Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 1.1

  SCOLDING

“I will win. It doesn’t matter who I play against.”

That’s me talking on the podium.

“Then, I will take an Entrance Exam as soon as the rules allow and become a professional. That’s what’s next for me.”

The Women’s Legend Conferring Ceremony.

It happened at the Tokyo branch of my family’s inn, the HinaTsuru. Right now everyone close to me is watching a recording of what I said at the ceremony.

They are the ones who have always, always been there for me.

In other words, they are my second family, but Shogi is what holds us together.

Only an hour ago, they were happily laughing and crying all for me …… but now their faces look completely different.

Despair.

Disappointment.

Resigned and despondent. Doubtful and perplexed. Those kinds of faces.

Grandpa-sensei———Kousuke Kiyotaki 9-dan wails with his head in his hands.

“…….…… Is this getttin’ around ……?”

“Oh, it’s gone viral,” says Tamayo Rokuroba women’s 2-dan angrily.

She, who is super popular and affectionately called Tamayon by Shogi fans, was in the picture with me. The comments are filled with sympathy for her.

“Looks like Tamayon’d rather be anywhere else.”

“Ai-chan went waaay off script for sure.”

“Bet she’s too scared to look out over the audience.”

“Welp, every Shogi pro has a new enemy number one ……”

“Tamayon lolled hard.”

Tamayon-sensei desperately set to work after I made my announcement and managed to get the ceremony going again.

She played it off like I was joking.

It is thanks to her that the air cleared and the ceremony itself ended on a good note, but ……

“Why the heck did you have to say that up THEEEEREEE?!!”

The internet is in a frenzy right now.

Tamayon-sensei is just saying what everyone here is thinking ……

“Didn’t you see the 3,000 people in the audience?! Didn’t you know the media was there in droves?! Not just Shogi media either, but the big news networks were filming you from all angles in real time!! Don’t tell me you didn’t!!”

“I knew.”

“Then why didn’t you behave yourself, you morooooon!!”

She yells and shakes the collar of my kimono with all her might.

Jin Natagiri-sensei would normally step in to calm her down, but even he is silently standing in the corner with his eyes closed.

“This ain’t somethin’ I wanna say to my own granddaughter apprentice, but ……”

Grandpa-sensei lets out a long sigh and then gives me the coldest stare I’ve ever seen from him.

“There’s a limit to how lightly ya can take Shogi, Ai.”

“……”

I was ready for this. I knew the people I cared about would be angry.

That’s why I didn’t say sorry.

———If I apologized …… all this would end with me having just made a mess for everyone.

Now that I have said it, I have to see this through to the very end.

Give up, and everything I’ve done up until now will have been for nothing ……

“H-Hold it, everyone!! Please …… calm down for a minute, okay? We all stayed behind to hear Ai's side of the story, didn’t we?”

Keika intervenes.

“Has that ever happened before? This Entrance Exam thing …… There’s something in place that only lets people join the Sub League, right? What Mr. Karako did ……”

Shoji Karako is a 3-dan Shogi player in the Kansai Sub League.

The age limit forced him to leave the 3-dan division once before, but he won enough amateur tournaments to qualify for a chance to rejoin it by taking an exam. I’m pretty sure he’s about the same age as Natagiri-sensei.

But that is not the exam I want to take.

I want to take one that lets me join the professionals right away without going through the Sub League.

“There’s no system in place, but it has happened before.”

“When? How many times?”

“Once, 60 years ago.”

“That’s not good enough ……,” Keika says with a long, long sigh. She shakes her head and looks like she’s about to cry. Her hair, which she had done up beautifully for the ceremony, is a mess.

She must have been absent-mindedly scratching her head a lot. Keika has a habit of doing that whenever she is about to lose a Shogi match.

“……………………”

A heavy silence falls.

This room is where I put on my kimono before the Conferring Ceremony.

The very place where I first heard that Mom is pregnant …… now feels more like a wake.

“Pardon me.”

There’s a knock at the door and I can tell someone has come inside.

The fresh air they brought with them eases the tension a little.

“I apologize for interrupting your meeting, but may I have a moment of your time?” says the newcomer, a man in his mid-twenties, in a bright and cheerful voice.

Grandpa-sensei's eyes go wide in surprise.

“Aren’t ya ………… Yaichi’s…?”

“It is wonderful to see you again after all this time, Kiyotaki-sensei. You see, I used my little brother’s connections to get hired here at the HinaTsuru.”

Seeing this man always makes my heart jump.

He just looks so much like the most important person in the world to me. Even his voice is almost identical.

To be honest, he’s someone I’d rather not see.

Especially at times like this ……

Because I can’t help but think, “What if Master walked in just like this ……?”

“Never thought ya’d end up workin’ at an inn. Don’t get me wrong, this here’s a top-class establishment …… But ain’t yar skills suited for somethin’ else?”

“Oh, not at all, Kiyotaki-sensei! This inn has started to incorporate the latest technology, so the owner was gracious enough to find ways to use a scientific mind like mine!” Master’s older brother says and holds up his smartphone. “See? There’s apps like this one now. I designed it, by the way.”

“Wh-What am I lookin’ at ……?”

“Automated Owner, Number 18!”

There’s an anime-style character based on my mother on the screen.

What are these called again?

V-Tubers? Something like that ……

“The golden measure for surviving in the hospitality field is how efficiently one can turn space into profit. While that includes the availability ratio of all rooms, of course, I programed this A.I. to comprehend every situation and issue commands directly to our staff. It is as if the owner has been transformed into an artificial intelligence! Although I programed it by analyzing her movement patterns, it amazes me that even this cutting-edge technology still fails to replicate everything she does on a daily basis. That woman is nothing short of a god———.”

