Chapter Three, Part Three.

This chapter shows some more familiar Scientific Investigation skills, specifically, the Fingerprinting Test. I don't own that, er... the FBI, CIA, CSI, other detective departments, and Capcom do. There also happens to be another reason why Case 3 is called the "Digital Turnabout". Try to see if you can spot it. As always, please refer to the disclaimer because not everything in the story is owned by me... except the main characters.

As always, please read, comment, and criticize.

CHAPTER THREE: DIGITAL TURNABOUT

Prologue:

Two shadowy figures walk along a dark hallway.

Resting against the walls are large machines with blinking lights. These machines have keypads on them, as well as USB Ports and monitors, though they aren't ordinary computers. Displayed on their monitors are different symbols and words: some of the monitors display bar graphs and pie charts, along with some percentages; others show 3-dimensional figures in the shape of humans, aliens, animals, guns and other items. Behind these machines are small cooling units, which prevent them from overheating. At the very back of these machines is a large electric cable, a series in fact, which all connect to the main generator.

There are six cubicles along the hallway. Inside these cubicles are small round projectors, which light up and produce a hologram when activated. The cubicles are as dark as the rest of the room, and the lights are kept turned off even when someone enters them. This is so whoever enters can fully feel whatever videogame they are testing.

This is the Virtual Reality Testing Room.

"So what is it you wanna talk about?" one of the figures asks as they walk along.

"I wanna talk about this new device I'm developing," the other figure, slightly taller than the first, responds. "I really think it'll work this time! All I need you to do is invest half the amount of all the company's earned on my project. I assure you it'll be worth it!"

The first figure stops, seemingly worried about what the second figure has just said.

"… No, I can't do that!" the first figure shakes his head. "It's too risky… If your project fails—"

"What, you think my plan won't work?!" the second snaps, "Izzat what you're saying? That my project's gonna fail?"

"I didn't say that!" the first figure says. "I… I just don't wanna risk the stocks!"

"Oh, so that's your reason!" the second yells. "Your damn stocks!"

"Don't slander the fiats!" the first figure yells back.

"SHUT UP!!!"

……………

In the same room, an hour later, a body is found. The cause of death: electrocution.

Day One:

July 23, 5:00 PM; Turner and Co. Law Offices

(:Sigh: … I haven't had a client in weeks…)

I stared at the office wall and yawned. It had been over two months since Midori left, and I had only been in two trials, both of which were incredible easy One-Day Trials for Theft. Some fairly new prosecutors handled both cases, and the contradictions weren't really that hard to find. I didn't even need to turn the Wahrheitron T-3 on! Even though I didn't like them when I first became a defense attorney, I was actually starting to miss taking murder cases.

"Aww man…" I said to myself, and looked at the small gumball machine sitting on top of the desk. "I'm not doing much of a good job, huh, sis—?"

"GRIFF!!!"

(That's Eddy's voice… Hmm… I wonder why he sounds so excited?)

I sat up and saw Eddy by the door, jumping around with three strips of cardboard in his hand.

"GRIFF!!!" Eddy said, waving the strips. "LOOK WHAT I GOT!!! LOOK AT 'EM, LOOK AT 'EM, LOOK AT 'EM!!!"

"Whoa, calm down, Eddy!" I said, and took a closer look at what Eddy was holding. "Hey… These are…"

"TICKETS TO G-34, THE ULTIMATE ALL-DAY AND ALL-NIGHT GAMING CONVENTION!!!" Eddy said. "I got one for you, me, and Detective Razor!!!"

"N-No way!!!" I said, awestruck. "How'd you get these?"

"Hehe!" Eddy smirked. "I had to pitch a tent in the middle of a line and waited for over 36 hours to get these, Griff! When the guy selling the tickets didn't wanna give 'em to me, I had to force him into doing so by showing him how Luminol Testing Fluid works! He was impressed, obviously, and viola!"

(Come to think of it… Eddy wasn't here yesterday. So he was out buying tickets for G-34… Wait. Did he just say that he pitched a tent in the middle of a line and used Luminol Fluid just to get these tickets?! Whoa! Now that's what I call effort!)

"Sounds like you went through a lotta trouble for these!" I said, impressed. "You even used Luminol Fluid, huh?"

"Yep!" Eddy said, waving the tickets proudly. "I didn't think I'd ever use Luminol Fluid for stuff other than investigating… But hey! It worked!"

"Hehe, that's nice" I said, and asked Eddy, "When's the convention, anyway?"

"Actually, it's TONIGHT, Griff!" Eddy answered, and headed for the door all hyped up. "I was lucky enough to get these tickets, because G-34's gonna end tonight! These tickets are for the final night program of the convention, which is gonna last from 6 to 10 PM. C'mon! Let's go there already!"

"W-What?" I said, "It's tonight? What about the office, Eddy?"

"Aww, c'mon, Griff!" Eddy pouted. "G-34 is THE Ultimate Gaming Convention! It comes only once every two years! Tonight's the last night of the convention! I gosh-darn pitched a tent in the middle of a line for it! C'mon! We haven't even had a client in almost a month, let alone all day! I'm sure we can just close the office early!"

"Well… You've got a point," I admitted. "We've only had two cases for the past two months, and not a single person came in here all day… I guess it's okay if we go to G-34 for today…"

"ALRIGHT!!!" Eddy said, and jumped up in the air again. "Well, let's go! Detective Razor's already waiting in the car outside!"

(Ack! Quit yanking me by the collar—!!!)

July 23, 6:00 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Convention Room

"WOW," I said as I looked at all the game exhibits inside the building. "… This really IS the Ultimate Gaming Convention!"

"See!" Eddy said, looking proud at being able to get tickets for the events. "Told ya it was a good idea to come here, Griff!"

"Y-Yeah…" I said, still awestruck at all the games and gaming devices exhibited.

"Okay! Time for some major game-buying!!!" Eddy said, and immediately headed to one of the booths showcasing new Spartan Games. "G-34 IS AWESOME!!!"

(So this is what I missed two years ago… Look at all these games!!!)

"Hehehe," Detective Razor said, "It's always so amusing to see Eddy get all hyped up over a new videogame. Lucky boy… I always wanted to go to G-34, but I was constantly busy with either investigations or police meetings!"

"Yeah, I was busy with law school, so I couldn't go to G-34 two years ago, too," I said. "So… This is the GaruruGame Media Center, huh?"

"Yep," Razor said with a small fox-grin. "GaruruGame's a pretty successful gaming company, so it's no surprise that the people who planned G-34 chose this place: the company's main headquarters."

"Main headquarters?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm," Razor nodded. "GaruruGame's got around ten branches all over the country, but this here Media Center's the focal spot. This is the place where all the games are created and all foreign games are localized… the Virtual Reality Testing Room is located here as well! Even the CEO's for the individual branches meet here every three months or so I hear."

"Wow…" I said. "So… Does that mean that most of the games on display here were made by the GaruruGame Company?"

"I'd think so, yeah," Razor said. "Actually, the company's known for making some of the most graphically endearing—" He stopped mid-sentence, and suddenly turned to a booth showcasing a new shooter game, smirking with more glee than usual. "Aha! … Well, why don't ya look around a bit, Griff? I'll be over by the First-Person Shooter booths if you need anything!" He darted towards the booth and left me hanging for around two seconds.

(W-What?! Hey!)

"Huh?" I said, a little confused. "H-Hey! Wait! Detective Razor, what if I need to use the bathroom and get lost?"

"Oh! Right," Razor said, ran back to me, and handed me a guide map. "Here ya go! Now, like I said, if you need anything, listen for the cry of a Covenant Grunt eating plasma!" He then headed straight for the shooter games again.

(Uh… Riiiight. :Sweatdrop:)

Guide Map put in pocket.

(Well… I came all the way here and left the office… Might as well check some games out!)

I looked around for more than an hour. The GaruruGame Media Center was HUGE; I think I may have gone around in circles at least three times! I mean, the convention room alone was almost the size of a soccer field! It even looked slightly like one, with all of the windows held by reinforced steel frames and the somewhat-oblique shape of the room… Somewhere in the center, amidst all the videogame booths and exhibits, was a large steel disk, which sorta looked like a projector. Some plastic dividers surrounded it, so I thought it was something important.

