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 on translating this story.
Notes: Italics are used for thoughts and sound effects.
Chapter 4: The Great Escape
Two months later…late November
Akira was alone in his bedroom that morning, sobbing to himself, "(Sob!) Why?! Shindo used to be so cute and happy-happy, now he has such a mean attitude. He was so ruthless in yesterday's game, even his eyes were scary! (Sob!) Why???!!!"
Akira's mother knocked on his door, "Akira-san, your father has asked you to come down to play Go with him, did you forget already?"
Akira frowned, "Geez he sure is annoying, can't he see that I'm not in the mood to play?"
When Akira went into his father's study, Touya Koyou started to discuss the last game of the Meijin final the previous day. "You know how people used to just call me 'Touya Meijin', as for now, when people say 'Touya Meijin', they think of you, so whenever someone called me 'Touya Meijin', I can still joke and say, 'The present Touya Meijin is my son.' The Meijin title has become a birthright of the Touyas, and you had to let Shindo-kun snatch that away yesterday! How am I gonna joke with my neighbours?"
Akira: "Don't worry, father. I'll make sure to win the Tengen title next week, since Shindo has been eliminated in the early rounds of that competition."
Touya Koyou: "Well you'd better! Right now Shindo-kun has Meijin, Honinbo and Judan, while you are level with him on Kisei, Oza and Gosei. The Oza final takes place together with the Tengen final, you'd better not let Shindo-kun snatch another title from you, (you're trailing him 1-2 now) or it'll be difficult for you to re-establish your place in the Go world, not to mention I'll give you a big screwing."
Akira: "Dammit! This old geezer is applying pressure on me! I never wanted to lose a second title to Shindo anyway, I don't need your damn advice!"
Later that afternoon, Akira and Ogata were discussing Hikaru's tactics in the Judan and Meijin finals during Touya Koyou's study session.
Ogata asked, "What do you think of Shindo's sudden change?"
Akira: "He seemed to get rid of his 'sai' style, occasionally playing Kurata's style and sometimes he would place stones where I would normally have placed."
Ogata: "Exactly! Shindo's play is influenced by 'sai', whose styles are archaic to the modern player and seem harmless, yet it is deadly if one is not careful. Kurata is famous for adapting his play according to who his opponent is. While Touya-sensei's style, which we are used with, presses the opponent hard and not giving him a chance to strike back. The amazing thing about Shindo is that he has managed to merged these three completely different styles together to create a completely new style of play."
Akira: "There's got to be a way to beat this combined style of Shindo's during the Oza finals."
Ogata: "The only way would have to be to do the same as him."
Akira: "It's not easy giving up your own style and learning someone else's playing style and then combining then all together in a short time, you know."
Ogata: "We'll just have to use all the time we have to practice while we still can. Come! I'll try playing using Kurata's style, while you imagine you're 'sai'."
One week later, Hikaru and Akira faced each other in game four of the Oza finals in the Yuugen Room. Before the game, Hikaru said to Akira, "Touya, I'm going to have to take this Oza title no matter what!" Akira replied, "I can give you anything (including my body and soul! (heart)), but not this title!"
After a gruelling six hours, Akira won the game by three and a half moku, and the series was tied 2-2. Hikaru could only stare at the board stunned, knowing that he had to win the last game in order to win the bet.
As Hikaru returned home that day, he studied the kifus for Akira's Tengen matches and was amazed by what he saw. "This style, it's completely like the style he used in today's game! It's basically my combined style, only that it's much stronger! Damn! That Touya must have trained the style day and night with top players like his old man and Ogata-sensei, while I can only play against average Insei friends."
At that moment, a mailman came with a package. After sending the mailman off, the phone started ringing simultaneously, Hikaru picked it up, only to hear a sinister voice saying, "I hope you've received my Christmas present! Don't you want to open it?" This sinister voice was none other than Kishimoto's. Hikaru opened the package and revealed, to his horror, a super small-sized pair of leather underwear. "I'm looking forward to the day when you would perform striptease in front of Touya Akira, how I'd like to see him nosebleed! Mwa-hahahaha!!! I'm so excited! Anyway, I'll be looking forward to the 'Match of the Century'!" A cold sweat fell over Hikaru's forehead, he had started to regret promising such a terrible deal with Kishimoto, and as he thought of having to play semi-naked in front of Akira, his face went incredibly red, and he just fainted.
Another week later, Akira won the Tengen title with ease. Right then, all the major titles were split evenly between Touya Akira with four titles and Shindo Hikaru with three, and the rivalry of the "Twin Dragons" had become the legend of the Go world.
As Akira celebrated with others in the study session on his fourth title later that night, Akira's mother shouted, "Akira-san, it's your phone!" Akira simply shrugged her off, saying, "Tell him I'll call him tomorrow."
Akira's mom: "It's from Shindo-kun."
