…

Day 11

We Can't Live in Our Fears

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Prussia, Spike

Women: Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty

The Men come back from camp completely stunned from Tribal Council.

"Could someone tell me what the heck just went on?" Joe asks.

"It's very simple, actually," Kyon replies. "Spike and I voted for Killua, as did Lucian. That's how Killua got three votes, and two more in the revote."

"And we voted for Lucian," Mayuri says, pointing to himself and Prussia.

"What I don't understand is why I got two votes," Spike says.

"We expected Lucian to play his Shot-in-the-Dark," Killua says. "But by refusing to play it, he essentially sealed his fate. We knew we'd get him out in the revote. The question was, how many votes would he have against us? We expected him to have two: Kyon's and Spike's. So, without his vote, that requires us to split the vote so that there would be a 2-2 tie in case of Lucian winning immunity from the Shot-in-the-Dark. One way or another, there was going to be a revote, but we planned well in advance for things to go down the way they did."

"I am relieved that no one flipped on me," Killua says. "All it took was one vote, and I was going home. But Mayuri and Prussia remained loyal to me, and for that loyalty, they will be rewarded. I'm going to make sure they go farther than Spike and Kyon. Now the question is, which one of those two do we want to send home? A 3-2 split vote will be enough to get them out, but we have to decide which one we want to go."

"I'm not too happy about having received two votes," Spike says. "That really sucks. I could have been knocked out of the game had Lucian played his Shot-in-the-Dark and become immune. That means that they're aiming for me. I think some drastic action needs to be taken."

Later that morning, Spike starts planting seeds in Prussia and Mayuri's minds.

"Killua's coming for you," he tells them. "He doesn't care whether it's myself, Kyon, or either of you guys. He's running the show."

"I see your reasoning," Mayuri says. "However, I'm not sure this is the right time to experiment with a different voting strategy."

"Yeah, it's totally not awesome!" Prussia says, as Spike sighs.

"These people are completely clueless as to how this game works," Spike says. "If you're on the bottom, you've got to find a way up. That means making alliances with other people who are on the bottom. Instead, Prussia and Mayuri just want to stall for time and hope they make the jury. It's just flat-out ridiculous."

Meanwhile, the Women are coming up with strategies to break the 4-4 tie.

"We should buy a steal-a-vote with our Fire Tokens!" Alice tells Mine. "Then that's ballgame!"

"Wrong," Mine replies. "All it takes is an idol to be played on the right person, and then it doesn't matter how many votes we've got."

"Then what's your suggestion?" Alice asks.

"We need to buy an idol," Mine states.

"What? That's the dumbest idea yet!"

"How?"

"Well, an idol can't protect all four of us."

"I don't want it to," Mine says. "I would only use it on you or myself."

"But what if they get wind of this?" Alice asks. "They'll put their votes on Konata or Haruhi, and who knows what advantages they have."

"One person safe is a lot better than no people safe."

"But they'll get an extra vote or something!" Alice says. "Ami is a mastermind. She knows exactly what she's doing out here. That's why she's now tied with Lucian and Haruhi for the most days played in Survivor history, and both of them will break the record tomorrow together. For crying out loud, she may have an idol herself!"

"You know what, you keep acting like this, and I'll vote you out!" Mine yells at Alice.

The two of them then walk their separate ways, with Mine going to lie down in the shelter, while Alice heads down to the beach where she sees Killua.

"Hey, Albino!"

"What's up, Albino?" Killua replies.

"I need your strategic help," Alice says. "You're a smart guy, you can help me figure out this puzzle."

"A Survivor challenge puzzle?" Killua wonders.

"No, no, a voting puzzle within my tribe."

"I fail to see where this analysis is leading," Killua says.

Alice sighs. "Mine and I have ten Fire Tokens," she says. "We are trying to think of the best thing to buy in order to avoid a 4-4 tie."

