8.1
August 20, ? ?:? ?
Wright Anything Agency
The Mushroom Kingdom
Phoenix held up his hand to stop the rapid comments of his soon-to-be client. "Woah woah, slow down. Now, what exactly do you want me to do, Mario?" he asked.
"Well, you-a see, pretty soon is-a mine and-a the Princess's vacation to-a Isle Delfino. However-a, Bowser Jr. is-a already there, ruining Mario's reputation," the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom told the Ace Attorney.
Phoenix slowly nodded. "Right. I think I played that game back when I was a kid. And because of that, when you arrived, you were arrested?"
"Right-a. The-a only problem is-a...well, let Mario have a certain-a Hub personality say it," Mario stated, before pulling out a tape recorder. He then hit the Play button.
"There was no statement by the defense, no attorney appointed to the defense, no witnesses called, no evidence presented, nobody even bothered to notice that we literally got here 4 minutes and 34 seconds ago before we were arrested, and there wasn't even a jury!"
Phoenix blinked once. Then twice again in rapid succession. "Right. Well, the jury thing isn't anything new to me, but was it seriously that bad?" he asked incredulously.
"Uhuh," Mario nodded. "Some-a Loops, they-a do it on purpose so that-a I will-a help them. Not that they-a need to, Mario not heartless, after all!" he commented.
"Alright then. After hearing that, not much else I can do, right? Mario, you've got yourself a lawyer!" Phoenix declared, shaking the Man in Red's hand. "Just, one thing..." he added.
"What's that?" Mario wondered.
"Please pay me. Barely any of my clients do, and I need to pay the rent," Phoenix sobbed. The sad part was, that included his Looper clients as well...
8.2 (XeroM52)
Phoenix was sleeping peacefully after a long day. Maya was Awake and had decided to go have some fun by herself. As a favor, she had asked him to look after Pearl for the night, and as Phoenix didn't have any cases going on lately, he had said yes and spent the day doing just that.
Then a scream woke him up in the middle of the night. "Wha-?"
"Mr. Nick! Mr. Nick!" Pearl came running through the door scared.
"Wha-What happened? What's wrong, Pearls?" Phoenix tried to rub the sleep away with his bare hands.
"I had a nightmare, Mr. Nick!" she admitted.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Pearls," Phoenix tried to reassure like he had done so many times with Trucy. "Hop on and tell me all about it!" He had read in a parenting book before that he had to prompt a scared child to tell him about their nightmare so he could take the appropriate action to defuse their fear.
"I-I know I'm too grown up to be scared..." Or as grown up as an 8 year old thought they were. "...but I thought the boogeyman was coming for me and he was hiding under…" But before she could even get to the end of her nightmare, Phoenix was now the one screaming.
"THE BOOGEYMAN?!" He shot out of bed instantly. "PEARLS, HIDE IN HERE! I'LL NAIL THE WINDOWS SHUT!"
Hours later, Maya had returned to the apartment to check on both Pearly and Nick. But instead of finding the place in order, the place was a wreck. All sorts of things had fallen on the floor, plants were out of their pots, furniture was turned over, etc.
"Oh my god! What happened here?" Maya's mind instantly thought all of this was signs of a break-in and that there had been a struggle all around the place. "Nick! Pearly!" she called out, terrified that one or both of them could be hurt!
"Maya?" she heard Phoenix call out her name from one of the bedrooms. "We're in my room!" he yelled.
"Nick! Are you alright? What about Pearly?" she questioned back as she rushed to Phoenix's bedroom. Inside, the room was a mess like the living room was, with the mattress flipped over and serving as some sort of protective wall. Phoenix was hiding behind it with what looked like a shotgun pointing towards the door. Maya, however, recognized it as nothing more than the Eternal Edge with the Trigger Memory inserted. Meanwhile, Pearly was sleeping besides him, clearly passed out from exhaustion.
"What happened here?" Maya asked, fearing the worst.
