Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/Turnabout Ablaze/Part 5-4 - Middle 3

Having deduced the killer of Manny Coachen in the last chapter, it is now time for us to confront Shih-na. We meet Agent Lang, Franziska and Ambassador Alba in the Theatrum Neutralis. It appears that they have yet to find out that the fuel for the fire is the counterfeit bills. Lang is noticeably frustrated because he couldn't catch the leader of the smuggling ring before he died. We still need to question Shih-na. Detective Gumshoe enters the theatre with the results of the handwriting analysis and confirms that the handwriting on DeMasque II's note is indeed Manny Coachen's. DeMasque II's Note is updated in your Organizer.

Edgeworth now demands that Shih-na explains how she didn't see the Yatagarasu when she was only in the next room. Lang steps in to prove Shih-na's innocence, so if we need to find the truth, we'll have to confront him. First, we need to establish that the Yatagarasu visited the Babahlese embassy and find out who was the mysterious person Kay saw.

Kay now gives us a testimony about the suspicious man. She saw the person around the open-air stage, but they ran into the embassy after she called out to them. She chased the person onto the third floor but lost track of them when they went around a corner. She tried her best to catch up, just in time to see the person enter the secretariat's office. When she entered the room and turned on the lights, the person had disappeared.

Edgeworth asks Agent Lang how the person escaped. While Lang says that they slipped past Kay in the darkness, that couldn't be possible. If the person did escape that way, Yatagarasu would have bumped into someone. Present Shih-na. Because Kay alerted Shih-na in the next room when she screamed, anyone who tried to escape through the door would have run straight into her. Even if the person managed to elude Shih-na, they would still have bumped into Detective Gumshoe, who was running towards Kay's position from Shih-na's opposite.

Agent Lang still doesn't know about the revolving fireplace in Babahl, so we should keep that a secret for now. He states the window as another possible escape route and says that the photo seems to prove it. Whoever in this photo could not have been the person that Kay saw. Present the Photo of Yatagarasu. This photo was taken after the first fire, whereas Kay saw the person during the second fire. Lang demands an explanation for the person's escape route, but Edgeworth requests Shih-na, the investigator in the Babahlese side, to explain for him in his stead. Shih-na takes the challenge, so we'll start with her movements in the embassy.

Testimony: Shih-na
Shih-na's sly smile feels a bit familiar. She doesn't quite believe in Kay's testimony, so we must prove its existence.

Rebuttal: Shih-na's Movements
Present the Revolving Fireplace Wall on the fourth statement. As we've ruled out all the other possible escape routes, that leaves the fireplace as the only possible path for the suspicious person to take. If Shih-na was in the other room, she should've seen the person. The only explanation for that is that Shih-na was the person Kay saw, and she led her into Coachen's room, escaped through the fireplace and arrested Kay.

The laugh
We've cornered Shih-na, and she seems to be out of words. She suddenly laughs in a very familiar fashion, reminding you of someone seven years ago. Shih-na says that our accusation is merely speculation, with no proof to back it up. We do have proof that the fireplace passage was used recently, though. Present the Revolving Fireplace Wall or '''Amb. Palaeno's Testimony'''. Ambassador Palaeno burned some files with Mr. Coachen that morning but forgot to clean up the ashes. The ashes weren't in the room when we investigated it because whoever used the fireplace passage pushed the ashes to the opposite room. Shih-na is still not convinced and says that the next testimony will be her last.

Rebuttal: Shih-na's Rebuttal
Present the Counterfeit Bills or the Wire at statement 5. We found the wire in the grandfather clock at the crime scene. Not only that, but we also found out that someone had burned counterfeit bills in that office! That means that her thorough investigation was not very thorough at all. There is also one place that Interpol failed to inspect. Present Shih-na's room. She was the only one investigating there, so it is possible that she hid something from us. Gumshoe goes to inspect the next room immediately.

Remember that Edgeworth had Gumshoe pass through the fireplace passage into the other room and how his coat got covered in ash and ink. Gumshoe returns from his investigation with three pieces of evidence: some make-up, a coat, and a pair of shoes. Shih-na claims that those belong to her, so they can't be considered evidence. However, they are quite significant to the investigation, and Agent Lang permits us to examine her belongings. Choose the Coat. It is stained with ash and ink, but Shih-na claims that it was the soot from the first fire she helped put out. She is probably lying, and we know what is really the dark substance on the hem of the coat. Present the Babahlese Ink. Ambassador Palaeno said that he spilled some Babahlese ink on the back wall of the fireplace and Gumshoe got some of it on to his coat when he tried to pass through the passage. If we can prove that the substance on her coat is ink, that will prove that she used the fireplace! Choose to Burn the coat.

Edgeworth takes a piece of the coat and lights it on fire, which burns with a green flame. Babahlese ink is made up of whitcrystal oil, which produces a green flame when burned. Edgeworth now accuses Shih-na as being Calisto Yew, the fake Yatagarasu! Present Ms. Yew's perfume. Kay had preserved the bottle Yew spewed almost perfectly for the last seven years, which means that Yew's fingerprints should still be on it. By conducting a fingerprint test, we can prove if Shih-na really is Calisto Yew.

