A/N: A bit of outside speculation on Jaro today.

Stepping Stones

~26~ In which Hikaru administers a tournament

Hikaru wasn't much of a planner and still didn't know that much about navigating everyday Japanese life, so actually setting the kids up to play each other took some help. First he called Waya to ask if there were any Go boards in parks anywhere that anyone could play on, like he remembered seeing chess tables once or twice in America. Then he asked Akari if she'd like to help babysit a whole bunch of kids some afternoon and maybe hand out cookies for prizes or something.

Talking in Japanese over the phone, he discovered, was not much fun and not as easy as doing so in person. They kept starting to talk at the same time without visual cues so he missed what they were saying and he forgot words a lot more often, but he still couldn't argue the convenience of resolving a new idea with a few sentences whenever rather than having to meet up face to face every time.

Waya answered no, he'd never heard of such a thing, and suggested Go salons. Hikaru imagined asking to use an entire salon for a day and grimaced at the probable cost. He asked Waya if the insei had their own boards they could maybe bring to a park for a day or something.

Akari said sure, and then asked how many kids, who would be dropping them off and picking them up, whether they'd need to be fed, and if he'd planned how to referee any problems in the games that came up.

Hikaru briefly considered throwing the whole plan down the toilet along with his cell phone and eating all the cookies Akari promised to bring himself. Sai consoled him with sympathy, understanding and liberal encouragement of all the effort he was going to coupled with silent puppy dog eyes that constantly reminded him what a wonderful idea, so many children learning Go, they must always be encouraged to flourish...

Hikaru gritted his teeth, sighed, and kept to it.

Waya agreed that the insei probably had their own boards but pointed out that they were barred from all amateur tournaments, since they were supposed to be at a higher level given that they were studying to become pros. He also, if Hikaru understood correctly, predicted that half of them would faint if exposed to the sun for more than a few minutes at a time.

Hikaru countered that this wasn't a real tournament, just an informal thing to maybe give two bunches of kids some new rivals, and predicted his squirts could darn well match up to them better than regular amateurs since they were learning from Jaro. But he'd really kind of only been thinking about the younger insei anyway, since there were only so many kids in the neighborhood gang.

Waya did an instant about-face in enthusiasm for the idea at the mention of Jaro but warned Hikaru that the overseers at the Go institute were not likely to be particularly impressed if he just kidnapped some of the insei for a day to go play somewhere else.

Hikaru argued that playing in the Institute would give the insei a home field advantage.

Waya informed him that were they in person he would smack Hikaru upside the head because that was not the point.

Hikaru admitted to Akari that he hadn't really thought about any of the logistics involved, and wasn't sure after all where the unofficial tournament might happen, much less when or for how long.

She asked him when the kids wanted to do it, with the suggestion that they could handle getting their parents to agree to ferry them, and after Hikaru reported the general level of enthusiasm among his gang asked what about the insei and their parents. Or, possibly, them and their sensei at the Institute.

Sai's consolation and mute puppy dog eyes begging Hikaru to keep trying started to have less effect compared to the lure of just bashing his head against a wall until all the problems went away. Did every simple meetup for kids that age require so much planning in advance? It was too much work, on top of his own Go practice and his never-ending homework and tutoring which Danielle kept warning him to pay more attention to. And Sai could darn well stop staring like that, would he rather skip his online Go that also required hours of Hikaru's time?

That killed Sai's puppy dog eyes for a while, because of course he wouldn't give that up. But then he offered to help Hikaru with his homework instead so that would take less time.

It turned out the ghost was a gold mine for ancient history. Hikaru happily copied down everything the ghost rattled off in response to his study questions, then rewrote it into his own words instead of formal archaic, then rewrote it again to correct everything he'd copied wrong, then handed it in to his teacher. His teacher gave him the highest score he'd ever gotten since transferring from the American school.

Sai moved up to Hikaru's room most nights his tutor wasn't there, so Hikaru could flip pages for the ghost to read and later summarize for him while Hikaru studied something else, thus approximately halving his workload. Danielle told him if he kept up his new remarkable progress he might not need her much longer.

And afternoons were suddenly, beautifully free for Go. And all the problems currently involved.

"Hey Akira," Hikaru greeted absently, eyeing the salon the other boy always came to. It'd been expensive enough just paying to come in himself every now and then; with a whole gaggle of brats in tow... "You know if there's ever, like, charity games played here?"

