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!(68/98 initial contestants remaining, 135/165 overall) UPDATE: Total Drama News Episode 4 is out!

57. The Prince of Drama

A/N: What happens when you mix the world of Anime/Manga power fantasy with tennis? You get: Prince of Tennis! Enjoy the chapter! Apologies for the wait. The move was….. a lot less smooth compared to the one in 2018 unfortunately. But, we still got it done, so there's that.

Also, I forgot to say this the last chapter, but I noticed Multiverse Edition has reached over 100 Kudos on AO3! For anyone here that has read that season I appreciate it very much. All of that, including your feedback, and voting(when polls are made) is very appreciated!

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Reviews:

G09F17R02: If Cameron got a chance to participate in a challenge again bc of Doyle, it's not off the table. But I will say the likelihood of full-on returnees via poll voting like last season is very low.

Luckyhill: Good to know. Not much else to say since you're still catching up. But, that reminds me, did I forget to close the favorite character poll?

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Teams:

Radical Rats:

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, 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, 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

141st-Ruby G.(Wave Breaker)-Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken

140th-Noah(Radical Rats)-Total Drama

139th-Marinette Dupein-Cheng(Storm Kings)-Miraculous Ladybug

Intern:

Heloise(Jimmy-Two Shoes)

Hired Gun:

Doyle Blackwell(Secret Saturdays)

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"Last time on Total Drama Across the Multiverse! It was back to business as usual with interdimensional travelling, where the contestants return to Japan. Specifically, this time in Tokyo. Although, this Japan isn't a hundred percent the same one the Devil Bats are from. This is the one where Maki, one of our competitors on the show, originates. And it's where we also got to meet a few of her contemporaries."

Footage of Satoru Gojo making his presence known with his own unique introduction to the cast along with several other faces including Nobara, Yuji, Megumi, Utahime, and even Maki's own sister, Mai were shown introducing themselves."

"The contestants got a taste of Gojo's carefree attitude early on, along with the power that he has to back up that attitude. Heck, he outright called out the cast and said that they wouldn't be able to hit him, threw Courtney in the air and caused her to faint, and made Maki do the whole explaining gig as he ordered food on their time."

Footage of Gojo's trolling and taunting of the cast was shown.

"And unsurprisingly, they weren't happy about it. Kaz was the first to take the challenge to try and hit him, and failed. Same with Natsu, who also failed. It wasn't until Albedo, Ben and Bass gave it a shot that they were able to move him. Not sure exactly what he's got to stop him from being hit, but yeah, if he tank all of that, it kinda wouldn't be fun having him compete on a season if he can just stop most of the pain I send at him. Say what you will about the people but at least they can still get hurt. And if they do try to protect themselves, you can actually see it."

Footage of Gojo revealing that moving or hitting him was the first part of their challenge of the day was shown.

"And it was after all three teams got their chance at proving him wrong that he revealed that that was in fact a part of their challenge. Well, the first part of it anyway. What was the second part? Shopping!"

Footage of Gojo explaining the second part of their challenge for the day along with Utahime being notably p*ssed off about it was shown.

"And oh man, Utahime was so mad at him. And from what she's said, he knows exactly how to push her buttons it seems. Along with others' too. Tell me if you've seen Maki angry like that in any other episode. I'll wait. But I'll be honest, I was kinda confused myself until he explained to me why he chose that. And honestly, I really appreciate it. That's a lot less work I, and the others have to do. And no, it's not just getting footage of our consistent non-volunteers to sing. You'll see very soon. I already have the challenge covering that on the episode order."

Footage of the shopping taking place was shown.

"Overall, it was a fun time. With the no rules besides killing or severely injuring opponents thing explained by Gojo, it was natural some fighting would take place. And given the fact that some of the participants aren't naturally fighters, they had to get creative. But all of that came crumbling down due to one speeding, cursed energy-infused bullet. It struck Marinette in the ribs, forcing her to take a trip to the hospital, and ultimately, marked her elimination and end on the show."

Footage of Marinette being on the ground before being put on a stretcher to be taken to a hospital was shown.

"The source of the bullet? Not sure. But apparently Utahime might know. But if it wasn't for Jotaro, it would have been a whole lot worse. Thanks to him stopping time, there is a good chance that he prevented at least one death that day. Thankfully. Bad enough Jack Horner is on the kill count for the show. But at the very least, everyone can agree that any misfortune that came his way was a hundred percent deserved. Marinette? Yeah, as much as I do dangerous stuff all the time that I think is funny, murder/assassination is a hundred percent not the same thing."

"But hopefully, with what's planned for today's challenge, nothing like that will happen. What exactly is that plan? Find out on today's non-death filled episode of Total….. Drama….. Across the Multiverse!"

*TD: ATM Intro II Plays*

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Today's Challenge Inspirations:

Numerous Prince of Tennis Episodes

Special Guests for Today's Episode:

A/N: There were two different dubs for the show: The original Toonami/VIZ dub on CN(left) and the redubbed Funimation dub(right). Both of them are pretty decent so I'll add both VAs for whichever one you think fits best.

Seigaku Tennis Team: Takeshi Momoshiro(Doug Erholtz/Alejandro Saab), Kunimitsu Tezuka(Kirk Thornton/Jonah Scott), Eiji Kikumaru(Steve Cannon/Derick Snow), Shusuke Fuji(Johnny Yong Bosch/Stephen Fu), Sadaharu Inui(Jack Bauer/Steven Kelly), Sumire Ryuzaki(Barbara Goodson/Wendy Powell), Shuichiro Oishi(Jack Lingo/Jackob Hopkins), Kaoru Kaido(David Lodge/Jarrod Greene)

Sakuno Ryuzaki(Cindy Robinson/Xanthe Huynh)

Katsuo Mizuno(Yuri Lowenthal/Bryson Baugus)

Tomoka Osakada(Jennifer Sekiguchi/Sarah Wiedenheft)

Satoshi Horio(Adam Lawson/Kylen Deporter)

"I have had enough!" Albedo yelled out.

"Albedo, don't do this!" Ben pleaded.

"After all the suffering you have caused me, you leave me no choice!"

"Oh man, this is not gonna be good. Not good at all." Libby commented.

"Why are you worried? This doesn't affect you at all." Noelle said.

"Of course it does! This affects all of us!"

"If you're sure, do whatever's best for you." Dawn said to Albedo.

"Don't encourage him!" Ben said to Dawn. "Don't you dare Albedo! I'll make sure you don't get away with this if you do!"

"There's no stopping it. You did this to yourself!" Albedo declared before putting down a black draw four wild card. "Now draw your cards pathetic human!"

"I warned you!" Ben said before putting down his own draw four to counter, giving the stockpile of 16 cards to Lucy, who covered her hands on her head. "Sorry. I wasn't about take that stockpile."

Lucy suddenly began to laugh maniacally.

"Did you really think I was taking on that stockpile of cards? Take this!" She placed her own draw four to add 20, passing it over to Sophie.

"Absolutely not!" Sophie declared before adding her own draw 2 to the stockpile, making it 22. Now Fiona had the burden of 22, who looked over at Noelle with a mischievous look.

"You wouldn't dare!" Noelle said, in disbelief.

"What? I don't hold back on anyone. Even friends. I came here to win! On and off the track! Just pass it to Happy. Problem solved!" Fiona said before adding her own four, making it 26.

"No way! You keep that stockpile to yourself!" Happy said, to the left of Noelle, holding three cards himself.

"Fair enough. Take this!" Noelle declared before putting down her own black card.

She flipped one of her pigtails confidently. "Well, what will you do now?" Noelle said to Happy.

"Uh, Noelle, that's a color change card." Fiona said.

"So? 2 or 4 it makes no difference."

"Except, that's neither." Sophie said.

"Yes it is! It is a black card! I don't see the problem." Noelle insisted.

Bobo, spectating, put a wild draw four card and a color change card in front of her to see, taking them from the pile.

"Do these two cards look the same to you?" Bobo asked.

"B-but…."

"No buts. Just take the 26." Fiona said.

"Can you make an exception? Please? Take the card back?"

"Not how that works."

Noelle put her face on the table, crying in agony. "You can't do this to me! I'm royalty!"

"Royalty my f[censored]ing a[censored]. Take the cards and quit whinin'." Rick said, spectating as he was awaiting his turn to play as Happy was laughing at her.

"Shut up you stupid cat! I'll be sure to pay you back!"

"Next time look at your cards more carefully. Imbecile." Albedo said.

"This is the same guy that thought a skip could stop him from drawing 2 cards earlier." Ben said.

"Quiet! That was a completely different situation!"

"I blame you! You started this!" Noelle said to Yang as she took the 26.

"I didn't think it'd evolve into this. Not my fault." Yang said, shrugging. "You wanna blame someone, blame Dawn for not taking the four."

"Why would I do that? I never said I would just let you guys win." Dawn said.

"Exactly. The objective is to win. Nothing else matters." Albedo said.

"Well, there's also having fun."

"Having fun? Don't make me laugh."

"Well, you seemed to have been really excited a couple of minutes ago."

"That does not mean I'm having fun!" Albedo said quickly. "It was simply such a relief to do that to Tennyson when he made me suffer!"

"Suffer? Dude, all I did was skip you and make you draw cards a couple times. You act like I bullied you." Ben said.

"Enough! Noelle, have you drawn your cards?"

"Yes, I have. Unfortunately. But I can't hold all these! This is ludicrous!" Noelle said.

"Well, that's your fault." Happy said.

"One more word out of you and I'll send you flying!"

"But I'm already flying."

"That's not what I meant!"

***Confessional***

Ben(Storm Kings):

"Look, I'm glad that Albedo has surprisingly calmed himself, but I'm starting to see that teaching these guys how to play card games was a bad idea. I'd hate to what would happen if they played video games. Moreso Albedo since I don't see a single scenario that Happy ever learns how to play games. Or, maybe there is one. Who knows?"

***End Confessional***

Meanwhile, Adrien was off to himself reading before he felt someone tap the top of his head twice, basketball in hand.

"Oh. Hey man!" Adrien said, after realizing it was Kise.

"Sup?" Kise replied, casually tossing the ball he had around.

"I thought you were in that UNO tournament? Did you drop out?"

"Nah, got eliminated the first couple games in."

"And now you're playing basketball….. in the sand or grass."

Kise looked confused. "Huh? Oh no! I just thought it would be nice to take here for a bit."

"Why?" Adrien asked, genuinely confused and curious.

"Just wanted to I guess. I mean Kagami and Aomine have their own balls too, and they pretty much live and breathe it. Thought it would have been nice to have one in my hands again. Believe it or not, I haven't really done anything basketball related since I've been here."

"So you don't even have time to practice? I thought the captain of your team was pretty serious about working hard and all that type of stuff."

"Yeah, he is. But, he insisted that I focus on the show."

"Ah. I hope you're not using this as an invitation though. I'm not interested."

"Actually, no. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

Adrien knew exactly what he was talking about. "Yeah, I'm fine. At least, as best as I can be. The better news is, Marinette's doing okay. Her parents said the doctors told them it wasn't a fatal hit so she'll live. Pretty much what Jotaro said. Apparently Gojo even sent a video to them hoping that she'd get well. He wanted to send a card and flowers too apparently, but he decided not to. Thought he'd be doing too much."

"Really nice to hear. You would have never thought Gojo out of all people would have been that way but, here we are. I know she's on another team, but it's just really disappointing to see another person have to leave just because of an injury. First Cameron, then Shawn, now this. This was probably the worst one too because it could have been much worse."

"Yeah. The funny thing is, I was hoping that this time, even if one us were to lose, like in the finale where we'd go against each other like I was hoping for, it'd be on a lot better terms compared to last time."

"Last time? Oh yeah, you did say you were here before, as a late entry. But, I didn't know the last elimination was on bad terms between you two. What happened?"

"A lot."

"Well, start from the beginning. You listened to me when I told you about Haizaki and the Miracles a while back, it's only fair I do the same for you."

"Well, I guess the easiest place to start is when I first appeared on the show."

Adrien explained everything that led up to the two parting ways on not so good terms, from the challenges they had, to Jack Horner, to the Gambit challenge, with their identities being unknowingly revealed to one another in the Blue Lock challenges. Ultimately, it led to Adrien having problems with Marinette not trusting him when it comes to knowing each other's identities, with him and five others being eliminated before the true 6-man merger began in Multiverse Edition.

"I see. I can understand why you'd be upset. Trust and transparency, especially with you two being that close. At least, the best I can anyway. I don't think it'd be right for me to say my experiences are relatable to yours." Kise said.

"I'm just really glad we were able to patch things up after a while. And seeing each other here again, even if we were on different teams, the Air Gear challenge was the perfect start for us competing against each other. Heck, as much as Toxsa and Marinette were at each other's throats before that quiz challenge, it wasn't really anything serious. And then, an episode later, it all ends with this." Adrien said before shaking his head. "I'll be honest, I'm still in utter disbelief."

Kise gave him some friendly taps on the shoulder. "I might not know her very well, but tell her I said I hope she gets better. And it's kind of funny I say that when I happened to meet her in that scavenger hunt challenge."

"I'm sure she'll be happy hear that. But, enough about me, now that you're here, I've got something I've been meaning to ask you before, everything that happened."

Kise thought that their conversation would have came to an end after that and was completely caught off guard by this. But, he didn't mind answering regardless. "Okay. Sure. What is it?"

"Are you sure you're okay? I know, you'll say yes. But I also know you haven't exactly had much time to really participate in most of the challenges recently. I know for someone like Monta, that doesn't really affect him because he'll always have the energy to support his team no matter what. And Mamori, considering she's a manager, I'm sure this isn't anything new to her."

"And then there's me. Look, you've got nothing to worry about. I'll be honest, it is a lot more fun to actually participate than watch. But at the same time, it'd be selfish of me to want to have all the spotlight on me all the time when that's not what the team needs in some cases. Adjusting and accepting the fact that you're not the best guy on the team anymore isn't anything I'd say is easy by any means. I wouldn't call it difficult either but….. yeah. Sometimes the best decisions aren't exactly the easy ones or the fun ones. And besides, like I said, on Vorpal Swords and Teiko, I was on a team with a bunch of really good guys there too. And I wouldn't call myself the best guy on the team on either of those."

"Just wanted to make sure you were alright. Don't worry, I won't constantly annoy you with that question. But, speaking of which, did Murasakibara ever talk about that whole thing a couple of challenges ago? That was, out of the blue, especially for him."

"Actually, I forgot to ask again. I asked him the first time when we were leaving, but he didn't hear me. Or at least, he made it seem like he didn't. But, your guess is as good as mine."

"I know he's pretty lackadaisical when it comes to things around here. Heck, correct me if I'm wrong, but I really don't think he'd bat an eye if he got eliminated. Has there ever been a time that he's really expressed himself or been passionate about anything? Doesn't have to be Kagami levels of passionate but, anything other than how he looks most of the time?"

"Obviously he's got a sweet tooth. But, uh….. only times I can really think of is the one time he smiled going up against Silver in the Jabberwock game and the game he went up against Kagamicchi, Kurokocchi and Seirin. I'd add the time he went up against Akashicchi too but, I don't know if that really counts."

Adrien was going to end things there after getting his question answered, but hearing Akashi mentioned and him going against Murasakibara was something that might give more details on the former, especially after what he was already told about him.

"He went up against Akashi? In what, an eating contest?" Adrien joked.

"I know you're joking but no. It was a one-on-one game. That was, one of the moments that I'd say was one of the turning points during our time in middle school. Murasakibaracchi didn't feel the need to come to practice anymore when we started to win more and more. Akashicchi wasn't a fan of him saying that at all. Well, technically, our coach told us we didn't have to come if we didn't want to, as long as we won but, Akashicchi didn't care. He still wanted us to come anyway. I think at that point, it was only Aomine that stopped coming to practice. Haizaki stopped doing that well before the coaches even allowed it." Kise began to explain.

"With all that, I'm honestly not sure who won."

"It was insane." Kise explained to him the outcome of the game and how Murasakibara easily scored the first four in a first to five. But that after that, Akashi was angry. And he was able to complete a comeback in the most incredibly dominant way possible, leaving Murasakibara feeling helpless.

"Mind you, he's about as kind and calm of a person as you can be. At most, he's mild-mannered. But angry? That's never been him. But apparently that was all he needed. And to add on to it, after that, he told him he didn't need to come to practice anymore. None of us did. I guess that was all he needed to change his outlook. No more Mr. Nice Guy. At least with the rest of us, it was gradual. With him, it was like he changed in an instant."

"In an instant. That must have been his other self. But him saying it that way means Kise doesn't know." Adrien thought.

"You think maybe he was just trying to keep the team together and the pressure of failing as a leader got to him?" Adrien asked.

