GUESS WHO'S NOT DEAD BITCHES.

Oh my God it's been so long since I've written for this story. To everyone who's been waiting for me to update, I'm so sorry! *bows in apology*

To xXTheLeaderOfTheInsanestClanXx: Your poem questioning my whereabouts made me laugh so hard that I will respond with my own:

Roses are red, violets are blue. My apologies, but I had coursework to do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On top of essays and endless statistics, I've been doing writing for my other fanfics as well, and that took up more time than I intended it to. I also posted a new one-shot, so anyone who has time to read it should go check it out on my profile! (Yes, it's about Akashi again.) But anyway, enough about me. I hope this chapter is good, I can't tell anymore. But back to our basketball idiots in the states for vacation (SSHHHHH IT'S STILL SUMMER IN SPIRIT). Now, without further ado...

Please enjoy!

Idiots on vacation- Fatal attractions

The next morning after the basketball match in the park, the fourteen cousins had a wake-up call that was less than ideal.

It was the banging at the door to the first room that startled them out of their sleep. Shuuzo shot up in bed and his eyes went straight to the door.

"What's going on?" he said groggily. Everyone else in the room began to wake up as well.

"What is that?" said Taiga.

"They're so loud-ssu!" Ryouta complained, putting a pillow over his head.

"It would be best to open it, nanodayo," Shintarou advised. "It could be one of the others." Shuuzo groaned into the mattress for a long moment before finally gathering the resolve to stand up from the bed.

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses. I'm coming," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he trudged to the door. Once he opened the door, he was face-to-face with at least thirty complete strangers, who all began screaming the second he opened the door.

"It's him!"

"It's the guy from the magazine! We found his room!"

"Can I have your autograph?!"

Before Shuuzo could even react, a bunch of screaming fans began grabbing at him from all sides. He began panicking immediately.

"O-Oi! Stop grabbing me!" he screamed. "Get off!" The others who weren't grabbing him looked past him into the room and saw the others, who were staring in horror at the mess in front of them.

"Look! It's the rest of them!" Their eyes widened.

"Wh-What?" Ryouta said nervously.

"This isn't good," said Daiki.

The rabid fans burst through the door and flooded the room they were in, surrounding the four others who just happened to be sharing a room with Shuuzo. Shuuzo tried tearing away from the people at the door, to try and get to the others. The fans were all over them too.

"Hey! Let go of me!" Taiga said, scrambling to get away.

"Get your hand off my shirt!" Daiki said angrily to a particularly excited girl. "My body is reserved for Mai-chan only!"

"Don't touch my lucky item, nanodayo!" Shintarou yelled at the strange people. Ryouta was holding onto the bedpost when two fans got a hold of his legs and started pulling him off the bed.

"Uwaaa! Shuuzocchi, they're trying to drag me away!" Ryouta cried.

"Don't touch them!" Shuuzo growled at the fans. "Leave my cousins alone!" Suddenly the two rooms next door opened, and out popped Chihiro and Eikichi from their respective rooms.

"What the hell?" Eikichi grunted.

"Shuuzo? What's going on?" Chihiro said in confusion when he saw all the commotion out in the hallway. Shuuzo jerked his head toward him and made a shooing motion.

"Don't come out here, Chihiro!" he said as he pushed people away from him. "If people find out you're in the magazine, they'll attack you too! Eikichi, don't open your door either! Wake everyone up, grab some clothes out of your bag and get downstairs right now! We're calling a taxi!" They nodded quickly and shut their doors. Shuuzo managed to start pulling the fans off the others and pushing them out the door.

"You four! Go get some clothes and shove them into a bag. Get some clothes out for me too. After you finish, we're gonna make a break for it." Taiga, Daiki, Ryouta and Shintarou nodded and ran off to the suitcases and began pulling clothes out.

"Ryouta, pass my shoes from that bag," said quickly as he tore through the first bag looking for Shuuzo's clothes. Ryouta grabbed a red pair and held them up.

"Here, Taigacchi!" Ryouta said, tossing them to him. He held up two different shirts he pulled out of his own bag and looked at them before turning to Shuuzo.

"Shuuzocchi! Should I bring the blue or the orange shirt-ssu?"

"I dunno. I guess blue is kinda—WAIT WE HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS! PICK A SHIRT AND LET'S GO!"

"Shuuzo-san! Should I bring the toothbrushes?"

"Just throw them in, Taiga!"