Grandpa-sensei is clearly uncomfortable right now.

I’m grateful that he’s not glaring at me anymore, but ……

“Um, excuse me? We’re in the middle of something important …… Could you get to the point ……?”

“Oh, of course! I’m so very sorry, Miss Hinatsuru!”

Master’s older brother starts bobbing his head, saying something like, “The owner was very direct in stating I shouldn’t be too talkative, but ……” and apologizing. “I’ve brought a message from the owner and head chef. Rooms have been prepared for you and it would be an honor to provide hospitality this evening.”

Master’s older brother sets out keys for everyone here on the table before stealing a glance at me and whispering.

“That and, um ……”

“Please, don’t mind me.”

“…… They sincerely apologize for their daughter’s behavior.”

Mom and Dad have been busy …… doing damage control ever since I said those words. They still are.

Both of them were upset that the HinaTsuru couldn’t host the Women’s Legend Title Matches.

So, at the very least, they wanted my Conferring Ceremony to take place here.

They bent over backwards to make it happen …… and I made it all for nothing.

Not to mention Mom has a baby in her tummy.

I know that she’s in a stable period, but I can never apologize enough to make up for causing her so much stress.

“W-Well! I’ll take my leave.”

With that, Master’s older brother goes back into the hallway.

Once Grandpa-sensei was sure the door was closed, he picked up where we left off.

“Natagiri, would ya say somethin’?”

“Let me see ……”

The A League member had stayed quiet since the beginning. He pulls a few strands of hair off his forehead with his slender fingers as he turns to face me.

“……!”

I unconsciously brace myself.

I’m scared.

After leaving Master …… Yaichi Kuzuryu-Ryuo behind, he is the closest person I have to a Master right now. How is he going to react?

Plus, his opinion affects the Shogi World because he’s one of the best of the best as one of the ten members of A League.

And Natagiri-sensei says———

“I can relate to your feelings, Ai.”

Surprisingly, he said so in his usual, gentle tone.

“When it comes to the Sub League …… the 3-dan division specifically, I agree that it’s a waste of time. I’m also sure that anyone who has lived it would say much the same thing. That it did nothing to sharpen their skills.”

“W-Wait just a minute, Jin-Jin! If you go that easy on her———”

Natagiri-sensei silences Tamayon-sensei with a smile. Then, this man who challenged for the Meijin Title the past season looks back at me and continues with words sharp enough to cut me into pieces.

“But, as someone who fought my way all the way through it to become a professional, I would refuse to let someone else skip it altogether.”

“…… Even if I beat every person who made it through the 3-dan division?”

“That’s not the issue here. You seem to be misunderstanding something very important in that regard, Ai.”

Natagiri-sensei somberly shakes his head no.

He had to overcome so many obstacles to become a professional player because he was born in the Tohoku region, far north of Kanto. But he didn’t try to convince me by talking about those things.

“If you believe that I want the 3-dan division to continue so that up and coming players will have to suffer like I did …… or to keep the number of professional Shogi players down, then you had better rethink your stance immediately.”

“You don’t?”

“Oh, no. I most certainly do not. This isn’t about protecting privileges.”

He couldn’t have been clearer.

Almost like pointing out an instant death sequence I never noticed was there.

“I feel it would be incredibly unfair to all my fellow players who didn’t make it. There are even some people who have taken their own lives because of it before.”

“Ah ……!”

“With that much weight on my shoulders, I can’t make this dream of yours come true, Ai. If you’ll excuse me.”

With that, Natagiri-sensei takes a room key off the table and leaves.

Taxis are still running at this hour.

If he wanted to go home, he definitely could.

That’s why …… his staying at the inn tonight toed the line on the amount of kindness he was willing to show.

But, of course, not everyone was that kind.

“Nope, I’m out. I’m so done with you,” Rokuroba-sensei snarls at me without trying to hide how angry she is. “I can understand letting a title go to your head, but belittling so many people like this …… Honestly, I can’t stand breathing the same air as you.”

“……!”

That is the harshest thing she has ever said to me.

I look down at my feet so she can’t see the tears welling up in my eyes.

“Until you take that back and issue a public apology, don’t bother coming back to my room. I’ll ship your junk to you C.O.D. Bye!” Tamayon-sensei walks right past the keys and leaves without taking one.

“Sorry,” starts Grandpa-sensei as he slowly gets to his feet. “But I can’t approve ’o this or cheer ya on. If it gets allowed …… I’d feel too sorry for Ginko ……”

Hearing him say that name cut deeper than I thought it ever would. And in so many ways.

Then, the one and only person who tried to take my side, Keika …… “…… I truly am sorry, Ai. I …… need some time. Enough to process all this ……”

“Keika ……”

She lowers her shoulder to help Grandpa-sensei walk and grabs room keys for both of them before closing the door behind her.

And now I’m the only one left.

The tablet playing the video of the ceremony is still on the table. Comments are flowing in one after another.

“A little girl wants to go pro without going into the Sub League?”

“The arrogance of her.”

“Won’t happen. Not even in 100 years.”

“Trash’s apprentice is trash.”

Just as I wanted, my speech is spreading all over the world. Numbers spread very easily over the internet, and at an unbelievable pace.

Even so, I’m all alone.

“………… Everyone left ……,” I mumble out of the weakest of smiles.

Because I know I’d cry if I let my face be sad.

That’s why I’m forcing myself to smile.

Three thousand people gathered for my Conferring Ceremony, but …… not one of them stood by me once it was over.