Hikaru no Monogatari Chapter 10, a hikaru no go fanfic

Chapter 10: Their Days

It was a long time ago, memory of their first days together. When Hikaru realized he was blessed by God to be never alone after his parents left him and his old grandfather took him in. Hikaru was a smart boy, and before his mother's death he was too active and easily distracted to learn anything that needed patience. Death of course was a powerful catalysis that taught even a naïve boy like him that life was so feeble and fleeting.

His grandfather was old and as much as Hikaru hated it, it was very likely his grandfather who was already his sixties and while relatively healthy for now won't be always with him. His young mother passed away in a blink of an eye, why not his grandfather?

Then Sai-aniue came to his life, a thousand years old Go player who Hikaru believed would never leave him. Hikaru was selfish enough to latch himself to Sai even though the Go player lived in his heart, simply because Sai would never disappear on him. Just like Torajioru left Sai, Hikaru believed he wouldn't outlive Sai.

Pachi

"I resign." Hikaru looked up to his ghost tutor. "If I continue, by yose I would have lost by three to six moku."

Sai nodded happily, "Day by day your reading is getting much better and farther, Hikaru." Then, using his fan Sai pointed at one particular spot. "This… in here you use nozoki, but I am confident you can tell there is a better and stronger respond."

Hikaru hummed as his chubby childish finger picked a black stone and placed it on the goban. Sai nodded approvingly at the change. "Ne… Aniue, will one day I can make you my rival?"

Sai smiled at him, "I would love to see you grow to be my equal, Hikaru…"

The blond banged boy beamed at that, "I will do my best for you, aniue!"

The ghost tensed at that, "Uhm… Hikaru, how about you?"

"About me?" He echoed, "What about me, aniue?"

Sai fiddled with his fan with a tad of nervousness, "Well… I am glad you want to work hard to be as strong as I am but Hikaru, how about yourself?"

He had never asked that to Torajirou, because to him Torajirou was a companion who strived for Hand of God together. Torajirou played for him because he wanted to see the Hand of God, not playing it. Hikaru in the other hand wanted to be one who played the legendary hand with him. Both Hikaru and Torajirou were the same age when they met Sai but somehow they strived in diverging path for his sake. He had never felt guilty for Torajirou because he knew Torajirou was happy to live as his proxy, but Hikaru…

"I… I just want to play Go because it makes you happy aniue… I think I love Go too but I…"

Wave of sadness crashed to the shore of Sai's mind and the ghost tutor realized this child before him didn't hold genuine love for the game in spite of brimming talent he had. Go to Hikaru was an anchor for his beloved ones, so they won't leave him alone.

Sai took a deep breath, "Hikaru… clear the board, let's play another game."

Hikaru frowned but quickly obeyed Sai's order, clearing the board and returned monochrome colored stones back to the goke. When he looked up to say the game greeting he was surprised to see Sai giving him such a sad and apologetic face. However he had no courage to ask why his tutor made such a face and played as he was told.

Pachi

The game didn't even reach half of chuugen and in fact there was no fight for territory. It was pure slaughter as his master didn't fight for territory, just hitting black's weakness, leaving all black stones on the goban devoid of life.

"Hikaru…"

The young boy was shaking as he choked out his resignation, and tearfully he looked up to his mentor. "Yes, aniue…"

Sai gave him a sad smile, "Hikaru… you're my precious disciple, I have no wish to raise your Go to be devoid of life…" He murmured as he looked to the game they just had. "There are three things I believe are essential to be a great Go player… first, the love for the game…. Second, dedication to work hard, and third is… talent."

"I… I…"

"Hikaru…" Sai called him gently, "I believe you have the third, pure talent… I have heard from Heihachi-dono you can memorize and recreate game after few months of playing, and just from watching your understanding of the game increased exponentially… I believe deep down you have the first and second one too but…"

"But?" Hikaru echoed tearfully.

"Your hard work is for us who loves the game… And you see Go as a way to please us who loves the game." Sai intoned in sad tone. "Heihachi-dono and I loves you Hikaru… but please, why don't you love Go and work hard for it for yourself?"

Hikaru nodded numbly, still shaken from merciless game his mentor inflicted upon him. Sai was not being cruel to his disciple; he did this out of necessity. If Hikaru that time thought Sai was doing this so he could be a better player who loves Go genuinely just like Sai, the Heian ghost had another intention in mind.

Unknown to Hikaru and Heihachi that was when Sai started to say his goal in afterlife was to find the Hand of God with Hikaru.

Four years later, Touya Akira barreled to their life and breaking all walls Hikaru put up. Then the boy pulled Hikaru out of his shell, giving his brother's Go a purpose. A true purpose unlike the hollow one his brother imposed on himself all these years, a purpose that healed Hikaru's heart from that wound.

"Hikaru, come on!" Touya Akira said excitedly as he tugged Hikaru's hand harder to get the other boy to walk faster on their way home.

It was funny because Hikaru could outrun Akira any day but for some reason Hikaru seemed content to have Akira dragging him. "You're too excited." He deadpanned with a fond smile.

Yes, because Hikaru instinctively knew Akira was the one who will pull him forward to their future. It was some sort of symbolic acceptance of their bond.

That was when Sai got another epiphany about his purpose in afterlife and why God so generously granted a selfish wish of someone who ended his own life. For a moment a glimmer of resentment and envy assaulted his heart but squashed so quickly because he loved Hikaru too much to hate his surrogate brother.

And one day… Hikaru will…

"Ani-ue?" Hikaru's voice snapped him out of his musing.

Sai then realized Hikaru was replaying the tenth game he had with Akira few days ago. The Meijin's heir was too excited and enthusiastic about their game to the point he and Hikaru played ten straight games until late at night. Both boys were equally guilty when Heihachi had to drag both of them to their futon to rest even though in the end they couldn't asleep because of adrenaline rush. In the end they played blind Go until Heihachi caught and scolded them. It was not until four in the morning the adrenaline and excitement wore off and exhaustion won, Hikaru and Akira managed to sleep.

