Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go.

Okay I've secured myself a beta and some good advice in the form of reviews. I didn't even realize I didn't have lines to show time skips. Uploading to FF must have gotten rid of them. I'm not going to go back and change it, but I won't make the same mistake twice. Thank you to all reviewers and people who favorited or are following my story.

Chapter 2

The next day was filled with Sai's incessant begging. She had listened to his begs through all her classes, and had progressively gotten more annoyed through the day. After school, finally arriving in her bedroom, Hikaru caved in. "Alright! I'll try to find a go salon if you quit bugging me, Sai!"

"Yay! Hikaru you're so understanding and generous. Can we go right now, Hikaru? " Sai leaped around in joy at getting another opportunity to play Go.

"Yea, sure, just let me get dressed." She replied. She ran a comb through her shoulder length hair to do away with any knots. After quickly rummaging through her closet full of clothing, she eventually pulled out an outfit. Hikaru went into the closet, changed out of her school uniform and into a t-shirt with the number 5 on them and a pair of shorts, then came out and sat down at her computer.

"HIkaru! What on the world are you wearing? You don't even look like a woman. All you need now is a hat and people will mistake you for a young man!" Sai cried in hysterics at Hikaru's outfit.

Hikaru rolled her eyes and grabbed her cap, doing exactly what Sai had feared.

"Woah…Hikaru! What is this magical box? Why is it lighting up? How are you doing that?" Sai shot off question after question. Meanwhile, Hikaru was turning on her computer and bringing up the internet.

"Calm down Sai. This 'magical box' is what people call a computer. I got it for my last birthday, so I can chat with my friends online. It lets you to connect with different people all over the world and see new things. I'm just trying to find a nearby Go salon that we could check out." After a few seconds of scrolling through possible places, and Sai watching in amazement, she found one that seemed close by. "How about this one, Sai? It's called the 'Touya Go Salon'."

"Anywhere is fine Hikaru, as long as they have Go there!" Sai was already rushing through the door, literally.

Hikaru printed out a quick draft of the directions to the salon and grabbed her jacket. Sai, however, had popped his head to back in and was watching the printer work its magic with a look of terror on his face. "H-Hikaru! Your box is moving!"

"It's nothing, Sai." She reassured him. As she tugged on her jacket, Sai tailed her out of her room, glancing once more at the machine that had just been vibrating. Hikaru continued, "More importantly, don't you find it odd, walking through walls and doors?"

"Not at all, Hikaru. I'm a ghost, so it's not like I can open the door, after all. I just have to go through it." Sai was trying to rush her along with wide hand gestures and words. Now that Sai remembered where they were headed, he had completely forgotten about the printer. Once they were through the front door, Hikaru pulled the directions out of her pocket.

"Aright. If I'm any good at following directions, then it's this way!" She pointed down one end of the street. "Let's go, Sai!" The walk to the salon was very peaceful, with Sai telling Hikaru about his interests, apart from go, that is. Everything was going well until a rude, smelly teenager, probably older than Hikaru by a few years, ran into her.

"Watch where you're going, kid!" He yelled at her.

"You ran into me, jerk!" Hikaru was seething mad already. She was fairly well known among her friends for her temper.

"I'd be careful about what I was saying if I were you. You could easily get hurt."

"Are you threatening me?" If she was mad before, then she was furious now. Sai, too, was appalled by the audacity of this boy. "How dare this boy threaten you, Hikaru? This boy deserves a good, old-fashioned beating, to treat a woman like this." Then it occurred to Sai that Hikaru looked nothing like a woman at the moment.

"And what are you going to do about it?" He sneered. To emphasize his point he gave Hikaru a quick shove, making her stumble back a few paces, and her hat fell off. The boy was agape in surprise at the newly unveiled female. Just when Hikaru was ready to pounce on the guy, a voice shouted out from across the street.

"HEY! What are you doing to her, you loser?" A guy with unruly red hair was the source of the sound, and he was quickly making his way over to where they were.

"Oh shit! It's Tetsuo." The guy muttered before he ran off with his tail between his legs.

Once the guy made it across the street, he immediately asked if anything was wrong. "I had it under control. That guy was just a rude jerk with all bark, and no bite. Thanks for the help, though." She flashed him a smile. Sai also thanked him, but with a deep bow. "Why was he so scared of you?"

He slightly blushed at the sight of her smile. 'Damn, she's cute. Maybe I can pick her up.' "Heh. No problem, and I go to the same school as him. In fact, he was probably heading home, just like me. Let's just say I'm pretty infamous there. The name's Tetsuo Kaga. What's your name?" He asked, attempting to be as smooth as possible.

"My name is Shindou Hikaru. I was just on my way to the Touya Go Salon."

Kaga widened his eyes in disbelief, "A cute girl like you plays Go?" Then he knit his eyes together in a grimace at the name Touya. Kaga continued, "Let me give you some advice. That boring game Go isn't any fun. The Touya Go Salon is no good, either. There's this guy that is simply the spawn of Satan, and he spends a ton of his time there. He's arrogant, rude, and overconfident in his abilities. I absolutely detest him."

Now it was Hikaru's turn to be surprised. It was like a complete 180 in his attitude. Next to her, Sai seethed. "How dare he insult go? Hikaru I demand that you distance yourself from this boy!"

