Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 5.05

  WHAT HISTORY IN SAYING

Now that her eyesore of a Master is gone, I can finally focus. Nausea hits just as everything else gets back up to speed.

———How could I, Takeru Usui …… be intimidated by that brat?!

“…… Hereherehereherehereherehereherehere ……”

The girl’s last leg was failing her just a second ago, but now she's showing signs of life and making me go on a wild goose chase to get her King playing one-minute Shogi.

Her reflexes are good, I’ll admit. I’ll even acknowledge that her late-game abilities or whatever they are seem to be strong enough to win against pros when playing fast. That said, I may have made mistakes if I were in her position as well. Compared to my prime, age has not been kind to my own late-game skills ……

However———I’m in prime form today.

“Girl! This is your grave!”

My offensive puts her in check 15 times in a row and forces her King from the left edge of the board all the way to the right. She’s desperately trying to prolong her life with offensive and defensive moves, but I can see through all of them.

I survive a few would-be check paths from deployed Knights and then boldly move my Dragon into position to start the final sequence.

“I’ll show you how a pro finishes a match.”

“Ngh ……!”

The girl deploys a Gold right in the middle of her territory.

Once I see it go down at 2 Six, I grab a Knight off my piece stand and slam it down in no time flat.

Grinding it into the board for good measure.

My 3 Five Knight!

“…… What a move!”

“This! This is Takeru Usui!”

We’ve already played 155 moves, huh? All the other matches in the large hall, including Placement Matches, have already wrapped up.

The players who’re done with their matches are glued to mine, the last one still going on.

“See that?!”

I roar beside myself.

I’m up on my knees, declaring my own return to prominence, that System’s glory has been restored.

“Surrender now, girl! Even you must be able to see that taking my Knight with your Gold seals your fate!! No matter where you run, no matter what move you try, your chances of winning are gone!! You are already dead!!”

“…………………”

The girl stops cold even though she’d been fidgeting nonstop up until now.

It’s much more challenging to read the opponent’s unplayed moves all the way to the end than the moves that are already realized on the board.

Read one path to victory, and it’s yours. However, being able to prove the opponent won’t use those hidden moves requires reading all the way through several possible sequences.

Literally reading through all the possible sequences on the board!

“It’s impossible to read everything in a single minute! It’s already come to this …… You have no chance!!”

“…………”

“I will force the end, I tell you! I’m using System because it’s specifically designed to trigger the late-game! Little brats like you can whine and cry all they want, but I will close the distance! Give up and surrender already!!”

I lost.

There’s no doubt in my mind those will be her next words.

But———

“……. You can’t ……”

“Stubborn to a fault, aren’t you?! Deny it all you want, the end is inevitable———”

“………… I’m not …… saying so.”

“Not you?”

Is she just running her mouth?

“Who then, huh? That Master of yours? Or some computer?”

“…… History is———”

“Hm?”

The words coming out of the girl’s mouth were out of place, especially since she only had seconds to read the board.

“History is saying you can’t!!”

History …… she says?

“What right does a puny girl have …… to lecture a professional Shogi player ABOUT HISTORY?! ME OF ALL PEOPLE!!”

Ask anyone what the greatest achievement in the Shogi world has been over the past 30 years, and they’ll say System without a doubt.

My name is forever carved into history itself. It’s ridiculous that a nameless little girl thinks she can teach me about it.

Yet she keeps going and means every word.

“I have solved lots of Shogi puzzles …… From ones written hundreds of years ago to ones that just came out. They’re not perfect …… But more than what you say or what number a machine tells me———”

The match recorder starts counting the final ten seconds.

At 58, a little hand reaches for the piece stand.

“I believe in the people who made Shogi puzzles, in human history!!”

So saying, the little girl plays 3 Nine Knight on the final second. ………… A Knight?!

———It couldn’t be!!

I take hold of my Dragon and slide it across the board with enough vigor to drive off the nightmare that flooded my mind for a brief moment.

“What could that move possibly defend?!”

My 3 Seven Dragon burst into battle! Now that I have a Bishop ready to deploy, the time has come to finally put the final nail in the offensive King’s coffin.

“Here!!”

She takes the Dragon in a single second, and I grab the Bishop I just took and slam it down on the board. Check!

“Here!!”

The girl slides her King one space forward as if deftly avoiding the Bishop’s charge.

“I’m coming for that King, and there’s nothing you can do about it!!”

I grab my last piece, a Silver, and plant it down as if kicking that King back to the bottom of its grave even as it desperately tries to climb up.

“Move in! Move in! MOVEMOVEMOVEMOVEMOVEMOOOOOOOOVE!!”

“Here!!”

She swipes that Silver up and puts it on her own stand with the speed of a cat and continues her forward advance. Every move is instantaneous. Only now does doubt swell within my mind.

———N-No …… Was an approach truly impossible ……?!

It was.

I gawk at the offensive King in disbelief the moment I comprehend that my piece stand is empty.

The King has escaped to a place I can’t put it in check ……

“Popped through?! …… But my King still has a trio of Silvers and Golds for protection! I still have a solid four minutes! The next round has only just———”

“Herehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehere——————HERE!!”

It was I who didn’t have a chance.

