Notes: So begins the second part of Tsumego; things will only get more brutal from here on out. This chapter was a surprisingly quick write, as I already had much of it planned.
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Chapter 10: 取る Toru "Capture"
"Sai, your next move," Shindou said, but there was no response from Sai.
"Sai?" said Shindou again, but when he looked up, there was no Sai on the other side of the goban.
Shindou started to his feet. "Sai! Where did you go?" he said, "Sai!"
Akira, half-asleep at this point, realized what was going on. "Oh god, he's gone…" he said, putting his hand to his mouth.
"Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'? He can't really be gone!"
Akira sighed. He had no idea how he was going to tell him. No matter how he phrased it, Shindou definitely wouldn't take it well.
"Sai told me…" Akira voice wavered as he said this, " He told me he had no time left. I didn't fully understand at first, but it seems to me this is what he meant. Shindou, I'm so sorry."
"But that's impossible!" Shindou had crossed to the door, ready to leave, "He's got to be somewhere! We have to go find him now!"
"Shindou, it's no use," said Akira, "He wouldn't just quietly run off in the middle of a game, you understand this. He said that his time in this world was up."
"If he told you this then why didn't he tell me ? Why didn't you tell me?"
"We would have, but you weren't being receptive. Shindou, I'm really sorry, I truly am."
Shindou sat down on the floor in front of the door, in shock. "I can't believe this, I really can't."
Akira walked over to sit at Shindou's side. "We can talk about it if you'd like," he said.
"I can't believe that Sai would just disappear," said Shindou, choking up, "He's been around for a thousand years! Why would he just up and leave now? I just don't get it. Touya, after you sleep, we have to go out and find him. I don't believe he would just vanish, after all this time."
"I'm not going to sleep," said Akira, "I don't want to leave you alone."
"But you're exhausted! You have to! Just go to sleep and don't worry about me."
"No, I'm happy here," said Akira, leaning against the door beside Shindou, though he struggled to keep his eyes open.
"Why do you have to be so selfless, Touya?" said Shindou, the tears streaming down his cheeks, "I don't deserve this at all, I-"
"Ssh," Akira said, softly but firmly, putting his finger to Hikaru's lip. "Don't say things like that about yourself."
Shindou opened his mouth to say something, but sighed and fell quiet.
Akira's hand travelled along the tatami to find Shindou's, and grasped it gently. Though it only felt as if holding thin air, he hoped that his presence comforted him.
The cool May breeze flowed through the room, softly kissing Akira's hair. Through the window, the violet of the early dawn crowned the horizon. Akira took a deep breath and closed his eyes, wiping a tear. He let this moment become an eternity.
He looked over at Shindou, his head hung low, his face hidden under his hair that remained still, unknown to the wind.
How did it feel to be alone in existence, invisible, a stranger even to nature itself? Would be more painful to disappear, or to linger? After Akira was gone, where would he go, into the next world, or would he remain? A century becomes a milennium, a milennium becomes two, and the meaning of existence is lost in distant and faded memories.
Shindou realized Akira's hand was on his, and pulled it back.
"Sorry," said Akira, "I just…"
"It's okay. I can't even feel it anyway," Shindou said.
"I'll be here as long as you need, for as long as it takes."
"But you can't be here forever," said Shindou, and Akira could think of nothing to say to that. There was no way around it, he was right.
⁂
The bright light of the day streamed in through the window, stirring Akira from sleep.
Oh no, how many hours had it been? He looked over at Shindou, who sat in the same position, face hidden, entirely still. He didn't seem to have moved at all the entire time Akira had nodded off.
"Shindou?"
Shindou did not move or respond.
"Do you want to play a game?"
Shindou said nothing.
Akira let out a patient sigh. "Listen, Shindou, I'm going to get dressed and we'll go out."
"Are we going to go looking for Sai?" asked Shindou, without lifting up his head or moving.
Akira said nothing. You know the answer as well as I do, he thought.
Akira got ready, and as he went into town, Shindou quietly trailed behind.
He got a bite to eat at a small shop, stifling a yawn from sleep deprivation. "Nee, Shindou?" He said, hoping to engage him in conversation and take his mind off the matter.
Shindou did not respond. Akira didn't force it.
Another ride on a train, into a neighborhood, towards a school.
"Wait, this is my neighborhood," said Shindou, "Why are you taking me here?"
"I thought you might like to see it again," said Akira, "Should I not have?"
