A Shiny Game Of Chess [Brandon/Kusatta]

[Blaka]

Kusatta Kotei opened his eyes again. He had tried to fall asleep leaning against the railing of the Shining Pirates' ship, but that seemed to be a fruitless undertaking. Granted just about five minutes had passed since he and Brandon had arrived back at the ship, but Mr. Kotei didn't see himself succeed. Partially, because he had been forced to get rid of his potatosack-undershirt and sweater. Even a smelly streetkid like him knew that walking around with bloodstained clothes was gross. Never before had he bothered to clean his clothes though, so he had just tossed them in a corner somewhere, hoping to get help from Hiroto later. Because of this, his own odour was off. He felt uncomfortable without his own smell, reason number one for his sleeplessness.

Followed by the fact that his upper body was now naked, safe for the bandages it was wrapped in. Which meant the cold climate of Shivre was making him even more distressed. Not to mention the noise Hikaru was making with his "ship improvements". Annoying ant, that one! Of course, he could have gone inside, in the kitchen or something. But the giant machine called refridgerator was still creepy to him, nothing he wanted near him while he was defenseless if he could avoid it.

Lastly, there was the pain of his wounds. Without some sort of painkillers, sleeping would be impossible. Not to mention the hit his pride had taken. Even though he had beaten Tori eventually, the guy had been able to outsmart him more than once during their fight. Strategy was not Kusatta's strongest side, so much was clear to him. It was something he had to work on if he wanted to achieve his goals.

Grunting, the skinny chef got up from his sitting position and strolled over to the kitchen. Walking straight towards the drawers near the stove, he opened one after another.
It had to be here! Not a week before had his crewmates explained the rules to him!
After opening and closing three drawers and disappointed grunting each time, he had finally found it: A quadratic cardboard box, about as large as the plates they had around. It had a removable black lid and a white bottom side. Big white letters graced the lid, saying "chess" according to his friends. Even though Kusatta would have sworn that first letter was definetely a G.

In any case, this game was great! The player was ruler over his own private kingdom, at war with the enemy! It could take ages, there was no limit to how long a match could go, as long as both kings were still standing. Just the right distraction while they were waiting for the others to come back, who could be away for a uncertain amount of time. And it would even help him memorize letters some more, as well as improving his sense of strategy.

Unfortunately, there were two people involved in this game. Hikaru was obviously still busy, so the only real partner the Shining Pirate could find was the crew's penguin.
"Brandooon!" yelled the gray-haired boy as he carried the box outside and sat himself down cross-legged in front of the kitchen door, placing it on the ground next to him. Within seconds, the young cook had taken out the playing field and placed the pieces on the board in the manner he had been told. He would be playing white obviously, as white was the side that was allowed to move first. If there was one rule to combat, it was 'the first move can decide it all'.

Waiting until the bird was close enough, Kusatta lowered his voice to sound all secretive and conspiratorial.
"Brandon, remember this game? Chess? Wanna play with me? If you win I'll give you more fish for dinner! Or even right away, so nobody notices!"
As if to provoke his avian opponent, he moved the pawn in front of his queen a step forward.
"Your turn!"

[Vio]

Between the noise of the port and its many floating nests, and the general madness that had ensued not too long ago, Brandon the Penguin was perhaps the one least fazed by it all. Penguins were used to noise, spending a lot of time in the water or exposed to the howling winds of the far south, though at present neither of those things were as comforting to the awkward avian as they should be. What really bothered him was the lack of fish! Oh, how he wished to be able to plunge himself into the waters once more, twisting and turning through the deep blue and snatching up fish and squid in his beak. Those days had long since been stripped of him, though that had never really prevented him from tempting fate and dancing around at the water's edge. He knew better, though. Far better than any human who obtained such a power as he had. If not for the waterproof oil he applied to his monochromatic plumes while preening, even the slightest rainfall would render him weakened and useless. In that regard, he was far luckier than any previous consumer of the Oru Oru no Mi. Humans did not have the benefit of streamlined feathers suited for the waters.

"Brandon!" The sudden yelling of the smelly chef ringing loud and clear in the black and white bird's ears, Mister Penguin jumped to his feet and quickly waddled towards the source of sound, driven by the prospect of fish. Humans were genius in many regards, but not in others. One of the most amazing things they had ever created, in his own humble opinion, was the large box of coldness that kept things such as his favourite fish fresh. Unfortunately, his hopes were somewhat dashed when he arrived at his destination in front of the kitchen door, beady black eyes staring curiously at what sat between himself and Kusatta. A wooden board, perhaps no longer from corner to corner than his own flipper, and dressed in his own colours. A number of jet black squares divided equally among pure white, what stood proudly upon them were two sets of peculiar pieces. Fancy pieces of ebony and ivory arranged in an almost perfectly symmetrical pattern, broken when the human moved one forward.

"Bira?" Tilting his head curiously as he observed the scene before him, trying to make sense of the words that Kusatta had spoken, Brandon tried to recall a time when he had seen this ritual. Fresh in his mind those memories were, him never having seen such distinct things anywhere else and - for the briefest moment - his eyes deceived him. He was now aboard an altogether different vessel, far larger than the sloop upon which the Shining crew sailed, and sitting atop a barrel that was being used as a chair. In front of him was a small wooden table and, sat opposite, was a man in a thick and swollen brown hide. A set of orange whiskers decorated his not-beak, while eyes of extravagant green looked to him. Pieces splayed out before them, another two men sitting nearby and guzzling down that smelly water that humans loved to drink.

"This game's called Chess," he said, "and I'm going to show you how to play. You interested?"

"Oru!" Shaking his head and body, bringing himself back to the present, the plucky penguin found new determination. Not just because he had been offered fish for achieving victory, but also because this was an important thing for him. This game was unique, enthralling! But, most of all, it held sentimental value. Stepping closer to the board, Brandon eyed each and every piece, focusing particularly upon the little one that his ally had pushed forwards one square. Leaning over, making sure not to knock over any of his own ebon effigies, he grabbed the opposing piece in his beak and moved it forwards one tile, thus maintaining the mirror image between the two sides of the board. With that done, he looked back up to Kusatta, anticipating the next move...

