Disclaimer : I don't own Hikaru no Go.
Chapter 12 : Touya Akira and his insei girlfriend
" Where is Shindou-san anyway?" Looking around, Waya wondered.
" There, she is," Honda uttered as he saw the said girl treading heavily towards them.
" Here, you are," Nase sighed lightly in relief, " Fuku told me that you won," she said with her sisterly tender voice.
" Yes, I won," Hikaru unemotionallyreplied.
" That's great, " Isumi complimented, " So…what about the look on your face? Aren't you happy?"
" Happy? Happy? My rival just told me that for the past 549 days he thought I was a boy! Right, I'm so happy," the blonde thought sarcastically.
" Hikaru, Clam down," Sai tried to cool his hotheaded little sister down, " Don't lose your temper, Hikaru, if not, you can't concentrate on the game," he marked prudently.
" The game? That's right!" Now Hikaru's priority was her first official game, wasn't it? She should focus on it, not Akira, " The game, the game, my game, I can't let my anger jeopardize my game,"
" That's correct, Now do as I say, Close your eyes," the purple-haired mentor softly instructed, " Breathe in…and out, Good girl, Forget him, Think about the game only,"
Taking in a lungful of air and unhurriedly let it out, the green-eyed girl slowly opened her eyes and thanked her private counselor in silence, " Okay, I'm okay now, Thank you,"
" You're welcome," Nodding, Sai said kindly. To guide her was his duty anyway.
" Thank you, Isumi-san," Knowing that she worried the older boy too, the lively girl faked a smile, " It's nothing, I'm fine,"
" Are you sure?" Isumi questioned, his brotherly instinct told him that she was hiding something.
" Of course, I…"
" Ah! Good, three of you are here," Cutting in, Shinoda drew closer to the group, " The 2nd round will be in 3 minutes, be ready in your position,"
" Good luck, Hikaru-chan," Nase told her cheerily , " And you two too, Isumi-kun, Ochi,"
" Good luck, all of you guys," Waya said, " Play your best,"
" Umm," With the unwavering and decisive look all over her face, the blonde nodded, " Thanks,"
Another corner of the game room,
Once Ogata saw the future 2-Dans entering the room, he uttered, " Ah, Akira,"
Akira didn't get used to running, he puffed lightly trying to catch his breath, " Shindou," he eventually managed to call out.
" Shindou?" the 9-Dans raised his eyebrows when he heard that familiar name, " Did he just say Shindou?" That Shindou?
Noticing the Meijin's son approaching towards her , Hikaru grumbled with annoyance, " It's him again!" she suddenly left her insei friends and hurriedly headed to her table where Ochiai-Pro had been waiting for her.
Seeing the angry girl walking away, the famous prodigy ran after her, " Shindou! Wait! Listen! I…" he instinctively reached out and hastily grabbed Hikaru's slim wrist forcing her to stop.
Turning to face the boy,the insei girl said coldly, " Sorry, Touya-kun, I don't have time for this," she snatched her wrist back, " Now, excuse-me, but I have a game to play," Then she walked off.
" Wait!..." Though Akira desperately wanted to clear it up now, he was still Touya Akira, the very responsible pro. Arrz! He hated to agree with the childish girl but she had a point. Right now, the game was more important than their stupid fight, he could talk to her later. Calm down, Akira, Calm down, Focus, Focus. Hypnotizing himself, he went to his seat and sat down waiting for the 2nd round to begin.
" Yes..s! I got the picture!" Fujioka, the young photographer, exclaimed with satisfication, " Amano-san, will I get any reward?" he asked his supervisor, " It's not everyday we see Touya Akira having a lover fight,"
" Kids nowadays," Shaking his head, Amano laughed quietly in amusement," What a noisy day,"
" Yes, I agree," Shinoda suddenly appeared by the reporter's side, he nearly caused the other man a heart attack, " First, Waya-kun and Mashiba-kun. Now, Touya-kun and Shindou-kun," he let out a heavy sigh.
" Who is that girl anyway?" Tilting his head towards the unknown girl, Fujioka inquired. He didn'trecoqnize her, she wasnothing more than a nobody to him, but not to his senoir.