"Well that was pretty rude."

'Shit.' Kaga thought. 'I think I just blew my chances.' "I mean Go's not THAT bad. Why don't you try a game of Shougi though, I think it's muc-"

Hikaru had heard enough, and was already walking away.

'God dammit!' Kaga sulked.

-X-

Hikaru thought about where to go now. The Tetsuo guy had looked pretty serious when he said that the Touya Go Salon housed a demon. However, he had seemed pretty serious when he talked about the demon at the Touya Go Salon. Hikaru decided to disregard his advice, anyways.

-X-

"Hi, is this the Touya Go Salon?"

Harumi Ichikawa stared in amazement at the girl before her. It had been many weeks since she had seen a young girl in the salon, nonetheless a cute, young girl? "Yes, this is. You couldn't possibly be here to play Go could you?"

"Hehe. What else would I be here to do? My name is Hikaru Shindou, and I'm here to play Go. What should I do to get my first opponent?"

A cute, young girl in the Touya Go Salon, wanting to play go-Ichikawa simply couldn't wrap her mind around the concept. "Well, Shindou-san, first you need to sign up here and pay the entrance fee, actually it's been such a long time since I've seen someone like you here. How about I waive the fee just this once?" Perhaps if she offered this discount, the girl would come around more often. "As for people to play, there aren't many here that are around your age. Oh! It looks like old man Hurami is about to finish his game. Why don't you ask him once he's done? I'm sure he'd love the breath of fresh air playing someone younger gives." Ichikawa pointed to an old man sitting at a table nearby.

"Thanks! I'll go check it out." Hikaru strode to the table, with Sai following in turn.

"Ohhh! Look at all these people playing go, Hikaru! It's majestical." Sai took a quick look at the board and immediately saw the outcome. "Ne, Hikaru, look! Ichikawa was right. This game is about to end in White's favor. Black's will forfeit soon, I think."

Just as soon as Sai finished talking, the man opposite of old man Hurami surrendered. "I have lost."

Hurami gave a crinkly-eyed smile and said "It was a very good game." He then turned to HIkaru. "Can I help you young lady?"

He faintly reminded Hikaru of her grandfather, kind and elderly. "Would you like to play a game with me? I saw that you're pretty good. I think I'm pretty good myself," and flashed the man a grin.

"Is that so?" The man chuckled at the Hikaru's personality. "Well then take a seat and let's play a game." The man's opponent had already left for some refreshments so Hikaru took the seat across from him.

Hikaru eventually ended up with black and her opponent with white. Per Sai's instructions, she started in the upper right star. Her opponent placed a stone in the bottom right star. As more stones were placed, a crowd began to gather around the table.

-X-

Murmurs from the crowd were heard. "Amazing. The young girl has taken complete control of the center."

"Look. That stone just now has secured her the bottom left corner, also." Came another voice.

"Fools. Use some foresight. Can't you see she'll soon have control of the entire board?" Another round of murmurs rang out.

Hikaru puffed out her cheeks. "Would it kill these geezers to quit looking over my shoulder?" She mumbled.

"Hikaru!" Sai scolded, "There's just admiring you Go skills?"

"My Go skills? You're the one that's doing all the work here, Sai. Have I mentioned that according to the crowd around us, you're really good at this game?" she whispered.

Sai blushed and covered his face with his fan. "Years of practice, Hikaru."

As Hikaru placed another stone and gained another 4 moku, her opponent finally surrendered. "Aha. I should've surrendered long ago. You were completely out of my league. It's great to see youth like you playing this game." The old man praised.

"Thanks, sir. I told you I was pretty good didn't I?" She replied cheekily.

"Can I play her next?" Another old man's voice asked.

"What? I won against you by over 5 moku just a while ago. I should play her." Said a man with spectacles.

"Ughhh. No offense but is there anyone younger to play against around here?" Hikaru asked.

"Well Touya-meijin's son, Touya Akira is usually here, but not today." Supplied Hurami.

"Who's Touya-meijin?" asked Hikaru.

"You don't know who the meijin is? Why don't I explain titles to you over another match, Hikaru. Ask me anything you'd like?"

"Really? That sounds great!"

The crowd around them groaned. "Quit hogging her, Hurami!" One man grumbled.

"I found her first, didn't I? Go find your own cute, young prodigy." Hurami replied while Hikaru blushed at the compliments.

-X-

By the end of the day, Hikaru had learned about all the titles, and pro matches, and also played against numerous patrons of the salon.

"I'll be back again guys!" Hikaru yelled in leaving. A buzz of approval met her ears at the announcement.

"Make it soon and I'll waive the fee again," Ichikawa said. "All the old men in here really need some excitement in their lives nowadays. All they do is sit around and play go." She told Hikaru.

"We heard that!" Some men from the back shouted.

As Hikaru walked out the building with Sai behind her, she could imagine doing this for a long time. Having fun at Go Salons and chatting with the patrons there. Then her mind turned to what old man Hurami had told her.

"Hey Sai, what was it like being a pro?"

-X-X-X-

Okay so if anyone is wondering why Akira wasn't at the salon it's because Hikaru went to the salon a bit earlier than in the manga. In the manga he tries to appease Sai in all these other places first, but this Sai has got a computer. ^.~