I have much of the entire story written, so the chapters will all be uploaded as they are written and edited in a short period of time of about a week. All characters do not belong to me, and are written for entertainment and practice purposes only.
I will warn you now, I don't really have a plot-driven story, but that of character development, literary if you will. Without further ado, please enjoy!
"Hikaru, there's one thing you always need to remember," an old lady told a young child as she set a few cookies and a cup of tea on the table. "If you are kind to your elders, then the elders to you will be kind to you. It's as the saying goes, if you want to be respected, you respect others first."
"Yes, grandma," Hikaru said, pouting, watching her eat the cookies. "I said I was sorry."
"You need to mean it, boy!" she said, slapping him about the head.
"Yes, grandma," he said, smartening himself. He bowed to her, "I promise I will be more respectful to my elders."
"That's much better. I guess there's hope for you yet. Here, have a cookie."
Delighted at the treat, he accepted it, thanking her.
'Another long day at school,' Touya Akira thought as got off the train station and began making his way to the Go salon his father owned. 'Before I do my homework, it'll be good to review the third game of the Ouza league. To take my mind off other things, of course…'
A shout interrupted his thoughts, and he looked for the cause of the disturbance. A boy about his age with a duo-hair color was shouting meaningless words to thin air, in public.
"I told you Sai, I will let you play, just let me find that damn place! Just wait a minute while I try to examine this map!" the boy said, pointing to the piece of paper in his hand.
'Who on earth is he talking to? Better get away from this weirdo…' Akira thought, backing away from the boy before he got spotted. He really did not want to be asked where whatever was.
"Quit it, Sai! If you don't shut up, I won't let you play Go!"
'Hah?' Akira thought, finding more reason to get away from the public spectacle the boy was causing.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, Sai, now…" the boy muttered, resuming his examination of the map. Akira quickly made his way to the Go salon, and he had a sinking feeling that this was not the last time he would see the boy. His father's Go salon was the only one in this neighborhood, and deeply hope that the boy was in the wrong part of Tokyo.
Half an hour into reviewing the game, he heard a commotion at the reception desk. It was the same voice he heard, and the sinking feeling in his stomach grew. He could even barely pay attention to what he was reviewing. 'This is a lost cause,' he thought, putting the stones back in the goke.
Getting up, he went over to the reception desk.
"I'll play him," Akira spoke up after listening to the boy and Ichikawa-san.
"Oh, well, but he…"
"I understand, he never played Go before, right Ichikawa-san?" Akira asked, smiling. 'I'll crush his hopes, so his weirdness won't infect my Go world…'
"Yeah, yeah," the boy said, "where you wanna sit?"
"You need to pay—" she began.
"Oh, it's no worries," Akira said, looking at the panic stricken face on the boy. "It's his first time, after all."
"Well, if you insist…" she said, frowning.
Sitting down at the same goban Akira had occupied before, Akira introduced himself.
"My name is Touya Akira, have you ever held a stone before?"
"Oh, um, sort of? My grandpa gave up after my first turn though…" the boy replied, frowning. After a glance at Akira, the boy got the hint. "Oh! My name is Shindou Hikaru. Sorry for my bad manners, heh, heh."
The idiot boy scratched his head, embarrassed.
"Pleased to meet you," Akira said, bowing. Shindou did the same. "Do you want to place stones, or learn how to play?"
"Uh…" Shindou looked to his left for a long moment. "I guess it will be good to have the basics down first before I learned how to place the stones the right way."
'What a strange boy,' Akira thought as he began teaching the boy the basics of Go. During the teaching lesson, Akira noticed that Shindou's attention would always invariably be drawn to his left, as though he was looking at something. Then, somehow, his understanding on some of the basics was mastered even more quickly whenever Akira's explanation had not been enough.
"Can we play a real game now?" the boy asked a half hour later.
"I think it is too soon… you learned the basics for only a short while."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm quite confident that I can play a game now," Shindou said, grinning.