" I know her, we met once," Unfortunately for Hikaru that Amano had a great memory, it would be better if he didn't remember her, "She's Touya-kun's friend," he spilt out.
" I've never heard of it," Shinoda frowned, none of his students had ever told him this. Why didn't they tell him?
Shrugging his shoulders, the old journalist assumed, " Maybe she doesn't want you to know... maybe she doesn't want anyone to know," he smiled mischievously.
Fujioka smirked trickily and pointed out, " If they're just friends, why doesn't she want anyone to know?"
" Good question, Fujioka-kun," Knowing what was on the young photographer's mind, Amano grinned back, " Very good one,"
Not only Fujioka doubted about their relationship, everybody who had witnessed the dramatic historic scene shared the same suspicion. The 2nd round had started for an hour now but it seemed that no one really paid attention to the game. They kept whispering, gossiping about Touya Akira and his insei girlfriend, some were jealous but most of them were surprised and stunned.
" Unbelievable! Touya Akira has a girlfriend? I thought he's a Go-playing-robot! He's still a human with fresh and blood, isn't he?"
" She's quite cute,"
" And she's an insei,"
" And they play in the same tournament! What a coincident!"
" It makes sense though. Do you actually think that he can be with someone who doesn't play Go?"
" Life isn't fair, he's got everything, career, money and the girl! What is she see in him anyway?"
" I can't believe my eyes! A Go couple fight in the middle of the tournament! That's new,"
The insei awkwardly stole a short glance at Waya who now was ready to explode in any minute, they all knew how much he liked Hikaru and how much he hated Akira.
" They're just friends!" Hearing everything, Waya couldn't take it anymore, he finally burst out angrily.
" Waya!" Honda quickly covered his mouth with his hand while Nase bowed to the audience in apologize.
" Sorry, Sir," Bending over, she said, " Sorry, sir," I'm 100 percent sure that Shinoda-Sensei will give him a really long long lecture today.
So, she's an insei, huh,…and she grows up to be a pretty girl too. Scratching his chin gently, Ogata smiled coldly. Unlike his underclass man, he was a kind of man that never confused a girl and a boy, never ever. His gender-inspecting-monitor had never broken down or gone wrong, to see the sun rose from the west was even easier than to witness the day that his inner monitor failed him , "Maybe I should…" he gradually approached to Hikaru's and Ochiai's seats.
"Oh! It's you!" Sai exclaimed in delight as he saw the new comer, " I remember you. You are the one who dragged Hikaru to that man. Thank you, because of you, I had a chance to play with him…Arr, if only my little Hikaru hadn't freaked out…." he babbled foolishly.
The ghost sneaked a quick look at Ogata and gave a satisfied smile , "You saw Hikaru blurt out that saving hand at Children Go Tournament and many moves she played against him, didn't you?...That was me, me….But this is Hikaru, not me, watch her carefully," he warned wordlessly, " One day she'll be your worthy rival,"
/Pachi/ Hikaru didn't secure her upper-right corner but attacked at the left instead.
" !" To Ochiai and Ogata, that move wasn't a daring move but rather a rushed unthinking stupid hand, however, Sai didn't think so. When the gorgeous dead man saw the 9-Dans frowning with incomprehension, he smiled coolly and suggested him, " Observe that hand cautiously, it's only a beginning,"
Why did she play like that? Getting confused even more, the bronze-haired man with glasses studied the board carefully. A mistake? No, she's too good to make such a suicidal mistake.
Hmm, you are fairly good, little girl, Ochiai mentally commented as he played his next hand. But you're too rushed, and it's gonna cause you a loss.
/Pachi/
/Pachi/
/Pachi/ the game continued, Ochiai played well and got the advantage. For an insei, Hikaru was doing pretty good too, yet, she still made mistakes. It seems the game completely belonged to the pro.
/Pachi/
/Pachi/
/Pachi/ they finally entered Yose, Hikaru played on the lower-right corner and revealed her clever top secret plan.
" !" Both pros widened their eyes in total surprise as the girl's couple bad hands turned to be very good ones. All of a sudden, the tide of the game abruptly changed, the game was Hikaru's now.
