This is a slightly altered version of episode 71 (Ami vs Breuche, for want of an immediate title recall). This is my first Sailor Moon fic and one that I'm nervous about posting, so I hope you enjoy it. :)
I know that I'm taking a long time to make this move. In a game at this level (so different from the match I had with Usagi last week!), for my opponent to comment on my delay would be a serious breach of etiquette, yet twice now I've heard his foot in its highly polished shoe begin to tap before stopping abruptly. An impatient player, this bespectacled man. Rare, in chess. Can he tell, I wonder, that my mind isn't quite on the board in front of me?
I could checkmate him in two moves; in fact I'm amazed that he hasn't chosen to resign now rather than take this to the bitter end. However, there is a way out for him still. A second move I could make with this bishop that my hand is hovering over - not touching, no, I'm always careful - a retreat that would give the game life again, instead of this slow, painful death. A move that would give him an excellent chance of victory.
Why am I even considering it?
Answer; Beruche. I've seen her on the screen between my matches. She's a fast, accomplished, aggressive player, who just happens to be one of the Ayakashi Sisters who I might well have been killed or severely injured by if it hadn't been for Makoto intervening, and to top it all off, she knows my identity. Goodness only knows what she's planning to do if she loses. I'm ... scared, that's all and everything there is to it. I know I'm not a strong fighter, what will I do if she attacks me in the confined little room that the final round will take place in with only an easily disposable camera to bear witness? No Sailor Jupiter to save me this time. Bye-bye Sailor Mercury and Mizuno Ami that hides behind her, nice knowing you.
Yet, maybe her strategy is fully entangled in this tournament, this wonderful game of chess. Maybe, if I defeat her ... that will be it, and I'll have won something on my own for once. All me. No help. Defeating a powerful enemy in a way that none of the other senshi could possibly attempt. That's worth the risk, isn't it?
With a bubble of hope warm in my chest, I confidently move the bishop, wait my turn again (he knows it's hopeless, why doesn't he resign?) and swiftly move it again. The words "checkmate" are unnecessary, he simply pushes his king gently and it lands on the board with a click that signifies defeat.
I shake hands with him again, his grip too moist, too tight, and we congratulate each other on a game well-played.
Beruche, here I come.
--
We face each other over the chessboard. Swallowing my fear, I stretch out my hand, saying,
"Let's have a fun game of chess." Beruche laughs softly in reply, then grasps my hand. I can't stop my smile from slipping momentarily; her hand is so cold! It's like holding onto an ice statue, or plunging a hand into a bucket of near-freezing water. Surrepituously, once we've let go, - or maybe not? Is this the first of her tricks? - I flex my fingers, trying to warm them.
She smiles at me, the picture of sweetness, nothing but happiness in her bright eyes.
"I'd like to use these pieces for the final game." Onto the chessboard clatters a different set of chess pieces, decorated with jewelled bands and sparkling like the reflection of the moon in water.
"They're beautiful," I say before I can stop myself. Off-guard, I fail to hear what she says in answer. "What?" I ask curiously. Pristine manners, I reason, count for little when your opponent is likely to kill you. She remains silent, and the game begins.
--
"Come now, what's the matter?" she asks with a delighted smile as I stare at the board, my mind racing as I look for a way out of the predicament I have been forced into. "It's your turn." It takes me only a few seconds more to see what to do, and with an exclamation of sudden insight, I lean forwards and take her bishop with my queen, then move my queen in front of her king.
"Check." Her face twists with anger and she mutters something that again, I can't quite hear. A dark blue light begins to spread from her body, and this time there is no mistaking her venomous whisper,
"The real competition has only just begun, Sailor Mercury." Exactly as I feared.
All of my bravery deserts me; a gasp of fright escapes my throat and I stand hastily (why? where can I run to?). Beruche freezes the watching camera, and suddenly it is just as I feared. I'm alone.
--
Beruche, watched by her sisters, moves her queen to take my final remaining pawn.
"Check," she says, her voice light, though coloured with annoyance caused, I presume, by the sudden appearance of her sisters to steal her glory.
It's so cold. The first pawn taken made me feel almost as if I had been scalded, the shock of cold was so intense, the second started me shivering for real, now the final pawn taken makes the ice spread to my neck and all along my left arm, and there's nothing left to feel. Only my head and right arm are free, and what use are they now, when I can't even bend to move my king another futile square? It is futile, even Makoto, with no interest in the game, can see that - is that her I can hear, so faintly? I wish you could help me too, Mako-chan.
No-one can now. Beruche can take me next turn, or maybe move the board over so that I can reach my king and prolong this game in a cat-and-mouse-like inevitability. Either way, my king is doomed, and once the ice closes over my head, so am I.
I should have stopped the game when the girls begged me to ... maybe she would have let them go ... killed me instead. I could have handled that, as long as they were safe.
I'm so cold ... ice-cold ... ice? Ha, I'm ice.
I can't see. No, I can, it's just taking longer than normal. What do I see? The chessboard. I have no energy left to move my head.
"Why are you toying with her, Beruche? Finish her now!" Poor Beruche. What awful sisters.
Yes, let her finish our game. Finish it quickly, please ... hypothermia is harder than I ever thought ... can my brain just shut down? Now? Please? I - I give up! I can't do this. I was wrong. I was stupid.
--
She's moving my king for me, I see on the ocasions that I can summon the energy to open my eyes. Prolonging it. The world is slowly retreating; I'm stuck inside a glass bubble that won't break, where at first nothing mattered apart from the game and my friends ... now nothing matters. All I can do is sit here, a frozen mannequin and hope that somehow, they make it out ok, because I've failed them. No suprises there, no doubt.
A flash of red hurts my eyes, scything into my view of Beruche making the final, fatal move. The world tilts around me. I presume I've hit the floor.
"Ami-chan?!"
My lack of feeling should scare me, but I'm too tired. I think that was Mako-chan. Does that mean she's free? Has someone saved my abject failure of a gameplan? Oh, I hope so.
"Everyone?" Was that me?
I need ... to sleep. If my friends are safe, then, now I can.
Is it Beruche or Berthier, by the way? I've seen both used all over the place.
Let me know what you thought.
Maz