“What’s going oooon!? My soldiers are dying one after another!”
“Guuh…! I won’t let you! I won’t let that happen!”
“Fuhahahaha! I can read your petty thoughts as clear as day! Cry, scream, wail! Just dieee!”
“Waaah! S-Stop…!”
Some time after dinner, Yuki spews out words like a demon king trampling the world. She animatedly waves her hands around, dancing pieces across the chess board. After cleaning up from dinner, a chess board had been set up on the table.
Yuki sat across from her little brother Haru, who looked like a brave hero challenging the cruel demon king, but it was Haru who was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
It was Yuki who held dominance like a ruthless demon king, utterly crushing the enemy pieces.
“Fuhahaha! Haru! You left yourself wide open!”
“Big sister is a devil…!”
“There’s more! Don’t think I’ll go easy just because you’re crying and lowering your guard! The tragedy has only just begun!”
“S-Stop…! Knock it off…!”
“Hey! Yuki! Don’t bully your brother!”
Their mother Anya steps in to stop it. Haru’s position had been devastatingly ransacked, a one-sided thrashing. It was a massacre. Haru collapses limply to the floor, devoid of light in his eyes, completely exhausted. Yuki’s chess play had shattered her little brother’s heart with its ruthlessness.
A chess boom had hit the whole family right now. Yuki and Anya had the clear goal of wanting to defeat Zeke, so their morale burned brightly as they fought intensely. As for Haru, he was playing chess just because the whole family was doing it.
After dinner in the casual evening hours, the three encircled a single chess board.
“Okay…how about this problem?”
Anya holds a book in one hand, arranging pieces on the board according to the reference. The children stare intently at the arranged pieces.
It was a chess puzzle, like a quiz with checkmate problems. For example, problems like “Checkmate the black king in 5 moves from this board state.” The point was to drive the opponent’s king into checkmate, like a puzzle version of chess.
“I haven’t looked at the answer either.”
“Anya said that and, like the children, brought her face close to the board, thinking carefully. While doing so, Zeke came out of his room and approached the three huddled together, as if forming a trio.
“Oh, chess problems. Can I join too?”
“No, Dad! If we all do the same problem, the gap won’t close, right?”
“That’s right, Zeke! We’re a secret team aiming to defeat you! Don’t join us!”
“…Well, I guess.”
Rejected by the female members of the family, Zeke shrugged his shoulders and sat on the sofa a little away from the table. Knowing that he was being rejected for a reason and not being coldly disregarded, Zeke still leaned weakly and carelessly against the backrest of the sofa. Maybe he’d get scolded even if he read a chess book, so he started reading a newspaper. Halle glanced worriedly at her father from time to time, but Zeke waved his hand reassuringly.
“Hmm?”
“Hmm…”
“…Hmm?”
With small groans, the three twisted their heads over the chess problem. As their dilemma deepened, their heads swayed right and left, trying to move unmoving pieces desperately in their minds. With little growls, the three continued to ponder with nods and murmurs.”.
“….We could really use more firepower.”
“True. This lack of forces isn’t my style.”
“Battles are about numbers. Numbers. The correct answer to this problem is probably [Rather than focusing on cornering the opponent’s king right now, first work on bolstering troops].”
“I see, preparations are important in battle.”
“Big sister, mom, what are you talking about?”
As Yuki and Anya’s opinions start going out of control, Haru interjects to snap them out of it.
Standing in a row, the family of three slowly solve the chess puzzle while thinking over it. Zeke watches over them from the sofa a small distance away. Noticing the kids furrowing their brows and going “hmm…” Anya takes a step back and calmly gazes at the kids’ backs.
Zeke realizes Anya has already solved the problem. She solved it and took a step back, quietly waiting without saying anything for the kids to reach the solution themselves. Anya watches the children with a faint smile on her face.
Seeing this, Zeke feels a peculiar emotion well up in his chest–Ah I see, Anya’s a mother too…For him who had known her wild nature for so long, the sight of her patiently waiting for the children had an almost mystical gentleness.
Seeing the figure of a mother tenderly watching over her children, Zeke’s cheeks slacken. That’s how the three worked hard together on their chess studies, aiming to defeat their father. The chirping of insects can be heard in the cool family home on this early summer night.
