Disclaimer: The series is owned by Mizuno Tooko, Koei, and Ruby Party. I merely borrow the characters for brief amusement.
This short piece is based on a picture in Mizuno-sensei's artbook featuring Akane, Yasuaki, and the various items used to play Go.
Unconsciously
"Ah, Yasuaki-san, here you are!"
The onmyouji stilled his hands from the task of clearing the stones from the goban and looked up as the bright voice called out, soon followed by soft footsteps across the tatami floor.
"Miko," he said by way of greeting with a small nod. Eyes watched her movements as she moved not-quite-gracefully across the floor to where he knelt. After a moment's hesitation, she copied his position with just a little difficulty. Yasuaki, who normally would not take note of such trivialities, thought that perhaps the life she had led before her arrival in Kyou must not have stressed such etiquette.
The Miko fidgeted and no longer met Yasuaki's stare directly. Her eyes turned to the only other objects in the room as her brow furrowed in brief confusion. "Oh, I've heard of this game!" Her smile renewed, she looked up at the onmyouji once more. "This is Go, right?"
"Correct." Yasuaki returned his attention to picking up the stones and placing the two colors each in their proper goke. A loud sigh from the girl next to him paused his motions again. "What's wrong?" A quick glance revealed a downcast look on her face, but Yasuaki could not think of what might have caused her abrupt change in expression. Emotions in general escaped him, and it seemed that the girl he swore protection to as one of the Hachiyou had the ability to run through a range of moods rather quickly.
The Miko shook her head slowly in response. "I should be used to your way of speaking by now, but sometimes your abruptness surprises me." She sighed again, softer this time, and Yasuaki thought back on his previous words. He had given the necessary information, and for the most part remembered to be careful not to 'inadvertently hurt the feelings of others' since his chastisement by the same Miko who knelt next to him. What, then, had he done wrong?
In the time he hesitated to speak, the Miko had taken it upon herself to help clear the board. Since Yasuaki had gathered most of the black stones into the palm of one hand, she cupped the remaining white stones in her hands and let them fall with a musical clatter into the correct goke. Picking the wooden bowl up in one hand, she caught a single stone between the pointer finger and thumb of the other hand and held the smooth oval up for a closer look. Yasuaki found himself caught by her smile and wondered why should would spare emotions for something so simple and inconsequential.
The sound of stones falling to the ground broke Yasuaki's trance, and he felt something that might have been dismay at the sight of the raised and tilted goke spilling a handful of white stones to the floor and into the container for the black stones resting on the tatami below it. About to call attention to the Miko's action, he stopped when he saw the design created by the fallen stones. They formed a mound over the opening of the goke, arranged as if by hand so that one side of the circle remained black while the other half turned white as a result of the Miko's unsteady hand.
A warm, unknown feeling flooded Yasuaki's chest as his lips formed a small smile. He had long since banished any doubt of her authenticity as the Miko who would save Kyou, but it helped to receive an occasional reminder.
For those unfamiliar with Go:
goban - the board on which the game Go is played
goke - a container used for keeping Go stones, one for black and one for white