Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 4.4

  STAYING OVER

“This will be our campsite.”

The words stay over made my heart skip a beat as Big Sis explains.

This meadow is owned by the medical facility where Ginko is staying. Since I just showed up without going through the proper channels, I’ll never be allowed to spend the night inside. So camping under the stars will have to do.

I’m still a bit shaken after being kidnapped, waking up in the middle of nowhere, and all that but …… This isn’t half bad.

Actually, I’d almost call it exciting.

What Big Sis called the Bam! And it’s ready! thing is actually a nice, surprisingly spacious tent and her set of camping chairs are comfy and have sturdy backs.

So I’ll be sipping coffee or whatever under an open sky and can fool around with the girl I love without worrying about anyone happening by …… Does it get any better than that?

The biggest shock for me about this whole thing is Big Sis being so decked out with camping gear. Her skin barely lasts a few minutes in the sun.

“How’d you get all this stuff? Shopping online?”

“Keika left it here.”

Keika ……

“She would stop by just to read on the terrace and drink tea at first, but it escalated from there.”

Big Sis explains that it all started when some former classmates of Keika’s invited her out for a barbeque. She jumped at the invitation hoping that some of them were still single only to find out they all had significant others, or even kids. The anguish of being left behind stung so hard that she invited Big Sis to a barbeque with her to soothe the wounds. Oh …… Keika ……

“…… Does Keika come here often?”

“All the time.”

She answers almost like it’s a bad thing.

“She comes nearly every weekend these days, and was here most of last week. We started camping because it’s getting warm outside.”

“Camping is trending right now.”

“It’s just eating and sleeping outside. Keika starts drinking in the morning, has more in the afternoon———”

“A-And at night, too?”

“She’s already out by then and drinks more when she wakes up the next afternoon.”

Keika ……!

“I thought she was worried about me at first, but I think she’s only trying to get away from reality. Marriage is a lost cause now, isn’t it?”

Guilt is hitting me hard.

The only explanation for Keika’s stress level is Ai Hinatsuru and I. As Ai’s Master, it should be me dealing with her situation.

I hate that I’m having to leave the whole thing on her shoulders but …… As a title holder, I can’t turn my back on the sponsors. This whole Professional Entrance Exam thing could split the Shogi world in half. I can’t just put my opinion out there without careful consideration———

“It’s ready.”

“Huh? What’s ready?”

“Food.”

“Wha?! Already?!”

I was sure she was joking, but then the smell reached my nose.

The dish Ginko whipped up in a camping-sized frying pan over a gas cooker is———

“Shrimp and mushroom ajillo.”

“Oh ……”

It looks like perfect ajillo.

However, this follows the standard thus far. All looks good until the shock of it hitting my tongue makes it humanly impossible to swallow …… I dip my spoon in and slowly raise it to my lips. This time, the shock is completely different.

“Mnnn?! Th-This is good!!”

Yes. It’s delicious.

Spreading it on a thin slice of baguette turns it into an absolute delicacy!

“Whoa, something I can actually eat showed up …… How am I supposed to react in this situation ……?”

“I’ve got a pike with your name on it.”

It’s been more than half a year since I’ve felt Ginko’s raw malice.

“Ajillo is just a seafood mix boiled in olive oil and store-bought seasoning. Anyone could make it.”

“Says the person who couldn’t even boil water ……”

“Agh?”

“S-Sorry ……”

I apologize through tears as Big Sis grinds her knuckles into my cheek.

Now this is happiness.

This meaningless sequence has played out hundreds of thousands of times since we were kids. But now it’s hitting me just how much I’ve missed this married couple comedy routine.

I love this girl.

To the point that nothing else matters.

We talked and talked and talked from that point on until sunset.

All the while being very careful to skirt around bringing up her current condition, when she might come back or why she left without saying a word to me ……

But it wasn’t all that hard. At least, not as hard as I worried it would be.

Ginko, who read all the way through Kuzuryu’s Notebook, starts asking me specific questions about the sequences in it.

Our campsite turns into a verbal practice session. A high-level one, too. It’s obvious that Ginko doesn’t have any rust at all. I even get ahead of myself and jokingly tell her, “Whew, I cut the deadline so close that my editor forced me into a cram session at an inn.” Her response is like a splash of cold water to the face.

“I know.”

She then silently pulls out a bookmark that was in her sample copy that came directly from the editor’s office and hands it to me. And there, written in flowing calligraphy letters, is: “You had best return quickly, else I shall take him for my own.”

I thought I’d triggered an instant death. That hasn’t happened in a long time ……

But the jealousy on Ginko’s face is so adorable.

All sorts of emotions are passing across her face, none of which I ever saw on her after she turned pro, or even when she was in the 3-dan division. She always just looked exhausted.

And I watch that face the whole time the sun goes down.

I gave her the watch that’s shining on her right wrist. My heart skips a beat whenever that twinkle happens to catch my eye.

Now that it’s dark, Ginko builds a campfire and starts making dinner.

