Author's Note:
Hikaru No Girl lives!
I was originally planning to post this sequel as a new story. However, I thought it would be fairer to people who had story alerts to keep using the current story. (It was completely not because I couldn't think of a new summary and I liked my current title. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
I will endeavor not to disappoint with part 2.
Hikaru no Girl
Part 2:
Prologue:
Four Years After the Events of Part 1:
Mr. Amano published an article suggesting that Sai was a teenage girl. This some attracted publicity but was not considered to be proven. Currently the "school girl Sai" theory has a roughly equal following compared to: Sai is a hospital invalid, Sai is Touya Meijin's wife, Sai is a group of professionals collaborating, Sai is an artificial intelligence, and Sai is an alien.
Hikaru passed his pro test and is considered a rising star in the Go world. He plays Go as Sai even more frequently thanks to free computer access at Akira's house. Akari continues to blackmail him into playing dress-up with her.
Waya and Isumi took the pro test shortly after Hikaru and both passed. Waya has formed an investigative group in order to locate Sai. After discovering that Hikaru is Akira's friend (and Akira is widely believed to have some connection to Sai) Waya forced Hikaru to join his group.
There are twenty-five days to the Hokuto Cup.
Sai still has yet to play Touya Meijin.
Hikaru's Life Lessons Number One: The Inability Of Many Senior Citizens To Use Modern Technology Is A Serious Disability, Which Requires More In-Depth Medical Research
Attempt Number 206:
Koyo Touya was minding his own business setting a pot of tea to boil on his stove when he was rudely interrupted by a long scrapping sound, and two sharp bangs. His door was being abused, apparently by someone attempting to make as much noise as possible. This was followed up with by a loud shout of, "Gosh, Akira, it is lucky your father is not home so we can have a secret and private conversation!"
There was the sound of some papers rustling, and, "Yes, I am completely under the impression that the house is empty right now." The words were recited in a monotone.
"I've heard there is a new and exciting computer program that allows people to communicate with others around the world without leaving their room. Isn't that remarkable?"
"Yes it is. You can even play Go. This is called Net Go and can be found at www. pandanet-igs. com."
"It is a pity that your father doesn't know about this. With him getting on in his years, it could be useful for him."
"Yes, I worry constantly about his health. He might have a heart attack while driving somewhere to play Go. It would take a great weight off my mind if I knew he was safe at home and—Hikaru, I just can't do this!"
"Dammit, Akira, this is why I gave you a script!"
"My father is going to kill me. No, he's going to give me a 'look' and I'm going to kill myself from shame."
"You promised me!"
"Hikaru, you know full well that the only reason that I help you with any of your dumb ideas is that I don't want a repeat of the time you and Akari almost set my father on fire."
Sullenly, "You promised not to mention that again."
There was the sound of someone running up the stairs, followed by, "Akira, if you don't come back and finish this, I'm going to wear the Gothic Lolita dress tomorrow! You know how you hate the way people stare at that dress! Akira, come back!"
Koyo Touya had adopted a policy of non-interference in his son's social life, as he trusted that Akira was a sensible boy who could take care of himself. He was beginning to reconsider that policy.
Hikaru knocked on Akira's door. "Hey, look, I'm sorry I shouted. I know it was a stupid plan to begin with."
The problem is, all of your plans are stupid, Akira thought, but he said, "You can come in."
Hikaru opened the door. Behind him, a half-transparent figure floated in. "I apologize as well, Akira. Hikaru is only trying to help me."
Akira said, "Sai is starting to fade out again. I should play another game for him, soon."
After Akira had caught his first glimpse of Hikaru's ghostly friend, he'd assumed it would be permanent, but five days later Sai's body and voice began to fade away under Akira's eyes—although Hikaru assured him Sai was still there, hanging over their shoulders watching them play.
A bit of trial and error had revealed an important discovery: Akira's ability to see Sai was restored after he played a game as Sai. Not played a game with Sai, but played while moving the pieces under Sai's instruction. This led Akira to conclude that it had been the fact that he had declared his identity to be Sai while playing Ogata that had allowed him to first hear Sai's voice.
(Hikaru had commented, "It's a good thing I didn't know that Sai would fade away if I just ignored him for a bit. I never would have started playing Go!" Sai had looked very very nervous, leading Akira to contemplate lecturing Hikaru about the proper way to treat a legendary Go genius' ghost, but it wasn't as though lecturing Hikaru had ever accomplished anything in the past.)
