Chapter 9: Riddles
"You wanna play or not?" the crook repeated himself.
Videl wasn't in the mood to play his little game, but since the sheriff had warned her he wasn't going to speak, she didn't want to lose this opportunity now that he was. So she decided to play along. "Only if you promise me I'll get the answers in the end. I don't like wasting my time on nothing,"
"That's a promise," the man reassured her, repositioning his glasses on his nose. "And since I like poetry, I'll give ya your answers disguised in four different haikus. So let's start easy," he said and followed:
...
" One consist of three
Each produced for survival
A liquid to kill "
...
"That's it?" Videl was a bit taken aback by the easiness of his riddle. "So the content of the darts is made up of three elements, each element is produced to benefits one's survival, though it is toxic to others." Videl thought for a moment before continuing: "And since you are a herpetologist, I suspect it has to do with toxins produced by a reptile or amphibian."
"You ain't letting me down, Miss Satan," a grin appeared on his face. "Let's take it up a nod-"
They were interrupted by the sheriff, who came through the door. "Videl, your time is up. Mr. Erpeto has to go to the dining room, they're about to serve dinner."
"But I..." Videl tried, but was immediately interrupted by the sheriff.
"You had your fifteen minutes. And unlike you, I don't have time to play games."
"Well, you heard the boss," the crook said reluctantly, "our little game is over."
Videl looked desperately from the criminal in front of her, to the sheriff, and back again. "Are you serious? The man is about to speak for the first time since he's been here, and shut him up?"
"Sheriff, with al due respect, can I at least write the riddles down for her? This way she is happy and won't bother you again," the thug said smoothly, and to Videl's surprise the sheriff gave permission. And so it happened that five minutes later Videl was standing outside with three pieces of paper in her hand, each with their own Haiku written on it:
...
intoxicating
The Bufo's milky-white treat
A trip for relief
...
Product used to hunt
Colombia's dreadful gold
Intolerant nerves
...
Unbound by Ryūjin
China's small-scute tycoon
One devouring kiss
...
She stared at the scraps of paper as a heavy rumbling sound distracted her. She hadn't eaten since this morning and her stomach was clearly in protest. She looked at her watch, it was almost seven o'clock. Maybe she could make a pit stop at Erasa's place, she lived not far from here. She took her phone out of her pocket and called her blond friend.
"Hi Vi!" Erasa's bubbly voice peeled through the receiver.
"Hey 'rase, can I stop by? I need a break. It's been a long day," Videl said wearily.
"Sure thing! Sharpener is here too, so we can have a bit of fun"
"Sharpener?"
"Yeah, we did some work on our history project, but we haven't been very productive. We do have a topic though!"
"That's nice," Videl said reluctantly. She almost regretting calling the blond. She didn't feel like having 'a bit of fun', and she certainly was not in the mood to talk about homework.
"We were about to order ramen, do you want some?"
Never mind, this was a good idea after all, Videl thought, "Yes please! Same as always! See you soon."
###
"Ah, this is so good!" Videl almost forgot her table manners as she stuffed her face. They had ordered her Hakodate Ramen, with extra roast char siu pork. Normally she would go for a vegetarian option, but ramen was an exception. And feeling like she was like almost starving, she devoured the ramen like it was nothing.
"You eat almost like Gohan," said a bewildered Erasa as she watched the spectacle.
Videl immediately stopped eating. Her thought went back to today's events. The hopeless feeling she felt when her friend had been missing for so long; the shocking image of Gohan's expressionless pale face covered in blue veins; the moment of relief she felt when he got up and vanished almost immediately when he collapsed again. It has been like a roller coaster. And now, thinking about the poor boy who hadn't eaten for six days straight, her appetite was completely gone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Erasa tried, but couldn't find the right words. "We are worried too," she added.
"It's okay," Videl said, pushing aside her left-over bowl of ramen. It was best to keep the good mood. "He has been found alive today, so everything is going to be alright."
"No way!" spat Sharpener out, his eyes widening. "That's wicked! How do you know this?"
"I work for the police, I know such things," Videl lied, not wanting to go into details or let them know what her role was in his find.