"I never thought of it that way. But, it's definitely possible. Now that I think about it, that was probably all he needed to unlock the Emperor Eye too, as crazy as that sounds." Kise said before another thought came to him as he smiled again. "Or, maybe I'm just overthinking it as a guy that was just in disbelief at the time. He probably just had it longer than that. How else could have been so awesome? Anyways, I'll get out of your hair. Just glad to know you're okay." Kise said before beginning to leave.

"I don't think you're reaching at all. Has Akashi ever said anything about another version of himself? Like a different personality?" Adrien asked, deciding to just go ahead and come out with it instead of just holding on to that piece of info.

Kise turned around to face him again, not expecting to hear something like that. "No, not any time I remember. Why?"

Adrien thought about ending things right there and just simply calling it a guess, a theory, or just out of curiosity but decided not to and kept going. "Marinette, she told me some things that Midorima said to her before he was eliminated. One of them was about the practice thing. The second was there being two Akashis."

"Two Akashis huh? That's news to me. Have you asked him about it?"

"Marinette did. He said he was fine."

"Of course he did. And he's not really a vocal guy either so I don't really expect much more than that. But, something to watch out for I guess."

"Thanks. I won't annoy you with any more questions. I know you've probably got better things to do. And to be honest, I'd rather be to myself right now. Still though, I really appreciate you coming here."

"No problem! Anytime!" Kise said, raising a hand in goodbye before leaving. But the minute he did, he sighed, his expression changing. "Let's just hope my hard work pays off. Never again." He thought before balling a fist.

The memories of him failing to rise to the occasion and beat Aomine, Kagami, and being unable to even finish the game against Jabberwock or even play the third place game against Midorima because of his injury lingered in his mind.

"I just wanted to win! I really wanted us to win together!" Kise said to his Kaijo teammates, in tears after having to be carried off, from being unable to move on his own.

"Me too bud." Kassamatsu said.

Elsewhere, in another part of the island, there was no doubt that Maki wasn't working hard by any means as she was training with Din. He continued shoot at her with multiple blaster shots, dodging them as she advanced at him before Din immediately jumped back and continued to shoot at her.

But suddenly, he threw out a couple of flash charges at her. But instead of dodging them, using her staff like a baseball bat, she swung the polearm and knocked the charge back at him before he looked away and shot it before it even came back, causing it to explode.

The next thing he knew, Maki had her weapon in his face. Although he had his pistol aimed perfectly at her head. Both relented.

"Alright, that's a good stopping point I think." Maki said to him. "But what the heck was that earlier? I thought we agreed on blaster shots only."

"We may have agreed to it, but not everyone keeps their word." Din said.

"I see your point. And I hundred percent agree. Well, I think I'll get some water. Always good to stay hydrated. Want any?"

"I'm fine."

"Alright. Thanks again by the way."

Din nodded, acknowledging her thanks for the practice session and went to check on Grogu. Although he trusted Razer, it was better to be safe than sorry. Only after that would he find a spot to get a drink.

As for Maki, after getting a bottle, she was casually looking at videos on her phone. Though it was nothing more than just to past time, as she wasn't really paying attention to anything she was watching at all.

"If you're that bored, maybe you should have got in the UNO tournament they're doing." Kurt said to her after seeing her. He could instantly tell she wasn't really paying attention to her phone at all.

"Nah, my training came first. Can't deny the fact that it would have been better than this though."

"Makes sense."

"Speaking of, I'm guessing you lost."

"Wasn't interested. Just wanted to relax by myself until things get Inevitably crazy later on."

"Doesn't look like you're relaxing to me. Unless you got bored of it."

"At this point? I'm not taking any of these tame moments of time here for granted. I just hate the fact that it took something like that for me to really say that."

"It seems like it always has to come to that unfortunately."

"I'm just hoping nothing like that happens to anyone else. I didn't think this was going to be a walk in the park but, no Racing Realms, no Gelorum. Guess none of that matters. Should probably ask if Vert had to deal with any of this when he was here. Remember what Doyle said about someone getting murdered in some other season? It was really close to that happening here. The real question is, why? Outside of you, none of us had even met any of them before that day. It just doesn't make any sense."

"That's the part that confuses me too. No one deserved for that to happen to them. But to not even have a reason why?" Maki said before shaking her head.

"Did Utahime at least find out who did it?"

Maki paused for a couple seconds before answering. "Not enough evidence to really lay a valid foundation for a claim."

Kurt's eyebrows furrowed. That pause was all he needed to know that she wasn't telling him everything.

"So that means that whoever it was could get away with it. Really great to hear." Kurt said sarcastically before adding, "Guess someone had it out for the school and wanted to derail the event with that."

She didn't even give that an answer. And that was because she knew that anything that she said would have either been a lie or she would have told more about this than she wanted to. And that was because of how the school's location was well-protected via Tengen's barrier. Only those that already know of its location prior can easily get in. Meaning that something like what Kurt proposed was highly unlikely.

But this pause was all that Kurt needed to ask the question that was on his mind since that day. "By the way, your sister, she told us about you during that challenge. I asked her why she seemed to not like you so much, and that was when she explained everything." Kurt continued. "Is all of that really true?"

"Depends on what she said." Maki said in a neutral voice, holding her chin in one hand as she looked forward.

Kurt, as best as he could remember, told her everything Mai said about her.

"She's not wrong on some of it. Yeah, I did leave to become a sorcerer. And she was scared of curses too when she was a kid. At first, I thought she wanted to be a sorcerer too. But when we fought each other in the last Goodwill Event, that was when she told me the clan forced her to go because I left. Yeah, I could have told her that I told the clan that she had nothing to with any of the problems I had with them. But, I doubt she would have wanted to hear that after the fact. Wouldn't have changed a thing. She wanted me to stay with her, do chores, live a normal life. Or as normal of a life we could under the clan. But I just…. couldn't. I'd never be able to look at myself in the mirror again if I did that."

"I hope things between you two get better. I know how that feels. It's easier said than done to put something like that behind you. Though in my case, I already had to go through the pain before getting to the healing. Remember my brother, Mark, when we raced in the Storm Realm? Most of the guys that were there were in a competition prior to that called the World Race. For the sake of keeping things short, it was pretty much like what you saw in the Storm Realm, one of the Racing Realms. But a whole lot tamer. Dangerous still in some cases, but most of the time, the worst you'd have to worry about is your car getting totaled." Kurt explained. Afterwards, he went into detail about the illicit deal that he got his brother into after the race along with the two years of prison Mark had to serve and why.

"If I would have talked, and not thought about myself, he probably would have got off without having to serve time. I promised him that I'd be with him the whole way, just like you did with your sister. But I wasn't. And just like her, he hated me for it. We patched things up but, at what cost? He lost an arm to the Drones. And the joy that my brother had before, was taken away from him when he was behind bars. Funny, I always found that annoying about him. Everybody talks about how those sayings are cliché and whatnot. But their tune always changes when it happens to them."

"Yeah. At the very least, I'm just glad her peers at Kyoto are treating her well. That baseball game we had that Gojo and Utahime talked about? That was pretty much proof that things could still get better."

"That's good to know. The Maniacs, as much as I hated them in the beginning, they were the same way for him. The ones that made my brother feel safe. Made sure he wasn't alone when I failed to do that."

"Let's GOOOO!" A hoarse Toxsa was heard yelling out.

"Looks like that UNO tournament's heating up." Kurt said jokingly.

"All this over an UNO game. You know what? I'm actually kinda curious to see who's winning." Maki said before getting up.

Kurt, knowing that he doesn't exactly have much else to do, decided to join her in seeing what all the fuss was about at the tournament.

As they were headed towards the tournament, Maki's thoughts wandered to her sister and what happened a few days before with Marinette.

"Why? You could have just shot a rubber bullet. It still doesn't make it right but….It's one thing to want to hurt me, but to do that to someone that had nothing to do with us. I just don't get it. Why Mai?" Maki thought.

***Confessional***

Kurt(Radical Rats):

"Funny thing is, I don't think we ever said a word to each other before today. And if I'm wrong, it wasn't much. Talk about a small world? Make that a small multiverse too."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Maki(Storm Kings):

"The thing I still can't wrap my head around is how those were even that close to landing. Don't get me wrong, she is absolutely an amazing shot from what she showed off in the Goodwill Event. I had to literally catch a bullet to stop it from hitting me because I didn't have time to dodge it. A hundred percent, she could give Din and Rally a run for their money when it comes to shooting. That's how good she is. But, even with that, outside of a lucky guess, even the best shots need to see or have an idea on where their target is. And those were too close for all those to be lucky shots. Mind you, there were no cameras recording. Those events are never recorded. So how in the world did she know when to shoot?"

***End Confessional***

When the two got there, Toxsa was seen facedown flat on the table.

"What happened to him?" Kurt asked.

"With all the yelling he was doing earlier, it sounded like he won." Maki said.

"Classic case of counting your chickens before they hatch." Sly said.

"So who won? You?"

"Unfortunately, no. Reagan did."

"That's right! The supposed smartest man in the universe losing in a card game. Pretty sad if you ask me." Reagan said.

"Literally just one game. Keep your shirt on." Rick said.

"That's what they all say when they lose."

"Wouldn't you have said the same thing?" Bakura reasoned.

"Ehh, you got a point. Touche."

"Yeah, good for you guys. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go back to real games. Gonna go check on my deck real quick." Toxsa said before going to get his tablet.

"Wait, Toxsa do you play Duel Monsters?" Bakura asked, surprised after hearing mention a deck.

Toxsa stopped and turned around, confused. "Huh? No. I mean another game. On the tablet screen. Besides, it's a lot easier to play digitally. No setup, no messes to clean up. Just start a session and then boom! You're in." Toxsa said.

"I suppose. But I still think it's a lot more fun to play the real game."

"It's literally the same thing but without the messes. How is that more fun again? And don't say face to face. That's what video calling, voice chat and local multiplayer's for."

"Well, there's always the novelty of it."

"Novelty? Really?"

"Maybe novelty isn't the right word but, it's really hard to explain. There's a feeling that you get that just can't be replicated. The same way that typing just isn't the same as writing."

"Nope, still not convinced. Anyways, I'll see ya when the challenge starts." He then saw Chris approaching. "Aw no. Really? Thanks a lot Bakura."

"Guessing you're not really looking forward to today's challenge?" Chris asked the Tenkai Knight.

"Not like if I said no I could just opt out. Or can I?"

"No. Courtney already tried that and that didn't end well for her. She still got eliminated."

"Wait really? So all she did was just refuse to play and you guys actually took that seriously?"

"Uh, no. Action? Lawyers? It's been brought up like a few times."

"If it was, I clearly wasn't paying attention."

"That's pretty obvious. But anyways, let's go ahead and get everyone else."

***Confessional***

Toxsa(Wave Breakers):

"Yeah, TV is not my thing. I only watched the VR challenge in that last multiverse season they had and that's it. And even then, I just happened to see it on TV. That's literally why I entered here in the first place. Usually all this active exercising isn't my thing. But, sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad. Hence why I practiced with Chooki to work on my sports skills, as I showed off in my audition. And hoo boy, there is a lot of bad to get through before you get to the good stuff. And by good stuff I mean the digital challenges. Or the ones where I get to show off my skills as a Tenkai Knight. Or heck, even the quiz challenge. That was pretty good too."

***End Confessional***

"All right, in this next challenge, we're gonna be returning to Japan once aga-" Chris started before he was cut off.

"Really man? You're gonna bring us back there after what just happened a few days ago?" Axl asked.

"If you'll let me finish I can explain." Chris said, not even upset about being interrupted as he already anticipated someone saying something about it. "Yes, the Bikini Bottom return was a rare situation because of Mr. Krabs' paid promotion. But in most cases, that's not going to happen. We go to a place once, there's a high chance that we're not coming back again. At least physically. And this is no different. This version of Japan is one that someone else here resides in. And no, no hints before anyone asks."

"Well, I mean, the choices are going to dwindle down eventually. Process of elimination." Kise said.

"True but still, I just wanted to repeat that. Asking for hints as if we're not about to go to that place in like the next minute or so is kinda dumb to be honest. Just saying."

"Because you definitely had to be rude about it." Kise said sarcastically.

"Like I said, I'm just being honest. Anyways, let's get going peeps."

Everyone goes through the portal.

Seishun Academy; Tokyo, Japan(The Prince of Tennis)

When they all appeared on the other side, they were all on a tennis court. A dark blue mesh screen was seen around the court. On one side of the screen, a large building could be seen.

"A tennis court?" Huey said.

"Me and my big mouth." Toxsa said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothin'."

"Well would ya look at that." Echizen said, noticing not just the court, but the building that was on the other side of the screen. "Question is, where are they?"

"Well, at least that's one question answered. We're in your court now. Literally." Mr. Wolf said.

"Well, it's good to know we haven't been replaced!" A teen with red hair that parts in the center and a plaster on the right cheek. He and the others that were with him were wearing the same Polo-collared shirt that Echizen was seen wearing during his first few times on the season before he switched to more casual clothes. This was Kikumaru Eiji.

"How's it going everyone? Echizen? You doin' okay?" Takeshi Momoshiro, who had very spiky black hair said, greeting himself to Echizen and the others.

"Well, I'm still here if that helps." Echizen answered.

"Good enough answer for me."

"Considering what's happened already this season, you can take that in different ways." Dan said.

"That so huh? You must have been through a heck of a lot." An old woman, Sumire Ryuzaki, who was wearing a pink collared shirt and khaki pants said. She had brown hair tied into a ponytail.

"That's an understatement honestly." Echizen said.

"Oh ho. Well, at least we know you guys aren't boring him."

"Boring him? You guys clearly haven't watched the show have you?" Lucy asked, offended that she'd even say that in the first place.

"Nope! I wanted to be surprised. Really wanted to go in blind with some of the people that Echizen was with." Eiji admitted.

"I can't say I really cared to watch, even if I am rooting for Echizen. Reality shows are just not my cup of tea. Although, it's good to see you're still in." Kunimitsu Tezuka said in a neutral fashion. He has dark brown hair parted on the left side of his head and wore glasses.

"Honestly, after the first episode, I had to stop. I got too busy with other things. I'm really sorry." Shuichiro Oishi, who had black hair with two locks that stand inwards on top of his head said. The top half was black while the bottom half was shaved.

"I'll admit, I haven't kept up with every episode. But I've been trying to keep tabs from time to time just so I can at least have a taste of how some of the people that Echizen has had to encounter are like." Shusuki Fuji said calmly. He has chin-length light brown hair and his eyes were closed as he lightly smiled, something that he's seen doing more often than not. "And I have to say Lucy. You and the others deserve all of the respect that you're asking for."

"I didn't even say anything about my name. You really have been watching." Lucy said, not even hiding the fact that she was impressed and flattered by the acknowledgement.

"Yes. I have been watching myself. Every episode. That kick was impressive. A lot of force put behind it." Sadahara Inui, a returnee from his brief cameo in the board game challenge noted.

"Oh that one. Yeah, it was wasn't it? Well deserved I might add. Too bad it hasn't changed his attitude at all." Lucy said referring to Echizen.

"Still got that attitude huh? I'm not surprised." Kaoru Kaido said, arms folded. He had short black hair and green eyes and wore a green bandana on his head.

"You mean he's always like this? How do you not get annoyed by that?"

"Eh, it takes some getting used to. And besides, I think us being around each other for a bit helped us learn more about one another outside the usual main stuff you see when it comes to a person's personality, if you understand what I mean." Momoshiro said.

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense. Kind of like saying Eijun is just some guy that yells. Same thing with Natsu, or that he's just some fire mage that just likes to fight."

"Personality layers is the term you're looking for." Sophie said.

"Yeah, that's it! Thanks!"

"Whatever the case, it would make sense that it didn't change him. As he stated in his confessional, he has taken his fair share of punishment. The kick, while impressive, was only the tip of the iceberg of what he has had to endure." Inui said.

"How? What the heck does he do, fight when he's not doing tennis? No offense." Rex said.

"I wouldn't go that far, but he's got guts. He insisted on playing with one eye. The other one was bleeding."

"That's not gutsy. That's just stupid. Is it really worth risking suffering an even worse injury over a tennis match?" Mayuzumi said.

"Believe me, we tried to stop him. We covered the eye, stopped the bleeding and was going to just forfeit, but he wasn't going to back down. Even the umpire said he wasn't going to play and was about to stop the match." Momoshiro said.

"How did he even get hurt like that? A really fast ball to the eye?" Isagi asked.

"No. He lost his racket while playing. It flew out of his hand, hit one of the net posts so fast, it broke apart and a piece of it flew right back into his eye." Oishi answered. This answer caused several people to grimace as they thought about how painful that was.

"Ya see? That right there is exactly why I don't play sports. Well, at least not consistently outside of like recess and with friends. But going on an actual team where there might be psychopaths and guys with superpowers waiting for you on the other side? No thanks. And Chooki calls this fun?" Toxsa said.

