Sora subsumed himself with the new unfortunate situation surrounding him, that it was merely yet another hurdle he had to overcome in contemplation of returning to his tranquil days of gaming solitude. Sora arose from his seat and returned the food tray and thanked the non-interactive NPC food recipient over the counter for the delicious meal and headed straight towards the exit as his next stop. The fixated gazes inside the school cafeteria of every female player followed Sora’s every step closely in regard of him leaving, while steadily increasing his own pace to more quickly escape the clutches of the amounting pressured situation he was currently in. On his way out on the swift turn around the corner Sora had successfully managed to both bump and collapse with someone of unknown identity until he could regain his balance and look back up, and only then had he noticed it was the shy one, Yui Iwase.

“Ah, I apologize,” Sora spoke out in an apologetic manner while reaching out an extending helping hand to aid her back on her feet.

Yui look terrified back at the hand like it had some evil emanating intentions attached to it and started to form fragmented teardrops in her eyes in which were ready to burst at any second’s notice. Sora patiently waited without moving, hence he was essentially just as appalled and discouraged by both the situation and thought of making a girl cry on him, at the same time as not knowing how to deal with such an event if it were to occur. Yui put herself together slowly during the course of two exceedingly long minutes and managed to withhold shedding of the built up fragmented teardrops. A brief few seconds later Yui took a deep breath and reached out to accept Sora’s helping out.

“Thank you,” Yui hushed thankfully colored with a blushed face in embarrassment of the entire event taking place.

“Are you okay...” Sora attempted to ask Yui while she paced backwards, seeking refuge behind a corner. “Are you okay?” Sora gave it another shot followed by a brief sigh hence she was clearly more frightened than he was of her, in which gave Sora a strange sense of relief that he might be able to communicate with this kind of female character.

Yui nodded in response to confirm her own well-being to Sora’s question of concern.

“I am so sorry, again, and I apologize for bumping into you,” Sora apologized once more properly bowing down to Yui as a heart filled formality.

Yui swiftly waved her hands sideways as to indicate, “It is okay, do not worry about it”.

“Could you show me where the second floor Chess room is held at?” Sora carefully smiled through making an utmost and mindful effort to put the least hostile possible attempt of an expression in his face on the off chance of scaring her off again or further.

Yui gave it a minute’s thought while bumping both her index fingers openly in an endearing manner of display of both shyness and consideration of the situation slowly. Yui then gave a moderate nod, serving as a type of confirmation after calmly assessing the situation and had come to a decision.

On their way over to the supposed room of challenge which had Airi patiently waiting for him to show up as it was about the given time they had agreed upon, Yui had not spoken a single word while she was navigating Sora forth across the second floor. Every time Sora had attempted to speak a word or two Yui immediately distanced herself further and then returned after a brief moment of passing to the original distance she had set in between them while continuously walking on through, as that appeared to be her max range of comfort zone in ratio perspective of being in distance to a male being. Silenced followed until the very moment when Yui had clearly distanced herself behind yet another corner and pointed at a door that had the sign of “Chess Room” above it. Sora knocked on the door gently with a courteous intent to inform he had arrived while turning around back to the corner where Yui was taking refuge at.

“Thank you… Yui?” Sora thanked the empty corridor with Yui no longer behind the corner.

“Yui?” Airi asked with the door opened which had slipped through Sora’s self-awareness as his mind at drifted at the disappearance of Yui Iwase. “Did you force her or something to take you here? She is inherently shy and very male-phobic. I did not know you took pleasure in torturing the tormented and weak,” Airi inquired and added as she walked into the room.

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Sora got slightly ticked off at the last comment of having a girl misunderstanding his entire personality. More so considering the fact he had never taken any inferior gamer for granted or self pleasure in not aiding them while having a no bullying policy on the side.

“Have a seat,” Airi escorted Sora to one of the seat’s that was in between the table and chess board on top, and then scurried off to prepare a cup of tea as a general taught courtesy of taking someone’s company in.

