Channel 104- The Future King
"I basically just think they have a nerve to force me to get married," Taka said to the others after they traveled to the lists, which happened to be a name for a jousting arena. "It should be obvious to them that I'm only fourteen."
"The Universe probably aged you," Inui reasoned. "Like Sanada, except you don't have a driver's license to prove it."
"Still!" said Taka.
Taka wasn't shocked or surprised when Inui explained what had happened. He had sort of expected it, even right down to Akutsu wanting to return to the future Universe.
"I'm just surprised it took him as long as it did," Taka said with a shrug.
"After we get back after this ordeal, you have to promise that you're going to break that thing for real," Eiji said.
"I know, I know," said Inui with a sigh.
"I mean, just think of Oishi!" said Eiji. "He has to be a girl again!"
"I know," said Inui.
The remote beeped just then.
"Oh, what luck," Inui reported. "You won't have to marry the princess after all, as long as you win the jousting tournament."
"Oh, no problem except for the fact that I've never jousted before in my life," Taka said.
"What is jousting all about anyway?" Momo said, leaning on the fence.
"Essentially," Taka gestured towards the field. "The two opponents charge at each other with the lances. Let's say it's you versus me, Eiji."
"All right!" said Eiji, getting in the ready position.
"With our lances out, we strike at each other while on the horses so we go by each other like this," Taka said as he illustrated this motion with his arm outstretched. "If I knock Eiji off his horse, then I get a point for that round. If Eiji knocks me off, then he gets a point. Needless to say, one of us or both of us is eventually knocked off the horse. At that point, we draw our weapons and battle one on one."
"That seems easy enough," Momo commented.
"At least you know the rules well enough," Inui said. "It doesn't sound too hard, as long as you don't get paired up with the world champion or whatever."
"Worse," Taka said. "This is sort of an inauguration for me to enter the royal family, so I have to joust the princess's cousins from a neighboring country. It's supposed to be all in good fun, but I sense that her cousins don't really like me."
"Why not?" said Momo.
"Because everyone wanted her to marry a prince," Taka answered. "That way, there would be some kind of union of two separate lands."
"Well tough cookies for them," said Eiji. "You're the future king now, Taka! You can exile them if you want to!"
"I don't want to!" Taka whined.
"Then all you have to do is beat them all in a jousting tournament," said Inui. "How many are there?"
"Two," Taka answered.
"They'll be here by about noon," Eiji said. "Another squire told me while I was getting ready."
"What do they look like?" Inui asked.
"Why?" said Taka. "You're not thinking about drastic measures again, are you?"
"Well, theoretically, if they're already dead then you automatically win," Inui shrugged.
"No way, Inui!" said Eiji as he put his hand out. "I say we make a pact right here and now to not kill anyone pointlessly! The only situation in which killing someone would be acceptable is if the mission explicitly states that we have to kill that particular person in order to switch Universes! All right?"
"I'll agree to that pact," Taka said as he put his hand out as well.
"Yeah…I think I will too," Momo said. "I mean… we killed a lot of people last time."
"Very well," said Inui. "It's a pact. But just try explaining it to Atobe and Oshitari."
"Well it's a pact so it's binding," Eiji said.
"So the cousins will be here at twelve," Inui said, trying to get back on track. "What time is it now?"
Everyone instinctively checked their wrists, only to quickly discover that none of them had a watch.
"All right…" Eiji looked up at the sky. "The sun seems sorta…well, at noon, the sun is supposed to be directly overhead and right now it's…there."
Eiji pointed to where the sun was and looked at Inui for approval.
"The sun is only directly overhead at noon if we are exactly on the equator," Inui said. "And, since we have absolutely no idea where on the globe this particular kingdom rests, that doesn't help us in the least bit."
"Oh," said Eiji. "So much for my awesome deductive reasoning skills."
"Yeah, so much for those," said Momo.
"Well, it doesn't really matter when they get here," Taka shrugged. "I mean, the jousting tournament has a set time."
"Now, does he have to beat both of them or only one?" Momo asked Inui.
"Why are you looking at me?" said Inui. "How am I supposed to know something like that? Seriously."
"I thought maybe you'd have deductive reasoning skills," Momo said.
"We'll just have to wait around this area during the tournament," Inui said. "And after you defeat the first opponent, come over to us and we'll see if we're permitted to leave."
"This tournament is invite only," Taka said. "You guys aren't going to be able to come!"
"Can you pull some strings?" Momo asked.
"Taka can pull whatever strings he wants…he's the future king!" Eiji announced.