The convention room was divided into three areas: exhibits for digital devices and gaming consoles were located to the extreme left; the game booths were in the center; and the "special franchises", which were game spin-offs and standalone character-based displays, were located to the extreme right. It was actually really interesting looking around the special franchises area, since I came across a bunch of people dressed up as videogame characters…

(Haha. They must be real fans! Hey! That guy's wearing a visor with glowing red lights… Hehe!)

… After buying some games and other stuff, I needed to use the bathroom. I checked the guide map that Detective Razor gave me, and followed it. I ended up exiting the convention room and found myself in the company's main lobby.

July 23, 7:30 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Main Lobby

The lobby kinda looked like the one in the District Court, since there was a sofa, a potted plant, and a painting in there. One difference was that there was a large reception desk, and a blonde lady with tiny round glasses was sitting behind it. The lobby led to multiple hallways: one on the left, another in the center, and another on the right. Unfortunately, since the guide map wasn't horribly detailed, I needed to find the way to the bathroom on my own. I honestly had no idea which way to go, so I asked the lady minding the reception area for some help.

"Uh… Excuse me?" I said, lightly tapping the desk, "Could you show me which way the bathroom is?"

"Oh! Right…" the lady said with her eyes closed. "You must've come here for the G-34 Convention, right?"

"Uh-huh," I nodded, and asked again, "Uh… Which hallway leads to the bathroom?"

"Hmm…" the lady said, eyes still closed, "Well, you take the one on the right and follow it until you see an arrow, then turn left from there. You should see a door there…"

"Okay!" I said, turning to go. "Thanks!"

…………

I did what the lady told me to, and went through the hallway on the right. It was strangely dark there, and was kinda long. But when I finally saw the arrow the lady was talking about, I was a little confused to see that there was no place to turn left. The only way was to go right, and I followed that path, thinking that the lady must've just made a small mistake. I finally found a door, but it didn't look like an ordinary one. In fact, it was made of reinforced steel and had a keypad with glowing keys next to it. The keypad also had a Card Key slot and a small screen with a weird shape on it… If that was really the door to the bathroom, then it must've been a really top-secret one!

(… I don't think this is the right door… Maybe I should go back and—)

"OI!!! YOU THERE!!! THE ONE WITH THE ORANGE HAIR!"

I turned around and saw an angry-looking man with a bandanna tied around his head yelling, and he was headed straight towards me!

(GAH! I knew this wasn't the bathroom!)

"Just where do ya think you're going, eh?" the man said as he grabbed me by the arm. "That room's for authorized personnel only! Whaddya think you're doing, huh? Bah! You're probably one of those kids at the G-34 Gaming Convention, ain't ya? Think you can sneak in and take a peek at what the company's developing, right?! Why I oughtta teach you a good lesson for this!"

"Ack! I… I didn't know that door was off-limits, sir!" I panicked. "I… I just wanted to go to the bathroom! Honest!"

"Feh! Friggen liar!" the man snapped. "You fanboys these days… Always thinking you can get what you want! The company does the best it can to avoid leakage… And you darn noobs keep making our jobs harder and harder, don't ya?! You're just asking for an infraction point!!!"

"GAH!!! I'M SORRY!!!" I said. "I was really just looking for the bathroom!!! Please don't kick me!"

"Enough excuses!" the man said, but suddenly let go of my arm. "Grr… Damn noob! All right, fine! If you really wanted to use the bathroom, then you should've at least used your brain and went through the hallway on the left and turned right! Now scram!"

"ACK! SIR, YESSIR!!!" I said, and ran out of the hallway as fast as I could, fearing that the grumpy man would change his mind and chase after me! I wound up in the main lobby again, and went through the correct hallway that time around. I finished with my business and returned to the convention room, trying not to think about what just happened.

(What a cranky old man! I definitely don't wanna run into that hothead again!)

July 23, 7:45 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Convention Room

"Hey Griff!" Eddy called me over, holding some videogames in his left hand. "Where've ya been?"

"Uh… I just used the bathroom for a bit," I said.

"It took you 15 minutes to use the bathroom?" Eddy asked.

"… I got lost, okay?" I said, trying to brush it off. "Anyway… Did anything interesting happen when I was gone?"

"Well, they showed some new game trailers…" Eddy said, thinking. "And… I think some of the cosplayers went around and some people took photos of them… But hey! You came back just in time!"

"I did?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Eddy said. "According to the convention program, they're gonna show an hour-long movie based on one of GaruruGame's best-selling games!"

"A movie?" I said. "Hmm… That sounds kinda cool! What's it about, anyway?"

"I dunno!" Eddy said, and rubbed his head sheepishly. "All I know is, the movie features some of the most advanced graphics… and it's a hologram!"

"H-Hologram?" I asked, suddenly remembering about the case over two months ago. I brushed off the thought and just said, "Uh… sounds fun."

"Well, be better get to our seats then!" Eddy said, and went towards the center of the convention room, where the large steel disk I saw earlier was located. I followed him, and noticed that the area had been filled with around 50 chairs, wherein a large people were already sitting. The plastic dividers surrounding the projector earlier had also been removed. I saw Eddy sitting in the second row, next to Detective Razor. I took my seat as well, and the room darkened.

"Oho! Special effects!" I heard Detective Razor say.

A few seconds after the room darkened, the projector lighted up, and a large hologram began to hover over the crowd. It showed some 3D monsters chasing each other in a jungle, and shifted to an awesome battle scene, where the monsters released fireballs and lightning bolts at each other! We were all impressed. The graphics really were advanced and served as some good eye candy!

"Nice graphics!" I couldn't help but shout out after seeing the battle scene. Everybody seemed to think so as well, since we all went "Ooh" and "Ah" for the next hour or so… When the movie finally ended, we all left our seats with large grins. Even I felt that it was completely worth it to abandon the office then!

"That… was… AWESOME!!!" Eddy shouted enthusiastically. "G-34 is, and forever will be, the Ultimate Gaming Convention!"

"I agree! I had to skip a briefing for this, but it was worth it!" Detective Razor said, and turned to me. "So! What did you think of it, Griff?

"Actually… I thought it was awesome, too!" I admitted, and Detective Razor smirked.

"Ha! I thought so," Razor said. "Did you buy any games, Griff?"

"Yeah!" I said. "In fact, I have them in my— Wait, I've got them in… Uh-oh!"

"… I don't like that 'uh-oh', Griff!" Eddy said. "What happened to the games you bought?!"

"I… I musta left them in the bathroom or something!" I said.

"You WHAT?!" Eddy yelled. "Well you've gotta get them back, Griff! Come on! Let's look for your games!"

"Huh?" I said, "B-But they were probably in there for more than an hour already—!"

"Aww, come on, Griff!" Eddy said, "You can't let good videogames go to waste like that! Let's go!"

Eddy ran off into the main lobby and went through the hallway on the left. Detective Razor shrugged and we had no choice but to follow him… When we finally got to the bathroom, Eddy came out holding the small plastic bag full of videogames, looking relieved.

"Here you go, Griff!" Eddy said, panting, and gave me my games. "Lucky for you they were still in there! Don't leave games behind just like that next time!"

"Ah! Thanks, Eddy," I said, taking my games. "Well, I guess we better—"

AAAAAAIIYEEAAHH!!! THIS… THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!

The three of us suddenly heard a loud shriek coming from one of the other hallways! Detective Razor hurried over to the main lobby and ran ahead of us. Eddy and I followed.

July 23, 9:00 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Main Lobby

Back at the main lobby, I saw that quite a number of people had heard the scream as well, and were talking amongst themselves about what just happened. Eddy looked confused, and tried to find Detective Razor.

"Griff!" Eddy yelled. "W-What's going on?!"

"I don't know!" I said. "Sounds like something went seriously wrong, though!!!"

