With Baal around, Kaito wasn't worried at all. Besides, Ai hadn't been learning Shogi for very long.
Even without Baal's help, Kaito was confident he could beat her.
With Akina's help, Kaito and Ai started playing Shogi.
After all, this was the purpose for both Kaito and Akina: to dispel Ai's admiration for Yaichi and prevent her from blindly pursuing him or anything.
They both used the same chessboard, but Kaito had to play both sides on his end, while on Ai's side, Akina would help by making the moves according to Kaito's instructions.
"Brother Kaito, please take care of me!"
"Ai, call him uncle..."
"But isn't it very rude to call a big brother uncle?"
Ai blinked her eyes cutely, retorting to her mother. Akina was left speechless, looking helplessly at Kaito.
"Hehe, Ai-chan can call me whatever she likes. Besides, I'm not that old, am I?"
Uncle?
True, people place great importance on seniority. Although he was young, he was friends with Akina, not her junior, so it was natural for Ai to call him uncle.
"Hehe, big brother, let's start quickly!"
"Okay, you go first."
Kaito didn't go easy, lest he be counterattacked and embarrassed.
As Ai entered her serious Shogi-playing mode, she placed her hands beside her legs, lowered her head, and stared intently at the board.
'Here it comes, she's about to cheat.'
'I had only played thirteen moves, and she was already in this state?'
'It seemed my amateur-professional level was quite impressive...'
'What the-!?'
Slap—!
On the other side of the video, Ai's body swayed back and forth a few times before she finally reached out, grabbed a piece, and made her next move.
With this move, Kaito quickly saw several outcomes from the board.
His promoted rook piece would be captured, his lance was blocked, his knight was stuck in an awkward position—if he didn't move it, it would be captured in two moves, but moving it forward would get it blocked by another piece.
In short, one move affected the whole situation.
Many of Kaito's pieces were cleverly countered by this single move.
Brilliant.
It was also his fault for being careless, not noticing that point, allowing Ai to see the biggest flaw in his formation.
It seemed his 'all-out attack' strategy was indeed too arrogant, and he got caught out immediately.
But it didn't matter. This was just a common situation of being trapped. He had other pieces to move.
After some more time, Ai resigned, bowing deeply to Kaito.
Akina also sighed in relief. She had been watching her daughter the whole time. That state was indeed a bit scary. On the other hand, Kaito had maintained a smile throughout, appearing completely at ease.
True, her daughter had only just started learning not long ago.
"Ai-chan, your talent truly amazes me. I'm inclined to take you as my disciple. Are you willing?"
"Huh?" x2
Both Akina and Ai were stunned.
Akina, for one, didn't know about this plot!
'Wasn't it supposed to be about proving he was stronger than that Ryuo boy, making her daughter lose her admiration for him?'
'Why are you trying to take my daughter as a disciple now???'
Similarly, Ai was also surprised, but in her heart, she had already decided on Yaichi as her master. Now that Kaito wanted to take her as a disciple, Ai didn't know how to choose for a moment.
She looked at her mother, then at Kaito.
One was her mother's happiness, the other was her own pursuit.
'Hmm...'
Ai's antenna entered thinking mode.
'No, I still wanted to follow the path of Yaichi-san from that day.'
'It was because of him that I came to like Shogi.'
'As for Mom, let her worry about her own problems. At worst, I could try harder later to bring them together, right?'
'Having such a handsome father wouldn't be bad either!'
"Sorry, Brother Kaito, I already have someone in mind."
Ai bowed again in apology, and this time it was very formal.
Akina was surprised to see this and became even more vigilant towards that Ryuo boy.
'Sure enough, I should call the police in advance!'
"Oh? Who is it?"
"It's Kuzuryu Yaichi, who won the Ryuo title in the final match of the 29th Ryuo Tournament last week!"
Speaking of this person, Ai's eyes clearly sparkled, and she was full of admiration for him.
Seeing this, Kaito nodded. He wasn't surprised to be rejected.
If Ai agreed just because of this, then she wouldn't truly love Shogi so deeply. She would probably give up after learning for a while.
It was precisely because of her desire to pursue Yaichi that she studied day after day, even consulting various books, game records, and solving endgame problems.
"Is that so..."
"Ai-chan, you admire him so much because he's very strong, right?"
Kaito gave Akina a subtle look to calm down, then asked Ai again.
"Yes, he is currently the Ryuo of Shogi!"
To her, the Ryuo was already the strongest.
Zooming out, Yaichi was the best in the world!
Unfortunately, Shogi is only popular in Japan. Going abroad, there are very few regular competitions, and ranks are only officially recognized in Japan.
Kaito believed the only board player who could be called the world's number one was in Go.
"I see. But what if I were to defeat him?"
"Huh? How could that be? He's the Ryuo..."
Hearing this, Ai was shaken.
She respected Kaito very much, and from their previous game, she knew he was good at Shogi. But could he be better than the current youngest Ryuo, Kuzuryu Yaichi?
Impossible!
Otherwise, Kaito would have been famous long ago and would have defended the Ryuo title, not be completely unknown.
"Indeed, he is the Ryuo, and the youngest Ryuo at that."
"But that only makes him the strongest within the Shogi circle in Japan."
"Ai-chan, do you know that there are many, many stronger board players in the world?"
"Not to mention Go, just looking at Xiangqi, the origin of Shogi, the masters in our country are incredibly numerous and hidden."
"As long as you don't step outside this circle, you'll never know how many masters there are in other circles, or how strong they really are."
"So... I really can defeat this Ryuo."