Channel 45- Ambiguous Name
"We can hear!" cheered Kaidou and Kamio before anyone said anything else.
"At what cost?" said Choutarou, dramatically clenching his fist.
"What did you guys do?" said Kaidou.
"It's not what we did," said Eiji. "It's what they did."
Eiji pointed directly at Rikkai Dai who were giving each other high fives. "What, so now it's 'we' and 'they'?" said Marui when he noticed they were segregated. "I see how it is! Now I know why you were so annoyed with being at a lack of fellow Rikkai Dai members, Kirihara!"
"It's what I've been saying all along!" said Kirihara.
"We're sorry to have doubted you," said Jackal.
"Say, our health bars are restored!" Marui noticed.
"Neat!" Jackal shrugged.
"So…what did you guys do?" Kaidou repeated after somewhat of a pause.
"You didn't blow up another school, did you?" said Kamio.
Everyone just decided both Kaidou and Kamio's questions because they thought it would be more interesting to leave things up to their imagination. So Kaidou and Kamio decided to imagine a situation that involved no random killings or explosions. You know, something completely unlikely.
"What Universe are we in now?" Saeki asked Inui since he's responsible and genuinely interested.
"I'm glad you asked," said Inui since he is smart and loves to hear the sound of his own voice, which is quite sexy. (You know it.)
"It doesn't look familiar," Atobe noticed.
"That's because it isn't," Inui replied. "It is a new Universe."
"I hate new Universes," said Shishido.
"As do we all," Oshitari agreed.
"I wish we were home right now!" declared Momo. Then he looked at Shiraishi who was just standing there like a stuffed animal. "Well?"
"What?" said Shiraishi.
"I made a wish," said Momo. "Shouldn't you be granting it?"
"I lost my powers," Shiraishi said, furrowing his brow slightly that he had to remind Momo of such a fact.
"I know," said Momo. "I was just checking to see if you got them back."
"Why would I suddenly get them back?" Shiraishi said.
"I don't know," said Momo. "Why not?"
"Why so?" said Shiraishi.
"Stop it, this is a pointless conversation," said Inui. "We are in a new Universe and, as of right now, it seems relatively normalish."
"And by normalish, you mean like not ninjas or magic or outer space or health bars any weird stuff like that," David assumed.
"Yes, that is what I mean," said Inui, rolling his eyes, his way of telling David to keep up with the lingo.
"Could this be the Band Universe?" questioned Oishi.
"No, the Band Universe directly followed the Yuuta Universe," said Fuji.
"I think we called it the Fairy Tale Universe," Eiji said.
"No, I'm certain we called it the Yuuta Universe," said Fuji. He sounded pretty convinced so no one was going to argue with him.
"So we know for sure that this Universe isn't any of the normalish ones you've encountered in the past, right?" Bane clarified.
"Yes, we know that for sure," said Inui. "Because the Universe we encountered following the Soccer Universe last time was the OMG Universe, which was very distinct in appearance. So because this is not the OMG Universe, it must be a new one, since thus far they have all been in the same order with a few random new ones interspersed throughout."
"I wonder how the new choreography is going for those guys," said Choutarou thoughtfully.
"So how do we tell what we're supposed to do in a new Universe?" questioned Marui.
"Um…we wander around aimlessly until we find someone we recognize," said Inui regrettably.
"Or until the remote beeps!" Saeki added.
"Very good," said Inui in a manner that suggested he would have liked to give Saeki a tasty and edible treat for responding correctly. Saeki noticed this and was slightly offended but he chose not to show it.
"I hope these new people are also on Rikkai Dai!" said Kirihara.
"You know it!" said Jackal.
"For the sake of schools everywhere, let's hope not," said Kaidou.
"Inui, you mentioned earlier about this Universe looking pretty normalish," said Oishi slowly, trying to get back to the point.
"Yes, I did," said Inui.
"Well, it might just be the weather…" David started, glancing at his watch. "But it is hardly noon and it's dark enough to give the illusion that the sun has already set!"
Everyone looked in the distance at the moon.
"Actually, the sun has set," he observed.
"Looks like rain," Taka added.
As soon as he said that, the heavens opened up and roared. Then it immediately began to pelt rain down upon them, causing them to be in quite a state of disarray. They happened to be in a park at this particular time so they all darted into a nearby and extremely convenient shack.
"Hey!" said Marui, looking up at his health bar to see it was halfway diminished. "Water is super effective against me!"
"That's dumb," Jackal commented, and everyone else agreed.
"How does that even happen?" questioned Shiraishi.
But then they all stopped moving because they felt a disturbance in the force. And no, that is not an allusion to what type of Universe this is. In fact, it's quite far to being even close to what this Universe is all about.
However, the disturbance was still there. And, now that they considered the meaning of the phrase "disturbance in the force," a few of more intelligent ones came to the conclusion that the disturbance went far beyond that of the force. It actually spanned to the disturbance of the entire earth, as it was now starting to shake. The wooden shake they were in started to splinter and rock from side to side as if there was some kind of earth quake.
Just as abruptly as it all began, it stopped. By this time, there were people standing in doorways or huddled in the corner with their hands over their heads, hoping to be protected from falling debris. Most people got through the quake without injury, and those that did receive it were just exaggerating because it wasn't that bad; only surprising.
"What was that all about?" questioned Bane, putting his hands on his hips.
