3-gatsu no Lion 80

This is another really interesting character study.

[3-Gatsu no Lion 80 Translation by Kewl0210]
Page 107:
Title: Chapter.80
Burnt Field (2)

Page 108:
[Spacer paaage]

Page 109:
Yana: I know.
Guy: -----So...
Yamagihara Kishou, you are currently the oldest active player...
Yana: I know!
Someone: Saku-chan, please...
You've got to keep going, please.
Guy: But how long do you think you can maintain your position in A-class?
Someone: Please, achieve the dream I couldn't
in my place...
Yanagi: I know that the ones saying those things
Someone: Have you considered retiring if you go down in class?
Yanagi: don't feel like they're casting a curse on a person.

Page 110:
Gan: It's scary.
Yana: I'm simply entrusted with these things.
Gan: It's scary,
Saku-chan.
Yana: And it's become like hundreds of cords
Guy: It's like
Yana: are tangled around me.
Guy: I'm in the middle of a burnt field.
SFX: HAH
Yana: Just during the night.

Page 111:
SFX: CHICHIH CHUN
Yanagi: Blood pressure medicine,
stomach medicine...
Cataract medicine...
and now just...

Page 112:
Yana: ...Atete...
Well, even if I stick these on now,
you can bet they'll stop working as soon as I get to the good parts...
......
Okay then...
Guess it's time
to get going...

Page 113:
Someone: Okay,
the eldest class-A player with his eternal title on the line, Yanagihara Kishou
and the constant hard-worker Shimada 8-dan looking to win his first title.
Which one will win...?
Whoever wins
it'll have a lukewarm headline.
Handwritten (In Bubble): Haha...
Shh...
Quiet down.
Shimada 8-dan is coming in.
Sign: Good Luck, Kai

Page 114:
Shima: ----I want to protect them.
...No matter what it takes.
-----No matter what happens!!
Narr: 9 AM
Someone: -----Well everyone, it is now time to begin.
Would sente, Yanagihara Kishou please go ahead.
Someone: Let's have a good game.
Sente Yanagihara Kishou
7-6 Fu.
----Gote Shimada 8-dan
8-4 Fu.

Page 115:
Narr: Yanagihara Kishou
1-6 Fu
Guys: Huh?!
1-6 Fu?!
Shima: An edge fu...
What's he up to?
----But still
there's no way I'm letting that get to me.
SFX: PASHIH
SFX: SUHH
Someone: He's just gonna keep on
advancing on the edge?!
SFX: PASHIH

Page 116:
Guys: He's pushing even further!
1-5 Fu?!
Woah. I've seen this strategy before
in a manga!!
Handwritten (Right): OOOHHH
Handwritten (Center): SO COOOL!
Handwritten (Left): A... A manga?
What manga?
Shima: This damn spectre...
Is he saying he's giving up 2 moves
so go exchange the kakus?
You want me to trade kakus in exchange for being up a move?
-----But,
I refuse!
I'll gladly accept being up two moves on you,
but I will not let you have the initiative!!
SFX: PASHIH

Page 117:
Someone: -----SEnte
SFX: SUH
Someone: 2-2 Kaku Promotion...
SFX: PASHI
Narr: This battle,
with the push on the first file and the kaku exchange 4th file hisha
a formation that was hard to put any name on began.
Sign: The **th Kishou Championship Game 5 [the ** is blurry and unreadable]
Nikai: Yanagihara Kishou
seems to be inviting his opponent to a battle if brute strength.
'Who cares about the opening.'
'If I can bring this into a power battle, I'll have the advantage.'
-----Do you think that's where his confidence lies?
Rei: ----No,
against Shimada-san's 3-5 Fu
he exchanged the 8-6 fu and the hisha in almost no time.
Handwritten : Mmm
Rei: I think...
he had heavily researched everything he did up to that point.

Page 118:
Rei: ----And
this is my first time seeing this formation.
I've never seen anything like it.
Narr: They both persisted.
These two who both
had mountains of skills and experience...

Page 119:
Narr: Shimada-san stubbornly fought back
against Yangihara Kishou's research.
----As the match approached the endgame
the balance of the situation
was constantly fluctuating...
----And then
in the vening
SFX: SUH

Page 120:
Guys: He's made a mode.
5-8 Kin----... It's 5-8 Kin.
SFX: BACHIH
Someone: Aah... Yes, that's
Shimada 8-dan fot you.
This move gives puts him at a huge advantage!!
Yana: ........
Someone: Kishou-----
Yanagihara Kishou.

Page 121:
Guy: ----How long do you think you can maintain your position in A-class?
Have you considered retiring if you go down in class?
What do you think of the up-and-coming young players?
Gan: It's scary.
Without my work
what else do I have?
It's scary... Saku-chan....
Yana: That's right, Gan-chan...
I've been thinking the same thing for a long time now
-----but I still haven't found an answer.

Page 122:
Yana: But if where you're standing is a burnt field,
then where I'm standing is still in the middle of burning.
So, shall we get going?
'winning'---- and
even 'losing' are never
things that can be decided all that easily.

Page 123:
Yana: So today I'll be a fireball again
and suffer to my heart's content.
SFX: PASHIIH
Bottom: Chapter.80 E N D

Page 124:
Top Right Small: An article by Senzaki Manabu
Top Right Big: Senzaki Manabu's Lion Shogi Column
Big Right: How Does Retirement Work in the Shogi World?
Article: Because shogi is a trade where you use your mind, it has the unique quality of having players active much longer than those in physical sports. And as I wrote in column (3), there are many players that stay active for a very long time.
Though as you might expect, those players make up only a portion of all players. Most retire after a certain point. Games and matches are very exhausting, so one needs to give it up at some point.
There are two ways people retire. One is to quit voluntarily. Of course, each person is free to retire from active play whenever they so choose. The other way is systematically retiring. To put it simply, a player gets to a certain age and they can't win anymore, they have to retire. It's a harsh part of reality, but in the world of matches, you could say there's no way around it. The overwhelming majority tend to go this way.
Without getting into the specifics, if you gain 3 demotion points in the lowest ranked class, C-Class Group 2, you retire 10 years after that. If you are over 60 years old, you retire even before 10 years pass. There is a free-class system where one does not play rank-deciding matches. When you are there and reach age 65, or else are there for 15 years, you retire.
If you do not lose rank in the rank-deciding battles, you can keep playing however long you keep it up. There is no upper limit. The income received per class for each rank-deciding match has had smaller differences as of late, but since retirements are involved with them, you could say that these are weighty matches to shogi players.
In extreme cases, even if a new 4-dan has a formal debut, because they start in C-Class Group 2, if they gain demotion-points in three consecutive years, they can be forced to retire in 13 year (Though if they can gain the regulation win ratio in that period, they can return to C-Class Group 2).
Now we're getting into a more persona story, but I didn't think about retiring at all until around age 35 (I didn't even know about the regulations I wrote about earlier). But now that I'm 42, I'm thinking a bit about the future. I wonder how long I'll be able to play shogi... The idea of immersing myself in matches for my whole life does have some sense of accomplishment to it. But at the same time, it feels a bit empty to me. No matter how old you get, losing matches is tough... And then from the age perspective, it's a shogi player's destiny to eventually not be able to win anymore. But well, that's still a long ways off so I'll just keep doing my best for now.
By the way, even after shogi players retire, the fact that they are staff at the Japan Shogi Association does not change. Their duties just spread to things outside of playing matches. Once a shogi player, always a shogi player.