A few days ago, an anonymous note came from the chess club inviting Ren to engage in a private match against an entirely unknown opponent and stated nothing about names, details, just time, and place. Something about it interested him, and he accepted without hesitation.
Ren poised his hands above the pieces on the chessboard, a sharp gaze now went into the game ahead. The dim room was laden with tense atmosphere. But he had played many chess matches before and today was different. This time his opponent seated across the table was an extraordinary person-an enigma.
That mask was the sole thing encompassing the identity of that which concealed their face from their visible eyes- calculating cold eyes that seemed to bury themselves right through the air that separated them. Ren stared at the masked figure, and somehow he felt something funny about it, something very familiar, almost, but not quite.
Around them were entire worlds of silence. To one side, staring at the game with hawk-like attention, was Kenji-the brightest hope of Japan in chess. Always analyzing, always looking for weaknesses, Kenji's eyes, however, were fixed for once on the masked champion, expression lighting up in a peculiar way as if he was just waiting for something or someone to make a move.
But it was not just Kenji who watched from a distance. A girl stood at the very end of the room, thus being practically invisible to the others inside. She was very plainly dressed, as if trying to hide herself, but her sharp eyes were not peeling from sight of Ren or the masked figure across from him. Expression unreadable, gaze intense, it seemed she was observing something beyond the chess match-something deeper, more significant.
Ren shifted his attention back to the board. Fierce as he might be, Ren had never been intimidated by the masked champion: yet there was something unmistakably uncanny about this masked champion. The moves were solid-a few precise-thoughtful, and it felt to Ren like each measure shift of the pieces was part of a much larger dynamic strategy.
The game was running, and Ren's mind was foggy. Every move of his was planned with care; the masked champion, however, seemed to see right through any of them. This was like that person sitting at the other end of the board knew how he thought, how exactly he had played. Ren was struggling to keep a straight face over it, but something just felt odd in his chest.
Kenji shifted slightly but maintained his gaze on the board. Something in his face-an almost unspoken tension in the air-was palpable. Ren wondered at that odd moment why Kenji was here-to watch the master of the mask? Or something more?
The mysterious girl also watched the fight with a glowing attention, though with silence, her eyes darting between the game and Ren. Almost ethereal, it seemed like she was keeping her eyes not really on the game but on something about to be.
"The tension grew in the room with every move, Ren furrowing his brow in an effort to break that stalwart defense. Yes, whenever he thought he heard an opening, that faceless figure would close it with precision, leaving him no room to breathe at all. They sat there in silence, waiting for everything-in that last breath-before one of them would finally break."
His pulse could feel the beat picking up. So close was the game, and a decision had to be made: Would he outwit the masked champion, or was he about to get outplayed by someone who seemed to know him better than he knew himself?
The mysterious girl was watching, eyes narrowing slightly, as though something was about to break. Kenji, too, opened his gaze wide and filled it with anticipation. The whole room held its breath, and at that moment, it seemed as if the whole world was waiting for Ren to make his next move.