Turnabout Don

I'm so don.

This is not just an article about a case.

This is a warning not to repeat our mistakes. A reminder to pay attention to the circumstances, lest your case go down the path of *Don*.

This is the tale of **the** *twelve hour temporal mistrial*.

This is the tale of the birth of ***Ryu Leg has played a song: [DGS] Asougi Kazuma - Nocturne.mp3**,* of ***Don***, of a mod calling mods to shitpost, of the first of many temporal mistrials.

You were warned.

## The scene is set

Welcome, traveler. Stay a while, and listen to our story.

At the time of building the case, before we had any idea of what *hell* we were getting ourselves into, it was called *Turnabout At The Beach.* It seemed innocuous and casual enough. A lifeguard's body buried in sand, in the midst of an alcohol-fueled party. It was supposed to be a quick, easy case, perfect for the few newcomers among us to learn their way around the court.

**It wasn't.**

It wasn't until the gavel slammed down and the judge formally started the trial that we realized that our detective was drunk, completely unprepared, doing the testimony live, with barely any knowledge of the case at hand, and, worst of all, Adachi. The realization began to settle in only after he uttered his foreboding introduction: "*how's it hanging famalams It's me ya boy adachi the detective of this here gnarly case so who here wants to talk about some murders*"

I'd normally skip over the details, but his testimony was so crucial to the essence of Turnabout Don that it needs to be stated here in full. You'll soon understand why, traveler.

* so there I was, hungover on a beach
* Don
* Don't know how I got there
* anyway
* all kinds of screaming and what not
* I walk over and apparently these beach goers had dug up a body
* anyways I check my watch its about 8 am
* I call my boss and they send over the squad
* I do some prelimenary exmination and the body is heavily bruised, tons of stab wounds
* the squad gets there at 8:23
* anyway after a thourough examination we find all this **[evidence]**

Layton, in a futile attempt to save the case, dismissed the detective without a cross-examination. The court hurried to find another one, so the trial could go forward, and any mention of "adachi" was forgotten and buried, not unlike the victim's lifeless body. Or was it?

Not yet realizing that the twisted paths of the court's fate all led towards certain doom, we found another detective. He introduced himself as Valant Gramarye. Everything seemed to be going well, but we realized the gravity of our situation the moment he spoke the first words of his testimony.

***"so there I was on the beach"***

*"then... POOF!"*

With that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. We couldn't give up now. We had to go forward. We found another detective.

And in our blindness to the events unfolding around us, we didn't even stop to process the fact that our third detective was none other than Greg. He... didn't deliver. This pushed our bailiff over the line.

*Why was the bailiff Inferno Cop?*

*Why was there a bailiff in an AOV case?*

In hindsight, all the omens were obvious. At the time, we noticed none of them.

Inferno Cop decided to investigate the crime scene on his own. When he returned, it seemed that only Layton, for some reason, remembered the previous dets. We did not worry about that. We should have.

## The court is now in session, again

We cross-examined Inferno Cop. We cross-examined a thot (that was her stated occupation). Kazuma Asōgi then took the stand, the last chance for us to turn back and leave unscathed. We didn't take it.

Halfway through Kaz's testimony, Layton broke, and transformed into a form "matching his agony", Grossberg, through sheer force of will.

The witness transformed as well. We survived. We called another.

He introduced himself as Marlon Rimes. I managed to catch that amidst the apocalyptic blizzard of memes Turnabout Don was by this point. You thought memes were funny, or lighthearted? We were clinging to the last bits of our sanity with all the force we could.

Grossberg cross-examined Rimes, half-conscious, already having slipped into insanity. Rimes confessed, and through the mental torture nobody but Grossberg noticed.

Rimes demanded Grossberg transform back into Layton before he explained, and so the Professor was back to seal our fate.

Layton explained how Rimes commited the murder, giving us a sliver of false hope that the madness was coming to an end. Yet, there was still more.

## Reality starts to slip away

Rimes removed his mask (again), revealing Jean Descole underneath it.

Descole weaved a lie about his involvement, but Layton was quick to catch and unravel it, cornering Descole with seemingly no chance of escape. It was then that Descole revealed the existence of a dark, unholy mastermind behind Turnabout Don.

**He** was always watching.

**He** was in that very courtroom.

**He** could be called with a single word.

Descole begged Layton not to reveal his identity, not to summon **Him**. Layton weighed his options carefully, the disappearance of multiple detectives, **His** involvement, and uttered *one word*.

## **BAILIFF.**

Inferno Cop walked, slowly, forebodingly, to the witness stand, as delicate structure of reality crumbled beneath **His** fiery feet. **He** was the law. **He** was *reality itself*. How could a mere mortal such as Layton oppose **Him**?

And Layton answered. The professor didn't take this case by pure coincidence. He took it to save us.

**"You lose, Layton! You're in the wrong timeline! It took two tries, but in this one, you lose!"**

*"Actually... I don't."*, Layton replied, unholstering his .50 Picarat Puzzle Solver. Inferno Cop thought the professor wanted to shoot him, and pulled out his own gun, laughing in his challenger's face.

**He** thought wrong, **He** realized, as Layton put the gun to his own head.

"**You fool, you'll collapse everything! Not only the time space, but the fourth wall! Every single peanut, obliterated! Every single Ron Paul, eviscerated! EVERY SINGLE MEME, WIPED CLEAN! You would kill EVERYONE?"**, the unholy, fiery god screamed.

"*I would, to see a puzzle completed."* replied Layton, as he pulled the trigger.

## Day 1

As you know already, traveler, the case started again. The prosecutor read his opening statement, only to realize the lead defense attorney wasn't there. No matter, we thought, as we called the detective upon the stand.

It wasn't one detective that arrived. It wasn't two. No less than seven detectives arrived at the stand, fighting with each other, testifying parallel and perpendicular to each other.

We realized what happened. We realized Layton's sacrifice.

And we realized... **Inferno Cop was not the true mastermind.**

Komaeda laughed at our poor, doomed souls. Layton made a fatal mistake. He solved a puzzle...

But not the right one.

Bailiff, the word allegedly whispered into his ear by a stenographer, was the wrong word. The word that sealed our fate. He could have saved us, Komaeda laughed, if only he said...

**Killjoy.**

There was nothing we could do anymore. The judge called Temporal Mistrial, but to no avail. The court was doomed; trapped forever in the opening statement of **Turnabout Don.**