Monochrome Checkmate - Epilogue 3
Mar. 8th, 2024 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivalriesSeason: Spring
---
Location: Garden Terrace
Eichi: But you know, I thought he and I were the same. With his small and delicate frame, he looked more like a girl...
Within our patriarchal society, where we are judged by the standard of physical strength, he was often treated with contempt for his physique.
I'd thought he was a hardened, frustrated individual with an inferiority complex simmering away beneath the surface.
And I believed him a kindred soul who would dream the same dream, chase the same ambition, and speed toward the same destination as I.
I fancied myself sympathetic to his plight. To my embarrassment, though, I was mistaken.
I imagined we could sympathize, support each other, and fight together... So I had him take care of things I wanted to do while I was sick and confined to the hospital.
I wanted to revolutionize Yumenosaki... to revolutionize the entire idol industry. For this, I needed to amputate all that was rotted and diseased.
Of course, I was in and out of the hospital during that time; there was no way I could accomplish it all on my own.
Not to mention, it was an experimental plan with no precedent to draw from... I wasn't quite confident, so I had him try it first.
I planted ideas here and there, both true and false, and used the student council, among other things, to formulate a new system...
I worked my secret schemes both overtly and covertly in an attempt to manipulate his actions.
The trial run went rather smoothly, I'll have you know.
The plan was to first divide up the swollen Chess and cut away the infection with a Judgment... and then eradicate the enemy—the source of the disease—with a Duel.
J for "Judgment", D for "Duel", O for "other" DreamFes lives...
The student council labeled each type of performance with alphabetical letters for convenience.
The traces of that system can still be seen on DreamFes paperwork today—labels such as S1, A1, and the like.
But that's a topic for another time.
In essence, the DreamFes system was still in its experimental phase back then... It was a prototype that needed refining, and I did not expect it to work exactly as imagined.
So, in case of failure, I centered the plan around someone else who could take the fall—that someone else being Tsukinaga-kun.
He was a stand-in protagonist for me. His efforts yielded copious amounts of practical data, and rid the school of much of its rot.
We may use "war" or other such violent words to describe it, but in truth, there were no actual casualties.
The defeated lived on in comfort, though I did turn them into my supporters in the revolution that followed.
Tsukinaga-kun, however, kept on advancing beyond my expectations. His presence grew too conspicuous...
And so, I arranged Checkmate to make a clean break. My condition had stabilized by then, anyway.
Checkmate... The only DreamFes to ever be labeled with a "C" was the first crossroads in our history.
From there, the new protagonists took to the stage. I put in motion my plan to subjugate the "Five Eccentrics".
Tsukinaga-kun was well aware he'd exhausted his role and was now facing his decline.
In defeating his former comrades, he'd amassed a shroud of resentment so thick that it made any further DreamFes victory impossible.
Even so, he raised his sword in justice like Don Quixote and continued to fight against the foul villains. [1]
As his interests mostly aligned with ours, he did fight alongside us at times.
However, that relationship did not last long.
He must have caught on to my intentions. He directly accused me several times of being the mastermind, if I do recall? Well, it hardly concerned me.
He was backed into a corner by then. None would lend an ear to the words of a once-great hero now hated and ostracized.
In fact, most turned their sympathy to me, worried that I had to deal with such "strange accusations".
I used every one of his actions as kindling for revolution. He soon burned to ashes and disappeared... all as I had planned.
You were deceived like the naked emperor of fables, used and shamed like convenient tools. I would offer my condolences, but I imagine you don't want my sympathy. [2]
It was war, after all. The deceived are at fault, and the survivors are righteous.
It did bring pain to my heart, but I had to console myself as I stood atop your corpses...
All I can do is assert that... at the very least, your sacrifices were not in vain.
Izumi: ......
Eichi: Heh. Both you and I achieved our dreams by using Tsukinaga-kun's genius to our advantage.
You are an accomplice, Sena-kun. I am being sincere when I say I sympathize with you.
I do hope we can be friendly from here on out. How would you like to shake on it?
...Though I would ask you to refrain from any hurtful excuse to refuse, like saying you don't want to catch my illness through my hands.
Izumi: I wouldn't be that rude. Besides, he'd probably get mad at me if I hurt you.
Eichi: Right, then... a handshake it is. Now, shall we call this agreement settled and return to the battlefield? Or would you rather see our chess game through to the end?
Izumi: Neither you nor I have time to play around, so it's fine. We can leave it unfinished.
This isn't any of my business, anyway. It's not like he died; there's still a tiny chance he'll come back...
It's a pain to duel on his behalf, after all, so I'll just leave the rest to him.
Eichi: ...Do you truly believe Tsukinaga-kun will return?
Izumi: Well, I can't predict the future. I just think it'd be nice if he did.
See you around, Tenshouin. It still gets chilly after sundown, so go off and hunker down somewhere warm. You're still recovering, right? Take it easy.
Eichi: You're too kind. Indeed, I've finally escaped my hospital room... Perhaps I shall enjoy myself out for a little longer.
Cock Robin has perished, his lovely song heard no longer. Yet his melody still echoes beautifully in the past—and, perhaps, ever on into the future.
---
[1] Don Quixote is a Spanish literature classic about a man who deludes himself into being a knight of the golden age of knightdom. ↑
[2] In case you haven't read Rebellion (which you seriously should if you're reading Checkmate imho :eye: not like it's one of my favorite stories ever or something), the Japanese title of the fable "The Emperor's New Clothes" (裸の王様; hadaka no ousama) can be directly translated as "The Naked King". Leo often refers to himself as the "naked king" in older events. ↑
---
< Epilogue 2 || Masterlist
---
Location: Garden Terrace
Eichi: But you know, I thought he and I were the same. With his small and delicate frame, he looked more like a girl...
