Disclaimer : I don't own Hikaru no Go.

"Blahblahblah": character's normal conversation

"Blahblahblah": telepathy

Blahblahblah : character's thought

/blahblahblah/ soundtrack

Chapter 2 : How it begins…

Promptly standing up, Hikaru caused the chair to fall down, " No! You got it all wrong!" Trying to cover her embarrassment, she shouted as loud as she could.

" Com'on, Hikaru, he has a huge crush on you," Akari informed her, " I can't believe you didn't realize it by now,"

" No! He does not!" Raising her voice, the green-eyed girl in a girl's winter uniform insisted.

" Have you ever wondered why a headstrong guy like him easily agreed to join our club?" Akari pointed out logically.

" Be..Because he likes Go!" Feeling her cheeks burning, Hikaru answered back immediately. Right? He likes Go, doesn't he?

" Because he likes you!" the dark brown-haired girl retorted sharply, " Okay...he likes Go too but he likes you more,"

" What?"

" He let you play the net for free," she noted, " Through the whole summer,"

" We're friends!" the would-be insei yelled as a hot blush spread all over her face.

" To you, he's just a friend," Kumiko cut in, " To him, you're someone special,"

" Kumiko-chan! Not you too!" the blonde pleaded.

" It's true though," Natsume backed her up, " When Mitani-kun knew that you've gone to the 14th NCC Go Festival with Tsutsui-san, he refused to talk to him for a week," he revealed the secret, the boys' super confidential secret.

" What? He did what?" With wide eyes opened, Hikaru uttered in disbelief.

" See? He's crazy about you," Akari concluded.

" Sai!" The bewildered girl turned to ask her personal ghost, " Is it true? Do you know about this?"

" I've figured it out since the very first time we met that boy," Sai replied calmly, " It's very obvious,"

" What?"

" Mitani-kun likes you," the beautiful ghost simply told his little sister, " I mean he likes you…a lot,"

Losing the strength to stand, Hikaru took a few steps backward and weakly sat on the chair. The vivid memories of Mitani Yuuki kept popping into her head ; the first day they had met, how he easily accepted her invitation to be a member of Haze Go Club, how he patiently taught her the game, the way he talked to her, the way he looked at her, the way he smiled at her, " Oh, my god," She dropped her voice dramatically, " No way," Though she said that, deep inside her heart, she knew it was true. Mitani Yuuki liked her, Shindou Hikaru. " And I'm the one who begged him to join the club in the first place,"

"……….."

" Now I'm bailing out, I'm so selfish!" Clutching her dark brown skirt, she uttered furiously as she got angry at herself. " Selfish! What a selfish girl I am!"

" Hikaru…," Sai wished he could come up with something wise and encouraging, he wanted to comfort her but he didn't know what to say.

Tenderly placing her hand on her friend's trembling shoulder, Akari simply looked at her and smiled thoughtfully, " Hikaru,"

Smiling sadly in return, Hikaru said feebly, " I ruin it all, don't I?" She asked as she thought back to those old days…since the day it all started…

Everything had begun when she was 12. She and Akari went to her grandpa's house. They went up to the attic because Hikaru wanted to show Akari her grandma's gorgeous kimono, however, she found an antique Goban instead. The Goban was very old and very dirty. There was blood-stain on it, blood-stain that Akari or nobody else could see, the blood-stain that only Hikaru could see. Since that day Hikaru's life had never been the same. Yeah, since the day Fujiwara no Sai came into her simple life and turned her ordinary world upside down.

According to the ghost, he was one of the emperor's Go teachers during Heian period. One fateful day he found that his opponent cheated at Go while they were playing the game.

He told the emperor right away, unfortunately, the emperor didn't believe him and commanded them to continue playing. Sai , who couldn't pull himself together, couldn't concentrate to the game, as the result of that, he lost. Later, they brought this issue to court. His opponent, that deceitful opponent, who was another emperor's Go teacher, somehow succeeded in convincing the judge that it was Sai who had cheated. Sai, the innocent man, was expelled from the castle and was forced to leave the city. Losing everything he had, he chose to drown himself into a river to end his bitterness.

But his melancholy didn't end it there, he still wanted to play Go. Therefore, he couldn't rest in peace, his spirit rested in the Goban instead. Day after day, he had been waiting…waiting and waiting for the day he could play the game he loved again. At long last, his dream finally came true. Someone found the Goban, it was a boy, his name was Torajiro. Luckily, Torajiro himself was a Go lover too, he understood the poor ghost pretty well. He played the game while Sai conducted him from behind, it didn't take him long to become famous. With the ghost's talent, Tojarijo had become the strongest Go player ever who was known as Honinbo Shuusaku. Shuusaku died at the age of 34, Sai went back to the Goban and waited for the day to be found again.

140 years passed by, eventually the story repeated itself, someone did find him. Only this time, it was a girl, the girl named Shindou Hikaru.

Hikaru had nothing like Torajiro, not even a bit. She was rude, loud and impatient. Most of all, she hated Go, Go was just an old man's game to her. Still, the determination of the 1000-year-old ghost was unbelievable strong. Sai swore to himself to reach the Hand of God and to raise this little girl as a real lady who was also an excellent Go player.

