A curse via a black book.

A young blue-haired girl sat across from another girl with blond hair. In between them was what appeared to be a small table. With two clocks with buttons on the very top of them. This table was, in actually a Shogi board. These two girls were in the middle of a heated match – and it was the blue-haired girl’s turn. Come on, Yumiko, you can do this. This is the turn where you can make the winning move she thought. She takes a few minutes before moving one of her pieces and hitting the clock’s button. The look on her opponent’s face turned to shock as she realized there was nothing she could in response. “I resign, Sakura-chan”.

“It was a great match, Sayuri. You had me on the ropes for a minute” Yumiko responded. “...I’m not expecting to win this whole tournament though….” As she said that, her eyes darted to another game in progress. An even younger girl with pink hair was at that board, flipping through the strange little black book she had. This young girl was considered a prodigy in the Shogi world. ‘The girl who never goes anywhere without her little black book’ It was almost as if that little book was helping her win every single game. “Young Yuno sure is odd, indeed.” Sayuri mentioned when she noticed who Yumiko was looking at. “She never tries to talk to anyone else, and if anyone tries to talk to her she doesn’t respond and just clutches that weird book of hers even tighter.” The two friends said their goodbyes for the night and split

The next morning, once Yumiko arrived at the building where her final match will be held, she heard a loud scream. “WHERE IS IT?!?!?” the voice cried. “How could it disappear NOW of all times?” She didn’t think much of it and took her place at the table. It was almost time for the final match. There’s no way I’m going to win against Yuno. It was quite reasonable of her to think this, as that black book made Yuno quite famous.

The game started not long after. “...This is very strange” The commentator analyzed. “Black Book Yuno doesn’t have that book with her and is making all sorts of beginner mistakes.” Yumiko felt bad for the other girl, practically being ganged up on by the tournament crew. Maybe that weird book was the key to all her victories. No matter, she was still going to give the game her all. It was only four moves later that Yuno had no way out. “Tsumi” Yumiko respectfully declared. That means her opponent was in checkmate and had no way out, quite similar to saying “Checkmate” in a game of chess. This makes her the surprising and unexpected winner of this Shogi tournament’s grand prize.

“WE HAVE A WINNER!” The tournament officials declared. “Congratulations, Sakura-chan. You win our grand prize of $20,000! Do you have anything you would like to say?” Yumiko was shocked by the prize amount. Not only did she not expect to win, she was only expected a small prize of $500. “Well, uh… I never actually expected to win. I do feel bad for the young prodigy over there. I’m not sure why she didn’t have that book on such an importance match….” Before she got a chance to ask Yuno about it, Yuno was already gone.

“Ah, it’s great to be home” Yumiko said to no one in particular when she arrived home that evening. She was about to head to bed when she saw a similar black book to the one Yuno was using the other day. When she touched it a note appeared on it ‘You are the new owner of this book. Please keep it with you at all times, or misfortune will fall upon you’ “Misfortune? Ha...what baloney, curses don’t exist” With that, she got changed into her nightgown and went to sleep.

A few days past, and she ignored bringing the black book with her. She didn’t believe anything would come across it. However, bad things did indeed start to happen. She began to lose every single game she played. It wasn’t limited to Shogi - any game at all, she lost. “This is weird…why am I losing so much?” It was then she thought of something. “That book! Is that what that note meant?” She rushed home dropping some of he winnings on the ground for anyone to just come by and scoop up. Upon arriving at her room, she flipped through the book that hadn’t been touch since the day it appeared. Inside where strategies that were guaranteed wins of all the games she had played the past few days.

The next couple of days made the truth quite clear. Every time she had that book, she would win her games. “I may have won a huge sum of money, but at what cost? I have to drag this cursed book around...Now I know how….” her mind suddenly went blank. “Who was the previous owner of this mysterious book before me again?” She couldn’t seem to remember who her final opponent was anymore. “Is there anyway to break this curse?” Maybe one day she would fine someone to break the curse to be free of this cursed black book..until then, she was forced to carry it wherever she went. If she ever forgot it, her misfortune would begin again. This unfortunately happened quite often – losing games, forgetting her purse, getting into accidents, all sorts of negative things that only seem to get worse as the time without the book increased.

“Maybe this prize money wasn’t worth it.” She said out loud to her self.” I wonder what would happened if I resigned the match...would this book have ever appeared on my desk? Oh well, at least I’m donating some of this money to charity” she thought out loud as she passed by a television store. Which she didn’t pay much attention to. The screens on the TV showed a familiar looking girl rising up the Shogi ranks with a smile on her face. “I sure am glad I’m free of that cursed black book.” The familiar pink haired girl said to herself. “What book?” someone off-screen asked her. “Oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” she told them as she smiled at the camera.