Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go doesn't belong to me.
Summary: Hikaru is an orphan with no living relatives remaining. His engineering skills are his last bond to a father he never really knew and he excels at it, his Go derives from the friendship to his nightmare-troubled room mate. What he never expects is what will come of that… Hikaru, Sai, Akira & more. AU
A/N: This is my story for practicing briefer story prologue was kind of rotting on my hard drive so I decided to post it. I used the clichee idea of an orphanage on purpose. Since there are many things I don't know about the stuff Hikaru does I left out parts.
Please review if you like it or tell me what I should improve :)
Prologue
All he remembered from his earliest childhood was an absence, a rumbling laugh, an often smiling face, gentle hands helping him. All he somehow remembered was white, white, white. Doors white, walls white, floors white, people clad in white. An odd smell. Narrow corridors. A person getting down to his heigth, a compassionate expression on. "Shindou-kun, your parents have left to somewhere." She had said in a very soft yet firm tone, as if it pained her. Hikaru was confused. "Mmh. When are they back?" The nice person looked even more oppressed now. "They won't return. Ever." She said. "They left this world." His eyes huge, thumb in mouth, he stared at her for a minute, processing it. Expecting desolate tears she was surprised when she got a question instead. "But I can visit them right?" The nice person merely sank down in front of him, packed the tiny boy into her arms and cried, sheding tears for all the lonely souls in the universe.
Can you … me…? …Can you …?
The boy of the present often wished himself a ghost. Even while being together with his comrades in circumstance he wished the voices of his family to talk to him. "Hikaru!" Called boy was sitting in front of a desk, screwdriver in hand and the core of a medium large device laid open and taken apart before him, when a tiny whirlwind came rushing in waving excitedly. "Hikaru, you'll never guess what just happened!" The boy who was one of his room mates gasped, but the interrupted boy merely glowered. "Stop horsing 'round like that, I'm concentrating here." Putting the tools away anyhow he stared at Fuku expectantly. Fuku, already used to his friend's moods, only smiled brighter. "I…Ichigawa-neesan came. And she brought presents for all of us!"
While Christmas had been two days prior it always was a great glee when one of the orphanage's sponsors gifted them with presents. And Icchan was definitely their most favourite supporter ever.
"What did she bring?" He asked, excited despite himself. "Uh-uh, just come take a look for yourself!" The small boy grinned impishly, grabbing Hikaru's sleeve and pulling him off his seat and out of the room with him. Hikaru was part of a not so well-funded oprhanage just outside the city, the Tokyo Metropolitan Child Guidance Center had obviously been overcrowded at the time his parents had died when he was but three.
His mother, according to the files, had been a housewife and his father a talented and pretty well-paid engineer. It seemed too that Hikaru had gotten passed on his father's skills, though most adults were not knowledgable to the extent of his skills since they doubted a kid his age to be that good without proper schooling. Ichigawa never was and never had been "most people" though.
"Ah, Hikaru." The pretty woman from Tokyo smiled at him when he barreled through the door, relieved that it had already been opened or they might have had to pay for another door again. There were other, older and younger, kids crowding her, excitedly awaiting what she had got for them. Hikaru never joined them though. He always knew what to expect. Strolling closer he lifted the package she moved over to him. It was a separate and rather large package, and pretty heavy too. Hikaru had to put it back on the ground immediately.
"My uncle dug it out especially for you." Ichigawa crowed. "And this time, he said, there's something really great in there."
The boy's eyes widened in anticipation while his peers eyed them with a mix of curiousity and annoyance. They wanted to receive their own presents after all.
"Fuku, let's go upstairs and get my dolly!" His bangs flying he dashed out of the room again, an exasparated Fuku trailing in his wake. After he had transported the giant thing upstairs he opened it, finding the expected old or badly damaged spare parts Ichigawa's uncle always put away for him, but this time there was an item in there he had never expected to own. Damaged or otherwise. His eyes widened in amazement. "It's a PC card wireless card." He gasped. "Huh?" Fuku obviously didn't know a thing about technical terms. "Once I get it to work it helps me connect to the internet." He cheered, but suddenly his bright countenance dimmed. "Mh… I'd need an access point for that and the orphanage doesn't provide such…"
"What about Funakoshi-san?" His best friend, though he had only understood the word "internet", supplied quietly. Mentioned person was the other one who knew of the 12-year-old boy's real skills and even profited from them. In exchange he offered the boy access to the internet if he ever wanted it. Hikaru had merely forgotten that promise. "Fuku, you're great!" Hugging his friend he rushed out of the room and about leapt down the railing to reach the first floor. "Mah, Hikaru!! Don't do dangerous stunts like that!" Just laughing freely at that scolded boy was out of the front door.
