The Magical Turnabout

"Apollo Justice"

- Trucy's under arrest?! She can't be!

Episode 2: The Magical Turnabout is the second episode of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice. When a fellow performer dies during a magic show at the Penrose Theater, Trucy Wright becomes the prime suspect. With Phoenix Wright out of the country, it is up to Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes to clear Trucy's name.

This case introduces Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi and reintroduces Ema Skye, now as a forensics investigator instead of a detective, although she is still called as such during the trial and is in charge of the case.

April 27
Trucy Wright was finally set to make her big debut at the Penrose Theater with the magic show "Trucy in Gramarye-Land", after years of performing magic shows at small venues. With Phoenix Wright abroad in the Kingdom of Khura'in, she invited Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes to a dress rehearsal of the show in his place, two days before the actual debut. After the end of the first act – in which Trucy's co-star, a masked magician clad in green and purple, had performed a trick in which he turned into a dragon, only to be trapped under a giant top hat by her – Justice and Cykes went to see Trucy in her dressing room during the 20-minute break.

Justice and Cykes came inside just as Trucy was finishing signing a document for a member of the staff. Trucy told them that the document was a contract with Take-2 TV, a television company that was interested in broadcasting her show nationwide. Trucy was enthusiastic about the show, which she said was very important to her because it was a revival of the magic of Troupe Gramarye, the group founded by her late grandfather Magnifi Gramarye. Mr. Reus, the magician who had performed the dragon trick earlier, had also been a member of Troupe Gramarye many years before. During the second act, Trucy would be performing a never-before-seen trick from Troupe Gramarye's repertoire. She appeared to be somewhat nervous, but Justice assured her that she would be fine. Trucy was then called back to the stage by her assistant, Bonny de Famme, as the show was about to resume.

The second act opened with Bonny, who was playing one of the villains, knocking Trucy into a green and purple coffin on the center of the stage and closing the lid. She then charmed Trucy's puppet Mr. Hat with a kiss, telling him to sacrifice Trucy to Mr. Reus and bring him back to life. A hypnotized Mr. Hat then prepared to thrust a sword into the coffin through the hole in the right, only to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke. The smoke dissipated to reveal Trucy standing where Mr. Hat had been with the sword in her hand, having escaped from the trap. After a round of applause from the audience, Trucy thrust the sword into Mr. Reus' coffin.

As the final part of the trick, Trucy announced that she would open the coffin to reveal what was inside. When she removed the lid, however, Mr. Reus' body fell out and lay motionless on the floor. Not understanding what had happened, Trucy stood over the body in confusion for a few moments before letting out a scream. Just as the audience realized that what had happened was not supposed to be part of the show, the dragon set piece hung over the stage came crashing down. The audience flew into a panic over Mr. Reus' apparent death, and was told by a staff member to evacuate the theater. Worried about Trucy, Justice tried to ask if she was all right, but was thrown out along with Cykes.

After waiting outside the theater for several minutes, Justice was informed by the staff member that the show had been canceled and the theater had been locked down so the police could investigate the incident. He was unable to find out what had happened to Mr. Reus, but was informed that at least Trucy was unhurt. A man in a white hat, whom the staff addressed as "Mr. Retinz", then arrived at the scene, asking what had happened. He was annoyed upon learning of the accident, saying he had sunk a lot of money into the show, and insisted that the staff let him in. Cykes then suggested that she and Justice go back to the Wright Anything Agency and wait for Trucy to call.

At the office, Justice tried to call Phoenix in Khura'in to inform him of the incident, but to no avail. His name came up on the news at that very moment, however, with Justice and Cykes both suprised to hear that Phoenix had won a trial in Khura'in, resulting in the first "not guilty" verdict the country had seen in twenty-three years. The news report then gave an update on the Penrose Theater incident: Mr. Reus had, in fact, been killed, as a result of being stabbed with a sword. Furthermore, Trucy was being held responsible and had been arrested on the charge of involuntary manslaughter. The footage taken by a reporter of the incident showed Trucy thrusting her sword into the coffin, which appeared to be the moment when Mr. Reus had been stabbed. Upon learning of this, Justice and Cykes immediately left for the detention center to see Trucy.

Interview with Trucy
Trucy was upset about the accident, saying the police had already decided she was responsible for everything and were refusing to listen to her. Her magic trick had gone as planned, but both Mr. Reus' appearance from inside the coffin and the dragon set piece collapsing had not been part of the show, and she was not sure how either of those things had happened; the coffin had been supposed to be empty when she opened it. Hoping to shed some light on the situation, Justice asked her to explain how the magic trick worked.

Trucy said that, as a magician, she was not supposed to reveal her secrets, but that she would make an exception this time. After entering the coffin, she had exited it through a trapdoor at the bottom, which led to the understage area. From there, she had used a stage lift placed under Mr. Hat to pop back up to the stage, while, at the same time, Mr. Hat was quickly pulled to the catwalk above the stage by wire. She explained that this was something called "misdirection" – keeping the audience focused on something to distract them from what was actually happening.

Justice continued by asking Trucy her how she knew Mr. Reus. She said that the TV station had chosen him to appear in the show because of his connection to Troupe Gramarye – he had been a protégé of Trucy's grandfather Magnifi, but had left the Troupe thirteen years previously after being injured while practicing. After taking a long break from magic, he had made his comeback sometime around the past year. Trucy was noticeably shaken by his death, but told Justice not to worry, as she had to stay strong for her fans. However, he sensed that she was hiding something, and urged her to tell him what it was.

