Ink's Notes: HEY GUYS GUESS WHO DIDN'T TAKE NINE MONTHS TO UPDATE AGAIN? THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ME HAVE A CHAPTER FIVE

Chapter Five – What's In Store With Investigation?

Despite the streets being somewhat long and difficult to navigate, it wasn't long at all before the group arrived at their destination; in part due to their map, and in part because it was rather hard to miss the large sign that read "Felix Fortel's Fantastic Emporium", followed by "For lack of a fancy word for Store that starts with F" in a smaller print. When Luke read the latter part out loud, Robin brought her hand to her mouth in a chuckle, and Flora seemed rather amused by the sign as well. Layton simply smiled and moved over to open the door, only to have it held open for him by a total stranger.

The two stared at each other a moment, almost as if they were taking in the other's appearance to determine what kind of person they were. The man holding the door looked a bit scruffy somehow, with his disheveled hair and baggy clothing, but despite that he looked like he took great care to keep himself clean and healthy. The clothing itself was very casual, amounting to nothing more than a sleeveless shirt and loose-fitting pants with sneakers, each a different brown in color. He also wore glasses that seemed a tad lopsided, and had blonde hair that almost looked green if you stared at it long enough.

Dull colored eyes continued to stare at Layton, and Flora wondered if the staring contest would last much longer when Robin walked over, thanked the man for holding the door, and entered the shop. That appeared to be the icebreaker that the group needed, because Chopper followed shortly after her, Luke at his hooves asking if it was okay for him to be going in there, and Layton smiling at the stranger but waiting for Flora to follow the others before entering himself. The man moved in after them, closing the door, and it was only after he did that he offered his right hand to the Professor.

"Tamrat, before you ask," he said as Layton shook his hand. "I work at the hospital. Came here to exchange notes with Felix. Seens you're probably here investigating things, you might want to come along as well."

Layton smiled in response to the words. "Thank you for your kindness, Tamrat. I am Professor Hershel Layton, and these are my companions. My assistant Robin, my apprentice Luke, my daughter Flora, and-"

"I've met Horny already," Tamrat interrupted, and Chopper almost fell over again.

"His name is Chopper," Luke provided in response to Chopper's downtrodden expression. Tamrat simply nodded in acceptance with a muttered apology before motioning for the group to follow him.

As the six of them maneuvered through the aisles and rows of various items and objects – none of them seeming to particularly have any link to each other aside from general organization – Layton couldn't help but recall an old puzzle he'd done on one sleepy morning. He turned his gaze towards the others and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Is something the matter, Professor?" Luke asked. Flora and Chopper both looked concerned, but Robin was looking at him with a knowing gaze while Tamrat only spared them a glance before continuing to lead them through the store.

"I was just thinking of an old puzzle I once did. Let's see, how did it go again…"

PUZZLE SIX
A trinket store has decided to rearrange its stock so that customers can find what they're looking for more easily. However, the owner's eccentricity means that the items have to be arranged in a very specific manner. The owner would prefer things to be arranged based on their coloration – so things that are similar colors are by each other, and things that are different colors are far apart. It's up to you to arrange the stock so that it meets these specifications to appease the owner's eccentric tastes.

"It was quite the fun puzzle," Layton smiled. "The trinkets had a gradient of color, so at first you might be inclined to believe that they should be arranged in one way, only to have a few of them not have any place to go when you were arranging them incorrectly."

"That sounds interesting!" Flora brought her hands together. "Will you show me when we get back home?"

"Certainly, Flora," Layton smiled at her, adjusting his hat slightly.

"If you guys are done talking about that…" Tamrat cut in, and the group turned their attention to him. While they'd been discussing the puzzle, they had arrived outside what looked like some sort of office. He waited until they were all attentive, before turning to knock on the door. "Felix? It's Tam. Got some guests here."

"Coming!" a male voice spoke from inside of the office. There was a noise that sounded like something had fallen over, followed by a "Whoops," followed by even more things falling over, followed by a "Big whoops."

"Felix, do you need help in there?" Tamrat asked through the door, though based on his expression it wasn't a serious offer.

"No, no! I just knocked over my bookshelf! Again." Felix's attempts to reassure Tamrat just caused him to roll his eyes, and caused everyone else to shoot looks at each other and mouth 'Again?' to one another.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Robin called through the door, and it sounded as if something else had fallen over.

"Nope! Perfectly fine, I can manage, don't mind me!" A thud and a muffled 'ow' came after that. "Mostly fine!" Felix corrected himself, and then it sounded like someone had just walked into something. "Basically fine!"

