Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Hikaru no Go characters…
Chapter 4 - Meeting Ogata Seiji
"Hikaru, what's wrong?"
When Hikaru tried to struggle out of her arms, Akiko held her tighter, "Hikaru, it's me, your aunt Akiko. Hikaru!"
Recognition dawning in her turbulent green eyes, Hikaru promptly fainted in Akiko's arms.
"What happened?", asked Toya Koyo, better know as Toya Meijin, as he picked Hikaru up.
"We heard a scream and then Hikaru came barreling around the corner before fainting in a panic in my arms."
The older Toya turned around to look suspiciously at where his wife was pointing. He passed Hikaru to Akiko and told her and Akira to head inside and activate the new security system they had installed prior to Hikaru's arrival.
As far as he knew, noone but Sai knew Hikaru was here in Japan. Still, just in case he headed up the street to see what or who had scared Hikaru so badly.
A couple of minutes earlier…
"Happy New Year Ogata-san!", Ichikawa-san had bumped into him on the way to visit the Toyas and they were now walking side-by-side.
"Happy New Year Ichikawa-san"
"So did you do anything fun?"
"Played some Go games online. How about you?"
"Visited the shrine, prayed and…" , Ogata sort of tuned her out after that. It wasn't that he didn't like her; she was a nice enough woman. It was just that he had other matters to worried about. Such as playing more games and winning at least a title or two.
Ever since he was small, Go had intrigued him; the shapes that the addition of each stone could create, the challenge of reading ahead and beating your opponent, the feeling of exhilaration that came upon you whenever you played a great game. Therefore, it was no surprise that Ogata Seiji had chosen Go as his profession; he had entered the pro world in hopes of playing many and many great games. Yet, the higher he climbed, the less opponents he had. He had long ago surpassed players his age and the only ones who could still beat him were a couple of players that were at least a decade if not more older than him. And when he realized that, a sort of panic had set in.
What would he do if the older and skilled players retired or even passed away? Who could he play challenging games with? Thankfully, before full-blown panic had set in, Ogata realized that if there were not that many great players around his age, there were still those younger than him. It was true that they might be less skilled, but with potential and polish, they could become great players who could replace the "old wave" and become his opponents in the future.
For example, there was Toya Akira. Akira, a mere 12 years old boy, was already strong enough to defeat the lower-dans thanks to the training and games he has had with his father, Toya Meijin. However, Akira was just one player, and he had kept his eyes and ears open for more new and promising players to emerge in Japan. He had looked and searched, and had almost given up hope when that unknown boy and girl had appeared.
It all started a couple of months ago with the appearance of that boy at the Go Children Tournament. It had been months already and still no trace or sign of him. He wondered if maybe it had been a fluke, or that the boy had heard the solution to that tough game from a pro and was just simply repeating the answer when he explained it to Hio-kun. Whatever the answer was, if he could just find the boy again and test him himself, then he could be sure.
And then there was that other mystery; he had heard from Ichikawa-san and the salon patrons about an unknown girl who had showed up out of nowhere and beaten Akira not once but twice in Go. However, he had no luck in trying to get anyone to re-create the games for him and Akira himself had refused to do so; actually Akira had been pretty tight-lipped about it all whenever he had tried to pried. There were two possibilities for why Akira might have lost to another child of similar age; he might have gone either easy on her or had taken her seriously but had still got beaten so bad that he felt ashamed to re-play either game.
Unlike the situation with the boy from the Go tournament, in this instance, with the girl, Ogata had a first name, a solid physical description, and best of all knew someone who knew who the girl was. According to witnesses, the girl and Akira had seemed pretty familiar with each other. In fact, the first time, the girl had come looking for Akira and the second time, Akira had dragged the girl into the salon. Since Akira was not talking, maybe if he asked Toya sensei…
Sighing, Ogata threw that thought away as soon as it had popped into his head. His sensei was a very private and trustworthy man; if he didn't want to share anything, no matter what Ogata did, he would not divulge any information he did not wish to. So, even if Toya Meijin knew who the girl was, if Akira or the girl had asked for secrecy, he would grant it without a doubt.
He was so close yet at the same time so far; was it too much to hope for great future opponents? He was willing to wait for a couple of years for them to mature and he didn't want much, really, he just wanted to know for sure that there was someone, anyone, in addition to Akira, who were part of what he hoped was a "new wave" of Go players. As if in answer to his prayer, those two mysterious children appeared.
He doubted either was a child of another pro…maybe a grandchild or a sibling? Either way, he was sure he would have heard about it. The Go world was a pretty tight community and news would have spread like wildfire if there was another child, let alone two more, who were as skilled as Akira in Go.
Before he could give himself a headache, Ogata was pulled out of his thought upon hearing a name.
"…Hikaru-chan, Hikaru-chan", Ichikawa-san called out.
"Where?", he whipped his head this way and that in an effort to see one of the people he had been wanting to meet for what seemed ages.
Ichikawa-san pointed across the street to the lone figure kneeling on the sidewalk. So deep in thought was she, that she did not even heard Ichikawa-san calling out to her.