"What a relief!" Erasa clapped her hands together. "We must go see him!"
"No, please don't," the raven-haired girl was stunned at how this conversation was developing. "I said he was found and that everything would be fine. But for now he is not fit enough to have visitors. Also, this information will stay in this room as his case is still ongoing, you got that?" said Videl firmly and looked at Erasa, who nodded in agreement. Videl sighed with relief as was glad that she was able to slow down her friend's excitement.
"So..." Sharener tried to ease the room, "Anything else about the bookworm?"
"No, not that I can share," said the crime fighter, "only he's now reunited with his mother."
The room went silent for a while, everyone pretending to be focused on their ramen. However, their thoughts were with their mutual classmate. Videl's thoughts went back to the scraps of paper she had in her pocket. Maybe her friends could help her out.
"Wanna play a game?" Videl asked hesitantly, breaking the silence.
"Sure babe, what did you had in mind?" Sharpener said, winking seductively at Videl, but was silenced by a very nasty look from said girl.
"I've got three riddles disguised as haikus that I have to solve," Videl continued. "Each should be a reference to a venomous reptile or amphibian." She threw the pieces of paper in the middle of their group.
"Bufo's milky-white treat? That sounds nasty," Sharpener laughed, letting his dirty mind take over.
"Sharpener, this is serious," Videl warned him.
"Why is this serious, I thought you said it was a game?" Erasa asked, looking at Videl with a questioning look.
"It's homework the sheriff gave me to help me become a detective," Videl didn't like to lie to her friends, but it was better than telling them the truth. If they knew what the content was for, they could cause a scene and worry about their friend more than they already were.
"So you're interested in homework when it's for the police, but you're leaving us to do all the work for the history project?" said Erasa slightly accusingly, but Videl noticed that there was also a hint of teasing in her voice. "Okay, let's start with this one!" Erasa added, letting her friend know she was in as she ripped the haiku from Sharpener's hand. "Any thoughts on this one?"
"Well, the fictional case involves a victim being fatally poisoned by a substance that is a mixture of toxins from these three animals." pointing to each of the three scraps of paper. "On that one, I think the words 'intoxicating' and 'relief' may refer to some kind of narcotic."
"What about 'treat' and 'trip'?" Sharpener said, with a smirk on his face. "Maybe the victim died while partying hard."
"Like I said, this is serious," Videl scowled at him.
"Have you tried putting it in an online search engine?" Erasa said wisely. "Although I'm not sure I want to search for 'Bufo's milky-white treat'."
"There's only one way to find out!" Sharpener took out his phone and entered the exact keywords into the search engine. "Ah, let's see what we have got," Sharpener cleared his throat and read: "Bufo Toad Ceremony Therapy: Is it right for me? The Colorado River Toad - bufo alvarius - secretes a venom that contains'... something, something... 'it's most notable characteristic may be the toxic, milkey-white venom it secretes to poison predators.' I think we have a winner! A toad is a reptile, right?" Sharpener looked up at Videl, "Right?"
"Is it this easy?" she was again surprised by the ease of the thug's riddle. "And no, stupid, a toad is an amphibian... What does that article say about the effects of toxic on a body?"
"Hm," Sharpener looked back at his phone, trying to find the answer. "It says here that it's an extremely potent short-acting psychedelic, though not necessarily deadly," he looked up with a grin. "So I was right! This guy was tripping hard."
Poor Gohan, he wasn't the guy to do any drugs. She could only think he went through some kind of trip without knowing what hit him. It must have been scary.
"Okay, my turn!" the bubbly blond said, picking up the next piece of paper. "Product used to hunt; Colombia's dreadful gold; Intolerant nerves..." she read out loud. "So, something they hunt with, that affects the nerves, I guess. Can you google 'Colombia's dreadful gold' for me Sharpener?"
"Just a few things about illegal gold mining on Colombia's rivers," Sharpener answered after a short research.
"And if you add the keywords 'reptile' and 'amphibian' to that?" suggested Videl.
Sharpener looked back at his phone "Organized crime... Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica... Hey! Wait, here is something: Colombian Golden Dart Frog! That may be it."
