Total Drama: Across the Multiverse

by StaticShock01

Chris returns for yet another season in what may be the most insane one yet. 69 contestants! 9 winners from the previous seasons! 28 network picks! 28 audience picks! Which contestant will come out of this madness!(70/98 initial contestants remaining, 137/165 overall) UPDATE: The teams meet the Seigaku Tennis Team!

55. You're in Jeopardy!

A/N: More quizzing? One word: Yes! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

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Answer to question in previous chapter:

C: PEL

PEL's VA is Carol-Anne Day who voiced teen Chi-Chi in the Blue Water dub of the original Dragon Ball and Valese in GT. This dub aired in the UK, Canada and Ireland instead of the more well-known Funi dub at the time. She also voices Hebina in Scan2Go, had a minor role in the PSP remake of the first Mega Man game, and was the main navigator in the PSP remake of the first Mega Man X game as well.

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Reviews:

PotentialStock: Well, it's more than just having free time I'll give you that(because I don't have much of that compared to the last season I did). I think the last time someone asked me that I said it was discipline. Which is true, but it's also patience and a lot of focus(and sometimes music). Sometimes I type in silence, and sometimes I type with music. Those are the two things that help me be very productive in a lot of the things I do. Not just writing, but in general.

Comparing this to Multiverse Edition, having a larger cast means I needed a lot more patience and pacing in writing chapters compared to when I'd release chapters days later(or in some cases the next day). When I first start deciding on when I want to work on a chapter, I already have in mind the set amount of time and/or the amount of the chapter I want to get done to avoid overwhelming myself/burnout(e.g. 1 hour, 1 section of the chapter and/or 1000 words).

Although, I can definitely say that fun factor plays a part in my morale as well lol. If I'm not having fun with the characters and challenges I choose to write about, and I'm not at least somewhat passionate about them, then everything else gets thrown out the window. It's effort more than anything else for me. Heck, that applies to every single one of the stories that I write and real life too. It's all effort first and foremost, even if I don't get it right all the time. I want to at least know that I gave my absolute best effort.

Faman: Appreciate it. Hope the rest of the story is even better!

Raysen101: Oh yeah. With a large cast like this, I had to make sure that was what I opened with. Otherwise, the first thing people would have went to was that I was cancelling the story or doing something crazy xD.

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Teams:

Radical Rats:

Noah, Bennett, Emma, X, Zero & Axl, Albedo, Rick & Morty, Sendo, Akko, Sucy, Lotte & Diana, Blaze, Puss, Rally, May & Becky F., Becky B., Yulaw, Kurt, Tangle, Lanolin & Whisper, Rei, Dawn, Adrien, Hiruma, Sena/Eyeshield, Kurita, Monta & Mamori, Natsu, Lucy & Happy, Kagami, Kise, Zee, Murasakibara

Storm Kings:

Jotaro, Todd and Riley, Paul, Skipper, Sophie, Bren, Courtney, Rex and Bobo, Marinette, Reimu, Razer, Din Djarin, Team RWBY+Penny, Ben and Rook, Octavia, Eliza, Huey D., Dewey and Louie, Aomine, Akashi, Sebastian, Isagi and Bachira, Sly, Mayuzumi, Maki, Ryoma Echizen

Wave Breakers:

Mr. Wolf, Dwayne, Urien, Ayame and Ryoma(Power Stone), Toxsa, Reagan, Jenny, Julie, Launch, Randy, Molly, Scratch and Libby, Team JET: Kaz, Fiona, Diego, Myron and Shiro, Hailey and Scott, Johnny,Zak M, Hanamiya, Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishma, Eijun, Miyuki and Furuya, Kunigami, Dan, Bakura, Bass, Ruby G., Asta and Noelle

Eliminated:

165th- Dragonfly Jones(Radical Rats)-Martin Sitcom

164th- Richie and Virgil(Wave Breakers)- Static Shock

163rd- Cameron(Storm Kings)- Total Drama

162nd- Duncan(Wave Breakers)- Total Drama

161st- Chris P.(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS

160th- Mona(Storm Kings)- Mona the Vampire

159th- Owen(Radical Rats)-Total Drama

158th- Zoey(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

157th - Tetsuya Kuroko(Radical Rats)- Kuroko's Basketball(Quit)

156th-Shintaro Midorima(Storm Kings)-Kuroko's Basketball

155th-MacArthur and Sanders(Radical Rats)- Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race

154th-Luz Noceda(Storm Kings)-The Owl House

153rd-Priya(Radical Rats)-Total Drama

152nd- Shogo Haizaki(Wave Breakers)-Kuroko's Basketball

151st- Edward Falcon(Radical Rats)-Power Stone

150th- Shawn and Jasmine(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

149th- Zak Saturday(Storm Kings)- Secret Saturdays

148th - Nimona(Wave Breakers)- Nimona

147th-Rocky Rickaby(Radical Rats)-Lackadaisy

146th-Huey Freeman(Storm Kings)-Boondocks

145th-Cicini(Radical Rats)- Rabi-Ribi

144th- Blaineley(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

143rd- Heather and Alejandro(Storm Kings)-Total Drama

142nd- Karin Kanzuki(Wave Breakers)-Street Fighter

Intern:

Heloise(Jimmy-Two Shoes)

Hired Gun:

Doyle Blackwell(Secret Saturdays)

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"Last time on Total Drama Across the Multiverse! The teams were treated to two things: Splatoon and another visit from Chudd Chudders, the host of Skatoony. Put those two things together and what do you get? Splatoony!"

Footage of the contestants competing in the 3- minute Splatoon game was shown.

"Though of course, none of the teams knew about the latter part of the challenge so all of them were led to believe that this short little 3-minute challenge was all there was for the day. Twelve competed, with four from each team. The top two performers from each team would also be given an extra reward. Which also wasn't disclosed."

Footage of the results being calculated was shown.

"Who won? No one! It was a tie. But, it was designed to be that way. I'm sure there was a way to decide the percentages of ink for each team, but it wasn't about to be done here. Why? Because it would all lead to the second part of the challenge, which was the actual challenge of the day. Unfortunately, the top two, which were the picks that I had in mind from the random twelve were scrapped thanks to Charles thinking he could do better than me. Spoiler alert, he didn't."

Footage of the three Skatoony rounds, which had Hailey, Johnny, Yulaw, Emma, Courtney and Eliza competing were shown.

"But I'm sure you wanna know who won. It was Hailey. Look, give her credit, I'm sure she deserved it, but come on, he could have done better with the picks. But other than that, nothing else of note. There were no eliminations, at the request of Chudders. Only prizes."

The Skatoony Quiz Champ Challenge was shown along with Hailey receiving the prizes for the challenge.

"Well, I hope they all have a short memory, because they're going to have to show up here for another challenge. And there will be an elimination today, there's no doubt about that. Of course, I wouldn't be criticizing Charles if I didn't think I could do better. And I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is, on this episode of Total….Drama…..Across the Multiverse!"

*TD: ATM Intro II Plays*

Today's Challenge Inspirations:

The real-life game show Jeopardy!

Family Feud

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ATM Island

12:00 PM

Literally a day later from the last challenge, the remaining contestants were back on the island, to the disbelief and/or chagrin of many of them.

"I really hope this doesn't turn into a common occurrence." Young Bennett said, inside the main lodge.

Their brunch for today was nothing special, as it was a breakfast sandwich. Though the meat was replaced with Chef's special, the griddles that were supposed to be the buns for the sandwich were tough instead of fluffy and were slightly overcooked, and something that was yellow was stuck in between the buns and meat. In most cases, it was probably safe to assume that it was melted cheese, but with previous history, that for sure wasn't certain.

"Even if it does, it's not as if we're being asked to wake up at some absurd time." Diana said to him, sitting across from him at the same table.

"You mean for now." Albedo remarked, on the left of Bennett.

"Very rare that I agree with you, but he's got a point. First it's just a day later, you think, 'oh it's not bad'. Then he suddenly comes out of nowhere and asks you to wake up at 6 in the morning with no sleep. Not exaggerating. Personal experience from the last season." Ben said. "Oh great."

"What?"

"I just realized, I'm starting to sound like everybody else here that complains." He said before suddenly putting his hands on his head.

"And? They are valid criticisms."

"Ones that he's clearly not going to listen to. And besides, you should be glad that this is all you have to deal with compared to Wawanakwa. At least here we get the luxury to go home. Speaking of which, guessing they're not going to bother rebuilding the mansion."

"Can't say I blame them. It's a waste of resources." Rex remarked. "As porous as those resources are."

"Forgive me for being cynical but, never say never." Old Bennett remarked.

"Well, I'm bored so, let's play a game." Rex said.

"Okay, what kind of game?" Ben asked.

"Guessing game. What challenge do you think he has in mind today? Why do I ask? I'm sure there's a method to his madness of asking us to come back a day later."

"I fail to see the point of guessing, when most of the people here are more than capable of getting through whatever he challenges us to do." Albedo said.

"Like I said, I'm bored."

"And also, speak for yourself." Young Bennett added.

"What do you mean by that? You have that suit from the battle against the Corrupted don't you?" Albedo countered.

"Yeah. Still doesn't change anything. And also, you're acting like there aren't others here that wouldn't tell you the same thing."

"Considering it was virtualized, I honestly dismissed it as something that was added to assist him." Diana remarked before drinking some of the juice that she had.

"Nope. It'd be the last thing Cicini and I would make before she was eliminated." Young Bennett said.

"I see. Then that only makes the team stronger. A very wise move on both of your parts." Albedo said.

"The team? Look at you. You sure you're the same Albedo?" Ben said.

"Of course I am the same. Who else would I be you imbecile?" Albedo remarked.

"Uh, a version of ben that looks like he doesn't go outside? With dyed gray hair for some reason?" Rex remarked jokingly.

"Mock me all you want. But I will get the last laugh, when both of you are gone!"

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Ben said.

"What?"

"Expression."

"Your Earth expressions are as confusing as always."

"Says you."

At another table, Dawn and others were watching them converse, with Miyuki sighing as he just sat down, looking at the food that was in front of him.

"Well, whatever mental rehab you put him through seems to be working." Rally remarked, referring to Albedo.

"Oh I wouldn't go that far. But I will say that I am glad to see that the two of them can converse in a peaceful manner." Dawn said.

"Let's be honest here. Most of these quote on quote rivalries, is nothing more than this guy is similar to that guy. And not much else other than that." Lanolin remarked.

"Well what do you want them to be? One guy being like 'grr I hate you' and then the other guy is all like 'grr I hate you more!'" May remarked, which got a bit of a smile out of Whisper who was sitting a couple of seats across from her. "Oh hey, I got a laugh out of you. I saw that!"

"Well, no but- I don't know. I guess Chris' talk about it has made me think more of it than what it actually is."

"I mean, the closest thing to that has been the Zaks when both were here at the same time and a bit of Lucy and Sophie." Rally said.

"What about Kagami and Aomine?' May offered.

"Not counting those two. At most, they've just insulted each other and that's about it. Heck, when he was first here, the Miracles, well, moreso Aomine, looked like he wanted to murder Haizaki. But it didn't exactly escalate to anything outside of that."

"Murder is exaggerating I think."

"You guys clearly have no idea what a rivalry is do you?" Miyuki spoke up.

"Okay, enlighten us genius." May said.

"It doesn't have to be on any of those extremes that you're talking about. It can happen in the most unexpected of ways. But when it does, all I can say is you're definitely in for something entertaining."

"So who would you consider as that?" Rally asked before seeing that he had already got up to leave. "Hey! I know you heard me!"

"Don't tell me he's getting under your skin too." May said.

"What? No. At most, I'm just a little annoyed. Pulling people in like that just to walk away, which I'm almost certain was intentional. How much of a jerk can you be?"

"Well just be glad he's not putting some type of gun to your face." Lanolin said, half-joking.

"With the jobs I've got, nine times out of ten, someone's always got something pointed at my face. Let me say it again, but the most shocking part of it is how many he has. And the extent. After I saw him with toy guns and one that sprayed soap yesterday at Akko, I think that dedication's over the fact that he shouldn't even have them at his age in the first place."

"Makes sense. I didn't really think he'd go that far about being more tame with lethal werapons outside of combat challenges, but he did. More than I'd imagine."

"Or, she's just shocked that someone's more obsessed with guns than her." May remarked.

"It's a passion, not an obsession. Besides, I highly doubt he's even capable of really wielding those in a fight if he absolutely had to." Rally countered.

Said person was outside, training by himself with the weight set that was casually brought in by Kurita. Every time he would lift 20 times with his right arm, he'd up the weight of the dumbbell he was lifting by 5 kilograms. And he'd only work out his right arm. It wasn't until he got 35kg, barely under half of what he actually bench presses that he started to really feel a panging sensation in said arm. As much as he wanted to lift again, he decided to stop and get water.

"Doin' your own weightliftin' session huh?" Sendo asked, happening to see him after finishing eating. Hiruma said nothing in reply but closed up the large water bottle he had.

"Don't worry, I ain't the type to try to ask to tag along. And I already decided how I want to spend my time before the challenge. Long as you don't do anything stupid, I don't care." He added before walking away.

***Confessional***

Sendo(Radical Rats):

"The guy may be a nutjob, but I can't say he's lazy. Lot of people out there that are leaders that think they're too cool or too high up to work hard like they're not gonna get attacked when things hit the fan. He's not one of em. Hell, you mess around and he'll be the one to come in guns blazing and kill you himself."

***End Confessional***

Meanwhile, Kagami was beginning to show Rei pictures of his former team Seirin on his phone after showing her the few pictures he had of his school that he sent to Alex and Himuro.

"Sorry. I know it's not much. Other than this, I didn't really feel the need to really take pictures of anything else since, you know, I've been to America before." Kagami said.

"Well, something is better than nothing." Rei said.

"And these wacky guys are, well, were my teammates back at Seirin. Man, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss those guys."

"To be gone after a year, I'm sure that caught you off guard. I know a year seems like a lot, but it's not much time to really bond compared to if you were there longer."

"Bond? What the hell are you talkin' about?" He said as he changed to another picture. This time with them taking a picture with the Winter Cup trophy. "Even if it was a year, I still was able to build a connection with em. And it's not because we got the school's first championship for basketball. Anyone can say they have some 'bond' when you're winnin'. It's when you're losing that that really comes into question. Trust me, it may seem like your typical fairy tale story. And I don't mean the Guild. Speaking of which, I gotta ask why the heck they're named that anyway."

"So you weren't perfect. No one is. But you still won. Unless, there's something I'm missing."

"Yeah. Several somethings. When I first came into the school and said that I wanted to join the club, it wasn't long after that that I met Kuroko. Dude just came out of nowhere like a weirdo. I'm eatin' a burger and I see this dude just sittin' in front of me with no announcement other a damn 'Hello'. Of course, there was practice. And the fact that everyone looked down on the guy, including me, before he showed his real skill. Of course, what he could do was nowhere close to what you saw from him here. That ignite pass and all that other fancy stuff? He didn't start off with that. But I'm gettin' off topic. Coach got excited and decided to put us up against Kaijo for a practice game"

"Isn't that the school Kise goes to?"

"Yep. Of course, that was before I even knew who the Miracles were. Well, he definitely showed me, 'cause he immediately started copying me. And that was when Kuroko and the coach explained that that was his special ability. Long story short, it was close but we won with the one thing he couldn't copy, teamwork. We were ridin' high after that. We didn't get complacent or anything like that. We still practiced and worked hard. But, it's just a different feelin' when you're winning ya know? Midorima and Shutoku? Papa, didn't matter. Even the ones that weren't close, we still found a way to win. Until we got Aomine…."

"So that's how your rivalry started with him huh?"

"Nah. I don't know when it got that way to be honest. Maybe after the game I beat him in."

"Huh. What a coincidence."

"No really! I swear!" Kagami insisted, raising his voice a bit.

"Evidence, Mr. Kagami?"

"I'm practicing by myself, dude just comes out of nowhere and challenges me to a game. And I lose just because I was still trying to recover from a game I had not too long ago. Then he comes and talks about how he's not impressed that I'm Kuroko's new light. His cocky attitude and that corny 'The only one who can beat me is me' crap got me ticked! I couldn't wait to wipe that smug a[censored] look off his face. Game day comes and he's not even there to play! He literally came late and just shows up outta nowhere leanin' on me like we're friends, bragging about how easy it was gonna be! Well, not those exact words but, ya know! And he was still doin' this while he was playing too! Do you see why I couldn't freakin' stand him!?"

