A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers! You don't know how much your words mean to me!
And thanks to BlackWingedGabriel for beta-ing ! (the first two scenes were added after betaing, as several other sentences, any mistakes are my own fault!)
Anyway, enjoy reading! This is the last part of Chapter 1.
Chapter 1. Part IV
Slowly Hikaru separated the black and white stones that lay distributed over the Goban. With a practised, careful movement he collected first the white, then the black stones into their respective bowls.
The door was pushed aside and his head snapped up, like the last fifteen times when somebody had come to or left from Touya's Go salon. The temporary receptionist, who stood in for Ichikawa, welcomed a customer, unknown to him.
Hikaru frowned and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.
"Are you still waiting?" inquired Kitajima-san in a rather rude voice. He sat several tables farther, playing with Hirose-san.
Hikaru straightened and glared at Kitajima. "Of course I am. As I told you at least twenty times already!" he snapped impatiently.
"And I told you the young Sensei won't come, because he's only returning from Europe today!" Kitajima almost shouted, as if Hikaru waiting for Touya were an insult to his admired Sensei.
"He'll come!" Hikaru shouted back.
Several head in the Go salon turned at the sound.
"He won't!" Kitajima insisted.
The heads turned back. They had heard this conversation already.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes. "There are only a few months until the next Hokuto-Cup. We've got to train up, unless that escaped you attention!"
"But not today! Sensei'll need rest from his journey!"
Hikaru turned away from Kitajima, and back to facing his Goban. He opened the two bowls of stones standing beside it.
"Touya'll come," he said. He laid several stones on the board. He couldn't remember the how-muchest kifu he would be recreating; he had stopped paying attention to count and game after the third one.
More to himself, he murmured. "He'll come. I'm his rival, I should know."
But his normally unwavering sureness had begun crumbling after his talk with Waya not so long ago.
Why am I here then? He thought, Wasting my time when I don't even know Touya's coming?
Only because I believe he's coming?
He snorted and slammed a stone on the board.
No, because I need to be sure.
The little car dashed from the airport towards Tokyo. Ichikawa knew she was an excellent driver, so she dodged between cars to get back faster.
"Thank you for taking Kiki while I was in Europe, Ichikawa-san," her little Akira said politely after they had been driving several minutes.
"It was my pleasure," she answered with a smile, "She's a really sweet kitty!"
"You didn't tell my parents about her, did you?" His voice was urgent, and she slowed down in a column of cars.
"They don't know!" Apart from most of his Shindou-affairs she didn't think he had ever kept anything from his parents, especially not from his father. So why…? With a start she realised her 'little Akira' was sixteen.
"No…" Out of the corner of her eye she saw him shaking his head, while she tried to keep her attention at the traffic. "I didn't dare tell them yet."
Ichikawa veered out of her row of cars to the right where she speeded up until she threaded back in.
"I don't know how I should tell father that the favourite playthings of Kiki are our Go stones. Some of them already have scratches on them."
He sighed.
"And how I shall tell him that her preferred sleeping place is his favourite Goban…?"
"Oh…" Ichikawa slowed down immediately as the car before her stopped abruptly. "And what will you do about that?"
"Well," Akira said, "I don't care what problems she makes." His voice was full with the calm determination she so admired at him. "I won't give her away no matter what he says!"
She searched his face for a moment. Somehow caught on the brink between boy and man, his face held features of none of them, yet of both. His jaw line, nose and cheeks had become sharp, like his father's, but still there was some youthful softness in his face. His dark eyes held more of the kind roundness of his mother's, and the change was most noticeably in them; sometimes looking so mature, sometimes still so vulnerable and young.
He doesn't want to be alone at home anymore, she realised when he told her about keeping the little cat.
"Something about you is changed," she said pensively.
"Ah. Your hair has gotten longer. You need to get a haircut."
Akira looked at her. "I'm trying to grow it."
"What!"
Akira smiled a gentle smile at her outcry and she calmed down.
"What?" she asked again.
"I'm growing my hair," he confirmed.
She stared at him wide-eyed.
"Ichikawa-san," Akira tilted his head, smiling uneasily at her scrutinizing look. "I can barely go winning a title looking like a first grader…"
Ichikawa blinked several times and sat back up, relaxing her seatbelt. She frowned. She would hate her little Akira, losing his cute looks, but… "So why don't you simply cut it?"
He grinned sheepishly. "I'd look too much like father."
"Oh…"
The traffic light turned green and she had to continue dodging her way forward.
