The fairy commander's angst

Tears began pouring out of Xiao Lin's eyes as she was forced to give Okisato the spoils of his victory. "I- I certify that you legally and fairly bested me in the trial I set forth. As such, you earn my badge, the right to rematch me for only 10 points, and a bounty of 10,000 points."

As soon as she finished, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle as her DESPER restrained her and began tattooing her head. Within seconds, she was done. Though she could still at least walk properly, and her rib cage would heal, she'd never be as good at kung-fu as she used to be. What's more, she had been humiliated in chess and now had the game log of said defeat tattooed prominently on the back of her head.

"And with that, seems like my work here is done," Okisato nodded.

"Did the president order you to do this!?" Xiao Lin glared.

"Ask him yourself. You'll be seeing him shortly," Okisato snickered as he warped away.

Xiao Lin clutched her side and slowly rose as she was forced to warp to WWCF HQ. There, she consented to having her DESPER sealed, requiring her to activate it in a special section of the facility and then throw the game. To add insult to injury, she was playing as white, meaning she essentially replicated the game she threw against Ai.

"Poetic justice in a sense. And with this, you're now free from the DESPER and Desperado's influence. You are free to leave now," Raymond nodded as Xiao Lin's DESPER was sealed.

Xiao Lin tearfully glared and warped back to the mountain, collapsing onto a bench as her SPCMs gathered round. "Well how'd he get through you!?" she snarled.

"My apologies master, we did our best to delay him, but he blasted through us," Bai stated as he began recounting what happened when Okisato first arrived.

...

In London, Okisato scowled as he noticed a giant warship situated in the Thames. "That wasn't there when I left. Shit! Was I too late!?"

Before he could run, a figure suddenly climbed out of the Thames. At first, he assumed that perhaps it was someone that could tell him what happened while he was gone, but his expression quickly darkened as the mysterious person pulled themself out of the river and turned to face Okisato.

"Well that was a long, arduous swim. I nearly cramped up and drowned. This is why we shouldn't have dragged Mimoko Inoue into this. She's too strong for members like me."

It was Dr. Hyde, one of the Desperados that had initially dragged Mimoko, Iori, and Carol to London.

"How the hell are you alive?" Okisato glared.

"Simple, my losing wager was to swim the whole Thames, and if I couldn't I'd drown and die, but as you can see, I swam the whole thing. And best of all, my DESPER's charged, and I see you're trying to get somewhere quickly. Well tough luck, because it's over."

Dr. Hyde began inching towards Okisato, but suddenly collapsed with a mighty thud. The fatigue from the long swim he was so proud of had overtaken him.

"Well you certainly took your time getting back," a voice snarled.

Okisato turned to notice Scharlachrot alongside an army of Fairy league grunts.

"I had a date in China. So what's happened since I left?"

"I have no obligation to tell you, nor should I. However, you do have a right to know since things are out of our control. Wear this as you run and I'll explain," Scharlachrot glared as she tossed Okisato a headset.

...

Going back in time to just after Okisato warped away to China, Scharlachrot let out a relieved sigh as she sat in the control room. While Heather would be disappointed about Okisato leaving the game, the fact that Okisato had also thought to banish Red Reaper along with him put Scharlachrot at ease. Now the game could resume without issue.

"Well you sure look relieved, care to explain?" Bette snarled as she lounged on the couch next to Sorcha.

"Ara, why're you so upset, Bette-chan?" Sorcha giggled as she oiled up her head and face.

"I'm pissed, that's what. And stop splashing oil on me!"

"My apologies, I'll move over a bit."

"Every day since you became a bald freak, you've been oiling up your damn head with a blissful smile."

Sorcha began to pout. "It's not freaky, it's sexy and beautiful."

"No, it means you've been brainwashed into a bald fanatic."

"And the newest member of the flintskallig tjej gang."

"The what?"

"It's Swedish for "bald girl gang". It's what Astrid calls all her female followers that embraced the all-smooth bald look."

"Yeah whatever, bald fanatic. Keep your baldness to yourself."

"Ah mo, I'm not gonna pester you all to shave your heads like me," Sorcha pouted.

"Ah, you made her sad. Why don't you cheer her up and shave your head. I mean, you shave your eyebrows and shaved your head once before, right?" Scharlachrot teased.

"Yeah, and I regretted it. I even hated how I looked after I inked it. That's why I grew out my hair," Bette snarled.

"Certainly doesn't look like it grew back well. I mean, look at that receding hairline."

"Foreheads are cute! And my hairline is natural, thank you very much."

"Wow, wasn't expecting you to ever care about being cute."

"Want me to give you a facial reconstruction with my fists and rip all that hair off your head?"

"Nah, I ain't ever shaving my head. But Heathy, I'm gonna shave her smoother than Sorcha if she loses. Maybe even slap some tape on her mouth and strip her down too."

"You sure do enjoy subjecting our queen to BDSM-style humiliation."

"And she bawls her eyes out every time. But her moans are worth the tears."

"You really are just an all-around sadistic pervert. And worse, you act all high and mighty without lifting a finger. Why is that? Aren't you our second in command?"

