Nothing sweet about it

Iori munched on some palatschinke as she waited for hers and everyone else's meals to cook. "Oki-kun sure is taking forever. Looks like someone finally won, but still, why are all the boys taking forever to finish? Must be the Frenchies," she grumbled aloud.

"Ahem!"

Iori rolled her eyes and turned to face a beautiful woman with long blue hair.

"And you are?"

"Zélie Bealieu. I'm a WWCF official and France's main representative on the WWCF council."

"The executive board?"

"No, the main one. Anyway, I couldn't help but overhear that snide of yours, so I thought I'd warn you; racism will not be tolerated."

Iori shot the woman a skeptic glare. "You think I'm stupid? You realize how many racist assholes you got competing? Also, I ain't being racist."

"You were discriminating against my compatriots because they were French, if that isn't xenophobia, I don't know what else is."

"Well someone's oversensitive. It's just fucking banter."

"All it takes is some banter to create a harmful stereotype-"

"Want me to conquer your ass in a little chess?"

Sweat began to run down Zélie's face. "Dammit, I got too worked up. Now I'm trapped. If I play her, I'll be humiliated, but if I run away, she'll call me a coward and further that negative stereotype of us. Dammit!"

As Zélie froze in place and began to slowly faint in place, Barbro stormed by, a nasty scowl plastered upon her face. She ended up smacking into Zélie, sending her tumbling to the ground. She was so upset, she didn't even turn back to check on Zélie, nor did Zélie protest since she had long since fainted.

"And out like that. Word of advice, Frenchie. I may have killed millions, but I never killed people solely on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion, gender, all that shit. Sure it's likely I've killed a member of every type of groups out there, but the motive was simply pure killing. If you want to call me out for targeting a group of people more than others, it'd be sleezebag politicians like Rio Segawa and his ilk. Those are the types of people I'll make the effort to wipe from the world. I get Frenchies are mad at me, but what I said aloud would only be considered a hate crime by some lunatic or a sadist trying to cause me trouble, and I doubt you're the latter. So count yourself lucky you fainted on the spot, otherwise your ass would be humiliated worse than hell," Iori thought as she gazed down at the fainted Zélie.

...

"Food delivery!" Iori smiled as she returned to the hotel room.

"What'd you get me?" Daria giddily asked.

"Palatschinke, Hortobágyi palacsinta, and Dobos torte!"

"Aren't those all desserts?" Mimoko scowled.

"Hey, I earned it for what I did, now gimme that Hungarian sugar!"

Iori obliged and handed Daria her food, before turning around to head back out.

"And where are you going?" Mimoko asked.

"Downstairs. I'm gonna wait for Oki-kun. He should be coming back soon."

"True, Ginji's game finally ended, and the boy's opponent's clock is nearly out of time. That means he'll likely be back in 15 to 20 minutes taking the bus ride into account," Daria noted as she devoured her food.

Iori nodded and left the room, watching the live feed of Okisato's game as she walked away. Now alone with Daria, Mimoko turned towards the dessert and began to get flustered.

"Hmm? Weren't you complaining about all this sugar just a second ago?" Daria mischievously smirked.

While Mimoko had indeed complained just a second ago, deep down, she really wanted to munch on those sweets.

"Sorry, but these are part of my hero's reward. You'll have to go down to get your own deserts."

"Okaa-chan, it's a mother's duty to feed her young!" Mimoko whined.

"Hmm? Can I hear a "baby wants milk"?"

"I'm going out to get myself some sweets."

Iori looked up and held the elevator door open as Mimoko came storming over. "So what happened?"

"I was cast out of the nest to forage on my own," Mimoko scowled as she tried to hide her flustered face from Iori.

"Heh? What'd she say to make your cheeks go so red?"

"She... She just correctly guessed I was tempted by the sweets and teased me about it."

It was the truth, but whether it would be enough to keep Iori from digging further remained to be seen.

"Really? Same for me. I didn't even know some of this shit existed, but when I asked for sweet delicacies, I was brought to a world of wonders. Dobos torte really is the shit. Truth be told, I figured I'd head back to the cafeteria and get some more food to film myself eating it."

The crisis had been averted.

"Guess I'll come with you then... ..."

"What is it?"

"Our match tomorrow... We might be up against the woman who looks like Hagemi-chan."

Iori began to go deep into thought. "Come to think of it, Oki-kun was frantic about something when this tournament started. Something about Hagemi having a son named Yuusuke and us supposedly knowing him. Even called him "Shouben-kun" which sounds hilarious. But this has been in the back of my mind for a while too. Oki-kun's not the type to joke around about stuff like imaginary friends. It got me thinking if maybe this Yuusuke guy is real and some DESPER shenanigans are why we can't remember him."

"But how would that work? We were never dragged into a match, and if we had been, why were we subjected to the punishment?"

"Might not be subjection, but rather an after effect. If Yuusuke's punishment was getting erased from existence, that means we'd all naturally forget about him."

"Then why does Tanabe-kun seemingly remember him?"

Iori shrugged her shoulders. "Oki-kun just knows shit. Even if he doesn't know why."

Mimoko had no choice but to accept that line of reasoning. The elevator soon reached the ground floor, allowing the two to exit and head for the cafeteria. As they did, they both noticed a girl at the front desk begging the clerk for something.

"Please, can you not hail a cab for me to the venue? I need a ride there!"

"Sorry, but we can't provide transportation to the playing hall. Not only have you already left, but it will be closed for the night anyway."

"But I haven't been to the venue yet."

"Then why do you need to go there now? Just go tomorrow morning."

"I can't! I can only go... at night..."

"What's the problem?" Mimoko asked as she walked over.

"I need to go to the venue... I must..."

"Um, cryptic and creepy? Your boyfriend still playing or something?" Iori growled.

"I'm Vonnie. Vonnie Otosopista. I need to get to the venue. Just get me a ride there..."

"What team are you even from?"

"... Mexico."

Iori's eyes narrowed as her guard increased ten-fold. "Weird shit's been going on with the Mexican women's team. My instincts are also screaming that something's off with this girl. Mimo-chan, maybe we should-"

"Hmm? What was that about 'weird shit' going on with us?" a voice snarled.

Iori grabbed Mimoko and dove out of the way as a machete blade swung at the space they had been standing. Getting back to their feet, they turned to face their assailant, a bespectacled girl with a curly green afro and a spider tattoo on her abdomen.

"Ah, that's why my danger sense was blaring. Well, nothing I can't handle," Iori grumbled as she cracked her knuckles.