Chapter Two

Once again, the A/N is at the bottom.

Yun was not sure what to make of the two plainly Japanese children who had walked into the predominantly Korean go salon. He would say they were primary school students from their appearances, and they didn't have an adult with them, but from the way the girl's eyes lit up at the sight of the gobans and how she had talked animatedly with the receptionist, it was obvious they were here for a game.

This particular salon was on the cusp of what was referred to as 'Korea town', so it wasn't strange for both Koreans and Japanese customers to come and go. Yun was there because he was tutoring the owner's daughter, Ji-Myeong, on some strategies as a favor. The teen was a decent player, if the slightest bit complacent about her abilities. She didn't have any intention of going pro, but an opportunity to teach go to a youth was always an opportunity well spent, in Yun's opinion.

He was a tad curious if the two children, who after paying the fee had gone to the nearest free table, the girl doing nigiri for both of them, would need any guidance. He was a tutor through and through, and the current playing level of Japanese youth was appalling. Maybe he'd glance at their game if the two were still there when he gave Ji-Myeong her next break, to see if they would change that in the future.

Yun wasn't the only one who watched the two kids play the first stages of joseki out of the corner of his eye. Go was notoriously unpopular among the younger generation, and these two were happily playing with a two stone handicap on the boy (the shyer of the two, Yun would guess from how the boy followed the girl around and hadn't spoken as loudly as her), and were holding the stones properly, without as much clumsiness to suggest that they'd just started learning.

They finished their match in half an hour with the girl grudgingly admitting defeat, and that was when one of the Korean patrons - a Seong-Eun, if Yun remembered correctly - made the first interaction with the newcomers. He could speak both Japanese and Korean, albeit not the former very fluently, and he had two children of his own at home so he wasn't very threatening in appearance or demeanor. Yun noted the cleverness in such an action, since nobody who was halfway familiar with the go world wanted to scare off new prospects.

Somehow, the man ended up taking the girl's spot across from the dual haired boy and playing an even test game. The redhead girl seemed to be shadow-playing behind her friend, quietly mouthing where Seong-Eun put his pieces. It was odd, but the two children seemed close and the boy didn't shush her once. At the end game discussion though, the language barrier became obvious when an oddly surprised Seong couldn't fully explain what went wrong with one of the other's clusters, no matter how much he gestured at the stones.

Before Yun could dismiss his student for the break he had promised and graciously offer himself as a translator to them, two women with arms laden in shopping bags poked their head through the door informing the children (Akari and Hikaru) that it was time to go home. The boy sketched a quick goodbye to his opponent before rushing out if the salon with his friend.

Yun still gave Ji-Myeong her break, using the opportunity to peek at the board before his fellow Korean could clear it. As expected, Seong had won the match, but not by as much as he'd have thought. Without Komi (which he found was set to 5.5), the gap had been by four and a half moku, making only a ten point difference in skill. Very impressive, as Seong was one of this establishment's more decent players despite not being anywhere near professional level, and the kids were, well, kids.

Yun smiled, glad that at least one child (besides the prodigious Toya Akira) was a decent go player with a bright future ahead of him at this age. It gave him hope that the students at Kaio, who were several years older than the two children and where he would begin working in the following weeks, would have potential.

The first thing Hikaru did in the following days after his first stint in a go parlor was to convince his mother to let him learn Korean. They'd realized early on that Hikaru would only be able to participate in the after game by conversation alone - if he couldn't understand what the other person was saying, he wouldn't be able to learn from his mistakes.

It was one of the few times he and Sai had agreed on something outside of go, even if the main reason the language would come in handy was to discuss the game. As it was, Hikaru had to recreate the game from scratch after getting home so that Sai could talk with him in his opponent's place, but the fact remained - he would need to learn.

They unfortunately hadn't been able to track down a beginners Japanese-to-Korean Braille translation, but one of the ladies in the neighborhood had at one point tried to have her child learn Korean, and she had been more than happy to give the audio recorded lessons to the Shindous, as her son had lost interest soon after purchasing the tapes.

Some of it Hikaru picked up easily, while other times he'd have to replay a certain phrase over and over to get the right enunciation. Akari had at first promised to help and learn with him, but when she had seen the audio tapes several days after acquiring them, she immediately rushed back to her house with a 'great idea' and neither Hikaru nor Sai had seen her since.

