Hey guys, it's me again, NightFall, with the next installment of Checkmate. I apologize for not writing over Thanksgiving break, but the idea of being with my family again was a bit more prevelant than this, sorry to those of you who feel differently. Thankfully, after finals this week, it's going to be a near full month of free time, and that means more Checkmate! (whoo!). For those of who aren't aware, for whatever reason, last chapter there was a dorm switch for the six Bishops, with the main character of this sequence, Taisuke Yana, going to the MoonBeam dorm, but not before having a very disturbing dream where she and the other Bishops were placed into some of the more iconic tarot cards. What does this mean for not just her, but for the others who share her position? Find out, enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON, BECAUSE IF I DID, CHANDELURE WOULD HAVE LEVITATE.
Chapter 9: Falling off a Tower of Lies
Tarot cards have been a part of many cultures, in all areas of the world where people claim to have the powers of seeing into the unknown. This has been disputed for its accuracy in the readings for as long as there have been people who call themselves psychics. The fact of the matter is that there are things in life that can't be explained, and for some people, that isn't good enough for them. These are the people who try to find the trap doors in magic acts, the people who attempt to ferret out the lies told by others to protect themselves and their friends, or the people who believe that they have the authority to destroy a person's entire way of thinking. Everyone has an opinion on the things that can't be explained through mere observation and experimentation alone, and no matter what you say, you'll always have an opinion on it. The sad part of life is when things begin to look as though they are real in their application, and it becomes the one thing that traps you in something even more fearful than your lies; the truth.
As the Bishop challenge unfolded in the last story, the six Bishop pieces of Nix Academy were thrust into a position that proved one that would truly challenge their abilities to stay as well behaved people in any situation. Being moved into different dorms by random choice, each of the six Bishops found themselves each in a position where who they are could truly come out as the dorm they entered all tried to welcome them with open arms. As a small recap, Sacha from MoonBeam was moved to PlanetFoundation, Geo from PlanetFoundation was moved to CraterStrike, Candice from CraterStrike was sent to SunLight, Glenn from SunLight was sent to GalaxyStorm, Serena from GalaxyStorm was moved to SuperNova, and then Taisuke from SuperNova was moved to MoonBeam. Each of the six dorms' remaining members all had their own problems in welcoming the Bishops, all for different reasons.
The SuperNova dorm, even as frigid as it was, was heated up with the tension constraining all of the students living in it, whether they were part of the chess team or not. Much of this was the normal feeling of SuperNova since the Battle Royal when Christian Picklesimer made it publically known that he had no interest in the chess competition, intending to make an entire exchange of all the Royalty pieces. The other part was their new house guest, Serena Robinson from GalaxyStorm, of whom Taisuke made a very cryptic prediction that either she or one of the dorm members would find themselves in very good fortune. As she walked along the hallways, staring at each of the doors as she moved, Serena found no way to relax as an aura of tension filled the other five members behind her, watching her every move.
"You guys need to take a chill pill," Serena said as she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked up to a room with several curious symbols written on the name tag off to the side of the door. "Is this Taisuke's room?" she asked, figuring it was hers from the Japanese writing on the tag. "Is this where I'm staying?" she asked as she opened the door, but was immediately cut off by both Christian and Parthos. "What'd I do?"
"I think they're a little on edge because of you," Rokuro said shyly as he a made a slight bow to Serena who flashed a small smile to him, making him turn away slightly.
"They're making you stay in my room for the next week," Anya said with her arms folded across her chest. "They don't want you learning any secrets."
"Cool," Serena said as she looked down the hall, and found Anya's room. "So, it's like having a little sister, huh?" she asked as Anya snapped slightly, at the comment on her size, prompting her to make a mad dash for Serena.
"I'll make you pay for that, you little..." she began as the rest of her sentence was cut off by a loud beeping sound ringing through the fifth floor, leading up to the Rook of the dorm, Tier with a small device adorned with a large red button, but with Anya's mouth still moving.
"Nice catch, Tier," Christian said as he patted him on the back. "Anya, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You are a trifecta; your age is eighteen, you have the body of a ten year old, and the mouth of a forty year old," he said as Anya turned from Serena, and went after Christian.
"Well, this should be fun," Serena said, walking into Anya's room, to find completely barren of decoration. "Hmm, not exactly a warm and happy feeling to this place," she said turning to a bookcase with several of her school books in the shelves, and a small picture frame on top. "That's interesting," she said as Anya ran into the room, and snatched the picture before Serena could get a good look.
"Let's get one thing straight," she said, holding the picture close to her chest. "You are not to touch anything that you see out in the open without my approval, or you will face my wrath. And, you better not ask any questions about this picture," she finished, placing the picture in a locked drawer.
"Deal," Serena said placing her bag next to bed, unmade with several pillows, sheets, and blankets already set out. "In return, you aren't going to be asking me about my personal life either. Got it?" she asked holding out her hand for Anya to shake.
"Deal," Anya said, taking the hand in her own, and making one thrust up and down.
"Somehow, things just got a little more interesting," Parthos said as he, Rokuro, and Tier were all spying in through the door giving an nod at the same time. "The only question is how can we keep her from learning anything? She'll be here for the whole week, and school is out for the week. That gives her seven uninterrupted days in the dorms to figure out everything about us."
"Not if we figure things out about her first," Christian said from in front of Taisuke's door, fitting a padlock on the doorknob to keep anybody form going in. "There's a simple philosophy that we need to apply, 'If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win numerous battles without jeopardy.'"
"What's that?" Rokuro asked as Tier looked back at him, shrugging his shoulders.
"It's a passage from a book called The Art of War by a famous tactician named Sun Tzu back about twenty two hundred years," Parthos said as he held up a small book from his pocket. "Christian made me buy this for him, and he memorized some of the more well known passages. It's amazing how many of these can still be applied today, but you know what they say, the past is the key to surviving in the future," he said holding his hand out as though to point to some random place.
