"This scary story happened ten years ago, on a snowing winter afternoon…" Inui began dreamily, sipping his tea.
---
"Don't go, my love…" A beautiful young girl sobbed, holding desperately onto her handsome male teacher's jacket. They were in an airport.
"No, my dear. I must not become a burden to you. You must move on and find your own true love in life," her teacher said, stroking her golden curls affectionately.
"My love, I will grow up soon," she cried. "When I grow up, I will find you. I will be yours forever, my honey, and nothing will ever separate us."
"Yes," the teacher nodded gently, trying to hide the tears in his brown eyes but failing miserably, "nothing will ever separate us…"
---
"…This isn't the right story," Ryoma finally said.
"Yes," Inui cleared his throat again, "that was the wrong story. I'm sorry. The real story happened six years ago in the mountains, it was beautiful and sunny…"
---
"My love, please give me another chance." The girl wept, running towards her teacher and her only true love.
"No, I am too old for you. I must not ruin your life. Adieu forever, my darling!" The teacher jumped onto a bike and pedaled away, wanting to leave the girl for good. When people are in love, they often have to make some decisions even if they are painful. Once the person has decided, there is no turning back. The teacher was facing such a situation.
"No, don't leave me!" The girl shrieked, jumped on another bike and went after him.
"Wow, the teacher is pedaling so fast. He is catching up with a train. No, he is even faster than the train," Kaidoh said in amazement.
"The teacher is heading for the freeway," Tezuka said expressionlessly, watching the whole fiasco with binoculars.
"He has just passed Schumacher's F1 racecar," Eiji exclaimed in admiration.
"What a fast biker." Inui said, finishing his own tea and starting to drink Kawamura's. "If one day I can also have such a bike…"
"Stop it, senpai," Momo broke in. "Are you going to tell us your scary story or not?"
"Momoshiro, that's so inconsiderate." Inui wiped away the hopeful tears that were streaming down his face. "Every real man must have dreamed of having such a wonderful bike…"
"Inui, be serious," Tezuka said, even though he had been happily watching the teacher ride the bike with his new binoculars himself. He bought them for bird watching in the mountains. Sadly, there weren't any mountains around.
---
"Okay, this time I'm really going to be serious." Inui began. "Have any of you heard the story 'And Then There Were None'?"
"The one by Agatha Christie? Yes," Fuji smiled.
The rest of them, not being a bored genius and sadist like Fuji, had not heard of it, and all started pestering Inui so he would tell them about it.
"It's like this. Ten people come to a small island. They find ten little wooden figures of little Indians in the house they are staying in. They also find a poem about ten little Indians," Inui explained.
"And?" Momo said.
"You know this kind of poem. Perhaps to teach kids how to count properly, it has rhyming sentences about what happened to each little Indian. The number of the Indians decreases one by one. For example, one choked his little self and then there were Nine, one overslept himself and then there were Eight, etc."
Kaidoh shivered.
"And the ten people are killed like the little Indians in the poem. For example, for one choked his little self and then there were Nine, the person dies from food poisoning. For one overslept himself and then there were Eight, the person dies in her sleep. The little wooden figures disappear one by one accordingly. In the end, there were none…"
Inui finished and waited complacently for the reaction.
"That's not scary at all, nya," Eiji said, putting chicken bones into Inui's tea. It was to avenge Oishi, whose tea was mixed with coffee and seven-up by Inui and nearly threw up after one gulp.
"Yeah, I thought it would be much scarier," Momo scoffed.
"Mada mada dane," Ryoma said, pulling down his cap.
"Yes, it's not scary," Inui said, "but you know, that story actually happened on this island."
Inui felt Tezuka, who was sitting by him, jerk abruptly.
"And," Fuji added in a timely manner, "did anyone notice that on the shelf above the piano, there are ten wooden figures of little Indians?"
Kaidoh almost jumped at this statement. He grabbed Kawamura's hand, unable to let go. Thoughts along the line of "Kawamura-senpai, you are the only reliable person here; they are all freaks, help me" were running amok in his mind.
"Oooh, really?" Eiji cried eagerly, and being the curious one of the team he ran out to the living room where the piano was to check.
"Eiji, don't run about alone, it's dangerous!" Oishi cried out in dismay and followed him out.
Momo was secretly a little surprised at Fuji's statement, but he wasn't going to show it, especially not in front of Kaidoh. He said with feigned light-heartedness, " There's really nothing to worry about Eiji-senpai running outside alone. We are all right here. How can we kill him if he runs outside alone? And to get killed, he naturally needs someone to do it."
"True," Fuji said gently, "we are all right here. But we have only nine people in the first place. Who knows there won't be a tenth person waiting outside?"
This statement successfully destroyed the last wall of Kaidoh's defense. "Kawamura-senpai, I'll sleep with you tonight," he whispered.
"Uh…" Kawamura said.
Fuji put in, "Now, Kaidoh, how can you be sure Taka-san isn't the killer?"
"Yes, the best and safest way will be to lock your bedroom door," Inui added. These two work as a perfect combination when their goal was to scare Kaidoh to death.
"But the bedroom door looks like it could be forced open by a few kicks…" Kaidoh murmured.
"Stop talking nonsense." Tezuka, noticing that Kaidoh was really trembling, decided to put a stop to the outrageous conversation. "We know that it is just a story. It is pointless talking about killers when we all know very well that there are no killers among us."
"Just a story?" Fuji said innocently, "But don't you think Eiji and Oishi are gone a little bit too long?"
Right on cue, as if to answer Fuji's question, Eiji screamed from the living room, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
No, of course he did not do that. That was the unforgivable curse.
Right on cue, as if to answer Fuji's question, Eiji screamed from the living room, "AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Upon hearing the scream, Kaidoh ducked under the dining table as if it would do him any good, Momo grabbed Ryoma's arm, almost pulling it off in the process, and Ryoma just sat there and sweatdropped. It wasn't like he could do anything else, Momo's grip was too tight.
The brave and righteous Tezuka Kunimitsu did not fear the made-up (or so he thought) little story of Inui's, so he stood up and went into the living room to investigate. The room was dark, for Momo had turned off the lights so the rays of light wouldn't slip into the dining room and destroy the scary-story atmosphere. Tezuka looked around, trying to find the switch when he heard Eiji's moans from the ground.
"Are you all right? What happened?" Tezuka asked with a frown, forcing himself to adjust his eyes to the darkness as soon as possible. What if something terrible really happened? What if…
"Nothing, buchou… it's just that I stepped on your Archimedes the second and tripped over him," Eiji explained, getting up from the floor.
"Che, mada mada dane," Ryoma said with a smirk.
"Archimedes the second, are you okay?" Tezuka knelt on the floor, hugging his beloved chicken. His feathers, his beautiful feathers… Kikumaru you idiot, I'm going to get you for this…
"Buchou, you're so heartless! Do you care more about your chicken or me?" Eiji grumbled.
"His chicken, obviously." Ryoma said. "Anyway, where's Oishi-senpai?"
As his spoke, Inui finally found the light switch and turned the lights on. The living room was immediately brightly lit and they all blinked in confusion.
Oishi was standing beside the piano, looking thoughtfully at the shelves above it. Fuji was by his side.
"Weird," Fuji said, stroking his chin, "I was just joking back there at the table. I'm pretty sure they weren't here when we arrived…"
On the shelf stood ten little wooden monkey figures.
To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.
To anon: Thanks for the review! I sort of like Tezuka better that way...