"Before we start, is there anyone here who refuses to wear his ballet slippers?" Banji asked.
"Mine don't fit." Bane raised his hand.
"Oh." said Banji, walking over and taking the slippers from him. "Oh well… you see, we couldn't find ballet slippers in size gigantic."
Bane raised his eyebrow.
"You see," said Banji. "Because… you're gigantic."
"Uh huh…" said Bane.
"He can wear mine." Said Inui, holding his pair up.
"No, Inui, Ryuuzaki brought those from home just for you." Said Banji.
Inui stood there looking very apathetic. Then he dropped the slippers on the courts. "I am going to forfeit this match."
"How can you forfeit before the match has even begun?" said Banji, looking only SLIGHTLY surprised.
"Easily." Said Inui. "Besides, I'm not concerned. We have all our furniture and the special prizes aren't that special."
"Maybe I should back out just to save face then…" Bane thought.
"NO!" yelled Team Eight. "BECAUSE WE'RE MISSING FURNITURE AND WE WANT THE SPECIAL PRIZE!"
"But these ballet slippers don't even fit me!" whined Bane.
"TOO BAD!" they yelled. "PUSH THROUGH THE PAIN! WE CAME IN LAST PLACE IN THE PREVIOUS CHALLENGE AND WE HAVE TO MAKE UP THOSE POINTS!"
Bane stared at them. "How are you all saying that all at once?" he asked.
"WE'RE FINALLY CONNECTING AS A TEAM!" they yelled.
"Fine…" Bane sighed. After all, if they were finally connecting as a team, what right did he have to ruin their chances of getting their furniture back?
"So…are you staying in the competition?" Banji asked.
"I guess…" Bane said.
"But Team Seven has forfeited!" Banji went on, pointing at Inui. "Is anyone else going to make this decision and forfeit as well?"
"NO WAY!" yelled all the Sisters.
"Good!" said Banji. "Then let's let the recital begin!"
That's when EVERYONE raised their hands.
"I bet you're all thinking…" Banji went on. "How can this CRAZY man expect us to have a ballet recital when we have neither the talent nor the skill or the routine to even do a simple step?"
They lowered their hands.
"We all know that ballet is not something that you can just MAKE UP on the spot!" Banji went on. "Therefore, instead of having an actual recital, we are going to do things a little differently."
The rest of the coaches with tiny little podiums and placed them all evenly apart.
"We are going to test your balance and grace and endurance." Said Banji. "But not really grace. More so just balance and endurance."
"Oh so I get it!" said Gakuto. "We're all going to stand up on one of those podiums and whoever lasts the longest wins?"
"Way to steal my fire!" yelled Banji. "But yet. That's essentially what we're going to be doing. Buuuuuttttt…"
Everyone looked afraid.
"You must do it… ON ONE FOOT!" said Banji.
"DEAR LORD SWEET MERCIFUL HEAVENS!" yelled all the Sisters.
"So everyone take a podium now or forfeit, whichever you choose." Said Banji, crossing his arms.
The Sisters looked at each other and then each got on a podium.
"If you fall off, give up or switch your foot then you lose." Banji warned. "Now the competition officially starts… NOW!"
With that, each of the Sisters lifted up one of their feet and began to balance like there was no tomorrow.
"It's important for me to win so Fuji doesn't kill me…" Yana was thinking as he looked over at his team that was standing as far away from Fuji as possible. And, of course, Fuji was plotting many deaths.
"I have to keep up our winning streak so we can mean spiritedly take other people's furniture!" thought Gakuto with a devious grin, glancing over at the pile of furniture.
"Oh geez…" thought Aoi as he sniffed the air. "I hope no one knows that the one who smells so bad is me… I should tell them that I ran out of Arrid…"
"Stupid Ryoma first year saying that my martial arts style of tennis looks like ballet twirls." Hiyoshi said with a scowl on his face. "I'll show him. Maybe I should throw the competition. But then again, it's not like it has anything to do with tennis, and we really need our furniture…"
"Why is it so hot out today?" Itsuki thought. "I can't wait to get back into the air conditioned house."
"There's no one especially fantastic competing this challenge." Ryou observed, looking down the line at the people he was up against. "Maybe I really can win and make up for our team's previous failure and hopefully get the kitchen table back."
