Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 11 - Chapter 2.4

  STOPOVER

“Yaichi.”

My eyes snap open with the sound of Big Sis’s voice in my ear.

“Hm ……?”

“Your alarm.”

“Ahh …… Sorry. It’s almost time to get off.”

I take out my smartphone and turn off the alarm.

We’ve arrived at a town in Fukui Prefecture known for having lots of hot springs.

The train stations in this area are literally named after one hot spring or another because that’s all that’s out here. We’re at one of them now.

It’s so late at night that we’re practically the only ones getting off the train.

Someone calls out to us just a few steps through the turnstile at the gate.

“I’ve come to meet you at Mr. Tsukimitsu’s request. Please, have a seat.”

The man gestures toward a rather expensive-looking car. Big Sis and I get in the back seat and the man takes us on a 15-minute drive to a specific hot spring inn.

Rather than turning in the main driveway, the car instead takes a small road around the back of the facility.

“I’m taking you to a private wing of our inn. It’s not connected to the main building, so you need not worry about having to interact with any other guests.”

“So …… We’re isolated?”

“Yes. Feel free to use the room for as long as you like, just the two of you.”

We’re planning on leaving first thing in the morning but hearing that does take some of the pressure off. I’m worried about Big Sis’s health, so it’s nice to know we can take it slow.

“Will you be dining tonight?”

“Umm …… Big Sis?”

“No.”

Instantaneous. Well, now’s not the time ……

“Then, no thank you.”

“Understood, sir. Simple dishes and snacks can be prepared at any time, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

Leading us inside the building and to the room where we’ll be staying, there are already futons laid out on the floor.

Side by side, in the same room.

“You see the problem with this, right?!”

I point at the futons and protest.

“Wh-Wh-Why in the world are there two futons?!”

“My apologies, sir. Would one futon have been more appropriate?”

“Just the opposite! I don’t know what you’ve been told, but this person and I, um …… Please put us in separate rooms! I’m fine with sleeping in the hallway!!”

Our guide drops his voice low enough so that only I can hear his explanation.

“Mr. Tsukimitsu was very insistent that the both of you stay in the same room. He was particularly adamant that your guest never be left by herself.”

“…… Can’t argue with that.”

Yeah. He’s right.

It’s too dangerous for Big Sis to be alone right now. That’s what’s going on. But, isn’t it also dangerous for me to be sleeping in the same room?

“…………”

Big Sis certainly doesn’t seem to mind, because the second I glance over at her she’s already plopped down on a futon.

Rather than her usual sharp but emotionless expression, her face looks so feeble that she’d collapse with a single touch …… Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh.

“I shall excuse myself. Please enjoy yourselves.”

Leaving behind words that could be taken more than one way, our guide exits the room. Hang on a sec, don’t these people normally say, “Enjoy your stay”? And did he really have to turn the lights down to set the mood when he left?

Anyway, it’s just us in the room now.

“…………”

Oh, boy.

Being left alone with Big Sis when she’s this close to the edge is downright scary.

It has happened once before, but she still had a sense of who she was back then …… There’s something scary about Big Sis as she is now. Vulnerable and cute. Now that’s terrifying in a different way.

Being careful to make sure that the air in here doesn’t get awkward, I do everything I can to keep my eyes off her and look out the window. “I wonder what’s outside ……,” I muse to myself when ……, “………… Huh? Haven’t we been here before?”

This room …… No, it’s the garden I remember from somewhere.

It wasn’t one of my title matches.

Long before that …… A memory from my time as a live-in apprentice.

“During Master’s first Meijin Title Match …… The fourth match was here! That sure takes me back!”

Master was a challenger for the Meijin title two years in a row.

His opponent then was–––.

“It was when Chairman Tsukimitsu was the Meijin! So, that’s why ……”

“Hmm. If you say so, Yaichi.”

“You don’t remember?!”

“Not really. I was five, wasn’t I?”

“It was right before you turned six …… and before my eighth birthday. It ended that quickly because Master got swept in four straight losses.”

