Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction ❯ End of an Era ❯ The Beginning ( Chapter 1 )

Title: The End of an Era

Author: Skimmilk

Rating: PG-for homosexual themes

Pairing: hikaki

Disclaimer: *snorts* not mine

AN: hmm…the first fanfic in awhile. I come back to fanfics after a three or four year hiatus, and I bring out two…yay…older fics were written under another name…hopefully no one will ever read them again…gah…

 

OOOO

 

It was a total of eight years from the beginning till the end. And at every step of the way, Shindo was there.

 

And how Akira wished that Hikaru hadn't been there.

 

 

The End of and Era: The Last Days of Touya Kisei

Ashiwara Hiroyuki

 

“Ashiwara-kun, welcome,” somehow, it sounded anything but. I had put off visiting. And from the reproachful glare sent my way via Shindo Hikaru, he was none too pleased with me. “Touya is waiting for you in the Go room. I just put the tea in the kettle, it should be done in a few minutes.” It was hard to place this “older” Shindo as the same Shindo that I had first met some twenty years ago, and had seen less than a year ago. “Today's a good day, but Touya…he's not been doing too well. It will probably surprise you.”

 

He led me to the sunny Go room down the hall. I remember when they had bought this apartment, they had gushed about this room for hours. One wall was entirely made up of windows. The other three walls, they were their library. Wall to wall of kifu. Shindo's past games, Touya's past games, games that they had played together, all of the title games played in the last thirty-four years, every game that Touya Meijin had ever played and every game that was played by a Honinbu league member and title winner. Next to the kifu collection of the Go Institute, the Shindo-Touya collection is one of the most comprehensive it I have ever seen. In some ways, it is more comprehensive; it has the records of every game that Shindo and Touya have ever played together, ever. Including the ones that they have played in the privacy of their own home.

 

I hadn't seen Touya in over six months. I was deliberate. Touya hadn't been to the Institute in six months, and I had made no effort to come to his home.

 

The goban had been moved from the center of the room to the side. It sat hidden by a rice-paper screen, off to the side. Akira hadn't been able to hold a go stone in eight or nine months. A futon had been moved into the room. Touya lay in the futon; Fujisaki Akari—a childhood friend of Shindo and later Touya—was kneeling at his side. She held his hand in both of hers, reading from a book that was resting on her lap. When Shindo and I entered the room, she closed the book—Lysistrata—and giving his hand a squeeze, she left the room.

 

Shindo took Fujisaki-san's place, and helped Touya sit up. I realized then, that Touya was no longer the child or man that I once knew. “`kira, if you're not up to it, you could always do it another day.”

 

He laughed, “When it took so long for us to get him here?” I winced, deserved, but still stung. “Just bring me some tea. I'll be fine.” He patted Shindo's hand and kissed it lightly. He shooed him out the door. When Shindo had closed the door, Touya let out a deep sigh. “It's been a long time Ashiwara-kun.”

 

His voice had changed since I had seen him last. It was rougher, lower, and instead of the precision he used when speaking, his words seemed to slur together slightly. Had he lost so much of his control so quickly? “Six months.”

 

“Nine months, actually. When you came to watch the Honinbu match-up.” He rubbed a hand along his right thigh. His voice hadn't been accusatory, but I still felt slightly putout. “How's writing? Productive, I hope?”

 

“Saeki-kun still hasn't forgiven me for retiring.”

 

Touya smiled, glancing at the door. In a slightly louder voice, he said, “We never know what to do without our rivals”

 

“We were hardly of your caliber.”

 

“But rivals still,” Shindo entered, bringing cups of tea. He handed me a delicate, eggshell-white, teacup, then sat, an arm around Touya, gently supporting him. He handed Touya his mug, a durable, plastic mug, telling. He held it and Touya's hands steady. “Ashiwara-kun, we want you to write an article in Weekly Go for Touya.”

 

“Excuse me?” I must have heard wrong.

 

“We got approval for a three part feature from your editors, we just need a writer. That's you. We want you to write the feature.” Shindo shifted slightly, “Touya's dying.”

 

“Why aren't you writing them?”

 

Shindo smiled self-deprecatingly, and nudged Touya slightly, “Touya, for the obvious reason, and I'm hardly a poet laureate. We've seen your articles, we've read your book, Touya wants you to write them.” He moved from behind him, plumping the pillows and settling him comfortably. He gave Touya a kiss on the cheek and left the room.

 

I wasn't too sure. I looked at the door thoughtfully, “He doesn't like me much, does he?”

 

Touya smiled, it was very fake and brittle, “He's not too happy with you. He thinks that you deserted me. Shindo doesn't take kindly to people who run away from friendships.”

 

I winced again, “I'm sorry, Touya-kun.”

 

“There's nothing you can do about it now. But, you can write my memoirs for me.”

 

“I'll do it.”

 

“Good,” he smiled, this time it was genuine, “cause if you didn't agree to, I was going to use emotional blackmail.”

