Maya Fey

"Maya Fey"

- Oh! It's nothing strange, really! I'm a spirit medium ....In training.

Maya Fey is the current Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique and, subsequently, the head of the Fey clan. She was Phoenix Wright's assistant for most of his career as a lawyer.

Early life
Maya Fey was born into a prominent family of spirit mediums and lived in Kurain Village, the home of most of the Fey family, for most of her life. Her father died when she was young.

Maya was once caught trying to piece together the Sacred Urn of Ami Fey with her sister Mia. A picture was taken of the event and placed in the Kurain Talisman, which their mother Misty Fey held at the time. She kept this talisman until the day she died, so she could always keep her daughters close to her heart.

When Maya was two years old, her mother left the village in shame because of the DL-6 Incident. Her older sister Mia took it upon herself to find out what had happened to their mother and left Kurain Village; Maya was left in the care of her aunt Morgan and the rest of the village. Mia had also left the village to avoid having to fight Maya for the title of the Master of Kurain should her mother be found dead or not turn up for 20 years. Although Mia had left the village, she remained in contact with her younger sister over the following years, and Maya was even entrusted with safekeeping important evidence for cases Mia was investigating. Maya was told that if she ever needed a lawyer, she was to call Marvin Grossberg, Mia's old boss.

Mia's death

 * Main article: Turnabout Sisters

On September 5, 2016 at 9:27 a.m., Maya received a call on her cell phone from her sister, Mia, regarding the safekeeping of some evidence. However, when she arrived at Mia's office she found her sister's dead body. Almost immediately, she was charged with Mia's murder.

Phoenix Wright, who had worked as Mia's understudy, defended Maya in court against prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. However, first he was told to find Grossberg and get him to defend Maya. Mia's old boss had to refuse as he was being blackmailed by the true culprit of Mia's murder. The murder was later pinned on Wright himself. Maya channeled Mia into her body, and Mia helped Wright to prove that another person had killed her. After the trial, she appointed herself as Wright's assistant at the newly formed Wright & Co. Law Offices.

From then on, Maya would use her psychic powers to channel Mia's spirit to help Wright when he needed help, though her powers were weak at first and she was able to summon Mia only for short periods at a time.

Early cases (2016)

 * Main articles: Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Goodbyes

Wright's first case with Maya concerned the murder of Jack Hammer. During their investigation, Maya met the director for The Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo, Sal Manella, who was inspired by Maya's Kurain acolyte dress and created concepts for his next show, The Pink Princess: Warrior of Little Olde Tokyo. Her summoning of Mia also allowed Wright to get on a fanboy's good side.

Wright's next case had a heavy involvement in the DL-6 Incident, which had caused Maya's mother to disappear from society and had drastically altered the life of the victim's son and Wright's client, Miles Edgeworth. During a seemingly hopeless cross-examination, the ruthless Prosecutor Manfred von Karma attempted to declare Wright's persistence in contempt of court for wasting the court's time, but Maya suddenly tried to get more information out of the witness, causing her to be arrested in contempt of court instead of Wright and allowing Wright to find a major contradiction in the witness's testimony. Edgeworth later gave Maya the money needed to bail her out of jail. Wright and Maya later visited another witness, an old boat caretaker. He had a parrot, and Maya's playing with the parrot caused it to reveal that the old man was involved in the DL-6 Incident. The next day, Wright and Maya confronted von Karma in the Criminal Affairs Department's evidence room; fearing what would happen if Wright got access to all of the DL-6 information, von Karma used a stun gun on both of them. However, Maya had managed to grab a crucial piece of evidence: a bullet fired during the DL-6 Incident. This piece of evidence allowed Wright to implicate von Karma as the real killer in the DL-6 Incident.

After that, Maya returned to Kurain Village to train as a spirit medium.

Another accusation

 * Main article: Reunion, and Turnabout

Six months later, Turner Grey visited Wright & Co. to request Maya's services to channel the spirit of Mimi Miney, a nurse who had supposedly been killed in a car crash after a major malpractice incident at Grey's hospital. Wright agreed to take Grey to Maya if he could accompany him there.

At Kurain, they met Maya and she and Grey prepared for the summoning with Morgan Fey. However, Morgan was conspiring with Mimi Miney, who was actually alive and posing as her sister Ini Miney, to kill Grey and frame Maya for the murder, both to prevent Maya from failing to channel Mimi and exposing her, as well as to unseat Maya as the Master and replace her with Morgan's daughter, Pearl Fey. Mimi knocked Maya unconscious and hid her, then killed Grey during the channeling and posed as Maya when Wright heard the murder and burst into the chamber. Morgan told him to leave and call the police to clean up all of the evidence. Thus, Maya was set up as the prime suspect.

