Students of Sai
Disclaimer : Hikaru No Go and any and all related properties do not belong to me.
"blah" used for speech
/blah/ used for thoughts
Three months ago Kobayashi Ren was totally oblvious to the world of Go, a typical twelve year old who loved playing soccer mostly and riding his bicycle,.
One day he was looking around a shop selling used items, items that are no longer used by the people who have bought them and donated to the shop, any money made is used for local needy causes. Many old items were in this shop, getting engrossed in an old soccer book Ren was losing track of time, and although he didn't have much money the shop owner didn't know this and didn't seem to mind him browsing. Looking for another book to read he noticed a book that seemed old and weathered with age.
Flicking through the book he noticed that the pages contained pictures of huge grids with numbered circles placed on intersecting lines of the grid. Seems to have various notes between the diagrams explaining tactics of some sort?
/This isn't a soccer book, must be a strategy game/ thought Ren
/What is this doing among the soccer books, and why is it damp, urrgh it's fresh blood, it's on my fingers?/
"Excuse me Oji-san" said Ren to the shop owner
"Do you have tissues handy, i've ended up with blood on my fingers when i opened this book, its soaking in blood."
"Blood?" said the owner "Are you ok kiid?"
Quickly coming over to Ren and looking at both his hand and the book he says "There is no blood" giving a look of annoyance.
Ren in the meantime has blood dripping from his fingers and utters
"No blood! If there isn't any blood what is this dripping... "
Suddenly an urgent voice comes from the book "You can see the blood!"
Ren startled forgets what he was saying and shouts "What the..."
"You can see it!"
/I must be losing my mind, hearing voices/
"Almighty one thank you for sending this child. I shall return to the living world"
Ren suddenly loses consciousness.
Two minutes later Ren awakens, he's sat upright on a chair in the shop, the shop owner is holding a cold wet cloth on his forehead.
"Thank goodness, you suddenly passed out while shouting out something." explains the owner
"Any longer and i would have called for an ambulance. Are you ok now, do you need me to contact anybody to pick you up from here?"
"No i'm ok" said Ren "Probably been too long between meals or something, sorry for scaring you".
"That's a relief. I was worrying when you were imagining blood, not to mention fainting after shouting out. There's a ramen shop three doors down the road, make sure you eat something".
Thinking back Ren looks at his fingers but can no longer see any blood,
/What is wrong with me today/
"Hello" comes an alien voice from inside his head only audible to Ren, the same voice he heard earlier.
/Am I going crazy, need to stop dreaming, wake up Ren, wake up/
"No you are not crazy and you are awake Ren" comes that same voice
"I was trapped in that book, the last thing i remember was playing Go. I collapsed during a coughing fit of blood, since then i have been trapped within pages of a book that lay next to the goban i played on at that time"
/You, You can read my thoughts, who.., wh what are you?/
"My name is Shusaku"
Shindou Hikaru had recently lost the crucial match against Yo Kongha of Korea in the Hokuto Cup by a measly half moku. Failure to defend Sai's honour has left him more determined than ever to revenge the defeat at the next Hokuto Cup... Touya Akira must be defeated for the First Board postition, but little was he aware of the other threat from the ranks below.
Several months have passed since this time, the previous Hokuto Cup had been such a sensation that worldwide interest in Go has been renewed, oblivious to this Fuku is once again participating in the pro exam.
Fuku was doing well in this years pro exam, 11 games undefeated but had yet to play the only other currently undefeated player who was privately known as "Big Ochi" to the remaining insei who remained from the previous year, possibly an unfair comparison as Kobayashi Ren although having similar face and glasses to the pro in question was a lot taller with spiked blonde hair, although their intensity was similar
The difference in strength in their match was overwhelming and scariest of all was that he had yet to taste defeat, As expected Kobayashi Ren passed the pro exam without a loss. Unfortunately Fuku wasn't up to passing this year.
Unknown at this time to Shindou Hikaru a certain Shusaku had not only convinced Ren to play Go on his behalf (the promise of prize money was all that was needed as incentive to become a pro) but had recently found out about the legendary Sai of NetGo. While participating in the pro exam Ren was often questioned as to whether or not there was a connection between himself and Sai.
The similarity of the games of Sai and the current kifus of Shindou Hikaru had been mentioned on fansites of the now legendary Sai of NetGo.
/Shindou Hikaru must be a fellow student of Fujiwara Sai/ was the final thought of Shusaku after studying the available kifus of Sai on NetGo as well as Hikaru's as a pro.
Of course having played many games with Sai as his companion he had no doubt that his Sai and the Sai of NetGo were one and the same. Unfortunately it seemed that Sai was long gone from NetGo and had completely disappeared but Shindou Hikaru was available.
/Looking at Hikaru's recent Kifus his strength is increasing in leaps and bounds but..." then smiled
/I will show him my strength/
Shusaku was relishing the chance to test his Go against the other student of Sai and the top players of the Go world. Kami-sama had granted him his wish to return to the world of the living, and although he would have longed for a body of his own sharing the body of Ren would suffice.