"Yep. Definitely." She said with a deadpan look after hearing his mini-rant, that ended in him standing up and putting his foot on the ground as well, lacking any kind of self-awareness.

"So anyways, I can't even say we lost. We got embarrassed. That's the worst type of losing. At least for me. I always wanna know that I did my best. And even if we lose and it's close, it'll hurt but, I'll know that I gave it everything. But to know that I did that and to just be overmatched like that. And to be made a fool of. It hurt. It really did."

"I think the word you're looking for is pride."

"I guess, yeah. It's kinda like when Android 18 beat Vegeta. Or when he lost to Frieza. He gave it everything, but not only did he lose, he got embarrassed. Those two are not the same thing as losing to Goku. I know the context is completely different, but you get what I mean."

"Actually, no I don't. I'm lost. I only know Goku and Vegeta. That's it."

"Oh right. You don't read that type of manga. And I'm guessing you didn't watch the show either. They're really good. There's some underrated ones out there outside of the big 3 too."

"The big 3? You're losing me here."

"Naruto, One Piece, DBZ. Really popular. That's probably why you know those two."

"Makes sense. The evil guy Sasuke that betrayed them is the only ones I know from there too."

"And One Piece?"

"Uh, they're pirates? And there's the one kid with stretchy arms? What was his name? Sanj-"

"Okay, okay that's enough!"

"What? Don't look at me like that. I told you I don't know that stuff like you do."

***Confessional***

Kagami(Radical Rats):

"Yikes. As a fellow fan of these types of series, I apologize. Although, admittedly, I need to catch up on a lot of that stuff. Basketball takes up a lot of my time. Last thing I started was uh, One Punch Man I think? I don't remember."

***End Confessional***

Kagami brought things back to the topic at hand. "Anyways, like I said, it's when you lose when your character is tested. And I failed. My team. And especially Kuroko. He refused to quit. Me? I was on the bench, with a towel over my head. We lose one game and I say that the bond that the teamwork we had was not enough. Then every other game during that tournament, we lost. After that wasn't much better."

"Wait, if you lose, then what's that trophy?"

"Oh, I forgot. It was the spring one that we got eliminated in. Sorry."

"In other words, you started to turn into Aomine."

"What!? NO! I DIDN'T JUST SUDDENLY TURN INTO SOME EMO EDGY GUY!"

"Well excuse me! It sounds like you were getting to that! You know, the whole, turning into the one thing you sought to destroy type of thing!"

"And that is why you listen to the whole damn thing!" He closed his eyes and calmed down. "Not every story is the same. Maybe there's similarities but, there's a good chance there's some differences too. Like you and me. Or even say, Luz, when she was here, and Akko. I think Luz has got herself together a lot more compared to Akko. But the latter's got a type of cheerfulness that I can't describe that's greater than Luz's."

"Well, there's other things that you're missing too. Different backgrounds. From the friends they have, to the environment, their own family, etcetera. And for you and me, well, we're both passionate, but, if there's one thing for certain, you're a lot more willing to let your guard down compared to me. Admitting those things you did to me back during the end of that Aftermath challenge, and even now, it sounds easy but it's not. Some might say that's being 'too sensitive'. I don't think so. Not everyone's willing to do that."

"You say that, but then, you admit you made some mistakes before with your friends. I wouldn't call that a difference."

"But it is. I never said I could never do it. I'm saying you're more willing to do it than me."

"I still don't see a difference. But, agree to disagree I guess. But that's what makes you so awesome. Like I said before, even if I don't agree with it, you're not afraid to be honest with me. And they say honesty is the best medicine, so-" Kagami started before flinching after realizing how close Rei was to him suddenly due to him being lost in his own thoughts.

"Well, since you're not feeling so well…. let's give you your medicine now."

Rei leaned in to kiss him on the lips, something that caught Kagami off guard briefly before he reciprocated. "And by the way, it's laughter Kagadummy." She said before she unintentionally pushed him to the ground, falling on top of him, the two completely forgetting about the talk they were having earlier as they kissed again.

Meanwhile, the previously mentioned Aomine was sparring with Weiss. Although he was beaten, pinned to the ground as she was on top of him.

Aomine sighed. "Beaten again."

"Losing to me is nothing to be ashamed of. It's not like it hasn't happened to you before." Weiss said.

"Oh yeah, way to be encouraging Coach." Aomine tried to get out of the pin and turn the tables, but she stopped him.

"If you want me to move, you're going to have to be less predictable. Now yield."

"Yeah fine. I yield."

She tightened her hold.

"The hell is wrong with you? I said I yield!" He then attempted to tap out just to prove his point as he was losing air. Him losing the grip he had on his weapon was enough for her to get off him.

"Forgive me for being skeptical. You've used that as a tactic before."

"Yeah well, I meant it this time." He said before sitting down and drinking water out of the bottle he had on the ground.

"Well, I mean this. Unless you like me pinning you to the ground, you need to work on figuring out how to change things up. And on top of that, preventing the pin in the first place."

"And what if I actually do like it?" A smirk was on his face as he said it.

Her face started to get warm. "I'm serious!"

"You still haven't answered my question."

"If you doing this is your way of forcing yourself out of practice then-"

"Relax. I was just messin' with ya. Man, it is so easy to get you riled up."

"Pot calling the kettle black. I could gush about how Kagami's better than you and you'll go on about how he's not."

"One, you'd literally never do that so that's an awful example, and two, he's-" He caught himself.

"See? I almost got you. Too easy."

"Ah shut up." He said before taking the bottle he had and drank more water from it before closing his eyes and leaning back, eyes closed.

"Don't go relaxing! We are not finished!"

"Actually, if you don't mind, could we end it early?"

"You don't really ask nicely about things." She said before she was about to ask him something but immediately dismissed the thought and smiled. "Well, I suppose that should be a good thing."

"Don't think that's gonna be a common occurrence princess." He said before making a shooing motion with his arm. "Now shoo."

"One thing at a time I suppose." She said. She took a few steps before she turned around. "And don't be too hard on yourself. You are improving. In more ways than one I might add." She said, the last part more to herself.

"Didn't I tell you to shoo?"

This response only caused her to roll her eyes before beginning to walk away for real this time. It was when he sighed and started to talk low that her curiosity piqued. "Damn conscience. Where the hell is he?" He said. Part of that conscience also having pink hair, matching eyes and horrible cooking.

"Who?" Weiss said to herself. She was sure it wasn't Kagami. Unless there was something major that happened away from the island, which couldn't have been possible as the two were in completely different places to her understanding, he'd have no reason to go apologize to him. But if it wasn't him, who was it? Maybe Kise?

As Aomine began his search for this mystery man, his fellow remaining Miracle teammate on the Kings, Akashi, was playing blackjack with Bobo, Huey, Toxsa, Bren, Marinette and Molly, with several others watching, including Ruby G., Jenny, Akko, Tangle, and Hinata.

Kurt had just joined the crowd.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

"It's crazy man. You gotta see for yourself!" Zee exclaimed.

Kurt decided to further delve into what the fuss was about and he saw the card game, and was immediately confused.

And in Akashi's case, he had just won the game. Which made Bobo jump over the table, causing Tangle to grab him with her tail.

"Hey, it's just a game!" Marinette said.

"Yeah dude, don't be a poor sport." Randy commented.

"I ain't gonna hurt the guy you idiot! If there's one thing about me, I don't take these games that seriously unless there's money involved." Bobo said.

"So you'd attack a guy over money." Jenny remarked in a deadpan tone.

"Well, I mean it depends, how much money are we talkin'?" Toxsa remarked.

"It doesn't matter how much money it is! It still doesn't make it right!" Molly said.

"You say this as you're literally on this show for millions of dollars." He said in a deadpan tone.

"He got ya there kid." Scratch said.

"Two completely different things." Molly said.

"If you actually believed and stood by that, you and Libby would have been gone a whole lot sooner. I'm just sayin'. And to answer your question, if I got cheated out of it, I absolutely would! And in his case, that's exactly what I'm trying to check. 'Cause there's no way this guy ain't cheatin'." Bobo said.

"Or, maybe he's that good at the game?" Molly offered.

"Or, maybe you can shut your trap! So you mean to tell me that this guy was suddenly able to win five matches in a row? Two of em against me? I call baloney on that one! You know what I really wanted to say." He then proceeded to look all around the area that Akashi was sitting. Along with looking at the cards he had as well. "You're lucky you're not wearin' sleeves, cause I woulda checked them too."

"Are you just not going to say anything? I'm almost certain you're not cheating." Jenny asked Akashi.

"With how persistent and insistent he is, I don't think it would be that effective." Akashi remarked.

"I got it!" Bobo said before looking into his eyes closely, which, even for the usual calm Akashi, weirded him out. "You're usin' that Emperor Eye to cheat aren't ya? Predictin' our moves!"

"Ohhh! You know what? I completely forgot about that. That's a good point." Randy said.

"Are you?" Huey asked.

"Of course not. I would never resort to cheating to attain victory in any game. It is dishonorable." Akashi said.

"'Dishonorable'. Where the heck was all this during the challenges you were in huh?" Bobo said, getting off the table.

"Hey, I just had the weirdest idea, hear me out." Toxsa said.

"What is it?" Marinette asked.

"Uh, this is more to Akashi, but whatever, you guys can hear it too. What if Akashi can use his Emperor Eye to predict the thing that happens in games?"

No response was given as several people looked at him in confusion or simple a look that said "really"?

"What? Don't tell me I'm the only one that thought of that. You ever try that Akashi?"

"I've never really played video games. But it's an interesting theory nonetheless." Akashi said.

"You too? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?"

"What is wrong with you for yelling into people's eardrums?" Bren remarked. "Although, that is a cool idea."

"Yeah I know. Think about how busted that would be in fighting games or shooters. Or really, any multiplayer game or hard single player game."

"I think that would be busted for games in general dude." Randy said.

"Well, are we gonna see another game? I for one wanna see if he can make it six." Scratch said.

"Well, that's up to everyone else. Anyone else wanna play again?" Molly asked.

"I'd love to play another round." Akashi said.

"Of course you would. I know you're smiling under that face. Admit it." Toxsa said.

"Maybe that's his gift. You know how like Haizaki's good at games or whatever? Kagami can cook, and Kise can sing? Maybe card games and board games are like his secret gift." Zee proposed.

"Huh. Now that I think about it, that adds up." Ruby G. said.

"I do enjoy playing Shogi and have a great deal of experience at it." Akashi remarked.

"See? He's bragging!" Toxsa said.

"How is that bragging?" Marinette asked.

"Dude, he literally just said I'm good at Shogi, just in a different way."

"Experience does not mean skill."

"Oh so you think you can take him huh? Pull out that Shogi board Akashi and let's go!"

"Sorry, but I don't have it with me today." Akashi said.

"And also, just because I said that doesn't mean I challenged him." Marinette said.

"Don't back out now. You're just afraid of getting your butt handed to ya."

"Why instigate when you're not even stepping up to the plate yourself to challenge him?"

"Don't put this on me! You called him out first!"

"Are those video games frying your brain because you clearly didn't comprehend a single word I said."

"Come on you two, I don't really a point in this conflict-" Huey started before both of them cut him off, completely ignoring him.

"Of course you'd say that. It's always the ones on the outside that hate." Toxsa said.

"That is a lie! I play games! Adrien can vouch!" Marinette countered.

"Then name some games right now!"

"Mario, Mario Kart-"

"Too easy. And duplicates! Everybody knows those. Start over!"

"Wha- what do you mean, 'everyone' knows those? Kaz and Team JET don't know them! They're perfectly valid! You're just moving the goalpost since you realized you were about to be exposed!"

"That's a completely different, one-off thing. That's like Asta because of where he's from. Or Ayame and Ryoma. And wait, a second, what am I gonna be exposed for?"

"Let's see, poor listening skills, poor comprehension skills…."

Aomine went through to the front of the crowd. "Hey, you mind if I borrow him for a bit?" He asked anyone in the area, referring to Akashi.

"Go ahead. This looks like this is gonna be a while." Kurt said before almost deciding to leave himself. But staying in the small chance things escalated, as doubtful as that was with the two that were involved.

"Is something wrong?" Akashi asked, concerned.

"Just come here." Aomine said.

"Marinette! Aomine's walking off with-" Tikki started to warn.

"Not now Tikki." Marinette said before continuing to argue with Toxsa.

"But-"

"Just give me a second okay?"

"Yeah, a second's all I'll need to prove you're a fraud. Where's Tsukishima and Sucy with that game? We're gonna settle this right now!" Toxsa said.

"It's called a Switch."

"It could be called Lightbulb for all I care! I'm still gonna prove that you're no gamer."

Mr. Wolf heard all of the commotion and joined in.

"Quite the party here." He said.

"Yeah man. These two are gonna fight!" Zee exclaimed.

"Wait….. huh?" Mr. Wolf said, unsure of how else to react to Toxsa and Marinette fighting each other before quickly dismissing it. "You know what, forget I asked. Why?"

"They're fighting on a game. Just to clear things up." Kurt said.

"Oh! Now that makes sense. But, why the heck are you here watching?"

"Why are you?"

"Touche."

"Okay, so who do you think's gonna win?"

"Don't know. Was here to make sure no one actually fought. Now I'm actually kinda curious what they're gonna say to each other afterwards."

"Oh. What are they playing?"

Kurt leaned over to Zee. "What are they playing?"

Zee shrugged. "You know what they're gonna play?" He asked Randy.

"Uh… I don't know."

"Do they even know?" Mr. Wolf asked, referring to the two players in question.

"It's here." Sucy announced before handing over said console to the table.

"Huh. I'm actually kinda surprised you said yes." Ruby G. said.

"Only reason we said yes is because of the entertainment potential." Tsukishima said.

"Yeah, I'm actually kinda curious to see how good Toxsa is since I've never seen him play games. And if Marinette's secretly a pro, or sucks." Sucy said.

"So wait, what are they playing? I still haven't gotten that answer." Mr. Wolf asked.

"Smash. What else?" Tsukishima said.

"Smash?" Kurt said, eyebrows raised. "I don't play video games, just as a heads up."

"Super Smash Brothers. It's a crossover fighting game."

"Fighting game huh? Pretty sure my idea of what it'll look like is gonna be a hundred percent different. But we'll see. Guess I'll be learning something new today." Kurt said, folding his arms as Rick reluctantly came and started set up a mini projector, at the request of an annoying Akko and Hinata.

While the must-see rumble was preparing to begin, Aomine was talking with Akashi, asking about how he's feeling recently even though the team hasn't been doing as well as they were doing in the beginning of the season.

"I'm fine. Although, I really appreciate you doing this." Akashi said.

"Yeah, no problem. But hey, that's what teammates, and friends, are for, right? Other than Momoi and Kuroko, you were the only one that really cared heavily about me like that, as much as I got annoyed it by it. Same with Midorima I guess."

Akashi laughed a little. "Yes. I was going to mention him."

"Still surprised that he got booted so early. Same with Tetsu. Yet, rest of us are still here alive and kickin'."

"It's very unfortunate. As much as I would like to say that I'm satisfied with the things they've shown off to the world, that would be far from the truth."

"Even so, it's better than nothin'. Look at it this way, Tetsu could have easily been a first boot. And in his case, him going out was his own choice. Much as I don't like it, he at least had a say in him going."

"I'll be honest, I was a little surprised that he decided to quit. But I completely understand your point. To be grateful for the time that they were here. Time that I think, for the most part, was well-spent for them to make an impact on at least a few of the people here, besides us of course."

"I guess, yeah. Least his talents get to live on with Kise. Same with Midorima now that I think about it."

"Yes. Kise has already gotten to put his copying on display. Far past what he has usually shown."

"Oh yeah, you mean that Mayhem challenge. Yeah, that was insane. I know why he was able to do it. But still, to actually be able to perfectly copy Natsu's magic like that? Jeez. Dude's way too nice when it comes to letting others on his team get time. With that copying, he could do a lot more than he's shown so far."

"You have to remember though. It's not just him that's on his team. And I think he understands that as well."

"Yeah I get that but still, he's too nice about it."

"I suppose, if the roles were reversed, you'd want more time."

"Hell yeah I'd want more time. Why in the world would I want sick skills like that to go to waste?"

"A fair and valid point. But, now I want to ask about you. For starters, your training with Weiss. Forgive me for asking about it so late."

"Oh that? It's been okay. Not much else to really say about it to be honest."

"I see."

