[bright] time

Nobody expected Hikari to become a chess player.Grandpa Heihachi likes to play chess very much, and he tried to teach him a few times before, but every time he made excuses to run around. "

"Is that so?" When I saw Shinto for the first time, I felt that he was this kind of kid, but if his Go was not taught by his grandfather, who would it be?

"Hehe~, so when Hikaru suddenly said that he wanted to play chess, everyone was shocked. It was an overnight change. Looking back, it should have started after being sent to the ambulance and returned?"

"Ambulance?" I didn't expect to hear the word ambulance at this time.He looked healthy, and he didn't look like someone who would be associated with a hospital.Had he been seriously injured or ill before?

"Well, it was around the sixth grade of elementary school. Hikari and I went to the warehouse of Grandpa Heihachi's house, and Hikari──"

"──Fujisaki Akira."

Shinto, who was sitting at the next table, put down his cell phone, stared sharply at this place, and stopped Ms. Fujisaki from continuing with a stern voice that I had never heard before.

This kind of Shinto seemed strange to Ms. Fujisaki, she quickly covered her mouth with an innocent face,

"…Feel sorry."

Shinto put away his phone, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and pressed his temples, "...Xiaoming..., you wait for me outside first, I will go out right away."

"…oh."

Shinto sat back in front of me and put the last piece back into the chess jar.

"Very poor."

"I will make a good apology."

"Why are you so angry?"

"There is no reason."

hateful…

There is no reason... I don't want to explain... This is the attitude again,

He pissed me off again.

"Aren't you the kind of person who loses his temper!? Why don't you just say why you started playing chess, why did you mention the warehouse──"

"Because you are the one asking!!"

"……"I?

"What the hell are you asking? Who are you to me? What do you know about me? How dare you believe everything I say?"

One oppressive question after another, I just stared back at him, unable to answer anything.I really don't know Shinto very well, I don't know anything except Go.Even his Go often baffles me.

Leaving his seat, Shinto put his hands on the table and the back of my chair, bent down close to my ear, and said in a deliberately low voice,

"Taya, don't trample on other people's past without authorization, this will only make "someday" go further."

Close the lid of the chess jar and walk to the counter.

unauthorized….

That sentence hurt me so much.It turned out that I was not allowed to participate in his past,

One day he will tell me that this kind of talk is just a tactic he uses to perfuse me,...I'm an idiot to believe it.

however,

The longer we know each other, the more I know what kind of person Shinto is. It's not perfunctory, it's just... I'm not qualified to know these secrets yet.So I never asked again.

I told myself that when Shinto was willing to tell me, it meant that I had become the one he wanted to share the secret with.

"If you ask, I can tell you anything"

Shinto said this to me the first time he spent the night in my room, lying on the tight bed.

It made me so happy, so happy that I was finally important to him.

***

A few days have passed in April, and the railway line is full of pink cherry blossoms. Most of the cherry blossom trees in Tokyo were planted in the Edo period. Into this huge man-made city.

It takes about 10, [-], [-] minutes from Saitama Shintoshin Station to Tokyo. Due to the holiday, there are fewer office workers in suits, so I am the most obvious in the whole train.Suits, leather shoes and ties, even though it was not a work day, they were so formally dressed.

Suddenly, I saw a few girls sitting at the other end of the car pointing at me as if they were whispering something.Almost at the same time they took out their laptops and were about to surround them, I hurried out of the opened car door and got off the station.

Standing on the platform, I was relieved to see the trams passing by with the doors closed.I looked around and found that this was a station near Shinto's old home.Should it be a coincidence or did I subconsciously want to see it?

Enter the... warehouse of Grandpa Fuji's house.

I still don't understand why Shinto doesn't want Ms. Fujisaki to mention it so much?is there anything in it

I used to watch a baseball game held by the community of Shinto’s family. When I went to his house after the end, he took me to his grandfather’s house, but we didn’t go in at that time.It is only a few tens of meters away from his home, not far.

Want to go and see...

Walking out of the station, the first thing you pass by is Hasase Junior High School.A row of cherry blossom trees was planted behind the high wall, and clusters of pink flowers climbed over the wall and onto the sidewalk.

This scene reminds me of the first time I came here to find the vines.Back then, like now, it was April when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.Until now, when I see such a scene, I still can't help but think of the situation when he closed the window and drew the curtains, stabbing me from time to time like a thorn that cannot be removed.

Why don't you play chess with me?What is the reason?

In the first two chess games I played, I was the one who lost.I never thought that there would be someone my age who is so strong in Go. Losing Go made me feel regretful, but at the same time excited.The emptiness that had been facing the chessboard alone was filled by Shinto.

The wall in front of me is high, but I want to go beyond.

My father's chess is also a wall for me, but rather than wanting to surpass it, what I firmly believe in my heart is... I will become a chess player like my father one day.