Master reclaimed his A ranking the same year that we became his apprentices, and he rode that momentum the next season to eight wins with only one loss. That punched his ticket to the Meijin Title Match, which he’d always dreamed of playing in.

The Kiyotaki household was a zoo.

Mountains of congratulatory letters and presents for Master arrived almost every day and his Shogi classroom was suddenly overrun with students.

What will happen if he becomes the Meijin?!

As a kid, I remember thinking something big is going on and trembling with excitement. If Master became the Meijin, that would make us the Meijin’s apprentices.

But …… the excitement didn’t last long.

That Meijin Title Match series began in April but was over before the end of May.

The fifth match was scheduled to be in Osaka, so all of us were planning to go watch the match together. Unfortunately, Master had pretty much already lost at the time of the sealing move on day one of the fourth match. I was really looking forward to seeing Master play in Osaka, so I can still remember how disappointed I was when I saw it happen on TV.

I was sad to know that Master was about to lose, but …… He had promised to bring us to the Player’s Room where we could analyze the match with the pros and let us come inside the arena for a few minutes. Knowing that that wouldn’t happen anymore was a very hard pill to swallow. On the other hand, this was all part of competition so there was nothing I could do about it and, as a live-in apprentice, I felt it was my duty to believe Master could win until the very end. That believing in and waiting for him was my job.

But Big Sis didn’t.

“Yaichi. Let’s go.”

“Huh? Going where?”

“The arena. Master promised to let us in.”

“Whaaat?! B-But, that was for the fifth match!! We can’t just show up!”

“Master is going to lose like this. There won’t be a match in Osaka.”

“How can you be so mean?!”

“Are you coming or not?”

“Ummm ………… I’ll go!”

That was how Big Sis and my first big adventure started.

The second day of the match was a weekday, so we pretended that we were going to school but instead got on a train for Fukui.

I honestly don’t remember how we got through all those train changes and arrived safely, but I think my being from there and having basic knowledge of the trains was vital. Seriously, it was nothing short of a miracle now that I think back on it.

It was already evening when we got to the arena.

Though this was our first time ever at a title match and we could’ve been kicked out if any of the staff found us.

“…… Now what do we do, Ginko?”

“Find Master. He promised.”

Big Sis avoided the main entrance and circled around the grounds and found a way into the garden.

That’s right.

Amazingly, we stumbled upon the arena window, of all things, after wandering into the garden …… And we crawled in through that window as if the Shogi board in the middle of the room was drawing us in like a magnet!

“Yaichi. There’s a Shogi board in there.”

“You’re right! …… But there’s nobody around.”

“The window …… It’s unlocked.”

“Say what?! You’re not going inside, are you?! You can’t do that, Ginko! That’s breaking and entering!”

“You want to see the board, don’t you?”

“……………… Yeah.”

Why do we play Shogi? Because there’s a board. Seeing a Shogi puzzle makes us want to solve it, and we get an urge to analyze formations we’ve never seen before. That’s what makes us Shogi players.

It was the evening of the second day in the Meijin Title Match. Players and staff were having a short break for an evening snack.

That’s exactly when we happened to sneak into the empty room, sit down on our ankles on the players’ floor cushions and peer over the board–––.

“…… It was this room that we snuck into. Do you really not remember? Did you forget what happened next? The brain isn’t built to just forget things like that.”

“There was no Internet coverage back then, so no one would have seen us anyway. What’s the big deal?”

“Yes, yes. There wasn’t any Internet coverage.” I nod a few times before saying, “But there was national satellite coverage, remember?!”

In those days, the second day of Meijin Title Matches was still broadcast during the early evening hours on live TV. It was extremely popular, and many people tuned in because there was a good chance they would see the deciding move.

While cameras were allowed inside the arena, having technicians or cameramen in there during the match wasn’t permitted because it might distract players. The solution was to put the cameras on a timer so they would turn on automatically at the start of a broadcast.

The image that camera captured and sent up to a satellite and then beamed to every corner of Japan that night wasn’t of the players contemplating their next move, but of two kids leaning over the Shogi board.

It was an incident captured on live television. A major incident.

