----------(15)----------

Shindou's study had always been neat, an unexpected contrast to his outwardly easy-going manner. Touya remembered being surprised when he first visited Shindou's home to play Go, to see his possessions carefully put away, nothing out of place. That neatness was somewhat deceptive, though, as he had learnt after Shindou moaned about misplacing an autograph card with with half of Kurata's signature--and somehow, only Shindou would manage to get half of an autograph--as well as his newest game schedule, his recent kifu, and his cell phone, all in that orderly-looking space.

Parenthood and professional life did not change that state of affairs. Volumes of manga were stacked neatly with books of kifu, children's books, and tiny plastic action figures, toy robots and cars shared space with bowls of stray Go stones. Shindou was probably also the only pro who also owned a Go timer clock in the shape of Doraemon, which took pride of place on a low shelf.

Now the study was a mess.

The walls were covered with sheets of paper filled with kifu, and the floor was filled with half a dozen portable and whole Go boards, all showing games in various stages. Entire stretches of the ceiling-high shelves were empty. His desk was cluttered high with half-opened books, each wedging the other open, so that the whole structure looked like a fantastic sculpture of books, and numerous kifu, some old, some recent, and some half-finished.

Touya entered after Shindou, taking in the entire room at a glance.

Shindou was staring at his study as though it was the first time he had seen in in days. "I suppose I should have cleaned it up..." he muttered, before he turned to regard Touya. "Well?"

Touya walked closer to study the kifu on the walls. "This is what you've been busy with?" he murmured, repressing a start as he recognized the games. A jolt out of the past, indeed. He frowned at one in particular.

"Yeah," Shindou said, turning to one side to look at his desk, at a photograph that showed Kenichi and Kenji, making faces at the camera. "All those that I could dig up," he said.

"You've managed to dig up a lot," Touya said, looking at the kifu that had caught his attention. Maybe it was a coincidence that Shindou had placed it here, but the memories welled up, anyway. The anticipation that had nearly made him sick, the nervousness that made his heart beat twice as fast, and the excitement that had made his hand tremble as he logged on.

It had been one of the last online games he had played for a long, long time.

"I hope it's enough," Shindou said.

The tone of his voice made Touya look up, even as he realized what had been bothering him ever since he saw the kifu. "Shindou, this is too much," he said.

Shindou looked up from the photograph. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Sai was online for only two months," Touya said. "But this..." he looked around the room, and at the desk, his eyes catching the titles of the books there. "He didn't play that many games." He paused. "Did he?"

"He also played with me, you know," Shindou said, moving to the back of the desk to pull up a chair. "And before he played with me, he played with you, with the players at the Kaio tournament, with perfect strangers."

Touya took a step back, his gaze running over the walls again. There must have been hundreds of kifu there. "All of them?" he asked. "You remembered them all? Shindou!"

Shindou, who had rested his head on his hands, looked up at his exclamation. "It wasn't easy. It was so long ago," he said, a trace of weariness in his voice. "You know, I keep saying, I won't forget him. But I hadn't realized how many of our games I'd forgotten."

Touya was speechless. While it was true that Go players, especially professional Go players of Shindou's caliber, could recall past Go games with an accuracy that dumbfounded outsiders, he was sure that it was not possible to remember every single game you had played. "That was more than twenty years ago!" he finally said. "How... how..."

"Some were easy, you know," Shindou said. "His games with you, for example, and with Touya-sensei. But the others... he beat this old geezer in a run-down Go salon in twenty hands once, do you know? Simply amazing. But the hundreds of casual games we played..."

"They are all here?" Touya asked, feeling breathless just at the thought.

Shindou nodded. "As many as I could recall."

"Incredible." Touya looked at his rival. "You weren't just studying Sai's Go, were you, all this month? You were trying to remember them! I would have thought that was impossible."

Shindou smiled, and lifted a lock of his hair that was hanging in front of his eyes for inspection, squinting at it. "Well, my hair hasn't turned white from the effort. But it would still have been worth it, even so."

"And Shuusaku's Go?" Touya asked, nodding at the books on the desk.

"Well, Sai's Go is similar to Shuusaku's Go, especially when he was beginning to play NetGo." Shindou straightened, and began to put away the books, one by one. "I hadn't even realized, until you mentioned it just now, that I was beginning to play like Sai," he said.

Touya frowned, as he took a seat beside Shindou, tapping on the touch-sensitive screen sitting to one side. The screen image immediately resolved to show the sign-on client for an online Go site. "This won't cause any difficulty?" he asked, his voice low. He watched as Shindou's eyes took on a faraway look, the look of a Go master calculating possibilities upon possibilities.

"No," Shindou said. "I don't think it will. I just need to be careful in the future, that's all. And against stronger opponents... I won't have the chance to pretend to be Sai--I'll be too busy fighting my own fight."

"But..."

"No." Shindou shook his head. "Even if someone notices it, like you did, I can't back away now. This is something that I must do."

Touya understood. This was not a game, and Shindou was not after a perfect strategy. However imperfect or outwardly foolish this was, Shindou was committed. He nodded. "Shall we start, then?" he asked.

Shindou glanced at him, before turning to the screen, shifting closer so that Touya could feel his warm presence just behind him. "Here," he pointed. At the prompt for username, he entered S-A-I.

-------to be continued-------