Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 11 - Chapter 2.1

  SHOGI GHOST

“This one’ll be livin’ with us startin’ today.”

“Huh?”

The teenage girl standing at the front door to greet us froze with her jaw hanging open.

She was pretty, unbelievably gorgeous.

I-I get to live with a pretty girl like her? I zoomed past happy, all the way to nervous ……

“Yaichi Kuzuryu here came all the way from Fukui. I’m takin’ him as a live-in apprentice,” 

said Master, ruffling my hair with his big hand as I nervously twiddled my thumbs. 

Live-in apprentice. Hearing those words made me so happy I didn’t know what to do with myself.

The girl gave me a kind smile and bent down to my height.

“Hello there, Yaichi. My name is Keika Kiyotaki. I’m this old man’s daughter.”

“N-Nice to meet you! I’m Yaichi Kuzuryu! Thank you for having me!!” I blurted out, my face bright red as I looked away from Keika.

Wh-What else was I supposed to do ……?!

I mean …… I could see right down her shirt …… The cleavage!!

“How nice of you to introduce yourself! ………… Unlike that other one.”

“What?”

“Oh, and Dad? We need to talk, so would you please join me in the living room?”

Keika’s smile was still there, but the voice she used with Master was terrifying. The kind you can’t argue with.

“Hm? S-Sure …… In a minute. Before that, Yaichi’s parents were nice enough to give us a sack ’o delicious rice–––.”

“Now. Right now.”

“Oh ………… O-Okay ……”

Master was clearly powerless here, but he must not have wanted his newly taken apprentice to see him in such a pathetic state, so he stood tall and proud. On the verge of tears, though.

“Yaichi. Go on upstairs an’ play ’til I call for ya.”

“Yes, Master!”

Following Master’s instructions, I trotted my way up the stairs. I’d been so giddy when we got here, but suddenly I felt like a fish out of water without Master at my side.

There were two rooms on the second floor.

Both doors were open, so I decided to go into the one right in front of me first. There was a bed, a desk for studying, a bookshelf and a chest of drawers as well.

…… It smells like that girl in here!

I breathed in a lungful of that wonderful smell girls have.

When suddenly I caught a glimpse of a pile on the carpet that looked like it had just been accidentally dropped in there.

“? What’s this?”

Something she forgot? Because if she did, she might thank me for bringing it to her!

Convinced, I picked it up and––––––couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Huh?! Say …… whaaaaaat?!”

A bra. A huge one!!

–––The buildings in Osaka are big, but the bras are even bigger ……!

Thoroughly impressed and weak in the knees, a wave of fear overtook me at the same time.

From an objective point of view, I was just a horny brat who snuck into a girl’s room to find her underwear. Even at six years old, I understood that much.

I’ll get kicked out if I don’t behave! That girl wasn’t happy to see me either ……

“I just won’t say that I came in here ……”

The bra thing stays secret too, and no one can make me say it. I’ll just lock it away in my memories …… Especially the bra. Swearing to myself, I went into the other room.

Unlike Keika’s room, it didn’t look like anyone lived in here.

“…… Maybe it’s empty?”

A few steps into the vacant room and–––there she was.

“Huuuh ……?”

A little girl, maybe about four years old, was standing there looking at me.

Even in the dim light, her skin was starkly pale and her hair glinted silver. She had something clutched in her hands like it was the most valuable thing in the world.

“?! ……?!”

I rubbed my eyes three, four times. I just couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The fact that she had no presence at all was part of it, but–––.

She was just so white, almost translucent, like light was passing through her ……

“Ah ……… Huh? ……………… A person ……?”

I didn’t think something so pure could possibly be another human like me. I mean …… She was just too pretty ……

That’s why I asked her.

“Um, are you …………… a ghost ……?”

If I were in the same position now, I would’ve used a lighter word like fairy or spirit, but it was all six-year-old me could do to come up with the word ghost.

“……”

This pure white girl was looking up at me without saying a word.

“Um …… I’m Yaichi Kuzuryu. I’m going to be a live-in apprentice at this house starting today! Ah, do you know what a live-in apprentice is? Basically …… I’ll live here to practice Shogi!”

Heart racing, I rattled off an explanation in a few short breaths and–––.

The girl plopped down on the floor and opened up the thing she was holding.

“…… A foldable Shogi board?”

The moment I saw it, every little bit of unease I was feeling disappeared without a trace.

“So, you play Shogi, too?! Come on, let’s play!”

