"Sai, will you stop moving? It's difficult to paint you if you don't stay in the same spot!" Hikaru said, tapping her foot in annoyance.

The ghost faltered again, squirming around in his seat while fiddling with his robes while moving around the tea table. Hikaru sighed, gesturing Sai to put his hands back on the god damn tea cup and look forward, which he did with a small whine. She had been trying to paint him in a traditional setting for her "Sai collection", which she was going to enter into an art competition at the local museum in a month. It was her main series at this point, as it was a way to immortalize Sai and show him off to the world without having people think she was crazy. The only hard part though, was getting the childish ghost to cooperate with the paintings.

'But Hikaru, it's boring to just sit here. I'll start getting sore if I don't move!' He complained.

"Sai, you are a ghost. You don't even have a body to be able to get sore." She sighed, rubbing the charcoal sketch on her page. "Besides, I've seen you sit still for longer when you play go. I don't buy it."

'That's different! There's nothing fun to do while posing for your paintings! You're too focused to even talk to me!' Sai whined, once again whining.

"Look who's talking! You do the same thing to me when I put on a go game on my computer for you to watch!" She argued back, placing a dirty hand on her hip and staining the fabric even further.

Hikaru sighed, setting down her things on the small table in her room. She wiped the black dust off of her hands with the damp towel, rolling her eyes a bit but smiling. Just as she did, she felt her stomach growl, making her curse a bit. She looked over to the clock on the wall, seeing that she had missed lunch time by almost two hours in her concentration, not to mention completely forgot about her cereal that was cold and soggy in the corner of her desk. Her mother wouldn't be home at that moment and her father couldn't cook anything that wasn't radioactive, so take out would have to do.

"Ok fine. We'll take a break. Want to go out and find something to eat or something?" She paused, remembering who she was talking to. "Or, you watching me eat while we talk about our day?"

Hikaru felt like dying when she saw that the only thing in her closet that wasn't covered with paint, smudged with charcoal or just plain dirty were the dresses that she would wear to slightly formal events. In her obsession with painting Sai, she had completely forgotten about doing her laundry (not that she would have done it either way). Her mother would kill her if she were to take the dirty clothes from the hamper too and she really didn't want to go out in her charcoal covered t-shirt. Thus, she tearfully put on the most casual dress she could find - a simple white sundress with the least amount of lace possible - while glaring at Sai when he started to tease her about how pretty she looked in it. She bit back a retort as she brushed through her hair and made her way downstairs.

She avoided her father, simply yelling that she was going out to the local ramen stand to grab some lunch. Her father, busy going through his business-y stuff that she would never understand, had only said that the money was in his wallet and to not spend it all. Hikaru shook her head, knowing that she was in fact going to spend everything on her way to when she passed by the small bookstore. Maybe she would buy a few go books for Sai and herself as a bit of a thank you for putting up with her and to bribe him into sitting for one more painting. Her father never asked for the change back, so it wasn't that big of a problem.

The ramen stand was only a 15 minute walk from her house. It was a small business, owned by an old traditional couple who were gruff and grouchy, but had a secret soft spot for children. Hikaru knew this, having been going there since she was around nine and buttering them up every time to get just a bit extra. She held no shame whenever she saw them add an extra serving of broth or more ham than what was normal. They always seemed to brighten a little more around her and her friends (which was almost impossible to see, but she knew it was there).

'Time to work the Hikaru-magic, Sai!'

Sai gave her an unimpressed look that she ignored. He wasn't the most supportive in her little act to get free food, even though it was her simply using her strengths and resources like she did in go. It didn't matter. He was probably jealous that he couldn't join in her ramen conquest.

Only the husband was there today, which was normal. The wife only showed up when they got busy, preferring to spend her days buying their groceries or handling other store matters rather than being with the customers. Hikaru didn't mind. After all, the husband was the easier of the two to charm.

"Hey, Taisho!" She called out, practically skipping to the stand as she switched to her bubbly little girl act.

