Mizuno Ami: 4. Kxc5 Qxf3 -+
A.N. An Ami character study framed by the chess match between Ami and Berthier from episode 71: "For Friendship! Ami and Berthier Clash"
This humble author attempts to get into Ami's head to see what she was thinking when she ran in to confront Berthier at Chess Tower alone, then follows along through that crazy chess game.
Dialogue is lifted directly from the VKLL English sub of the original anime episode.
Thank you for reading!
Ami had made many mistakes in her life- many miscalculations and wrong assumptions. Her mistakes were usually born of hubris. Curiosity and Pride. Ami's two biggest flaws. That was going to get her killed one day.
Maybe today was the day.
Today's mistake was born of hope however - or optimism. Or empathy, or stupidity or some other fatal combination of all of the above. The end result was the same either way. Berthier became an enemy.
Through some horribly misplaced sense of 'hope', Ami tried to stop Berthier's corruption of the negative point alone. She ran into the room in civilian form as a sign of good faith. Mars had managed to talk one sister back from the edge. Maybe Berthier just needed that one chance? For some reason, Ami had been clinging to that thought. Maybe she was projecting a bit, but what Berthier said earlier about winning being the only important thing struck a cord with her. Ironically, Ami felt the need to prove her wrong at all costs. Somehow, that translated in her hyperactive brain as "walk into battle against the forces of darkness as a little girl in a school uniform."
Bad move. It was like she was pathologically afraid of using her power or something. All the possible ways she could have approached the situation and she picked the real-world equivalent of 1.f3? Way to blunder, baka...That had to be the single dumbest thing she's ever done. Ami knew herself for a fool the instant second Berthier turned her dark power against her.
A second blast of dark water and Ami had enough of hope. She transformed into Sailor Mercury. One Shine Aqua Illusion disrupted the energy at the dark point, then she and Berthier were on even ground again. Mercury prepared for their showdown when suddenly Sailor Moon and Jupiter showed up. Just in time to save her like they always did.
Just in time to seal the deal on Ami's mistake.
Berthier ran away. 3 on 1. The equation didn't work in her favour. The damn coward.
Mercury was furious. She hated unfinished business, she hated being rescued and most of all, she hated making mistakes. She had to fix this.
The possibility of truce was gone now. Berthier was an enemy. She knew Mercury's civilian identity, she had to be defeated. There was no way around it.
Finally. No holds barred fight to the bitter end. No guilt, no remorse. No holding back. Perfect.
There was something about Berthier as an enemy that Ami couldn't resist. Since their first encounter, Ami had been able to think of nothing else.
It was the cat-and-mouse nature of the game. Never being sure if she was the hunter, or the hunted. The life or death stakes. Ami really didn't want to admit to herself how thrilling this was for her - how it made her heart beat fast and her blood rush with adrenaline. She felt alive.
The implications were disturbing at best. Ami shoved it all to the corner of her mind and told herself she was just preforming her duty as a Senshi. Seek out the enemy. Defend the innocent. These people were out to kill Chibi Usa. That would have to be reason enough for why she cared so much about this. She was still participating in this chess tournament out of duty. Yes. Just duty. Nothing more.
Duty meant facing Berthier. Chess Tower was their battle ground. Ami kept herself in the tournament as bait. If Berthier was who Ami thought she was, she would be here as well. The anticipation was driving Ami mad.
Curiosity. Her first fatal flaw.
Round after round, opponent after opponent. Checkmate, checkmate, checkmate. They did nothing but whet her appetite for the final encounter. Ami needed to know what would happen next.
Finally, three worthless games later and there she was. Berthier. Thank the gods. Anything less would have been a complete and utter disappointment.
Ami hadn't been this intrigued by someone in years.
They met again, this time, both combatants in civilian form. Ami obliquely referenced their earlier conversation with a loaded comment about winning, Berthier shook her hand with unnaturally cold power.
They acknowledged each other as equals. Then the battle was on.
Berthier requested that they use her personal chess pieces. No doubt they were powerful in some way. No doubt they hid some horrible function behind their beauty. Ami didn't care either way. Maybe it was just pride, but she did not hesitate in giving Bertiher that advantage. To say no would have been to reveal that she was afraid. Ami refused to show any weakness now.
Pride, her second fatal flaw.
The cameras were on. They circled each other on the chess board, feeling each other out. Attack? Defend? Sacrifice? They let their actions speak for themselves.
There it was. 30. Qf6! First blood. Ami suppressed a feral grin as she moved her queen into position.
"Check"
Time to start round 2.
All pretenses fell. Berthier froze the cameras, Ami called the power of Mercury to herself.
This was it. Do or die. Time to prove herself. Somehow, she knew Berthier was a kindred spirit in that regard. This was personal for her too.
