Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 10 - Chapter 4.2

  THE CURSE OF IMMORTALITY

The instant the same moves repeating for the fourth time, Mio Mizukoshi yelled from her spot at the board-side table.

“Ah! Ummm …… R-Repetition draw! It’s a repetition draw!!”

A repetition draw occurring on a match recorder’s first assignment is extremely rare. Mio’s mind went blank.

–––A repetition draw …… What do you do for a repetition draw again?!

“In 30 minutes …… We start again at 11:15.”

Tsubasa interjected as though she had been through this process countless times before, deftly cleared the board, and left the arena without another word.

Ai also left the arena without a glance in Mio’s direction immediately after. Most likely, she was focused on getting to another room as soon as possible to put the match that just transpired out of her mind and mentally refresh herself.

Unfortunately, the match recorder doesn’t have that luxury.

The office needs to be informed that the match has concluded, the repetition draw match record needed to be printed and submitted, the arena needed to be cleaned, and fresh tea needed to be served.

By the time Mio completed all her tasks, the rematch was set to begin.

“The appointed time has come, so Ai …… Ah! P-Pardon me! Umm, Hinatsuru-sensei, please begin the match!”

Mio corrected herself after accidentally calling her classmates by her first name, but Ai wasn’t fazed in the slightest. The two Players exchanged bows and the match was underway.

Ai only had half of her waiting time to work with. Rather than using it to set up her formation in the early game, she raced ahead as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, Tsubasa had waiting time to spare. Since she matched Ai’s speed move for move, the lopsided discrepancy in their waiting time remained solidly in place as the match progressed.

–––Whaaa?! I-I can’t keep up with them?!

Mio worked as fast as she could, desperately trying to accurately record each move.

Noon snuck up on her before she realized it.

“It’s time for the lunch break.”

As soon as the words were out of Mio’s mouth, Ai and Tsubasa were on their way out of the arena.

With everyone else gone, Mio finally had a chance to catch her breath.

“Wheeew ……… All I’m doing is writing things down, but I’m exhausted …… I thought this job was supposed to be easy, all you do is sit here ……”

Having sat on her ankles the entire time, Mio started to stretch her numb legs when suddenly–––the arena’s sliding fusuma door flies open.

“Huh?! You’re back already?!”

She quickly fixed her posture in surprise, but it was the people who appeared on the other side of the door that really shocked her.

–––Oh, wow! The W-Women’s King and Yamashiro Ouka! I can’t believe they came all the way here just to watch!

As Machi Kugui was on assignment as a journalist, Mio could understand her being present. However, Ryou Tsukiyomizaka making the journey from Kanto was anything but normal.

––– That’s just how much attention this match is getting, isn’t it? Ai is a true-blue prodigy ……

But, one glance at the board and Ryou snapped her tongue in disgust.

“Tsk! That Small Fry …… Fallin’ for Tsubasa’s game hook, line, and sinker all ‘cause she got the first move.”

“Ohhh? And what is the Women’s King’s opinion of the match thus far?”

“Repetition draws don’t happen without both Players going along with it. In other words, Tsubasa wasn’t after that first repetition draw. It happened because Small Fry wanted it to. And why? ‘Cause she obviously wanted the first move.”

Generally speaking, offense has the advantage in Shogi.

By going from her original defensive position to claiming the first move after the repetition draw, Ai had achieved her goal. Which was why–––.

“Think another repetition draw’ll pop up now? Like hell it will. Tsubasa knows that Small Fry will reject the next one. She knows the ace up the sleeve is already there.”

–––Oh! I get it now! That’s why the repetition draw happened so fast!

Mio was taken aback by these top Women’s League Player’s insight.

–––They don’t just read the Shogi. They read their opponents …… That’s why they’re strong! 

“Quite the statement from the Archangel. An interesting take. I shall be taking the liberty of uploading that comment directly.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

Ryou snapped back to her.

