I'd meant to upload this chapter last week, but life got in the way. Grr.

I forgot to mention this in the first part, but I'm pretty much following the manga version of Sugoroku Mutou (that's Yugi's grandpa). And I'm going with the whole Yugi-being-bullied-at school thing when he was young and had no friends except Anzu, which is pretty canon in both the manga and the anime series.

Disclaimer: Me no own nothing. Wait, that was a double-negative. Oops. Let me try that again: Me no own anything.


It's Time to Play a Game

Chapter 1: Meeting a Stranger (part 3)

They extracted themselves from the crowd, who parted nicely for the young boys before filling the spaces up again, like water being poured onto a dry-cracked ground.

Dark jade eyes met amethyst eyes, and they studied one another.

"Ummm…so…would you like to play a game with me?" Akira broke the silence first. Since his father told him to play with the strange kid with crazy hair, then he might as well make the most of it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered that this was the first time he would be playing against someone his own age outside of his Go class. In fact, the only other child he played with before was a loud-mouthed boy called Kaga-san. He'd tried to be nice to the boy(1), but for some reason, that just made him angry.

Maybe he was setting himself up for another rejection, but he really didn't know whether there was any game out there that could be half as fun as his beloved Go.

Yugi fidgeted under Akira's stare. He felt very exposed, the same way he felt when yet another bully cornered him at school.

"Yugi-san?"

"What? Oh, right. A game. Uh, um…s-sure." He gave Akira his best smile, praying to whatever gods out there that the other boy wouldn't beat him up after the game. He knew his grandfather threatened him so he would play seriously, but if losing meant he could save himself from a beating, then he really couldn't see the appeal in winning. For now, though, he allowed himself to be dragged to a different table at the back of the room.

Akira clambered into the slightly-too-high chair, and motioned to Yugi to do the same.

"You might want to take your backpack off. Next time, you can leave it with Ichikawa-onee-san," Akira gestured to the backpack that Yugi had a death grip on ever since he left his grandfather's side. "So, have you ever played Go before?" Akira said, slipping into his 'teaching' mode.

"Um…I…I prefer to watch. But I know the rules and stuff…I'm usually watching when jii-chan plays."

"Okay. Then you know what nigiri is, right? Here, take one of the pots." Go stones clattered clumsily on the goban, and math skills were put to the test. "You're white. That means I go first, but you get an extra 5.5 moku at the end of the game. But you probably knew that already, right?"

Yugi nodded.

"Great. So, how many stones do you want to put down?"

"A…a handicap? But I'm older than you!" Yugi pouted, making Akira giggle.

"Fine, no handicap. Then…onegaishimasu."

Yugi saw him smile and caught the excitement in the boy's voice, and suddenly, playing a game with someone else didn't seem so bad after all.

-o-o-o-

"Oooi, Yugi-kun! Where are you?"

The two boys looked up from the board and blinked, as if both had forgotten where they were.

"Oh! Oh, sorry, Akira. I…I have to go." Yugi hesitated at Akira's crestfallen face, but gave him a genuine smile anyway. "But thanks for playing with me! It was really fun. I…I haven't played with someone else for a long time…well, jii-chan doesn't count."

"Yuuuuugi!"

At the second call, Yugi jumped down and grabbed his backpack, but the motion was so quick that something toppled out with a resounding clink-clink-clink.

Akira's eyes widened at the sight of little pieces of gold tumbling out of a golden box, but got down to help Yugi pick them up. Upon closer examination, he could see that there were some weird etchings on the box, and that each piece of gold was a different shape. Some were interlocked with one another, connected as if they were always meant to be together.

"What's this?"

"It's my new treasure. Jii-chan gave it to me on my birthday because he knows I love puzzles. I hope none of the pieces I managed to put together fell apart…" He pulled a face. "I'm usually good at solving puzzles, but this one's really, really hard. It's very different from those 2D puzzles that give you a hint by showing you what the final picture is."

Akira picked up two pieces, fascinated and a little curious about what the finished puzzle would look like. On a sudden impulse, he fiddled with the pieces in his hands, and then…

Click!

The two boys stared.

"Wha…how did you…"

"YU-GI! Didn't you hear me calling you for the past five minutes? We're going, now!"

The spikey-haired boy eeped! and whipped his head around to see his grandfather looming over him with an ominous aura causing the air around him to crackle.

"I-I-I'm sorry, I'm coming now!" He quickly scooped the puzzle pieces back into the box, and paused before taking the now-connected pieces from Akira's hands. Swinging the backpack by the straps, he barely had time to throw a "Byeee! Thanks again!" over his shoulder before his grandfather dragged him off.

Akira half-waved back, speechless at the abrupt exit of the Mutous, when his father appeared before him while shaking his head in amusement.

"A strange pair, no doubt. But both good people." The Meijin voiced both their thoughts. "I was hoping Mutou-san could stay longer, but apparently he forgot about the train he had to catch. At least we managed to finish the game."

"Oh. Who won? Was Mutou-ojii-san strong?"

"Patience, Akira. After dinner, like I promised. Besides, I also want to see how you fared against little Yugi." He had a mischievous glint in his eye – another rare expression. It seemed like the entire day was filled with rare and strange happenings.

"Yes, otou-san." He sighed, fiddling with his hands and suddenly feeling quite lonely. He glanced at what remained of his and Yugi's game, the only 'footprints' left by the other boy. "Otou-san…can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"What makes a person a 'friend'?"

"Well…" The Meijin caught the tone in his voice, but instead of answering immediately, he picked up his son and set him on the chair so they could both clear up the goban that the boys had been playing on. While all traces of the game were being removed, he tried to think of the best answer to the deceptively simple question. "Well, I think that as long as you like each other and like to spend time together, that person is a friend."

"But aren't friends supposed to stick together? How can they be friends if…if they're apart?" Akira put the lid back on the pot of stones, and the table was tidy again, looking as if nothing had happened. How could him and Yugi be friends if they'd only met for a few moments before being forced to say goodbye, and without even knowing the next time they could play together again?

"Akira." The older man put a hand on his son's head, making the boy look up at him. "Do you know what 'Go' means in English?"

"Umm…it's also the word for igo, right?"

"Yes, but it has another, more common meaning." He smiled fully this time, removing all traces of his usual stern face. "'Go' means 'iku'. No matter who you are, where you are, or what you're doing, there's only one thing people will always do – they keep moving forward."

Akira looked into his father's deep brown eyes, trying hard to understand what they were saying.

"Keep moving forward, Akira. Don't ever be left behind. That's the promise you make with any friend." He turned towards the door, so Akira couldn't see his face. "And maybe one day, you'll bump into someone you know."

-End of Chapter 1-


(1) For those who don't remember, Akira and Kaga used to be in the same Go class. Kaga could never win against Akira, but when Akira offered to let him win, he got really mad because it meant Akira didn't really care whether he lost or won. This sparked the beginning of some serious anger issues for Kaga (seriously...check out chapter 8 in the manga).

Igo is Japanese for the game, Go, while iku is Japanese for the verb 'go'. In case that part was confusing. I'm not sure whether Touya Meijin actually knows any English, but in my story, he does. So there.

I'd also like to point out that technically, if Yugi's puzzle were made of solid gold, then it would weigh about 10lbs. No wonder he's so short.

Anyway, that wraps up chapter 1! Feel free to review, leave comments, constructive criticisms, etc. I will try to get chapter 2 up by next week, but no promises.