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Turnabout Time Traveler
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You may be looking for the Ace Attorney novel Gyakuten Saiban - Jikan Ryokosha no Gyakuten, which translates as "Gyakuten Saiban - Turnabout of the Time Traveler".

Phoenix Wright
But do you really believe that time travel is possible?
Sorin Sprocket
It only becomes truly impossible when man stops daring to believe. Besides... time travelers do exist, you know. But you wouldn't understand.

Special Episode: Turnabout Time Traveler is the special episode of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice, set after the events of the main game. Like Turnabout Reclaimed before it, it was released as an extra downloadable, full-fledged case after the initial release of the main game. It involves a defendant who believes that she traveled back in time to escape an attack, only to be accused of murdering her assailant. The story's themes revolve heavily around being stuck in the past, both literally and metaphorically, and looking to the future.

Turnabout Time Traveler is the only episode in the game in which Phoenix Wright is playable in the United States, as well as the only one containing a single two-day trial. One consequence of this is that it is the only episode in which the Wright Anything Agency can be examined as Wright, including being able to comment on Apollo Justice's red jacket left on the couch despite his total absence from the episode. This episode also brings together major characters from throughout the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, including Larry Butz, who has not appeared in the main series since the original trilogy. Notably, however, it has been uncommon for more than two of them to appear in the same episode in their usual roles:

September 20[]

One night, a man was threatening a woman by almost throwing her off an airship. To show he wasn't completely heartless, he'd throw the "time machine" she likes with her. Terrified and clutching the gear-shaped pendant around her neck, she said to "take [her] back to that blissful moment. Suddenly, she woke up in a room and another woman told her it was almost time for the reception. Looking at her pendant, the woman says it actually worked in sending her back in time.

September 21[]

10:13 AM

The Wright Anything Agency was experiencing a dearth of clients when Larry Butz, an old friend of Phoenix Wright's, showed up. Accompanying him was Ellen Wyatt, a maid to the Sprocket household of Sprocket Aviation fame, a large company that owned Rainbull Airlines. Butz claimed that he and Wyatt were getting married, but it turned out that he had misunderstood Wyatt's intentions. After finding a dead body at her wedding reception, suspicion had fallen onto her, so she had been placed in confinement until Butz helped her escape. She had only run away with him because he said he would help her escape from the police. A report of the incident was already on the news, saying that Wyatt was suspected of clubbing the victim, Dumas Gloomsbury, to death in the reception hall. Wyatt swore she had not killed anyone, which Wright deemed to be true, as he did not see any Psyche-Locks.

Wyatt had an additional, strange story to tell about being a time traveler. After her wedding reception, she had been attacked and almost killed, but she had made a wish upon her pendant to go back in time. She claimed that it had actually worked, and she had gone back to just before the reception started. The only difference was that, this time, the man who was trying to kill her was already dead, and she was arrested for his murder.

The police finally caught up to Wyatt and surrounded the Agency. Detective Ema Skye entered the office to place Wyatt under arrest, explaining that the large amount of police officers was due to Butz yelling something about having a bomb. Athena Cykes wanted to help Wright, but he told her to stay behind, since she had already agreed to be a part-time assistant in the Agency's magic show. Wright and Butz then followed Skye to the visitor's room of the detention center. Wright initially had reservations on taking the case due to Butz having introduced them, which caused Wyatt to lose all composure and bawl about how she would die alone in a jail cell. Shocked by her sudden change in demeanor, Wright agreed to help her.

Gloomsbury and Ellen

Wyatt being attacked by Gloomsbury.

Ellen

Waking up in her room after apparently traveling back in time.

Wyatt recounted her story: her husband-to-be was Sorin Sprocket, the future president of Sprocket Aviation. On their wedding night, Gloomsbury had tried to kill her by pushing her off the vista deck. She had then made a wish upon her pendant — a gift from Sorin, and a part of the time machine he had built — and had been sent back in time, even experiencing the whole wedding reception all over again, with no one else acting as if anything strange was happening. While cleaning the hall after the second reception, she had accidentally knocked over a large decorative lantern, and it had broken, revealing Gloomsbury's dead body inside. Her in-laws had then stumbled upon the scene and assumed she had killed him. Wyatt added that, just after making the wish upon her pendant, she had seen someone strike Gloomsbury from behind before losing consciousness, though she could not identify who it was. With Wyatt's story established, Butz led Wright to the wedding chapel, located at the mooring dock in Sprocket Park.

"The Reception Hall"[]

The location of the wedding reception turned out to be a large airship belonging to Rainbull Airlines, called the Flying Chapel. Wright noticed a broken sign nearby, which a bystander claimed to be the result of a windstorm the previous night. Butz gave Wright a pamphlet for the Flying Chapel, and told him that he had recruited some help in the form of Maya Fey and chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. Edgeworth, however, explained that he had come because he would be personally prosecuting the case, and had happened to pick Fey up on the way. The Sprocket family had apparently pressured the prosecutor's office to drop the case, meaning none of his subordinates had wanted to take it. Edgeworth left with Butz, saying that the latter had a lot of explaining to do, while Wright and Fey entered the airship.