The older man looked up from his heavy book, giving her a hard look behind his glasses when she plopped herself in front of him. He raised an eyebrow at her clothes, used to seeing her in her loose t-shirts and shorts, but didn't comment. She smiled brightly, pretending not to notice his look of disapproval as she leaned over the counter and put on her best cute face. He didn't look impressed, but Hikaru could see the corner of his lips twitch. Got him. Too easy.

"What do you want, brat?" He asked, standing up to grab a bowl. "Your usual?"

She nodded excitedly, sitting down on one of the chairs and watching him make her dish. Hikaru watched in fascination as he skillfully rearranged the ingredients, trying to see the order and pattern in the way he shaped them. Taisho, in her opinion, was an artist in his own right, which was probably the reason that they seemed to connect a little more than most. Cooking was an art in a different medium and he was a master at his craft. On the days where he felt a little more talkative, he had even explained his process of plating and cooking, her listening to his every word. She had even gotten him to laugh once when she was 10 when he caught her taking notes.

She almost cried tears of joy when she saw him add both an extra serving of ham and broth this time, plus a side of fried tofu to go with it, and drooled where she sitting at the heavenly smell.

"Taisho, you're the best!" She cried out, gladly taking the bowl from his hands while doing a little dance.

"Yeah yeah. Just shut up and eat." He said, sitting back down with his book. "And don't burn yourself this time."

Trying not to think about what a shame it was to destroy such an artwork, Hikaru dug in, mentally patting herself on the back for a job well done. She devoured her ramen in record time, Taisho and Sai both yelling at her to slow down before she choked. She did immediately after, but that was besides the point. She sighed in relief, pushing her empty bowl aside and started to munch on the fried tofu (to Sai's horror when she smothered it in soy sauce). Taisho took her plate, along with the money for them.

"Thank you, Taisho! I'll see you next week." She said, bowing and smiling at him again.

He shook his head, reaching out to ruffle her hair in a rough manner. She didn't protest, having grown used to the old chef's manhandling of her hair. After fixing her hair, she bid the chef farewell and prepared to walk herself to the train station towards the nearest book store.

The ride to the book store from the ramen stand was an uneventful one, with her entertaining herself with small talk and discussing go with Sai. That old ghost was still trying to convince her to keep searching for go salons, but almost all that she could find were too far away from her house or the type of place her mother would never let her near. She'd rather not come home smelling like cigarette ash, thank you very much. Not to mention that those places would cost her a pretty penny in the long run, which she'd rather spent on pencils or canvases.

There wasn't a crowd today at the bookstore, so it was easy to make a beeline for the go section to browse the books. She owned only a few books for go, mostly collections of Shuusaku's kifu at Sai's request, so it was easy keeping Sai entertained by picking out random titles and skimming over them to see if he was interested most of the time. She'd usually leave him after he found a book at the tables while she grabbed her own art books or manga.

Hikaru skimmed over the sections until she found what she was looking for. The newest issue of Shonen Jump had just come out and she was looking forward to finally catching up with all the series that she had missed. Just as she was about to grab it, when another issue caught her eye. Right next to her precious manga, in a section she knew it didn't belong, she saw a copy of the newsletter that her Grandfather would always buy.

Go Weekly.

Her curiosity peeking, she picked up the small magazine, Go Weekly, and opened it up.

'Professional go payers. Isn't that what that one kid said I was last month?'

She skipped over the games section, going straight to the index to find her target.

"Professionals, professionals, professionals. Aha, here it is!" Hikaru said. "Wow, this profession really does still exist!"

She really shouldn't have been surprised. Anything was a profession nowadays, even playing with Yo-Yo's. However, the real surprise was the face that she saw as she flipped through the pages. There, in the middle of the recent news page, was a face that she wasn't expecting or wanted to see.

"No...way..." She said, staring directly at the scary eyes of the Touya boy from the Go salon.