The first time that Ogata noticed Touya Akira, the boy was five. Oh, Ogata seen him before, certainly, perched on his mother's hip or peering down at his father's guests from between the banisters, but he'd never paid much attention. What was one more brat? His friends' siblings were more annoying than interesting at that age - they weren't capable of interesting discussion and he was yet to meet one who wasn't more interested in chucking the go stones all over than in playing.

Ogata glanced up from his game with Ashiwara to see Touya-sensei sit Akira down next to the goban and his eyes widened slightly. A child that young at a study session? Akira stayed where he was put, eyes fixed immediately and intently on the game, nose mere centimetres from the board.

"Ogata-san?" Ashiwara said and Ogata heard the quiet 'pacchi' of a stone being placed. He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked down again: Ashiwara had connected. It was a conservative enough move, no loss but relatively little gain. In other words, exactly what Ogata had expected from him. Perfectly competent but not the move of someone who wanted to win. Touya-sensei was considerably more patient with such meanderings than Ogata was.

The game ended predictably – Ogata's win, naturally – and he sat back, taking a sip of his tea. Ashiwara kept glancing at Akira as if unsure how to react to his presence. Ogata sighed. Another distraction was possibly more than Ashiwara could bear.

"Shall we discuss the game?" Touya-sensei asked. Ogata followed the conversation absent-mindedly, his eyes straying to Akira again. The boy was still silent, still watching, though he fidgeted slightly as though his legs were going numb beneath him. It was a little unnerving, being watched like that, but even this five-year-old had nothing on Kuwabara-sensei and Ogata focussed his mind on the discussion.

When Touya-sensei called Ashiwara over to the goban in the corner of the room. Ogata stayed where he was, slowly finishing his tea. A moment later, Akira slipped into the space opposite Ogata, looking up at him with wide eyes. Ogata raised an eyebrow, keeping a smile off his face with some effort. Surely Akira didn't mean to play a game against him? Was he just copying what Ashiwara had done in a rather misplaced case of hero-worship?

"If you don't mind, Ogata-kun, I'd suggest that he places four stones," Touya-sensei said calmly, glancing over. Somehow Ogata felt doubtful that he had ever stopped watching them – Touya-sensei was more than capable of following two games at once. Their eyes met and Ogata sighed. It seemed there was nothing for it. Touya-sensei did a good impression of a detached teacher but apparently paternal pride still simmered beneath the surface.

Ogata paused, putting down his cup and taking off his white jacket and folding it carefully, placing it on the floor beside him. How to play this? It would be shidougo, and he'd just have to trust Touya-sensei that the basic teaching was there.

"You'd like to play a game?" Ogata asked. Akira beamed up at him. Ogata chuckled and passed him the black stones. He'd taught a few children before – all older than Akira – and all had been either painfully serious or painfully bored. They bowed and began.

Akira placed the stones with an ease that suggested he'd been playing for years, like a pro rather than an amateur. The moves themselves, though… No, they weren't the strongest - not even at the level of the amateurs who played at Touya-sensei's go salon. Well, they wouldn't be. At this stage, Akira was neither an insei nor a pro and this was shidougo rather than a serious match. They were well-considered, though, and showed excellent foundations.

Ogata gave the game sufficient attention to make it worthwhile - he would be a poor excuse for a pro if he couldn't play shidougo with a child - watching the look of intent concentration on Akira's face with some amusement. If it was Akira an observer looked at, they might have thought this game had all the importance of a title match.

At each turn, Akira's hand hovered over the goban as he considered his options, moving this way and that as he worked out the consequences of each potential placement. It was a childish gesture, but one that made it easy for Ogata to follow the paths that Akira indicated, reading farther ahead than he'd expected Akira to be capable of. He didn't yet have the experience to follow his thoughts through to their logical conclusions but that would come.

It was Ogata and Touya-sensei that discussed the game when Ogata brought it to a close, Ashiwara listening carefully, pointing out the occasional possibility. Akira listened, sitting still and quiet with his head bent over the board. Ogata couldn't help but wonder if he understood the full depth of the discussion – the moves Touya-sensei was suggesting weren't always those of an amateur, let alone a child.

Towards the end of the evening, Touya-sensei replayed his game against Morishita in the Honinbou preliminaries. It was certainly a match at the top levels of the game. Ogata could follow the game, could just about follow the logic, though he wondered how many of the moves he'd have seen for himself in the pressure that was an official game.

