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Round 6 - Tora-des, "19 by 19", Fic & Graphics (●)
Pseudonym: Tora-des
Title: 19 by 19
Characters/Pairings: The Emperor’s Tutor, Fujiwara no Sai, Honinbou Shusaku, Kuwabara-Honinbou, Ogata Seiji, Kaga Tetsu, Ochi Kosuke, Tsutsui Kimihiro, Kishimoto Kaoru, Fukui Yuuta, Kaneko Masako, Hong SuYeong, Tsuda Kumiko, Yashiro Kiyoharu, Ko YeongHa,Touya Kyouyou, Touya Akira, Fujisaki Akari, Nase Asumi
Rating: Teen
Warnings/Contains: Bullying, sugar, blood, death, optimism, and horrors of all horrors - coffee.
Summary/Notes: 19 by 19 - Leaves an awful lot of possibilities, for a far from simple game. Much thanks to my teammates for making this a wonderful experience and all their advice.
That young upstart doesn't even realise the position that he is in, the power that he's courting. The idiot, is a sign of the sickness plaguing the court, of young, lazy noblemen who care only for their own shallow pleasures instead of the responsibilities of their people.
At best, if he succeeds, he will distract the emperor into playing endless games instead of focusing on more important matters. With the dangers lurking across the seas, with the unrest amongst the land, this cannot be allowed. At worst, he'll be another weapon for the Fujiwara to utilise in the conflicts within the court. The last thing everyone else needs is for the Fujiwara clan to gain even more influence in the court, with the emperor already struggling to keep them in check.
For the sake, of his family. For the sake of the court. For the sake of the country. He can not give in, he can not allow that upstart to succeed. He'll risk anything; ulcers bleeding from the stress of studying late at night, death and dishonour.
To do everything he can, in doing the best for this world. Such a pity it has to be over, such a stupid game.
There is nothing that Sai loves more than Go. Hence, having all his games called into question and struck from the records, being banned from the court and consequently forever restricted from approaching some of the greatest players of all time, is the worst of all possible punishments.
Sai bites down hard upon his tongue, drawing blood, when he hears the whispering around him. No point in making a fuss now. He knows now, that he is the best player in the court - regardless of what others may believe. But that is still not good enough.
He has a choice. To decide whether he can live without this game and settle down in the country away from the court. Focus on raising children and the next generation – perhaps he’ll be able to live through their games instead…
When put that way? The decision is easy.
One thing Torajiro can feel confident in, as he can feel his life fade away, like blood seeping into a goban, is that he lived his life for others. He has succeeded in granting a good quality of life for his family, and he’s succeeded in helping the very best games ever played so far have their chance to shine.
He knows that he has trained many youngsters and pushed forward the quality of Go to higher standards. He knows that the world is a better place because of his existence. That even as he dies, he helped just days before ease the end of life for many others.
He can’t help but feel a selfish satisfaction, though, in knowing that he got to keep the very best of Go games, all to himself.
Kuwabara loves toying with his opponents, playing with them even. The expressions of surprise, the emotions he can rile, the glee in analysing the strongest move they can make – and having it lead directly into his own trap. There is nothing quite like it, to help you feel truly alive having the younger generation revere you as a force to be reckoned with and helping them to gain a deep and heartfelt respect for their elders.
(Still, he better remember to keep taking his medication, even if it leaves a nasty after taste. He wants to be in this game, for a very, very long time.)
When Ogata looks through the statistics of the Go association, he feels depressed. The number of applicants to be insei decreases every year. The players that make it through to the world of professionals are no longer necessarily the strongest players, but rather the ones most determined to never give up.
It makes him feel depressed to see this stagnation in the game. He needs to do what he can to encourage the next generation, to keep the world of Go alive. Help players find their point of connection, appeal to their natural competitive natures on going further, faster, harder.
After all, without a new wave of players to come through, how will he ever have his chance to enjoy his turn at being the stubborn old coot that just won’t die?
Not going home doesn’t worry Tetsu. He has enough money in his pockets to catch the bus to his grandparents – and there are plenty of friends that will put him up for the night. His father… He’d rather avoid his father anyway if he lost.
The total lack of respect, the complete dismissal, the fact that he is regarded as a non-entity so completely. That makes his blood boil and enrages him.
He’s determined to never let anyone ignore him so completely again.
The first time Ochi loses in an insei match, he stays calm, listens carefully to the after talk and then slowly goes to the bathroom.
