"The 39 Clues"
A Treacherous Competition
∫ ξ ξ ∫
Chapter 2
Dan could not believe that Ashley was the best friends with the last person he would ever think of: Natalie Kabra. And on top of that, they didn't even have any idea how to find the next clue. They were totally distracted. Amy sat down on her bed and opened Grace's diary. They found in her hut when they landed in Madagascar. She thoroughly read through the Diary. She wished that Grace was there to guide them to find the 39 clues. She just left them there hanging. In Africa, they found out the truth about their real Cahill clan. They couldn't believe it, they were really Madrigals. The branch they were warned about. And the Man in the black suit, why was he with Arthur and Hope? Questions that seemed to have no answers started confusing Amy and Dan.
While Amy was reading the diary, she found a page that seem to have been written in pencil but was erased, leaving the page blank. Amy could see through the pencil marks. She touched it and then she looked her drawer for something.
"What are you looking for?" Dan asked.
"A Pencil." she replied not even looking at Dan.
"What do you need it for? We're not playing games Amy; we need to find a hint for the next clue!" Dan exclaimed. He felt his head that had been hurting for hours.
"I just need it! I'm not playing games Dan!" Amy replied. She smiled to herself when she found a pencil. Dan stared at her as she rushed back and took the Diary. She started shading the page; filling it with the charcoal. Dan grabbed of her hand.
"What are you doing?" he snapped. Amy snatched her hand away, clearly irritated at Dan.
"Will you just look and stop bothering me? You're not helping at all!" she said. She continued on what she was doing. After she was done, Amy and Dan gasped. The page revealed something.
Though I go to you
ceaselessly along dream paths,
the sum of those trysts
is less than a single glimpse
granted in the waking world.
Ono no Komachi
Dan was amazed. "Who's Ono no Komachi?" Amy asked.
"Ono no Komachi was a famous Japanese Waka poet during the 12th century. You know, the one who wrote that poem was Komachi who was believed to be the daughter of Yoshisada, Lord of Dewa. We've read her poems in school. It was actually pretty interesting." Nellie replied out of nowhere. Amy and Dan looked at each other; they both nodded.
"Will you guys stop doing that? It creeps me out!" Nellie complained.
Nellie, Dan, and Amy looked for a library near Tokyo in their guide. The one that caught their attention was 130 years old, The University of Tokyo Library; it had a collection of 8 million books. The very thought of this made Dan feel sick. Amy was too excited for words. The three were amazed by the size of the building, not just outside but also in the inside. Amy led them inside of the library. A Japanese lady approached them, and bowed in respect. Amy hesitantly did the same.
"Konnichiwa, Ogenki Desuka?" greeted the lady. Amy and Dan paused for a while. None of them understood anything. Then Nellie stepped in front of them and bowed to the lady.
"Genki Desu," she said politely, "Gomen Nasai! Nihongo [yoku] hanasemasen, Dareka eigo o hanasemasuka?" she continued. The lady smiled and went away.
"What the…You can speak Japanese?" Amy and Dan said at the same time. Another thing they didn't know about Nellie. What else would she be doing next? Fight with the Yazuka's?
"Well, a little bit." She replied. The lady from a while ago came back with a different lady.
"Hello foreigners! What can I do for you?" the lady asked.
"We are researching about the poems of Komachi. It's our school field trip today and we need some information's about her." Amy lied. She seems to go well with librarians. The lady gave a smile and led them to a room that smelled like old books.
"This room is especially for books centuries old. We have what you're looking for. In fact, we have some other things that involve Komachi and her writings. Also we have a copy of the letter for Fukakusa no Shosho, the person she loved dearly but died due to a certain illness. Fukakusa-sama asked her to be his lover, but in one condition. If Fukakusa continuously visited her for a hundred nights, then she would become his lover." The lady mentioned.
"That's cheeky!" Dan commented. And the lady giggled.
"Yes. But Fukakusa failed and died right on the 100th day of his supposedly visit to her. The sad part was that Komachi already loved him. The poem Ono no Komachi shows her love to Fukakusa. That way please." The lady pointed towards the last shelf. Dan and Amy thanked her, and she left. All of them were searching for the book.
