The room was silent except for the sound of pencil's scratching paper. Hikaru's class was taking a re-test for social studies as over half the class failed the test last week, Hikaru being part of that half. Social studies as well as PE were her best subjects, but she somehow managed to score 8% on the test last week. That was all due to the fact that she spent the night before staying up late playing blind go with Sai, because of that she fell asleep during the test after answering only the first few questions.
Hikaru's grades weren't too bad, border lining on average. She excelled in anything related to ancient studies and PE, she had natural talent in those areas, being an energetic kid and haunted by a thousand year old ghost since birth did that to you. When she was young Sai found it important to teach her many things other then go. He had taught her things like ancient literature, calligraphy and many other things that nobles learnt in the Hein era.
But despite her barely passing grades she found it to be an achievement that she was passing. She didn't putting much effort into her work, because she'd rather play around and learn from Sai then concentrate in school, so the fact that she was passing even though she wasn't trying was something to be proud of. Maybe if she tried harder she could get stellar grades, but why would you need stellar grades in primary school?
"Alright everybody pencils down." said the teacher.
The response to that was many groans and whines coming from the students as they stopped writing and passed their papers along to the teacher. Ancient history was never really much of a popular subject in her class.
"How did you go on the test Hikaru?"
Hikaru pushed back on the chair and turned to her neighbour. Fujisaki Akari, her childhood best friend and a rather attractive female according to the boys in the class. Akira was everything Hikaru wasn't; tall, slender, pretty face and large eyes. The only thing Hikaru beat her in was the fact that she had longer hair then her.
"Well, I managed to stay awake. Hopefully I'll get good marks."
"Geez Hikaru you fell asleep during class because you were playing go the night before weren't you?" she chastised. If there was one way to describe Akari then Hikaru would describe her as a second mother. She was always looking out for Hikaru and looked after her, because of her paranoia problem, and she was grateful for that. She even supported her strange hobbies like cross-dressing and playing go.
"What Hikaru plays go?"
"No way!"
"Hikaru is? I can't believe it. What are you thinking?"
"Why didn't you tell us?"
The boys in her class shouted and began interrogating her. Hikaru was somewhat semi-famous in her class for being an extreme tomboy and her cross-dressing ways. Thankfully there wasn't anything in the school rules against cross-dressing and the teachers had nothing against her as long as she passed. Everyone already knew that she was a girl, but because of her tomboyish behaviour the boys often saw her as one of their own.
"Geez, it's not like I kept it a secret or anything. What's it got to do with you guys anyway?"
"What? How can you say that Hikaru? What about soccer?"
"Just coz' I'm playing go doesn't mean I'm not playing soccer."
A nearby boy grabbed her and gave her a noogie while yelling about her being a traitor. Akari just laughed at Hikaru and she sent her a laser glare. Sai, who had been watching the whole exchange laughed from behind his sleeve.
The following Sunday Hikaru was dressed up as a boy again and visiting the Children Go Tournament. The tournament was a sight to behold, Hikaru gasped as she saw so many children playing with such serious faces. The atmosphere was so thick that she actually found it hard to breathe. Hikaru loved go, but the way that these kids were playing, with so much anxiety and pressure just seemed to ruin the game for her.
"Hey, Sai… this is really incredible."
"Yes, yes, so many children." Sai blushed from excitement and smiled. "These children have the same passion for go that I had a thousand years ago."
"But the way that these kids are playing…" Hikaru glanced around and spotted a kid who just cried because they lost. "They look like they're in pain, they may play with passion but I don't see the love or enjoyment in the go at all."
"Hikaru…It's something that I still have yet to teach you, these children are playing with the drive to win."
"Drive to win?" she asked confused. She was about to question him further when he directed her attention to a certain game.
"Oh look over there Hikaru look at that board."
"Hm…?" she turned around and walked up behind one of the kids playing. The game in front of her was an intense and complicated match between two boys a bit older then her.
"Can you solve the problem Hikaru?"
"Erhm…." She studied the board for a few seconds until the answer clicked in her mind. "1-2 right?"
