Chapter 448:

Movie night

En Passant Grandmaster

"You're lucky Uzbekistan won the match, otherwise your sentence would be that much harsher," Raymond glared as he stood before Nyoan's cell.

Now clad in an orange jumpsuit, poor Nyoan truly was getting the full prison experience. While she had been given a brief summary of how things worked when she was booked, Raymond filled her in on the finer details of what her life in the holding facility would be like.

"So I get to play the other prisoners, nya? Who else is in, nya?"

"Multiple offenders, notably an army of tikis. But in terms of names you'd recognize, there's Michiko."

"Michiko?"

"Former SPCM Himitsuchan, Michiko Azami. Though in her current state, you won't be permitted to play her until a good few days have passed. You'll understand when the time comes. For now, you are free to watch the Chess Olympics unfold from there. Your sentence will end once the tournament has concluded in 4 days time."

As Raymond vanished, Nyoan yawned and laid on her bed. "Four days, nya. I'm going to miss Kuon-sama again, nya. Maybe she'll return home like me when the tournament's over, nya."

...

With the 8th round concluded, everyone had an early dinner without incident. After that, they all went back to their respective rooms.

In her room, Mimoko yawned as she watched a movie on the TV.

"Hmm? Whatcha watching, Mimoko?" Daria asked as she prepared to go to sleep.

"A Ghoulish Lovesung. The staff claimed it was loosely chess-based so I checked it out. So far it's just been a bad horror flic."

"What's it about?"

"Two sisters named Mia and Maya. Mia's unable to speak, but both are musicians. One Halloween night, they go to a haunted farm where an evil witch named Shana usurps the identity of a professor named Angela. It's short, but I want to analyze some chess and it still hasn't even mentioned any chess yet."

Just as she said that, the scene shifted to a young man and a young woman with silver hair sitting in a car.

"So what are you gonna do now that you have the numbers? Oh, can I-"

"No, I'm not telling them to you. As for the first question, I'm assuming they don't know that the king of Assïac is hidden within the back passenger side tire along with a pistol filled with three silver bullets."

"Assïac? Loos like we finally got a chess reference," Daria cheered as she plopped down next to Mimoko.

The movie then went on to explain that the king of Assïac was a powerful artifact said to contain remnants of the Chess Devil, Assïac. Assïac was the younger twin sister of Caïssa, the goddess of chess, and had frequently been at odds with her. One day, they competed in a no holds barred chess match, from which Caïssa emerged victorious from, resulting in Assïac being sealed in Tartarus. However, Assïac managed to preserve some of her power in the form of the king of Assïac, a golden chess piece that could force anyone into a chess match. It could either be used to force two separate people into a match, or to force one other person the play the one wielding the king of Assïac.

The only caveat was that victims could only be forced into matches if they were deemed to be less skilled in chess than the one wielding the king of Assïac, otherwise, they could simply refuse the challenge and the artifact would deactivate. As for how it determined a chess player's skill; elo ratings. Shana boasted an official elo rating of 1366, however, both Lovesung sisters had dabbled in chess enough to achieve ratings of 1527. Thus, there was no issue regarding whether the sisters would be able to force Shana into a match.

The real kicker was that once the match began, wagers could be placed. This often resulted in great benefits for the winners, such as healing injuries, becoming more powerful, or simply having an ice cream materialize before them to eat. The losers on the other hand would be subject to whatever punishment the winner decreed upon them, though the penalty of death would often supersede all.

"Well this show's certainly rooted in reality. That king of Assïac sounds just like the DESPERs," Mimoko noted.

The scene then changed to Mia throwing her phone down and prying off the hubcap of the back right wheel, finding both the artifact and a pistol. There was also a note instructing one that in order to use the king of Assïac, one had to either point it at an opponent they wished to challenge, or two people they wished to have play each other and activate it by saying, "DESPORA DIMITTIS!".

"Definitely based off the DESPERs," Mimoko thought.

