The Hot Spring Episode [Hypnosis Mic Fanfiction]

Chapter 4

Everything was going according to plan. Of course it was. Kuko was a strategic genius.

If he couldn't get into real fights with the other competitors, then he'd have to do the next best thing. Rap battles were like a sport, right? A life-or-death one, yeah, but it was pretty close. Any competition could show what people were like in the heat of battle. Any sport would do. And they just so happened to be staying at a lodge equipped with ping pong tables.

He'd gotten Dice to pull pairs of cards from a deck, and they'd handed them out randomly to set the teams. Oh, Kuko was such a genius. He looked out at the room full of people. Hm... some folks hadn't grabbed cards yet. "Hey!" Kuko shouted at them. "Aren't you gonna play!?"

"Why the hell should I!? Samatoki snapped back. "What the fuck's the point of playing a stupid game with a bunch of people I hate!?"

Kuko cackled. "Hah! Only a brainless idiot wouldn't get it. You've got every one of your rivals in the same room, and you don't want a chance to lord victory over 'em? What kind of man are you!? Pick up a fucking paddle!"

Samatoki sneered and marched straight at Kuko. Kuko stood his ground. After a few seconds' staring match, Samatoki ceded. "Gimme a damn card."

With Samatoki on board, his teammates shrugged and joined in. This was even more people than Kuko had expected, actually. He hadn't realized that Sasara and his new team were here. Eh, the more, the better. Kuko gave everyone a moment to find their partners—he was teamed up with none other than Jakurai Jinguji—and then launched into the rules.

"Okay! So, standard table tennis rules! Eleven points to win, rally the ball 'til it's out! And no foul play—Hitoya's the ref, so don't fucking try anything."

Hitoya, standing next to him, did not nod along with his leader in agreement like he should've. "I'm the—Kuko! You're already making me play the damn game! I can't referee it, too! And you've got two tables set up. You expect me to do two games at once?"

"It's fine, it's fine, we'll get someone else to do your matches. Uhh..." Kuko looked over the crowd.

Jakurai raised his hand. "I'd be happy to referee your matches, Hitoya. As for the other table, surely, someone eliminated in the first match will be able to assist."

"There, see! The doc's got it."

Hitoya scoffed and clicked his tongue, but he still agreed. All according to Kuko's unbeatable plan.

"Here's the bracket!" Kuko held up his scrawled page, with numbers 1-8, same as the cards, organized into a single elimination tournament. Hitoya snatched it out of his hand.

"This won't work at all. Christ. Alright, I'm changing this." He scribbled something over Kuko's bracket. Before Kuko could object, Hitoya held it back up to him. "We've got nine teams, dumbass. I didn't change it that much, okay?"

Kuko looked it over. Yeah, yeah, okay, he'd messed up, as much as he hated to admit it. Everyone was still sitting around waiting for him to announce the damn matches, so he got started. "The first match is teams one and two! And then one of the losers of this match will referee the matches in the 1-5 bracket. ...What are you waiting for? Get to a fuckin' table!"

They'd have this match first, figure out that ref, then they'd have even four-team brackets, Hitoya could ref for his side of the brackets, except for when he was playing and then Jakurai could ref and this was a perfect plan and it wasn't convoluted at all and Kuko was a genius.

Two teams stepped up to the table. Oh, Jyushi was in this match—Kuko would have to pay close attention. Kuko hadn't had many chances to see Jyushi under pressure. At least, not pressure that Kuko hadn't caused.