Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 5 - Chapter 5.4

  FLUTTERING PETALS

Ai Yashajin gazed up at the stars.

She sat on the porch, her legs swinging off the edge in front of her home’s impressive garden with her eyes glued to the 3 a.m. night sky.

“My lady. As it is quite late, please return to your quarters.”

Akira had asked her ten, possibly twenty times by now, but the only response she received was an uninterested “Yes ……” ——Ai never once moved from the spot.

The one thing that held her attention was the tablet computer at her side, more specifically the Shogi board displayed on the screen. The girl would pounce over it for a closer look whenever an update was posted.

She would then immediately return her gaze to the stars once she knew the current situation.

How many hours had this cycle been going on? No, it wasn’t just today. Ai had been doing this for over a month …… Ever since the night she qualified for the Women’s League, Akira thought.

–––Does this level of wholehearted devotion exist?

Ai had been waiting this whole time while playing her way through Yaichi’s match records.

I’m going to join the Women’s League … so be my Master.

She was waiting for the right time to ask.

There was no need to wait. Yaichi was already her Master, so a little paperwork was all that was left to do.

But Ai couldn’t bring it up.

Because she knew Yaichi was suffering.

Unlike Ai Hinatsuru, Ai Yashajin wasn’t living with him. However, she had played through Yaichi’s match records more than anyone. One look was all she needed to know how Yaichi was feeling at the time. That’s why she didn’t want to put any more on Yaichi’s plate right now.

So, she waited, biding her time out of sight.

Waited for Yaichi to play with comfort and ease, for that was when she would ask him to become her Master.

And she was still waiting.

She kept the registration form hidden in her pocket at all times. The corners long since curled over, weeks of folding and unfolding the paper had taken their toll. Nonetheless, she couldn’t put it down …… Not until Yaichi defeated the Meijin.

–––That lucky imbecile …… I’ll never forgive him if he loses.

Keeping her young Master company as Ai gazed at the sky, Akira grumbled to herself.

Ayumu Kannabe howled on Niko Live’s broadcast.

“Envision it! Yourself as the Almighty Dragon King! You, vanquishing the god to stand at the summit!”

This wasn’t so much analysis as cheering.

Getting to his feet, Ayumu slammed his fist into the big board and kept hollering.

“That vision shall become your might!! I shall challenge you at your peak! Then we can continue the endless battle of good versus evil just as we have always done!!”

Of course, his cheers would never reach the players’ ears.

There were some audience members who mocked his senseless banter and demanded he focus on match analysis.

However, the vast majority of them had a lot to say.

“Damn, he’s fired up!” 

“Yeah, trash dragon, fight hard!” 

“The prince doesn’t seem half bad (lol).” 

“I want to see those go head-to-head for a title!” 

“Everybody needs a best friend.” 

“Tearing up over here ……”

“Intense!!”

So many people were rooting for Yaichi, and Ayumu for that matter, that their supportive comments nearly blocked out the picture as the white letters scrolled by.

The thoughts of the nation uniting as one … Ayumu continued cheering despite never being heard.

“Rise!! Fight on, my eternal rival!!”

Rina Shakando watched her beloved apprentice root for his dear friend from the commentator’s chair with a look somewhere between affection and jealousy in her eyes.

The girls had gathered around a single smartphone beneath a big blanket. None slept a wink as they followed the Shogi match in real time.

“Wow …… Kujyuru-sensei is amazing ……!”

Eyes sparkling, Mio kept saying “Wow” on repeat.

Charlette was starting to fade just a bit, but she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and asked, “Will Masta win?”

“I don’t know …… But, he might. …… I … want him to win,” Ayano answered as if praying in a hushed voice in hopes that her parents wouldn’t realize they were still awake.

Actually, her parents had been aware that the girls were awake for hours but pretended to be oblivious. They were happy knowing the children had found something to be passionate about.

Ayano, her glasses off, leaned in so close to the smartphone that her nose touched the screen.

“I don’t really understand what’s happening on the board but …… It looks like Kuzuryu-sensei’s pieces have a heartbeat. Like they’re all about to push back ……”

“Did Masta see our picta? Did wee make him happwi?”

“I’m sure we did! W-While it was a bit embarrassing …… I’m glad we sent the picture. Aren’t you, Mio–––?”

“Ayanon! Cha! I’ve made up my mind!!” Mio yelled as quietly as she could under the covers, her gleaming eyes open wide.

