Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 1.3

  IGNITED

Once our stage greeting was over, it was time to go table to table and pour drinks for our guests.

“Thank ya so much for all the support. I’m Kousuke Kiyotaki.”

“Thank you very much! I’m Yaichi Kuzuryu!”

Master and I start at the head of each table, greeting the important people like a comedy duo in front of an audience and filling glasses one after another.

People are overjoyed when Big Sis and the girls just say hello, but we have to be entertaining despite all the cold shoulders thrown our way.

We told jokes, did tricks and even danced around in our underwear one time in the past.

Master was usually the one up front talking up a storm while I stood behind him, nodding and backing up everything he said like some paper tiger refilling glasses with beer …… But today, our roles switched.

“Hey there! All-powerful Ryuo, I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Yaichi! Can I get a picture with you!”

I was surrounded by powerful, middle-aged men in no time at all. What’s more, they’re happy to see me.

“Finally, a Kansai player is back on top of the Shogi world!”

“It’s been far too long …… Twenty years since that four-eyed demon stole the Meijin title from our beloved Seiichi Tsukimitsu ……”

“Yah, it’s been eons …… But now, I die happy.”

I’m used to them yelling things like, “Try harder!” and “Beat the Meijin already, will you?!” in my face, but today I’m getting enough nice compliments to make me queasy. Seriously, one guy is so happy to see me that he’s in tears.

“Huh? Say what? Uhh ……?”

They aren’t like the geezers who were totally plastered before I refilled their glasses …… But these elderly men are definitely tipsy and I’m not sure how to handle them.

Never having been in the situation before, I look to Master for help, but ……

“…………”

He stepped back after we finished our initial greeting.

Why? I thought to myself, but …… He might be teaching me what I’ll have to do in the future now that I’ve started a Shogi family of my own.

In that case, it’s my duty as his apprentice to meet his expectations. I turn back to the men with a big smile on my face and join in their conversation.

“Uh-umm …… Thank you. But I haven’t exactly reclaimed the Meijin title ……”

“True, but Ryuo is higher rankin’ than Meijin, in terms o’ titles anyway. Meanin’, Yaichi, ya’re better in skill and title. Ipso facto, ya got the Shogi world checkmated, yeah?”

“Well …… I guess.”

As far as the hierarchy goes.

“My oh my, Yaichi. A 9-dan already? Now you’re one of the big-wig Senseis right alongside your Master.”

“No, no, no! I still have a long way to go ……”

Chancing a peek in Master’s direction, he’s keeping quiet and doesn’t seem to want to jump in. So, he wants me to get through this on my own ……

The guests keep living it up and making even more claims.

“Alongside? He’s already passed him up!”

“Darn right! Claimed a title when ol’ Kiyotaki never could!”

“All Yaichi has to do is beat him in a league match and gratitude is paid back in full!”

Gah-hah-hah! Laughter explodes from the group of old men. Sure, they’re sloshed, but that level of dark humor isn’t even considered dark here in Osaka.

Staying modest won’t bring this conversation to an end, so I join in.

“Ha ha …… You’re right. So, by this time next year–––.”

That was the final straw.

WHAM!! That sound hit my ears like a bowling ball.

Looking around to where it came from, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

It was the sound of my Master slamming his fists into the table.

“…………?!”

Silence fills the room as echoes bounce off the walls. The men standing around me are frozen in place, jaws hanging open in shock.

Then Master yells at me with red veins pumping in his eyes.

“Whad’ya mean by next year, ehh?!! Ya sayin’ I’ll fall outta B-2, an’ ya gonna beat me in placement matches, are ya?! Well?!!”

In my ten years of living with him, not once has he ever been this furious at me.

But, it’s not just anger.

More like––– hostility.

“Some C rankin’ nobody takes a title an’ suddenly thinks he’s the best around …… Who da hell do ya think I am?! I’d sooner retire than play in C!!”

Everyone in the room gasps when the word retire cuts through the air.

“And what was that yesterday at the Anointment Ceremony, ehh?! About yagura bein’ dead, was it?! Keep ya musin’s to yarself!!”