"Oh, nothing, Maya," Phoenix tried to explain as nonchalantly as he could. "Just a little incident involving the Boogeyman."
"The Boogeyman? Are you serious?" Maya repeated. She then sighed, clearly exasperated. "Phoenix." She used his first name; she only ever used his first name when it was something REALLY serious. "You really, REALLY, need a vacation Loop."
"But, Maya…!"
"No buts! Just look how stressed you are! All the time with you it's always work, work, and work. Always acting responsible, always carrying other people's worries and troubles on your shoulders."
"But I have to, Maya! You know what would happen if I don't…"
"Nothing, Phoenix!" she interrupted. "Nothing will happen! And if it did, it would all go back to normal next loop!" She paused to sigh again. "You need to kick back, relax and enjoy life a little more! Play pranks, go on dates, get a tattoo, get drunk and barf on the floor, live life! For once, do something irresponsible and stupid!"
"Maya, you're talking crazy!" Phoenix argued back. "I'm not the sort of guy who enjoys that sort of thing. It's just not me!"
"So it is you to freak out in the middle of the night and hole yourself in your room because of the boogeyman?" Maya deadpanned.
"When you put it like that, you make me sound like an idiot!" More like crazy, in Maya's opinion.
"Just promise me that for the rest of this Loop AND the few next ones you will do something FUN! So that you're not as stressed anymore."
"Ok, I promise…" Phoenix sighed in reluctance.
"Good! Now let's go back to sleep, because I'm really…" But before she could finish, a strange nightmarish creature jumped at her from behind. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
TRIGGER: MAXIMUM DRIVE!
"Die monster, you don't belong in this world!" Phoenix then shot the boogeyman dead.
8.3 (Thanatos's Scribe)
"Well, Mr. von Karma?"
Miles blinked as he Awoke, but quickly realized that he had awoken during the resolution of DL-6. His trial. He sent out a quick Ping, he was only met with silence. (It seems that I'm running this Loop alone, but there must be a Stealth Anchor somewhere around here,) he thought to himself, only to be brought back to reality as von Karma let out that guttural roar he always did.
Remembering what was supposed to happen, Miles grimaced, as if in thought, before saying as he had a multitude of times before, "That scream... I've heard that scream before..." After a few seconds passed, he drew back as if in shock and stated, "Wait, I know! It's that scream I heard in the elevator!" Looking at von Karma, he slowly said, "Fifteen years ago... von Karma!" Pointing at the man, he declared to the courtroom, "It was you who screamed!"
This revelation sent the courtroom into a hubbub, but that was quickly silenced as von Karma entered that breakdown Miles was familiar with. "Eeeedgeworth... Eeeedgeworth..." von Karma moaned as he gripped his gun wound, "Only you... Would dare... Defy me...!" The corrupt prosecutor then quickly turned to face the wall and began to smash his head on it in a rapidly increasing rate as he shouted for the whole courtroom to hear, "You and your father are my curse! Your father shamed me with a penalty on my record, while you... You left a scar that'll never fade!"
"I-I'll kill you with my own hands! Death! DEATH!," von Karma declared, and proceeded to shock everyone, even Miles, as von Karma reached into his coat only to draw out a pistol, which he pointed at Edgeworth with a manic look on his face.
"Mr. von Karma! J-just what do you think you are doing?" the Judge exclaimed.
"I was planning on using this on your father, all those years ago," von Karma revealed, the manic look on his face becoming more and more feral with each word. "However," He leered, "I guess I'll have to just kill you instead!"
Miles tried to move, but couldn't as he stared down the barrel at the man who had killed his father, old fears he thought buried popping up once more in his mind. "Now, DIE!" von Karma declared, and a shout and a shot rang out before chaos ensued.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
Miles let out a sigh as he looked down at Gumshoe's unconscious form, the detective's trademark trenchcoat hanging from the heartbeat monitor as it continued to let out its constant beep.