"Who says that?" Rokuro asked as Parthos simply stayed in his position with his expression breaking like glass.
"I'll give you some advice if you want to be taken seriously with you whole poetry thing, Parthos," Christian said walking towards the other three chess pieces. "Don't try to make it seem like you're quoting things you made up on the fly," he said patting his shoulder. "Makes you seem less crazy than you already are," he said disappearing into his room with Parthos falling to the ground as though he had been defeated.
"You okay, Parthos?" Rokuro asked as the Knight shot up with a definite fire in his eyes.
"That's it!" he shouted as he looked towards the sky. "The only true way to get my inspiration is to find who I am where I've never looked before! I must know who I am!" he said running towards his room, and slamming the door shut while the remaining two chess pieces were left dumbfounded.
"Do you even want to know what the heck that was about?" Rokuro asked as Tier simply shook his head, not even bothering to face the Pawn. "Okay, well, I'm going to go in my room, and try to make sense of what happened. See ya later," he said as he and Tier went their separate ways with Serena poking her head out of the open doorway.
"This isn't gonna end well for me, is it?" she asked, not expecting an answer.
Back in Serena's original dorm, GalaxyStorm, things weren't exactly going so well either. The students unaffiliated with the chess competition weren't sure whether it was the fact that they were playing host to a rival team, or if it was the fact that walking in wasn't the person himself, but his Pokémon carrying him instead. For many of the students, it had probably been the first time they had seen a real Galvantula, and the fact that its chattering was followed only by a hissing sound when somebody got to close wasn't helping with their nervousness. As the Galvantula, apparently named Aragog, followed after the other chess pieces of the dorm it looked back at its trainer, and gave its own version of a sigh, quickly trying to catch up with the other pieces.
"All right," Tyson started, seriously talking to Aragog, as the six reached the top floor. "My room is the only vacancy, and since we don't want Glenn stealing any of our secrets. You guys will be staying in my room," he said turning around to see Glenn awake and staring at him in the face with a raised eyebrow.
"Guess you do need to be more observant," Glenn said. "I woke up halfway up those stairs, and had Aragog carry me because of fatigue. Thanks for that, by the way," he said returning the large arachnid to its PokéBall. "In any case, I guess I'll just take my spot in your room," he said giving off a small smile before walking into the room, confusing Tyson, and the other members of the GalaxyStorm team.
"Why does he seem so annoying?" Marlen asked cracking her knuckles.
"Because unlike other people who simply use their words to build themselves up, Glenn actually has the skills to back them up," Tyson explained, holding up a piece of a paper, most likely snatched from his bag. "These scores in academics can rival Sacha's knowledge of legendary Pokémon, but no matter how hard he tries, he doesn't ever seem to be able to beat the Czar."
"What's more," Helen said, holding up her usual tea cup. "Sacha doesn't even consider Glenn worth the time it would take to have a decent debate about the subject; unlike he does with that guy Geo."
"So, what I'm getting from this is that Glenn hates losing?" Ike asked, trying to make sense of the conversation. "Or does he just hate losing to Sacha?"
"There's not a person at this school that doesn't hate losing to Sacha," Zero answered. "But I don't think that Glenn hates losing as much as the feeling of preparing all that time for a test, or some other kind of ranked competition, and finishing as second best. It's never a good feeling when you see that you have to work twice as hard just to be on par with somebody who doesn't have to work as hard."
"It's not that," Glenn said from the other side of the door, as he opened it, startling the others. "I just don't like being second best to anyone. Truth be told, if they don't have to try as hard, that just makes me see them as a challenge. If there was anybody that I would respect as an authority on any subject, Sacha would be my number my number one rival in mythology."
"And he doesn't so much as give you a sideways glance," Marlen said, trying to twist his words. "I knew that guy was condescending."
"If anything, I try even less than Sacha," Glenn said leaning against the wall with a small smile on his face. "You have to understand that when that guy came along, nobody could understand him, and now he's the top of the class. I respect Sacha as a person, it's too bad you can't see what the Bishops see about each other," he said pushing off of the wall, and began to walk down the staircase while waving goodbye.
Turning to face Marlen, the other members of GalaxyStorm were nearly frightened by her face, as it began twitching wildly out of agitation, resulting in her letting out a large shout to vent her anger. The other four members watched her walk back to her room, where she slammed the door as hard as she could with a loud grunt of frustration with the others looking at each other, and letting out a large, raucous laughter before following after Glenn.
"That guy's all right," Tyson said. "And all my life, I thought it was just MoonBeam folks that pushed her buttons."
"I wonder what it would be like if Glenn actually did get that number one spot he wanted," Ike said as he looked down the staircase, barely seeing the corner of Glenn's blazer disappear down the flight. "Do you think he'd be happy?"
"He'd be bored," Zero said, walking in front of the rest of the group with his arms stretched back behind his head, with the others looking at him waiting for an answer. "If he did actually become number one, there would be no more motivation for him to try because there wouldn't be a pinnacle for him to reach anymore."
"He's right, human thoughts are often very fragile, and are broken by the slightest change in what happens," Tyson said, fully agreeing with Zero. "If Glenn were to actually achieve his goal of getting the number one spot, he would find himself in a situation where his very way of thinking would be broken, and he'd have to find some new kind of way of life to keep going."
Towards Glenn's original dorm of SunLight, much of the dorm was in an uproar with Candice having joined the place, and the other chess pieces trying to keep her contained. As she ran through the dorm, laughing like it was some sort of game, she noticed herself cornered within fifteen minutes of her beginning to run. She turned around with a smile as she could see four of the SunLight dorm team members with the exception of the Pawn, Mike. Each of them seemed to be already tired as she stayed standing, swaying forward and back as though to feign innocence.
"Okay," Taiyou started, panting heavily as she struggled to stay up. "It's about time...you start to calm down. It's almost nine, and that's when curfew is."
