Disclaimer : I don't own Hikaru no Go.

Chapter 31 : One color Go

Early May,

Time flied quickly, it had been 5 days since that great day. In fact, Hikaru wanted to go to see Kouyo once more but she didn't. She thought it would be better not to disturb the man while he was going to have his last Jyudan game. Seeing her would only remind him of the loss to Sai, and she definitely didn't want to be the one who caused him to feel down. Besides, she had classes to attend.

Kouyo wasn't the only one she was worried about, Sai was another one. Since that day, he had been so quiet. He turned to be the same quiet Sai the way he had been before he played in the Beginner's Dan Series again. What happened to him? Shouldn't he be happy? At long last, he finally had a chance to play against the greatest and toughest player who he himself believed that was meant to be his destined rival. He should be happy right? Then, why? What about that inexplicable sad expression on his face?

Of course, Hikaru had asked him many times about this odd behavior but he had never given her a real logical answer.

" I'm fine, Hikaru, there is nothing to worry about," The ghost only smiled tenderly at her and told her this same old line every times she asked him.

It drove Hikaru crazy, she knew perfectly well that something absolutely went wrong here. Her big brother was having a trouble but she couldn't do anything about it. How could she help him if he didn't tell her what got into him? The past 5 days were like a hell to both of them. Sai got sad by an unknown reason while Hikaru was worried to death because she didn't know what that damn unknown reason was.

If things continues this way, one of us gonna turn mad one day! She grumbled sulkily in her thought. If Sai went insane first, it meant that she had no choice but to spend the rest of her life with a ghost with mentally illness. On the other hand, if she went nuts first, there was a huge chance that she had to spend her entire life in mentally institution…Honestly, none of the choices did her any good.

Then, she came up with an idea, If Sai was the center of this, she had to fix him. So, she decided to take him to a Go Salon today.

If he plays the game, he probably feels better. At least, that was what she hoped.

Right now, she was walking along the street looking for a Go Salon near her school.

/ Bump/ She bumped into something...soft?

" Oh, Sorry, sir," By instinct, she uttered.

" Shindou!" A large man with a round stomach exclaimed, apparently that the unidentified soft thing which she had hit was his stomach.

" Eh?"

" Hikaru! It's the man who we met at the Go Amateur Festival!" Thanked God that Sai had a good memory.

" Ah!" Now, Hikaru remembered. She did recognize him, he was the man who had dealt with the deceitful Goban merchant whom they had met at the Festival, he was the man who had claimed to be the next-Meijin, " Ku…Kurata-san!" Yeah, that was his name, Kurata-7 Dans.

" Ha! I know you remember me!" Kurata laughed cheerily, " After all, who can forget the next-Meijin anyway? Hahaha,"

There was no mistaken identity in this case, this chubby man was unquestionably Kurata Atsushi for sure. Who else could be this egotistic?

" So, what are you doing here? Girl," Grinning sneakily, he questioned," A date?"

" No!" Turning red with embarrassment, the girl in a school uniform immediately yelled back, " I just wanna drop into a Go Salon before going home!" she told him.

" What a coincidence! There's a salon around the corner! Let's go there and have a game!" the casual man enthusiastically proposed.

" A game? You mean you wanna play with me?" Hikaru posed with doubt and slight astonishment. A 7-Dans requested her for a game? But she was just a nameless 1-Dan!

" Yeah, Let's go," he urged and started walking, leading her the said Go salon without waiting for her reply.

" Ha..Hai!" the blonde shouted as she hurriedly ran after him.

At the Go salon,

" Is…isn't that Kurata-7 Dans?" One of regular players exclaimed as the pros walked into their little salon.

" What? Kurata-7 Dans?" Another voice spoke loudly causing the other players to look up from their games and bored their eyes into them.

" It's him! Kurata-7 Dans!" An old man confirmed, right now every living man in the salon was eying both new comers.

" Hi! Guys! We happen to be in this neighborhood," Being an easy guy, Kurata told them in a friendly way with a big smile, " 'Mind if we play here?"

" Oh, please," Hirai, the owner of the salon, said humbly, he gestured them to come in.

As the pros took their seats, all players there ditched their games and gathered around the pro's table.

