Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 10 - Chapter SS

REVIEW SESSION

New Encounters

~Moment of Beginnings

“Oh? O-Ryou, by yourself, are you?”

Visiting the Kansai Shogi Association’s third-floor Players’ Room as she always did, Machi Kugui spotted Ryou Tsukiyomizaka sitting at a table as she almost always was.

“I’ve got a gig here in Osaka tomorrow. Figured I may as well get here early and spend Sunday night out in the city, but …… Can’t really go anywhere else with it raining cats and dogs outside.”

“Indeed, this rain would make it most difficult.”

Rainy season had arrived in Kansai earlier than normal just as it had last year, and the rains hadn’t let up for the past few days. Perhaps that was the reason that not only the Players’ Room, but the entire Shogi Association was nearly empty.

Setting down her bag and pulling up a chair, Machi said.

“Since we are already here, how about a match?”

“Shogi, meh …… Not really in the mood right now ……”

“Heh heh heh. Just what I thought you would say, so I–––.”

With that, Machi pulled a book out from her bag.

“Behold! I have brought with me a quite dated album of photos!”

“No kidding?! Now that could be interesting! When’re they from?”

“Our first meeting, so …… Around spring of our sixth year in elementary school.”

Reaching for the surprisingly dense a photo album, Ryou couldn’t help commenting on the title engraved in its cover, “New Encounters ~Moment of Beginnings…~.”

“What’s up with that title, Machi? …… Seriously, that’s what an old soap opera in the 80s’ would’ve been called.”

“…… I was simply that age.”

Glancing at the floor as the pink hue of embarrassment dusted her cheeks, Machi swiftly opened the cover.

One look at the first picture and Ryou could hardly contain herself.

“Holy! I remember this! It’s the classroom downstairs, when me and Trash were playing Shogi! How the heck did you get the shot without me noticing?!”

“This was when I first was developing an interest in photography. I’d come to believe that accolades as a Shogi Player were not in my future, so I’d begun to branch out into other ventures.”

“Machi, you were seriously thinking about being a Shogi journalist all the way back then?”

“More like a wordsmith in general, but yes. Even now, I submit work to town magazines as a freelance writer.”

“Hmph. Hearing that from somebody who could make it on Shogi alone kinda pisses me off.”

“Easy now. It’s thanks to that–––.”

Her lips curling into the grin of a sly fox, Machi turns to the next page.

“Rare photos like this these exist in the first place.”

The next page was titled–––“Ryou Tsukiyomizaka ~Fleeting Moments … Emotions Hidden Within the Heart~.”

A full spread of photos showing Ryou as a 6th grade student and Yaichi Kuzuryu, then in 4th, playing Shogi ……

The earliest ones showed Ryou dressed in clothing not so different from what boys would wear. As time went on however, the series of chronologically organized photos showed her suddenly growing out her hair and dressing more like the girls her age.

It wasn’t just her appearance.

Even her line of sight steadily became more focused on the boy rather than the board between them–––.

“Urrraaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Stop, damn it! The hell are you doing walking around with these!! Hide them, now, now, now!! Actually, just burn the whole thing! ‘Hidden emotions,’ seriously, what the hell, id–––iot!!”

“It’s all right. Not another soul is present.”

“………… Tsk ……”

Leaning over the table to shield the photos from view with her own body, Ryou nervously glanced toward the door and, only when she was certain that Machi was right that they were alone, sat back down in her chair.

Both girls then reaffixed their gaze to the album.

“If I may, you were the cutest at this age, O-Ryou. Your feminine side emerged further still with each visit you made to Kansai …… yes?”

“That’s …… me caught up in my own game. Not a crush, got that? Trash kept confusing me for a boy, so I wanted to see the shock on his face ……”

“Ohhh? An effort to grab his attention at any cost?”

“I said ‘shock him,’ didn’t I?! Don’t make me clobber you!!”

Face flushing as red as her ginger hair, Ryou thrust her finger onto the album and exclaimed.

“Mind explaining to me why …… There’s a heck of a lot of pics of Trash in here, eh?!”

“Why, yes. I was quite fond.”

“!! ?! ?! ?!”

“Fond of Ryuo-san’s Shogi since those days. I knew beyond a shadow of the doubt he would come to hold a title one day. Meaning these photos would become quite valuable, no?”

“H-Hmph ……”

With Ryou’s heart suddenly even more aflutter, the two girls turned to face the Players’ Room entrance in unison.

““…………””

This was about the time when a teenage boy wearing a suit that didn’t suit him at all would normally come in and the three of them would have fun together, but ……

“…… Nothing to do, is there.”

“Appears not. Not a soul will be coming today.”

“…… How about a match?”

“…… I don’t see why not.”

The album safely back in Machi’s bag, the two line up pieces on a Shogi board and begin a practice much.