'That cheek,' Akira thought. 'Well, no matter, I'll crush his hopes.'
Then they played their first game.
Not an hour later, Akira felt the heart-gripping shock taking hold of him. There was no way out of this trap the boy had somehow set before him. This boy, Shindou, had completely dominated him, despite his best efforts. Not paying attention to the boy leaving the Go salon, Akira stared at the game before him. Where had he gone wrong? Did he go too light on Shindou?
"Akira-kun" Ichikawa asked, approaching him. "How was the game? You won, didn't you?" He simply shook his head. "Ah, took it easy on him?" she said, chuckling, then looked at the boy for a moment then walked away.
If it was any normal kid, he might have played shidougo, but, Shindou wasn't normal. Clenching his fist, Akira had to acknowledge the skill that existed on the board before him. Despite the weirdness Shindou exhibited, he played wonderful Go, and despite himself, he wanted to play more of this Go with the strange boy.
"Shindou Hikaru… we'll meet again. If you don't show yourself again soon, I'll come find you!" he muttered to himself as he began putting the stones away into their respective goke. He began reviewing the game he had just played.
"What's this place?" Sai asked, looking around at a Go event. Hikaru grinned. "It's Children's tournament of Go!"
Sai shouted an exclamation of surprise, looking around more closely. "Hikaru, let's go there!" Pleased that Sai is content, and therefore, the depression did not spill into his psyche. That really got old fast. Walking with Sai, he saw the kids play, and Hikaru's interest was piqued in Go. 'Wow, Sai, I thought only old geezers played!'
"Hikaru," Sai scolded. "That's not very respectful. "How do you think people are able to carry on the tradition of playing Go for thousands of years? This shows me that, just as a thousand years go, so it will be like this a thousand years from now."
'Huh, I had no idea… after seeing two places filled to the brim with old geezers, there's actually kids playing Go?' he thought, watching a board close by him. He had to have to give it to the kids here.
He heard Sai make a comment on another board and Hikaru examined for a second and winced when the young kid played a poor hand. "Ah, so—"
"Hikaru! Don't say anything!" Sai yelled, interrupted him, and Hikaru winced. "You'll ruin their game!"
The boys gave him a curious glance before resuming their game.
'Right… let's move on,' Hikaru thought, seeing looks of displeasure among the adults. 'You can stay here and watch. I'm going to explore a little.'
"Okay, Hikaru," Sai said, sounding content to watch the games in the tournament. Hikaru explored the convention and saw a small-secluded area filled with computers. Curious, he came closer to find out why there were computers at a Go tournament.
"—and if you click here, you have passed your turn, ending the game…" a person was explaining to an old man. Hikaru listened to the person explaining the computer for a while.
"Are there strong players on the Net Go?" Hikaru asked.
"Well, of course, some pros play on it," he said, sounding a little put out. "But you can never know for sure who you are playing, to be sure."
"Can you teach me about how to use this?" Hikaru asked after the old man left some moments later of discussion about how to get the game up and running on the man's computer at home.
"Sure, got a computer at home?"
"No, but I can go to an Internet café," Hikaru replied. "Maybe I'll convince my dad to get me a computer for school…"
"That usually works," the man chuckled. "Now, here's what you do…"
At the end of the event, Hikaru found Sai lingering by a board that was the only one left being played. It seemed to be the finals.
'How's it going, Sai?' Hikaru asked after he watched the end game of the two kids, smiling when he saw how happy Sai was. It was contagious, and Hikaru did not begrudge the ghost for it. The people around them were now milling, getting ready for the award ceremony.
"Shindou?" someone said his name, and Hikaru looked from Sai to the person calling his name.
"Oh, you're…" Hikaru said, trying to place his name.
"Touya Akira," Sai helped him.
"Touya, Touya Akira," Hikaru said, smiling. "So you're here too! Did you play in this tournament?"
"No, did you?"
"No, I found out about this place from that lady at the Go salon we met, so I thought to check it out."
