Author's note: Thank you so much to all my reviewers, your reviews and encouragement are what spur me on to write more.

Disclaimer: I can draw the picture of a Go stone on Microsoft Word! But there's no way I could haven drawn Hikaru no Go, much less own it.

"Blah" represents speech

'Blah' represents thoughts

Blah represents everything Sai says/ thinks

Chapter 4: It begins

The whole hall watched as a shout of "Shindo Hikaru! You!" rang though the auditorium, they watched as the named Shindo Hikaru turned; skirt flaring, and hair flying. They continued watching as the dancer twisted her ankle, collapsing in an awkward manner. They watched as the now injured dancer fell off stage in her descend. And they watched with gasps in their mouths as she got up close and personal with the carpeted floor.

They watched. They watched.

"Excuse me! Can somebody help me please! I can't get up! Help!"

Immediately the people of the front row rushed forward to help her onto her uninjured foot. Holding on to the stage for support, Hikaru scanned the audience to see her family, Sai and Touya's family making their way to her post-haste. Looking around once more, Hikaru could see Mizuki-Sensei and Aki running towards her with the first aid kit.

"Hikaru! You poor dear, are you alright?" Mizuki-Sensei fussed. "Don't worry about the concert darling, you just go and get better. We'll get one of the older girls to fill you in."

"Thanks Mizuki-Sensei. Thanks to you too Aki but you really don't have to do this. Go back and dance, the show must go on." Hikaru smiled down at Aki who had helped her into the seat nearest to her and was now helping to bandage her leg. "Ow!"

Aki had slapped Hikaru's injured leg. "Honestly Hikaru. We're friends, we help each other. Stupid girl."

Oh Hikaru! Are you feeling alright? Is it pain? Does it hurt very badly?

"Oh my baby! Hikaru are you okay?"

Hikaru turned in her seat to greet her mother and Sai. "I'm fine mum. Hey dad, did you two enjoy the show?" 'Hello to you too Sai, and yes, it hurts really badly.'

"Come Hikaru; let's get you to the hospital."

With that, Hikaru's father picked her up and started walking out of the auditorium. Hikaru wrapped her arms around her father's neck and grimaced as another wave of pain shot up her leg.

Outside the Concert Hall

"Wait!"

Mitsuko, Masao, Sai and Hikaru turned around at the call.

There with one hand outstretched as if in an attempt to catch them was a nicely dressed woman. Behind her were a tall and stern-looking man and a young boy. Hikaru recognized the boy. 'Touya-san! I didn't expect him to be here. That must be his dad and his mom. Wow, she's really pretty. Now I know where he gets his looks from. What do you think Sai?'

Yes, I agree. He definitely gets his looks from his mother; but his father, that man. He is the Touya-Meijin. I want to play that man. Let me play Go with him Hikaru.

'Touya-Meijin? What's that? Why is he so special Sai?'

Touya-Meijin is currently the best Go professional in Japan Hikaru-chan. They say that he is the man closest to achieving the Hand-of-God. I read it in the book you bought for me.

'I see; I wonder why they told us to wait.'

The Shindo family watched as the woman, the man and the boy approached them.

"Oh, I know how you are, you're Touya Akiko! I love the work your charity does for the less privileged children!" Hikaru's mum was an avid supporter of Touya Akiko's charity.

"Yes, thank you. As you have said, I am Touya Akiko; this is my husband Koyo and my son, Akira. My son would like to sincerely apologize to your daughter. Isn't that right Akira?" Touya Akiko was glaring at her son, angry at him for ruining the dance and making to poor girl fall.

Akira felt a push on his shoulder. Looking back at his father, he gulped as he saw the disappointment and disapproval in his father's eyes. Turning back to the kind looking lady he now knew was Shindo's mother, Akira gave a bow. "Gomen nasai Shindo-san, I did not mean to shout and distract your daughter. I did not wish for her to get injured either."

"Thank you child, fret not, it was no harm done-"

'No harm done; my foot. Stupid Touya. Making me fall. If I cannot dance ever again because of him I will skin him alive and hang him from the top of the school flagpole. Che. No harm done indeed.'

Hikaru! You must not think like that. Revenge does not become you. Sai was appalled to hear Hikaru thinking about such violent things. A lady does not partake in violence.

'Humph!'

"- there is my daughter if you wish to apologize."

Akira turned to see Hikaru carried by her father, bridal style with her arms still around his neck. He gulped when he looked into Hikaru's eyes. If looks could kill, Akira would probably be a bubbling mess of goo. Looking at her now, Akira was ashamed to have been the one who caused her to fall. In his defense, he did not intend for this to happen. He was merely shocked that his rival, Shindo Hikaru, was a dancer!

He most certainly did not expect the skilled Go player he had met in his father's Go saloon to be a dancer. Firstly, she did not look like a dancer, dressed casually in a baggy light grey polo-tee and black cargos, Shindo had looked like some kind of tom-boy; and to his knowledge, tom-boys did not dance. Secondly, Shindo was the strongest player his age that he had ever met. He had expected that someone as skilled as Shindo would have, like him, spent every moment of everyday practicing her Go. Yet to think that Shindo had the time to dance, perform and play Go, it was, mind-blowing and difficult to accept.

"Gomen nasai Shindo-san. I did not mean to make fall because of my thoughtless actions. I hope that you will forgive me."

Hikaru really wanted to say no. The temptation was tremendous. She really wanted to shout at him. To scold him about how he didn't have manners and how she hated him for doing this to her. For ruining the concert. For making her unable to perform. For flushing all the hours she had put in practicing for the dance down the drain. But no, she couldn't. To do so would shame her family.