"Trust me, it is. You don't know what you're missin'." Kise said.

"I know exactly what I'm missing. And that's exactly why I don't play."

Sumire sighed. "Like Momoshiro said, we tried to stop him, even I kept saying that he was bleeding. But again, he still said he wanted to play. So, I decided to try to stop the bleeding and cover his eye myself. Something I was able to do, but Captain Tezuka gave him an ultimatum. He had ten minutes. If he couldn't finish the game within that ten, or the bleeding started again he was going to be pulled immediately and forced to forfeit. No ifs, and or buts about it." She explained. "And give him credit. He finished it within ten and won."

"Yeah, I have no idea how he was able to do it but, well, he did." Kawamura Takashi, who had brown hair in a slight Elvis Presley hair style said. He had relatively long side burns and brown round eyes.

"But, to be honest, all of the team members here are stubborn in some way so it's definitely not just Ryoma." Sumire added.

Johnny looked at the camera. "Yeah, I think it's safe to say all these kids here take these sports way too serious." He said to the audience.

"You could look at it that way, but you could also look at it as passion and heart." Puss said to him. "But also, who exactly are you talking to?"

"Huh? Never mind all that. So uh, guess tennis is on the menu today."

"What gave it away, the fact that we're on a tennis court?" Tsukishima said sarcastically.

"To be fair, Blue Lock and Deimon had more than just those sports." Sucy said.

"Yeah but, what exactly could you possibly do to try to variate tennis?"

"What could you do to variate American football and soccer? They made it work."

"Well, good news for you, you're about to find out." Momoshiro said.

"But first, we should probably introduce ourselves. Can't exactly do all of this talking and not have you know our names." Oishi said.

After the Seigaku Tennis Club introduced themselves to the cast, Chris took over for a bit.

"Alright, just want to give the disclaimer that while I can promise no one's going to die here, I can't promise you won't get hurt. That Is all. Outside of a few comments from me, I'm going to be taking a step back for this one. The club already told me they have everything planned out for the day, and while not super long, should still hopefully be something fun for you guys and fun for the audience. Now, take it away." Chris said.

"I can't say I'm not curious. What exactly do you have planned to make things different today?" Echizen asked.

"You make it seem like you've done this before." Fuji said, his usual happy expression not changing.

"Well, I mean I kinda have. Playing tennis."

"Who said you're going to be playing tennis today?" Eiji said.

"Uh, you guys did."

"Yeah, you did. What are you, changin' it up?" Kagami asked.

"You should be worried about warming up first don't you think?" Momoshiro said.

"We're already warmed up. So if that's what you're worried about, just get a couple of seconds of stretching in and let's go." Sendo said.

"Listen to him and there will be an injury today. Let's actually give some adequate stretching guys." Courtney said to her team.

"A couple of seconds would have been fine but, if that's what flows your boat." Takashi said.

"Come on everyone! Stretch!" Hinata called out, taking the lead.

"Who are you my fitness instructor? If I had and trusted one? I don't need you to tell me to stretch, I can do it myself!" Dan said.

"Trusted one?" Hailey repeated, confused. "What could a fitness instructor have done to you?"

"Made him exercise." Miyuki remarked.

"That's exactly what it was! At least for the most part. Until I found out that he was a robot!" Dan said with several people looked at him in silence afterwards. "What? Didn't I tell you guys this already?"

As everyone was stretching, a man with a yellow polo shirt and shades was hiding far off in the distance before he pulled out some binoculars.

"All right. Looks like I'm on time." The man said as he looked around at all of the contestants. He then saw Becky F., Eliza and Rally as he looked around. Oddly limiting his vision to the former two's backsides and the latter's chest. "Interesting. But, not what I'm looking for." He moved his binoculars over to something else and stopping there. "There we go." He then put them down, grinning as light reflected off the top of one of the lenses of his shades.

After everyone finished their stretching, their first game was brought out. In the form of several boxes.

"Alright, I need two of you from each team over here to come grab a racket." Inui said.

"Can we choose?" Julie asked.

"Yes, you may. This game is a hundred percent choice by volunteer."

"So what's the catch? If we choose one we can't choose them again?" Courtney asked.

"I can understand the reasoning behind your questions given the history, but no. As I said before, you are free to volunteer to participate for your team with no other caveats. An area for confessionals has also been set up completely by us."

"Well if that's the case, Echizen should be number one. Who else is really good at tennis?"

"Actually, Ryoma already made it clear that doubles wasn't his strong suit. Maybe switch him out for someone else?"

"I may be more of a singles player, but like I said, I'd still like to at least try to figure it out. Not like I haven't played before." Echizen said.

"Well you can do that on your time. We don't have time to be experimenting or 'figuring things out'. Anyone else?"

"Look, I'm telling you I-"

"And I'm telling you that you're not playing! That may work on your tennis team but not here!"

"Hey kid, I get it, you wanna play. And I'm pretty sure being in front of your guys has got somethin' to do with it too, but if you wanna help out the team-" Aomine started before being cut off by Skipper.

"Forget the long speeches! He's not playing and that's final! This is the time where you gotta stick to what you're good at! And stick to it now!" Skipper yelled out.

"Hey! I wasn't even gonna be long! All I was gonna say was-"

"Too much! That's what you were gonna say. Too much!"

"You know what? Forget it." He said dismissively, waving him off.

"Did you just wave me off!?"

"Yeah I did. So wha-"

He was suddenly hit in the face a couple of times by flippers.

"Disrespect of a commanding officer will not be tolerated! That may work on Courtney, quiet man, Din, or your little lady friend teacher but that's not gonna work on me! Are we clear!?"

"YES! And by the way, Weiss is not my girlfriend!" Aomine yelled in Skipper's face.

Weiss, suddenly appearing next to him adamantly nodded in agreement.

"I could care less about your little romantic endeavors. Or lack thereof, as you'd like to claim. So long as they don't get in the way of us winning. And of course, respect of your superiors."

"Trust me, it won't. If Kagami can play with Rei without him acting like he's another person all of a sudden, well at least for the most part, then so can I."

"You do realize-" Yang started before Ben cut her off.

"Look, let's not overthink this or drag this out, alright? I'll take Echizen's spot." Ben said.

"You play tennis? What alien do you have for that?" Yang asked.

"Uh, none?"

"Oh. Wait, you're playing tennis. With your own hands?"

"Yes?"

"No aliens?"

"Is this going somewhere?"

"Oh I gotta see this."

"She's literally saying you can't play without your aliens." Blake said.

"What!? Oh yeah I'm definitely taking a racket. And since you want to run your mouth, how about you get your butt over here and play with me?"

"And get yelled at if we lose? I'll get another game." Yang said.

"Coward!"

"And you wonder why I was able to outlast you the last season."

"I didn't even get eliminated because I messed up. Well, for the most part. That was Mandy trying to get rid of the competition."

"We can partner up." Dewey offered.

"Sure, go for it." Ben said quickly, before talking to Yang again. "So what does that say about you?"

"That I can outlast you?" Yang guessed.

"That she took me more seriously than you." He corrected as the other teams had also finished making their choices.

"Yeah I can definitely say that them not playing together was a good decision." Molly said to Julie, with those two being the designated choices for their team.

"For them anyway. Us? Not so much." Julie replied.

Blaze and Lanolin, the reps for their team, silently awaited.

"Alright, so it would appear that the representatives have been chosen." Inui said.

"Can't play without rackets. Where are they? I thought you said we could get them." Ben asked.

"Here we go." Oishi said as he and Kaido brought in a box full of rackets into the court and put them on the bench. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Was just wonder-" Ben started before grabbing a racket and noticing the feel immediately, making him not even finish his statement. "Wow! Either I've gotten stronger or these rackets have gotten lighter over time."

"That's because that's not a tennis racket." Echizen declared.

"Oh my goodness he's right!" Dewey said, looking closer at the racket he had in his hand.

Kise took a look himself. "Badminton rackets?"

"How can you guys tell?" Ben asked. "I was just making an observation."

"Well, for starters, badminton rackets are usually lighter than tennis rackets. But that's something you'd only notice if you played both." Kise explained.

"In my case, I never played badminton. I just know because of the shape. Tennis rackets have a different shape compared to badminton ones. I know that from happening to pass by occasionally. That, and just the fact that I've looked at a lot of tennis rackets. And that's clearly not a tennis racket." Echizen said. "It's better if you saw it for yourself but, I don't have my racket unfortunately. The real question is, why?"

"Yeah, what the heck happened to tennis?" Ben asked.

"I never said it was going to be tennis. All I said was for two from each team to grab a racket." Inui said.

"Gotta listen closely guys." Eiji said, raising a finger.

"Okay, fair enough. So, how exactly are we going to handle playing? A round robin tournament?" Blaze asked.

"No. None of you will match up against each other at all. This first game will have each team take a turn. Three in total. You'll work together in pairs to score as many points as possible." Inui explained as Tezuka and Kaido placed a machine and three targets that had three different colors: One red, one blue and one yellow down.

"Your goal is to hit these targets. The closer you are to the center, the more points you score. But, you must match the color of the birdie with the color of the target, otherwise, you will not receive credit. Score the most points within 1 minute and you will win the round."

"One minute!?" Several people said, surprised.

"Yes. One minute exactly." Inui said, digital stopwatch in hand.

"We are allowed to warm up, right?" Ben asked.

"No."

"So you allow us to stretch but you don't allow them to warm up? That doesn't make any sense." Kageyama said.

"If you don't know how to play, all you've gotta do is hit the birdie. Not too soft and not too hard either. It's nothing like hitting a tennis ball." Kaido said.

"Wow. Really helpful."

"Look, what the heck else do you want me to say!? This is coming from personal experience so it's not like I don't know what I'm talking about!"

"Something is better than nothing. Even if it's not that much." Dewey said.

"It shouldn't be that hard. All we can do is, well, make due." Lanolin said.

"This isn't gonna be the only round, right?" Toxsa asked.

"Nope! Would kinda be disappointing if we had to settle things in one minute wouldn't it?" Momoshiro answered.

"Disappointing, but a twist honestly." Chris commented.

"A bad one in my opinion. We end this early, what the heck else are we gonna do with the rest of the TV time? Show everyone on their downtime some more? Nobody wants to see that 24/7!" Chef said.

"Huh. That is a good point. So yeah, don't do that. I understand you guys said today wasn't going to be some long laundry list of things to do, but don't make it too short like that, alright?"

"I've already taken a look at the list myself. While I had no influence on what they wanted to do, it should be good enough I think." Coach Ryuzaki said.

"Hope you're right. Gonna step back again."

"Ryoma!" A girl's voice called out. Five kids were seen running, approaching the gate, with one of the two girls holding a sign and the other having a red bag on her right shoulder.

"Hold up! Wait for us!" A bot called out before turning to the others. "Come on guys, run faster, we're already lucky enough to not miss it!"

"Friends of yours?" Rex asked Echizen.

"Yep." Echizen answered.

"Please, just wait a few more seconds!" The second girl called out.

And that they did. A few seconds passed and the group of five arrived.

"Thank you. We're really sorry for making you all wait." The second girl said before bowing.

"What's a couple of seconds going to hurt? It's okay." Fuji replied.

"We're not really in much of a rush at the moment, so it doesn't upset me at all." Lanolin said.

"Same here. Besides, why stop his friends from watching him play? I'm sure you guys are very excited huh?" Molly added.

"You bet we are!" The first girl exclaimed. "In fact, we're the one and only, authentic, Ryoma Echizen fanclub! And I'm the president, Tomoka Osakada! This is Sakuno Ryuzaki, granddaughter of the coach of Seigaku's tennis team. And these three here, left and right are Katsuo, Satoshi, and Kachiro!" Tomoka declared. Tomoka had medium length brown hair tied into two high pigtails, brown eyes and a mole underneath her right eye. She also wore a yellow tank top and a pink skirt. She was also the one holding a sign.

Sakuno had thigh-length hair kept in low twin braids with braids hanging to the left side and brown eyes. She wore a pink blouse and matching short pink shorts.

Katsuo had short black hair and wore a white t-shirt with a red collar and white shorts.

Kachiro had black hair styled in a bowl cut and wore a yellow t-shirt with a white square in the middle with black shorts.

"And by the way, when he plays, we found a theme for him!" Tomoka declared.

"A theme?" Echizen repeated, confused.

"You mean like a theme song? He has a theme song!?" Rex asked in surprise.

"He does now!" Tomoka declared confidently. "You do have the CD right?" She asked Sakuno.

"Oh, y-yes! I have it!" She answered.

"Great! Well, I don't see him with a racket, so it looks like he's not playing yet. We'll play it whenever he's up."

"Does it happen to have lyrics by any chance?" Chris asked.

"Yes it does!"

"Great, then that fits perfectly. We'll play it next game. Or sometime before the challenge is-"

"NO! This is for Ryoma and Ryoma only! We're only playing it when he plays!" Tomoka shouted, which caught Chris off guard.

"Alright, alright. If that's what you want, we'll see what we can do. But it's not up to me if he plays. Take that up with Seigaku and Echizen's own teammates."

"Considering how these games have been run, that could be never honestly." Satoshi said.

"Don't think like that! He's GOING TO PLAY!" Tomoka yelled out.

"I'm just being honest. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Clearly you haven't been watching the show. Pretty fraud-like for a fanclub president."

"I'll let you know that I have been watching! I'm just keeping a positive mindset! Something only a real fan would do! Now who's the fraud!?"

"Like I said, I'm just stating the facts! I want him to play as much as you do, if not more! Remember, I actively play the sport just like him, unlike you!"

"Not this two years stuff again. That's definitely fraudulent!"

"Fraudulent, yet I can explain tennis terms that you can't understand!"

"If you're so good then why aren't you on the tennis…."

"Oh hey, it's some of the pairs here in a nutshell." Fiona commented as the pair continued to argue.

"Eh, I wouldn't go that far honestly. But it's not that far off." Echizen replied.

"Come on you two settle down. Echizen's team still has to focus remember?" Katsuo said to Tomoka and Satoshi.

"Oh, yeah you're right." Tomoka said.

"Heh heh. Sorry about that." Satoshi said.

"Okay, now that you guys have decided to calm yourselves, we can start." Fuji said.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" Eiji asked.

"Wait, we can just….. pick?" Dewey asked.

"Yep! As long as you all agree on it."

"Man, you guys are really relaxed about this." Ben said.

"You know what? I'll take relaxed over, whatever a lot of these past challenges were to be honest. I know that's kinda crazy to hear coming from me." Morty said.

"Not really. I don't really mind that much, but not everything needs to be, for lack of a better word, bats[censored] crazy." Isagi said.

"There's always pressure to perform when going first. Why not be second?" Lanolin proposed.

"I disagree. Regardless of when we go, we still have to perform at our best to win." Blaze countered.

"Screw it." Ben started before he spoke up. "We'll be first!" He called out, the same time that Julie did.

"Rock paper scissors for it?" Julie asked.

"You're on!" Ben said.

Both got ready to play.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Ben chose scissors, Julie chose paper.

"Ha! And don't pull the two out of three either!" Ben said.

"We'll see if you have that same tune when this is over!" Julie said confidently.

"I will. Because, when this is over, we'll be first! Alright Fuji, we're going first."

"Perfect. Alright. Both of you get in positions please." Inui said.

Both Ben and Dewey agreed on their positions, with Ben taking the front while Dewey was at the back.

"Remember, you must match the birdie color with the target to get points. Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" Both contestants said simultaneously.

"Alright then. Begin!" Inui said with Kaido pressing the button to start the birdie feeding machine, lobbing them. Inui also started the countdown on the stopwatch.

The first one was in the air, with this one being a blue one.

"I got it!" Ben called out with him sending it back, this one to the right target, netting them their first point, indicated by Takashi flipping the number over on one of the scoring papers.

The second one, a red one, came at a different angle, one that Ben couldn't reach. But Dewey could. He was able to send it over the net, with it barely grazing the target.

Inui nodded to Takashi to signal to give them credit, making it two points for them so far.

The third one launched. "Another red!" Ben called out. He jumped in the air to make sure he hit it as it looked as if it was about to get past him. The result however, was completely different than the first time. It sailed over not just the targets, but the entire screen blocking off the court.

"Oops."

"Don't worry about it, just get the next one!" Yang called out.

"So how many points do you think they'll get?" Kachiro asked the other four.

"Well, judging by what I've seen so far, I think they'll get a nice 15 points!" Satoshi declared, confidently nodding in agreement to his own answer.

"In 60 seconds? That seems like a little much." Sakuno said.

"So what do you think it's going to be then?"

"Maybe seven or eight?"

"I got it!" Dewey called out as he sent another birdie back towards a target. But this one sailed over the target and went behind it. Their only other point outside of the initial first two was a point scored by Dewey while the "Echizen fanclub" was placing their bets on how much the pair would score.