"Hello, Detective Gumshoe," Miles greeted as he set down the vase of flowers next to the pile of other gifts from other well-wishers, which included some chocolate from Maggey Byrde she claimed Gumshoe was fond of, a bag of homemade jerky from Jake Marshall, a Blue Badger gift basket from Maya and Phoenix, and even a jar of gumballs from the Judge. However, Miles received no response from Gumshoe, only silence.
"It's been 46 days since the incident," Miles said to the detective, and thought over what had happened that day:
Flashback
"Mr. Edgeworth, look out!"
Miles watched on in horror as Dick Gumshoe leapt out of the public booths and in between von Karma and Miles, his arms spread wide as he tried to protect Miles from any gunfire. A sharp crack of gunfire rang through the air before Gumshoe's body crumpled in on itself before flying back into the witness stand. As the crowd began to scream, von Karma pulled the trigger again several times, only to have the sound of an empty gun greet him in reply. The corrupt prosecutor let out a snarl before flinging the gun aside and leaping at Miles, so as to kill him with his bare hands. However, he was denied this as he quickly tackled and arrested by the bailiff.
(Nononononono,) Miles thought as he raced around the witness stand and lifted Gumshoe's head up, the red splotch on the detective's shirt rapidly growing in size. Putting two fingers against the side of Gumshoe's neck, he was surprised to feel a weak pulse signal that Gumshoe was still alive. "Medic," Miles said as he felt Gumshoe's pulse weaken, before turning to the crowd and shouted to them, "HELP! HE NEEDS A DOCTOR!"
End Flashback
Miles let out a dry chuckle before saying aloud, "Von Karma's trial was held a week after he shot you. Due to no lawyer wanting to be his defense since he was both clearly guilty and hated by nearly all defense attorneys, he was found guilty within the first day and sentenced to life in prison for one charge of voluntary manslaughter, one charge of meditated murder, and one charge of assault and battery."
As the monitor continued beeping at a constant rate, Miles felt rage begin to flow through him. (Goddamnit,) he thought, before lamenting aloud, "I've obtained all these powers from the Loops, but I can't do a single thing to help you! I can use the Sharingan, I'm capable of healing life-changing wounds, but why can't I heal a damaged lung and a shattered spine?!" He stopped speaking as he realized his blunder, and quickly looked outside the room before letting out a sigh of relief that no one had overheard him.
Once he had closed the door and looked at Gumshoe, though, a thought entered his mind before he smirked. Well, at least he'll like the story, He thought before he said to Gumshoe, drawing up a chair to sit in, "However, you're probably wondering what the Loops are..." As he told the tale of the Loops to Gumshoe, he noticed that Gumshoe seemed to become more and more relaxed. As Miles finished telling Gumshoe of the Loops, a cough drew his attention away from Gumshoe, and he looked towards the entrance to see a nurse standing in the doorway.
"Excuse me, sir, but visitation hours are ending in 15 minutes," The nurse said, and Edgeworth nodded before getting out of the chair and walking over to the exit.
As Miles stood in the doorway, he looked back at the comatose detective and softly said, "See you around... pal," before leaving, flicking the lights off in the process. Three hours later, though, at 1:37 AM on February 13th, Dick Gumshoe was officially declared dead.
8.4 (Awesomedude17)
Phoenix Wright knew that there'd be some loops where he'd have to hurt something. He never liked violence, preferring the legal method better (especially the more fair types.) But sometimes legality was a moot point. He would have to fight. It's why he really hated the Marvel vs. Capcom loops (that, and getting punched, shot and burned a lot.)
This loop, he had replaced the anchor, or rather, a bearer of the anchor, Link.
So with blade and shield in hand, he set off to kill stuff, as he'd put it himself.
Link was always an action person. Sure, the loops where he'd have no fighting to do if he could help it were always fun, but this time was different.
Lawyers were some of the most boring people he dealt with. It was a saving grace that he replaced Phoenix Wright, meaning that there'd be at least something interesting in court.
It was a good thing that Link was good at listening to just the important bits. If there was filler, good, less work.
"Court is now in session for the trial of Larry Butz."
