Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 12 - Chapter 5.1

  SHOJI KARAKO

The world of competition was unforgiving. The 3-dan division was hell on earth.

“…… Just as I remember it,” a man said to himself upon stepping inside the Sub League Exclusive Arena for the first time in a good ten years and seeing all the boards perfectly lined up with Sub League members sitting next to them.

Just one thing had changed …… Gone were the analog beeps of chess clocks. Digital stopwatches had taken their place. This new technology would even count down the seconds for them.

This room still appeared in his dreams.

The man would be playing Shogi. A Sub League member would be next to him, his voice tense as he counted down the seconds with a stopwatch in his grasp.

The man was winning, his victory nearly secured.

The formation was the very same as the one and only chance the man had to promote out of the Sub League on his own power. He saw this moment in his dreams far more often than the match that doomed him to retirement. He had this Shogi won, and yet still somehow managed to lose.

Only then, once it was over, did he see it.

On the turn before he surrendered …… a five-move check path to victory.

The man was always crying when he awoke from that dream. This morning was no different.

“But today’s match isn’t in here.”

Leaving the 3-dan’s exclusive arena, Shoji Karako passed by the restroom and went inside a small room down the hallway.

As arrangements had been made for his match to be broadcast on a live feed, a separate room was prepared just for the occasion.

“Ginsa no Ma.”

A young girl with silver hair was waiting for him inside. Donning his clownish smile, Shoji said hello.

“Long time, Ginko.”

Shoji walked around her to sit down in the upper seat and reached for the piece box. 

Ginko Sora, however, said with fire in her eyes, “May we use these pieces?”

“Oh-ho?”

–––My, my …… Somebody’s on edge.

He held back the urge to comment and lined up those pieces instead. Striking up conversation now would surely work against him by calming her nerves. 

The pressure that came along with controlling their own destiny on the final day of the 3-dan division also left players open to a wide range of off-the-board tactics.

Shoji had experienced that pressure firsthand, but it was all new for Ginko.

–––What better advantage is there to have?

The match that had begun with Shoji on offense transformed into a showdown between Ranging Rook and Static Rook strategies.

“Oh? That’s the Speed Castle? That’s what software dug up? You’ve been studying very hard.”

“……”

Shoji saw it as nothing more than a poor man’s Boat Castle, but it was effective. However, no matter how much he thought about it, he refused to admit that putting the King on a Gold pillow was a viable strategy.

–––I don’t get it! Not the least bit!

All his internal griping couldn’t do anything about the fact that the formations were turning against him.

Though Ginko’s game sense was even more effective than her Speed Castle.

–––She’s good …… Can’t believe this is the same girl as that frail Ginko Sora 2-dan from my exam day.

Sudden spurts like this were common for young players in their teens, and thus needed to be closely monitored. Otherwise, they could break through a wall unexpectedly and pass him by. On top of that, Shoji could tell his weaknesses had been thoroughly analyzed.

–––I knew she had talent. I always knew.

That’s why Shoji had been wary of Ginko.

…Which was his reason for attacking her still immature mind with off-the-board tactics: to prevent her from harnessing her full potential. Targeting an opponent’s weaknesses was not cowardly in any sense, but the way the world of competition worked.

“…… Just as I remember it.”

Shoji sat down to comb his mind for a strategy that would turn the tables as he breathed in a lungful of the final day 3-dan division air.

The world of competition was harsh. The 3-dan division was hell on earth.

Shoji had thought so during his days in the Sub League, and still believed it was so to a greater extent than anyone in the Shogi world.

However, he had learned the real hell on earth existed outside the arena’s walls.

–––I know all too well …… that easy jobs don’t exist.

Sub League members could make money by working as match recorders or giving lessons. Playing Shogi could bring in a few thousand yen, or tens of thousands of yen all at once.

However, working in the real world showed him how difficult it was to earn 10,000 yen. Shoji lost count of the number of times he cried watching professional players on TV, comparing their silky smooth hands to the scarred sandpaper his had become.

Working alongside people who were aware of the Shogi world was torture. There was no escape from the memories of his time in the Sub League no matter how desperately he wanted one. That dream would always follow.

As painful as it was, it was only the second worst working environment.

The most painful was–––one where people die.

That was where Shoji was employed as a janitor mere weeks after his retirement from the Sub League.

Shogi happened to be extremely popular at the facility where he worked. The higher-ups may have thought that would make him a great fit after seeing his resume, but it proved to be nothing more than annoyance.

Shoji downright refused to touch Shogi pieces. His coworkers and even his supervisor invited him countless times, but he turned his back on those who played the game.

What brought him back to the sport of Shogi was …… the children.

–––Kids don’t know about the Sub League, let alone me ……

For children who had spent a long time in the facility, Shoji coming to visit was like a breath of fresh air during their monotonous daily routine. Once he finally gave in to playing a match, another child would come up to test their skills against him.

Shoji found time between his cleaning duties to play with as many children as he could…… It was to get them off his case at first, but he genuinely started to enjoy watching them grow after a while.

However, those wonderful days were not to last.

Because the children living in that facility–––were battling terminal illnesses.

He could bear any burden so long as it was his own. Even killing who he was as a person hadn’t taken long to get used to.

But for these friendly children who came up to him all the time, asking him to teach them Shogi, to die and just be gone the next day …… How could anyone endure such exorbitant conditions?

Shoji learned to smile, much like a clown, whenever he played Shogi with the children. He would see them off with the same smile when they were done.

One day, Shoji heard from the facility doctors that even the few children who happened to receive a discharge only left the hospital to spend their last days in the comfort of their own homes.

So many innocent lives lost despite their Herculean efforts to live on.

–––That was the real hell on earth right there.