Akira was usually even happier to play games for Sai then Hikaru was, as he viewed it as a learning experience. Not to mention the celebrity of being around the mind behind Honinbo Shusaku. However, except for short separations the ghost remained physically stuck to Hikaru, and no amount of experiments had revealed why.
Sometimes it could be a bit awkward to have a third person hanging around watching you—such as right now, when Akira was having a fight with his boyfriend.
"Hikaru, you know I'm not sure about letting my father play Net Go at all, ever. He's a menace around technology. Mother doesn't let him touch the microwave or the TV."
"There's no other way for him to play Sai! You were the one who crushed all my disguise ideas."
"Because your disguises are terrible. I don't have a better idea, I know. But my father has already destroyed several innocent computers. And don't you remember what happened the last time when you left him on the Internet unsupervised? My father almost had his entire retirement savings stolen out from under him by someone in Nigeria!"
"It's not my fault."
"Hikaru, we discussed this. We do not leave my father alone in a room with a computer under any circumstances. I let him use my laptop once to check the weather, and it took me a month to get rid of all the viruses! And my father hates Net Go so this isn't likely to work anyway. I'm tired of suffering for your stupidity."
"Akira, that's not fair! You know how tough it's been to keep my secret."
Akira did know, seeing how he'd been the main person running interference for Hikaru for the past four years. At the moment, he was in no mood to bond over that.
Unfortunately, it was justified to say that hiding Sai had been even more of a headache for Akira than Hikaru. Although Mr. Amano's story had if anything provided some misdirection to Sai's identity, seeing how he thought Sai was a girl, he had confirmed Akira's connection to Sai. Even more importantly, that he had confirmed Sai was being actively hidden by Akira.
The Japanese Go professionals who had been at that fateful dinner where Akira had introduced Sai to the world had already suspected Akira—now the entire world suspected him. To make matters worse, the article had been well-written and exciting enough that even the majority of the Japanese population that didn't particularly care about Go had started to get interested in the mysterious hunt for the hidden genius player. (The increasing monetary reward offered for Sai's identity had certainly helped as well.) In the Asian part of the world, Sai had become a serious celebrity, helped along by Japanese Go industry milking the publicity for all it was worth in an attempt to revitalize their favorite game.
A worthy goal, Akira knew. But he was less happy that he got an average of two to three hundred emails a week from various people (aka ranting lunatics) wanting to tell him who they guessed Sai was, pester him for hints, or berate him for not sharing his knowledge with the world—and that was after he'd changed his email address twice.
It was still bad, but the fuss had died down compared to four years ago. Also, after his father (abetted by Hikaru) had sent his last computer into an electronic coma, Akira had taken the opportunity to get a very good junk mail filter. So Akira really wasn't sure why he had the urge to complain to Hikaru now when he had been more tolerant originally. Maybe it was just a displacement of other frustrations with their relationship.
Assuming they were in a relationship. They were dating, right? They'd gone on dates, or date-like activities such as seeing movies and Go parlors. (Sai generally tagged along as well, but the ghost did have the consideration to leave them alone sometimes, so Akira didn't think Sai was the problem.) They saw each other almost every day, and Hikaru dropped by Akira's house or vice versa every weekend. Hikaru had kissed Akira, more than once. But nothing had really developed since they'd been, well, twelve. Akira was starting to wonder if he'd mistaken the kind of play-dating you did in kindergarten for real dating.
Akira was lost in thought, and taken off guard when Hikaru hugged him from behind.
"Forget about this boring stuff. Another plan down the drain, and yes, you told me so. Why don't you play me as Sai for one game, then we can log in to the net for a while. Or on second thought—look what I brought!" Hikaru held up a DVD. "Children Who Chase Lost Voices. You know this just came out on DVD today, right? But you didn't get to see it while it was in theatres so I marked the release date on my calendar, got one of the first copies. It's a present, by the way. I was going to make it a celebration for Sai's game with your father."
Akira pounced on the DVD. "Your horrible play script is completely forgiven." The move brought his face next to Hikaru's, and he leaned upwards-
Sai, floating behind Hikaru, snapped his fan up to cover his face, and mask a wide smile. Akira pulled back; Hikaru didn't seem to notice.
On second thought, maybe Sai was to blame for a great deal of Akira's relationship difficulties.
