Return to Budapest

Irja scowled as she lowered her binoculars. While she had always thought lowly of Kaylee, she was at least hoping she would have been able to beat Daria. However, that was not meant to be.

"Complete failure. I damn the other grandmastermind for elevating her so much."

"And why is that?" a voice grumbled.

Irja clicked her tongue as she turned to notice Phantom standing behind her.

"The feelings are mutual. I think lowly of you. The Olavi faction in general."

"Because of your prior feud with ILU, the predecessor to Deep Blue?"

"You were never a part of it. You simply claim to be part of it to boast, yet it's nothing but falsehoods."

Irja decided to best ignore Phantom and refocus on the task at hand. "Retrieving that damn corpse. I didn't expect her to fall in the water. I doubt a fishing line will do. And that bitch shaved my head too. The water's going to be cold."

...

Mimoko and Daria silently made their way down to the ground floor, where they encountered the others that had made the finals.

"Mimoko-nee! What happened!?" Noa cried as she embraced Mimoko in a hug.

"Noa-chan. To be honest, I'm still a bit overwhelmed from it all," Mimoko nervously chuckled.

"Ah, you're more concerned about her then Chaya? Then again you've been enamored with her to the point where you should just give her a ring and marry her," Golda huffed.

Both Noa and Mimoko went red in the face, but rathe than leap in the teasing, Daria toned it down. "I don't mind a little teasing in regards to Mimoko's love life, but now... Now isn't the time. She's been through a lot and needs some rest. Oh, also got some hair regrowth formula for anyone that wants it."

Everyone's eyes turned towards her.

"It work?"

Daria shrugged and opened the bottle, gently spreading the solution on her head, eyebrows, and eyes. Sure enough, it was a go and Daria's hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes grew back to how they had been before, accept for the fact that her hair was now an undyed red.

"Huh, I'll have to dye it blonde again. Oh well. Want some, Mimoko?"

Mimoko eagerly nodded her head. While deep down, she did like being bald, she also enjoyed having hair as her twintailed look was just too iconic to toss aside. Noa also couldn't stand to be without her hair and quickly regrew her hair too. The others quickly lined up to get their hair back, though with the caveat that it grew back in said girl's natural hair color.

"Ahhh! My hair isn't gold!" Golda cried as she clutched her newly regrown chestnut brown hair.

"Speak for yourself. I forgot how good my hair looked before I dyed it," Fernanda scoffed as she flicked her short black hair.

"Seems your teammate, Okisato, is off the hook, but I'll still resent him for his actions that led to me being subjected to such humiliation," Chihuahua huffed as she flicked her hair.

"What exactly did he do?"

Chihuahua frowned and went quiet. "You'll find out more... tomorrow."

"Hmm?"

While most present opted to regrow their hair instantly, there were some notable hold-outs, notably Xiu and the Hungarians, both refusing for different reasons.

"I wanna wait a day. You know, just to see how many heads I turn with this smooth do," Xiu snickered.

"Zsa Zsa does not need pity. Zsa Zsa will grow her hair back with her own power," Zsa Zsa huffed.

"I really want to come home to my family like this. Oh, but if they hate it, make sure to save some of that for me, OK," Jolan smiled.

Then there was also Xiao Lin and Drahomíra who agreed to use it, but were unable to grow any hair. Petronella was still in a state of distraught over Kaylee's death, refusing to go near Daria and Mimoko.

"Are you sure you don't want your hair back?" Drahomíra asked.

"No... I won't absept anything from them... They killed Kaylee... THEY FUCKING KILLED HER!"

"But Kaylee always said you looked cute with hair. I'm her designated bald bitch, not you!"

"Not anymore... She's dead. SHE'S DEAD, YOU IDJIT! She's not coming back. She'll never snuggle with us again. She'll never designate us as he favorites because she's dead... I love her... I loved... her..."

Petronella quickly broke down crying once more, only comforted by Drahomia who cried just as much as she hugged her.

"Well cry me a river. Anyway. How about you give me some of that stuff. Bald just doesn't suit a cute witch like me," Agatha giggled as she wadded up to Daria.

"Yeah, I'll take some of that do. Give it to me!" Edeltraud grinned.

But both were stopped by their respective teammates.

"Like, fuck no. You're like, completely heartless here. Those Belgian girls, the Japanese ones too, they're suffering. The Simiens too since like, that girl that died was their friend, yet all you care about is having hair again. Like, no hair for you," Katie glared as she began dragging Agatha away.

"No! They'll mock me if I come back bald! I want hair again!" Agatha cried.

"And as for you, I'm ordering you to keep your head shaved bald forever," Ingrid glared as she regrew her own hair while keeping Edeltraud pinned to the ground under her heel.