"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor," Winston Payne said.
"The defense is ready, Your Honor."
His first case, and his gut feeling like a stab wound.
Basically the natural reaction now.
8.5 (GammaTron)
"Greetings, everyone. I am AI Fragment Delta..."
"And I'm Maya Fey! Welcome to Super Grifball XLIX!"
"This appears to be the optimal match of the season between the Righteous Rebels and the Harmonious Hearts," Delta informed.
"Whoo! Go, Nick!" Maya cheered as she saw the leader of the Righteous Rebels taking the field.
"You appear to be quite annoyed with this, Grif."
"Of course I'm annoyed. It's a sport where people's clothes and/or armor turn into my armor and they kill him or her just to get the ball that explodes in the end," Grif informed.
"But it's hilarious when we get to see guys who are normally so good fumbling!" Maya countered.
"True," Grif admitted, "Looks like the two teams are all out. Team Captains Twilight Sparkle and Phoenix Wright are now standing before the referee for the coin flip."
"Alright. Now y'all remember that Ah want y'all t' play fair, do yer best, and kill th' Grif when he or she shows up," the referee ordered as he took out a coin, "Call it, Bluetard."
Phoenix sighed as Sarge flipped the coin into the air, "Heads."
"The coin lands on the ground and...it's heads!" Maya commented.
"Now you remember the rules for this sport, correct?" Delta asked.
"Uh...Maybe?" Maya admitted.
"Originally, it was a free-for-all in getting the ball, but this season, we changed that to having a referee give a coin flip. The winning team gets the ball first and then the senseless beatdowns begin," Delta informed, "The one who has the ball becomes the Grif and must get it to the goal located on the opposite side of their side of the field. Each score is worth one point."
"And there it goes!" Maya declared, "And Nick gets the ball! ...Ah! Nick, run away! LOOK OUT!"
"Ooh...!" Grif winched as Phoenix slammed into the plastic-like glass they were behind, "And he just lost the ball thanks to Ranma using a Gravity Hammer. And now Sonic's me...and Red Scout gets her with the sword."
"Red Soldier is showing quite the high performance today, showing that even in your armor, Grif, he is still quite fast," Delta noted.
"AND HE SCORES!" Maya cheered before yelping as the ball exploded, "Medic!"
"We've got respawn," Grif pointed out as Red Scout walked back out to the Righteous Rebels, "Still, great job, Scout, for getting that first point of the game. Ball comes back into play and Apollo Justice manages to get it. He's doing his best, an-ohh! I feel for ya, Apollo, and I hope you get justice for your loss. Low blow, Twilight Sparkle, low blow."
"And now it seems that Nick is arguing with Sarge and..." Maya began.
TAKE THAT!
"He is presenting evidence. Sarge appears to be agreeing with the evidence and is giving Twilight Sparkle a Yellow Card for aiming below the belt," Delta examined, "I must say, this is quite the fun event."
"You should've been here the tenth one," Maya noted, "We got Sangheli singing with Church about why he was the best. I got the gold one's autograph, too!"
"And because of the cash reward letting you get as many burgers as you wanted," Grif added.
"What? Burgers are divine!"
"Sorry, Maya, but it's Oreos that are divine. Why do you think when I wake up each Loop outside of my Loops, I but every single Oreo there, buy the factory, and shut it down once I get at least a billion Oreos in my Pocket?"
"Game resumes. Pikachu had obtained the ball for the Harmonious Hearts but is intercepted by Heavy Weapons Guy and his Gravity Hammer," Delta commented as Grif and Maya began to argue over burgers and oreos near him, "Twilight calls for an exchange and send Pikachu out and brings in Ryuko Matoi. She engages Life Fiber Synchronization with Senketsu and gets the ball. Even with everyone on the other team jumping on her, it seems to not bother her as she reaches the goal and gets the first point for the Harmonious Hearts. It seems we are approaching a break, so this is Delta signing off until the break ends."
"IT'S BURGERS, YOU FATTY!"
