Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 18 - Chapter 5.09

  Spare

“………… We were indeed present for something incredible ……”

The match is over.

Even now, 30 minutes after checkmate, no one in the Player’s Room has budged an inch.

Because we’re too stunned to stand.

“Two sixth grade elementary school girls have just discovered a Shogi puzzle within a live match that I could never hope to find in my lifetime. I’m grateful to the higher power that took away my sight …… For if I had seen it play out with my own eyes, I very well might have retired today.”

It’s Chairman Tsukimitsu who breaks the long silence.

But his choice of words gets my attention.

“…… Discovered?”

“All Shogi puzzles exist within the realm of Shogi. They only take physical shape when someone discovers them.”

The chairman says they’re like carved statues.

Just as a beautiful work of art is already inside a chunk of marble, Shogi puzzles exist within the massive boulder that is Shogi from the start.

“Everything is always right in front of us. There is no special meaning in that. In our youth, the Meijin and I debated Shogi’s solution for better or worse …… But it’s rather like the measles.”

“……………”

Those words blindsided me like a sucker punch and hurt even worse.

That shame isn’t going anywhere, so I just stare into my lap as the chairman and Ms. Oga leave the Player’s Room.

Now there are just two of us left.

Master and I.

“Yaichi.”

“……! M-Master ……”

“’Bout Ai bein’ a replacement for Ginko. Keika told me ya came to ask her yarself. Have ya still not figured it out?”

“…………”

Confused, I don’t say anything and just stare back into my lap.

Master quips like he’s had enough of his clueless apprentice.

“Ai is Ai. Just like how Ginko is Ginko. Nobody’s anybody’s replacement.”

There aren’t any spares.

I guess so. But ……

“The reason I had ya take Ai as a live-in apprentice was I thought ya’d both grow better that way. Nothin’ else.”

“…… Maybe that was true at first.”

I manage to say without looking up.

“But, didn’t it ever cross your mind? Can you say …… say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the thought of keeping Big Sis and I apart to protect us never crossed your mind? Can you?!”

“Sure can.”

Master opens up about it for the first time.

His reasoning is so clearcut, there’s no room to argue.

“I lost my wife when she was young. It was just me an’ Keika.”

“Ah …………”

The loneliness on Master’s face leaves me speechless.

“But never once have I regretted marryin’ her in the first place. I’ve never wished I’d married some healthier girl instead. ’At’s what it means to be in love. Am I wrong?”

“…………”

“There ain’t nobody who knows the future. All ya can do to avoid regrets is makin’ the move ya think is best at the time.”

I was so sure the future was set in stone.

That nothing but pain and sorrow was waiting for Ginko and I.

But …………

“Ai’s always makin’ the choice ’at’s right for her path. I thought the least I could do was give her a push. It wasn’t any different when ya followed me ’round askin’ for Shogi lessons way back when.”

“Making …… your own choices ……”

After Ginko disappeared …… what have I done, exactly?

Did I make any decisions for myself?

Just blindly believe that computer-generated match records were the unavoidable future and pursue them as much as possible, that’s it.

I knew what had to be done from the very beginning, but I always lined up some kind of excuse to avoid it.

I didn’t even make the decision to go see Ginko when we were finally reunited. I snuck away from there and went home. Then I blamed it all on Master.

Meanwhile, two grade school girls are going through the shredder, fighting their hearts out to get even a little further down the path they’re forging for themselves.

Worse: the reason they chose that path―――

“I …… really am trash.”

“Finally get it, do ya?”

Master’s voice is sharp as a whip as he lets his failure of an apprentice have it.

“Ya need more trainin’. Go on back to square one!”