It was fortunate the next day was Saturday so they could rest well after exhausting themselves. Akira had to go home reluctantly in the afternoon though, because his mother was getting worried. Akira had to suffer interrogation at home when Heihachi explained to the Meijin and Akiko about why their son stayed over without permission.

Boys would be boys, they said. Inwardly both Heihachi and Akira's parents were pleased with themselves because never in twelve years they imagined they could use that line in regards to their boys.

"Ani-ue!" Hikaru called him again and Sai realized he was once again spacing out. "Something on your mind?"

Sai laughed nervously behind his fan. "Ah… it's nothing, you and Akira-kun played brilliant games…"

Hikaru beamed at him proudly, "Hai! It's… so fun, and it feels hard to breathe whenever we finish a game but… it's addicting rush I can't get enough of!" Then he added sheepishly, "Thankfully grandfather stopped us from playing another game… we were so tired but we want to play again and again so much that…"

He understood the desire to play Go again and again but Sai never had the feeling of wanting to play against a rival with drug like euphoria Hikaru felt.

"I am sure as time passed the adrenaline will wear off quicker." Sai offered loftily. At least he hoped that was the case, but from what he saw by their tenth game Hikaru and Akira looked calmed down enough to listen to Heihachi-dono long enough to stop the frenzy.

Hikaru grinned at that sheepishly, "Yeah… by the way aniue, is this how you felt when you play Oouta Yuuzo?" That was the name of Torajirou's friend and rival.

Sai tensed slightly and said, "Hum… I guess…" Sai could tell he sounded unsure and his disciple knew it. Actually while Oouta was a magnificent player and a friend, Sai had played carefully against him under Torajirou's request. He could have won against Oouta faster but… in the end Torajirou allowed Sai to play at full strength against Oouta when he knew his friend wouldn't have a long life. He was a good player but not a rival to Sai.

"Oh." Hikaru mouthed softly.

And that was when the idea of 'getting him a game against Touya Meijin' made themselves a way to Hikaru's head.

The next day…

"So… what is the chance of your father picking up Net-go?" Hikaru asked when he and Akira were in the middle of clearing the board to start a new game.

His surrogate brother and mentor was far enough to not hear their conversation as Sai was busy watching the game between Hirose-san and Kitagawa-san, apparently the two old rivals were at it again. They prone to missed out the most important point in their game because their board reading game were pretty bad, so any good player was in for heart racing game when watching them.

Akira quirked an eyebrow at him as the dark haired boy poured his handful of white stones back to the goke. "Hm… by rhetorical scenario, father has to be stranded in a place with no access to real goban but digital one." Akira informed him in flatly.

"Your father is the Meijin." What was the chance of him stranded in a place without access to a Goban? "And he doesn't even know what email is, last time you said…"

Akira nodded, "Father is computer illiterate." Which was not a rarity among older generation of Go players. "And father… uhm… he dislike the idea of playing Go anonymously online."

That was the reason he and his brother played online, although they ended up becoming a celebrity regardless of anonymity. "I see…"

"Hikaru?"

"Hm?"

"You… want to arrange a game between Sai-sensei and my father?" Akira said it as a question but both of them knew it was a statement.

Hikaru nodded, "My teacher is already without rival online… even though some top pro players are playing online from time to time…"

"Like Yang Hai of China and An Teson of Korea?"

"Ichiryuu Kisei too." Hikaru added, "Shishou beat him months ago already."

Akira's eyes widened at that, "Really? Can I see the kifu?"

Hikaru snorted at that, "I will recreate it for you now, but well… a good game with good players and that's it." Akira frowned at him. "Ichiryuu Kisei is strong, but against my shishou… uhm… it's a good and amazing game but not… inspirational." Hikaru murmured as he fingers tapped the agehama absentmindedly.

Oh, so Hikaru thought it was his father who could be Sai-sensei's rival and Akira agreed wholeheartedly. But as they knew, the chance of his father picking up Net-Go while the Meijin was a computer illiterate was slim to none.

"And Shishou said let fate decide when he and your father meet across the goban, digital or not." Hikaru added with a sigh, snapping Akira out of his short muse. "Never mind the idea, but then again your father… uhm…is he alright?"

Akira raised an eyebrow at him, "He just need to win one more game to win Jyuudan title, father is in top condition." He said as he passed the goke to Hikaru.

Hikaru chuckled softly at that as he accepted the goke and placed it next to each other, "Looking at the kifu of the two first games the current Jyuudan is in big trouble, the flow is totally not on his side." Hikaru murmured as he began recreating the game. "With two losses hanging on his head, even a pro in title holder level would have a hard time playing at their best." His eyes narrowed, "However… emotion is a fickle thing in Go, rushing to win when it's right within your sight is no good either…"

Pachi

"Ah…"

"But I think your father have no such problem…" He murmured softly. "All of his games I have seen, I can feel immovable resolution… calm and steady game, he attack and defend with iron heart."

Pachi

"Is that so?" Akira asked curiously.

Pachi

Hikaru nodded, "Hm, his latest games… I didn't see even a hand that has a speck of faltering emotion. I guess that's the kind of heart you have after playing so many high level games…"

Akira swallowed and asked, "Then… how about my hands?"

Hikaru paused from his game recreation, his eyes locked to Akira's. "If I tell you that Touya Meijin is Touya Meijin and you are you… no, that's not the answer you seek." He sighed exasperatedly. "We're young Akira… there's no way we can have that iron heart our master possessed st this young age, and that's why in each game we learn to control our emotion so it can only give positive effect to our game… sensei said in a sense that also the reason we have more room to grow too."

