The morning after

Mimoko and Carol sat somberly as the train chugged onward. Though the tears had stopped flowing, both their eyes were still red and their moods hadn't improved in the slightest.

"Iori-chan, why'd you do something so reckless?" Mimoko trembled.

"She had a good head on her shoulders, but now, knowing those fuckers, it's probably skewered on a rusty pike. Fuck them. FUCK THEM ALL! This is why I wanted to leave this politically drunk hellhole!"

"'Wanted to leave'?"

Carol scowled as she noticed an intersection full of campaign signs. "I really do hate politics for more reasons than one. That's why I adopted a "fuck it all" approach to politics after the incident. Sure, there's some stuff I support, but I just keep that to myself. Sadly, people can be cruel to the point where they'll burn down your home and murder you if you don't agree with them, but I guess if you look at all of human history, that's nothing new, sadly. And when my identity got leaked and people started hurling jeers at me, I knew this place wasn't safe for me to live in anymore."

"When your identity was exposed?"

"I never got the chance to finish my story, after Christian was murdered, the mob began burning down the place and I decided to escape via the tunnel. Christian always wanted to be a miner, so I guess he made his own tunnels. Once I had escaped, I contacted my grampy, who came to get me as fast as he could. His lawyer then pulled some strings to get me into witness protection and that's why my name's now Carol. It was at that point I decided to start over, or rather revert back to my true personality. I decided streaming was my calling and decided to get take advantage of my free witness protection makeover package and get a set of pointy teeth and some rad hair dye, and voilla, best girl. Everything was going great, then someone found out about my past. The subs seemed to support me though, but I still felt I had to leave the country. Apparently my great-grandma was Japanese so I decided to head for Japan. I met the old man chess guy and for some reason, he agreed to help get me set-up so long as I played chess."

Mimoko nodded and the two went silent once more. Curious about how Carol was in the past, Mimoko decided to look her up, and was surprised to find an image a miserable looking, well-dressed woman with a red pixie bowl cut.

"See, told ya I looked like shit. Hell, I'm glad Christian even recognized me when I looked like that. If I hadn't run into him that day, I don't even wanna think of what hell I'd be in. He really saved me in more ways than naught. Not only did he help me break free from the years of brainwashing, but he laid down his life for me. I really wish he was here by my side though."

"Though why'd you change in the first place?"

"Simple, change is a constant in life. Back then, I kept getting berated and ostracized for doing weird things like eating crickets and pulling pranks. I was ordered to "mature". Of course I resisted, but then all that abuse I told you about happened and I was brainwashed before I knew it. I didn't tell you how bad some of the shit that bitch, Imelda, did was. Especially what she made me do to LinZay's room."

"'LinZay'?"

"She was a raunchy streamer, who by sheer coincidence, went to the same college as me. I had watched her stuff before though. Anyway, she was actually one of the few folks that stood up for me when I was getting beaten publicly, meaning she went into the bitch's crosshairs. A week of abuse by that bitch later, LinZay was arrested by campus police for allegedly beating me up. That evil bitch had the power to literally dump all her crimes on anyone, yet all I did at the time was nod in approval at her accusations."

"Why?"

"Due to the week of torture I was subjected to. I'll never forget the look of disgust on LinZay's face as she asked me if I was brainwashed. All I remember next was repeating some of Pewler's drivel I had been forced to memorize and being kicked by LinZay across the hall. Then when I came to, that bitch Imelda forced me to burn down everything in LinZay's room. Manga, vintage figurines and game merch, wall posters, that bitch shoved a lighter in my hand and dragged me around the room burning everything. I'm glad that bitch died a painful death. As for LinZay, I eventually learned that a cruel fate had befallen her. I should have spoken up, but I was too afraid at the time. Too afraid of being punished again, that I betrayed not only others, but myself."

"But you eventually changed for the better and found the courage to speak up."

"Too little too late to save all those that were wronged, but then again, me speaking up back then probably would have only gotten me eliminated sadly enough. Just goes to show how fucked up society can be. Speak up for what's right, eliminated. Keep quiet and assimilate with injustice, you live. I guess the only counter for that is to become so big you can't be eliminated. I think my fame before calling out Pewler was the only reason I wasn't assassinated immediately after I started calling him out. If I had been a nobody, I'd be kidnapped in my sleep and executed in the wilderness somewhere and no one would really care."

"How could that be?"

"Because people quickly forget about insufficient nobodies. And if you're an unlikable nobody, people probably wouldn't be to upset if they learned you'd been murdered. I told ya before, politicians preach about how you gotta be accepting of others, but that only applies to those they deem worthy of accepting, and if they deem you unworthy of being accepted, you're an unspeakable evil that must be purged for the sake of all things good in the world. The only reason I wasn't killed immediately was because if that had happened, the narrative would have been that Pewler really was guilty of what I was accusing him of and had silenced me. Instead, the fucker bid his time and had his henchmen form a mob in order to get rid of me. That way, he could frame the issue as society simply lashing out against a deranged heartless conspiracy theorist hellbent on ruining lives with lies and falsehoods. The mob we just escaped from, was just like the one from back then."

"Are you saying it's the exact same people-"

"No, they're most likely brainwashed folks. Though I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were part of the mob from back then, considering Horner was leading them."

"Horner?"

Carol quickly explained that Horner was the chief editor of the Blue Hornet, and thus wielded immense power through his influential paper.

"When we get back home, I'll sue that bastard for the stuff he wrote about me," Mimoko huffed.

Carol began to frown as she stared down at the ground. "Say, what do you think this will be over when we get back to Japan?"

Mimoko stared oddly at Carol before affirming that yes, she believed that would be the case. However, Carol was not so optimistic. She quickly pointed out that Pewler could simply just repeat what he did before and have some Desperados kidnap them again. Even if they did win the games, if they were brought to an isolated location, they'd be forever trapped and at Pewler's mercy.

"And if that fucker becomes president, he'll essentially become mafia kingpin of the world. I'm sorry, but the realism in me just keeps screaming that."

Mimoko sat in silence before patting Carol on the shoulder. While she couldn't fully comprehend Carol's circumstances, she could at least affirm that she'd do her best to support Carol and stop Pewler to the best of her abilities. Though she still wouldn't forgive Carol or Iori for shaving her head back in London.

"Hahaha! No regrets for that. You looked so weird all smooth n' shiny."

"And I hated every second of it. Why the hell did you have to go so extreme!? Shaving everything off was bad enough but then you waxed and drenched me in that burning cream!"

"It'll rake in the views though. Still, thanks for livening up the mood. Iori would probably want that."

"I'm sorry I'm not the best at these things. Tanabe-kun's the one more suited for that."

"Tanabe? The guy Iori was head over heels for? Girl, you'd better make him happy for Iori's sake too."

"Uh, what are you implying?"

"Oblivious? Eh, guess anime romcom tropes are more common in Japan than I thought."

"Again, what are you implying?"

"Heh, nothing."

"Come to think of it, your Japanese has gotten much better. It's still nowhere near native level, but not bad."

"I was acting a bit when we first met, but I wasn't that much better than what I let on. Understanding was the easy part, but speaking was always the hard part. Especially since I still don't know all the Japanese slang words, but I guess being around Iori for a day straight helped. Iori, Thank you."

...

Back in New York, Iori let out a massive sneeze. "Ugh, those two are probably talking about my funeral or something. Hmm, now I gotta think of how I'll reappear before them," she thought.