Knowing she could not hide anything from Justice, Trucy dropped her façade, and, on the verge of tears, admitted that the accident might have been her fault after all. A part of her trick was switching the real steel sword for a fake rubber one before stabbing it into the coffin, meaning it shouldn't have hurt Mr. Reus even if he was inside. However, even though she had practiced this trick hundreds of times and remembered doing it during the show as well, she was now wondering whether she might have made a mistake and stabbed Mr. Reus by accident. Justice thought about the possibility, but was not convinced. He believed that Mr. Reus' death had been caused by something else, as he had seen how much time Trucy had put into practicing for her show and did not believe she would make a mistake like that. Trucy, now crying openly, thanked Justice for believing in her and formally asked him to be her lawyer.

Once Trucy calmed down, Justice and Cykes decided to start their investigation of the scene with the stage where the murder had occurred. Upon hearing that they were going to the crime scene, Trucy asked them to bring her the black notebook she had left in her dressing room, as it was private and she did not want anyone else reading it.

Investigation
After another failed attempt to contact Phoenix, Justice was greeted at the Penrose Theater entrance by Ema Skye, the detective who had been in charge of investigating three cases he had handled in his first year as a lawyer. Remembering Skye's unfriendly attitude in the past, Justice was surprised to find her much more cheerful and agreeable, which he soon learnt was because she had finally become a forensic investigator as she had always dreamed. To the shock of both Justice and Cykes, Skye said that the current incident was no longer being treated as an accident. Apparently, the prosecutor in charge of the case, a Khura'inist monk who had been traveling the world to further his studies, had been unconviced by the idea of involuntary manslaughter and seen evidence that Trucy had killed Mr. Reus in a premeditated murder. When Skye said that the prosecutor's name was Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, Justice recognized the name from his past, hardly able to believe that he would have to face Sahdmadhi in court. Skye promised she would try to convince Sahdmadhi of Trucy's innocence.

Accompanied by Skye, Justice and Cykes moved to the stage to investigate. The murder weapon, a sword covered in the victim's blood, was inside the sword stand at the back of the stage. According to Skye, no fingerprints had been lifted, although she said the culprit could have wiped them off, and Trucy would not have left fingerprints, as she had been wearing gloves during the show. Justice wondered whether there had been an opportunity for someone to switch the steel sword with the rubber one, and concluded that, if someone had done so, it would have to have been after the audience evacuated the theater. Justice also checked the footage recorded by the camera, which was the same that had been shown on television. Cykes pointed out that a strange-looking shadow could be seen going upwards on the stage backdrop at the same time the dragon set piece fell.

Skye then assisted Justice in dusting the coffin for fingerprints. The only prints on the inside belonged to the victim, and were positioned on both sides of the coffin. Oddly, they were facing backwards, despite the fact that he had been facing forward when he fell out of the coffin, and it was too small for an adult man to turn around in. Bonny's fingerprints were on the front lid – which was to be expected, as she had closed the coffin with it during the show – but a third set of unidentified fingerprints was found on top of the coffin, which Skye said did not match the prints of any of the people involved with the case.

Lastly, Justice and Cykes investigated the backstage area. There, they found a fire bucket, which, according to Skye, had been bought especially for the show, yet it was not only empty, but covered in dust. The backstage area also contained the two winches that operated the stage's pulley system, which included cushions placed in the catwalk above the stage to absorb impact when something was hoisted up. Mr. Hat was lying on top of one of these cushions, still attached to the wire, but his cape appeared to have been torn as if by a blade. The other winch was attached to the dragon set piece.

Having finished their investigation, Justice and Cykes asked Skye whether they could investigate the understage area. She said they would need permission from one of the magicians. As Skye left to continue her own investigation, someone else arrived at the stage.

Retinz and Bonny
Justice recognized the man who had been arguing with the staff in front of the theater earlier. He introduced himself as Roger Retinz, a producer for Take-2 TV who had handled Trucy's show. Upon seeing Justice's attorney's badge, he quickly adopted a sycophantic demeanor, only to abandon it and react with disgust when he learned that Justice was defending Trucy. Retinz called Trucy unhinged, saying she was to blame for the whole incident, and that he intended to earn back the money he had lost by selling the story to news outlets all over the world, ensuring that she could never walk the streets again even if she were acquitted. He expressed a strong dislike of magicians, and in particular of Troupe Gramarye, who he said were all criminals. As for what he had been doing at the time of the incident, Retinz said that he had been filming a program at the TV station and that the staff could vouch for his alibi.

In the dressing room, the duo found a script on the table with "Bonny" written on the cover, which described the magic tricks that were to be performed in the show. After Trucy's escape trick, there was supposed to have been a fire trick, which, according to the script, would require a fire bucket to be prepared. Cykes searched Trucy's bag for the notebook she had asked them to find, but instead of being in Trucy's bag as it was supposed to be, it was hidden behind a suitcase among Mr. Reus' possessions.

Justice and Cykes were spotted in the act of taking the notebook by Bonny, who had entered the dressing room. In a brief misunderstanding, Bonny asked them to return what they had stolen, but apologized when Justice explained that Trucy had asked them to bring her the notebook. Quite unlike the strange girl they had seen earlier, Bonny now came across as cheerful and excitable, raving about how much she admired Trucy for both her talent and the hard work she put into her magic tricks. Cykes praised Bonny for her own teleportation trick, wondering how it worked, to which Bonny replied that no one would ever figure it out, since she always performed it perfectly. However, Justice's bracelet reacted to this statement, and he asked Bonny whether she had made a mistake during the teleportation trick. When Bonny said she had gotten that part right, her emphasis on the word "that" made Justice realize that she had messed up a different trick – namely, Trucy's escape act.