The way Akashi looked at him made him feel uncomfortable. As if he was scanning him like some sort of robot. "What? You're givin' me that look like you expect more. There's not much else I got to really say man, honest."

"It's nothing like that. Don't worry about it. I completely understand."

"Hey Akashi, let's test out that theory!" Bren called out, running up to him before seeing Aomine. "Well, right after you're done with Aomine that is."

"Actually, I think we're done now." Aomine said, getting up. "Good luck with uh, whatever you're up to." He said, tapping him a few times on the shoulder before walking away.

"Remind me again, what exactly are we testing? The video game? I thought Marinette and Toxsa were playing." Akashi asked Bren as he followed the latter.

"They are. But this is your chance to try it out!"

"I can't say I support this idea. It'd be rude to interrupt them."

"Wait, so for you to use it, you have to be playing?"

"That's the only time I've ever used the ability."

"Well, that's something else we can try out!"

From a distance, Weiss was off to herself practicing. Though that was more of a ploy to deter him or anyone else from thinking she was eavesdropping not too long ago.

"You can quit with the theatrics." A voice said, scaring her. That voice being Maki, arms folded.

"Not even a natural retaliation attack. And it's not because you're getting sloppy."

"Why would I attack a teammate?"

"Why wouldn't you if you didn't know who it was? Which is clear because I scared the crap outta you."

"If you want to spar, I'll be happy to be your partner." She said, noticing the small blade she had on the side of her waist.

"Nah, I'm good with sparring for right now."

"Then why are you here? Making introduction statements like the one you did clearly tell me you weren't 'just passing through'."

"Never took you to be an idiot for a second, don't get the wrong idea. Well, outside of humor."

"I have a clear comprehension of humor!"

"This right here people, is what we call, copium." She said, looking at the camera. "Next, you're gonna give me a whole damn whiteboard theory as to why you weren't eavesdropping on Aomine."

"I wasn't!"

"You were. Just automatically on the defensive instead of questioning whether I was lying about him being there or not, which I easily could have been." Maki began to close her eyes and shake her head. "Man, it's pretty funny. Some of the most self-confident people here with all the status to back it up, have to resort to something like this like some random person."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"Just don't make it a normal habit. That's when it really gets weird. I'm sure you won't though. But I get the appeal. Low IQ, high EQ. Maybe some food for thought for Beta. Anyways, not much else I got to say other than good luck. Got a Smash battle to watch." Maki finished before leaving.

Weiss had a confused look on her face. "Smash battle?"

Focusing back on said battle, more people were there watching compared to last time.

Toxsa was playing with Donkey Kong while Marinette was playing with Ness. They were in a best of seven set, with Toxsa leading 2-1.

"Well? What are you seeing?" Louie asked Akashi, who was actually using his Emperor Eye to help predict some of the moves.

"If he told you that, that'd help one of them if they heard it. Just know that it's working." Isagi said.

"I can't exactly know that if he's not saying much. What if he's lying?"

"Why in the world would he lie about that?"

"People lie about smaller things all the time."

"Please be quiet and just watch the match."

"Oh yeah, keep running. Scared of getting knocked out if you try to fight for real you coward!" Toxsa said, who was at 87% on his last stock. Marinette was at 53% on her last stock.

"Wow. Mad at me for using actual strategy. Why don't you use strategy to get around it then?" Marinette said.

"Still doesn't make it any less annoying."

"Even if it's annoying, you've gotta get around it. Parry more." Ruby G. suggested.

"He can parry all he wants. If he can't take advantage of that to advance, what does it matter?" Hanamiya said. "If he's having trouble closing the gap here, I can imagine how much trouble he'd have against the Belmonts."

"I didn't know you played Smash." Hinata said.

"Before you make any assumptions, it's simply on a casual level. I'm just calling out what I see. But, this is isn't all on Toxsa. Give credit to Marinette for having solid spacing. Again, not sure if she plays the Belmonts but, switch Ness for them and this might be over sooner."

"This doesn't sound like casual talk. But maybe that's just because I don't play." Kurt said.

"Trust me, there are plenty of people out there that could make quick work of me if I went up against them. And that's not even counting the people that play professionally."

Suddenly, the screen began to turn red as Donkey Kong was seen flying back. Luckily for him, it was actually the killing blow as he was able to stay in the stage.

"Okay, you guys are gonna have to finish this later." Chris said, causing several people to turn, including Marinette. The split second of her looking up allowed Toxsa to send her flying off the stage, where his attack was enough to end the game. Chef was also noticeably wearing a black suit and a matching tie on the white dress shirt that he was wearing underneath.

"What? No!" Marinette said after realizing what happened.

"And that my friend, is what separates us. A real gamer wouldn't have gotten distracted." Toxsa said.

"You can't be serious with that! He's the host! What am I supposed to do ignore him?"

"I mean, people have done worse to him, so, ignoring him shouldn't really be too much of a problem."

"You're acting like I just get casually beat up or something. I mean sure, I could care less if you ignore me, but still." Chris said.

"I mean, considering what you've done for all the seasons you've been in, you're lucky that hasn't happened to you. In fact, it's shocking that that hasn't happened yet. Outside of Jasmine." Louie said.

"Well, there was that time he got kidnapped by Ezekiel." Chef said.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that." Chris said.

"Or the time that Jack Horner threatened to kill you." Ben said.

"Yep. Now I definitely remember that."

"Yeah and he won't be missed." Rick said.

"Huh. Now that I think about it, a lot more's happened than I thought. But enough reminiscing on the past, it's time to focus on the present. Which is your challenge for today! So, I hope you guys are still in the competitive spirit!" Chris exclaimed.

Eventually, everyone was brought together for the challenge. Three long podiums were seen along with a monitor. There were also three sets of bleachers.

"Alright, this challenge is going to be exclusively here on the island. And I mean it this time. Want proof? I'm about to explain exactly what you're about to do. It's the exact same thing you did yesterday. A quiz challenge!" Chris said.

"Wow. Rehashing challenges. Anything else we should know, oh great creator of challenge ideas?" Noah said sarcastically.

"To tell you the truth, I don't come up with all of these challenges. Like I said, some challenges have been done before in seasons in other universes. Or, there will be fan suggestions, reprised challenges from previous season, scrapped challenges, these three will pitch ideas to me, etcetera."

"Makes sense. Because there's no way you're familiar with all of these things you ask us to do. No one here is familiar with everything." Becky B. said. "Even I'll admit that."

"Same way that I'm not familiar with some of the facts or things that go on in each place we visit. So, you're not the only ones learning something. Sometimes I'm learning new things too."

"Did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?" Courtney commented.

"Oh yeah, I'm surprised too." Rally said.

"Okay, now to explain how this is going to work. I said that you'd get a quiz challenge today, but it won't be styled the same way as Skatoony. How many of you have seen or at least heard of game shows like Jeopardy, Family Feud, etcetera?"

Some people raised their hands, some didn't.

"Cool, then the ones that did raise their hands should notice some strong inspiration/similarities from some of these game shows. Of course, with extra creative liberties to make sure it's not exactly the same. For starters, each team will have six players competing, meaning it'll be triple the amount that played yesterday in the Skatoony challenge." Chris began to explain.

"Second, to avoid anyone whining about some type of advantage, none of the six that competed today will be in this. So if you're one of those six, you're basically safe for this challenge. That, and, I'm not about to have Charles' horrible picking rub off on me."

"So that's all there is to know about the players. Now it's time to get to actually explaining the game, especially for those that aren't familiar with those shows that I mentioned earlier. It'll be three rounds. It's a race to the top, which is $5000! A twentieth of the original prize winnings of Total Drama Island. And no, that's just a counter for your score. Jeopardy does the same thing. But you will not win any money from this challenge. Let me say that again. You will not win money from this challenge! I said it twice, and it's now on record too before anyone wonders why they haven't gotten any money from this."

"I'm guessing there will be categories right? From $200 to $1000?" Riley asked.

"Yep, that's exactly right. Though there will also be a $500 thrown in there as well."

"There will be six different categories to choose from. Each category will have a different set of questions for you to answer. What you'll get could vary. But Total Drama questions will be excluded. This will simply be a test of everything else that you know that's not related to Total Drama. The higher the money, the harder the question will be. One person from the team will get to choose the question. After that, it's fair game on who answers it. If you think you've got it, press the buzzer so you can try to answer it. You'll have 10 seconds to answer each question. The timer will start after each question is asked. And don't worry, you won't have to do the 'what is' thing that's done or Jeopardy. Just answer the question and you'll be fine." He explained.

"But, if you get it wrong, you'll still lose the money just like you would in the show. And no, if you have less money remaining than what you supposedly are going to lose, for example, you have $200 but you lose $400, it doesn't go to zero. You'll be in the negative. Also just like you would in the show. You'll also lose the turn for your team, allowing someone from another team to answer, if those teams haven't gone yet that is."

"Which brings me to my closing points. For each question, each team has only got one shot at answering. So if you get it wrong, that's it. There is no 'try again'. If no one buzzes to answer within five seconds, or no one gets it right, the answer gets revealed and we move on. No one gets awarded any points. The game will end when either the entire board is cleared, or when a certain amount of time passes and the board still isn't cleared. Whichever team is the closest to $5k or gets there first, wins. Any questions?"

"So, Jeopardy is usually just three people. How will you manage doing six times that amount? By taking turns?" Becky F. asked.

"Nope! All 18 of you are going to be active participants in this game. And all 18 of you will have your own buzzers to press. The person on your team that buzzes first has to answer with no help. Which means, participants and non-participants alike are not allowed to help the person that's answering. Doing so means your team will automatically lose their turn and they lose the points as if they got it wrong."

"Which means, no brainlessly pressing the buzzer." Fiona said before clearing her throat at Johnny.

"What? Somethin' on my face?" Johnny asked before pulling out a mirror to check.

"And no, you cannot rely on one person to carry. Oh yeah, I definitely thought this one through to plug up as many easy loopholes as possible. When one person answers, right or wrong, they're done for five turns. Five turns for their team, not overall. Yes, all of you are going to be active participants. There will be no, 'I'm not that good at this sort of thing' or 'I'm shy' excuses. You say that and it's not an answer, you might be expressing your shyness on a portal back to your home, for good." Chris added. "None of you are as stupid as you may claim to be so you can use it as a cop out. I literally have recorded proof within these episodes that prove otherwise. Might not be much, but you know something."

"You sure about that? I think you might be lookin' at the wrong footage." Beta said.

"I'm a hundred percent certain Beta. Now, one more big thing. To make up for the fact that there was no elimination yesterday, there will be two today. You want to be safe? Get first place. if no one else has any questions, we'll get started."

None were given. "Great! Now, when I call your name, I need you to go to the podium that has your team logo on it."

"Kagami, Noah, Diana, Adrien, Becky Botsford, Rick!"

"Aomine, Weiss, Riley, Marinette, Jotaro and Sebastian!"

"Hanamiya, Noelle, Tsukishima, Toxsa, Reagan and Ruby Gillman!"

"Everyone else, take a seat in the bleachers for each of your teams."

"Great. This a*shole's playing." Aomine and Kagami both thought, referring to Hanamiya.

"Don't get in your head too much. Remember that it's not just you out there. You've got this." Rei said, giving him friendly taps on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Thanks." Kagami said.

"I know you don't know everything. But just try your best. That's all I-we, can ask for, alright?" Weiss said to Aomine as they got to the podium.

"Yeah, I got it. You don't gotta tell me twice." Aomine said, grabbing his ear.

"Let's do our best guys. Hit the ground running with this first round." Hanamiya said.

"Right. A good start will say a lot for how the rest of this game will go." Ruby G. said.

"Speaking of, better make sure you do your best Marinette. No loopholes for you to exploit here." Toxsa taunted.

"Whatever. You just better worry about yourself. Can't finish a set if you're not even here." Marinette said.

"Great advice for yourself. Why are you saying it out loud again?"

"Any context as to why they're suddenly mad at each other?" Noah whispered to Diana and Kagami, who were on the right and left of him respectively.

"Nope." Kagami said.

Diana only closed her eyes and shook her head to indicate that she had no clue either.

Kagami and Aomine continued to steal glances at Hanamiya as he continued to have an optimistic look on his face. He could feel their stares but chose not to show any reaction to them.

"If you think this'll be how you do me in, you two are even bigger idiots than I thought. You may have better skills than me on the court. A battle of the mind is a different story. You're out of your league." Hanamiya thought. "And I'm gonna show that difference."

"You think those two will be okay?" Kurt asked.

"Kagamicchi and Aominecchi? Yeah. As much as they yell at each other, they're-" Kise started.

"Not them. I mean those two." Kurt said, nodding towards Rick.

"Oh. Now I see. That one's a tougher one to answer. All I can give you is, I hope so."

"Aomine." Jotaro called out, which broke him out of his thoughts as he turned to look at him. "I'm sure you don't want to go home, so you need to stay focused. You want to win? Then it's going to take all of us to do that."

"Literally." Riley added.

"Jotaro is right. What's done in the past has already been set in stone. There is no changing it. Like a contract. But you can change what happens now, like you would in a deal per se." Sebastian said.

"The heck does this have to do with a contract?" Aomine asked, confused. "And can't you break contracts?"

"An analogy. And to answer your question, only if a fool was involved in any of the involved parties."

"Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"If that's the case, then don't worry about it. It won't matter anyway."

"Kick their butts! Make it four in a row Diana!" Akko called out.

"So she's cheering for her again?" Zero commented.

"Why? You upset about that?" Lucy asked.

"No. What gave you that idea?"

"You commenting on it."

"I never really had any feelings towards it prior. But, I guess now I could say that I'm glad whatever was going on between them is over."

"Zero's not exactly the type that really expresses his feelings on most things." Axl informed Tangle.

"A stoic. I get it." Tangle said before looking at Blaze and Whisper.

"Alright, let's get started. Chef? If you'll do the honors?" Chris said.

"Certainly!" Chef said, cards already in hand. With the push of a button from Heloise, the monitor came to life.

"Clues are worth $200 to $1000 points in six categories. From left to right, here are these categories: Word World! Animals! Do re mi fa songs! Better love story than Twilight? Things aren't always #000000 and #FFFFFF! That's the way the cookie crumbles!"

"Since Hailey won yesterday, her team gets to start first! Ruby, if you'll do the honors in picking a category first?" Chef said.

"Sure! Hmm, let's ease in with animals for 200!" Ruby said.

"I have a bear's name, but I'm not a bear. Makes total sense." Chef read from the screen.

Several people were seen attempting to press their buzzer first.

"Becky, you pressed it first. What's your answer? Ten seconds."

"Red pandas!" She answered.

"You got it!" Several claps were heard. "$200 dollars for your team! Now, for your reward, you get to pick the next question."

"Hmm….. word world for $400! Sorry, couldn't resist."

"Well, it's too bad you don't get to answer it yourself huh?" Rick remarked.

"Hence why one of you guys should answer it."

"A five-letter word that's a homophone with the letter that it starts off with. Oh and it's not a vowel. Go figure." Chef read.

Aomine quickly pressed the button.

"Aomine? What ya got?"

He immediately facepalmed after realizing the mistake he made of not listening to the entire hint before deciding to press the button.

"Sh*t. You got yourself in this. Now you gotta get yourself out of it. Come on. Think! Five letter word." Aomine thought, eyes closed and squinting as well as he tried to think.

"Five seconds."

"Uh… Q?" He guessed. He expected a buzz or something indicating that he got it wrong but didn't get the noise he expected.

"That's it! Right on time too. Two seconds left. Kings strike back with $400." Chef said.

"Yes!" Aomine said, fist pumping, a wide grin on his face as he celebrated.

"See? I told you!" Weiss said to him.

"Yeah. Yeah! Guess you were right! Let's do this!" Aomine said, his confidence growing.

"Tch, lucky guess." Kagami said under his breath.

"I know you're mad over there. Don't hate, strike back! If you can."

"Shut up!" Kagami said, that one definitely not under his breath.

***Confessional***

Weiss(Storm Kings):

"I'm almost certain that was just a lucky guess on his part. But, now's the time to be encouraging to help his morale when he does have to go again, so he can think and answer with confidence, not hesitance. He may not know much as some of the others here, but he's not as stupid as he thinks he is. I just hope it doesn't go to his head."

***End Confessional***

"Aomine, go ahead and pick the next hint." Chef said.

"Huh? Oh. I thought I had to go again. I forgot about this. Let's see…. let's go with animals again. $400." He said.

"Most of us hate them, but unlike us, they never needed to build bunkers. Also, insert funny adult joke because of their name." Chef read.

