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The game exploded with a speed that should have been astonishing, but wasn't.
After only five hands, Shindou gave a soft, muffled "huh", and laid down his fan on the table. It was the earliest Touya had seen him do that yet.
The Count glanced at the fan once again, before a smile crooked his lips.
Touya watched, his eyes wary.
The game had spread with the suddenness of water ripples floating across a pond, the lines of black and white seeming to waver but their shapes ever-changing.
The Count did not seem to play with conscious intent, but he eluded Shindou's attacks just the same, with an ease that was nothing short of miraculous. The white stones seemed to float across the board, thwarting Shindou's shape as naturally as a bird flying free of a mis-cast net.
Finally, Shindou seemed to shift slightly in his seat, and he smiled, rueful. "I should resign, shouldn't I?" he asked, almost cheerful.
Touya could have sworn that he saw a flicker of surprise appear in the Count's face at that. It seemed that he wasn't expecting Shindou to say that yet.
The Count said, "You have keen eyes."
"Well, I would have to be pretty stupid not to see, you know?" Shindou retorted, exchanging a glance with Touya. Touya returned the look warily, wondering what was going to happen now. Maybe they could make a run for it...
"Really."
The dry, indifferent tone made Shindou turn back to the Count. "But I thought I'd give it my best shot, just the same," Shindou went on. "I mean, you gave me a perfect opening by asking me for a handicap. You. Asking. Me."
"Ah. And so the handicap you asked me for--that was your preemptive attack, wasn't it?" the Count asked. He sounded inwardly amused.
Shindou set his chin. "Yeah," he said in his most aggressive tone.
After a split second, the Count chuckled. "Well done. Not every Go player appreciates the fact that a game will begin even before the first hand is played."
But Shindou seemed dismissive of the approval. "Much use that is, with this game," he said, looking down to study it again. "I don't think I can continue."
Touya had to admit that Shindou was right, even though the Go enthusiast in him rebelled at the idea of stopping the game, just like that. There were plenty of hands one could play, but as things stood now, the ending was the same. Nonetheless, the game bristled with potential, as though the perfect path was about to appear the very next moment. He wondered what it would be like if he had been the one to play.
"What if I accept reverse komi?"
Shindou's head snapped up, his eyes flashing at the Count's words. "Are you serious?" He exchanged a glance with Touya, who was just as shocked.
It was unheard of, to change the rules of the game half-way, and in such an crucial way too. The existence of komi--or its lack, as in a handicapped game--was essential to the way a player planned his strategy and timed his attacks. For White, to add a reverse komi to the handicap of two stones was a very great concession, and in some cases, it would almost be insulting.
The Count shrugged. "I've rarely had such an interesting game. It would be a pity to end in mid-game, don't you think? I suggest we take it to the end." His eyes flickered to Touya. "I think your rival feels the same way."
"Huh. Yes, it's a pity," Shindou stared at the Go board again, his eyes flickering as they traced the paths made by his black stones, measuring them against the white stones. He looked up. "Five-and-a-half moku," he said.
The Count raised his eyebrows. "I believe the current rules call for eight-and-a-half moku," he said.
Shindou nodded. "Yeah. If we were at the tournament. But this is reverse komi, and we're not at the tournament. Besides, Touya is playing with me."
"Shindou!" Touya hissed, alarmed.
There was a second of silence, before the Count nodded. "The game has continued. You are already countering my hand, Shindou-san. Audacious."
Shindou said, holding the Count's gaze steadily, "Not at all."
Then the Count smiled, rather like a Cheshire Cat.
Shindou grabbed Touya's left hand as his gaze sharpened on the Go board.
Touya had never played a game together with anyone else before; both he and Shindou were much too competitive to do anything except play against each other. He knew the principle of it--paired games were extremely popular among some players--but he had never felt it was for him, or for Shindou. This time, though, he could feel the rhythms of the game flowing through his mind. The tight, warm grip on his hand seemed to telegraph Shindou's thoughts, and Touya took heart from that.
Sometimes they placed the hands in turns, and sometimes Touya took the lead, disengaging them from the Count's deceptively elegant traps with the experience learnt from playing the best of Japan's pros. Sometimes Shindou took over, countering the formal, almost traditional set-ups with abrupt slices, and sometimes they consulted each other in low mutters, but that was almost unnecessary. He and Shindou had been able to anticipate each other's Go before, but never as perfectly as this.
Reverse komi opened up the game to dizzying possibilities, yet Touya fancied that the brightest path seemed to leap out at them simultaneously. The sensation of being surrounded by shimmering lines almost overwhelmed him. He felt lightheaded--could it be that they would finally reach the Hand of God, like this?
Time seemed to pass like a roar in his ears; the 'pachi' of Go stones echoed as though in a great hall.
Touya knew, without looking, that Shindou's concentration was intense, almost eerily so; even the sound of his breathing was unusually quiet. But he knew these things as though they were from a great distance: the game was in him, and he was in it--he thought he might even be able to see the paths on the Go board before they appeared, if only he watched carefully enough. Droplets of perspiration collected on his own face, turning his eyelashes wet; he shook his eyes clear, and kept playing, his senses in sync with Shindou's.
This time, it was the Count who blinked first. Touya had looked up, sensing the change in the atmosphere, just in time to see the bright golden eye flare with a sudden light. He tensed; the shining paths in his mind receded like flowing water, leaving him drained. He must have made a sound.
Shindou's hand, in the action of reaching into the go-ke, hesitated as he glanced first at Touya, then at the Count. "What..." he said, and his voice was husky, as though he hadn't spoken for a long time.
"Interesting," the Count said, as unruffled as ever.
"Er," Shindou said, looking again from the Go board to the Count, and then to Touya, as though in confusion. Shindou had always been capable of throwing himself so thoroughly into a game that he became disoriented when the game ended. "What happened?" he asked.
"I think, Shindou-san, Touya-san, you best see for yourself." Without seeming to move, the Count was suddenly standing behind them, looking down at the Go board from their side.
Touya caught his breath.
Shindou was frowning. "But we haven't reached the end," he said, then blinked as he studied the game anew. "I could have sworn..." he glanced at Touya.
The game looked as though it could have been played in three dimensions at once. The patterns of black and white stones laid up against each other, as though they could leap up and engage in an a fight in mid-air, and fall back onto the Go board. Ordinary shapes and walls of defenses metamorphosed, like optical illusions if one squinted, into battalions and underground struggles.
"How did that happen?" Touya whispered.
Shindou said, "I didn't realize it would be like this." He frowned, and reached instinctively for his fan.
Both of them stared as the fan disintegrated, leaving nothing but an elongated pile of dust.
"There's an interesting story associated with Go," the Count said into their amazement. He was now sitting at his side of the Go board again.
Shindou swallowed.
"Once, a woodcutter in China stopped in a forest to watch two men playing Go. He had leant his axe against a tree, but when he finally thought to take it up again, he found that the wooden handle had rotted away, and when he reached his village, he found that a hundred years had passed."
There was a finality to the Count's voice as he told the story.
Touya and Shindou exchanged a look, the game forgotten. They had nearly forgotten how timeless this pet shop had looked like, at first glance. As one, they raced for the door.
------to be continued-----------