"Gigantic? Who does he think he is? ASS." Bane thought, glaring at Banji.
"Are we going to have to sit here and watch this entire time?" Jackal asked anyone who would listen to him.
"Yes." Snapped the coaches.
A little bit of time passed in which everyone was kind of just standing idly by.
"ALL RIGHT!" said Banji. "It's time for TEMPTATION!"
"Temptation?" said all the Sisters.
"Yes." Said Banji. "This offer is open to one person. If you jump off now, then I will automatically give you three points in addition to the two points you would earn from coming in seventh."
"Five points?" Hiyoshi clarified.
"That would be like coming in fourth." Banji said.
They all looked at each other.
"The longer this drags out, the better I'm going to do!" Aoi announced. "I will not forfeit for a measly five points when I am going all the way to eight!"
Itsuki did the math up in his head. His team already had five points which meant they were already guaranteed to get their television back anyway, so if he took the five more free points that was being offered to him then they could automatically get another piece of furniture. THAT WASN'T THEIRS.
He considered the consequences, but then he firmly decided to step down.
"Itsuki has stepped down for the five points!" Banji announced.
"Well…I probably would have taken it too." Said Kamio to Oishi and Sengoku.
"Not me." Said Sengoku.
"Never." Said Oishi, putting his hand over his heart.
"Six teams have elected not to take the temptation!" Banji announced. "Which is good because I only offered it to one person."
"Stop talking!" ordered Gakuto. "It's annoying me!"
"Then I suppose you're not interested in my NEXT temptation." Banji said slyly.
"We're all ears!" Gakuto revised his statement quite quickly and not to mention eagerly.
"For the person who steps down now," Banji said. "Not only will his team receive three points for coming in sixth, but that person will also automatically get another piece of furniture, no matter how many points he ends up with at the end!"
"So…" said Ryou. "If my team got thirteen points at the very end of all the challenges, we'd get three pieces of furniture even though we only qualified for two?"
"Exactly right!" said Banji. "I couldn't have said it better myself!"
"TAKE IT!" Saeki yelled to Hiyoshi.
"…Take it?" Hiyoshi said, looking ultimately baffled.
"Yes!" said Sakurai. "We need furniture!"
"But if I come in first then it'll be eight points added to our four, and then we'd only have to get three in the final challenge and we'd have three pieces." Hiyoshi said.
"Don't care!" said Ryoma. "What are the chances of YOU coming in first?"
Hiyoshi's eyes narrowed.
"I'll show you…" he said under his breath.
"Oh good, I thought he was going to do that 'Strong Hiyoshi strong Hiyoshi' thing again." Said Saeki quietly to his teammates as they turned their backs to Hiyoshi.
"How'd you know he'd respond to that, Yukimura?" Sakurai asked.
"I know he wants to do his best and—" Yukimura started but then he hacked up blood and passed out.
"YUKIMURA!" Sanada yelled as he ran over to Yukimura so intensely that Saeki, Ryoma and Sakurai went flying off into the sunset.
"It seems as though Bane has accepted the bribe!" Banji announced as Bane stepped down.
"WHAT?" yelled Team Eight.
"How could you?" demanded Yuuta.
"Well, now we have four points and a definite piece of furniture." Said Bane. "And you know we're guaranteed at least one more point even if we come in last. So… we know we get two pieces. So let's just get the couch and television back since we never really sit around the kitchen table anyway."
"But we wanted TWO couches!" whined Shinji.
"Then…if we come in at least third, we can get two couches AND the television." Bane suggested.
"Or we could NOT get the television and get two couches instead." Said Jackal.
"Or…" said Atobe. "What if we stole someone else's bunk beds?"
The team was silent.
"Dear god, Atobe." Said Yuuta. "Where did THAT come from?"
"Believe it or not, I'm tired of hearing you two complain about the sleeping arrangement." Atobe said.
"Brilliant!" said Shinji. "Now we can use our free piece of furniture card for a bunk bed set, and then use our guaranteed five points to get the television!"
"You guys really HAVE connected!" said Bane.
"Five teams left…" said Banji.
"Hey," said Hiyoshi to the others. "Could everyone who doesn't need more furniture just step down?"
"Why should we?" demanded everyone who didn't require furniture.
