After much distraction and deliberation, chapter 11 is finally here. It's really brutal, just as a warning.

Also, since something troubling came to my attention in the time after chapter 10 went up, I must say this: if you find Ogata's abuse of Akira arousing, this story is NOT for you. I don't write this for creeps to jerk off to, and I do NOT approve of writing smut in which Ogata (or anyone really) sexually abuses a teen.

Also, I really have to rant about how broken ffnet is: when I paste my text into the doc manager, it displays fine until I submit it. Then when I look at it again, the markup breaks and the text becomes full of code and is unreadable, so I have to paste it again. Except this time when it submits, all the formatting is stripped, so I have to go through and redo the formatting manually. It is an exhausting, labor-intensive, and unnecessary process. It makes me want to stop publishing on ffnet and continue Tsumego only on ao3, but I don't want to abandon the section of my readership that only uses ffnet.

Chapter 11: 模様 Moyo

The night trapped in that small dark closet was long and miserable. Touya had given up on trying to kick in the doors; he simply did not have enough strength to defeat their solid construction. He resigned himself to sitting on the folded futon that was being stored in that closet, cupping his face in his hands.

"I can't believe this is happening," said Touya in despair, "He thought of everything! He even called a foreign driver so I couldn't tell him anything!"

Hikaru sighed, staring away into emptiness and feeling truly horrible. He couldn't believe it himself.

"The last person we saw was Akari-san, right?" said Touya, "Maybe she'll help find us."

"But you didn't tell her we were going to the kiin," said Hikaru, "and you didn't tell anyone where you were going when we left, either."

"God, you're right!" said Touya, slapping his hands to his forehead, "Why didn't I tell anybody? How could have I been so stupid?"

"It's not your fault," said Hikaru. Really, all the fault was his, and Touya had to suffer for it.

"All I wanted to do was show you that Sai lived in Shuusaku's kifu!" Touya cried, "What were the chances that he would be in that room at the same time as us? Was he waiting for us in there?"

Shuusaku's kifu! That's right, so much had happened in the past few hours that he didn't have a chance for it to really hit him. How had he not seen it before? Sai was a genius! Truly a genius! And he had just spent the last few years of his life shoving that talent away into some corner of his mind, all for the sake of his own mediocre go!

What if he hadn't done that? What if he had just been good like Torajirou, let Sai play all the games? Then Ogata might not be so enthralled by the mystery of his double identity, since there would be no double identity to begin with, and Touya would not be in this position.

"God… I thought I knew that man! He was otou-san's student for as long as I can remember, a friend of the family. He trusted him. I trusted him! Never would have I guessed that he would do something like this to me, but here we are. How could have I been so blind? " He banged a fist on the futon on which he sat. "I'm such an idiot! I should have never gotten near him in the archive, and just left when I still had the chance."

Hearing Touya berate himself only made Hikaru feel even more guilty. "No, Touya, I'm the idiot," he said, without looking up, "I should have just let him play all the games."

Touya turned a tear-stricken face towards Hikaru. "Shindou, what on earth are you talking about?"

"He was right, I was being selfish and only thought of myself. I didn't pay any attention to him at all, so it's no wonder he just left!"

"Shindou, no, that's not true-"

Hikaru didn't pay attention to him, overwhelmed by his own guilt. "If I'd never gotten in the way, if I never acted so damn cagey, maybe Ogata wouldn't have done this and you wouldn't be in this mess, and maybe..." Hikaru lost composure and broke into a sob. "God, Touya, I'm so sorry for everything! It should have been me who disappeared, instead of him!"

"Don't talk like that, Shindou!" Touya said firmly, reaching out to grasp his shoulders. Though he did not feel his hands, Hikaru froze under Touya's firm glare. "Sai never wanted to leave you! He cared about you very much. He wanted to tell you, but you weren't taking whatever he did tell you very well and…" His mouth drawn, Touya tried and failed to keep back tears.

