Chapter 7

Hikaru was kneeling in front of the goban, alone in his apartment. Akira had left several hours earlier, the image plastered in his mind. There was no way around it, Akira was disappointed, and his expression had been filled with worry and disgust. Hikaru could feel the tears prickling out of his eyes. The young man sniffled trying not to bawl like a child. He wasn't worthy. He had lost to Akira again. He wasn't suited to be a rival of the man he had come to love. The pattern of black and white stones had become repetitive. He couldn't figure out his weak spots or his strengthens. Hikaru needed advice and the only person he felt that could really teach him was gone.

Sai is gone.

Dull sea-foam green eyes traced the black lines along the wooden surface.

He won't come back.

Gently, he pulled the board forward yearning to place a stone on the surface.

I'm too weak.

Even with a white stone in his hand, he didn't dare to. Heavily, he sighed and waked out of his bedroom, the goban remained untouched. It had been collecting dust for three long years, since he had been sixteen. Hikaru couldn't do anything else but wait. At the door frame he glanced back longingly, the light from the living room cutting the board in half light and half darkness. He turned and closed the door for the room to be blanketed in darkness.

Gomen Sai.

Morishita was surprised when Shindo Hikaru appeared in front of him demanding him that he would give him a private tutoring session. Naturally, he accommodated the young pro, his green eyes were driven by something. He knew that Shindo had an extraordinary talent when he had appeared as an insei. Since those days, he firmly believed that Shindo Hikaru was a force to watch carefully. He smirked to himself, more carefully than Touya Akira. The boy was a breathe of fresh air to the Go world and the Go world defiantly needed a breathe of fresh air. The older players stunk up the Go Institute with their know it all patterns. Touya Akira, the higher dan snorted and chuckled, would fall under Shindo Hikaru one of those days. Yes, Shindo Hikaru held a lot of promise.

While waiting for Shindo-dan-3, he remembered the conversation that they had when he had been cornered in the Go Institute that April morning. "Morishita-sensei," Shindo bowed formally, "Onegai, play me as you would in a formal match." His forehead was touching the ground as he kneeled on the floor. Morishita was silent for a moment, just watching the teenager. He was clam and collected, this request was to help him improve. If he had been any other student beside Waya, he would have declined.

"Fine," Morishita replied calmly, squinting his eyes and nodding, "Demo you asked for it."

"Arigatou, Morishita-9 dan," Shindo Hikaru replied, and then Morishita blinked. Shindo Hikaru would usually be beaming. However, his eyes were hard. Defiantly, one to never underestimate, the higher Go player confirmed to himself.

"Morishita-9-dan," Shindo stated when he arrived out of breathe like always, "Gomen nasi."

"Cut the act, Shindo," he barked. "You're not one for formalities. Don't think you can beat me by acting like you're someone else. You're not Touya Akira. You are not Waya. You ARE Shindo Hikaru." With that he snapped his fan shut and lead the way towards the Goban. He didn't look back but he could hear Shindo stumble and hurry after him. Yes, the boy has promise but he still has a long way to go, he reprimanded himself.

XXXXXX

Akira wasn't surprised when he arrived at the reserved section in the back of the Go Institute. Hikaru was sitting at the small board going through a few Shuusaku kifus silently, reading into each move. The sound of the stone firmly hitting the board as if it was a match game, the intensity hung in the air. A small smile traced along Akira's lips as he watched from behind the bookshelf. Hikaru didn't realize he had come yet as he over heard the teenager talking to himself.

"Honestly, Torajiro, what were you thinking, letting him do that?" the teenager muttered and redid the move. There was silence for a moment, the movement of stones. A few minutes passed, then a whistle, "Ah I see." Then the movements quickened as the game continued to play out. "He resigns here. Sugoi." Hikaru's voice was barely above a whisper but it echoed through the stacks of paper. There was a moment of silence as Hikaru nodded and quickly began to clear off the board.

Akira took a deep breathe and stepped out from behind the bookshelf, "Busy?" He smiled evilly fully knowing what would happen.

"AH!" Hikaru shouted jumping and falling out of his seat. "AAAkira! Don't do that! You scared the heck out of me!"

"Gomen," Akira replied with a smile, taking the seat opposite Hikaru. "It's a rare sight to see you studying intently."

"Haha, very funny," Hikaru muttered picking himself off and situating himself once more. "You shouldn't have done that though, what if I had ripped the book?"

"Then you would have rewritten the whole thing by memory," Akira smiled kindly. He only received a glare from Hikaru and then a sheepish smile accompanied by the scratching the back of his head. Hikaru seemed like he was back to himself again. Akira's stomach fluttered and his heart pounded.

"True," Hikaru muttered calmly, "So what's up?"

"I..I was just checking on you and…," Akira smiled, and then he looked down at his lap muttering something.

