[Yoruichi-san]

As Andromeda was exiting out of the building her last class was in at Redrum University, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and saw that she had received a new voicemail message. She pressed the button to connect to voicemail and listened to the message:

"Hey...it's me...uh...I've kinda been kidnapped by some agents from IETNAT...not a big deal though..." came Y-san's voice in a nonchalant tone. "Anyways, I thought it would be fun to leave you some clues to find my kidnapper...they'll on my desk..." The sound of a yawn came through the receiver. "Oh, right, you should probably give Police Chief Leroy a call while you're at it..." Then there was a shout in the background, followed by some running footsteps, then the sounds of a scuffle, a loud thud...and then the message ended.

After calling Police Chief Leroy, on her way to Y-san's dorm room, Andromeda ran into the visiting Prof. Templeton who was being led on a guided tour by Cherry Lane. Seeing the look of distress on Andromeda's face, they called out to her and she paused briefly to explain the situation. Then the three rushed on together.

The door of Y-san's room hung open. The floor was strewn with various papers and books...signs of a struggle? No...just Y-san's laziness...

On Y-san's desk, they found a cardboard box, on which was printed "10x Cocoa Puffs, 17.5 oz". Inside the box, on one side, there was:

A poster,

A graph that looked like it had been part of a homework assignment that had been drawn on with a marker,

And some Wei Chi tiles arranged as such:

At the other side inside the box was a regular six-sided die.

Next to the box was a sheet of paper with the following printed on it:

^&

Prof. Templeton studied the box for a moment, stroking his chin. Then he shook his head and muttered "Looks like Y-san is up to her usual routine." Then his eyes shifted to the paper and he added in a resigned tone, "Someday she's going to get herself shot by an Extremely Mad Physicist."

Cherry Lane sighed. "Yeah...and in the end she's as enigmatic as always."

Just then an out of breath Police Chief Leroy stumbled into the room. As he leaned over, panting, he withdrew a notebook from his pocket and flipped it open to a page. "Okay..." he finally managed to say, "So Y-san was helping me investigate some shady characters. We suspected that one of them is a IETNAT agent. I have their names and addresses, so if we can figure out which one is the culprit, we can find her. The suspects are:

Ichimaru Kyu

Uno Diez

Quatre Treize

YiSan Wu

Otto Ventisei

Zwolf Sieben

But which is one is it? I don't have the manpower to cover all of them..."

He was interrupted by Andromeda, who hopped up and down in excitement. "Ooh! I know, I know!" She pointed her finger eagerly at one of the names in the notebook.

Later on that day, a group of police officers broke down the door to the culprit's house and combed through the rooms to find...Y-san sitting on a couch, reading a magazine. Around her lay strewn the unconscious bodies of IETNAT goons. Looking up at her rescuers, Y-san smiled and declared "Well, about time! I was getting hungry..."

[Guest]

No...for the second picture clue...my "from:" may give you a hint...and notice a pattern in the solutions to the picture clues? ;P

And I take it that by "From" you don't mean the impracticality of drawing an entire notebook out of one small pocket?

[Yoruichi-san]

And I take it that by "From" you don't mean the impracticality of drawing an entire notebook out of one small pocket?

Lol...it's a small notebook ;P...and it's far more practical than setting up an elaborate series of clues for your friend, when you could just call the police...or have avoided the attack in the first place...

But no...I mean what's under my avatar ;P

[Guest]

With an elecro-magnetic pulse? Is she bionic? Does she have a computer for a brain? Am I misinterpreting the clue? Probably, but "Adventures of the Bionic Y-San" somehow makes me smile.

[Yoruichi-san]

With an elecro-magnetic pulse? Is she bionic? Does she have a computer for a brain? Am I misinterpreting the clue? Probably, but "Adventures of the Bionic Y-San" somehow makes me smile.

Haha! Thanks . But don't get sidetracked by going out of order if you want to solve this puzzle...the clues were put in that order for a reason...that particular one won't make sense unless you figure out the part before it...;P

[Guest]

Haha! Thanks . But don't get sidetracked by going out of order if you want to solve this puzzle...the clues were put in that order for a reason...that particular one won't make sense unless you figure out the part before it...;P

I'll wait then. The first bit is a little too "mathy" for me.

[Guest]

Just a question... will this end up being an equation?

(if I need to put this in spoiler tags tell me and I'll transfer it)

[Yoruichi-san]

Just a question... will this end up being an equation?

(if I need to put this in spoiler tags tell me and I'll transfer it)

No...no equation...follow the pattern...

Picture Clues:

Poster: L

Graph: ?

Wei Chi: M

These are all on one side inside the box (i.e. a group)...

Edit: Then you move on from there...(and some previous observations about the rest of the puzzle were correct...but I'm not going to tell you until you get there ;P)

Edited December 15, 2008 by Yoruichi-san

[Guest]

No...no equation...follow the pattern...

Picture Clues:

Poster: L

Graph: ?

Wei Chi: M

These are all on one side inside the box (i.e. a group)...

So that would mean that the second picture would have to be either I, V, X, L, C, D, M

but since L(50) and M(1000) are already used, that narrows it down to 5: I(1), V(5), X(10), C(100), D (400)

Math is obviously not my forte but I'd be willing to bet that the graph would be D

Edited December 15, 2008 by Emireth

[Yoruichi-san]

So that would mean that the second picture would have to be either I, V, X, L, C, D, M

but since L(50) and M(1000) are already used, that narrows it down to 5: I(1), V(5), X(10), C(100), D (400)

Math is obviously not my forte but I'd be willing to bet that the graph would be D

Interesting observation, but it actually has nothing to do with Roman numerals...like I said...looking under my avatar might help with the graph part ;P.