"Found it!" Amy yelled. Dan and Nellie rushed to her. They sat down in a vacant table to read it through. Amy carefully opened the book and found an interesting sign at the bottom of the first page. It was a Cahill sign, the sign they saw at Grace's library before it burned down. A thought registered to Amy, Dan, and Nellie. Komachi was a Cahill.
"But…How? She was living during the 12th century!" Amy said. A pair of hands started clapping. They turned around to look. Amy's heart skipped, stunned, and confused. What were Ian and Natalie doing here?
"Impressive!" Ian walked towards them, behind him was Natalie was looking at her fresh manicure.
"What are you doing here?" Amy was mad. And she was not like the old Amy who started panicking whenever she saw Ian Kabra. Ian smirked and leaned close to Amy and looked in her eyes. Amy could hear her heart shouting. She didn't know why. She looked away from Ian.
"I'm here to help you guys," Ian started and Natalie choked, "I will tell you everything you need to know about her, but…"
"We'll have to tell you the clue, and then you would trap us again and leave us in a cave or somewhere where we would end up dying. No thanks!" Dan continued and gave them a cold smile.
"I don't care if you don't trust me now," Ian said, almost begging.
"Who would trust a Serpent?" Dan said and Natalie pointed the dart gun to his head. Everyone jumped off. Amy was getting mad now. Her eyes flashed with anger.
"Don't you dare!" Amy exclaimed. Ian grabbed Natalie's dart gun away from her.
"This is a serious Natalie." He scolded her and she scowled.
"Komachi is a Cahill, before the Cahill separated in branches the family already existed a long time ago. No one but the Cahill's know this. The father of Komachi was a wrong child. His father was a real Cahill who had an affair with a Japanese woman he met during his visit in Japan. One of the 39 clues was kept by the descendants of Yoshisada. It is believed that the descendants of Komachi passed it to back to the original Cahill's, but they denied accepting it and letting them keep the clue to keep it safe from the conflicts of the siblings. Komachi had secret letters and poems that could lead us to the clue." Ian announced. Everyone was silent for a while.
"So the four siblings had to look for it?" Dan asked.
"Yes. And the Ekaterina's were the one's who found the clue. But they decided to keep it where they found it. And no one talked about it. So none of the Cahill's knew how to find the clue. Years and Years passed, but no one seemed to figure it out. No one was ever successful in finding the 39 clues." Ian replied.
"Sorry, but we don't have what you want." Amy said.
"I know. I'm just telling you this just in case." He said and left. Natalie following him, murmuring that their mother would kill him for giving them hints to find the clue. Amy just ignored it and continued flipping the pages that she didn't understand. Dan looked at her, knowing what she felt. While, flipping the page, a piece of paper fell. Amy unfolded it and saw unidentified Japanese characters, while the other side seemed to be the notes. The notes made her heart shout in pain. She could recognize Grace's hand writing on it. She could burst out crying right then, if she wanted. The notes were the same as the one's they found in the Diary, but these were a little different. The letters were not capitalized right.
Though i Go to you
ceaselessly Along dream Paths
The sum of those trysts,
is less than a single glimpse
granted in the waking world.
This made Amy and Dan confused. Dan's mind seems in go to a different direction. He looked carefully at the capitalized letters. He knew there was a meaning for it. He took a paper and a pencil from his backpack and started writing the words down.
'Go Along Paths The' Dan looked at it again and grinned when he figured out like it was the easiest thing he ever solved. 'Go Along The Paths'
But…what paths? Amy looked at the paper carefully once again and felt a goose bumps when she red a different note. Go to the Yazuka's.
End of Chapter 2
I hope you guys liked it; this thing is not that hard to make. But I need to find hints that would be really hard to figure out. I'll put it all up on the 3rd chapter. This chapter for me might be boring. So just wait for the 3rd chapter. Thanks for the reviews. And for the one's who are like…against this, please don't torture me with hurtful words, but I'll do my best to accomplish your critics. Thanks.
And anyway, this could be weird, but the sequel of this one just popped out in my brain yesterday while I was reading some mystery magazine, about the Stonehenge. And I'll entitle it as "The Stone Riddle". I can't wait to finish this one! Yey!
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