Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 15 - Chapter 5.5

  FIRST-TIME CHALLENGE

Since important matches were still taking place in the arena, review sessions were held in a separate room.

“…… Ah, I see now. That is the check path that eluded my eyes ……”

Machi was finally able to come to terms with her loss as Ai explained the sequence to her.

The move that she had seen as necessary to bid farewell to her past had in fact placed her in the grips of an instant death.

This loss was extremely painful, on par with one she experienced years ago in the Elementary Meijin Tournament.

“Ai.”

Winning in the way that she had, Ai found it awkward to say anything else. Machi decided to thank her instead.

“I am grateful? This would be checkmate.”

“You ………… are?”

Now that the pieces were back in their box, Machi stood to leave. As she was walking toward the door, she said, “I shall inform Yaichi that you are right as rain. He will …… be most pleased… with your victory.”

“Ah ……”

Ai rose to her knees as if about to pursue Machi out the door but stopped herself at the last possible moment.

–––What would I say …… if I went? I made up my mind to work hard here in Tokyo……

Ai stood motionless staring at the closed door.

Something strange had caught her attention.

“Was Kugui-sensei ………… smiling? Right after losing out on her chance to be in the title match ……?”

Machi’s expression did strike her as odd, considering how much pain she would be in after such a loss. However, something else was far more important to her at the moment.

“………… Rokuroba-sensei ……!”

Sitting back down on the sofa, Ai brought her hands together as if praying and awaited Tamayo’s arrival.

She lacked the courage to go back into the arena herself.

The match was a slugfest.

“Haaaa ……… ngh, why’d the Shogi have to turn out like this ………?”

A weary Tamayo was in quite a bit of pain as she sat in front of the board, her listless eyes vaguely in the direction of an intensely dialed-in Azami as she waited for the next move.

They were in the late-game, but trading body blows. Worse, they had each missed check paths that would have sealed their victory. The board had warped into an enigma.

Simply put: it was a big mess.

“………… I can’t believe I missed that one.”

Around the time she defeated Ryo Tsukiyomizaka in the middle of the season, her fingers seemed to be unconsciously drawn to the best move. She had won so many matches in a row that way, but now ……

No. She knew. She understood why winning had become so difficult.

Ai Hinatsuru being so close had made her think that she should be able to checkmate her opponents in much the same way.

So she started making mistakes she wouldn’t have made otherwise and lost two matches in a row before recovering in the previous round. Had she been able to relax and rely on her own talent, the ticket to the Women’s Legend Title Match would have been hers long before the final match.

There was one other thing.

–––I wasn’t sure if I deserved to be the challenger, was I?

She considered herself to be the hardest worker.

Her talent may leave something to be desired, but as a Women’s League player …… She took so much pride in her work that others belittled her as the Professional Women’s League Player. She was also confident that she had contributed more to the league than players who were blessed with better circumstances.

However, watching Ai shook that confidence.

The fact that she was younger, more talented and cuter …… didn’t matter.

–––It’s because I found out she’s fighting harder than me ……

The Shogi that unfolded on the board next to hers had been a fearsome sight to behold.

She thought there was a chance Ai might win.

But never in her wildest dreams did she think Ai would torment Machi the Tormentor to the point of a one-step checkmate and never give her an opportunity to surrender.

“Ha-ha …… She is a little demon.”

Ai Hinatsuru appearing in a title match would surely turn Japan on its head.

All these random thoughts passed through Tamayo’s mind as menstrual cramps made her life miserable. Focusing was no longer possible. She hadn’t been in the right condition to play decently in the first place.

But.

–––I can’t make any excuses, can I? I mean …… my opponent is pregnant ……

Azami had raced out of the arena only to return with a bluish complexion several times already. Tamayo had heard stories about morning sickness, but it was fearsome to see it from across the board with her own eyes.

“……. Normal for women? This? Yeah right ……”

Menstrual cramps and morning sickness.

While the two conditions weren’t anatomically possible from men, they most definitely existed in this world.

Although, pointing that out would get her labeled as naïve.

She had given up at some point during it all, made the decision to keep her mouth shut and learned to pass it off by repeating fake smiles and short responses.

–––But, you know something?! All of us are still fighting all the same!! With our lives on the line!!

She wouldn’t deny that she wanted to make the best possible match record while in the best possible condition.

Even though there were circumstances that couldn’t be made public, she still wanted someone to understand that today’s match record was forged through a great deal of pain.

“Hanadachi-sensei. You have 10 minutes remaining. When shall I start the countdown?”

“………………”

Azami was too exhausted to answer the match recorder. Seeing her continue to fight even though she was far beyond her limits gave Tamayo an even stronger respect for her …… and made her strongly wish she could comfort her pain at the same time.

“……?”

Azami continued to read as if her life depended on it until the three-minutes remaining mark–––and let out a long sigh.

“I thought …… if I devoted myself entirely to Shogi, I could finally get a title.”

“……?”

Tamayo watched with surprise as her opponent suddenly started telling a story.

–––Is she surrendering? No, the match recorder hadn’t stopped the clock yet ……

She had not given up. However, something within her wanted to add a punctuation mark at this juncture.

At the same time, she was trying to send her junior a message.

Tamayo fixed her posture and waited to hear what her esteemed senior had to say.

“I was wrong. The happiness I was sacrificing turned out to have no connection with Shogi in the end. Losing everything to Ginko is what made me realize it ……”

The First Queen, Azami Hanadachi.