So, he did hear me ……

Man, I wish I could take that offhanded comment back.

Master is such a hard-core member of the Static Rook party that he forbade Big Sis and I from using Ranging Rook when we were younger. What’s worse, Master’s playing style is to build up defenses so thick it’s been nicknamed ironclad.

For him, yagura isn’t just his best strategy.

It’s life itself.

And, even though I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, I flat-out rejected it ……

“Yagura is Shogi at its finest! People say gettin’ to Meijin without perfectin’ it ain’t happenin’! It’s Shogi’s righteous path! And ya go spittin’ on it ……!”

“No, but Master–––.”

“Back talkin’, are ya? Then bring it on, Yaichi!!” Master roars as he slams his fists on the table again. “Wanna know who’s better? Let’s find out here and now where ever’body can see! Pros never turn tail from a challenge, eh!!”

“M-Master ……”

For a second, I thought Master had too much to drink.

But that wasn’t the case. He hasn’t had a single drop of alcohol today and couldn’t let this slide because he isn’t drunk.

It’s his pride as a player–––pride in having challenged the Meijin causing all this.

As active players, Master is still ranked above me in terms of placement. Putting it another way, he’s closer to the title of Meijin than I am.

His pride as a pro couldn’t handle hearing that he’d been passed up, even in jest from some amateur guy.

Then again, that was probably just the last straw.

The root cause might run deeper than that.

–––Could it be …… Jealousy?

Finally realizing that I’ve been absentmindedly carving out pieces of my Master’s heart, regret slams into me like a brick wall.

Even if it’s just in idle chitchat, even if just joining the conversation, the words alongside and passed up are taboo when it comes to competitors who can still compete.

However, there’s a reason I can’t yield.

Because–––I’m the Ryuo.

It’s my duty as a titleholder to act like it. I’m in the higher position. That’s especially true because the Ryuo is top title of them all. I couldn’t even yield to the Meijin if I wanted to. I don’t want to be stubborn. But, bowing out here would flip the Shogi world’s hierarchy on its head and, even worse, be extremely rude to the sponsors.

Then, there’s the fact that I’m not wrong about yagura in the first place.

As a pro, lying about my own Shogi convictions would go against who I am.

That’s why I couldn’t just lower my head to Master Kiyotaki. No one plays Shogi intending to lose. That would hold true if it were just the two of us, but in front of so many people in a place like this ……

“…………”

Master and I silently stare each other down.

All the good vibes from before are completely gone. A backbreaking silence fills the room.

Knowing that saying the wrong thing here could lead to something they might never be able to take back, everyone is staying silent.

The one who breaks that hopeless ice is–––

“Uhm, uhmm!”

Charlette, who made her way to Master’s side at some point, says with an innocent little lisp.

“You know, Cha? Cha wants ta plway Shogi with masta’s masta.”

She tugs at his pants, asking him to play Shogi with her.

Did she think that he was inviting me to play a match of Shogi rather than picking a fight to settle the score ……?

“Would’ya look at that! Whadda cute lil’ challenger we got here.”

The first one to react to what only the naïve Charlette could pull off was the undisputed Godfather of Kansai Shogi, Tatsuo Zaou 9-dan.

“Kousuke. Ya can play yar apprentice any ol’ time. Take up this young’un’s offer for today,” Zaou-sensei says with a huge grin as he looks at my Master. Then he says, “Guests are startin’ to get restless. I think it’s ‘bout time fer some more instructional matches.”

The Don of Naniwa’s words are final.

Master breaks off eye contact with me.

“…… Young lady, shall we go play Shogi over there on that board?”

“Shogi, yaaay!!”

Charlette looks as happy as can be as she follows him there.

I scramble to put a smile back on my face and go to reassure Ai and the other grade schoolers. Big Sis and Keika take that as their queue to go around the hall and lighten the mood. Things are back to normal before long, almost like nothing ever happened. People are having fun again, but the elderly men who set off the whole thing are too scared to say much.

The celebration came to a close on that note, as if nothing happened at all.

With the one exception that Master and I didn’t say another word to each other for the rest of the night. We didn’t even look at each other.