Skye was at the reception hall, finishing up her investigation. She told Wright the police's theory that Gloomsbury had attacked Wyatt only to be struck down in return. They suspected that, as the Sprocket family's lead servant, Gloomsbury had been jealous of Wyatt for marrying into the family. The groom's relatives had apparently opposed the marriage as well, but Sorin and Wyatt had chosen to go through with it anyway. The murder weapon was a large clock shaped like an airship called the "Time Keeper", which had a bloodstain that matched the shape of the wound, detected using luminol.

Wright and Fey looked around the reception hall themselves. They found that it was equipped with two fog machines, which required dry ice to function. Wright also found a wallet on a table, which he believed to belong to Butz, and took it, planning to return it to him later. At the back was the sweetheart table, as well as a smaller table where the Time Keeper had been displayed during the reception.

According to the pamphlet, the sweetheart table was supposed to be flanked by two decorative lanterns in the shape of winged creatures called "Pegamoos", a male "Pegabull" and a female "Pegacow". However, both lanterns were male "Pegabull" lanterns, and one lay broken on the floor, with the body outline inside. Both lanterns also had back doors opened by wheel handles, though the inner handle of the busted lantern had broken off and had blood on it. Inside said lantern was a note containing what appeared to be instructions for Gloomsbury's plot to murder Wyatt. The writing was smudged, but only starting from the middle of each line; Fey pointed out that this happened when a right-handed person wrote in a hurry. A flower petal was also present inside the lantern, though it did not match the appearance of the flowers in the reception hall.

A young man entered the reception hall as Wright and Fey were investigating, and threw them a message on a paper airplane telling them to get out. Skye introduced them to the groom himself, and explained that he was a somewhat eccentric genius inventor who had designed many of Sprocket Aviation's business successes, including the Flying Chapel. The duo followed Sorin to the mooring dock outside, but had trouble getting him to actually talk to them even after telling him that they were defending Wyatt. They finally sparked his interest with the subject of time travel, and he explained that Wyatt's pendant was not itself a time machine, but only a part of it, the body of the machine being the Time Keeper. He also claimed that real time travelers did exist, but that Wright would not understand what he meant by that. Wright wanted to ask Sorin what he thought of his family opposing the marriage, but their conversation was interrupted by Pierce Nichody, the family butler, who had been looking for Sorin. To Wright's surprise, Nichody invited him and Fey to Sprocket Manor.

"Questions for Pierce"[]

In the Sprocket Manor foyer, Fey accidentally broke a vintage radio, which Nichody quickly repaired with a mech on his shoulder, which was the "FXR-UPR", one of Sorin's inventions. Nichody explained that he held a secondary role as Sprocket Aviation's repair department director. Nichody admitted that he had invited Wright to the manor to discuss the case in private, and said that he had been among the witnesses who had found Wyatt standing in front of the body with the murder weapon in her hands, and he was the one who had called the police. Nichody agreed with the prosecution and the other witnesses that Wyatt had killed Gloomsbury in self-defense, and did not take her story about time travel seriously.

EllenSorinWeddin

The photo of the wedding reception taken by a guest.

Hikariatherdesk

The photo of Selena Sprocket.

Wright found a key card for the Flying Chapel on the floor, which turned out to belong to Wyatt. Although she had not had a chance to return there since the incident, one of the people at the manor informed Wright that Butz had come by earlier. The man was a wedding photographer and Wright took a look at his photos of the reception. In one of them, the fog could be seen covering the floor, and Nichody was standing behind the sweetheart table. When asked about Wyatt's time travel claims, the photographer stuttered while denying knowing anything about them.

There was also a framed photograph of Sorin's older sister, Selena. Nichody explained that she had been next in line to inherit Sprocket Aviation until her death in a car accident. Sorin had also been in the car at the time; devastated by the loss of his beloved sister, he had abandoned the company business and begun researching time travel in an attempt to bring her back, as well as compulsively writing in his notebook. Nichody believed that Sorin was stuck in the past.

"Chasing After the Butz"[]

Butz then came into the foyer, but bolted as soon as Wright asked him whether he had been in the Flying Chapel on the night of the murder. Wright cornered Butz at the mooring dock and saw two Psyche-Locks around Butz as he denied having any involvement with the case. Wright pointed out that Butz would not have been involved with Wyatt in the first place if he had nothing to do with the case. Furthermore, the wallet found in the reception hall proved that Butz had been there the previous night.

Pterodactyl

Butz's drawing of the pterodactyl.

Butz's Psyche-Locks were broken, and he admitted to being in the Flying Chapel. He had met Wyatt and fallen in love with her when he delivered the welcome sign for the wedding, so he had later tried to attend the reception. Unable to get in, he had spent some time wandering around the airship — presumably dropping his wallet around this time — and claimed to have seen something incredible from one of the cabin windows: a pterodactyl flying outside. Butz believed this to be proof that the airship had traveled through time. Upon mentioning this to Nichody, he had been told to never mention it to anyone again. Butz also gave Wright a picture of the hold he had taken before the reception; in it, Wyatt could be seen helping with the preparations. Having concluded their investigation, Wright and Fey decided to head to the detention center to see Wyatt again.