"Touya, please don't cry," said Hikaru, feeling an immense pang of guilt that Touya should be this badly worried for him when he was the one in trouble. "You should try to get some rest. It'll be harder to find a way out of here if you're tired."

Touya sniffed and rubbed the tears off his face. "Yeah," he said, "You're right."

The closet provided enough room to unfold the futon to only two thirds of its full length, and Touya could not stretch out his legs. But still, it should be better than sleeping on a bare floor.

After maybe an hour of shifting around trying to get comfortable in the half-folded bed, Touya finally managed to find sleep.

In spite of all that was going on, Touya was serene in sleep, his eyes with their long lashes closed and relaxed, his hair sprawled about his gentle face. Just watching him, Hikaru felt a little bit calmer. He allowed himself to be lost in his thoughts of Touya, and peace flowed through him for the first time in a while.

Hours later, Hikaru heard the sound of the door sliding open, and feet stamping on the tatami toward the closet. "Touya, wake up! He's coming!" he said but his companion did not stir.

Ogata rapped aggressively on the wood of the closet, startling Touya from sleep with a sharp gasp.

He fumbled with the lock and threw the door open. Touya retreated defensively into the far corner of the closet as Ogata stuck his head in, ominously shrouded in shadow against the light of the room behind him.

"Akira," he said.

"Seiji," Touya responded, glaring.

Ogata twitched with fury, and for a moment it seemed like he was going to strike him, but instead he exhaled, grabbed Touya by the arm and pulled him out of the closet.

He dragged Touya into the living room and shoved him down onto the couch. He sat down opposite him, and immediately lit a cigarette.

"My parents are probably really worried about me right now, surely you realize this."

Ogata smirked and dragged on his cigarette in response.

"There's still time, you know, to just let me go now and pretend this wasn't a kidnapping. I could just say I was staying over at a friend's and forgot to tell anyone."

Ogata simply laughed. "You can't threaten me."

"I'm serious," said Touya, "If I go missing for days, they'll go looking for me, and even if they don't find me here, you won't be able to let me go. If somehow I manage to tell you what you wanted to hear and you let me go as promised, I can't simply turn up after days of disappearance without giving anyone a proper explanation. A person like me simply doesn't wander off and get lost for days, so the only explanation is kidnapping, even if I refuse to talk. And how long can you hold on to me before it slips out that I am here?"

"Listen, you little brat, I didn't ask you to get smart with me. I asked you to tell me everything you know about Sai. And if you don't want to worry your family, you'd better do it right now or, as you say yourself, you won't ever see them again."

"That's the thing, I don't know anything about Sai. He was just someone I played on the internet once about two years ago. That's all."

Ogata sighed with annoyance. He put out his cigarette in the loaded ashtray on the coffee table. "Let me explain to you why a simple denial of the facts won't ever work on me. I'm not a fan of manipulative mind games, so I will be straightforward and lay out everything I know."

Touya kept his hands folded in his lap and glared.

Ogata lit another cigarette, leaned back in his armchair and crossed his legs. "The first sign that an unusual person had appeared in the go world was about three years ago, in November or December, when Shindou Hikaru first visited your father's go salon, and played you for the first time. You never shared that game with anyone, but your reaction was very transparent. According to rumors at the salon, Shindou beat you in that game, even though he had never played go before. Clearly, that is impossible, and you reacted accordingly."

Touya tensed up with anger. "Shindou has nothing to do with it," he said.

"He has everything to do with it, now shut up and let me tell my story. A week after that, I was present at a children's go tournament at the kiin. Shindou was also there, but not participating. I didn't know at the time that he was the kid who beat you at the go salon. He made an unsolicited comment on a game in progress, forcing the players to restart their game. What was surprising was that he, an 11 year old child, made a correct comment on a difficult life-or-death scenario that would have taken even a pro a moment to notice. What is more, an onlooker told me that he simply glanced at the board before making this comment. After hearing that, this child immediately captured my attention, and the situation got the interest of even your father.

