The Unity of Chaos

By: Yuki Mizuno

Summary: An EEnE/Professor Layton crossover that's a sequel to my story Melancholy Times. Please go read that story first before this one, thanks! Takes place a year after the Unwound Future and a week after the end of the first story. Over the last week, several dozen teenagers have gone missing in the towns of Peach Creek and Sunflower Shoal. A request soon comes up that asks for Professor Layton's help in this case, alongside another mystery that needed to be solved.

Note: The new Layton game that was announced at the beginning of 2023 is not involved in this story, mainly because there's not that much info about it now besides a general synopsis and a bit about the setting. Kind of crazy that I have to say that now… The New World of Steam is going to be a new Layton game in the future. I almost cried when I saw the news, or maybe I did cry. I know that I screamed very loudly and typed a whole bunch of gibberish in a Twitch chat while watching the Nintendo Direct.

TUoC: Chapter 1

It was a cloudy afternoon here in London, England as a brisk breeze blew by the city, the chances of rain were very high. Today was August 1st, with the current time being 4:30 p.m. It was here that we came across a big building with many students leaving the grounds before the rain could arrive; it was Gressenheller University. We soon zoomed in on one of the offices of the professors who work at the university, who was sitting at his desk, writing some notes down for a future class he needed to teach.

The professor wore a brown coat over a dark orange shirt, brown pants, and a pair of dark green shoes. He also wore a tall, top hat that was brown with red lint.

As he finished writing down his notes, he heard a ring come from his cell phone that was sitting on his desk. He had just bought this cell phone a few weeks ago, due to his university's request to do so for emails and other important things. He saw the ID of the caller on the screen, Scotland Yard.

The professor picked up his cell phone to answer it, "Hello?"

"Oh good, Hershel! You picked up," stated a familiar voice on the other line, "Was afraid you were busy with something."

"Not at all, Inspector Chelmey," the professor replied, "Is there something you need help with?"

"Heh, sharp as always, aren't you Layton?" Chelmey stated with a small bit of bitterness, "It seems you were requested by name for help on a case in North America. You can hear more about it in detail when you visit the chief inspector at Scotland Yard."

"Very well, I will be there as soon as I can. I'll see you there," Layton stated before ending the call. The professor only sighed before making a small smile. Seems like his services were needed elsewhere instead of in his classroom, 'Another mystery to solve,' he thought.

Professor Layton rose from his chair and walked out his office door, locking it behind him as he did. He passed by Rosa Grimes, the cleaning lady, on his way out of the building, telling her to inform Mr. Delmona that he was summoned by Scotland Yard for something important. He then left the area in his car, driving off to his location nearby.

It only took him a few minutes to arrive and park his car at his destination, which was Scotland Yard. Layton soon entered the building and proceeded to walk to the office of the chief inspector, "You called for me, inspector?"

"Ah, Mr. Layton," greeted the chief as Layton walked into his office, "I'm sure Chelmey explained it over the phone a bit, but we just got a request for you to solve a case in North America."

The chief inspector turned his computer monitor around so Layton could see what was there. It was an email, "The request comes from two small police departments in the state of Georgia. The small towns are called Peach Creek and Sunflower Shoal, with the latter being near the Atlantic Ocean. Recently, there have been multiple cases of teenagers vanishing without a trace, almost fifty in total have gone missing over the past week alone. The local police don't really have enough staff members on hand to make a full-on search for these missing teens, so they finally reported this to the public yesterday on the local news, which caused quite a stir. This incident hasn't reached any national or international news outlet yet."

Layton made a stern face at the news, "How awful…"

"Normally, this kind of incident would be handled by the FBI…" the chief inspector continued to say, turning his monitor back around to use it, "But then something of interest came up yesterday that could be related to this case."

He turned his monitor back to Layton, showing a picture of a red-haired teen boy and a red-haired teen girl, they were twins. Their clothes were covered in dirt, and it looked like they were exhausted from something, "The police found these two teens wandering around downtown Peach Creek. They were confused about where they were, with both having lost their memories, only remembering their first names. The only thing they had on them besides the clothes on their backs was a letter; a letter written by someone else requesting your help."

The chief inspector turned his monitor back around once more before grabbing a sheet of paper to give to Layton, "This is a scanned copy of the letter that I had printed out."

Layton took the copy of the letter from him to read what it had to say.

'To whoever finds this letter,

My husband and I need help with protecting these twins, their names are Serena and Matthew. We need to attempt to rescue the twins from their imprisonment in a horrible place that was abusing them, but we are unsure if the two of us can come back in one piece.