"Interview with Ellen"[]

Ellen and Gloomsbury

Wyatt's recollection of how she discovered the body.

Wright found Wyatt in conversation with Nichody, who told her that the marriage would have to be called off. Wright got Nichody to agree not to stand in the way of the marriage if Wyatt's innocence was proven in court, though Nichody did not believe that an acquittal would be impossible. After Nichody left, Wright discussed his investigation with Wyatt, who told him that she had panicked upon finding the body and picked up the Time Keeper in an attempt to go back in time again. Wright returned her key card to her, not looking forward to having to propose the existence of time travel in court.

September 22 trial[]

8:45 AM

Before the trial started, Sorin stopped by Defendant Lobby No. 3 to see Wyatt. Although Wright was appalled to see him simply asking her where his engine blueprints were before turning to leave, Sorin came back and told Wyatt to come home soon and that he was lost without her. Wright was relieved to see that Sorin clearly cared about Wyatt, even if he did not express it much.

Preliminaries[]

9:00 AM

The trial began with the judge remarking on the nostalgia that he was feeling before proposing a dinner party after the trial. Edgeworth then delivered his opening statement: the victim, Dumas Gloomsbury, had been in attendance at the wedding reception, which had lasted from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Shortly after the reception ended, he had attacked Wyatt and tried to kill her. Wyatt had then fought back and ended up killing Gloomsbury. Though this looked like a case of justified self-defense, Edgeworth said that the first witness would make his view on this clear.

"Cross-Examining Ema"[]

Dead Gloomsbury

A photo of Gloomsbury's body as found by the police.

Ema Skye took the stand, explaining that Gloomsbury had actually been struck twice. The first blow, to the back of the head, had knocked him unconscious and caused him to fall over into the lantern. The second, fatal blow had been delivered to the side of his head afterwards. Striking a man who had already been rendered unconscious would invalidate a self-defense plea.

Ellen in the hold

The photo of the hold taken by Butz.

Wright pointed out a problem: since Gloomsbury had been struck from behind, he should have fallen into the lantern facedown, but his body had been facing up when it was found. Moreover, there were broken bits of the lantern lying on top of the body, meaning it must have been inside the lantern before it had been broken. This meant that Gloomsbury must already have been inside since before the reception. Thus, the lantern must have been moved with Gloomsbury inside. Wright argued that the real location of the murder was indicated by the flower petals on top of Gloomsbury's body, which matched the appearance of flowers seen in Butz's photo of the hold.

"The Prosecution's Argument"[]

Skye pointed out that the autopsy report placed the estimated time of death after the reception, but Wright responded that the fog machines in the reception hall could have been used to keep the body cold, thus falsifying the time of death. Edgeworth acknowledged the possibility of Wright's scenario, but revealed that the hold could only be accessed by key card. According to the hold entry record, the last three entries on the day of the murder were Dumas Gloomsbury, Pierce Nichody, and Ellen Wyatt, in that order. Edgeworth argued that Wyatt must have been the one to move the body, since Nichody had been escorting guests at the time of the murder. Wright suggested that someone else could have used Wyatt's key card to enter the hold and move the body. Seeing as how Butz had found access to the hold, Wright called him to the stand.

"Cross-Examining Larry"[]

Larry Wedding

Butz being thrown out of the wedding reception.

Butz did not take this development very well, considering it a betrayal of their friendship. After several futile attempts to drag relevant testimony out of Butz, Wright reminded him that Wyatt would be found guilty if he did not cooperate. Wright asked directly whether he had moved the lantern to the reception hall, to which Butz replied that he had "never moved any bull lantern," inadvertently giving himself away, since no one in the courtroom had mentioned the sex of the lantern that had been moved. Even the pamphlet showed that the reception hall was to be decorated with one Pegacow and one Pegabull. The only way for Butz to have known the sex of the lantern with Gloomsbury inside was if he had moved it himself. Butz panicked and admitted that he had sneaked into the wedding reception, but the Sprockets had caught him and locked him up in one of the airship's cabins, and that was all that he had done. Wright assured Butz that he of course did not actually suspect him, and the judge asked Butz to testify truthfully about his actions.

"What Larry Got Up To"[]

Butz testified that he had spotted a lantern while looking around the hall before the reception started, with a note reading, "Exchange with the one in the hold. --Ellen." He had decided to exchange the lantern as a favor for Wyatt, though he had made the mistake of replacing the Pegacow lantern with a Pegabull. Edgeworth theorized that Wyatt had left the note specifically to manipulate someone else into moving the body for her. When Wright asked him about his apprehension by the Sprockets, Butz explained that he had gotten caught the first time he tried to crash the reception; he had later broken out of the cabin and returned to the reception hall, which was when he had found and replaced the lantern. Wright demanded that Butz get his story straight as to whether he had moved the lantern before or after the reception, to which Butz claimed that Wyatt's pendant had then caused time to rewind to before the reception.

