Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 18 - Chapter 1.04

  Ghost Story

“Really, Sensei, I had no idea! To think that Ika is your daughter!”

I finally tell him after we meander around the building for a while. It was one of the biggest shocks of my life, to be sure.

“It was a shock to me as well. You of all people being my daughter’s lover.”

“Please, Sensei, listen to me …… Ika might see it differently, but as far as I’m concerned, we aren’t together!”

“Elaborate.”

“No matter how Ika …… your daughter feels about it, I’ve only had feelings for one person my whole life. We were always side by side as kids and I think we’ll always be side by side in the future.”

“Does said person share these feelings?”

“If I may ask the same question, Sensei, why didn’t you marry Ika’s mother?”

I counter to get out of the hot seat.

Because, well, I don’t know what Ginko’s level of commitment is or what kind of future she has in mind ……

“A common pitfall for Shogi players.”

Okito-sensei’s voice is very plain.

“I was still young and prioritized Shogi above all else. She just could not tolerate that. I could barely manage to score as a romantic partner, but failed as a father. It was the correct decision.”

“……”

I hate that I can understand exactly where he’s coming from.

Get serious about Shogi, and no amount of time is ever enough.

Matches often last late into the night, and your win-loss ratio directly impacts your life. Watching someone ride that roller coaster would be worse than actually being on it yourself.

That’s why people in the Shogi world tend to pair off with each other. The same is true in the Go world. I can’t deny that it’s hard to meet people outside of it, though.

“Her time as a single mother must have been extremely difficult, but she never revealed our daughter’s existence to me. Not until that day, at least.”

Okito-sensei attempted to take his own life after losing to a computer in a televised match. Apparently, Ika’s mother was there when he woke up in a hospital bed and told him about Ika.

Then, she asked him to pay child support.

When I first heard that, I understood it as her way of giving him a reason to live.

Now that I know all the details, I’m almost certain of it.

That Ika’s mother still loves Okito-sensei and finds her own way to express it.

“Have you been able to meet much since then? As a family of three, I mean.”

“I now have opportunities to see my daughter, yes. Her mother says she is rather busy with work. All of the child support payments are being used for Ika’s sake, or so I’m told. She insists on covering her own daily expenditures.”

“If I may ask …… what does she do?”

“Elderly care.”

Last night’s dream flashed before my eyes. A river of sweat rolls down my back.

―――It’s a coincidence, just a coincidence ……

I desperately repeat that to myself, but deep down I know coincidences don’t line up this much.

Awaji showed me the future of Shogi when I played against it.

Did I …… get the ability to see the past as a result ……?

―――Hello!! Of course not, you idiot!

“So, then. You have feelings for another?” says Okito-sensei without any way of knowing the battle taking place in my head right now. “This is a confusing position to be in as a father. While I still do not wish to part with my daughter, I thought I could rest easy knowing she would have a partner such as yourself.”

“While I’m glad I have your trust as a man ……”

“As a man? No.” Okito-sensei stops walking, squares his shoulders to me, and says with the utmost seriousness, “You and my daughter are cut from the same cloth. Yaichi Kuzuryu. You, like my daughter …… are not human.”

“…… What do you mean by that?”

“The elderly man who taught my daughter Shogi was an ex-professional.”

“An ex ……?”

Something felt weird about how he described that.

Reason being that even after they retire, pro players still keep their status as pro players.

Losing that status would mean …… either the Shogi Association forced him out for their own purposes or there’s an extremely rarely used expulsion system.

“Said elderly man once filled something akin to a personal secretary role for a particularly influential player of the day. He wrote books under that player’s name and carried out assignments that could not be done in the public eye.”

“And then …… gotten rid of?”

“I do not know the whole truth of the matter, but I do know that said elderly man apparently wrote more books under the names of other professionals without their knowledge. Many publishers’ standards were lax in that era.”

“I know that publishers no one had ever heard of put out some weird books way back when …… Like Static Rook players writing about Ranging Rook strategies, stuff like that.”

By the time the pro player realized their name was on it, the publisher had disappeared without a trace. That’s how the system worked. Machi Kugui told me a bit about it when we wrote Kuzuryu’s Notebook.

“However, such a lifestyle cannot last. The elderly man had faded from the public consciousness when he quietly moved into a government-run senior facility. Without anyone to play Shogi against, he passed the time by lining up Shogi recorders by himself.”

“……?!”

I look around the room with a start. Why is it so chilly in here when it’s the middle of summer?

This building is now a privately owned medical facility.

Rumor has it that it used to be a rather unique hospital of sorts.

“No way ……”

“I believe your conclusion to be correct.”

Okito-sensei nods like he just read my mind.

“The elderly man passed away inside these very walls. It’s also the location where he met my daughter and taught her how to play.”

Th-That dream …… It took place here?!

My knees are trembling. What is this, a ghost story?

“My daughter claims to be able to hear his voice. She had a conversation with an empty room last night. I cannot understand where the voice is coming from, however.”

Then, Sensei turns to me and asks with a completely straight face.

“Can you hear it?”

“………… I …… don’t know ……”

The old man and the girl in my dream last night ……

Every ounce of logic in my brain is desperately trying to convince the rest of me that it wasn’t real, no matter how realistic it felt. But, then again ……

“I happened to visit that elderly man but a few days before his death.”

“You met him?!”

“Met might not be the correct term …… One look at the stock of adult diapers crammed into the room was enough to understand his condition. While he would make a faint response when the names of professional players he once faced were spoken aloud, that was all. At the very least, he didn’t acknowledge my presence in the slightest.”

The old man I dreamed about also got steadily older.

His last moments were happy, though―――

“The elderly man was in my daughter’s mother’s care. She said that she spoke to him each and every day without fail, but hardly ever got a response.”

“………… And?”

“Can you not make the connection?”

I swear Okito-sensei’s eyes look like a guy seconds from delivering the scariest line of a ghost story.

The shocking truth.

“At the time he was supposedly teaching my daughter, the elderly man had already lost the ability to verbally communicate with others.”

“……! Th-Then ……?!”

I’m stunned.

The old man in my dream not only answered Ika’s questions, but taught her how pieces moved and even had a soft spot for her. Their meeting was a miracle in the twilight of his life, and he was grateful for it.

―――Then ………… what the heck did I see?

That story from the old man’s point of view.

Why did I dream about something …… that never happened ……?

“Saying he taught my daughter Shogi may also not be the correct term. In actuality, my daughter continually watched him line up Shogi records and nothing more.”

“W-Wait just a minute, Sensei! Are you saying she learned the game by just watching match records play out?! N-No human being could possibly―――”

“Hearing about it was the confirmation I needed. My daughter possesses a talent for deriving information from formations using eyesight alone.”

“What do you mean by …… formations?”

“Facial expressions, for instance.”

Okito-sensei runs his hand along his mask-like face and starts listing.

“Subtle hand movements. Number of blinks. Things that normal people can only comprehend as a feeling in the air. In Shogi terms, piece location. It was through all of these visual cues that the elderly man conveyed Shogi to my daughter …… At least, that is what she claims.”

“……… That’s impossible ……”

No matter how much I try to refute that explanation, there is no denying that Ika picked up pro-level Shogi skills thanks to that old man.

“Yes, it isn’t normal. My daughter is incapable of establishing logical verbal communication but was gifted with this ability to compensate.”

Then, the man who suddenly became a father one day adds.

“Having a daughter like that is what gave me the conviction to develop deep learning software.”