Chapter 195: The Post-Panel Debriefing (and a New, Terrible Alliance)

The panel finally ends, after what feels like three excruciatingly long and emotionally damaging years. I do not remember how it concluded. I think I may have temporarily astral projected my consciousness out of my body just to escape the secondhand embarrassment and the combined weight of everyone's stares. The moment the lights come up, our group – Rina, Haruka, Aiwa, Miki, Hana, and a still-weeping Kenji – makes a tactical retreat, moving like a single, panicked, emotionally compromised organism towards the green room.

Miki immediately locks the green room door, as if to keep Ichigo (or his army of adoring fans, or possibly just his overwhelming aura of smug, trollish victory) from following us.

Silence. Heavy, suffocating, post-battle silence. We are all just breathing heavily, processing the sheer, unmitigated disaster of the last hour.

"Okay," Miki says, her voice strained, clearly abandoning her usual unflappable calm. She takes off her glasses and rubs her eyes, a gesture of profound weariness. "That was… a worst-case scenario. Subject Ichigo/Izumi has successfully confirmed all our secrets, publicly linked Aiwa and Rui, humiliated Rina and Haruka, and established complete psychological dominance. And," she adds, glaring at Kenji, "we are now down one box of emergency Pocky thanks to Hana's stress-eating." (Hana lets out a small, guilty sob).

"She knows everything," Rina whispers, her Ectiqa confidence completely gone, leaving only the pale, furious, humiliated girl underneath. Her hands are shaking with rage. "The drone, the trackers, Aiwa's stupid playground promise… how? How does she know everything?!"

"She is Izumi," Haruka states flatly, her voice hollow, her usual analytical spark dimmed. "The gamer girl. The one Rui-kun has been meeting with in secret. He told her." Her gaze, when it lands on me, is not just analytical; it is cold. Accusatory. Betrayed.

"I did not!" I protest immediately, feeling the blood drain from my face as all eyes (except Kenji's, who is busy looking for more snacks) snap to me. "I never told her about the trackers! Or the drone! Or even Aiwa's promise until after she revealed it! I just… talked! About games! And ramen! And maybe I complained a little, vaguely, about my life being complicated!"

"So she just… guessed?" Rina demands, her voice rising hysterically. "She just guessed you had a childhood promise to Aiwa and that I bugged your hoodie with a lint-ball?! How stupid do you think I am?!"

"She is Ichigo," Haruka insists, as if that explains everything (which, terrifyingly, it might). "She has been playing a role, just like we do. But she has also been studying us. While we were busy fighting over Rui-kun," her voice drips with self-loathing at the admission, "she was gathering data. On all of us. She was running counter-surveillance. And Rui-kun," she glares at me, "you were her willing, or perhaps just naive, inside man."

"So she was… spying on us, while we were spying on her, while you were spying on all of us with a drone?!" Kenji asks, his mind audibly blown by the sheer, beautiful, intricate layers of espionage. "That is like… spy-ception! It is brilliant! And deeply, deeply terrifying!"

"The question is not how she knows," Miki interjects, ever the pragmatist, though she looks like she needs a very stiff drink and a long vacation. "The question is what she is going to do with this information. She has enough leverage to destroy all three of your careers." She looks pointedly at Rina, Haruka, and Aiwa, who all pale. "Ectiqa's secret identity? Hime-Hime's illegal surveillance and stalking? LUNA's entire fabricated persona, secret past, and connection to Rui? It is a nuclear arsenal of gossip, and she is just casually juggling the launch codes in front of a live audience."

The weight of that revelation settles on the room, suffocating us. Izumi/Ichigo does not just have the advantage; she has all the cards. She could end them. Ruin them. Publicly. With a single blog post.

"But she did not," Aiwa says softly, her voice trembling. Everyone turns to look at her. She is back in her own clothes, the LUNA costume packed away, and she looks small, vulnerable, but intensely thoughtful, the tears from earlier replaced by a steely resolve. "On stage… she did not expose any of us. She just… teased. She hinted. She was… playing."

"She was asserting dominance," Haruka counters grimly. "Showing us that she could destroy us if she wanted to. A classic intimidation tactic."

"And that final comment," Rina says, her gaze locking onto me again, her primary grievance returning full force. "About Rui choosing… she is trying to isolate him. To make him the prize. To turn us against each other."

