Chapter 473:

Late night planning

En Passant Grandmaster

Iori scowled as she stared at the board before her. "How the hell does this not work!?" she fumed.

"That's just what the engine says. Believe me, I'd love for it to work, but sometimes you just can't make things like this work," Okisato sighed.

When Daria and Mimoko returned, they were naturally greeted by their teammates, though refused to go in depth about what transpired in Esztergom. Everyone gave them their space, though that didn't change the fact that the tournament resumed tomorrow. Both teams were set to play Croatia, and with Vlatka quickly gaining Iori's ire for being the exact type of person she hated the most, she had asked Okisato to help her craft the perfect humiliation plan for her, however, things weren't going so well.

Assuming Vlatka was likely to play the Zagreb consisting of e4, c5, knight f3, d6, d4, c captures d4, knight captures d4, knight f6, knight c3, a6, and g3, the board had been setup from that position with Iori to move as Black. Naturally, she chose to move her king to d7, yet was quickly finding herself in trouble. Pawn e5 from Okisato saw her play knight g8, with things only worsening for Iori after Okisato moved his bishop to f4.

The eval bar was almost completely white, with little to no hope in sight for Iori.

"There's gotta be a way," Iori scowled as she moved her knight to c6.

"Even if I don't go the top line, you're still teetering on the verge of a forced mate," Okisato sighed as he moved his bishop to g2.

"She's only what, 23- 2400 something? No way she'd get all this top engine stuff," Iori argued as she captured the pawn at e5 with her knight.

"But the Zagreb is her specialty, and she ha a 100% win rate with it, and against high-level opposition nonetheless," Okisato sighed as he captured the knight at e5 with his bishop.

"That's why I gotta bust it with maximum humiliation power!" Iori fumed as she moved her king to e8.

"Sometimes you just can't, even if you want to," Okisato sighed as he moved his knight to b3.

"But this has to be the way to do it!" Iori cried as she captured the bishop at e5 with her d-pawn.

"It's too far in. Check," Okisato sighed as he captured the queen at d8 with his queen, forcing Iori to capture said queen with her king. "And now you just get check comboed," Okisato sighed as he castled queen's side.

"Are you kidding me!?" Iori fumed as she moved her king to c7.

"That's just how it goes," Okisato sighed as he moved his knight to g5, checking Iori again.

"How the fuck does this not work!?" Iori fumed as she moved her king to b8.

"That's the way it goes. Six moves in and it's difficult to get away with a move like that, especially if Vlatka really is as a master of the Zagreb as the rumors go," Okisato grumbled as he moved his knight to b6.

"But I wanna Bongcloud after she plays the Zagreb! That would be the ultimate disrespect!"

"But there's just no recovering from it. Just look at how white the eval bar is. And if Vlatka plays like a top engine whenever the Zagreb is deployed, you'll lose."

Iori gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. "Whatever, let's just finish this shit up," she snarled as she moved her rook to a7.

Okisato let out a sigh, and obliged by moving his rook to d8. Then after Iori moved her knight to f6, Okisato captured the bishop at c8 with his rook, checkmating Iori, and ending the practice match.

"The only way to humiliate her would be to beat her normally against the opening she's so proud of. That's the only way."

"But it's not as flashy," Iori pouted.

"Sometimes it's less flashier things that humiliate and aggravate people the most."

Iori scowled and threw herself onto the bed, eventually drifting off to sleep in frustration.

...

As everyone got off the bus the next morning at the playing hall, all eyes were naturally on Daria and Mimoko. While they appeared fine, internally, they were still struggling to come to terms with the events of last night, and little did they know that last night wouldn't let them forget either.

"We're both taking on Croatia today. While it's better than Norway, it's worth noting that Croatia's women's team is undefeated despite not having a perfect score. My apologies that we couldn't properly strategize last night," Daria scowled.

"So? We just sweep em' like the rest," Iori shrugged.

"Perhaps, but given what happened last night, it's still a little hard to focus," Mimoko sighed.