"That same day, you found Shindou near the kiin and challenged him to a game. You didn't tell anyone about it, but from the way you were depressed afterwards, it was easy to guess that you were outmatched.

"Not long after, I happened to see Shindou standing in front of the go salon, just staring, and recognized him as the boy who commented at the tournament, so I took him inside to see your father. I told you about this before, remember? All it took was a little comparing of notes to learn that the kid who commented at the tournament was the same one who beat you. Your father started to play a game against him to see his strength, but he screamed and ran out only a few moves in so we had nothing to go off of. Maybe he deliberately caused a scene in order to avoid revealing his strength, that's my guess."

Hikaru clenched his fists with fury. How the hell did this guy know so much about him? And besides, Ogata still had it wrong, he really did freak out that time because he thought Sai had controlled his body. He immediately felt guilty that he accused gentle Sai of such a thing.

Ogata shrugged and continued. "Then, that winter, there was a rumor that the Haze Middle School team won 3-0 against Kaiou in the tournament, but were disqualified when one of the players turned out to be a sixth grader." He leaned forward towards Touya, giving him a knowing look. "If I recall correctly, you happened to be applying to Kaiou that same day. No doubt the headmaster took you to see the tournament, am I right? Was Shindou there?"

Touya simply narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

"Your indignation suggests he was. You can keep as quiet as you like, Akira, but your every subconscious action still betrays you."

Every time the man used Touya's name without honorific, Hikaru wanted more and more to sock him in the face. How dare he? And what the hell was up with it anyway? It was creepy.

Ogata leaned back in his seat. "Shindou appears again in the spring. This time, a man who catches cheaters for a living was utterly crushed by a middle school boy who claimed to be as strong as Shuusaku. What's more, the boy wore a dark gakuran and had a blonde fringe… sounds a lot like someone we both know, right?" He gave a smug little smile.

Hikaru gasped in shock. How could he know about that? There wasn't even anybody there besides the old guy at the counter, so how? Just how far had this guy been digging into his personal life?

"Shindou is dead!" cried Touya, "He's no longer here to protest against you invading his privacy, so why don't you just leave him alone?"

"Dead people don't have privacy, and Shindou's secret is too profound to ignore. Besides, you too were ensnared by the mystery, so you're in no position to criticize. So, summer arrives, and you play against Shindou in the go tournament, after joining the Kaiou go club with the single-minded purpose of pursuing him. You come away from that match seeming very upset, and determined to forget about him. He must have played weakly then, for you to have been so disappointed. This is the first evidence I have of Shindou playing as two people.

"Then, later that summer, the mysterious entity known as Sai appears online, grabbing the attention of everyone everywhere. He was at least as strong as a high rank pro, and yet spent all his time online, and thus couldn't have been a pro. All his kifu are online, and they remind of a Shuusaku who learned modern joseki the more time he spent online. One boy I met at the amateur tournament that year even had a theory that Sai could have been a child, based on one childish comment he made and the fact that he was on all day during summer vacation. Doesn't that sound familiar to you?"

Touya clenched his own hands in his lap, shaking with fury. He didn't want to hear any more, and neither did Hikaru.

Ogata kept going. "The Sai mystery caused such a commotion at that tournament, as you probably remember. It was where I first heard about it. When you yourself showed up, you denied that Sai could be Shindou, but your behavior still suggested otherwise when we asked you to play him. And if I remember correctly, Sai requested to play you ! Clearly Sai must have known you, otherwise he wouldn't have requested to play you based on name alone."

"That was a coincidence. My name is pretty common. Sai probably just knew someone else by the name of Akira."

"This whole mystery has taught me not to believe in coincidences. You scheduled to continue your game on the day of your pro exam match without hesitation. Only for Shindou would you make such a rash decision. You're like a book, Akira. Incredibly easy to read."

"Please, stop…" Touya protested.

"And another thing- go salon rumors had it that when a visitor mentioned he saw Shindou at a net cafe, the first thing you did was run straight out to go see him, so clearly, you suspected Shindou was Sai. Am I right?"

