Chapter 2: Beginning Investigations

Chapter 2: Beginning Investigations

“Why am I awake at three o'clock in the morning? I really should be sleeping...I'm going to have a long day today...Why can't I go back to sleep... I was sleeping like a baby earlier until I got woke up by a noise...” I heaved myself out of the bed and put on my glasses, as I have a sudden overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom. After doing my business there I started to go back to my room, then I noticed a faint light coming from Layton's Bedroom.

“Is Layton really awake at this time of night? Nah, he probably was so tired after doing that last minute work that he merely forgot to turn off the light...I should do that for him, though that would mean...” I paused for a second and thought about it, it took me about a minute to process it due to my exhaustion, and then it dawned on me. “Oh, I could possibly see Layton without his hat...though that would be ungentlemanly of me to look at him without his hat...but still, I'll try my best to avoid that.” So I slowly opened the door and sneaked into his room to avoid waking him up. As I approached the lamp, I noticed a bunch of notebooks on the table, all with names on the cover. “The Perilous Speedway...wait, he's keeping a journal on our adventure already? We haven't even started...technically... Maybe this is what he meant by “last minute work.” Let's check it out.

Mystery #1: The Perilous Speedway

Just what exactly lies deep within this mysterious speedway? What kind of secret makes an entire town disappears after the person comes back from exploring the place empty handed?

I do believe we'll learn more about this place as we investigate.

Mystery #2: Origins of New Assistant

Where exactly does our New Assistant reside from? I suspect his origins have a very deep and rich background, I shall ask tomorrow more about this, I am hopeful that he will provide some answers to this perplexing mystery.

“He's...really concerned about my background? Gah! How in the world am I going to explain to him that I'm from another dimension...I'm in quite a pickle right now...” It was then and there I realized how interested he truly was in me, he wanted to know more about me, mainly because at this point, I was a blank slate, he didn't know much about me other than my name and the few details I gave him. Most people would think this was creepy, but for me, knowing how Layton was, it wasn't really, just him solving another puzzle, but this time the puzzle was me.

“Oh, I must have left the light on by accident, I should turn that off.”

“! Uh...uh-oh...” I quickly hid under the desk, making very little noise in the process, other than my foot sliding across the chair that was sitting pretty far from the desk. I felt like a ninja.

“That's weird, I could've sworn that I left this notebook closed before I went to bed, but I shouldn't worry about trivialities.” I heard him turn off the light then walk back to bed, which I didn't dare to look at him, mainly because he didn't have his hat off.

“...phew, that was way too close for comfort. That was not such a good idea after all, next time I should just mind my own business. Now...I got another puzzle to solve, avoiding waking him up again.

Puzzle #3: Sneak n Snore

20/20 Picarats

You must escape from Professor Layton’s room without waking him up, however if you go to slow you’ll take too much time and he’ll spot you, go to fast, and you’ll make too much noise and wake him up.

Figure out the speed at which you need to go to successfully exit the room.

“This is a tricky puzzle indeed, though it’s easily solvable I believe. One must just find the middle of the road in terms of speed, and the variable is probably steps per second. Unfortunately we’re missing the two variables I need, the slow speed and the fast speed.” I thought about it for a whole minute before the answer finally came to my head. “Here’s my solution…It’s two steps per 15 seconds, going one step would take me way too long to progress anywhere quickly, and taking 3 steps, while it would work, wouldn’t be worth the risk of making the floor creak and waking him up. Puzzle solved…” I silently walked across the floor doing two steps per 15 seconds, and it proved to work, as I didn’t hear a peep from him, other than his breath. Once I got out of the room I let out a big sigh of relief. “Ok, note to self, don’t ever try to sneak into another person’s room, especially when the person who occupies the room is in it. I feel kind of guilty now, doing that, but I learned some good information I suppose. Now before I go to bed I might as well get a glass of water from the kitchen, it wouldn’t hurt.”

I walked down to the living room in absolute darkness, trying not to bump into anything in the process, which I was doing suboptimal. Just then I bumped into another person, and we both jumped back into retaliation, and I went into a fighting stance. “Who’s there?! Don’t make me call the police!”

“Eek! I s-should be saying the same thing to you! You don’t sound like Luke at all!

“Wait, who are you and how do you know Luke Triton?!”

“I-I’m Flora Reinhold, and how do you know about Luke?!”

“I’m Professor Layton’s new assistant…I should at least know a little bit about his background.”

“W-What’s your name?”

“I’m Qhj, though you can call me Q, like I said I'm Professor Layton's new assistant, I'm what you call a puzzle enthusiast, not as much as Layton of course, but close enough...but enough of that, we need to turn on the light so we can at least see each other...than I'm going to bed, I have a long day today and I need my sleep...”