Tamrat just let out a long sigh and leaned on the wall next to the door. "This'll go on for about ten minutes. Anything you wanted to ask me while we wait for him to get his act together?"

Flora looked from Tamrat to the door, and then back to Tamrat. "Um, is this… normal for him?" she asked, pointing awkwardly at the door as yet another thud came from behind it.

"Yeah, Felix is sort of a klutz," Tamrat let out a long-suffering sigh. "I keep telling him that his eyesight is going and he needs glasses, but he refuses to listen, and so this is the result. If you want to see him for some reason it's generally recommended that you stop by ten minutes earlier than you think you need to."

"Um, if you say so…" Flora didn't seem entirely certain that it was a good thing.

"So, you said you work at the hospital?" Luke asked, and Tamrat answered with a short nod. "Can you tell us about the missing medical supplies?"

Tamrat lifted his right arm in a half-shrug. "Probably could."

"Before that, might I ask about your left arm?" Robin cut in. "You haven't used it at all during the time we've been in your company."

"Noticed that, did you?" Tamrat's mouth lifted upwards in a wry smirk. "Yeah, I had an accident when I was younger. Haven't been able to use it properly since." He brought his left forearm up slightly, waggling his fingers with a wince. "I can still move it, and use it for like… cutting food and stuff, but for tactile things like medicine and whatnot I'm limited to my right arm. Theoretically I could do them with my left, but that's too painful so I tend to just not bother."

Luke and Flora both winced out of sympathy, and Chopper bit his lower lip. Layton regarded Chopper with a curious look – it was an oddly human action coming from their reindeer comrade. Before he could think much about it, though, Robin spoke up again, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a scalpel.

"We met one of the children, Pyrrhos, when he was retrieving this from a tree. He mentioned that crows like to steal things. Is it at all possible that they're responsible for what's been going missing from the hospital supplies?"

Tamrat shook his head. "Afraid not. Firstly, that'd require them to be able to open doors and get into the hospital itself." Robin conceded that point as she passed the scalpel to Tamrat. "Secondly, this stuff is too specific for it to be random crow thefts."

"Specific how so?" Layton asked.

"Specific like the one taking the stuff knows exactly what they're going for," he elaborated. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say an absurdly talented doctor was responsible for the thefts. But that doesn't make sense; any doctor with that much talent would have access to the hospital and not need to steal things in the first place." Tamrat shook his head. "It's possible that it's just coincidence, but I know my medical supplies, and people don't just take those things by accident."

"I see," Robin nodded, considering his words with a calm smile. "We'll have to take that into account. Perhaps the specter is more human than the residents believe."

"Who knows," Tamrat shook his head.

No sooner than the words had left his mouth, the door to Felix's office finally opened. A man stumbled out of it, quickly standing straight and dusting himself off, closing the door after himself and greeting the assembled group with a smile. He was an older man, with black hair peppered with white streaks styled in a pompadour, thinning out underneath on the sides of his forehead. He had a moustache that looked more like whiskers than anything, and his eyes were squinted in a way that made them look shut, but they were just open enough to see brown eyes behind thick eyelashes. He wore a white dress shirt underneath a brown suit top, and a black belt with a golden buckle kept his dark blue jeans that seemed a size too big around his waist. His shoes were both open toed and open heeled, but covered the rest of his feet and were held in place by a strap that wrapped around his ankles. Oddly enough, his finger and toenails were painted black.

"Hello, hello!" he greeted with a large grin, lifting his hand to rest it on the wall so he could lean against it, only to miss the wall completely and fall over onto the ground. Layton moved over and helped him to his feet, and the man shot a thank-you smile at him before continuing. "Welcome to Felix Fortel's Fantastic Emporium! For lack of a fancy word for Store that starts with F." The subtitle was spoken quickly, almost like a disclaimer. "My name is Felix. What can I do for you?"

"Hello, Felix," Layton smiled. "My name is-"

"They're here to investigate on behalf of the mayor," Tamrat interrupted. "That's Hershel, the tall woman is Robin, the kids are Luke and Flora, and the reindeer is-"

"Horny, right?" Felix put in, and when no one said anything his smile fell. "Is that not his name?"

"His name is Chopper," Flora spoke with a sigh. "Should we just put a collar on him with his name? Maybe then people would stop getting it wrong."

"Somehow I don't think that would help," Luke shook his head as Chopper's head drooped down in depression.

"Right, right!" Felix clapped his hands together. "What do you know already?"

