Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 5.4

  PLACEMENT MATCHES

Now, the check rush is on.

“But, he’s already checkmated ……”

“He can’t just give up. Of course not.”

Sota and Mr. Kagamizu are talking back and forth.

I can almost hear Ayumu’s pieces scream every time he snaps one down.

“I don’t want to lose.”

“I’m scared.” 

“This can’t be.”

“I want to promote.” 

“Please, no.”

I can tell he wants to yell with each move.

Because, throw in the towel now, and everything he’s worked for over the past year could have been for nothing.

People who already know he’s promoting might think this desperate struggle is kind of funny.

But, here and now, no one’s laughing at the battle these two are fighting.

“…… I always knew Kiyotaki-sensei was special. All right! Let’s watch the conclusion with proper posture!!”

With that, Mr. Kagamizu sits down on his ankles right on the Player’s Room floor. Other Sub League members who frequented the Kiyotaki Classroom were right behind him. While it was strange to see so many knees on the linoleum floor, no one even thought about making a joke.

“Master ……!” says Big Sis with her hands together as if throwing up a prayer.

She’s clamping her ash-colored eyes closed tight. Even knowing that Master has as good as won doesn’t make it any less scary to watch. She just can’t do it. No one knows what will happen during one-minute Shogi. Seriously, these two have been playing for over seventeen hours straight ……

But Master held strong. He didn’t make a mistake.

Move 246–––Ayumu stopped trying to find a move once he saw Master’s Dragon at 8 Six.

Because, well, he couldn’t make one.

“One step checkmate ……?”

“Yes.”

Big Sis asks and I confirm with a nod.

“Master won.”

Just like he said he would do back on move 156, Master checkmated Ayumu’s King.

Neither player said a word when the surrender happened.

All the ceiling-mounted camera was showing us on the monitor was Ayumu’s clenched fist shaking on top of his piece stand and the back of his head as he hunched over the board.

“Kannabe’s lost! The first black mark on his Placement Match record!!”

“‘Kiyotaki victorious’! Yes, you heard that right! Kiyotaki actually won!!”

The Player’s Room erupts like a noise bomb went off. Reporters and journalists are prepping their cameras all at once.

I–––join Big Sis in racing out the door.

“Master ……!!”

It’s not like going to the arena will make any difference. No one can change the results. But, we couldn’t just stand there.

It’s not logical.

Gasping for breath, we sprint down the halls like puppies desperately looking for their parents. We pass by the match recorder taking the match record to the office on the way. I could’ve sworn his eyes were bright red.

Big Sis and I get to the arena and step inside.

The air is still electric and, while not impossible, I can’t bring myself to go up to the board. Quietly and cautiously, I find an out-of-the-way spot and sit down on my ankles.

“…………………… Master ……”

I look up at my battle-worn Master from far behind the lower seat. He’s sitting on his ankles with his chest triumphantly exposed while he fixes the collar on his kimono. Kousuke Kiyotaki 9-dan.

“He’s pretty cool,” Big Sis quietly mumbles so only I could hear.

She used the same voice back when we were kids, when we idolized Master in a kimono so much the two of us would draw pictures of him.

“Really cool. We have the coolest Master in the world.”

“………… For sure ……”

I came here thinking I could hold them back but …… tears start rolling down my cheeks.

There is no stopping them once they get going. Hot tears keep coming. Big Sis is next to me, crying just as hard.

Big Sis, who almost never changes her facial expression, is moaning between sobs.

“Ginko …… Yaichi, too, eh?”

Master looks at us sitting and crying behind the lower seat and quietly says, “Ayumu’s gone up and I’m down, is it?”

“…………………………………… Yes …………,” I answer, voice shaking.

Only players involved have the right to ask about promotion and demotion results. No one is allowed to up and tell them on their own. That’s especially true for demotion.

That rule isn’t on the books anywhere.

But it’s an important code of conduct in the Shogi world that should be followed.

Big Sis and I just broke that rule …… With our tears blotching the tatami mats.

Except, Master looks at Ayumu with an invigorated grin and congratulates him.

“That’s great news! Don’t slack off next season, ya hear?”

“………… Tha ………… you ……,” says Ayumu, his voice barely there at all and gone just as fast.

You’d think that someone who had just pulled off the amazing feat of promoting in three consecutive seasons would be happy, but I don’t see any happiness on his face at all.

His eyes are sweeping back and forth across the board without focusing anywhere in particular, every detail of his loss getting burned into his memory.

Actually, it’s surprising how refreshed Master looks even though he just got demoted.

–––How can he look like he just finished working out at the gym at a time like this ……?

At long last, media people start filing into the room one after another.