Akira looked flustered by that answer, "Uhm… you're right."

"But I have to admit…" Hikaru eyed Akira skeptically, "You're an emotional person, and it shows in your game…"

"EH?"

Hikaru tapped his chin with his fan, "I mean… it's not like I have a good grasp on my emotion myself but Akira you…"

"OI! Shindou! Touya!"

Both prodigies almost jumped in shock at the voice, "Ka… Kaga-san!"

The redhead was dragging an orange haired boy by his gakuran's collar, and Tsutsui walked a few steps behind them. "Yo!" He greeted them once his group was just a few steps away from their regular spot. "I need you to work on some magic on this guy!"

Hikaru sweat-dropped at Kaga who was grinning like a chesire cat at him. "When we said you're welcome to bring anyone to play, we didn't mean dragging people against their will."

Kaga rolled his eyes, "I learned my lesson painfully, thank you very much Shindou-sensei." He said, wincing at the phantom pain that bloomed on his back at the memory. "Lend me your ear for a sec." He said as he leaned in.

Hikaru sighed as he let Kaga whispered to his ear, inwardly promising pain if the red head trying something funny. "So?"

"This kid have a cheating problem, Tsutsui and I rescued him after he got kicked out of Go salon he frequented in… this kid might as well define every delinquent aspect of Go." Kaga explained in a whisper, "Get why I can't say it out loud? Touya will fly into rage if he heard I bring this kind of kid to his father's Go salon." He hissed in urgent tone.

Kaga had learned it the hard way about Touya's temper. Shindou was the scarier of the two when his temper was tested but Touya was the one whose temper was easier to ignite and explosive. With Shindou he would settle to grovel before the younger boy resort to talk him down mercilessly or getting physical, with Touya it would be endless headache and urge to throttle the Meijin's son and risked angering Shindou. Which mean the pain was double.

Hikaru frowned, "A cheater."

'The other Go Tutor of the emperor cheated and…
I was the only one who saw his dishonest conduct… and yet I was the one... the emperor banished from the court for it.'

He narrowed his eyes, glancing at the scowling orange haired boy Kaga dragged. "Hm… I see…" His lips curved up to an amused smile. "What's your name?" He asked the Haze junior, "I am Shindou Hikaru, first year Kaiou Middle school."

He raised an amused eyebrow at Hikaru and answered, "Mitani Yuuki, first year… Haze Middle School." He glanced at Kaga, "I thought Kaio is the top placer of that tournament you guys wanted to join so… why you drag me to a Kaio guy?"

"To fix you." Kaga answered nonchalantly. "Play a game with Shindou, if you win, you're free to go but if you lose the game… you're ours."

"Interesting."

Akira opened his mouth to protest but stopped when he saw his friend moved to the chair of table beside the one they used so they were sitting side by side. "Hikaru?"

"Scoot here a little closer Akira." He waved his friend to move his chair closer and Akira obeyed.

Mitani took the seat across Hikaru's, smirking mischievously. "A tag team?"

"Ha ha ha, no…" Hikaru replied in amused tone. "It's for your safety."

Before any of them could voice a question Hikaru had placed a handful of white stones on the goban. "Nigiri."

Kaga snorted, "Instead of nigiri I think you should tell him to place four stones at least."

Mitani growled at Kaga as he placed a black stone on the board. "I don't need handicap!"

The shogi player whistled, "You will regret it."

Hikaru parted two stones from the pile and he got nine stones. "Your guidance please." He said as he placed the white stones back to the goke.

Mitani narrowed his eyes at Hikaru, "Your guidance please…" Then he started the game with claiming a star point.

Hikaru responded with claiming a komoku.

Ten hands later Hikaru already get the rough estimation of Mitani's skill. 'He is not bad… hm… around Kaga-san's level, but still below Kishimoto-senpai's… I will not go easy on him but I shouldn't go at full power either. However… he plays an interesting Go. Hm…'

Sai who was watching in the sidelines was excited, 'My… he plays a cutthroat game! He is a little like Akira-kun in viciousness but he has interesting recklessness Akira-kun lack.'

'Akira? Reckless? When it comes to Go, reckless is not for him... most of the time… at least.'

Pachi

Hikaru's fingers dug to his goke, they had almost reached chuuban. He stopped on his track when he realized something was off. "Mitani-kun, your move please…"

As expected Akira almost stood up abruptly from his seat but Hikaru was fast enough to grab his arm. "You! Just now, you tapped the stone on the board and take it back!"

Mitani smirked, "The rule is... as long as the stone is not released from our finger it's still valid to move it… it never leave my fingers so I didn't break any rule."

"You're trying to deceive Hikaru with the sound!" Akira hissed angrily.

Kaga rolled his eyes, 'I knew it, Touya will fly off of his handle.' While Tsutsui shivered on his feet.

"And he is not fooled." Mitani said nonchalantly. "He is a smart guy, and you're not the one playing… why you're so riled up when your friend who plays is still smiling?"

"Hikaru!" Akira hissed at his friend. "This boy! He!"

The long haired boy patted his friend's shoulder in comforting gesture. "Calm down Akira… I am not blind." He said with a grin. "So, your move? Or do you need some more time to think?" He offered genially.

"Hmph!" Mitani placed his stone and the game resumed.

Pachi

They almost reaching the mid of chuugen, thus around half of the board was full of monochrome colored stones. Most amateur level player won't notice it but Hikaru and Akira didn't miss it when they saw a stone was displaced a grid off from its original position right after Mitani's turn.

"You!"

"Akira…" Hikaru pulled his best friend and rival down back to his chair. "I saw it…"

Mitani scowled, "You saw what?"

"Never mind…"

"NEVER MIND?!" Akira almost screeched. "Hikaru, how could you let him do that?!"