Touya shook his head, "He wasn't Sai. Shindou said he didn't play Net Go. He was doing something else."

"Shindou was a liar, and so are you. Right after that, Sai stopped going online. We don't hear of Shindou again until December, when I happened to run into him applying for the insei exam. He was too late, but I sponsored him for the program, and that's how he got in. I did it so that the mystery of who he was would become clearer once he became a pro."

"You're a manipulative bastard," said Hikaru.

"As you may recall, Shindou was fairly average as an insei-talented, but unpolished and naïve, certainly not the years of wisdom we saw in Sai. Again, we see evidence of Shindou acting as two people."

"He's not two people! That's just a ridiculous theory you made up, because you're too arrogant to admit to being wrong."

Ogata ignored him and continued. "Shindou goes pro, fast forward to his shinshodan game against your father this past January. Your father specifically requested to play him, as you probably know. Isn't that interesting? The game he played was even more interesting. He took 20 minutes on the first move, and then played a very strange game that at first appeared weak, but in reality he had imposed a huge handicap on himself, of 15 or 20 points. Knowing that, his playing then reminded of Sai. And I wasn't the only one who noticed this, either, Kuwabara saw it before me. In fact, now that I recall, Kuwabara told me that he had a feeling about Shindou just walking past him through his 'sixth sense', and bet on him winning the game based on that alone. I thought he was just being a crazy old man, but perhaps there really was something truly out of the ordinary about Shindou that he somehow was able to feel."

"Look, if Shindou were two people, why would he bother with a handicap when he could just play as his ordinary self?" Said Touya.

"A fair question. My guess is that Shindou really wanted to play the Meijin properly as Sai, but knew that would draw too much attention, so he was so torn that he resorted to a compromise, and this internal struggle was why he wasted 20 minutes."

God! This guy was so close to the truth that it seemed impossible to weasel out of this. He'd really done his homework!

"Fast forward to Shindou's first pro game in April, which was supposed to be against you, but your father collapsed so it never happened. Shindou then visits your father in the hospital, and I happened to be there at the time. We explained to your father that he could play go online, and Shindou seemed to perk up at the mention of this. That's when Ichikawa told me about Shindou being spotted in a net cafe the year prior, and you running off to find him.

"Soon after, your father played Sai and was defeated. He had also requested to not allow any visitors on that day, so the match must have been prearranged by someone who visited him in the hospital, a small group that includes Shindou. The day after the match, I visited your father and happened to overhear Shindou talking to him about Sai, proving that he arranged the match. I ask him if he had a connection to Sai, and he straight up lies to my face and tries to run away."

"You pinned him against a wall and threatened him! Like you did me!" Touya interrupted, glaring with fury.

Ogata's pupils shrank with surprise. "How do you know that?" He asked.

"I was there, remember?"

"Nice try, but I specifically remember that you showed up after I let Shindou go, and then as soon as he saw you he ran out. So how do you know that?"

Touya glared and kept silent.

"He can't have simply told you, because he was avoiding you, and then, on the day of his match against a third dan only days later, he died. You were in Nagoya at the time."

"He died because you killed him!"

"You weren't supposed to know that, either. And technically I didn't kill him, he ran in front of my car and killed himself."

"I just overheard my father talking to you about it! Not everything has to have a grandiose explanation."

"You see? You can give a straightforward answer when you put your mind to it. Let's do this more often."

"You seem to be already convinced that Shindou is Sai. Why bother kidnapping me then?"

"Because the story of Sai did not end with Shindou. Somehow, it continues with you."

Touya glared and said nothing.

"By all logic, Sai should have disappeared when Shindou died, but in reality he continued playing online. How is that possible?"

"I don't know, maybe because Shindou isn't Sai? Dead people can't play Net Go."

"And that's not all. Somehow, Shindou himself was also playing online… how is that possible? Dead people can't play Net Go, as you say."

