The Fun of Playing Go (part 1)
Disclaimers : All the characters mentioned hereafter are created and owned by Yumi Hotta/Takeshi Obata (and their publishers...). May the muses never let them down !
Spoilers : up to chapter 150 (vol. 19). The action takes place somewhere in the middle of the chapter.
Warning : this is my very first attempt at fanficting, so I beg for your indulgence and your reviews too ^^
It was a normal day at Touya Meijin's Go club, near the train station.
Ichikawa-san was drowsing behind the counter as nothing but the short pachi !
of a stone landing on a goban was to trouble the quiet atmosphere of the room.
It would be more accurate to say that nothing was to trouble it yet, since two of the most talented among the new generation of Go professionnals were playing each other, and as the game had just ended, the time for discussion had come. Discussion consisted of technical comments, questioning of these ones, sharp replies, then not so technical comments, loud protests and finally big yells in each other's face. That one was not going to differ : it took hardly a few minutes before two juvenile voices raised in a fierce escalation. Everyone in the club sighed, longing for the storm to part soon, and the young lady at the counter put a yellow backpack on the desk to this end. Its owner had already stood up :
"It's always the same with you ! Just because you scarcely win by two moku, you feel like you can brag and lecture me as you like !"
"Who's bragging here ? 'Scarcely', indeed ! You sure scarcely avoided that huge mistake in the middle of the game, did you ? So yes, I feel like I'm allowed to point it to you."
"Yeah, you think you can teach me everything and have nothing to learn from me ! But some day, Touya, I may teach you a lesson you'll never forget !"
It was Touya Akira's turn to stand up :
"Some day ? When at last ?! When will you show me that strength AGAIN ?"
That closed instantly Shindo Hikaru's mouth. He was on the defensive every time Akira stepped on the subject. Akira knew it, but he didn't exploit the advantage and just kept his flaming eyes straight into Hikaru's. The one to take advantage of the sudden silence was a nearby customer who usually stood by Akira in the squabbles against his designate rival :
"Anyway, as a beginner dan, you'd better can it and be grateful for the time Akira-sensei donates to you !"
"He's not my sensei !" retorted a furious Hikaru, who
seized the opportunity to get back in the battle.
"By the way, Touya, it's easy for you to be so assertive here among your
supporters. I'd like to hear your argument at Waya's place, or Morishita-sensei's
study group, or at my Go salon !"
Akira raised an eyebrow :
"You own a Go salon ?"
"...'course not ! I mean, I usually play there, and everybody know
me and cheer on me just like they do here for you !"
Akira remained silent for a few seconds, then asked calmly :
"So this is the problem ? "
Hikaru just shrugged with disdain.
"Ok, let's go and play there."
"Wh... what ?" Hikaru mumbled, taken aback.
"Since you seem to consider this place a handicap that restrain your full potential, let's go and play in the best conditions for your skill to blossom." Akira explained softly.
"I... I didn't say such a thing !" Hikaru was turning red under his bleach bangs and the surrounding stares. "I was just talking about the argument stuff ! As for playing go, I can do it anywhere, as long as I'm given stones and a decent goban."
"So I can. Why don't we try this place of yours, then ?" Akira was sweeping the stones back into their respective bowls. "Unless you've already planned something else..."
"N... no, but..."
"All right then. It's still early in the afternoon so we have plenty of time to get there, play a good game and argue before sunset. It's not too far away, is it ?"
"No... But why-"
"You show me the way." Akira let go somewhat of a smirk on his usually impassive face. "You won't have to run away by yourself, for a change."
"You... you..." Hikaru was choking with indignation. "You follow me !"
He strode across the room, grabbed his backpack at the entrance and got out as usual, except that this time he was nearly pushing Akira along the way, so it was difficult for Akira to comply and actually follow him. He had just time to catch the jacket Ichikawa was holding out to him with a mischievous smile.
"Please tell Ashiwara-san I won't play him today !" and they both disappeared behind the closing door.
What a strange feeling. Years ago (three ? four ?) I was in the subway with Shindo on this very line, but it seems like yesterday to me.
Akira couldn't help but ponder on these memories as the train was rushing under the crowded streets of Tokyo. That time, he had been dragging the carefree boy by the wrist from the Nihon Kiin building to his father's Go club. It wasn't going very differently today, as he made Hikaru drag him along to another Go salon. Yet the feelings were radically different. No more anger, doubt and calculation. No more fear and distress at the foot of an invisible wall. No more fear but... some regret instead ?
Do I really want him to crush me again ?
The very idea almost made him chuckle inwardly. But not for long as it reminded him the obsessing mystery of who had actually crushed him that time. A mystery he had been mulling over and over, like an unsolvable problem of tsumego, a question of life and death defying the mere logic.
Am I still chasing your ghost, Shindo ?
