Chapter 127:

Mastermind hippie

En Passant Grandmaster

Katie clicked her tongue as she threw the broken glass in the trash. "I snapped. I really snapped. I can't remember the last time that happened," she thought.

Back in high school, Katie Knox was a far different person. She barely talked and was highly unsociable. She had a strong sense of justice though, but also possessed abnormal strength. One day, she saw someone getting bullied and violently beat the bullies to a near death state, terrifying all around her. Bullying quickly dropped to an all-time low at the school, however, things ended up going negative for Katie herself. Many of the bullies' families not only pressured the school to punish her, but also began dragging her to court. While she was never sentenced to prison, her and her family were forced to pay medical fees to all the bullies' families.

This greatly effected Katie and her family both financially and mentally. Katie in particular was conflicted on what to do next. In her mind, she had been in the right, yet the system had favored the aggressors. Had she not met Sherbert when she did, she might have become a bully herself. The encounter happened a few months after the verdict of the court case. Katie had been painfully remaining pacifist as bullying began to tick up again. She was even forced to let some bullies beat her up without fighting back, which she didn't mind at first, but began to resent as the bullies began getting more and more emboldened. Eventually, she reached her boiling point. As she was walking home, she noticed someone getting bullied and had Sherbert not stepped in, she would have killed the bully.

However, Sherbrt just happened to be on vacation and in the area at the time. She approached the bullies and rather than stopping them with violence, she stopped them with words. "I'm live streaming, you know, so the police will see that you're bullying and ground you."

The threat worked and the bullies backed off. Katie quickly approached Sherbert and thanked her for saving not just the victim, but her as well. The two quickly became friends and began hanging out online together. Sherbert was able to sympathize with Katie, having an undesirable side that she too sought to suppress. She gave Katie tips and the next day, Katie put them to practice.

As the bullies surrounded her, looking for a daily stress relief, Katie began talking. "You know, I know I like said you could like beat me up, but like you don't just beat me up, you beat everyone up, and it makes me, like, super, super, pissed. Like-"

"Shut up-"

SNAP!

The bullies all went pale as Katie broke two chunks of her desk off with her hands.

"Like, if I get anymore pissed, I might like, kill you for reals, and that would suck, cuz then you'd be dead, and like if you're dead, you can't like live or have fun. So like, stop bullying now, cuz like, I'm ready to snap like I snapped this desk in half. Did you know this desk is made of like super tough plastic..."

Katie rambled on and on, though her tactic was effective. With just words and some minor property damage, she had stopped the bullies. The rambling was also good for Katie, as it quickly became a coping mechanism to mitigate her anger and violent urges. Thus, she quickly became known as the chatterbox powder keg. As time went on, Katie's violent urges gradually decreased, though on the other hand, she began rambling more and more to the point where her shortest conversation averaged about 100 words. Many who didn't know about her past, found this more annoying than threatening, but Katie didn't mind. In fact, she was proud to be a chatterbox.

Not once since she became a chatterbox had she ever come close to snapping, until today. Seeing Iori not just bully Sherbert, but also tricking her into getting drunk and doing indecent things had reawakened some of the pent up rage she thought she had suppressed long ago. Though unlike back then, she now had a better way to settle things than violence; chess. Katie had only picked up chess after Sherbert introduced her to it, though was fairly decent at it. She got to the point where she managed to win a tournament and receive an offer from Wiley to become an SPCM. The more she played chess, the more she realized how powerful winning at chess was. Winning didn't equal simple victory, in tense and competitive settings, winning could break your opponent. Thus, she found beating unsavory individuals at chess to be a great way to show them their dues in a non-violent way. Of course, whenever she lost to an unsavory individual, she'd ramble an essay's worth of words to calm herself back down.

...

Everyone gathered round as Iori sat down across from Katie.

"Uh, why you pressing your tits into my noggin?" Sandy nervously asked Mimoko.

"I'm groggy and tired, sorry," Mimoko grumbled.

"So we making bets? If yes, you lose and you go streaking and dance nude down in Times square," Iori snickered.

"If you like, lose. You like, live a life of repentance and delete that awful video you filmed of Mililani. Because what you did-"

"Oh, and you'll be wearing a gag ball for 24 hours straight."

Katie's eye twitched as she slammed her fist down on the table. "You like, get to move white, and get like 30 minutes no increment, but like you can't just act all mean and-"

"Yeah, yeah," Iori grumbled as she moved her pawn to e4.

Katie quickly went silent and closed her eyes before opening them again and moving her pawn to e5.

While she was a chatterbox, chess allowed her to distract her mind thinking of moves and strategies. Before she knew it, she had become an International master and achieved a rating of 2389. Her old terrifying personality also rose to the surface of her eyes as she went deep into thought. Due to the nasty glare in her eyes coupled with her brooding pose and long hippie dreadlocks, many dubbed her the "mastermind hippie".