Hikaru felt an immense pang of guilt for asking Touya to let him play online. And using his own name, no less! He assumed that no one would be so obsessed as to continue looking for him beyond the grave… clearly he was an idiot for counting on that, and his oversight put Touya in danger.

"If you're talking about the user named 'hikaru', that wasn't Shindou. It was somebody else."

"You're a liar. That was Shindou's style of play, and you obsess over him enough to be able to recognize it."

"But Shindou is dead! How can he play online?"

"A good question. Only you hold the key to the answer. You see, at that same time, you started playing go online, and I don't think that was a coincidence. And what is more…" Ogata leaned in, towards Touya's face. "On the day before the Kanko Hotel convention, I take a look at your computer, and what do I see? You were logged in as Sai! Explain that."

"You're wrong! I'm not Sai!"

"I didn't say you were Sai, I said you were logged in as Sai. You keep denying that you know anything about Sai, and yet you were playing his games. I want an explanation."

"You misunderstood what you saw. It wasn't Sai!"

Ogata got off his chair and slapped his hands against the back of the couch, at either side of Touya's head, terrifying him. He leaned right down into Touya's face, eyes gleaming with fury. "I know what I saw. Don't mess around with me, Akira."

Touya turned his eyes away, sweat beading on his face.

Ogata brought his face even closer, practically nose to nose with him, eyes shining. "Tell me," he asked softly, "How did you come to play Sai's games?"

"I wasn't," said Touya, shaking, "You saw me logged in as 'hikaru', not 'sai'."

Ogata slapped him across the face, taking both Hikaru and Touya by surprise. "What the hell!" Hikaru let out, wanting to do something, but was utterly helpless.

"I was pretending to be Shindou!" Touya blurted out, cradling his red cheek, "I missed him, that's why I did it!"

Ogata raised his hand, and was ready to strike him again when his cellphone went off. Tentatively, he pulled out the phone and flipped it open.

"OGATA-KUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Screamed Ashiwara excitedly from the other end of the line, so loudly that Hikaru and Touya could hear him easily.

Ogata sighed with annoyance. "I told you, don't call me Ogata-kun."

"Okay, Seiji-chan!"

"Don't call me that either. Anyway, what's up?"

"Akiko-san called me to say that Akira-kun hasn't been home at all since yesterday. They can't seem to find him anywhere and the parents are worried sick!"

Clearly tense, Ogata took a deep breath. "Did you try the kiin? Last time he ran off you found him there."

"I'm at the kiin right now. They've got half the staff searching every nook and cranny."

"And? Nothing?"

"Nope. They're doing another run of the building though, just to make sure."

"When was the last time anyone saw him?"

"He made it home the night before, when he took the train home from the Kanko Hotel. It seems like he left home the following morning without telling anyone."

"Hmm. Did they try contacting his friends? Maybe he stayed over a friend's place and forgot to tell anyone."

"They're trying that too. So far they haven't had any luck."

"I see. Well hopefully he turns up soon."

"ASHIWA-" Touya cried out, but Ogata slapped a hand down on his mouth and cut him off.

"What was that sound?" Asked Ashiwara.

Touya squirmed under Ogata's grip, but the man simply pushed him against the seat of the couch and held him down. Touya struggled to pry off his hand, in vain. He whimpered in panic. It was hard for Hikaru to watch, and he boiled over with hatred for Ogata.

"Nothing, just something stupid on tv," said Ogata nonchalantly.

"Oh, if you're free today, you should come help us find Akira-kun!"

"If you have half the kiin searching for Akira-kun and still haven't had any luck, then I don't see how me joining in will change things."

"Please, Ogata-kun! I'm worried about him, and I'm sure you are too."

"Well, alright, I'll come over and see what I can do. See you later." Ogata snapped the phone closed, and turned his eyes onto Touya.

"YOU!" He snarled, hand still clasped over Touya's mouth, bringing his face up to his own. "YOU NASTY LITTLE BRAT!" He threw Touya onto the floor with force. Hyperventilating, Touya scrambled to get away, but Ogata pressed his sock-clad foot down onto his neck, cutting off his breath.

