Chapter Text
“Chess? I don’t believe I’m familiar with the game.” My voice lilts as I lie blatantly to the man in front of me.
“Ah, of course!” Kurosawa smiles at me patronizingly. “Chess is a game of strategy. I know it must be a little unfair for a novice such as you to play a master such as me, but I can never resist an opportunity to play.”
My smile sharpens. Kurosawa is arrogant and therefore he’s not looking for the trap.
—-
“Mori, I believe I have the solution to our little pest situation.”
He looks up from his paperwork and knits his fingers together. “Oh?”
“Kurosawa fancies himself a strategist and has a decent information network. He knows I’m the Port Mafia’s primary strategist and he underestimates me because I’m a teenage girl. Yet, simultaneously he wants to prove that he can out plan the demon prodigy.” I smirk. “It’s why he’s been such a nuisance trying to capture me. His pride is on the line.”
“So, Dazai, you want to use yourself as bait?”
“Precisely.”
—-
“The aim of the game is to checkmate your opponent,” Kurosawa explains. “You do this by ensuring they cannot make a move without endangering your king.”
I cock my head. “What does a king do?”
“A king can only move on space in any direction, so you have to be careful about letting yourself fall into a trap.” Wow, that was condescending and ironic.
—
The Order of the White Rose finds me at my usual bar. I’m quickly subdued. They shove a sack over my head and I smile. Everything is going to plan.
I allow myself to be dragged out of the truck. As they take the sack off me, I blink spots out of my eyes.
Two guards strip me of my possessions and dress me in a short black dress that gives the illusion of modesty with the long sleeves, but considering how low-cut it is, fails at actually being modest.
Kurosawa wants a prize, and that’s what I’m going to give him. I run my tongue over the tracker lodged in one of my molars, the trap is sprung.
—
“The first pieces you should know are the pawns. The first move they make, they can move two spaces, but all the other moves are single. They can only move in a straight line forward, unless they are capturing a piece.”
“Oh,” I make a noise of comprehension, “that makes sense.”
Please, as if I hadn’t been playing this game since I was eight.
—
The suited members of the lower ranks of the Port Mafia rush the skyscraper their executive is held in. Following the orders of the other executive on this mission, they know retreat is not an option.
Either they rescue Dazai Osamu, or they die trying.
—-
The assault should have started by now. I need to keep Kurosawa’s focus on me. “I learn much better doing things than just listening. How about we start a game, and when I get ready to move a piece, you can tell me what it does?” I bat my eyelashes innocently.
I look vulnerable like this, dressed up to his tastes, and I’m planning on taking full advantage of the way it lowers his guard. “Of course,” Kurosawa pats my hand reassuringly. “You can play white. White always goes first, my dear.”
Bad move, scumbag. I move a pawn. He moves a knight. I gasp in faux surprise. “What piece is that?”
He preens. “This is the Knight. They can jump pieces, but can only move three spaces in an L shape.”
The most unpredictable piece on the board.
—
Akutagawa drops down behind an enemy sniper. The crunch of gravel under his feet alerts his opponent of his presence. Before the sniper has time to react, Rashomon stabs through his heart.
The sniper drops from Rashomon’s grip, and Akutagawa continues on to the next rooftop.
-
Kouyou leads a group of assailants into a tight alley. She allows herself to be surrounded before whispering “Golden Demon.”
The men around her fall in fright as a pale specter convalescences behind her. Kouyou’s smirk is chilling as her ability shreds her enemies.
—
I nod in understanding, before continuing this farce of a game. In a few moves, I clear the way for one of my rooks.
“What do the towers do?” I tilt my head in an approximation of confusion.
Kurosawa laughs like I just told the best joke in the world. “Those are rooks. They can only move in a straight line, but they don’t have a limit on how many spaces they can move.”
—
The street falls silent as Higuchi’s submachine guns finally stop. The road is littered with White Rose operatives. “Kouyou, the street is clear,” she speaks into the com.
“Excellent, move on to the main building,” Kouyou’s voice crackles across.
-
Tachihara slams through a window and quickly fires bullets into every enemy in the room. “Ugh, Chuuya, did you have to throw me that hard?!” As expected, Chuuya doesn’t respond other than to scoff at the other’s complaint.
—
Kurosawa’s next move is a bishop. He takes a pawn I purposely left for bait. “This is a Bishop. It’s basically a rook, but it moves diagonally instead. Many people overlook them, so you should be careful.”
“Ohh! So I could do this then, right!” I move my bishop and capture the bishop that just captured my pawn. I smirk inwardly. It’s beginning to be a theme with this man of falling for my traps.
—-
Gin inwardly curses as she crawls through the air ducts. Why does this always happen to her?
She breaks open a vent and falls silently to the ground inside the security room. The guard didn’t even realize she was in the room with him until his throat was split wide open.
-
“Get him! It’s just an old man, this should be easy!” Hirotsu sighs. These people just never learn. The older an opponent, the more serious they should be taken.
Hirotsu draws them in, then activates his ability. The poor pawns never stood a chance.
—-
“You’ve explained all of the other pieces, Kurosawa, but what about this one?” I point to my queen.
“Oh, that’s the queen! It can move in any direction, much like the king, but it doesn’t have a limit on how many spaces it can move.” Kurosawa strokes my hand, and I repress a shudder. Chuuya better hurry the hell up.
—-
Chuuya suppresses a sneeze as he brings the roof of the parking garage down. He supposes he left Dazai to suffer long enough.
Heaving a sigh, Chuuya cancels his gravity and begins his ascent to the penthouse.
—-
I quickly maneuver the board in my favor, but Kurosawa doesn’t even notice. He’s too caught up in the assurance of his own victory that he doesn’t notice how quickly the tables have turned. It’s not until the quiet clink of my queen against the chessboard and my smug announcement of “checkmate,” had he even realized he lost.
Kurosawa sputters, but his next words are cut off by the windows behind him exploding. “Ah, perfect timing, Chuuya! We just finished our game.” I let my mask fall and grab Kurosawa’s hand before he can activate that pesky ability of his.