Matsuo Shin and The Final Chapter

Matsuo Shin and The Final Chapter is story 4 of the continuing adventures of Matsuo Shin.

Plot Summary

The adventure begins as Matsuo was given a text to translate by Harriet S. Weinberg, Esq. for a client of hers. The text, the legendary Voynich Manuscript, had eluded all those who tried to translate its language, and it seemed that it would be the same for Matsuo until an accident revealed to him the secret of its contents: an alchemic book and guide to the creation of The God Elixer, which could bestow perminant immortality, put life into the lifeless, and create life where there was none. However, the recipe for the Elixer was incomplete.

Worried by what Harriet's client would want this for, Matsuo also learned from the final page of the existance of two other books and a rough guide to their locations. Deciding to try and find the other two books and keep them out of the hands of the mysterious client, his fears were soon confirmed when an attempt was made to kill him. Bidding farewell to Eiry and his sister, he escaped in the middle of the night, and after a short stop in, he made his way to New Delhi. Here, he made the acquaintance of Professor Sasha Sanders, an expert on Mideval and Renaissance history and architecture. With her help, he discovered the location of the second book in Istanbul. However, soon after this, a fire broke out in the building where they were studying. Barely making it out with Sasha, Matsuo discovered several assassins waiting. Managing to fight them off, Matsuo hijacked the assassin's car, taking Sasha with him, and boarded a plane to Turkey.

Once in Istanbul, Matsuo revealed the whole story to Sasha and they made their way to the Hagia Sophia, the location of the second book. Sneaking in via a tour group, Matsuo and Sasha found a hidden entrance to some lost catacombs. Pinpointing the right piller via a series of alchemic symbols, they soon found the second book and the next key of the puzzle. Going back to a hotel room to translate, they were attacked by an eyeless man, forcing Matsuo to use his powers against him.

Managing to translate the second book, they discovered a further list of ingredents, all things which can be found in the area. Racing around the city to get the last ingredent needed, they managed to procure it: a rare root. Scrambling to an airpot, they managed to take a private plane (stealing it from the owners) and head toward Prague. However, unknown to them, before they took off, an assassin got on board and attempted to kill them mid flight. Though the assassin was taken care of when Sasha accidentally hit him with a fire exsingusher, the damange to the plane caused a minor crash landing, forcing the two to walk the rest of the way to the city.

Arriving in Prague, Matsuo and Sasha narrowed down the location of the third and final book to Prague Castle, a prospect that did not fill Sasha with much hope. After getting a room for the night with Matsuo's funds, Sasha tried to come onto him, but he refused her advances. The next morning, they snuck into the castle posing as a married couple, and, blending in with a tour group, used the second book's translation to locate the oldest part of the building. Finding a loose stone marked with a faint alchemaic symbol, Matsuo pried it open to reveal the third and final book. At that moment, however, they were tracked down once more by the assassins and forced to flee.

Forced to seperate from Sasha, Matsuo was chases throughout the entire castle and its museums. Taking to the roof, he barely survived a barrage of gunfire from the following assassins. However, just before he could escape, he was cornered by a helicopter with a captive Sasha inside. Surrounded on all sides, Matsuo was forced to surrender and was taken prisoner by the assassins.

Taken to a large palazzo outside of Rome, Matsuo finally came face to face with the man behind all this trouble: Giuseppe Belasamo, better known as Alessandro Cagliostro. He revealed to Matsuo that he had faked his death years ago and was using his own version of the Elixer Vitre to keep himself young and alive, but that it was simply a temporary solution and he desired true immortality and power. The books, he explained, were written by his name sake, the original Cagliostro and that the creation of the God Elixer could only be accomplished during a certain celestial configuration, which would happen that night. Instead of killing Matsuo and Sasha, however, Belasamo decided to keep them alive to witness the ceremony.

Matsuo and Sasha were dragged into a room, lavishly decorated with candles and a large alter in the center, the floor surrounded by a freshly made mural of the astral configuration described in the Voynich Manuscript. As the guards carefully carried them over it, Matsuo managed to smeari one of the stars in the mural with his foot without anyone noticing.

After Matsuo and Sasha were tied and secured, Belasamo began the ceremony. Calling upon the names of the elemental powers of the universe and reciting words written in the final chapter of the third book, he drank the elixer. However, he soon found his body beginning to return to its true age and to his horror, noticed the smeared star, which had distrupted the careful balance of the spell. Ordering his guards to kill Matsuo and Sasha, he finds them melting back into the mass they had started off as. At the same time, the whole castle shook as the power of the elements he had hoped to harness began to go out of control.

Screaming in hatred, Belasamo clawed his way toward Matsuo, his body aging rapidly. Matsuo, meanwhile, had just enough time to free himself and Sasha, grab the Voynich Manuscript, and run for the exit. They managed to get out in time to see the entire castle complex explode in a burst of blue, green, red, and gold light. When they returned to the ruins afterward, they found not only Giuseppe Belasamo's skeleton, which turned to dust in the wind, but that the other two books have been reduced to nothing more than ash.

Returning to the city, Matsuo bid farewell to Sasha, having given her enough money to get a plane back to New Delhi, and made her promise she wouldn't tell anyone what had happened. Matsuo, meanwhile, took out his cell phone for the first time in awhile and called Eiry to finally tell her that he was safe.

Items Recovered

• The Voynich Manuscript
• The Second Book (destroyed)
• The Third Book (destroyed)