And…that's it! The contest is officially over! Winners will be announced in the next chapter, as well as being notified via PM.
Yay! 60 reviews! I feel so appreciated. For my 60th reviewer, Leopardstar, I present you with a 5-foot chocolate bunny!
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The day of the final challenge.
The Top Three, Matsumoto, Urahara, and Yoruichi, made their way to the arena, only to be confronted by a mass of green.
"Are we in the right place?"
They kept on walking around the perimeter of the mass of hedges, until they bumped into Ichigo.
"There you are!"
Ichigo proceeded to drag them all to the other end of the arena, where there was an opening in the seemingly endless green wall hung with a banner marked 'Start'.
Picking up his loudspeaker, he turned to the audience.
"Welcome to the finals of the Seireitei Game Show! Today's challenge is…the maze!"
So…that was what it was, though the three finalists simultaneously.
Ichigo then proceeded to explain the rules.
"Basically, when I blow the whistle, all three finalists will enter the maze. Their objective is to make it to the center of the maze, where we have set up a table with three cups. They all have powerful teleportation kidou cast on them. One will teleport you to the starting point, one will teleport you to the ending point, and one will drop you in a random point in the maze. However, this is completely optional, and the finalist can choose to make his or her own way to the exit without going to the center. The first one to exit the maze through the ending point wins the grand prize."
He grinned an evil grin.
"Watch out, though, because we have obstacles blocking the way. However, they can be overcome by normal humans, so no kidou, shunpo, shunko, shikai, bankai, etcetera. Got it?"
Three heads nodded.
"Then…go!"
He blew the whistle.
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Yoruichi ran down a pathway in the maze. They had separated at the entrance, Urahara going left, she straight, and Matsumoto right. So far, she hadn't encountered anything. She felt happy, confident, and…
Wait, what was that smell.
She stopped, and sniffed the air. It smelled good. Really good. She just couldn't remember what it was.
She took another long good sniff.
Then, it clicked. This aroma was…
Catnip.
A few moments later, Yoruichi could be seen rolling on the ground, clawing out leaves from the catnip bush that was secretly planted amongst the normal bushes of the hedge.
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Urahara bounced down another pathway. He felt great, having taken out one of Mayuri's robots with a kick to the power source. Mayuri was really too predictable. He always placed the power source in the stomach area.
As he rounded a corner, he saw a pedestal. Atop that pedestal sat a small box.
He walked closer. He now saw what the box read.
'Photoshop CS5 Deluxe Limited Edition.'
Well, being the tech geek that he was, he was drawn in. The shops only had CS4, and even that cost a fortune. How could he just ignore a free Photoshop set that was even better than the CS4?
He couldn't.
Advancing slowly towards it, as though he couldn't believe that it was true, he stretched out a trembling hand.
When he was only an arm's length away, he looked around suspiciously. Seeing nobody, he snatched it and hugged it to his chest.
'Amazing," he sighed dreamily.
The next moment, a trapdoor opened, and Urahara fell into a deep pit. Two seconds later, Chappy plushies fell into the hole, smothering him. There were about a million of them…or five.
If Urahar hadn't had his vision obscured by white-and-pink fabric, he would have seen Ichigo flying off in a helicopter-like device with a retracting claw attached to the bottom, clutching a remote control and cackling evilly.
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Matsumoto, by a stroke of luck, had gone quite far into the maze without any trouble. Unbeknownst to her, she was actually quite near the middle of the maze. She walked down a narrow pathway. As it widened round the bend, she happily continued on, until…
"Matsumoto."
The voice sounded eerily familiar. Much like her height-deprived Taichou.
She turned around to face the source of the noise, and…
Think of the Devil, and he shall appear.
Said height-deprived Taichou was standing there, ever-present scowl plastered on his face.
"Matsumoto. Do paperwork. Now."
"But, Taichou!"
Hitsugaya, sadly, was immune to Matsumoto's whining and puppy-dog eyes.
"Until you finish your paperwork, I have confiscated all of your sake."
He gestured behind him.
Matsumoto stared at her sake cupboard in shock. It was completely empty.
Driven mad with grief and sake-deprivation, she shrieked at Hitsugaya that she would not do her paperwork, before running out the door.
Once she ran out, the office and Hitsugaya flickered for a moment, then disappeared, revealing a simulator machine.
Above the maze, Ichigo put down his binoculars onto the dashboard of the helicopter-like machine.
"Crap. It didn't work."
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Yoruichi had finished pulling out all the catnip leaves and ripping them to shreds. As she stood up, ready to move forward, something big and purple landed in front of her.
A giant ball of yarn.
Seconds later, Yoruichi was tangled up in the purple yarn, happily rolling around.
The giant claw retracted back into the helicopter-machine above.
And somewhere outside the maze, Ishida realized that his precious purple yarn ball had gone missing.
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The hole filled with Chappy plushies was still and calm. Below the surface of the stupidly grinning fluff bags, a lone shout could be heard.
"I'm drowning! I'm suffocatin! Help!"
What Urahara didn't realize was that there was a ventilation shaft covered with a metal grille behind him that would provide him with air to breathe.
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Matsumoto pranced round a bend, and blinked in surprise.
She had reached the center of the maze. She looked at the three cups on the lone table in the middle of the cleared-out space.
Which cup is the right one?
Now, Matsumoto had gone through quite a few days without sake. And sake-deprivation is known to cause hallucinations.
At that precise moment, she began hallucinating.
Instead of three cups, she saw three bottles.
She blinked. She rubbed her eyes.
The bottles were still there.
She dashed up to the table.
There sat three different brands of sake.
Then her eyes lit up.
"Nishimura! My favourite sake brand!"
She grabbed the middle bottle and hugged it.
Colours whirled around her. When they finally stopped, she looked around, surprised.
She was at the ending point.
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After Matsumoto had been declared the winner, two teams from the Fourth had been dispatched to rescue Yoruichi and Urahara.
Needless to say, Urahara swore he'd never look at Chappy the same way again.
And after taking a look at the state of his yarn ball, Ishida fainted dead away.
Ichigo stepped up to the podium.
"And…the winner is Matsumoto! She wins the round-the-world trip!"
The entire arena burst into applause.
Hitsugaya allowed a shadow of a smile to cross his face. Finally, without his rambunctious lieutenant in the way, he could enjoy peace and quiet.
And thus, and Seireitei Game Show ended.
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