As you probably know, I don't own Hikaru no Go and appreciate the owners letting me play in their universe.

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Hikaru walked into the salon later that afternoon and automatically handed Ichikawa his bag. Then he glanced over the people in the room. "Wait a minute. Do you mean to tell me Touya's not even here yet?" He frowned. "He made such a big deal about insisting I get here today. He said he had a game he wanted to show me and he asked at least two or three times to make sure I was coming today, and then he doesn't even have the common courtesy to be on time?" Hikaru was working up a good head of steam and totally ignored the fact that he was late most of the time himself. Ichikawa stopped him when he paused a moment to take a breath.

"No, no, he's here. Don't worry," she said. "He's in the back room."

"The back room?"

"Yes. You know the one with the tatami mats and floor goban."

Hikaru thought about that for a moment. "I guess I knew there was something back there but I've never been in it. What's he doing there?"

"I don't know, but he said to show you to the room when you arrived. He seemed very serious about it."

"Hmmm, well you never can tell with him."

"Would you like a can of your usual drink?" She asked him.

"Yes please, Ichikawa-san," Hikaru said and he handed over the money for it. Tea was included but other drinks were extra and Hikaru always paid for the canned beverages even though he never paid the entrance fee. He was making good money as a pro and by paying for the drinks he could have as many as he wanted without feeling he was imposing on Touya's sensei's hospitality. Despite his usual behavior, Hikaru really had been raised by his mother to know proper manners. He knew them. He just didn't always decide to exercise them.

Touya's shoes were on the step outside the sliding door so Hikaru removed his shoes also before entering the room. Clearly, this room was made to be a little oasis in the middle of the otherwise modern go salon. It was small but decorated in quiet good taste. An antique scroll hung from one wall. It showed two men playing go. In the center of the room sat a good quality floor goban and two cushions. Akira was sitting on one of the cushions and was cleaning up the stones from some game he had been starting to lay out.

"Hi, Touya. What's up? Why are we in this room?" Hikaru asked as he sat down on the other cushion. Akira just looked at him and continued to clean up the stones. Hikaru noticed that these stones were slate and shell instead of the regular go salon glass and the goke were of a better quality than the ones in the main room.

"It seemed appropriate," he said. "I'd like to show you a game."

"It's a game we can't play out at the regular table?"

"I think not."

"O.k., this is fine by me. Who played the game?" Hikaru got even more curious when Touya just looked at him.

"I'll let you decide that."

"Aww, Touya, you know I'm no good yet at identifying people through their go," Hikaru whined.

"I know, and perhaps this will be good practice for you, then," Touya said without sympathy.

Hikaru just shrugged and watched as Akira began to lay out the stones. About 10 hands into it, he knew he had seen the game before. Where had he seen it? "Touya, I saw that game, didn't I?" He got nothing more than a knowing nod in return, as though Hikaru had confirmed something Akira knew or suspected.

"I saw it recently. So who played it? Was it that game between Ogata and… no. There is nothing the slightest bit Ogata-ish about either of the players. This doesn't look like you played either black or white. Black looks a little bit like me, but I'd remember if I'd played this game." Hikaru continued to frown at the board. Akira laid a few more hands. Suddenly Hikaru gasped.

"No way! Absolutely no way." The language came out in his shock. "WHO played this game and where did you SEE it?" Hikaru demanded.

"You tell me." Akira continued to lay out hands while Hikaru's eyes got wider and wider.

"That's impossible. This can't be…" he stumbled.

"You're one to talk about what's impossible," Akira said calmly. He had had more time to consider the possibility that Hikaru might really recognize the game or at least who played black even if he didn't recognize the game itself.

"Where did you see it?" Hikaru said again. Akira just looked at him. "Hey, I went first last time. You have to go first this time."

Suddenly Akira just laughed and the tension broke. "That is SO like you, Shindou. Fine, I saw this game in a dream two nights ago. It was played by Fujiwara no Sai and Ko Yeung-Ha."

"Unbelievable. Un fucking believable."

"Really, Shindou," Akira said with disapproval. "Does shock always do such things to your mouth?"

"But, did you really see this? You dreamed this? Do you realize what this means? We had the same dream. You've seen Sai. You know what he looks like. I just can't believe it. It's amazing. I'm not the only one who knows what Sai looks like."

"I knew about Sai before," Akira reminded him.

"Yeah, but now you've met him. Really met him and talked to him. He had to have been really in our dream or how would we have dreamed the exact same game? It's impossible. We had a shared dream. This is utterly fantastic." Hikaru was thrilled.

"Shindou, did he really look almost feminine and have purple eyes?"

"Yes, he certainly did. It's strange but true. How he had purple eyes at a time in Japanese history when there were literally no gaijin, I have no idea, but he did have purple eyes."

"Perhaps it is just something that happened when he was a ghost."

"He changed his eye color to purple? That makes no sense."

"Does it make more sense for him to have had purple eyes if he was full Japanese from the Heian era?"

"Point taken," Hikaru said. Both boys were quiet for a moment before Akira spoke up.

"Shindou?"

"Yeah?"

"In the dream Sai asked me to tell my father the game between them was the highlight of 1,000 years."

"I remember," Hikaru said quietly.

"I have shown the game to my father without telling him who played the game. He has always been good at detecting the player in the go and I think he suspects this is a game played by Sai. May I tell my father about the dream?"

Hikaru thought about that long and hard. His stomach clenched uncomfortably. "If you do, you would have to tell him about Sai."

"Yes," Akira said. "Unless I just said it was a dream of this game and I dreamt that Sai told me to tell him about it."

"Your father wouldn't buy that. He's too smart for that." Hikaru looked nervous.

"Sometimes when I walk by the room I see father sitting in seiza with one black stone on the board. He is waiting for a response he knows logically can't come, but he waits anyway. You know I won't say anything without your permission, but I really think he would accept the story."

"You don't think he'd just think I was some insane teenager?" Hikaru's voice wavered.

"No, I really don't," Akira said firmly. Suddenly Hikaru came to a decision. Sai had said in that dream he wanted Akira to tell his father and that was good enough for Hikaru. If Sai wanted it then it would happen.

"O.k., we'll do it, but I want to be the one to tell him about Sai. You can pass on the message Sai gave you, but I want to tell him the story."

"Thank you," Akira said earnestly. "What days are you free for dinner in the next week or so. I'll ask mother to have you over and we can tell father either before or after dinner."

"Food always works for me," Hikaru said with a grin. He was nervous about the decision but also confident it was the right decision. Whether it went well or not was irrelevant. All Hikaru needed to believe was that Sai truly wanted it this way.

"Let me finish laying out this game so we can discuss it," Akira said. The two boys laid out the stones one at a time and discussed where Yeung-ha had gone wrong. Really he had just been outplayed and outmaneuvered at every level.

"Yes, this was a great game. Sai destroyed Ko and I think Sai played my memory of Ko's style. Hey," Hikaru said suddenly. "If you saw the game and I saw the game, do you suppose Ko really played it?" They looked at each other.

"No," two voices said simultaneously. "That couldn't be."

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Just some advertising since I don't think people are noticing it. I posted Convergence about a month ago which tracks a parallel story line of both Hikaru and Akira as they grow up from age 2 to the Hokuto Cup. I hope you enjoy it.