"I don't think it's really gonna matter, one way or the other to her," Lina whispered as Candice gave another smile, and began walking towards them, putting them all on guard. "Be careful," she said to other two with them, who both nodded. "She'll maul you like an Ursaring on steroids, if you make any sudden movements."
"Por ahi!" she shouted as she pointed off in one direction, making the others look off in the same direction while a definite gleam was seen in her eyes. "Chance," she said making a mad dash away, to keep the game alive.
"Hey! Hold it right there!" Melissa shouted as the others followed after her.
"I ain't holding nothing!" Candice shouted back, looking at the four of them, while sticking out her tongue. As she turned around to watch where she was going, she was suddenly met by the broad side of a door being swung open, knocking her to the ground, after spinning in place for a few seconds. "Ay caramba..." she said before falling to the ground.
Poking his head out the other side of the door, Mike looked down at the dazed Bishop, and then back up at his teammates who were equally as surprised by the timing. In his eyes, Taiyou could definitely see the hint of sleep still in them as though he had just woken up from the noise. As he began to close the door, Taiyou tried to make a dash for the door, catching the knob, making the Pawn look at her expectantly.
"Um, thanks for helping with that," Taiyou said timidly, trying to get Mike to talk back. "Did we wake you up?" she asked with Mike just nodding. "Sorry, we'll get Candice to apologize later, okay?" she asked as Mike let out a small sigh before closing the door behind him.
"You should just stop trying," Austin said grabbing Candice by the collar of her shirt, and dragging her behind him. "Mike's never gonna talk to anyone until he's ready," he explained, walking past Taiyou, and slowly placing the unconscious Bishop into a room marked with the last name Bryant on the door.
"Hey, why are we placing her in my room?" Melissa asked as she began walking towards her room.
"We can't leave her alone, she might start snooping around, and there aren't any other rooms with a girl already living in it," Taiyou explained as she and Lina began walking to their room, and Austin moving to his.
"Put her in Mike's room," Melissa suggested as the other three simply stopped in their tracks, and turned around in unison to give her a questioning look. "What? If she can get him to at least say one word, that'd be more than what we've been trying to do for the past month and a half," she explained as Austin let out an exasperated sigh, while turning back around.
"Hmm," Taiyou voiced with Austin stopping again. "Now that you mention it..." she said, seriously accepting the idea.
"You do realize that when she gets Mike to talk, the words coming out of his mouth aren't exactly going to be very nice for the censors," Lina stated as Austin nodded in agreement. "On the other hand," she started with Austin leaning himself against the wall with the top of his head holding him up. "She did say something good about him when she came here."
"She said, 'poco lindo,'" Austin said. "I didn't take a whole heck of a lot of Spanish, but I know that means she thinks he's cute," he explained as the three girls looked at each other, all with mischievous grins. "Why did I have to open my big mouth?" he asked, disappearing into his room as the other three all gripped onto Candice, and placed her inside Mike's room, directly across the hall.
As the three left, Austin just looked out from a small crack in his door, rolling his eyes at the situation before closing the door behind him. Turning on the dim lamp in his room, he looked at everything laying before him, his PokéBall, and his violin, wondering if there was anything like what he owned in the same room as Mike. He walked to his violin, and just opened the case, staring at the polished wood. Not so much as running his hands on it, Austin closed his eyes, letting a smooth melody dance in his mind that made him look back out the crack of his door at the passage to Mike's room left slightly ajar.
"People only treasure what is precious to them," he said to himself, closing his door, and locking the clips of his violin case. "But what is precious to us is rarely ever something that can be seen with our eyes, nor felt with our hands, nor heard by our ears. More, it's something that gives us a feeling that nothing else has ever been able to give us; a feeling in our hearts is more of an accurate description," he continued as he looked at a small picture of him and his sister, Violet. "And no matter what happens, if you truly treasure something, that feeling will never disappear. Whatever it is that Mike treasures, it couldn't be one of us. He feels more strongly about what can no longer be felt, and no longer be experienced."
Candice's original dorm, CraterStrike, was in a much less tense of an attitude as Geo was merely surrounded on all sides by other members of the dorm curious about the PlanetFoundation dorm, whether they were part of the chess team or not. He simply shifted his eyes from side to side to see who exactly was staring at him, and relaxed his shoulders with a sigh when he saw the door to the dorm open. He followed the two figures with his eyes, and watched as Jared sent the other students away, leaving Jackie, Chris, Adrian, and Olivia watching him. Behind Jared was the teacher who had been assigned as the CraterStrike head teacher, Boutros.
"My apologies for making you put me up like this," Geo said with a bow as Boutros returned it. "I must say that it is an honor to meet with you Mr. Girish."
"Boutros will do," the man said as he sat directly in front of Geo, studying his body from head to toe. "You are far more impressive in the body than I had originally thought, but in my belief, I am never to see a common man as an impressive subject. I do apologize for my ignorance."
"You were merely following the belief you've held on to throughout your life," Geo reassured as he leaned back against the wall. "I cannot ask you to go against it. It's what makes you and Sacha so alike."
"Sacha is an Orthodox, isn't he?" Boutros asked as Geo nodded. "It would explain his ability with the legends of old. The Orthodox church is one of high regard in his country, is it not?" he asked.
"Sacha is one of the most faithful people I've ever seen," Geo said as the other people still in the room looked at each other with questioning faces. "He believes firmly in the idea that a single figure created our world, and that he is the sole controller of Arceus. Beliefs such as that are common in the world of Pokémon archeologists, who use what they are taught to influence the interpretation of their findings."
"Giving the two of you plenty to talk about in your conversations," Boutros said with a chuckle. "I am sorry, but there is something I must attend to, I do hope you will find yourself comfortable in the CraterStrike dorm."
"As do I, thank you for your hospitality," Geo said as the teacher left the room, with the other chess pieces looking at him impressed.
"Not bad, talking to him like that," Jackie said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as the Bishop just chuckled. "Now are you really that polite, or do you just put on your best behavior for people like that?"
