Simon Keyes

"Sōta Sarushiro"

- But aren't prosecutors crazy scazy or something? Constantly glaring at you and everything!

Sōta Sarushiro was a circus worker who was the suspect of a murder. He worked for the Berry Big Circus. He had a shy personality and acts like the Three Wise Monkeys. However it is shown that he also had another side of him that was hidden from Miles Edgeworth and Regina Berry.

Early life
Sarushiro was the son of a chef, Yutaka Kazami. He knew his rival, Isaku Hyōdō, and became a close friend to his son Manosuke Naitō. Their fathers collaborated in a dessert making contest. However, Hyōdō betrayed Kazami and threatened his own son to make him tie Sarushiro up, so that he couldn't help his father who relied on Sarushiro to taste desserts for him. Naitō, crying and asking for forgiveness, bound his best friend's wrists and legs. They were then both locked in a car outside in the freezing cold. The door froze over and they couldn't escape.

They nearly died, but an assassin Ryōken Hōinbō happened to pass by and rescue them. Meanwhile, Kazami killed Hyōdō and fled the country, leaving them both as orphans. They were taken to the orphanage Happy Family. They had also lost their memories from nearly dying in the cold.

Later, Hōinbō was assigned to kill the president of Zheng Fa close by their orphanage. He killed him and the president was replaced by an imposter. Sarushiro witnessed the whole crime and drew a picture of it.

The group who ordered the assassination was going to betray him and kill him, but as Sarushiro recognized Hōinbō as his saviour, he saved his life by informing him of the group's betrayal. From here on, he would be treated like Hōinbō's son. He didn't want to become "a weak person who could get murdered" so he wanted to follow in Hōinbō's footsteps.

Sarushiro remembered the day he was tied up and locked in the car, but his memory was muddled. He mistakenly believed he was Hyōdō's son, and that Naitō's father killed his father. He decided to have him killed as revenge, thinking that if he hadn't stopped him and tied him up, "his" father wouldn't have been killed.

Accused of murder in prison

 * Main article: The Imprisoned Turnabout

Later on, he joined the Berry Big Circus as a circus clown. Sarushiro was held into police custody when he was a suspect of the murder of Manosuke Naitō. Although not guilty for his murder, he was indirectly responsible for it. He made it look like Naitō was one of Hōinbō's subordinates, knowing that it would lead to his death. Furthermore, he knew that Miwa was part of the group who betrayed Hōinbō. Sarushiro was also the one who gave Naitō the idea of faking an assassination attempt on the president.

Abduction

 * Main article: The Forgotten Turnabout

He sent letters, chloroformed and abducted Kay Faraday to the top of the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee Headquarters to frame her which would lead Miles Edgeworth to the true culprit responsible for the murder that happened there, Bansai Ichiyanagi, and reveal his illegal activities. He wanted revenge for his involvement in the assassination of the president of Zheng Fa.

A fitting end

 * Main article: The Grand Turnabout

"Tateyuki Shigaraki"

- Didn't you hear what he said? "I look out for number one." There's no doubt. He's a man who cannot trust others.

He completed his revenge when he finally killed their leader - the imposter posing as Teikun Ō. He had originally hired an assassin to do it, but he was thwarted by the president's bodyguards, so Sarushiro took the matter into his own hands. He met him by chance and killed him from his balloon. After Edgeworth exposed Sarushiro as the killer, the aforementioned assassin arrived to kill him, but was stopped by Hōinbō.

Personality
Sarushiro had a shy personality. He fainted when Edgeworth glared at him, making the questioning difficult. However, he appeared to be an honest, if a bit simple person, and true to his friend Naitō, to whom he stayed loyal even after the latter was put in jail, and he used the opportunity with the circus to visit him there. He acted similar to the Three Wise Monkeys - heard no evil, saw no evil, and allegedly, did no evil.

However, all this was merely a facade to hide his true nature. Once he revealed himself, he became much more mocking, confident, condescending, with no trust for others and is prone to bouts of maniacal laughter, which at one point reminded Edgeworth of Yutaka Kazami's laugh.

All of the reasons why he committed the crimes stem from the fact that he was mistaken about his own father's identity.

Design
Sarushiro has long, red hair. He wears a pink sweatshirt with a zipper that only zips down to its pocket. He also wears a light blue shirt that bears the insignia of Global Hero Onyankopon. He wears blue shorts and pink shoes. Later on, he wears a clown uniform while wearing makeup on his face with two pink tears painted below his eyes.

Name

 * In his Japanese name, "Saru" (猿) means "monkey". Along with his actions, it refers to the Three Wise Monkeys. The name also serves as a subtle hint for the Japanese players - in Turnabout Target, Shelly de Killer referred to his client as "a monkey person".

Development

 * During The Imprisoned Turnabout, Sarushiro sometimes has Money the monkey with him. Money controls most of Sarushiro's facial expressions using Sarushiro's hair.
 * Sarushiro is the third non-attorney character to have a vocalized objection after Manosuke Naitō.
 * He resembles Matt Engarde from Phoenix Wright:Justice for all since both are villains who act normal, cool and pleasant(even if in this case Sota is shy towards Edgeworth) towards others so that they wont attract suspicions, they both use a facade to hide their true evil, sociopathic personalities and both hire an assasin to kill their victims (the assasin being none other than Shelly de Killer).