Unfortunately, although he only really wants to be alone with his thoughts, he can’t help but overhear his opponent coming into to wash his hands and bragging about the game and Ochi’s flaws in the match.
Idiot, of course Ochi realises where he went wrong now and the match isn’t nearly as one sided as he makes out. It’s just Ochi had miscalculated in one of his traps. Perhaps if he moved this way, but wouldn’t that mean that they would go to that spot? His problem was that he underestimated his opponent, but if he thinks that they would go there, is that an overestimation? That trap could have been used in a different way later on in the game if he had saved his territory in the top right hand corner…
He can’t help but feel excited tapping out the possibilities, as he prepares himself to be better for the next game.
Tsutsui sometimes wonders if he comes across as fake in his dealings. He tries to stay polite and sweet, but he sometimes wonders if he tries too hard, that he comes across as a little too sweet, a little too perfect, to the point where it leaves an unpleasant impression behind as people wonder what it is exactly that threw them off.
But he has to try. He’ll never be able to dedicate his life to this game, but he wants to squeeze in every opportunity that he can at competing across the board. Being polite is the only way he knows, to stay comfortably in people’s lives and maintain contact. Even if it’s an imperfect and distant friendship, it’s still one that is very important to him.
Kaoru hates the metallic taste of artificial sweeteners. He’d much rather enjoy the honest bitterness of coffee, mixed with the genuine sweetness of real sugar. Real taste carries across much more honest emotions – less chance of an ugly aftertaste to be left behind.
It’s a sentiment he feels that he carries throughout all his life- as he resigns from the insei, back to the politicking of his school. He knows who he is, and he’ll keep that strength solid, even as people try to confuse and bewilder him with incomprehensible actions. He will not lose his place in this world.
Fuku Yuuta loves Go. He doesn’t let himself think about his opponents, or how he will earn his living, preferring to focus on the here and now, on the game at hand. People get so caught up on second guessing their own thoughts and making things far more complicated then they need to be.
It’s much more enjoyable to go with your instincts, to make the best move you can with the information you have. To treat each game as an enjoyable learning experience, to have each move as part of a complicated problem you are trying to solve. When you succeed it’s awesome, and even if you don’t succeed you can at least have enjoyment from a game well played. Being rewarded with gold or silver doesn't matter as much as being able to look back with enjoyment over the game you played.
This is why he prefers to play speed go, to quickly and efficiently reveal in each moment of the game. Sometimes if he lets himself think about it, he suspects that this may be why he has a natural advantage over players like Waya. But he prefers not to, instead enjoying those moments where he can find another to let loose against in the game.
Kaneko doesn’t like being a girl. Girls get judged on being pretty, not on talent. Kaneko isn’t very pretty, but she is very talented, and she’d much rather have muscle and brains and the ability to strategize on winning real games like volleyball and igo than waste her time being set up to fail in the world of teenage romance.
It’s just, she was flattered when that boy saw her solve a puzzle and say that she was strong and dragged her to the Go club. She was much less flattered when it was clear that he was an idiot that didn’t really see her as a girl. Even if she doesn’t like being a girl, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want to be recognised as such. Besides, the volleyball team needs her strength if they are to make it to finals.
Hikaru’s idea is nice though, and there’s a part of her that wishes it could come true. Where being a boy or girl didn’t matter - as long as you played strongly in the game, you could represent the team.
If you can’t make it to the top, then why bother trying? He’s already a better than average player, so he can probably make a living beating old, ugly Japanese men who are still pathetic enough to think that they can rise above their meagre talents.
Actually, the thought of being a big fish in a small pond is so overwhelmingly claustrophobic that his mood switches between depressed resignation and overwhelming fury, which leaves a metallic taste in his mouth. This is his lot in life, how can one fight fate? He doesn’t have the necessary genius to rise above.
Then he meets someone. Someone who is laughably his inferior. Someone who lacks any form of magical genius intuition to call out each moment perfectly. A person who hasn't dedicated his life to training; so every hand, every move is engraved inside their soul.
Someone who manages to rise above and improve during a game itself.
By meeting that person, Seyeong is able to rediscover the fire that had focus on the game in the first place and the determination to improve himself that he had lost.
So what if it isn’t his natural fate? He’ll work harder than anyone to make it otherwise.
The Go club is quite interesting, even though it’s small and quiet and focused on a game that Tsuda’s not very good at yet. It is interesting though, the logic puzzles that grow into games and when it’s a carefree match – that’s really quite a lot of fun. Akari is super nice and only a few steps ahead in knowledge, making it easier to lead Kumiko further into the game. Kaneko is actually quite good, even if she loses to Mitani sometimes, Tsutsui’s a sweetheart, and Mitani is quite funny when he’s hanging around and can be a good teacher when he feels like it.