The room grew colder and colder. Both opponents called on the same elemental forces. No point wasting energy calling attacks or even physically fighting. That was beneath them. Eventually, the cold would overwhelm one of them and then the battle would be done.
For a battle to the death, it was horribly neat and self contained. Mercury and Berthier stared at each other, just waiting for someone to yield first.
"Hold it right there!"
Sailor Moon burst into the room and changed the balance of power.
Berthier smirked at Mercury as Sailor Moon continued her speech.
In a blink of an eye, the senshi were trapped in a dome, completely at Berthier's mercy.
Mercury's eyes widened in fear. The game was over. Except this wasn't a game anymore. Her friends were in trouble.
"As they say, those who are born stupid, die stupid."
The threat hung in the air. Berthier wanted something from her now.
"Sailor Mercury. I challenge you to a match...if you don't play the game that you are so proud of..."
Sailor Moon's panicked complaint about the cold underscored the danger. Mercury had no choice but to submit.
"Alright."
Berthier moved the chess pieces into place for their rematch. Mercury took one look at the board and raised her eyebrow.
"This is terrible." was what she said out loud, but what she meant was "this is meaningless"
And it was. The game was unwinnable for White. 3 white pawns lined up at D2, F2 and H2 against the black rook on G8. The other two black pawns on the board didn't even matter. The rook alone was all powerful.
This whole exercise was pointless. It was a complete waste of time. Mercury sighed. All Berthier seemed to want was to prove her intellectual superiority in a rigged game of chess. How disappointing. She as just a regular garden variety nutjob. Ami wasn't sure why she'd expected anything more.
If Berthier wanted to win this badly, Mercury was happy to oblige. It's not like this game meant anything at all.
There was a much more dangerous situation happening anyways. Her friends were trapped in a dome by a psychopath. The best course of action now seemed to be keep the psychopath happy and occupied.
Chess it was then.
[White Pawn D2 to D3]
Ami sacrificed her pawn, hoping to appease Berthier and get this game over with.
Berthier smiled innocently as she made her move.
[Black Pawn E4 to D3 - Pawn takes Pawn]
Mercury gasped. A searing pain ripped through her body. Her legs were frozen to the ground.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. When you play with my special pieces and you lose a piece, your body becomes frozen."
Now Ami understood.
This wasn't a game then. It was an execution. 4 moves if she wanted to end it quickly, 6 if she wanted to drag this out. Ami smiled through the pain. Berthier wasn't the disappointment here after all.
Ami heard her friends cheering her on. Those poor sweet innocent fools. They didn't know it was over already.
Still, Ami was glad they were here watching. If she was going to die here today, at least she wasn't going to be alone at the end.
"If you forfeit, I will let you, and you alone, live"
What the hell was the point of that? Ami could have laughed out loud. Berthier didn't know her at all did she?
There was only one answer to give.
"Let's continue"
[White King C2 to D4 – King takes Pawn]
King takes Pawn. It wasn't over yet. The game might be unwinnable, but this wasn't a game. This was real life. There was still one piece not in play yet.
Tuxedo Kamen. The Prince. He would come for Sailor Moon. Mercury had no doubt of that.
She had a responsibility to drag this out then. For her Princess.
If Mercury thought this game was a waste of time before, she regretted that thought now.
Oh the irony.
Not really, your whole life has been a waste of time. Why shouldn't your death be?
Shut it brain. This was not the time for self loathing.
[Black Rook G8 to G2]
Nothing happened. Berthier was just setting up for the kill. White was going to lose a piece no matter what the next move.
Ami's choice which piece was going to die next. It was always her choice.
Her friends were telling her to run now. Ami refused. That was her choice as well.
[White Pawn F2 to F3]
H2 would die, F3 would follow two moves later. That was about as much hope as Mercury had.
Her job was now to buy time for her friends. Tuxedo Kamen was out there somewhere. He could still turn up. Time was therefore precious, more precious than of her own life. Since she returned form D-Point, she felt she been running on borrowed time anyways. She was thankful for the extra time sure, but Ami always sensed that her second chance at life was worth more than just her own personal gratification.
Right now, it seemed that her life was worth exactly 4 moves on a chessboard.
Funny how she actually had practical experience with this exact situation.
Based on that experience, judging by the way her body temperature was dropping, she'd be dead in about 20 minutes. It was just a matter of if she was going to die encased in ice or not.
A voice in her head snapped at her.
Coward. Stop running and face her.
Mercury tried. She really did. She pushed at the ice psychically, but it was useless. She was trapped. She even tried to move it mentally with her powers, but Berthier was too strong in that arena as well.
Dammit. Dammit Dammit Dammit
She should have fought harder when she had the chance.
Not like it would have mattered. She was dead either way. She'd failed. This situation was entirely her fault. Too curious to stop asking questions. Too proud to walk away.
Sorry everyone.