“Oh! Yeah, I'll get to that”

“I'll get it, no problems Flora.” I quickly walk over and turn the light on, first having difficulties finding the stupid thing, then eventually hitting the switch by complete luck, turning the lights on, so we could actually see each other.

“Y-your tall mister, I'm scared...”

“You're really scared of me because of my height? Wow...No offense, but I couldn't hurt a fly let alone be scary, understand? Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going to sleep, ok?” I started to walk back to my room when Flora suddenly yelled my name.”

“Qhj! I have a puzzle for you to prove your worth!”

“...Seriously? A puzzle at this time? Can't you wait until I get more sleep...”

“Nope, I can't wait.”

“Ok, show me the puzzle...”

Puzzle #4: Security Cameras

25/25 Picarats

There is a 5x5 room, and you only have the budget for one security camera to secure the room; however the camera can only see 3 spaces in front of it. Where do you position the camera so it can secure the whole room?

“That's actually a decent question, did you just make it up on the spot or have you thought about it for a while and refined it?”

“I can't say.” She stuck her tongue out at me very childishly, which if I wasn't tired I would've been mad, but instead I laughed.

“Let me think about this for a little bit...I imagine this is very easy, I'm just over-thinking it...”

“So, do you know the answer?”

“Well, here's my solution...You would place it in the middle of the room! This is another puzzle where you left behind one vital piece of information, and that is whether the camera is rotating or stationary. If it was stationary, this puzzle would be impossible, so assuming the camera is rotating, you could place it in the middle of the room, and because there will only be 2 spaces in each direction, it can see everything. Puzzle solved, now please let me go to bed.”
 

“Ok, fine, you got that puzzle right; I’ll let you get your well deserved sleep.” She smiled at me with that innocent child-like smile, suddenly hugging me and looking up at me smiling.

“Well uh, thank you, that hug was nicely appreciated, anyways; I’m going to get some sleep, night flora.”

“Night Q, sweet dreams.”

“Same to you.” I walked up back to my room and got back under the comfy covers that I had been awaiting for way too long. One question was on my mind though as I started to doze off. “Why did Flora suddenly hug me like that? Or hug me at all, knowing that I’m a complete stranger? Maybe she did it out of kindness, or maybe she did it just because I solved the puzzle, which absolutely made no sense whatsoever, or maybe she did it out of randomness, and meant nothing by it…who knows, the fact that I’m overanalyzing a hug is weird enough.” Finally after what seemed like forever, I finally fell asleep, ready and willing to face the day’s challenges…

Five hours later…

The knock on the door, the rustling of the bed covers, and the sound of Professor Layton’s voice greeted me when I awoke this morning.

“Good morning Q, I hope you had a restful night.”

“Huh...? Oh...oh! Good morning Professor, yeah, I did, and oh, did you see Flora? She apparently came in sometime last night...”

“I did not, not yet anyways, she said she would stay at my office at the university yesterday, I suppose she got lonely and decided to come back after we fell asleep.”

“Hi Professor! I'm down here!” I looked down and saw Flora on the floor, with a pillow obviously stolen from my bed, and a quilted blanket, which was probably taken from the nearby closet.

“Uh, Flora, can I ask a question?”

“Yeah, what?”

“Why are you sleeping on the floor? No offense but there is a couch in the living room to sleep on at least.”

“Well, I felt really lonely being on the couch, and since you wouldn't budge when I tried to get in bed with you, I decided to steal one of your pillows and slept on the floor!” She smiled innocently again, unaware of exactly what she said.”

“F-Flora, why would you do that?!” I was a little flustered by what she has said.”

“I'm going to make you guys something to eat, I'll be in the kitchen now.” She got up and skipped out the door, bumping into the door in the process somehow.”

“Ahem, anyways, morning Professor, what are our plans for today?”

“Well, today we're going to start out investigation as you know, and since we have no basis on where to start, we will be just talking to citizens and see if we can get any firm grasp about the speedway.”

“Ah, but there is one thing that we need to do while investigating, well really, something I need to do before we really get cracking into our investigation...”I realized there was one thing that I was lacking, which was a full wardrobe. I had been just dropped into this world with just the clothes on my back, and that's about it.

“And what would that be?” He tugged on his hat to push it back into a straight line, and I was still amazed to actually see him in the flesh.

“Well, I was thinking of making this into a puzzle for you to solve, but since I'm not the best at making puzzles on the spot, I'll just tell you. See, uh...well...I need clothes...”

“Don't worry Q, I was going to take you to get some new clothes anyways today, I had to do the same thing after I got Flora...it wasn't exactly the most exhilarating experience I've had, but it was a necessary task.”