Their next one, hit by Ben, was unintentionally sent at the wrong target as a red birdie hit a yellow target.

"Great." Ben commented.

"How much time is left?" Dewey asked aloud.

"Can you not mention the time please? We still have only three points!"

"Less than twenty seconds." Inui answered as the stopwatch continued to tick away.

"Uh oh." Dewey said before hitting a yellow birdie that came his way. This one hit its target, making it point number four.

The next one was launched not long after. Ben swung at it but missed.

"Dewey! Get it!" Ben called out. He slid to hi it, but it sailed down and hit the blue target instead.

He didn't even have much of a chance to get back in position as another one was already coming.

"I got it!" Ben called out before swinging, this one hitting the screen. "I don't got it."

A red one was sent their way with Dewey jumping in the air to try and line drive it to the intended target, but unfortunately, it sailed over it.

"Stop! Time's up!" Inui called out.

"I counted four. Could have definitely been better." Ben said.

"Yeah. We should have been a lot closer to ten to be honest. But hey, it's not life or death. It's just one game." Dewey said.

"One game that could mean a whole lot down the line. Just being realistic. Not trying to bring down your attitude."

"Next team please!" Inui called out.

"You know what? You honestly weren't bad." Yang said to Ben.

"Thanks. I tried. I'm not exactly a badminton pro at all. In fact, I don't think I ever played before. It just feels like a slower, floatier tennis to me." Ben replied.

"I feel like that's too much of a generalization. I'm pretty sure badminton has its own rules. Then again, I don't recall ever playing myself." Adrien said.

"No, you're probably not wrong. Hence why I said comparing tennis and volleyball and saying they're the same is stupid." Kageyama said.

"But there are similarities."

"I never said there weren't. But still though, to call them the same or one is just the other but with 'this and that' is still pretty ignorant."

"Yeah, there are different rules. And Kaido found that out the hard way." Momoshiro said.

"Ah, shut up." Kaido said, annoyed.

Julie and Molly were next, with Blaze and Lanolin mutually agreeing to let them go second.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Molly asked.

"I take the back, you take the front." Julie answered.

"Got it!"

"Four shouldn't be that much to overcome I don't think." Hinata commented.

"I hope not. I also hope they take what Kaido said seriously, because they really aren't the same thing." Kageyama replied.

"Start!" Inui called out.

The first birdie launched was a yellow one off to the left.

"Let me!" Julie called out, hitting the badminton forward and hitting the yellow target, scoring the team's first point.

The second one was launched. This one was also a yellow one but launched in a different direction. It was also lower than the last one.

"This one looks pretty low. Julie, can you get that one?" Molly asked.

"Yeah!" She replied before attempting to get to it. Using an underhand hit, she was able to cause it to go back over the net. While not perfect, it was still able to hit its mark, scoring the team their second point.

On their third hit, which was a blue birdie, although at a strange angle, Molly had to swing her racket slightly across her body along with turning a bit to try to get it to reach its next target. Which it somehow did.

"Nice body control!" Julie complimented.

"Thanks! I'm no Echizen but it's good enough I think." Molly said.

"That's already their third point. Not good." Satoshi commented.

"If there's one thing for sure, these guys aren't playing around." Katsuo said.

And right Katsuo was. It took two out of three attempts but they were able to surpass Dewey and Ben's score of four, now at five.

"Great. I don't even know if it's even been 30 seconds and we've already been beat. That's probably the worst part of it." Ben said.

"That just brings on even more disappointment from me. That could have been us!" Dewey added.

"Which is exactly why you need to be better the next game!" Skipper said to the pair.

"At least the first-time jitters are out of the way. We're still in good shape." Riley said.

When Inui signaled for them to stop, they were able to double what they initially had and got to ten points.

"Next team please." Inui said with Blaze and Lanolin stepping onto the court.

"If they were able to score ten, then that's a good sign for us. Do you want the front or the back?" Lanolin asked Blaze.

"Either one works." Blaze replied.

***Confessional***

Blaze(Radical Rats):

"Believe it or not, I have played in some of these sports before. I'd rather not go into the fine details, but know that I do have that experience, hence why I've volunteered."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Lanolin(Radical Rats):

"I'll be honest, I've never played this before a day in my life. I volunteered to try to be a calming presence to the rest of the team with a good start. I don't think I'll do horrible but, I think I'll take a backseat and let Blaze take the lead."

***End Confessional***

Blaze was at the front while Lanolin was at the back.

"Are you ready?" Inui asked.

"Yes we are." Blaze said with Lanolin nodding.

"Then, begin!" Inui said, immediately starting the stopwatch right after.

Fittingly enough, a red birdie was the first one that was launched out of the feeding machine. And like the other two pairs, Blaze was able to score the first point for them.

"With their speed, catching those birdies shouldn't be a problem." Adrien commented.

"Even so, the key is control. You can be as fast as you want, but if you don't have good body control, that's going to affect your accuracy more than you think. Something that, funny enough Aominecchi would be perfect for. He's got really good body control." Kise said.

"Don't just volunteer me for games! I don't even know how to play this!" Aomine yelled, overhearing him.

"Day number 2 of me vouching for you to play." May said to Kise.

"This time, I honestly didn't even think about it." Kise said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well you better think about it sooner rather than later blondie. Whether you want to or not, you're going to have to play at some point." Hiruma said bluntly.

"Yeah, I'm already aware of that. But, thanks for the heads up regardless."

Focusing back on the game, body control was exactly what Blaze had, and what Lanolin lacked.

"Don't just rely on your speed! You need to control your body!" Blaze called out after Lanolin had missed another shot. This one actually being an easier one than the first one and the second one.

"I'm trying to do that! They're just missing!" Lanolin called out.

"Don't panic! You're still on pace to catch up!" X called out.

"What's the score?" Lanolin asked, before deciding to look herself. They had currently scored four points.

"Don't worry yourself about the score. Just keep playing." Blaze told her as she hit another target, netting them a fifth point.

"Easier said than done when I wanted to get a good start." Lanoline thought.

The next one was on the way. This one being a yellow one.

"I've got it!" Both called out simultaneously. And it didn't turn out well at all. Not because they ran into each other, or because they just let it fall to the ground in indecisiveness. But because when Blaze tried to hit it, she had to turn her hand at an awkward angle, and the birdie missed its mark, hitting the red target.

Ultimately, this summed up their run. Great potential, but missing the mark unfortunately. They ended with 7 points.

Lanolin sighed and shook her head.

"I'm disappointed myself, but there's not much we can do about it now other than look ahead to the next game." Blaze said to her.

"I suppose you're right. Still, I apologize. If I was even the slightest bit more competent-"

Hiruma blew an airhorn in her ear. "Forget the what-ifs! The f[censored]ing firecat said to move on, so move on!" Hiruma shouted.

"Noted." Lanolin said, covering an ear, annoyed that he just did that.

"And with that, Julie and Molly take the first game!" Chris announced.

"Well, I'm not exactly surprised at this outcome." Echizen said.

"What kind of a thing is that to say now after we lost?" Riley asked.

"I don't mean Ben and Dewey. I mean Blaze and Lanolin. Blaze was doing well but Lanolin was the real issue. She really shouldn't have asked about the score. Because that only put more pressure on herself. And it didn't help in improving her body control at all."

"I think this is what, the most you've talked since the kart challenge? Not that I mind, just an observation." Ayame said.

"This is his place. And tennis is what he's passionate about. It makes sense to me." Sendo said.

"Honestly guys, why does it matter if I'm talking more? Not gonna really make much of a difference on if we win or lose." Echizen said, lowering his cap.

"You said this wasn't the only thing we'd be doing here. So what's our next game?" Jotaro asked the Tennis Club members.

"Well, let's find out!" Eiji called out before he prompted everyone to follow the team.

"But first, I'd like to inform you all that this will not count towards the official standings for today's challenges. However, from this point on, everything will count towards your team's standing." Inui informed.

"Wait, we did all of that for nothing?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"I wouldn't go that far. At the very least, you're already in the spirit to play." Fuji replied.

"In the spirit to play? What kind of-ohhhh! Now I get it." Randy said.

"What?" Dewey asked. "Because I still don't see what the-wait a second, this was our warm-up wasn't it?"

"Yep!" Eiji answered.

"That is genius actually. Get us to think this is a real game to get us in the spirit to take it seriously." Julie concluded.

"Yeah. And now we're ready to go! Really appreciate the warm-up!" Molly said.

***Confessional***

Ryoma Echizen(Storm Kings):

"Man, these guys observe like the weirdest things."

***End Confessional***

The team led everyone inside the school where the gym was located. A net was located in the middle of two equally sized sections.

"Hey, there's a net here. Are we gonna play volleyball?" Hinata asked excitedly.

"Don't get your hopes up. It's a gym. Of course you're going to see that." Tsukishima said.

"Close, but no. Now, who wants to play tennis?" Fuji asked.

"You want us to play tennis… in here?" Jenny asked.

"Yep!" Eiji declared.

"Alright Momo, what's going on in your heads now?" Echizen asked, already knowing that they knew this wasn't a practical way to play tennis at all.

"Nothing but ways for you guys to have some fun today. Now, who wants to play first?" Momoshiro asked.

Echizen sighed. "Well, it wouldn't hurt I guess. I'll play."

"Alright! Looks like Ryoma's gonna go!" Satoshi exclaimed.

"Two more volunteers please." Inui said.

"How about it Blaze? Wanna give it another go?" Tangle asked her.

"I suppose I could." Blaze answered.

"Let me take care of it. You're in good hands!" Julie promised, winking as she did.

"Great. Now we can get started. This will be a double round-robin tournament. Winners can be chosen again while losers will be done for the rest of the day. Each game will be a first to 40 and will use standard tennis rules." Inui explained. "Also, fret not if you do lose. Because you'll be able to have a taste of this while you watch to help you rejuvenate." He added, showing off a large pitcher of juice as Momoshiro rolled over a table, this juice being orange.

"Of course." Echizen commented.

"Something tells me that isn't orange juice." Blaze said.

"Yeah, it's probably not. Just know that I'm not gonna be the one to find out for sure."

"You say that as if I want to try it. But, do you think it's good?" Julie asked.

"Julie!" Several people on her team called out.

"What? Maybe it's secretly good."

"Hey, if you want to try it, be my guest. I'll make sure you help you out with that." Ryoma Echizen said.

"I have already organized the matches. The first match is, Julie Makimoto vs Blaze. Both of you, please take your rackets and your positions on the court." Inui said.

"Here you guys go." Eiji said, handing them rackets, to their confusion.

"Are those ping pong rackets?" Rex asked.

"I knew there was something else to this." Courtney said.

"Well, this is certainly an interesting approach to making a challenge." Emma commented.

"You have a strange definition of interesting." Becky F. said.

"What? I never said it was good. I just said it was interesting."

***Confessional***

Ryoma Echizen(Storm Kings):

"Interesting? This is just doing too much honestly. What's wrong with just a regular tennis game? Heck, I would have taken tennis on horses rather than this."

***End Confessional***

Blaze and Julie took their positions on opposite sides of the net. Inui also had a ping pong ball in his hand.

"Ping pong on a larger tennis court. Not gonna lie, that is creative." Rex commented.

"Or, we could, you know, just play ping pong on a regular table? Just a thought." Becky B. replied.

"That sounds too much like normal. Which is not what this show has done so far. Well, at least for the most part."

"As a reminder, the first to get to 40 wins. We will use standard tennis rules for this match. Are both of you ready?" Inui asked.

"Question, what if say, you aren't well versed in tennis rules?" Young Bennet asked.

"You hit the ball, make sure it goes over the net, past your opponent and inbounds. That's it. I, well, technically, we, don't even play sports that much and even I know that." Old Bennett answered.

"Well, I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"What's there to be safe about? I just explained the rules in the simplest way possible."

"To play tennis, one person starts off as the server. The server must send the ball forward with his or her paddle to the other side. And that's when normal play begins. Players hit the ball back and forth to one another. To score, you must get the ball in a position to where your opponent cannot return it within one or two bounces before it goes out of bounds. The bound lines are the ones you see on the edges of the court. Anything outside of those lines is considered out of bounds. If a ball lands out of bounds on either side without a single bounce, that is a point for the opponent. Making any contact with the net with your body or racket is also an automatic point for the opponent. Hitting the ball directly into the net is also a point for the opponent." Inui explained.

"By the way, 40 equals a total of three scores. Also, you cannot hit a ball twice to get it over. If you can't do that in one hit, that's a point for your opponent. And second, if you hit your opponent with the ball and they can't return it, say, it hits them in the face, that's a point for you as well. Obviously, you don't want to hurt them but there's nothing in the rules that says it's not allowed. Just a couple hints for you all." Oishi explained.

"Don't get any ideas. People aren't just going to let you hit them." Riley said.

"What? I never even said anything." Todd and Aomime said simultaneously, causing them to look at each other.

"Jinx!" Todd called out before pinching him in the arm.

"The hell's wrong with you?" Aomine said.

"Just wanted to do that."

"Alright, now that Oishi has given you these hints, do you have any additional questions?" Inui asked.

"Is that drink orange juice?" Julie asked.

"No. But Mangos were included in this new drink."

"Really? That's what you ask? Do you want to lose or something!?" Dan asked Julie.

"Well no but, I was just curious." She replied innocently.

"Who cares!? Look, I'll tell you want, since you're that curious, how about, you lose, you drink the juice and if we get last place, we pin the blame on you and we boot you!?"

"Hey! Don't think like that! We're not gonna lose do you hear me!?" Kaz yelled at Dan.

"You should be yelling that at her not me!"

"Guys, be quiet! I have to focus!" Julie yelled out.

"Oh. Sorry." Both said simultaneously.

"Okay. I'm ready!" She declared to Inui. Blaze was already ready to play before this in-team exchange.

"Great. Now….. Begin!" Inui called out with Julie holding serve.

She tried to serve the ball with the racket/paddle. And while she was able to hit it, it unfortunately didn't even go over the net.

"Fault!" Inui called out.

She was allowed to get the ball to try to serve again.

The second attempt was a lot more successful, going very high in the air. Because of where the ball was, which was mere inches away from the net, Blaze had trouble getting to it and it bounced once. While she was able to hit the ball before the second bounce, it went to an awkward position on the court and landed out of bounds.

"Out! Point to Julie! 15-love!" Inui announced.

"If the battle didn't go over the net before that first hit, Blaze should have scored, right?" Monta asked.

"Nope. It's only twice that that happens. Hence why Inui said 'fault' earlier. If she can't get it after the second try, then it would have been a point for Blaze." Kise explained.

Now it was Blaze's turn to serve. While her first attempt got over the next, the result ended in it going out of bounds as the ball traveled too far.

"Out! Point to Julie! 30-love! Game point!" Inui announced.

"Man, this looks to be simple, but at the same time pretty complicated." Kachiro said.

"That doesn't make any sense." Tomoka replied.

"Actually, it makes a lot of sense." Satoshi replied.

"Well it doesn't to me!"

"Well, that's you."

"Guys, please." Katsuo pleaded, to try to calm the two down as Julie prepared for her second serve. This one, while a lot smoother than the past couple of serves, was still hard to return. Even with that, Blaze was the one that was able to overcome the strange hits and returns the best, scoring a point.

"30-15!" Inui called out.

"I would say she's getting the hang of it but, I don't really think she is." Tangle commented.

"I think it's safe to say with how things are looking, neither really are." Kurt commented.

"Well let's hope this is the start. Julie still has the advantage of needing one more score." Zero said.

"Sorry, but I'm closing this out now!" Julie called out to Blaze.

"You can try." Blaze replied.

Julie sent the ball flying Ble's way. It was another pretty high serve, this one being a deliberately high one. Blaze, keeping her composure, noticed that the ball was going to far back while it was still in the air. It landed out of bounds.

"Out! Deuce!" Inui called out. "You will now need to score two points in a row to win the game."

"Now it's anyone's game." Ruby commented.

"I wouldn't go that far. But, I could be wrong. We'll see." Ryoma Echizen replied.

"Okay mister tennis hotshot, who do you think's going to win?" Yang asked.

"Blaze. But, like I said, I could easily be wrong on this one because of what this is. We'll see."

Blaze was allowed to hold serve again. This one, while still not exactly easy to get because, again, it was a ping pong ball being bounced on a gym floor, was still able to be returned back decently enough.

A bit of a mini-rally had started between the two.

But it was Blaze that was able to get the upper hand as Julie tried to unknowingly get a ball that was going out and sent it out of bounds on Blaze's side.

"Our! Advantage Blaze!" Inui announced.

"Why would you go for that!?" Randy commented out loud.

"All she has to do is tie it up and we'll be right back in it." Fiona said, trying to reassure him.