Upon hearing Hikaru's name, Akira rushed out of his room and grabbed the phone from his mother faster than the speed of sound. Yet when he spoke, he reverted to his cool exterior again and said, "Yes? What do you want? Oh I'm so happy! Shindo actually came and called!"
Hikaru on the other end said, "Well…listen Touya! You gotta do this favor for me! I heard that game five of the Oza finals will start at 2.00pm as usual. I was wondering if you could agree to have the game begin earlier at, like say, 10.00am?"
Akira: "If I'm not mistaken, for some reason, you had specifically requested this game to be moved earlier to this date, and now you want this game to end as early as possible, am I right? What do I get out of this if I agree?"
Hikaru: "Well, I could intentionally lose to you in that 'Match of the Century', you know how this game is going to be shown live nationwide in Japan, Korea and China? Not to mention the commentator is gonna say something bad about the loser, which would not look good on the Touya family's reputation, does it?"
Akira thought vainly, "Hmm, he does have a point in that." And said, "Very well! I'll agree, but on one condition, I want you to play striptease in front of me on that day!"
Hikaru immediately blushed, "WHAT?! You…you're kidding right? Haha…"
Akira: "All right, if you don't want that, then here's another condition for you besides from losing the 'Match of the Century', in the final match of the Oza final, I want you to place your first stone on 1-1, no matter whether you're using black or white."
Hikaru exclaimed, "1-1?! What kind of lunatic would place his first move there? Even a beginner wouldn't do that!"
Akira said coolly, "Then I guess we're done. Goodbye!" Just as he's about to place the phone down, he heard Hikaru shouting, "WAIT!"
Akira held the phone up again, "Yes? You changed your mind?"
Hikaru gritted his teeth and agreed, "OK! I'll place the first stone at 1-1!"
December 20th had finally arrived, that morning, Hikaru arrived at the Go Association to find Kishimoto and Sae waiting for him outside. Kishimoto smiled smugly at Hikaru, "Good morning! I hope you didn't forget our agreement! If you want to fulfill my conditions, the you have got to win by 8.00pm tonight! I'll be watching."
Hikaru replied with a grim face, "Just you wait! I will become Sae's tutor by tonight!" he then kneeled and patted Sae's head, "And besides, as long as she's here cheering for me, I don't feel like losing."
Sae smiled and said, "You can do it! Shindo-nisan!"
Hikaru also smiled and stood up, "Follow me, I'll have the staff arrange you to watch the game from the TV room."
Akira was already in the TV room waiting for Hikaru to arrive, and upon seeing two people entering behind him, he exclaimed, "It's Kishimoto-kun! And, aren't you that first captain from my junior high school, Kaio? No wonder the name Kishimoto rings a bell. So he's the father of that girl in the 'pedophile incident'." Kishimoto said sarcastically, "Wow! I'm surprised you actually remembered me! Damn you Touya Akira, if it weren't for you, Youri (Hidaka, his wife) wouldn't have become an ardent fan of yours. Every time she drives me crazy just mentioning your name! I'm making an exception and support you today!"
Hikaru was wondering how on earth would Akira recognize Sae, while Akira had a feeling that Hikaru's request to move the game earlier had something to do with this girl. As the game was about to begin, both Hikaru and Akira headed to the Yuugen Room, while Sae and Kishimoto sat down. At that time Ogata and Kurata also arrived to watch the game. Ogata said to Kurata, "Want to bet on this game? It's another habit I learned from that old monkey Kuwabara."
Kurata: "Well, I'm gonna have to put my money on Touya, this time. You betting for Shindo?"
Ogata: "Then I'm afraid this bet could not take place, since I'm rooting for Akira-kun, of course!"
At this time, Sae suddenly shouted, "I will bet for Shindo-nisan! Dad! Lend me 2000 yen!" It was too late for Kishimoto to refuse Sae, and he could only sigh at the loss of 2000 yen.
After nigiri*, Hikaru ended up with white and was dismayed. "Giving black to Touya is already disadvantageous enough, but to place my first move at 1-1 is like giving him a two stone handicap. But if I don't do as Touya says, he might request this game to be delayed till 1.00pm. Guess I had no choice…" He picked up a white stone and placed it at right at the top left-hand corner, 1-1. Everyone was amazed at this move.
Ogata shouted, "What on earth is he thinking? Who would place a stone there on his first move? Even my bastard son wouldn't do that!"
Kurata scratched his head, "This must be some kind of strange tactics that I have not heard of."
Only Kishimoto guessed the reason behind Hikaru's move, "So he went this far just to have Touya agree to have this game moved as early as possible. But it is too high a price to pay, heh-heh-heh… "
Akira smirked and slowly placed a stone. Pachi! Hikaru instantly placed another stone on the board. Akira at first didn't notice anything strange and placed another stone. Pachi! Another white stone had landed on the board. It went on for quite a few hands, where Hikaru would place a stone the moment after Akira placed his, just like he did in Hiroshima when searching for Sai many years ago.