"Cockroach." Reagan said in a deadpan voice.

"Yep, that's it! Every team's on the board now. Lookin' good! Any thoughts Rick?"

"She gets one right and I'm supposed to have some sort of overblown reaction. You want that, Kagami's right there." Rick said.

"How 'bout instead of throwin' some slick a[censored] insult, you work on answering the damn questions!" Kagami shot back.

"Because what you just did wasn't a reaction. Stop it. We're in last place and you guys aren't exactly doing anything to help." Noah said to Rick.

"Says the person that hasn't done much himself." Rick said.

"Alright, settle down, all of you! Reagan, pick a hint." Chef said.

"Better love story for 400." She chose.

"A trope that the two Chipmunks from Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jeneatte and Simon, have, but is subverted." Chef read.

"Well damn. I'm glad I don't have to answer this." Reagan said low, not knowing the answer.

"Real helpful." Toxsa said sarcastically.

"Come on, one of you has to know it." Noelle whispered when none of her teammates spoke up to answer.

Hanamiya could only shrug. A buzzer was heard. From Ruby and Riley as another noise was heard to indicate that time was up to answer.

"Nope! That won't count! You snooze you lose! The answer is, Opposites Attract!" Chef said before both of the late buzzers were hit by flying brown balloons from both in front and behind.

"Guessing these are those 'creative liberties'." Tsukishima said.

"How'd you guess?" Chris said, feigning surprise.

"Guess I'm just lucky." He said, playing along.

"Too bad that luck couldn't get you to answer the question." Noelle said.

"Exactly why you answered it then right?"

"I wasn't familiar with that particular one."

"You're trying to save face when all you did was prove my point."

"Is this….. chocolate?" Riley said after tasting said brown substance.

"Dark chocolate too. Not the best choice I might add." Ruby G. said.

"Oh yeah, real smart to put something brown that you got hit by in your mouth." Todd said sarcastically.

"That's why you use your nose." Riley said.

"Oh. I didn't think of that."

"Press the buzzer too late, before you're able to go again, or you get it wrong and you'll get hit with a reward for your efforts. And these rewards come in different varieties. Cool, right?" Chris said.

"Says literally no one but you." Noah said. "Next question please."

"Reagan, pick another one." Chef said.

Eijun was visibly frustrated. "How could none of them know that answer?"

"Chill, it's just one question." Randy said.

"Although it's definitely clear that none of them know romance at all." Fiona said.

"After one question? Wow." Sucy commented, more to herself.

"Please try to make sure it's one we know this time." Noelle said to Reagan. "And try to make a better effort to buzz quickly if you do."

"The same goes for us too. If you know it, be more confident!" Weiss encouraged.

"Can't exactly say that when you don't even know what's going to be asked." Reagan said to Noelle.

"Just hurry up and pick a question already." Noelle said.

"Alright, alright! Shut up and let me focus then. Hmm…. screw it! Animals for a thousand!"

"The animal that no one pays much attention to, but has regeneration just like the iconic hero Wolverine and anime character Piccolo, from the popular Dragon Ball series." Chef read.

"An animal that no one pays much attention too….." Adrien thought.

Rick and Kagami both pressed the buzzer but Kagami was first.

"Kagami?" Chef said.

"Uh…. it's gotta be a starfish, right? Because of their regeneration." Kagami said.

A buzzing sound was heard.

"Nope!" Chef said. They were brought down to -$800, causing him to put his hands on head.

"No way! What else could it have been!?" Kagami said in disbelief.

"Anyone else wanna tell him?"

Jotaro pressed the buzzer a couple seconds later. "It's worms."

"Yep! You got it! $1000 for your team!" The Kings were now at $1400.

"I had it. Well, at the very least, you won't be able to have a turn." Rick said.

"You're supposed to be encouraging not make him feel worse!" Rei called out.

"I'm just being honest."

"Even so, none of that fixes the fact we're in a hole." Diana said. "All we can do is move forward."

As for Kagami, he was picked up by a crane controlled by Doyle before being put into a crate full of worms.

"What the heck is crawling on me? I can't see in here! Get me out!" Kagami yelled before more worms were dumped on top of him.

"Is all that really necessary?" Rei asked.

"Considering that was a thousand, yes. The higher the score the worse the penalty is, so just keep that in mind." Chris said.

***Confessional***

Jotaro(Storm Kings):

"I wasn't sure which animal it was first. But when Kagami answered starfish and it wasn't right, I had to figure it was worms. The fact that they're overlooked was the hint."

***End Confessional***

"Jotaro, pick the next hint." Chef said.

"Word world for 600." Jotaro said.

"When you say this word one way, it could convey life. Tell this same thing to someone in Japanese and it'll mean the exact opposite."

Aomine immediately pressed the button, beating out Adrien.

"Nope, you already answered recently." Chef said.

"Damn it. Lock these off or somethin' that was on instinct!" Aomine said.

This gave Hanamiya the chance to buzz. "Shine."

"You got it." Chef said.

"Thanks." Hanamiya said to Aomine.

"Kiss my a-" A bright light was shone in Aomine's face. "Are you trying to blind somebody? This isn't funny!" Aomine said, eyes closed.

"Actually, it is." Chris said.

"Hanamiya, next hint please." Chef said.

"Animals for 600." Hanamiya chose.

"A passerine bird, it's name also includes a homophone for a letter."

Several people reached and pressed the button.

Heloise looked at the tablet in her hand. "Rick pressed it first."

"Rick? What's your answer?"

"Blue Jay." Rick answered.

"Add some money to the bank! Oh wait." Chef said before laughing. But Rick for sure wasn't.

"Are you going to let Kagami out, or do I have to do it myself?" Rei called out.

"Take a chill pill. We'll let him out. Once everyone on your team's done." Chris said.

"You shouldn't have said that." Chef said to himself.

Before she exploded, literally, Doyle got him out.

"Dude! I said that-" Chris started before Doyle stopped him.

"Would you rather that or worms everywhere? Because that's exactly what was about to happen in less than ten seconds." Doyle said, predicting right as the minute this happened, she put away the transformation pen.

"Honestly, as annoying as that would have been to clean up, that would have kinda been funny. But whatever." Chris said as Kagami silently went back to the podium.

"Kagami, you okay?" Sena asked.

"Yeah." That was all he had to say.

"Okay, long as he's not dead. Chef, continue!" Chris said.

"Things aren't always black and white. 500. Just so you know, that's what those letters and numbers mean. It's just in hex code." Rick declared before Chef could prompt him to do it.

"The name for the architecture that has a higher number, but weaker than it's other most common brethren architecture. It also doesn't have the same number of bytes as what it represents either."

Toxsa pressed the button several times.

"We get it, you wanna go. Now stop pressing the button like it's a controller.." Tsukishima said.

"Yeah, please don't do that. I can see who pressed the button first so all you need to do is press it once. Mashing it only makes it annoying for me. Next person that does it gets penalized. And it's definitely going to make you feel a buzz." Heloise said, grinning on the last part.

"Yeah, yeah I got it, now let me answer the question." Toxsa said.

"What is it?" Chef asked.

"x86 architecture!" Toxsa answered confidently.

"Yep!" Chef said.

"What are these niche questions? No one else is familiar with these." Noelle said.

"Actually I am." Reagan said.

"Yeah, so am I." Rick said.

"Same here." Bennett said.

"Guess I make four." Myron said.

"And I make five. There's actually a reason for it as weird as it is compared to the consistently names x64-" Becky B. started before being cut off.

"Cool but, how is this important?" Todd asked.

"The architecture decides what software you can use on whatever device you have. To try to keep things as simple as possible without going on a full-on elaboration, 64-bit process information faster than 32, which means better performance in software, including games. I'm sure you are at least familiar with the term 8-bit. This is the same thing. Hence the better graphics and performance as you advance in consoles." Mayuzumi explained with several people staring at him. Courtney and a few others being genuinely surprised or shocked.

"Huh. That's pretty cool. But still, nerd!" Todd said, pointing at him which only caused him to frown and start reading the light novel that he had brought with him.

"I never took him to be someone that plays games." Bren commented.

"Yeah. The more you know." Sly added.

"How do you know something like that?" Marinette asked Toxsa.

"No processors, no games. That should be a no-brainer. Kinda sad that you don't know it though. Ya casual." Toxsa said.

"Because our games from earlier definitely showed I was a casual. What a baseless claim." Marinette said.

"Could ya stop talking? I can see the salt coming from your mouth from here."

"Is that even possible?"

"Well, you don't know if it isn't!"

"I never expected these two to be in such a conflict with one another. Is there any context that led up to it?" Sebastian asked Jotaro.

"Probably, but I honestly can't tell you what it is." He replied.

"Alright, alright, that's enough you two!" Chef called out to Toxsa and Marinette.

***Confessional***

Adrien(Radical Rats):

"I never really expected things between those two to get so heated. And it was all over Smash of all things. Why the heck are Nintendo games supposed to be primarily for fun, yet create some of the most rage ever?"

"That aside, I never thought Mayuzumi would know something like that. Same with Toxsa. Sure, I kinda know what each are. 32 and 64 are in computers that much I know. And 16 and 8 are what's used for classic games. But, I'm not really into technology so I never really thought about how they work at all. Honestly, it's pretty cool now that I think about it. I wonder, what exactly is Mayuzumi studying in college? I don't remember if anyone's ever explicitly asked. And if they did, I forgot or I wasn't paying attention."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Marinette(Storm Kings):

"When we matched up with each other in the mayhem challenge, he was never this annoying. Whatever happened to him, it was for the worse."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Toxsa(Wave Breakers):

"He he he. My plan is working perfectly!" He said, rubbing his hands. "Get under her skin, and she'll crumble like….. cookies! But seriously, you really think I'm some elitist gatekeeper? Course not! Yeah I'll still call ya a noob or say 'you suck' or something like that, but I'm not the type to look down on people and call them 'Filthy casuals' seriously. Honestly, as annoying as her gameplay was, she was good. A lot better than I expected. But I will never give her any props until the set is done. What I'm doing with her now, is what you call, gamer trash talk. Some people do this locally, and online with the mics to throw people off their game. And it's working like a charm here."

***End Confessional***

"Toxsa, pick another hint!" Chef said.

"That's the way the cookie crumbles for 400!" He chose.

"Put these two words together, laugh and draw, and you'll get this cookie." Chef read.

Marinette immediately pressed the button.

"Snickerdoodle!" She answered.

"Yep!" Chef said.

"So tech architecture is your specialty. This is mine." She said to Toxsa.

"Noted. Even though it's outta my hands now. So pick a hint already." Toxsa said.

"Do re mi fa songs for 800!"

"This artists' name includes an American money value." Chef read.

No one pressed the buzzer before the time expired.

"The answer is Nickelback!"

"That's the only one that made remotely any sense." Yulaw commented.

"Marinette, choose another one." Chef said.

"Do re mi fa songs for 200."

"This genre of music originated in New Orleans, Louisiana."

Riley, Noah, Sebastian and Adrien pressed the button.

"Sebastian was first. Barely, but still first." Heloise said.

"Sebastian?" Chef said.

"Certainly. The answer is Jazz." Sebastian declared.

"Correct!"

"Word world for 500 please."

"Makes sense you'd know something like that. Didn't you come from like a year a super long time ago?" Toxsa asked.

"19th century to be exact." Sebastian said.

"Wait a sec, I'm curious, what type of music do you like?"

"Hmm…. I cannot say that I have a particular favorite. Although, I cannot say that I would ever listen to the music that Yulaw and some others here likes."

"Yeah, I don't see you as a metalhead." Marinette commented.

"Music is blind. You'll be surprised of the preferences of some people." Octavia said. "Yulaw is probably one of the best examples here don't you think?"

"I suppose so." Sebastian said. "Although I am equally curious, why did you ask me such a question Toxsa?"

"Just curious. You're one of the people here that doesn't really seem like they do much around here. in terms of free time." Toxsa said.

"I see. And who would those others be?"

"You really want me to expose people for being boring so they'll get motivated. I see what you're doin' Sebastian and I'm not fallin' for it. You really are one heck of a butler dude."

"I can't say I have any idea of what you mean. I had no hidden intent in the question."

"Oh stop it. I can see it written all over your uh face. Nope!"

"Chef! Dude, read the hint!" Chris called out.

"Oh! My bad!" Chef said, getting too ingrained in the in-talking between the participants.

"A homophone, has less letters than the number that this word is, and if you switch some letters around, you get a German word instead."

Diana, Noah and Ruby immediately pressed the button as the former's eyes widened a bit, with Weiss, Tsukishima and Riley being a split second late.

"Nine." Noah answered.

"Correct! Took forever, but you guys are out of debt!" Chef said.

"Student loans in a nutshell unfortunately." Ben commented, which caused Reagan to break her focus and laugh a little.

"Okay, I shouldn't be laughing, but it's funny because it's true. Which is sad." Reagan said.

"Yeah, it really is." Noah said.

"Makes sense as to why you're here huh?" Bren said to Mayuzumi.

"Apparently you weren't listening much the past couple of times I've mentioned college being expensive." He said.

"All you had to do was say yes."

"No, I'm fortunate enough to not have to rely on loans. But still, money doesn't exactly grow on trees. Does that answer your question?"

"Jeez, why the hell does it seem like he always has a stick up his a[censored]?" Kageyama commented.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Hinata said.

"Diana and Adrien are the only ones that haven't gotten a shot at answering. What's something they'd know?" Noah thought.

"I'll take animals for 800!"

"Come on, one of you have to know this. You know everything else Diana, answer this!"

"This tusked animal is a part of the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."

"You've got to be kidding me." Noah said before facepalming as a buzzer was heard.

"This'll probably be the easiest one I'll get. Thanks." Tsukishima said before Heloise stopped him.

"Nope. Adrien got it." Heloise said.

"Mastodon!" Adrien answered.

Tsukishima could only shake his head.

"You'll get the next one, don't worry!" Hinata called out.

"Thanks. Really appreciate it." Tsukishima said sarcastically.

"Well, guess things aren't as easy as you thought they were huh? Just like when you fell into that pit thinking nothing was there like a moron." Sucy remarked.

"Like I already told you then, I didn't see it."

"Pretty sad that you have glasses but are still blind."

"Uh huh. Coming from the person who has their hair covering an eye. You're gonna make a mistake sooner or later and I'm gonna point back to that."

"One eye and I can see better than you it seems.

"I have no idea what they're talking about, but it sounds like Sucy's winning." Happy said low to Natsu.

"I'm just looking at the score. To tell you the truth, I kinda checked out after like the third question. This game's too boring." Natsu whispered back before looking at Mamori who was attentively focusing on the game, hence why she was so silent. "Mamori though, she's better than me. Look at her! She's super into it. I just don't get the pull. It's just questions. And half of them I can't even tell you what they mean."

"Well not everything can be about fighting." Rally said.

"Not sayin' it has to be. At least when we did the stuff I didn't know before, it was cool. This? It's like yesterday but worse. You were here before, right? How did you get through all the boring stuff?"

"Kind of a tough question to answer. I don't know. Things back then were a lot different compared to now. From how I felt about the show, to my role on the team I was on, etcetera. All I know is that you might want to brace yourself if you're gonna be here for a while."

"And the fact that you were two years younger?" May added.

"That too."

***Confessional***

May(Radical Rats):

"I was gonna add the fact that miss 'all business' Rally actually got her heart stolen by someone on the show. But, I'd rather not cause a scene. Things would have been different if she would have brought and wore those high heels I bought her! I'm sure that would have made him red in the face. There's something about bada[censored] girls in heels that always gets them. That, or I've been watching way too much James Bond recently."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Rally(Radical Rats):

"Now that I think about it, the only one I can say I a hundred percent hated was the fashion challenge. Listen, I'm not saying you can't look nice. I like to go shopping from time to time too. But I just don't see the appeal of rating people based off tacky clothes that you'll probably never be seen wearing outside of like once or twice. I'll take something that's decent but more importantly, comfortable, thank you very much. That, and I specifically remember at least one of the judges being an a[censored], giving scores for the dumbest reasons I've seen. I could be wrong, but I don't recall any of the other judged challenges being like that."

"Call me boring all you want, but I just don't get putting people down for something like that. The part that burns me up is the fact that there's some people out there that a get a high off doing that to people."

***End Confessional***

The pair were able to end their exchange on their own without the need for Chef needing to force them to.

"What were they talking about?" Morty asked.

"I think that was something from their game." Lotte answered.

"Game?"

