T.I.P : Thank you for your review and don't worry, it wasn't too long, lol ! I enjoy reading your suspicions, actually. Plus, it's cool to see that you're listing your suspicions as you read the chapters, it makes it more...live, I guess. XD Hope you'll like this chapter ! ^^

Champ : I know it wasn't particularly useful to put the fallen players on the poll, but I'm really glad I did, because apparently, someone voted for an executed player. So since I put all of the players, that person doesn't know which characters are gone, so I did not spoil the story for them. ^^ Thank you for your review and I'm glad that you were a bit surprised by the results of the challenge. ^^

Previously, on the Mole, the last part of the final challenge of Episode Five had started. Mario had to lead an investigation to find out who had stolen Holly Koopa's emerald. Helped by Birdo, he found out various information which, after having questioned the other players, made him think that the thief was none other than Toad. Unfortunately for the group, that was a wrong guess, as Birdo was truly the one who committed this crime. Birdo claimed her prize and gave one of her exemption to Noki, immunizing the both of them. As the players mingled and tried to find out who the Mole was, the execution was on their mind, and, after they had found a clue to the Mole's identity, they took their fifth quiz. One of them had to go that night. The hero in red scored the lowest on both quizzes and had to leave the game. Only five are remaining, what will happen next?

First name : Birdo

Surname : Ribbon

Birthday : May 15

Job : Fashion Designer

First name : Bootler

Surname : Majordome

Birthday : September 6

Job : Butler

First name : Noki

Surname : Delphis

Birthday : August 7

Job : Air Hostess

First name : Toad

Surname : Phalloïde

Birthday : June 1

Job : Gardener

First name : Jojora

Surname : Teeheena

Birthday : December 27

Job : Sculptor

20 : Of Traps and Puzzles

Jojora : How delicious. There goes my coalition with Mario. Exactly when I needed him the most. Now it's me versus the other four. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to work with that. I mean, this show is about who's the Mole and so far, I narrowed it to two suspects. Maybe this episode's victim will clear my remaining doubts.

Toad : To be honest, I'm glad that Mario went home. Not because I don't like him, but because I didn't want myself or Bootler to go home. It would have been better if Jojora had went home, though. I can only take so much of her arrogance!

Bootler : I was obviously disappointed when I saw that Mario left the game. Not only was he a very good team player, but I had also ruled him out as the Mole a few episodes ago. Well, there are still two more episodes before the final, I might be able to make it to the final if I make the right moves.

Noki : Mario, I am very sorry for what I've done yesterday. I know that you probably won't see that until after the game is over, but I wanted to say it. I can't help but think that I did the right choice when I took that exemption, for a number of reasons, though.

Birdo : Mario's execution was the saddest, in my opinion. Everyone liked Mario, as far as I know, I'm sure that even the Mole will miss him. I have to say that I'm pretty glad I've made it that far into the game, and I think that I'm on the right track! Be careful, Mole, Birdo's ready to get you before the others!

…

At the beginning, they were ten. Now, only five players remained. Needless to say, the once lively atmosphere was no more. More focused than ever the five survivors still discussed, but their topics of conversation were not the same anymore and mostly revolved about the game.

"Hey, where's Monty Mole?" questioned Jojora. "He's usually with us when we eat. I bet he's probably out there, trying to find a way to trick us."

Toad shook his head, munching a lettuce leaf. "Nah. He told me that he would be waiting for us outside of the hotel. Don't know why, though."

Bootler drank his glass of water. "I do wonder what he has in store for us. This host is definitely full of surprises," he chuckled to himself.

"This place is so calm without Mario!" Birdo could not help but exclaim. She received a glare from Jojora, but the fairy refrained from saying anything.

Jojora : It's obvious that I'm the outsider in this group. We all know that Noki and Birdo are in a coalition, and I suspect Bootler and Toad to be in another, leaving me with basically no one. So, like I said when Donkey went home, it's in my interest to be...softer.

"I concur," agreed Bootler. "Was anyone surprised when they saw that the great Mario went home?"