"Eiji, stop saying that!" Taka said.
"Okay, okay…" Eiji said, looking dejected.
"Eiji does have a point, though," Inui said. "You can do basically anything you want at this point, Taka."
"I'm not king yet!" Taka reminded them. Then he backtracked. "I'm not going to be king at all, remember? We're going to be leaving this Universe before that even happens!"
"If all goes well, we'll be out of this Universe by this afternoon," Inui said. "If all doesn't go well, we don't have a second chance and I don't know what will happen then. So please ensure that you will win."
"I'll try my best…" Taka said.
"Are you sure you guys don't want to try my drastic measures?" Inui asked.
"Yes," everyone answered with a glare.
They were unable to continue because there was suddenly loud trumpet music coming from the castle. It sounded welcoming and happy.
"That must be them," Taka reasoned, looking regretful. "What do I do?"
"Wait for the tournament, and joust them of course," Inui answered.
Taka's face fell because this definitely wasn't something he wanted to do. Why, just a day ago, he was in his restaurant doing the thing he does best; thinking about tennis! And making food. But mostly thinking about tennis. However, now he was in this Universe, forced to joust some men who have clearly done this several more times than him and then forced to marry a princess whom he had only spoken to on two or three occasions. Woe is Taka.
"I'm going to stay here to practice a little more," Taka reported.
"Good idea," said Inui. "You need all the practice you can get."
Taka was just about to turn around and go off to practice when some random man came over and told him that the lists were now closed because they had to prepare the stands to accommodate several hundred people who would be watching.
"What?" Taka said as the four of them walked back towards the castle. "Now there's going to be an audience too? They are trying to make this as stressful as possible!"
"Don't worry, Taka, you just have to play to your strengths!" said Eiji. "You have to knock the guy off the horse, and then you get a man to man duel!"
"That's right, and you own at man to man duels!" said Momo. "And everyone knows that!"
"Yeah, but the hard part is knocking the other guy off the horse!" Taka said.
"Taka, you may find that you're more of a natural at jousting than you think," Inui said.
"What makes you say that?" Taka asked.
"Well, you didn't know that you could duel but you excelled at that," Inui said. "And it seems as though when we are thrown into these alternate universe situations, we become good at whatever it is our alternate universe self does. For example, someone like Kirihara can mount a horse though he has never done it before. Gakuto and Jirou had all the amazing abilities of ninjas instantaneously. Perhaps your alternate Universe self is good at jousting."
"Maybe," Taka said hopefully.
They started their trek back to the castle.
"Oh right," Inui said. "By the way Eiji and Taka, it seems as though we must collect several more people this time around than previous."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Eiji asked.
"Well, the first time we left, the total people were thirty-one," Inui replied. "But this time, the total is fifty."
They considered this predicament.
"Then I feel sorry for the people who are in states of confusion instead of states of annoyance!" Eiji announced.
"We're practically experts at this Universe hopping thing so we should have no trouble finding them," Taka said.
"We'll see," Inui said.
They got to the castle, and Taka said that he would do what he could to get Momo and Inui invites to the joust, but no one was too worried about his success considering his imminent promotion.
So all they could really do was wait. They headed back to Taka's little house (which certainly wasn't going to be his house for long! HAW HAW HAW!) and decided to wait there.
"I hope that Seigaku gets to keep the majority again!" Eiji announced.
"What?" said Momo and Inui at the same time.
"Well, last time, Seigaku was in the majority the entire time," Eiji replied. "I hope that this time around, we don't collect people in a different order and therefore lose our authority as the majority! See?"
"Yes, especially with Atobe," Inui commented. "Speaking of which, his Universe is next. He and Oshitari."
"I can't wait to get there," said Momo. "I want to see what the deal with Oshitari is."
"What do you mean?" said Eiji.
"You know," said Momo. "Remember how Oshitari died right before we switched Universes last time?"
"Why are you excited to see Oshitari's dead body?" Eiji said, looking confused.
"I'm not!" Momo said, losing his temper way too quickly. "I'm just excited to see what the remote will do in response to the fact that someone is dead."
Inui stared at Momo. "I hope the counter goes down regardless," said Inui. "Or else we might be stuck there."
"If so, then I curse Oshitari ahead of time, and am therefore glad that he is dead!" Eiji announced.
"That is relatively evil of you, Eiji," Momo pointed out.
"What can I say?" Eiji said. "I get angry whenever Oishi's not around."
"True dat," said the others but, don't worry, they'll never say it again.