"Couldn't you have played there?" came a high voice from Touya-sensei's shadow. Ogata looked over, eyes wide. "That would be difficult for white on the right side."

"So you can speak!" Ashiwara exclaimed, even as Ogata's mind was tracing out the new path in his mind. Akira laughed, a hand coming up immediately to cover his mouth. Touya-sensei's hand paused in its path, shaking slightly, then continued with admirable control. "Why haven't you before now?"

Akira tilted his head. Ogata and Ashiwara watched him curiously.

"I didn't have anything to say," Akira said at last, as if that said everything. Maybe it did, as far as Akira was concerned.

Ashiwara laughed and reached over to sling an arm around his shoulders and ruffle his hair. Ogata merely smiled and reached over to indicate a cluster of stones.

"Playing there would leave the area here open to attack if Morishita-sensei played like this," Ogata said, rearranging the stones to show the new pattern. Akira slipped out from under Ashiwara's arm and leaned forwards to look, hand flicking his hair back out of his face. It was unfortunate that Akira at five seemed to have better focus than Ashiwara did now, at thirteen.

When the study session ended, Ashiwara made his farewells and vanished hastily, flashing a smile at Akira as he grabbed his bag from the hallway. He had school the next morning and had homework to do before then.

It was more comfortable without Ashiwara there, even Akira's quiet presence milling around them didn't hold back the comfortable familiarity between them. It had taken Ogata a few years to adjust to no longer being a student as such - to be able to talk to Touya-sensei as an adult - and he valued the privacy to do so.

"Will you join us for supper?" Touya-sensei asked as they finished packing up.

"If you'll have me," Ogata said. He'd been hoping for the invitation, anticipating it even, as it had been a few weeks since he'd last stayed to eat. After all, if it came down to weighing Akiko-san's cooking and the intellectual conversation here against whatever paltry fare he could manage and the meagre company that the television could provide, there was no contest.

He and Touya-sensei were going over the kifu from the latest round of the Meijin tournament when Akiko swept Akira off to bed. Akira smiled at his father, bowing slightly to Ogata before vanishing through the door.

Thank you for the game, perhaps? Thank you for coming, thank you for not treating him like a child? It was hard to say.

"He plays well," Ogata said when it was just the two of them in the kitchen.

"Akira does well enough," Touya-sensei said conservatively. His voice might have fooled a casual listener into thinking he was indifferent but Ogata saw the edges of his mouth curving up in an involuntary smile. "It's early to say how his go will develop. It may be premature, but I think he has talent."

Ogata hid a smile. There were times when it was hard to forget that Touya-sensei was more than just the stern teacher who had driven him through his time as an insei and then through the lower dans. This was not one of them.

"Has he been playing long?"

"We play every morning and have for a couple of years now, I believe. Since he could hold the stones properly."

That level in just a few years - though Ogata wondered if he'd been clutching the stones when he was a mere baby - it was no wonder that Touya-sensei could see talent. He was right though, it remained to be seen what Akira did with it. More players faltered than successfully navigated the delicate path through to the pros.

"Ogata-san! Did you hear?"

Ogata stifled a smile as he paused in the doorway to collapse his umbrella and turned to look. Ashiwara head was poking around the doorway to Touya-sensei's study, an ear-to-ear grin plastered across it. Ogata was running late so the rest of the study group had probably already assembled. Akiko-san covered her mouth with a hand, her eyes indulgent. Ogata passed her the umbrella and stepped inside.

"Hear what?" Ogata asked, removing his glasses and wiping the spots of rain on the cloth he kept in his suit pocket. "About the pro exam? Yes, Amano-san was kind enough to let me know as I was leaving the Institute."

"I passed!" Ashiwara was surely the only one surprised by that – Ogata had been more taken aback that Ashiwara hadn't passed in the previous year's exam.

Touya-sensei emerged behind Ashiwara, most likely disturbed by the noise. Their eyes met over Ashiwara's head for a moment, then Ogata smiled and looked down again.

"Yes and with the highest score, as well. Congratulations, Ashiwara-kun," Ogata said. Passing the pro exam... was it really so long since that had been him? "Now that you mention it, do you suppose you could spare him this evening, Touya-sensei?"

Touya-sensei paused a moment, glancing back into the study and then down at the flushed face of his student. Former student, now. Ogata could hear voices from further within. It sounded like it was a busy night for the study group. No matter, he could always drop by another time to hear the results of the discussion.

"Did you need him for something?"

