Cherish the time

Dreams cannot be eaten.

But for some people, living off their dreams...is not too difficult.

The road of Go is not easy to walk. I don’t know how many thoughts are hidden, how many sighs are soaked, how many obsessions are kept, and how many dead ends are buried between the nineteen paths.

But fortunately, there are always some people who can go on this road.

And for these people, if they really want to take this road to the peak, there will always be some experiences that they cannot avoid.

The new early stage routine competition is one of them.

And in events like this, the ritual nature is always more important than the competition nature.

Therefore, in such a game, both parties participating in the competition will not have too much pressure.

As a result, the juniors were able to do their best, and the seniors responded wholeheartedly.

At the beginning of this year.

Shindo Hikaru faced this year's new Hatsudan Tatsuhiko Kadowaki in the new Hatsudan regular game as a forerunner.

So the gate Waki ​​holds the black, enters the vine and holds the white, and enters the vine to stick to the five and a half eyes.

Under such conditions, Kadowaki thought for a while and used the opening of the Shuce style-although this kind of layout is not very practical for the contemporary chess world where the five eyes and a half are close to the eye, but on the battlefield against the five eyes and a half that is close to the eye, But it can be called outstanding effect.

His idea is good, and his strength is considered outstanding, but his luck is really... not so good.

It's just because Xiu Ce's one-three-five plus undefeated Xiaojian's opening is exactly what his opponent - that Fujiwara Sakai who possessed Honinbo Shusaku hundreds of years ago - has skillfully used and carried forward.

They waged a pretty beautiful battle of consciousness.

In this game of chess, Kadowaki's performance is quite eye-catching. Not only is his game steady and his mind is delicate, but he is also neither arrogant nor impetuous.

However, Shindo's performance was even more eye-catching.

After Kadowaki started the game with the style of Shutaku, Shinto, as the second player, showed the subtle characteristics of Shutaku even more perfectly than Kadoka Kadoka. He played peacefully and saw strategy, but he was upright but concealed murderous intentions. It can be said that he did not fight. And the soldiers who surrender.

During the game, everyone in the broadcast room was shocked by this delicate game, and within half a minute after Kadowaki conceded, no one made a sound.

Finally, it was Kuwahara Jin who smiled and spoke.

"...Even if Honinbo Shusaku is reborn, I'm afraid he won't be able to better interpret the essence of the 'Shusaku Style'."

"...This little guy can always come up with amazing skills."

After the game was over, Kadowaki deliberately waited for Shindo who was a little later at the gate of the Kiin.

"I benefited a lot from that game of chess just now." He solemnly saluted Shinto as a junior, his pair of eight-character eyes seemed extraordinarily serious at this moment.

"I've also gained a lot." Shinto smiled, and couldn't be more sincere.

Kadowaki laughed loudly, wondering if he took his words seriously, "The decision I made a year ago was indeed not wrong."

"—You... are my target."

Shinto raised his eyebrows slightly, and replied with a smile, "Thank you for the compliment."

——I don't know if his smile is purely because of gratitude, or because he remembered the memories of the second year in middle school.

Then Kadowaki stopped laughing.

His face was like the dawn of spring, full of business.

He is so confident and determined, and what blooms in his eyes is an undisguised fighting spirit and anticipation for the future.

"I'll beat you - someday."

At the following ceremony for entering the new first stage, Shinto once again won many honors such as the highest winning percentage, the most consecutive victories, and the most cumulative number of wins, and jumped three consecutive levels to rise to the sixth stage.

Taya Ryo jumped to the fourth tier with an excellent winning rate. Although it is difficult to compare with Shinto's achievements, if only in terms of the speed of his promotion, he is already enough to surpass most contemporary chess players.

And just a few days after he was promoted, Taya Yukihiro suffered a sudden illness and fainted in the hospital during the LG Cup match.

That day was the third round-robin match of Ryo Taya's Throne Tournament - when he was defeated by strong opponents in both the first and second round-robin matches, winning or losing the third match was particularly important.

Editor-in-chief Amano, who was watching Taya's game in the broadcast room when he received the news, hesitated for a moment, and handed over the decision whether to tell Taya Ryo the news to Shindo.

Without blinking, Shinto decided to hide it from him until the end of the game.

——He is very aware of Xiaoliang's character, and when he hears that his family members have collapsed, he will definitely give up the game and rush directly to the hospital.

However, Taya Yukihiro will be fine.

He was sure of it.

——It's just his certainty... In the eyes of Taya Ryo, it seems very absurd.

After beating Kobayakawa Kudan by a slight gap of one and a half, Taya Ryo, who finally learned the news that his father had died this morning, immediately exploded.

He immediately yelled at the editor-in-chief Amano who told him the news, "Why did you tell me now!" The emotion was so intense that he was completely different from his usual self.

Amano smiled bitterly, but did not say that this was Shinto's decision.

"I told them not to say it." However, Shinto said the words himself, "Uncle Taya will be fine, you don't need to give up the rest of the game."

"..."

Ta Yaliang stared at him for a while, and suddenly sighed with a slightly tired expression.

Before turning around, he whispered this sentence, "...No matter how important a game of chess is, it is only as important as one person."

Shinto heard what he said.

Then turn around and want to leave.

"Aren't you going...to see Taya Judan?" Amano smiled helplessly, pointed to the direction where Taya Ryo left, and motioned him to follow.

"Forget it today." Shinto stopped and nodded to him, "...he probably...wouldn't want to see me."

"Is that so..." Amano scratched his head, "But I think Taya Sidan definitely wants to go with you."

"..." After hearing this, Shinto was silent for a moment, and left without saying anything.

The remaining editor-in-chief Amano stood there alone, took out a cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.

"...young man."

The next day, Shinto went alone to the hospital where Taya Yukio was.

Taya Akiko smiled and led him into the ward.

"It's too much trouble for you to come here on purpose." She touched Xiaoguang's head and handed him a washed apple, "Yesterday afternoon, the doctor said that the situation has stabilized. Too worried."

"...Is that so?" Even though it was the expected result, Shindo still felt relieved, "...Aren't Xiaoliang coming today?"

"He, he didn't know the news until yesterday afternoon when he was playing chess. After he came here, he slept with him all night. His father sent him to play chess this morning." There was some intimate blame in her tone, "Oh ...These one and two, both regard Go as more important than anything else..."

——Obviously, Taya didn't tell his parents that someone deliberately kept this from him.

"..." Realizing this fact, Shinto fell silent while holding the apple.

"...Xiaoguang." A moment later, Taya Yukihiro, who had stopped talking after the greeting, suddenly said, "What is the most important thing to you?"

"..."

- Connecting...the distant past and the distant future.

This sentence came to his mind in an instant.

But until the end, he couldn't get it out of his mouth.

And then…

Then came the season of cherry blossoms.

This is the third time the cherry blossoms have bloomed since Shindo was reborn.

Unknowingly, he has been promoted from the sixth grade of elementary school to the third grade of junior high school, from a layman of Go to the triple champion of Go in Japan.

When passing by the park near his home, a cherry blossom petal floating above his head reminded him of everything he had experienced since the time he opened his eyes in his grandfather's room.

He stopped involuntarily.

"What's wrong? 』

Seeing him stop suddenly, Zuo Wei, who was walking side by side with him, also stopped.

The morning sun shone through the cracks of the cherry blossom trees on this spirit body in the high crown gown, gorgeous and dazzling like a god descending from the earth.

"Want to visit...Innoshima? 』

He asked like this, with a flat expression, no sadness or joy.