Chapter 59

You stand in the room with Kasumi with the door closed. Kasumi's eyes look tired and heavy... like she's been crying a lot lately.

"Both her kidneys are failing... I tried finding different way's to help her but nothing is helping. The amount of money to save her is too high... higher than the treatment itself. I feel my whole life falling apart..." She sniffles. Snot is dripping out her nose and she balls up her sleeve to wipe it. You furrow your eyebrows and cringe a bit watching her do that.

"And lemme guess... Kisaki isn't helping you anymore?" You question. Kasumi lets her arm drop down. She relaxes her eyes and stares at the ground.

"Right." She softly replies.

"Why are you telling me any of this? I don't get it..." You sigh. She looks up at you and rubs her eyes.

"I don't have friends... and you were the only person I felt safe enough with." She sniffles.

"Right. But you lied to me... so how exactly did you feel safe with me?" You question.

"... I only lied because I was told not to tell you." She says in a defensive way. You relax your eyes and cross your arms.

"What did Kisaki want from you?" You question. Kasumi looks down avoiding eye contact. You stare her in the eyes waiting for her answer.

"He wanted- He- He wanted you- to know more about you..."

"Huh?"

"He wanted to know about you... He said he will help me in exchange for some information on you."

"Why the hell would he want information on me?" You huff.

"I don't know... He never told me why." She softly replies. You stare at her a bit before sighing and nodding.

"And why did he stop helping you?" You question.

"He used me... When he got everything he wanted he told me he would stop helping me..." She softly sighs. "And then right after that... Asuka's kidneys started to fail."

You stare at her for a while and then look towards the door.

"Class is going to start soon... so I should get going."

"WAIT... Yuki- please."

"Please what?" You loudly say looking back at her. "You used me too is what it sounds like..."

"WHAT?"

"Why exactly did you want to be friends with me?" You question.

"Because I wanted to be your friend..."

"But while we were friends you were giving information of me to Kisaki... make it make sense." You sigh. Kasumi looks down and sighs. You slowly nod and slide open the door, leaving the room. She watches as you do with a sad and defeated look on her face.

You quickly make your way down the hall stopping inches before your classroom. You clench your fist and look towards the stairway. You quickly turn towards the stairs and exit the school.

You stand in front of a swing staring down at it. You sigh drooping your head down.

"What exactly am I doing?" You grab the swing and push it, sighing as you do. You slowly look up and out into the distance. "Where would Takemichi be? Why are things so different?" You grab the swing and sit down on it, staring off into the distance.

"Take-michi... That's a strange name." A voice says from beside you causing you to jump off the swing. You quickly turn around to see an unfamiliar face.

"Who are you?" You question, glaring at the person who's smiling at you. He has peach hair. His eyes are smiling as he smiles.

"Relax... You don't have to be so hostile." He sooths.

"..." The guy grabs the swing in front of him and sits down on it.

"Who are you?" You ask again staring back at him. "I don't like when people come out of nowhere talking to me like that... It's weird."

"Oh? What if I found you cute and just wanted to talk to you~" He bubbles.

"Right..."

"All jokes aside... you seem really upset. What's the matter?"

"Mmm... Who are you?" You repeat.

"Didn't he ask you a question?" An aggressive sounding voice comes from behind you. You turn your head to see an angry looking dude. Now that you look at both of them, they look similar. Are they twins?

"I'm Nahoya... But everyone calls me Smiley." He softly says. That name sounds strongly familiar, but you can't figure out why.

"Smiley?" You question.

"Yep. And behind you is my brother Soya..." He bubbles. You turn your head to see his brother. He has turquoise hair. Both of their hair is fluffy. You can't see Smiley's eye color but his brother's eyes are wide and blue. He has an angry look on his face.

"And lemme guess... you're Angry?" You question.

"Yeah." Angry responds. You furrow your eyebrows surprised at the fact you guessed that right.

"What do you want?" You ask looking back at Smiley.

"I came to talk to you before Mucho gets here." Smiley bubbles.

"Who?" You look at him confused.

"You betrayed Toman." Angry says into your ear. You quickly turn away and back away from him, rubbing your ear.

"What? What are you talking about. I didn't betray anyone." You huff.

"Is that so? Well tell me more about it~" Smiley said motioning you for the swing. Your body shakes with a mixture of anger and stress. What the hell is happening.

Your eyes get glossy and your lip comes out more as you frown a bit.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean I betrayed Toman?" You question. Smiley stops smiling and sits quietly on the swing. You furrow your eyebrows and walk closer to him. "Can you answer me?" You huff.

"I didn't think he would get here so fast." Smiley says in a dull tone. You look at him confused.

"Yuki!" A voice says from a distance behind you. You slowly turn your head to see a guy with light pink hair and eyelashes standing beside a car. His hair is long and he's wearing a mask. He's also wearing a Toman uniform. You look at him confused and then back at Smiley who's sitting on the swing with a serious look on his face. His eyes are still closed. Your heart starts racing as you feel way more stressed out then you did before. You look back at the car as he stands and waits for you to walk over.

"Who is that?" You ask Smiley.

"You should go-" Smiley replies.

