Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/Turnabout Ablaze/Part 5-2 - Middle 1

We return to the Theatrum Neutralis just in time to witness a humorous cutscene involving Agent Lang. He isn't too happy that we're here, and he won't even grant us permission to investigate the Allebahstian embassy. He will explain that Allebahst has very strict immigration regulations, so getting permission to enter it is difficult. He will also mention an "incident" that happened at the Allebahstian embassy.

Agent Lang will be interrupted by the elderly ambassador of Allebahst, Quercus Alba. He will say that he only gave Agent Lang jurisdiction over the investigation in the Allebahst side to minimise any disruptions, but Ambassador Palaeno will arrive to help persuade Ambassador Alba. We finally get to investigate the Allebahst side of the embassy, but Kay and Gumshoe will have to stay behind. Before we do that, we should get a bit more information about the smuggling ring.

Talk to Ambassador Palaeno. Edgeworth will thank him for helping. He will even generously give us Babahlese ink, made from whitcrystal oil. The Babahlese Ink will be jotted down in your organizer.

Talk to Franziska. She will mention the reason Babahlese ink is not allowed to be brought out of Babahl is because of a batch of counterfeit bills from Zheng Fa made with this ink, making them almost impossible to distinguish from the real ones. Babahlese Ink will be updated in your organizer. She determined that Manny Coachen is the head of the smuggling ring because of the documents of his ink smuggling and the fact that he runs the embassy's printing press. However, neither the bills, the ink nor the press was found in the Babahlese side of the embassy, so Franziska hopes she will find something in the Allebahstian side. The Counterfeit Bills will be added to your organizer.

Now that we're fully prepared, lets enter the embassy! Kay will inform us that she will search for more clues at the Babahlese side, so maybe we'll find something new once we're done with this side.

Two old acquaintances
Right after entering the Allebahstian ambassador's office, the Steel Samurai suddenly runs into Edgeworth! After some spanking from Franziska, this mysterious superhero will reveal himself to be...Larry Butz, Edgeworth's childhood friend! After a brief conversation, Larry will reveal that he is once again a murder suspect. Agent Lang will soon join in and say that the victim is a person who sneaked into the embassy, who calls himself the Mask DeMasque II. Surely enough, the dead body on the floor is wearing a costume that should be familiar to fans of the series.

Of course, Gumshoe worked on the Mask DeMasque case before with Mr. Wright and Maya Fey in the "Stolen Turnabout". Play "Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations" to see who claims to be Mask DeMasque.

Who's Larry Butz again? There's a saying: When something smells, it's usually the Butz. He is also Phoenix Wright's childhood friend. Anyway, if you want to know about Larry and the Mask DeMasque case, play "Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations" to find out more about the case.

Larry isn't someone who would commit murder, so we have to prove that he is innocent. One investigator identified the victim, but Agent Lang won't give us the report. Detective Badd will arrive and ask for the file. He is still chasing after the Yatagarasu after these seven years. You'll automatically talk to him.


 * Initial investigation: As soon as the Yatagarasu made herself known, Detective Badd and Agent Lang stopped guaring the embassy and started directing things around the crime scene. DeMasque II sneaked in during this period of chaos to steal something valuable, but was killed when he was discovered by someone.


 * Suspect: Larry just happened to be the first person they suspected, he's not actually under arrest. Ambassador Alba was to give a speech at the courtyard tonight, but then the Yatagarasu appeared. One person was absent when the Ambassador spoke, and that was Larry. The Steel Samurai cast was to wait in a seperate room, but around the time of the murder, Larry was seen on the roof, with one foot in the chimney that leads to this room.

Larry sure has a way of getting into trouble. Without further ado, let's start our investigation!

Investigation: Ambassador's Office
First, Examine the knife rack. An Allebahstian knife was used to kill Manny Coachen, so it must've came from here. Examine the three knives. One of the knives are missing its blade, which matches up with the blade we have. There's another peculiar contradiction in this scene. Deduce the spear and present the Steel Samurai's Autograph. The spearhead is misshapen, which Larry explains was bent because he was spinning the spear around and hit a wall. He will also reveal that the spear is just a prop, and isn't strong enough to be used as a weapon. The Samurai Spear will be added to your organizer.