Shindou sighed. He still hang his head, face hidden. "It doesn't matter. You can look around if you like."
They passed through a small playground, quiet and empty with a set of hanging swings. Akira noticed Shindou was looking away at an unremarkable small spot by some bushes, finally responsive in some way. Shindou started to walk over there and Akira followed.
He stopped and stood there, gazing down at this spot.
"Shindou?" asked Akira.
After a moment of contemplation, Shindou said, "I'd played my own move, holding the stone correctly, for the first time. I refused to believe it, and thought he possessed me. He tried to convince me by having me play a pebble like it was a stone, and it went flying into that bush." Shindou gave a small smile. "It was back in 6th grade, when we first met."
Akira crouched down and picked up a pebble. It was round and flat in his fingers, like a go stone.
"Yes, it was something like that," Shindou said.
Akira looked up from his hand to see someone passing by at the perimeter of the park, walking a dog. "Ah, there's Akari-san," he said.
Akari-san took notice of Akira, and came running towards him. "Ah, Akira-kun!" she said. "What are you doing here?" Shindou immediately turned away, pretending like he didn't see her.
Akira didn't answer, and just studied the stone in his hand. Akari-san looked down at the stone over his shoulder. "Ah, I understand," she said, sitting down beside him.
Akira said nothing. She couldn't understand, not without knowing what was really happening, and there was no way she would believe him.
"Listen, I was just heading back to my house, and there's nobody home right now. Do you want to come over and have tea?"
Akira would have liked to, but the idea of Shindou having to tag along and be invisible, especially at this time, made him feel horrible.
He was about to decline when Shindou said, "Go if you want, Touya."
"Is it really okay? I thought it hurt you to be near your friends."
"It won't make a difference either way. Hell, go hang out with my parents if you want! It doesn't matter anymore."
Akira didn't know how he felt about it, but still he said to Akari-san, "Alright, I'll go with you." He went with Akari-san, and Shindou trailed behind, his sorrow looming over Akira like a cloud.
"How are you holding out?" asked Akari-san as they got to her house, "It said in the magazine you didn't go to matches for a week, and then you started playing again. Are you doing better now?"
"Yes," said Akira, "I'm doing alright." He looked over at Shindou, who was gazing away at his own house next door, looking empty.
Akari-san followed his gaze solemnly. "You can't stop thinking of him, right?"
"I guess so," he said.
"His parents aren't home right now, but maybe later when they are we can go and visit." She entered the house and released the dog from his leash, and kicked off her shoes. Akira followed suit.
Shindou stayed where he was, and did not turn his face away from his house.
"Shindou," he asked him, "Do you want to visit later?"
Shindou did not respond or move. Akira felt himself tear up; it was too painful to watch and he regretted bringing him here.
"I don't think I'll go," he said, his voice wavering more than he intended.
"I understand," said Akari-san as she ventured further into the house, "I try to come over often and do favors or give them something nice. They're getting a little better with each passing day, I think, but it's still really hard."
She noticed Akira was not moving from the threshold, and turned to face him. "Akira-kun?"
"Shindou, come on," said Akira.
After a moment, Shindou at last tore his eyes away from his house and followed Akira, head down, avoiding looking at anyone.
Akari-san put the kettle to boil. "My tea isn't as nice as yours, but I hope it'll do," she said, and had a seat at the living room table, and Akira sat opposite her in seiza.
"Ah!" she said, jumping up again, "I have an idea! Give me just one second." She rushed out of the room and right upstairs.
"Shindou, how are you doing?" asked Akira.
Shindou made no response. He sat by himself a small distance away from the table, gazing down at his hands. Akira wished there was something he could do to make him feel better.
Akari returned with a folded goban and bowls of stones, and set them out on the table. "I know my go isn't much to sneeze at, but you don't have to play a teaching game or anything, just have fun," she said, "Do you want to play?"
"Thank you, Akari-san, I'll play," said Akira, and she started laying out the handicap stones. Then he said to Shindou, "Shindou, do you want to play against Akari-san? It might take your mind off things for a little while."
He braced himself for the usual lack of response, but after a moment, Shindou sighed, dragged himself over to the tea table next to Akira, and pointed to his first move.
As Akari-san and Shindou played over warm tea, she and Akira talked a little.
"The go club's been doing well," she said, "We got new members this year, Tsutsui-san came to visit, Mitani-kun's been an active and regular member even though he said he would leave after Hikaru left, and Kaneko, Kumiko and I won our first match in the Winter Tournament!"