"Taiga, you're going to have to make room for my lucky item, nanodayo."

"There's no space!"

"Shintarou just hold it!"

"Where's my magazine?"

"Daiki we have no time for your porn mags! Either bring a real book or bring nothing at all!"

"Keh, so stingy."

"Seriously! We have no time!" Shuuzo said, trying to put all of his weight on the door to prevent the people from getting in again. "Sooner or later these crazy fans are gonna bust in and it's gonna be a free-for-all!"

"We got everything!" Ryouta announced. Shuuzo sucked in a deep breath.

"Okay. We're gonna open the door and run through. Get ready."

Everyone went up to the door and got into position.

"On the count of three," said Shuuzo. "One…Two…Three!"

He released the door and the weight from everyone outside forced the door open. The second that happened, they took off.

"Everyone stay close!"

They all pushed through the crowd, dodging hands and cameras and screams everywhere and bolted down the hallway. The people saw where they were going and soon enough the small group found themselves being chased. Shuuzo panted as he ran, trying to figure out what to do. What should they do? Take the elevator? No, it would take too long to get here. Not only that but in the time it takes the elevator to get down, they could be waiting on the ground floor. In that case…

"Stairs it is," he muttered. He turned to the stairs and the other four followed. To save time and to increase the distance between them and the crazy fans other their tail, they had to jump off some stairs. They had to jump down six flights, and by the time they got to the bottom, Shuuzo had never been so relieved to see an exit sign. When he and the others went through it, the fans were still two flights of stairs behind. Good.

The other ten were waiting by the stairs, still in their pajamas but at least wearing shoes, most of them looking somewhat put together, the other half looking like death after being woken up unexpectedly. Chihiro and the others were waiting around until he heard someone call out to him.

"Chihiro!"

Chihiro perked up and turned around recognizing the voice who called to him.

"Oh, Shuuzo, what is…"

His jaw dropped when he saw the five of them being tailed by thirty screaming people. Shuuzo gestured to the entrance.

"EVERYONE GET OUT!" he screamed. There was no time wasted, and no one asked questions as they all piled out of the hotel. They finally got outside and Shuuzo spotted a taxi van. He waved to it like a mad man as if his life depended on it (because frankly, it did.)

"TAXI! TAXI!"

The taxi stopped on the side of the street and Shuuzo near ripped the door off trying to open it.

"Everyone hurry up and get in the car!" They all started getting in, starting from the back row upwards. Shuuzo looked back and saw that the fans were starting to get out of the hotel. He became even more panicked.

"Guys they're coming!"

Once everyone was safely in the car, Shuuzo ran to the other side and got into the passenger seat.

"Get us out of here!" he said to the man. The taxi driver complied, and stepped on the gas, pulling out of the curb and speeding away from the hotel. The fans who got there a second too late, watched as they drove away, hearing the loud cheers coming from the vehicle, the occupants of the car celebrating their successful getaway.

~O~

"So you guys got ambushed at the hotel? Haha! That's crazy!"

They took a taxi to Alex's place since there was no other place where they could go without being ripped to shreds. Tatsuya was rather surprised when he saw the pajama-clad family at the door asking to borrow her shower and get ready there in her townhouse. Alex seemed pretty tickled by the situation and let them in, laughing at their rather disheveled appearance. Once they were properly dressed, they were back to sitting around in her living room, like yesterday, pondering what the hell to do.

"You guys sure have gained a lot of popularity, huh?" said Tatsuya as he bit into his toast. "You must be excited."

"Hell no!" said Daiki. "It's been a pain in the ass since day one. We can't do anything now without people stalking us."

"Hm? You're not excited?" Tatsuya said playfully. "What about Taiga?"

"Yeah right," Taiga said immediately. "The people of L.A. are crazier than I remember! They attacked us in our hotel room. Tatsuya. One girl said she wanted my eyebrows." Tatsuya started laughing.

"And you didn't give them to her?" he joked. "Taiga, you're so cruel."

"Like hell I am!"

"As if that wasn't bad enough, half of us had to drag whoever was half asleep," said Chihiro. "Do you know how hard it is to drag Atsushi out of bed?"

"I was tired," is all the explanation the purple-haired teenager offered up as he went back to a bag of Doritos. Eikichi huffed.

"Consider yourself lucky," he said in annoyance. "At least he doesn't bite." He held up his arm to show the very obvious bite mark that was on his wrist. Seijuro crossed his arms and looked the other way.

