Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

IN PLACE OF THE AFTERWARD:

PASSING BY THE PROFESSIONALS

While I think I’m in the minority when it comes to novel authors, I spend a great deal of time researching while in the process of writing my books.

I lost count of how many times I visited the main setting of the story, the Kansai Shogi Association, as well as the Kanto Association in Tokyo and the surrounding areas. I’ve been in the audience for Title Matches, review session seminars and participated in Shogi festivals along with other attendees. Money for this research comes out of my own pocket, so I can’t go all that far ……

But when I go, I meet Shogi professionals and Women’s League professionals all the time.

Meet–––might not be the best word, as I’m just an ordinary visitor and disturbing them during what amounts to their break time wouldn’t be right. I never struck up a conversation with any of them.

I just passed by them.

I still remember working up the courage to go inside the Kansai Shogi Association for the first time when I had to stop myself from approaching a group that came out from inside.

Funae-sensei was at the front of the group, closely followed by Inaba-sensei and I believe Miyamoto-sensei was with them as well, but the three professionals were making a beeline for the front door. They seemed to be on their way to lunch. I knew it was rude of me, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I watched them go into a local restaurant. There are many different places to eat around Fukushima Station, but very few have a mom and pop at-home feel. “Oh, so that’s where they go ……,” I thought to myself after obtaining this valuable tidbit.

I’ve also encountered professionals at the association’s first-floor restaurant Eleven.

I sat down at the U-shaped counter, ordered an Extraordinary Pork Beauty and started looking around, thinking of the best ways to describe this place when I happened to spot a group of four professionals, two men and two women, walking in the front door. At that time, they were customers just like me and I’m not the kind of person to barge in on their private time.

Eleven has many tables as well, but most of them were designed for two people. I was intrigued to see what they would do because I was planning a four-person table scene for Book 1. In the end, they went to the back corner and moved two tables together.

I was also interested to see what kind of food professionals order. In Book 1, Ai orders butter rice. That scene was directly inspired by what I saw that day.

Tokyo is not the main setting for the series, but I have walked from Harajuku, through Sendagaya and all the way to Shinjuku. It was around the time that Dengue Fever was in the news because some people contracted it in Yoyogi Park. Wearing long sleeves and doused in bug spray, I set out to find an out-of-the-way place that many professionals often visit: Miroku Iori.

It’s a soba-noodle restaurant …… but it looks more like a Japanese-style bar. The menu is huge, and for some reason they sell cups of prepackaged fresh blueberries, calling it “breakfast finger food.” That place has a great deal of personality.

I was enjoying a fried chicken lunch set (the one that Maruyama-sensei is famous for ordering with extra chicken), when the master of fusha, Itou-sensei came in. The staff called him “Shogi-sensei.” He wasn’t the only one, I saw several professionals and Women’s League players come in after that.

It’s a small place and voices carry, so I quickly finished my lunch and left. Honestly, I don’t remember the food all that well …… But I did write “delicious right off the bone” in my notes.

While some of these encounters happened by chance, there are others that can’t be missed. Go to any one of the regional Shogi events and you’ll pass by these amazing Shogi professionals quite often around the arena.

Shogi fans from outside the big cities come to these events with sparkles in their eyes, to think I could ever get this close to the Shogi pros I’ve only seen in Shogi World and Internet videos ……! Each player has their own unique charms.

The one who left the biggest impression on me has to be Toshiaki Kubo-sensei.

Fans approached him all over the arena no matter where he was, asking for an autograph or to sign a book. Not only did he oblige, he looked genuinely happy to do so. He even shook their hands, that smile still on his face. Honestly, he looked even happier than the fans themselves. It was a warm, uplifting sight.

I had a chance to see the one and only Hifumin, aka Hifumi Katou-sensei, in action at the Tokyu Shogi Festival. But what happened after this stage talk review session at a book signing is what left a lasting impression on me. Fans reached out to Katou-sensei as he made his way to the signing booth and he gave them all a high five like a pro wrestler heading toward the ring. Even in the middle of signing, he took time to wish a kid who wanted an autograph the best of luck and ruffled the boy’s hair. Always smiling, Katou-sensei is a fountain of youthful energy.

I also passed by Kazuo Ishida-sensei, who is known for being a bit spacey, at the Meijin Title Match held at the Westin Nagoya Castle Hotel not once but twice.

The first time was after I checked in and arrived on the floor where I’d be staying.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Ishida-sensei standing there in full traditional attire, including a crest on his hakama pants. “Whoa!” I said in surprise. He must’ve been just as shocked, because he stumbled backwards with a loud “Hmm?!” I’m very sorry for startling you, sir.