Hikaru sighed exasperatedly. "Okay… play time is over." He hummed, "It's not like I want to count territory later…"

"Heh?" This guy, he knew that the real cheating would be done at that point?!

Pachi!

Mitani placed his stone in respond.

Pachi

"EH?"

Pachi

'Fast! This is not speed go, why the hell this guy play me with this kind of speed?'

Then the guy suddenly stopped, looking at the board with serious intense eyes that almost made Mitani gasped in fear. However the next move he made was a bad one, so bad that not even a complete amateur would do it.

Pachi

Mitani was not kind enough to ignore that mistake and exploited it without second thought

Twenty hands later Mitani gasped in shock when the move he made because of that mistake resulted to his formations crumbling and his biggest cluster of stone died a violent death.

Pachi

And that last move cut his escape route.

He didn't want to say it but his pride was on the line. In game of Go not resigning when you know your lost was inevitable was not the sign of pride but idiocy, no skilled player worthy of their rank would stubbornly keep playing a game they had lost.

"Makemashita." Mitani choked out, gritting his teeth.

Hikaru smiled at him, "Thank you for the game, Mitani-kun." Then he glanced at Tsutsui, "With a little polishing, he will be a good opponent for Kaio's first board Kishimoto-senpai."

"No! He is not!" Akira refuted that statement in a flash. "You let him to cheat! I can't believe you!"

"I didn't let him cheat when counting territory as the game didn't even reach yose, Akira…" Hikaru corrected. "And I believe getting angry at him over tapping the stone, shifting the stones five times and what else the trick he has on his sleeve… it is not going to be any use." Hikaru murmured in solemn tone. "And it's not like he can win against me even if he cheat."

That cut deeper than anything to Mitani, for this guy to blatantly stating Mitani couldn't win even with cheating. "You…"

"And…" Kaga sang, fully intend to take Mitani down a couple of pegs because it was not enough beating. "He is holding back a lot against you."

"WHAT?!" Mitani hollered.

Kaga whistled, inspecting his blunt nails. "Well… if he is serious, I doubt the game will even reach chuuban."

"I didn't go easy on you at all though." Hikaru said pointedly, not even bothering denying Kaga's statement.

Akira raised an eyebrow at him. "Shidougo?"

"Kind of." Hikaru said as he began to clear the game from the goban.

Mitani had never felt so humiliated on his life, not even when he lost against that fat old man and kicked out of the Go salon he used to frequent in. "You… you…"

"Cat got your tongue?" Kaga snickered.

That's it! Mitani left the scene in a huff, screaming profanities on his way out. The adults in the Go salon were used to polite children like Hikaru and Akira, so they couldn't help but gape at the retreating Mitani.

Hikaru hummed as he returned stones of both color to its respective goke and said. "Tell him about our schedule if he come to ask for another game." He told Kaga and Tsutsui.

"Heh?" Tsutsui and Kaga chorused. "You want to play again with that kid?!"

Akira protested, "Hikaru!"

"Actually… next time he come to us, play him Akira." Hikaru said with a grin.

Akira sputtered, "What?!"

"He will be a good student for you to learn patience." Hikaru said without shame and guilt. "You will improve a lot if you can keep your calm whenever you spot him cheating."

"I'd rather not!"

Kaga burst to laughter at the suggestion.

In spite of his outrage and humiliation, Mitani came by the Go salon repeatedly without fail to find both Hikaru and Akira. True to Hikaru's statement, he refused to give Mitani another game until the orange haired boy played Akira. His best friend was horrified Hikaru was fully intend to dump Mitani on him, in one hand he hated cheater like Mitani with passion for disrespecting the game but in another hand he couldn't back down from a challenge. Especially when Hikaru was the one who gave it to him.

In the end Mitani ended up became his reluctant student, much to both side's chagrin and ire.

"You missed the tsuke in this part." Akira said in the calmest voice he could muster.

Mitani scowled, "I know… I should have played nozoki here and then save the cluster over here."

Pachi

Akira gritted his teeth, "Really? Then how you explain this incorrect respond to my keima over here?!"

Mitani really wanted to throttle Touya Akira, but he knew better than doing that to someone who was doing him a favor no matter how reluctant his teacher was. Not to mention this was Touya Akira's father's Go salon, he had no wish to be kicked out from another Go salon. No, thank you.

"Apparently he didn't shout only at you when Go was concerned, although it's a different kind of shouting… he sounds like my English teacher." Kaga commented. "I pity anyone who got him as tutor once you guys passed that exam."

"Which mean…" Hikaru trailed off with a sigh, "I really hate to imagine him dealing with the more unpleasant ones, old folks in my study group loves joining tournament and they tell all sort of stories about pro's work in that tournament… they had to deal with unpleasant officials and politicians…"

"What?"

"Maybe I worry too early, as we should worry to pass the exam first." Hikaru said thoughtfully, "We will deal with that after we pass."

Hikaru at this point gave up correcting people that, No, their passing of the exam was not a foregone conclusion. No one bothered to agree, as they thought he and Akira were being modest.

"I think he will only do that to people who are playing Go more than just for pleasure." Hikaru said as he responded to Tsutsui's move. Tsutsui was not horrible at fuseki and chuuban, but compared to his yose, Tsutsui looked blind in comparison in the beginning of the game. Kishimoto-senpai better appreciated his effort to give them a good game in summer festival.

"Like I said… I am so glad I am going to take shogi pro exam this year, and I still pity anyone who will be his future student…"

Hikaru rolled his eyes, "At any rate…" Hikaru trailed off with a sigh, "I really hate to imagine him dealing with the more unpleasant ones, old folks in my study group loves joining tournament and they tell all sort of stories about pro's work in that tournament… they had to deal with unpleasant officials and politicians…"

"Sensei…" Sarcastic feminine voice belonged to Hidaka Yuri called him, "Pay attention to your game… it's so rude of you to ignore a lady."

