Broken Faith

Observation 18: Life is not chess. No matter how much you wish it could be.

"Aaaaaangel..."

"What is it, Luffy?" You pursed your lips, large metal fingers tapping against your still rather childish chin as you figured out if you should attack Sabo's bishop or not. It had been left rather temptingly out in the open by your rook, but it was quite clear that his queen was defending it. But that same bishop was one move away from putting your king in check...

"This is boooooriiiiing..." Pouting, he continued rolling one of the previously taken pieces around and around on the grass. "I don't get how this game is fun..."

Sabo grinned toothily, "Well that's because you're obviously not smart enough to understand its genius! Right Ace?"

"Shuddup!" The boy in question crossed his arms, glaring at the strange set up on the tree stump. "I just don't give a damn about moving weird blocks of wood around a board. I so too am smart enough to understand it."

"Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that."

"Oi!"

"I don't care if it's a genie thingy or not, I just wanna go plaaaaaaaaaaaaay..." Luffy huffed. Reaching out, he clumsily tapped a finger against the furrows in your brow. "And it's ob-vi-bi-vi-ously not all that fun if it's making Angel frown like that."

"The word is 'obviously', Luffy. And I'm only frowning-" after some deliberation, you raised your rook and shifted it to the left. Threatening Sabo's queen- "because I'm concentrating."

"Not so fast!" In a crow of triumph Sabo reached over and slammed his queen into the rook's position so eagerly that one of the stray splinters dug into his fingers, "I've got you! Your winning streak is going down!"

"W... Whaaaa?" Luffy stared in confusion at the pieces on the chess board, then back at you. "Was that bad? Did I make you lose, Angel?!"

"Check."

Sabo's face instantly fell. "Huh... what did you... you can't..."

"No, you didn't make me lose, Luffy. Don't worry." You rolled the piece you'd just moved around with your finger. A pawn, on the final line of the board. "I'm promoting this to a queen obviously, Sabo, meaning that you're in check."

"Wait you can do that?" Now you'd even caught Ace's attention. "Say you're making one thing into another thing?"

You settled a rock down in the piece's place, a hastily scribbled 'Q' "Only for pawns, and only when they reach the end of the board like this."

That pawn had been creeping up the board for most of the game. Square by square. Inch by inch. You'd been waiting on that final square for minutes now, but Sabo had been cautious and placed his queen very deliberately to defend it. And now he'd finally moved it. The final square free for the taking. And his very much vulnerable king.

"Sometimes you need to do something you'd prefer not to in order to win," you continued. "I knew full well that I would lose my rook if I would do that move, but it meant that I could accurately predict Sabo's next move. And because of that, I could end up in a better position."

"You haven't won yet!" Sabo bristled, moving a knight to protect his king.

"No. I haven't." Your newly crowned queen retreated, sliding back into your ranks. "But I'm in a much better position to now."

"Huh?" Luffy's brow furrowed. "I don't get it."

Your gigantic hand reached out and ruffled his hair, "That's alright. It's just a game after all. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who wins or loses."