In spite of viewing Sora as an enemy, Airi would not allow herself to behave any differently regardless who the individual may be.

“Nice room you have got here, it has a personal touch and the air has been fully filled with your presence and instilled aura. I can tell you really treasure and take care of it,” Sora complemented both the room and Airi for the utmost care and atmosphere that the room inhabited, while receiving and taking a sip of the tea.

“Thank you, and I hope the tea is to your liking. Shall we begin?” Airi casually replied as she had lowered her guard around Sora and had noticed he had a different look in his eyes in comparison to the school cafeteria.

“Sure, in a second, first I just want to ask you something,” Sora responded then took a moment’s breath. “The king can essentially be seen or regarded as a dungeon boss, am I right? And the rest could be seen as his minions?” Sora inquired Airi of an informative take on the matter concerning chess in a game based view.

“Right, it is corrected if you would reformat it to a game based view on the matter of observing the chess pieces,” Airi responded to Sora’s inquiry with a pondering look to his questions.

“And if you were to slay the dungeon boss it would, in essence or in other words you win correct?” Sora added with an excited grin if he had comprehend all the rules to a self paved victory.

“Correct,” Airi humoured another of Sora’s question while appearing a bit indignant at his self resounding confidence of understanding how to emerge victorious at her own best game. “Shall we begin?” Airi suggested and resumed her previous starting question while putting emphasis on it as if Sora had no choice but to start with further ado now that she had humoured him for thus long.

Sora nodded and Airi hand gestured that since he was given the white chess pieces he would have the starting move to commence the game at his own will whenever he was ready. Sora moved and positioned his pawn from E2 to E4.

“Chess is a boring when it adheres to a finite rule of two-player, zero-sum and perfect information game theory,” Sora sighed.

Airi immediately reacted and stopped her positioning of a pawn in response mid-air.

“How are you familiar with those terms, you implied earlier of never having played the game by asking to be familiarized with the rules?” Airi said with a startled look on her face, as if she had encountered a monster and felt almost immediate regret of challenging him to a board of chess or a potent danger through her sharpened instincts.

Airi shook her head and put herself back together calmly.

“It makes sense logically and theoretically speaking?” Sora answered after a brief pause.

Airi ignored Sora’s last sentence and the game resumed abruptly and continued during the course uninterruptedly with a medium turned pace. The game continued in the fashion from an outsider’s perspective that appeared Airi would be the one taking the aggressive stance, whereas Sora would take a more defensive one with it slightly leaning to a more balanced approach.

After a long fought of forty minutes, a small smile started to form in the corner of Airi’s mouth, a face brimming with confidence that she had the upper hand at last and was soon to achieve her victory. However Sora’s hand moved a piece in response and a pale expression quickly grew on Airi’s face. A face of how could she possibly be pushed all of the sudden by Sora, and in a matter of fact be cornered based on her next move, Airi desperately searched with her eyes for an answer. Nonetheless a moment of pause had finally lowered the pace of the game as Airi attempted to fathom how she had ended up in an advantageous situation if you would just count the pieces and overall scenario altogether, yet had fail to see how badly she had been misled and slowly and inattentively courted by Sora’s end-game schemes.

“I believe it is your turn,” Sora grinned at Airi, patiently waiting for her next move.

“How can this be? I am being pressured by a mere newcomer in chess. Me of all people, how are you doing this?” Airi retorted with both a flustered tone and face.

Following yet another concise moment, Airi had lastly let go of the piece and put it on the board, conceding her turn through making a move. Sora fleetly moved his left middle and index finger with a piece in between and repositioned it on the board.

“Checkmate,” Sora sighed in relief and resumed his grin towards Airi, who was facing down the chess board in prior realization of the Sora’s final move, covering both her blue eyes and unseen face expression at this given time through her blonde hair.