Reliable Sources (Hikaru no Go)
It all started with Ashiwara's innocent observation that honestly, Shindou and Touya spent a completely ridiculous amount of time with one another, over the goban or not. Ogata, who had been lounging back in lushly upholstered, thoroughly decadent chair in the upscale lounge to which Ashiwara had followed him, had taken a drag off of his cigarette and looked considerate.
"They're self-proclaimed rivals," Ogata said thoughtfully.
Ashiwara smiled, oblivious to the crushing pretension in the room, and sipped his latte, which left an adorable foam mustache across his upper lip.
"I've never seen you take Kuwabara-sensei to lunch," Ashiwara said.
Ogata scowled. He debated briefly on whether or not he wanted the old bastard to die or lose, but concluded that while the latter would be better in theory, the former would be more satisfying in practice, but that neither was worth mentioning to Ashiwara, who either already knew or was waiting for Ogata to voice it so he could giggle.
"Maybe I should," Ogata muttered. "Psychological attack."
"I don't think Shindou is using ramen as a psychological attack."
Ogata had to admit that this was probably true, as Shindou's game was razor-edged, but fell away like rain on spring days, sudden and passing and inconstant. Shindou would no more use Kuwabara's brand of mental torment than Kuwabara would stop dropping totally inappropriate comments about Shindou and Akira's rivalry that totally went over both of their heads.
"Curious," Ogata said.
Ashiwara giggled.
-----
"Shindou-kun has a bruise," Kurata reported, hand paused over a piece of sushi.
Ogata, who had stopped eating about half an hour ago, was nursing his tea, because it was a far better option to hide in the break room and pick at food than go back into the youth invitational, where several terrifying swarms of sixteen year old girls had gathered en mass around Shindou Hikaru and proceeded to generate more sound than locusts descending on a field. Touya, from his seat halfway across the room from Shindou, had a respectable crowd of his own, though it was far more mixed in gender but no fewer in blushing patrons, which made some half-insane part of Ogata want to fall to the ground in laughter. At some point, he would have to pull young Touya aside and explain that certain presumptions were made about him, and that though getting a new haircut would probably be somewhat traumatic, it was ultimately in his best interests.
"I'm surprised a bruise is all he has," Ogata said, "with the way those girls were mauling him."
Kurata laughed, and shook his head. "No, no--it's on his forehead," he said, pressing his thumb to the apex between his brows. "Right here. I hear he got into another fight with Touya Akira."
"What does that have to do with the bruise?" Ogata asked, peeking through the doorway.
Kurata snorted in laughter. "I hear Touya-kun threw a go stone at him. Perfect aim."
Ogata cocked an eyebrow to protest that Touya Akira would never be caught doing such a perfectly childish thing, but he remembered that Touya was actually seventeen right before he said it. After all, Ogata reasoned, Touya seemed to find Shindou very trying, and Shindou was remarkably loud. That was all, he comforted himself, and nothing more.
It was at that time precisely he heard a thudding of footsteps and saw Shindou duck into the room, slamming the door behind him, leaning against it and gasping for breath. He had a hunted look on his face, like Go had suddenly become a contact sport.
"Are girls," he gasped, "always," he managed, "going to be," he wheezed, "like that?"
Kurata burst out laughing, banging the table. Ogata handed Shindou a beer.
-----
Though Shindou summarily pronounced beer to be the equivalent of horse piss, he kept drinking it, and as the flush of exertion faded off of his face, a charming blush of drunkenness replaced it, and Ogata made a note not to let the young pro have anymore until he went back on the floor, lest some poor girl become the object of Shindou's drunken affections.
"I have to say though," Shindou admitted, laughing, "I've got it better than Touya."
"How's that?" Kurata demanded, as he was taking a perverse amount of joy from the entire debacle.
Shindou laughed so hard he had to put his head down, and before he could look up and explain, the door to the break room burst open again, Touya Akira rushed inside, and slammed it behind him, looking markedly more terrified than Shindou had been.
"They--" Touya started, "Somebody--" he went on, and in a horrified yell, he said, "A sixteen year old boy just grabbed my--just grabbed me and called me pretty!"
Shindou fell off his seat, howling with laughter. Kurata put his head down, shoulder shaking.
Ogata handed Touya his cigarettes.
It was not the Go Institute's finest hour, with two of its rising stars for all intents and purposes hiding in the break room. One of them pronouncedly tipsy, the other trying his damndest to resist the cigarettes Ogata had handed over. Though, Ogata thought reasonably, if the Go Institute wasn't going to protect its two rising stars from blatant sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, and all around abuse from its patrons, then Touya and Shindou had a right.