"Charity games?" Akira repeated with a slight frown as he turned toward him. "What kind?"

Hikaru flopped into the chair opposite him, still speculating. "Bunch of kids." They'd probably have turned the place upside down by the time they were done, even if none of them ever left their seats. He could deal with that somehow after, though, if he could just get them in. "They like playing Go, but they're getting bored just playing each other, so I'm trying to get them some new opponents. And it's practically impossible."

Akira blinked. "Why not take them to tournament?"

Hikaru snorted. "Are you kidding? They blow all their allowances on candy in a day; they couldn't afford it, and I definitely can't pay for 'em. And some of their parents won't either, so if I only took some of them the rest would get mad and they'd probably even stop playing each other. It's a mess."

"So... you want them to play customers here?" Akira asked slowly.

"Huh? No, not these geezers. See, I thought of some other kids they could play, but it's still a headache, cause Waya said the insei's teacher probably wouldn't go for it, even though I say who cares, it has nothing to do with him if some kids decide to play with each other, but I can't find a place they could play that I could afford. You think maybe I could convince a salon to let them all play free somehow?"

He looked at the Japanese boy hopefully. Sai's gang certainly wasn't so bad off that they actually needed a "charity" game, but he'd bring them all in rags and dirt if that would work. He doubted any of them would object too much.

Akira's brow furrowed further. "You want insei to play... more children? Who?"

"Jaro's Disciples," Hikaru said impressively. It worked so well with Waya, he figured giving the kids a name might get them more respect.

"Who?" Akira repeated.

Hikaru deflated. "You don't know Jaro? The God of NetGo? I thought everybody had heard of him!"

Akira shrugged a little. "I do not play NetGo. So, you want insei to play children, who... have good teacher? You think that can equal insei training?"

"Jaro's my teacher too, so yes," Hikaru snapped, annoyed beyond his usual caution. Since he'd established the story with Waya, though, why not use it. "These kids are quick learners, they're already bored with each other, and those insei never do anything but sit and play each other too so why wouldn't they all have fun? That no insei in tournaments thing is stupid anyway. But I can't get Waya to convince their teacher to let them have a field trip or talk to just the insei without telling them a place to go and I can't get my squirts to convince their parents to let them all go off 'somewhere in the city' either, so right now I'm just trying anything I can think of. And I thought of here. You're here more than me; you think there's any chance of it happening?"

Akira leaned back in his chair for a moment with a pensive look, so Hikaru waited and kept himself from fidgeting and interrupting the other boy's thoughts.

"I can ask my father," he finally said slowly.

Hikaru frowned blankly at him. "Your dad? What's he got to do with it?"

"This is his salon," Akira told him, with a puzzled shrug. "You not know?"

"No, why would I? You think he'll say yes?"

"I can ask," Akira repeated, a little dubiously. "What exactly do you want to do? Have teams, or all children play each other?"

"Basically just a round robin," Hikaru agreed, glad he'd already worked out most of such details with Akari.

"A what?" Akira asked.

"Round—oh." He repeated it, enunciating the English, then explained, "Assuming we get the same number of insei as my gang, the one side plays the other, and each kid switches over and plays the next on the other team every game until they've all played each other."

Akira made a sound of enlightenment. "Round robin," he pronounced carefully.

"Right. What's it in Japanese?"

Akira told him, and Hikaru repeated it until Akira nodded, which he took to mean he hadn't butchered it. Then he resumed, "Akari's going to bring cookies for all of them at the end rather than giving out prizes, then they all go home. And maybe do it again sometime if they have fun."

He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to go through all this every time the kids wanted to play, but the original idea was to give them more options of people to play with.

"So, not teaching games? What about time limits? Referee?" Akira asked.

Hikaru frowned at that. Time limited turns, that was a good point; it was standard on NetGo and he remembered it from that one tournament he'd been in, but Sai's kids hadn't ever played with that. Did the insei?

"Not too strict a time limit," he decided. "We're only talking five or six kids each side, we can fit that into one day. And Isumi's going to referee if he's free since he's a neutral party none of the kids can ambush later if they think he wasn't fair."

"What if he isn't free?" Akira asked.

