A/N: Just a couple of review replies

regarding number of letters: around fifty is the current goal, but I haven't planned this in terms of number of chapters so I can't say for sure.

Tomoki is Shinya's friend, so he'll show up via. Takuya via. Kouji in the next two chapters, if he hasn't already. I know I wrote him recently... Junpei was mentioned as living in the same apartment complex initially, but Kouji has managed to tease out that he is a friend, all in all.

Letter 10
From Kouji to Kouichi

Kimura-kun,

This is slow handwriting? It looks messier than usual, but it's readable, I guess.

With that out of the way, only a blind person wouldn't have picked up the sarcasm there. How else would you translate that, in the context it was in? But yes, I will gratefully skip resemblances of tedious pleasantries with every letter if I can get away with it, and if there's a problem, I'll just say you were the one who skipped out on the usual societal politeness first.

I checked. It is your week; apparently the school scheduled it that week on purpose. So they do plan ahead – or they're just saving face. One or the other. It's a bit hard to tell without evidence and their expressions don't give much away. Guess they have to have good poker faces with students. And be good at reading poker faces too. And no, I'm not really the picture type. Takuya is though. He takes multiples of everything and his mother only keeps the good ones, so I can send some of the spare ones to you. She throws the rest out, otherwise. A waste of printing them, but it's an analogue camera so can't really pick and choose what to print.

You don't tell them to stay away from your chair? Or does that happen to anyone in the front couple of rows, regardless of who they are? And reading in the dark isn't good for your eyes, you know. You don't want to start wearing glasses already, do you? I've resigned myself to them since my father and stepmother both do, but I'm trying to hold off as long as possible and that means avoiding the instant-killers – like glaring into suns or straining eyes in the dark or spending too long in front of computer screens.

That sounds like skipping meals to me, but whatever you say. I'll just say "I told you so" when you faint from anaemia. Who knows; that might be the reason you were feeling tired during Golden Week. And after having a parent who works in the hospital, shouldn't you know this stuff better than me?

Very true. Even different teachers which teach the same class in the same subject will have had different classes previously… Although the only time we get multiple teachers in one subject is if one needs to take leave or we have a student teacher.

I understand. I kept on thinking my mother would come home too. The difference in my case is that she'll never come back and it's not because she wants to or doesn't but because she can't. Can blame someone for not coming back if they're alive, but really can't when they're dead. Or I can't. And as for not coming back… I've left my fair share of friends. There wasn't much I could've done to stay in contact with them, but there were letters and phone calls and emails… It just wasn't worth the effort for school friends that would almost certainly drift apart with distance. I don't even remember any of their names anymore, so that shows how important they were to me…or weren't.

That is weird. I'd have asked if you needed glasses or something but eyesight problems – of those sort – don't come on that quickly, do they? It might still be a low blood sugar from not eating properly, or anaemia or something. Or food poisoning, or a bacteria or virus or something. Have you gone to the doctor's yet? Of course, with the week waits, you'll probably be all better by the time you read this and it'll wind up a moot point. Oh well. Let me know in any case.

That's true. Things like Takuya's hyper-personality – or maybe not. He says he needed pills when he was younger, but he's outgrown them. But still keep him away from soft drinks and coffee. And look at me, telling you as though you two are going to meet soon. The odds are the same as they always were.

Yep, that's too far into existentialism, so we'll both stay right out of that for the time being. Unless one of us has a mid-life crisis about thirty years early.

Knowing him, he probably would. And then get into fights for being too frank. But the chances of those two meeting are rather slim too, and maybe Shibayama-kun's tongue will stop twisting in front of her and she can make a more educated decision as to his merit. Or maybe she's not the hot-stuff she appears to be. Any number of things can happen. And you read his homework for spelling errors? Is he that bad at spelling?

Wonder why they're called Grand Rounds. Weird and wonderful stuff sneaking into the title? And I wonder how they afford to keep their students fed. Higher feeds in university, or dipping into club funds or something? I hear it's compulsory to pay some sort of fee for the student union above and beyond class and administration fees now. It wasn't like that when our parents were at university.

Guess so. It's only important if someone with bad allergies shows up, I guess.

Certain topics? I don't know if morbidity can be compartmentalised like that, but if you say so.

That's a fair amount to remember off the top of your head. So Fool's mate is the shortest, followed by Scholar's mate and even semi-experienced players can fall to a Scholar's mate if they're not on the lookout. I wonder how many times I've pulled that trick without even realising it. Yes the Smothered mate sounds like a complete pain, but I think something like the Legal Trap is worse, because both players lose a huge player and wind up squabbling with minor pieces. It's like throwing away the foils in a fencing match and using your nails. You seem rather fond of the knights. Guess I know which pieces to watch out for in our match – assuming I remember this long enough. In any case, the Legal Trap sounds like back-alley market trading. Not as illegal as the Underworld, but still frowned upon. Or the Red Light District.

Like not falling for that Fool's mate, you mean? Fair point. That would have been disappointing – and rather pointless, waiting four weeks for a match to end just like that. It's still rather tedious though.

Of course not. A chess tournament huh. Sounds like fun. There was a Go tournament in our area but we didn't bother going to that. Some other classmates did, and the school's Go club. Did you miscalculate how many pieces you'd need to perform a checkmate because you needed to stretch it out, or is this a common occurrence with you? Is this why the king and one knight impossibility of a checkmate thing keep on cropping up? And they definitely are. You'd better get well soon, otherwise school is just going to drag you down or you'll miss something.

You know, when I said I could read your handwriting, I meant everything but the last paragraph. Your handwriting's gotten steadily more cramped and I can't make out this paragraph at all. Something about golden week maybe, but you covered that last paragraph so I think I missed something. If it's important, rewrite in the next letter? If it's just a wrapup, forget it. I can do without. We skip greetings, after all.

Minamoto Kouji