The woman who appeared to have grasped the greatest happiness a woman could want and had once been stoic enough to be nicknamed Thorn Princess revealed what she had learned after her loss.

“Fighting through adversity with effort doesn’t necessarily make you stronger.”

“……!”

“So, I decided to find a way to be happy and get stronger at the same time! To find a way to get everything I’d always wanted! Shogi, family, everything! I decided that I wanted a son no matter what after having two daughters, but I could still tell my Shogi was getting stronger even though I was pregnant. My best years aren’t behind me. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been right now.”

The soon-to-be mother of three and Women’s League player declared all this as her chest swelled with pride. Then she made the message crystal clear for her junior sitting across the board.

“So, it’s okay for you to try, too, Tamayo. You’re much too attentive to others’ needs …… Being so nice and endearing is just who you are. But it’s okay to say what you want. You don’t have to suffer first to find happiness.”

Then Azami made her move.

“It’s up to you to take it. That doesn’t mean I’m going to hand it over, though!”

Tamayo was so shocked by the move that she forgot to breathe.

Her opponent wasn’t trying to advance to victory, but instead trying to bring order to the chaos.

She left it up to her.

Azami had most likely run out of steam.

Rather than force her mind to reach the end of the sequence it may not achieve, she elected to have Tamayo make the decision. It was as if she were saying, “You find the answer.”

“……!! …………… There are two paths …………”

Go for the checkmate or strengthen her defense. A simple 50-50.

However, between her own exhaustion and menstrual cramps, Tamayo knew that no amount of reading with the limited time she had left would ever lead her to the correct answer.

She was better off closing her eyes and relying on luck.

She wasn’t Ai Hinatsuru, after all.

“The path I’ll take is–––.”

Tamayo Rokuroba’s hand trembled as she reached for the board.

Reached to take what she truly wanted.

Despite the growing noise outside the door, Ai still couldn’t raise her head.

“…………”

Her heart was on the verge of exploding.

What was the result? If Tamayo won, was she allowed to be happy for her?

The thumping of footsteps filled the hallway. The journalists had arrived with their cameras clicking nonstop.

A familiar echo of high heels emerged through the din.

The same echoes she had been chasing ever since she came to Tokyo were closing in …… and stopped right outside the door.

–––What if …… Rokuroba-sensei lost? If I’m the one going to the title match, what do I …………?

Ker-chak.

“!!”

Hearing the click of the door made Ai jump to her feet as if she’d been shot out of a cannon.

Tamayo stood there.

“………… Sensei ……”

Their eyes met, and Tamayo smiled.

She looked right at the girl and said in the same voice she always did.

“Congrats.”

All her thoughts and feelings were jam-packed into that one little word.

“––––––––––––!!”

Ai collapsed on the spot …… in tears.

She greeted her first-ever title match not with a smile, but with sobs.

“I couldn’t take the path to the title match I’ve always dreamed about, but I think there’s another path I had to take before I do.”

Were her words intended for the girl crying on the floor or for herself?

Either way, Tamayo began talking in a serene tone.

“If I blew by it and punched a ticket to a title match first …… Well, I’m not sure I’d ever get around to the other path. Looking at it that way, I can accept how things turned out today. Not that losing doesn’t sting!”

Azami had chosen the path that let herself seize happiness while continuing to improve.

So Tamayo had decided to pursue what she truly wanted.

That being–––traveling the rest of life’s journey with the player who guided her to Shogi in the first place. Her mind was made up.

She would trail him no matter how long it took, and then …… take him in the end. Tamayo had decided to do what she thought was right even though she couldn’t read to the end. That was the only way she could move forward.

Just that move in today’s match was the absolute worst she could have made and resulted in an instant death–––.

The Thorn Princess had commented during their review session, “You love Shogi, don’t you?”

So this was okay. She had no regrets.

…… Though she had to visit the restroom to fix her makeup beforehand.

“But that’s not true for you, is it?”

Tamayo gently placed her hand on Ai’s head as she spoke.

“Ai Hinatsuru didn’t move all the way to Tokyo to get into a title match, now did she?”

Just once in their life would be enough.

With it, life would become much easier. It would prove that they lived as Shogi players.

The goal that Jin and Tamayo strived for, a title, was nothing but a stop along the path for this 11-year-old girl.

“So you have to go! If you’re too scared to go alone, I’ll tag along as moral support. I’ve got plenty of room on my schedule since I opened it up for a title match I’m not in (ha-ha).”

“………… Why …………?”

“Hm?”

Ai, who had quietly listened up to this point, howled with a fresh wave of tears streaming down her cheeks.

“WHY ARE YOU ………… SO NICE ……?!!”

“Because you’re trying so hard, that’s why,” responded Tamayo without missing a beat. “I’m not nice. It’s just that seeing how you face the board changed me. That’s another talent of yours …… probably your biggest, too.”

A new world that she had never envisioned before Ai moved in with her was now unfolding before Tamayo’s eyes. The girl named Ai Hinatsuru had the power to change the future.

“And ………… yep, it’s got to be said.”

“What is it now?! Geez!!”

“Come on! Let’s go make all those reporters standing outside feel totally awkward by walking out there together!”

She then pulled Ai to her feet and slipped her arm around her neck like a headlock. Puffing out her chest with pride, Tamayo stepped out the door with Ai in tow.

I’d always wanted one.

A cheeky little sister to play Shogi with.