Funakoshi-san who was living next door to the small orphanage was kind to them. While they were mostly ignored by the others, at best, the man often came over to talk with their headmistress. The relationship of those two was something Hikaru hadn't understood as a kid and merely squinted suspiciously at now. And then, one holiday in cold winter, the kind man's heating system had broken down, leaving him freezing in his home. Hikaru had learnt of it when he had come over, visiting them earlier than usual, and innocently offered Funakoshi to repair it. Disbelieving the man had laughed, thinking it only to be some boy's career role play and deciding to indulge him. Broken was broken after all. How had he been surprised when, four hours later, the heater was running again as if nothing happened.
It was late evening and his room mates were already lying on the bunk beds, some reading helped by discreet torches and some with closed eyes, sleeping or sleep-wanna-be. Fuku's bed neigbour was definitively of the latest persuasion. "Shindou, turn the damn light off." Ishida groused, in vain trying to escape the bright light by turning his back to him. And even if it had worked there still was the rather intrusive noise made by Hikaru's tools. "Hai Hai." Came the scatter-brained retort but he started clearing away the remaing loose parts, putting them back into the container beneath the desk. Looking down at his nearly finished master piece the boy grinned triumphantly. The last touch would have to be made tomorrow, then he could enter the WEP, courtesy to his benefactor's far reaching WLAN.
"Hikaru?" Five minutes later, the boy had already climbed up the ladder, came a low voice from underneath his mattress. "Mh?" He leant over the edge, head hung downwards bat-style. "What is it, Fuku?" "Can we play a nightly game of Go?" The gentle boy whispered and gazing into his turbulent eyes his friend realized that he had had a bad dream. Again. "Sure." He agreed readily. The small dark-haired boy slipped out of the bed and toddled towards the door. Hikaru followed and they settled down in the empty kitchen downstairs. There were always games stored away in cupboards and a foldable goban including stones was one of them. They nigiri-ed and, Hikaru going first, together they drove away the ghosts of the past with a forceful game of Speed Go.
"Does it work now, does it?" The always moody Ishida could now barely contain his excitement. In his free time the older boy read a lot of sports magazines and it had also been through him that Hikaru learnt of NetGo. While Ishida could care less about a "geezer's game" he wanted to check out current sports news and get a mail of his own to share once school restarted. Hikaru sighed dejectedly. His self-built laptop would probably turn into a central point of interest soon. Going through the painfully long process of entering the WEP he waited until it correctly located and connected, opening the web browser. It finally worked.
The following night Hikaru played NetGo for the first time. Fuku had already tried it out that afternoon, and babbled something about a very strong player he had to resign to not far into midgame. The boy sneaked down to the kitchen where he wouldn't disturb the ever grousy Ishida from his beauty sleep. His first opponent, a kura0505, was fairly weak though and needed endless time until he finally decided to put down a stone which made the frustrated boy about ready to resign himself. Used to Fuku's Speed Go he was only familiar with short waiting periods inbetween moves, but this couldn't be the usual way to play, right? After he played a keima watari and then effectively separated his opponent's terriority (seriously, who would overlook THAT?) the other finally resigned.
Leaning back in the kitchen chair, his head bent backwards, he sighed. Where were all the decent players? The program made an insistent ping sound. Straightening he saw that he had received a challenge.
"Oh, it's that guy who always is busy playing." He mused, accepting it.
Wait… sai…sai… The guy who had defeated Fuku! Hikaru won White and awaiting the first move in anticipation he was surprised when his opponent played 2-2 on the upper right. That was fairly weird moves he was using there. The game went on for a short time and soon even sometimes dense Hikaru could feel it. That guy was pretty strong, it was no wonder Fuku had been so powerless. Feeling the pressure mounting, no matter what he did his attempts were forcefully cut off, he finally pressed the "Resign" button. The other player didn't log off immediately and the boy felt like typing in a praiseful message: "You're pretty good." Instead of a response he suddenly noticed something akin to tiny prickles of electricity wandering through his veins, the sensation becoming more and more intense. "What the…?!" Afraid he leapt to his feet, chair legs scrapping loudly on the floor. There was a figure standing next to the engine, smiling sadly. "W…who are you?" Hikaru gasped, disbelieving. The half-transparent vision seemed equally incredulous.
And this was the beginning of Hikaru and Sai.
"You can see me? You can hear my voice?"
A/N How come Sai was in the internet? How will their first meeting go? Why hasn't Hikaru been adopted yet?
This is merely the prologue I had already written some time ago, I'll continue with my other story, Sai's Disciple first. This story is planned with shorter chapters, I think 2.000 words is pretty comfortable.
Concerning terms and such: I did some research but I could always be wrong.
Keima watari – bascially a tactical move for safely connecting two groups