Channel 55- Carried Out
With their vastly quicker pace, they were able to reach the monastery just as the sun began to set. Instead of reporting to the Ninja Lord about the outcome of the mission (because that would be a little foolish) they instead went right down to the prison where Inui and the gang were.
"We saw that you all completed the mission." Said Inui, showing that the remote said "Complete". "I must admit, I am curious."
"We'll explain later!" said Gakuto. "Just take us home."
"We'll be going to the next Universe, not straight home." Inui pointed out.
"Whatever!" said Gakuto. "Take us to the next Universe then!"
"I REALLY don't want our fake dad to find out how much we failed at that mission." Jirou said mournfully. "I feel so bad about what we did to poor Lord Quentin."
"I really think he was compensating for something with that Tower of his." Said Momo. "Did you see how much of a pussie he was acting like?"
"Momo, stop." Said Ryoma.
So then they all stood there.
"WHY AREN'T WE GOING?" demanded Gakuto.
"Because we're not all here." Inui reminded him.
"Who's not here?" said Hiyoshi, looking around.
Inui sighed very helplessly and depressedly in a way that suggested that he COULD have uttered "Why me?" had he decided to express himself that way. "Fuji, Oishi, Ootori and Taka." He said. "Remember?"
"Oh right." They all said.
"So that means we have to actually physically go inside of the monastery, which means we'll probably come in contact with other ninjas and have to explain ourselves." Jirou concluded.
"OR!" said Kirihara. "We could just throw some dynamite in the monastery, it would explode, therefore killing Fuji, Oishi, Ootori and Taka… and then we wouldn't have to meet up with them and they'd just come back to life in the next Universe."
"No way!" said Shishido. "We're not killing Choutarou!"
"As much sense as that makes," Inui admitted. "I think we should avoid blowing up Ninja Monasteries if at all possible."
"It was just a suggestion." Said Kirihara.
"What the hell?" said Gakuto. "I mean seriously."
"You guys are taking this too seriously." Said Atsushi. "You're not REALLY ninjas."
"Yeah but we've lived there for three weeks." Said Jirou. "It's like home now. We know a lot of the people in there and we don't want them to die pointlessly."
"I already said that we're not going to use the idea." Said Inui.
"And why are you in charge?" said Atobe. "I happen to think it's a good idea. It's the fastest and quickest way to do it."
"We're not killing Choutarou!" Shishido said firmly as if that was the only issue they were debating about.
"I was just brainstorming!" said Kirihara. "It's everyone else's fault for taking me seriously."
He crossed his arms childishly. It was obvious he wanted to use his stick of dynamite again.
"I know." Said Oshitari. "I could creep up to the window that the four of them are in and then shoot them all so they die. Then I could kill myself and you guys could go to the next Universe."
"Why do we have to kill each other?" Ryou whined.
"And I already said that we're not going to kill Choutarou!" said Shishido, sounding ever more persistent.
"Besides, Oshitari, it's not like you have your gun." Atobe pointed out.
"Oh right." Oshitari nodded. "Scratch that idea."
"We already scratched it!" said Shishido. "Because it involved killing Choutarou!"
"How about instead of going to the window and killing them, someone just goes to the window and knocks on it?" came Shinji as a voice of reason. "Then they just climb out the window, meet everyone else down here and then we leave?"
"You deserve applause for that one." Said Kamio.
"Why?" said Shinji. "It was completely obvious. Anyone who was thinking about something besides killing people could have thought of it."
"I'll go get them." Said Gakuto. "I'll be the most unnoticed of all of us."
"God speed, Gakuto." Said Jirou.
With that, Gakuto disappeared up the stairs and ran around the monastery. He was very ninja-esque about the way he was carrying himself. And yes, we forgot to mention for a little while that it was still raining, but it was, and as he reached the window and was about to knock on it, it suddenly got flung open. This caused Gakuto to nearly have a heart attack as he tumbled across the muddy ground in a less than graceful manner.
"It is STILL raining!" Choutarou exclaimed. "The sun will be setting in just a short while, but it's still going to be cloudy so the moon won't get its chance to come out!"
"ENOUGH!" said Gakuto as if he and Choutarou had been in an hour long argument.
His suddenly appearance, in turn, almost gave Choutarou a heart attack as well as he stumbled backwards and nearly landed on his rear.
"Gakuto, you nearly killed me!" said Choutarou, clutching his heart dramatically as he came back over.
Taka, Fuji and Oishi heard the commotion and came over the window to see Gakuto trying to brush himself off as he jumped up on the window sill.
"Back so soon?" Oishi said.
