Blind Luck2: No Way Back Chapter 15/?

[onkoona]

Blind Luck2: No Way Back




Chapter 15

The game was a very good one, as Sai had fully expected when playing a man of Ogata's level. He had to look deeply into the game to out maneuver the titleholder, but outmaneuver him he did, claiming a very satisfying win, when Ogata resigned in the face of a loss of at least 5.5 /moku/. Sai was very proud of himself; it seemed he had gotten a little stronger compared to the pro player.

In the post game discussion, he decided to compensate for his gained strength by showing the other man the slight rigidity he had discovered (and exploited) in Ogata's game. Of course, as soon as he had shown it, he realized the titleholder might not like such criticism of his style, and the blind man spent a few very uncomfortable moments worrying, until Ogata spoke to thank him, and ask him to please, point out any such flaws in the future. Sai found himself blushing with relief and pride. He'd gotten it right for once.

They had lunch, Sai eating his pre-packed lunch and Ogata getting something from the club, talking Go all the while. The relaxed game and talk did much to reassure that things were indeed fine between them, and the blind man found himself basking in the companionship. Good food and great Go was definitely Sai's idea of heaven.

They were about to start another game when a cell phone jingle jangled from where Ogata was sitting. He answered it and then thrust the phone into Sai's hand, saying it was for him.

'Uh, moshi moshi?' he stammered into the device.
'Sai, it's me!' The voice was distorted the way phones tended to do, but the blind man could easily recognize the young pro's voice on the other end.
'Hikaru! How nice of you to call.' Why was he calling, nice though it was?
'I'm done with my pupil here, do you want me to come over now, or after lunch? Is everything okay there?' he added, sounding unsure.
'I'm fine,' he assured the boy. 'Either one, we've just had lunch, so maybe after would be best.'
'Okay. As long as you're sure you're all right. I don't need to use some sort of code phrase do I? Um, like cough once if you can't talk freely, or something?'
The former ghost had no clue what the boy talking about, so he answered, 'I don't have a cold so I don't need to cough. I'm just fine. Come over when you're done.' There was laughter on the other end.
'Well okay then, I'll see you in an hour or so! Bye!'
When the blind man heard that end of call tone, he held out the device for Ogata to take back.
'I think I got laughed at,' he pouted at the titleholder.
'Yeah, that Shindou is a strange kid,' Ogata said producing a medium sized smoke cloud.

xXXx

Just when they were contemplating playing another round, Touya walked in.
'Good afternoon, Fujiwara-san, Ogata-sensei,' he greeted politely.
The titleholder promptly offered the young pro his seat at the Goban, saying he had some things to take care of in the office.

/'Oh, that was quite rude actually!'/ the blind man exclaimed under his breath, following the man's footsteps speeding away. Well, maybe it wasn't rude for Ogata; the man tended to be short.

'Uhm, Touya-kun, if you had other plans, you don't have to play me you know...' he added.
'I have a standing meeting with Shindou on Monday afternoons, I'm usually early and he's usually late. Today, I guess, Shindou is out of luck because I get to play you first.' Touya said in a perfectly serious tone.
'Okay, let's play then!' Sai said as Touya took a seat at the other side of the Goban and noisily cleared away the previous game.

oOOo

Touya was a solid player, he hardly ever made a mistake, but for all that, he wasn't anywhere near strong enough to come close to beating Sai, not yet anyway. The blind Go player hesitated until just before his opponent was going to lay down his 3 handicap stones, before asking, 'Uhm, would you mind terribly if I played /shidogo/ with you?' He didn't want to insult the young man but he really wanted to try out his new found skill, and expand it if he could.

'At 3 stones handicap?' Touya deadpanned.
Sai's face flushed; now that would be an insult indeed!
'No, of course not! An even game, with me playing /shidogo/. If that is agreeable to you?'
The young pro was silent for long seconds, but then acquiesced.

As the game unfolded, Sai found it challenging in an unexpected way. The object of /shidogo/ is to teach your opponent new or better strategy; winning or losing was not an issue. But the former ghost found it hard to give up the ultimate goal of winning. The fact that Touya was, even if he was not at the blind man's level, still a formidable opponent, who was definitely trying to win this game, was not helping any.

