Serene Winter Days

By: Yuki Mizuno

Summary: The fourth story in the "Melancholy Series" is also going to be a crossover with Ace Attorney… Well, more so with Edgeworth's Investigation gameplay and not so much the courtroom side of things. First, it was Professor Layton, now it's Phoenix Wright's turn to help!

It's almost Christmas time in Peach Creek as Christmas shenanigans ensue. Serena decides to help Matthew out with an idea that he wants to do for Marie, not realizing the trouble it could cause for the group. But then, as Christmas time comes closer and closer, a dangerous situation starts to form before chaos descends upon Peach Creek, Sunflower Shoal, and Oak Valley.

Tuesday, December 18th, the Winter holiday was in full swing here in Peach Creek. It was currently late in the morning, almost lunchtime. We come across a Cul-Dec-Sac, zooming in on the first house to the left of the entrance. Three teens exited the house and started to walk towards the playground nearby, all of them dressed appropriately for the cold weather today. One of the teens was a 15-year-old boy. He had short, messy light blond hair that was mostly covered up by his black beanie and bright green eyes. The two other teens were fraternal twins; a boy and a girl who were also 15 years old. They both had red hair (one being light, and the other dark) and dark green eyes.

The three teens were Eddward (known as Double D by his friends as a nickname), Serena, and Matthew Johnson. Their parents were Aiden and Wendy Johnson, retired FBI agents who now stay home to help raise the three kids they saved and then adopted.

Double D made a sigh to himself while closing his eyes, his breath could be seen because of the cold temperature. The Winter break from school began yesterday for the holidays, so this would be the first Christmas with the twins in a very long time… Not that he could properly celebrate it with the twins before when they lived together. This would also be the first Christmas he would celebrate with his biological father, who currently lives with his family in a town further away called Oak Valley.

[If you want to know more about this plot thread, please read the three previous stories before this one. It is the same with the other plot lines that also happened before this story. Please and thank you!]

"It's so cold, even with a winter jacket," Matthew stated with a bit of a shiver, "Makes me wonder if it's really going to snow today?"

Double D chuckled, "Well, it would be nice if it did, then it would be another White Christmas, just like last year."

"Wow, that means it would be our first White Christmas!" Serena gasped before making a big smile, "I can't wait to celebrate it with everyone!"

The three teens soon arrived at the playground nearby, which was the usual spot for them to meet up with their other friends before deciding on what to do for the day. They could see they were the first ones to arrive, which always seemed to be the case for them, though sometimes it took Serena a lot longer to get ready compared to her two brothers. She was not much of a morning person and became drowsy very easily, it almost made them wonder if she was narcoleptic because of how often this happens to her.

It did not take very long for three of their other friends to arrive. The three teens that were approaching them were Jennifer, Zoey, and Marie; it seemed like Marie met up with Jennifer and Zoey before walking over here to the playground.

Serena could see both of her brother's faces light up in happiness when they saw Jennifer and Marie approaching them. Double D and Jennifer have been a couple for almost half a year now, which made her happy to see her older brother was happy. Meanwhile, Matthew and Marie were still only friends; it kind of made Serena worried about him, making her question why Matthew had not properly asked her out yet, despite her knowing how he felt about Marie.

Zoey looked in the direction of the Cul-De-Sac, trying to see if their two remaining friends could be seen. Thankfully, she could see Eddy and Ed dashing over to the group, "Looks like everyone's here!" Zoey said right as the last two teens approached the group.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Jennifer asked Eddy since he is usually the one who thinks of ideas to do every day.

"I was thinking about going to town," Eddy said, "I got something to do, but you guys can tag along if you want."

"Oh? And what is this 'thing' you need to do?" Zoey asked in a teasing tone. She already had an idea of what he was really planning.

Eddy looked at Zoey with a small huff, "I'm not saying what it is! It's—"

Eddy was interrupted by Double D, who began to chuckle at his behavior, "You don't need to try and be coy about it, Eddy. We can all go buy Christmas presents together."

Serena widened her eyes, "That sounds like fun! Count me in!" she cheered.

"Yeah, and maybe we can run by the candy store too!" Ed said with a big smile, "They'll probably have some candy canes and special chocolates!"

Matthew looked over to Marie, only to see that she was unusually quiet. He remembered Marie telling him a few days ago that her two sisters were coming to visit her on the day before Christmas Eve, saying they were going to stay at her house until the holidays were over. Matthew could see how happy Marie sounded when she mentioned the news; it sounded like she genuinely missed them.

"But don't tell anyone about this, please," Marie told him back then, "I wanna keep this private for a reason. It's… kinda hard to explain."

Marie never clarified the reason, but he could tell it was something personal.

Eddy turned to his friends with a big smile, "Let's get going now, we're wasting time here!"

