a/n: Old dogs can in fact learn new tricks. Of course, I've never thought thirty-seven was really all that old...

Part 24. Shidougo

There were at least a dozen other things he should be doing. Touya Akira sat at his usual goban in the corner of the salon, sipping tea and looking at the empty grid. He was scheduled to play in a demonstration match at Tokyo University the following morning, and had yet to even study his opponent's matches. There were half a dozen proposals, quotes and other documents regarding the salon remodel, which still required his review and approval. At home, a stack of messages from his mother and aunt required replies, not to mention the one letter from Sakamoto-san. He looked at the clock, and took another sip. This would make three weeks that Shindou had not come to the salon, but Touya decided to wait anyway.

A polite cough interrupted his contemplation.

"Please excuse me, Touya-sensei. I was wondering if you might grant me a teaching game." With her head bowed, the woman was unrecognizable and he wondered what could have motivated Ishikawa to let her bother him. Glancing at his clerk, he noted her imploring gesture and looked at his would-be student more closely. She was of average height, tastefully dressed in a dress shirt and tailored slacks, hair arranged stylishly around her face. Even so, it took a glimpse of her eyes to spark recognition – she'd changed so much since the separation - and when he realized who she was he almost considered saying no anyway.

"Shindou-san," he nodded to his rival's wife, then continued to stare.

"I'm afraid my husband is busy tonight. I thought that might leave you with some spare time." She smiled with the perfectly crafted charm of a highly trained executive assistant, but he sensed a surprising intensity beneath the polished manners. "May I sit?" The second request was just as light, but with an odd emphasis. Cautiously curious, he nodded.

"I'm not sure of your strength." He decided to keep things simple. "Place as many stones as you'd like."

"Hmm," she pretended to consider, smiling. "I believe I'll take seven, please excuse my inferiority." Something about that last comment felt barbed, but he merely handed her the black go ke, then watched as she placed her handicap. They exchanged ritual greetings and he began their play. The first several hands revealed considerable experience, if no real talent. She laughed softly behind her hand.

"You play differently than my husband, but I can still see hints of his style." This was true enough, but he was surprised she noticed.

"You're most perceptive, Shindou-san." He wondered whether Shindou might have sent her.

"Akari," she corrected, pausing to look at him. He found it interesting that she did not try to play and speak simultaneously. "Shindou-san is my husband, or sometimes my daughter. I'm afraid if you call me that, we'll both spend this game looking for them."

"Akari-san," he acknowledged, and she reconsidered the board before carefully placing her move. Then, because she had opened the topic for discussion, he allowed his curiosity a little freedom. "May I ask how your family is doing? I have not seen Shindou for some time, and Kinume-san has missed her last three lessons." He glanced down and placed his move, then looked back up for her reply.

"Well, Kinume has been having trouble with her chess game and with being a teenager," she paused to frown thoughtfully at the arrangements of stones, her face very like her daughter's. After several minutes, she found the solution he'd set up for her, and placed it. "I'll probably send her to Russia and let her rival straighten her out. That is, provided I can get her father to agree to it."

"He seldom trusts Marko-san's motives," murmured Touya, certain he knew how Shindou would react if Akari tried to send Kinume away. Akari glanced at him sharply.

"True. But he does trust me." She said it firmly, and he found himself wanting to argue just for the sake of arguing. "Besides, Piotr understands my daughter better than I do, much less Hikaru." The casual way she said his name bothered Touya. This was the same woman who had put his rival through domestic hell, and there she sat using the names and titles her marriage certificate allowed, all life evidence notwithstanding. "As for Hikaru," she accented the name with a tenderness that was both unexpected and irritating, "he's a little preoccupied at the moment."

"A family matter?" Touya placed his next stone to conceal the depth of his interest. Akari watched him, then looked at the stones.

"You might say that." The frown returned as she appeared to think about the game. "Someone he cares about is making confusing life choices, and it's upsetting him. He's always been very emotional, you know." There was no question in her tone as to whom she meant, but her choice of words both surprised and irritated her opponent. To be so blunt...

"Did he send you to discuss my marriage? Because it is hardly his concern. Or yours." His voice took on an edge, but he found himself holding back from the level of anger he might have thrown at his rival. Shindou Akari, after all, was barely an acquaintance, and names aside, not someone with whom he had earned the right to be honest.

For her part, she lingered over her choice of play – whether from deliberate social manipulation or necessary concentration, he couldn't decide. After a pause long enough to make a case for either, she finally moved, then looked up. He realized she had been taking the time to compose herself.

"When someone does something to upset my husband, it becomes my concern. Especially when that someone is you, Touya Akira-san."

"You still call him your husband, but you haven't lived with him, have not been his wife in any sense but the legal one in five years. You broke his heart, abandoned him, tried to take away his daughter and his love of the game all at once, and you still call him your husband and pretend to have any right to defend him?" He glared at her, and wondered whether crushing her on this goban would satisfy the anger she had suddenly awakened.

