Monsoon (Hikaru no Go: Ogata and Ichikawa on Hikaru and cigarettes)

[eeveee]

A curious but ultimately insignificant detail in Seiji Ogata's life was that fifteen years ago, back when he had more hair and had yet to become a despicable old man, Satoshi Kuwabara had given him his first cigarette. He'd been the Ouza, back then, and one match away from taking the Tengen - and Seiji had been fourteen, wide-eyed, and fresh out of Touya 8-dan's study group.



It had never occurred to him to turn down the offer.



If the media was to be trusted, the old man had probably been planning to eliminate future competition through lung cancer, but Ogata just couldn't get himself to care, except for in restaurants with liberal no-smoking policies. He had thought of it as a sign of acceptance, back then, as a gesture saying that not only was he a pro like Kuwabara Ouza was, he was an adult, too. He had, admittedly, not felt much like one as he bravely finished of the cigarette, nor had it been particularly cool to rely on the goodwill of others to get his fix for a miserable number of years after, but it had taken a good decade until he started suspecting that the old goat had somehow outsmarted him already back then. That had been a train of thought he chose not to follow any further; if he had any regrets at all, it would have to be that it hadn't been somebody a bit more worthy of his gratitude who had introduced him to the art of smoking.



Logically, he knew that it was an expensive and unhealthy addiction - and that might have been why he goaded Shindou into it after the brat had gone on at really unnecessary lengths about how a friend of his had beaten the Honinbo in his shin shodan game.



Of course, rites of passage usually didn't take place in Go salons, and that wasn't only because Go salons tended to be populated by a demograph whose only remaining ceremonial was cremation. Ogata was not the Go professional who had been sternly lectured about the laws regulating the minimum age of tobacco use and informed that his mother would hear about this in front of a openly staring assembly ageing men who mostly did not approve of his hair and the behaviour he provoked in the young master. He was, however, the one who found his way out of the building blocked when the last patrons were leaving.



"Ogata-sensei," Ichikawa said in a voice that reminded him uncomfortably much of a teacher he had had in eight grade, "I hope you realize that it is illegal to supply minors with age-restricted substances."



"I had hoped that Shindou was old enough to decide for himself whether or not he wanted to break the law," he replied, wondering when she had become such a mother. Of course, the last time he actually had paid attention to her had probably been the first time he met her, when she had been visiting the Touya household for a week and he had rationalized that it probably wouldn't go over so well if he made any passes on Akiko-san's cousin. It had been a few years since then, although he still thought that anybody under the age of thirty and without kids on her own shouldn't be able to take that tone with somebody else.



"Shindou-kun is a good boy," she answered, "and I would have liked to see you make an offer like that to Akira-kun."



Well.



"Ichikawa-san, I had no ill intentions. Shindou - "



"Shindou-kun wouldn't ask you for cigarettes, Ogata-sensei, and it is a nasty and inconvenient habit to lure thoughtless children into."



Unusually traditional career, with a teacher unusually traditional even for Go players on top of that, Ogata had still gotten enough reprimands from well-meaning women to recognize one coming on. It wasn't like he hadn't seen Ichikawa give it to newcomers who had questioned Akira's skills back before he had gone pro, and he suspected that Akira's own tendency to do the same to those who smiled overbearingly at Shindou was not one learned from his mother. When Ichikawa put her hands on her hips, he supposed he should just count himself as lucky that she had had enough mercy not to do this is public.



"I don't think of Shindou as a thoughtless child," he informed her in a half-sincere attempt to placate her through the soft spot he hoped she had for said teenager. He had no reasons for sharing his private opinions on him except for the small hope of distracting her from giving him a scolding that would be much more appropriate for people, say, Shindou's age, but he wasn't lying. Shindou was rapidly growing into an opponent who it soon would be impossible to take lightly.



"Then maybe you should show some of that respect through being a good example for him, instead of tricking him into taking up your own disgusting habits."