"Ichikawa-san? Yes, she had flyers for the tournament…" Touya said, studying Hikaru carefully.
"What?" Hikaru said, frowning at the way Touya was staring intently at him. "Do you want to play another game or something?"
Touya blinked in surprise and stammered. "Ah, well, um…" Hikaru thought for a moment and he looked at Sai.
'If he's this happy, then how long will he remain happy? Two weeks? Yeah, I could do that…' Hikaru thought.
"Come on, let's go play," Hikaru said, grinning as he pulled Touya with him. 'Sai, you play!'
"Why are you spoiling me today, Hikaru?" Sai said, surprised.
"Ah, well, after what happened the other day at the Go club, Sai," he muttered under his breath. 'I figured I'd make it up to you…' finished in his thoughts to his ghost friend.
"What was that, Shindou?" Touya asked a moment later.
"Ah, nothing, nothing, hey mister, can we borrow this board?"
"Hikaru!" "Shindou!"
"Oh, um, er, but this is…" the man said, startled by the request then did a double take. "Touya Akira?"
"Um, yes," Touya replied, blushing furiously. "But we can go someplace else…"
"That's fine, you two can play a casual game of Go here. Maybe it'll inspire a few kids here," he said, chuckling as he walked away.
"All right! Let's play!" Hikaru said to Sai.
"Please."
"Please."
Halfway through the game, Hikaru noticed he was getting noticed by kids and adults, and he frowned a little when he noticed the amount of intensity he saw in the face of a man who wore white suit while Hikaru waited for Touya to play his next hand.
"I have lost…" Touya said, bowing his head.
"Ah, already? Well, thank you for the game," Hikaru said, glancing at Sai. 'How come he always gives up before finishing the game, Sai? Is that normal?'
"…Yes, Hikaru, when a strong opponent plays you and can see the difference in skill, they will often resign. A weak player won't know, and will usually insist on playing to the end."
'So he can tell how strong you are?' Hikaru asked, putting his own stones away. 'I'd like to know that trick.'
"That game was incredible, Akira-san," the man in white suit said. "Mind introducing him to me?"
"Ogata-sensei!" Touya said, snapping his head up. "Oh, um, yes. Ogata-sensei, this is Shindou Hikaru. Shindou-san, this is Seiji Ogata. He's one of my mentors in my Go study group."
"Pleased to meet you," Hikaru said, and Ogata returned his greeting. "I need to get going home. Mom will be mad…"
"Ah, yes, I'll talk to you later, then, Shindou?" Touya asked, hope filled his face. Hikaru felt a feeling of unease.
"Maybe," Hikaru said as he escaped the place.
"What's going on?" he asked Sai as he made his way to the train station. "Why were all the people watching us? There weren't so many people around that final game at the tournament!"
Sai remained quiet.
"Sai, just how strong are you?"
Akira followed the boy to the station, not wanting him out of sight just yet. He listened to the boy muttering to himself again.
"Sai, just how strong are you?" Shindou asked.
Akira frowned, wondering who Sai was. Wasn't the Go all Shindou? He watched the boy get on the train from the hidden place behind a pillar. Shaking his head, he caught his own train home.
A month later, he heard a discussion starting up at the Go study group at his house.
"Have you heard of Sai?" Ashiwara asked, "I played him and man, he crushed me!"
"Sai?" Akira asked, remembering Shindou saying the name a few times to himself.
"Yeah, an extremely strong player showed up on Net Go, and he's undefeated as of yet," Ashiwara continued. "I've seen a few of his other games, and I think he even played a Korean pro and won."
"Really?" Ogata asked, stroking his chin in thought as he looked at Akira. "You seem to know something about this?"
"Oh, um, not really. I haven't played Net Go…" Akira said, shaking his head. 'Sai? That Shindou Sai?i' he thought to himself.
