Foggy memory

Okisato scowled as he stood across from the entrance to the hotel's salon.

"Nothing... The hell happened? I thought she'd be dragged over by now," Skaberghast grumbled.

"Seems you were wrong," Okisato snarled.

"Oh? And wouldn't you normally be happy? Or are ya disappointed we don't get to see a cute girl get shaved bald?"

Okisato merely growled, and began to leave, but as he did, he noticed Ragnar comically placing banana peels throughout the hallway. "And this is?"

"When they come running by, they'll slip and slide on these banana peels!" Ragnar laughed.

Sure enough, Übel did come by and slip on one, sending him slipping towards Ragnar.

"What are you doing- DOH!"

The two crashed into each other, sending them both sliding towards a suit of armor, which led to Ragnar getting conked on the head by the armor's helmet.

"Ugh, I've wasted too much time. I'll just order everyone dinner from Ubel eats," Okisato grumbled as he headed off.

While he waited for the food in the lobby, Okisato checked to see if the pairings were up yet. The women's side was up with Japan set to play the Israeli Kingdom of Simien, but the men's side wasn't quite up yet, as one match was still ongoing.

As he leaned back and let out a bored sigh, Ayane strolled on in. "Well you sure gave everyone the slip. But since you're here, how about reimbursing me for the dinner you agreed to pay for."

Ayane blinked in confusion as Okisato got up and approached her. "For last night? Vampire girl paid for it."

"Tonight. You lost to me and agreed to buy everyone what they wanted from Ubel eats. But your card got frozen apparently and you ran off to go beg your sister for money or to just get away after Skaberghast proposed paying for everything if you shaved your head."

Ayane continued to play dumb, staring in confusion, but she was certainly a great actress as if he didn't know any better, Okisato would assume she truly didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

Before he could press further, the sound of frantic panting diverted his attention. Turning, he noticed an out of breath Inori, complete with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes.

"Ayane, just what did you do!?"

"Huh? Ayane doesn't know-"

"Then why's everyone saying you forced them into a death match!?"

That line grabbed Okisato's attention. The entire city of Budapest was said to be shielded with an anti-DESPER veil, preventing any DESPERs from being activated until the tournament's final round. Of course, standard underground chess matches could still take place, but considering the circumstances, it would imply said event had taken place on hotel grounds, which would be unprecedented. With such a major tournament going on, there was no way the WWCF would allow life-threatening chess matches between participants to occur until the final round, meaning either Inori was exaggerating the severity of things in her flustered state or a conspiracy was brewing.

"What exactly happened?" Okisato asked.

"I don't know. Some Canadian came up to me complaining about how he now had to starve for a week because of Ayane."

"Nah he doesn't. He just doesn't want to suffer the consequences of breaking the terms," a voice snickered.

Everyone turned as Muazzez strolled up, munching a chocolate bar. Upon seeing her bald state, Okisato internally noted that perhaps Skaberghast had been right.

"So I presume breaking this wager means you go bald?"

"Hmm... In a sense. But I got shaved n' waxed bald, kickin' n' screaming just before I headed to Budapest, so no worries for me."

"'Kicking and screaming'? You look like you're relishing in your baldness.

A mischievous smirk appeared on Muazzez's face. "Well someones being overt about their bald fetish. But guilty as charged. I just thought I'd throw ya a little bone to make your heart race. The least I can do for a guy who's clearly getting hard for me."

"Um-"

"Da Zzez ain't into guys, but guys are into da Zzez. No shame fam, so take that sexy fantasy of me and treasure it in your wet dreams," Muazzez giggled as she skipped away.

Okisato scowled and struggled to hide his flustered state. "That woman, she completely deflected everything, and put my emotions in disarray. Damn her," he thought as he began pacing around. In that brief window, Inori ended up dragging Ayane off, depriving Okisato of any more chances to inquire about the incident. He didn't dwell on this too much as shortly after, the Ubel eats guy arrived with all the food.

...

"Got the food," Okisato nodded as he entered the hotel room and tried to act like everything was fine.

"Ta-na-be-kun, we sent you to get food... 1 HOUR AGO! And why is it Ubel eats!?" Mimoko fumed.

"Uh, stuff happened. Besides, I paid for this-"

"ACHOO!"

The entire room turned towards Iori, who was now huddled under the covers, shivering.

"I do hope you ordered hot soup, Tanabe-kun. Ishikiridokoro-chan's condition has slightly worsened," Maida glared as she took Iori's temperature.

Now sporting a baseball cap and fake eyelashes, Maida had been hanging out in Budapest as a spectator for the event. Though officially, she had been listed as a coach for the team, allowing her to be privy to coaches meetings and such. Though for now, her chief role was serving as nurse as Iori now had a cold thanks to getting drenched earlier and not changing into dry clothes fast enough.

"You seen the parings, yet?" Daria asked as she held up her phone.

Okisato shook his head. He knew the women's team was set to face Simien, but games were still ongoing in the men's section, so he didn't know who he'd be facing next. But the moment he heard what team it was he began to scowl.

