Chapter XXVI- "Tennis is Action Packed, Isn't It?"
"Listen up, team," said Mizuki as he slapped a pointer against an easel that had nothing written on it. "In the last challenge, we came in first place. We have started strong. Now is not the time to slack off. We have to show everyone that we're still the best and our winning wasn't just a fluke or beginner's luck. We are the hardworking team and we have to prove to everyone that our hard work pays off!"
"That's great and everything, Mizuki, but I'm the captain of this team," said Kaidou as he stood up and swiped the pointer from Mizuki. "And, as captain, I elect Inui to come up with another good idea."
He handed the pointer to Inui and then sat back down. Mizuki looked like he was going to complain but then he just decided to let it lay and he sat down as well.
Inui took the pointer and got to his feet. "This pointer is a little…pointless," he observed as he put it down. Then he took a look at the easel. "I think a marker would be my weapon of choice."
"I have one," said Yuuta randomly as he handed Inui a marker.
"Thank you, Yuuta," said Inui as he turned back to the easel. He wrote the word 'ACTION' at the top and underlined it.
"What were the requirements again?" Shishido said, raising his hand politely. "Five minutes at least, and everyone needs a speaking part. Was that it?"
"Basically," Inui answered. "It is also crucial that we come in first, second or third place because there are going to be extremely detrimental penalties for everyone else."
"No problem," said Kaidou, crossing his arms.
"We have set the bar for the previous challenge!" Mizuki announced, standing up and passionately shaking his fist in the air. "Everyone else is striving to defeat us, which is why we have to do even better than the first presentation!"
"Why are you acting like that, Mizuki?" Yuuta said, covering his face and looking embarrassed for Mizuki.
"I'm just trying to rally the troops," Mizuki answered. "Everyone on this team is so boring. You all just sit around and do internal rallying."
"That's how we get rallied up," said Shishido.
"We just used the word 'rally' in three different ways," Inui said.
"So we did," Kaidou nodded.
"We just didn't use 'rallies'," Yuuta added.
Mizuki only sat there looking horrified. "That's it!" he said. "You guys are ultimately boring. I say we do something fun!"
"Something fun?" Shishido repeated. "What are we supposed to do? Did you not notice when they told us we had to make a skit?"
"Yeah, but we can take a little break from brainstorming," Mizuki shrugged.
"You were the one who was trying to 'rally the troops' literally one minute ago," Inui reminded him.
"That was then, this is now," said Mizuki. "You guys are bordering on hopeless. Sure, you work hard and everything, but all work and no play makes Mizuki a dull boy!"
"Under normal circumstances, Mizuki, I would tell you to just leave," said Kaidou. "But all of us need a speaking part in order for this to work. It's part of the guidelines."
"Okay, so maybe we don't have to go anywhere," said Mizuki. "But maybe we could do something fun."
"Like?" Shishido yelled with his ultimately skeptical and sarcastic voice that he was using only to make Mizuki feel like anything he said would be futile.
"How about Twister?" Mizuki said as he pulled a Twister mat and the spinner out from behind his back. "It's the hot spot."
Inui slapped his forehead. "We obviously have different and more important things to do."
"I don't want the detrimental penalty that gets progressively worse as our placement gets worse," Yuuta said, looking uncomfortable.
"Geez, Mizuki, we're not going to waste time playing twister when we're supposed to be writing a skit," said Kaidou, rolling his eyes.
"I can tell you all want to play," said Mizuki, waving the mat around.
"No, Mizuki, we don't," Shishido said harshly as he looked back at Inui. "Could we get something done? I'd rather not stay up all night practicing again, but I will if I have to."
"Ditto," chimed the others, save Mizuki.
"Save Mizuki indeed," Mizuki said as he dropped his Twister implements and slouched into his chair.
"Now that we have that interruption out of our way," Inui said, uncapping the marker and underlining 'ACTION' again. "Does anyone have any bright ideas?"
"Action is going to be difficult because we don't have the luxury of stunt doubles, a budget or special effects," Shishido said. "That means no explosions, no car chases, and certainly no dramatic drops from a helicopter."
"In retrospect, I think we should have chosen something else," Yuuta commented.
"No, we're fine," Kaidou assured him.
"All we have to do is start thinking," Inui said. "Things will fall into place."
Everyone put their hands on their chins and began to ponder.
"Anyone come up with any ideas yet?" Mizuki asked.
