Appearing out of the darkness, a giant steel beast cut its way through the water. A relatively calm sea disrupted by the low bubbling growl of engines struggling to push the lifeless cathedral of metal forward. As if appearing from nothing the dark foggy night had obscured its approach until it was almost on top of the docking yard.
On the deck above the prow of the ship stood a dark silent figure. It wore a tattered gray cloak, its face hidden within the recesses of a large hood. The only apparent motion it gave came from the bobbing of the ship, and a small breeze that tickled the edges of the cloak. An eerie silence descended on the yard as the ship slid into its place on the pier.
"Pull the mooring line!" shouted an old dockhand as he tied a massive rope around a jutting bollard. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw two red orbs boring into the side of his head. Startled by the thought he turned to take a closer look, but only saw a wisp of fog gently float accros the bow. 'Strange' the man thought to himself, 'Tis a night that be playin' tricks on one's eyes.' Turning back to his work the man jumped in fright. He had heard nothing and yet there stood a hooded figure not two paces away from him.
"By the balls of Triton himself, why you be sneakin' up on a man like that?" cursed the furious man.
The figure seemed slowly turned towards the man and paused before gliding off into the darkness. The salty old man glimpsed what he thought were two sword hilts from the dark folds of the cloak. "Nera's tits, I thought those fool things were outlawed after the war" he grumbled to himself.
The figure wended its way through the night stopping now and then as if deciding which course it would take. The denizens of the night seemed to shrink from the presence of the mysterious sojourner. Eventually darkness swallowed it up as the figure went on its way. Noise slowly found its way back to its habitual nooks and crannies, as if the oppressive figure had never walked that way.
The morning dawn always brings new beginnings. As the renewing light peaked over the horizon it stretched out to embrace the face of a young man, no older than 30 years lying on a bed of green amidst a sea of concrete. His arms were folded behind his head and a lazy grin adorned his face. Publicly stretched out on the grass without a care in the world, a slumbering person wasn't a common site in modern Japan. Where order and cleanliness are considered high virtues the young man was definitely out of place.
The sunlight continued to caress his face, and began to gently stroke his eyelids. With the morning light signalling its arrival he finally opened his eyes wide and sat up stretching languidly with a yawn. With the day fully illuminated he could see just how much Japan had changed since he had last been there.
Slowly rising to his feet, he began to wander aimlessly through the waking city. There was only one thing on his mind now and the marvelous technological changes that had transformed the landscape of Japan did nothing to perturb him. He strolled until he saw what he was looking for. A sign with "Aikiba Go Salon" hung among the forest of signs that decorated the street-scape. Wandering in he looked around expectantly.
"Oi!" shouted a heavyset man, "We don't serve vagrants here! Keep on moving if you know whats good for you!" Reaching behind the counter he grabbed a long wooden baseball bat.
An angry expression exploded on the young man's face as fire flashed from his eyes. The heavyset man took a step back as he broke out into a cold sweat.
The young man simply turned around and left. The same incident repeated itself in Go salon's all accross Tokyo that day. As the day wore on the young man found himself standing underneath an unpretentious sign that simply stated, "Go Salon". As he entered the comforting sound of stones *clacking* down on go boards reach his ear. He unconciously smiled at the memory of many games played. A secretary behind the counter politely bowed as she said, "I am sorry sir, but I hope you can understand we do not want to upset our customers. Can I offer you a snack and beverage to take on your way?"
As the anger began to boil within the young man a voice called out, "Wait Ichikawa-san!" A young boy about 12 years old stood next to the counter. "Are you here to play go?"
The young man nodded silently.
"If you don't mind, you can play me if you want." the boy smiled before adding, "The first visit is free."
The young woman behind the counter gasped in surprise, but said nothing more.
With a faint smile the young man followed the boy to the back of the shop. As he walked he noticed a difference in quality to this particular salon. The air wasn't heavy with smoke, like so many he had visited that day. There were customers of all ages and of both sexes intently playing or discussing a game. The boy stopped at a goban displaying stones set with a game already in progress. "My name is Touya Akira I am pleased that you came to visit our salon." Akira began to clear off the goban as he gestured towards one of the seats.
The young man removed his cloak, folded it into a neat square and set it beside the chair. He then removed two mangificent looking swords from his hip and layed them lovingly on top of his cloak which he then rolled over them to better conceal their presence. Sitting down he grabbed a bowl containing white stones and lightly bowed, "Please".
"Please" Akira said as he bowed reverently. Grabbing his first stone the boy slapped it down at 16-16 the top right star point.
