Incident Six

In which Yanagi Juice is born,

Ryoma is the Prince of DDR,

And Oshitari's I.G.D.P.O.L.F. is realized.

The Rikkai Dai tennis practice was at full swing. Most of the first years were being drilled to no end, leaving most of them on the verge of collapsing while the ones who were getting lucky were collecting balls. Most of the second years were being pitted against the third years in lightning fast rallies leaving many of then breathless and like the first years, on the verge of collapsing. Most of the regulars were playing matches against each other and braving the danger of the newly brewed 'Yanagi Juice', which swept the club by storm and earning Yanagi a new title: The Exterminator. Of course, 'most' never justifies all, and in this case, the one left out would be Niou, who was sitting rather bored-looking off to the side with nothing to entertain his mind. Yagyuu was out that day, so his usual victim had fallen out of the picture. Normally should this happen he'd go pester Kirihara, but after sticking a bagful for crosses and amulets in his desk, he really wasn't up for the fight. As for tennis, he had had enough of that after being kicked to the dirt by Fuji yesterday. Niou decided that defeat and dirt tasted exactly the same.

It wasn't until there was but twelve minutes left in practice did Sanada finally realized that Niou was just sitting around doing nothing. Being the responsible stand in captain he was, he couldn't let that slide by. He decided to use Yanagi's newest weapon to force the boy into action.

"Niou, get up," Sanada said, his voice booming across the courts. Everyone momentarily stopped what they were doing and concentrated on those two, hoping to see a big scene. The copyright Sanada Glare sent them back into their activities.

"I don't want to," Niou replied, rebelling against his captain and trying his luck with a glare of his own. Niou was never partial to authority figures for he found them dreadfully dull and narrow minded with their path in life consisting of one straight road. Sanada was one who fit the criteria, and Niou was in no mind to pay him any heed.

"You'll do as I say," Sanada pressed on. In truth, he wasn't really sure if he could get Niou to do anything. Usually he relied on Yagyuu for that. Even Sanada knew that the boy was untamable and skipped around from object to object he dubbed 'interesting'. He was afraid that he someday might have a 'falling out' with tennis, but lucky for him Niou found Yagyuu to cling onto to prevent that from happening.

"And if I don't?" Niou shot back. Three years of experience showed him exactly how hard to bush Sanada's buttons. Those three years paid off as Niou watched Sanada begin loosing his cool.

"You can drink a pitcher of that thing Yanagi created," Sanada answered, having nothing better to use as a threat. Making the boy run laps would just cause a distraction to the other club members as last time he ordered Niou one hundred of those, the boy spent one to eleven screaming like a madman and Sanada was forced to make him stop to save the team from having their eardrums permanently damaged.

Niou shrugged, putting on an act that he could really care less about the horrible concoction. Truthfully though, he was weary about it just as much as everyone else. Last time he checked, edible liquids were not a glowing, emerald color. Seeing how half of the club had already fallen to its terrors, Niou was in no mind to be the next victim. Though fearless in the eye of fear, his taste buds were another story altogether. There was probably only one other person who was immune to temperamental palette issues, and that was…

"Is that a Yanagi version of Inui Juice?"

Niou smirked. Right on time. Always count on Fuji to be there when needed the most. His presence should be enough to divert Sanada's attention from his punishment for being a sloth long enough to avoid having to down a pitcher of that poison, and if not, Niou had other antics to slither out of this mess unscathed. Niou made a note to repay the beaming brunette later.

"What are you doing here?" Sanada interrogated, eyes narrowing suspiciously at the boy. A Seigaku regular up in these parts of the country was a rare sight, that is to say, this was actually the first time someone from Seigaku actually came here. Sanada was no doubt surprised, but then he realized that Fuji had his sights set on Niou and not Kirihara, and that basically explained everything. Actually, Sanada's been blaming a lot on Niou these days. Find the clubroom trashed with tampons blame Niou. Discover your locker brimming with fake and cheesy love notes that have accumulated in a span of one day, blame Niou. Hell, if the world was about to be destroyed by evil Martians and Sanada found himself about to be dissected by one of their mad scientists, you can bet he'd blame Niou, even though the boy would probably have nothing to do with it. For whatever reason, if something went wrong, if you trace it back far enough, it would surely be Niou's fault one way or another. Sanada had long convinced his brain to accept this.

