Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.4

  THE SUB LEAGUE

“Hey, Keika! Keika! Guess what! I got praised!”

Yaichi came back to the house with Master and he bounded right up to Keika like he was walking on air.

It wasn’t often that Yaichi looked this happy after he entered the Sub League.

Keika asked him what had happened, and–––.

“What?! You found a check path that Seiichi missed?”

“Keika. Yer in the Practice League. He’s to be called Tsukimitsu-sensei.”

“Ah …… I’m sorry. Master ……”

Tsukimitsu-sensei is the same age as Master, but also his older brother apprentice. They’ve been close for decades.

He also dropped by Master’s house from time to time, which is probably why Keika still thinks of him as more of a family friend and forgets to address him like she should.

“As they say in Go: bystanders see eight moves ahead. Match recorders ain’t got to deal with the pressure ’at players do. Don’t go thinkin’ that yer stronger than pros, ya hear?”

Master clasped Yaichi’s head with his big hand.

“But, yeah, it ain’t like anybody coulda found ’at check path.”

With that, Master ruffled his apprentice’s hair.

“Today’s match was an exhibition match between the Meijin and the Amateur Meijin, wasn’t it? With a Bishop handicap?”

“Yep! The one with, what was it? Mr. Yoru …… mata …… kami? And Tsukimitsu-Meijin! Mr. Yorumatakami thought he’d lost so he threw in the towel, but he actually had a 23-move check path that would’ve won it! Mr. Yorumatakami couldn’t believe it and said I was amazing!”

Yorumatakami? Is that even a real name? With those Chinese characters, pronouncing it as Yashajin would make more sense.

“He also said he wants me to take his daughter as my apprentice once I turn pro!”

“Well, well. Did you hear that, Ginko?” said Keika teasingly. So irritating. But I couldn’t take it out on her, so I kicked my younger brother apprentice in the back instead.

“Wh-What was that for?!”

“Shut up. Drop dead.”

Bash! Bash! What an easy back to kick.

Maybe she was feeling sorry for him, but Keika gave Yaichi even more praise.

“That’s just wonderful, Yaichi. Finding a check path that even Tsukimitsu-sensei overlooked—it must have really boosted your confidence.”

“Ummm …… I still can’t win at all in my Sub League matches ……”

Yaichi’s shoulders slumped and he looked like he was about to cry.

“Even practicing in the Player’s Room, I get treated like a punching bag. Everyone tells me things like You were better before you joined the Sub League and You’ll last another week, tops or ……”

Claiming the title of Elementary Meijin, a high-spirited Yaichi entered the Sub League at 6-kyu.

He thought he would climb the ranks in no time, and even I thought he would become 1-dan in the blink of an eye, so that might’ve put a bit of pressure on him.

But–––.

“Those regular activities, they’re nothing like playing 10-second Shogi in the Player’s Room …… There’s so much waiting time, everyone’s trying to kill each other …… Mr. Kagamizu is so scary on those days, I’m afraid to go near him ……”

Rather than climbing the ladder, Yaichi was facing the very real danger of dropping down a rank and was fighting tooth and nail to stay at 6-kyu. That’s why he came to dread Sub League regular activity days and his Shogi felt timid whenever I played against him.

–––All of you, quit picking on Yaichi! I won’t allow it!! I mentally screamed with righteous indignation as I repeatedly kicked my younger brother apprentice’s back.

However, I had it all wrong.

There was an unwritten tradition in the Kansai Sub League back in those days where they would never compliment promising newcomers to their face. Actually, they would be downright harsh. This harshness was meant to toughen them up, but they would do anything to protect one of their own when the time came.

On the other hand–––.

“This kid’ll never get stronger.”

Kansai Sub League members encouraged those who they thought wouldn’t make it.

I wouldn’t understand this until I was older.

That night …

Once the idiot was asleep, I left the kid’s room and went downstairs to find Master on my own. I had a request for him.

“…… Yaichi really seems to be having a hard time.”

I overheard voices once I got to the first floor.

Keika, getting a Shogi lesson from Master in the tatami room, sounded concerned.

“You think maybe it was too early for him to join after all? He’s in the fourth grade for heaven’s sake …… Waiting a year couldn’t have hurt, could it?”

“Earlier the better. A year, a month, a week, even a day earlier is best in this world. Surely ya know ’at better than anyone?”

“Y-Yes …… Yes, I do, but ……”

“Yar worryin’ too much. Yaichi’ll get real strong, just ya watch. People without any talent grow bit by bit, but those who got talent grow in bursts after breakin’ through a wall. For Yaichi, it’s not if he does, but when. Ya can count on it,” Master stated like a fact. “Actually, I’m more worried ’bout what’ll happen after he goes pro.”

“After …… he becomes professional? He only just joined the Sub League, so why–––.”

“There’s a limit to what I can teach him. ’At’s why I asked Mr. Tsukimitsu to take him as an apprentice instead’a me. Right before joinin’ the Sub League, actually.”

“F-Father?! Then what was all that about your dream coming true?! Weren’t you happy that you now had a son of your own?!”

“…… I only took Yaichi in ’cause I was bein’ greedy. I knew how he felt about me and used ’at admiration to rope him into this house. Seein’ what he did today, it was all too obvious. That kiddo deserves a stronger Master, one who’s accomplished somethin’.”

“Wh-What did Sei- …… Tsukimitsu-sensei have to say?”

“Turned me down. But …… Yaichi’s got talent right up there with the rest ’o the junior high professionals in the past. If he don’ go pro, I gotta shoulder the blame and retire.”

“Huh ……?”

Keika and I gasped simultaneously.

I’d always thought Yaichi was a poor kid.

That he had a weaker, stupider existence than me. That it was up to me to protect him.

But ……

“Master. Keika.”

Both stared at me in surprise as I walked into the room and said what I wanted loud and clear.

“I want to join the Sub League, too.”