SPOILER: Click to show

{*Spoiler*}

[/b]

[/font] (fff000)
Kusatta Kotei (abcdef)
Scott (cc5500)[/ul][/ul][/spoiler][/div][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Blaka]

When he had learned the rules of chess from his companions for the first time, Kusatta had had trouble to make sense of it at first. Some rules seemed like arbitrary restrictions. Such as the king being the weakest link of the entire army. Or nobody being able to move out before the silly pawns hadn't moved out of the way. By now however, he understood at least one of those.

In war, advancing was key. But before advancing, a warrior had to know what he was walking into. Running head strong into a problem without knowing the enemy's abilities was something that was best avoided. That, Kusatta had learned from his previous fight with the crocodile mask. Granted, that wasn't always possible. Emotions got in the way of the most experienced fighters, even those who usually managed to keep a cool head. Mr. Kotei was neither unfortunately, an unexperienced hot head. So applying the lesson he had learned to actual combat would be quite difficult for him. However, in the environment of a calm game like this, the chef would be able to manage it.

In any case, he got what whoever had thought of the game's rules had been thinking when he made the pawns restriction. Those were the weaklings one sent out to scout the area. Those nobody cared about when they got unavoidably crushed by the enemy forces.

He did like the second rule as well. That the pawns could use their first step to advance twice as quickly as they could afterwards. In a way, the smelly streetkid himself had been a pawn all his life before he had found the Devil Fruit - and immediatly advanced two steps, so to speak.

Alas, he moved the pawn in front of his right knight a two steps forward. This would open the path for his probably favourite figure on the field.

"Your turn." He grinned. In his mind, there was already a plan in the works.

SPOILER: Click to show

Moves so far:


1. White: P d2-d3
2.Black: P d7-d6
3.White: P g2-g4

[Vio]

His pawn moved forth a square to match the previous movement of his opponent, Brandon eagerly waited for the next ‘turn’, curiously eyeing the various ivory idols that opposed his own army of feather-hued figures. He could not remember the names of any of these pieces off the top of his head, but he did know what each was supposed to do, the pieces limited by unusual rules as to how and where they could move across the chequered board. There was no real logic behind any of this as far as he was concerned, such limitations having been self-imposed by whatever human had invented this game, but it was just as hard for his avian mind to imagine a version without such rules as it was to imagine the reasons for them.

“Kuu,” he grunted, taking the opportunity to comb through some of the plumage of his right flipper and – whilst doing so – thinking back to when he had learned of this ‘Chess’…

-~-

“It’s no good trying to teach him chess, he’s just a penguin!” laughed one of the two drunkards sitting nearby, his cheeks flushed red as human cheeks do when they are ill, embarrassed or otherwise suffering from an increase in internal body temperature. It was a simple mechanic of biology, though it hardly looked all that natural, least of all upon a ship that cruised through polar waters. Indeed, Brandon guessed that such things were likely due to that smelly water, though why anyone would drink it was unbeknownst to him. Maybe humans needed to drink it to help regulate their body heat? No, that was a stupid thought.

“A penguin he may be, but he’s a smart one, too!” replied the figure with his fiery facial hair, a broad and toothy smile upon his face.

“Smart? He’s tried to drown himself twice already!”

“Mm. I don’t think he gets that he can’t swim anymore…”

“Bah! You say that as if he’s human, but he’s a penguin – a bird of the sea, born to swim! It’s no surprise that he keeps trying to return to it. It’s sad, really, that he’s ended up cursed.” Though much of these words meant nothing to him, it did not at all stop Mister Penguin from paying attention to the quips and cries that the men exchanged with one another. Their means of communication was strange, far more complicated than he thought it really needed to be, but he was at least able to pick out various words and phrases that seemed more important than others. Much of the shorter calls seemed unnecessary, elongated chirps were simple intonation might have sufficed. The tongue of the penguin was majestic and swift, a language that Brandon – as a member of said species – was very fluent in. One short call could convey an assortment of useful information, a prolonged chirp likely saying in the space of half a second what a human would in time tenfold. But these were linguistic nuances that he would have to get used to, lest he forever remain out of the loop. He wanted to know what they were saying and why they were saying it, to whom and what they referred, and when and how such features of their spoken words were used. It was all very interesting.

“And you honestly think he’s going to sit patiently and learn a game created for human minds? It’s a strategy game, for crying out loud, not some kiddie’s four piece jigsaw,” retorted the man across from them again. As he spoke he waved his arms around in an attempt to emphasise his point, but instead looking rather stupid while doing so.

“I always found those things hard… I could never find the corners!” giggled the man farthest away, his strange gasping bark provoking a turn of the head by the penguin.

“Heh-heh-heh! Well, Brandon, let’s show that sour grape who’s boss, eh? I want you,” Whiskers said while pointing his finger around, “to copy what I do. Got it?”

-~-

“Your turn,” Kusatta called, once more plucking the penguin from his daydreams and drawing his beady eyes to the board. Little had changed, the first two pieces to move having remained in place, but the smelly chef had moved another of his pieces forward. Another of the smaller markers, this one positioned a column short of the left-flipper side, now stood two tiles closer to the awkward avian’s forces. Apparently, the pawns (or were they prawns?) were each allowed to make such a move once per game, but only as their first action. Any previous movements prevented the piece from doing so again, for whatever illogical reason humans had come up with. Indeed, the hairless apes were rather skilled at imposing ridiculous rulings upon trivial things, but one could not always fault the logic of a race that spanned the globe’s many environments and could build massive nests that floated and moved as if they were seals basking on the water’s surface.