It is the future that will come true as long as I continue to play chess and continue to work hard.The natural future made me lose my enthusiasm for Go, and I played the natural Go day after day.

It was Shindo who changed me, and it was he who cast variables in my stagnant life.

But when I played chess with him for the third time, I found that he was so disappointing.

He was playing tricks on me, deliberately playing this kind of chess that only three-year-olds can play, absolutely laughing at me... That was my first thought at the time.

I desperately did so many willful things just to play chess with him, how could he make such a joke?

People like this who despise Go are simply damned.

Who knows that he became a college student and was admitted as a chess player. His chess skills are not comparable to when he first met him, but watching him play a game of chess, he likes Go and finds it interesting to play chess. It was conveyed wave after wave, and the tears of regret during the Beidou Cup made me see his dedication and persistence in Go...

Go is so important to him? …the difference is huge.

...I don't understand Shinto Hikari.

There are too many contradictions and inexplicable places in what he did in the past.

Jinto said that Sai was his teacher, the one who taught him Go, so Jinto was not Sai.

Then why did he play chess so much like Sai in the first place?

The most fundamental part of Shinto's chess is actually very similar to sai, which I discovered in the first Wakashi Cup.But why is he more like before?

"Oh! Isn't this Teacher Taya?"

When he looked up, Shinto's grandfather was standing in front of him holding a broom and dustpan.It turned out that he had walked to the door of Grandpa Jinteng's house without knowing it. He just wanted to take a look outside, but now he was discovered.

"Grandpa Heihachi, hello." He nodded and said hello.

"Young teacher is here to look for Hikari, right? Please come in, please come in, Hikari is here just now!"

"Huh?...Is he here?"

"Oh? Didn't you come to find the light?"

"...No, I just happened to be here and wanted to drop by to say hello."

"Hehe, the little teacher is really polite. Then come in and have a cup of tea? Grandma is out, let grandpa make some special tea for the little teacher!"

"No, thank you!...I...really just came to say hello..."

"Is there something going on, little teacher?" Grandpa Heihachi looked a little disappointed.

"It's not like that..." In fact, it would be better to answer yes, but answering yes when there is nothing wrong, this is lying...In the future, there will be more times when you need to lie to deceive Shinto's grandfather and family, at least in this small I don't want to tell any more lies.

"Then why don't you come in and have a cup of tea!...Or...are you fighting with Hikari?"

Grandpa Pingha put his hands on his waist, moved closer to me, and asked me in a low voice.

"..."

"So that's the case. No wonder the little teacher was in a hurry to go back as soon as he said that he was only in it." Grandpa Heiha smiled, and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes were wrinkled several times.

"Don't worry! The kid is in the warehouse now, and he won't come down for two or three hours. Teacher, let's have a cup of tea with grandpa! Come, come in!"

Then, he picked up the broom and dustpan that was placed by the wall and went into the house.

Sure enough, it is Shinto's grandfather, this kind of place where he has the final say is really like....

Standing in the yard, I looked up at this antique warehouse standing on the land. This kind of warehouse is quite rare in a metropolis like Tokyo, let alone private property.

Grandpa Heihachi used to be the captain of a cargo ship, maybe he collected a lot of precious treasures and put them in it?

Entering the house, Grandpa Heihachi just brought out the brewed tea, and there was also cherry mochi on the plate.

"I'm here to help!"

"No need, little teacher. Just sit and sit, and grandpa will serve it!"

The last baseball game was the first time I met Shinto's grandparents. During the introduction, Shinto jokingly said, "You can call me whatever you want", meaning that I should call him "grandpa" just like him. ".

"Just this kid, how can I take advantage of the little teacher! 』

"Taya's grandparents died before he was born, so he doesn't have a grandpa, so what's the point of calling him?" 』

"Well, it turns out that the little teacher doesn't have any grandparents.... 』

I don’t know if it’s because of this, but sometimes I feel that when Shinto’s grandparents look at me, it’s a bit like they are looking at their grandchildren.

"Does little teacher like Sakura Mochi?"

"Yes, I like it."

"That would be great. Come for tea, and this is the mochi made by grandma herself. Recently, grandma and Hikari's mother went to the wagashi mother's class and made a lot of them. There are no additives. Teacher, eat more!"

"Okay, thank you....Then I'm not welcome." Peel off the cherry blossom leaves wrapped in the very red mochi, take a bite, and the sweet red bean paste wrapped in the soft glutinous rice skin,

"delicious!"

"Hahaha~ That's great, grandma must be very happy to hear that." The wrinkles on Grandpa Heihachi's face became more and denser because of the laughter, but it also made him look more kind.

Make the people watching feel happy too.

