Unknown

With the men's team having emerged victorious, they quickly met up with the women's team in the spectator area due to the weather preventing the buses from coming to pick anyone up. Since soundproof glass separated the playing area from the spectator area, everyone could talk freely there.

"So we're all stranded here. Great. All my porno mags are back at the hotel," Mori grumbled.

"You're saying you'd bust out a porno mag in public?" Tenju cringed.

"If they don't like it, they ain't right for me."

"Well... I guess you won't be helping solve our nation's birthrate problem."

Okisato then noticed Mimoko sitting a little ways off, and appearing to be a little distraught. "What happened to Inoue-senpai?" he asked.

Daria frowned and held her fan to her lip. "She won her game, but there was an incident, and then that Mongolian went and released some underwordly aura."

"Yes... Tanabe-kun. I saw you won, but that man you faced... He let out something that truly scared me," Mimoko frowned.

"You were scared by his little temper tantrum?" Okisato scoffed.

"The entire place went silent when that nasty underworldly aura was released," Daria frowned as she fanned herself with her fan.

"But we crushed him and his team 4-0. And just in case he tries to retaliate and some point in the future, I heard his real name was Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. Apparently he was from the 1900s but got frozen instead of executed, resulting in him being revived. Then I guess he got his necromancy powers from winning a DESPER match."

"Where'd you hear it from?"

"Redfield. I guess as a courtesy for having to deal with Jad's temper tantrum, he proclaimed Jad's real name aloud. And after a quick Slickipedia search, turns out he really was and still is a crazy bastard."

"Seems there's a lot of "crazy bastards" in chess so to say."

"Are you referring to me?"

Daria decided to avoid answering that. "The aura incident resolved, the bigger issue was what happened in our match against the Hebrew Federation. Somehow, Mimoko's opponent managed to trap her in some pocket dimension."

Okisato stared in confusion. "Are you implying a DESPER was used? Impossible."

"My thoughts too, but as Mimoko testified, she found herself and her opponent in a place with nothing but blue. From the outside, we could see Mimoko's reactions along with all the moves being played, but we found ourselves blocked from interacting with them via an invisible barrier. Not to mention, upon Mimoko's victory, her opponent withered up and died, just like she proclaimed she would if she lost."

"And she only revealed everything many moves into the game. We all thought she was an executive board member, but we were wrong. She was... something else, a "yedua" I believe she said," Mimoko added.

"An executive? Well that's just pure shit," a voice grumbled.

Everyone turned to notice Chaya scowling down from a few seats up.

"And why are you here?" Utami grumbled.

"Huh? Girl can't sit n' watch? Or ya want me to go out n' waltz in the rain?"

"Perhaps-"

"No, don't do anything reckless. Though if you feel loser's guilt, mind telling us on what a "yedua" is?" Okisato nodded.

Chaya's gaze narrowed before she let out a sigh. "In Jewish mythology, yeduas are said to be humanoid plant creatures that were created before humans. Now question for you; you know Hebrew?"

"כן, למדתי את זה אתמול בלילה יחד עם יידיש ולדינו בשביל הכיף. [Yes, I learned it last night along with Yiddish and Ladino for the heck of it]."

Chaya let out a whistle. "That makes things easier. So that girl, we called her, Lea Yedua. Sounds like a name at first, but actually..."

"Lea Yedua, or specifically, לא ידוע, translates to "unknown"."

"Exactly. One day, we just found her stark naked on the beach, and when she came to, nothing. No memory, no identifiers. All she had was that weird lightbulb eye which was deemed to just be an ordinary lightbulb."

"So it wasn't an executive board chip."

"Nope. But clearly she was harboring something worse by the looks of it. Maybe she really was an actual yedua, but guess we can't really ask her. Still, even though everyone was weary of her, we did bond with her, so her turning out to be some monster that was trying to sap away other's souls does kinda sting."

"Irit shouted someone's name, "Orit", I believe it was, shortly after the match ended," Daria frowned.