"Yeah, I don't when, but they started playing games together a lot." Akko explained.

"Oh. Well that's pretty cool." Morty said.

"Sucy like games?" Monta said. "Max mind explosion!" He added, putting his hands on head before making a wild explosion gesture, hitting the donut bag out of Murasakibara's hand, causing it to fall on the ground. "Oops."

Murasakibara only sighed. "All good. Luckily I have an extra bag I brought with me in case I wanted some more. But still though, wasting food sucks. I hate seeing it go to waste."

***Confessional***

Louie(Storm Kings):

"Oh really? Time to instigate."

***End Confessional***

"Come on, you guys better pick it up or you're gonna lose!" Louie called out to the six Breakers competing.

"Yeah, we don't exactly need a motivation coach from across teams to tell us that." Reagan said.

"Especially you, Tsukishima! How else are you gonna prove your GF wrong and play with her more here?"

"Wow, you're even lazy in your taunts." Tsukishima said.

"Good for you on not responding." She said to Tsukishima. "But me? I don't care. Say that again and I'll make sure you don't leave here with your mouth on your face." Sucy warned Louie as Adrien picked the next hint, which was from the cookie category for $1000.

"Are you crazy? That's basically all our money!" Becky B. said.

"We're running out of time. If we don't get it now, when will we? Besides, Diana's smart. She'll get it."

"Well, let's find out. Sugar, butter, flour and two words are all that's needed to make this cookie, originating from Scotland." Chef read as Diana pressed the button with no hesitation.

"Shortbread." Diana said.

"Correct!" Chef said. "And with that, the Rats have shockingly taken first after being in the negative! Looks like Adrien's gamble paid off!"

"LET'S GO DIANA!" Akko yelled out.

"Please, there's no need for yelling. We have not won anything yet." Diana said, though she secretly was beaming with pride that she was able to assist in bringing her team back from the dead. And to be the person to bring the team over the hump was icing on the cake for her. Pride that seemingly only Noelle and Weiss were able to somehow notice.

"Yeah, you definitely haven't." Weiss said.

"Now look who's mad." Aomine remarked.

"Of course I'm upset. We're losing now."

"Yep, keep tellin' yourself it's just that." Aomine thought.

"We went from having a chance to being in last place! This is ridiculous! But what am I supposed to do!? I don't know most of these!" Noelle thought.

"Noelle, take it easy. So what if they have the lead? It took them forever to get it and they're still barely holding on." Hanamiya said, sensing the panic in her body language. "That goes for the rest of you too."

"Aye aye captain!" Toxsa said before saluting.

"Speak for yourselves." Tsukishima said, before calmly adjusting his glasses. "I know I'll get my shot."

***Confessional***

Tsuksihaima(Wave Breakers):

"The one time I get to show off something I like I get denied that chance. I'm definitely not upset. At all."

***End Confessional***

"Word World for 200 please." Diana said.

Hiruma grunted after she made this choice, something that Lanolin and X noticed.

"A place where weapons of war are stored or as the main plot point of an Arthur Miller published book. And the playground for a yelling madman."

"Crucible." Becky B. answered, almost answering too early before she could fully place her hand on the buzzer to buzz in.

"That's correct! Yelling madman was Shaxx by the way."

"Yeah, I figured." Becky said before looking at Diana. "You should have just went for at least 800. I'm WordGirl after all. This category for me is what video games are to Toxsa. If that's an appropriate comparison."

"Eh, not exactly what I would have used, but I see where you're comin' from. Close enough." Toxsa said.

"Yes. I suppose I should have had more faith in you. Great job nonetheless." Diana said to Becky.

"The walking dictionary is right." Hiruma said.

"But it still would have been a risk. What if she didn't get it right?" X proposed.

"She would have gotten it. Every single one of them."

"Now our chances of winning have gone down." He thought.

***Confessional***

Diana(Radical Rats):

"I had to make sure. Even if she wasn't able to get it right, we'd still be in contention. That's all that matters right now. Is the fact that we still have a chance. Now we just need to finish it."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Sendo(Radical Rats):

"Guess he's two for two today. She should have went for the kill. It's one thing to be strategically cautious. That's when you can still be dangerous. But that? That's not what that was. That was out of fear. I don't even have to look at her eyes or her body language. Or smell it. She was trying to protect the lead, not maintain it. There's a complete difference between the two."

***End Confessional***

"Better love story for 500 please." Becky B. said.

"Every one of them has said this once to them: Baka!" Chef said.

Adrien, Kagami and Tsukishima all pressed the button.

"Why didn't you press the button you idiot?" Aomine whispered to Weiss.

"Because I don't know the answer obviously!" Weiss whispered back which only caused him to cover his face in frustration.

"Noelle, what do you have?" Chef said to the surprise of the other four buzzers.

"Me?"

"Clocks tickin'." Chef said, letting her pass as he could have taken that 'Me' as an answer.

"Uh….." Noelle said before thinking.

"Come on Noelle." Asta said low.

"Tsundere! Tsundere!" Eijun thought. He even tried mouthing it and did several gestures. He was fine on the mouthing, but it was the gestures that did him in.

"Nope, I saw that." Doyle said, pointing it out to Heloise, who informed Chef.

"Question's voided! That's a loss of 500!" Chef said.

"It was Tsundere! Come on!" Eijun shouted.

Their team was pushed back to $1000.

"Wow, thanks a lot." Tsukishima said.

"I was trying to help!" Eijun said.

"I'm not even talking about you. But yeah, you're liable too."

"Becky, pick another one." Chef said.

"So they have trouble with romance huh?" Becky B. thought. "Better love story again! This time for 600!"

"Beyonce and Jay-Z are examples of this."

Adrien pressed the button. "Celebrity couple?"

"Nope."

Adrien snapped his fingers. He knew he ruined a golden opportunity for the team to be out of reach of the other two teams.

This dropped their score to 1700.

Ruby was next. "Power couple!"

"Yes!"

"With how these scores are now, it's anyone's game. One question could give their team a win or kill their chances." Chef commented.

***Confessional***

Ruby G.(Wave Breakers):

"Now or never. I don't have room to be nervous anymore. If I got another chance, and I'm confident I will, I'm taking it!"

***End Confessional***

"Okay. There's still well over 4000 points available for each team to get to the $5000 goal. No need to panic. Mathematicians are supposed to be rational. Just take your time and make the right choice that will help Tsukishima." Ruby thought, quickly calculating the remaining points in the game in her head before she chose the next hint.

"I'll take word world for 800!" She declared.

"One could say this question is this. Look at the name of one of Batman's villains and you'll find your answer." Chef read.

"Riddler!" Aomine whispered low to Weiss just as Riley pressed the button.

"That's 800 off for the Kings! Come on, don't make it that obvious." Chef said.

"I don't think riddle would fit, so it's gotta be enigma." Noah guessed.

"Yep, it's enigma!" Chef said.

"Why would you do that? You know they'll see it!" Riley said to Aomine.

"Because she's not answering the damn questions!" Aomine said in frustration.

"Because I don't know them!" Weiss shot back.

"Then at least try! Do something! Guess, I don't know! You're hurting the team because you're scared of something as stupid as getting a question wrong!"

"Scared? Knowing your limitations is not being scared!"

"Damn limitations! You can't even take your own damn advice!"

"That is not the same thing!"

"Then what's different then? Because I'm not as smart as you? And by the way, it sure doesn't seem like those so called brains are being put to good use here. Even if she didn't know, at least Noelle tried!"

"How can you make that assumption when Eijun interrupted?" Noelle remarked.

"So why didn't you answer the question then? I'll wait." Tsukishima said.

"She didn't know it. Yet she'll keep lying even if it means hurting the team." Fiona said.

"Noelle would never do something as selfish as that! That's not true!" Asta said.

"Then why press the button if she didn't know it? Tsukishima was still another option."

"Maybe he didn't know it so she decided to give it a try."

"But that's stupid! Why would you risk points off a guess!?"

"We were falling behind! What else was I supposed to do!? Tell me you'd do something different! You know you wouldn't! And if you'd just sit there and let us lose, how does that make you any better?" Noelle said aloud.

"It's not letting us lose you moron! It's called using common sense! Something that you either lack or you have it and you just don't care!"

"Stop it!" Both Rubies said simultaneously to everyone, moreso the ones on their respective teams.

"How is this helping anything? You've seen what Noelle has done before in these challenges, and so because she made one mistake, all of that just magically disappears now?" Ruby G. said to Fiona.

"I never said that at all."

"Well it sure sounds like it. And for someone that supposedly respects her, that sure doesn't seem like respect to me. Or were you lying during that last news meet-up we had?"

"There's a such thing as retracting statements."

"What? Wow. Because she tried to do something to help the team, you want to retract something like that? Listen, I may not be as outspoken as you, but I would never make such a quick heel turn because someone made one mistake! If anything, she shouldn't take your fake respect."

"Fiona is there something going on that you're not telling us?" Kaz asked.

"Yeah. I don't recall any of this." Myron added.

"If you want context? There was a news episode after the Villain challenge. She talked about how she wanted to apologize to Noelle personally because of how frustrated she was of how she acts. And one of the things she revealed was that she actually respected her because she saw her practicing, and working hard. Not using her status as royalty as an excuse not to try her best." Ruby G. explained.

"Chef, come on man start the game already!" Kagami said.

"I really don't think this is the time for that." Adrien said.

"Yeah, they're having some kinda moment. Just let it be." Rick said.

Noelle was surprised to hear all of this revealed from Ruby.

"But I guess all of that was a lie. Because it clearly doesn't look like you talked or apologized to her." Ruby G. said to Fiona.

"I tried to! But she did it again! Why in the world would I express myself to someone that couldn't care less?" Fiona said.

"Sheesh. This got derailed quickly." Scratch commented.

"Scratch!" Molly scolded.

"What? It's true!"

"That can't be right. That's not the Noelle that I know." Asta started. "I know I said it once but I'll say it again. If you're making that claim, then I don't think you understand her at all. I can't even use the excuse of you not seeing it, because she's shown that she does care around here! If she didn't, she would have let your machine get lost in the villain challenge. She wouldn't have tried to defend Reagan even when she couldn't do anything to fight or defend herself anymore. Even on our missions with the rest of the Black Bulls squad that we're on. If it wasn't for her, there would be several occasions that we'd probably die. She was persistent enough to make a sandwich in that soccer cooking game, as frustrated as she got with cooking. Heck, I expressed my feelings to her too. It was after Haizaki got eliminated. I cried. Yes, I'm man enough to admit that I cried when he got eliminated. Even if it was only a few tears of frustration. She was kind enough to make enough another sandwich for me to try and cheer me up! She could have just said sorry or, 'I don't know what to say'. Even if it did taste weird!"

"I-it's not that bad! Is it?" Noelle remarked.

"I think it's less of a case of her not caring, and more of a case of you not giving her a chance to care. So she didn't get it right. I think it's pretty clear that not everyone knows all of these questions. Would you have reacted the same way if she got it right? From what I've seen so far, probably not."

"The sad part is, he's right." Fiona mumbled to herself. "I probably wouldn't have said anything."

Aomine shook his head. "Pretty sad that it took Ruby and Asta to say something. When a supposed leader in Hanamiya doesn't do s[censored]."

"Look, it was out of the blue. What was I supposed to do?" Hanamiya said, halfway telling the truth. He wasn't sure what he could do to help other than give some advice that would be inferior to anything Asta or Ruby just said. But at the same time, he already knew it would have came from a disingenuous place. He could care less about Fiona, Ruby, Noelle, or Asta expressing their "feelings". In reality, he didn't really care too much about any of the people that were here. Any sense of empathy he has was reserved for only his mother and his Kirisaki Daichi teammates, who were just as bad as he was. And, to an extent, his fellow Uncrowned Kings, as much as he hated their personalities for various reasons, especially Kiyoshi, who represented everything that Hanamiya can't stand in terms of personality.

"I don't know, anything other than sittin' on your a[censored]? Freakin' liar."

"Aomine. Enough. No more of this." Akashi said, trying to quell him, knowing that this was going to get tiresome eventually for the others.

"That was all I had to say. Everything else I'm gonna say is gonna be related to the game." Aomine replied.

"Speaking of which, Weiss, I get being cautious, but-" Ruby R. started.

"No, I get it. I-" Weiss started.

"No you don't! Let me finish! You wanted Aomine to be more confident. Now it's time for you to do same. I'm not saying be impulsive but, if you see a chance, take it. You might not get it again. The best teachers practice what they preach to their students." Ruby R. said.

Weiss nodded. "Okay. I will."

"Okay, after that little derailment, let's get back to the game!" Chris said.

***Confessional***

Chris:

"All of the guys that were here competing were handpicked by me. A couple of already established rivals with some different combinations of contestants that may or may not have competed against one another in a challenge. And wow, it's doing a lot better than I expected."

***End Confessional***

"Noah, choose a hint." Chef instructed.

"Things aren't always black and white for 200." Noah chose.

"This type of code shares the name of a shape in traffic."

Tsukishima was about to buzz before Louie called him out.

"You got this Tsukki!" He called out. This gave Rick the chance he needed to buzz.

"It's Hex." Rick answered.

"Pretty sad. Guess you two won't get to get that goodbye kiss." Todd added.

"Uh huh." Tsukishima said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, he's not trying to defend himself because it's true." Louie added before looking over to Huey.

"What are you doing?" Huey asked low in panic.

"Ewww! You actually like that creepy weirdo? You've got some weird tastes in girls dude." Todd said.

"Yep, because playing games definitely means that." Tsukishima simply said.

"Oh yeah, he's definitely into her." Todd said.

"If you can't even be bothered to put effort into taunting then why should I put effort into comebacks? That's just the way I see it."

"Effort? Dude, lazy would have been if I did the stupid sittin' in a tree song. That's lazy. And lame." Todd said.

"You were already warned. Don't be surprised if something bad happens to you. Both of you." Sucy said.

"Same category. Thousand." Rick said.

"This type of programming language shares the same slogan as WWE Wrestler John Cena." Chef said.

"Myron has a crush on Becky!" Todd called out.

"What!?" Becky B. said, distracted enough for Riley to press the button.

"That is not true!" Myron yelled out, cheeks red.

"C!" Riley immediately said after pressing the button.

"That's it!" Chef said.

"Wait, do you actually like Becky?" Fiona asked, in genuine surprise.

"No! I don't have a clue why he would say something like that!" Myron said. "No offense to her of course." He added, scratching his chin bashfully.

"It's fine. I was more caught off guard by how out of the blue it was than anything else." Becky B. replied.

"That was the point." Miyuki thought.

"Chris, shut them up already! That is distracting people!" Rei called out.

"You gotta do somethin'. Else you're gonna open up a can of worms." Doyle said to him.

That was all he needed to make him think about it and make a decision, knowing that Doyle was right. "Alright. I was only going to be against things that genuinely sounded like answers, gestures, etcetera to try to cheat and get answers. But, since you can't seem to control yourselves, I'm gonna have to not allow any talking when a question is about to be answered for the rest of the game. You wanna talk? You better get what you have to say out in under a minute in between questions. Yeah, I'm putting a timer on the amount of time you get between questions too, because that limit is about to arrive. We still need time for an elimination. So you can thank Todd and Louie for that. Moreso for the former restriction. They're only partially liable for the latter restriction." Chris said.

Hiruma was obviously upset, but he was also impressed, already knowing that that was completely intentional.

"Way to act like immature children." Old Bennett remarked.

"We literally are kids." Louie said.

"And yet some of the others here can compose themselves better than you two can. Todd being worse." Sophie remarked.

***Confessional***

Louie(Storm Kings):

"Ha! Worked like a charm."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Todd(Storm Kings):

"Okay, we may have made things more tight-knitted like it's school now but it was totally worth it! Robbed two players of points!"

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Hanamiya(Wave Breakers):

"I wasn't sure at first, but that second time only confirmed that that was intentional. Very clever."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Miyuki(Wave Breakers):

"Not bad. Not bad at all."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Rick(Radical Rats):

"S[censored]. We got robbed because those two wouldn't shut the hell up! That was basically the game right there if we got it!

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Isagi(Storm Kings):

"Unpopular opinion, especially if we win: Todd and Louie are the MVPs for us in this game. They literally saved our a[censored]es."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Riley(Storm Kings):

"That was a complete guess. I don't know anything about coding."

***End Confessional***

"Better love story for 200." Riley declared.

"The word used in many fictional fandoms for pairings." Chef read.

The right to answer was given to Weiss.