Now examine the victim to enter a close-up scene. Examine the head. The victim was merely a fake successor of the first DeMasque. His real name is Ka-Shi Nou. He died to a hit to the head from behind. Examine the orange paper in his hands. There are instructions on how to get to the statue, and it seems that someone requested the victim to steal it.

The DeMasque II's Note will be added to your organizer. Examine the sword. It belongs to the Steel Samurai, and the blood means it might be the murder weapon. The Samurai Sword will be added to your organizer. Talk to Larry to hopefully get answers to some burning questions.


 * Steel Samurai: After his previous appearance in Trials and Tribulations, Larry quit being an artist and took up a job as the Steel Samurai to get close to an actress in the show.


 * Time of murder: Larry was up on that roof to emulate Santa Claus, but when he tried to climb down the chimney he found that smoke was coming out from it. You will get the Smoke from chimney logic. It might be the silliest reason to be on the roof ever, but at least it's not murder.


 * Murder weapon: Larry left his sword behind after shaking hands with the ambassador.

Now examine the small table beside the fireplace. There is a photo of the Steel Samurai shaking hands with Ambassador Alba. The Photo with Steel Samurai will be added to your organizer.

Examine the statue. It looks exactly the same as Babahl's, but there was only one statue before both countries were split, so one must be the fake. The Allebahst's Primidux Statue will be added to your organizer. There's something odd about this statue. Deduce the statue and present the Photo with Steel Samurai. The statue had been moved around the time of the crime! The Allebahst's Primidux Statue will be updated in your organizer.

Examine the window to the right of the room. There are two flowers planted here, which Franziska recognizes as Passionflowers. Passionflowers will be added to your organizer. Looks like our investigation is complete!

Suddenly, the Pink Princess enters the room. Talk to the Pink Princess, who reveals herself to be Ms. Oldbag! She was trying to sleep in the other room, but came in here after hearing a lot of noise. After running into her two days in a row, looks like Edgeworth is no luckier than Larry!


 * Pink Princess: Ms. Oldbag was called in by the studio to replace the original Pink Princess actress at the last minute. The Stand-In Request will be added to your organizer. However, she will also say that she received a letter from a stalker. Whoever wrote it got her name wrong, but Edgeworth seems to recognize the handwriting. The Letter from a Stalker will be added to your organizer.


 * Time of the murder: Around the time of the crime, Ms. Oldbag was by the fireplace in the next room, warming her hip. You will get the Used the fireplace logic.

An assistant will enter the room to deliver a police dog called Missile. Franziska requested for one to help trace the smell of the Yatagarasu. It will go straight to the fireplace and find some kind of hot dog, which Edgeworth says is a Samurai Dog. It eats the whole thing up, so we can't use it as evidence. Missile also found some kind of women's undershirt. The Lady's Undershirt will be added to your organizer.

Missile the police dog? Doesn't he look familiar? Well the other time you see this dog in action is with the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney "Turnabout Goodbye" that if you bring the dog to the Gourdy Beach "with the Samurai Hotdog stand" he'll eat all the hotdogs leaving Larry broke! What a laugh!

Given the circumstances, the undershirt can only come from one person. Talk to Ms. Oldbag and present the Lady's Undershirt. She confirms that it is hers, and that she used the fireplace to dry the sweaty undershirt after the show. Oldbag doesn't seem to be telling a lie, so why did the undershirt end up here? You will get the Undershirt from next door logic. Ms. Oldbag will also confirm that the Samurai Dog was hers.


 * Samurai Dogs: The Samurai Dogs are a gift from the studio to the embassy, and Larry had to pile them into a cart just to deliver them to the embassy. Ms. Oldbag just decided to sample one after the show, but managed to finish about half a dozen boxes. The Samurai Dogs will be added to your organizer.

Now go into Logic Mode and connect Smoke from chimney with Used the fireplace. Because the fireplace in this room was never used, that would mean that the smoke that came out of the chimney originated from Ms. Oldbag's room next door, which means that these two rooms share a chimney. You will get the Shared chimney logic.

Then, connect the Undershirt from next door with Shared chimney. Because Ms. Oldbag's room and the Ambassador's office share the same chimney and Ms. Oldbag's undershirt was found in the this room, the two fireplaces must be connected to each other.

There's an X in the fireplace here, which makes the wall turn, opening up a passage to the other room. You will get the Connected fireplace logic.

