Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate

Chapter 5 - Bad Bishop

Wednesday, April 10th. The day after Yamauchi's expulsion was made official.

Just like yesterday, the students kept quiet and listened to the teachers. Sudou seemed to struggle with staying awake, but he somehow managed due to the fear of being the next one who might get suspended.

My gaze wandered over to Hirata, who looked better than yesterday, but still depressed overall.

Matsushita had told me that Karuizawa and Mii-chan invited Hirata to visit the karaoke parlor with the Class B and D students, but he declined, saying that he didn't feel like celebrating that day. Both of them were frustrated after his rejection, but their moods were elevated by the many Class B students who had created a cheerful atmosphere by themselves.

Thanks to their efforts, everyone had a great time, even taking into consideration the tarnished moods from the Class D girls who longed for Hirata's presence. According to Matsushita, there were a lot of great guys in Class B who wouldn't lose out to Hirata by much. This encouraged most of the young maidens, except for Karuizawa and Mii-chan.

All of this hadn't changed one important fact, however.

Hirata was worthless.

He had shown some pleasant expressions today, which was a leap of progress from yesterday's point of view, but he was still an unacceptable piece for me if things were to stay this way. From here on out, I had multiple routes to choose from. For instance, I could act myself. But this would be my last resort in case Hirata was about to self-destruct due to the lingering regrets he held for Yamauchi.

At the moment, Hirata was troubled, but still stable, which led me to multiple other possibilities on how to handle him. Since I would only act myself if there was no other hope, I managed to narrow my options down to two final paths that were available to me.

One, leave Hirata alone for now and see where his thoughts took him.

This would be interesting from an emotional standpoint. How would Hirata handle this school from now on? Would he change the way he talked to people? Close himself off? Get violent, perhaps? It would fascinate me to dissect his psyche until nothing was left and build him from the ground up. But that was too much work for a little reward, since Hirata was excellent the way he was before our classmate was expelled.

Another negative point was that I wouldn't be able to use him for the foreseeable future. He might also derail much worse than assumed, which would render him worthless until I was done reeducating him. I ran multiple simulations which revealed that he might collapse due to the stress and anxiety, depending on the exact circumstances of his past that led him to develop his savior complex.

Possibility number two was to reintegrate him into the class and show him that not all was lost.

This was needed to be handled with skill. Another one of my future pieces would be a perfect candidate to fix my bad bishop and turn him into a viable one. I didn't have full control over said piece, but it would follow my pleas without thinking twice if it was to Hirata's benefit.

I was ready to sacrifice all of my pieces if it meant winning, so this game was bound to get ugly somewhere down the line. If my bishop lost his mind every time someone got expelled, I wouldn't be able to use him properly, which would render him useless in the long run. He might even become a hindrance, which was something I'd like to avoid since he was a very useful piece.

With my plans for Hirata decided upon, I delved deeper into the mysteries of this school.