Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 3 - Chapter 3.1

  SHOGI MARTIANS

“Mental Shogi board?”

“Yes. How do you see it, Keika?”

I close my eyes and really concentrate on it when Ginko asked me.

“…… It’s out of focus, but I can see the board. It gets a little foggy with every move though ……”

“That’s pretty much how it goes. Mine looks the same way.”

This is my home–––the kids’ room on the second floor of the Kiyotaki household.

The very room that Yaichi and Ginko once shared and where Ai sleeps when she spends the night. Now it’s Ginko’s again because she’s staying here to teach me.

“Your mental Shogi board clarity is a benchmark of how thoroughly you’ve read the board up to that point. It’s also a good indication of talent.”

“Really? I’ve heard that plenty of strong players’ mental boards are murky at best ……”

“Their skills may be equal, but their perception is on a different level. In sports terms, a player might score points left and right while their form and style make no sense. At the same time, another player is racking up points too, but their form is solid as a rock. The stats are similar, but you can tell one has so much more potential than the other, yes? The same thing happens in Shogi.”

Ginko unloads all of that once before … sigh …… and then continues.

“…… There are times I think men and women have a different perception even when evenly matched.”

“Perception?”

“It’s hard to explain but …… going against them, the way they move feels like they’re playing a different game. Like they saw this exact situation coming a long time ago, think here! Then they stop defensively biding their time and switch to a speedy, all-out offensive. Women’s League players don’t read all that far ahead and just play with their gut. That never happens in the Sub League.”

At this very moment, Ginko is one of only a handful of women in the Sub League.

She’s the only one with a dan ranking.

And she’s claiming that of the people at her level, men have a different perception.

In other words: talent.

“Sub League members at 2-dan and 3-dan probably aren’t seeing what we are.”

“They aren’t? What’s different?”

“They see how the pieces move.”

“I’m pretty sure anyone can ……”

“We look at where the pieces are and read the board to see what they can do. But the young men in the pros and upper ranks of the Sub League can do that without reading the board. They perceive what the pieces can do.”

“…… I’m sorry, Ginko. But, I can’t understand what you’re saying–––.”

“They’re all Shogi Martians.”

“???”

“We’re earthlings. We can only think through what we see with our eyes. But them, they see more than what’s on the board. They have a completely different sense. That’s why their reading speed and depth is so much different …… It might be better to say they’re not even reading. They know just by looking.”

“…………”

A chill runs down my spine.

I thought Ginko might need to lay down for a while at first. People in the Sub League play as if their lives depended on it, and that level of stress can take its toll. Many people drop out because of it.

But the more I thought about it, the more the things she said began to line up …… and a new kind of fear began to sink in.

If everything she said thus far is true, then ……?

Hypothetically, if it’s not a matter of skill and experience … 

But a whole different species?

If so–––did I ever have a chance to catch up in the first place?

“Including myself, there are no female players who can see …… Rina Shakando attacks with finesse and advances with crushing counterattacks but I don’t feel any difference in her perception. Machi is the same type. Ryou Tsukiyomizaka brags about her speed, but speed will never beat me, so she doesn’t count.”

All those names she just dropped, it’s overwhelming. I’m speechless.

The Eternal Queen: Rina Shakando, Women’s Legend.

Machi the Tormentor: Machi Kugui, Yamashiro Ouka.

Aggressive Archangel: Ryou Tsukiyomizaka, Women’s King.

All three of them hold titles right now and each one could be considered in the discussion to determine the strongest Women’s League player ever.

The other thing they all have in common is that none of them has ever beaten Ginko, not once.

“But …… there’s something different about Ika Sainokami. She might be able to see. Then there’s ……”

“…… Ai. Am I right?”

“……”

She didn’t say a word. But that’s as good as a yes for Ginko.

Worldly Thunder Ika Sainokami also holds the Women’s Emperor title. She’s so good she defeated a pro player in a televised speed match. Although still in high school, word is she may be even more talented than Ginko.

She’s talented enough to be on par with that prodigy.

Does she really have much? Is Ai that gifted ……?

“Anyway, we’re not like the Shogi Martians. That’s why we shouldn’t try to copy their research and study methods,” Ginko says with a shrug. 

“Their latest findings will end up hurting us. No matter how recent or advantageous that information is supposed to be, it’s no better than a bad move if you can’t pull it off in a match, yes?”

“…… For you too, Ginko?”

“Naturally. I’m not one of them.”

“Aren’t …… you being a little too modest? You’re only fourteen, but already a member of the Sub League with 2-dan. You should be just as talented as they are.”

“I’m an earthling raised by Shogi Martians. I can speak their language, but I don’t have what they were born with.”

“But, these …… Shogi Martians? You’ve beaten them before.”

