When you least expect it

"And just WHERE were you all!?" Mimoko fumed as everyone returned to the room.

"A comedy show," Okisato stated as he glanced towards Maida.

Maida scowled, knowing full well Okisato had lots of blackmail material on her, and covered for him. "It was at my judgement. If you are to blame anyone, blame me."

Mimoko was taken aback as she didn't expect Maida of all people to cover for the two, but she had no choice but to except the reasoning.

"I see... Tanabe-kun, you get off with a warning. Iori-chan, are you feeling better at least?"

"Better- ACHOO!"

"One more day of rest it seems," Daria sighed.

"No way! I wanna go to the Bermuda party tomorrow!"

"Then rest up so you can. It's at night I believe. As for everyone else, let's resume the strategy meeting. Boy, how familiar are you with the Bosnian team?"

"I studied them back at the playing hall," Okisato stated.

"And I assume since most of them are Desperados, we're benching Ginji, correct?" Ryonosuke asked.

"That's right. We can't have him throwing games. As for the assignments, I'll be taking on Miralem."

"The co-president of Bosnia as well as the rising star?"

"That's right. As for you, Hobou-san, Refik is probably the best match for you. He tends to favor pawn pyramids and after a quick search through the archive, he also likes to play the Tennison occasionally, but if he does, you can punish him."

"Hmm, so you're assuming he'll be playing as White then... Very well, but what if he's not even fielded?"

"I have a feeling he will be. One of the players got completely soaked, much like Iori did back in the 4th round. Even if for some reason he is fielded, he'd be an easy mark, which is why Zago would be best to handle him."

"And I get whoever remains then," the masked man nodded.

"Correct. Sejad is the only unknown, but considering he was present when I figured out how Tvrtko played, I have a feeling he might try to convince Tvrtko to sit out, and substitute himself in his place."

"And if Tvrtko sits out, Ognjen has to play, no matter how sick he may be... Seems on brand for them to force him to play no matter how unwell he's felling."

"Correct, as if he does end up getting others sick, they'll dump all the blame on him. And in the unlikely case where they do bench him, we have Tvrtko's number. Thus, if Zago or Houbou-san find themselves against Sejad, I'd recommend going for a draw, as his records indicate he is more of a drawish player."

As the men formalized their strategy, the women were still in the midst of crafting theirs.

"Now obviously, I have to take on Xiao Lin, and I want to as well. That bitch has been avoiding me ever since the Michiko incident, but now her back is against the wall. She'll be forced to play against me, and when she does, I'm going to humiliate her," Daria glared.

"Okaa-chan, please don't tell me you're going to play a dubious opening against her," Mimoko groaned.

"Not at all, but I will be attempting to pull off something nasty, and deserving for a bitch like her."

Mimoko frowned as she noticed Daria's clenched fist trembling madly. She truly held a grudge for what Xiao Lin had done to her. But the nature of the incident still baffled her. Without spoiling too much on what the Ultima-master was, Daria revealed that while it did have a rating of 3200, it wasn't capable of forcing others into DESPER matches on it's own. To do so required a DESPER wielder to place their DESPER into the Ultima-master, and then either input the commands for the wager manually, or verbally. But the catch was that neither Mizuse's, Taira's, nor Michiko's DESPER had been used for the wager, and Daria lacked the authority to access the Ultima-master's memory banks to check just who's DESPER had been used. And since Ai was not even a WWCF member and Xiao Lin and the other Japanese SPCMs had yet to receive DESPERs, the mystery remained as to who else could have been in on the conspiracy.

"Ah, my apologies for getting a bit lost there. Now Mimoko, you're taking on Xiu."

"Gladly. I'd love to pay her back-"

"Abandon such thoughts. If you want to beat her, you'll need to play at your best."

Mimoko was taken aback by how serious Daria had gotten. It really spoke volumes to just how much of a threat Xiu really was despite her personality.

"And that's not all. Chen Bao is another looming threat."

"Actually, I'd like to take her on," Tenju declared.

"You want to face Bao?"

"Yes, we have a history. Also, there's a separate matter I was wondering if I could discuss with you..."

...

The next morning, the weather still looked ominous, though not quite as bad as the day before. Nonetheless, Okisato decided to get up earlier than usual in order to get to the venue ahead of time. Mimoko, Daria, Tenju, Zago, and the masked man had the same idea as well, and waited with Okisato outside the hotel for the first bus of the day.

As they waited, they saw some of the other players who had other means of transportation to and from the venue, leaving, with some of the notable faces including Red Reaper and Decebal.