" So, what about this little lady over here? Kurata-san," Tono, the man with gray hair, asked good-naturedly, " Your niece?" he guessed.

Both Hikaru and Kurata almost smack their heads against the table, Kurata believed that he was too young to be somebody's uncle while Hikaru herself didn't want to be related with this overweight noisy man in any case.

" She's a pro too!" the well-known 7-Dans sharply corrected him as he opened his Go jar which was full of shiny white stones, "She's just become a pro this spring! Shindou Hikaru! Don't you know her?"

" Shindou?" Some middle-aged men mumbled.

" AH! You are Touya-kun's girlfriend!" Hirai cried out excitedly. Then, there came a loud animated buzz of gossip.

How many times do I have to tell them that we are not seeing each other? I'm sick of saying this same old, same old line! Plus, nobody ever listens to me! Maybe I should let them talk, one day when they see that we're nothing but friends and rivals, they will stop talking about this stupid rumor! " Let's play," Complaining crossly in silence, Hikaru let out a deep sigh. Seriously, she had gotten bored of this whole Touya Akira's girlfriend thing already. She opened her Go jar, it too was filled with clean white stones.

" Hey, Someone brings black stones over here," Seeing that both pros got white stones, Watanabe, a bald man instructed.

" No, it's fine," Shrugging his shoulders, the easygoing pro said casually, " We'll play with these stones,"

" Eh?" Everybody but he uttered in puzzlement.

" Haven't you played one-color-Go before?" Kurata asked the 1-Dan, " Use your white stones as Black, I'll be White, okay?" he talked rapidly.

" One-color-Go? Sounds like fun! Hikaru! Go ahead!" Sai cheered excitedly, " Beat him!"

Stealing a quick glance at the overexcited ghost, Hikaru couldn't help but be irritated since she noticed that every times she had a hard game, Sai would swiftly change into his Hyper mode, no matter how gloomy he was. Oh, so now, he's in a good mood, huh? It's a pleasure to entertain you! You, sadist ghost!

" Please give me your guidance," Lowering his head, the 22-year-old man said.

" Huh? Arr, Hai!" Hikaru bowed in return, " Please give me your guidance," she spoke clumsily.

Then the game began.

30 minutes later,

/ Pachi/

" Arrz, I can't follow the game anymore," Puzzled, Tono scratched his head, " It's so confusing,"

" Neither can I," Watanabe confessed shyly, " I'm totally lost,"

" What? There's still a long way to go," Kurata told them with his common friendly manners, " Create the shape of the game in you head," he advised.

" Although you said that," Hirai timidly came clean, " I don't even know who has the advantage here,"

" Haha," While the heavy friendly pro laughed cheerfully, he thought irritably. Who has the advantage? It's Shindou!

/ Pachi/

Looking up to sneak a glimpse at his opponent, he noted quietly without a sound. She's tougher than I thought. She makes no leak…This is bad, man.

However, Kurata Atsushi wasn't only blessed with good instinct, he was also blessed with incredible good luck. Someone up there was very fond of him.

/Pachi/ Hikaru played at the corner.

Yes! Grinning thankfully, Kurata tried to hide his contentment as the blonde had just made a mistake…a great suicidal mistake.

/Pachi/ He played his next hand. He was a kind man in real life but when it came to Go, he was heartless. If his opponent made a misstep, he didn't hesitate to attack his weak point crushing him down to earth ruthlessly.

Eh? What? Hikaru had just realized what she had missed, she had misread the game and the Meijin-wanna-be took the benefit of it. Arrz! She gritted her teeth irritably.

Seeing her difficult look, the skilled pro smirked with satisfaction. She made a huge mistake playing that hand! Lucky…ky! He tittered happily…Eh? Something isn't right here, Lucky? Lucky? Did I just say that? The one I'm playing with isn't the Meijin or the old-man Kuwabara! She's still a 1-Dan! But I'm glad that she played a bad move? Clenching his fist tightly, he stared at the girl at the opposite site of the Goban. It's not only Touya Akira! There is another one coming from behind!

/Pachi/ Slapping the stone on the board, the attractive blonde had already played her hand, it was Kurata's turn now.

