Aya pushed another pawn forward, allowing Hachiro a second capture and he raised an eyebrow.

"A gambit?" Hachiro snickered, unable to control the smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

'What a foolish girl... she clearly thinks that I'm just some random club player,' Hachiro pretended to give the board some thought. 'She's so helplessly arrogant that she's just making unsound sacrifices for activity. Let's just pretend I'm thinking here so that she doesn't know my true playing strength.'

"Hey..."

Hachiro raised his eyes at the sound of Aya's voice and found her piercing hazel eyes locked onto him.

"Why don't we make this game a little more interesting..." Aya said, then she pulled her phone out from her bag.

"H, hey...!" Hachiro was alert now. "No phones, you could be using a computer for all I know."

"Relax," Aya showed him the screen of her phone which was showing her home screen. "It's just boring, isn't it? If we had to wait a limitless amount of time for the other person to make a move."

"..."

"So," Aya placed her phone on the side of the chessboard, opening up a timer from the default clock app on her phone. "Why don't we set a time limit for how long we each have to make a move?"

"Oh, like in competitions?" Hachiro relaxed, leaning back on his chair.

'Ha! This fool...! She is digging her grave even deeper, as if a chess grandmaster isn't used to playing moves on the clock!' Hachiro maintained an intrigued face, while he was laughing inside. 'She would had stood a better chance with the freedom to think as long as she wants, however slim it was, but with this suggestion -- she just sealed her demise, closing the only door to victory for her!'

"Not exactly," Aya said, then glanced up at the ceiling. "Hmm, let's say we give each person 10 seconds to make a move."

Hachiro's eyes widened. "10 seconds...?"

"Yeah," Aya nodded casually. "In competitive chess, you normally have a set length of time in total to make all your moves, right? But since I don't have much time, how about we just do 10 seconds per move?"

"And I suppose if you haven't made a move by those 10 seconds, you lose the game immediately...?" Hachiro asked.

"Exactly," Aya replied with a smile. "What do you say?"

"..."

Hachiro thought about it for a moment, glancing down at the position on the chessboard.

'It's true. Normally in competitive chess, there is a set length of time in total to make all your moves, with each move made, ending the timer on your move and passing the timer onto your opponent. As a result, there would be an element of time management involved in deciding the superior player, as those who weren't able to allocate their time towards the more significant points of the game would end up falling behind.'

Hachiro stared at the position on the board for a few more seconds before glancing back up at Aya.

She was leaning back on her seat, staring out the window non-chalantly.

'It's alright, isn't it...? From the way she has been playing, it's quite clear that she doesn't know my background.' Hachiro reasoned with himself. 'To be honest, this proposition should be even worse for her than a normal chess timer! Now she would literally have no time to think at all...! No matter how intelligent she may be, it is impossible for a human to be able to solve complicated chess problems with only 10 seconds! Even the best player in the world would not be able to play optimal moves in that scenario!'

Hachiro reached a hand for Aya's phone, watching her reaction carefully but she didn't make a move.

"Go ahead, look at it all you want." Aya said. "It's just a normal timer."

"..."

Hachiro tested the timer, playing it a few times to make sure there was no strange processing of time.

After being satisfied, Hachiro placed the phone down.

"Well?" Aya asked.

"Fine." Hachiro said. "But only on one condition."

"Yes?"

"I will be the one to press the timer." Hachiro declared. "For both yours and my turns. If you can't accept this condition, then I will have to decline your suggestion--"

"No problem." Aya said straight away without thinking and Hachiro was taken aback a little. "That's fine with me."

'I was sure the only reason for her to suggest such an idea was that there was a trick she had with her phone...' Hachiro thought. 'But to reply that quickly...'

"Alright, start the timer then." Aya said. "I need to go find Risa after this, so I don't have all day to play with you."

"Hehe, alright..."

Hachiro changed the settings on the timer to 10 seconds, then pressed play.

~x~

"W, what...?"

Hachiro stared at the board stunned.

'H, how is this possible...?!' Hachiro felt a sweat trickle down his temple. 'She's played completely unorthodox moves in the opening that shouldn't be right, and yet...'

"Start the timer, it's your turn."

"R, right..."

Pressing the timer on Aya's phone, Hachiro's eyes scanned the board frantically, while Aya was leaning back on her seat in a completely relaxed posture.