Everyone then headed for the bus parked a few feet away which was designated to take everyone back to Budapest.

"WHOA! Why do some of you have hair again!? They're not wigs, right? Cuz if they aren't, regrow my fucking hair, dammit!" Kisha cried as she blocked the entrance to the bus.

"No problem. How about you, Nancy?" Daria smiled.

Nancy nodded and soon both her and Kisha had hair again, though while Nancy's had grown back blonde, Kisha's...

"GAH!? It's black and straight!? No! I don't want any callbacks to my nerd days! get me some perm rollers and blonde dye, I want my Marilyn back!"

Click!

Kisha turned in shock towards Xiu, who had gleefully snapped a picture of her.

"Kisha's true hair. You'll have to shave your head bald again to hide all the shame you'll be facing when word gets out," Xiu snickered as Kisha began chasing after her.

"So where are the others?" Daria asked Nancy.

"No clue. I was told by the organizer they'd come back on separate buses. Apparently they only had one bus prepared at the start."

"They could fit more people on this bus."

"They aren't releasing them though. I don't know why, but maybe it's some hierarchical thing for the winners."

Daria sighed and accepted that reasoning as she climbed on the bus. Once everyone else was on, the bus left and began it's 2 hour drive back to Budapest.

"Noa-chan, did you really know Kaylee-chan well?" Mimoko asked.

Noa frowned and stared out the window. "I knew Chaya, but I guess the Chaya I knew was just a visage of Kaylee. She was my friend in that form though. Maybe that's why she was so comforting to me when she was disguised at the salon. As Chaya, she tied to warn us not to compete, a sign that she really cared about us. I just don't understand why it all came to this."

"None of us do. But we at least have some closure on some other matters," Daria sighed.

"What do you mean?"

Daria briefly recounted the incident with Michiko, detailing how now with everything Kaylee had revealed to them, it was fair to assume she had been the mastermind behind it all. But questions still remained if it was though her own will or the will of someone else, such as Olavi who seemed to have complete control over he.

"Olavi Hellkinen. That's the one the boy hates with unbridled fury. Seems we may be crossing paths whether we want to or not," she thought as she scowled and closed her eyes.

...

That night, Mimoko and Daria ended up sleeping together.

"Really been a while since we slept like this. Wanna drink some milk while you're at it?" Daria grinned.

"Okaa-chan! I'm an adult, and two... Two..."

Mimoko went quiet as she remembered Daria was in fact pregnant with her younger sibling. It hadn't just been Daria she had saved, but her younger sibling growing within.

The trembling resumed once more, causing Daria to hug Mimoko tighter and soothe her with words. It eventually worked as Mimoko soon drifted off to sleep.

Though it pained her to do so, Daria maneuvered out of Mimoko's grasp in order to get out of bed and make her way over to the door to let a certain someone into the room.

"Are you holding up?" the masked man asked as he entered the room.

Daria smiled, but only momentarily before bursting into tears and embracing the masked man in a hug. "I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna die right in front of Mimoko just before she could win... That would have been horrible... I messed up so badly... Honey... Please..."

The masked man nodded and escorted Daria to bed, getting in under the covers with her and hugging her just as she had been hugging Mimoko just moments ago.

...

In another room, a similar scene unfolded as Jaana and Inga trembled on the sofa together before Amelia.

"You two participated... What happened?"

"We lost our bracket, then got thrown into chaos. I don't know how, but I think we escaped it," Jaana stated.

"You had to go bald... I see you got your hair back, but still..."

"Thanks, but it's what we get for being bad."

"What do you mean!? I was the one who messed everything up, I was the one who... who... Waaaah!" Inga cried as she began sobbing once more.

"It was as that stylist said, I came in after you to protect you. I don't even want to think of what would have happened if you had gone in alone and no one else from the team came. It was terrifying, but we both got out."

Amelia nodded and leaned in to hug the two of them. "My apologies for not properly telling you to avoid this. I had heard of the bald requirement, and just assumed that not telling you about the event would keep you away from it, I had no idea it had such a nefarious secret."

...

Outside the hotel, Jadwiga struggled to stay upright as she staggered off the bus with Zosia.

"Well look who finally got back. Mind telling me how badly you failed to get kept there so long?" Wieslawa scowled.

Jadwiga didn't reply, still to traumatized to hold a proper conversation.

"Wieslawa... Not the time. It was really bad, every time she had White-"

"Oh, she fucked up. So were you lollygagging because you were too busy-"

"I WAS GOING TO DIE! I... They took advantage of me... My trauma... My trauma.... almost cost me my life... I was on the verge, but then I got Black," Jadwiga trembled.

