Untitled dribble no. 6 (Hikaru no Go: Isumi and Kurata)
"You're pretty good, aren't you?"
Isumi wouldn't say he balked, exactly, at the question, but it was certainly not... quite what he had expected from the man who just last week had qualified for the challenger position for the Juudan title.
"Uh," he answered smartly, and was not sure whether he was relieved or not that Kurata-sensei continued talking without waiting for an answer.
"Yes, yes, Shindou showed me a kifu from a match you played against Matsuda 7-dan, but you know how it is, anybody can have a good day and an opponent with a stomachache. And the people who were insei for years and years, they almost never make it big. I've played them, and there's just no spark in them."
"Spark?"
"You know," Kurata said meaningfully, "spark."
Isumi could not say that he knew.
"I mean, sure, some of them do make it eventually, but they're always so wound-up when they do - look at Ogata Juudan, and there you have it."
"I thought Ogata-sensei was fifteen when he - "
"Fifteen, after five years worth of insei studies. Do you know how long it took him to be where Akira Touya will be by next year?"
"Isn't that a bit -"
"Twelve years - is it a wonder that he's so touchy about his titles?"
"Kurata-sensei," Isumi said, catching the man's eyes and hoping he wasn't coming across as lecturing, "Ogata-sensei is one of the best players of the country."
"I never said anything else!" Atsushi Kurata, 8-dan, challenger for the Juudan title and runner-up in the Tengen and Meijin league, exclaimed in indignation, "I'm just pointing out that he's not a genius!"
For a fraction of a second, Isumi honestly thought he was balking - wanting to ask Kurata just what, exactly, constituted for a genius in his mind - before he remembered that Atsushi Kurata had an unmatched record when it got to speedy rize as a player. Unmatched, that was, save for the young man whose fault it was that Isumi was having this conversation at all.
"Anyway," Kurata continued when Isumi made no further attempts at defending the skills of the person who least should need it, "Shindou was bragging, but he was probably lying about the dentist appointment. Did you really pass the pro test undefeated?"
"Ah, yes," Isumi said distractedly, trying to remember what, exactly, had been the core of Shindou's flaky explanation for why he couldn't help Kurata-sensei out after he had promised.
"And then you beat Kuwabara Honinbo?"
"Since it was in the shin shodan game, I'm not sure how - "
"Well!" Kurata said, sounding slightly surprised, "in that case, you might actually be something!"
"Excuse me?"
"I just thought that since you didn't make it in the Hokuto cup -"
"I didn't take part in the Hokuto cup," Isumi finally managed, "I was too old."
"Oh. Well, Kuwabara's not the type to take a loss lying down, so you don't need to be modest about it. He might be too old, but he's still one tough fighter."
"Yes," Isumi agreed absently, preoccupied with the dawning suspicion about why Shindou had begged out of this one.