Hikaru covered his face and averted his gaze. It was too much to watch. He wanted to cry.

"You almost caused me a lot of trouble!" He put pressure on Touya's throat with his heel. "You're lucky I'm not wearing shoes, or you would be really sorry!"

Touya twitched and failed helplessly under Ogata's foot, struggling for breath.

"Stop! Stop it!" Hikaru cried, pressing his fingertips into his forehead in distress.

Please… Touya formed words with his mouth. Please…

Wild with rage, Ogata glared down at Touya, gritting his teeth and twitching, before at last throwing his foot off.

Gasping, Touya rolled over onto his hands and knees, coughing, his hand over his sore throat, trying to regain control over his breath. "Why…" he breathed. He gazed up at Ogata. "You are my father's best student! How could you do this to him?"

Ogata simply narrowed his cold eyes in response.

Touya glared. "You're not human," he said.

Ogata shrugged. "What does it mean to be human, anyway? It's an arbitrary concept, a belief shared by the self-righteous." He seized Touya by the fabric of his shirt before he could get away. "Anyway you have wasted enough of my time. Back into the closet you go."

"Wait!" Touya cried, grabbing the corner of the couch as Ogata started to drag him away. Ogata in response seized Touya's wrist and pinned him against himself, so that Touya's back was against his own front. "What do you mean, wait?" He sneered into Touya's ear.

"I need food…" he said, and added in a very small voice, "and the toilet…"

Ogata sighed aggressively, steered Touya towards the toilet, and shoved him in. "You have 30 seconds," he snapped.

Touya turned on the faucet for the sound of running water, as had become routine to make things less uncomfortable for Hikaru. Even now, Touya was still thinking of his needs.

Suddenly Ogata burst through the door long before the 30 seconds were even up, shouting, "What the hell are you up to, wasting my water!?"

Touya shrieked and covered himself up and went to turn the water off. "I'm sorry! I just-"

"What are you all shy for? I've known you since you were a baby and so there is no part of you that I have not seen." Ogata closed the faucet. "So you were running the water while you were going? What, you're embarrassed by the sound of your own piss? If I were your father, I'd be ashamed of what I raised-you've got no balls on you at all." He grabbed Touya by the upper arm and dragged him out of the toilet and down the hall to the spare room, where he threw him back into the closet.

"Food!" Touya said.

Ogata stomped off, and in a moment he returned, pulled the door open a crack, threw in a packet and slammed it shut again, being sure to latch the door. "I'll be back in the evening," Ogata called as he left the room to get ready and go out.

"Rice crackers? Really? He thinks that's food?" Said Hikaru upon seeing what Ogata had offered.

Touya didn't say anything. He simply curled up under the blanket of the futon in silence, and Hikaru realized he was shaking, with his hand at his throat, and trying not to cry.

"Touya…" Hikaru said, crawling over to sit directly beside him, "Are you okay?" Dumb question, he thought to himself.

For a moment Touya still said nothing. "He had his foot on my throat, Shindou. I couldn't breathe. It felt like I was going to die!" Touya found himself crying again.

"Touya, I'm so sorry." said Hikaru, "I wish there was something I could do."

Touya took his hand away from his throat and closed his eyes. After a moment's thought, he said, "Stay with me, Shindou. Just staying here with me is enough."

Hikaru looked down to see that Touya's hand was on his. Hikaru cupped his other hand over it, gently.

"Please, Shindou," Touya said, "Don't go anywhere and leave me alone."

Hikaru thought of Sai. Would it still be selfish of him to continue in this world where Sai could not, if only for Touya? He couldn't stand the thought of him having to suffer alone as Ogata's prisoner.

What would Sai say?

Exist in this moment for Touya, he remembered him saying. Did Sai know he was going to disappear when he said that?

Hikaru understood now, more than ever, he had to do exactly that.