Disclaimer & Warning: Same as always.

Sorry for the late update. I was busy last week and to be honest I'm feeling rather bored and uninspired these days.

Chapter VI – The Enemy of My Father

The heavily cloaked man had been watching the teen for almost two weeks and right now he already knew more or less the young pro's daily habits and schedule. Now, all he had to do was wait and when he got the chance, he would move to the attack. It would be the perfect revenge. With this, he would destroy the guy who had destroyed his biggest dream.

He would kidnap the teen and asked for a very large amount of money as the ransom. That way, Shindou Masao would have to do something illegal to get the money and that would surely ruin his reputation. And if Shindou decided to call the police or ignore his demand, he could simply kill his son and left the boy's body to rot in a place where no one would be able to find.

The man scratched his beard in satisfaction. There could be no better plan than this. If everything went well, he would become a rich man after this was over. But if it didn't, he would still at least get the satisfaction of finally having his revenge. It was a win-win solution for him and a lose-lose one for Shindou.

He was very ecstatic when he found out that Shindou's son didn't go to Australia with his parents and chose to stay in Japan instead. That made it easier for him to execute his plan and made all those waiting that he had to endure in the mental institution worth it.

He had decided that today was the day and he would get into action. But he had to make sure that the brat was alone when he acted. Right now, he was waiting across the apartment building, watching a young man, that he recognized as Shindou's roommate, leaving with a dog on his tow.

'This is it!' He thought. 'This will be the perfect time.'

All he needed now was luck. He would be able to enter the building when someone went out of it. But if no one got out in twenty minutes, he would need to go for plan B. That was disguised himself as a courier and pushed the bell, so that someone would open the door for him. It would be more risky though, and he wouldn't use that plan unless he was really sure that plan A was botched.

After waiting for ten minutes, Lady Luck seemed to finally take side with him. He could see an old man was about to leave the building. So, he quickly got out of his van and crossed the small street. He made it to the front door just on time before it clicked shut.

000

Shindou Hikaru was washing the dishes so hurriedly that it was a wonder that none of the plates was broken. He had a study session that would begin in another fifteen minutes and the ride to Morishita-sensei's house usually took about twenty minutes, so by the rate that he was going right now, he would arrive there at least ten minutes late. He guessed, he would have to take a cab if he didn't want to arrive even later.

They didn't usually have a study session on Monday morning but Waya called him yesterday night, not long after the game between Sai and Touya Kouyo was finished, saying that Mosrishita-sensei insisted on having this special study session to discuss about that unexpected game. It seemed that everyone had already knew about the game and most of them were discussing it last night. The thought made him cringe and he hoped that no one would suspect that the game was scheduled.

He was lucky though; that Touya happened to be a master of deceives. His rival told him about the call from Ogata-sensei and the lies that he made to convince the current Meijin that it was only a fluke that his father could play Sai again. Touya also suggested that they instead used a chat room that had nothing to do with Go, next time.

"We could simply exchange the moves on it and played the game on real Go-ban." Said the raven-haired pro during last night dinner.

And Hikaru agreed with his idea. In fact he found that to be a brilliant idea although he would never admit it to Touya. It would be more complicated but a lot safer. That way, they could play without the fear of getting the other pros curiosity, especially the nosy ones like Ogata-sensei.

He finally finished washing the last plate and quickly turned off the water. He rarely had this duty because usually Touya wouldn't let him and Hikaru was very grateful for that even though he had always angrily retorted that he wouldn't drop any of his precious plates. It was really a nice thing to have a neat freak of a roommate like Touya. Because he never trusted other people enough and preferred to do everything by himself. So even though he often complained that he had let Hikaru shared the apartment so he would help him doing his chores, he never insisted on it. In fact, the 5-dan was sure that, most of the times; his rival clearly preferred that he stayed away from the kitchen.

But right now, Touya was visiting the vet to give Sai a shot of rabies vaccination, so Hikaru had to do the chores. The 7-dan didn't have anything to do until late in the afternoon and it was a rare occasion so he decided to do it today. He insisted that the vaccination was very important to all kinds of dogs, including Huskies. And yes, also including a Husky with the spirit of a thousand years old Go master in it.

He was about to go to his room to change his clothes when he heard the doorbell rang. With a whispered curse, he checked the clock and then went to open the front door. What kind of freak would visit at 8:53 in the morning?

'And that freak had to come when I was already late.' He thought bitterly while walking hurriedly to the door.

But when he passed the coffee table, he halted his steps suddenly. There, lying innocently on the table, was Touya's wallet.

"Ack! Stupid Touya forgot to bring his equally stupid wallet. Now I'll have to run after him before getting a cab. Morishita-sensei will surely kill me." Shouted, the already panicked, Hikaru.

It wasn't like his rival to forget bringing something as important as a wallet. Touya usually checked all his stuffs twice before he left the apartment. But perhaps today he was too distracted by Sai to do such ritual. The Go master was so excited to be able to go out again that he got a little too hyper. And poor Touya had to calm him down every few minutes.

