3rd stop: Target Shooting
Touya and Hikari were roaming around looking at the next stall they should try in, suddenly Hikari saw some kids shooting unmoved and moving target, she decided to try her luck and dragged Touya towards the place.
Hikari didn't notice it but Touya notice it. Lots of people are looking at their direction, watchful eyes.
"What should I do?! A lot of people know me and this might be in the newspaper", he thought nervously, "Wait! I Have an idea!"
"Touya-kun, are you alright?" Hikari asked worriedly. While looking at his face.
Touya was brought back to reality by Hikari's voice and when she turned to look at her, Their faces where inches from each other.
"ah! No! I'm alright! Don't worry!" he replied while blushing then turned his face away from hers and blushed even more. "What is wrong with me?!" he thought to himself.
While Touya was busy calming himself, Hikari had already started playing the target shooting. The first she must shoot is the small unmoving target of Ducks and soldiers, the next would be the fast moving ducks and the last is, she will use darts and try to hit the center of the dart board in a distance of 5 cm.
"Okay here I go!" She shouted excitedly. The rules are simple: she must hit at least 10 of them and she moved to the next round and she must use only the fake bullets loaded inside her gun.
Hikari hit 7 ducks and 3 soldiers in just 5 min., The man can't believe it then he started the next round. The rules is that she must hit all moving targets to be able to play the next round.
It was hard for Hikari at first but when she got used to the speed she hit them all right on target. The man was getting pissed but he started the last round quickly hoping that Hikari will fail.
Touya thought that the man is crazy, usually for a target shooting game. The game is just about hitting a total of 10 and he will get some prizes but the game he set-up is different, pass the 3 rounds and you win. He was suspicious.
But for Hikari she was enjoying every moment of it.
'Excuse me! Mister!' she said politely, " I forgot to ask you what will be my prize if I won this last round?"
"um…..well you're prize will be a mini Go-board", he replied while sweating nervously.
"That sounds nice!" Hikari said cheerfully, "I will get that mini Go-board!". She launched the dart at the distance of 5 cm. towards the center of the circle and "TUK!" it hit right on it, which means--
"I did it! I won!" Hikari said joyfully, "Touya! I did it!"
Touya was clapping his hands and praising Hikari for what she did. "Hikari! You were very cool you know!"
"Thanks!" then she turned to the disappointed Mister. "may I have my prize now?" she asked kindly.
The man was apologetic, he explained that there were really no prices and the mini Go-board belong to her daughter. He said that he was doing it to earn money for her medicines which are very expensive.
"I see", Hikari said sadly. "What is your daughter illness?maybe we can help"
"She has a very high fever, and coughs. It had been 4 days since she started getting sick." The man replied, tears started to form in his eyes.
"Your daughter is in grave danger, Mister!" Hikari suddenly bolted out. "She needs not only medicine but must be in a hospital right away to be examined by the doctors! If she has been sick for 4 days then if it passed 7 days she might likely die!"
The man was in shocked, his expression was full of guilt, embarrassment and shame.
"What should I do?" he muttered to himself, " It's all my fault! My dear daughter. I'm the one who killed my daughter because I wasn't good enough as a father, because I hadn't given her everything she wanted. I--" but he was interrupted by Hikari.
"If you keep blaming yourself we won't be able to save her so quite yapping and lets go to where your daughter is! Right away!" She exclaimed.
"You're right!" The man was brought back to his senses. "I must save her!...Come follow me!"
The man lead them passed a dirty street, then to a small run-down house. He headed hurriedly inside and the 2 followed him. They find out that even though the outside looks ragged the inside was simple but warm.
"Lily! Can you hear me dear!" They heard the voice of the old man from inside a small room. They went inside and saw a thin, pale, sickly girl younger than them lay weakly on a pile of haystock.
The sickly girl opened her eyes weakly and gazed at Hikari. "Father! Who is she? She looks very beautiful and lovely? Who is she father?" The girl asked weakly.
"She is somebody who can help us", his father said tears running down his cheek.
"Hello, Lily!" Hikari said kindly, "I am Hikari and I'm glad to meet you….." The girl smiled weakly and Hikari returned her smile. "Tell me is something in your body in pain?"
The girl nodded slowly and replied, "Somewhere inside my body, it hurts to breath and move. It really hurts", The girl started crying.
"Okay listen to me very carefully!"She told her slowly, "We will bring you to a hospital to be treated, On the way there I advised you to tell me if the pain started again and well treat it quickly.Okay" Hikari looked at Touya and signaled him, Touya got it quickly and called an ambulance.
"Tell me Ms. Hikari"
"what is it, Lily?"
"Are you an angel sent to us by God?"
"No, I am just an ordinary human being just like you but I am trying very hard to learn how to do the Hand of God" She said it softly for a reason while unknown to her Touya was just outside and have overheard her answer.
"Have you learned it?"
"I don't know but I know a person who is very much close to the Hand of God"
"Who is this person? an angel?"
"His name is Sai! He is a very talented person but right now, He is hidden inside the very thoughts of a young boy just like my age"
"So is this boy and Sai are one?"
"well…..as far as I know, Sai is the person inside the boy, like his other self"
"Oh, so is this boy your boyfriend?"
"Ahhhh! Well…..his…..um…...how do you put it….a very important person for me"
"He is lucky!"
"well…his a dumb, selfish brat who thinks only himself and nothing else", Hikari made a face as she described him, that made Lily laugh weakly.
"Can I know his name?"
"You're a sick person and in order to get well again. You must rest your body" Hikari scolded her.
"Okay, but at least answer my last question, please" Lily pleaded.