That’s all well worth putting up the struggle and stress of tournaments; to help Akari and Kaneko show off their talents. She doesn’t mind losing when that helps grant them the opportunity to shine. Besides, sometimes she wins, and isn’t that a bright feeling?
Yashiro Kyoharu loves rocking it out across the board. The thrill of life and death across the board, where it’s you or them… It helps you feel alive, as your brain whirls through possibilities and you intimidate your opponents into recognising your skills.
So very different from the competition of getting into the best school, the best university, only to join the endless rat race of a salary man - the sort of competition his parents would prefer that he focused on. He’ll try to run both routes for a while, but he’s good at Go, and it’s the path that he would prefer to go. He just needs to get a little further he's sure, he just needs to meet a few more milestones. To show that this is a path that he can keep, that he can spend the rest of his life focused on Go. That would totally rock.
Flawless perfection, absolutely flawless. That is the goal that Yeongha is obliged to try and meet in all of his daily interactions.He's been gifted with talent, therefore it's important to be able to respect that talent. With it comes the faith people have placed in him as the hope for the new generation that will uphold the traditions of Korean baduk.
He doesn’t really understand why Japanese baduk players always seem so depressed about the future of the game and obsessed with the past. All around him, he sees bright, focused talent – and he plans to ride the crest of that wave to the very top.
The matches that bother Touya Kyouyou are the, 'What If', games which he couldn’t, didn’t play.
There is no shame in losing a match where you played your best, only relief when you win a match where you did not. But a game that you could have played but did not – that’s what bothers him, imagining all of the great games that he missed by staying only in Japan, he finally understands why there are snide remarks of him being a big fish in a small pond.
There are so many great things in the world out there, and he’s looking forward to getting to discover as many new, good players as he can. Japan is his home, but it is not the only home for Go. Now that he’s realised this, he wonders what else he could have missed out on.
Akira loves the graceful style of Sai’s games. It’s elegant, full of the ultimate strength, the perfect playing style. He wants to measure his own strength against it, his own worth against it. He’s sure that if he pushes himself just a little further he could reach it. He must be able to, after watching the hands laying out those stones shake with uncertainty even as they place sophisticated moves that speak of years of expereince.
Later, when he came to the relization that it was all an illusion and that he was chasing a ghost, an illusive player that didn't exist. Thinking of the way that he had been tricked, makes him determined not to be fooled again, but pushes him into making the decision to become a pro. While Hikaru cannot provide the game that he is looking for, perhaps someone, somewhere out there can.
Years later still, when looking back through his memories and at Hikaru's growth into a real opponent. He finds that Hikaru’s real style though – it’s quite distinctive from the style he remembered from Sai. It’s not the ultimate strongest style, but rather a style designed against the strongest style. It tantalises him now, makes him want to measure his own strength against it.
Akari still hasn’t quite worked out why Hikaru developed an interest in Go, although she does learn to understand why he continues to enjoy the game. Although looking back, she supposes there were much worse ways he could have transformed as a person.
Looking at some of the ways her classmates have changed, she knows that it’s not impossible. He could have gone a step further with his hair, turning it into a Mohawk. Thinking of that, she can’t help imagining him as he “jams” out to some sort of death metal rock, screaming out obscene lyrics while gyrating his hips in confusing and spiralling directions.
She’s actually quite glad that he’s spent his life focusing on Go, now that she’s had time to think about the alternatives, really.
When Nase had started in this tournament, she had felt rather isolated. It was quite clear from the commentary that no one had much in the way of expectations of her, that any attention paid to her was a mere formality.
That didn’t stop her though, she was determined to focus on playing her best. After all, this tournament could serve as experience for the next. She’d get there some day. And then she won. And then she won again. The elation at making it to the finals of one of the prestigious Go titles is well worth the years of frustration from before.
She didn’t think that she’d make it this far, but, you know, while she’s here… She’s going to make her opponent sweat.
