Author Notes:
(0) If you came here before, this piece has now been edited with a change in the stone positions (previously totally made up). Many, many thanks to Darak for the input. :)
(1) This is in the "Just Visiting" universe, if you've read it; but otherwise, no background knowledge is required from there.
Rewind
..
.
Hikaru had been pacing the living room for twenty minutes now.
Before that, he had sat for an hour in front of the goban at the corner, staring at the unfinished game. He and Touya had been at it since four days ago, giving it about one hour each night before bed.
It wasn't that they deliberately came up with this style of playing. Their schedules were almost always packed, and Touya had forced him to agree that it wasn't worth compromising their professionalism by staying up all night to play a game they could afford to play slowly, now that they were staying in the same apartment.
Hikaru continued pacing. His fan flipped open, close, open, close.
Title matches were held this way, and they would seal the moves at the close of day. He knew it would be an overkill to do the same thing for their private, single-round matches, but such a record would be really nice to have at this point of time...
...because Hikaru had accidentally knocked over the goban while retrieving a book from the shelf above it, and now he couldn't for the life of him remember where Touya placed that stone last night.
It hadn't been a response to his previous hand, otherwise he wouldn't have had problem recalling it. Touya had placed the stone at a position that seemed unconnected with the rest (he knew Touya learnt that from him): either 14-15 or 10-13, or maybe one grid further down at 9-12...
He hadn't been able to figure out Touya's intention with that one, and so had decided to continue with his planned attack in the meantime.
And now he'd forgotten it.
There was no way he would wait for Touya to come home and ask him. His rival would snicker, telling him that only beginners, terribly untalented beginners, could not recreate a simple game like this.
That, or he would admonish Hikaru for not paying attention, which he was (a little) guilty of. It was past midnight at that time; he had been very tired yesterday, and even Touya had let out a yawn after that one move, while waiting for his response.
Hikaru paused in annoyance. He remembered the yawn, but not the stone? This was unforgivable to his dignity as a Go player.
He glanced at the clock: how much time did he have before Touya came home? It was now three-thirty--
--four o'clock was time for Morishita-sensei's study group. Hikaru groaned. The matter would have to be put on hold for the next few hours.
.
.
When he came back in the evening, the lights were on. Touya was home.
He sighed. When all else failed, go for honesty, he thought.
As he passed the living room, his eyes automatically strayed to the goban, his thoughts to the missing hand. Was it 9-12 or 14-15 or--
He froze. A white stone had been placed at 10-13.
Touya.
Hikaru let out a breath and sat down with a thud. Now he just had to wait for Touya to get on with the snorts and comments and they could continue playing and get over it already.
And from his thoughts right to the ears of the god of Go, Touya came out of his room, looking fresh from shower.
"You're home," Touya said, and knelt down at the goban across him. "Did your friends come over this afternoon?"
Hikaru paused with a hand in the go-ke. "Huh?"
"I saw our game recreated halfway, so I thought perhaps your friends came to visit and you had cleared the board to play with them."
"Oh," Hikaru didn't want to lie, but this might be a more peaceful solution than telling Touya how that tiny dent on the wooden board's chipped corner came about. There was no escaping the next explanation, though.
"Well, I was trying to recreate the game but..." he paused to brace himself--
--and Touya finished the sentence for him, "Oh, that's right, you had a study group today."
That was it? Hikaru placed the stone rather dazedly, amazed at the fruitlessness of the whole afternoon's agony.
"Oh, that's where..." He suddenly heard a murmur from Touya's direction, and snapped his head up.
"Touya, you... forgot?" Come to think of it, that was probably why Touya only continued one move from where he left off...
Touya turned a little red. "Only that one hand! You placed it in such a weird position so..."
"So was your move before that! I had trouble connecting it too--"
Both paused.
"Oh," Touya said.
"Well," Hikaru scratched his head.
"Um, let's just continue then?"
"Right."
Pa-chi. Touya. Pa-chi. Hikaru. Pa-chi. Pa-chi.
Touya frowned. "Was it there last night?"
"It was," Hikaru looked rather insulted.
"Weren't you trying to defend over here?" Touya pointed at a spot.
"No, I was trying to-- hey, don't try to cheat my plan out of me!"
"Like I will do that!" Touya looked positively insulted.
"Anyway, that stone was definitely there," Hikaru folded his arms.
"But I know I placed the next stone here, and I wouldn't have done that if this were your previous move."
"Why not? You were already half-awake at that time--"
Touya glared. "I am very certain--"
"Okay, okay, why don't we just replay it from here, then. Noone's saying we need to rewind the game from last night, anyways."
Touya eyed him suspiciously. "You actually don't remember, do you?"
"What? I'm being generous here, giving you a chance to correct your horrible move."
"Only because yours is most likely at the wrong place--"
"--so you won't whine about it afterwards--"
"...You know, we've wasted fifteen minutes already."
"...Right. Better not carry this over to another day."
"Agreed."
"So, replay?"
"Replay."
.
..