Hikaru suppressed his urge to let our an exasperated sigh, "My apologies Hidaka-senpai but I didn't ignore you or the game."

"Yeah! Don't be mean to Hikaru!" Akari who was playing on his left said.

"Excuse me?" Hidaka snorted at the younger girl, "Mean? Are you a grade school student?"

Akari bristled on her seat.

Tsutsui was plain uncomfortable to be the witness of the two way battle, and pitied Hikaru who was the center of it.

While he appreciated Akari-san speaking in his defense, he didn't need a catfight in the middle of shidougo. Why oh why these two decided to ask for shidougo in the same time? And because they argued about who got to play first, Hikaru agreed to tutor them both in the same time. A perfect solution usually when there were too many people for one on one, but no…

Hidaka-senpai had the gall to comment about how he also had a talent for two timing girls, and Hikaru wondered how shidougo was related to dating. Then Kaga of all people gave him a look, then discreetly wiggled both of his pinkie fingers and pointed it at Akari-san and Hidaka-senpai. He didn't get it, but Sai-aniue helpfully told him loud and clear. Both girls had crush on him, and they were fighting for his attention.

Hikaru thought Hidaka-senpai disliked him, but apparently her constant teasing meant something else. .

Sai-aniue did drop some hints about what these two were fighting over though. He knew about Akari-san but Hidaka-senpai was a surprise.

Although it seemed both girl were wise enough to not make a move because there was no way he was interested in relationship when pro exam was looming in horizon and he was more concerned abour career than relationship. He was twelve anyway, and it was troublesome that no girls in school got the hint as he and Akira were tired get called for confession. The reason the rejection number didn't increase was simply because they were so busy they forgot coming after around the tenth one.

Although Akira almost landed himself in big trouble when he innocently wondered if he knew the girl he just rejected the day before on the said girl's face. Hikaru somehow managed to save Akira from the fate of being slapped with informing the said girl Akira just showed up for three confessions yesterday and he had a long study hour for exam.

They ended up with label workaholic by the end of the day when the news of their insane study schedule spread in school.

Thankfully no girls were holding grudge after that as the news about their decision to enter pro exam spread like wildfire. The boys wondered why they thought they had to work at twelve going thirteen, and the only explanation was career as professional player usually better to start since young. Not that they understood Hikaru and Akira any better after the explanation.

"You need more than nine stones!" Hidaka pointed out when they restarted another game.

"Nine is enough!" Akari retorted.

Hikaru had enough, "Girls, can we continue the game?"

They spared each other one last glare before they were back to their seats and continue the game as Hikaru asked. "Hmph!"

Sai had the gall to laugh at his brother's misery, and Hikaru wondered how the hell his brother enjoyed company of multiple girls in Heian court if two was already this difficult. Hikaru also didn't like how Sai answered that he will enjoy it when he grew up and appreciate living up to his name. Hikaru was getting tired to correct his surrogate brother he was not named after Hikaru Genji.

Unknown to Hikaru, Heihachi was being merciful to not reveal that his wife and daughter in law were fans of Hikaru Genji and kind enough to convince them to not write his name with kanji 'shining' in his birth certificate. The boy didn't need blatant reminder he was named after the greatest player in Japanese literature.

At some point peoples around them, ranging from Ichikawa-san, Kaga even Sai-ani ue and his grandfather were convinced Hikaru and Akira had tendency to run to trouble when not in each other's company. Sure, since they start to become friends, they hardly away from each other but they survived twelve years just fine. Sai-aniue helpfully reminded them about school tournament, go club bullies and Touya Meijin challenge. The latter was not exactly a trouble, but Sai-aniue thought they tend to get to unwanted situation when separated.

Hikaru rolled his eyes at that.

So one on Saturday morning, when Akira for the first time in months couldn't stay over because his family went to visit his aunt from his mother's side in Nagano, Sai wondered what would happen that day. Hikaru thought his brother was getting paranoid, nothing bad will happen just because he was away from Akira for one day. Sure, the whole Kaio Middle School was convinced there was some sort of freaky dependency going between him and Akira. Whatever that meant, Hikaru was not helpless without Akira around and vice-versa.

Then the bell of his house rang, and he went to the door to receive his guest. It was Ichihashi-san, and she was rambling something incoherently. All he could make out from Ichihashi-san's rambling was model, food poisoning, emergency, and lots of pleading. Pleading that sounded like Ichikashi-san owed him her life if he came to her rescue as soon as possible.

"What?" Was his most intelligent response to Ichikashi-san's plea.

Ichihashi-san's son, Natsuya who was driving the car barked at his mother and Hikaru. "Hikaru-kun! Just… get inside the car, all you need to do to help us are be pretty and elegant!" Then he added as an afterthought, "You do that all the time anyway!"

He didn't do that all the time and he was definitely not…

However his protest never left the tip of his tongue because he had his hands full of bawling Ichihashi-san. Hikaru was not someone who easily bent down to anyone's will, however when faced by teary eyes of a middle-aged woman who was convinced you're holding her life in your hands…

He couldn't say no, Sai-aniue always told him to respect woman and treat them well. He was always fond of Ichihashi-san, even though she gushed how cute and pretty he was 24/7, dressed him up and raided his wardrobe to the point he barely had normal clothes.

So reluctantly with a sense of trepidation, Hikaru hopped on Ichihashi-san's car.

Later at the end of the day Hikaru reflected on the stupidity of questioning his incorporeal tutor, didn't he learn enough when he got lost on his way to his own house? He and Sai-aniue had this thing going when they said something along the line 'what the worse could happen?' the famous last word. God and Murphy law had something against them for sure.

That was how Akira who came to stay over on Sunday instead found his best friend with full blond hair from the tips to the roots.

