Mission Dossier #28384 said:
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It was a bright day.. Too bright, and the boy's pasty skin was dying in the heat. Yama was slightly irritated for the student that he was supposed to meet was already fifteen minutes late. Leave it a pro shogi player to be late, they always were so full of themselves. Thinking that they were intellectually superior. Yama sighed, his right foot tapping as he gave a quick glance to both his left and his right before stepping back into the shaded hut like structure. His academy instructor had told him that he was to meet the student here. A young woman by the name of Shigutsu Watanabari. Feh.. Even her name was utterly ridiculous. Another five minutes past and Yama was just getting ready to leave when suddenly the flap folded over the open door and in walked two figures. The young girl who must have been the same age as him and clutching a shogi board in her hands, and her assistant carrying a parasol over the girl while he himself was profusely pouring with sweat. Yama looked her up and down with a stern eye. The more he got himself into, the more weird his life seemed to become.
It had been roughly a week since his spar with Megumi and his choice meeting of Sora. Those two were the closest things he had ever had to acquaintances and he often found himself thinking of both of them with a semblance of pride and good fortune. After all, as he had said before they were the generation to carry on the Leaf village into it's new prime. In that time the boy had also come across rare Genjutsu textbooks that he had found in a dusty corner of the Academy library that he had been pouring over into the late nights, he had picked up quite a few tricks of the trade and at this current point in his training his knack for the Shinobi arts of the mind far outweighed his other abilities. During his training with the Nara clan he had also picked up on a few new hidden techniques as well, including infusing Ninjutsu inside of one own's shadow in order to release it at a later time. The point being that Yama had been in a particularly good spot as of late, which was certainly why his instructor had given him this assignment.
He realized that by this point he had been paying no mind to the girl, and although grumpy from the heat could not let it get ahold of his better nature. Sticking his hand out he greeted the girl by saying, "Yama, you're Shigutsu. Pleasantries aside, you ready to get smoked?" He gave her a tight playful smile as he smiled more boldly back and took a seat. Dismissing her assistant she began to lay out the shogi board and assemble the pieces as she began to speak. "I'm sure you understand the rules of shogi, however a quick rebreather would probably do you well yes?" Yama nodded, it HAD in fact been quite some time since he had last played the game of games.
"Well it's quite simple see. The board is nine by nine for a total of eighty-one squares. Both players objective is to capture the king, to do so we each receive the following pieces." Laying each piece out turn by turn as she explained them, "Two golden generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances, one rook, one bishop, and nine pawns." The board finally assembled as she finished explaining the rules. All said and done, it was decided that Yama would be on the "black" side and hence got to move second to the girl.
After moving one of her pawns forwards one space. Yama felt his brain working a million miles a minute. Ever since his training with the Nara's he had been taught a special way of looking at things, in a sense learning how to best generalize any scenario in order to come up with not only one, but multiple possible outcomes. The current record went to Nara Issan who had been able to accurately give seven hundred and sixty two possible outcomes to a war scenario. Yama's training had made him capable of at least five, which helped greatly in his current endeavor. The girl's skill was no joke, she had the years of practice on him after all but as the game continued they both began to wear each other down piece by piece.
Finally after fifteen minutes, both players were down to their kings, and on the girl's side a golden general, her bishop and her lance. On Yama's side he still possessed his king, a silver general, his rook and a pawn. It seemed more than obvious that the girl was going to win and it reflected from the smug grin she held on her face. However, what she had failed to realize was that Yama had his pawn in a promotion zone and using subterfuge to turn her attention away from his pawn with his silver general he was able to promote his pawn into a lance. Thus securing his win and ending the game.
The girl was in an absolute huffy as she said not a word and packed the board, yelling at her assistant who came in (and looked the shadow of death himself from sun exposure) and snatched the parasol from him. Opening it and tutting her behind towards Yama before leaving. The boy's face dropped into one of absolute nonchalance and he decided to sit back and take a few moments before going to report to his instructor that he had won the game.
All in all?
This day had been entirely too much of a hassle...<i></i>