"Between a long life unexciting and a short one heart-racing, I would choose the latter as a blessing," Naoko said in a singsong voice, putting a black go piece on the board.
"May you live in interesting times then, but the sword lives shorter than the pen," Sukina replied, putting the edge of her white piece to her lips before setting it down in a graceful manner.
"Not too bad," Naoko replied, holding her piece in the same manner Sukina's had.
Kurama stopped reading his book and peered over it to see how the game was going. One of his eyebrows shot up. "Interesting strategies," he said, before going back to reading. Hiei was asleep, his katana in between his arms. They were waiting for the train to move.
"The sword influences but a life, but the pen for aeon," Shuura said. He was writing what they were saying, but looked up at the girls.
"That was good Shuura. Put it down. Hmm… Yet the sword's path is a tradition, the pen's a mere ripple," Naoko abandoned any attempt to rhyme.
"Over here, Cho!" someone's voice called out. The door to their compartment swung open. None of them looked up.
"Oh sorry! We didn't know!" the girl said, but no one paid attention as the girl left.
The train left the station about an hour later. During that time, numerous people had passed by the compartment and peeked in, everyone apologising profusely when they realised their mistake.
By that time Kurama was ready to put down his book, Hiei was rousing from his nap, Shuura was standing and stretching, Sukina was leaning back taking a breather, and Naoko was reading what Shuura had written. She laughed.
"This is interesting. We started off with minerals, and then went on to vegetables, then to literature, choices in life, and then to literature again," she said.
"May I?" Kurama asked, and upon reading what they had said earlier, he smiled too.
"Hn. You're going to be slaughtered if you continued on this path," Hiei grinned evilly at Naoko, who nodded. "There's an escape route of course, and… No. You'd better end the game here, Naoko," Hiei said, a frightened tone in his voice.
"There's an escape? How?" Naoko asked.
"It would lead to a triple ko, Naoko-san. Don't ask me," Hiei said.
"How many moves?" she asked Hiei. Kurama nodded. "I can't see it Hiei," he supported Naoko. Sukina's strategy didn't allow anyone to escape.
"Eighteen. And Naoko would only have escaped the first trap," the jagan replied.
Before Sukina could reply, the door swung open and a boy with blond white hair was looking at them. He apologised like the others, but there was a sneering in his voice as he did so, as though he believed he was a higher power unto himself. "Are you the new teachers? My name is Draco Malfoy," he said, expecting them to know him. His tone was just short of disrespect.
Sukina stiffened, as did Naoko. It took a moment for Kurama to understand the implications of the name, and then he looked at the boy thoughtfully. "Malignant Dragon," he said in Japanese. Shuura and Hiei looked at him. A malignant dragon in Asian mythology was rarely heard of, but they did exist.
"Nice to meet you, Professors, and fellow students," he said, looking puzzled at Shuura, but greeting Naoko and Sukina as students.
"Pleasure to meet you too, Draco. I for one would like to get to know you better, but as you may have heard us just now, we have something to discuss. See you in class?" Kurama said. The boy nodded and went away.
"First a triple ko, and now a Malignant Dragon? I don't like this, kitsune. Too many bad omens," Hiei said.
"Since when did you believe in omens, Hiei-san? I thought you said they were nothing more than perfectly explainable phenomenon," Shuura said respectfully to the jagan.
"Yes, most of the time. There was a demon I knew once, when I was still a bandit. He thought me and some of the others how to play go, but we fought more often than we played, of course. The triple ko came up, once. He immediately declared the game a draw, but the two bandits were particularly strong… rivals. They didn't heed him, but because he held power they kept silent. However, later that night when everyone but the guards had gone to sleep, they took out the board and played from where they'd stopped. I saw them. Two days later they were eaten alive in front of me," Hiei shivered. "You may think that it was just coincidence, but it was the first time I'd seen anyone being eaten in a full battle. Since then, there have been one or two players who had the triple ko and still kept on playing, but they all died horrible deaths. More horrible than I've ever known. Once word got around, they stopped playing immediately when the triple ko came up. It's never a good thing you see, when it comes up," he said.
"I'll stop here then. I could never get out of that trap anyway," Naoko said, smiling at her sister.
"But the Malignant Dragon?"
"Strong words, Hiei-san. But still… Malfoy does sound like Malignant, doesn't it?" Naoko answered.
"We'll need to be on guard around him. He reminds me of one of those innocent babes who are evil inside," Sukina agreed.
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Okay… This was not too bad, I suppose. More havoc coming up, I promise!
Triple ko- considered to be a bad omen when it comes up in go. Participants declare the game an immediate draw when it does.