Hikaru tagged along with his mother to the Korean market several more times over the next few months, each time waiting for her to finish her errands in the same go salon. In the absence of his female friend, Sai guided him through the building and during points of the game where Hikaru couldn't tell where his opponent had placed the stone. After a while, there was a dual purpose to the after game discussion - it helped his go, and it helped his Korean.

Slowly and surely, he had a firm enough grip on the basics of conversation and grammar that he could go through an entire explanation without the need of Yun-san (who spoke flawless Japanese and seemed to have taken a personal interest in Hikaru's go) or one of the other bilingual patrons correcting him.

Sai was proud of his disciple, and the exposure to new players had greatly helped Hikaru's go. Twice he had defeated his grandfather during the first month of his visits to the salon alone, and now - only three days until Hikaru's eighth birthday and four months after making his debut - the dual haired boy was playing under a handicap against the old man.

Hikaru never did return to Akari's go class, much to his mother's disappointment. She went as far as to inform Hikaru's teachers at the special needs classes and see if they could get her son to 'socialize'p again. The lesson that day had been about learning to use computers, since there had been a recent upsurge in their everyday use; the devices had been equipped with special keyboards and voice command software to make it easier on the students, and sliding the mouse over any word would cause the program to read it out loud.

Needless to say, Sai was fascinated by this new kind of magic box, and was hanging off everything the instructors said, unlike Hikaru.

The teacher, after helping the fourteen other students, pulled up a chair next to Hikaru. It wasn't very unusual for this to happen to kids in the class - the parents worried, and the teachers were supposed to help the kids adjust socially as a part of their job. It had just never been Hikaru in the hot seat before, and he was sort of glad Sai was there to back him up, even if the ghost wasn't perceptible to Nobu-sensei.

Still, he tried to hold out on the vain hope that his mother hadn't told the teacher all of her worries and all of the details of Hikaru's life.

"So, Hikaru-kun," the older man started. "Your mother told me you went to a neighborhood go session a while back, and you haven't returned. Doesn't your friend Akari-chan still go?"

The teacher was a skeptic, as Hikaru dubbed them - someone who couldn't bring himself to believe that his disadvantaged students could very much succeed on their own power. The blind boy gave Nobu a dry 'look' that he most definitely shouldn't have been able to use. "Sensei, it's not really any of your business, but that class was too restricting. And I'm a much better player than Akari is, plus I can beat Ji-chan on any good day of the week."

"I'm sure you can. But your mother is concerned with your lack of social interaction. The only times she sees you actually talk with anyone is when she takes you shopping at the Korean Market, and old men who smoke like a chimney aren't the best company for a growing boy. Especially without supervision. What happened to Akari-chan? Did you two have a falling out?"

- That is extremely rude! Hikaru, who is he to say such things about nice go players? And I supervise you all the time! Your play has vastly improved because of it. - Sai huffed, a momentary distraction from the conversation. If Hikaru's empty gaze got any drier or more distasteful, he'd be competing with the Gobi desert.

- I'm pretty sure that's missing the point. - The dual haired boy replied, before giving his attention back to Nobu. The computer exercises had mostly been to introduce the tech, so they were simple and thus finished quickly.

"Sensei, I'm pretty sure that most of the people in that parlor are in their thirties or forties and have families, and only a handful of them smoke, one of which is the owner who has a daughter only a few years older than me; I'm sure she knows when too much smoke is too much smoke. And I haven't spoken to Akari cause she hasn't been around recently, for whatever reason."

"Is it because of something you said? You should apologize so that your mother doesn't worry anymore. You really need to be around more kids your own age, and I'm afraid that your go hobby may be interfering with it. You want other friends besides Akari-chan, don't you?"

If Sai's scandalized gasp was anything to go by, he was just as offended as Hikaru felt; the man had literally just ignored half of what he'd said. The blind boy couldn't see the teacher's face, but after months of practice Hikaru could point his supposedly intense green eyes at Nobu-sensei in a ferocious scowl. He had to bite back his satisfaction when he sensed a ripple of discomfort roll off the older man.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of Hikaru's power over the situation, since the last time he'd gotten into an argument with a teacher he'd been grounded, banned from go, and forced to apologize anyway. So the dual haired boy - in a rare instance of verbal restraint - held his tongue and just ignored everything the other man said. This was the main reason Hikaru hated the special needs class.