Toad nodded at him. "Of course I was! I thought he probably knew who the Mole was! Well, he's no psychic, but I know he is very intelligent."

"The Mole must be very good if they managed to fool him," congratulated Bootler.

"Well," started Jojora, thinking about what she was going to say, "maybe the Mole sucks and everyone voted for them. Mario could have been the most unlucky of the bunch and that's why he got the boot. Although I'm pretty sure almost everyone here has a different suspect."

Noki smiled a little. "It's weird to know that someone in this very room isn't who they claim to be. I mean, at first glance, it's impossible to determine who is the Mole."

"Maybe the Mole was trained by the producers beforehand," imagined Birdo. "Or maybe I just think about it a little too much," she laughed afterward. "Seriously, whoever the Mole is, they are really good at this game."

Bootler grinned. "Of course they are. Otherwise, this game would not be so exciting."

…

Bootler, Toad, Noki, Jojora and Birdo went outside of the hotel to meet up with Monty Mole once they had finished their meal. As usual, the host greeted them cheerfully.

"Hello everyone! Congratulations for making it successfully to another episode! Let me tell you that this one will be full of surprises, like the others!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"As long as the twists aren't evil, like the one from the previous episode, I'm fine with every surprise you have for us!" Jojora stated loudly. Monty Mole chuckled a little.

"Don't worry, we wouldn't want to do the same things over and over, would we?" reassured her the host. "Anyway, first surprise of this episode... You will only be able to win one exemption!"

"I'm glad there's only one exemption. Last episode had too many, anyway," declared Toad. The others agreed with him.

Birdo : Three exemptions when there were only six players alive was a bit too much in my opinion. I would have been fine with one or two, though. Still, since there only was one exemption available, I thought there would be a lot of fighting. Everyone wants an exemption! Even I!

"The catch is that... Well, that's not really a catch, but still. If you take this episode's exemption, you will automatically lose the mission in which it will appear. Which means that even if things are looking good for your team, you shouldn't rest just yet. Always keep an eye open!" Instantly, the players looked at each other warily.

Jojora : We've had many problems with exemptions in the past, so it's only natural that we would be cautious of the other players. I can give you some names : Bootler, Noki, Toad and Birdo. Yeah, basically, everyone but me managed to get an exemption and made us lose more money because of their greediness. I mean, I haven't had any exemption at all and I'm still here. So clearly, it proves that you don't necessarily need exemptions to go far.

"So, what are we going to do today?" asked Toad, ready to play to the best of his ability. "I'm really excited!" he exclaimed in a jumpy way.

"Ha ha! Unfortunately, we're not having a mission just yet. You'll have to be patient!"

"Why did you call us, then?" Bootler questioned, his face ambiguous.

"Since you all made it that far into the game, I thought you could relax a little," announced the host. "I'm bringing you to a very peaceful place, I'm sure you'll love it!" he exaggerated a little.

Toad : Sometimes, I feel like the host himself is more suspicious than the players. That was one of those times.

…

Monty Mole and the players jumped out of a pipe and immediately stared at their surroundings. They were in the sky, high above the clouds. A marvelous castle was standing high in front of their eyes, its top reaching for the sun. White marble and red tiles constituted the classy Romanesque building. Rainbows covered the entire place, making the castle look like it had escaped a fairy tale.

Bootler : Of all the places we have gone to, I must say that Mario's Rainbow Castle was the best. Never in my life have I felt so stunned by such a magnificent sight. I was baffled.

Toad : I've always liked Mario's Rainbow Castle, I don't know why, I just feel that way every time I go to this place.

"Welcome to Mario's Rainbow Castle!" the host voiced loudly. "You are part of the very few people who have had the opportunity to visit it! And you can thank you friend Mario for that, because he was the one who let us do whatever we wanted to do to his castle before the start of the game. Yes, he owns this castle." The players were all in awe, except for Toad who had already been to this place before and knew that Mario owned it.

"Hey! Wait a second! Mario would have been at an advantage if a challenge had taken place here!" realized the mushroom. "Was his execution fake?"

