Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 14 - Chapter 4.1

  FAN

On the very same day that Ginko is making her debut in Tokyo.

I’m in Nagoya.

“…… Good morning. I’m looking forward to working with you today.”

Arriving at the massive venue at Nagoya Port in Aichi Prefecture, and this place is overwhelmingly massive, I quietly sneak in through the staff entrance.

“Kuzuryu-sensei and one female guest are here!”

“Take them both to the waiting room, please!”

Hey, hey, hey, HEEEEY!!

“She’s part of the broadcasting team! Not my guest!! We just happened to run into each other at the station on the way here!!”

Panicking, I try to clear my name, but the bombshell of a young woman behind me pulls my arm into her chest and says, “That I am. The two of us only partook in the same lodging.”

“The same HOTEL that the ASSOCIATION assigned to us! Different rooms, of course! And besides, don’t you talk like normal when you’ve got your hair up?! Quit breaking your own character!!”

“Oh, you’re quite right.”

I could’ve sworn a fox’s patronizing grin appeared on Ms. Mato’s face before she went into business mode.

“However, I am the only one covering this filler.”

“Filler …………? Well, sure, Big Sis is extremely popular right now, but ……”

Every active Shogi writer is in Tokyo today.

Newspapers, magazines, the Internet, you name it. They have all gone to fill requests from all sorts of publishers.

And I’m absolutely certain that a Women’s Title Holder like Machi Kugui would have received more offers than she could count to do live commentary on TV.

“Well, thank you for coming. I know I can count on you to do a good job.”

“Why thank you, but that’s not the only reason I’m here. The Tokai region, including Nagoya, is experiencing a Shogi boom of sorts, and I wanted to see it for myself.”

“Huh? It’s that popular here ……?”

This is the semifinal of the tournament, the Tokai round.

After the first round in Osaka and picking up steam in the second up in Tohoku, I came to Nagoya last night to rest up before the third round today.

There’s a children’s tournament going on today as well, just like with the King of Naniwa Tournament.

Nagoyians are known for loving glamorous and lavish things, but setting up a venue this big makes me worried …… Can they really fill up this much space?

But those fears get blown away as soon as I get to the main hall.

“Whoa?!! There are kids …… from wall to wall!!”

There have to be thousands of them in here.

From what I can tell, they’re grade schoolers. Every single one of them is playing Shogi. Am I dreaming?

What’s more–––.

“…… Aren’t there a lot of girls? Usually these tournaments are 90 percent boys, but it looks about 50-50 …… No, actually the girls outnumber the boys ……!”

“Impressive, Ryuo, that you have the ability to calculate the number of elementary school girls at a glance.”

Uh, no I don’t.

“Nagoya is the only major city outside of Kanto and Kansai with its own Practice League. Since it makes the Women’s League easily accessible for girls with aspirations to join, Shogi has held a high level of popularity in the area for some time.”

“Sure, I’d heard that there were a lot of girls in the Tokai Practice League, but …… this many ……?”

“What you see here is a recent phenomenon.”

“?! Then …… this is because of Big Sis?”

Ms. Mato smiles. That means I’m right.

“You see, there aren’t enough Shogi players readily available to provide instruction in their Practice League, so I have been contacted to conduct seminars. I wanted to investigate before making any commitments.”

This exceeds even my expectations ……

Ms. Mato mutters under her breath, “Other cities like Fukuoka and Sapporo have decided to form their own Practice Leagues after seeing this level of success in Nagoya. Sendai is looking into the feasibility of a Practice League as well.”

“I-Is it okay for the association to branch out so fast ……?”

“Apparently sponsors have already been secured. A direct request from Sora 4-dan was all it took.”

“Big Sis was working on this stuff too?!”

“She made appearances on local TV programs to promote this tournament in Nagoya. The slogan of It’s just a quick stopover seems to have worked wonders.”

Taking a closer look, the girls have something twinkling in their hair …… It’s the same snowflake hairpin that I gave Ginko.

“They all want to become Ginko Sora.”

“……”

“And they all want to shake a certain younger brother apprentice’s hand before leaving today, I presume.”

Her voice is kidding, but her eyes are dead serious behind her glasses.

One draw of tournaments like this is that the winner shakes hands with everyone who came to the venue at the end of the day.

“………… Looks like I can’t slack off.”

Yes, my Shogi is in a competing timeslot with Ginko’s today. I’m just filler.

At the same time though …… it feels like I’m fighting alongside her. That thought alone is enough to stoke the fire.

Intense heat coming from those girls playing Shogi crackles in the air as a staff member comes up to speak with me.

“Kuzuryu-sensei. What would you like for your lunch today?”

“Oh, um, do you have a menu?”

“Here. Please have a look.”

He gives me a laminated card with three options:

Deluxe Miso Pork Lunch Set (with red miso soup)

Miso Udon

Miso Pork Sandwich (with salad)

No matter what I choose …… It’s miso flavored ……

“Okay ………… The sandwich, please.”

“Sure thing. Ah! I can have the mustard removed. What would you prefer?”

