Lost Memories

Chapter 2 - Existence of Shuusaku


"Hikaru-kun, I'm so glad you finally agreed to come with me. Akari-chan won't believe this," Hiro chirped happily.

"Yeah, whatever," Hikaru muttered, ignoring the slight pain in his head.

"Konnichiwa," Hiro greeted at the receptionist. "Two players please."

"Hiro, I'm just going to watch," Hikaru interrupted.

"Nah. I'll let you watch for a while; then I'll teach you the basics. It's my treat for now," Hiro just said as he paid the fee.

Hikaru sighed and followed Hiro towards the tables. He began to talk to one of the customers, probably trying to set a match. Hiro glanced at him and nudged his head a little, giving him a sign to come closer to watch the game.

Hikaru watched as Hiro and the man decided which one to go first through nigiri. A few minutes passed since he entered the salon and he felt the pain in his head slowly dying. He watched the progress of the game, noticing immediately that Hiro is much better compared to his opponent. But in his opinion, Hiro's go is still quite… immature. He wanted to wince when he saw Hiro's last hand. He just created an opening for his opponent. When the opponent made his next move, obviously not noticing the chance given to him, Hikaru just felt like smacking both their heads in frustration. He sighed heavily as he turned his back and walked to the far end of the room. Hiro glanced at him worriedly and shook his head.

"Any problem with your friend?" his opponent asked.

"It's nothing. Maybe he just finds it confusing," Hiro replied in a sad tone. "He's new to this game."

His opponent nodded and gave him an encouraging smile. "Just don't give up on him. It would be nice if kids nowadays would learn to love go."

Hiro smiled back as they continued the game.


Hikaru headed to the corner table and settled himself facing the window. He rested his chin under his palm as he wandered his vision over the view by the window. Nothing really interesting. It's just cars, buildings, and people everywhere.

'What's so interesting about go?' he thought.

Aside from the fact that he fainted several times at the sight of a goban, there's nothing about go that could keep his interest. It's just a game for old geezers.

A minute passed.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

'1, 2, 3, 4…' Hikaru closed his eyes and began to count as he tapped his finger on the board's surface. '52, 53, 54, damn!' Hikaru cursed in his mind. He was bored to death. He tried counting the number of people crossing the street, the number of cars on the streets, even up to the point of counting sheeps in his mind. But everything just made him even more impatient. He opened his eyes slightly, noticing the bowl just beside the board. A pattern of a go game suddenly flashed in his mind. Cursing silently, he found himself reaching for the other bowl, and placed both bowls beside him.

'What the heck am I doing?' he wondered, but could not stop himself from opening the bowls. The black stone just rolled familiarly in his fingers, as if it had waited a long time for him to pick it up. He felt a slight tingling feeling in his heart as he heard the sound of the stone finally connecting the board's surface. His hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it alternately picked one stone from each bowl and placed it one after another on the board recreating the pattern that he could not erase from his mind at the moment. He became focused on what he was doing that he did not notice a shadow behind him, watching the game.

"A Shuusaku game, huh?"

'Shuusaku?' Hikaru whirled around his seat in surprise and his gaze met that of a teenager slightly older than him with messy brown hair. 'Sai… Shuusaku… It's one of the names people call me in my dream!' "Did you just say Shuusaku?"

The guy turned his confused brown eyes on him. "Yes. That game you're recreating is one of the best games of Shuusaku Honinbo. That's why it's so familiar to me."

"Who is Shuusaku?"

"EH?!!!" The boy was shocked. "Nani?! You don't know Shuusaku, yet you recreated one of his games?"

Hikaru paled. 'That was stupid of me!' "A-ah… I… well… I j-just happened to see it in one of the books. I didn't know it's a game of this Shuusaku," he tried to explain hastily.

The guy's eyebrows began to furrow as he stared at him, making him uncomfortable.

"Ah… Waya-sensei!"

They both turned to see an old man coming towards them.

"Gomen Waya-sensei. I hope you did not wait too long for me. I'm really embarrassed for having a pro like you wait," the old man sincerely apologized. "We can start our shidougo now."

"No, no, it's okay," the messy haired boy assured him. He gave one skeptical glance at Hikaru before accompanying the old man to one of the tables. But his thoughts were quite distracted by that boy with blond bangs. 'He just happened to see it in a book? Hell, you couldn't recreate a game like that with just one glance.' He turned his head at the boy to see him placing back the stones into the bowls. 'It's either that he really studied hard and memorized that kifu or he's a talented go player.'

