F-Rank Soul Eater-Chapter 153: Tommy’s Code Deciphered

Soren bowed his head in thought. "It must have figured out a way to help the Shades fully by pass the will of people."

"So what do we do now?" Pencil asked, eyes expressing his worry. "How do we find the shade killer? Even Tommy’s message was no help."

Soren sighed. He understood. Just like Tommy had fallen victim, Pencil could be the next.

In fact, any of them in this room could be the next victim.

Then he remembered something, "wait a minute. Did you say Tommy’s message was no help?"

Bloodshine shook her head. "We did nøt try to solve it for days. But førtunately it bore fruits."

"Solve?"

Polystar frowned. "All our effort was for nothing. The Bald one owes me a beating." He slammed his fist in his palm."

Why is he so angry? Its not as if its that serious.

Soren thought to himself. The image of Tommy flashed innhis mind.

That boy was just too mischievous.

Also, instructor Eagle-wing eyebrows had said there was a message.

"Bloodshine, may I see the message Tommy left behind?"

Bloodshine nodded, flicking a finger on her wristwatch.

Soren opened it. For the first ten seconds, he felt the urge to smack Tommy.

That nose digging lover actually wrote the entire thing in booger...

Wait a minute.

Soren paused, looking closely.

A memory flashed in his head. Back when they were playing the made up games during that winter.

"The word works like this." Little Tommy explained. "We substitute the vowels as we know it for each other and then add a ’U’ behind every consonant."

"Tommy, that sounds really difficult." Little Soren massaged his head.

"Don’t worry, I play it a lot with my mum, and she us sick. You’ll get the hang of it."

Soren’s mind flashed back. "Pencil, get me a pen. Bloodshine, get me a piece of paper."

They looked at one another, but hurried to do as he requested.

Polystar leaned in a bit, "you’ve found something?"

Soren nodded. "Yes. I mean no." He shook his head on haste, "well, I’m not sure yet. I’ll need to write it down. And..."

Tommy and Bloodshine arrived with the items.

Soren began scribbling letters in them. First the known vowels.

A.E.I.O.U.

Turning it the other way would be, U.O.I.E.A.

Meaning that wherever they was a vowel ’A’, it should be replaced with a ’U’.

’E’ replaced ’O’.

’I’ was the only constant.

And then behind every consonant, ’U’ was added. Its function there was nothing but a means to confuse on lookers. It was a mirage.

Meaning that a word like: ’And’

Would be written as: ’Unudu.’

Or a word like: ’Another’.

Would be written as: ’Unuetuhuoru’.

This was why the code did not make sense to any of them.

Soren began deciphering the code word after word.

Polystar and the others watched attentively.

Even Vass that had kept quiet all this time, leaned in with interest.

Slowly, the words began to unrivalled their mystery.

And before them were three words.

’Stop Winte Games’.

Everyone looked at the words in a mix of curiosity and surprise.

"I think they should be an ’R’ in front of ’Winte’ to make it Winter. I am not sure, but it seems someone peeled the letters..."

Polystar was taken aback—giving an awkward cough. "Forget about that. We already have what we need. We should just proceed."

"What does ’Stop Winter Games’ mean?" Bloodshine asked the words on everybody’s mind.

Cynthia’s helmet steamed, pulling all their attention to her.

She pressed a button on her wristwatch and a holographic display presented itself.

"That’s it. Cynthia is right. Why didn’t we think of that?" Pencil face palmed. "Its the Winter games. That’s what Tommy found out."

Vass groaned—a show of his dissatisfaction that he was not understanding what was going on.

Soren understood and quickly mediated.

"The Shade Stealer is planning to attack during the Winter Games."

Vass shook his head, "But that ddoes not make sense. Then six that were attacked were not at the Winter Games. Also wasn’t it canceled because of the Goldsworth incident in Arena C3."

"POSTPONED!" Polystar added, gaze landing on Vass, then back on the others, not Canceled."

Vass frowned even worse, fist molding slightly by his side.

"Is it just me, or did it get hotter." Pencil asked whipping the beads of sweat that just formed on his forehead."

Vass released his clenching fist, and the rising heat in the room died down.

Polystar only gave him a side glance, bot minding him in the slightest bit.

He adjusted his glasses, "now we know. The Shade Stealer is going to attack during the Winter Games."

"We have to stop it." Pencil added. "Tommy wants us to Stop the Winter games."

"But what makes this attack different from the other six!?" Bloodshine asked.

A pause.

Brows raised in understanding. Even Vass was not slow this time around.

"...Because its going to be a massive attack." Soren stated the words on everybody’s mind.

"Shit!" He cursed.

All the pieces of the puzzle had fallen in place, including the reason for the latest six victims.

The Shade Stealer was planning to go big.

The attack was going to be on all the students of the Imperial Soulforge Academy.

Silence.

Then Soren spoke again. "We have to stop the Winter games from happening."

Polystar shook his head. "I don’t think that’s even possible."

"But if we take our findings to the instructors and..."

"Still not possible." Polystar shutdown Pencil.

The round boy shut his mouth, not daring to maintain eye contact with the noble.

"But we can try!" Soren added, supporting jis friend’s suggestion."

"It still won’t work!"

"We will still TRY!" Soren added again.

He and Polystar locked eyes for a bit.

Silence.

The noble boy’s mouth, moved, but did not open—like he had chosen to swallow his words.

Then he turned, brushing shoulder with Vass—he left the room.

(Author’s Note: Its been a while I released twice a day. Forgive me. Malaria was messing with me, and the hallucinations were crazy. I had to beg my ancestors for the grace to keep writting. I’m starting to feel better. So 2 Chapters a day is coming back.)