“Oku!” Brandon replied with a nod, waddling a little closer to the board and bending over so that he could grab a piece in his beak. In true animal fashion, he picked up the piece opposing the one his opponent had just moved, and slid it two squares forward. Once again, the chess board’s symmetry remained…

SPOILER: Click to show

/	Kusatta (White)	Brandon (Black)
Turn 1	Pawn, D2 > D3	Pawn, D7 > D6
Turn 2	Pawn, G2 > G4	Pawn, G7 > G5

Brandon (fff000)
Kusatta (abcdef)
Whiskers (cc5500)
Man 1 (00cc55)
Man 2 (9900cc)

[Blaka]

Huuh?

If there was a strategy behind the bird's doing, Kusatta didn't understand it yet. Blocking the pawns surely was a good move if there was nothing else to do, but this early in the game you could do almost anything else! After the battle with Tori, the smelly chef sure didn't want to insult his avian crewmate, but maybe a fowl like him wasn't made for a tactical game like this after all.

"I see..." he mumbled as his hands hovered over the bishop that was now free while his pawn's originally planned advances had been put on hold. What an unlucky scout that would be in the real world, running into an enemy scout like that. Or unskilled. Despite that being so improbable in an actual war, it sure was something that happened a lot in this game. Of course, Mr. Kotei had no idea that the pawns were named like that because they were supposed to be mere poor dumb civilians. Which would have explained the weakness they presented in game. But his mind didn't equate poor or low class to unskilled, so that idea never came to him.

Suddenly, the cook got an idea. His hovering hand moved over to the pawn standing on...what was that letter called again? Age? Yeah. Right next to the one he had just moved from the field that was named after one of the more confusing letters in the alphabet. Shaking his head, he caught himself again. Annoying letters, he would study those later. Thinking of it as the pawn in front of his rook was much easier.

After a quick look if what he was about to do wouldn't mess anything up, he nodded reaffirmingly and put the pawn in front of his right rook two steps forward. Now, the two advancing pawns were standing next to each other. And his was threatening Brandon's, ready to move him out of the way if he didn't take the opportunity attack first. If so, there was a surprise waiting however, he'd soon regret it. A surprise rook was waiting for him in the back. Either way, the annoyance would be dealt with.

"There we go. You're it."

SPOILER: Click to show

Turn 3: Pawn H2 > H4

[Vio]

“There we go. You’re it,” Kusatta said, confirming that it was now his opponent’s turn once again. For Brandon the Penguin, however, the smelly chef’s last move was nothing out of the ordinary. All he had done was take the pawn in front of his own rook and move it forward two tiles, placing it so that it was standing next to the one he had moved on the previous turn. However, the awkward avian’s focus was not entirely upon the piece that had been moved just now, but upon the piece three spaces behind it. The white rook – or was it a rock? To be fair, humans had a tendency to build structures out of stone that they carved into various shapes with pieces of metal, so perhaps the name of this particular piece – which greatly resembled one of those stone towers that looked like a tree trunk – had just been lost in translation? If they would give silly names to different things, and considering how many different ‘accents’ the human tongue had, it was not surprising that they might have gotten it mixed up. And this little word game pulled him back to the past…

-~-

“Okay then, Scott, if you’re so dead set on teaching him chess, you should teach him all the pieces!” By this point, Brandon and Whiskers – better known to his fellow apes as ‘Scott’ – had played three rounds of their first chess game together. On each turn, the fiery-faced human had moved a single piece in a particular direction, adhering to the unusually precise pattern of squares that formed the board. After that, he had gestured from the penguin to make a similar move, and he had done just that. So far, the board was an almost perfect mirror of itself, but now it was starting to change. Whatever the one man across the room was barking about, it at least had seemed related to the abnormal behaviour in which the bird was taking part in.

“Being a tad hasty there, aren’t you, Shackleton?” Scott replied, his paw lingering over the board as he assessed his next move. “Let’s have him see the basics first, and then we’ll start teaching him the rules proper.”

“He’s been doing a good job so far!” the third man, whose name was Wilson, piped up. He had moved himself and sat down just beside Brandon, watching the game intently with a broad smile upon his face, whilst Shackleton remained seated across the way taking regular sips of his rum.

“If by good job you mean he’s copied Mister Robert’s first three moves, then yes, he has. But the fact of the matter is he’s nothing more than a penguin with a Devil Fruit. Yes, maybe they give people – or animals – incredible abilities, but I doubt that he’s gained human intelligence from eating it! He’s not going to understand what a rook is, is he?” Shackleton’s scepticism sizzled in the cabin’s air, but none of the others seemed to mind much. For Mister Penguin, he was far more involved in this game called ‘chess’ than any of his human compatriots seemed to believe. It was rare that he needed to think and consider his actions, much of his life so far having been simplistic survival – eat, sleep, swim, mate. Admittedly, he’d had no luck finding a mate as of yet, despite his amazing ability to return to the nesting grounds before any of his kin. To be frank, being tied down to a norm was not his thing – he liked his freedom, even if some of that had been stolen from him after consuming the Oru Oru no Mi.

-~-

Ruku? Having decided upon his next course of action, the folding fowl adjusted his position around the board, waddling to the corner so as to get a better angle and picking up another pawn with his beak. This ebon effigy was quickly moved forth two spaces, as was permitted by the strange laws of chess, and met Kusatta’s pawn head on. For the third time since beginning their match, not unlike when he and Scott had played their match all those months ago, both sides of the board – black and white – were evenly matched. The question was, for how much longer would this game last? Standing up and returning to his position behind the rows of pieces, the little penguin nodded to his adversary. The fourth round was about to get underway…

SPOILER: Click to show

Moves	Kusatta	Brandon
Turn 1	Pawn, D2 > D3	Pawn, D7 > D6
Turn 2	Pawn, G2 > G4	Pawn, G7 > G5
Turn 3	Pawn, H2 > H4	Pawn, H7 > H5

Brandon (fff000)
Kusatta (abcdef)
Scott (cc5500)
Shackleton (00cc55)
Wilson (9900cc)

[Blaka]

A little dumbfounded, Kusatta squinted his little eyes as he tried to figure out if there was any sort of strategy behind his opponent's doings. Was he mocking him? Three times in a row had the penguin done the same exact thing now, as if he didn't know better than to mimic anything he saw. That wasn't a penguin though, was it? Parrots did that. Or so he had heard at least. However, by now, the Stegosaurus Human questioned any information he had heard in his past life before. So maybe that was a thing all birds did?