"Waya sensei?"

Waya flushed at being caught distracted. "Gomen. How many handicaps do you want?"


Hikaru stood up after he finished putting all the stones back into the bowls. He went to Hiro's table just in time to see the opponent bowing his head in defeat.

"I resign."

"Arigatou gozaimasu."

Hiro smiled at having won the game.

"So you won."

Hiro turned at his right to see Hikaru looking at the board. "Yup! So Hikaru, do you want me to teach you now?" he asked eagerly.

Hikaru shook his head. "Your game took quite a while. My mom's gonna be pissed if I come home late."

"Oh," Hiro was quite disappointed. "Okay, I'll teach you next time." He then turned to his opponent. "It was nice playing with you, Katsuya-san"

The old man gave him a toothy grin. "Same here. Next time, I'll beat you kid."


Waya just finished explaining to Shinimatsu-san the weakness of his move when he noticed the boy with blond bangs leaving.

"Ah, excuse me for a while, Shinimatsu-san." Waya then leapt from his chair and hurried towards the boy. As he neared them, he noticed that he was having a conversation with another kid. He waited for a chance to interrupt, but at the end what the other guy said stopped and shocked him.

"…Akari-chan will be so happy when I tell her that you finally took an interest in go. We'll both teach you the basics of the game so that you can also play with us. If you join the go club, you'll surely improve," the other boy was bubbling with so much enthusiasm.

The boy with blond bangs just gave him an annoyed look. "I told you several times I'm not joining your club and I don't like go."

But the raven-haired boy just ignored him. "You don't like it since you haven't played before. You'll eventually learn to like it. Akari-chan did."

His companion just shrugged his shoulders in exasperation.

Waya was left standing until the door closed; the stunned expression still evident on his face. 'He never played before? What the hell?!'


"Hey, Hiro."

"Yeah?"

"Who is Shuusaku?"

Hiro stopped and stared at him dumbfounded. A huge grin suddenly formed on his face. "I knew it! You are interested in go!" he exclaimed.

"Shut up," Hikaru snapped as he continued walking. "I just heard that name at the go salon a while ago."

"Shuusaku is just the best go player of all time," Hiro explained trying to catch up to him.

"Really?" Hikaru asked, trying to hide his interest. "So he's pretty popular. Where is he now?"

Hiro gave him a weird look. "He's dead."

This time, it was Hikaru who stopped. "Dead?!"

Hiro even got more confused. "Yeah, like a hundred years ago." Then he sighed. "Boy, you sure don't know anything. But don't worry, once you join our club, I'll update you with everything about the go world."

Hiro continued to chatter as they walked, but Hikaru was deep in thought. 'Shuusaku exists but that was a hundred years ago. Yeah, I remembered the clothing those men wore in my dreams were from the old times.'

"How about Sai?" he suddenly asked.

Hiro's eyebrows wrinkled at that question. "Sai? Who's that?"

Hikaru couldn't really explain who it was. "W-was there a go player by the name of Sai?"

"Hmmm…" Hiro scratched his head in thought. "I memorized all the great go players since ancient times, but I've never encountered that name. He might be an unpopular player since I couldn't place his name in my memory."

"Sou ka?" Hikaru mumbled. 'Shuusaku exists. Sai doesn't. What the hell is going on here?'


Second chapter finished! How's it going so far? I actually posted the first chapter without really thinking of the subsequent events. After all the positive reviews, I thought I really should draft the sequence of events for this fic and for 'Just a Game.' (I sometimes have a hard time trying to think what to write next…XD) Yup, I considered some of the reviewer's suggestions. I'm going to include the school tournament & the Hokuto Cup in this fic. When? Just keep on reading and you'll know. As for Touya… He & Shindo will eventually meet. Yeah, Touya needs a rival to motivate him. I'll surely give him one.

Thanks for all your reviews and I hope you liked this chapter!

Battosai25, Ad, Joji le TKQ, White Ivy

mike, muntos girl, Masked Reflection, LokiGirl

Zen, Ai-Kusabana, KARASU25, RickaZcurser

BlackFlameUnicorn, Kimbra-fire, Night Air, Yuki Amane

There's no such thing as go allergy. Hehehe. I just made it up to describe Hikaru's abnormality – fainting every time he gets near a goban. I guess it's more of a psychological thing, like a phobia of the goban.

As for having a beta, hmmm… is my grammar really that bad? XD I'll give it a thought, although I think having one would delay the updates. But thanks for the suggestion.

(",) Esa Marie