"Unless it's with Sacha, I'm pretty much always like this," Geo admitted as he stood up, and stuffed his hands into his pockets before walking towards the staircase off to the right side of the CraterStrike lobby. "I can't tell you how many times people have been confused by our friendship."
"That's what I'm wondering," Olivia said walking up next to him. "How did you become friends with him?"
"It's because I didn't let the language barrier come between us," Geo said, looking back on the day when Sacha transferred in. "The teacher had introduced him to us, and asked Sacha to write down his name. Acting on instinct, Sacha wrote his name in Russian," he said writing the letters in the air for Olivia and the others to see. "The Russian, or Cyrillic, alphabet is pretty close to basic Romanized letters, but with several of them having different sounds. Sacha's name would normally be spelled with an English 'C' instead of an 'S', and then the two 'ah' sounds would be written as 'A,' but the 'ch' sound is written much like a rounded four numeral. Little did I know that it was a nickname from Aleksander.
"Anyway, none of the other students, even from his own dorm would talk to him because of the language barrier, and it was obvious to anyone that he was pretty high strung," Geo explained. "So I just started talking to him actually. You know, wave to him in the hallways, sit next to him at lunch, and pretty soon, before I knew it, he started doing the same things. Arisu and Fiona have always been a little thankful that he became friends with me, and are always looking for ways to make it up to me."
"You know you could get a lot of stuff from either of them," Olivia said. "Fiona's family is loaded, and Arisu, well her family just kinda does it all."
"Maybe," Geo said reaching the top floor, letting the other team members move in front of him. "I won't lie, I started doing it because I felt I had to. You know, do something good, and feel good. But after a while, I started to find that Sacha was a genius in legendary interpretation; putting things on the table that most historians are considering. Being friends with him helped to have the kind of person you can just sit down and have a conversation with, and not expect any more out of the other."
Jared motioned to Adrian who nodded, and motioned for Geo to follow him into his room. As he entered his room, Geo found himself in a room that almost made him recoil back in surprise. On every part of the wall was something different, normally being pinned in the style of a large essay, at least ten printed pages in length. Adrian fell limp as he swung onto his bed, and just looked with amusement at Geo's amazement.
"You may be friends with the best historian in the school," Adrian began as he reached underneath his bed to grab an unfinished essay he was currently writing. "But in terms of the Pawns; there's no other with the wandering mind of a genius, if I do say so myself," he said as Geo simply chuckled. "Everything that I've ever thought about, felt, said; it was written down for all my thoughts on it. There's nothing that I've ever seen that hasn't enthralled me to know."
"You're not a subtle guy, are you?" Geo asked as he removed one of the pins from the wall, and began reading through one of the essays. "This is brilliant, though," he admitted, completely engulfed in the reading, with something snapping in his head. "Ever thought about Triple-S?" he asked suddenly as Adrian looked up slowly from his work, and gave a large breath to control himself.
"I've thought about them, yes," he admitted, walking towards a locked desk. "There are at least twenty people from this dorm alone that are in the syndicate, and at the same time, there are people who are known to not take me as a serious threat. Let's face it, I'm a scatter-brain. I wrote this after listening to Chris about the attack made by them, and I've kept it locked up ever since. Not even my teammates know it's in here, so put it back when you're done," he said handing the paper to Geo, who nodded, beginning to read through it.
Geo's old dorm was in a state where nobody was sure what anyone was doing; between George's camera snapping pictures, Danielle posing for them around a seated Sacha, Katherine and Hibiki trying to hold in their own emotions, whatever they may be, and Amelia just watching the scene slightly confused. Sacha's eyes were as dead as they had always been, and as far as he knew, this was no different than the dorm he left, except that there was no one in the dorm to talk with. As soon as the Knight of the dorm finished his photo-shoot, Danielle stood up from one of her poses, and walked back to her room.
"How was that, Sacha?" Danielle asked from behind her door. "First time that's ever happened to you, right?"
"Fiona do that once," Sacha said, walking past her door while loosening up his tie. "Although she prefer more contact with body."
"My body isn't something that can be won just like that, Sacha," Danielle said as she stepped out of her room with a confident smile on her face. "This is to get back a little against Fiona for having Arisu all to herself. We give her these pictures, she blows a gasket, and it'll be a hoot," she said, turning around to face Sacha, but was met by his Lampent instead.
"I agree to sit while you take picture," Sacha said slightly angered. "I no permit you to hurt Fiona," he said as Lampent floated behind him with Danielle panting out of slight fear. "I no care of cost for action, Fiona and all of MoonBeam is friend, and if friend is threaten, I attack."
As Sacha disappeared into one of the farther doors at the end of hall, Danielle found herself amazed, and turned to face the other members of her dorm who all were decorated with their own looks. Hibiki was confused, George was impressed, Amelia was trying to hold back her laughter, and Katherine was in a near state of ecstasy. As she walked by the Knight, she whispered something to him, which made him nod and follow after Sacha.
"What's George doing?" Amelia asked.
"Sacha is slowly becoming a little bit more human, and I'd like to test just how much more human he's becoming," Danielle said. "If he's willing to stick his neck out for a woman like that, there's something else he's hiding."
"Makes you wonder who the really leader of this dorm is, huh?" Hibiki said to the Pawn who nodded, while receiving a twitch from Danielle who turned around in anger. "Um, can we say that that was a mistake to say in your presence."
"Oh, it was a mistake alright," she said cracking her knuckles with Amelia and Katherine shrinking away into the corner. "The last one you'll ever make," she said making a large pounce onto Hibiki, forcing his arm behind his back, and his opposite leg to the same point.
"For someone like him, it'd be more worth it if she were lying on him, don't you think?" Amelia asked with Katherine nodding. "What is with Sacha anyway? I always thought that he didn't like Fiona that way. I get that he still needs her as a control, but aside from that, what's wrong with a little prank?"
