Hunting for Clues

The next morning, a throng of people had gathered outside the East Japan Railway Company. They were talking about the train incident, some were protesting and shouting, while others were holding banners. Several guards were stationed outside the building, trying to prevent the angry crowd from entering. The Chairman sat in his office, watching the scene unfold outside his window. Rasya stood beside him, looking at the commotion.

"I told you that we should not have informed them," Rasya said.

The Chairman didn't answer. Instead, he got up from his chair and put on his coat. "Follow me," he said, holding a microphone in his hand. They went down to address the crowd.

The Chairman spoke into the microphone, "We'll do our best to find all of your family members who were on the train. I will even contact the GIA - the global investigation agency - to help us. So please be patient, and I know it's going to be tough to get on a normal day, thinking that someone from our family is still missing. But I promise I will bring them back, no matter what."

The crowd started throwing a flurry of questions at him. "How can you be so confident? If you are hiding something, then spit it out. Maybe you are the one behind this incident, gaining money from smuggling!" they accused.

The Chairman left without saying anything. Rasya called the police, and when they arrived, the crowd started running from there. "Don't worry, Sir! I took care of them," Rasya said.

"Don't worry about me. Just don't let anyone come to the office room until I give the signal," the Chairman ordered.

"Yes, Sir," Rasya replied.

The story then shifted to the three friends who were trapped in compartment number twenty. Suddenly, a voice boomed from nowhere, "You all must be wondering what happened. I am going to tell you the same. My master has not named this game at all. So without wasting any time, I am going straight to the game information and its rules." The three of them were confused and frightened. They huddled together, not knowing what was happening. The voice belonged to a woman who introduced herself as Reina, the host of a game that they were about to play.

"I'm Reina, and the host of this game," she said. "All three of you are placed in separate cells. After that, I'll spin a roulette, whoever gets number one on their cell screen has to play this game, and the other two will act as hostages. The game is in two parts - first, you have to come out from your cell, and then second, you have to release your other two friends." The hostages looked at each other with fear in their eyes. They had no idea what was going on and how they were going to escape.

Reina placed Ashya, Jon, and Germon in their respective cells and introduced them to the game. "The first layer of this game is to find a code number from the sound that I will play. Then you have to put that number on the screen towards the door of your cell and that will lead you straight to the compartment door. There you will find a riddle at the door of your friend's cell. After solving it, they will also be free from their cell. Now I will explain the rest of things and the rules to whoever will play this game." Each cell had a roulette on the top of the ceiling, and as Reina spun it, everyone watched intently.

The roulette stopped, and the number one cell appeared above Ashya. Jon and Germon got numbers two and three. "The one who's going to play this game is Ashya," Reina announced.

From his cell, Jon sighed, "Good! Then I'm going to sleep," and he lay down on the surface.

Germon encouraged Ashya, "All the best, Ashya."

Reina instructed them, "Jon and Germon can watch Ashya play, but the wall is soundproof, so your voice won't reach her. Now, the speaker will only turn on in cell number one, and once the game starts, the roulette screen will turn into a TV, so you can see how your precious Ashya is playing the game."

As Reina said, the speaker was turned off in cells two and three. She then began explaining the game to Ashya, "So I'll play a total of ten sounds. For each sound, I will play it only twice. You have to figure out a four-digit code number from it, and for that, you'll have thirty minutes. If you clear the first part, then you will find the riddle at the door of your friend's cell. You will get five minutes to solve it, and if you can't clear the first part, you can sacrifice your friends and proceed."

Ashya confidently declared, "I will not do this to any of my friends, and I will clear it."

"Okay! So, let's get started," said Reina.

Now in Jon and Germon's cell, the roulette turned into a TV. As Reina played the first sound, "di di di di," it was only for a few seconds, and Ashya couldn't figure out what it was.

As Germon heard the sound, he recognized it and said, "Hope you know it, Ashya."

"You didn't tell me about the duration of the sound," Ashya protested.

"Oh! Sorry, I think it slipped from my mind. By the way, do you recognize this sound or not?" Reina replied with a laugh.

"Of course! It is Morse code. Once my friend taught me," Ashya said.

Reina said, "So that's good. The duration of the sound is ten seconds. Now I'll play the last one again, and then I'll move on to the next one."

Reina played the sound last time - di di di di. "Okay! Next," Ashya said.

Reina asked, "Are you sure? You have memorized it very well."

"You just tell me next," Ashya answered.

Reina played the next sound - di dah di.

Ashya asked, "One more time."

Reina played it again - di dah di.

"Okay! Next," Ashya said.

Reina continued playing the sounds, and Ashya tried to decipher them. The third sound was dah dah, the fourth was dah di di, the fifth was dah di di dah, the sixth was di di di dah, and the seventh was dah di dah….

Ashya was sitting on the floor in the cell, furiously trying to decode the sequence of letters that she had memorized. She repeated each letter in her head as time flew by, hoping that a pattern would emerge. "First letter H followed by R, then M, then D, then X, then V, then K, then N, then O, and lastly Z, there must be a pattern hidden in it," she muttered to herself in frustration.

Just then, Reina walked in and saw Ashya's state of distress. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

Ashya let out a sigh and explained her dilemma. "I've been trying to find a pattern in this code, but I can't seem to figure it out. Every letter is an alphabet, not a number, and I'm just not getting it."

Reina laughed and replied, "Well, that's up to you to figure out. Now it's time for me to leave." With that, Reina left the room, leaving Ashya to continue her search.

