THE CHALLENGE OF ALPHABET GO

Summary:

In netgo, letters are also used to name coordinates instead of numbers. As Sai teaches Hikaru Go, Hikaru in turns teaches him the alphabet – by playing Go.

A/N: Just a short fun piece. Feel free to guess which letters they're pronouncing, though it should be pretty obvious, because all the words being used for pronouncing exist. But I will not be using the same word to pronounce the same letter! So try not to get confused. Be aware that the words are not intended to be taken as abbreviations.

The patience of thirteen-year-old Shindou Hikaru was wearing thin, ready to turn dynamite.

"Sai! You're going to make me misclick!"

But Sai couldn't contain himself.

His netgo opponent was stronger than his usual, daily dose. The chance to play a strong player brought so much glee he just had to jump up and down and around in order to release his happy tingling sensations.

Sai wrapped his arms around Hikaru, apologizing. Thankfully, the action forced his energy level to lower slightly. Though the decrease was small, it was manageable. After all, he was a Go player. He should be able to apply his self-discipline well enough to match his Go skill.

"Where now?"

There was a giggle before the coordinate was announced. "Tay-19."

A click of the mouse obeyed. "It's still funny to hear you try and say these English letters, Sai. Besides, it's 'tea', not 'tay'. Maybe you should just revert back into using numbers for both the 'axe' and 'why' coordinates again."

Sai pouted. "I'll learn it. I will. Even if you don't learn it, I'm sure I'll need it."

Hikaru sighed, brushing his blonde bangs to the side when he shifted his position to look at Sai. English was hard. It didn't take a genius to know that right away. Thus, Hikaru found no reason to waste time learning it. He didn't need it now. Japanese would suffice for the time being. In any case, he knew the alphabet at the very least.

Even so, it pained him to see how much Sai was struggling to be alive, to try and exist in this world, though in his own way at being modern. But pride swelled in Hikaru's heart, knowing that he was able to help his lonely friend exist, even if it was only on the internet. An existence on the internet was still an existence, one which Sai had eased his way of crafting a legend for himself. But why in the world did his ghostly companion want to learn English?!

A clicking noise from the monitor indicated the opponent made their move. Hikaru returned his attention to the screen. His eyes quickly scanned the board, taking in all possible positions and calculations. The next move for Sai was so obvious, and he itched to play it. But he waited. This was Sai's game. And it was typical to see Sai make every game interesting, even if it meant straying from the most obvious moves.

He drummed his fingers on the mouse, trying to drown his impatience with the sound. It had been a minute. What was Sai thinking?

"Where do you think I should play?"

Hikaru pinched his face. Sometimes, he wished Sai would stop quizzing him. He hover the cursor over one intersection.

Sai nodded. "Good answer. But wouldn't going to…er…r-r-rare-12 be more interesting?" Hikaru tried not to wince at another mispronunciation. He swiveled in his chair in order to face his companion.

"Again, it's not 'rare', it's pronounced 'are'."

Sai's face brightened. "Ahh, right, right! I knew that!"

Hikaru narrowed his eyes, returning back to the screen. Seriously, how come a genius like Sai was so slow when it came to things other than Go, literature, history, and music?

He clicked his mouse at the 'interesting' point.

"Hikaru! You were supposed to read it first!"

Hikaru sighed. "I did. And I agree, it makes things interesting, because even though the opponent plays wisely and reads deeply, he can still live in ko, which may prove to be valuable to us; perhaps not locally, but globally. If we went with my answer, it would cleanly kill the opponent, but it would give the opponent sente and a chance to catch up and even things out, considering that it's nearing endgame. According to the board, there are many good endgame points for him compared to us, all thanks to your middlegame. If I didn't know better, I'll said you were goofing around."

"Wah, Hikaru! You're reading faster and faster these days! It's makes me so happy!"

Hikaru managed to swallow a sigh. The middlegame was absolutely bogus. And teaching the alphabet through a go game was so frustrating, despite how enthusiastic his student was. Or maybe, it's just because his student happened to be Sai?

Hikaru could still remember how he had winced at one of Sai's mispronunciations, resulting a play at a wrong coordinate. But it was bound to happen anyway. There were rules to this alphabet game after all. And now they were nearing the beginning of endgame. How they managed to make it this far still baffled him. Yet, needless to say, it was another piece of evidence dictating Sai's unimaginable strength.