Everyone cheered in excitement before they all began to walk towards town.

Meanwhile, in a beachside town called Sunflower Shoal, around the sketchy part of town, we zoomed in on a somewhat big building that was tucked away at the end of an alleyway, normally hidden from view.

This building was the headquarters for the Martel Family, the secret mafia that funded Vergil and Rita Bishop in their scientific endeavors, helping them in their research and production of the dangerous drug they started to make 15 years ago. Back in August this year, Vergil and Rita were very close to completing the job they were assigned and paid to do by the mafia, but they were stopped by the FBI and the local police along with the help of a famous gentleman from the UK. And now, Vergil and Rita were being put on trial for their crimes. While they did say they both worked for a secret mafia, they never said which mafia family hired them, but that could soon change if they take the stand.

Anyway, we soon come up to the head office of the Martel Family, seeing the man in charge of the family sitting at his desk, glancing over at some papers he had in front of him. The lighting in the room was bad, making it very dark to where no one could properly see the man's appearance at the desk, but looked to be in his mid-60s.

Suddenly, the man hears a knock on his office door, "Come in."

A man entered the room, holding a large file in his hands, "I assume you were able to gather the information we needed, Mr. Carson?" the boss asked his second in command.

"Yes, Mr. Martel," Carson replied as he handed him the large file with him, "This is a list of details involving the arrests of Vergil and Rita Bishop; some of it is top secret, even to most police officers."

"I see. Please give my thanks to our janitor friend in disguise at the station for this information," Martel replied as he began to open the file, "You are dismissed for now."

"Yes sir," Carson replied with a nod before walking out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Martel began to read what was in these files, looking up the details of the victims involved and what happened to them. There was a laundry list of the teenagers that were kidnapped back then; 48 teenagers, to be precise. According to the records, none of these 48 teens were harmed after finding them a week later in Vergil and Rita's lab.

Martel set aside the list of 48 teens to look at what he really wanted to see; the list of victims that were directly affected. It was a list that only had four teens written down in it, they were unaccounted for in the bigger list, and for a good reason. The teens were the only ones who were injected with the drug that Vergil and Rita produced.

Two of the four teens were fraternal twins (a boy and a girl) who had been experimented on their whole lives. The other teen was a boy who was in the same position as the twins until he was six years old when he was saved by his now-adopted parents. The final teen listed was a girl, who was the last and most recent victim, being injected with the drug during the incident only once compared to the other three, who had been injected several times before then.

Serena Johnson had healing powers. Matthew Johnson had fire powers. Eddward Johnson had ice powers. Zoey Wheeler had lightning powers… And it seemed all four teens still live in the same area where the incident occurred, "Then it should be very easy to find them," Martel stated aloud.

He then picked up another sheet of paper underneath all the other ones; it was the details of the upcoming trial. He could see a well-known name as the prosecutor for the trial of Vergil and Rita Bishop. It was a man named Miles Edgeworth, a famous prosecutor who usually takes on cases in the state of California, but was assigned to this case by 'an acquaintance of Professor Hershel Layton, for personal reasons'.

"Must be one hell of a friend, traveling from west to east for this one case," Martel chuckled slightly.

Martel could see there was no defense attorney in this trial due to Vergil and Rita confessing to what they did, so there was no real need for one. The trial itself was going to be very short, but still needed to be done to make their prison sentence longer.

"It's a shame those two will not live to see that extended prison sentence or their plans finally being fulfilled," Martel stated as he made a smirk.

Martel made a sigh to himself, looking back at the names of the four teens, "We will also need to look up these teen's background information. Anything to help us gain leverage to detain them once more," he made another smirk, but one that was much more sinister, "I do hope that those vials of the drug that Vergil and Rita left behind are still stable and good to go once we bring them back!"

Author's Note (July 13th, 2024): New story! Who dis?

Remember when I mentioned in the second story of this series that Jennifer played a series of games called "Fenix Trite"? Yeah, he's real! Layton even mentioned him in passing when she mentioned the series!

"I had no idea he made the cases he worked on into a video game series for others to solve..." - Layton

So with this fourth story, I decided to add him along with Edgeworth! Why? Well, mostly because I've been on an Ace Attorney kick thanks to someone I watch on YouTube and Twitch (Crystaahhl), who's recently been playing the series completely blind. Plus the news of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 FINALLY getting a western release AND being localized is extra exciting! It's really a great time to be a fan of games and series that have never seen the light of day outside Japan. Live-A-Live, Trials of Mana, the Great Ace Attorney 1 and 2, and now Ace Attorney Investigations 2!

... Now, if only Mother 3's music was not in copyright hell for some of the songs in the game... Oh well. NSO exists, so who knows?

I can't wait to see people play those games for the first time. Oh, and the Layton/Phoenix crossover in canon, just in case that was not obvious.