A/N: People, throw your comments at me. I'm looking to improve my writing here.
Disclaimer: Rain poured down upon the lands of Abramire, sending its citizens scattering off for shelter.
All were running for shelter, that is, all except for one petite girl who was sitting on the fence, cheerfully swinging her legs to and fro. As the rain drenched her whole body, the girl merely giggled happily. She hopped down from the fence and twirled herself around.
"Ao Yuki does not own Hikaru no Go!" she shouted to the heavens as she continued her ludicrous dance.
Thunder roared once, as if in total agreement.
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Chapter 4
The Sun tipped precariously on the horizon. A comforting red amber glow filled up the entire room. It was indeed a sight for sore eyes.
Too bad none of the room's inhabitants had the energy to enjoy the poetic feeling.
By the time Hikaru and Daisuke lugged the entire Go set home, they were exhausted. To their twelve - year old bodies, even the go-ke itself, filled with stones, was too heavy to carry... at least for long distances.
Their mother had mildly chided them both for tiring themselves out and seemed to especially blame Hikaru for that but actually seemed more worried than anything. Distracted by Sai pleading to have a game right then, Hikaru only half-heartedly promised to take better care of Daisuke. Daisuke, on the other hand, tried his best to help Hikaru by saying that he was 'fine really' and 'a bit of exercise is good'.
Finally making back to their room, Hikaru sat heavily onto his bed.
"Oh... that was so tiring..."
This time, even Daisuke agreed with him for the moment he arrived in the room, the usually energetic boy crumpled onto his bed, seemingly dead to the world.
Hikaru threw a look of envy at Daisuke. If only he could just lie down on his bed and go to sleep...
"Hikaruuuuu... You said you'll play a game with me now!' Sai whined while Hikaru yawned. He looked rather affronted that Hikaru didn't immediately start playing in the middle of the road on their way home.
Hikaru merely gave another huge yawn.
Seeing that Hikaru was ignoring him, Sai started shaking Hikaru, chanting 'now! now!' continuously.
"All right! All right! I didn't say I wasn't going to play you so stop shaking me!" Hikaru grumbled.
The only reply was Sai's over-excited squeals of joy.
"I'll set up the goban now…"
After getting an old washing cloth from his mother to wipe away the dust coated on top of the goban, it wasn't long before the goban was placed nicely in the middle of the room, the go-ke on either side of it. The blood was a little unsettling, however. Even if seeing it meant seeing Sai.
Despite his slight annoyance and sleepiness, Hikaru was otherwise excited to play a game with Sai. There was a sense of anxiousness to compare and see how he matched up against Sai. There was delight at the thought that after so many years of waiting, he was finally going to play Sai. His mentor, the person at inspired him.
He smiled wistfully. There was also a twinge of sadness. This Sai wasn't his Sai exactly; he wasn't the Sai that accompanied him through thick and thin, the Sai that he knew for nearly three whole years, and the Sai that he had shared so much of his memories with.
But Sai was still Sai, he supposed. And Hikaru couldn't be happier that he had another chance to know this world's Sai.
"Okay, Sai! Daisuke already told you about the Komi rule right? That the white will get 5.5 points as compensation?
Sai nodded.
"Hai. Although in my time, there wasn't such a thing…."
Hikaru placed the go-ke beside him. Right hand for black, and left hand for white.
"You just use your fan to point at the board, Sai. Even or odds?"
Sai contemplated for a moment.
"Even."
The number of Go stones turned out to be odd. With a piercing 'pachi!' resounding off the goban, the game began.
First hand, the lower right kosumi.
With every move made, Hikaru's heart felt as if it skipped a beat. His left hand was firm and sure, while his right trembled. Every time it was his turn, Hikaru's mind raced forward a thousand miles.
'Here, to surround…..'
And Hikaru removed two white stone from the board. He couldn't make a mistake now. Not now.
The Sun had long set, and the room grew darker with the passing of every minute. Yet the two occupants in the room noticed none of it, engrossed in the game that had changed both their lives. Sai would point with his fan once, and Hikaru would put the stone upon the goban with his left hand. He predicted the probability of Sai's next move, and then swiftly made his own to cut off the stones on the upper right area. Tension mounted higher and higher with each reverberating 'pachi!'. Hikaru vaguely felt the sweat that lined his forehead.
The two opponents skilfully tried to turn the advantage to themselves, their mind cleared, focusing on nothing but the Go stones in front of them. Two people, linked by a goban from the past to the present, and the present to the past.
15-4 or 6-8? Should he defend or attack?
Deftly, almost even delicately, Hikaru placed the stone on 6-8, subtly laying a trap under the guise of attacking.
From a fast paced, heated game that had already started off as such, tensions mounted. The room seemed to rise in temperature as the intensity of both players increased. Whenever the two contrasting colours of Go stones met, it almost seemed as if a clash of lightning would strike across the goban itself. Weaving elegantly around each other, the shape of the go stones slowly but surely emerged. Both Sai and Hikaru were going full out, mercilessly trying to grasp holding of that single eluding victory. Sai faced strategies not yet discovered, while Hikaru faced the overwhelming strength accumulated in a thousand years. It was a battle of pure wills as much as a battle of skills.