"Um, the fuck?"

"YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WE WENT THROUGH!?"

Wieslawa was taken aback by Jadwiga's frantic outbursts, yet still had no idea what was going on.

"Forget it. We got a match tomorrow so go the fuck to sleep."

...

In her hotel room, Gundega sat dejectedly as the others gathered around her in support. "... I couldn't find anything... I just wanted to learn what happened to him, but in the end we nearly got eliminated... I'm sorry I dragged you into this," she sighed as she turned to Ilze.

"Hey, you're our baby girl so it's natural that we as the older ones do our best to help you. Didn't expect things to take such a dramatic turn, but we both got out of it in one piece," Ilze smiled.

"So you're really serious about there being some death penalty thing for the worst 4 teams? The broadcast only covered up to the finals between Japan and Belgium, then cut out," Santa stated.

"It most certainly was just as I said. More shocking was the fact that Miss Irja was the one seemingly behind it."

"Irja Pirkkiö... I'll have to dig into her," Ināra frowned.

"No, I don't want you digging into danger."

"She's right. I think this goes deeper... Miss Mifsud was the one who whispered that I could learn about my father if I joined, but look at what happened," Gundega frowned.

"Mifsud was the one that told you? Hmmm... Now I really don't like this."

"A conspiracy surrounding a wealthy trillionaire like her wouldn't be surprising, but if she is the ringleader, then maybe it is best for us not to dig too deeply into this. That's the kind of stuff Muazzez would do. Speaking of which, do you know how she did?" Ināra asked.

Both Ilze and Gundega shook their heads.

"I see. I just hope she didn't become a part of one of those supposed 4 losing teams."

...

Chun-hwa scowled as Ye-bin and Ju-hye finally returned to the hotel. "And do you two know what time it is? I'll tell you, it's 5 AM! If it were earlier in the year, the sun would be out by now!"

Both Ye-bin and Ju-hye simply gazed at Chun-hwa briefly before shuffling past her.

"AHEM! I'm talking to you-"

Slam!

Chun-hwa stared in bewilderment as the two slammed the door to the bathroom shut. This was the first time the two had ever acted like this around her.

"Well cry there, but remember, we got morning photo-ops before the round starts."

...

"So that's what happened. Damn Mongols, I didn't think they'd kidnap you and throw you into the salon," Orit snarled.

"At least we won, but Chaya... or, I guess, maybe her sister, was actually some crazy villain and died," Noa frowned.

Orit went silent as did the whole room, with Shoshana finally stepping up to break the silence. "No, that was Chaya. If it was her sister, she wouldn't have done what she did. But due to what she went through, her old personality was warped... Nazis really are the worst of humanity," she somberly scowled.

Orit's gaze narrowed slightly, but she held her tongue, largely as doing so would cause her less headaches later. "If you both feel unwell tomorrow, just rest. We can manage with a three-woman team," she stated as she decided to turn in for the night.

...

In team Belgium's room, everything was silent and somber.

"Ever since Kaylee got kidnapped and tortured... she was never the same... I simply thought it was because of what was done to her. It is true... but..."

"What is it Petronella?" Mi-rae growled.

"I heard Kaylee's final words. 'Kaylee, I'm sorry'. Kaylee never referred to herself in the third person. So what I'm thinking... is that Kaylee died long ago. And the "Kaylee" we knew since... was Chaya."

"No way. Kaylee got fucked up, but she remembered us and did everything in her power not to harm us. Her sister deemed us criminals because we were her wives," Janneke glared.

"And that's why I think she decided to live as Kaylee, because Kaylee cared for us when society scorned us. I habe a speech impediment, Drahomíra has alopecia, Mi-rae's autistic, and you, Janneke, have dyslexia. We were all bullied for those things, just as Kaylee was bullied for her Jewish heritage. We all lived harmoniously together, but then Chaya came home and a week later, her and Kaylee were kidnapped."

"None of us were there at the time... If only we could have been," Drahomíra sniffled.

"Maybe it was better we weren't, could you imagine what they would have done to us, done to us to hurt Kaylee... But if I had been there, I'd have made sure to hurl my prized hammer at those fuckers," Petronella tearfully glared.

"Your hammer? I thought you quit smithing years ago," Mi-rae scowled.

"I did, but Kaylee got me back into it. She loved the things I made. That's why, I want to make something for what little remains of her," Petronella sighed as she turned to Kaylee's corpse lying on the bed.

"Drahomíra managed to retrieve her and sneak her onto the bus. But we'll have to keep her here," Drahomíra sighed.

"Nothing to worry about. But we'll have to be vigilant. I don't want her corpse being stolen."