If that happens, we request the help of Professor Hershel Layton, an acquaintance we met five months ago on an undercover job in London. We are confident he can help them with this dire situation.

We also want to request that the twins meet up with a teen boy named Eddward Johnson, who lives in Peach Creek. We are confident that he can help the twins out in some way.

I hope this letter reaches someone in time to help them. We are sorry that we cannot do more for them… Please, tell our son we miss him dearly and that we will always love him with all our hearts. We're so sorry.

Sincerely, A-W J'

"… As you read in the letter, the person who wrote this is more than likely deceased, along with leaving us little to no clues about who they were besides those initials at the end," the chief inspector continued with a sigh, "The local police tried to get into contact with the FBI for help on this case, but they have yet to respond back to them at all, which is another reason why they requested your help… It's honestly baffling why the FBI would ignore this case right now."

"I see," Layton stated as he folded the letter and put it in his pocket, "I will leave for the airport early tomorrow morning to go help them."

"Good to hear," the chief replied as he started to type something on his computer, "I'll let them know you've accepted their request, along with telling them you will arrive there sometime tomorrow."

"Understood."

Professor Layton stood up from where he sat and left the chief's office, pulling the letter back out as he did to read it over once more.

'This is indeed very odd,' Layton thought to himself, 'The writer of the letter said I was an acquaintance of theirs from five months ago, but I don't immediately recall meeting anyone like them,' he then thought about it a little more, 'The writer did say they were undercover back then, but still…'

He looked to the letter where it mentioned a teen boy named Eddward Johnson, and then to the end of the letter where the initials 'A-W J' were seen. Layton shortly concluded that the J in the initials was the beginning letter of the boy's last name, meaning that his mother was the one who wrote this letter.

'I'm sure more will be explained once I arrive there tomorrow,' Layton thought, folding the letter back into his pocket again before walking off.

Author's Note (June 28th, 2023): Oh, hey there. I made this first chapter faster than I thought I would. I also said I would wait a while before even starting this... But I did it anyway. Oh well!

Also, the chapter titles will be named after video game songs I like, with the first chapter's song being "Before the Story" from Deltarune.

... Oh yeah, I also felt like saying a few words about my history with the Layton series, since this is the first time I'll be writing anything from the series. I bought the first Layton game, The Curious Village, which was a used copy for about 20 at the time, remembering that I heard good things about the series in general. I fell in love with the game; so much so that I went and bought Diabolical Box and Unwound Future immediately afterward, and then the other games later on as they came out; including the crossover game with Phoenix Wright on the 3DS. As I stated in the note at the start of the story, I screamed and cried when I saw the announcement that Professor Layton & The New World of Steam was a real thing that was going to happen; the series had come back and was no longer dead, along with Level-5 making and localizing games again. I can't wait to play it; presumably next year in 2024, seeing that the announcement was only a teaser without a set date. The third game in the series, the Unwound Future, is my favorite in the series by far. I won't spoil it here for those who haven't played it, but this story will potentially contain references and spoilers to that game in particular.

And, speaking of Layton again, do you guys remember when the Smash Ballot was a thing back in Super Smash Brothers for 3DS/WiiU? We all know who the winner was for that ballot (eventually), Sora from Kingdom Hearts; as well as Bayonetta (at least according to Europe). While my number one choice was always going to be Sora, I didn't pick him when I filled out the ballot. I picked Professor Layton. One of the reasons was that I knew for a fact that almost everyone would write down Sora for Smash, meaning he would get in any way even if I didn't write his name down as a suggestion... I was technically right; a few years late, but we still got there, and I couldn't be happier! The other reason is kind of silly; I basically pitched Layton as a Smash fighter for the sole reason of, "Well, if Phoenix Wright can be a playable fighter in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, why can't Layton get to be a fighter in Smash Bros.?" I wrote down that his moveset could be similar to Phoenix's moveset in MvC3, with his Final Smash being the slot machine gun he makes in Unwound Future. Plus, Layton knows how to fence, meaning he could have been some sort of sword fighter... I would have laughed so hard if they did pick him and he had a sword for any reason. But I can also see why they would not pick him for Smash; one of the reasons is that he is an English gentleman. I'm sure he would not want to pick fights on his own. Plus, I assume it would also be like the case for Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series never got into Tekken as a crossover character; he doesn't really want to harm women in any way shape, or form... Ichiban, however, is a different story. He loves Dragon Quest. :P