Akira no Yume

A Hikaru no Go fanfic

Warnings: Rather mind-screwy, confusing and angsty. Also, Hikaru's a female in this story… for the most part. Set after Sai's disappearance and the Hokuto cup.

"Touya, watch out!"

"Wh-" brugh-ckiiiiitt-brraakkk

"SHINDOU!"

Akira's eyes flew open as he struggled against the blankets covering him, his heart pounding in his chest and a name threatening to escape from his throat. Oh, Kami, what happened? The last thing he remembered was crossing the street with Hikaru, a hydroplaning car speeding towards them, Hikaru shouting and pushing him out of the way and then-and then- Akira shuddered as he tried his best to forget Hikaru's twisted limbs and the pool of some wet, sticky red thing staining the asphalt…

Wait. Akira's senses kicked into full gear as he looked around. If the accident was real, he had to be in a hospital room or something but as he slowly became aware of where he was he found out that he was in his bedroom, in the Touya residence. His eyes found the digital alarm clock on his bedside table, and he realized that it was barely two in the morning and it was the fifth of May. Children's Day.

"Akira?" he heard someone knock on the door. "Are you fine, dear?" Touya Akiko asked her one and only son worriedly.

"I…" Akira opened his mouth before closing it. What should he say? He didn't want to lie to his mother, but he didn't want her to worry either. Finally he settled for a half-truth. "Just a dream, Mother. Nothing's wrong,"

"…I see." Akira had the sinking feeling that his mother had seen through his lie, but to his relief the Touya matriarch didn't push any further. "Well, try to get some sleep then. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, Mother," he said, but he knew it was a half-truth at best. He wasn't fine. The dream had been an unpleasant surprise for him, and he sorely hoped that it would never come into realization. He covered his face with his hands and took a few deep breaths. He had to calm down. It wouldn't do for this dream to ruin his performance, and he sure as hell wouldn't let Hikaru beat him just because of a nightmare. Besides, it was just a dream, a horrifying, terrifyingly detailed and accurate dream but a dream nonetheless. Right?

(He ignored the fact that he could still feel phantom barely-there-but-still-existent pains all over his body and that he'd begun to call her Hikaru, not Shindou.)

The next time they met, he wasn't sure whether to hug Hikaru in relief (and prove to himself that she was real and solid, not a figment of his imagination) or scream profanities at her for being three hours late to their appointment at the Meijin's go salon.

"Sorry, Touya. I, uhh, overslept." She had a silly cheeky grin on her face, one that made her look incredibly cute and made blood rush to Akira's cheeks.

"Really, Shindou? Either you fell asleep at five in the morning or you woke up really, really late. It's two PM, and we agreed to meet here at eleven," he said dryly, trying to hide his blush behind sarcasm. To which Hikaru sighed.

"Yeah, I know, lame excuse, but you're hardly the only one I have a promise with today." Akira had to fight back annoyance at how she so easily brushed him off as unimportant and tried to ignore the burn in his chest-jealousy?- as he realized that his rival preferred to spend time with other people.

"Fine, then. Just don't let it happen again," he said grudgingly. His bad mood didn't go unnoticed by Hikaru, who wisely decided to shut up and play go.

No less than half an hour later, Akira's frustation started to increase even more. Hikaru's play was really, really bad in comparison with her usual play. In fact he haven't seen her play this sloppily since before the Interschool Tournament, several years ago. His hands balled into fists and he glared at her.

"Dammit, Shindou, take me seriously!" he finally snapped at her in anger. "I haven't seen you play this bad in years. What happened to you?" he asked. Hikaru had a hurt look on her face.

"…Geez, Akira, if you wanted to play shogi you could've said so."

Akira was so dumbstruck at Hikaru's words that he couldn't say anything and could only watch as Hikaru picked up the go stones and placed them in the go-ke before pulling out a shogi set from her bag (so that's what she'd been carrying all the time) and placed them with graceful, fluid movements.

