Slightly better terms

The next morning at school, Iori was met by a crowd of angry students led by none other than Shion.

"What's with the mob? And why are you the one leading it? I thought you were suspended," Iori grumbled.

Shion clenched her fist in fury. "I always knew... I always knew you had to be behind Rio's death. It was you on shift working their at the time! Everything was on video!"

"You mean what the cops ruled an accident with no foul play? Seriously-"

"We have proof this time! The Blue Hornet was able to piece together a theory-"

"The blue what?"

"Ngh, the Blue Hornet! It's an American newspaper-"

"And why does that-"

"We saw the news. You killed the American president. That proves-"

"Look. It was in a chess match-"

"You were the one that instigated it. You even filmed the whole ordeal."

"And how does that implicate me? I checked the vod and all that was in it was the finisher. No incriminating statements at all. I ain't stupid," Iori thought.

"I've seen all I need. Thus-"

"Now do hold your tongue for just a moment," Shirako ordered as she walked up. "The individual Ishikiridokoro took out was one Fianna Broadstone. My fellow students, how familiar are you with Fianna Broadstone's politics?"

Not one person in the crowd was able to say they knew much about her.

"Then allow me to enlighten you. Fianna Broadstone was racist. Racist against all of us here. Being anti-Japanese was her whole schtick, so much so that she's demonized us at every turn even for things us and our country have nothing to do with. To highlight some of her more disturbing ideals, she believed we should be nuked again and that the internment camps America placed Japanese Americans in be brought back. Ishikiridokoro and I are incompatible with one another, yet if I myself had the power to off that vile woman like she did, I'd do it, for my country and my people."

The crowd of students began to murmur against themselves.

"Yikes, that woman really did say messed up things about Japan. If she had become president of America, she'd have the power to do some really nasty stuff, wouldn't she?"

"Yeah, maybe Iori-chan had it right in taking her out."

"It says she only became president after the vice-president resigned, she was appointed vice-president, and then the president resigned, and this all happened in a span of 5 minutes. Shady shit if you ask me."

Shion began to grit her teeth in fury. She knew now that thanks to Shirako, her little scheme was finished. Though she always held the belief Iori was responsible for the teahouse incident, she could never sway public sentiment to her favor on the matter. Today, she had come close, yet once again, she had been foiled.

"Ishikiridokoro, one day you WILL be exposed for the murderer you are," she thought as she walked away.

The crowd of students quickly forgot about Shion's claims with some even complimenting Iori on taking out Fianna. There were naturally some upset with her actions on moral grounds, but still found it hard to connect that with the teahouse incident. Thus, business returned to usual at the school.

"So uh... thanks I guess," Iori grumbled as she turned to Shirako.

"I meant all that I said. That woman was truly vile. Now, unless you have the intention of forging better relations with me, I suggest you head off."

"I just came to thank you so I'm not in your debt. Guess we can call the slate even."

"My thoughts as well. We both know how incompatible we are with each other. Eve if we try to forge a friendship, it'll be shattered the moment our personalities clash the next day."

"Sad but true. But... I'll at least upgrade you from "Hentai large" to "Rako-chan."

"For some reason that irks me. Very well, and I'll refer to you as "Iori" from now on."

The two quickly parted ways, now on slightly warmer terms.

...

Once school got out, the chess club gathered at Triple Cedar as Carol happily greeted them. 

"So first off, I've been approved to be the new SPCM for this secret puzzle cafe. As such, I felt like the way to access it needed to be renovated to better suit my personality. That and there were some complaints about having to trek through the hair salon to reach the place. So, we decided to close off that entrance and build a new one via the arcade here," Carol smiled. 

"You were able to get approved as an SPCM?" Iori asked.

"Yup, my rating's now 969, meaning all's good. And with how I'm growing, the maestro estimates my skill to be somewhere in the 1600s, so maybe a tournament or two more will reflect that. Anyway, since I live in the area and am friends with Mimo, the maestro felt I was a good fit for the position. And since you've all been to this cafe before, I felt I'd show you the cheat code for accessing it."

"So that's why you insisted I bring everyone here under the pretext of club activities," Maida nodded.