No one answered.
"Okay…so how about we play some Twister then?" Mizuki tried.
"Mizuki…" Yuuta sighed.
"Say," said Shishido slowly. "Tennis is action packed, isn't it?"
"That is a fact," Kaidou said. "You have an idea?"
"What if we did a dramatic tennis skit?" Shishido suggested.
"Dramatic?" Inui said. "Do you think there's enough action in tennis to qualify it was 'dramatic'?"
"Yeah, of course," Shishido said. "We could do an epic tennis thing. It would be great."
"It could work," Yuuta said optimistically. "Maybe we could find some sound effects too."
"We would have to make it even more dramatic than your every day tennis match, though," Inui said. "Like have the fate of the world hanging in the balance of the single match."
"So an evil mastermind says he'll destroy the world if the hero doesn't play a tennis match against him," Kaidou tried.
"Or, instead of tennis, we could make it a Twister game," Mizuki said.
"Enough about Twister," Shishido ordered.
"I'm just being annoying now," Mizuki said, looking smug and maybe even a little content.
"Obviously," Shishido threw a glare at Mizuki for good measure.
"Anyway?" Yuuta said, clearing his throat and trying to avoid any more confrontation.
"Right," Inui said, stepping away from the easel to reveal that he had been scribing all of the ideas—even the ones concerning Twister. "Let's consider the roles that would involve."
"Hero, evil mastermind," Kaidou counted on his fingers.
"Referee," Yuuta added.
"Evil mastermind's lackey," Shishido tried. "And the hero's sidekick."
"Is this hero suddenly a super hero?" Inui asked.
"Maybe it would be better that way," Shishido said. "That way he can have super human tennis abilities that real people can't do in real life."
"I see," said Inui as he finished writing the five names on the easel. "Does anyone want to be someone in particular?"
"Could I be the evil mastermind?" Mizuki raised his hand.
"No," said Inui.
"Why not?" Mizuki demanded.
"Because you annoy me," Inui answered plainly. "And you're being counterproductive to our plan making process."
"You wrote down all my ideas," Mizuki pointed at the easel.
Inui looked at the easel. "So I did," he commented. "But that's just because I was in the zone."
"I see," said Mizuki.
"Does anyone else have any preferences?" Inui asked.
"We don't care," the others answered.
"Very well," said Inui as he magically accumulated a hat and five pieces of paper with the names of the five roles on them. "We'll just pick these names out of this hat in order to determine who gets each role. Everyone come up and take a paper."
One by one, the other four members of the team took the papers out of the hat and then Inui kept the last one for himself.
"I got the worst role ever," Mizuki complained.
"Referee?" Inui tried and Mizuki nodded. Inui wrote Mizuki's name down. "And my role has been decided that I will be the evil mastermind's lackey. Joy."
"I'm the hero," said Shishido, trying not to sound too proud of himself as he showed everyone the paper.
"Great," said Kaidou sarcastically, showing his paper that said 'sidekick'. It's not like Kaidou has anything in particular against Shishido that would make him loath being his sidekick, but Kaidou basically was going to be unhappy with any role that involved him not playing tennis.
Yuuta opened his paper and frowned. "I'm the evil mastermind," he reported.
"That hardly works at all," Mizuki said. "Let's trade, Yuuta."
Yuuta was about to say, "NEVER!" but then he realized that this would have been a good thing for him. He didn't want a lot of lines or to do anything embarrassing so being the referee would be the best role for him. Besides, Mizuki wanted to be the evil mastermind in the first place so it seemed like everyone would be happy in the end.
"All right," Yuuta said, offering Mizuki the paper.
"Happy day!" Mizuki cheered. "I'm the evil mastermind now."
Inui looked disgruntled because he didn't want Mizuki to get what he wanted, and he especially didn't want to be Mizuki's lackey.
"Does anyone else want to trade?" he offered. "Kaidou?"
"No," said Kaidou. "If I'm going to be a non tennis playing sidekick then I might as well be on the team that wins."
"Fine," said Inui. "I don't care anyway." But you could tell he did.
"Should we develop a script now?" Shishido asked.
"No, I think we should play Twister now," Mizuki said. "We deserve it after all our hard work."
The others were about to light their torches and run Mizuki out of town, but they considered his statement. Yes. They did deserve at least one game of celebratory Twister before they buckled down and the real work began.
"All right," they said finally, and then argued over who got to be the spinner.