"Just wandering around," Fuji said with a chuckle. After seeing that Sanada didn't quite believe his story, he spilt the beans. "Actually, I have some things I wanted to discuss with your teammate." At this, Fuji nodded towards Niou's direction, and Sanada could feel a sigh coming on.

"What did he do this time?" Sanada asked, directing his displeasure towards Niou. The boy raised his arms to form an 'X', and vigorously shaking his head as he was doing so, showing Sanada that he wasn't at fault. It would be a long, long time before Sanada fell for that.

"No, he really didn't do-" Fuji was cut off when his back detected a fiery glare. Call it intuition or maybe a sixth sense, but Fuji definitely knew that there was someone with unpleasant intentions behind him. He had a pretty good idea who it was.

"You! Tell me how to beat Echizen!"

Sanada buried his head into his palm, marveling at how easy headaches came to him these days. He briefly considered downing that pitcher of Yanagi Juice in hopes that it would relieve him of his pounding head, but decided that it would probably put him in more distress. Sanada really thought that Kirihara was smarter than that, he really did. Yet now he had just embarrassed himself beyond his comprehension in front of everyone. "You! Tell me how to beat Echizen!" was just so unpractical and idiotic.

"Ah, Kirihara-kun, long time no see," Fuji said with a strained smile. Take note how he didn't say "It's nice to see you again" because Fuji was still spiteful for last time, and grudges ran long in his veins, and hard fading from his memory as well.

Kirihara just glowered at the brunette with malice as he crossed his arms in annoyance. Fuji mused briefly on how it faintly resembled Yuuta's pout, and he decided to forgive Kirihara for being so rude just because of that. Kirihara, on the other hand, was not so keen on forgetting his own set of grudges and his defeats.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded. Fuji gave him an amused look as Niou flashed him a 'you-are-being-so-uncool-now' smile.

"Shouldn't you have asked that first?" Fuji said. "And fact, Kirihara, I haven't beaten Echizen yet."

The 'yet' lingered while all else was digested and chucked out of Kirihara's memory. The boy no longer concerned himself with Ryoma as he focused his attention on the other guy who had demolished him: Fuji. Judging by how his eyes were flaring up, Fuji knew that Kirihara was silently campaigning for a match, but as much as Fuji would've liked to toy around with him again, his objectives allowed no such time. Pity, really. It was a rare chance to come by, getting a chance to play Kirihara again, especially after he claimed that his style has now changed.

"Anyhow, you're practice is over," Fuji observed, and as Sanada's eyes darted towards the clock on the school building, he found the brunette to be correct, and quickly went his own way to dismiss everyone as well as saving himself a piece of his own sanity.

"Right," Niou nodded.

"So, let's go." Fuji made a gesture to leave, but Niou was still staying put, which set a confused look upon Fuji. Watching the other's eyes turn towards a certain someone, Fuji got his point. "By all means, though do keep him on a leash."

"By all means, Fuji, no."

"Come on Tezuka, I bet you can beat it."

"Fuji, I play tennis, not video games."

"But video games are fun, nya!"

"Eiji-senpai! When can I have a turn?"

Chaos was the ruling figure in the Fuji household. Eiji had brought over his game station along with several volumes of games, and Fuji was rummaging through his videos while trying to persuade Tezuka to take a shot at some ultra violent fighting game. Ryoma, who had at first seem reluctant to be there, was immediately lured in by the challenge and was more or less demanding a turn at the controller, which was currently dominated by Eiji. Two surprising newcomers known as Niou and Kirihara were seated in the corner, observing the Seigaku players quarrel in silence. At first, everyone was rather weary of the two, remembering their past differences, but they seemed to have fallen into their regular rhythm after they got a good dosage of video games and Fuji heckling Tezuka.