But, that wasn't the case. After Julie served the ball, Blaze hit it back at angle that Julie wouldn't be able to get without sliding, which she did, with painful results. Physically, and for her team in the game. The ball went through the gap separating one side of the net and the net pole without touching either, which would have been a great play, had it stayed in.

"Out! Blaze wins the game!" Inui announced.

Several of Julie's teammates were either disappointed, in shock, or upset, or a bit of all three.

"Man, talk about a disappointing way to end things." Diego said.

"Disappointing? She did this to herself." Dan replied.

"Does she have to drink the juice?" Jenny asked Inui.

"Yes. This applies to everyone that loses today." Inui answered. "Also, there will be no rewards today. All a team needs to do is win one of the games today to be safe from elimination. Then, you are done for today. Every member of the losing team will drink the juice as well."

"Wait, did you say, everyone?" Fiona asked.

"Yes."

"Not saying we'll lose, but ma-" Libby started before Diego covered her mouth.

"Come on, don't speak it into existence. You already see what happened to Julie. Let's not make that same mistake again." Diego said, with her nodding. Afterwards, he uncovered her mouth.

"Okay, got it."

Seconds later, after helping herself to a cup from the pitcher, via paper cups anyway, she gave her thoughts on it. "Not too bad. A bit tangy but pretty good!"

"After what happened last time, I'm not getting trick by that. Come on guys, keep going!" Rei implored.

"You didn't even drink the juice last time." Kise said.

"I don't care! My point still stands! I'd rather keep it that way!"

"Okay, okay. I got it."

"Ryoma Echizen versus A representative of the Rats is the next match. Please, step forward." Inui announced. "The Rats, as the winner, are allowed to change competitors if they'd like."

"I don't really see much of a reason to change." Rally said.

Hiruma nodded in agreement, with the others also coming to the same conclusion.

"All right! Looks like Ryoma's up." Satoshi said.

"Sakuno, play the theme for him." Tomoka whispered to Sakuno.

Sakuno nodded. "Right." She hurried and took out the portable player that she had.

"Ryoma!" Sakuno called out, which caused the tennis player to turn to face her and the rest of the Echizen fanclub.

"What is it? I'm about to start my match." Echizen said.

"I-I just wanted to play the theme song for you. And to tell you good luck. I hope you like it." Sakuno said, cheeks red as she did.

"Oh. Okay. Sure. Let's hear it."

"What if we played it during the match?" Tomoka proposed.

"Actually, I'd rather you play it now."

"Why? Wouldn't that make the game exciting?"

"No. It'd just be distracting. So, if you don't mind, could you play it now?"

"Okay! Sure!" Sakuno said before pressing the play button.

*The Prince of Tennis Intro(Toonami Dub) plays*

A little bit under 10 seconds of the song played before Sakuno stopped it.

"Oh no!" Sakuno said, hands over her head.

"Something wrong? Or was that it?" Echizen asked.

"Sakuno did you get the wrong song?" Katsuo asked.

"Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened." Sakuno said, ashamed.

"Sakuno, we already went over which song we'd get for him. How did you still get that wrong?" Tomoka asked, low.

"I don't know. I must have been in a hurry and chose the wrong one."

Tomoka sighed. "Now what do we do?"

"I'm really sorry Ryoma. I apologize to everyone else too." Sakuno said, bowing.

"All of that preparation, hype and wasting time just for it to basically just be a wet fart." Zak commented.

"I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, this was a waste of time." Dan said.

"Come on, don't be like that. She did apologize." Diego said.

"Well I'd like for that apology to turn into a reverse outcome card or something, because without that, for the most part, apologies are useless."

"It's the principle of it though." Kise said.

"Again, don't care. If that was the case, my revenge list would be about a half as long as it is. Maybe three-quarters, give or take some names."

"Well, you could always play it another time. Honestly, I thought it was okay." Echizen said to Sakuno.

Hearing this made Sakuno perk up and it showed on her face. "Really?"

"Sure. You wanted to play it, right? Just play the right one another time. Just make sure it's not during a match."

"Okay! I'll make sure not to forget!"

"Hay Sakuno, is that whole song an instrumental?" Chris asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"I think I may know the perfect use for it. We'll see how the rest of this challenge goes though. Remember, I literally had no input on this challenge at all. Just saying that before the 'how do you not know' questions start swarming."

"The second game, this one between Blaze the Cat and Ryoma Echizen will now commence!" Inui called out.

"So what do you think Chris is going to use the music for?" Tomoka asked Sakuno.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Sakuno replied before putting her attention back on the match that was about to start.

"Begin!" Inui called out.

Blaze, and ultimately, her team, as the winner of the last match, was the starting server.

"Don't worry about me, just give me your best serve." Echizen said, smiling confidently.

"I wouldn't do anything less." Blaze replied before tossing the ball up a bit before sending it his way.

"Good to know." Echizen said before hitting the ball back. "Because I wasn't going to hold back at all. No way am I drinking that stuff."

"Well, Julie seems to like it. You should give it a try too." Blaze replied as she was able to reach over and return the ball.

"You've got a point but, ladies first." Echizen returned the ball back.

The two continued to send balls back and forth between one another.

"Echizen's holding his own. No surprise there. He's supposed to be good at this." Eliza commented.

"Believe it or not, it wasn't always this way. At least with ping pong." Momoshiro replied.

"Isn't ping pong just a smaller version of tennis? Or am I missing something?"

"Somewhat. I'd imagine it took him a bit of getting used to the smaller scale." Sebastian said.

"Sebastian's pretty much got the gist of it. The smaller paddles means a different grip compared to tennis. Not too hard to pick up I'd think but not something you really think about every day. Of course, the difference in how hard you hit the ball is a no-brainer too." Momoshiro said.

"Go Prince Ryoma Go!" Tomoka called out as Blaze and Ryoma continued to go back and fourth. The score was tied at 30 for another Deuce.

"Show that cat what royalty looks like on the court!" Satoshi added.

"Prince Ryoma? They really call him that?" Kurt asked the Seigaku members.

"Ryoma gets called a lot of things." Eiji replied.

"Is cocky brat one of them?" Lucy asked.

"That one's pretty common. Or variants of it." Eiji said.

"But you have to give him this, he backs it up. For him to be the youngest on the team, he's got a great record. Undefeated in official tournament matches between schools." Oishi said.

"Hey, he's kinda like us back in Teiko then." Kise said.

"Least he didn't let that get to his head." Aomine added.

"You sure about that? How he acts says otherwise." Fiona said.

"There's nothin' wrong with confidence. It's when it gets to be too much that it's a problem."

"If he's that good, he better win here and now. Otherwise, he's gonna be an immediate candidate for dismissal from the team!" Skipper remarked.

Blaze had the advantage in the deuce set for the second time.

"You played table tennis before?" Ryoma Echizen asked Blaze.

"Yes, I have. A multitude of sports actually." Blaze replied as the ball was going on Echizen's side of the court.

"Huh. The more you know. Would say you'd definitely give that ping pong guy a run for his money. Or our whole ping pong team. But that'd be a lie. You'd probably run circles around them." Ryoma returns the shot. But the next thing Blaze knew, the ball was past her, rolling harmlessly on the ground.

"Deuce!" Inui announced.

Blaze looked in confusion, along with several others sharing similar looks.

"What the heck was that?" Tangle asked, the first to speak what most others were thinking.

"Let me guess, Echizen pulled something out of his a[censored] to get that point?" Rick said.

"I wouldn't go that far. We've seen this move. You're probably only thinking that because you haven't." Oishi said.

"So even he's got some tricks up his sleeve. Amazing." Asta remarked.

Ryoma kept himself in a ready stance, awaiting for the next serve from Blaze as she was the server.

The two got off into a bit of a smaller back and forth before Ryoma sent back another serve. This return the same one that was suddenly past Blaze earlier. However, Blaze was determined to not let this one get past her, by any means necessary. And that determination paid off. The ball sped past Ryoma so fast when he tried to hit the ball back that it flew into one of the bleachers and split apart. His paddle was also on the ground as he couldn't counter the hit because of its power.

As for some of the ground beneath Blaze, the path from sliding was charred.

Several people were in silence.

"I know Tangle just said it, but seriously, what the hell just happened!?" Kise said.

"I just saw her hit an invisible ball…." Axl added.

"First time?" Satoshi said to him.

"Just another day being here. Can't even have a tennis game without something like this happening." Reagan remarked.

"Balls disappearing, people disappearing. I wish it were that easy to get rid of the things that annoy me." Dan said.

"Too bad we're grounded in reality. Which Is what seemingly half the people here aren't." Reagan remarked.

"Eh, I'd say you're not really grounded in reality yourself. No offense." Doyle replied.

"At least I'm more grounded than most of the people here in that same mold. Making things with sheer brainpower and science is a lot more realistic than someone turning a ball invisible with no logical explanation behind it besides 'I can because it's anime'."

"Maybe that's the reason right there? You can do it because it's cool?" Zee remarked.

"I-"

"She used her speed to get that ball! Is that even allowed!?" Courtney spoke up.

"Wasn't a problem in the warm-ups." Tangle said.

"That's a different situation."

"You want to talk about rules when your guy literally just sent forward an invisible ball! Did he even swing!?" Kagami countered.

"Well, compelling arguments can be made since there wasn't anything for or against the use of abilities. Seigaku crew, your thoughts on this?" Chris asked.

"Well, since abilities can be used as a benchmark for tennis techniques, I don't think we should restrict them. What about you guys?" Momoshiro asked.

"I can agree with this. However, there are some abilities that would be outright unfair if we allowed all of them. For example, the use of weapons or extra help, such as Pokemon." Inui added.

"Why not just do a bit of both. If it's got nothing to do with tennis, then don't allow it." Kaido proposed.

"This would probably make the most sense I think. Allow them, to an extent." Tezuka said.

"Honestly, I would go with that. Don't want to ruin the fun, on both sides of the spectrum for abilities." Coach Ryuzaki said.

The others all had similar sentiments.

"Alright. Then it's settled." Tezuka said before turning to the TD crew. "Abilities will be allowed, to an extent. Any ability used unrelated to tennis is not allowed. That means weapons and extra help can't be used. You also can't just use them to attack or impair others or change the landscape. It must be used on the ball. No ifs, and or buts about it. Also, the point to Blaze counts. Any questions?" Tezuka said.

"So if I were to say, use my fire to make the ball go faster, I could do that?" Natsu asked.

"If the ball were to survive that, yes."

"Yeah no, that's never going to happen." Rei remarked.

"Would transformations be allowed? For example…." Albedo started before transforming into Negative Fasttrack.

"For context, some of them can fly, teleport, have super speed among other things. Can confirm as I have access to most of them. Except for the Ultimate guys." Ben added.

"Flying? Good catch! No flying. No teleporting either. Would defeat the purpose of having to actually hustle to return balls." Eiji said.

"I think Captain Tezuka covered everything else, so we're good." Momoshiro said as Oishi came back with another ball.

"With that type of speed, what's Ryoma going to do to counter?" Katsuo asked.

"He's gonna have to figure something out. Even he was stunned." Tomoka added.

"I won't tell you that you aren't good at this game. Or that you're no match for me. Because it's clear that you're both. But, I will tell you this. I won't lose." Blaze declared bluntly to Ryoma Echizen.

Echizen walks over to pick up his paddle from off the ground, changing hands to his right hand after he did before looking up. He was no longer smiling. "Funny. I was thinking the same thing. But, let me tell you something. I'm not losing on this court today. To no one."

"You've got some nerve!" Urien said.

Blaze was at first in shock at how bold Echizen was with his declaration before she could tell that he was completely serious. Even his demeanor changed.

"His eyes. That's not just some cocky, confident declaration. He a hundred percent believes it." Puss commented.

Shiro, next to him on his left, nodded in agreement.

"The eyes of the samurai. This next score's gonna decide it. So, you better close it out." The man with the binoculars from earlier thought, still watching.

"Come on Ryoma. You can do it!" Sakuno thought.

Two people quietly joined the group. One had a notepad while the other had a camera. Though both had bags over their shoulders.

The man had short brown hair and wore a yellow dress shirt with black stripes and a red tie along with black slacks and dress shoes. The woman had reddish-brown hair and wore a blue sleeveless blouse with two pockets on the left and right of her chest along with red lipstick and stud earrings. She also wore a black skirt with a brown belt and light blue Mary Janes.

"The match will now resume! Echizen will serve!" Inui announced.

"Just in time." The man said quietly.

"That's a funny way to say late." The woman snarked as Ryoma threw the ball up in the air to serve the ball. But this one had a lot more force put into it. Even with that, Blaze returned it back no problem. And they continued to go back and forth.

"I don't get it. She's got the speed. Why doesn't she just use that and blow him away?" Akko asked.

"Control. Speed is nothing without it." Hinata and Asta remarked.

"Jinx!" Hinata called out.

"Blaze literally said this in the warm-up. Please listen. It'll save you from asking these types of questions." Sucy said to Akko.

"When Hinata is making more sense than you, that says something." Tsukishima added.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Hinata and Akko shouted.

"But they're right. If you're just going all-out for speed but you're not in control of it, ain't gonna do you much good. That's why she has to slow down at least a bit when she returns hits from him. Otherwise, it'll just lead to an out and a point for him. Remember, you have to actually stay inbounds with your returns." Aomine explained.

The two continued to go back and forth, seemingly unable to get the edge over the other. While Blaze had speed, Ryoma had his instincts and training from tennis to match up. Experience seemed to not play much of a factor as both were experienced from playing the sport.

"Hope you're not tired, because I'm just getting started!" Echizen said as he whacked another ball Blaze's way.

"As a guardian of the Sol Emeralds in my world, I don't exactly have the luxury to say that. For the most part anyway." Blaze replied as she sent another hit back.

"Well, too bad we can't exactly end things with a draw. Because I think it's clear nobody wants or needs that juice."

"I could care less about the juice. Like I already told you, I won't lose!"

"Looks like you need a reminder….." Ryoma said after performing a low scoop-like motion to hit the ball upwards.

"This guy…" Oishi said, shaking his head while smiling.

"What? Did something happen?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah. He just used Moon Volley. One of my techniques."

Instead of waiting for the ball to land, Blaze quickly boosts herself to the air and sends the ball right back down, something most players wouldn't even attempt. But that didn't shake Ryoma at all.

"I told you….." Ryoma said before sliding. sending the ball speeding past Blaze. A dent was left in it.

"…..I'm not losing to anyone on this court today." Ryoma Echizen declared.

"Deuce!" Inui announced.

"And you won't." The man watching from a distance thought confidently, smiling.

"That hit. That was about as fast as Blaze's earlier. Does he secretly have super speed?" Asta asked.

"Nope. Not super speed." The man thought.

"Ball's dented. Hold on." Oishi said before getting another ball to replace it.

"Another tie. Is this game ever going to end?" Kachiro commented.

"Yeah. In the next two shots."

After the ball was replaced, Blaze was the server again. And per usual this match, a back and forth began. Neither side giving an inch. If they were tired, then they sure weren't showing it, especially on Echizen's side.

On one of the returns, Blaze sent the ball at an angle to make it harder for Echizen to get to. He then closed his eyes.

"Uh oh." Dewey commented.

"He'll get to it, but it's checkmate after that. That was a smart move on Blaze's part." Kise commented before his eyes widened as Echizen not only returned it, but, by quickly changing how he held his paddle and swiped horizontally, it landed at a position that she couldn't reach, at the back of the square.

"He returned it!?" Kise said.

"Not only that, he scored!" Emma remarked.

Echizen opened his eyes.

"Your senses must be at a very high level to do something like that with your eyes closed." Blaze told Echizen, surprised, but still not shaken by the fact that he had game point now.

"Well if they weren't, I wouldn't do it. Just know that." Echizen replied.

"Now this guy's just showin' off! Beat this guy's a[censored] Blaze!" Kagami called out, irritated.

"Echizen may be a lot of things, but he's not going to just do something like that just to show up his opponent. That was simply another technique." Coach Ryuzaki remarked as Echizen prepared to serve.

"A technique to play with your eyes closed? That's stupid!"

"Says you." Aomine called out.

"But it's working, so who cares?" Louie added.

Echizen served the ball, throwing it up high in the air before jumping.

"Wait. Why is he using…." Momoshiro started as Ryoma sent the ball forward with the most power that he's shown off in all his serves.

"The Big Bang? This should be an easy return for Blaze if she's strong enough." Inui noted.

And she was. Even with all of the power put into the shot as the orange ball actually glowed from the serve.

Echizen, knees bent, sent the ball back. It then became a battle of pinball as the ball was at a consistently high speed, even if it wasn't as fast as The Big Bang serve.

"With how fast the ball is going, I can keep up with it. But can he? At least consistently?" Blaze thought before already having her plan in mind: Testing Echizen's ability in Blaze's own advantages.

Echizen sent a ball forward at a curve before Blaze was able to run and return it before it went past her.