"You're making it sound like I was trying to talk him into letting me take his virginity, not giving him a cig," he said with something he was afraid was dangerously close to sarcasm, but this discussion was rapidly heading towards the ridiculous. Ichikawa was definitely starting to sound like his middle school health teacher, and he did not particularly want to get a textbook lecture about cardiac disease and cancer.



He got a look for that one, and an arm that pointed to the door.



"Ogata-sensei, I have the uttermost respect for you as a Go player and as Touya-san's student, and I have always appreciated that you looked out for Akira-kun. I hope I can continue to feel this way in the future. Now, I need to lock up the salon."



Ogata had spent enough time in Touya-sensei's Go salon over the years to have acknowledged Ichikawa as a pleasantly service-minded woman who doted on Akira and brewed good tea. He had heard her snarl at a couple of customers, but had never paid much attention that, seeing that he never had had any reason to insult Akira's talent, indirectly or not. The scolding Shindou ha received before he had the chance to take his third drag had certainly made it clear that for all her good manners, Ichikawa took her duty of keeping the reputation of the Touya Go Salon untainted seriously. He was not so sure that a close relationship with Touya-sensei would grant immunity to another berating if he gave her the chance, and he had never been among those who took pleasure in making others raise their voice at him.



He got as far as the lobby, from where it was thirty meters to the parking lot and an excellent view of the downpour that would have him soaked to the bone after three steps. He was halfway through the first cigarette when Ichikawa's footsteps stopped momentarily, before she came to stand across of him, leaning against the wall beside the doors.



"They didn't mention this on the weather report this morning."



"I'll take that to mean that you don't have an umbrella, either."



"I left it in the car."



There was a long silence.



"Is Shindou-kun really that good?"



He looked up at her, and found her surprisingly free of anger; it seemed that for all her steam earlier, she did not hold grudges for long.



"From what I hear, Akira-kun frequently defends Shindou's honour from some of the other patrons," he said, tipping off ash. Ichikawa sighed in a slightly fond, slightly exasperated way.



"I have never heard Akira-kun talk about any other Go player the way he talks about Shindou-kun. Even before Shindou-kun became pro - well, the only thing I know is that Shindou-kun doesn't compete with Akira-kun, but from what I hear, few of the lower dan players do."



"You should make that 'yet', Ichikawa-san," Ogata replied, "Shindou doesn't compete with Akira-kun yet. But thinking about the fact that it's been four years since he started playing, and that he's already holding his own against the top of the international junior players, it's only a matter of time before Akira-kun will have to start watching his step."



"That's amazing, isn't it?" Ichikawa said with a smile, "and to think, I still remember the first time he came here to play. He was such a little brat!"



"Some would say that he still is," Ogata muttered.



"And that is why we don't make it worse through juvenile attempts at proving our manhood," she said sharply, and Ogata managed to not roll his eyes.



They lapsed into silence again, staring out at the rain that did not seem to be about to let up. Ogata ground out the cigarette, and Ichikawa started rummaging through her handbag.



"Double standards do apply, I see," he noted dryly when she lifted the lighter, and she paused momentarily to give him an ugly look.



"I've been trying to quit the last five years," she said, the words slightly distorted from biting down on the filter, "and I wish that I had never started, and I wouldn't want Shindou-kun to have to end up like me."



"Please tell me that your mother knows."



She glowered.



He made another attempt at keeping up conversation as the silence stretched to lengths that was nearing the embarrassing.



"You're right to keep an eye on Shindou, though. His talent aside, his history alone is enough to make him one of the most interesting players in many years."



"Akira-kun certainly seems to think so," Ichikawa agreed, and stubbed out her cigarette. "And that's good, I think. Akira-kun needed a friend his own age."



"Akira-kun needed somebody to measure himself against," Ogata corrected her, "that's not so easily done when the friend closest to your own age is six years older than you." He looked through the glass doors, and lit another cigarette when he found that the weather had yet to let up.



"Ashiwara-san is a nice young man."



"Ashiwara has been no match for Akira the last two years. Shindou will be, very soon."



"And for you, too?"



"I am the holder of two titles," the words were sharper than he intended.



Ichikawa was not fazed by the tone of his reply.