In jail, Maya gave Wright her magatama and told him that she had had a dream during the channeling. Pearl later powered the magatama to allow Wright to see people's secrets in the form of Psyche-Locks.

In court, with the help of Pearl channeling Mia, Wright deduced that Ini Miney had killed Grey and was really Mimi. Maya, who had not been able to reunite with Mia because she had always been the one channeling her, finally got the chance to meet her big sister again.

More cases

 * Main articles: The Lost Turnabout and Turnabout Big Top

Three months later, Wright was involved in another case, but the killer knocked him out and gave him amnesia. Maya visited the courtroom to be his co-counsel and was surprised that Wright could not remember her. Nevertheless, Wright regained most of his memory by the time the not guilty verdict was passed.

Three months after that, Maya involved Wright in another case surrounding Berry Big Circus, which they had visited the night before. The ringmaster had been murdered, and magician Max Galactica was the accused. During this time, Maya found out that Edgeworth had disappeared during her absence, which was why Manfred von Karma's daughter, Franziska von Karma, was prosecuting against Wright. Acting as his co-counsel again, Maya suggested in court that the murder weapon was being hidden, and Wright figured out where it was, exposing the real killer.

Kidnapping

 * Main article: Farewell, My Turnabout

In March of 2018, Maya attended the third annual Hero of Heroes Grand Prix at Gatewater Hotel with Wright and Pearl. After the ceremonies had ended, a bellboy informed Maya that she had received a phone call and he quickly proceeded to escort her to the main lobby. However, the bellboy was actually an assassin, Shelly de Killer, who kidnapped Maya and held her in a wine cellar. Meanwhile, news had broken that one of the heroes had been murdered, and Wright received a call from de Killer, demanding that he get an acquittal for the accused, Matt Engarde, in exchange for Maya's life.

In the wine cellar, Maya wrote to Mia and channeled her so that Mia could assure Wright that Maya was safe, albeit very hungry. She also tried to escape, to no avail.

Through his investigation, Wright began to figure out that although Engarde had not actually committed the murder, he had hired de Killer to do the deed. Confronting Engarde led only to complete affirmation of his suspicions as Engarde revealed his true self. Wright told Edgeworth, who was prosecuting the case, about all that had happened, including the kidnapping. De Killer contacted Wright again during the conversation, but the sound of a cat Engarde owned gave away de Killer's location: Engarde's mansion.

Wright and Edgeworth rushed to Engarde's house, but de Killer had already taken Maya somewhere else. However, she had written to Wright telling him not to worry about her and to give Engarde the verdict he deserved.

In court, detective Dick Gumshoe was dispatched with a police force to chase down de Killer and retrieve Maya while Wright and Edgeworth stalled the trial. However, Wright could not stall any longer, and a not guilty verdict was imminent. Just in time, Franziska von Karma burst in with new evidence, including a videotape that Engarde had used to record the murder. Wright used this to convince de Killer, who was testifying by radio, that Engarde was just using him and could even blackmail him. An angry de Killer broke his contract with Engarde and swore bloody vengeance on him. Thus, Engarde accepted a guilty verdict to avoid de Killer's wrath.

Maya was soon reunited with Wright, Edgeworth and Pearl. They went off to dinner to celebrate. Pearl then booked a room in the hotel that was reserved for honeymooners.

Last cases with Wright (2018-2019)

 * Main articles: The Stolen Turnabout and Recipe for Turnabout

In October of the same year, the Kurain Sacred Urn, which was said to carry the soul of Ami Fey, was set to be displayed at an exhibit at Lordly Tailor. However, the urn was stolen, the fifth heist of "Mask☆DeMasque". Gumshoe soon caught someone who claimed to have been the thief, Ron DeLite, but he claimed he had lost it. Nonetheless, Wright offered to defend him in court, much to Maya's dismay. Still, Maya assisted Wright in court against a mysterious prosecutor who called himself Godot. Wright got his not-guilty verdict by showing that detective Luke Atmey was Mask☆DeMasque all along, but then DeLite was accused of a murder, and Wright defended DeLite again against Godot. He determined that Atmey had actually wanted to be convicted for the theft, preventing him from prosecution for the murder he had committed. Maya channeled Mia, which unnerved Godot for reasons unknown at the time. Godot agreed with Mia to make Atmey testify about DeLite, which exposed a fatal contradiction proving he was the killer.

