Wow, I honestly wasn't expecting so many votes the ay after I uploaded the last chapter… Sadly Kikumaru is doing three times worse then I thought, while Ryoma and Inui are doing a zillion times better. I officially have enough votes! Should I do some sort of stats type thing at the end?
In the chapter after this one expect Inui to laugh diabolically, the winner to finally be declared, and a relatively mean trick to be played.
Yudan sezu ni ikou. This is another filler chapter.
Chapter 9: A Huge Break at a Carnival (aka Final Intermission
"Aw geez, I can't believe we had to stay that late just to finish counting those darn votes yesterday! On top of that I didn't get to finish my math homework," Kikumaru groaned. It was the morning after the boring vote counting session.
"Kikumaru-senpai… It's Sunday. We don't have school. And I thought you were good at math," Ryoma stated nonchalantly as usual. The three were walking to a rendezvous site the Tezuka had asked them to go to for a team bonding outing that day.
Saa, where were we going today? If it's something stupid I wonder if I'll be able to slip away while no one is looking, Fuji thought to himself.
"That's not likely," Ryoma and Kikumaru chimed. Fuji glanced quizzically at them and shrugged, deciding that he must have said that aloud on accident. He grinned when he spotted a Siberian husky walking nearby them. Oddly enough Oshitari was at the end of the leash.
"Saa, I didn't know you had a dog, Oshitari-kun," Fuji chuckled.
"I don't. Apparently, Niou-san had forced him upon Kirihara-san, who forced him upon Marui-san, who forced him upon Jiroh, who forced him upon Hiyoshi, who walked away leaving him for Gakuto to take care of, who decided it would be 'funny' to forced him upon me. In other words he's probably Niou-san's pet," Oshitari replied.
Ryoma stared blankly at him, while Kikumaru had walked away and was currently looking at books in a nearby book cart. Fuji had stopped listening after 'Kirihara-san' and was petting the husky.
"Were you guys even listening? Maa, his name is Yuu I think. I'm supposed to walk him everyday twice a day. It makes me wonder how long I'm going to be stuck doing this. So what are you guys doing?" Oshitari sighed dejectedly because life was being cruel to him.
"Saa, at our school we got stuck doing a poetry contest," Fuji said cheerfully.
"Yeah and yesterday we were volunteered to count the votes. All 2557 of them!" Kikumaru added now that the conversation had started up again.
"I can't believe…" Before Ryoma could finish his complaint, Kaidoh and Momo walked by shouting heatedly at each other about kittens.
"I think fuzzy orange kittens make better pets!" Momo shouted.
"Fshhhhhhhhh… You shouldn't judge a cat by its color and fuzziness. It could be fuzzy and orange, but evil on the inside," Kaidoh countered.
"Are you saying I'm wrong?" Momo shouted.
"Fshhhhhhhhh… This is a stupid argument. Oh? What's this dog's name?" Kaidoh said as he walked over to Yuu and started petting him.
"Apparently his name is Yuu. I think Niou named it 'Are you some kind of idiot? This is a dog!' but since Niou-san fails when it comes to naming things, I renamed him Yuu. I think he likes the name," Oshitari replied.
"Who does?" Ryoma asked.
"Why, Yuu of course." Oshitari replied.
"Me?"
"No, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about Yuu."
"I just said that. Who likes the name?" Ryoma grumbled.
"Yuu," Oshitari stated.
"I don't really like it that much," Ryoma replied grumpily.
"Ochibi, he means the doggy likes the name!" Kikumaru stated.
Ryoma turned around to glare at Kikumaru and muttered something about looking for a restroom before walking away. Fuji chuckled and took out his camera to take pictures of Oshitari and Yuu. Not Shirota Yuu or you, but the dog.
"It seems we've strayed extremely far from the original conversation. So what's this about a poetry contest?" Oshitari asked.
"Hmm, oh that? Kikumaru, Oishi, Ryoma, Inui, Kaidoh, and I are finalists in the contest, but everyone in the school had to participate," Fuji replied.
"Nya, Inui wrote a lame poem and Ryoma was plagiarizing, but some how they got more votes than me and Oishi!" Kikumaru complained.
