Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.8

  AN EYE-OPENING NIGHT

“………… Jus’ look at ya ……”

After being chased out of the Player’s Room like an old mutt, Kousuke dejectedly made his way home and passed the time not doing much of anything at all.

Even drowning the pain with alcohol didn’t appeal to him.

The shame wouldn’t let him fall asleep, so there he sat, staring at his reflection in a cup of water in the dimly lit kitchen. All the while, only a single phrase ever left his lips …… “Jus’ look at ya.”

A pair of eyes clouded from all the hours he’d spent staring at a smartphone screen and all the alcohol he’d consumed stared back at him on the water’s surface. Their lack of spirit came as a shock, almost as if he didn’t recognize his own reflection.

Shades of that veteran Sub League member’s face, the one who Hiuma had risked his own life and reputation to protect Yaichi from, overlapped with his own.

“…… Have I turned into that ……?”

There was a word that fit his situation perfectly.

“Gerontocracy.”

He had sworn in his youth that he would rather die than become like the veterans who threw their weight around for the most ridiculous reasons. But now, their faces were staring back at him alongside his own in the water.

How long had he been like this?

Back in his teens and twenties, he had enough energy to work through entire match records the night after losing a match without so much as a wink of sleep. In truth, it was the other way around. Slamming the agony of defeat onto the board was the only way he could get to sleep.

By his thirties, beer and liquor helped him cope with the pain.

He became so tired during his forties that he needed to rest after matches before he could even look at a board again.

Tomorrow’s another day.

Rest up tonight, and my energy’ll be back in the mornin’ like it always was–––.

“…… But even then, I didn’t wake up feelin’ the rush like in the old days ……”

It started taking two days of rest for his zeal for Shogi to come back when it used to return overnight.

Inevitably, his research time fell to half of what it used to be and that only sped up the aging process. Working his way back up the slope after starting to descend required many times the energy and effort it had taken in his younger days.

Even so, Kousuke still felt he had to do something about it during his forties.

The guilt of wasting away, the pain of seeing his own decline pushed him onward.

However, even that feeling began to wear away …… And eventually fade out entirely. Convincing himself that this was all part of the aging process, he accepted the fact that his skills would deteriorate with time.

Letting go of his passion for the game meant he wouldn’t have to suffer like in the old days.

He took it as a sign of maturity.

Stepping back and watching his apprentice grow ……

“………… That day, seein’ Yaichi up there ……”

What the drunken guests said at the celebration was just the spark.

The gasoline came from one day prior–––at the Award Ceremony.

Kousuke realized something that day when he saw his apprentice receiving that certificate in the spotlight.

The one thing that kept him going all this time was having Meijin Challenger on his resume.

That phrase meant he was the last one to lose when it mattered most.

It wasn’t anger or jealousy that his own apprentice had surpassed him.

Rather, it was being faced with the reality of his own failure and not being able to accept it.

And, he had vented all of that built-up frustration on his apprentice.

“………… Jus’ look at ya ……,” Kousuke repeated on a loop, over and over.

He told himself that he wanted to be the Meijin many times over. All he’d managed to achieve was to not become the Meijin but he was waving that fact around like a badge of honor.

Strong, stubborn and gritty. 

No giving up until the very last move. 

He drilled those lessons into his apprentices’ heads for years, telling them that was what it meant to be a Kansai Shogi player.

Had he followed through with that himself?

Fighting to the last piece on a Shogi board was common sense. Even amateurs could do it.

However …… Very few could continue to fight away from the board.

What did he do on the days when he wasn’t playing a match?

Aren’t the ones willing to devote their very lives the true professionals?

We are carving our lives away to play Shogi.

Hiuma’s words from that afternoon sounded in the back of his mind.

Those words became a strong wind that pushed Kousuke out of the Player’s Room.

Yet–––.

“…… Burnin’ up,” Kousuke whispered in the darkness.

There was an ember hidden deep within the coals that had long since gone cold, nothing more than a tiny spark.

Rather than snuff it out …… Hiuma’s words reached deep into his heart, found the flame he himself had forgotten and breathed new life into it. A new wind.

Now, it was Kousuke fanning that little flame.

“Burnin’.”

A chilly night in the middle of February. The kitchen heater had been turned off hours ago, but the man repeated the same thing like a broken record …… That he was too hot.

Keika came down from her second-floor bedroom and said in surprise as she came into the kitchen, “…… Father? You’re still up?”

