Disclaimer : I don't own Hikaru no Go.


Chapter 2 : The gathering

" What? Shindou! Shindou is attacked?" Hearing that it was his rival who was the unfortunate unknown boy, Akira aggressively slapped his chopsticks down on the dinning table and promptly rose.

" Oh god!" Akiko cried out in disbelief that danger was close to her family than she had ever imagined.

" Calm down, Akira, Do you have Shindou-kun's number?" Trying to control the situation, the head of the family questioned quietly.

" Y..Yes,"

" Why don't you call his parents and ask them which hospital Shindou-kun is in?" he suggested wisely in a tranquil manner.

" Hai!" The excited boy rushed with the greatest haste to the phone, " Damn it!" He cursed himself for his stupidity as he forgot Hikaru's number. Recklessly looking up the number in a phone book, Akira hastily dialed the number with his cold shivering hand and waited.

Ring….Ring

Ring….Ring

" Father, no one picks up the phone!" he shouted.

" Try the association then, maybe they know something," Kouyo said tranquilly, he knew it was important to keep calm in the urgent situation like this.

Remembering the number by heart, the frightened young boy automatically dialed for Japanese Go Assosication, " YES! This is Touya Akira! Shindou! How is he!...Is that so? Tokyo Hospital! Thank you!" he hung up and turned to his father, " He's having the operation at Tokyo Hospital, Father, I…"

" I'll go with you, Son," the former-Meijin cut off as he slowly rose. Touya Kouyo did know his son. " Akiko, please, take care of the house,"

" Yes, Don't worry," Akiko smiled considerately as she prayed for Hikaru, her son's friend…her son's only friend. Then Touya-Senior and his son immediately left the house and headed to the hospital.

As they arrived to Tokyo Hospital, Akira hurriedly ran to the reception desk asking…or rather threatening a poor young nurse for Hikaru's operating room. It was the 1st time that Kouyo saw his son acted this swiftly. It showed how much important Shindou Hikaru was for his son. Rivals were just like soul-mates, it was meaningless to separate them apart leaving one of them to be alone.

The Touyas quickly went to the operating room C on the 3rd floor. When an elevator opened, they saw many people in the hallway in front of them.

Approaching to the crowd, Akira quickly scanned them searching for someone he could talk to since there were so many people.

Morishita group was here; there were Waya, Saeki, Shirikawa, Tsuzuki, even Morishita himself was also here too. While Waya paced the floor anxiously, Isumi and Akari tried so hard to encourage Hikaru's mother who now was sitting on a blue plastic bench trembling with fear of losing her dearly loved son.

That girl! She's Shindou's friend! What's her name? " Fujisaki-san?" the celebrated long black-haired pro called out hesitatingly.

" Touya! Touya-Sensei!" the pros cried out in surprise except Morishita who still stayed silent.

" Akira, Go to talk to your friend, I'll talk to Morishita-Sensei," stated Touya -Senior. Akira nodded in agreement and walked toward Akari.


" Touya, Thanks for coming," Uttering in his serious tone, Morishita thanked his friend.

" How is he?" asked Kouyo in his olive green Kimono.

" We've just arrived too, I don't know much but I heard that they've been operating him for 3 hours," Worrying about his student's welfare, the 9 Dans in a gray suit sighed heavily.

" Is that his mother?" The ex-5-titles holder was just asking. From the way the woman looked and how frightened she was, he knew she couldn't be anybody else but the ill-fated boy's mother.

Morishita nodded, " Yes, his father is in Okinawa now," he added.

" Okinawa?"

" He has a meeting there, sir," Saeki spoke up, " Shindou-san has already called him but the flight to Tokyo isn't available now. So he decides to take the Shinkansen instead," he narrated, " The train will depart in 2 hours," Letting out a slight sigh, the young 5 Dans noted, " It must take him at least 7 hours to get here,"

" …Poor woman," Looking at Mitsuko sympathetically, Kouyo whispered with a sigh. Having her only son in the operating room without her husband by her side…


" Touya-kun, Thank you for being here," Akari forced a weak smile and introduced the genius to Mitsuko, " Auntie-Mitsuko, this is Touya-kun, he's also a Go pro, Hikaru-chan's friend,"

" Shindou-san," Akira bowed respectfully.