"If you don't understand why I did what I did, and why we live as we do, you're the one who should think carefully about what it means to be married." Touya still had not played, but Akari clearly did not care about the game. That in itself was enough of a shock to make him consider her words. But not enough to agree with her.

"Why are you here?" He asked it calmly, hiding his anger as he would before a stranger. Akari did the same. Her face became a politely amused mask and she spoke quietly.

"Confronting the mistress has always been the right of a wife."

Touya blanched and stared at her, only the setting keeping him seated. He felt like ending the game immediately, devastatingly, but realized that to her it would hardly matter. Then it occurred to him that she most likely only meant go. After all, go was certainly Hikaru's mistress as no human ever could be, and his rival was the most obvious embodiment of the game. A natural target. Abruptly, she flushed and looked again at the board.

"I'm sorry. I didn't really mean that." She sighed and looked unhappy and the professional across the goban placed a stone to calm down. They both focused on the board for a while and three hands passed in silence.

Ishikawa brought a second cup and a fresh pot of tea, pouring for the owner's guest. Akari thanked her sincerely, and sipped delicately from the porcelain cup. The next move was confusing her, but the fact that she was concentrating on the game was a sort of concession in itself.

"If you'd like a hint..." he offered, mollified enough to be polite. But she demurred.

"No, thank you. If I can't figure it out on my own, what have I learned?" She smiled a little wistfully. "I'm really not here to try to advise you, Touya-sensei. And I don't care who you marry or why. It's just..." She took another sip from the cup. "Marriage is a lot of work – a lot of compromise and sacrifice and thinking about life in terms of another person. Love isn't enough to make it work, but the lack is enough to make it not worth the effort. Hikaru and I made a lot of mistakes in twelve years." Her gaze grew a little distant, remembering. "I hurt him. He hurt me. We both made life hell for our daughter." Her smile became rueful, not meeting his eyes. "Kinume hid in chess. Her father hid in go. We're all okay now, but for a while it was very hard." Akari returned her focus to the goban, covering her lapse with a little murmur of "Oh!" before she placed the proper play.

Touya didn't know what answer to give to her words, so he replied to her stone instead. It was not an answer she would understand the way her husband or daughter might have, but he tried to build a pattern she might win with due consideration - not an easy victory, but a chance. Akari found her next move quickly.

"I guess what it comes down to is that they care about you, and Hikaru especially doesn't want to see you get hurt. He doesn't understand what it is that's motivating you, and after what my daughter has told me, neither do I." She watched as he played, but waited for his answer. Touya noted that she had politely refrained from asking outright.

"There are certain, familial reasons," he left it vague. Akari allowed the silence to stretch as she considered the new pattern. "Obligations, tasks..." He did not want to tell her everything. He hoped this would be enough. She set a black stone on the grid; not the best move, but an acceptable one.

"If you need someone to mind your household, you could hire a maid or an assistant. If you need an heir, perhaps adopt one and retain a nanny. Hikaru's told me how traditional the Touya family is, but in this century, with your wealth, there are options that don't involve committing your heart somewhere it won't go. Unless," she eyed him with honest curiosity, "perhaps there is something I'm missing?"

He placed a stone, letting the silence stretch.

Across from him, Shindou Akari watched his eyes, then noted the stone. She ignored it.

"Oh well. I suppose your game is too deep for me. But since my husband doesn't seem to be understanding it either, I would ask that you please explain it to him some time. I don't like to see him as he is at the moment." She set her move down where he'd intended, and took another sip of tea.

"It's bothering him that much?" Touya said it before he realized he was speaking, oddly as though he had played a move intended by his opponent in this strange verbal game. He did not care for the sensation. To retract the question would give it more weight than it deserved, however. He sighed inwardly at his carelessness. Akari did not smile, but her face became considering.

"He took a trip to Hiroshima," she said, trusting her husband's rival to understand the significance if not the exact reason. Her trust was not misplaced. "He took Kinume with him. They have played every day since then. That's all I can say. Anything else, you'd have to ask him." She sighed. "He might even tell you, my foolish, stubborn husband, since it is inconvenient when best friends cease talking."

Touya had to admit there was some truth to her choice of nomenclature. They did not speak again for the remainder of the game. In the end, Akari lost, but didn't seem displeased with the outcome.

"Thank you for the game, Touya-sensei." Her professional, charming mask was firmly back in place.

"Thank you for the game, Akari-san." They cleared the board, and she stood, bowing slightly.

When she had gone, he stared at the empty board, considering. Five minutes later, he was at the counter, asking Ishikawa-san for his coat.

"I may not be in for a few days," he told her, fastening the zipper. She smiled and raised her eyebrows, but didn't question. Touya relented, appreciating his assistant's restraint enough to give her that much. "I'm going to visit my fiance."