Oh, he could see where they were coming from. Child Predator 101 was something severely stressed in the special needs class, and there was a prominent belief (expectation, really) that all children - even the disabled - were supposed to try and befriend everyone their age and have tons of friends. Once upon a time - before he met Sai - Hikaru might have wanted a couple of people his age he could play with, but now they were, for the most part, lacking. Lacking what he couldn't say, but it was something Akari and Sai had that made Hikaru like them and that other people didn't have.

He had everything he could ask for, from a range of go opponents to a mentor that got him, and anymore friends would take away from his time to play go. Despite taking up the game for social reasons, Hikaru had actually fallen in love with go in a way that he been envious of with Sai when they'd first met.

Hikaru was thankful when the teacher eventually gave up and went to another student - this one a regular to the 'you need to get out more' spotlight - and returned to the computer. Sai was still stewing over the 'nosey and rudely inconsiderate young man that was', so Hikaru decided to put his newfound computer skills to use and see what the Internet had to say about go. Maybe there was something he could find that would get his mother off his back, or at least have the spirit stop giving him a headache.

Right off the bat, several sites popped up about playing go in online forums, much to both boy and spirit's interest. They spent the rest of class investigating the most popular (a site called NetGo), and it was with reluctance that Hikaru eventually logged off when his mother came to pick him up from class.

He decided not to bring up his conversation with Nobu-sensei if his mom didn't mention it first, but the go website was too fascinating a discovery to not talk about. His mom seemed more interested in the forum and discussion aspects than the actual game play part, but that was just his mom. Forever worried Hikaru wouldn't have enough friends, and forever hovering to make sure he didn't accidentally walk in front of a car. The thought made him momentarily depressed, but he stomped it out just as quickly as it appeared.

It was his fault that he was antisocial as much as it was true that a lot of kids his age didn't get where he was coming from, and Hikaru was too mentally astute and blunt to try and hang around people he would get tired of and didn't share his interests anyway. Thus was the curse of his choice in game.

Besides, he was seven (well, eight in three days but whatever) and he had tons more time to make friends. Next time he saw Akari, he'd have to get her to introduce him to some of her school friends and see if he got along with any of them. It would be worth a shot, if only so that a repeat of the teacher talk never happened again.

The next time Hikaru ended up seeing Akari was three days later, on his birthday. Sai had been chatting his ear off since he'd woken up that morning about how he was so excited for Hikaru, and had since been speculating on what the boy could be given for a present. Most of what he guessed was obviously go-related, and Hikaru was inclined to agree with him.

Since Hikaru's friend pool was so painfully shallow (to his mother; he didn't really care), it was a small gathering of the Fujisakis, his parents, and his grandparents. Lunch had been his favorite type of ramen, and as soon as both he and Akari finished he demanded to know what she'd been up to for the past couple of weeks. While Sai was always good company, he had missed having a living friend to talk to too.

Akari proved to be annoyingly secretive over her activities, however, but after soundly trouncing her in three separate rounds of go (because what else would they do?), it was his friend who was now the more vexed of the two, and his frustration melted into smugness.

Well it was her fault that she'd skipped out on visiting the Korean go salon and practicing with him. As it was, they had been beginning a fourth game when Mitsuko called that it was time for presents. Sai oohed and ahhed at the line up invisible to Hikaru, doing his best to not give anything away to his student even while wondering what each of them could be.

The birthday gifts were simple and almost exclusively go related, like Sai predicted - for example, this year Akari's parents gave him new goke with the Braille for 'black' and 'white' engraved on the lids. Things were still go related, but not in the way they usually were in that his parents or grandparents found a practice book in braille that he could use.

His parents and grandparents had pitched in and gotten him a computer. Apparently, his mother thought this would be the perfect way for him to make friends with 'kids' who had the same interests as him. Hikaru didn't doubt for a second that there would be a chance of people his grandpa's age playing on NetGo, and there would probably be a certain degree of homework assigned with the computer, but hey - more go was more go, and this would be the perfect way to let Sai play without freaking out his grandpa or Akari or making a commotion at the go salon about his ridiculous sudden leap in playing ability.