"Why?" You question. Smiley doesn't reply. Your chest hurts a lot more and your eyes feel heavy. "I don't understand... What do you mean I betrayed Toman?" You ask looking at Angry. He stares at you but doesn't answer. "Can you say-"

"Yuki!" A voice yells out. "Come." A guy says from the car window. You stare at him feeling stressed. You look back at Angry and Smiley then towards the man in the car. You slowly walk to the car, stopping in front of the guy with pink hair.

"Who are you?" You question the guy in the car.

"I will tell you when you get in." The guy replies. You furrow your eyebrows and shake your head.

"I'm not getting in a car with a stranger." You rasp. The guy with pink hair leans close towards you. You feel something prick you in the side which causes your eyes to widen.

"Get in the car." He quietly says into your ear. Your eyes relax and you slowly nod. He pulls away from you and opens the door for you to get in. You sit beside the guy in the car and the pink hair guy gets in. The car pulls off. You close your eyes as the car drives, trying to relax your heartbeat.

After driving a while, the car finally stops. The pink haired guy opens the door for you allowing you to get out. The other guy in the car walks towards a building. The pink hair guy pushes you into that direction. You follow them down a hall in the building. The place looks dirty and uncared for. The guy opens a door and motions you to walk in. You slowly walk in and stop in the room as they close the door. The room looks pretty nice for the rest of the building to look like shit. You stand in the middle of the room staring at them.

"Who are you?" You question.

"Yasuhiro Muto, Fifth Division Captain of Toman. But call me Mucho." He answers. You narrow your eyes at him.

"Okay?"

"Do you play Shogi?" He asks in a calm tone. You look at him with a blank expression on your face. He walks over to the corner of the room, grabbing something from there.

"No." You reply.

"Let's play." He says placing down a board on the floor. You stare at him as he sits down in front of the board.

"Why am I here?" You question.

"Sit down." He motions for you to sit. You look towards the door to see the pink haired guy glaring at you. You slowly sit down across from him. He places a pile of pieces down in front of you. "Place your pieces down like mine." He motions. You slowly place the pieces on the board, similar to how he does.

"Have you played Shogi before?" He calmly asks as he watches you place the pieces down.

"No... I haven't..." You huff. You slowly look up at him to see him staring at you. His brown eyes bore into yours.

"Have you played chess before?" He asks. You slowly nod.

"A little..."

"So, it's similar to that..." He says looking back at the board. "You see this piece." He says pointing to a piece on the board. "This piece is a pawn. You can only move forward once with this piece. This piece." He says pointing to another piece. "This is a Rook. You can move this piece orthogonally..."

"What?" You look at him confused. He stares at you a bit before looking back down at the piece. He picks it up and moves it.

"You can move it horizontally or vertically in any direction... any distance you want. You can't jump over other pieces though. When it gets promoted..." He says flipping the piece. The word on the other side is red. "It will become a dragon... which then it can move diagonally in any direction in addition to how the rook moves. Which is orthogonally." You furrow your eyebrows trying to understand. "Aren't you a top student in your school...? How don't you know what orthogonally is..."

"How do you know that?" You ask glaring at him. He stares at you and then back at the board.

"This one is a Lance. It can move any number of spaces forward... This one is a Bishop... you can move it any spaces diagonally, but you can't jump over another piece. This one is the Knight, you move it like the letter L. Two spaces down, one space over."

"Okay..."

"You can jump over other pieces with the Knight." He says demonstrating how the Knight moves. "This one is the Silver General..." He says pointing towards another piece.

"Why are you explaining this to me? I don't want to play with you." You huff.

"You can move this piece forward once, backward once, diagonally forward once, or diagonally backwards once." He says moving the piece showing you how. "This one is the Gold General. You can move it one space forward, diagonally forward, sideways or backwards. And this piece... is the King. You can move it in any direction you want once. Once your King piece gets taken then you lose. That or you get checkmate."

You stare at him as he places all the pieces back into place.

"Why are you ignoring my questions?"

"Once you make it here..." He says pointing to the third row towards the end on his side of the board. "You can promote the piece. Pawns, Lance, Knight, and Silver General will be promoted when landing there. When you do, you can flip the piece over." He says flipping the piece to show red words. You furrow your eyebrows staring at the piece. "When you promote them, they will move like a Gold General." He says flipping the piece back over. "I already explained how Rook plays when it gets promoted... The Bishop when promoted will become a Dragon Horse... When promoted it will play the same way as a Bishop, but you can move it forward, backward, and sideways once."

"Okay..."

"Does this make any sense?" He asks looking back up at you. You slowly nod. "Good... then you go first. I will explain more while we play." He motions you to move a piece. You move the Pawn forward and he moves his Bishop. After a few moves you take a deep breath and look back up at him.

"Why did you bring me here?" You ask after taking your turn. He looks at his side of the board and moves one of his pieces and taking your piece.

"You heard how Kazutora died?" He calmly asks.

"Yeah..."

"What was your relationship with him?"

"Huh?"

"You knew Kazutora was attempting to kill Mikey... Is that right?" He asks looking up at you. You look at him confused. "Was that your plan? For Mikey to be killed?" He asks you with a blank expression on his face.