I sit down on my ankles across from her and start lining up the magnetic pieces.

We did rock paper scissors to decide who went first. Apparently, the ghost wasn’t very good at it because I got the first move.

“Okay …… I’m ready when you are!”

I bowed my head. The white girl had her head down, just looking at the board.

“Nooow …………! Here I come!!”

The formation I start creating was Master’s specialty, the yagura.

It was this world’s most beautiful formation, as beautiful as Shogi literature. I had made up my mind that I’d do a yagura for my first match in this house.

When she saw that, the girl–––made her moves using no time at all. It was like playing against a mirror.

“Double Yagura?”

Taking my eyes off the board, I looked at my opponent. The girl’s head was down, but her eyes were looking up at me.

That was the moment I felt a connection with the ghost.

–––This is fun!

Excited, I advanced my formation. But, that excitement vanished just as quickly.

Unlike my monkey see, monkey do yagura, this girl’s yagura was the real deal.

“…………”

The time had come for counterattack, every one of the pieces snapped eerily quiet when she moved.

It was over almost as soon as she reached my defenses. Advancing on my King with the precision and accuracy of a machine, I got destroyed in the blink of an eye.

“………… I lost ……”

Strong. Too strong.

Slumped over and staring at the checkmate, there was no doubt in my mind.

It was impossible for a little girl like this to play such flawless Shogi. What’s more, we’d just had an intense battle, but her face was as calm as an autumn breeze, like nothing happened at all ……

“Wow, you really are a Shogi ghost!!” I said to the little girl.

“Pro players have actual ghosts that can play Shogi living in their houses ……!”

Holy cow! Pros are amazing! I was through the roof. I just played Shogi with a ghost!

To me, this was just like Hikaru no Go.

It’s an old manga about a young boy who knew nothing about Go getting taught how to play by the spirit of an ancient Go player living inside his Go board and he became very good at it.

My brother had the whole series, and I read through them enough times to wear out the pages.

And now, I was going to get stronger playing Shogi with this ghost like Hikaru did …… Just as this story was playing out in my head.

“Hm.”

“Hm?”

“Hand.”

The little ghost on the other side of the board extended her hand.

“……?”

Slowly, very slowly, I reached out and touched it.

“! ……………… It’s hot ……”

Like, surprisingly hot. We’d only just met, but I’d already figured out that her body heats up whenever she takes a match seriously.

We lace our fingers together, almost as if making sure the other one was real. Very hot.

“Then …………… You’re, not …… a ghost?”

“Ginko.”

Gin? Like a Shogi Silver piece?

“There’s no such thing as ghosts. Stupid Yaichi.”

Such a pretty girl, but such a dirty mouth.

Just as I was about to snap back at her, Keika’s voice echoed up from downstairs.

“Yaiiichi! You can come down now.”

I went back to the first floor to find Master and Keika sitting side by side.

“I’m sorry about earlier. This bearded fossil didn’t tell me anything, so it was a little bit of a shock, but welcome to our home!”

Keika introduced herself more fully this time.

“I’m 16 and in my first year of high school. That means I’m exactly 10 years older than you, Yaichi. I take care of things around the house and help out in the Shogi classroom every once in a while. But, I’m a pushover, so go to the bearded fossil …… or the girl next to you when you want to play, okay?”

With that, Keika tells me who this girl sitting next to me like she belonged there really was.

Ginko Sora.

That was her name.

“Ginko …… Sora ……”

I mulled those words over in my mouth …… and they took hold in my heart as if I were casting a spell of some kind.

Silver hair and slightly cloudy eyes the color of ash.

My chest got tight for some reason, like a big squeeze.

“I say, that was a heck’va mix-up! Thinkin’ Ginko was a ghost, hah! I admit she’s got an otherworldly aura to her, but she’s got legs, ya see?”

Master was laughing, but he had red marks on his forehead that could only have come from pressing it against the tatami mat for quite a while. I knew immediately who was really in charge in this household.

–––I’d better stay on Keika’s good side ……

And then one more.

There was one other person in this house I absolutely couldn’t cross no matter what.

“’T was by only two weeks, but Ginko became my apprentice first. So, ’at makes ya the younger brother apprentice, Yaichi. Ginko is yer older sister apprentice.”

"Older …… sister?”

“…… Younger brother?”

It wasn’t a ghost living at the pro player’s house.

It was something much, much scarier than a ghost. I met the one I would one day call Big Sis.