Author here! I uploaded yesterday so I'm warning you to read chapter 15 first! I was gone for a while so making up for it... hee~
The rice was finally cooked but too hot to mold into shapes. And Maemi could only make one filling with the limited items in the male's fridge. Did he never eat? Seriously. No wonder why he was so thin. She searched the pantry for the fifth time. Glancing at all the coffee jars filled with different coffee beans. Maemi shook her head. 'That's what he lives off. Coffee. That's it.' she thought dryly. 'What an idiot.'
Any tension that was between two had mysteriously disappeared. Why was Jane-chan so talented at calming people down? The woman could hardly handle her own emotions yet… It was as if she'd throw her feelings away and focus on… someone else… him. 'What an idiot.' "Jane-chan! Is it ready, yet?" he called offhandedly from his comfortable position on the couch. Izaya was getting hungrier and hungrier by the second. He guessed it was the smell of food lingering in the air that triggered this long-lost feeling.
"No, not yet!" she called back. She sucked the bowl of rice in the freezer to cool it down and joined him at the couches. He was fiddling with the shogi board or either playing a really complex game. "The rice needs to cool," she sighed out slumping down at the same time. Her body felt like jelly from dragging those hired ruffians around. Damn this guy.
"You shouldn't put hot items in the freezer~" he told her, shaking his head in disapproval.
"It doesn't matter when you don't have anything in it in the first place. It can't melt anything that way." The woman popped her socked feet up and hugged her knees. She had taken off her black jacket leaving her in washed out jeans that frayed at the ankles and a long-sleeved dark gray shirt that draped off her torso awkwardly. The shirt was probably meant to be fitting but she got it in a size that was three times bigger than what it should be. Izaya didn't realize before but looking back, she seemed to always wear plain baggy clothing. Perhaps, she didn't like showing her figure or standing out in the crowd.
"Yes, but it makes the fridge work harder," he finally responded.
"Too bad. It's doing its job," she pouted in argument. Was she angry about something? Hmm… more likely just tired. Oh, wait. Right. The gang members that broke into her house. That was today… Why did it feel like that was ages ago? Izaya chuckled as he took a shogi piece with a white knight. "How do you play this game, anyway?" she asked her in a curious tone looking at the board as if it was an alien.
"Your human mind won't be able to comprehend it," he said simply as he turned the broad around to play the other side. He gazed half-lidded at the positions of the pieces surrounding him, thinking of how the hell to get out of this trapped that he set up for himself. This game had been going on for more than three months now. Of course, he was playing on and off but that was a long time. Was it finally over? Did he lose and win? 'Oh wait!' Izaya spotted a window. 'That's how!' he thought as he reached for his knight.
"Try me," Maemi urged to prove him wrong with the way he was patronizing her… but looking at the broad again and had to somewhat agree with his doubts.
Blinking out of his thoughts, Izaya looked up from the broad and gave his signature smirk. Asking the woman whether knew Chess, Othello or Shogi was a complete waste of time for her answers were all hesitant 'N-O's'. As expected. Izaya saw the shame in her eyes that she didn't even know one. When the hell was she going to take out those grey contact-lenses? Her amber or, what Izaya preferred to call, golden irises were much pleasurable to stare into- … That was another weird thought, wasn't it?
"How do you expect to understand my game when you don't even know the originals?" he ironically questioned shaking his head and raising his hands up in a shrug.
"Mmm~! Then you can explain the normal versions too," the brunette pouted.
"We'd be here all night, Jane-chan," he said smirking like a fox at the woman eagerness. Hmm… Maybe, if he skimmed over the basics then…
They sat in silence for a minute, them both thinking, "I don't have work tomorrow." Maemi told him.
"But I do."
She raised an eyebrow prompted. He didn't elaborate. "You mean messing with humans or are you just trying to get away from me again?" the woman drawled. If Izaya had been sipping on a coffee then he probably would have choked. Would have been a good sight to see. "Come on. Please," she said genuinely interested. "Besides, we need to pass the time for the rice somehow," the woman reasoned.
Izaya grinned then started with the basics of chess. What the pieces were called, where they could move, how to attack and the goal of trapping the king. He did the same with shogi and Maemi was confused about how similar they were yet not similar at all. Especially with how you could 'drop' the pieces you previously captured from your opponent. Maemi had nearly forgotten the rice in the freezer, she jumped up and made Izaya continue as she molted the rice around the soy tuna filling. Othello was by far the easiest to understand.
