Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 3 - Chapter 2.4

  B

Glug! “Ahh!”

Ai and I each take a big swig from bottles of milk at the same time.

“I tell you …… Nothing beats a bath after playing Shogi.”

“Fruity milk is delicious♡”

Ai also had several practice matches with Mr. Oishi after our discussion and then both of us went down to the first-floor baths to get some well-needed rest and relaxation after a long day. We capped off our Master—apprentice evening with some nice cold milk. Good times.

“Master …… Can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?”

“Why is there a Shogi classroom on the second floor of this bathhouse?”

“I don’t know the details but …… Pretty much every bathhouse back in the 1700s and 1800s had a second floor and lots of people would play Shogi and Go there.”

“Is this place that old?!”

“I doubt it’s the same building … but yeah.”

What I do know for sure is that one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Shogi classroom above a bathhouse in the country is right here in Osaka.

“Mr. Oishi started playing Shogi against customers before he knew right from left right here in this bathhouse and just kept getting better and better. Most amateurs play Ranging Rook, so that was how he learned to play and he just kept using it. I can still hear him saying: What’s the point of pros playing in a way that amateurs don’t even try?”

Mr. Oishi strongly believes that pros only exist because of amateurs and often comes right out and says he puts on a show with Ranging Rook. That’s probably how he got his almost poetic timing and worldly sense.

Just watching him pursue his idea of beauty makes fans go nuts.

“So, what did you think, playing against Mr. Oishi’s Ranging Rook?”

“It was amazing! Everything happened like magic. I couldn’t read the board at all! Bishops and Rooks just came flying in from out of nowhere! Zoom! And the board changed before I knew it, too …… How did he do that?!”

“I think, maybe, you were looking at different things.”

“Whaa?”

“You try to avoid a battle until you’ve built up a perfect formation when playing Static Rook, but Ranging Rook requires a broader sense–––in other words, you charge right in and exchange as many pieces as you can early and often throughout the match. It makes the pieces warp around the board.”

“Warp?”

“You know how you can deploy a piece anywhere you want once you have it on your piece stand, yeah? Even pieces that would normally require many turns to get into position can go there right away. What’s more, it’s a piece that wasn’t on your side at first.”

“Ah! That would …… change the board top to bottom?!”

“Right. The match can look completely different after just a few turns.”

Exchanging pieces makes the board so much more complicated, like an explosion of variables all at once.

I don’t think it needs to be said, but that makes anticipating the next few moves a heck of a lot harder.

“It happens in the late game no matter how many pieces are exchanged …… but since Ranging Rook relies on more of a worldly sense, even the mid-game can turn on its head at any time. That’s why you have to visualize what’s going to happen after taking an opponent’s piece.”

“After ……?”

“But reading far ahead in the mid-game when there are so many options is impossible. Did you know that there are 11 trillion 600 billion possible combinations by the ninth move in a game of Shogi?”

“There are?! … 11 trillion?!”

“That goes up to 328 trillion on the tenth move. No one could possibly read that far ahead.”

It’s pretty common for there to be a scene in Shogi manga where a character says something cool like, “Hahaha …… Only ~~ moves until checkmate!” However, that could never happen in real life. The only one who says that kind of thing and actually means it is Ayumu.

“That’s why visualizing what’s going to happen two or three turns later is less of a prediction and more of a perception. You must rely on a sense that tells you: it’ll probably go like this. You have to feel it.”

“Per … cep …… tion?”

“Basically, a gut feeling. But it’s a gut feeling that’s been honed by countless matches and a lot of experience.”

It’s like the way a master craftsman can make something more precise than a machine by doing what feels right.

“Static Rook and Ranging Rook approach Shogi differently, so of course each looks for different things on the board. That’s why their perceptions are different. Since Ranging Rook has to deal with more variables than Static Rook, those players tend to have sharper game sense than solid logic. At least that’s how I see it.”

“Wow …… Ranging Rook is amazing. There’s so much to it ……”

“But Ai, you need to master Ranging Rook asap. You won’t be able to keep winning in the Practice League if you don’t.”

“Huh?! Why ……?”

“You know how you play with handicaps when going against someone with a different rank? Up until now, you’ve benefited from having the extra piece … but you’ll be the upper player pretty soon. Usually, the left Lance gets dropped but–––.”

Ai has already played against opponents much weaker than herself without using her big pieces.

But when it’s another member of the Practice League …… Being down one piece when going against someone nearly at your level is a whole different story.

“Without the Lance, that side of the formation will never hold up. That’s why you have to find a way to cover for it, like moving the Rook to take its place, and still find a way to win.”

“Ah! I get it …… That’s Ranging Rook?!”

“Right. That’s why I want you to get a good Ranging Rook sense right now.”

And I want her to have the best teacher to learn that sense. That’s why I brought her here with me today.

Which reminds me. The Practice League–––.

“By the way, Ai. Did something … different … happen …… during Practice League today?”

“Different how?”

“Like, for instance …… Something happened to Keika–––.”

“……!!”

That seemed to ring a bell because her face, warm from the bath, just froze over.

Then it gets darker like clouds were moving in right before my eyes …… She forces out a few words.

“…… Keika …… got a B ……”

“Say what?!”

A B–––a demotion warning.

It happens if you go 2-8 or less within a ten-match span.

And if it happens again, going 2-8 in the next ten matches …… you get demoted.

The B gets removed if you go 3-3, but the rules prevent you from advancing a rank with it still on your record.

Which means Keika is one step away from a demotion, and with her so close to the age limit, getting a B now has to be more painful than I can imagine … 

Now I understand why she doesn’t want to see us …… so much that it hurts.

“…… Keika looked so sad …… Do you think she’s okay?”

“Well …… pretty much every elite player has had a B at one time or another.”

“Even you, Master?”

“Of course. I had one back in the Sub League …… You don’t forget the pain like that.”

Even the memories still sting. I start reliving every painful detail of those days as they come flooding back into my head.

Sure, the losses hurt, but what hurt the most was feeling like I was getting weaker every day and that my confidence was going down the drain.

I thought I’d hit my limit, like I’d never progress any further my whole life …… There was a night it hurt so bad I cried myself to sleep with a Shogi board in my arms.

“It happened right when I was about your age, Ai. I couldn’t win as the upper player without my Lance …… It threw me into a slump ……”

“Master had a hard time with a handicap too?!”

“You bet I did. I’d always been in the Static Rook party. That’s why I don’t want you to go through the same pain I did without a Lance.”

I’m worried about Keika, for sure.

But as a Master, the well-being of my apprentice comes first.

And as a pro Shogi player, I can’t ignore my own need to improve.

But most of all …… If Keika can’t get through this on her own, even if she does make it into the Women’s League, I doubt she’ll be able to survive in the Shogi world.

I gulp down the last bit of milk, put my hand on my apprentice’s head and say, “Let’s give it all we’ve got, Ai.”

“Yes! Master!”