"Until very recently, you were not," she said in a strangely detached manner, as though she was thinking out loud, "you weren't like Akira-kun and Shindou-kun when you were new. I remember, back when I started working here - they never talked about you the way they talk about them."



"It's been some years since I was new," he bit back, irrationally annoyed by an amateur comparing two of the risings stars of the Go world to him. If old Kuwabara knew, he would probably have assured Ichikawa that she was absolutely correct and taken the opportunity to remind Ogata about how he had taken his sweet time to finally make it into the challenger position of the titles, and even longer than that to actually win any.



"No, what I mean is -" and then she stopped herself, and shook her head. "Never mind. I'm sorry, Ogata-sensei, I didn't mean to suggest that you aren't an amazing player - of that, there can be no doubt."



"It is more even than you would think on the top."



"I guess Akira-kun and Shindou-kun are going to reach that sooner than most others do, then. I think you were right, Ogata-san, that Shindou-kun isn't a child."



Shindou, Ogata thought with a venom that surprised him, is a loud-mouthed brat with absolutely no manners or idea about the potential of the talent he possess. And Kuwabara Honinbo had apparently taken a liking to him. Kuwabara Honinbo had not gotten Shindou's name wrong for the first four years of their acquaintance, the way he had referred to Ogata as "Oukido-kun, was it?" until they played each other in a league game and Ogata had played well enough to make him snap to attention and proceed to give him a unnecessary humiliating defeat.



Ichikawa was staring at the rain outside with an unhappy frown.



"I guess he is just thoughtless, then. Not that that is strange at all - I mean, most pros I've met seem to have known what they wanted since they were very young. Shindou-kun hasn't had a lot of time to get used to what it means to be a working adult."



"It was his choice to make."



"The choices people his age has to make are usually a lot less important than that. I mean, when I was in high school..." there was a self-deprecating snort, "I guess the only hard choice I ever made was to start smoking. I knew that my mother would all but disown me if she found out, but I had this cousin, who - " she didn't finish the sentence. She smiled sadly instead, and shook her head. "Looking back, it's strange to think about how much it really mattered back then."



"So you started smoking to impress the cool boys?"



"The cool girls," she corrected him softly.



High school politics had been one of the things he had not had to worry about, and he had always thought that having a stable profession had put him above that sort of thing when he was a teenager. But the simple, ridiculous immaturity of Ichikawa's explanation hit a nerve that he hadn't realized existed.



He stared at the cigarette in his hand, and remembered being fourteen and thinking that he finally had been acknowledged as a player. Shindou had never looked at the top players the way Ogata knew that he once had used to, and Shindou had not accepted the cigarette Ogata offered him until he suggested that it was the courage that was lacking. Shindou had, from the few rumours Ogata had heard about his career before going pro, started playing Go for the singular reason of competing with Akira Touya.



Shindou, he realized with dawning amazement, would never give a damn about what Ogata thought of him - and probably not Kuwabara Honinbo, either.



Ichikawa was looking at her wristwatch and heaved a quiet sigh as she glanced outside once more, and Ogata realized that Kuwabara Honinbo was a desperate old man who would be going down soon enough. And if it wasn't by Ogata's game, then it would be Serizawa's or Kurata's or with the rate he was going, Shindou's or maybe even that amazing Isumi-san who had passed the pro test undefeated and beaten the old goat by more than the reverse komi.



Kuwabara was old and only human, Ogata had not yet reached the peak of his career, and the competition was no longer the older players who he had been beating quite regularly for the last few years. The ones he should be wasting hours and days planning strategies against were the ones closing in from behind him, which included one determined and clueless young man who only had looked confused when Ogata first tried to give him a cigarette.



Because Shindou, in all his ignorance, had apparently known the elusive purpose of the game before he even became an insei.



"You know what," Ogata said, more to himself than to actually contribute to the conversation, "I think I'll quit smoking."

---

Written for aishuu in the December '07 round of fifthmus. Title courtesy of my wish for somebody skilled to vid Hikago to Enya's "Storms in Africa II".