Ink's Notes: As promised, here's Chapter Eight! Let's jump back over to the adults, shall we?

Chapter Eight – Quiet Investigations

After Luke, Flora, and Chopper had left with Pyrrhos, Professor Layton turned to look at Robin, a concerned look etched into his features. Robin met his gaze and mentally translated the unasked question as she began cleaning up around the room.

"Flora didn't sleep very well last night." Robin set the now empty cups she'd used earlier for herself and Flora in the sink. "While I've done what I can to ease her mind, I doubt it'll help much until either she finds something else to think about or she meets the specter properly."

"You seem rather certain that a second encounter would end favorably," Layton observed. Robin simply brought a hand to her mouth and laughed into it, and he filed away the reaction for later. "While Luke, Flora, and Chopper are out, should we continue our investigation?"

"Certainly," Robin smiled. "But how about we get some breakfast first?"

Layton's stomach agreed with her suggestion, so the two found themselves at Silo's for a small meal before they continued their investigation. As the two ate peacefully, Layton decided to try and get to know Robin a bit better. "If you don't mind my asking, Robin. Where are you from?"

Robin seemed to have to think about the answer for a moment, but she smiled at him nonetheless as she answered him. "I come from a small island off the coast of Japan." Layton nodded; she did seem to have a slight Japanese accent, now that he thought of it. Still, if she was Japanese, what was she doing all the way out in England?

Just as he was about to ask her about that, the two were interrupted when Senkou appeared behind Layton, wrapping his arms around him in a hug and resting his chin on his shoulder. "Hello, my darling Layton!" he greeted with a cheerful smile, either oblivious to or completely ignoring how completely uncomfortable the Professor was with his affection. "How are you on this fine day?"

Robin smiled at Senkou, motioning to an empty chair next to Layton. "It's good to see you, Mayor Canera. Why don't you have a seat?"

Senkou grinned at Robin, letting go of the Professor to take a seat, and Layton sent Robin a silent 'thank you', which she responded to with a friendly smile. Layton then turned to look at Senkou. "So what brings you here, if I may ask?"

"Can't I come and spend time with my darling Layton?" he asked with a wink in Layton's direction. Layton awkwardly adjusted his hat, still not completely readjusted to Senkou's forward advances. "But I digress, you've seen right through me. I actually came to ask you a favor."

"What sort of a favor?" Robin asked, taking the lead when talking to Senkou, much to Layton's relief.

Senkou turned to look at Robin as he explained. "One of the residents of Old Ashton, a woman named Sabine, usually comes by my place at around noon to have tea with me and my wife. But since the whole business with the specter started about a week ago, she hasn't been stopping by. I can't help but be worried about her, but she doesn't like making me worry so if I asked directly she would likely just make up some sort of excuse."

"So you want us to go and see what the matter is?" Robin inferred, and Senkou nodded in response. "All right. Where does she usually spend her time?"

"She runs a bookstore here in town alongside her older sister, Josephine. It's just a few blocks from here, actually," he motioned in the direction that it was. "When you reach the corner, hang a right and it'll be on your left."

Robin smiled at Senkou. "We'll go pay her a visit after we've finished our breakfast. If you don't mind?"

Senkou blinked, then looked between Robin and Layton, a mischievous grin crossing his face. "Oh, I get it. You should have said something, Robin! And you should tell him while you have a chance. You have my full support." He winked at Layton before standing up and waving. "Enjoy the rest of your date~!" he called with a singsong tone, making his way off as Layton attempted to regain his composure.

"Hopefully he won't be so quick to be physically affectionate with you now that he thinks I've got feelings for you," Robin smiled at Layton as he stared at the area where Senkou had just been. Layton looked over at her, and made a mental note to thank her properly when the whole ordeal with the specter was finished.

The two finished their breakfast without further incident, paying for the meal and then following Senkou's directions to the bookstore. It was a small place by the name of Bean's Books, looking almost too small to fit all the books that were kept inside of it. Layton held the door open for Robin, and the two entered the shop, a bell chiming as the door closed behind them.

"Welcome to Bean's Books," a woman greeted them, and they turned to look at her. She was an elegant woman, wearing a short purple dress and a fur coat along with white leggings and high heeled shoes. Her hair was blonde and her gaze was calculating, as if studying the two newcomers to the store, but she still maintained a friendly air as she welcomed them in. "How may I help you?"

"Are you Sabine?" Layton asked, and the woman stared at him. "Mayor Canera sent us. He-"

The woman lifted a hand to stop him before he could say anything further. "No, I'm not. Sabine is my little sister. So you're the Professor, huh? And you," she turned to Robin, "Must be his assistant. Robin, right?"

"I am," Robin smiled at the woman. "Then you would be Josephine, correct?"