Eh? The sharp sound woke him up. Eh? He didn't look at the game for a minute, now he couldn't follow it. I forget the shape! No! Where should I play? Where? Where? He swallowed hard as he thought nervously….In the end, what we can count on is…our instinct.

/Pachi/ He hesitantly placed his stone in the middle.

………….

…………

Well?

" Thank you for the game," Hikaru bowed, accepting her defeat.

" Ohh!" The audiences uttered, they didn't even know what was going on here.

Pointing at her bad move, the recently pro spoke up with slight frustration, " I shouldn't have played here, Don't you think so? Kurata-san," she asked him, " It was a complicated fight but I was feeling confident, I couldn't believe I made such a mistake," she said unhappily, " I should have connected here instead, then you…," she babbled.

Yet, Kurata didn't hear it since he was lost in his thought thinking about this new wave. She has never played one-color-Go before, hasn't she? This is the first time but she….this girl… " Sorry, do you have any paper sheet?" he asked Hirai with a strange serious tone of voice.

" For the autograph? Of course," the old man nodded eagerly. He went to the counter and came back with couple clean sheets of paper, " Please, sign for me, Kurata-san,"

" Of course," the smiling 7-Dans grinned pleasantly as he received the paper from him. He signed his autograph on both sheets, he gave one to Hirai, " Here, I give you this one," he handed Hikaru another one.

" Eh? For me?" the bleached-bang girl uttered with small surprise, " Aaa, Thank you," she halfheartedly took it. I don't want it!

" Don't say like that, Hikaru," Sai told her, he really appreciated the fat pro for helping him protecting Shuusaku's honor.

" It's not that I don't like him," Hikaru got self-protective, " He's nice…little narcissistic…but nice, Eh?" " What the?" Seeing what written on the paper, she blinked with puzzlement, " Kura?" There was only a letter read ' Kura' on it, where was the ' Ta' then?

" I'll write the rest when you beat me in an official game," Rising up, Kurata stated solemnly.

" Does…Does it mean that he acknowledges me?" the young pro wasn't sure if she understood it right, still, she was flattered by his words.

Not only me, this man...he too can sense it. Staring at the back of his student, Sai narrowed his eyes intensely. He senses the depth of her true talent. He shut his blue eyes and looked away. He couldn't look at Hikaru into the eyes, not at this moment, not when he was blinded by this shameful feeling. I can see it, I can see her shining brightly as the path to the future is opened to her now, the path that I can not take! The ghost knew he shouldn't feel like this, he shouldn't be envious of his little sister, his sole heir. His body trembled as the emotions were running high; jealousy, guilt, sadness and disappointment…He felt as if he was being dragged into a whirlpool of emotions, only this time he wasn't suffocated by water, but by his own thought.

" ….Touya Kouyo…," A man in the TV mentioned the famous name, the name that everyone in the Go world recognized well.

" Hey, Turn the TV up loud," Tono yelled.

As another man increased the volume up with the controller, the statement became clearer, and louder too, " Today, after losing his Jyudan title to his student, Ogata Seiji, who is now known as Ogata-10 Dans, Touya Kouyo has announced his retirement,"

" What?" Everybody in the salon shouted out loud in harmony as soon as the handsome reporter had reported it.

" Touya-Sensei! He retires?" Hikaru cried out with shock.

" That man…he.." Taken aback, Sai simply stood still.

Daniel Song: I intend to write it this way, I only want to show you how people react or behave differently towards a boy and a girl, but the storyline still the same.

Kireshai-chan837: Toilet? NOOoooooooooooooo!

Kathy: Calm down, Kathy - -"

Xiar : Everybody is nice because Hikaru is a girl here!

Kinlin: Happy Valentines to you too!

Karin: The answer is in the next chapter.

KazeKiryoku: Thank you :D

GiftFromBelow: Haha, my sister told me that even Satan didn't want to me to stay in hell so he kicked me out to this world!

Lilac-Blossom-Neko: "If Touya Sr. was going to win, why did he resign?" Read carefully, at the very beginning, Sai attacked but Kouyo could defend, then it looked like Kouyo was going to win, then Sai played a hand that CUT Kouyo's stone, after that when they entered Yose, Kouyo realized that he's behind Sai by half moku.