Two months later, Wright took a case in which an impostor had posed as him and gotten a guilty verdict. Gumshoe requested an appeal, and Wright investigated the crime. He and Maya went to the scene of the crime, a restaurant called Trés Bien; while trying to talk to the owner, Jean Armstrong, Armstrong excitedly dragged Maya to his kitchen to be a waitress. When Wright found Maya in a waitress dress and she asked how she looked, he suggested that she stop being a spirit medium. Later, he encountered a witness who visited the restaurant only to look at the waitresses. He brought Maya to him to get him to talk, but he was not interested; he was, however, interested in Mia when Maya channeled her. They eventually found the impostor, loan shark Furio Tigre, and with Gumshoe's help, they narrowly escaped his wrath. Wright showed in court that Tigre was the real killer.

Attempt on Maya's life

 * Main article: Bridge to the Turnabout

Prior to her arrest and incarceration, Morgan Fey had left a note for Pearl, telling her to summon Dahlia Hawthorne "for the good of the Fey clan". In jail, she met Hawthorne and concocted a plan to kill Maya. Around the time of the restaurant murder case, Hawthorne was executed for a murder she had committed. A month later, Pearl visited Morgan, and Morgan told her about the note she had written and that it was time to put the plan into action. Godot used his prosecutor status to overhear the conversation and to find Misty Fey to help him nullify the plan.

A month after the restaurant murder case, Maya and Pearl discovered Hazakura Temple via a magazine and tried to convince Wright to take them there. At first he was not interested, but then he saw a picture of one of the nuns that reminded him of a past girlfriend, Dahlia Hawthorne. At the temple, they met the two nuns there, Bikini and Iris (the nun Wright had seen earlier), and Maya signed up for the "Special Course", a rigorous training exercise in which she would be locked in a cold room and sit on a block of ice for hours while she chanted a spell 30,000 times and ice-cold water fell over her. Misty was also there as her new identity of children's book author Elise Deauxnim, carrying a sword-cane. After a dinner feast, Maya traveled to the Inner Temple to begin the Special Course.

In the middle of the night, the plot to kill Maya unfolded. Pearl tried to summon Hawthorne but failed; Misty channeled her instead. Hawthorne approached Maya, pretending to be Iris, and attacked her in the temple garden with a knife. Hearing her cries for help, Godot drew the blade of Misty's sword-cane and stabbed Hawthorne. Hawthorne swung her knife at Godot, knocking off his visor and wounding him near his eyes. She then wrote Maya's name on a lantern in the garden before Misty died from the wound. Maya subsequently passed out.

When Maya woke up, she found herself inside the Inner Temple. Fearful for her life, she wrote to Mia for help and channeled her. Mia told her to lock herself in the Special Course training room and channel Hawthorne there to prevent anyone else from channeling her, adding an assurance that Wright would save her in the end.

Later, Bikini and Wright discovered that Deauxnim had been murdered. Fearful for Maya, Wright tried to cross the bridge leading to the Inner Temple, but the bridge had been struck by lightning and it broke under his feet; he fell into the river and caught a severe cold, but suffered no major injuries. Thus, passage to the Inner Temple was cut off for over a day.

The case brought several people together to work to save Maya and to solve the case. Edgeworth heard of the incident and rushed to Wright, who gave him his attorney's badge so that he could defend the accused, Iris, in court until Wright recovered. Edgeworth set up Franziska von Karma as the prosecutor; von Karma would later assist in the investigation after Godot took over the prosecution. Gumshoe and the Los Angeles police department conducted an investigation as well.

Iris was called to unlock the training room, but Hawthorne switched places with her under cover of an earthquake. Hawthorne then posed as Iris and tried to implicate Maya as the killer in court. However, Wright exposed the contradictions in her testimony and figured out her true identity. Hawthorne was still convinced that Maya had killed herself in guilt for killing her mother, but the geography of the area made that impossible; Wright concluded that Maya had channeled Hawthorne. Mia taunted Hawthorne, saying that Hawthorne would never succeed as long as she was called on to help Maya. Distressed over her failure, Hawthorne left Maya's body, and Maya collapsed.