Sai had some idea of what he wanted to teach the young man. He was going to lead him to a deeper insight into the game. Sai had noticed that Hikaru could see quite deeply into the game, but he was sloppy and made mistakes that would cost him his victory if pitted against a solid player like Touya. Touya on the other hand, was not able to visualize as deeply as Sai's long time friend but the fundamentals of his game were so solid, he was close to an unstoppable force to those at his level. But if the young pro wanted to get ahead he needed to look deeper. He also needed more flexibility, but that was something for another day, Sai decided, teaching him to look deeper was possibly more than he could teach in this one game anyway.

Sai had set a number of traps that could only be avoided by looking slightly deeper than he'd seen Touya do before. The former ghost knew he was on the right track when he heard Touya's breath catch each time he fell into one of the traps. The young pro was getting nervous and hopefully that would get his brain in gear, and he figure out how to miss falling into the next one.

It took five sprung traps for Touya to catch on and narrowly miss the next one. The seventh trap, the young pro spied a lot faster and the eighth Sai couldn't even finish before it was under attack.
They decided to call it quits there and Touya got up to fetch tea and sweets for the post-game discussion.
As the boy left he greeted Hikaru in passing.

The blind Go player had not heard his friend arrive.
'Did you see the game?' he asked.
'Hmm, yeah... that was interesting.' Hikaru paused. 'Did you just play /shidogo/ with Touya?'
Sai nodded.
'I hope he knew about it, or he'd be very upset now.' the boy mused.
'He knew, I asked him. I just learned about it yesterday and wanted to try it.' Sai confessed.
/'You don't remember, but the very first game you played after you possessed me, was with him, through me, and was also /shidogo/,'/ Hikaru whispered, having come closer, now standing aside of the blind man's chair.

Oh. A sudden fear gripped his heart; what if Touya recognized his style from back then? Would he suspect something? Come to think of it, how come he hadn't suspected the person who'd played that first game and who'd played him on NetGo, was one and the same?

/'Don't worry, I think your style has changed enough that Touya can only note some similarities, nothing more,'/ his friend whispered.
/'I hope you're right,'/ Sai responded.
He would have liked to talk more but he heard Touya's footsteps come their way again, bringing tea and ginger cookies.

oOOo

The post game discussion showed very clearly what Sai had tried to do and how it had worked. Touya complimented him on being an excellent teacher. Sai hoped that one day he would be able to make a living at it.

They cut the discussion short because Hikaru kept asking to play the blind man, and Sai didn't mind in the slightest. There was nothing better on Earth than playing Go with one's friend.

He wasn't quite sure how it happened, maybe because Touya said he'd like to play Sai again as well, in a proper match this time, but the idea of playing both at the same time came up.

Sai had played multiple opponents before, but never at these boys' level of play. He wondered if he could do it, and suggested they don't use handicaps this time.

As Sai played the first 10 hands, he realized had bitten off more than he could chew; his opponents were just too strong to play alternately and Sai having to re-familiarize himself with the formations each time he switched boards was making him fall behind hopelessly. If he was going to stand any sort of chance at winning he'd have to change his technique right now, before he played any more lousy hands!
Sai's answering move to Touya's was next, when he stopped and tried to think out that change of technique.

The two Gobans sat in his head, glowing faintly. Now he knew he could keep four Gobans straight in his head, he had done so only yesterday. How had he done that? Well, when the patrons of the Heart of Stone had suggested playing against four, the two extra boards had just appeared in his mind, exactly like the second had, and the very first, a week ago.

But using a trick like just conjuring up more Gobans was not going to win against these pro players. No, that would take a new way of visualizing the strategy he'd want to use against each, in such a way that could be recalled when he switched opponents.

He directed his mind to Hikaru's board. There were the beginnings of a strong formation forming in the lower left corner. That would need to be dismantled later. Then there was an indication the boy might be interested in the upper left side as well. Sai couldn't let the young pro connect both formations. The best way would be to attack black directly, using Sai's own formation in the lower middle. Yes, that was the way to go. First he'd have to predict Hikaru's next move.

