Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 16 - Chapter 3.5

  PEOPLE WHO CAN’T COMMUNICATE

It’s the day before the fourth Women’s Legend Title Match.

Careful not to run into the players and staff leaving Tokyo for the venue, I get on the bullet train and travel west.

“…… I never thought I’d be stuck traveling back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka so much …… It’d be fine if it were for matches, but this is completely different ……”

Even cupid doesn’t have to work this fast.

I arrive at the Kiyotaki house in Noda a little bit past noon.

“I’m home!”

Since Keika insisted on me announcing myself like this every time I come back to this place, I’ve kept doing it even though I’m not a live-in apprentice anymore. Big Sis does the same thing whenever she passes through this door, too. Keika greeting us with welcome home is the standard sequence.

But today …… it’s the man of the house who comes to greet me.

“Here, are ya?”

“Master? Where’s Keika?”

“Upstairs. Think I might’a ruffled her feathers a bit.”

Master glances up the stairwell for just a moment before heading toward the tatami room in the back of the house. Taking off my shoes, I follow him.

“By the way, Yaichi,” says Master in a sharp voice as we walk. “I heard ya dropped by the break room at the third Women’s Legend Title Match. Why didn’t ya say anythin’ to me, yar Master?”

“I’ve been so busy with my book just coming out. You just don’t understand because you’ve never written one yourself.”

“That pamphlet, a book? It’ll never sell. Ya’d have been better off not publishin’ the thing.”

“You don’t have to be a sore loser about it, Master.”

Hearing that Master read my book made me so happy that I couldn’t stop myself from getting in the last word.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still upset that he let Ai transfer to Tokyo without my permission, plus the fact that he won’t tell me where Ginko is right now.

Just …… now that some time has passed and my head has cooled off, I realize that he made the right call every time. Admitting it hurts just as much as acknowledging my own weakness, but still.

“Headin’ to the venue, are ya?”

“I might or might not. It’s not like my being there will have any effect on the results.”

“Ai’d like to see yar face, I’m sure. How ’bout droppin’ this stubborn attitude?”

“I don’t think I’m being all that stubborn ……”

“She’s up ’gainst a powerful foe. I know how she is, but she’ll take advice so long as it’s comin’ from ya. Sure, ya can’t tell her how’da play, but nobody’d care if ya gave her a pep talk outside the arena.”

“I know that Shakando-sensei has tons of experience in title matches. But you’ll never achieve anything your whole life if you can’t overcome that on your own.”

“Nah, nah. Not ’at Ai.”

“You mean Yashajin?”

With everything that’s going on with Shakando-sensei and the Women’s Legend Title Match, I haven’t had time for much else. Now that I think about it, the schedule for the Queen Title Match and Women’s Throne Title Match overlap almost perfectly with Women’s Legend. They’re up to the fourth match as well.

But there’s nothing to worry about over there.

“This is her second title match, so she’ll be fine! Don’t forget that she forced Big Sis into a repetition draw as the defender, so her Shogi is more than capable of–––”

“Ya kiddin’? She’s fallin’ to pieces. Behind 2 – 1 in both series.”

“What?!”

“She ain’t playin’ no ordinary girl, but a girl who’s made it into the 3-dan division in the Sub League. Is she thinkin’ she’s gettin’ free lessons from a better player? There’s been several moves in the early game that didn’ make a lick’a sense to me.” 

“Ai Yashajin is ………… I see ……”

When I talked to her on the phone, though, she didn’t sound stressed at all. Was that actually a call for help? It sure didn’t sound like it ……

“’Re we go …… Ah. Have a seat.”

Stepping into the tatami room, Master lowers himself into the upper seat.

I sit down on the lower seat side of the small table. Keika would usually bring out tea and snacks around now, but there’s nothing because she hasn’t come down from the second floor.

“So tell me, is it true what they’re sayin’? Did Kannabe really pop the question to Rina with a ring an’ all?”

“Yes, it’s true. He’s serious about it.”

“That boy ……”

Shakando-sensei brought Ayumu here to spend the night many times. He pestered Master to teach him about yagura castles, and Master loved how straightforward his Shogi and personality was.

They also met in a league match …… A B-2 League Placement Match to be exact.

I thought it was just two Shogi players fighting with their pride on the line when I saw their intense dual.

But now I understand there was a separate, more complex emotional aspect to that match. Maybe that’s why Ayumu mustered up the courage to press too far forward?

–––It’s like he was fighting against the ex-boyfriend of the lady he idolizes and wants to marry.

On the other hand, Master kept a cool head throughout the match despite that major slip-up in the early game.

That difference has to mean something.

How does Master feel …… about Shakando-sensei now?

“So, please tell me what happened between you and Shakando-sensei.”

Rumors are all over Kanto, and I’m sure the truth is in there somewhere.

But there are things that only the ones directly involved understand. Things like how they felt about what was going on.

