Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 18 - Chapter 1.02

  Match Recorder

“DAH!!”

That dream felt so real that I woke up screaming.

Going to sleep with the AC on full blast didn’t help. I’m drenched with sweat and my heart is still thundering against my ribs ……

“Hff …… Hff …… Haaa ……! Wh-What …… was that ……?”

An old man.

And a little girl.

“…… That girl ……………… She looked a lot like Ika ……”

I think her name came up in the dream, but the smaller details are already fading.

As for the old man, I have no idea. Yet it feels like I’ve lived through an entirely different life …… A strange weight is hanging onto the back of my mind.

Wait …… Where am I, anyway?

“Oh yeah …… I came to my apprentice’s title match ……”

Apprentice.

Saying that word out loud makes something click, like the relationship between that old man and the little girl became so much more real.

Was he ………… the person who taught Ika how to play?

“………… Nah.”

I take a quick shower to wash off the sweat before getting dressed and leaving my room.

“………… This building is just bizarre ……”

Once I have breakfast at the cafeteria, I head out for a walk around the place.

The really strange thing is that there wasn’t anyone else in the cafeteria with me. Maybe I just got there too early ……

The layout is so much different from every inn and hotel I’ve ever stayed at because it used to be a medical retreat facility.

“This used to be a public building …… But it was a hospital before that, right? D-Does that mean a g-g-ghost visited me last night ……?!”

A spirit with unfinished business?! That’s terrifying!

And this place would make the perfect set for a B-movie horror flick.

The budget for Women’s League title matches is lower than for pros. Much lower.

That’s why the matches sometimes get played in community centers out in the boonies. The rental fee for public buildings is pretty cheap. I mean, even city governments sometimes host Women’s League title matches.

It does make for a homely atmosphere, which is nice. But still!

“……… Man, am I glad I’m not playing here ……”

Talking to myself helps to stave off the fear as I point my feet in the direction of people.

To the arena.

“Good morning, Kuzuryu-sensei.”

“Ah ………… Morning.”

Already there to greet me when I walk inside is the young woman working as today’s match recorder.

Karen Noboryou 3-dan.

Something feels weird about her sitting at the boardside table.

There’s nothing strange about Sub League members working as match recorders for Women’s Title matches, so it must be because she herself was challenging for a title not too long ago. Her opponent was my apprentice, today’s challenger.

Something else is off about the room.

The upper seat shows signs of someone having been there.

“Is Ika already here?”

“I believe that Sainokami-sensei slept in this room last night.”

“…… Come again?”

“She went to eat and change her clothes.”

“She slept in here?! …… Something is seriously wrong with her ……”

This isn’t on the level of, A title holder slept in the arena?! That’s unprecedented! It’s more like ……

Is she nesting in here?

“Ugh …… The upper seat is a sacred place, and it’s a mess. She’s a wild sleeper, trust me …… Well, she’s wild when she’s awake, too ……”

“True to your reputation, you are rather familiar with her sleeping habits.”

“Hey, hey! Cut that out! I only know because she’s conked out in the middle of matches during practice sessions before! What do people in Kanto think Ika and I are, huh?!”

“I would rather not sully this sacred ground to explain. Shall we step outside?”

“………… No, that’s okay.”

I sit down in the seat as far away from the match recorder as possible. Having that much distance will be better for both of us.

Miss Noboryou, Ika and I are all the same age.

But we never encountered each other growing up because we lived so far apart. Ika was in Tohoku, I was in Kansai and Miss Noboryou was technically in Tokyo, but way out on the island of Hachijo-jima.

There’s also a pretty good chance that Ika hasn’t graduated high school for one reason or another. Reason being that she wore a school uniform in her league match against Sota the other day. Then again, girls visiting theme parks in their old school uniforms seems to be trending on social media these days, but I don’t know for sure.

In the Shogi world, at least, people who were in the same grade have played plenty of times before. That’s why it’s so weird the three of us never ran into each other. We might have been in the same building, but we never played each other or recorded one another’s matches.

And now, here we are in the same room. Not at a Shogi Association building, but an out-of-the-way title match.

Three parallel lines running along different horizons.

“…… I …… hated you,” mumbles Miss Noboryou as she wipes off each of the pieces.

Par for the course. That’s why I wasn’t shocked to hear it.

Actually, I assumed she did.

The only way two people the same age could avoid each other for so long is one going out of their way to avoid the other. I have no reason to hate her.

But, she definitely does.

“I hated your apprentices, too. I saw them as annoying little insects that only got in Sora-sensei’s way. Even though we were separated into East and West, I believed Sora-sensei was the ideal both as a Sub League member and as a woman. But―――”

“But?”

“I may have been wrong.”

Carefully placing the clean pieces back into the piece box, Miss Noboryou goes on.

“Because the solution to Shogi may be different from the vague image I had in my head. If the final frame is different, then so must be the sequence of events that lead to it. The same could be true for the starting point as well. In which case …………”

“…………”

The sound of her closing the piece box lid echoes against all the pressure in here.

It’s like she was trying to shut the very existence of Ginko Sora away, and it gives me chills.

“There can be no doubt that the Shogi you showed us is from decades, or perhaps even 100 years in the future.”

She must be talking about the Placement League match I had against Taishi Shinokubo 7-dan the other day.

Miss Noboryou was the match recorder for that one, too.

I got so frustrated when Dark Taishi kept forcing Repetition Draws no matter what strategy I played to get me to show him my research that I used a sequence that the world’s fastest supercomputer taught me.

One from the distant future where moving the King straight forward is the first move.

“However, that is different from the future I saw.”

“……… What?”

Hearing something I couldn’t let slide makes me snap back at her.

After arriving at my conclusion, going through match after match against the supercomputer Awaji, here’s Miss Noboryou saying I’m wrong.

A mere 3-dan division member.

“Call it a parallel world. The one that I saw was much different. It was more genuine, more complex and more clear-cut.”

She’s contradicting herself.

But I can’t back up my version either. Awaji is a secret. Who knows what would happen if the whole world found out that only Ai Yashajin and I can access it freely.

“I’m here today to record them with my own hands. I’m sure that that monster can step into the future I couldn’t see playing against her.”

It seemed like Miss Noboryou was being respectful when she said, “Sainokami-sensei,” earlier, but I guess she does have some resentment toward the girl her age who crushed Big Sis with the Tomahawk strategy.

―――I can relate.

“But are you sure signing up for the first match was the right call? The last day of the 3-dan division is next week, right? The rest of the match will happen after the division is―――”

“The first match is the only option, actually,” she says with absolute certainty.

As if today’s match is more important than the 3-dan division.

“This title match won’t be a series.”

“Come again?”

What’s she talking about? The Empress Title Match is a best of five.

It’ll be three matches long at the very least.

Just as I start to have doubts that Miss Noboryou was mentally healthy enough to work as the match recorder, more people file into the arena and interrupt our conversation.

This room is smaller than the typical arena, so everyone is trying to squeeze by everyone else without stepping on toes. That includes Miss Noboryou.

But she isn’t looking at me anymore.

The future she has been waiting for is here.

“Good morning, Yashajin-Women’s Dual Title.”