Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 2.6

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Tsubasa Gakumeki Women’s 1-kyu and I get into the sauna at the HinaTsuru after playing a few practice matches.

“Hfff …… Hfff …… S-So hot …………”

“I’ll use the loylykauha ladle, Tsubasa.”

“Whaaat?! A-Ai ……. You’re going to make it even hotter ……?!”

Hssshhh!

The aromatic water hits the hot stones, filling the room with mist that smells like a pristine forest.

“Hyeeee ……! H-Haaa!! Hoooooot ……!!”

My mother insisted on making everything here as authentic as possible. The vapor bath is designed to work exactly like the ones in Finland.

“Okay, shall we get out?”

“Huh? I-I’m …… fine. I can stand a bit more ……”

“Only stay in the sauna for eight to twelve minutes. Then half an hour in the air bath completes one set. That’s the cycle.”

“Wh-What about getting in the water ……?”

“That’s uniquely Japanese, and many people don’t like it. An air bath gets great results by itself. Oh, and don’t forget to hydrate.”

“A-Ai …… Are you really in grade school ……?”

I get two bottles of ion water out of the fridge that opens directly into the sauna and we gulp them down.

Then we have a review session of today’s Shogi while looking out over Tokyo’s night skyline. It’s amazing how many sequences come to you after sweating in the sauna that you missed during the matches! See, great results!

About three months after moving to Osaka, the stress of living without a big bath got so bad at one point that I collapsed.

———Back then, I thought not having a hot spring close by was the problem ……

Now I understand that playing Shogi had thrown off my nervous system.

Strange things happen to me during matches.

Blurred vision, increased heart rate, nose bleeds, not being able to sleep after important matches, those kinds of things.

I can focus extremely well when the switch is flipped.

That’s where my strength comes from …… But it’s also a weakness.

The more matches I play, the stronger my opponents are …… My small body works so hard that I get exhausted really easily.

Going into a sauna like this helps force my nerves back into order. Now I can finally get to sleep after matches.

“I’ve heard the younger professionals love saunas …… Sub League members, too …… It’s refreshing …… And you can do review sessions at the same time …… Like this ……”

“……”

“Your strategy in the Nebula Tournament …… worked like a charm …… Didn’t it? It’s hard to beat a professional player’s research when you’re both playing Static Rook …… Making them play against your best strategy …… is the only …… choice ……”

“Yes. And it was all thanks to your suggestion, Tsubasa.”

“He-he …… E-Even I think …… it’s a little unfair ……”

I should focus all my preparations on my best strategy, the Double Wing Attack.

The first question I asked when Tsubasa said that was: “What if he plays Ranging Rook?”

Tsubasa’s answer was direct and clear.

“Mimicking software is enough to handle that …… More Women’s League players play Ranging Rook, so we have the experience to keep up with the professionals already …… right?”

She’s right that software is making life hard for Ranging Rook players.

“B-But …… There’s so many types of Ranging Rook ……”

“There’s a good trick …… A sequence that limits Ranging Rook options with just two moves ……”

“There is?! R-Really?! Are you sure?”

Tsubasa taught me how to do it.

And she was the one who said I should use my standing as a girl in elementary school to my advantage. That’s how you take control of matches and learn to hold your own in the Shogi world.

“I-I lose when I try to play head on against another Static Rook player because my early game isn’t good enough …… So I planned on nyugoku from the start. If I can get my King all the way across the board, I’ll have experience on my side ……”

Tsubasa used to be in the Sub League.

She played against people who are professionals now. She always had to tread water, finding ways to close the distance between her and them in a battle for survival.

“Even though they knew that’s what I was doing, men want to protect their pride. Many let me do it …… I got called a submarine or a bottom feeder but …… that was the only way I could win in the Sub League ……”

“…………”

“But, with your skill in the late-game …… Forcing a Double Wing Attack with that trick …… You should be able to beat a professional ……”

“…… Uh-huh. And that worked pretty well during our practice session, too.”

Even if all the Static Rook young professionals standing in my way refuse to play a Double Wing Attack, that strategy gives me a fighting chance. That miraculous ambush, which was refined with ultimate speed.

More importantly ……

Now that Tsubasa brought up professionals and Sub League members on her own, now is my chance to ask her something I’ve been wondering about for a long time.

“Tsubasa, um ……”

“Wh-What is it, Ai ……?”

“I was sure …… you would be the first person to abandon me.”

“Whaaaaaaaa?! Wh-Wh-Wh …… Why ……?”

“With what I’m trying to do …… I thought you would see it as unfair, like cheating ……”

“Ahh ……”

Tsubasa was forced out of the Sub League because of the age limit. She’s one of the players who didn’t make it that Natagiri-sensei mentioned.

And I’m trampling all over their feelings …….