"Time Travel Is Real"[]

First reception

Butz's photo of the first reception.

Accepting the inevitable, Wright told the court Wyatt's time travel story, and tried to open up the possibility that Sorin's research on time travel had borne fruit. As evidence of this, Butz enthusiastically talked about his pterodactyl sighting, as well as a photo he had secretly taken of the first reception. The bouquet that Wyatt was holding was red in Butz's photo, but yellow in the photo taken by the photographer from the manor. If nothing else, this was proof that there had been two wedding receptions. Edgeworth pointed out that none of the other guests present had mentioned anything about the reception occurring twice, and if they had been sworn to secrecy, it seemed strange that Wyatt had not been in on it. Besides, Edgeworth had done his fair share of reading on the concept of time travel, which was deemed not logically feasible.

"The Truth About Time Travel"[]

Even if time travel had not literally occurred, Wright stuck with the demonstrated fact that the reception really had been held twice. For some reason or another, everyone at the reception had conspired to keep this fact a secret. Nichody congratulated Wright on his deduction, admitting that everything had happened just as he had described. According to him, Sorin had arranged the second reception after the murder, to make it appear as if the murder had never happened and that Wyatt would think that the first reception had all been a dream. Only a few people had been told the true reason for holding the second reception, but Sorin's influence had been enough for most of the guests to go along with it. Hiding the body in the lantern had also been part of their plan to cover up the crime, though the vista deck had been the real scene of the murder.

Wright realized that if the murder had really occurred on the vista deck, then the third party mentioned by Wyatt would come into play. Wright mentioned this third party to the court, speculating that they could be the true culprit, and pointing out that they could not simply take Nichody at his word, not after he had admitted to conspiring to fool the court. The judge agreed that there was not enough information to render a verdict yet. He told Nichody that the Sprockets' attempt to cover up the crime would be brought to a separate trial after the resolution of the current one, and ended the proceedings for the day pending further investigation.

September 22 investigation[]

1:48 PM

Wright, Fey, and Butz returned to the Agency to discuss the trial, especially the identity of the person Wyatt had seen on the vista deck. Butz said that the airship had been deserted during his trip there, so Wright concluded that Nichody must have gathered the guests somewhere to come up with his cover-up plan during that time. Wright and Fey returned to the detention center to see Wyatt again, learning from her that Nichody had been working as the family butler for about a year, a suspiciously short time for someone with enough influence to orchestrate such an elaborate ruse. Wyatt insisted that Sorin would not use his time travel research to plan something like that. Upon hearing that Wright was considering Sorin a suspect in the case, Wyatt was scandalized to the point of saying that she would rather be found guilty herself than see him come under suspicion. Wright promised not to cause him any unnecessary trouble during the investigation.

"The Hold"[]

Wright and Fey then returned to the Flying Chapel, where they found that the police had disabled the lock to the hold. Skye was conducting an independent investigation there, and informed them of the large lift used to access the vista deck. Though they found nothing of note on the vista deck, they did find a large bloodstain on the side of the lift. Wright doubted that the blood belonged to Gloomsbury, as he had been clubbed to death and had not bled much.

Wright noticed a candelabra on a table, which Skye told him had fingerprints from Gloomsbury's dominant left hand. While they were handling the candelabra, the candles slipped off, revealing that one of the pins was broken. Skye had her suspicions and performed a luminol test on the broken pin, revealing a bloodstain. Commenting that it would take considerable force for to break the pin, Wright wondered whether this bloodstain and the one on the lift were from the same person. Skye confirmed this to be true with a blood test, substantiating the existence of a third party at the scene of the crime. With the reception hall still being investigated by the forensic team, Wright decided to head back to Sprocket Manor to ask Sorin some questions.

"Questions for Sorin"[]

Sorin seemed not to remember Wright very clearly, nor could he recall why there had been two receptions. He explained that he had Nichody make decisions like that. Sorin grew increasingly uncomfortable with Wright's probing, and asked him to leave. However, upon being shown the bloodstained candelabra, Sorin, appearing to recognize it, suddenly became pale and collapsed, his stomach bleeding.

Sorin was taken to the hospital, dropping his notebook in the process, which Wright decided to examine. He noticed that Sorin had originally used the notebook to write down ideas for his inventions, but after March 8th of the previous year, he had started down writing down every single detail of his life, so minutely that the notebook resembled a database more than a diary. Fey tried to take the notebook from Wright, but accidentally dropped it in the pool of Sorin's blood, rendering two pages unreadable. She then noticed a newspaper article sticking out of the diary. The article was about the car accident that had killed Selena Sprocket, which, as it turned out, had happened on March 8th. The article also said that Gloomsbury had been the driver at the time of the accident.

"Questions for Pierce" (2)[]

Hikaridying

Selena Sprocket's last moments.

