Yes, I'm actually continuing this! I've been getting a bunch of reviews for it lately, so I felt guilty and decided I might as well finish this up. So here you have the next chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and supported this story, and thanks also to the people who voted!

Chapter Four

The four judges finally finished writing out their answers, and handed them all to Sain. He examined each of them very slowly, reading them one by one… Finally, he looked up. The audience sat on the edges of their seats, waiting expectantly.

"First of all, I would just like to thank all of you lovely ladies for putting so much effort into getting ready for this," Sain began. "It's really been a pleasure for me to see you all at your best. I feel horrible for having to eliminate one of you. And – "

"Just get to the point!" demanded some random audience member.

"Yeah!" agreed another one.

Sain sighed. "Oh fine. I am sorry to announce that the first person to be eliminated from the first annual Miss Elibe Beauty Pageant is…"

Canas inserted some drumroll special effects in here.

"…Isadora."

Isadora was visibly disappointed, but she still had a smile on her face. She'd only been doing it for fun, after all. The crowd good-naturedly clapped for her, after seeing how graciously she'd responded to the news. Isadora shook hands with Sain, was hugged by several of her fellow contestants, and then left the stage.

"And that means… that it's time for our first competition!" Sain announced.

The crowd cheered loudly.

"The first competition will be… the swimsuit competition!"

The crowd cheered even louder.

"In the swimsuit competition, the judges will come to a conclusion based on their opinions of each of the contestant's physique, water skills, and the contestant's attitude towards their physique and water skills. The judges will then eliminate the contestant they feel is lacking the most in all three areas. So, without further ado, let's head for the pool!"

Minutes later, the crowd had assembled themselves in the bleachers. A special platform with a table had been set up for the judges. The pool was huge and went up to thirteen feet deep. However, the water was crystal clear, and glistened in the sunlight, despite the fact that no one really used it.

"Well?" asked Matthew, stopping by the judges table to chat with Hector. "Are they fake or not?"

"Serra's eyelashes? Hey, I hate to say it, but… I think they were real…" Hector admitted.

"Are you serious?" Matthew cried. "But they're so long!"

Then, out of nowhere, a strong hand gripped Matthew's shoulder. It was Hawkeye.

"You," he ordered, and then pointed. "Seat."

Matthew sighed. "Yeah, sure, sure… I'll catch up with you later."

"Bye," said Hector.

Soon, Sain stood up on the platform and spoke into a microphone: "Is this thing on? Oh, good. Well, it is now time to begin our next competition!"

Sain signaled the girls, and they came out in single file, all decked out in multi-colored bathing suits. Some of them, admittedly, looked better than others, but mostly all of them looked confident.

"Judges, take this time to examine the contestant's physique," Sain said.

At this, Florina's face turned bright red. Fiora reassuringly patted her on the shoulder.

The judges – or at least, Hector and Wil – studied the contestants very closely. Erk and Jaffar seemed less than interested. Lyn, admittedly, had the best physique. She probably worked out more than all of the others put together. Some of the others were pretty good, too – the Pegasus Knights obviously did their fair share of exercise as well. The least impressive had to be Priscilla and Serra, who, as healers, didn't actually have to do that much physical work. Everyone else fell somewhere in the middle.

"Alright," Sain said about two minutes later. "Now, it's time to display water skills! We're just going to test the contestants on the basics, so there's nothing to worry about. Ladies, please enter the pool and show us your freestyle."

A lot could be seen about each contestant by how she entered the pool. Lyn dove in straight away, while Farina quickly slipped in, Fiora, Rebecca, Louise, and Priscilla eased themselves in, Nino and Florina nervously lowered themselves into the water, and Serra wrinkled her nose, tested the water with her foot, and then got in.

Serra, Priscilla, and Nino didn't seem to have much experience with swimming at all, but none of them were horribly bad. They managed to make it to the other side of the pool, but their techniques could use some perfecting.

Louise knew how to swim, but hadn't done it that often. She was better than the healers and Nino, but was not above average.

Fiora, Florina, and Farina had all been professionally trained to swim during their training as Pegasus Knights, although they hadn't been able to do much swimming in the snowy land of Ilia. They had strong strokes, but they weren't very graceful. Fiora and Farina were also much more confident, and therefore faster, than Florina.

Rebecca and Lyn were both very good swimmers – they'd both grown up doing it; Rebecca with her brother and Wil in the swimming holes of Pherae, and Lyn with her tribe in the rivers they'd stopped by.

When all of the girls had successfully made it to the other side of the pool, Sain called, "Alright, now let's switch to backstroke!"

The competition continued like this, with breaststroke following backstroke, and sidestroke following that. This was also, in a way, a test of endurance – Serra, Priscilla, and Nino grew tired after two laps, with Louise growing tired after three. Rebecca and the Pegasus Knights seemed to tire after four, while Lyn also seemed tired but ready to keep going if need be.

"The fifth and final lap," Sain announced, "will be elementary backstroke."

"What's that?" Serra asked Priscilla, breathing heavily.

"I… I don't know," Priscilla gasped. "But I don't think I can go on any longer."

In fact, none of the girls knew what elementary backstroke was. When none of them began swimming, Sain had mercy on them and decided that they could stop now.

"Give these ladies a round of applause!"

The crowd complied.

All of the girls climbed out of the pool and stumbled towards their towels. They practically collapsed to the ground after drying themselves off. Hector observed this with a wrinkled nose.

"This isn't a beauty pageant! This is torture!" he said to Wil, who was next to him.

"Yeah, that did seem pretty harsh," he agreed. "Maybe we should talk to Sain…?"

"Don't worry, this is by far the most physically challenging competition," Sain explained, having overheard them. "Next up is going to be a singing competition! Anyways, you guys had better get to voting now…"

"Singing!" cried Hector. "Oh, no… please!"

"Why ever not?" Sain asked, confused.

Hector looked at him incredulously. "Have you EVER heard Serra sing before?"


There you have it! Now please vote using the instructions given in Chapter Three.

Nino: DO NOT VOTE IN YOUR REVIEWS. ONLY VOTE USING E-MAIL. AND ONLY VOTE FOR ONE PERSON TO GET OUT.

Yeah, that pretty much explains it. This story isn't really my top priority right now, but I'll try and update again soon.

Nino: So vote via e-mail, and review!