Within our patriarchal society, where we are judged by the standard of physical strength, he was often treated with contempt for his physique.
I'd thought he was a hardened, frustrated individual with an inferiority complex simmering away beneath the surface.
And I believed him a kindred soul who would dream the same dream, chase the same ambition, and speed toward the same destination as I.
I fancied myself sympathetic to his plight. To my embarrassment, though, I was mistaken.
I imagined we could sympathize, support each other, and fight together... So I had him take care of things I wanted to do while I was sick and confined to the hospital.
I wanted to revolutionize Yumenosaki... to revolutionize the entire idol industry. For this, I needed to amputate all that was rotted and diseased.
Of course, I was in and out of the hospital during that time; there was no way I could accomplish it all on my own.
Not to mention, it was an experimental plan with no precedent to draw from... I wasn't quite confident, so I had him try it first.
I planted ideas here and there, both true and false, and used the student council, among other things, to formulate a new system...
I worked my secret schemes both overtly and covertly in an attempt to manipulate his actions.
The trial run went rather smoothly, I'll have you know.
The plan was to first divide up the swollen Chess and cut away the infection with a Judgment... and then eradicate the enemy—the source of the disease—with a Duel.
J for "Judgment", D for "Duel", O for "other" DreamFes lives...
The student council labeled each type of performance with alphabetical letters for convenience.
The traces of that system can still be seen on DreamFes paperwork today—labels such as S1, A1, and the like.
But that's a topic for another time.
In essence, the DreamFes system was still in its experimental phase back then... It was a prototype that needed refining, and I did not expect it to work exactly as imagined.
So, in case of failure, I centered the plan around someone else who could take the fall—that someone else being Tsukinaga-kun.
He was a stand-in protagonist for me. His efforts yielded copious amounts of practical data, and rid the school of much of its rot.
We may use "war" or other such violent words to describe it, but in truth, there were no actual casualties.
The defeated lived on in comfort, though I did turn them into my supporters in the revolution that followed.
Tsukinaga-kun, however, kept on advancing beyond my expectations. His presence grew too conspicuous...
And so, I arranged Checkmate to make a clean break. My condition had stabilized by then, anyway.
Checkmate... The only DreamFes to ever be labeled with a "C" was the first crossroads in our history.
From there, the new protagonists took to the stage. I put in motion my plan to subjugate the "Five Eccentrics".
Tsukinaga-kun was well aware he'd exhausted his role and was now facing his decline.
In defeating his former comrades, he'd amassed a shroud of resentment so thick that it made any further DreamFes victory impossible.
Even so, he raised his sword in justice like Don Quixote and continued to fight against the foul villains. [1]
As his interests mostly aligned with ours, he did fight alongside us at times.
However, that relationship did not last long.
He must have caught on to my intentions. He directly accused me several times of being the mastermind, if I do recall? Well, it hardly concerned me.
He was backed into a corner by then. None would lend an ear to the words of a once-great hero now hated and ostracized.
In fact, most turned their sympathy to me, worried that I had to deal with such "strange accusations".
I used every one of his actions as kindling for revolution. He soon burned to ashes and disappeared... all as I had planned.
You were deceived like the naked emperor of fables, used and shamed like convenient tools. I would offer my condolences, but I imagine you don't want my sympathy. [2]
It was war, after all. The deceived are at fault, and the survivors are righteous.
It did bring pain to my heart, but I had to console myself as I stood atop your corpses...
All I can do is assert that... at the very least, your sacrifices were not in vain.
Izumi: ......
Eichi: Heh. Both you and I achieved our dreams by using Tsukinaga-kun's genius to our advantage.
You are an accomplice, Sena-kun. I am being sincere when I say I sympathize with you.
I do hope we can be friendly from here on out. How would you like to shake on it?
...Though I would ask you to refrain from any hurtful excuse to refuse, like saying you don't want to catch my illness through my hands.
Izumi: I wouldn't be that rude. Besides, he'd probably get mad at me if I hurt you.
Eichi: Right, then... a handshake it is. Now, shall we call this agreement settled and return to the battlefield? Or would you rather see our chess game through to the end?
Izumi: Neither you nor I have time to play around, so it's fine. We can leave it unfinished.
This isn't any of my business, anyway. It's not like he died; there's still a tiny chance he'll come back...
It's a pain to duel on his behalf, after all, so I'll just leave the rest to him.
Eichi: ...Do you truly believe Tsukinaga-kun will return?
Izumi: Well, I can't predict the future. I just think it'd be nice if he did.
See you around, Tenshouin. It still gets chilly after sundown, so go off and hunker down somewhere warm. You're still recovering, right? Take it easy.
Eichi: You're too kind. Indeed, I've finally escaped my hospital room... Perhaps I shall enjoy myself out for a little longer.
Cock Robin has perished, his lovely song heard no longer. Yet his melody still echoes beautifully in the past—and, perhaps, ever on into the future.
---
[1] Don Quixote is a Spanish literature classic about a man who deludes himself into being a knight of the golden age of knightdom. ↑
[2] In case you haven't read Rebellion (which you seriously should if you're reading Checkmate imho :eye: not like it's one of my favorite stories ever or something), the Japanese title of the fable "The Emperor's New Clothes" (裸の王様; hadaka no ousama) can be directly translated as "The Naked King". Leo often refers to himself as the "naked king" in older events. ↑
---
< Epilogue 2 || Masterlist