Akira smiled as he listened. If he recalled correctly, Shindou helped started this club, and he was glad that it was doing well even in his absence. He looked over at Shindou, who simply played without showing emotion, and hoped that it made him feel better as well, on some level.
"We got new boards and equipment, and Hikaru's parents donated to the club as well, since a rich pro gave them a lot of money. The school said that next year we'll be getting our own room, and it'll be named the Shindou Hikaru room, after him. The club might never be as nice as Kaiou, but we hope that it'll at least live up to his name."
"I think it'll be very easy for you to make the club much nicer than Kaiou," said Akira with a little smirk. His time in the pressure cooker that was the Kaiou go club certainly wasn't one of his fondest memories.
"Oh yeah, you were bullied in that club, right? Hikaru told me that."
"Sort of," said Akira. The incident in retrospect was simply embarrassing more than anything else. "I just hate how everybody in the club blamed all its tension on me, when it was already tense before I got there. Yun-sensei was nice, but I guess his supervision wasn't enough to alleviate its atmosphere."
"Yeah, it's much nicer in the Haze club for sure," said Akari, "Everyone is kind to each other. We're all such good friends."
She let out a small sigh, as she moved to defend a group. "We're all going to miss Hikaru," she said.
Akira nodded.
"I was in his room the other day. His parents keep it more or less the way it was when he left it on that day. They vaccuum and dust in there and keep it clean. It makes me really sad to think about."
She took something out that she had placed under the table, a book. "I found something while I was there, and it seemed like something you might want to have." She held it out to him.
Akira took it into his own hands. It was a heavily worn copy of the collection of his father's games which he'd published a few years ago.
"I know your father wrote it so you're probably already familiar with it, but take a look inside."
He flipped through the pages, and found, next to almost every kifu, a collection of annotations, and lazily scrawled notes in Shindou's hand, as well as folded cuttings from Go Weekly tucked in between the pages, that mostly contained heavily annotated kifu of Akira's own games. Some were notes for Sai on countering his father's moves, while other notes were more on Shindou's level. Other scribbles had no go value at all, mostly mildly rude remarks directed at Sai, and there were even doodles, mostly of Sai, and a few sketches of Akira, scribbled out, erased, retried, and scribbled out again in frustration. Shindou was certainly no artist, but his sketches had charm.
"Thank you, Akari-san," said Akira, smiling through tears, "I will treasure it."
She nodded. "There is nothing more I can do, so I resign," she said, starting to clear the stones. "I don't know if it's just me, but your playing reminds me of Hikaru's."
"I may have been influenced by him," said Akira.
"He's had an overwhelming positive influence on all of us, I think. Anyway, it was a good game, thank you for bearing with me, and I hope we can play again some time."
"No, Akari-san, I must thank you. It was nice to talk to you again."
"Of course! Any time," said Akari-san, and she saw Akira out in good spirits.
As they left the neighborhood, it was starting to get dark. Akira checked on Shindou again. He still wasn't very talkative, but seemed to respond somewhat to the book, so Akira let him look through the pages on the train.
"I think your sketches are very cute," said Akira in a feeble attempt to uplift his spirits, but Shindou only shrugged and grunted in response.
When they got off the train, though it was dusk and foggy, Shindou still recognized their surroundings. "Wait, why are you taking me to the kiin?"
"You wanted to go looking for Sai, right? I want to show you something."
Shindou lit up for the first time in hours. "Sai is at the kiin?"
"He is not literally present at the kiin, but-you'll see what I mean when we get there."
By the time they reached the kiin, it was night time, and a light rain had started to fall. "It's too late in the night," said Shindou, "There's not going to be a lot of people here. What does this have to do with Sai?"
"Look at it this way, Shindou," said Akira as he led the way through the dark halls, "Ashiwara-san once said that if there were any ghosts at the kiin, there is one room where they would be."They entered the older part of the building, and at last reached the room Akira was looking for, behind a rather dated wooden door. "Here we are," he said.
He grasped the handle to find that the door opened easily. "That's interesting," he said, "Normally it's supposed to be locked."
Some of Shindou's childish energy returned when he saw the interior of the room. Stacks and shelves of sheets, records, and very old books-some looked as if they came from before the Edo period! He gaped at them all.
Akira smiled fondly at the easily impressed Shindou-the kifu archive was cramped, dusty and not very decorative, and the books themselves plain and utilitarian, although decently preserved.
