Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 15 - Chapter 4.3

  SHOGI RETREAT

“Yaichi. Wake up ……”

I open my eyes and see an anxious girl with long black hair staring back at me.

Where …… am I again?

Oh yeah! That’s right. A girl I met during the Elementary Meijin Tournament invited me to an overnight Shogi practice session retreat thing …… That’s why I’m here at a temple in Kyoto.

The girl who woke me up in the middle of the night is–––.

“Ma-chan? Why are you up so late ……?”

“………… et ……”

“Hm?”

“…… Would you come with me to the toilet? It’s dark …… I’m scared ……”

“Huuuuh?! M-Me ……?!”

Well, all temples are really dark at night and who knows when ghosts will come out. I can understand why she wants someone to go with her.

But …… am I even allowed to go with her to the girl’s room?!

“Please Yaichi …… Any longer and I’ll, I’ll …… mngh ……!”

“O-Okay! I’ll go, I’ll go!”

Ma-chan is a nice girl and very good at Shogi, but a bit of a crybaby. She’s helpless without me around.

“I’ll go with you, so don’t cry. Okay? Ma-chan ……”

Machi, fidgeting and about to cry, and I slip out of our futons and tiptoe toward the restrooms

It’s so dark in the hallway, I can barely see my hand in front of my face. I lead the way while doing my best to walk softly so the floorboards don’t creak.

Machi squeezes the back of my shirt with all her might and follows me.

The temple restrooms are old Japanese style. Machi and I take turns taking care of business. I feel antsy hearing her ngghhhs and ahhhs, like it’s something I’m not supposed to hear. So I plug my ears and wait for her to finish …… I did hear a little bit, though ……

Then, once we get back my futon, “Yaichi. Please …… keep this a secret between us,” she says as she climbs in because she’s too scared to go back to her own futon.

…… Looks like I’ve got another secret to keep.

The only reason I was able to come along to the Shogi retreat is because Ginko is staying in the hospital for an exam and I was alone at Master’s place.

“Gettin’ invited to one o’ Kayaoka-sensei’s retreats don’ happen every day! The Sage got that nickname fer seein’ talent, and he’s seen yers. Go show ’em what ya can do, and make him write that ya’re gonna be the next Meijin someday.”

Master couldn’t have been happier for me as he pushed me out the door, but Keika wasn’t so sure.

“But Yaichi, you shouldn’t tell Ginko about this, okay?”

“Huh? Why not ……?”

“If Ginko found out that you went out on a fun practice session while she was stuck in the hospital …… What do you think would happen?”

“Eeeep ……”

So she can never find out about this overnight practice session.

Machi starts whispering from beneath my futon–––.

“Yaichi? Have you already fallen asleep? I …… I wish to know more about you, Yaichi. Your favorite piece. Your favorite strategy. Your favorite professionals. Your favorite …………”

“Kuzuryu-sensei? Wake up. KUZURYU-SENSEI!”

–––Ah!!

Waking up, there’s Machi on the other side of a Shogi board reaching across to shake my shoulder.

She’s …… completely different from the girl I saw just a second ago.

She’s bigger, for one thing.

That’s especially true for the boobs swaying to and fro in front of my face every time she shakes my shoulder–––.

“S-S-S-Sorry!! I wasn’t looking, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t looking, I wasn’t sleeping!!”

“I never told you not to sleep. So long as it doesn’t interfere with progress.”

That’s impossible.

“Also, if looking at my breasts increases your productivity even the slightest degree, please let me know. Would you prefer the left? The right? Or, both at once?”

“Th- …… That’s a funny joke. Ha-ha-ha ……”

I’m wide awake now. Okay, back to work!

Doing a cramming session in the same room with Machi has helped me progress by leaps and bounds.

My skilled editor goes over a manuscript that I wrote myself and immediately says, “It may be best to start labeling these unique perceptions you have in your head a specific name.”

Yeah, we’re back to the grindstone.

“Give a name to perception? Could you be more specific ……?”

“For example, by assigning the word lolicon to those who only display interest in young girls, the image comes across loud and clear, yes? Just like that.”

“I completely agree, but don’t at the same time ……”

She turned my matchlock musket analogy from before into operation. She dubbed the defensive formations as relativity and plasticity, piece value as versatility, Static Rook and Ranging Rook as dimorphism and more. Machi put her skills as a copywriter on display. I’d expect nothing less from the person who came up with Naniwa’s Snow White ……

She put labels on random sequences that just come to me one after another and made them sound like strategies that would work in the real world.