"Hey, let's watch the Titanic in English!"

"But that movie's long, nya!"

"I want to play, Eiji-senpai!"

"…"

"Let's form a band."

"Or maybe we should do a marathon of American soap op- a band?"

All eyes turn towards Niou emitting various emotions ranking from confusion, which came from most of them, to the extreme 'are you on crack?', which came from Kirihara. Niou bathed himself in the attention as he awaited an answer. The only answer he got was silence, and Niou didn't take silence well. Silence and him were like a cheeseburger and caviar. They don't go… at all.

"Why not?" Niou shrugged. "You guys don't seem to be getting anywhere fun."

"You know, that sound like a good-"

"No, Fuji!"

Before Fuji could even voice his opinion, he was put down by the minions of horror who were doing everything they could not to succumb to the force of Demon Lord Fuji. If they didn't nip this in the bud, for all they know, they could be living a life filled with hard rock music, screaming fan girls, and a diet of fast food forever. That was a life neither Tezuka, Ryoma, Eiji, and Kirihara didn't want to lead. They have had enough din and hubbub from tennis practice, and while Ryoma, Eiji, and Kiriharamight not mind burgers for the rest of their lives, they certainly didn't want to risk getting fat. Besides, a band with Niou and Fuji in it can be considered a band that will lead them down into the realm of the damned, and they didn't really want to spend the rest of their afterlife mopping the hallways of hell while Niou and Fuji clanked their Champagne glasses after taking the thrown from the Devil.

"Well, in that case, I guess we can play Dance Dance Revolution for the rest of the day and then we can watch anime for the night," Fuji sighed. He stole a suggesting glance at Niou and Niou shot back an 'okay' signal with a smirk. They would spare the four from their road to stardom and getting mobbed by the paparazzi, but they weren't about to let this get by Saeki, Oshitari, and Sengoku.

"I want to go first, nya!" Eiji immediately volunteered enthusiastically, shooting up from the carpet and knocking over a the fluffy pink pillow he was sitting on in the process. (Fuji had taken it from Yumiko's room.) He then directed a his challenging gaze to Ryoma, who returned it with his famous 'Mada mada dane' glow. "And I challenged you, Ochibi!"

"I'll play Tezuka next!" Fuji said, laughing merrily as he watched Ryoma prance around the mat looking quite clueless. He couldn't seem to decide if it was easier to step on it or do it the smart way of using your hands to press the pad, and all the arrows on the screen were all foreign in his eyes. Eiji, though, was completely in his element, but it didn't take long for Ryoma to catch on. Fuji had always wanted to see Ryoma dance, but was a bit disappointed to find out that the only difference between Ryoma dancing and Ryoma playing tennis was that Ryoma wasn't making any suggestive voicing and was doing a lot more action down in the booty area. Oh well. At least he'd still get a joy out of seeing Tezuka do it. It would be hilarious, all right, that is, if Tezuka didn't firmly object:

"No, Fuji, I refuse."

"But Tezuka-"

"No, Fuji."

Fuji put on his best pout as he gave his friend a gloomy face, but Tezuka did not waver. The stoic guy would rather stuff himself with canned peas for a week than put himself in the center of a contretemps, and Tezuka was not fond of anything that had been sprayed with pesticides and floating about in artificial preservatives for who knows how long. Fuji, though, always seemed to have something else tucked up his sleeve whether it was an innocent silver coin or a ferocious, hissing jackrabbit.

"But Tezuka, I owe you for last time, remember?" Fuji pleaded. "Unless you'd want to go out for dinner again?"

"…Fine…" If there was anything worse than DDR to Tezuka, it was spending another outing with Fuji. Last time it had triggered a magnitude of unbelievable scale that led to the meeting of the five, and Tezuka didn't need any more tremors to disturb his life anymore than it was already disturbed.