"The snake shot?" Kaido remarked, recognizing one of his own signature techniques from Echizen.

Ryoma used a straightforward hit this time around, with Blaze doing the same, but putting more power into her own return to speed the ball up.

The next thing everyone knew, the ball was back on Echizen's side, forcing him to have to leap to prevent it from getting past him as he performed a backhanded return.

"Crap. That was close! Gotta hurry and recover!" Echizen thought, losing his cap in the process.

"He's open! This is it!" Blaze thought as she went to retrieve a ball that Echizen sent in the air.

She quickly went airborne and returned it back to the ground, where Echizen, with a white aura around him now, was front and center to hit the ball back, angling it back in the air and hitting Blaze in the face along with knocking the paddle out of her hand.

"Blaze!" Several of her teammates called out as she fell to the ground.

The ball bounced a few times before stopping.

"Point to Echizen! Match over! Echizen wins!" Inui announced, leaving everyone stunned in silence.

"No way. Blaze…. Lost?" Tangle said.

After picking up his cap, Echizen walks over to Blaze as she was still getting up.

"Hey! You won! That should be enough!" Kagami called out.

"Cool it. Look." Aomine said, pointing as Echizen was holding out a hand, which she took, helping her up.

"I know I lost. I don't have much to say other than good game." Blaze said to him.

"That was one heck of a match. But, a promise is a promise. I wasn't going to lose today." Echizen replied.

"I know what the rules said, but did you really have to go for that? You could have just sent it past her." Kagami asked Echizen.

He turned to him before answering his question as he put his cap back on. "I could have, but then I probably would have lost. Like I said, I wasn't losing."

"If he did it, he has a reason behind it. Echizen is not a dirty player. That's not how any of us on this team plays." Tezuka said to him.

"I still don't like it but, you don't seem like the type of guy that would lie. And given his history here….I'll take your word for it." Kagami said.

"If it will ease your nerves, I believe I have an explanation for his direct return." Inui offered him.

"You can do that later, we have another game remember? And don't forget, Blaze needs a refreshment!" Todd called out.

"You just want to see if Blaze gets sick from the drink." Riley said.

"As you will conveniently avoid playing to risk drinking it yourself." Becky B. added.

"Do you see what Ryoma just did? Why the heck would I volunteer and take the spotlight away from him?" Todd said.

"Well someone has to. He deserves a break." Weiss remarked as Echizen was getting a bottle of water to drink.

"That was amazing Ryoma!" Sakuno said to him as Echizen continued to drink more water.

"He's just getting water, quit overreacting. But, since you want to volunteer….." Todd started.

"I can go again." Echizen declared, water bottle still in hand.

"This match lasted the longest out of them. And it'll only get harder for you. If you want to play again, we'll bring you into another match. But for now, take a break." Din said to him. Even with the helmet over his head, Echizen knew that he wasn't in a position to try to protest the Mandalorian's declaration and took a deep breath.

"Okay. Just make sure you guys don't lose."

***Confessional***

Reagan(Wave Breakers):

"Man, Johnny was definitely on to something earlier about that sports comment. Guess the only ones I'd really have any shot in, if I were to say, actually be a mainstay in their world would be volleyball and baseball. Every other one looks like I'll be risking a serious injury from the guys that are here. Then again, we haven't even been to their worlds yet, something I'm almost certain is going to happen considering where we've been so far."

***End Confessional***

"Alright, I think now's the time for that music Sakuno." Chris said.

"Really? Now?" Sakuno asked, surprised.

"Yep."

"O-okay."

The Kings chose Rex as their representative, seeing as he's had experience in Ping Pong. The Breakers had Randy randomly chosen to represent them, due to Julie's previous defeat against Blaze.

"The match between Rex Salazar and Randy Cunningham will begin!" Inui called out.

"Question, have you ever played ping pong on a big table?" Randy asked Rex.

"Nope." Rex answered.

"Just making sure I wasn't the only one."

Rex then changed the arm he was holding the racket on into a Smack Hand.

"I take it you're not going to go easy on me either huh?"

"Nope."

"Well, let's get this over with." Randy said, shrugging before getting into position.

"Chef, get something to play this please." Chris said before handing him the CD.

"Way ahead of you." Chef said.

"Man, you came prepared. Sweet."

"'Course I did. Now, let's get this montage started!" Chef said before putting in the CD and playing it.

*Prince of Tennis Dub Opening/Toonami Intro plays during montage*

Even with Randy putting up a decent fight, he was still no match for Rex and his Smack Hand serves.

"Game to Rex!" Inui announced.

"If you were just some regular high school kid, I would have held back but, you're not. Nothing personal." Rex said to Randy.

"All good. Least I tried. A for effort, right?" Randy replied.

"Sure. We'll consider that if we have to send someone home. Hint: It still might be you anyway." Mr. Wolf said.

The second set of the round robin tournament began, with the same two teams playing each other again. Rex was pitted against Jenny, who changed one of her hands into a large fist as well.

"Wow. Very original." Rex remarked.

"You know what they say, if you can't beat them, join them." Jenny replied. "Now are you going to talk…" She serves the ball to him. "Or play?"

It was a close game, but Jenny, by craftily sending a ball very close to the net, forced Rex to have to return a ball close to it, and hitting the net in the process, knocking it off.

"Oops." Rex said.

"Net! Point and game to Jenny!" Inui announced.

"Maybe watch where you swing that thing. Someone could seriously get hurt." Jenny said to him.

"You!" Rex said, unhappy after realizing what she just did and facepalmed, upset at himself. "I'll give you your props now. Just make sure you give them to me when I pay you back." Throat clearing was heard. From Chef, who pointed to the juice.

The next match was between Jenny and Natsu, who actually tried to light the ball on fire multiple times. By the time he wised up and stopped after the second time, he gave up too many points to come back, losing 40 to 15(3-1).

"Wow. That was easier than I thought." Jenny commented.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU ACTUALLY TRY THAT YOU DUMBA[CENSORED]!?" Sendo yelled out to Natsu.

"Look, I didn't know it wasn't actually going to work! At least I actually learned that and stopped." Natsu replied.

"Too little too late."

"You better pray there's another game after this. That's all I'll say." Rick said to him as Natsu drank a cup of the juice.

Kise and Aomine were next. And it wasn't even close. Kise beat Aomine in a clean sweep.

*Music Stops*

"Jeez. You act like I stole your lunch or something man. What the hell?" Aomine said to him, on the ground as Kise was in the same stance that Ryoma was in when he beat Blaze, white aura surrounding him as his eyes glowed yellow, indicating that he used his Perfect Copy to overwhelm him, even with Aomine's speed.

"You're probably not wrong. But I couldn't afford to hold back. Not even to you."

"Tch, whatever. I'll be sure to pay you back. If you actually decide to participate." Aomine said before he was already being approached with the pitcher of juice.

"Copying copied moves. Copyception." Eiji said.

"Wait, Ryoma copied those moves?" Kise asked.

"Yep. The Big Bang, from Tanishi. That 'invisible shot', AKA Wind or Ka, from Sanada. The Moon Volley, from our very own Momo, the Snake Shot, from Kaido and the winning strike, the exact same stance that Kise was just in, was the Deep Impulse, from Reijii. Heck, remember that sliding play from Blaze? Ryoma did the same thing. Even if it was a little less force." Eiji answered.

"Is Echizen really that strong to do something like that? In terms of actual muscle power?" Myron asked.

"No. If you're referring to the final winning hit, he simply used Blaze's strength against her, hence why he bent his knees. This was the same strategy he used against the stronger Reijii. But it requires the right coordination on his hits for this to work. This was why he used the powerful Big Bang as a serve. To use that momentum against Blaze. Something that almost didn't work had he not left the ball hanging in the air on the dive. He used Deep Impulse to directly strike Blaze instead of going for a miss, as he anticipated a return if he did that. As for the 'invisible shot', it was simply a very quick swipe of the arm, similar to a samurai, swiping their sword for a quick slash. This Samurai training was what Sanada went through to develop and perfect some of his signature techniques." Inui explained.

"Which is why the ball and swing seemed to have never happened. Of course! How could I miss that!" The samurai Ryoma said.

"To shorten things, he used Blaze's strength against her. Big Bang was a win-win situation. Either she can't hit it, or she returns it and he uses that building momentum to eventually catch her off guard. For him to do that, he's gotta have a real good sense of the game and what Blaze is gonna do. Otherwise, it's not gonna work." Murasakibara explained.

"Why didn't you tell us you could copy others?" Isagi asked Echizen.

"Didn't think it'd come into play. Don't get the wrong idea, it's not Kise's or Haizaki's. Those guys can do a whole lot more than me. I just learn the techniques from watching and playing against them." Echizen answered before drinking more water.

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"I don't think so."

"I think it is but, whatever. So, is it a tennis-only thing?"

"I guess. I don't know."

"Big problem here. Each team won two games apiece. So, how are you gonna fix it?" Chris asked the Seigaku crew.

"Wait, really? Inui is that true?" Eiji asked.

Inui, looking at the neatly handdrawn table he made in the notebook he had, nodded.

"Yes. That is completely accurate. I could calculate tiebreakers. But, that is up to the discretion of you all." Inui said.

"Don't worry, we had another game planned anyway. But, we didn't expect this outcome to be honest. Guess we can make this next one for all the marbles." Momoshiro said.

"I'm afraid to ask but, what's the last game?" Echizen asked.

The next thing they knew, they were in another area of the school with paddles and multiple "biscuits" or pucks before them.

"I think I'll take the tennis game on horses over this now." Ryoma Echizen commented.

"What?" Reagan asked, confused.

"Nothing."

"Hey, isn't this the game old people play? Do I look old to you?" Todd remarked.

"But they are." Miyuki remarked, pointing to Becky F., Reagan, Rick, and several others.

"Call me old again!" Becky yelled out.

"Go ahead! This game's made for you!"

"Famous last words." Rick said to Miyuki.

"For this last game, we're going to play Shuffleboarding." Fuji began.

"This game's origins are rooted in Europe several hundred yearS ago. King Henry VIII was a big fan of the game himself. Despite its modern notoriety as a game that older people play, it can and has been enjoyed by people of all ages." Inui explained.

"And now, the rules to play." Oishi said before picking up one of the paddles. "This paddle is actually called a tang. You'll use these to propel the pucks, which are also called biscuits, to the zones that you see over there." He explained, pointing to them.

"There's the one zone of 10, then two zones for both 8 and 7. There's also two 10-off penalty zones. These are exactly what they sound like in terms of scoring. Now usually, it's first to 75 to win. But, we're doubling it to 150. Eight from each team will participate and each person will get two turns. Since all of you won two games, we'll make all of you half-and-half. Four random choices and four chosen by you all. If a team doesn't get to 150, then the team closest wins." Momoshiro explained.

"Remember, there's consequences for losing, so keep that in mind. No pressure or anything." Eiji said.

"Honestly, the juice wasn't even that bad." Natsu said.

"Don't jinx it." Echizen said.

"If something really was in that juice, I think it would have kicked in by now."

"Uh oh. Now something bad's definitely going to happen." Happy said.

"Not you too. You guys are worrying way too much."

"You were warned. That's all I'm gonna say. Guys, let's make sure we win." Echizen said to the rest of his team.

"After what I saw during the board game, I'll just take your word for it." Octavia said.

"Okay, choose your volunteers. Remember, losers from the last game cannot be chosen and are done for the day." Fuji said.

"I mean, it's shuffleboarding. It really shouldn't be that hard." Sly said to the rest of his teammates.

"In other words, you're suggesting that anyone can work for this game." Sebastian said.

"Pretty much. So, who wants to play?"

"Count me out." Echizen said.

"What happened to 'no one's beating me on this court today'? Or whatever the heck it was you said." Aomine said to him.

"Does this look like that court to you?"

"Really pulling that? Alright." The blue-haired speedster said before shaking his head.

"Todd should definitely be one of the volunteers." Weiss said.

"What? Why me?" Todd asked.

"Because of the comments you made earlier about the drinks, that's why. Besides, this should be easy for you, right? I take it you like these easier games."

"Hmm, you've got a point. If old people can play it, it's gotta be easy…. Nah."

"Kinda had me for a second there." Dewey said.

"Only right that I lead by example. I accept the challenge!" Skipper said.

"I'll play." Din said.

"I can play." Bachira said, a smile on his face.

"Really?" Isagi said to Bachira, surprised.

"Yes!"

"For this to be a boring game like this, you seem to be excited. You played this before or something?" Louie said to him. "And I really do mean boring this time. I could look at my phone and nothing will have happened."

"Nope. I've never played it. But that's why I think it'll be fun to learn."

"At this point, I'd rather that than some of the other challenges we've been through." Bren said.

"Okay, well that's our first guy. Anyone else?" Isagi asked.

"Well, why don't you volunteer? You're his buddy after all." Louie asked.

"Why don't you?"

"Because it's boring? I literally just said that. There's a difference between chill and boring. The shopping challenge is a chill challenge. Same with the quiz challenge. This? Who the heck wakes up and says 'I want to play shuffleboarding'?"

"Old people?" Todd said.

"Ugh, this is stupid. Just take me as the second volunteer, jeez." Riley said, annoyed. "I really don't get why you guys are so afraid to play."

"Honestly, I can't say I'm hyped for this game. I'd rather not come in with half-energy and screw things up." Isagi said.

"Half-energy? Dude, it's shuffleboarding." Ben said. "I mean, I get where you're coming from about not being excited about it, but still."

The other teams had also made their choices.

Afterwards, the remaining six picks were randomized.

For the Rats, Zee, Puss, Emma and Kurt were volunteers while Dawn, Albedo, Akko and Monta were the random choices. For the Kings, their random choices were Todd, Ben, Yang and Eliza. And finally, Mr. Wolf, Molly, Scott and Libby were the voluntary choices while Eijun, Zak, Hinata and Uriien were the random volunteers for the Breakers.

"Man! I cannot believe I'm being forced to play this game!" Todd said.

"If it's so easy that an old person can play, surely you can do well?" Eliza said to him.

"I don't care! I don't wanna play this!"

"You whining isn't going to change anything, just to let you know." Mr. Wolf said to him.

"Since there was a tie in the second game, the Breakers will be allowed to go first since they won the first game." Fuji said. "And by the way, shuffleboarding was my idea. I think you all deserved a break from the recent intense challenges for a bit."

"Of course it was." Ryoma Echizen said.

"He's gotten you to play this before?" Kurt asked.

"Nope. But he's had us play billiards and bowling. Oddball choices if you ask me."

"I'd take those two before this. What the heck were you thinking?" Todd asked. "This'll definitely be a break alright."

"Yeah, I gotta admit, this has gotta be the worst one Fuji." Kaido said.

Mr. Wolf was first. "Not gonna lie, as odd as this is, I'll take it." Mr. Wolf said before sending the purple colored puck, which represented his team's pucks, forward, scoring 8 points.

"Yeah. Something about these games that's just, such a vibe man." Zee said as he went next, scoring 8 points as well, with his red puck landing in said area.

"You like every challenge Zee." Rally said, Zee's seemingly endless optimism rubbing off on her as she was smiling a little.

"I mean, it's hard to find one I really dislike."

"That's just the same thing." Becky F. said.

"Actually, when you really think about it, it's not." May said as Skipper was next.

"Explain how exactly it's not the same."

"Glass half-full vs glass half-empty."

"Hmm… fair."

Skipper's blue disc goes in between 10 and one of the 8 zones. But Inui announced that no points were given.

"What!? It's in the zones!" Skipper protested, up in flippers.

"You must be completely in one zone to score points, not in between. Otherwise, no credit will be given." Inui explained.

"Blasphemy! No other game does this!"

"Well, this isn't any other game." Miyuki remarked.

"You're about ten seconds away from getting smacked with your smart remarks!"

"I've been saying that for a while. It's just unlike Echizen, he's been able to get away with it and I have no clue how." Lucy said.

Molly was next and scored 10 points. All the while, slightly moving Zee's disc a bit.

"Ten points! Nice one kid." Mr. Wolf said.

"Thanks! I try."

Next was Puss.

"Now, let me show you how it's done." Puss said before pushing his puck forward. Not only did he score a ten, but he also knocked Molly's puck out of the zone.

Ten points were credited to the Rats, while ten were removed from the Breakers.

"What? The points were there. Why take them away?" Noelle asked.

"While I am keeping score, they are not final. Points can be added and subtracted retroactively until the final calculation." Inui explained.

"Didn't know you had somethin' like that in you cat." Skipper said to Puss.

"It is simple strategy. There is a difference between that and underhanded play." Puss replied.

Din was next. He pushed his disc and it went further than what he expected it to, scoring a 7. However, he was able to push Skipper's disc into one of the 8 zones.

"A double play. Nice one Din!" Isagi called out.

"Don't celebrate yet. The game's just started." Din said to him.

