Fighting Spirit
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At Yukimura's House:
"May I have everyone's attention? Please? That would be just great. Thanks."
Yukimura waited for everyone in his conference room to quiet down before he continued,
"So despite how weird it all sounds, it looks like we four schools are now one team working together to beat Seigaku in the finals. We already know that we're going to be challenged in twisted, annoying, and most likely sick ways, but we need to band together in order to assure victory."
"What's in it for us?" Tachibana interrupted. "If this team wins the overall set of challenges, then Rikkaidai wins the final, but the rest of us are getting nothing out of this!"
Yukimura smiled sweetly. "I completely understand your concerns," he said, looking directly at Tachibana with understanding eyes. "I see why it might be difficult for units Fudomine, Hyoutei, and Shintenhouji to understand why they should help Rikkaidai. But what you've got to realize is that everything is connected."
Everyone exchange confused looks.
"Yes, everything is connected," Yukimura continued. "This is the one thing that I realized during my intense period of hospitalization. Which was, by the way, extremely intense and terrible. I realized that there is no 'I' and no 'you'. There is only 'we'. Everything we do affects one another because we're all part of the same circle of events. You might think that helping us win has nothing to do with you, but in a few days, a few weeks, or a few years, you might suddenly see how it was all connected!"
Everyone stared blankly.
"....yeah, I still don't see it," said Shishido finally.
"And Ore-sama is starting to think that this is all just bullshit," Atobe added.
"Oh, right! That brings me to my next point!" Yukimura remembered. "From now on, I think that if Atobe refers to himself as 'Ore-sama', we should all just ignore him."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Shiriashi asked.
"I dunno, I just had to get that out there," said Yukimura pleasantly. "It's like one of those things that has been bothering me for the longest time, but then whenever I'm giving a speech or something, I always forget to mention it."
"Ah, I know what you mean!" exclaimed Gakuto, nodding vigorously. "It's hilarious at home, but somehow when I'm in company, I always forget to tell my cactus joke!"
Everyone stared at him.
Gakuto stared back fiercely for about thirty seconds, then broke under the pressure and looked away.
"You think a lot when you're in a hospital bed," Yukimura said, drawing the attention back to himself. "And I figured some stuff out during my horrible and intense time of hospitalization for a disease that was horrible and intense. You see, when you say something mean to someone, that person gets sad. And then they might say something mean to someone else. And then that person might spread the bad feeling, and so on and so forth. Don't you see? The only way everyone can be happy is if everyone works together to spread good feelings around the world!"
Yukimura paused for a breath. "Life is one big doughnut. You eat your way around until you end up right back where you started. And then you realize that there was a hole in the middle the whole time, so life never had a meaning anyway!"
"Wow. That's depressing," said Kamio.
"The only thing you can really do in life is make a meaning for yourself. Try to find something worth fighting for. That's why you have to realize that love is the only thing that counts. You guys want to help us win because you care about us."
Dead silence.
"Anyway," continued Yukimura, "if you all help out and are nice, I'll buy you guys cupcakes after we win."
"Now you're talking sense!" said Shinji. "I'm in."
"Me too!"
"Yeah!"
Everyone started consenting.
"Will the cupcakes have sprinkles on them?" asked Atobe suspiciously.
"Of course they will," said Yukimura, smiling genially. "They can even have frosting in the shape of your favorite farm animal if you like."
"Yay!" everyone cheered. They all started talking amongst themselves about how hard they were all going to work in the challenges.
"I got to admit," Sanada mumbled, "you've still got your touch, Yukimura."
"Well, of course I do, Gen-chan," he said. "Even if I was stuck in a hospital for an intense and debilitating period of nine months, which was, incidentally, intense and debilitating."
The Rikkaidai team sighed.
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Tezuka's House:
"You guys, Seigaku is known as the greatest team in the entirety of Japan," Tezuka shouted. "And I'm not going to let anything jeopardize that! We're going to win whether you like it or not!"
"Yeah!" said the Seigaku team. Then they looked around.
None of the other teams were listening to them. The St. Rudolph-ites and Yamabukians had taken over Tezuka's video game system and all the Rokkaku boys were outside, somehow in their swimsuits, and playing in Tezuka's pool.
"You guys, this is serious!" Tezuka bellowed. "We really have to win! We have to show them who's best!"
"I totally agree!" shouted Sengoku, his eyes glued to the T.V. screen. "If I don't win, everyone's going to think that Mewtwo is better than Pikachu, which is SO not true!"
"Listen to Tezuka!" Momoshiro roared. "This is really important!"
"I'll bet it is, but just wait for me to own this noob," said Mizuki, fighting a vicious match against Ichiuma.
"You guys totally aren't taking this seriously!" Oishi cried. "I know that you aren't really getting anything out of our victory, but seriously, this team is going nowhere if people from Seigaku are the only ones who care about the challenges!"
