Steampunk Precure

A Map to Hidden Secrets

"It was nice of your grandmother to allow us over." Gina smiled.

"I was surprised when she allowed me to invite you over." Ako gestured. "Are you okay with that, Ayako?"

"I should be fine, thanks for asking." Ayako flexed before bringing over the tray of tea. "Here we are."

"Thank you." Her friends exclaimed.

"Is the tea done already?" Ako's grandmother placed a hand on her cheek.

"Would you like to join us?" Ako inquired.

"That would be lovely." Her grandmother replied.

The group of four were having tea and as they were talking, Ako's Grandmother suddenly stood up and made her way to her bedroom. Looking at one another and shrugging at the odd occurrence, Ako's grandmother came back with a rolled up piece of paper and book in hand.

"Grandmother, what is that?" Ako pointed to the paper.

"It's a map your grandfather treasured when he was a boy until the day he passed." She answered, placing the map and book on the table.

"What is in the book?" Gina said as she picked it up to have a look.

"It is all just notes and ideas he wrote down to keep his thoughts in line." Ako's grandmother as she waved her hand in dismissal. "It's all just a bunch of nonsense to me."

"What does it lead to?" Ayako inquired.

"I have no idea, but if you three can read the mess that is my husband's writing, I'd be plenty surprised." She poured another glass of tea. "I highly doubt you'll be able to tough."

Asking for the book from Gina, Ayako started to read it and kept flipping through it. Taking notice of Ayako suddenly changed, Ako and Gina moved to stand behind their friend and watch her read it.

"How can you read that?" Ako exclaimed. "It's all coded nonsense."

"No it's not." Ayako said she flipped through the pages. "It's bad grammar and trust me when I say that bad grammar is something I recently started to break away from."

"What does it all say?" Ako asked.

"Just give me a few minutes and I'll get back to you." She replied.

"Do you two want to help me do the dishes while she does that?" Asked Ako's grandmother.

"Sure." They sang.

Reading the nonsense in the notebook, Ayako had decoded most of it and was about ready to show the others.

"Have you decoded that nonsense yet, Ayako?" Ako complained.

"Good news, I have." She smiled much to Ako's relief. "Most of it anyway." Ayako added to Ako's dismay.

"What does it mean?" Gina asked.

"I'll have to show you but we need to start on it tomorrow as it is getting pretty late." Ayako replied. "I hope it will be alright if I take this home with me as I would like to work on it more and properly write the notes."

"That will be fine dear, just so long as it comes home in one piece." Said Ako's grandmother.

"Thank you so much." Ayako smiled.

As they were at the park the next day, the group had decided to make a start and follow the riddles and notes left by Ako's late grandfather. While riddles had been one of many pleasant pastimes, Gina found these ones to be tricky.

"What does it all lead to?" Gina wondered.

"It has to lead to something, right." Ako spoke. "We just have to keep going."