Manipulator

Okisato went on guard as Pewler stare him down and smiled. Ever since he heard of his name, he began doing some research on him. However, seeing him in person completely changed his perspective of him. For now he could see his eyes up close.

"You really are one sick bastard."

"Such heartless drivel, but expected. I take it you've ingested slander from Maestro Himitsu, who in turn ingested it from Wiley. However, you should learn the ways of compassion. Don't let the Ratiocinatio heartlessness jade your perception of me. I'm compassion, the Misericordia party's core tenant."

"And why would either of us care. We're Japanese."

Pewler chuckled and waved his finger. "The President of the United States of America is the most powerful man in the world. As such, I become president of America, I become president of the world at large. Lindsey, my bible."

The dark-skinned woman nodded and pulled a book out from the briefcase she was carrying. To Okisato's surprise, the book was not a pamphlet of Pewler's manifesto, in fact it wasn't a political pamphlet at all. Rather it was a novel known as Glasstone.

"Have you read this fine booklet?" Pewler sneered as Okisato stared at the cover.

"I have, and that makes my observation all the more true; you're one sick bastard."

Glasstone was a somewhat niche Dystopian novel written by an author known as Regis Revere. The book took place in America and focused on two characters. One was the antagonist, Kon Iving, who began slowly eroding the world and conforming it to his dystopian fantasy, while the other was the protagonist, Duos Calceamenta, who was trying desperately to stop Iving, however, the world had become too dystopian and Duos ended up being captured and unwillingly turned into a sheep-human hybrid known as a sheeplossom before being executed. The book billed sheepblossom as the evolution of the human race due to the fact that they could photosynthesize, reducing the need for consumption of food. However, unbeknownst to the masses, sheepblossom had genetic programming that would make them act like a herd of sheep and obey one known as a shepherd. Shepherds in the book were humans that Iving had deemed worthy enough to rule the world alongside him as chosen elites.

As for how sheepblossom were created, it was by dragging people to a laboratory and injecting them with a special serum from a giant needle in the lab's basement. The worst part was that once someone was turned into a sheepblossom, it was irreversible and their old personality would completely vanish, being replaced by the hivemind-like personality Iving had implemented into the sheepblossom's genetic code. For an added layer of security both to ensure complete control over the sheepblossom and prevent any of the shepherds from attempting to usurp power from him, Iving implanted powerful microchips known as NEXXCTT chips into all his victims which with the press of a button, would turn them into mind-controlled robots. To make things even more dystopian, the sheepblossom were billed as being the most "free" people in the world, but in reality, they were both figuratively and literally livestock for the chosen elites. Some were even killed behind the scenes and served as meals for the elites, as their flesh was described by the book as tasting exquisite.

A unique thing about the novel though was the fact that it told the story of how the antagonist, Kon Iving, managed to become the supreme ruler of his dystopian society. He started off building up his image as a good person, then sought power through politics. As soon as he became a rising star in his respective party, he began slowly weaving his dystopian fantasies into his party's positions, eventually leading to the party itself being tied to him and vice-versa. This led to him preaching that in order to support the party, you had to support ALL his ideals with the upmost zeal, otherwise you were a heartless and immoral person. Due to his popularity, Iving easily managed to win the support of his party's base, and quickly eliminated any opposition from within. Then, he simply demonized the opposition to the point where ordinary folks would not vote for them, and quickly managed to get his party to complete power in the country and become president.

Once he was officially sworn in, he had won. No one could stop him. With America under his control, he began spreading his influence to other countries. Many fell, but some also survived and waged war on him. This served as the finale of the novel as shortly after Duos' death, one of the nations rebelling against Iving decides to launch all their weapons, heavily implying that the entire population of the world will perish. But even then, Iving himself viewed that as a win as even if the entire world was destroyed, it would prove that he was simply too powerful to beat, thus the world itself had to end to stop him. Not to mention, he was confident enough to think that like a cockroach, he'd survive the oncoming apocalypse.

"So you fashion yourself as Mr. Kon Iving. No wonder you referred to this as a "booklet". This isn't a novel to you, it's an instruction booklet," Okisato glared.

A sinister smile appeared on Pewler's face briefly. "But I'm far too pacifist to be like Kon Iving. Why, even in chess my rating is a low 100," he bowed as he pulled out his WWCF card.

Indeed, his rating shown was only 100. However, Okisato knew better than to take it at face value. "How about you show me your games then?"

Pewler raised an eyebrow, yet refused to comply. Rather, he went on a tangent about how in all of his games, he never captured a piece.

"So you just let your opponents win? Bullshit. And bullshit on that sham rating. I'm a maestro, and as such I have the authority to view the logs of nearly every registered WWCF member. The exception being fellow maestros, president Redfield, and the executive board. I can't view any data on you, yet you clearly have a WWCF card. That means you're an executive board member," Daria glared.

"You can still checkmate without capturing a single piece. That's why my rating is 100 and not 0. Now, I have to be going."

Okisato wasn't going to let Pewler go, and quickly blocked his path. Pewler however, seemed to anticipate the move and snapped his fingers. Within seconds, a sheepblossom straight out of Glasstone came running down the hallway, and locked hands with Okisato. The creature towered above him and was stronger than it appeared.

