Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 3 - Chapter 5.2

  MEMORIES OF PARADISE

“Cough! …… Haa, haa ……”

I dive into a toilet stall, praying to the porcelain god with a bunch of dry heaves.

W-Who’d have thought …… Keika’d have to go against both of the Ai’s in a row, right off the bat …… 

The Practice League does four rounds of matches when they meet. 

It goes without saying, but that first match is very important. Win that one, and you can get on a roll. But if you lose, the whole day can snowball out of control.

Keika went 1 and 3 after getting hit with a B …… Which means if she loses every match today, she’ll be one loss away from dropping down.

“I’m their Master so …… of course, I should be rooting for them. But ……”

I head down to the second-floor classroom to get something to rinse my dry throat when–––.

I spot Big Sis sitting on her own in the back.

“…… Hello.”

“……”

Drink in hand, I sit down on the opposite side of a board from her.

She doesn’t tell me to move or go away.

She just stares at the board, the pieces all lined up for a new match.

The classroom is pretty crowded, par for the course on Sundays. Children’s backpacks are piled up on the stage that’s normally used for lectures and for match analysis for big groups.

Snap! Snap! Pieces snapping against the boards, opponents quietly doing review sessions, chess clocks beeping, matchups being announced: it’s all relaxing music to my ears.

Just like a baby being reassured by their mother’s heartbeat, all the sounds of the classroom have a strange way of putting me at ease.

That’s why both me and Big Sis come down to this classroom to relax even while heated matches are happening upstairs.

It’s not to do anything specific.

We just take a seat in a chair and zone out and enjoy the sounds and the classroom atmosphere. It’s calming.

That way, we can go back to a match that we thought was already lost feeling like maybe I can still win.

It might sound a little weird, but …… the mind and the body are connected with Shogi.

“……”

“……”

Neither of us says anything.

Ai Hinatsuru and Ai Yashajin, two girls I’ve trained myself, and Keika, who’s surely gotten advice from Big Sis, are going head-to-head in today’s Practice League matches. It’s almost like they’re fighting our battle for us.

–––It’s a sibling rivalry that’s drawn in our whole Shogi family.

It might look like that from the outside.

Why are you getting in Keika’s way? Big Sis might be thinking that about me right now. Are you okay with her never joining the Women’s League? Is Keika not important?

She might want to blame the whole thing on me.

It might be because I’m a guy, and I always wanted Master’s attention growing up.

On the other hand, Big Sis always went to Keika.

Back before the two of us joined the Sub League …… in the early years of elementary school, Big Sis was always at Keika’s side when she came to this classroom.

Even when she was playing Shogi, she’d drag Keika all the way to her board, saying, “Watch this! Will you watch me?” hoping to show her that she could win.

She wanted Keika’s praise when she won and her comfort when she lost.

One of the people in the classroom said one day, “You’re always keeping Keika company, aren’t you?”

I remember her answer, pointing to lined-up pieces at the same time.

“Gin is always next to the keima and kyousha!”

All those memories came back to me as I sat across from Big Sis without saying a word.

“Why ……,” Big Sis mutters after a short while.

She continues, her voice so quiet it disappears into the classroom noises around us.

“Why is fighting …… the only thing we can do?”

“Because–––.”

Because we’re Shogi players.

Nah …… Not quite.

“Because–––we’re alive.”

Choosing to live the life of a Shogi player …… I don’t know what that feels like.

I don’t remember my first game because it happened before I knew what anything was, and I kept playing as if Shogi was a natural part of growing up.

It wasn’t a matter of choice.

Nothing other than Shogi mattered to me. I just wanted to get strong, fight against the next strong opponent, fight, fight, fight–––.

Waiting for me at the end of those long battles was a career called pro and a position called Ryuo.

But this isn’t where I want to be. It’s not the end goal.

I’m merely in the middle of a war that I’ll keep fighting until I die.

To me, playing Shogi is what it means to be alive. Without Shogi, I may as well be dead.

And Shogi itself is a fight.

That’s why I’ll keep fighting until this heart stops beating.

I’ve taken down many older members of the Sub League right here in the Kansai Shogi Association and in the Kanto Shogi Association as well.

Experienced members who were kind to me …… People who taught me how to play Shogi, who taught me how to be a match recorder, who played with me, bought me lunch, people who complimented my Shogi skills …… 

After killing every single one of those kind people on a Shogi board, I am who I am today.

All those important people: I wounded their hearts, destroyed their futures, crushed their dreams … And even still, I can’t stop playing Shogi.

Even Big Sis wouldn’t pull any punches once she’s sitting down in front of a board. She wouldn’t hesitate no matter who she’s fighting.

Be it Keika, Master or me, she would slay us all with no regrets.

But this is different.

We’re powerless right now. Neither of us has been in this position before, so we don’t know how to react and end up looking away from the fight.

And even now, we cling to the one thing that’s always been there for us since the beginning, a Shogi board.

Naniwa’s Snow White without Shogi is just a normal third-year junior high school student with her own problems that she’s powerless to solve.

“Big Sis. I think I’ll head back up …”

I can’t keep looking away forever.

If the only thing I can do is see this through to the end, then it’s my duty to do just that.

Because I’m a Master.

And I’m Keika’s older brother apprentice.

“……… I’ll stay … a little longer …”

Big Sis squeezes the words out.

“Just a little longer … Right here …”

That voice was the same as the crying little girl who wanted to keep playing Shogi way back when.