Shirushi: Aburame extraordinaire

Chapter 20: Not Shogi, Chess

Even after visiting a nearby dango shop and spending time with Takai for at least two hours, I still can't tell if he is eccentric. The only thing that could count as eccentric with him would be his ability to stay calm no matter the situation.

I would even go as far as to say it was unnatural. He didn't even react when Kakashi, followed by Guy, landed right in front of us for a second before taking off again in something I guess was a race.

Well I wouldn't say that seeing them having a race around the village was anything startling or bizarre. What was bizarre about it was that they had been covered in purple feathers, in fact, the only reason I recognized them was because the silver hair and orange leg warmers.

They must have been victims for some prank.

But back to the topic, if those two had not landed just one meter in front of us I would have thought that Takai had not even seen them. He didn't even stop walking or comment on it.

When I asked him about it he just shrugged with the words. "I have seen stranger things."

And here I thought I would have the advantage when it came to strange things courtesy of Anathea, Guy, Kazuki and the rest. So much for that.

All in all, I would say that Takai made for pleasant company, if only because he was something like a calm rock in an ever moving river of activity.

He even tried to teach me how to play Shogi when I told him that I had never played the game. Regrettably, my attempt to learn Shogi ended in failure, as I had a really hard time differentiate between the pieces and kept messing them up.

Luckily, I improvised and turned the Shogi board into a chess board (I might owe the owner a new Shogi board, but they aren't too hard to get your hands on). And then spent some time explaining the rules to Takai.

"This piece," I held up the only piece on the board that I had not vandalized or put away. "is the King. When your King is backed into a corner without escape, you lose."

"So the goal of this game is to corner your opponent and leave no room for escape." Stated Takai.

"Right, the King is also the only piece that can't be captured. The King's movements are limited. He can only move one square at a time."

I put the King back on the board and picked up a piece that I had turned upside down and marked with a 'D' up.

"This is the Queen."

Now it might had made more sense to have marked it with a 'Q', but at the time I had marked them following the Swedish words for them. Queen, as such, was marked 'D' for Drottning.

"The Queen is different from the King, as they can move in whatever direction they please, for however far they want to, as long as nothing is blocking their way."

Takai gave me a nod to show that he was still following my explanation.

"This," I picked up a piece marked with an 'L' for Löpare. "is a Bishop. They can move however far they want diagonally as long as they are not blocked."

I picked up another one that was marked 'S' for Springare. "And this is the Knight. It can move two squares either horizontally or vertically and then one square to the right or left from the direction of the first two squares. It is also the only piece that can jump over other pieces and as such can't be blocked like the others."

That one had been a difficult one to explain so I waited for Takai to ask me to repeat myself, but he just waved at me to continue.

So I picked up the next piece that was marked with a 'T' for Torn. "This piece is a Rook. They move horizontally and vertically, as far as they want unless they are blocked. They also have a special move called castling. Castling allows you to move the King two squares towards one of the Rook's and then let's that Rook jump over the King in one move. This is the only time you can move two pieces in one move, however there are conditions as to when you can use this move. For one, the King and the involved Rook have not been moved earlier in the game. Two, the spaces between the two pieces have to be empty. And lastly, the King cannot be in check, or under threat, before or after the move is performed."

A quick glance at my new teammate (maybe even friend?) confirmed that he understood my explanation.

I picked up the last piece that was marked with a 'B' for Bonde. "This is a Pawn. They are seen as the weakest pieces as they can only move forward and then only one square at a time. The only exception is when they move for the first time, then they can move two squares. However even if they do they can still be captured as if they only moved one in the following move. The pawns can also only capture other pieces my moving diagonally"

I put the piece down and pointed at the board.

"If a pawn manages to reach behind the enemy line, so to speak, they get promoted. That means you get to exchange them with a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight."

I put the pieces in their starting positions on the board.

"Ready to try it out?" I smiled at him, rather confident that I could win even if it had been a long time since I last played chess.

/An hour and a half later/

I did manage to win the first few games but Takai took to the game like a fish to water and I started to be proud of myself every time I got a tie.

We were both completely focused on the game we were playing. And that is the reason I am going to give for not being able to avoid what happened next.

"SHIRUSHI-CHAN~!"

I froze on the spot, there was only one person that called me that.

Unfortunately, I was too shocked to escape and ended up in Aiko's suffocating hug, completely helpless. And just as I thought it couldn't get worse, Aiko noticed the presence of Takai.

"Aww, Shirushi-chan. You never told me you had a boyfriend, and a cute one as well."

AN: This chapter ended up being mostly an explanation on how to play chess (at least how the pieces move) and I apologize for that. But I needed to make the chapter longer and I plan to make some chess references later in the story, so it might come in handy.

Ironically, just hours after I decided to post the un-beated version of this chapter I got the finished version from my beta reader. So here it is, enjoy.

And if anyone is interested, here is a glossary for the Swedish words.

Kung = King (literal translation)

Drottning = Queen (literal translation)

Löpare = Bishop (in chess) otherwise Runner (it is also a name for a certain sort of table cloth, you have to love words with multiple meanings)

Springare = Knight (as in chess), but also translated as Steed

Torn = Rook (in chess) the literal translation is Tower

Bonde = Pawn (in chess) the literal translation is Farmer