Susato Mikotoba

Susato Mikotoba

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(File:DGS Attorney's Badge.png* (acting defense attorney in The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney)) Susato Mikotoba V · T · F
Occupation	Judicial assistant Defense attorney (Aug. 13, 1900)
Biological information
Reckoned birth year(s) (this is for age comparison purposes, and so may look odd; click on the question mark for details)?	1883
Documented age range (as recorded in court record profiles & case files)	16* (The Adventure of the Great Departure)- 17* (The Resolve of Ryuunosuke Naruhodou)
Last known status	Alive (Nov. 1900)
Eye color	Brown
Hair color	Black
Height (the metric (cm) values are sourced from official guidebooks and may not reflect the relative sizes of characters as depicted in-game or in other official media)	5'0"; 153 cm
Associates
Family	Unnamed grandmother Yūjin Mikotoba (father) Ayame Mikotoba (mother; deceased)
Friends	Kazuma Asōgi (original partnered attorney) Ryūnosuke Naruhodō (partnered attorney) Sherlock Holmes (investigative partner) Iris Watson (investigative partner) Haori Murasame (friend and former client) Gina Lestrade
Affiliates	None mentioned
Aliases/nicknames
Dependable Partner* (Japanese launch trailer) 成歩堂 龍太郎 (Naruhodō Ryūtarō)* (Fake name used in court) Susie* (By Iris Watson)
One-off nicknames
Ayasato Susato* (Tokyo Game Show 2017, while thinking about being part of Fey Clan)
Names in other languages
Japanese (romanization written with the given name first)	御琴羽 寿沙都 (Susato Mikotoba) 寿沙都さん (Susato-san)* (by Ryūnosuke Naruhodō) 御琴羽法務助士 (Mikotoba-houmujoshi)* (by Kazuma Asougi; lit. Legal Assistant Mikotoba) すさとちゃん (Susato-chan)* (by Iris Watson) Ms. スサト (Ms. Susato)* (by Sherlock Holmes and Hart Vortex) スサト(Susato)* (by Gina Lestrade) 法務助士 (Houmujoshi)* (lit. Legal Assistant) 日本人 (Nihonjin / Nipponjin)* (lit. Japanese person) 成歩堂 龍太郎 (Ryūtarō Naruhodō)* (alias)
Actors
Japanese (romanization written with the given name first)	Kana Hanazawa
Miscellaneous
Debut episode	The Adventure of the Great Departure
Musical theme	"Susato Mikotoba ~ The Flower That Blooms in the New World" "Susato Mikotoba ~ Serenade" "Ryūtarō Naruhodō ~ Objection!" "Ryūtarō Naruhodō ~ Prelude of the Blossoming Attorney"

Susato Mikotoba

If it's legal knowledge you need, just leave it to me!

— Tokyo Game Show 2014 trailer

Susato Mikotoba was a judicial assistant who lived in Japan during the Meiji period. Primarily, she assisted and traveled with the fledgling defense attorney Ryūnosuke Naruhodō. She was an especially bright young woman with an interest in law and literature.

First encounter with Naruhodō

Main article: The Adventure of the Great Departure

Susato Mikotoba first appeared to Ryūnosuke Naruhodō alongside her father, Yūjin Mikotoba, when Naruhodō was arrested for the murder of John Watson. Kazuma Asōgi, who was the attorney for the case at the time, had turned in the application for a change of defense attorney suddenly. It caused quite a bit of disarray. Because of this, Yūjin had told Asōgi to visit the Judge to clear up any lasting confusion. Susato accompanied Asōgi to the Judge's chambers.

Susato later reappeared when detective Satoru Hosonaga stated that there was no poison found in the bottle of carbonated water Watson had drunk. She rushed into the courtroom, and before she could be thrown out, she gave Asōgi and Naruhodō the research notes of Jezail Brett, an exchange student of Watson's who was testifying as a witness. They requested to look at the notes after finding out that Brett was researching a poison called curare that Japan had not yet discovered. Due to this vital piece of evidence, Jezail Brett was revealed to be the true killer of John Watson.

Before getting ready to accompany Asōgi for his trip abroad in England, Susato cleaned out her father's office. She saw a box with that said "Hound of the Baskervilles" on it, but when her father arrived, he told her she was never to tell anyone about what she saw.

The S.S. Alaclaire

Main article: The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band

Susato later accompanied Asōgi on the S.S. Alaclaire to London for his study abroad so she could practice being a judicial assistant. But half a month into their voyage, Asōgi was somehow killed. Susato was angry when Naruhodō was discovered inside Asōgi's closet and accused him of murdering his friend. When the stowaway begged to plead his case and prove his innocence, she agreed under the condition that she would keep a close eye on him.

Meeting Sherlock Holmes with Naruhodō.