 

I don't know if it was the fact that I did choose to hide during a critical time, but I was going to do it. Shindo didn't want me there, but he wanted Touya's legacy written.

 

It was the least that I could do.

 

The Beginning

 

I was sixteen when I first met Touya. I had just joined the Meijin's study group, and nine year-old Akira had stared at me with wide green eyes, unsure of how to act around someone who was “around” his age. He was disturbingly shy.

 

He was precocious, and despite his reputation, I still underestimated him. I lost. Badly. It was the beginning of many losses. In the history of my knowing him, I have lost seventy-eight times. I have won twice.

 

He had a happy childhood. Like most only children, he was a little lonely, but he had his game. He played Go. He played by himself, he played his father, and he played with people more that three times his age. His first word was “Meijin,” the title that his father had fought for six times before attaining. And he drank from his bottle with the sounds of “pachi pachi pachi” ringing in the air.

O
O
O

 

I remembered that Touya had liked mochi as a child, and had brought some when I came that day. Shindo brought them with the tea, it wasn't until later that I realized that Touya's had remained untouched. I brought out the mini-tape recorder, turning it on, I left it out on the table.

 

“When I was six, my father told me that I had the potential to become an amazing Go player, because I was a hard worker and my love of the game was great. Those words are what brought me to where was when I was twelve.

 

“I began playing when I was three. I didn't think of myself as precocious, but evidently I was. I still remember my first games with my father. I was still tiny then, and I couldn't quite reach parts of the goban. I would sit on my father's lap, and for the first few hands, I would place the stones. My fingers were small, and the stones always felt so heavy, so after the first dozen hands, may father would place the stones for me. I would sit there, in the comfort of my father's lap, and tell him, the Meijin where to place my stones. It's funny, I remember that once, he had placed the stone at the wrong point, I don't even remember why, but he misplaced it, and I was so angry. It occurred to me, years later, that I had spoken so rudely, not only to my father, but someone who was universally acknowledged as an amazing player. I think that it took me about three years to realize the severity of what I had done; I remember begging my father in tears, begging for forgiveness that had already been granted. My father had no idea what I was going on about, he didn't even remember, and I remember he and my mother desperately trying to calm me down. My father had forgiven and forgotten, and all he wanted was his normally calm son, back.” He bent to take a sip of his tea, and leaned heavily on Shindo. Shindo, had his arms around Touya, and laced his fingers around Touya's to hold the mug, “But everyday, from the time I was three, in the early morning, I played my father. From the time I was three until I moved out when I was seventeen. Including the games played when I first learnt the game, until my father died last year, we played 5,749 games. It was without fail. Even when I was sick with the flu, I still played him. If I got into a fight with Father, without fail, the next morning we played a game. He was my one constant. I needed it, considering that the rest of my life wasn't exactly a dream come true.

 

“I was never a normal kid. Now, I'm aware of it. Growing up, I thought everyone was like me: Go obsessed. The only people that I had met, up until I entered school, had been my family and my father's friends, all Go fanatics. I had never had any reason to question if that was “normal.” Needless to say, I had a rude awakening when I entered school. I was ridiculed. Children are vicious. They're mean and when they find something or someone different, they try as hard as they might to crush it. It took me less than a day of kindergarten to realize that children are the spawn of all that is evil.”

 

Shindo snorted, “And what about Hitomi?” referring to their daughter, whom Touya spoils as much as he can.

 

“Hitomi is an exception. She, like me, is an exceptional child, and never gives us any trouble,” Touya managed to declare with a straight face.

 

“Hitomi, put Nair in my conditioner last year. As I recall, you weren't too happy when I started losing all of my hair, in clumps.” Shindo grinned at him, obviously enjoying the fact that Touya had a blind spot.

 

“That may or may not be true, but she doesn't torment other children. She knows that different isn't back, it's what make us, well, us.”

 

“So, you weren't angry when she dyed her hair purple?” Touya blushed slightly; evidently he hadn't taken it that well.

 

“Anyway, I learned early on that I should try to blend in more, maybe even disappear. I rather wanted to be ignored, than bear the brunt of other people's juvenile taunts. By the end of my elementary school days, I was the ignored, quiet boy who always sat in the back. I never spoke unless spoken to, and no one bothered me.

 

“I was content with this. At school, I was a good student. I did my work, and had a good memory so school was pretty easy for me. Most of the time, if I wasn't writing notes, I was going over kifu in my head. I thought about Go all the time. And when I was done with my day, I went to my father's Go salon. At first, most of the customers wanted to play me, because I was a novelty. “Playing the Meijin's son.” But, after a while, they realized that I had skill. So then, it became natural for me to play teaching games with them. And that became “normal” for me. I'd come to the salon for an hour, and I would work on my homework. After that was done, I would play teaching games with them. That would go on for a few hours until my mother picked me up after work, or my father did.