"How? The just lost to Prussia, so they shouldn't even be close to us in the standings even though we lost."

"There are some teams bunched up that have already faced each other, but I do agree, it is weird that you're being paired against a team so much further down in the standings than you."

"It is a mere point's difference, but regardless, I've heard the Mongolians have quite the team. We best be vigilant," Ryonosuke noted.

The men's team was set to play the New Empire of Mongolia next round. As the strategy meeting began, Ginji arrived, but only to tell everyone he'd be sitting the next round out. This seemed like good news considering what Ginji had done last round, but it did raise some flags.

If Ginji was willingly sitting out, it meant either he had some scheme in the works, or complete confidence that Mongolia could crush the team with ease. Though Okisato ironically spent most of the meeting telling the girls what he knew about the Simien team.

"Orit Sharir... So she's that ice cold apeshit lady... I wanna play- ACHOO!"

"You're not playing at all with that cold, Ishikiridokoro-chan" Maida glared.

"I agree. Even if your condition improves, she's an executive board member. In fact, I'm probably the only one that can take her," Daria sighed.

Iori sniffled and pulled up her WWCF card, searching until she found the full roster for the Simien team. "2960, just like when I saw it... But the others are fodder. I can take one of them."

"DSPCM Golda Goldschmidt is no slouch, a grandmaster in fact. She may have unorthodox opening tendencies, but she's able to convert them into wins. In your current condition, I don't see you being able to take advantage of that."

"Well what about these two?" Iori scowled as she pointed at Noa and a girl named Shoshana Luzon before letting out another sneeze.

"Newly-minted DSPCM Noa Ben-Horin... True, her rating is under 2100, but she's on the rise. Her father, Maccabee Ben-Horin is a grandmaster, once the top Israeli player before moving to America and then back, in a sense, to Simien."

"What do you mean by that?" Mimoko asked.

Daria paused before scowling and tapping her chin with her finger. "It's an odd story. Apparently after the Babylonians managed to win control of Israel via a DESPER match, the Israeli Kingdom of Simien popped up in Africa a few months later. It just came out of nowhere, with many thinking it's always been there. What's odd though is not a soul seems to have any idea on what occurred in the months leading up to Simien's creation. Even the Israelis themselves can't remember anything from the moment Babylonia won the DESPER match until they were in Simien. The Babylonians are also quiet on the issue, but then again, most of it's residents are either scientists or their creations."

Mimoko's confusion only deepened as Okisato decided to step in. "There's a Finnish man, an evil one at that, named Olavi Hellkinnen. One day he decided to revive the Babylonian empire and did so via the use of robots. In fact, I think they even registered as a team to compete," he scowled as he did a quick search on his WWCF card.

Sure enough, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was fielding both a men's and women's team for the Chess Olympics, with the men's team being comprised almost entirely of robots, each bearing a name similar to that of famous Babylonians such as H4MM-UR4B1 and N3BU-CH4D-N3Z-Z4R. The sole exception was Olavi himself. Olavi looked like a typical mad scientist, with his demented smile in his profile pic suggesting he had a screw or two loose, but that didn't explain to Mimoko why Okisato's voice was seething with hostility whenever he mentioned Olavi.

Daria also began to sense things were starting to get off topic, and quickly steered the ship back towards discussing Simien. "Getting back to what I was about to say regarding Noa, she's got some infamy due to the fact that she's been able to take down opponents 500 or even 700 points higher rated than her. In fact, I'd compare her rise to yours, Iori."

A grin formed on Iori's face, but quickly vanished thanks to a succession of sneezes.

"Okaa-chan, you shouldn't have said that. Now she's going to want to play her too," Mimoko sighed.

"No, I needed to highlight her skill to illustrate why we can't field Iori against her when she's like this."

"Ugh, just get me some medicine. I'll be better in the morning," Iori grumbled as she shivered under the covers.

"We can't deal with maybes, we need absolutes. We also can't risk your condition worsening for the latter rounds. Remember, I still need to sit out for at least one more of the remaining rounds, and you being sick would be bad for us all."

"I can play- ACHOO!"

"It's not a matter of if, you might not even be allowed to set foot inside if you're spewing snot everywhere," Tenju snarled.

"I can wear a mask-"

"She's got a point. Some nations might raise a fuss if we field a sick player against them as it could cause their player to get sick as well," Okisato stated.

"Poland's still filling complaints against us as we speak, even though the WWCF has already ruled in our favor," Maida growled as she shot a glare at Okisato.

"Hey, Ginji was the one that set me up. I even brought Jadwiga to the playing hall so it's on her and her team for what befell her."

"We got lucky with that, but if we field a sick player and one of our opponents' players gets sick, we'll be easy to blame," the masked man stated.

"Thus, you're sitting out for round 5, and that's final," Daria huffed.

Iori sighed and rolled her eyes as she stared up at the ceiling. There was no winning the argument for her. As drowsiness consumed her, she took one last look at Simien's roster. "Shoshana Luzon... 1946... fodder. Chaya Shamir... Chaya Shamir? Huh?"

Before Iori could elaborate, she fell asleep.