NO POV

Marui Bunta, Kirihara Akaya, Yagyuu Hiroshi, and Niou Masaharu all walked onto the tennis courts to meet up with their vice-captain, Sanada Genichirou.

Sanada glared at them and said, "You're all late."

Marui rolled his eyes and replied, "We had detention and pretty much got forced into that stupid school talent show."

Right then, Yanagi walked by and announced, "There is a 98% chance that Marui volunteered upon hearing that the tennis club had neglected to sign anyone up for the school showcase."

Marui's eye twitched and he chortled, "Shut up!"

Sanada coughed, "If you're being forced into this, then I suppose I'll have to talk to Yukimura about how to schedule YOUR practices. But I think I speak for the both of us when I say that we expect you to win."

Kirihara panicked, "But how?! Not all of us are Marui-senpai!"

Sanada raised his eyebrow and asked, "How would being Marui help in anyway?"

Yanagi answered Sanada's question before Marui could open his mouth, "My data says that Marui's mother is the twin sister of Ichinose Miyuki, the mother of Ichinose Tokiya who was formerly known as HAYATO."

Marui groaned, "Did you have to say that out loud? What if there were girls nearby?!"

Yanagi replied, "But there aren't any…I have more sense than to declare something as 'scandalous' as that out loud with gossip mongers around."

Marui muttered, "At least Niou, Yagyuu, and Bakaya already knew…"

Sanada spoke up once more, "Yanagi, make sure that NOBODY outside of the tennis regulars ever learns of that information. More fangirls would get in the way of our tennis practice."

Yanagi nodded, "Agreed. On another note, what are Marui, Akaya, Niou, and Yagyuu even doing for the school showcase?"

Marui grinned, "Singing. We thought it would take up less of our tennis time if we just did one act as a group of four–music pretty much runs in my family, and I'm sure Niou and Bakaya can hold a tune."

Yanagi pondered for a moment before saying, "Then I recommend that the tennis regulars go out for karaoke after practice today so we have an idea of how all four of you sound like…especially since you did not mention Yagyuu at all."

Niou finally made himself known, "Puri."

***Some karaoke box in Kanagawa***

"Kono sora no tsuzuku hate ni wa
Daisuke na hito ga matter
Aisuru subete wo todoke ni yukunda
Mamori tsuzukerunda shikkari to
Aruki tsuzukerunda mirai made
NANA…NANA…NANA…"

Marui finished his song on a high note.

Sanada snorted, "Well, you clearly don't need any help. Akaya, you're up next."

Akaya nervously grabbed the microphone from Marui. He looked through the song selection and chose to sing "Time Has Come." As the lyrics started to appear on the screen, Akaya took a deep breath and began singing. He managed to gain confidence as the song progressed and was able to finish off strong.

"Ima gekokujyou afureru kanjyou
Koko wa senjyou ore no chousenjyou."

Yanagi tapped his pen against his notebook for a few seconds before saying, "A little pitchy but that wasn't too bad."

Niou started to sing "Bluest Sky" before anyone else was asked to perform. In his mind, it was better to just get it over with. Like Marui said, he could at least hold a tune so he didn't have too much trouble getting through the song.

"Get down, ore wa kaze no youni
Freedom, dare ni mo shibararenai
Atsui kimochi, fuki nuketara
Bravery, Jiyuu wa kono te no naka
Kakakutonbuze. Everybody, let's try!
Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!"

Yanagi and Sanada looked at one another.

Sanada sighed, "At least I think he hit the right notes."

Yanagi nodded, "You would be correct but it should be good enough of a starting point." Then, he looked at Yagyuu and said, "You're up."

Yagyuu took the microphone from Niou and quickly located a song. As Yagyuu sang the song, Marui's eyes widened in shock. Kirihara was covering his ears and whimpering while Niou was grinding his teeth and clenching his fists so he wouldn't do anything to Yagyuu that he might regret–Yagyuu is still his doubles partner, after all.

Sanada finally did what everyone wanted to do and screamed at Yagyuu, "Shut up, already! You're making my ears bleed!"

Kirihara turned to Marui and begged, "Call him–NOW!"

Marui immediately took out his phone to call his cousin.

MARUI BUNTA

I dialed Tokiya's number before Bakaya could start crying, making sure to put it on speaker.

"What is it now?"

"Yagyuu can't sing."

"It can't be that bad."

"But it IS that bad."

"Where are you? Otoya insists that we all go there now."

"Box R."

"How am I supposed to know where that is?"

"There's only one place in Kanagawa that specializes in karaoke…just go there and ask where it is."

"Fine, make me do all the work. If he's as bad as you say he is, though, I'd get some ear plugs for you and your friends so that you don't have to hear him again when we get there."

He hung up before I could reply.

I looked at my teammates and asked, "Does anyone want to go and buy ear plugs?"

Jackal jumped off of his seat and yelled, "I'll do it! Come on, Akaya!" Before Bakaya could answer, Jackal grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room.

Sanada looked at me and asked, "What was that phone call about?"

I answered, "Tokiya told me to call him if Yagyuu ended up being really bad at singing."

He rolled his eyes and responded with another question, "Do you really think that he can help?"

I shrugged and replied, "They've been known to make the impossible, possible, in the past…I don't see why it can't work now."

***An hour later***

Bakaya and Jackal came back a little over forty minutes ago. Just as I was about to suggest that we all head home, my phone rang. I answered it to hear my cousin on the other line.

"Sorry it's taking so long. We keep getting stopped by fans and I have to keep Ren away from Haruka."

"Well, hello to you too, Tokiya. How far away are you guys anyway?"

"We're right outside but it's taking a while to get through all the fans that have crowded around us. Plus, Ren insists on taking a picture with every fan that comes up to us. That's not including the fact that Kurusu decided to bring Ai, Reiji, Kurosaki, and Camus along with us."

"Who are those last four again?"

"Quartet Night…when Otoya found out I would be helping you with your show, he thought we should bring them to help out with the dancing Kurusu just thought they could help with vocals too."

"Yagyuu needs all the help he can get."

"Right…well, we're right outside your karaoke box–now open the door so I can hang up!"

He hung up on me before I could respond to him. When I saw that everyone was firmly seated, I walked over to the door and let my cousin and his friends/colleagues into the room.

Mikaze Ai was the first person outside of STARISH to walk in. He took a look around the room and said, "So this is what a karaoke box looks like…"

Then, Camus and Kurosaki Ranmaru walked in wordlessly. Kotobuki Reiji followed them in and asked, "So where's the tone deaf kid?"

I pointed to Yagyuu in response to his question.

Kurosaki-san walked over to Yagyuu and ordered, "Start singing, now!"

I have no idea what Yagyuu sounded like that time around because I had already put in the ear plugs, but it didn't seem good based on my cousin's expression. Camus had to shove a sandwich into Yagyuu's mouth to get him to stop singing.

I took out my ear plugs to hear Tokiya say, "We've got a lot of work today."