Not Just a Game

A/N: Yay! The third chapter is here! Sorry guys if the ending to the second one was a bit… um… sudden. I hope you like it.

Oh yea, and there's something that I've been forgetting.

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN HIKARU NO GO.

Claimer: Vivian, unfortunately, is mine, along with her father.

Enjoy!

Shame

It's a dreadful thing. It makes you hate yourself—and I did, for what I let him become. I let him become everything to me. In my confusion with this strange but painfully real emotion called love, I did what I should not have. I challenged him to a game.

And in that game, he destroyed me even before half the stones were set. Then I did something even more shameful. I ran.

He'd beaten me. I'd finally found a man with enough power to defeat me. And yet… he did not want me. I hate Go. It's despicable. Revolting. Worthless. A waste of my time, my energy, my love.

Both Waya and Hikaru jumped when Isumi snapped his eyes open and tried to sit up. He collapsed back down when his head started to throb dangerously in a head rush.

"What happened?" He murmured to himself. He got up again, this time slower and with Waya and Hikaru's help. "Oh, right… the wall…"

"Is you arm okay?" Waya asked, looking at it was a grossed out expression on his face. "I think it stopped bleeding."

"You're right. I should probably bandage it up though," he agreed. Then he noticed all of the bodies strewn around him. "Um… what happened while I was out?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," said Hikaru. "But look. Is this a first-aid kit?"

Waya took one look at what Hikaru had indicated and snorted, "That's an emergency defibrillator. You know—you're half dead and it shocks you back alive. That kind of thing."

"Oh…" Hikaru said, "hehe… just kidding?"

"I don't know if we have a first aid kit here, and even if we do, I don't know where it is. I mean, what are we going to do? Choke on the go stones and die?" said Waya doubtfully. He found a tablecloth and ripped off a long piece. "Here, use this for now."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Isumi took the piece and looked at it skeptically.

"Why are you asking me? They do it in anime all the time, and movies too!" Waya stammered. Hikaru laughed and muttered, "Who's the idiot now?"

"At least I wasn't trying to electrify him!"

"Tying a ribbon on his hand isn't going to help much either!"

"Guys, guys… calm down," sighed Isumi. "You're both stupid. Look over there. I knew this place had to have a first aid kit."

Waya and Hikaru looked and then immediately had to cover their mouths to unsuccessfully try to stifle their laughter. Waya was already red in the face and unable to breath, so Hikaru tried to explain, "That's—"

He started laughing again and had to gasp for breath.

"That's the—hahahahaha—!"

Isumi reeled up angrily, "Whaat?"

Waya snorted in his laughter and managed to blurt out, "Wire English Roar!"

"Wha?"

Hikaru decided to try again, "Fire- hahaha extinguish-guish- hahaha!" he couldn't hold it back and exploded in laughter again.

Isumi sweatdropped. It hadn't even been that funny.

While they were laughing their guts out, the rest of the Institute was silent. It was as if every sound had been swallowed up by some indescribable force. Everyone was slumped over, as if the life had left their bodies… except for one person.

Vivian ran to every room trying to find somebody who was awake. She'd already tried to leave the building, and was thankful she wasn't foolish enough to try her hand on the doorknob. It had fried the hairband she threw at it. Breathing hard from all the running, she fell to her knees and sat against a wall. Was she really the only person conscious in the whole building.

Suddenly, she remembered her father. What had happened to him? She ran to the elevator. The lights were down and there was no reaction when she pressed the button. The doors to the stairs were locked too. It seemed like you needed a special key to get it open. A whirring sound made her jump nervously as all the security cameras swiveled and turned to meet her. She gulped. It was as if the building had a life of its own.

"Great. Just great," she muttered to herself. She was beginning to lose hope. "I'm the only person moving in this stupid building with this stupid game—huh?"

She heard great hoots of laughter echo from the hallway. Confused, she listened closer and heard the same thing. She went to investigate.

"Guys, it's not funny," yelled Isumi angrily when they didn't stop laughing. They were completely unstoppable.

Suddenly the doorknob turned. Waya and Hikaru instantly shut themselves up and became alert.

A girl with long black hair entered the room hesitantly. She looked uncertain at the sight of so many bodies lying on the ground. Then she saw them. They were probably the ones she had heard.