"People want to find out who he is. All we know is that he lives in Japan," the man continued. "He's only been on the Net Go for a little over three weeks, and already causing a huge upheaval on the Internet. Which is, quite frankly, amazing."
"That so?" his father commented, humming to himself. "Will he reveal himself?"
"I don't know, sensei," Ashiwara replied. "Sai won't answer any questions after the game except to make a few comments about a few hands that might have turned the game to the player's favor."
Kouyo thought for a moment, "If he's that strong, he'll appear before us pros someday. You did say he's from Japan?"Ashiwara nodded in answer.
"Right, right!" Ashiwara said.
"We'll watch where this develops," Ogata said. "Now, let's review a the final game of the Ouza League."
"Oh, yes," Ashiwara said, moving away from that topic. Akira's thoughts remained on Shindou.
'On Net Go for over three weeks? That's about the time I last saw him. Did he check out the Net Go at the tournament?' Akira thought as he half listened to his father discussing the game Ashiwara and Ogata just played. 'Shindou, who are you?'
"Akira-kun, are you planning on taking the pro exam this year?" Ogata asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Maybe. Depends on someone else…"
"Oh, what's this?" his father asked. "Depends on who?"
"Shindou Hikaru," Ogata replied when Akira took too long to reply. "He was at the Children's tournament a few weeks ago, and Akira-kun ran into him and they played… an interesting game."
"Why did you not say anything about this, Akira?" Kouyo asked, frowning. "Seiji?"
"I thought Akira would have told you, so I didn't say anything," Ogata said, looking at Akira with a questioning look. Akira's face grew hot with embarrassment.
"He looks quite flustered, did he lose?" Kouyo asked Ogata.
"He resigned, yes," Ogata replied. "Akira, do you want to show us the game? I can play black for you."
Left with no choice, he played his second game against Shindou. At the end, the entire group was in dead silence for long moments.
"What is he?" one of the pros in the group asked. "He slaughtered Akira-san, excuse me for saying so."
"That's what I would like to know. What else do you know about Shindou?" Ogata asked.
"I… think that was his second time playing against anyone. The first was against me."
Another long silence.
"Is he a genius… or a monster?" Ogata asked, his voice trembling.
"Ah!" Ashiwara cried out, snapping his fingers. "I thought I recognized that style! It's like Sai on the Net Go! Both are like Shuusaku's."
"Are you serious, Ashiwara?" another pro asked as Ogata and Akira looked at Ashiwara.
"I'm quite positive. Say, Akira, did he say anything about playing Net Go and gave you a screenname?"
Akira slowly shook his head, "Not when we talked." 'He did say Sai…'
"That's a shame, maybe you can find out next time you meet him?"
But there had been no next time for the next few months, and he had no idea what school Shindou went to. Nevertheless, the games on Net Go against Sai continued, and Akira had witnessed a few of them. Ashiwara was right about one thing, Net Go's Sai's Go, and Shindou's Go were the same, but, if he wasn't mistaken, it seemed that he was witnessing a change in Sai's go. As though…
"As though Shuusaku was learning modern Go," Ogata said one evening in study group. "It really is quite remarkable to witness."
"Yes, I have seen a few of his kifu," Kouyo said, nodding. "But I still have no interest in players who won't show themselves. So, let's begin."
"Yes, sensei." "Of course, let us…" "All right."
"Have you seen Shindou since that day?" Ogata asked Akira during the lull of games in the room.
Akira shook his head in reply. "I don't know what school he goes to… and he won't answer me on Net Go. Even in a private message, but it seems he has turned the private messaging off."
Ogata chuckled, "With the amount of people wanting to play him, he might have been hounded by others asking him questions."
"Hikaru!" his mom called. "What are you doing, are you done with your homework?"
"Yes, mom," he replied, placing the next stone on the board. "I'm just playing Go right now."
"You are always playing Go, Hikaru," she said, frowning. "Well, as long it doesn't affect your studies…"
"Yeah, yeah…"
"Hikaru, be more respectful!" Sai scolded, then ordered, "14-10."