"Shipping!" Weiss answered.

"Yep!" Chef said.

"I could make fun of you 'cause you waited for an easy one but, you gotta start somewhere. Nice." Aomine said to her.

"Thank you. Now make sure you get the next one right. Otherwise, I'm not going to laugh at you. At least, not before making sure you're deaf in the ears from me yelling at you." Weiss replied.

"Good to know."

"Dude, you've seen her potions. She's serious!" Dewey said to him low, referring to Sucy from earlier as Weiss picked the next hint, which was odd words for 1000.

"Yeah, one potion that killed a monster. That's completely different compared to someone that's competing." Louie said.

"What reason would you even have to antagonize them anyway? We're winning! Don't jinx it!" Huey added.

Before anyone could say anything else, someone had buzzed. That person being Ruby.

"Obtuse!" Ruby declared with incredible confidence.

"You got it! And just like that, you're back in it with 2600!" Chef announced.

"The answer to your question is simple. The triple As." Skipper said to Huey.

"Triple As? What's that?" Huey asked.

"Antagonize." Skipper started.

"Aggravate." Louie added.

"And Anger." Todd finished.

"The what? Is this something you guys came up with in private?" Huey asked.

"No. I never communicated with them about it at all. Although, I'm impressed that they're aware of it. And used it fairly well here. Not perfect, but enough to get the job done. Well done recruits." Skipper said.

***Confessional***

Todd:

"To tell you the truth-"

***Change Confessional***

Louie:

"-I just guessed."

***End Confessional***

As the game continue to progress, the scores displayed that all teams were in good position to win, with the Breakers having the best chance at winning as they were currently in first, Noelle being able to put the team in that position. Though that didn't say much as the other two teams weren't that far behind.

"Alright, we're down to our last few! Who's gonna take it?" Chef commented."Noelle, choose one from the final four."

The final questions available were Better Love Story than Twilight for 600, Cookies for 600, Do Re Mi Fa Song for 800 and another Cookie question for 500.

"Reagan and Hanamiya are the only ones left. I know I could always go for one of the lower questions and be less risky, and help them out. But then, what if something happens and this allows the other teams to come back? I could also go for 800 and go for it all right there since we only need 700. But what if they get it wrong? Then, there's less of a chance that we'll be able to win. No. I have to go for it now! I have to have faith in my teammates!"

Seconds of pondering later, she made her decision. "Do Re Mi Fa Song for 800."

The clue was revealed, but a sudden sound was heard that surprised her. "Congrats! You just found the Daily Double! So here's how this works! You go again. And you also wager an amount of points of your choosing. But the point value cannot be greater than what you already have. You get it right, you get the amount you wagered. You get it wrong, and you lose that amount you wagered. You also must wager at least 100 points. Anything lower isn't allowed. So, what are you gonna wager Noelle?" Chef asked.

"Just what we need to win. 700."

"Alright! This is it! Here's the question! You get it, you win! You don't, you're in a tough spot. So, here's the question: While more known for a viral hit that showed he was no stranger to the rules of love, rolling internet users from around the world, he was also known for a decent 'Together Forever' song among others."

"Now I regret choosing this. I don't know who this is!" Noelle thought, panic in her voice.

"For this, you'll 15 seconds to answer, which starts, now!" Chef said.

"You've gotten your team in poition to win. You can't squander this opportunity now and give up. So think! I know it's not a genre or a song name. And it's a he. And… he's made Together Forever. Oh, who am I kidding! None of this helps! We're going to lose again. And it's my fault…."

"5 seconds!" Chef called out.

Noelle mumbled something under her breath.

"Could you repeat that again?"

"Rick Astley! She's got it! We won!" Reagan thought as it sounded like that was exactly what she heard.

"Pass. I give up." Noelle spoke up, louder.

"I didn't hear ya. Say it again?" Chef said.

"I said I give up!"

"Then if that's the case, you lose the daily double as 'I give up' is incorrect! The correct answer is, Rick Astley!"

"Wow. Not even an attempt?" Reagan said to her.

"Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't even at least try." Hanamiya said.

"It's not disappointing. It's pitiful!" Urien said.

"The game's not over yet! Keep trying!" Molly called out.

"If we can't get the next three in the row, it probably is. Guess you could switch Weiss and Noelle now, cause Noelle's the one that's running scared now." Zak M. said.

"Guys shut up! The game's not even over yet and you're already dogpiling on her! She got it wrong, you made your point, now shut the hell up!" Kagayema yelled out.

"Thanks for that. Now, Hanamiya, pick the next hint."

"Screw it, this game's all but over for us anyway. I don't care." Hanamiya thought.

"Cookies for 500." Hanamiya said with no sense of concern or urgency in his voice at all.

"Pirates? Or cookies? Can't have both. Or can you?"

Tsukishima pressed the buzzer first. "Chips Ahoy."

"That's it!" Chef said.

"Well I'll be. Looks like things got interesting now. Depending on this next one, I might have to actually try," Hanamiya thought.

"Cookies for 600." Tsukishima said. "We may be at a disadvantage because of the fact that Sebastian hasn't gone yet, since he knows a lot more about food, but still, at the very least, we don't have to worry about Marinette." He thought. "Win or lose, this is the best position that I can put us in to win. It's up to you all now."

"Smashed together with strawberry jam in the middle, they're shaped like teaspoons. It's like medicine, if it was nutty and from Finland." Chef said with Lotte repeating the last part with him, figuring out the cookies immediately after the teaspoon hint.

Hanamiya immediately pressed the button, to the surprise of Sebastian more than anyone else, who expected his only competition to be Diana as she has been shown to be the only one outside of Marinette to be familiar with cookies outside of the traditional variants.

He sighed internally. "If only I could just let the clock expire. But no, I have to actually try or they'll get upset." He thought, the last part being sarcastic as he couldn't care less about them being upset. But unfortunately, what he thought didn't have much of a say of whether he stayed.

"Hanamiya?" Chef said.

"Finish jam pastries."

"Nope! And that all but puts you out of contention for first unless the others can't get this right!"

Hanamiya, pretending to be upset, was about to kick the podium. But he didn't need to do that to get what he wanted done. Because seconds later, he was hit by several cookies in a high speed fashion, the yell he did causing Diana to slightly flinch. That flinch being just enough for it to be a clear cut fact that Sebastian was first.

"Lusikkaleivät, otherwise known as Finnish spoon or teaspoon cookies." Sebastian said with Lotte also silently repeating it to herself.

"That's it!" Chef called out. "With this, only the Rats and the Kings are in contention to win now."

"Final question! This one being from the Better Love Story than Twilight category! In the trope two parties that compete against each other eventually get together in a romantic context, usually, there is also always a bit of this trope in between that."

Both Diana and Aomine, the last two remaining, pressed their buzzers.

"Heloise? Who's got it!?" Chef called out.

"It's…. Aomine. He's got it." Heloise said.

"Aomine, what have you got? You get this, your team wins. You don't, Diana has a chance to take the points and win the game for her team." Chef said.

"No talking! From anyone! If you're caught doing anything that resembles an intentional distraction you're gonna pay for it dearly. And this goes for all teams. Why? You'll see if both of them get this wrong." Chris said.

"If I don't get it, there's a good chance I'm gone. But, that's not gonna stop me from trying. You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Make. Miss. Win. Lose. I'm taking this shot!"

"I'll be honest, I don't think I know this one. But, here goes. Belligerent Sexual Tension."

"That can't be right. It should be-" Diana thought before being cut off.

"Yes! That's it!" Chef called out.

"I got it? I got it!" Aomine said before shaking Weiss' shoulders, laughing. "I got it!"

Several of the Kings cheered with Diana only closing her eyes and Kagami not looking happy at all.

"Okay! Okay! I understand! You got it!" Weiss said after still being shook.

"Oh. Sorry. I uh, got carried away. Yeah, it was one thing for me to celebrate with like a 'yeah', but all that extra stuff, even the shaking, that was too much. Anyways, good win." He said, calming down and returning to his usual normal self.

"Carried away? I disagree. Yes, the shaking was surprising. But, why would I tell you to stop smiling after that? You should keep doing that. You look better when you do."

Aomine had a stunned look on his face for what felt like forever before finally responding and snapping out of it. "Alright, you're doin' too much. Like I said though, good win." He said, grabbing the back of his head and closing his eyes, giving a dismissive look as his cheeks were slightly red from the unexpected compliment.

"Yep! A good win that was! Your team is safe from elimination! The other two, not so much. As for the prize for the Kings, they receive….. a vending machine!" Chris said as a box was dropped down.

"That would be great. If, you know, we actually stayed here!" Dan said.

"Could always use it during the time before challenges." Louie reasoned.

"Which is usually in the morning. Don't you think it's ill-advised and unhealthy to be drinking sodas in the morning instead of something healthier, like water?" Courtney asked.

"Eh….No."

"Leave 'em alone. If that's what they want, why are we stopping them?" Yang said.

"Because it's unhealthy that's why!" Weiss said.

"If they're so unhealthy, how come I haven't gotten fat off drinking them?" Louie countered.

"Metabolism for one." Sophie said.

"And the fact that I am able to get some exercise in for two."

"Even if it was one game, I can definitely say I got this one over you." Aomine said to Kagami.

"Yeah sure, whatever. I dare you to get lucky like that every game. It's not gonna happen." Kagami said.

"If there's even a next game for you. You've gotta get rid of someone today remember?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, I do."

"All I can say is, good luck."

Aomine was able to get to Diana before she left to do anything else(although it's not as if he knew where she was going anyway).

"Well, there's always next time. At least, I hope." Akko said, trying to console her before she realized Aomine was approaching them.

"Oh it's you. Came to brag on your lucky win?"

"Nah. Already took care of that. Just wanted to tell her good game." He said before extending a hand.

"A good game to you as well." Diana replied.

"Huh. I honestly thought you would have had some insult for her. But, I guess not."

"Nope. Later."

Sendo looked over at Diana but less than a couple of seconds later, he looked away. She could have sworn she had heard a "Tch" under his breath before deciding to actually go to her like he originally intended.

"Akko may try to baby you but I won't. We lost 'cause of you. It'd be one thing to lose because you made a mistake or got outplayed. We lose because you were afraid." Sendo said. "This may not be the boxing ring where fear can get you seriously hurt or worse. But if you can't get over that fear, I know that you're gonna get eaten alive here. And that's exactly what happened to you today. You can thank your teammate for why you'll all probably be gone after today."

"What? Diana wouldn't be scared of this! It's just a quiz game! Why even say something like that if you're not even gonna be encouraging?" Akko asked.

"You're either ignorant or in denial to try to coddle her feelings. Doesn't matter to me. It ain't gonna change a thing about what happened here. Or what I said." Sendo said before walking away.

"Yeah! Get outta here you freaking jerk! Go….. lift some weights or whatever it is you do on your own!"

When she turned back around, Diana was already walking away.

An exchange that Puss noticed.

***Confessional***

Sendo(Radical Rats):

"I'm not gonna sit up here and sugarcoat things just to spare people's feelings. I don't usually say this, but I know I was right about what happened to Diana. I don't give a damn who has a problem with it."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Aomine:

"Yeah. I wanted to, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't exactly like kicking people while they're down. It's not because I'm going soft or anything stupid like that. But seriously though, she should have aimed for the head in that word world category. She literally has someone named WordGirl on the team that basically knows damn there every word there is. How the hell could you not capitalize off that?"

***End Confessional***

"Well, since we didn't go anywhere today, I'll give you guys the opportunity to confer with yourselves. You think 30 minutes will be good enough?" Chris asked Chef.

"Yep! That should be more than enough." Chef said.

"Oh yeah? That should be more than enough time to finish that set." Matinette said.

"Dunno why you're in such a hurry to lose. But fine, I guess I'll give the people what they want." Toxsa said.

"You guys are just assuming we'll hand it over to you." Sucy said. "But fine."

"Just, don't make this a common thing. Go get your own things to play games with." Tsukishima added.

***Confessional***

Chef:

"Long as it's over 10, it's good enough I think. I know the teams got some things they wanna talk about I'm sure. And yeah, I did try to pretend like I couldn't hear Noelle. Just couldn't bring myself to accept that she gave up when she looked like that, so I gave her a chance to make sure."

***End Confessional***

"It's alright. Not everyone gets everything right. You did great in the last challenge you were in. And you weren'ttoo bad in this one either." Asta said, trying to console Noelle.

"Even if that's the case, how does that carry over here?"

"Well, maybe it could help out with your confidence? I mean, look at Aomine."

"I don't think you understand Asta. Think about it, I basically all but sealed the fate of us losing. In most cases, who was been eliminated after a challenge?"

"It's different people. And the teams have been changing to."

"No, not the teams or the people! It's the fact that most of the eliminations are composed of people that played a role in their team losing!"

It was this that allowed him to catch on to what she was getting at. "You don't know that for certain. Anything could happen!"

"Who else are they going to get rid of then? Everyone else has been, at the very least, decent. Not to mention, I was a part of that whole derailment as well."

"I think you're being way too hard on yourself. And letting the opinions of different people influence what you do. Why else would you have just gave in, even though you didn't know?"

"I appreciate everything you said about me earlier. But, I need some time to myself right now. Just for a little bit, okay?" She said, trying to muster a smile for him so he wouldn't be tempted to go against what she said.

"You're welcome. And sure!"

Several minutes later, Fiona was able to find Noelle sitting by herself in the forest.

"Well, at least you're not taking this as bad as I thought you would. No offense." Fiona said, making her presence known.

"I think your point is already clear after this challenge." Noelle replied, not even looking her way, a blank expression on her face.

"Actually, that's not what I came here to talk about. Well, at least, somewhat. Look, just know that it's not what you think. For starters, I want to apologize for lashing out at you earlier. I feel like what I did might have had some impact on you doing what you did in that last question."

"Everything that Ruby said. Was that true?"

"Yeah. All of it."

"Even after all of that, you're here. And apologizing on top of that. Why?"

"I'll be honest, I was wondering the same thing. It would have made sense for me to say 'serves her right' and move on. But I just couldn't do it."

Several seconds passed of silence. "What made you interested in racing?"

"What made me interested in racing?" Fiona repeated, blinking in confusion.

"Yes. What reason did you have to want to participate in such a sport? Everyone has their reasons for things, even if it's simple. Even some of the reasons for why people came here to compete."

"Well, I'm not really sure. I guess, I just thought it would be something cool to do at the time. But obviously, you can't just wake up one day and say 'I want to be a Scan2Go Racer' and actually be allowed to use a machine in official races. Or in some cases, even be allowed to use one at all. I think you understand why I said that second thing."

"Yeah. I don't think I need any extra demonstrations."

"But yeah, a racing academy like the one I went to is what you need to get a Scan2Go License. But, you're not exactly done after that. At least in our case. We had to race in Junior events before we could even think about trying to sniff the big league."

"When exactly did you sign up? Or did you do so well that you were automatically brought in within a few events?"

"Nope. It was Kaz. We raced against Dradd and his own team in one of the first races that we had. Mind you, we didn't know who he was at the time. All we knew was that was leagues above us in experience. He was a professional racer. And so was the rest of his team. Well, Kaz knew initially. The rest of us went to explore the planet since it's not every day you get to leave Earth."

"I could never imagine leaving here. Yet you all do it for sport. How is it? Visiting other planets and travelling?"

"Honestly? It's fun. Tons of new experiences and things that you never get to see from Earth. But eventually, that awe kinda wears off. At least to an extent. It's kind of like the different places we've gone here in the show. Hence why for the most part, none of what we're seeing here is that surprising. When you've been to planets with aliens on a common basis, it makes sense why it wouldn't be. But anyways, as for the race, it was our Coach Ray that signed us up for the Junior Race. Since we were the first and only team from Earth, we were allowed to enter."

"Only team? Is Scan2Go not well known on your Earth?"

"Nope. It wasn't. At least not at the time. When I signed up, I was surprised and confused to find out that only 3 other students had enrolled."

"That small huh? This school's budget must also be very very small. Or is locally ran. Were any of your teammates those three?"

"Honestly, I have no clue on the first thing. Never thought about it. I know it's small and not well-known but I never thought about the ins and outs of it. And those three were Kaz, Diego and Myron."

"What about Shiro?"

"A late addition to the team long story short. But he's actually not from Earth. Before he joined us, he would compete and explore the universe by himself. Tsukikage was his only companion. We'd meet by chance a few times. Even go to Gurao together. But it wouldn't be much later that he chose to join us. But to tell you the truth, I didn't have the passion that Kaz had towards racing in the beginning. None of us did. Yeah, we all were interested in it, but Kaz had these dreams of becoming the 'fastest racer in the universe', even after we lost that race to Dradd. And to surpass heights that even Zero couldn't reach."

