| 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[]
While working as a prosecutor, Byrne used to bring his daughter Kay to the District Court at times during trials, and in these instances Byrne always bought Kay a Swiss roll snack from one of the vending machines in the courthouse. In the course of her early life, Byrne raised Kay by having her make several promises and keep them in a "Promise Notebook", including not to cry in front of strangers or to accept any gifts from them. He also introduced his investigative partner, Detective Tyrell Badd, to Kay, leading her to eventually refer to him as an "uncle".
Once, Byrne Faraday talked with his fellow prosecutor, Manfred von Karma, discussing a way to punish "those who cannot be brought to court", but the latter, only interested in his winning record in court, had no interest in pursuing such individuals, and thusly scoffed as such notions, laughing in Byrne's face.
Byrne Faraday was also in charge of training rookie detectives to testify on trials, with Dick Gumshoe meeting him the very first day he entered the Criminal Affairs Department, the bumbling rookie being exactly the kind of person that rubbed Faraday the wrong way.
- 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.
A week before Rell's trial, at the police precinct, Byrne met with Dick Gumshoe on his first day as a freshly promoted detective; however, due to the blunder from the latter of going to his old post instead of his new one, said meeting wasn't peaceful, and the usually calm Byrne became beet red furious against Gumshoe, declaring a salary cut for the detective, the first of many. Said altercation was observed from afar by Callisto Yew, who took note of it; nonetheless, Gumshoe still received a $5 paycheck as an annual bonus.
Just before being murdered.
The day of the trial, like he usually did, Byrne brought his young daughter, Kay Faraday, to the District Court to wait for him in the hallway while he was doing his job in Courtroom No. 3. The trial against Mack Rell should have been quick thanks to Byrne's decisive evidence, but upon seeing the video of himself killing Mann, Rell suddenly changed his story, and instead asserted to having done the deed under direct orders from the Yatagarasu, accusing Byrne himself of being the phantom thief, forcing the proceedings to be adjourned. Byrne subsequently took Rell into Defendant Lobby No. 2 to interrogate and offer a deal, being thusly unable to buy Kay her usual Swiss roll treat.
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; as a backup plan, should this first strategy fail, Callisto decided to pin the blame on Detective Gumshoe, who just happened to be the officer on guard duty outside the Defendant Lobby No. 2, using his previous reprimand from Faraday as a possible motive for murder. Meanwhile, by coincidence, the rookie detective struck a friendship with Kay, bonding over a Swiss Roll snack that he bought for Kay by spending his annual bonus.
The crime scene.
When Miles Edgeworth, who was to prosecute Rell in Byrne's stead, investigated the double murder, he, after figuring out that the crime scene had been tampered, and that Gumshoe was being framed, eventually ended up implicating Calisto Yew as the real 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, with Edgeworth being able to dodge a bullet shot by Yew only thanks to the timely warning from Byrne's daughter, Kay. 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 very start.
Succession[]
- Main articles: The Kidnapped Turnabout & Turnabout Ablaze
Seven years later, 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, by coincidence, just 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, behind his easygoing facade, Byrne was a bit of a nut for strict discipline and manners, and he was particularly very protective of his daughter and worried about her eventual teenage years; as such, 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.
Byrne was a noble man dedicated to the law, and worried greatly about how prosecutors could punish "those who cannot be brought to court". He eventually found the answer to his dilemma by forming the Yatagarasu; however, even after taking such mantle, Byrne still did not consider himself or his accomplices above the legal system, nor had the intention to take justice in his own hands. Instead, he had only planned to continue his role as a phantom thief of truth only up until the court system would eventually become able to pursue those above the law, rendering the Yatagarasu unnecessary, showing that he had never lost faith in the judicial system.
Name[]
- Japanese - Kurou Ichijou (一条九郎):
- His Japanese given name, "Kurou" (九郎), sounds like the English word "crow", hinting at him being part of the Yatagarasu. It may also be a pun on the word for "hardships" (苦労).
- English - Byrne Faraday:
- His English given name, "Byrne", comes from the Gaelic word for "raven".
- French - Corbin Faraday:
- In the unofficial French translation, his name is "Corbin Faraday." "Corbin" looks like the word "corbeau", which means "raven" in English.
Development[]
- The Karakusa pattern, the swirling cloud-like design 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.