Akari's gift, though, reminded him of just why he'd missed the girl's constant presence. Hikaru already had a Walkman* CD player, and Akari's gift had been a recording of herself reading dozens of kifu that she'd somehow managed to get her hands on, some from modern pros and others from historic players, like Honinbo Shuusaku. Sai was practically weeping with joy that his former student's games would be part of Hikaru's gift, and Hikaru was determined to get his living friend to record more games for him later.

That was how later that night, after Akari and her parents and his grandparents had long since gone home and Hikaru's parents were asleep down the hall, Hikaru found himself sitting down in front of his newly connected computer, mentally communicating with Sai as the boy set up NetGo accounts for both them, a leftover piece of birthday cake moonlighted from the fridge onto his desk.

- Are you sure you don't want some cool username, like EmporerofGo or something? -

The ghost's response sounded confused confused. - Why would I use a name other than my own? I was under the impression that direct use of one's name was common practice nowadays. Am I wrong in my assumption? -

Hikaru sighed through his forkful of cake. - No, no; you're right, this isn't the Heian period where you call yourself 'this one' or anything like that. I don't even think they still did that in Torajiro's time. Okay, so just sai it is then… -

The computer gave a soft ding, and the program read the message from a pop-up congratulating Hikaru for registering. Ignoring it, he opened another tab and redid the process for his own account, giving himself the handle of 555. Sai chuckled before reverting back to his normal childish self and squealing as Hikaru navigated back to the ghost's page and began looking for people to challenge.

The blind boy felt a smile creep onto his lips, glad that he was able to finally keep his promise of letting the spirit of go play for himself once again, even if it had taken him nearly two years to figure out how. But it was worth it, because now Hikaru would be able to see from a third person perspective just how awesome his teacher really was - he may have been regularly outclassed in shidougo games by the ghost, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy watching someone else fall against the titan that was Fujiwara no Sai.

It was a little awkward at first navigating the electronic board, made slightly nerve wrecking by the unexpected addition of a thinking timer. It wasn't that Sai especially found the addition of this other modern limitation difficult to deal with, but that Hikaru took up the majority of the allotted time just finding the grid points. They still won, but their opponent seemed furious over the seemingly long and random pauses.

Typing a brief post game 'thank you' into the chat box before exiting the board, Hikaru randomly chose another player at Sai's insistence. Between both a mix of sugar from the cake and the adrenaline rush of playing go in general, the pair stayed up far longer than they probably should have for a weeknight, but Hikaru had gotten more comfortable on the computer as a result, and Sai claimed to have started adapting his go faster than when he only played Hikaru.

When Hikaru's head hit the pillow some odd number of games later, he had absolutely no idea the monster he'd introduced to the go world, nor the frenzy his teacher's play would cause, and wouldn't fully for years yet to come.

Hikaru was nine when he was old enough - along with the hearty insistence of his father and grandparents - to convince his mom that he could make the trek to the Korean go parlor by himself. Well, he wouldn't truly be alone (he would always have Sai with him, after all), but he hadn't mentioned Sai to his parents since he was seven and growing out of imaginary friends, not to mention that this excursion would only be allowed if Akari was with him the whole time.

To a normal kid his age, being allowed to make little outings alone to places like the convenience store or the round trip to and from school was nothing special. Hikaru was allowed to walk with Akari to her house and his grandparent's house - and that was it. He had never ventured outside of the residential area his neighborhood and his grandparent's resided in. True, he was homeschooled, but Hikaru was pretty sure that if he wasn't, he'd be the only kid in his grade still being escorted by his parents.

Until now that is, apparently. He wasn't exactly sure what had inspired this sudden change in tune from his mother, but Hikaru wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He hadn't had the opportunity to visit the salon near the Korean market as much lately, mainly because he'd overslept on the days his mother decided to go shopping in that particular part of town due to playing NetGo too late into the night.

