A troubling request

In a dark council room, the chairman of the board glared as images of Rebelle's Ewetube page flashed on screen. "As you can see, Rebelle Milverton Adler had betrayed us and leaked everything she has, which includes, but not limited to, incriminating material on both our members and organization. The dilemma though is that if we utilize all our resources to declare her information fabricated, we in turn declare that everything else she has is fabricated, giving some who we'd benefit from keeping the blackmail ligament a free pass."

"Then just do a case-by-case basis," Max suggested.

"We don't have the time for that. Our foes our bound to seize on our vulnerability."

"Iyah, really is like a fork," a cheery voice chuckled.

"'Fork'? What the hell do you mean, Ginji?" Antonio snarled.

"In chess, a fork is when you attack two or more pieces simultaneously and more often then not, force the opponent to choose which one to lose. We are being forked. We either lose our rook, and delegitimize all of Rebelle's blackmail material giving everyone she's caught in her palm a free pass. Or, we lose our queen and get exposed along with everyone else. Communism's great n' all, but I do love me my queens. Besides, we all know you'd use everything you've got to cover yourself and your key subs up. And while we could spin a narrative web that all I.L.U. leaks are just propaganda thrown in to try and legitimize it, the old peon class might start rioting and going crazy, and if that happens, one of them might try and kill me. I don't want that, so go with saving the queen."

"Ginji, you have some gall trying to make this about you."

"I'm a free spirit, and wanna stay free."

"I say just take down the stuff on us. Then we run with any reuploads of it being fabricated," Akuma suggested.

"Ah, you mean claim it's one of those "deepfakes" that are starting to pop off?" Frank chuckled.

"Wow, for once you're on point."

"A broken clock is right twice a day."

"Only if it's a normal clock that doesn't distinguish between AM and PM."

"No, Ginji's got a point. Us covering stuff up when everything else is getting leaked could backfire and lead to riots," a shadowy figure stated.

"But that blackmail material can ruin the lives of normal people! You saying we just discard it and give those surfs a pass!?" Max fumed.

"Yeah, I'm a not giving up that treasure trove of blackmail, wah," Stromboli countered.

"Then we'll begin the vote immediately. 5 minute limit, once you cast your vote, you can't change it," the leader glared.

On a 7 to 5 vote, the council voted to delegitimize everything.

"Of course you would vote to save your ass. This whole mess is your daughter's fault anyway," Antonio huffed as he left the meeting.

The leader went silent and merely glared as everyone left the meeting.

"Tch, the hell did that idiot do?" Akuma scowled as he dialed Hilda.

...

Hilda jumped as her phone began vibrating. She picked it up and nearly dropped it when she saw who was calling. "It just had to be him or father," she sighed as she answered.

"The hell are you doing!? We just sent nearly 20 years worth of blackmail down the drain cause of you!" Akuma fumed.

"She betrayed us. It's obvious she is why Ruchi disappeared. The question though is-"

"You saying Ruchi's the mastermind behind this!? Then why'd you suggest we swap out my heir with her stillborn!?"

"That was almost 16 years ago! We couldn't have known. Besides, I feared if you raised her, she'd turn out just as rebellious as Ruchi. Besides, I never said Ruchi was the ring leader, rather Rebelle betrayed her. What I was trying to say was that I don't know how she evaded the truth serum."

"I watched that video. Bitch was smug and in control for the whole thing. Worse that grunt you brought killed her off. Now we can't pry her brain for info!"

"Then punish Benise. She messed everything up, no, perhaps she could be colluding-"

"You hiding something from me, cuz you sure seem nervous!"

Hilda had one of two options; she could either tell Akuma that she suspected Mao of killing Ruchi, or remain silent and try to solve things on her own. The latter seemed more appealing as if Hilda dragged Mao before the council, she'd be rewarded and could even pin everything on Akuma. Akuma was already on the bad side of the chairman so providing a justification to kick him off the council would be profitable. Not to mention Mao could be used to revitalize the Ookuma line. Telling Akuma everything just had too many negatives, so naturally Hilda didn't tell him anything.

The phone call lasted a while, but Hilda managed to get through it without Akuma catching on to anything. But shortly after the call ended, Hilda received another incoming call, this time from her father. Not having time for any of this, she opted to just smash her phone to bits.

"Well damn, why ya smashin' your phone?" a voice rang out.

Hilda turned to notice a woman with red hair clad in black leather attire smirking at her. She didn't recognize the woman, but subconsciously treated her as a Bombino due to her hair color.