Videl snatched the phone from his hands. She opened a page about this frog for more information. 'Golden poison frog – Phyllobates terribilis – is a poison dart frog endemic to the rain forests of Colombia'. Videl scrolled a little further to a section called 'Toxicity' and found out that this little frog was the most poisonous animal on Earth. It's poison inactivates all nerve cells, resulting in certain death. "One frog can kill ten to twenty humans," Videl murmurs, not looking up from the phone.
"I saw this documentary about a tribe that lives in the jungle and hunts with poisonous arrows, killing monkeys instantly. If I remember correctly, they used frogs for that."
"Since when do you know stuff?" Sharpener teased.
"Hey! I know stuff, you just never seem to notice because it always goes over that stupid head of yours," Erasa sneered back. "And you should have known this too, because the documentary was shown in biology class."
"She's right," said Videl, not listening to their bickering, "they're used to poison arrows for hunting. And its scientific name is 'terribilis', which means terrible, which is a synonym for 'dreadful'. So I think we found our animal."
How on earth can this be their animal? She knew that the poison the darts contained was made to kill Saiyaman, but this was overkill. Maybe the criminal used a small amount? But the estimated ten to twenty humans who would die from it was based on just 1 milligram of the poison. Which in itself was already a small amount. Though, this animal fitted the description too well. And the thug himself was really surprised that Saiyaman was alive. 'The guy ain't human, I tellin' ya,' the thugs voice echoed through her head.
"Videl, can I have my phone back?" Sharpener said, snapping Videl back into reality.
"Yeah sure, here," Videl said indifferently as she did as he requested. "Erasa, do you have a pencil for me? Then I'll write down our answers for I forget."
Erasa handed over a ballpoint pen which that lay on the table next to her. "Okay, two down, one to go!" she said enthusiastically, as Videl wrote the already discovered answers on the back of its corresponding haiku.
"This one is hard..." Erasa sighed. After searching the web for a while, they didn't get any wiser. Papers with notes were scattered on the floor as they tried to solve the riddle. "I have no idea what they mean by 'China's small-scute Tycoon'." She looked up at Videl, "Have you had any luck?"
Videl picked up some notes. "Well, we know that Ryūjin is the dragon god, the god of the sea. So it could be a sea-bound creature or a dragon-like lizard. But the only venomous lizards are the gila monster and beaded lizard according to the online search engine. Both look like small dragons to me, but they aren't deadly to humans per se. Though, the psychedelic toad wasn't deadly either. Then you have the Komodo Dragon, which on itself bears the name dragon, but there is still a debate going on whether it's venomous or not. The problem is, none of these animals come from China." She stopped for a minute looking at her phone. "Furthermore, 'scute' refers to a bony scale of a reptile or fish. And we all agreed that 'one devouring kiss' probably means that he has a deadly venomous bite."
"Maybe we look at it the wrong way," Sharpener looked at the haiku in front of him, "Maybe China just refers to the word tycoon, not to the animal."
"You know, Ryūjin is also the master of serpents, so maybe we should look at snakes instead of lizards," Erasa interrupted.
Videl looked up at her in surprise, "How do you know that?"
"Well, our history project is about Japanese mythology, as you may know," Erasa looked accusingly at Videl, "and I came across Ryūjin when I was looking for a subject for our paper."
"Well, snakes it is," Sharpener said and raised his drink up to her, "Cheers to you, hun, 'cause you keep surprising me this evening."
"Shut up," bit Erasa, but she seemed to take his comment as a compliment by the looks of her light blush.
"So we have a venomous snake that bites," summarized Videl.
"A very rich and mighty one with tiny scales that does business," Sharpener jokingly added.
Videl gave him an angry look, the umpteenth this evening. "I think you've had enough HETAP. Let's call it a day. It's almost 11 PM anyway and we're barely making any progress," Videl sighed and stood up. "Sorry, I have to make a call."
She excused herself and walked to the hall. Perhaps she should've called sooner, but she was afraid she would interrupt Gohan's immediate care. Bulma said she would keep her posted, but she hasn't called her yet, meaning they were still occupied. But they had their time, and this was important information after all. Adrenaline came rushing through her body as Videl took out her phone, and for the second time this day, she called the president of Capsule Corp.
