"Touya!" Hikaru waved to the black-haired pro, who had just arrived. The boy turned and walked toward his direction.

"Shindou, how are you?" Akira greeted his rival politely.

"Not too bad," he replied, pondering why Akira always had to be so formal, even when he knew that Hikaru didn't care about formalities at all. Sometimes, he wondered if he was doing that to annoy him.

"Congratulations on making to the Honinbo League."

"Well, still a long way to catch up to you," Hikaru commented truthfully. Akira was already a 5-dan, whereas he himself was still a 3-dan.

"Well then, congratulations on not being late," he joked.

Hikaru gave him a glare, "What was that supposed to mean?? I'm not always late!"

"Not today."

"There were other times too!"

"Well, I can't seem to recall those times you are referring to."

The argument lasted for several minutes. Hikaru finally changed the subject, "Well, whatever you say, I am quite punctual sometimes. Hey, where's your station?"

"Section B," Akira replied as Hikaru snorted quietly as if he had won the argument when Akira didn't make a comeback.

"I'm in the same section. There's still half an hour before convention begins. Wanna play some speed go until then?" Hikaru suggested as the eyes of the other boy beam with delight.

"Of course! I haven't played you for the longest time!" Akira held Hikaru's shoulders with both of his hands, excited.

"HIKA-AKI! AKI-HIKA! ..." Cheers suddenly aroused from the main entrance. Surprised, both boys turned to look at the fangirls, who were eagerly waiting for the staff to let them in.

"Hey, look, Shindou! We have a united fan club!" Akira said happily.

"Don't get too close! Those fangirls are gonna get the wrong ideas!" The blond pro yelled, brushing his hands off quickly, while backing up a few steps. The other boy looked at him, clueless. "Get the wrong ideas?"

"It's too late, Hikaru. They already do!" Waya's voice came from behind, snickering. It had been two weeks since Hikaru played Sai on the Internet. It was the first time that Hikaru had talked to Waya since then.

"Waya!" Hikaru shouted at his face. His friend laughed it off. He was glad that Hikaru was back to his old self, which means...

"Hey," Waya lowered his voice as he pulled him aside. "So, how much do you know about Sai? Are you two close? You think you can get me an autograph or something? Better yet, can I meet him someday?"

"Didn't you say...!"

"I know," Waya smiled sheepishly, both hands in his pockets. "I kinda regret what I said. It's been bugging me these past two weeks. I've been cursing myself for being such a considerate friend," he then put his hand on his face, pretending to look exhausted. "You know, Hikaru, I have been having sleepless nights, thinking about Sai. You are the only one who can save me, Hikaru."

"Uh-huh. Whatever, Waya," Hikaru turned his back to Waya, completely saw through his act. "Let's go, Touya."

"Hikaru!" Waya called after his one and only connection to Sai. "Damn it!"

"We are in Section B. Come look for us during lunch break," Hikaru informed him without looking back, raising one of his hands to indicate that he was leaving. Akira smiled politely at Waya as he walked away with his rival.

"What was that about?" Akira asked as they approached their booths.

"Nothing," Hikaru replied expressionlessly. "10 seconds?"

"That's fine," the boy agreed as he watched Hikaru set up the timer. "I heard from my father that you are playing Internet Go."

Hikaru paused for a moment, and grabbed some stones to Nigiri. "No. Not really."

Noticing the pro's fist on the goban, Akira grabbed two stones from the container. While dropping the odd number of stones onto the goban, Hikaru asked without meeting his opponent's eyes, "D-Did Touya Sensei see me online?"

Akira looked at the other boy curiously. If Hikaru said that he hadn't been playing Internet Go, why would his father have seen him online? "No, Yang Hai san said he saw someone named Hikaru playing a few weeks ago, so he was just wondering if it was you."

"Oh," Hikaru placed his first stone on the board, and hit the timer. He suspected both Akira and his father knew who he was playing against.

