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 36: Shindo Hikaru, Regular

...

"Alright, good practice." Coach Takahashi faced the group of boys that made up the Tokyo Team, face completely serious and therefore unnerving even when giving compliments.

Most of the group assembled just threw awkward grins in response, not quite sure how to respond to this. Usually, Coach just pronounced the practice over and wished them a safe trip home.

"The coaches and I have an announcement to make. But before we get started, Ino-san and Coach Mori will be explaining some things to you first." Coach began flipping open the plastic cover of the ever-present clipboard in his hand without further preamble, allowing the assistant coaches to take over from there.

"As you all know, summer training is not just intensive pre-season training." Assistant Coach Ino-san chirped brightly from beside the head coach. "There's a reason why we have you all practice together during the summer instead of alternating between the regulars and reserves like we usually do in the off-season."

Expectantly, everyone then turned to the person standing beside Ino-san. But their second assistant coach merely remained as stoic and unreadable as ever.

"The summer is our time for evaluation." Ino-san continued seriously, making sure that everyone got the importance of this statement.

"We coaches formally evaluate all of you players during the summer training. Not only are we able to provide every player with individual guidance this way, but we do it in order to set the roster for the regular team and the reserve team. That is why we told you that it was very important to put in your best effort during pre-season. If you slacked off just because it's summer break, it will show up on your evaluations." Ino-san huffed with some displeasure.

All eyes turned to Shinji, who chuckled nervously and avoided making eye contact with his uncle.

"I will be announcing the regular players." Coach Takahashi ended the coach's explanation, turning to the neatly-typed chart visible in his hand. "After player assignment, you will each receive your individual evaluation report from Assistant Coach Mori."

Everyone turned back to their silent third coach. And he appeared as he always did, but now with a stack of papers in hand. A handful of boys clearly expressed their disappointment at missing it. No one could ever explain how Coach Mori completed tasks so quickly. They never saw him move.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask me about your evaluation report." Ino-san offered cheerfully. "I will try to explain how we came to your results the best I can."

Coach Takahashi glanced up to make sure they were done explaining. Coach Mori silently indicated that he had nothing to add.

"Team Captain," Coach Takashi eyed the boys waiting in nervous anticipation in front of him. "Satoru Hiro."

A group of older boys began to cheer loudly at Hikaru's left, congratulating the embarrassed but elated new team captain sandwiched in between two of his enthusiastic friends.

"Regular team goalkeeper," Coach Takahashi continued after a short pause, ignoring the celebration happening at the back of the group. "Yoshikatsu Kawa. Regular team defenders…"

Hikaru kind of zoned out at this point. Everyone had a good idea of who would make it onto the regular team and who would be stuck on the reserve team. Most of the regulars were regulars last season. There were the usual coin tosses between two players of similar skill, but hardly any upsets. Besides, all of the players on the regular team were fifteen-years-old or older. Hikaru didn't stand a chance.

"…and Shindo Hikaru."

Hikaru was forced back to attention at his name. How long had he zoned out? It didn't feel like Coach had had enough time to read through all of the reserve team already.

Well, it didn't really matter. Hikaru was ready to get his hands on his formal evaluation. He had been looking forward to that piece of paper all summer.

Hikaru turned to grin at Kaito, who had been the first to agree to compare reports with Hikaru. Hikaru was going to hold him to his promise! No matter how embarrassing Kaito's or (though Hikaru really hoped not) his report were, they were going to show it to each other. Hikaru would tolerate some teasing if he had to, but he was going to be a good friend and not make fun of Kaito at all. Not even if it was really, really bad. Nope, Hikaru was going to be noble and gentlemanly like Sai was always nagging him to be. After all, this was important, more important than any evaluation he had ever undertaken before. Hikaru was going to take this seriously.

But when Hikaru turned to his teammate, instead of Kaito rolling his eyes at Hikaru's endless enthusiasm or something, Hikaru turned to face an openly-gaping Kaito standing beside him.

That was when Hikaru noticed that it was weirdly quiet…and that everyone was staring at him.

"Hikaru!" Sai waved to him from just outside the group, easily seen since the ghost was taller than everyone else and waving his arms around in full Heian court clothing. "Hikaru!"

"What's happening, Sai?" Hikaru asked his self-appointed tutor, more than a little unnerved that everyone was staring at him.

If there was one thing Hikaru was grateful for in having a ghost following him around, it was that Sai was actually a very attentive person and listened even when it was boring. For Hikaru, Sai was his go-to information source for filling in the blanks Hikaru had missed. And Sai had, of course, known that Hikaru had not been listening.

"Takahashi-coach has announced the assignments to the main squadron."

"So?" Hikaru thought back, ignoring Sai's weird way of addressing the regular team. (Hikaru didn't understand why Sai had so much trouble remembering the word 'regular'.)

"Of course he announced who's on the regular team already. He just got done announcing the reserve team!"

Hikaru eyed the curious looks on all three of the coaches' faces. They were all looking at him too, for some reason.

"You are mistaken, Hikaru." Sai shouted across the field, still waving his arms up and down to express the importance of what he was about to say. "Takahashi-coach has not yet announced any of the assignments to the secondary squadron."

It took a second, but Hikaru's eyes widened when the full impact of what Sai had just told him finally hit him. Then he stared at the shocked faces of his teammates in even more shock than they were in. Alright, now this all made sense.

Hikaru had been assigned to the regular team. He wasn't a reserve player anymore. He was one of the regular forwards. This was the Tokyo Team upset of the century!

And all Shindo Hikaru could say at that moment was,

"Oh."

…

Author's Note:

I had forgotten that I had written a bunch of rough chapters last year thinking that I would take my time editing them all. When I found all of these forgotten chapters, I basically had the same reaction Hikaru had here.

And unfortunately, all of the chapters I wrote last year are basically unusable. Mostly because I wrote them using a different outline for "Go, Soccer Player, Go!". In that outline, Hikaru was supposed to play a year as a reserve player and then move onto the regular team. But, as you can see, I decided to skip that in my revised outline since I need the story to move along a little more quickly.

So now I have twenty unusable chapters mocking me every time I write a new chapter for this fanfiction.