Mia quickly grabbed both the king and gun and fired two shots. One hit Courtney in the shoulder, causing her to wail in pain before turning into a horse and running off. The other flew towards Shana, who simply blocked it with a shield of lightning.

"Sorry, but I command a great variety of spells, for you see I'm the great witch empress of yore. That means I'm on a completely different plane of existence than you, meaning you can't so much as hurt me with your petty silver bullets," Shana sneered as she levitated Mia into the air.

She then began twisting Mia's right hand, causing her to drop the gun as a meek squeak of pain escaped her lips. However, she persevered through the pain and screamed "DESPORA DIMMITTIS!" in her mind as she aimed the golden king in her left hand at Shana. However, nothing happened.

"WHAT AN IMBECILE! You needed to recite the words, but you can't so much as even muster a sound! What luck, I'll enjoy making you despair," Shana sneered as she twisted Mia's other hand, causing her to drop the king of Assïac.

At this point, all Mia could do was tearfully glare at Shana as she continued to mangle her hands and fingers. It looked like all hope was lost, until suddenly...

"DESPORA DIMITTIS!"

Shana froze as her magic was suddenly cancelled out, and she found herself seated at the black end of a chessboard. Mia plopped down to the ground, before getting up and sitting down at the white end of the chessboard, further baffling Shana.

"How!? How could you activate-"

"She didn't, I did," Maya grinned.

Shana turned to notice Maya had a phone in one hand and the king of Assïac in the other. "Damn that woman."

"That's my line. Now miss Lovesung, the conditions for the wager?" Angela's voice asked on the other end of the line.

"Mia wins, her hands get restored to normal, my wound heals up, and her opponent gets burned to death and has her soul eaten by the board."

Shana scowled and quickly affirmed that when she won, the Lovesung sisters would suffer an inhumanely gruesome death and become her thralls in the afterlife.

"Very well, then I wish you the best for your match," Angela smiled as she hung up.

Mia resolved herself and opened by moving her pawn to e4 with her mouth, eliciting mocking laughter from Shana. "Oh look at you. You're only capable of moving things with your mouth now, and ironically, that mouth of yours can't say jack shit!" she sneered as she slammed her pawn down on e5.

Mia tearfully glared and moved her knight to f3 as Shana continued the mocking and moved her knight to c6. "Did you really think this would solve your predicament? I play this sport as a hobby, and now, you're guaranteed to die!" she taunted as Mia moved her knight to c4. "Well look at you, well here's the 4th horseman of the apocalypse; DEATH!" she sneered as she slammed her knight down on f6.

Maya managed to prop herself up and smiled as she stared at the board. She had shown Mia a super secret move to win in this scenario.

"The Halloween Gambit!?" Shana gasped as Mia captured the pawn at e5 with her knight. "Please, a chess hobbyist like me naturally knows how to counter. I bet you didn't even know the name of this move before I told you," she sneered as she captured the knight at e5 with her knight.

Mia knew what to do though and pushed the pawn to d4, sending Shana's knight to g6. Next it was pawn to e5, but instead of moving her knight, Shana moved her bishop out to b4, causing Mia to blink in confusion for a few seconds before capturing the knight at f6 with her e-pawn.

Shana didn't seem to be the least bit concerned though, and promptly captured said pawn with her queen, prompting Mia to slide her queen to e2.

"Oh what a weak check. I can just move to the side," Shana sneered as she moved her king to d8.

"'Hobbyist'? Well, guess that's the vain way of her trying to make herself sound skilled," Maya thought as Mia moved her queen to c4.

Shana promptly defended her bishop by moving her pawn to a5, while Mia brought her bishop out to e3. Shana then attempted to facilitate a trade by moving her knight to f4, but Mia didn't bite and instead castled queen's side.

Now Shana began to scowl a bit and moved her rook to e8, but that allowed Mia to move her pawn to d5. This didn't look like much, but it actually gave her considerable control over the board; control that only increased when Shana slid her bishop back to d6.