Meanwhile, the number one source of Hikaru's hiding Sai problems was sitting in darkened room in front of his computer screen, coffee mug in hand. He wore a T-shirt saying "Play Go: If you have the stones" and a pair of thin-framed, elegant glasses.
In the center of the room was a bulletin board covered with color-coded notes, newspaper articles, pieces of evidence, arrows, and bits of string. At the very center was a picture of Akira Touya.
At his computer, Seiji Ogata updated his Sai spreadsheet with Akira's confirmed location (at his home) during Sai's last recorded game. The pattern indicated that Akira was at home, with Hikaru Shindo as a guest, for roughly three-fifths of Sai's games, more than could be coincidental. None of these games occurred when Ogata was invited to the Touya house, which he also suspected was not a coincidence. Clearly the two of them had some advance knowledge of when Sai would play, and were taking the opportunity to watch his games as any Go fan would.
Past patterns told Ogata that Sai had a knack for gathering talented youth around him. Hikaru Shindo's style had clearly been influenced enormously by Sai, Akira to a lesser degree. These young protégées were the people most likely to have clues to Sai's identity.
Naturally, Ogata had taken the opportunity to lay down some bait himself. It had been easy to recruit Waya, who had been fascinated by Sai since losing a game to him even before he became famous. He was also ideally positioned around Hikaru Shindo, the second epicenter of evidence (color-coded orange).
However, Hikaru had continued to vigorously deny any connections to Sai, even to his fellow insei. Next, Ogata had launched a sneak attack, bringing in Isumi, who seemed less the same type as Hikaru in personality, but who clearly had a large pool of untapped talent and was in need of a mentor—just the type Sai seemed to pick. Ogata had thought he might be on to something when Hikaru began giving Isumi some uncharacteristically intelligent advice. But the fish had cleverly nibbled on the bait and escaped intact.
When the group of insei he had been watching had universally passed the professional test, Ogata began analyzing the playing styles of the next batch of students looking for Sai's influence. However, there was no indication that Sai had sought out a new student, and Ogata began to fear he'd lost his one lead.
Then Ogata had realized he had a secret weapon. One thing Sai must covet above all others. One crown jewel that remained out of reach.
Touya Meijin.
Although by now rumors of Sai had reached him, Koyo remained uninterested in a player who wouldn't sit across a board from him in person. Such a mask might hide a group of people playing together while relying on books (which Koyo saw as cheating) or a computer intelligence as some rumors claimed (which Koyo possessed a deep scorn for). Furthermore, the champion remained stubbornly disconnected (and inept) with technology in all forms.
It had been easy for Ogata to work his way into his former teacher's confidence. Easy for him to take over the job of making sure Koyo's cell phone was charged, organizing his contacts list, installing his DVD player and other miscellaneous pieces of technology, and setting up his internet.
Even Akiko, Koyo's wife, had become his ally, as apparently pieces of technology touched by Koyo Touya had a tendency to end up dying mysterious deaths. Ogata had been a savior to her drama-watching hobby, as she'd been afraid to buy a color TV before for fear of what might happen to the expensive device. The family now had an actual desktop, not just laptops that could be quickly removed from any room that Father entered!
Now that he had inserted himself into Koyo's confidence, Ogata knew he could convince his friend to let him create a Net Go account. He would only have to arrange for a foreign player whom Koyo respected to request a game. But Koyo wouldn't be interested in playing strangers or weaklings—he would let Ogata set up his games. Soon, Ogata would be the only one in Net Go with access to Koyo Touya. Then, Sai would have to come to him!
Four long year of planning were about to pay off. Ogata took a moment to bask in his own brilliance.
In his mind, his conversation with Sai would go something like this:
Sai: Please, wonderful and talented Ogata-sensei, could you arrange a game for me with Touya Meijin? I'd do anything!
Ogata: This won't come for free. I have some demands.
Sai: *gasp*
Ogata: Hand over your name, address, and cell phone number, or Koyo Touya's computer experiences a tragic "malfunction."
Sai: I'll do anything! Please don't pull the plug in the middle of our game!
Ogata: I also want to be able to play you at least once a week. I want to be included from now on in the practice sessions you have with Akira Touya, Hikaru Shindo, and any other protégées you have. And I want you to autograph a few things for me.
Sai: How do you know so much about me?
Ogata: Well, I am a fan of yours. We could hold the study sessions at my house. I make a great bean dip. Do you like bean dip?
Sai: I love bean dip!
...Deep down, Seiji Ogata was a very lonely person.
To be continued...