"Yeah, that's me," Josephine said. "Before anything else, though, I've got a little problem I'm having trouble with. Think you can give me a hand?"

PUZZLE NINE
At Bean's Books, items are priced based on their page count. A book that's 50 pages costs 10 dollars, while a book that's 100 pages costs 20, and so on. A customer comes in with 100 dollars, and asks to buy as many different books as possible, with at least one book that has 250 pages included in that count. How many books does the customer wind up leaving the store with in total?

Robin hummed in consideration. "Well, based on the prices of your books, one that's 250 pages would cost 50 dollars in total," she reasoned. "Then you have 50 dollars left and can buy another five books if they each have 50 pages, since 50 page books are 10 dollars each. So that customer would walk out with six books total- one with 250 pages, and five with 50 pages. Is that answer to your liking?"

Josephine smiled at the two. "Yeah, my evaluation is complete. Good answer."

"Evaluation?" Layton asked, though he had a feeling he knew what she meant.

She nodded. "I wanted to see what kind of people you were. Senkou is willing to trust you, but we're not a hive mind or something. Everyone in Old Ashton is anxious about what's been happening. I needed to know you were the right kind of people to solve it."

"The kind of people that would help a stranger with a puzzle, you mean?" Layton smiled at her, and she nodded. "You wanted to be certain we were helping because we wanted to help, not because we stood to gain something from doing so."

"Right," Josephine said. "Senkou… he's great and all, but sometimes he can be a little bit…" she snapped her fingers, searching for the phrase. "Short sighted."

"In what way?" Robin asked, genuinely interested. Most of the people in town had nothing but praises to sing for the man, so to hear someone talk badly of him was interesting.

She shrugged a shoulder, adjusting her coat. "The way most people who are short sighted are. Does things without much regard for the consequences. Or thinking it through, other than 'this will be fun' or 'this will be interesting'. He'll start researching things or try to initiate projects without thinking of what could happen because of his doing so. For example, the ruins outside of town?" Robin tensed slightly, an action which didn't go unnoticed by Layton, but Josephine didn't have his observation skills and kept talking. "We here at Old Ashton basically unanimously agreed to keep away from there, since who knows why it was built or what's in there. Decided that it'd be safer to let a professional archaeologist look at it, y'know?"

Professor Layton nodded in response, understanding the sentiment but having a bad feeling about where this was going.

"Based on the silence, you have an idea of what happened," Josephine grimaced. "He said, 'I have a minor in archaeology, so that makes me qualified', and he went off to check it out. Next morning he refused to talk about it, and the specter first appeared that night."

"So you believe the specter came from those ruins?" Layton asked.

"I'm not saying it did," Josephine corrected, "But it is pretty suspicious that it appeared right after he went to check them out."

Layton nodded, though was unable to say anything else due to the fact that a woman came tumbling into the room, tripping over her own feet and landing on her face. Robin went over to help her up, and he immediately noticed the similarities between this newcomer and Josephine- they had similar faces, and the woman's graying hair was the same blonde as Josephine's. She wore a simple dress that was a faded purple color, which had long sleeves and covered most of her body.

"Sabine, are you all right?" Josephine asked, voice laced with concern, and Layton and Robin simultaneously realized that this woman was Josephine's sister, the one who Senkou had asked them to check on.

"Y-Yes, I'm all right," Sabine fumbled the words out, dusting herself off. She then turned her attention to Layton and Robin. "Welcome to Bean's Books! Um, can I help you find something?"

Robin shook her head. "Actually, Senkou sent us. He wanted us to pick you up for afternoon tea at his house."

Sabine's demeanor, which had previously been nervous but friendly, suddenly changed to being nervous and terrified. She began fumbling over her words in a way that made it difficult to determine what she was saying, though based on the fact that she was moving over to a bookshelf it was likely a string of excuses about how she needed to organize the books on the shelf. In her haste and terror, however, her foot caught on her dress, and she went tumbling down, bringing several books with her.

Professor Layton, who was closer to where she had fallen, moved over to her side even as he registered Josephine softly groaning at the display. Sabine was now quietly sobbing about the mess, so he smiled and began helping her pick up the books. "Allow me, if you would?" he offered, even as he began studying them to figure out how they were organized on the shelf.

PUZZLE TEN
Bean's Books has a peculiar system for organizing the books it keeps on the shelf. While books are kept in alphabetical order, it's alphabetical by title, not author! Place the books back onto the shelf in order by name, and be careful- the author's name isn't always in the same spot for these books.

Placing the books back onto the shelf took, all in all, perhaps five minutes - but it was five minutes well spent, because Layton helping Sabine place the books back seemed to be just what she needed to calm herself down. Once they were all back in order, Professor Layton got to his feet and helped Sabine to hers- and she thanked him several times before brushing her hair out of her face.

