Hi! It's been a loooooong time since I last updated—my laptop had problems uploading stuff somehow. Every time I tried the window closed by itself. Anyway, now I'm home for the summer and can use my home computer, I can update again. YAAY!
Since it's been a really long time, I'll start with a recap on everyone's whereabouts. I'm really sorry if there's any confusion.
Kabaji, after digging around in the holes in which he was stuck due to Inui and Yanagi's experiments, discovered a pathway called "Majority rules" and had decided to investigate it along with Atobe and Kisarazu Atsushi, who had nothing better to do. Since Kamio (currently uncounscious) and Shinji were already in the hole, they were coming too.
Kirihara was battling a jaguar with a fire extinguisher. Meanwhile, Oshitari, Inui and Yanagi were having an epic battle with Akutsu.
Kawamura, Fuji, Ryoma, Eiji, Momo, Kaidoh, Yuuta, Bane, Mizuki, Ootori, Marui and Saeki were in a house in the forest, and they were playing with the blowguns Saeki made out of Ootori's straws. Except Fuji, who was playing games on the laptop Yagyuu stole from a helicopter.
Hiyoshi was circling said house, trying to kill all the people inside.
Jiroh had just been declared dead.
Yukimura had been declared dead for some time.
Tachibana, Oishi, Niou, Yagyuu, Sanada and Sengoku were hanging around the area full of holes that Inui and Yanagi had made everyone dig.
Horio, Gakuto, Aoi and Jackal were stuck in said holes.
Dan was sleeping under a tree.
Tezuka, Shishido and Davide were hunting for boars.
I think that's pretty much it. Now on with the story!:D
"Majority rules… sounds interesting," Atsushi mused. "What do these little characters down here mean?" He pointed to a line of small shapes inscribed under the larger words and turned questioningly to Kabaji, whose voice was as sexy as Atobe's.
"This says 'As long as you have seven people and understand the basic concept of majority rule, you can go on this way. Amen'," Kabaji explained with a voice that was as sexy as Atobe's.
"But why would Sumerians say 'amen'? Do they believe in God? Do they even have that word in their dictionary?" Atsushi exclaimed in horror.
"They probably don't even have a dictionary, you stupid commoner. These cuneiform characters must have been intentionally carved up here long after the Sumerians were gone," Atobe deliberated.
"Okay then. Do we have seven people? Let me see, Kabaji-san, Atobe-san, Kisarazu-san, Kamio-kun and I—that makes five already. We need another two to go in this tunnel with us," Shinji said, counting with his fingers.
"So we can just dig around until we reach two other people and start." Atobe nodded.
"We don't need to dig. We can just get two people from up there—" Shinji pointed upwards at the people still on the ground, "—and we're all set."
"True. Tachibana, you ugly commoner, come down right now," Atobe demanded. Tachibana complied, because though he hated being ordered around by Atobe, he didn't like the concept of two of his most precious teammates going down a dangerous tunnel without him either. Everyone nimbly dodged with their excellent tennis-trained reflexes when they saw him jump, except Kamio, who was unconscious, and Tachibana landed right on top of him. Luckily Kamio knew nothing, or it would have hurt like hell.
"We need another person," Tachibana stated as soon as he got on his feet. This was a simple statement, but coming from Tachibana it seemed like words of wisdom and inspiration.
"Who else is left up there? We can rule out those who are still stuck in holes," Atsushi said, looking at Tachibana for an answer.
"Uh…" Tachibana counted, "Sengoku from Yamabuki, Sanada, Niou and Yagyuu from Rikkai, and Oishi from Seigaku. That's all."
"Then who should we choose as our seventh member?" Shinji mumbled thoughtfully. "Since this is the Path on Which Majority Rules, we should get someone who is not too rebellious and will listen to reason, or else we'll have trouble agreeing with each other if we have to vote on things."
"Which means that Sengoku is out. He will probably make crazy choices because he thinks he is so lucky," Tachibana said. Fudoumine really was the most sensible of all schools. Once Shinji and Tachibana got together, the others had practically no say in anything anymore. Tachibana was a kind person though, and would not neglect other people's opinions.
"So in the remaining four, who do you guys recommend?" he asked Atobe and Atsushi in a friendly manner, so they would not think that he was controlling the situation.
"Sanada," Atobe and Atsushi replied in unison. They high-fived at their perfect synchronization.
"Sanada? Why?" Shinji asked, confused.
"But Sanada seems a bit, uh, traumatized to me. I think he has lost all hope in life after Yukimura died," Tachibana pointed out. "He might make reckless choices and hinder us if he doesn't care about life anymore. Why not the others? Yagyuu and Oishi seem like sensible people, and Niou has proven himself handy to have around."
