Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 9 - Chapter 4.2

  NORTHERLY WINDS AND THE SUN

A thick fog hung in the air as was typical.

The Yashajin family graveyard was normally kept under lock and key and only those with permission could enter.

However, Ai Yashajin found the gate unlocked when she arrived.

––– …… Did someone come here before me?

Unnerved by this strange discovery, Ai stepped as lightly as she could as she made her way toward her parent’s grave. She then spotted the last person she expected to see.

Akira ……?

Almost out of reflex, Ai hid behind a nearby tree.

–––Why?! Why would Akira be here ……?!

Akira, the one who said she was going to meet someone, was standing in front of her parent’s gravestone.

–––Was the someone she was talking about …… father and mother ……?

Ai realized her misunderstanding the very instant she considered the possibility.

That’s ……?!

There was someone else there, in that spot apart from Akira.

“…… And that’s where she surrendered. Ai lost in 60 moves.”

He was standing in front of the black gravestone and reading in match record out loud.

“The result is disappointing. If she had fought with her full strength and lost, that would be fine. But losing without being able to put up a fight …… As her Master, I take full responsibility.”

The breeze carried his voice to Ai’s hiding spot. She leaned closer to catch every word.

She could see him there, plain as day, and hear his voice loud and clear, but still couldn’t believe it.

She couldn’t believe he was here of all places.

“Ai is a smart girl. I haven’t had to teach her a single thing since the day we first met. She’s grown this much entirely on her own steam. She became strong using only what you, her parents, gave her. Actually, she has taught me so much …… Which is why all I can do is read Ai’s match records to you like this–––.”

The young girl’s eyes widened in surprise.

–––Has he …… Has he always been doing this ……?!

“Do you remember the promise I made the day I took her as my apprentice? That I would bring her into my family, and give the girl named Ai Yashajin a happy life. That I would teach her what you were trying to convey through Shogi.”

Then, he said it. The same promise he made to Ai herself.

“That …… I would give her a new family.”

––– ……!!

Though she couldn’t understand why, an intense heat flooded the corners of Ai Yashajin’s eyes.

“Ai is in a great deal of pain right now. Possibly more than she’s ever experienced before. She has to find a way to get past it herself, but …… Knowing her, I have absolute faith that she will find a way. I believe that her Shogi won’t lose to anyone.”

–––Believe ……

Hearing that one single word brightened her heart like a powerful ray of sunshine piercing through a storm.

On the other hand, a stubborn piece of that same heart had a different reaction.

––– Believe, that’s all ……? My Shogi won’t get any stronger with the words that fit your needs!!

It triggered her the same way that the Thorn Princess claimed that love was the key.

Now the tears built up in her eyes on the verge of overflowing.

“I haven’t been able to do a single thing as her Master this whole time, but …… I swear to both of you that I will continue to believe in my apprentices’ potential and play Shogi they can all be proud of. So, please–––.”

Returning to his breast pocket Ai’s match records, which he had placed in front of her parents’ grave as an offering, Yaichi Kuzuryu had one last thing to say.

“Have faith and watch over her. Over us.”

“…… Sensei. Have you finished?”

“Yes.”

I turn around and lower my head.

“Thank you as always, Akira, for taking time out of your schedule for my own selfish reasons ……”

“I don’t see it that way.” Akira then adds with a grin, “You’re not reporting four matches at once anymore like when my lady was in the Practice League. Now there’s only one at a time, so one hour is sufficient.”

“Well, these one matches are a lot more complex.”

Compared to when she first started out, there’s so much more to Ai’s Shogi now.

The Practice League met on the second and fourth Sunday of each month.

I would ask Akira to let me come into the graveyard the following Monday.

This was all so that I could inform her parents, resting beneath that black gravestone, how their daughter had performed that week.

And … to ask them for advice on how I should raise Ai.

If I had a match on that Monday, I would come on Tuesday unless I was working then as well and would come on Wednesday or Thursday …… I had to delay my report every once in a while, but I always came as soon as I could.

Because… if I were in her parents’ position, I would want to know how my daughter was doing even a single second sooner.

“You first came to me, requesting permission to enter right after playing against Chairman Tsukimitsu, yes?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Once I had finally made up my mind to take Ai Yashajin on as my apprentice, I wanted her parents to be the first to know …… I wanted to tell them how I felt about their daughter and ask them what kind of Women’s League player they wanted her to become. So I went to Akira.

She’s been sacrificing what little free time she has to let me in here ever since ……

“Though… how long do you intend to sneak around like this?” says Akira as she takes two pieces of the kintsuba I brought her from the north coast out of the box.

She places them next to the gravestone.

The rest, she tells me, the manor’s staff will split amongst themselves.

She’ll find a way to make sure those two pieces are well hidden by the time Ai Yashajin comes to visit the grave herself, just like she always has.

“My lady also comes straight here once her matches are complete. Why not join her?”

“If I let her see her own Master revealing his insecurities in front of her parents’ grave, she would kick me out of the Shogi family. She already thinks I’m useless as it is ……”

“Well, you didn’t visit once while you were struggling during the Ryuo Title Match.”

“…… I’m ashamed to admit it, but that’s true.”