"Where did Fuji go?" Echizen suddenly asked.
They all looked around, and finally located him outside, playing with a pool noodle with Saeki.
"Fuji! If you don't take your own championship seriously, how can you expect anyone else to!?!" Eiji cried, stamping his feet on the rosy patio. "We have to win this match for Seigaku, or we'll look like such losers! We have to save face!"
"Put on some sunscreen!" David shouted from the other end of the pool.
Eiji stuck out his tongue at him.
"Sorry, Eiji, it just looked like so much fun," said Fuji, smiling brilliantly at his friend as he flipped onto his back and started floating. "I'll be back in a sec; you guys go on without me.....hey, Saeki, stop that! It tickles!"
Fuji started giggling like a schoolgirl, which clued the others that it was time to run if they didn't want to be scarred for life.
Tezuka shut himself and the other Seigaku regulars besides Fuji in his bedroom.
"Okay, this isn't working......" Said Tezuka, pacing back and forth. "Obviously none of the other teams care whether we win or not. We're going to have to find some way of either inspiring them or terrifying them."
"Why inspire or terrify?" Eiji asked.
"In history we see that those are the only two incentives that yield results," Inui said.
"I think 'inspire' would be more suited to our needs," Tezuka said, rubbing his temples. "It's probably the easiest path for us to follow. Everyone brainstorm for how we could inspire them."
There was silence for about five minutes as everybody thought.
"....any ideas?" Tezuka asked.
"Nope," mumbled everyone.
"You guys are worthless!" Tezuka exclaimed in disgust.
"Actually, I think that we might consider trying to scare them," Inui suggested. "That always works for me."
"And the fear of punishment is a greater motive than the promise of a reward," Kaidoh added.
"So what am I supposed to do? Threaten to kill them all if they don't comply?" Tezuka shouted, losing his mind, "Drown them in the lava of an erupting volcano? Tear their hair out and make voodoo dolls with it? Smother them with a pair of house slippers? Blend them into smoothies? Grate them over a giant pasta? Rip—"
"Um, is this a bad time?" Sengoku stood at the doorway.
Tezuka hastily spun around. "Yes it is! I mean, no! Anytime is fine if it's for you guys! What is it?"
"Well....um, there's....ah......"
"What?"
"There's a little problem downstairs," said Sengoku, blushing.
XxX
"I was just trying to make cookies, I swear!" cried Aoi tearfully, forty minutes later. "I was just trying to turn on the oven! I swear, I didn't know that that was actually the button to destroy the entire house!"
"Didn't you read the sign that said 'do not touch'!?!" Tezuka bellowed.
"I thought it was reverse psychology!" Aoi sobbed. "Like, you say, 'don't touch it', but what you really mean is that you want people to touch it!"
Words failed Tezuka. He just stared at Aoi and then walked away.
Tezuka's house was now a heap of ashes and a burnt frame. Aoi had pressed some button that was meant for use when chemical experiments were taking place in the kitchen. When Aoi had pressed the button, a stream of Butyl chloride had shot out of a valve in the oven that Aoi had turned on, causing an immediate fire. Sengoku had informed Tezuka of the problem as soon as the fire started, but it was too strong for the boys to handle, and the entire house had burnt down in about ten minutes. The best that the boys could do was call 911 and then evacuate the house.
"That's some very stupid shit you did, Son," said a fireman to Aoi. "Butyl chloride is extremely flammable. You should never play with it."
"Why do you even have that button?" Fuji asked Tezuka.
"It was for chemistry experiments!" Tezuka yelled. "And the average IQ in my household is over 200, so I wasn't expecting the valve to ever be a problem!"
He grated his teeth together furiously. "Are you guys happy now? You've refused to help me win the championship and now I'm homeless, too! I didn't even get a chance to save my stamp collection....." His voice cracked, and he turned away from the other boys, so they wouldn't see him tearing up.
There was a sad silence, and then Saeki stepped forward.
"Well, I for one feel terrible," he said. "I never wanted such a misfortune to take place. For being part of this careless mistake, I pledge my efforts to helping Seigaku win the championship. I know I can't bring your house back, but I'll do everything I can to help you."
"You're so noble, Saeki!" cried Fuji. "I pledge to help, too!"
"Well, didn't you want to win anyway?" everyone chorused.
Fuji shrugged.
"No, but seriously, we'll all help," said Yuuta. "We feel bad."
"Yes. Seigaku will win. Seigaku will win!" teams Rokkaku, St. Rudolph, and Yamabuki chanted. "Gooooooo......SEIGAKU!" they all cheered.
"You hear that?" Oishi whispered to Tezuka. "They're ready to work! We've done it! We've rallied them!"
"And all it took was...." Kaidoh began.
"For me to lose all my possessions and my family to become homeless," Tezuka finished. "Yes, this is definitely an excellent start."
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