Chapter 11: Further
I wake up like I always do, open eyes, try to sleep for a few minutes before resigning to the fact I won't be getting back to sleep, showering, play a few songs, and then leave. But while my morning is nothing new, the day will likely be interesting, it is Monday, and there are three things I'll have to address. First off, I have to get ready for barrage of un-dodge-able questions that will assault me when I get back, there is no doubt of that, but then again there is the possibility of every one ignoring me, trying to shove what they saw happen to the back of their minds and stay away from me at all costs. Either way will be annoying, but I'm not that worried about that. But what I will have to worry about is Shizune and Misha, something tells me that they won't give up on trying to get me to work for the council so easily, even after Wednesday's episode, and how will I say no? They will definitely give me hell for joining the chess club, even though I have no idea why they seem so dead-set on ignoring it or dismissing it so much, but then again, they may choose to ignore me like so many other classmates undoubtedly will. And the last thing is a chess meeting after school, Hisao and Hanako will be there, so I won't be alone with Lilly again. It doesn't make much of a difference to me, it may even be a good thing, while I did like talking to her, it did get awkward at some points, I am far from being a people person, usually preferring isolation, so this is all a little new to me.
I think all of this as I approach homeroom, choosing to skip breakfast, it may be the most important meal of the day, but I'm not hungry. I let most of my mind think about various things, just as I always do when there isn't something major to focus on. I get to homeroom and open the door, and find that no one except Hisao is in there. I give a small greeting and head to my seat, the pinging of my crutches interrupting the enveloping silence of the room before I had entered. I arrive at my seat, gingerly letting myself down, not in any rush. I open up a book and kill some time until the period starts.
The room slowly fills with people, some trying to ignore me, but failing, some succeeding, but most just look at me for a moment, eyes filled with either fear, or surprise, I figure many of them thought I'd be out longer or be shipped off to some insane asylum.
As I think for a moment, I realize that Nurse never told me I would have to see a therapist, why? I had thought that I would have to see one no matter what else happened, but I didn't. Why would he let me get off without scheduling an appointment, or anything? It doesn't make any sense. I run several theories through my head, but none seem to make any sense, why? I swear, this mystery will be the death of me.
I am so engrossed in my internal debate, I almost don't notice it when Mutou starts his lecture. It is on the subject of subatomic particles and things of that nature. For the most part, everyone either seems to be confused or not paying attention, I personally find a medium between listening and thinking. I soak in every word he says, but in the brief periods between his rants, my mind manages to get one or two thoughts in, usually in the form of possible scenarios for whatever may happen today or in the future, ranging from absurd to plausible, to horrible to as close to ideal as possible, but they are usually fleeting and I cannot really consider how ideal or absurd they are in-depth.
Eventually Mutou's lengthy rant ends and he passes out the homework for the day, as individual work. I am a little relieved at that, I am hoping to avoid being in a group as much as possible until everyone is ready to stand me being in their midst again.
I finish with a few minutes to spare and resume my randomly thought of theories and predictions, debunking them all as unlikely or giving them some merit, but this time they are not about what will happen in these coming days, but more on anything that happens to cross my mind, from conspiracies to math equations, from death to life. It is unrestrained and unfiltered, just as my thought always are like.
The minutes pass quickly until the bell rings. Once it breaks the quiet of the room, the room seems to give a collective sigh of relief, me excluded, and quickly filter out of the room. I get up in no hurry, It is just lunch, nothing to get too excited about. I put my things in my bag, sling it over my shoulder, and hoist myself back on my crutches. I start to head out the door, but am intercepted by Misha and Shizune, how did I not notice them? They are sneakier than I had given them credit for.
Misha beams while Shizune remains business faced, "Hi there Benchan~! Haven't seen you in awhile." Her voice is just as boisterous as usual, although there is an edge to it, unbeknownst by herself, she apparently isn't as at ease talking to me as she is letting on, I'm not surprised in the least.
"Yes it has..." I say musingly.