"You shouldn't shake me so hard next time," he said stubbornly.

"If this keeps up, we won't be able to go anywhere without being recognized," said Tetsuya. "Where should we go today?" Alex hummed in thought.

"If you're gonna tour L.A., you gotta go as far away as possible from Hollywood," she said sagely. "The closer you are to Hollywood, the more likely you're gonna run into people who know who you are. I know! Why don't you go up north?"

"Up north?" said Kotarou. "What's up north?"

"What's up north?" Alex repeated in shock. "You don't know what's up north? Six Flags of course!" Taiga and Tatsuya looked at each other with equal expressions of excitement. Shuuzo perked up at that and began smirking.

"We're gonna go to Six Flags?" said Taiga. "YES!"

"What is Six Flags, nanodayo?" said Shintarou. Alex, Shuuzo, Taiga and Tatsuya all looked toward Shintarou like he just severely offended all of them at once. Alex began chuckling mischievously.

"What's Six Flags you ask?" she said. "Allow me to educate you…"

~O~

A while later, the sixteen of them somehow ended up standing at the Six Flags entrance. It was bustling with people. Children running around, mothers and fathers watching over them, or some groups were just a bunch of teens who came out to have a good time. Well, it seemed like they were one of them. Shintarou blinked.

"You know, you could have just explained what it was instead of taking us here, nanodayo." Alex laughed and slung and arm around his shoulder.

"Ah come on, where's the fun in that?" she said. "I want you guys to experience this place first-hand. You can't leave L.A. without coming to Six Flags. It's kind of an unspoken rule. Like a rite of passage."

"It sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me."

"Well, you won't be saying that when you go on in. Look!" She held up a stack of what looked like tickets. The rest of them gathered around to eye them. Shuuzo smiled.

"Ah, those are…"

"That's right!" Alex chirped. "Day passes! I got one for everyone while you were looking for somewhere to sit. Call it a friendly gesture."

"Wow, thanks!"

"You sure are generous today," Tatsuya commented. Chihiro narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Somehow, the only vibe I'm getting is that we're walking into a trap." Alex shook her head and clapped the grey-haired teenager on the back.

"Now, now, why would I do something like that?" she said. "I just want you guys to enjoy what us Americans have to offer. What's so bad about that?"

"It's fine, Chihiro. Let's just go in," said Shuuzo. "And she was nice enough to give us passes, so we should be considerate and take up the offer."

"You just wanna go on rides."

"Well, what's done is done, so let's enjoy ourselves," said Seijuro. "Going on a few rides wouldn't hurt."

"That's the spirit!" Alex said, looking proudly over at the redhead. "If that's the case then we shouldn't waste another second standing out here. Let's go!"

And with that, Alex began pushing the large group inside while Taiga and Tatsuya began chanting 'Rite of passage' in English.

…

Getting through the gates and finally entering the amusement park, the sixteen of them finally saw how wild it was. There were attractions left and right, people screaming on roller coasters, children both laughing and crying and several booths around displaying a variety of different prizes ranging from keychains to giant plush toys. Everyone was in awe, looking at all the madness from where they stood.

"This place looks so cool!" Kotarou exclaimed.

"There are tons of things to do in this place," Ryouta observed. "I can't wait to check out the rides-ssu!"

"I can't wait to check out the food stalls," Eikichi said under his breath.

"I wanna check out the candy shop," Atsushi said. "Can we go there now?"

"No way!" Shōgo snapped. "I wanna go on the rides first."

"Taiga-kun used to come here when he lived in America, didn't he?" Tetsuya asked his current light. Taiga nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "Tatsuya and I finally managed to dominate all the attractions here. It took us ages to do everything."

"So since Tai-chan and Tatsuya-kun have been coming here, then would that mean that you know the best rides?" Satsuki questioned.

"You bet!" said Taiga. Tatsuya raised his eyebrows.

"I'm quite surprised, though," he said. "I didn't know that you liked rollercoasters, Satsuki-san."

"Yeah!" she quipped. "It's Dai-chan you have to worry about. Sometimes he cries on rollercoasters."

"I don't anymore, Satsuki!" Daiki yelled from in front of her. Satsuki snorted.

"So you acknowledge the fact that at a point you used to cry on roller coasters."

"Shut up!"

Tatsuya snickered at their little quarrel. "It happens to the best of us," he said. "Taiga cried on his first roller coaster too."