"Waya will make sure he is, otherwise he's refereeing instead," Hikaru said cheerfully. "Although I might have to get him to help too if the kids aren't feeling like getting along... well, I've also got Akari. Not that she knows much about Go yet. And maybe Tsutsui..." Hikaru paused, then glanced up with an ingratiating smile. "Say, buddy... pal..."

Akira started to look a little unnerved. "Ano... how old are these children?"

"Totally, easily manageable age," Hikaru promised. "Really, how much trouble could they get into with so many of us older responsible types around?"

That evidently wasn't the most convincing tack to take, so he quickly switched gears to bargaining. "Or, if you're too busy to help, just making sure we can use the salon is enough."

"I don't... you..." Akira looked harassed, then settled into looking determined. "I will ask my father," he repeated stoically. "Do you have permission for insei to play?"

"Waya's working on that." With a lot of complaining about all the work involved, only silenced by the promise of getting to play Jaro on NetGo, but really Waya was the best choice. He was an insei, so he already knew the kids, at least in passing, and he spoke way better Japanese than Hikaru. "It'll be easier to get that permission if we already have it here, right?"

"I cannot promise," Akira cautioned.

"No, yeah, that's fine, just ask; that's more than I was hoping," Hikaru assured him. "Is your dad a cool guy? You think he'll say yes?"

"He is..." Akira looked baffled for a second. "...I don't know. Is a strange request, Hikaru. But... maybe?" He shrugged.

"Good enough," Hikaru decided. "Let me know, okay?"

"Okay." Akira nodded. "Come back next week, and I should know."

"You got it," Hikaru agreed happily.

.

Akira spent a normal evening after school in his room, studying and doing homework before dinner. Once he finished his last assignment he put his books away and started to turn to his goban in the corner, then paused instead and looked to his desk.

Akira's grandparents, very up-to-date with technology and proud of it, had gotten him a personal computer last Christmas. He mostly only used it to compose e-mail letters to them every few weeks in reply to their own, but it had an Internet connection, and he knew well enough how to navigate...

Just out of curiosity, he logged on and found the site Hikaru had mentioned, NetGo. What was his teacher's name, something strange... "the God of NetGo." Akira clicked around, looking for rankings of the top online players—ah-ha. Jaro. Would the site have kifu of past games...?

Akira found them, and studied several, unconscious of the passage of time while he followed one move to another to conclusion, one tactic against one opponent to the next. No wonder Hikaru played so well; his teacher could surpass some professionals! But then why had Hikaru been so shocked to learn of the professional Go world?

Akira filtered through the kifu more carefully, looking for games against higher-ranked opponents, and studied several of what appeared to be the best. Jaro must be a pro; he played too well to be anything else. One couldn't reach that level of skill and experience without devoting hours to the study and play of Go every day, year after year. He wouldn't have such time for it if it wasn't his job.

Who was Jaro? Akira didn't pay much attention to the internet, but he was familiar with several of Japan's pros from his father's study group, and he'd never heard any mention of someone who played this many games online. Was it something so commonly known about the person that it just wasn't worth the mention? But why would a pro play so much online instead of in person; shouldn't he be busy with real games, teaching and tournaments? And why only start playing online less than a year ago—

—Like maybe around when Hikaru moved to Japan. Of course. Hikaru had learned Go in America; Jaro must be a member of the American Go world, and probably only joined this Japanese site to keep playing with Hikaru once he'd moved. No wonder Akira had never heard of him before.

But still, hadn't this person ever told Hikaru anything about professional Go? Why not?

Akira finally shook his head to himself and got up to go to dinner. Maybe he could ask Hikaru more next time they saw each other—next weekend. Right, time to ask Father if he would consider opening the salon for a day to a crowd of insei and... who else, really? Some other children that Hikaru sounded like he knew, that played this American pro online and called themselves his disciples? And let them all play for free?

Suddenly Akira wished he'd asked Hikaru a lot more questions about this plan, so it might make some kind of remote sense when he tried to explain it to his father. It had seemed to hold together when Hikaru told him, but now that he tried to rehash it in his head...

But he'd promised, and it wasn't like he personally had to do anything more than report back yes or no. Well, and have to justify the no to Hikaru when he complained, probably. But at least his father's reasons would be a lot clearer and easier to understand than Hikaru's.

Or they should be, but if Hikaru didn't even see it was a weird request in the first place...