With that, our investigation is complete!

Now we need to prove Larry's innocence. Agent Lang is confident that he can counter our arguments, so we better come up with a good one. First, we need to find the truth behind Larry's lie. We will get some testimony from him.

Testimony: Larry Butz
Larry is still lying, and he claims the reason behind that is because of something embarassing.

Rebuttal: Up on the Rooftop
Press statement 5 and choose to Raise an objection. Santa delivers presents to children, and Larry was certainly intent on delivering something to someone. When asked who that is present Ex-Security Lady. Of course, Larry couldn't have wanted to see Oldbag that bad that he would climb in through a chimney, but what if he didn't know that it was Ms. Oldbag? Present the Stand-In Request. Ms. Oldbag was called in at the last minute to replace Mindy, a woman that Larry fancies. Larry tried to sneak into the Pink Princess' room because he thought it was Mindy in the costume. Larry still asserts that that is not the truth.

Rebuttal: Larry's Assertion
Present Letter from a Stalker at statement 1 or 5. Larry was the one that wrote the letter, and was going to "descend upon her from the heavens" if it wasn't for the smoke. Larry had actually intended to meet Mindy, and this letter is proof of it. Present the receipent's name. Larry had written the name "Mindy" so badly that it looked like "Wéndy"! Larry claims that the letter isn't his, but we can find out if it is through handwriting analysis. While Larry refuses to write anything for us to analyse, he already gave us a piece of his handwriting! Present the Steel Samurai's Autograph. Larry wrote this for Edgeworth after the show, so we can use it for the handwriting analysis!

Larry will finally confess and tell the truth to his embarassing mistake. After seeing the Pink Princess carried by a stretcher, Larry was concerned for who he thought was Mindy. He wanted to visit her but was stopped by the doctors. He then decided to sneak in through the chimney, but not before slipping a letter through the door so that the room's occupant won't be too surprised when he comes down. Although we now know why Larry was on the roof, Agent Lang will remind us that he still is a suspect due to the murder weapon, the Steel Samurai's sword. Looks like we'll have to deal with Agent Lang, who claims to have gotten some trump cards from Larry's testimony.

Rebuttal: Why Larry?
Press statement 2 to get a revised statement and a new statement.


 * Beside him was the Samurai Sword... covered in the victim's blood.
 * I suspect he beat the victim to death with that thing.

Present the Samurai Spear at the second new statement. The spearhead is bent because Larry accidentally knocked it against a wall. That means that all of the weapons used in the show are hollow, and thus cannot be used to deal a life-ending blow. The sword doesn't even have a dent on it. The Samurai Spear will be updated in your organizer. Agent Lang is still not convinced, so we need something that he can't refute.

Rebuttal: Why Larry? Pt. 2
Press statement 3, and choose to Raise an objection. Agent Lang claimed that his men examined everything in the embassy, but there is one thing they couldn't inspect. Present Allebahst's Primidux Statue. Because only the ambassador and the secretariat of the embassy is allowed to touch it, it means that Agent lang and his men had never laid a finger on it. The photo of the Steel Samurai also shows the statue facing a different direction, which means the statue may very well be the real murder weapon. Agent Lang will send an agent to request permission from the ambassador to let us investigate it, but was denied. Since he isn't here, no one will mind if we investigate the statue ourselves.

Edgeworth will suggest running a test on the statue using Luminol. The test shows that there is blood on the head of the statue, but that doesn't mean that Larry is innocent. We'll now examine it in the same way we examine evidence in our organizer. Check the bottom of the statue. There is a handprint underneath the statue, which can be analysed to reveal the true killer. Let's just hope Larry wasn't the one that left it there when he was messing around.

After the test concludes, the forensics technician reveals that the fingerprints on the statue belongs to the victim of the Babahlese embassy murder, Manny Coachen! If Mr. Coachen's fingerprints were found on the statue, that might mean that the two Primidux Statues were switched!

Larry is now innocent, but we're left even more confused than ever. Manny Coachen was killed in Babahl with an Allebahstian knife, while DeMasque II was killed in Allebahst by Babahl's Primidux Statue. There's also the appearance of the Yatagarasu. How does all these facts tie together?

The chapter will now end.

Bad Ending Two: If you fail to prove Larry Butz innocence, Agent Lance ends up arresting Larry Butz for the murder.