"D-Don't start telling them those stories, Tatsuya!" Taiga yelled, blushing furiously.

"So, now that we're here, how are we gonna tackle the rides?" said Eikichi. "Should we just start with the nearest one?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, so inexperienced," Alex said in pity. "If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this right. There's a strategy to going on rides."

"What's the strategy?" Reo asked.

"You first start off with the mild rides and slowly work your way up," Alex explained. "Then once we've gotten to all the big rides and done those, you go back to the rest of the smaller rides to cool off. Then near the end of our stay here, we can go and check out the game stalls and see if we can get some prizes!"

"Hmm…not bad," said Chihiro. "I guess we'll do that. Which ride are we going on first?"

"Let's go on that Pirate Ship ride," Shuuzo suggested. Alex nodded excitedly.

"Yeah! That one's a perfect ride for a warm up. Let's go!"

…

Using the directory map they had been given upon entrance, the sixteen of them made their way to the pirate ship ride dubbed 'The Buccaneer'. Taiga and Tatsuya informed the rest of them that in order to enjoy the full experience, they had to sit at the back, and that's just what they did. The large group filed into the back, sitting there are other people filled up the rest of the rides.

"This oughta be a good way to start things off," said Alex. "This is one of the easy rides, so you guys have nothing to worry about."

"So then why is that woman crying?" Seijuro asked, staring at the stranger in the row in front of him, the woman looking like she was about to faint from fear. Alex nervously laughed.

"Well," she said. "While this isn't the most extreme of rides, it's not necessarily for the faint hearted either…"

"What does that mean?" said Daiki.

"You'll find out soon enough," said Shuuzo. "I think the ride is starting."

Right as he said that, there was a whirring noise and then a low humming as the large attraction began to start up. The pirate ship began moving, but it was only rocking a little as the machine started to get going. After doing that a few times, it began properly working and the ship rocked back and forth. It was going high enough to make the ride enjoyable, but not enough to make anyone scream. Ryouta hummed in thought.

"Eh? This isn't as bad as I thought it would be-ssu," he commented.

"This isn't the highest it goes, Ryouta-kun," said Tatsuya as he laid back in his seat. "It gets better."

"What are you —ugh!"

Ryouta suddenly felt his heart in his throat and the most uncomfortable sensation in the base of his stomach as the pirate ship dropped from an unbearable height. The rest of them must have felt it because everyone's face had changed to either a look of severe discomfort or extreme joy. In such a short time, the pirate ship went from leisurely rocking to practically launching its passengers up in the air at almost a ninety-degree angle. And when it came back down, anyone within fifty meters would be able to hear their screams and laughter when they fell back down to earth. This continued on for another minute or two before the ride finally began slowing down, and then coming to a complete stop. When the ride was over, everyone finally caught a breather and cautiously stepped off the ride. Kotarou laughed.

"That was awesome!" he exclaimed.

"That was not pleasant," said Shintarou, wobbling on the last step down. "This ride was not mild in the slightest."

"Actually, I agree with Kotarou-san," said Tetsuya. "That ride was pretty fun."

"Ah, don't mind Shintarou, Tetsu, he's a baby," said Daiki. "The ride was too fast-paced for him."

"Your legs are shaking, Daiki," Seijuro said as he brushed past them. The rest of the group snickered at the Touou Power Forward.

"Hahaha! Don't piss your pants, Daiki," Taiga laughed as he went on ahead. The blue-haired teenager growled at him, but because his legs wouldn't work properly, chasing him down was out of the question. Atsushi came off the ride looking pretty much unruffled, looking around at the other attractions.

"Ne, Shuu-chin. Which ride are we going on next?" Shuuzo thought for a moment.

"Hmm… Hey, Alex, what about 'The Swashbuckler?'"

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that one!" said Alex. "In fact, we should have probably done that first."

"What the hell is a Swashbuckler?" said Shōgo. "Is that some type of disease?"

"No you dumbass, it's a ride!" said Shuuzo. "I'm sure all of you have seen those giant swings attached to this machine thingy that spins you around."

"Ohhh those things," said Satsuki. "Those are fun!"

This ride was quite popular with everyone. It started out with everyone sitting on their respective swing and the machine spinning them around slowly, but then it got faster and faster, and the speed was lifting the swings higher off the ground. By that time, they were going so fast that everything was a whirlwind of color, except what was different about this ride compared to the last one was that it didn't shake up their insides as much, so no screams of terror were involved. Even though basically all of them wanted to go again, Alex believed that they all had enough warming up (although some argued it wasn't enough) and decided that they were now going to take it up a notch.

