Aura Blackquill


 * You may be looking for Aura's younger brother Simon Blackquill, or the Blackquill family in general.

"Aura Blackquill"

- I mean, people are imperfect. They lie, they're influenced by silly emotions... You can't expect such imperfect creatures to uphold a reasonable system of law. I like robots much better. Even sad sacks like this one...

Aura Blackquill was a robotics engineer at the Cosmos Space Center, and the older sister of prosecutor Simon Blackquill. She was often accompanied by a robot named Clonco, whom she frequently mistreated.

UR-1 Incident

 * Main article: UR-1 Incident

Aura Blackquill worked with Metis Cykes to build robots that could read people's emotions. Aura handled the engineering while Cykes, a psychologist, made the mainframe that served as the "brains" of the robots. This resulted in the creation of two robots, Ponco and Clonco. Aura's younger brother Simon, a prosecutor, took on Cykes as a mentor in psychology to gain an edge in court. Cykes had a daughter, Athena, who was quiet but initially got along with everyone.

Aura's life was turned upside-down when, a few days before the planned launch of the Cosmos Space Center's HAT-1 rocket, Director Yuri Cosmos received a call from an anonymous source threatening to sabotage the launch. Cosmos decided to go through with the launch regardless. However, on the day before the launch, Metis Cykes was murdered, and Simon was arrested for the crime. Despite this shocking incident, the launch still went ahead as planned the following day. It soon turned out that the rocket had been sabotaged, but Solomon Starbuck, the lone astronaut on board, somehow managed to fix the damage, succeed in his mission to send the Hope probe into the depths of space, and return safely back to Earth.

Simon's trial was swift and the evidence was decisive; a photo showed Simon with a bloody sword, and security footage showed him leaving the area at the alleged time of the murder. Despite Athena insisting on the witness stand that Simon was not the killer, the accused himself admitted to the deed, and he was convicted and sentenced to death. Athena was sent to Europe afterward in the care of her next of kin. Meanwhile, Aura frequently visited Simon in the detention center, but he stuck to his confession and refused all help from her. The courts also refused her repeated requests for a retrial. Aura grew bitter and developed a hatred toward the courts and Athena, whom she believed was the true killer.

Space Center bombing

 * Main article: The Cosmic Turnabout

Seven years after Metis' death, the Space Center planned another launch, the HAT-2, with Solomon Starbuck and Clay Terran. However, the "phantom" issued another threat. Because of this, some police officers were sent to the Space Center on the night of the launch, including detectives Bobby Fulbright and Candice Arme. Despite these precautions, the phantom still managed to set off two bombs.

The police led an evacuation to the facility's basement shelter. Fulbright had Aura lower an emergency ladder from the robotics lab to the ground floor. Despite some misgivings about this order, Aura complied. On her way down, she looked through a window into Boarding Lounge 1 and saw a mysterious figure. A lighter in the individual's left hand partially illuminated the otherwise dark room, showing a knife in their right hand. However, the lighter went out before she could see any more.

Soon afterward, it was revealed that Terran had been murdered in Boarding Lounge 1. Starbuck was arrested for the murder and Simon Blackquill was assigned to prosecute him. The police learned of what Aura had witnessed but did not have her testify in court. Terran's best friend, Apollo Justice, led Starbuck's defense in Courtroom No. 4 the next day, accompanied by Athena Cykes, who had become a lawyer to save Simon. However, the trial was interrupted when a bomb exploded inside the courtroom, incapacitating Justice. Justice abandoned Starbuck's defense and decided to investigate the case on his own, unable to deal with his growing suspicion that Athena was the true killer.

Phoenix Wright replaced Justice as Starbuck's attorney and arrived at the Space Center along with Athena to investigate. By the time he had arrived, three days had passed since Starbuck's initial trial, and two days remained before Simon Blackquill's execution date. Fulbright cooperated with Wright in his investigation, saying that he feared that Simon was behaving rashly due to the incident that had led him to his conviction. Because of this, Wright learned about Aura and had a chat with her, though she was abrasive toward him due to her hatred of the legal system that had landed her little brother in jail.

Desperation

 * Main article: Turnabout for Tomorrow

The next day, while Starbuck's trial was underway, Aura considered taking matters into her own hands. Apollo Justice met her in the robotics lab, and the two hit it off due to the similar stakes that they had in the case. Both had lost someone close to them due to incidents at the Space Center, and each suspected Athena for both incidents. Meanwhile, Starbuck was acquitted, but Athena was indicted in his place.

