Apr 13, 2025
Author's Commentary #41:
Time to discuss Chapter 41: One wrong move.
This was originally the 42nd chapter, but I decided to move things around as part of my revisions to Season 2 and 3. As such, this chapter now takes place much sooner than before. It also used to be split into two chapters, but following the most recent revisions to Season 1, I decided to merge them. The title of the chapter that used to exist was "The cruelest of wins". As for why I merged the two, it was both because I didn't want the chapter numbers to get all messed up following the Season 1 revisions, and because I felt the game worked better being meshed into one chapter.
I guess now is a good time to divulge more on Kazuya. He is the student council president and has a knack for politics. However, he is also dating and highly obedient to Shion. He's so loyal to Shion, that he essentially functions as her proxy for controlling the student council behind the scenes.
The kanji for his full name is 榎 和矢 (Enoki Kazuya). His first name, 和矢, translates to "harmony" and "dart", though also "feces" which is why the principal gave him the name since he believed he was shit, due to not having a knack for shogi. In short, the principal was a piece of shit, which is why Kazuya had no problem killing him.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His favorite piece is the knight as he views himself as Shion's noble knight.
Since he's Nagi's older twin brother, he shares his April 6th birthday with him. The two actually got along fairly well, so much so that when Kazuya heard of Nagi's death, he put a plan of vengeance in motion. As for said plan, the principal's death is the first phase of it while phase 2 centers around Utami.
Speaking of which, Utami's actually been living with Mimoko ever since the bughouse game. As such, they've gotten much closer with each other as no one else in Mimoko's family plays chess.
The game for this chapter was easily the one I hated writing the most. Getting the game to the point where Utami was on the verge of being promoted was a nightmare. I actually had to go through three different games before getting everything right.
The first was good until I realized Utami's pawn had been captured early so that game had to go. The second game was just bad. I basically had the characters intentionally making bad moves in order to set up the scenario where Utami's pawn made it to the 2nd rank. Then there was this one... It was the best, so I went with it.
As for the pawn promotion rule, Kazuya's actually the only one who's experimented with it. Technically speaking, the pawn itself is completely removed from play when it promotes. I'm sure this topic has the potential to spawn many debates regarding it.
One notable change between this revised version and the original version is Svetlana's presence. I felt having Svetlana be present here worked better as it both illustrates how rash in judgement she can be when Okisato's around, and helps show off a key plot-point of the story, which I'll discuss in greater detail in a later commentary.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