“Still, looks like Trash’s Small Fry can’t measure up to Tsubasa after all. Sending her in there without a plan like that after everything he went through to get info out of us, I kinda feel sorry for her. Looks like I’ve got to be the one to put the nail in Tsubasa’s coffin ……”

“I, too, feel it would also be most difficult for us to fight against her. Successfully confronting an opponent willing to endure attacks to this extent is no easy task. Especially considering Gakumeki-san’s superior late game skill.”

–––Even Machi the Tormentor?! Ai …… is fighting against someone that strong ……

Mio was stunned.

If things kept going as they were–––Ai would surely lose.

The moment of truth arrived soon after the match started up once again.

“! Again ……?!”

Ai’s hands, which had been a constant blur up to this point, suddenly hovered in place.

Because, Tsubasa’s central Silver had started moving back and forth as if climbing up and down a ladder once again.

–––Is she inviting me to attack?! In that case!

The young girl had no intention of allowing her opponent to have her way.

Greatly strengthening her King’s defenses, Ai built up an offensive staging area …… And made small, pestering jabs to convince Tsubasa to come out and face her. 

On the board, Ai Hinatsuru was the very definition of greed.

Even so, Tsubasa’s Silver kept climbing up and down the ladder without missing a beat.

“Okay, then!!”

Ai had already rejected a repetition draw. Having imposed her will on her opponent to this extent, she decided that it was time to go in to claim victory based on formations alone.

Mio, watching it all unfold from the board-side table, opened her mouth as if to say something …… But quickly dropped her gaze and input to the last move.

There was no turning back now.

“That’s what I was a wait’en for.”

In that instant, Tsubasa’s all-out onslaught began.

All her previous hesitation and indecision felt like a passing dream as Tsubasa used her worldly senses to completely transform the right half of the board into a deadly spear and drove it directly toward Ai’s King with no concern for what pieces she had to sacrifice in the process.

She had wasted so many moves and lost so many of her pieces, but she didn’t waver once her trap had been sprung.

“?!”

Ai felt as though she had been struck by lightning.

Tsubasa never used a single second of waiting time! Not only that, defeat was closing in right before her eyes.

Though, it wasn’t the speed that shook Ai to her core.

“Th-This Shogi …… It’s just like a Professional’s ……!”

It’s impossible to find the “correct” move at this stage of the early mid game without using any waiting time.

Simply put, only research was applicable here.

Though the average level of Women’s League Players was on the rise, the early game was always tranquil.

Rather than search for the “best move” as the Professional Players did, Women’s Players tended to “build their best formation.” That’s why Ai, who had a glaring early game weakness, could find a way to turn the tide in the late game.

However, for Tsubasa who had spent years on the front line of innovation that is the Kanto Sub League, research was imperative in order to contend with prodigies wielding their favorite latest sequences.

“…… Win’en with knowledge is so much easier.”

Seizing the lead in the blink of an eye, Tsubasa mumbled under her breath to no one in particular.

This was the pattern Tsubasa’s victories tended to follow.

Endure the humiliation of repetition draws in order to win.

However, the technique was only attainable through countless hours of research and Herculean levels of effort. That’s how she came to be able to endure the humiliation in the first place.

The board was now overwhelmingly in Tsubasa’s favor. She also possessed more than double Ai’s waiting time.

And, in the unlikely event the young girl mounted a counterattack, Tsubasa still had the option to nyugyoku as a last resort.

“Looks like I won’t be a die’en today.”

“Khh …….!!” 

Meanwhile, Ai realized she had no options left.

Those who could read the board faster than anyone else could see their defeat before anyone else.

–––Mio is at the board-side table! I can’t lose like this!

Could the presence of others provide her with strength?

–––Even Master is watching! Everyone in my class, too ……!

Would their expectations give her the power she needed?

No.

–––……………… This isn’t for Mio, or even for Master ……

“I …… I don’t want to lose!!”

Ai had lost many matches here in Osaka.