"Eh? We're going up another level?" said Ryouta. "What are we going to ride?"

"Hm, good question," said Shuuzo. "Why not try the Apocalypse? That one is pretty fun."

"You think so?" Alex asked. "I was thinking maybe we should go on The Batman."

"You realize you're going from easy straight to hard in terms of difficulty level, right?"

"I know," said Alex. "You coming?" Shuuzo grinned.

"Yeah. You heard that, guys?" The rest of the group nodded.

"Batman, was it?" Tetsuya wondered aloud. "Isn't he that one superhero?"

"Yeah," Taiga replied. "The ride itself is pretty fun. It's a really fast roller coaster ride that takes you at like fifty miles per hour."

"Ehhh? That's pretty fast," said Ryouta. "Let's go on it!"

The line was a bit lengthy, but in due time, they managed to hit the front and were able to go all at once. The members of their large group who had already been on the ride urged the others to sit with them in the front, and so they all piled on. It was a suspended roller coaster, so they sat in chairs that made their legs dangle below them. As the people manning the attraction came and checked to see if everyone was strapped in and ready to go, some people (namely Daiki and Shintarou) were becoming visibly scared; not that they'd admit it, though.

Once the final checks were made, the ride began to move as it started up. Some occupants of the ride waving to whatever family or friends that were watching them from behind the platform. Immediately after the car left the docking area, it began to go up. Alex looked ahead of her to see the view.

"This should be an easy ride," she said. "You barely feel anything on these types of roller coasters so even for people who are scared it should be no problem."

"Heh, tell that to Mr. Macho over here," said Shōgo, jerking his head to Daiki next to him. "This guy's shaking harder than a newborn Chihuahua."

"I t-told you I'm not scared!" Daiki retorted, trying not to grip the safety bar too tightly. "I can handle this!"

"Your stammerin' says otherwise. Anyway if you're gonna throw up, turn the other way. I like this shirt."

"You b-bastard..."

"Just relax, brats," Shuuzo said from his seat. "I guarantee you, there's gonna be no screaming on this ride. There's nothing to be scared of."

"Hey," Taiga began slowly. "…Where's Tetsuya?"

"What? He should be sitting next to you-ssu," said Ryouta.

"I thought Tetsu-kun was sitting next to you," said Satsuki.

"If he was, I would've known-ssu! He's sitting next to Taigacchi!"

"He's not," Taiga responded. Suddenly the whole group turned deathly pale.

"Do you mean…?"

"You don't think…"

The car reached its peak height. They exchanged looks of complete horror.

"Oh God…"

They all screamed on the way down.

…

"I can't believe you forgot that I was on the ride," Tetsuya deadpanned as they exited The Batman. Taiga scratched his cheek in slight embarrassment.

"Well how was I supposed to know?" he pleaded in defense. "You didn't make any noise."

"Not even the camera captured your presence," Daiki said as he showed them the photos taken during the ride. Taiga looked at the one that was supposed to include Kuroko, but he saw nothing but an empty seat.

"That shouldn't even be possible," he said in amazement. "I can understand a person, but not even the camera saw you. What are you, a vampire?"

Shintarou shakily adjusted his glasses. "I suppose the ride could have been worse, nanodayo," he said. "It was only slightly uncomfortable."

Reo dusted himself off as he caught up to the rest of them. "I can't believe I heard that wall of muscle scream like a damsel in distress."

"Who are you calling a damsel in distress?!" Eikichi growled. "I'm not a woman!" Reo chuckled.

"You sounded like one, though."

"I thought you were going to faint in that ride, Eikichi-nii-san."

"Like you can talk, chibi. At least I'm not stumbling down the stairs right now." Seijuro scoffed as he dismissed his older brother with a flick of the hand but then gracelessly missed the last step on the stairs as he tried to regain his bearings and sense of gravity.

"Nonsense, Eikichi-nii-san. I can assure you that I am fine."

"You look dizzy, Sei-chan."

"I am not, my sense of direction is perfect," said Seijuro. "Now let's go to the next ride." He began to walk off, but Tetsuya called out to him.

"Seijuro-kun."

"Hmm?"

"You're going the wrong way."

"Oh. My bad."

"You're still going the wrong way…"

"Wait, hang on." He stumbled over to Tetsuya and grabbed his arm.