"Mada mada dane, Eiji-senpai." Eiji gave an enraged screech as Ryoma lavished his hard-earned victory with a smug pose and a taunting smirk. Ryoma always had a knack for picking things up quickly, and now not only was he the Prince of Tennis, Prince of Bowling, Prince of Billiards, he was also the new crowned Prince of DDR.

Ryoma loved himself.

Eiji hated Ryoma.

"Come on, Tezuka," Fuji coaxed gently as he snaked his arm around Tezuka's and hauled him over. Though Tezuka had on his poker face, he was really trying to decide whether to implode or explode his frustration. He decided that imploding and keeping it to himself was a better tactic because- Oh no… Fuji did not just picked the super-hard-ultra-impossible-level-of-doom.

Fuji loved himself.

Tezuka hated Fuji.

Meanwhile, Niou had just began a game of footsies with Kirihara, who, by shear lack of boredom, followed Niou's lead and began striking back with a combo of his own. Who knew that stepping on each other could prove so hard? At least, it was hard for Kirihara. Niou got his win easily by poking Kirihara's head when he wasn't looking and then stamp on his foot once and for all.

Niou loved himself.

Kirihara hated Niou.

And then everyone eventually switched their accumulating hate to Fuji when he made them sit through the whole first season of Sailor Moon for the entire night, (yay!)and they weren't even planning on staying over. The only thing that kept them from sleeping was he fact that Fuji had cranked up the volume so loud it made the ground vibrate and that the remote was no where in sight and that Fuji was carefully guarding the array of buttons lodged in the TV. It wasn't so bad if they shut their eyes and crammed pillows up against their head and screamed 'la-la-la' in their heads, but after hours and hours of hearing 'moon prism makeup' over and over and over again, it got quite maddening. Fuji was glad his parents and Yumiko were out for the night because it wasn't the most pleasant of sights the next morning. Tezuka made a note to himself not to ever help Fuji again unless he was sure that the other was on the brink of death.

(Here's some fun with AU, part one of thirteen. It doesn't pertain to the Incidents in any way. Just another senseless omake where Oshitari's power is absolute.)

I.G.D.P.O.L.F. XIII

Chronicle XIII

The members of the I.G.D.P.O.L.F. XIII minus number IX, and II, were gathered around on floor zero of Devious Manor, where they were currently huddled together around their leader, the great, deviousOshitari Yuushi. The floor was dim, but not dreary or damp as you might think, and lit with hundreds of candles flickering wilding. It was built in an elegant gothic style with an enormous chandelier hanging above their heads, but that remained unlit, keeping the members in shrouds of darkness. It wasn't like they needed the darkness to cover them, though. Oshitari had issued them all 'uniforms', which consisted of a dark cloak with a zipper running from their necks to their ankles along with a hood, black boots, and matching gloves to go with it. Needless to say, not all of the members were quite happy with the attire, but no one dared object to Oshitari. No matter how many subtle hints they leave to him about how uncomfortable it was, how hard it was to move around in it was, and no matter how much it resembled a retarded dress it was, Oshitari would have none of it, quite proud of his first and hopefully last fashion contribution.

"Where's IX?" Oshitari asked, brows knit in displeasure as his eyes scanned the circle. He knew that II never bothered to show up, but it was rare for IX to be missing. Oshitari rather liked the boy. He was probably one of the only ones in the manor that could actually cook. He himself never attempted to go anywhere near the kitchen after the failed attempt at making stir fry and ended up with a hunk of ash and the microwave exploding.

"Oh, Marui? He's-"

"Refer to him as IX, XIII!" Oshitari barked. XIII gave him a dirty look from under his hood, which actually came in quite useful for hiding facial expressions, or their whole face for that matter. Oshitari was always so finicky about keeping their identities a secret from the endless amounts of people trying to kill them, so he adapted the Roman numerals into the concept and forced them to call each other by their respective number. Of course, no one really cared because the whole world already knew their identities, save II, after Niou/XIII literally strode into the capital during New Year's Eve last week and posted all of their pictures along with a mini-profile for all eyes to feast on. No doubt Oshitari was enraged, (Even though now his dream of gaining fame and power have been more or less fulfilled.) and after finding out, he had promptly demoted Niou from III to XIII. In some minds, it was probably Niou's intention in the first place, because it's a well-known fact that besides Oshitari's floor, XIII's floor was the only other floor with a working air-conditioner and heater.