Bonny admitted that she had accidentally placed Mr. Hat on the wrong side of the coffin – the right side instead of the left – which would have ruined the escape act, had Trucy not done some quick thinking on her part and managed to appear on the same side as Mr. Hat. Justice made a mental note to ask Trucy how she had done this later. He also asked Bonny for permission to investigate the understage area later, which she agreed to, saying she would unlock the entrance for him.

Justice's conversation with Bonny was then interrupted by Retinz, who said he had he wanted to see Justice. Having heard that the lawyers were from the same agency as Trucy, he showed them the contract she had signed with Take-2 TV:

Justice was in disbelief, but could not do anything, as the contract had Trucy's signature on it and was apparently legitimate. Retinz left with Bonny to do more filming, and Justice and Cykes decided that they would need to hear Trucy's side of the story right away and leave the understage passage investigation for later.

At the detention center, Justice returned the notebook to Trucy. She said it had originally belonged to Magnifi, who would use it to jot down ideas for magic tricks, including some that only members of Troupe Gramarye had ever laid eyes on. Inside the notebook was the creed passed down to Trucy by her late father: "A true entertainer always keeps a smile on their face." Justice said that Mr. Reus might have been trying to steal the notebook, but Trucy refused to believe he would do such a thing.

Bringing up the subject of Bonny's mistake during the show, Justice asked Trucy how she had managed to cover for it. Trucy explained that she had received a signal from Bonny saying Mr. Hat was on the wrong side immediately after descending to the understage passage. She had been supposed to go back up to the stage using the lift under the left trapdoor, but Mr. Hat was over the trapdoor on the right, and the stage lift under that trapdoor was already in the raised position and could not be used. Since Trucy could not lower the lift herself, she had pushed it out of the way and moved the other, lowered lift to the trapdoor under Mr. Hat to use it. She stressed that she had not told anyone about this.

Upon being shown the contract with her signature on it detailing liability for compensation, Trucy assured that she had read the whole contract from top to bottom, and that the contract she signed did not contain that article. Justice concluded, as he has suspected, that Trucy had somehow been tricked into signing a different contract than the one she read. He and Cykes then decided to take another look at the dressing room, where Trucy had signed the contract, hoping to find some clue there as to how she had been conned.

Foul play exposed
Returning to the dressing room, Justice's attention was drawn to the clipboard next to Bonny's script, which he recognized as the one Trucy had used to sign the contract. Examining the clipboard, Justice discovered that one of the screws was loose, and removing it caused the back panel to pop out, revealing a sheet of black paper inside. Cykes explained that it was carbon paper, which, when placed between two sheets of paper, copied what was written on the top one onto the bottom one. The carbon paper had caused Trucy to unwittingly sign a hidden contract inside the clipboard, which Justice knew to be Roger Retinz's doing. He took the clipboard, planning to use it as evidence in court, and left with Cykes to explore the final part of the crime scene.

Bonny had unlocked the door to the understage passage, allowing Justice and Cykes to enter. There, they found the rubber sword Trucy had claimed to have used during the trick, further indicating that someone had switched it with the steel one. Additionally, the understage area had two ladders leading up to the stage: one, marked by glow-in-the-dark tape, led to the spot where the coffin used during the show was, while the other one directly behind it led to a dark, cramped place, which Cykes speculated was the inside of the other coffin they had seen in the backstage area.

Cykes then heard voices approaching, and, picking up strange emotions in them due to her sensitive hearing, urged Justice to hide. The voices turned out to belong to Retinz and Bonny, who seemed to be discussing some sort of plan to ruin Trucy's reputation. Retinz claimed that this would be easy to accomplish with the power of mass media. Bonny, who seemed like a completely different person from before, viciously claimed to loathe Trucy, whom she called a sniveling brat, and was quick to take her anger out on Retinz, who was acting lovestruck and submissive towards her. Once they left, Justice and Cykes, knowing that what they had seen was unquestionable evidence that some sort of foul play was afoot, decided that they had to investigate the alibis of the potential suspects. They had seen Bonny with their own eyes during the entire show, meaning she could not be the culprit, so they went to the Take-2 TV station to verify Retinz's alibi.

The employees at the Take-2 TV station gave Justice a copy of the show footage shown on television earlier, as well as a confirmation that Retinz had been at the station during the incident and thus had an alibi. He had gone to Penrose Theater by taxi that morning, but only arrived after the incident. With this revelation, Justice was left puzzled as to who could have killed Mr. Reus, so he and Cykes decided to return to the office to revise their plan for the trial the next day.

The end of the agency?
At the office, Justice and Cykes found that the situation had gone from bad to worse. All of their belongings had been covered in stickers reading "repossessed", and, when an outraged Justice asked who was responsible, none other than Roger Retinz appeared. Retinz said that, since they were unable to pay back their debt, he was entitled to claim ownership of the agency's possessions and sell them to cover the loss. Justice realized that there was nothing he could do, since he could not prove Retinz's connection to the forged contract, and that Retinz had specifically waited for Phoenix to be away to carry out his plan.

To further demonstrate where Justice stood right now, Retinz turned on the TV to show a live report about the upcoming trial being filmed just outside the agency. As Justice and Cykes looked out the window to see a sea of reporters outside, Retinz explained that the public had already decided Trucy was guilty, and that the entire country would be against Justice if he defended her in court. He finished by saying Justice and Cykes had to be out of the agency by the next day.