Believing that Nichody might know something important, Wright and Fey went looking for him, finding him at the mooring dock and returned Sorin's notebook to him. Wright revealed that he knew about the accident, and Nichody explained that Sorin had insisted on not firing Gloomsbury. The accident itself had happened on the way to her engagement party; Gloomsbury had suffered only minor injuries, whereas Selena and Sorin had been taken to the Sprocket family's regular hospital in critical condition. Only Sorin had been saved; Nichody had been there, and the last words Selena had said to him were, "Please help Sorin." Since then, Nichody had attended Sorin, trying to help him in any way possible. The surgeon in charge was Selena's fiancé, and the shock of failing to save her had been so great that he had quit the profession.

Wright showed Nichody the candelabra, but the latter denied knowing anything about it. Seeing three Psyche-Locks, Wright proceeded to explain his theory. The fact that Sorin was wounded, paired with Gloomsbury's fingerprints on the candelabra, seemed to indicate that Gloomsbury had stabbed Sorin with it. The bloodstain on the lift, belonging to the same source, proved that Sorin had been at the scene of the crime and must have some sort of connection to the case. As for motive, it was plausible that Sorin held a grudge toward Gloomsbury due to the car accident.

His Psyche-Locks broken, Nichody admitted that Gloomsbury had attacked Sorin and Wyatt in the reception hall following the first reception. Sorin had tried to stop him from taking Wyatt away, getting stabbed in the ensuing struggle. Sorin had gone after Gloomsbury in spite of his injury, meaning that he had indeed been at the scene of the crime. However, Nichody claimed that the murder had already been committed when Sorin arrived there.

"The Reception Hall" (2)[]

Pegabull lantern

The Pegabull lantern repaired by Skye.

Nichody left to tend to Sorin while Wright and Fey headed to the reception hall, which the forensic team had finished investigating. Some maids were cleaning, and one of them warned them that a door at the side of the hall was actually an emergency escape hatch. Wright and Fey asked another maid about a heart-shaped key on the table where the Time Keeper had been on display, and she explained that it was the key used to activate the Time Keeper, in a part of the wedding ceremony called the "First Startup of Love". The bride and groom had each used a symbol of their love for this ceremony, with the key being one of them. Finally, Skye had repaired the Pegabull lantern, though she had mistakenly switched the inside and outside handles, causing the blood-stained inner handle to appear on the outside. Sorin suddenly arrived in a state of utter panic, looking for his notebook, anywhere, though he quickly calmed down when Nichody appeared with the notebook and returned it to him.

As Sorin was in no state to be questioned, Wright and Fey returned to the Agency to go over what they had learned. They concluded that the third person Wyatt had seen on the vista deck had most likely been Sorin. Wright knew that it would devastate Wyatt if Sorin were found guilty, but he could not allow an innocent person to be convicted, so the only thing to do was pursue the truth and hold on to whatever hope there was that the two of them could still live happily ever after. Wright returned to the detention center to break the news to Wyatt, who begged him to find a way to prove both her and Sorin innocent.

September 23[]

8:50 AM

Before the trial, Wright tried to calm Wyatt down, but she refused to go along with his potential accusation of Sorin. Wright simply had to hope that she did not do anything drastic.

Second preliminaries[]

9:00 AM

The trial opened with Edgeworth recapping the cover-up attempt orchestrated by the Sprockets and the defense's claim of a third person at the scene of the crime. He had anticipated that Wright would attempt to indict Sorin as the culprit, with the car accident as the proposed motive. To clear things up, Edgeworth called Sorin to the witness stand to testify about his actions around the time of the murder.

"Cross-Examining Sorin"[]

Sorin testified that he had been stabbed by Gloomsbury in the reception hall following the first reception. Gloomsbury had then taken Wyatt to the vista deck, and attempted to throw her off the airship. Sorin had hurried to the vista deck to help Wyatt, but upon arriving there, he had found Gloomsbury dead. As much as he did not want to believe it, he could not think of any explanation other than that Wyatt had killed him. Upon hearing Sorin say this, Wyatt was devastated, as she had thought at least Sorin would believe in her.

Sorin saving Ellen

Sorin moving along the outside of the airship to save Wyatt.

Wright asked why it had taken Sorin so long to get to the vista deck, to which Edgeworth wondered whether Wright had investigated anything. The only way to get to the vista deck from the reception hall was to take the lift down to the hold, then take the other lift up to the vista deck, all of which would have taken at least ten minutes. Wright was suspicious of this explanation because Sorin's name did not show up on the hold entry record. He asserted that Sorin must have gone to the vista deck by a different route, namely the emergency escape hatch in the reception hall. It would have been a much faster route to the vista deck, and despite the extreme danger, Sorin's love for Wyatt could have made it possible for him to take it.

Sprocket Park sign

The broken sign Butz mistook for a pterodactyl.

Edgeworth countered that, regardless of the power of love, the spinning propellers on the side of the airship would have blown Sorin away if he had tried to take that route. Wright maintained that it would have been possible if, at the time of the crime, the airship was moored to the ground. As for evidence, Wright reminded the court of Butz's pterodactyl sighting, explaining the supposed prehistoric creature as a piece of the sign in Sprocket Park that had been broken by a windstorm on that night. Such a sign could not have been blown high enough to reach a flying airship. Edgeworth rebutted that this did not prove that Sorin had gone to the vista deck via the escape hatch. He asserted instead that Nichody must have opened the door to the hold for Sorin.