"Some hobbyist you are," Maya taunted aloud as Mia confidently moved her knight to e4.

Shana's eye twitched as she realized her predicament. Her queen and bishop were forked, and if she didn't want to end up in a worse position, she needed to capture the knight at e4 with her rook. But by doing that, Mia could simply capture her said rook with her queen without any repercussions.

"Oh, you think you're hot shit just because you're up a rook!? Well mind games are MY hobby! So I'm going to win!" Shana fumed as she slammed her pawn down on h5.

Mia tearfully glared and moved her pawn to g3, prompting Shana to go for a queen trade by moving her queen to g6. Mia refused and simply moved her queen to d3, causing Shana to lose her temper and slam her pawn down on b5.

"Why are you so difficult to beat!? I'm an intellectual woman that seasons her mind with chess for sport! How can a mute bitch like you by better than me!?"

"Because unlike you who simply plays for boredom, we actually practiced the game and learned things the hard way. We could be considered the true chess hobbyists, unlike you who just claims to be good at chess to inflate your ego," Maya snickered as Mia captured the bishop at f4 with her bishop.

"Don't mock my intellect! I am on a different plane of existence than you mortals! Were it not for this foul artifact, I'd have killed you both eons ago!" Shana shouted as she moved her bishop to a6.

"That's what we call evening the playing field. I've seen enough horror movies to know the villains are usually nigh unbeatable by the protagonists, but what if you could force them into an all or nothing chess match? If the heroes were good, and the villain was bad, then they could have a chance at survival," Maya smirked as Mia moved her bishop to h3.

"Then that's unfair to us!" Shana fumed as she moved her pawn to b4.

"Chess is purely skill based, and the best thing about it is that ANYONE can play it and be good at it. Besides, you said this was your hobby, so no complaining about getting your ass kicked in you own hobby," Maya smirked as Mia moved her h-rook to e1.

"Watch, your, TONGUE!" Shana shouted as she slammed her pawn down on f6.

"Yeah, since this is the only thing I've got left," Maya somberly smiled as Mia captured the bishop on d6 with her bishop.

Then the decisive play happened; Shana blundered into mate in 8 by moving her king to c8. Mia saw this and immediately sent her queen to c5, causing Shana to realize too little too late she was screwed.

"No... NO! YOU WON'T HUMILIATE ME LIKE THIS! CHECK!" she shouted as she slammed her queen down on g5.

Mia simply moved her pawn to f4, causing Shana to grit her teeth in frustration and move her rook ta a7 in one last desperate attempt to stay alive. However, Mia simply moved her rook to e8, leaving Shana with no choice, but to move her king to b7.

"And that's checkmate. You lose," Maya smiled as Mia captured the pawn at c7 with her queen, winning the game.

"... YOU THINK THAT FARCE SAVED YOU!? NAY, IT WAS MERELY A DELAY, BUT NOW THAT IT'S OVER, I CAN USE MY POWER- AAAAHHH!?"

Much to her horror, Shana suddenly burst into flames as a mouth appeared on the chessboard and began sucking her in. "NO! NO! I CAN'T DIE! THIS IS BULLSHIT! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And with that, Shana was gone, leaving just Mia and Maya alone in the rain. Mia stared in silence as her hands suddenly became better. Maya meanwhile rose as the wound in her stomach began to heal.

"Well talk about convenient. That thing pretty much solved all our problems. Well, most of them anyway. We still gotta get out of here. Though first lets hop inside the van and call the real professor Nakiri."

Bzzrt!

Mimoko yawned as she turned off the TV and laid down in bed. "That was cheesy, but I guess that's the kind of quality those things would normally be."

Daria had a different opinion, but decided to keep it to herself. "The artifact in the movie... I wonder if there really is some truth to it."

The full game:

White: Mia Lovesung (1527) Black: Shana Yuremoto (1366)

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. Nxe5 Nxe5

5. d4 Ng6

6. e5 Bb4

7. exf6 Qxf6

8. Qe2+ Kd8

9. Qc4 a5