"Newsflash, Rina," Haruka scoffs, her composure slowly, painfully returning. "We were already against each other. She just pointed it out, rather rudely, and then inserted herself into the competition as the chaotic fourth option."

"Okay, this is getting us nowhere!" I finally snap, my frustration boiling over, my panic momentarily replaced by a surge of pure, unadulterated exhaustion. "We are all sitting here, panicking, dissecting her motives like she is some kind of evil supervillain. But what if… what if she is not the villain here?"

They all stare at me like I have just grown a second head that is spouting complete and utter nonsense.

"Think about it!" I insist, pacing the small, cramped green room, my energy bouncing off the walls. "She is a troll, yes. She is infuriatingly cryptic and clearly loves chaos, absolutely. But what has she actually done to hurt us? She gave me gaming tips. She listened to me complain about you three! (Which, by the way, was very therapeutic!) She gave Haruka technical advice at the club meeting! She gently pointed out that forcing me to 'choose' between you is insane! And just now," I look at Aiwa, "she knew your biggest secret, the one that could actually hurt you, and she did not use it. She just… protected it, in her own weird, cryptic, 'poke the bear' way."

"She called us 'beneath her'!" Rina protests vehemently.

"That was Aiwa in LUNA-mode, defending herself after you two ambushed her in the school hallway!" I shoot back, my voice rising, finally fed up. "You were not exactly rolling out the welcome mat and baking her cookies! You were accusing her of holding hands under a table!"

A new, uncomfortable silence falls as they process my words. My defense of the enemy. My defense of both enemies.

"He… he has a point," Hana whispers timidly from the corner, where she has been stress-eating a Pocky stick. "She has been… kind of nice? In a weird, sarcastic, confusing, mean, yet somehow supportive way?"

"Her kindness is a strategic tool, Hana, you are dangerously naive," Haruka argues, though her voice lacks its usual unwavering conviction. She looks... thoughtful.

"Or maybe," I say, exhausted, running a hand through my hair. "She is just… a person. A very complicated, very talented, very lonely person who is tired of the constant cosplay drama, tired of her own secrets, and just wants to play video games and eat ramen, and who finds our ridiculous high school soap opera hilarious because it is."

"And who is also actively, aggressively, trying to steal you," Rina mutters darkly, clinging stubbornly to her primary grievance.

"We do not know that!" I protest. "Maybe her flirting is just… her personality! Maybe she is just a friendly, chaotic neutral troll!"

"This is… a new hypothesis," Miki says, tapping her pen on her tablet, her analytical brain latching onto the new data stream. "Subject 'Ichigo/Izumi' is not a primary antagonist, but a chaotic neutral third party with a personal interest in Subject 'Rui'. Motives: potentially 'Amusement' or 'Genuine Friendship,' with a significant side of 'Strategic Manipulation' and 'General Trolling'." She sighs heavily. "This is somehow even more complicated than her just being evil. Evil is predictable."

"So what do we do?" Rina asks, looking genuinely lost for the first time, her fury giving way to a deep, profound confusion. "If we cannot fight her… and we cannot trust her… what do we do?"

"Maybe," I suggest, taking a wild, desperate leap of faith, my sanity hanging in the balance. "We just… talk to her? Not as rivals, not as spies, not as targets, but as… people?"

Rina, Haruka, and Aiwa all look at me like I have just suggested we all join a nudist colony and take up professional yodeling. Talking. What a novel, terrifying, and utterly insane concept.

But before anyone can veto my stupid, naive idea, my phone buzzes. It is a text message. From Izumi. My blood runs cold. How does she know we are talking about her?! Is this room bugged too?!

Izumi: Still alive in there, Sir Rui? Or have the vultures started picking at your corpse? Izumi: That was fun. Things are finally getting interesting. Your 'bodyguards' are surprisingly fiery. I like it. Izumi: BTW, I am heading back to my studio. You should come over. Now. Izumi: No, that is not a request. It is an invitation to the next level. I have something of yours. You will want it back. Izumi: [Address Attached]

I stare at the message, my heart pounding a frantic, terrified rhythm. An invitation. A demand. To her lair. The real one. The Ichigo/Izumi headquarters. And she has something of mine? What? My wallet? My keys? My last shred of dignity?

"What is it?" Rina demands, seeing the color drain from my face.

"It is… an invitation," I say, my voice barely a whisper. "From Izumi. She wants me to come to her apartment. Now. She says… she has something of mine."