At least this thought seemed far more likely than what it looked like. It looked like Brandon was actually making fun of him. Yet the way he was doing it was such dry humour, that seemed impossible for any animal to even comprehend. Plus, the fowl wasn't completely straight faced. Not that Kusatta could even imagine him laughing. No, how ridiculous! The only thing their navigator cared about was his friends and fish! Childish mockery wasn't even a thing he could know about!

There it was again: The smelly chef's ego made it clear to him that this wasn't even going to be a fun training exercise. If that was all his avian buddy could do, beating him would be a piece of cake!
Yes, the trap with his rook hadn't worked, but now that he had figured his partner out, he wouldn't need mind tricks anymore. In simple three moves total, the feathered one's routine would be impossible - because a figure he would need for it would be missing.

"Sorry mate." Kusatta grinned "No fish for you I think. Unless you start" he knocked with his index finger against his own forehead "using your brain."

His next move is what they called a pawn sacrifice. A move that had been played on the former streetkid a few too many times in real life. Like that one time, where his foster parents had planned to kill him because little Mr. Kotei was wanted for a crime they themselves had committed. Unlike Brandon, who was enjoying his trip down memory lane, Kusatta tried everything in his power to prevent the horrific pictures from reappearing in his mind. Only vague shadows of the past got through his mental barrier. His surrogate father burrying the knife in the scared shopkeeper. The puddle of blood. The look on the face of the guy who found a little kid with a knife standing next to a dead man. The screwed up visage of his substitude mother the moment she had decided to kill the kid in his sleep so the guards wouldn't come after them... Visibly shaking all of the sudden, Kusatta grunted to break out of it.

Luckily, unlike a certain orphan boy, the pawn he was about to sacrifice didn't have a dagger to defend himself. With a triumphant grin, the skinny pirate grabbed the right one of his two blocked pawns and moved him over to the left, where one of Brandon's figures was standing.
"Taking this one." he proudly claimed and removed the black pawn from the battlefield. Two turns left.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Move}
Turn 4: Pawn H4 > G5

[Vio]

“Sorry, mate. No fish for you unless you start using your brain,” Kusatta Kotei uttered, gesturing to his own forehead in doing so before deciding upon his next move. Chess was a game of strategy and tactics, for sure, but when it came to mirroring your opponent’s moves there were only so many possibilities you could exploit before things started to go awry. The smelly chef soon proved that to Brandon as he picked up one of the two ivory pawns that had been moved forward on the left side of the board, sliding it forward and to the side so as to knock down its ebony counterpart. First blood had been drawn in this war of attrition, his opponent removing the piece from the board and placing it to one side. Inquisitively, the papery penguin tilted his head, as if trying to get a better look at the battlefield and what he could do with it.

Oru… It was actually quite amazing how quickly a chess board could turn from a neat and orderly arrangement to something all the more chaotic and bizarre, much as nature itself would take a nice soft sea and conjure forth a monstrous whirl of wind and water that climbed to the clouds. Fortunately, three-dimensional chess had yet to be invented in this world, and so neither Mister Penguin nor his ally had to worry about what was above or below their ‘armies’. This was a benefit of a game that represented conflict upon dry land…

-~-

“Well, I never!” exclaimed Wilson, clapping his hands together as he spectated the ongoing match. So far, Scott’s actions had been mirrored almost perfectly by the peculiar penguin, but that was starting to change quite a bit. As the match went on, it was at least clear to the two gentlemen that their animalistic associate had a good head on his avian shoulders; direct mimicry had started to turn into an apparent understanding of what each piece was supposed to do, though he still seemed to be struggling a little on seeing when they could do it. Trying to take his own pawn with his knight was not exactly the most intelligent of moves, but at least he had figured out the pattern of the equine idol’s movement allowance.

“Heh-heh-heh, are you seeing this, Shackleton? Are you sure I can’t tempt you to reconsider?” chuckled the whiskered man, Robert Scott, as Brandon successfully moved one of his own ebony effigies and claimed an ivory one for his own. Their curious comrade was quickly cottoning on, but the man known as Shackleton still seemed to have his reservations. There was no doubt in his mind that animals could learn from what they saw – that much was part of nature’s ultimate rule: survival of the fittest. What he doubted was that a mere penguin could actually become proficient in a game designed by the human brain, for the human brain. Cats and dogs could not play chess, or at least to the best of his knowledge they could not, so why should a penguin be able to?

“Right, so he’s seen you move the pieces and knows how they move now,” he grumbled lightly. “I’ll admit, that’s impressive, but I still don’t think he really understands the objective. Didn’t he just try to take one of his own pieces?”

“Pshaw! That’s an easy mistake to make! Look, I’ll bet that he’ll soon figure it all out – sooner than I anticipated – but it’s still going to take him some time. As you say, he is ‘just’ a penguin.” Again, many of the whiskered man’s words were lost in translation, not least of which was the opening sound ‘Pshaw’. What kind of word was that, even? Then again, the more that Brandon considered it, the more it reminded him of the nomenclature that these humans had used in reference to a certain piece…

-~-

“Biha…” With one of his own pieces removed from the board, it was only fitting that Brandon retaliate accordingly. But while he could have done so in a mirrored fashion, the awkward avian decided it better not to do so. If Kusatta really wanted him to make use of his brain, then so be it. Beady eyes scanned the checkerboard for those distinguishing features, and soon his beak descended upon the oddly pointy head of the tall and slender figurine that sat on his right side. This was a piece bound by limitations of movement, but it was the shifting of his foe’s pawn that had reminded him of the purpose of this piece they called the ‘Pshaw’ – or was it actually a Bishop? Noun confusion aside, the penguin’s piece’s path was free of obstruction, carefully moving it one tile at a time as he threaded it through the rest of his forces and found his way to the two white pieces that sat one in front of the other.

