Fear Induced Smile

The city of Amori normally had pleasant and quiet nights, as the new home base for Aya with Japan conquered, it was the closest to the front. While being an old stronghold turned trading post, history ran through the city giving an unique character and defenses against a siege. Those following Aya in her unusual retreat back to Amori felt secure in knowing that they could hold off the advancing troops.

At least until Aya put together a new plan of attack.

The loss shook her men a little, but still believed that she would find a solution. Aya was the All-Seeing Empress, even this retreat could just be part of the plan. She had been known to do many things that they didn’t understand at the start only for victory to become theirs. It would be no different.

Aya walked into the main chamber of her personal estate within Amori as the guards closed the doors behind her. She found herself alone with just her thoughts.

“You took longer to arrive than I expected,” remarked Yumi from deeper within the chamber. As though on cue, a lantern cast light across the war table to the seat of the Empress where Yumi sat in waiting.

A genuine moment of surprise came over Aya’s face for the first time witnessed by anyone. It disappeared quickly as she adapted to the situation. “I’ll have to give you credit.” She continued to walk into the chamber and to the war table to meet Yumi.

She gave a bit of a smile back to Aya, one that Yumi witnessed too many times from the woman herself. “I don’t think I’ve seen that expression before from you.”

“I’ll admit you surprised me.”

“Twice in one day, this is quite the day.”

“I’m not above granting praise when it’s earned.”

‘And there is it. She’s completely recovered herself to her same mountainous presence.’ It wasn’t as though Yumi expected to keep her off balance the whole time. She just needed that moment in order to re-adjust the scales. Yumi knew that within Aya’s mind that she still had been evaluated low. Her record certainly raised her standing for the woman, but not enough for her to actually show her true self to Yumi.

The test that Aya gave to her had been cleared. Now she proved that she was worth giving attention. All that remained was the final objective. Yumi stood up from the seat addressing Aya formally. “I’ve come to challenge you, Aya. I’m the one that you’ve been looking for in this conquest of yours. So let’s finally settle things!”

Chapter 551 - Fear Induced Smile

Aya came to a stop on the opposite side of the table staring intently at Yumi who dared to challenge her. While many had sought to do so, none succeeded. Even Yumi and her friends that stood up to her still fell in line like the rest. Value pieces for her game, but still just pieces for her to move.

However, looking across the table with everything that she had honed and refined in her long years of controlling and dominating people stood a different woman than she remembered. Someone that was seeking to meet her face to face in battle and make her earn what she had so effortlessly took for so long.

The sight of someone that didn’t back down or even show a hint of fear to her wasn’t only rare, but never seen by her. All no matter who they were, a warlord, emperor or general all collapsed before her when she revealed her true self to them. The polite and well mannered yet overbearing presence stripped away and shattered everyone that witnessed it. Even the one that stood before her now. She knew that woman well and spent years using her.

That woman was no longer present. Before her stood someone else that she didn’t recognize. This was someone that she had never seen before, someone fresh and unknown. A rare thing for Aya that made her smile. “Very well, as the challenger, it’s your choice.”

Yumi turned out her hand a previously concealed shogi piece. “Let’s go back to the basics, where you started everything.”

The game quickly came together as the two women continued the preamble to their fight. “You’ve never beaten me. You’re quite confident.”

“You haven’t faced me before.”

“You are different. This will be interesting.” She sat down with the pieces all in place for their game to begin. In a way that she hadn’t figured out yet, this all felt natural or the way it should be. There was excitement in the air and through her body for the first time since she had been a child. A feeling that she missed and thought that she lost.

Uncertainty, the unknown.

It came as a thrill, one that she couldn’t wait to see more of now that she remembered it. This wasn’t something that she could have foreseen when she stepped into the chamber. She never would have even given Yumi anything close to this sort of estimate of her capabilities. Aya only saw her as someone that was soft and unwilling to make the true commitment and looked for other means to get results. Something that she did praise her for being able to do.

Calm suddenly left the chamber as both women brought their attention to the table. “That move at the end, I didn’t think you had it in you.” Aya glanced slightly up through the upper part of her visual range at Yumi.

“You know how I play. So I changed the rules.”

“Indeed, an expertly played move it was. You’ve been busy.”

As the challenger, Yumi had been granted the first move. She reached out and with a clear ring of the piece hitting wood, the battle to decide the fate of everyone began.

“One doesn’t challenge the strongest woman in Japan without making sure of everything.”

Several moves between the two rang out quickly as the game was afoot. Even in the early plays it was clear they fought to hold strong positions. “Yes, that is one thing that you excel in. Your information gathering is the best I’ve ever seen. You know exactly how to exploit a situation to whatever end you want. It’s what allowed you to create your miracles.”

“High praise coming from you. Who knows a person’s heart so well that you can manipulate anyone towards your own ends. Even upon your first meeting, you can read someone that you can predict well enough to know how they’ll act, allowing you to guide them to whatever outcome you wish, giving you your prophet-like status.”

