Sōta Sarushiro

Sōta Sarushiro is the true villain from Gyakuten Kenji 2, being the mastermind behind the entire game's events. In the fan translation of the game, he was named Simon Keyes.

Note: Translated names will be used for convenience.

IS-7 Incident
Simon Keyes was the son of pastry chef Dane Gustavia, and a friend to Horace Knightley, the son of famous sculptor Pierre Hoquet/Isaac Dover. Gustavia and Dover entered in a dessert contest held by Jeff Master to win his Angel Book recipe, helping each other until the finals, when Dover double-crossed Gustavia and ordered his son to tie Simon in their car, as Simon was helping his father to taste his desserts, since he had a disease that made him unable to taste anything. Though Knightley did apologize, Simon resented him, as the two got trapped and almost froze inside the car, until they were saved by the assassin Ryōken Hōinbō (Sirhan Dogen), who took the two kids to the Happy Family orphanage. The two kids ended forgetting much due to the trauma of the incident, and after Gustavia killed Dover he stopped looking for his son.

SS-5 Incident
Seven years later, Simon witnessed Dogen assassinating the president of Zheng Fa, Teikun Ō (Di-Jun Huang), in front of the orphanage. Simon overheard Dogen's employers, a body double of the president, the owner of the orphanage Patricia Roland and Chief Prosecutor Blaise Debeste, as they planned of killing Dogen after disposing of the president's body, so he decided to help his savior escape by starting a small fire to distract them.

After the incident, the conspirators made the entire event look like a kidnapping, with the body double taking the place of the real president and the only witness other than Simon being killed. Simon made a drawing of the murder and gave it to the president's bodyguard, who was investigating the incident by himself. Though Dairyu hid the truth, he accused Patricia of the kidnapping, but she escaped conviction thanks to Blaise's manipulations.

Patricia subjected Simon to long interrogations. Scared and confused as to why his father didn't came to save him, he ran away from the place. Knowing he couldn't call the police for help, since Blaise had total control over them, Simon lost his trust on everyone, deciding on following on Sirhan Dogen's footsteps to take revenge on them all, but knowing of the power they all held he decided to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Simon also wanted to take revenge on Knightley, for he believed his father was Isaac Dover and not Dane Gustavia, due to the trauma having muddled his memories. Simon eventually joined the Berry Big Circus, where he became an apprentice of Regina Berry, who taught him how to tame animals.

Turnabout Target
When the fake president comes to the USA for a speech, Simon finally sees a chance for his revenge, so he hires Shelly de Killer to assassinate him. Knightley, who had became one of the president's bodyguards, attempts to stop the assassin but ends strangled, being saved by Ethan Rooke, another bodyguard, who subdues de Killer and injures him.

Knightley and Simon had kept in touch during all this time, which is when Simon subtly suggests to Knightley to stage a fake assassination plan to raise the president's ratings, which Knightley takes as a good opportunity to kill Rooke and take his place as chief bodyguard.