Shih-na lets out an even longer laugh and finally confesses to being the Yatagarasu. She was sent by the smuggling ring to be a spy, intentionally thwarting all of Interpol's efforts to find their leader. She suddenly holds Kay hostage, saying that she is the true Yatagarasu and asking Edgeworth why the Yatagarasu has three legs. Edgeworth now recalls a conversation with Detective Badd. The Yatagarasu is always one step ahead because it always knows the exact location of an object, always knows how to disarm the security system, and never leaves evidence behind.

Edgeworth suddenly realises the real identity of the Yatagarasu. Choose Neither person. The Yatagarasu is not one person, but it is actually a team that consisted of Calisto Yew and Byrne Faraday. The Yatagarasu knows the exact location of its target because Yew was able to find out corporate dealings by being a lawyer. The Yatagarasu always knows how to disarm a security system because Mr. Faraday should know the ways of a criminal, being an experienced prosecutor. That leaves us with the final skill of the Yatagarasu: it never leaves any evidence behind. Detective Badd has overheard the commotion and has his gun pointed at Shih-na. He reveals that the reason the evidence was never found is that he, being the lead detective in all the cases involving it, hid them away. Yew has had enough of this whole ordeal and pulls the trigger.

Suddenly, Agent Lang shoves Kay away from Yew and blocks a bullet from Detective Badd. Even if she is a murderer or a spy, she is still his subordinate, which he has a duty to protect. He requests Franziska to conduct a full-body search to check for other weapons with help from Gumshoe. He finds a blade without a handle, a vital piece of evidence that happens to fit perfectly with another piece of evidence. Present the Babahlese Knife Handle. It was taken out from the handle when the blades were switched, so Edgeworth requests Gumshoe to return the handle and blade to Ambassador Palaeno. The blade is concrete proof that Yew is the killer of Manny Coachen.

Shih-na (or Calisto Yew) killed Manny Coachen with an Allebahstian knife, swapped the handle of the blade with one from Babahl and took its original blade with her. Then she lured Kay into the office to try and pin the crime on her. Yew reveals that she wanted to capture Kay to take the Little Thief. Mr. Faraday infiltrated this embassy seven years ago using the same device and stole the key. Yew also reveals that the only reason she killed Mr. Faraday was that the smuggling ring she belonged in was worried about the Yatagarasu. She hints that the real ringleader is still alive and yet to be arrested, and also reveals that she was the one who started the fires.

Just before Shih-na is taken away, Kay stops her. She says that she found some hair sticks that Shih-na dropped when she was shoved by Agent Lang, but Shih-na lets her keep the hair sticks. Shih-na also claims that she wasn't Manny Coachen's killer. Lang says that he will return even with a wounded leg, saying that the case is now a personal one to him.

Bad Ending Five: If you run out of logic here, Lang believes it's a waste of time and taking Edgeworth off the case.

Epilogue?
Kay lets Edgeworth keep the hair sticks for her, which Edgeworth observes have a bit of soil at the ends. The Hair Sticks are added to the Organizer.

Detective Badd is relieved that the whole legend of the Yatagarasu is over, saying that he can finally retire. He returns some files on the KG-8 incident back to Edgeworth, meaning that he was the thief we encountered in the first case!

Badd reveals that the Yatagarasu started after the KG-8 Incident. After evidence was stolen and Manny Coachen was found Not Guilty, they decided that the law has a limit. They vowed to reveal the truth behind any companies dealing with the smuggling ring. Just as they were about to find out the identity of the smuggling ring's ringleader, Calisto Yew betrayed them and killed Mr. Faraday. After his death, Badd looked into Yew's past and found out that Cece Yew never had a sister. "Calisto Yew" was merely another fake name.

Badd says that he stuck a trump card under a photo in the case files. This card is actually a directives card that Coachen possessed at the time of the KG-8 Incident and had Cece Yew's blood on it. The reason they called themselves Yatagarasu was because of the three-legged raven used by the ringleader of the smuggling group. The cards were orders sent by the boss of the ring and members that received it were required to burn it, producing a green flame. Mr. Faraday miraculously obtained the card, so the team decided to use a card with inverted colors as a warning for the smuggling ring. The Trump Card is added to your Organizer.

He also gives us the stolen evidence from the case, which was stolen and hid away by Ernest Amano and only found after his arrest. The Video Tape is added to your Organizer. Amano had prepared to overthrow the ringleader and had the videotape as insurance. He also instructed Jacques Portsman to steal the video and to infiltrate Edgeworth's office to take the trump card. These two pieces of evidence are, therefore, illegal, but Badd says they will be useful against those that are "above the law". He now requests Gumshoe to arrest him, the last remaining member of the Yatagarasu.

The legend of the Yatagarasu has finally ended, but the case is still not over. Who killed both men, and who is the ringleader of the group?

The chapter now ends.