"OREOS FOREVER, SHRINE MAIDEN!"
L.001 (GarnettFoxy)
"This reminds me..." Professor Layton paused mid-sentence. Luke stared up at his idol, confused.
"Reminds you of what, Professor?" Layton blinked, gazing down at him as if only just remembering he was there, before smiling warmly at the boy.
"Why, of a puzzle of course, my boy! Care to try?" Luke's face lit up as his mentor explained the puzzle and left him to it. Unseen by Luke, Layton checked his calendar, brow furrowing.
"Curious...I seem to have gone backwards in time..." He turned back to the boy he cared for like a son as he tried to figure out the harder then normal puzzle, giving Layton a chance to think.
Last he remembered was seeing Luke off as his family moved to America, and now he was back to the day before they were to set off to that rather curious village.
Luke cheered, finally figuring out the puzzle and getting up, a proud smile on his face. "I got it, Professor!" Layton chuckled, patting the young boy on the head.
"Very good, Luke. Now why don't we settle down for a afternoon tea? I have those fairy cakes from the bakery down the street you love."
Luke cheered. "I'll get the tea on!"
Layton smiled fondly as Luke rushed out to the kitchen. He got to enjoy trying to figure out the puzzle behind this repetition in time and spend more time with the boy who might as well be his own flesh and blood. What could be better?
8.6 (wildrook)
Out of all the Labyrinthian Scenarios he had dealt with, and of the court trials, what he saw surprised him.
Instead of Zacharias Barnham, what came through the door to the Witch Trial...
"I...didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition," Phoenix muttered, Maya face-palming at the obvious quote.
"NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!" Cardinal Barnham yelled, cape flowing in the area.
8.7 (BIOS-Pherecydes, 1.4 cont.)
Lelouch Lamperouge sighed as he walked down the hallway. Next to him Kallen, in her school persona, was asking about her new role in the Student Council. Having long-since memorized the conversation he only paid marginal attention as he gave his responses. Normally by now he would have started gathering the Black Knights and preparing to rescue Suzaku, but recently he had begun to surrender to ennui. When he had died and woken in the past, he made the mistake of thinking that he had somehow traveled back in time. However after dying several times and returning to the same point in history, where it had all truly begun, he had finally come to a realization.
The Zero Requiem had been a complete success, with his death he had brought peace to the world. At the cost of everlasting damnation. However this was a small price to pay in his mind to ensure a gentler world for his sister and friends. And all things considered, after forcing his will upon 'god', an eternity spent in Hell was of no real consequence.
Even so, no act can be maintained indefinitely; and that was the case now. He had had this discussion with Kallen exactly seven hundred and ninety four times. He had changed it in one hundred thirty eight different ways and cataloged each variation thereof. He had skipped it all together two hundred and eleven times. He had narrowed it down to a science how to subtly manipulate each thread of the conversation to the topic of choice.
No matter what he did, it was essentially meaningless. He had built this country into a shining utopia in two years. He had let it fall to ruin in one. He had conquered Britannia, sent his parents into the abyss and reduced the nobility to street urchins in eight hundred forty one unique manners. He had noted and accounted for every alteration, variation or modification of his original lifetime long ago. And now he was utterly bored.
Every action or undertaking was eventually wiped away when time reset. Regardless of what mistakes he made or how he improved upon his successes, without fail at the same point every time he would close his eyes and upon opening them find himself immediately returned to the same damnable truck in which he began every reiteration. In the end everything was ultimately without purpose.
He had been simply going through the motions for decades now. Only his sister still managed to bring him to full appreciation of the world around him. Only around Nunnally was he still able to feel like himself; to anyone else he was still the aloof honor student, or the charismatic leader.
In that vein he, without actual attention, turned the corner with Kallen at his side. In front of him was the Student Council and his sister, gathered around the large television. He had learned the exact rate of step he needed to take in order to arrive just as the announcer interrupted Jeremiah's speech, and as such he was exactly on time to see Suzaku being led in handcuffs through a crowd of Britannians.
