3-gatsu no Lion 64

Okay, and now we begin volume 7! Wohooo! I love this arc. Junkei's such a relatable character.

[3-Gatsu no Lion 64 Translation by Kewl0210]
Author Flap:
Top: 'Recent Photo of the Author('s cat)'
Text: 'Mama, my neck is chilly. Could you pat the part of the futon that's near my neck? I'll catch a cold if nobody does anything, right?'
Hey, it's Bun-chan.
You really can't go without a nice warm futon in winter, don't you?!
I'm paying special attention to my health so whenever I turn over in bed I call my Mama!
I mean, necks get so cold when the futon slips, right?!
So I call Mama right away and have her fix my futon!
I'll keep watching over Mama right here, so everybody enjoy, okay?

Page 6:
Chapter.64 Silver Wings
Chapter.65 River Scenery
Chapter.66 The Place the Sun Shines
Chapter.67 Small World
Chapter.68 Black Mist
Chapter.69 Light
Chapter.70 Small Palm
Chapter.71 Sunny Place
Chapter.72 Flowing Thing
Chapter.73 White Storm
Bottom: This is a work of fiction. There is no connection to actual people, groups, or events whatsoever.

Page 7:
Title: Chapter.64 Silver Wings

Page 8:
[Spacer Page]

Page 9:
Rei: 'If you believe, your dreams will come true.'
That's probably true.
But one part is missing.
'If you believe
and you keep working hard
your dreams will come true.'
-----That is correct.

Page 10:
Rei: To go even further,
If you believe
'and you put in 1 more hour than all your rivals and work hard every day, then to a degree, your dreams will be considerably more likely'
to come true.
But the short version works better for marketing purposes.
SFX: CHICHI... CHICHI (Chirping)
Rei: ----But I think that might be abridging it too much.
SFX: TOPUN
SFX: ZAAA
SFX: DOPUN DOPUN

Page 11:
Rei: That makes it sound like
'You don't need to actually do anything. Just believe.'
and your dreams will come true, right?
I'd like
to ask the guy
that cut it down
to that little phrase
what he was thinking.
Guy: Hey, Junkei!
What dan are you?
You went pro, right?
SFX: HAHAHA HAHAHA

Page 12:
Junkei: Well, I'm 5-dan.
Whenever I go to places with lots of people
I always get asked the same questions.
Guy: Heh. Really?
Well, I don't know much about that stuff.
So, uh, do shogi players make a lot?
Handwritten: I mean, like,
Guy: Can you get famous and go on TV and stuff?
Small Text: Don't you guys play on Sundays mornings and stuff?
Guy: Hey!!! You'd better become a Meijin or something soon! ["Meijin" big]
Handwritten: HAHAHA
Jun: ----And what comes to my mind
is always this.
Heh. What's a supervisor?
I don't get it.
So,
how much does a supervisor make a year?
That's all? Well you'd better climb up that corporate ladder and make it to department chief or board member soon!
I mean, you gotta while you're still in your 20's! That'd be so cool, right?!
----I'd say those are
just as offensive as their questions...
SFX: HAHAHA HAHA HAHAHA

Page 13:
Jun: At first, I would explain everything
but as soon as I did, they would lose interest,
so I decided to just keep quiet and wait for it to pass.
It's not something people really want to hear.
I realized it's really no different
from greeting someone by saying something like 'Nice weather today, isn't it?'.
It's no big deal.
As long as
I can just
be here giving plain answers
to their questions and feeling hurt...
Guys: Oh yeah, Junkei, are you still
raising those pigeons and all?
Huh? Pigeons?
Yeah, yeah.
He was raising some!
Race pigeons!
For real?
Shogi and pigeons? Just how much of a maniac is Junkei?
Hahah!
Ha...
SFX: GATANN BIKUH (Surprise)

Page 14:
Jun: I've gotta go take care of my pigeons.
Guys: ...............
Handwritten: Haaa...
He's as scary-looking as always.
He sure is intense...
For real...
He's been an oddball
forever
Jun: I started on these when my granddad who loved shogi and racing pigeons taught me about them.
A lot like how with shogi you get better results the more effort you put into it,
the more love and labor you put into them
the more the pigeons will respond.
I became completely entranced by them.
---But now, both of them
are about to slip from my fingers.
Just when I had finally managed to go up a class to C1
I got my second rank-loss point this Spring.......

Page 15:
Jun: And racer 'Gin' that I poured more heart and soul into than any other
didn't come back from a 500 kilometer race at the end of the Spring.
Did he get done in by a hawk?
Did he hit a power line...?
Was it because of the weather...?
Just imagining him injured and suffering somewhere
makes my heart feel like it's getting torn apart.
It felt like
everything had been swallowed up by those black clouds.

Page 16:
Jun: Trying to read far ahead
fells like diving
to the bottom of a pitch-black pool of water.
[The background there is a map of shogi moves. It's not really worth translating. Also a lot isn't all that readable. If we really want to do it I can typeset it but it would be really hard to write-out what each one says here in a text file.]
The 'answer' is only at the bottom of that black pool.
The more you move forward, the next 'answer'
can only be found even deeper.
A long time ago, the more I dove, the more 'answers' I got.
My 'desire' overcame my fear.