"Because if we ask Yagyuu to come, Niou will come also, and that will make eight of us. Besides, we're always having trouble telling them apart," Atsushi explained. "As for Oishi—"
"As for Oishi," Atobe continued for him, "we decided not to associate with Seigaku people anymore because they won the Nationals. So we don't want Oishi."
"I see. You're right," Tachibana and Shinji both agreed.
"Now that we have come to a conclusion—" Atobe snapped his fingers, calling upwards. "Sanada, you ugly commoner, come down this minute."
Sanada ignored him. He did not plan on following orders issued by anyone but Yukimura and besides, like Tachibana predicted, he had already lost all hope in life.
"He doesn't seem to want to come along," Atsushi observed, dismayed.
"We'll force him to come. Hey, you up there—are you Yagyuu or Niou? Whoever you are, throw your vice-captain down here," Atobe shouted upwards, snapping his fingers again.
"Sure," Yagyuu (or Niou) replied agreeably and kicked Sanada down into the hole. He had probably wanted to kick Sanada for ages and had been waiting for this opportunity forever.
"Now we have seven." Atobe nodded, satisfied. "We're all set to go. Kabaji, lead the way."
"Usu," Kabaji said, and led the way. Atsushi, the one with the neon lights, came behind him, and then came the three Fudoumine people. In the back, Atobe was dragging Sanada, who was reluctant to go along with them.
The unlikely alliance walked on for a few moments before coming upon a stone inscribed with more cuneiform characters. Atobe, finally catching up with the rest of the group (dragging Sanada was hard work), leaned forward and told Kabaji to explain what the characters meant.
"It says, 'Do you want to leave this island alive? If yes, press the O button on your collar. If not, press the X button on your collar. Amen,'" Kabaji explained.
"Amen? But Sumerians aren't Christians!" Atsushi exclaimed in exasperation. This was the first time he had gotten this much spotlight in the Prince of Tennis series, and he was still in the process of getting used to the newly-found attention.
"What I find really queer is that there isn't any point on asking us whether we want to leave the island alive. Even an idiot can see that we all want to leave alive, thank you very much," Shinji muttered. "So all we have to do is press the O button, right?"
"Yeah, so let's just press it," Tachibana agreed, and they all began looking for the O button in the various weird buttons on their collars. After finally locating them, which took a great while, there being so many buttons on the collars, they counted to three and pressed their buttons in unison. Shinji pressed Kamio's button for him. He alone had two votes and was quite proud of it.
"Now that you've cast your votes, here are the results!" the sweet voice of a girl came out from the speakers fixed on the collars. Most of the group had not noticed that there were speakers on the collars at all, and were quite shocked. "Five of you have picked O, and two pressed the X button, so here's your verdict: you guys do want to leave the island alive! Congratulations!"
"Of course we want to leave the island alive. Is this even worth voting about?" Atobe cried indignantly.
"I wonder why this girl didn't speak in cuneiform," Tachibana pondered.
"Can one speak in cuneiform? I thought it was only used in written form. But then, I wouldn't know—I'm not majoring in history or foreign languages or anything—though they probably won't teach me cuneiform anyway if I were. But frankly, I'm still in junior high, so it's not like I can major in anything—" Shinji murmured on, lost in his own thoughts.
"You guys missed the point completely," Atsushi put in. "The point is, two people pressed the X button. Who are the two idiots?"
"Hmm, you're right. This is the point." Atobe frowned, furrowing his magnificent eyebrows.
"Maybe it's Sanada," Tachibana suggested.
"Was it you, Sanada, ahn?" Atobe turned to Sanada. Sanada, as usual, ignored him.
"Must be him," Tachibana said with a shrug. "Didn't I tell you that we should have brought Yagyuu or someone more sensible with us? Sanada has gone nuts!"
"Ore-sama has already explained to you," Atobe repeated, patiently, "that if Yagyuu came Niou would come too, and then we'd have eight people."
"We could just let them each get half a vote or something. At least it would be better than having Sanada with us," Tachibana sighed. He normally liked Sanada, but in this kind of crazy situation that required everyone's cooperation, he preferred not to have an insane guy as a group member.
"Aw, we can just leave Sanada alone. As long as we all unite, Sanada's one vote won't affect us a single bit," Atsushi began, trying to make peace. "Anyway, who's the other one that pressed X?"
Everyone became silent.
Hour 13.5
38 contestants remaining
TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. I'm really sorry about not updating for so long:(