"How many handicaps do you want?" she asked. Akira, still shocked, couldn't say anything. "Fine, then. I'll give you three handicaps, like our last game." As she spoke she took away her lances and bishop. "You're black, I'm white. Go first."

Akira was in a partially numb state as he almost absent-mindedly moved one of his pawns forward. Hikaru instantly replied with another of her own. His mind was still spinning from what Hikaru had said earlier.

What… I don't get it. Is this a dream or something? Yes, this has to be a dream. The Hikaru I know never mentioned shogi except for that time when she spoke about her friend, Kaga, I think. Yes… this is a dream. But how can I wake up…? Akira's eyes widened as Hikaru captured one of his pawns effortlessly. Alright Akira, get yourself together. Even if this is just a dream, you can't let Hikaru win! She's your rival, after all. Shogi might be very different from go, but they are both strategy games. He grimaced as Hikaru expertly led him to a trap, and without him even realizing! His eyes narrowed. Even in this dream-world… even in shogi she is still a formidable opponent. But I won't go down without a fight! A fire started to burn in Akira's eyes as he began to understand Hikaru's playing style. He began to see some of the subtler, more dangerous traps.

His eyes widened as he saw Hikaru made a very stupid mistake. Akira grinned to himself and happily captured Hikaru's bishop. Capitalizing on that decisive movement, Akira began to tear through Hikaru's defenses.

"I had a strange dream last night," Hikaru finally spoke. It was the first time any of them made a sound since they began the shogi game. Without waiting for Akira to speak, she continued, "I dreamed that I became a vampire."

A pause. "You mean, one of those sparkly, ice-cold marble statues? You dreamt about becoming one of them?" Akira asked incredulously. Hikaru made a disguted blanch.

"Please. Like I'd want to be one of those… things," she shuddered. "No I meant the traditional, burn-in-sunlight kind of vampire. It took sunburn to a whole new level." As if to emphasize her point, Hikaru mercilessly captured Akira's left lance and used it as her own.

"Ah. What were your parent's reaction?"

"Rather nice, actually. It turned out that the world in my dream was filled with all sorts of supernatural things… like youkai, werewolves, and even ghosts."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. And I met the ghost of Fujiwara no Sai," Hikaru's voice had a dream-like quality, and spoke the name with the reverence real-world Hikaru would say 'Honinbo Shuusaku'. "He was… amazing. One of the greatest shogi player to ever live… and I met him face-to-face." However, this went unheard by Akira as he nearly choked on the glass of water he was drinking.

"S-sai? Fujiwara-no-Sai? Is that his name?"

"Uh-huh. I didn't know you were so familiar with him, Touya. Actually, not a lot of shogi players nowadays study his records."

"Oh, I'm familiar with him, alright," Akira wanted to say, but he wisely decided not to say anything. "I think I've heard his name somewhere." That can't be right! Sai is a Go player, not Shogi! Then again… this is a dream, right? "Is that why you 'overslept'? You didn't want to wake up, did you?" Akira asked.

"Eheheh, you've got me."

"Hm. Well, I had a strange dream last night too. You were a go professional like me, and my rival," Akira decided to tell her part of the truth. At this Hikaru snorted.

"Yeah, right, like that'd ever happen," she said. Akira felt like someone had torn his heart to shreds. "I'll always be a shogi player no matter what!" she declared proudly, not even caring that she was in a go salon. "Besides, my grandfather was the former Ryu-oh. It's in my blood." Seeing Akira's confusion, she explained, "Ryu-oh is a shogi title, one of the most prestigious ones in fact. It's like our version of the Honinbou title." She looked down at the board and moved her promoted rook a few squares forward. "Checkmate, Akira. Your king's dead."

He would be lying if he said he saw that coming.

AN: Ok, so the first chapter of my first HikaGo story is up. What do you guys think? This is just a set-up for the future chapters. I don't think it'll be very long. Maybe ten chapters or so. Yes, Akira likes Hikaru, he just doesn't realize it. All of the things said about shogi in this chapter is real, Ryu-oh is a real Shogi title. There are professional shogi players in Japan just like go.