After Retinz left, Justice's phone began to ring. Phoenix had finally received his messages and was in a panic over Trucy's arrest. Justice explained the agency's situation to him, apologizing for being unable to do anything. Phoenix said that there was still hope: the contract only addressed liability for compensation if Trucy was considered responsible for causing the show to be canceled. Therefore, if Justice could prove her innocence in court, they would not have to pay the debt. Phoenix finished by saying that, after watching Justice grow as a lawyer for two years, turning various hopeless cases around and helping Cykes on her way, he believed that he could entrust Trucy's fate to him, and wished him luck for the trial the next day. With the future of both Trucy and the agency in his hands, Justice resolved not to let his guard down, regardless of who the prosecutor was.

Defendant lobby
In the defendant lobby, Justice prepared for the trial by repeating "I'm fine" to himself, as he usually did. Cykes told him that she had done some research on Nahyuta Sahdmadhi – he was allegedly a prosecutor with the ability to foresee the outcome of any trial by predicting the defense's arguments. She hoped that Skye had been able to convince him of Trucy's innocence.

First session
Once the trial opened, Sahdmadhi appeared to be lost in thought, and did not answer the first two times the judge asked him if he was ready. He then apologized for the delay, explaining that he had been praying for the victim, and introduced himself as a monk from the Kingdom of Khura'in. Sahdmadhi asked for the court's patience in advance, as he was unfamiliar with how the courts worked in the United States and might make some mistakes.

Sahdmadhi then gave his opening statement. The incident had occurred during a magic show, where the defendant had thrust a sword into a coffin, out of which the victim's body had then fallen. The victim was Manov Mistree, better known by the stage name "The Great Mr. Reus," and his blood was present on the sword used during the show. Sahdmadhi claimed that the incident had been a murder made to look like an accident, and that Trucy was the one responsible – Skye had apparently not been able to convince him otherwise. The judge then asked the bailiff to bring in the first witness.

Ema Skye was called to the witness stand. She appeared to be under great stress, nervously munching on a bag of Snackoos, and, before giving her testimony, stated that she believed Trucy was innocent. Reprimanding Skye for this, Sahdmadhi asked her to explain the defendant's motive for committing the crime. Skye obliged by showing the court a poster of Troupe Gramarye from thirteen years previously. It was the same as the one seen in the Penrose Theater dressing room, except it said "canceled" under Mr. Reus. Skye explained that the scar on Mr. Reus' right forearm was the result of an injury he had sustained while practicing for a magic trick. Because of this accident, Magnifi had removed Mr. Reus from the Troupe's next show, but Mr. Reus had defied him by showing up anyway, which had caused Magnifi to immediately oust him from the Troupe. After this, Mr. Reus had apparently come to harbor a grudge against the Troupe and sworn to have his revenge someday.

Skye continued by saying that Mr. Reus had planned to get his revenge during the magic show at the Penrose Theater, by stealing the Gramarye notebook from Trucy and revealing the secrets to all of the Troupe's tricks during the show. According to Sahdmadhi, Bonny de Famme had given the police a statement which confirmed he planned to do this. By the time Trucy had discovered the theft of the notebook, it was too late, and so she had been forced to kill Mr. Reus and make it look like an accident.

Justice asked Skye what basis the prosecution had for claiming murder. Skye said he would have to ask Sahdmadhi, as the prosecutor had not bothered to explain his reasoning to her. Sahdmadhi explained that the glow-in-the-dark tape in the understage area showed intent to kill. Mr. Reus had been supposed to climb the upstage ladder, which led into the coffin in the backstage area, but the tape had been moved to the downstage ladder to mislead him into climbing into the coffin on the stage, into which Trucy had thrust her sword. Trucy's fingerprints had been found on the luminous tape, indicating that she was the one who had moved it.

Justice said that the fingerprints on the tape could not have been left during the show, as Trucy had been wearing gloves at the time – they must have been left sometime before the show, meaning that the tape did not prove Trucy had intentionally misled the victim. Sahdmadhi conceded that this proved the homicide had not necessarily been intentional, and asked Justice if he wished to plead involuntary manslaughter. Justice had known that this question was bound to come up eventually, but maintained that the defendant was entirely innocent. Pleading involuntary manslaughter would still be admitting that Trucy had killed Mr. Reus, which he knew was not true. He further added that he believed the death had been a murder – committed by a third party – and proposed a theory on how this would be possible: Mr. Reus had been killed understage, after which his body had been placed in the coffin, meaning he would already have been dead when Trucy thrust her sword inside.

Sahdmadhi, losing patience, threw his rosary around Justice's head and constricted him with it. He said that the only people in the show other than the victim were Bonny and Trucy, and the former had been on stage for the entire show, meaning that Trucy remained the only possible suspect even if the victim had been killed understage. After killing Mr. Reus understage, Trucy could have placed his body in the coffin to make the murder look like an accident.

Cykes raised an objection, saying that a relatively short teenage girl like Trucy could not have carried the body of an adult man up the ladder to place it in the coffin. Sahdmadhi said that he had an explanation for this, and that he would summon a new witness who would answer the question of how Trucy could have raised the body.

Cross-examining Bonny
Bonny de Famme was summoned as the next witness. She proclaimed her admiration for Trucy and appeared hesitant to testify against her, but Justice, who already knew he was dealing with a wolf in sheep's clothing, did not fall for her act. Bonny explained that Trucy could have used one of the stage lifts in the understage passage to lift the body, and Sahdmadhi added that stage lift #2 had been found in the raised position during the investigation, corroborating this theory. Justice was unable to find any flaws in Bonny's testimony, but Cykes offered to help, saying that she had heard discord in Bonny's voice while she was testifying and that she could use her Mood Matrix to figure out what Bonny was hiding. Bonny, having all but dropped her innocent façade, tried to dismiss Cykes' suggestion, but the judge and Sahdmadhi allowed Cykes to continue.