You see, along with being finicky about their identities, Oshitari was also big on privacy, and so with a manor of colossal size at his disposal, he had assigned them each floors that correlated with their rank from I, Oshitari, at the top, and XIII, Niou, above ground floor. Yes, floors. Each member actually had a whole floor that was like a house in some ways that came fully equipped with all your living needs like bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and in come cases, even a pool. Unpractical, but what else would you put on a sixty-six point six acre of land? Back to the point…

"Marui's suffering from food poisoning," Niou went on, and he could just imagine the looks on the other member's faces underneath their hoods. Everyone knew that Marui had a reputation of being the best thief in their ranks after he had managed to enter Oshitari's place and deplete his entire collection of cheesecake while not even the cunning XII, Ryoma, could enter. They also knew that he had a high-tolerance for expired produce, known for eating out-dated roll cakes, candy from when he was four, and even ice cream that had melted and was refrozen. When they all heard that he of all people was suffering from food poisoning, they were quite surprised.

"Right, anyhow…" Oshitari was also known for his uncaring attitude to attendance. As long as there was at least one person there, he would commence because in a place like this, word travels around fast. "Yesterday, there have been numerous reports of enemy infiltration upon my property."

VI snorted.

"The property," Oshitari corrected, refusing to use 'our'. "There have been numerous reports of enemy infiltration upon the property, so beginning today until further notice, we will begin watch duty."

"What? They've bypassed my shields?" X asked. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Quite possible. Apparently your shields have a glitch on them," Oshitari went on, clearly quite displeased. "And apparently I was to only one out there last night kicking them out."

"Do we all have to go? Or is it in shifts?" IV inquired.

"Shifts of two for the entire night," Oshitari stated. "Beginning with… III and VII."

The mood had become tense as the two were announced. It was a well known fat that III and VII did not get along well at all, and putting the two of them together was like calling for the downfall of the world. Why their leader, who was for the most part, calm, cool, collected, and cerebral had chosen that pair they really didn't know. As far as they were concerned, it was the two most horrible people to set up together as an example for the only example they'll make of it would be bad one ending up with either someone hurt or soon will be… but perhaps that was for the better when it came to crushing bugs.

"It'll be my pleasure," III said darkly, though by the tone of his voice dripping sarcasm, you know it was far from the case.

"As is mine," VII replied as well, matching III's tone. Oshitari smirked. How he loved causing drama. After all, being evil all day long did get boring eventually.

XII, Ryoma, was rather unhappy about the whole 'guard duty' thing, even though it wasn't even his turn. He was rarely getting any sleep these days because it seemed that XI was always up until three in the morning moving furniture and mumbling incoherent words to himself when doing so. Even though Ryoma knew somewhere in his mind that the mumbling wasn't really there, your brain tends to play illusions on you like a heat wave cause mirages in the desert. To say the least, even though he was happy to have been bumped up from the lowest rank, he was unhappy to have to have packed his place and left. At first he thought it wouldn't be so bad because Ryoma had thought that the higher the rank you are, the better rooms you got, but apparently that wasn't the case when he found out that XI had broken every appliance on his floor and that there was no damn air conditioning or heater and to top it all of, the plumbing was screwed! Though the manor seemed like a dark and dreary place from the outside, it got fairly musty and hot inside during the day, and below freezing at night. Ryoma didn't really want to question XI to why there was an excess of tampons jamming up the toilet because considering how XI is a guy, it was a pretty disturbing matter.

However, the most irking matter as it is was the former III living right below him. He didn't know how IV and II lived with him blasting heavy metal music with satanic messages encoded into it if you played it backwards, which Niou often did…. All through the night. It was a wonder how Ryoma actually got any sleep at all, and he barely managed. He was briefly considering going down to his original floor to tell his former superior to shut up when his door suddenly clicked open reveling VIII. Apparently, the locks failed to work as well.