"What happened to Tezuka's poem?" Oshitari questioned.
"His was a haiku, Kawamura-senpai's was about sushi, and Momo's was about food…" Ryoma muttered.
Oshitari nodded. He'd seen that coming. And yet, for some unknown reason he hadn't seen Yuu being force upon him coming.
The group continued walking in no particular direction and greeted Oishi, Taka-san, and Inui as they walked out of a convenient store. Tezuka met up with the group at a café, and then Atobe and Kabaji popped out of nowhere.
"Ore-sama challenges Tezuka to a tennis match. This time Ore-sama will crush you, na Kabaji?" Atobe said haughtily.
"Usu."
Tezuka ignored Atobe and motioned for the regulars to follow him. Oshitari followed the group as well because he had nothing better to do, and Yuu seemed to like the attention he was getting from Kaidoh and Fuji.
Eventually the group ended up in front of a huge carnival. Tezuka turned around and pulled off his hair to reveal that he was in fact Niou.
"Gah! N-Niou-san! Who, what, where…?" Kikumaru shouted. He twitched violently and Oishi frantically tried and failed to calm him down, so Fuji whack his back with his newly created 'Tensai slap.'
"Che Niou-san's here too? What's next a cat with red and white stripes?" Ryoma muttered.
The real Tezuka showed up several minutes later, just in time to witness Kikumaru attempting to hit Niou with a wooden plank. He twitched and shouted for Kikumaru and Niou to run 15 laps around the carnival. Five minutes later, some of the group grew tired of waiting and they went to enjoy the carnival.
In the carnival there was the usual carnival-ish stuff: a circus tent, a fun house full of mirrors, a bunch of random game booths all centering around hand-eye coordination, patience, lucky, or a combination of random skills, a karaoke stand, a Ferris wheel, an arcade, and various rides. Nothing really suspicious except for the battle-ax next to the arcade and the samurai with swords that looked very real. Nope, nothing was suspicious at all. Fuji, Taka-san, and Oishi went of to enjoy the rides. The others soon dispersed as well, leaving Oshitari, Tezuka, and Ryoma to stand around, waiting.
"So… Is anyone else coming to the carnival, bucho?" Ryoma asked.
"Rikkaidai said they'd be here eventually. I believe Atobe will 'ask' the Hyotei regulars to come," Tezuka stated.
"Hmm… Have I introduced Niou's new pet? His name is Yuu," Oshitari said randomly.
Tezuka glanced at Yuu and knelt down to give him a head rub. Yuu obviously enjoyed that. Then Kikumaru and Niou returned from their laps.
"Puri, how's the pup? Have you given him a proper name yet?" Niou asked cheerfully.
"He's quite well behaved. You don't mind if I name him Yuu do you?" Oshitari replied.
"Hmm, Yuu? Does this have anything to do with your given name, Oshitari?" Niou asked.
"No, his name isn't related to Yuushi. I'm not a narcissist," Oshitari said in an offended tone.
"Of course you aren't Oshitari," Niou replied offhandedly.
"You dropped the '-kun' again. The least you could do is give me a little respect. I bet you planned the whole get Oshitari a dog scheme, didn't you?" Oshitari said angrily, which in this case meant he used an annoyed tone.
"Actually I wanted the little imp to keep an eye on my dog and learn some responsibility 'cause Sanada is always glaring at him when he forgets stuff, but that didn't work out to well…" Niou chuckled.
"Oh look the rest of your team is here, as well as bit and pieces of my team," Oshitari stated in a bored tone.
Ryoma and Tezuka had disappeared with Kikumaru while Niou and Oshitari were conversing and it seemed that Yuu had gone with them. Oshitari noticed this and went looking for them.
Yagyuu, Yukimura, Sanada, Jackal, Marui, and Kirihara crowded around the entrance and started arguing about where to go next, but when I say arguing I don't mean they were all arguing. Kirihara, Marui, and Niou insisted that they go to the fun house or the rides first. Yukimura suggested they go to the game booths, while Sanada, Yagyuu, and Renji said nothing. Jackal didn't really care because he was looking at the carnival map nearby.