Scharlachrot shifted her eyes away slightly. "It's because I'm the second in command that I can't risk falling in battle. Morale would plummet."

"Come to think of it, you've never played us in a casual game, nor have I ever seen your rating before," Sorcha noted.

"Well, guess I'll come clean on that," Scharlachrot snickered as she pulled out her WWCF card.

Everyone present stared in shock at Schalachrot's rating. It was 0, the lowest possible rating you could get.

"H- How is that possible? I thought 100 was the lowest you could go," Bette trembled.

"Well no it isn't, it's 0. And as for why it's 0, I ended up training all the grunts, so naturally my elo dropped from its peak."

"And that peak was?"

"Bette-chan, maybe we should give her some space. She probably has her reasons," Sorcha frowned.

Bette clicked her tongue and decided to leave. "If that elo reflects your real ability, that'd be downright embarrassing considering you'd be dumber than Plum Stupid himself."

Once Sorcha and Scharlachrot were alone, Scharlachrot let out a sigh.

"You really are too nice."

"Ara, you know I'm like the older sister of the league."

"And I bet you're here to confront me. You've been keeping your distance ever since the incident with your father."

"No, I was simply piecing things together."

"You figured everything out?"

"Yes..."

A somber smile appeared on Scharlachrot's face as Sorcha correctly surmised why she sold her out to Muirchertach and Sir Grobhand.

"How ironic. I was taught how to lie and put up an act, but I can't find it in me to refute the truth you arrived at."

"If so, then why did you prompt Iori and the others to try and find a Desperado within the league?"

"Because I'm certain there's a rat among us. How do you think Pewler was able to get all that info on us and use it to bend us to his will?"

"But he probably would have known from the start considering he was a Desperado."

"No, because I changed my name and face."

"You had plastic surgery? I never realized."

"Did a damn good job too. I looked like some ugly unattractive slut before, but look at me now," Scharlachot huffed as she jiggled her breasts.

"Ara, so you even had them-"

"My breasts are naturally this sexy, and so is my body. My face was the only thing they touched," Scharlachrot glared.

"Ara, there's no shame in admitting-"

"I'm telling the truth!"

Sorcha sighed and realized Schalacrot probably wasn't lying. She then went back to the original topic at hand and asked who Scharlachrot was most suspicious of.

"To be frank, you were honestly one of my top suspects considering your ties to the league."

"Ara, but you know I never joined them, in fact I owe much to you and Heather for offering me a way out. That's why it stung so much when I was sold out. But I suppose I can understand why you did it. I heard you also tried to milk him for every cent he had."

"That's because I believed that was the price he'd need to pay. To be honest, your soothing and comforting personality made me wary it was all an act, but I've quickly learned more about you. Not to mention your record's clean."

"Hmm?"

"I checked everyone's game logs. There's only a few that really make me suspicious, namely Medeucesa and Vittoria. But that's only on the surface. Melania's just too suspicious to ignore. I mean, everyone forgets she exists until she's in the room, and she rarely socializes with us at all."

"She could just be shy and nervous despite her stoic exterior. But why are you suspicious of Vittoria and Medeucesa?"

"Because they played quite a handful of matches against known Desperados."

"But how does that make them suspicious?"

"Because they both lost to a fair number of them, and not during officially sanctioned tournaments. The only reason I can think of is that they're possibly Desperados."

"Why?"

"Because as you know, Desperados can't use DESPERs against each other, nor can they kill their fellow members."

"What do you mean?"

Scharlachrot explained how the Desperado by-laws quite literally prevented any and all Desperados from killing each other. Using Sir Grobhand as an example, she stated that if a fellow Desperado such as Tsar Grigori attempted to fire a bazooka at him, the by-laws would take effect, physically preventing him from pulling the trigger as since Sir Grobhand didn't have Caïssa's blessing, the blast would kill him.

However, there was one Desperado seemingly exempt from this; Red Reaper. Due to being deregistered from the league every time he "died", Red Reaper had the ability to kill a Desperado before he re-registered with the league. Of course, he could only get the go-ahead to kill someone outside of a chess match if said Desperado had just lost a chess match such as in Haruki Kamoshida's case.

Scharlachrot began to visibly tremble, prompting Sorcha to comfort her. "Don't worry, I'm sure he won't come after us."

"I can only hope. That monster is an invincible anomaly. And if he's here, he might also be here to..."

It was all too clear to Sorcha that Schalachrot was scared to death of Red Reaper. Though she knew her own prowess had no hope of standing up to Red Reaper, she could at least comfort Scharlachrot with words.

"Thanks Sorcha, but even though I'm trembling years off my life, there is someone I've entrusted my life to in order to save me from death."

"And who's that?"

"Isn't it obvious? The woman I love so much."

...

Outside, Heater gallantly stood atop a building as her cape flowed in the wind. She had a perfect bird's eye view of the city, and of the game in general.

"So Vittoria has made contact. Then perhaps I'll have to enter soon. The grunts are nearly all wiped out too. I just need to wait for the perfect opportunity. Yes, then I can leap down from the building and surprise them. Yes, and this time I'll stick the landing. I won't let Scharlachrot humiliate me for losing, since I'll be winning," she giddily thought.