Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.1

  CHANGES

“…… Is what’s been up. Seeing my Master dressed like some hip-hop dancer was surprising enough, but Mr. Natagiri showing up was a total shock.”

“Indeed.”

I see Ayumu fix his cape collar on the corner of my tablet screen.

Though we stopped doing these long-distance practice sessions during the Ryuo Title Match, we started back up again once the new year came around and have done a few already.

Software-based strategies may be moving up in the world, but that doesn’t mean you can use them against a human opponent as is.

Ultrasonic magic gods use against each other need minor adjustments, a tune-up of sorts. So Ayumu and I try bouncing our own magic off each other.

Lesser players will get killed off in an instant, so I need someone of Ayumu’s caliber to know if these strategies have a chance against the best players around.

Someone at his level won’t just let the magic run its course and will point out all the weak spots, so this is good practice for both of us.

I brought up what Master is doing in the middle of one of our sessions and Ayumu gave me an interesting take on it.

“Shogi strategies are strikingly similar to fashion trends.”

“…… Come again?”

“It takes a great deal of courage to discard clothing that you found appealing and adopt a trend as your own. Even more courage is necessary to discard clothing that was once held in great esteem. I’m stating that Shogi strategies share those traits.”

“Well, when you put it like that …… You could be right.”

I’d never really thought about it, but they do have a lot in common.

Master developed his Shogi senses in a time when yagura was said to be the best around. That’s why no matter how bad yagura strategies are doing statistically, he’d never think they wouldn’t work.

It’s just like the people who flat-out refuse to upgrade to a smartphone or won’t use messenger apps.

So long as the mind isn’t willing, it wouldn’t matter if they know how useful they are. There are things that people won’t use just because they don’t feel like it.

Although, all that changes in a flash as soon as they try them out.

“However, that Master of yours is peeling off the apparel he has worn for decades in order to step into a brand-new world. He’s discarding the warmest, most comfortable attire he owns. Rejecting his former self all to become stronger …… Imagine the willpower! He should be applauded!!”

Ayumu strikes an over-the-top pose in the corner of my screen.

If it’d been anyone else, I would’ve thought they were making fun of me. But Ayumu takes everything so seriously that I can’t get mad at him.

“Perhaps Natagiri 8-dan differs from our generation in that he needs to feel new strategies, absorb them through his skin in order to adjust. From his perspective, he may be merely using the most efficient method he knows to change his own senses.”

“…… Could be.”

Just as everyone has their own sense of style, everyone has their own way of getting stronger.

But we are the young ones. We control the trends.

So long as that’s true, we should stick to what our own senses say is right.

There’s no need to adjust to anyone else.

It’s our privilege as the young–––as the strong.

“I never understood why you always stuck to those weird clothes no matter what people said, but now I think I have an idea. It gives your Shogi an edge ……”

“Kukuku …… That being the case, why not don the black cape I purchased for you in secret?”

No, I’d rather not.

“The time is nigh, Drakin! Shall we continue our clash of good and evil to determine which shall conquer the world?!”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way! And, stop with the Drakin already!”

Returning our focus to the placement matches, we get back to testing out our Shogi senses on one another.

Master wasn’t the only one to change once the Kiyotaki classroom got started.

Kansai’s Sub League started transforming as well.

“Hiuma’s stopped accepting jobs as of late ……” I swung by the association’s office to do some part-time work like signing diplomas and happened to hear Mr. Mine mumble under his breath. He’s the Kansai Association’s walking dictionary who we like to call the Principal behind his back.

“Other Sub League members are filling in, but none of them are as polite and attentive as Hiuma. Of course, part of that is our fault for depending on him too much ……”

Mr. Kagamizu changed more than anyone.

He used to take any job at the drop of a hat but now he’s rejecting everything except the bare minimum of match recording required by the Sub League. Even when it came to match recording, he introduced a new move.

Mr. Kagamizu won’t sit on a cushion anymore.

It seems that Master told him that was how it used to be done back in his day, so it’s not exactly new …… This perseverance through pain that borders on Buddhist monk training has gotten mixed reactions.

“Hiuma, why not use a cushion?” asked a pro who couldn’t ignore him any longer in the middle of a match.

“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.”

“…… You’ll damage the tatami.”

“Shall I remove it from the floor?” Mr. Kagamizu answered in all seriousness. He’s kept his no cushion policy going since that day.

Here’s what he said when someone asked him about it later.

“I understand he was asking out of kindness. However, I believe I am who I am today because I’ve always gone along with kind words. I want to change that in my final 3-dan division season and break through.”

Although he managed to avoid retiring last season, he wasn’t part of the race for promotion at the end.

Big Sis and Sota, even younger than her, are now at the bottom of the 3-dan division. It seems like that impending sense of doom has changed him.

What he did started a trend and soon none of the match recorders in Kansai were using cushions.

The new wave of changes didn’t stop with the Sub League, and extended down to the Practice League beneath them.

“Today I played with the other girls in our practice group, but Asuka and Akira joined us, too! It’s more fun the more people there are to play with!!” Ai tells me with a big smile on her face as we eat a late dinner.

The Grade Schooler Practice Group has stopped getting together at my apartment now that the Kiyotaki Classroom is open.

Well … the placement matches are about to hit the grand finale, so I don’t exactly have time to be looking after a bunch of grade school girls. So, yeah, that helps me out a lot.

Y-yeah! I’m not lonely or jealous at all! Not one bit!!

“Oh? Sounds like you had a great time.”

“The best! Grandpa-sensei has placement matches to worry about, but he still takes time to teach girls like us. They were scared at first because he’s been a pro for a long long time, but now everyone loves him!”

“Th …… That right …………”

I don’t care …… I’m not jealous ……

“We exchanged messenger IDs and made our own group! Now we can talk about that day’s matches even after we go home and talk about what happened at school! Grandpa-sensei said messaging with us makes him feel young again. He always says the funniest things, so everyone loves talking with him!”

“R …… Really ……………? Group messaging ……”

I …… don’t feel jealous …………… at all ……!!

“Especially Charlette! She loves his beard, calls him Gwampa♡ all day long and plays with his whiskers until he finally plays Shogi with her! Isn’t she cute?♡”

“!! Say …… what ……?”

T-that damn geezer ……! Taking advantage of the situation to make moves on my future wife?!

“Oh! Keika is going to join us next weekend for a girls Shogi night! It’s a sleepover with all girls …… May I go?”

“No!! I’d get too jea- …… I won’t let you go to such a frivolous practice session! The Kuzuryu Shogi family tree is officially breaking away from the Kiyotaki! I’m kicking them out!!”

“Uwheee?!”

Well, even though that happened, the girls’ playing styles have clearly changed since they started going to Master Kiyotaki’s practice sessions. Of course, for the stubborner and grittier.

“Practice League activities are running much longer these days, and it’s causing problems,” said the head of the Practice League, Yoshitsune Kuruno 7-dan, through clenched teeth.

“But worst of all are the mothers calling in to complain that their children’s right pant legs have strange wrinkles above the knee …… At this rate, the association should be paying me overtime.”

Or so he claims, but Kuruno-sensei himself has won a few placement matches by hanging on to the end and coming back for dramatic victories ……

While all these waves of change from the Kiyotaki Classroom were spreading through Kansai ……

A match that could epitomize the Shogi world’s revolution was about to take place in Kanto.