“Yoru, Kuaa,” Mister Penguin chirped, extracting the rearmost of the two ivory pawns from the battlefield as per the rules of taking an opponent’s pieces. Though his own soldier had ended up as the sacrifice, with it had come the opportunity to place another, more potent piece in an ideal position. Provided he understood the limits of the other pieces correctly, it would be impossible for the piece he had just moved to be captured. A small area of the board had been claimed as his own territory…

SPOILER: Click to show

{*Moves*}

[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Kusatta[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Brandon[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Turn 1[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, D2 > D3[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, D7 > D6[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Turn 2[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, G2 > G4[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, G7 > G5[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Turn 3[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, H2 > H4[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, H7 > H5[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Turn 4[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Pawn, H4 > G5
x Pawn[/td]
[td style="padding: 3px;"]Bishop, C8 > G4
x Pawn[/td]
[/tr]
[/tbody][/table]

Starring:

[/font] (fff000)
Kusatta Kotei (abcdef)
Robert Scott (cc5500)
Wilson (9900cc)
Shackleton (00cc55)[/ul][/ul][/spoiler][/div][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Blaka]

Finally!

"Haha, good one! Maybe you'll get the fish after all." the First Mate grinned.

Brandon actually started using his brain. Of course, had he continued his silly scharade, Kusatta's rook would have eventually gotten to him, robbing the navigator of the figure that could have copied the move. Now though, blood was shed on both sides. And the pawn had died for no real reason.
Well, of course there was a reason. Just not the one Kusatta had originally planned. Instead of sacrificing himsel to bring victory closer, the poor sod fell victim to the boredom of his superior. Another thing the former streetkid had witnessed far too often.

One summer week, when he had been around twelve years old, he had witnessed a situation creepily similair to this one. At that time of year the smelly boy had made it a habit to roam close to a certain cornerstore that served ice-cold lemonade outside. Citrus was the name of the shopkeeper, a jovial middleaged fellow who didn't go as far as giving out his wares for free but was generally kind to the people around him. Not that his drinks were actually needed for the citizens to cool down, it just tasted incredible. Or so he had been told. Young Kotei himself had never actually gotten a hold of even a drop of the sweet beverage. Far too risky was the potential of being grabbed by a mean guardsman for something that didn't even make his hunger go away. Instead, he would focus on stealing from the foolish upper class people who flocked in.

That week however, the usual happiness surrounding the place was erased when imperial guard kicked in the door. Some stupid reason, Kusatta had only heard rumors from multiple sources, none of which could be trusted. One said late taxpayments, another mentioned an affair with the general's wife. Either way, silly pawns as they were in the game of whoever was playing them, the soldiers actually dragged Citrus outside and made him confess to whatever crime he had supposedly commited. Again, the skinny orphan himself hadn't been there for it. Or rather, he hadn't arrived in time to witness it and only heard about it afterwards. What he did manage to see with his own eyes however was the appearance of the bishop: A guy with weird yellow slippery looking skin dressed in fine red robes not common at all for local fashion. Nobody had ever seen him before and there he was now, jumping out of Citrus' door and somehow beating the everliving crap out of armored guards. Men, who really only acted according to protocol. Yelling something about how evil the imperium was, the - what Kusatta knew had been a fishman by now - tackled everybody in his way aside and ran off.

That last one was a realisation the Shining Pirate only got now. Soldiers were only partially responsible for the atrocities they commited. Obviously the final decision was still with them and of course some acted way more brutally than they had been ordered. But at least their superiors were a factor.

Shaking his head once more, the aspiring chef returned to the present reality. The mighty stegosaurus didn't need enemies in his territorry! Surely, this would drive the opponent back where he came from!

The pawn in front of his own bishop moved one step. Now it was threatening the black one to return home. Sure, the bishop could engage, but mutliple of the Stego's figures protected his brave little man.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Move}
Pawn F2 > F3

[Vio]

One piece taken did not a victory make; which, come to think of it, was surprisingly relevant in the grand scheme of things. However, for Brandon the Penguin, his little counteroffensive in moving the Bishop down to take Kusatta Kotei’s Pawn had provoked a little need for tactical thinking on his opponent’s behalf. Indeed, the smelly chef seemed lost in thought for a little longer than was perhaps normal, his beady grey eyes seeming to glaze over as he pondered thoughts beyond the realm of avian understanding. Humans had a tendency to do such things as become overly obsessed with what they were thinking about – tunnelling as they liked to call it – and thus leaving them vulnerable to surprises. Fortunately for Kusatta, such meagre dwellings had no repercussions. The wind was calm but cooling, scents filling the air; of sea salt and fresh grass and… was that something burning in the distance?

“Kuaa?” grunted the penguin, taking the opportunity to preen his tail whilst his company remained entranced. To be fair, there were a lot of potential moves he could have made. Chess, as Brandon had found out all those months ago, was not as simple as it initially looked. A single false move could be countered with devastating consequences, while certain moves might have had no relevance at all until the game came to its closing stages. Strategy and tactics were the name of the game – well, no, it was ‘Chess’…

Oru… With a shake of the head, Mister Kotei seemed to realise exactly what it was he needed to do, moving his hand without a word and taking up a single ivory idol. It was good he only picked up one, too, (three) for that was the only legal movement allowed in Chess. There was only one instance that the folding fowl could actually think of in which it was allowed to move two of your pieces at once. Scott had called it ‘Castling’ (or was it hassling?), though that had brought up an entirely different debate. As far as the penguin himself was concerned, humans had made this terminology a little too confusing; especially as they called the piece involved the Rook and the King, respectively. See, if they called it a Castle, then Castling would have made sense to him – Castle plus King equals Castling, a simple not-so-mathematic equation! However, as they insisted on calling it a Rook, then shouldn’t the move have been called Rooking?

