Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 12 - Chapter 5.2

  PROMISE

3-dan division, 17th match.

As far as Hiuma Kagamizu was concerned, this match could very well determine the rest of his life. Win now, and he would become a professional on the spot.

“Good morning, Mr. Kagamizu.”

“Morning, Sota.”

This match had immense implications for Sota as well.

As the lowest ranking player with any chance of promoting this season, he couldn’t afford to finish with the same number of victory stars as those above him. He needed to defeat Hiuma and drag him down as well.

In a big match with the rest of their lives literally in the balance, slight traces of relief passed across the two players’ faces as they sat down across from each other to get started.

“You’re wearing a necktie today.”

“Yes. I might be talking with the press later …… Does it look strange?”

“Not at all. It’s the nicest one I’ve ever seen you wear.”

The two made conversation while lining up the pieces.

Away from the familiar walls they knew, two Kansai Sub League players settled in across the board from each other in Kanto.

It was a scenario that would never take place under normal circumstances.

However, be it a twist of fate or a puppet master behind the scenes …… a battle between the longest tenured 3-dan and the youngest 3-dan ever was about to unfold on the last day of the 3-dan division in Sendagaya, more or less the media’s backyard.

–––I should consider myself fortunate.

Hiuma couldn’t care less about anything beyond the match before him. If there was anything worth knowing, he could look at what happened after he promoted to 4-dan.

“Shall we? It’s my move.”

“Yes. I’m ready when you are.”

The two began their match just as they had countless times at the Kansai Association’s Player’s Room.

Hiuma used the first move to open the Bishop Path.

Sota then advanced the Pawn in front of his Rook.

It was a path these two had taken many times before. So many of their matches had opened this way that neither could put a number to it.

“…………”

Closing his eyes to gather his thoughts, Hiuma put a hand to his tie — and made a decisive move. His formation became as clear as day.

Sota stared at it from across the board and whispered, “Yagura ……”

That was the last thing he had anticipated.

Sota had defeated Hiuma’s yagura so many times during their practice sessions that he knew the sequences like the back of his hand.

…Not to mention that software had completed nullified any advantage that offensive yagura once possessed…… meaning that players who had been proficient in it had switched to Bishop Exchange and Double Wing strategies instead.

Be that as it may, Hiuma had decided to stake the rest of his life on the strategy most deeply ingrained in his being no matter how outdated it was.

“………… Shogi sure is strange, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“For a strategy as common as the yagura to just disappear like that …… I remember back when I was training, I was told never to stick out the Pawn in front of my Rook because he who plays close to the vest has the advantage,” said Hiuma as he advanced the Pawn in front of his own Rook. “But before that, getting this Pawn all the way to the fifth row used to be how matches were decided. Now here we are today, where everyone plays yagura that way.”

“…… I don’t know anything about that,” countered Sota, playing at breakneck speed with all his waiting time intact. It was almost as if he felt that using it would be a waste during the standard open stage of the match.

Meanwhile, Hiuma was using his time to pour his heart and soul into every move despite opening with an offensive yagura.

There is a saying: rowing the underbrush.

This is because forging a path through the underbrush and thickets on untamed mountainsides closely resembles rowing a boat.

There were no better words to describe Hiuma in that moment.

Back and forth, back and forth, his body swayed.

Droplets of sweat rolled down his cheeks. Wiping them off with the backs of his hands, Hiuma put his full weight behind each piece as he moved across the board’s unexplored frontier.

“Khh ……! Pant! Pant! Pant ……!! ……… Ngh!!”

He lacked the time or the energy to steady his ragged breathing as his mind read so deep into the board that his forehead nearly collided with it before swaying back again.

The difference in waiting time became momentous by the mid-game.

“I told you, didn’t I ……?”

Sota, who had waiting time to spare, seemed both irritated and concerned as he watched Hiuma’s remaining time evaporate before his eyes.

In his opinion, Hiuma was succumbing to the pressure of the match at hand.

Every single one of the man’s moves was an obvious choice. Anyone with a decent amount of Shogi knowledge would say: This formation calls for this move.

“Cough! Haa ………… Ugh! Haa-haa ……”

–––Why is playing such basic moves hurting you that much?

Sota was already reaching to make his next move the instant Hiuma made up his mind… almost as if the young boy knew what was coming.

However, Hiuma spending this much time on each move was suspicious …… So Sota sat down on the cushion to thoroughly think through the formations.

That was when ……

“Pardon me.”

Hiuma left his seat.

Sota wondered whether Hiuma was going to take a restroom break, but …… He was stunned to see what his opponent was actually doing in the back corner of the arena.

Squats.

“Hff! Hff! Hff!”

