Okay, I’m a little nervous, but here we go... this is my Prosecutor Wright AU.

Now if we’re switching Phoenix and Edgeworth we have to include being raised by Von Karma. I’ll have to admit THAT was my biggest dilemma. The first problem was WHY. Why on Earth would Manfred Von Karma raise this random orphan child? And to complicate the meter the first trilogy is deep down all about DL-6 and so this HAS to be in some way part of the adaptation.

After stomping on this brick wall, I gave up for a while. Them I had to do a very important paper from college, so my brain decided “fuck it, write fanfic” and I got the perfect solution (I’m still doing the paper btw). So let 's start.

To begin with we need to go into Phoenix home life. And this is EASY. He has none. Lol, but really, except for Ryunosuke there’s no canon mention or information given about Phoenix family or home life. What can be a little annoying but in AU it’s perfect for doing anything you want, filling the blanks with your own ideas. So in this AU, Phoenix Wright starts as a second generation japanese immigrant whose dad died when has only a lil baby. Until the age of 9 he was raised by a single mom who loved him very much but had to work double time to maintain both of them. She was the only person who called him by his japanese name (Ryuchii or just Ryu for short) and he also loved her a lot.

But this is Manfred raising Fennie AU so things are about to change.

The first change is so small it could be cannon. It all starts the day before DL-6 with Miles, Larry and Phoenix playing Signal Samurai at the former’s house except Miles forgets one of his Nancy Drew books there (no one, NO ONE, can convince me baby Edgeworth didn’t had a Nancy Drew collection and was ALWAYS taking at least one of the books EVERYWHERE just in case a opportunity to read appeared). But this is Phoenix “needs a ghost to tell him to turn a receipt around” Wright and so he only realises that on the other day and only ‘cause his mom notice. So he goes to Miles' house to give the book back, Except there’s no one there. A reasonable person would just go back home and come back later, but this is Phoenix, not only that but child Phoenix so he does the only thing he can... he asks around and “investigates” until discovering that Miles and Gregory are in the courthouse (it’s not that Miles weren’t gushing over it for days is more that Phoenix forgot what day would the whole courthouse visit happen). And as you can imagine he runs towards the courthouse.

He runs.

It’s a long way.

The earthquake happens.

Fortunately the earthquake did nothing to him, even though it was a strong earthquake, he just fell and scraped his knees a bit. But now he was extremely worried about the Edgeworths. He ran faster. Until he finally got into the courthouse, he sprinted inside, ignoring any guard who could say something about this random child running around a courthouse. And he finally got there... to see a broken elevator open and a man with a gun. He froze. Von Karma shot. Phoenix dropped the book.

And then Manfred Von Karma saw the only mistake in his perfect crime, the child who by all means should not be there, wasn’t there seconds ago and had seen him murdering a man. Phoenix tried to run towards Miles and Gregory and do something. He was screaming for help and there was a huge chance the guards would get there and see if he shot the kid, besides, Gregory suffered cause he dared to cross the Von Karma legacy, this child was not part of it, killing him was a whole different ordeal. Fortunately for Manfred the kid was in shock and so said nothing when the help came. He almost hoped the kid would be too scared to talk.

And maybe this could be his downfall if Phoenix Wright was not an idealist. But even as an adult he was, he always believed that the truth would prevail, that if confronted with it people would have to confess. So he did what Phoenix Wright does and after the ambulance had came he confronted Manfred Von Karma and accused him of murder. Not only that but as he had heard the two shots he found out way easier about the shoulder bullet so he had proof. As you can imagine Manfred Von Karma didn’t react well by being accused of murder and threatened Phoenix trying to scare him to keep his mouth shut.

It seemed to have worked. Until looking in the DL-6 information (he may not have prosecuted but for sure Manfred looked at all the information on this case while it was happening, he may even have been a witness as he was the one who “found” the body), he realized Phoenix Wright was listed as one of Hammond's witnesses. He couldn’t let it happen, He would have to prove to this child that his threats were serius.

Now he could show it by adopting Miles as he always wanted (to spite Gregory ghost) but not only he had lost to much time trying to solve this huge mistake in his perfect time to the point Raymond Shields had already made a claim (know Von Karma could overdo it, he was very powerful indeed). But that could very well be seen as more reason to tell. So he orchestrated to plant false evidence that Phoenix mom was unfit to take care of him and so would lose her guardianship over her son. Adopting Phoenix and using the visitations with his mom as leverage. With that he could also attest that Phoenix was unfit to present a truthful testimony as he was not in a good mental place and a child in this situation could fantasize about the whole thing very easily.

Now, in the beginning that didn’t stop Phoenix but as his mother situacion was getting worse and worse, to the point Manfred put her in jail by false charges of selling drugs and abusing her son. And a shit ton of gaslight by his new guardian, he just gave up. His mind started represing and mixing the memories until a point he had no idea what had happened after he got to the courthouse. And he started kinda believing Von Karma when he said he just found the body and even that his mother may be guilty, that there were criminals everywhere and the only way to not be betrayed was to learn to doubt them and bring them to justice.

It’s important to notice that Phoenix doesn't deal well with having his idealism crushed. It happened twice in canon, first in Justice for All wich the Engarde Case and he having to realize he can’t save everyone and this isn’t his job, that his compromise is with the truth and not with his hero complex and them even hard in Apollo Justice, where trusting a innocent kid cost his badge. And in both these cases he was older and a small support system. He has none there and this means it would be very easy for him to grow more cynical and angry, but also to never truly give up on it. He may have been manipulated and groomed to the point he doesn’t know his own memories all that well but he knows he has some important information about the DL-6 in there... Except he is still a kid so he soon runs into the wrong conclusion, he decides he must have found proof that Miles was the culprit and could not let his best friend pay for something that was for sure an accident and had somehow convinced Von Karma to do the same. He convinced himself that if he did something, Manfred would tell the truth and Miles would be arrested just like his mom and probably die in prison just like his mom and it would be his fault just like his mom (he may not be sure why she was on jail but he is that it’s somehow his fault). So he just gives up completely.

Now Von Karma will make Phoenix a prosecutor. He knows the kid has potential, he discovered the bullet thing (it wasn’t that hard he had just taken the shot but still), he thought fast and gave up hard but more important by being Manfred’s ward the boy was now part of the Von Karma name and so he had to honour it. But he wasn’t as determined as he was with Miles, after all there was no ghost for him to spite. Phoenix was also very different to Edgeworth in intellect. Miles is a traditional genius, you ask him to learn a new language in two days at age nine and he will. You ask Phoenix to learn a new language in a month at the age twelve and he will come up with a brand new language. It's a surprisingly functional and well thought language that could very well be a real one but it’s still not what was asked for nor will it be seen as useful by most people. Add that to Phoenix's big-hearth and his usual lack of strong competitiveness and we have a whole new relationship with Fransiska.

The thing is Miles and Fransiska used to be real close but having her dad blatant giving more attention to her brother (even if it was a negative one) and constantly pitching them against each other their relationship became strained. Not to mention neither were very good at talking about feelings. But with Phoenix that wouldn't happen. At most she would be the one held in higher standards. He would help her with something in the first days, maybe picking something from a higher shelf (not that he would be THAT taller than her) or unpromptly taking the blame for something she broke. And at first she would use that as an excuse to be nice to him saying she didn’t want a debt and turning it into a competition, until with time they would drop the excuses and become close. She would find him even more foolish than she found Miles and also too foolishly emotional. She would also be very protective of her little brother (I genuinely believe Fran started calling Miles her little brother because he got into the family after her and on her baby brain that could only mean he was the little brother even if he was older).