Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 16 - Chapter 4.1

  WITHIN MEMORIES

“We’re here. Get up, Yaichi.”

“…… Uwaah?”

After getting woken up with my nose pinched shut, there’s a crabby looking seven-year-old with silver hair staring back at me.

Oh, now I remember. This girl …… the two of us came to Tokyo together. On the bullet train.

“When did I fall asleep? I had made up my mind that I would see Mount Fuji this time for sure, too …… Why does getting past Shizuoka take so long?”

“How should I know, stupid?”

Ginko tries to push her way past me from the window seat to the aisle. Cut it out, I’m gonna fall ……

“Hey! Ayumu!!”

We get off the bullet train at Shinagawa Station and meet up with Ayumu in Shinjuku. It’s been two months since we last saw him.

He looks at us, surprised, and asks, “Are you two going to hold hands the whole time?”

“Master told us to.”

Ginko and I answer at the same time. Master only gave us permission to come to Tokyo if we promised to always hold hands when we’re not playing Shogi, or else he would kick us out.

Ayumu leads us to a big hotel right next to the station.

“How wonderful of you to come! I am grateful for all you do for my apprentice.”

Rina Shakando Women’s Quadruple Title has just finished defending the Women’s King Title. She invited us to Tokyo as a way to thank Master for allowing her apprentice to stay at the Kiyotaki household while she played a match in Miyazaki.

She paid for our transportation, lodging and she is even treating us to afternoon tea in the lounge of this hotel. I’ve never seen sweets this fancy in my life!

Ginko is sitting next to me, chowing down on all the cake she can get her hands on. Ayumu, on the other hand, is pouring tea for Shakando-sensei and bringing her cake. Wow, fifth-graders are really grown up.

“Will you remain holding hands during the duration of your visit?”

“Yes. Master told us to.”

We didn’t overlap this time. Ginko is refusing to talk.

Since my suddenly shy younger older sister won’t do it, I introduce her instead.

“She …… This is my older sister apprentice, Ginko Sora. She’s not in the Sub League or Practice League though.”

“Kousuke has told me so much about you. It’s nice to make your acquaintance …… Is that right?”

“…………”

Ginko never does introduce herself properly. But she doesn’t leave a crumb of cake uneaten.

“Hey, Ayumu! Hey! Is it true you can’t have practice sessions at the Kanto Association Building?”

“Yes, it is. There are far too many professionals and Sub League members here for that to be allowed.”

Shakando-sensei is too busy to teach us herself, but we jump right into the reason we came with Ayumu who’s showing us around in the building.

Crushing classrooms …… or I guess it’s more of a classroom tour.

“Which is why practice sessions are mainly done in local classrooms. They are the dens in which professionals dwell in Tokyo. You understand what is waiting for us once we go inside, correct ……? Are you prepared to taste it?”

“Bring it on.”

Ginko talks tough, but I know she’s nervous because her palm is sweaty.

We start in Shinjuku, then Hachioji, Kichijoji, Kamata, Ryogoku, Ogikubo, Okachimachi …… Fighting our way through all of Tokyo’s Shogi hot spots like samurai on a mission.

The three of us played nothing but Shogi during our weeklong winter vacation.

I thought about asking Ryou Tsukiyomizaka, who lives in Hachioji, to join us, but Keika said to never ever do that. So I’m following her advice. It seems mixing her with Ginko would be dangerous.

“Dang it! I can’t win against that geezer no matter how hard I try ……”

We ran into a wall, the lord of one particular classroom.

“That does it! I’m beating him three times in a row before going back to Osaka!”

“I’ll skewer the baldie in Osaka.”

“He’s a pro, Ginko!!” I warned my uppity older sister apprentice before asking my best friend, who always stays calm even when he loses. “What about you, Ayumu? Do you have a goal yet?”

“To achieve A Rank,” he answers while looking at a big poster with all the different leagues pinned to the wall.

Pretty much all the strong classrooms have their own league system, and the A Rank League is nothing but amateur titleholders, members of the Sub League or young pros. They’re players we couldn’t even dream of playing as we are now.

“Seriously?! You want to be on that list? In just seven days?”

“No. I’m not interested in this A League,” says Ayumu as he looks back down at the board. Seven years later, those words have come true.

“Man, I feel like I’ve gotten so much stronger!”

Our weeklong Shogi baptism is over in a flash.

“I’ve got so many sequences I want to try out once we get back to Osaka! You think I could take a match off Mr. Kagamizu?!”

“Big Brother Hiuma is too good to fall for those tricks.” So Ginko says, but her fingers are twitching. 

It’s so obvious she can’t wait to play more Shogi. We’re holding hands, so I can tell.

Ayumu has come to the bullet train platform to see us off, and I point right at him to declare, “I’ll catch up to you in 5-kyu, you’ll see! Let’s fight it out in the 3-dan division!”

“Yes. I’ll be waiting for you.”

I hate how he always looks down on me! Sure, I’ve got a B in 6-kyu, so I suppose he’s allowed, but still.

“Hey,” Ginko asks him this question right before we leave. “Why’d you choose Shakando as your Master?”

“…………”

Ayumu’s face goes stone-cold. Was it because she didn’t add sensei to his Master’s name ……? No.

It’s because Ginko and I heard so many grownups comment on it while playing Shogi next to Ayumu all week.

“Your Shogi is so genuine despite being an apprentice of a Women’s League player.”

With Ayumu’s talent and track record, he could be an apprentice of any top pro player. If he asked one of the big Shogi families to take him in, it would be a piece of cake for him to get into the pros.

So then …… why? This is how Ayumu answers.

“…… I saw similarities.”

“In your Shogi?”

“No.”

I’ll never forget the next words that Ayumu said just as the bullet train doors closed.

“Our souls.”

I thought he was joking, but …… those words stuck in my heart for some reason. Ginko squeezes my hand strong enough for our skin to get hot from the friction.

Then I wake up on the bullet train one more time.

“………… Whoops! That was too close. Why do I always fall asleep right before Mount Fuji ……?”

The train is passing through Shinagawa. Since my kind but ill-tempered older sister apprentice isn’t here to pinch my nose, I have to wake up on my own.

Looking at the empty window seat next to me, I say, “That was a lot of fun …… Do you want to go again so much that you showed up in my dream, Big Sis?”