That’s why I need to hear their stories …… in their own words.

“I heard that you almost got married. Is that true?”

“………… True ’at people were talkin’ ’bout it non-stop, yeah.”

Master acknowledges it, but I’m not sure what to make of that face.

“Talks were moving ahead between Rina’s Master, Ashigara-sensei, and Zaou-sensei, who was standin’ in for mine. Not ’at the two of us heard a peep …… Whadda ya know ’bout Kanto an’ Kansai fightin’ over a new association buildin’?”

“The Sage told me about it. He also told me that Shakando-sensei was sent to eliminate Seiichi Tsukimitsu but you stopped her.”

“Yeah. My gettin’ hitched with Rina was supposed to be a way for them to mend bridges.”

“Like a diplomatic wedding?”

“Ain’t that high-quality’a thing,” says Master, plucking his beard. 

That’s a tell of his that he’s trying to hide embarrassment.

“In exchange for puttin’ the new buildin’ on the back burner, Kansai’d fall in line with the administration back then. The other thing was that Rina wouldn’t hafta be an Assassin anymore …… That last bit was the most important to me.”

“Then you were on board with the marriage?”

“…………”

Haaaaa …… Master continues after a long sigh.

“She was a looker, far outta my league …… And her Shogi was beautiful.”

“Her Shogi ……”

“Apprentice of a true competitor, and in the Women’s League. Tons’a players made assumptions ’bout her just ’cause of that, but her first match against me was pure, orthodox yagura. It was refined to perfection, like what ya’d see in Meijin Title Matches.”

It’s been a while since I heard the words orthodox and refined. They’re very human ways to compliment Shogi that computers can’t get right.

“She played Shogi the way it was meant to be. But her havin’ to change herself just ’cause didn’ sit well with me. The Shogi world seemed twisted to me.”

That’s exactly how I pictured Master would answer.

Rather than praise appearance or personality, he complimented the beauty of her Shogi. The picture of a Shogi buff from the 80s …… the cool, gritty player that Ginko and I always wanted to be.

I understand why Shakando-sensei fell in love with him. Honestly, I get it.

But something seems off.

After listening to everything Master has said, it sounds more like …… he sympathized with Shakando-sensei’s situation rather than had romantic feelings.

“But in the end …… you didn’t remarry. Why not?”

“Couldn’ forget my wife after she passed. That’s all.”

Master adds an extra detail after that short answer.

“’Cause Keika looked more an’ more like her every day.”

“Ah ……”

“Keika asked me the same thing after the Third Women’s Legend Title Match, believe it or not. She got real bent outta shape when I told her the same thing. Quit pushing everything on me! or whatnot …… Wasn’t meanin’ to.”

“Master.”

I sit up straight on my ankles, grab my knees, and ask.

“Is it possible that having live-in apprentices was part–––”

“I took Ginko and ya in after everythin’ with Rina had played out. Ya got no blame to take, period. Don’ go thinkin’ ya do, understand?”

“…… Yes ……”

“That’s ’nough diggin’ up the past.”

“……!”

Those words were nice enough, but his tone let me know that it was a direct order.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say I slammed up against an ironclad wall.

“Mr. Tsukimitsu cleared everything up with a neat little bow. That’s includin’ the new buildin’ problem and the status of Women’s League players. Y’all don’ gotta worry ’bout a thing.”

Another order dressed up in nice words.

“The old association buildin’ will be gone along with the old Shogi world. We wanna leave ya with the best stuff we can, like parents wanna do for their kids. Mr. Tsukimitsu, Rina and I …… we all want ya, Ayumu and the Ais to only hafta focus on Shogi. There ain’t no changin’ the past, so we gotta make a bright future.”

I understand what Master wants to say.

I also understand he’s saying it out of love. Just as the strongest modern Shogi came from software that built a new style of Shogi from zero without using human knowledge, those who favor the past will get left behind in the future. The only way to get stronger is to constantly look to the horizon and press forward.

It’s just.

“………… Then …………”

–––What’s going to happen to Ginko?

“……………………………”

I swallow my words.

Is she part of what Master calls the old Shogi world? Is she going to get caught up in the system because she got too strong and be used as a tool by the people at the top like Shakando-sensei did? She’s suffering already …… beaten to a pulp.

–––How is she any different from Shakando-sensei?

The more I learn about the past, the scarier it gets. Are my apprentice’s achievements going to make people forget about Naniwa’s Snow White?

Worse, if we forget what happened in the past …… we’re doomed to make the same mistakes. It’s like the way you lose if you don’t research old match records.

“Story time’s over! Ya headin’ straight to the fourth match venue?”

“No, I was thinking I’d spend the night here …… And I never said anything about going to the Women’s Legend Title Match!”

“That right?”

Master nods and then looks up at the ceiling.

“Long as yar here, would ya tell that sulkin’ rebellious daughter of mine everything I told ya?”