This choice: "Hide and Seek: Giants on the Hunt!" • Go Back... (Alternate chapter title: In Which Teddie Pushes the Naoto Button)
Hide and Seek:
Giants on the Hunt!
"Seriously," Yu muttered. "How is he doing that?"
Yu's question, like many before it, was ignored as a large trap door opened up on stage, and a platform containing a 1/100 scale model of Port Iwatodai rose up out of it.
"Whoa, that's... elaborate," Kanji commented, looking at the near exact replica of the first big city he'd ever visited.
"For the first round, the boys are going to have to hide in this city while the girls try to find them!"
"Wait... how are we gonna hide in a toy city?" Junpei asked. "And what does 'giants on the hunt' mean?"
"So glad you asked, Junpei!" Teddie cheered as he snapped his fingers. The boys freaked out as the world seemed to squash, stretch, and expand around them. Soon, the model was an accurate, life-sized representation of Minato and Junpei's home city. And as for everything else...
"Holy shit..." Kanji muttered. "Everything's huge!"
Minato glared sidelong at Junpei. "You just had to ask, didn't you?"
"Dude, he would've done it anyway!" Junpei argued.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Teddie rolled his hand in a "hurry it along" motion. "'Oh no, we're sha-sha-sha-SHRUNK! Everything's so big! Our friends are all giant and scary now!' I'm pretty sure the writers have done a hundred scenes like this already. Let's get to the good part!"
"SENPAI!" Rise squealed, snatching Yu up off the ground and nuzzling him to her cheek. "You're so CUTE like this!"
"Rise... stop..." Yu wheezed. "Can't... breathe..."
Deciding on a more gentle approach, Yukari knelt down and offered her hand for Minato and Junpei to climb onto.
"This is so surreal," she muttered, quietly gawking at her shrunken friends.
"I know, right?" Junpei replied. Minato remained quiet, seemingly as unphased by this as anything else.
"Be careful, Takeba," Mitsuru cautioned, looking at her shrunken underclassmen with concern. "They're likely far more fragile at this size."
"I know, senpai," Yukari rolled her eyes as her hand twitched in mild irritation.
Not wanting her most tolerable classmate to be the only one on the ground, Naoto picked up Kanji and examined him.
"Kanji-kun, you're bleeding," Naoto noticed, her eyes widening in alarm. "Did I hurt you?"
"N-no," Kanji insisted, trying to get his raging nosebleed under control. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."
"Okay!" Teddie cheered, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. "Now that we've got the giantess-to-tiny interaction out of the way, as well as some mild ship-teasing and possible foreshadowing for Mit-chan and Yuka-tan having a fight later, let's move on to the main event!"
He gestured to the model city. Just behind it, a blue door materialized out of nowhere while an ethereal woman's voice sang a haunting tune that Yu and Minato found familiar.
"All the way from the scenic Velvet Room, here's Elizabeth to explain the rules!"
Elizabeth strode through the door, a pleasant smile on her face as she enjoyed the attention and confusion of all present. In her hands was her brother Theodore, shrunk to the same size as the boys team and visibly struggling to get out of Elizabeth's grip.
"The rules of the game are simple," Elizabeth said. "The boys will hide in the city, using the buildings as cover."
She gently set Theodore on the ground, who yelped in fear as he ran for the scale replica of Wild Duck Burger.
"Girls, if you think you know where a boy's hiding, don't hesitate!" Grinning enthusiastically, Elizabeth raised her boot over the tiny restaurant. "Smash their hiding place to pieces!"
Following her own advice, she stomped on the Wild Duck Burger several times, completely obliterating the building.
"That sounds extremely dangerous for the boys," Naoto said with a frown.
"Yeah!" Yukari agreed. "I'm not hurting Minato-kun for the sake of some stupid game!"
"Yeah, tell 'em, Yukari!" Junpei cheered before he realized a noticeable omission in Yukari's declaration. "Wait..."
"Oh, relax," Teddie assured the group. "Along with shrinking them, I made them super durable. They can survive getting stomped on."
A moaning Theodore crawled out of the wreckage of the Wild Duck Burger. Elizabeth snatched him up.
"Indeed!" Elizabeth presented her shrunken brother to the group. "As you can see, Theo remains completely intact in body, if not spirit!"
"I want to go home..." Theodore moaned. Elizabeth stuffed him in her pocket.
