Descend - An Escape Adventure

"Sounds as good as anywhere else I guess then." Spidey followed Adachi entering Room 501, he looks around. "Looks like the other rooms. Although... it's pretty warm in here, and does it sound like there's water running to you?"

Spidey walks over to the bathroom, his spider-sense goes off slightly, more to warn him something dangerous is nearby he needs to watch out for rather than an immediate threat. The bathroom feels like a sauna and he realises why. "Hey, Detective. There seems to be a wrench keeping that faucet on."

He leans forward slightly before feeling his spider-sense react more. "Yeah, as I thought. That water coming out's boiling hot, and the pressure's pretty high too..."

Junko didn't hesitate when Akechi passed her the golden apple. She took a good look at the object in her hands, and gave the detective a bright smile, indicating that he'd passed the test. When her smile didn't falter for some time, though, it was probably easy to tell that she had started laughing at something she'd suddenly found particularly funny. She took her left hand to her back pocket and started searching for something.

"Oh, this is fucking hilarious! It seems like we were destined to work together after all, Akechi-kun!"

When she grabbed what she was looking for, she tossed it at Akechi without a care. If he wasn't prepared, the weight of yet another golden apple could make him drop it from the surprise.



"I've had that on me since I woke up, y'know! I really had NO idea what they were for, so I kept my mouth shut... But now it's obvious we're playing at an advantage here!"

One hand shot up in the air and Goro caught the apple with an uncharacteristic lack of difficulty. Holding the two apples out, side by side, it was easy to see that they were more or less identical. Grinning wildly now, the boy began to laugh softly too. As the humourless fit began to settle down, Akechi brought his sleeve up to his mouth, as if to force himself into silence as his face momentarily contorted and relaxed.



"Well now, colour me surprised."



"I have to say, I didn't expect to acquire so many keys in such a short amount of time, but I suppose a lot of our acquaintances here have been distracted by..."



"... sentiment, perhaps."



"Although it's probably pointless to attempt to deduce our captor's reasons for granting you an apple right off the bet, I can give you my best guess. They were either bored or just plain desperate. Either way, now we can decide who's worthy of our spare key. When the time comes."



"We should get going," Akechi stated flatly, turning towards the door and reaching for the handle before stopping himself, "but there is one more thing."

He turned back.

"Would you like to see a magic trick?"

Junko decided to refrain from commenting on Akechi's thoughts about her apple. She was CERTAIN there was some meaning behind that; some meaning behind all of what was happening. As much as that mystery kept her head midly occupied, the detective's robotic mannerisms and laugh completely took her out of it. For their newfound relationship's sake, she refrained from making fun of him for it, too.

When Akechi mentioned a "magic trick", her mind quickly started spinning again, clear excitement visible in her eyes.



"Oh, oh oh OH! Are you gonna do your ESP trick again!? YES! Try to read my heart!"

"This... raises more questions than answers," Edgeworth muttered, "but thank you for sharing this, nonetheless."

"I'm sorry. I know this must all be very confusing..." she sighs. "You really don't have to try and remember. Really, it's probably better if you don't. What really counts is that you know that we're probably dealing with things here that are beyond what you're familiar with from your own world."

"I was considering that between the two of us, you're more able to defend yourself if need be, and your abilities would be more useful in the field than stuck on this floor... I may still be able to solve this mystery if I receive information through the phone lines. But of course, I'd rather it didn't come to that... There's most likely at least one more key out there, otherwise I think we would have heard an announcement. Let's look for it. We can decide on who gets to keep the apple later... I suppose we can keep it in the briefcase for now."

"Agreed." she nodded. "Whatever happens, we just got to stay sharp for now, alright?"

---

"Are you finished in there Aleka? If there's nothing, we should move on to the next room."

Aqua wrote:"I'm sorry. I know this must all be very confusing..." she sighs. "You really don't have to try and remember. Really, it's probably better if you don't. What really counts is that you know that we're probably dealing with things here that are beyond what you're familiar with from your own world."

"Agreed." she nodded. "Whatever happens, we just got to stay sharp for now, alright?"

Despite being told not to remember, simply forgetting everything he heard wasn't an option for Edgeworth. At least, not until he found the whole truth behind it all.


"Yes, we'd better stay sharp. We won't get any further if we give up now."

Aleka wrote:Aleka stood up straight at once, brushing her dress off, before she opened the door properly and stepped outside. She did not speak, though she did vividly nod in response to Edgeworth's question.

The fact that Aleka didn't voice out her answer, or even smiled at him like he expected her to do, given her past actions, stood as odd to Edgeworth. He wondered if anything happened inside the bathroom, but quickly shook that idea off. She seemed fine, and her clear nodding could prove that to some extent.


