Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go is the copyright of Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi, Shueisha and TV Tokyo. This is a fanfiction and is not to be used for commercial purposes

Hikaru's Student

By Ching Mak (ching_mak@hotmail.com)

Translated and edited by Kinny Riddle

Beta-read by Hieronymus (hieronymus@sbcglobal.net)

Translator's foreword: This fanfic is translated with permission from the Chinese fanfic by Ching Mak. If you can read Chinese, I strongly recommend you to read the original fanfic found at his website. His website contains various hilarious Hikaru no Go and Hunter X Hunter fanfics and fancomics. Special thanks to Hieronymus for beta reading this chapter.

Notes: Italics are used for thoughts and sound effects.

Chapter 3: The Fight Begins

  One April afternoon, Sae waited at the street after piano lessons for her father to pick her up as usual, unbeknownst to her, someone was spying on her from the opposite lingerie shop, this sinister figure was none other than Shindo Hikaru, who had discovered the best place to spy on Sae without getting himself noticed by Kishimoto.

  For weeks now Hikaru has spied on Sae, finding out that she only has piano lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and would come out and wait at around 4 pm. Even though Hikaru had promised Kishimoto not to see Sae until he has fulfilled the conditions, he decided he could not wait anymore this day, for he had something for Sae.

   Sae, noticed Hikaru walking out of the lingerie store, and was none the less surprised, "Shindo-nisan? What are you doing here? I thought you promised my dad not to see me till you've won four titles."

Hikaru sighed and said, "Well, right now I'm tied 2-2 with Ogata in the Judan finals, but even if I win, I would still be short of four titles. I promised I would buy a whole year's worth of Jump for you, but your father would probably throw them away, so I bought this instead." He went into his pocket and pulled out a Nintendo GameBoy AdvanceTM  with a game cartridge inside, but Sae noticed something else fell out of his pocket and blushed profusely, "Shindo-nisan…what's…that?" When Hikaru looked at what he dropped, he instantly went horrified, for it was a black bra. Hikaru didn't feel comfortable hanging around in a lingerie store and not buying anything, so he decided to buy one anyway. (The shop assistants are still think he's a pervert, though, whether he buys any lingerie or not.) Hikaru instantly stuffed the bra back in his pocket and said, "Oh, that's nothing. Hahahaha… (Changes subject) Well, this handheld device may be outdated, but this is the only decent Go game that I can find anywhere, it's a game based on some manga in Jump some years ago, I can't remember it's name though."

Sae: "Oh! I know there's a popular manga right now called Hikaru no Shougi, it's about a boy who has a talent in Shougi and becomes pro. Maybe this is a spin-off of that series you mentioned."

Hikaru: "I think I heard of that manga before, the protagonist even has the same name as I do, wonder if they got inspiration from me? Hmmm… But anyway, I don't think I can ever teach you Go anymore, so please play this game often, but make sure your father never finds out."

Sae: "Shindo-nisan…Do you really have to wear those…?"

Hikaru: "Hahaha…I guess I'll worry about that till December, then maybe I'll kill myself, then I'll be able to possess you as a ghost and we'll be able to play often."

   Hikaru returned home after parting with Sae, and in his mailbox, he found a notice for the dates of the next Meijin league games and the challenger for his Honinbo title, which turned out to be Kurata. "Thank goodness it's Kurata and not Touya, or I would be losing two titles in a row. But even if I retain the Honinbo title, it'll still be too late. (Sigh)" He then noticed some of the dates for the Honinbo final games seemed to be delayed by one week or so. Puzzled, he rang the Go Association up.

Go Association spokesman: "Well, since like yourself, Kurata-sensei is busy for both the Meijin league games and Honinbo finals, we discovered some of his games may clash at the same date, so we had to delay some of the Honinbo final games at Kurata-sensei's request. Would that be a problem for you, Shindo-sensei?"

A realization suddenly dawned on Hikaru, "That's it! Why haven't I thought of it before? I could request to change the dates of the finals. That way it'll still be possible for me to win the Oza title before December 20th, even though it's gonna be extremely difficult, but it's now or never." He asked the spokesman, "Is it possible to request dates for final matches to be moved forward?"

Spokesman: "Well, yes, provided you could have a non-personal reason, like a clash of dates. If it's for medical reasons, you would have to produce a doctor's letter."

Hikaru frowned at that answer and thought, "How am I going to get a clash of dates? I don't remember any tournaments that I have to participate in December other than the Oza tournament."

  The following week, Hikaru, still kindled by the hope that he could yet win four titles by December 20th, stepped into the Yuugen Room (Room of Profound Darkness) in the Go Association building, for the final game of the Judan finals. Before the match, Ogata said to Hikaru in private, "You would have to crawl over my dead body to snatch this precious title of mine, Shindo-kun. I've successfully held off many challengers, let's just say it's a habit I adopted from old man Kuwabara. Not even "sai" will stop me."

Hikaru: "Then I'm afraid you would have to prepare for your funeral, for 'sai' will come back to haunt you today."

A cold sweat fell on Ogata's forehead, "He wasn't that enthusiastic in the last game."

After an intense battle in which only Hotta Yumi can describe, since this author himself is crap at Go, Hikaru had finally become the first person to snatch the Judan title from Ogata ever since he won it from Touya Koyou.

