| Byrne Faraday |
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Byrne Faraday was a prosecutor who worked with detective Tyrell Badd on cases involving the Great Thief Yatagarasu and an international smuggling ring. This eventually culminated in a trial in 2012, in which the defendant claimed that he was the Yatagarasu. This resulted in the trial being adjourned, after which both men were found murdered. He left behind his daughter named Kay.
The smuggling ring
- Main article: KG-8 Incident
During their investigation into an international smuggling ring, Byrne and Badd found that it had a financier in the Amano Group. Cece Yew, an Amano Group employee, was the only witness that they had to prove this, but she was murdered before she could testify. Fortunately for them, a security camera in Yew's apartment caught the killer, an employee of the Cohdopian Embassy named Manny Coachen, in the premises with the murder weapon. When Coachen was put on trial for the murder, Byrne prepared the security video as decisive evidence, but agents of the Amano Group stole the tape, and thus Coachen received a not guilty verdict due to lack of evidence. After the trial, Yew's sister Calisto accosted Byrne and Badd, blaming them for failing to convict her sister's killer. Byrne and Badd then realized that there were some people who simply could not be touched by the law, and vowed to bring down the smuggling ring from outside of the courts.
The Yatagarasu
The Yatagarasu.
Some time later, Byrne and Badd encountered Calisto again. The three of them formed a persona known as the "Great Thief Yatagarasu", a vigilante dedicated to exposing illegal corporate dealings by stealing evidence from various companies and sending it to the media. Byrne aided the Yatagarasu's operation through his knowledge of disabling security measures, which he had gained from prosecuting criminals, as well as a device called Little Thief, which helped the Yatagarasu to plan heists. Over the next three years, the Yatagarasu went on to bring down many companies affiliated with the smuggling ring, but were unable to find the organisation's head. As part of their cover, Byrne and Badd placed themselves into every investigation into the Yatagarasu as "experts" on the thief. Badd also used his position as a detective to dispose of all evidence that could point to the Yatagarasu's identity. Meanwhile, Calisto, a defense attorney, attracted the attention of companies wanting to be protected from the Yatagarasu, ironically giving the Great Thief potential targets.
Death
- Main article: Turnabout Reminiscence
Prosecutor Faraday in court.
Three years after the KG-8 Incident, Byrne broke into the Cohdopian Embassy and stole a special key. However, on the same day, Deid Mann, an embassy worker planning to testify against his employers' involvement with the smuggling ring, was shot, and his killer, Mack Rell, was caught on camera committing the deed. In an unprecedented move, Calisto sent the key to the police rather than the media, prompting the authorities to christen it the Yatagarasu's Key. When Rell was captured, he claimed that he was the Yatagarasu. This prompted Byrne to retrieve the key and take it to court to falsify Rell's claims.
Just before being murdered.
The ensuing trial was quick due to Byrne's decisive evidence, but Rell suddenly changed his story and instead accused Byrne of being the Yatagarasu, forcing the proceedings to be adjourned. Byrne subsequently took Rell into Defendant Lobby No. 2 to interrogate and offer a deal. As they were talking, Calisto entered the lobby, claiming to want a word with her client. However, she suddenly grabbed the Yatagarasu's Key, opened the handle to reveal a knife blade, and stabbed Byrne in the chest, killing him instantaneously. Calisto then enlisted Rell's help in setting up the surveillance video of Mann's death into a nearby VCR, with the intent of throwing off the time of death, and then shot him dead as well when his work was done. She went on to alter the crime scene to imply that the two men had killed each other.
The crime scene.
When Miles Edgeworth, who was to prosecute Rell in Byrne's stead, investigated the double murder, he eventually ended up implicating Calisto Yew as the killer. She admitted that she had planned the entire chain of events leading to Byrne's death and had been an agent of the smuggling ring all along. However, she managed to trick Edgeworth into giving her the Yatagarasu's Key before fleeing from the courthouse. Later, when Badd looked into Calisto Yew, he realized that Cece Yew never had a sister; the Yatagarasu had been infiltrated by its enemy from the start.
Succession
- Main articles: The Kidnapped Turnabout and Turnabout Ablaze
Seven years later, Byrne's daughter Kay found her father's diary and realized that he had been the Yatagarasu all along. She adopted the Yatagarasu title for herself to find her father's killer, and she sought Edgeworth, who had become caught up in a series of murders related to the smuggling ring. The two of them, as well as their allies, went on to catch Byrne's killer and finally bring the smuggling ring's leader to justice, finishing the work of Cece Yew, Deid Mann and the Yatagarasu.
Personality
Mugshot.
Byrne took life far less seriously than his peer, Manfred von Karma, and would even pin his prosecutor's badge on Kay just for fun. However, he was also very protective of his daughter and worried about her teenage years; he made Kay promise that if she ever got a boyfriend, she would have to bring him to her father immediately. He even made her promise to remember that he would love her more than any boyfriend ever could.
Name
- His Japanese given name, "Kurou" (九郎), means "ninth son", but could come from the romanization of "crow". In terms of pronunciation, it could also mean "hardships" (苦労).
- His English first name, "Byrne", comes from the Gaelic word for "raven".
- The surname "Faraday" may come from Michael Faraday, a famous chemist and physicist, or the "Faraday cage".
Development
- The swirling cloud-like pattern on Byrne Faraday's scarf is similar to the (normally green) bags with white swirls that tie over the face that are often carried by thieves in Japanese fiction. This would be similar to a thief carrying a large burlap bag marked "swag" in British fiction or a white bag with a dollar sign on it in American fiction. Kay Faraday wears a vest with a similar swirling pattern.