"But we're not having a challenge right now, are we?" retorted Monty Mole smartly. As the others looked at Toad warily, he could only justify his train of thought.

"Every time Monty brings us somewhere, we have a new challenge. It's only natural that I think that we'll have one today too!" Bootler nodded in understanding.

"I can see your point. I also thought that it was strange of the host to let us relax, when we know that there is no time to rest in such a game," explained calmly the ghost. Noki glanced at Birdo, who shrugged in return.

"Challenge or not, I'd still like us to move. Standing here all day long probably won't help anything. And if we're having a challenge, then fine, we'll have one. We can't avoid the inevitable, so let's go!" she exclaimed happily.

Noki : Of course, we all knew that Monty Mole was preparing something, so I didn't find Toad's outburst that suspicious. Okay, I did find it a bit suspicious at the time, but that's all.

Monty Mole led them to the entrance of the castle. He opened the large wooden gate all by himself, to the surprise of many players and asked them to enter the building. However, when they did so, Monty Mole closed the door in a hurry and locked it. "I suppose it isn't a surprising surprise, but I'll look up to your victory anyway! If memory serves me right, you shouldn't have any problem with this mission! Good luck!" the host encouraged them before leaving.

"Huh?" questioned Toad dumbly. The players were all speechless and most of all confused.

Birdo : So, like, we go into Mario's castle and suddenly Monty Mole shut the door and wish us luck for the challenge. I mean, what challenge? What are we supposed to do? He explained nothing and just left! We had no idea what to do.

While Birdo and Toad were trying to force the door open, Bootler and Noki tried to guess what their challenge was about. Jojora was nowhere to be seen, she had already gone elsewhere to investigate on her own.

"Let's face it," declared Noki, "Monty Mole must have left us some instructions on what to do."

Bootler was puzzled but understood what Noki meant. "Yes, it is highly unlikely that our host would leave us in the dark, so either he left us rules or..."

"Or he told us something which should help us understand the goal of the mission," finished the blue-shelled girl. The pair thought about it for a moment when suddenly, they both realized what they had to do at the same time.

"He said, 'look up to your victory'," recalled Bootler. "So our mission has something to do with the top of the castle, or so I assume." By now, Toad and Birdo had stopped banging on the door and listened intently to Noki's and Bootler's thoughts.

"Maybe we need to reach the top of the castle under a time limit?" suggested Noki.

"I think it may be our only objective," presumed Bootler. "Let us explore this castle before we reach wrong conclusions, however."

Birdo : Bootler always seems to know what's going to happen, so that's what is making me wary of him. For all we know, he could use his intelligence to make it look like he's a genuine player while in fact he knows all the information because he's the Mole.

The four players decided to look for clues together and, since the lobby was rather empty, they directly went to the next part of the castle, where Jojora was awaiting them. They explained the situation and were surprised to see that Jojora had already understood the goal of the mission.

"Well, what did you think I was? Dumb?" she scoffed. "Anyway, I've tried to take the stairs, but, when I reached the end, the doors were closed. "Which means that our only way out seems to be this elevator. And guess what? We need to find a ten digits combination to make it work." She received baffled stares. "Oh come on, you should know by now that everything the host says is significant," she claimed matter-of-factly.

"Are we timed?" Birdo inquired suddenly. "I mean, I don't want to rush you but if we're timed, we'd better find out find out the combination. Quickly!" she added.

As the players were going to explore the castle, Bootler's face became paler than usual as he was hit with realization. "Does anyone remember the note the Mole left us yesterday night, by any chance? The numbers on the note, I mean." Noki looked shocked.

"I thought it had nothing to do with the clue! Do you mean that the Mole handed us the solution of this challenge and we dismissed it?" Everyone was at a loss of words.

Bootler regained his composure. "Alas, it seems the Mole duped us, once again. If any of you remembers what the host said, then it becomes clear. He said : 'if memory serves me right, you shouldn't have any problems with this challenge'," quoted the old butler.

