Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth/The Kidnapped Turnabout/Part 3-1 - Beginning

It is raining, and someone is arguing about the ransom and police. It seems like we're now locked in in a storage room of some sort. Edgeworth will now recall why he agreed to do the kidnapping and introduce us to Ernest Amano. He is the director of the powerful zaibatsu, the Amano Group. Edgeworth is grateful for him as he helped Edgeworth in the past. His son, Lance, is already 20, but still got kidnapped.

Suddenly, there's another voice. A teenage girl hops down from the window. She calls herself the Great Thief Yatagarasu, though her real name is Kay Faraday. She will then untie us. You will automatically talk to her.

• Great Thief: Kay will insist that she is the Great Thief Yatagarasu.

• Yatagarasu: Edgeworth seems to know about a previous Yatagarasu. Kay will claim that she doesn't steal ordinary things.

Kay will ask for Edgeworth's name, after which she seems to remember something about him. Now that the introductions are settled, we can focus on escaping. The door is obviously locked, so that's not an option. It seems that the only way out is through the window that Kay came in from. Kay herself can't jump back up there, so we'll need another way.

Investigation: Isolation Room

Examine the mascot head with sunglasses. Kay will recognize it as part of the Bad Badger mascot costume, but why is the head the only part there? Bad Badger's Head will be added to the organizer.

Now, examine the small white object on the tarp. It's Edgeworth's phone. We can contact the police to help us! Detective Gumshoe will be contacted. After a brief conversation, he will be dragged away and be replaced by a new person. He introduces himself as Shi-Long Lang, an agent of Interpol (is he the one who Franziska was talking about?). He blames us for falling into the kidnapper's trap, and says he can't help us escape as his team is hunting for the kidnapper. Edgeworth's phone will soon run out of power. Seems like we're on our own again.

Examine the sign on the floor. The park is holding a Blue Badger photo rally. A price is given to anyone who snaps a picture of all 4 badgers: Blue Badger, Pink Badger, Proto Badger and Bad Badger. There's only one of each in the park. Badger Photo Rally will be jotted down in your organizer.

Examine the beam. There's a small hook there and the beam leads to the window, so it might be a way to escape! Kay will try to climb it, but fails. That's not a usable escape route after all. You will get the The beam I was tied to logic. By now a new topic will open, so talk to Kay again.

• The kidnapping: Kay confirms that there were 2 kidnappers in the other room. Now we can look through the slot.

Examine the hatch. The panel is held to the wall by a hook. You will get the Open floor panel logic.

Next, examine the boxes. There's a costume of the Pink Badger in the lower right box. Edgeworth isn't very familiar with the badgers so Kay will give us a book about them. Blue Badger Bible will be added to your organizer. There are 8 boxes, 7 of which are empty, so there should be 7 costumes being used currently. You will get the Costumes logic.

Now that you are in close-up view of the boxes, examine the key at the left edge. We could probably use it to open something in this room. You will get the Tiny key logic.

Examine the lockers. We can escape if climb up the lockers, but they are too high to reach. If we were to get to the top, we would need some footholds. You will get the Lockers logic.

Go to Logic Mode and connect The beam I was tied to with Open floor panel. The panel was held open by a hook attached to a beam. There is a beam with a hook in the room we're in, so is there an escape hatch here too? In fact, there is, just hidden under the tarp, so examine it. It's locked, of course. You will get the Underground entrance. Go back into Logic Mode and connect Tiny key with Underground entrance. The key should unlock the panel lock, and it does! Kay will dive in, but falls to the ground as the ladder slipped. There's machinery in the basement floor but no exit that can't be seen. We do know one thing, however: the ladder is merely propped to the floor, not attached. You will get the Underground ladder logic. Finally, connect Underground ladder with Lockers. We can use the ladder from the basement to climb to the top of those lockers. Freedom!

Shi-Long Lang

It seems like we were trapped in the second floor of a building in the wild west themed area. Gumshoes will come and meet up with us. After a short scene, we're officially introduced to Shi-Long Lang, the man who took our call back at the storage room. With him is a mysterious woman called Shih-na. You will exchange business cards. It seems like he really is the agent Franziska was talking about. He seems really close to Mr. Hicks, and is a little sad about his murder. He really doesn't like prosecutors, and won't even let us investigate! Maybe we can find something out about him if we talk to Gumshoe.

• Agent Lang: Agent Lang seemed to appear out of nowhere after Gumshoe called the precinct for backup. Interpol agents don't investigate normal domestic cases, so why is he here?

• Next step: Gumshoe will get into a slight argument with Kay. Nothing useful for us.

Since we still can't go anywhere, talk to Kay.

• Next step: She is still talking about stealing something.

• One and only one: Kay will say she's after the truth. Edgeworth will recall that 7 years ago there was another Yatagarasu who found evidence of corrupt dealings and made them public. The thief seemed to just infiltrate the company and disappear, leaving a card with the mark of the three-legged raven behind. Is Kay really the next Yatagarasu?

Mr. Amano will arrive and apologize to Edgeworth. It seems that Edgeworth is grateful for him as he helped introduce Edgeworth to the law office and study the justice system of another country. He is a friend of Edgeworth's mentor Manfred. He is in a pretty bad situation, with his son still kidnapped and the ransom money stolen. You can now talk to him.

• The kidnapping: It happened out of the blue. Mr. Amano received a phone call and heard the pleas of help from his son at the other end.

• Lance Amano: Lance is 21 this year, and is kind and attractive. Mr. Amano also has a butler called Oliver Deacon, though he's nowhere to be seen. He's very close with Lance, so he might know who would want to kidnap him.

• Oliver Deacon: Oliver was a very loyal butler, though Mr. Amano has not heard from him after his recent leave. His relatives and friends hadn't seen either. Suspicious...