Hikaru was still lost in the memory of his rival's hectic departure this morning when he opened the door. But when he realized that he didn't recognize the guy that stood before him, he started to frown.

"Hmm... Anything I can help you with?" Greeted Hikaru half-heartedly.

"Are you Shindou Hikaru, Shindou Masao's son? Asked the rumpled guy with an accusing tone.

"Yes, but if you want to speak with my father, I regrettably have inform you that he had already moved out to Australia." Answered Hikaru, trying to end the conversation without sounding too rude.

"I know. It's you who I'm looking for…"

Somehow, Hikaru has a bad feeling about this situation. And his feelings were rarely wrong. It seemed it had enhanced greatly ever since the experience of being haunted by Sai. And right now, he could almost smell the tenseness in the air.

"Look. I'm sorry but I really have to go now. I'm already late for an appointment. So can you return later?"

He only received a small shake of the head and a maniacal grin from the guy as an answer. The 5-dan was about to slam the door shut when the bearded man halted him. And the last thing that he saw before everything went dark was the man's gloved fist heading into his face.

000

"Good job, Ken." The man said to himself as he carefully tied the unconscious body with a rope. "Not even a fight from looser. I guess I can't blame him though. As they said, like father, like son."

After he was sure that the teen's body was tied well, he opened the door to check if there was someone on the hallway. And when he saw no one there, he started to drag the body as carefully and as noiselessly as possible. It wasn't an easy task but he was grateful when he finally reached the emergency stairs without gotten caught by anyone.

Unlike when he arrived, now he had to use the stairs instead of the elevator. And it would take quite some time until he could reach to bottom floor. Grudgingly, he started the long way down, dragging the teen's by the shirt's collar.

When he arrived at the bottom, he finally allowed his body to get the much-needed rest. He no longer young and the boy's body were rather heavy. But he felt a lot better after taking revenge by dropping it to the floor and hearing a satisfying 'thud' when the bond bangs' head hit the hard floor.

Now, he needed to drag the body into his van. Luckily, he parked it right across the apartment building. He lazily took the heavy lump again and started to drag it out of the building.

"Here comes nothing." He said with a small smile as he opened the building's front door.

000

Touya Akira was already standing in front of the ticket machine when he realized that he had left his wallet back at the apartment. His first thought when he couldn't find said wallet in his coat pocket was that he had been robbed. But then he realized that he didn't remember ever taking it from the coffee table before he left.

"Ugh! We have to return, Sensei. I forgot to bring my wallet." He said to the dog that had been watching him with curiosity.

Two middle-aged women looked at him weirdly as they passed by. And Akira could only lower his head embarrassedly. He must have looked like a weirdo, talking to a dog and calling it 'Sensei'. So he turned away from them and quickly went back to the stairs.

Once returned to the street, he considered to just give a call and asked Shindou to bring it when he himself went to the station. But when he checked his watch, he realized that his rival must have taken a taxi instead. Shindou was supposed to arrive at Morishita-sensei's house at nine o'clock and right now was already 8:50. So if the 5-dan was going to take the train, he should have already arrived at the station right now.

So after cursing at his own carelessness and apologizing to Sai for a few times for the inconvenience, Akira finally started to walk back to the apartment, doomed for another long ten minutes of walking.

By the time he reached the street not far from the apartment building, his dress shirt was already wet from sweat and he was in the middle of pondering either to change it or not when Sai let out a sound that sounded like a combination of a bark and a howl at one of the cars that were parked across the apartment building.

When Akira lifted his head, he could see a guy pulling an unconscious body into a red van. The man was almost done and he could only see a glimpse of the victim's head but he could recognize Shindou's bleached bangs anywhere.

But then, he made a mistake by shouting at the man to stop. His shout only succeeded in making the man hurriedly closed the van's door. And when he started to run to the van, Shindou's kidnapper already started the engine and took of before he could reach it.

Realizing that he got not chance to stop the man, Akira stopped running and quickly took out his pen from his chest pocket to write down the van's plate numbers on his palm. That was not the case with Sai though. He ignored Akira's shouts to return and gave chase to the van. And for a few confusing minutes the raven-haired teen could only watch helplessly as both the red van and the Go master quickly disappeared from his sight. But then his mind started to work again, and he hurriedly took out his cell phone and called the police.

000

Sai ran as fast as he could to make sure that he wouldn't loose sight of Hikaru's kidnapper. The moment he saw it, he knew that this was the reason why he was back. He had to save Hikaru from that guy and he had a feeling that if he failed, something really bad would happen to his ex-pupil. And with that thought in mind, he became more determined on chasing the red van. Not even God could stop him now. He would save Hikaru or die trying.

TBC

Author's note: I don't know if dogs are allowed inside the train so I'm sorry if they don't. I know that guide dogs are allowed though.

This chapter is inspired by the numerous children abductions for ransom that happened in my town lately.