1 Life is a game of chess, and I am just a pawn [Nanashi | Invite Only] Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:01 am
Harue
D-rank
The morning breeze caught Harue’s hair, blowing some lone strands out of her face, though the white-haired girl was oblivious to it either way. Running through her head, distracting her from mos t of her surroundings, was the thought of Diamond Heights University. She’d recently been there, and to her surprise, she’d met the headmaster, Karumo Sekuro. She’d enjoyed their little debate over the basics of chakra theory, as well as one stickler that had baffled many a theorist as to the workings of chakra. It’d been an eye opening experience, helping her polish a small portion of her model, but beyond that she’d had to cut their visit short. As tempting as an offer to study at Diamond Heights University was, Harue found it a little too tempting, and the rush of emotions she’d felt at wanting – no, needing – to find her mother’s killer had driven her to make the rash choice of rejecting the offer and skipping out on the rest of the university.
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ Harue berated herself mentally as she rested her forehead in the palms of both hands, which were supported at the elbows by a stone tabletop. Through her half-lidded eyes she could vaguely make out the markings of a chessboard that had been staring back in her face ever since she’d chosen to sit down at this park this early in the morning, eight a.m., to think in the clear. The table itself was one of many littered around the park, off the dirt path most visitors used for jogging, separated from each other by equal distances of two meters, leaving plenty of room for anyone hoping to pass by.
‘I should have accepted his offer!’ Harue continued in mild anguish and mostly annoyance at her hasty response. She could’ve studied at the university while she gathered information on her mother’s killer. It wasn’t as if she were doing anything else but sight-seeing right now, anyway. She could’ve been better spending this time studying, learning, researching, if only she’d accepted his offer! But, as it would happen to be, she’d declined his offer – a very generous one, at that – to study at Diamond Heights University with what was basically an internship with the professors and a scholarship… Yes, she could put her decision to turn down Karumo’s offer as one of the biggest mistakes she’d made in life, just slightly behind leaving Konoha, and leaving Nikko in Konoha.
She shifted her head such that she rested her cheek against her right palm, while her left hand dropped down onto the table, drumming against the stone tabletop before grabbing a black castle and inspecting it in her hand. She was sitting on the side of the black chess pieces, and this was almost taunting. Her entire life so far had felt like a chess game, and she nothing more than a pawn in the clutches of the black queen known as fate. Her mother had been taken, her father had been taken, her second chance at a family had been taken, and her third chance at redemption had been cast aside. She had all but lost the opportunities she’d had to find a better life, and her most recent casting aside of Diamond Heights University’s offer was just another opportunity she’d said goodbye to. And her sitting on the side of the black pieces was like fate laughing at her, as if her actions would never be good enough to be considered just, even if she was trying – no, dying – to bring her mother’s murderer to justice, wherever he was now. No, in society’s eyes, people like her, regardless of their reasoning, were deserters. They were the lowest of the low. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had done so to save the Hokage’s life; she would still have been seen as an enemy of the state. She like was now.
Placing the castle back where it was supposed to be, she let her left index finger toy about with the crown above the black king’s head. She pretended that it was the puppeteer who had steered her life so far, and moving it left, right, angling it such that its center of gravity was beyond its base but keeping contact with it with her left index finger so it didn’t exactly fall, she tried toying with it, playing with it as if challenging the fates to throw something her way, before she let go and the black king toppled. Fell. Died. It was symbolic how a simple fall could mean his death… but falls to death were all Harue had known her life, whether she was on the receiving end, or as a spectator to death’s next victim.
WC: 817
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ Harue berated herself mentally as she rested her forehead in the palms of both hands, which were supported at the elbows by a stone tabletop. Through her half-lidded eyes she could vaguely make out the markings of a chessboard that had been staring back in her face ever since she’d chosen to sit down at this park this early in the morning, eight a.m., to think in the clear. The table itself was one of many littered around the park, off the dirt path most visitors used for jogging, separated from each other by equal distances of two meters, leaving plenty of room for anyone hoping to pass by.
‘I should have accepted his offer!’ Harue continued in mild anguish and mostly annoyance at her hasty response. She could’ve studied at the university while she gathered information on her mother’s killer. It wasn’t as if she were doing anything else but sight-seeing right now, anyway. She could’ve been better spending this time studying, learning, researching, if only she’d accepted his offer! But, as it would happen to be, she’d declined his offer – a very generous one, at that – to study at Diamond Heights University with what was basically an internship with the professors and a scholarship… Yes, she could put her decision to turn down Karumo’s offer as one of the biggest mistakes she’d made in life, just slightly behind leaving Konoha, and leaving Nikko in Konoha.
She shifted her head such that she rested her cheek against her right palm, while her left hand dropped down onto the table, drumming against the stone tabletop before grabbing a black castle and inspecting it in her hand. She was sitting on the side of the black chess pieces, and this was almost taunting. Her entire life so far had felt like a chess game, and she nothing more than a pawn in the clutches of the black queen known as fate. Her mother had been taken, her father had been taken, her second chance at a family had been taken, and her third chance at redemption had been cast aside. She had all but lost the opportunities she’d had to find a better life, and her most recent casting aside of Diamond Heights University’s offer was just another opportunity she’d said goodbye to. And her sitting on the side of the black pieces was like fate laughing at her, as if her actions would never be good enough to be considered just, even if she was trying – no, dying – to bring her mother’s murderer to justice, wherever he was now. No, in society’s eyes, people like her, regardless of their reasoning, were deserters. They were the lowest of the low. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had done so to save the Hokage’s life; she would still have been seen as an enemy of the state. She like was now.
Placing the castle back where it was supposed to be, she let her left index finger toy about with the crown above the black king’s head. She pretended that it was the puppeteer who had steered her life so far, and moving it left, right, angling it such that its center of gravity was beyond its base but keeping contact with it with her left index finger so it didn’t exactly fall, she tried toying with it, playing with it as if challenging the fates to throw something her way, before she let go and the black king toppled. Fell. Died. It was symbolic how a simple fall could mean his death… but falls to death were all Harue had known her life, whether she was on the receiving end, or as a spectator to death’s next victim.
WC: 817