Go to opponent's entry: Round 6 - Kyoji Kagami, "Everyone Loves Hikaru... and Hikaru Loves Everyone", Fic & Graphics & FST (○)
Go to vote: Ichigaya vs. The White Suit Society - First Board Match
Title: 19 by 19
Characters/Pairings: The Emperor’s Tutor, Fujiwara no Sai, Honinbou Shusaku, Kuwabara-Honinbou, Ogata Seiji, Kaga Tetsu, Ochi Kosuke, Tsutsui Kimihiro, Kishimoto Kaoru, Fukui Yuuta, Kaneko Masako, Hong SuYeong, Tsuda Kumiko, Yashiro Kiyoharu, Ko YeongHa,Touya Kyouyou, Touya Akira, Fujisaki Akari, Nase Asumi
Rating: Teen
Warnings/Contains: Bullying, sugar, blood, death, optimism, and horrors of all horrors - coffee.
Summary/Notes: 19 by 19 - Leaves an awful lot of possibilities, for a far from simple game. Much thanks to my teammates for making this a wonderful experience and all their advice.
19 by 19
The Emperor’s Tutor
That young upstart doesn't even realise the position that he is in, the power that he's courting. The idiot, is a sign of the sickness plaguing the court, of young, lazy noblemen who care only for their own shallow pleasures instead of the responsibilities of their people.At best, if he succeeds, he will distract the emperor into playing endless games instead of focusing on more important matters. With the dangers lurking across the seas, with the unrest amongst the land, this cannot be allowed. At worst, he'll be another weapon for the Fujiwara to utilise in the conflicts within the court. The last thing everyone else needs is for the Fujiwara clan to gain even more influence in the court, with the emperor already struggling to keep them in check.
For the sake, of his family. For the sake of the court. For the sake of the country. He can not give in, he can not allow that upstart to succeed. He'll risk anything; ulcers bleeding from the stress of studying late at night, death and dishonour.
To do everything he can, in doing the best for this world. Such a pity it has to be over, such a stupid game.
Fujiwara no Sai
There is nothing that Sai loves more than Go. Hence, having all his games called into question and struck from the records, being banned from the court and consequently forever restricted from approaching some of the greatest players of all time, is the worst of all possible punishments. Sai bites down hard upon his tongue, drawing blood, when he hears the whispering around him. No point in making a fuss now. He knows now, that he is the best player in the court - regardless of what others may believe. But that is still not good enough.
He has a choice. To decide whether he can live without this game and settle down in the country away from the court. Focus on raising children and the next generation – perhaps he’ll be able to live through their games instead…
When put that way? The decision is easy.
Honinbo Shusaku
One thing Torajiro can feel confident in, as he can feel his life fade away, like blood seeping into a goban, is that he lived his life for others. He has succeeded in granting a good quality of life for his family, and he’s succeeded in helping the very best games ever played so far have their chance to shine.He knows that he has trained many youngsters and pushed forward the quality of Go to higher standards. He knows that the world is a better place because of his existence. That even as he dies, he helped just days before ease the end of life for many others.
He can’t help but feel a selfish satisfaction, though, in knowing that he got to keep the very best of Go games, all to himself.
Kuwabara-Honinbou
Kuwabara loves toying with his opponents, playing with them even. The expressions of surprise, the emotions he can rile, the glee in analysing the strongest move they can make – and having it lead directly into his own trap. There is nothing quite like it, to help you feel truly alive having the younger generation revere you as a force to be reckoned with and helping them to gain a deep and heartfelt respect for their elders.(Still, he better remember to keep taking his medication, even if it leaves a nasty after taste. He wants to be in this game, for a very, very long time.)
Ogata Seiji
When Ogata looks through the statistics of the Go association, he feels depressed. The number of applicants to be insei decreases every year. The players that make it through to the world of professionals are no longer necessarily the strongest players, but rather the ones most determined to never give up.It makes him feel depressed to see this stagnation in the game. He needs to do what he can to encourage the next generation, to keep the world of Go alive. Help players find their point of connection, appeal to their natural competitive natures on going further, faster, harder.
After all, without a new wave of players to come through, how will he ever have his chance to enjoy his turn at being the stubborn old coot that just won’t die?
Kaga Tetsu
Not going home doesn’t worry Tetsu. He has enough money in his pockets to catch the bus to his grandparents – and there are plenty of friends that will put him up for the night. His father… He’d rather avoid his father anyway if he lost.The total lack of respect, the complete dismissal, the fact that he is regarded as a non-entity so completely. That makes his blood boil and enrages him.
He’s determined to never let anyone ignore him so completely again.
Ochi Kosuke
The first time Ochi loses in an insei match, he stays calm, listens carefully to the after talk and then slowly goes to the bathroom.Unfortunately, although he only really wants to be alone with his thoughts, he can’t help but overhear his opponent coming into to wash his hands and bragging about the game and Ochi’s flaws in the match.