"What do you want, Kiraku?" Ryoma muttered, definitely not in the mood for conversing at this late hour. He was cold, he was miserable, and there was no heater. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed with a couple of hot water bottles before he was reminded that the toilet had screwed up all of the water system on that floor.

"Can't sleep," the boy said darkly. "Mizuki's room is too… lavender, and it smells like women's perfume."

Though Oshitari insisted they addressed each other by their respected numbers, the members all ditched the concept when he wasn't around. To say it frankly, it made them seem incredibly dull calling someone 'ex-ay-ay' or 've-ay-ay-ay', and it got to be quite the tongue twister when they were chatting in a hurry.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Ryoma asked. Kiraku purposely avoided his gaze as he shifted uncomfortably in place. Ryoma saw that he had hauled along a sleeping bag and a pillow. Without the other speaking, Ryoma already knew what he wanted. Ryoma was not happy.

"I was wondering if I could crash here until I get my place remodeled," Kiraku stated. No use beating around the bush. You always had to be blunt with Ryoma or else he'd just blow you off. Normally, Ryoma would've blown him off, but considering how the two of them were the youngest of the bunch and Ryoma didn't want to suffer the horrible presence of Niou and Shinji alone, he decided to share his place.

"It's not pleasant, but whatever."

Shinji, XI, was not in the best of moods. Not only had Oshitari made him and Kiraku swap positions for reasons unbeknownst to him, he found that there was an excess amount of beakers and test tubes and beret clamps and tripods and just about ever piece of lab equipment you could ever name in the previous XI's floor. It was like walking through a mountain of glass every time Shinji tried to enter a room, and he sincerely hoped that X would come and pick up his stupid equipment already.

Wait, actually, Shinji didn't.

A sudden thought came to the boy as he realized that he had complete power here to obliterate X's lab before it could be relocated. Of course, X could probably get more of them, but it would spare everyone in the house a week or two of horror from his dreaded creation of punishment: 'X-Juice'. Well, actually, it was called 'Inui-Juice', but Oshitari was always picky about the numbers, even in a private matter like that. Anyhow, Shinji had the power, and he felt it surging through him. Now the only question was 'to do, or not to do'?

Shinji decided to do, which ended up being what Ryoma supposed to be 'moving furniture' from above.

Meanwhile on floor one, belonging to Niou, the heater was put on full blast as Niou laid on his bed with content smile. His philosophy was that if he couldn't make the heater come to him, then he'd go to the heater, and now here he was with his beloved heating system and mighty proud to have finally snatched it. Raising a can of soda to the air, Niou muttered a silent toast to his brilliance before downing every last drop. Niou felt that he was in pure bliss. There was the heater, there was the soda, and there was Kiraku and Ryoma's snarky little faces at his doorway screaming at him to turn down the volume could it get any better?

"Turn it down!" Ryoma screamed across the awful din. Though Niou could make out what he was saying, but chose to ignore it and give him a smirk in compensation. Neither of the two was happy with the response. In fact, they were infuriated even more. Kiraku was known to have a temper when sleep deprived, and Ryoma who Oshitari had picked up at a temple wasn't very partial to loud noises, or any kind of noise in general. Kiraku tried a more aggressive tactic.

"As your seniors, we order you to turn it down!" Kiraku hollered. So what if he was older and the previous III? He was XIII now and by Oshitari's code, they should be able to order him around by all means.

"Make me," Niou shot back, and for Ryoma and Kiraku who were in desperate need of sleep, did the only thing they could do: tattle. Not even they were stupid enough to know that Niou was a master at the magical arts and could have them literally weaved up and suspended in a cocoon of fire with a snap of his fingers. Ryoma and Kiraku were cold, but they weren't that desperate for some heat.

