Shiratori The Ryuo's Work Is Never Done! Volume 1

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-7183-6356-4
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 250 Seiten

Reihe: The Ryuo's Work Is Never Done!

At the age of sixteen, Yaichi Kuzuryu has become the youngest person to ever claim the esteemed champion's title of 'Ryuo,' the strongest in the Shogi world. But just when he's made it to the top, he falls into a devastating slump, losing eleven games in a row.

Burdened by expectations and shaken by defeat, Yaichi questions whether it's time to abandon the 'safe' playstyle that brought him this far-when nine-year-old Ai Hinatsuru walks through the door to his home?! She's here to collect on a promise he barely remembers making, a promise to take her on as his apprentice, and she's not leaving until he commits.

Training a gifted young prodigy is hard enough, but living under the same roof with her proves to be a career-defining challenge. Still, as Ai's unyielding enthusiasm reignites his passion for the game, Yaichi begins to wonder if this unlikely partnership is exactly what he needs to shake off his losing streak-as long as his new apprentice doesn't turn his life upside down first!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shiratori, Shirow

Weitere Mitwirkende

Shirabii

Gaippe, Andrew

Leseproben

Yaichi’s Gratitude

“WIZZZZZZZZZZ!!!”

A man’s yell blares through Naniwa’s streets.

This is Osaka. A rather strange building with written in big, bold letters on the outside wall.

Said man loosens his belt and leans out the fifth-floor window, pants falling to his knees, exposing his boxer shorts for all to see, and yells at the top of his lungs.

“Wizz! Gonna wiz!”

“Kiyotaki-! Get down from there, it’s dangerous!!!”

“You’re a full-fledged 9-! What’s a fifty-year-old like yourself doin’ up there?!”

“WIZZZZZ!!! WIZZZZZZZZZZ!!!”

All the staff members here at the Kansai Shogi Headquarters and other pro Shogi players like myself rush in to stop him, but the man—Kousuke Kiyotaki 9- (50 years old)—didn’t listen. He was actually getting even louder, more insistent.

“That a jumper?!”

“Huh?! Underpants?!”

Office workers, men and women alike, stopping to gawk at street level down below. Heck, they’re taking pics with their smartphones.

“Master!!! Please, stop!!! This is madness!!!”

I, Yaichi Kuzuryu, grab hold of my Master, Kousuke Kiyotaki’s waist to keep him from falling out the window and pull with everything I’ve got.

“Hands off me, Yaichiiiii!!! I’m gonna...gonna wiz right heeeeerrrrre!!!”

My Master yells with his skivvies fully exposed and clinging to the windowsill. Practically howling.

“WIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZ!!!”

Why has he gone off the deep end?

Why is a fifty-year-old man bound and determined to relieve himself out the window of our workplace?

It all started a few hours ago—

That day at the Kansai Shogi Association Headquarters was supposed to be a special day for both of us: a match was scheduled between me and Kiyotaki 9-.

“Master versus apprentice.”

The first sanctioned match between us since I became a professional.

“I would like to show my Master how much I’ve grown, and to complete a ,” I told the reporters just before the match got underway.

After turning pro at fifteen years old in October two years ago, I shocked the world of professional Shogi by becoming only the fourth junior high student to do so in history and the youngest person to ever hold the title at the same time. Everyone’s attention was on me.

And although my Master, Kousuke Kiyotaki 9-, only has a few titles to his name, he’s a seasoned veteran who’s gone all the way to two major title matches.

With his deep, complex strategies and burning desire to win, he’s a prominent figure in Kansai’s Shogi scene.

“The opponent may be an apprentice of mine, but he’s a title holder as well. I relish the opportunity to test my abilities against such skill. I want to unleash my youthful spirit, let it flow freely during today’s match.”

He sat on his ankles, grinning at me with his eyes while talking with the reporters. I swear his fighting spirit was spewing out from behind that new suit he was wearing.

After we agreed to shake hands over the Shogi board to satisfy a reporter’s request, the air in here took on a somber, but kind of warm tone: my first real match against my Master got underway—

And now Master has exposed his legs right along with that youthful spirit, dead set on “unleashing a free flow” from a fifth-floor window of the , practically a holy site for the Kansai Shogi community.

“WIIIIIZZZZZ FOUNTAAAAAIIIINNNN!!!”