"Like Danielle said," Katherine said with a loud sigh heaving from her breath. "Sacha is starting to become the human we all know he is, but as it stands the people he cares most for are Fiona and Arisu. If anyone were to do something that he thought would hurt them, he would be as protective as any of the Rooks."
"Is that why you like him?" Danielle asked, clapping her hands free of the dust from wrestling with Hibiki, who was left twitching pathetically on the ground. "Or do you actually find him good looking?" she asked as Katherine's face lit up in a bright red color.
"W-Whoever said anything about me liking him?" she asked, turning around to hide her blush with the result turning into a mad dash into her room, and the other two following after her.
"Apparently, I've been reduced to a punching bag," Hibiki said, quickly flipping to his feet, and walking towards the room that Sacha had disappeared into.
Inside the room, he found both Sacha and George standing up, and facing each other, both of their eyes challenging each other by the mere sight of each other. Hibiki slowly backed away from the door to watch what would happen, and found himself amazed when he found that George had moved behind Sacha within a fraction of the next second while his hand rested on his wooden sword. Removing his hand, George made a confident look at Sacha who still remained still in his stance.
"Did I miss something here?" Hibiki asked as George finally noticed the Rook.
"Just a little challenge," George answered. "He said that if I could attack him with this sword, then he would battle me tonight. As it stands, it appears as though I won our wager."
"Da," Sacha said, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a long red mark across his abdomen with the same width of the weapon George carried. "We battle after bath," he said, grabbing several toiletries in a small bucket, and walking to the bathing hall.
"Hey, male bonding time," George said grabbing both two buckets, and Hibiki. "This is definitely gonna help me in the long run, you know."
"How do you mean?" Hibiki asked. "Nobody but Arisu can speak to him in his language, and even if we could, he speaks it so fluently, it starts to dwell into the land of colloquial, and formal speech is hard enough to learn."
"Not if we can analyze it thoroughly," George whispered to his teammate. "I plan to record his commands, and then dissect them to their root, and then decipher everything he says. It's the beauty of Russian; as a phonetic language, the sound you here is the sound you write."
"Aside from that, how do you think the other members of MoonBeam are doing right now?" Hibiki asked, walking without the coaxing of the Knight. "When they left, Fiona was in a near state of hysteria because of where Sacha was going. How do you think they're holding up?"
"If I had to guess," George started before entering the locker room before the bathing area. "I'd say they're waiting for something before they act. I mean, during the training that all the teams went through before the school year started, there were times that Sacha and Fiona were separated, and in the end they both became stronger by that isolation from each other."
"Either that, or Fiona just got more beautiful," Hibiki said as he turned around to see George giving him a questioning look. "Probably not a good thing to say while the sworn enemy of said person is within the same hundred mile radius, huh?" he asked as George silently nodded. "Well, as MoonBeam always does, let's prepare for our new prospects against the other teams," he finished as the two entered the large bath area.
Sacha's dorm, MoonBeam was in the least tense atmosphere even with the most mysterious Bishop in the same room as their newest member, Akemi. After her reading of Akemi, and an accidental slip of tongue, her mind had been focused on a dream that had been shown to her after a reading for her dorm's king.
Sitting alone in Akemi's room, Taisuke just scanned over her tarot cards, and kept her eyes fixed on the card depicting two figures falling from a spiral construct called, "The Tower." As she just kept staring at the card, running her fingers over it, she felt a sudden sting of pain in her head that made her recoil backwards against the already opening door. As she fell back against the doorway, Taisuke instead found herself, resting against the lap of another person, and after looking up, she could see Arisu's kind eyes gleaming at her.
"Something about the cards?" she asked as Taisuke lifted herself up, and piled up her deck solemnly. "Akemi told us that you had a weird reading when you were alone, and I'd just like to talk about it, if you don't mind."
"What do you want from me?" Taisuke asked, as she sat at the table, shuffling her cards. "Something specific about me, or something about yourself?"
"Let's start simple," Arisu said, sitting across from the Bishop, and staring at the cards. "Do the others in this dorm really hate my cooking or are they just lucky with all of the sudden saves from people like Danielle or that pizza guy?"
"Interesting question, but okay," Taisuke said, flipping over the first card. "Hmm," she said, staring down at the card, and then froze as she saw The Tower staring her in the face again, but noticed it upside down, making her breathe out in relief. "The Tower in the past position; a lie still remains as to how they feel about your cuisine, and it is meant to protect you."
"So they hate it?" she asked as Taisuke shuffled through her deck again, and looked away. "Next question: is this lie really pertaining to me?" she asked as Taisuke placed her hands back on the deck, and flipped over the top card, finding the Tower again.
"Why is this happening?" she asked as Arisu looked at her confused. "Why does this card vex me so much? This is supposed to be about Arisu," she finished before casting all of the cards of the table in a fit of near rage that left Arisu silent, but still calm about the situation. "What's wrong with me?" continued to ask herself, looking at the King in front of her, and then throwing her hands into her face.
"It must be hard for somebody in your position," Arisu said, standing up with her arms folded across her chest. "In your position, it would seem as though that there are things you're not willing to accept."
"What are you talking about?" Taisuke asked, walking solemnly towards the tossed mass of cards towards the right wall of the room. "Like you know anything about what I lived like for so long."
"I don't know," Arisu replied, simply walking around the room to help gather the long cards. "Nobody is really all that different; we may all live different lives, but in the end, we came into this world through the combined love of our mother and father, and we all return to the dust when death comes to claim us. That's what The Tower is about, right?" she asked as Taisuke quickly froze in place at the very mention of the specific card. "This is where I think that even people like Sacha best you."
"I already know that Sacha is superior to me in almost every aspect," Taisuke admitted. "And I know that I have no right to say it, but if it were between any of the Bishops in this current year, anybody would pick him, or any of the others over me," she said, suddenly feeling a sharp pain across her cheek, with Arisu staring down at her, her arm extending.
