Today, September 9th, is the birthday of Ginko Sora, the victorious heroine of The Ryuo's Work is Never Done!!
On this day, which makes one feel the importance of life, I am releasing the plot for the Ginko Death Route.
For those wondering "Ginko dies? Why?", please read these articles first.
https://x.com/nankagun/status/2080594770146271337
https://x.com/nankagun/status/2081943108753985657
Now then.
This September marks the 10th anniversary of the start of The Ryuo's Work is Never Done! series.
The first volume was released in September 2015.
However, research began four years prior in 2011.
The first plot was drafted that year, and the first draft of Volume 1 was completed in June 2014.
In the manuscript from that time, the character names were different.
The protagonist, Yaichi Kuzuryu, was Yaichi Jinba (or Yaichi Musashino in even earlier plots. Why?).
The heroine, Ai Hinatsuru, was Ai Sakuragi.
Only the senior disciple has always remained "Ginko Sora," as I wrote in previous articles.
By the way, the title Yaichi was to acquire was not "Ryuo" but "Kisei."
Wait? That's the same as a certain eight-crown holder... (It's true!).
The title of the work itself was Aigakari, and it only became The Ryuo's Work is Never Done! in 2015.
Once I decided the title the protagonist would acquire was "Ryuo," Yaichi's surname changed to "Kuzuryu" and Ai's surname changed to "Hinatsuru."
I finished thinking through the final scene of the entire series in August 2015, just before the release of Volume 1.
At that time, I just thought, "It would be nice if I could write up to this point."
This is the first time I've released a plot, and since it's from 10 years ago, it's a bit embarrassing, but...
That was a long introduction. Please take a look. It's quite long.
[Ginko Death Route Plot]
● Volume 8: The 3-Dan League (Part 1) (In the actual published version, this corresponds to Volume 11)
The Queen match where Ten-ai became the challenger ends in a straight-set victory for Ginko. As declared, she finishes it before the summer heat sets in.
Despite showing overwhelming strength, Ginko struggles in her first challenge in the 3-dan league.
Ginko begins to suffer from recurring fevers of unknown cause. She always had this tendency, but it worsened after she reached 1-dan. She told no one because she thought it would be a disadvantage as a competitor.
"I just thought she was weak to the heat because of her fair skin..." Yaichi blames himself for not noticing.
After losing two consecutive matches on the first day of the 3-dan league, Ginko asks only Yaichi for help and sleeps in agony in her secret apartment.
While nursing Ginko, Yaichi discovers her shogi record notebook in that room.
Looking at that notebook, he reminisces about the days he first met Ginko, their days as live-in disciples, and the painful days in the Apprentice Association.
The seniors and peers from the 3-dan league days, and the fun days despite the harshness.
The 3-dan players who appeared in memories of Apprentice Association trips stand in Ginko's way as enemies in the next volume.
● Volume 9: The 3-Dan League (Part 2) (In the actual published version, this corresponds to Volume 12)
Ginko regains her form and starts racking up wins.
The 3-dan league becomes an unprecedentedly chaotic battle, giving birth to various dramas.
Ginko secures a victory in Tokyo on the final day, becoming the first-ever female professional shogi player, but loses consciousness after the match and never returns.
Before she dies, Ginko recites a shogi record in her delirium. It ends with "2-7 Silver." It was the record of the first shogi match she played with Yaichi (when she lost their first match, Ginko had kept the record. Yaichi saw that notebook while nursing her in the previous volume. That was the introduction to the flashback).
Ginko's body is covered in blue bruises, as if she had been beaten, due to purpura. She was literally battered.
It's not a fatal disease if discovered, but she kept hiding it, thinking she would be stopped from participating in the 3-dan league.
Ginko's parents look at their daughter and say, "You don't have to fight anymore."
There was a senior apprentice who would have been promoted due to Ginko's death, but the apprentices collectively refuse that promotion. The apprentice who ended up leaving the association said, "As a shogi player, I may have died. But my life wasn't taken. We lost to Ginko-chan, who literally put her life on the line."