He remembered having a hard time doing that. First by being curtained off by a reluctant Hikaru, who after coming out of the blue and spreading revolution on a few events, had suddenly switched to avoidance mode. Then enduring jealousy and resentment from the members of the Kaio Go club, as he had forced himself onto the uncertain path that would lead him in front of Shindo Hikaru again. Eventually swallowing a huge frustration as the opponent of his dreams had just popped before him like an oversized balloon. Oh yes, it had been hard, and painful. And exciting.
Now that he was thinking about it, he had learned a lot during those days. Not only Go skills, although they were not to be neglected, but about other people and about himself too. Not much about Shindo though, since Akira had firmly shut his mere existence away after that. But then Shindo had started chasing him, and Akira's first feeling of irritation had been slowly replaced by renewed expectations. To tell the truth, it had been exciting too.
Now Hikaru was back in front of him. The annoying kid had grown into a handsome - and still annoying at times - young man in flashy sportswear. Years ago in the subway, he had remained speechless at Akira's fury. Today, he was definitely more talkative, boasting about his past exploits.
"... just like I say, the three of us against the whole salon. But we didn't lose a single game ! Well, Waya did once or twice but thanks to Isumi-san and your servant, we never had to wash a stone there, hahaha !"
"I see, the purpose of all this was not so much to increase your strength as to get immune to the 'old geezers' you had to face during the pro exam..." Akira commented.
"What ? What do you mean ?" Hikaru frowned.
"I don't mean anything but what you just told me. Scary guys with black beards and all..."
"Tsubaki-san was not scary !" lied Hikaru. "Just a bit too loud, with funny clothes" he added, manifestly unaware of his own case. "I could tell you about really scary fellows... like the left-handed crook from whom I won back 10,000 yen he had stolen from a friend by cheating..."
He didn't tell Akira that his part in the victory wasn't more than placing a few white stones according to Sai's instructions, and that the friend in question had also been a skilled and active cheater until that precise day. Besides, Hikaru wasn't sure he could still count Mitani-kun as a friend - a thought that saddened him at times. But surely Touya would have been very interested by the game.
"You mean you've already played for money before you were a pro ?"
Hikaru didn't miss the loathing expression on Akira's face.
"Naaah, just that time, and it was to help a friend. He's the one who used to gamble, but now it's over. And you know I'm not that kind !"
Akira was about to blurt out some ironic comment as he remembered vividly the conversation that had infuriated him so much years ago. Yet he had no reason to doubt Hikaru's honesty on this point ; the boy obviously had been changing a lot from that time.
"You're just the kind hanging about shady places ?" he asked instead.
"Sometimes, yeah..." Hikaru yawned. "I know some playground downtown I would not recommend to little girls !"
That one was a blatant lie, since the one who told him about the place - where of course he had never set foot - was his friend Asumi Nase, who wasn't little any more, but still plainly a girl, and a girl with guts - unless she was just oblivious to anything (boyfriend included) but Go. Thanks to Nase, Hikaru had seen most of his opinions on the opposite gender being smashed to pieces, and he knew better than talk to her like he usually did with Akari-chan. There were many things left for him to discover on the subject though...
Akira didn't look very impressed by all the show-off anyway. He followed Hikaru out of the train and resumed the conversation on the escalator.
"You also played once in a club attended by Korean players, didn't you ?"
"Yup ! There I crushed a pretentious little punk who had disrespected me. Maaan, did he hate that !" Hikaru laughed.
"He may be pretentious, but he sure isn't alone. A one and a half moku victory isn't what I'd call 'crushing', especially when the komi is on your side."
"Ha ! You should have seen him, the poor devil, crying and all ! Huh ?" Hikaru nearly missed the step as they reached the sidewalk. "Wait a minute, how do you know about the score ? And about all that ? I don't remember telling you..."
"Yun-sensei was there. He showed me the kifu."
"Yun-sensei ? Oh yes, the Go teacher of Kaio... So you're still in the Kaio Go club ?"
"Don't be stupid !" Akira's face took an offended expression."The sensei was nearly as disappointed as me by your performance at the junior high schools tournament, so he couldn't wait to show me how much you had grown. I must admit I was impressed, considering the general level of a Korean kenkyuusei compared with his Japanese counterpart."
Hikaru grinned.
"You said it ! By the way, I wonder if Su Yeong has become a pro by
now. You're right, winning against him wasn't piece of cake. I'd like to play
him again one day... Oh it's here."
The Go salon was located in a building just across the street. They took the elevator to the sixth floor and walked to the open door of a clean, well lit room with half a dozen customers playing quietly. Akira's small and well-hidden apprehension vanished.
"Seems a nice place to me. Chances are thin we bump into any yakuza there..." he said in an undertone.
"Sure. They're all retired ones." Hikaru answered with an evil wink, before stepping in.
(to be continued)