After a recess, Maya recovered and was called to testify. However, she wanted to protect the one who had saved her life and lied about the events of the murder. Wright knew her too well not to catch her lies, though, and he quickly implicated Godot as the killer. Wright endured Godot's taunts that he'd never be half the lawyer Mia was and concluded that Hawthorne had cut Godot under his visor, marking him as the killer.

Defeated, Godot finally admitted to all of his motives; he had been a defense lawyer, Diego Armando, working in the same law firm in which Mia had worked, and they had dated. He had been poisoned shortly after a case he helped Mia handle, and for the next few years, he had been in a coma. When he had woken up, Mia had already been killed, and he had vowed to protect Maya.

Iris was subsequently declared not guilty. Maya, Wright, Edgeworth and von Karma celebrated the victory, with Wright being puzzled as to why Maya was acting so happy after being brutally attacked and losing her mother. With the help of Edgeworth, he realized that she was staying strong for Pearl, who had unwittingly played a large role in causing the entire calamity to occur. Pearl, however, ran away to the Inner Temple; Wright and Maya followed her there and Maya reassured Pearl, telling her that she was grateful that she had so many people to help her at a time of dire need and great danger.

Some time later, Wright, Maya and Pearl properly took the Special Course together. Maya realized the added responsibilities she had as the Master of Kurain as well as Wright's assistant. Meanwhile, Pearl discovered an Ultra Course that she reserved for Wright and Maya...

Visit to Gatewater Land and Big Tower

 * See also: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Gyakuten Kenji 2

A month after her mother's death, Maya went on a trip to Gatewater Land with Wright and Pearl. Whilst there, the trio went on a row-boat ride together, possibly to fulfil an earlier promise made by Wright. Unbeknownst to the trio, Edgeworth was also in the theme park, although he was there investigating a kidnapping.

About one month later, they were spotted near a Global Studios filming lot at Big Tower, without Pearl this time. Edgeworth was once again investigating a murder nearby, but once again both groups were ignorant of each other's presence.

Seven years later

 * See also: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Very little is known about what happened to Maya after her mother's death, aside from her visit to Gatewater Land and Big Tower. It would seem that Maya had taken on her role as the Master by the time of Wright's last case, as she was not present (or even mentioned) during the trial that cost Wright his job, or even in the following weeks. Very few details of her were mentioned to Apollo Justice, a lawyer who Wright began to mentor seven years later, and the few disclosed details that are assumed to refer to her do not mention her by name. Wright mentioned that a "kid" regularly sent him videotape recordings of the Samurai metaseries when he was in the hospital after a car accident. Some details were also divulged about where Wright and Maya went during Wright's law career; they frequented Eldoon's Noodles, which Guy Eldoon's father ran at the time.

Letter to Wright

 * See also: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

In December, 2027, one year later after Wright had taken on Justice as his protégé,, Maya sent Pearl to check up on Wright. Along with her little cousin, Maya also sent a handwritten letter (complete with crude drawing of Wright) to her old friend, as she was in the middle of a difficult part of her training at that point and couldn't visit herself. However, she had heard about some of his recent exploits, although some details (such as that he had held a trial in the middle of an exploding courtroom) were a bit inaccurate.

Wright found the letter just as he was at a loss during his investigation to clear Athena Cykes of murder charges, having returned to his office to think. Upon arriving, Wright realised that this was the first time he had been alone in his office for a long time. Just as the veteran defense attorney was beginning to depress himself, he noticed Maya's letter. Upon reading it, Wright immediately felt better, and with Pearl's help, he resumed his investigation and eventually won the case.

Personality
"Maya Fey"

- Look, a ladder!

"Phoenix Wright"

- That's a "step"-ladder.

"Maya Fey"

- So? What's the difference? You need to stop judging things based on narrow-minded cultural assumptions, Nick!

"Phoenix Wright"

- R-right... sorry. (This girl is OUT there!)



Maya is a spunky, perky, excitable, and outgoing girl. She has a very childlike personality, being both impulsively curious and easily confused. She often acts without thinking things through, tries to touch strange objects without restraint, and goes on tangents that quickly stop making sense. All of this has caused Phoenix Wright to question her sanity on several occasions. Maya also has a very voracious appetite (many of her tangents are based on hamburgers) and has joked that she has four stomachs: one for burgers, one for steak, one for sweets, and one for other foods. Maya has a particular fondness for hamburgers (she has also stated that she enjoys pepper on them), but also likes peanut and jelly sandwiches. She is very enthusiastic about Wright's job, having picked out many of the clients for Wright to represent in court.