His jaw dropped, "You washed the dye off? Why?" He still looked very much like Hikaru but it was a little odd to see Hikaru's natural look that didn't look natural on him. Hikaru had Japanese face but his coloring wasn't, although his skin color was Japanese unlike his eyes and hair. Not that Akira cared too much about Hikaru's hair, but he was worried what prompted his friend to wash the dye off.

"Akira…" He moaned as if he was in pain. "I got a headache."

Hikaru looked like he was going to cry but thankfully he didn't, but he had this forlorn look on his face as he leaned in, placed his forehead on top of Akira's left shoulder, and started rambling about photo-shoot, model and crazy photographer.

Akira could do nothing but patted his best friend's back comfortingly and distracted Hikaru with playing speed go nonstop.

By the next day the headache returned with vengeance at school and Akira got the share of it. Apparently with Hikaru's hair full blond now, the girls found them looking even more novel than ever with their contrasting looks.

They didn't get the novelty and immensely grateful when the teachers put their foot down with the illegal photo taking fiasco and banned taking picture of your classmate without permission. Suddenly all girls were on board with the idea of them going pro as soon as possible because that meant the Go weekly and other sport magazine will publish their photo.

July, the start of Summer Vacation

"Why…." He groaned in frustrated voice, scrolling down the list of name in his computer. "Sai and Kou are online less and less lately! Man! I want to watch their game!" Waya Yoshitaka, an insei of fourteen years old whined to his computer screen.

The whole community of Net-Go was in crisis because Kou and Sai were rarely online lately, in fact since spring of this year their online frequency decrease from almost every day to a few times a week and lately the absence could stretch to weeks.

Waya was stressed over the idea if the two most brilliant players of Net-Go were really going to disappear on them. He had the prelim exam to worry about, but he was sure he could pass it unless his luck was suck to face people stronger than him three times in a row or something. Then again he had never did not pass the prelim so he was not too worried about it.

The insei blinked owlishly, "Wait… from our speculation Sai is an adult… someone who have lots of time to play online, a shut in… someone with bad physical handicap or someone who work at home… but Kou… starting from April he never online in the morning anymore... a student?" There was a speculation he was an adult too but some pros who played online were convinced the play style was that of someone young, talented but young. He had experience but online players with keen eyes agreed he was someone young, with how he played more experimentally than Sai online. As if he was till looking for his own Go.

If Sai's games were magnificent and beautiful, Kou's were attention grabbing, exciting but somehow manage to be aesthetically pleasant to watch like his master.

Waya played Sai once but he didn't get to play Kou at all. Not to mention Kou liked to accept private game challenge, which make the game impossible to watch by other players.

"And of all games in private… Ogata-9dan got one and refused to release the detail." Waya moaned. "Then again… a lot of high ranked players who requested such game from Kou refused to release the kifu, why is that?" He wondered out loud.

Shindou Residence

"You know… Ogata-san told me in last study session at my house that online players are getting restless because you and Sai-san's appearance online decrease drastically for the last few months." Akira said as he brought the juicy red cut of watermelon to his mouth. It was the perfect fruit for summer in Japan. Akira was learning Chinese from Hikaru, the Meijin's heir saw the the advantage of learning the language as China was the origin of Go. Hikaru learned Chinese from Sai but he ended up relearning online more because Sai's Chinese was one thousand years out of date. Although Sai managed to renew his Chinese in Torajirou's era, but most Chinese learning under the Honinbou made effort to learn Japanese.

Hikaru chewed the fruit on his mouth before he replied. "Yeah, I know… but my teacher and I are busy for preparing our exam…"

Akira nodded, "True… but the problem is Ogata-san is also getting restless over it."

"I don't care." Hikaru replied in flat tone. "He knows who I am anyway…"

"I know you will say that…" Akira murmured as he took another bite of the sweet juicy fruit.

Then he glanced to the side where a fashion magazine, the very first one that ever entered Shindou's household since forever. And another one was photo book by a high profile photographer named Kosemura Hanzou. Akira recalled the new photographer who came with Amano-san few days ago also had Kosemura surname, a relative perhaps?

Hikaru sighed at the sight, "I want to burn it, if only I will not hurt Ichihashi-san's feeling in the process."

"Ichihashi-san's clothing line is a small one." Akira murmured. "How did they get someone like Kosemura Hanzou-san to be their photographer?"

Hikaru sighed exasperatedly, "You see… the original photographer is Natsuya-san's friend, it supposed to be a free session for his portfolio. It's supposed to be a catalogue… it's not supposed to be in fashion magazine or become a photo book in the first place!" His voice raised as he listed on what supposed to happen and not. "That mad man came to see his student's working… Natsuya-san's friend… and suddenly he decide to freaking hijack the photo shoot!"

"Is that even allowed? Even though the original photographer is his student."

"I wasn't even supposed to be there!" Hikaru said in frustrating tone as he ran his fingers through his blond locks. "If only the model… some guy named Kise didn't get food poisoning! Then with that mad man in charge everything went down the hill! They put make up on me! They washed the dye off of my hair the moment they found out I am a natural blond and decided I looks unique because of my Japanese face that way! They put me on dozen kinds of outfit! Traditional and modern-traditional ones to the point I lost track of it."

Akira flipped the photo book and stopped on the page where Hikaru was wearing a simple white yukata as he acted as if he fell asleep under a lush zelkova tree. He looked so peaceful and gave out soothing feeling. "You looked nice here." He complimented lamely.

Hikaru was not flattered by the compliment. "Thanks, and look at the title of the book and it got some background story too…"

Akira flipped the first page and found the said story. "The lost child?" In here was depicted as some sort of hanyou, hence the unusual coloring on his Japanese face and skin. It was a pretty fascinating story about how he secluded himself and went to a journey to find himself and lost his way. "Eeh…"

"Cliché? I think so too! In Classic club that kind of story belong to our trash bin! Fubuki-sensei would be insufferable once he found out about it!" He groaned in pain.

