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Natsume Yuujinchou - Volume 1 - Chapter 7

Published at 3rd of March 2016 10:55:01 AM


Chapter 7

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7

-

*sssshh* *sssshh* *sssshh*

– Rain?

The bell on the door rang, and somebody came in.

In the back of the shop, there was a register, where a young woman was reading a book.

– Yoshimi-san?

No, she looked like her, but they were different when he looked more closely. The young woman glanced up at the customer but didn’t seem to care much and lowered her eyes back to her book. The guest was a student. The young woman and the student were both wearing shirts that looked like they would show up in old films.

– Is this a dream shown to me by the mojibake?

(Natsume, open your eyes… Natsume!)

(Oi, Natsume, get a hold of yourself! It’d be shameful to lose to those small fry!)

It felt like it was coming from very far, but I could hear Natori-san’s and Nyanko-sensei’s voices.

That’s right. After Natori-san told me to wait in the tatami room and went into the shop, I heard the jeering of over a hundred youkai and ran after him into the shop.

When I opened the sliding door, marbles, tops, shogi pieces and go pieces were flying towards Natori-san. It was a hard struggle even for Natori-san.

‘Stay back!’

The youkai started throwing small stones at me too.

'Ugh, sto – !’

Then, Sensei jumped in and changed into his large ayakashi form. It would have been bad if Sensei went full out here.

'Stop, Sensei!’

Right after I yelled, the documents and scrolls in the shop flew up all at once, and countless mojibake flew out. It was a swarm incomparable in number to the mojibake that had lived in the letter from Ichiko-san.

The power of more than a hundred youkai became the driving force to move the mojibake.

The swarm of black letters roared and flew towards my eyes. When I thought that everything in front of me had turned black, an intense pain surged through my eyes, and the shock ran through my body.

When I collapsed there, Sensei let out a furious howl and silenced the surrounding youkai. That was all I remembered. After that, it seems like my consciousness slipped away from me and I fainted.

-

The student in the dream slowly looked around the shop. The lampshades hanging from the ceiling dyed the shop in fairytale-esque rainbow colours. He came near the register and the young woman finally raised her head to look at the customer.

'Oh, you’re drenched, student-san.’

'Sorry. The rain came down so suddenly. Oh, but I’m not just window-shopping.’

'It’s fine, even if it is window-shopping. Take shelter from the rain. Ah, shall I lend you an umbrella?’

'I’m not a student from around here.’

'Is that so?’

The young woman handed over a hand towel, saying, 'Please take this,’ and the student said thanks as he dried off his soaked clothes.

'Then, was there some sort of reason for your trip here?’

'Yes, I had some business at the university on the hill. I heard that many documents about youkai were kept here, so I came to take a look.’

'Youkai, is it?’

'Yes, it’s my dream to meet with youkai.’

I could see the student’s eyes sparkling.

'There are some interesting research topics.’

'So, um, if you have any documents related to youkai or antiques with interesting histories, would you please show them to me?’

'Things related to youkai, hm.’

The young woman quietly got up from the register and started looking through the nearby antiques.

'How about this?’

The young woman picked up an ornament from the back and showed it to the young man.

'That’s a statue of a kirin. That’s more of an auspicious beast than a youkai.’

'Auspicious beast?’

'Maybe you’ll understand if I say divine messenger?’

'Well. Sorry, I’m still learning.’

The young woman was a bit ashamed.

'Well, there might be something in the old scrolls underneath it.’

After moving away a few of the boxes that had been piled up, there was an old go board with go stone containers. The young woman was about to take the box of scrolls when she picked up the white and black go stone containers.

'Please pick up that go board for a bit,’ she asked the student.

The student picked up the go board and looked around for somewhere to put it down. Since there was a splendid art nouveau table nearby, he placed it there. The young woman was about to put the go stone containers next to it, when she bumped into the shoulder of the student, who was turning around. The moment she stumbled with a yelp, the cover fell off the go stone container and one black stone spilled out.

'Ah, sorry!’

The black stone spun on top of the go board like a top. Just when it looked like it was about to fall off the edge, it turned around and went back to dancing in the centre of the board.

'Well now.’