"That's easy," Killua responds. "Just buy a steal-a-vote. Then you've got 5 votes to their 3. One of them goes home for sure."

Alice slaps Killua gently on the forehead. "That's exactly what I suggested to Mine! But she wants instead to buy an idol."

"An idol? But, why?" Killua says.

"She's apparently trying to avoid what happens if the other alliance has an idol and uses it," Alice says. "But it makes zero sense to get an idol."

"You've got ten Tokens, right?" Killua says. "Then why don't you steal a vote and buy a vote? That way, you can split the votes 3-3."

"But that'll cost eleven!" Alice says. "We don't have that kind of money!"

"There's a reward challenge today," Killua says. "If you guys win, then you'll get a couple. If not, I'll give you mine. Does that sound good?"

Alice slaps Killua on the back playfully. "You're the best, Albino! I won't forget this! You need help in the future, I'll give it to you."

"Thanks," Killua says.

"I truly like Alice," Killua says. "But honestly, I'm trying to buy jury votes from the Women should I reach the end of this game. I already gave Tokens away to the other alliance; now I'm potentially helping out Alice's alliance. I'm playing both sides, and there's not much to lose since they can't vote me out."

"My alliance with Killua goes well beyond us both being Albinos," Alice says. "Yes, he's cute, but he's also a really giving person. He's offered to help me, just as I have tried to help him. Now we can work together, without ever having to vote each other out! It's a great alliance to have."

Ami is trying to rally her alliance together, as the four of them put all their Fire Tokens in a pile.

"We've got twelve," Ami says. "With that, we can do a lot. We can buy three extra votes, or get one plus a steal-a-vote."

"And we've got that idol," Misty says. "We are in a good position here."

"But what if Mine's alliance has the same idea we do?" Michiru asks.

"I'm definitely concerned about what advantages they may have," Jasmine says.

"We can't live in our fears," Ami says. "We've got to come up with a good strategy and stick to it."

"Trying to control an alliance is a lot like trying to parent children," Ami says. "They can say or do anything, and it won't be a surprise. I need to make sure that my other alliance members stay strong with me. Otherwise, I'm going to be at risk if picking rocks is an option."

"I think Ami is a little overconfident," Michiru says. "She is counting on Mine not being as smart as she is, and that just isn't going to work. Mine and Alice are very intelligent. I don't know much about Haruhi or Konata, but they don't strike me as the type who would overlook the opportunity to buy more votes."

Over at the water well, Haruhi and Konata talk with Mine, giving her some good news.

"Hey, I won an extra vote on my journey!" Haruhi exclaims. "That means we have the advantage over the other alliance!"

"Yeah, we now have five votes to their four!" Konata says.

"Sssshhhh," Mine says. "Look, we can't let them know about this. If Ami were to find this out, then she'd buy an advantage to make up for it."

"Haruhi gave me some great information," Mine says. "Now that we have the votes, I can convince Alice to buy us an idol. We won't need to steal a vote off them! We are in a great position now."

In the woods, Spike and Kyon try making their case to Prussia and Mayuri for keeping them around.

"We have a great opportunity here," Kyon says. "You two vote with us, then we take out the three of them, and you're in a better spot than you are right now."

"They are going to gun you down, as soon as they're rid of us," Spike says.

"We know," Prussia says.

"Who should we vote for?" Mayuri asks.

"I'd say Killua," Kyon says. "He seems to be the brains of the operation."

"Killua it is, then," Mayuri says.

"I lied to Kyon and Spike about voting out Killua," Mayuri says. "I don't want them controlling who I vote for. At the same time, I'm going to think about their offer, and also Killua's offer. Whichever one I think is better, I'll go with. For now, I have time to experiment with my voting strategy since I'm one of the two swing votes."

Killua, Kirito, and Joe meet together down at the beach to discuss their ideas.

"We've got no advantages and no Tokens," Kirito says. "We are counting on Prussia and Mayuri to vote with us."

"Maybe we should just trust them," Joe says.