"Too bad nobody here remembers what the combination was!" Toad replied sarcastically. "Well, I think we should split up to cover more ground, what do you think guys?"

"I'm okay with that!" smiled Birdo. "How about two groups? You guys can inspect one aisle of the castle while we take the other," she proposed to Toad and Bootler who nodded in return.

Toad : I'm glad I was with Bootler, because he's the only one I trust right now. Plus, as alliance partners, I know that he won't pull some kind of dirty trick behind my back.

…

Bootler and Toad made their way to the left aisle of the castle, trying not to create a mess with the armors that were disposed all along the large corridor.

"Funny, this one does not have the same shield as the others," noticed Bootler, smiling at his discovery. "I guess nothing is perfect after all."

"Should we try that room?" questioned the mushroom. He did not wait for an answer and went through the door, finding himself in a laboratory, full of chemical substances. He looked around the room and noticed a picture of a Monty Mole. "Yup, there's something to do in this room," he confirmed.

In turn, Bootler entered the laboratory and went to Toad's side. "What do we have here? An enigma to solve?"

"Yeah," nodded Toad. "We have three containers. One of them can contain eight liters of water, another one can contain three liters and the last one can contain five liters. We need to split the water in two containers and each of them must have four liters of water inside. We can only use the containers to decant the water. I...really don't know how we're supposed to do this," stuttered the mushroom.

"Hmmm," muttered Bootler, "I do not really know how we will be able to do that in one go, but I suppose we could always try..." He then took the eight liter container and filled the five liter container with it. "What should the next step be?"

"How about you fill the three liter container? It must serve a purpose!" half-yelled Toad in a non-aggressive way.

"Alright, I will give it a try," Bootler filled the three liter container thanks to the five liter one. "Then, I suppose I could put it back in the big container." Toad was confused and let the old Boo do his job. "Oh! I think I understand!" exclaimed Bootler all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?"

"Just watch and learn."

Bootler filled the empty three liter container expertly with the five liter one. "Now we have six liters, two liters and zero liter. If I fill the five liter container with the water which is in the eight liters one, I have one, two and five." Bootler did what he had just said. "The next two steps should be obvious. We add one liter to the three liter container, which means that we now have one container with four liters. After that, we finally fill the first container with the water which remains in the second one..."

As soon as the problem was solved, Bootler and Toad heard a click. They looked around the room, and Toad noticed a safe. He went to open it and found a number. "It's a one!" he shouted happily.

Toad : Well, I said earlier that Bootler was the one I trusted the most, but that doesn't mean that I don't find him suspicious. I have my doubts. Everyone could be the Mole.

…

On the right aisle of the castle, Noki, Jojora and Birdo were looking for the combination. They entered a room, full of hope, only to see that it was empty.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Jojora, unnerved. "There's nothing on this room!"

"Wait!" stopped them Birdo. "There is something! Look at the floor, there's some sort of weird tile or something." She made her way to the suspicious place and jumped on it. "Nothing. That's strange, I'm sure I've already heard of those things." Noki joined her.

"Maybe you don't weight enough?" she suggested, mimicking her friend. "Jojora, would you be so kind as to help us, please?" Jojora grunted but complied. As soon as she stepped on the tile, a hidden passage was revealed to the three girls.

"Awesome!" cheered Birdo. "I feel like I'm in a video game where I have to find the solution to puzzles... That's so exciting!" she yelled as she went toward the door, which shut instantly. "Huh?"

Jojora exited the room watched by the suspicious Birdo and Noki. They heard a big ruckus outside the room as well as a curse from Jojora and decided to help her. When they stepped outside, they remarked that all the armors had fallen down and that Jojora was trying lift one of them, without any success.

Noki : It was quite an amusing sight to see! I mean, it's not everyday that you can laugh at Jojora's expense.

"What are you trying to do exactly? Demolishing Mario's castle won't help you one bit!" reprimanded a flabbergasted Birdo. Jojora rolled her eyes.