'This is impossible, this is a line I haven't studied at all. There's no way I can make the correct play with only 10 seconds to think...! But the same should go for her...!'

The timer was already at three seconds left, and Hachiro quickly moved his knight, trying to block the diagonal that Aya's bishop was controlling.

As soon as he made a move, he immediately pressed the timer, trying to give Aya as little time to think as possible.

"Hmm... so you made that move, huh?"

Without missing a beat, Aya moved her knight too, jumping it into an awkward square on the side of the board.

"Check." Aya stated, and Hachiro frozed.

"Hachiro... the timer."

"D, dammit...!!"

Hachiro slammed a fist down at the desk, causing the pieces on the chessboard to shake, some falling over.

"I... I resign this game..."

Hachiro glanced over at the whiteboard, seeing the score.

Hachiro: 0

Aya: 3

'How can it be possible...?! I'm a chess grandmaster for god's sakes. There should be no way someone that doesn't even play competitively beat me like this...!!' Hachiro turned his eyes on Aya. 'At this rate, I'm going to end up losing...! And then Risa will...'

"What's wrong, Hachiro?" Aya had finished resetting the pieces in their starting positions on her side of the board. "Your face looks a bit pale."

"I, I'm fine..."

'This bitch...!!' Hachiro started setting up his pieces, maintaining a cool face. 'She's just mocking me now! Playing around with me like I'm just a stepping stone standing in her way...'

"Do you want to know what your play tells me about you?" Aya asked, and Hachiro was taken out of his thoughts.

"Enlighten me."

"You're extremely rational," Aya said, then made her first move as white. "Logical to the point that every move you make follows the basic principles of the game."

"Hah?" Hachiro played the timer, then made his move, playing the timer again for Aya. "That's just the way to play chess, isn't it?"

"True, normally that would be the way to play chess." Aya made her second move. "If there was enough time to think."

"...!"

"It's your move, Hachiro."

"My bad..." Hachiro played the timer, then made his move, glancing up at his adversary. "So, what is it you're trying to say?"

Aya quickly made another move, before her clock even moved.

"Rationality comes at a price sometimes."

The sound of the chess pieces moving echoed in the quiet classroom, with each move they made.

"And what is that price...?"

"Predictability being one of them."

"..."

Hachiro watched as Aya took one of his pieces, exchanging a knight for a pawn.

"Creativity, being the other. The ability to think outside the box... or in this case, the board." Aya stated with a small chuckle.

"..."

Hachiro stared at the board, feeling his head throb at his temples.

'T, this bitch is truly...' Hachiro felt like exploding inside. 'She's just openly taunting me now! I... I'll show her...!!'

~x~

"Fuah..."

Aya breathed a sigh of relief, walking away from the classroom of class 3-3.

"Give me a break..." Aya muttered to herself. "There was no way I was going to beat a chess grandmaster playing fairly..."

The reason that Aya had managed to beat Hachiro in the first three games was due entirely to preparation.

As soon as she had found out that Risa was returning to school, Aya had made certain to study each and every single one of the classmates that would be in Risa's assigned class.

And from then on, she went through a rigorous study plan on defeating each classmate.

It wasn't difficult to predict the challenge that Hachiro was going to throw at her after a brief look into his background.

The only problem was beating it.

For an amateur chess player like Aya, it was simply impossible for her to defeat a chess grandmaster that had studied the game for the majority of their life.

But Aya was no ordinary student.

She was, after all, the number one ranked student in the nation for her grade.

To be frank, most of it was due to her possessing a memory that was virtually photographic.

A trait that was commonly passed down in the Kuramoto heritage.

However, even for someone with a remarkable memory like hers couldn't do the impossible and solve the game of chess in a few short days.

So Aya did the next best thing.

Creating a position on the chessboard in which she remembered all the best lines for which Hachiro would play.

Of course, a chess grandmaster would had performed a similar study for common chess positions.

Which is why she remembered the position for which stemmed from an unorthodox, yet convoluted, position for which a chess grandmaster would never study further than a few lines in as it was technically speaking incorrect.

Naturally, Hachiro should had been able to refute the position given enough time to think.

However, that was where her second trick came into play.

A simple innocent suggestion -- to give each player a 10 second time limit.

It seemed harmless at first, and even to Hachiro's benefit, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

No chess player in the world could play optimal moves under this 10 second time limit rule.

