#so nahyuta's prosecuting him ofc

[kageyama-ritsu]

me, sitting up from bed with cold sweat: a case in khu’rain where apollo is accused of murder and klavier takes a plane ride to pose as a defense attorney and help him out

[an-obligatory-blog]

a nahyuta headcanon

slash character-study-slash-analysis

I’ve been playing SoJ for the first time (I’ve watched a playthrough beforehand) and I got this sad thought about Nahyuta in the middle of Case 3

The headcanon is this: Nahyuta’s quirk of researching anything vaguely related to a case ridiculously thoroughly (ex. memorizing rakugo scripts when knowing the definition would’ve been enough probably, watching all of Retinz’s shows, etc.) is a product of his resignation to the belief that Ga’ran and DC Act won’t go away.

Explanation under read more. SoJ spoilers ofc. Warning: I might’ve gotten a lil long winded with this post.

First, let’s establish the kind of person Nahyuta as a prosecutor is.

He is known as the Last Rites Prosecutor because of his religious beliefs.

He has a big reputation as an international prosecutor, cracking hard, difficult cases

The skill that he is known for is his “foresight” (”seeing the karmic threads of fate”)

Note: This “foresight” is referring to him “predicting the flow of the trial”-- this isn’t him being omniscient, it’s has everything to do with information (ex. predicting the defense’s arguments, using inductive reasoning to shoot down the defense’s argument (see concluding that the twins in 6-2 are silent because of a prank plan w/o having the prank script revealed to him due to his observations))

He is thorough with his investigations-- this includes researching relentlessly any kind of information that’s vaguely related to the case as mentioned earlier. He does this more in the States than Khura’in for obvious reasons.

He doesn’t tolerate perjury from witnesses or when information is hidden from him

He slings insults towards the defense with his sharp-tongue and throws beads. (As you will know after finishing SoJ, much of this is because of Ga’ran’s influence. Him hating defense attorneys so fervently is an act.)

I would like to note that a lot of these characteristics aren’t unique to Nahyuta, especially his “foresight”-- prosecutors have laid traps for the defense before. Prosecutors have predicted the defense’s arguments before. Prosecutors have been... prosecutors. They do their job. For me personally, I find this understandable because at the end of the day, I thought it was ridiculous to expect that the new prosecutor is going to pull a special move in court to the point where it feels significant to the player. This applies to Blackquill and his “psychological manipulation.” Yes, it’s there, but it’s no wonder that people have said “they haven’t done anything that prosecutors haven’t done before” or at least, “it doesn’t feel like they have.” That’s because you do the same things in court as you have done before-- you point out contradictions and voila. New gameplay mechanics makes the trial flow feel different-- not whatever the prosecutor’s specialty is (specifically DD and SoJ as they are the main culprits for that).

But what it does do for Blackquill and Nahyuta is characterization. It characterizes who they are as a prosecutor. With Blackquill, not only does it relate to being Metis’s student, but also his behavior in court-- playing mind tricks with the judge and the defense and laughing, quietly or otherwise, when they fall for it.

So here, I want to draw your attention to how it relates to Nahyuta specifically. Forget about how “other prosecutors have done this before” for a moment and take this “foresight” as a specific character trait to Nahyuta.

What does this mean? Notice how I bolded the word “information” earlier. Nahyuta’s reputation and behavior as a prosecutor is centered around the concept of “information.” The information he knows but the defense doesn’t. The information he doesn’t know but deduces from other pieces of information. The information that he gathers from the Internet from late night studying or the information he goes to a burger joint to get. Etcetera. Etcetera.

Keep this in mind and let’s step back into the main plot of Spirit of Justice. 

Khura’in’s legal system is in deep shit-- to put it simply. The Defense Culpability Act essentially eliminated defense attorneys from Khura’in from being active.

The burden of delivering justice, aka “giving what people deserve”, falls entirely on the prosecution’s side.

From the perspective of (AA) court, the only way for “justice” to be served is if the prosecution is absolutely correct. After all, if the prosecution’s charges are “just”, then the court’s decision will be “just.” If they aren’t, the verdict won’t be either. That’s how it works in Khura’in during this time.

So let’s say that you’re a prosecutor in this broken system, but you still want to serve justice-- what do you do? You have to be right.

This is where why Nahyuta being an international prosecutor is important-- he’s supposed to contrast Gaspen from 6-1, who despite being Chief Prosecutor, is still incompetent. Why? Because Gaspen doesn’t care about being right-- he cares about his win streak and he can get it easy if he stays in Khura’in because there are. No. Defense attorneys. Easy wins. 

You can’t do that if you’re an international prosecutor. You’re going to face a lawyer in court some way or another and you can’t just pass by without some actual skill. 

You cannot improve as a prosecutor if no one is there to point out the flaws of your arguments. You cannot improve as a prosecutor if you never face a lawyer in court. You cannot improve as a prosecutor if you remain as a domestic prosecutor in Khura’in.