The two watched the stone’s dance on top of the board for a while, but the young woman finally placed the go containers on the side of the table and pushed down the stone with her finger, saying, 'There.’

'Wow,’ said the student admiringly.

That was because, looking from the young woman’s side, the small black stone was placed exactly at the intersection of the fourth row from the top right corner – the point called the star. That was a standard first move, but the young woman just shrugged and went back to work.

The student looked at the top of the board for a little longer, but took a white stone on a whim and placed it on the diagonal line from the black stone. The go board made a crisp *snap* sound. Hearing that sound, the young woman turned around to look at the board. The young woman picked up a black stone and randomly – truly randomly – placed it in a corner.

The student hmm-ed as he placed the white stone on the diagonal line from it. White and black stones took up positions of the go board two-by-two. After seeing that, again, the young woman randomly placed a black stone. Again, the student hmm-ed as he placed a white stone.

*snap*… *snap*… *snap*…

That pleasant sound echoed through the shop. The rainbow light from the lampshades enveloped them in its fairytale-esque rays. At some point, the two completely forgot about searching for things related to youkai and faced each other at the go board.

Maybe it was because the opening battle went in the standard manner, but the tempo advanced well. The student would look at his opponent’s move and make noises to himself as he placed the stones, but the young woman didn’t behave as if she were thinking at all and looked like she was always placing the stone randomly. Sometimes, there would be pauses where she waited with the black stone in her hand, but rather than thinking, it was more like she was waiting to understand where to place the stone. Then, there would be a moment where it felt like something had just come to her and she would simply place the stone down with a snap. It was like this from the beginning to the end, but even so, the moves seemed somehow to be fairly good, so the student playing her would sound admired and surprised.

'The truth is, I’ve just started playing go.’

The student said that like an excuse.

'When you continue placing stones like this, there are outcomes you never expected afterwards, right? It’s interesting. I think that go is a game which strains your ears to notice series of coincidences and fates.’

'Series of coincidences and fates?’

I also vaguely understood what the student meant. To put the game of go simply, I knew that it was a battle for territory. Tanuma had taught me before. Tanuma knew a lot about shogi and go, but just from listening to him, I felt that go was difficult. The tactics and strategy rather than the rules. The battle at the beginning of the game around the corners. At one glance, the stones looked like they were placed in faraway positions completely unrelated to each other – but that was offence and defence to take the territory in the corners for your own, so Tanuma had said. Within the edges of the small universe of the go board, black and white predictions scattered sparks everywhere. The difficulty lay in how, when the game developed, stones that were placed for a battle in a completely different place would unexpectedly be caught up in a fight for territory elsewhere.

'Placing the stones with that intention from the start is called “fuseki”.’

I remembered Tanuma’s words. However, when I actually looked at the game in front of my eyes, I could only think of it as complete coincidence. There were definitely many outcomes that even the people who actually placed the stones hadn’t expected. Just as if events that happened here and there in this world were reappearing. The coincidences and fates that occur in this world where people who live in completely different places unexpectedly meet up because of some mysterious connection – I could see their echoes reappearing in the game called go, like shadows dancing on the go board.

Meanwhile, the game was moving steadily from the go board’s edges to the battle in the centre. The entanglement of the stones became even more complex, and both the student and the young woman took more time to play their moves.

'Hm.’

The student was holding a white stone while puzzling over where to put it when a clock on the wall rang to announce that it was evening. Surprised, the student looked at the clock.

'Oh no – it’s time for the express train.’

'Sorry, it seems like I’ve kept you.’

It appeared that the rain had already stopped.

'No, I was the one who got so absorbed in the game. Um… you’re very strong.’

'Were they good moves?’

'Yes, they were. I was surprised at how knowledgeable your placement of the stones was.’

When she heard that, the young woman looked a bit surprised as well.

'Did somebody teach you?’

'No, I.’

The young woman gave an evasive answer and shrugged with a smile. It seemed like the student didn’t understand what that smile meant and he tilted his head, but in the end, it appeared that he was more concerned with the time.

'I’m sorry for leaving in the middle of the game. It was fun. Bye.’

'Same here. Come again anytime.’

