| Paul Holic |
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Paul Holic, also known as Isaku Hyōdō, was a renowned French sculptor. Despite having poor cookery skills, he entered a dessert-making competition. During this event, Holic was murdered in what became known as the IS-7 Incident.
The IS-7 Incident
- Main article: IS-7 Incident
Holic heard about a confectionery competition hosted by the famous TV chef Issei Tenkai at his mansion, and decided to sign up for it under the pseudonym "Isaku Hyōdō" despite having no cookery skills. His reason for doing so was in order to acquire and sell the prize, Tenkai's "Angel's Recipe", for a lot of money. In order to increase his chances, he collaborated with Yutaka Kazami, an actual pastry chef who had terrible design abilities. Holic would handle all the design work while Kazami would do all the actual confectionery creation. The two men knew each other from having sons who went to the same elementary school and were the best of friends.
Holic's betrayal.
With the pair cooperating, they both made it to the finals, but Holic began plotting against his confectionery partner, wanting the valuable Angel's Recipe all to himself. After Kazami made the two batches of sherbet for Holic to sculpt, the latter betrayed him by ending their collaboration before sculpting Kazami's submission. Holic now had everything he needed for his creation while Kazami was left with only his own ingredients and terrible aesthetic abilities. Additionally, Holic forced his son to capture and tie up Kazami's son, knowing that the boy was helping his father by taste-testing his creations.
Holic later entered Tenkai's room, where the Angel's Recipe was being kept, and caught Kazami trying to take pictures of the recipe. Holic glanced at the page that Kazami was photographing, and found instructions for a cure to the taste disorders hypogeusia and ageusia. Holic realized that Kazami was suffering from one of these disorders, which was why he had had his son taste his creations, and mercilessly mocked his former ally for being a chef with no ability to taste. Kazami flew into a rage and tried to hit Holic, but the sculptor landed the first blow and the chef struck his head on one of the two rock salt lamps in the room. Holic then offered to keep this little secret between them, for a hefty fee, of course. A desperate Kazami responded by killing Holic with a blow to the head from the other rock salt lamp.
The corpse as Oyashiki found it.
Kazami then hid the body inside the chocolate treasure chest sculpture in Tenkai's room and hid the lamps inside the room of fellow competitor Delicy Scone. However, the body was found by Tenkai's assistant, Tsukasa Oyashiki, before Kazami could finish covering up his crime, and thus Tenkai himself was accused of the murder. Kazami managed to move the body to Holic's room and place it inside one of his confectionery sculptures, but Oyashiki had figured out who "Isaku Hyōdō" really was and was afraid that the police would damage his work during their investigation. She therefore moved all of the dead sculptor's creations and hid them in the building's cellar, not knowing until much later that the body was inside.
Since the body was missing, an autopsy was therefore unable to be carried out. However, the corrupt Chief Prosecutor, Bansai Ichiyanagi, blackmailed coroner Otome Itami into forging an autopsy report. The confrontation between prosecutor Manfred von Karma and defense attorney Gregory Edgeworth over this forged evidence would ultimately lead to the DL-6 Incident, while Tenkai was wrongfully convicted as an accomplice to the crime. Meanwhile, the sons of Kazami and Holic almost died inside Holic's car when the doors froze shut, but the timely intervention of a passerby and his dog saved their lives. The two boys lost their memories due to the trauma of their ordeal and were raised in an orphanage, at which point they were named Manosuke Naitō and Sōta Sarushiro. The police eventually found Naitō and gave him Holic's signet ring as an inheritance, although he would eventually be arrested for murder and then murdered while in prison.
Resolution
- Main article: The Inherited Turnabout
The past resurfaces.
Eighteen years later, Tsukasa Oyashiki set a trap for Holic's killer by holding an art exhibit for the sculptures that she had stolen. The poison gas trap she set up worked to an extent, although her target, Yutaka Kazami, managed to survive, and was sent to the infirmary. An investigation of the incident ensued, during which Oyashiki dumped the body into the fountain, where it was soon discovered. Eventually, Gregory Edgeworth's son Miles figured out what Oyashiki had done, and in so doing, finally exposed the culprit behind the IS-7 Incident.
Personality
Holic's ring.
Holic was known just as much for his greed and vanity as he was known for his sculptures. He would charge customers hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single sculpture. He would often work in secret as Isaku Hyōdō, but he always branded his works with his signet ring, so that fans of his art would unmistakably recognize his handiwork. His greed led him to betray Yutaka Kazami, to the point of forcing his own son to bind and gag his best friend.
Judging from his art, it would appear that he had something of an inferiority complex regarding women. Works dedicated to the relationship between himself and his wife, as well as between his father and mother, always depicted the woman as the dominant party. Despite this, he seemed to have a very high opinion of himself, judging from a self-portrait of himself in Napoleonic garb. Holic also designed tea sets.
Name
- "Paul Holic" is a play on "asking for trouble" or "digging [one's] own grave" (墓穴を掘る) - a reference to how he tried to blackmail Kazami. It may be a play on the surname of the influential American artist Jackson Pollock (whose birth name, incidentally, was also "Paul").
- His given name in Japanese can also be read as "pole", a possible reference to his career as a sculptor.
- His Japanese pseudonym is a play on "ice hall" or "ice sculpture", which is where his corpse was hidden.
- Holic's name in the unofficial English fan translation patch of Gyakuten Kenji 2 is "Pierre Hoquet", while his pseudonym is "Isaac Dover". The latter is likely a play on "iced over", in reference to where his corpse was hidden. This is further evidenced by the fact that Delicy Scone's nickname for him is "Icy". "Isaac" is likely a romanization of his Japanese given name. His pseudonym's surname is "Hoquet", which is the French word for "hiccup".