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Yutaka Kazami was a pastry chef who took part in Issei Tenkai's confectionery contest in 2001.
IS-7 Incident
- Main article: IS-7 Incident
The contest
Kazami and Hyōdō with their sons.
At some point prior to his entering into Tenkai's competition in Dec. 2000, Kazami lost his sense of taste; devastating to a man striving to become the world's greatest pastry chef. Upon hearing about a confectionery competition hosted by the famous television chef Issei Tenkai at his mansion, Kazami decided to participate so as to be recognised as the world's greatest pastry chef but also, and more importantly for him, so as to acquire the competition prize; a "recipe book" of advanced pharmaceutical drugs as-yet unreleased to the public. Kazami hoped to win said book as it contained a particular drug that would cure him of his affliction.
Unfortunately, the contest required that competitors' creations excelled not only in taste, but in style as well. This was a problem for Kazami, as although his works tasted delicious, they were completely lacking aesthetically. However, a solution soon presented itself in the form of Isaku Hyōdō, a potential competitor who had the opposite problem to Kazami; his creations looked visually fantastic, but tasted sub-par at best. The two men therefore decided to collaborate together in the competition; Kazami would mix up the ingredients, while Hyōdō sculpted them into marvellous designs. Their plan worked, and the two both reached the semi-final of the competition. Their close collaboration also meant that their sons would often play together while their respective parents were working, with the two boys soon becoming close friends. However, despite their cooperation, Kazami did not tell Hyōdō about his ageusia, as his ability to create delicious foodstuffs was the only thing keeping him in the competition, and so Kazami instead had his son taste his desserts for him.
Betrayal
Before the final of the contest, Kazami created two batches of sherbet for Hyōdō to sculpt and brought them to him. However, with everything he needed for his last dessert, Hyōdō told Kazami that he was breaking their collaboration and not sculpting the latter's entry; Kazami was on his own. To make matters worse, Kazami's son hadn't turned up to help him that day (unknown to him, Hyōdō had forced his own son to tie up Kazami's child), meaning that he was left with the ingredients, but neither the taste nor aesthetic ability to win the competition.
Hyōdō threatening Kazami.
In desperation, Kazami grabbed a camera and rushed to Tenkai's room, where the recipe book was kept; if he couldn't win his cure, he would just photograph the recipe. However, Hyōdō caught him in the act. He already knew about Kazami's condition, and threatened to not only expose his attempt at theft, but also to reveal his condition to world, thus ruining his career. Hyōdō even went as far had hitting Kazami with a rock salt lamp to make a point about his superior position. With a man who had snatched his dream away from him and mocking him while doing so, Kazami fell into a blind fit of rage. He grabbed the other rock salt lamp in the room and bludgeoned Hyōdō to death.
Kazami acted quickly to conceal his crime by hiding the body inside a chocolate treasure chest that was in Tenkai's room. He then had tea and snacks with the other contestants, with the intention of returning to Tenkai's room later in order to freeze Hyōdō inside a sculpture made of sugar. Doing so would obfuscate the time of death and allow Kazami to easily establish an alibi. He decided to frame Delicy Scone, another entrant in the competition, for Hyōdō's murder by planting the murder weapon in Scone's room, as he was irritated by her habit of snacking on the hard work of the other contestants. Unfortunately, this bad habit of Scone's caused Kazami's plan to start to go awry; she munched through the supports holding up the large chocolate pirate ship in Tenkai's room, which then fell down and broke open the treasure chest below and revealing Hyōdō's body (although Scone herself left the room before this happened). Tenkai's assistant, Tsukasa Oyashiki, entered the room and discovered the body, then ran off to call the police. Kazami bided his time until the room was empty, then moved Hyōdō. He went ahead with freezing the body inside a sculpture, but also took the opportunity to break down the rock salt lamp that had his own blood on it and mix it with the remaining sherbet to fashion a harp for the sculpture.
Oyashiki, meanwhile, had figured out that Isaku Hyōdō was actually Paul Holic, a world-famous sculptor whose work she greatly admired. Fearing that the police investigation would damage his creations, she secretly moved all of the sculptures into the mansion's cellar, thus foiling Kazami's plan to have the body found after unthawing it.