"It's you," both Waya and Isumi gasped. They'd seen her overly active father as they entered the building. Why wasn't she half dead like everybody else?

"You guys…" Vivian said disapprovingly, but her disapproval was directed mostly at Waya . She remembered the embarrassment he had caused her when he started laughing without control. "How come you're not unconscious? What the heck is going on here? Why the hell were you laughing in a situation like this?"

Waya cowered under the glare he was receiving and said weakly, "Inside joke."

There was a moment of awkward silence. Isumi, the mature one, finally broke it and greeted, "My name's Isumi. Ignore the other two, they enjoy making idiots of themselves."

"Hey!" Waya shot back an angry look, clearly unhappy with Isumi's introduction. "I'm Waya, that's Hikaru. I'm not a complete idiot but Shindou there definitely is." He stifled a laugh. "Pff… last place in second class…"

"Why you…" growled Hikaru. After much begging from Sai, he let it go.

"Well, my name's Vivian and so far the Go Institute is unbelievably screwed," she said, "Now finish introducing yourselves and tell me what the hell is going on."

Waya looked about the room, and said confused, "But we already finished. It's just me, Isumi and Hikaru."

"What?" Vivian said. She indicated the empty space near Hikaru where Sai stood. "What are you talking about?"

"I dunno, what are you talking about?"

Sai gasped and said to Hikaru, "I think she can see me."

"Of course I can see you!" Vivian said as if she was stating the obvious.

Sai gasped again, "She can hear me."

"Um… Sai?" Hikaru thought to him (A/N: That's how they communicate, right? Thinking.) "Tell her you're a ghost before Waya and Isumi get suspicious."

Sai bounced up to Vivian as joyfully as a ghost could be. "I'M SAI! I'M A GHOST! I HAUNT HIKARU! YOU CAN SEE ME!"

Vivian stared back up as if somebody just paralyzed her while she watched a mutated elephant fall from the sky while riding a meteor.

"But don't act as if anything such as me is here, cause Waya and Isumi don't know I exist!" Sai said happily. It was the first time somebody other than Hikaru could see him. He was ecstatic.

Vivian looked at Hikaru with a you're-kidding-me expression on her face for confirmation. He nodded weakly and smiled at her with an innocent expression on his face. Waya looked at both of them blankly an said, "Alright. You're both morons."

"Er… just pretend that never happened," Vivian offered a solution to his confusion, which he took. Then, it was time to be serious. "So what happened? There's no way to get out of this building and everyone's unconscious."

"We were hoping you'd give us an explanation," Isumi sighed. He finished tying the tablecloth strip around his arm as a makeshift bandage. "Hey… this actually works."

"Oh, I remember now," said Hikaru suddenly. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten. "You know the record room?"

Waya and Isumi both nodded. Sai, who was floating closest to Vivian, noticed her tense up a bit when Hikaru mention the room. Her thoughts were racing. No… I can't tell them yet, they'll never believe me.

It's in this hallway near the end, right? Well, when I came I passed it and it wasn't there anymore."

"It wasn't there?" said Waya, incredulously. "Are you sure Shindou? I never even noticed it when it is there half the time."

"Yea," Hikaru said, understanding, "the room's really small, but when I passed the place there was just a wall there."

"Let me go see," Isumi offered. He got up and opened the door. "I'll be right back."

"Hm… what is going on," Waya murmured. Sai looked at Vivian worriedly. She looked like she was feeling uncomfortable. The room was silent as they waited for Isumi's return.

A few minutes later, all three (four including Sai's) heads turned as the doorknob turned, announcing Isumi's return. He entered the room and said darkly, "I think you should come see this."

Outside, chaos was reigning. Police had set up police lines and were working to ward off oncoming curious tourist and local idiots. Nobody so far had been able to get in; the paralyzed lucky ones who had been willing to try were now being carted off to the hospital. An officer sighed. This was going to be a long day. Walking as close to the building as he dared he saw from outside a haunting scene. Everybody inside was slumped to the ground. The whole building had an eerie feeling to it while he watched behind the glass doors.

Then it started.

Isumi led them to the record room. A wind started to pick up inside the room. As they neared the end of the hallway Waya felt himself physically being pushed backwards by huge gusts of wind. The four braced themselves against it. They could barely keep their eyes open. How were they going to see the room in the first place, they all wondered.