"I think there's another way about it," Killua says.

"And what's that?" Kirito asks.

"We pit Prussia and Mayuri against Kyon and Spike," Killua says. "We play both sides. We tell Prussia and Mayuri that we've voting for either Kyon or Spike, then we tell Kyon and Spike that we'll vote for either Mayuri or Prussia."

"Don't you think they'll see right through that?" Joe wonders.

"It's Survivor!" Killua replies. "No one is safe! We've got to roll the dice one way or the other."

"I'm nervous about Killua's strategy," Joe says. "I think that Mayuri is smart enough to know that he's got a big decision to make. Prussia, who knows. But if we can get Kyon and Spike as a possible second option, then maybe we'll have a backup plan in case Mayuri tries to backstab us."

A bit later, Kirito catches Prussia walking by him.

"Hey, you going to vote with us?" he asks.

"Of course!" Prussia replies. "That would be awesome!"

"Okay," Kirito says. "We're going to vote for either Kyon or Spike."

"Sounds awesome to me!" Prussia says.

"I think it would be awesome to use their alliance in order to help me get farther!" Prussia says. "I don't trust Kyon and Spike at all, so I'm going with Kirito, Killua, and Joe. Then we'll go a long way together!"

But Killua rethinks things as he carries a coconut along with Joe.

"We need to win challenges, right?" Killua says.

"Well, of course," Joe replies.

"Then what are we doing if we're picking off the strongest players?" Killua says. "We need to look at who's causing us to lose these challenges."

"Right," Joe says.

"Let's take a look at who performs well at the next challenge," Killua says. "Then we will make our decision from there."

"Makes sense," Joe says.

"It doesn't make sense for us to be blindly loyal to Prussia and Mayuri, just because they voted with us before," Killua says. "If one of them is the weak link in our next challenge, then we need to rethink our voting strategy."

But Haruhi and Konata have other plans, as they got to talk with Kyon.

"We've got four Fire Tokens together," Haruhi says. "You just hand over yours, and we can buy something nice."

"And why would I do that?" Kyon says. "It seems you guys have nothing in mind except the idea of making my life miserable."

"Oh, come on," Konata says. "Here's what we'll do. After the end of the reward challenge, we pool our Fire Tokens together and buy something."

"Something for you guys, I'm sure," Kyon says.

"No, no," Haruhi says. "We want to help you out."

"Because we know for sure you'll vote for us on the jury!" Konata says.

"And if we do help you out, we trust that you'll persuade others to vote for us!" Haruhi says.

Kyon sighs. "What if you're both in the Final Three?"

"Then you vote for me, of course!" Haruhi says.

"No, no, you vote for me!" Konata says.

"No, me!"

"You're wrong, me!"

Kyon shakes his head. "How about this," he says. "All three of us make the Final Three, then we have nothing to debate about."

Haruhi nods. "Sounds good to me," she says. "But if not, you'd better vote for me over Konata!"

"No, you should vote for me!" Konata says.

"Vote for me instead!"

"No, vote for me instead!"

Kyon simply facepalms.

"I'm stuck with Haruhi, for better or for worse," Kyon says. "I like the fact that they want to help me, but I doubt that they're going to follow through. They already wasted Fire Tokens on food. Who knows whether Haruhi will be ordering from Little Caesars again. My hope is that they'll be as kind to me as to buy me an extra vote. Then Spike and I can prove to be the swing votes against either Prussia and Mayuri, or Killua, Kirito and Joe."

Reward Challenge

"Come on in, guys!"

The two tribes enter the challenge area feeling pretty upbeat.

"You guys ready to get to today's reward challenge?"

"Yeah!" Konata and Haruhi exclaim.

"For today's challenge, a caller will lead blindfolded tribe members through a course, with three teams of two collecting a trio of keys along the way by pulling down ropes, and getting splashed by colored water just for the heck of it. You will then use those keys to unlock puzzle pieces. The caller will then direct a still-blindfolded tribe member to solve a puzzle. First tribe to finish wins reward. Wanna know what you're playing for?"

"Of course!" Misty exclaims.

"This ought to fill your stomach for a while."

Jet unveils plates of fish with lots of spices on the side, as well as bread for making sandwiches.

"Winning tribe gets to eat these fish in a picnic lunch. In addition, each player on the winning tribe receives one Fire Token. By now, you must know how valuable those are in this game. I know it's worth playing for. Women, you have one extra member, you've got to sit someone out. You cannot sit out the same person in back-to-back challenges. Who's that gonna be?"

The Women gather together to discuss.

"I think Jasmine should sit out," Misty says. "She's probably not the best person for this challenge because she's so quiet."

"I agree," Ami says. "Jasmine it is."

Jasmine nods her head silently.

"You figure out who you're sitting out yet?" Jet asks.

"Yep, it's Jasmine," Alice says.

"All right, Jasmine, go ahead and take a spot on the sit-out bench. The rest of you, I'll give you a minute to strategize, then we'll get started."

Misty takes her spot on top of the Women's tower, while Killua stands up on the Men's tower.

"It'll be Misty calling for the Women, and Killua for the Men! Pairings for the Women are Ami and Michiru, Alice and Mine, and Haruhi and Konata. Pairings for the Men are Joe and Kirito, Kyon and Spike, and Prussia and Mayuri. Survivors ready? Go!"

Misty and Killua start shouting out orders. Misty sends her three teams in different directions, while Killua has all three of her teams going in the same direction.

"Look out for that-" Killua begins to say.

WHAM!

"Kyon just took one hard in the groin!" Jet shouts.

As Kyon tries to recover, Killua gets Joe and Kirito through the obstacle maze, while Prussia and Mayuri are struggling with directions. Misty has Ami and Michiru get through the obstacle maze first, with Alice and Mine right behind them.

"Konata, you're going the wrong way!" Misty shouts.

Konata and Haruhi then turn all the way in the opposite direction.

"No, no!" Misty shouts. "You're still off by 90 degrees!"

"90 degrees?" Konata says. "What does that mean?"

"Move over you imbecile!" Misty shouts.

While those two get tangled up, Ami and Michiru get over to one of the hanging ropes.

"Pull!" Misty shouts.

Ami pulls, and a bucket pours orange-colored water all over them.

"Now reach down and grab that key!" Misty says.

Michiru picks up the key, and she and Ami move out of the way. Next, under Misty's direction, Alice and Mine pass by them and go to the next rope.

"Mine! Reach up! Pull!" Misty calls.

Mine reaches up and pulls, and yellow-colored water splashes all over them. Alice then reaches down and finds the key.

"Women already have two keys! None for the Men yet!"

"Come on, Kirito! A little to the left!" Killua calls.

Kirito pulls Joe with him, and the two of them go crashing to the ground.

"Kirito and Joe really struggling out here!" Jet shouts.

Kyon and Spike find their way toward one of the ropes, even as Kyon tries shaking off the groin injury. Spike pulls the rope, and both players fall to the ground as red water splashes over them.

"Grab that key!" Killua shouts.

Kyon reaches around and finds the key, as he and a soaking Spike try to get up.

"Women have two keys, Men have one!" Jet says.

Konata and Haruhi follow Misty's orders as they get near the third rope.

"Just a little to your right, Konata!" Misty calls.

Konata reaches around and pulls the rope, causing blue water to splash down on her and Haruhi. Haruhi then reaches down and picks up the key.

"Women have all three keys! Got to get to the lock now!"

The Women head on over toward the puzzle, being led by Misty's commands. Meanwhile, Kirito and Joe get to a rope and pull it, with purple water pouring down.

"Men now have two keys!" Jet shouts. "Only Prussia and Mayuri to go!"

