Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go was written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. I do not, in any way, profit from this story.
Go, Soccer Player, Go!
Chapter 13: Winter Junior High Go Tournament II.
...
Hikaru and Sai waited with bated breaths. Hikaru inched forwards from where he had been watching along the wall. Sai remained perfectly still in his seated position.
Completing his turn, Tsutsui pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"I resign."
His opponent looked pained to do it, but both had known that this was the final outcome of the game.
"Thank you for the game." Tsutsui smiled bittersweetly.
"With 2 wins and 1 loss in the final," announced the head official at the conclusion of the matches. "The winner is Kaio."
Haze had made it to the finals. But Kaga and Akari had lost.
Kaga looked resigned to their fate. The rumors had been true. Kaio had been a level above.
Tsutsui was disappointed that they had lost. But Haze had made it to the finals in their first year of competition, and that was better than he ever imagined.
However, Akari was taking it the hardest. She sat very still in front of the board, staring hard at a single intersecting point.
The Kaio team led the crowd away from the Haze team and across the room for the award presentation. It was only after he had given them a few moments that Hikaru dared to come up to them.
Hikaru walked up with careful steps. "You guys played super well! That's the most important part."
He smiled brightly in Akari's direction, but Akari didn't even turn to look at him.
"Hey, Akari..." Hikaru reached out to her, hesitantly placing his hand on her shoulder.
It was then that Akari broke down and burst into tears. Hikaru leapt back by instinct. And then he shut down immediately upon seeing Akari sobbing into her hands. He felt like a deer trapped by headlights.
"Hikaru!" Sai panicked accordingly. "Do something!"
"Uh...um—A-A-Aka-ri..." Hikaru stuttered uselessly.
He never did know what to do when Akari cried. When they had been little, he used to just stand there and gape at her with his mouth open.
"I'm so sorry!" Akari exclaimed, collapsing onto the table, her head in her arms. "I'm sorry, Tsutsui-san, Kaga-san! I shouldn't even have been in this tournament."
"No, no!" Tsutsui waved his hands in front of him. "We couldn't even have entered the tournament without you, Fujisaki-san. Don't think that way."
"But I lost!" Akari sobbed.
Kaga sighed.
"Well, I lost too." Kaga told her. "And I was the captain, so I should be taking it the hardest. Stop crying, Fujisaki. You're supposed to be a boy!"
Akari immediately froze at those words. With only a couple of sniffles, she quickly wiped her face and sat up straight. But Hikaru couldn't even laugh at how awful she looked right now, not when team morale was so low.
"Hey guys!" Hikaru spoke up, getting everyone's attention.
Kaga and Tsutsui were looking at him like he was an idiot. And Akari's face remained stressed-out, unanimated, completely unnatural, the look of her supposedly being a boy.
"My old coach for my school team always told us that it's not winning or losing that matters, but that you played the game as well as you could." Hikaru told them.
Beside him, Sai nodded in agreement.
"Yes, you play go for enjoyment above all else." Sai told them.
"But my new coach for the Tokyo Team told me something different today," Hikaru continued.
Sai did a double take. He immediately stopped his nodding in agreement as soon as the words registered in his head.
"Hikaru! I don't think—"
"Coach said that there are winners and there are losers. And if you lost, then you're a loser." Hikaru announced.
Tsutsui and Akari both flinched. Kaga looked ready to pummel Hikaru.
"But Coach also told us that's the reason why there are winners and losers. No one wants to be the loser. If you lost, you're a loser. That's it. Done. Look up the definition of the word because that's all there is to it. But if winning meant anything to you at all, then you should feel awful."
Hikaru eyed the Haze team with seriousness none of the other three—even Akari—had ever even expected Hikaru to be capable of before. They had no choice but to listen.
"If you want to win, you just make sure you're not the loser the next time. If you're actually serious about it, then you'll practice and train and put everything you have into it. Then you'll put in twice as much as that! Don't think that it's going to be easy or that you're going to be lucky or that you have any special talent or genius or magic to help you do it. You win by hard work and determination. And if you deserve it, then you'll be the winners instead of the losers."
Hikaru stared at his friends, willing them to understand. Hikaru wasn't really sure how well soccer transferred to go, but this was the best way he knew to help his friends right now.
"You're right, Shindo-kun." Tsutsui spoke up.
Hikaru blinked at him.
"I am?" Hikaru pointed to himself.
"Unfortunately," Kaga grunted. "And as unlikely as it seems."
"Hey!" exclaimed Hikaru.
Kaga just jovially messed up his hair. Something which Hikaru did not appreciate.
"Hikaru..."
Hikaru turned to the last of the team. He had no idea what to expect from the hesitant expression on Akari's face.
Akari smiled a blurry smile at him.
"Thanks."
Hikaru grinned back, relieved to see her back to normal. He was happy that he had been able help his friends when they had needed it.
"That was a nice thing you did, Hikaru." Sai told him.
"Well, of course it was." Hikaru replied. "I came to cheer for them today. I would be a loser of a cheerleader if they left depressed."
As Hikaru laughed to himself, Sai once again wondered if the difference between his thinking and Hikaru's was the thousand year age gap...or because Hikaru was just a strange child.
"Ano... Excuse me?"
Everyone turned around immediately to face the unexpected addition to their group.
"You!" Kaga pointed straight at him.
The newcomer faced Kaga with an expression of polite inquiry.
"Touya Akira!"
...
Author's Notes:
Sorry it's another cliffhanger. I'll reward you for your loyalty with an extra-long Touya chapter next!