He led the way, with Andy and Mika racing to keep up with him and Mom following to make sure they didn’t get separated as they dodged around groups of travelers. Andy counted the gates as they flew past each one. By C24, he had a stitch in his side. Next to him, Mika’s face shone with sweat. When they passed C49, Andy heard an announcement over the intercom.
“This is the last call for passengers boarding flight 7015 to Tokyo.”
“That’s us!” Dad put on a burst of speed, and Mika let out a sound that was half laugh, half yelp. Andy felt laughter bubbling up in his throat, too. They’d never come this close to missing a flight before. He couldn’t wait to text Devon and tell him about it once he was on the plane. If he got on the plane.
At last, the sign reading C54 came into view. Andy spotted a gate agent moving to close the door, and his heart stuttered in his chest.
“We’re here!” Dad yelled so loudly that several people turned to stare at him. “Wait, hold the door!”
The woman looked slightly amused as the Kudos sprinted toward her. Smiling, she gestured to the ticket scanner.
“Don’t worry, you made it!”
Andy came to a halt, gasping for air. He opened the app with his plane ticket and held his phone over the scanner, then followed Dad onto the jet bridge. When they reached the plane, a few passengers stood just outside, still waiting to board. Mika and Mom joined them, both breathing heavily.
Mom took off her glasses and wiped her forehead on her sleeve. “Well, that was some morning workout.”
“Maybe we should race at the Olympics,” Andy said, grinning. “I bet we could win a medal for track!”
Mika rolled her eyes, but she was still too out of breath to say anything.
A few minutes later, Andy had stowed his and Mika’s backpacks in the overhead compartment, closed the latch, and flopped down in the aisle seat. “I swear I’ll never sleep in again.”
Mika snorted, not taking her eyes off her phone. “Yeah, right.” But she didn’t sound mad anymore.
“You two okay?” Mom’s face appeared over the seats in front of them, and Mika jumped and slapped her phone facedown on her legs. Andy glanced at her but didn’t say anything.
“Yup!” Andy tapped at the screen on the back of Mom’s seat, scrolling through the movies. “I’m gonna find something to watch.”
Mom smiled and turned around to face the front again. As soon as she did, Andy nudged Mika’s arm.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
Mika gave him a look of false innocence that Andy knew all too well. “Nothing!”
“You hid your phone from Mom. Why?”
Sighing, Mika turned her phone over so Andy could see the screen. It was a photo of a little boy running toward an older woman. Probably his grandmother, Andy thought, leaning closer to get a better look. Her wrinkled face was lit up with a delighted smile, and her arms were outstretched. Andy recognized an airline sign in the background and glanced at Mika in surprise.
“Who are they? Did you take that this morning?”
“Yeah, when we were in that line to check our bags.” Mika held the phone up and studied the photo. “I saw this kid with his parents, and he was so excited—he kept asking them over and over where Grandma was. Then she finally came down the escalator and his mom almost dropped him because he was squirming so much. His grandma looked so happy when she saw him running toward her, too . . . I don’t know, I thought it would be a cool picture.”
“It is.” Andy couldn’t help admiring his sister’s photography skills. Mika had a knack for capturing pictures at the exact right moment. He noticed a few icons at the bottom of the screen and pointed. “What’s all that?”
“I, um, downloaded a photo-editing app. I’m just messing with the contrast and stuff. It’s fun.”
Frowning, Andy lowered his voice. “But why didn’t you want Mom to see?”
Mika didn’t take her eyes off her screen, but blinked rapidly. “Oh. Uh. I wanted to show her the final version, after it’s all edited.”
She was definitely lying. Or at least, not telling the whole truth. But Andy knew better than to push his sister—she’d tell him when she was ready. Shrugging, he pulled his phone out and opened OlympiFan, navigating to their team chat room.
Devon: CLUES!!!
Riley: AHHH! But Andy and Mika are at the airport!
Devon: Should we start without them?
Riley: I guess so???
Devon: Andy I hope your plane has Wi-Fi!
“Mika!” Andy cried, much louder than he’d intended. In the rush to get to the airport, Andy had managed to forget that the clue locations for the Bronze medal would be revealed this morning! Startled, Mika looked up as Andy waved his phone at her. “Clues!”
“What?!” Mika hurriedly closed her photo and opened OlympiFan just as the plane began to move.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard flight 7015 to Tokyo, Japan. Our flight time today is eleven hours and forty-five minutes . . .”
Mika groaned. “We have to switch our phones to airplane mode.”
Andy looked around, his gaze falling on the Wi-Fi symbol near the light over Mom’s head. “Aha!” Quickly, he typed a response to Devon and Riley.
Andy: We’re about to take off but there’s Wi-Fi so we can play during the flight! BRB!
Andy: We almost missed our flight O_O
After sending the message, Andy put his phone on airplane mode. Adrenaline had already been coursing through him thanks to the race at the airport and the fear that they’d miss their flight. Knowing that OlympiFan had officially started—that other teams were collecting clues right now while Andy just sat here—was making him feel extra hyper. Like maybe he could run down the whole length of the terminal again.