"Secrets Unveiled"[]

Sorin testified that Nichody had accompanied him to the hold, and had kept this a secret to prevent his butler from coming under suspicion. Wright decided to ask Sorin about his wound, with the latter answering that the "knife wound" was quite deep. However, Sorin had been stabbed with a candelabra, and it seemed odd that he would make such a mistake, especially when he had described the incident to Nichody himself. This was more than a simple memory slip; Wright proposed that Sorin had no memory of the incident at all, due to some sort of memory disorder. This explained why Sorin had been writing the details of his life in his notebook, and Wright suggested that the details of the stabbing had been blotted out by the bloodstain, essentially erasing it from Sorin's memory. Remembering the date when Sorin had first begun writing down his memories, Wright said that the car accident may have caused his memory disorder.

Sorin admitted that Wright's theory was correct. The accident had affected his mind somehow, and since then, he would lose his memories every time he went to sleep; when he woke up, the most recent thing he could remember was the day of the accident. Wright realized that Sorin was, in fact, the "time traveler" that he had mentioned two days ago, forced to constantly go back to the day he had lost his sister. The reactions of the people around him had made him aware of his condition, so he had decided to write down his memories in a notebook to be able to move forward. Wright said that all of this gave Sorin a clear motive to want to kill the man responsible for both his sister's death and his condition.

Wyatt, desperate to protect Sorin, took to the stand and confessed to the murder. Despite the fact that Sorin had testified against her, Wyatt just wanted him to be happy, and no disorder could change the fact that he was still the same person she had always loved. Hearing this, Sorin withdrew his testimony against Wyatt, explaining that his lack of memories had made him take the police completely at their word. He also admitted that he was the one who had caused the accident. His father had convinced Gloomsbury to take the blame in exchange for money and the position of lead servant. Gloomsbury must have held a grudge against Sorin and attacked him and Wyatt for being made into a scapegoat.

The judge asked that Sorin submit his notebook into evidence so that he could confirm that everything had transpired as he described. Wright, however, was still reluctant to accept the notebook as official proof of anything, and asked to examine it. Noticing that the last page with writing on it had been torn out, Wright realized that he could discover what had been written on it by using fingerprint powder on the blank page behind it, rendering the indentations left by the writing visible. Doing so revealed a hurriedly-written message: "I struck and killed Dumas."

While Wyatt passed out from shock, Sorin was relieved that at least this proved that she was innocent. He did not remember writing the confession, but reasoned that he must have, since he kept the notebook under lock and key at night. Sorin asked the judge to give his ruling quickly, while Wyatt was still unconscious. However, Wright was still skeptical; had Sorin committed the crime and intended to cover it up, he would need to remember that he had done it, so he would not have torn out his confession.

Wright reasoned that someone else must have torn out the page, and the only one with the opportunity to do so was Nichody. After all, he had orchestrated the cover-up and the second reception. Sorin began leafing through his notebook in a panic, wondering how much Nichody had altered his memories, until his jetpack activated, taking him up to the roof of the courtroom. Upon coming back down, Sorin collapsed, and was taken to the infirmary. Wright asked to have Nichody summoned to the stand, as regardless of whether he could be considered a suspect, he was now the only person who knew the whole truth and was surely still hiding something. Edgeworth accused Wright of trying to invent a third suspect so he could exonerate both Wyatt and Sorin, but eventually agreed to let Nichody testify.

"Cross-Examining Pierce"[]

After a 20-minute recess, Nichody took the stand and admitted that he had torn out the notebook page, claiming that he had done so to protect the groom. Sorin had headed to the vista deck alone via the escape hatch, just as Wright had asserted, and Nichody had rushed to the scene upon seeing the commotion on the vista deck, during which Sorin had struck Gloomsbury with the Time Keeper. Nichody further testified that Gloomsbury had attacked Sorin in retaliation, at which point Wyatt had dealt the fatal blow from behind before passing out. Sorin had written the confession in his notebook to convince his future self that he had killed Gloomsbury. However, Nichody had gone against Sorin's wishes and disposed of the confession to protect the Sprocket family's reputation.

Gloomsbury Note

The note found next to Gloomsbury's body.

When asked for details on the aftermath, Nichody testified that he had taken the still-warm body down to the hold and hidden it in the lantern, which Butz had later brought up to the reception hall. Wright suggested that Gloomsbury might still have been alive at that time, as evidenced by the bloodied inner wheel handle on the lantern, which Gloomsbury had gripped while trying to exit the lantern. Edgeworth argued that Gloomsbury had still succumbed to the blow inflicted by Wyatt, but Wright believed that the testimony of Wyatt's attack was a lie, and that the fatal blow had actually been dealt while Gloomsbury had attempted to exit the lantern. Edgeworth pointed out that this just led back to the original theory that Wyatt had finished him off after the second reception, but Wright provided evidence of the involvement of a third party, namely the note found next to Gloomsbury's body, written by a right-handed person despite Gloomsbury being left-handed. The attack on Wyatt did not make sense if Gloomsbury had simply wanted revenge on Sorin. Wright concluded that the note had been an instruction to him, from someone else.

