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Coming to this new school, I\'ve felt much more constricted than ever.

I didn\'t realise it at first, but around me, there are some geniuses who are above me.

I\'ve been completely overshadowed.

Tachibana Emi, Hasegawa Mio and even Murakami Akio—they\'re all at a level that I can\'t even fathom at the moment. Despite how much I studied for the last academic exam, I still couldn\'t beat them.

Maybe this is my limit.

Maybe this is as far as I can go.

Maybe some people are just—better than me.

No...

No.

No.

Never again will I fall back to the mindset I had back then.

I\'ll devour them. I\'ll completely destroy them. That is what I, Fujiharu Sara, have been doing this entire time. My greatest strength is hard work. There\'s nothing I can\'t overcome with more work. I\'ll just push myself even further. I\'ll defeat them all.

Finally, I\'ll defeat Mizuhara Ayato.

***

"Fujiharu! Let\'s go practice for the chess tournament."

I was with my usual group of friends. Since I wanted to get some practice in as well, I decided to follow them to the library. Sometimes they make it a little difficult to learn as they get distracted quite easily, but I did need some opponents to practice with.

Practically every single chess-related book in the entire library had been borrowed already. I\'d been looking through some openings and puzzles during the last few days, practising as vigorously as I could. Every night, I\'d memorise more openings with my phone as I prepared for this special exam.

"Fujiharu-chan, play against me!"

"Alright."

The main issue was that most of the students who were actually good at chess seemed to disregard practice. Playing with my friends is fun and all, but if I really wanted to improve, I\'d have to play against some more difficult opponents.

My friend, Shimizu Hana, was a relatively intelligent person. However, in terms of chess, her skill level wasn\'t near high enough to challenge me seriously. I kept up appearances still, playing with her and holding back, but this definitely wasn\'t helping my chess ability very much.

I wanted to find someone strong.

After spending a little bit of time playing against my friends, I decided to leave the general group.

"Sorry guys, I\'ll be back. I want to see if there are any free chess books."

There definitely weren\'t, but it bought me some time to do some practice on my own. Looking through various websites, I set up chess puzzles and attempted to solve them. I continued to increase the difficulty, training my brain to recognise the specific patterns.

Still, I wanted to play a proper match.

I decided to revise some of the openings I had memorised. Setting up the board, I played out the openings by memory. One after another, I made sure that they were firmly in my head. Again and again, I continued to revise and memorise.

Testing myself in various conditions, I stood up and played the moves. Then, I played the moves after flipping the board. I needed to make sure I wouldn\'t forget them under stress. Again and again, all I could do was try to memorise these openings as well as I could. After all, memorising is all I\'ve ever known to do.

Memorise.

Practice.

I just need to get it all into my head. This chess tournament was one of the best opportunities for me to go face-to-face with some of the smartest students in the school. I needed to prove that I was stronger than them.

More puzzles. Clicking off the website I was on before, I scrolled down, looking for another. \'Hard Chess Puzzles\'... good enough for me. Setting them up on the board, I controlled my thought process, meticulously breaking down the position.

Complete.

Ah, satisfying.

Time for another.

After a little while, I completed a number of puzzles on this new website. At this point, I wasn\'t too sure how I was going to keep improving. The difficulty of the puzzles was inconsistent. Some were so easy that they definitely didn\'t help me improve at all.

I guess I might go around the library and see if there\'s someone who I can play against.

Walking around, I searched for Class 2-A students. Most seemed to be indifferent when it came to this exam. I guess it wasn\'t too hard to top a group. However, I was aiming higher than that.

I wanted to get into the Finals. I wanted to win the Finals.

Suddenly, I saw a familiar face. It was of a girl I had met once before. After being brought to her apartment by Mizuhara, I was able to see that she had a number of chess trophies and prizes. If I wanted to challenge someone strong, she was definitely the choice.

Quickly, I made my way over.

"Hey, you\'re Kanako, aren\'t you?"

She turned around with a somewhat confused look on her face. I guess I was talking to her a little bit out of the blue.

"Yes, what do you want from me?" she replied.

"I\'ve heard your name before. You\'re the chess prodigy, right?"

I just wanted to confirm that she was as talented at chess as I thought she was. I never really got to examine her awards in detail, so I wasn\'t too sure. It was possible that they might\'ve been from a sibling of hers or something else.

"Yes, I guess I am," she answered with a detached tone.

"Haa, so this current special exam was made perfectly for you then."

She didn\'t seem too enthusiastic about talking to me. I was starting to get a little bit desperate since I\'d been struggling to find a competent opponent this entire time. I really wanted to test my skills against her.

"Just get to the point. What do you want?"

"Eh? No need to be so bitter~. Well, I guess it\'s true that I came here to tell you something."

She was losing interest.

I guess I\'ll just say this.

"You like Mizuhara, don\'t you~?"

Her face went red.