The two idiots prattle on about their nonsensical py.

  I don’t even think they know what they fought in the first pce.

  Katsuro pys something of what could be interpreted as a…

  “Circle? What’s that gonna do? Exist in the third dimension?” Masaru mocks.

  “This is not a circle! This is a boulder.”

  “Boulder? Don’t we have rock already?”

  “A boulder is like a rock, but bigger! Look at yours! Is that supposed to be another iteration of paper?”

  Masaru simply leaves his hand wide open but like he’s begging.

  “For the record, this is money. Money buys everything and what’s that boulder gonna buy you? A dead body?”

  “How is money gonna win against my boulder? My boulder is just gonna crush it to pieces.”

  “Okay, let’s think of it this way, money is paper and boulder is rock, therefore I win.”

  “In what pnet does a paper destroy rock?”

  “Uh, in a game of rock-paper-scissors. Besides, why are you questioning the logic of rock-paper-scissors?!”

  “Because it’s nonsensical!”

  You do not have the right to tell him that.

  “What you’re doing is nonsensical!”

  You pyed along.

  “Alright! Alright, that’s enough,” Kazuhiko puts ahold of the foolish banter.

  She clears her throat.

  “I shall give them a rating of 9 out of 10! Next!”

  Yes! Score!!!

  Katsuro and Masaru leave the scene still nudging each other. Madoka steps in.

  “What do you have to offer us,” she asks.

  Madoka stand there and… spread his arms.

  Huh? What stunt is he pnning?

  He fixed his posture and made it as straight as possible; his arms were configured in a way that it was perpendicur with his body. If I were to describe what he was trying to portray, he’d nail looking like Christ the Redeemer from Brazil.

  Hold on now, don’t tell me…

  He spun around like a fool. That was all he did.

  I whisper to him barely controlling my voice, “MADOKA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

  “I’m spinning and asserting my dominance.”

  Goddamnit.

  “YOU MORON! THAT THING IS OUTDATED! HOW IS THIS FUNNY?!”

  “It’s not meant to be funny, it’s meant to show and scare our opponents.”

  How is this scary in any way? You look like a ughingstock.

  “Enough! I have made my rating…” Kazuhiko announces.

  I gulp.

  “I give his performance a 5 out of 10! Next!” she broadcasts.

  I shriek and twist my face, forming the ugliest expression ever. I forcibly grab Madoka’s shoulders and shake him back and forth.

  “YOU FOOL! AFTER ALL THAT HARD WORK!!!”

  We were interrupted by Masaru entering the stage.

  “Kibe, you can’t falter now! It is your time to shine along with Takashi!”

  I groan, “Fiiiiinnnee.”

  I’ll have to make up for his failure.

  I step up along with Takashi.

  “So uh, Takashi, can you give us a joke?” I ask.

  “I don’t understand why people compin about incest. We all came from Adam and Eve and since we came from them, that must have meant we are all reted to each other in some way or another, so marrying another person really is considered incest.”

  “…Wh-What?”

  I was dumbfounded. Of course, so were the others.

  What kind… of logic is this?

  He continues, “I mean if you still follow the theory of evolution that we came from apes, the result is still pretty much the same. After all, we have the saying ‘Everything is reted to everything else.’ which is the first w of Geograph-”

  I fall on my knees covering myself from this newly acquired knowledge. My eyes were still open trying to process the concept.

  “Please… stop talking. I’ve received enough brain damage already,” I plead.

  I don’t want to talk anymore. I’ve suffered enough already.

  “Alright, I’ve made my decision! I shall present you two with a rating of 8 out of 10,” Kazuhiko announces to the rest of us.

  Why do we receive a questionably high score for a performance like that? You know what? We’ll take it.

  “Now for the results, Masaru-kun and Katsuro-kun had a score of 9, so that’ll make it 18, Madoka-kun had a score of 5, while Takashi-kun and Takayuki-kun had a score of 8, so that that’ll make it 16. So if we average all of that we have… 8.2 out of 10 for the boys.”

  We cheer.

  Not too bad. Now all’s that left is how well the girls do.

  “Girls! The spotlight is all yours!” Kazuhiko announces.

  Yuka steps up in front of us and prepares to act. She was all fidgety because of her bashful demeanor.

  “HA! I wonder what sort of trick they have up their sleeve,” I boast.

  Then what begins is utter domination.

  “Moe~ Moe~ K-K-Kyun!” she stutters.

  She does the famous pose along with the heart shape with her fingers.

  “C-Cute!” all of us thought.

  “I have made my decision!” Kazuhiko announces.

  That fast?!

  “10 out of 10, no doubt,” she broadcasts with a standing ovation?!

  WHAT?!

  “Now hold on there. Okay, okay, that was cute, but what part of that was funny?” I question her.

  “Rule 3: You may not bribe or talk to the judge,” Rin interferes.

  “Oh please, this is bias!”

  Completely ignoring me, Kazuhiko orders, “Next!”.

  This time, the rest of the girls step forward.

  Three? How bold.

  They spoke the first word, “Moe…”

  I shake my head furiously.

  No, no, don’t you dare…

  “Moe…”

  NO! NO! NO! PLEASE! NOT LIKE THIS!!!

  “Kyun~?!”

  They do the pose along with the heart-shaped fingers.

  Kazuhiko gets a nosebleed. She announces the final results.

  “Infinity out of 10, girls are the winner.”

  We were disappointed. We felt bamboozled. There is no way… we just lost to girls who did ‘Moe Moe Kyun’.

  After all that meticulous pnning…

  This was unacceptable, I approach the judge and sh at her.

  “KAZUHIKO! YOU JERK! THAT WAS NOT FUNNY AT ALL!!! WE WERE JUDGING COMEDY?!”

  “Eh? Who cares? It’s cute so it’s a pass,” she responds.

  We were fbbergasted. Our knees give in to the severe feeling of loss.

  She just mocked… the element of comedy. Is this… the end for Slice-of-Life Boys? Does comedy no longer hold a candle against moe?

  I punch the ground the hardest that I muster.

  We were… betrayed.

  Kazuhiko wipes her forehead.

  “Phew, that was a close competition, wasn’t it?” she giggles.

  That was not close at all, you partial person.

  “Good game!” she cheers.

  No, it was not a good game.

  “You heard that boys? Only 4 more challenges to go,” Ran boasts.

  “We heard you right,” I retort.

  I face her.

  “We will still win!” I confidently state.

  Our morale can’t falter now!

  “Let’s see.”

  She turns to her group.

  “We should celebrate!”

  “Where should we go?” Rin asks.

  “To the mall!” Mari cheers.

  “Off we go!” Ran announcs.

  “W-Wait for me!” Yuka insists.

  The girls leave us behind and Kazuhiko packs up. We were left in the dust.

  Note: K.O. Four more challenges to go. Who will win? I know who I am betting on.

  END OF EPISODE 21