“That ain’t it.”

Looking at the confused expression on his daughter’s face, Kousuke added.

“I’m finally awake.”

The following morning.

Hiuma Kagamizu arrived bright and early at the Player’s Room like he always did only to find someone was already there, busily wiping down the boards on his own.

“Kiyotaki-sensei ……”

“Mornin’.”

Suit jacket off and the sleeves of his collared shirt rolled up to his elbows, Kousuke stopped to wipe the sweat from his brow before looking up.

That face had so much vitality that it was impossible to recognize him as the Kousuke Kiyotaki of recent years …… This wasn’t the same person Hiuma saw yesterday.

“It’s been eons since I couldn’t wait for mornin’ to come. Wanted to play Shogi with ya so much, jus’ couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Huh?”

“Hiuma. Please teach me Shogi.”

Sliding his arms through the jacket sleeves, Kousuke politely buttoned the front before giving the man a deep bow. A 9-dan Shogi veteran to a lowly Sub League member.

“Right now, I ain’t got any new strategies to share with any of ya. Far from me teachin’ strategy, ya young folks showed me a thing or two ‘bout how to be a pro ……”

The man who had lost the courage to honestly ask his apprentice and Sub League members to teach me how to play had summoned up what courage he had left to return here today.

Kousuke kept his head down as he spoke, unable to hide the fervor in his voice.

“I’ll run errands, do the prep work, anything ya need. I’d like to take the mindset of my trainin’ days and learn from ya startin’ on square one. I’m not lookin’ to steal yar hard-earned research. I’m here to straighten myself out. I can’t go out on a loss.”

“Sensei ……”

“What ya said yesterday, Hiuma, it opened my eyes. My whole body’s been burnin’ up since then, wantin’ to play Shogi so bad I can’t sit still. Haven’t felt like this in ages …… And it won’t cool off until I get to play ya.”

“B-but ……”

“What, Mr. Kagamizu? You’re not going to play Shogi today?” a small boy who seemed to be hiding in Hiuma’s shadow said in a high-pitched voice.

Peeking out from behind the man’s back was Sota Kunugi.

He looked up at Kousuke with an innocent smile on his face and said, “In that case, I’ll play against you, Kiyotaki-sensei. There’s so much I want to know about Yaichi when he was growing up.”

“Thank ya. If ya wanna know about Yaichi, I got plenty to tell.”

“Sweet~♡”

Sota looked as genuinely happy as a kid who just got a piece of his favorite candy.

Hiuma, on the other hand, was hesitant.

Everything he had said to Kousuke yesterday was his honest opinion.

It was also how he truly felt.

At the same time, they were words that he as a Sub League member should never say to a professional. Should the incident become public, the association could very well demand his resignation.

–––All I am is a dropout 3-dan who will never, ever promote to 4-dan ……

Shame consumed Hiuma in an instant.

Though he had intended to represent the Sub League as a whole ……

–––Was I simply taking out my frustration and jealousy about not getting promoted onto Kiyotaki-sensei ……?

It was that thought, which prevented him from accepting Kousuke’s earnest invitation.

Hiuma couldn’t look directly at him.

The bright morning sunlight reflecting off the beads of sweat on Kousuke’s brow illuminated his stagnant position all too clearly.

The eyes burning powerfully behind Kousuke’s glasses were too brilliant for one who had always resided in the shadows.

–––This …… This is a professional Shogi player ……

Steel that had gone completely dull regained its metallic luster all because Hiuma put it to a small flame.

–––He’s built differently. Much stronger than me ……

Hiuma felt he’d become nothing more than a larval cicada.

Entrenched in the soil that was the Player’s Room, waiting for the day when he could spread his wings …… Not to mention the fact that he had resided in the abyss that was Sub League longer than the seven years cicadas did in the ground.

He had forgotten what should have been instinctual, how to emerge from the earth and spread his wings and was now spluttering as a Sub League member ……

“Hiuma.”

Kousuke extended his hand to that Sub League member.

Now, for the first time, he built up the courage to ask for exactly what he wanted.

“Please. Teach me how to play Shogi.”

“………… It would be an honor to work with you, Kiyotaki-sensei.”

Hiuma Kagamizu bent at the waist, deeply bowing his head as he shook the man’s hand, almost as if clinging to his last hope.

This was the moment when a soon-to-become-legendary practice group that would be talked about for generations called the Kiyotaki Classroom was born.