“DON’T YOU DAAAAARRRRREEEEE!!!”

Every free hand at the Japan Shogi Association Headquarters moves in to stop the wiz fountain from liftoff.

Oh yeah, I won the match.

The Shogi world has a word for when a student defeats their Master: .

“

We express that gratitude not with words, but with victory.

But it’s also true that losing a Shogi match, even if it’s to your adorable apprentice, hurts like hell: being so handily beaten by someone you think of as your own kid, someone who barely stood a chance against you without a handicap only a few years ago!

Now that would take your pro player pride down a few notches, and probably hurt much more than the average loss.

“Think of the position that you relieving yourself here would put me in, Master!”

“WIZZZZZ!!! WIZ FOUNTAAAAIIIINNN!!!”

That’s my Master (50) clinging to the windowsill like a spoiled child refusing to leave a toy store. I realize he’s hurting, but this is way too much.

The reporters came here hoping to write a heart-touching story with quotes like “You’ve grown strong, Yaichi” and my teary-eyed “M-Master!” But instead get a “wiz fountain” photo opp. There’s no way they can write about this.

And, honestly, I’m disappointed.

Never in a million years did I think that he’d praise me, but I was hoping that he’d show some grace in defeat, like an honorable of the Shogi world.

But the reality is completely different. The reality is an old man going number one.

He ended the match, acknowledging defeat by throwing captured pieces onto the board (horrible manners by the way) and staying silent in agony. Face down, staring into his lap, shoulders shaking. It hurt, it hurt so bad that his body shook.

Talk about an awkward silence, and I couldn’t say anything. “ That kind of feeling while sitting on my own feet.

Normally, we’d be dissecting the match about now, but it clearly wasn’t the right mood for that. Even the reporters were staring at the floor like they were attending a vigil or at somebody’s funeral.

Master just sat there quivering for upwards of fifteen minutes.

Then, completely out of the blue, he jumped to his feet and ran over to the window, yelling at the top of his lungs.

“WWWWWIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZ—!!!”

“ENOUGH ALREADYYYYYYYYYY—!!!”

I’ve had it! I can’t take this anymore!

I hate to do this, especially to my own Master...But I can throw my weight around.

“As , I order you to use the toilet like a grown man!!!”

“...!!!”

His whole body twitches, the hand that was on its way to pull down his boxers stops in midair.

Shogi begins and ends with respect, a bow. It’s a battle of minds built on tradition and formality.

After today’s match, he knows I’ve claimed the seat of honor. It doesn’t matter how many years he has on me, or even that he’s my Master, I hold a higher-ranking title and he has to respect that.

Especially since that title, , is one of seven in the world of Shogi that denotes “mastery” of the craft, a title like .

“Now, Master. No, Kiyotaki 9-, lift up your pants.”

“....”

“Say what?”

“ my bum, ya piece of trash! Ya got that title out of sheer luck, !”

Th-This frickin’ geezer...Callin’ me , are you...?!

“That’s Kuzuryu , not , thank you very much! Besides, you’re the one that lost!!!”

“Some magazine threw this joke of a match together! Wasn’t a league match, so it doesn’t count!!!”

“The match was organized by the best-selling Shogi magazine in the world, ! It carries the same weight as a league match!!!

“There are other Shogi magazines out there! Ever heard of or ?!”

“Best in the world means best in the world! To the tune of 200,000 in print!!!”

Pro, amateur, it doesn’t matter. If there’s anything you want to know about Shogi, you can find it within its pages: that’s in a nutshell.

“Know what I think? I think you should just own up to losing to your apprentice if it hurts that bad! Stop making excuses!”

“Oh, the paaaiiinnn! Losing to the , who can’t even win thirty percent of his matches, so painfuuul!!!”

“Call me trash one more time old man, one more!!!”

“One? I’ll go for a hundred, ya trash trash trash TRAAASH!!!”

“You’re not my Master anymore! I’m expelling you!!!”

Master, apprentice, we’re done, it’s all over! I’m gonna put this geezer in his place! Then take him to the john.

That’s when it happened.

“Yaichi.”

“Oh! Big Sis!

A silver-haired, pretty girl with snow-white skin wearing a sailor-style school uniform had been standing quietly behind me the whole time.

Ginko Sora.

I’m older but still have to refer to her like an older sister just because she started before I did, Kiyotaki-’s very first apprentice.

...