"Is it really necessary to bring it along?" Choromatsu sighed defeatedly. "Personally, I think the streets of Akatsuka are no place for a… well, spider."
Just as Jyushimatsu had wished, all of his brothers had unanimously decided to hang out with him the next day, if only to keep good on their end of the deal. He had wanted to keep Major Homerun Eight-Legged Matsu in the futon with them that night, but didn't when they promised they would stick together the next day if he kept the arachnid in his box. In the corner of the room, far away from them.
Even then, none of the rest of the brothers got a wink of sleep, fearful their new "pet" would somehow escape.
This, however, didn't mean the spider wouldn't be brought along to the festival the next day, much to their disdain. Once again, he was placed on top of Jyushimatsu's head, and seemed to have incredible balance as the yellow matsu skipped around happily. The rest of his brothers walked slowly behind him, ready to split in different directions if the arachnid happened to fall off.
"Hey hey! What should we do first?" Jyushimatsu quickly whipped around to face the brothers. The spider teetered precariously for a moment, and the brothers stepped back cautiously. He pulled it off of his head gently and held it out for the rest to see. "Major Homerun Eight-Legged Matsu wants you guys to decide what we should do!"
There was a full minute of silence before Osomatsu called out "Group huddle!", and the five of them moved out of earshot a short distance away.
"We need to get rid of that thing."
"Osomatsu Nii-san, that's Jyushimatsu Nii-san's new friend! We couldn't!" Todomatsu gasped.
"Come off it, Totty. You were thinking it too."
"Well, yeah, but…"
"And how exactly do you propose we 'get rid of it'? We can't just… take it from him," Choromatsu asked, ignoring the quiet "yeah we could" from Ichimatsu. Karamatsu placed his index finger and thumb on his chin with a smirk.
"Heh… we could tell him it was whisked away by an angel who descended from the heavens! He wouldn't suspect us in the slightest. Genius!"
"Or I could shove it down your throat and tell him you ate it, Shittymatsu," Ichimatsu proposed, his suggestion as serious as anyone else's. His older brother backed down like a kicked puppy, but Osomatsu slapped both Ichimatsu and Karamatsu on the backs roughly.
"You guys are right, though! We need to get rid of it in a way that Jyushimatsu won't think it was us. The question is, how?"
No one spoke for a while until Choromatsu had an idea.
"We'll do exactly what we did yesterday!" He deflated slightly at the deadpan expressions around him, and continued, "Look, we'll each show Jyushimatsu what we were doing yesterday, and try to lose it that way. I can take him to the idol crowds and see if he can't… I don't know, get bumped into a few too many times?"
"Yeah… yeah yeah! I see what you're saying!" Osomatsu chimed in. "I'll get him super drunk and convince him to leave it while we go have fun or something!"
"Perhaps I may be able to serenade them to sleep and fling it away?"
"...I'll feed it to the animals."
"Ooh! I'll take him to try on clothes with me and accidentally get it caught in a clothes rack!"
"We need to decide who should try first. We could take him individually while the rest follow without him knowing. If one plan doesn't work for whatever reason, surely another will!" Osomatsu declared.
Jyushimatsu perked up when four of his brothers left while Osomatsu alone approached him after formulating their plan of attack.
"Hey, Jyushi! So, our bros are a bunch of assholes and decided to ditch you. Thankfully, your responsible eldest brother isn't like them, and wants to hang out with you for a bit! What do you say? Wanna have a few drinks with me?"
Jyushimatsu looked ever-so-slightly disheartened at this, but smiled and nodded anyways.
"Okay! Let's go, Osomatsu Nii-san!"