"So we'll find Sai in here?" asked Shindou, still clinging to wishful thinking, "This does seem like a place Sai might like."
Akira started scanning the shelves. "I'm not trying to say that Sai would literally be present in this room, but… you'll see what I mean when I find it."
And then, as he turned the corner… a familiar white-suited figure sitting with his legs crossed on the table, smoking a cigarette while thumbing through a yellowed stab-bound book. Ogata-san! What was he doing here?
Ogata-san heard Akira approaching and snapped the book shut. Akira made out that it was a collection of Shuusaku's castle games. "Akira-kun," Ogata-san acknowledged in a dark tone, "What are you doing here at this hour?" He took a drag on his cigarette.
"You shouldn't smoke in here," said Akira, "The smoke might damage the books."
Shindou glared at the older man, his soul so filled with a dead fury that it was as if Ogata-san had been responsible for Sai's disappearance.
Ogata-san smirked and laughed as he put out the cigarette butt in a pocket ashtray. "You've always been such a goody two-shoes. Let me guess-you're in here to find games by Shuusaku?"
"No," said Akira, a little too quick.
"You're a bad liar, Akira-kun, of course you are. And it just so happens that by coincidence, I'm here for Shuusaku as well. Let's look together, shall we? Come, sit by me and we'll look through this book."
Akira hesitated at the spot.
"What are you waiting for, a sign from god?"
"I was going to look for my own copies, on my own, and look at them on my own," said Akira as he started to turn away.
"I don't think so, why waste your time when I have the books you're looking for right here?" Ogata-san pushed out and tapped on a chair. "Have a seat."
Reluctantly, Akira complied, and Ogata-san paged through the kifu for Akira to see. Shindou lingered over their shoulders, reading the moves.
"I cannot cease to admire the genius of Honinbou Shuusaku. For example, the beauty of this move, as famous as it is, cannot be overstated. How many times can you play a move that strengthens your position on all fronts in such a way? Look at how he puts pressure on white's moyo here, white's stones here, and strengthens his own stones on opposite sides of the board! How many times will you even see the chance to play such a move? If I were in Shuusaku's place, playing this game, would I have seen it? Shuusaku was truly a genius ahead of his time."
Akira nodded. Of course, the ear-reddening move. What was Ogata-san's point? He hadn't said anything he didn't know already, and he was ruining his chance to share the genius of Sai as Shuusaku with Shindou.
"There is only person today who could have seen the ear-reddening move on their own," said Ogata-san, "You know who I'm talking about."
Akira swallowed and said nothing. Shindou was once again unresponsive, staring down at the book, his head hanging.
"I want to play him, Akira-kun," said Ogata-san, narrowing his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ogata-san, I can't help you play Sai," said Akira, his body tremoring and his heart pounding.
"Oh, but I think you can, Akira," said Ogata-san in a soft voice, and the absence of the honorific sent a chill down Akira's spine. "I think you know more about Sai than you are willing to share."
As soon as he heard this, Shindou snapped out of it. "Touya, get away," he said.
"I don't. I played Sai a couple times just before I became pro. That was it," said Akira. He got up from his seat and started to turn away when Ogata-san seized him by the wrist.
"I didn't say you could leave," Ogata said, and Akira got a glimpse of the piercing glare in Ogata's eyes, an all-consuming fire.
Akira pulled his wrist out of his grasp and tried to make a run for it, but Ogata was stronger and faster. He shoved Akira against a shelf in the aisle, rattling the records. Grasping Akira by the collar, he demanded, "Where is Sai?"
"I don't know! I honestly don't know!" said Akira, hyperventilating, struggling to pry off Ogata's huge hands with his fingers.
"What's wrong with you, Ogata? Leave him alone!" said Shindou, but it was no use.
"Don't you know that it's disrespectful to lie to your elders? Tell me, where is Sai? How can I play him? Where can I talk to him? Answer me, Akira."
"I really don't know, honest… please let me go," said Akira, feeling like he was about to cry. He had never felt so terrified and helpless in his life.
"I'll let you go when you give a straight answer about Sai," said Ogata.
"Then we'll be here forever," Akira said, struggling to maintain a glare in spite of his terror, "Or at least until someone comes in here and sees what you're doing to me."
Ogata gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on Akira's collar, pressing him so hard against the shelf that his clavicle hurt as if it were going to break. Then the man loosened up a little bit and gave a little snort, the corner of his mouth twitching. "You're turning into a cheeky little brat, you know that? But you have a point." Ogata loosened his grip, and Akira tried to slip away, but he slammed him against the shelf again, knocking his head on the glass. "However, you're still not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know."