"Lead the way, I am ready." Shuuzo nodded in satisfaction.

"Yosh, let's conquer the rest of them!"

~O~

From there, the gang went on every single roller coaster ride they could find. They managed to conquer all the roller coasters in the park. The Apocalypse, Classic Revolution, Green Devil, Full Throttle, Goliath, Jet Stream, Drop of Doom, Ninja, Superman: Escape from Krypton, Scream, The Riddler's Revenge, Tatsu, Viper, Twisted Colossus, and X2. They experienced so many different loops, twists, drops, corkscrews and zero G-rolls that by the time they finished riding all the attractions, Daiki was a trembling mess, Ryouta's soul was slowly departing from his body, Chihiro looked deathly pale, Eikichi was turning an unusual shade of green, Reo's legs kept shaking, Atsushi was stress-eating, Satsuki was clinging to Tetsuya for balance, Shōgo was on the verge of death, Shintarou was gripping his lucky item like his life depended on it, Seijuro was so dizzy he didn't know which way was up (while trying to deny that his senses had been extremely dulled), and Kotarou was ready to go on the rides all over again. As for the others, namely Taiga, Tatsuya, Alex, and Shuuzo, they were busy trying to keep the rest of the crew alive.

"Right, I think that covers all the roller coasters," Alex said, looking back at the group. "So now it's time for a cooling off period. Let's go back on one of the mild rides. Which one should we do?"

"Something that doesn't have loops, please," Eikichi heaved. "I don't think my insides can take it."

"Hmm… Okay, raise your hand if you can't handle another fast-paced ride." Fifteen hands went up in the air. Alex blinked before shrugging it off and checking the map.

"Carousel ride it is."

The carousel was at least enjoyable for the entirety of the large group. Shintarou originally thought it was childish until Shuuzo threatened to drag him back on the pirate ship ride. Everyone took to choosing where they wanted to sit, the eldest watching as Satsuki climbed onto a pink unicorn or when Seijuro claimed what was, in his words, "the most majestic steed" and when the carousel began to go round, it was impossible for Reo not to take photos of all of them having a good time while his nose bled excessively on the floor and anyone within a five foot radius of him backed away slowly.

It was an understatement to say that they racked up a giant food bill. May God have mercy on whichever food stall that Taiga, Daiki, Eikichi or Atsushi locked eyes with. If you were ever in the same line as any of those four, pray that you're in front of them. Once they ordered, it was guaranteed that no one behind them would get food. Not to mention the overwhelmed kitchen staff, who became extremely baffled when they got an order for thirty burgers when there were only seven people in line. It was bad enough that those four were eating, but so were the other twelve, and the amount of time they spent buying food at all the various stalls could rival the amount of time they spent on all the rides combined. Atsushi was especially giddy to go to any food stall that sold desserts and claimed that he would singlehandedly buy every funnel cake in the park to take back to Japan in his suitcase. Once everyone had eaten, they took themselves around to the game booths set up all over the park.

"So now that we've done everything we wanted to do, we can finally check out the game booths," said Alex. "Which one do you guys wanna do? Any one of these strike your fancy?"

"Ano…"

"GAH!" Alex looked down and saw Tetsuya standing in front of her. "Oh, it's you. What is it?"

"We could try that one." Tetsuya pointed to something in the distance and the group followed his pointing finger to what they saw to be a basketball game. Everyone looked at each other and grinned.

"Well," said Shuuzo. "This should be easy." He nudged the green-haired teenager standing next to him. "Hey Shintarou, you up for the task?" Shintarou sighed.

"Don't be ridiculous, Shuuzo-san." He adjusted his glasses and stepped forward.

"My shots will never miss, nanodayo."

The man running the game center saw Shintarou approach him along with fifteen others. He smiled.

"Hello, hello, welcome to the basketball challenge!" he welcomed. "Would you like to play?"

"Yes, I would," Shintarou answered. The man gestured to a cart of balls near them.

"So here are the balls. You have one minute to shoot as many of them as you can into the basket. The size of your prize depends on how many baskets you can make." He then gestured to the giant rack of prizes behind him. There were various stuffed animals ranging from small to absolutely ginormous.

"If you get ten baskets, you get a small prize," the man explained. "Twenty gets you a medium prize. And thirty, of course, gets you a large prize. You think you're up for it?" Shintarou smirked.