"Ya sure ya don't want a ride? Only a pint of blood per mile," Decebal smirked.

"We'll pass on that," Daria politely smiled.

"Well suit yourself. In fact, I should thank ya. Now I can get a little racing in before the main course," Decebal grinned as he turned to Red Reaper.

"You think you stand a chance against Prussia?" Red Reaper scoffed.

"With your grandson still in the slammer, you bet."

The two stared each other down before getting into their cars and racing off, just as the bus arrived.

"Bright and early it seems," Noa smiled as she stepped out alongside some of her teammates.

"So who are you playing?" Mimoko asked.

"Hungary, so that means we get to sit at the second board."

"Ah that's right, they're the hosts so they always play at table 2. Well best of luck."

"They'll most certainly need it!" Zsa Zsa fumed as she stomped out, the look on her face clearly showing she was still distraught about her thrashing last night.

"I doubt it. Zsa Zsa doesn't care about any but Collette, so why would she play?" Okisato snickered.

Pure malice oozed out of Zsa Zsa as she zeroed in on Okisato. "You, you humiliated Zsa Zsa. Zsa Zsa will NEVER forgive you. And you, twintailed whore. You took advantage of Zsa Zsa to humiliate her further!" she glared as she shifted her gaze towards Mimoko.

"You brought it on yourself for smacking me in the face," Mimoko glared.

Zsa Zsa continued to glare at her before turning to board the bus. In Zsa Zsa,s world, only her and Collette reign supreme, but you two... YOU TWO have invaded it and cast Zsa Zsa off her rightful throne! Zsa Zsa is angry, Zsa Zsa is FURIOUS! And thus, the mortals shall face her wrath as she comes to reclaim what is hers."

"Well thanks. Now we have a harder fight ahead of us," Orit growled as she walked by.

"Please, I can handle her in my sleep!" Golda boasted as she followed her onto the bus.

"Competition is healthy. No need to get so bent out of shape over it, Deadeye," Shoshana sighed as she hopped on the bus as well.

"Yeah, you did a good deed. I'm sure the Hungarian team will appreciate it," a dark-skinned man with a white beard nodded.

Both Okisato and Mimoko stared in confusion, before Maccabee stepped in and introduced the man as Ezekiel Goldschmidt, Golda's father and a member of the New Kingdom of Simien's men's team.

"Ah, my apologies, I have heard so much about you that it slipped my mind we hadn't actually met in person. Well, best of luck to your teams as well," Ezekiel smiled as he boarded the bus with Maccabee.

As the Japanese teams boarded, Okisato noticed Jad and the other Mongolians standing around, with Jad's glare solely focused on him.

"Ugh, I hope they're not gonna chase after us again," Mimoko trembled.

"I hear they begin riding once the bus containing their opponents leaves. With the weather much better, we should get to the venue before they can catch up, assuming their opponents aren't on board," Okisato stated.

Though seeing the Mongolians did remind Okisato of something he had looked into last night. Curious as to how Mongolia could have been paired against Japan, Okisato did some digging and found out that it was rumored three men in red robes hailing from the Spanish team had apparently been bribing the officials in order to fix the match-ups a certain way. Though perhaps it was more accurate to say the Spaniards had challenged said officials to chess, with their prize for winning being the ability to set one match each, with some restrictions applied.

"So that's why you got paired against Mongolia? Well that was unexpected," Mimoko nodded as Okisato finished debriefing her.

It was certainly unexpected, but ultimately it mattered not to Okisato, until the three men in question suddenly leapt out from the seat behind him and Mimoko.

"No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" one of the men shouted.

Okisato let out a groan. It was going to be a long bus ride as the cosplaying cardinals, Franko DeFranko, Francis Jiménez de Cisneros, and Franklin Franz, were going to only further annoy him.

...

Back at the hotel, Azenira found her path blocked by an exuberant Ginji, holding a dubious liquid inside a small flask.

"Iyah, a good morning to you, Azenira-chan. Want a sip to get your system up and running?"

With an unamused glare, Azenira naturally declined and attempted to pass by.

"Ah, wrong answer! The right answer is... you don't have a choice," Ginji maliciously chuckled as he pulled a cloth out of his pocket and shoved it into Azenira's face.

Azenira desperately struggled, but it was no use. She was out cold in seconds, allowing Ginji to force feed her the dubious liquid with little resistance.

"Two down, and now the teams are screwed," he thought as he skipped down the hall towards the lobby.