"There's not a day that goes by that Christian doesn't speak of you as though you were the heart and soul of his team," Arisu said, angered at the low esteem that Taisuke was currently holding in herself. "Christian and Anya are simply the icons of that team, and neither are well liked because of the battle Royal. That Parthos guy is nothing more than a hopeless poet, Rokuro is no more than the new guy to the school, and Tier is too quiet to have much of a verbal effect on the rest of the team."
"So where does that leave me?" Taisuke asked as Arisu leaned against the wall, facing the opposite direction from the Bishop.
"Without you, Christian doesn't have anybody to talk to," Arisu said plainly. "There aren't a lot of things that Christian actually enjoys doing. When he was a kid, training his Pokémon was his only form of motivation to not slip into the same depression that Sacha used to be in. If there was anything that Christian loved more than that, it was when he was able to talk to somebody that wasn't interested in him romantically. I think that people really don't understand how important the Bishop position really is."
"We're chosen because of a behavioral record," Taisuke said as Arisu just gave a small smile.
"As Bishops, ever part of the official recording for any part of the competition that goes on around here is up to the Bishops," Arisu explained. "Whenever something wrong in the rooming situation is brought up, the Bishops are the ones people go to for answers. When there's an event being held at the dorm where the chess team is involved, the Bishop is the one counted on to make sure everything runs smoothly. All the pieces have their place, but the Bishop is the one that has some of the most responsibilities. Lying about who you are isn't odd for the position, and is something expected. Chances are you don't even know half of the stuff that your own teammates are hiding from you right now."
"But if I tell people the truth, what will they think of me at that point?" Taisuke asked as Arisu found herself at a loss for words at the question. "I guess there are some things that even psychics can't know," she said, depressively, receiving another slap from Arisu across her face. "Will you stop it!" she shouted, annoyed by the continued assaults.
"Do you really think that your team would think any less of you for hiding something from them?" Arisu asked as Taisuke simply stared at her confused. "Think about how that secret would actually make it so that the rest of your team would actually hate you for it," she said firmly, before slamming the door shut behind her.
"Even though she says that," Taisuke said, just staring at the ceiling, falling back onto the floor. "What secret should she be keeping that could ever match what I've been hiding from all my friends for ten long years?" she asked as she sat up, and looked at one of the pictures on Akemi's dresser. "We have pictures like this back at SuperNova," she noticed, seeing the entirety of the MoonBeam in the picture, most likely at the beach given the surroundings. "In the summer, we found out who would be the members of each of the teams, and we all went to some place to train. I remember it being the most awkward time of our lives because none of us had been members of the team beforehand, and Christian was against it from the start. But when we began, we all posed for that one picture, and we all still have them in our rooms," she finished, looking at the door that had just recently been closed.
Back in Arisu's room, all of the other members had been waiting in there for about a half an hour, when they noticed Taisuke walk in with a bit more of a peaceful look on her face. Nevertheless, the nervousness on her face was more apparent than ever as the team just gave her that inviting look that obviously had more than one meaning behind it. She smiled back at them, and sat down next to Arisu at the long table.
"Seems like Sacha made us some food for the first night he would be gone," Fiona said from the kitchen area. "Taisuke, how do you feel about borscht?" she asked as the Bishop looked at the others confused.
"Sacha and Arisu are the only ones willing to do actually cooking for us all the time," Devon explained. "And with Sacha, it's also some sort of ethnic dish from his home area. I say this, even though I wasn't too thrilled about eating something that I couldn't pronounce, it was probably the best decision in terms of culinary experience I ever made."
"Does Sacha really do that much for you guys?" Taisuke asked. "He just doesn't seem like the type. I mean, in that picture of you guys at the beach, he was the only one not smiling."
"That's because Fiona got a hold of him," Donato said plainly receiving some form of laughter from everyone, minus the butt of the joke. "Nah, he's just not the kind of guy who shows a smile. A lot of people are like that, but he's really not the subject of tonight's meal, is it?" he asked as Taisuke backed up in her chair only slightly. "What's the story behind the cold psychic, Taisuke Yana?" he asked reaching his hand across the table to touch her cheek.
"Look," Taisuke began, gripping onto Donato's wrist. "But don't touch," she finished, twisting his wrist in a near full rotation, and slamming it against the table. "I hate playboys like you," she said, with the word "playboy" striking Donato in the heart like an arrow, knocking him out of his seat, and into a fetal position on the floor.
"Not bad," Akemi said. "Not a lot of people who can fight against the charm Donato has. You're kind of like all the guys that can resist Fiona."
"The only difference is that I fight back," Taisuke said. "It's why I'm destined to be alone."
"Why not go for Sacha?" Devon suggested as three pairs of hands slammed on the table at the same time with Taisuke, Fiona, and Arisu all looking at him angrily for the suggestion, most likely for different reasons. "Well, you both speak different languages when you battle, and you're pretty in tune with more supernatural forces with it comes to pokémon."
"Sacha is pretty central here in MoonBeam, isn't he?" Taisuke asked as Arisu began to think of it. "I mean, he's the one who cooks these amazing meals, he does most of the administrative work, he has some of the most secrets among you, and he's the one that people could really notice out of a crowd."
"Actually, the dorm put out a poll a while back for some kind of popularity contest," Arisu explained. "Surprisingly enough, twenty percent of the dorm went with me, another twenty went to Devon, seventeen for both Akemi and Sacha, fourteen percent when it came to Donato, and then the last eight percent was for Fiona."
"Which I still say was rigged against me," Fiona said in rebuttal, ladling the Russian soup into all six bowls around the table. "When asked, people said it was because of my so-called 'sadistic' personality. I'm not like that at all."
"I don't know, when you first met Sacha who were the one that wanted to keep him in your dorm on the spot," Devon said with a chuckle, receiving a definite death glare from his Queen. "I hope you know that those looks don't scare me," he said sitting back in his chair, draining the entirety of his food within seconds. "Anyway, you've just always been the kind of person that does whatever she has to, to get what she wants."