She heard Akira yawning. Maybe he wouldn't look so bad with long hair…
"So tell me," he asked her sleepily, „What happened while I was away?"
"Oh, nothing much…" She tried to recall the two past weeks while concentrating on not getting too close to the ugly red car before her. "An old school colleague of Shindou came by. A charming person…
"He didn't want to stay, though," she added, "without Shindou there. But he said, he'd come back." She smiled.
Akira chuckled lowly and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, most of their journey had already passed and he found his sleepy eyes looking at familiar streets. He noticed where Ichikawa was aiming to drive to, and said, "We should rather take the next junction."
"Bu-But," Ichikawa stuttered, "I thought I'd bring you home! You're surely very tired and exhausted!"
"It doesn't matter," he says, "There's something I've got to do."
Ichikawa capitulated before her little boy's stubbornness.
"To the Go salon, then," she sighed. "You believe Shindou will be there?"
Tuesday afternoon, Morishita-sensei's study group
Waya kneeled on the pillow on the floor, leaning slightly forward, his hands resting on his knees. Only in the back of his mind was he aware of Shindou and Saeki playing a game too. And of Shirakawa who was the only one watching his game and noticed Morishita-sensei sweating heavily as he was busy fighting Waya's newfound calmness.
I still make many mistakes, Waya noticed absent-mindedly, but at the moment his play had taken Morishita-sensei by surprise and that was to his advantage.
A pearl of sweat ran into his eyes, and without his concentrated glance at the board wavering, he swept it away with a sleeve.
He won by two and a half moku. A breath of relief eased the tension from his muscles.
"Waya, you haven't played me that well in a very long time!" Morishita-sensei growled loudly. "I knew that playing the Europeans and the change of place would be good for you to develop your skills!"
Morishita continued to praise himself for his good decision to send Waya to Europe. And followed with his usual monologue that a certain study-group was a must to beat. Waya stopped listening.
I can hardly tell him that I learned all that from Touya Akira, the Enemy himself, Waya thought, who beat him in last week's game. But I'm proud too, he sat straighter and smiled, at everyone and no one in special, it was my very first time beating Sensei.
I hope Nase does as well in her games.
Asumi Nase was the first in the game room this morning, trying to get her senses together. She thought of Waya, whose mother also hadn't been a very easy person, but, since he had been a boy, had mostly kept out of his affairs.
She tried to push all her worries out of her mind by concentrating only on the beautiful wooden boards, equally distributed around the room. No other players were here yet and she was glad for the almost meditative silence that hung in the still air.
She breathed deeply several times.
Only three games to go. She had two of the best players still to face, her 'rival' Adachi only one. But if she played her best and kept calm, if she managed to not let her worries approach her, she should be able to win. Waya believed in her.
School was getting more oppressive every day, her mother complained about her marks, but if she managed to win, all that would be over.
If only she would win.
The dread of what would happen if not slowly crept into her thoughts. It was her last exam.
She shook her head violently to chase the doubts away.
Another player entered the room.
She straightened up in her kneeling position, facing the room clear headed.
Whatever would happen, should she pass or fail, she'd do it with pride. No one could take that from her.
After a hard fight Waya won his Wednesday game against a rather strong four-Dan. He got up from his place and went out to note his result on the game board. He stretched, his hands over his head, feeling well like a cat.
Strolling around in the entrance hall for some time, he read notices on the board, waited for Isumi, or Shindou or maybe Saeki, if they arrived in a sensible time.
Suddenly the elevator bell rang and he watched a pro, unknown to him, rushing through the hall and out of the doors. The characteristic bent back of a defeat.
The bell rang again and Waya was only marginally surprised when a serious young man with a disgraceful hairstyle appeared, solitarily as always.
It took Waya only a second to decide.
He still hadn't a clue what Touya was thinking, he didn't understand his sometimes weird and overly mature behaviour, he was puzzled by his willingness to put as much stress as possible on himself, but…
"Hey, Touya," he held the other pro back, as he strode out of the elevator.
"Waya," Touya was his usual cool and collected self, but seemed in no haste to get away.
"I hold a study group at my apartment on Saturday. Do you mind coming?" As an additional appetizer, for he wasn't sure how much Touya really cared for his presence, or his Go, he added. "Shindou's coming too."
Saturday
With effort Hikaru fought his way out of the crowded train. As he stepped onto the platform, he suddenly stopped dead.
