Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 17 - Chapter 5.10

  UNINSTALL

“The bullet train carrying Kuzuryu-sensei has left Shinagawa Station. It will arrive at Shin-Kobe Station in 150 minutes’ time. Shall I arrange to have him picked up?”

“Don’t. He’ll ask too many questions if he finds out I’ve been monitoring him.”

“Understood.”

I brush my fingers against Awaji’s case and pray that my experiment works this time.

My newborn sister is exceptional, but she’s still very young.

I couldn’t handle this little girl creating an endless stream of Shogi records at an unfathomable cost. However, the records she creates playing against herself are useless to humanity. Just like all the leech-like children Izanami birthed right after her marriage to Izanagi in Japanese folklore …… Pursuing the essence of Shogi and getting stronger by looking that those matches don’t equate. Not in the least.

Then———

“Akira.”

“My lady.”

“What did he do for Ai?”

“Open a window, or so I’m told.”

“A window?”

“Yes. Letting fresh air into the arena.”

“…… That’s it?”

“That is it. As it was during a match, I believe he refrained from offering any advice or encouragement that would violate the rules.”

My heart twinges.

Ai Hinatsuru’s Shogi was on the verge of collapse, and that was all it took for her to recover. At the same time, Yaichi Kuzuryu believed that was all his apprentice needed.

Their bond is far stronger than I thought.

But …… Ai Hinatsuru doesn’t need to be on my radar anymore. I couldn’t care less if she will become a professional player or not.

“The current professional system will fall apart sooner or later.”

What she and I are doing is the same, in a sense.

Yaichi Kuzuryu is uniting the professional Shogi world while I’m doing the same in the Women’s League. The two of us will become so strong, we’ll be untouchable.

Once that happens, we’ll conduct the final title match on planet earth.

No other title matches will attract any interest after that series is complete. Just as classical music is still being performed today, everything that follows perfection is just a rearrangement. This binding status quo has proven to hold true over the past few centuries.

“Defeating professionals with Awaji is easy,” I say as the log gets split out in front of me. “Just lower the specs. As long as it’s just a little more powerful than the machines my opponents are using, I can outresearch them by just enough. After that, it’s just rinse and repeat.”

For a person who is familiar with software, it’s not difficult to play a software move in response to a software move.

That’s simple enough for anyone with pro-level Shogi skills.

Therefore, this approach becomes more effective the more a professional player has reached that level of software fluency.

“But …… It’s much more difficult to play a software move in response to a human move.”

Only those with enough talent can pull it off.

That is a realm that only those who have uninstalled human Shogi senses can reach. Even with the advantage of Awaji, defeating them will be a difficult task.

“Sota Kunugi is close, but he still makes mistakes now and then.”

His decision making against Ranging Rook is particularly suspect. The Rook sliding to the side leads to mistakes across the board. Mitsuru Oishi made that weakness apparent during the Ryuo Tournament.

“Ika Sainokami has abandoned her own humanity to the point that it’s safe to say she has become a software program. At the same time, however, she’s prone to make the same kind of mistakes as software does.”

“Then, what of Kuzuryu-sensei?”

“He plays moves that go beyond software. In certain circumstances, at least.”

I had anticipated him forcing repetition draws or stalemates against software.

After all, it’s possible to standardize the first 10 to 20 moves and trigger a Repetition Draw with Bishops on the piece stands as a valid strategy. Even I have reached that level.

But who would have anticipated this?

A human being outdoing software on a formation that’s never been seen before!

“I saw Awaji’s log. As hard as it is to believe, in his final match at the end of the marathon …… his rating recovered in the mid-game.”

A chill not coming from the server room’s cooling unit runs down my spine and makes me shiver.

Just one move.

Calculating the chance of victory, he improved by 0.001 percent.

Yaichi Kuzuryu surpassed Awaji while playing defense. Just for a second.

Even that goes beyond my expectations. How could a human being find that move while playing against the world’s fastest supercomputer?!

I turn to face Akira standing a few paces behind me.

“Your idea to pit him against an illusion of Ginko Sora was fantastic. Well done.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

She’s the one who came up with it first. I gave permission.

Something that elaborate could never be created without extensive preparation. I only tracked down Ginko Sora’s location a few days before Akira took Yaichi there.

It was a risky bet …… But after seeing Yaichi’s Shogi right afterward, I knew the gamble had paid off.

“Allowing a person to see someone important to them right before a big job has been a common tactic within the shadier side of society for a long time. For instance, their mother, child or———”

“A lover?”

“…… Yes.”

Akira nods and then makes a wringing gesture around her neck.

“That way, they choose to leave that individual behind on their own volition.”

“That’s how his humanity was uninstalled.”

I comprehend it all.

I knew the last piece Yaichi Kuzuryu needed to surpass a machine.

“Make him into a heartless machine that has given up on love, kindness and hope.”

There is no doubt that Yaichi is despairing over Shogi’s future.

That much is obvious from the match records he selected. He’s desperate to hide the truth that the game called Shogi is unraveling.

“It was the same in his Placement Match against Taishi Shinokubo. Yaichi did his utmost to hide the future from humanity, but the rest of them misinterpret his actions as trying to hoard Awaji’s blessings all to himself.”

Even so, Yaichi still tried to hide the future at first.

But Shinokubo’s …… No, the unyielding egotism of creatures known as Shogi players plunged Yaichi into despair after all those Repetition Draws, and that cracked his shell.

The last shell holding onto his humanity.

“Thus, he played like a machine against a human, utterly destroying them ……”

Yaichi Kuzuryu completely uninstalled his humanity after the third Repetition Draw.

His heart had been the last block. Removing it turned him into a machine in front of that Shogi board. He played every sequence Awaji had subjected him to, and he did it without using any waiting time. Shinokubo couldn’t keep up and lost by instant death before long. That match record alone is enough to strike fear into the hearts of all who see it.

Yaichi Kuzuryu has perfected Shogi beyond perfection ……

“But …… he must see something different from my own conclusions.”

Surely, Yaichi is under the misconception that Repetition Draws and stalemates are the final answer to Shogi. He’s taken the fake future Awaji showed him to heart without questioning it.

Believing that I have shown him absolutely everything.

“Now, Awaji. Can you show me all the data this time?”

I whisper over the supercomputer’s groans as it continues calculating, telling it to show me the real future ……