"If there's nothing else to see in this room, I believe we'd better move to the next one. We still need to find us a couple of keys, after all."

Edgeworth opened the door, waiting for the ladies to exit the room first.

A few moments later, the three of them entered Room 501, just to hear the sound of flowing water, followed by the conversation of two people who were already there.


"I see that someone beat us to this room..."

"Read your heart? Well, I don't suppose you'd be entirely off the mark on a good day."

After locking the door from the inside, Akechi gently gripped Junko's forearm and shepherded her away from the entrance, as though wary of someone listening in on their conversation. In truth, it was a necessary action to prevent anyone else from being sucked in with them. He pulled out his phone and began to flick through his home screen. A strange icon was all that was displayed on the last page.



"I haven't had the chance to give this a test run yet, so even I'm not sure what's going to happen now."



"Oh well. I guess that's just part of the excitement, wouldn't you say?"

And with that, Akechi tapped on the icon.

Adachi raises his eyebrows. Running water...? A wrench? Is this some kind of challenge to solve, or what?


"Wow, talk about weird. I can understand leaving the water running on accident, but with a wrench...?"


"At that point you're just asking for trouble. Whew, and I can feel the heat all the way over here."

Adachi moves his left hand in an effort to cool his face down. Just then, the other group enters.


"You're here. Guess you went through your rooms pretty fast."


"Oh! Just to be clear, the faucet was like this when we got here, okay? Haha..."

Aqua entered the room already hearing the voices of people inside. Seeing Adachi and Spider Man in person didn't surprise her, something else however did.



"Where is Hitsugi? Did you split up?"




"Huh...There is something odd stuck here too... What's that thing...?" She took a moment to think. "...Wrench?"

She approached it with her hand, but quickly pulled back.

"Uhh! It's hot..."




"Looks like the water pressure is pretty high. We'd need to stop that somehow if we wanted to touch this without being harmed." 

Of course, using an ice spell was an option, but... seeing how magic appeared to be uncommon in at least some of these people's homeworlds, she decided it would be better to hold back with that. For now.

---

"Ah, detective Adachi. Spider-Man," he nodded in their direction, "What rooms have you checked so far?"


"Aleka, be careful!" Edgeworth cried, "If you keep touching dangerous things, you could get hurt!"


Edgeworth sighed, and turned to the two men, "A wrench stuck to a hot faucet... it does sound similar to something we saw in room 505; a tool that can be recovered if the source of danger is taken away — in this case, the hot water. Perhaps it can be turned off at a central source, like the electricity. You two were in the storage room, correct? Did you see a set of controls for the water?"

Slowly taking in his surroundings, Akechi made a mental of all the various differences between this room and the one that he and Junko had just departed. The woman on the bed was the most obvious, but the commotion outside was also pretty hard to miss. Hearing these noises from the other side of the door gave Akechi reason enough to consider checking the window, which was of course unbarred.



"Well, that certainly is different. I'll bet you any amount of money that this young woman here can't see us."



"As to why that is, I can't say just yet."

Leaning over ever so slightly, the youth went to touch the stranger's shoulder, curious to see what would happen.

Junko, of course, would immediately noticed her partner's strange garb was radically different to what he had previously been wearing. One might call his current outfit either garish or flashy, but it certainly drew attention either way. What remained to be discovered, however, was why such a loud costume hadn't elicited any kind of response from the room's current occupant. For this reason, something must have been shrouding the two visitors to this strange world. Any person, in fact, would be troubled by a pair of strangers appearing in their hotel room out of thin air.

Or perhaps this girl was just really into her Twitter feed.

Adachi wrote:
"Wow, talk about weird. I can understand leaving the water running on accident, but with a wrench...?"

"Yeah, which makes it look much more likely this is intentional. Maybe one of those apples is hidden in the pipes or something." As he said this, other people enter. "Ah, no one told me we were throwing a party in here."

Edgeworth wrote:
"Ah, detective Adachi. Spider-Man," he nodded in their direction, "What rooms have you checked so far?"

"The storage room and here basically. There was er, quite a bit to look at in the storage room." His attention turned back to the water.

Velle wrote:

Edgeworth sighed, and turned to the two men, "A wrench stuck to a hot faucet... it does sound similar to something we saw in room 505; a tool that can be recovered if the source of danger is taken away — in this case, the hot water. Perhaps it can be turned off at a central source, like the electricity. You two were in the storage room, correct? Did you see a set of controls for the water?"

It was pretty obvious when Edgeworth mentioned it. "Yeah, I remember the storage room had switches for the water and the electricity in each room. We should be able to cut it off long enough to get that wrench. Since this seems to be some puzzle maniac's dreamhouse I'm betting we'll need it as you said."