After Ginko's funeral, the apprentices gather, and the one leaving gives a greeting. "Soon, the next battle will begin. These painful, harsh, but irreplaceable days of youth... I hate the word 'good luck,' so please fight to the end in your own way."
Yaichi receives a letter from Ginko's mother.
The letter begins by saying she is writing because it is too painful to meet and talk yet. It says that whenever Ginko returned home, she only talked about shogi and her younger fellow disciple. "The days she spent with you were the entirety of her modest youth. Thank you for being with my daughter. Together with that child who has returned to the sky, I will always be cheering for you."
Afterward, Yaichi's shogi style changes as if he were a different person.
The Ryuo match in October. The challenger is a specialist in Bishop Exchange.
When arranging the pieces, he picks up a Silver piece and his hand stops for a moment. He places it gently on the board as if cherishing it.
The first game of the Ryuo match. Yaichi draws Gote (second player).
To the Sente's first move of 7-6 Pawn opening the Bishop's path, Yaichi thinks for a moment and plays 4-2 Silver. It was a move that shocked everyone.
Yaichi wins this game, where the Silver piece played a major role, in an overwhelming victory before noon on the second day. The challenger could do nothing and sat frozen, turning pale in front of the board.
In the end, he defends his Ryuo title with overwhelming power, letting the challenger do nothing. Because of that gruesome, slaughter-like way of winning, people begin to call Yaichi the "Demon King of the West."
Part One ends here.
(Senior apprentice... the name wasn't decided at this point, but it's the later Keisu-san. Sota isn't there yet. Naturally, since Sota Fujii became a 4-dan in 2016, haha.)
● Volume 10: Part Two - The Longest Day in the Shogi World (In the actual published version, this corresponds to Volume 14)
Four years later.
Yaichi, who has become the first Eternal Ryuo, won seven consecutive Ryuo titles, and holds multiple crowns, is the leading figure in the shogi world in both name and reality.
Ai, Ten-ai, and Keika are also active in the female professional shogi world. After Ginko's death, the female shogi world was in a state of civil war.
Among them, Ai and Ten-ai shared the Queen and Female Ryuo titles, becoming the two pillars of the female shogi world.
Ai, now a third-year middle school student, considers her future and tells Yaichi she is going to a high school in Tokyo.
"I'm going to Tokyo. And I'm going to take the Apprentice Association exam."
Yaichi opposes that decision.
But Ai doesn't back down. She felt that to get Yaichi, who had lost Ginko, to look at her, she had to climb to the same heights.
Yaichi opposes her taking the exam and threatens to "excommunicate" her, but Ai finds another master and forces the exam, ending her six years as a live-in disciple.
In March, Ai takes the Apprentice Association exam in Tokyo.
The same March that Ai left for Tokyo.
Yaichi, who has become an A-class player, faces the final round of the ranking matches, known as "The Longest Day in the Shogi World."
The Shogi Federation decides to hold the final A-class ranking match and the Apprentice Association exam for Ai, a female title holder, on the same day, and the exam is broadcast online and on TV.
After a fierce battle for the right to challenge the Meijin, Yaichi loses and fails to become the challenger.
On the same day, Ai, who was taking the Apprentice Association exam, achieves a special promotion to 1-dan.
(I have drafted the plot up to Volume 15, but I will omit it and just provide an overview. The following overview was also left in the overall composition notes as of August 2015.)
● The Conclusion between Ai and Ten-ai
Ai and Ten-ai try to release Yaichi from Ginko's curse through different approaches.
Ai tries to stand on the same stage as Ginko. By standing on the same stage as Yaichi as a professional shogi player, she tries to sit in front of him as an equal opponent and connect eternally through shogi.
In a sense, an approach to be loved by Yaichi even as a substitute for Ginko. Using the power of shogi to push Ginko aside and sit in that spot herself.
For Ai, shogi and romance are inseparable; it's not a question of which is more important.
Ten-ai has parts where her love for Yaichi surpasses her love for shogi.
For Ten-ai, who originally escaped into shogi seeking a connection with her parents, now that she has found someone she loves more than her parents, being loved by that person is her ultimate goal, and there is no need to play shogi.
