Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 6 - Chapter 1.4

  SHUMAI SENSEI

“C********************CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!”

A yell bizarre enough to make you question the yeller’s sanity blasts through the room. 

It came from–––the one who walked in just as my apprentices were going out, a bombshell of a woman in a kimono.

“Ginko! Where’s Ginko?! Bring’er out here!!”

She takes a long swig out of the sake bottle in her right hand while swinging around a katana sword in her left. She may be looking for Big Sis with bloodshot eyes, but she’s not just some crazed female fan.

She’s the first female title holder in history–––Shumai Honinbou.

That’s not a Women’s title.

She’s the first woman to claim one of the seven professional Go titles, and she did it competing against men.

What’s more, she claimed the Honinbou title in her twenties, which is on the same level as Shogi’s Meijin. She’s an honest-to-goodness prodigy!

Her real name is something else, but she’s been going by Shumai Honinbou ever since she took the title. Pretty much everyone calls her Shumai-sensei at this point.

Since people don’t have as many hurdles to jump through to become a pro Go player compared to Shogi, female pros aren’t all that rare.

That being said, those men and women compete for the same seven titles, and she’s the first one and only woman in history to claim one for herself.

She’s also pretty popular in China, Korea and European countries where Go has caught on as a sport and even become an empowering symbol for women everywhere. Some people have gone so far as to call her a modern-day Joan of Arc.

Go and Shogi are like siblings, so players have a lot of chances to interact with each other. Big Sis and I have known Shumai-sensei for a long time, since we were kids.

She’s a strong player, one who we deeply respect.

Shumai-sensei seems to have taken a liking to Big Sis, another girl who’s facing a thick wall like the one she had to break. She’s even come to parties like this one as well as Opening Night parties for Big Sis’s title matches every now and then–––.

“C*ck! C*******CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK!!”

Just like her playing style, Shumai-sensei’s personality can be unpredictable.

Case in point: when she’s drunk like right now. She’ll get hung up on some four-letter word and keep shouting it to the point that no one can bring her back down to earth. And Shumai-sensei is almost always drunk. I could probably count the number of days each year she’s sober on my fingers. She’s even showed up to televised matches completely hammered.

Okay, yes, she’s crazed.

“Ginkoooo! It’s meeee! Shuuuuuumai!!”

“S-Sensei! I’m here ……”

“Ahhh, Ginko! There’s where you’ve been, Ginko! Could’a sworn you were out playin’ some c*ck somewhere!”

“I-I don’t do that kind of thing!”

“You dooon’t?”

Shumai-sensei looks at her in surprise.

“Today’s the day everyone plays c*ck, ain’t it? Puttin’ the moves on ceremony ……”

“First Move Ceremony!!” 

“See, wha’d I tell you?! The day everybody plays c*ck, yah?! That’s why I skipped out on Go’s First Hit Ceremony just so I could be here! Now, let’s get some moves on!”

“This is Shogi! Go uses the word hit for each move, but Shogi says move!”

“No way?! Are you tellin’ me Shogi players move while matches are going on?!”

“No, absolutely not!!”

Big Sis turns bright red, denying everything.

If it were anyone else, she’d just kick them clear into next week and be done with it. But Big Sis has a great deal of respect for Shumai-sensei, so all she can do is blush and act like a normal fifteen-year-old girl for a change.

She’s so embarrassed that she’s trying to hide behind me just because I happen to be close by.

“Huuuh?! B-Big Sis, I’m not some human shield, okay?!”

“It’s fine ……!”

“No, it’s not! Hey?! Stop pushing, would you?!”

“……!! ……!!” (Shove, shove.)

She’s doing everything she can to get behind me while I’m doing everything I can to stop her.

Other people in the room must’ve thought we were fooling around, pushing back and forth like this.

Shumai-sensei looks down on both of us and stomps her foot in frustration.

“Damn it!! It’s new year’s and you’ve got Yaichi’s c*ck all to yourself?! I’m so frickin’ jealous right now!! Got that ragin’ teenaged c*ck goin’ in high and low, do you?! Ain’t that so, Ginko?!”

“Absolutely not!!” Big Sis and I scream at the same time.