“I share some tendencies with pro players and quite a few veterans. They like heavy offensives and strong counterattacks just like me …… And they use that strategy to defeat newer players. I use them as a reference.”

“So, you’re winning with experience?”

“That and research. Without research, winning is impossible.”

Huh? Didn’t she just say ……?

“I thought you said research was unusable?”

“Research that others do, yes. What I’m talking about is my own results. Rather than depending on what others have found, I research my opponents myself. It’s good training as well.”

“Researching opponents … yourself ……”

“Shogi Martians attack using their perception, but that makes them easier to set up for traps because they depend on their senses so much. They’re arrogant too. There’s the attack window.”

“So, get ahead in the early game and defend until they can be overwhelmed?”

“Close, but defending is dangerous …… Ideally, you never want to give them a chance to attack from the beginning. There’s a lot less pressure that way too.”

“I agree that if I could do it that way, that would be ideal but ……”

In other words, don’t let your opponent do anything. Crush them under an all-out attack. Am I capable of pulling that off?

“So? What should I do?”

“Get experience first. I think simulating Practice League conditions would be best. Ten-second Shogi is great for honing your senses. But you want to get in the habit of using your waiting time. That’s important.”

“That makes sense ……”

For the most part, I’ve focused mainly on playing as much as possible in a short amount of time with versus matches and playing on the Internet.

But that was all wrong.

“While it’s important to save some time for the late game, it’s even more important to practice using every second of it. If you’ve got nothing to think about to begin with, that time will be wasted anyway. Just get in the habit of thinking. It doesn’t matter when.”

“Think …… Okay. I understand.”

“Then, of course playing through your opponent’s match records would be good, but I think playing through higher ranking players who share your playing style would also help. It’ll give you some things to think about.”

“What about Shogi puzzles? If I solve the difficult ones like Ai does, then I’ll be stronger in the late game–––.”

“Solving puzzles is fine. However, longer puzzle patterns never show up in real matches, so just do the shorter ones over and over. Spending all that time on something you’ll never see in a match is a waste.”

“……”

“Do a few five-step checkmate Shogi puzzles at the very end, when your brain is tired after a day of researching. I think that’ll be enough practice for the late game.”

My practice methods were being shot down one after another.

Which means all the time that I’ve spent doing them was wasted, and pretty much negated everything I’ve done in my life thus far. What’s worse, everything she’s saying makes sense.

However–––.

“May I …… ask, just one thing?”

“What?”

“Both you and Yaichi started taking Shogi seriously at the same time and have had basically the same kind of training since then, yes? The two of you have been in the same environment and have played against each other more than anyone in the world …… Weren’t you better than him at the start?”

“That’s true.”

“So then, why ……?”

Why–––is there such a gap between you two? How did it happen?

There are some people who can work as hard as they can, work just as hard as anyone else, but never get rewarded for it. I wanted her to tell me why that happens.

And even if I’m one of the ones who never gets to reap what they sow, to never know the reason why …… That’s just too cruel.

“…… Yaichi was the fourth fastest person in history to turn pro. He was also the first junior high school student to participate in the current Sub League 3-dan division. Then he became the youngest ever to claim a title. To be Ryuo ……”

“……”

“Yaichi’s fingers are already woven into Shogi history. Without a doubt, he has that much talent. He’s the prince of planet Shogi. That’s Yaichi Kuzuryu-ryuo. My younger brother apprentice.”

Talent. In the end, that’s what it all comes down to.

She already figured that out? Knew that some get rewarded while others don’t?

“I might be the best female Shogi player. But, even if that were true …… I’m not even in the top 1,000 when men are considered. My talent doesn’t measure up.”

There was no modesty or exaggeration in her words. Ginko sounds absolutely sure of herself.

She’s still just a fourteen-year-old girl.

Normally …… believing that there’s a chance they could be a princess, or believing that they are extremely talented …… girls at that age still have those dreams.

At least when I was that age, I had so much baseless confidence and saw the future as a bright place of opportunity.

But this girl, after all the effort she’s put in, arrived at the conclusion that she had no talent. A truly depressing, hopeless answer, but she’s accepted it.

Accepted it, gone through that despair …… and is still fighting on.

How are you that strong? I was just about to ask. How did you get that strong?

“…… The planet that Shogi Martians call home is far away, and the air is toxic to earthlings. One of us would die if we went. But still–––.”

Ginko looks up at the stars twinkling outside the window and says just above a whisper, “I want to go there.”

“Why?”

“…… Because it’s irritating.”

–––Isn’t there actually another reason?

–––Don’t you actually want to be with a special someone, stand in the same place and see what they see?

I was about to say it out loud but swallowed my words.

Just seeing the look of longing on her face, in profile, the admiration in her eyes as she looked up at the stars in the night sky …… I didn’t have to ask.