Alex's Pov
After a sweet dream I woke up from Chiaki tapping my shoulder, as I opened my eyes and sat up I saw her looking at me with a gentle smile. I don't know why but I get the feeling she was watching me sleep.
"Thank you for waking me up, what is the score right now?"
"It is 3-2 currently and the fifth round just ended, you told me to wake you up now right?"
"Yeah thank you, I should get going, I want to be early."
She looked at me strangely as if questioning what I was talking about.
"The sixth exam was just announced how can you know chess will be the last event?"
I didn't want to tell her much so I looked toward the door absentmindedly and spoke.
"Call it a hunch, I get the feeling the chess game will be the most important. It is only natural the most exciting match will be last."
Before she could respond I stood up and left the classroom, I heard some of my classmates asking where I was going but I ignored it and walked towards the room where the chess match will be played.
As I walked I thought about how Class B is currently in trouble because of Ryuen taking center stage again, I would like to prop Class B up as a straw man since they are easy to crush as they are now but I don't want to get involved in them in any serious way.
Once I got to the door to the room I leaned against the wall and went on my phone, after a while it was finally time for the chess event to start. As soon it was announced I saw Masayoshi Hashimoto walked towards me, he is here way to early if he came when it was announced which means he came here before it was announced as well.
When he walked up to me he had his normal cocky smile and he looked happy.
"Hey, so I guess we will be going against each other huh."
"Seems that way."
After that we both stood quietly until a faculty member opened the door and welcomed us in, the first-year teacher are in the multipurpose room so other staff members are in charge of on-site supervision. Once we sat down I took of my blazer and hung it over my chair, this is definitely going to be a sweaty match.
As we were waiting for the game to get underway Hashimoto spoke to me.
"The Princess said I definitely won't be able to beat you, if she says you are good then all I can do is try to keep you at bay until she takes control I guess."
That made sense, there is practically no way he would be able to go toe to toe with me, I guess that is the best he came hope for. Seeing my lack of response he kept talking.
"You know Alex some of the girls in my class have eyes on you, in the past few months you have been gathering some attention from quite a few females."
I know this is his strategy, he is trying to get in my head which will cause me to play worse, but it is interesting information to know.
"Is that so, you are something of an entrepreneur correct? Well if you are willing to do the logistics maybe we could create a product to sell."
He seemed amused at my idea.
"At what would be sell? You aren't thinking of selling your body are you? That is against the rules you know."
"That is exactly what I am purposing, we could make body pillows of certain popular and attractive people and sell them to the student body, of course we would pay the people royalties but we could make an entire line of ANHS body pillows I am sure."
Not being able to contain himself any more he started laughing loudly, person who was setting up the chess board looked at us oddly but didn't say anything.
"You know what, if you can get permission from a few popular people I think I will do that deal. Obviously we can work out the logistics later but you are a really funny person you know; I started this conversation to get in your head but now it is turned on me. I was trying to get you embarrassed and flustered due to the anxiety disorder I have heard you have but instead now my head is filled with the ideas of money and body pillows. There is no way I can focus completely now!"
I don't believe he won't be able to focus on the match, but that doesn't make his point wrong, in reality that was my goal. Hashimoto is a very selfish and opportunistic person, in some ways I can admire how focused he is on #1, getting him interested in something that benefits him will naturally get his attention away from whatever he is doing in the moment.
Obviously as one of the most cunning and intelligent people in Class A he won't have any noticeable decline in performance but it might get him to stop talking to me for now which I want.
After that everything was ready and the game was starting, we each put on our headsets so that when the commander eventually takes over we can hear their instructions. It's game time now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few Minutes Earlier
Ayanokoji's Pov
Like Alex said it all came down the chess, I had suspected it would turn out like this before he said anything but this only serves as further confirmation that nothing in this exam was truly random.
As Sakayanagi and I watched on the screen Hashimoto and Alex walked into the room, as they sat down they started some small talk, I was wondering if Hashimoto will eb able to get under his skin. If there is there is one glaring weakness in Alexander Smith it is the social anxiety that he has, since the start he has gotten dramatically better with it but it is till by far the weakest area for him. Someone like Hashimoto will no doubt try to take advantage of that, but I also think it will be relatively ineffective.
As Sakayanagi and I listened to them talk about body pillows she started Fufuing.
"Fufufu quite the interesting conversation our classmates are having, would you give them permission to make Ayanokoji body pillows in exchange for royalties?"
Thinking about it logically if they became popular it would be a handy stream of revenue, it is like investing in a company with no risk. The only downside is that it might make people look at me more, but private points are also a very important currency.
