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Taketsuchi Auchi
A slice it shall be
Into the wind it scatters
Carrying my hopes
Endless for one cannot count
Farewell it presents
- Taketsuchi.
Taketsuchi Auchi was a prosecutor in Japan during the Meiji period who was an ancestor of Winston and Gaspen Payne.
Contents
- 1 Facing rookies
- 2 Failed redemption
- 3 Personality
- 4 Appearance
- 5 Name
Facing rookies[]
- Main article: The Adventure of the Great Departure
Taketsuchi Auchi was the prosecutor for Ryunosuke Naruhodo's trial for the murder of John Wilson at La Carneval; a delicate case involving a British citizen soon after a treaty had been signed between the British and Japanese empires. Although Kazuma Asogi was intended to be the defense attorney for the case, Naruhodo suddenly declared in court that he would defend himself.
In the course of the trial, Auchi unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Naruhodo's cross-examination of a witness, despite Asogi's assertion that the defense had a right to do so. Naruhodo went on to claim that someone else had also been at Wilson's table at La Carneval, only for Auchi to present a photo of the crime scene that showed that the table had only been set for one. However, Naruhodo managed to turn the situation around by presenting a medical report that stated the victim was recovering from a tooth removal, which would have prevented him from eating anything for three hours, thereby proving that someone else had indeed been sitting with him.
After it was revealed that the other individual who had been sitting with Wilson was a British exchange student called Jezaille Brett, she was called to testify. Naruhodo pointed out in the crime photo that only one wine glass had been set for the table, which Auchi tried to dismiss as trivial. However, Asogi declared that it was likely that the police had disposed of the glass in order to cover for her and protect the treaty. After Naruhodo revealed that one of the photographs of the victim revealed a burn mark on his arm, Auchi once again tried to state that it was irrelevant to the case at hand, only for Asogi to argue that such a serious burn would have drawn the attention of the restaurant. Eventually, Brett was revealed as the true culprit behind Wilson's death. A defeated Auchi then had his chonmage sliced apart by Asogi, who cursed the prosecutor's family to never be able to defeat Naruhodo's own, even after a thousand years.
At some point after Naruhodo's trial, Auchi acted as the prosecutor for the trial of Iyesa Nosa for the theft of a valuable koban belonging to Kyurio Korekuta.
Failed redemption[]
- Main article: The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney
Owing to the Japanese government's relationship with the United Kingdom, it was determined that Jezaille Brett would not be tried in Japan, and was instead due to be transferred to the British consulate in Shanghai. However, shortly before this was due to happen, Brett was murdered and Rei Membami arrested as the prime suspect. Taketsuchi Auchi was assigned as the prosecutor for Membami's subsequent trial, with the defense being a young man calling himself Ryutaro Naruhodo, who claimed to be the cousin of the defense attorney who had previously humiliated him in court. Auchi heard this information with glee, seeing it as an opportunity to get revenge.
However, it was eventually revealed that a journalist named Raiten Menimemo was the true culprit behind Brett's murder, having been angered at her callousness and dismissive attitude toward him, and the submissive response of the Japanese government to the British Empire. Having been defeated once again, Auchi cut off the single lock of hair growing from the front of his head.
However, upon later hearing that "Ryutaro Naruhodo" had actually been female legal assistant Susato Mikotoba in disguise, he tried to press charges against her as women were forbidden to be anything but witnesses in Japanese courts at that time. He also tried to press charges against Detective Hosonaga for infiltrating Seishiro Jigoku's office. In response, Hosonaga hired Membami and Soseki Natsume as his defense attorneys against the prosecutor.
Personality[]
Much like his descendants, Taketsuchi Auchi was generally smug and overconfident, but also easy to rattle, and tended to have trouble articulating his arguments clearly in court. He wielded a fan in court which was decorated with the kanji for "Guilty" (罪) during Naruhodo's trial; this changed to "Punishment" (罰) for Membami's trial. He was also unable to speak English at all.
During Membami's trial, Auchi seemed to have shown actual growth in terms of his prosecuting skills, so much so as to be noticeable to "Ryutaro Naruhodo". However, this was undercut by a great amount of desperation on his part. Both "Ryutaro" and Yujin made note of his desperate cling to his topknot as as a metaphor for his desperate clinging onto his pride as both a prosecutor and a "samurai". After his defeats at the hands of the so-called "yokel student", Auchi cut off the last lock of his desperate topknot, in a manner identical to a seppuku (ritual suicide by a defeated samurai); this is complete with "Ryutaro" and Yujin giving respectful prayer in the process.
During the Membami trial, Auchi seemed to gain somewhat of a fixation on calling people "yokels", as a derogatory way of insinuating that they are as mentally stagnated as someone from "the country". This originated from his distain towards "Ryutaro Naruhodo", whom he thought to be a "student from the country".
Appearance[]
Taketsuchi in his first appearance has a chonmage topknot, and in his second appearance has his hair down with a sprig of hair at the front of his bald spot. Throughout both games he wears glasses and has a wrinkled face similar to the other Paynes in the series. He first carries a fan with the kanji "罪" (sin; crime; punishment; guilty; etc) written on it. Later, he carries a fan with the kanji "罰" (punishment; penalty) on it. He wears over his kimono a yellow kamishimo on which the Auchi clan's emblem is represented. On his left arm he wears an armband with a symbol similar to the modern prosecutor's badges in the mainline Ace Attorney games.
Name[]
- Japanese - Taketsuchi Auchi (亜内 武土):
- "Taketsuchi" (武土) is visually similar to the Japanese word "bushi" (武士), meaning "samurai".
- "Auchi" (亜内) is a Japanese ateji (where kanji characters are used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters) of the English word "ouch".
