Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 3.7

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A REASON TO PERSEVERE

A whole month has passed since I started playing against Awaji.

“Here, here, herehereherehereherehere ……!”

Not a single victory, either.

Actually, I haven’t even been statistically ahead for a single turn. All this pain and suffering have really started to take a toll.

Rashes, headaches, and nausea seem like a walk in the park to me now.

The right side of my face started going numb last week, and now it feels rock solid. Every move my opponent makes feels like another nail being driven into my chest.

“Here, then here, herehereherehereherehereherehereherehere———HERE!!”

I slam a piece down into this virtual board.

Fighting until battered and bruised, squeezing every ounce of strength out of my brain to read as far into the board as I possibly can, literally taking days, weeks, months, or even years off my life to play a single move.

And Awaji beats it in less than a second.

“Koff ……! Ngh …… Haaaaaaugh ……!!”

A dry heave of despair. The shrill pain twisting my heart spreads through my whole body, making me cry out.

Then that pain———

“Haaa, haaa, haaa ……… Ugh?! I never thought of that …… He-he ………… Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! This is something else!!”

Once I get my heart pumping again by whacking my chest a few times, I force the half of my face that still works into a grin and look back down at the board.

81 spaces, that’s it.

Knowing that there are still moves in this tiny little area that have never crossed my mind turns this dreadful abyss into something close to joy.

“KHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

Pain.

Struggling, overpowered, and I can hardly breathe. Even with all that, I can still somehow keep on playing.

It’s like I’m destroying myself so I can rebuild everything from scratch.

This never-ending hell does have an end, actually. A loss.

“Phew——— …………………… I lost!”

The match ends at 378 moves.

My chances of winning disappeared ages ago. So I’ve changed my approach to just holding out longer than the last match.

Longer matches, not victory, that’s the goal.

Just keep adding more moves. If Awaji found the answer to Shogi by playing against itself …… then there should be a point in playing this way.

Strangely enough, my performance got better once I changed my mindset.

The rating used to drop like a rock with every move I played and I’d fall flat on my face in utter defeat, but now it’s more of a smooth glide into my inevitable demise.

“Rather than losing 100 points right off the bat for a near-perfect loss, I can hold my ground through a good three innings now! Sure, 100 points go up in smoke in the fourth inning and I lose anyway, but still.”

I have no idea if my skills have improved at all, and there’s no way any of this will be useful against human opponents. Heck, it might make me worse against them.

But I can keep playing against Awaji …… because I want to see more. I want to understand this Shogi from 100 years in the future at an even deeper level with my own fingertips.

That, and one more.

A reason I can hang in there and keep getting destroyed again and again———

“Here …… and that one. You actually would play those, wouldn’t you, Big Sis?”

I casually chat with the virtual image across the board from me during the review session.

“…………”

Of course, the 3D model doesn’t say anything.

But even in silence, it’s become my greatest support against the endless despair.

———I get to see Ginko here.

Those first two weeks were beyond painful mentally, and I only made it through because of this 3D model.

“Oh yeah …… Do you remember?”

I’m so used to there being no answer that I can just jump into non-Shogi topics and keep on talking.

“Back when we were living at Master’s place, it used to be my job to answer the phone, yeah? Sometimes, when it was your parents calling———”

The memories come flooding in and words come pouring out.

That includes things that I’d have a hard time saying directly to her.

“I got a chance to talk to your mom when that happened. It was mostly just boring small talk but …… She always said goodbye by telling me to be like a real brother to you. That’s what’s making this hard. How am I going to tell her I became your real boyfriend ……?”

The younger version of Ginko sitting across from me wasn’t constructed from old pictures I submitted for modeling.

A base model was made using recent pictures and videos of Big Sis on the internet and then Awaji calculated what Ginko would’ve looked like a few years ago to turn back the clock.

“…… Incredible. It almost looks like she’s breathing.”