" Ahh, Touya-kun, Thank you," Looking up from the floor, Mitsuko grabbed Akira's hands tightly and squeezed them, " Hika..Hikaru must be really glad to know that you're here for him…," Saying with a trembling voice, she burst out in tears again.

" Auntie," Akari embraced Mrs. Shindou firmly, " Don't worry, Auntie, He'll be okay, He'll be okay," she kept repeating it as if she wanted to convince herself to believe it, " Everything will be okay,"

Shaking his head despairingly, Isumi slowly dragged Akira away from 2 suffering women, " Touya-kun,"

" How is he? How is Shindou?" Tugging Isumi's arm, the Meijin's successor stared into Isumi's eyes intensely, " His condition..is that…bad?" He asked nervously with fright in his faint voice.

"…It's just a single stab," the older pro replied almost inaudibly, "…A single stab…which is close to the heart,"

Close to the heart? " …The heart….his…heart," Akira repeated slowly, suddenly it seemed so hard to him to say that word, " It's..Is..it.." Feeling a cold shiver of fear run through him, he stammered.

"..It's fatal," Turning away, clenching his fist, Isumi answered. Why? Why this happens to him? He's a good boy, he has nothing to do with that drug-dealer!

Bing! The elevator opened again, this time there was a large group of old men stepped off it.

" Where is he! Where is that kid!" A man with beards and a taxi cap demanded noisily.

" Kawai-san! Be quiet!" Another overweight man in casual dress warned him.

" Who is that?" Morishita wondered since he didn't recognize their faces but Waya did, he remembered Kawai.

" Isumi-san, they're from Dougenzaka," Waya reminded his friend, " Sensei, I'll go to talk to them," he informed his Sensei before he ran to the old men. Isumi excused himself and joined Waya while Akira went back to join his father.

" Who are they?" Looking at the new comers, the legendary player asked his son.

" They're from Shindou's favorite Go salon," Akira replied quietly, " Isumi-san told me that Shindou always dropped by to give them a free teaching-game," he reported.

" Umm,"

…………………..

30 minutes passed without a sound, there was no word from any doctor or anybody. From time to time, people in surgical clothing slammed the door nosily and rashly entered the operating room, some came out wearily with crimson blood on their white gloves. Mitsuko almost got faint every time she saw the blood on their hand knowing whose blood belonged to.

At the moment, the hallway was so crowd as new comers kept coming and coming. Hikaru's friends from his insei day were also here; there were Nase, Fuku, Honda and Ochi. Kousemura came with Kurata. Even Tsutsui, Kaga, Kanego and Mitani showed up. Kadowaki was the last one who arrived.

Shindou Mitsuko looked at the crowd, there were at least 20 people, different genders and different ages, gathering here, worrying, supporting for her treasured son. Hikaru really has a lot of friends…It's so like him…He's always surrounded by people since he was a little boy…See? Hikaru, All your friends are here, Don't give up, Hikaru, Don't give up! Oh God! Please! Help him! Please! He's my son! My only son! I beg you! She prayed.

It was the longest day for Akira. Each second seemed like eternity. It was a long stressful wait in silence.

……………

……………

……………

An hour and a half later, finally after 5 hours since the operation had started, a doctor in his mid-twenties came out of the room tiredly as he took off his surgical mask.


A/N : Wow, there're a lot of people in this scene.

Extra info :

Shirikawa: Still remember him? He's the one who teaches in a Go school that Hikaru used to attend. Yeah, the one with glasses.

Tsuzuki: He's another member of Morishita's study session, the old one.

Okinawa : The island locate in the southest part of Japan.


siobhn01 : "Poor Touya! He must feel very guilty now that he knows why Hikaru didn' t come" Of course, he does.

Uenki : "but please don't kill 'Karu-chan" Maybe if he get killed, he'll rebirth as baby Hikaru in your Full moon ( hahaha) By the way, I love your story :)

kari : " i still cant believe you STABBED him" Hey, I didn't, Tateshita did.