Hello, peoples! I'm sorry that I haven't updated this in forever, but I've been preoccupied with several other things. And, just so you know, the website didn't delete this, I did. I just had other things to worry about other than this fic, so I didn't want to leave it up, knowing that I wouldn't update it as often. But now, I believe that it's time I made it up to you. THE FIC IS THE THING!
Tuesday, Barde Manor, 1:00 PM.
Luke and Flora had been trying to get John's mind off of the Swords ever since they came back to rendezvous at Barde Manor with Tony and Arianna. But all attempts have been useless. Luke had even tried giving him a riddle to solve.
"Okay, John, imagine this:
"Three guests check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is ₤30, so each guest pays ₤10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be ₤25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop ₤5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest ₤1 and keep ₤2 for himself.
"Now that each of the guests has been given ₤1 back, each has paid ₤9, bringing the total paid to ₤27. The bellhop has ₤2. If the guests originally handed over ₤30, what happened to the remaining ₤1?"
"Luke, why are you guys still doing this?"
Flora put a hand over his. "Because we don't want you to be upset. I realize that the Swords mean a lot to you, and if we could get them back, we would. But that doesn't seem to be the case right now. So, why don't you just solve the riddle?"
John looked at her a bit before putting his head back down. "Alright. What was it again?"
Luke repeated the riddle two or three more times before John finally got the answer. "It appears that there is no missing pound. Since the original bill was ₤30, but it was supposed to be ₤25, each guest only had to pay ₤9. Seeing that ₤5 cannot be divided evenly among three people, the bellhop keeps ₤2 for himself, making the new bill ₤27. Add this to the ₤3 that the guests have, you end up with the original total of ₤30. Therefore, no missing pound."
Luke clapped his hands. "Good job. You have a talent and observance that rivals the professor's!"
"I don't know about that, Luke," a voice said from the hall. It was none other than the professor himself, along with Emmy, back from some last minute investigation. "But we can decide on that later. We found some...curious information, to say the least."
John tensed up. "What kind of curious information?"
Layton sat down and put his hand over his mouth, thinking. "Well, first off, no one seems to remember the incident of the Last Specter from the last time we were here."
Luke tilted his head to the side in confusion. "How is that possible? It wasn't that long ago, and it affected the whole town!"
"I said that it was curious. Every time we brought it up, everyone thought we were playing something."
Emmy took a step forward now to give her testimony. "And, there's something else that was rather...odd."
"Oh?" Flora asked.
Emmy reached into her camera bag and pulled out a poster. A wanted poster. With Johnathan Walker's face on the front. "It appears that you, John, don't have a lot of friends here."
John sat bolt upright, sweat forming on his brow. "No... but that means..."
"I'm afraid that Descole wants you out of the picture."
"No, not quite." John took the poster from her hand. "Didn't you notice? This poster is hand written and copied."
"So?" Luke asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Have you ever seen Descole's handwriting?"
"I think I understand what you're getting at," Layton said, taking the poster from John. "Descole has never, in all my experiences with him, handwritten something. Maybe on a type-writer, but never by hand."
"Again I say, so?" Luke crossed his arms. "Maybe he wanted to try a different approach to catch us off guard, since he knew that my father would send us word about the election."
Flora looked hard at the poster. "I think... I think that I recognize that handwriting."
Everyone looked at her. Emmy went over and stood by her. "Where?"
"Well, I'm not sure exactly. But it seems familiar."
John tensed up suddenly again. He shot one hand to his forehead and the other to Flora's hand.
~Flashback~
John had lost his cousins. They had been taken away by Descole. And he had run like a coward when they were gone. But not anymore. He went and confronted Descole. But he wasn't quite ready for the encounter.
Information that he had been given said that he could be found in an abandoned factory. It was there that he was in the process of making...something called a Detragiganto and another called a Detragon. He couldn't be given any other information on it, other than it had to do with something called The Song of the Stars.
After a year of searching, he finally found the factory, and stole his first glance at the machine in question. But when he did, he immediately recognized it as the same device that attacked him the first time. Shaped like a giant, demented monkey, its arms and tail were fitted with drills, as if it were to be used to dig up something.
John searched a little more before he started hearing music. The tune, which he assumed was The Song of the Stars, drifted from a room that he thought was too small to hold an orchestra. And, in a way, he was right. On the other side of the door was a large contraption, which appeared to be made up of every single instrument in existence. This was the Detragon, but John wasn't concerned with names at the time. He was a little worried about the man playing it: Jean Descole.
He tried to back away, only to cause the door to seemingly slam shut. Descole turned around, smiling at the him. "Ah, if it isn't Johnathan. How have you been?"
"Where are Emily and Peter?" He brandished his walking stick. "Tell me!"
"Oh, now, are you that desperate?"
"Tell me right now, you sick son of-"
"Alright." He raised his hand. "I'll show you." He turned and played a few notes, lowering a screen, on which showed the boy and girl, suspended in tubes of liquid.
"What have you done with them?" John took a step closer.
"Why, we took samples of their blood."
"And then put them in test tubes?"
"Well, we knew that you wouldn't just give up on them."
"Wait, 'we?'"
A voice from behind me said, "Yes, 'we.'"
John turned around and saw a man with pointed, brown hair on the sides of his head, a pointed nose, and...pretty much, his whole head was pointed. He had a little patch of hair on his chin. He wore a purple coat, orange pants, and brown boots.
The man smiled at him menacingly. "Well, Descole, I didn't know you had another friend." He held out his hand to John. "Paolo. Don Paolo."
John spun around quickly and asked, "Why are you after us?
Descole laughed as he walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Do you understand what your inheritance is? You three have the key elements of the Detragiganto! With it, I can unearth Ambrosia!"
John laughed at this. "Ambrosia? That doesn't exist."
Paolo grabbed his arms behind his back and held him there. His staff fell to the floor and was taken off by one of the wolves. "We thought that you would say that."
Descole smirked. "Plan B?"
"Plan B."
Descole produced a cloth from behind him and held it over John's mouth and nose. He tried to wriggle out of Don Paolo's grasp, but he felt him self start slipping from consciousness.
~Present~
Flora and John shot their hands away from each other. "Sorry," John said as he stood. "I'm just... sorry." He ran from the room, hand clenched around his ring.
The professor looked at Flora with an expression of great interest. "What did he show you?"
Flora fidgeted with her dress a little before looking up and saying, "Descole...is working with...Don Paolo."
Tuesday, Police Station, 2:00 PM
Grosky headed to the Police station earlier after the incident in the Golden Garden. He knew that any and all facts on the entire population of Misthallery. Birth dates, Marriages, and, specifically, criminal records.
Grosky searched for hours on end, looking for something, anything, that could be used as evidence against Descole in court. The only problem was that there didn't appear to be anything.
Chapter Complete. I hope that this makes up for the long break from this fic, but I've been busy, so I have a... semi-good excuse. Anyway, sorry, R&R and ADIOS!