----------(14)---------
To Touya's surprise, Shindou made no response to his pronouncement. He merely started driving again, and watching Tokyo whiz by in silence, Touya began to pick mentally through what he knew of Shindou's activities since the boys went missing.
All signs pointed to a distraught parent paralyzed by fear and anxiety, someone who was unable to do anything but live with the agony of not knowing what had happened. Touya could sense the hysteria of a parent, pushed to the limits of endurance, beneath Shindou's outwardly controlled surface.
Yet, Touya knew his rival as well, if not better, than he knew himself. There was something more--the indefinable strength that Shindou retained even in the darkest moments. True, for the most part, Touya had seen that strength in Go games, but this was Shindou, who had left Japan to start all over in a new country at the age of twenty-five. Shindou had long made that strength part of himself.
They reached Shindou's house before Touya could say anything else. There was an unfamiliar car in front: small and anonymous-looking, a common dark blue colour, and so ordinary that Touya's pulse began to race.
At the sight of the car, Shindou had already stopped his own, nearly falling down in his haste to reach the front door. The sudden hope lighting his face made Touya's heart clench, and he followed closely.
The door opened, and Touya found himself holding his breath.
He didn't know what he expected. In the days after his father died, Touya had started to miss him everywhere. He kept expecting to see his father when he entered a room, or when he went to the Go salon, or the Go Institute--and even to the most implausible of places, like the supermarket. He knew by the way Shindou's eyes sometimes searched the crowd that the same thing was happening to him, too.
But the doorway was empty of children.
Instead Touya could see two adults emerging from the inside, and recognized one of them as Noguchi. The other person was a man was wearing a plain-looking shirt and jeans, and looked rather young. Noguchi bowed to him, and disappeared into the house, leaving the door open.
Shindou's shoulders had drooped at the same time Touya took in the sight, but they straightened again as he approached the front door, his steps heavy but quick.
"Morita-san," Shindou said.
The man looked up and gave a small bow of greeting. "Shindou-san," he said.
"Has there-" Shindou began, but glanced back in Touya's direction at the man's pointed look.
Without knowing why, Touya stiffened.
Shindou waited until Touya joined them, before he said, "Morita-san, this is Touya Akira, an old friend. Touya, this is Morita Kazuya."
Touya bowed, and straightened to find himself looking into a pair of serious-looking eyes.
"Touya-sensei," Morita said, his voice low and polite. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Shindou-san often mentions you to me."
Yet this was the first time Touya had heard about this man. It was clear that there was something between Shindou and Morita. There was an uncomfortable feeling at the pit of Touya's stomach as he replied, "Pleased to meet you."
Morita gave a brief, polite smile. "I wish it were under better circumstances, Touya-sensei," he said, and Touya realized he was referring to the boys. Without waiting for Touya to reply, Morita turned to Shindou. "I'll contact you soon," he said.
Shindou frowned. "There's still no…"
"We'll talk later, Shindou-san," Morita said, interrupting him while his eyes flickered in Touya's direction. "I'm sorry to rush off, but I have to catch a train." He bowed to the two of them, and walked towards his car.
Touya stared as the car sped off.
"Come on, Touya," Shindou's voice roused him. "Let's go in."
"Asako introduced us," Shindou said as they entered and removed their shoes. "Don't be fooled--he looks young, but he's actually very serious and focused. That's what I like about him."
"Shindou," Touya began, but didn't know what else to say. There was a sour taste in his mouth.
Shindou ushered him to the living room, where Noguchi was clearing up plates and cups from the table. Touya greeted her in his usual manner, noting that the strain was beginning to tell on her: she was thinner, and the shadows under her eyes showed the lack of sleep.
"Did Morita-san say anything else?" she asked Shindou.
Shindou shook his head. "Just that he had to catch a train," he said to his ex-wife.
"To Yokohama," Noguchi said. "He said he had to meet someone there." She glanced at Touya, and excused herself.
Touya was beginning to feel like an outsider.
"How was the game?" Noguchi asked, entering again with two glasses of water.
"I won," Shindou said, sitting down with a murmur of thanks. He drained the glass.
Noguchi's expression was surprisingly neutral. "Congratulations, I suppose," she said. "I'm going out," she added.
"Will you be back later?" Shindou asked.
Noguchi paused, and nodded.
After she left, Shindou led the way to his study.
"Shindou, what is going on?" Touya asked. They were sitting in front of Shindou's Go board, and the late afternoon sun was casting long shadows into the room.
"Play a game with me," Shindou said.
Touya assented with a quick nod, and stared in surprise as Shindou placed black stones on the eight star points and the tengen, and pushed the go-ke of black stones towards him. "Shindou, what-"
His words froze when Shindou glanced up, his eyes hard with determination. "I need to learn how to catch up from behind, Touya. They have the advantage now, but I can't let them win. I won't. Help me."
Touya reached out to accept the go-ke in sudden comprehension. They were no longer just playing Go now.
The game began.
"Morita-san is a private detective," Shindou said when they were into their first corner engagement.
The Go stone fell from Touya's fingertips. "What?" he whispered.