"Wah!" he exclaimed loudly and, shocked, inhaled the dusty, dirty air of the metro station. Several of the persons around him, whose ears he had offended, scowled disapprovingly at him, but he didn't even notice. He only saw one other person who was the last he would have expected to get off the same train as he.
"Oi, Touya!" he called, "What are you doing here!"
He dodged his way through the people to approach his rival. There was nothing of interest in the neighbourhood where Waya lived, so what did Touya do here? Was he probably giving some Shidou-Go lessons? But what a coincidence: at the same place at the same time!
"I'm attending Waya's study group," Touya answered.
"What!"
Touya visibly had to suppress a grin at Hikaru's stupefied expression.
"As I believe you're doing too, " he added.
"Well… yes…" Hikaru stuttered. Touya in Waya's study group? How? Why? He gathered his wits and pushed his confused thoughts out of his mind. What did it matter? All that counted was that he could play Touya more.
A wide grin appeared on his face. "But that's cool!"
Touya didn't so much as lift an eyebrow, but Hikaru meant to see him looking pleased too.
"Where's Nase?" With a surprised glance, Shinichiro Isumi scanned the group of people sitting in Waya's apartment for the study group. There were Waya, Saeki, Sawasaki, and Shindou. Ochi and Honda who usually were here couldn't come today.
And then there was the new one since last Saturday, Touya Akira. He still had to get used to that idea. Considering the way Waya had always hated Touya, it was a disconcerting change of mind for him to suddenly invite him to his study group. As he sat down, Isumi stole a sidelong glance at his red-haired friend who was busy entertaining Saeki with an anecdote from Europe. Waya hadn't talked much to Touya, that was true, but neither did he seem very ill-disposed.
Concerning Go, Isumi thought, Touya was the best addition their study group could ever hope for. Plus, Touya's calm character in addition to his own was a much needed compensation to the rather loud Waya, Shindou and Saeki.
He just didn't understand why. What had happened to make Waya invite Touya, and made Touya, whom he thought had no reason of even talking to Waya after the behaviour he had displayed towards him, accept the invitation? Waya had told him about his trip to Europe, of course, but rarely had he mentioned Touya at all. Nevertheless, or rather because of that, Isumi knew that something must have happened between them. How else could Waya explain his sudden change in behaviour? Waya had kept back when telling him, so Isumi suspected that it was because he wanted to avoid these questions.
Isumi helped himself to a glass of juice that stood, in his opinion, far too close to the Goban – unclosed. He would ask Waya later.
"Nase?" Waya almost jumped when he heard the name.
"What about her?" Isumi repeated, frowning at his friend's reaction. "Didn't she want to come today?"
Waya faintly looked at him for a moment.
"Yeah, where's Nase?" Shindou interrupted. "Is she late again?"
Waya hesitated.
"Nase?" Touya echoed the name with a slight frown, trying to remember something lost in the mental haze of his last, drunken, night in Europe, "That's that girl you have a crush on, isn't she?"
Waya forgot what he had been about to say when he heard Touya addressing him. Everyone else, too.
Suddenly the only sound in the room was the agitated conversation of the neighbouring couple reaching through the walls.
Touya blushed slightly, sheepishly realising his mistake. But it was Waya whose face started to glow crimson as every pair of eyes transfixed him.
"Touya," Waya growled, impaling Touya on a violent stare, "Shut up!"
Saeki was the first to start laughing.
Isumi shook his head in annoyance as the volume at the other Goban grew louder - again. They had barely managed to keep quiet for half an hour.
"How could you play that?" A visibly angry Touya growled at a nonchalantly looking Shindou.
"Look closer and think!" Shindou raised his voice over the others.
"I just wonder what you were thinking!" Touya almost yelled now, beginning to forget himself and where he was. Isumi wondered if he had badly misjudged Touya's character. Calm?
"More than you, evidently!" Shindou now openly shouted. Isumi wouldn't have guessed that the blonde-bleached pro possessed that loud a voice.
"Can't you see how much I'm already ahead due to your stupid non-strategy!" Touya yelled, "How could you go there with that move!" Indignantly he indicated at the offending hand. He made it sound like an unforgivable crime. Isumi hadn't seen their game, but from where he sat, the hand looked rather normal.
"Open your eyes!" Shindou emphasized his loud words with a deadly glare, not at all intimidated or perturbed by Touya's imposing attitude, "If you weren't so fixed on that area, you'd clearly…"
Isumi considered covering his ears with his hand, when Touya's haughty interruption was drowned in Hikaru's retort as the opponents tried to out yell each other.