"Right. Of course not!"

Scott, trying to concentrate on his target, pushes his puck forward. He scores an 8, but also knocks Mr. Wolf's disc out of the zone in between two lines, effectively scoring no points.

"One step forward, one step back. What does that mean? You didn't move at all. Nice job." Zak said sarcastically.

"Whoops." Scott said.

"Good try though. Just make sure you don't aim for your own team's pucks next time." Mr. Wolf said.

"I really like how no one's calling them biscuits." Adrien said.

"Aren't biscuits food anyway? That'd get pretty confusing." Natsu said.

"In Europe, what Americans call fries are called chips. There are many things that differ in different parts of the world." Sebastian informed him.

"Except none of that exists in their world. I don't think he'd have a grasp of the difference." Diana said.

"Hmm, I suppose not. Still, a learning lesson.

"Alright, my turn." Emma said before looking at where all the discs were. "Hmm…"

After taking a few seconds, she makes her decision and pushes the puck forward, scoring an 8.

When Bachira went, he went too far and completely missed any of the zones.

"Oops." He said. "Better luck next time."

"There might not be a next time if we lose. Come on, you've got to score something on your next turn." Isagi said.

Bachira saluted. "Aye aye captain!"

"I really don't think you understand how big this game is….." Isagi said low.

"Well, good to know I'm not the only one that was okay with the peace and quiet of this game." Libby said as she went next, scoring 10 points.

"Ten points! Nice!" Molly called out.

"Oh yeah. I did score ten huh?" Libby said, not even realizing she scored ten as she was simply embracing the peacefulness of this particular game.

"Nah. We need more of those action challenges." Toxsa said.

"Why? Not like you're in any position to fight." Young Bennett said to him as Kurt went next.

"Says you. You don't remember? I'm a Tenkai Knight. Of course I can fight. And the best part is, you haven't even seen my best yet. Just you watch!"

"Wait, so can you do that Robofusion and Elemental stuff too? How come you didn't show that when we called you for help in that villain challenge?" Fiona asked as Kurt scored a 7 while also knocking away Scott's disc into the same zone.

"First one, didn't meet the requirements for it. Second one, don't have a dragon cube."

"So what'll it take to give you one?" Asta asked.

"Dude, you can't just 'give' me a dragon cube. Those things are on Quarton. I wish things were that easy." Toxsa said as Riley went next, not taking too long to make her decision. One that knocked four opposing discs out of the way and led her to scoring 7 points. Those being Kurt's, Puss',Scott's and Emma's.

The aftermath left both of the other teams in single figures as Emma's and Scott's were put in the 10-off zones.

"Wow, what a crazy play!" Satoshi commented.

"Nice one!" Courtney cheered.

"Yeah, like being good in shuffleboarding is anything to brag about." Todd snarked.

"I'd like to see you do better then." Riley replied.

"Why the heck would I want to prove I'm better than you at this old people game?"

"We get it, you don't like the game. Now shut the hell up about it already." Kagami said.

"I stand by my statement, and there's nothing you and your twigbrows can say about it!"

This caused one of said eyebrows to twitch as he was visibly angered by the insult.

Eijun was next, and was more than excited to get his turn. Maybe a little too excited as it missed all of them completely from going too far. It wasn't even close.

"This isn't baseball! You don't have to be bad at scoring now!" Miyuki called out.

"Shut your mouth!" Eijun yelled back.

"Come on, did you really have to say that?" Hailey said to Miyuki.

"Do you want me to lie?"

"I'll get it on the next one! Just you watch!" Eijun yelled, pointing at Miyuki.

Dawn was next.

"An 8 would be acceptable enough. Just don't gamble." Albedo said to her.

Concentrating, she sent one of the pucks at Riley's, knocking it into the 10-off zone while just barely avoiding it herself.

"I….. suppose that's a good substitute. You….. did well."

"Thank you!" Dawn exclaimed, taking the compliment very well.

"What the heck did you do to him? He never tells people good job. As forced as that one was." Ben whispered to Dawn.

"Nothing really. All I did was be a good teammate and listener."

"Yeah, I call-" He started before Todd made him turn his attention back towards the game.

"Now all of you can shut your mouths! You've got nothin' to say to me now!" Todd said, pointing at several people as he did. He scored a 10 and knocked both Libby's and Molly's pucks out of the zone, subtracting 20 points and bringing their score back to 0.

"What happened to not getting excited over shuffleboarding?" Riley asked.

"I'm not excited! I'm just telling you guys to telling me this and that about this stupid game! That is all."

Zak was next. "Yeah well, don't expect me to get riled up like that anytime soon. I really just want to get this over with." And that he did. After getting an 8 and moving Skipper's disc back in between lines, he didn't really have much else to say.

"I think it's safe to say no one's getting to 150 now." Fuji said.

"Regardless, the objective remains the same. Getting to 150 isn't the only way to win." Albedo said before pushing his forward to one of the 8 zones.

"Surprised you didn't aim for one of the other discs. Pucks. Biscuits. Whatever they are!" Ben said to him, being done with the naming himself now.

"Why would I? The game is too close for a risky move like that. One mistake could lead to us falling behind to a deficit we can't overcome."

"Makes sense. As a matter of fact….." Ben said before sending his puck forward. Although he was off from his desired target, which was the 8. Instead, he knocks away Albedo's puck and was only a little bit on the line in between that 8 zone and the 7 zone below/above it(depending on the perspective.

"That is exactly what I was talking about you greedy idiot."

"That's not even what I tried to do!"

"You're just making an excuse. You would be gloating if it worked."

"Like you wouldn't."

"I wouldn't, because I wouldn't make that sort of gamble!"

"I already said it wasn't a gamble, it was an accident!"

"Whatever it is, what's done is done. Just know that actions will have consequences. Let's hope yours doesn't-"

"I got a ten!" Hinata cheered, also pushing Todd's into 8.

"Woop tee doo, you got a ten. You're acting like I won't take that from you my next turn." Todd said.

"Again, what happened to not getting riled up over a shuffleboarding game?" Tomoka called out.

"Stay over there! Why are you even still here!? Ryoma's not even playing! That girl left."

"So me standing here's bothering you? You're about as sensitive as Satoshi."

"What was that!? Hypocrite!"

"You heard me! Sensitive Satsoshi!"

Ignoring the arguing that was going on in the background, Akko pushed her puck forward, having a similar effect as Riley, knocking away both Ben, Din and Albedo's pucks but missing everything in the process. Well, everything but the 10-off.

"You just saw what happened when Tennyson took an unnecessary gamble and you do the same thing!? Not to mention you gave them points!" Albedo yelled at her, referring to the fact that Ben's was in the 7 zone fully now. Thought it didn't mean anything as Din's was in between the 7 and the 10-off zones.

"I wasn't trying to, honest! I'm sorry!" Akko said.

"If you want to apologize, show it on your next turn. Otherwise, I could care less."

"Please just take a safe shot. Don't do anything risky." Weiss pleaded to Yang.

"Chill out. You worry way too much." Yang said, waving off her pleas and pushing the disc forward into a 7, very close to being out of bounds. "See?"

"I see you almost made a big mistake."

"Almost, but didn't."

"You should have listened to your friend. And I'll show you exactly why." Urien said before pushing his disc forward. Unfortunately, he pushed his slightly too hard and sent Yang's out of bounds and his into the 10-off zone, knocking away Akko's in the process.

"Oh yeah, you definitely showed her." Dan said sarcastically.

"SILENCE!"

"Now's my chance to help us pull away! Aim for the max score!" Monta thought, looking intently on his target.

"Why is he squinting so hard? Does he need glasses or something?" Scott asked.

"Not squinting, concentrating." Eijun said.

"Yeah well he's gonna hurt his eyes if he keeps squinting like that." Beta said as Monta pushed his puck forward, knocking Hinata's out of the way as his was in the 10 zone.

"WOO! MAX SCORE!" Monta yelled out, pumping his fist before Inui busted his bubble.

"You are slightly in the 8 lines. Therefore, no credit will be given." Inui said before Monta fell to the ground with a thud.

"Monta! Are you okay?" Mamori called out.

"Get up you idiot! And be ready for the next one!" Hiruma called out to Monta.

***Confessional***

Sadaharu Inui:

Inui had a notebook full of stats, notes and observations about the contestants in it in his hand. "Admittedly, this outcome was not what I expected. Monta, as you, the audience, may already know, is known to be an extraordinary catcher. Regardless of what it is, he will catch it and put in the maximum effort to do so. And his exceptional success rate proves it. On the flipside, despite his efforts, he is absolutely abhorrent in other facets. Throwing, hittng, kicking have all led to bad outcomes. And this trend has carried over onto the show. While this led to no points, this was the least damaging scenario for him and his team."

***End Confessional***

Eliza was next. When she sent her disc forward, it knocked off Urien's while also going out of bounds.

"What was that!?" Skipper yelled out.

"Sorry about that. I overestimated my strength." Eliza said.

"Then underestimate it and do better next time or it's gonna be your you know what!" Skipper said.

"Of course. My mistake."

***Confessional***

Eliza(Storm Kings):

"I cannot wait until he's gone. Slapping me already annoyed me. And now him thinking he can consistently yell and order me as if I can't turn him into a trophy on my wall whenever I want to is admittedly getting on my last nerve. Luckily for him, there are bigger fish to fry, so he's safe. But that won't be for long. As for you Urien, do not waste this opportunity I gave you."

***End Confessional***

The second time around, Mr. Wolf was somehow able to squeeze his disc in the ten zone just barely without even moving Monta's from off its spot, grimacing as he watched the disc slowly advance into the zone waiting for Inui to tell him he had no points.

"Phew." Mr. Wolf said in a sigh of relief.

***Confessional***

Mr. Wolf(Wave Breakers):

"Okay, Todd kinda has a point. Why the heck am I sweating so much in a game of shuffleboard?"

***End Confessional***

Of course, that anxiety would slowly return when Zee knocks his out of the way, scoring an 8 and pushing Monta's in the 8 zone on the other side, though inadvertently. Mr. Wolf's was now in between multiple lines, erasing away the ten points he just earned.

"MAX TEAMWORK! Nice one Zee!" Monta said, hitting him in the back a little too hard and sending him into the second group of pucks, sending some of said pucks forward on the board.

"Hey, you okay?" Monta asked.

"Get him off the board before he messes up the places of the discs!" Urien said.

"Take no prisoners." Skipper said before pushing his disc forward and scoring an 8, knocking away Zee's in the process.

"Jeez, you guys act like your life is on the line or something." Echizen said.

"No, but money is. I'd be invested in it like this too." Becky F. said.

"Of course you would."

"What's that supposed to mean!? That just because I'm old I'm supposed to like shuffleboarding!?"

"Not what I meant."

"Well what else could it be?"

"That you've made it clear you're only here for the money."

"Oh. Well, that is true. But still, you were better off when you weren't talking much. Like in the beginning of the season."

"Again, no clue what you're talking about or why that matters. Kinda weird that you guys keep up with that stuff."

Molly scored another 10.

"Another ten! Give it up for the shuffleboarding master! This girl!" Scratch said, turning himself into an arrow to further emphasize it.

"Well, it's nothing to be that proud of." Molly said, trying to be modest.

"Yeah, it's really not." Zak said.

"I'd rather her be proud of scoring a ten than being absolutely useless and scoring nothing." Hanamiya said before quickly adding, "Just being honest."

"Not like she's been useful any other time. Might as well pull her weight in some way, even if it's for something as small as this. Enjoy it while it lasts." He thought.

Puss knocked Molly's puck off into the 8 zone near Skipper's and scored a 10.

"Well played. Well played." Skipper said. "But of course, for every action, there's a reaction." He added as Din knocked Puss' puck out of bounds, to put himself in the ten zone now.

Scott scored a 7, one that was really close to getting to the 10-off zone.

"Man, I kinda got worried for a second." Scott said as his shoulders relaxed.

"Word of advice, stop hitting the disc so hard!" Beta said.

"Not really useful now. He's done for the game." Hailey said.

"Well, it's useful for everyone else on this team. Especially Eijun!"

Emma played it safe and went for an 8 and that was exactly what she got. No other changes in the score were made.

"Well, it's all up to you guys now." Emma said.

"You're not done yet." Bachira said before aiming his disc at Emma's.

"No don't!" Isagi called out. But it was too late. He ended up pushing his too far forward and only pushing Emma's into the seven zone.

"Yeah I don't think pro shuffleboarding's in your future." Isagi said to him.

"Hmm, I guess not." Bachira said, shrugging.

"Luckily for you, you didn't score anything." Eliza said, referring to the fact that Bachira's disc was on the line in between the out of bounds and the 10-off zone, meaning that no points would be credited.

***Confessional***

Isagi(Storm Kings):

"I understand what he was thinking, but he really should have just played his own game and not worried about the others. That was a gamble that didn't need to be made to be honest, and almost ended horribly.

***End Confessional***

On Libby's turn, her goal was completely different compared to the first time around. And that goal was to just not mess things up for the rest of the team. And she achieved it, scoring a 7.

"You know what? I'll take it." Libby said, giving a thumbs up.

***Confessional***

Libby(Wave Breakers):

"I was really going for the 8. But, it's better than a zero or losing points. May not be fancy, but it gets the job done. Now that I think of it, is there a way you can get fancy in shuffleboarding?"

***End Confessional***

"Well, here goes nothing." Kurt said before pushing his puck forward. While he scored a ten, he pushed Puss' into the 8 zone. But barely.

"No worries. A job well done regardless." Puss said before Kurt could say anything to him about it.

"When you said something about calmer challenges, was this what you had in mind?" Maki said to Kurt.

"Not even close." Kurt replied.

Riley placed her disc next to Kurt's also scoring a 10.

"You mean you couldn't have just knocked Kurt's off? And you're supposed to be the shuffleboarding expert?" Todd said to her.

"No one said I was an expert but you." Riley said.

"Well, that's the only explanation for how you're good at this game."

"Didn't you say shuffleboarding was easy?" Kachiro asked.

"I thought you guys were gone!?"

"If I can get right in between those two I should be able to score ten and knock off ten from the other teams too!" Eijun thought before trying to figure out how much power to use. After thinking on it for a second, he pushes the disc forward.

It goes in between the two, moving Kurt's on the line to take away 10 from his team, but stays straight and was now in the line between the two 8 zones as he made a face, visibly stunned.

"Look at it this way, you still helped." Diego said.

Dawn was able to fully knock off Riley's and score 10.

"While I commend you, you should have gone for a lower score." Albedo said.

"Why?" Dawn asked.

"Because…. Never mind. Disregard my suggestion. Good job."

"Um, okay?"

It was Todd's turn.

"Say goodbye to those ten points!" Todd said before pushing his disc forward at Dawn's but misses from not putting too little power into the push, scoring no points as he was on the line between 10 and out of bounds.

"You were saying?" Rei said.

"Shut up!"

Zak intentionally hit his with way too much power at Dawn's. He scored nothing, but the Rats lost ten points.

"That was exactly what I was afraid of." Albedo thought.

"You didn't even try to score! Come on!" Kaz yelled out.

"You didn't have a problem with Eijun, but now it's a problem with me?"

"At least he tried to actually score."

"He took ten away from another team. That's still a win in my book. We'll take it." Mr. Wolf said.

"A safe, but impactful move. Not bad. But you've still opened the door to you losing by not at least trying to obtain 7 points." Albedo said before going onto a 7 himself, right behind Libby's. "Seven points that I will gladly take."

"Why am I not surprised you're taking this game seriously?" Zak said to him.

"If you are trying to mock me because of my age, I am not laughing."

"What? I was talking about the gray hair. Aren't you like, the same age as Ben?"

"No. This body only makes it seem that way."

"Okay, stop right there. I don't want to hear anything else about it before things get weird."

"There's nothing weird about it. He's just an older alien trapped in a younger body." Ben said, taking his turn next and scoring an 8.

"You say that as if that's something common." Old Bennett said.

"I mean it's not but, look, can we move on to something else?"

"Just like finding the right spot on a spike, I've got to find the right spot here." Hinata thought before seeing a spot in the 10 zone.

"Perfect!" Hinata said aloud. "Now it's all up to execution."

"Could you hurry this up?" Dan asked impatiently.

"You say that but then you'll yell if he misses." Jenny said.

"If he wants to focus, let him." Kageyama said. "Better that than him rushing into things."

It wasn't perfect, but he was able to get it close to being there.

"Alright!" Hinata exclaimed before Kageyama put a hand on his head.

"Settle down. But still… it's a good start."

"I'll take that as a good job."

"I SAID SETTLE DOWN!"