"I hope you haven't gone and gotten yourself into more trouble since then?" she says this in a questioning but also declarative way, as if decided for herself I haven't, but still asking.
I think about the chess club and mutter under my breath almost inaudibly, "I hope not."
"What was that?" she asks, I'm glad she missed it.
"Nothing important. How have you two been doing?"
Misha appears to give up on trying to figure out what I said, she looks to Shizune for a moment to read her signs, and then turn back to me, continuing to sign everything said back to Shizune, "Shiichan and I have been busy preparing for the elections, but we're the only ones running! I think they don't want to have to face up against us~! After all what chance do they have?" She throws her head back and gives out a mighty "WAHAHAHAH~!"
I don't think I can get used to that laugh, or more likely just not for awhile. "Yeah, seems like it to me." I suddenly have an idea, something that could get me out of the council without having to admit to joining the chess club. "Speaking of the elections, I don't think me joining the council would be a good idea." I say, purposely leaving them on a cliffhanger response to pique their interest.
Misha looks a little surprised, and once Shizune hears (sees?) about that, she raises one of her eyebrows in a questioning way.
"Why do you say that?" Misha questions.
"After what happened last week," Misha winces a little, but Shizune is unfazed when Misha signs this to Shizune, "with me running with you two, I don't think your chances of getting elected will skyrocket much, actually, it will probably drop."
Misha sees the flaw in my suggestion that I know was there, but hoped they wouldn't pick up on, "but you don't have to run with us, just work with us once we win, and there still isn't any opposition, and the elections are next week." Game over for me, she hit me right where it hurts, in the smack-dab middle of my flawed argument. I can't get too disappointed, I knew the chances of that working were low.
"I know." I say in a resigned manner.
"Then why did you bring it up?" Misha isn't signing when she said that, and the previous statement, when I think about it, so I'm talking to Shizune right now.
"No reason." I say, knowing full well that they knew why, or at least Shizune does, not much seems to get by her.
"But enough of small talk! The time for you decision has come!" says Misha in a cheerful tone, not matching the words with her tone well, and the words are, once again, Shizune's. "Would you like to join the student council?"
I inwardly sigh, the reckoning has come, "I'm, uh...already sort of in a club..." I say a little awkwardly.
Misha seems a little caught off guard, but Shizune gets a twinkle in her eye, as if the thought of a challenge is getting her excited. Shizune pushes up her glasses and begins to sign.
Misha begins translating with ease that will never cease impress me, "What club is it? And do you seriously think that being a club means you can't help us with the work?"
I ignore the first question, I'm trying to avoid mentioning the chess club, "I still have obligations other than the club, such as school projects, and more personal stuff." The argument is weak, but chess club is already going to cut into my guitar, reading, and video game time, I don't want to lose any more.
"And you can't take some time off from your so very busy schedule to help us then?" Shizune puts her hands on her hips, looking ecstatic by this debate, if you could call it that.
"So I'm a workhorse for you two? I am offended." I say in mock horror,
Thankfully Shizune seems to realize that I meant it in jest, as she gives a smile and signs once again to Misha, who dutifully translates, "You'll have some influence. But let's go to the lunch room for now, we are going to miss the entire lunch break if we do~!"
"Sounds like a plan," I reply, using the phrase my dad often makes use of.
We head to the cafeteria and along the way Misha and Shizune sign back and forth animatedly, having a silent conversation I could never keep track of, with me being illiterate in the ways of sign language.
We get to the cafeteria in a minute or two, the room is packed with students, most of whom are eagerly tucking into their bland meals. I order a plate of rice and nothing else, I'm not too hungry and rice is probably the best thing I have had so far here, so I just go with that. Misha carries hers and Shizune's as we make out way to a few empty seats at a table near the back wall. We all eat quickly, me because I didn't have much, and they eat quickly to get on with the conversation from earlier.
Once we all are finished and leave our plates empty, except for Shizune's, who still has the majority, if not all of it, left, they look at me and I mentally prepare for their renewed assault.
"Well Benchan, we need an answer!" Misha says up-beatly.
