STEPPING STONES
2
i'll be the one
"Akira-kun! Hey, Akira-kun!"
Pivoting on his heel in front of the classroom, first-year Akira Touya glanced quizzically at the girl racing through the spotless corridors of Kaiou Middle School. Panting, she skidded to a stop a few feet in front of him. Her dark brown hair, tied into two long braids, flopped over her shoulders as she bent down to catch her breath
"Here!" the girl grinned as she straightened, shoving a small package into Akira's hands. "That's for tutoring me during Go Club at the beginning of the year! I hope you like it!"
Surprised as he was by this seemingly random gift, Akira tried not to look too taken-aback. "Ah…thank you, Hayase-senpai," he managed to say, shifting his books into the crook of his elbow as he accepted the box. "That's very kind of you. I didn't think anyone would remember those early games."
"I wouldn't forget!" the girl chirped back. As her eyes fell upon the hallway clock, however, she gave a gasp of dismay. "Shoot, I'm late! See you later, Akira-kun!"
As the girl pelted back the way she'd come, Akira looked bemusedly at what she'd handed him. Wrapped in plain red paper, the little box didn't appear to contain very much at all. Deciding to further examine the strange gift after school, Akira deposited it into his bag and continued into the classroom.
"Um, T-Touya-san?"
A shy-looking girl with short black hair was standing beside Akira's desk, clutching a small silver bag in her hands.
"Good morning, Satou-san," Akira said politely, laying down his textbooks.
"For y-you."
As she placed the bag carefully on top of his math binder, bewilderment at this unlikely coincidence tinged Akira's face. Although he did his best to maintain his usual composure, the girl quickly noticed his confusion. Flushing a deep shade of red, she stared intensely at the front of her school sweater.
"I just wanted to thank you for h-helping me before the last t-test," she blurted out, the tips of her ears burning. "Y-ou don't have to take it if you d-don't want to."
"You must have misunderstood, Satou-san," Akira said quickly, with as much diplomacy as he could muster. "I'm happy that you appreciated my help."
"Oh! Um, you're w-welcome."
And with a sheepish, meaningless wave of her hands, the girl swerved around and practically bolted towards her own seat.
Strange, Akira mused, frowning a little as he dropped the silver pouch into his bookbag. That's two people in the row who've given me things. Was I supposed to bring presents to hand out today, too?
As the day progressed, his puzzlement did not diminish in the least. During history class, a girl in the front passed him a package that was almost completely obscured by a gaudy silk bow. At lunch, several more mischievous girls flocked around Akira's table, ruffling his hair and stealing his dessert before showering him with small, brightly-wrapped gift boxes.
"Get us something good, Akira-kun!" they chorused as the students were dismissed.
I understand a little more now, Akira thought as he eyed his now bulging messenger bag. I have to give all these people something in return for their presents. But why is everyone picking today to give gifts? And why only the girls?
Heading towards the shoe boxes after school, Akira was surprised to see a sizeable crowd, one including the majority of the Kaiou Go Club, clustered in the hallway and eyeing him intensely. Feeling more than a bit apprehensive, he rested his now heavy bag against the floor and glanced into the compartment holding his shoes.
He was right to be wary. His shoe box was currently harboring a petite square container topped with clear plastic, one that certainly hadn't been sitting there that morning. As a perplexed Akira gazed down through the plastic, he slowly made out a flattened, dark brown sphere, one similar to an oversized Go stone. Carved into the thing's smooth surface were English words that Akira carefully scrutinized.
I'll be the one.
All of the Kaiou students standing near a certain first-year Go prodigy were blasted by the same sudden shout.
"It's SHINDOU!"
Instantly, the surrounding swarm of people broke into snickers. Unrestrained sneers of "he's still raving about that Hikaru kid, even after he got kicked out of the Go club!" and "Touya needs to get a life outside of Go!" shot back and forth across the corridor at dizzying speeds. Ignoring these taunts, Touya glared at the strange object, an unbridled fire blazing across his pale face.
