AUTHOR NOTE- MUST READ
If you don't listen to this tip, 40% of the content in this chapter will be hard for you to understand.
My friend (who made the chess game) and I (the author) have put wayyyy too much effort into just this chapter... So you better open a chess app and play the game against yourself while reading or some shit to understand the chess match happening between them.
TRUST ME, IT IS IMPORTANT!
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"It has been quite a while. Did you have fun hiding yourself as my Flaw, Dry Water?"
The monotonous expression on Kiyotaka's face disappeared and a small smile appeared. Dry Water put forward his hand, slowly retrieving the black pieces, and then the white.
"Good deduction. Let us start again."
After saying that, Kiyotaka's face turned monotonous once more.
'Quite interesting.'
Kiyotaka looked over the chess board, which had returned completely to normal, and decided to make another move.
e4.
After doing so, he spoke up.
"Do you really have to go against me?"
It was Dry Water's turn. The board shifted as he simply watched.
'He is covering the middle and opening a path for his bishop and queen.'
Deciding to start with the Sicilian Defense, Dry Water moved his pawn to c5. While making his move, he replied to Kiyotaka with humor in his voice.
"We met after so long. Shouldn't you be happy that I am alive?"
The first move came to an end.
The pieces shifted again and Kiyotaka's turn arrived. He made his move, playing Nf3.
"I have been suspicious of you ever since the first trial. I knew someone like you would not just trust others in the name of companionship. In fact, it would have been quite stupid of me to trust whatever you said. You have been manipulating me from the first time we met up to this very moment."
The board shifted once more, bringing up Dry Water's turn. He looked down at the board with smiling eyes.
'Is this going to be a textbook game?'
"Well, you have put me in quite a spot, dare I say."
Dry Water made the move e6.
"Go ahead. Tell me how you figured it out."
The second move came to an end.
'He is protecting the bishop while trying to develop it at the same time. This is a textbook Sicilian.'
Kiyotaka looked around him, smelled the dreadful stench of the place, and then looked down at his hand.
"What is the point in me telling you how I figured it out?"
D4.
Dry Water's turn arrived and he took the pawn without hesitation.
Cxd4.
"I mean, you will not really be able to get rid of me anyway, so you might as well tell me something I can laugh about. Don't you think?"
The third move came to an end.
Kiyotaka's turn arrived and he took the pawn using his knight.
Nxd4.
"That is an amusing claim. Do you really think you are invincible? Just because you are in my body does not mean I cannot grab your throat."
Dry Water made his move.
Nc6, challenging White's knight control immediately.
"You cannot really run away from fate, Kiyotaka. I thought I could, but look at me now." A small laugh escaped Dry Water's lips. "You will understand what I mean soon enough."
The fourth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka's turn arrived and he analyzed the board.
'This is called the Taimanov or Four Knights Sicilian. This type of game focuses on fast piece activation rather than simple pawn development.'
Kiyotaka looked toward Black's position and made his move.
Nc3.
"It seems like something happened after you infiltrated my life by becoming my Flaw. What exactly did you figure out?"
Dry Water's turn came immediately, and he played Nf6.
With this move, the Four Knights Sicilian was fully established.
"Quite an irony, don't you think? You refuse to tell me how you figured out my existence, yet you expect me to reveal my hand first."
The fifth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka made his move.
Be2.
"If I reveal how I figured you out, will you tell me what you meant? If so, how can I trust you to follow through?"
Dry Water struck directly at the center, taking advantage of White's modest development with d5, turning the game into an Isolated Queen's Pawn setup.
"You should know better than anyone. I am not an omnipotent being who took over your Flaw. I simply live within it the same way you do. I cannot go against the characteristics of the Happy aspect of this Flaw. If I say I will do something, I will do it."
The sixth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka offered to trade pawns without wasting a single second, playing exd5.
"That is just a lie. Don't you remember our first meeting with Kath? Didn't the Happy aspect of this flaw manipulate her? It talked about love while feeling nothing but the pleasure of toying with her."
Dry Water accepted the trade by playing exd5. He now had active piece play, but in return, his pawn structure became weaker for the long term.
"If you have figured out my existence, then you have probably figured out that it was me. Stop beating around the bush. If needed, I am willing to reveal my hand first."
The seventh move came to an end.
Kiyotaka castled to the kingside using the move O-O.
Two chains appeared out of thin air, levitating over the chess board.
"Why don't we make a [Binding Vow] then? We are two different souls, so it should work. Let us make a Vow that neither of us can lie, and each person must answer the question asked before asking their own."
