Chapter 20:

The bullet demon of Kyoto

En Passant Grandmaster Volume 2

Mimoko nervously backed towards the wall as the delinquent cornered her.

"Oi Safumi, stop harassing her," a voice called out.

Mimoko turned to notice the dark-skinned girl from before standing alongside a petite girl with short white hair who was constantly clinging to a girl with long black hair that obscured her face.

"What do you want, Doraaki? This is between me n' her!"

"Your way with words is terrible. "My apologies to you all, but since the award ceremony is going to begin soon, we're going to have to ask you to leave as secret puzzle cafes tend to close temporarily while awards ceremonies are going on" would have made more sense, but there's no such rule in the first place. In fact, you could just watch the ceremony from here on the big screen."

"Who are you?" Mimoko asked.

"Doraaki."

"'Doraaki'?"

"Yup, though you can skip the "-san" and add the "-chan". Sorry about bozo here. She's always grumpy and can never articulate her thoughts well."

"You're cruisin' for a bruisin', Doraaki! I'm kicking her out!"

"What if I beat you at chess?" Mimoko asked.

"I'll challenge you in chess!"

"Not interested. You got no noteworthy feats."

"How good do I need to be to play you then!?"

"I said I wasn't interested, now beat it! We got business to discuss."

"Then how about I call someone over to play you then?" Mimoko glared as she pulled out her WWCF card and showed the delinquent Peter's profile. However, that seemed to anger the delinquent even more.

"I HATE HIM! FUCKING BASTARD SAYS I'M UNWORTHY!? I'M THE BULLET DEMON OF KYOTO DAMMIT!"

"'Bullet demon of Kyoto'? Wait, so are you an underground chess player!?"

The delinquent turned and shot Mimoko a murderous glare, causing her to shut her eyes in terror as she began to shrivel up. But suddenly, the woman stopped and stared in shock at Peter's match data.

"You... BEAT Peter!?"

"Yes, just now,” Mimoko trembled.

The delinquent scowled for a bit before suddenly pulling out a red WWCF card and pulling up Mimoko's profile. "Well, seems there's more here then I thought. Says in the notes for your first game against Peter, ya drew but played the game so fast, the officials couldn't keep up. Guess you do have some skill, you're off the hook I guess," the delinquent grumbled as she put away her WWCF card.

However, that one action had completely erased all of Mimoko's fears, as she had been able to get a good look at the delinquent's WWCF card.

"I know who you are now. You're SPCM Himitsusan, aka Safumi Bouzi, a 2559-rated player, and grandmaster," Mimoko smirked.

"What? YES, I manage a secret puzzle cafe. Though just cuz ya met me doesn't me ya can just challenge me. Ya gotta find my place first."

"Not exactly. Since you're currently in a secret puzzle cafe, I can challenge you," Mimoko smirked as she opened up her point menu to confirm the fact.

"THE HELL!?"

"Them's the rules, which you'd know if you had smarts. Think you probably got a hint when you saw me playing, but let me officially introduce myself. Doraaki Soten, SPCM from Hokkaido," Doraaki grinned. "How about you two too?" she called over to the white-haired girl and black-haired girl.

The two reluctantly introduced themselves as Tenju and Taira Kuroshiro, Himitsutan and Himitsue, respectively. It turned out they were also identical twin sisters, and dual-managed a secret puzzle cafe in Nagasaki, meaning that despite the fact that there were 7 SPCMs, there were only 6 secret puzzle cafes in Japan.

"Why's that?" Mimoko asked.

"Because Taira's a bit shy, and Maestro Himitsu didn't want her getting overwhelmed. She was actually supposed to manage a separate secret puzzle cafe in Tokyo, but the maestro pulled some strings in order to keep us together," Tenju explained.

"A- At least until the cafe is complete. Setting up a secret puzzle cafe can be a tedious task," Taira interjected.

"Is it really a big deal? SPCMs can teleport to any secret puzzle cafe in the world, so why couldn't you just-"

"Safumi! You know how those two are!" Doraaki fumed as she butted heads with Safumi.

"Huh!? You wanna go!? I'll kick you ass here and now!"

"Ahem!"

The two turned to face a blank-faced Okisato. "You Himitsusan? I want to challenge you."

Safumi cursed under her breath before asking for the point payment. Since Okisato didn't get the chance to challenge Michiko, he had more than enough points, causing Safumi to grit her teeth in frustration as a chessboard appeared on the counter.

"Alright. Rules are simple. Game's a bullet one so only 2 minutes on the clock with no increments. I go first this time, so clock starts... NOW!" Safumi shouted as she moved her knight to f3.

Undeterred by Safumi's attitude, Okisato rapidly moved his pawn to d5 as Safumi rapidly slid her pawn to g3.

"She really does move fast, guess there's no time for idle chat, not like bullet chess allows for that anyway," Okisato thought as he moved his pawn to c5.

As soon as Safumi moved her bishop to g2, Okisato noted that the opening was now a King's Indian attack: French variation after moving his knight to c6. Safumi's castle on the king's side and Okisato's pawn advancing to e5 didn't yield any clues to who had the edge, though when it came to high-speed chess, the only constant was that mistakes were bound to happen.

Despite her demeanor, Safumi was quite calm as she moved her pawn to d3 while Okisato moved his knight to f6. "I'm kickin that twintailed bitch's ass when I'm done with this asshole," Safumi thought as she moved her pawn to c4.

Sensing something, Okisato began to grin as he moved his pawn to d4, though Safumi didn't seem to feel threatened as she slid her bishop to g5. Okisato naturally countered by moving his pawn to h6, but instead of moving her bishop, Safumi opted to capture the knight at f6, allowing Okisato to capture said bishop with his queen.