But soon, someone had to give way; someone had to break under the strain.
Someone had to lose.
Gradually, the pace of the game slowed, moving pass yose, to that final end when the results would be revealed.
But the results didn't matter as much to Hikaru as the game did. No, it was the match itself that really mattered. The game felt extremely gratifying to Hikaru. He was sure that this was one game that he was going to remember for years to come.
Hikaru had never even brought the game to yose before when he had faced Sai in a real match. He had once took it for granted that he would never ever beat Sai. Perhaps it was that psychological factor that caused him to forever face Sai with less than his hundred and one percent effort that he usually took to try and beat Touya Akira.
But now of course it seemed that all psychological barriers had been broken down and Hikaru had no such qualms about trying to beat Sai.
Not that he could even when he tried his best.
Hikaru sighed and groaned unhappily.
"With the komi…one and a half moku….!"
Despite being slightly disappointed that he lost yet again, Hikaru couldn't quite keep the wide grin off his face for long.
"That was a great game, Sai! You're really strong, eh?"
"Thank you, Hikaru. It was a great game indeed." Sai replied, opened up his fan again and shyly hid behind it. "You played really well too, Hikaru. Every move was very well executed. If I hadn't been going full out, I think you would have beaten me." Sai said modestly.
Hikaru yawned.
His exhaustion finally catching up to him and shook his head tiredly.
"Me? Beat you! No way! I went more than full out on you and even though I managed to somehow confuse you with some of the modern strategies, you still won!"
Even though more than half of his facial features were behind the fan, Hikaru knew that Sai was wearing a pleased expression. Like any normal being, Sai enjoyed being praised.
Hikaru looked out of the window, noticing that night had long fallen. There was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he had forgotten something, but being thoroughly exhausted at that point in time, he merely battered away that said nagging feeling and laid his head down on the pillow.
He barely managed to mumble a 'good night' to Sai before finally giving in to sweet oblivion.
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By the time Hikaru had noticed what he had forgotten the next day, it was too late.
"Hikaru-kun, where is your homework?" the teacher asked patiently.
Hikaru merely looked guilty before replying with a sheepish tone.
"Eh… My dog ate it?"
The silence that followed that statement was deafening.
And so, the day proceeded normally. Or as normally as it can be with a ghost and a little brother tagging you everywhere you go. Though strangely, it didn't bother Hikaru as much he thought it might. It helped that he was usually quiet, of course.
After another mind-numbing science lesson, the twins were walking back to their classroom, with Daisuke exclaiming over how absolutely fascinating that acid plus bases created salt and water….
"Hey, Daisuke?"
"Yeah, nii-chan?"
"When did you learn to play Go?"
Scratching his head for a moment, Daisuke tapped his chin and replied.
"When we were about seven I think. Grandpa taught me. He wanted to teach you too, but you didn't seem very interested…."
Then suddenly smiling widely, Daisuke continued.
"When we both beat him yesterday, his expression was so funny!" He promptly chuckled.
Hikaru laughed as well, remember the gobsmacked expression on his grandfather's face was just too funny. If only he had a camera on hand at that time…
"So… How about a game with Sai?"
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Right after they reached home, the twins shouted a 'tadaima!' to their mother before swiftly going to their room. Hikaru plopped down onto his bed.
"Ready, Daisuke?"
Daisuke nodded. With Daisuke holding a black stone in hand, the game began.
It wasn't right to compare. But Hikaru found himself doing it anyway. Compared to the game he had with Sai, it was frustratingly and disappointingly boring. It had been clear from the start that Sai was the stronger opponent. Even before reaching mid game, Daisuke had resigned and was now complaining to Hikaru.
"Nii-chan! Sai squashed me like an ant!"
To console Daisuke, Hikaru reassured him:
"Don't worry Daisuke. I got squashed yesterday too."
Unable to refute the statement, Sai just turned around and pouted slightly.
While smiling at Sai's antics, Hikaru had half his mind occupied by the game he just saw.
'This playing style… I know it…' For some reason, Daisuke's playing style was eerily reminiscent of someone…..
"Yoshiku!" Hikaru gasped before clasping his hands on his mouth and rapidly making up an excuse.
"I mean… yoshiki! Sai's playing style is old. He didn't play for more than a hundred years so there are bound to be many things he didn't know… We need to help him update this style, right Sai?"
Sai and Daisuke looked at each other.
Daisuke seemed to think about it for a moment, before asking:
"How are we going to do that?"
Hikaru let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and prepared to rack brain for an answer. Going to Go salons meant he had to have money, which he didn't unless he asked from his parents. And he didn't think they would allow him to go yet. Not at this point, when they seem so overwhelmingly more protective than they had been in the other universe. He could go to the internet café and let Sai play, but playing lousy opponents wouldn't really help, would it? Then the answer itself came to his mind.
"Why don't we attend a few Go classes?"
After demanding from their very much amused father that he must absolutely sign them up for Go class, Daisuke managed to persuade Hikaru using guilt trips and puppy dog eyes into finally teaching him how to play the long over-due Rockman DASH.
