Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter 13: Game Theory

"And your guess...?" Mitsuhide's dry tone had morphed into mockery. He shifted so the lamplight illuminated the gun, and I'm certain he did that on purpose to remind me who had the upper hand.

"You're the person whose Shogi moves I've been ferrying across the country for the past four years." Even with the gun trained on me, I breathed a bit easier. Mitsuhide was, if not a friend of, at least friendly with Aki. I knew he still could kill me, but hopefully he wouldn't without a good reason.

Mitsuhide didn't move the gun, but he did look amused. "Ah, you're one of Yamaoka's daredevils. Kyubei never mentioned his courier was a woman."

I shrugged. "Most people see what they expect to see. When I'm dressed as a boy, they see a boy." I reached behind my head, twisted my hair back and down to stretch out my facial muscles, changed my posture, and bowed.

He finally put down the gun and disengaged the match cord. Gesturing to the shogi board, he said, "If you work for Akihira, you will how to play. Join me in a game."

Right now, I was technically working for Shingen, but since my association with Aki might be what was keeping me alive right now, I let that go without argument. "I don't have time."

"I believe you'll find you can make time." He sat down behind the table and poured himself a cup of sake. He offered me one as well.

I shook my head, as I knelt across from him. I didn't want a game, I wanted information. Unfortunately, it appeared that Mitsuhide wanted me to game the information out of him.

"Tea?" He indicated a tray on the corner of the desk with a tea pot and cups. Probably it would be cold, as I hadn't seen a maid carry anything through the hall while I was searching the rooms.

Again, I shook my head. I didn't want to waste any more time here than I had to.

"Don't worry. I wasn't planning to poison you." He smiled. "Probably not, in any case."

"I'll let that remain a mystery." Even if he truly had no thought of poisoning, or drugging me, I didn't want to be distracted by the possibility. Which... was probably why he mentioned it to begin with. Clearly, like Aki, he liked to mess with people to keep them off balance. I'd watched Aki play this game, and been its victim, often enough.

"Suit yourself." He reset the tiles on the board with enough speed and accuracy to show me that he played Shogi often. "I hope you can give me an interesting game. It's been a while."

"Kyubei doesn't play?" I haven't played enough people besides Aki to know if my style was interesting or not.

"He does, but since I taught him how, the results get repetitious." He tossed five pawns in the air – most landed tokin side down, so he would get to go first.

"Maybe you didn't teach him correctly. Aki seems constantly surprised by my play." Because I sometimes abandoned my strategy midway through the game, but he didn't need to know that.

"I said an interesting game, not cheeky commentary." He started with a standard pawn opening, which I matched, then he played his knight, setting it in the middle of the board. Of course, he would use the Demon Slayer opening.

Demon Slayer – I knew it was a trap opening, but I couldn't immediately recall what was the correct counter move. To buy time while I searched my memory, I asked, "Where is Kyubei anyway?"

Silver to...? I hovered my hand over the silver and glanced at Mitsuhide to see if he had any reaction. None. Should have figured on a poker face. No. Wait. It was gold to 6B. I made the move – hesitantly, as if I wasn't sure it was correct – then I sat back. Let him wonder if that was luck.