“I …… Me, too?! I’m going to go pro!!”

Countless children first dreamt of being a professional Shogi player that night.

Despite the late hour, more and more professional Shogi players filed into the break room at the Hinatsuru as the night progressed.

“Well, if it isn’t Oishi-sensei! And …… your daughter, too?!”

“What?! The King, here?!”

“It’s the Worldly Maestro ……!”

Surprise echoed around the room.

Mitsuru Oishi was known for doing his own thing and only came to the association for his own matches. But here he was at the site after many long hours behind the wheel of his own car.

Empty cigarette carton still clutched in his hand after the long drive, Mitsuru Oishi announced the reason for his visit.

“I thought it was about time I tried out one of these North Coast Onsen Hot Springs. People in our business are rather particular about water.”

“P …… pardon, us ……”

Asuka quietly followed her father into the break room and quickly found a spot in the corner with a great view of an analysis board and didn’t take her eyes off it. While a very shy girl, she never once moved from the spot.

Professionals, Women’s League members and amateurs left their homes one by one and set out for the Hinatsuru.

There was no way to know when the match would end. It could very well be over by the time they arrived.

Even so, those men and women felt they had to be there. All to see just one match.

Why? Because Shogi was their life.

“…… 3:30 a.m., Oishi-King arrived in the break room with his daughter Asuka in tow. Mr. Oishi immediately found a seat in front of the big board and began directing analysis. On the opposite side stands Jin Natagiri 8-dan. The two fought head-to-head many times in the Sub League’s 3-dan Division. It’s like watching a scene from back in those days …… And that should do it.”

The journalist Mato photographs the room and uploads it along with comments from several players onto the official blog. She updated it as much as humanly possible. Now wasn’t the time to worry about mistakes. Prioritizing speed and amount over accuracy, Mato wanted the readers to feel as though they, too, were in the room.

All the while believing that immortalizing the moment was her duty as a journalist.

Ryou Tsukiyomizaka had just purchased a cup of hot coffee at a highway rest stop.

“………… Damn ………”

At the same time the Repetition Draw decision was about to be announced, Ryou burst out of her Tokyo home, jumped on her motorcycle and sped off toward the north coast as if drawn by a magnetic pull.

But, upon checking the match record at said rest stop, she’d been unable to take another step.

Machi Kugui, already at the match site, was sending her a constant stream of messages and video clips but she didn’t read any of them. Unread messages on LINE were piling up as well, but she couldn’t look.

“…… Damn ……………”

However, she couldn’t take her eyes off the match record no matter how hard she tried.

Ryou met Yaichi in the Elementary Meijin Title Match Finals. She was in fifth grade and he was in third when they first played against each other.

Yaichi won that match, but Ryou strongly felt she would win the next.

However, that next never took place.

Because Yaichi entered the Sub League.

Ryou had already qualified for the Women’s League, but she chose to take a leave of absence from Women’s League matches and went against her Master’s objections to enter the Sub League herself.

Three years after Yaichi won the Elementary Meijin Title, Ryou Tsukiyomizaka joined the Sub League with a 5-kyu ranking as a second-year junior high school student.

One year later, she dropped out as a 6-kyu.

It was the first major setback she had ever encountered, but Ryou refused to stop walking down the Shogi path. Claiming a Women’s Title would allow her to play against professionals. She honed her skills, believing with all her heart she could win if only a regulated match could be set up. Utterly destroying Yaichi’s apprentice had left a very satisfying taste in her mouth.

But … now.

Seeing him play against the Meijin at the very top of the Shogi world, Ryou had no choice but to face the harsh reality.

–––I’m …… I’m never gonna catch up to him …… 

“Damn ……!”

She crushed a paper cup between her fingers. The hot coffee burned her hand, but that pain was nothing compared to what she felt in her heart.

The coffee dripped down onto the asphalt by her feet, but hot tears leaking from her eyes hit the ground alongside them every so often.

“Damn ……!!”

Each move that was made crushed her spirit into smaller and smaller pieces. Her tears showed no signs of stopping. Unable to take a single step out of the chilly rest stop, the girl simply cried and said “Damn” on an endless loop.

A strange air had filled the main hall.

“Twenty years ago …… This reminds me so much of the night he took my last title.”

Standing alongside his younger brother apprentice, Kousuke Kiyotaki, Chairman Seiichi Tsukimitsu brought up the day the Meijin claimed all seven Shogi titles.