“…… Please don’t take this the wrong way ……”

Tsubasa hesitates, like trying to find the best words for something that’s hard to say.

“Out of everyone I know who has left the Sub League, I don’t think many at all have quit playing Shogi.”

“Uwhee?! R-Really?”

“If they don’t play in an amateur tournament for a while, I get an I wonder what they’re up to kind of feeling. Nothing dark or grim …… at all.”

She doesn’t look like she’s putting on a brave face.

Actually, it looks like there’s relief in Tsubasa’s eyes even though she’s talking about her life’s biggest failure.

“Of course, I was depressed when I had to quit, but I don’t think people can stay all that depressed for too long …… Once I figured it out, that is.”

“Figured what out?”

“That I love Shogi, but hated the Sub League ……”

I’ve heard plenty of stories about how rough it is in the Sub League.

But most of the people I’ve ever talked about it with made it through to become a professional player in the end. So I’ve never heard anyone be so bluntly negative about it.

Everything feels so real coming from someone who had to leave, and it’s all I can do to listen to every word.

“It’s nice that you’re trying to be considerate of players who had to leave, but …… We don’t really want pity …… I think.”

“……!!”

“We’ll only ever be thought of as poor for the rest of our lives that way.”

It’s like she can see right through me. I drop my head without even realizing it.

“…… I’m sorry.”

“No, no! I’m …… sorry, too. It was the same for me …… I felt guilty just like you when I first joined the Women’s League, but I didn’t have to ……”

Tsubasa’s kindness, trying to stop me from going through the same pain she did, warms my heart.

The former Sub League member turned Women’s League player looks out over Tokyo’s night skyline and says, “But for me …… personally? I was in the Sub League for almost ten years ………… but didn’t make a single friend ……”

“……?”

“Ah, I didn’t mean it like that. I had …… war buddies. Like my older brother apprentice who left the same time I did …… And there are some who still cheer for me now that I’m in the Women’s League ……”

What’s Tsubasa trying to say?

That she’s happy we’ve become friends ……? Is that it?

“But no friends that I’d talk to outside of Shogi.”

“……”

“I devoted everything I am to the Sub League. I joined in sixth grade, right after becoming the Elementary Meijin. I hit a wall right away and barely ever went to class in junior high. I mean, if I had time to study, I should be using it for Shogi. I never went to high school either, in case that wasn’t obvious.”

But …… Tsubasa continues as she wrings the empty plastic bottle between her hands.

“By the time junior high graduation rolled around, people were starting to say things like that one’s not gonna make it into the pros. My parents and my Master begged me to go to high school. I told ’em I was going to take entrance tests, but spent the whole time playing Shogi in a net cafe. How was I supposed to pass a high school entrance exam having hardly ever gone to junior high? Like that would ever happen.”

There’s a strange heat in her voice when she talks about the Sub League.

It’s pouring out of every word.

“My Shogi …… got worse the moment I entered the Sub League,” says the girl known as Undying Wings in a voice so low it gives me chills. “Getting into the Women’s League and playing the practice matches with you …… I finally feel like I’m back to where I used to be …… When I was playing in the Elementary Meijin Tournament. So———”

“So …… what?”

I have an idea what she’s going to say.

“I’m going to keep getting strong and aim for the pros, too!”

An optimistic statement of some kind.

But I was wrong.

Her tone is dark, filled with a need for vengeance.

“Ai …… I want you to tear that whole thing to pieces. Mess it up just as badly as it messed up my Shogi. I want you to tear down the whole Shogi world ……!”

There’s a twisted glimmer in her eyes that turns my straightened nerves upside down again.

———How can I shoulder these feelings?

The fear of opening a door that should’ve been kept closed sweeps over me.

The fear of knowing that my own words and actions are leading to a place I never expected.

They’re closing in now, even after how far I’ve come.

“I knew it the instant you stood up in front of all those pro senseis and made your declaration. What I really wanted was revenge on the Shogi world. I have nothing against any of the players, but Shogi history will only remember me as retired. I want this system to pay dearly.”

“…………”

That’s when I finally realized what I felt during the Nebula Tournament preliminaries.

It came from the Sub League members …… people who are in pain like Tsubasa.

Can’t win, but can’t quit Shogi either.

It was hope being pinned on me by people who are suffering in the present perfect tense.

That’s not the same as support.

They want someone to destroy this Shogi world, but they don’t care who.

———…… I can’t carry feelings I’ve never had myself ……

My heart is about to snap.

I feel so alone, in so much more pain than I ever did playing against a professional player.

“…………………………. Save me …………… Master …………,” I whisper inside my own mouth so Tsubasa won’t hear me. Save me. Save me, please ……

Of course, no one will. This is the path that I chose for myself.

I have to keep going forward.

No matter what destiny is waiting for me, I have to go into the future.