"Zero? You mean the robot?"

"No, not him. There's a racer named Zero. Not just elite. One of the best racers in Scan2Go right now. With a great personality to boot."

"I can see why Kaz and Asta get along so well then. Are you a fan of him?"

"One day, I'm going to be the Wizard King!"

"Team JET! The fastest in the universe! One day, that's gonna be us holding those trophies!"

"Yep. Very passionate. But also very loud, and annoying at times too." Fiona replied before chuckling. "But me personally, I think he's pretty cool. Girls love a good mystery man. But I don't fawn over him like he does all the time. When he does it, sometimes it just comes off as really overzealous and pathetic."

"Mystery man? Speak for yourself. But anyways, you said you weren't as passionate about it in the beginning. What changed your mind? What made you so passionate about racing?"

"Two words: Kaz Gordon. We return to Earth. And literally, later that night, this guy decides he wanted to sneak off and steal the bus so he could go off-planet to Gurao Academy. Also, something else we weren't informed of as we were sleep. This was also without the Coach's permission too."

"So he took you all into space without your permission? Was he crazy!?"

"First question, no. Even worse, he was going to leave us and go by himself. That was the only bus the school even had so we'd basically be stranded on Earth. Second question, at the time, probably. But you'll be surprised. This isn't the first time he's done something without our permission. Like here."

"What do you mean 'here'?"

"Oh right. You weren't here at the start to know. Kaz is the reason why we're even here in the first place. He thought this would be a good place to test our skills. And he thought the group rule was mandatory, so you needed a team. But it wasn't. Think about it, if he would have read the poster, conditions and rules correctly, we wouldn't even be here."

"This guy…. And how is he your leader again?"

Fiona shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Keep in mind, there were only four people in the class. And none of us knew each other prior. So, probably by default? But, despite his childish attitude at times, I'd be lying if I said he did nothing to deserve keeping the title. And it started the day after that incident where he tried stealing the bus but failed. He led by example in that case. And it was against our own Coach."

"Your own Coach? So he stood up to him about going?"

"Well yeah but, that's not what I meant. Kaz continued to be persistent about wanting to go. But the Coach gave counterpoints as to why he wasn't ready for that yet. Even with all of that, he still wasn't going to give up and gave a messy plan for how he was going to get stronger to prepare for Gurao. And it involved exploring the universe ourselves. Yes, even after all of that, he wanted us to come with him. After we told him that he'd be stranding us mind you. As messy and as cobbled together it was, it seemed to have been enough to move him at least a little. So the Coach issued a racing challenge against him. Win and we get to leave no questions asked. He didn't really say anything about if we lost but I'd imagine that that whole Gurao scheme would be an afterthought."

"Considering you're here, it's safe to say you were able to win."

"Yep. But like I said before, it was Kaz that pushed us. Unintentionally in this case. He wanted to try his best to win but threw teamwork out the window. The rest of us? Except for Diego that is, we were tired of it. Kaz was basically ignoring us. And the Coach bragging about beating us without even using turbo riled me up even more personally. Though I think that last thing was done on purpose to motivate us to race harder and try to match Kaz's energy and help him. And that we did, pushing him ahead, literally. In typical Kaz Gordon fashion, he used his two boosts early in the race, because he was fired up in trying to beat the Coach. So when he needed more energy for the end, he didn't have it. But, we were there to bail him out by pushing him forward to gain a boost of speed that way. And Kaz took care of the rest."

"I'd like to reiterate this again. How exactly is he your leader?"

"Hmm….. in hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best example to use to convince you?"

"If what I've seen along with Ryu is anything to go by, I don't think you need to do any more to convince me. Now I have another question for you."

"Uh, sure. Ask away." She was preparing to ask Noelle a question instead but was beat to it.

"With what you've said about me as recently as the challenge, you wanted me to be your.,,,, friend. Why?"

"I guess…. because I thought I understood how you were feeling at the time. But, I guess not. Really missed the mark on a lot of things."

"I… wouldn't say that much."

"But Asta-"

"Is partially correct. But that's only because he's basing things off what he knows. It's not his fault. But what do you mean 'what I was feeling'?"

Fiona sighed. "About not having friends here."

Noelle raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand. Isn't Team JET your friends? And what about some of the others?"

"Not the same thing. Yes, they're great to hang around but, it'd be nice to be with girls my age."

Fiona thought back to all of the times she went to the room that would be considered the "Girls' Dorm". But Fiona was only one that would occupy it. And it would be that way all up until she and the rest of Team JET went into space to explore the universe.

"Kaz, Myron and Diego got to experience what it's like to bunk together. I never got to experience that a single day I've been in the academy. Admittedly, when I think of Akko and the others on that group of four, I'm kind of jealous. No one else on Earth was ever interested in Scan2Go. Sure, there was Gurao, but that didn't really count. I don't have to tell you about Hebina, even though she's years older than me. And Titi's a pop idol. Yeah, she's a great racer but I don't have any other connections to her than that. I don't really care for her music. Maybe things would be different if I got to know her a little better, but as it stands now she doesn't count either." She sighed. "Getting all of that off my chest now, I don't even feel relieved. I feel embarrassed to be honest."

"Embarrassed? Why?"

"Well, I literally just tied all of this talk into that. And I made all of that big fuss the pass few times I yelled at you because I just wanted a friend. How lame is that? And the worst part was, I let that creep into my emotions at the worst time. Just think about what could have been different if I would have kept my mouth shut. Guess things like this is why I'm not a leader. I would have burned everything to the ground over something as small as this.."

"I don't think that's lame at all. I understand how you feel. Truly. It may not be the exact same circumstances but, I can relate to that. As much as I love the Black Bulls, meeting a friend outside of them in Kahono, that meant a lot to me. And I'm sure, having a friend like me, means a lot to you too."

Fiona smiled before suddenly hugging her.

"This wasn't exactly the start I had in mind." Noelle commented, caught off guard. "But, I suppose it'll do." She added before embracing the hug.

"Now, first off, I want to learn some things about you now! What exactly is it like learning magic? I'm assuming you go to a school like Akko, Diana and the others do right?"

"Actually no. Although I am a bit curious myself of how a magic school would even work. Diana and Lotte would probably be the ones to go to. Akko is too all over the place, and Sucy…." She thinks of the potions. "No thanks. I prefer my body functioning normally."

"I would have never thought about how different magic works throughout each world. Seekers, Grimoires, Mages, and even Witches. Honestly, all of that stuff would have blended together for me had I not learned from this."

"From what I've personally observed, they're not that different. It just seems that way because the names and methods of using them aren't a hundred percent the same. And by the way, we're not called Grimoires."

"Oh. Sorry."

"The correct term in my case is a Magic Knight. Not every person that uses magic in our world is that. Unlike the other magic users here."

Fiona had a deadpan look on her face. "Is this something I'm going to have to accept?"

"What?"

"Come on, how are you not self-aware?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Truly!"

"I refuse to believe that! Stop lying!"

"I am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Don't tell me you two are fighting again. This is getting ridiculous now." Kunigami remarked, scaring both of them as they held on to each other.

"It's me! Jeez." Kunigami said aloud, revealing himself.

"Oh. What the heck are you doing?" Fiona asked.

"Jogging."

"And by the way, it's just a small little bicker." Noelle said. "That happens from friends from time to time."

" 'Friends'? You sure picked a weird a[censored] time for that."

"How come? I don't see a problem with it."

"Because, you're one of the ones on the chopping block you idiot! So whatever poor excuse of a friendship you think you've got, chances are, it might be over in the next several minutes." He concluded before jogging off.

"What a jerk. I really don't get what his problem is. He's like a mixture of Sendo and Shiro, but the worst parts of them." Fiona said.

"He's right." Noelle said, no longer smiling. "You have to remember, I helped us lose the game. So chances are, I may be gone after today."

"If it makes you feel any better, I won't vote for you."

"But that's one vote. What about everyone else?"

"Well, I guess we'll see then. I doubt asking nicely is going to do anything. If it was that simple, maybe that martial arts guy should have did that and he would have stayed here longer."

"Even with that, I don't think that would have changed things. Say what you will about some of the others here that are powerless, but at least they've somewhat shown their worth in other areas. Or have been competent enough to stay in. That latter one applying to Johnny. Now that I think about it, how in the world is he still here?"

"Maybe people like him for his good looks and his charm." Fiona joked.

"Regardless, I'm still really worried about this elimination. As much as I hate to admit it. I don't want to be the reason Asta has to leave so early."

"I totally understand. But until then, stressing yourself out over it isn't going to change things." Fiona said before standing up. "Come on, let's see what some of the others are up to."

"I can't imagine it'll be much."

"Still doesn't hurt to look. Come on! Another moody person here is the last thing we need." Fiona said, gesturing her to follow her.

"I guess. I just don't want things to end on a note like this." Noelle thought before Fiona snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Oh yeah, by the way, I figured you wouldn't be into mystery men."

"And why is that?"

"Easy. Four letter word, has t and s in the middle?"

"I don't have a clue about what you're talking about!"

"Whatever you say. Some of the others here may be too concerned with their own things or are just too dense to see it, but I'm not."

"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Whatever. Hey I've got an idea. Marinette and Toxsa are supposedly playing a game against each other. Let's see who's winning."

"Okay. But just to let you know, I-"

"You're only doing this because you want to make me happy or some weird reason you're making up in your head, not because you want to. We get it."

"How did you-"

"I can read you like a book now, for the most part."

***Confessional***

Fiona:

"Now I get it. How did I not see it before? Clear case of someone that wants to do it but tries so hard to pretend they don't." She puts a hand over her face. "This wouldn't have been a problem if I wouldn't have been such a drama queen about it!"

***End Confessional***

"Come on, we have to go find her!" Akko called out to Lotte, basically dragging her along. They found her sitting in the beach area, with Puss already there. Lotte was about to go forward only for Akko to pull her back.

"What are you doing? I thought-" Lotte thought before being shushed.

"I wanna hear what he's saying to her!" Akko whispered.

"I really don't get why we can't just ask-" Even whispering, she was shushed again

"Fear doesn't play favorites. The same way that death doesn't. It doesn't matter if you are afraid. What does matter, is if you are still willing to fight through that fear." Puss said to Diana before standing up, to her surprise.

"If there is anything that you would like to talk about at all, please don't hesitate to ask me. I will do the best I can to help you." He added.

Diana nodded. "I am thankful for your time regardless."

As Puss walked away, he heard footsteps behind him. The footsteps from one of the same people he heard talking earlier.

"Hey Diana! You okay?" Akko called out.

"Of course. Is there a reason why I wouldn't be?"

"Maybe what Sendo said really got to you?"

"Even so, I-"

"There you are." Kageyama said, behind her.

"Oh it's you. What do you want?" Akko asked.

"I was going to ask Diana if she wanted to play a couple sets." He said, ball in hand.

"Why?"

"Why do I have to reveal all of that to you!?"

"You might be up to something. We're playing too!" Akko said.

"But I-" Lotte started before sighing.

"Well that's too bad. Neither of you can play."

"What? Why not!?" Akko asked.

"Because that'd make the teams uneven."

"How many do you have?" Diana asked.

"Well there's myself, Ryoma, Emma, Noah, Mamori, Murasakibara and Asta. And if you join that'd even things out."

"I don't see any of those people around here." Akko said.

"Would you be quiet!?" He yelled out before turning his attention back to Diana. "Well? Want to give it a go? It's all up to you."

"I would hate for you to have to go through the effort of finding someone else, so yes, I accept your offer." Diana said.

"Great. Come on, we don't have long. Think you can keep up with a bit of a jog?"

"I still think that's real fishy he only wants Diana to come with him." Akko commented as she jogged after him.

"I think you're looking into this too much." Lotte said.

"I'm gonna do some investigating."

"Please tell me you're not going to eavesdrop on them."

"What? No. I'm gonna just go ask Hinata about him."

Lotte sighed. "Well that's a relief." She thought. "Anyways, I've got to go. I'll see you at the ceremony!"

Meanwhile, X, Lanolin, Hiruma and Rally were still in their usual meet-up for eliminations.

"I don't know. It just seems like it never goes this way." Rally said to the others after Hiruma made the decision to vote for Noah, with Lanolin, after mulling things over, agreeing. Though Rally was in slight disagreement.

"The issue is if we were to let Diana and by extension, the other three with her stay, the reason of usefulness isn't exactly much of a base to stand on." X said, still neutral.

"Three challenges is enough of a base. We've seen what their magic can do." Hiruma said.

"Even if you didn't want to use that, Sucy does have her potions." Lanolin added.

"But that's just one out of the four. Not to mention, how would Emma feel about this?" Rally said.

"What does it matter? She's-" Hiruma started before being cut off by Rally.

"What do you mean 'what does it matter'? That's her boyfriend! You wouldn't think she'd be upset about him getting eliminated? Especially after he did well in this challenge?"

"I never said she wouldn't!" Hiruma said, raising his voice, not in a comical tone, something that caught Rally off guard before he calmed back down. "But, she's a competitor. She's not going to let something like that drag her down."

"How would you know that when you don't exactly talk to her that much outside of challenges?"

"Because, I can see it." Hiruma said, though that was partially true. It was moreso because he saw it from someone else that he knew, that while they also got emotional at times, ultimately never let it get in the way of helping others around her.

As Mamori continued to play, she felt a strange feeling and was hit in the head by the ball, falling down. Thankfully, Ryoma was able to recover it for her.

"You alright?" Murasakibara asked her.

"Yeah." She said, getting up.

"If you want to be logical, then compare Sucy and Noah. Is that fair?" Lanolin proposed.

Rally sighed. "Well, when you put it that way…."

"My only concern is the reactions that'll have for some others. How would they feel if they do so well and still get chosen to be eliminated just like Noah?" X reasoned.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Who knows what kind of effect that's going to have on the team overall." Rally said.

"Just like here, everyone has their own mind, and their own ways of thinking. We can't exactly force people to vote one way or another."

"Who says we can't!?" Hiruma said, pulling out guns.

"I know you're joking but seriously, we can't exactly tell people who to vote for. Because I'm almost certain that's going to rub people the wrong way. At most, we can make suggestions or reason with them, but even then, some people might not like that either." Lanolin said.

"Forget the people that get oversensitive. When the challenge are over, they're just going to do what they want regardless. Many of these votes have proved that already." Hiruma said.

"Alright guys! Time's up! Get your butts over here ASAP!" Chris called out for everyone to hear with an extra loud megaphone.

All three teams were seen meeting.

"Well, it's elimination time folks. Kings can go home. Everybody else stays put." Chris said. "We'll take a short commercial break and we'll get this started."

*Commercial Break*

Multiversal Nexus Short: Bart's Prank Calls Across the Multiverse: Vegeta

Bart was hoping to have more success with this one compared to the last one.

Flashback

"This is Seto Kaiba speaking. If you're not calling for something that's worth my time then hang up this phone now. And if you think you are, you've got ten seconds to convince me that it is before I hang up anyway." Kaiba said, not wasting time with meaningless "nice greetings".

"I'd like to speak to Veh-" Bart started but didn't even get to finish before he was hung up on.

End Flashback

Vegeta heard the phone ringing. If he had to be honest, he really did not want to answer the phone.

"Trunks! Come answer the phone!" Vegeta called out. No answer was heard. "He better actually be far enough out of earshot, because if not…" He begrudgingly answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Do you have a Veh China by any chance?" Bart asked on the other end.

"What? Mock me will you!? Who is this!?"

"So I am speaking to him. You're speaking to last name, Key, first name Ayma, middle name Mun, Got it?"

"Ayma Mun Key? Wait a minute! I am Vegeta, the Prince of Saiyans! And you continue to mock me!? I don't know who you are, but I guarantee you wouldn't be making these 'jokes', if you saw me face-to-face!"

Before he could say or do anything else, Bart hung up, laughing as he did.

"That coward! Now he's done it!"

A couple of hours passed before Bulma returned home.

"I'm back!" Bulma called out, bags in hand.

"Bulma, glad you're back. I need you to make something for me."

"Uh, okay. Want dinner early huh?" Bulma replied.

"While that would be nice, that is not what I meant. I need you to make a device."

"Oh. Did you break some equipment training again?"

"No, it's not training either. I need you to make a device that allows me to track calls. Like the Dragon Radar."