That was...straight forward. They didn't even beat around the bush, or anything? Well, this may make things easier, who am I kidding? These two won't give up that easy.
"I'd rather not join." I say, opting to keep it straight forward as well.
"How about we settle it with a game?" Misha says, beaming.
"What?"
"A game! Like paper football, you play that in America, right?" her voice is brimming with energy and cheerfulness.
"I hate that game." I reply evenly, I do hate it, it is pointless and requires little thought to it, it is a game of luck and wrist movement, neither being my forte.
Her smile remains as wide as ever, "How about Monopoly?"
"No, that is almost completely luck based, and I'm not about to bet my future here on a board game, especially when the odds are stacked in your favour with two against one."
"What about Risk? One-on-one between you and Shiichan?"
Risk, I haven't played that in awhile, I really like the game, although not as much as chess.
"I'm fine with that, as long as there are no strings attached." I say, hoping they will say yes, now that it has been mentioned, I have an urge to play Risk.
Misha relays those word to Shizune and they engage in a frantic conversation with their hands, probably discussing whether or not to agree to it.
After about half-a-minute of debate, they turn to face me and Misha beams, "Shiichan says 'yes'. Meet us in the rotunda after school."
I go over my schedule in my head, school ends at four, and the chess meeting is at six, that leaves a two hour window of time for a game of risk and any other shenanigans these two have in store. I can do that. I agree and we head our separate ways and finish the rest of our classes.
I don't really know anyone else in my classes, and they all seem to give me a wide berth, wanting to stay away from me, for fear that I may have a repeat incident. I grit my teeth in frustration throughout the day, the pits after affects have come in full force and hits hard, just another testament to my failure to keep it under lock-and-key.
Eventually the school day comes to a close and I hurry to the rotunda, hoping to evade the crowds, and unfortunately, I fail. I get stuck in one of the congested halls without pity and am forced to stand at the side of the hall until some people manage to filter out of the halls some. I eventually manage to get to the rotunda and I realize I am here first, I'm a little surprised I got here before them, but they may be located further away and they easily could have been caught in the tide of students as well. I find a bench in off to the side and sit down, keeping an eye out for them.
A few minutes pass and I wonder briefly if they are even coming, this may just be a joke they are playing on the new kid, it is possible, but it doesn't seem to fit their personality well, so I give them the benefit of the doubt.
A few more minutes later, they do enter the rotunda, Misha looking as lively as always, and Shizune having the same serious expression that usually adorns her face. I take a moment to consider the possibility that they had me waiting as a mind game, having me wait puts them, psychologically, in the superior position. I'm actually fairly certain that is the case, but I'm not going to fall for it.
As I stand up and lean into my crutches once again, Misha waves in my direction and Shizune nods to me in greeting.
They approach and casually flank me on either side, effectively cutting off all routes of escape, not that I can exactly run away in the first place.
They whisk me away without a word, which is odd considering Misha is present, and she seems to be one of the most talkative people I have met.
We soon reach the student council room, and it's not exactly a sight for sore eyes. The place is empty and barely has any furniture in it, it has bookshelf full of board games instead of books, a large table in the middle, a black board, and that's all. There isn't much else in the room except for what I believe is a cob web in a corner of the room.
"Shiichan and I will have to spruce this place up a bit~!" Misha exclaims, sounding far too loud for the desolate space surrounding us.
Shizune nods in assent and move towards the book case, looking for the board game we desire.
"So, how are your other classes?" Misha asks me.
I consider the question seriously for a moment, how are the going? Academically, fine, socially? Horribly, but that is to be expected after what happened. I decide to use the academic option, "Fine, I guess."
"What level is your class?" She asks in an innocent manner.
"Why do you want to know?"
She shrugs, an action that make her drills bounce some, but the movement doesn't seem very Misha-like, but then again I don't know her that well yet, "Just out of curiosity." The way she says that makes me doubt it, something tells me Shizune has something to do with this, but there isn't any real use in lying.