Grandpa Heihachi put the leaves left after eating back on the plate, took a sip of tea,

"I used to come to my place from time to time, and every time I came, I would definitely go to the warehouse to have a look. Now it's not as frequent as before. Most of them come to me when I lose important chess or play some interesting chess. I will come. I will stay for a long time. Maybe I am arranging chess records inside?"

"Arrange... chess records?"

"That's right. By the way, grandpa is about to brag! That chessboard in the warehouse is the one used by Shusaku Honinbo before!"

"Show Ce's chessboard?"

"Yeah! It's amazing, isn't it? Haha~ Hikari seems to like it very much. Except for the time when he went to Korea, he comes here almost every May [-]th to clean the chessboard spotlessly."

May [-]th..., the day Sai disappeared.

"Well, look at my grandma and I will take the initiative to wipe clean the things in the warehouse when we are older. He looks rebellious and does his own way, but he is actually a kind and considerate child.

My brain is moving very fast, but my mouth is a bit clumsy, and I don't know how to explain it. If there is any misunderstanding or quarrel, little teacher, wait for him for a while? "

"…Ok, I know."

I know Shinto's personality, and I know that he hasn't finished speaking. ...But I just don't want to listen to him anymore,...I don't want to see him talk about other people with that expression.

Because I'm not completely unaware of the significance of that person to Shinto.

"Speaking of which, little teacher. This time, Honinbo has lost all six battles, right? Three consecutive victories followed by three consecutive losses. Will the last battle be like the previous seven battles? I'm worried."

"...I don't think there is any need to worry. Although he lost that battle, he played very well. He developed a lot of novel chess moves, and that game was highly praised both at home and abroad."

Shinto, who wants to take down the title in this Honinbo no matter what, and Mr. Ogata, who wants to take down Honinbo's five consecutive champions and become the youngest Eternal Honinbo no matter what, this game will definitely be left in the Go world. Recorded chess records.

"Yes, yes, I read it in this issue of Acer Weekly, but it's too profound to read. It's hard to ask all the questions before the chess game is over." I stroked Tongshan's head, very relieved Look worried.

"... Shall I explain?"

"Oh? Is it okay? This troubles the little teacher?"

"Please don't say that, take it as a thank you gift from Grandpa Heihachi for inviting me to drink tea and eat delicious sakura mochi."

"Oh, what are you talking about as a thank you gift? I'm very happy that the little teacher is willing to come! A little snack is nothing!"

After Grandpa Heihachi brought the chessboard over, I explained it to him, and then played a game of chess.After staying there for more than an hour, there was no sign of Shindo coming down at all....

***

I like the look of no hesitation when Jinto chased the god's hand. When he returned to the chess academy again, this look disappeared from his face every day, and it always stimulated me...attracted me.

But knowing that the realm of God's hand was told to him by others, and he has kept it until now,... I don't like it much.

It turns out that he has been chasing God's hand without hesitation...for Sai.

At the beginning, I wanted to give up Go because... sai wasn't here, right?The reason why I decided to re-execute the chess pieces is... I want to find sai on the chessboard, right?

Just now, Grandpa Heihachi talked with me about the situation when Shinto started playing chess. During the conversation, there was no trace of sai. ...I don't understand... Was there really such a person beside Shinto at that time?

If we are really together every day...why did Shindo's family never mention the existence of Sai?Just because they've never seen it?Such a... conspicuous and beautiful person....

That...has long black hair, ear pins inlaid with red gemstones on his ears, bat fan is a favorite item that he will definitely take, a person who is familiar with the flowers and plants of the four seasons, and has a gentle temperament like the moon...

By the way... Maybe that person's hometown is in Kyoto?Maybe I am very interested in history, so I often follow up with Fuji to talk about things in the Heian period and the Edo period.

There are many books about these two eras in Shinto's bookcase, and he is very interested in these two eras because he doesn't like reading books.I only know about the Edo period, but he also collected a lot of books and picture albums from the Heian period.

Shinto is very sensitive to the solar terms of the old calendar, and often tells some allusions about flower festivals for no reason... It doesn't seem like something he would know at all.

I've been by Shinto's side for a long time, I've seen him for a long time, so I know... I can feel it... When Shinto thinks of Sai, there will always be a gentle smile on his face. ...That smile seems to contain many emotions, nostalgia, joy, sadness..., and more emotions that I can't sum up....

I'm not entirely ignorant.

I don't want to keep hearing from him because..., I know.

Knowing that besides me, he has other people who are more important than me, so he still can't let go of his heart.

"Brother, give you a smile!"

Walking out of the station near my home, a little sister with twin ponytails pulled my clothes and smiled at me.

"Um?"

Looking around, not only this little sister, but also several kindergarten children wearing yellow hats were handing out colorful balloons in front of the station.

"Today is an extra-curricular activity. The teacher wants us to give balloons to those who look unhappy, and share happiness with them! What color do you want big brother?"