It had become a legend among legends in the Shogi world …… The words of one present at the time become gospel. Which was exactly why the over one thousand guests present to watch the match at the Hinatsuru fell silent as not to miss a single one. All leaned forward on the edge of their seats waiting for him to continue.

“…… He stopped being open and honest about his true feelings after that night. Without friends, without revealing anything about his private life, he would simply give the same smile no matter what he was asked.”

It was true, the mysterious Meijin-isms all but disappeared once he had that seventh title. The audience came to the realization and nodded.

“Once those declarations had more impact as he stood on top of the Shogi world, his words took off on their own as if they had wings … though he did not wish for it. That’s why he separated himself from the management side of the Shogi Association and never took an apprentice of his own. That freedom was not afforded to him. The one place where he was truly free was on the Shogi board. Unfortunately–––,” Seiichi said in a remorseful tone.

And no one dared interrupt him.

“Unfortunately, he faced isolation even there because he was never able to find someone who could communicate at his level. He’d become too strong on his own and Shogi cannot be played by only one player at a time.”

That being said–––Seiichi turned his face toward the big analysis board that his eyes could not see.

“Now he’s found someone with whom he can be his true self. After twenty long years, finally.”

Then, he finished by adding one more thing.

“I’m a bit jealous that that person was not me.”

Twenty years ago …… No, as recently as ten years ago, Seiichi would never have brought this information to light. But now, he admits how he felt to the crowd with a lonely smile on his lips.

Then, he brings his younger brother apprentice into the conversation.

“Which reminds me, there was a time when you asked me to take Yaichi as my own apprentice, yes Kousuke?”

“That there was …… Though ya shot that down usin’ no waitin’ time at all.”

The audience chuckled.

Kousuke kept speaking, mixing in jokes as he went.

“But, ya know? Yaichi had talent in spades. I remember thinkin’ At’s no good. He’ll gratitude me if I raise ‘im up for sure. Gratitude in the Shogi world is what we call it when the apprentice beats the Master. But that ain’t gratitude at all. Losin’ to yar apprentice hurts like ya wouldn’t believe. Players used to retire ‘cause of it in the ol’ days. So when I tried to push ‘im off on ya, ya sure lived up to yar title as the Eternal Meijin. Saw right through me.”

The audience roared with laughter.

Once it died down, Seiichi quietly asked, “Kousuke. Do you still wish to pass him on to me to this day?”

“………”

He hesitated for a moment.

“…… While I don’ know if I should be sayin’ this with Yaichi’s folks right here but ……” He gave a short bow of acknowledgment to Yaichi’s family, watching the match with baited breath in the corner of the main hall, before stating with conviction, “He’s my son. I’m damn proud of ‘im, and I ain’t givin’ ‘im to nobody else.”

With tears in his eyes, he finished with words so quiet the microphone couldn’t pick them up.

“Now this is gratitude …… Thank ya, Yaichi.”

Ginko Sora sat in the break room, shivering.

“……………… Yaichi …………”

The room temperature wasn’t all that cold. In fact, it was so full of people that the air was rather toasty.

Even so, Ginko was shivering.

Her always clear, pale skin had faded into a stark white hue. Any further, and she might just disappear altogether.

She had her arms wrapped around her chest, fingers clasped to her shoulders and shivered as if encased in ice.

Her eyes were distant, looking up at the ceiling as if searching for faraway stars on a winter’s night. Looking far, far away–––.

“Yaichi …… Gone far away, again ………,” she murmured blankly.

Like an infant would. Like a mute child.

“…… Liar. Yaichi, you liar. I told you not to leave me behind. You said you wouldn’t, you said it ……”

“You’re just going to have to chase him harder, Ginko.”

Keika came up behind her, placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders and offered words of encouragement while thinking to herself: –––The miracle that Yaichi and the Meijin are pulling off makes mine feel fake. It’s on a different scale.

This one was equivalent to when the game of Shogi was born into this world, a true miracle.

That’s why if Ginko wanted to pursue him, she would need an even bigger miracle to catch up.

The odds of that happening were extremely low.

However.

With enough effort, she could surely do it. Her feelings would certainly reach him. Keika had no doubt in her mind.

Whereas before she thought of it as inconsequential, now she could declare it with all the confidence in the world.

She wrapped her arms around the shivering younger older sister from behind.

Then, Keika gently whispered into her ear.

“Let’s do our best, okay?”

No effort, in Shogi or in love, goes unrewarded.