Undeterred, Safumi slid her queen to a4, as Okisato marched his bishop up to d7. From there, no opportunities presented themselves to either player. Safumi moved her b-knight to d2, Okisato moved his queen to d6, and Safumi moved her pawn to h4 on her next turn.

As Okisato moved his bishop to e7, however, Safumi sensed an opportunity and moved her queen to b5.

Okisato attempted to salvage the misstep by moving his knight to b4, but it did little to stop Safumi's queen from capturing the pawn at b7, or so it appeared.

"GOT YA!" Okisato taunted as he moved his bishop to c6.

Time began to slow down a bit as Safumi's face began to contort in rage. "MOTHERFUCKER!" she roared as she moved her knight to e4.

Seeing an easy way out, Okisato smugly slid his queen to d8, leaving Safumi with no choice but to consolidate her loss by capturing the rook at a8 with her queen. After capturing Safumi's queen with his bishop, Okisato knew that the game was in his favor. All he needed to do now was keep up the momentum and wait for a mate opportunity.

"Piece of shit! I'll kill you!" Safumi shouted as she captured the pawn at e5 with her knight.

"Now what is she doing? Oh I know, losing it," Okisato thought as he moved his queen to b8.

Safumi quickly began playing aggressively as she moved her pawn to a3, which backfired on her when Okisato moved his knight to c2, forcing her to move her a-rook to c1, and give Okisato the chance to scoop up her knight at e5 with his queen.

Safumi gritted her teeth as she captured the knight at c2 with her rook, but her anger only grew when Okisato moved his pawn to f5. "CHECK, MOTHERFUCKER! she roared as she slammed her knight down on d6 in frustration.

"Well that was dumb," Okisato snickered as he mopped the knight up with his bishop.

"DIE MOTHERFUCKER!" Safumi roared as she slammed her bishop into the bishop at a8, sending it flying across the room.

"Guess that's why you're the bullet demon of Kyoto," Okisato sneered as he advanced his pawn to f4.

"CHECK! CHECK! CHECK! MOTHERFUCKER!" Safumi fumed as she slammed her bishop down on c6.

Okisato let out a mocking sigh as he simply moved his king to d8. Safumi though was now in blind rage mode as she sped her pawn to b4, prompting Okisato to move his rook to f8. Safumi didn't take her foot off the gas though, and continued her aggression by capturing the pawn at c5 with her b-pawn. However, Okisato simply slid his bishop to c7, eliciting a frustrated shriek from Safumi as she sped her bishop to g2. Now, Okisato had no issue capturing the pawn at g3 with his f-pawn, putting Safumi on thin ice as she moved her pawn to e4.

Suddenly, Safumi felt a chill as Okisato let loose a maniacal laugh, subsiding her rage slightly. "O- Oi, the hell-"

"WHAT AN IDIOT! EN PASSANT!" Okisato laughed as he performed en passant and captured the pawn at e4 with his d-pawn.

The move left Safumi dumbstruck as her jaw hung open in shock. Her anger returned momentarily as she captured the pawn at g3 with her f-pawn, though now she was starting to tear up; she was gonna lose and she knew it.

"Check," Okisato mockingly chuckled as he captured the rook at f1 with his rook, forcing Safumi to take it with her bishop.

"No, NO!" Safumi began to sniffle as Okisato mercilessly captured her pawn at g3, forcing her to block the assault at g2 with her rook.

Okisato saw no threat, and simply picked up another pawn by capturing the one at h4 with his queen, but as soon as Safumi moved her pawn to a4 in frustration, Okisato saw gold. "Thank you, Peter," he snickered as he moved his bishop to g3, mate was now imminent, and Safumi had realized it too.

"AH FUCK!" Safumi cried as she captured the bishop at g3 with her rook, giving Okisato another free piece as said rook was promptly swept away by Okisato's queen.

Safumi quickly slid her king to h1 as she gazed at the time. "A minute and a half on both of us!? Fuck, FUCK! I'm gonna lose!" she fumed in her mind as Okisato moved his queen to f2.

At this point, all Safumi was doing was delaying the inevitable as she moved her bishop to e2, prompting Okisato to sweep it up with his queen. She then advanced her pawn to c6 as Okisato further set up the mate by moving his queen to f2. Shaking her head, she then moved her pawn to d4 while Okisato advanced his pawn to e2.

"CHECK!" Safumi tearfully shouted as she slammed her pawn down on c7 in a last ditch effort to turn things around, which was promptly dashed by Okisato simply capturing said pawn with his king.

Now with nothing left, Safumi dejectedly slid her pawn to d5.

"Checkmate. Guess I'm the fastest AND smartest," Okisato snickered as he moved his pawn to e1 and promoted it to a queen, winning the game.

Tears rolled down Safumi's face as she gritted her teeth in anger. "Motherfucker. Alright, now you get points, rematch option, and some dumb badge. Now piss off!"

"True, the awards ceremony begins shortly. Come on, Tanabe-kun, let's leave her be," Mimoko nodded.

"Didn't you want to play her?" Okisato asked.

"Yes, but it can wait until she's calmed down. I want to face her when she's at her best."

But before the two could leave, a door in the back opened at out tumbled someone who was not supposed to be here.

Michiko pinched her face as Mimoko turned and gasped. "OKAA-CHAN!?"

"Ahahaha, I got caught," Daria nervously chuckled.

The full game:

White: SPCM Himitsusan (Safumi Bouzi) (2559) Black: Okisato Tanabe (2525)

1. Nf3 d5

2. g3 c5

3. Bg2 Nc6

4. O-O e5