All of a sudden, the lights went out. I heard people gasping, both in the lobby and the convention room. The air was tense, and the people were getting noisier. They were beginning to panic. I heard a few gasps and screams, and realized that Eddy was missing. I tried to look for him, but it was pitch-black then! I suddenly thought of something that would explain what happened… After a few minutes of confusion, the lights went on again. Everyone was still in disorder when the P.A. suddenly sounded, confirming what I thought had happened: a murder had taken place!

Rather than doing what the P.A. told them to do and stay still, the crowd panicked even more! In fact, they were beginning to become uncontrollably wild! I knew I had to get away from the horde of scared people and find Eddy and Detective Razor… I darted towards the only place that I could go: the hallway on the right. Once I got there, I saw Eddy standing outside the room with the metal door that I almost entered an hour earlier. The door was open, and Detective Razor came out of the room a few seconds later. He shook his head.

"Bad news…" Razor said, "Someone's been murdered, alright… The body's in there, in the Virtual Reality Testing Room. Looks like he was electrocuted to death!"

"WHAT?!" I yelled. "Electrocuted?!"

"This isn't good," Razor said. "That power outage's probably scared the heck out of the people here! And now this…" He turned to me and Eddy. "Okay, here's what you gotta do… I already called for some police backup… They should arrive here in a few minutes. Eddy! Griff! I need you two to calm the crowd down before there are any more casualties, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Eddy said, and the two of us went back to the main lobby. Everybody was still panicking, just like before. Just as Eddy and I were about to start calming the people down, the lobby doors burst open. The police came in, and the crowd panicked even more!

… It was a rough night. It took well over 30 minutes for the police to calm the people down. Once they were stable, the people left the building. Detective Razor went back to the lobby and told me and Eddy that someone under suspicion of executing the murder was apprehended, even though there wasn't enough evidence yet, and was already sent to the Detention Center. He told us that the investigation was already taking place, and that we should return the next day…

(Oh, boy… This doesn't look good!)

Day Two:

July 24, 8:30 AM; Detention Center, Visitor's Room

Eddy and I went to the Detention Center that morning so we could talk to the person accused of murder before they were taken in for questioning. Eddy insisted that I defend that person, and he asked the security guard to let us talk to the guy. The person came in, and, to my complete and utter dismay, it was none other than the grumpy old fart who threw a fit when I almost entered the wrong room the night before.

"Uh… You sure this is a good idea, Eddy?" I said, sweatdropping. "You really think we should talk to this guy?"

"Huh?" Eddy said. "Whaddya mean?"

I was sure it was the man I ran into the night before. He had the same outfit, and had the same bandanna covering his forehead. He also had the same baggy eyes of eternal discontentment, which stared angrily into your soul.

"Feh! Well, if isn't the friggen noob!" the man sneered. "Well? What is it now?! You even brought a nooblet with you, huh?"

(Oh yeah… That's him, all right. :Urk:)

"Uh, Griff?" Eddy asked with a look of confusion in his eyes. "You know this guy?"

"Uh… Well…" I tried to answer, but was cut off.

"Heh! That little noob?" the man interrupted, "I dunno exactly who he is, but I caught him red-handed trying to sneak into the Virtual Reality Testing Room!"

"You WHAT?!" Eddy yelled at me, wide-eyed.

"I told you!" I said to the man, annoyed, "I got lost!"

"Well, whatever!" the man said, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I guess I shouldn't have entered that room anyway… At least, not if I knew that THIS was gonna happen! I mean, honestly! Me? Murder someone? Yeah right!"

"So you've got a trumped-up charge against you, huh?" Eddy asked the man.

"Yeah!" the man said, irritated. "But what's it to you, anyway? You damn fanboys are probably just gonna laugh at this!"

The man's attitude was seriously getting on my nerves then, but Eddy insisted that I defend him in court anyway. No matter how many times I tried to tell Eddy that I just didn't wanna defend someone who kept insulting me like that, Eddy eventually won me over, and I had no choice. I tried to talk to the man again, but he wouldn't listen, and just kept muttering to himself… I decided it was time to show him what I had. I presented my Attorney's Badge.

"Huh? Whazzat?" the man asked, looking at me suspiciously. "Izzat a piece of candy? Well I ain't interested!"

"Actually, it's an Attorney's Badge," I said, sweatdropping. "My names' Griffin Turner, and I'm a defense attorney… I dunno why I'm doing this, but I'm going to defend you in court."

"… You're joking, right?" the man said with a blank face, followed by one of complete shock. "You… You're a defense attorney?! Oh, jeez! I thought you were just a 12-year-old or something!"

(Are you implying… that I am SHORT?!)

"So you're a defense attorney…" the man said, suddenly becoming a lot calmer. "Well, in that case, things change! Heh! You shoulda told me about that earlier! All right, noob— I mean, Mr. Lawyer! I'll let you defend me in court! The name's Porter: Sander Porter!"

"Okay…" I said, surprised at Porter's sudden change in attitude. "So, uh… Mr. Porter… Exactly what happened last night? I mean, why were you arrested?"

"I have no friggen idea!" Porter said. "All I remember last night was entering the Virtual Reality Testing Room with Fanners!"

"Fanners?" Eddy asked.

"Oh, right… Toby Fanners," Porter said, "That's the guy who got killed… But I didn't do it! I swear I didn't! We both went into the Virtual Reality Testing Room, sure, but all we did was talk about stuff!"

"And around what time was that?" I asked.

"I think it was around 7:50 to 8 PM," Porter answered, thinking a bit. "We were just walking along for a while, talking about the company."

"Did anything else happen then?" I asked.

"Uh…" Porter said, sweating a little. "Nothing else happened when we were in there!"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

(What the… The Wahrheitron's beeping!)

"Say, what the heck is that friggen beeping sound?" Porter asked. "It's annoying!"

"Gah! Uh, it's nothing…" I said, trying to hide the blue watch on my left hand with glowing yellow-green lights from Porter's view.

"Well, anyway…" Porter said, "That's all I can really say… I hear the trial's tomorrow, so I guess that means you two are gonna have to do the work finding the evidence, eh, Mr. Lawyer and… nooblet?"

"Uh, yeah… I guess," Eddy said.

(Oh, great. The trial's tomorrow… As always, there's zero prep time.)

"Well, if you're going back to the Media Center…" Porter said, and handed me a note, "You're gonna need this to go through the authorized personnel sections!"

Letter of Introduction added to the Court Record.

Eddy and I left the Detention Center and made our way to GaruruGame Media Center. It took 85 minutes to get there, but we made it.

July 24, 10:15 AM; GaruruGame Media Center, Main Lobby

The police had already started the investigation. Some of the investigators were in the main lobby, but I assumed most of them were in the Virtual Reality Testing room, where the murder occurred. I noticed that the lady I met the night before, the one minding the front desk, was there. One of the officers had just finished talking to her, and she looked at me and Eddy with a bit of confusion.

"Hi there!" Eddy said to the lady. "I was wondering if you could—"

"Sorry, but due to the incident last night, GaruruGame Media Center is temporarily closed to the public," the lady said, her eyes closed. "If you wish to purchase some games, then please go to one of the other GaruruGame company branches in the area."

"Ah! No, we're not here to buy games!" I said. "I'm Griffin Turner, and this is Eddy Skye. I'm a defense attorney, and we're here to investigate."

"Investigate?" the lady said, "Oh! Ah, you mean you're Mr. Porter's defense team, and you're here to gather evidence for the trial, right?"

"Uh… Yeah…" I said, and presented the Letter of Introduction. "Eddy and I were wondering if we could go into the restricted areas; you know, to gather evidence?"

"Sure!" the lady answered, taking the note. "If you need any help, just ask me anything you want! Oh, yes, before I forget… My name is Sienna Birchwood; receptionist for GaruruGame Media Center."

Letter of Introduction given to Ms. Birchwood.

"Well, thanks for allowing us special entry, Ms. Birchwood!" Eddy said. "Oh yeah! Since we're here… Is it okay if Griff and I asked you some questions?"

"Of course," Birchwood said. "Go ahead and ask me anything you like!"

"Okay then…" I said, "Ms. Birchwood, how about telling us about yourself first? I mean, what do you do for the company?"