She lost to Ginko. She lost to Ai Yashajin.

And, more than all of that, she had lost to herself. Even now, her spirit was close to breaking.

The anger she harbored towards her own inadequacy–––became the fuel she needed to press on!

“I am a Women’s League Player! I’m never running away from my own battles again!!”

It was her instincts as a Shogi Player.

No matter how much it hurt, no matter how intense the pain.

Taking hold of a feeling she just now discovered, Ai chose to keep fighting until the very, very end.

“Kaaaahhhhhhhh!!”

Sounding very much like her master, Ai howled to psych herself up before charging back onto the board!

However.

“……!! Grgh ……?! Cough! …… Gasp! …………… Haaahaaahaahaa!!”

–––Deep!!

The utter depth of Tsubasa’s research stood head and shoulders above any opponent Ai had ever faced.

Unlike Shogi puzzles, there might not be an answer in the late game of an actual Shogi match.

Brain firing on all cylinders in the face of such a quandary–––she burnt out.

Whenever the pain triggered a series of nauseating dry heaves, Ai left her seat to catch her breath in the hallway.

But now, she couldn’t even do that.

“?! My eyes ……?!”

The hair-thin vain connecting her eyes to her sinuses ruptured, dying her vision red as blood dripped from her nose onto the tatami mat below.

Ai’s brain could work at speeds that would make adult Professional Shogi Players jealous.

Unfortunately, she only possesses the physical endurance of a 10-year-old girl.

The stark disparity between the two now pained Ai Hinatsuru to no end.

“Cough ……! ………… Haaa! ……… Gah, ahhhh ………”

Beaten to a pulp.

Though she had only been sitting at a Shogi board, the girl’s young frame had taken so much damage that it seemed as though she had been engaged in a fist fight. She couldn’t even stand up to breathe fresh air anymore.

–––……… Is this, as far as I go ……?

Robbed of sight.

Short of breath.

Writhing in pain and still searching for a path to victory sitting on the tatami, Ai’s hand–––brushed against something.

“…………?”

It was a fan.

The one she always placed next to her cushion before each match, the fan that bore her master’s handwriting.

“…………!”

Ai relied solely on her sense of touch to open it.

Brushstrokes made by the master that she loved and admired so much should be right in front of her face.

They spelled out the biggest weapon that he had ever given her.

An ability to get back up no matter how close her heart was to breaking …… The ultimate revival magic.

“Courage.”

Snap! Closing the fan with enough force to make a small echo cut through the air, Ai shifted it to her left hand.

Once she had wiped the blood away with her right, the girl grabbed hold of her knee and squeezed with all her might.

Then, she turned to face the board once again.

“Inhale–––––––––……………………” 

She breathed in as deeply as her lungs would allow.

It didn’t matter if she couldn’t see. Together with her 11 mental Shogi boards, she would simply have to climb to extraordinary heights.

Tsubasa wasn’t sure how to feel the moment she had the enemy King on a check path.

–––I won. But, I’ve still gotta keep play’en ……

It almost felt like a curse.

Why did she keep playing Shogi, why did she still have a desire to win? Tsubasa couldn’t understand, even now.

Watching this girl suffer right before her eyes …… Part of her felt it would’ve been better to just let the little girl win.

“……! ……?! …………!!!!” 

This elementary school girl named Ai Hinatsuru seemed to resign herself to defeat for a fleeting moment, but …… Decided to continue the fight and search for a victory sequence that shouldn’t exist all while groaning, wincing, and writhing in agony.

That girl working as the match recorder must be a friend of hers.

She hadn’t taken her eyes off Ai since the match began.

–––That must be nice …… Perhaps Shogi would have been more enjoyable if I had had a friend like that.

Tsubasa had never fully adjusted to the Sub League dominated by men.

She had connections from doing practice sessions, but no friends to speak of.