“Kuoh!” Mister Penguin chirped, watching intently as the curious cook moved a single Pawn forward a single square, placing it in the firing line of the Bishop that had already slain another of its kin. Something was off here, and it certainly wasn’t the fish! Inquisitive eyes scanned the board around where Kusatta had just made his moves, taking into account every little detail he could. The game was heating up, though it still paled in comparison to the legendary chess matches between Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton; games which would be over in a matter of minutes at most, where only a handful of pieces remained by the time one man surrendered and knocked his own King over. In some human cultures, doing such a thing as that would get you killed, but the trivialities of the game seemed to allow for such a gesture. Humans took some things far too seriously, making connections where there really weren’t any, but this was not one of those things.

Haru…! Realisation of what was going on struck him in the face like his own face would strike a human face if he were blown in the winds like a newspaper. The clever devil that was the chef had made a cunning move, one which would have cost the penguin a prized piece had he not taken note of it. His Bishop was in grave danger. Was there even a difference between normal danger and grave danger? Regardless, there were to be consequences for his actions unless he chose wisely, for moving any piece save for the Bishop itself would be its end, bested by the brethren of the slain. He toyed with the idea of moving it towards the side of the board, but that left it exposed to the patient Rook. There was also the possibility of taking the Pawn, adding another to his trophy collection, but that would have been a suicide run with little benefit. The white Knight would see to that! There was only one option then.

“Oku.” Finally, Brandon made up his mind. There was only one safe option here, and that was to withdraw and concede to the powers that be. Carefully, he leaned over the board, taking up the Bishop in his beak and moving it back towards its starting position. A single square’s worth of movement was all he cared for, for that was all that was needed. His Bishop was safely out of the firing line, though for saving one piece he had given his opponent the opportunity to deploy further forces…

SPOILER: Click to show

{*Moves*}

/	Kusatta	Brandon
Turn 1	Pawn D2 > D3	Pawn D7 > D6
Turn 2	Pawn G2 > G4	Pawn G7 > G5
Turn 3	Pawn H2 > H4	Pawn H7 > H5
Turn 4	Pawn H4 > G5 Pawn	Bishop C8 > G4 Pawn
Turn 5	Pawn F2 > F3	Bishop G4 > F5

[Blaka]

Deploy further forces he would. The gray haired chef grunted at the petty attempt at a retreat. Half measures like this would not excuse this act of inconsiderate intrusion!

Sure the black bishop had moved back a step but Kusatta would make him run home to his queen wailing like a little girl!

"You know Brandon, here's a life lesson. If you are going to run - run."

A very important lesson he himself had only learned a couple of weeks ago. And, if he wad honest, a lesson he had not listened tp enough. Which in turn had gotten him into a few unnecessarily grave situation. The First Mate was reminded of the time he had first met his Captain Leonard LeClerc. Back home in the Empire, on the island of Marius.

There, the Stegosaurus human had turned his back on the frightened soldiers after one of them had actually managed to break his arm. But he had stayed in his mighty Hybrid form - the best opportunity for somebody to pick up the courage to run up on the monstrous pirate from behind and swing his hammer. Even only thinking back made his spine hurt again.

Then, only a few days later, the Shinings had made the same mistake. Instead of quietly running away from the overpowering thread of the imperial army, Kusatta could not resist using the stage presented to him to throw a speech in front of the whole port to warn the world of what was to come. If he hadn't tried to get these three seconds of fame, today's fight against Nezumi Tori likely wouldn't have happened. After all, how else would the crocodile freak have figured out his target's location?

"Esspecially weak guys like you need to learn that man!" the skinny cook continued giving the avian navigator a stern talk. Obviously he couldn't be sure the bird completely understood him but it was worth a try. "I won't be there every time you need help. If you don't run properly, the enemy can still catch you. And in a real fight that doesn't just mean no fish. They could kill you and then you can't have fish ever again! Here, I'll show you."

Looking his comrade in his beady eyes to male sure he got the connection between the lecture and what followed, Kusatta made his move. His white bishop, next to the king move all the way to the edge of the board, in front of his rook. Now it was further threatening the black bishop to return home - or else.

[Vio]

Kusatta’s provocations were strangely wise and, despite Brandon the Penguin not knowing much of anything about his crew mate’s past, such mumblings were proof that this human had been forced to flee many times before. As humans said, discretion was the better part of valour, though neither of those words meant anything to him. Common sense was probably a better candidate for the meaning of such fanciful wordings, and indeed the papery penguin could do nothing but agree. He too had experienced many an occasion where he could not fight, and so took flight (in a purely metaphorical sense that is, he couldn’t fly back then). Being chased by a hungry seal was a great example of such things, for a penguin’s speed and agility beneath the waves outmatched those blubbery buffoons, despite the shape of their bodies being oh so similar. That did not mean escaping such beasts was easy, of course, but when your life depended on it, it was only natural that you would run, or swim, or insert other form of locomotion here – it was imperative that you fled far and fast.

“Here, I’ll show you,” Mister Kotei said, moving one of the ivory effigies from his side of the board. The mirror image of his own ebon figurine now stood at the far side of the board, silently threatening the bishop in black to flee further or else fall to the nuances of battle that the game of chess so dictated. Indeed, he could have easily taken the piece no matter how far back Brandon decided to flee – it was a fate inescapable, but the law of strength in numbers could at least prevent the white bishop from venturing too far. One false step and Kusatta’s own piece could end up the victim; a price to pay for overstepping one’s boundaries. Penguins often had this trouble, as did most creatures of the animal kingdom. A fish could swim maybe a few inches too far from its school, hunting down food, only to be snatched up by a bigger fish waiting for such foolish behaviour. When opportunity knocks, it’s often a risky decision as to whether or not you should open the door.

