"Ramna, have you ever heard of it over at your place?" Gleek asks as she brings out a unexpectedly large plank of wood.
I look curiously at the setup. I've played a fair share of board games before, but this was something new. A twenty-four by twenty-four board. Three times as large as one of our most popular board games. She then brings out another bag full of pieces, which makes it clear to me what type of game we're playing.
"I probably understand the gist of it, but I don't understand how a board so massive could possibly make for some decent strategy." I say.
"Just listen, there is a reason the board is so big. I think the traditional way for these board games is to capture the king piece right? But in this game it's a little different." She holds up a small pebble of a piece. "This is your 'king' so to say, but the objective isn't to trap then capture. You need to bring your king to the other side of the board to win. Protecting it with all your other pieces along the way, while at the same time protecting your side of the board from any push, and if the king does get captured. Your opponent gets to move it wherever on the board they like. Maybe setting it all the way back, or trapping it in a designated formation, or maybe even bringing it closer to their side of the board. "
I hold my hand to my chin. "Go on." I say, interested in the concept.
"You have three moves per turn. You cannot move any piece 2 times in a row, except for your king. Which you can move 3 times in any direction at once if you'd like." Gleek starts. I begin thinking, if that's the case then the endgame where most of the pieces are captured would be very boring on such a giant board.
"However, you can use up a move to return a captured piece whoever you want on a board, except directly putting the enemy king in check." Gleek says as if she could read my mind. "And depending on the piece, you may have to use up two or three moves all at once in order to return the piece."
"And finally to break up stalemates, the win zone the king needs to reach steadily shrinks as the game progresses. Moving down with each turn." Gleek then begins explaining the twelve different types of pieces, each having their individual movements and directions they can go.
...
"Who is this game designed for? This sounds impossible to just pick up and play, way to many small tricks and caveats to be fun." I say bluntly.
"Are you sure you aren't just stupid? It's pretty popular among both children and adults. Most people, including me, can play it just fine." Thork butts in on the conversation.
"I'm not stupid... I just... gotta be missing something here, there's no way this game can be fun or popular." I say dumbfounded.
"Busting out of that castle like that was pretty stupid. I think you overestimate yourself a little pal, and I'm pretty stupid."
Gleek rests her face on her hand as she watches us argue. A small grin on her face.
"... wait a second, one quick question, are you guys allowed to use your Anku while playing this?" I suddenly realize why this game was so complicated.
"You don't?" Thork says without thinking, he truly was dumb without his Anku.
"Of course not you dumbass, I don't have any Anku that I can make myself smarter with. All I got is the brain I was born with."
"Cain, just come here and try it." Gleek says. "Or we can stare at the ceiling all day, your choice."
I sigh, "Well, I think I got some idea of what to do." I sit down cross legged and focus on the board.
"This just isn't fair." I frustratingly watch as Gleek takes my king and places it all the way back to my side of the board. Her king just a couple tiles away from the win zone.
"Damn you are pretty stupid!" Thork annoyingly grins as Gleek wins the game.
"Gleek, mind sitting aside the next round?" I say, having enough of Thork's trash talk.
"Oh? I am the leader here you know? You sure you want to be embarrassed like that?"
I move my seer straight behind Thork's enemy lines on the very first move and smile. "Don't underestimate a prodigy like me."
I quietly hold my head down as Thork prances around laughing like a monkey. "Neither of you would beat me if you didn't use your Anku." I growl, a competitive fire lit inside my stomach.
"I wasn't." Gleek casually breaks my heart.
I drop down to the ground devastated.
"Didn't think you were the type to get hung up over this." Gleek says.
"One more!" I yell and jump right back by the table.
"Oh, sorry, that was the last game I have time for, need to run a couple errands in preparation for the escape." Gleek said before hopping out of the room.
"That's fine... that's completely fine." I say while reorganizing the board. "Thork!" I yell, before looking around confused.
Huh? Why did they both just leave?
I shrug my shoulders and make the first move.
I stare at the board in focus as the two of them return at dawn.
"You're kidding me right? Were you playing by yourself this entire time?" Thork said before I run up to him and drag him down to the ground.
"Don't tell me you're that annoying type that can't accept a loss and will keep playing someone over and over again until you win right?"
"Your move Thork." I say.
"Oi, guys like you ruin the fun in every game." Thork said as he makes his first three moves.
Same first turn as the last game, that's good, hopefully he'll use the same setup. After all, I had furiously recreated and studied every single game I played with the two of them. Every single tile a piece could be on, every line my pieces could move, counters, I had studied everything in those eight hours.
"Alright, nice defense. Seems like you figured out a counter to what I was doing." Thork says deep in thought.
Calculate every trajectory, every move your opponent might make, every single possible path. I move my king to the side two moves and move my rook to protect the king, while at the same time putting pressure on his push.
"Ah screw it, you want me to try my hardest, you got it!" Thork says before going deep into thought.
I need to out-think a superhuman brain, moving my pieces in a perfect combination of unrelenting offense and defense. I capture his king and trap it, surrounding it with my strongest pieces.
…
"Alright, alright, I give up, you beat me…" Thork raises his hand in defeat.
I lean back, mentally exhausted from all the thinking, similar to the strain from using my Tetsu. Man… If there's a person out there who can somehow use both Anku and Tetsu at the same time, they would be unstoppable. They'd be able to use their brain to figure out and use concepts we've barely been able to crack, and the mental strain would be nothing if they could combat it with Anku.
"I barely even play this game, calm down." Thork mumbles as he wipes the pieces off the board, before getting nudged aside as Gleek sits down right across from me.
"Am I facing a stronger opponent?" I ask as she starts reorganizing all the pieces.
"Oh yea, I haven't been able to beat her even once in all the months we've spent together." Thork says as he gets up and begins watching.
"Don't worry, I'll go easy enough to just barely beat you." Gleek taunts.
"Hold on give me a second to get ready." I say, before closing my eyes in deep meditation. This form was taught to nearly everyone in order to recover from Tetsu strain faster.
Five minutes later, I open my eyes. Only about halfway recovered, but I figured I'd lose anyways. I only need enough to memorize this game to learn from it later.
"Alright let's go."
I did not win any more games that night.
"Why are you so obsessed with this game?" Gleek asks as we continue playing the next day.
"It's because I was considered one of the best players at a game similar to this, back on my side. It was called Ret." I begin.
"Tetsu requires extremely high mental strength and stamina. So naturally, a game that challenges both became a national pastime back where I used to live, sometimes even used to settle formal disputes across factions, and my father… He was pretty harsh on his expectations for me, which included learning Ret and becoming one of the best at it, but I enjoyed learning it a lot, and learning this game just gives me that same feeling. Although this Ranma game is so much more complex than Ret. Only is 10x10 and has half as many types of pieces."
"You know, that's the first time I've heard you talk about your past." Gleek says as she makes an unexpected move.
"Shit, you win with that don't you." I lean back and stare at the ceiling. "I don't really like talking about my past. Let's not dwell on this subject alright?"
Gleek looks at me for a couple seconds then nods her head. "By the way, there are two… no three… actually four ways you can escape this trap." Gleek says.
"You're lying."
"Want me to show you? Just thought of another way as well. You just gotta take the loss on this game."
"Fine."