The student said farewell and opened the door. Along with the chime of the bell, it smelled just faintly of the street after the rain. However, once the door closed to hide the figure of the student running off, the shop returned to being a quiet world.

The young woman let out a deep sigh.

She was about to clean up the go board and picked up a few stones when she impulsively changed her mind and left it as it was. She looked up at her surroundings. Her gaze wandered around the shop like she was searching for someone.

'Grandpa…?’

Then, she shook her head, as if to say there was no way and returned to the register, letting her eyes fall on the book she was reading again.

Her eyes probably couldn’t see anything but several lampshades hanging from the ceiling. However, I could see them. The figures of the little youkai that had sat on the lampshades and watched the game between the student and the young woman the whole time.

-

Then, my surroundings overlapped, like a scene change in a film. It was the same Lamp Hall, but the atmosphere was different somehow. A few of the antiques’ positions had changed, and a lot of the paint on the door and the window frame had come off. Behind the register, there stood a middle-aged woman sitting with a baby in her arms. Though she had aged, traces of how she looked when she was young had remained. She was the young woman from before. The table that the go board had been on when the young woman and the student had played might have been sold because it was nowhere to be seen.

The door opened with the chime of a bell.

A hat-wearing gentleman came in. While comforting the baby, the woman raised her head to look at the customer. The gentleman walked through the shop slowly while looking at the various antiques lined up.

When the gentleman noticed the worn-out chair and wooden box full of ceramic plates and broken toys, At the spot where the art nouveau table had been before, I saw him let out a slightly lonely sigh.

But when he went farther in and approached the register, the gentleman’s face changed.

He looked like he couldn’t believe it when his gaze fell not on the woman holding the baby but the object next to her. There stood the go board from that time. The black and white go stones were placed properly on the go board just as they had been twenty years ago, as if time had stopped and waited for him.

The gentleman said, 'Ah…’ quietly in a voice not quite loud enough to be a voice. His hands were trembling. His eyes were suddenly clouded with tears. I could tell that the gentleman was full of emotions difficult to restrain.

’?’

The woman holding the baby looked at the gentleman oddly.

The gentleman took off his hat and showed his face to the woman. The woman looked for a while at that face covered with stubble and those kind eyes, when she suddenly smiled.

'Did you make it in time for the express train? Student-san.’

'Yes, thanks to you.’

'I’m glad.’

The rainbow light that hadn’t changed since twenty years ago enveloped them.

*snap*… *snap*… *snap*…

For a little while after that, Lamp Hall once again reverberated with the pleasant sound of stones being placed on a go board.

'You’re married then.’

'Yes. And you, student-san?’

'I’m also married.’

'I thought you wouldn’t come again.’

'Sorry, I made you wait a considerably long time.’

'Are you still searching for youkai?’

'Yes. I plan on searching for my whole life.’

'It’d be nice if you found them.’

'Yes.’

Their game didn’t take as long as last time. The white stones steadily directed the game and gained total control of the centre.

'Ah…’

Finally, the gentleman stopped his hand mid-air with a white stone in it.

'What’s wrong?’

'If I play this, it’ll be my win. Probably.’

'Is that true?’

The gentleman appeared taken aback as he looked at the woman.

'I don’t know the rules.’

The gentleman was shocked as he stared at the woman, but he seemed to decide that was a slight joke and took it to mean she only didn’t know how to end the game.

'There are two ways to end a game of go. One is for one player to admit defeat and resign. The other is like this one, where there are no more places to play.’

After saying that, the gentleman placed the last stone.

'It’s the end of the game then?’

The woman tilted her head, since there were still many spaces on the board. However, the gentleman explained that those were places where stones had been captured or places where stones couldn’t be played since even if they were, they would just be captured. The woman nodded along to his explanation as she listened with a face that looked like she understood parts of his explanation but not all.

'When there are no more places to play, the person who plays the last move asks, “It’s the end of the game, isn’t it?” Then, the other person replies, “It’s the end of the game.” Then the game is finished.’

'Then, it’s the end of the game,’ the woman replied.