Most of those connections, however, had already been forced into retirement. There was no longer any reason to contact them. By choosing the Shogi path, Tsubasa had lost everything else.

Then.

“Hm?”

After staring at sheer despair on the board, Ai Hinatsuru’s mouth started to move …… and Tsubasa was sure she heard something.

The girl sitting on the opposite side of the board said in the tiniest voice at the end of a long sigh–––.

“…………………………………………………………… Here.”

Yes, she was saying something.

“Here …………… Here …………… Here …………… Here ……………” 

Ai Hinatsuru then began rocking back and forth, sometimes leaning down so far that her forehead might crash into the board itself and said that word over and over like a broken record.

Though she had already won …… Tsubasa felt the chill run up her spine.

“Here …… Here …… Here, here, here, here, hereherehereherehereherehereherehere... hereherehereherehere... hereherehereherehereherehere–––.”

“Hinatsuru-sensei! O-One-minute Shogi rules are now in effect!”

“Here!!”

Snaaaap! Almost as if answering Mio, Ai snapped a piece down with authority.

However, it was a surprisingly bad move.

–––…… Was I imagine’en things?

The elementary school girl sitting before her moved her own King back, in effect choosing to weaken her own defenses. It went against all late game philosophy. Almost like setting the scene for her own defeat ……

Tsubasa adhered to late game theory and pursued the enemy King along the check path.

“Now, I’ve ‘a got you in hisshi to lead to checkmate!”

The little girl’s chances of a comeback now weren’t even one in 10,000.

–––Noth’en short of fly’en ‘ll get you outta this.”

Pieces jumping over ones they couldn’t, moving to spaces outside of the board …… Very childish ways to break the rules, but Tsubasa often entertained those absurd fantasies when she was on losing streaks in the Sub League.

Now that Ai’s King couldn’t be defended any longer–––.

“Here!!!”

She started it all out rush on Tsubasa’s King.

The ex-Sub League Player did not fret, however. The only position stronger than hisshi was “checkmate.” Which is why she anticipated Ai would attempt to put her in check on the very next move.

What she didn’t anticipate was …… how Ai would go about doing it.

“?! …… From below?!”

Sacrificing the Promoted Silver that had served as her staging area, Ai used the now vacated space behind Tsubasa’s defensive formation to deploy a Bishop and pressure the King from behind.

That went against the principle of “Cut off the King’s escape.”

Not to mention that for Tsubasa, who was an expert when it came to nyugyoku strategies, the opportunity to advance her King into the middle of the board was a welcome turn of events. That made two bad moves in a row. Unable to discern Ai’s true intention, Tsubasa was starting to get anxious.

Then, she figured it out.

“Aki oute?! An open check?! This isn’t a Shogi puzzle ……!”

Ai’s plan was to use her Bishop’s range like a laser beam from behind to lead Tsubasa’s King into an instant death trap.

–––Scary, scary …… Can’t let ma guard down ‘round this one, can I?

Taken aback by Ai’s series of acrobatic moves around the board, Tsubasa centered herself on her cushion and stopped to read the sequences as thoroughly as possible.

That is until she heard Mio’s voice.

“Gakumeki-sensei. You have five minutes left!”

“Huh?!”

Suddenly, that overwhelming advantage she had in waiting time had all but disappeared.

–––I got pressured into think’en too hard?! But, I couldn’t’ve made a mistake!

Indeed. Nothing could have gone wrong.

She already understood Ai’s intention. And, she already had the enemy King chained down and helpless.

So long as there was no way for it to take flight …… Her victory was assured!

However–––––––––.

“Hereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehere–––––here!!”

That one move that Ai played turned Tsubasa’s world upside down.

7 Six Knight.

As soon is that apparently sacrificial Knight appeared on the board ……

“She ………… took, flight …………?” 

Tsubasa realized …… that there was a way to reach the sky in Shogi.

In that instant, she saw with her own eyes.

Sprouting from the back of the little girl sitting across from her–––a pair of white wings.