While coughing up blood many years ago he recalled feelling a slight regret at not having tested his own Go strength over the years. Although it had been an honour to learn from Sai playing games on his behalf, he had let the ghost play all the games and was content to watch and study as he placed the moves, but as a fellow lover of Go, Shusaku had bottled up his desire to play himself.
/Who will be the victor if Hikaru and I play?/
Shindou Hikaru had arrived at the observation room to observe the opening Beginner Dan Series game, without Touya Akira at his heels for once as Akira was due to play a 9-Dan, the winner of which was to enter the Kisei League.
Amano sensei had mentioned to Hikaru that he expected a great game between Ogata sensei and the as yet undefeated new pro Kobayashi Ren and rumours had been flying around the pros with relation to "Sai" and the new pro. Ogata had apparently requested this game after hearing rumoura of "Sai" connected with this kid. After demanding kifus from some of the better insei who had played him, this was enough for Ogata to demand Ren would be his opponent in the Beginner Dan Series. Now he would test out this 'New Sai'
Midpoint through the game, the territories roughly even at this point, Ren suddenly placed a stone at 15-4, Hikaru gasped at the significance of the move.
/Sai! That move is definately Sai but if so why is this game currently even. On his worst day Sai would be ahead of Ogata given that he had the starting move, the reverse komi would not be an issue/
Hikaru pondered this, could Ren be a fan of Sai, it would certainly indicate why the style of play is similar although different, not quite at the same unbeatable level that Sai had attained.
/It's like watching, another me ...but not me... Could it be that Sai is with Ren but Ren is playing the games himself, no, no, if that was the case Sai would have let me know he had returned/
Approaching the endgame Ren made an unexpected slightly weak move, 8-6 would have killed off Ogata's options but the stone at 9-6 ileft a passage for Ogata to connect his separated territories. There was no way Ogata was going to let Ren off the hook now.
"I resign" said Ren, while thinking /I'm sorry Shusaku, I placed the stone at 9-6 instead of 8-6, the pressure of the game got to me and i made a mistake/
Ogata was surprised that 8-6 wasn't played earlier, from reading ahead he could still possibly have won but it would have been a tough battle in the endgame, even taking into account that Ren started with black and had the 5.5 moku advantage. He was playing his best and knew he may have possibly lost the game depending on the boy's endgame ability.
Ogata was looking at him in disbelief, this was not a Shindou Hikaru, Touya Akira or Kuwabara but a new pro who had just pushed him to his limit. Several of the moves had him trembling as he felt the influence of "SaI" but the game was not quite at the same playing level and the style was different. Yes, different as in more focused on traps that would gain unexpected territory, rather than complete domination of the board from every angle possible.
Ogata smiled to himself, the new wave of Go just keeps getting more and more interesting.
Through Ren, Shusaku had found information on the prior Hokuto Cup, Ren was undefeated at this time among the lower dans losing only twice against upper dan players in tournament qualifying games, and was considered a likely candidate to qualify for the upcoming Hokuto Cup, but only one qualifying place remained.
Due to previous records, Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira had both been pre-selected to play for the Hokuto Cup. Shusaku was not too motivated at this time to play in the Cup but was looking at working his way up the rankings so he could play officially against Hikaru. It was well known by now that Akira and Hikaru were considered rivals and were basically in competition to win a title first (Touya Akira had come closest, making the title match for the Honinbo, but was thoroughly trounced by Kuwabara in a series of games leading to him crowing "Ho Ho Ho, still life in these old bones yet. Perhaps next year will be the time of the young lions but i still have much to teach them" in an interview with Amano san).
Ren was reading an article on the past Hokuto Cup, in it were quotes from the previous year and he was reading it happily when he felt a surge of anger within him from Shusaku. He had just read Ko Yonghas comments regarding.. himself when he played on Sai's behalf.
/Nothing to learn from Shusaku... If you want to learn Go learn from Ko Yongha.../
Shusaku was burning inside at the impudence of the man mocking Sai's Go. He must be defeated for the sake of his mentor.. his friend. It was time for the Go World to become aware of the newly motivated Shusaku, intent on defeating the arrogant Korean prodigy and ready to smash through any obstacles in his way.
Which student of Sai would be the first to reach the Hand of God.
Only Kami-sama and time can produce an answer.
As Shusaku had served his purpose for Sai's Go, Sai had served his purpose for Hikaru's Go and now it seemed that Ko Yongha's purpose was to take the two students of Sai to a new level.
Whatever the outcome, the future looks bright for Japanese Go.
The same could not be said for Ko Yongha...
The End
First fanfic, this assumes that you have read the Hikaru No Go manga before reading this, if not read the manga first and then check out this fanfic again.
Please enjoy reading this short story and I hope it gets the reader's imagination running wild for all things Hikaru No Go related. Thank you.