Chapter 150:

A WWCF meeting [Season 5 Intro]

En Passant Grandmaster

Daria shook her head as she sat down at a conference table. After all that had happened with both Pewler and Michiko, an emergency council was called by the WWCF. All maestros were asked to attend, but so far, only a few including Daria had shown up. Some SPCMs as well as various WWCF officials and ambassadors, including Raymond Redfield himself, were present.

Seeing that no one new was arriving, Raymond began the meeting. "I know this was billed as an emergency summons, but we might as well count this as a full-fledged meeting, since new policy changes are likely to arise from this. Now I assume you are all well aware of all the issues that have currently befallen at least 4 of our 7 secret chess maestros and their SPCMs. First up, is Mr. Ian Kimovich, Maestro of Russia."

A middle aged man rose and addressed the board. He highlighted that due to the actions of Desperado and Russia's leader, Tsar Grigori, he and his SPCMs were constantly being bombarded with scare tactics, mainly due to Ian's vocal opposition to Grigori.

Next up was Daria who summarized the Michiko incident and the impact it had on her SPCMs. "I regret that I have to use AIs of them, but sadly I fear I may need to replace even the surviving members, due to the lasting damage they each received.'

"Then now would be a good time to abolish the secret puzzle cafes in Japan."

Everyone turned to face a young Indian man. His name was Vihaan, one of India's top chess players as well as a WWCF ambassador.

"Vihaan, you know the rules of the maestro project. It matters not what country they hail from. If they are top in the world, they may set up base in their home country," Raymond glared.

Vihaan slammed his fist down in frustration. "But India is one of the largest chess powerhouses in the world. America, Russia, China, all have maestros, so why doesn't India? No maestro also means no secret puzzle cafe."

"That is actually why I decided to designate this as more of a policy-making meeting. Many of our representatives in countries lacking a maestro have complained about the lack of secret puzzle cafes. Thus, I am proposing that we open semi-secret puzzle cafes in these nations. Each will function just like a normal one, allowing players of that country to challenge SPCMs and maestros around the world. The ones that manage the cafes will also be challengeable just like normal SPCMs, but given the title of Deputy secret puzzle cafe manager, or DSPCM."

"And so you're saying we get a consolation prize!? Rubbish! We have the talent, so why do we not have a maestro?"

"Blame you representative for falling short in the maestro project. Though if it makes you feel better, we can create a position of Deputy maestro-"

"I will not accept a downgrade from what we should be rightfully given!"

"Very well, we shall move on to the vote for just deputy secret puzzle cafes and DSPCMs."

While there were some dissenting votes, the measure passed by a comfortable margin. Raymond ordered that the measure go into effect immediately, and had one of his aides begin making the necessary preparations.

"You shouldn't be complaining, Vihaan. This measure will improve things for chess players worldwide," a woman with long silver hair growled.

The woman was Amelia Stavanger of Norway. Boasting a rating of 3300, she was often regarded as the the strongest of the maestros. Though she had never actually beat Daria in a match, she had never lost to her either as all her matches against her had ended in draws. However, she had fared better than Daria during the maestro selection exam, which is why she had been granted a higher rating than her.

"But having one of the largest chess powerhouses in the world excluded from having a maestro-"

"Vihaan, the maestro project is not about representing the countries that are strongest at chess, it's about recognizing the strongest players in the world. If they hail from a nation that's also a chess powerhouse, so be it. If not, that doesn't effect things either," Raymond glared.

"In that case, I propose we strip Maestro Xiao Lin of her title."

"Oh? And why would anyone do that?" a voice sneered.

Everyone turned to notice Xiao Lin entering the room. She immediately locked eyes with Daria and the two shot each other silent glares as she headed to her seat.

"So the topic of discussion has arrived," Raymond nodded as Xiao Lin smirked and placed her DESPER on the table.

"The WWCF recognizes both the Desperado league and the DESPERs. And as a matter of fact, I don't think it's fair to single me out since nearly all of Maestro Himitsu's SPCMs are Desperados."

"Not by choice," Daria glared.

"And neither was I. That vile Michiko deceived me and now I am nothing more than her pawn. Why I'm even stuck sporting the bald look for the rest of days too. Talk about abuse."

"Not true in the slightest. During your wager, becoming a proxy of Michiko Azami was never in the cards, in fact, here's the full wager itself," Raymond stated as he pulled out his WWCF card.