"Fuck you, Ogata! Take your hands off him. Let him go," said Shindou, clenching his fists and shaking with fury.
Ogata dragged Akira back to the table and picked up the books with his other hand, then without loosening his grip on him, he returned them to their proper shelves. Akira struggled against his grasp in vain. "You're hurting me, you know that, right?"
"You're forcing me to take more drastic measures than I would prefer," said Ogata.
"And you're full of shit!" Shindou retorted, pointing an accusing finger.
Ogata looked away in Shindou's direction, and Shindou froze up and fell quiet. "What do you keep looking at? Is there something interesting over there? I don't see anything."
Akira steeled his face and forced himself to glare straight at Ogata.
Ogata looked back in Shindou's direction again, and turned back to Akira with a sinister smile of realization. "I think you and I have a lot to talk about," he said, "Come on." He pulled Akira along toward the door, hit the lights, and locked up the kifu archive behind him. Taking him by the wrist, he led him briskly down the hall, and once outside in the pouring rain, pulled out a cell phone and made a phone call mostly in Chinese.
"What are you doing?" asked Akira.
"Calling a taxi, of course," he said, "Do you really want to walk in all this rain?"
"Where are you taking me?"
"Home, obviously."
"My home?"
Ogata just laughed. "What do you think?"
Akira tried to pull away again, in vain.
"You really are quite indignant. No wonder why most people can't stand you."
The taxi arrived. "Get in," Ogata said, "And no funny business. In fact, let me have that." He confiscated Akira's bag before nudging him into the cab. Shindou took the vacant seat in front.
"Tasuke-" said Akira to the cab driver, but before he could finish, Ogata pinched him on the forearm. "He doesn't speak Japanese; good luck explaining anything to him. " He spoke Chinese to the man; Akira tried to make out a few words, but could only snatch names of Tokyo streets.
Akira tried to search for words like 'help' or 'kidnapping' in his limited knowledge of Chinese, but nothing came to mind. "Shindou, do you know any Chinese?"
"Nope, nothing. I'm really sorry, Touya."
Akira sighed and weighed the risks of crying out so loud that the driver would have to realize he was in distress, but Ogata gave him an intimidating look that said that he'd already thought of that first, and practically dared him to scream and see what the consequences are. Thus, he stayed quiet.
The cab reached their destination and Ogata paid the fare, and unceremoniously pushed Akira out. He led him into a tower of particularly luxurious mansion apartments and ushered him into an elevator. Akira had only been to Ogata's apartment a few times in his life, but he immediately recognised the surroundings though the rain and darkness.
"You do realize this is a kidnapping, right?" said Akira, "What you're doing is against the law."
"It doesn't have to go that far if you don't want it to," said Ogata, "All you have to do is tell me everything you know about Sai."
"But I keep telling you, I don't know anything about Sai, you're making a mistake." Akira realized he was looking at Shindou again, and tore his gaze away.
"What do you keep looking at that is so interesting?" asked Ogata, "It's just thin air."
They reached Ogata's floor, and he nudged him along past long, spacious apartments, all the way to his own. With one hand clasped on Akira's wrist, he fumbled with the keys and opened his way in with the other. "Get in," he said, pushing Akira into the apartment and latching the door shut as he entered.
Akira sneered at Ogata's sparse, "modern" interior decor as the man steered him past an enormous glowing tank home to various species of tropical fish, and past his desk, which was cluttered with beer cans, loaded ashtrays and kifu in the form of books, official documents and Go Weekly clippings. The mess was certainly not how Akira remembered it the last time he was here; he'd been under the impression that the man was very particular about the neatness of his surroundings. What changed?
Ogata motioned to the couch and armchair before the tv in the far room, and Akira reluctantly took a seat. Before both of them stood a solid carved kaya goban.
Ogata sat down, lit a cigarette, and reclined against the couch. "This can be as quick and painless as you want it to be. All you have to do is tell me some things I want to know, and then you can go home and we can all pretend this never happened."
"I don't know how many times I can repeat this, I don't know whatever it is that you want me to tell you."
"With an attitude like that you really will be stuck here forever. Anyway, I disagree, I think you know some very interesting things you are unwilling to share with me. I have known you ever since you were born, Touya Akira; you are incredibly, almost laughably easy to read for a go professional and there is nothing on your mind that you cannot hide from me."
