Corpse March

Chapter 42 Gleam's Gambit

Two people sit across the table, head to head, with nothing more than a chessboard between them. One of them is winning. The other is Gleam. 

“Check.”

“How?”

“The bishop.” Kuroko gestures at the bishop that’s sighting down Gleam’s king from a faraway watchtower. 

“Oh.” She strokes her chin.

“...”

“I see…”

Between the auxiliary knight guarding the square her king could retreat to and Kuroko’s queen that should break free from her stranglehold in a matter of a turn or two, Gleam makes the best move she can in the situation and offers Kuroko a draw. When she declines, she fights to her last breath, taking as many pieces with her as she can, one suboptimal move at a time. 

“You’ve got chess talent. I feel that I’ve learned quite a lot watching you play.” Gleam closes her eyes and nods her head.

“Thank you for teaching me how to play.”

Gleam continues nodding her head and stares out her bedroom window, her brain buzzing with chess excitement. She realizes that she must be well and truly awful at it to lose to an absolute beginner, but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying herself. 

“Another game?”

“Very well.” 

Two pairs of hands flit around the table, resetting the board state. When they’re finished, they swap positions, with Gleam playing the white pieces and Kuroko playing the black pieces. After thinking for an appropriate amount of time, five whole minutes, Gleam moves her first pawn forward. 

“Why did you call me here?” Kuroko says while idly palming a captured palm. “Is it about my performance in the last mission? If so, you can file a complaint and you may be entitled to monetary compensation–”

“No. Nothing like that. Bygones are bygones, and the sin is mine alone for giving out the order.” Gleam’s short hair sways slightly as she shakes her head. “I’ve called you here for something more important. A new operation that requires… discretion.” 

“I see.” Kuroko leans back in the luxurious chair that’s just a little too small for her. “So, that’s why you’ve kept me on payroll.”

“Is that what compelled you to stay? The money?”

“No.” Kuroko boldly moves a knight forwards. “I simply do as I am told. Nothing more, nothing less.” 

Gleam castles. “That sounds like a miserable existence.”

“It’s all I know to do.”

“But what is it that you want to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“There has to be something.” Gleam crosses her arms as she waits for Kuroko to make her move. “Otherwise, why even live?”

Memories flash through Kuroko's mind. Memories of bloodshed. The weak are brutalized, the strong thrive, and girls like Kuroko are caught in between. She was young, maybe around four or five, when she was taken into Girls Won’t Cry.  

With no mother or father to call her own, the girls there raised her themselves the only way they knew how. They taught her to deliver mail and deliver bodies to early graves. And most importantly, they taught her to do as she’s told. They taught her again and again and again until everything else disappeared. Even the horrible gutting feeling she used to suffer from after killing someone has faded away less than dust. Into nothingness.

“Hmmm…“ Kuroko looks down at her hands and remembers the girl on the train. “I want a dream.” Just like hers. She wants to say. 

“That’s impossible.” Gleam shakes her head as she blunders another piece into the enemy queen’s sightlines. “You don’t dream for the sake of dreaming. You need to want something first, only then can you have a dream.”

“What should I want?”

“That’s something only you can answer.”

“...do you have a dream?”

“I…” Gleam pauses. She lifts her fingers off a pawn piece and folds her hands, deep in thought. “I dream of a safe Takakumo. Not just from the Monarchs, from the outside world as a whole. I know what your kind has done. Not just to the First Magical Academy but to yourselves as well.” 

Gleam stops looking at the game and rests her elbows on her knees. “Have you noticed anything in particular about Takakumo?”

“Not in particular, no.” 

“Exactly. The people here are all the same. They are no different from sheep. Easily herded, and pure. Their thoughts, their memetics,  their very soul is wholly Takakumo. Nothing more. They do nothing but eat, sleep, and work, over and over and over. There is no room for individuality, and thus, no discrimination. No selfishness. No civil wars.”