This time, it’s pizza toast made on a sandwich griller.

“Anyone can make it by putting toppings on bread,” says Ginko, but it’s pretty obvious that she has been practicing what Keika taught her.

“…… This is good.”

“Uh-huh.”

Just thinking about who she had in mind when practicing …… makes me so happy I could die.

“So, um.”

Our conversation picks up again in front of the crackling fire.

It’s gotten a lot colder since the afternoon and Ginko put on a cardigan. Seeing her dressed like this is so new to me, I can’t help but check her out from head to toe.

“You didn’t seem all that surprised to see me laying on the ground back there. Shouldn’t that have been more of a shock?”

“You didn’t seem surprised to see me either, Yaichi.”

“Why would I? You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Where were you looking just now ……?”

It’s scary how she can sense my line of sight when it’s so dark out. Is Ginko actually a cat?

Big Sis cups her chest with both hands and says, “…… I’m still 16. A second year in high school, yes? A lot can happen before I turn 20. Who knows, I might be wearing knit sweaters that bring out my curves by the time I’m the same age as college students ……!”

“True, true,” I answer with a smile.

Ginko is the type to never throw in the towel until a Gold gets deployed right in front of her King. As a Shogi player, I highly respect that. It’s just ……

———Sir Supercomputer has already spoken.

This is just sad.

If there’s barely any hope at all, human nature compels people to hang onto it. Even those with a strong will like Big Sis …… Just to be clear, I didn’t say barely because she barely has boobs, okay?

Ignorance is bliss when you don’t know what’s going to happen.

It’s like how a Shogi match can keep going if both players don’t realize they’re on a check path.

———She’s better off not knowing ……

I only recently found out how hard it is to carry big secrets———

“…… Chi? Yaichi? Are you listening?”

“Ah! S-Sorry. I was thinking.”

“…… Something naughty?”

“Why would you think that?!”

Is it because I was just looking at her chest?! Say that when you’ve got a massive pair!

“I’ll tell you why I wasn’t surprised.”

Big Sis looks me right in the eyes.

“Because I’ve thought about it every day.”

“About what?”

“Seeing you.”

I forget to breathe.

“I’ll tell you one more thing. Why I like it here so much.”

With that, Ginko puts out the fire.

Then she takes my hand and pulls me down to the ground next to her.

“Look.”

Both of us look up at the clear night sky and she says, “See? It’s almost the same …… as that night.”

It was almost exactly a year ago tonight.

Ginko and I looked up at the stars from my hometown during the tanabata season.

The Milky Way in the sky and its reflection on the ground.

We opened up to each other under those very stars on that precious night. I played the biggest move of my life.

And this sky does look like the one we saw when she went from being just my older sister apprentice …… to my girlfriend.

“The view looked like my second favorite thing in the world, so I decided this place was okay.”

Ginko says with her eyes on the night sky.

I ask without thinking, “What’s the first?”

“I haven’t seen it yet …… but you already know, right?”

“…… Yeah.”

Yes, I do.

Ginko Sora took a leave of absence from Shogi to play against Yaichi Kuzuryu.

The view she wants to see most of all is from the board. The two of us playing on a professional stage. Ginko Sora chose that tiny, narrow piece of wood over this vast sky filled with stars.

Which is why …… it hurts. My heart aches.

We’re so close right now.

We love each other so much.

But in reality, that view is further away than the thousands of light years it took for these stars to shine in that sky ……

Like shooting stars falling out of a sky that was too full of stars, emotions come pouring out after my heart got too full to keep them in.

“I love you.”

“Uh-huh ……”

“You are my number one, Ginko. No matter how many times I could relive my life, that would never change. I’ll love you forever. Even if ……”

If I never played Shogi, is what I was about to say but I stop myself. Hearing that wouldn’t make her happy, for sure.

So I tell her this instead.

“Once we’re married and have kids, let’s all go camping together. I want our future kids to see this beautiful sky …… don’t you?”

The instant I saw her again.

The moment her longer hair came into my line of sight, I felt our hearts come together.

“I want to see you with long hair in a wedding dress.”

She remembered me saying so and is growing her hair out to make it happen right now. We are seeing the same things in a future that is just around the corner ……

Her answer is one word.

“…… Doufu.”

Then, hand in hand, we snuggle up together in the tent and fall asleep.

The happiest sleep there is.

The next morning.

“Nmm …………”

I wake up to the sun’s rays. I must be more sensitive to them after living in a windowless room for so long.

Next to me is Ginko, still facing me as she snoozes.

Part of me was worried everything that happened yesterday was all just a dream, but …… the feeling of her fingers between mine erases all those worries instantly.

Slowly unweaving our hands, I get up and step outside the tent. Then———

“Good morning, Yaichi.”

“……!”

I recognize just who is standing there right away.

Even though the last time I saw her was …… nearly 10 years ago.

“Do you remember who I am?”

I nod without a word.

This person’s name is———Shoko Sora.

Big Sis’s mother.