"Well, pick your next move already."

The game was beginning to get boring. He already knew the outcome, and it would most likely go unchanged. Sai would win with 2 moku, more or less. But no matter what, Hikaru would endure it. After all, this was for Sai.

But he must admit. The alphabet handicap game did make watching Sai play Go a lot more interesting. Sure it was still interesting before this extra handicap, but Sai beat his opponents much too easily.

Thus, as the game began, Sai would spell out his name by choosing any coordinate lined by his letter. There was only one problem. There was no 'ai.' And the alphabet on the Go board consisted of less letters, the last being 'tee.' The 'eye' was quickly settled. As its closest cousin, in terms of appearance, 'ail' became the substitute. As the opening of the Go came to an end, at least a coordinate in each letter column must be played.

Middlegame was slightly different. Flipping the dictionary, a word was chosen. Throughout the fight, the word must be spelt, making fights, invasions, attacks, and defense massively difficult. Any mistakes in pronouncing coordinates resulted in punishment. And punishment came in all forms, either from the death of a group to filling an eye or playing a pointless move usually found away from battle. Sometimes, it came in other forms. But whatever form it came, it sprouted from Hikaru's desire. So, even if Sai could be called a master of the game, Hikaru was the master of Sai's punishment.

Sadly, the punishment didn't apply to endgame, for Hikaru was in the mood for some self-ataris. Endgame was probably the only section considered normal. A pity Hikaru couldn't add more rules to the game. More rules distracted them from the point of playing netgo, to learn modern moves.

The game continued as predicted, and the opponent resigned halfway through endgame.

"Next time, let's add another rule."

Excitement washed over Sai. "Ooh! Another challenge. What will it be this time?"

"Let's see how well you can read." With a smirk, he exited the game and waited for the next offer, which didn't take long to wait. "Spell 'Hi' on the board. But don't let the opponent know what you're doing. The same old rules apply."

"Hai?" Sai thought hard, trying to remember how to spell 'yes' in English. 'Hai' was 'yes' in Japanese after all. His face brighten a second later in recognition. "Ah! That thing with 'rye', 'w…we', and 'as,' right?"

Hikaru sighed, frowning. "There's no 'why' on the board. I'm talking about 'hi', meaning 'konnichiwa'."

"Ah…you should have clarified that earlier."

Hikaru narrowed his eyes. Sai was smart, so he should have been able to deduce that since there was no 'wry' on the board, it could only mean 'hi'. Or, was he just expecting too much?

"Well? Should we accept this challenge? He's been waiting for quite a while."

"Yea! Let's play, let's play!" With a brand new game, Sai resumed his usual ritual of jumping around with delight. By means of a click, the challenge was accepted.

"But, um, how do you spell 'h-hi' again? With 'huh' and –?"

Hikaru couldn't help but moaned, but forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down. Why did Sai associated the letter's sounds with the name of the letter?! "It's 'age' and 'ie.' So now that you know that, ready to play the first move?"

Sai settled down, staring intensely at the digital board for several minutes before reciting his moves.

"Ash-10."

The opponent played their move immediately. Guess the unusual opening moves were approaching predictability.

"Ray-10."

Again, the opponent placed his stone without hesitation

"Rail-10."

Hikaru softly smiled. After many days, it seems like Sai was beginning to get the hang of letter names, despite having quite the accent. But that was something that can be fixed. Much, much later though.

And pretty soon, another alphabet game began to form. Hikaru glanced at Sai, a thought eager to sneak pass his mental barrier into Sai's consciousness. Would Sai succeed in spelling 'hi'? After all, the challenge level was set to 'high.'

DEFINITIONS OF SOME WORDS:

ai: a three-toed sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, inhabiting forests of southern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Brazil, having a diet apparently restricted to the leaves of the trumpet-tree, and sounding a high-pitched cry when disturbed.

tee: (1) something shaped like a T, as a three-way joint used in fitting pipes together. (2) a device in footbal on which the ball may be placed to raise it off the ground preparatory to kicking. (3) Aashaft with a concave top attached to a flat base, used to hold the ball in T-ball.

ie: that is to say, in other words

If there are other words you don't know and can't find them in dictionaries, let me know and I'll define them for you.