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This article is under construction. While it is not short, it still needs expansion as outlined in the manual of style. The article most likely needs expansion near the end of the tagged section or sections. |
Turnabout Prophecy is the fourth case in Kodansha Comics' Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney manga. When Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey visit Lordly Tailor to see some famous fortune-tellers, the pair find themselves defending Russi Clover, who supposedly murdered one of the fortune-tellers after being possessed by the "Lord of Death", which another of the fortune-tellers had foretold.
October 18, 11:10 AM[]
Prologue[]
At Lordly Tailor Department Store, on the top floor, is a fortune telling plaza called "Fortune Circle". Phoenix Wright is getting his fortune told by the "Ice cream fortune teller", Cool Saito. He tells Wright that he will become a pianist very soon. Thinking he's just a quack teller, Wright leaves, and goes to the plaza lounge.
While waiting there for Maya Fey, he is suddenly harassed by a panicked teenage girl who introduces herself as Russi Clover, a fanatic of all things occult and supernatural. She came to Fortune Circle after hearing about it, and got her fortune told at the "Venutian Forecasts" booth (where the psychic allegedly communicates with an alien on Venus). She says that she got told "you will be possessed by the Lord of Death. You will bring about calamity" by the Venutian fortune teller, Moira Cytherea. Wright tells her she shouldn't believe it, which is seconded by Fey after she arrives back from having her fortune, incorrectly, told by the palm reader.
Maya tries to go to the bathroom, before being stopped by Russi who assumes her to be a priestess due to her clothing. She informs Fey and Wright that Fortune Circle has a reputation for being incredibly accurate, especially the Nether World Prophecies of Oracle Hecate, which are said to be 100% accurate.
The loudspeaker announces for the guests to go to their next appointments immediately. Ordinarily Fortune Circle is crowded with guests and waiting times are long, but due to the abyssal weather conditions only Wright, Fey, and Clover are there. Clover's next appointment is with Nether World Prophecies, Wright's is Palm Reading, and Maya's is Venutian Forecasts. Maya laments that she had no time to use the bathroom.
October 18, 11:21 AM[]
At Nether World Prophecies, Clover meets Oracle Hecate. She looks at her appointment card, noticing she was at Venutian Fortunes previously. She shows Clover a hole in the wall with the image of a grim reaper figure designed around it, telling her that it is is the "Gate to hell".
In the Venutian Forecasts booth, Maya begins her appointment with Moira Cytherea. After making Fey put her metallic objects in a safe to prevent "interference with [her] communications", she tells Maya to hold onto her held out fist tightly with her hands and concentrate on the warmth of her hand. At the same time, Maya is blind folded, and wears headphones playing loud, horror-esque music.
Meanwhile at the Palm Reading booth, Phoenix learns that the usual palm reader has been replaced due the typhoon with the rookie palm-reader Wally Flores. Flores also informs Wright that the teller for "Thong Fortunes" (which he thinks involves buxom babes) has been replaced by "Madame Lovetap". When Wright touches Flores's hand, he reveals that he has germophobia, and goes to wash he hands, to which Wright comments he took a while doing when he comes back.
As Flores goes to splatter Wright's hand with red paint to take his print, there's a piercing scream coming from the Nether World Prophecies Booth. The pair rush to the booth, and Wright breaks open the locked door. Turning on the lights, they find Clover standing in the middle of the room, with what looks like blood on her hand. She points towards the a curtain with a frozen expression of shock. Pulling it aside, they discover the dead Oracle Hecate, and a bloody scythe, with blood covering the floor and wall. Wright lets out a blood-curdling scream, which draws Cytherea, Fey, and Saito to the scene. Wright notices Clover has, what Saito identifies one of "Oracle's golden prophecies", on her, which says "Russi's body is mine". Russi announces in horror that she was possessed by the lord of death, and killed Madame Oracle, before fainting.
As Fey and Saito go to call for an ambulance and the police, Cytherea begins to go crazy with the scythe after picking it up.. Flores tries to escape through the room's locked back door, prompting Wright to realize the incident is a locked-room murder, and he askes Flores to take photos of the scene with his phone. Cytherea begins swinging the scythe at Wright and the unconscious Clover to "drive the Lord of Death out", and uses it to break down the part of the wall with an image of the Lord of Death. Suddenly a whip brings an end to her rampage, thanks to the timely arrival of "Madam Lovetap" of Thong Fortunes: Franziska von Karma.