Well, we can't just idle around here forever. Let's begin our investigation, whether the Interpol agent lets us or not!

Investigation: Wild, Wild West Area

Gumshoe will be dragged away by the precinct detectives, so we only have Kay as an assistant. We can't leave this area, so let's see what we can know about around here. Try to talk to the Blue Badger mascot. Initially, it just dances around, though Kay will pull off the costume's head revealing...Mike Meekins? Edgeworth remembers him as a witness in a past case.

Whose Mike Meekins? Well, if you played Ace Attorney "Rise From the Ashes" and the final Apollo Justice case (in a flashback), you'll get to know him better but watch out for his army personality and his megaphone!

• Mike Meekins: Mike Meekins is not currently a police officer. He still wishes to become a detective.

• Blue Badger: Mike was ordered by Agent Lang to disguise as the Blue Badger to catch the kidnappers.

• Any clues?: Mike had been standing here for an hour, around the time Edgeworth woke up. He could've seen the kidnappers escape! He claims he didn't see anything.

Meekins will say that he only saw a Blue Badger when he was standing here. That's contradictory, since there could only be one of each badger in the park at any time, and Meekins is already wearing the Blue Badger outfit! Present the Badger Photo Rally to prove our point. If what Meekins said was true, there must have been two Blue Badgers walking around in the park, but why? You will get the A 2nd Blue Badger logic.

Examine the area around the pipe. There are a bunch of footprints around here, though we don't know which sets belong to the kidnappers. You will get the What kind of shoes? logic.

Go into Logic Mode and connect Costumes with A 2nd Blue Badger. Since there are 7 costumes in use currently, the kidnappers must have been disguised as them! You will get the Costumed escape logic. The stolen costumes are that of a Blue Badger, a Proto Badger and a Bad Badger. The kidnappers could still be wandering around in the park wearing those outfits. Stolen Costumes will be added to your organizer. Now connect What kind of shoes? with Costumed escape. Since the kidnappers were disguised as badgers, we should follow the costume's paw prints.

Examine the area where you found the footprints again. There are 2 sets, one leading to the west and on to the wooden floor and one headed east to where Mike Meekins is standing. He's not the kidnapper, so maybe one of them walked to the garage. It is currently closed, so examine it to open it. Inside there is...a dead body. Mr. Amano recognizes him as Oliver Deacon, his butler. The set of footprints ended here, so is Deacon a kidnapper? You will get the Victim was kidnapper? logic. It can be observed that he died from a bullet wound. Preliminary Findings will be added to your organizer.

Agent Lang could be here any minute, so we better find out as much as we can before he arrives. Examine the victim's wound. He is shot in the abdomen and the shoulder. Edgeworth deduces that he wasn't shot twice, but a single bullet was shot through his abdomen to his shoulder. For a bullet that penetrated the whole way, there is very little blood for this crime scene. Preliminary Findings will be updated in your organizer. Next, examine the pendant. There's a name at the back of it: Colin Devorae. But that isn't the victim's name. Deduce the pendant and present Preliminary Findings. The victim's name is Oliver Deacon, not Colin Devorae. Mr. Deacon's Pendant will be added to your organizer. With that, our investigation is complete!

Meekins's Arrest

A woman walks into the area. She introduces herself as Lauren Paups, the girlfriend of Lance. She came here after she heard about the kidnapping.

Agent Lang will return and sees the crime scene. He detains Officer Meekins as a suspect right away. That's a bit rash, but Agent Lang insists that it's the way he stops crime. His line of logic is faulty, and we must prove Meekins' innocence.

Argument: Shi-Long Lang's Logic

Lang

Lang's Argument

- Shi-Long Lang's Logic -

1. I've seen a lot of bodies like this one being carted off in my time.
2. I can say he was shot in a single glance, but even you figured that much out, right?
3. With your current gun laws, it's not exactly easy to get your hands on a gun.
4. Not unless you're a member of law enforcement like Officer Meekins, isn't that right?

Shi-Long Lang says that he follows the "detainment philosophy" developed by Lang Zi thousands of years ago, which is still used by Zheng Fa police today. Let's put that philosophy to the test.

Rebuttal: Shi-Long Lang

Press statement four. Officer Meekins's gun is the only one that has been fired. Officer Meekins will claim he lost his gun! That's not good. You will get a new statement.

• Officer Meekins ambushed the victim in this garage and killed him here with his gun!

Present the Preliminary Findings at this new statement. There is simply too little blood at the crime scene, so this garage might not be the crime scene at all. Shi-Long Lang will ask us another question: why is Officer Meekins standing right outside the location of the victim's body all this time? Meekins claims he simply took a walk, but it's obvious he's hiding something.

Testimony: Mike Meekins

Meekins

Meekins' Testimony

- Meekins's Testimony -

1. It's true, sir! I wasn't assigned to this area, sir!
2. I was told to check every square inch of the main gate area, sir!
3. I also went looking for the kidnappers while selling dreams in the Blue Badgermobile, sir!
4. But! I got completely caught up in my role, selling dreams to the children! SIR!
5. Before I knew it, I found myself in this area, sir!

The Blue Badgermobile, that's new. Meekins will explain that it's a mobile souvenir shop. Blue Badgermobile will be added to your organizer.

Rebuttal: Meekins's Testimony

Present the Blue Badgermobile at the third statement. The Blue Badgermobile is parked in the garage, so he couldn't have been using it. Meekins will claim that he lost it, so he went back to find it in the garage, meeting Edgeworth there. Shi-Long Lang does not believe the story at all, and will arrest Meekins regardless. There is no way we can stop him, since he is the one who calls the shots!

The chapter will now end.