Shindou flashed a quick, mischievous smile, his mood lulled by the rhythm of the game. "I just couldn't let your jealousy affect the game any more," he said with exaggerated concern.
Touya narrowed his eyes, wishing he could drop a piano on Shindou by sheer mental effort.
Shindou's smile widened at his reaction, before it faded away. "It's not something the police approved of--interfering in their investigation and so on--but they haven't showed any results either, have they?" he asked.
"Morita-san is helping you to look for Kenichi and Kenji?" Touya asked. He picked up his stone and played it.
Shindou nodded. "He's rather young, but according to Asako's friend, who recommended him, he has a lot of experience with cases involving children." He studied the Go board and replied to Touya's hand, his gaze becoming abstract with thought.
"How long has this been going on?" Touya asked, continuing to play.
"Nearly two weeks." There was a pause, before Shindou continued. "I know it was fast, to pull in a private detective after only a week or so. But I could sense it, Touya." He played another hand, and for the next fifteen minutes, they were locked in battle for the lower left corner. Shindou finally gained it, and for the next hand he played near the centre. "There's something strange about all of this," he murmured.
"What do you mean?" Touya asked, studying the board. Shindou's advantage was less than he probably hoped for, but he knew from experience that Shindou was tenacious enough to battle for every little bit of territory.
"I was out of my mind with worry," Shindou said, his voice sounding almost mechanical. "It was even worse than losing Sai, because Sai was already dead. But if anything happened to Kenichi or Kenji…" he stopped, and placed both hands on the floor to calm himself. "I can't lose them," he said, his words coming out in a rush.
"Shindou…"
Shindou shook his head, took a stone again and attacked the centre. His stone was placed off-centre, but the position was just right.
Touya parried, using the tengen stone as a lever to strengthen his territory.
"I could sense it," Shindou said as the pace of that struggle faltered after a few hands, neither side gaining on the other. "It was no ordinary disappearance or kidnapping." He chucked bitterly. "As though such things can ever be ordinary."
Touya managed to stop himself from replying with an inane 'They'll be all right'. Instead, he attacked Shindou, cutting off his escape on the right. Shindou replied with a recklessness that Touya seldom saw, and they rushed into a tussle that expanded to the entire right side.
"This has something to do with Sai," Shindou said, taking part of the lower right by using the dead group there so skillfully that Touya raised his eyebrows in appreciation. "So I told Morita-san about Sai."
"What?" He didn't mean to sound so accusatory.
Shindou dropped his stone to take up his fan for a moment. "Not everything," he said. "Just… about the rumours. That people thought I was Sai--he can check the news for that--and how Sai was known to use Shuusaku's Go. And that the only Go board that is still missing is Shuusaku's Go board."
"In other words, you asked him to look into a connection between Sai and the boys' disappearance."
Shindou nodded, and laid down his fan to resume playing. "Asako thinks it's crazy, but she's as desperate as I am, if not more. She feels guilty, because she gave me custody. But then Asako doesn't know the whole truth about Sai."
Touya thought about it even as his eyes followed the patterns of black and white on the Go board. "What does Morita-san think?" he asked.
Shindou gave a small smile. "At first he thought I was crazy, too, but it looks like he's starting to think that my suspicions weren't totally ridiculous." He played a jump into Touya's territory.
Touya countered it, but he wasted a hand doing so. "What has he found out?" he asked.
"He talked to a few people at the hospital, and he thinks someone eavesdropped on my conversation with Touya-sensei," Shinodu said, playing a hane. "When I told him about Sai, I mean. You suspected that too; and Morita has seen the rumours from the news for himself. I'm afraid he now thinks badly of me for telling a dying man a ghost story."
There was the sound of a choked laugh, and Touya realized that it came from him. He dropped the stone back into the go-ke, and frowned at the situation on the Go board. Despite the handicap, he was not gaining as he hoped; Shindou's revelations were as unsettling as they were distracting.
In addition to that, Touya realized, Shindou was still playing in the way he did with Ochi: bold, tricky, enticing his opponent into traps. Exactly like when he was twelve. When they were twelve. "What else?" he asked.
"He and I have been checking to see who is making enquiries about Shuusaku's Go board in online communities."
Touya saw an opening, and played it. "What did you find out?"
Shindou's eyes were narrowed and focused on the hand Touya had just played. "Eventually?" he asked. "Someone believes the ghost story."
"What?" Touya asked, confused.
At that moment Shindou replied to his hand, and they were suddenly wrestling for that narrow strip of territory at the top which pointed directly to the centre. Touya managed to cut Shindou's territory, but it turned out that Shindou was only making use of the opportunity to revive his stones in the centre, and he managed to occupy that before Touya could stop him.
They played, and as the room started to grow dim from the setting sun the game ended, and Touya felt like swearing. The outcome was still unsatisfactory, even with a handicap. The Go board showed the pace of their conversation, at once leisurely and at once murderous. Yes, it was familiar. Sai's Go, just like it was when Shindou was twelve. Touya was beginning to understand.
Shindou's gaze across the Go board was intent and expectant at the same time.
Touya nodded once, and stared directly at him. "What do you want me to do?" he asked.
------to be continued---------