"That's right Hikaru." he said cheerily and she smiled a little.
Unfortunately the kid playing didn't see that hand and played a move one space lower. With that done she was about to go around with Sai and see if there were other life or death situation problems that she could solve until---
"Hey you!" a man yelled and grabbed her shoulder.
Acting on pure reflexive instincts Hikaru jerked away and kicked him in her shin. The man crumpled to the ground and glared at her.
"That hurt kid! What are you thinking?! Don't interfering with the match, this is a serious event!" the man yelled in her face with spit catapults flying out of his mouth. He once again grabbed her and attempted to pull her to some unknown locations
"Dude, what are you talking about?" she cried angrily as she tried to get out of the man intense grip. If he wasn't going to let go then she'd just have to kick him where the sun didn't shine. "I didn't do anything."
"Don't lie, I saw what you did. You were standing behind this contestant and told him where to go next."
By now everyone was looking at the spectacle the two were making out of themselves. Man this was embarrassing.
"What are you talking about? I don't even know this kid, I was just talking to myself. Besides I said 1-2 and he placed his stone on 1-3 you freaking pervert now let go of me."
She kicked him in the other shin and was about to make an escape until she was grabbed by another person, a strange man in a white suit wearing glasses. Boy did these people like abusing little kids.
"I'll take things from here Mori-san," said the man in the white suit.
Hikaru was fighting against the man and wondered what would happen if she kicked this guy in the privates. He was wearing some sort of red ribbon saying he was special, maybe security guards would go after her.
"Ogata-sensei, this kid just interrupted the game." The man Hikaru now dubbed as pervert said.
"You're the one who interrupted the game you bloody pervert!" she yelled. She was really getting tired of being manhandled by these people. "All I did was talk to myself and you had to make a bloody big scene out of it."
Hikaru was handed back to the pervert as he dragged her off to the back somewhere with Sai yelling at the guy to let her go.
The white suited man massaged his temples and sighed, who knew being at a simple tournament could be so tiring. He then turned to the kids playing. "Can you two tell me what happened?"
The boy who just placed his stone on 1-3 answered. "I put my stones here and then suddenly this man grabbed that kid. I didn't know why he grabbed him but he said that he was interrupting the game. The kid before just said that I should've placed the stone on 1-2 instead…" The participant paused for a minute and then finally realised his mistake. "It would've been better if I put it on 1-2."
"You only notice it just now?"
"Yeah…"
The man studied the game for a few minutes. The shape was fairly difficult, even a pro would have to take some time to figure out the problem.
"Ogata-sensei," the man turned around to the official who was whispering to him. "Because of the interruption it seems they will have to start the match over again."
"Yes, I suppose they do." He said in a disinterested tone. All this trouble was giving him a headache.
"Was that child that was taken away a participant?" he asked no one in particular.
"No he was not!" shrieked a female voice. The owner of the voice was a plump woman who was probably the mother of one of the boys. "He's not involved at all, he wasn't even wearing a nametag. I was watching, he came from somewhere on the other side and was looking around. He took a glance at my son's board and then was about to leave until that awful man came and ruined the match."
This certainly caught the man's attention as surprised flashed across his face for a brief moment.
"What did you say? He only took a quick glance at the board?"
Hikaru, who had been dragged off to some office filled with trophies, was having a yelling match with the dubbed pervert and trying to explain what happened to the guy who she assumed organized this event.
"I'm telling you, nothing happened until this pervert grabbed me and started yelling at me!"
"That's right, it wasn't Hikaru's fault. She was only answering my question."
"Be that as it may it is wrong to make a comment when a match is in progress. I admit Mori-san is at fault here but be careful of what you say next time." The official admonished. "With that settled I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave this event."
"Sure-thanks—bye." Hikaru dashed out of the room and ran down the hallway with the speed she used when running away from angry old go players.
"Sai this is the first and last time that we're ever attending any go event. Geez." She mumbled and scowled.
"But Hikaru I think you did really well with the problem," Sai commented in an attempt to cheer her up.
"Really?" her eyes lit up.