By putting a board between us and engaging me in conversation, Machi is slowly but surely squeezing all the ideas out of my head.

“Pro players like me can sense when pieces are lining up just right, but it’s not perfect. Since we move pieces on mental Shogi boards to confirm our own ideas, blind spots are bound to pop up every once in a while. That’s where software comes in to bridge the gap.”

“So when a person feels that something isn’t right, rather than decide the software has made a mistake, that is the portion they need to investigate further?”

“Yes. It’s already a blind spot and the mid-game is full of sequences where players haven’t read that far into them before. The chances that they’ll consistently play the best possible move is extremely low. That’s where I like to ramp up the pressure.”

“In terms of your match records, would this particular Shogi be a good example of what you’re talking about?”

“Yeah! I went with this sequence here because of that idea–––.”

Machi doesn’t figuratively have all my matches memorized, they are literally all in her head.

Just the league matches themselves would be one thing, but she remembers the variants that showed up during the review sessions and even the sequences that I’d forgotten all about, even though I suggested them back then.

–––She is a Shogi journalist, after all.

I lived in the same apartment with Ai Hinatsuru. But there’s a place where even my apprentice wasn’t allowed to enter.

The arena during a league match.

The one I’ve spent the most time with in there …… isn’t Ai or Big Sis or even an opponent. It’s the journalist who always sat at the board side table–––Machi Kugui.

I’m not saying that I didn’t try my best while working with Ai or doing practice sessions with Big Sis. There’s just a level of intensity that only comes with playing a league match. That killer instinct doesn’t come out anywhere else.

One real match outdoes 1,000 practice matches.

I’m sure that applies to all kinds of competitions the world over, not just Shogi.

If that match happens to be a title match, the intensity is on a whole other level.

Title holders show another level of competitiveness in that sealed-off room that no one else gets to see, especially the Meijin. Think of it like ultimate combos in a fighting game.

Ten thousand practice matches won’t get you anywhere close to that stratosphere.

Machi was in the room for nearly all my title matches as either a journalist or the match recorder. That includes my matches against Okito-sensei, a player who trained himself to think like software.

–––She already had the groundwork place for understanding my point of view.

Additionally, Machi proved that she could play with surprising accuracy in the unpredictable mid-game during our practice session at Nanzenji.

“Um …… Machi? May I ask you a question?”

“What is it? Is there an issue with the formation I selected?”

“Ah, no! This isn’t about Shogi–––.”

I wonder if she’ll get angry at me for bringing this up while we’re working?

But it’s bugging me and I really want an answer.

“I used to call you Ma-chan way back when, didn’t I? And you called me Yaichi, too.”

“……”

“You showed up as a little girl in the dream I just had. So, it made me curious. When did we start calling each other by different names?”

Ma-chan the crybaby from back then and the completely in-control Machi of today.

There’s such a clear line between them, I’ve never been able to figure out what it is.

“…… Surely you recall when, after the Elementary Meijin Tournament, O-Ryou and I visited your Kansai Shogi Association building over the summer, yes?”

Machi starts speaking as she moves pieces across the board.

“Yeah …… I remember that. I think I went home in the middle of it, too. Why, though? I think Big Sis came in and said something ……”

“Ginko challenged both O-Ryou and I to a match that day, both of us simultaneously.”

…… Come again?

“Her condition, should she be victorious, was that we never return to the Kansai Association. O-Ryou accepted, but I asked for a different condition instead, because I was on the cusp of entering the Practice League.”

The old 9 One Yagura style appears on the board in front of me.

At the time, she used that sequence more than anyone.

“Once Ginko claimed victory, this is what she said.”

Then, after lining up the pieces in a match record in which the defender had an overwhelming lead only to lose on the very last possible move to an instant death, Machi answers my question.

“Never call him Yaichi again. ……”

Machi looks like she could break down in tears at any moment.

That’s exactly like the girl I used to know–––.

“You had to keep that promise? Gin- …… Big Sis made you?”

“Ever since that day, I have never once prevailed against Ginko Sora.”

The girl, looking somberly at the final formation……, makes eye contact with me at last and smiles.

“However, I feel as though I can defeat her now. Surely, I have Kuzuryu’s Notebook to thank for that, no?”