(NOTE: I tried looking for the class rankings/levels/placement in Japan, but after about an hour of searching with no results, I gave up and I am using the system used at my highschool, AP=College level, Honours=Higher level, Regular=Regular (Who would've guessed).)
"Same science class as you have, AP calculus, honours world macro economics, regular Japanese, and honours literature, that's all of them." I say, giving her the list of my classes and their placement level.
She nods, "That's almost as good as Shiichan's! Except she has two classes higher than you!" she says this in an excited voice, as if Shizune's classes were the most fascinating topic in the world.
Before I can reply, there is the sound of something hitting the table and a snap, I turn around to see that Shizune had dropped the Risk box on the table and had snapped her finger to get our attention. The look in her eyes shows impatience and she quickly sits down, motioning for Misha and I to sit down. We both oblige and Shizune signs some to Misha.
"Shiichan asks if you need to hear the rules." Misha translates.
"No thanks, I remember the rules, now let's get started." I only have an hour-and-a-half until the chess meeting now, so I had better make this quick.
(If you don't want a lengthy description of how the game went, skip the next paragraph and continue on the one after it.)
After being dealt our territories, I take not that Shizune has a major hold on South America and Africa, while I heavy presence in Asia and North America. I choose to heap troops in Central America to keep Shizune out of my territories as I isolate and demolish the rest of her troops on the continent. It works well, and Shizune uses the same strategy to fully take control of Africa and South America. She still has one territory in Asia but that is quickly dominated by me. I have a continent under lock-and-key with heavily reinforced entry points, but Asia is still weak. She exploits this by launching raid attacks along the southern and western front form Africa and one territory in Europe. Making sure to keep a close eye on her border movement, I turn my attention to Australia, she only has one territory there and it is weak, so on my reinforce phase I put a few troops there and crush the rest of her forces in there, but this costs me as she manages to wrestle southern Europe and the Middle East out of my control. The loss of my Asia troop bonus isn't good, but I manage to take back the Middle East on my next turn and reinforce it. But Shizune is quickly pushing into Europe, taking it until all I have left there is Iceland. To keep her from getting the troop bonus, I reinforce heavily there from leftover troops in Greenland I never got to moving and a few others from my reinforce phase, and I begin to pack the heat in Ural and the Middle East, preparing for a push into Europe. But that plan is interrupted by a disturbance in Central America. I hadn't notice her modestly reinforcing South America. I curse my negligence and seek to rectify the damage by putting troops in the US territories to drive her back into South America. After a few turns of struggling back-and-forth, I manage to drive her out. But while I struggled to regain North America, she has put a lot of pressure onto Iceland. Realizing I had no other choice as I can't reinforce it enough this turn to stop her assault, I move my troops back into Greenland and reinforce them there. But I manage to keep her from dominating Europe when I launch an ambitious attack on Russia, and manage to hold against her initial waves that she sends after I manage to take control of Russia. Once I make sure Greenland, Russia, and other border territories are secure from threats, I decide it is time to go on the offensive. I quickly mount an offensive campaign to take South America and after some tug-of-war battles, I manage to push her out of Venezuela, and with that I gain entry to the rest of South America. I pick off the other territories and leave Brazil for last on purpose as to keep her from attacking me from the rear with forces from Africa. But I run into a wall once I reach Brazil, I can't take it, I don't have enough troops to overcome hers, so I have my troops dig in and prepare for a later assault. During this, she has been busy in Europe, finally taking control of the continent after taking Russia from me. And she cripples my reinforcements by her taking a territory in Asia once again. I manage to take Asia back and focus on Brazil again. I garner enough troops there and finally break through her defenses and bring down her reign over South America. With that, there isn't much hope left for her. I control the biggest continent, and I have successfully taken over four of the six continents on the map. I manage to kick her out of Europe after fighting a tooth-and-nail battle there, and fight tooth-and-nail once again by defeating her final fortresses in Africa from all sides. Madagascar is her final stand, but it falls not in a blaze of glory, but in a whimper due to there being virtually no soldiers there. It was a long, hard-fought battle, but I came out victorious. She was extremely good though, she was incredibly aggressive and wasn't afraid to take risks, as a huge fan and player of strategy games, I can easily respect that.