According to the gentleman’s explanation, in go, after placing that last stone, in order to determine the outcome, there was a little ceremony. Both players used the stones they captured and filled in each other’s territory, and to make the territory easier to count, they moved the stones and lined them up neatly in a rectangular shape. After they did, it was clear even to me that white had a larger territory than black.

'Hmm, white has a hundred and nine moku and black has ninety-six, which makes a thirteen moku difference. Including the komi, it would still be a difference of eighteen and a half, so it’s my win.’

'That’s true. We’ve finally reached a conclusion.’

The woman smiled while admiring their game.

However, I could see some beings that didn’t accept that conclusion.

'That’s why I said this earlier! It was wrong to play at tengen.’

'No, the nobi three moves earlier was wrong. We should have done a hane.’

'Being too fixated on the corners was no good. I said to abandon them and hurry to the centre.’

'That’s why I said to use an uttegaeshi!’

The youkai in the gallery had increased in number since twenty years ago. The antique youkai had been enchanted by this pleasant shop and gathered one by one. They all voiced their opinions as they told the woman who didn’t know the rules where to play.

But how?

That secret lay in the lampshades hanging from the ceiling. The small youkai adjusted the angle of the lamp shades and shined light on to the go board. Green, red and blue, when those three colours of light hit the board, a point of white light would appear. Twenty years ago, the young woman who hadn’t known the rules probably just decided to try placing the stone on that point. Then, that young woman had thought it was just coincidentally a standard move. However, there were too many different opinions from the youkai telling her where to play now, so they had been defeated by their opponent in an instant.

'Um, if you wouldn’t mind, could I buy this go board in commemoration?’ asked the gentleman.

'I didn’t buy anything that last time I came either, so I’d like to apologise.’

'If that’s the case, there’s something you might like here.’

The woman took out some ancient documents from the back of the shelf and handed them over instead of the go board.

'I kept them here because I thought you might come back. This is literature about youkai from the Edo period.’

'Oh! That’s remarkable.’

The gentleman’s eyes were sparkling like a boy’s.

'Of course, I can sell you the go board as well, but… the truth is, that’s something my grandfather often played on.’

'Ah, it’s a memento…’

'It’s not so much as that, but I often saw him sitting behind the register and playing by himself when I was still young.’

'He wasn’t alone. I played as his opponent.’

One small youkai said that, hanging from a lampshade.

'I was the only one here then.’

Of course, the gentleman and the woman couldn’t hear that voice.

'Actually, last time and this time, I thought that my grandfather might have been letting me play.’

'I see…’

The woman only said that, so the gentleman seemed to just take what she said as a metaphor.

'It’s regrettable that we must part,’ the gentleman said.

'If you would like, how about another game?’

'Eh?’

'That’s just what I wanted! As if I could let this end with my loss! I’ll win next time.’

The youkai became excited.

'However, I don’t actually have any more time today. I have an appointment to meet somebody who has encountered youkai in the next town. Why don’t we do this?’

The gentleman drew out a go board on a memo pad and wrote numbers along the sides. After asking for the shop’s address and the woman’s name, he bought the documents and left. Like this, Taki’s grandfather – Shinichirou-san – and Yoshimi’s grandmother – Ichiko-san – started exchanging letters.

-

After that, the mojibake showed me flashbacks like a revolving lantern.

This was probably a few days after Shinichirou-san left. Ichiko-san received the envelope from the post box in front and returned. After she opened the envelope and red the numbers, her face lit up and she placed one black stone on the go board by the register.

She stared at the go board. However, she couldn’t see the light she usually did.

'It’s standard to place on the diagonal line!’

'No, it’d be safer to place directly beneath it.’

'You don’t understand. In go, you have to read ahead.’

The youkai were fighting and made no progress. Ichiko-san, who didn’t know that, sat in seiza. In the end, it took the youkai a few days to come to a decision.

When Ichiko-san stood up to close the shop for the evening and glanced over on a whim, the brilliant lampshades bathed in the light of the setting sun illuminated the go board with its rainbow light, and she saw that only one point was indicated with a white light. Ichiko-san let out a happy cry and took out stationery and an envelope right away to write a reply.

