Go? But I'm a Soccer Player!
Summary: Hikaru was a MVP regional soccer player when he met Sai. He took up go on the net to appease the hopeful ghost. Three years later, Sai left and Hikaru got an offer to the B-leagues. Now, a year a half later, Hikaru one again encounters the go world by chance.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go and never will no matter how much I want to own it.
Waya Yoshitaka was not a patient person, and at this moment, he was not really happy. He had never liked one Akira Toya. In fact, ever since Waya met the famed son of Toya Meijin, he had marked the other boy as an arrogant person. Later, the young go prodigy had been in Waya's way for just about everything go related. Waya was knocked out of many go tournaments including his first pro exam and the Hokuto Cup Qualifiers. Although none of those incidents were directly caused by Akira, Waya still felt that the go tensai was somehow at fault.
Now, sitting in the Go Association interview room waiting for one Hikaru Shindo's appearance to a joint interview with Akira Toya, Waya was very grumpy. Although the Soccer Association had only requested the presence of Akira Toya, the Go Association had arranged for quite a number of young pros to show up. Waya heard that the Go Association was trying to use this rare chance to try to attract more young people into the world of go.
Once again Waya cursed the Toya prodigy. "How come we have to show up at Toya's interview?" he thought moodily, "As if he isn't showing off enough, gaining that 7-dan rank and making the Honinbo finals weren't enough for his ego. He was just lucky to be in the same school as this Hikaru Shindo. And that stupid Hikaru Shindo, he's probably just using us to stops all the negatives he's getting. What would a soccer player know about go?"
As if sensing his friend's bad mood, Isumi Shinichiro, a young pro who passed the pro exams the same time as Waya put a hand on Waya's shoulder, silently asking his friend to calm down.
Along with Waya and Isumi, there were two other pros sitting in the interview room as tag a longs. They were Ochi Kosuke and Yashiro Kiyoharu, the second and the third board of Team Japan for the Hokuto Cup. There was also a batch of insei in the room to show the younger generation's interest in the ancient game.
Just five minutes before the interview, Akira Toya and the reporters for Weekly Go and some other various sport and go magazines walked into the room. Form the looks of it; they came from a pre-interview session. Everyone in the room knew that although the interview is said to be joint, the focus was going to be completely on Hikaru Shindo. It is true that both he and Akira are hailed as prodigies in their respective fields, in Japan; soccer was a much more popular sport than go. Thus, Hikaru Shindo was a much more important figure than Akira Toya.
The difference in importance showed when Hikaru showed up two minutes late for interview. "Sorry!" The soccer star exclaimed upon entering the room, "I got cornered by a group of fans in the subway!" he said sheepishly scratching his head. If he had been anyone else short of a title holder in the Go Association, he would have been seriously reprimanded. However, the organizer had just brushed it off and told Hikaru that it wasn't a problem.
Sitting down next to Akira, Hikaru has smiled and extended a hand and said in a friendly tone, "Hi, I'm Hikaru Shindo, don't know if you know me, but we go to the same school."
Taking Hikaru's hand Akira gave a smile with no sign of annoyance, took the hand and replied, "Of course, one would be hard pressed to find a teen who does not know your name after your performance in the world cups. The same couldn't be said for myself though, I'm Akira Toya."
The photographers took this chance to take pictures and the interview was on the way.
Having heard from Hikaru's coach that Hikaru had used to play go, the Go Association had prepared some very easy Life of Death problems for Hikaru to solve to start the interview.
Of course for Hikaru none of those problems were of any challenge as they could not have been any harder than the beginner level. He had cheekily pointed out the correct spot with his new paper fan.
Hikaru's move with the fan had caused more interest to the reporters then the fact that he had solved all the problems easily, so it came to no surprise when a reporter asked, "Shindo-san, could you please explain that you are using the fan to point out the spots instead of placing the stones?" That was something the other pros wanted to know too. After all, to them solving small cased problems that Hikaru did was no where as interesting as the method he chose to do it. Some others had even thought that the questions had been pre arranged.
To many people's surprise, Hikaru sighed and replied, "Well, you could say that the fan reminds of my mentor in go. Every time he trounce me in a game or that I'm stuck on a dead end, he would smile and point to a spot on the board that could have turned the game to my favour." Seeing the curious looks on the reporter and the pro's faces, Hikaru quickly added, "He's gone now, my mentor." Hikaru had carefully planned out what to say and what not to say about Sai last night. He knew that a part of the Go World is still after Sai's identity, especially after Meijin's defeat in Sai's hands. Hikaru knew that Sai is still a hot topic and he could not afford to talk about Sai.