I reach out my hand and she grasps it, and we shake firmly, respect in my eyes, but I can't tell what's in hers.
"Good game." I say, as our hands separate from the handshake, using the time honoured phrase.
After Misha translates this, to her and she nods before signing something to Misha and Misha translates back to me: "Shiichan says it was a good game." I barely keep myself from allowing my passive face to turn into a frown at her tone, it was almost, disappointed. Very odd, it was just a game, but maybe it was something more for these two.
I say my good-byes and head out the door on my crutches, hurrying for the chess club, I don't want to be too.
I manage to get there only five minutes late.
I knock before I enter, letting them know someone is entering.
"Sorry I'm late," I say, as I enter, seeing Lilly and Hanako playing a game of chess, Hanako dominating from the looks of it, and Hisao watching their game with only mild interest. Hanako ignores me, apparently "in the zone", but Lilly swings her sightless eyes towards me and Hisao's dark ones also focus on the my disturbance.
"Hello, Ben." Comes Lilly's ever-soft voice before she goes back to focusing on the loosing battle.
Hisao briefly looks at a watch on his arm that I haven't noticed before, "You're only five minutes late, there's no need to say sorry."
"But I'm still late," I reply "it's not really punctual of me."
He smiles a little, "Punctuality isn't exactly forced with us."
I nod and lean my crutches against the wall as I sit next to Lilly in the only-vacant chair.
I watch as the game progresses, and I clearly see Lilly has no chances of wining. She is down to a rook, two pawns, and a king, meanwhile Hanako still has more than half her forces, including her queen. I am impressed at how well Hanako is doing, she already has Lilly nearly done with several more pieces left than I did when I had her forces whittled down to that level. And just as I think that, Hanako gets her Bishop back after getting one of her pawns to the opposite side of the board. The next turn she destroys Lilly's rook and the next one of Lilly's pawns, and than the next her last one. With its last safeguard gone, the king falls into checkmate and Hanako wins.
I notice Hisao fiddles with his watch for a moment before announcing: "Seven minutes and 12 seconds." I'm definitely impressed, all the moves I saw were masterfully executed and she dominated Lilly in under ten minutes when I took around twenty, were I to guess anyway. I can tell just by that time and my previous experience against Lilly, either Hanako is far better than I initially thought, or Lilly made some bad decisions against Hanako, something tells me it is the former, however.
"Impressive." I say under my breath without really thinking about it.
No one notices though as Lilly and Hanako are giving each other the "Good game" and discussing the match some, as is Hisao.
I don't pay much attention though, as I'm already busy formulating strategies to defeat Hanako, but none seem likely to be able to counter her brilliant moves. I give up for the moment and get back to the task at hand.
"That was very impressive." I say, congratulating Hanako.
She nods, looking very modest and shy. She switches seats with Hisao and I notice Lilly has gotten out of her chair as well.
I sit there for another moment before I realize I am meant to play against Hisao.
After a moment of awkwardly hoping into the adjacent seat, Hisao wordlessly starts the game.