Aqua wrote:
"Where is Hitsugi? Did you split up?"

"Well, she volunteered to stay in the storage room, which is handy for us right now as she should be able to stop this water." He looked around for the phone. "Er, how did you guys phone the storage room again?"

Junko finally let go of her head, the unnatural light-headeness having hit her especially hard. When the detective clicked the app on his phone, she wasn't expecting having to go through anything like that. With one last shake of her head, to make the dizziness subside, she took a look at the new estate of their location, clearly taken aback for an instant.

A moment is all it took for Junko to recover and start frantically looking around the room. She walked to the window, put her ear to the exit door and shook her hand right in front of the mysterious woman's face in what seemed like an instant, her mind whirring in search of this new mystery. Whatever her companion might have said was lost on Junko, completely entranced over the sound of the woman's voice.

When her vague mumbling didn't answer the multitude of questions swimming around in her head, Junko finally acknowledged the detective. And her way of acknowledging might not have been the gentlest.



"A-Akechi-kun! Where in the hell are we!? Is this really magic!? Are we in an anime!?!? Your phone just... POOF! And then-"

Junko ceased her flailing the moment she noticed the mask. Her eyes traveled down his body, a pace so slow and a pause so long that the judging she was doing had been fully assumed. When her shoulders started shaking and her eyes watering, her smile widening by the moment, Akechi could only assume the worst.



"H-Hey... A-Akechi. What the fuck?" She pointed towards her own nose while she stared daggers into his face, struggling to keep a straight face. "... Really? A fuckin' TENGU mask!? I'm really, REALLY trying to be nice here, y'know! What's with that calamity of a getup!? When did we change settings? You're just- Oh, this is too much! wwwww"

Spider-Man wrote:"The storage room and here basically. There was er, quite a bit to look at in the storage room."

"So... you went straight from the storage room to this one, skipping the rooms in between?" Edgeworth asked, "Was there a reason for this?"

Spider-Man wrote:"Er, how did you guys phone the storage room again?"

"We dialed 5-1-2," Edgeworth replied, looking in the direction of where the phone was in all the previous rooms.

"Well, it's not like we skipped any rooms for no good reason. Most of them just had nothing in them when we glanced, and the other ones were locked. I think I heard voices in one, so I figured one of the other groups were there checking it."


"Oh, here. Let me call Hitsugi if we need to."

Finally got her name right, that time.

Adachi wrote:"Well, it's not like we skipped any rooms for no good reason. Most of them just had nothing in them when we glanced, and the other ones were locked. I think I heard voices in one, so I figured one of the other groups were there checking it."

"You glanced at the rooms... I see." Edgeworth bit back his usual salary review comments for poor detective performance.

Aqua wrote:"That would be a great help, thank you. Um... You do know how to use it, right?"

Edgeworth pursed his lips and looked over at Aqua in mild concern, making a mental note to tell her that most people from his world and time knew how to use phones. He turned instead to Spider-Man.


"So, Spider-Man. You mentioned you were a superhero? How long have you been in that, er, line of work?"

Triplemathics wrote:
"Well, it's not like we skipped any rooms for no good reason. Most of them just had nothing in them when we glanced, and the other ones were locked. I think I heard voices in one, so I figured one of the other groups were there checking it."


"Oh, here. Let me call Hitsugi if we need to."

Finally got her name right, that time.

"Ah, ok then Adachi." As he says this, relieved he doesn't have to be on phone duty again, although admittedly it would've been nice to check how Hitsugi was doing, he hops up onto the ceiling, staring down at everyone else. Why? It's something that makes him feel comfortable when in costume.

Velle wrote:
"So, Spider-Man. You mentioned you were a superhero? How long have you been in that, er, line of work?"

He was surprised to hear Edgeworth making small talk. He seemed so far like the sort who's just focused on the matter at hand. "Oh, er well, I've been doing this since I was 15. I'd rather not say how long ago that was now, but I think you can tell roughly as my voice isn't still breaking."

Allowing time for Junko's calamitous rant to subside, Akechi checked his clothing for himself. Of course, it was exactly as the girl had said. His outfit was almost royal, bathed in a shining white with red detail. The mask, meanwhile, was rather unusual and undoubtedly betrayed the princely style that the rest of the ensemble attempted to bring together. This was no masquerade piece, but something much more abstract. And Akechi, though he had no reason in particular to think that he would be wearing anything else, was still slightly surprised to find that his Metaverse outfit covered him from head to toe.

Because this was not the Metaverse.



"Ah, yes, you must be referring to my costume. It's not exactly the most conspicuous look, is it?"

