"Checkmate!"

“Checkmate!" 

Those dead and cold eyes never blinked, not even once, and the devilish confidence that dripped from every syllable of his word, I could tell, even from that far — it made the black suit guy uneasy to his knees. 

And, even though he looked like he truly believed in his numbers and his odds, I could see that somewhere deep down, he had the same insidious intuition about this. 

The same intuition which echoed in that silence— something was not right like something could— no, something would go wrong there. That intense pressure felt too straining to think straight, and a dozen dead bodies lying all around certainly didn't improve the situation. 

I always used to imagine how it would feel to get in a death-like situation... again. And I learnt that I felt pitiful, scared and pathetic. Everything that I felt all those years back. 
But, something more too. This sensation, a calmness and numbness in my mind which strangely resonated with that deep frustration in my heart.

It was like I was scared of it all, sure, but still could not help moving away from it.

"Let me spell it again for you… Umm... what was your name, again? Ah... right, Mr I-don't-care-about-your-name. I will not use Rock in my play.” 
“…If I win or tie the game using Rock, then that will be my loss.”

Dreading the game, fearing the situation, Black-Suit looked like he was trying to recollect himself and maybe think straight. 

All the while I was hidden in the farthest and the darkest corner near to the exit of that evacuated and poorly lit building— watching the things unfold and trying not to shriek the next second.

I was terrified, but somehow... curious too.
But, before all of that, the only question ringing in my mind was...
Why was I here? How did I wake up here, in this situation? What was going on?
The only thing that I remembered was following a guy chased by a dozen men. And, the only thing that was somewhat visible to me now, was a guy in a black suit and another with those eyes. Those dead eyes that oozed an eerie emptiness.
The flickering light from that half-broken bulb on the ceiling could only help that much.

“..."
"And... w-what if I-I lose and y-you used Rock?”
"Then, that'd be a tie match. And, of course, you're free to choose any one of the Rock, Paper or Scissor. Also, I'll give you two chances, and... that's just because I am feeling quite generous today.”
"Now... if you lose by any chance then, unfortunately, I'd have to kill you, and you'd end up just like the rest of your friends here.”
"Yeah, I know... sad, right? But luckily for you, I don't want to do that. That's why I am giving you this chance.”

From dead-eyes' voice, I could, kind of, tell that he was the same person who was shouting for help when being chased earlier. But those dead-eyes and this current situation strongly contrasted that scene from my memory.

"..." 
"S-So... w-what if I win?”

"Well, I won't bet on it, but believe me, I want that to happen more than you do.”
"And yes, then you're free to do anything to me in that case, along with the bonus of escaping from me, alive...”
"Also, if you're worried about me keeping my promise, then rest assured, because if there's anything I am loyal to, it's gambling and game promises…"
"...But, something tells me that you already know that. Don't you... Kazuma's pet?"

Maybe to him, all this was a simple little game, but to me, it was too surreal to believe. After all, everything was so wrong, and I was stuck right in the centre of it all, with no recollection about anything. 

One second I was following a helpless guy being chased, due to my curiosity and maybe due to my stigma and the next second, I woke up hidden in a corner. Not to mention the place where I could see dead bodies lying around with the killer playing Rock-Paper-Scissors.

"And... i-if I don't want to... p-participate?” 
"Well, I am giving you a real chance here and I'd like to think that you're not senseless enough to waste it. Are you?”
"Besides, do you see me standing on my tombstone? No... so, you should know that you don't really have many good options here.”

I was creeped out by almost everything that was happening but even more by that use of words with that unnatural meticulosity in those sentences. 
Along with such steadiness in that voice — if I didn't know any better, I'd say that dead-eyes was a machine or a computer, talking.

But, why was he betting on a game that he had more chances to lose? Why was he going to kill Black-Suit, anyway? And if he was, why give him a chance? So many questions had aroused my curiosity but all I could do was muffle my breath, and wait to see what happens next. 

Even though, honestly, I was not sure if I really wanted to know the answer. But it was not like I could run anyway, as I was caught up in that mess and there was no opportunity to leave, at least, not yet. 

Now seeing that Black-Suit was still and silent, I figured that he was lost in his thoughts, probably thinking about escape or about winning this game or maybe both.

"...How did it end up like this? How do I get out of it? What's going to happen?”
"No... No... wait... I have to calm down… Pull yourself together, you're the commander of the force for god's sake."
"I have to think straight, otherwise, there's no way I can escape from this. I have to go back to Prof. to report everything."
"Alright... now, even though I am in the worst and most ridiculous situation possible, where my life depends on an irrelevant Rock-Paper-Scissor game, I still have a chance—"
"I just have to think and beat him in this game, which is actually more in my favour too. I should just think about winning.”