"There, see?" Teddie said. "This is all just for fun! None of you are in real danger. At least, not until the writers decide to do some dramatic scenes to mix things up, but that doesn't usually happen until Chapter Seventeen or so."
Knowing any questions about what Teddie meant by "writers" or "chapters" would be blown off, the group stayed silent.
"If a building a boy is hiding in is destroyed, or a girl spots them on the street and snatches them up, the boy is out," Elizabeth continued. "If all four boys are out within the time limit, the girls win the first game! But if time runs out, or if the girls destroy more than seventy percent of the city before tagging out all four boys, then the boys win!"
A giant screen hanging above the model flickered to life, with a timer set at thirty minutes and a meter that read "City Destruction: %2." It went down to zero as Teddie restored the Wild Duck Burger with a wave of his hand.
"And that's the game!" Teddie concluded. "Thanks for the help, Lizzie-chan! And you did the whole thing without one malapropism! Good for you!"
Elizabeth wasn't paying attention, instead having walked up to Yukari, gazing at the blue haired boy in her hand with a loving smile.
"Um... hey, Elizabeth," Minato greeted with a casual wave of his hand. "How'd you get involved in this?"
"I've missed you so much, Minato..." Elizabeth said softly, stroking the shrunken boy affectionately with her finger.
"Hey! HEY!" Teddie snapped, getting the attendant's attention. "Save it for Chapter Seventeen!"
Elizabeth nodded and, with one last wistful look at her guest, returned to the Velvet Room door, which disappeared as it closed behind her.
"Minato-kun," Yukari said in a somewhat wary tone. "Who was that?"
"OKAY LET'S PLAY THE GAME GUYS!" Teddie exclaimed, clapping his hands. In a flash, all four boys disappeared and were placed together somewhere in the model city. "Boys, you have five minutes to find hiding places or come up with a plan. Then the game beings and the girls search for you."
"Now that I know they can't be hurt, this sounds kind of fun!" Rise said chipperly, bouncing up and down on her heels. "I hope you're ready for me, Senpai!"
"This is ridiculous," Mitsuru muttered.
"I agree, Kirijo-san," Naoto replied. She looked out towards the city. "Kanji-kun? Senpai? I know you don't want to participate in this charade any more than I do. If you'll all just stay in the street, I'll snatch you up when the game starts and we can put an end to this."
"Hmm..." Teddie hummed sadly. "I thought you were the greatest detective in the world, Naoto-chan."
"Excuse me?" Naoto glowered dangerously.
"Well, it just seems like you should be able to find the boys without asking them to throw the game for you," Teddie shrugged. "That's all."
Naoto's expression hardened into a glare. "Never mind, boys. Make it as difficult for me to find you as possible. If I'm not suitably challenged, I'll be disappointed in you both!"
"And there goes the one other voice of reason," Mitsuru sighed.
"What about me?" Yukari snapped.
"You've been eyeing the school since that woman explained the rules, Takeba. You're obviously planning to destroy it for the sake of an adolescent power fantasy."
"I just think it's the most likely place Minato and Junpei would hide!" Yukari defended herself. "Besides, are you telling me there's nowhere in Port Iwatodai that you'd smash if you could?"
Mitsuru was quiet for a moment. "I always thought that love hotel needed to be wiped off the face of the earth."
"They might be hiding there," Yukari said innocently. "It'd be the last thing we'd expect."
Mitsuru smiled darkly.
Meanwhile, the boys were just outside Palownia Mall.
"And they're all into it now," Minato shook his head in mild astonishment. "Didn't see that coming."
"Man, this place looks freaky without anybody in it," Junpei looked around the ghost town, visibly unsettled.
"I feel like the girls have an unfair advantage in this game," Yu commented.
"I'll say! They got a detective!" Kanji exclaimed, both intimidated an awed as he watched Naoto survey the city, the gears in her head visibly turning as she tried to reason where her friends would hide. "She'll find us right away! An' then she'll be pissed we made it easy for her!"
Yu sighed. "Kanji, when we're done dealing with whatever's gotten into Teddie, just ask her out. The worst she'll do is say no."
"No senpai, the worst she'll do is shoot me," Kanji corrected him. He swallowed. "Or step on me..."
Yu shrugged. Now, when Rise bugged him about it again, he could at least say he made an attempt.
"Come on," Minato spoke up. "We need a plan."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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