“Oru?” Decisions, decisions; the best one was not so easily found right now. This was a point in the game in which every move had a risk and a reward, where each and every action taken could cost the life of the pieces involved. Moving his bishop seemed of utmost priority for Mister Penguin, but the awkward avian was unwilling to retreat, despite the benefits it could present. There was always another way, but it usually involved experimentation. There was a move he wanted to make – or at least be able to fall back upon when the time came – and allowing himself to back down from this challenge would throw a spanner in the works. What exactly was a spanner? Was it not a tool for working? In which case, surely a spanner in the works was a good thing?

Ru ru, Kuaa… Toying with the idea of pushing forwards, the plucky penguin’s beady eyes narrowed as he mimed some human behaviour, bringing up one flipper and placing it under his beak. It was the closest thing he could do to that strange stance a thinking person might take, where they took a hold of their chin. Quite frankly, he’d always believed such a display was rather pointless, but now that he impersonated Scott and his habits, he found some merit to it. It was ideal for preening the feathers just beneath his beak! Discoveries aside, he soon returned to plotting his next move, deciding upon what he thought to be a bold challenge and defiance of Kusatta’s words. ‘I won’t be there every time you need help’ was supposed to have been a word of warning, but in this case it had dawned upon the little penguin that the mere threat of strength of numbers could often be a great deterrent. When was the last time a seal raided a penguin colony? Well, never… they were horribly slow and noisy on land.

“Earp!” Shuffling himself around to the side of the board at which his opponent’s imposing bishop stood, Brandon recalled the movements of one of the most mysterious pieces of the game. Humans called it a ‘Night’, though he was pretty certain that it looked like no such thing (discounting the colour of his own army) and that horses were not nocturnal. Still, he recalled the transformation of the smelly chef in their previous battle, where the grey-haired grunt had evolved into an enormous spike-tailed lizard with an apparent love of vegetables. Coincidentally, the head of that particular reptile and the head of a horse were not too dissimilar, and he was certain the strength of a beast so formidable would put off an attack. That probably didn’t translate well to the board, where most idols were of identical stature, but nevertheless he had made up his mind.

“Ireo!” Grunting what might have vaguely sounded like ‘here we go,’ the folding fowl took up the horse’s head and moved it in a strange manner. By this point, he was certain that the inventor was just messing around with the rules, but such silly actions had benefits. The rule was simple enough to remember – this piece always moved to a square of the opposite colour to which it started and always had to move two tiles along in one of the four main directions that the Rook could. The pattern was similar to the human letter which has been used no less than five times in this sentence, not including the capital version which is ‘L’. Oddly enough, Brandon couldn’t produce that sound, nor could many birds. But that did not matter right now. What mattered was the movement of the piece and where it ended up, settled on a black tile between his side’s pawn and rook…

SPOILER: Click to show

{*Moves*}

Chess	Kusatta	Brandon
1	Pawn, D2 > D3	Pawn, D7 > D6
2	Pawn, G2 > G4	Pawn, G7 > G5
3	Pawn, H2 > H4	Pawn, H7 > H5
4	Pawn, H4 > G5: Pawn	Bishop, C8 > G4: Pawn
5	Pawn, F2 > F3	Bishop, G4 > F5
6	Bishop, F1 > H3	Knight, G8 > H6

[Blaka]

With a malicious grin, Kusatta was waiting on the threatened bishop's reaction. Brandon's little thinking pose even made him chuckle. It looked especially hilarious because the avian navigator had no chin to place his hand under. Not even a hand. He couldn't help but wonder where the penguin had gotten this pose from. Let alone, how he comprehended what it meant.

"Hmrpf."

Mr. Kotei's mood changed for the worse. Brandon hadn't listened to his adivce. The bird was starting to annoy his crewmate with his defiant attitude. Instead of retreating, the black knight was coming out of the gate to protect it's bishop.

The knights had always been among the top 3 figures Kusatta found the most strange. If the chef himself had invented the game, he would have displayed them as a warrior in shining armor! With a lance in their hands and in a dignified pose. Maybe riding an animal, sure, to add to their size and emphasize the power they presented. But whoever the creator of this game was had had different plans. And so, he had apparently degraded the honourable knight to a simple horse. Not even a full horse, just the head of the horse blown up so it didn't seem small among towers and kings. Weren't animals just used by knights to ride on? Yeah, beasts like himself could be powerful - most powerful indeed - but horses? Horses were just...just horses!

As if to add to his confusion about this very weird design choice, Mister Chessmaker had also added an extremely overpowered ability to the mounts....heads of a mount: Jumping over other soldiers was something no other piece could do. And it didn't even make any sense! If you had a full grown horse jump over your head and didn't duck fast enough, hooves would hit your skull and send you off to sleep in an instant! Or worse, kill you! Then again, these figures didn't have hooves.

"Don't get cocky." Kusatta frowned at his adversary. Any moves he had thought of beforehand would need to wait till the damn bishop was gone and that made him angry. His wrath wasn't even directed at this opponent, just at this one black bishop. A bishop who the smelly pirate began to hate with a passion as he got more and more immersed in the game. To have the audacity to hide behind the ugly ungulate! Hateful black eyes stared at the black piece of wood - then suddenly lit up as he got an idea.

Oh, the wonders weak people could achieve!

When he looked upon the board now, Kusatta's view on his pawns suddenly changed. Another confusing, yet in this current situation very useful thing about chess was: There were no differences in strength. Differences in abilities, sure, but if anyone could get a hold of you you were done for. With his brave move, Mr. Horsehead had entered the range of the First Mate's brave fool who had survived the earlier pawn sacrifice massacer. Sure, the black rook was protecting it, but that didn't matter. Not since the bishop would be on his own again soon.

Grinning once more, the dinosaurus human slowly moved his pawn diagonally to the right - then flicked the knight from the board with enough force behind it that the sorry horsehead flew into the air and hit the railing with a loud clack.

"Two options mate: Take revenge or save your bishop. I won't repeat myself. Run!