"Damn, your whole personality shifted," Iori snickered as she moved her pawn to f4.

Katie merely tilted her head down before accepting the King's gambit and capturing the pawn at f4 with her e-pawn. Iori gleefully moved her knight to f3 while Katie moved her pawn to g5. Then after Iori moved her bishop to c4, she was one move away from pulling off a Muzio gambit. However, Katie had other plans and moved her queen to e7.

"Well aren't you something. You just created a new gambit for me to wreck you with!" Iori maliciously thought as she moved her pawn to d4.

Only one other person in the room was able to see what Iori was planning, and that person was Mimoko as Katie fell into the trap and captured the hanging pawn at d4 with her queen.

"YO! Get ready for the pain train!" Iori shouted as she slammed her king down on f2.

"...Would you shut up?" Katie growled as her violent personality began to creep back up as she moved her knight to c6.

"What a dumbass. That brooding look supposed to mask your stupid, cuz your ass just got... PINNED!" Iori snickered as she slammed her rook down on e1.

Katie's eyes widened in horror as her ice cold persona shattered to bits. Everyone else began to gasp in shock as they realized what had happened.

"... I... I'm going to lose my queen... YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Katie tearfully raged as she slammed her knight down on f6.

"No saving that queen, and without it, your ass is dead," Iori snickered as she captured the pawn at g5 with her knight.

Katie wiped away her tears and angrily captured the rook at e1 with her queen, and watched as Iori maliciously captured it with her queen.

"Thanks for the bargain, bitch."

"Shut up, you bitch," Katie snarled as she moved her bishop to e7.

"Wow, you actually cut down on the talking. Kinda conflicted to be honest. If you become the silent type, the gag ball punishment loses all its steam," Iori sighed as she moved her knight to c3.

"Why are you such a vulgar no-good degenerate bitch!?" Katie snarled as she captured the pawn at d4 with her knight.

"Cuz disrespect's my middle name. Check, motherfucker!" Iori snickered as she captured the pawn at f7 with her bishop, forcing Katie's king to d8.She then captured the pawn at f4 with her bishop as Katie moved her pawn to h6. "Lol, here's the Muzio revenge you denied me of," Iori snickered as she captured the pawn at c7 with her bishop, forcing Katie to capture said bishop with her king. This allowed Iori to capture the pawn at e7 with her queen and inch ever so close to mating Katie.

"Check. Did you know a check can mean different things in different sports and context?" Katie began to ramble as she moved her knight to g4, prompting Iori to move her king to g1.

With a forced smile on her face, tears dripping out of her angry eyes and her going on a ramble, it was obvious Katie's brain had fried. So much so that she made a fatal blunder and captured the knight at g5 with her h-pawn.

"Lol thanks for the steal, dumbass!" Iori laughed as she moved her queen to c5.

"Huh? You gave up a knight?" Katie trembled as she moved her knight to c6.

"Yeah, I traded my knight, for your king!" Iori maliciously grinned as she slammed her knight down on d5.

Katie froze as she suddenly found a wave of fear gripping her. "What is this feeling? Why am is my voice stuttering? Is this fear? No, I can't be afraid. But then I felt something similar when this bitch beat Imelda. C- Could she be suppressing a dark side as well?" she thought as she nervously moved her king to d8.

"And that's the end. So how ya gonna go out?" Iori snickered as she moved her queen to d6.

Katie answered that question by tearfully glaring and letting loose a terrified shriek as she captured the pawn on h2 with her rook.

"So you went out flailing. Checkmate, motherfucker," Iori snickered as she moved her queen to c7, winning the game.

Before anyone could react, Katie suddenly began stripping much to everyone's shock.

"What's going- MMPPH!?"

Before Katie could protest, a gag ball suddenly materialized in her mouth, gagging her. She then finished stripping and immediately bolted off, presumably to go streaking and dance nude in Times Square.

"Oi, the hell just happened?" Sandy trembled.

"K- Katie! Why!?" Sherbert cried as she sunk to the floor in tears.

Mimoko and Carol went silent as Mariano glared and approached Iori. "Well, ya did beat her fair n' square, so ya get the badge for beating her and rematch rights. Anyway, think it's time I closed up for the night."

The full game:

White: Iori Ishikiridokoro (1188) Black: SPCM Katie Knox (2389)

1. e4 e5

2. f4 exf4

3. Nf3 g5

4. Bc4 Qe7

5. d4 Qxe4+

6. Kf2 Nc6

7. Re1 Nf6

8. Nxg5 Qxe1+

9. Qxe1+ Be7

10. Nc3 Nxd4