After his explanation, many reporters looked up in surprise and one had blurted out, "So you actually really played go before?" Seeing his colleague's warning looks the reporter quickly covered his mistake by asking Hikaru, "What had made you interested in go than?"
Akira sighed. He knew this was going to happen. He personally had been sceptical at first when the Go Association told him that Hikaru Shindo used to play go. He had heard about that boy in Junior High and could not imagine anyone less likely to play go. When he first saw Shindo solve the Life or Death problems with such ease, he too had thought that it was a Go Association set up to either save face for Shindo or to give others the idea that Shindo plays go to attract more people. However, Akira knew that if it's a Go Association setup, Hikaru would have at least gotten one or two questions wrong. The Association is not that stupid to make such an obvious setup.
Akira was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Hikaru's sigh before he started, "Well I suppose it started when I received full scholarship offers to all the top Junior Highs in the region because of my MVP award in soccer. My grandfather wanted to give me a congratulatory present of my choosing from his little shack (1). I saw this goban with legs there and thought it was a tea table." Ignoring some of the insei and pros' gasps, Hikaru continued, "I was really curious 'cause the shack was full of weird paintings and calligraphy so the table really stood out. I got closer and according to my grandfather, I fainted next to it for some reason. Had to go to the hospital in an ambulance after that."
At this point in Hikaru's explanations, everyone gasped.
"Wait," a go pro, from the looks of the tag he wore, with red hair called out, "If you fainted next to the goban, shouldn't you hate or become scared of go instead of getting into it?" The red headed pro was smacked over the head by a black haired pro next to him (AN: Waya and Isumi for those of you who didn't figure it out). Hikaru saw that the other players all glare at red haired boy.
Akira being the perfectly brought up boy he was, was quick apologize for the other pro's rude behaviour.
Hikaru brushed it off, "Thank god," Hikaru thought, "he just bout me more time to think out the rest of my answer. I gotta pay more attention so I don't let slip bout Sai."
"Well," pretending nothing's wrong, Hikaru continued, "when I got better, I asked grandpa about the goban and he refused to tell me anything and kept on changing the topic whenever he thinks that I'm about to ask about it. I was twelve. It was the rebellious stage, so the more grandpa didn't want to talk about the goban; the more I wanted to know. So I looked it up. It took a while 'cause I didn't know what it was, but I found this picture on this site that told me that the table was a goban that's used to play go."
"I looked up go and was well, miffed. I mean the site said that it's a game for old geezers who are forty or above." Pausing, Hikaru saw the offended faces of the people form the Go Association. Scratching his head and laughing nervously Hikaru covered, "Well, seeing all the other people my age or even younger here, that's obvious not the case…"
Relieved that the people form Go Association don't seem to be mad at him anymore, Hikaru continued with his story, "Well, it was summer vacation and I didn't have any required soccer practice since teams are gonna to be different in middle school, I looked into go anyways. I had nothing better to do."
As an after thought Hikaru winced and stuck out his tongue uneasily at the go players and mumbled, "Sorry!" the reporters laughed.
"Phew," Hikaru thought, "Stupid, I did avoid Sai but now I got the whole Go Association mad at me. Well, it wasn't that much of a lie. I wasn't all that interested in go in the beginning. Oh well."
Sighing, Hikaru continued, "At first I have to say I thought go was annoyingly complicated. I mean there were just so many places I could put the stone, especially in the beginning. It was really confusing!"
At this point many of the go pros and insei laughed good naturedly. After all, they had the same experience when they first started playing go. Even Akira smiled. Politely, the go prodigy admitted, "Most people feel that way when they first learn the game. Myself included."
Smiling Hikaru agreed, "Yeah, I was really confused during that summer. But I really didn't like loosing, so I continued with go even after school started. Then this one day I just realized, why my… friend thought go was so fun." Realizing his slip, Hikaru quickly added, "How do I say it. You know the star points on the goban. Well the goban is like the universe, and the star points are like the stars. Every stone you put on the goban is like adding the number of the stars. Gradually, you create the universe." With an unconscious loving tone Hikaru continued unaware of the awed go players, "it was like that on the goban I can play god and create a whole new universe." Hikaru then stopped and laughed, "Well, I suppose you people think that I have a god complex now, eh?"
