"This is DEVASTATING to our team!" said Shishido as he stood in the place where the television once was. "Why would they take our television? It's just too cruel!"
"Now we have these video games, but no screen in which to project them." Said Itsuki sadly.
"This is all YOUR fault!" said Kamio, pointing at Oishi. "If you had completed your task, we would still have our television!"
"No, it's not my fault." Said Oishi. "It's YOUR fault for not giving me my envelope and at least giving me an opportunity to complete my task. I'm just glad that the consequences weren't… shaving my head or something…"
"That would just be dumb." Said Sengoku.
"Yeah." Everyone agreed.
Then they looked at Sengoku.
"HEY!" they yelled. "OUTSIDE PET!"
"Didn't we learn anything from losing our television?" Sengoku pleaded desperately as everyone ambushed him and tossed him out the door onto the front lawn. "But I did so well in the challenge!"
They were unable to hear the end of his statement, however, because they had slammed and locked the door. Had they heard his statement, perhaps they would have been more forgiving. Then again, he didn't WIN the challenge. So probably not.
"Now that THAT'S over with…" said Shishido, clapping his hands together and returning into the living room only to be devastated. "Aw man! No television!"
"That didn't take you too long to forget about." Said Kamio.
"I've been thinking, Shishido…" said Oishi slowly. "Sengoku did very well in the challenge."
"So?" said Shishido. "Are you saying you want to let him back inside? Because that is SO not happening!"
"Well, that wasn't my point." Oishi admitted. "My point is… well, YOU did nothing outstanding. If anything, you were kind of antagonizing everyone AND annoying our coaches, who happen to be the judges of the individual winners… and Sengoku was really impressing them…"
"So what are you saying?" said Shishido with a glare.
"I'm saying there's a chance that Sengoku won the individual challenge." Oishi explained.
"Not likely." said Shishido. "It's not like he won or anything."
"Well, keep in mind that if it turns out that he DID win, then you're outside next." Said Oishi.
"How do you know something like that?" demanded Shishido.
"Because you're the one who put HIM outside." Kamio said. "Come on, that's obvious."
"And that's not even my point yet." Said Oishi. "My point is… maybe if you let him in NOW, he might reconsider putting you outside next and maybe that'll be how we end the cycle of this outside pet thing."
"Yeah…but…" Shishido started. "If he DIDN'T end up winning, then I'll have let him back inside for no reason."
"Well…" Oishi said. "No reason other than you're a nice guy. Far above Kamio and I, anyway."
"I had a good reason." Said Kamio. "YOU were just psychotic."
"That being said, I recommend letting Sengoku back inside." Oishi concluded.
"But if he lets Sengoku back inside…" Itsuki reasoned. "And Sengoku ends up winning and switching the family around… he might not automatically chose to make Shishido the Pet… and then there's a chance that one of US might be the Pet next!"
Oishi and Kamio looked at Itsuki and then back at Shishido.
"Never mind, there's no chance at all that Sengoku could have possibly won." Kamio said.
"Definitely not." Oishi agreed. "He lost the challenge for us after all."
"Yeah!" said Shishido. "That's what I'VE been saying!"
Team Six
"You know what I wish we had?" Kaidou said to his family.
"What?" said Ryou.
"A kitchen table." Kaidou answered.
They were all foolishly sitting in their kitchen chairs except there was an empty void in which there was no table.
"Yeah." Said Oshitari. "Sorry about that."
"Would it really have been THAT hard to switch clothes with Akutsu?" Kaidou demanded.
"Yes." Said Oshitari. "A little."
Just as he said that, Akutsu came in through the backdoor.
"What in the fiery pits of the seven hells is THIS?" he demanded, holding up a small misshapen block of wood with a wire attached to it. The wood had a hole in it that had little nestly items falling out of it.
"Who gave you permission to touch that?" Kaidou yelled, jumping to his feet.
"You did, by leaving it outside where anyone could have bumped into it while they were walking by!" said Akutsu. "It's a good thing I was wearing this helmet, I can tell you that much, or else I could have gotten a very serious injury!"
Akutsu then threw the block of wood to the ground.
"How dare you!" said Kaidou.