“If the stealth field separating Takakumo from the Outside World were to ever collapse.” Gleam pauses to catch her breath. Kuroko notes her clenched fists. “The impure ideas of the Outside World would spread to Takakumo, and the chaos that we’ve worked so hard to keep out will worm itself into the hearts and minds of every single Takakumo citizen, until we are no different from the people outside.” 

Gleam shakes her head. “To that end, we cannot stagnate. Takakumo must be cultivated more and more, until its military might cannot be matched. We hold the secrets of magic so why not? Why shouldn’t we use them? If only every single man, woman, and child learned to use magic, we would be able to fight off anything and anyone.” 

“I see… that’s a pretty lofty dream.”

“Safety is the bare minimum anyone needs to survive. I don’t see wanting a basic necessity as lofty.” 

“Then… Can you lend your dream to me?”

Gleam stares at her quizzically for a moment. “Having a dream means accomplishing it at any cost. Are you prepared to sacrifice everything to see someone else’s dream to its end?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Good enough. This will be your starting point. My dream will be both yours and my own. And we’ll fight for it together.” She extends her hand. “As comrades.”

“Comrades…” Kuroko takes Gleam’s hand in hers and shakes firmly. “I’m happy to serve.”

“Good.” Gleam stands up and begins pacing around the room. “There is much to be done. I’m still under suspicion for the assassination of Kagami.” She starts chewing on her thumbnail. “Because it can’t be Tsumugi, our sweet sweet Tsumugi, apparently.”

“As expected, the council would believe her over me.” She slams her fist against the wall. A spider web of cracks spread outwards from the point of impact. “Goddamnit… why would you do something like this, Tsumugi? You used to be so kind…”

“Maybe she has a dream of her own.”

“No. She has something she’s striving for but it’s not a dream. She lacks the conviction to make it a real dream.”

“So what is it that she wants?”

“She wants the opposite of what I want. She wants to open the doors of Takakumo to the Outside World. Tsumugi believes not just that the people in the Outside World will be kind, but also that the people of Takakumo will be wise enough to not make the same mistakes the Outside World made. In other words, she believes in people.” 

“And you?”

“A person is intelligent, driven, functional. But people are ignorant, panicky, and foolish. I believe in myself and I believe in the power of the state.”

“I see…” Kuroko tightens her tie. It’s grown a little loose from the constant reaching for the chessboard. “Where does that leave us?”

“We’ll have to run with it. If the council thinks I’m behind the assassination, then so be it. We’ll leverage the public against them.”

“How?”

“We’ll make a risky play.” Gleam moves her queen right next to Kuroko’s king. “We need to contest Kikimi’s claim to the throne somehow. Now that Kagami’s dead, that girl Kikimi’s next on the chain of command. She’s a non-threat right now, but she is still a factor in the equation.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan?”

“Of course not.” Gleam snaps slightly but she quickly reels herself back in. “Florence is trying something on his own. I don’t know what, but he’s trying something. What we need is something to break the balance.”

“Any ideas?”

“We need to leverage the public against the council. If something drastic were to go wrong at a large enough event say… some kind of attack, something that would have been prevented if I was already in charge, then the council will have no choice but to relent.”

“I presume that’s where I come in.”

“This needs to be a silent operation. No one can know other than you and me, not the deathless, not Lady Tsubame watching from heaven, no one.”

“Understood.”

Gleam takes Kuroko’s rook with her queen, finally cornering her king against the edge of the board. The wall of pawns that was meant to protect their master suffocates him instead. With a flourish, Gleam moves her knight– her silent assassin– into position and topples her enemy. 

“We’ll discuss the details later. That’s all for now.” Gleam folds her hands behind her back and stares out the window, already retreating into contemplation. Kuroko stands up and turns away. She places a hand on the door… but she does not open it.

“Yes?” Gleam senses Kuroko’s hesitation. 

“Why trust me?”

“...why?” She smiles to herself. “‘Why’ indeed…”

That is all she gives Kuroko.