The game of chess would crumble down from one of a thinking man's game to a game of rote memorisation and pattern recognition.

Combine that with Aya's studious preparation beforehand, having analysed Hachiro's past games, playing style and preferred openings, the recipe for Hachiro's demise become all in the clear.

All that remained was to get Hachiro comfortable enough to accept the subtle proposition.

Small details like acting disinterested, glancing at the window, being in a hurry.

A snowball effect that would lead one to see a natural proposition -- except there was nothing natural about any of it

The final touch was her comment on Hachiro's playstyle.

It was true -- Hachiro did in fact play in a rationale manner that followed strictly to his logical thought process.

It was that which allowed Aya to predict what moves Hachiro would play when placed under a 10 second time limit when she was studying the positions at her home.

However, even for Aya, she could not count on her memory alone to remember all the limitless number of positions that could occur over the duration of 10 games.

It was simply not possible.

Which was why a human element was involved.

In order to win over 10 games, Aya had to not just outprepare her opponent, but to also psychologically destroy them.

When a rational mind is driven to irrationality, what results are irrational thoughts.

From then on, it was just a matter of keeping her cool and picking up on her opponent's mistakes.

A 10-0 victory, done and dusted.

Aya glanced at the time on her phone and cursed how long it had taken to get rid of the hindrance that was Hachiro.

"Dammit, lunch is almost over and I haven't spent any time with Hikaru..."

Aya bit her lower lips, then sighed, shaking her head.

'I'm doing this for Hikaru...' Aya thought in her head. 'Once I finish dealing with Risa, she will be out of the picture for good, then I can figure out how to break the news to everyone that Hikaru and I are...'

Aya felt a shiver down her spine, imagining her mother's reaction. 'Okay, that's a problem for another day... Let's just focus on handling Risa first...'

Aya left the building in which class 3-3 was in, heading in a hurried rush over to building C in which Hachiro had said where Risa was.

She kept her head down, avoiding the eyes of students around to stop herself from being recognised. Getting seen around the school usually ended up as a nuisance for Aya.

Because of her popularity and status as the school role model, students would flock over to Aya in herds if they ever saw her out alone on the school grounds.

That was why she always stayed inside her own classroom during lunch and avoided going outside unless absolutely necessary.

And that was also why if she did needed to go out on the school grounds, she would keep Fumiko close by her side as a deterrence to keep other students from approaching her since most students were scared of Fumiko.

Entering building C, Aya strolled quickly up a few flight of stairs and across the hallway to the school committee's office, where Risa was said to be.

"A, Aya...!"

"Sorry, I'm in a hurry at the moment!"

Aya had instinctively mumbled off a reply when she glanced behind her and saw a familiar boy with chocolate brown hair and fair skin.

"Itsuo..." Aya said, trying to hide the bitter tone in her voice.

"Are you here to look for Risa too?" Itsuo asked. "I heard she was here at the school committee's office."

"Um... yeah," Aya replied. "I have some business with her."

"Me too," Itsuo nodded. "It's about Hikaru, right?"

'Ugh, why does Itsuo know about this as well...' Aya thought inside her head. 'I told Hikaru to not tell anyone else. Now, he's just going to get in my way...'

"Yes, that's correct," Aya said, then glanced behind her at the path she was heading towards, "if you want to come, we better be quick as lunch is going to end soon."

Itsuo thought back to Watanabe-sensei waiting for him back at the detention room and he could instantly hear Watanabe-sensei's voice droning on to him at the back of his head.

"Yeah, I agree. Let's go quickly..."

The two paced hurriedly together in silence down the hallway to the student committee's office.

When they reached the room, Aya gave the door a knock.

"Come in." A voice said.

Aya opened the door, and saw the student's committee room was empty except for Risa and four of her lackeys, one of them being Kana.

"Risa..." Aya announced, then walked into the room with Itsuo following behind. "Where's the student committee?"

Risa giggled, smiling at Aya. She was standing at the side of the room where a bookshelf stood, one of the books in her hands.

"Aya!" Risa exclaimed, "You look even more beautiful than the last time I saw you a year ago!"

"You're taller, Risa," Aya commented back with a smile, glancing Risa up and down. "And, a little bit skinnier if I might add."

"Well, you know me, Aya," Risa chuckled, closing the book that was in her hands. "I was never the athletic type."

Risa placed the book down on the long table that stretched out in the center of the room.

