But there was still no word from him the next day.
Or the next day. Or even the day after that.
It wasn’t until I saw him on the fourth day that I found out.
“How long did it take?!”
Master’s older brother just held up three fingers.
Three ……
“Three seconds?”
He shook his head no, so I tried again.
“30 seconds?”
“No.”
“Then …… was it three minutes?!”
My heart pounded in my ears when I asked, but he shook his head “no” yet again.
“No.”
“Then, was it 30 minutes?!”
“No.”
“Three hours ……?”
“No.”
Only then, after shaking his head side to side over and over again, did Master’s older brother give me a straight answer.
“Three days.”
………… Looking away from that memory, I gradually turn my focus back onto the board.
I’ve never made any high-difficulty puzzles like that before.
Then again, I’ve never tried. Part of that has to do with Master forbidding me from making them. I couldn’t put my heart into it.
First, I look between the board and the pieces in my hand and sift through the ideas that spring into my head. Master’s older brother advised me to stick to ones that have a lot of options for blocking pieces, so I focus on them specifically.
―――None of these will work ……
Ten-chan will see right through simple traps like this.
Ten seconds have gone by.
Pressure builds now that so many precious seconds are gone, so I scrap all the ideas I had and focus on sequences that would make Ten-chan make a mistake instead.
―――What is there?! Ten-chan doesn’t have a weakness …… or blindspots ……!
Of course, she doesn’t.
Her skills were complete the very first time I met her.
She was good at Bishop Exchange, meaning she never left any doors open.
Not to mention she had so many creative ideas for the early-game.
A prodigy who had everything I didn’t.
I’ve lined up every one of Ten-chan’s match records.
――― All of them are outstanding …… but her best was probably against Sora-sensei.
The Third Queen Match replay.
Ten-chan lost in the end …… seeing her strength in person as a journalist for the match gave me goosebumps.
―――Master probably liked the match that ended in a Repeat Draw better.
After all, it played out according to the match he had against Oishi-sensei right beforehand.
Ten-chan used and got immediate results after losing to Sora-sensei twice already.
“Nice, isn’t it? I got it from him.”
―――Her saying that …… made Sora-sensei really angry ……
Master would write notes on Ten-chan’s match records and put them on her parents’ gravestones.
I’ve snuck peeks at those notes before.
And I got jealous.
So jealous that the black fire roaring in my gut made me want to rip the whole thing to shreds. I still remember those flames.
I've been jealous of Ten-chan for lots of things since we met.
Her playing style is almost the same as Master’s.
I can’t get a word in when those two are talking.
And right now, they’re closing in on the solution to Shogi.
I know that their pace picked up dramatically once I, the live-in apprentice always getting in the way, was gone.
―――Everyone’s happier now …… except for me, anyway.
If Yaichi Kuzuryu’s first apprentice had been Ten-chan instead of me …… I think the Shogi world wouldn’t be such a mess right now.
20 seconds have passed.
Oh no …… I have to think hard about the formation on the board and make a Shogi puzzle, but I lost this much time thinking about Ten-chan ……
I can make a Shogi puzzle that can fool a computer.
The themes I prepared for today can do that.
But a person who can read the intent behind them could solve those puzzles in seconds.
―――Not enough! These aren’t enough!
Even if I strung all the ideas together in an extremely long sequence, Ten-chan wouldn’t even blink twice.
That’s why there’s only one conclusion here.
I can’t beat Ten-chan from this point.
It took me half of the only minute I have to reach that answer.
Time remaining: ―――30 seconds.
“…………………………………………”
I softly place the piece in my hand back onto my piece stand.
Because I’ll use the last 30 seconds I have to come to terms with defeat like a Shogi player does when their last ray of hope gets snuffed out ……
…… I thought I’d gotten stronger …… But I just can’t beat Ten-chan ……
I mean, even that first match we played against each other in the Practice League, she completely schooled me―――
“Ah!”
It hits me.
―――There ……
I’ve found the last key I’ve been looking for all this time.
It feels like finding two jigsaw puzzle pieces that fit perfectly after all the pieces were scattered.
My heart leaps with excitement after being quiet for so long. I go back and find a Shogi puzzle I’d almost thrown away and desperately try to put it back together. All 11 of my mental Shogi boards are working at light speed, lining up the pieces when they turn and yell at me.
Sounding surprisingly like Keika …………
“…… conds―――”
“Dah?!”
The realization that she has started counting down brings me back to the top side.
Blood drains from my face.
It’s the same as waking up for the second time on a school day. That oh no! feeling. Suddenly I’m sweating from head to toe ……! I yell out of reflex.