At last, the plane took off, and Andy and Mika watched through the window as Los Angeles spread out below them. Once the view was nothing but blue sky and a few white, fluffy clouds, Mika went back to editing her photo. Andy scrolled through the movie selection again, although he had no intention of watching anything. After a few minutes, the seat belt light flicked off just as the Wi-Fi symbol blinked on.
“Yes!”
Andy and Mika handed their phones to Mom, who used her work subscription to connect them. “Thanks!” Andy said eagerly, opening OlympiFan again.
Devon: You slept in, didn’t you?
Riley: I FOUND ONE! It was right outside a bookstore!
Riley: Two more! Wow, there must be hundreds of clues. FYI, blue footprints mean you’re far, yellow means getting warmer, pink means you’re close.
Devon: Just added one!
Devon: Huh, the clues are just colors . . .
Andy had no idea what Riley meant by footprints or the clues being colors. He closed the messages and opened their team’s clue collection. A white background filled his screen, with four small squares of color in the top left corner—one gray and three slightly different shades of red. A second later, a fifth square appeared, this one deep blue.
“What’s it mean?” Mika asked, and Andy saw she had the clue collection open on her phone, too.
“I have no idea,” he said, feeling another surge of adrenaline. This puzzle wasn’t going to be easy to solve—and that was exactly how Andy liked it.
Andy and Mika opened VR mode and examined the map. The five locations for the Bronze medal were all highlighted. They quickly decided on Aoyama as their first location, since it was pretty far from their hotel. Part of their strategy was to only pick places in VR mode that they wouldn’t be able to visit for real when they played AR mode.
A street lined with fancy-looking shops and cafés filled Andy’s screen, along with two tiny blue footprints at the bottom. He used the arrows in the middle of the screen to move down the street. Aft
er a minute or so, the footprints lightened to yellow.
“I think I’m close to one!” Andy told Mika, navigating toward a sushi restaurant. The footprints glowed pink, and then Andy spotted it—a tiny animated flag fluttering near the entrance. He tapped it, and as it zoomed toward him, he saw it was striped in orange, white, and green. A message appeared on the flag:
Player: AndyK
Team MADR (4)
Player clue total: 1
Team clue total: 6
Team ranking: 227
Suddenly it vanished, and Andy saw the sushi restaurant again, but the flag was gone.
“I got one, too!” Mika exclaimed. “We’re up to seven!”
They continued to play for the next few hours, only pausing when the flight attendants stopped next to Andy to offer drinks and snacks, and then later for a bathroom break. Mika dozed off eventually, and Devon and Riley both exited the game after a while, but Andy couldn’t stop playing. When he opened the scoreboard, Team MADR ranked fifty-second out of more than five hundred teams—but even as he looked at the numbers, the order shuffled again and his team dropped to seventy-ninth.
Of course, that ranking was only about the number of clues each team collected. Andy was hoping he could solve the puzzle and figure out where the Bronze medal was hidden without actually collecting every single clue. He’d noticed that each time another clue was added, the colorful squares shifted their order slightly.
He returned to exploring Aoyama. Occasionally, a bubble would pop up with a “fun fact” about the area. Reading them slowed Andy’s search down a little bit, but he didn’t mind.
When the flight attendants came by with meal options, Andy temporarily stopped playing to request a sandwich.
“Anything for your sister?” the attendant asked, gesturing to Mika, who was sound asleep.
Andy glanced at her. “Hey, Mika?” he said, poking her arm. “Mika!” But she just mumbled something under her breath and shifted over to face the window. The flight attendant chuckled.
“I guess not.”
After polishing off his sandwich, Andy went back to playing. It wasn’t long before his eyelids began to droop, and he couldn’t seem to stop yawning. One more clue, he told himself, navigating down another street lined with shops. Or maybe two more . . .
Hours later, Andy rubbed his eyes blearily. The cabin was totally dark and silent; other than a guy watching a superhero movie across the aisle, everyone Andy could see was asleep. Shifting to a more comfortable position, Andy dozed off again.
The next time he woke up, he could see sunlight peeking underneath the bottom of the window shade next to Mika. He checked the time on his phone: it was 9:34 p.m. in Los Angeles, but he had no idea what time zone they were in now.
Leaning out into the aisle, Andy spotted the flight attendants with the cart. The smell of food filled the air, and his stomach rumbled in response. Andy glanced at Mika again, but she was still completely out.
When the cart reached him, Andy accepted a turkey wrap with fruit. He played OlympiFan as he ate—Team MADR was up to eighty-eight clues now! Andy had just popped the last bite of the wrap into his mouth when the intercom pinged. A soothing voice spoke first in Japanese before translating into English.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in thirty minutes we will begin our descent into Narita International Airport.”
