"I'm glad you could join me today, Shintarou."
Akashi overlooked the board, a confident smile on his face. It had been a while since the two of them were in this setting, playing shogi together. Though, he believed it was the first time the other had set foot into his house let alone his room. At the very least though, it was a warm enough day in the spring to open the doors since his room led to the outside. Moving his shogi piece on the board, he looks back to his friend. "I wanted to ask you something, but it didn't seem fit while we were at the Winter Cup. Now that we're starting again as second years though, I think this is a good time."
Looking directly into Midorima's eyes, he could see a bit of the changes that had happened over the year. Some of those had strengthened him, and yet some have also weakened him at least in Akashi's own eyes. Still, that was a mystery yet to be determined if he was wrong about. "Do you think this year of being separated served us well? Of course none of us were ever good friends in particular, but you must have felt it as well when facing each other... There was a certain disparity in play between when we all played together and when we did not. Was it a good choice to go to separate schools?"