"Waaah, nii-chan! Those three wolf reaverbots are so difficult to kill!"
Even Sai, who had at first protested about not playing Go seemed very much excited by the 'box with people inside' and was almost bouncing up and down.
"Left! Right! Noooo! Ahhh! You got killed….."
Hikaru sat at on his bed and sniggered about how it was the third time his brother got killed by the three wolf-like enemies.
Catching his 'nii-chan' laughing at him, Daisuke sulked and pushed the controller to him.
"Hikaru! Don't be so mean…."
Within seven minutes after the noise of all the shooting died down, Hikaru had easily breezed through the ruins without much injury to the main character at all. Silently, he handed the controller back his little brother, determined to not laugh at the incredulous expression on his little brother's face.
What he didn't expect was when Daisuke burst out laughing and hugged Hikaru briefly.
"Thank you for beating the game for me!"
Hikaru only frowned at the fact that he had been tricked but couldn't suppress the urge to tousle Daisuke's hair.
The rest of the day was mostly spent with Daisuke trying to beat the game while Hikaru and Sai sat down for a casual game of Go.
Stars twinkled merrily in the dark sky, almost as if happy to accompany the brightly lit moon gently shining down upon mortals.
Lying awake on his bed at night, staring out of the window at the night sky, Hikaru continued to ponder upon the reason Daisuke played in the same way that was so alike his best student, Yoshiku.
Now… if it wasn't for the fact that he was clearly in the past and in a parallel world's past no less, he would have thought that it was a coincidence. As such….
Hikaru looked at the heavens and scowled.
He could only blame kami.
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Two simultaneous yawns made Sai look disapprovingly upon the two Shindou brothers. Using his fan, he tapped lightly on both their heads.
"Hikaru, Daisuke! Cover your mouths when you yawn! It's so rude."
As per usual, they ignored Sai's 'scolding'.
Currently, they were in the district Go club nearby their house that their father had signed them up for. It was an ordinary room with white-washed walls and a big magnetic goban in the front of the room. Several rows of long tables were placed and chairs positioned on either side of the table. Other than the cheap foldable goban in between the two opposite seats, nothing else was worth noticing.
The Go strategies shown on the board in the front of the class was offering nothing to Sai because most of them were merely basic ones. Among the three of them, only Sai still seemed excited in spite of the disappointingly fundamental tactics.
"When can we start playing Go or something? This is so boring….."
Hikaru just sighed since he had no answer to that. If his memory served him well, they should be able to play soon. But then again, Hikaru doesn't usually trust his memory on anything out of kifu and Go strategies.
To Hikaru, the strategies shown on the board wouldn't apply much in a real match, because rarely would things turn out exactly as shown. Under the stifling pressure and rising tension, the possibilities of a person even remembering the strategies he or she had learnt are very much questionable.
"Ne, Hikaru… I wonder how strong of a player is the teacher?"
"Shirakawa-sensei is a pro, meaning he makes a living playing Go. He's a high dan pro too, so he's probably very strong."
At that time, the teacher finally announced one very welcomed piece of news.
"Ok! Let's stop here and play some matches."
Immediately, Hikaru and Hikaru both sat up straighter in their seats. Whilst chorus of 'onegaishimasu' echoed around the classroom, Hikaru asked Daisuke if he wanted to play shidou-go with him and Sai.
"Daisuke and I can both learn from Sai while Sai can pick up more modern Go strategies. Right?"
Daisuke got a five stone handicap and the game was just about to begin when it was interrupted by the teacher.
"Shindou Hikaru and Shindou Daisuke right?" He looked at the two of them and appeared to be confused as to who is who.
Daisuke cheerfully pointed out to him.
"Hai, we are! I'm Shindou Daisuke and this is my nii-chan, Hikaru!"
The teacher smiled kindly at them.
"Are you two beginners?"
Fighting to keep his face straight, Hikaru answered.
"Well… not really. I wouldn't say we are the strongest, but so far, we haven't lost to anyone yet."
'Ne, Sai. Would you like to play a game with sensei?' Hikaru prodded Sai mentally. It was the first time he deliberately opened the link and used it.
Sai's eager nodding and an excited 'hai!' was all that was needed.
Hikaru pasted an innocent expression on his face and asked aloud.
"Shirakawa-sensei, shall we play a game of Go?"
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A/N: I'm actually pretty regretful that I had to cut away many of the more… interesting scene in this chapter. It would have been so much more fun…. I had too much fun typing this chapter. Another thing is that school has arrived. :grimaces: Therefore, the next chapter would definitely take much longer to come out.
Again, I do not down Rockman DASH. Capcom does.
Definition:
Yoshiki means style.
In case any of you are interested, according to Wikipedia.
A Reaverbot is a fictional enemy in the Mega Man Legends series (known as Rockman DASH in Japan). Reaverbots populate the underground ruins where most of the series game play occurs, and are the most varied enemies in the game. The trademark appearance of a reaverbot always entails a red eye located on its body, as well as a distinctive design, marked with black grooves and segmented joints.
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