* * * * * * *

About ten minutes before lunch, Hikaru heard a loud complain from Akira's booth, which was two stations away from his own. The kid was about thirteen years old, wearing an orange Nike cap. He looked pissed. "Ughh~!!! OK, I suck. There's no way I can master Go! Stupid Go gives me headaches!"

"You were doing very well, except that..." Akira tried to explain.

"Bah~ except that I made a mistake here and there and here and there and everywhere, right?" The boy impatiently cut the pro's sentence off, arms crossed in front of his chests. He then started to mutter, "I don't understand how you can enjoy a board game so much. So far, I've never won a game. This is really discouraging..."

"But you have talent, as long as you practice more..." Akira encouraged. The boy then looked up at the pro as if he hadn't expected Akira to be listening to his mumbles.

Frowning, the kid stood up and started to walk away, "Thank you for the game anyway."

As he passed by Hikaru's booth, he suddenly stopped to look at him. His big innocent blue eyes blinked when they met Hikaru's. When Hikaru smiled at him nicely, the boy returned an uneasy smile. But he quickly turned away, and mumbled, "No, I don't wanna play."

Hikaru stared at him curiously, "We don't have to play a game. Do you want to solve some puzzles instead?"

The boy hesitated, trying to decide what he should do. When he figured that he had got nothing to lose, he took a seat across from Hikaru.

"What's your name?" The blond pro asked as he set up a problem on the goban.

"Murata Torichiro. You are Shindou Hikaru, right?" The kid studied his face.

"Yes," Hikaru tugged his name tag. A shade of pink covered the young boy's face as he realized how stupid his question was. When Hikaru finished setting up the problem, he looked back up at Torichiro. "It's black's turn now, where would you place the stone?" The kid quickly directed his attention to the goban.

Like an amateur, the boy picked up a black stone with his thumb and index finger. He studied the goban intensely, trying to figure out the answer. His face was half covered in the shadow of the cap. Seeing Torichiro's face deep in thought, Hikaru smiled to himself. It reminded him of himself five years ago, when he had first picked up a Go stone. He had held them like the way Torichiro did. It was amazing how far he had walked down the path from there.

Finally, the boy placed the stone carefully at an intersection. Smiling, the pro placed a white stone beside it. The boy then placed another black stone, before Hikaru made another move and took three black stones away with him.

"Eh?" The boy realized that he had not considered this possibility.

"You were really close though. I see why you wanted to place your stone there. It was good thinking, but as you can see, if I did this, you'll lose three stones," Hikaru explained.

"Oh, oh! I know! I should've placed it here!" Torichiro pointed to the spot next the the first stone he had placed.

"Good job!" Hikaru said. "How long have you been playing Go?"

"A few weeks," the boy grinned, quite proud of being able to solve the puzzle. Hikaru had to admit that he was quite impressive.

"Lunch time, Shindou!" Waya approached his booth. He then glanced at the kid. "Hey, it's you!"

Torichiro looked panicked, and hurried away. "Hey, wait!" Hikaru called, then shrugged as he watched the boy pushed through the crowds.

"Let's go grab Touya and Isumi," Hikaru stood up and noticed his friend's perplexed face. "What's wrong?"

"That kid...couldn't solve this problem?" he asked Hikaru, staring at the goban.

"He did. Not the first time though," he told Waya, who looked really puzzled.

"I played him earlier today with 5 handicap stones," Waya explained. "If he didn't suddenly have a headache and left, I probably would've lost. I figured I must've underestimated him when I saw how he was holding a stone. I'm quite surprised that he couldn't even solve this with one try though."


A/N: I promise no yaoi, so don't worry! Although I admit that I enjoy reading them occasionally, they are getting repetitive. Hikaru's OC? Really? Well...just pretend that his personality changed in the past 2 years? Crap! Yang Hai knows Hikaru?? I haven't read that far! OK, I'll cheat and change one of his lines in the last chapter. :0รพ Torichiro's my OC. Hope he turns out well. Hope I've answered to everyone's comments. More reviews! Up next, Kuwabara-Sensei!!