I only let up for one turn, making her check my King with a Knight at 8 Three, then she returns the favor in the blink of an eye by driving my King all the way to the edge of the board and deploying piece after piece. It’s like she’s shoveling dirt onto a corpse.

“?! My Silvers and Golds …… Th-They’re getting in the way ……!!”

My King is trapped in its grave the next thing I know.

The girl then slides the Dragon across the board like ripping open the casket before deploying another Rook to put me in check. There’s no hesitation in those fingers. An instant checkmate is there.

———Did she …… read all the way through?

Not only could she tell that I couldn’t reach her King in less than a minute, she found a reverse check path that would render my King helpless. A little girl ……

“History ………………”

This long, long bout of 190 moves is coming to a close.

Considering how I should use the remainder of my time ………… I venture a question.

“……………… Hey.”

“What is it?”

“Do you …… really think you have a chance? Creating a test to get into the pros without going through the Sub League, turning the entire Shogi world against you.”

“I …………………… I don’t know. But———”

But?

“Oishi-sensei told me about a player who challenged the whole Shogi world to a fight.”

“……!!”

“And if I could beat him, then maybe ………… That was my mindset today.”

“………………”

I close my eyes and lean my head back. So, that’s it ……

Once I gather my thoughts, I face the board again and pose another question.

“………… Where?”

“Huuuh?”

“I’m asking you where my fatal mistake was.”

The girl sits there, eyes glazed for a moment before she understands that I intend to surrender.

“Th-Thank you for the match!”

And she throws her head down into a hurried bow.

What really agitated me is that it didn’t even take a second for her to answer my question.

“Um …… If you had slid your Dragon one space here instead of two ……”

“Hmph. So one space should have been the correct move.”

If it weren’t for that mistake, I, the defender, would have won. I lost, but System wasn’t broken.

The crowd hovering around the board starts jabbering.

“Everybody was thinking, one, just one slide!”

“But he moved two and made us trip over our own feet!”

Then they start discussing my lost match like they’ve all gotten together for drinks at some pub. The match recorder, Sub League members, journalists and the broadcasting staff join in. Heck, even the part timers in the Shogi classroom downstairs have come up to the large hall to give their two cents.

How long has it been?

I can’t remember the last time one of my review sessions got so lively ……

“Usui System is back! I’ll start playing it tomorrow!”

“It’s too soon to say it’s back, but …… That won’t stop me from playing it!”

“All the customers in the classroom today played System!”

I thought this was a graveyard. Having to play Shogi in the large hall, having to play a little girl in the preliminaries.

But …… I might’ve been wrong.

The real one might’ve been inside my heart, convincing me that this place was a graveyard at all.

I lost my seeding in preliminaries?

I can’t challenge the Meijin without being in A League?

Now I can see that being unable to prove my own strength had me in an ugly spiral, arguing for argument’s sake. What right do I have to harp on a Professional Entrance Exam?

Get back up after falling. The ladder is right in front of me. I just couldn’t see it.

“At the very least, I’m still better off than a little girl who keeps fighting without a path to move forward …….”

“?”

I guess all the people analyzing the board around us are speaking too loudly for my embarrassing comment to reach the elementary-school aged girl directly in front of me.

The players have been left out of the crowd’s seemingly endless review session. I cannot keep up with this.

I grab my jacket and slip it on as I get to my feet.

“…… It’s gotten late. Kuzuryu has surely left by now———”

“No, it’s fine.” The girl …… no, Women’s Legend Ai Hinatsuru shakes her head and says point-blank. “I’ve decided that the next time I see him, he won’t be standing behind me …… but sitting on the other side of a Shogi board, face to face.”

“Hmph …… Planning to challenge the Ryuo, eh? You really are a cheeky girl!”

Does she actually comprehend how difficult that will be?

The majority of pro players’ careers end without ever facing a title holder in a league match, even after decades in the Shogi world. It makes me wonder if all those fresh-faced 4-dan pros that say they dream of being a title holder are all that serious about it.

But that look in this girl’s eyes———

“We’re going.”

“Huh?”

“I’m saying I’ll make sure you get home.”

“Huuuuuuuuh?!”

She must be overjoyed, receiving such an offer from me, Takeru Usui. I remember getting rides from veteran players all the time back in the day. It felt like they were acknowledging my skills, and that was a joyous feeling indeed.

“Um, but ………… well …… I-I can make it home by myself ……”

“Just take the offer.”

“Uh ……”

The honor must have been too much for her, because Ai tries to turn me down again and again.

I thought she was an impudent brat cut from the same cloth as her Master, but it seems she’s got a surprising amount of modesty. Likable, even. It might be fun to teach her Shogi some time.

The taxi shows up right away.

“Something the matter? Do you not want to go home?”

“Ah …… Sorry. Could I, um, have a moment ……?”

Ai has all her belongings neatly packed and stands up, but kneels beside her cushion for some reason.

Then she gently runs her fingers across the tatami mat.

That’s where her Master stood.

“…………………”

Is she looking for traces of warmth that disappeared a long time ago?

Like a little bird taking in the warmth of its nest before taking flight ……

“I’ll be downstairs. Don’t take long.”

The warmth is gone.

But something else remains. I take the match record from the recorder, fold it up, and slip it into my breast pocket. There’s a definite warmth to it …… an intensity.

Once lit, a fire burning within the heart never dies.