Professor Layton: Conundrum of the Vanishing

Chapter Six

Byrne pointed out a final girl to Foliis before the group all came together. The girl's name was Minori Tsukada. Her hair was light brown with blue highlights and was short and stringy. Her eyes were yellow and wide in a fashion that reminded Foliis of blissful childhood. The girl wore a pink jacket and a white dressy shirt beneath it. A black skirt and white socks with gentle strapped shoes took over the bottom half of her body. Foliis seemed to notice that this girl, this Minori, was rather interested in her little genderfluid sibling. Foliis shot Minori a glare from time to time only to return to normal when the small girl looked her way. She didn't need the crush of her younger sibling hating her. 

The group all came together in a circle once everybody was acquainted with one another. "We need to figure out who these men are first and foremost," declared Byrne. He was taking this head on, not ready to let anybody take over his place as leader. Foliis had to admire that. It was a quality she liked in her guys. If she ever broke her heterosexual trend and decided to date a girl, she'd want said girl to be a take charge type like Byrne. 

"I agree,"  nodded Fey. "I don't know how we'll figure it out, but we can figure it out sometime between now and when we have to see Landry's parents again about how solving the case is coming along."

"We should start planning now," Chloe declared. "I don't want to end up working overtime just because you idiots are far too lazy to do anything to help solve this mystery. I barely work on anything that isn't my music, so solving an entire mystery without the help of you people just wouldn't work for me."

"We get it. Snooty and stuck up girl with chains on has an opinion and doesn't want to be ditched. We understand that by now, princess," Quinton told Chloe. The blonde stomped her foot and pouted at Quinton, but the short tempered boy didn't seem to care. Foliis didn't expect him to, truth be told. 

"Anyways, we should probably get back to the case at hand," said Foliis. "These men might have something to do with the mystery in Psylias."

"Which one?" Misa asked, tilting her head lightly. "There was the first one involving the psychics and the second one with the Egg of Dreams."

"The first one. There's a good reason we don't talk about the second one. Quinton refuses to let us talk about it anyways," Foliis replied. She heard Quinton growl at her a few feet away, but she brushed it off, not in the mood to deal with him and his shenanigans at that moment in time. Then again, she never really wanted to put up with Quinton no matter the circumstances. 

"Let's divide up into three groups," Alex suggested. "I'll go with Kurisu, Chloe, Jean, and Theo."

"I'll take Minori, Roman, Faith, and Caj if that's alright with you guys," Fey said. They wrapped an arm around Minori's shoulders, making the girl smile gently. She seemed to like having Fey near her at that moment in time. Foliis made a mental note to investigate if this young woman was good enough to date Fey after this whole mystery thing was over. 

"Sofia, Byrne, Lucy, Scarlet, Casey, and Caj are with me, I suppose," Foliis said with a small shrug. "How should we divide up who's going where?"

"We'll take the main part of the city," Kurisu piped in. Chloe huffed at not receiving any time to put in her opinion. Foliis was glad she wasn't in the same group as Chloe. The girl would probably drive her mad before they came anywhere near solving the case. 

"I'll take my group to the beaches. There's nowhere for me to bump into things out there," Faith said. Foliis knew that she was only saying this to keep up the whole blind girl act for those who didn't know that she could see anything her siblings saw with their psychic abilities. Foliis, Faith, and Fey never trusted anybody with this precious information unless they knew the other party involved well enough. 

"Let's go talk to those annoying little balls of pep, then," Foliis sighed. 

"I wasn't assigned a group, but since you're going to talk to my parents, I'm going with the punk rock chick over there to get away from them," Landry declared. Foliis felt bad that Landry was actually going with Chloe. She wouldn't wish that punishment on even her worst enemy. Chloe seemed a bit like a stuck up bi-

"Now that we've figured out who's going where, I think we should get right to it. In two hours, we should meet up back here to explain what we've figured out about the case and make a few deductions on how we can get rid of these weird men," Byrne announced. There he was, taking over like good leaders did. Foliis found herself smiling over it, even if this was a small thing that likely wouldn't matter much within the next few moments. 

The groups all started their separate ways, but Foliis paused. Something deep within her was making her stop. Foliis willed herself to move, but her mental wishes didn't seem to matter to her body at that moment in time. "What's going on?" Foliis murmured, her voice much quieter than she had intended. It was like she was a whispering mouse saying that. She was just that quiet. 

Foliis suddenly felt her eyes go heavy. Her mind went blank into a fuzzy void. Foliis' legs gave out beneath her, leaving the auburn haired girl to crash to the ground, the grass rushing up to meet her cheek. 

Before Foliis fell unconscious, she heard one small phrase in the back of her empty and barely thinking mind:

COMMUNICATION SEVERED. 

And with that, Foliis passed out, unsure of so many things, but knowing she couldn't stay conscious long enough to figure out what was happening.

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what fun

-Digital