[Vio]

“Two options mate,” Kusatta Kotei informed him. The intonations of his odoriferous opponent’s oral outburst spoke of angst and frustration, but Brandon the Penguin could not quite understand what was provoking such a response from his ally. Of course, what he was actively failing to realise was that most people likely believed penguins to lack the ability to play such complex strategy games as chess. Maybe they thought they were better suited to draughts? Either way, this board game of black and white was becoming very back and forth, the mid game revealing to both sides that there was a lot more to be said for one another’s strategic minds that might have at first been prevalent. Here they were – a Viktasic White-Faced Penguin and a smelly street kid from North Blue – playing a game where power of mind was the key. Sure, neither was showing professional skill, but it would be clear to any onlookers that there was far more to these two than have met the eye.

“Take revenge, or save your Bishop.” The irony of the statement was that Brandon intended to do neither. So far, the defiant ebon effigy with the pointy head had achieved more by standing still in the middle of a warzone than it could have ever done by attacking or retreating. Indeed, the cook’s concentration seemed to be devoted to the goings on of this one piece and what purpose it served, but was failing to realise that it was acting as little more than a sacrificial lamb. To be honest, the awkward avian had not realised this either, but was playing around his own ignorance to a degree which could easily have been mistaken for intelligence. As simple as it was, the Bishop’s position on the board was neither an immediate help nor a true hindrance. If they wanted to, the rest of the game could go as normal with it standing there like a statue, but apparently that was not to be the case.

Oruri… With other plans in mind, the papery penguin slumped down into a sitting position, waggling his little feet in front of him and using his flippers to support his body as he observed the board. If it wasn’t so obvious already, Kusatta’s next move was going to be an impactful one, whether he liked it or not. There needed to be a compromise to an upcoming offensive; what piece could be moved to make life more difficult for the grey-haired youth’s ‘army’? All attempts at deterring an attack upon the Bishop had been met with resistance or capitalisation upon opportunities presented, almost as if it was his foe’s goal to take that stoic statuette that practically dominated the middle of the board. And here Brandon had always believed the objective was to capture the opponent’s King.

Kuu! And therein lay the answer to his Bishop’s salvation. Actually, it really didn’t, but Mister Penguin strongly believed it for whatever reason might have come to mind. Hopping back onto his feet, renewed determination burning in his feathered breast, the wily waterfowl stepped forward and assessed his thoughts more closely. There stood before his own King in black the piece that answered all questions in a game of chess – the Prawn. Pawn? Whichever! The little piece of which there were eight on each side! Aside from the ones whose actions had mirrored their opposite number (and one of which had long since been slain), the other five of his footmen stood still and awaited orders. Combined with their brother, who had taken but one step forward on the first turn, the Pawns formed a protective wall of bodies which no single piece in the game could hope to breach without consequence. Even the White Knights, whose rulings allowed them to leap over the heads of other pieces, would have to place themselves in the line of fire to even stand a chance of bypassing such a defence as this.

“Ororu Riiku!” Chirping incomprehensibly in a vain but surprisingly good attempt at announcing the coordinates of the move he was to make, Brandon leaned precariously over his side of the board. Calling upon the power of the Oru Oru no Mi to fold his midriff so as to avoid disaster, the little penguin grabbed the small and spherical head of the black Pawn that stood before his own King, guiding it forward a single square as a warming breeze swept with equal gentleness across the deck of the ship. The piece now stood on ‘E6’, a white tile that put the Pawn beside its brother-in-arms while maintaining the odd fence. But the most important part was that it now stood close to the defiant Bishop – the last obstacle to prevent Mister Kotei’s advance was nothing more than a humble soldier…

SPOILER: Click to show

{*Moves*}

Chess	Kusatta	Brandon
1	Pawn, D2 > D3	Pawn, D7 > D6
2	Pawn, G2 > G4	Pawn, G7 > G5
3	Pawn, H2 > H4	Pawn, H7 > H5
4	Pawn, H4 > G5: Pawn	Bishop, C8 > G4: Pawn
5	Pawn, F2 > F3	Bishop, G4 > F5
6	Bishop, F1 > H3	Knight, G8 > H6
7	Pawn, G5 > H6: Knight	Pawn, E7 > E6

[Blaka]

"Are you serious?!" the smelly chef gnarled. He was this close to smashing the defiant bishop, heck, the entire board to pieces with a dino punch.

Patience. Not exactly one of Mr. Kotei's virtues. The young man could hold himself together for a decent amount of time, sure, but decent wasn't very long. His mind was set on obliterating the black churchman. Yet again the figure was avoiding death by hiding behind - or rather next to - one of his weaker fellows. By now, the gray haired pirate would have gladly sent his own to kill the guy, even if that meant he'd lose them. The foe hadn't move out of the firing line after all. But as of yet his raging mind was still conflicted to give in to another feeling:

Compromise. There was another word Kusatta had never truly grasped before. Sure, he understood the concept of a pawn sacrifice, but as of yet none of his truly valuable pieces had fallen at Brandon's hand. After striking the bishop down, his own piece clergyman would meet his end. The bird was not willing to withdraw at any cost, that was clear now. Instead, he seemed willing to pay with the lifes of any of his soldiers as long as he could further fuel his First Mate's rage! Once his wrath was avoken the former streetkid tended to make not so careful decisions. However, the penguin clearly had forgotten what had transpired earlier this day. Or maybe he had not and thought this would work a second time: Getting him enranged was the exact same strategy Nezumi Tori had used against him. To his avian adversary's demise, Kusatta had learned from his mistakes - at least so far that he recognized the strategy.

"I see now." No friendly rivalry was in his voice anymore. In his mind, the navigator was shamelessly exploiting his crewmates weakness. "I see what you are doing..." Just maybe, he thought to himself, he shouldn't smash the board. It was likely an effective weapon against an insolent penguin's skull. "I'm not going to give you that one."

Alas, Kusatta Kotei chose patience over compromise. For now. The pawn in front of his king moved two steps forward, joining the other figures who were threatening the enemy reverend. Little did the cook know that turn had very likely sealed the game in Brandon's favor. His own patience was laughable against that of the black queen.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} Pawn E2 - E4. Figured out what you are doing, we can play this game to its end.