Cykes activated the Mood Matrix, leading Justice to find an emotion inconsistent with Bonny's statements. When she described her mistake regarding Mr. Hat, claiming to feel terrible about it, she exhibited happiness. Justice suggested that she felt happy because she had messed Trucy up intentionally. He added that he had heard everything she had said in the understage passage about how much she hated Trucy, and, along with Cykes, demanded that Bonny drop her act. Realizing that the jig was up, Bonny complied, revealing the umbrella with a bat motif hidden in her cane and reshaping her hairstyle similarly to a bat's wings. She admitted her dislike for Trucy and that she had positioned Mr. Hat wrongly on purpose, appearing greatly satisfied that her "mistake" had forced Trucy to do so much hard physical labor by pushing both of the stage lifts.

Justice realized that Bonny had finally made the slip-up he had been waiting for, and asked her how she knew Trucy had moved the stage lifts. Trucy had not told anyone about this, meaning the only way Bonny could have known was if she had seen Trucy move the stage lifts herself. Justice then proposed that Bonny must have been in the understage passage at the time in order to see Trucy, meaning that she had to be labeled a suspect. Sahdmadhi objected, reminding Justice that the TV footage showed that Bonny had been on stage the whole time, a fact that Justice himself could testify to. Justice asked him what other explanation there could be for Bonny knowing about the stage lifts, to which Sahdmadhi replied that Trucy must have simply told her and later forgotten.

Justice was not convinced. He and Cykes reasoned that the only explanation that seemed to make sense was that Bonny had been in two places at the same time, which would mean that there were two Bonnys. If the Bonny who had been on the stage was the real one, then the one standing at the witness stand, who had been understage, would have been the "second Bonny." Justice added that he had proof of the second Bonny's existence: the fingerprints found on top of the coffin, which did not belong to any of the people involved with the case, including Bonny. If the fingerprints matched the witness's, it would prove that she was not Bonny de Famme.

Cornered, "Bonny" admitted that the fingerprints were hers and she was not Bonny, but rather Betty de Famme. She then announced that it was time for a wondrous magic show. The lights in the courtroom went out, followed by Bonny and Betty appearing at the defense and prosecution's benches, respectively, before disappearing and reappearing at the witness stand. The gallery broke into applause, and Bonny and Betty explained that they were twins. Ever since their debut, Betty had been forced to hide or pretend she was Bonny in order to protect the secret of their teleportation trick. With the revelation of Betty's existence, Justice was able to make sense of what he and Cykes had seen during their investigation: the nice Bonny they had seen in the dressing room was the real Bonny, while the foul-mouthed one plotting Trucy's downfall in the understage area with Roger Retinz was actually Betty.

The judge asked Justice whether this changed the facts of the case. Justice answered that Bonny could not have committed the crime, since she had been on stage, but Betty, who had been understage, had to be considered a suspect. Betty denied killing Mr. Reus, however, and the judge then asked her to testify about what she had been doing under the stage.

A double testimony
Betty explained that she had been in the understage area in order to prepare the fire trick that Mr. Reus would perform in the third act, and that this would leave her with no time to commit murder, proving that she had an alibi. However, Justice pointed out that, according to Bonny's script, this trick would require the fire bucket, which had been left in the backstage area, empty and covered in dust, showing that Betty had not even attempted to prepare for the trick. Justice then proposed that Betty had not prepared for the trick because she knew the body would be found and the show would be canceled.

Sahdmadhi then suggested that Betty might have known the show would be canceled for a different reason, mentioning the dragon set piece that had fallen onto the stage, the timing of which seemed too perfect to be coincidental. He claimed that the set piece falling and the body appearing had been part of a plan, and that both Betty and Bonny had been informed of it by Take-2 TV in advance. With this, the twins finally broke and confessed that they had been paid by the TV station to cooperate with the plan, which had been a prank orchestrated by Roger Retinz to scare Trucy on live camera. The plan was to have Mr. Reus – who had also been in on the prank – pretend to be dead after tumbling out of the coffin. Betty, who was in the understage passage, would then use the remote control for the winch to drop the dragon set piece onto the stage, after which Mr. Reus would "come back to life" in front of Trucy and fly away. Somehow, however, he had actually turned up dead. This was the only thing that was different from the script, and it still left the question of who had killed the victim unanswered.

Sahdmadhi said that, if Mr. Reus was only pretending to be dead in the coffin, he would still have been alive when he was understage, and asked Betty if she could confirm this. Betty said that, since she and Bonny had already revealed their secret to the court, they could now show a video that was part of the prank. It was a video Mr. Reus had shot of himself in the understage area, in which he announced that he was about to hide in the coffin; afterwards, he would fall out and pretend to be dead to scare Trucy. Justice realized that this evidence was incredibly damaging to their case – it proved that Mr. Reus had only been killed after entering the coffin, which left Trucy as the only possible suspect. Sahdmadhi went even further by saying that he had proof that Trucy had foreknowledge of the prank, which would rule out the possibility of accidental death: a note found in the dressing room, with Trucy's signature on it, in which she asked Bonny to collect the video camera after Mr. Reus fell out of the coffin.