" What a tricky plan? That's what you are thinking right?" Standing by Ogata's side, Sai said to him , " She likes playing this way…Playing badly, lure the opponent in, trap him inside and never let him go," he smiled proudly at his student's excellent performance. " Very clever, isn't it? She always gives me a heart attack whenever she plays a dangerous game like this, Thank God that I've already been dead,"
She…this girl…she plans it all along? She set a trap and I was stupid enough to walk straight into it! Startled, Ochiai bit his lip nervously. But the game is not over yet, it means that I still have a chance!"
/Pachi/ Ochiai was a 3-years-experienced pro, his pride didn't allow him to give up so easily so he fought back.
/Pachi/ the blonde didn't want to lose either, she countered back.
Hikaru was strong and brave, she was the type that was willing to take the risk to play a chancy move. Maybe it was because her big brother always told her not to hesitate to play as she wanted to so she wouldn't regret later. To die bravely was surely better than playing indecisively and die like a coward dog at the end. After all, it wasn't a bad attitude, still, sometimes fear was good since it caused us to be more guarded and more careful. Sometimes people got killed because they were too brave. This was what happened to her today, she played a dicey hand…too dicey and it caused her death. However, Hikaruknew perfectly well that when she took the risk , she had to accept the following consequence too. In the end, she lost by2 moku. Yet, it was such an electrifying game.
" Thank you for the game," the players bowed to each other.
" You are really good," Wiping the sweat from his face, Ochiai honestly complimented her, " I'm sure that you can pass the pro exam,"
Hikaru flashed lightly, her cheek went into faint pink," Thank you, Sir," she clumsily bowed to him again.
" It's a very interesting game, Shindou Hikaru," Ogata, the witness, suddenly spoke up.
Promptly looking up from the board, the insei dropped her jaws in shock since during the game she hadn't felt his presence, " You!" "It's him! That's scary man!"
" Hikaru, Wait,"
" Nic..Nice to meet you again!" " I'd better get out of here!" She swiftly bowed respectfully and excused herself, " I..I've to go home now! Goodbye, Sir!" then she ran away.
" Wait…t, Hikaru," Sai cried, " Don't leave me alone , Wait…t,"
" Ogata-san," Walking closer to his Sempai, Akira greeted politely. His game was over too, he won, as always.
" Hi, Akira," the future 10-Dans pointed at Hikaru's game, " Look at this,"
"……" Observing the game with great interest, the blue-eyed boy murmured, " This game, it's…" So complicated…
" It's her game," Passing the perplexed boy, Ogata whispered into his ear, " It's Shindou's,"
" Eh?"
" Bye, Akira," he sniggered and departed the room.
A/N: Actually, Ochiai was supposed to play with Isumi but I made him play Hikaru instead. I didn't want Akira to play with her now. And her style changes too:) Quite a scary style, though. If you wonder why Akira calls her " Shindou" instead of " Shindou-san", well, he just gets used to it.
Setsuri and Lori : Thank you :D
Rebbi : Thank for the picture! It's look like Sai and Hikaru having fun!
Lady Adako, Aya-Mikage2002, Ady,Yami no Kaze and Kage.exe: Akira can be dense sometimes, right?
kyo : As your command, here is Akira :)
thuyhy-thuyhy : Of course, we have Chinese New Year here too :)How can I forget it?Happy New Year to you too!
Kinlin Child of Youma: I hope you like this chapter :)
xiar : I hope I didn't offend you by refer you as " loyal", I just couldn't find a right word to describe you, you read all my fic and leave a review for every chapter. Thank you :)
Lady Bridge: "...although i kindda get the weird feeling manga-Hikaru have people panting for him too..." Totally agree with you!
Kireshai-chan837 : Really? Hmm, but I thought that an older man can call a younger girl as " kun"...Umm, Okay, I'll fix it.
kathy stgqvk : It seems that I made a right choice by making Akira think that Hikaru is a girl :D
therhoda : That's easy, because Hikaru-boy is too stubborn to listen to him.
Ookami Fuu: Here as your request.
Giftfrombelow : " If it'd been me I would've slapped him before I started yelling" Hmm, interesting, I should have written that way, huh? Then Akira will remember for the rest of his life that Shindou Hikaru is the first and the only girl who slaps him.
zeynel : Now you know how Ogata reacts.