"I'm terribly sorry about all of that," she apologized, looking away for a moment. "It's just… I can't go to Senkou's house. Not while the monster is there."

"The monster?" Robin asked, wondering if it could be the specter.

She nodded. "I- I mean, I don't know if it's actually a monster?" she admitted. "But… in the past week, whenever I've gone over for tea, I've heard this fearsome growling coming from his barn." Layton and Robin stared at her, interested in hearing about this. "I- usually I turn tail and run, but the first time I heard it I tried to investigate. But the moment I got to the door, I heard a terrifying voice, calling out to me. It sounded something like…" she raised her hands, waggling her fingers, and spoke in a hoarse voice. "Meat…"

"'Meat'?" Layton and Robin repeated.

Sabine nodded. "I ran away in terror after that, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much else…"

"Do you suppose this is related to the food that's going missing is related to this?" Robin asked, and Layton nodded. "We should check the barn then. Thank you for your help, Sabine."

Sabine smiled in response. "Y-You're most welcome, but- do be careful. If it really is a monster, don't be too reckless."

Robin brought a hand to her mouth as she chucked in amusement. "You don't need to worry about us. We'll be fine." With that, Robin and Layton said their goodbyes and headed off for Senkou's house.

The trip over was largely uneventful- aside from one brief reunion with Aimi that Professor Layton would rather not recall- and before long they arrived at Senkou's house. Immediately, Professor Layton noticed that the barn door was open- which was odd, because not only did Senkou not seem the type to keep it open and unlocked, but it was swinging just slightly despite the lack of wind, indicating that it had only been opened recently.

Layton moved over to the barn to investigate, checking the door to make sure that it wasn't just loose or off its hinges, but it was clearly kept in good condition and the locking mechanism required human hands to operate. Then again, he observed, taking note that the lock could be opened from the outside with a rope tied to the lock and closed from the inside by a bar that had a few teeth marks on it, It looks like this was designed so that Colt could open and close it on his own. Still, he wouldn't be able to open it from the inside unless he had hands, and even then… he measured how high off the ground the latch was. Even standing on his hind legs, he'd be unable to reach this.

Professor Layton hummed to himself in consideration as he examined the door. Opening and closing it from outside would be easy enough for anyone to do- but opening it from the inside could only be done by a human, or at least someone or something that had hands. An animal like Colt would be completely unable to do so, meaning that- well, he didn't want to jump to conclusions, so he turned to take in the inside of the barn, idly noting that Robin had walked in while he had been distracted by the door.

The inside of the barn was arranged… oddly, he noted. It looked like it had been reorganized in a hurry. Divided in half in a hasty manner, he determined that the left side was where Colt slept, with how it was arranged for an animal. The right side - where he was both interested and pleased to note his assistant was looking around - was what was confusing. Hay had been arranged into a human-sized bed, a large barrel had been re-purposed into a bath, there were a few tables that looked like they had been pulled from the trash and were barely holding up, and a coat hanger stood near where the bed of hay was.

"Professor," Robin spoke up, snapping him out of his observations. "Come here." Layton walked over to her, examining the tables that she was standing next to. His eyes widened as he took in what was on them- medical instruments lay atop one of the tables, and the other two were covered in miscellaneous items he was sure were from the general store and empty food boxes and plates respectively.

"Well, that solves one mystery," he noted, but paused when Robin shook her head. It didn't take him long to realize why. "No, you're right. We know where these things have gone now, but we don't know who or why, or even how."

Robin nodded. "Still, it's a start. And we know that our thief is a bit audacious, hiding right under Senkou's nose like this."

"Should we tell him?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, I don't believe so. I may have suggested it this morning, but with Josephine's words…" Layton thought back to how she'd described him as short sighted. "Well, he might do something rash. Let's wait until we know more."

Professor Layton nodded in agreement. "Still, we have a piece of the puzzle now. Someone who the residents have no knowledge of is hiding in Old Ashton."

PUZZLES SOLVED – TEN

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. 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, as following the sound of what seemed to be some sort of sailor song led Robin and Flora to have an encounter with it. It may have come from the ruins outside of town, after Senkou foolishly disturbed them.

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. Whoever stole the food is living in Senkou's barn, likely without his knowledge, and has been for the past week or so.

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. The supplies were found in Senkou's barn, but the 'who' and 'how' are still a mystery.

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. She claims to be from a small island off the coast of Japan, and is oddly certain that the specter is friendly. She also reacted strangely to the mention of the ruins outside of town.

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. She's responsible for Chopper's presence in Old Ashton, and no one's really sure where she got him from. Like the rest of the Children's Club, she knows how to navigate the streets without getting caught, and dislikes her father's tendency to try and shelter her.

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. The two were initially friendly, if somewhat irritated, but when the specter came up they immediately started acting hostile.