"Get everything?" the male questioned.
The woman glanced up in thought, her hands halting in balling the rice. "Yeah, I think so. It's a lot of information though."
"Ready for the fun part?" he jumped up on the bench to sit. His house, his rules she guessed; suppressing the urge to tell him, 'Get off the damn table.' She giggled to herself as she nodded in agreement, handing him a rice ball. Why hadn't he started eating agers ago? Izaya accepted and bit into it, "Hmm~ Yummy," he said with his mouth full. "Okay!" the male exclaimed once he finished the whole rice ball. "Obviously, my game is a mix of all three games. Like shogi and chess, the aim is to capture your opponents King. Black takes the first move since shogi and Othello plays by that rule. And simply because I prefer black," he added.
"Agreed," she replied simply.
Izaya chuckled before continuing, "The shogi and chess pieces alternate in their, somewhat, normal placements on the board. Left to right in row 'a', the assignments are Lance, Knight (chess), Silver General, Queen, King (chess), Gold General, Silver General, Knight (chess) and Lance. It's the same numbering on row 'i' for white. The shogi Rook on 8b, chess Bishop 7b, chess Rook 3b and shogi Bishop on 2b. The rest of the squares on row 'b' are empty. The placements are the opposite for row h. In row 'c' they are all pawns, four being shogi pawns and five chess pawns. You remember the difference between the two, right?" he rambled taking another rice ball.
"Yeah, shogi pawns attack forward while chess pawns attack diagonally?" she finished, a bit unsure now.
"Yep!" He clapped and finished the Japanese treat in his hands. "I'll show you the board once you're done here." She agreed still molding the rice balls into shape. Maemi couldn't help but smile at the way he was being so enthusiastic… about something normal. Well… normal-ish. "In row 'd' there is a black Othello piece on 7d and a white on 3d… kind of. But anyway, to the rules." He bit the rice ball and after chewing a few time he swallowed. Wait… When did he take another? "All of the different pieces act the same as they would in their original game. What I mean to say is that the Knight still moves and jumps in an L shape, as well as the Queen exploring the board, Lance moving as many times as it wants forward without being blocked, so on and so forth. The shogi side-boards work the same too, allowing you to use your opponents captured pieces as your own… unless they capture it back. In these shogi capturing and dropping broads, there are three Othello pieces in each at the beginning, you may drop them in whenever you see fit. And unlike the shogi pieces, you don't have any limitations to where you can drop them because they don't exactly sit in a square more so on the line. It will make sense when I show you," he told her, observing her confused face. "When two Othello pieces surround either side of the opponent's piece or pieces, like in the original game, it becomes your piece as if you had captured it in shogi. But~ there's a catch. In my game, it only lasts one move for each piece turned traitor by the Othello pieces. And after the enemy regains the piece or pieces in question, it unlocks the ability of the Othello pieces. Though it loses that ability when it is promoted. But if it's caught after being promoted then it can gain the special power again. The promotion area is 'a' and 'b' for white, 'h' and 'i' for black. Like in Othello, the pieces can't move, only flip over to show either black or white. To use them again either your opponent captures them or you do; capturing your own piece to drop them somewhere when needed. You can do the same to his, of course. Oh, but when you capture your opponent's chess pieces you can't drop them in as your own like the Othello and shogi pieces. Hmm… I think that's practically the basics. Any questions?" he asked chomping into the rice ball, quickly finishing it.
"Errr…" Maemi finished rolling up the last rice ball. "Don't some of the chess pieces look the same all the way around? How do you tell whether it's your piece or your opponent's when you've turned it into yours? And how do you tell which pieces have gained the ability of the Othello pieces? With so much going on…" the girl trailed trying to understand. Izaya laughed a little and pointed to his the side of his head as a clue. Instantly, she groaned, "You have to remember?" the girl complained as she went to the sink to wash her hands.
"Aha!" he nodded. Taking the last rice ball she just made, he was about to bite but he realized, "Did you get to eat?"
She chuckled, "Kind of, I got halfway through dinner when those guys showed up," Maemi informed him. However, somehow, she couldn't spit it at him bitterly and say, 'It's your fault!' either though it was. Izaya blinked then slid a grin on, holding the rice ball out to her. "Ah- No, that's okay." She was surprised by his gesture.