Sai stored the strategy and the predicted next move on several virtual Go grids on the far side of Hikaru's Goban, hoping it would still be there when his turn to play Hikaru came about.
Then he turned his attention at Touya's board.
Touya had made his move already, but Sai had been so deeply immersed in Hikaru's board he hadn't taken note of the coordinates. He asked Touya to repeat them.

'I said 13-17,' the boy said dutifully. 'Fujiwara-san, are you sure you can do this?' he added.
'Yes, yes, just let me think,' the blind man answered distractedly. It shut the boy up effectively. Sai was vaguely aware he should apologize for his tone, but then all thoughts of decorum disappeared as he placed the new move on the virtual Goban.

The new move was, if not totally predictable, then at least not unexpected. The former ghost reanalyzed the half formed strategy he had for his offence against the young pro, shaping it into something that might actually work. He placed it on another stack of virtual grids, alongside Touya's Goban. He took a very long look at it before deciding his move and giving it to the boy to play.

As had been previously agreed, the next opponent would not name his move until the blind player requested it. (If his opponent was not ready to name his move at that point, Sai would move on to the next opponent).

The blind Go player took his time looking over his Touya strategy and the Touya board, making a prediction of Touya's next move and storing it all in his memory, before moving back to the Hikaru section of his mindscape. The big question was, was what he had prepared still there, or had he lost the strategy and possibly even the entire Goban?

As he called up the Goban, he was relieved it was still intact. Then he called on the virtual grids; they also seemed to be all there, even if the very last one was a little faint. Reemerging into the play made it all come together and soon Sai was ready to check his prediction against reality.

'Hikaru,' he said.
'4-6,' the boy gave back immediately. Yes, that was exactly what he had thought it would be. He added the stone to the board. Maybe this was doable after all, Sai thought. It was hard, and his hands were sweating but he felt confident it could be done, and that he could do it.

xXXx

As the game progressed the switching became easier, even as the strategies became more complex. He needed a lot of time for each move but time was something he had plenty of.

They played the game out to the end, with Sai scraping a meager half /moku/ victory from Touya and a 1.5 /moku/ victory from Hikaru.

The blind man sat back in his chair trying to catch his mental breath. He felt utterly drained and while he realized he was addressed a couple of times he was just too tired to answer.

A cup of tea appeared in his right hand, and a cookie was wedged in his left. Sai only barely had the presence of mind to close his fingers over the sweet, or it would have fallen to the floor.

He sat there for long minutes, letting the heat of the tea warm his hand. That had been a lot of work, but it had also been utterly satisfying to see that he could do it. He wanted to try again as soon as he was able and the boys were willing. He wondered idly if he'd grown over these games, he hoped so. Games like these were heaven indeed!

Presently he felt more able to deal with the tea and he started sipping the cooling beverage. By the time he started nibbling on the cookie he'd re-found his awareness of the world around him.

Just audible over the noise of a busy Go club he could make out the voices of his friends talking softly about the game. He noted that Ogata had joined the company and was commenting on a play that Sai recognized as having taken place near the top right hand star of Touya's board.

'That's quite a bold move, I'm not sure I would have played an /ogeima/ here, maybe not even a /kogeima/,' the titleholder said, pensively.
'I think it's because he got into serious trouble here, much earlier,' Touya said. 'This where he sat thinking for at least 20 minutes, before continuing. And then his play was much improved.'
They were silent for a moment and the blind man took a moment to sit up in his chair an straighten his spine a bit.

'Ah Sai, are you with us again?' Hikaru chirped.
'Mmm, yes. Any chance of another cup of tea?'
'Coming right up!' The cup leaped out of his hand like it was alive, and footsteps, Hikaru's, Sai thought, sped off.

With a fresh cup of tea Sai joined the post-game discussion. They asked them about those 20 minutes and he tried to explain it as well as he could, but they had to conclude that the blind man's take on playing Go was, not in the least part because of his blindness, rather unique.