“Yeah, shopping for clothes isn’t entirely that much fun, but like you said, it’s a necessary thing we must do. So, when are we going any who? Right now or a little bit later?

“We will depart in about an hour, that way we can have something to eat and make some final preparations, and so you can be fully ready, I don’t want my assistant to be tired after all.”

“That’s true, so, what’s our plan of action for now?” I was ready to tackle the day’s challenges, but Layton insisted on waiting, but I didn’t really mind the wait, I knew it was going to be excited, so a mere delay on our departure just made me more anxious and ready.

“First, let’s go check on Flora and see what she’s up to, then we’ll have breakfast and head out, does that sound good to you?”

“Sounds good to me, though I’ll go take a shower to make myself smell at least presentable.”

“Good, we shall be waiting in the kitchen when you finish.” The next hour wasn't particularly exciting, I took my shower, and had breakfast with Layton and Flora. Somehow though during that I dozed off, and Flora had to wake me up, whilest laughing at me for getting the contents of my meal upon my face. When I looked at him, a little bit nervous of what his reaction was going to be, I was reacted with a grin, and an obvious sign that he was trying to hold in his laughter, then finally after about thirty seconds we all burst out laughing, which then I grabbed a paper towel and wiped my face off. After that, we said our goodbyes to Flora and went on our way to get me some new clothes.

30 Minutes later...

“Wow, this is a pretty little place, what is it called again?”

“This place is the Suburban Outfitters store, run by a good colleague of mine, which you'll probably see here in a minute or two, so we shall wait here for now.” He smiled peacefully at me while adjusting his hat again.

“Hello and welcome to the Suburban Outfitters! My name is Bethany Rainbolt, and I'll be helping you out today with anything you need...oh! Hello Hershel Layton, long time no see, I had a feeling that you would come back eventually.” Standing in front of me was a young woman, probably in her early 20's, long black hair, was a bit skinny, but it didn't really matter, she was a little bit taller than me, and since I'm around 6 foot 2 inches, you could tell she was a very tall woman, she also had a pretty silver necklace with a little heart on it.

“Greetings Madame, I should remember to visit more, I apologize, my Lectures and my adventures take up most of my time nowadays.”

“No need to apologize...and who did you bring along? I don't recognize him, what's your name good sir?

“M-me? Oh, my name is Qhj, though you can call me Q.”

“Ah, what a unique name you have, I'm hoping nobody picks on you for having a name like that.”

“I used to, until I finally put my foot down and just started to ignore them, which after that they left me alone.”

“Excellent, excellent! Any who, what may I get you two today hmm?”

“I'm not getting anything Madame, my new assistant here is getting a new wardrobe for himself, which I shall be paying for myself. So please, show him to where your work outfits are.”

“I'll be honored Hershel, now come along Q, I'll show you to where the clothes are.” She looked at me and pointed to the general location, and then started to walk there. “Come along, It's not that far of a walk, and I know the perfect clothes for an assistant in training” She winked, catching me off guard.

“If you insist.” We started walking our way through the aisles and aisles of clothing, starting with women's handbags and purses, women's clothing, etc. Once we reached the men's clothes and most importantly work clothes, which was for some reason farther back in the store, I resisted the urge to ask why though.

“Let me see here...I'll find the perfect set-up for you...” As I waited for her to pick out what she thought was the right clothes for me, I got to thinking about what I had saw last night.

“Is Layton going to ask about my origins like it said in the journal? Makes sense, since he never wants to break a promise, especially one made to himself. What do I say anyways? Well, I could always just be very vague and say I don't know my exact origins, which is somewhat the truth, I do know where I was before the incident with my DS, but not to the point where I could really describe it easily, and he would never believe my story, so that's going to be a problem.” Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Madame Rainbolt's voice telling me she had picked out the clothes.

“Here you go sweetie, I picked what I thought would be the most appropriate clothing for your travels with the fair Professor.” The first article of clothing was a rugged thick pair of jeans, meant to take on even the toughest of weather conditions. “This is in case he makes you go into any caves and potentially get scars and bruises.”

“That's good to know.” I gave a nice smile to her, showing my consideration.

“Oh, there is one thing I must ask of you before I show the rest of your clothes.”

“And what's that Mam?”

“I want you to solve this easy math puzzle to show that your really Hershel Layton's apprentice.”

“Oh..a puzzle, ok! I love puzzles!.”

“That's the spirit sweetie! Its nothing to challenging, but it's better than nothing.”

Puzzle #005-The better deal.

15/15 Picarats

Your wardrobe altogether costs 199.99€ I give you a choice between two discounts. Once is a 20% off the total purchase than an additional 10% off from the price, or a simple 30% discount from the total price. Which one is the better deal?