"What is that?" Atsushi said, leaning over.
"It's nothing!" Kaidou picked it up and hid it so no one could see.
"Is that… a birdhouse?" said Oshitari as he adjusted his glasses only to realize that he needed a re-taping job.
"NO!" said Kaidou.
"Isn't that the project you made at the first challenge?" inquired Ryou.
"NO it's not!" said Kaidou angrily as he walked out the back door and slammed it shut.
Akutsu watched Kaidou go, and then smugly went over to the empty seat and sat down.
"You know, it's kind of stupid to just sit in a circle." Said Akutsu.
"Yeah, we know." Said the other three.
"And you know what else?" said Akutsu.
"No, what else?" said the other three.
"I've decided to get rid of everything in this house that would be dangerous in the event of a earthquake." Said Akutsu.
The others paused.
"…Which is essentially everything that isn't bolted down, right?" said Oshitari.
"Yes." Said Akutsu. "And we will also remove everything that isn't fire safe."
"Which is essentially everything that's flammable." Atsushi said.
"Yes." Akutsu said. "And we will continue to accommodate our living conditions until it is completely safe from any sort of situation whatsoever."
Akutsu leaned back in his chair and continued to look smug.
"I think you're taking this whole safety public service announcement hallucination a little too far." Said Oshitari.
"WHAT?" said Akutsu, putting all four legs on the ground again. "How dare you say that! I will…seriously, I really will kill you!"
"All right." Said Oshitari, backing up. "Completely safe environment it is."
"Good." Said Akutsu. "I knew if I threatened your life you would see it my way and keep yourselves safe. Now when can I expect you all to wear your helmets again, or do I have to give you all a second black eye?"
He threatened them all with his shaking fist. The others started looking around for where they had discarded their helmets.
"Not so tough without your second year to fight for you, are you?" said Akutsu with an evil grin.
Team Seven"I suspect that perhaps the disco ball is a shell holding our real prize inside…" Said Renji as he carried a stepladder into the living room.
When they had entered their house, they had found that the only change that had occurred was the addition of a brand new disco ball. As they searched and searched the house for anything else that was different, they only came up empty handed. They had completed all their tasks so there was no reason for them to be gypped out of a REAL prize…
"Okay, like a piñata?" Tetsu questioned as Renji stepped up and reached for the disco ball.
"Let's just break it open." Sanada said.
"Do you have a baseball bat?" Inui asked.
"STOP RIGHT THERE." Came a voice behind them.
They all turned around to see Jirou standing there in his Batman pajamas that came complete with a cape and everything.
"What is it?" asked Renji.
"Did I overhear you talking about destroying our amazing prize that I earned?" Jirou demanded, stomping over.
It was hard to take him seriously though because he was so small and he was wearing Batman pajamas complete with the cape and everything.
"We suspect that our real prize is within the disco ball." Inui said.
"REAL PRIZE?" Jirou repeated in disgust. "How much realer than a disco ball can you get?"
"Money?" Sanada tried.
"Candy?" Tetsu offered.
"Those would be good, but seriously…" said Jirou. "This disco ball is the best thing that could have ever happened to us."
"How so?" said his entire team.
"JUST DON'T BREAK IT!" Jirou begged, getting on his knees.
The other four looked at each other.
"Well, technically, it IS his prize…" Tetsu said.
"It is the entire family's prize." Inui said.
"Look, Jirou, it doesn't even work." Said Renji. "There's no kind of apparatus anywhere on it to turn it on. And there's no wire connecting to it that would connect to an apparatus to turn it on."
"I refuse to allow you to destroy my hopes and dreams!" cried Jirou.
"You're talking about a disco ball here." Said Sanada.
"Hey, hey." Said Tetsu. "How about we sleep on it? Maybe in the morning, we'll get a prize for not doing the expected thing that would be destroying the disco ball to find a better prize."
Inui and Renji looked at each other.
"That was very astute of you." Said Inui. "How much data did you gather to come to that conclusion?"
"I just feel bad for Jirou because he's so excited about the disco ball." Tetsu admitted.
"Very well." Said Renji, stepping down. "But if we don't get rewarded tomorrow, I am taking that disco ball apart."
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" exclaimed Jirou.