"What's going on!" rose a shrill female voice.
Hands on hips, Yuri Hidaka marched up to Akira, her closely cropped blond hair bristling in annoyance. "Don't yell in the middle of a school hallway!" she barked. "Don't you know better than to disrupt other students?"
"I'll be the one," Akira murmured to himself, still staring fiercely at the box. "Is this his idea of a challenge?" His eyes narrowed into slits of anger, while the knuckles of his now clenching fists blanched an angry white. "Someone like Shindou, who flouts professional Go players and runs away from real games…I cannot allow someone like that to pass me by. But what is he playing at with this? Why didn't he face me at the match with Haze…and what's his reason for having people send me all those strange presents?"
A sharp rap on the head brought Akira back to reality. "You really are obsessed!" Hidaka scoffed. "You and your Shindou conspiracy theories are ridiculous! Don't you even know what day it is?"
Akira looked at her blankly.
"He really doesn't know!" shrieked the other students disbelievingly. "How sheltered can you be? Touya may be good on a Go board, but he can't do anythingelse!"
Akira's eyes darkened. Ignoring the mounting sneers of his classmates, he impassively stuffed the box into his nearly-bursting bag and turned to leave. A hand that brushed briefly against his shoulder forced him to pause.
"February 14th," came a low, emotionless murmur.
As Akira's head jerked up, he caught a glimpse of a tall, uniformed figure disappearing soundlessly down the hallway. "Kishimoto-senpai?" he called tentatively.
If there was an answer, it was quickly drowned out by the loud laughter echoing throughout the school's perfectly polished corridors.
"Hayase-senpai, may I have a word with you?"
The energetic older girl screeched to a halt by the cluttered bulletin board, sending her thin braids slapping against her cheek. As she stopped, Akira was flooded with a weary sense of déjà vu.
Ever since forgetting about Valentine's Day (which wasn't difficult to do, Miss Ishikawa had sympathetically tried to convince him, if you were an industrious student and involved Go player who didn't pay attention to high school trivialities), other students had made Akira into the butt of countless jokes.
Akira himself wasn't particularly upset. Though he wasn't openly a social pariah before, he had already been coming pretty close. Joining the prestigious Go Club solely to challenge Shindou at the beginning of the year, and then quitting after the tournament, had rubbed many people the wrong way. Not only had the young Go genius intruded upon the club members' hard-earned turf, but he didn't even have enough respect to stay there. The fact that Akira was a reserved perfectionist of student who didn't mingle easily with others or bother to keep up on the latest trends had only worked against him.
In the eyes of many of his peers, Akira Touya, the rising star of the Go world, was an arrogant brat who cared only about protecting his own reputation…and blatantly snubbing the "less worthy" wherever he went.
Akira had vague ideas of what some students liked to whisper behind his back, but that had long ago become old news. He was more concerned about the individuals who hadshown him kindness; some of the girls who had been considerate –and courageous– enough to give him Valentine presents were now being mocked right along with him. Seeing spirited Hayase fighting with her friends or little Satou cringing in the corner made Akira immensely uncomfortable. He could ignore personal blows coolly enough, but disliked feeling guilty on other people's accounts.
Redeeming himself at this point would be difficult, but there was already one step he knew he had to take.
"Thank you very much, Hayase-senpai, for remembering me last month. Your chocolate was very delicious." With a solemn nod, Akira presented the girl before him with a package enveloped in meticulously-folded white paper.
"Hehe, so Akira-kun does know about White Day!" Hayase giggled, eagerly tearing apart the wrapping right there in the hall. "I was worried for a while!"
As she animatedly threw open the lid, her eyes lit up in delight. "So pretty!" she squealed as she pulled out two glossy satin ribbons and dangled them in the air. Without hesitation, she yanked off her own hair ties and knotted the ribbons onto the ends of her brown braids. "How do I look?" she demanded, tossing her head from side to side.