I’d prefer you remove the miso.

I’m gonna be really thirsty during today’s match …… For more reasons than one!

I get to the break room and find a bunch of pros and Women’s players gathered around the TV.

“Good mor- ………… Huh? What’s everybody watching?”

“Sora 4-dan’s debut, what else?” says a listless young man standing by himself but with his eyes still glued to the screen.

Kanto Shogi pro Mirai Futatsuzuka 4-dan.

I fought against him in a placement match last season and he also worked as the match recorder for the First Crown Title Match, so we’re on a see-and-greet basis. He also happens to be a student at the University of Tokyo who knows a ton about A.I. As a guy who never even went to high school, he is almost unapproachable.

“Futatsuzuka-sensei. How nice to see you again!”

“…………”

Ms. Mato says hello, but he just acknowledges her with a nod.

On a side note, Sora 4-dan’s debut match is being broadcast on networks throughout the country. This tournament only gets a live blog online ……

“Rumor has it that the networks forked over millions of dollars to get the broadcasting rights.”

“Women’s Throne matches are coming to Nagoya next month, too. Thank you so much.”

“She’s the new sliced bread.”

The Nagoyian pros chat among themselves in the local dialect with their eyes on the screen. They’ve pretty much put her up on a pedestal. Considering this part of the country has a declining birth rate and an aging population, Naniwa’s Snow White really might look like a divine savior.

The lethargic Futatsuzuka-sensei keeps his distance from them as he glances back at the TV and mumbles, “Sainokami hasn’t shown.”

“Huh?!”

Ms. Mato and I spin around in surprise. And we both check the time in unison.

“I-It’s already past 10 o’clock?!”

Ginko seemingly heard me yell through the TV because I hear her voice say, “Ms. Noboryou. Let’s go ahead and line up the pieces.”

“Ah …… O-Oh, right!”

The match recorder joins her in setting up the board and even does the piece flip.

This is one way to deal with a player who is late for a match.

“………… Five Promoted Pawns.”

Working at high speed, each of the flipped Pawns lands upside down. Just as the words come out of the match recorder’s mouth …

…A strikingly bright voice echoes from the TV.

“Sweet! The first move’s aaall mine♡”

So says a blonde high school girl holding two plastic bags from a local convenience store.

Plus she’s crackling with laughter at the arena entrance.

“S-Sainokami! YOU- ……!!” the match recorder yells at the player who finally showed up while picking up the last piece off the tatami mat but stops herself. “…… A-hem …… Sainokami-sensei …… It’s already 10 o’clock. Please hurry up.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Players are safe as long as they get to the board by 10 …… That being said, squeezing the tomato before a match that’s getting this much attention isn’t going to earn her any praise.

Ika plops down in the lower seat. Plastic bags crinkle as she starts taking things out one by one and setting them up next to the board.

A bag of chips.

Chapstick.

Eyedrops.

An ax.

A juice box.

A pastry. Wet tissues. A hand towel.

…………………………………… Hold up?

“An ax?!”

Even the match recorder couldn’t contain their surprise.

“S-Sainokami-sensei?! What is that ……?”

“My fan.”

No it’s not.

“That’s ………… an ax, yeah?”

“An ax, yes.”

Futatsuzuka-sensei agrees with me right away. But he’s completely calm about it.

Ika has got an ax, for sure.

It’s a small one that women can easily use, like a hatchet. It reminds me of the ones that bad guys in movies throw all over the place.

Of course, the journalists aren’t staying quiet.

“Is that thing even allowed ……?”

“You’d think a metal detector would’ve flagged that ……”

“But it’s not an electric device, so ……”

The whispers are growing louder by the moment. I don’t blame them. This is all anyone has been talking about: Ginko Sora’s pro debut match. The thing is that regular journalists and news people don’t know the first thing about Shogi.

Enter an ax-wielding high school girl doing a Musashi Miyamoto impression by showing up late for a dual. Who wouldn’t be entertained?

Ms. Mato makes a levelheaded observation.

“Since the association went out of their way to partition off this match on the fifth floor, Ms. Oga surely conducted an inspection. It has to be a toy.”

Even if it is, that doesn’t change the fact that she brought that thing into the arena for no reason whatsoever.

“Back in the day, players used to bring magazines or newspapers into the arena to read in the morning, but …… an ax is a first,” remarks a flabbergasted older pro.

No one laughs. We can’t laugh ……

Is she trying to break Ginko’s focus with intimidation?

Or …… has she officially lost her mind?

Ginko, the closest person to that maniac right now, has kept her eyes closed ever since the piece flip so she wouldn’t get thrown off her game. Impressive.

When she opened her eyes and saw Ika’s face, however, she couldn’t help but ask.

“What’s with that ……?”

“Hrmm?”

Setting the ax down next to her cushion right where a fan would go, Ika hovered over it to make sure it was lined up exactly straight but snaked her head upward to answer.

“Ahh. This?”

Ika pats her face.

One of her eyes ……………… is covered with a patch.