Trucy denied knowing about the prank, saying she had never seen the note before, but Sahdmadhi said that the handwriting matched hers and that all of the evidence now pointed to her as the culprit. The judge prepared to render his verdict, but Justice raised an objection, saying that, although Trucy had unquestionably thrust a sword into the coffin, the sword in question had been the rubber one, and, therefore, not the cause of death. Furthermore, he said, Trucy herself distinctly recalled switching the steel sword with the rubber one before stabbing it into the coffin. After the dragon set piece fell, there had been an opportunity for someone to switch the fake sword with the real one, making it appear as if Trucy had used the steel sword. Sahdmadhi said that blood had been found in the hole on the side of the coffin, presumably left there as Trucy withdrew the blade, but Justice replied that the blood could have been planted there by the real culprit to mislead the investigation. The judge said they would need to have Trucy testify about the rubber sword, but, before that, court would be adjourned for a fifteen-minute recess.

Recess
During the recess, Justice, Trucy, and Cykes were less than pleased to be greeted in the defendant lobby by Roger Retinz. Pulling out a video camera to film Trucy, Retinz mocked her by telling her that she had to smile, as it was what the Gramarye creed told her to do, and added that everyone on the Internet was calling her a witch. When Cykes angrily told him to put the camera away, it disappeared in the blink of an eye, and Retinz acted confused, saying he did not have a camera. Before leaving, he said he would call several of Trucy's "fans" to watch the trial. Trucy told Justice that Retinz must have high-level magic skills to make the camera disappear that way.

Bonny then came into the defendant lobby and tried to tell Justice that something had been bothering her, but was interrupted by Betty, who took her away.

Second session
As soon as Trucy took the stand, several members of gallery started to insult and heckle her, forcing the judge to demand silence twice in a row. Justice realized that these were the "fans" Retinz had prepared. Trucy asked the judge if, instead of testifying with words, she could show the court exactly how she performed the sword-switching trick.

To demonstrate how the trick worked, Trucy first showed the court that the sword was the real one by throwing an apple into the air and stabbing it. She then spun around, threw the sword upwards, and grabbed it by the blade, which she then showed to be harmless and made of rubber. Trucy's performance captured the hearts of the gallery, who cheered so much that the hecklers were drowned out. Justice, however, noted that something was odd. During her trick, Trucy had said that the exact moment she switched the swords was when she twirled her cape around, but that part was missing from the show footage. Trucy swore she had done the twirling trick during the show, but Sahdmadhi seemed to consider this decisive proof that Trucy had not switched the swords. It appeared once again that the trial was about to end badly for Trucy, but Bonny then took to the stand, saying she wanted to testify.

Bonny said that she believed in Trucy, and that, the more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that she could have committed murder. She had been touched by the courage Trucy had shown earlier by testifying when everyone in the courtroom was against her. Justice asked her if what she wanted to say was related to their earlier conversation in the lobby, and Bonny answered that something about the show footage seemed somehow different from what had happened during the show. She said that she had some show footage of her own, filmed by a fan of hers, and that Justice could compare it to the footage show on television.

Comparing the two videos, Justice found an inconsistency: in Bonny's video, Trucy could be seen throwing cards after the smoke dissipated, but this part was not shown in Take-2 TV's footage. Trucy said that she threw the cards at the exact moment when she did the cape-twirling trick, leading Justice to conclude that the footage had been edited by someone who was trying to frame Trucy. The judge asked the bailiff to bring in the original footage from the TV station, but the proceedings were then interrupted by Roger Retinz.

Claiming that there was a misunderstanding, Retinz presented the unedited footage to the court. As expected, it showed Trucy throwing the cards like in Bonny's footage, which proved that Trucy had not stabbed Mr. Reus inside the coffin. However, according to Retinz, Trucy had not killed Mr. Reus right then, but later, after the dragon set piece fell. At that moment, a shadow could be seen in the video, which Retinz claimed to be the shadow of Trucy as she stabbed the victim. Justice said that Retinz was simply trying to ram his theory down their throats; furthermore, he had deliberately edited out the sword-switching trick to cast blame on Trucy.

Retinz said that editing footage was standard practice for TV stations and he had not done it with malicious intent. Justice then showed the court the contract he had conned Trucy into signing with the carbon paper-rigged clipboard, proving that he bore ill will towards her. He had also finally found the proof that would link Retinz to the forged contract: the note found in Bonny's dressing room with Trucy's signature on it, which was part of Retinz's prank. Trucy's signature was identical on both documents, proving that she had been conned into unknowingly signing both at the same time.

Retinz dismissed Justice's claims by saying he had no reason to bear Trucy any ill will, as he had never even met her before the Penrose Theater show. Justice recalled Retinz's self-admitted hatred of magicians, reasoning that some sort of connection between him and Trucy had to exist for him to bear this much of a grudge against her, possibly a connection that not even Trucy was aware of. Thinking back to the incident with the disappearing camera in the defendant lobby, Justice suggested that Retinz, too, was a magician. Retinz appeared to find Justice's suggestion amusing, while Sahdmadhi stated that even if it were true, it was no reason to bear a grudge against Trucy; every magician in the country might bear one if that were the case.

Justice thought about this, and, in a shocking realization, finally figured out who the real killer was. The one person who had this much of a reason to have a grudge against Trucy, and against all of Troupe Gramarye, was the magician who had sworn revenge on them thirteen years before, Mr. Reus himself. The judge was confused, reminding Justice that Mr. Reus was the victim, but Justice proposed that they look at the situation from a different angle: Manov Mistree, the man who had been killed on the stage, might not have been the same Mr. Reus from thirteen years ago. The real Mr. Reus was still alive, and he was the one who had set up the show and masterminded the prank – Roger Retinz.