***Confessional***

Hinata(Wave Breakers):

"Oh yeah, that was definitely a good job. Not sure if you've noticed, but he has trouble telling people good job. Among other things. Remember when he was talking to Diana and he was stumbling over his words trying to apologize to her? He may seem like some grumpy guy that yells a lot, but he's a good guy. Just, very awkward sometimes. And really bad at video games. And has a very creepy smile. Don't tell him I said those last two things."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Kagami(Radical Rats):

"Jeez. Seeing him do that, kinda reminds me of Kuroko. Wonder how different things would have been if he didn't quit."

***End Confessional***

"Alright! My turn!" Akko exclaimed, excited.

"Maybe you should copy Hinata and dial it down a bit." Sucy said.

"Come on, I'm trying to focus! Can you pipe down?" She pushes the disc forward. Unfortunately, it was in between the 10 and 8 lines. "Well, it's better than nothing. I just need a little help from you guys."

"'You guys'? You mean guy." Yulaw said, referring to Monta.

"Sorry, any plans you've got, I'm gonna bust those up." Yang said to her before pushing forward her disc. Which only went in between the 8 and 7 lines, also pushing Eijun's to the left a bit as well.

"I told you not to gamble. And look what happened." Weiss said to her.

"Look, I'm still in the line. All Eliza has to do is push me to the left or right a bit and we're golden."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Glass half-full miss negative."

"My turn." Urien said before thinking of a place to figure out where to put his disc.

"Eliza helped me. I won't look a gift hoarse in the mouth." Urien thought. "But, what happens to the rest of those on that team is none of my concern. So, it's up to her if she wants to change that."

He decides to take the safest option and move his disc into one of the 8 zones.

Monta took a deep breath before he felt a hand on his shoulder. That hand being Kurita.

"You can do it!" Kurita said to him.

"Everyone's counting on me! I don't know what the score is, but I do know that I won't be happy with myself if I don't at least try to get the most points possible!" He thought before going for the 10 again and pushing Akko's disc as well.

A gamble that wouldn't work in his favor, pushing out Akko's disc and only scoring 8 points.

Monta puts his hands over his head.

"What are you upset about? That was a good decision." Albedo said.

"No it wasn't!" He shouted, grabbing him as he did.

"Too bad. Unfortunately, it's a mistake that won't go unpunished." Eliza thought before pushing her disc forward. But it wasn't Monta's she was going for. It was Albedo's. Not only did his get sent to a line, but Libby's was knocked out of the way as well, all the while she scored 7 points.

"And that is the game!" Inui announced. "Here are your final calculations!"

Rats: 37

Kings: 38

Breakers: 51

"Wow. No one was even close to 150. Heck, we didn't even get half of 75." Kise said.

"With the mistakes and knocking discs off, it makes sense." Emma said.

Monta, on the ground, slammed a fist on it.

"The chance I get to make a difference….. this loss is on me." Monta thought.

"No way you're getting this emotional over shufflebo-" Todd started before Mamori got in his face and told him off, catching him off guard.

"I don't care if it's shuffleboarding or card games! Monta tried his best! He always tries his best! Are you really going to condemn and bully him for that!? Even if he messes up, at least he actually cares enough to feel something, unlike you!"

"What? You're saying that like I'm just like 'I'm dead inside' over there when I'm not!" Todd said, pointing.

"What was that?" Octavia asked, realizing that he was insulting her.

"Not you, I mean the other one."

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Mayu-whatever his name is."

This caused said person to scowl at him. "If you're going to insult someone, at least remember their name."

"Whatever! You guys still lost anyway!"

"I don't know about you, but I'm gettin' tired of his annoying a[censored]." Kagami said to Rei.

"I mean, everyone has done everything they could to get him to stop, and it's not making him change at all. Not much else we can do." She said.

"Have we tried knocking him on his butt? It wasn't effective on Ryoma, but maybe it'll be to him since, you know, no powers." Lucy said.

"Ignore him. We've got bigger things to worry about. Like an elimination." Kurt said.

"And this." Eiji added, out of nowhere, as a full pitcher of juice with several empty cups on a table was awaiting them.

"Do we have to?" Akko asked.

"Rules are rules. And you all must abide by them." Inui said a reflection was seen off his glasses.

"We might have lost but at least I don't get to be them." Echizen commented.

"Yeah, consider yourself lucky." Momoshiro said.

"By the way, you didn't answer on whether or not you've been watching the show. Have you?"

"Ehhhhh, on and off?"

"So much for being supportive of your own."

"What? Don't tell me you're actually bothered by that?"

"Ryoma!" Sakuno said, running up to him, a bag in hand.

"Hm? What's up? Something wrong?" Ryoma asked.

"I….. I know you might be tired from your match against a strong opponent like Blaze. So, I decided to make you this." She said, handing him the bag.

"What's this?"

"It's food. I…. made it for you."

"Oh."

"Of course, if you don't want it, since you didn't like it last time. Actually, I think I'll take it back. I'm sorry for bothering you."

"I don't remember saying I didn't like it."

"But, you told me, I still had a ways to go one time. Remember?"

Short Flashback

Echizen was watching a tennis match while eating food that Sakuno made for him.

"Um Ryoma? Um….. um,,,,,, um…. how…. does it… taste?" Sakuno asked, blushing, standing beside him as he was sitting at a table.

"You still have a ways to go." Echizen said, eyes on the match the entire time.

Sakuno, in agony, takes the box of food and runs off, crying.

"His backhand isn't there yet." He commented before looking down, noticing the food was gone. "Hey what happened to my lunch?" He said aloud as unbeknownst to him his friends looked at him with deadpan looks from another table after seeing he unintentionally hurt Sakuno's feelings

End Flashback.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ryoma said to her.

"Oh. Sorry." Sakuno apologized, bowing her head a bit.

"You don't have to apologize. As a matter of fact, I actually am starving. And since I'm staying here, this works out. Thanks."

"Oh! You're very welcome! Tell me what you think! Please!" Sakuno said, blushing.

"I mean, I'm probably not gonna have much to say. I'm not much of a food critic."

"Oh. I see. Well, I still hope you enjoy it! And…. I'd also like to tell you, good luck on the show. I'll continue to keep watching….. and cheer you on!"

"So you've been watching the show?"

"Y-yeah I have!"

Some of the other contestants watched this exchange from a distance.

"So what's her deal? Is she his girlfriend?" Adrien asked.

"Nope. But she definitely likes him." Momoshiro said.

"And let me guess, judging from how he's talking to her, he has no clue." Lucy added.

"Eeyep. Unfortunately." Eiji said.

"So even the quiet ones are dense huh?" Fiona added.

"That's just how it is. It doesn't discriminate. I should know. My captain, Kasamatsu? You know, the super serious, strict guy? He's like that on the court, but it's a complete 180 off it. He has no clue on how to talk to girls at all. He tenses up and everything. And the so-called love expert, Moriyama, he's kinda like Johnny actually, but with terrible pick up lines he gets off the internet. Well, they're not bad. He just, relies on guides and what 'girls think' for him to try to talk to them way too much. Actually, now that I think about it, I think my whole team is bad at romance."

"Everyone except for you it seems." Lucy said, teasing him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know? Come on, Rei told me about you and Minako?"

"That? Jeez I can't do anything without a bunch of people knowing about it. I know I'm a model but come on! I'm not even close to being on Adrien's level of popularity. Thank goodness Aomine and the others don't know. Or don't care. Especially Momoicchi. But I'm not some expert either. I just be myself that's all. How do you think I'm talking to you right now?"

"Well, have you suggested that strategy to them?"

"Well, they came to me for help with hosting a mixer to help them get better."

"You're hosting a mixer? Why?" Noelle asked, overhearing as she passed by to talk to Fiona.

"What? Not now. I'm talking about the past. We're talking about romance. And before you ask how we got on this, one word: Echizen."

"Oh. But why- " She looked over and saw the blushing Sakuno. "Ohhhhhhh. I never expected that from him."

"I'm a little surprised myself. But it makes sense. He's got a bit of a calm, cool, collected personality. Some girls love the quiet types." Adrien said.

"And some love loud, annoying types too." Fiona added.

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing? Everyone has their preferences. I don't judge and neither should you." Noelle said.

"Who said I was talking about you? Why are you offended?" Fiona said, giving her a knowing and teasing glare.

"I'm not! I'm just saying! You shouldn't judge!"

"By the way, you've heard of mixers?" Kise asked, surprised.

"Of course! Just because we don't have all the fancy technology or gadgets that you all do like your 'video games', doesn't mean we're just completely ignorant to some of the things you all do or practice. Our worlds are not that different."

"Oh. Pretty cool. I'd love to see how your world looks in person."

"Have you ever been in a mixer yourself Noelle, since you've heard of one?' Lucy asked.

"Hey Noelle, so what did you think of Echizen? He's pretty good huh? Didn't expect another guy that could copy things. His friends and teammates look like some great people too. Pretty nice of Sakuno to make him a meal." Asta said before realizing that Noelle wasn't paying attention to him.

"Uh, no of course not! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm done here. I guess I can talk with you later Fiona." Noelle said, before quickly leaving.

"What was that about?" Adrien asked.

"Oh I think I know." Kise said as Echizen and Sakuno finished their conversation.

"Yep." Echizen said to Sakuno before walking away to see what meal was waiting for him. He then noticed something off in the distance, that something being a someone, who immediately ran off. "Who was that?"

"There ya go son! Never had a doubt in my mind." The man thought before walking away, taking off the sunglasses, revealing his eyes and some of his features to be similar to Ryoma's, discounting the stubble on his chin. "Now take it all the way to number 1. Why settle for being a prince, when you can be a king?"

"Good luck Ryoma! We'll be watching! Enjoy your meal!" Tomoka called out as she and the rest of the fanclub walked away with the other Seigaku members also giving him their best wishes for the season.

Echizen sighed from slight exhaustion and exasperation from not only the match against Blaze, which he had to admit tired him out more than he wanted to say. And the disappointing shuffleboarding game didn't help much in terms of his energy either. "Man….."

"Alright, Rats, come on back to the island. The rest of you can go home." Chris said. Julie was seen sitting on the ground.

"Julie! Something wrong?" Jenny asked.

"I…. don't feel so good." Julie said.

"It's gotta be that juice!" Hinata said.

"Yeah, guys, let's get to the island ASAP. We're gonna do this right now before there's barf everywhere, people get knocked out, or whatever." Chris said.

---

TD Elimination theme plays

"Alright. Like I said before, make this quick. We don't know when that juice is going to kick in. And I don't want any excuses of 'someone was knocked out' so they can't vote for why one person got voted off. So let's go! Chop chop!" Chris said.

***Confessional***

Happy(Radical Rats):

"I warned him. I just hope he'll be okay."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Axl:

*Stamps Natsu*

"Lucky me. I, Zero and X were the only ones that didn't have to drink it."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Blaze:

*Stamps Natsu*

"I'm still upset at myself for being unable to close out the match. And now the rest of the team has to suffer for it. I won't make any excuses against Echizen because he really is a good player. And his ability to copy truly caught me off guard. But I won't lose again."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Monta:

*Stamps Natsu*

He puts a hand on his chest after making his choice.

"I blame myself for this loss. It'd be easy for me to quit or vote for myself. But I won't do that! I won't give up! I'll be better!"

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Dawn:

*Stamps Natsu*

"Monta blames himself. But I know he'll be better. I believe his persistence will take him far. But unfortunately, someone still has to leave….."

Something was visibly bothering her but she decided not to say anything.

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Yulaw:

*Stamps Natsu*

"This is the perfect opportunity to get rid of a potential threat. I understand there's Lucy, but she hasn't shown me anything that makes her as much of a problem as him. Of course, with how people value personality over strategy here, I wouldn't be shocked if he doesn't leave. Of course, sooner or later, their sentimentality and stupidity will be their downfall."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Sendo:

*Stamps Dawn*

"I wanna stamp that idiot so bad. But I know we need him. Don't ever pull that crap again!"

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Hiruma:

*Stamps Dawn*

"What!? Did you think I'd stamp my own teammates!? That f[censored]ing shrimp still needs to do better though!"

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Albedo:

*Stamps Akko*

"As much as I could easily vote for Monta, at least he actually scored. I can't say the same for Akko."

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Akko:

*Stamps Dawn*

"This one should be a no brainer. She's the weakest in terms of potentials that could go. And of course I'm not gonna vote for a cute wittle kitty like Puss!"

***End Confessional***

***Confessional***

Natsu:

*Stamps Dawn*

"Man, I hate these types of eliminations. I don't really like these in general, but these are worse. I don't really know who to pick! Everyone tried their best."

***End Confessional***

"Alright, votes are in, so let's get this done." Chris said as Blaze was seen grimacing.

"Hey, if you need a bag or something." Doyle offered to her.

"No. I'm fine. Please, go ahead." Blaze said.

"Natsu, Dawn, Akko and Monta, you've got the most votes. When I call your name, you get a barf bag." Chef said.

"And everyone else?" Rei asked.

"Uh, figure it out I guess." Chris said.

"First up, Natsu, despite your mistake in today's game, you're still in!" Chef called out.

"Alright!" Natsu said before coughing.

"I told you." Happy said.

"I'll be fine."

….

"Akko, you're also safe!" Chef called out.

"Yes!" Akko exclaimed.

"You scored literally n-" Sucy started before Lotte covered her mouth.

"Please, continue." Lotte said.

"Dawn and Monta, you're the last two!" Chef called out. "The final bag goes to…."

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Monta!"

"What!?" Albedo yelled out in disbelief, balling his fists before unbaling them after a few seconds. "Fine. Even if I don't agree with it, what's done is done. It's time for you to leave Da-" He was suddenly embraced by her in a hug, surprising him.

"I wish you and everyone else good luck for the rest of this season. Very proud of you all for all you've done and achieved so far." Dawn said after letting him go and hugging others.

"Achieved? No one has won anything? What are you talking about?" Albedo asked.

"I don't mean the season or money. I mean your growth."

"I don't understand."

"I get what she means." Kurt said.

"Explain! What does she mean by 'growth'?"

Monta hands Dawn his barf bag.

"Imbecile. You don't have a bag yourself." Albedo said before transforming into Ghostfreak and taking the barf bag that Blaze originally was offered, quickly handing it to Monta.

"Oh. Right. Thanks!" Monta said.

"There's nothing for you to thank. All you had to do was think."

"Really sorry you have to go." Young Bennett said.

"It's fine. While I am sad that I didn't win, on the flipside, I was able to see so many people begin to grow. A large improvement over my previous elimination to be honest."

"Well, as long as you're happy with it, then I'm happy too." Rally said.

"Farewell." Yulaw said to her.

Dawn suddenly felt her stomach churn.

"Uh oh. I think it's time I leave." Dawn said before running into a portal.

"The rest of you are safe. For now." Chris said. "Now go home! Now!"

***Confessional***

Albedo:

"She may not have been any match for the majority of those that are here. But, her effort regardless is commendable. And, at the very least, she's spared of the fate of some of the others here have-"

"ALBEDO! GO HOME NOW! IF YOU THROW UP IN THAT CONFESSIONAL I'M MAKING YOU CLEAN ALL OF IT UP!" Chris called out.

"Fine!" Albedo called out before exiting the portal via Big Chill.

***End Confessional***'

"Now that Albedo's gone, I can do the closing statements. With Dawn being gone, the Revenge of the Island rep is officially cooked for the season. For now at least. You'll see some of these guys again this season. At least as guest stars. How soon? Sooner or later on Total… Drama….Across the Multiverse!"

---

A/N: As I said before, very sorry for taking so long with this one. Hopefully, I can get back to my usual consistent uploads now that moving is done.

And with that, Dawn has been eliminated. At least her send off here had her fare better with her teammates compared to ROTI(Not saying it was a bad or good elimination, moreso just how her teammates reacted to her in-show).

As for the man watching Ryoma, yep, that was his father that he mentioned in the Halloweentown episode, Nanjiro. On the occasions that he does watch his son's games, he usually doesn't like to make it known he's there. Moreso to him than anyone else.

Next episode is a musical chairs episode, something that I thought about having for Multiverse Edition as a merger challenge but scrapped it in favor of some other episodes I wanted to do. I'm not sure if I'll have guests on this episode or not. I'm leaning towards yes, just them having a minor role, but no promises yet.

See you next time!

---

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)

Episode 31: The Obligatory Camping Episode: Compete in events hosted by both Acorn Flats and Camp Kidney(Camp Lazlo)

Song: The Camp Kidney Anthem(Camp Lazlo)

Episode 32: A Totally Regular Episode: Compete in Events hosted by employees of The Park(Regular Show)

Working for the Weekend by Loverboy

Episode 33: In Interspace We Brawl(Title's a reference to a small playstation game): Compete in a Bakugan Battle in Interspace

Two Worlds Collide by Daniel Leblanc and Creighton Doane(Bakugan)

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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

139th-Marinette Dupain-Cheng(Storm Kings)-Miraculous Ladybug

138th-Dawn(Radical Rats)-Total Drama