Page 17:
Jun: ----But now that 6 years have passed since I turned pro
it feels like I can't move forward at all anymore.'
Even if I dive so deep it feels like my body might break apart
I'm coming back empty handed more often than not now.
It's because of those times when 'I might find something'
is beaten out by 'I probably won't find anything anyway'
all the effort I put in has a limit put on it.
But right behind me
are Kiriyama and Nikaidou
jumping in like it's the most natural thing in the world to do
----again and again.

Page 18:
Jun: ----They can't be in their right minds.
Even if they come up empty handed again and again,
they come up with even more counter strategies and try again and again.
They don't mind the anguish at all.
They just keep throwing themselves in,
----leaving me behind
petrified with fear.
---I wanted to win no matter what it took.
I didn't want to hand over the title that was the last possibility I had left.
I'd heard he had health problems.
----But I also knew his heart was far stronger than the hear of somebody like me.

Page 19:
Jun: And that he's a person that's gone much further than I have...
Black Bar: ---That's right. When that happened
Somebody: There has been a draw by repetition,
so the game will be replayed in 30 minutes.
Black Bars: I'm certain he smiled.......
And
a thought burst into my head.

Page 20:
Jun: I want to go back to the world
these guys are in
one more time......

Page 21:
SFX: GAH GARI GARIH GAH GA...

Page 22:
Jun: ...
Gin...
Nikai: ......
That idiot.
There's no way in hell
I'm gonna lose next time, got that?!

Page 23:
Jun: Hey,
there there. Good boy...
I made you a special meal to help your stamina.
Make sure you eat up, okay, Gin...?
----...
You feel like you're made of paper, you're so light.
But it's okay.
I'm with you.
You'll be in tip-top shape soon.
And then
you'll fly with all your heart again!!
And starting tomorrow
I'm going to put all of my heart into working as hard as I can.
So let's make it a race
to see who can fly first!!
Bottom: Chapter.64 E N D

Page 24:
Top Right Small: An article by Senzaki Manabu
Top Right Big: Senzaki Manabu's Lion Shogi Column
Big Right: Kansai Region Players and the Kansai Shogi Association
Article: Currently, all players are either located in the Kantou or Kansai regions. The Kantou region players have their games at the Shogi Association Building in Sendagaya, Tokyo that appears frequently in "3-Gatsu no Lion". And the battlefield for Kansai players is the Kansai Shogi Association Building.
The Kansai Shogi Association Building is located in Fukushima, Osaka. It's in a very convenient location that's 2-3 minutes from one station off the Osaka station (It's also called the Umeda Station and the Kita Station) which is in a loop line similar to the Tokyo Yamanote line. It's also only a 10-minute train ride from the Shin Osaka Station which Shinkansens stop at, which is a huge boon to players from Tokyo.
It is a brick-colored 5-story building, and on the first floor are two restaurants that have nothing to do with shogi. The 2nd floor is a Shogi hall which is open to amateurs and you can always find a game there. On the third floor are offices and player rooms. Shogi players gather in these player rooms and they'll play practice games and do analysis of matches being played that day.
And then on the 4th and 5th floors are match rooms. The 4th floor rooms are mostly there only for days when there are a lot of games going on, as most games are played on the 5th floor.
The 5th floor's match rooms are apparently modeled after the interior of the Edo-Period Edo Castle and are divided into top-dan and lower-dan sections. Between the two there is an actual level-difference in these two sections, and since there's nothing so elaborate in the Tokyo building, I remember being surprised when I first saw it.
I believe one out of every four pro players is an Osaka region player. Their top players are Tanigawa Kouji 9-dan and Kubo Toshiaki Kioh and Oushou. Some others are Inoue Keita 9-dan, Abe Takashi 8-dan, Minami Yoshikazu 9-dan, Kobayashi Kenji 9-dan, and Fukusaki Bungo 9-dan...... Oh, and I can't forget the two long-time veterans Naitou Kunio 9-dan and Kiriyama Kiyosumi 9-dan. They are the best old teachers next to the currently-active Katou Hifumi 9-dan of Tokyo. As for younger players, there is Toyoshima Masayuki 6-dan who was the challenger in the last Oushou Championship, and I think Itodani Tetsurou is a good representative of people going to school while playing shogi. Among the 4-dans, 7 of the total of 19 players are from Kansai. And it's because of them that there's been so much activity among the Kansai player rooms as of late.
The female players and the Shoureikai is also separated between Kansai and Kantou. Regarding Kansai female players, one cannot leave out the famous Satomi Kana 3-Crown, and she is a 1-dan of the Kansai Shoureikai. Another Kansai player is the supernova Hasegawa Yuuki 2-dan that became the challenger to the Mynavi Woman's Open after only being a player for 4 months.
Perhaps because there are fewer players in the Kansai Shogi world, there is a lot of unity and family-like feeling among them. There's so many gags flying around in the Osaka player rooms compared to the Tokyo ones that