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 permit us to investigate the Allebahstian embassy. He explains that Allebahst has very strict immigration regulations, so getting permission to enter it is difficult. He also mentions an "incident" that happened at the Allebahstian embassy.

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

Talk to Ambassador Palaeno. Edgeworth thanks him for helping. He even generously gives us Babahlese ink, made from whitcrystal oil. The Babahlese Ink is jotted down in your Organizer.

Talk to Franziska. She mentions 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 is updated in your Organizer. She determined that Manny Coachen was 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 were found in the Babahlese side of the embassy, so Franziska hopes she will find something in the Allebahstian side. The Counterfeit Bills are added to your Organizer.

Now that we're fully prepared, let's enter the embassy! Kay informs 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 reveals himself to be... Larry Butz, Edgeworth's childhood friend, much to Edgeworth's chagrin. After a brief conversation, Larry reveals that he is once again a murder suspect. Agent Lang soon joins in and says that the victim is a person who sneaked into the embassy, who calls himself 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 original Mask☆DeMasque case with Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey last year. Play that case to see who claimed to be the real Mask☆DeMasque.

Who's Larry Butz again? There's a saying: when something smells, it's usually the Butz. He is also Phoenix's childhood friend and has a very bad track record with murder cases, which you can see as far back as the series' first-ever case! Larry also appeared in the Mask☆DeMasque case.

As bumbling and useless as he is, 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 arrives and asks for the file. He is still chasing after the Yatagarasu after these seven years. You automatically talk to him.


 * Initial investigation: As soon as the Yatagarasu made herself known, Badd and Lang stopped guarding the embassy and started directing things around the crime scene. DeMasque II snuck 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 separate 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 come from here. Examine the three knives. One of the knives is 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 also reveals that the spear is just a prop and isn't strong enough to be used as a weapon. The Samurai Spear is added to your Organizer.

Now examine the victim to enter a close-up scene. Examine their head. The victim was merely a fake successor of the first DeMasque. His real name is Ka-Shi Nou. He died to a hit on 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. DeMasque II's Note is 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 is added to your Organizer. Talk to Larry to hopefully get answers to some burning questions.


 * Steel Samurai: After his previous appearance last month, 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 despite it being March, but when he tried to climb down the chimney he found that smoke was coming out from it. You 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 is added to your Organizer.

Examine the statue. It looks the same as Babahl's, but there was only one statue before both countries were split, so one must be the fake. Allebahst's Primidux Statue is 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! Allebahst's Primidux Statue is 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 are 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 is added to your Organizer. However, she also says 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 is 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 get the Used the fireplace logic.

An assistant enters the room to deliver a police dog called Missile. Franziska requested for one to help trace the smell of the Yatagarasu. He goes straight to the fireplace and finds some kind of hot dog, which Edgeworth says is a Samurai Dog. He 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 is added to your Organizer.

Missile the police dog? Doesn't he look familiar? Well, the other time you see this dog in action is the first game. If you bring the dog to Gourd Lake with a Samurai Dog stand, he eats 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 get the Undershirt from next door logic. Ms. Oldbag also confirms 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 are 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 in Ms. Oldbag's room next door, which means that these two rooms share a chimney. You 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 this room, the two fireplaces must be connected.

There's an X in the fireplace here, which makes the wall turn, opening up a passage to the other room. You 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'd better come up with a good one. First, we need to find the truth behind Larry's lie. We get some testimony from him.

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

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 recipient'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 finally confesses and tells the truth to his embarrassing 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 reminds us that he still is a suspect due to the murder weapon, the Steel Samurai's sword. Looks like we have to deal with Lang, who claims to have got 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 is updated in your Organizer. 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. 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 are allowed to touch it, it means that 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. Lang sends an agent to request permission from the ambassador to let us investigate it, but is denied. Since he isn't here, no one will mind if we investigate the statue ourselves.

Edgeworth suggests 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 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 belong 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 do all these facts tie together?

The chapter now ends.

Bad Ending Two: If you fail to prove Larry innocent, Lang ends up arresting him for the murder.