Despite her childish and seemingly naïve nature, Maya has demonstrated wisdom through many grueling trials. She is stubborn and persistent, looking out for those she cares about and holding out hope despite overwhelming long odds. Her tenacity, optimism, and loyalty to those she cares about have been important, sometimes even critical, to Wright's successes in court. She consistently puts others before herself, reminding Wright to fight for justice even when her life has at stake, and staying strong for Pearl despite having witnessed her own long-lost mother's death; putting Pearl's pain over having indirectly caused it before her own grief.

Maya is a big fan of the Samurai franchise including The Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo, The Pink Princess: Warrior of Little Olde Tokyo, The Nickel Samurai, and The Zappy Samurai: Electric Bugaboo.

Name

 * Her Japanese given name, "Mayoi" (真宵), means "true evening". When written in kana, "mayoi" (迷い) means "hesitation" or "doubt". The name was apparently picked from a list of kanji that Shu Takumi liked.


 * The "sato" in her Japanese surname may come from the word "village" or "home country", whilst the "aya" part has no particular meaning.


 * "Maya" was chosen because it closely resembles her Japanese name. The name Maya can either come from the Sanskrit for "illusion" or, similarly to her sister Mia's name, as a pet form of "Maria", which is itself the Latin equivalent of "Mary". "Mary" is originally from the Hebrew for "bitterness". This could be a reference to her sister's unpleasant death. Other possible meanings include: "rebelliousness" and "beloved-child".


 * "Fey" comes from the word "fey" which can mean "magical", "fairy-like", "strange", "otherworldly" or "spellbound". It may also come from Morgan le Fay, the sorceress from the legend of King Arthur.

Development

 * Maya was the first playable character other than Wright in the Ace Attorney series, as she is controlled briefly during Farewell, My Turnabout.


 * Maya's frequenting of Eldoon's noodle stand would have made more sense in the Japanese version, as Maya's favorite food was ramen in the original language version of the games.

Role history
Maya was originally going to be an assistant in Mia's office, training to become a lawyer. However, the producers decided that Wright had too many allies, so the writers came up with the idea of using spirit channeling to combine two of Wright's allies into one, introducing Maya in the second case of the game as a murder suspect. Maya is introduced in a similar manner in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, appearing in the second case again as the defendant.

It was Maya and Wright who started off the recurring ladder vs. stepladder joke, in which the main character and his assistant argue about the difference between a ladder and a stepladder. A similar exchange has occurred in all Ace Attorney games to date.

Clothing
Maya wears the traditional outfit of Japanese mediums, complete with kimono and a magatama. The design of the kimono was modified, making the hem much shorter than is traditional. Her waitress uniform from her stint at Trés Bien keeps the beads in her hair.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Maya appears in the fighting game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as some of Phoenix Wright's attacks and also as one of his Level 1 Hyper Combos, in which she runs forward whilst flailing her arms wildly with a barrage of punches that pushes Wright's opponent back. She also appears during Wright's intro to hand him his papers and reappears if Wright wins to shower him in confetti.

When the player chooses an alternative costume for Wright, Maya's color scheme also changes. Like Wright, her color schemes are references to other characters, namely Mia Fey, Franziska von Karma, Maggey Byrde (or Maya herself in the Trés Bien waitress uniform), Kay Faraday, and Lynne from Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

Each character in the game was also given a downloadable costume that more extensively changes the character's appearance. For Wright, this is his "Feenie" outfit from his time at college, while Maya's corresponding color scheme appears to be based either on either Iris's outfit, or Ema Skye's outfit when she was a teenager.

Other media

 * Near the end of the episode "Remote Island Syndrome Part 2" of the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the mannerisms of a few of the characters mirror those of the sprites of some Ace Attorney characters. The scene in question is when Haruhi Suzumiya confronts the other characters with the truth about a "murder" that had taken place. Mikuru Asahina performs the same head bow with her hands together that Maya often does. The scene can be viewed here.


 * In the Professor Layton/Ace Attorney crossover game Layton-kyōju VS Gyakuten Saiban, Maya once again appears as Wright's assistant.


 * Maya appears as an Oni character in Onimusha Soul, a social strategy RPG for online browsers and smartphones developed by Capcom and only released in Japan. Franziska von Karma and Kay Faraday also appear in the game.