3-gatsu no Lion 61

[3-Gatsu no Lion 61 Translation by Kewl0210]
Page 125:
Title: Chapter.61
Adventurers

Page 126:
Rei: What
are you talking about?
As soon as I saw the faces of those two adults that seemed to say "Darn it.",
I understood.
Nikaidou... In the hospital...?
What happened?
I was the only one
that hadn't known.

Page 127:
Shimata: It's nothing major.
He's always been sickly.
And the strain from the Newcomer Championship Semi-Finals seems to have caused a bad episode...
Pres: Yeah, that's right.
Okay, Shimada, let's go get a drink.
Rei: Please, wait!
If this is just one of his usual health problems,
Then he could just get in his limousine with the bed in it or something.
He'd definitely come back. He's got the rank-deciding-matches!
---But he's staying in the hospital for a while...?
Is it that bad?
Shimada: ......
Kiriyama.

Page 128:
Shimada: If I don't answer no matter how you ask,
then there's got to be some reason for that, right?
-----I hope you understand that much.
Rei: ----I'd honestly been somewhat aware of it.
Hanaoka-san, someone that would never leave his side,
would always have these pale-colored beautifully dyed bento boxes.
And I would always see lots of medicine in his bag.
I'd really always...
wanted to ask...

Page 129:
Rei: ......
I see.
It was bad enough
that Nikaidou
didn't want me to ask.
In that case...
could I ask you
what the entirety of that reason is?
I knew ever since we were kids...
PRes: Shimada,
I'm heading home.
Good luck with the rest.

Page 130:
Rei: Then Shimada-san
talked to me about Nikaidou.
Shima: Kiriyama.
How about we go get some food?
Rei: About his little brother disciple.
Shimada: Huh?
You're taking on another disciple?
Old man: Mm.
Rei: In order to become a shogi pro, you must first enter the Shoureikai.
Shimada: But sensei, you always said
that you were done with disciples after me, didn't you?
And you had that health scare last year.
So why now...?
Old man: Well,
ya seeee,
I just found a kid that was so darn interesting.
SFX: HMM...

Page 131:
Rei: And in order to do that
you're required to be someone's disciple.
Shima: ----And so that's how I met Bou when he was in the 4th year of elementary school.
Nikai: Nice to meet you.
I'm Nikaidou Harunobu.
SFX: KRIHH CHIMAH (COMPACT)
Old man: Mm.
This is Shimada 6-dan. Your big brother.
Shimada: ...Huh?
I feel like I've seen this boy somewhere...
Old man: Get along with him, okay?
Handwritten: So round...
Shima: I had a memory of that boy.
I'd seen him when I was working as a guest lecturer at a children's tournament.
What's with that perfectly round kid
making his grandpa carry a bento.
I heard he drove up in an amazing car.
I'm not getting a good vibe.
It's just a rich kid looking for something to do.
He'll be gone soon.
Nikai: ......

Page 132:
Old man: Be sure to chew each bite 30 times, all right?
Nikai: Mm.
SFX: MOGU MOGU (CHEW CHEW)
Shima: A deluxe bento, huh...?
Haaaaah...
Rich kids.
As someone who grew up poor, I was jealous of him immediately.
SFX: MOGGU MOGGU (Chew chew)
Shima: --------...Why would he go out of his way to enter this world?
He could buy as much manga or video games as he wants.
Well, I doubt he'll last long anyhow.
Games and PCs and all that are more fun anyhow.
SFX: POIH
Guy: Thank you all for waiting.
The finals will now begin.
From Suginami Ward, Tokyo, we have Kiriyama Rei-kun.
SFX: PACHI PACHI PACHI PACHI (Applause)
Shima: So that rich kid lost in the semis?
Hmm...
He fought a lot harder than I expected.
Handwritten: HMMM
SFX: KASA... HYOI...
Shima: I was surprised when I saw the notations.
Hey... What is this?
It was a power battle with both having static gyokus...?
And 185 moves...
Was this really grade school kids playing?

Page 133:
Guy: Are you all right?
I'll call an ambulance.
Old man: It's okay.
No need for an ambulance.
I have our car waiting downstairs.
Shima: From the calm way that old man dealt with the situation
I got a glimpse of the boy's long battle with illness.
---Shogi is an honest path.
You won't get better except by studying hard.
-----Yes. What I was looking at there
was the game notations for a single human
that had thrown away the idea of a fun, carefree childhood.

Page 134:
Shima: ----No, that's not right...
He
U...
Waa
It's huuuge.
He never even had a childhood
to throw away
in the first place...
Nikai: Sh-
Shimada 6-dan!!
Shima: Aah, it's okay, lay down.
I came here in place of the doctor.
He said you shouldn't be moving because of your nerve pain.
Handwritten: Excited about seeing one of the pro shogi players he admires
Shima: Okay, the doctor sent these.
He says 'Is it okay that they're old?'
Nikai: WAAH!
It's a first edition with raised cloth pictures!!