"If we put those things on the weird tile, I think we'll be able to make it to the other room without leaving anyone behind!" she explained forcefully. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

With the most physically fit players gone, the three girls struggled to transport the armors to the other room. Noki was by far the weakest and did not help much. After almost seven minutes, they saw that their efforts had paid, the door was open. The three girls sighed in relief and found another empty room. On the farthest wall was a single number : a two. They were disappointed to see that nothing else was in there.

Birdo : Well, look at that. We spent an awful lot of time carrying those heavy armors for almost nothing! I think it was sabotage, because Jojora was really fishy the entire time.

Jojora : I began to think that splitting up wasn't a good idea at all. So, I tried to remember who was the responsible. And guess what, it was Toad who had suggested this idea, with Birdo quickly agreeing with him. Do I find that suspicious? Of course I do!

…

Toad jumped as he exited the first room he had been in with Bootler. "I wonder what was that sound..." Bootler paid no attention to the sound, however, and headed to the second room. Toad followed him afterward.

It was a luxurious bedroom, with a red four-poster bed, red carpet, red curtains with golden ornaments and a vanity. The players stepped carefully into the room, trying to find their next number. They found something on the dressing table.

FFOEDRE

MPONXEITE

MBRUEN

FO

SIUMN

OTW

"Anagrams!" exclaimed Toad. "I suck at those!" he smiled sheepishly. "Oh well, at least I see a 'of' and a 'two'."

Bootler agreed. "Yes, and the fifth one is most likely 'minus'."

Toad was clearly stumped. "Honestly, I'm glad you're here otherwise I would be stuck for a while."

"I do believe that the second word is 'exemption'," Bootler reflected aloud. Toad's face brightened.

"Then it means 'number of exemptions minus two'!" he realized. Bootler nodded.

"Do we count the exemption of this round or not?" the Boo asked, unsure. Toad shook his head.

"Honestly, I doubt it. For all we know, the exemption will be winnable in the next challenge or something, so no."

"As far as I recall, Flurrie won the first exemption," remarked Bootler.

"And during episode two, Pauline, Mario and Flurrie all got one!" remembered Toad. "In episode three, we both won an exemption, so that already makes six."

"I do not remember if there was any exemption obtainable during episode four."

"There wasn't," reminded him Toad. "And finally, there were three exemptions during episode five. Nine minus two makes seven!"

"We are doing great, if I do say so myself!" Bootler boasted a little.

…

Meanwhile, the three girls were still hunting for the numbers that would free them from the castle. They walked past the fallen armors and found another room on their left. They entered with caution but found themselves imprisoned between the room's wall.

"Looks like we've got a problem to solve," sighed Birdo, apparently already tired after the physical effort she had just done.

Noki and Jojora made their way to the center of the room where they saw a glass case covering an item they could not clearly define. On top of the glass case was a piece of paper on which was written 'Who's ready to take risks?'.

"What the heck?" could not help shouting Jojora. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, it's only a theory," started Noki, looking intently at the item, "but maybe someone needs to lift the case and take the item so we can go out?" Jojora remarked that Noki was looking at her.

"Oh no! I'm not taking any risk!" Jojora's temper was quickly raising. "Especially not when I know that this kind of surprises led to the downfall of Kooper!"

Noki pondered for a moment. "Well, maybe there's another way out. I don't particularly want to- What are you doing Birdo?" Noki asked frightened. Birdo shrugged as she lifted the glass case and reached for the object inside.

"Sometimes, you need to take risks and... Oh my god! Awesome!" she shouted, exhibiting her price. "It's a plus one!" she laughed gayly.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Jojora, her mouth agape. "Why are you so damn lucky?" Birdo raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like you couldn't have taken it in the first place. Noki even asked you first," she pointed out smartly. "Oh yeah, but you were afraid it was a minus one, unlike me. Which is why I deserve it. I took risks, never knowing what might have happened."

"That was very daring of you," admitted Noki, surprised but happy for Birdo. Jojora closed her eyes and took a deep breath to refrain from snapping.

Jojora : I'm even more suspicious of Birdo than before! I mean, she looks like she's the hero, but if she was the Mole, she wouldn't need to worry about taking risks, since she knows what happens and what doesn't happen.