Wright considered the identity of the third party, believing that the motive was tied to the car accident caused by Sorin. The only person close enough to Selena to want revenge for her death was her fiancé, who could have tried to murder Wyatt to make Sorin feel the same pain he had felt. Given the circumstances, this man must have been present at the reception. As for his identity, Wright noted that Selena's pocket watch, visible in the photograph of her, was the same watch that Nichody always carried with him. Wright theorized that Nichody had conspired with Gloomsbury to murder Wyatt, but the plan had failed, so the former had finished the latter off to prevent his plan from being exposed.

Nichody's demeanor changed. He admitted to being Selena's fiancé, saying that he had kept the pocket watch as a memento, though it had stopped working at the time of the accident. An indignant Edgeworth asked why he had not been informed of this, but Nichody flippantly berated Edgeworth for getting involved with the case and letting him come under suspicion. Placing his FXR-UPR mech on the witness stand, Nichody made his handkerchief into a surgeon's mask and removed his cuffs to reveal surgical gloves, then began operating on the mech, threatening to use the Sprocket family's power to have Wright and Edgeworth excised from the legal world.

"The Final Cross-Examination"[]

True Nichody

Pierce Nichody reveals his former self.

Wright demanded testimony from Nichody. However, the surgeon invoked his right to remain silent, saying that he would answer any specific questions but not make any voluntary statements. Wright decided to ask about Nichody's actions on the day of the crime, to which he responded that he had been in the line of sight of one worker or another during the whole night. Thus, he claimed, he could not have committed the murder unseen. Wright, however, found a single opportunity: during the second reception, the mood fog had engulfed the reception hall, obscuring much of the view.

"The Truth Activated"[]

Wright looked to the photo of that dreamlike moment and saw that Nichody had been standing near the sweetheart table and right next to the lantern. Edgeworth wondered if Wright could come up with evidence that the murder had been committed during the reception. Confident that he could not, Nichody encouraged Edgeworth to end the trial, saying that victory was within his grasp, but Edgeworth retorted that victory was meaningless to him and he was only interested in the truth. Nichody appealed to the judge instead, only to be told that the courts would not be swayed by any of his threats.

Wright thought back to the state of the murder weapon and recalled that the Time Keeper had been activated during the reception as part of the First Startup of Love. Wright recalled that this process involved two symbols of the bride and groom's love, and that Wyatt's pendant was supposed to be a component of the Time Keeper. He fitted the pendant into a spot near the bottom, inserted the Key of Love into the pendant, and turned it. Doing so opened the top of the Time Keeper to reveal a miniature scene of the happy couple, protected by a glass covering, which was cracked and stained with blood. Since everyone had been watching Sorin and Wyatt at the time, the only person with the opportunity for murder was Nichody. Panicked, Nichody began frantically operating on his FXR-UPR mech, saying he could repair anything, until he dropped his tools, cursing himself for having listened to Selena when she asked him to save Sorin instead of her. Clutching at his chest, Nichody collapsed.

NichodyMurder

Nichody about to strike Gloomsbury with the Time Keeper during the reception.

Nichody finally confessed. He had gotten a job with Sprocket Aviation and waited for his chance at revenge; as Gloomsbury had also nursed a grudge against Sorin, it had been easy to convince him to cooperate with the plan. Sorin had compromised the plan, however, so Nichody had hidden Gloomsbury in the lantern to buy time to think of his next move. Upon seeing Gloomsbury regain consciousness and exit the lantern during the second reception, Nichody had thought to kill him and pin the blame on Wyatt, thereby seeking to separate the couple.

Nichody admitted that what he had done would not have have made Selena happy, but that it had become unbearable for him to watch Sorin inherit the company and marrying the love of his life in Selena's place. Wyatt responded that Selena would have wanted him to make the most of his time and leave this ill will behind. Nichody said it was too late for him, as time would never advance for him again. However, to his surprise, he found that Selena's pocket watch had started working again.

Pierce Nichody
I see now, Selena... What I did... was wrong...

After Nichody was taken away, Sorin took this moment to tell Wyatt that he would understand if she wanted to call off the marriage, as she had been put through all this because of him. He stated that he intended to make public everything about both the present incident and the past year's car accident. He believed that this was the only way for him to make a fresh start, despite the damage it would do to the reputations of him and his company. He then began writing in his notebook, but then decided to say it verbally:

Sorin Sprocket
A life with me probably won't be very easy, but... will you marry me?
Ellen Wyatt
............Yes, of course!

The judge asked Sorin and Wyatt whether they pledged their eternal love for each other to the goddess of justice, Themis; they replied that they did. With the case resolved and no objections from either side, the judge rendered a verdict of not guilty.

"Post-Trial Wrap-Up"[]

11:36 AM
Ellenandsorin

Sorin carries Ellen Wyatt, about to leave the courthouse.

