Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 2

  MASTER KIYOTAKI: RUNAWAY

“Master isn’t home yet?”

“No, he’s not. I have no idea where he’s gotten to.”

Morning after the B-2 placement match.

I dropped by Master’s place to pick up Ai only to find Keika with a troubled look on her face as she brought me up to speed on the situation.

“My word, he’s over 50 and still embarrassing himself …… Ai is only 10 but she was up with the sun, did some cleaning and laundry and is now covering for my father in the classroom.”

“Well, you know. Placement matches are rough ……”

Nobody would feel like coming straight home right after playing Shogi for over 13 hours straight only to lose. Keika knows all about that, but she’s probably just so worried that she has to complain to someone and I happen to be here.

Neither she nor I bring up what happened at the Award Ceremony.

Nothing about the shocking checkmate in one, nothing about Master using the “r” word, nothing at all.

While we’re talking, Big Sis shows up in her pajamas, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

She obviously just woke up. Groggy, the prickly aura she usually gives off is nowhere to be found.

She looks totally vulnerable and kind of cute with her other arm hanging at her side …… That is, until she sees me. Her aura shoots out at full blast like she flipped a switch as she snaps her tongue.

“…… You.”

Then she disappears into the guestroom.

Keika forces a smile and says, “She was here analyzing father’s placement match until late last night …… She won’t say it out loud, but it seems she was worried enough about him to wait here.”

“Yeah. That sure sounds like Big Sis.”

The two of us used to stay up late and analyze Master’s placement matches in real time all the way to the last move back when we lived here as his live-in apprentices. We’d pretend we were pros too, battling our way through the league with more waiting time than any other, the most intense matches in the Shogi world …… To put it a different way, it felt like we were fighting alongside Master.

We called it the placement match game.

No one told us we had to, but our childish minds considered it to be our duty as his apprentices.

That and placement matches are directly linked to a Shogi player’s life as a whole.

Get demoted enough times in the placement matches and you will end up retired. Looking at it from the other angle, placement matches are the only league matches that are directly connected to retirement. That’s the biggest difference between them and the other leagues.

What’s more–––.

“Dropping down a class cuts into your salary, remember? I may have joined the Women’s League, but it’s still pretty much the same as not getting paid at all …… It’s been so hard to keep the classroom running the past few years.”

Master has been a Meijin Challenger twice and has 9-dan. That’s enough to make him a mainstay in Kansai Shogi. With a resume like that and his popularity, Master should be bringing in plenty of income outside of just playing matches.

Judging big tournaments around Osaka, instructing Shogi teams and clubs, working as an observer for title matches, the list goes on.

However, Master usually passes the cushy jobs like that onto other Kansai players.

Instead, he takes the jobs that no one wants to do, like promoting Shogi around the country. That’s how I met him for the first time, when he was judging a small tournament deep in the mountains of Fukui Prefecture doing just that.

That’s who he is. That’s my Master.

Which is exactly why …… I wanted to be Kousuke Kiyotaki’s apprentice.

“Should I take over in the classroom? If it’s just this once, no one’ll find out–––,” I say to Keika, determined to show my gratitude for everything Master’s done for me, but …

“Actually, go find him. He probably drank in Minami somewhere, knowing him.”

“Find him? Master?”

“You know where he likes to go, right Yaichi? It’s been the live-in apprentice’s job to track him down after long nights of drinking since way back when.”

“Well …… That’s true, but …”

“I can handle the classroom and I’ve got Ai to help me out.”

“Ai, yeah.”

It’s Saturday, so she doesn’t have school. And, now that she’s officially a member of the Women’s League, there shouldn’t be an issue about her being paid to play Shogi. But still ……

“You wouldn’t believe how popular she is. The older customers fawn all over her and Ai’s school is pretty close to here, so her classmates drop by saying they want to start playing as well. Oh, we have young customers who just started playing Shogi online, too–––.”

“Huh? Young customers? You’re talking about young men, aren’t you? So, more and more young men are showing up with their sights set on Ai? They’re all loli-cons! You were just going to watch them close in on her without saying a word?! Why?! They’re dangerous!!”

My face flushes redder with every word. That’s when Big Sis steps out of the guestroom fully dressed and says like the crack of a whip, “From an objective standpoint, Yaichi, you’re shadier than all of them. Loli-king.”

“Ngh ……!”

I’ve got …… no comeback!

Clap! Keika claps her hands together.

“Ginko, your timing is perfect. Take Yaichi and go find father.”

“No. Why do I have to drag this loli-con along with me–––?”

“Oh, my my. You’re all dolled up, Ginko. What’s the occasion?”

“Occasion? This is normal.”

“I wonder. Say, Yaichi, what do you think of Ginko this morning?”

Big Sis isn’t wearing her usual sailor-style school uniform. She’s in street clothes.

Definitely not one of these fancy, haughty outfits that Ms. Shakando made her wear, these are casual. Big Sis really stands out right now because this isn’t how she normally is.

“Those clothes fit really nice, and they’re pretty cute. I like that look.”

“……!”

Big Sis blushes bright red right before kicking me in the shin. That hurts, just like normal.

Did giving her a compliment piss her off somehow? Man, Big Sis is a monster when she gets up.

“Nooow, I see. Teeheehee♪”

Keika leans down and peeks up at Bis Sis’s red face and says, “Yaichi thinks you look cute in regular clothes, Ginko. He likes them, too. Isn’t that great!”

“Your ………… humph.”

Big Sis gives up on one of her usual your head on a pike threats and falls silent. Keika, however, seems to be enjoying herself.

“All right, it’s settled. Go look for father together. Oh, and yes. Take his wallet from him when you do find him and send him home in a taxi. After that, go and enjoy yourselves on a date. After all, you two don’t usually have days off at the same time!”

“Huuuh?! D-date ……?”

“A date, walking around Minami with Yaichi? Quit joking. That’s a punishment.”

You didn’t have to go that far.

“You could swing through Second Avenue in Dohtonbori if you want to!” Keika says, flashing a grin.

There’s an area of those hotels along Second Avenue in Dohtonbori.

I’m sure she’s joking, but …… Since we’ve already been to one before, thinking about that night makes the situation quite a bit more awkward.

Keika can joke around like this because she doesn’t know, but Big Sis said she flat out hates me to my face that night …… Nggghhh ……

Big Sis mumbles.

“…… You’ve been acting a lot like Master recently, Keika.”

“Really? How so?”

“Like a geezer.”

“A ge ……?!”

Big Sis leaves Keika frozen on the spot and heads off toward the station. Worried about Keika, I hang back for a second before following her out the door.