"Is she the one…?", Ogata asked in a near whisper, afraid of raising his hopes up.
"The one? Oh, you mean the one that played and beat Akira twice? I still can't believe it either, but yes, that's her."
Ogata turned his head back around just in time to see the child get up and head towards the corner. Fearing to lose sight of her, without thinking he ran across the street.
Ichikawa-san swallowed. She tried not to fidget, but she had never seen Toya sensei this upset, scratch that, she had never seen him upset at all.
She couldn't really blame him either. If she had known what Ogata-san was going to do, she would never, never have called out to Hikaru-chan. She would have kept her mouth shut, would have knocked Ogata-san out, would have…there were just so many things she could have done to prevent this from happening. But honestly, she would never in a million years have imagined this.
She had watched in surprise as Ogata-san ran across the street, ignoring any oncoming cars and catching up to a once again kneeling Hikaru-chan. In the next minute, she had watched flabbergasted as Ogata-san pulled the girl up by one arm and when she tried to pull away, he had grabbed both of the girl's arms. And that's when the girl had let out a blood curling scream and whether intentionally or not she had kicked her captor in the stomach and in the shin, in addition to biting him on his left hand. He had let go of her to double in pain on his knees, while Hikaru-chan had run away.
And now they were in Toya's sensei's living room. She had just given her version of what happened and Ogata-san hadn't said anything in his defense yet.
"Ichikawa-san, would you excuse us for a couple of minutes?", inquired Toya Meijin, without looking at her. His gaze was fixed on his student, Ogata Seiji.
"Yes, of course. Actually, it's time I get going. I promised to have dinner with my family…", she trailed off and got out of the room as fast as possible. She slid the doors close and only got a feet away from the doors before she came face to face with Akira-kun.
"Akira-kun! Good afternoon, how is Hikaru-chan?"
"Good afternoon. The doctor had to give her a soother to calm her down. Okaasan is staying with her. Do you know what happened?"
Swallowing and feeling like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, Ichikawa asked for tea to steer Akira-kun away from the doors behind her and the discussion that was probably going on between those closed doors.
"Ogata, would you like to explain what happened?"
Ogata Seiji felt as if he was back in school and in the principal's office. When he had reached the girl, she had been so into whatever she was doing, that she didn't even notice his presence. He winced in pain upon remembering how she had solidly connected with his stomach and shin; they still hurt now.
"Sensei, I recognize that it wasn't the smartest thing on my part when I grabbed her. And I apologize. But I swear I didn't hurt her or threaten her."
Sighing, Toya Meijin felt an oncoming headache. From Ichikawa-san and some of the patrons from the salon, he knew Ogata had an interest in the girl who had beaten Akira in Go. He had deduced from the name and physical description given to him that the girl was indeed Hikaru. However, Hikaru and Akira had not mentioned it and he had not asked no matter how curious he himself had been.
Ogata's actions would have spooked anyone, but it shouldn't have been enough to scare Hikaru witless; the girl was young but mentally quite strong. There must have been something else or someone else who had scared her.
"Did you do anything else? Said anything to her? Was there anyone else?"
"I didn't see anyone else. I remember saying her name a couple of times and when she tried to pull away, I might have said something like 'I finally found you and you are not going anywhere'."
Toya Meijin winced, of all things to say, Ogata had to use those words. No wonder the girl had panicked; she must have though they had found her.
Half an hour later…
Akiko opened the door with a finger on her lips asking her husband for silence.
"Hikaru is sleeping now. Did you found out what happened?"
He nodded and proceeded to explain to her what he had found out as they both walked down the hallway, away from Hikaru's room.
"The idiot! What was he thinking? Even if Hikaru was not traumatized by what happened to her a couple of years ago, anyone would have been frightened upon being manhandled by someone twice your size! Where is he? Is he still downstairs? I am going to give him a piece of my mind."
"Akiko, hold on. I sent him home and told him he could come back another day and apologize to Hikaru. I am upset with him too, but Ogata didn't mean any harm."
"Hmph", was the only response he got to that statement.
"And I figure it might help Hikaru if she sees that it was just Ogata who had grabbed her."
Arms crossed, Akiko thought about it. She had never been a violent person, but at this moment, she wanted to punch someone very badly; possibly Ogata, or maybe those kidnappers, or those so called 'relatives' of Hikaru's.
"I know he is your student, but I don't want him in this house for a while. And when he does come back, he is to never be left alone with Hikaru, even when he apologizes to her for his stupidity."
Toya Meijin nodded in agreement. His wife was a gentle person but could turn into a tigress whenever her family was involved.
A/N: Hi all! Sorry for the delay, but I was stuck a bit with the next chapter (I tend not to publish a completed chapter, unless I have the next partially done). I hope everyone enjoys it; from the beginning I did not plan to have as much focus on Ogata in this chapter, but without realizing it, he sort of took over. And for those that are interested in Hikaru's past, the next chapter will give everyone a bit of more info.