Akira sweat-dropped, "Aren't you glad we're in summer vacation now?"

"Yeah!" Hikaru gritted out. "The next thing you know, once we are back to school… people will start asking whether I am changing my career direction and whether you are joining me."

Akira shuddered, "Uhm… Ichihashi-san did eye me weirdly lately." Actually since forever but Akira was very hopeful he was not going to be dragged to this fashion fiasco.

"Aren't you glad your wardrobe is out of her reach?"

Akira rolled his eyes at that inquiry.

Few Days later (Tokyo Go Institute)

Hikaru cringed when he heard Akira's panicked voice from the speaker of his phone. "Did they misplace your document? That never happened before!"

The long haired boy sighed, "Not exactly… something about foreigner should have include extra documents and so on, they misunderstood… so I have to go to Ki'in in person to ensure them that I am a full Japanese citizen." He rolled his eyes, "If I know this will happen I would have dyed my hair full black to avoid this problem."

"Wait, Hikaru." Akira's voice tensed. "You're already there? In Ki'in?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you get there on your own?" He asked in worried tone.

The blond boy was ticked, "I am not! Ichihashi-san dropped me off here… but she has to go soon because she has an urgent appointment."

Akira gasped, "And how you will get back to your house on your own?" Akira asked anxiously, recalling of how easy his friend to get lost. Heck! Hikaru still got lost in school once in a while.

"That's…"

Akira didn't give him a chance to mull over his options. "Stay in the lobby, don't move, I will pick you up." He ordered sternly.

Hikaru flushed a deep red, "But I…"

"Don't bother to find your way on your own, I can't trust you on that." Akira said in flippant tone. "I trust you to get lost on the way to your own house."

"Akira… your faith in me is touching." He said sarcastically. "And fine, I will be a good boy and wait for you in Ki'in."

Then he ended the line with a huff. 'Seriously! That Akira!'

'His concern is valid.' Sai said, grinning at his student. 'You can't blame him and you did get lost on your way home once.'

Hikaru flushed a deep red at that. 'Well I…'

"Anoo…"

The blond boy paused when he was about to walk out of the registration office. 'Insei?'

The inseis were a pair of girls, a brunette and a raven haired girl with glasses. "Are you… the model from Zunon magazine?" She asked shyly as she held up her copy of Zunon, opening the page where Hikaru was posing with modern looking hakama.

If didn't help the clothes he wore that day looked a little like that only less flashy. "Ah…"

"You are, aren't you?!" She asked enthusiastically.

Why an insei brought Zunon magazine to Ki'in in the first place?! You're here to learn Go!

"Can you sign here? Pretty please? What's your name?" She asked sweetly.

This was not the first time he encounter this kind of request since the magazines were out for sale and the easiest solution was…

"Bonjour! Enchanté…" French he learned from his grandmother flowed through his lips flawlessly. "Parlez-vous français?" As expected the girls gave him a blank look in respond as he spoke in language alien to them.

"Eh? Bonjour… Merci?" The brunette tried.

"Comprenez-vous?" He asked, titling his head to the side.

She shook his head frantically.

He gave them a rueful smile and waved, "Je dois y aller…Je suis désolé, au revoir!"

Sitting on the lounge sofa of that third floor, two male inseis watched the whole exchange. The brunette with spiky hair gaped openly at his retreating female classmates and the blond boy. "He blows them off." They were pretty far but close enough to listen the blond speaking French.

The raven haired boy was few years older and was as shocked as his friend. "Uhm… why a foreigner is here in the first place? This is Go institute, Waya…"

Waya groaned. "Who cares! Help me here Isumi-san!" He pointed at the magnetic goban he put on the coffee table between them. He had laid out a tsumego problem from Shirakawa-san's latest match and Morishita-sensei had demanded for all of his students to solve the problem because this tsumego was the cause Shirakawa-san lost to Sasaki-pro from Touya Meijin's group.

"But… Waya… this is a game from Kisei League, and if Shirakawa-san get stuck in this I don't think…" Isumi trailed off and paused when he realized a new shadow over the magnetic goban.

Waya and Isumi blinked owlishly when they saw the blond foreigner was staring at the tsumego, his bright green eyes narrowed at the tsumego.

Waya in a moment of morbid curiosity said, never mind the blond understand him or not. "Do you want to solve it?"

The blond beamed at them then using a Japanese fan he pulled out from his sleeve -that was also when they noticed the sleeve of his shirt was almost as wide as furisode's- he pointed at three particular spot. As if hypnotized Waya picked two black stones and a white one, then placed the stones to the pointed coordinate.

"Au revoir." The blond said as he bid them a good bye with a cheerful wave.

Waya and Isumi stared at the magnetic goban. "Ah, it solved." Waya declared lamely.

As one the two top inseis turned to the lift the blond just entered but it was already closed. "Ah… who the hell is that guy?"

Later that day Isumi and Waya found out the mysterious blond guy was a model from Zunon magazine, featured wearing modern looking traditional Japanese clothing line from a small brand that was on the rise lately from Nase and Minami.

"How the hell a model could solve such a difficult tsumego?" Waya wondered out loud.

Iijima frowned, "Why is he here in the first place?" He pointed out instead.

"Saa~" Nase shrugged, "Maybe he is registering for pro exam?"

"Nah~" Honda snorted, "A model in pro exam? What the chance of that happening?"

Ki'in Building , 1st floor

"Akira!" Hikaru beamed, his mood improved greatly after solving that interesting tsumego.

The Meijin's heir thought Hikaru would look grumpy but he looked cheerful for some reason, "Why do you look so happy?" Lately Hikaru had been grumpy of the prospect of being known as a model instead of a go player. Not that Hikaru would accept any modelling offer anytime soon.