Daria stared as Raymond turned his card purple and pulled up the wager for Xiao Lin's match with Ai. A whirlwind of emotions hit her, however, she kept them to herself in order to ask Raymond something else.

"How many members of the executive board are present here?"

Everyone stared in confusion as Raymond stated the info was confidential. Daria decided to press though, and argued that there was no reason for the executive members to remain secret, especially considering Pewler was one.

"Pewler never publicly displayed his WWCF card. And I was well aware he was with the Desperado league. Though this incident has made me consider something, perhaps all maestros and SPCMs should also be allowed to compete in tournaments in order to keep their skills sharp," Raymond mused, completely changing the subject.

"Hold on! Mr. President, I can understand the SPCMs, but the maestros would be overkill. They'd completely dominate which is why we needed to make them maestros in the first place!" one of the WWCF staff argued.

"There will naturally be set parameters. Now let us commence the vote."

Daria sighed as she realized her question was never going to be answered. "I wish Hagemi was around, she could probably give me some answers, but her whereabouts have been unknown ever since the Michiko incident."

"You look as though you want to say something," Kuon smiled.

"I was just wondering if there's been any updates on Hagemi Shousen's whereabouts."

Raymond scowled and shook his head.

After discussing a few more matters behind closed doors, everyone was dismissed while Raymond confronted the press corps waiting outside. One reporter, a large silky sifaka, calmly leaped towards the podium and landed before Raymond.

"You sure had a nice closed door meeting. Care to tell what happened?"

Raymond turned to the lemur and scoffed. "Your bugs didn't illegally record it all?"

"No, it's precisely because they were there, yet couldn't record a thing, that I'm angry. What did you do?"

"Your equipment just failed on you, that's what."

The lemur tilted his hat low, to hide the glare of contempt in his eyes as he leaped to a nearby tree. "We'll see about that."

The lemur was known to be an infamous reporter known as Cyril Milverton. He had originally served as the aide to a notorious blackmailer and gossiper known as Rebelle Milverton Adler. However, after her untimely and unnatural passing, he assumed control of what was left of her tattered blackmailing empire. Cyril was a highly intelligent lemur and had learned human speech and language at a young age. He had also grown far larger than any in his species, though much to his annoyance, he had been unable to do anything about his face losing pigmentation.

As he finished setting up his surveillance equipment, he noticed a chess match taking place between two well-dressed businessmen. Sensing a scoop, he quickly leaped over, to find the game had just ended. One man got up and stormed away in a huff, as Cyril took his place and glared at the man seated across from him.

"So care to actually be cooperative, Inohara?"

"Arere? Is that Cyril the silky sifaka?. What a sight for sore eyes. Oh, you know your name Cyril's actually a derivative of Kyrillos."

"I hope you die."

"Why so hostile? All I did was report on the black market trade you were apart of that occurred back in 2000. I mean, if anything, you should be glad I'm shedding light on the poachers who kidnapped and sold-"

"And now my origin is public knowledge."

"And it's oh so justified, you fluffy little blackmailing acolyte."

Cyril glares as Asahi set up the pieces. Having your past exposed was one of the things Rebelle had told him was one of the worst things that could happen to a blackmailer. While she naturally listed plenty of countermeasures, Cyril had been unable to implement any, mainly because there were now greater forces against him than before, notably the organization, ILU, which Rebelle used to be affiliated with. ILU had once been one of the largest shadow organizations in the world, but just one year ago, it completely collapsed, mainly due to having many of its key members killed by the infamous Muramasa Jouzu. As such, ILU was a shell of it's former self, though some of it's surviving members like Ginji Inohara, were desperately trying to rebuild it.

"I still think you all lost your heads when you deemed Madam Rebelle a traitor," Cyril glared.

"Then why not a quick game. You win, I'll admit we were wrong about her. You lose, you become my dinner," Ginji mused as he flashed his DESPER.

"In that case, you get a death by a thousand paper cuts when you lose."

"I'd be a monkey's bum if I lost, which is why I won't," Ginji sneered as he pocketed his DESPER.