“H-How many minutes?!”
“None. Six, seven, eight, ni―――”
“!!”
I have one second.
No time to hesitate. I reach out over the board to spring the trap I’ve spent this whole match setting up.
“――――――――――Here!!”
“Hmph? I see how it is ……”
Ten-chan smirks when she sees what piece I played.
“Studied up on the weaknesses of deep learning software, have you?”
She saw right through me, and it didn’t even take a second.
“Yes, it’s true that even Awaji needs a lot of time to read through every sequence when there are many options available for pieces to block with. Put up enough of these instant death sequences, and it might eventually trigger one. But aren’t you forgetting something? You’re playing against ……. a human being right now!”
She flicks her long, black hair out like a wing.
Then, snapping down a piece with a high-pitched crack, she turns her hand over and beckons me forward.
“Come. I’ll dance for you.”
“HEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHERE!!”
Attack, attack and attack some more. That way, pieces keep getting exchanged and options keep growing higher and higher as I draw Ten-chan into the formation I built on the opposite side of the world.
“Come at me all you want! I’ll keep dancing through the very end!!”
“HEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHERE!!”
I crank up the speed and make the board even more complex.
Ten-chan’s King spins and pliés about the board, but it doesn’t make a single mistake. It’s enough to make the little voice in my head think she read through this sequence ages ago ……
―――Don’t give in! I can’t give up now! Make your fighting spirit come across on the board!!
Even if I’m losing right now!
Even if I’m going against the solution to Shogi!
I haven’t lost …… as long as my spirit isn’t broken!!
“HEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHERE!!”
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Ten-chan’s waiting time goes by.
She’s not letting me see that she’s out of breath, but even Ten-chan has to be exhausted after dancing so elegantly this long!
When suddenly she almost leaps off the armrest she was leaning on and shouts, “How long is left?!”
“Four minutes.”
“Tch ……”
This is the first time in the entire match she’s looked like she’s under pressure.
Then she leans over and loosens the ribbon around her collar. I think she didn’t mean to, but she also yells, “…… Too hot!”
―――Now ……!
I make my move.
“HEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHEREHERE――――HERE!!”
I can’t checkmate Ten-chan’s King. At least, not right now.
That’s why―――
“Now, you give me options?! Challenging me to checkmate you, huh?! I accept!!”
Yes. I played an open challenge to Ten-chan just now.
“You say you have Shogi’s solution figured out. Why don’t you prove it?”
“KRRNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Ten-chan covers one eye with her hand and clenches so hard, I’m amazed it didn’t fall out.
She’s never shown so much tenacity before, not even against Sora-sensei!
It makes me feel satisfied to know that I forced the Shogi player Ai Yashajin to go all out.
I can’t win otherwise.
“―――――――Got it.”
Ten-chan lets out a deep breath and she makes her move with shaky fingers.
“It’s over, Ai,” she tells me.
“………… Sorry about this.”
“Huh?!”
The match certainly did end when she made that move.
I don’t hesitate and slide a piece into position.
Ten-chan makes her move just as fast. Two checks in a row using no time at all.
But―――
“…………… Wha …………?”
That white hand of hers stops in midair.
She leans in so close that her nose almost touches the board and then looks up at me in wide-eyed disbelief.
“Wh-What did you―――?”
Ten-chan is always so collected, but she’s on the verge of losing her composure.
“What did you do?! Ai Hinatsuru!! WHAT DID YOU ……?!”
I can’t say anything, but Keika speaks up from the boardside table.
“Yashajin-sensei, one-minute Shogi begins now.”
“……!!”
Ten-chan’s pretty black hair gets frazzled as she scratches her head relentlessly between moves.
Her fingers tremble so hard she can’t hold a piece.
“I-Impossible! I know you stepped on a death flag! This result completely violates true Shogi, and that’s impossible!! This ………… THIS ……!!”
Yes. I think so, too.
I really think she found a core truth to Shogi.
“Th-This …… sequence, like someone drew it up …… happening in a real match ……? Was Shogi …… always so pretty? ……”
The reason why I still came out on top in the end is―――
“………… So …… That was it ……”
Once she sees that she can’t checkmate me …… by the skin of my teeth, Ten-chan organizes her messy piece stand.
Then, after clearing a check path, she leaves everything to me.
For the first time this whole match …… Ten-chan’s real feelings come across in that move.
So I play the next move out of respect: putting her in check.
That move―――is our last.
“Well then, Awaji lost,” says Ten-chan as she adjusts the loose ribbon and bows her head.