Andy managed to grab four more clues before the Wi-Fi service ended. Carefully, he reached over Mika to slide the shade up, squinting against the bright light. Far below, he could just make out the tops of buildings, green patches of grass, and a winding river. Mesmerized, Andy gazed out the window as Tokyo grew closer and closer, and then the plane touched down with a slight lurch, speeding along the runway. As it slowed, Andy shifted excitedly in his chair.
“Grrr—GRRR—grrrrrrrrgle.”
Andy looked at his sister, whose eyes were fluttering open.
“What was that noise?” Mika mumbled, shading her eyes from the sunlight.
“I’m pretty sure it was your stomach growling.”
“Oh.” Mika sat up straight and stared down the aisle. “I didn’t miss dinner, did I?”
“You did,” Andy told her, grinning. “And you missed another meal, too.”
“What?!” Mika cried, clutching her stomach. “But I’m starving! How did I miss two meals?”
“Because you slept through the whole flight.” Andy pointed out the window. “We’re here.”
SCOREBOARD - TOP TEN
1st
Majestic Turmoil
204
2nd
GhostCadets
198
3rd
夢
196
4th
ALLEYOOP
188
5th
SuperFan
187
6th
Dragonflame
182
7th
геймеров
180
8th
Cryptic
178
9th
EspectroRojo
176
10th
TheOracles
173
CHAPTER FOUR
MIKA
MIKA’S STOMACH GROWLED so loudly that the driver of their taxi caught her eye in the rearview mirror and chuckled. He said something in rapid Japanese, rubbing his belly exaggeratedly.
Mika didn’t catch the phrase, but the meaning was obvious. “I’m starving,” she told him, trying to remember the phrase from her Japanese language app. “Onaka sw . . . um . . .”
“Onaka suita,” Dad supplied, taking out his wallet as the taxi pulled up in front of a towering hotel.
“Onaka suita, because someone let me sleep through two entire meals.” Mika elbowed Andy, who rolled his eyes.
“I told you, I tried to wake you up! It’s not my fault.” Andy reached for his door, but it opened on its own. The driver grinned at Andy’s surprise.
“Automatic,” he said, and Andy grinned back.
“Whoa! Cool!”
Mika followed Andy out of the taxi. “What do you mean it’s not your fault? You’re the one who—whoa!”
Quickly, Andy pulled Mika out of the way just as a group of whooping, cheering teenagers went charging by. Mika stared at them, too startled to even think about taking a picture. They were all wearing matching T-shirts and fuzzy, super-tall top hats in different colors and patterns. A few held their phones up as they ran down the street, capturing their own madness on video.
“What’s with those hats?”
Mom joined them, brushing her short bangs from her eyes. “I think they’re flags! See? There’s Japan, Russia, Brazil, USA, Germany . . .”
Mika spotted a red-and-white-striped hat, its blue brim covered in sparkly stars. “Oooh, I’m so getting one of those—uh-oh!”
The girl wearing the American flag hat cried out as a breeze lifted it right off her head. The hat tumbled down the sidewalk, and Mika hurried forward to scoop it up.
Beaming, the girl jogged toward Mika. “Arigato!”
“You’re welcome,” Mika said, handing her the hat.
The girl grinned. “Oh, you speak English?” Her words were thick with an accent Mik
a couldn’t place.
“Yup!” Mika replied. “Hey, where’d you get—”
“You’re OlympiFans!” Andy said suddenly. He pointed to the girl’s T-shirt, which had TEAM SUPERFAN emblazoned in purple, with TOKYO INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL below in smaller print.
The girl’s smile widened. “Yes! OlympiFan is our summer vacation assignment . . . to encourage team-building skills and learn more about Tokyo. Best homework ever!” she added, and Mika laughed. “Are you playing, too?”
“Yes! We haven’t tried AR mode yet, though,” Andy said.
“It’s so fun,” the girl said eagerly. “My name is Sabine, by the way—my player name is SabineTheGreat!”
“I’m Mika, and this is my brother, Andy,” Mika replied, already opening the OlympiFan app on her phone. Next to her, Andy did the same. “Team SuperFan, SabineTheGreat . . . there! Just sent a friend request.”
“Cool!” Sabine tapped her screen, and Mika saw her own profile appear. “Oh wow, you’re from LA?”
“Sabine!” Down the street, a boy wearing a Japanese flag hat and enormous sunglasses waved his arms. “Hurry up!”
“Coming!” Sabine hollered back, then gave Mika and Andy another smile. “Nice to meet you guys. Good luck!”
“Good luck to you, too!” Mika called as Sabine ran off to rejoin her teammates. A few of them were Japanese, but others, like Sabine, were clearly not from Japan. Mika tried to imagine moving halfway across the world to attend an international high school. Starting middle school in her hometown was scary enough!
“I can’t believe they get to play OlympiFan for school,” she said. “I wonder how many clues they’ve found. We’re probably so far behind!”
“Not that behind,” Andy told her as they walked back over to Mom and Dad. “Our team had almost ninety clues by the time we landed.”
Kudo Kids--The Mystery of the Masked Medalist Page 3