“Who the hell are those kids?!”

“Did hotel guests wander into the arena?!”

“WHAT?! They’re Kiyotaki’s apprentices?!”

The breakroom was in an uproar. People were saying things like, “The challenger sent in his apprentices to alter the board so he wouldn’t lose,” among other things, which meant Master would forfeit due to rule violations, but just then …

The one who silenced the commotion with only a few words …… was the other player.

The blind Shogi prodigy simply said with a slight grin, “I didn’t see anything, but did something happen?”

Seiichi Tsukimitsu-Meijin saying that made everything else irrelevant.

The association treated it as if Big Sis and I were never there and the Shogi world avoided a scandal altogether. The truly lucky thing about it is that neither of us were in the Sub League or Practice League at the time.

But–––.

“………… He realized it was us after all. Tsukimitsu-Meijin.”

I say his name with the same mixture of awe and respect that I had that day.

The current Meijin is the best player who ever lived, so Chairman Tsukimitsu’s brilliance gets overshadowed. I have no idea how great the people who receive the Citizen’s Award are.

But for me, Tsukimitsu-sensei is just as great. 

He’s the Meijin who Master challenged for the title and the player I’ve idolized my whole life ……

Only thing was that Master was furious at us.

“’At’s it. We’re done. Ya both ’r gone! Outta the family!!”

Even though the formation we saw on the board was just Master setting the scene for an honorable defeat and had no impact on the outcome whatsoever, that didn’t change the fact that we entered the arena without permission during the Meijin Title Match.

It was Master’s first ever title match, and for the title that he’d always wanted and finally had a chance to take after decades of hard work. Now that it had slipped through his fingers, he was so angry and depressed that he ended up with a fever and stayed an extra night to recover.

Big Sis and I, on the other hand, were forcefully sent back to Osaka.

A Sub League 3-dan who was in charge of moving the pieces for big board analysis during the match took us …… Big Sis and I tore into each other in front of him the whole time.

“Master got mad at us because you said we should go to the arena, Ginko.”

“No. We only got caught because you were so slow, Yaichi.”

“This is your fault!”

“No, it’s yours!”

We were still fighting all the way onto the train, but that 3-dan found a way to calm us down.

“Easy there. How about analyzing yesterday’s match with me?”

Big Sis got out the magnetic Shogi board she always had with her, and he was nice enough to explain exactly what happened from the first move.

Listening to his analysis …… Big Sis and I stayed quiet, holding onto his every word as our minds got absorbed into the board.

That tiny portable Shogi board suddenly felt huge, like we were staring at a place as deep and vast as outer space.

–––One Shogi match has this many possibilities ……?!

The train ride up felt like ages, but the way home was over in the blink of an eye.

Once we got to Osaka station, it was the 3-dan’s turn to be surprised when he saw Big Sis and I hold hands coming off the train.

“…… You can hold hands after a big fight like that?”

We really would be kicked out this time if we didn’t hold hands.

I explained that to him, but he still looked confused and told us, “Hmm. You two should just get married.”

“No, we won’t!!” we yelled back at him at the same time, still holding hands. 

He laughed at us.

Just before saying goodbye, I worked up the courage to ask, “Would you …… teach us Shogi again?”

“Of course I will! Come find me in the Player’s Room any time.”

It was thanks to him that our presence in the scary Player’s Room was accepted by other players. He taught us so much and became the guiding light who opened our eyes to more of the world of Shogi than we knew existed.

I didn’t know that that Sub League member’s name was Hiuma Kagamizu 3-dan until after Master felt well enough to make the trip back to Osaka.

I’ve overtaken that tall, gentle person and turned pro before him.

And Big Sis is set to face him as an opponent.

If knowing that Mr. Kagamizu will be forced out of the Sub League if he doesn’t make it through the 3-dan division this season is what’s pushing Big Sis so close to the brink ……

Maybe it would’ve been better not to have met him at all?

No matter how much my exhausted brain mulls it over, I don’t have a clue.

“Big Sis.”

“What?”

“Take a bath and let’s get some sleep.”