To Streama festivalen [Season 6 End]

The morning of September 5th, Mimoko groggily got up and headed down for breakfast.

"Why the long face?" Daria asked.

"I'm worried about Nanya-chan."

"It's been two days. She'll get over it."

"You didn't see how desperate she looked, it was as though she had to be on the team at all costs."

Daria began to scowl. "Maybe it was because of Hagemi's disappearance. The two were close after all, but she didn't seem too frantic right after Hagemi disappeared, but now that you mention it, she did become far more jittery when the qualification tournament was announced."

Mimoko let out a sigh as the room descended into silence once more. She slowly poked and prodded her French toast before grabbing the maple syrup and soaking the piece with it. Suddenly, the doorbell rang and Daria went to answer.

"YO! You wanna join us?" Iori grinned as she and Carol entered.

"Join you for what?" Mimoko grumbled.

"Stream festivalen! Today's the opening act and naturally we felt you should get to come too as thanks for starring in our videos," Carol smiled.

Daria's face lit up as she saw a solution to cure Mimoko's depression. Mimoko on the other hand began to grimace as she realized she was likely going to be forced to hang out with Iori and Carol.

"I'm still eating breakfast."

"We got an hour, so it's fine. Wait, you soak your French toast in syrup!? Thing's gonna crumble to mush with THAT much syrup soaking in it!" Iori noted as she snapped a picture of Mimoko's breakfast.

Mimoko let out a groan and promptly ate the whole piece, causing syrup to ooze out of her mouth.

"YO! extreme syrup sponge challenge!"

"Oi, don't eat the whole thing all at once!" Daria scowled.

Mimoko quickly chewed and swallowed, and after downing a glass of milk, went to brush her teeth before getting dressed and heading out with Iori and Carol.

"So where exactly is this festival?" Mimoko asked as she sat down in the train.

"The Ryokoma dome," Iori replied.

"Well, at least I can always dip out and play chess there."

"That's the fun part, there's gonna be chess events IN the venue! Chess is a lot more popular with streamers than you think."

Mimoko sighed and stared out the window as the train began moving. Little did she know that she'd be in for an intense adventure upon arriving at Streama festivalen, but that was a story for another day.

...

Okisato scowled as he laid on his bed, staring at his phone. "That bastard really did just give me burnt rubber, and wasted my time. Now I'm back to square one," he thought as he gazed at a framed photo of him and his mother.

"Wide OPEN!" Otona shouted as she attempted to launch a sneak attack, only for Okisato to roll out of the way, sending her face first into his bed.

"Not in the mood for this," Okisato growled as he pinned Otona down.

"Then get of me, asshole!"

"You'll just attack me again if I let you go."

"Well not today. I'm heading to some streamer con in Tokyo."

"Stream festivalen? Pretty sure Iori-chan said she was going."

"And you're not?"

"Perhaps another day. Today I'm out of it."

"Ara, ara, mind getting off me, Oki?"

"Nee-san, don't try to talk like Kaa-san, it does not suit you."

Otona clicked her tongue and began desperately trying to crawl out from under Okisato, but found herself unable to and was forced to stay pinned for an hour until Okisato finally decided to release her.

"Your ass is dead if I can't get any exclusive first-in-line merch," Otona growled as she ran out.

Okisato didn't seem to care, and instead decided to challenge Peter to a match.

"And what is the nature of this challenge?"

"I simply wish to take my mind off things with some chess."

"Sounds like you're not in the right mental state to give me a worthy challenge.

Okisato let loose a confident smirk. "Who said I was planning on beating you now? I'm saving my best for the Chess Olympics."

"Hoh, so you've got something up your sleeve then. But that's assuming Japan even gets to face America. Maestro Frisch is competing alongside me and others like Hubert Neuman, Luigi Carpani, and Levi Arron. In fact, we're the top seed going into this, so if you don't get paired against us early, there's a low chance you'll be able to face us later on."

"We apparently got some last minute-talent, who Maestro Himitsu herself is vouching for."

A brief smile appeared on Peter's face, but also vanished just as quickly. Yet Okisato knew the reason why all too clear; Ginji Inohara.

"That man is the worst possible teammate you could get. I imagine things will only be harder following your bout in Okinawa. Ryonosuke Hobou may have a respectable 2415 rating and the WWCF master title, but I doubt he'd be able to last against some of the tougher opponents, let alone notch draws off them. Your other teammate is also a bit of an unknown, though I can see he has potential."

"Yeah, unlike the women's team, we've got a much steeper hill to climb if we want gold."

"Speaking of the women's team, it appears some of the members were suddenly kicked off without much explanation."

Okisato's eyes narrowed as he asked for the exact number. But his eyes widened back up as he heard the names of the full roster. Only two members had been kicked off the team, while the ones that remained were SPCMs Katie Knox and Mililani "Sherbert" Paina, along with a name that stood out to Okisato; Elenora Broadstone.

"So that's what happened. Ugh, Inoue-senpai's not going to take this well."

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

Okisato proceeded to list his theory, as Peter began to scowl. "Sounds like Skaberghast had his thumb to the wind and on the scale. Well enough of just chatter, let's add a game to the mix. Blitz 5 minutes with 2 second increments sound good?"

Okisato nodded and the two began their match. Though he would eventually lose, the match did serve it's purpose of easing his mind. He then decided to head over to Streama festivalen after all, but before he could head out the door, he received a call from Otona.

"OI! Get over here now! Something big just happened!"

Okisato scowled as he heard the news. It seemed things would be getting hectic yet again, but just like Mimoko and co's adventure, that was a story for another day.

[Season 6 End]