Gold General
Knight
Geez. You finally look this way.
Yes. Actually, Big Brother...
I want you to...
I want you to split Kiriyama's head in half.
Dang it, kiddo...
I was wondering what you were going to say.
Such a troublesome thing...
Blinding Darkness
Well, then...
Let's continue, shall we?
Prompted by him, I looked at the board...
...and quickly came back to my senses.
I can't continue.
That's how bad this is.
The first thing I felt was shock.
Then I was assailed...
...by a wave of embarrassment.
Until just a minute ago, what did I think he was?
Matches against people like that are usually drawn-out battles.
It's not my favorite.
What the hell? "People like that"?
I can't get irritated.
That's where he'll eat me alive.
How can I be so arrogant?
"I can't get irritated"?
How can I misread his level so much?
I just wanted to win, so I drew the game out, waiting for him to make a mistake,
while I thought of him as a player for nothing more than his "ranking".
I can not lose here.
No matter what.
I couldn't even accurately gauge the strength of the player in front of me,
and I let my head get filled with a personal grudge.
He's a Rank A player and I treat him like a side character?
Am I an idiot?
I-I want to run away.
I want to disappear.
From here...
Pitch black...
yet blinding...
I can't breathe...
With that brief clearing of his throat,
I understood he was telling me to "calm down".
At his prompting...
...with my mind in a state of confusion,
I desperately searched for my next move.
I searched...
And then I realized...
The fact that I'd been looking down my nose at him...
The fact that I just figured out how wrong I was, and that I'm flustered...
He saw through it.
He saw through all of it,
and yet, he still sits there quietly.
If I run away in the middle of the game just because I'm mortified,
it would be truly selfish and he knows that, too.
Shogi Hall
And so I scraped up every last bit of desperation and continued playing.
But the match ended before I could recover at all.
And then...
...the post-match review began.
F-From where?
Well...
Why don't we replay a bit from here?
5-h-Rook! From there?
He set it up right away, so that must have been the turning point.
But...
F-From here?
From a position like this?
It was already going badly for me by then?
Okay, if I went to 5-d-Pawn?
Same, Gold.
Same, Silver.
2-d-Bishop.
Same, Pawn.
Th-Then if I'd done this...
1-e-Pawn.
Same, Pawn.
Then, how about 3-e-Silver?
Same, Silver.
Same, Bishop.
3-g-Pawn+.
1-e-Lance.
Same, Lance.
3-d-Pawn.
4-b-Silver...
Th-Then what about 1-e-Pawn, same, Pawn, 6-e-Pawn?
5-g-Bishop+, same, Silver, 3-g-Bishop...
A complete defeat.
Both the match and my approach...
Thank you...
I was so embarrassed, my voice trembled.
Everything in front of me flickered in black and white.
My insight, everything...
I...
...completely lost.
Look at him go.
Smith. Oh, today you have...
No, just here to practice a bit. Issa and I were discussing your match.
I kind of feel bad for Kiriyama.
With his inexperience, he misjudged his opponent's level,
got blown away, and now feels like he's lost everything.
I get it, I get it. The rashness of youth.
How embarrassing.
Sheesh...
Before this match, that punk only made copies of Mr. Gotou's and your game records.
And I bet he focused on how Gotou has 20 games, but I only have five.
Wood Carving
What, I'm right?
Wow, that kid pisses me off.
Well, I've done something similar before in the past.
Although it wasn't anything as obvious as that.
Well, yeah. Well, everyone has. Well, a little bit.
I don't want to remember mine, though.
So you've got Mr. Gotou next, huh?
Please do your best. He's scary, though. His face...
Yeah. I want to win. Though he is scary... His face, anyway.
I want to win, and then play against Souya.
The Title Match...
I'm starving. You want to stop somewhere?
- I've kind of got something... - What, girlfriend?
Well, not exactly that...
Well, fine then. Go on. Shoo, shoo.
Then I'll see you. Good game today.
Harunobu Nikaidou
Call Dialing
Hello? Kiddo?
How are you feeling?
I see.
Yeah, I won. Uh-huh.
I see. You already watched it online, huh?
Still, he's an interesting fellow.
A jumble of stubbornness and honesty.
I don't know if I cracked his head open, though.
Yeah. I kind of understand what you were talking about, kiddo.
Hey, yeah. You think we should invite him to join the workshop?
Meanwhile, at Smith's apartment
I'm home.
Strawberry!
Sorry I kept you waiting! Time for num-nums!
Kissy-kissy!
You're such a cutie-pie!
Did you miss me?
Blinding Darkness
Just a Little Water
If I'm awake, I couldn't stop thinking about everything,
so I slept.
And I kept on sleeping.
All that time, I assumed I'd be up against Gotou...