Cyril nodded and began the game by moving his pawn to e4, while Ginji opted for moving his pawn to g6. Cyril knew about Ginji's preference for the modern defense though, and followed up with bishop to c4. Ginji fianchettoed his bishop to g7 and Cyril began an attack by moving his queen to f3. Ginji paid it no heed, and moved his pawn to e6, but after Cyril moved his pawn to d4, he began to chuckle.

"You play the monkey's bum? Oh, you really are a monkey," he sneered as he captured the pawn at d4 with his bishop.

"As a fuck you to you," Cyril retorted as he moved his knight to c3.

"My, how offensive. Pretty sure us ILU folks helped make you and your traitorous master the blackmailers you are today. Oh hold on, let me CHECK my records. Hmm, ah right. You're more like a washed up blackmailer now that Rebelle's dead," Ginji sneered as he captured the knight at c3 with his bishop.

"I'm only struggling because you refuse to acknowledge your mistakes. And isn't ILU now just a shell of it's former self? Must be if you're now one of the heads," Cyril scoffed as he captured said bishop with his queen.

"Oi, harsh words. Guys got feelings too," Ginji chuckled as he moved his pawn to f6.

Cyril went silent and moved his knight to f3 while Ginji moved his knight to h6. Cyril seized on the blunder and promptly captured said knight with his bishop as Ginji nervously moved his knight to c6.

"Oi, give me a break. I just played against my good friend, Mr. Zieglar. He's no slouch you know."

"Why would I go easy on you?" Cyril snarled as he moved his pawn to e5.

"Uh, for old time's sake?" Ginji shrugged as he captured said pawn with his f-pawn.

Cyril responded by glaring and slamming his bishop down on g5, leaving Ginji with no choice but to move his knight to e7 or lose his queen. He naturally chose the former, allowing Cyril to capture the pawn at e5 with his knight.

"Ahahaha! Now I can get away with a castle!" Ginji laughed as he castled king's side.

Cyril rolled his eyes and moved his knight to g4 as Ginji moved his pawn to h5.

"Now time to check something with you," Cyril glared as he moved his knight to f6.

"Hmm? Whazat?" Ginji mockingly asked as he slid his king to f7.

"You activate that DESPER?" Cyril glared as he castled queen's side.

Ginji blinked for a few seconds before clapping like an idiot. "Oh bravo! Three cheers for the monkey's bum! He got it!" he mockingly cheered while stealthily moving his pawn to c5.

"Did you really NOT activate it!?" Cyril glared as he captured the pawn at e6 with his bishop.

"Well... Uh... Um.. Haha."

Ginji struggled to find a response as he nervously captured the bishop at e6 with hos d-pawn, allowing Cyril to mercilessly capture his queen at d8 with his rook. Ginji naturally captured said rook with his own rook, but Cyril didn't care and moved his queen to e5.

"Now, wait, wait, wait, wit- Achk, I bit my tongue! Hold on, let's think this out a bit. You wouldn't kill me, would you?" Ginji nervously smiled as he moved his pawn to b6.

"I would, since Madam Rebelle would," Cyril glared as he moved his knight to e4.

"So loyal. But ILU can't just admit we were wrong, even internally. We got our pride and reputation you know," Ginji nervously chuckled as he moved his bishop to a6.

"ILU's effectively dead. Everyone's been wiped out, and the only ones left are incompetent clowns like you," Cyril glared as he moved his queen to f6.

"Come on, come on. Clowns can be viscous you know. And they say fools get the last laugh," Ginji nervously chuckled as he moved his king to e8.

"Then I hope you were an idiot and activated that thing. Checkmate," Cyril glared as he captured the knight at e7 with his queen, winning the game.

Ginji suddenly began trembling as his eyes began bulging. "No, NO! I'M GOING TO DIE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ... Just kidding! I never activated it."

"Figured. You were playing far too lax. Now be off with you," Cyril snarled as he leaped away.

Ginji gazed up and smirked as he dusted off his coat. "ILU's in tatters, huh? Well that ain't wrong. But now that DESPERs are more mainstream, perhaps maybe I can rebuild it."

The full game:

White: Cyril Milverton (2499) Black: Ginji Inohara (2722)

1. e4 g6

2. Bc4 Bg7

3. Qf3 e6

4. d4 Bxd4

5. Nc3 Bxc3+

6. Qxc3 f6

7. Nf3 Nh6

8. Bxh6 Nc6

9. e5 fxe5

10. Bg5 Ne7