"Watch us, Fuji! This is officially the longest blowgun we've ever made. See? We stuck thirty straws together with adhesive tape. Now it's soooooo long," Eiji told his friend triumphantly, exhibiting the long blowgun.
"Ah, I see. It's very nicely made," Fuji complimented. While the others were experimenting with blowguns, he was busily playing Windows Vista Purble Place, not because he especially liked Purble Place but because there really wasn't anything else to do, there being no Internet connection on the island. There was iTunes on the laptop though, and he had been enjoying Parker's music for free.
"Fshuu... why is it that I can't blow my paper balls as far as you guys?" Kaidoh lamented as he studied his own hand-made blowgun. He was never an expert on hand-made crafts, and still felt lost even though he had followed Saeki's instructions faithfully.
"Hmm, let me see," Momo offered, accepting the blowgun and turning it around in his hands and then holding it up to see it in the light. "I think something's stuck in your straw. I'll get it out."
"Is there? Weird. How can anything get stuck in this?" Kaidoh wondered, looking devastated. Battle Royale was indeed the strangest kind of program—in Battle Royale friends can turn into foes, while sworn enemies can actually start to get along amiably with each other.
"I've got a problem too," Saeki muttered. "Hadn't my collar been shining in seventeen colors for some time? It doesn't shine anymore."
"You're right," Yuuta observed. "Maybe it's out of battery power. Hey perhaps it doesn't work anymore and won't explode even if you take it off."
"Now that's interesting," Fuji put in. "Let's press this 'explode' button and see what happens."
"Wait a minute—what if it still works? Can't you try some of the other buttons, like this 'eat your hand' one?" Saeki cried out and pointed at the same button that got Shinji and Kamio stuck together like Siamese twins.
"Well, okay," Momo said and bravely pressed the button he was told to.
Nothing happened.
"Whew, that's good—I don't want my hand eaten. How about we try this one that says 'press me and listen to the newest NEWS album'?"
Still nothing happened.
"Pity. I'd rather like to listen to the newest NEWS album." Mizuki sighed, being unexpectedly a NEWS fan.
"I guess it's safe to try out the 'explode' button now," Fuji suggested. "If this important one doesn't work either I suppose the whole collar's just plain useless."
"Fine." Saeki courageously nodded, taking a deep breath.
"Um, okay," Momo agreed, also courageously since if Saeki's collar did explode it would probably affect his hand and his future as a tennis player.
He pressed the button. Everyone held their breaths.
Nothing happened.
"Whee! That means that I won't die!" Saeki shouted in ecstasy.
"So the way to deal with a collar is to press the lumos button and let it shine until it runs out of batteries? That's actually quite simple," Eiji exclaimed. "So let's all press our lumos buttons. Oh, maybe we should press the NEWS album button, the KAT-TUN album button and the Arashi album button too, so that it will run out of electricity sooner."
"Don't, Eiji—if all three albums start playing at the same time, the music will clash and our ears will—m" Fuji, who appreciated high-quality music, cried in horror.
It was too late. Eiji had already pressed all the buttons, and everyone reflexively covered their ears.
But still nothing happened.
"Hey, mine's probably also out of electricity," Eiji decided.
"Pity. I'd rather like to listen to the newest NEWS album." Mizuki sighed, being unexpectedly a NEWS fan.
"But you didn't press anything, unlike me," Saeki said, puzzled. "There must be some kind of problem."
Everyone started trying out their own buttons and came to the conclusion that none of the collars worked anymore.
"So does this mean that we won't die?" Eiji asked happily.
"Pity. I'd rather like to listen to the newest NEWS album." Mizuki sighed, being unexpectedly a NEWS fan.
"Hey, guys," Marui interrupted suddenly. The only Rikkai student among those stranded in the house, he had been watching TV all along and did not join in the conversation because he was of the opinion that talking with idiots would harm his genius status. "Look at this."
"What? Is there a new Keanu Reeves movie on?" Bane, being unexpectedly a Keanu Reeves fan, asked.
"No, it's the news channel. Come watch," Marui told him, still staring at the screen.
The group gathered around the television. It was a news report featuring Atobe's father, who seemed to have already dispatched a fleet of ships in search of his precious son.
"Atobe-san, how did you get the information that your son has been captured and sent into a Battle Royale program?" A reporter asked, stuffing a microphone into the hands of Atobe's father.
"I got a message tied to the leg of a pigeon," Atobe's father exclaimed gruffily. "It read Hi, Mr. Atobe! Your son is kidnapped onto an island for a Battle Royale program. Come rescue him before he dies. Lucky!"
"But Atobe-san, that piece of information sounds very far-fetched. How can you believe that it is the truth?" The reporter persisted.
"Pigeons, like doves, are holy animals. Of course it is true." Atobe's father waved the reporter away with impatience.
"Well, Atobe-san, some hours have already passed. Why haven't your fleet come back with your son yet?" Another reporter put in.
"It didn't say on the note which island he's on. How can they find him this quickly? Shoo, or I'll set the dogs on you." (Sengoku, who had sent the note via his weapon, a pigeon, could not really be blamed for this. He didn't know which island he was on either, so it was not like he could tell Atobe's father.)
The group in the house felt quite envious of Atobe for having such a rich father who could launch ships in search for him.
"This is a problem though. How can we help Atobe's dad find us?" Ootori asked.
"That'd be hard, seeing that we ourselves don't know where we are," Kawamura said sadly.
"We might as well build our own fleet of battleships ourselves and attack base," Fuji said with a shrug. "We've got a lot of guns and a lot of blowguns. Of course, we don't have ships, but it doesn't matter since we are not going by water."
"Hey, that makes sense. Why haven't we thought of it before?" Momo sprang up, all ready to go.
"We had thought of it before. It's just that we couldn't get close to the base because we feared that our collars would explode, so we couldn't do it. But now our collars don't work, so there really isn't anything holding us back," Ryoma pointed out, wondering why his Momo-senpai was such an idiot.
"You're right. Why hadn't I thought of that?" Momo exclaimed and exchanged high-fives with Eiji for no particular reason.
"So what are we waiting for?" Bane exclaimed hotheadedly as he picked up one of Fuji's collection of shotguns and his own K-shaped weapon.
"We're waiting for Bourne's Identity to finish, obviously," Marui replied, ruining Bane's glorious moment.
"Geez, forget Bourne's Identity! You can watch it when we get home!" the others all yelled and picked up a kicking and screaming Marui ("But I wanna know whether Matt Damon is still alive!") and started off on their adventure.
Fuji had never been a captain, but somehow on moments like this everyone came to the silent agreement that he was to lead. He twirled the shotgun in his hand like it was a tennis racket, and smiled. It was one of the very dangerous Fuji smiles.
"Let's kill them all."
Hour 17
28 contestants remaining
Sorry I took like forever to update. I've been soooooooooooooo busy...
To be continued. Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome.