Author's Note: You guys might hate me for this episode's elimination, not gonna lie—that's all I'm gonna say.
Well, excluding the reviews:
Dunsparce519: I'm glad you liked the chapter. And, yes, you'd be correct—Junko and Kokichi did indeed lie about their fears. I thought it'd be in-character for them to do. As far as who's getting cut next, well, you'll just have to read on and find out ;) As always, thank you for reading and reviewing!
Okay, please enjoy!
"Last time on Total Drama Island, the competitors were forced to conquer their deepest, darkest fears. Not all of them succeeded, but others surprised the group and faced their fears head-on. And in the end, it was Komaru who said "buh-bye" when she was too chicken to face her fear."
The camera cut to Chris at the docks. "Will the Bass manage to stay out of the water? Or will the Gophers bounce back? Find out today, on...
Total...
Drama...
Island!"
Episode Seven: Up the Creek
"Bass, Gophers!"
The episode opened up at the beach, where the campers and Chris were gathered. Near the shoreline, eight canoes laid upon the sand—four red, four green.
"Today's challenge is a true summer camp experience: a canoe trip!" Chris announced. "You'll be paddling your canoes across the lake to...Boney Island!"
Using a spooky drawl for the name of the destination, he motioned to the easel behind him, which displayed a map of said island. The map contained a visual of a skull-shaped mountain with a red X nearby, which connected to another red X at the other end of the island.
"When you get there, you must portage your canoes to the other side of the island. Which, is about a two hour hike through treacherous, dense, jungle!"
"We've gotta pour what?" Yasuhiro asked, scratching his head.
"Portage," Chris repeated slowly and with air quotes. Still, Yasuhiro's expression remained blank. "Dude, walk with your canoe."
"Oh." Yasuhiro nodded, then smiled. "Gotcha."
"When you arrive at the other end of the island," Chris continued, "you'll build a rescue fire that will be judged by me. The first team to paddle home and return their canoes to the beach is the winner of invincibility!" Thumbing behind him, he smiled as the campers began to take off towards the canoes. "Move, campers, move!"
"Oh, wait!" Chris immediately called after them, causing the campers to halt in their tracks and look back at him. "One more thing I should mention! Legend has it, if you take anything off the island, you'll be cursed forever!"
Thunder cracked ominously overhead as the campers exchanged from nervous to uninterested.
"Now!" Chris smiled. "Get in your canoes, and let's have some fun!"
CONFESSIONAL - LEON:
"Chris told us to pick a paddle partner," he explained with a smug grin. "So, obviously, Sayaka and I went together."
CONFESSIONAL - CELESTIA:
"Honestly, just about everyone on my team is absolutely insufferable. Unfortunately, we were forced to have partne." She let out a disappointed sigh. "Fortunately, Makoto is someone I at least find...tolerable."
"Big Sis Junko!" Hiyoko exclaimed, giving the taller girl a hug from behind. "Let's be paddle partners!"
"Huh?" Junko blinked. "Oh, sure. Why not?"
"Yay!" Hiyoko released her grip from Junko's waist in favor of taking her hand and leading her to the canoes.
"Aw, Junko already found a partner?" Tenko commented in disappointment as she watched the scene from a distance. Her sadness was short-lived, however, when a hand found its way onto her shoulder, paired with a male voice.
"Looks like we're rowing partners!"
Immediately, Tenko grabbed the hand in a crushing grip and whipped around to glare at Yasuhiro. He retracted his hand and yelped in pain. "Ow! What the heck was that for?!"
"I don't like degenerate males touching me," Tenko stated simply.
"Noted," Yasuhiro replied, rubbing his sore hand. "But, uh, we're still on for the rowing thing, right? I mean, you don't really have a choice..."
"What?" Tenko glanced around and, sure enough, all of the Bass had found their partner. Scowl deepening, she looked back at Yasuhiro one last time. "Fine, but don't talk to me."
With those parting words, Tenko stomped off towards the canoes, and Yasuhiro followed soon after.
CONFESSIONAL - TENKO:
She sighed in exasperation. "Of all the people I had to get stuck with, why'd it have to be Hiro?! He's one of the worst kinds of degenerate males—the stupid kind!"
Meanwhile, Maki and Rantaro were the first ones to pair up on the Screaming Gophers, along with Mikan and Kokichi.
"Excuse me, Ryoma." Kirumi waved at Ryoma, who stood at the far part of the beach by his lonesome." Would you like to partner with me for this challenge?"
Ryoma raised an eyebrow, but ultimately shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Kaede was walking over to the canoes when she suddenly caught Kaito's eye. He jogged over to her, and a blush broke out across both of their faces.
"Hey, uh—" Kaito started.
"So, um—" Kaede began.
"My bad, I—"
"Sorry, did you—?"
Both Kaede and Kaito fell into an awkward silence. Kaede quickly broke it. "So... Do you want to be my canoe partner?"
Kaito grinned. "Heck yeah!"
CONFESSIONAL - KAEDE:
"I don't know why, but I've been feeling weird around Kaito ever since he helped me with my fear last challenge..." She glanced away from the camera for a moment, then back at it again. "It's weird."
The camera footage skipped ahead to show the campers in their respective canoes, all lined up at the shoreline.
Chris cocked a starting pistol and raised into the air. "On your marks! Get set! Paddle!"
He fired, and the campers took off. Moments later, a screeching could be heard as a large eagle fell from the sky and onto the ground in front of him. "...That's gonna provoke some angry emails."
"So," Junko began as the camera focused on her, "how has Bunny been?"
Hiyoko grinned. "He's been doing great! I've been feeding him lots of vegetables, and I even made a little bed for him in my cottage!"
Junko nodded and smiled. "Well, I'm glad you're both happy."
CONFESSIONAL - HIYOKO
"Did you hear that?" Hiyoko asked, a large grin on her face. "She said both of us! Meaning, Bunny and me! I knew I chose Junko as my Big Sis for a reason!"
"An astronaut, huh?"
Kaito nodded, as the camera switched over to his and Kaede's canoe. "Yup. I got over-excited during my freshman year of high school and tried to take the exam early—had a friend pull some strings—but I got caught. They were impressed with my score, though, and they let me off with a warning."
Kaede nodded. "Ignoring all of the illegal stuff... I think that's really cool."
Kaito scratched his the back of his neck. "R-Really?"
Kaede looked off to the side, a blush growing on her face. "Of course! You're obviously passionate about space and stuff, and the fact that you got a good score on the exam is impressive, so... Yeah."
"Oh. Thanks." Kaito then spun around to face Kaede, a huge grin on his face. "Hey, maybe we could go out and watch the stars sometime?"
Kaede let out a shriek in response. "Kaito! Your paddle!" Unfortunately, she'd warned him too late and got hit over the head by the paddle Kaito accidentally lifted with him.
"Shit!" Kaito cursed, as he immediately retracted the paddle. "Are you okay?!"
"Yeah... I'm fine," Kaede replied, rubbing her now aching head.
CONFESSIONAL - KAITO:
Kaito slapped himself in the forehead. "I don't know what the hell's going on with me! I was acting just fine around Kaede at first, but now it's... I don't know, man."
"Sunny sky, clear water..." Leon mused as he examined the surroundings. "I feel a song idea coming on. Vague, but it's there."
Sayaka giggled. "Wow, it took only that for you to come up with a song idea? That's impressive."
Leon chuckled. "Yeah, guess my imagination is weird...like...that." He furrowed his brows as he stared intently at something in the water. "Hey, stop the canoe for a second."
"Huh?" Sayaka stopped rowing and looked back at Leon. "What happened?"
Instead of responding, Leon leaned over the canoe and pulled something out of the water. His eyes widened as he examined it. "Is this...?"
The viewpoint shifted to show what Leon was holding: votes used for the elimination ceremonies, the majority of which had Junko's face crossed out on them.
"Leon?" Sayaka asked worriedly. "What's that?"
Leon paused for a moment, as if he was carefully choosing what to say next. "Here, just look at these." He shoved the votes into Sayaka's arms.
Sayaka looked them over, and her eyes widened as well. "Someone cheated? And when that happen?"
Leon nodded. "Looks like it. And it was probably Junko, considering she's the one crossed out here, during the talent contest challenge, I think."
Sayaka tapped her chin, thinking back to the challenge. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense... So, what do we do?"
Leon scratched his goatee. "We could show these to Junko, but... We don't have much proof outside of that. We'll just have to keep this a secret for now, I guess—until we can find a culprit, at least."
"I guess..." Sayaka replied, though her voice sounded doubtful. Something else soon caught her attention, however, and she gasped. "Leon, we're way behind! We have to go!"
"Oh, shit!" Leon exclaimed, noticing the same thing.
Placing the votes on the floor of the canoe, Leon picked up his paddle, and both he and Sayaka began frantically paddling to catch up with the other canoes.
"And that's how I ended up suspended for a whole week!" Yasuhiro exclaimed to a fuming Tenko. "Good times."
Tenko, on the other hand, seemed to be on her last straw, as she whipped around to glare at him. "Listen here, you—" Tenko suddenly paused, looking at something. "What is that? Was this here earlier?"
"I don't think so..." Yasuhiro replied, glancing around at the same thing as well.
The camera pulled back to show that they, along with all of the other canoes, were covered in a blanket of fog.
Soon after that, all of the canoes docked onto land, and the campers stared up at the spooky island with apprehension. The most prominent feature was the large, skull-shaped mountain that looked out over the lake; otherwise, nothing but mist and pines could be seen for miles.
"You'll be paddling your canoes across the lake to...Boney Island!"
Junko shuddered. "Well, this isn't creepy at all..."
Maki sighed as she and Rantaro lifted their canoe over their heads. "Let's just get this over with..."
The footage skipped ahead to show both teams running through the forest, passing a concerning number of impaled skulls along the trail.
Out of the blue, a large tree fell in front of the Killer Bass, and Makoto cried out as several pairs of yellow eyes opened in the darkness behind it. Then, a bush rustled off to the side.
"What the hell was that?!" Hiyoko cried, eyes darting around her surroundings.
As if to answer Hiyoko's question, a large animal with shaggy brown fur, bucked teeth, and gnarled tusks popped out of the bush. Several more followed, and they began to take even, heavy steps towards the terrified campers.
"M-Monster beavers!" Yasuhiro immediately yelled.
"Run for it!" Leon screamed, and the Bass did exactly that.
CONFESSIONAL - CHRIS:
"A remnant of the Pleistocene Era, the Woolly Beaver is a day-active rodent, indigenous to Boney Island," Chris explained matter-of-factly. "Oh yeah, and they're meat-eaters!"
Back in real time, the Bass were running away from a pack of beavers. In the process, they passed a bear rubbing its back against a tree; it watched the scene in confusion, and even pulled out of pair of eyeglasses to verify what it'd just seen.
"Dammit!" Leon cursed as the team had to skid to a stop at a shallow pool nestled against a dead-end cliff. Fortunately for them, the beavers gave up their pursuit and turning back into the woods.
"Hey, they're leaving!" Yasuhiro noted.
"Why?" Junko pondered with furrowed brows. "They looked pretty damn intent on killing us."
"Who cares?" Leon replied. "They're gone!"
That statement was spoken too soon, it seemed, as heads began to raise from every next on the bed of rock. The animals were akin to geese, but were much larger, had elongated heads, and possessed one too many teeth. They squawked and chattered at the birds, and Junko spoke up again.
"Yep. That makes more sense."
The shot cut ahead to show the Bass in the forest again, screaming as they ran away from the creatures. In doing so, they passed the same glasses-wearing again. The bear, apparently unaccustomed to such sights, snapped its glasses with a grunt.
"What do we do?!" Tenko screamed.
"The canoes!" Junko exclaimed after a moment. "Follow my lead!"
Junko moved her hands to the ribs of the canoe, and the rest of her teammates followed shortly after. Turning around, they charged at the geese an, using the canoes to bludgeon them. The geese quickly gave up their chase, and the Bass were soon passed by their human opponents.
"Come on, it's not over yet!" Junko declared, and the Bass set off once more.
The footage cut to the Screaming Gophers at a fork in the trail.
"Wh-Which way are we gonna go?" Mikan pondered.
"What do you think, Rantaro?" Kaede asked, glancing over at the boy.
Rantaro hummed in thought, looking between the two paths. "I'm thinking left," he finally spoke.
"Well, left it is!" Kaito exclaimed, and the team began to head down the left path.
The shot cut back to the Bass, who now stood at the same fork the Gophers did.
"Uh... Let's go right," Junko decided, and the Bass headed down the right path.
The scene cut back to the Gophers, with Kaito taking the lead. That was, until he unexpectedly found himself sinking into the ground.
"Uh, I think we have a problem!"
CONFESSIONAL - KAITO:
"Yeah, so it was just quicksand." Kaito scratched his head. "Who knew it'd look so much like regular sand?"
CONFESSIONAL - CHRIS:
"Can you believe they fell for that?!" Chris asked, barely able to contain his laughter. "I set it up, but I didn't anyone would walk into it! That's just great!"
"A little help?" Kaito asked as he continued to sink.
"What do we do?!" Mikan panicked.
"Kaito, try to lay on your back," Rantaro instructed. "We'll try and find a way to get you out."
Kaito nodded and started leaning backwards. After a bit of searching, Rantaro managed to find a long vine. Coiling it around his arm, he tossed one end to Kaito and kept a firm grip on the other end. Kaito grabbed his end of the vine, pulling himself to safety moments later.
"Hey, thanks for the quick thinking, "Taro!" Kaito thanked as he helped to his feet by Kaede.
"No problem," Rantaro replied.
Maki rolled her eyes. "Awesome, can we go now? The other team is probably ahead of us by now."
By the time the Gophers arrived, the Bass were already at the beach and working on their fire, and the team gasped when they noticed Celestia handing over a silver lighter to Leon, who used it to light a pile of sticks.
The shot cut to Chris, who was piloting a small red helicopter up in the air. "Hey, no rule against carrying lighters! Edge: Killer Bass."
The camera skipped ahead to show Celestia again, who was combing the outskirts of the forest, presumably for materials that would help build their fire.
As she peeked in a nearby bush, her eyes widened slightly. The viewpoint switched, showing that she'd stumbled upon a small, wooden-carved statue, with an eerie rattling sound to accompany it, along with a voiceover of Chris's voice:
"Legend has it, if you take anything off the island, you'll be cursed forever!"
CONFESSIONAL - CELESTIA:
"I, myself, do not believe in stupid things like curses," she started, before her expression turned into a smirk. "The same cannot be said for the others, however..."
"Perfect," Celestia muttered to herself as she pocketed the statue. With that, she continued on with her original search.
The camera cut over to Kaede and Kaito who were combing part of the beach.
"So, uh," Kaito began awkwardly, "I just wanted to say sorry about hitting you with that paddle, earlier. Does your head still hurt?"
"A bit," Kaede admitted, raising a hand to her head. "But it's mostly better now."
"Well, that's good." Silence fell upon the two for a moment before he spoke again. "But, hey, if you're still up for—"
Out of nowhere, Kokichi squeezed himself Kaede and Kaito, looking between the two of them with a knowing smirk. "Hey, lovebirds! Whatcha' doing?"
"Nothing, Kokichi," Kaito immediately replied, glaring at him. "Mind your own business."
"No need to get all defensive, Kaito. I was just asking a question."
Kaito opened his mouth to retort, but was stopped by Rantaro, who swooped in to prevent the situation from escalating. "Okay, Kokichi, leave these two alone. How about you come with me? I've got something cool I wanna show you."
"Ooh!" Kokichi exclaimed. He unsqueezed himself from between the Kaede and Kaito, and was now practically bouncing on his toes. "I wanna see!"
Over with the Killer Bass, Celestia raised an eyebrow and smirked as she watched Kokichi and Rantaro disappear into the forest.
She walked over to Makoto and Yasuhiro, who were collecting sticks for their fire together. "Makoto, Hiro, I need to speak to the two of you for a moment."
Both boys stopped their search to face Celestia, and she let them to a spot where they wouldn't be seen or heard.
"What's up?" Yasuhiro asked.
Celestia first directed her attention to Makoto, handing over her lighter to him, then spoke. "I just thought of an idea: we should try and distract the other team temporarily so that we'll have time to gather more sticks than them for our fire. So, I want you to use that lighter to set fire to their paddles." She gestured to the Gopher's paddles, which laid against a nearby tree.
She looked back at Makoto, who wore a hesitant expression, and she quickly added, "Now that I think about it, just pretending to set them on fire shall be enough to distract them."
Makoto seemed to agree to those terms, as he nodded (though still a bit hesitant) and made his way over to the paddles.
CONFESSIONAL - MAKOTO:
"I'm not gonna lie, I was still kind of hesitant about doing that to the other team," Makoto admitted with a guilty look. "But it's for the good of the team, right?" He frowned and sighed. "I don't know..."
As soon as Makoto was out of earshot, Celestia turned to Yasuhiro with narrowed eyes. She then handed him a pocket knife, along with the wooden statue, and commanded, "Go over to their canoes and place that statue in the canoe on the far left. Then use that knife and cut a hole in them. All of them. Do you understand?"
Yasuhiro raised an eyebrow as he examined the knife and statue. "I mean, yeah, but, uh... Won't that mean they can't get back?"
"Yes," Celestia hissed. "That is the point."
Yasuhiro looked between the knife and the canoes, then shrugged.
CONFESSIONAL - YASUHIRO:
"Okay, in any other case, I probably wouldn't have agreed to that. But, this is all just a right? So, I'm just playing the game, y'know?" He shrugged as the confessional ended.
The camera cut back to Yasuhiro, who took advantage of the Gopher team now being distracted by Makoto, inching closer to their canoes. He double and triple-checked that nobody was watching, and tossed the statue into the canoe on the far left, then pulled out the pocket knife and started to cut holes in them.
The camera switched over to show Makoto over by the paddles, a terrified look on his face.
He was cornered by Maki, along with some of the other Gophers. She sent him a death glare as she stomped closer to him. "Do you wanna die?"
"N-No!" Makoto stuttered, thoroughly intimidated by the girl. "I'll be going now! Sorry to bother you!" With a polite bow, he nearly sprinted to the Bass's side of the beach.
Maki shot the boy one last glare before turning around to face the other Gophers. "Come on, we need to find more wood."
"No need," a voice said, and the Gophers turned to see Rantaro entering the beach, with Kokichi in tow. "I've got it covered." He held out a yellowish-orange ball-sized object. "I made it from tree sap and a few other plants I found in the woods, it should give our fire the boost it needs. ...You should probably take a few steps back, though."
His teammates complied warily, and Rantaro tossed the ball in the small fire already created before quickly backing away himself. The fire almost instantaneously tripled in size, and everyone on the beach could be staring with wide eyes.
"Woo!" Chris exclaimed, as he narrowly avoided the fire's flames from in the helicopter. "Looks like we've got our fire-building winners! Point for the Gophers!"
"Nice work!" Kaede commended.
"Where'd you learn to make that?" Maki asked, wearing a look of disbelief.
"Basic research," Rantaro explained. "It's handy when you're out in the wilderness."
The scene cut to the campers approaching the lake with their canoes. Once they were settled in, both teams set out about roughly the same time. However, the Killer Bass soon managed to take the lead. Even when the Gophers paddled harder, they still couldn't catch up with the Bass.
Kaede gasped and pointed at the floor of her canoe. "We're taking on water!"
"Us too!" Mikan cried.
"Same here," Maki added with a hint of confusion.
"How did this happen?" Rantaro asked, though more to himself rather than anyone else. "They were just fine when we rowed them a to the island.."
To their dismay, when the Gophers finally arrived at the beach of Jabberwock Island, the Bass had already arrived, canoes and all.
"The Bass are the winners!" Chris, who stood at the beach as well, announced—much to the team's delight.
The moment they were on land, Rantaro inspected his teammate's canoes. When he flipped over Mikan and Kokichi's canoe, a small wooden object fell to his feet. Furrowing his brows, he showed the object to the two. "What is this?"
"Um..." Mikan started, peering at it. "S-Sorry, I have no idea what that is..."
"I believe it's from the other island," Kirumi said, glancing at the idol. "I remember seeing something similar there during our exploration."
"Doesn't that mean it's c-cursed?!" Mikan exclaimed.
"Do you think Kokichi put it there?" Kaito asked.
Kokichi whipped around to face him. "Hold on, you can't be serious, right? Why would I sabotage my own team?"
"Why wouldn't you?" Kaito shot back. "No one else had any reason to bring it back!"
"Oh, yeah?" Kokichi sneered. "Then prove it was me!"
The two boys were locked in a death stare for a few tense seconds before they were interrupted by an unexpected vistor.
"My apologizes for intruding," Celestia spoke, "but I happened to overhear your troubles. Although it is probably not my place to cast judgement, I did notice Kokichi picking up something out of a bush during the fire-building challenge, then go over to your team's canoes."
"That must've been when he wrecked the canoes," Maki assumed.
As the team began to shoot him looks, Kokichi eyes widened. "H-Hey... Wh-What's this? Why are you all ganging up on me?"
Ryoma raised an eyebrow. "Is that a genuine reaction?"
Maki rolled her eyes. "I doubt it."
As she silently rejoined her own team, Celestia let a small smirk form on her face.
CONFESSIONAL - CELESTIA:
"My work here is done," she simply stated, still smirking.
A wolf could be heard howling in the night sky as the elimination ceremony began, with a select few of the Gophers glaring at Kokichi.
"And now," Chris announced, "the always anxiety-inducing marshmallow ceremony. When I call your name, come up and get a marshmallow. Rantaro, Kaede, Maki, Ryoma, Kirumi, Mikan."
Once all of the aforementioned campers received their marshmallows, Chris turned to the two campers without one—Kokichi and Kaito, who glared at each other. "One final marshmallow. The person who doesn't get this marshmallow will walk off the Dock of Shame, and take a ride on the Boat of Losers. Who's it gonna be? The final marshmallow of the night goes to..."
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Kaito." Chris flicked the final marshmallow across the fire, and Kaito caught it easily.
"Whatever." Kokichi rolled his eyes as he stood up. "This show was lame, anyway."
As Kokichi walked off to the Dock of Shame, Chris faced the camera. "And another one bites the dust. How will the game change, thanks to Sayaka and Leon's discovery? Who will leave next? AFind out next time on... Total! Drama! Island!"
CONFESSIONAL - KOKICHI:
"I was kinda expecting my elimination, not gonna lie. It was bound to happen sooner or later." His expression then turned unexpectedly dark. "But if Celestia thinks she's getting away with causing it, then she's got another thing coming."
The camera cut to Yasuhiro, who turning into his cottage for the night. The shot focused on the wooden statue from earlier, which was tucked into his back pocket. Lightning flashed, and then the scene faded to black.
Killer Bass - Celestia, Hiyoko, Junko, Leon, Makoto, Sayaka, Tenko, Yasuhiro
Screaming Gophers - Kaede, Kaito, Kirumi, Maki, Mikan, Rantaro, Ryoma
Eliminated - Toko, Mondo, Shuichi, Ibuki, Kazuichi, Komaru, Kokichi
Author's Note: So, this episode is pretty much a turning point for the rest of the season. And, oh boy, do we have stuff to talk about.
First and foremost, Kokichi's elimination. So, you might've expected him to get farther in the game because of his rivalry with Celestia. But, honestly, I thought this was a good send-off for him; it gives us our first strategic vote of the season (more or less), and Celestia gets to show off her under-handed tactics, along with getting Kokichi out of her hair—or so she thinks.
Also, Sayaka and Leon's discovery. Yeah, that's gonna be a major plot point. What are your predictions on how it'll go?
We're also getting development on the Kaede/Kaito ship! Yay!
But, yeah, let me know your thoughts on the chapter as a whole. That's all for now. I'll see you next time, and happy pride month!