"After a win like that? I thought I'd treat him to dinner." Ogata said, though he had a feeling the words were unnecessary. On the evening of Ogata's own success, the two of them had gone out for ramen. That had been almost ten years ago and Touya-sensei now had heavier responsibilities and other students that he shouldn't leave. Ogata's eyes noticed the slight movement as Akira's peered around his father's legs. A moment's contemplation of a few hours alone with a hyped-up Ashiwara and a sudden thought struck him. "I'll take that one too, if it's no trouble, and have them both back at a sensible time."

Ashiwara's mouth was open, lips forming an 'o' as he looked from one to the other. Akira didn't seem to have realised that they were talking about him, his attention still half on whatever was happening inside the room.

Touya-sensei smiled, a hand on Ashiwara's back propelling him out of the doorway and towards his jacket.

"Akira, too?" he asked as he watched Ashiwara tugging his shoes on. He sounded mildly surprised. Ogata's smile was wry.

"It can't be much fun for Ashiwara-kun with only an old man like me for company," he said, reclaiming his umbrella from Akiko-san with an apologetic nod. "So, Ashiwara-kun - sushi or ramen?"

Moments later, they stepped outside, Akira bundled up in a coat and holding Ashiwara's hand obediently as the two of them shared a single umbrella. Ashiwara was short for fifteen – still waiting impatiently for a growth spurt – so they should both stay relatively dry. It was hard to believe that he was a pro already, this child who had spilt orange juice down Ogata's favourite jacket only a month ago.

They walked in silence to the sushi place Ashiwara had chosen. Well, Ogata and Akira walked in silence; Ashiwara kept up a never-faltering spiel of chatter that Ogata let drift in one ear and out the other.

"So Akira-kun, how long before you start working towards the pro exam?" Ogata asked when Ashiwara's attention was diverted by the food. Akira was young, certainly – currently the only one in the study group younger than Ashiwara – but his talent was undoubted.

Akira looked up, startled, though surely he had heard the speculation.

"I'm not ready yet - Ashiwara-san beats me all the time. Maybe in a few years I'll be good enough. I'm playing at Father's go salon now and learning a lot there too."

"All the time?" Ashiwara said, laughing. "Maybe I win a bit more than half the time but you're as strong as most of the insei now. You have to come after me soon, so I'm not the only one going up against guys like Ogata 7-dan."

Ogata smiled obligingly, though his thoughts turned to Kuwabara Honinbou and the other top pros. Compared to them, he was a small fish in a big pond. Now that he was playing the later rounds of the tournaments, he was starting to discover the great depths of skill and focus that the best players brought to bear. The further he walked along the road of the pros, the further he discovered that he had to go.

"Perhaps it is early," he conceded. Maybe it was a little greedy to hope for someone with Akira's potentially to come and chase him through the ranks. It was a big leap, up to the very top level, and time pressure, the idea that he might be overtaken by this child, might give him the drive to throw himself at it. "Still, you should be considering it. It takes time to work your way through the lower ranks, however strong you are, so don't leave it too long before you come after me."

Two years later, Akira came to a study session and said not a word throughout. Ogata watched as he stared at his hands rather than the goban, scarcely looking up to consider the proposed moves. Touya-sensei allowed him to drift, never calling him to order.

When things drew to a close, Akira excused himself hurriedly, brushing past Ogata without even a smile of acknowledgement.

"Is he ill?" Ogata asked when Touya-sensei had sent his students on their way and the two of them had moved to the sitting room. "Or worse, is he hitting adolescence early?"

Touya-sensei frowned.

"As far as I can tell, he has been studying Shuusaku's kifu every hour that he has free," he said. He hesitated and then continued, eyes fixed at a point on the far side of the room. "Ichikawa-san told me that he played a boy at the salon yesterday afternoon. He hasn't mentioned it but I believe he's been hoping for opponents his age since I had to withdraw him from the children's classes at the Institute. This child was apparently equally keen for a young opponent."

Akira had certainly grown into an odd position: too young to fit in with the insei classes, too strong to play with the other children and not yet willing - or perhaps ready - to step into the adult world. No wonder he'd been looking for others in his situation.

"So Akira's made a friend," Ogata said, taking a seat on the sofa. "Even if the kid isn't up to his level, it will probably be good for him."

"That's not it," Touya-sensei said. "They played an even game. An even game that Akira lost, though this child couldn't even hold the stones correctly."