That’s why Nahyuta is a “skilled” prosecutor and Gaspen is not.

But wait. Nahyuta is under Ga’ran’s thumb. If all Ga’ran wanted to do was to keep Nahyuta on a leash, why appoint Nahyuta to be an international prosecutor? Wouldn’t it be easier to watch him if he stayed domestic?

This is where the “headcanon” part of this post comes in (aka the part where I make up things): Nahyuta specifically requested to become an international prosecutor to make most of the broken system: a system that has no defense attorneys.

He could’ve done this from the get-go after gaining some trust, but I like the idea of him wanting to stay domestic at first to get close to Ga’ran and help the rebel cause, but after being blackmailed and now having his mother’s and sister’s lives on the line, he requested to be an international prosecutor. Why? Because that’s the only way he’ll ever get better at being a prosecutor-- the only way to minimize the chance of making a wrongful conviction in Khura’in because he can’t afford being wrong if he wants to serve justice. And it’s not like he can just back out as a prosecutor with Ga’ran breathing down his neck. Ga’ran allows this because there’s nothing to lose with having a better prosecutor and she can just keep watch on him from overseas easily (if Inga can have spies watching the civil trial, then Ga’ran can watch Nahyuta even if he’s flying everywhere). If he truly wants to make Khura’in broken ass system to “work” as much as possible, he’ll literally have to be the perfection a von Karma dreams to be-- not just in terms of win streak like Manfred, but an actual god of prosecutors. A prosecutor that is always right because he’s borderline all-knowing.

That is an absolutely ridiculous standard. 

But with a shitty legal system like Khura’in’s... perhaps that’s the only way. I’m sure by now you see the connection between “wanting to be a borderline all-knowing god of law for the sake of salvaging Khura’in’s justice” and “having your entire reputation as a prosecutor center around information”. (You can connect this to Nahyuta’s aesthetic-- a holy man who’s eyes seem to pierce through your soul.)

Of course, this is the “only way” if you just accept that DCA or Ga’ran won’t go away. The “only way”... if you resign to Ga’ran’s regime.

I like this headcanon because adds a personal layer to the qualities Nahyuta has, but shares with past prosecutors. Hidden information pissing him off/catching him off guard, him being extremely thorough with investigation to the point of studying the most seemingly pointless shit... perhaps the important thing isn’t so much he can “read the karmic threads of fate” but him “wanting to read the karmic threads of fate” hah.

But we know that even being perfect isn’t enough. 6-3 proves that and that’s why it’s special in the narrative of SoJ.

We know by 6-1 that the DCA is bullshit and by 6-5 we then knew for certain that it was just a tool by Ga’ran to remain in power by silencing her opponents. But 6-3 shows that it runs deeper than “oh we need DAs bc what if the defendant is innocent”. Nah, in 6-3, the entire incident happened BECAUSE of the DCA. You can’t brush it off as the prosecutor being shitty like in 6-1. It didn’t matter if a godlike prosecutor came in and indicts the right person every time. Nah, you NEED the presence of DAs to argue a defendant’s case-- for a person to trust/feel safe around a legal system to serve exactly what they deserve, accounting for mitigating circumstances like self-defense. When there is no faith in the potential defendant’s case, of course they are going to do illegal shit like lie in court or frame another person to take the blame-- even if you should’ve had something like self-defense on your side. Pointing at “the right guy” isn’t enough to “serve justice”.

If Nahyuta deluded himself into thinking that “maybe if I study or try hard enough, maybe that’s the best Khura’in could ever have,” he probably snapped out of it by the end of 6-3 because no, it doesn’t matter how good of a prosecutor he is as an individual, the problem is much bigger than him. Fuck, maybe he’s extra pissy in 6-4 because of that and lashes at the much more inexperienced Athena. I don’t know that’s just a wild shot in the dark.

And of course, he stays silent for Rayfa’s and Amara’s sake until the very end.

...

The inspiration of this headcanon is how the writers of SoJ made Nahyuta being “hard to read” a deliberate character trait (that he shares with his mom). We know his behaviors and his motives behind his actions, but I feel like by the end of the game, his personal feelings throughout the game is a mystery. His acting and his poker face didn’t help in that regard. I wished there was more foreshadowing in that regard-- I will never not be salty that Athena’s hearing wasn’t used as foreshadowing in 6-4 that Nahyuta doesn’t believe what he says. (or hell, maybe even in 6-2 if they really wanted to).

I don’t think I would be nearly as passionate about this character as I am now if his personal feelings was a simple, open book, of course. Despite the writing flaws that I will gripe about time to time, he’s my favorite prosecutor at the end of the day.

Side note: I like to believe that he got a good impression and liking towards Ema as a detective because 1) forensics is without a doubt, a great source of information that Khura’in didn’t have before (to a large extent) and 2) in 6-2, Ema legit fingerprinted and analyzed everything out of passion and perhaps Nahyuta felt some sort of kinship with wanting to know everything.