Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 10 - Chapter 4.3

  ECLOSION

Just before the big moment, I was busy explaining to the grade school kids what hisshi is.

“No matter how the receiving Player defends, there is no way for them to avoid being put in checkmate on the next turn.”

“In other words, they can’t defend.”

“If you are put in hisshi, you are going to lose no matter how hard you try.”

Meaning …… Ai’s situation is hopeless.

Her classmates are all visibly disappointed.

One of the girls looks like she’s about to cry.

But, after losing a Bishop on the 110th move and realizing she had no way to defend her King, Ai switched into doing an all-out rush on Tsubasa’s.

Both are down to one-minute Shogi. Ai will lose the moment she fails to put Tsubasa in check.

Which is why she’s relying on her late game prowess to continuously bombard the enemy King, but–––.

““Nyugyoku?!””

Seemingly immortal, Tsubasa’s King endures all of Ai’s attacks as it drifts into the middle of the board.

In that moment, Ai plays a move that makes absolutely no sense.

––––––7 Six Knight.

It’s like she deployed it from her piece stand to just throw it away.

It turns out that Ai set a trap for Tsubasa 30 plus moves later.

And then, something truly unbelievable happens when Tsubasa takes that Knight.

Suddenly, Ai’s King couldn’t be checkmated anymore.

Keika, who was doing big board analysis along with me, absentmindedly drops the Knight piece she had in her hand and whispers in amazement.

“She …… broke out of hisshi?”

“Excuse me, Kiyotaki-sensei.”

As if a model student in a grade school class, Kanegasaka-sensei politely raises her hand and asks a question.

“Does hisshi go away on its own?”

It doesn’t.

The name itself is an abbreviation of the phrase that means “in the grip of death.” Sometimes, it’s even written using the Chinese character for death.

“…… As long as Shogi rules are followed, hisshi will not just disappear. It’s also impossible for Ai to break out of it on her own. Therefore, Ms. Gakumeki must have made a mistake. But ……”

Keika’s doesn’t know what words to use.

Naturally.

It’s impossible to explain something that no one has ever seen before.

If I had to put what Ai just did into words, it would be–––.

“She took flight.”

Unsure if she heard me correctly, Kanegasaka-sensei repeats what I said.

“Took …… flight?”

“Exactly! Ai’s Shogi has ‘height!’ Do you understand?!”

I shout, unable to hold in my excitement.

I knew Ai could do it. I believed in her.

But, as the Ryuo, seeing a 5th grade girl do something that I can’t, and the awe-inspiring Shogi unfolding right before my eyes, how am I supposed to keep my adrenaline down?

“This isn’t some worldly masterpiece! It’s completely different from conventional late game skill in two dimensions …… It’s the power to envision the two-dimensional game of Shogi in three! That is Ai’s talent, her wings!!”

“H-Height?! Yaichi, are you hearing yourself right now?! Such a thing doesn’t exist in Shogi!! The board is flat–––.”

“Oh, but there is, Keika. Shogi has always had that potential. We simply didn’t use it.”

Yes. There is height.

There has always been something in Shogi with the power to seemingly fly over other pieces as if it had wings.

Surprisingly, it was the total Shogi novice Kanegasaka-sensei who found the answer first.

“Are you …… talking about the Knight?”

Exactly.

“Yes. With the ability to jump over other pieces, the Knight is the only one that has ‘height.’”

I pick up the Knight piece that Keika dropped on the floor and explain.

“A different piece, the Bishop, can only move diagonally but it appears to slide past other pieces. By thoroughly understanding the irregular movement patterns of the Bishop and Knight, Ai was able to break free from Tsubasa’s hisshi.”

The kids, and even Kanegasaka-sensei, are giving me blank stares.

Only Keika gets shocked once she comprehends the series of movements.

“B-But …… I’ve never seen anything like this. It never happens in the Professional leagues …… Where in the world did Ai come up that kind of sense ……?”

“Shogi puzzles, probably.”

“Shogi puzzles ……?”

“Ai learned how to play Shogi by solving the ‘Shogi Zukou’ and ‘Shogi Musou’ puzzle collections. Since many of those puzzles make use of the Bishop or Knight’s unique movements in some way–––.”

“Long-sequence Shogi puzzles have no connection to actual matches! It’s common sense!! Even the people who make the puzzles say so!”

“Yes. It’s true that puzzle scenarios have never showed up in matches. Until now.”

So long as everyone is convinced the puzzles are useless.

“If Ai can re-create those puzzles on the board, no one will ever be able to checkmate her King.”

“Th-That’s …… That’s imposs–––.”

Keika stops herself right in the middle of saying the word “impossible.”

