The spooky puzzler

As the morning sun rose, Mimoko slowly opened her eyes. She still felt a bit tired, but not as much compared to how she had been before.

"M- Morning," Iori trembled.

Poor Iori on the other hand hadn't gotten any sleep, staying up all night thanks to being spooked by her ghostly encounter. The stream had continued running the whole time though, making for extra content at the very least. But before everyone could go home, punishment was in order for the night's big losers.

Stripping down to bikinis, Carol and Astrid were coated in corn syrup and goopy candy, becoming human candy corn within minutes. Since this left the two unable to talk, Leona was left to handle the narration.

"Alright, now we gotta head back home like this. No more pods, so that means public transport is the way to go."

"And the winners?" Miga groaned?"

"Contractually obligated to stick with us until the batsu is complete."

Thus, Miga was stuck in cheerleader mode for another few hours until everyone was back at Tokyo station.

"If anyone wants hair again, I can help you," Mimoko smiled as she retrieved the bottle of magic hair regrowth.

"Hmm, sorry to say, but think that's gonna be going back in your item box. I've been teasing baldness for years, and now that I finally am bald, makes sense that I should embrace it for a year minimum," Lada smirked.

"Yeah, I'd love to cover up this sell-out on the back of my head, but I'm under batsu law to keep it shaved for the month, and even then, I want it to grow out naturally," Leona nodded.

"Mmph ngh mmph [No hair ever]!" Astrid added.

"I'm with Leona. I wanna go to school all smooth n' shiny and get more lols," Iori grinned as Carol nodded in affirmation.

"I'm converting to the shaved," Douga added.

"Give me my hair back," Miga trembled.

"Sorry, but you're under batsu law too. And speaking of which, let's give you a shave," Ina smiled as she whipped out a can of shaving cream and splorted some cream on Miga's head.

"Kya! Ina!"

"Guess that makes me the oddball, but Hina gave me the permanent stuff... I'll have to find another Desperado," Mimoko sighed as she poured a little of the solution on her head.

To everyone's surprise, Mimoko's hair grew back.

"Huh? But... Well, if it grows, I'll take it."

In seconds, Mimoko's hair was back to normal length as were her eyebrows and eyelashes.

"She's gonna ink your face next time she sees you," Iori snickered as Mimoko tied up her hair in twintails.

"Maybe that's why she did this. Well, if we can leave, then I'll take my leave."

After being excused, Mimoko warped home where she was greeted by a giddy Daria, who couldn't help but tease her for the stream.

"And in case you're wondering, pumpkin man's locked up in prison much to his dismay. But on that note, I do have something a tad more serious to discuss."

"What is it?"

Daria pulled out her WWCF card and pulled up the game between Mimoko and Stanislava. "This game right here. Though it says your opponent is Stanislava Drozdová, this girl's match data does NOT match up with the Stanislava's of our reports. This is a good thing as her victims would likely be in trouble if the real Stanislava was stuck in prison until she died as their punishments being lifted are tied to her life. But since she had immortality, the chances of that happening were slim to none at least in her victims' lifetimes. But if that Stanislava is a fake..."

"The where is the real one?"

"That we don't know. I've tried looking her up, but the trail stops cold after her most recent victim's game. There is a final game after, but I'm unable to see it and I imagine the president who is able to won't share a thing about it."

"That reminds me, Iori-chan faced someone she claims to be a ghost."

"Oh, that was just a typical ghost. Nothing to worry about."

"How can you say that with a straight face?"

"From what I hear, she's a chess fanatic, but never managed to form a solid career before dying of malnutrition. I believe her name was Anji Itou."

"And you know all this how?"

"Looked up some stuff surrounding the farm and apparently she's a local legend. Seems she likes to give out puzzles more so than play, which leads to her losing a lot. Hear her peak rating was actually in the mid 900s, 956, I think the article stated."

"And what are we going to do about her?"

"Nothing, there's no need. Though I guess we can have a chess center pop up near her so she has some stuff to do. Non-WWCF members can still access regular old chess centers and use their basic services, which includes puzzles and puzzle submission."

"You can submit puzzles?"

"Oh? Well I guess you prefer to solve them more than make them."

"I'll make you eat your words," Mimoko snarled as she set up the chessboard on the table.

As Mimoko began moving around pieces to set up some puzzles, a thought crossed Daria's mind. "I haven't checked Mimoko Tanabe's game logs since the tournament ended. It's probably best not to raise my stress levels, but just out of curiosity, I want to see if all Mimoko's games are in her logs."

It turned out none of the games Mimoko played during the stream including the one against Korb were present, yet that didn't bring forth any excitement or relief.

"If Mimoko Tanabe really is Mimoko from the future, than it does stand to reason her directly playing Mimoko would mess things up and deviate from her original timeline. But that right there doesn't make sense. In the original timeline, Mimoko wouldn't be under the influence of her potential future self, so why would she play exactly the same as she did back then? Same for her opponents, notably Alma. Hmm... Alma... Not just her, Lada and Douga were opponents too. Iori and Okisato had their matches messed with, and then of course there was Miga's match which ended up pitting her against Ina and Mimoko against Kurumi. All but Okisato, Kurumi, and Alma were present during the stream. Or could it be..."

Changing gears, Daria decided to pull up Iori's game against Anji, and was shocked by what she found. "My, my, so this ghost doesn't pop up despite the fact that all non-WWCF members should be included in the database regardless if they're rated or not. In the case of the latter, it's almost always an instance of an older player who was rated before the WWCF came to be. Cases like Rize who somehow managed not to get a rating despite winning..."

Daria suddenly began to frown. "Rize... Mimoko was meant to face Rize, yet she never showed... Seems I nearly forgot about an important piece to this puzzle."