"You know, it looks more like an alpaca than a sheep," Okisato quipped.

"Sheepblossom are said to be gentle giants with hooved feet and human hands. They are docile, but will always obey the will of the shepherd and kill if need be, like so," Pewler sneered as the sheepblossom chomped down on Okisato's head.

However, no one batted an eyelash as Okisato was perfectly fine thanks to Caïssa's blessing. The sheepblossom recoiled in pain, giving Okisato the chance to hurl it off to the side. It quickly got back on its feet, but before it could go in for another attack, the sound of a cane slamming down echoed throughout the hallway.

"Pewler, do refrain from causing a ruckus," Raymond glared.

"My, whatever do you mean, dear president?"

Raymond scowled and immediately produced a gold skeleton key from his pocket. The key began to glow a shade of green as Pewler began to scowl. He knew exactly what that key was.

"So that's how Michiko was forced into her fate. Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Whatever do you mean? You claim to be a mere WWCF member, not a WWCF official."

Pewler chuckled and pulled out his WWCF card once more. With a quick motion of his hand, the card changed from turquoise to purple and the rating from 100 to 2948.

"Well I doubt you'd be able to get a rating like that naturally without capturing any pieces," Okisato glared.

"Perceptive, but the mask is off now, so it matters not. I do offer my apologies though for my pet. I'll be sure to send you some fine sheep meat as an apology. Speaking of which, since I'm clearly a member of the executive board, why was I not informed of the DESPER key's development, dear president?"

"Simple, you defected to the Desperado league," Raymond glared.

"Ever hear of a double agent?"

"I have, but you are not one. Now, would you like to see Michiko, or shall I escort you out?"

Pewler chuckled and decided to go with the former. "Word of advice, Oni-tiger, you're on the clock. Zinnia Broadstone will be Mimoko Inoue's downfall," he sneered as he walked away.

"Hold on! Zinnia Broadstone... What is she related to Agatha Broadstone!?"

Pewler chuckled and confirmed that she was in fact her niece, but said nothing more as he walked away.

...

Mimoko smiled awkwardly as she sat in a booth next to Iori at a restaurant. Across from them was an American girl with multicolored curly hair and sharp pointy teeth.

"YO Carol, you wasted after that jet lag?" Iori grinned as she poured wasabi all over an omelet in the middle of the table.

"Yeah, I jet lagged for week!" the woman grinned.

Mimoko meanwhile was forced to just sit and smile as she filmed the exchange. "This is torture. Iori-chan, I'm going to take all this frustration out on you on the chessboard," she thought.

Iori's friend was a fellow content creator and streamer named Carol Cooke, who went by the username of Cece. She hailed from New York originally and was a popular American streamer. After first playing online with Iori while streaming a game known as Deadly Conglomerate, the two became fast friends, and began doing more collabs together. As soon as Iori heard she was planning to visit Japan, she suggested they meet up in real life and film the greatest collab ever. Even though today was simply supposed to be just a dinner meetup, the two were already at it lacing their meals with wasabi and other spicy condiments.

"Yo, I got ghost pepper spice from the import store, you wanna down it?" Iori grinned as she dumped an entire bottle of ghost pepper spice into a glass of water.

"YO! You madez water spicy!" Carol grinned as she took a sip and proceeded to cough up all that she drank on Mimoko.

"There is courtesy here in Japan," Mimoko angrily smiled in English.

"Oh? Ya speak English. Perfect, so can I tell ya how to film stuff?" Carol asked in a thick New York accent.

Mimoko immediately froze up. Even though she knew some English, Carol's accent was so thick she couldn't understand her.

"Just kidding. I'm actually pretty fluent in Japanese," Carol smirked as she stuck her tongue out.

"HUH!? The hell was all that broken Japanese then!?"

"Fun."

Mimoko went quiet and began sulking as Carol and Iori resumed their conversation. It turned out Iori knew all along Carol was fluent in Japanese, and she was partially to blame for suggesting Carol speak in broken Japanese in Mimoko's presence.

Mimoko quickly began to get annoyed, but before she could leave, Iori got out of the booth and ran to the bathroom, leaving Mimoko alone with Carol.

"Don't think it would be "courteous" of ya to just dip while Iori's away," Carol snickered as Mimoko quickly found herself trapped.

"Are you two long lost twin sisters?"

"Nah, though I do actually have a twin- ...Well, I used to think I had a twin brother anyway."

Mimoko raised an eyebrow, but decided not to press the matter further. The server then arrived with her ice cream, but there was just one problem.

"Uh, I didn't order ice cream."

"Come on, it looks good. I'm gonna eat if you won't," Carol grinned as she grabbed a spoon.

"Who said I didn't want it," Mimoko glared as she grabbed a spoon and dug in.

"MMPH!?"

Almost immediately, Mimoko found herself in extreme discomfort. Her mouth was burning, yet she didn't know why. She quickly ate another spoonful of ice cream, but that only made things worse. As she coughed out for help, Carol sat and watched with a malicious smirk on her face.