Because, well, she just saw it happen with her own eyes.

“To Ai, Shogi puzzles aren’t a weapon to take down her opponents. They’re wings to take her to a place she can never be captured …… To formations no one has ever seen before.”

But, it’s nowhere near complete. This is only the beginning.

For her, Shogi puzzles are a particularly large pair of wings.

However, the core of her true talent lies somewhere completely different.

Unlike all the other prodigies out there, Ai’s talent is–––.

“Ai Yashajin has early game talent. But at the same time, that talent also holds her back. She can’t forget what she did in the early game.”

“……? Yaichi, you’re not making any sense ……”

Just like how Adam and Eve could never return to the Garden of Eden after eating the “fruit” of knowledge, there are things you lose forever once you have a thorough understanding.

“On the other hand, Ai Hinatsuru is a blank slate. And, that is her greatest talent of all.”

“………… Slow down the second. Are you saying that you––––––?”

It seems like Keika finally caught on.

Realized just how much of a miracle Ai is.

“In order to get late game skills, to learn the techniques necessary to turn the tables on an opponent, you have to be in hopeless situations. You must fight for your life when there are no options left. That would mean you can’t take the lead in the early game.”

In that case, it’s necessary to gain Shogi skills without acquiring Shogi knowledge.

That kind of self-contradicting miracle could never happen.

I thought so, too. Until last year.

“I decided that if I was going to raise Ai Hinatsuru, I’d do it by teaching her as little as possible.”

That miracle showed up on my doorstep one day a year ago.

Like an angel falling out of the sky, just out of the blue.

“I taught her the sequences for handicapped matches, and I had Mr. Oishi teacher the basics of Ranging Rook so that she could survive being down a piece in the Practice League when her opponent would have the handicap advantage, but other than that ……”

Whenever possible, I kept her away from situations where she could pick up Shogi knowledge.

“That’s why I had her do practice sessions with amateurs rather than Pro Players, and kids her own age who wouldn’t feel guilty about playing at their full strength all the time.”

I also had Ai get used to doing nyugyoku by making her play at a disadvantage in handicapped matches. Nyugyoku is the only realistic chance you have to win when your opponent has more pieces.

Ai’s combination of nyugyoku sense and Shogi puzzle know-how were just enough to surpass Ms. Gakumeki’s Shogi knowledge by a hair.

Raising Ai this way required me not to give her any information on Ms. Gakumeki at all.

Everything–––was to force her into a hopeless situation.

“S- ………… Since, when ……? When was it …… that you decided to do this ……?”

“The night that I played against her for the first time, that very moment.”

The plan seemed absurd at first.

I’ve thought it over thousands of times. I’ve asked myself hundreds of thousands of questions. Would it be better to tap Ai’s straightforward and serious personality traits and teach her all the standards from square one?

But–––today, I know I was right.

“Ai has a strong heart and fighting spirit that won’t break. This is the best way to teach her.”

“So …… You’ve made her kill with talent alone? You sent a 10-year-old girl with a single year of Shogi experience to face the woman who battled in the Sub League until the age of 21 …… A child with barely any idea how to play the early game?!!”

Keika seethes.

Of course, she’s angry. There’s no way anyone wouldn’t empathize with Ms. Gakumeki after learning what she’s been through, Ai’s opponent or not.

And, I used her, pretty much fed to her to Ai like vitamins to help her wings grow.

I’m fully aware of how cruel that is.

Ms. Gakumeki isn’t the only one that will be hurt in the process.

“………… Me too …… That’s all I was to Ai, wasn’t I ……?”

Keika also fell to Ai when they were both in the Practice League.

That Shogi followed this same pattern. Ai was way behind in the early game …… only to find a way to win in the end.

There may be Women’s League Players who decide to retire after seeing today’s match.

Even if it’s not today, there could be tens, possibly hundreds of Players who see their own limits by sitting across the board from Ai and choose to end their own careers. Prodigies who could do no wrong have their hearts broken, choosing death in the face of that level of talent.

But, I also believe something else.

That there will be many, many more people who see Ai’s Shogi––––––and feel inspired.

“…… Yaichi.”

Restraining her emotions out of sheer will, Keika asks.

“How far …… are you planning to take her? …… No, let me rephrase that.”

Shaking her head, she rewords her question.

“How far do you think that girl can go?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me …… Don’t tell me, Ai too ……?!”

“That’s for her to decide.”

Simultaneously terrified and satisfied after seeing my apprentice completely shut down “Undying Wings” offensive onslaught, I answer Keika in a shaky voice.

You can teach an angel how to use her wings.

But where she’ll go using those wings–––only the angel herself knows that.