"You speaking to Bulma," answered a tired voice.
"I figured it out!" she sounded excited yet tired at the same time, "I know what poisoned Gohan."
"For real?" Bulma got right awake.
"Well, most of it, at least," Videl recovered. "I went to the police station after I found Gohan and was able to speak to the man who poisoned him. He didn't want to tell me directly what poison he used, but instead gave me four riddles. We solved three out of four."
"I'm listening," Bulma replied, letting Videl know she was interested in what she had to say.
"The poison consists of three elements, all toxins produced by either an amphibian or reptile. The first is a psychedelic drug produced by the Colorado River Toad."
"That explains why there was small traces of 5-MeO-DMT in his blood," said the scientist thoughtfully.
"The second element is the poison produced by the Golden poison frog. It will inactivate the nerve tissue."
"I see, that makes a lot of sense," Bulma said again, reviewing her own research results.
"No it doesn't!" said Videl incredulously. "One frog can kill 10 to 20 humans, so he should be dead,"
"But he isn't," replied Bulma, "and what is the last element?"
"Well, we're not quite done with that one yet. We think it's a venomous snake with small scales or something like that." Videl looked at the piece of paper in her hand, "the riddle is written in a Haiku and goes as followed: Unbound by Ryūjin; China's small-scute tycoon; One devouring kiss. But we got stuck at the middle part."
"Let me think," said Bulma, as she dug deep into her memories, "I've been to China multiple times because I have a branch of my company there. They have occasionally called me 'taipan', which I was told was a term for a foreigner who is the head of a large business in their country. A foreign tycoon, so to say. And I know a Taipan is one of the deadliest snakes to roam this earth." Videl heard the scientist typing something into her computer. "The common taipan; Oxyuranus scutellatus. It's scientific name has the word scute in it." And again there were some audible ticking noises. "But you also have a similar species, the Inland taipan – Oxyuranus microlepidotus – which means literally small-scale snake, which is extremely venomous. I think the guy refers to the latter as 'small-scute', though scute and scale are zoologically speaking two different terms. Whoever wrote this haiku wasn't the brightest, was he?"
"He trusted criminals and got caught by the police, you tell me if he was the bright one," Videl said mockingly. "So this Taipan is our third element?"
"Presumably," Bulma stated, while reading some information from the computer. "Some of Gohan's symptoms are similar to what this snake's venom does. For example, his blood was extremely thin and didn't clot. But before I start treatment, I wish I could test it somehow."
"I've got one of the darts that hit Gohan, maybe you could examine its residual?" Videl suggested.
"Great! I'm really grateful for your help Videl. Gohan is one lucky man to have you around." Videl blushed enormously at that remark, unnoticed by the scientist. "Is it okay if I'll send someone to pick it up? It would be nice to have it analyzed overnight so we can start right away in the morning."
"Yeah, no problem," Videl swallowed, "I need to know, how is Gohan doing?"
"He's stable, but we're keeping him in an artificial coma until we can give him proper treatment," Bulma replied, but had a question of her own: "Videl, I noticed you spoke with the word 'we', is there someone who helped you with those riddles?"
"Yeah, two of my friends helped me, but they aren't aware of the load. They think it's homework I got from the sheriff," reassured Videl. "No need to worry."
"Good. You understand that this situation is confidential." Videl made a sound of agreement to let her know she understood, as the scientist continued, "I'll see who's available to retrieve the dart. I'll call you back as soon as I know more. Thanks again," and with that, the line went silent.
Videl put her phone away and felt relieved. The riddles were solved and they were one step closer to a cure for Gohan. But her relief was short-lived, as she was confronted by two shocked faces as she opened the door to the living room.
Sharpener looked at Videl insinuatingly, "Is it true? Was Gohan really poisoned by those stupid animals?"
Hi there!
I went a bit overboard on the creative site with the haikus, so I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing.
Also: that awkward moment you realize that your riddle has a error, but you already posted it 2 chapters ago so you have to stick with it (e.g. scute vs scale ... I'll keep it on a translation error)...