The Only One

Chapter 3

Thick Smoked seemed to engulf those closet to him. His hand steadily held the small, white stone over the wooden 19x19 grid. His eyes glanced over the board, quickly checking for an error in his placement. Satisfied with his decision, he placed the stone sharply, a 'clack' emitting from the stone as it connected with the wood.

The teen's opponent looked over the present state of his fort. His foe blocked a possible 'eye,' he decided to risk his small advantage over white's komi and be slightly more aggressive. He struck his stone too, a glow seeming to reside on his finger tips.

'Clack,' 'Clack,' 'Clack' could be heard in the room. The echoing sounds became the embers of the fiery battle. Strange confidence within each of the two. The flow was a current. The current was picking up pace. The course unseen, yet the destination inevitable. Playing only the most logical moves from then on, the game came to a quick end.

With this final placement, black passed and white too passed. The scores were tallied after the two agreed that there were no dead stones. Keiji, the younger, looked on to the other for the result. Having understood the game, Keiji was a strong player. However, he was not interested in the scoring, but only the excitement of playing and of course, winning.

Finished calculating, the dirty blond male pushed his glasses back. He checked his math quickly before placing his pen to the side. He took a moment to breathe before looking ahead to the other.

“With Komi, black wins by a ½ stone.” His voice was calm, soothing somehow. It held no mockery, but only honest impassiveness to the context of what he said. Keiji bowed to his worthy opponent and this opponent did the same.

In unison, they uttered the words, “Thanks for the game.”

Keiji looked to the board with interest now. He choked on something, his throat felt full. Indeed it was, he swallowed hard. He had, in a literal essence, swallowed his pride. As he stared the board over, taking it all in, he forced himself to say it to himself, three painful words. 'I have lost.'

“Where did I lose?” Keiji asked his opponent. The voice was too perfect, to real. His voice whipped out and stung the listener with surprising grace and beauty. The sting would bring odd comfort, like a whipping boy begging to be hit again. It felt curiously wanting. A tempting, sinful fruit in the form of beautiful, poetic tones.

The other, however, seemed immune to this silk voice. Calmly, he replied “The center. I broke through the line. In truth, I just managed to turn a bad move into a favorable position. Without realizing it, you were behind for the whole game.”

“I will watch for that next time.” Promised the satin voice. The other bowed to Keiji before replying.

“Till then.”

Before leaving, Keiji took the mask from the table. He covered his almost tranquilly beautiful fave by the pale mask. His new “face” had rich, painted cheeks, a mouth without lips, and dark, beady eyes. The face's expression and appearance were obviously not those of the wearer. In fact, it was quite the opposite of Keiji's face and his personality.

Keiji was a member of the Reyu Clan. A clan that was so infamous for its dark infused prodigy members, that it was kept quiet. The Valley of the Mist considered them to be a blemish upon it's perfect face. Nevertheless, the Reyu Clan could only be compared with the Uchiha Clan. However, due to an illness of someone who married into the clan, the main line began to dwindle.

This virus could be carried by a human, but it only afflicted those of a demonic line. It was by the doctor's diagnosis that the Reyu was found out. They were descendants of a demon. All Reyu honor was stripped away. All this from the ancient demon that had taken a human from a wife. What fortune it brought was being paid in full as a curse.

Keiji's birth is the latest of the main line. The sickness had become stronger as it was transmitted to the children. A child of a Reyu died at an earlier age than the parents of that child. Keiji was supposed to die at birth. Somehow, Keiji had not died. He lived where as his parents died before Keji could walk. Alone in the world, the young Reyu was cared for by the village. Yet, no one wanted him near them.

Keiji grew up fully aware of his demonic heritage and skill. He knew of that line. Discovering his many talents became his main hobby. Testing them at every opportunity. In becoming Jonin, the elders thought that it would be better to test him personally first. They reached this conclusion by several oddities in the report by the group's assigned Jonin. Reportedly, the boy had been leaving his squad, being warned of the dangers and told not to do so. He would wander anyway and come back hours later, with a dehydrated animal or withered plant.

In testing him, the elders demanded to see the technique. They felt sure he used a fire style justsu to do whatever he had done. They knew he had to be the one doing this. However, they witnessed something amazing. Even the oldest of them gasped as he realized what he witnessed. This boy had just performed a bizarre, but powerful justsu: an original, now forbidden justsu. Instantaneously, the elders realized that he was a superior prodigy than even Haku. He was immediately exempted of the exam and sent to a discipline assessment and enforcement class.

Weeks passed and the teacher was asked of Reyu's progress. The teacher told them, “If there was ever a master of the disciplinary arts, he would be appointed to hold that honor. He is a gentleman in every respect, and cultured very well, particularly in games. This is most likely from being on his own and having an opportunity to experience many people.”

“An example of being 'cultured?'” The groupd enquired, curious to just how far this child has traveled.

“If you want to know the most extraordinary of all the games he knows: Persian Chess. For most local games, he knows Go and Shogi. Even more exciting is his understand of the different games. The completely different level he thinks on. He is, in no way, a master of any one game, but I cannot touch him in 'Go.' Perhaps a negative, or perhaps positive, aspect of this is his deeply rooted hate for failure. ”

“Gentle nature aside, has their been any indication of his.......ailment,...his demon?” The youngest asked, wishing to get things moving.

“No...” The teacher answered truthfully.

After the meeting ended, the council placed Keiji as a Black Ops, freeing him from the school. Depsite this accomplishment, Keiji has never once been tapped. Like an old wine bottle, he had been left to collect dust for a seemingly endless time.

The last of the Reyu Clan went out on his own ventures. Many were of mild interest to him, or to keep himself praticed.

He turned and left the Go Saloon. He sharply left as he exitted into the rain heavy air. His breathing labored as only water vapor seemed to enter his lounges. With long strides, he found the small ramen shop. A curtain with red pigmentation blocked the contents from view of the public.

Keiji pushed the fabric sheet aside and stepped in. He took a seat, but the teen left his mask on. He thought hard about what to do with his boredom. Voices reached his ears, and the ninja began to tune them out when he heard something very interesting. Interesting enough the ninja began to eavesdrop as he sat motionless.

“ . . . Sasuke?” The man asked, his voice husky.

“Yup,” replied the other. The first slurped noisily as he finished of his ramen. He listened to the second as continued, “You'd tink teh leav villidge woulda learned bettah.”

Keiji shivered without being noticeable in his tremur. The mere thought of such horrid speaking made his teeth grind.

“Why'd they'd go and do tat fer?” The first layman asked. The uneducated speaking was quickly reaching a point where it bothered Keiji more than the topic interested him.

“Sp. Sasuke is whar now?”

Despite himself, Keiji listen intently for the answer.