Idiot, of course Ochi realises where he went wrong now and the match isn’t nearly as one sided as he makes out. It’s just Ochi had miscalculated in one of his traps. Perhaps if he moved this way, but wouldn’t that mean that they would go to that spot? His problem was that he underestimated his opponent, but if he thinks that they would go there, is that an overestimation? That trap could have been used in a different way later on in the game if he had saved his territory in the top right hand corner…
He can’t help but feel excited tapping out the possibilities, as he prepares himself to be better for the next game.
Tsutsui Kimihiro
Tsutsui sometimes wonders if he comes across as fake in his dealings. He tries to stay polite and sweet, but he sometimes wonders if he tries too hard, that he comes across as a little too sweet, a little too perfect, to the point where it leaves an unpleasant impression behind as people wonder what it is exactly that threw them off.But he has to try. He’ll never be able to dedicate his life to this game, but he wants to squeeze in every opportunity that he can at competing across the board. Being polite is the only way he knows, to stay comfortably in people’s lives and maintain contact. Even if it’s an imperfect and distant friendship, it’s still one that is very important to him.
Kishimoto Kaoru
Kaoru hates the metallic taste of artificial sweeteners. He’d much rather enjoy the honest bitterness of coffee, mixed with the genuine sweetness of real sugar. Real taste carries across much more honest emotions – less chance of an ugly aftertaste to be left behind.It’s a sentiment he feels that he carries throughout all his life- as he resigns from the insei, back to the politicking of his school. He knows who he is, and he’ll keep that strength solid, even as people try to confuse and bewilder him with incomprehensible actions. He will not lose his place in this world.
Fukui Yuuta
Fuku Yuuta loves Go. He doesn’t let himself think about his opponents, or how he will earn his living, preferring to focus on the here and now, on the game at hand. People get so caught up on second guessing their own thoughts and making things far more complicated then they need to be.It’s much more enjoyable to go with your instincts, to make the best move you can with the information you have. To treat each game as an enjoyable learning experience, to have each move as part of a complicated problem you are trying to solve. When you succeed it’s awesome, and even if you don’t succeed you can at least have enjoyment from a game well played. Being rewarded with gold or silver doesn't matter as much as being able to look back with enjoyment over the game you played.
This is why he prefers to play speed go, to quickly and efficiently reveal in each moment of the game. Sometimes if he lets himself think about it, he suspects that this may be why he has a natural advantage over players like Waya. But he prefers not to, instead enjoying those moments where he can find another to let loose against in the game.
Kaneko Masako
Kaneko doesn’t like being a girl. Girls get judged on being pretty, not on talent. Kaneko isn’t very pretty, but she is very talented, and she’d much rather have muscle and brains and the ability to strategize on winning real games like volleyball and igo than waste her time being set up to fail in the world of teenage romance. It’s just, she was flattered when that boy saw her solve a puzzle and say that she was strong and dragged her to the Go club. She was much less flattered when it was clear that he was an idiot that didn’t really see her as a girl. Even if she doesn’t like being a girl, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want to be recognised as such. Besides, the volleyball team needs her strength if they are to make it to finals.
Hikaru’s idea is nice though, and there’s a part of her that wishes it could come true. Where being a boy or girl didn’t matter - as long as you played strongly in the game, you could represent the team.
Hong SuYeong
If you can’t make it to the top, then why bother trying? He’s already a better than average player, so he can probably make a living beating old, ugly Japanese men who are still pathetic enough to think that they can rise above their meagre talents.Actually, the thought of being a big fish in a small pond is so overwhelmingly claustrophobic that his mood switches between depressed resignation and overwhelming fury, which leaves a metallic taste in his mouth. This is his lot in life, how can one fight fate? He doesn’t have the necessary genius to rise above.
Then he meets someone. Someone who is laughably his inferior. Someone who lacks any form of magical genius intuition to call out each moment perfectly. A person who hasn't dedicated his life to training; so every hand, every move is engraved inside their soul.
Someone who manages to rise above and improve during a game itself.
By meeting that person, Seyeong is able to rediscover the fire that had focus on the game in the first place and the determination to improve himself that he had lost.
So what if it isn’t his natural fate? He’ll work harder than anyone to make it otherwise.