The early game played out quickly as they finished getting their positions and battling minor skirmishes with feints and counters. No real losses occurred on either side yet and things looked to hang tightly contested. “Would seem we know each other quite well. To surprise me, that is something truly remarkable. You have my attention.”

“I’m sure you’ve already figured quite a bit of it out.”

“And you’ll fill in the details. You really aren’t the same woman I met all those years ago.”

“I had to change myself to meet you.”

“Impressive.” Aya tapped a piece down as they started into the long mid-game of their battle. “Knowing your style, I had planned for you making moves that would drain or remove pieces from my board. That is your style, you don’t enjoy killing, though you’re not opposed to it. You just prefer to have that blood on someone else’s hands rather than your own. But in this game, you couldn’t do that. You had to get your hands dirty to pull off what you did.

“A bold move that even I couldn’t predict. And knowing that you have Nagahama and Shinozaki with you, I’m guessing that it was her move. That woman’s as skilled as working in the shadows as Koiso. Poison?”

Yumi matched moves with Aya. She knew that Aya hadn’t seen what Nerine did to her men and in reality, poison might have been more of a kindness than what she had Nerine do. Like so many times, she had to see those near her stained in order to find victory. It seemed to be her fate to never know a way that didn’t hurt those close to her. “That would have been more painless, though too risky. I needed to make sure they were wiped out in their entirety.

“What your scouts will eventually tell you is that they all killed each other. Betrayal at the deepest and lowest levels to create a bloody slaughter. Miyamae and Senmatsu that led your reserves are from different clans, as you know. You brought them both to heel under you and only your strength and presence kept them in line. A rather easy thread to cut and let everything break loose from there. Shinozaki is good at cleaning up messes at that point.”

Another play by Aya kept things moving, even if their plays started to slow in timing. Hearing the details from Yumi put a bit of a smirk on Aya’s face. “The Hero’s has a darkness to her.”

The presence of Yumi instantly changed the moment that Aya said that. A deep and boundless dark expression came over her face that Aya had never seen from the woman before that left her a little put back by. “You haven’t a clue to the darkness that dwells within me.”

“Now that’s a very interesting look. Oh how things would have been more enjoyable if you showed up all those years ago.”

“That’s not what you care about.”

“Oh? That’s a rather bold claim that you’re making right there.”

“It’s not a claim. It’s truth.”

Aya leaned in a little as she wanted for Yumi to play. It was no longer just interesting in her mind. Any sort of plan or idea that Aya had come up with to what this game was going to be stopped being reliable. Yumi came with a different sort of plan in mind.

The two women no longer just battled in the game, but with their stares and presence. Tensions mounted further as the warm-up rounds of their battle concluded. Aya wanted to see more of this woman. Her curiosity only grew further with each minute that passed. The world melted away for her. The lands that she conquered, the people subjugated. None of it mattered in this moment.

Something new was being born before her and she wanted nothing more than to see it all and keep it to herself. Excitement came over her face as the normally controlled emotions of Aya blurred with her true feelings.

“And what is this truth that you have?”

Another click of wood played as their game pushed forward and grew beyond the bounds of the board. Things moved the way that Yumi wanted. ‘It’s a weird feeling to feel this in control of the situation, especially against Aya. I don’t fear her like before, something that she has already noticed. It pleases her to have someone like that, but more than that now, she wants to see. Things that are beyond her sight have happened and she finds that exciting.’

Everything since the day that Yumi made her declaration to fight Aya to her friends led to this moment. Back then, she dreaded and feared the day. It felt like something impossible. In ways, challenging Masa and Sumiko it felt the same way. So it should haven’t been a surprise, but they all felt new and different. Her past experience couldn’t help her with the current world. And she didn’t know if she could even reach someone so far beyond her grasp as Aya.

To have come so far and be where she was now felt like a real accomplishment. She could actually see the moves that Aya made and what she planned to do. Everything was revealed before her and even her own plays forced Aya into places where she wanted. This game both below and above was nothing like how things used to go between them.

‘I can finally see the end.’ All the long years of planning and struggling finally paid off for her. This long test would end and she could return to the real world. Understanding these personalities as she did now, she felt confident that none of them could take control of her ever again. It wasn’t what she imagined for what was going to happen when she entered her mind. She had ideas, but they had been clouded by wild imaginations crafted from books and movies. Nothing that actually served her well within her mind.

Yumi returned her play pushing back against Aya finding the game of shogi almost a distant distraction compared to what she had before her. The game was merely another device for Yumi to finish solving the puzzle that rested before her.

“I know the truth, because it is something that I wished for once. I’m here to finally give you what it is that you’ve been wanting all your life.” She stared directly at Aya, the board disappearing as the women battled with their words now. The end game was finally upon them.