Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 2 - Chapter 3

  TODAY, IN CLASS 4-2

“Kujuryu-sensei is acting weird?”

“Uh-huh ……”

Kita-Fukushima Elementary School, in Osaka’s Fukushima Ward.

The school is in the same shopping district where Ai lives with her Master.

And in the fourth year, class two classroom, young Ai Hinatsuru approached her classmate Mio with a downcast look on her face in hopes of getting advice.

“How so?”

“… He started to do new lessons recently … But I think he’s hiding something.”

Ai spoke as if the dam that keeps her worry at bay had broken. She unloaded everything at once.

“You see? Master says that it’s all old men where he goes to teach. But, you know? When I washed his clothes the other day …… they smelled like women’s perfume. And you know what else? He doesn’t wear a suit when he goes there, just regular clothes. And they’re fancier clothes than when we go out together. He comes home later every time he goes and he got scared when I asked him if he was hiding something ……See, Mio? What do you think it could be?”

“A woman.”

That extremely confident declaration didn’t come from Mio, but the girl the top of the class’s social pyramid, Mihane.

“That happens all the time in comics and movies, and it’s always another woman. He’s cheating, cheating for sure.”

Mihane’s opinion held sway over every girl in the class. Her word was final. The other girls standing around them started nodding, saying “For sure,” and agreeing with everything Mihane said.

“T-That couldn’t be! Kujuryu-sensei could never get a girlfriend!”

Mio offered a counter argument to Mihane’s opinion.

Keeping an eye on Ai as the girl slipped even further into depression, Mio put power behind every syllable as she declared, “He’s not exactly the cutest boy, not even close! His fashion sense is horrible! And he doesn’t care about anything other than Shogi!!”

“………”

“Ah! I-I didn’t mean it like that, Ai! I don’t think Kujuryu-sensei is uncool or ugly or anything like that?! But in general–––.”

“That’s exactly my point. Men that can’t resist women fall for the weird ones so fast it’s not even funny!”

“………”

“C-Calm down, Ai! You look like you’re about to kill someone?!”

“Huh?!”

Only then did Ai notice that her intimidating aura was making most of the girls around her cry.

Class 4-2 was on the brink of pandemonium for a brief moment.

“S-Sorry …… was I that scary?”

“Your eyes, they looked like they belonged to an assassin …”

Ai had spent many hours in battles of life and death against adult men over a Shogi board. Normal elementary school girls can’t take that kind of intensity and end up crying.

Having been around Shogi players competing at the highest level, her aura was overwhelming. Mio, a full-fledged fourth-grade girl, nearly had an accident when she took it head on.

“… I’m really sorry, everyone. But, I’m fine ……”

“Really? Ai, are you really sure you’re okay?”

“Yep! Oh, and Mio?”

“Yeah?”

“Doesn’t your father work with medicine and stuff like that?”

“Yeah. Papa works for a pharmacy.”

“Do you know how to buy a truth serum?”

“… What?”

“Think my allowance will be enough?”

“Uh …… Umm? Ai ……?”

She was serious. Her eyes were burning.

Mio was utterly shocked.

Ai would surely drug Kuzuryu-sensei’s food at this rate. Should the current Ryuo’s blind passion result in an elementary school girl poisoning him, the Shogi world would come to an end. The tabloids would have a field day speculating about what had actually happened. The association’s darkest hour was upon them.

I-I must do something! I have to find a way to get her mind off this, because if I don’t …

Mio thought about it as hard as she could and came up with an idea.

“Oh, I know! Why don’t we go to a different Shogi classroom today rather than the association?”

“In the city ……?”

“Yep! It will be fun to go someplace different! Have you been anywhere else, Ai?”

“I’ve been to Master’s Master …… my Grand Master’s classroom, the Noda Shogi Center—but nowhere else.”

“There are Shogi classrooms all over Osaka! I’ll take you to the one where I started playing! We can invite Ayano and Charlette too! Let’s play until the sun goes down!”

“Uh …… Uh-huh.”

Ai couldn’t help but nod along with Mio’s infectious energy.

Master said that Osaka is dangerous …… That I shouldn’t play anywhere other than the association or Grand Master’s place without getting his permission first, but …

Ai hesitated for a moment, unsure. However, she quickly realized that she didn’t have to be.

Because–––.

Master is going places without telling me!