The Women get to the lock and start trying keys. Ami uses the keys and unlocks all three of the locks, and the chest bursts open to reveal a bag of puzzle pieces.

"Okay, to your right, Ami!" Misty calls. "That's right, pick up what you feel right there!"

As the Women get over toward their puzzle station, Killua finally is able to guide Mayuri and Prussia over to the third rope. Prussia pulls, and pink water rains down on himself and Mayuri.

"Mayuri, reach down!" Killua calls.

Mayuri feels around on the ground before finding the key.

"Men have all three keys!" Jet says. "Got to get to those locks now!"

The Men stumble over to the locks, while Ami dumps the puzzle pieces on her table. They start putting pieces down, but they are way out of position as Misty screams at them.

"Now you've got to assemble that puzzle without being able to see it!" Jet shouts. "Women not doing a good of communicating!"

"Oh, please, Jet," Misty says.

"What was that?"

"I said, oh, please."

"Misty getting frustrated by me!"

Kirito unlocks the final lock, and Joe grabs the puzzle pieces. They head on over to the puzzle station.

"Remember, this puzzle is shaped like an octagon, but none of the pieces are!"

As Misty and Killua call down, Ami and Michiru put together the puzzle for the Women, and Kirito and Joe do so for the Men.

"Women making significant progress!"

Ami and Michiru are about halfway through, when Killua sees how they are putting together the puzzle. He starts calling down to Joe and Kirito to make changes to match the Women's puzzle.

"That's right, that piece over there!" he calls.

Joe puts in a piece where Killua called for it to go, and the Men are close to matching the Women's puzzle.

"Men catching up!"

"Hurry!" Misty calls. "You've got to put the bigger one there, and that smaller one over there!"

Killua continues cheating off Misty's puzzle, and the Men start to catch up again. After some frantic moves to finish up the puzzle, both Misty and Killua call out to Jet at the same time.

"We got it!" they say in unison.

"Both tribes think they have it!" Jet shouts.

He checks over Killua's puzzle.

"The Men… are…"

…

…

…

"WRONG!"

He then checks out Misty's puzzle.

"The Women… are…"

…

…

…

"WRONG!"

Both Misty and Killua call frantically for their puzzle solvers to fix their mistakes. Again, both Killua and Misty call out at about the same time.

"Both tribes think they have it again!" Jet shouts.

He checks over Misty's puzzle first this time.

"The Women… are…"

…

…

…

"RIGHT!"

He then checks over Killua's puzzle and sees one piece out of place.

"The Men… are… WRONG! And that's it! Women win reward!"

Everyone flings off their blindfolds, as the Women begin celebrating, while the Men see the slightly unfinished puzzle. Spike angrily kicks the puzzle pieces off the board. The players then go over to their mats.

"Congratulations, Women," Jet says. "We have arranged a picnic table for you to enjoy your fish and collect your Fire Tokens. As for you, Men, I got nothing for you. You can head on out while the Women enjoy their lunch."

The Men trudge on out of the challenge area, while the Women head over to their picnic bench.

"Just a brutal way to lose," Killua says. "I thought we had it. Now I'm afraid that the other Men are going to start targeting me thanks to my mess-up in this challenge."

Picnic

(Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty)

Alice passes out the fish to the other players, while Konata holds a bottle with seven Fire Tokens in it.

"Take one out and pass it down," Konata says. "It's like a test at school."

The players each get a Fire Token, then begin to eat.

"You know, why should we be at each other's throats?" Alice asks. "Let's go out and dominate the challenges the rest of the way."

"Sounds good," Michiru says.

"Do the Men think they can win now that they jettisoned Cato?" Ami wonders. "They are weak."

"And the only reason they were in today's challenge was because Killua was copying off me," Misty says. "He saw what I was doing and he tried to do the same thing."

Mine chuckles. "The Men are useless," she says. "We are going to go out and kick their *#&."

"I'd love nothing more than for the final eight to be all Women," Mine says. "I'm ready to take the Men down over and over again. Without Cato, they're hopeless."