"But didn't Croatia participate too? If so, then shouldn't every one be facing the same problem?" Okisato asked.

"I don't know. All we know is what happened to us, and that the other teams in the top 8 were seemingly fine, in fact, I think they got off the easiest out of us all," Daria frowned.

If Nela and Snezana were suffering trauma from the 6B tournament, they certainly didn't show it as they appeared just as they normally did along with their teammates.

"Wow, you managed to get wigs to hide how hideous you look. Maybe the arbiters could slam some iron masks down on you so I don't have to look at you," Vlatka sneered.

"And your own teammates?" Daria glared.

"Slightly less hideous, but that's just what bald is, hideousness incarnate."

"Yeah, I'm a hideous pig!" Duško cackled as he stuck out his tongue and drooled excessively.

"Well it's no wonder you're all known as Vlatka's simp army," Okisato growled.

"The guys are all simps? Lol, and they try and look tough with all that military gear," Iori snickered.

"We ARE military men!" Grgur fumed.

"Yeah, even me!" Šime scowled.

"A nerd like you is military? Talk about a beta-male army."

"Don't disparage us! We'd proudly commit war crimes for queen Vlatka!"

"Yup, simps to the end. Welp, sweeping time. I'll take out Jerkobitch."

Vlatka's eye twitched. "What the hell did you just say!?"

But before things could escalate, the arbiters ushered both teams to their respective boards which just so happened to be very close to each other, and sat down, awaiting the round's start. Ginji was the only one not present, but that was considered a positive. However, he was off to the wayside lurking in the shadows as he eagerly wished to see the true labors of 6B.

"The time is right. Now, will Oki-chwan be able to handle the reunion?" Ginji thought as things looked set to get started.

But before the round could officially start...

Okisato raised an eyebrow as Ye-bin, Ju-hye, Radina, Elitsa, Aisha, Linet, Lorna, and Trudy, all still bald, marched over towards the table. "Is there something- ...!"

All it took was one look at everyone's eyes to see what was wrong; their eyes were that eerie shade of deep blue with blue irises with rings in them.

Daria went pale as she connected the dots. "No, were you four part of the 4 teams-"

"Olavi..."

Everyone stared in silence across both sections as the 8 girls all began saying "Olavi" over and over again until they were enshrouded by veils of blue electricity. A few seconds later, the veil lifted to reveal 8 new people. Four were men and four were women, but all had the same creepy blue eyes the others had.

Bafflement was the theme for all, except for Okisato, who felt immense rage building within as he recognized one of the men before him.

"Well look who's it is? Been a while since we's last met. When was it again? Oh yeah, when we's hooked up your momma to the DB," a man with slicked back black hair clad in dress suspenders sneered.

This man was Flavio Baltho, one of the sinful six responsible for Kana Tanabe's death.

"Flavio... I'll kill you!" Okisato roared.

Flavio merely smirked and gestured around him as a blue mist began to enshroud him, his 7 other cohorts, and the Japanese teams.

"What the fuck is going on!? Are we in some frozen time space thingy!?" Iori cried.

"Yes, that's exactly it," an elderly male voice cackled.

Okisato's heart began racing as his eyes bulged in rage. He recognized that voice all too well. Turning ever slowly, there was the mad scientist from the Babylonian men's team, the one who had been the chief conspirator behind his mother's death, Olavi Hellkinnen.

"My, to think we'd meet again after our bonding session, but this time, you'll have to die for real," a female voice sneered.

Mimoko went pale as she turned to see a now completely hairless Irja strutting towards her, now with no veil of hair to hide her disturbing deep blue eyes.

"Um, mind telling me what the fuck is going on besides the time freeze thing!?" Iori scowled.

Olavi let out a chuckle and turned to her. "We are Deep Blue, and this will be your execution."

The full game:

White: Okisato Tanabe Black: Iori Ishikiridokoro

1. e4 c5

2. Nf3 d6

3. d4 cxd4

4. Nxd4 Nf6

5. Nc3 a6

6. g3 Kd7

7. e5 Ng8

8. Bf4 Nc6