Closure

"Ugh, and I just registered and already my rating dipped," Rize groaned as she pulled up her WWCF card.

Thanks to her loss to Okisato, her rating had dipped to 2864, but that still meant she was still top 5 in the world.

"Well, guess ya get the approval then, though what exactly will this cafe be serving?"

"A set menu, actually as it's managed by the WWCF," Raymond stated as he provided a menu.

Rize stared for a bit before scowling and turning towards Ginji. "Oi, this shit's just typical snack food, so why were you raising such a fuss about it?"

"Iyah, I just figured things should be settled in a good ole chess battle, ya know," Ginji chuckled.

"Well, it was fun, so I'll give ya a bonus for the day. Anyway, we should head out before Mt Benihime erupts," Rize smiled as she began dragging an angrily twitching Benihime out with her.

Ginji smirked and followed suit while Bernie turned to face Mimoko. "A shame, I've heard great things about you. Perhaps a different time and place," he mumbled before stiffly shuffling away.

"Now the bigger question is who you'll choose to appoint as SPCM," Raymond stated as he turned to Daria.

"Hmm, Gorou-kun, your rating is 1014, yes?"

Rodeo nodded and pulled out his WWCF card. Due to the massive rating difference between him and Ginji, he hadn't lost any rating points.

"You're still interested in the position?"

"Yeah..."

"Then without further ado, I by my authority as president of the WWCF, will approve of Rodeo Gorou's appointment as an SPCM, after old business is taken care of," Raymond stated.

Daria bit her lip as she guessed what Raymond was implying. "Michiko... right?"

"Correct. Though she is imprisoned, she is still classified as an SPCM. As the titles are for life, stripping the title away would require DESPER intervention, which just so happens to be possible since we wish to seal Michiko's DESPER. Since she must consent to the process..."

"I'd need to goad her into it."

"Shall we depart immediately?"

"... Yeah..."

"Okaa-chan?" Mimoko frowned.

"Don't worry, I've been wanting to face her, to see if she really is as bad as everyone says she is. We did grow up together, so maybe... Maybe there's a small chance at hope..."

...

Daria stopped before a large door with a keypad.

"Are you prepared?" Raymond asked.

Daria nodded as Raymond entered the code, causing the doors to open. The two were greeted with a long hallway eventually leading to a large white room filled with prison cells. This was the WWCF's holding facility, home to many chess offenders from petty cheaters to those that had broken serious offenses.

In terms of dress code, jumpsuits and trainers would be provided, white for women, and black for men. However, as one of the wardens on duty was none other than Ai Kamuro, it wasn't an odd sight for some of the female prisoners to end up completely hairless.

Speaking of the devil, the two happened to find her and three restrained female prisoners, all of whom Daria instantly recognized as being the Fairy League executives that had been caught.

"Esso! Long time no see, maestro," Vittoria smiled as Ai plunged the clippers into her hair.

"Why the hell are you being friendly with her!? I hear Heather's gone crazy since our capture!" Bette fumed.

"Oi, no speaking up, prisoner," Ai snarled as she gave Bette a reverse mohawk before resuming Vittoria's shave.

"Y- YOU BITCH!"

"Why so antsy? You shave your eyebrows, so why not your head to match?" Vittoria smiled as her head and eyebrows were lathered in shaving cream.

"No... I went bald once to get a tattoo, and hated how it looked... Never again..."

"Too bad, because you're all premium prisoners, meaning I get supervision rights. And when that happens, you go completely bald when I so say. No exceptions. But I could ink you up like Medeucesa over here," Ai snickered as she clamped her hand down on Medeucesa's bald head.

Medeucesa blushed and tearfully glared at Daria. With her head and face completely covered in scaly indigo tattoos in addition to being completely hairless, Medeucesa was unrecognizable from before.

"Must you humiliate them so?" Daria sighed as Ai finished round one of Vittoria's shave.

"Hey, Vittoria here volunteered for the whole package, and Medeucesa came here looking like this. Thus in the good name of equality, Bette here should be bald to match, since all three got the same sentence," Ai smirked as she encased Vittoria's entire head and face in shaving cream, eliciting happy muffled moans from Vittoria.

"And was Michiko met with a similar fate?" Daria asked.

Ai scowled and shook her head. "No, I can only shave so many prisoners, and only if their sentence is more than a month, unless I feel like being naughty. But Michiko? Might know this or not, but her punishment is to be decreed by the president, so unless he says I can shear her, no bald Michiko. That, and it would be hard for you to recognize her... So you're gonna face her?"

"Yes. I need closure, and given the president wishes to have her DESPER sealed, what better chance than this."

"Cell 1974. That's where she is. I'll head over to the sealing room to watch, once I'm done making Vittoria here all smooth and hairless," Ai smiled as she encased Vittoria's head and face in wax, and began plucking out her eyelashes.

Daria sighed and followed Raymond down a hall of cells, eventually arriving at cell 1974. Inside was Michiko, in a degraded state. Her hair was disheveled, her fingers were covered in bandages, and all her teeth were gone. This was all thanks to Raymond's wrath in reaction to what she had done with Daria.

Taking notice of Daria, Michiko began cackling as she shoved some dentures in her mouth. "So you came, Daria."