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31_days2008-05-27 11:59 pm
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-05-27 11:59 pm
[May 27] [Hikaru no Go] Stones on Narrow Spaces 27/?
Title: Stones in Narrow Spaces 27/?
Day/Theme: May 27 - Biding time with the crows and sparrows
Series: Hikaru no Go
Character/Pairing: none
Rating: General
----------------
Touya could see that Ogata was rattled, though he tried to hide it. But where his favourite white suite complemented the glint of light on Ogata's glasses, now the brown kimono only seemed to change Ogata's demeanor altogether, so that he seemed uncertain. "What do you mea- No." He broke off the question and said, "Does this mean that you can hear Sai?" But his voice contained only a shadow of his previous hauteur.
Shindou watched him for a moment. "I hear him in my Go, and in the Go that other people play," he said. "Can you say the same?" He did not seem to be expecting a reply, however. As Ogata, Kaneda and Touya stared, he played a hand.
Instead of directly attacking White, Shindou's black stone was in an unremarkable spot. It seemed like nothing but a stop-gap measure to head off Ogata's encroachment. Or so Kaneda hastened to explain to the audience.
The very obviousness of that hand only meant that Shindou had further plans for it. Touya could not see how it could become significant, but he knew that Shindou was only biding his time.
Touya knew Ogata well enough to know that he was thinking furiously. "You're whimsical today, Shindou," Ogata finally said, his cool, light tone returning. "That's a beautiful image. I see that Touya-kun has managed to inculcate some poetry in your soul at last. Hearing Sai in your Go, indeed." The stone that Ogata placed, however, was obviously the product of his surprise: it was a strong hand in that it consolidated Ogata's territory, but no further.
Shindou gave him a smile that was edged all over. "You'd have to listen very hard, Ogata-san," he said. He touched the fan at his side, a gesture that was almost casual except that he was also watching Ogata with the expression of a sparrow watching a worm. "But you won't hear a thing if you regard the Shuusaku goban as a talisman and not a goban in itself."
Ogata froze. Then he exclaimed, "How did you know?"
Just like that, those four words confirmed what Touya had suspected. He stared at Ogata, starting to match dates in his mind. Ogata had been scheduled to leave Japan the day before the Shuusaku goban was stolen--not many people knew that he had planned to join Touya's father in the Go workshop-cum-retreat in Taipei. But when Touya called his father to tell him of the theft of the Shuusaku goban, he distinctly remembered that his father had not mentioned Ogata even once.
He and Shindou had assumed that the theft of the Shuusaku goban was an ordinary theft because very few people knew of the existence of that goban in the first place. But there were equally few people who knew that Ichikawa was the only person (other than Touya) to have access to the Touya residence, and therefore the only person who could have taken the goban from the private study room. The message for Ichikawa could be written only by someone who knew that.
Of course, Touya thought, it was unlikely that Shindou had gone through the same line of reasoning. He had most likely been thinking only of Sai.
Right on cue, Shindou said to Ogata, honestly confused, "How did I know what?"
(TBC)
Day/Theme: May 27 - Biding time with the crows and sparrows
Series: Hikaru no Go
Character/Pairing: none
Rating: General
----------------
Touya could see that Ogata was rattled, though he tried to hide it. But where his favourite white suite complemented the glint of light on Ogata's glasses, now the brown kimono only seemed to change Ogata's demeanor altogether, so that he seemed uncertain. "What do you mea- No." He broke off the question and said, "Does this mean that you can hear Sai?" But his voice contained only a shadow of his previous hauteur.
Shindou watched him for a moment. "I hear him in my Go, and in the Go that other people play," he said. "Can you say the same?" He did not seem to be expecting a reply, however. As Ogata, Kaneda and Touya stared, he played a hand.
Instead of directly attacking White, Shindou's black stone was in an unremarkable spot. It seemed like nothing but a stop-gap measure to head off Ogata's encroachment. Or so Kaneda hastened to explain to the audience.
The very obviousness of that hand only meant that Shindou had further plans for it. Touya could not see how it could become significant, but he knew that Shindou was only biding his time.
Touya knew Ogata well enough to know that he was thinking furiously. "You're whimsical today, Shindou," Ogata finally said, his cool, light tone returning. "That's a beautiful image. I see that Touya-kun has managed to inculcate some poetry in your soul at last. Hearing Sai in your Go, indeed." The stone that Ogata placed, however, was obviously the product of his surprise: it was a strong hand in that it consolidated Ogata's territory, but no further.
Shindou gave him a smile that was edged all over. "You'd have to listen very hard, Ogata-san," he said. He touched the fan at his side, a gesture that was almost casual except that he was also watching Ogata with the expression of a sparrow watching a worm. "But you won't hear a thing if you regard the Shuusaku goban as a talisman and not a goban in itself."
Ogata froze. Then he exclaimed, "How did you know?"
Just like that, those four words confirmed what Touya had suspected. He stared at Ogata, starting to match dates in his mind. Ogata had been scheduled to leave Japan the day before the Shuusaku goban was stolen--not many people knew that he had planned to join Touya's father in the Go workshop-cum-retreat in Taipei. But when Touya called his father to tell him of the theft of the Shuusaku goban, he distinctly remembered that his father had not mentioned Ogata even once.
He and Shindou had assumed that the theft of the Shuusaku goban was an ordinary theft because very few people knew of the existence of that goban in the first place. But there were equally few people who knew that Ichikawa was the only person (other than Touya) to have access to the Touya residence, and therefore the only person who could have taken the goban from the private study room. The message for Ichikawa could be written only by someone who knew that.
Of course, Touya thought, it was unlikely that Shindou had gone through the same line of reasoning. He had most likely been thinking only of Sai.
Right on cue, Shindou said to Ogata, honestly confused, "How did I know what?"
(TBC)