Wright congratulated the couple while Sorin and Wyatt thanked him and invited him to their true wedding ceremony, to be held in the near future. In seeing them overcome the trial together, Wright was confident that they would be able to handle any obstacles that the future might bring, adding that Selena would always be watching over them. Sorin and Wyatt both promised to live life to the fullest, for Selena's sake as well as theirs. Carrying Wyatt in his arms, Sorin flew them both out of the courthouse with his jetpack. Wright discussed the upcoming wedding with Fey and Cykes, wondering whether Edgeworth could be invited, considering that he had given him the opportunity to take down Nichody. Butz, who had been quiet for some time, lamented that time was moving too fast for him and that things would have gone differently if he were ten years younger.

September 30[]

9:20 AM
Sorin and Ellen

Finally reunited.

One week after the trial, Wright headed to the Flying Chapel where the wedding would be held. The bride and groom had invited not only him and Fey, but also Edgeworth, Skye, and even Butz, while Cykes had sort of invited herself. Remembering the old proverb that said the third time was the charm, Wright hoped that things would really end happily ever after this time.

After the reception, Fey, Cykes, and Skye prepared to catch Wyatt's bridal bouquet as she tossed it into the air, but it ended up inadvertently landing in Butz's hands. Butz's excitement at being the next to marry was brief, with Edgeworth drawing his attention to Fey, Cykes, and Skye glaring at him. As the three women angrily chased after Butz, Sorin embraced Wyatt, telling her that he was blessed to have her.

Continuity[]

  • When Fey first appears, she does an impression of Edgeworth with this line: "I trust you've been well, Wright?". This is exactly the same line Edgeworth first said in Turnabout for Tomorrow.
  • Butz became famous by publishing the picture book, Franzy's Whippity-Whip Trip, which he had first conceptualized in Bridge to the Turnabout upon seeing Franziska von Karma.
  • The murder weapon in this episode being a clock harks back to the The First Turnabout, where the murder weapon was also a type of clock. Incidentally, both episodes featured Phoenix Wright and Larry Butz as main characters.
  • When Phoenix presents the photo of the hold and points out the flowers in the photo, Edgeworth initially dismisses it, but Wright later claims that Edgeworth doesn't know much about flowers, leading Edgeworth to retort, "This from the man who only knows the names of three types of flowers!" The three flowers in question may be a reference to an earlier conversation from Turnabout Sisters, where Phoenix states that he only knows sunflowers, tulips, and roses.
  • Wright points out that Edgeworth doesn't know much about flowers. Franziska von Karma points out the same thing in The Grand Turnabout.
  • Investigating the piano in the Wright Anything Agency leads to Fey asking if she could play it, but Phoenix retorts that the hotel next door would complain. This could be a reference to how Fey played the piano in the movie and to the Gatewater Hotel.
  • When explaining the time travel that Wyatt and Butz experienced, Phoenix tells Edgeworth that it was the conclusion he came to "using that logic ability you love so much." This could be a reference to the logic gameplay element in Edgeworth's games.

Cultural references[]

  • When talking to Wyatt in the detention center with Butz, he'll tell her that she "broke his achy breaky heart." This is a reference to the country song "Achy Breaky Heart".
  • When examining Edgeworth's car, Phoenix says that "it's time he pimped it out." This could be a reference to the American TV show Pimp My Ride, where people take their cars in for restoration and customization.
  • Presenting the attorney's badge to Fey results in her eventually referring to Phoenix as "RoboWright". Phoenix then thinks to himself, "I guess that makes me a RoboLawyer?" This is most likely a reference to the 1987 movie RoboCop.
  • Fey and Skye compare Wyatt's marriage to Sorin as a modern-day fairy tale, possibly referencing the fairy tale Cinderella, a fairy tale where a young servant girl ends up marrying a prince (in this case, a maid marrying the heir of a wealthy business).
  • When complaining about being Trucy Wright's assistant, Cykes states how she would rather "Take toilets for $200, please", a reference to what contestants on the game show Jeopardy! would say when selecting a question.
  • Phoenix asserts that Sorin was able to go along the outside wall of the airship despite the danger using “The power of love”. This is likely a reference to a song from Huey Lewis and the News of the same name. “The power of love” is brought up by Phoenix again later in court to which Edgeworth responds by calling Phoenix a “Pop Culture Junkie”.
  • After Edgeworth suggests Wyatt confess in court, Phoenix and Maya disapprove of his words. When even the Judge declares he is disappointed, Edgeworth comments "Et tu, Your Honor...?!". This is a reference to the supposed last words of Julius Caesar from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, "Et tu, Brute?", when he finds that even his close friend Brutus is behind his approaching assassination.

Typos[]

  • When talking to Fey and Sorin outside of the Flying Chapel, Fey says "I don't why..." instead of "I don't know why..." This is fixed in the iOS and Android versions of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice.
  • When speaking to Cykes at the agency, Wright says "...might have be Sorin Sprocket." instead of "...might have been Sorin Sprocket." This is also fixed in the iOS and Android versions of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice.
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