And Then There Were None
Summary: A deserted island, ten little wooden monkeys, nine regulars. One by one, they are killed. Warning: Character death. (Obviously.)
Disclaimer: I do not own PoT. Also, the title and the poem are borrowed from Agatha Christie, one of my favorite authors.
Ten little Indians went out to dine; one choked his little self and then there were Nine.
Nine little Indians sat up very late; one overslept himself and then there were Eight.
Eight little Indians traveling in Devon; one said he'd stay there and then there were Seven.
Seven little Indians chopping up sticks; one chopped his own self in halves and then there were Six.
Six little Indians playing with a hive; a bumblebee stung one and then there were Five.
Five little Indians going in for law; one got into Chancery and then there were Four.
Four little Indians going out to sea; a red herring swallowed one and then there were Three.
Three little Indians walking in the Zoo; a big bear hugged one and then there were Two.
Two little Indians sitting in the sun; one got frizzled up and then there was One.
One little Indian left all alone; he went out and hanged himself and then there were none.
-Before the trip-
It was one of those typical summer days, and the Seigaku tennis club locker room was unusually peaceful. Fuji, for once in his fourteen years of life, did not attempt to set traps on the clubroom door, the club loudmouth Momo was uncharacteristically quiet because he was so busy eating, and the hyperactive Eiji was nowhere to be seen. However, the exact moment his teammates were thanking God for such a nice, tranquil afternoon, Eiji chose to break the rare silence by flinging open the door and running in, shouting as if he had made some kind of important discovery, like Christopher Columbus who discovered America.
"Guys, guess what I discovered? A triangle has three sides!"
Everyone sweatdropped in unison, "Shouldn't you have discovered this, like, ten years ago?" The regulars have been friendly with each other for quite some time and, even though they couldn't all play in synchro like the Golden Pair, they already mastered sweatdropping in synchro.
"You are fifteen, senpai," Ryoma smirked from his corner.
Eiji cheerfully leapt on top of Ryoma and continued, "Nah, of course I was kidding. What I really discovered was that we have an extra long spring vacation! Why don't we all go somewhere together?"
"Good idea," Fuji smiled.
Momo's face glowed with enthusiasm. "Yeah, we've never all stayed out together before, except that time we went to training camp. But training camp was so tiring that we hardly had any fun… so yeah! Let's go somewhere together and stay the night."
"Let's go to the beach," Eiji, who had the mental age of a six-year-old, cried happily.
"No, let's go to Disneyland!" Momo, who also had the mental age of a six-year-old, cried happily.
"Let's go to Hawaii," Ryoma suggested. Echizen Ryoma had the mental age of a normal twelve-year-old, yes, but it didn't mean that hanging out with Momo too much wouldn't affect his brain a little.
"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.
"But if we go hiking, we might have accidents," Oishi frowned in worry. "We might drown at the beach, we might fall off the roller coaster in Disney Land, and if we go to Hawaii, the plane might crash." As if going to Hawaii was really an option.
"Oishi, you think too much," Eiji pouted.
"Can't we just stay in Tokyo? I'm sure there are some pretty nice places in Tokyo," Oishi said meekly.
"That's boring," Eiji pouted again.
"We may also have accidents in Tokyo anyway, for example, we may crash into a car, get trapped in a burning building or die in an earthquake," Fuji countered with his sadistic smile. "Besides, if you insist on staying in Tokyo, I can guarantee that you will definitely have an accident."
Oishi knew better than to cross Fuji, so he shut up.
"Then it's all decided. Disneyland it is!" Momo concluded, "Let's go!"
"Let's go? Now?" Ryoma rolled his eyes, "No, I wanna go to Hawaii."
"Hawaii's too far away." Eiji persisted, "I want to go to the beach."
"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.
Ryoma said, aggravated, "There are both mountains and beaches in Hawaii. Why don't we go to Hawaii?"
The soft-spoken Kawamura meekly suggested from aside, "Why don't we visit some hot springs?"
"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.
Eiji threw a temper tantrum, rolling on the floor, "Nya, I wanna go to the beach!"
"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly.
Momo stared, "Buchou, you shouldn't keep saying the same sentence. Can't you say something else?"
"We should go hiking," Tezuka said calmly. "We should go hiking. We should go hiking. We should go hihihihihihihi-"
"WAAAAAH! Buchou is like the CD stuck in a broken CD player. We must fix him!" Momo and Eiji screamed and poured Ryoma's Ponta over Tezuka's head to see if it would help. It didn't.
Oishi felt a terrible stomachache coming up. Whereas everyone was making suggestions and having the time of their lives, they forgot that Oishi was the one who must find hotel rooms, get insurance and manage all the trivial affairs before the vacation. Just thinking about it made Oishi tired. He felt so tired that he wanted to jump into a river and drown himself.
As if he could read Oishi's mind, Momo suddenly declared, "Don't worry, Oishi-senpai, I will be responsible for everything. Even the insurance."
"But…" Oishi stuttered, deciding that Momo had probably watched too much TV at midnight and become more hotheaded than he already was.
"Of course. And I'm also gonna help Momo!" Eiji said.
Oishi felt even more worried than before. How could he trust these two? But then he didn't really have a choice.
That was why the two notorious troublemakers came screaming into the locker room three days later.
"We've decided. We are going to a deserted island!" Eiji declared.
"Even though it's not as good as Disneyland, there is still a good beach," Momo said excitedly, "and they both start with D and end with 'land'." Not that it mattered.
Tezuka, who cared about hiking only, asked solemnly, "Will there be mountains?"
"It's a small island, so probably-" Eiji began, but quickly added as he saw the disappointment on Tezuka's face, "-there will be a Chinese garden, so there will probably be a fake stone mountain like they do in most Chinese gardens."
Ryoma, practical as always, asked, "Why will there be a Chinese garden on a deserted island?"
"They borrowed from Atobe," Fuji piped up. "His family owns a pretty big mansion there. They even have a bamboo forest."
"Yes. We can enjoy the peace and quiet of a deserted island, but at the same time we don't need to worry about making fires for cooking or sleeping in the wild with creepy bugs. Isn't that great? There're even swimming pools and tennis courts," Momo said, looking proud of his achievement.
Oishi did not think that it was so great, and he was quite convinced that they would have no peace or quiet on the island. So many things could happen at a beach -they could be stung by jellyfish, sunburned, or swept away by giant tsunamis- and even if nothing happened, he was sure that his teammates would burn down the house or rip the roof apart. How could he explain that to Atobe?
Tezuka muttered, rather sadly, "No mountains?"
"Why don't we go to Hawaii if we have to go to an island anyway? I'm positive that Atobe has at least one house there," Ryoma suggested, also sadly.
"I still want to try hot springs," Kawamura added sadly.
Kaidoh wondered, "Fshuu… Since when have we been so friendly with Atobe?"
"Since I was six, my dear. After all, you are the most important person in my life," Inui spoke.
"That wasn't your line, Inui-senpai, and it doesn't make sense," Ryoma sweatdropped.
"One, two, three, YAAY!" Tezuka said.
"That wasn't your line either, buchou!" Ryoma cried in alarm.
Watching his ridiculous teammates, Oishi could only sigh to himself. He could foresee the trouble coming in the following week.
When it came to trouble Oishi had a pretty good imagination. Yet he did not foresee that there would be more trouble in the following week than he could ever imagine.
To be continued. Thanks for reading! This might be very long, so please let me know if I should finish it. Reviews are very welcome, and so are guesses on the death order. Guesses on the murderer's identity are also very welcome, though I will be very depressed if you already get it right in the first chapter before anyone has died yet…