Naruto SoundITP IC 1: A Melancholy Song of Hope To Come

[Lord Raziere]

Kimiko:
She steps up and says
"Someone has killed an ashigaru of ours, this is a great loss. All those who are innocent, we must start stepping up our game! If they take out our other ashigaru, we'll have no protection left."
She looks at the people left: Herself, Senko, Usagi, Gurasu, Hizuka, Tetsumi, Miho, Raizo. By Kimiko's estimation, the two killers, the suicidal, an ashigaru and the four innocent
"...Indeed." Tetsumi agrees "We have only seven left. We have to get a yakuza out soon. Two yakuza left increases the chances of the innocents losing considerably."
Hizuka decides it her time to strike.
"We should vote out Senko. She clearly has been orderly working to make sure each person is taken out yet the last two have been innocent! She is as much a detriment to the innocent as much she is a help at this point, and thus is probably the yakuza, we should just get rid of her now."
Then Hizuka could point at Gurasu, Raizo and Tetsumi to get rid of either of them being the other ashigaru protecting Kimiko, then murder Kimiko to win.
"A good plan Hizuka, but before I turn things over to Senko to defend herself, I must inform you.....that you have already lost."
"Wait what?"
"Well, from a certain point of view at least. If your playing for Team 5 to win the most points, you have already lost, as Ryone just got murdered by the yakuza. A point is earned for each round of someone stays in and as you may have noticed, Team 3 still has three members and thus the most points, because we lasted for the most rounds with the most people. Yakuza have just murdered out one of your own teammates and thus you are now a point behind, Gurasu and Miho is the only teammates of their teams remaining. Thus no matter what you do now, you will not earn enough points to outscore Team 3, because all three of us have made it one round farther than Ryone did. I think anyone who has figured out the real game by now is that this is a survival game, not of the teams of innocent and yakuza, but of the teams of ninja we're loyal to. We wouldn't be awarded points for staying in if they didn't mean something and if you calculate the number of points for each team:
Team 3: 12
Team 5: 11
Team 2: 7
Team 1: 7

Team 3, even if Senko was voted out, would still gain 2 points per round, still one point ahead of Team 5 at 14 and 13. Face it Hizuka, your team cannot win now."
A fiery battle spirit alights within Hizuka as she proclaims
"No! Thats not true! If I can vote out both you and Senko, then while next round will Team 3 go up by 2, the round after that will go up by 1, while Team 5 will remain at a steady 2, thus equaling Team 3 at 15 and surpassing you at 17 by the third round after this! Me and Tetsumi just have to stay in! I'll never give up hope, not against you!"
"Hyu.....hyuhyuhyuhyuhyhyu! You really think you can win, foolish blacksmith? Your already down a member!"
"I can win! I just have to convince Gurasu and Miho to vote for my side! The power of Determination and Acquaintances will overcome even you, Kimiko Ishikawa!!"
"But unlike you, Hizuka, I have the far more mighty, elite and prestigious power of Friendship upon my side! Mere Acquaintances cannot withstand such deeper bonds of friendliness and cameraderie that I have with Senko and Usagi!"
"Ha! Its three and against potentially four Kimiko! Acquaintances have a hope of winning yet if we simply all work together!"
"Hyuhyuhyu.....then I shall show you the hopelessness of have only mere acquaintances against the power of true friends! Despair, as I open the floor to Senko to defend herself against your accusation!"
You have a feeling that this round will pretty much decide the game, as if Team 5 loses a member this round, they will never able to catch up to Team 3 in terms of points and the rest of the game won't really matter in terms of team points or anything and will people just be able to have fun afterwards. If Hizuka does succeed here, there is still a second chance to pull out a win from that but this will decide the game in terms of points if Team 5 loses a member here.

Meanwhile to the side, Naneko and Kazuo whisper to each other:
"Are....Hizuka and Kimiko having a battle manga hero and villain exchange about hope and despair, over a game of yakuza?" Kazuo asks
"Yeah, you should've seen them when they played shogi against each other in the academy during recess last month, you'd think the world was ending with how they were speechifying against each other." replies Naneko sardonically.