(Another lengthy description of a board game ahead)
A few minutes later, I am pondering my position. Hisao seems to rely heavily on his queen and bishops to pick off unprotected pieces, and it is whittling away my front, which is no good. I am already down five pawns, which are invaluable as meat shields and sacrifices, so I don't like loosing them one bit. But I can't get to his queen and bishops, he never lets them stay in the field long enough to get trapped, his strategy seems to be hit and run, a strategy I have encountered before and find infuriating at its difficulty to trap and capture pieces. But, I think I have it figured out. After spending several precious moves carefully making getting the trap ready, I get ready to go into phase one. I move one of my pawns into a field of fire of his queen, the pawn can be hit by no other pieces. He take the bait and goes for the piece and claims the character for himself. I manage to keep my poker face at him falling for the trap. He spends his next move putting his queen back into its hidey-hole. He was so focused on taking my piece that he didn't notice he left his last bishop open to attack on the move I gained. One of my pawns is sitting diagonally from his bishop, that now has no where to go. If he takes my pawn, my knight will take it out. He chooses to take the pawn as last ditch effort to whittle my forces before my knight take his bishop. But that doesn't affect the plan much, no matter what he did, it would end the same now. Now my knight can take down his queen from its position, and my knight is untouchable from any other pieces. And the queen has only one route of escape. He eagerly takes this route and gets out of dodge. But now I move my knight elsewhere, to a spot where I put his king in check, which I announce. His queen can defeat my knight, but to do that, it would be in the line of fire for my last rook. But he has no choice, he sacrifices his queen. I feel some satisfaction at this, now he only has a rook, knight, and five pawns. I still have two rooks, a knight, a bishop, three pawns, and a queen. The queen and bishop were the main issues, now that those are gone, I will have little problem finishing his pieces. But he is still very good, and by the time I have him in check mate, I have lost both rooks, my last bishop and two pawns, more than what I initially thought my loses were going to be once I took down his queen. He is definitely very good. I exchange good games with him and he checks his watch.
"32 minutes and 12 seconds." he says.
"Damn." is all I have to say, that took far longer than I thought it would.
I look over and notice for the first time that Lilly and Hanako both have a cup and plate in front of them, cups were undoubtedly filled with tea at some point, and I believe I smell the scent cookies wafting from their plates and see some crumbs on the plates as well.
"Now you and Hanako go against each other, winner vs. winner." says Hisao.
He switches seats with Hanako and we start.
I got crushed.
That is all the description needed. She absolutely dominated my strategy with moves that seemed to have been planned 30 moves ago, all with insane precision. Holy shit is my best reaction.
Hisao smiles at seeing me getting dominated, and I can't blame him, I took him down, so he probably got a little satisfaction at seeing me get beaten by his girlfriend.
Hisao checks his watch, "15 minutes and 42 seconds." he announces.
Well, at least I lasted longer than Lilly.
I nod to her, "Good game." I say for the third time that day.
She nods a little bit somewhat shyly, "Likewise."
Hanako walks off for a moment, then comes back with a giant plastic bag.
"I brought us all dinner." she says, smiling.
We all say thank you as she hands us all the food, but Lilly nor Hisao immediately open it as Hanako goes to get a glass of water for everyone. I wonder why for a moment. I figure I had better wait too if they are going to.
She comes back with the water for everyone. Once she hands it all out she takes a bite out of it and swallows, then comes back for more. Once Hisao and Lilly see this, they dig in as well, and Hisao gives a silent sigh, although his exhale was visible. Perhaps her exploits in the kitchen aren't always successful? I have no idea why. But I take a bite out of mine anyway. It is some concoction made with noodles, chicken, and a variety of spices. But something tastes odd, then I recognize it, a taste similar to pine needles, is it what I think it is? I believe it is as there is a slight stirring in my stomach, not out of food digestion problems or anything like that, it is something else. I have to be sure it is what I think it is. If it is, there is a major problem.
"Hey Hanako," I begin to gain her attention, managing to mask my anxiety. She turns towards me to let me know she is paying attention. Her scars are there and are somewhat distracting, but I don't stare or think twice about it, that isn't my primary concern right now, "what is in this?" I ask, making sure my voice sounds curious.
Her eyes light up some, thinking that I love it and want to know the ingredients, it isn't bad, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, "It is made from," she goes onto a long list of ingredients that I don't recognize the majority of, but she says the word I have been dreading, "rosemary," and she finishes with a few more spices. I zone out the rest, as I think one thought, DAMMIT! Not so goddamn soon! I just had something like this happen just last week!
After she finishes, I make some lame excuse to that gets me out of the room after saying thank you and good-bye, they all look at me oddly as I exit, but I don't care, this is far more important. I rush to my dormitories as fast as possible on crutches. I have to start this long war alone, as when it starts, it will be at its ugliest.