Although he hadn't fulfilled his dreams yet, he knew that he took a step in the right direction. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.

When he had first met her, she was nothing but a tomboy…a real tomboy. She wore her hair short, she dressed like a boy, she talked like a boy and acted like a boy.

With his determined effort, devoted dedication and restless hard work, a young lady today wasn't the same little girl she used to be. Though she wasn't a real lady yet, she behaved much better. Sai even managed to persuade her to wear her hair long. Mothering and dressing Hikaru absolutely spiced up his dead life. Right now, he was very happy with his current state. Hikaru, his little girl, grew up to be an attractive young girl…a very attractive one. She had round green eyes, medium-length soft hair and a bright smile that could melt many men's hearts. She was indeed his pride and his joy.

What about Hikaru? What did she think about the Heian Go maniac ghost?

In the beginning, Sai was nothing more than a grumpy old man to her. Every single day he kept lecturing her about her manners. " It's a bad manners to put your elbows on the dinning table,", " A lady shouldn't speak in that tones,", " A well-educated girl doesn't curse," …etc.

To be honest, Hikaru herself didn't care much about this manners lesson. A real lady? Who cared? However, since she had a strict private mentor who tailed her 24 hours a day watching every small gesture she made, she instinctively behaved better in order to avoid those boring lecture. That was the reason why she gradually changed her behavior and became more polite. Though she hated to accept it, she was well aware that Sai did have a good influence on her. Still, she would rather die than say it out loud.

She loved Sai. How could she not love him? He was her teacher, her adviser, her big brother and her best friend. He was the first one she saw when she woke up and the last one she saw before she went to sleep. In the morning the gorgeous ghost greeted her with a sweet smile while he wished her a goodnight's sleep at night. Most importantly, he was always be with her, with Sai by her side, she knew she would never be alone…never ever. Yes, she loved him, despite the fact that he was such a childish whinny ghost who always made her throw up.

At first, Hikaru didn't know how to play Go. Of course, she had heard of it since her grandpa tried very hard to show her how fun the game was, yet, she had never been interested in it. To her, Go wasn't fun, it was a boring game for those retired old men who had nothing to do but to kill the time. However, Sai changed it all…

Sai loved Go, he lived for Go, the guy even died because of it. He forced her to attend a Go-weekly class so she could at least learn the basic of the game. There, they met a middle-aged man who liked to bully weaker players, his name was Akota. Hikaru confronted him with this subject. Seeing everybody in the class took the cute girl's side, Akota got angry and stomped out of the class. Shirakawa, a Go pro who taught in that class, agreed with Hikaru that what Akota had done was wrong but it didn't mean that she was right either.

" The young should behave well towards the adults, especially you're a girl," he had told her.

Hikaru promised him to apologize to the overweight man the next time they met. When the time actually came, they had another fight. As a punishment, Shirakawa ordered her to go home and think about what she had done.

But Hikaru didn't went back home, she took her crying teacher to a Go salon near the station instead. The Go salon belonged to Touya Meijin, the one closest to the Hand of God. Hikaru didn't know about this. How could she? Back then, she didn't even know that people could actually play Go as a career. They played there three times. The first and the second time, she let Sai play against Touya Akira, the Meijin's son, the hope of the Go world, her talented brother won both games. The last time, she let the ghost play again, this time he played with the Meijin, it was a shame that it ended with no winner. Hikaru freaked out and ran away.

Kouyo's cool play impressed her, even if he was really intimidating. Sai was extremely grateful to his rival because it was the very first time that his little Hikaru became interested in Go.

In fact, there was another person who made a great impact on her. If Sai wanted to thank someone, Hikaru thought it should be this one, it should be Kaga.

Kaga Tetsuo was a member of Shougi club but he used to play Go when he was little. Hikaru met him and Tsutsui at Haze Junoir High school's Annual Festival. Kaga didn't insult Akira only, he also insulted Go. The moment she saw him putting on his cigarette by using Tsutsui's Goban as an ash tray, she uncontrollably flied into a rage. It was that moment she realized that she started to fall in love with the game.

The following April, Hikaru and Akari had entered Haze Junior High school. Hikaru shocked the world by joining Tsutsui's Go club. She nearly dragged Akari and Kumiko to enter the club, so the girl team was formed. The girls attended the Summer Tournament, although they lost in the 1st round, they were glad to know that at least they had taken a step forward. Then Natsume and Mitant joined up with them then the boy team was found. This was the story of Haze Go Club.

Hikaru's lifestyle had entirely changed. She used to spend her time watching anime or listening pop music, now she played Go. She played with her friends after school, she played with old people at Shirakawa's class and she played against Sai every night at home. Go, Go, Go, round the clock. Sai wasn't surprised at all that Hikaru got stronger and stronger everyday.

Rising, Hikaru walked towards the door, " I'd better talk to him," she said calmly and exited the room.

A/N : I know that this chapter must have tons of wrong grammar! But I tried to revise it, I did but I got so dizzy! What will happen to Mitani-kun?

Therhoda and Ady: Thank you, here as your request. I'll update everyday I promise you :)

Kathy : I really hope that hikaru can have something with mitani," Haha, what do you mean by Something? ( grinning evilly) "everything happens the same way?" Umm, it's hard to answer..gotta continue reading, ne?