"There is this tsumego… " Hikaru began his story about the two inseis and the tsumego.

Akira hummed at that, "Hm… I know that tsumego, I think our study group discussed that last night. It's a game between Sasaki-san and Shirakawa-7dan."

"Is that so?" Hikaru titled his head to the side.

"Sasaki-san won though… Shirakawa-san's formation died because he got stuck on that tsumego and lost by resignation." Akira said, recalling the discussion. "Your board reading skill is as exceptional as ever."

Hikaru shrugged, "Actually… I ever ran to similar tsumego before when my teacher played against L.L from China, he is a top amateur player of China… as he has represent his country for world amateur tournament three times in a row."

Akira hummed at that, "I see…" He nodded thoughtfully, "Maybe I should play Net-Go too…"

"Just so you know, you can't play me online if you are going to use your real name as your nick." Hikaru warned him.

Akira blushed at that, "Well I… if Ogata-san saw me playing and I use false name and inform my father…"

Hikaru rolled his eyes, "To be honest… I think almost all pro online use their real name as their nick, except Kuwabara Honinbou…"

The Meijin's son stopped on his track at that, "Heh?"

"Then again it's pretty obvious, his playing style and nick 'Honinbou4Ever' he used…" Hikaru mused.

"Honinbou4Ever?" Akira echoed incredulously.

Hikaru nodded, "That… and his game against The Seiji is a pretty heated one in history of Net-Go."

"Ah…"

Hikaru sighed, "Let's don't talk about that guy… I can feel my mood plummeting fast."

Akira sweat-dropped, "Hikaru… then let's talk about prelim next week."

The long haired boy smiled at that, "I think we will see the insei I met just now… well, unless they're all top inseis."

The dark haired boy snorted, "In prelim only insei in rank below top eight would be there…"

"You can't say they wouldn't be good opponents just because of rank." Hikaru murmured in amused voice.

"If there is anyone… the top pros won't be fussing about the drop of insei's level, and anyone close in our level would attract attention…" That was how Ogata-san crushed his hope last year when he asked whether anyone in insei could match him. If there was anyone who could match Akira, they would attract attention like a beacon, said Ogata-san back then.

"But I don't…" Hikaru said as they began to walk towards the exit but stopped when they almost ran towards a familiar hunched figure of veteran player known as Kuwabara Honinbou.

Normally Akira and Hikaru would bow in respect to the Honinbou title holder but they were pinned by his intense gaze. "Uhm… Kuwabara-sensei?" Akira began hesitantly, not sure how he should react with the Honinbou openly staring at his best friend.

Hikaru in the other hand swore the Honinbou was not staring at him, but Sai. Or to be exact his gaze flickered back and forth between Hikaru, Sai and the last one was Akira.

"I see…" The old man beamed, "So." He looked at Hikaru, "You're walking on the path to find the hand of God?"

Hikaru blinked owlishly and answered, "Yes."

"You're going to reach it with Touya junior?" He glanced at Akira with a grin.

"Yes." Hikaru answered honestly, because what else he could say.

"Are you going to coming after my title on the way?"

"Ye…" Hikaru stopped himself, "Uhm, what?"

Kuwabara rubbed his chin. "Good eyes, I like you." He grinned, "What's your name?" He glanced at Akira, "And you're Touya… Touya what?"

"Touya Akira." The Meijin's son answered firmly. "And…" He nudged Hikaru.

"Shindou… Hikaru." The blond boy answered.

Kuwabara Honinbou walked pass them and said, "I will remember both of you, and Shindou… I will keep an eye on you especially." And with that the honinbou entered the lift and out of their sight.

Akira eyed his friend who was still in shock after the encounter with the oldest title holder. "Well… I told you, once you're out in open you're going to attract attention."

"I can live without it!" He moaned. "Why he want to keep an eye on me anyway? He never saw me play!"

Akira smiled at him, "Your watcher list is growing."

"I have enough of that online, offline watchers are creepy!"

"Hikaru, my father is included in that list." Akira reminded his friend.

"Well I am honored but… "

"But what?"

"You don't understand!"

"Excuse me? I have been in constant watch of pro world since I was six!"

"I bet they didn't say it on your face like just now!"

"But still!"

"Akira…" Hikaru rubbed his temple, "Don't start the shouting match here please…"

"You started it!" Akira huffed.

Hikaru was not impressed. "You do realize whenever we said that line neither of us remember who did it?"

Akira opened his mouth to retort then decided not to. "Okay… so the prelim."

"Win three games out of five sounds simple." Simple didn't mean easy, just not complicated in Hikaru's book.

"Don't you dare to play shidougo no matter how weak your opponent is." Akira warned him.

Hikaru rolled his eyes, "Hai…"

I feel this chapter is getting off course... but whatever we get to the juicy prelim part and that's the important thing... I KNOW you guys wanted to see prelim and exam already but we need to get here because I want to include Mitani, we can't forget the adorable guy LOL

AND MORE SAI!

Poor Seiji LOL in the future I will settle the debt ^^ one way or another.

And perhaps I need to rewrite Honinbou's disciple third chapter... I feel very off with that one DX any suggestion? Perhaps I will think up an original plot to write a fem Hikaru fic, why? for the heck of it and personal satisfaction... ha ha ha

BTW Hikaru in this fic can speak three languages, as Sai is from Heian and a Go prodigy he can speak Chinese.. so yeah Hikaru is proficient in Chinese, French, and Japanese. Hikaru's first language in this fic is French, I take this background from VB rose by Banri Hidaka. Hikaru is more fluent in French before he enter kindergarten because he used to be very close to his grandmother and more or less forced to learn Japanese... So yeah, Hikaru is not good at multiple language because he is a genius, it's more like circumstances made him.

Please review and look forward for the prelim exam chap ^^ More Waya LOL