Unable to endure, Shoji resigned from that position.

He drifted from place to place after that while continuously avoiding Shogi whenever possible, until ……

He found out on the news…

A child he had once taught how to play Shogi not only survived but was still playing Shogi to that day.

–––You made it! Just look at you …… So tall and strong ……!!

Learning the truth changed Shoji.

He had considered himself as good as dead ever since he left the Sub League.

In that case, why not be born again? Come back from the ashes and take another shot.

The new Shoji Karako started entering amateur tournaments. However, his experience as a Sub League 3-dan didn’t guarantee him any easy victories. Enduring the humiliation that came from losing to amateur Shogi players again and again, Shoji honed his skills day by day.

Even after finally winning his first amateur tournament, he had to report for work the next morning, exhausted.

Those days strengthened him.

He began preparing for his chance to reenter the Sub League immediately following his tournament triumph. Invitations to join Shogi events as a special guest and play against professionals started coming in the mail. He knew how extraordinarily slim his chances were, but they felt astronomical compared to the miracle that child managed to achieve.

And now, Shoji Karako had returned to this place.

Further still, a second chance to promote under his own power was in his grasp. He wasn’t going to waste it.

“Whew …… Mighty strong! I can’t do anything against you, can I, Ginko?”

Smiling, Shoji made a big show out of a long sigh.

“That software magic you’re using is just too much for me. I tried learning it myself, really! It just never felt right …… you know?”

Under what circumstances do Sub League members who have control over their own destiny make mistakes?

–––You see, Ginko, it’s when they think they’ve won.

In truth, Ginko wasn’t all that far ahead. If only he could prevent her from using those newly awakened worldly senses of hers, Shoji could stage a comeback. He was certain of it.

…Which was why he pretended to accept his fate and focused solely on defense at an early stage of the mid-game if only to skew Ginko’s intuition by the slightest of margins. It was an off-the-board tactic, plain and simple.

–––A bit underhanded, sure. But those trying to climb mountains can’t worry about the pebbles under their feet.

One move, that would be enough.

Shoji understood better than most that a heart quivering at the sensation of a piece between his fingers could very well be what sends him tumbling back into hell.

“What a pickle. Well, hmm …… I suppose I’ll have to hold out until your heart gives out, Ginko.”

Ginko locked eyes with him from across the board and simply said, “Your words can’t affect me anymore.”

“Oh?”

“Because …… I know you don’t mean any harm.”

“Harm? But of course I don’t. I always play fair and square–––.”

Ginko cut of the chuckling Shoji to say, “This is you, isn’t it?”

Mindful to keep it out of the camera shot, Ginko showed him a photograph of a man in his early thirties playing Shogi with a young Ginko on a plastic board.

“You were there, at the hospital. You played Shogi with me …… and the others, too.”

“…………!”

Ginko continued, looking up at the suddenly speechless Shoji Karako with soft, kind eyes.

“I completely forgot, but …… my mother remembered you when she saw you on TV. She even found this picture in one of our albums.”

All the anxiousness and fear she felt for Shoji had disappeared in that moment. She knew there was a kind man behind the clown mask.

“You even had this live feed set up so that people would know right away if I needed help, right? You wanted to help the people worrying about me breathe a little easier, didn’t you? Master Kiyotaki, Akashi-sensei, my parents ……”

“I-I wouldn’t say that …………”

“Thank you for worrying about me, too.”

Worry? No. He wasn’t worried.

He had wanted to get under his opponent’s skin …… To do anything it took to get an edge …… Except his mouth wouldn’t form those words.

“But I’m fine. I’m stronger, yes? My Shogi, my heart …… Everything about me is stronger than I was back then.”

He had to say something. If he didn’t speak now, then ……

However, words that had rolled off his tongue in bunches up to this point wouldn’t come.

“What you left in the Kansai Sub League made me a stronger player. Back when my fighting spirit was about to break against Sota, I remembered the phrase having six of the eight Golds and Silvers is an advantage, having seven puts you in position to win. What I knew as mustard theory.”

“Mustard theory ……?”

“Some stupid boy I know mixed up karashi mustard with Karako.”

Blushing ever so slightly at the mention of a stupid boy, Ginko explained.

Then.

“I’m strong now. I’m not the poor girl I used to be. So–––.”

Ginko howled at him from across the board, her fighting spirit surging through her veins setting her eyes ablaze.

“So! Stop talking and play like you mean it!! Karako!!”

“Aha!”

Finally, his frozen tongue awakened.

“Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! I’ll show you, all right!! I’ll show you what standing your ground really looks like!!”

Deploying a Gold into his home territory to bolster defenses, Shoji geared up for a drawn-out war of attrition.

He had no chance of winning. That much was clear.

He kept playing, nonetheless. So long as he had waiting time at his disposal, he would show the true might of Shoji Karako.

Ginko showed her mettle as well, showed her power, the strength she had obtained.

“Watch this. I’ll have you checkmated in one quick sequence.”

In a series of moves that were fitting of the Worldly Maestro himself, Ginko systematically stripped Shoji’s King of all its defenses and, like she had many times in her youth but with far better efficiency, found a check path.

Only when he was one move away from checkmate did Shoji sigh to himself as he said, “………… Never stopped, did it?”

“………… No ……”

Cheeks flushed red from the heat of battle, Ginko put her hand to her chest and answered, “It won’t. There’s someone waiting for me to become a professional, and just thinking about him …… Makes it pound even harder.”

“Hah! Ahhh, yep, I lose. I ain’t got a chance!”

Tossing a handful of pieces from his stand to signal his surrender, Shoji lamented, “Girls in love are invincible!”

With that, Shoji Karako laughed to himself as he exited the room.