"I prefer athletics of the brain," Risa said, "They say that thinking uses up 20 percent of our body's energy consumption."

"You're just lazy, Risa." Aya replied without missing a beat.

Risa laughed, much to the confusion of her lackeys that were standing spread out around the room.

"That's what I liked about you, Aya," Risa said, "You were always honest, and quite often correct too!"

Risa sighed, glancing down at the desk. "Now you're just like the rest of them..."

"..."

Risa glanced back up at Aya and smiled.

"So? You managed to beat Hachiro in his own game?" Risa asked, but it was phrased more as a statement. "That boy is mind numbingly unimaginative, isn't he? I always wondered if I put him in a shoebox, would he declare that the shoebox is then the universe."

"He was predictable," Aya replied, "but I doubt I could had beaten him in chess if it was a fair match."

"Oh, I wouldn't know about that."

"Anyways," Aya walked to the table at the center of the room. "I need to talk to you, Risa..."

"Is it about that girl?"

"..."

"Hikaru, isn't it?" Risa asked.

"Hey," Itsuo interjected into the conversation, standing to the side. "I'm telling you right here, if you do anything to Hikaru..."

Risa laughed, her lapis lazuli eyes turning to Itsuo.

"My bad, I didn't notice you standing there at all! And who are you?"

"You don't need to know my name," Itsuo replied, "all you need to know is that I will personally deliver an ass kicking to you if I hear that you do anything to Hikaru."

The three lackeys, excluding Kana, made a move forward for Itsuo but Risa raised a hand up, stopping them.

"You should watch your tone..." Kana said cautiously to Itsuo from the other side of the room.

"Fufu, it's okay," Risa chuckled, then glanced at Aya, "Is that boy with you?"

"Yes..." Aya said with a sigh, knowing that Hikaru would be upset if anything happened to Itsuo.

"Back to the point..." Aya said, trying to take Risa's focus off Itsuo. "Please, just leave Hikaru out of whatever it is you're trying to do."

"Well, to be honest," Risa said, putting her arms behind her back and pacing around slowly. "I'm quite fond of that girl."

"..."

"Relax," Risa laughed, seeing the expression on Aya's face. "I'm not going to hurt her, I just want to play with her a little."

"Risa..."

"Consider that as my answer to you, Aya." Risa replied. "If that incident had not had happened, I would had considered your request seriously, but as of now, I don't see why I should listen to you."

"Do you really want to test me, Risa...?"

Risa giggled in response, twirling a lock of black hair by her shoulders. "You knew before coming here that I was not going to accept your request, did you not?"

"I thought maybe..."

"You thought I was scared of you? Or did you think I would listen to you because we were once friends?" Risa stopped twirling her hair and glanced straight at Aya. "Please, Aya. Stop joking around. After what you did to me, how could I ever forgive you?"

"..."

"Not only did you ruin my life and publically humiliated me in front of everyone, you also made my father lose a lot of face."

Risa picked up the book she had placed on the table earlier and chucked it on the ground in front of Aya.

The book hit the ground with a thud, some of the pages ripping out on impact.

Aya glanced down at the book.

The book contained an assortment of different news articles, but they were all relating to the same topic.

In one of the news article that had ripped out of the book, Aya could make out the heading;

LDP SECRETARY GENERAL: DAUGHTER FROM AFFAIR WITH FOREIGN PROSTITUTE?

"But I am not petty, Aya," Risa said, "I'm not doing all this simply out of spite for you. I have a goal for the future, a vision that I would like to realise, and the fact of the matter is, you're in my way."

"That incident, Risa..." Aya glanced up at Risa with a wince. "I'm sorry, that was--"

"Please, just save it." Risa said, she walked over to the end of the table at the center of the desk, taking her seat on the student president's chair. "I don't want to hear anymore about it."

"..."

"Just remember, Aya," Risa said, turning the chair to face Aya, "We're no longer friends anymore. So stop treating me like I'm your friend. I don't need your fake pity, and I certainly don't need your hollow apologies. To be perfectly frank, it is all just quite disgusting to me. I would much rather you clap your hands and say 'serves you right' and be done with it."

Aya went silent for a moment, before quietly speaking, "Well... you're always going to be my friend, Risa..."

"..."

Risa sighed, turning her chair around so that she faced the other side. A frown tugged down on her normally playful smile.

"Please, just leave, Aya."