Hikaru ignored Sai's chastisement.
'Know what Sai, maybe I should look up what it means to be a pro. So many people in the box on the side keeps asking me about it…' Hikaru thought, frowning as he saw another question being asked about him being a pro. "Must mean because you're strong, or something."
After the game ended, the player finally resigned, he exited the application and did a Google search. Both Hikaru and Sai read different pages explaining what it meant to be a Go pro.
"They make this much money?!" Hikaru exclaimed after awhile. "Man! Do you think you can win those titles, Sai? It would mean you can play really strong players, not the weak ones on Net Go."
"There are strong players on Net Go, Hikaru!" Sai corrected him, then his facial expression turned thoughtful. "Playing more strong players…"
"Oh yeah, Touya's dad is the one closest to the Hand of God, right?" Hikaru said, remembering the announcement on an electric board one day. "I don't think he plays Net Go…. Eh?"
Hikaru read a statement about young pros not entering high school due to their careers. "Wow! I won't even need to go to high school, Sai! You could play and win us all the titles, and I won't need to go to high school!"
'All Hikaru could see is money and not attending classes,' Sai thought, frowning. 'But, if he is not in school as much, I could play more…'
"Is money and not going to school all you want to do in life, Hikaru?"
"It's a nice, added bonus, I'll admit," he replied, "Now, how to become a pro…"
Sai felt indignant at Hikaru for only thinking of his own selfish ambitions for playing Go.
"But you don't even like to play Go, Hikaru," Sai said.
"Hm," Hikaru, looked at Sai. "Not true, I am starting to understand why you like to play Go. Though, I never have any opportunity."
"I can play you!" Sai offered, realizing that his host was interested.
"Really, Sai? You wuld?" Hikaru asked, perking up at his chance to try playing. "I never wanted to mess up your games, even though there had been times when I wanted to try playing a hand… It might mean you losing the game though, and become defeatable on Net Go. We can't have that!"
"Let's play, let's play!" Sai said, grinning. Hikaru opened the application and started a player versus player game without going on Net Go.
"Should I place some stones down?" Hikaru asked.
"No need, let's see how much of Go you've picked up. I'll go lightly on you."
Hikaru pouted, but placed the first hand without saying a word. Several hands into the game, Hikaru blinked, wondering what was the feeling that he got stirring in his stomach. He saw that there was a complicated battle in the top left corner, and he desperately tried not to lose his stones there. Clenching his left hand, he tried to play a hand by placing the stone with his right.
A few hands later, he lost his group.
"You said you were going light on me!" Hikaru complained.
"I did, I did, I'm sorry, Hikaru!"
Hikaru sighed, "I resign. So, what do you think, Sai?"
"You did pick up quite a bit, Hikaru," Sai said, pleased with the boy.
"Really?" Hikaru asked, sitting up straighter in his computer chair. "Great, let's play another game! How many stones?"
"…Eight."
"Eight!" Hikaru exclaimed, then bowed his head in defeat. "Well, I suppose that's the difference, huh?"
'No, Hikaru… I would have said twenty, but I didn't want to discourage you with so many stones,' Sai thought to himself as Hikaru prepared the next round of Go. Sai smiled at his adopted disciple.
"Hikaru? Maybe next week, you can start trying to play others on Net Go under a new name?"
"Huh, why? Don't you want to play others?"
"Go… is not about just playing against others, it's about sharing your knowledge. Teaching is as much of a passion of mine as it is to play Go," Sai said, closing his eyes as he remembered the days of his own life, then with Torajiro. "If I had known you wanted to play sooner, I would have played you, teaching you earlier."
"Huh!"
"Maybe, once you are better at Go, and can understand a strong game of Go… I'll show you an interesting game," Sai said, remembering Torajiro. "This time, you can show your skills to others…"
"Huh, what do you mean, 'This time?'"
"I'll explain sometime later in the future, let's play!"