"Of course," he preened. "Our go if getting stronger everyday."
Hikaru smiled and was about to say something until she run head first into something hard and became well acquainted with the floor. Sai gasped and she looked up to see who she had run into and then gasped herself. Looming over her was the disgruntled figure of Touya Kouyou a.k.a. Touya Meijin who was staring down at her. She saw something flick in his eyes before he offered a hand and helped her up. Even though she was dressed up as a boy maybe he recognised her, blond bangs were very distinctive after all. Sai had gone into go mode while Hikaru was trying to explain clearly in her mind to Sai that she couldn't just suddenly challenge him out of the blue, especially now that she found out that he was the number one player in Japan.
"You should be more careful." He commented bluntly.
"Ah yes, sorry about that." said replied anxiously and squeezed her elbow.
Touya Meijin's eyes narrowed a fraction when he noticed her nervous movement. "Have we met before?"
"Erm… I don't think so."
"Is that so?"
And with that he continued walking down the hallway and entered the room that Hikaru was fleeing from.
"Hikaru I wanted to play that man again."
"I know Sai, I know. Trust me, one day I'll promise you I'll somehow let you play him again."
"It sounds like we had some trouble." Touya said as he entered the room.
"Oh Touya Meijin," one of the officials noticed him come in and beckoned him to come over and look at the board that they were examining. "Please take a look at this."
Touya strode over to the table and saw a life and death situation on the board.
"Even a pro would need some time to solve this situation." Ogata explained. "But he just took a quick glance at it before solving the problem."
Touya's mouth twitched into a rare smile a murmured, "I see." Was the boy they were talking about the same one that just ran into him and bore a striking resemblance to the young girl he placed two months ago?
"To notice instantly the move to defeat this black, I didn't think there could be a kid other then your son Akira that could do something like this."
"And you let him go without getting his name?" Ogata admonished.
"I'm sorry," the official dubbed pervert muttered gloomily, who knew the kid he assaulted was so talented.
"That's alright," Touya Meijin deadpanned. "If he is that good of a player, sooner or later he will appear before us pros."
He grabbed a black stone and slammed it onto 1-2. "Come at me, Natsume Tsubame"
"Ar-choo." Hikaru sneezed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Damn, someone's talking about me."
"Hikaru please use a tissue to wipe your nose." Sai pleaded with disgust. "Are you coming down with a cold?"
"I doubt it."
"I can't believe that you were kicked out of that go tournament. Hikaru~! I wanted to stay longer and watch the other children play. And I wanted to play against that Touya Meijin again." Sai said in a miserable tone as he sulked in a corner.
"What's so interesting about watching a bunch of stiffs play anyway?" she asked in a bored tone while picking her nose.
"Hikaru don't insult the--"
She flicked away fake nose gold and pretended to check the time.
"There's still a lot of time before we have to go home..." she dragged out in a mischievous tone. "Rather then watch a bunch of kids' play I'd rather watch you play." She really was being too nice today.
Sai's face immediately lit up and he latched onto Hikaru in a blink of an eye, causing her to fall and earning many questionable looks from bystanders.
"Yay! Let's go play Hikaru. Let's go play. But I can't play all the time, I want to see you play as well."
Yup, Sai had turned back into his normal giddy little self. Giving a piggyback to the weightless ghost the two began their journey into the uncharted territories of the other side of town in search of salons they hadn't visited yet until—
"Sakimori!! Sakimori Takeshi!" a vaguely familiar voice cried out.
Hikaru and Sai ignored the yelling and remained in their own blissful state. Hikaru had brought a map with her today so if they ever had the unfortunate luck of getting lost she could rely on the map to help her. There were running footsteps behind her and before she knew it there was a hand on her shoulder again. Her eyes twitched in frustration, how many times was she going to get assaulted today?
Thanking her cousin for showing her self defense techniques she grabbed the arm in a firm grip and flipped the assailant over her shoulder. To her surprise the assailant was a kid, and not just any kid, it was none other than—
"Touya?!" she screamed as she slammed him into the ground.