"All right, let's see…" Birchwood said, thinking, "Well, as I've already said, I work here as a receptionist. I primarily sit behind the front desk, welcome people who come in, and assist them. Actually, I've been doing that for around ten years already… It can be tiring, sure, but since I work for GaruruGame, I must always work with fervor!"

"Hmm… So, what about the company itself?" Eddy asked. "Could you tell us more about it?"

"Oh, yes," Birchwood answered. "GaruruGame started out as a small company selling videogames… It soon grew into a massive company, which created, tested, localized, and distributed its own games. Right now, the company is quite successful, with the recent construction of the Virtual Reality Testing Room, or the VRT Room… However, I'm afraid the incident last night might be bad for the company…"

"You mean… the murder?" Eddy asked.

"That's right," Birchwood nodded. "Actually, it's already causing quite a scandal as it is! See, the murder victim was… well, he's one of the company's high-ranking employees… a company administrator, in fact! Mr. Toby Fanners…"

(So the victim, Toby Fanners, was a company administrator…)

"Is it okay if I asked you about what happened last night, Ms. Birchwood?" I asked. "What happened before the murder took place?"

"Well, I remember YOU," Birchwood said. "You were asking for directions to the bathroom… I answered you, and you went through the hallway on the right, yet suddenly returned to the lobby a few minutes later and went to the hallway on the left. I remember seeing Mr. Porter as well. He looked angry, but he went back through the hallway on the right. I saw Mr. Fanners after that, too… That's all I remember."

"Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners entered the VRT Room at the same time, right?" I asked.

"To be honest, I don't know," Birchwood shook her head, eyes still closed.

"Well, thanks for answering our questions anyway, Ms. Birchwood!" Eddy said. "It's okay for me and Griff to go to the VRT Room now, right?" Birchwood nodded. Eddy and I made our way to the VRT Room after that. The large metallic door was wide open, so we just went in.

July 24, 10:27 AM; GaruruGame Media Center, Virtual Reality Testing Room

(So this is what it's like in here…)

The VRT Room was actually just a long hallway with some cubicles on opposite sides, facing each other. It was really dark in there, but there was just enough light coming from the weird machines resting on the wall for me and Eddy to see. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough light to see what was exactly inside the cubicles. After a few minutes of walking, Eddy spotted something on the floor.

It was the outline of the body, facedown on the floor.

"This must be where Mr. Fanners was killed," Eddy said. "I bet it was really scary… Getting electrocuted in a dark place like this."

"Y-Yeah," I said, suddenly getting an eerie feeling. "S-Scary…"

"It's a lot scarier if you were attacked from behind!"

"GAAAH!!!" I yelled, and jumped up a few inches in shock. I looked behind me, and saw Detective Razor, a flashlight pointed at his face.

"DETECTIVE RAZOR!!!" Eddy said, "Don't go scaring us like that! This entire room's dark and creepy enough as it is!"

"Hehe, sorry about that," Razor said, and turned the flashlight off. "Well, welcome to the scene of the crime. To make up for scaring you guys, I'll tell ya some stuff about the murder. Whaddya guys wanna know about it?"

"Well, for starters…" I said, "Do you have the Autopsy Report yet?"

"Ah, not yet, Griff," Razor shook his head. "The blackout last night caused a few problems, so the autopsy's still ongoing at the Coronary Department… But I've got something else that might help." He took out a colored photo from his pocket and gave it to me. "Here's an extra print of the snapshot of the body. It's really dark, but you can still get a good view of the victim facedown on the floor."

I took a good look at the photo Detective Razor just gave me. It really was dark, but the body was still visible. The victim was a slightly overweight man with black hair and a bandage on each face cheek, and he was wearing a pair of orange goggles on his neck. He was wearing ordinary "business clothes", too. I wondered where the murder weapon, which had to be some sort of electric conductor, was in the picture…

Crime Photo added to the Court Record.

"I bet you're wondering…" Razor said, "About where the electric conductor is." I nodded. "Judging from the amount of electricity the victim got into his system, I'd say the murder weapon was an electric cable. There are a lot of 'em in here, actually, so we haven't found out which one yet."

"So, since the murder weapon hasn't been found yet…" I said, "That means that the real murderer's unknown yet, right?"

"I wish I could answer 'yes', but I can't," Razor said, and presented a pair of orange goggles, the same ones that the victim was wearing in the photo. "There were fingerprints found on the victim's chest and goggles, and they belong to the defendant, Sander Porter. Looks like he was shoved into something before he was electrocuted, and that knocked him out… until the electric shock finished him off."

Fanners' Goggles added to the Court Record.

(Fingerprints… Ones that are in the position of shoving someone, too… That can't be good!)

"Wait!" Eddy suddenly said, and opened his backpack. "Since Mr. Porter's fingerprints were found… That means there must be other fingerprints in here as well!"

"Hey, you're right!" I agreed. "There have gotta be other fingerprints in here, too!"

"True…" Razor said, and smirked. "But unfortunately we haven't looked into the fingerprints yet… I'll just leave that to you and Eddy."

"H-Huh?" I asked.

"Okay! It's time for some Scientific Investigation!" Eddy said enthusiastically, and took out a small powder jar and a fluffy brush from his backpack. "We can look for fingerprints with this, Griff! It's a special Fingerprinting Set with extra adhesive aluminum flake powder!"

(A Fingerprinting Set? Cool!)

"Ah, but how do we know whose fingerprints are who's?" I asked Eddy.

"Actually, I can help with that," Razor cut in, and gave Eddy a small machine that looked a lot like a calculator. "This is a Fingerprint Match-finder. When you talk to someone, it'll automatically scan that person's hand and give you his or her fingerprint data. The fingerprints'll get saved in the memory, and you can check which ones belong to who."

"Alright!" Eddy said. "Thanks, Detective Razor! Okay, Griff! You can put these in the Court Record now!"

Fingerprinting Set added to the Court Record.

Fingerprint Match-finder added to the Court Record.

"Oh yeah, before I forget…" I said, "Detective Razor, who's the prosecutor for tomorrow's trial?"

"Haha, as if you need to ask, Griff," Razor said, and smirked. "It's your good ole' buddy, ole' pal, Prosecutor Bladeston!"

(… Somehow, I knew. :Urk:)

"Bladeston, huh?" I said, "Does he… Uh, still have that sword with him?"

"From what I've heard, yeah," Razor replied. "And, yeah, he still thinks of you as his 'noble and worthy rival'. He's already won 20 more cases in the past months and he STILL says that he hasn't had enough!"

"20 CASES?!" I said. "Man, he really is a Prosecuting Speed Demon, isn't he?"

"Uh-huh," Razor said, smirking again. "It's probably got something to do with his eyes…"

(20 Cases in 2 months… Bladeston, you freaky weird prosecutor! Wait… Did Detective Razor just say something about "eyes"—?)

"Alright, I guess you two can investigate this room now," Razor said. "Now, I'm gonna go search the building for some witnesses. Eddy! As always, if you find something, give me some notes, okay?"

"Yessir!" Eddy said as Detective Razor left the room. "Well, we should start our investigation now, Griff!"

"Right!" I said.

INVESTIGATION

There was a lot of stuff inside the VRT Room to examine, but I decided to start looking into the more obvious ones first. First, Eddy and I checked the cubicles that were inside the room. The interior was pretty dark, but I could see something inside. It looked like a metallic disk: a projector, just like the one I saw inside the convention room. Unfortunately, the cubicle doors were locked, and needed a special Card Key to open, so Eddy and I had to move on to the other stuff inside the VRT Room.

Next, we checked the large computer-like machines resting against the wall. There really wasn't anything interesting on them, so we decided to move on. After that, we checked the back of the machines. There were some small fan-like things on them, rotating. I didn't know what they were, though…

"Uh… What are these?" I asked.

"They don't look like it, but I'm guessing that these fans are cooling units," Eddy replied. "Y'know, so the machines won't overheat?"

"Cooling units, huh?" I said, and took a closer look. "Oh! Hey, there's a large cable at the very back of this thing!"

"Really? Lemme see!" Eddy said, and leaned towards the machine. "Hmm… Looks like the main electric current that powers these machines goes through this cable… Look! There're some more of 'em on the other machines as well!"