Page 135:
Shima: When I asked 'How about a game of shogi?'
Nikai: Is that okay?!
Shima: His bluish-black face turned red.
----And so, I started playing games with him every one in a while.
He would always try his hardest and lose, but he always made me work for it.
But then one day
I accidentally hurt him.
Nikai: Please don't hold back like that!
Shima: Bou...
I'd done it because
with his condition deteriorating with the successive losses
I'd wanted to give him some courage.
Nikai: If I get
'treated like a weak person' in Shogi, too,
then I won't know where I can live anymore!

Page 136:
Shima: His illness is considered incurable,
so it was something that would stick with him for his whole life.
Bou, I'm sorry.
I won't ever do
something like that again.
----He had harsh dietary restrictions.
But to keep his condition from worsening, he just had to put up with it and spend every day keeping his breathing easy.
He pretty much couldn't get into fights, sports, or play with friends at all.
The only place
where he could be the hero and run wild
was
on this board of 81 squares.
Kiriyama...
this is the notations of today's semi-finals match.

Page 137:
Nikai: Anijya.
Please don't tell Kiriyama about my illness.
If I wanna be strong, I need a rival.
He doesn't realize it himself, but he's a kind person. ----And he's insecure.
If he finds out, I'm sure he won't try as hard against me-----...
Rei: There were two pages of notations...
The first game in which they fully used their available time.
He was in an inferior position but he persisted through and through
and just when he got into superior position
the opponent caused a draw by repetition of moves.
----Then in the do-over of the game that came after......
in the one-minute shogi they played
there were 138th moves where he wrung his soul dry.....
Nikai: And then I
won't get any better...
T/N: One-minute shogi is a style of shogi where each player has only one minute left for each move.

Page 138:
Paper: Yamazaki Junkei
Nikaidou Harunobu [Top big boxes on the left]
Draw by repetition on move 119 [Center box]
Yagura [Right box]
Shima: Kiryama,
can you still do something
this merciless to Nikaidou?

Page 139:
SFX: T...
Rei: I'm going
to the finals.
Shima: .........
Okay.

Page 140:
Narration: The Newcomer Championship Finals were
----one wek later
at the Kansai Shogi Association...
Building: Shogi Association
Shima: Aw, darn.
It's really coming down.
Aw well. The station is close by...
How 'bout we run?
Kiri: Okay.
As we ran through that rain
that looked like silver thread

Page 141:
Rei: ----I
thought back on
Nikaidou's game record.
While there was 'Hesitation', 'faltering', 'recoiling',
still, he believed in 'what he'd done thus far'
and pushed forward like a fireball
seeking the 'land he aspired to'...
It was like
an adventure novel.
Bottom: Chapter.61 E N D


Page 142:
Top Right Small: An article by Senzaki Manabu
Top Right Big: Senzaki Manabu's Lion Shogi Column
Big Right: What kind of rule is draw by repetition......?!
Article: Shogi is a game where the goal is to make each move in a progression towards checkmating the opponent's gyoku. But occasionally the same sequence of turns can repeat over and over, resulting in no progress being made for either side. No matter how much the two play they just keep going in circles and can't come to a settlement so in this case the game is re-played due to 'draw by repetition'. In the official rules, the same four moves repeating in one game is considered a draw by repetition.
When a draw by repetition occurs, the game is replayed after a 30 minute break with the sente and gote switched. The feeling of fatigue you get from something you've been working on since 10 AM to suddenly be thrown out is considerable.
This also frequently occurs in the endgame when a considerable amount of play has taken place. This is to avoid a draw by repetition in the opening in so the sente, which has a slight advantage, does not get switched to being the gote.
On the other hand, players which are starting out as got may try to somehow force a draw by repetition to gain that advantage. This is a tactic commonly used on the pro level.
It frequently happens in the end game, often late at night, and re-playing a game in the middle of the night requires an enormous amount of emotional stamina. Also, the available time given to each player decreases so the moves come quite rapidly. Perhaps because of the fatigue they cause, there is an aphorism in the shogi world that states 'There are no famous games that occurred as redos due to draws by repetition'.
Draws by repetition occur a fair amount, they're not all that rare. Though how frequently they occur depends on the style of play, for most pro players they will happen once or twice a year. For some players it's less, only once every few years or so.
By the way, I'm the type it happens a lot to. In the last 6 months I've played 3 such games and I came home after midnight all 3 times. Now that I think about it, a long time ago I played a game where I ended up coming home at 6AM. The match had lasted a full 20 hours and I remember the sky being light out when it ended.
6AM was the latest a match ever ran, but in rank-deciding matches, it is common to have draws by repetition that end matches at 2AM or 3AM. For night owl players, this could be seen as advantageous. And as one might expect, younger players with more stamina have a larger tendency to win these games. There's an aphorism in the shogi world that 'Draw by repetition gives the advantage to the youth'.
This is a bit of a digression, but in the world of Go, a world very similar to the world of shogi, there is no draw by repetition. Based on the rules of the game, they cannot occur. There is a rule called 'triple ko' which can cause a draw, but these are rare. In some years there may not be a single instance in a pro game. So Go players can live without having to endure the hell that is replaying games due to draws by repetition, which I could not be more jealous of. My wife is a pro go player, so I'm always boasting 'how great draws by repetition are' to her.