Ch.1 – EP08 Black Fear Spike

The murmur of the Galaxy Chess Club slowly receded.

Sora sat across from Hayato. The wood grain of the board seemed to ripple with his breathing.

“I’ll take… the first move.”

Hayato picked up a white pawn. One step forward.

In that instant, Hayato’s smartwatch gave a short buzz, and his lips twisted.

“Heh-heh.”

The air around them prickled slightly. With every move he made after that, and the one after, Hayato lifted the corners of his eyes and let out the same laugh.

A small window of the black UI (user interface) on Hayato’s wristwatch flashed. PV (Principal Variation / predicted line): +0.40 / Depth: 32 → 34.

(He’s watching the watch… He doesn’t even seem to care about hiding that he’s cheating with an AI.)

From diagonally behind him, Sora could feel Momoko hold her breath.

Sora took Black. The opening went exactly by the book.

…e5, …Nc6, …Nf6.

(Ordinary is fine. At the start, ordinary—)

Each time his fingers touched a piece, he retied his awareness—ready to fall elsewhere—deep inside his chest.

Hayato was the one laughing. Sora’s expression looked as if he were gazing beyond a dream.

“Hey, you listening?”

Hayato drank water with one hand and set a piece down with the other.

“Heh-heh. Eval in the opening: +1.2 (positive is good for White). You think this is a real fight?”

Sora didn’t reply. Instead, he counted a slow four-beat at the bottom of his lungs.

(1, 2, 3, 4… inhale, exhale)

A Chopin prelude faintly resurfaced, together with the sound of a kitchen fire in some faraway country.

They entered the middlegame. The pieces tangled; the position thickened.

Hayato’s watch buzzed softly; he laughed again.

“Heh-heh.”

And then—

Inside Sora’s ear, something quietly opened.

》 ——Black Fear Spike.

A woman’s voice.

His instincts knew it. Nostalgic, yet metallic-cold somehow.

He thought it was the voice of his mother, Mari. But it lacked humidity.

(…Mom?)

In the center of his chest, a thin string went taut.

》 Black, Fear, Spike—S.O.S…. help… Sora…

The prologue’s scene overlapped in an instant, like a revolving lantern.

That strange sensation when the AI coach Hermes toppled to the “safe side.”

The AI’s candidate moves being reaped away, a silent avalanche.

Sora’s fingers stopped. His breathing dropped deeply, once.

(I’m going. Into that silence.)

The next black move. A nothing move, a mundane square.

But Hayato’s watch UI ran brief noise for just a moment.

》 Pruning… (evaluating next plan…)
》 Candidate Lines: 7 → 3
》 Safety Gate: ON

Hayato blinked, ever so slightly.

“…Huh?”

Another quiet black move. A nudge on the edge of the board.

》 Reallocating time…
》 Switching to Safe Mode

“Ha—heh-heh…”

The tail of his laugh went dry.

“Cute trick—”

Sora played as if to “cool” the entire board. By shifting only angles and time, he conveniently reduced White’s options.

(Fear jumps from where it’s unseen. But this time, it “cools.”)

Black’s pieces didn’t advance. Even so, White’s future was thinning.

“Co się dzieje? (What is this?)…”

Momoko whispered. The angle of her elbow as she folded her arms trembled just slightly.

“Is this the same Fear Spike as mine? But—it’s a bit different; it feels cold somehow…”

Hayato knit his brows and glanced at his watch.

The UI’s eval bar (evaluation graph) was swaying on the plus side. By numbers alone, it should be good for White.

And yet the AI’s instructions naturally shifted to defense.

(Defend? Why? I’m the one attacking, right?)

White’s next move was a “correct” move meant to secure the king’s safety.

That “correctness,” one by one, became walls that blocked retreat.

The owner muttered under his breath.

“The king is… being driven back farther and farther…”

The white king was guided deep into his lines, into a cramped little room surrounded by his own men.

Not g or h, but somewhere deeper.

(“Go back,” is that what the watch is telling him—?)

Hayato’s throat clicked.

“Heh… heh-heh… No—the AI is absolute!”

Sora walked as in a dream, yet with zero error precision layered move upon move.

His mother’s voice now approached with clear contours.

》 ——Can you hear me? Black Fear Spike, my S.O.S.

(I hear you. Mom…)

Inside his ears, the ache of chest-tightening sadness and a gentle smile overlapped strangely.

Hayato’s laugh finally disappeared.

The white pieces on the board, though allies, had become chains for the white king.

One by one, the escape squares were being blocked by his own side.

“Why… The eval should be good, right…”

His watch buzzed again, the UI convulsing.