<--------

Edit: Positioning arrow ;P

Edited December 15, 2008 by Yoruichi-san

[Guest]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the answer for the graph is

F as in function calls f(z)

[Guest]

Haha, thanks for the 'From" clue, the graph makes more sense.

The graph refers the number line (I think it's called that).

The numbers on the horizontal are real numbers (hence Re)

The numbers on the vertical are imaginary numbers (hence Im)

Therefore z is not a number but a coordinate. If we can figure out the coordinates, then my guess is that since each of the names have two numbers then z should be the kidnapper. Well, that's my guess anyway.

If I remember correctly, complex numbers are written like 1 + 2i, if that's any help to anyone.

I've got nothing about the order of the clues though and so have still got no idea as to the final answer of the puzzle.

I have to congratulate you on this puzzle Yoruichi-san - calling it very good to be an understatement.

Edited December 15, 2008 by Luke Warmwater

[Guest]

The set of complex numbers is denoted by "C". Is that it?

[Guest]

from here:

http://scholar.hw.ac.uk/site/maths/topic11.html

based on the graph... Z would be (|z|, arg(z))

if you want to dive into it more, we would bust in cos and sin, but that's complicating things, not that this riddle isn't complicated enough

Also, we have a hint that says that this is only part of 1 group. That means that there are other groups to solve this.

Poster: L

Graph: (|z|, argz)

Wei Chi: M

btw, these are all inside the box, so we hafta think WHAT'S OUTSIDE THE BOX? (har har har)

[Guest]

In complex alebra, this represnetation in polar coordinates on an Argan diagram denotes the angle as argument and the "lenght of the arrow" as modulus or magnitude

[Yoruichi-san]

The set of complex numbers is denoted by "C". Is that it?

Ding ding ding!

from here:

http://scholar.hw.ac.uk/site/maths/topic11.html

based on the graph... Z would be (|z|, arg(z))

if you want to dive into it more, we would bust in cos and sin, but that's complicating things, not that this riddle isn't complicated enough

Also, we have a hint that says that this is only part of 1 group. That means that there are other groups to solve this.

Poster: L

Graph: (|z|, argz)

Wei Chi: M

btw, these are all inside the box, so we hafta think WHAT'S OUTSIDE THE BOX? (har har har)

No...like the other two pictures clues...it's one letter...(and Skywalker just got it). And there's something else inside the box you forgot...and taken with my reply to the above...;P

*Stomach growls*

[Guest]

Hmmmm... is that LCM as in Least Common Multiple?

by regular six sided dice could mean 1 of three things for me

6 = number of sides

21 = total number of dots

or

1d6 = DnD notation of a regular 6 sided dice...

and if ^& is 67... the LCM on 21 & 67 is... 1407 hmmm I know I'm close...

[Yoruichi-san]

Hmmmm... is that LCM as in Least Common Multiple?

by regular six sided dice could mean 1 of three things for me

6 = number of sides

21 = total number of dots

or

1d6 = DnD notation of a regular 6 sided dice...

and if ^& is 67... the LCM on 21 & 67 is... 1407 hmmm I know I'm close...

Yep, you got the interpretation of the picture puzzle clues, good!

But...sorry...none of the above for the numbers...

Everything you see in the box is important...(the picture puzzle half has been solved though)

;P

[Guest]

Everything we see huh so with LCM we have

a cardboard box, on which was printed "10x Cocoa Puffs, 17.5 oz"

10x17.5 =175....

inside

LCM

other side

a regular six-sided die.

Hmmm... does the face of the die mean anything?

outside box

^&

Hat/Exponent/6... Ampersand/And/7

Edited December 16, 2008 by Guyver

[Yoruichi-san]

Everything we see huh so with LCM we have

a cardboard box, on which was printed "10x Cocoa Puffs, 17.5 oz"

10x17.5 =175....

inside

LCM

other side

a regular six-sided die.

Hmmm... does the face of the die mean anything?

outside box

^&

Hat/Exponent/6... Ampersand/And/7

Actually...the hint specifically said "in the box"...don't over-think it ;P

[Guest]

okay then that makes it

inside

LCM

other side

a regular six-sided die.

So... does the face of the die mean anything?

forget the label and the ^&

[Yoruichi-san]

okay then that makes it

inside

LCM

other side

a regular six-sided die.

So... does the face of the die mean anything?

forget the label and the ^&

Uh...make it plural ;P

[Guest]

Uh...make it plural ;P

So the LCM of all sides of the die?

The LCM of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 is 60

Now what?

[Yoruichi-san]

So the LCM of all sides of the die?

The LCM of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 is 60

Now what?

Good job. Now you have the contents of the box figured out...time to think outside the box...or more specifically...what's printed outside the box...

the box is equivalent to parenthesis ;P

[Guest]

Good job. Now you have the contents of the box figured out...time to think outside the box...or more specifically...what's printed outside the box...

the box is equivalent to parenthesis ;P

60(10x*17) = 600x*1020

(I can't do math anymore this is as far as I go on this one)

or

60(10 x 17) = 10200/^& = ?

or

60(10x*17) = ^& (which is 67 or 1314 or 27)

Is this even close???

[Guest]

So that'd make it

10*17.5*(60)^7 = 489,888,000,000,000

or

10*17.5*60*67 = 703,500

or

10*(60)^7 = 27,993,600,000,000

or

10*(60)*67 = 40,200

one of these right?

first guess is 40200