Just thinking about some of the things I did and said back then, it makes me want to crawl into a hole and pull a rock over my head …… But, I’m putting what I learned during that time to good use.

Now I understand what it’s like to be against the ropes.

Right now, I bet Ai is feeling exactly how I felt back then.

“I literally tried to push everything out of my life. Everything except Shogi anyway. But, I realized that it wouldn’t solve anything.”

What brought me back from the brink was–––.

“The reason that I won against the Meijin was because I had something that he didn’t …… I won because I had apprentices. That’s why I treasure Ai Yashajin.”

“Ohh? You like my lady that much, do you, Kuzuryu-sensei?”

“Of course I like her. I already told her grandfather, I’m prepared to look after her for the rest of my life.”

Rustle, rustle!!

The sound of something big comes from the bushes behind me.

“Hmm?! Is there something behind that tree right now?!”

I spin around with my head on a swivel, but Akira casually looks in that direction and says calmly, “A cat, most likely. They’re fairly common in this area.”

“Huh? I’ve been coming here almost a year and I’ve never seen a single one! Besides, that sounded too big to be a cat ……”

I tilt my head, looking over each and every leaf of those bushes.

“Me ……… Meeeow♡”

That might be the cutest cry I’ve ever heard.

“Oh, so it is a cat.”

That cry had no confidence to it at all. It must be a newborn kitten.

Come to think of it, there’s a lot of greenery around here so it could have been born in the last couple of days. Are the cats after the offerings left on the gravestones? Those kitties are in for a rude awakening.

“I wonder what kind of cat it is. I’m actually a cat person. Especially black cats–––.”

“Kuzuryu-sensei.”

Akira grabs my shoulder just as I take a step toward the bushes to investigate and says, “Take a look at me. I may be an upstanding, beautiful career woman now, but I was once a delinquent.”

“……”

“That was the part where you should laugh.”

A very serious, deadpan delivery from a blushing Akira. Wow, that’s cute ……

“Society treated me like dirt, though I was wholly responsible for that …… Even so, the Yashajin family offered me employment and the first person to ever treat me as an equal human being …… was the young Lady Ai Yashajin.”

Squinting as she looks out over the ocean, Akira continues.

“She interacted with me, a low-level employee and a piece of refuse that was spat out by society and was picked up by the Yashajins, on the same level as everyone else. Appearance, birth, past …… My lady never passed judgment on another based on petty details. She accepted me exactly as I am.”

Yes, Ai is cold to everyone, but she never plays favorites. She’s also extremely strict with herself, which makes Ai Yashajin who she is.

“After learning Shogi fundamentals from you and learning to play, I was struck with an unusual sensation. It was almost as though I had known the game for many years …… I, one who didn’t understand how the pieces moved, became more and more convinced as I learned about the sport of Shogi. Do you know what it shares striking similarities with?”

“Ai ……?”

“Exactly.”

She gives a deep, slow nod.

“My lady is a personification of Shogi itself. Comprehending the rules before words, her life has already taken on the shape of Shogi. More meticulous than any and a pure spirit …… That is my lady.”

Looking more earnest than I’ve ever seen her, Akira goes on.

“Do you understand, Sensei? Everyone at the manor, myself included, loves Lady Ai Yashajin.”

“…… Yes.”

That may sound a bit out there, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

Granting happiness and fun, but also many times more pain and suffering. However, fall for the charm once and you’ll always be hooked.

Just like Shogi.

Which means that absolutely anyone would fall for her.

I know that because Shogi is the most interesting and charming game in the entire universe.

“Kuzuryu-sensei. Please offer my lady your assistance,” she pleads, bowing deeply from the waist. “I’m not asking you to make it so she wins every match. I’m not asking you to give her a title on a silver platter. Not that ………. Yes, something else entirely ……!”

Choosing her words carefully, Akira desperately tries to get her point across.

“Use your Shogi to reopen my lady’s closed heart! Use the intensity of your Shogi to melt the heart that has been frozen shut within her!”

With …… my Shogi ……

“You can do it, Sensei. No, you are the only one who can. Only the one who plays the most passionate, intense Shogi on the planet, the Ryuo–––could possibly get through.”

“…………”

“Though painful to admit, it is beyond our ability. No kind words or number of gifts will ever reach the deepest part of my lady’s heart ……”

Voice overflowing with a mixture of pain and envy, Akira explains.

“Reason being that my lady’s soul …… has taken the shape of Shogi.”

Whenever Shogi steals the hearts of young boys and girls alike, their souls transform into its shape.

Ai learned from father, the former amateur Meijin, but tragedy struck in the process …… Ever since then, she’s been learning from the match records and sequences in books that he left behind. Her only experience in matches came with a few over the Internet.

That’s obviously different from the way things normally work.

On the other hand, that’s exactly why her Shogi grew into something truly unique.

That has to be the reason everyone is so drawn to her playing style. She’s a hearty, arrogant upper-class girl, but …… has an incredibly pure and excited Shogi soul.

It was Keika’s Shogi that brought me out of hiding in my room back when the Meijin had me against the ropes.

Now, it’s my turn.

“…… Do you think I can get through? My Shogi ……”

“It will,” says Akira in a strangely loud voice …… I’m right next to her, but it’s almost like she’s speaking to someone someplace else as she says, “I know it will.”