Saeki, IV, was awoken by a horrible string of 'ding-dongs' and front door assaults. Here he was, resting after a day of unpacking and cleaning out the refrigerator of III, and then suddenly in the middle of the night out of the blue came these abnormal banging that he could really do without. Saeki was one whom people rarely bothered because they rarely had issues with him, and he pretty sure that it wasn't a swarm of bounty hunters trying to capture him. For one, for them to get across Fuji and Mizuki would be quite the feet, even if the two often quarreled just about every second that was allotted to them. For another, for them to have cleared the floors all the way up to his level would be quite impossible to overcome in such a short period of time, especially with Niou and his love of fire waiting for them on the first floor. Still, just for precautionary, Saeki grabbed his favorite sword and proceeded to the door, yawning.

"Saeki-san, tell Niou to turn down his music!" Kiraku and Ryoma pleaded with dead serious eyes. Saeki yawned again. Apparently, self defense mechanisms weren't needed. Nonetheless, the presence of it was enough to intimidate Ryoma and Kiraku.

"How come your swords get longer every time we see you with one?" Ryoma mumbled.

"Well, you don't see me with them often, do you?" Saeki asked, and the two had to admit that it was true. They rarely got to see the higher ups anyhow, but Saeki was an exception because he was the one who kept the peace and the ones who Ryoma and Kiraku tattled to because he was the only one who ever seemed to help them.

"Anyhow, what's this about Niou?" Saeki went on, eager to get this over with so he could sleep.

"Oh, right," Kiraku said sheepishly. "Well, he seems to have hooked up his favorite heavy metal to extreme loudspeakers, and we can't sleep."

"You can't?" Saeki asked dubiously. "I thought you have Mizuki's room."

"Yeah, but this guy here doesn't like purple so he went down to my place," Ryoma said. Saeki nodded to show he understood and without another word, he walked out into the elevator section and hit the button for Niou's room. Yes, even though it's an old manor, Oshitari would die before he'd walk up those steps. Besides, elevators were so much more convenient.

Little did the three know what Niou was going to greet them with.

Marui's stomach was feeling a bit better after the bowl of porridge he had VI, Shiraishi, cook up for him, but he still felt a bit on the queasy side. He was still grateful that the boy would take the time to visit him and help him out though, because he really didn't expect anyone to. Saeki usually would've taken the time to do so, and occasionally Niou, (the made things even worse, though) but Marui knew that Saeki was clearing away his floor and Niou was probably taking his sweet pleasure annoying Ryoma. Surprised he was when Shiraishi popped up.

"Thanks for coming to visit," Marui said as he rubbed his stomach contently. Give it a little more while to digest everything and he'd be good as before. Shiraishi answered him with a smile and a:

"You're welcome, but I only did it so I wouldn't be stuck with Shinji for guard duty." Marui could really care less he did it mostly for his own gain because that's what everyone at the manor basically did. See an opportunity to get on top, you did it. See someone in trouble but no profit for you, just walk on by. (Saeki could take care of the 'being nice' business.)

"Guard duty?" Marui questioned. He had missed the meeting, so this must have been what popped up. Oshitari had been nice enough to send him a flyer, but Marui wasn't really in the mood for reading pages and pages of pointless text mainly depicting Oshitari's 'great awesomeness' and hardly anything about what was really important.

"Yeah, Inui's shield was inefficient, and it seems some enemies got onto our property yesterday," Shiraishi said. "So Oshitari has posted us for guard duty until further notice."

"And you picked Shinji?" Marui asked. There was no one in the right mind who would honestly pick Shinji, who blabbered endlessly if given the chance, and if there wasn't a chance, he'd make one, which made the whole thing very frustrating. On top of that, Shinji was renowned for his mind reading capabilities, which proved to be even more annoying since he's rambling about your inner most emotions to you.

"No, we drew lots after Oshitari announced Fuji and Mizuki were together," Shiraishi said. "Since you were sick, I got stuck with Shinji.

"He put those two together? Is he wanting a death?" Marui said, honestly surprised. After a moment though, he cracked a smile. "Sounds like Oshitari, though."

"True enough," Shiraishi laughed.