"Oh, now that is different," Ogata said, though he had problems believing that was the whole story. "Do we know who this young prodigy is?"

It was all very well to talk about 'the young wave' but when he was at the forefront and only Kurata - and someday Akira - chasing him, it was more like raising a ripple in an ocean, an altogether frustrating affair.

"Shindou Hikaru, according to Ichikawa's records, about Akira's age. It's not a name that I'm familiar with and inquiries at the Institute about recent children's tournaments didn't raise any matches. It's... something of a mystery. Akira seems to be handling it as well as can be expected, though he hasn't offered to show me the game."

"As well as can be expected?" Ogata asked, turning to look at Touya-sensei in surprise. "He didn't say a word tonight."

There was a gleam in Touya-sensei's eyes.

"But he's studying to win in the next game they play," he said, almost smiling. "He hasn't given in. His intensity has only increased. I had wondered if I'd restricted his growth, limiting the opponents that he could play but it seems that he does have the drive. I'll be interested to see how this develops, until then I will be here when he needs me."

"You aren't going to talk things through with him?" Ogata asked. If he'd dared act like that when he was that age, his parents would have sat him down for a Talk. Touya-sensei had always been a little different, though, and Akira was hardly a normal child.

"This is his hurdle to overcome. Unless he asks it of me, I won't interfere."

Touya-sensei might not but Ogata could well, if Akira didn't show signs of settling down soon. Sensible conversation at study sessions was a commodity he was reluctant to go without.

Shindou Hikaru, though, that was a name he'd have to watch out for. Really, how likely was it that some rookie would come out of nowhere? Still, he'd have to trust Akira's judgement or assume that his own teaching was amiss. A new talent... was interesting. He'd have to pay attention to the insei and see if this Shindou surfaced. If Shindou could destroy Akira like that, maybe he'd even be a challenge for Ogata. It had been far too long since he'd had to dig deep to beat someone younger.

"Akira-san!" Akiko-san exclaimed. Ogata heard a quiet greeting outside, the click of the door closing. Conversation within the study group ceased - they had all been wondering where Akira was. He'd missed a couple of the most recent gatherings for tutoring sessions but here had seemingly been no reason for him to be absent tonight though.

Ogata lifted his bag away from the goban to open up a space for him. He looked up as Akira appeared in the doorway. Hair bedraggled, the shoulders of his suit splattered with rain, Akira paused in the doorway, eyes scanning the room, his half-collapsed umbrella dripping water on the carpet. A moment, then he took his seat next to Ogata. He placed the umbrella absent-mindedly on the carpet between them.

Ogata eyed it and picked it up carefully by the handle, rising from his seat to place it in the umbrella stand by the front door.

"So where have you been?" Ogata murmured when he returned, shifting sideways to avoid being dripped on. "It's not like you to have got lost trying to find us."

Akira didn't answer. He shivered slightly, turning to smile as someone handed him a dry jacket to slip on in place of his own. He appeared fixed on his father's analysis and slowly attention shifted away from him and back to Touya-sensei.

Ogata clenched his jaw and followed suit, though his mind only absently noted the points made. What could have put Akira in such a state, to have been so stupid as to go out in this weather and get soaked? And what was it that seemed to be keeping all thoughts of Ogata out of Akira's head? All he'd done of late was tutor some insei for the pro exam.

That was a thought, the pro exam...

Ogata looked at Akira out of the corner of his eye. Maybe he should have checked the results before leaving the Institute – based on what he'd seen, Shindou Hikaru would be one of the stronger insei candidates: could Akira have vanished to talk to him?

No, Shindou had the ability to shake Akira up like no one else Ogata had seen but Akira wouldn't have come back looking confused if he had. Not these days, anyway. Hadn't Amano-san mentioned something about the boy Akira was tutoring – Ochi – being the first passer? If he had spoken to that kid but Ochi hadn't told him anything about Shindou...

Ogata knew the feeling of being chased. He'd watched Akira's inexorable march through the ranks of the pros. He'd anticipated it, waited for it: he'd known what was coming. Shindou, though. No one knew quite who he was, just that he had significant talent and that Akira was his main target. Seeing Akira now, damp and pathetic-looking, made Ogata wonder if Akira was no longer striding towards him but had turned and was continuing in his path with his back to the top, his eyes fixed firmly on one Shindou Hikaru.

Damn it! This wasn't what he'd had in mind when he sponsored Shindou as an insei.