"I think I would do it if the cut is high enough, what about you?"
She kept her smug face and answered.
"Unfortunately for the other students my body is only for you to see, any others that try to see it will end up like Yamadead did in the class vote exam."
I do not understand her very much, she is a strange girl.
As we continued having meaningless conversation which mostly consistent of her asking me about if I would buy body pillows of certain people or not. I think I have seen something on internet-sensei similar to this, it is called a smash or pass challenge, obviously I said I wouldn't waste my points on something like that.
After that the chess match finally started and we began focusing on the moves each player was making. From playing with Alex during these past few days I know he is very good at chess; he will no doubt be able to beat someone like Hashimoto handedly. The real question is how completely can he win before Sakayanagi steps in, I think she will have to step in pretty early.
As the rounds started to go I noticed what was going on quickly, Hashimoto was implementing a strategy that has the goal of trading pieces, that is a good strategy from him so that Alex cannot get a large lead for free. From what Alex has told em Sakayanagi plays extremely aggressive, but interestingly enough neither of the people who were taught by her are playing super aggressively.
Alex on the other hand is developing his pieces and taking minimal direct engagements while setting up his pieces for something akin to a blitzkrieg, where starting one round he will suddenly go on all out attack and try to wipe out a large portion of Hashimoto's pieces in quick succession. With Hashimoto playing more passively this is a good strategy to completely creak through his defenses and overwhelm him, Sakayanagi obviously sees this too and commented.
"It seems like Alex is preparing for an overwhelming attack, Hashimoto should have seen that by now though."
She was right as staring the next turn Hashimoto started to stack more aggressively to put pressure on Alex and stop him from setting up however he wanted, unfortunately for him that was all according to plan. With that the elaborate trap that was set was sprung and the massacre began, my fellow commander started fufuing again.
"Fufufu, it seems like I will have to step in now before we get completely annihilated."
With that she entered the playing field, I decided I will let it play out for a while, I am interested in how he will do against her since I have never seen them play each other in person.
As the rounds started going at an even faster rate than before I was watching the screen diligently, it was a little hard to see but I noticed a small smile on Alex's face, it seems he is enjoying this game very much.
Contrary to what some might think she would do Sakayanagi instead of trying to stop the bleeding when she took over opted to full send on the attack, taking trades that favored her and pushing the attack even with less pieces. I had expected this from what have heard of her playstyle but it was still something else to watch.
Finally just after move 60 Alex took a break and winking at the camera, he is clearing signaling that I should take over, out of the 30 minutes that the commanders have my opponent only have 23 left. If we were looking at it like that Alex did an amazing job to give me the best chance of winning I could, most of the pieces on the board are in decent places and the number of pieces on the board is the same with us having a slightly better quality to pieces.
Once again the game picked up its pace dramatically, after another 20 moves the board was starting to favor me more heavily, Sakayanagi was very good, if I didn't start in a better place than her who knows who would win but with my advantage her chances of winning were starting to slowly drop.
After a few more rapid moves it suddenly took much longer for my instruction to come through, I knew what this means but the real question is if Alex will notice or not. If the move is bad of course he will instantly know if it was me or not, once the message came in he visibly flinched. After that he did what we agreed upon and moved one of the pawns not near the action forward one place, that was our code.
If the last move was good then I tell him to move the pawn forward again and if not then I move any other piece signally that Tsukishiro has made his move.
When he did this Sakayanagi gave me a strange look, I bet she is trying to find some deep meaning into that move. She then took a few more seconds before sending her move.
Since the message was intercepted I just sent a normal move to signal that he needs to be wary of the moves I send.
When we were practicing we quickly realized that if he started playing by himself once a message gets intercepted we will not be able to win, so instead he will have to take what I send and try to determine if he should do that move or not.
Since we have a decent lead we still have a good chance of winning but it definitely got more difficult.
The move I sent went through instantly like before, they are probably confused why he didn't do what they sent the move before and are trying to figure it out and decided not to change this one.
Like he had before Alex did that move instantly before looking at the camera with the smile he has had ever since Sakayanagi started playing.
Then for the next few rounds everything went smoothly until they intercepted another message, this time Alex did not catch it and did it instantly, even if the move was not my own it was still pretty good so it didn't cause any significant damage.
After a little while longer Sakayanagi took it up another notch and started clawing back out us, the game was getting progressively closer as each person only had a handful of pieces left. It was getting really down to the wire if our messages started getting interpreted and he didn't realize we could easily lose.