Hikaru saw it first, and when he did he gasped. It was a bad idea, the wind attacked the opening in his mouth and with no other option, he swallowed. As a result he had the uncomfortable feeling you get when you swallow air.

Papers were everywhere, flowing out of the room at an incredible rate. Waya gave a garbled yell as they flew into his face. He finally had the sense to flatten himself against the wall. Seeing him do this, the others followed suit. Vivian struggled to keep her hair in place as she found a spot next to him. She got a hair band and tied her hair while she was at it. Isumi and Hikaru went to the opposite wall. Only Sai stood at the center, his gaze transfixed by the strange sight in front of him. But it wasn't just that. The force that was causing this, he knew it somehow…

Waya glanced at Vivian. She was pale white and hugged herself tightly from the cold. She stared the room, her eyes wide with fear.

"Hey, are you okay?" Waya asked. He had to shout above the noise of paper hitting paper. She didn't reply, but instead stood there with the same helpless fear in her eyes. What have I done?

"Look, everything'll be alright," he tried to reassure her.

"Shit," she cursed. She was crouched down now and hugged her knees for more warmth. The curses turned into sobs and she said something so soft it was inaudible.

"What?" asked Waya. He was alarmed at her state.

"It's all my fault," she repeated. This time he heard it but Hikaru and Isumi looked extremely confused. Concerned, Sai floated to her and said to Hikaru, "You can't stay here much longer, and there's no purpose anyways. Get back from this wind."

Hikaru nodded and motioned the others to go back. They nodded and followed. The wind eventually died down when they neared the Insei room (A/N: eh… I don't know what else to call it.) Each breathing a sigh of relief, they hustled in.

"What is it, Vivian?" Hikaru asked, still confused.

"I made it happened," she said. Her voice quavered, "And now… now it's waking up."

"What's waking?" Isumi asked.

He was answered by a small tremor in the ground. It was first a gentle shaking, but he could tell it was going to get bigger, and fast.

"What's waking?" he repeated urgently. Waya and Hikaru both stood up in alarm as the tremors grew louder.

"I didn't tell you," Vivian said. "When I was looking around I saw the record room was open and there was a light on so I went inside. Then I found this piece of paper and the words started glowing and everything disappeared and…"

"And?"

"A ghost," she said, looking certain now. "It couldn't have been anything else."

"What? You woke up a ghost?" said Waya incredulously. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"You wouldn't have believed me," she answered.

"Oh. Right."

"Well, this is great," said Hikaru sarcastically. "We're stuck in a building with a ghost—"

"Hikaru!" yelled Sai indignantly. Vivian watched, amused.

"Er… I mean, with a ghost that wants to kill everyone," stammered Hikaru, trying to add in words to differentiate the ghost from Sai. He glanced at Sai, who looked like he was about to murder the person he was haunting at the moment.

"Actually you're wrong," Vivian spoke up again. "It hasn't even started. The ghost isn't even properly awake yet."

"And how do you know this?" challenged Waya.

"I guess… I guess I really don't know, but I have this feeling, and I trust my instincts."

The tremors stopped. But instead of relief, all they felt was more pressure. They all knew that it wasn't over at all. It hadn't even begun yet.

And just like that, it all began. Electricity crackled in the air as the building came to life. Lights that couldn't take the energy being forced into them shattered, the glass raining down onto the floor with sparks as if they were fireworks. A microwave clicked on and some creepy classical music started playing in somebody's stereo. The elevator light flicked on and the fire alarms started flashing and screaming until they suddenly exploded.

I awoke.

I'd been sleeping for so many years I forgot what it meant to be awake. Emotion, I completely forgot about them.

Hate is an emotion. Love is too. But there was no love felt in the place I woke up.

It's very ironic. The first thing I see when I finally awake from this thousand year slumber, is a Go board.

Despicable.

Everybody else in the building is unconscious, to my satisfaction, except for five, to my disappointment. I could feel it surrounding them, an aura of a strong and deep desire for Go. It was perfectly logical—this was a building of Go, the people inside were all naturally idiots who played the game. I will watch them carefully—and then, I will destroy them.

A/N: My fingers hurt, especially my pinky… aagh… that's it. I am NEVER writing an eight-page chapter. Not in a million bazillion years. (sighs wearily) Why do my chapters seem to get longer and longer? Anyways, please review! Please please pleeeease?