The forgotten magician
Sahdmadhi called Justice's theory absurd, but Justice said he had proof to back up his assertion. The original Mr. Reus had a scar on his right forearm from the injury that had cost him his career, but, in the video Mistree had shot of himself, no trace of the scar was visible. Justice then demanded that Retinz show the court his right forearm.

Retinz said he had nothing to hide. Calmly rolling up his sleeves, he revealed the scar he had sustained thirteen years previously, and admitted that what Justice had said was true. Mistree had been an aspiring magician whom Retinz had met on one of his programs a few years before. Upon learning that Mistree was a great fan of Mr. Reus, Retinz had told him his secret identity in confidence and trained him to be his successor. Justice claimed that Retinz's motive for committing the crime and framing Trucy was now clear, but Retinz said his connection to Troupe Gramarye changed nothing, as he still had an ironclad alibi for the crime – at the time of the murder, he had been at the TV station, a fact that countless employees could testify to.

Justice questioned Retinz about his alibi from every possible angle, but was unable to find any holes in it; the fact that he had been at Take-2 TV was seemingly indisputable. Seeing Retinz gloat over Justice's struggle, the lawyer realized that he might still be caught in some sort of trap. He remembered what Trucy had told him about misdirection: by making the audience focus on something unimportant, a magician could distract them from the true issue at hand. Justice's efforts were proving fruitless because he was trying to break an alibi that was impossible to break. Turning his thinking around, he realized that, if he could not prove that Retinz had been at the scene of the crime, he had to try and prove how he could commit murder without being there.

Justice recalled the shadow that could be seen on the stage backdrop near the end of the video. He pointed out that a similar shadow appeared on the other side at the moment when Trucy made her escape, which Trucy identified as Mr. Hat's shadow as he was hoisted to the catwalk above the stage. Justice said that the second shadow must belong to the victim, Manov Mistree, being pulled to the catwalk himself, as the prank plan script stated that he was to fly upwards after pretending to be dead in the coffin. Upon being pulled, he would have hit the cushions there with considerable force. If he had been stabbed around this moment, then the murder weapon might have been planted in the cushions before the show by the culprit. Mistree was connected to the same wire as the dragon set piece, meaning that when Betty caused it to fall, he would have been rocketed upwards and straight into the blade. This also explained why Mr. Hat's cape had been torn when Justice found him. With the catwalk outside of the audience's view, nobody would have seen the sword planted there.

Betty was in shock. She said she had no idea there was a sword in the catwalk; she had only dropped the dragon set piece to scare Trucy as Retinz had told her to do. Justice told her Retinz had used her – he had made sure to arrive at the theater right after the incident; once the audience had evacuated, he had the opportunity to tamper with the scene by switching the swords and lowering the body back onto the stage. Mistree was doomed to die as long as the show proceeded as planned, and the prank plan, written by Retinz himself, proved that he was the culprit.

Retinz was out of counterarguments, but Sahdmadhi intervened, claiming that Justice had no evidence to support his theory. Knowing that a piece of evidence had to have been left behind somewhere, Justice rethought the entire case. Retinz had carefully planned the murder so that no evidence would be left behind, which meant that Justice's best chance of finding decisive evidence was through something that had not gone according to the script. Remembering that Bonny had made a mistake with Mr. Hat's position, Justice realized that this had caused Trucy to stab the coffin through the right side, when the script predicted that the opposite would happen. The culprit had later planted blood in the coffin hole, which, if they had assumed that Trucy would thrust the sword in through the left hole, would have been on the wrong side. Since the blood had eventually been found on the right side, this meant that the culprit must have realized his mistake and tampered with the scene again by switching the sides of the coffin, which were interchangeable – in doing so, leaving behind something unnatural in the coffin.

Justice then presented the decisive evidence that would prove Retinz had tampered with the crime scene: Mistree's fingerprints inside the coffin, which were facing backwards, as a result of the coffin sides being swapped. Wiping the blood would still have left traces that could be detected with luminol, so the culprit had had no choice but to switch the coffin sides to cover his tracks. In a final effort to counter Justice's argument, Sahdmadhi said that all of this could just as easily have been done by Trucy, but Justice denied this, saying that someone who had been present at the magic show would not have made the mistake of putting the blood on the wrong side, least of all Trucy, who would have remembered which side she was on. His case defeated, Sahdmadhi stretched his rosary until it broke, causing all the beads to hit him in the face and knock him to the floor. Justice finished by stating that the culprit must have been someone who knew about the prank, but did not actually see the show, and had the opportunity to tamper with the scene afterwards – the only person who fit this description being Roger Retinz. He told Retinz that all of his tricks had been revealed.

Retinz said that there were no tricks to reveal, as his magic was real. Summoning a red curtain behind him, he proceeded to lift his cape to reveal masks of the other members of Troupe Gramarye – Thalassa, Valant, Zak, and Magnifi – burning them one by one. Finally, he announced that the last remaining member of the Troupe would also burn, but when he raised his cape for the fifth time, the mask that appeared was not one of Trucy, but of his own identity, Mr. Reus. Flustered, he tried again, but the mask of Mr. Reus appeared once more, this time covered in blood. As spotlights started to shine on him, Retinz desperately tried to explain himself, saying he had not done anything wrong, until he finally collapsed, cursing the Gramarye name.