"Because." Said Hiyoshi. "It would be the NICE thing to do. My team needs as many points as we can get because we have practically no furniture in our house."
"Well that's your fault for being too lazy to complete the tasks." Gakuto said. "I could stay up here all day!"
"The last temptation!" Banji declared. "Last one! Whoever steps down right now will receive, in addition to four points for coming in fifth, an additional two points!"
"Like coming in third…" Ryou reasoned.
Once again he looked down the line and realized that everyone standing there sort of looked like they could stand there all day. Except for Yana who was teetering. But still, this was the last temptation, so he might end up coming in fourth, or fifth even. That means he might walk away with only four or five points, when he COULD have walked away with five!
"I'LL step down!" said Ryou as he did just that.
"ATSUSHI!" Akutsu yelled, shaking his fist.
"I'm RYOU!" said Ryou. Then he paused. "Wait no, I'm Atsushi! Haha…"
"No he's not, he's Ryou!" said Atsushi immediately.
"They don't even look the same." Said Oshitari. "Why does EVERYONE have this problem?"
"Because they're twins." Said Kaidou. "Can't you tell?"
"Of course I can tell, but they've done a good job making themselves look like NOT twins." Oshitari sighed. Kaidou and Akutsu only stared at him blankly, and then made eye contact with EACH OTHER and commenced in glaring from there.
"So…" observed Bane. "We have only four teams, and it just so happens that they are Teams One through Four. Could it possibly end up being a showdown between Teams One and Two again?"
"Whoa, whoa…!" said Yana as he started tipping off to one side towards Gakuto.
"Tip the other way!" Gakuto said frantically.
"I CAN'T STAY UP!" Yana yelled as he toppled over right into Gakuto and knocked him over.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Teams One and Two.
"OH NO!" exclaimed Banji as he ran over. "How terrible, yet at the same time, how ironic!"
"Idiot!" said Gakuto angrily to Yana.
"Sorry…" said Yana, bowing his head in shame.
"I didn't see!" Banji asked. "Who fell first?"
"Well, technically Yana fell over first, but Gakuto hit the ground first." Aoi said.
"Hm…" said Banji. "I must consult!"
Banji then ran over to consult with the other coaches.
"I had that win in the bag!" Gakuto complained to his team.
"It's all right, Gakuto." Said Marui.
"We still love you!" said Eiji as he ran over and hugged Gakuto.
"ATTENTION!" yelled Banji. "The coaches and I have made an executive decision! Since Gakuto hit the ground first, he was officially eliminated BEFORE Yana, so he will take fourth place and Yana will take third!"
"WHAT?" demanded Team Two.
"OH SNAP!" said Team One.
"This stinks because that means Ryou got more points than me even though I stayed on longer!" Gakuto whined some more.
"Like we said, it's okay as long as you tried your best." Choutarou assured him.
"Two teams remain!" said Banji. "Team Three's Aoi and Team Four's Hiyoshi!"
"Maybe he really will win." Said Saeki since he and his two partners in crime had since returned from being shot into orbit.
"Look," said Hiyoshi. "Your team is not missing ANY furniture. My team is missing ALL our furniture. Just step down."
"Make me!" Aoi said.
Hiyoshi frowned and then looked at Banji. "It is against the rules to sabotage anyone?" he asked.
"Hm…well, I never really said it was so…" Banji rubbed his chin. "Sure! Why not? Go ahead! Anyone in mind?"
"Yeah…" Hiyoshi looked at Aoi.
"Not if I sabotage you first!" said Aoi as he swung wildly at Hiyoshi, but missed him and lost his balance. He flung around like a crazy person trying to stay on top of his podium, but Hiyoshi just gave him a light tap and he fell off his podium a moment later.
"WINNER!" Banji announced, doing JAZZ HANDS for Hiyoshi.
"YAY!" cheered Team Four.
"We knew you had it in you!" said Sakurai.
"No you didn't." said Hiyoshi.
"No, that was only a trick to make you feel like you HAD to prove to us that you could win!" said Saeki.
"Even right down to me being an extra huge tool to convince you." Ryoma explained.
"So you guys…tricked me…?" Hiyoshi stared at his teammates and then whipped around dramatically. "Strong Hiyoshi…strong Hiyoshi!"
His team slapped their foreheads.