Tsuda Kumiko
The Go club is quite interesting, even though it’s small and quiet and focused on a game that Tsuda’s not very good at yet. It is interesting though, the logic puzzles that grow into games and when it’s a carefree match – that’s really quite a lot of fun. Akari is super nice and only a few steps ahead in knowledge, making it easier to lead Kumiko further into the game. Kaneko is actually quite good, even if she loses to Mitani sometimes, Tsutsui’s a sweetheart, and Mitani is quite funny when he’s hanging around and can be a good teacher when he feels like it.That’s all well worth putting up the struggle and stress of tournaments; to help Akari and Kaneko show off their talents. She doesn’t mind losing when that helps grant them the opportunity to shine. Besides, sometimes she wins, and isn’t that a bright feeling?
Yashiro Kiyoharu
Yashiro Kyoharu loves rocking it out across the board. The thrill of life and death across the board, where it’s you or them… It helps you feel alive, as your brain whirls through possibilities and you intimidate your opponents into recognising your skills.So very different from the competition of getting into the best school, the best university, only to join the endless rat race of a salary man - the sort of competition his parents would prefer that he focused on. He’ll try to run both routes for a while, but he’s good at Go, and it’s the path that he would prefer to go. He just needs to get a little further he's sure, he just needs to meet a few more milestones. To show that this is a path that he can keep, that he can spend the rest of his life focused on Go. That would totally rock.
Ko YeongHa
Flawless perfection, absolutely flawless. That is the goal that Yeongha is obliged to try and meet in all of his daily interactions.He's been gifted with talent, therefore it's important to be able to respect that talent. With it comes the faith people have placed in him as the hope for the new generation that will uphold the traditions of Korean baduk.He doesn’t really understand why Japanese baduk players always seem so depressed about the future of the game and obsessed with the past. All around him, he sees bright, focused talent – and he plans to ride the crest of that wave to the very top.
Touya Kyouyou
The matches that bother Touya Kyouyou are the, 'What If', games which he couldn’t, didn’t play.There is no shame in losing a match where you played your best, only relief when you win a match where you did not. But a game that you could have played but did not – that’s what bothers him, imagining all of the great games that he missed by staying only in Japan, he finally understands why there are snide remarks of him being a big fish in a small pond.
There are so many great things in the world out there, and he’s looking forward to getting to discover as many new, good players as he can. Japan is his home, but it is not the only home for Go. Now that he’s realised this, he wonders what else he could have missed out on.
Touya Akira
Akira loves the graceful style of Sai’s games. It’s elegant, full of the ultimate strength, the perfect playing style. He wants to measure his own strength against it, his own worth against it. He’s sure that if he pushes himself just a little further he could reach it. He must be able to, after watching the hands laying out those stones shake with uncertainty even as they place sophisticated moves that speak of years of expereince.Later, when he came to the relization that it was all an illusion and that he was chasing a ghost, an illusive player that didn't exist. Thinking of the way that he had been tricked, makes him determined not to be fooled again, but pushes him into making the decision to become a pro. While Hikaru cannot provide the game that he is looking for, perhaps someone, somewhere out there can.
Years later still, when looking back through his memories and at Hikaru's growth into a real opponent. He finds that Hikaru’s real style though – it’s quite distinctive from the style he remembered from Sai. It’s not the ultimate strongest style, but rather a style designed against the strongest style. It tantalises him now, makes him want to measure his own strength against it.
Fujisaki Akari
Akari still hasn’t quite worked out why Hikaru developed an interest in Go, although she does learn to understand why he continues to enjoy the game. Although looking back, she supposes there were much worse ways he could have transformed as a person.Looking at some of the ways her classmates have changed, she knows that it’s not impossible. He could have gone a step further with his hair, turning it into a Mohawk. Thinking of that, she can’t help imagining him as he “jams” out to some sort of death metal rock, screaming out obscene lyrics while gyrating his hips in confusing and spiralling directions.
She’s actually quite glad that he’s spent his life focusing on Go, now that she’s had time to think about the alternatives, really.
Nase Asumi
When Nase had started in this tournament, she had felt rather isolated. It was quite clear from the commentary that no one had much in the way of expectations of her, that any attention paid to her was a mere formality.That didn’t stop her though, she was determined to focus on playing her best. After all, this tournament could serve as experience for the next. She’d get there some day. And then she won. And then she won again. The elation at making it to the finals of one of the prestigious Go titles is well worth the years of frustration from before.
She didn’t think that she’d make it this far, but, you know, while she’s here… She’s going to make her opponent sweat.
Go to opponent's entry: Round 6 - Kyoji Kagami, "Everyone Loves Hikaru... and Hikaru Loves Everyone", Fic & Graphics & FST (○)
Go to vote: Ichigaya vs. The White Suit Society - First Board Match