  At the post match conference, Ogata commented, "Shindo-kun used to not give a damn on whether he won a title or not, since he's only "enjoying himself", as he used to say, but today, he possesses this hunger that I have not seen from him before, and I reckon he is going to be a tough opponent in the foreseeable future."

  As May arrived, Hikaru began his defence of the Honinbo title with Kurata, while participating in the Meijin league and progressing steadily in the Oza tournaments.

Hikaru was in a favourable position in the Meijin league, he only needed to win three more games in order to become challenger to the Meijin title-holder, his nemesis, Akira.

First came his old Insei friend, Waya Yoshitaka 6-dan, who had been progressing steadily and was regarded as a top player, though nowhere as strong as the title holders. Waya was desperate to win the last few games, including against Hikaru, or he'd be relegated from the league and have to start all over in the preliminaries next year. Nonetheless, Hikaru showed no mercy and beat the crap out of him. After the game, Waya could only stare at the board and think, "I've never seen such ruthless eyes from him before. He used to hold back and not beat me badly whenever I'm playing badly, just how strong can this guy get?"

Next came another Insei friend, Isumi 7-dan, who was significantly stronger than Waya, and played solid moves, thanks to his "special training" in some exotic location. (He doesn't just go to China, you know.) Hikaru thought, "I don't care whether he went to Tibet or India this time for his training, no one's gonna stop me getting four titles. Sorry, Isumi-san!" In the end, Hikaru beat Isumi so badly that he had to go to some foreign country in the southern hemisphere to strengthen his skills again.

Finally came the hardest, Yashiro Kiyoharu 9-dan, who participated in the Japan-Korea-China Junior Tournament with him and Akira. The last time he played him in an official game was in the preliminary to that tournament, and Hikaru narrowly won. Hikaru thought, "Yashiro is gonna be a tough one, second to Touya and myself for my age, but I heard he's a part-time stock broker as well, thanks to his parents nagging him on getting a 'proper job'. It's amazing he's still regarded as a top player, but I'm gonna beat him so bad that he'll want to be a full time stock broker!" Another indescribable intense battle ensues and Hikaru forces Yashiro to lose 11 stones in the process, making him surrender and concentrate on Wall Street for one year instead of Go tournaments.

  Thus, by July, Hikaru had clinched the challenger spot for the Meijin tournament, despite having two more games left. At the same time, Hikaru had beaten Kurata 4-2 in the best of seven series of the Honinbo finals and successfully defended his other title.

In August, Hikaru faced Ochi Kousuke 8-dan in the final of the Oza tournament, the winner would get to challenge Touya for the title. Ochi said defiantly, "This time I WILL beat you and have Touya Akira acknowledge me as his rival when I face him in the final."

Hikaru smirked and thought to himself, "Too bad, I know you're strong, but to put yourself on Touya's level is really making me laugh. I'm gonna have to send you to the bathroom." As Hikaru predicted, Ochi got up and went straight to the bathroom without saying a word.

And so Hikaru got to challenge Akira on both the Meijin and Oza titles. At the same moment, Akira won the Gosei title to make his total tally of titles to four.

Currently, the title holders are as follows:

Kisei: Akira

Meijin: Akira

Honinbo: Hikaru

Judan: Hikaru

Tengen: Unknown

Oza: Akira

Gosei: Akira

   Summer passed and autumn arrived, Hikaru received a call from the Go Association.

Spokesman: "Some of our sponsors have decided to stage a special one-off game for charity, titled 'Match of the Century', in which you and Touya-sensei will participate. Touya-sensei has already agreed to the match. The match will take place on December 25th, which will clash with game 5 of the Oza final. Would you wish to request a change of date?"

Hikaru immediately answered, "Yes, of course, please!"

Spokesman: "Then there's a date available at December 20th, is that OK with you?"

Hikaru: "Why did it have to be on that date? But it's better than nothing. Yes, that's fine. Here I come, Touya!"

Spokesman: "Then I'll contact Touya-sensei and see if he could agree right away."

Hikaru: "Hang on, where's this 'Match of the Century' gonna take place in?"

Spokesman: "Tokyo City Hall, it's going to be shown live in Korea and China as well."

A sense of gloom fell on Hikaru's head, "Oh my god! If I lose any of those two titles, then I will have to wear nothing but tight leather underwear in front of Touya…and in on live satellite TV. Even Hong Su-yeong is gonna look down on me for the rest of my life!"

As Hikaru was contemplating these thoughts, the culprit of this all, Kishimoto, was watching a news announcement of the "Match of the Century" in his home, "Hehehe…Back then Touya Akira would selfishly request to be third-captain in order to play you, Shindo. I wonder how he would react if he sees the person he is most obsessed with dressed in nothing but a tight pair of briefs, hehehe…"

To be continued…

Appendix: Dates of Go Tournaments Hikaru participated in this story so far

January-February:

Kisei: Final Game 1-5

Meijin: League

Judan: Playoffs

March:

Kisei: Final Game 6-7 (lost title to Akira)

Meijin: League

Judan: Final Game 1-2

Oza: Playoffs

April:

Meijin: League

Judan: Final Game 3-5 (won title from Ogata)

Oza: Playoffs

May-July:

Meijin: League

Honinbo: Final 1-7

Oza: Playoffs

August:

Meijin: League (clinched challenger spot, finals in September-November)

Oza: Playoffs (clinched challenger spot, finals in October-December)

(Akira won the Gosei title, in which the finals took place between July-August)