Hyotei wasn't fairing much better, with Atobe and Kabaji insisting that they go on the Ferris wheel, Shishido wanting to play at the arcade, Oshitari not being there, and Choutaro attempting to make everyone happy.
Eventually the two teams figured they were being stupid and split up into smaller groups to explore the carnival.
Yagyuu went with Niou, Kirihara, and Marui to make sure the three didn't kill each other. Sanada, Renji, and Yukimura went to the game booths because Yukimura needs at least to people with him at all times, one to stay with him if he gets injured and the other to fetch help… Wait if that's the case then everyone should have two people following them…
Jackal, Atobe, and Kabaji frolicked off to ride all sorts of rides, including the Ferris wheel, while Shishido and Choutaro went to enjoy the arcade. Of course they steered clear of the huge battle-ax that was near the arcade.
Yagyuu's group eventually ran into Fuji's group, which led to mass pranking on all the nearby carnival-goers. Oshitari eventually found Kikumaru, Tezuka, and Ryoma at the beginning of the line for the roller coaster. Ryoma was miffed because Yuu had followed them and he'd wanted to ride the roller coaster. Despite looks, he was tall enough for all the rides in the carnival.
Oshitari grinned a little and volunteered to keep an eye on the dog, after all he was probably stuck with it for a few more days and dogs obviously can't ride roller coasters. They're not tall enough. Kikumaru and Ryoma childishly shoved Yuu over to Oshitari and happily walked onto the ride. Tezuka volunteered to go with Oshitari because he's nice. It's not like he was scared of a roller coaster that can go faster then he could ever hope to run.
Meanwhile Jackal, Atobe, and Kabaji had met up with Yukimura's group and were currently getting ready to ride the big spinny ride that you're supposed to ride on an empty stomach. They hadn't eaten lunch yet so no one threw up.
Several hours of carnival fun later, the three rival schools gathered outside the arcade and began discussing their awesome prepaid trip to the carnival. After all Atobe and Oshitari had volunteered to pay for lunch, minus anything extra Marui, Momo, or anyone else tried to sneak onto the bill.
The group then moved into the arcade and began playing all the games. Luckily there were enough games for everyone to play one along with some two-player games because for some reason the arcade was huge. After about half an hour the more restless regulars of the group go bored and wandered back outside the arcade.
"So Momoshiro-kun, how are you and Kaidoh getting along?" Marui asked absentmindedly.
"Probably about as well as you and Kirihara-kun," Momo replied cheerfully.
"Whatever… I bet if Niou and Yagyuu had another match with your Golden pair they'd win. Again," Marui teased.
"What the heck is your problem today? Are you trying to pick a fight?" Momo said in an elevated and angry tone.
"Of course I'm not. Just imagine the laps we'd get for disrupting the 'good feelings' in this inter-team bonding outing!" Marui replied.
Jackal and Kirihara were standing around being bored a few feet away from Marui and Momo, but unlike those two Jackal and Kirihara were having a conversation about how awesome the first live-action Death Note movie was with Kirihara insisting that Kira was an evil idiot for killing off so many random people, when he could have went on some random vacation to Hawaii and killed all sorts of criminals in Hawaii, thus never getting involved with L and not needing to kill all those 'innocent bystanders,' while Jackal tried to follow Kirihara's ranting and countering with the simple fact that skipping school was bad, and it would have been easier to find him if he suddenly dropped out of school for no reason, seeing as he was the perfect student and all. Woot! I got in a really long run on sentence.
Niou, Atobe, Kabaji, Kikumaru, and Fuji were also standing around outside the arcade, but they were conversing about more normal things like… How funny the Tezuka zone is, Oishi's head-fangs, Niou's new pet Yuu, and how Naruto bashed in Sasuke's face in that one episode and yet five seconds later Sasuke's face returned to normal and he didn't even have a broken nose or teeth falling out.
Inside the arcade Ryoma and Tezuka were shooting zombies, Taka-san was beating the crap out of random computerized characters in Soul Calibur, Oshitari and Yagyuu were playing one of those awesome detective/first-person shooter games, Yukimura and Sanada were playing a samurai game while Renji observed, Shishido was playing Tekken 5 with Choutaro, Oishi was trying not to laugh as Inui played Dance Dance Revolution, and Kaidoh was playing one of those virtual fighting games where you get to physically beat up your opponents.
