Paching, paching...

Hikaru wonders if his head went bad after all the hits he has received, because even in his sleep he hears that sound.

The sound of stones hitting a goban, its such a nostalgic sound but he doesn't understand why he recognizes it, when he is sure this is his first time in such a place.

"Touya's Go Salon" he reads a loud.

This is the place where Shindo met Touya Akira, the Meijin's son for the first time. Funny how Hikaru even though he knows that the title exists he still doesn't understand what a Meijin is, and a month ago he didn't even know that Go was a thing.

A month, eh?

Has it been just a month? It feels longer, Hikaru thinks. After all not everyone wakes up with what seems of years worth of memories of an alternative self. Or are they? Hikaru doesn't think that Shindo and him act or look that much alike, unlike Shindo he is 1/4 European and 1/8 Vietnamese. Okay so he does have blonde hair, green eyes and tanned skin. But unlike Shindo Hikaru's skin is darker and he doesn't dye his hair, he is naturally blonde.

There are other differences like how Hikaru is skinnier and shorter than Shindo was at this age but that is mostly due to being in a coma for almost 3 weeks, so seeing how he just got out of bed rest it is entirely logical that some of their features may vary.

Hikaru does his best to ignore the voice that tells him how Shindo didn't live of Miso and rice for most of his life because of constant neglect.

Anyway, you may be wondering why is Hikaru here in Touya's Go Salon? Well he is just as clueless about it.

Since the moment he woke up Hikaru knew he wasn't Shindo, he can't play at his level and the rules of the game eluded him even though he could somehow understand it. So when he started to dream more and more about the game he started researching about Go and more importantly Honinbou Shuusaku.

Hikaru spend hours on the library studying Shuusaku's kifus and the rules of Go, it calmed him and surprisingly he liked it. It shouldn't have surprised him that much, after all Shindo loved the game and he was good at it.

He was about to go home when it started raining. Hikaru knew that if he tried to go home now he would just get sick, he doesn't have money for a taxi nor a pass for the train. So he steels his nerves and enters the Go salon.