"Hey! There's a number!" noted Birdo. "It's another two!"

…

Bootler and Toad had found another room, so they had decided to enter and were now staring at a big fancy painting which decorated the majority of a wall. They were puzzled and did not know what do do, but fortunately for them, Toad took another look around the room and saw a piece of paper hanging from the ceiling. While he retrieved it, Bootler kept staring at the painting.

On it, four men and four women were represented. The women were seated on a bench while the mean stood up behind them. The first man, starting from the right, had a top hat, spectacles and a nice suit. A mushy brown mustache was also gracing his features. The second man also had a mustache, but it was black and more trimmed than the one of the previous man. He did not wear a hat but had a bow tie on. The third man was hairless, was wearing a bowler hat and had a stick in his right hand. The final man, on the far left had a beard as well as a mustache. He was wearing a beige suit with a red bow tie on it and had a hat on his head.

Strangely enough, the women were all the same, except that they were wearing a different number of bows each. The first one had two bows, the second one had four, the third one had six and the last one had seven.

"We have yet another enigma to solve!" Toad cheered ironically, joining Bootler near the picture. "Let's see."

Only one of these couples is real. To determine which one is the right one, follow these instructions.

Two of the men are brothers, they are not sitting right next to one another, but they both share one specific aspect. At least one of the brothers is single. One of the other two men is also single, there is something different about him, although it is not about his face. The brother which is located to the left of the man that is not different is single for sure. Now, it should be obvious which couple is real, unless you need glasses to find the last wrong one.

Bootler : I was rather interested by all those little challenges. Some of the puzzles were very well-thought. We needed to focus all of our attention on the puzzles and at the same time, we knew that we were probably timed so we were very tense. That mission was definitely one of my favorites!

"So, how should we process?" questioned Toad. "I think we need to find the brothers, but I don't see how. I mean, they all have specific attributes, so we can't know which pair is the brothers." He glanced at Bootler who looked as if he had understood. "You have an idea?"

Bootler nodded and pointed at the picture. "You see, we need to find the two men who share a specific aspect, which means that we need to find something that only the two of them have. Three of them have hats, this means that the common aspect isn't the hat. If you repeat that process with the other items, you will soon find that only the second and the fourth have a bow tie."

"Okay, let me try... Man one or man three is single, apparently, because he's different. I would say that man three is single because he doesn't have hairs but they say on this paper that this isn't about the face, so man one must be single, because he wears spectacles," reasoned Toad, looking at the picture intently.

Bootler waited a moment before replying. "Well, I think that you are wrong. The spectacles are on his face, so you cannot claim that he is different because of them. However, if you look at the third man, you will see that he does possess a stick, unlike the others. The stick being in his hand, I believe he meets the requirements given by the paper."

Toad : Bootler was literally gliding through the challenges, as though he had already known about them beforehand. That did strike me as suspicious, although it could just be his natural intelligence. Oh well, I'm not really complaining, because thanks to him we managed to get the numbers of the combination quickly.

"Thanks Bootler! I doubt I'd go anywhere without you. I'm really glad to be paired with a smart player like you!" Bootler only replied with a small smile.

"We are not finished yet, my dear. Now that we know that the third and the fourth men are single, we only need to solve the last riddle to determine which man is the last wrong one. Simply enough, the real couple is the second one, as man number two does not wear glasses, unlike the first one who has spectacles on his face," clarified Bootler.

Toad took another look at the painting. "You know, I think that since the men took an important part in the challenge, it should be the same for the women. I think the number we need to find has something to do with how many bows they have in their hair. So four should be our answer." Bootler agreed with a simple nod and the two boys were off to another room.

…

Noki, Birdo and Jojora rushed to the next door, trying to make up for lost time. They entered into the room and discovered that they were in yet another simple one. A single table was standing in the middle of the room, with a pile of sheets on its right side. Scanning ther surroundings, Noki caught sight of the directions of this mini-challenge. She grabbed it and read it aloud.

