"He's a nice boy," Kuwabara says, crossing his wrinkled little Tyrannosaurus arms across his sunken chest as he watches Touya Akira walk away.

Ogata takes a long drag off his cigarette. "He's a brat who doesn't appreciate his talent."

Kuwabara cackles.

"Thank you for guiding me, Ogata-sensei."

This is what Akira-kun says when Ogata beats him in the fifth game of the Meijin final. It's the proper response for a polite young man, and he even pairs the platitude with a low bow that makes his ridiculously girly hair fall over the sweep of his jaw when his forehead hits his knees.

Ogata doesn't say anything. He didn't guide Akira; he beat him. There's something defiant and condescending in Akira that Ogata wants to stomp out, to crush underfoot like a cigarette burned down to its filter, and he hates that he's never been given a chance.

When the Go Weekly tools ask for an interview, Ogata still doesn't reply, and when they ask him to put an arm around Akira and pose for a picture, Ogata goes out and gets drunker than he's ever gotten in his life.

Akira says the same thing the next year when he beats Ogata and becomes the new Meijin.

He wants to ask, Guiding you toward what?, but instead lets Shindou Hikaru buy him a beer.

The year after that, when it's Shindou and Touya in the finals and Ogata watches the match on closed circuit television in the pro lounge, no one's thanking anyone for guidance. Instead, a twelve-hour match ends with Shindou wrenching the title away, a heated argument, and a wrestling match. When tournament officials finally manage to separate them, they both seem surprised to find a roomful of people watching.

"Spirited men," Kuwabara says and steals Ogata's last cigarette. The spilled stone ruins of what had been an annoyingly perfect game burn into the closed circuit monitor.

Ogata snorts and takes back his pack of matches.

"You've known Touya-kun for a long time, haven't you? This match, this kind of play -- things haven't been this exciting in at least ten years."

"Old man," Ogata warns through clenched teeth, "that title of yours isn't honorary."

Kuwabara cackles.

END.