Defendants' Antechamber[edit]
You start off as Susato Mikotoba, daughter of Yujin Mikotoba who is here to defend her friend Rei as a male lawyer named Ryutaro. In the Meiji period, women weren't allowed to be lawyers at the time. Check your history books on Japanese law culture for more. Anyway, because of that, and the fact that her friend is still in the United Kingdom, she's forced to dress up as a boy and have her father assist her in the proceedings. Prosecutor Auchi is back again so you have to contend with him.
You meet Rei for the first time and you try to tell her not to blow your cover since you don't want the prosecutor and the judge to find out that you're not a male lawyer. If you're wondering what she's wearing, it's not her usual kimono but a black uniform with a cap on to disguise her hair.
Trial begins[edit]
You start off with introductions as you claim to be the cousin of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, Ryutaro Naruhodo. You'll get a similar feeling to the last game without the penalties in the beginning thankfully. But after the cross examination, if you keep getting the wrong answer, it's game over. You begin with one piece of evidence in the Court Record, the Post-Mortem Report, before the judge begins to test you on the case. You may remember Jezaille Brett from the first game, as she tried to frame Ryunosuke for the murder of John Wilson. In a twist, Jezaille has been murdered instead and Rei is framed for the murder. On the first question, choose Jezaille Brett as a description of her character. The second answer is killer.
Achievement note for Chronicles release: On the first question, if you choose Prosecutor Auchi and Yujin Mikotoba before choosing the correct answer, you get the first achievement in this sequel. On Steam and PS4, the achievement/trophy will pop, and on Switch, you can check if you received it in the Accolades list, accessible via the Special Contents section. The second achievement here is to turn on all alternate costumes. Check the Special Contents section for that option.
Then, when prompted, choose all three options, one by one, to know more about the murder and the reason why everyone suspects Rei did it. She will explain she used to assist Doctor John Wilson on his research before he was murdered, and so she harbored a strong hatred for Miss Brett. It is believed she killed Brett to avenge her teacher's death. The victim was going to be extradited to Great Britain the next day, so that moment would be her last chance to fulfill her revenge.
Shortly after, the Crime Scene Photograph is added to the Court Record, and next is the cross examination. If you played the previous game, you will remember Inspector Hosonaga from Cases 1 and 2. This time though, instead of a waiter or a sailor uniform, he wears a bathing suit with a small turtle on his head. The other witness is surprisingly Soseki, who you might also remember from the previous game. He came back from England trying to run away from a certain "curse", and apparently has become a famous writer in Japan now; he even has a man with a camera following him around. You have to be extra careful so that none of them recognize you.
You receive the Soseki Natsume Article for your Court Record, detailing the conversation he had with your dad after giving a lecture at Yumei university, on the same day the murder took place. You then find out that Miss Brett was never imprisoned for her crimes, but instead continued to work for Dr. Mikotoba under Inspector Hosonaga's constant surveillance. Miss Brett approached the two men on that fateful morning and asked to go visit the coast with them. Dr. Mikotoba couldn't go, so his assistant Rei took his place, and that's how the group of four ended up at the bath house.
The witnesses then proceed to testify.
Hosonaga and Soseki's Testimony: The Witnessed Scene[edit]
- Hosonaga: On the day of the incident, I was ordered on a special surveillance assignment in this disguise.
- Soseki: I'd just managed to catch that crab when I suddenly heard a caterwaul from behind me.
- Hosonaga: I ran into the beach hut at once, where I found the pair in question.
- Soseki: YES YES YES! That young girl was astride the Englishwoman, dagger in hand, as she stabbed wildly!
- Hosonaga: I saw blood on the blade. It proved to me that she'd stabbed the victim multiple times.
The Witnessed Scene: Cross Examination[edit]
Before being cross examined, Hosonaga points out that, in the crime scene picture, the victim is clutching a fountain pen in her right hand. This fountain pen is engraved with the initials R. M., which again points to Rei as the culprit. The Fountain Pen is immediately added to the Court Record.
Present the Autopsy Report on statement 5. You correct Hosonaga that the report only says a single stab and there's really no indication that there has been multiple stabbings. Congratulations on getting through your first cross examination, but this is only the beginning.
Prosecutor Auchi counters on why there's only one stabbing. Choose saving a person's life as the other answers will result in penalties. But that alone isn't strong enough to acquit Rei, so the judge orders another testimony from both witnesses.
Note: If you make up to five mistakes during the cross examination and answering serious questions, you have to start over again. Be thankful that you can still pick up where you left off.
Hosonaga's Testimony: Forensic Medicine Primer[edit]
- Pulling a blade from a wound without thinking could cause heavy bleeding.
- That's basic knowledge that any medical research assistant with an ounce of sense ought to know.
- In other words, there's no good reason why the defendant would have tried to pull the knife from the victim.
- Let's not forget that the young student did have a motive for killing the victim.
- The man the victim murdered, nine months ago, Dr Wilson, was the defendant's highly respected mentor.
Forensic Medicine Primer: Cross Examination[edit]
Time for the tutorial on how to examine evidence in 3D. Skip past the end of the testimony so you can talk with Yujin and learn how to do it. He will tell you to examine the fountain pen if you take the full tutorial, but what you need to do for now is to examine the back of the newspaper to get the article about the stolen poison added to the Court Record.
Once you have the article, present it on the third statement to give a very good reason for why the knife had to be pulled out.
However, you will be asked which part of the article is relevant; the answer is the middle part, Deadly in tiny quantities!
However, just because the poison was stolen doesn't mean that it was used here, so you will be asked for evidence of this. The Post-Mortem Report has a curious note: the pupils were constricted, just like the poison would have done. Present that evidence.
This forces Auchi to present some evidence that he'd rather not, an Incriminating Photograph sent anonymously to the police. It quickly becomes obvious that whomever took the photo was a witness to the crime. You will just have to identify the photographer. Luckily, there is a striking similarity between the photo and the newspaper article. Specifically, there are curious marks in both the article photo and the crime photo. This can only be because the camera has a defect.
Surprisingly, Soseki screams his name, "Menimemo," and confirms that he's the one hounding people for the paper. The judge orders the inspector to bring the reporter to court and for the blade of the murder weapon to be checked for poison.