"You're right!" I said. "Looks like a parallel circuit to me… All these cable connect to that large battery-ish thing."

"That's probably the main generator," Eddy said, looking at the cylindrical metal object with a switch located in a corner of the room, where all the cables connect. "None of these cables look broken to me, though… I wonder which one was used to electrocute Mr. Fanners?"

"Beats me," I said, shrugging. "But at least we've found something important, right?"

"Right!" Eddy answered with a grin. "We can think about the murder weapon later… The Autopsy Report's not even done yet, anyway!"

Main Generator added to the Court Record.

"Hey, wait…" I said, and pointed to something on the main generator. "Is… Is that a handprint?"

"Hey, you're right, Griff!" Eddy said. "That's a handprint, alright! Now all we need to do is find out who it belongs to!"

FINGERPRINT TEST EXAMINATION

"Okay, Griff!" Eddy said, "Let's see who this fingerprint belongs to… You know how to use aluminum flake powder, right?"

"Uh…" I said, "I dunno… That stuff might go up my nose…"

"Haha, no, it won't!" Eddy smiled, and handed me the brush for fingerprinting. "Fingerprinting's actually pretty easy; just sprinkle a little of the powder on the handprint, and when it's completely covered, blow the powder away!"

"Blow?" I asked.

"Blow!" Eddy said, and demonstrated it. "Like this! See, the powder won't go up your nose at all! Go on, Griff!"

"Okay, if you say so…" I said, and did what Eddy told me to do. I sprinkled some of the aluminum flake powder on the handprint, and blew on it. The prints weren't visible enough, and Eddy told me to apply some more powder, and try again. I did what he said, and sprinkled more powder on the handprint. It looked thick enough to me, so I blew the excess off, and… Bingo! I found a clear print!

"Alright!" Eddy said. "Good job, Griff! Now let's see whose fingerprints these are…"

Eddy then handed me the Fingerprint Match-finder. There was already some data stored on it: there was information on Detective Razor, Sander Porter, Toby Fanners, and Sienna Birchwood's fingerprints. Eddy told me to choose a fingerprint that resembled the one we found the most. It had a slightly crooked counterclockwise spiral pattern, and leaned to the left. There was only one print that resembled it, and I pressed the "Find Match" button.

The Fingerprint Match-finder began scanning the print, and compared it to the one I chose. After a few seconds, I found out I was right. The fingerprint that we found belonged to… Sander Porter.

Main Generator information updated.

Porter's Fingerprint added to the Court Record.

"Uh-oh…" I said, "Looks like the handprint's Mr. Porter's…"

"That doesn't mean anything bad yet, Griff!" Eddy said. "Mr. Porter probably just did a check on the cables, or turned the main generator off!"

(Well… I guess he's right… I hope. :Gulp:)

END FINGERPRINT TEST EXAMINATION

"Looks like that's all we can find in here for now," Eddy said.

"Uh-uh," I agreed. "But I think we should look around the building some more… In case we find some more evidence."

"Evidence outside the crime scene?" Eddy asked.

"Yeah," I said, "Actually… Remember when we were at the Detention Center? The Wahrheitron suddenly beeped after Porter said something. I think he was hiding something… He and Fanners did something else while they were here… and I don't think it was something good, too."

"You mean…" Eddy said, "You think that Mr. Porter did it?"

"No, that's not it!" I shook my head. "I just think that he's hiding something…"

"Well, we're gonna need some more evidence for that, then!" Eddy said. "Okay, Griff! Let's check the other rooms in this building for some clues!"

July 24, 11:30 AM; GaruruGame Media Center, Main Lobby

Eddy and I returned to the main lobby after we had finished investigating in the VRT Room. We needed to check the other rooms in the building as well, and asked Ms. Birchwood for some directions.

"Hmm… So you need to search the other rooms?" she said, and brought out a piece of paper. "Well, then you're going to need this. This is a guide map for floors 2 to 6 of the building… This is all I can give you, though, since floors 7 to 10 are prohibited areas, even with special permission."

"Oh, that's okay," I said. "We just need to check all the rooms that Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners have been in for the last 24 hours."

"Then I suggest you go to the Meeting Room and Employee Lounge," Birchwood said. "Both are on the fourth floor, and they aren't hard to miss."

"What about their individual offices, Ms. Birchwood?" I asked.

"Both Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners' offices are on the sixth floor," Birchwood answered. "I think Mr. Fanners' office is open, but Mr. Porter kept his office locked all afternoon yesterday, and unfortunately, I don't have a spare Card Key for it…"

(Mr. Porter's office is locked, huh? Ah well, guess we'll find a way around that later.)

"Thanks for the guide map anyway!" Eddy said.

Guide Map (Floors 2-6) added to the Court Record.

"Guess we should go up," I said, and looked around. "Hmm… I don't see any stairs."

"There's an elevator over there," Eddy said, pointing to an elevator in one of the far corners of the lobby. "Let's go!"

Eddy ran over to the elevator. I followed. He pressed the "Up" button, and the elevator doors opened. We went inside, and I pressed the button for the fourth floor. We went up, and a few minutes later, wound up in a hallway on the fourth floor. There were some small office areas in there, but there were also two large rooms, almost adjacent to each other. Both of the large rooms were located near the end of the hallway. One was bigger than the other, and the door to it was closed. The larger room had a plate on the door saying "Meeting Room"; the smaller one had a plate saying "Employee Lounge".

"Where should we go in, first, Griff?" Eddy asked.

"Uh… I don't think we should go in the meeting room yet," I said. "Looks like somebody's still using it. That means we have to go to the employee lounge first."

July 24, 11:40 AM; GaruruGame Media Center, Employee Lounge

(Doesn't look like anybody's here…)

The employee lounge was kinda long. Inside was a lengthy table, placed in the middle of the room. Placed on top of it were a few documents, but there were mostly empty coffee mugs and half-eaten donuts on plates, most likely from the day before. There were two sofas in the room, both of which were resting against a wall next to two potted plants. One of the sofas had a newspaper on top of it. On the other side of the room, there were four individual work desks with computers on top. Under each desk was a trashcan; one of them was overflowing with crumpled paper. Resting on the far wall were some bookshelves, and next to these bookshelves was a divider. Behind the divider were four beds with a computer beside each one: they must've been for employees working the night shift.

"So this is the employee lounge…" Eddy said. "How come I don't see any employees, then?"

"I dunno," I said, "I wondered about that, too. I mean this place is pretty empty right now."

"So… What are we looking for again?" Eddy asked.

"We just need to find something related to either the defendant or the victim," I said. "But I don't think there're that many clues here."

"Guess we'll have to look—" Eddy said, but stopped mid-sentence. "Hey… Griff, there's someone in here!"

Eddy pointed to one of the beds behind the divider. There was a girl there, and it looked like she was hiding under the bed! She looked at least 16 years old, and was kinda surprised to see us. She had a wad of bubblegum in her mouth, which she blew into small bubbles every now and then. The girl had brown hair resting on her shoulders, though most of her head was covered by the light purple beanie she was wearing. I actually wondered what that girl was going there… She didn't look like an employee to me.

"Uh… Who are you?" I asked.

"…" The girl said nothing, and suddenly ran out of the room!

(Ack! She ran away!)

"H-Hey! Wait!" Eddy said, and chased after her, but came back a few seconds later, sighing, "Man, that girl's fast! It's like she suddenly disappeared!"

"Huh… I wonder what she was doing in here," I said, thinking. "Think she's an employee or something?"

"I dunno," Eddy said. "Maybe she's a relative of an employee here? Either way, there's nobody in here now."

"… I guess we should just start looking around," I shrugged, and tried to look for something.

INVESTIGATION

Looking for clues in the employee area was harder than I thought. I mean, the place seemed pretty normal, and nothing seemed out of place in there. Everything in the room was in proper order, too, save for the messy table full of documents and donut leftovers. We decided to check the table last, though, and started with the four work desks.

"Employee work desks with computers on top…" I said, "I guess these must be for people working overtime?"

"There's a trashcan beside each one," Eddy said, and bent over one, "Nothing but crumpled papers in here, though."