Suddenly, the power for all the games went off, but for some reason the lights in the arcade were still on. Surprised and possibly a little disturbed the gaming regulars went outside and joined up with a bunch of disgruntled gamers who were also having fun in the arcade and their restless team members.
Unfortunately a hooded figure was waiting outside and he was holding the big battle-ax that everyone had thought was for show. His eye shone with malice as he began hazardously swinging the ax around, missing some of the people close to him, but you could tell he was missing on purpose.
In a gruff voice the person shouted, "Welcome to the Carnival, and we hope you liked your stay… But unless a few of you can get past some random tests that make no sense, you guys will be stuck here for quite some time. My name isn't important, but you can call me Jack. I'll be your not so friendly tour guide. Great, now follow me… Or else."
The first test was that one or two people had to take down the samurai in a sword fight with wooden swords. Sanada and Kikumaru volunteered and won the fight without much hassle. Sanada did most of the actual fighting with Kikumaru jumping in every now and then to assist him by thrusting his sword into the samurai's side. It wasn't all that unfair since the samurai had two swords.
The second test was a stupid variation on the dog race in which a person had to race against a dog. The group could have up to three tries. Niou gave it a go and after winning the race, he poked the dog in the side while chuckling victoriously.
The final test was an all out battle royal against the samurai, Jack, a big vicious looking dog, a ninja, and the food court manager. Everyone had fun pelting the said people with random tennis moves including but not limited to: Twist Serve, Jack Knife, Kikumaru Beam, Kikumaru Bazooka, Laser Beam, Dunk Smash, Snake Shot, Waterfall Serve, Neo Scud Serve, Burning Serve, Dash Hadokyuu, and just pitching tennis balls like there's no tomorrow. It was almost as bad as those stoning that are sometime described in history books, but of course tennis balls are only so big, can only go so fast, and can only do so much damage.
Jack and the ninja dodged and parried most of the moves leaving Sanada no choice but to rush Jack while the other distracted the two with tennis ball barrages. Unfortunately a wooden sword is no match for a battle-ax, but Sanada picked up the samurai's sword to borrow and struck Jack with the blunt side. The dog was in a frenzy chasing all of the tennis balls and probably was just a poor deprived dog that never had a proper puppy-hood.
The ninja, seeing that he was the only one left standing against 22 or so tennis players plus a mob of angry carnival-goers, pretended to get knocked out by a Burning serve. The carnival-goers and regulars cheered and rushed for the exit before any of the employees could wake up and challenge the tennis players to a rematch.
"Nya, that was fun, wasn't it Fuji?" Kikumaru asked cheerfully.
"Sure, the fight was plenty of fun. Puri," Niou commented equally cheerfully. Unfortunately Kikumaru was still holding a grudge against Niou for being mean in that match in the finals of Kantou tournament, and he hissed and hid behind Fuji. Fuji chuckled and high-fived Niou, who turned to Kirihara and told him to give him 200 yen.
Yagyuu relieved Oshitari of his dog-sitting duties, and was talking to Oshitari about old fashion detective movies and how enjoyable they are simply because they are so illogical. With the gun shots that never miss, deaths that are defied because they aren't dramatic enough, the cigars that are lit but never smoked, the cups of coffee that are there but never sipped from, the bombs that are heard about 30 seconds before exploding, but don't explode until after the detective has leapt away with his assistant if any even if it seems like it took more than 30 seconds.
Niou was scribbling down what Yagyuu needed to feed Yuu and other instruction for him to follow. Shishido and Atobe had started an argument about who was cooler, with Choutaro trying to make sure they don't do or say anything inappropriate.
Seigaku in general was hanging out a chilling, with Kaidoh and Momo not arguing for once. There were no random rackets for Taka-san to accidentally grab hold of, so there was no danger of Taka-san suddenly going into burning mode and doing anything dangerous.
Before the schools headed their separate ways, Atobe, Tezuka, and Yukimura decided that they'd never try team bonding at a carnival again. Then everyone went home to do things like homework, read books, record data, or whatever else teenage tennis players do when they're off screen.