October 18, 2:50 PM[]
Investigation[]
Wright and Fey visit Clover at the Hotti Clinic, who tells them about exactly happened. After parting ways from them, she went to Nether World Prophecies, where Madam Hecate had told her about the Gate to Hell. She told her to perform a dance to summon the Lord of Death, by standing in the middle on the "magic circle" in the middle of the room while the lights were off, putting her arms out, then spinning herself around multiple times. After the Lord of Death was "summoned", Hecate had her put her arm through the "Gate to Hell" in the wall and repeat a chant to him, and when she did so Clover could feel the Lord of Death touching her hand on the other side. When she felt her the Lord of Death let go, she pulled her hand out, which now had prophecy in it. After stumbling over a flashlight, she discovered Madam Hecate's corpse behind the curtain.
Detective Dick Gumshoe suddenly bursts in, and arrests Russi for Hecate's murder. Gumshoe explains that the crime was a perfect locked room murder, so only Russi could have done it. Russi is in tears, convinced that she really did kill Hecate while possessed, but Fey reassures her that the Lord of Death isn't real, and that Wright will prove her innocent.
October 18, 4:36 PM[]
Wright and Fey investigate the crime scene: On the north wall is the "Gate to Hell", with the back door right next to it, where as the picture of the Lord of Death that Cytherea shattered is on the west wall. The bloody murder scene was behind a curtain at the east wall, which was also where the scythe was kept, with the main entrance on the right half of the south wall.
While Clover right arm through the "Gate to Hell", the main entrance would have been in her blind spot, leading Fey to suggest the culprit came in through the entrance, took the scythe off the wall, and killed Hecate. However this seemed unlikely, as the light from the lounge would likely have flooded the room. They're about to test their theory out, when they're interrupted by von Karma. She reminds them that both doors were locked from the inside, making it a complete locked-room. Wright questions what motive Clover would have, but von Karma tells them that Hecate often caused her customers to become irate due to her arrogance, so the idea that Clover would snap over something she said was likely.
Fey wonders about the "Gate to Hell", and how Russi said she felt the Lord of Death. However von Karma demonstrates that beyond the hole is just the shared back room on the other side. Sticking his arm through the hole, Wright realizes that you could just barely reach the door knob for the back door if you stretched, however von Karma reminds him that at the time of the murder, Russi had her arm through it, so no one could have gotten in using that method. Investigating further, they learn that there is a garbage chute in the backroom that leads straight to an incinerator. Fey asserts that someone could have gotten into the backroom, but from there it would have been impossible to enter the locked crime scene from the back door there. Wright further points out that even if the door hadn't been locked, someone still couldn't have come in through the back door: they'd have been right in Clover's line of sight.
After von Karma leaves, Wright and Fey run into Saito. Upon bringing up the Gate to Hell, he tells them that he's been in the backroom a number of times when Hecate has had customers. He could clearly hear when the customers were putting their arms into the Gate to Hell, however no arm would ever actually come through the hole. Therefore the gate really must lead to another dimension.
Later on at the Wright & Co. Law Offices, the pair are stumped by the locked room and Saito's claims. Wright examines the photos taken by Flores, but almost all of them besides one of Cytherea swinging the scythe around came out blurred. Larry Butz turns up, and informs them that he had a part-time job when they were building Fortune Circle building ventilation pipes above the ceiling. You can enter vents from a panel in each of the booths ceilings, which connects all the booths. Wright and Fey thank the oblivious Larry for unintentionally giving them their much needed trump card.
October 19, 10:00 AM[]
Trial, part 1[]
The trial begins with Wright on the defense, and the whip wielding von Karma on the prosecution. Gumshoe is called to the stand, and outlines the basic facts of the case: At 11:30, Oracle Hecate stabbed in the chest with a scythe in the Nether World Prophecies booth, and died instantly. The crime was a perfect locked room murder, as both doors into the room were locked from the inside, and so Gumshoe states that Russi Clover is the only possible culprit.
Cool Saito is then called to the stand. He testifies about Hecate's foul personality, claiming that he'd often overhear her verbally abusing customers, such as an instance when she told someone they would go to hell for "being a floozy". He asserts that Clover got abuse from her, causing her to snap. However Wright objects, stating that if it was a crime of passion, Clover would have touched the weapon with her bare hands. However her prints were not found on it. Von Karma counters by reiterating the locked-room aspect of the case. Fey goes to bring up their "trump card", before being stopped by Wright, he thinks they should save it for a better time.