"Take it, silly." He giggled again, "I'm full anyway." Izaya patted his stomach.
She took it from him, a grain of rice sticking to his index finger. Izaya licked it off still smiling. "Thanks." In that moment the woman lived up to the name she gave the girl- herself, Maemi, a truthful smile. She took a bite and tasted satisfying saltiness. "Hmm… it is good," she said in somewhat surprise. After all, she did kind of whack it together in a hurry.
"Do you think you'd be able to play against me, Jane-chan?" Izaya asked though he knew she wouldn't, not to be cocky or anything.
"I'd be able to play but not win," she said covering a full mouth with her free hand.
The male laughed a little, "That's what I meant, Jane-chan."
"Oh… Then no." Izaya chuckled more at that. At least she was being honest. Maemi let him laugh as she finished the rice ball. "But, I'd love to play anyway. It might be a quick game for you but if you think about you still end up with the same outcome when you play by yourself. You win. Soo…?"
The male smirked, "Sure. If you're up to the challenge then why not?" The raven head hopped off the bench and they both went back to the couches to play. He, of course, reset the game since he was in the middle of one but he'd continue it some other time. Izaya remembered the pieces placements well with all the years of practice.
The game went pretty terribly on Maemi's end while the male shrieked in hysterics because of how "funny" it was. He didn't give her any hints except telling the woman that she "can't do that" when she placed shogi or chess pieces where they couldn't go. Like her bishop going forward. "No, no, no~ Jane-chan," he'd say all-knowingly, "They only move di-
"Diagonally! That's right!" she exclaimed in realization, "Ohhh~ My plan is ruined," Maemi whined having the urge to rip out her hair. Izaya made no effort in holding back his amusement crazy cackling filling the large apartment. Maemi thought about her limited options and put the chess piece down to pick another.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Jane-chan? Once you touch a piece, you have to use said piece." He told her for the hundredth time.
"But it was by mistake!" Maemi complained and tried to argue again.
The male giggled, "As said. There's no room for mistakes in this game," he whispered mischievously. She grumbled at that. Maemi was epically losing, and though she expected it she still didn't like it. But it was a lot more annoying with the male snarky comments. The woman moved her chess bishop where she suspected it would be safe. Izaya smirked and dropped in her shoji rook he had captured. She took the bait hesitantly and he advanced with his promoted lance. "Much like real life, once it's done it can't be undone. Check." She made a nervous quiver and moved her king to the left. Izaya had his turn then it was the woman's again. And like before she made the awful mistake of moving the only piece that was protecting her King. "And checkmate," Izaya said placing down a queen. "That was rather silly, Jane-chan. Did you even look?" he asked patronizingly.
"Wha-?" Maemi looked down to the board again. Seeing how he placed his pieces and her ex-pieces into a battle-like formation, "Ahh!" she yelped girlishly, "Nooo~"
Izaya laughed at the almost animated reaction. "Well, that was easy."
"Shoosh!" Maemi commanded in annoyance, "So that's what you were doing this whole time! Damn it! Why didn't I notice?" she muttered to herself.
"I was intentional keeping you busy and opening up your guards," Izaya noted only gaining stink-eye from the woman.
Maemi sighed leaning back and checked the time. "I still lasted a while."
The raven burst out into more hysterics. "Are you kidding!? Two hours is nothing, Jane-chan!" he couldn't help but laugh! "That was the shortest game I've ever had!" Izaya's giggling fit was slowly coming to an end. He sighed in what seemed to be relief. All the while Maemi sat on the couch stiffly almost pouting like a child. "Naww~ Don't be a sore loser now, Jane-chan~" Izaya teased.
"I-I'm not," the female retorted.
Izaya gazed at her annoyed sulk, "Hmm~ Though it may have been an easy game, it was still fun," he told her.
The woman blinked up at him and his smiling face, then back down feeling the tension in her face smoothen, "That's good," she whispered.
The author again! Okay... I have no idea how Izaya's game is actually played. I don't even know if Ryohgo Narita knows how to play it. This was just from my imagination! No fact what so ever... I don't think you really ever get to find out how to play it in the visual novel, though I have not read it yet. So correct me if I'm wrong! If you have no idea how to play any of the games, you're probably very confused. I tried to make it make sense. And to me, it sounds like an awesome game that's ridiculously difficult. Suits our beloved Izaya very much, I'd say.