"How about the beds behind the divider?" I asked.

"… Nope. Nothing in here, either," Eddy shook his head.

"Aww, man…" I said. "So it looks like there are virtually no clues in here, huh?"

We moved on to the long table, the only messy thing in the room.

"Looks like the only thing we can check in here's this table," Eddy said, and started probing through the documents. "Well, here goes nothing!"

"Eddy! D-Don't touch those!" I said. "Those are company documents! We might get in trouble!"

"Don't worry about it, Griff!" Eddy smirked, and continued with his search. "There's gotta be something in here… Aha! Check this out, Griff!"

"Eddy! I really don't think you should— Ow! Okay, okay, lemme see it!" I said as Eddy shoved the item he found onto me anyway.

Apparently, the thing Eddy found was a Card Key: Porter's, in fact. It had his picture, an angry-looking one as usual, on the front, and next to it was his name. On the back of the card was the weird black film thing that was scanned by the electronic lock that the card was to be inserted in.

"Hehe! See? No we can go take a look in Mr. Porter's office!" Eddy said.

(I hope you know what you're doing, Eddy…)

Card Key added to the Court Record.

Eddy and I exited the employee lounge after that. I noticed that the door to the meeting room was still closed, and thought that someone must still be in there. Either way, Eddy and me couldn't go in there yet, so we took the elevator to the sixth floor to check out Porter's office.

The sixth floor had more rooms in it, compared to the previous one Eddy and I had been in. In fact, the hallway was lined with rooms that we had no idea which one to go in first. None of the doors were labeled, so it took the two of us a good 30 minutes finding out which ones belonged to either to Porter or Fanners. Finally, we found what we were looking for, and inserted the Card Key into Porter's key-reader.

(Looks like this is the one…)

:Click:

(Okay! It opened!)

July 24, 12:32 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Porter's Office

Porter's office was smaller than I had expected it to be. It was just a small room with a desk, chair, and a computer. There was a small trashcan under the desk, but besides that, his office seemed sorta… dead.

"… This is an office?" I said, staring at the small room blankly. "It looks kinda… deserted."

"I don't think Mr. Porter uses this office much, too," Eddy said, and ran his finger through the desk. "Eww… It's dusty in here!"

"I'm not even sure if that's a desk or a fossil!" I said. "But seriously now… We gotta look for something in here that can make Porter tell the truth about what really happened when he and Fanners were both inside the VRT Room."

"Do you really think we'll find something, Griff?" Eddy asked.

"I dunno, but it's worth a shot!" I said.

"Okay… If you say so…" Eddy said. "But there really isn't much to check in here, you know."

Eddy was right: there really was nothing to check. The desk was empty and way too dusty; the computer was dusty as well, but still looked functional, even though we couldn't turn it on; and the chair didn't have anything on it as well, except a folded towel… And then it hit me. Why on earth was there a folded towel on a chair inside a seemingly abandoned office?

I took the folded towel, and opened it. There were two items inside… One was a UMD Case, and the other was a crumpled-up photo. Both were pretty suspicious, but the photo grabbed my attention a little bit more.

In the photo were three people: one was Sander Porter, who was, strangely enough, smiling in the picture; another was Toby Fanners, who was standing in the middle wearing his orange goggles and had a wide grin on, camouflaging the bandages on his face; and the third person was a woman in a midriff with black hair, parted into concave formations on both sides of her face. I couldn't tell where the location in the picture was, though. It looked like there were some game cases arranged on a shelf behind the three people, but other than that, the setting left me confused.

"Hey! That's Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners in that photo!" Eddy said. "But… who's that other woman?"

"I dunno, but this looks important!" I said, and put both the UMD Case and the photo in the Court Record.

UMD Case added to the Court Record.

Fanners Team Photo added to the Court Record.

"That's all we're gonna get from this place," I said. "Okay, Eddy, let's go check Fanners' office next!"

"Okay!" Eddy said, and we left Porter's office.

…………

Strangely enough, when we got to Fanners' office, the police were already there, and didn't allow the two of us to go in. Eddy asked one of the officers why, and he told him that they found something weird… The officer didn't dwell on that subject too much, though, since a tall red-haired woman with a part of her hair covering her left eye suddenly came out of the office.

"Well, did you search everything thoroughly, officer?" the woman asked the officer.

"We're trying, ma'am," the officer replied, "But the detective heading this investigation isn't here right now, so we're not sure…"

"Keep trying then!" the woman said. "I can't let this case go ignored like this! The company's name is at risk, after all!"

"Y-Yes, ma'am!" the officer saluted, intimidated by the woman, and went back inside Fanners' office.

(Whoa… That is one strict woman…)

"Uh… Excuse me?" Eddy tried to talk to the woman, but ended up getting unnoticed. "Hello? I'm trying to talk to you, ma'am!"

The woman still didn't look at Eddy, so I tried talking to her, "H-Hey, could we talk to you for a bit?" She still didn't look at us. "Uh…"

"Hey, what gives?" Eddy suddenly said. "Why won't you look at us?!"

"Hmm… Oh!" the woman finally said, and turned to our direction, "Sorry, I didn't notice you two down there… I thought I was only hearing things… I don't normally look down unless I drop something and have to pick it up, you know."

(… Did she just call us SHORT?!)

"Uh… Okay…" I said, "D-Do you mind if we asked you a few questions?"

"Sorry, but you can't," the woman said, and glared at me and Eddy suspiciously. "Frankly, I do believe that you kids shouldn't even be here. The GaruruGame Media Center's closed to the public for today, because of the 'incident' last night… Or did that incompetent Birchwood forget and let you in here anyway? Hmph. I guess she just doesn't get it, now does she?"

(I'm not a kid, damn it! Grr… Why didn't my growth spurt come when I reached adolescence?)

"Uh, actually, we got special permission," I said, and the woman eyed us suspiciously… again. "I'm a defense attorney, and I'm representing the defendant, Mr. Porter, in court tomorrow. I'm here to gather evidence for the trial, so…"

"Evidence?" the woman frowned, "That's funny… Unless the law suddenly changed, I do believe that is should be prosecuting attorneys, and not defense lawyers, who can go around and look for evidence at the crime scene…"

"Uh…" I tried to answer, but I was too intimidated by the woman's presence.

"Hmph. Whatever," the woman continued anyway, "If you're here gathering information, then I suppose I might as well 'cooperate' with you… Of course, I don't allow for uncertainties, so you had better watch your step whilst I'm around. All right. I am Terra Everett, one of the administrators for GaruruGame… You may also call me… the witness."

(Gee, I bet Ms. Everett and Bladeston would get along fabulously… Wait, did she just say—)

"The… The witness?" I asked.

"Oh, so YOU were the one who shrieked so loudly last night!" Eddy said, and Everett glared at him.

(I don't think those were the right choice of words, Eddy. :Urk:)

"Hmph. Call it what you may, but… Yes, I was the one who… got into a panic last night," Everett said.

"So… You discovered Mr. Fanners' body?" I asked.

"Yes, I did," Everett answered. "The moment I saw Fanners lying on the floor like that, not moving, I knew something was wrong. And forthrightly, I knew that Porter had something to do with it, what with his and Fanners' shaky association and all."

"Uh… 'Shaky association'?" Eddy asked, "What do you mean by that, Ms. Everett?"

"Aren't you the nosy type?" Everett said. "I said I would cooperate, but like I already stated, I don't allow for uncertainties… And that includes talking about things you really shouldn't be bothering yourselves with."

"B-But…" Eddy said, but got cut off automatically.

"I believe I already refused to answer," Everett said. "Now, unless you think you can really force me to say anything, I suggest you two leave this investigation to the professionals."

"P-Professionals?" Eddy said, looking offended.

"Hmph," Everett shook her head. "I honestly don't think I should be wasting my time talking to you two. I mean, a short defense attorney in a silly lime-green suit and a mere child with goggles on his head and a lab coat on are hardly what I'd consider 'professionals' at all. I told you that I came across Fanners' body, but that's all I can say. I have nothing else to hide."

(Grr… She won't say anything!)