"Akira-kun," Ogata said sharply as the study session ended and Akira seemed about to vanish upstairs. No reaction. A firm hand on Akira's shoulder got his attention and he spun round, looking up at Ogata wide-eyed. His wet hair splattered drops down the front of Ogata's jacket.

"Ogata-san?" he blurted.

"Why come to a study session if you aren't going to contribute?"

Akira looked at him blankly for a moment; Ogata raised an eyebrow. He wasn't letting this slide without an answer, whatever Touya-sensei's ideas about private development.

"Shindou passed the exam."

There was a moment's quiet. It was as expected. Why couldn't Ogata decide whether he was pleased?

"If you only look back, you won't move forwards."

"I know."

"If he comes he comes. In the meantime, you have plenty of matches ahead of you," he said. Akira didn't look enthused - and why should he when he was trampling on the lower dans with his unbeaten record. Ogata couldn't help but smile. "Some of them might even be challenging."

Akira laughed at that.

"I know," he said again, the smile seeming to stay on his face through sheer force of will. "I know. And the more I win, the sooner I'll get to play you in an official game."

"I'm looking forward to it," Ogata said, and he was, but a corner of his mind couldn't forget that Akira's eyes weren't fixed on him any more, but on Shindou, and on Sai. He was tempted to request Shindou in the beginner dan series, if only to see what the fuss was all about.

Now Akira did head upstairs.

Ogata watched him go. He didn't turn as he heard Touya-sensei come to stand beside him.

"We have time for a game, if you're so inclined," Touya-sensei said softly, and Ogata couldn't quite meet his eyes. There was only one possible answer - Ogata had to follow his own advice, really, and keep looking up, even if Touya-sensei was still more teacher than rival.

"Thank you."

A light breath and Ogata leaned back against the wall, head back as he watched the wisps of smoke spiralling upwards in the still air until they vanished altogether. He was no longer considered the disciple of Touya Kouya, with his own study group now and his own titles to his name. They no longer even called him the forefront of the young wave, not with boys like Akira and Shindou, Isumi and Yashiro coming up behind him, coming ever closer to his perch at the top of the tree. That was the problem with sitting at the top – it was a lot harder to move forwards when you were the one setting the pace.

He wondered sometimes how Touya-sensei had done it, had sustained his position at the top of the game, retired and somehow improved in a new spurt of inspiration. Ogata somehow doubted that retiring alone would give him the answers he was looking for.

Ogata felt old sometimes, watching them, though in the go world forty hardly counted as advanced years. He had emerged somehow in a dry spell between waves of talent – after Touya Kouyou, Ichiryuu, Morishita and such like and a good fifteen years before Touya Akira led in the new generation. It wasn't such a bad place to be. Sometimes though, just sometimes, he wondered what it would be like to have grown into his go with a rival at his side.

Sometimes he wondered how old Sai had been and whether they would have driven each other on had Sai pursued the path of the pros. Normally, though, it felt like Sai had been Touya Kouyou's rival, not his, never his.

"Ogata-sensei?" came a quiet voice from the doorway. He turned. Some new pro was standing there, some child who seemed to be quaking in their boots. When had he turned into Kuwabara-sensei, to be provoking that kind of reaction? "It's time to begin."

Ogata paused, stubbing out his cigarette and taking a final moment of fresh air. There was no hurry; they'd wait for him. It would be hard to play a title match without one of the players. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the messenger jiggling from foot to foot, tugging awkwardly at a tie. He couldn't help but smile at such fidgeting – whether it was nerves or discomfort, both or either would vanish in another few years.

In the end, he himself had stuck to the white suits. They were more natural for him than the traditional dress that Touya-sensei had favoured, with their billowing sleeves; more imposing than Kuwabara-sensei's quirky suits, which would undoubtedly clash terribly with his car. Maybe Shindou was setting a new trend of more casual wear these days but he was more than happy to play the old eccentric. A black suit would have been acceptable, perhaps, but he had never been all that keen on blending in with the masses.

Ogata ambled slowly down the familiar halls of the Institute, pausing outside the Room of Profound Darkness. He closed his eyes for a moment, composing himself, then drew open the sliding doors and stepped through.

His opponent was already there, kneeling on the far side of the goban, back straight and eyes fixed on the bare goban in front of him. Ogata slid into the seat opposite him, sitting back with the ease of someone who has been there so often that they no longer even register their surroundings.

Shindou looked up.

"I've been looking forward to this, Ogata-sensei," he said and smiled as though he was looking at an old and familiar opponent.