"Well, you're reading me wrong, because I really don't know anything about Sai. You're digging yourself into a hole." Akira hoped that maybe if he was stubborn and consistent enough about it Ogata would eventually just give up.
"Hmph," said Ogata as he puffed on his cigarette. "Since you seem to have a selectively bad memory, I wonder what we can do to jog it up?" He took the bag he'd confiscated from Akira into his lap and rifled through the contents. "Let's see what we have in here."
"Those are my things! Give them back!"
"You'll get them back when you tell me everything I want to know. Your wallet, kiin ID..." He pulled out the Rurouni Kenshin volume. "Manga? Really? Your parents gave you a far more sophisticated upbringing than this. You know this trash is a distraction from go and will do nothing to stimulate your intellect." He discarded the volume on the floor, and Akira glared furiously.
"Ah, and what's this, Matches of Touya Meijin ? You're his child, why would you need this?"
"Give that back!" said Akira, reaching to snatch the book, but Ogata lifted it out of his reach.
"I wonder what could possibly be in here that you are so defensive about," he said, thumbing through the pages, and his eyes widened with surprise at the contents. "Oh, I see! Now this is interesting, very interesting. That looks like Shindou's hand, but Sai's moves. And then these look more like Shindou's level. Oh and what's this? That Shindou was certainly a terrible artist, is this supposed to be you?"
"Fuck you," said Shindou, practically speaking Akira's mind.
"And what is this a picture of? Is he supposed to be wearing a kariginu? Is that a particularly tall eboshi or a phallic object-wait, this is supposed to be SAI!? " Ogata's mouth twisted into a victorious smile at this realization. He looked up at Akira and said, "If you really don't know anything about Sai, then why do you have this? Where did you get it from?"
Akira said nothing. He narrowed his eyes in anger and tried not to cry.
Ogata waved the book in his face. "Answer me!" he yelled, "Where did you get this book?"
Akira hang his head and closed his eyes, trying to avoid Ogata's piercing gaze.
The man seized him by a handful of hair and forced Akira's face up to his own, so close that the stench of tobacco and alcohol overwhelmed his senses. "You can't hide from this one, Akira," he said in a soft, cool voice, "Tell me where you found this book. It's impossible for you to not know."
Akira took a deep breath and broke into a sob. His scalp hurt in Ogata's grasp and he shook with utter panic. "Shindou's room," he said, "I was in Shindou's room. I picked it up." Under no circumstance would he bring Akari-san or any friend into this.
Ogata seemed to be satisfied with the lie, because he released his grasp on his hair and loosened up a bit, and Akira sobbed into his hands, wiping away tears. "You see, was that so hard?" said Ogata, "All you have to do is answer a few more questions like this in a straightforward manner, and then you can leave."
Akira shook his head as he wiped at his eyes. "No," he said.
"No? Then you can forget about going home tonight."
"What?" said Shindou on hearing this. Akira, too, paused in shock.
"I wasn't kidding when I said that you're not leaving until you tell me everything you know about Sai. If you don't have anything more you want to share, I'll show you to your new quarters."
"You can't do that! You can't keep me here."
"Oh, really? Who's going to stop me?" Ogata seized Akira by the upper arm and tugged him along deeper into the apartment.
"People will notice if I go missing, and when they do they'll find me."
"How are they going to find you if they don't know you're here?"
Akira didn't know what to say to that.
Ogata led him through a mostly bare spare room stacked against the walls with old books and computer equipment, and to a plain, sliding-door closet on the other side.
"You have got to be kidding me!" said Akira upon the realization.
"The spare room does not latch but the closet does," said Ogata as he slid open the door, and Akira struggled to break free of his grip in vain. "Maybe when you're more respectful you'll get to stay in the spare room itself, but for now I just want to sleep in peace knowing you won't get out and cause trouble." He threw Akira into the closet and slammed the doors shut.
"You won't get away with this, Ogata!" Akira shouted, slapping on the inside of the door, "This is an abduction!"
"You can kick and scream as loud as you like, the walls are thick slabs of reinforced ferro-cement and totally soundproof. No one will ever hear you. Also, this is a very useful book! Thank you for giving this to me. You have already proven to be more cooperative than I expected."
"Fuck you, Ogata!"
"'Fuck you'? Since when did you use such language? You are seriously losing touch with manners. We'll talk again in the morning. Good night!"
Ogata tramped out of the spare room, and the sliver of light between the closet doors disappeared, leaving Akira in total darkness.