"God complex?" Waya thought, "He has no idea. Maybe I was wrong, Hikaru Shindo might have really liked go in one point of time. To see go that way, he sounds like a obsessed go player."
Unknowingly to Waya, his arch rival Akira Toya agreed, "This person," Akira thought, "he had seen what I had. Father had told me something similar when he explained to me the Kami no Itte, better known as the Hand of God." Nodding to Shindo, Akira politely replied, "No, I'm sure there are other go players out there who finds go intriguing the same way."
"Really?" Hikaru asked, "Anyways, so yeah, I started to actually play go for fun instead of just for the sake of my pride. Around a year and a half ago," at this point Hikaru hung his and mumbled, "my mentor… left and I got an offer to the B-leagues. I don't know whether it was because that the B-league was much more competitive or I just didn't want to remember… him, I focused all my energy on soccer and pretty much left go alone. Until few weeks earlier, after I just came back from the world cups, I pretty much forgot about go. Then, my grandpa gave me the goban, the one I fainted next to. I kinda picked go up after that."
Sensing Hikaru's lack of wanting to talk about the topic, a Weekly Go reporter changed it. After all, he didn't want the young star to get depressed and end the interview then and there. He asked, "So, do you have any favourite players?"
This question seem to have worked well in getting Shindo out of the depression as he quickly jerked up and laughed nervously glancing around. "Err…" Hikaru replied, "Err, can I…." he groaned, "but this is too embarrassing… I have three players that I really like, but one of them well…" Hikaru stopped and quickly glanced in the direction of Akira.
His glance was not missed by anyone as the attention was focused on him, the Go Weekly reporter asked, "Oh? Is Akira one of your favourites? It's nothing to be embarrassed about!"
His words were met by Akira's surprised look and Hikaru's burst of "NO! No, no, no! One of them is Toya Meijin OK?" Shooting an apologetic look at Akira, Hikaru then proceeded to drag his hood over his head and laughed awkwardly."
"Oh," it was Akira who replied, "That's nothing to be embarrassed about. Although it might be immodest coming from me, but I think even many of the insei here or even a few of the pros have at one point had father as their favourite player. I am also included on that list."
"Oh, OK." Hikaru replied, "My other favourite is Honinbo Shusaku. I used to be completely obsessed with him! He was a complete genius!" This was actually half true as Hikaru had tried to find everything he could about Honinbo Shusaku after Sai's disappearance, attempting to find a clue on Sai's whereabouts. After seeing Shusaku's kifu, Hikaru did realize its genius, but Hikaru can't exactly say that Sai played those games.
"Ah!" Another reporter exclaimed, "That's a rare one! Very few people these days still study Shusaku! Especially amateurs. So who is your other favourite?"
Hikaru immediately cursed himself. When he had said he had three favourites he had meant Toya Meijin, Shusaku and Sai. He liked the Meijin for his incredible skills and Shusaku for his acceptance of Sai. After all, Shusaku was probably the only person who will ever understand Hikaru's story. He had changed his reason for liking Shusaku to his skill, but how was he going to explain Sai? Sure he can go on about the skill again, but Hikaru had not wanted to turn any attention onto Sai in the interview.
"Err… you see…," Hikaru stuttered, "My other favourite, well, people aren't even sure who he… or she really is. You know, the Saint of Netgo, Sai." The title was real enough. Hikaru still remembered that day when he stumbled upon the title in the Netgo forum with Sai. The ghost was completely jubilant and out of control for the entire week, thrilled about the title.
However, at this announcement, Hikaru heard quite a few gasps. It seems that the topic of Sai was still of a great interest in the go world.
"You like Sai?" the same red head pro that questioned Hikaru earlier asked, surprised.
Smiling at the boy that had unintentionally bought him some time earlier, Hikaru proudly replied, "Uh huh, I got about all of Sai's later Netgo kifu. I think Sai started to play around July four and a half years ago. I started to record his game from about early November that year. I think I got a little over a hundred or so." That was also true, he had started to record Sai's Netgo games after he had challenged to defeat Sai a coupled months after Sai started to teach him go."