Tenkai's was accused of the murder, and although Gregory Edgeworth, his defense attorney, conducted a thorough investigation, the lack of a body and the deliberately obstructive lead prosecutor Manfred von Karma prevented the investigation from really going anywhere. Tenkai's trial took place a year after said investigation, although Kazami left for Zheng Fa just before it happened. Kazami had not seen his son since before Hyōdō's betrayal, but had no qualms about abandoning him; in his eyes, his son had failed him that day by not turning up, and thus he had no further use for him. Meanwhile, despite the lack of a body and a forged autopsy report, Tenkai's trial ended in him being found guilty of being an accomplice to murder and he was incarcerated. The case, labelled the IS-7 Incident by the police, was left unresolved.
Returning to the scene of the crime
- Main article: The Inherited Turnabout
Narrowly escaping death.
After three years of training in Zheng Fa and having had his sense of taste returned to him, Kazami returned in 2004 to win a dessert design contest and secure his place as a world-renowned pastry chef. Years later, in 2019, Kazami found out that Oyashiki had bought Tenkai's mansion (having been kicked out by Tenkai's family after his arrest) and turned it into an art gallery focussing on the works of Holic. He learnt that the very statue that he had hidden the body of Holic within was to be one of the objects on display, and hence planned to retrieve it during the gallery's opening day. Unfortunately for Kazami, this was all a plot by Oyashiki to get revenge upon him as the true culprit of the IS-7 Incident; as Kazami opened the glass casing of the statue, a poisonous gas was released that would almost have killed him, if not for another gallery visitor opening the room's doors (which Oyashiki had locked) for him. Kazami stumbled out and lost consciousness.
After regaining consciousness, he found out that prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, son of Gregory Edgeworth, had began investigating not only the truth behind Kazami's attempted murder, but also what had happened during the IS-7 Incident. Although Miles figured out what Oyashiki had done, he also began to suspect Kazami as Holic's killer. Unfortunately for the young prosecutor, there seemed to be no solid evidence tying Kazami to the crime, and thus he had to resort to a mixture of logic and manipulation to get anywhere in his investigation, and soon determined the reasoning behind the pastry chef's visit to the gallery that day and his guilt.
With the truth revealed, Kazami finally openly confessed to his crime, but pointed out that since 18 years and 4 months had passed since Holic's death, that the statute of limitations for the case had expired. Kazami was thus certain of his victory over the prosecutor, until the latter revealed a gaping hole in his plan; Tenkai had only been convicted as an accomplice, which meant that the statue of limitations would have been extended by one year if the accomplice's partner remained undiscovered. Therefore, the statute of limitations was now 19 years, and had not expired. Kazami was finally arrested for his crime, and Miles Edgeworth was able to solve his father's final case.
Personality
Mugshot in 2001.
Mugshot in 2019.
Yutaka Kazami had one purpose in life; to become the world's greatest pastry chef. He determinedly pursued this objective via frequent training, and would frequently burn and scar himself in the process; he wore red to help hide his injures. In his thirties, his creations were almost laughably terrible, but after his training in Zheng Fa this greatly changed for the better; he was even able to create a life-size version of himself that seemed perfect, down to the stitches in his clothes.
However, despite coming across as a calm and reserved man who had a habit of going into a meditative state when he wished to ignore someone, as he became older, he became more openly arrogant and prideful, with the additional habit of falling into bouts of maniacal laughter. Kazami also seemed to view other things unable to help him as useless, even viewing his own son as such after failing to help him in the competition. He was callous enough to laugh off his son's disappearance and made no attempt to find him before fleeing for Zheng Fa. Kazami did admit, however, that it had not been his intention to frame Issei Tenkai in the first place, as he held a great deal of respect for the skilled pastry chef.
Name
- His Japanese name means "full of flavor" (風味が豊か).
- Kazami's English name in the fan translation of Gyakuten Kenji 2 is "Dane Gustavia". He is also said to be Russian.
Sprite gallery
Standard sprites
Cut-in sprites