"Do you think it has anything to do with the sudden rain storm and the fact that it's almost completely dark in the middle of the day?" David suggested.
"I don't know," Bane remarked.
"I think the events might be related," Choutarou tried.
"It wouldn't be wise to rule anything out at this point," Inui said. "Because, as we have seen before, Universes that appear normal at the first glance often turn out to be more distorted than the more peculiar Universes we arrived in."
"Like the time Oishi and Fuji were girls!" Eiji exclaimed.
"Yes, I believe that was the example everyone was thinking of," said Oishi with a frown.
"But no one else needed to say it," Fuji said, glaring. Just as how water was super effective against Marui, Fuji!glares were super effective against Eiji! In fact, they're probably super effective against anyone. I know I wouldn't want to be on the other side of one of those.
Just as they were about to settle down and tend to their wounds, the floorboards of the shack began to crack from underneath. Instead of doing anything intelligent, everyone grabbed onto each other in one big comforting hug and opted to scream for their dear lives. The longer the stood there, the more opportunity they gave whatever was underneath the shake to make itself known to them.
And they certainly regretted that decision several seconds later when the floorboards were pushed completely aside to reveal about half a dozen…
"ZOMBIES!" everyone exclaimed as they slapped their cheeks dramatically.
Sure enough, they weren't lying for the sake of the ones who had closed their eyes in fright because there really were zombies in front of them. And they were legit zombies too, with missing limbs and decaying flesh and various other attribute that made them that much more repulsive and putrid.
The zombies seemed somewhat taken aback with the inaction their prey was taking. They seemed unsure how to act because they were being assaulted with loud noises after their slumber within the earth. And, let me just tell you right now: these zombies were not the friendly kind. You know, because zombies are often portrayed as good and all that (?) and I just want to quell those queries and make sure it is well known that these zombies do not have any good intentions. They're only intentions are to eat the brains of the living, thus reproducing their cursed race.
"RUN!" Momo finally managed to holler as he threw his arms up into the air and tore away from the massive group.
Thankfully, since the zombies had been into a stupor at that point, they were somewhat more discombobulated and slow to action than zombies usually are. So, because of this, everyone got the opportunity to leap outside the shack and make a run for it. (Shishido employed Marui with an umbrella from his utility belt so he would not perish in the rain.)
However, when they reached outside and began to run around frantically, they soon found that the zombies had not merely confined themselves to arising from the ground underneath the shack. There were zombies popping up all over the place so it was like a big and grand zombie obstacle course! Taka and Kirihara were thankful that they had horses because not only did they not have to run, but it was easier to trample the zombies.
They continued to flea from the park in extreme terror until they reached the streets. The zombies could not pop up out of the ground where there was pavement, but they could still follow anyone they desired to anyplace they desired. So our heroes continued to run until they mutually became so exhausted that it was time for them to fight. And let's be reasonable here; they had been running for a very long time for them to get exhausted when you think about how much these boys work out.
Of course, no zombie can claim to be a good fighter. However, what they lack in fighting ability, they make up with tenacity! Zombies feel no pain, so even when their limbs were blown off by Atobe's gun or when they were super punched by Choutarou or special moved on by Jackal or swash buckled by Momo or any other various fighting skillz that were presented before them, the zombies continued to fight.
"This is crazy!" Eiji finally announced since he wasn't doing anything.
"What do we do?" Ryoma asked since he wasn't doing anything either.
"Our only hope is to get into one of those buildings over there and barricade the doors!" Kamio announced, pointing dramatically at a strip mall that appeared almost entirely abandoned. Actually, it probably was abandoned. No one in their right mind would purchase a store in a zombie town.
Everyone took Kamio's advice and sprinted toward the buildings. It was a good thing zombies are slow moving or else they might have made it in time, especially since Ryoma kept falling over like a loser. But, they eventually reached their destination and hid out inside a place that looked like it used to be a hardware store but it was now obviously abandoned and in shambles. They used various boards and tools in order to construct a hefty barrier.
"That should hold them," Kaidou said.
"I don't know why that scared us so much," Atobe said. "We've seen much worse than zombies in our travels."
"I don't think we have," Oshitari said.
Atobe thought a moment. "You're right."
"The aliens were pretty scary," Kirihara pointed out.
"And Renji is a vampire," Shishido reminded them.
"And when we went to the future, they…changed tennis," said Momo dramatically. They all agreed that Momo had recalled the most horrible thing so they mutually decided to try to think of a solution to their zombie problem instead of thinking of various other horrible things.
"You know," said Inui. "It would be one thing if this world was simply a zombie world. But, as David reported earlier, it seems to be night time all year long."
"I just had a thought," David said, looking at his watch. "It might just be that it's midnight and not noon."
Bane slapped David across the face, even though David argued that it was a mistake anyone could make.
"That being said…" Inui said, sounding annoyed. "We're in Zombie Universe. Does anyone know how to defend oneself against zombies?"
"You just keep hacking them up until they can't follow you anymore," Shiraishi shrugged.
"I'm worried for whoever landed in this Universe," Saeki commented.
"Well, if we look at our record thus far," Inui started. "Then it would be logical to assume that the people who landed in this Universe did not end up as random bystanders as we did."
"So you basically mean that you think they are zombies, right?" Marui translated.
Inui was about to answer, but then his pocket beeped. He slowly removed the remote and glanced at the screen, then raised his eyes (or eye, considering he has a patch) to face the others.
"They're here," he said eerily.
