Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 1 - Chapter 3.6

☗ LUNCHTIME

Arriving at the second-floor classroom, I find Ai thoroughly engaged in a Shogi match.

“Oh! Still going strong.”

She’s got her Match Card between the board and the piece stand like a real veteran and a chess clock right next to the board. Someone must’ve brought one in and taught her how to use it during one of her many matches.

She’s playing against a girl I see in the classroom all the time. Her big eyes and short, chestnut-colored hair stick out, as does her competitive nature. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say she is about as old as Ai. Being about the same age, both girls are playing their hearts out.

“Let’s see …”

Careful not to break their concentration, I quietly make my way toward them and look at the board.

Their game is in the final stages, formations in shambles on the board. That battle must have been intense.

“… Gahhh, I don’t know anymore! This’ll work!”

Ai’s opponent gives up reading the board as time ticks down and she makes a move. She’s decisive.

Now her turn, Ai, “……… Here, here, herehereherehere ……!”

Rhythmically whispering to herself, she tries to read her way to victory. Even her body is rocking back and forth.

… It’ll take a while, but there is a way to put her opponent’s King in checkmate.

Pros can tell at a glance, but anyone can miss a shorter route to the King during a match.

Now then, can Ai find the right moves in the middle of a live game?

“… Here!!”

Ai reaches for her captured pieces and, with a sharp breath, snaps it down onto the board to put the opposing King in check.

“What?! Ummm …”

The girl fretted for a moment, faced with a move she never expected. After reading the board as long as time would allow, she grabbed her King as if reaching through water and then slid it to the side——but that King was already dead.

Ai had anticipated the move and forged ahead taking no time at all. Her opponent realized that checkmate was only three moves away and threw a piece.

“… I lost—.”

“Th-thank you for playing me!”

Pausing to take a breath, the girl started talking to Ai with a bright smile on her face.

“You said your name is Ai Hinatsuru, didn’t you? You’re really good! Where’d you come from? Are you joining the Practice League?”

“Um … I, I’m going to take the test soon …”

“You are?! Then we can play again!”

She’s back to being a normal grade schooler, her competitive fire disappearing the moment the match came to a close. Only kids can flip that switch so fast.

“Ai.”

“Ah! Master!”

I’m sure the girls would have fun chatting away, but my lunch break will end if I let them be.

“Good game. That was a nice bit of reading you did there.”

My apprentice (temp) looks up at me with happy puppy dog eyes: “Yay yay♡” after I pat her head and give her a compliment.

“You’ve gotta be hungry by now? Wanna go grab a bite?”

“Yay!”

“Go get your Match Card starred. Hers too——.”

One of the classroom’s rules is that the winner takes both cards to get starred. I look at Ai’s opponent and see——.

“……!!”

She’s frozen solid, staring at me with her green Match Card clutched in her fingers.

“Um, hello? She needs your Match Card——.”

“You … you’re Kujuryouryouou … Right?”

Are grade schoolers not capable of pronouncing my name or something?

“Ahh, yes. It’s Kuzuryuo.”

“!!”

The girl tumbles off her chair, listlessly climbs back to her feet and comes up to me.

“Um, I-I-I, um, I’m Miomijyukochi!”

Miss Miomijyukochi, is it?

I take the card from her and look at her name.

“…… Miss Mio Mizukoshi. Yes, you played a good match.”

Complimenting her in my most professional teacher-esque voice, “Hooahh!” Mio makes a strange sound and extends her hand toward me while struggling to stand on wobbly knees.

“U-Umm! M-May I shake your hand?!!”

“Sure. Great job today.”

“Haahh … Haaaaaa ……”

Mio’s face turns red like a steadily increasing pressure gauge.

Many people have asked to shake my hand since becoming Ryuo, but I’ve never seen someone so enthralled. I’m honored … But this is kind of embarrassing. Other people are laughing.

“I’ll never … ever wash this hand again!”

“N-Never …?”

“I’m about to go to the girl’s room, but I won’t wash this hand!!”

“No, please wash, okay?”

I give the just-starred Match Card back to Mio, her head bowed in gratefulness, ask her to keep Ai company and leave the classroom behind.

“Interesting girl, that one. She’s got a pretty good feel for Shogi too. Think the two of you can become friends?”

“……”

“Hm? Something wrong, Ai?”

My apprentice (temp.) was happy and bubbly just a moment ago, but now she’s frowning. All those happy “yays” are gone and she’s whispering something under her breath.

“… I’ve never once gotten a handshake … I’m the apprentice … Crafty little …”

“Huh? Umm … Ai?”

“Master!”

“Y-Yes?”

“Um … Um …………………… Gehh!!”

Out of nowhere, Ai snatches my right hand with both of hers. Then she starts pressing my palm with her thumbs.

What does this girl want to do?

“Well, um … Satisfied?”

“Yay♪”

Grade schoolers, such a mystery …

Stepping outside of the dim building, the spring sunlight was almost blinding. “Ahhhh!” I stretch my arms and ask my apprentice (temp.) a question, “Now then. What do you wanna eat?”

“Ummm … Is there anything you want, Master?”

“Hmm, I’ve pretty much eaten everything all the restaurants around here have to offer.”

“U-ummm, in … In that case …”

“In that case?”

“L-Lunches! … I … made lunches … So …”

“You did? One for me too?”

“Of course!! I woke up early just to make it for you, Master!!”

“Woah …!”

Classic case of the Master being deeply moved by his considerate apprentice (temp).