Wally Flores is called to the stand. He testifies about what he experienced with Wright, from hearing the scream, to when they discovered Clover with blood on her hand, the body behind the curtain. During the cross-examination Wright asks him to recall what the body looked likes. Flores says it was the "very picture of hell", with blood covering the curtain, floor, and wall, and Wright presents a photo showing the blood soaked crime scene to reiterate this further. He proclaims that with so much blood, the murderer should have been covered in blood as well, however only Clover's right hand had blood on it.
However, Von Karma presents a blood soaked raincoat that was retrieved in the basement garbage chute before incineration. She asserts that Clover tried to dispose of her raincoat in the incinerator by throwing it into the garbage chute. After von Karma further reiterates the locked-room once more, Wright brings up their trump card: By using the ventilation system that connects to panels in each booth, anyone without an a alibi could be the murderer: This would include Wally Flores, who left for a substantial length of time to go and "wash his hands", Cool Saito, who had no customers, and one more person who was also alone in Fortune Circle: Franziska von Karma.
October 19, 11:08 AM[]
Trial, part 2[]
Irate over being "accused" by Wright, von Karma asserts that Wright could also be the culprit, as he has no alibi for the time when Flores was washing his hands. She called her next, and final, witness: Moira Cytherea. Wright internally comments on how she has a solid alibi, telling Maya's fortune when the murder occurred.
Cytherea testifies that there was an incident around a week ago. Hecate came storming into her booth ranting about her touching prized "death sickle" scythe. Cytherea lost her temper with her, and angrily told her that if she can't trust others she should just nail herself shut in her booth. She didn't expect Hecate to take her seriously, but she did, and nailed her booth's ceiling panel shut. Which means that at the time of the murder, no one could access the crime scene via the ventilation system.
Things were right back where they started again, with the crime being a locked room: the ceiling panel was nailed shut, and the two doors were locked from the inside. Only Clover and the victim was in that room, so Clover had to have been the one who killed her in a fit of rage. With Wright's trump card had been destroyed, he was all out of options: there's no way Clover would kill someone in anger like that, but there was no way it was a Lord of Death either. There was also the prophecy that Russi received, and Saito's claims about the Gate to Hell the previous day, but he couldn't understand how any of it connected together, and was becoming anxious.
Fey suddenly asked Wright if she could go to the bathroom. Annoyed, Wright recalled that she kept wanting to go to the bathroom at Fortune Circle too, however Fey says that that was because she wanted to wash her hands after visiting the palm reader. Hearing this sparks a revelation for Wright, and causes everything to fall into place, resulting in him responding to von Karma with a thunderous "Objection!"
Verdict[]
Wright declares that he has solved the mystery of the locked room; the culprit stuck their hand through the hole in the wall, to reach the doorknob. This would be possible even with Clover having her arm through the Gate to Hell, because the Gate to Hell leads to "another dimension", just as Saito had claimed: The hole that leads to the backroom is a fake, and the real "Gate to Hell" that customers put their arms through was somewhere else. Specifically, it was on the wall that Cytherea had destroyed with the scythe.
Cytherea reminds Wright that at the time of the murder she was in the middle of her fortune reading, and that Maya was grasping the hand the entire time. However Phoenix presents the photo that Flores took of Cytherea waving the scythe around, pointing out that hand. Before going to Venutain Forecasts, Fey had been to the palm reader, who had painted her right hand red, and she didn't get a chance to wash her hand between appointments. Furthermore, Cytherea wouldn't have time to wash her hands before arriving on the crime scene. If Fey had really been holding onto her hand, Cytherea's hand should have red paint on it, but her hand in the photo is clean.
Wright further pointed out the mural of the Lord of Death on the wall in the photo, identical to the one over the so called "Gate to Hell". He asserts that there is a cut out piece of wood that filled in a hole in the mural. At first, Oracle Hecate pointed out the hole leading to the backroom as the "Gate to Hell". Then turned the the lights off and got Clover to spin around, which makes her loss her sense of direction. Hecate then directed her to put their hand through the other hole, making the Clover think it's the hole she first showed her.
When Clover had her hand through the "Gate to Hell", she was actually sticking it into Cytherea's booth. In other hands, the "Lord of Death" hands that Clover felt were Maya's hands, and Cytherea's hand that Maya was holding onto was Clover's hand, that Cytherea made out as her own.