"Now, if dead-eyes chooses Rock, then to win, I can use either Rock or Paper. If he goes with Paper, then to win I should choose Scissor. If he goes with the Scissor then I'd have to use Rock."
"So, it seems that I have four cases of wins here and two of them use the rock to win.” "Compared to this, he can only win in two of the cases. Yes, this means that I have twice as many chances to win. I can do this…"

Brooding over something that can literally be the last choice of someone's life, apparently creates much pressure. Even then, Black-Suit sounded a bit more confident when he finally spoke up.
Well, definitely the odds seemed to be in his favour and even I really thought at that time — what could possibly go wrong?

"Should we begin or can I order a pizza while you're thinking?”
"I am ready — Rock, Paper, Scissor..."

Appalled and dismayed, Black-Suit looked at his own hand and then at dead-eyes'. Probabilistically he should've won, but instead, I could hear the not-so-surprised voice of dead-eyes and a very-so-surprised voice of Black-Suit.

"We should move on for your second chance at the game, what'd you say?”

"H-How? I-I don't understand..."
"...I had a higher chance of winning with a Rock while you could have chosen either Paper or Scissor but you don't seem even a bit surprised, much less for a fifty-fifty chance that went right with Paper.”
Muttering all of this, Black-Suit also seemed to be contemplating about luck.

"Hm... did you think that only you could calculate the chances of your wins?” 
"'Four chances of winning from using Rock’, well, of course, I would use paper. There's no fifty-fifty for this. What are you... twelve or something?”
"And... for your information, I have the worst luck possible, so don't worry too much about luck being in my favour... Haha... Ha..."

I could hear some laughter in the voice of dead-eyes', but I could only feel it like a rehearsed sound, and not a genuine laugh or emotion.

"...But what I can't understand is, why would you do that, hm?"
“..."
"And, no, I do not mean this game... I mean, who in his right mind would chase the only guy known to have made out of Elpida Corp?"
"And that too without any plans or strategy or anything…"
"I make a distressed face, show a little concern, act a little bit, and all of you idiots rush to chase me down here. Never really thought that I was leading all of you here, did you?"
"And now you're thinking how did you even get in this situation... Has Kazuma gone senile? What was he thinking when he sent you-lot, for me?”

"...Anyway, since I know that you're a lot more stupid than you give yourself credit for, I'll make the bet even easier."
"I will only use Rock and if I use Paper or Scissor, I will lose or tie like before. And if you win this game, the whole victory is yours, meaning that my previous win will be rescinded."
"But, if you lose or tie the game, then I will be the winner.”
"Will that be easy enough for you?”

"...So, for example, if you use Paper and I used Rock then that'd be a tie?"
"Yes, Mr-pet…"
"And... the bets, are they the same as before? You'll not kill me if I win and let me go, right?”
"Of course, and you are free to do whatever you chased me for — take me to Kazuma, kill me or do experiments on me… whatever rocks your boat..." 

Judging from his face that I could somewhat see in that light, Black-Suit was not able to interpret how dead-eyes could possibly expect to win this bet when literally his chance to win was just one in all the possibilities of the game. Not that I could.

"Ah... I don't know what the hell is he thinking but this is a much better chance for me. Now he has only one chance to win and that'd be when he uses Rock and I choose Scissor."
"And, choosing Rock will result in two chances of me winning and one chance of a tie; using Paper will give me two chances of winning and one of tying while Scissor will give me one chance of losing but two chances of winning."
"From this, I think using Paper or Rock will be a good choice.”

”But, wait a second, wouldn’t Paper be better to use as he said that he will not use anything but Rock. Yes, I think that’d be a smarter choice.” 

Black-Suit looked like he made up his mind, but then he stopped midway and started thinking again. I understood that probably the confidence in those cold eyes which showed eagerness or that no-surprise-look from earlier made him reconsider his choices once more. 

"No, wait... I should be more careful. He said that he'd be using Rock then that means he's expecting me to use Paper to counter it.”
"Yeah... he's no idiot. He knows that winning here has only one possibility, and I'd be fully expecting it. So this means that his statement of using Rock is a misdirection .”
"Meaning — “
"What he's trying to do is tie the game and not win it... Yes, that's why he specifically made a rule for tying this game.”
"I will not fall for this... not this time. I have figured you out, dead-eyes. You're not going to use Rock, you're going to use Paper.”
"I am ready, let's go... Rock, Paper, Scissor…”

"...Oops, Well, a hundred for trying, right?”
"Huh...? H-How's this p-possible? I was certain that you'd use Paper this time, how come you chose Rock?”
"Why— “

"..."
"What happened is that.. you missed the point again. See, this time there was no misdirection. All there was the paradox of misdirection, as I call it.”

"..."
"Worry not, pal... Let me explain it to you.”
"Since I had already won once, so you thought that I'd try to tie the match as there was only one possibility for me to win and I won't wager my victory on it."