"Track calls? Why in the world would you want something like that?"

"To teach someone a lesson."

"Not specific enough. What exactly are you planning to do with this?"

"Some coward on the phone decided to make fun of me. And hang up and laugh. So I'm going to see if he's just as brave in person."

Bulma sighed and held her forehead. "That's a prank caller. Nothing worth getting that mad over."

"You call calling someone a monkey a prank?"

"Yes. You make a joke, you laugh, you hang up. No harm, no foul. That's a prank call."

"Well it's stupid! And how do you know so much about them? Have you done something like this before?"

"No! I wouldn't be caught dead doing something as immature as that. I just know it because it's a common thing in the world."

"Like I said, it's stupid. And the fact that this is common in this world is even worse! Just a bunch of cowards thinking they can say what they want with no consequences."

"Vegeta, what did they sound like? Did they sound like a kid?"

"Now that I think about it, I believe so."

"And that's what many of them are. Kids. You really think it's worth doing that much to a kid?"

"Child or not, he still shouldn't be doing something like that. His parents should discipline him."

"And that's where we'll end it."

"Fine. To know that this is common in this world p*sses me off to no end."

Trunks returned to the house, approaching the entrance.

"Well, I could get you more food. Will that calm you down?" She said in a mischievous tone, jutting out a hip as she did with Trunks greeting himself a split-second later.

"Bulma!" Vegeta yelled out, face red.

"Oh! Trunks! How are you?" Bulma said, immediately trying to pretend that she was talking about food.

"Pretty good. What's for dinner?" Trunks asked.

"Haven't decided yet. We'll see."

Trunks went to his room not long afterwards.

"Please watch your language around him. Thank goodness he didn't hear it. Or he's still to naïve to understand." Vegeta said to Bulma.

"I know, I know. Sorry, I didn't know he was behind me." Bulma said.

"Be more aware of your senses. But to answer your question, yes."

*End Commercial Break*

"Alright, neither of you guys won today, so each of you have to send someone home. Make your votes, come back here, all that jazz. I'm sure you get the deal already, so go ahead and do it!" Chris called out.

***Confessional***

Hiruma(Radical Rats):

*Stamps Noah*

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Noah(Radical Rats):

*Stamps Kagami*

"If it wasn't for Sucy, I'd have chosen Diana."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Emma(Radical Rats):

*Stamps Kagami*

"I'm not trying to sound cliché here, but I really do have a bad feeling about this. I really hope it's nothing."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Kagami(Radical Rats):

*Stamps Diana*

"I could have done better. But, I'm not gonna give up. Win or lose, I'm gonna keep playing hard to the end. I owe it to not just myself, but to everyone else, to keep going."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Rick:

*Stamps Kagami*

"That's only because of Sucy."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Sendo:

*Stamps Diana*

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Yulaw:

*Stamps Diana*

"It's not just because she lost. But it's because they'd be more of a problem later compared to Kagami. He's fast, but nowhere near faster than my top speed. Probably not even that."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Hanamiya:

*Stamps Ruby*

"Well, this is where the road ends for you. If we want to have a chance at stopping the magic of the other teams, we need Asta's anti-magic. Maybe we won't need it, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Noelle:

*Stamps Tsukishima*

"Well, this is it. I hope Fiona's right. As for my vote, it's because they lack abilities. Yes, he did well, but I had to choose someone."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Reagan:

*Stamps Ruby*

"This is a tough one. On one hand, there's numbers with Tsukishima. And the other, we lose out on Ruby and her smarts, and her Kraken abilities, even if they haven't been really shown here. Call me a prisoner of the moment, but right now, we need the numbers with us losing 3 out of the last 4 elimination challenges."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Toxsa:

*Stamps Noelle*

"Come on, you gotta try. You can't just put the controller down and leave your teammates hangin'. I'll take a noob over an AFKer or a quitter any day. But anyways, who won the set between me and Marinette? I did. 4-2. Still though, I gave her her props. She was good."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Tsukishima:

*Stamps Noelle*

"I don't think Asta would be the type of person to lie. But I'd be dishonest if her not trying didn't rub me the wrong way."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Ruby G.:

*Stamps Tsukishima*

"Bit frustrating to try your absolute best and still lose. As for why I chose Tsukishima, it's not just abilities. It's because I'm hoping Noelle and Fiona really get some time together. The latter's just upset out of frustration more than anything else."

***End Confessional***

"Alright! Looks like the votes are in. You get a bag of cookies, you're safe. You don't, you're outta here! Chef, if you'll do the honors?" Chris said.

"First up, out of Hanamiya, Ruby, Tsukishima, Noelle, Toxsa and Reagan!" Chef called out. "Reagan, Toxsa and Hanamiya, you're safe!"

The three caught the bags.

"Tsuskishima, you're on the chopping block because of your lack of abilities, despite doing well in this challenge!"

"Fair point. I can't argue with that reasoning." Tsukishima replied.

"Ruby, you're on the chopping block because despite doing well, for one, you're by yourself! And secondly, your teammates have tried to weigh their options between you and Asta and Noelle's abilities."

"You know what? That's really good reasoning. As much as I don't want to go of course." Ruby G. "The mathematician side of me cannot disagree."

"And finally Noelle! A few of your teammates weren't exactly a fan of you lack of an attempt to answer a question that could have won your team the game. And instead, it helped bring them down to last place."

"I can't argue with any of that. Only thing I can say is that I'm sorry. And that I hope to get a chance to be better." Noelle said.

"I know it doesn't change anything, but, at the very least, we talked and we worked things out. I know I'm safe but, I shouldn't have derailed things like I did and should have taken care of that privately. So I take responsibility for us losing too."

"Oh really? Well, if that's the case, can we do a revote and get some votes for her?" Miyuki remarked. "Because she does have a point."

"Oh yeah? I'll make sure to vote for you." Fiona said. "Who knows, maybe something will happen and you'll be the one gone."

"The first person that's safe is….."

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Tsukishima!"

"Hooray. I get to stay here and risk my life even longer."

"The final cookie pack goes to….."

….

….

….

….

….

….

…

….

….

"Noelle!"

"Yes! Thank you!" Noelle said, the happeiest she's been since she's been here.

"Wow, I didn't expect you of all people to be this happy. Especially after what you just pulled." Miyuki remarked.

"Quiet! I apologized. That should be enough."

"As sad as it is for me to be leaving, I can't argue with the reasons. That, and I have to say that I don't regret meeting some of the people here at all. Especially Jenny."

"Yeah well, save all that until after the next elimination's done. Let's go to the Rats please." Chris said.

"Adrien, Becky and Rick are safe! Let's get that outta the way now." Chef said.

"Kagami! You got one after the bad start you had. But, your performance has been dipping since the Air Gear challenge where you really got to show your stuff. Some of your teammates have noticed that."

"Yeah. That, or the others aren't taking it easy on us and aren't underestimating us anymore. Regardless, I can't exactly argue with the fact that I haven't exactly been as good as I was before at all." Kagami said.

"Diana! Some of your teammates have mentioned you not putting enough faith in your teammates by not picking higher with the word challenge, especially with Becky still being an option. Even worse, you didn't get a chance to go again to help give your team a chance to win."

"Wouldn't have happened if she would have went for the head and went higher." Sendo said.

"You don't know that for sure!" Akko countered.

"But you don't know what'll happen when you take your foot off the gas and leave the door open for your opponent to catch up. Maybe they'll still lose. Or maybe, s[censored] like this! When you have a chance to win, you take it!"

"Doesn't matter what either of you say. The votes are in. It's not gonna change anything." Kurt remarked, in an attempt to quiet them down.

"He's got a point. And finally Noah! Despite a great game, you're still at risk. Someone's gotta go, and it might be you, simply because of usefulness." Chef said.

"Really hoping I don't get to go just because of that. But then again, with everything that's happened, I wouldn't be surprised." Noah remarked.

"The final two that are safe for the day are…"

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Kagami!"

"YES!" Kagami and Rei yelled out with the two hugging afterwards. "I'm gonna do better next game, I promise." Kagami said to her.

"Actions speak louder than words Kagadummy." Rei replied.

"Damn right."

"And finally…"

….

….

….

….

….

….

….

….

….

"Diana!"

"Noah! Ruby! Time to go home!" Chris said.

"Honestly, if I said I didn't care, I'd be lying my a[censored] off." Noah remarked, causing several people to gasp. "I did all of that practice, and other things to try to be better. I wanted to at least make the merge!" He lifted up the sweater that he wore, covering his face for a few seconds before it came back down.

Emma immediately hugged him.

"I know. I know." Emma said.

"The one time I actually care, and it doesn't get me anywhere but pre-merge again." Noah said before shaking his head. Murasakibara stood up.

"Mort-chin, give me two of those snacks." He said.

"But I-"

Murasakibara picked him up by his head with one arm.

"W-what are you doing!?" Morty said, horrified, still holding on to the snacks as he realized he was off the ground.

"Murasakibara, what the hell are you doing!?" Rally asked, trying not to make a scene, but had to stop this from getting any bigger than what it needed to be.

"I'm not gonna repeat myself. Give me the snacks." Murasakibara said, no longer having the usual lazy expressions he had on his face. The look that he had now terrified Morty even further.

"W-why?" Morty asked.

"He said no. Now put him down and sit your a[censored] down." Rick said.

"Then portal me back to my house." Murasakibara said.

"Oh you're leaving? Good f[censored]ing riddance."

"No, if I can't get 'em here then I'll get 'em somewhere else."

"Here. Take mine." Becky B. said, tossing them to him.

"Still need one more." Murasakibara said.

Adrien sighed. "Take mine. Can you please put him down now?"

"Yep. That's all I needed. Thanks." Murasakibara said.

"I think we're good now." Lanolin said to Emma and Noah, allowing them to continue.

"This isn't the only time you've cared. You know that right?" Emma remarked to Noah.

"I know but, to this extent? I'm not mad I'm just….. frustrated. But, I guess it's a cruel sense of karma now." Noah replied.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was arrogant when I first came on Island. And I didn't really put forth much effort. And that's really what got me booted. Here? I care enough to try. I do well, and still get eliminated in favor of people that are either smarter or more athletic than me, when I looked down on athleticism and thought I was the smartest when I first came to Total Drama. Even if it's not a first boot, it still doesn't mean much. Never made the merge in any of the seasons I been in."

"Come on, what about Multiverse Ed-"

"I was a first boot in that, and the only reason I was even in the merge was because of that. No one even voted for me like Adrien. And obviously, I wasn't in the special episode. The network brought me back. I was literally used as a number."

"So? That doesn't discount what you did within the merge."

"Even then, I-"

"Noah. I'm not gonna sit here and let you consistently put yourself down like this. You did your absolute best. No one can fault you for that. Instead of looking at things you couldn't do, look at the things you did. That doesn't mean anything to you? You literally had an ability that allowed you to use your wit as a weapon. Was that not fun?"

"Well, when you put it that way…." He started before being suddenly kissed. When they pulled back, Noah added, "Okay, I was gonna say a lot more but I'll shorten it. I'll be rooting for you at home."

"And I appreciate that. A lot. I'll take home the win for both of us."

"You better." Suddenly, they both felt a tall presence. It was Murasakibara, snacks in hand.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked, confused.

"Here. One for each of ya. Would have gotten more since I interrupted you earlier but, whatever." Murasakibara said, offering them the cookies and two extra bars of peanut and chocolate covered bars.

"I don't understand though. You made all of that fuss just to give us a pack of cookies. And bars. They're probably not even that good to even do something like that. Why?" Noah said.

"And also, why did you take the cookies if you had snacks of your own!?" Becky F. yelled out.

"Extras I had in case I got hungry." Murasakibara said.

"That doesn't answer my question! And I thought the donuts were the only extras you had!?"

"Maybe they're the extras for his extras? Kinda like what Rally does with her backups for her backups with guns." May reasoned.

"That still doesn't answer or justify anything!"

"Would you shut up? Damn!" Murasakibara said.

"What was that!?"

Murasakibara turns his attention back to Emma and Noah. "Look, take the damn cookies and go before Chris-chin gets in a tightwad about time."

"He's got a point. Not about the tightwad part though." Chris said.

"Don't ignore me!" Becky F. called out.

"I still don't understand it but, thanks." Noah said before Murasakibara put a hand over his head.

"Whatever man. You're not allergic to peanuts are you? Those bars have those in them. If not, you can take these instead." He said, showing them the fruit-flavored candies he had.

"Nope. We should be fine." Emma said. "Thank you."

"Wha- YOU!" Becky F. continued to yell in the background.

"Hey, that's enough. There's no reason for you to be acting out like a child." Zero remarked.

"I wouldn't go that far, but you really need to cool your jets." Rally said to her.

"Okay, okay. Sorry about that. That's the second time I've done that here. Really need to work on not making it a third." Becky F, said.

Noah goes into the portal, while still disappointed, in a lot better spirits compared to before.

Ruby also hugged Jenny with the robot pulling in Julie as well.

"It was really nice to be able to get to know you all. I really mean that. I think that's as good as any consolation." Ruby G. said.

"Good, now go home." Chris said.

"I'll be sure to watch when I can! Hope you win!" Ruby called out to Jenny as she headed towards her portal.

"Yeah! I hope so too!" Jenny called before the kraken walked in.

"Rest of you are safe, for now." Chris said.

"I still don't get. What was that about Murasakibarrachi?" Kise asked Murasakibara.

"See you guys later." Murasakibara said, not even acknowledging what Kise said.

"I'm almost certain he heard me." Kise commented to himself as he went into his own portal.

"And with that, add two more to the list whose dreams of 10 mil have been crushed. Who's gonna be next? Find out on the episode of Total…. Drama…..Across the Multiverse!"

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A/N: And with that, Noah and Ruby G. are eliminated.

Next up, we go to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen for the Kyoto Goodwill competition. If you've watched the show, then I'm sure you'll have a good idea of what to expect, for the most part anyway.

Also, I'm going to be moving on the 2nd of July, just to let you know ahead of time if any of the episodes below take a bit more time to finish. Hopefully, if moving is as smooth as the last time I moved back in 2018, there might not be any difference at all. We'll see.

Next Episodes:

Episode 26: Compete in the Kyoto Goodwill Competition(Jujutsu Kaisen)

Kaikai Kitan by Eve(Jujutsu Kaisen)

Episode 27: Drama Prince(ss): Compete in games chosen by the Seigaku Tennis Team(The Prince of Tennis)

(Opening undecided at the moment)

Episode 28: Not so happy feet: Compete in a game of musical chairs, TD style!

Music used will be revealed during the episode

Episode 29: My voice gives me Super Strength!: Roles reverse in this episode. With the power of shared voices from Across the Multiverse!

Episode 30: No time like the present!: Return to present New York and compete in games from the turtles around the sewer(TMNT 2003)

Midnight Run(TMNT 2003)

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Placements:

165th- Dragonfly Jones(Radical Rats)-Martin Sitcom

164th- Richie and Virgil(Wave Breakers)- Static Shock

163rd- Cameron(Storm Kings)- Total Drama

162nd- Duncan(Wave Breakers)- Total Drama

161st- Chris P.(Wave Breakers)- Dan VS

160th- Mona(Storm Kings)- Mona the Vampire

159th- Owen(Radical Rats)-Total Drama

158th- Zoey(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

157th - Tetsuya Kuroko(Radical Rats)- Kuroko's Basketball(Quit)

156th-Shintaro Midorima(Storm Kings)-Kuroko's Basketball

155th-MacArthur and Sanders(Radical Rats)- Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race

154th-Luz Noceda(Storm Kings)-The Owl House

153rd-Priya(Radical Rats)-Total Drama

152nd- Shogo Haizaki(Wave Breakers)-Kuroko's Basketball

151st- Edward Falcon(Radical Rats)-Power Stone

150th- Shawn and Jasmine(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

149th- Zak Saturday(Storm Kings)- Secret Saturdays

148th - Nimona(Wave Breakers)- Nimona

147th-Rocky Rickaby(Radical Rats)-Lackadaisy

146th-Huey Freeman(Storm Kings)-Boondocks

145th-Cicini(Radical Rats)- Rabi-Ribi

144th- Blaineley(Wave Breakers)-Total Drama

143rd- Heather and Alejandro(Storm Kings)-Total Drama

142nd-Karin Kanzunki(Wave Breakers)-Street Fighter

141st-Ruby G.(Wave Breaker)-Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken

140th-Noah(Radical Rats)-Total Drama