"Really?" the red haired player gasped, "That's probably the biggest collection of Sai's kifu! Isumi," he pointed to the black haired friend sitting next to him, "His friend Yang Hai was the biggest collector of Sai's kifu I know of and he's only got around about sixty of them!"
"Yoshitaka 3-dan is correct, Shindo-san," Akira said, "Father has been searching for Sai's kifu since Sai defeated him and he has only found thirty-seven of them with all of his connections."
"Oh," Hikaru replied while silently thinking, "This is bad… how am I suppose to cover this? I can't tell them that I only had so much because I caught all of Sai's games since I played them! Oh, well, I'll think of something later, distract them for now. "Well, I probably started early and had more time since you guys had jobs. If you want, I'll leave you an e-mail my address, you can contact me later and I can let you borrow the kifu."
"Really?" the red head, Yoshitaka 4-dan asked, "Thank you!"
"I'm sure that my father will appreciate it. Father has been looking everywhere for Sai's kifu. I thank you on his behalf." Akira said politely.
The reporters meanwhile were busy scribbling down what had just happened. Hikaru Shindo having more of anything go related than the Meijin is a big story. Any reporters convinced that it was a Go Association setup were pretty much convinced that the interview was real.
Of course since that both Sai and Toya Meijin had been mentioned, the reporter asked about their famous Netgo game.
Akira being as polite as he always was not offended and calmly stated, "They both played a great game, but Sai came out on top."
Without thinking it through, Hikaru blurted out at the same time, "Toya Meijin could have won if he thought outside of the box."
Hikaru's comment was met with many surprised and questioning eyes.
Ignorant, Hikaru moved the goban that was used to demonstrate the life and death problems towards him and cleared the stone. Everyone watched with shocked eyes as Hikaru replayed the entire game by memory. Some also noticed his graceful way of placing the stones. Everyone was shocked. Skills like this although being rudimentary and extremely common in the pro world, takes time to achieve. The chance of a professional soccer player learning it in a short time was next to none. Anyone who still doubted Hikaru's ability to play go were convinced that he is telling the truth. As Hikaru finished the game everyone quieted down to hear what he's got to say.
"Here," Hikaru pointed to the bottom left corner of the game, "Toya Meijin had chosen to cut here. However, if he had placed a stone in the corner here, then white will be forced to block here," Hikaru pointed to the places, not hearing the gasps ringing out. "Isn't that more beneficial? In other words, if black had placed a stone in the corner instead of trying to cut here, it could have won by 1.5 moku."
Seeing the shocked looks and even guarded glares of the pros and insei around him Hikaru chewed his lips. Frowning, Hikaru turned back to the game. Nervously scratching his head he chuckled anxiously, "Did I count the territory wrong? It wouldn't have been the first time…."
Turning the fretting boy, Akira glared, "Who are you? No "no good amateur" as you claim yourself to be could of seen something like that. Countless pros have looked at that game, at least in passing, yet none of them was able to see that. Who are you Hikaru Shindo?"
Hikaru froze. "Uh oh," he thought, "How am I going to get out of this one?"
To be continued
I realized that the board was in a shack not the attic… Sorry!
Well, that was the second chapter, I hope you guy were happy with it and I hope it wasn't too much of a stretch to have Hikaru to have at least mediocre lying abilities.
A lot of people said that the prologue was going too fast, I tried to slow down in the chapter, so tell me if this one went too fast or slow. I didn't know how well I did in portraying the characters. I was never very good with characters, constantly messing them up. If any of you have suggestions, please feel free to tell me.
A lot of people were looking forward to the reactions of the Go world. I promise that there will be a lot of those in the next chapter. They were supposed to be in this one, but since I elongated this chapter, I thought I'd postpone it until when the newspapers come out.
For last chapter… wow… thanks for all those reviews…. I never thought this story will become that popular! In response to some of the thing I was told….
Regarding my poor grammar and lack of flow, I apologize. I admit that the first chapter was rushed and I wasn't paying much attention to it. Sorry if anyone was bothered by my poor grammar. As for the beta suggestion, any volunteers?
Also, I was told that I had a block on reviewers who were not logged on. I will apologize for that as I had no idea such a thing existed. For those people without accounts whom are not happy with me, I have already enabled the anonymous review in case you did not know. Once again… sorry!
Regrettably, the next update will not be as fast as spring break is almost over. However, I will try my best to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!
Please tell me what you think!