The family’s chess studies continue. They play actual matches too, honing their skill.
“Fuhahahaha! Yuki! You left yourself wide open! I’ll take your queen in seven moves!”
“Waaah! Mom’s a demon…!”
“There’s more! Don’t think tears and loosening your guard will make me go easy! The tragedy has just begun!”
“S-Stop…! Knock it off…!”
“Hey! Don’t bully your daughter! Anya!”
Zeke steps in to stop it. Anya and Yuki were facing off, and Anya was beating the pulp out of her dear daughter. Yuki’s position had been gruesomely ravaged, a complete thrashing. It was a massacre. Zeke heaves a huge sigh. And here he thought he’d seen a beautiful motherly side to Anya earlier…
But Anya would always be Anya, after all.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
One day, it happened suddenly.
“Ah…I won…”
In the middle of an ordinary afternoon at home, Anya murmured in a dazed voice. She didn’t quite understand what had happened yet. The fact simply slipped from her mouth in a voice, and it took a moment for the feeling to sink in.
“Yessss!”
The edges of Anya’s mouth gradually turn upward.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yeeeesss!”
Anya shouts at the top of her lungs from the pit of her stomach. Her opponent was Zeke. The long-awaited victory over Zeke had suddenly become reality that day.
As Anya energetically stands up, she thrusts both fists into the air. The recoil knocks over the chair with a clatter, but Anya doesn’t care about that. Remaining on her feet, her eyes are still fixed intently on the chess board, gazing at the chess formation of her victory, joy filling her chest.
“I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it!”
Jumping up and down until her face turns bright red, she openly displays her elation with her entire body. Her behavior was no different than when she was a teenager.
“Yesssss!”
Anya opens her mouth wide and shouts her delight aloud. On the other hand, Zeke listlessly slumps back into the chair, staring at the ceiling as if to sigh deeply. He feels frustrated at losing, but understands this was inevitable.
In the beginning, Anya had almost no chess experience. Meanwhile, Zeke had studied chess, and that difference in experience allowed him to defeat Anya. So it was only natural that once Anya spent time studying chess, gained chess experience, and reached the same level as Zeke, Anya’s innate intelligence would give her the advantage.
Nothing particularly huge had changed. However, this outcome was obvious.
“Pheww…”
Zeke heaves another big sigh. Then he gets up and goes to the kitchen to brew coffee. Enough for two. Carrying mugs in both hands, he sets the coffee down next to Anya, whose eyes are still sparkling brightly and whose cheeks are still flushed.
“Phew…” Anya also sinks into the chair, sighing as if the strength has left her body. She realizes she had knocked the chair over earlier and rights it before limply sitting down.
“Phew…”
“Phew…”
They drink the coffee Zeke brewed and both deeply relax. A quiet moment passes by. The only sound echoing in the room is the ticking of the clock. Releasing the tension in their shoulders, they slowly sip their coffee.
“….You know, somehow, we haven’t changed at all since we were kids.”
“….Maybe you’re right.”
They speak nostalgically.
They reminisce about the past–Anya crying and throwing a tantrum after her first test loss at cram school, getting mad and challenging him over and over, jumping for joy at her first victory. It wasn’t just Anya. Zeke had gone along with her antics like in the past, spending time together no different than now.
“When I saw how you reacted earlier, it reminded me of our high school days.”
“Huh, really? Was I the same as back then? Me?”
“Yeah, nothing had changed.”
“Oh geez, how embarrassing. Hey, forget about it.”
“Can’t do that. After what I just saw, I probably won’t forget it for another 30 years.”
“Oh nooo…”
Anya groans.
“….But you haven’t changed at all either, have you? Your gestures, speech, attitude…”
“Does it look that way from the side too?”
“Yeah. You’ve always had that uncle-like vibe, you know?”
“….Gimme a break.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Zeke says that. While he isn’t very self-aware, those mannerisms truly haven’t changed since the past. He is a reincarnator. Since childhood, the majority of his personality had been set, so in that sense, Zeke had changed even less than Anya.
“I wonder what being an adult really means…”
Anya murmurs.
“Have we really become adults?”
“….Who knows?”
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