Only in the third grade and already such a good, thoughtful girl … I can say that because Big Sis always sends me to the convenience store to pick up her lunch. Even now.

“Then why don’t we eat outside? It’s nice out.”

“Yes!”

And that’s how we ended up going to a nearby park with her still holding my hand.

A short walk away, Kamifukushima Higashi Park is filled with waves of green … That is to say that half of the potted plants someone at the taxi company next door has been looking after have started encroaching into the park, but it just goes to show how little Osakans care about details. Anyway, it’s a small park with a lot of flavor.

We sit next to each other on a bench beneath the sunlight filtering through the leaves overhead and open the lunches that Ai made.

“Onigiri rice ball and fried eggs …?”

“Do you not like them …?”

“No, no. I’m thrilled. I’m not really the type of guy that wants to play Shogi on a full stomach.”

“I’m glad!”

Chomp! Ai holds one of the rice balls in both hands and takes a big hearty bite—except that her mouth is so small that she might never finish it no matter how many hearty bites she takes. Kind of like a cute little hamster. Very cute.

After a good amount of chewing, Ai looks up at me with just her eyes and cautiously asks, “Master, um … H-hovv is the match going …?”

“Hmm, not bad I think.”

I take alternating bites from the fried eggs and onigiri as I answer. Both are delicious. The rice balls are filled with salmon, my favorite. Maybe she asked Keika about it?

“I’m using yagura and Sir Ayumu got a yagura-anaguma going … Ah, do you know what yagura and anaguma mean?”

“I don’t (>-<)”

“Should’ve figured.”

It’d be faster to explain it to her using the number grid rather than battle formation names, but doing so and exchanging ideas could be considered receiving outside help and violate the rules even though she is in elementary school. I’d be cut down.

“Basically, one is solid and the other is solid as a rock. The one solid as a rock attacks the solid one. That’s where we’re at.”

“And you’re the rock, right Master?”

“No, I’m the solid.”

“Wheh?”

Now her face is solid as a rock. A piece of onigiri filling (salmon) falls to the ground with a soft plop.

She obviously thinks that Ayumu’s got the advantage. Well, can’t blame her. Solid as a rock after all.

“It’s true that his King’s defenses are stiffer and he’s the one on the attack.”

“Playing in that situation sounds like more fun …”

“At the same time, Ayumu’s lost a lot of pieces trying to break my formation by force. The tables will turn the instant I cut off his attack.”

“Can you cut it off?”

“There should be a way. According to my research anyway.”

“Research?”

I talk through a mouthful of origiri to explain what it is to be a pro Shogi player.

“On days that pro Shogi players don’t have matches, they’re hard at work researching their next opponent, looking for weaknesses and studying their battle formations. Prodigy players who show up to the arena and let God guide their hand to victory are pretty much unheard of in today’s Shogi world.”

Then again, there are some people who really show up and play like a god. Like the current Meijin. That guy may as well be God.

“All the research my friends and I did is going into my next move. I’ll cut off Ayumu’s attack this turn … You could say that it’s a victory through detailed research rather than pure ability.”

“……”

Ai is looking at the ground, dead silent.

Did I dash her dreams? She looks at me just as I was starting to worry.

“That’s so cool!!”

“C …… cool?”

“Master, that’s your secret finishing move?! Turning the tide of battle in one turn with a hidden technique that you got from intense training … You’re amazing, Master! The ultimate Drag … Ryuo!”

She was about to say Dragon King, wasn’t she?

“But … well, huh. I suppose if you want to think of it like that …”

“? Did I say something funny?”

“Nah …”

I quickly wiped the corner of my eye so my apprentice (temp.) wouldn’t see.

In pro Shogi matches, where the winner of the standard game, which is close to ninety turns, can be determined by one thoroughly researched move, fans tend to complain by calling it a research lecture or copy Shogi. They really let us have it over the Internet. And of course they do. It’s not that interesting for us, either.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a nice world where anyone can win without researching.

Most pro Shogi players form teams that we call practice groups, where we use computers to research all kinds of battle styles. There are even some formations we research all the way to checkmate: just one move in an official match—all supported by researching scenarios that won’t show up on the board in hundreds of thousands of matches …

“So, Master, your opponent will give up after your next move, right?!”

“Give up? Well, we’ll be even, or I might get a slight advantage.”

“Oh no! Isn’t your secret technique supposed to end it all?!”

The world isn’t that simple.

“Well, I’d say that being on an equal footing in a match where Sir Ayumu made the first move is putting up a good fight.”

“He’s God Ca … Kannabe-sensei, right? Is he that good?”

“He’s a pro Shogi player.”

“… But he is, a little weird, isn’t he?”

“He’s a pro Shogi player.”

That one phrase pretty much sums everything up.

“Ask ten pros about Ayumu’s skills, and all of them would say something like——Kannabe? Oh, he’s good. Early game, mid-game, late game, the guy’s got them all covered.”

“So he’s got no weak spots?”

“Oh, he’s got a weakness … I just can’t exploit it right now.”

“Huh?”

“Now then! Let’s head back, shall we?”

I’ve said a little too much. I lick the last bits of rice off my lips and stand up.

“Thanks for the lunch. It was really, really good.”

“E-hehe.”

Ai happily squints her eyes, giddy as I pat her on the head. Damn cute.

“Keika will come get you tonight, so please stay at Master’s place. I’ll swing by in the morning.”

“… Okay!”

Just for a moment, Ai nodded like a good girl.