After Sonsaku Hakufu had died, Shūyu didn't look at other people in any other way than through Go. Lord Sonken was the ruler of Go. Rikuson Hakugen and his team were the strength of Go. Kōmei Shōkatsuryō was a threat to Go. People were divided into allies and foes of his land.

Shūyu couldn't see them any other way.

He didn't want.

He didn't need.

His prospects, desires and needs had been buried along with his lord. What left, was tactician Shūyu Kōkin, who could serve his land only through his loyalty towards his late sovereign.

Thus, Shūyu didn't pay attention to other people, seeing only their usefulness to Go. They were nearby, they laughed and cried, breathed and fought. They were all the same, he stopped to distinguish them, walking along them separated by the veiling of his grief and the ridiculous memory of the past, listening only to the melody that once had rang between him and Haku.

Pushing them away.

"Your path lies in the direction in which you are headed. You are a free man."

"Not everyone will have a path of his own, and that path will not necessarily bring happiness. I wish to watch your back as I tread my path."

Kannei Kōha was the first man who managed to draw the veil aside and look him into eyes. To make the melody rang with another note.

"Tonight, I will play a song just for you."

Kannei stood next to him. The blanket fell from his hands and lay by their feet. Shūyu never took his eyes from him as if he had just seen him for a first time. In a way, it was exactly like this.

And he played. He played, with every tone telling every detail he could see before him - not only with his eyes - as if that way he could confirm Kannei's existence.

Kannei stood, engrossed. The evening wind gently moved his fair hair. The gaze of his absolute eyes of an archer was so open today, surprised, enchanted. His face, always so shut, expressed it all - and the happiness Shūyu didn't want to understand.

Yet he played, making Kannei's face brighter with every note. He suddenly realized there are still people he wanted to look at in his life.

In the moonlight Kannei seemed so beautiful. Shūyu played a song about his eagle eye, his hair smelling of the sea, his proud gaze. About his perfect body of a warrior. About his splendid exterior.

Kannei lowered his eyes, and the delicate blush coloured his cheeks.

And Shūyu played about his broken heart. Kannei could rule over the nations - his face outshone the brightness of the day; his strength overwhelmed; his excellent mind didn't need words, for just one look was enough. He seemed a god. Inside, he was broken, lost, unsure and in pain - more than anyone else. He couldn't tread his own path, he kept looking for support and existence of someone who he could look like at the sun and offer his life to.

A single note rang with the pity.

Kannei raised his eyes, Shūyu's pale face reflected in them.

And then Shūyu realized that Kannei had always been just like him - a leaf on the wind, torn from the tree and hurled in the air.

A false tone broke the melody.

"Haku, why did you leave?"

The flute fell from his suddenly numb hands. The pain in his heart was unbearable - and he had believed he had accepted it already. He lowered his head, pressing his eyelids tight, hit with his own weakness and his own wretchedness.

Strong arms, trembling and unsure, closed around him. He clang to the broad chest, shaking with sobs and self-contempt. He should leave. He should proudly raise his head. He should cast a glance of a second after king at him.

He couldn't.

Kannei sat him on the blanket, never letting from his embrace, and was with him - the only person capable of understanding him, for he, too, had watched at the slow fall into darkness of the beloved one and hadn't done anything to protect him. Shūyu had no right to look down on him.

"Haku..." he whispered, seeing the face of his late lord under his eyelids.

Kannei froze... and then hugged him even tighter.

"Let me be with you," he let out a desperate whisper, pressing his face to Shūyu's hair.

Shūyu didn't move in his embrace. He couldn't grasp all the feelings swirling inside him. He was so tired... He relaxed, focusing only on the calmness that Kannei's arms gave.

Just this time, he thought, resting his head on Kannei's chest.

Tomorrow, he would continue the war only he could understand.

Tonight... he had no strength left for any fight.