When Light Yagami walked into the Go salon, he was confident of a win. He was a genius, after all, so even though he'd never actually played before, his arrogance was not entirely unjustified.
On the other hand, it could have been that he was just an egotistical, murderous bastard, but never mind that.
The doorbell chimed slightly as he walked in, shaking rain out of his hair. Quietly he handed 500 yen to the old man in charge of the place and signed in, scanning the room for possible opponents.
Then he made his first major mistake.
He judged skill by age.
There were various players scattered across the room, mostly older men and women, with a couple of kids, younger than him. One, maybe fourteen, with bright red hair, was in a corner playing one of the older men. A few more were gathered around, watching the game; Light mistakenly assumed that they were watching the older man teach the boy. The other boy, a year or so younger than the first, with bright blond bangs, was in the opposite corner. He looked to be replaying an old game, although there was no reference on the table nearby.
I'll play him, Light decided. One of the older players might not take kindly to being beaten by an eighteen-year-old. He walked over to the table, idly observing the game. After a few minutes, the boy sighed, clearing the board. Light took the opportunity, ignoring Ryuk laughing at something in the background.
"Excuse me, may I have a game?"
~~~~~~
"Excuse me, may I have a game?"
Hikaru started and looked up. "Oh. Didn't see you. Sure." He glanced over at the corner where Waya was playing; it didn't look like the other boy would be finished for a while. Sai, you want to play? he asked the spirit.
"Of course!""Okay," he spoke to his opponent, "How long have you been playing?"
"This is my first game."
Hikaru nodded. "How strong do you think you are? I should probably give you... four stones, if it's a first game. Maybe three?"
The other boy shook his head. "Even game." Hikaru blinked. He'd detected something bordering on anger, there… Something dangerous. As if reading his mind, Sai spoke.
"Hikaru... Be careful." Something in the ghost's voice came across as scared, almost terrified. If Hikaru had looked up, he would have seen Sai staring fixedly at something just behind the other boy's shoulder, eyes wide with horror. As it was, he had to suppress the feeling that someone was laughing at him. Weird... He shrugged it off.
"Okay, then... Nigiri."
"Nigiri?"
"It's how we decide who takes what color." As he explained the concept of nigiri, Hikaru felt an uncomfortable sense of déja vu. The situation reminded him of his first game, although the boy behaved more like Touya.
"Oh yeah, what did you say your name was?"
"Light. Light Yagami."
"I'm Hikaru Shindou. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too."
Light took black, and Hikaru white. The stones clicked down in near-silence. About halfway through, Hikaru paused. Sai?
"Yes?"
What's up with
your playing style? It's completely different from
normal/ "I'm...trying some new strategies."
The game ended shortly after. Hikaru asked the spirit, What do you think? He was really strong for a first game--maybe low-level insei.
"He was. Very strange..." Hikaru caught that same overtone in Sai's voice. What's with him?
Addressing his opponent, Hikaru commented, "Looks like I win by fourteen moku. Twenty-point-five, with komi. I'd play you again, but my friend over there--" he gestured towards Waya's corner-- "looks almost done with his game, and I promised I'd play him."
"It was a good game. You're a strong player. How old are you?"
Hikaru shrugged. "Thirteen. You're really strong, too, though--I'm an insei, and one of the better ones. Are you sure this is your first time playing?"
Light nodded. "Very sure. What's an insei?"
"I'm training to become a professional Go player. Waya over there's an insei, too." Lowering his tone abruptly, he asked, "Have you ever met a ghost?"
"Ehhh? Hikaru, what are you doing?"
"What?!" Light answered sharply, although in the same low tone. "What did you say?"
"Never mind. Just a crazy thought I had. Forget I said anything." Scrambling to cover up his slip, he continued, "I'm gonna go watch Waya's game finish. One of the other guys'll play you, though." Clearing the board, he hastily stood up and nearly ran over to his fellow insei's table.
Light stared after him, mind racing. He asked about a ghost... Shinigami? Strange kid. He glanced down at the board again, expression darkening momentarily. I lost. To someone five years younger than me. Me! Kira! A genius!
Someone's going to pay.
As Light steamed, he overheard a few words from Shindou's table in the corner. He and the red-haired kid--Waya, apparently--had begun to play.
"...about this Kira dude?"
Light tensed, trying to catch the rest of the conversation. He ignored Ryuk's laughter, which had been continuing nearly incessantly since he'd first asked the kid for a game.
"I don't know. I mean, justice is all well and good, but Kira's method... seems like overkill to me. No pun intended," Shindou hastily added.
"Yeah. Not all criminals deserve to die, ya know? And this business with the TV announcement..."
"...I don't think that's Kira."
Waya stopped playing, staring at the other boy. "What? Who else could it be?"
Shindou shrugged. "I dunno. It's like someone's stepped in for Kira in the middle of the game, but they're not as good, and their playing style's way different."
"...Shindou, you're crazy. Two Kiras? One, I can see, but two people with freakish killing powers? Never join a detective agency."
"Fine, don't believe me. It's just weird, is all."
"Heh. You and your theories, Shindou. You came up with something crazy about those FBI agents, too."
"That was perfectly legitimate strategy!"
"On a goban, yeah, not in real life. They wouldn't announce something big like that unless they could back it up. And what you said about him killing in ways besides heart attack? What evidence is there for that?"
"Waya, just shut up and play."
Interesting... Light idly tapped the goban in front of him. This kid knows much more than he ought to. I can't let him wander around, spilling stuff to random people. Someone might believe him; then I'd be in trouble.
As the seeds of a plan began to form, Light thought, It's good revenge, too. This is what you get for humiliating me... Shindou Hikaru.
The boy in question played on, oblivious to the fact that he had just royally pissed off the most dangerous person ever to exist.