It was odd, but most of the better opponents seemed to play at ridiculous hours even though he had checked that they were based out of Japan or the Asian mainland. The sheer reach of NetGo had been a novel thing for both Hikaru and Sai, even if it had caused Sai many happy tears and kept Hikaru's korean skills up to par. The ghost's popularity had surpassed Hikaru's own by leaps and bounds without either of them really knowing why, but they hazarded that it may have had something to do with his impressive win-to-lose ratio and that fact that he played anyone and everyone with his full effort.

Not to say that Hikaru's account didn't get its fair share of challengers, but they didn't come in droves like Sai's did. At one point, the site's moderators had emailed the pair (really just Hikaru, since he'd used his email for both accounts) to inform them of a feature that would let them (Sai, mainly) pick and chose who he played from the dozens of requests that came in whenever they logged in or finished a match, instead of allowing the page to crash from so many pop-ups like it had been doing previously.

It was actually Sai that had suggested taking a break from internet play, stating that Hikaru should be getting more sleep for his age and be rested so that he would be able to accompany his mother on her next trip. He'd agreed, but hadn't expected his mom to let him go without her, and if her fretting as Hikaru made his final push out the door before she changed her mind meant anything, it hadn't been entirely her idea.

He didn't know how long his dad and grandparents had been working Mitsuko down behind his back, but he would be sure to thank them profusely later. Maybe let his grandpa get a win over him, just to stoke the old geezer's ego.

Akari was waiting for him at the gate, and she protested as he grabbed her arm and kept running. "C'mon, keep up! I wanna be around the corner before Mom can rethink this!"

"I'm rethinking this, Hikaru! Now let go before we trip and fall!"

- Please listen to her, Hikaru-kun. If you get hurt, your mother will be walking you around until you're a teenager, if she doesn't have plans to do so already. Besides, you need to learn to treat ladies better! -

The dual haired boy grumbled, but slowed his pace and released his friend's wrist. Hikaru felt uncharacteristically jittery without Mitsuko's watchful gaze on him, but his excited triumph refused to be smothered. He could barely remember to walk along the tactile section of the sidewalk for the blind, let alone not take off at a dead sprint.

Akari sighed at him. "If you forget where the path is, I won't bother to push you back in the right direction."

"Yes, you will." He replied without missing a beat, although he moved half a step further onto the pathway.

"Nope, nuh-uh - you'd be on your own, and I'd enjoy the show of you trying to find your way around."

"Lair. If that happened, Mom would be having none of us going anywhere ever again. Admit it - you're enjoying her not hovering around us just as much as I am."

The girl scoffed but didn't disagree. By now, they were already exiting the residential area and moving into the part of town with shops and cafes and loads more foot traffic. Hikaru rubbed the back of his neck at the sudden onslaught and clarity of sounds on his keen sense of hearing, lips twitching briefly into a frown, feeling for a second as though he had suddenly been plunged into water.

Typically, loud noises didn't affect him very much, but more and more recently he found himself getting overwhelmed in public places. It probably had something to do with how he'd honed his hearing to the point of being able to precisely pinpoint the location of stones placed on a goban when playing, but he hadn't expected this little trick to give him a heart attack nearly every time he heard a car honk.

Luckily, there were no cars in the street market, although once they walked a couple more blocks and made some turns that would change.

"Hey Hikaru, are you going to need me to help you again like the first time, or did you tell them?" Akari asked from his right as they rounded a corner to stand at a crosswalk. Hikaru scoffed.

Hearing the buzzer, he took a step forward as everyone else noticed the now green light. "Neither - I kept tagging along with mom whenever she made plans involving the area around the salon, so I have the place's layout pretty much down. If anything, are you going to need me to play translator?"

"Probably, since I didn't learn the language with you like I said I would. By the way, if you're done with the tapes, can I have them?"

The bleach banged boy shrugged, electing a cheery hum from his friend. They (plus Sai) remained in companionable silence as they walked the last few streets to the parlor. Unlike many of the times previously that Hikaru had entered the establishment, they were greeted with a multitude of voices arguing in both Korean and Japanese instead of the usual clack of gameplay.

The boy quirked a brow at what he could make out of the squabble, sightless eyes habitually locking onto the area he heard the raised voices coming from.

"Hey, what's everyone going on about?" He asked in accented Korean, making himself known to the previously preoccupied patrons. Really, it was amazing they even heard him over the noise they were making.