[Black Rook G2 to H2 – Rook takes Pawn]
The ice came up to her chest, choking the air out of her lungs. Berthier must want this over quickly. Did Mercury scare her somehow?
Impossible. All she had ever seen of Mercury was the idiot that didn't even put up a fight to save her friends. Not even one attack. Why would anyone be afraid of that?
She may not have seen Mercury attack, but she wasn't just Sailor Mercury. She was Mizuno Ami. The girl who walked into a room of dark power and challenged Berthier alone. The girl who staked herself out as bait just to get here.
Berthier was afraid of the girl, not the soldier. Interesting...
The girl who was stupid enough to hope.
[White King C4 to C5 – King takes Pawn]
King takes another pawn. Where the hell was Tuxedo Kamen? Being too stubborn to die had its limits. Ami knew she was nearing hers.
At least she didn't go down without a fight.
"Stop being proud and pretending you're ok. Are you going to give up your life for these strangers? That would be stupid."
Strangers? Sailor Moon and the others? Never. They were more important to her than life itself. Why would Berthier think they were strangers?
"You're wrong. They're not strangers. They're my friends."
Mercury struggled for the breath to finish the sentence.
"Even if it costs me my life, they're my precious friends and I have to protect them."
"Friends?"
That reaction seemed genuine. Did Berthier really not know what friends were? What a pointless life.
Berthier's cold mask slipped back on too late. Ami knew exactly how she felt.
"Stop trying to buy time"
She looked at Berthier with sympathy. Ami knew she was going to die soon. She was just perversely glad her last act in life was going to be one of kindness and humanity. That was enough. She was ready now. She'd done all she could. Her friends would just have to figure a way to continue the fight without Sailor Mercury. She hoped they wouldn't miss her too much.
All in all, it wasn't such a bad life, she'd met some friends, done some good. It could have been worse.
This was a good death.
Two more women appeared in the room. Just in time for the grand finale.
They spoke with Berthier, but Merucry couldn't keep up with the conversation. Her pulse was roaring in her head from lack of oxygen and her vision was beginning to fade around the edges. Her body was already mercifully numb past the point of pain.
Time slowed to a crawl. Nothing seemed to exist outside the chessboard.
Oblivion was just a word away.
"Check"
[Black Queen F2 to F3 – Queen takes Pawn]
There it was. Oblivion. A black queen, set with red gems. When did that get there? It was red.
Red. Blood red. Everything was red. Inside and out. The world was red. It sounded red. It tasted red. It smelled red. It even felt red.
The was it. The end was red.
Red like a rose.
A rose?
Tuxedo Kamen!
A.N.
Well, that came out a bit darker than I expected.
For the chess inclined, a screenshot from the anime episode reveals that Berthier set the board in the following fashion:
White - King on C2, pawns on D2, H2 and F2
Black - King on F5, pawns on C5, E4, G5 and H5, Rook on G8.
It is my author's error that I didn't see the black pawn hidden behind the King at G5 until AFTER I wrote this story...therefore, it is not actually included in this story. By the time I noticed, it was too much work to replay the game and re-pace the plot accordingly so...*handwave*. Apologies to the detailed oriented among us *blush* That rook sweeping in is a bit of a dramatic highlight of this story afterall.
The black queen at the very end however, does canonically appear out of nowhere. I assume that was Berthier slipped it onto the board because she wanted to make Mercury's death as dramatic as possible.
Chess notes: I not a good enough chess player to say with 100% certainty that the game Berthier set up was unwinnable, but I do know that Ami really limited her options by throwing a pawn away in move one. Just an additional layer of Ami's hubris biting back that was easily miss able.
Ami's thought early in the story regarding "the real world equivalent of 1 f3" is a reference to the Barnes Opening in chess (where White moves the pawn on F2 to F3 as an opening move). There is some merit to considering it the worst possible opening move in chess because it doesn't do anything to develop the board for White. It can also lead directly to the quickest possible checkmate in chess (in 2 moves)...appropriately called a "fool's mate".
Also, I have no idea how the heck Ami manages to pull a win in her first game vs Berthier. 30. Qf6 was a total handwave on my part taken from how the animators drew the scene. According to Wikimoon, the first game Ami (white) and Berthier (black) play is taken from game 5 of the 1972 World Chess Championship between Spassky and Bobby Fischer. In real life, Spassky (white)resigned the game at 27. Qc2 Ba4. I am not nearly good enough a chess player to imagine how Ami played herself out of that jam to a checkmate.
Story is dedicated to fanfic author Siramad, who's correspondence encouraged me to pull this nugget form the abandoned pile. Cheers Siramad!
Those of us with a yen for dark and dangerous Ami interpretations and are Spanish readers ought to check out her AU "Los Guardianes de las Senshi" btw ;).
Thank you all for reading this short story.
Ja ne, - Drifter