 

“Around the time I was seven, my father told me about rivals.” He nudged Shindo, and they shared an intimate smile. For a moment, I looked away, embarrassed at seeing this type of intimacy. “He told me that a rival is almost as important as a lover. At the time, it went right over my head, but like most Go pros, I have an excellent memory, and I remembered. And every time I met anyone, anyone who was around my age, I wondered, could this be the rival that I needed to have? I was young, and Go was all I knew, so a lover was something that I didn't really think necessary. I focused on the rival. Other children weren't any type of challenge to me. I had spent years playing my father, and while I was hardly of my father's caliber, I was still better than most of my peers. Either way, I always had hopes for my rival. Someone who would push me so far, so I would constantly try to better myself. Unlike playing my father, where I simply tried my best and learn the most I could, I would have someone who I could truly play a game with. Not my teaching them, or them teaching me, my dream was to find someone with whom I could play and even game. That was my dream, and even game.

 

“My father wouldn't let me play other children, he knew that I was too good, that I would destroy the hopes of any promising young child.” He spoke with no conceit; he was simply stating a fact. The three of us knew that this was true. Anyone who had ever met this man, at any point in his Go career, knew that he was going to be a legend. “The only people that I was allowed to play were adults. They would play and learn if they were wise. And if they weren't, they would become angry and leave. Most that played me were there to learn. And if they cause a problem, the other adults in the Go salon went out of their way to protect me.

 

There were a few children who sought me to become my rival, or declare themselves better than me. Some showed potential, thought none came close to making me declare them my rival. And I so wanted a rival. I realized that the adults were no match for me, and neither were the children. I had no true peer among them. They were either too far below my skill, or like my father, too strong for my to ever compete with. Until, Shindo.” They shared another secret smile.

 

“I—” Hitomi came bursting into the room. I checked my watch and saw that it was around three, after school for Hitomi.

 

There was a green and purple—her uniform and hair, respectively—flurry around the room as she gave both of her fathers a kiss on their cheeks. She shot me an uncertain look, something more akin to Shindo than Touya. “Daddy,” she threw her arms around Touya's neck, “I brought you a gift.” He fathers shared an exasperated look over her head. The last “gift” that she had given to either of her fathers was an abandoned kitten that tore apart their furniture. She pulled a scrapbook from her bag. Opened, it had kifu pasted to the pages. From the thickness of the scrapbook, it must have been roughly two-hundred kifu, all hand-written. “I stopped by the Institute today, and they gave me something that might interest you.” Shindo smiled, then held the scrapbook open for Touya to see, “Waya-sensei said that you always had an interest in the NetGo idol, Sai. He said that it took this long for him to compile all of them. He had had a few of the records saved to his computer, but he wanted the whole collection, and he had never been sure that he had gotten all of them. He said that this is every game played by Sai from the summer of '99. And then, the game he played with grandpa in 2000. Wow, Daddy, I didn't know that you were that old.” Shindo pulled away from Touya, and in that subtle shift, you could see that Hitomi was now bearing most of her father's weight. Shindo moved to the section in the middle wall that had a noticeable empty spot that he slid the scrapbook into. On the shelf above it, I could see that it housed Honinbu Shuusaku kifu; it looked to be roughly twice the amount of Honinbu kifu that the Institute housed. Shindo let his hand rest on the spine of the scrapbook, and slid it along the rest of the spines on the shelf. “Anyway, Waya-sensei said that he would stop by on Thursday. He said that he wants a game. Ah! And Isumi-san sends his love.” She gave her father a careful hug and allowed for Shindo to support Touya again. “At any rate, I've got homework to do. God knows I won't get anything done tomorrow.” She was up and at the door before anyone could even say anything. She paused at the door, “Is there anything you need, Daddy?” Both of her fathers shook their heads. “I'll be in my room if you need me.”

 

Touya shook his head, as if clearing it…? “Where was I?”

 

“Rivals.”

 

“Ah, rivals. Shindo. He was…um…hm…I've been thinking about this all week, and I still don't know what to say.” He leaned into Shindo slightly, obviously exhausted. “`karu, why don't you do it?” he settled further into Shindo. Shindo tucked the blankets around him snugly.

 

“Okay.” He took a quick sip of his cold tea, and ran a hand along the back a Touya's head, “We met when we were twelve. By the time we were seventeen, we were acknowledged as two of the strongest players of our generation, and two of the biggest threats to the older pros. Both of us had gone on to the semi finals of the tournaments for at least three titles, and that year, I had gone on to fight for the Tengen title from Ogata Ouza. I got my first title that year. The following year, I maintained my title, took the Meijin title from Kurata-kun, and Touya got the Kisei from Ogata Ouza. By the time we were twenty-one, the eight titles were split between the two of us, basically just swapping back and forth. The only titles that neither of us has relinquished to the other were Tengen, Kisei, and Meijin. The last sixteen years, we have held every title, and only eight years ago, did someone go on to play in the finals against me that wasn't Touya. Besides Kadowaki, every finals match played over the last sixteen years, has been played between Touya and me. The three years before that, one of us had played in every finals match.” It was here that Shindo realized that Touya had fallen asleep. We ended the interview for the day.

O
O
O

 

 

Tbc…

 

Next chapter in a week or so…