One of the chains levitated and connected itself to Kiyotaka's throat.
Kiyotaka's turn was over, yet the chain did not vanish. It simply became see-through. Dry Water looked at it and connected the other chain through the existing one. A cluster of runes started to appear, but he rotated two fingers in a slow motion and the runes disappeared.
"It is a temporary Vow, so we do not need to go through all the formalities. Just say I Vow when your turn comes."
After doing that, Dry Water spoke in a different tone.
"Whoever lies shall die. The last question must be answered before asking a new one. Neither person shall ask questions about private life or trick questions. Only questions without any intention to kill the other by exploiting the rules of this Vow shall be allowed."
Dry Water finally made his move, Bd6, developing his bishop while preparing to castle. A small laugh escaped his lips.
"I must say, it was a nice attempt to get rid of me by asking a question where you could not lie. I expect that if I had agreed without much thought, you would have asked a question where answering yes or no would be false. Since the time limit to move is three minutes, if I failed to answer, I would either die or lose my turn to ask questions. Just answer me."
He laughed a little harder.
"Whenever I saw others agree to your truth Vow, I lost count of how many times they gave their lives away. You could literally kill anyone you came across."
The eighth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his light-squared bishop to Bb5, pinning the knight. It could no longer move, making it a target for the knight on d4.
"Very well. I suppose the savior known as Dry Water still does not want to reveal himself."
Kiyotaka's gaze sharpened.
"Let us truly play the midgame. I Vow. Ask your first question."
The chain tightened and began to spin.
Dry Water looked at the threat and slowly moved his hand, castling his king with O-O.
"My first question to you has always been the same. How did you figure it out?"
The ninth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka took the knight using his own knight with Nxc6.
"Since I did not specify the time limit for an answer, I will state it now. It must be answered within five moves."
The chains spun faster, acknowledging the new rule. Dry Water's smile faltered for a second before he took the knight using his pawn with bxc6.
"You still managed to pull a trick. I am not sure if I can question you right now without overwriting the first one, so I will wait."
The tenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka went quiet and took the pawn using his bishop, playing Bxc6. Targeting the rook.
Dry Water looked at the board for a moment. With a joyful sigh, he sacrificed his dark-squared bishop with Bxh2+, taking the pawn next to the king and giving a check.
A Trojan horse tactic.
The eleventh move came to an end.
Kiyotaka pushed his king behind the dark squares with Kh1.
If he had taken the bishop at h2, the knight on f6 would jump to g4 with a check. If the king made the mistake of going back to h1, the black queen from d8 would jump to h4. The only legal move would be g1, and then Queen to h2 would deliver checkmate.
Likewise, if the king moved out to g3 after taking the bishop, a queen check at d6 would follow. If White tried to defend with the bishop at f4, the queen would simply move behind the knight at g6. If the white queen took the pawn at d5, the black knight would jump from g4 to g3, giving a discovered check from the queen. If blocked by the white queen at g5, the knight would take the rook at f1 to check again, only to be taken by the rook at a1. In response, the queen would take the bishop at c6 and completely dominate the board.
Therefore, Kh1 was the correct move.
Dry Water immediately followed by moving his light-squared bishop to Bg4, targeting the white queen.
The twelfth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka pushed his pawn to f3, blocking the bishop from seeing his queen.
Dry Water retreated his dark-squared bishop from h2 to Bc7.
The thirteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka took Dry Water's light-squared bishop using fxg4.
Dry Water pushed his knight forward to e4.
The fourteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka lifted his pawn to move it to g3, but held it in the air for a moment before speaking.
"In truth, I had been noticing it since my very first nightmare. Small, inaccurate choices I made turned out to cause massive consequences. I did not reveal my hand then, which turned out to be valuable now. In the Academy, those choices were not small at all. In fact, they were terrifying to think about."
Kiyotaka held the pawn in his hand, looking at it before closing his fist.
"For reasons unknown to me, I was going through a cycle. I would do something cruel, reflect on it, and try to justify it by saying I had no choice."
The glare in Kiyotaka's eyes deepened.
"Even during the first nightmare, after Shirou died, I foolishly viewed it as my defeat. That is simply not true. In the end, results are all that matter. He died and I survived, which makes me the winner. Emotional sentiment is worthless in this world."
"Every single time, I monologued to make it seem like I had no choice, but it was always my decision. By the time I take action, I have already processed everything. I understand the consequences of my actions better than anyone who claims to teach me, so I will not waste time agonizing over them when I could be planning my next move."