"His name is Hikaru, Shindou Hikaru", Hikari's face softened as she said his name. "Now get some rest!"
While for Touya, who thinks Hiakru as his greatest Rival was dumbfounded in what he heard. Hikari came out of the room hoping to see Touya back with the ambulance but she found him leaning at the wall beside the door.
"T-Touya!"Hikari was shocked and her expression shows it. " I thought you were going to get the ambulance, why are you here?"She said regaining her self.
Touya didn't answer instead he look at her with wide eyes. "Can you tell me again about this Sai?"
"Why are you so interested about this Sai?"
"Because he was the one I played in an internet Go"
"what did you hear", Hikari's usual cheerfulness was gone and she was serious.
Touya was looking at her all this time and the moment Hikari's expression change he was determined to now more about this Sai and Hikari might be the one to answer all his questions.
"Is everything you said inside true?" he asked her seriously.
"Which is it? The ambulance or is everything about being alright?" hikari tried to change the subject.
"About Hikaru and Sai?"
"Well about them…um…I forgot what I was saying", hikari was desperate and Touya was determined. He push her to the wall and lock her using both arms.
"I never seen Touya so serious like this" Hikari thought to herself, "What should I do? What should I do?" she keep repeating it over and over again while thinking for a hundred ways to escape from Touya. Suddenly Touya's face move closer to her and when it was inches from her face the man came out of the room that made Touya move away from her and took his phone.
"I thought you left already", The man said.
"No! We decided to stay and wait for the ambulance", Hikari said cheerfully but when she tried to move her body, She found out she was dumb and her legs were shaking.
"I will go back inside to make sure Lily is okay", he said and as he halfly closed the door.
Hikari's heart was beating very quick and when she tried to move her body, It move and without the slightest hesitation she ran outside, passed the dirty street and stopped to a nearby corner to calm herself. Even though she was shocked at what happened she made sure she isn't far from the house.
"He heard everything Sai!" Hikari murmured. A ghostly figure suddenly appeared infront of her.
"Hikaru! Are you alright!" It asked worriedly.
"As soon as we send Lily to the Hospital…I will be alright, Sai!" Hikari replied.
"What I'm talking about is Touya Akira", Sai said.
"That is another problem I need to solve….."
"Hikaru….." Sai said worriedly.
"Sai!"
"What is it?"
"Tomorrow's match! We will battle a higher Dan right!"
"7-Dan" , Sai corrected her.
"I will allow you to play, starting tomorrow and the other battles as well"
"Hikaru! Are you serious?"
"I've never been serious in all my life"
"Okay! I understand"
"Sai! This is the best I can do for you and for Touya", Hikaru said softly and Sai just gave a sad smile.There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
As for Touya he was guilty and embarrassed on what she acted to Hikari and tried to apologized to her when the man will go back to the room but as soon as he went back inside Hikari dashed outside, he trid to follow her but Hikari was really fast that soon he couldn't caught to her.
He look for her everywhere and when he as losing hope he saw at a corner, leaning on a wall was Hikari. Her head was bent down and her hands were on her chest. She was shaking. Touya seeing her felt the guilt even more and he was debating to himself wether he should go or not and the-he-must-go won.
There was amoment of silence between Hikari and Sai when Touya broke it.
Hikari seeing Touya tried to run but Touya caught her.
"Let me go!" she demanded.
"please! Hikari listen to me!" Touya pleaded.
"Why would I! If you're trying to force me in telling you about Hikaru and Sai then this is my answer, Its none of your business"
"I know I got carried away about what I heard but please let me explain", Hikari was asking Sai if she should listen or not but Sai just told her to just listen and if he asked again tell him the truth.
"Okay!"Hikari said softly. Touya was calm and explained to her everything.
"If Hikaru beat you twice and you beat him in your third encounter then that makes you a winner right so it was over", Hikari said innocently as she could.
"Yea, but on our third battle it wasn't that I won because I defeated him, I won because he wasn't doing his best."
"Why's that?"
"He was playing around! He didn't take me seriously. It was a game he played without giving any heart to it!"
"How can you say that? You told me you defeated him but he was having no heart about the game you are playing"
"Ya"
"So what happened?"
"I was really furious about what he did and I hated him for that and then few weeks have passed since our battle when I heard some rumors about a very great player in the internet, I decided to find out if it was him-"
"So it was him?"
"No! The player was called Sai because that was the name the person uses in the net…..and then I finally got to battle him….."
"Was he Hikaru?"
"The game he played looks exactly like Hikaru then I started to get curious about who Hikaru really is", Touya looked at Hikari kindly then smiled, " That's why when I heard you talking about Hikaru and Sai being--well it just came over me that you might be the one who can answer all my curiousity"
"Thank you!, Touya for telling me all this! Now I can relax", Hikari said
"Huh?"Touya only said.
"well in exchange for what you told me-" Hikari glance at Sai and Sai nodded. "What you heard about what I said to Lily……was halfly true."
"Why is it half?"
"The half was when I said that I am learning the Hand of God is not true"
"I didn't hear you when you were talking about that"
"What!" Hikari exclaimed, " So what part did you hear then?" she asked.
"It was "I know a person who is very much close to the Hand of God" and so on."
Hikari was quiet for a while the she said softly, " You know Touya, a while back, you look very scary", then she was backed to her cheerful self again and told Touya to go back to the man's house.
Touya was hurt on what she said but he understand it. It was the first time for him too, to act like that.
"Where are you going?" He asked her.
"I told you I got separated to my companion and he must be dead worried about me right now….so see you", without giving Touya a chance to say anything she quickly dash off towards where the festival is being held and was gone.
A few minutes later a boy left the festival carrying a paper bag.