The game by letter that started in this manner took more and more time for consideration as it advanced. Perhaps because of Shinichirou-san’s tendency to go on trips, the span between letters grew longer and longer. At some point, Ichiko-san, and probably Shinichirou-san as well, became used to it, and it became a long, long game that continued for nearly forty years. That leisurely rhythm probably matched them well, I thought, watching Ichiko-san smile brightly every time a letter arrived.

Ichiko-san’s face was etched with more wrinkles every year, and her family also grew in number. Her child was followed by a younger brother and sister, and that younger sister gave birth to a daughter – Yoshimi-san.

The points on the go board slowly but steadily filled up. Probably both of them felt that the end of the game was coming. The span between letters grew even longer. Even after the youkai had shown her what to play and she had written the move in a letter, Ichiko-san sometimes left the letter in the envelope for days without sending it, as if she was hoping to make the game last as long as possible.

However, the day finally came. After receiving the last letter from Shinichirou-san and placing the black stone according to the numbers written, Ichiko-san looked taken aback. After doing this for so long, she probably remembered almost all of the rules. Another possibility is that she might have just remembered the explanation for how to end the game from that time very well. Ichiko-san wrote the position that the youkai had indicated on the letter. Then, she added this short sentence: ’ It’s the end of the game then.’ She put the letter in an envelope. However, Ichiko-san didn’t seal it and left it in her drawer without doing anything to suggest she was going to take it out. Sometimes she would open the drawer, open the envelope and take a peek. A sad smile would appear on her lips and she would close it again. She did that many times, but in the end, she didn’t send it.

After a few years, Ichiko-san received a black-bordered card. It was the notice for Shinichirou-san’s death. Somebody in the Taki family probably saw Shinichirou-san’s address book and sent it. The moment Ichiko-san laid her eyes on it, she dropped the card and broke down crying right there. When she finally stood back up, she took out the letter she hadn’t sent from the register’s drawer, and whispered one word:

'Sorry.’

The letter went back to the drawer. The notice for Shinichirou-san’s death was placed in a box for postcards, that probably disappeared somewhere during cleaning. When Ichiko-san died, her relatives didn’t see it.

This was just about the time the notice for Shinichirou-san’s death came. Yoshimi-san, who was still small, has come to her grandmother’s to play and impulsively scattered the stones on the go board.

'What are you doing, Yoshimi!’

Ichiko-san held up her hand, angry. Yoshimi-san, who hadn’t been scolded often before, started crying in place. Ichiko-san looked like she regretted it immediately and lowered her hand. Then, she hugged Yoshimi-san as she spoke to her.

'You can’t touch this, Yoshimi. These black stones and white stones are full of the memories of your grandmother and another person.’

While she said that, Ichiko-san took out her diary and diligently lined up the stones according to the numbers she had written down. Yoshimi-san had fallen asleep at some point while on her grandmother’s lap, but Ichiko-san continued to speak.

'This is what your grandmother thinks. The connections between people are mysterious. Your grandmother and Taki-san only met directly twice in our whole lives, but I can call him one of my very important close friends. It was a coincidence that Taki-san ran into this shop to take shelter from the rain, and it was also a coincidence that he spotted the go board, but there’s a reason things turned out that way. Taki-san came because he had something to do at the university on the mountain for youkai research, and I placed the stone on the go board that time because I remembered my grandfather and felt nostalgic… People’s bonds must be created by straining your ears to notice series of coincidences and fates like those ones. So Yoshimi, you have to strain your ears for connections between people like that too. Even if it’s somebody you’ll only meet once in your whole life, that person might be somebody you have a mysterious connection to.’

The young Yoshimi-san had forgotten that she cried and was sleeping peacefully. However, her grandmother’s words must have reached the deepest part of Yoshimi-san’s heart. That’s what I think.

-

Then, ten years passed by. Ichiko-san had aged a lot and became prone to falling ill, and she sometimes had to be hospitalised. During those times, the shop would be closed, and the youkai left in the dark shop were dying of boredom. It might have been because they wanted somebody to notice them, but sometimes they would rage about and rattle the house, though nobody was there to notice. Then, Ichiko-san returned from the hospital. The youkai were overjoyed. However, Ichiko-san no longer had the strength to open the shop by herself. The truth was that she had made a request to the doctor at the hospital to return home. She had said that if she was going to die, she wanted to die here.