》 Explainability Mode: High
》 Recommend: Safe → Safe → Safe

“Don’t defend, attack—!”

As if talking himself into it, Hayato blurted out—and in the end, he defended.

The white king took one more step into the depths of his camp—into a cage of his own pieces.

》 ——I am Caïssa, inside you. Sora, help me.

Sora gave a tiny nod to his mother’s voice and placed the final preparatory move.

On the first rank, like a white castle gate line, a small black pawn had arrived.

All around, it was jam-packed with friendly pieces.

The king’s diagonals and sides were all sealed.

Someone in the audience whispered, “Promotion. If =Q, it’s practically decided in a few moves, right?”

Momoko held her breath too. “If it’s =Q… then just a few moves to checkmate…”

(Not that.)

Sora bent his fingertips just a little and pictured the shape of a small piece.

Hayato forcibly lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Make it a queen. Go on, create the strongest piece. Heh-heh—”

At that moment, Momoko saw the light from the board tilt Sora’s eyes toward deep green—her heart gave a big thump for a beat.

(O mój Boże (Oh my God), this color in Sora’s eyes… I feel like I’ve seen it before… but this time…)

Sora’s voice was very small.

“…=N.”

What appeared on the board wasn’t a queen. A knight.

The black pawn promoted to a knight.

In that instant, an invisible horseshoe touched the white king’s nape.

The escape squares were blocked by his own men.

No interposition works.

There’s nothing that can capture.

Smothered.

And, mate.

》 …d1= N#

Silence.

The sounds of the Galaxy Chess Club stopped as if they’d been deleted from the world for a moment.

The first thing to bring sound back was Hayato’s watch.

It buzzed, briefly and feebly.

》 No Legal Moves
》 Checkmate.

“…No way.”

Hayato murmured.

“A knight…? Why not a queen…?”

His voice grew louder.

“There’s no way the AI can’t see… that…!”

He lifted his face. Sora’s eyes were still looking somewhere far away. Eyes not yet fully back from a dream.

Spectators: “A knight!?” “No, this… it’s mate.” “Impossible…”

Momoko exhaled, brought her hands together before her brow, then grinned.

“Smothered Mate. And with underpromotion (※) to a knight, unbelievable! Nieźle! (Nicely done), Sora.”

(※ Underpromotion: promoting a pawn in the enemy camp to something other than the strongest queen.)

Her voice was trembling, and her fingertips were just slightly cold.

“…But what is this? From the result, it’s similar to my Fear Spike, but it feels like dry ice, so cold… How did Sora trigger Emotional Gambits against an emotionless AI!?”

The owner stood stock-still, stupefied.

Iori rose slowly from his seat and bowed quietly. “Magnificent.”

Hayato pressed his back into the chair and stared at the ceiling.

His mouth was dry; that habitual laugh wouldn’t come.

The watch window had sunk into gray silence.

Sora finally returned to reality and looked around.

(Mom.)

He called out, in his chest.

No answer.

Only, for an instant, Caïssa’s whisper mixed with static slid through the back of his ear.

》 ——You received it.
》 I’ll stay by you just a little longer.
》 But don’t forget—my chess is a part of you.

“Thank you for the game.”

Sora offered thanks and gently stroked the rim of the board. The small shadow of a knight that had just now been born stretched thin in the light.

The pawn that was supposed to be the weakest didn’t become the strongest queen; it became only the shape that was needed.

To pierce a king, you don’t need force. You just need the exact angle that fits.

“W-wait a second.”

Hayato stood.

“Do it over. That was a fluke. I—”

Momoko stepped between them.

“Accept your loss, Hayato-kun.”

Her voice was calm.

“If you’ve gone beyond the ‘human frame,’ then you should be able to be more graceful in losing than humans, right?”

Hayato was at a loss for words and averted his eyes.

That heh-heh laugh did not return.

Sora began putting the pieces away.

When he touched the small piece that had just become a knight, there was still a faint warmth at his fingertips.

It was the residual heat of an S.O.S. delivered from beyond cold silence.

Black Fear Spike.

His mother’s thorn had surely embedded itself on the board, then quietly vanished.

Outside, a sudden evening shower had begun.

Raindrops beat on the signboard, and the scent of coffee deepened in the back of the shop.

Sora glanced toward the window and narrowed his eyes.

(I wonder if the next one will reach, too.)

He counted four beats again, deep in his chest.

One, two, three, four. Inhale, exhale.

This time, he heard no one’s voice.

Even so, his hand—did not waver.

____________________________________________________________________________________

That night, a short email arrived from Chess.aic on Hayato’s phone:

》 From: noreply@chess.aic Subject: (none)
》 Body: You are SORA aren’t you?

And then Hayato disappeared.