On this table are plenty of sheets of paper, all of them representing your past challenges. You have to divide those sheets in two piles, according to the results of your past challenges. Once you think you have the correct combination, simply count the number of lost challenges, that will be your escape number.

Jojora raised an eyebrow and looked carefully at the instructions over Noki's shoulder. "Well, that shouldn't be too hard, let's get to work!" Noki, however, did not move one inch. She frowned at the instructions. Jojora was already starting to lose her patience. "Hurry up, we don't have all day!"

The blue-shelled girl still did not move but stared right into Jojora's eyes. Finally, she spoke up. "What do we do about the half-won half-lost challenges?" For once, Jojora was at a loss of words.

"Hey, would you mind giving me a hand?" questioned Birdo. "I'm trying to remember whether or not your group won the challenge with the sheep in Windmillville."

Jojora squinted hard. "Well... We didn't win, nor did we lose for that matter. It wasn't a perfect victory, but it wasn't a total failure either. You know what? I think we should put this paper on the lost challenges' pile."

"But why?" inquired a suspicious Birdo. "I thought you said you didn't entirely lose that challenge?"

"Yes, but we only won, like, five thousand coins or something. That isn't even half of the money we could have won, so I guess it's more of a failure." Jojora made her way to the table and put the picture on the spot reserved to the lost challenges.

Noki : I was kind of doubtful of Jojora at the time, because she interpreted the rules that were given to us. I mean, for all we knew, she could have known the signification of the clue and fooled us. You never know what to expect in this game.

Birdo nodded, a little puzzled. "Well, I suppose we'd better follow the same logic for the next challenges, then. This one... Ah, the singing challenge. We did awful, so I'm going to put that with the lost challenges."

"This...is the first challenge, right?" Noki asked while showing a picture of various cases waiting before the hotel. "I don't remember how much we won. There was some sabotage if I remember correctly."

Jojora rolled her eyes. "Flurrie's fault. And I think we won it, but I'm not sure."

Birdo shook her head. "No, we didn't. Well, I understand why you're mistaken, but we lost it. Three thousand coins were removed from the pot because Flurrie did not label correctly at least one of the items. So in the end, we only added eight thousand coins to the pot. Put it with the others." She smiled when she saw a picture of a windmill surrounded by flowers. "We won this challenge!" She frowned when she saw how many challenges they had lost. "Seriously, we're not really doing good."

"And who, might I ask, did sabotage most challenges so far?" Jojora questioned rhetorically. "You."

Noki sighed. "Let's not fight. A picture of the Perplex Express. Well, I'd rather not talk about that," she smiled sheepishly, putting it in the lost challenges' pile."

"A treasure chest on a beach... Challenge two? Funny that the three of us didn't manage to win our clue. We lost it, anyway," huffed Jojora.

Birdo found herself looking at the picture of an eerie mansion. "Oh yeah, the King Boo challenge... Toad, Mario and I managed to survive so... We barely won it."

Noki was incredulous. "Hmm, girls? I have a picture of an exemption...? What is this?"

"The exemption roulette," recalled Birdo and Jojora at the same time.

"Oh yes, we won it!"

"This picture reminds me of Pagoda Peak, and we lost this challenge thanks to Toad and Bootler," groaned Jojora.

"I'm sure you would have done the same," reprimanded Noki. "Exemptions are crucial in this game."

"And I still haven't gotten one!" shouted Jojora."

Birdo cleared her throat. "Anyway, I think we lost the challenge with the attractions. But we did win the clue hunt."

"And, last but not least, the relatives challenge. We barely lost it," sighed Noki. "I think we have lost eight challenges," she added after counting the number of pictures lying on the lost challenges' pile.

"Good!" exclaimed Birdo. "Let's go to the next room, I don't know for you but I've got the horrible feeling that we're timed! Let's not waste any time!" The other two nodded and followed her toward the next room.

Episode 6 finally starts !

Sorry for the long wait, and I hope you will like this chapter. Honestly, I don't know when I will be able to write the next one, so I don't make any promise. ^^

Until next time !