Eventually, the two met Sherlock Holmes, whom Susato recognized as the star of the short stories in Great Britain's Strand magazine. She was very ecstatic to meet the Great Detective as she was an avid fan of the short stories. But when Holmes conducted his first deduction about Grimesby Roylott and was drastically off, Susato prompted Naruhodō to correct the detective's mistakes, which led to the revelation that Roylott was actually a runaway ballerina, Nikomina Borschevic. Later, after Holmes made another wrong deduction, this time on Borschevic's missing pet snake, Susato quickly pointed out the flaws, which led to her encouraging Naruhodō to help the detective again and found that Borschevic was missing her cat. In the end, it was discovered that the ballerina was Asōgi's true killer. When Borschevic reasoned that the attorney was about to call the sailor and that she would have been exposed, Susato disagreed with her, believing that Asōgi was going to introduce her to Naruhodō as a fellow stowaway. After Borschevic was arrested, Susato and Naruhodō were informed by Hosonaga that they had to return to Japan as there was no longer an attorney to travel to London. When Naruhodō volunteered to take Asōgi's place, Susato decided to help him study British law as much as he could before their arrival.

Unbeknownst to Susato and Naruhodō, Asōgi was still alive but had lost his memories, and Holmes had faked his death to send him back to Japan but to no avail.

As Naruhodō's assistant

First trial in London

Main article: The Adventure of the Runaway Room

Defending a fellow Japanese

Main article: The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro and The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro

Return to Japan

Main article: The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story

Acting Defense Attorney

Main article: The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney

When Susato returned to Japan, she found out that her dear friend Haori Murasame was accused of murdering Jezail Brett. Wanting to help her friend, Susato stood in court under the pseudonym, "Ryūtarō Naruhodō", to act as her defense attorney.

Return to England

Main article: The Return of the Great Departed Soul

Personality

Susato accompanying Holmes to confront Asōgi's supposed "killer".

Naruhodō

Anyway, you have to believe me! I'm not the real culprit!

Susato

Trust me, it's not as if I don't want to believe you. But I can't think of any other way that this crime could have been committed.

— The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band

In contrast to most characters of the assistant archetype, Susato is characterized primarily by a strong commitment to her role as a legal aid, and has trained to be throughout her adolescence. Where most assistants primarily give their partnered attorneys feedback when brainstorming in the courtroom, Susato not only teaches Naruhodō law, but often saves his cases by providing knowledge on British law. She's a very book smart girl, as she always carries around books inside her sleeves, and displays great curiosity towards unknown things.

Another thing distinguishing Susato from most assistants is her capacity to ignore previous personal feelings when suspicious of someone, displayed no more clearly than her behavior towards Naruhodō when her partnered attorney and adoptive brother, Asōgi, was supposedly "killed" aboard the S.S. Alaclaire.

Despite Susato's commitment to law, though, she's also displayed the capacity to go against the law when necessary. When Gina Lestrade was found unconscious, Susato took to tampering with the crime scene in order to trick the culprit. She achieved this through not only a natural proficiency in pickpocketing, as taught by Gina, but her sharp wit as well.

Susato

I was well aware that what I was doing was a crime. So I entrusted the knowledge of my crime to Mr Holmes alone.

Susato

Should Naruhodō become cornered with no escape, then at the eleventh hour... This may be what he needs to cause the great turnabout!

— The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story

Susato says her goodbyes as she leaves for Japan.

However, as a result of those same events, Susato began to develop ambivalent feelings towards the law; which, until she met Cosney Megundal, she didn't consider could be used by those in power to oppress people like those of the lower class and racial minorities. In direct contrast to her adoptive brother, Susato only recently began to develop distrust in authority, as she reacts with surprise when Asōgi displays strong contempt towards those like policemen and prosecutors when assisting him. Similarly, when defending her best friend Haori, Susato also comments that up until then, she assumed that the news only reported the truth.

Outside of law, Susato displays a great proficiency for martial arts, contrasting greatly with Naruhodō, who primarily has a hobbyist interest in archery. She also has a strong interest in literature, specifically Sherlock Holmes novels. As a child, Susato took apart her father's watch in order to learn how it worked, a strong curiosity that extends towards unknown machinery in Britain, such as the stereoscope. She also has a love for sweets, and despite displaying a disdain for horror, has no qualms about discussing things such as preserving illness victims' organs using chemicals or killing animals in order to fabricate blood for the sake of tampering with a crime scene.

Name

• Susato's given name (寿沙都) was primarily chosen because Shu Takumi liked the kanji.
• Her family name "Mikotoba" (御琴羽) is homonymous with the expression '御言葉' (みことば), which can either mean 'word of God' or to take someone at their word.
• Her alias Ryūtarō is comprised of '龍' (Ryū) from Ryūnosuke and '太郎' (tarō), a common series of kanji for boys' names.

Development

• Susato Mikotoba is designed around the yamato nadeshiko archetype, with a somewhat believable, but ultimately impossible, hairstyle. Overall, her design is fairly subdued to contrast with Sherlock Holmes and Iris Watson. It can also be noted that her outfit draws inspiration from the typical Meiji period jōgakusei image, which consisted of mainly a kimono, hakama, and boots.
• When designing Ryūtarō, much of her design direction was left to character designer Kazuya Nuri, with Takumi's main comment being that it would be alright if people noticed he was Susato. Had he not said so, Nuri states that he would have had to hide Susato's hair as cutting her hair short wasn't an option.
  • In the end, they decided to display Ryūtarō's connection to Susato through things such as shared color scheme and similar mannerisms, but without leaving in too many elements directly Ryūtarō to Susato.
• Susato is the third playable female (though posing as a man) attorney in the series, following Mia Fey and Athena Cykes.