Kiyotaka opened his fist and held the pawn in front of his eyes, looking past it.
"At the end of my time at the academy, I thought about how painful it was to break my connections. Yet, to move forward, one must leave everything behind. Having conflicting thoughts within myself makes no sense when the outcome remains unchanged. My mindset does not alter the facts. In a world where you kill or get killed, victory is all that matters. For that, I am willing to break every bond I have and endure any hardship. I came into this world alone, and I would much rather survive than die trying to act human."
Kiyotaka took a deep breath, recalling his entire academy life.
"Jet claimed that viewing humanity as a weakness meant I did not understand it, but we both saw how that ended. She ended up unconscious at my feet with her life in my hands. Her duty to humanity lost to me. Trying to stay human in this world is simply asking for death."
Kiyotaka closed his eyes, reliving his experiences.
"Consider how you saved those people from me. Even after figuring out Sunless's True Name, I refused to use it because I did not want someone doing the same to me. Dry Water, I would not want others to kill me, but does that mean I will refrain from killing others? What kind of logic is that? A more logical reason would be that I did not want to make an enemy of Sunless, which is still flawed because if he obeyed my commands, I would have total control over him."
Kiyotaka pressed the pawn back against its square without letting go.
"Then there is Cassie. She saw my entire academy life in her vision, making her hostile toward me. Why didn't I just kill her? If she could see a full academy life in a week or two, she could potentially see her entire future in the Dream Realm. Why would I leave such a dangerous threat alive?"
He finally set the pawn down and released it.
"There are more details, which I will share shortly."
The smile on Dry Water's face grew wider.
"Haha."
He said nothing else and simply moved his knight to Nxg3+, giving a check that pinned the rook and the king.
The fifteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his king to Kg2.
Dry Water captured the rook with Nxf1.
The sixteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka captured the opposing rook using his bishop, playing Bxa8.
Dry Water retreated his knight to Nh2, protecting it from the king with the support of his bishop.
The seventeenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka took the pawn using his bishop, playing Bxd5.
Dry Water brought his queen forward with Qh4.
The eighteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka picked up his knight.
"It is not just my behavior that was affected. My foundation itself was weakened. My foresight was ruined. Against Sunless, I never considered that his shadow could not strike with full force. It was the same with Cassie. Knowing she refused to end her life despite her flaw, not a single doubt about what she saw crossed my mind."
He set the piece down on Ne4.
"Dry Water, you have been protecting everyone from me while suppressing my mental capabilities. You have been manipulating me the entire time. I am not this weak. Now, answer my question, Dry Water. What did you mean when you said you were fated to be here?"
Dry Water moved his knight to Nxg4, capturing the pawn.
'If I ask why he is so sure it was me and not just his own doing, it would break the rules of the Vow. If I answer vaguely, I am terrified of what else he might pull off.'
The nineteenth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his queen to Qg1, placing it directly behind his king to break the pin and avoid checkmate threats.
Dry Water pulled his queen back to Qh5, targeting the bishop on d5.
The twentieth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka advanced his pawn to c4 to protect the bishop.
Dry Water moved his rook to Re8, targeting the knight.
The twenty-first move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his bishop to Bd2.
Dry Water repositioned his queen to Qg6, placing it one square behind his knight.
"After planning for years and entering your body as your Flaw, I thought my plan had succeeded. I thought I could move on to the next phase. However, when I became your Flaw, I saw its true description and realized fate cannot be broken."
"I will show you your actual Flaw. What you have seen so far are merely its properties, not its true description."
The twenty-second move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his king to Kh3. If he had not, Dry Water would have moved the knight to e3, delivering a discovered check to win the bishop and then the pawn after exchanges.
Kiyotaka glanced to his left, reading his actual Flaw without Dry Water's manipulation.
[Ruined Heart: The exiled Storyteller]
Dry Water moved his rook between the bishop and knight with Re5.
"I could not hide it completely because your Aspect forces fairness onto me. I could only show you its properties. Now that everything is out in the open, you should know that used to be my True Name. I am your Flaw."
"How did you figure it out?"
The white king was under extreme pressure, facing potential checkmate or heavy material loss.
The twenty-third move came to an end.
Kiyotaka moved his bishop to Bxf7+.
"I tried to reject my origins and hide behind a wall of normalcy before coming here, but from the very first second of my nightmare, I accepted who I am."
He paused.
