max. Ryunosuke then pointed out that Stronghart said three penned will when there were only two, so Yujin revealed he brought along the third page of the will which then made Susato think that Klint's will was actually inside Kazuma's Katana 'Karuma' due to the will mentioning to twist thy head and she knew that Katanas had a small compartment inside the handle.
They opened the Katana, and found the will inside of it, with Naruhodo reading it aloud after Kazuma rendered all of Stronghart's arguments about not revealing it void. However even after being incriminated for blackmailing Klint into carrying on with his professor killings, Stronghart made himself look good by claiming that most of the people he targeted were criminals anyway and this does succeed in gaining the audience's trust. However, it turns out that Sholmes and Iris had headed to the Buckingham Palace and broadcasted the entire trial to Queen Victoria who then made a written note demanding that Stronghart be fired from his position as Lord Chief Justice and sent to jail immediately. Stronghart is then arrested for his treason and Barok is acquitted once again.
After Barok's aquittal, Susato then learnt from her father that Iris was actually named after Yujin's deceased wife 'Ayame' which is Japanese for 'Iris' but Yujin delivered her to Sholmes after her birth so that she would be protected from the now infamous Van Zieks name as Yujin needed to return to Japan as his trip was over. Back at Sholmes's flat, Naruhodo then revealed that he would come back to Japan with him and start his own law firm in Japan. Susato eavesdropped on their conversation and revealed to Naruhodo that she heard what he said but Naruhodo reassured her that she would be a great assistant towards Asogi she then told Naruhodo she would try her best to help him too.
On the day of Naruhodo and Yujin returning to Japan, Susato then got approval from Kazuma to return to Japan which he accepted and then asked Naruhodo if she could come back with him which Naruhodo allowed her to after Kazuma also allowed him to take Susato with him, saying the two will be great together since Naruhodo has got 'the best judicial assistant in the world'. When the two return to Japan, Naruhodo and Susato then start their own law firm together, starting the defense attorney line that would be passed down to Phoenix Wright in the future.
Category:Synopsis