[Honen]

[answer_key]

Things That Burn


"I don't need a chaperone, Grandfather." Ochi shoved her glasses up her nose then crossed her arms over her chest awkwardly. "Touya-pro is coming over for a teaching game. That's all. When there is go, you don't need to worry about me getting distracted."

 

With a deep laugh, the old man patted her head, ruffling her short bob of a haircut. "I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about him. What kind of boy can resist a cute girl like yourself?"

 

Pushing her grandfather's hand away, Ochi scowled and fixed her hair as best she could without a mirror. "Touya-pro is only interested in go. As am I. The only things of his I'll be touching are his stones as I capture them." She held her chin up, defiant, and fought the urge to push her glasses up anew. "I'll be in the study, so let him in, offer tea, and then leave us to our game."

 

There was a comfort to the routine of setting up the board, wiping it clean of any dust garnered since the previous night and placing the goke just so atop the grid of the goban. She let her carefully filed nails tap against the wood as she sucked at her bottom lip, trying to get her mind into the right place to truly attack as she needed to in order to dominate. She was broken from it only a moment later as the door opened and Touya Akira walked through, his jacket draped over his arm. "Welcome. Shall we play?" Ochi fanned out her hand at the board.

 

Placing his jacket on the sofa in the room, Touya joined her at the table without so much as a bow of his head. "I've seen Shindou-san's games recently. She's getting better. You'll need to work even harder."

 

Opening the goke closer to her, Ochi shrugged one shoulder. "You know, my grandfather wanted to chaperone us."

 

The look on Touya's face was one of confusion. "Why would he need to do that? I'm certainly not teaching you to gamble or anything else untoward."

 

Gripping a few of the black stones between her fingers, Ochi forced a smile onto her face. "Of course not. He's an old man, and a foolish one at that. Who knows what he was thinking?"

 

"Nigiri." Touya said it as enough of an order that Ochi's jaw tightened as she thrust her fingers between the stones to grab a handful, pulling them out to let them fall across the board as Touya slapped down his one white stone to her seven black, winning the right to the black stones. "I don't know if you'll think this helpful or not, but when Shindou-san does nigiri and has the black stones in front of her, she's much more likely to have an even number of stones. Her hands are small, so she rarely pulls more than six stones. It is an advantage to know your opponent like that."

 

Ochi's eyes shut and she reached up to adjust her glasses once more. Of course Touya-pro would know more about Shindou-san's hands than just the ones she played. There was something captivating about Shindou-san. There had to be, but Ochi knew she couldn't see it. Touya-pro, though... that was all he seemed to see. Ochi had heard enough talk around the Ki-in to know that everyone thought that Shindou-san and Touya-pro were entwined with a red string of fate. As Touya-pro placed his first stone, Ochi decided she hated red, hated fate, and definitely hated Shindou Hikaru. But, most of all, she hated the way her hatred burned inside of her like a bonfire, consuming everything but her own weakness that she hated most of all.