A/N: Aww, thank you all for the love you show this story, I'm so glad to see you like it! Just because of that I decided not to wait and update faster than it was planned.
The Old Man Who Plays Go
Kagome woke up in the middle of the night and for a second she was pretty freaked out, because she didn't know where she was. She snuggled into her futon, covering her shoulder with a blanket while looking around anxiously. She spotted her electronic clock blinking at her from her dresser, telling her it was barely past midnight.
It was then that she finally remembered where she was - at her shrine house. And that pile of stuff in a corner was the remainder of her unpacked things, not a supernatural being watching her during sleep. She groaned inwardly at her irrational half-asleep assumptions. Of course it was just an ordinary pile of stuff, that she was going to sort and put away the next day.
She spent a while laying in her bed, simply letting herself feel the house. She could hear wind blowing outside, rustling in the forest that was near. Her sight slid across the room, taking in the otherworldly shapes that were just furniture. In her old home she had had a bed, but here she was going to sleep on a futon, which also changed the angle at which she was looking.
More awake now Kagome felt that her bladder decided that since she wasn't sleeping, she could go and empty it. She sighed and threw her blanket off of her legs, Shuffling across the tatami mats towards the sliding door she outstretched her hands, trying to remember if there was anything she could trip over in the dark.
Luckily she reached the door without an accident. She gave a sigh of relief and carefully sneaked into the corridor. One look in the darkness made her realize, that the bathroom quest was going to be a hard one. But slowly, carefully, she managed to cross the short corridor and then climb down the steep stairs to the first floor. Now she just had to turn and go to the bathroom located on the back of the house.
But when she reached the bottom of the stairs she almost forgot about her pee desire, because she saw light coming through a crack in the living room door. She heard movement inside when she started to walk in that direction.
"Grandpa!" Kagome opened the door and saw her grandfather sitting by the table, bending to pick a white rock that rolled out of the table top and onto the tatami mat. The sliding door to the garden were opened, letting in the cool air.
"Oh, Kagome, dear," he glanced at her and put the picked rock in a small box next to the Go board laying on the table. Kagome walked in and saw that there were at least a dozen of white and black rocks on the board already. "I thought you went to bed hours ago."
"Grandpa, it's after midnight, don't tell me you forgot to go to bed!" Kagome walked to the door and slid it closed. "Go to bed, you need to sleep too."
She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
"I didn't forget, I just sometimes play Go before sleep. I'll go to bed but you have to play with me once first. I can't fall asleep without some brain exercise," he gestured to the board. "It will be fun and won't take long. Humor an old man?"
"Uh, okay," Kagome glanced at the board. "Well, okay, but I need to go to the bathroom first."
"That's alright, I'll bring some midnight snack while you're gone," the old shrine keeper offered.
And so, five minutes later, Kagome was kneeling in front of the board, dressed in her pj's, with a cup of white tea and a box of pale rocks next to her hand. She looked down at the board. Her grandfather was a big Go fan and utilized various strategies during his matches with friends. Now it looked like he had been playing white as aggressively daring player while the blacks were more focused on defense. Still, a glance to the captured rocks' piles confirmed that the players were pretty even. Kagome wasn't the best Go player, but was decent herself, after playing against her grandpa often enough to pick up some tricks.
Kagome glanced across the board at her grandfather, who smiled at her.
"Go on, it's your turn now," he encouraged. Kagome put her rock on the board.
"Okay, let's make this quick," she said and looked around. "Where is the cake? You promised a snack, grandpa."
"Oh? A, yes, I did, but it looks like the cake's gone," he shrugged. "I have no other sweets at home right now."
"Gone already? There was almost a third of it left when mom and Souta left," Kagome raised an eyebrow at him. Her grandfather glanced away, preferring to look at the closed door to the garden than at her. "You ate it all?"
"It was tasty," he said and she just groaned before next rocks were added to the board.
"You'll have to go on a diet if you can just inhale a third of a cake," she murmured. The old shrine keeper sighed, then looked at the board. He glanced to the garden door and back at the board.
"You know, white player should be less shy in their advance" he commented on her strategy. "You have to finalize the game fast and with the benefit to you, after all."
"Yeah, I know, blacks do the first move," she rolled her eyes. The old man looked at her with odd look on his face before capturing one of her rocks.
"Hm, you're correct," he mused. "I guess blacks are less... timid to step onto the battle field and meet their opponent face to face."
"I never thought about it that way!" Kagome giggled. "You know, from what I saw of the board earlier it was the whites who were more aggressive," she pointed out while putting her rock.
"Ah, in my night Go sessions they often get ahead of themselves, yes. I think they think their nose leads them to the victory. But charging into a battle without a good strategy can lead to getting the nose pinched."
Kagome laughed at that while her grandfather grinned smugly. They played for a while longer and when they finished the match Kagome went to put their cups in the sink before going to bed. Her grandfather put the board and the rocks away in the storage area close to the window. When he glanced out at the garden he saw a white shadow glaring with its golden eyes at him. He just waved a hand and went to bed.
He knew one thing - the next days were going to be very interesting.
A/N: I actually learned basic rules of Go for this chapter, so yeah...