So instead of getting any regular sleep,
I spent all my time obsessively going over the game records,
and neglected to eat and drink for days, so now I crashed and slept like a log.
But at last, it became impossible to keep sleeping.
Ow!
Wh-What is this?
I was dehydrated.
The symptoms would go away if I could rehydrate...
...but everything I drank came right back out the same way.
I panicked.
This is bad. What should I do?
If I lose any more water...
I had a faint memory of slowly, slowly lapping up
a sports drink with a pinch of salt.
It took me over half a day to summon the energy just to get up.
Fried Chicken Fair
The next day, I basically crawled to the neighborhood convenience store.
I'm an idiot.
I'm even terrible at depression.
Free - Please take
Retail, office work...
Programmer...
Hall staff... security...
Driver... kitchen staff...
There are so many different kinds of jobs.
But almost all of them...
No experience necessary! High school graduates (18 and older)
Yeah. That's only natural.
I graduate high school in two years.
Until then, the only way a student like me can earn money to pay rent
is to continue playing shogi.
I have so many matches that my days absent in school is at a risky count...
But I have to at least graduate high school.
So I can eventually be able to choose my own path.
That's what I thought, and so I came to school.
Pass it! Pass it!
Number team, over here!
- Here we go! - Yeah!
All of a sudden, P.E.?
And basketball?
Wh-Where should I be?
For now, I'll just run so I don't stand out.
Um, you over there! Who was he?
In the glasses! Over to you!
Wh-What?
The ball came to me?!
Um... Uh, what am I supposed to do?
The goal is over there,
so I should pass it to someone, right?
That's mine!
Moron!
Damn it, glasses, what the hell are you doing?
Good question.
Really, what the hell am I doing?
No good. I don't taste anything.
It's like chewing on sand.
Does this really amount to "not running away"?
I wanted memories of not running away.
What do I do if I was just pretending not to run away?
What do I do? I feel like I don't know anymore.
Something's different.
I'm not the high school student I imagined to be.
I thought I would be able to handle it.
I thought if I could leave home, pay rent, and feed myself,
I would become an adult.
If I became an adult,
I thought I wouldn't have to cry anymore.
That's what I thought.
Kiriyama!
What's wrong? You're crying!
Gahhh!
What the hell? And what's this, a job magazine?
What does it mean?
A high school student sitting alone on the stairs, crying while reading a job magazine!
There's something already crazy about this whole setup!
Moreover, he's the fifth middle school student professional shogi player in history!
The rising star of the shogi world!
I don't know where to dig in first!
Jeez!
First, eat!
But...
Never mind, just eat this!
Who eats cold food when they're depressed?
It might kill you.
Reach for something warm instead.
Otherwise you'll lose half your hit points!
Hey, Kiriyama.
Why don't you try moving back to your mentor's house?
But...
You have rank-deciding competitions and tournaments throughout the year,
you go to school, with tests and stuff,
meals to make, laundry, and whatever else is going on around you.
That's too much for a 17-year-old to handle.
- But... - You've exceeded your capacity.
That's just a fact.
It was too bad regarding the Lion King Tournament.
I saw it online.
Shimada 8th-Dan. Damn, he's strong.
He came up with Master Souya, but never stood out.
Still, he steadily and persistently made his way to Rank A.
He's the personification of "hard work".
And recently he's been a regular at all the Title Matches.
Incredible, isn't it?
You know a lot about him.
We're the same age, so of course I'm curious.
You know?
Shimada 8th-Dan is also passionate about popularizing shogi.
He's got a workshop, where he helps train young players...
Come to think of it, how about something like that for you?
Joining a workshop?
No. I don't really...
You should join.
But I...
Shimada 8th-Dan's workshop.
As I recall, Nikaidou 4th-Dan is a member.
- But... - Why not? It would be a waste.
Being able to learn from the person who beat you is a huge opportunity.
But...
Jeez!
That's all you've been saying! But-but-but!
Argh!
If 100 buts opened a door, that'd be fine, but obviously there ain't no door like that!
But...
No more damn buts!
Shogi Hall
Um, Brother. Why can't we just reach out to Kiriyama directly?
Weren't you saying the other day that we should invite him to join the workshop?
It's difficult to explain, but you know...
All we can do is wait for him to make the first move.
Is that how it is?
Yeah.
That's how it is.
Just a Little Water
Next Episode Preview
Episode 15
Hey, Kiriyama. Look at this. It's amazing.
What is that? A fight?
I don't believe it. I've never seen Mr. Shimada like this before.
No way! I can still keep going!
Is it really something so bad?
What is this feeling?
Strawberry will be just as cute in the next episode of "March Comes in Like a Lion"!
I can't wait!
I don't think she'll be in the next one.
What? But she's so cute! Why not?!