So I don't look happy right now? …

The little girl in front of her is holding three balloons, and each balloon has a big smiling face painted on it. Three short eyelashes are painted on the two round eyes. Also wiped three slashes, which means shy, right?

"Did my little sister draw the smiling face?" I squatted down and asked with a smile.

"Well! The teacher wants us to draw our own smiles!" Nodding vigorously, he said energetically.

"Then... shall I choose the yellow one?"

"Yeah! I hope big brother will be happy too!"

Walking home with a balloon, the picture should look funny now, right?It's a bit embarrassing for such a big person to still hold a balloon.But the mood is indeed much lighter, as if being shared by this light balloon.

Now Shinto... I don't know if I need it or not.Mr. Kuwahara's admission to the hospital, Honinbo's Seventh Battle, ... and my affairs, are all on his shoulders now, right? ...should I give in?

Walking to the front of the house, pushing open the door, I saw a blue balloon tied to the sliding door inside, and a smiling face was drawn on the balloon, the same smiling face as the balloon in my hand...

"I didn't realize you had a job today when I came here, so I missed it."

The balloon is for you, a little girl gave it to me, and I surrendered to you.

Did you feel like laughing a little bit?Remember to eat! 』

There was a post-it note on the door, written by Shinto.A plastic bag hung from the doorknob contained two packs of soba noodles.

After changing clothes, having a full meal, and washing the dishes, I sat on the chair at the kitchen table and looked at the two smiling faces tied to the chair next to me, floating leisurely.

After touching one of them, the two smiling faces bumped into each other and pushed each other emotionally, lying on the table and watching.He took out the mobile phone in his pocket, pressed the replay message,

"it's me. …Thanks, help me tidy up my room and collect my clothes.

...Scary?Hey...like a kennel. ... Tomorrow's round [-] I will work hard to take down Honinbo, ... my head is always full recently.

Sorry, just wait a minute, okay? ...that's it for now.I won't bother you anymore, good night. 』

Shindo's voice came from the other side of the microphone, it was the message he left more than a week ago.Not wanting to answer his phone, I always watch it ring.

In the first three days of the quarrel, he called every few hours until my cell phone ran out of battery.Afterwards, he didn't know whether he gave up or the Honinbo chess match was about to start, but he didn't get calls anymore.

I pressed the replay button again, put the microphone against my ear, and Shinto's voice repeated in my ear again.

"it's me. …Thanks, help me tidy up my room and collect my clothes.

...Scary?Hey...like a kennel. ... Tomorrow's round [-] I will work hard to take down Honinbo, ... my head is always full recently.

Sorry, just wait a minute, okay? ...that's it for now.I won't bother you anymore, good night. 』

After leaving the message, the phone vibrated suddenly when I was about to press replay again.

buzzing... buzzing...

look away,

The words "Shindo Hikaru" were displayed on the glowing phone screen.

buzzing... buzzing...

Who is more important?If he was with you, wouldn't you choose me?

buzzing... buzzing...

If sai was always there, wouldn't you come to the chess club to play chess with me?Wouldn't you want to be close to me...be friends with me...or even like me?

buzzing... buzzing...

After answering the phone and meeting in person, I can't help but want to ask these... So what if I know this kind of thing now?Just to hear him say that I am the most important?

buzzing... buzzing...

...so annoying.

Beep──.

Press the call key.

"Hello?Taya? 』Shinto's voice.

I didn't speak, I just listened.

Shinto Naga sighed, "...it's me. 』

"Are you home yet? ...I went to your house just now. 』

"have you eaten? 』

"...I didn't go to the Chess Academy today, and I didn't hear anyone mentioning you. ...how are you today? 』

"...Hey, Taya. …say something?let me know where you are 』

"Everything is fine. ...at least let me know...you didn't leave, you didn't go anywhere.... 』

"...Taya..."

"...Taya...please..."

"...you──"

Shinto Hikari is a despicable person.Call me with such a miserable voice, how can I continue to remain silent?

"Um? 』

"You...won't ask me if you want to know my recent situation?"... Is it reliable to know from others?Doesn't he know that only he can see my real face?

"Will you answer my phone? 』

"Won't."

"...you are hard to please.Are you angry?Because of what I said?But didn't you always wonder? 』

"Good night."

"you--"

"I say goodnight!"

hear him sigh

"...Okay, let's talk after the chess game is over. 』

"By the way, I'm sorry Taya, the sixth round... I said I wanted to work hard but I lost. 』

"The new chess style...I'm very excited to see it....Winning or losing is not everything, you don't need to apologize at all."

"To lose is to lose." ...Stop talking, good night. 』The voice on the other end of the phone was very cold.

...he's at it again.

Like him during the Hokuto Cup, like him before leaving Japan...