It was no use. Everett refused to say anything, so Eddy and I had to leave… But I wasn't planning on giving up yet. Even though Everett was being so stubborn and was withholding information, I figured there was still someone who could answer our questions… And she was conveniently downstairs at the main lobby.

July 24, 1:23 PM; GaruruGame Media Center, Main Lobby

"Ah," Birchwood said, "I see you've returned."

"Ms. Birchwood…" I said, "Is it okay if I asked you a few more questions?"

"Of course," Birchwood said, "It's not like I really have anything else to do all day… So, what would you like to ask me?"

(I've only got one shot at this, so I can't screw up! Which question should I ask Ms. Birchwood?)

"Who was the girl with the beanie?"

"What's Mr. Porter's involvement with Mr. Fanners?"

"Why is Ms. Everett so grouchy?"

"Ms. Birchwood," I said, "How are Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners related? I mean, other than being co-workers, that is…"

"What do you mean by that?" Birchwood asked.

"See, me and Eddy sorta ran into one of the admins… Ms. Terra Everett," I said, "And she told us that she came across Mr. Fanners' body. Other than that, she also said that she suspected Mr. Porter to be the perpetrator, because he and the victim had… a 'shaky association'. So… What's this all about?"

"Hmm… I see," Birchwood said, thinking. "All right. Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners… They don't really get along well."

"You mean they're rivals?" Eddy asked.

"No, they're not," Birchwood said, "A long time ago, Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners were good friends, from what I've heard… But something bad happened. I'm not really sure about that, but I heard that Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners became distant, and that the former had a grudge against the latter."

"A grudge?" I asked.

"I've only heard about it from co-workers," Birchwood said, "But it seems true to me… Mr. Porter doesn't like Mr. Fanners much."

"Wait…" I said, confused. "If those two are at odds with each other… Then why the heck were they both in the VRT Room?!"

"Sorry, but I don't know the answer," Birchwood shook her head. "I assume it would only be business matters, though."

(Business matters, huh?)

"Well, thanks for talking to us anyway, Ms. Birchwood," I said.

"Oh, it was nothing," Birchwood brushed off. "I work as a receptionist after all, and part of my job is to offer information to those who need it."

"Well, you've been really helpful, Ms. Birchwood!" Eddy said. "Thanks for all the info!"

I had enough info then, and I decided to question Porter about what really happened inside the VRT Room. Eddy and I waved down a cab to take us back to the Detention Center, and I checked the Court Record on the way there, since I had 85 minutes to do so.

COURT RECORD:

ATTORNEY'S BADGE

- My treasured Attorney's Badge. Having it on makes me feel like a real man!

GUIDE MAP (Floor 1)

- A guide map for the ground floor of the GaruruGame Media Center.

GUIDE MAP (Floors 2-6)

- A guide map for floors 2 to 6.

CRIME PHOTO

- Snapshot of the victim, Toby Fanners, after death.

FANNERS' GOGGLES

- The victim's orange goggles. Bears Porter's fingerprints and appears to have been shoved along with Fanners.

FINGERPRINTING SET

- A bottle of aluminum flake powder and a small brush. Used for finding fingerprints.

FINGERPRINT MATCH-FINDER

- Scans witnesses' hands and enters their fingerprint pattern into the memory. Used to match fingerprints to their respective owners.

MAIN GENERATOR

- The machine that powers all the equipment inside the Virtual Reality Testing Room. Bears Porter's fingerprints.

PORTER'S FINGERPRINT

- Fingerprint of the defendant, Sander Porter. Found on the main generator inside the VRT Room.

CARD KEY

- Porter's Card Key. Opens the door to his office.

UMD CASE

- A case for a universal media disk. Found inside a folded towel in Porter's office.

FANNERS TEAM PHOTO

- A crumpled old photo of Sander Porter, Toby Fanners, and an unknown woman.

(Now let's check all the people we've met.)

PROFILES:

Eddy Skye

Age: 10

- Son of a famous Scientific Investigator, currently working as my Investigative Junior Partner. Also my "little brother", in a sense.

Detective Thurston Razor

Age: 28

- The detective in charge of the initial investigation. Uses notes rather than real evidence, and has remarkably fast comprehension skills.

Lance Bladeston

Age: 22

- A Prosecuting Speed Demon, as well as the prosecutor for the case. Regards me as a rival… whom he pulls a sword on.

Sander Porter

Age: 42

- The defendant of the case, and an employee of the GaruruGame Media Center. Very bad-tempered, and tends to call people "noobs".

Toby Fanners

Age: 39

- The victim, and a former administrator of the GaruruGame Company. Not on good terms with Porter.

Sienna Birchwood

Age: 33

- A receptionist for GaruruGame Media Center. A friendly, helpful lady who always seems to keep her eyes closed.

Terra Everett

Age: 26

- Another administrator at GaruruGame. Seems to be in general control of things at the company, although very bossy, and doesn't tolerate well.

Mysterious Girl

Age??

- A weird girl with a beanie that Eddy and I ran into while in the employee lounge.

I was able to finish checking all the evidence and profiles by the time Eddy and I got back to the Detention Center. Porter had just returned to his cell, having just been called in for questioning. As always, he was looking grumpy.

(Looks like I can finally question him now…)

July 24, 3:00 PM; Detention Center, Visitor's Room

"Heh, looks like noob— I mean, Mr. Lawyer, and the nooblet are back!" Porter said. "So? Did ya find anything or what?"

"Y-Yeah, we found something," I said, hesitating a little. "But it looks like what we found is gonna incriminate you more, Mr. Porter."

"Eh? Well that sucks!" Porter said angrily. "I thought you were supposed to be finding stuff to help me win, not friggen lay the blame on me!"

"Actually, Mr. Porter," I continued, "The stuff looks incriminating only because you haven't told us the full truth yet."

"Huh?" Porter said, taken aback. "What the friggen hell do you mean by that?!"

"Mr. Porter…" I said, "Tell us what really happened when you and Mr. Fanners were in the Virtual Reality Testing Room!"

"I told you…" Porter said, "We were just talking about the company!"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

THAT'S A LIE!!!

"Mr. Porter!" I said, "My job may be to prove you innocent, but I can't do that unless you tell us the complete truth about what happened last night! You didn't just talk about business, and I can prove it!"

WAHRHEITRON INTERROGATION PHASE

"I'm telling you…" Porter said as the Corpus Meters, each displaying 50 EP's, showed up. "I didn't murder Toby Fanners!"

"That's not what I'm trying to say," I said, "You didn't murder him, but you didn't just talk casually with him either!"

"And I suppose you've got proof?" Porter said. "Come on! Give me some friggen proof!"

TAKE THAT!

"Here's your proof!" I said, my special ability going on autopilot, and presented the UMD Case. Porter looked surprised that I had it, and asked where I got it. I answered, "I found this UMD Case in your office… It looks like some sort of project to me, and I'm guessing that you wanted to present it to Mr. Fanners, since he was a company admin. Well, isn't that right?"

"Y-Yeah…" Porter said, losing 25 EP's. "But that doesn't prove anything—!"

"Your project was rejected, wasn't it?" I asked. Porter again looked surprised, and eventually nodded.

"S-So what?" Porter said, "That still doesn't prove a damn thing. Fanners rejected my project, sure, but I didn't do anything to him!"

"Nope," I shook my head and said, "You did. You didn't murder Mr. Fanners, but you still did something. And it was—!"

"You had a chat about your project."

"You had a fight with Mr. Fanners."

TAKE THAT!

"You had a fight with Mr. Fanners!" I said. "You're not on good terms with him, and you got into a heated argument because he rejected your project!"

"Grr… No way!" Porter said. "You don't have proof that I got into a fight with him!"

TAKE THAT!

"You DID get into a fight with him," I said, presenting the victim's orange goggles. "These goggles, the ones that the victim was wearing on his neck, have your fingerprints on them, Mr. Porter! In actuality, you shoved Mr. Fanners and knocked him unconscious!"

"… Damn it," Porter muttered, and his EP's dropped down to zero. "You're right… I got into a fight with him… But I didn't kill him, honest!"

END WAHRHEITRON INTERROGATION PHASE

"Why were you on bad terms with Mr. Fanners?" I asked.