"Shindo, long time no see. And you brought your friend along too." Seong-Eun replied, being the person most familiar with the young boy. By the tone of his voice, Hikaru would guess he was smiling.

"Yeah, she wanted to come. Got bored only studying kifu, I think."

The man barked a laugh. "She picked a bad day to get back to playing then. One of the owner's friends - a Chinese guy who has a parlor himself - came in raving about how one of the pros from his country had been beaten in an online match. Most of us didn't really believe him, but he came back a few days later with a stack of kifu he'd printed, containing different international pros with known 'net names who have been beaten by the same guy. It's incredible."

Hikaru felt a nervous heat rise in his stomach as he repeated all this for Akari to understand. His friend curiously snatched several of the papers and read off the names of the opposing players, confirming his dread.

"Are they sure this sai person isn't a pro too, Hikaru?" The girl asked, and her friend passed it on numbly.

"Pretty sure - there are only so many Japanese professionals at this kind of level, but the dates and time some of these were played overlap with official matches or other events." Seong replied before somebody asked for his opinion on a move on one of the kifu, leaving the two children to their own devices.

Hikaru shrugged at Akari, hoping his face didn't give anything away. But he was less concerned about his living friend's reaction than his dead one's.

- Oh my; I swear, I had no idea those individuals were professionals, Hikaru! - Sai wailed, making Hikaru flinch at the sudden nausea. It'd been awhile since the spirit had been this emotionally negative, but the boy was quick to excuse himself to Akari and step back outside.

- Damnit, can you not get so worked up over it!? We had no way of knowing, and it's not like we would have done anything different had we known. Cheer up- if not I might hurl. -

- Sorry… - Sai trailed off, allowing Hikaru the respite to clear most of the nausea, but it was obvious that the spirit was still fairly jittery. - ...Is this going to affect our playing on NetGo now, Hikaru? -

The bleach banged boy sighed through his nose, having anticipated the spirit's panicked question. Although he was equally shocked about having vicariously played professional go players through Sai's matches, he didn't feel guilty about it like the ghost did.

- No, it shouldn't matter. This is just...unexpected information. If anything, it's probably what's giving you so many challengers every time we log on. -

- So...it's not a bad thing? - Sai tittered over Hikaru's shoulder.

- Not at all. Just surprising...and potentially troublesome if people start challenging us to real life matches, but other than that, it's not bad at all. - Hikaru tried to grin reassuringly, but it did little to abate the sense of unease that thrummed through the both of them. - You know what? I'm thirsty. Did you see any vending machines when we came this way? -

- Those are the magic boxes that spit out juices in metal jars, correct? There are some across the street it would seem, right beyond the pedestrian overpass. - Sai replied. - Are you sure that you should wonder that far away from the parlor without Akari? -

- I've been around the area with mom plenty of times before. - Hikaru scoffed with a roll of the eyes.

- ...your mother isn't here. -

- I should still be fine! - The bleach-banged boy insisted, tapping one foot on tactile pathway to emphasize his point to the ghost of go. Sai couldn't interject otherwise before Hikaru took off, dodging around other pedestrians but keeping one foot on the blind pathway until it cut off at the first step.

That odd feeling of being overwhelmed by the sound of traffic returned, but this time it brought with it a nausea - stronger than, but not unlike what Sai's emotional swings caused Hikaru on a near daily basis - causing the boy's grip on the railing to falter as the cacophony of engines humming and horns intermittently blaring and wheels scraping over pavement from the intersection a little further away washed over him.

- Are you feeling ill still, Hikaru? Perhaps we should return to- - Sai started, unaware of the real reason for his protogé's distracted state, only to be cut off by a half-panicked yell.

"Wha- hey! Look out!"

THUD.

So this is a little shorter than the first chapter and ends with a horrible cliff hanger and all, but uh, with the results this story has gotten so far, I wanted to put this out. It's more stream of conscious-y than the first chapter was, I think, and somehow Mitsuko ended up becoming overbearing out of nowhere, which I didn't mean to do and so I had to try and fix that without deleting everything else I'd already had done. Ergh.

By next chapter I'll have probably fixed some of my grievences with my writing in this chapter because I'll have planned it better, but don't expect that to mean that the chapter is going to soon-coming, with winter break just having ended and all.

So thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all again next chapter.