"I see that Alice and Mine are trying to be buddy-buddy with us, but it's not going to work," Ami says. "We know very well that we're not going to win every challenge the rest of the way. And even if we do, we still have to face the music and the threat of a 4-4 tie."

As they are talking, Konata eats more than her fair share of fish, causing the Women to run out before Jasmine gets seconds.

"Hey!" Misty complains. "You got to save some for Jasmine!"

"Too late," Konata says, rubbing her belly.

"That's totally unfair!" Misty exclaims.

"It's okay," Jasmine replies. "I will be just fine."

Misty angrily shakes her head at Konata.

"Konata's got to go," Misty says. "She's annoying, she's bothersome, and she's blindly following Alice and Mine just for the sake of making our lives miserable. If we could get enough extra votes from our Fire Tokens, then we could split the votes and vote Konata out."

"I'm ready to take on this 4-4 task," Konata says. "I know that it's our four against their four, and we've gotta figure out a way to win this deadlock. I hope Haruhi's on board with my little plan to throw a wrench into their plans! I can't wait to tell her what it is."

Haruhi, though, is being chummy with those in the other alliance.

"Give me back that Filet O'Fish, give me that fish!" she says to Misty.

"What are you doing?" Misty says, as Haruhi tries putting together a giant fish sandwich.

Jasmine and Michiru laugh, watching Haruhi trying to stack up as many fish as possible on bread.

"You're too much," Michiru giggles.

"Hey, I'm this hungry!" Haruhi says.

Mine looks over at Haruhi having fun with the other alliance and sees it as cause for concern.

"I'm not too thrilled with Haruhi getting along with them," Mine says. "We need to be as solid of a four as possible. If we let up for even a minute, then cracks will form in our alliance and we'll fall apart. Haruhi isn't trustworthy, but we're counting on her to make a stand for us."

"I'm just out here to have fun!" Haruhi says. "If my tribemates don't like me having a good time while I'm out here, that's on them! I want to have a good time while still making Kyon's life miserable and going as far as I can. It's a game!"

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Prussia, Spike

As the Women eat their meal, Kyon tries to get Mayuri and Prussia on his and Spike's side.

"We can take over this tribe," Kyon says. "The four of us against the three of them. It's really simple."

"Sounds awesome!" Prussia says.

"I'm not so sure," Mayuri says. "I don't trust either of these two. They may be trying to backstab us."

"We're not trying to backstab-" Kyon begins to say.

"Does it matter at this point if we choose to backstab you?" Spike says, cutting off Kyon. "You're much better off in an alliance of four than in an alliance of five."

"What I don't trust is this idea that you're going to vote with us in the first place," Mayuri says. "You may just be saying this so you can pull an idol on us."

"An idol? Who has the Tokens for that?" Kyon says.

"You could total up all the Tokens in our entire tribe, and we probably wouldn't have the money for an idol," Spike says.

"I don't trust you guys, that's all I'm saying," Mayuri says.

Kyon shakes his head. "You're just digging your own grave."

"I don't understand these zombies," Kyon says. "Not are they a lot like Rob's zombies from Redemption Island, but their reasoning makes zero sense. Killua, Kirito, and Joe aren't going to keep them around. They're going to pick them off after they pick off us. I'm gonna need Haruhi's help, whether I like to admit it or not. I'm sure she has some Fire Tokens she could lend me."

Killua, Kirito, and Joe are feeling the same way about Fire Tokens.

"We need help," Kirito states plainly. "We've got only one Token amongst the three of us, and I'm sure everyone else has more than that."

"So, what do we do?" Joe asks.

"I've got a good relationship with Alice," Killua says. "Maybe I can get her to spare me a few Tokens."

"Plus, didn't we lend all those Tokens to those Women?" Kirito says. "We need to get them to pay us back."

"Going to be easier said than done," Killua says. "I don't think they're going to hand them over that easy."