They didn't come far though, and they jumped when an even louder voice tore the quarrel apart.
With suddenness, like a can of cold water emptied over their heads, they shut up.
"STOP!" Waya shouted, having jumped up from the floor of his apartment, gesticulating wildly. "STOP IT! You both!"
With a small smile Isumi noticed that their embarrassed looks immediately changed to still extremely fiery when they passed each other's.
"We thank you very much for your competent and valuable," Waya stressed the words with cold displeasure, that even over Isumi's back a cold shiver ran, "contribution, but," his voice grew more heated and his words came faster, "if you can't keep acting like normal people, and not like immature first graders, go stand in front of the door until you have cooled down!"
"But Waya…" Shindou wailed. Touya only looked at the Goban, his cheeks displaying a warm shade of rose.
"I warned you last time! And the time before! And before!" Waya pointed his finger at the door, "OUT!"
Isumi as well as Saeki and Honda managed to keep a straight, stern face, when Shindou pleadingly looked at them.
As soon as the door closed, the furious mask dropped from Waya's face. A second of glances passed from him to Isumi and the others. Then they all burst out laughing.
Protests from outside the door were drowned in the merry noise inside.
When the laughter had long died down and the study-group ended, only Isumi remained for another game. Smiling, Waya remembered, "Those two… Shindou and Touya," he shook his head.
Isumi laughed softly.
"That's what you call a shameless rivalry…!"
"Haha… I wonder how I could have ever doubted they be rivals!"
They chuckled and then shared their dinner in silence.
"Can I ask you something, Waya?" Isumi asked.
"Sure," Waya frowned, "Why do you even ask?"
Isumi leaned forward, curiosity shining in his eyes. "What happened in Europe between you and Touya?"
Waya's face remained blank for some moments.
"What!"
Isumi grinned ambiguously.
Waya started to splutter until he realised that his best friend was teasing him.
"I realised that Touya isn't as arrogant as I believed him to be," he admitted. Isumi raised an eyebrow, and Waya smiled. "And his Go's better than I believed!"
"Huh?"
Isumi frowned at his friend, disbelief in his voice, "First you hate Touya, because he's good. Then you learn he's even better, and you start to like him?"
A feeling of worry and beginnings of slight panic shone through Isumi's voice.
Waya blinked several times. Then he laughed.
"If you put it like that… yes, I do!"
Isumi looked at him in bewilderment and shook his head.
"I keep wondering how on earth you managed to pass pro with that kind of logic…"
Waya caught his friend's murmured response and laughed out loud.
"Yeah, I was surprised myself…" he said.
And then, as he calmed down and grew serious, he added, "But don't you think, too, that he seems lonely sometimes?"
Isumi looked at his friend in surprise. Waya didn't let it shine through often that he actually was as a very considerate and amicable person.
"Yes, I suppose," he answered slowly. "Considering how he grew up…" Isumi once had read an article about Touya father and son in the 'Weekly Go', "But I hope he isn't anymore, with Shindou around, and now us…"
They played a game of Go, without the need of talking to each other. When they had finished, Isumi softly asked, "And what about Nase?"
"What about her?" Waya tried to sound cool, but failed.
"What never was will never be. She has chosen to part ways…"
"But…" Isumi asked in a low voice.
"She wrote me a message after her game," Waya's voice sounded weak and he leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes against the tears forming in them. "She played so brilliantly sometimes…"
"Yes," Isumi agreed, "She even used to beat me. But she's a sensitive girl…" Isumi started.
"…and easily distraught by life outside of Go." Waya softly completed the sentence. He pressed his eyelids together, his brow furrowing in anguish. "'I'm not worthy of fulfilling this dream of mine…' she wrote me, 'I failed.'"
Finally a tear rolled down Waya's cheek and Isumi lowered his eyes against the pain in his best friend's face. He couldn't escape his strangled voice, however, and he too was sorrowful at the loss of a very good friend.
"'Thank you for your support,' she said, and 'Farewell.'"
End of Chapter 1
A/N: If you liked it, please review!
A/N: Something else to only those who are interested at this kind of thing. There'sa question I want to ask as writer, if you want to answer. Please don't feel compelled to do, anyone. Only if you really, really want to.
I wanted to know what impression you got from Nase's part in this chapter. Did you suspect from it if she would pass or fail? Or was it clear she would fail? I'd like to know what effect this scene had, if it had any at all. ( After all, I need to know if I want to improve!)
I don't mind if no one wants to answer, but I would appreciate every help!