Once they’d finished photographing the two players having a silent review session, flashes going off every second, one of the magazine reporters approaches Ayumu as apologetically as possible.

“Kannabe-sensei …… Um, may I ask for an interview about your promotion in a different room ……?”

“…………”

Swaying …… Ayumu leaves the arena about as surefooted as a ghost. He has to do the impossible, give Joyous Comments right after a loss …… I know that pain all too well.

Then a little girl comes into the arena just as he leaves with the journalists.

“Ai? Why are you–––?”

Rather than answer me directly, Ai is out of breath as she pulls a lady into the arena behind her.

It’s Keika.

“…………”

She cautiously steps inside with Ai yanking on her arm …… and sits down in front of Master.

“Father ……”

“Oh, Keika.”

A twinge of pain crosses over Master’s face for the first time.

“Sorry I couldn’t do more when ya came all this way to cheer me on.”

“It’s ……… It’s not …………”

She couldn’t say another word.

It was all she could do to keep her sobbing under control with a handkerchief over her mouth. Seeing her like that breaks the dam and Master’s eyes start tearing up.

I just noticed that it’s only the Kiyotaki Shogi Family still in the arena …… I bet people are giving us space. All those people who were rooting for Kousuke Kiyotaki.

With his apprentices and grand apprentices assembled, Master addresses all of us in a gentle tone.

“…… All I’ve got on my resume is challengin’ the Meijin. That’s ’cause I got my clock cleaned in other leagues. So, I made up my mind to retire when I get demoted to C ……”

“……!!”

Everyone holds their breath, trying to come up with the right words to change his mind.

But Master raises his hand to cut us off.

“Durin’ my days stuck goin’ nowhere and fallin’ down the ranks, I did a lot of thinkin’ about my reason for bein’ around …… I’m way too over the hill to make another run at the Meijin, so what’s the point of playin’ Shogi at all? Objectively speakin’, gettin’ back into A from C ain’t realistic …… Which means bowin’ out as a Meijin Challenger ought to be the right path.”

You play Shogi to win.

And, pros have a duty to win matches. As someone who’s made a name for themselves by winning, they should quit being a pro when they feel like they can’t.

Master’s logic does make sense.

“But––––––I got another reason to keep goin’.”

Then, Master spells everything out.

The reason why he was so calm and collected right after playing in the match he decided would be his last to put himself out of his own misery.

“Ya’ll.”

All …… of us?

“’Cause ya’ll say watchin’ me is what made ya who ya are now. Yar there to keep me goin’ down the right path. I realized just how valuable that is …… sure took me long enough, eh?”

I look back up at my Master as he smiles down at his apprentices.

The right pant leg of his hakuma trousers is wrinkled to all hell right above the knee.

He’s whacked himself so hard with his fan to stay focused that it’s in rough shape.

The board and pieces in front of him show the wear and tear that comes from a duel to the death, only the piece stands are in pristine condition.

All of them trace Master’s path ……

The footprints that Big Sis and I have run ourselves ragged trying to follow.

The very same path that Ai and Keika are trying to take right now. I’m sure that Ai Yashajin feels the same way even though she isn’t here to say it.

The desire to get stronger, even if it means being stubborn and getting muddy in the process.

“The path’s still goin’. Only difference is that now I’ll be the one chasin’ ya.”

Gazing lovingly at the apprentices who naturally came to him in the arena, Master says loud and clear, “Which means, I still got a lotta path to follow. I ain’t retirin’.”

“Master!”

“Father ……!” Big Sis and I say with glee, but Keika seems to be at a loss for words.

Ai jumps to her feet, yelling, “Grandpa-sensei!” and runs over to give him a hug.

Giving her a gentle pat on the head, Master says, “Zaou-sensei said it himself …… that nothin’s more borin’ than playin’ Shogi without carin’ who wins.”

Sounding sure of himself, Master declares.

“Right now, Shogi’s more fun than it’s been all my life. Throwin’ that away …… I just can’t do it.”

Then he looks to me with Ai in his arms and says.

“We might be bumpin’ into each other next season in C-1, Yaichi.”

“…… The rules prevent apprentices from playing their Masters in Placement Matches below the B-2 Division, Master ……,” I say, laughing through snot and tears.

“That right?”

Master grins.

“Then I’d better get back into B-1 ASAP. Heck, might as well get back into A while I’m at it! With Ginko on the up-and-up, let’s all challenge the Meijin in the playoff as a family! Be one heck of a party, don’t ya think?”

“…… I’ll pull off gratitude for real this time.”

I laugh, wiping away more snot and tears.

Then, he places that big strong hand of his on my head and ruffles my hair just like he did back on the day we met and laughs from the heart.

“Yeah right. I’ll be the one payin’ ya back!”