Aah mou! How is he so good at chess?
My sister made me play chess against him as my last punishment. This morning, I put on the cutest face I could muster and asked my sister's boyfriend to convince her to let me go from her grasp. I was jumping with joy inside when he said okay. If anyone could convince her, he could.
He took my sis into a room had a talk with her. Only thing I heard was towards the end when onii-chan said, "Kei, you of all people should know how it feels when people get a hold of your secret and blackmail you into doing things you don't want to". I wonder what that meant though, did onii-chan save my sis from some bullies who were getting blackmailed at their school? After he said that, my sister spoke no more.
When they came out of the room, he smiled at me and gave a thumbs-up.
My sister said,"I guess I did take it too far, so I'm sorry. I should not be taking advantage that you're dating a loser-"
"Oi. What did I just say?"
My sister just ignored him and continued speaking. Honestly, we weren't dating. We were just a little interested in each other and decided to hold hands on a whim. It was totally his idea. Curse him, I was practically slave since that day for my sister. She did none of her chores when she had me at her beck and call.
"Play 5 games of chess against Kiyo. That will be your last punishment. Then you're free. I'm not even telling you to win, you should be glad. Of course, it's impossible for you to win against him.", she said with a smug smile.
Impossible huh? I'll show her.
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I lost all 5 games.
It was humiliating. My sister who had no idea how to even play chess had a smug grin as she saw me getting utterly decimated. The man himself was looking at the chess board not knowing where else to look. Finally he spoke up, "Why did you go for a Reti's opening every single game?"
"Eh? What's that ?"
"Your first move. You moved-"
"Oh that! I like the knight so always start with the knight.", I replied. I realised I met as well have said that I liked ponies. "Oh and no one else starts with it at competitions, so no one really knows how to play against it either. I've won a lot because of that."
"If it works out then its okay I guess.... but why do you castle whenever you get the chance?", he asked. I was confused. My old instructor had told me to do so whenever I had the chance and everyone else did too, it was basically nullifying all the opponent's movements up until that point. I just shrugged.
"Game 4, I knew you were gonna castle in 18 moves so I set up a trap that only worked if you had castled in that move." He dropped a bomb on me.
"Eh? You knew I was gonna..... ? 18 moves....? Trap... ?". A move made to nullify the opponent's attack led to my own loss? Seriously, he was the best opponent I've ever played against. Looks like I learned something new. He just smiled at me without explaining anything.
He always managed to impress me and my family. Dad acted like he was the son he never had. Mom was always trying to make him feel more included in family activities. I had something more akin to respect for him and maybe even admiration. He was so good at studies it wasn't even a joke. Although after everything that had happened since the festival I have to say, I hope my sister stays with him happily for as long as possible.
Suddenly, someone's mobile phone rang. My sister gave her boyfriend his phone saying some name with ''Director' in it.
I once again looked at all the moves I had noted down in the last 5 matches in my notebook for chess matches. Looks like I have some studying to do.
▢▢▢
Kiyotaka was waiting for Kei outside her home. It was 8 in the morning. The freshman orientation for ANHS students was at 9. The other students had already visited the campus atleast once towards the end of their third year of high school and had a basic idea of the functioning of the campus. They were told that a senpai a year above them from AHNS would give them the tour of the campus. He wondered who it was as he had already remembered all the names of the students in the year above him due to the OAA app. The app was taken down the moment Nagumo had lost his position in the student council his second year.
Kei came out of the house wearing a breezy blue tank top and black high waist jeans. She had a small, transparent white coat with floral designs on top of it. She ran up to him with her backpack hanging off of her left shoulder.
"Kiyotaka, let's go. Bye ma."
"Yeah, bye mom. Let's go Kei."
They both waved to the woman standing in the doorway but before they could go she stopped them and made them stand in front of the house next to each other. She whipped out a digital camera and took a picture.
'This will go in the family's photo album', she said as she waved them goodbye.
After bidding goodbye, the pair started making their way the nearest railway station. After getting off of the train, they would get on a university bus that would take them directly to the the university.
After reaching the train station, they bought the tickets and stood in line for the scanner where they had to scan the token which would let the person enter the train platform. To Kiyotaka, everything seemed amazing. So many people all gathered in one terminal all on their own different paths and different destinations, with the station being the place that brought them all together.
He had already gotten past the scanners and security once before when had travelled from Tokyo to Chiba after graduation so he knew how to go about it. When they got onto the train, they easily found seats next to each other.
"You know Satsuki said she might consider Chiba U too."
"Shinohara? Does that mean Ike will go there too?".
Since they had graduated from class A, they could go to any university they wished for and if they could afford it even universities abroad. Truth be told, given the number of better universities in Japan he had not expected many of his friends from class A to join Chiba University. Not that Chiba U was not a good option, but it was overshadowed by the prestigious universities like Tokyo University, Kyoto University and Osaka University which many would have chosen.
"Probably, but even if they do decide on Chiba U , they definitely won't be taking the same course as us."
"True. Medicine is definitely not for them, but it will be nice to see them around campus and meet up after classes".
He meant what he said. Once Ike started dating Shinohara, he had become more grounded and became a much more enjoyable person to be around. His perverted quips were a thing of the past. Horikita had disapproved of their relationship at the beginning fearing for a negative effect on both of them but, the exact opposite had happened and she gradually accepted it as they proved themselves.
The doors for the next station opened and there was an influx of passengers and it became too crowded for any more talking. They sat holding hands in silence.
▢▢▢
They walked through the entrance where the words 'Chiba University' were written in gold kanji and a black slab of stone. There were many cherry blossom trees in full bloom near the entrance gate.
At the same time, a black limousine arrived in front of the gates. Everyone stopped as a beautiful, young woman with short black hair wearing expensive looking clothes stepped out of the luxury vehicle.
She seems to be very popular. In society, status is directly linked with popularity huh? In ANHS popularity was based purely on your abilities. Another instance where the famous high school did not accurately represent society.
The window of the limousine rolled down to reveal surprisingly, Yukinoshita Akari which could only mean that lady that had gotten out of the car was none other than Yukinoshita Haruno, her elder daughter who was 2 years older than him.
Pops had told him that the fireworks festival was an excuse to publicly celebrate the fact that Yukinoshita Haruno was ready to take over the company at any time.
She might be useful....
Author's Note:
Thank you everyone for 3k reads and we're almost at 250 stars. Thank you so much.
#1 on Kiyokei btw.
I won't be uploading for the next days as I'll be visiting my relative's house and I won't have enough time to write there.
Anyways, next chapter you'll see some names you'll recognize. I'm still planning out the college life aspects of the story. Initially I wanted Kiyo to take Psychology as his main course, but I found out that Chiba Uni doesn't offer that course (big F), so I settled with medicine.
Thanks for everyone's suggestions to the (now deleted) question I asked.
Hope to see you after the short break.
Peace.