Leading everyone into the arcade room, Carol quickly headed to a chess arcade in the back and began fiddling with the controls. First, she selected the CPU opponent, Bromeliaceae Nikaru, and proceeded to play as black. As soon as Bromeliaceae played the Bongcloud, Carol responded by moving her bishop to d6, and after Bromeliaceae followed up by moving his king to f3, Mimoko began scowling as she realized what was going on.

"The code is the fastest possible castling checkmate, yes?"

"You got it. E4, e5, king e2, bishop d6, king f3, queen g5, bishop c4, knight h6, bishop e6, f captures e6, queen e2, and the king's side castle mate. You can only pull this off though against Bromeliaceae, but when you do..."

As soon as Carol got the mate, the arcade began moving to reveal a hidden passageway.

"You get access to the secrets within."

While Mimoko didn't have the fondest memories of the game, she did have to admit it was impressive to have it function as an entrance code. Venturing inside, everything looked just as it did before. 

"Hey, Mimoko! Like the new access point?" Daria waved as she sat at the counter. 

"It's creative, but personally- No, it's fine." 

"So what happens to us that already beat every SPCM?" Okisato asked.

"Well, the badges are generic, so nothing new of note, though if you beat SPCM Himitsunohi as she's now been dubbed, you'll get an additional note added to your badge as well as the standard 1st time win awards. But for any that never beat Himitsusan, Himitsunohi's badge becomes the default." 

"Sounds fair. Then I'll challenge her first." 

As Okisato challenged Carol, everyone else headed to the back to do the puzzles, save for Mimoko, who went to sit next to Daria. 

"Not gonna do them right away?" 

"I just wanted to talk with you. Thanks for doing this for Carol-chan."

"I needed a new SPCM considering Michiko's got a life sentence, and deservedly so. Carol's got great potential, and since she managed to surpass the 800 rating requirement, Approval was done and done. The renovations here were easy to make and thus, the Triple Cedar secret puzzle cafe is back online. But now comes the hard part." 

"What do you mean?" 

"The Tokyo secret puzzle cafe. Just this morning, the Japanese Chess Federation gave me an ultimatum; they want me to seal the deal in Tokyo so that they can host a big tournament there."

"What kind of tournament?"

Daria flashed her phone.

"National team qualifications for the Chess Olympics?" 

"Correct, specifically for the women's team?"

"Why?"

"Because thanks to a series of events both directly from the WWCF and not, the line-up for the women's team will now be thrown into disarray. The big ones being the approval for maestros to compete in the Chess Olympics and Hagemi's disappearance." 

"Disappearance? But I thought-"

"She was previously held by the Fairy League, but apparently she's been sold off to an anonymous buyer, a fact we only learned after we were duped into paying a trillion euros up front. As a result, the JCF's leader has decided to hold a tournament with only the top finishers qualifying for the team, mainly to justify my inclusion as maestro, but also because the JCF head is a ruthless man." 

"So that's Agatha's role in all this," Okisato scowled.

"Agatha? As in Agatha Broadstone, sister of Elenora Broadstone?" 

"You know her?"

"Elenora's head of the American chess federation as well as a WWCF official. She also made the claim Agatha was the one that bought Hagemi, but also that Agatha passed her off to a new party. And since Hagemi apparently lost a chess game with her freedom on the line, the president won't dole out any form of punishment."

"She lost!?" Mimoko gasped.

"I'm afraid so. I was surprised to, but the president confirmed the fact. Thus the chances of her returning in time to be part of the national team are low, hence the justification for the tournament from the head of the JCF."

"What's the JCF president like?"

"He's Michiko's father, a retired international master." 

"He's her father!?"

"Yes, and in retrospect, one of the main sources of Michiko's downward spiral. As such, relations between us are a tad strained, though I'm not necessarily disagreeing with him on the grounds of setting up the secret puzzle cafe in Tokyo and the tournament. As such, I'm planning to head to the place I've got my eye on, tomorrow night. Feel like coming? I hear the food's great there." 

"Sounds good. I'd love to spend time with you like that."

"That's my girl. Oh, but the drill tail bet is back on. Drill tails would pair so much better with the dress I have in mind for you than plain twin tails."

"Okaa-chan, I just got my hair back to normal," Mimoko laughed as she flicked her perfectly straight twintails.