Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 11 - Chapter 1

  BROKEN SPIRIT

“Big Sis.”

Rain is coming down in buckets.

My shoulders square to my younger older sister in the kitchen of my cheap apartment, I’m holding a knife for some reason.

Big Sis is grasping the blade with her bare hands.

And–––she’s slowly guiding the tip from her heart up to her throat.

“Big …… Sis.”

Unable to do anything rash with the knife in my hand, I just repeat those words over and over.

The soaking wet and lifeless doll of a girl presses the tip of the blade against skin so pale you can almost see through it ……

“………… me.”

The muscles in her throat shift ever so slightly.

The rain drowned out most of what she said, but––––––I’m sure it was this.

“Kill me.”

Those words are about the farthest away from Ginko Sora as you can get.

I’ve heard her say things like, “Your head on a pike,” “You have a death wish?” and “Drop dead,” millions of times. Because, well, they were directed at me much more often than not.

But this is the first time I’ve ever heard her say, “Kill me” in that pleading voice.

Those ash-colored eyes of hers that always burned with conviction look like nothing more than pitch-black holes staring back at me.

Unwavering confidence that was as solid as ice has melted into this feeble, almost fleeting shadow of its former self ……

So, that’s why I–––.

“Do you really think this old piece of metal can actually kill you?”

I respond with as big of a taunt as I can muster.

“……!”

Emotion flashes through the doll’s eyes for a split second.

Watching that spark as closely as I can, I keep going.

“Can you guarantee a knife is enough to finish the job? You said you were going to slice off your hand to punish it for making a bad move on its own, but you know that’s not true, right Big Sis? The only reason you lost is because you’re weak.”

I keep taunting her, but on the inside I’m feeling cold as ice and sweating waterfalls.

With Big Sis’s bare hands wrapped around the knife blade, the slightest move will cut her fingers. That’ll damage the nerves in her fingertips and affect her Shogi.

–––Think ……!

I desperately scour my brain to find the answer with every second these cheap taunts can buy.

The 3-dan division is still going on. I absolutely can’t let her Shogi get weaker no matter what.

–––Find a way to get her to let go of the blade ……!

Even as I wrack my brain, part of me finds my priorities kind of funny.

This is a life-and-death situation, and still I think of Shogi first.

But it’s that important. Shogi is all we have. Our whole reason for living gets crushed whenever we lose a match and a life without going pro is the same as being dead.

Which is why I–––.

Laughing through my nose I say, “How were you planning to cut off your right hand in the first place? Don’t tell me you thought it would just slice right off if you just pushed the knife against your wrist? Life isn’t like manga. Right-handed people can’t use a knife with their left hand that well. Seriously, even Ai Hinatsuru knows that.”

“I-I can do it! That’s what I was doing!!”

The spiritless doll in the shape of Big Sis frowns as her cheeks flush red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

Eyes glistening with painful tears, she grabs at my right hand with both of hers to wrestle the knife away from me.

Letting go of the blade.

–––Now!!

Just as I had planned, I seize the opportunity to drop the knife to the floor and grab hold of both of Big Sis’s hands to keep her from getting it.

Me holding her back, and Big Sis struggling with all her might.

“Agh ……?!” 

Thrashing about, the two of us fall to the floor. I land on top of her, pinning Big Sis down.

Even beneath me, she is still trying to reach the knife. You idiot!! I tighten my grip on that arm even more and put more weight on it.

“Let go of me!”

“You know I can’t! Please, calm down!!”

“Then …………… Just kill me ……”

Going limp, Big Sis’s skin has turned red from our scuffle. A single tear rolls down her cheek.

“You’re naïve, Big Sis,” I say as I kick the knife across the kitchen floor and under the table.

“That’s why you let checkmates slip away and lose. Trying to cut off your right hand, asking me to kill you just because you had your first losing streak in the 3-dan division? What do you have between your ears: tofu? I turned pro in junior high school, and even I couldn’t clear the 3-dan division in a single season. I’m more talented than you are, so please stop being so full of yourself.”

“……!!”

Creaaak! Big Sis clenches her jaw so hard that her molars scream, and she looks the other way.

Pulling her in close like a hug, I whisper into her ear, “Would you like to hear something one of my seniors told me the first day I entered the Sub League?”

“…………”

“You’ve been spoiled the whole time, so I don’t think they would’ve told you, but I was bullied and threatened like you wouldn’t imagine. I know quite a few horror stories and experienced my fair share.”

“…… Don’t talk to me like you know everything! Spoiled …… I haven’t been spoiled …… ever ……!”

“Do you know the reason why the Kansai Shogi Association has fewer windows than the one in Kanto?”

“…… I don’t. And I don’t care–––.”

“It was to prevent Sub League members from jumping out of them in despair during losing streaks …… like you right now, Big Sis.”

“……!”

“That’s why when they built the Kansai Association, they put in as few windows as possible. So that no one else would try to jump out of them.”

“Did they …… die?”

“Worse. He jumped but it didn’t kill him. He broke his leg but didn’t even pass out. He felt all that pain, wide awake …… The worst part was that he couldn’t completely give up on his remaining 3-dan division matches. But no one on earth could play respectable Shogi in that condition and he lost them all. Just added insult to injury.”

“Wh-What happened …… to him?”

“He’s alive, but he never turned pro. You know him very well, Big Sis.”

“Huh ……?”

Yes. The body doesn’t break so easily. Broken bones, given time, will come back stronger than they were before.

The same isn’t true for the heart.

Once the fighting spirit breaks and the heart gets wounded, there’s no telling if it will ever be the same again.

“………… I just… can’t take this …………… No more, not anymore ………… Let me die ………,” Big Sis, still lying on her back on the kitchen floor, says through tears. She doesn’t have the strength to stand up anymore.

The losing streak isn’t the only reason she’s plunged this far into despair.

There’s even more to it.

“…… My next match, it’s hopeless …………… I’ll lose, that’s a fact …… I’ll lose four in a row, and keep losing …… If I have to keep reliving this pain ………… I’d rather be dead …………”

“…… Big …… Sis …………”

I think back to the day the 3-dan division schedule was announced.

Just looking at that, I had a bad feeling that Big Sis’s fighting spirit might break halfway through the season.

She’s got nothing but painful battles from here on out.

The first opponent to beat her after promotion, an opponent that she beat but realized has more talent than she does, and an opponent she’s admired ever since she was a kid.

There’s no guarantee she’d win in peak condition, but she won’t even be able to put up a fight with her heart in shambles like this.

There’s no time to stand still. But …… She’s in no shape to move forward.

“In that case–––.”

With no clue what to do, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind in order to save my precious older sister apprentice.

“In that case, I’ll take you to a place where you can die for sure.”