Almost instantaneously the young man set a stone down at 4-4, another star point. With an air of confidence he looked up from the board expectantly at Akira.
Responding to the challenge in his eyes Akira slammed a stone down at 16-3, the position right below the star point.
Suddenly the fight was on as the young man chose to attack. Placing a stone at 16-5 he swiftly invaded the Akira's territory, but he chose to ignore the threat in favor of gaining an advantage in the remaining quadrant. *clack* a stone fell at 3-15.
Not letting things go so easily the young man followed Akira and pressed another attack at 4-17. Apparently he wanted Akira to bite back and wasn't going to stop pushing until he did.
Left with no choice Akira decided to take the battle to the right side of the board. Soon a heated battle raged accross the entire half of the board. Starting in the upper right quadrant it swiftly spilled down to the lower right. An older gentleman, one of the salon customers, walked over to the table to see how the game was progressing. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the game was not turning out as he expected. When others saw the man frozen in shock they quickly made their way over to see as well. In no time a crowd surrounded the two as their war raged accross the goban.
Akira began to sweat as his every effort was thwarted and pushed back. Just as he thought he was gaining an advantage the young man would suddenly connect and surround a vital group of stones, or he would slice and cut off a growing territory. "Who could this guy be?" he thought in panic. "I thought I knew all of the high ranked players!" Although Akira managed to make a few islands of life, the right side was already dominated by the young man's superior shapes.
Akira's heart began to pound within his chest, as he desperately scanned the board for a way to victory. His hand visibly shook as it hovered over the board looking for the best point to place the quivering stone. Overcoming the overwhelming defeat on the right side of the board looked like an impossible task already, but he still couldn't stop looking for a way out. The only times he had been beaten so soundly is when he played against higher dans, and usually he could hold out a lot longer than this. Only 130 moves into the game and Akira bowed his head, "I resign". Eyes smoldering, despite the defeat, Akira finally voiced the question lingering in his mind, "Wh-who are you?"
The young man's long silence finally broke, "You can call me Sai." With a small smile and a gentle voice he spoke again, "Touya-kun you have some skill. If you practice hard, I think that you could be pretty good someday."
Akira's mouth hung open in shock after hearing Sai's blunt assessment of the game. The moment was interrupted by the shouting of the old man, "How dare you talk to Master Touya like that! Do you have any idea who you just played?"
Sai's eyes opened wide in surprise staring at the man in confusion, "Should I?"
Whispers erupted from the crowd. Snippets of, "He really doesn't know" and "Who the hell does he think he is?" reached his ears. The old man nominated himself the spokesperson for the group. After silencing their erratic murmurs he spoke, "This is Touya Akira the son of Touya Meijin-sensei himself. He is going to take the pro exam this year, but he is already better than most of the beginner dans."
After the enthusiastic speech the old man had a smug look on his face. Sai simply sat there rubbing his chin staring off into space. He began muttering to himself, "Touya Akira, Touya Mejin hmm.." turning to the old man he spoke up, "Nope! I'm sorry I have never heard of them."
Pandemonium erupted in the room. Who would have thought that someone could walk into the Meijin's go salon, defeat his own son and not even know who he was. "Just because you got lucky and beat Touya-kun on a bad day you think you can rub it in our faces!"
"So you came in here to insult the Meijin!" shouted the old man. His face red in anger. Two people from the group had grabbed his arms while he struggled to break free.
Sai's chair squealed loudly as he stood up. The group was cowed into silence when the atmosphere suddenly changed. Barely whispering Sai indignantly spoke, "That game was a gift to Touya-kun. I didn't even play with half my strength. What kind of go-player would I be if I took my frustration out on a boy in a friendly game of go, especially after he displayed such courtesy in allowing me to play?"
Gasps were heard from everywhere. It looked like the old man was struggling to say something, but was silenced by Akira's voice.
With his head bowed and his hands still trembling he choked out, "He's right. That game was nothing more than a teaching game. He d-didn't play me at full strength". Akira couldn't control the emotion that he was feeling at that moment. A tear trickled down his face. He hadn't felt this way since he first started learning go. That feeling of impotence, as if the opponent was looking down on him from the lofty heights of heaven. A thunderbolt had struck him and left him with a feeling that he thought he had left far behind.
Sai already finished placing his swords, which caused the group give him more space than before. After dawning his cloak he slowly began to work his way towards the door.
"Wait!" shouted Akira, "with your level of skill you should be at least a title holder! Why haven't I heard of you? Why aren't you even a go pro?"
Pausing Sai turned his head while looking over his shoulder. With a large smile he said, "Oh but I am a title holder. I am God Hand Sai!"