Ogata: "Isn't Shindo-kun playing a bit too fast? Is he trying to disrupt Akira-kun's pace? Even if he uses Akira-kun's thinking time to think, this is still suicide! It's a title match! For goodness sake! Not a regular speed Go against some old man in the Go Salon!"
Akira also noticed something wrong with Hikaru's swift moves, "He requested the game to be moved earlier so that he could finish it as early as possible. Looks like he's really in a hurry. Maybe I'll try tormenting him…heh-heh…"
As the game progressed, Hikaru grew more and more impatient, "Damn this Touya, at the beginning he spent like 15 minutes for one move, as the game gets more complicated, he's using up to half an hour to think! Is he doing this intentionally just to torment me?!" But as the game moved on, even Hikaru was forced to spend up to 15 minutes thinking for his moves and he gradually slowed down.
As the clock ticked to 7.00pm, the game had entered yose* and Akira was leading by about seven and a half moku. Hikaru grew more anxious, "There's no time! I gotta calm down!" However, Akira would not relent, and Hikaru made a fatal error, in which Akira moved the gap to 15.5 moku. The game was apparently over, with no possible chance of comeback for Hikaru. Akira began to stand up and wait for Hikaru to surrender. The people in the TV room also got up to congratulate Akira, but Hikaru did not surrender, he stared at the board with sweat all over his face and placed another stone.
Akira frowned and sat down again, thinking, "What are you doing, Shindo? There's too big of a gap for you to come back. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" The same thing was being said by Kurata, who yelled, "Shindo! Do you even know the honor of being a top player? This is too outrageous! Lemme go, Ogata-sensei! I'm gonna beat the crap out of that kid!"
Hikaru continued to struggle for another 45 minutes, and the gap was widened to 25.5 moku. Still, Hikaru refused to surrender, even the game recorder and Weekly Go reporter were starting to get annoyed.
Hikaru: "I can't! I can't! I don't wanna play striptease, not least in front of Touya! There's got to be a way to make Touya lose. If only I could control Touya's hand and have him place stones where I want, or have him place a stone in the wrong position and place it somewhere else after letting it go, just like Isumi-san did in the pro-exams, or have him place two stones consecutively by mistake…wait a minute!" Hikaru at once thought of his Go Club in Haze Junior High, where Mitani once tricked Tsutsui into placing two stones consecutively. He looked at the board and calculated quickly, "I can place a move at 16-17, and Touya will still come and try to kill my cluster on 5-5 and will not pay attention to 16-17, but right now, I'm playing Touya, not Tsutsui. Touya would be completely concentrated on the board all the time, there's no way I escape his notice. If only I can distract him for one second when making the fake move, no, a tenth of a second!" He looked around and saw a cup of tea, which he seldom used, and had a brilliant idea.
Hikaru started putting his plan into practice, and played a few stones to get Akira focused on Hikaru's cluster around 5-5. Then just as Hikaru was about to place his stone on 16-17, he nudged his right arm and spilled the teacup. At that moment, Akira's eyes went from Hikaru's hand to the spilled teacup, Hikaru used this chance to immediately hide the stone under his index and little fingers, and carrying another stone in his left hand, struck the side of the board. Pachi! The movement was so seamless that even Mitani would be envious.
As Akira moved his eyes back on the board, he noticed Hikaru had finished making his move, so without bothering to check, since that last move was useless against him, he placed a stone on 5-5 instantly. At this moment, Hikaru stood up and shouted, "YES! Touya placed two stones consecutively, so I won by default!"
At this moment, Ogata didn't bother stopping Kurata anymore, they both rushed into the Yuugen Room, and with the game recorder and Weekly Go reporter, went and beat the crap out of Hikaru, literally. Kishimoto also joined the party, using his baseball bat (which he brought along, just in case). As for Akira, he was completely petrified and could only stare at the board, devoid of speech. If you did not know about Hikaru's situation, you would have thought Hikaru to be a sado-masochist, as you can see him getting beat up by a pulp amid screams of "You sonovabitch!" and "Mother f***er!", and laughing loud at the same time.
No matter how many times you look at the TV replay of the game, you can see Hikaru's hand hovered over 16-17 and went back without placing a stone. Since there are no rules forbidding players from hitting the side of the board with a stone, or spilling a teacup, or hovering your hand over the board and then takeing it back, the Go Association had no choice but to award the Oza title to Hikaru. And so Hikaru had successfully won four titles by December 20th and fulfilled Kishimoto's conditions, and officially became Sae's tutor, much to the chagrin of Kishimoto.
The End
Notes:
Nigiri - process determining which player uses black or white stones
Yose - endgame
Appendix: Dates of Go Tournaments Hikaru participated in this story
September:
Meijin: Final Game 1-2
October:
Meijin: Final Game 3-5
Oza: Final Game 1
November:
Meijin: Final Game 6-7 (Hikaru wins title from Akira)
Oza: Final Game 2-3
(Akira participated in the Tengen finals)
December:
Oza: Final Game 4-5
(Akira won in Tengen finals)
