Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.6

  AURORA

There’s a sound going off in my head.

“A magnificent start toward the Eternal Septuple title! Is a clean sweep in the making?!”

“The opening move is yours for the next match. Please tell us your thoughts!!”

“Meijin! A message for everyone in Japan waiting to witness history!!”

The room’s silent tranquility broke when I lowered my head.

Journalists and organizers rush through the hallway, their footsteps echoing.

A media avalanche, shutters going off.

And the Meijin’s voice constantly responding to a never-ending slew of questions.

Some questions were directed my way, to the loser. But for the life of me I can’t remember what they were or what I said.

The one thing I do remember …… is that strange sound, and the fact that it was always ringing in my ears.

The Meijin happily answered the mountain of questions thrown his way. I don’t know what got written down, but I do know he didn’t give them the flashy answers the reporters wanted. Just simple things like I’m not thinking about the record or I’ll be playing to deepen the understanding of Shogi in the next match. Blinding flashes went off whenever he moved one of the pieces, right along with all the digital pings and electronic clicks that go with them.

But this is a different noise, deeper, like an earthly shake that won’t stop.

The review session over, I went back to my room but the noise wouldn’t stop.

Thinking it could be thunder, I go to the window to look outside but it’s not raining. I don’t know when the sun went down, but the sky is full of countless twinkling stars just like when I was out walking with Big Sis.

But the noise I couldn’t hear last night is crystal clear right now.

–––What the heck is it?

I stare up at the night sky from the corner of the room, completely forgetting to take off my kimono, and try to figure out what the sound is.

Someone’s behind me.

“S-Sorry …… I knocked, but you never answered ……”

It’s Ai.

She apparently came to bring me down to the after-party because I never showed up. That’s right, I gave her my spare key. That must be how she got inside.

“Um …… Master? Please don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Forcing herself to sound cheerful, the young and lively apprentice tries to encourage her Master after his failure.

“It’s all right! It’s just one loss! All you have to do is take one match, and then you’ll–––,” she got that far before swallowing the rest of her words.

Because she saw my face when I turned around.

“Just one loss …… you say?”

I throw the shingen bukuro drawstring pouch I’d been clutching to the floor and yell at her at the top of my lungs.

“After seeing that match, how can you say that?!”

“Gasp ……!”

My apprentice, barely ten years old, looks terrified.

I’ve never seen her make that face before. I’m also pretty sure that she’s never seen me make this face either.

But I’m not stopping. These words aren’t going to be stopped.

“How can you be so peppy after seeing that Shogi?! Do you actually think this’ll stop at one loss?! If this were later in the series, I’d be totally screwed?! He just tore my Shogi sense out by the roots!!”

“Sho ……… Shogi …… sense ……?”

“It’d be fine if he found a move I didn’t read! I can fix that problem! All I’d have to do is read deeper!”

It’s possible to read more sequences by redistributing how much time I spend on each one. I can adjust right then and there.

But–––.

“I read that sequence perfectly and lost because he proved me wrong!”

I never thought that could ever happen.

The right sequence came to mind right away, but I rejected it.

It was the best move.

“What’s worse, against the strategy I’ve researched more than anyone …… he just destroyed every single thing I knew, the sense that I’ve worked so hard to build?! I’ve played tens of thousands of matches, but the Meijin just proved everything wrong with one!!”

In that moment, I finally figured out what the noise is.

It’s–––the world crashing down around me.

“There’s no time …… Should I go back and research everything about Move-Loss Bishop Exchange from square one? No! There’s no way to know if the Meijin would let me use it …… That means researching would be a waste of time ……! Damn it!! What the hell am I supposed to do?!”

Ignoring my trembling apprentice in the corner of the room, I collapse to the floor, biting my fingernails and mumbling to myself.

The Meijin took aim at my strongest point and sliced it down.

Without a sound.

Just broke it.

There was a bus tour scheduled for the players the day after the match because they couldn’t do much sightseeing before it.

However, I canceled my seat and took the earliest flight back to Japan on my own. There wasn’t a second to spare.

The skies that were so open and blue when I came to Hawaii were now covered in thick, gray clouds. Rain came down as if trying to drive that point home.

And that sound won’t stop.