Sticking to the plan

As Yuusuke made his way out of the playing hall, he noticed there was lots of commotion in the viewing area. Remembering Saloni once more, he felt it was best not to enter the nest of the press out of fear he'd be swallowed up whole. Yet one clearly-heard line piqued his curiosity.

"What's with the WWCF? How could they mess up the pairings for Mimoko's game last-minute?"

"Inoue's game? The hell's that about?" Yuusuke thought as he made his way to a quiet area in the Ryokoma hotel lobby.

There, he pulled up the broadcast of the event and rewound things to the beginning.

...

"Good morning! Saloni Madhok here, once again joined by Japan's maestro Himitsu, but this time, Xiu's out and we've got a new guest commentator!" Saloni exclaimed as the camera zoomed over to a very effeminate boy.

"I'm Fran. Fran Mizura. I'm a proud femboy in case you couldn't tell," the boy warmly smiled.

"Bet the ladies will go crazy."

"Sorry, but I'm gay. But I don't mind if ladies thirst over me. Just know that my heart is maiden to another fellow femboy," Fran winked as he blew a kiss to the camera.

"Our gay playboy aside, we've got quite a few matches to cover this round. First up, it looks like we got a big class with Mimoko up against Miga. Some of you might know Miga as the "hot secretary arbiter", but this time she's playing, and she's got a rating over 2700. But, she hasn't played anyone at her level in a while. Think she might be rusty?"

Daria smiled and began to give her take, but in her mind, her thoughts were elsewhere. "A new game showed up this morning in Mimoko Tanabe's log, and it was against a name I'm not familiar with. That means we DON"T change the pairings and have Miga face Mimoko after all," she thought as she said the codeword aloud on the broadcast.

...

Elsewhere, Miga shook her head as she began making her way down the hall to the playing hall with Ina by her side. Though off arbiting duty, she still dressed quite formally, dawning a navy blue suit coat, work capris, platform sneakers, and a white undershirt.

"Why'd you insist I wear sneakers?" Miga groaned.

"They look good on you. Besides, you really wanna sit for hours in heels?" Ina pouted.

"I walk around playing halls in heels for hours."

"And that's not good for your feet! Miga, you really need a vacation. You've been working too much!"

"This is my vacation time."

"No it's not. You've also been guarding Hagemi ever since she was revived. I know part of the reason is because we messed up the Mari Suuo mission, but you shouldn't be taking it all on yourself!"

"You bring up that, yet your the one that needs the time off."

"I can return to work!"

"No, we're not sending you undercover anywhere again. Your cover's been blown, and with the Fairies at war with us, there's no telling who they've enlisted, especially after we now know the entire British commonwealth is loyal to Heather. You're only 1800 too."

Ina dejectedly stared at the floor.

"If you want an incentive, I'll put forth a wager similar to what Hagemi's doing. If you can break 2000, we'll promote you and give you more arbiter training."

"I'd get women's candidate master too. Then would you scale back your workload?"

"No, I'm not going to retire from the WWCF-"

"Then how about you become an SPCM. There's still an open spot in Okinawa, and you are a grandmaster like Mizuse was."

"SPCMs are directly appointed by the maestros. I feel that spot-"

"Then if I break 2000, you gotta ask. Otherwise I'll shave your head."

"If you do that, I'd just cut off my head and regrow one with hair."

Ina began to pout. "I break 2100, you get all your hair shaved at punk maiden and keep it like that for a year."

"Are you kidding!? Then I'd-"

"-Not be able to work without being mortified? Bald is becoming the new hot for women, but I guess you're still one that's not on board with it."

"Says the one with a full head of hair."

"Respecting the style doesn't mean you also need to sport it."

As the two entered the playing hall, they made their way to their respective boards and sat down. Mimoko was already there waiting, but before she and Miga could shake hands, the lights suddenly went out. They came back on a minute later, with nothing appearing to be amiss.

"Why'd that happen? Is this the brass trying to do something? This is why I prefer arbiting; it keeps me in the know," Miga thought as she shook Mimoko's hand.

"That was a bit creepy. There's no storm in the area. Maybe it was just a circuit break," Mimoko thought as she sat down and shook Miga's hand.