Channel 134- Free
"May I just say that I knew all along I wasn't evil?" Saeki said, crossing his arms childishly as he sat in a small rowboat. Kirihara and Momo were in the process of rowing the entire quartet back to shore after they had all spent the time swimming there in the first place. Saeki and Inui had bullied them into doing it because they're a whole year younger.
"I would welcome you to say it, but you already have said it many times," Inui sighed, leaning on the edge of the boat.
"No, I'm not evil," Saeki said. "I'm just the guy people point at and say, 'WTF?'"
"Will you get over that?" Momo said.
"Do we even know the reason for our loss of memories?" Kirihara asked as he stopped rowing for a second.
"Keep rowing," Inui ordered. "The remote is on shore and we have to get to it before something happens."
"What could possibly happen to it while it's lying on the beach?" Momo said.
"Anything," said Inui. "This Universe has already proved to be unpredictable and somewhat magical."
"It has to be," said Kirihara. "I mean, something made that pirate ship appear out of nowhere."
"That's the same ship and crew from the Pirate Universe," Inui noted.
"Really?" said Momo. "I didn't even notice."
"I can't believe the others ostracized us so quickly based on clothing alone!" Saeki exclaimed.
"Will you get over it already?" Kirihara said.
"You're one to talk," said Momo. "You complained about being lonely even when you lost all your memories."
"It's a legitimate concern," Kirihara scowled.
They made it back to the shore and Inui forced them to pull the boat in all the way so he wouldn't have to get his pants wet. After disembarking, he went to the little pile that thankfully remained.
Unthankfully, it was disturbed.
And something was missing.
"The remote is gone," Inui said, kneeling beside the pile.
"The remote?" Momo whined. "Who would take that?"
"Someone with an interest in technology," Inui said, looking suspicious.
"Or maybe when the others got their memories back, they came here to get us and found the remote," Saeki tried.
"I wish there was someone on the other team as smart as me so they would seek that out as their first course of action," Inui said, pocketing anything else from the pile that belonged to him. The others did the same and then stood in a circle, wondering what they were going to do next.
"What are we going to do next?" wondered Kirihara.
"I don't know," said Inui. "Without the remote, we have no indication of whether or not we have found the next person. And worse, we don't have any way of learning what our mission was. And even worse than that, we have no way of leaving this Universe."
"Maybe a monkey took it," said Momo, looking towards the forest.
"Don't you think the monkey would have taken something shiny?" Saeki said with a raised eyebrow.
"A monkey did not take the remote," said Inui, looking almost offended at the thought.
"Let's go back to the others and rule out the possibility that they have it," Kirihara suggested. "And if they do, then great. If they don't, we can get Ootori to find it with one of his thousands of powers."
"That is the best idea I have ever heard from you, Kirihara," said Inui as he turned around and shook Kirihara's hand proudly as if he had anything to do with Kirihara's thought process.
"Um…it's just common sense," Kirihara said.
"Naturally," said Inui. "I had already thought of that idea. But the fact that you said it before me really says something about your character."
"I would have thought of the idea too," said Momo, looking for attention.
"Can we just go?" Saeki asked.
So they trudged back, slightly defeated, trying to retrace their steps. Even though they had gotten their original memories back, they found it difficult to remember exactly how they had gotten to the beach in the first place.
But with the help of Inui's handy dandy compass and Momo's handy dandy telescope, they did eventually enter into the familiar clearing.
"—And you've been here ever since then?"
As they entered, they discovered Oishi was speaking to someone whose back was to them.
Everyone heard the so called 'bad guys' wander back into their territory and looked back up at them.
"We were wondering when you guys would get back," said Atobe.
"I think our behavior was all rather rash," Inui said. "But no hard feelings. There's no need to feel bad for out casting us."
"We didn't feel bad," said Oshitari with a raised eyebrow.
"And I have a power that restores memory!" said Choutarou with a sigh. "Unfortunately, I forgot I was even a superhero…"
"Who's this?" Inui said, pointing to the person who obviously didn't belong.
"Oh, you remember him," said Fuji, crossing his arms. "He's that wonderful guy from Shintenhouji."
"Shiraishi Kuranosuke." He held his hand out to shake. "Captain of Shintenhouji."
"Oh," said Inui. "Nice to see you again."
No one could see Inui rolling his eyes on the account of the fact that he was wearing glasses. And an eye patch.
"I didn't recognize you all at first," Shiraishi said. "I think it might have been the outrageous clothing you're wearing that threw me."
"You were watching us?" Momo said.
