Mission: My Cipher Brings All the Nerds to the Desk

[7eleven]

The old librarian had once again stayed past close, leafing through the mysterious book. He had no idea what it was, but it definitely piqued his curiosity. This thing had definitely added some spice to his otherwise bland life. He hoped the ninja showed up soon, he was dying to know what was within these pages.

[PureWillPower]

Rolling through the streets at night, Ken was enjoying the relativly cool air in the village. He made his leaps up the stairs to the library door and knocked on it. It was past closed and he had an assignment to do here. Though he wasn't given much more details other then, bring your reading glasses. As if he had trouble reading.

[7eleven]

The elderly man jumped in his seat when he heard the knocking. Calm down, old man. It's just the kid the village sent over to help you. Don't have a heart attack. He got up and hurried to the door (as fast as a man of his stature could, of course). He fumbled with the keys for a few moments before finding the right one, and then unlocked and opened the door.

The man standing before Ken was a feeble one; Black skin, white hair, deathly thin, stubble covering his face. But, he was a generally happy man, enjoying the last of his days as the friendly old man at the library. "Oh, thank you for coming! Now, step in here before you catch cold! I'll make us some hot chocolate."

[PureWillPower]

ken nodded and rolled into the library past the kindly old amn. He looked like he culd use the chair more then he did...maybe. He was atleast still moving under his own power. "Arigato. So what am I supposed to be reading?"

[7eleven]

As the geezer walked to the microwave and began his preparation of the hot chocolate, he motioned to the book laying on the counter. "It's that one right there. Feel free to look through it, but be careful! It's an incredibly old book, and is in incredibly remarkable condition for it's age. Please, please do not damage it." From where he was standing, the kid would have been able to read the title, hand engraved into the black leather cover in gold ink. VASJQ GX CG UZGKSCM

[PureWillPower]

Ken looked abck to the kitchen. "Worry not. I will not even touch it." Going through a couple hand seals, he extended some chakra straings to the book making note of the text on the spine. He tried his best to pronounce it but horribly failed. the book seemed to float in front of him as he flipped through the pages slowly.

[7eleven]

The pages were filled with nothing but the same, unreadable text. "My first thought was that the book was in another language, but the grammar structure is exactly the same as ours, as far as I can tell. I believe it to be in some sort of cipher, or code. What do you think?"

[PureWillPower]

Ken flipped thorugh a few more pages before closing the book while in mid air. "If its ciphered I suppose only one way to solve it." With his strings he opened the book to a random page and put his finger on a random paragraph. "First we select a random area. then we go letter by letter."

[7eleven]

The random paragraph that he had selected read as follows:

A'V XGMYZL KG AFUJWVATDQ ZSJV XGJ KG AFUJWVATDQ DGFY XGJ LZAK TDSKLWV YJSFL, SFV ZW LZGMYZL ZW'V TW STDW LG LSCW LZAK SOSQ XJGE EW? LZW NADDSYW FWWVWV LZAK! LZWQ FWWVWV S ZSNWF GX AFXGJESLAGF!

"Well, that sounds as good to me as any other plan." The old man took the stool next to the kid, setting both mugs of hot chocolate on the counter, but making sure to keep them at a good distance from the book. "You seem to have a better grasp of this sort of thing than I do."

[PureWillPower]

I'd fought so incredibly hard for so incredibly long for this blasted grant,
A'V XGMYZL KG AFUJWVATDQ ZSJV XGJ KG AFUJWVATDQ DGFY XGJ LZAK TDSKLWV YJSFL,

and he thought he'd be able to take this away from me? The village
SFV ZW LZGMYZL ZW'V TW STDW LG LSCW LZAK SOSQ XJGE EW? LZW NADDSYW

needed this! They needed a haven of information!
FWWVWV LZAK! LZWQ FWWVWV S ZSNWF GX AFXGJESLAGF!

Diary of Ko Cdosaku
VASJQ GX CG UZGKSCM

S=A
W= E
V=D
A=I
F=N
J=R
Q=Y
U=C
T=B
D=L
Z=H
L=T
G=O
M=U
Y=G
N=V
K=S
X=F
E=M
C=K
O=W

Second PageShow

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H

Ken just smiled as he read the paragraph with the old man complimening him. "Not really. It's just something I did as a kid to hide messages from the sensei at the academy." As he looked through it he could spot a word or two that had few options. Point his finger to the S standing alone he took out a sheet of paper and wrote the paragraph down as is. He left a line between lines so that he could write above it. "This S is standing alone So it can only be 'I', 'A', or if the language is old, and 'O'. He then started counting up letters. On a third read through he spotted one word with two W's next to each other. These W's locations in to word suggested a Vowel. Only E And O in the vowels doubled up like that. With a quick count it turned out that W was the most commonly used letter so it made sence that W was E, the most commonly used letter.The writting of the E's in the note book brought him to a word with double D's, but with few D's to compare it to, he couldn't rule it as a vowel. With e's in place on the word FWWVWV, ken started to go through words with three e's in them in this pattern. The two v's stuck out though in this list. Only D and R was in the words like that. Then the first word caught his eye. It was a two letter apostrophe word with v at the end. with a D there that would be I'd but R would not work. So he had D solved. the first would Had to be I'd because only I and A stood alone and S'd wasn't a word. one of the words with this cyphering came out to be a_d. Only three words fit that patter. Add, And, and Aid. SFV would hae been solved if it was aid and it wasn't SVV so it could only be And. So F equaled N. So far it seems like the person in this book needed something. He wasn't going to give up until he finished deciphering this book.

Grabbing the cup of hot chocolate he sta back from the floating book and let his chakra strings hold the pencil and papper in the air next to him. The chocolate was nice and hot still. Just the perfect thing while dealing with brain work. With a smooth turn of his fingers, he moved the spine to face him again. the title "VASJQ GX CG UZGKSCM" Setting the hot chocolate down he took the pencil and wrote the name down as well. Perhaps it may lead to more letters to solve the rest of the book. He started to plug in what he learned thus far into the title. "Dia? For a book title that can only mean diary. Unless it's Dials or Daizo. let me check r's placement." It seemed to fit. So this was some diary. It took a little longer to plug in two letters but ti did clear some things up. the forth word of the paragraph could only be one word. Incredibly. After a few jottings of the letter he started thinking on the next word. It was almost complete Something Incredibly Ard. Hard. so Z must be a H.

He cracked his knuckles and leaned back reading over the work. "I'd something something incredibly hard something something incredibly something something something blaed ran, and he something, he'd be able...He'd be able to. Only thing that would fit."going on pure theory now he pluged in to to LG. L must me T and G must be O. Another read through brough back to the same are. tho--ht had to be thought. thought he'd be able to. Only made sence. M and Y became u and g repsectfully. As he wrote them down he noticed the word illage. the Village needed this was the only thing to him that made sence plus it was the first one to come to mind. So N was V. Should be an quick plug in. reading teh nearly completed sentance. "The village needed Thi..This...so K is S." A few quick jots of the mystical S had it almost completed. this just started to plug themselves in as he read since most word were only missing one letter at this point. X had to be F for For. N was already used. "The village needed this! Theny needed a haven of Infor...information. E is M" He wrote down his findings and there was only a couple letters left. "I think I got this down pact now." He cleared his throat and stated reading his translation."

"I's fought so incredibly hard for so incredibly long for this blasted grant, and he thought he'd be able to take this away from me? The village needed this! They needed a haven of information!" He jotted down the last few keys to the puzzle before sitting the pad down. He flipped a page and begane writing down the letters in a row and then a second colum to show what they actually were. His eyes narrowed looking at the key. Ripping the page off he placed it on teh desk and gently placed the book back down. Even though he didn't find these letters in the paragraph or on the cover, he had a hunch as to what the missing letter were. "It was a cipher that adjusted the beginning of the alphabet. They started a on S and then continued from there."

[7eleven]

Good job. :p It's a Caesar shift cipher, shifted 18 letters. I thought maybe you had messed up because the name should have been "Chosaku", not "Cdsaku", but it was just a typo. You had the write corresponding letter in the key.

The old man watched him work in awe. "Well, kid, that's impressive. It looks like they sent they right guy over for the job. Ko Chosaku is the founder of this library...I'm going to spend the next few weeks translating this book. Thank you so much! I know at your age you probably don't understand, but this library means the world to me. A chance to look into the mind of it's founder is an opportunity I never even thought of. Thank you!"

Passed!

[PureWillPower]

Ken smiled to the man and turned his chair around to head back out. "Not a problume. Enjoy your book."