Chapter 54 : "You win, again."

As he stepped inside the room, following Momo's prompt, he found Souna sitting in a chair in front of a set-up chess board and an empty seat in front of her. As her eyes locked onto his, she wordlessly gestured to the chair across from her.

As he sat down, slightly annoyed and bewildered, he couldn't help wondering out loud, "Have you been stalking me just to get me to play another game of chess?"

The blush on Souna's cheeks was all the answer he needed. He gave her his flattest look and carelessly reached out to move a random pawn.

Was her pride so fragile that she couldn't stand losing to him even a single time? A time that happened only because she was so distracted by his complaints about her 'unlawful' rule of the school. There were no real laws on the subject, but the point stood.

Still not bothering to talk to him, Souna seriously looked at the chess board and carefully made her next move.

Ryuji countered with another random pawn move. Souna frowned and finally spoke, though it was more to herself, "The Tereznikov offensive?"

Ryuji stared blankly at her and couldn't help wondering, 'the what now?' He had no earthly idea what he was doing.

He'd used every little trick he knew in their first match and was putting in zero effort to win their second one. Frankly, he just wanted it over so he could go home and play with some magic!

They went back and forth, Souna paying close attention and making careful and deliberate moves. Ryuji not giving a flying fuck and just randomly moving his pieces. Sometimes when he saw a piece he could capture, he did so.

Other times he ignored the pieces and made a completely random move. He took a special joy in sacrificing his Queen piece to take out a pawn for no other reason than that he could.

Though, somehow, Souna seemed to think he was using a strategy from some grand master named Flavance. Who the fuck was that?

The game went on for almost an hour, almost entirely because of Souna taking so long to make moves.

Ryuji was thoroughly annoyed until he saw something that threatened to make him laugh his ass off. He was down to a bishop, two rooks, and two pawns. One of his rooks hadn't even left its starting position in the right-hand corner of the board.

The other had only moved once, going forward until it was in the second to last row on Souna's side.

What was hilarious was that his, so far ignored, rook had a clear line all the way to the other side of the board.

Souna's king was in the back row and couldn't move toward him because his left-hand rook blocked the path and there was nothing threatening to take it out. So, he did the dumbest thing ever.

He moved his right-hand rook completely across the board to Souna's back line. Her king piece was now trapped by both of his rooks with nowhere to go and nothing to take the rooks out with.

It seriously looked like the lamest way to beat someone ever. Still, he took a fair amount of schadenfreude out of the situation as Souna's eyes widened in shock. Calmly, and with a bit of smugness in his tone, Ryuji spoke, "Checkmate."

Souna stared at the board for a full minute, checking every piece she had left, looking for any way to take out at least one of his rooks. Eventually, she had to admit defeat.

With what seemed to be a lot of reluctance, she lifted her gaze to his own, "You win, again."

Her somewhat despondent look firmed up as she continued, "I am impressed. I've never before seen someone weave together so many different strategies from different masters and make it work before.

That last move was something I've never even seen before. You are a very impressive chess player."

Never seen before? That was something he'd done when playing chess against his sister as a child in his last life! It wasn't some grand strategy, it was the single dumbest thing EVER.

He couldn't take anything Souna said seriously if she thought that was some sort of masterful plan. Frankly, he was so disappointed in her failing to beat his amateur ass that his gaze became as dry as the Sahara while she continued to praise his 'strategy'.

Finally, mercifully, she came to an end of her one sided discussion of the match and asked, "Would you be willing to play another match with me Okane-san?"

Ryuji jumped to his feet and snatched his bag up, "Nope. I've got things to do."

Souna looked disappointed but nodded, "I understand. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

Ryuji glanced over his shoulder at her sudden change in attitude and couldn't help thinking, 'Oh what fresh hell is this?' He didn't ask aloud and quickly made his way out of the offices and the school.

Whatever was going on was future Ryuji's problem. Today-Ryuji was going to go home and read his shiny new book on magic then practice summoning the spirits of the dead and having them possess brain-dead NPC's.

A few moments after Ryuji left the office, Tsubaki cleared her throat and addressed her King, "I know I am nowhere near as good as you are at chess, but from where I was standing it seemed as though Okane-san was just making random moves."

Sona turned to face her Queen with her eyes slightly narrowed, "I know it might have appeared that way, even I believed so for a time, but it was a trick to lure me into his trap."

She pushed her glasses up causing the lenses to flash with light, a trick she would never admit to spending hundreds of hours mastering, "It made me ignore his rook that had seemingly been randomly placed by taking out a pawn I hadn't even moved, only to move his other rook into position exactly thirteen moves later.

Truly, it was a master strategy I've never even heard of."