"For a little while," Shiraishi confessed. "I was hoping someone would make another wish."
"What are you talking about?" Inui said.
"Remember how Oishi said something about how he wished we would all forget what happened?" Taka said.
"I seem to recall something to that effect," Inui said.
"Well, apparently Shiraishi has the power to grant wishes," Oishi said. "And he happened to overhear me making the unintentional wish and took it seriously, so that's why we all lost our memories."
"I see," said Inui skeptically.
"That's dumb," said Kirihara. "It should have been obvious to you that we didn't really want to lose our memories."
"Well yeah, but I was bored," Shiraishi admitted.
"Well that's great that we've answered that question," said Inui. "But there's another problem."
"He also has the remote," Shishido added as Shiraishi raised his hand to reveal that Shishido's statement was true.
"Never mind," said Inui as he snatched the remote from Shiraishi. "Have you encountered anyone else in this Universe who is from our original one?"
"Frankly, I've been too busy to take the time to look around," Shiraishi said.
"Yeah, but apparently not so busy that you could spy on us," Bane accused.
"Well, yeah," said Shiraishi. "If what you're all saying is true then we have to complete some kind of mission. Unfortunately, if my master makes one more wish then I go back into the lamp."
"You're a genie?" said Saeki.
"I prefer the term 'wish granter'," said Shiraishi. "But basically, yeah."
"What's wrong with going back into the lamp?" Choutarou asked.
"You mean beside the claustrophobia?" Shiraishi said. "I forgot to mention. The lamp teleports to a random place on the globe afterwards."
"For crying out loud," said everyone as they slapped their foreheads.
"My master recently just made his second wish for a giant mansion on that hill over there," said Shiraishi, gesturing vaguely behind him. "So he'll probably be busy with it for a little while. But he seems to have a pretty short attention span."
"What can we do then?" Itsuki questioned.
"If one of you got the lamp from him then you would have control over the wishes," Shiraishi said. "And he wouldn't have anymore power over me. Whoever holds the lamp gets to make the wishes."
"Couldn't you just get it and give it to us?" asked Oishi.
"I can't touch it," Shiraishi shrugged.
"Or maybe we could forget about all that and just complete the mission before he makes the third wish," tried Oshitari.
"No, we have to get the lamp," Inui said, looking at the screen on the remote. "Our mission is to free Shiraishi."
"Free me?" Shiraishi repeated.
"You know, from the confines of the genie life," Eiji explained.
"Wish granter," Shiraishi corrected.
"Well, I've got an idea," said Shishido. "If Shiraishi could easily grant any wish we had, can't we just wish for the lamp?"
"My magic can't touch the lamp either," Shiraishi said.
"We could wish that the other master is dead so he can't make the third wish," Atobe suggested.
"I can't kill anybody," Shiraishi said.
"Geez!" said Eiji. "Enough with the random killing! I'm glad you can't kill anybody."
"I'm not," said Atobe. "That defeats the whole purpose of having magic. Ootori, I order you to kill the master and get the lamp."
"I don't want to kill anybody…" Choutarou said passively.
"Besides, couldn't he go and retrieve the lamp without killing someone?" Eiji inquired.
"Theoretically," said Atobe. "But now I'm just proving a point."
"You know, having Shiraishi on the team will make everything a lot easier," said Momo. "Say, can't we just wish that we were back in our original Universe?"
"Or that everyone from other Universes was here with us?" tried Taka.
"That's a novel idea…" said Inui.
"Yeah, it's great and everything…" Shiraishi said. "But I don't think my magic is strong enough to transcend Universes. I didn't even know that separate Universes existed prior to an hour ago."
"You should have realized it right when you appeared in a different one," Shishido said.
"I know," said Shiraishi. He looked like he was thinking of a comeback. "Shut up."
"Enough, enough," said Inui. "We're wasting time by sitting around here thinking of loopholes. Let's just dive in head first and get this lamp back."
"Can we wish for the means to kill someone?" Atobe asked Shiraishi.
"Maybe we can avoid drastic measures for now," Inui said.
"Why is it okay for you to use drastic measures but as soon as I start suggesting mass murder, it's suddenly not all right?" Atobe demanded.
"Because my drastic measures are only for drastic situations," Inui said. "I hardly think this situation is drastic right now."
Suddenly, Shiraishi froze.
"My master is rubbing the lamp," he said. "I have to go."
"Just don't go," said Eiji.
"I have to," said Shiraishi. "I have—"
But before Shiraishi could say anything else, he disappeared.
Everyone who remained looked at each other awkwardly.
"Well, now the situation is drastic," said Inui.