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They stumbled back into the room, which now looked dim and wan compared to the brightness of the stars outside.
Predictably, perhaps, Shindou was the first to recover. "What was that outside?" he asked, his voice high and breathless.
"What do you mean?" the Count asked, his eyelids falling over his eyes and rising in a slow blink. The oddness of his eyes--purple and yellow, and surely too intense in colour to be real--was more striking than ever.
"That... that!" Shindou pointed at the door. "Sai... I mean, the stars," he said in a smaller voice. "What did you do?" he asked, regaining his composure and ire. "How did you make all... all of..." he stopped, and waved his arm at the door in a semi-circle, once, as though to encompass the entirety of the world outside. "Chinatown. Disappear." His other hand, enclosed now in Touya's grip, trembled, but not with fear.
One of the Count's eyebrows rose slightly over his purple eye, before it fell, and his face was bland politeness again. "Disappear? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Shindou-san."
Shindou's eyes narrowed. "But that's-" he stopped when Touya dug him in the ribs with an elbow. "Ow, Touya!" he complained, before he turned to Touya. "Don't stop me," he said.
"Shindou," Touya said urgently. "Don't..." They were on dangerous ground.
Shindou shook his head. "No!" he shouted. "I don't know what you did, but you better reverse it!"
The Count took a step forward.
Touya dug his fingers into Shindou's forearm and dragged him back, nearly pulling him off his feet. Shindou was making protesting noises, but Touya ignored him, and renewed his grip. The scene outside was incomprehensible, but inside, in this room, there was danger. Touya dragged Shindou back another step, and they stumbled against the low table with the Go board, rattling the stones in the go-ke.
"The game," he said suddenly. An idea teased at the edges of his mind. "We have to play the game," he said, meeting the Count's eyes.
He could feel Shindou staring at him in amazement. "What are you talking about, Touya?" he asked. "How can you think about that when-"
Touya stepped on his foot, deliberately, while maintaining eye-contact with the Count. "It's time to finish the game," he said, echoing the Count's earlier words. "Isn't that right, Count D?"
A cool, satisfied smile appeared on the Count's face. He inclined his head, and waved a hand to the table behind them. "Please, have a seat."
They sat in the seat they had vacated--was it hours ago? "Touya, you've thought of something," Shindou said to him, his voice pitched low.
Touya only watched as the Count gracefully seated himself. "The game, Shindou," he said clearly, looking directly at the Count. "It was wrong of us to stop the game so suddenly. We should continue it." Sitting so close, he could sense the exact moment Shindou got it, in the twitch of his back muscles as Shindou suddenly straightened.
"Ah." Now Shindou was looking directly at the Count too, all signs of anger gone as though they had never been there. "I apologize for our rudeness, Count D. You're right, it's time to finish the game."
The Count nodded once in acknowledgement. He turned his attention to the Go board, and contemplated it for barely a second. "It's my move, I believe," he said, and laid down a white stone.
There was no hint of Shindou's fan, not even the faintest mark of dust on the polished surface of the table. Touya studied the game anew, Shindou at his side. Could it be that he was right? The formations, the ringed territories... Touya could remember the stars outside, shining out of the dark night, and even as he thought of them, the countermoves came to him. Shindou muttered his agreement when Touya murmured his ideas. They had taken the game as far as they could--building spires with nothing more than than flattened stones and blocking off territories with pure thought--now they were going to do more.
The game flew on. Sometimes the Count made a brief comment; both of them ignored it. Touya placed the stones more often now; a whispered word or two seemed to be sufficient to convey his intentions to Shindou, and vice versa. Shindou's hands, though, twitched emptily on his knees, as though longing for something to hold. Touya stretched out his free hand to close Shindou's fingers in a tight grip, and continued playing.
They had started by building territories along the sides, and the middle ground was increasingly filled up, becoming crowded. They were on the verge of yose, Touya knew, as he searched and analyzed--it had to end, and soon.
The Count played a white stone.
This time, both he and Shindou saw it: their hands reached for the go-ke at the same time. Shindou's lips stretched lengthwise in a tight smile; Touya paused, gave a nod, and it was Shindou who reached inside to take up a black stone between his fingertips. Firmly, he played it on 10-10.
Tengen. The source of the sky.
The Count stopped.
Touya held his breath, knowing that Shindou was doing the same.
Very slowly, the Count blinked. "Very good," he said softly a second later.
There was a tiny 'pop' in Touya's ear, as though he was ascending in an express elevator. Though he could not swear to it, there was a sense that the room--maybe the entire shop--was moving around them in a circle, before settling back on its foundations, making him dizzy.
"So, do we pass?" he heard Shindou ask, and winced at his blunt tone.
The Count gave a soft chuckle. "Oh, you pass," he said. "The two of you."
Something in Touya relaxed at that.
The Count continued, "For mere mortals to play a game such as this, and to play a hand such as that... It was well-played, Shindou-san, Touya-san."
"Thank you," Touya said, before Shindou could say anything disastrous. They had surprised the Count, perhaps even entertained him, but it would be dangerous to assume they were on safe ground just because of that.
"But I have been keeping you for too long," the Count said, standing up.
"We can leave?" Shindou asked.
The Count looked surprised. "But of course."
"R-right." Shindou stood up, and Touya followed mechanically. They were almost at the door, when Shindou turned back. "What about my fan?" he demanded.
Shindou! Touya thought in panic.
"Your fan?" the Count asked. "Isn't it on the table, where you left it?" He was smiling.
"What!" Shindou's voice rose, before his eyes went to the table. Sure enough, beside the Go board, there was an ordinary-looking paper fan. "B-but..." he started, before thinking better of it. Two long steps took him to the table, where he grabbed the fan as though it were going to disappear--or disintegrate, Touya thought hysterically--and rejoined Touya at the door. "Thank you," he said, his voice only a little hoarse.
"Thank you for the game." Suddenly reminded of his manners, Touya bowed. Shindou, after a split second's hesitation, followed.
"Such polite mortals," the Count said. He raised a hand towards the door, like a magician about to reveal some trick. "I believe you were looking for a ramen restaurant? You'll find it at the right corner, once you leave this shop."
Shindou and Touya exchanged glances. Unconsciously taking a deep breath, and turning the door knob together.
It swung inwards, Touya noted. He followed Shindou out, his heart beating fast.
It was dark outside. Night, Touya realized after a moment. Not entirely dark, however: he and Shindou were staring at a huge panel of blinking fairy lights that spelt out the words "AUTHENTIC BEIJING DUCK RESTAURANT".
---------the end---------