As Layton and Robin explained to Felix what they already knew, he nodded along carefully to make sure they knew he was following along. Once they finished, he shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don't believe that I can give you any new information. Michi's been stopping in to ask me for food, yeah, but I can only really give her stuff that's about to go bad and has to be tossed anyway," he seemed a bit upset about that, but continued anyway, "And she doesn't ask for anything else. Which is weird, because I keep noticing seemingly random things have been going missing."

"Seemingly random? How so?" Flora asked, and Felix smiled at her.

"Well, there's no real connection between the things," he elaborated. "One time it was paper and pencils, another time it was a snow globe, another time still it was a shirt, the time after that it was soap…" Felix rubbed his forehead. "There's no real connection between the objects. The only thing they have in common is that they're usually in places that are easy to spot."

"Easy to spot?" Luke asked, using a tone that indicated he wanted more information on that particular bit of information.

"Well, yeah," Felix shrugged. "Stuff on the edges of the aisle, or that was in a location you could see by just walking down the center aisle and looking around. Distance from the ground doesn't seem to deter whoever's taking the stuff, but they haven't taken anything particularly valuable, at least."

Layton nodded in understanding. "Say, this might seem like an odd question, but by any chance do people lock their doors around here?"

Felix hummed in consideration. "Well, usually. Most people tend to, anyway. I'm kind of bad about it because I can never seem to find my keys and I spend most of my time here anyway, and the hospital's always open so the doors there are never locked, but – I dunno, people can get a bit lazy when the gates are closed to keep people from coming in. Everyone knows everyone around here, it'd be pretty hard to take things without someone figuring out who's taking it pretty quick."

"Since you say that, do you believe it's someone who doesn't live around here?" Robin asked.

"Well…" Felix frowned. "I didn't say that. If it were someone from outside, they'd have to come back pretty often to keep hitting the place, and we'd notice that someone was coming and going so often." He scratched behind his head. "I mean, we all know each other around here – so while it'd be hard to do things without someone noticing, it'd also be easy to do so if you knew exactly how to avoid people. Someone like Nephele or Hanuel who have lived here longest would probably be the best bet in that regard."

"Pyrrhos mentioned them," Luke recalled. "He said they watch the Graveyard, and they had an encounter with the Specter."

Felix nodded at Luke. "They're kind of reclusive, so we don't know much about them – but they might know a lot about us. Who knows."

Tamrat cleared his throat. "Still, I don't think I'd immediately blame them for what's been going on. Don't think they have any sort of motive. You need one of those to do things, right?"

"Yes, that you do," Layton acknowledged with a curious smile. "I think perhaps we should see what this 'Nephele' and 'Hanuel' have to say about everything that's been happening here in Old Ashton."

PUZZLES SOLVED – SIX

CURRENT MYSTERIES:

The White Specter – Several residents of Old Ashton have reportedly seen a mysterious white specter. It only comes out between dusk and dawn, and it seems to enjoy music. Pyrrhos reports that it has footprints, meaning that it might not be as ghostly as the residents first assumed, and it has apparently had an encounter with two residents of Old Ashton known as Nephele and Hanuel. It seems to have an affinity for music.

Missing Food – According to Aimi, food that is about to go off has been going missing. There may be some connection to Michi in regards to this, but the residents find it unlikely that she would steal anything. Felix admits to having given Michi food that's about to go off, but is hesitant to link her to anything else.

Missing Supplies – According to Aimi, some supplies from the hospital and the general store have gone missing. Zdeslav and Tzidkiyahu report that two sets of footprints – one sandaled and one barefoot – have been found in the vicinity of the store. Tamrat believes that a skilled doctor is behind the thefts at the hospital, and Felix says that there's no real link when it comes to things that are stolen from the store aside from them being easy to spot.

Robin Nico – A woman with an air of mystery around herself who is working as the Professor's assistant. She has experience working with children and is very good at moving silently and quickly despite her footwear of choice being high heels. She also seems very comfortable around Chopper, to the point that they act as if they're close friends despite having just met.

Michi – Mayor Senkou's daughter, whom he notes has been growing more distant lately, as if she's hiding something, although he's not sure what or why. Silo suspects an animal, as she's been requesting leftover food from him and Felix at the general store. The residents don't seem to believe she's behind the other thefts, though, as she's only been asking after food.

Nephele and Hanuel – Two mysterious residents of Old Ashton who have apparently lived there longer than the other residents. Pyrrhos claims that they've had an encounter with the specter. They are apparently rather reclusive, to the point that some of the town's residents find them suspicious.