"The man suspected as the murder has been captured. According to this report the suspect is an Honorary Britannian. Private Suzaku Kururugi, a former Eleven, has been arrested for the murder of Prince Clovis."
Having heard her brother enter the room, Nunnally turned with a stricken expression. "Oh, Lelouch its awful. Suzaku would never do something so terrible."
Shirley gave the younger girl a stunned look. "You know him Nunna?"
Nunnally nodded sorrowfully. "Yes, when my brother and I first came here Suzaku and his family were kind enough to take us in. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met, there's no way he would have killed Prince Clovis."
Milly turned a look on Lelouch, who nodded imperceptibly, before jumping in with her typical energy. "Well if Nunnally says this Suzaku guy is innocent then I for one believe her. I have half a mind to bust down those jerks front door and teach them a lesson!"
Before any other comments could be made, the reporter spoke up again. "The trial of the suspect has been set for later this afternoon. He will be represented by Phoenix Wright, a Britannian Defense Attorney of some renown."
"Hey! I've heard of that guy, he was the one who defended the killer whale in that murder trial." Rivalz called out in surprise.
...What? While he was certain that Suzaku had been appointed a lawyer on the previous runs, this person was not the one he recalled; although to be fair it wasn't as if Lelouch typically paid much attention to that particular detail. Still, a Defense Attorney famous enough that even Rivalz of all people knew him? Something didn't add up here, and Lelouch very much intended to figure it out.
There were few things in the world that Phoenix hated more than injustice. As such the sham of a trial being set up put his teeth on edge. It didn't help that he was woefully unprepared, although admittedly that wasn't exactly uncommon.
The judge, if you could call the person seated at the bench such, was obviously less interested in the proceedings than in his attempts to flirt with the court clerk, a moderately attractive Britannian woman who was uninterested in either. He and Suzaku had been led into the court directly from the prison and Phoenix had been forced to stay silent until Lord Gottwald had left. At least the Margrave had enough respect for the system to stay behind the bar, leaving Phoenix and Suzaku to prepare.
Turning to face the worried soldier, Phoenix took a breath.
(Well, this isn't the worst situation I've ever gotten myself into. Somehow stuck in a completely different world, with an insane history and defending a soldier who fights in giant robots. Just another day for the Wright Anything Agency.)
"Alright Suzaku. While we still have time, is there anything else I need to know about what happened during the incident?"
Suzaku frowned, appearing to debate something to himself, before shaking his head. "Nothing that matters."
Seeing as there was no accompanying rattle of Psyche-Locks at that statement, Phoenix nodded.
(I hope for both our sakes you're right.)
For the first time in over a thousand years, a concept which still baffled him and increased his sympathy for what C.C. had suffered, Lelouch was faced with a completely unknown variable. It had been child's play to hack into the Britannian judicial records and look up the man known as Phoenix Wright. What he had found had left him with nothing but more questions.
While this wasn't the first time he had encountered a shift from his original history, it was by far the most unorthodox. The cases this man had been involved in were, at times, frankly ridiculous. What's more they frequently pertained to companies which he had never heard of.
Minor variations had occurred roughly every dozen repeats, and more major ones every few hundred, but this was the first time in memory in which entire portions of Britannian culture, infrastructure, and economy had drastically shifted so entirely as to be unrecognizable. The most alarming thing however was not the change, it was the fact that when he thought about the issues he clearly recalled specific details that he should have had no knowledge of. His memories had somehow been altered to possess information it had not had previously.
As someone who relied upon the clarity and accuracy of his mental acuity for every facet of his life, the idea was just short of horrifying. Only the knowledge that his 'father' had done so before and he had overcome it allowed his to avoid slipping into a mild panic. Taking a calming breath he considered his options.
His sometimes best friend was due to be tried and sentenced by the end of the day. Due to his previous lethargy he had completely missed his chance to contact Ohgi's cell. Even if he revealed himself to Kallen now, he still had no way of arranging things to free Suzaku in the normal time frame. C.C hadn't yet shown herself at the Academy so any help from her was nonexistent.