"Just frustrated that's all."

"Then come eat! I'm checkin' out a new place," the woman grinned as she began dragging Hilda along.

Hilda cautiously complied, assuming the woman was a Bombino sent to monitor her, and not wanting to let anyone catch on to her plan. However, she recoiled in fear when she saw the place the woman had taken her to.

"We can't just barge in here! Even disguising ourselves might not be enough!"

"'Disguise'? Why? I want em all to see me. Relax, I've heard this place is warm n' welcoming so you'll at least get decent food," the woman grinned as she dragged Hilda into Ryokoma.

Hilda had never been in before, and had actively avoided going in due to fear that Rika might recognize her. Though her body was still youthful, she wasn't the greatest in physical combat.

As the two entered, Hilda scanned her eyes around, looking for Rika.

"Welcome to Ryokoma. Dining for two?" Matcha asked.

"Yeah, and tell Masaru I'm here- Actually don't. But make sure he cooks my meal... Pljeskavica with a side of spam musubi."

"Uh, I can't take your order right now. Ugh, right this way."

Matcha led the two to a small table and pulled out a notepad. "'Pljeskavica' you said?"

"Yup, and spam musubi on the side, two of em. Oh, and cranberry boba to drink," the woman grinned.

"Very well. And are you ready to order too, or would you like some more time to look at the menu?"

"I'll just have some fish skewers with boba on em," Hilda stuttered.

"'With boba on the skewers? Which type of fish and boba?"

"Doesn't matter. Let the chef choose or something."

"Anything to drink?"

"Water."

As soon as Matcha left, Hilda bolted for the bathroom. "There's no getting out of this until that bitch is done eating, but I can't just sit out there without disguising my look," she thought as she locked herself in a stall. She opened up her bag and scowled.

"That bitch might see through a disguise, which means I've gotta change up my base form. Ugh, the gods just want me to suffer, don't they," she grumbled as she pulled out some hair clippers and began shaving her head. She made sure to carefully throw all the hair in the toilet so as not to leave any evidence and even went as far as waxing her head to ensure no trace of her multicolored hair remained.

Once she was done, she teared up at her new appearance. In the 317 years she had been alive, she had never once cut her hair shorter than pixie-length, but now she was completely devoid of hair and eyebrows.

"I look like those cultist freaks now! Damn that Bombino. Now it's gonna take a century for my roots to grow back!" she fumed as she reapplied her makeup.

Once she was done, she took a deep breath before heading back out to the dining area. The drinks had arrived, but the food had not, making Hilda a bit uneasy. She had hoped the food would have arrived before she got out, but the restaurant was unusually busy this time of day.

As soon as the woman saw Hilda, she spat out her drink. "YOU SHAVED YOUR HEAD!?"

"Why the hell did she shout it out!?" Hilda cried in her mind as all eyes turned to her.

She trembled and sat down as the woman glared at her.

"Eyebrows too... Damn, you have a real nasty break-up or something!? So what'd he do?" the woman laughed.

Hilda stared in confusion, but noticed that everyone was starting to turn their attention away from her. "Is that going to be the cover for why I'm now bald? Well, better play along in case that waitress from before comes back," she thought.

As Hilda spun a fictional sob story about how her boyfriend had cheated and intentionally NTR'd her to break her heart, Rika arrived.

"Whoops, she might spoil the surprise if she spots me, so toilet," the woman smiled before dashing away.

The commotion she caused from her running, caused Rika to glance in her direction, which put Hilda directly in her line of vision. However, she didn't really seem to notice Hilda and simply continued on her way. "That hair... Looked just like her. Is she here to mess with us?" Rika grumbled to herself a she headed for the changing room.

"So how'd your appointment go?" Matcha asked.

"Stitch said everything was good. How's the fort holding up since I left?"

"As you just saw, quite busy. Masaru's going to be overworked at this point."

"That far behind? Sorry about that, didn't realize it'd get so busy at this time so I scheduled my appointment ahead of time."

"It's fine, though it honestly is a bit hard to manage things considering how much bigger this place keeps getting, especially when we don't have everyone at full health."

"You still feeling sluggish? I can give you some more time off if that's what ya need."

"No, I'm fine. Though at least relieve Masaru of duty. He's been working double time since you left at 2."

"On it."

"Oh, but first tell him to make a Pljeskavica with a side of spam musubi and some fish skewers with boba on them."

Rika scowled as she heard the request. "Who requested it?"