Retinz's confession
Trucy, visibly hurt by Retinz's actions, asked him if he really hated Troupe Gramarye enough to murder an innocent man. Retinz said that, since childhood, it had always been his dream to be a magician, but that Magnifi had taken everything away from him by throwing him out of the Troupe. Trucy told him it was no excuse for what he had done, and that magic was supposed to make people happy, not used for evil. She said he had no right to call himself a magician, but Retinz simply scoffed, saying that, since Trucy had not seen through his tricks, he had proven himself to be the superior magician in the end. Still laughing, he was taken into custody.

Although Trucy had been proven innocent, Justice noticed that she looked sad, but, when the judge asked her if he could see her smile before handing down his verdict, she obliged. With that, Trucy was declared not guilty of the murder of Manov Mistree.

Aftermath
Trucy thanked Justice for everything he had done, musing that she would need a new assistant now that Mr. Reus was gone. Bonny came into the lobby, apologizing to Trucy for everything. Although Betty tried to tell her sister they had nothing to apologize for, as Retinz had used them, she soon broke and claimed that what happened was all her fault. Trucy, however, assured the twins that they were not to blame. Betty stubbornly said that none of this would change the fact that she hated Trucy, but Bonny let slip that Trucy had been the one who had inspired them to become magicians and that Betty still had her autograph from that day.

After Betty dragged Bonny away to practice for the next day's magic show, Trucy, who appeared to have taken Retinz's words to heart, asked Justice if he thought she really was a "naïve greenhorn." Justice assured her that she was a wonderful magician, and showed her the Gramarye creed written in her grandfather's notebook as proof: "A true entertainer always keeps a smile on their face." Trucy had proven her dedication to this creed by performing her magic trick in court with a smile on her face, even through all the jeering.

Skye also wanted to apologize to Trucy for testifying against her and failing to convince Sahdmadhi of her innocence, but Trucy knew that she was only doing her job. At that moment, Sahdmadhi appeared, saying he needed Skye's forensic expertise to close the case. As they were leaving, however, Justice confronted Sahdmadhi, telling his old friend that he had changed a lot, and asked if Sahdmadhi had forgotten about him. Sahdmadhi left, telling Justice he had nothing to say to him.

Justice then received a call from Phoenix, who anxiously asked how the trial had turned out. He was immensely relieved to hear of Trucy's acquittal, and thoroughly thanked Justice, who he said was now a full-fledged lawyer in his eyes. Phoenix asked Justice to attend Trucy's magic show the next day in his place, and Trucy said she would save the best seat for him. The next day, however, Justice realized that the "best seat" was the inside of the coffin on the stage, with Mr. Hat about to thrust a sword inside. Thus, "Trucy in Gramarye-Land" ended with a big round of applause and Justice's "ear-splitting screams."

References to other cases

 * Inspecting the flowers in Trucy's dressing room, Justice reads that they come from Jinxie and Damian Tenma, from The Monstrous Turnabout, Klavier Gavin, and Lamiroir. Justice mentions to Cykes how she was involved with a case that he and Trucy worked.
 * If answering "The Bonny onstage is a fake", Sahdmadhi and the Judge question to Justice "Oh! Maybe YOU are the fake, and your attorney's badge is made out of cardboard!". Justice asks: "No, no! I'm the real thing, I swear! ...And why cardboard, specifically...?", which the Judge responds: "Let's just say I had an infurating experience once thanks to one...", referencing Recipe for Turnabout where someone fooled the entire court with one.
 * The judge comments on how he plans to be on the bench for another ten years, which Cykes openly doubts. Justice scolds her, telling her to remember what they discussed about inner monologues. This is a reference to a similar conversation Cykes and Justice had in The Cosmic Turnabout.

References to popular culture

 * During the Investigation, Athena says to Apollo while he is deep in thought: "Ground control to Major Apollo! Can you hear me Major Apollo?" This is a reference to David Bowie's famous debut hit "Space Oddity".
 * The name of Trucy's magic show, "Trucy in Gramarye-Land", is likely a reference to the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, commonly referred to as Alice in Wonderland.
 * While explaining investigation to Justice, Cykes tells him "Ten points to House Justice." This is a reference to the Harry Potter series.
 * At one point, Betty threatens Retinz by saying he's going to get it, "POW! Right in the kisser!" This is a reference to a line from The Honeymooners.
 * During Betty's first cross examination, if the player presses her last statement about how she was onstage the entire time of the murder, she'll get angry and utter the line, "Don't spit on my head and tell me it's raining!" This could be a reference to TV personality Judge Judy Sheindlin, who was known to say the phrase, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!", having also titled a book as such.
 * If Apollo presents his badge to Retinz, Retinz proposes a special on Apollo and Athena titled "It's a Lawyerful Life: Justice in the Courtroom!" This could be a reference to the movie It's a Wonderful Life.
 * When Retinz gives Apollo and Athena the contract, he tell them they may have to go fishing for the money they owe, saying, "I can see it now: "Craziest Catch: Legend of the Seasick Lawyers"!" This is likely referencing the television series Deadliest Catch. Further, Legend of the Cornelia Marie was an episode of this series.
 * If Apollo answers that Retinz is a huge fan of Trucy's while attempting to establish a connection between the two, Apollo asks for his mistake to be "cut out". The Judge responds that he isn't Judge Wackner, and they aren't in the Public's Court. This is a reference to former television judge Joseph Wapner and the reality court show The People's Court.

Typos and Errors

 * When Retinz turns on the TV for Apollo and Athena to show them where they stand, the TV announcer says "We're here, just outside the office of the suspect, hoping to get an exclusive peak inside." instead of peek.

Name

 * Japanese - 逆転マジックショー (Gyakuten majikkushō; lit. "Turnabout Magic Show")