When the discussion was obviously over and the former ghost was contemplating who to ask to play next, Ogata asked to talk to him in private for a moment.
Again the man led him to the small conference room and bade him sit down, after pulling up chairs for both of them.

Sai waited patiently for what the man might have to say to him. He was hoping it was not about something he'd done or said, but he reassured himself that the titleholder had sounded quite calm and pleasant when he'd requested the meeting.
The silence that fell started to erode that reassurance...

'Uhm..., this is kind of awkward,' Ogata started slowly. The blind man decided to neither encourage nor discourage whatever the titleholder might have to say. If it was good news, so much the better, if it was bad news, postponing would not make it better. Sai just hoped Ogata hadn't changed his mind about them, and was preparing him for the disappointment. No, that was not likely to be it. He hoped.

'You told me last week not to pry into your past, well, uhm, you know me by now I guess, and of course I couldn't leave it alone,' Ogata continued. 'But that was before I promised to do better, this morning,' he hastily added.' He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. 'I contacted a friend who's on the police force, on Saturday and he gave me a summary of your missing person's file. They did a thorough job, even if they couldn't find anyone.' He paused again. 'Look I'm sorry I pried, and since nothing came of it I could have kept silent about it, but I don't think that would be a good basis for a friendship, so that's why I'm letting you know. They keep records about who request information there anyway, so you would have found me out eventually...'

It struck Sai as highly unlikely that he'd ever take a look at his own file at Missing Persons. For one thing he hadn't even know he had a file there, and for another he'd have to bring someone along to help him read it. And that, quite likely, would have been Ogata himself. So the chances of him ever finding out were practically nil.

The fact that his stoic friend had admitted going behind his back was rather interesting. The man admitted being in the wrong, but hadn't said he'd never do it again. If he had, the former ghost would definitely not have believed him. But he hadn't and that was a very honest admission too, one the blind man could appreciate.
'Thank you for telling me,' he said. 'Was that everything?' he added after the other man stayed silent.
'Uh no, not quite. I, uh, I wanted to tell you why I was mad at you for not trying harder to find your family,' Ogata said.

Oh no, not that again. Sai really didn't want to have to lie to anyone, most of all not to his friends, but if the man kept hammering on about the same issue like this, the former ghost knew he wouldn't be able to take it for long.

He started to rise from his chair when the other man grabbed his uninjured arm and said, 'I'm not going to ask you anything you don't want to talk about, I promise.'
Ogata pulled a little on his arm and Sai let himself be pulled back down into his seat. He heard the titleholder swallow.

'I just wanted to tell you about myself.' He paused again. 'My parents were killed in an air crash when I was 12. Since they had married without their families’ permission, no one of the family would take me. The police and the social workers did their best for me and I only stayed in the orphanage for one month before they found an uncle, a couple of time removed on my mother's side, who would take me in. It really was my lucky day. It was my uncle who encouraged me to become a pro Go player, having noticed my talent for the game.' He took a deep breath and continued, 'We had only 5 years together, he was already quite old when he took me on, but I owe that man everything and when you said you weren't even going to check if there was anyone out there for you, I just couldn't believe my ears.' He swallowed again, 'I couldn't understand why you'd not want a chance at that!' The titleholder's voice had gone up as he'd come the end of his speech, making it obvious to the blind man how much it meant to the other man.

'I'm sorry,' was all he could say. He didn't add, 'but I still can't tell you', hoping Ogata would hear the words anyway.
'I know,' the Go pro said. 'I know.'

They sat in silence for a few minutes more. Then Ogata pulled his hand away from Sai's arm and said,
'Well, I have some good news, too.' He got up and pushed his chair back to its original spot, continuing with,
'I found you a job.'

oOOo

TBC

xXXx

Okay, we’ve come to the end of what I wrote.
About that cliff hanger…. oopsy ;-)
I will get to writing more soonest, in the mean time, don’t forget to review!

Some author’s whinging:
the formatting: sorry about that but after losing all italics and bolds from a 44.000 word fic 3 times in a row I’ve given up formatting long fics.

In the next few days I hope to add proper navigation to the posts.