Meanwhile, in the East Japan Railway Company, the Chairman and Rasya were discussing a matter when a woman entered with her twin daughters. The Chairman saw the woman's worried expression and immediately allowed her to come in.

She sat down and asked, "I just want to know if my daughter is safe or not." Rasya interjected, "

The Chairman has already answered that point. Were you not there?"

The woman shook her head. "No, I had to pick up my daughters from their school. This company is between their school and my house, so I thought about coming here after picking them up."

The Chairman reassured her, "Don't worry! Your daughter is safe. And I will do my best to get her back as soon as possible at any cost."

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes as she replied, "I don't know how you would do that, but my girl got hard-working after her father's death. But she was sacrificing her youth days. And the moment she got a chance to breathe some fresh air, she got into this trouble."

The Chairman replied gently, "Please believe me, that's all I can say for now."

The woman nodded and replied, "Okay! Then, I'm leaving, my daughters must be feeling hungry."

She got up, thanked them, and left with her daughters.

Back to the game stage, Ashya was still trying to crack the code. "Come on, Ashya, you can do this. No time to be clueless," she encouraged herself. She repeated the sequence of letters again, but still could not find a pattern. "Argh! Why can't I see the pattern?" she shouted in frustration.

As she thought about giving up, she remembered her friends, Germon and Jon. They had planned a trip to give her some respite after their father's death, and she wanted to succeed in this task for them. "I have to do this for Germon and Jon. Even though Jon annoys me, I still want to know a lot about him. I will never forget the talk I had with him. That day I saw something else in him, I want to see him again like that," she reminded herself, feeling motivated to keep going.

Ashya glanced at her watch and exclaimed, "We still have ten minutes left." She proposed to search for a pattern by highlighting letters or odd signs, and soon enough, Ashya spotted something that was well hidden. She grinned and quickly walked to the door, opened the screen, and scribbled down the code number. The door then smoothly opened.

Triumphantly, she felt her heart beating with joy as she had solved the code, but she knew it wasn't over yet. Without wasting any time, Ashya dashed towards the door of cell number three and carefully examined the riddle on the door screen.

She read it aloud, "What you got, he is already centuries ahead of that." Ashya couldn't comprehend the riddle at first and muttered to herself, "What the hell is this?"

She then read it again, and as the words came together, she exclaimed, "Today, you won't be able to stop me. I'm in my super form."

Amused by her statement, she chuckled and mused, "Huh! I'm sounding like Jon." As the door opened, Germon, who had been observing from afar, strolled out. Ashya, without wasting a moment, rushed towards the door of cell number two and peered at the riddle on the door screen.

She read it aloud, "He already ate the octopus but there's still a lot left for you." She quickly jotted down the code, and the door opened, but Jon didn't come out. Ashya went inside and found Jon sound asleep.

She yelled, "Wake up! Sleepyhead."

Jon stirred and replied lazily, "No need to shout! I'm already awake."

Ashya urged Jon to come out and join them. Once they all stepped out, Germon asked, "How did you clear the first part? Means all code was just an alphabet."

Ashya responded, "It wasn't such a big deal. I assumed you both know the letters as you both heard them too. If you look at them carefully, you'll notice four Roman numerals in sequence. M, D, X, and V. If you combine them in sequence, the code number will become - one five one five."

Germon questioned Ashya again, "What about our door riddle?"

Ashya explained, "So first, Germon, yours - what you got, he is centuries ahead of that. Meaning I got 1515, and you are centuries ahead of it. Here I just had to add the century - means hundred - to my cell code number, which makes your cell code - 1615."

"Then Jon - he already ate the octopus but there's still a lot left for you. Here he ate the octopus," Ashya continued.

Jon interrupted, "Ew! I'll never eat an octopus."

Germon patted Jon's head and remarked, "Oh! You get your sleep at least."

Ashya continued, "There he ate the octopus and still had a lot left for me. That meant I had to subtract eight from my code number, and then Jon's cell code became - 1507."

"Hmm! That was well twisted," Germon exclaimed.

Jon, who had been resting his head on Germon's shoulder, suddenly lifted his head and said, "I'm hungry!"

Ashya glared at him, and he quickly changed the subject, "Okay! Let's go to the other compartment."

As they entered compartment number nineteen, they found a young lady lying unconscious on the surface, only two or three years older than them. Without hesitation, they rushed towards her.

On the opposite end of the room, an unknown boy taunted Reina, "That girl's got game. She cleared it." Reina scowled, "First off, I didn't create that game. And next time, I'll definitely beat her." She held a grudge against Ashya, the girl who had bested her.

"Whatever! You'll never get that chance, because I'm the next host," the unknown boy retorted before storming off.

Jon and his friends stumbled upon a young woman whose leg was chained. They quickly assessed the situation and decided to try and help her. After ensuring that she was comfortable, Jon approached her and asked, "What's your name?"

Germon cautioned, "Let her rest, Jon."

But the woman spoke up, "No, it's okay. My name is Kyora Nakamura."

Jon smiled, "Kyora, that's a nice name."

Ashya, who had been trailing Jon, piped up, "No one asked for your opinion."

Kyora Nakamura was a college student and worked part-time at an Ikebukuro call center. Her family was of modest means, and she had taken on the job to help make ends meet. However, she was painfully shy, and it made communicating with others difficult. After her mother passed away, Kyora lived with her stepmother in Shimbashi. It remained to be seen how helpful she would be in the upcoming game, given her shyness and lack of confidence.