In the mind of the Genius

New Game (2/3)

"Iza, do you know who's the president of the Puzzles Club?" I asked while inspecting the letter I received.

Clarissa suddenly stopped from what's she's doing, turned around and faced me.

"That bitch." Clarissa said and then twitched her tongue.

Normally, Clarissa is calm and composed. It's really rare to see her like this, I can really feel her agitation. This Puzzles Club President must really be something else.

"I hate her guts" Clarissa continued. "Her stupid sense of justice really gets in my nerves."

"Iza, I just noticed that every time you're really angry, you're losing your accent. Why's that? Is your accent some kind of acting? Or forced?" I inquired.

"Now, that you mention it." Clarissa said and starting to regain her composure. "And once again, please don't call me Iza."

"Nice! Your accent's back again. I kinda love your accent, that's why I pay special attention to it." I said and intently ignored what she requested . "Now, let's go back to the topic - tell me more about the Puzzles Club President. Any information would be good."

Clarissa rolled her eyes and ultimately gave up on her request and surrendered "Ok....Himeji Takayama - the name I won't forget. She's the only threat that I considered back when I was just a freshman here in EU. Half-Filipino and Half-Japanese, she's the only one capable of going head-to-head with me. We were always compared to each other, I'm the blonde, she's the black-haired, just like two completely different forces that will definitely collide. It won't be an overstatement if I say that she's my rival."

"Then?" I asked.

"We both decided to reach the seat of the student council president. Of course I won, but with only a very slight margin. But still, victory's still victory. And that's when she stopped showing her face. I haven't heard of her since then. Hearing from her really brings back my competitive spirit."

"Oh yeah, I remembered during my research that you also hold the record of the highest score during the entrance exam, and I believe she holds the second place. That's why the name 'Himeji Takayama' seems familiar to me. She always ranks second to you"

"Your data is outdated." Clarissa clarified. "Beta is the only person ever to ace the entrance exam, making me the second highest scorer and Himeji, the third. That man is way out of our league. I and Himeji are just toddlers when faced against him. Truly a genius among the geniuses." Clarissa commented.

"I know, I know, but I have no recollections of him. Sometimes, I just think that the name 'Beta' is a myth. Who would consider 'Beta' as a real name, anyway?" I conjectured. "I just accepted it as a fact since Officer Vincent and you are so pushy about that topic. That he died alone, that he boldly faced the Abyss Syndicate, which is by the way, also hard to believe. It just feels that it's straight out from a movie scene or a novel."

Clarissa looked at me intently and said "What did Beta find in you?" She stood up and reached for her bag and continued "Well, with Himeji now on the move, this might remind you of your place - that you just got super lucky with your authority. I'm still the best in this university, Himeji is second, and you... I'm not even sure if you're third, turd. Understand our gap. Your intelligence is just a byproduct of an accident. I'm off now. now that I'm not the student council president, I need to maintain a 'good student' image. Thanks to you." Clarissa sarcastically said.

As Clarissa slowly went out of the room, I started to inspect the letter that Ian gave to me which was supposedly written my Himeji. A very clean an white bond paper, folded horizontally was used. I paid closer attention to the written message, she used a black pen, most probably a sign pen with 0.5 mm tip, and I'm pretty sure that she's right-handed which is evident by the way that the smudges swayed along the right side. As to her personality, I can really feel her strong passion by the way she strongly holds her pen when she wrote this, her obsessiveness towards regularity since she made sure that the distances between characters are neat and unified. And just like what Clarissa said, I can also feel a strong sense of justice within her written message since she purposely left her signature below, such a bold fellow indeed.

As to as the content of the message, I observed a some sort of code that I know nothing of, containing only plus sign and numbers. Just above the crease of the paper is the written code that must have been meant for me. Is she challenging me to decipher her code? Is she that kind of person? She went out of all this trouble just to showcase her creativity in making codes? - I don't think so. Her message must be something serious, I guess.

Well, there's only one way to find out - I just have to decode her message.

10+ 9+ +2 9+ +2 / +7 +9 +6 +9

Honestly, I have no idea on where should I start the process of decoding but since there's a slash, which is commonly used in Morse code to indicate separation between words, then there's a high possibility that the same goes with her code. So her message consists of just two words.

But the main problem is the lack of variables, there are only numbers and a plus sign, either before or after the number. 10, 9, 7, 6, 2 --- these are the only numbers used, and if they correspond to specific letters in the phonetic alphabet then the limit must only be 26. I'm pretty sure that the letters are substituted by numbers. That's the only reasonable conclusion, because unlike Polybus square in which the numbers are used to indicate the coordinates of the actual letters, her code is a mix of single digit and two digit numbers, so it's very unlikely to follow same format as Polybus Square.

It is also evident that it's not T9 cipher that uses old mobile phone keyboard to replace the alphabet.

The only plausible pattern is A1Z26 cipher --- 1 is A and Z is 26. What would I get when I use this pattern?

J+ I+ +B I+ +B / +G +I +F +I

Jibib Gifi?

"It doesn't make any sense!!" I shouted in frustration. My voice reverberated in the whole room.

Even if I try to scramble the letters, I won't be able to come up with usable words using those letters. This is starting to frustrate me. Of course, this is a simple code but due to the nature of the code, I lack the useful information to decode this. If only the message was longer or more numbers where used.

What is Himeji Takayama thinking? This is unsolvable in the first place.

I stood and stretched my arms upwards, rotated my neck clockwise and then counter-clockwise.

"It's time to get serious." I said out loud.