Phoenix Wright returned to the Space Center with his daughter Trucy and encountered Aura and Justice. Phoenix was shocked to find that both of them suspected Athena, and proposed that someone else was the true mastermind behind both incidents. Aura then suddenly kicked the Wrights out, having come to a decision on what to do. While Phoenix begrudgingly returned to the office, Trucy stayed behind to look after Justice.

Aura made one last visit to the detention center to talk to Simon. When he once again refused help from her, she went for the nuclear option. She used the Center's 15 robots to take 12 Space Center visitors hostage, including Trucy. Using Clonco as a proxy, she demanded that Athena be handed over to her. Phoenix countered with another proposal: a retrial of the UR-1 Incident. Aura agreed to a retrial and contacted Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth to take the prosecutor's bench. However, she had Athena indicted rather than Simon.

As all of the functioning courtrooms were occupied, Courtroom No. 4 was used. Aura argued that Simon had hidden Athena inside one of the rolling cases in the robotics lab to help her escape and cover for her. In response, Phoenix showed that Simon had, in fact, put Ponco inside the rolling case. However, Edgeworth showed that Simon had carried Athena in his left arm while carrying the case in his right.

The arguments continued, and Simon attempted to interrupt the trial by testifying how he had killed Metis. However, his testimony was found to have been a lie, and this led to a confession by Athena that she had stabbed her mother. Phoenix proposed that she had actually stabbed the real killer. The security footage from the original trial was rewound, and a man with a bloody right hand was indeed discovered leaving the scene, wearing Metis's jacket. The culprit had later returned as one of the discoverers of the body to plant the jacket in the lab. This convinced both Edgeworth and Aura of Athena's innocence.

Apollo Justice then arrived and indicted Athena for the murder of Clay Terran. Phoenix was able to connect this murder to the UR-1 Incident, both having been committed by the same phantom. Phoenix identified Bobby Fulbright as the phantom, based on his order to Aura to use an emergency ladder from the robotics lab. This had been part of an elaborate scheme to secure his escape route after sabotaging the HAT-2 launch. Aura then finally released all the hostages and surrendered to police, thanking her little brother before leaving for jail, and almost crying when he thanked her in return.

Phoenix, Justice, Athena and Simon continued the trial in order to prove that Fulbright was the phantom. The lighter that Aura had seen was revealed to be a .10 caliber pistol in disguise. Fulbright then claimed to be an undercover agent who had been blackmailed by the phantom into sabotaging the HAT-2 launch, but he proved no match for the combined efforts and talents of the lawyers. Eventually, "Fulbright" was unmasked as an imposter, and a sniper shot him just as he revealed his true face. Aura later watched the launch of the HAT-3 rocket from her prison cell.

Personality
Before the UR-1 Incident, Aura was generally a happy person. She had strong relational attachments to her brother Simon and her mentor Cykes. She reportedly wanted more from Cykes than just her respect. The UR-1 Incident took these two people away from Aura, completely changing her outlook.

After Cykes's death and Simon's arrest, Aura became condescending and rude toward just about everyone, while spending her nights crying. She came to view humans as being too emotional and prefer the company of robots like Clonco, though Clonco was the target of much of her abuse. This loathing was largely aimed at the legal system, which she perceived as having failed her, and at Athena Cykes, whom she believed had killed Metis. Aura would sarcastically refer to Athena as "princess". Once the truth behind the UR-1 Incident was brought to light, however, she softened somewhat and was willing to receive her punishment for her hostage stunt, though she did not regret it.

Name

 * Her Japanese surname is possibly a play on the word "yugami" (歪み), which means "a warp/distortion". Although this fits with her brother's psychological manipulation techniques in court, it also suits Aura's view of the legal system.


 * "Kaguya", her Japanese given name, was the nickname given to the satellite SELENE. "Kaguya" is the central character in the Japanese folktale "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", who is eventually revealed to be a princess from the Moon.


 * Her given name "Aura" may be a reference to the Aura satellite, which would fit with her Japanese given name and follow the space-themed names of her co-workers.


 * "Blackquill" is a combination of "black" (dark colors being prominent her brother's character design) and "quill" (a writing implement made from the molted flight feather of a bird).