Wright went on to explain that the same scheme was pulled on all of Hecate's costumers, in cahoots with Cytherea. Customers who went into Venutian Forecasts were told anything metallic interfered with the fortune communications, so they would put valuables like phones into the safe. Cytherea would then instruct them to hold onto her hand, while wearing a blindfold and headphones, and not let go. In reality though, they are holding the hand of another customer, from the Nether World Prophecies booth. Cytherea would then steal their personal information by looking through the valuables. She would then write down the personal information onto one of the "golden prophecies", and place it into the hand of the Nether World Prophecies customer. Hecate would then correspond the time she received the prophecy to the customer's appointment cards. In other for this scam to work, the customer would need to select appointments with both Venutian Forecasts and Nether World Prophecies, and they would need to do the former before the latter. However the large crowds would ordinarily guarantee them a high success rate.
With this the truth of the case was now clear. That day, Clover was holding Maya's hand. Meanwhile, Cytherea left her booth, put her arm through the backroom's hole, and unlocked the door. She put on the raincoat, and went in, unnoticed by Clover who was facing the other way and chanting to herself. She dragged Hecate behind the curtain, took the scythe off the wall, and murdered her with it. Then she locked the front entrance, went out the backdoor, and locked it in the same way she got in, to make it look like a locked room. She she went back to her booth, wrote the "Russi's body is mine" prophecy, and placed it into Clover's hand, to make her think the Lord of Death possessed her, and frame her for the crime.
Cytherea still refused Wright's claims, claiming that he was just making up stories and had no proof. However Wright presented his final proof: The "blood" of Clover's hand wasn't blood at all; it was the red paint that got onto her hand after it was held by Fey.
Cytherea finally breaks down and admits to the crime, tearfully explaining her motive: she looked up to Hecate like a sister, however Hecate barely even noticed her and was full of herself. She began saying that Nether World Prophecies were so famous, that she didn't know her help any more. This lead to her becoming incredibly jealous and bitter, ultimately leading her to murder. She thought that if people thought she had foretold that a customer would be possessed, and they were convicted, it would begin to make her famous. She apologized to Clover, stating that she "did something terrible to her", and that it "wasn't anything personal". With this, Russi Clover was declared "not guilty".
October 29, 1:19 PM[]
Aftermath[]
Wright, Maya, and Clover walk through Gourd Lake Park with Miles Edgeworth. Having explained the ordeal they she went through, Clover is grateful to Fey for what she did for her (with Wright lamenting that he "helped too"). They come across Saito, who is manning an ice-cream stand. Due to the murder, Fortune Circle has been closed down, so he has taken up the "art of ice-cream making". He offers the group 10% "due to the trouble [they went] through" their ice-cream, with Wright footing everyone's bill. Saito comments that "you are bound by a strong, thick bound", according to their fortunes, and that he looks forward to seeing their futures unfold.
Bonus section - October 21, 3:25 PM[]
The manga's own illustrator, Kazuo Maekawa, says that according to the "Ace Attorney Encyclopedia" on his DS, the Wright & Co. office plant is called Charley. Von Karma storms in, furious at how she was disgraced in court, and despite Maekawa telling her someone else writes the script, she blames him for completing the work and whips him. After he falls to the ground, Gumshoe declares it a murder, and Ema Skye says the cause of death was shock from von Karma's whip. Edgeworth asks Wright to defend her, which the latter laments is impossible, prompting all Maya, Mia, and Pearl Fey to tell him to pull himself together. However Maekawa is alive: he bashfully tells "Franzy" to whip him again, prompting everyone to stamp their foots on his face.
Connections to other cases[]
- This case shares some similarities with The Monstrous Turnabout:
- Both feature a mythical being as a central plot point.
- In both, the defendant seems like they were possessed by said mythical being. Both also feature a young teenage girl with a fixation on the supernatural, who is supposedly a victim of possession.
- Both cases are a locked room, with two doors, both of which were locked from the inside.
- In both cases, the defense believes they have solved the locked room by suggesting the culprit crawled through the ventilation system, only for this to turn out to be incorrect.
- Finally, in both, the illusion of the locked room was actually created via a case of mistaken identity that was purposefully set up by the true culprit.
Note[]
- This case has a female victim, suspect, and culprit. This appears to have been a first in the Ace Attorney franchise.
- When giving Wright his fortune, Cool Saito tells him that he will become a pianist, referencing the events of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
- Russi's chant to ward off the Lord of Death is "Larmawiledlanmagmamaxmatphoeromagteriri". This chant is the first few letters of every defendant's name from the Phoenix Wright trilogy.
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