Akira, of course, said all the right words, and Hayase continued her trek down the hall with an extra bounce buoying her steps.
The reactions of the other girls varied. Satou managed a tentative smile after Akira gave her a cute stuffed kitten and a few kind words, while some of the other girls took their gifts with surprised taunts about Akira's lack of a social life. With the latter cases, Akira had simply smiled politely and continued on his way. By the end of the day, he had managed to thank each of his Valentine gift-givers in person…except for one.
Standing by his empty shoe box long after school let out, Akira stared at the pristine white tiles that lined the hallway. In the nearly empty passage, the footsteps of a passing student sounded remarkably like the clinks of Go stones upon a solid wood goban. Tracing the borders of each tile square with his relentless gaze, Akira wondered what it would be like to play a game upon a board as expansive as the floor of Kaiou Middle School. He'd been lost in his strange daydream for several minutes when a tall shadow fell over his line of sight.
"Hey, you! You're not supposed to loiter in the halls!"
Blinking twice, Akira's eyes flitted upwards. "Good afternoon, Hidaka-senpai," he said respectfully as he spotted the older student directly in front of him. "I'm sorry, but I'm waiting for someone. I might be here for a while."
Hidaka ran a hand through her pale hair. "I don't believe you," she grumbled, closing her eyes and throwing her head back irritably. Then, after several moments' pause - "Why are you still at Kaiou, Touya? You can do so much better than us. Can't you?"
For one ephemeral moment, a wealth of unspoken words tottered over the two unseeing Kaiou students, suspended precariously between Akira's bowed head and Hidaka's upraised face. As the instant whisked itself away, however, Hidaka broke the silence. She opened her eyes, sighed quietly, and leaned back on one leg as she primly straightened her sweater. "I'm going to the Go Club," she said as she swerved around. "You better be gone by the time I come back."
It was then, somehow, that Akira knew.
"Senpai," he said, training his even gaze onto the girl. "I'm sorry, but I didn't bring you a suitable White Day present. I'll try to remedy that tomorrow. Would you like anything in particular?"
A twisted expression, one that borrowed elements from both an exasperated scowl and an uncharacteristically soft smile, played across his upperclassman's face.
"Come back to the Go Club," Hidaka said.
Glimpsing Akira's wide-eyed astonishment, she quickly added, "You can't be a competing member, of course, not when you turned your back on us after the tournament with Haze. That stupid lone wolf attitude of yours wasn't good for any of us, not when we already had so many reasons for hating you. But still…"
As Hidaka finally continued, Akira had to strain to hear her now low voice.
"They'd never admit it, but there are a lot of people, like Captain Kishimoto and maybe even Ito and Kojima, who still want to play you."
"I find that hard to believe," Akira said quietly. "Many members of the Go Club were adamant about having me leave. You were one of them."
Hidaka nodded in acknowledgement. "Like I said, we have so many reasons to hate you. But as much as we might laugh at you or taunt you or try to shove you away in the corner…in the end…it's stupid, but in the end, I think none of us would want to say we had Akira Touya at our school and didn't even tryto play him. Our club might benefit a lot, if you just dropped by every now and then."
"Ah. So…I could be Kaiou's secret coach?"
"Don't get so full of yourself, Touya! You're the one getting a second chance here, not us."
With a surprisingly large amount of effort, Akira managed to conceal his suddenly rising smile. "I'll try," he replied, gazing past Hidaka's rather snappish-looking glare. "By the way, Senpai, I was wondering…why did you choose the words 'I'll be the one' for your Valentine's gift?"
"All the chocolates had stupid sayings like that!" Hidaka barked, reddening considerably. "Besides, you were convinced it was Shindou, weren't you?"
"The message was…er…ambiguous."
"No, you just need to drop that Shindou obsession!"
This time, the laughter that filled the Kaiou corridors was far softer, but also far warmer, than before.