In the day, relatives came in turns to take care of her. Ichiko-san asked them to open the store. She would sit behind the register and look at the antiques. This was the scenery she had always looked at. Some items were sold and left, while new items came. However, to her, they were all like friends.

It was night.

The shop had fallen silent. Suddenly, Ichiko-san, who had been sleeping in the back, opened the sliding door and came in.

That day, Yoshimi-san’s mother had just come to take care of her and talked nostalgically about her childhood. That might have still been in Ichiko-san’s heart. She had felt something strange in her heart and woken up. Paying no attention to the fact that it was the middle of the night, she came into the shop. Then, she turned on the largest lamp – the queen. The shop was dyed in rainbow colours.

'Hello, is it grandfather?’

In that shop that shouldn’t have had anybody in it, Ichiko-san started speaking to somebody.

'Or…’

Ichiko-san stopped speaking, as if she was waiting for a response, and then she started speaking again.

'At first, you know, I thought that my grandfather was the one telling me where to place the stones, because my grandfather loved this go board. However, while I continued sending and receiving letters and lining up the stones, I felt it was something else…’

The youkai around Ichiko-san were listening to her speak.

'My grandfather often said this. There are undoubtedly souls resting in old things. You are those souls, aren’t you? I mean, I can feel you now. I feel surrounded by kind and warm presences.’

The youkai said nothing and listened. As if they were quietly taking in the words one by one.

After that, Ichiko-san returned to the register, took out her diary and started flipping through it. She didn’t have the strength to diligently read it anymore. Even so, Ichiko-san properly turned the pages to mull over that diary from the beginning of her life to now. Each time she turned a page, even if she couldn’t read the words, memories filled her heart. In the shop, over a hundred youkai gathered around her.

Finally, when she had turned all of the pages, her lips moved slightly.

'Thank you.’

The diary slipped out of her hand. Ichiko-san closed her eyes there and fell into an eternal sleep. I continued watching her. At some point, tears had welled up and started falling from my eyes…

-

*snap*… *snap*… *snap*…

The pleasant sort of go stones being placed woke me up. When I looked, Natori-san was sitting in front of the register while looking at Yoshimi-san’s notebook, placing the go stones quietly by himself in Lamp Hall. Around him, over a hundred antique youkai had gathered and were holding their breath as they watched him. Sasago and Urahime were standing near Natori-san as if protecting him.

I understood that not that much time had passed since I fainted. The dream the mojibake showed me had probably flashed by in a moment, like the memories of the past I saw when returning a name. It seemed like that gigantic swarm of mojibake had left my eyes along with the tears I shed.

'Finally awake, you weakling?’

Nyanko-sensei suddenly kicked my head.

'That hurts. Stop it, Sensei.’

'Well, it seems like you’ve returned to the world of sight.’

Natori-san said that while shrugging.

'Ah, where’s Yoshimi-san?’

'She was a bit in the way so I had her leave. If you’re awake, that’s perfect – come and help me, Taki Tooru-kun.’

'Please stop calling me that name. You don’t need to now, right?’

'Then Natsume, put black stones in the positions of the numbers I say. I was just about to reproduce the game.’

'Ah, OK.’

'The conclusion they wanted was the conclusion to this game of go. You’ll be playing the youkai.’

Since Natori-san didn’t know that I had seen everything in the dream, he explained properly for me.

'Wait. When you said the boy was the grandson of that man, was it not a lie?’

The daruma on the wall scroll, which had been put back in its original position at some point, made an objection.

'However, that doesn’t change the fact that he has a connection with him. Right, Natsume?’

'Er, yes.’

Though I hadn’t met him directly, I definitely had a connection with him. He was the person I had been watching in a dream up until a bit earlier.

'Then that is acceptable. In any case, the place to put the stone has been decided.’

The game continued, with Natori-san playing on behalf of the youkai and Ichiko-san, and me playing on behalf of Shinichirou-san. We placed the stones according to the numbers Natori-san read out. We placed over two hundred stones in total. Finally, the time to place the last stone had come.

'14 – 9.’