"It's really not something you should be worrying about," Porter said. "It's from something that happened a long time ago… But I tried to keep my temper at bay! See, I was working on a project and wanted to submit it to the company… But to do that, I had to make Fanners permit it first. Unfortunately, he didn't like my idea, and I just… exploded. I pushed him and he got knocked out, but I swear… I didn't kill him."

"What was your project, anyway?" Eddy asked.

"… I can't tell you that yet, nooblet!" Porter said. "You snuck into my office just to get it! That's a friggen breaking-and-entering! Hey, wait a minute… I thought I locked my office… How'd you two get inside, anyway?"

"Uh… We sorta 'borrowed' your Card Key," Eddy said sheepishly. "You left it in the employee lounge, anyway."

"Well, give it back to me!" Porter said.

"Ah… Sorry, but we might still need it!" I hesitated, and refused to give it to him.

"Hmph. Noobs…" Porter muttered. "You're lucky you're my defense team, or else I'd probably have given you an infraction point for this!"

(Again with the "infraction point"… Say… What exactly is an infraction point, anyway?)

"Why'd you leave it in the employee lounge anyway?" I asked.

"I musta just left it there by accident," Porter said, thinking. "I remember taking a break, and I probably just forgot about leaving my Card Key!"

"… Oh yeah!" I suddenly remembered. "When we were in the employee lounge… We ran into somebody, and I was wondering if you knew who she was."

"It was a girl wearing a beanie, with a wad of bubblegum in here mouth!" Eddy added.

"… Beanie… Bubblegum…" Porter said, and thought for a while. Then he suddenly said, "That's Cassandra!"

"Cassandra?" I asked, confused.

"Oh… I need to explain, huh?" Porter said, and sighed. "Cassandra Porter. She's my niece!"

"Y-Your niece?!" Eddy and I said at the same time, shocked.

"I take really good care of her!" Porter bragged. "Cassandra's a good girl, and she's already real mature, even at the age of 17! Heh, she comes by at the Media Center a few times a week for her part-time job, actually… She's a good kid, I tell ya! I should know! I raised her ever since her parents died in a car accident 15 years ago!"

(Wow… Who knew the old fart actually cared about someone? Well, guess I better update the profiles…)

Cassandra Porter

Age: 17

- Sander Porter's niece, whom he seems quite fond of. Goes to the Media Center a few times a week to work part-time.

"So she works part-time at the Media Center, huh?" I said.

"That explains why she was in the employee lounge!" Eddy added. "But I wonder why she suddenly ran away, though…"

"Ran away?" Porter said, "Hey! You didn't scare her, did you?!"

"GAH!" Eddy said, "N-No! She was probably just… surprised or something!"

"Hmm… So, if Cassandra works at the Media Center…" I said, "Was she there last night, when the incident happened?"

"She went there yesterday, yeah," Porter answered, "But she suddenly disappeared sometime during the late afternoon… I thought that she had gone home, but I never found out since… Heh, y'know! I got friggen arrested!"

"Well, we ran into her this morning, so I guess she might've stayed there all night," Eddy said. "Either way, she's probably back at her home right now."

"That's a good thing, then!" Porter said. "If she'd been in that building all night and isn't home yet by now, I'd be worried sick!"

(Looks like Porter really cares for his niece… Weird, since he doesn't seem like the type to care for someone at all!)

"I, uh, guess that's all we really needed to know," I said, turning to leave. "Thanks for finally telling us the truth, Mr. Porter."

"Hmph. After ya forced me into doing it, yeah!" Porter said bitterly.

Eddy and I had already left the Detention Center, when he suddenly remembered that he had to give Detective Razor the evidence notes he made during our investigation for the day. We ended up making a quick stop at the Criminal Affairs Department.

July 24, 4:04 PM; Criminal Affairs Department

(So this is what the precinct looks like…)

I just remembered that it was the first time I had actually gone to the Criminal Affairs Department. It looked like a normal office with work desks, computers, and files, save for all the detectives that were running around handling different cases. There was a large counter in the middle, and behind it was a bearded man, whom Eddy told me was the Head Detective. On the counter was a weird, blue stuffed animal, which I recognized as the "Blue Badger", the Police Department's mascot for the last 20 years.

"Okay, let's see if Detective Razor's here…" Eddy said, looking around. "Aha! There he is!"

Detective Razor saw us, and ran over, saying, "Griff! Eddy! So… How was the investigation?"

"It was okay," Eddy said, and handed Detective Razor the usual evidence notes. "We put the Fingerprinting Set and the Match-finder to the test, too, and it worked! Thanks for giving it to us, Detective Razor!"

"Well, that's good to hear," Razor replied, taking the notes, "Anything new with the crime scene?"

"Well… Yeah," Eddy said, and told Detective Razor about Porter and Fanners' fight inside the VRT Room. "Looks like Mr. Porter really did knock Mr. Fanners unconscious."

"But…" I said, "That doesn't exactly mean that he did it, right?"

"There's still a chance that he's innocent," Razor said, "But it's a slim one. So the defendant was at odds with the victim… Oh, boy… To me, that spells 'motive for murder'. Did you find anything that doesn't implicate Mr. Porter, though?"

"There is… one thing," I said, and presented the crumpled-up photo we found in Porter's office. "There's this photo, and it shows Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners smiling, so… I guess it doesn't mean that Mr. Porter did it?"

"Lemme take a good look at it…" Razor said, examining the photo. "You're right, but there's still one thing… When was this photo taken? From what you've told me, Mr. Porter and Mr. Fanners were good friends before, but suddenly got into conflict with each other because 'something bad happened'. If this photo was taken when the two were still on good terms, then I assure you… If you present this photo tomorrow, by any chance, then I'm sure Bladeston'll counter it automatically."

(Oh, yeah… He's right. :Urk:)

"So this photo doesn't prove anything…" I said, disappointed. "Aww man…"

"Y'know, there's something I don't get about this picture," Eddy suddenly cut in, and pointed to the other person in the photo. "Who's that woman?"

"Yeah, I wondered about that, too!" I added. "We never saw anyone who looked like that at the Media Center…"

"She could be an ex-worker," Razor said. "Either way, if she doesn't work at the Media Center now, then she's probably not related to this case at all."

"Speaking of the case," Eddy said, "Were there any other witnesses to the murder, Detective?"

"There are witnesses, yeah," Razor said, "But they just stumbled across the crime scene. Nobody saw the actual crime take place."

"Is that because of the power outage?" I asked, and Detective Razor nodded. "So… How many witnesses are there?"

"From what I've gathered, two," Razor answered. "You… probably ran into one of them already… Y'know, the grouch?"

(The grouch… Everett!)

"You mean that nasty Terra Everett?!" Eddy said angrily. "She was so stuck-up and mean! Seriously! She said that me and Griff weren't 'professionals'! Who does she think she is? Just because she's an admin, doesn't mean she can look down on people… literally!"

(Looks like Eddy's still angry with what Ms. Everett did…)

"Yeah, she's not the most likeable kinda person," Razor agreed, "But her attitude's what keeps her in control of things around the company. In fact, she thinks this entire case is gonna ruin the company's image… And that's why she decided to testify tomorrow."

"So she's one of the witnesses who's gonna testify?" I asked, and Detective Razor nodded again. "What about the other one?"

"She doesn't want to testify, unfortunately," Razor said. "That means the only ones testifying in court tomorrow are me and Ms. Everett… Well, thanks for the evidence notes. That's all the information I can give you guys today, since I have to save some for tomorrow's testimony. Don't worry about it, Griff! I'm sure you can still prove your client innocent!"

"Thanks," I said, "But who knows what new tactics Bladeston's developed since we last met more than two months ago…"

…………

Eddy and I left the precinct. We were on our way back to the law office, when Eddy suddenly asked if I believed in Porter's innocence.

"What do you think, Griff?" Eddy asked. "Do you think he did it?"

"I don't know," I said, and shook my head. "Maybe things'll get just a little bit clearer during tomorrow's trial."

"But then there's the creepy thing," Eddy said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Our client… has a motive… That can't be a good thing."