"We'll try to be really nice about it, then!" Joe says.

"All right, here's how we'll do it," Killua says. "I'll work on Alice, while you two work on Ami's alliance. Try to extract as many Tokens as you can, but don't ruin your relationship with them. We might need them on the jury."

"Right," Joe says.

"Sounds good," Kirito says.

"I'm not exactly in on this plan of Killua's," Kirito says. "It's possible that by working with the Women, they may find a way to backstab us by helping out those who aren't in our alliance. Nevertheless, we've got to get those Tokens, or Mayuri and Prussia may team up with Kyon and Spike to send one of us home."

The Women arrive at camp a bit later, riding on a boat. Konata gets out of the boat waving a piece of paper at everyone.

"What the heck is that?" Spike asks.

"It's a letter saying that we've got to send one Woman and one Man on an adventure!" Konata says. "I'm going for the Women, now we've got to send one Man!"

Kirito shrugs. "I'll go," he says, rushing over to the boat.

"Wait, Kirito-" Killua begins to say, but Kirito and Konata are already undocking and going off to sea.

"I wanted to give him some advice about what he's going to find on this journey," Killua says. "I didn't have enough time to let him know about the prisoner's dilemma awaiting him. I hope he makes the right decision."

Journey

(Kirito, Konata)

Kirito and Konata arrive at the island where they are to make a decision.

"They're going to make us choose something," Konata says.

"Yeah, probably about an advantage in the game," Kirito says. "Killua wasn't clear as to what that would mean."

The two of them walk along the path, going along to the spot where they are to split.

"Good luck," Kirito tells Konata.

"You too," Konata replies.

Kirito walks down to find a ship wheel, with the choices of "Protect Your Vote" and "Risk Your Vote."

"Interesting," he says, looking over the instructions. "If I choose to protect my vote, I can't lose it. But if I decide to risk my vote, then I either get an extra vote if Konata chooses to protect hers, or I lose it if she chooses to risk as well."

He then thinks about it for a moment.

"If Kyon and Spike join forces with Prussia and Mayuri, that will make four votes against our three. If I can get this extra vote, I can tie it up at three. Whereas if I lose it, it doesn't make much of a difference anyway. If Prussia and Mayuri stay loyal, we can still split the votes 2-2-2. So, I have nothing to lose by risking my vote."

He spins his wheel over to "Risk Your Vote."

"Crossing my fingers and my toes," he says, as he walks away.

Konata reaches her ship wheel, and she thinks it over.

"Let's see… if I get an extra vote, then we'd have a 6-4 advantage in the numbers, counting Haruhi's extra vote. Whereas if I lose my vote, we'd be tied up 4-4 in the numbers. And if I protect my vote, we remain up by one. What to do, what to do…"

She flips her wheel over to "Protect Your Vote."

"If Kirito risked his, he has me to thank for his extra vote," Konata says. "And I may be able to extract some Fire Tokens out of him."

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Prussia, Spike

Women: Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty

When Konata comes back to camp, Haruhi is the first to greet her.

"You got us an extra vote, right?" Haruhi says.

Konata shakes her head "no."

"Oh, come on!" Haruhi complains. "You didn't possibly give in and protect your vote, did you?"

"I had to," Konata replies. "If I lose my vote, then we're in a tie situation. But with my vote, we have the lead, thanks to your extra vote."

"But if we only had yours too…"

"Sorry."

"Konata disappointed me," Haruhi says. "She didn't risk her vote to have a chance at getting another one. If she wants to be cool, then she's got to take risks out here. Instead, she made the very uncool decision to protect her vote. That may help us in the short term, but hurt us in the long term."

Meanwhile, Kirito comes back to camp and finds a piece of parchment in his bag.

"Yes!" he says. "I got the extra vote! Now we're going to be able to do so much more! I'll tell Killua and Joe about it tomorrow! This might be the decision that ultimately wins me this game."