"Ah, that's out of my expertise. Irit's the one you'd need to ask about that, but given everything that just happened, girl's in no position to talk about that shit, After the grueling interrogation from the arbiters, she completely collapsed, and will probably be out cold for a few hours. I did get a glimpse, possibly, at who Irit was shouting at, but no guarantees since it could have just been any rando turning and walking away, assuming that's even who she was yelling at."

"Anything would help."

"Whelp, for what it's worth, all I saw was green hair. Short green hair a similar shade to what Lea's was."

That quickly got Daria's gears turning. "Green hair... Could she have been the real executive board member Iori saw?" she thought.

"Anyway, I think I gotta chill with my peeps, so Imma vamoose so you can mingle amongst yourselves," Chaya grumbled.

Mimoko extended her arm out. "Chaya-chan- Ah, my apologies-"

"Add a suffix if it makes you feel better."

Mimoko slowly nodded. "Then Chaya-chan, why are you acting so differently from last night?"

"That's what you want to know?"

"Yes... Here you're acting so much nicer, kinder. Was last night just to try and rile us all up?"

A grin spread on Chaya's face. "The kiss make you forget? I'm Chutzpah Chaya, world's biggest asshole. I'm loud, proud, n' don't give two fucks bout respecting anyone! Oh, gay too by the way, so take that smooch as a proposal to get hitched n' join my harem."

"H- HAREM!?" Mimoko cried as her face went red.

"YOU DARE!?" Utami roared as she suddenly appeared to bulk up on muscle mass.

"Whoa, you taken already? Or is she just your loyal simp?" Chaya snickered.

"I'm Mimoko-sama's proud mad queen!"

"We're not dating!" Mimoko cried.

An imaginary arrow pierced straight through Utami's stomach. "O- Of course... a knight... just serves," she nervously chuckled.

"'Knight'? Thought you said-"

"Chaya, that's enough," Daria scowled.

"Fine, fine. Leaving, leaving," Chaya grumbled.

"Chaya-chan!" Mimoko called out.

"What now?"

"Thanks for telling us all that about Lea."

Chaya shook her head and let out a sigh. "Really are one of the kind ones. Just don't let your kindness become a liability, otherwise, you'll end up tainted, painted, or worse." 

"'Painted'?" 

"Yeah, do something society don't like, you get painted, and with paint that doesn't wash off, so no matter how much you try and fix things, they'll just keep painting you more with the same damn brush." 

"Are you saying-"

"Yeah, I've already been painted as an asshole, so even if I wanted to, there ain't no changing, or rather, no one will accept a change, so I say keep painting! Your damn body will give way before the paint suffocates my skin!" 

"I'm sure people would-"

"Naive. All it takes is one bad encounter to foster hatred for eons. Maybe time can cure it, but that time won't be in my time, so why bother trying to bend over backwards when it'll just strain your back?" Chaya waved with her back towards Mimoko.

Once Chaya was gone, Daria sighed as she took a seat next to Mimoko. "I do wish she would stop reveling in her asshole status. She can be a good person when it counts, but sadly, she feels her reputation is too tainted for anyone to give her a chance, thus an asshole she'll continue to be."

"I don't hate her, nor do I hate Laura-chan for kissing me either," Mimoko nodded.

Daria smiled and gently patted Mimoko's head. "You really are a good girl, so much better than how I was."

"What do you mean?"

Before Daria could elaborate further, a chess piece flew into the sound-proof glass, embedding itself in it.

"ARTILJERIJA!" a voice shouted.

Daria let out a heavy sigh. "Boy, you asked me before if I considered you a "crazy bastard", yes?" she grumbled as she turned towards Okisato.

"Correct, but you avoided answering the question," Okisato replied.

"Well allow me to rectify that by saying no, while you are a bit edgy, there truly are folks here that make even you at your craziest look normal and ironically enough, deadpan," Daria sighed as she set her sights back towards the game from whence the ballistic chess piece had come from.