Once, twice, three times ………… Hiuma bent his knees with vigor, taking rhythmical deep breaths as if pumping oxygen to every extremity of his body.

His eyes, however, were still locked squarely onto the board.

This wasn’t the behavior of a man under immense pressure. Hiuma was simply absorbed in the match. He couldn’t care less about the strange glances he was getting from onlookers. Of course, he wasn’t about to let the young boy’s opinion or a software rating influence his strategy.

Sota watched Hiuma for a few moments before dropping his gaze to study the board once again…

… Only to make a shocking discovery.

“……!? I-I’m ……… behind?!”

Including waiting time, he hadn’t made a single bad move up until this point.

But looking at the board again …… there were no avenues to attack.

“What ……? But why?! I followed the latest standard exactly! I know I did! Was Ginko right when she said, You don’t have a sense of the big picture……?!” 

Away from the board, Hiuma couldn’t hear a word the boy said.

Sota was beginning to panic.

Ginko Sora, Shoji Karako and now Hiuma Kagamizu …… Was it possible that he had some sort of fatal flaw when it came to facing players with older playing styles ……?

“Not knowing what it’s like to be afraid–––has warped your ability to see the big picture!”

Ginko’s words blared in his mind like a warning siren.

The few black stains of defeat on his heart began to fester, seeping deeper and deeper into his soul.

“No! That can’t be right! I’m the defender, so all I have to do to win is stop his attack!”

Shaking his head hard enough to dispel those thoughts, Sota elected to move a piece into position to contain Hiuma’s advance. Now, neither one possessed an advantageous attack route.

Hiuma wasted no time returning to his seat.

“Calisthenics during our match with your life on the line? You sure are confident.”

“Perhaps.”

Hiuma started reading again, but that didn’t stop Sota from talking.

“You’re acting really strange today, Mr. Kagamizu. It’s like you’re not trying to win at all. Why did you choose to use a yagura in the first place?”

“…………”

Hiuma just continued to silently sway for a few moments before–––.

—Saying bluntly, “I made a promise.”

“Promise? …… To whom? About what?”

Questions coming at him from across the board, Hiuma answered as if stammering his way through a confession.

“I could never promise anyone that I would promote. I’ve already broken that promise so many times ……”

Betrayed his Master’s expectations.

Hurt the woman who loved him.

Made his parents worry endlessly.

Hiuma made so many mistakes he could never take back throughout his life.

So he couldn’t promise to win, much less to become a professional.

“But––––––even I can promise myself to play my way.”

Hiuma answered softly before boldly sending his Rook directly into enemy territory.

“N-……?!” 

The child prodigy with the clear eyes of a young maiden gawked as he looked down at the board.

“Now, of all times, you send your Rook?! Have you lost your mind?!”

Sota stared up at Hiuma, beside himself, but their eyes never met. Hiuma’s were zeroed in on Sota’s King and nothing else.

It was a brazen attack that went against the Sub League theory of passing up on the first chance!

The man who had continuously let chances slip through his fingers had made the decision to entirely break away from his former self.

“This is who I am! The me who will be a professional!!” roared Hiuma, fist firmly clamped around his necktie.

From there, Hiuma launched an all-out assault. His pieces surged into Sota’s territory like water through a dam that had given way to the pressure.

Gone was his slow, thoughtful pace. The man with his back to the wall devoted himself entirely to this attack and was gaining ground.

Every second of waiting time spent had been poured into setting up this offensive.

The defender’s formation, which looked as solid as an iron wall, was swarmed under in an instant. Hiuma trained the brunt of his attack onto the first slight crack without missing a beat!

–––I’m getting overrun ……!!

Both on the board and in terms of sheer intensity, Sota was overwhelmed by Hiuma.

The emotion he felt for the first time in his match against Ginko was once again threatening to take away his composure.

It was fear.

That instinctual fear drove Sota to charge out and meet his opponent head-on, but it was already too late. He was fully aware, but still he had no choice.

He had to escape the fear.

–––This chain of events ………… It’s just like what happened against Ginko ……!!

After following the standards laid out by a computer to the letter, Sota was now playing as fear demanded.

–––That sequence I was thinking about ………… Where was it?

Hiuma repeated himself almost as if he could read Sota’s mind.

“I will play my way. That’s why I’m here.”

Then, violently snatching a Rook off his piece stand, he asked, “What about you, Sota?”

Reaching across the board as if about to stab his opponent through the chest, Hiuma deployed the Rook deep in enemy territory.

“I ……… I-I …… um …………”

It was now his turn, but all Sota could do was stare at his knees with his hand mindlessly on his piece stand.

He kept clicking the piece in his hand against the stand as it shook.