He could easily locate the haberdasher who designed his Zero uniform and pull off a last minute rescue from the gallows, which had been his original plan, but with all of the new variables he wasn't as confident in his timing as he had been previously. And that was completely disregarding the unknown figure of this Phoenix Wright. What's more, the fact that there was a hitherto undetected element in this endless repetition of time worried him.
Not unduly so however. He had after all managed to completely overcome any and all issues in the events of his rebellion in only a handful of tries, even when he had been caught off guard by unexpected factors. Nevertheless, the fact that something he had thought mastered was changing so late in the game led to the inevitable question of whether or not there would be further issues in the future.
Still, that was a problem for later. For now, he had to get in touch with Ohgi and the future Black Knights and plan his entrance onto the stage. Whoever this Phoenix person was, he was unlikely to be of much use to him. Or Suzaku for that matter. When the system itself was flawed, there was no other option but to destroy it and build it anew. And the Britannian Judicial System was one of the most flawed things he had ever dealt with. He doubted this new character would have any more luck.
8.8 (XeroM52)
"You know, it's unusual for a student to have a phoenix as a pet," Harry Potter said to the girl that was sitting in front of him on the train to Hogwarts.
"Oh, this is no pet, Harry! This is my dad," Trucy Wright said with a smile. "Say hello to Harry, Daddy!" she said as she petted the phoenix in the head.
*Squack*
"OK, then…" Harry trailed off for a second. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Wright."
Still not in the top 50 of weirdest things he had ever seen.
L.002 (GarnettFoxy)
Layton smiled, watching Maya and Luke interact and play together while they were trapped in Labyrinthia. It had been a fair few loops since he'd first noticed the phenomenon, but the first time since they'd started that he was once more in the town of magicks.
He glanced over at the smiling and tired-looking Phoenix Wright, his suit stained with flour. He was rather surprised during that first loop when he and Luke were never visited by Espella. Though he was perhaps more surprised when the next loop started the day he first met Luke.
Since then, the time of when the loop started kept changing, though it always ended the day Luke left for America.
He'd kept careful track of the events and without fail, apart from tiny random variations in the puzzles (Which was a godsend for the puzzle lover), everything and everyone's reactions were the same.
Apart from now.
When he'd proposed the puzzle to Maya and Phoenix, they were normally stumped, with Maya trying to solve the puzzle by eating the bread he used for it. This time, Phoenix only took a moment before he'd solved the puzzle. Something very, very different than his first loop.
The more he watched them, their familiarity with the puzzles that had had them asking for help and the fact they seemed all too familiar with the town pointed to one indisputable fact.
They were looping as well.
Layton found himself wanting to ask if they knew why time was repeating. But he stopped himself, as there was no guarantee that Maya or Phoenix would know anymore than he did about the loops. That, and being honest with himself, the mystery of what was causing the loops was the most interesting puzzle he'd come across in quite a while.
With that, he sat down. The black cat Eve purred and jumped onto his lap as he pulled out a book. "Norse Mythology... I have to say, the idea of a world tree is quite fascinating..."
8.1 - Turnabout Mario Sunshine - Prologue. Join Phoenix (and Apollo) as they defend Mario in what would have been that sham trial at the beginning of Super Mario Sunshine!
8.2 - Night Terrors.
8.3 - ...A salute for Detective Gumshoe, everyone.
8.4 - Role Reversals.
8.5 - ...I don't get it.
L.001 - What's this? That's right! This is now also the home of the Professor Layton Loops!
8.6 - I expected it, though. Also, how does someone in Labyrinthia know what Spanish is?
8.7 - Code Turnabout - Part 2. Dimension drift never got back to me about it, so BIOS decided to take the reins. Look forward to the remaining three parts!
8.8 - I suppose he's still Wright the Phoenix.
L.002 - The Professor is a freakin' genius to be able to figure out the Loops before even getting the Speech.