The second time was after the match was over. I was walking around a bread shop next to a place selling souvenirs in the hotel lobby when Ishida-sensei, his big day over and back in street clothes, showed up looking famished.

He ordered some bread, but looked puzzled when the clerk asked him to “put them on a tray and bring them to the register.” He must not have heard the clerk clearly because he just stood there, eyebrows high on his forehead and a confused expression on his face.

My first instinct was to say, “Use a pair of those tongs and a tray,” but I stopped myself once I saw that Ishida-sensei figured it out on his own and successfully purchased the bread he wanted.

I stayed at the hotel that night and went to the first-floor lounge for breakfast the next morning.

I picked up a newspaper that said “Moriuchi, Meijin Title Defended,” and started reading it with a glass of orange juice in my hand when a rather thin young man took a seat at a nearby table.

It was Masayuki Toyoshima-sensei.

Staying overnight as an observer, he looked much more his age with a smartphone in one hand, typing away with his thumb. However, he was quieter and more relaxed than most people his age. No one around us had any idea that this young person in their midst was a professional living in a competitive world.

For some reason, I couldn’t help but feel that this young man sitting there eating breakfast and using a smartphone with a remarkably flexible thumb looked like a Shogi player in the middle of a match.

…… And so ends my essay-esque afterword for this book. My story about Mr. K in Book 1 was so well received that I thought I would do another one …… But it sounded like I was stalking him ……

This episode (?) took place before I had a basic production schedule in place.

After that, once I had a completed manuscript and could go to these places and confidently say, “This is for research!” I was finally able to talk to people in the Shogi world with no reservations.

I got to do so many things like working with my supervisors for this series, the members of “Saiyuki,” getting tours of the Kansai Shogi Association, attending a Title Match with Kazuki-sensei and Kogeta-sensei who draw the manga for this story in Young GanGan magazine. Actually, it was right around the time a story about Shogi started in Jump magazine and I-sensei happened to be with us. 

“Did you know a Shogi manga started in Jump?” 

“Oh?” 

“Yes, and your No effort goes unrewarded story is in there.” 

“Seriously?! I’d better pick up a Jump on the way home!” 

That’s when F-zaki-sensei, who was also there, spoke up saying, “I ain’t buyin’ Jump! Young GanGan all the way!! Young GanGan!!” over and over. 

As a Shogi fan, that day was pure bliss.

As happy as I was to speak with all the players, I was overjoyed to get an opportunity to talk with the journalists who provide us Shogi fans with articles and pictures. To every single one of you, thank you so much!

When Nozuki-sensei came to Aichi Prefecture and the two of us went up to Gifu to watch the Emperor’s Cup Soccer Tournament, I had him wear an FC Gifu uniform and root for the team along with us the stands. I didn’t think there’d be a problem with asking Nozuki-sensei, who usually supports Consadole Sapporo, to do this …… Because, I mean, not many people come to watch the Emperor’s Cup ……

Nozuki-sensei would like nothing more than to set up a collaboration between Shogi and soccer during his travels around the country, showing up at many different stadiums in the process. Whenever I see pictures of his travels on Twitter, it’s easy to forget he’s actually a professional Shogi player rather than a journeyman. 

Thanks to Nozuki-sensei’s introduction, I now have opportunities to speak with soccer journalist and Shogi fan Gou Ishikawa. He has penned several beautiful articles about Shogi and soccer for multiple magazines.

Right now, the Shogi world is expanding by the day.

I work in a very small part of it, but even still, I have had people come up to me and say things like, “You got me interested in Shogi!” and “Shogi’s really intense, isn’t it!” Receiving comments like that makes everything worthwhile.

Once you finish reading a fantasy novel, no matter how much you’d like to go into that world and explore, it’s impossible to do so.

But with Shogi, you can go right away. The Shogi classrooms and Shogi parlors in New World that appeared in this book really do exist and you can play alongside real professionals at the Shogi associations.

There are interesting things to do “after” reading.

Writing that type of novel has always been my dream.

To my supervisors in Saiyuki, my illustrator Shirabii-sensei, my editor, the manga artists Kazuki-sensei and Kogeta-sensei, as well as every single person who has read this book, please allow me to express my gratitude once again. Thank you so very much.

In Book Three, I’ll finally get to write a sequence that I’ve been itching to get on paper since the beginning.

I’ll do everything in my power to make the story more intense than ever before, something that will make you laugh and bring you to tears. Please look forward to it.