Natori-san placed the white stone there and asked me a question.

'It’s the end of the game, isn’t it?’

The part in Ichiko-sans letters that had been stained and illegible, 'I s th en f e me i n it ’, had been those words written in kanji and katakana.

'It’s the end of the game.’

I replied. The shop was silent. Finally, Nyanko-sensei lost his temper and yelled out.

'So who won!’

'Do not rush. Now, humans, count each other’s territory.’

'OK. Natsume, could you move the go stones like we’ve been asked?’

Since I had just seen how to do it in a dream earlier, I understood the most part. First, I alternately placed the stones captured from the other player in the territories that belonged to neither player called dame. Then, I moved the stones which were placed unevenly to make a shape easier to count.

'OK. Black has ten, twenty, thirty… sixty-eight moku, and white has… sixty-two moku.’

'Black has six more moku then.’

’D-did we lose…?’

The surrounding youkai were astir.

'No, with the current official roles, in order to take away the advantage of playing first, black takes a handicap of six and a half, so white wins by a difference of half a moku.’

There were shouts of joy throughout the shop.

'Yes, yes! It’s our win.’

I suddenly noticed I felt Ichiko-san’s feeling as I looked at the youkai. While smiling at their exhilaration, I also felt lonely now that the game that had gone on for so long had finally ended.

-

'We promised. You may now seal us.’

After clamouring for a while, the daruma said this to Natori-san in good sportsmanship.

'Yes, allow me.’

Natori-san placed the two go stone containers, black and white, in the middle of the earthen floor of the shop. He took off their covers, placed the dream catcher charm Yoshimi-san had been wearing on top of the white go stone container and placed the letter from Ichiko-san I had brought on the black one, saying it stood in for a vessel.

'Black for the mojibake, and white for everything else. That’s fine, yes?’

At first, the youkai didn’t seem to understand what Natori-san had said. However, after a way, the meaning came to them. Natori-san would seal them in the go stones instead of the pot.

'I see, we will go into the go stones… If that is the case, there might come a time when we will be able to play with someone again.’

Natori-san recited the incantation.

'You who possess these antiques, leave that form behind and return to these stones!’

First, the weak mojibake went through the letter and were sucked into the black stones.

Then, the little youkai were sucked one by one into the white stones.

'I am glad that you were the exorcist. Thank you.’

When he was sucked in last, I heard the daruma say that.

Once everything was finished, Natori-san took the dream catcher and letter and covered both of the go stone containers again. The feeling of fullness I had felt from around me up until earlier had disappeared all at once.

'Now, I’m leaving, so give this back to Yoshimi-san for me.’

After Natori-san said that, he handed the dream catcher to me.

'Also, tell her that these are something she should keep if possible, assistant-kun.’

Natori-san pointed at the go board and go stone containers as he said that. I also agreed with his view.

After taking a breath, Natori-san looked at me again.

'At any rate, I’m glad you’re safe.’

He said that while smiling with clear eyes.

'Well, Natsume, I’ll leave the rest to you.’

'Ah, please wait. How should I explain to Yoshimi-san?’

'Do as you think appropriate.’

Just before Natori-san opened the door to leave:

'Ah, yes, yes, though this is a secret to them,’ he said, pointing at the youkai in the go stone containers. He continued at a lower volume.

'The rule for white’s win with the six and a half difference shouldn’t have been made that long ago. Up until then, it was five and a half, and before that it was four and a half…’

'Then.’

'Yes. If following the rules from when they started the game, it would be Shinichirou-san’s win.’

'Hmm.’

Then who won in the end?

'Well, it doesn’t really matter.’

After saying that, Natori-san really left.

Only Nyanko-sensei and I were left in the shop.

'Ah, yes, there’s still that.’

Nyanko-sensei went back to the tatami room to finish the mizu youkan he had started eating.

'This time, you were no use at all, Sensei.’

'What did you say, Natsume!’

'No, nothing.’

Meanwhile, the door chimed open, and Yoshimi-san rushed in, panting.

'I brought it, Natori-san! ….Eh?’

'Ah, welcome back.’

'Where’s Natori-san?’

'That’s, um…’

I gave an apology after a quiet sigh.

-





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