Pulling the mask off for a moment and examining it with keen interest, Goro could not find a single blemish or mistake.



"How astonishing. This isn't just a clever replica - it is, without a doubt, my mask."

He returned the mask to its rightful position.



"To put it simply, that means this place is governed by the laws of cognition. You understand that concept well, I'm sure."



"I'm sure a wealth of curiosities awaits us outside. Shall we get going?"

Giving up on the unresponsive lady sat down nearby, Akechi stepped towards the door and found it unlocked. Not surprising, given that this was not the same room that they had just left. Turning it inwards, Goro moved into the corridor.

Though the same muted colour palette remained, it was miles away from the bare hallway that he knew. Looking from one side to the next, the detective concluded that he had been guided towards this place for a reason that would eventually become clear. If this was indeed a game, what else would he be expected to do other than progress. Leaning towards the nearest group of people he could find, Goro began listening to their conversation for clues.

After realizing that Akechi was neither going to react to her relentless bullying nor answer any of her questions, Junko's face appeared annoyed, a pout then adorning her features. She followed after the detective without a word for him, although her mood for rambling hadn't cooled off just yet. There were so many new things to see, it was hard to keep herself still.



"Honestly... Who do you think you are? You think holding all the information from me will gain you Cool or Mysterious points? That's quite the contrary. Keeping a girl in the dark like this should be a capital offense!"

Despite what it might seem like, Akechi's words didn't fall on deaf ears. A particular word he used, cognition, to describe the phenomenon they were experiencing struck a chord in Junko. As she mulled over the potential meaning of it and how it could affect the very reality they were currently in, the girl couldn't help but shiver in excitement.

"Fwahh... This is probably just another puzzle, isn't it?"

Edgeworth flinched when Spider-Man jumped onto the ceiling, but he doesn't comment on it, instead trying to keep up the conversation.


"Er, I see... So what made you decide to do what you do?"



"And I presume you must confront criminals as part of the job. How do you usually deal with such situations?"

"'With great power comes great responsibility.' That's something my uncle always used to tell me. Before, ah..." Spidey excuses the subject with a cough, promptly moving on.
"Anyways, taking up the superhero business seemed like the best way to pay that back."


"And I usually string them up and leave them to the authorities when I can." The answer is punctuated with a casual shrug, although the topic did make him curious...

"How about you? You must deal with your own crooks all the time in your line of work."

"Wise words," Edgeworth nodded, "Tell me then, what do you consider to be your responsibility?"


Edgeworth thought back to what he'd said about his line of work in Spider-Man's presence.


"The legal profession? Certainly. Dealing with criminals is a substantial part of my job. I've gained something of a reputation for being ruthless in court, however I consider the greater goal to be that of finding the truth. Do you often collaborate with law enforcement, Spider-Man? Or does your part end once the police arrive on the scene?"

Groaning inwardly as his eavesdropping target began eagerly telling their friend about the latest advances in Botox treatments, Akechi gave up on that endeavour and instead moved towards the elevator. Along the way, he checked inside a few of the other hotel rooms, although they all seemed to be disappointingly ordinary. Without turning around to look Junko in the face, Goro began to respond to her complaints one at a time.



"I don't think there's much mystery about a... a 'get-up' as loud as this one. As for 'cool', I'm not sure it's to everyone's taste but-"



"Ah, forgive me," he interrupted himself, "but you were referring to the bigger picture of this situation, weren't you?"



"No need to worry," he assured the girl with the pouting gaze. "Everything will become clear on it own quite soon - or at least I hope so. I'm just waiting for the chance to show you... exactly..."



"..."

Having stopped completely near the end of the hallway, Akechi finally turned around to face his partner.



"Is it getting colder in here..?"

Junko could do nothing else but groan at the detective's answer. She wondered if the mask had increased Akechi's self-absorption in any way just as his mannerisms had changed, seemingly impressed with the sound of his own voice.

In the midst of her hallway examination, Junko almost bumped into Akechi when he stopped on his tracks. She scoffed at him again, but had to concede about the temperature in the hallway. She rubbed her forearms in an attempt to produce some warmth, and began shivering in an exagerated manner, looking at the detective with the ever-present questioning glare she wore from the start of their trip.



"I don't know, Akechi-kun... I thought you were supposed to know what was going on in here... Is this normal or not?"

In any case, Junko didn't have to wear a dumb mask to sense that the atmosphere in the hotel had drastically changed in a matter of seconds. Darkness was subtly seeping from every little corner, and the pleasant hum of background conversation had faded away before she could notice. Anticipation and a slight feeling of dread were slowly building up as her question hung in the air, and she couldn't be more thrilled about it.