"Yeah," said Gakuto. "We finished the mission. We all just have to get together so we can go to the next Universe."
"All right," said Fuji. "Just bring all the others in here, and we'll be on our way."
Gakuto sat there on the window sill and stared at Fuji.
"Wait." He said. "Are you…" Gakuto eyed Fuji and stopped. Then he breathed slowly and started again. "Are you being serious?"
"Of course I'm being serious." Said Fuji.
"I think Gakuto just wants the four of us to go to them." Taka inferred.
"Why?" said Fuji.
"It would be easier that way." Taka shrugged.
"But that involves going outside in the rain." Sand Fuji. "And the dark. And the mud."
Everyone waited for Fuji to exclaim, "JK LOL!" but he didn't.
He just stood there looking totally stone faced as they all continued to wait for him to exclaim, "JK LOL!"
"All right, look." Said Gakuto. "They're all in prison, and there's like fifty of them. It makes more sense for the four of you to go to them."
"Well obviously." Said Choutarou.
"So what's the problem?" said Gakuto.
"There is no problem." Said Oishi. "Come on, Fuji. Once we get transported to the next Universe, you'll be all cleaned off."
"That's true…" Fuji sighed. "I guess I can deal with the few moments of horror."
"Here, I bet you could use this umbrella, anyway." Said Taka since he's always looking for ways to appease as many people as he can as he ran over to the corner of the room and picked up one of those paper umbrellas that are meant more to be decorative than to shield from the rain.
"This'll do." Fuji said as he opened up the umbrella.
Gakuto jumped back outside, and then Taka and Choutarou followed. They had to aid Fuji and Oishi over since they were smaller and weaker and were wearing elaborate dresses that vastly limited their movements.
They trudged through the rain until they finally reached the prison area and descended the stairs.
The prisoners threw a party of sheer joy because they were glad to finally get out of there.
"Choutarou, they were talking about plans that involved killing you, but I made sure that didn't happen." Said Shishido since he was obviously looking for a pat on the back.
"Thank you, Shishido!" said Choutarou as he hugged Shishido.
This was more than Shishido wanted (in public anyway) so he promptly pushed Choutarou away.
"A pat on the back would have sufficed!" he said, looking embarrassed.
Everyone was laughing at them on the inside.
"Oh wait, here it comes." Inui said as the white light started forming around them. Once again, they all cheered as Inui pressed the button that would teleport them to the next Universe.
And they were teleported to the next Universe.
They were standing on a large stone bridge over a moat that surrounded a giant castle that seemed to stretch in every which direction for miles.
After a bit of consideration of where they were, everyone gave heavy sighs of relief and stretched.
"Nifty!" said Jirou, looking down at his attire. "We get to stay ninjas!"
"I suppose things could be worse!" Gakuto agreed cheerfully.
"It's nice to be back in my own clothes!" said Eiji. Then he paused. "Well, I guess these aren't really my clothes. But just the clothes that I have recently gotten accustomed to."
"I'm just glad to finally get out of that prison." Said Atobe, lighting up a cigarette. But not smoking it.
"Yes, the prison really was getting quite tedious." Inui agreed, peering at the remote for any clues to their whereabouts. But he should know by now that that wasn't going to happen.
But, after about three seconds, about a thousand soldiers appeared out of nowhere and thrust their spears at the large group standing around foolishly in a clump.
"Don't move!" ordered the solider with the biggest feather in his helmet.
"How ironic." Said Kaidou, putting his hands up in the air. "If we end up in another prison…"
"Such strange garb!" said another soldier. "Shall we take them before our king?"
"Yes, I believe that would be best!" said the leader knight. "All of you! Come with us and cooperate or you will lose your heads!"
"We tasted the sweet air of freedom for only a few seconds…" Kirihara said.
"Do you think we can stall for a half an hour or something until the moon comes out?" Choutarou said, but that wasn't about to happen as they were prodded into the castle just short of the sunset.
"We're back in a Knight Universe." Said Taka to Inui. "This is the first repeat, isn't it?"
"There's got to be something different about this Universe." Said Inui.
"I would hate it if our Universe was unoriginal!" said Eiji to Taka.
"Bow before the king!" ordered the leader knight as he got to one knee after entering a very large room with a throne at the very end of a beautiful carpet.
Everyone decided that they enjoyed their heads being on their shoulders, so they got to a knee. The throne was so far away that they could hardly even see the king from where they were, but they could see a figure rise to his feet and start to advance towards them.
"Welcome to my castle," said the king.
The first one to say something was Fuji.
He got to his feet.
"I will not bow to this man."