“A math puzzle? I can deal with this no problem...let's see...”I started to solve the problem in my head, multiplying it by ten percent, than 20 from there to get the price, which was 144 euros, than I took 30 percent off the price which ended me with 140, so the answer was obvious.

“So, do you got the answer?”

“Well, here's the solution...Its the thirty percent deal. When you factor up both of them, the ten and twenty percent ends up at 144, while the single thirty percent ends up at 140, which is the better deal!”

“Very good sweetie, I'll show you the rest of your clothes now.” As she was showing me the rest of my outfit, I heard the door be slammed open at the front of the store. I went to check, but racks of clothes were blocking my way and I didn't want to seem rude by walking away to check.

“I like these, uh..can I get about a week's worth of these, preferably the shirts be in different colors..also, did you hear the door be slammed open?”

“Oh! I heard it, wonder who came in...”

“I'll go check, ok?I look around and look to see a man completely hidden in his pitch black hoodie, appearing to hold what looked like a pistol of some sorts at Layton. “Gah!”

“What's wrong sweetie?”

“Stay here, and don't go anywhere, ok? Just go along with it...”

“Um, ok.” I quietly went through the racks of clothes to get close enough to hear what if anything the two were saying without being caught, though it was very annoying having to bend down and go through them to avoid being seen over the racks.

“Laaaayton! I have one thing to say to you, and you better take head of my words.”

“And what would that be sir?”

“Do not if you want to spare your life, investigate the McKneeway speedway. I swear if I hear that you are I'll...use this on you, you hear me?!”

“Do I...know you, from somewhere sir?”

“S-Shut up! Don't make me use this!” He raised the gun up and was ready to fire at any moment, heightening the situation's intensity levels a lot higher.

“Crap...I have to stop this before it gets out of hand...”

Puzzle #006: Stop the confrontation!

0/0 Picarats

Simple: Save the professor from the masked man!

I went to the left side of the building, and went through the racks to avoid being caught. As soon as I got through the last rack of clothes I was at the front of the store, about 50 feet away from the hooded man. I hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, but I had assumed it was Layton trying to get the man to give him info about who he was, without him thinking of what exactly he was thinking. “This is it...this is my time...” I slowly walked my way towards him, ever so stealthily, which actually worked surprisingly, and once I got up to 20 feet from him, I charged, tackling him to the ground, his hoodie flew off him, revealing his face.

“Get...off me!” I reached for his gun, but he successfully repelled me, and kicking me a few feet away.

“Clive? What are you doing here? Your supposed to be in prison for what you did a few months ago!”

“Heh, heh, surprise Hershel...I escaped from that dump a few days ago, Prison life wasn't as cracked up as it portrayed. I thought I would be able to repent for my sins...but instead I just got worse...now first off, this little brat here is going to pay for that...”

“Not if I can do anything about it!” I quickly jumped back up and did a very high kick, somehow kicking the gun of out his hand, then slapping it away once I could reach it to where he couldn't easily grab it.

“You...I'll get you for this!” He ran off out the door

“Clive! Wait!” Layton dashed out the door after him.

“Wait...wait for me!” I followed suite, trying my best to keep up in the pursuit for the bad guy, I turned the corner to see Layton staring up towards the roofs of the apartment building.

“Did...did he get away?!”

“Unfortunatly it seems he did, I tried my best to catch him, but he suddenly disappeared in this alleyway...”

“Great, just great...and who was he anyways? It seemed that you knew him.” I really knew who it was, playing Unwound Future, but obviously he wouldn't know about this, so it was in best interests to remain unacknowledged on the subject of this person.

“His name is clive, a few months ago he was involved on an attack on this fair city. He was in the brink of insanity, I managed to pull him back into reality and stop his attack. He peacefully surrendered and went to jail to repent for his sins, but it seems like life in prison has changed him...for the worse...”

“Wow, what a tale. Do you think we should call the police?”

“Madame Rainbolt surely would've called the police, after overhearing what occurred.”

“So, what is our plan of action from here?”

“We pay for your clothes and get away from here to avoid the rush of questions from the police, after all, we still got to find out more about that Speedway, specifically the secret buried with in.”

“Sounds like a plan!” A lot had happened within such a short amount of time that it was hard to keep everything straight. Especially since Layton got attacked by the hooded man, only for it to be Clive. I was still on the adrenaline rush from the little scene there, I couldn't really think perfectly straight, so I had no idea what was going to happen next, however, whatever it was I knew me and Layton could take together. It was only the beginning of what was going to be a very long investigation, and would that result in more than one occasion one of us being in danger's way. Our next course of action was to continue investigating, but a certain girl decided to come along side us, making things very interesting, very interesting indeed...