"And then those tie-game rules I had set, well, they helped you convince yourself that this was the correct theory. Didn't they?”
"See, that's where you got beaten, my friend. In the end, it was just a theory, and you don't just blindly trust a theory based on what you hear or see. Well, at least, I don't... and you shouldn't have either."
"So, to cut it short..."
"...I expected that you'd expect me to go for a tie and use paper.”
"Hey, wait for a second... Now that I think about it, I realise, this all sounds more like expect-inception, am I right?”
"Maybe I should rename my paradox of misdirection to expect-inception. What'd you think, Kazuma's pet?”

The bewildered face of Black-Suit and shocked eyes of mine could not believe what just happened. Dead-eyes won, he actually won... he forced Black-Suit to use Scissor which was the only chance he could lose the game. I had never seen such mind-play up close in my life, and that too for such a stupid simple game of Rock-Paper-Scissor.

"Ah, man... don't look so dejected. I didn't break your hopes or anything. You never really had any chance to win from the beginning itself. I was just playing with you."
"...Wha — what's that supposed to mean?”

"That all of this was just me playing... and that I already knew what was going to happen."

I could not clearly see the dead-eyes' face and his eyes were just frighteningly empty. But hearing that confidence in his voice, I knew that he was not lying or bluffing. 
But wouldn't that mean that he had some kind of future predicting ability? It's not possible, right? It's just a mind-game.
…Right?

"But... I-I don't understand, it was not really on you. I could have gone with another option for my game. H-How could you have known th—"
"Yeah... but remember when I said ‘Checkmate' earlier?"
"Well, I didn't say that because it sounded cool or anything... umm..."
"...Okay, maybe that too, but the point is that checkmate is something that you say when you've completely cornered your opponent and I already had."
"I knew what choices you were going to make before you even considered them.”

“...?"
"H-How's this p-possible? You're ly—"

"Think about this... how did you find me today, when I was not found for 4 years, huh?"
"Because you're good at finding? 'Coz you're better than me? Do you really think so? Even now?"
"See... I was following you, observing you…"
"Do you know there are patterns to everything? Like literally everything is just... patterns repeating itself? It’s quite fascinating… of course, only if you can see it though.”

"The life, the laws of the world, science... your thought process—“
"Yep, that too, although your thought process is quite straightforward though. And one more thing, you did not find me, pal. I found you.”
"So, don't sweat it, and try not to take it personally, okay.”

While dead-eyes was chattering and I was listening to everything he said, I could not quite catch the moment when there was a somewhat audible thud, and Black-Suit fell down.

"Painless, right? I did not even need my weapons.”

I figured out the death-part soon after, but didn't quite see or hear anything happen. But I figured that maybe it was for good. Maybe I didn't want to see someone die in front of me, yet again. 

Although those genius explanations, witty remarks and that sarcastic-cheerful tone of him made the gravity of the situation slip my mind, I was again reminded about how dark the moments really were.

"Now... for your blood. Where's my syringe?” 

I could not grab what he meant by the blood or the syringe, right then. Maybe because my mind felt dazed and kind of frozen. But a second later I could see a syringe shine on the neck of Black-Suit, sucking up blood in itself.

But, why did he need this guy's blood? Was it something special? What was he going to do with it?

More questions started appearing, but I could feel that my fear and the rotten memories from that day were returning, which quickly trumped my curiosity. Even knowing that someone just died before me, triggered them.
I had my hands pressing my mouth, so as to not leak an audible gasp, and my mind was choked with everything portentous.

And then, out of nowhere... I saw dead-eyes start writhing in pain and fall on the ground. From the looks of it, he was feeling like something was hammering his head in, and that too quite violently and relentlessly.
That cold look and the snarky voice that he wore all that time, quickly turned to a pained look and a groaning noise, that did not let any words to come out... all the while he struggled to stand. 

The next moment I saw him pierce that large syringe full of blood in his neck and try to empty its contents. Fortunately for me, my senses told me that it was quite possibly the best and the only opportunity for me to run…
And so I did, as discreetly and swiftly as possible, praying to make this whole event be one of those things in a nightmare that you forget when you wake up the next day.
Faster, the better.

x----------------------------x----------------------------x

 It was the first session of our class and our teacher was a bit late, but it was all very expected. Our home-room teacher was often late. Everyone was chatting around, and having fun.

"Hey... Irina, do you know, we're going to have a transfer student join us today?"
"...Oh, really?"
"I hope the student is a she- and somewhat beautiful... hehe..."
"Stop it..."

I was talking with my friends, trying to blend in like always and everything was feeling normal. 

Suddenly, the gate slid open, our teacher came in, and with him was the new transfer student— standing confident, looking cheerful but behind those spectacles, I saw the only thing I never expected or hoped to see... those same... dead eyes.