March Comes in Like a Lion (３月のライオン)

Train service has been suspended for the rest of the day. I repeat...

ADJUSTMENT WINDOW

When I start walking, he starts walking.

When I stop, he stops.

It's like a god...

is quietly following me.

White Storm (Part Four, Continued)

Um...

Well then...

Thank you.

I appreciate the help.

Hello? Kiriyama here.

Hey! It's me.

CHAIRMAN JINGUUJI

Are you okay?

Chairman?

I was drinking until morning with the local support group and sponsors, and just woke up.

I heard the bullet train's shut down because of the typhoon.

So you okay? Where are you?

In Sendai. It seems the train won't be back in service today.

I see.

And, also...

On the same bullet train as you...

U-Umm...

You mean Mr. Souya?

He's fine. I'm with him right now.

Really! He's with you?

So you found a place to stay?

Yes. It's the Seisen Inn near Sendai Station.

Good to hear.

So if you're with him, then...

Yeah.

He can't hear.

White Storm (Part Four, Continued)

White Storm (Part Five)

Um...

When did it start?

Let's see. It's been a long time.

Just over ten years.

Throughout the years, there are times when he can hear and times when he can't.

He's been to doctors, but they can't find the cause.

"Stress" is the best they can come up with, and can't figure anything else.

And he being who he is, went to the doctor regularly at first,

but then he started saying he didn't mind the silence.

But...

Even though he said that, it can't be easy for him.

I mean...

I started to say, "When he talks to people..."

Then I remembered the train platform in Morioka that morning.

I hadn't really seen him do things with other people,

or seen him laugh or talk with others either.

In my memories, he was always alone.

When was that?

It was a children's tournament, the first time I won in the elementary school division.

If that's right...

If that's right, then by then...

he'd already...

Um... Does anyone else...

Yeah, well, the people who play him a lot in matches.

That being said, the only people who go up against him are the challengers in title matches.

That only leaves a handful of people.

Well, he wasn't especially trying to hide it,

but there are some drawbacks to it, so when I told him to keep quiet about it...

I just have to finish the match before the countdown, right?

Then, there shouldn't be any problems, right?

That was his response.

Geez, I'm worrying about the guy, but he's carefree about it.

I mean, he's always been that kind of a person.

So even when he says something that's incoherent,

I-I'm sorry! Oh no! Your suit!

people let it slide because he was like that even before.

As for the reception and Q&A before and after matches, they tend to be similar

in terms of order and content.

It's ironic that as he became better and better at shogi,

people would look at him like he was a little crazy,

but chalk it up to the eccentricity of a genius, and even having fun with the mistaken notion.

Well, if he's in his room now, I'm sure he'll sleep through until morning.

He'll be fine if you leave him alone.

But to be honest, you were a big help.

I was nervous about him walking around in the rain, looking for a hotel.

Right after this, he's got the Jeweled General Tournament's best of seven matches.

So you were a godsend taking him with you like that.

But listen, Kiriyama.

I thought this back in Kyoto too.

With Shimada...

you were, how can I put it, really good at looking after people.

Are you really a modern kid?

Have you been lying to us about being born in the Heisei era, after 1989?

I bet you're really an obliging middle-aged mother on the inside.

I'm 18.

Another thing. It was an entertaining match.

You and Souya had a normal, mutual understanding of each other.

He kind of smiled.

When I woke up the next morning, the typhoon had passed.

Um, what do I owe you?

The man you came in with, Mr. Souya, has paid for your stay.

When I went outside,

Sendai's sky was a vast, fake-looking blue, as if it were a giant canvas painted by a child.

It didn't feel real at all.

Yesterday's storm seemed far away, as if it had happened in a dream.

Even though I'm certain the two of us walked together in the rain.

I went to school from third period that day,

and maybe it was because I was tired,

but the teacher's voice and usual classroom commotion

seemed vaguely distant, so it didn't really get through to me.

And yet...

the sound of the pieces from that match...

I kept hearing it...

and it won't go away.

SHOGI HALL

SHOGI HALL

Hey, Kiriyama.

I heard how rough that typhoon was for you.

Kiriyama?

What's with him? He's in a daze.

He's probably tired, going straight from Sendai to school.

You know, he probably had P.E. That takes energy.

OFFICE

APRIL JUNE

MAY

I just couldn't...

get that sound...

out of my head.

White Storm (Part Five)

Restart

Sis,

Kiriyama says he can't come over today either because he has to prepare for a match tomorrow.

Rei Kiriyama Thank you for the invite

Oh, that's too bad.

Even though this braised pork came out really tender?

That's right! Even though my specialty,

soft-boiled eggs, has been soaking in the pork's salty-sweet sauce?

PLOOP

Yes! What's waiting for him are flavorful, marinated soft-boiled eggs,

created with the ultimate soft-boiled eggs, from the minds of the Kawamoto family's wisdom,

only discovered after dozens of failures!

MELTY

9 MIN 8 MIN 7 MIN 6 MIN

All so we could have a reliably slurried soft-boiled egg to put on the table!

9 MIN

8MIN

7 MIN

6 MIN

9 MIN 8 MIN 7 MIN 6 MIN

Does he have any idea how much time went into perfecting that?

I've got it, Sis. It's eight minutes!

Got it. Eight minutes, huh?

Medium-sized eggs, taken right out of the fridge, in boiling water for eight minutes!

FFFGGGRR

Caught up in the excitement

MWAAARR

The Kawamoto Family's Manual for Absolutely Successful Soft-Boiled Eggs!

Step one. Take your eggs right out of the refrigerator.

Since we're often in a hurry, it's faster to take them out of the fridge and into the pot.

Step two. Make a small hole in the bottom of the egg.

The flat part is the bottom.

TA-DAA

A tool for poking holes in eggs!