The WWCF executive board

Daria stared with an unamused expression on her face as she watched the executive board bicker with each other. Save for the hooded figures having their voices filtered so as not to be identified, all this scene amounted to was just a typical board meeting.

"And why the need to make this secret? Merge them with the main board and nothing would change," Amelia snarled, echoing the thoughts Daria had in her mind.

"What!? We outrank you, plebs! We are the executive, not the employee board, the EXECUTIVE board!" Kit fumed.

"'Outrank us'? Says the fools that rely on chip implants to survive the 2000-plus levels."

"Onlookers should remain quiet. These meetings usually are not to be attended by any other than the executive board members and myself," Raymond glared.

"So I infer we're to make judgment on this Tanabe that's shown her face," Fidelma frowned.

"If I may, our strife is that this mysterious Mimoko Tanabe has games in her record from future dates, but also has every game my daughter, Mimoko Inoue, has played up to this point. though the future games are glitched, the dates are clear, with games appearing usually hours before they happen in real time," Daria stated.

"And do you show these to Mimoko?" Orit snarled.

"No. I have told her about the gist of it, but never shown her the actual games."

"I assume you take this to be a prank of sorts. Then just show her the game and have her make a different opening," one of the hooded figures suggested.

"Our mission today was to try and flip up the pairings. We initially posted that Miga would be her opponent, but when the game revealed her opponent to be Kurumi, I sent a signal to the arbiters instructing them NOT to make a last-second pairing swap."

"So what would have happened if Mimoko was shown to play Miga?" Gudit asked.

"We'd have had her play Iori last-second."

Orit began to scowl at the mention of Iori's name, yet remained silent.

"Iori Ishikiridokoro... It says she won her game this round against a novice player," Ian stated as he stared at his WWCF card.

"Then we settle on having her play Iori tomorrow regardless of what shows up in the game log."

"That isn't a decision for you now that we've been called," Kit snarled.

"Then vote on it," Raymond ordered.

The board did just that, yet found itself in a 5-5 split. The onlookers assumed Raymond was to break the tie, yet he refused to budge.

"A draw, so to say. Take that as all being null, meaning things are back to how they were before our meeting," Fidelma frowned as she threw her cloak back over her head, shrouding her face and distorting her voice.

Orit, Gudit, and Kit all did the same before warping away. One member stayed behind though, and strolled up to Daria.

"Can I help you?" Daria asked as she stared into the black shrouded mist obscuring the figure's face.

The figure didn't say a word, but their action immediately caused a revelation to come to Daria. "The... the mist. There was black mist there. Just like-"

But the figure warped away.

"You think the mist shrouding their faces has something to do with what happened?" Alexandre asked.

"Wouldn't surprise me if it did. But for now, we pair Mimoko against Iori, and don't tell her a thing about the game."

"Why not tell her?" Amelia asked.

A somber expression overtook Daria. "If she's going to face Iori seriously, I don't want her to know of the game log. Think about it; how would she feel if it's real and she remembers every move from it, using it to beat Iori at her best? Those two would never accept it. Thus, we don't say or touch a thing."

However, the mastermind behind all this would not let things go according to plan...\

...

"Wazzup! Emmie here! I'm gonna make a huge bet on how a game next round will go down. The game? Mimoko vs Iori-chan, the bitch who blew up my heart and melted all my skin off. Shaved me bald nude too!" Emmie snickered as she appeared on TV.