Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 15 - Chapter 3.2

  A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN A DIVISION PLAYER

Jun Natagiri 8-dan’s day begins with an early morning run.

“How far are we going to go?”

“Five kilometers should do.”

“Huh?!”

F-Five?! Does he run that much every day?!

I …… have to run lots and lots at school, but the most I have to do at once is just three kilometers …… And that gives me a bad ache in my side ……

Rokuroba-sensei has a tracksuit on and starts stretching.

“Jin-Jin is fast too. But we’ll take it slow.”

“I-I’m sorry, Rokuroba-sensei …… You had to get up so early because I said I wanted to come along–––.”

“Not really. I join Jin-Jin on these runs when I want, and today happens to be one of those days.”

We all start at the same time, but Natagiri-sensei widens the gap right away. Next thing I know, I can’t even see him anymore!

A big difference between Osaka and Tokyo is all the hills.

So running is hard–––.

“Haaahaaa …… haaahaaa ……”

“Your chin is too high! C’mon! Run with bad posture and you’ll hurt yourself. It’s alright to go slow, but make sure you have good posture.”

“R-Rokuroba-sensei ………… slow down ……… a little …… please …… haaahaaa ……”

“For a speed demon at Shogi puzzles, you sure are slow on your feet. Shogi takes a surprising amount of endurance, so you better build it up now.”

“Wh- …… what does …… r-running fast …… have …… to do with ……. Shogi ……?”

“Plenty. Especially for women.”

“……?”

What is the connection?

I want to ask for more details, but I’m too tired right now!

In the end, it takes me an hour to run only 3 km. My legs are jittery and my chest feels like it’s about to blow up ……

It’s really impressive how Natagiri-sensei can run five and barely break a sweat!

“Practice makes perfect, that’s all. The association used to sponsor a marathon back in the day, when I was a new 4-dan, if you can believe it.”

“A marathon? For Shogi players?!”

“He-he! That wouldn’t fly today, would it? The prize was any Shogi book on sale in the gift shop. Oh, how nice it was to get the whole set of an expensive series that was out of my price range!”

We stretch our muscles to cool down after our morning run. Meanwhile, Natagiri-sensei tells me all sorts of things I’ve never heard before…

…Such as the results of those marathons–––.

“I won three years in a row, but then they canceled it. Natagiri’ll win anyway, so we’re done here! Well, the only reason I won was because everyone else went out for drinks late into the night before and they all wound up puking on the side of the road. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sendagaya city council had had enough and issued a formal request for them to stop.”

Ewww ……

“It felt amazing, knowing I was the best at something out of all the professionals. It did wonders for my confidence, too. I guess that’s why I’ve kept running every day all these years. I never placed first in anything else.”

“Confidence?”

“Yes …… So I can remind myself what coming in first feels like.”

After a morning shower, Natagiri-sensei makes a beautiful breakfast for all of us. I volunteered to cook, but he wouldn’t listen.

“I invite a lot of promising young boys to my practice sessions, but nary a one of them knows the importance of eating right.”

Natagiri-sensei looks great in an apron! He reminds me of a news anchor on a morning news show demonstrating a recipe on TV! He wears it perfectly ……!

“So I like to know that they get at least one square nutritional meal while they’re here. That way, they can concentrate on Shogi without all the fuss. Thinking in the long term!”

“That’s so nice of you!”

Fancy salads in a glass. Five grain rice. Fruit and yogurt. Everything is delicious!

I’m in awe of Natagiri-sensei, but Rokuroba-sensei interjects.

“The food is nothing but bait. It’s obvious what he’s after.”

“I don’t think that someone hooked by that bait has any right to talk ……”

“Is that so? Do you want me to stuff you in one of those bottles and mail you back to Osaka?”

“He-he! It’s only been one night but you two are already the best of buddies,☆” Natagiri-sensei comments with a happy smile. 

We are not buddies.

We finally start doing Shogi practice at 9 o’clock.

“I’m ready when you are!”

“Yes! Please begin.”

The match begins with my move. Rokuroba-sensei said she happens to have nothing better to do today and offers to record the match for us. Everything feels just like a league match.

I’m going to be honest, okay?

Before the match, I felt a little confident.

Natagiri-sensei has been working with me online since last summer, ever since I qualified for the Women’s Legend League. I was helpless against him at first, but recently I’ve started being able to hold my own.

–––I can win against A division players!

That confidence was a big part of my decision to come to Tokyo by myself.

This way, I could continue with the lessons I was receiving in Osaka, but be in the same room instead. That would help me learn more efficiently, or so I thought ……

Once the match began, I learned just how naïve I had been.

“I …… I lost ……”

“Yes. That match was an utter mess from the early-game. There’s nothing to review, so let’s move on to the next.”

I try many different strategies and still lose.

Static Rook and Ranging Rook. He even picked my version of the Oishi-sensei’s Gokigen Central Rook apart like it was nothing.

In the match when Natagiri-sensei used Goki-Central on the other hand, I mirrored his sequence, but at some point he changed it up and my formation fell apart ……

It was a double slap to the face. I couldn’t do anything.

“………… I don’t have any moves ……”

“Nope. On to the next.”

Natagiri-sensei puts all the pieces back at starting position, always eager for the next match. That eagerness puts even more pressure on me.