"Touya Akira-san, I accept your apology." 'Now leave me be. I don't want to look at you. I have never been so humiliated in my entire life and it's all because of you.' Upon accepting Akira's apology, Hikaru turned back to lean her head on her father's chest, whispering in his ear that she wanted to hurry and get her leg fixed.

Her father conceded and told the others that they had to leave now. Hikaru's mother and Akira's mother somehow became friends in the midst of all this, prompting Akiko to invite the Shindo family to have dinner together some time.

Shindo Household, Wednesday

Hikaru now led a very inactive life and she was most certainly not used to it. Having spent the last five or six years constantly in dance classes, Hikaru was too used to movement. Now stuck in her crutches with an inability to use up her stamina and energy, Hikaru was restless. And her restlessness was disrupting the house hold.

"I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored." Hikaru had been singing those two words from the comfort of the couch for the past hour or so. "Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored…"

"Hikaru! For heaven's sake child. If you are so bored why don't you find something to do," Mitsuko was sick and tired of hearing Hikaru whine and sing off-key. She was trying to clean the house but the constant noise that Hikaru was making was simply much too unbearable.

"Like what mum? There's nothing nice to watch on the TV, I can't go out and play… Go… Play… Oh! I know! I can play Go!" 'Then at least one of us won't be so bored eh Sai? But I can't walk to saloons and I don't want to see Touya, no Sai, not even to let you play his father. Maybe I can get grandpa to play with you!'

"Go? Since when did you play Go Hikaru?" Mitsuko was curious. She had never seen or heard Hikaru show any interest in the game of Go. To the best of her knowledge, all Hikaru ever spoke of was dance. Which dance she was performing next, what steps she was learning now, how pretty she thought her costumes were. Never anything about Go.

"Eh?" Hikaru racked her brain for some excuse to explain her sudden interest in Go. "I just learn recently actually," 'well, that much is true.' "so do you think Gramps is home? Maybe he could play Go with me."

When her mother replied negative, Hikaru racked her brains for other ways to play Go. It was then when she remembered what she had read some time ago on the net. Netgo! She could play Netgo. The only thing she needed to do now was to secure a computer that had internet excess. Immediately she thought of her elder cousin Yukito. Yukito was the only son of her father's brother and to Hikaru; he was the best elder brother a girl could ever ask for. Hikaru knew that her cousin was working at a cyber-café with his girlfriend, Mitani Hana. Perhaps he could let her play Netgo there. Or even better, maybe her cousin would lend her his laptop!

With this determination, Hikaru asked her mother for the phone and dialed her cousin's number.

"Hello, Shindo Yukito speaking."

"Hey brother-o-mine. How art thou doing?"

"Hey little sis, I'm fine, how is your leg?"

"My leg is fine but my mind is not. I'm bored. I'm so bored! You have to help me," Hikaru whined into the phone.

She could hear her cousin on the other end, chuckling at her expense. "Oh? Do I?"

"Yes, yes you do," Hikaru replied in a matter-of-fact manner.

"And how may I help you then?"

"I need an internet. Can I come over everyday after school to use your computer? Please? I'll bake you cookies. Double dark chocolate chip. Please?" Hikaru had pulled out the big guns. Just as a person's tears were Hikaru's weakness, double dark chocolate chips baked by her were Yukito's Achilles heel.

"Fine. You win but you will not use my laptop until you've baked the cookies. And after your leg is healed, if you want an internet, go use the one at the cyber-café. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Hikaru squealed! Her cousin was so awesome. After thanking her cousin profusely and saying their goodbyes through the phone, Hikaru immediately turned to her mother and asked if they had the ingredients to bake the cookies. Upon receive a positive answer, Hikaru set to work.

Shindo Household (Yukito's house), Thursday

"Hello Hikaru-chan, how are you?"

Hikaru greeted her aunt and asked for Yukito. After confirming that he was home, she slowly made her way to his room. Thank heavens that her cousin's room was on the first floor. Hikaru was quite tired of having to climb stairs with her crutches.

In her cousin's room, Hikaru and Sai received a run down on how to use the computer and the internet. Once everything was set and Hikaru had given Yukito the cookies, Hikaru said her goodbyes to her cousin who was going to work.

'Now let's see, sign up? Yes.' Hikaru clicked on the button labeled sign up.

'Email, name, user-name…Sai, what do you want to be called on the net?' Seeing as it was Sai that was going to be playing and not she, Hikaru figured that Sai deserved to get to choose his screen name.

I want to be Sai.

'Dots. That is so uncreative Sai. Couldn't you think of something better?'

Why? I like my name and identity. I want to be Sai.

Sighing, Hikaru obediently typed down the name and pressed the enter key. After going through the verification process, Hikaru was ready to start. Randomly clicking on any player, Hikaru requested a game. 'Alright Sai, I don't know how good these people are but I guess well find out soon eh?'

Sai merely nodded and called out an intersection on the board.

It had begun, the legendary Sai was rising.

Author's note: I don't know about to rest of you but I was not too happy with this chapter. Nothing interesting happened. Pooh. Oh well, maybe in the next one eh?

Thanks to all my reviewers, I'm sorry that I didn't show Akira getting scolded in this chapter but rest assured, more Hikaru – Akira interaction will come soon enough. And the part on the legendary Sai rising, I've been wanting to put that in since the movie "the seeker" came out. You know their tagline- the darkness is rising. Heh, it's been stuck in my head.

Can anyone tell me if the players on Netgo are ranked? Coz if they are, I may have to tweak the ending of this chapter a little.

And to Kimiche, don't worry about wasting my review space. I have plenty.