Again, here is my disclaimer: Non ho diritti della pubblicazione di "Hikaru no Go." Quelli diritti appartengono aYumi Hotta e Takeshi Obata. Grazie.
Please enjoy the chapter; even if you don't, I would love to have a review!
(Since I'm still having a problem with asterisks...sorry! I wonder what on earth this site is doing to delete them all...)
Chapter Three: Mitani Yuuki
All right, Tsutsui's giving up on Go was sad, but his senpai could still have survived without him. He really could have. Maybe he was not needed. Maybe. The dream continued and cut off his musings, and he faded into a familiar scene….
(Yet another chapter of invisible asterisks)
"One thousand yen a game," said the drunk-looking man at the Go salon.
"You're on," a middle-school boy with bright orange hair answered.
"You got a thousand yen in cash?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go, then!"
The owner of the Go salon, Shuu, knew how it was going to end twenty minutes later. He still didn't like seeing young Mitani run out of the salon afterwards, ashamed at his loss and having to borrow twenty yen from him. It made him rather sad to think that Mitani would probably never set foot in the place again. Though it had had to be done, for the sake of the child….
Mitani Yuuki did not, as adults say, "learn his lesson." He merely went to another salon, and was much more suspicious of anyone who challenged him to a game. He was able to avoid more men like the last once, and soon he began to collect large sums again. His parents wondered where he got such money, but they were too busy with work. His older sister was also occupied with friends, her own job, and high school. No one really cared.
Eventually, he discovered an easier way to get goods and money: shoplifting and stealing. Simple – and no one found out. It was a good thrill, too, especially when he was almost caught. Sneaking into casinos and gambling had become child's play long before. But he couldn't lose: not at Go, not at life, because his skills were on his side. To hell with honor and the lot of self-righteous adults. The integrity of a certain game was not even worth mentioning.
Sooner or later, however, all good things come to an end. When he was in his first year of college, he got caught. Now, he didn't even remember what the first thing had been. He had paid his fine and gone right back to taking what he wanted. He progressed to greater heights and was connected with criminal organizations throughout the world. (No one knew how he made so much money as an office worker, but everyone was still busy and never bothered to check what he was doing, not even the police.)
He enjoyed the thrill of crime and the rewards it brought him. He had never really seen it as something "wrong." Everyone committed crimes; his just happened to be stealing and not smiling on a gloomy day. Why was everyone so hung up on the concepts of "right" and "wrong" when they did not exist?
When he was ratted out by a member of another organization, he was not surprised. After all, life was about enjoyment and satisfaction, and his arrest would give both to the one that had turned him in.
He was given a longer stint this time: two years, plus probation. Probation? It made him laugh. Honestly, did the police really think they would ever catch him on their own, without help from the yakuza?
His parents refused to contact him, but his older sister sent him a letter once a month. He was completely ostracized by the rest of his family; none of them ever were juvenile delinquents turned hard-core criminals.
His sister took a different approach. She wrote to him about their grandfather, the man who had taught him Go and then died abruptly. Unfairly, she wrote, but she supposed he didn't have control. Otherwise, he never would have left Grandma, or her little brother.
He appreciated his sister's sentiments, but he supposed it was too late to change. He saw his sister sometimes, sent her gifts occasionally (making sure the money he used was not from his exploits; she deserved that much), and called her once a year. Sometimes, she was out, and he left a message, leaving no return number.
It saddened her, he knew, but heck, he was a busy man and had a meeting with one of the higher-ups in the Italian mafia at three.
When she finally died, he attended her funeral (in disguise, of course – there were so many mourning people he was never noticed anyway), although he had not been notified by the family. He had infinite connections by that time, however, and knew that she had died of a stroke before her own husband did.
The ring he was a part of got busted when he was in his sixties. Again, it came as no real surprise. This time, as a repeat offender charged and convicted of many offenses, he received twenty-seven years. He wondered sometimes, sitting there, why murderers sometimes got off with ten. Despite his connections to assassins, he had never killed anyone himself. Killing someone was certainly not on his list of honorable actions (these not-honorable actions numbered about…oh, three).
When he died in prison, he kept irony and sarcasm on his side. He joked to himself about death, about what someone could have done for him, about his own stubborness. Hell, someone might've been able to help, but he sure doubted it.
(Invisible Asterisks)
Well, yeah, he personally doubted it, too. Mitani could still become a delinquent, or a criminal, later in life, even though he had interfered and stopped him from cheating at Go (temporarily, at least). He hadn't seen Mitani for a few years, now: the other had gone to high school, he had not.
He started to wonder, however, if maybe, just maybe, he and Sai helping Mitani prevented all that. Perhaps he was worth something to his friends, after all…
(And the Last Set of Invisible Asterisks)
Thank you, and please review. Sorry again about the trouble with the asterisks... Strange... Also, I don't consider this to be my best work, and I apologize concerning this chapter and Tsutsui's. I wasn't fully satisfied with either. Maybe someday I'll rewrite and update. But I've written almost the whole thing now, so updating shouldn't be a problem. THANKS FOR READING!