I also noticed Sakayanagi had a slightly confused look, she has probably also noticed that some of the moves seem different from how I play.
With the game in the twilight hours every move was extremely important, and then it happened. Sakayanagi made a completely unexpected play that took me by surprise, she is much better at chess than I thought.
When I made my follow up move I noticed a long delay once again, this is the turning point if he notices it isn't from me then he still has to come up with the same play as me, which is nearly impossible in a short time.
When the message finally went to his headset he didn't move, no doubt thinking internally about what to do, he definitely noticed that this message was not from me. Now it all rests on if he can come up with the correct move by himself, I won't be surprised either way.
When he didn't make a move instantly Sakayanagi looked at me with a calculating look.
"What is he doing?"
I don't plan on explaining everything to her so went with my normal reply.
"Who knows."
I could see my response irritated her, she no doubt has realized something is up with this event, and will no doubt be angry to know about the third-party interference.
After a few seconds we could all hear a creepy low chuckle coming from the screen, Hoshinomiya-sensei who was watching over us seemed confused by his behavior.
"What is Smith-kun doing, didn't he get your message Ayanokoji?"
Neither Sakayanagi nor I responded and kept looking intently at the screen, what will he do?
After a few seconds of chuckling he turned at looked directly towards the camera, this time his happy smile was gone and was replaced by a sadistic and insane smile the likes of which I haven't seen from him before. Both of the teachers watching us flinched seeing the insane look in his eyes and Sakayanagi looked surprised but also started fufuing.
Then he turned back to the board and make the exact same move as the one that got intercepted by the school, with that move are path to victory was clear and there was nothing anyone else could do about it.
Then to make the teachers around us even more confused Sakayanagi also started smiling sadistically and fufuing like I have never heard before, I stayed calm like always but internally I was quite happy with the way things went.
After that neither me nor her gave any more instructions to our classmates, the match was already decided. With no more help Hashimoto was check mates in 4 turns, the almost evil smile not leaving Alex's face until the enemy king was on its side.
With that Class C won the Event Selection Exam and netted 130 points, and most importantly to me, I kept my protection point. I will have to thank Alex later, if it was not for him I would be in a much more precarious situation.
Shortly after the exam ended Tsukishiro and some other people entered the move and made everyone clear out, no doubt to get rid of the evidence of them tampering with the exam. As the two of us left the room Sakayanagi had a very cruel and sadist smile as she looked at the acting Chairmen, no doubt she realized what was going on and was pissed. Her only wish for us was to have a match, and he ruined it, I am sure she is reviling in the annoyed face he is wearing since even though he cheated he lost.
As we walked away from the multipurpose room Tsukishiro walked up behind us, like last time he walked straight through as and spoke in an annoyed tone.
"How did you do it?"
Sakayanagi started giggling causing the man to swipe her cane out of her hand, seeing this I held her so she didn't fall.
"I don't know what you mean."
To my flat response he seemed to be getting more annoyed.
"How did that damn American boy make the same move you send before we changed it? The chanced of that happening are nonexistent, not to mention how did he seem to pick up on almost all the times we changed your instructions?"
To him it must seem completely unbelievable, that should be literally impossible, but it still happened.
"Who knows, you try to tell one of the top academic students in the class to follow the instructions of a completely average student and you will see why he did not follow all of my orders."
He will know this is not the case but it is not like I am going to say anything else.
Sakayanagi spoke up again.
"Fufufufu to see you get outdone by an actual normal high school student is quite amusing isn't it. I am furious you would interrupt our match but to see your pathetic face after losing is bringing me so much joy I might faint."
To be honest I think she might faint, she is leaning onto me and lightly purring into my arm, what a strange girl.
Obviously annoyed the acting chairmen decided it would be a good time to take his leave.
"You may have slipped away this time Ayanokoji but remember that your days are numbered at this school, enjoy the time you have left while you can."
I am in a very good spot still so he is clearly in a more precarious spot then me after failing again, I wonder how much more failure "that man" will allow before he is relieved of his duty.
As he left Sakayanagi spoke again.
"You could enjoy your time with me, in my room perhaps?"
I am not sure why but that sounds very troublesome, this little girl is very scary, I decided to come up with an alternative.
"Why don't we go to the library and have our real match, with no interruptions or outside interference."
She just gave me her smug smile.
"I see you are very into foreplay huh, I will humor you, but know that you might have to carry me back after, I am quite tired after playing both Alex-kun and you already today."
I feel like today will be a long day.
The End
Banger chapter? Lmk