"So let's all sleep on it then." Sanada sighed. "Now get out of the living room because this is my bedroom too."
The rest of the family shuffled out as Sanada shut the lights off.
As soon as he did, the room suddenly illuminated with lights from the disco ball as it spun beautifully.
"Woooowwww…" said Jirou, his eyes lighting up as brightly as the disco ball.
"Oh no." said Sanada. "Don't tell me our coaches actually wired in the disco ball to our light switch so that it turns on every time we turn the lights off…"
Sure enough, when he turned the lights back on, the disco ball turned off.
"NO!" Jirou shouted. "I LIKE THE DISCO BALL!"
"Tell you what, Jirou, you can sleep in the disco ball room tonight." Said Sanada.
"GLADLY!" Jirou shouted as he started jumping on the couch and the rest of the family departed to their appointed sleeping areas.
Team Eight"Great, now we don't even have a couch we can fight over." Yuuta said sadly to Shinji as both of them sat on the floor of the living room.
"Or a comfy chair we can use as a last resort to fight over." Shinji agreed. "Or a television we can watch while we wait in vain for the other person to fall asleep first."
"I shouldn't be punished for this." Yuuta crossed his arms. "I did MY task."
"Should we take Bane and Jackal up on their offer to share the bunk beds?" Shinji asked.
"They weren't being serious." Said Yuuta. "They were just saying that so they'd look like heroes because they knew we'd reject them."
"Well…yeah." Said Shinji. "That would have been really awkward."
"It's awkward just sharing a queen sized bed." Yuuta said. "I imagine."
"Probably." Shinji agreed.
The two of them sighed.
"This isn't fair." Said Yuuta. "Atobe's the Pet! HE should be the one dealing with this problem! Not us!"
"He also didn't do his task." Shinji pointed out.
"Well neither did you." Said Yuuta.
"Well neither did he." Shinji said.
"We covered that already." Yuuta reminded him.
"You know what?" said Shinji, standing up and looking determined. "I've suddenly been overcome with the sheer determination and belief in myself to go into that room and confront Atobe!"
"Really?" said Yuuta, standing up as well.
"I believe in me." Said Shinji.
"I believe in you too!" Yuuta cheered.
Shinji started marching towards the Parent's room, but he had hardly cleared the kitchen before he crumpled in shame and turned away from his goal.
"Shinji, no!" said Yuuta. "You must be strong!"
"He's too…intimidating…" said Shinji helplessly, clenching his fist in despair.
"Living in fear day in and day out…" said Yuuta dramatically. "This isn't the way we were supposed to live! We're human beings, goddamn it! We shouldn't have to constantly bow to every whim of one man!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Yuuta…" said Shinji. "But isn't Fuji Shuusuke your brother?"
Yuuta glared at him, stood up, turned around and crossed his arms, instantly becoming very cold.
"Yeah." He said. "So?"
"So…" said Shinji. "Don't you know how to deal with scary intimidating people?"
"Whoa." Said Yuuta. "I hope you didn't just compare Shuusuke to Atobe. Those two are on totally different tennis courts."
"How different?" said Shinji.
"Well, like…" Yuuta pondered. "While Shuusuke's on Court C, Atobe's probably on court D or B or something…"
"Oh." said Shinji. "So just different courts that are next to each other. But not that far away."
"I suppose." Said Yuuta. "But there's no way I can put my dealing with Shuusuke's skills to use when it comes to dealing with anyone except Shuusuke! You understand, don't you?"
"I guess…" said Shinji with a sigh. "What a disappointment…"
"Let's look on the bright side." Said Yuuta. "Today's almost over, and tomorrow's the fourth day. Which means there's only tomorrow and the day after and then we're done and we get to go home! How great is that?"
"Good I guess…" said Shinji. "I have been missing hanging out with Tachibana…"
"I can't wait to completely abandon Atobe." Yuuta agreed.
"Well, then I guess all we can do at this point is stick it out." Said Shinji.
"I guess." Said Yuuta.
Then the both of them went back to the living room to sleep on the floor.
"At least we both got at least one chance on the couch so it was fair." Said Shinji.
"Yeah, yeah…" Yuuta said.