"Just that many? That's child's play." The man watched in fascination as he began unraveling the taping on his fingers and flexed his digits.

"Someone hold my lucky item. This shouldn't take long, nanodayo."

…

One minute later the man was on his knees staring in disbelief at the green-haired boy standing in front of him.

"Impossible… What even are you…"

The score read fifty.

Shintarou began re-taping his fingers as he stood over the man once more when he had finished.

"If that is all, I'll choose my prize." The man acknowledged him with a small nod.

"Y-Yeah… You can choose a big one."

The game ended with Midorima victorious with a stuffed Kermit the Frog almost the same height as himself in his arms and the man still in denial. And from there, that was how their second conquering challenge started.

They split into different groups to cover the different gaming sectors with the intent to win all the booths and get the biggest prizes. After leaving Tatsuya and Alex to have another go at the basketball game, they sent Shintarou to sharpshooting where he used his high accuracy to shoot all the targets.

Eikichi went to the Test of Strength where his brute strength came in handy for hitting the button with the hammer so hard he nearly broke the machine.

Reo was sent to the Ring Toss where his elegant technique made his ring fall perfectly onto the golden bottle. Chihiro decided to go to the fishing game and lo and behold with luck on his side he caught the rarest rubber duck in the pond.

Shōgo went to skiiball and the arcade games saying something along the lines "All the days where I ditched school for the arcade built up for this moment" and vanished into the arcade center dragging Daiki behind him with several handfuls of quarters.

Seijuro went to Whack-a-Mole with Ryouta and they tag teamed to hit every single one that popped up on the machine. Seijuro was naturally good at this game, but to secure victory he began using his Emperor Eye to see which mole would come up next, to which Ryouta shouted: "Seijurocchi, that's cheating!"

Tetsuya went to a game where you had to knock a stack of three cups off a platform. Tetsuya didn't have enough accuracy or arm strength to properly throw it, so instead he brought Taiga along, and Taiga would throw him the ball from the side and Tetsuya would then Ignite Pass them to the cups and knock all three of them off with ease.

Kotarou and Shuuzo had exceptional climbing skills and reflexes, so those two decided to go to a game where you had to use a wobbly rope ladder to climb to the other side of the room and hit the button at the top.

Satsuki who was a pro at crane machines simply used her skills to maneuver the crane with ease and get the largest stuffed animals. Atsushi was with her near the crane machines, except he chose the one with candy inside. That was more than enough to motivate him and, for some reason, he entered the zone, allowing him to clean out the entire machine with seventeen quarters. By the time they had grouped back together, they had left all the game centers with absolutely nothing and at there was at least a dozen children around their vicinity in hysterics because a group of kids with weird hair took all the prizes. Shuuzo, with a giant pair of sunglasses on his head and a stuffed pink gorilla that rivaled his height, sighed in satisfaction when they came back together near the entrance.

"Well, that was fun."

"I'll say," said Shōgo, who had a gold-colored ring on every finger, five chains around on his neck a snapback on his head, and a stuffed Bugs Bunny in his arms while he contentedly sucked on a lollipop.

"This was the best trip ever~," Atsushi said through a mouthful of Jolly Ranchers, the rest of his candy in a large plastic bag.

"I think we've done enough damage, however," said Seijuro, who was holding a giant stuffed lion.

"Probably," Tetsuya concurred, holding a giant stuffed tiger. "Everyone here has at least three large prizes and if we keep going we'll be chased by an angry mob of parents." Alex clapped her hands together.

"Yosh! I think we should stop there, then. Everyone grab your things and let's head toward the exit!" With that, the sixteen of them turned and walked out of the amusement park, leaving every stranger who saw them wondering if they were really human.

The lot of them ended up taking several taxis home since you could only fit so many prizes in the trunk. Alex and Tatsuya took their own taxi back to the townhouse and bid the others goodbye at the entrance of the gate, the large group thanking Alex for the amazing day out. During the ride, most of the gang was dead tired, and when they got back to the hotel late at night, luckily, since most people were back in their rooms, they didn't have too much fuss getting everyone up to their rooms. Once they were back in their rooms and they had changed into their pajamas, they all collapsed into their beds.

Day two down, five to go. Tomorrow is another day…

And done! I hope you enjoyed reading this after my long time away. And I hope I won't be out for long this time. Once I've gotten my work done and had a proper rest I'll get onto writing the next chapter sometime near the end of next week. Until I update, you know what to do...

Read and review please!