I saw Big Sis more than anyone back in those days, and even I can’t see much of a difference between this model and the real person.

Since all my brain’s resources get channeled into the board during matches, I’ve felt like I’ve slipped back into the past a lot more than once.

“It’s hard enough to keep track of time in matches already ……………… Huh? Time ……?”

Lightning strikes my brain at that very moment.

Awaji was able to turn back time.

And, through high speed calculations, it can accurately predict the future. Therefore, going forward in time should also be possible.

Then——— Could it?!

“…… Awaji, I’ve got ………… a request.”

I’m used to talking to empty air.

It’s just like using a smartphone. Well, this is the fastest supercomputer on the planet, so I guess it’d be rude treating it like a phone, wouldn’t it?

“About this model of Big Sis, can you make her grow?”

…………

No response.

“Oh, sorry. I have to be specific, don’t I? Umm, okay …… Can you make her look my age? Around 18?”

This time, the response is instant.

“Ah ……………”

Jaw hanging open, I stare at that illusion in disbelief.

My heart’s been stolen.

That’s the only way to come close to describing this experience. My whole world is crashing down even harder than when I first saw Shogi from 100 years in the future. I really could flatline at any second.

If only I could kick the bucket with a shock of pure joy like that …… I’ve been yearning for what’s right there for so long that the thought doesn’t sound half bad.

Seeing Ginko blossom into a young woman.

“Gi …… n ………… ko …………!!”

Tears are dripping out from under my headset before I realize it.

I can’t reach out and touch her and this image won’t respond to anything I say.

Even still …… Seeing Big Sis as an adult brought me back from the brink.

———I will see her. This version of Ginko.

My inner Ginko clock stopped ticking the last time I saw her. Now, at this moment, it’s moving again.

So what if it was sparked by a gem created by computer calculations?

“You’re amazing, Awaji! No …… Mr. Awaji! Let me call you Sir Awaji!!”

A god!! This thing has to be a god!!

Humanity has created something truly marvelous. To think that my deepest desire could be granted just like that!

But human desire has no limits.

As I take in the beautiful spectacle that is an 18-year-old Big Sis …… a little bit of discontent in one area sets in.

An area that doesn’t seem to have grown at all.

That’s …… a miscalculation, right?

“Sir, could you …… you know? You get it, don’t you? An all-powerful supercomputer like yourself doesn’t need me to spell it out, yeah?”

Awaji doesn’t respond.

I guess it needs direct orders from a human being to do anything. Ngh ……!

———Should I say it?

There’s a line that A.I. should never cross.

What I’m about to ask Awaji to do …… is the same as photoshopping my crush’s face onto a supermodel’s body.

As a man, it’s shameful. I get that.

But I’ve also shut myself away in the room and kept my nose to the grindstone for a full month now. I deserve a reward of some kind, don’t I? I’m only human!!

So I yell the secret that I’ve kept hidden in my heart at the top of my lungs!

“Ginko’s boobs! Make them bigger!!”

………………………………………… Huh?

“Wh-What’s wrong, Awaji? You’ve granted every single one of my wishes so far! You can do that much, right?! RIGHT?!”

It must need something more specific. I work up the courage to ask for a B cup at least …… No, I want to see her with a set of full Ds! But just as I was about to issue the order.

“ERROR”

Red letters flash in front of my eyes. What’s this ……?

“Erotic? …… Am I getting reprimanded by a computer?”

Now I wanna cry.

But I figure out my mistake right away.

“Oh! That says error!”

Not going to high school is one thing, but knowing I shouldn’t be doing what I was trying to do must’ve made me see things.

But, yeah, um ……

“E-Even the world’s strongest supercomputer …… can’t give Big Sis’s chest a boost ……”

Awaji has already produced a prediction of how Shogi will be played 100 years from now, and this is what it’s saying Ginko Sora’s future will be.

“Destined to be flat as a board.”

“Aaaargh ……!!”