Marui was about to answer that when suddenly the door snapped open and in stomped Sengoku, his usual lucky-go-happy face turned upside down. He looked troubled, and from that Marui as Shiraishi would infer that something was up, as there was always something up when you stick that much testosterone under one roof.

"Shiraishi! There you are!" Sengoku gasped. "Niou's set the first floor on fire! Go put it out!"

Shiraishi sighed. How he hated being the one constantly having to clean up after Niou.

"It's a wonderful night, Mizuki-kun."

"Yes, very much so, Fuji-kun."

Malice dripped in every one of heir syllables as Mizuki and Fuji smiled at each other through much force. Internally, they were glaring at each other, wishing they could tear out the other's insides and through them to the wild dogs to devour. Yet they were forced to work together, both bound under Oshitari's contract.

"There are no clouds in the sky, Mizuki-kun."

"No, there aren't, Fuji-kun."

Where were enemies? Where was the action? What was the point in spending time with each other when both hated it beyond anything else?

"That dart nearly missed your head, Mizuki-kun."

Yes it did, Fuji-kun."

Ah, here they came. What a pathetic bunch. It didn't take long for Fuji to blast through them and Mizuki to skewer through them. In fact, they were still continuing their pleasant conversation during the elimination process. It was all child's play to them.

"I hope you die, Mizuki-kun."

"I hope you die, Fuji-kun."

For as far as Ryoma, Kiraku, and Saeki could see, there was fire, fire, and more flames of fire. If it weren't for Kiraku preventing the flames from burning them all to ash, they would probably be, well, burned to ashes. Niou wasn't one to think of casualties. If they couldn't survive this wave of fire, they didn't deserve to be in the group.

"I can't believe I'm holding a guy's hand," Ryoma sighed unhappily. Kiraku gave him a reproachful look while Saeki was trying to swat away the flames and reasoning with Niou at the same time.

"You're just one hand away from death and you're complaining?" Kiraku grumbled. Ryoma scoffed and remained silent as he watched Saeki work his magic.

"Niou! Stop it!" Saeki screamed.

"Why should I?" Niou fired back, quite literally as he sent an fireball straight at them. The three braced for impact, and it did feel rather weird to have not felt anything at all, but better that than getting scorched, right?

"You're going to burn the whole place down!" Saeki reasoned.

"Wouldn't be the first time."

The trio gazed at their saviors, which was composed of Inui, X, Marui, IX, Sengoku, V, and Shiraishi, VI, all huddled together in Inui's little bubble that prevented them from experiencing painful burns. Inui might be renowned for his juices, but he was even better known as the one you hid behind when someone is out to get you because if anyone could set up a barrier, it was Inui. Didn't take long for Ryoma, Kiraku, and Saeki to burst into the bubble.

"Thank god I don't have to hold a guy's hand anymore," Ryoma said as he scrubbed his hand against his shirt, eh, cloak-thingy. If they were in a different situation, Kiraku would think Ryoma was insulting his hand.

Meanwhile, the older guys were doing the obvious task of putting out Niou's flames. Inui was isolating portions of it in their own little cage while Marui froze them in time to prevent them from spreading and Shiraishi put them out with water. Saeki and Sengoku concentrated on subduing Niou by doing it the only way they knew how: jumping on top of him and pinning down his hands. It proved to be a very hard task with Niou flailing around.

"Why is it always my fault?" he screamed as Sengoku got him handcuffed with lightning and Saeki making him immobile with his magical plant friends.

"Because you're always at fault," the seven chorused. Niou frowned, but in reality, he was smirking like crazy. He had won.

"He won your bet, I."

"I knew he would, II."

"Are you disappointed?"

"No, it was expected of him, naturally."

"Of course."

"Yes, everything turns out exactly as I wish it."

"They're going to complain about moving again."

"Let them complain then. The more conflicts, the more amusement."

Oshitari Yuushi was a man to fear.

For those of you who have forgotten the beloved Shiraishi and Kiraku, they are the captain of Shitenhouji and the guy from Midoriyama who lost to Ryoma, respectively.