She just can't throw away shogi because her connection with Yaichi is through it. She wants Yaichi to value her (Ten-ai) most, not shogi.
Therefore, her approach to Yaichi is one that excludes shogi.
She tries to tell Yaichi, "There are plenty of happinesses other than shogi." That's why they live together, and she can't forgive Ai for leaving Yaichi's side on her own.
Ten-ai tries to break Ai's heart by beating her at shogi. "You talk big, but you're weaker than me, aren't you?"
Ten-ai had much more talent, but Ai's love for shogi led to effort, and Ai began to surpass her in skill. The difference between Ai, who was always thinking about shogi because she loved it, and Ten-ai, who came to hate shogi.
The two, who clashed in the Newcomer King tournament final as the first-ever match between a female professional and an apprentice, end their battle with Ai's victory after a full-set intense match.
After the match, the two reconcile. "Taking Yaichi back from Ginko is much, much harder than beating me, you know?" "Yeah. I know. But I'll win, definitely." They stay up all night talking in the same room without sleeping.
Ten-ai, having lost to Ai, entrusts Yaichi to Ai and leaves shogi to go abroad. It was also a farewell and a challenge to herself, who had closed her heart by escaping into shogi.
When Yaichi tries to stop her, she asks, "Will you come with me? To a country without shogi." To the hesitating Yaichi, she smiles and says, "I thought so," and then says, "Be honest with yourself, Master," before leaving. She had seen through the fact that Yaichi, who continued to be trapped in the guilt of forgetting Ginko, was actually attracted to Ai.
● Final Scene
In the end, Yaichi and Ai play shogi just like in Volume 1.
When he returns home, Ai is already in the room, waiting for Yaichi just like when they first met (or, is she sitting at the board waiting for Yaichi in their first professional official match (Title match? Ryuo match?)).
"If I win, please make me your disciple."
"If I win?"
"I'll keep doing it until I win!"
Yaichi feels a pain in his chest when he holds a Silver piece, but he feels it is healing just a little.
He had always wondered if it was okay for him to be happy while forgetting the deceased Ginko, or if he could be happy while his comrades had lost and left the shogi world, but he thinks he might be able to leave that curse behind.
Whenever he was tired or suffering from playing shogi, it was always Ai who reminded him of the fun. Yaichi feels that such happiness exists in shogi too.
● Final Scene 2
An epilogue-like part. A story about the anniversary of Ginko's death.
It starts with someone calling out "Kuzuryu-sensei!" This is not about Yaichi, but about Ai, who married and changed her surname a few years later.
Ai takes on more and more disciples and makes almost all of them live-in disciples, so the neighbors think the Kuzuryu family has an incredible number of children.
Ten-ai, who had gone abroad, comes to visit. Ten-ai has become a doctor. And she is teaching shogi to children in the hospital.
What did you think?
I re-read it for the first time in a long while, and I think this is a beautiful composition in its own way.
Time skipping four years after Ginko's death feels a bit too typical, so I have some resistance to it... but you can feel the strong determination of Shiratori-sensei: "I will never let a romance with a loli happen!" (laughs).
However, I think this composition is something that probably anyone could predict.
It's too clean and doesn't exceed the framework of "it will probably turn out like this."
In that sense, I'm glad I went with the development where Ginko doesn't die.
Thanks to that, I was able to spend painful but happy days writing the story while being directly influenced by a very interesting period in shogi history.
In this plot, the rapid growth of shogi software (AI) and the activities of Reiwa-era players led by Sota Fujii are missing.
For The Ryuo's Work is Never Done!, research into the shogi world intensified after the release of Volume 1.
By incorporating the results of that research into the work, I was able to expand the story to a scale I couldn't have imagined 10 years ago.
I had decided on the landing point of Ai challenging Yaichi, so I think I narrowly avoided a collapse... what do you think?
For those who "haven't read the original work yet," please compare this plot with the Ginko survival route and see which is more interesting!
The Ginko survival route The Ryuo's Work is Never Done! main story
All 21 volumes are now on sale to great acclaim!