"I accepted that anyone who refuses to use their power is a fool, and I cannot afford to be a fool in this world. That is my answer."
Dry Water looked at the board for a moment, his smile fading.
'When did the tide turn?'
He captured the bishop using his king, playing Kxf7.
The twenty-fourth move came to an end.
Ng5+, giving the king a check.
Dry Water had no choice but to capture the knight using his rook.
The twenty-fifth move came to an end.
Kiyotaka looked at the rook, picked up his bishop, and spoke.
"Let us make a Binding Vow where you stop manipulating my actions."
He placed the bishop down.
"You have been manipulating this game in your favor from the start. I was curious when you restarted the match, but now it makes sense. When you revealed my true Flaw, you let go of your ability for a split second. That brief window was enough for me to see how this game would play out."
"You have been suppressing my full capabilities. Tell me, Dry Water, do you know the last time I actually had to struggle while playing chess? I calculated millions of variations in my head when I was just a child. Seeing a new move is rare for me. This game is simply one of many variations I played against myself years ago. I know all the optimal moves, yet I was unable to execute them. You needed to anticipate future events to manipulate me properly, which is why you restarted the game at the beginning."
The bishop took the rook with Bxg5.
"This game should still end in a draw if both sides play perfectly, but you plan to suppress my abilities so you can win."
Dry Water barely maintained his smile as he asked a question.
"How are you so sure that is the truth?"
He made his move.
The twenty-six move came to an end.
Kiyotaka made his move in response.
"If lying results in immediate death, and I am still alive, then I have not lied. Everything I said is absolute truth."
"Here is another truth, Dry Water, or Exiled Storyteller, whatever you prefer. If you do not make a Vow to stop manipulating me, I will end my own life. You need me alive for something, of that I am certain."
Dry Water made his move.
"If I stopped suppressing you, you would have already succumbed to corruption. I am the one saving you from your own mind. You already know this, don't you? The reason you never tried to analyze the origins of the gods or their counterparts is because I stopped you. I need you."
The twenty-seventh move came to an end.
"Is that so? Then continue doing that. I have no desire to fall to corruption, but you must stop manipulating my choices. Make the Vow with me. You will only prevent my corruption and refrain from interfering with anything else."
Kiyotaka made his move.
'If I refuse, it means he lied, and he will die by the rules of the Vow. This man basically handed me a gun pointed at his own head, but engineered the situation so I cannot pull the trigger.'
"Make a Binding Vow in return that you will not kill a Sleeper named Kai, who was once an idol. I assure you I have no grand plans for him. I simply want him to make your life a little more difficult."
If Dry Water had lied, he would have died on the spot.
The twenty-eighth move came to an end.
"Tell me more."
*******
Welp, how was the "Plot Twist²" chapter? Did any of you predict it?
How was the chess game? Very important to answer fr. (Ofc if y'all actually followed the author's note)
A small, small thanks to my friend for making this chess game (small because if I give him a big one, it might go right over his head). He made such an amazing chess game.
Fifteen days... AHHHHHHHHHH, I took so long.
Don't mind some letter being Capital and Saying the first letter of the Chess piece despite saying it's name beforehand, when I noticed it, It was too late.
That's all.
Peace.
Oh yeah, DON'T LEAVE YET! I have published another fanfic. Go read it! The name is COTE x JJK: Two Sides of a Coin.
Here's the cover:
Yo, Consider this an AU where Kiyo doesn't figure out his true Flaw ↓
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Result "*"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Be2 d5 7. exd5 exd5 8.
O-O Bd6 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Bxc6 Bxh2+ 12. Kh1 Bg4 13. f3 Bc7 14. fxg4
Ne4 15. g3 Nxg3+ 16. Kg2 Nxf1 17. Bxa8 Nh2 18. Bxd5 Qh4 19. Ne4 Nxg4 20. Qg1 Qh5
21. c4 Re8 22. Bd2 Qg6 23. Kh3 Re5 24. Bxf7+ Kxf7 25. Ng5+ Rxg5 26. Bxg5 Nh2 27.
Qf2+ Kg8 28. Qe3 h6 29. Re1 hxg5 30. Qe8+ Qxe8 31. Rxe8+ Kh7 32. c5 g4+ 33. Kh4
Bf4 34. c6 g5+ 35. Kh5 g3 36. Re2 Kg7 37. Rc2 Kf6 38. c7 Bxc7 39. Rc6+ Kf5 40.
Rxc7 Nf3 41. Rf7+ Ke4 42. Re7+ Ne5 43. Kxg5 g2 *