"What?" Hikaru asked, "I didn't hear you."

"Isaid…Imissedyou," Akira whispered, his cheeks were turning red.

"What I didn't,"

"I SAID I MISSED YOU!" Akira shouted his face was bright red, only for him to quickly cover his mouth and frantically look down the hall. He hadn't meant to be that loud. Hikaru blinked and jaw dropped, only to close and then drop again. Akira sighed shaking his head, fighting down the blush.

"Oh…Ok, you didn't need to shout," Hikaru stated, he was now blushing. Akira wanted to throttle him and then kiss him senseless, or was it kiss him first, then throttle him?

An awkward silence settled between them. Hikaru blinked as Akira coughed and asked, "Do you want to play a game?"

"Sure," Hikaru stated with a smile. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Good," Akira nodded and they began to play Go.

XXXXXX

Hikaru smiled as he felt he had made some accomplishments that night. He had lost but it wasn't as big of a lost as the previous game. He was advancing he knew he could defeat Akira. He just needed a little more time. The words of knowledge came back from Morishita-sensei.

"Shindo, is there something you want to talk about. Your Go seems distracted."

"Actually, yes, Moshita-9-dan,"

The older Go player grunted in agreement, placing his hands in his sleeves. "Does it have to do with defeating Touya Akira?"

"H..Hai, how did you know?"

"How did I not know," he chuckled, "you two are the latest gossip," he leaned forward looking rather pleased. Hikaru's face was turning a slight pale shade to it. The teacher continued, "because, apparently Touya Akira has been running around trying to find a Torajiro and it's driving everyone nuts. The boy busted into the records of the insei, pros, old pros, armature and even internet." He was rolling with laughter, "I have never seen a Touya so flustered or frustrated as I did in the past few months. Ogata-Meiji-Judan hasn't been able to get a moment's piece, serves him right. Maybe he'll throw off his game." He continued to chuckled, the coughed, "but that's besides the point, of course."

"Of course," Shindo weakly smiled. Morshita-9-dan is still obsessed with defeating the Touya-study group.

"Shindo-3-dan, your Go is weak because you seem to have lost your way. Sometimes it is best to try new ways. However, sometimes you need to refresh your roots to build a firmly foundation."

"But it took me two years!" Shindo protested, "And…."

"Two years! TWO YEARS!" Morishita shouted, "It took me my entire life to get me to this point, but I always go through what my sensei taught me!" Shindo looked down at his lap in shame, "I'm not saying that you need to take two years off. I'm saying that you need to just remember why and how you started this. Wasn't it to defeat Touya Akira? What happened to the boy who was an insei who said I'm going to defeat Touya Akira?"

"It's just that I'm so close but I can't seem to do it," Shindo whispered.

"Then give up," Morshita shrugged.

"NO!"

"I was kidding," he chuckled, squinting his eyes, he sat back straight. "You probably know his game better than anyone. You're style is still molding, maybe you should go back to your old sensei's games, you might find what you have lost. That will lead you back to your true path." He stretched nodding to himself, "In the mean time, once a week we can play like we did today."

"You mean, you're going to tutor me?" Shindo blinked.

"Of course, I'm going to tutor you," he roared. "I want to see Touya Akira defeated." Hikaru sweatdropped as he watched his sensei flare his arms around and went on his must defeat Touya-meijin study group, minus the fact that Touya-meijin had been retired for many years.

Hikaru smiled as he watched Akira walk away, looking rather dazed but satisfied.

Wait for me…Sai.

Akira…I will defeat you.

XXXX

Akira flopped back onto his futon, staring at the ceiling. Shoulder length hair fanning around his head, arms out stretched and he listened to the silence. His parents were off in China again or was it Korea? He hadn't had time to really email or call them. But no news was good news, right? He just laid there, with the patterns of the stones going through his head. They were all of Hikaru's games. The boy had developed so much so fast and that last game even more so. He smiled to himself, Hurry up Hikaru, I'm waiting for you.

He rolled to his side muttering, "But who is Tourjirou?" He frowned thinking about it, he had been through all the records and still nothing had come up. Last week he had begged Ogata to ask around the salons and on the internet. Of course, the double title holder had come up empty handed or he was holding information, again.

"You're old enough to figure stuff out on your own," the older man stated, casually blowing smoke in his face. He could still smell the cigarettes in his hair. He wrinkled his nose at it.

The image of Hikaru muttering to himself earlier that day returned. The boy was studying but he was talking to the board and the pages. He cursed himself, he should have been paying attention to which book he was looking at. Not how cute his black hair was ruffled and tossled from lack of sleep.

"SHINDO HIKARU YOU DRIVE ME NUTS!" he shouted burying his face into his pillow. He turned his head, taking a breathe of cool air. "Honestly, what are you thinking about, Hikaru." His hands clutched the pillow as his mind continued to race through the night.