"Sacha is really important to you people, isn't he?" Taisuke said as all five members nodded once, including Donato who was still left on the floor. "Well then, itadakimasu!" she said with a sudden clap, and began to eat her food.
After having eaten dinner, Taisuke was among the first to leave the room, and slowly made her way back into Akemi's room. Upon entering the room, she saw Akemi flipping one of the tarot cards from her deck in between her fingers, flashing it to Taisuke who looked at it distraught. Quickly taking the card from her, Taisuke couldn't keep her eyes off of the Tower card as it seemed as though it were following her around like a child follows its parents even after growing up.
"That card is warmer than the rest," Akemi said as Taisuke turned around, surprised. "It means that you were holding it, or coming across it more often than the others. You see, I wasn't picked for this team because of my Rotom, but because of my skills of perception. I used to stalk a lot of cute guys in junior high, and it made me a little crazy, so my parents sent me here in desperation to try and get it fixed."
"Photographic memory, heightened senses, and the same kind of battling ability that your teammates have," Taisuke said, putting the card back in her deck. "You belong in MoonBeam; a dorm where everybody seems to be perfect with their own quirks that make them still seem human."
"You know, just because this dorm has won for fifteen years in a row, doesn't mean that we'll continue in that trend," Akemi explained. "Arisu always tells me that no matter what happens, we'll always have to keep in mind that we're just human, and that we're no more special than anyone else in this competition. So far we have a shadow boxer, a strategist who can think moves ahead, a psychic," she said pointing to Taisuke. "And a whole mess of other people who are all unique in their own way. This is why I'm glad that your King made that promise to get rid of Triple-S; truth be told, it makes me feel safe."
"You give him too much credit," Taisuke said. "Christian has made no progress in keeping that promise to us, and I don't even think he was too serious about it. I think he just said that to make us feel better."
Directly outside the door, Devon and Donato both were listening to the conversation behind the wood with cups against their ears. They moved the cups all around the door, trying to find the direct spot where the conversation was most audible, and eventually both made an expression of triumph upon finding it, but found that they had both found it at the same time.
"Back off, pretty boy," Devon whispered, trying to move Donato out of the way, by pushing him to the side. "I found this place first."
"Nice try, psycho," Donato whispered back, making the same pushing motion against the Knight. "It was me you found it."
"I think it was neither of you," a feminine voice said as both of them froze in place, turning around slowly to see Arisu and Fiona staring at both of them evilly.
"Let's talk about this," Donato pleaded, seeing Arisu cracking her knuckles.
"Let's not," she said as the rest of the experience of what happened to them is left to the imagination.
Back in the room, Akemi and Taisuke both turned at the sound of the door opening, and Arisu and Fiona both walking in, leaving the near mangles corpses of their teammates behind them. As Arisu clapped her hands free of the dust accumulated from beating her fellow members, she sat down in between the two girls with Fiona taking a place across from them.
"Fiona has a question for you, Taisuke," Arisu explained as the Queen nodded.
"Okay," Taisuke said, still terrified to use the deck of tarot cards, based on what had been happening to her and the Tower card. "What's your question?"
"My grandmother is very sick," Fiona explained as the other members fell silent around her, even those outside of the door. "My family has the money to give her the proper operation, but they've distanced themselves from her years ago, and don't even know about her situation. I want to know if it's possible that they'll retain the money for the operation."
"I see," Taisuke said, shuffling through the deck, and cutting the deck once before flipping the top card. "I see," she said, looking down at the card, depicting a large figure, standing in between two pillars holding a scale in one hand, and a sword in the other, with its eyes covered by a blindfold. "Justice. While justice itself is blind, it's always fair. Giving people what they deserve. This can be read one of two ways in your predicament. First, your parents will come to realization that they have a duty to fulfill, and will help to save your grandmother, or the sins your grandmother committed will finally be weighed against her, and it will mean her end."
"Is there anything else that can be done about it?" Fiona asked desperately.
"Let's see," she said, flipping the next card over, and smiling out of relief by not seeing the Tower card. "The Temperance," she said, showing the card she had originally identified with Arisu. "There is the chance that somebody will take the risk, and help your grandmother, even if your parents will not. Let me ask you a question," she said as Arisu looked down at her, smiling. "Is she important to you."
"You know, I may flirt with a lot of guys, may not look at myself as a good person all the time, and I know I can be a little pushy at times," Fiona admitted as the others in the room all gave the same look that read, "a little?" "But my grandmother was really the person who raised me. My parents didn't want to be bothered with raising a child, and in the end, it was just one of those situations where that if I had to die to save her, I would gladly do it many times over."
"I see," Taisuke said, packing up her cards, and watching everyone leave the room to help comfort their Queen, most likely. "There's more of a detailed response to the reading of the Temperance. It's about faith, primarily, and the one asking the questions must have faith in order for something to succeed. In the story of the tarot, the Fool continues to search for the spirituality he desires so much, and by the time he meets an angel, he is amazed at the process of mixing fire and water. All forms of beliefs are based on the simple idea of faith; not having to see it to believe. I know this, Sacha knows this, and so many others know this as well, and I think I may finally know if who I am is such a big deal to everyone else."
Back in their room, Arisu, Fiona, Akemi, Donato, and Devon all sat around the table in the center as Arisu moved a white bishop piece on a chess board to a position in between all of their respective pieces.
"Do you think she'll buy it?" Fiona asked. "You know she can read emotions."
"So can any love-struck puppy you manage to find," Arisu said in response. "Besides it's not like it's completely inaccurate. Your grandmother was cut off from your family shortly after you came to the academy, and her income from her insurance company isn't going to help her if she does get sick. If this goes over well, we may be able to help Taisuke more than she'll know."
"Why do we want to help her again?" Akemi asked. "Not that it's a bad idea or anything, but don't you think it's just a little screwy to help our enemy."