This is …… completely different from playing online.

Online, it’s easy to feel confident about your decisions because you can’t see your opponent’s face or hear their breathing. Once you have the I’m in the lead! feeling, it’s easy to keep building on it.

But that’s not the case in person.

Seeing an A division player confidently snap down a piece …… My first thought is: Did I make a mistake?! and my confidence disappears ……

“………… I …… lost ……”

I lost every match. Worse …… Each was a thorough and complete loss.

Rokuroba-sensei, who has been watching us since the start, speaks for the first time.

“You won 50 matches in a row online last night. I’m surprised those insane late-game skills didn’t win you a match or two.”

That makes two of us …… To be honest, I thought I would win more than that ……

I can’t say that out loud, of course, and Rokuroba-sensei piles on even more.

“You played against Kuzuryu-sensei before, right? Did you ever win?”

“Never in an even match, no …… I won several handicap matches. But–––.”

“But? But what?”

“…… I think you might be …… stronger than Master.”

Master’s formations always had a weakness somewhere. I’m confident that I had a chance to win if a match came down to direct reading ability.

If I have one advantage over my opponent, I’m confident that I can win at least one match out of 100.

But–––.

“Your Shogi has no weaknesses, Natagiri-sensei! If my early-game had any flaws, you immediately took advantage of them …… But, even if I made it into the mid-game, you used the whole board and easily shut me down!”

When I chose to attack, I lost.

So I avoided big clashes and used aerial battle strategies to force the late-game.

I attacked with the Double Wing, my best strategy.

It was using the Double Wing Attack …… when my confidence was completely crushed ……

“Rushing the late-game didn’t work because you used all sorts of competitive tactics along the way and turned the tables on me! Whatever move I wanted to make, you somehow managed to block it before I could …… Even after I read all the way to the end ……!”

My heart felt like a puppet, and he held the strings.

Building up physical endurance …… is hard, but easy to understand. Your running time and distance shows you exactly how much you’ve improved with numbers.

But …… What can you do to train your heart?

What makes your heart stronger ……?

“The only way to get those competitive tactics is to take them from other players, face-to-face.”

Natagiri-sensei explains how he had the same problem when he was a young player because he didn’t have anyone to play against living in the countryside. 

How he struggled against veteran players, even though their match records were not impressive at all.

“If I have any advice to give, it would be to play against as many people as possible instead of just one person in particular. That way you can pick up on a lot of tells and tricks. I could arrange some matches for you, but …… it would be better to find opponents on your own in the long run. That itself is a vital skill.”

“…… Yes, sir!”

My response was a second late because …… I’m not confident that I can find someone who will do a practice session with me in Tokyo right now.

Maria Kannabe, a Sub League member, probably would if I asked her. That would give me an opportunity to ask her older brother, God-sensei, as well.

But I can’t do that right now.

Because I still haven’t given up on challenging their Master, Women’s Legend Rina Shakando, for her title this season.

“Shorty. You said that you played against Kuzuryu-sensei in even matches–––.”

Rokuroba-sensei holds up the match record that she took and points to it with a confused look on her face.

“Does that mean that Kuzuryu-sensei plays the early-game like you do, too?”

“Master wasn’t very strict when it came to the early-game. I guess he was open-minded ……”

“Yeah, Kuzuryu-sensei seems to always do something weird that puts him behind. He’d probably win a lot more if he just played normally.”

Th-That was probably all part of the grand scheme in Master’s mind …… But she’s right.

“Then again, Yaichi is the one with the titles and he’s the one who wins in the end.”

“……!”

“Dragon King Ryuo Yaichi Kuzuryu had something at 16 years old that the current Jin Natagiri 8-dan does not. I think taking a title from the Meijin will be rather difficult without finding out what it is first,” said the A division challenger as he returned the pieces to their starting position.

“I have to find the last key …… Yes?”

It’s late at night by the time we finish our practice session.

I’m exhausted, but …… Natagiri-sensei still seems to have plenty of energy. Actually, he’s sitting up straighter now than when we were practicing.

“I’ll be doing early-game research to prepare for the Monarch Title Match starting now. With software, of course. Then some Shogi puzzles and that should do it for today.”

“P-Preparing for your title match now?! At night ……?”

I ask him why he put off doing the most important thing.

Natagiri-sensei answers–––.

“Shogi all comes down to the late-game, yes? In other words, you have to make the most important decisions when you are already at your limit. I’m training myself for that very moment. My reading has to be accurate, even when I’m tired and under pressure.”

“…………”

It shocks me that anyone can live with so much crammed into one day. I’m speechless.

Just one day.

I’m worn out after just one of them …… My muscles were sore the next day, and I couldn’t sit on my ankles at all.

Every day I spent with Master was so much fun. Everything was exciting and I couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning …… I never felt tired, not even once.

But those days are over.

From now on I will be working hard to improve myself every single day.

What I need to do now is learn Shogi techniques and strategies and nothing more. In order to pick up as many techniques as I can and to learn how to survive as a Shogi player in the city called Tokyo, I will be intruding on Natagiri-sensei and Rokuroba-sensei for the time being. So long as they don’t …… kick me out.

Master.

I’m fighting as hard as I can in Tokyo.

I’m sure …… you’re fighting against a new wall like always, aren’t you?