Shumai-sensei is one thing, but now the other players and Kansai Association staff members are looking at us with “those two …… so, it’s true ……” written all over their faces. I can’t take it! I’d give anything to be anywhere other than here!!

“You dooon’t?! Never played once?!!”

For some reason, now she’s furious!

“That talent wall ain’t gonna break without popping the cherry!! Listen here, Ginko. Lettin’ the temptation build up’ll only get in the way! You’ll never break into the pros without breakin’ the virgin wall first!!”

“……”

Big Sis is speechless. Come on, she’ll keep pushing the envelope if you don’t cut her off right now …… 

“You can’t keep getting on the usual way! You gotta …… give extreme effort!!”

“……!”

––– Extreme effort.

That’s Shumai-sensei’s motto.

As a person, she’s pretty extreme (obviously) but …… Shumai Honinbou is even moreso, cutting everything deemed unnecessary out of her life, all to become the best player she can be. That’s the effort.

It’s all the effort that she’s put in that allows her to be stubborn and get so muddy in matches that average pros can’t do anything against her skills. Each one of her hits on a Go board are so beautiful they leave everyone transfixed.

That’s exactly why a woman this wild and unpredictable has not only been accepted into the community but become a highly revered player.

Striking a serious expression, Shumai Honinbou points the tip of her katana directly at the silver-haired girl trying to follow in her footsteps as the first woman to clear the highest wall in Go, but this time in the Shogi world.

“Ears up, Ginko. Women are weaker than men. Physically, for sure, but it really shows in long matches. Women tire faster, making it harder to think. Men are stronger, simple as that. The only way to close the gap …… is extreme effort.”

For her, Go is a way of life, basically life itself. She says you can tell how a person has lived their life by the hits they make on the board.

That’s completely the opposite of modern Shogi theory, which says that skill level is the only thing that shows up on the board. However, her stance has a lot in common with the muddy, stubborn playing style that Kansai Shogi players love.

“…… Yet there’s something you’re gonna need to turn average effort into extreme effort. That’s what I want you to know …… You are on the path I’ve traveled, so I guarantee you’ll need it …… In order to give maximum effort–––.”

“I’ll need to ……?”

Big Sis leans in so she won’t miss a single word of what this great pioneer has to say.

Shumai-sensei then declares. “You’ll need a C*CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!”

What a waste of that epic buildup!!

“Shumai-sensei! Please go rest in one of the lodging rooms downstairs!”

“Get the Go Association on the phone and tell them to drag her out of here, now!”

“Be careful! That’s a real blade she’s got there!!”

“Call the police! Let’s get them to handle this!”

The association staff has had enough of Shumai-sensei’s antics and moves in to restrain her even as she swings that sword and sake bottle around. Working together, they get her pinned to the floor before dragging her out of the room.

“KyAAAA––––––!! C–––*–––C––– KKKKKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk–––––––––.”

Shumai-sensei’s vulgar scream fades away.

Whispers start going through the crowd as people start to recover from the shock.

“…… Getting good at Go makes a screw come loose ……”

“…… Why the heck does she even have a sword ……?”

“I heard she asked the Chinese head of state what the word for c*ck was in Chinese when she was over there, and their military nearly executed her for it ……”

“Too bad they didn’t finish the job ……”

Man, they’re railing on her. Not that I disagree.

“H-Hey, um ………… Big Sis?”

“……”

“You don’t have to take her seriously, you know? All that about …… c …… cks, and vi …… rginity. They’ve got nothing to do with Shogi at all. She’s just messed up in the head. There are plenty of very strong players who don’t have that kind of experience.”

“……”

“Y-You’ve got an important match coming up tomorrow, so just forget all this! It’ll be a distraction, so there’s no point, right? Your match is going to get a lot of attention, so you can’t afford to play half-hearted Shogi …… Ah! Well, um! Just don’t let that weird stuff she said get to you! Play the way you always play, that’s what I’m trying to say!”

“……”

I tried everything in the book to calm her down, but Big Sis won’t answer. Heck, she won’t even look up from the floor. Not that I blame her, no one would know what to think after getting that kind of “advice” so early on in the year …… 

And so, the Kansai New Year’s Party ended on a chaotic note–––.

The incident known as Shumai-sensei’s New Years’ Attack would lead to the unthinkable happening between Big Sis and I.