"Taisuke is the only person capable of acting as a control for Christian, and they're both nice people," Arisu explained. "There's something very specific I want to have happen with this challenge while we're without Sacha, and that's make sure that anyone we can help is helped at all cost."
"Besides, as it stands, Taisuke is currently a MoonBeam member, and if we can help out our own, we should do it," Donato explained as Akemi nodded out of understanding.
Back in the PlanetFoundation dorm, Sacha sat far off in the corner of the bathing hall, the majority of his body dunked in the water, only the top half of his head not submerged. As he let out a relaxed breath through his nose, he raised his head out of the water as the other two male members of the dorm he was staying in were trying to keep their composure under the temperature of the water.
"This guy is a freak," Hibiki said, panting between each word. "He's been in there like that for forty five minutes. You sure that you're gonna be able to beat him like this?" he asked to the Knight, George, but already finding him unconscious in the water. "George!" he shouted out of concern, and began slapping him across the face to try and get him to wake up. "Dude, wake up, you'll die of heat exhaustion!"
"I can go a little bit more," George said confidently, but weakly as he tried to hold up his fist, and then noticed that Sacha was getting out of the water. "Hah! I beat you. Now where you going?" he asked, trying to rub the victory in his face.
"To sauna," Sacha said plainly as both of the male members of the dorm looked at each other, about ready to burst into tears out of fear. "You no have to come in, if you no want to."
"You think I'd back down from a challenge with you?" George said, walking over to the Bishop weakly. "I welcome it!" he declared, pointing his finger at him, but suddenly feeling faint from the sudden movement, and then fell back into the water.
"I win," Sacha said plainly. "I no have to battle you now. Was our deal, no?" he asked as he walked into the locker room, and began to dressed within.
"Seriously, you two, who has a fight to decide whether you battle or not, but seeing who ahs the higher tolerance to heat?" Hibiki asked, dragging George out of the water, and then pulling him into the locker room with him. "I mean, come on, Sacha, you train a fire type, that was a little unfair."
"He attack me with sword," Sacha said. "That his specialty. He no can handle mine, I no have to battle."
Walking back through the main hall of the PlanetFoundation dorm, Sacha helped to carry George back into his room, and place him on his bed, so he could cool off with the windows being propped open. Taking a seat on Geo's desk, Hibiki couldn't help but let his eyes follow Sacha as he sent out his Lampent, and had it activate a Will O Wisp.
"Is reading light," Sacha said, as he drew a large book from inside his main back, and turned to one of the bent corners of the pages, and began to read through the pages.
Hibiki discreetly walked towards the bed where Sacha was seated and noticed the entirety of the book was written in his language, not surprising to him, but at the same time, wasn't something he had hoped to see.
"So, you got anybody you like back home, Sach?" he asked, giving Sacha a nickname, beyond his normal one. "You know, a little babushka at home you like to see all the time?"
"Babushka is word for grandmother," Sacha said as Hibiki's face turned a bright red color. "English corrupt original word, and now it used for term of endearment. Makes no sense," he said. "If you mean girlfriend as in 'lyubimaya debushka,' I no have one."
"What about Kathy?" Hibiki asked.
"She nice, but I no think she like me that way," Sacha said, putting his book away, hearing a knock at the door.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Hibiki said quietly.
"Da?" Sacha asked as he opened the door, and looked downward to see Taisuke staring at him with a gentle look on her face.
"Sacha Tatarinov," she started. "As current Bishop for MoonBeam, I challenge you to a battle right now!" she declared as Sacha looked at her with the same straight look as always, leaving Hibiki wondering what was going on around him…again.
Cultural Notes:
The Art of War: A real book by the tactician Sun Tzu, the book is a collection of helpful virtues to live by when one the battlefield, and is still considered by many different forms of organizations, not limited to the military. Used in the NFL, soccer (football), and even in many Japanese Companies, the books lessons have found their way throughout the history of everything.
2. Sacha's Religion: Russian Orthodox is the majority religion in Russia today, with 41% of the population identifying with it. A form of Christianity that is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow, and in communion with other Eastern Orthodox Churches, Russian Orthodox, when looked at very briefly, is a form of Christianity and Catholicism, with the Patriarch acting as the head of the church, but does not have direct authority when it comes to matters pertaining to faith.
3. Past Position: During the reading that Taisuke did for Arisu, she talked about the past position of a card. Like trading cards, tarot cards are viewed either right side up, or upside down, and the meaning of it does change in this case. Unlike in regular cards that can be viewed both ways, a tarot card drawn upside down indicates a completely other meaning entirely.
4. Taisuke's Saying: Before Taisuke began eating, she said, "itadakimasu," which translates from Japanese to, "I will receive." While a basic verb form, it's one of the most well used in the language because it is expected of anyone dining to say it before the meal, to show respect for the person who made it. In the same way, it is also expected to say "gochisousamadeshita," or "gochisousama" after eating, which means "it was a feast." Please note, once you have said this, you are expected to not eat any more of the meal.
5. Hot Spring Bathing: Many larger dwellings in Japan, usually hotels are famous for their hot springs that are used for bathing. In reality, you aren't supposed to bathe in the large hot spring, and instead, there are separate showers for cleaning your body, and then the large bathing area is for relaxing afterwards. What Sacha may have been doing while inside the hot spring is a common practice of counting to one hundred while being nearly completely soaked up by the water. Very few can make it because of the temperature, but obviously training a fire type has paid off.
Chapter nine complete. Obviously, a little less action as I'm still trying to build it up, but I think I did pretty good, especially since this arch is supposed to be focusing on Taisuke. Within these next few chapters, the other Bishops, and I'm going to get the Pawns in there, talked about a bit more in depth, after which I plan to move onto the Knights, and then a bit more with Pawns, and who knows? Maybe I can really get going with the individual pieces, because I have something really good planned for the Rook in SuperNova. But that'll be later.