Hikaru's Life Lessons Number Eight: Comfort Food Is Mandatory When You're Feeling Poorly, But You May Regret Overeating Melon Bread When Delivered Two Shocking Revelations In One Day
Kurata looked up at Hikaru from where he was sitting. "I've already settled on Akira as the team captain."
Hikaru said passionately, "He should at least play me and Yashiro for the first game!"
Akira said snidely, "Sure, as if that would make a difference. How often to you beat me? Once every ten games or so?"
Hikaru snapped, "You can't know that you'd win! And I have a strategy for that Korean bastard that I want Kurata to see!"
"You don't think I would win? Let's see about that." Akira began to frantically clear the board in front of him for a new game. Hikaru joined him, with both of them knocking stones on to the floor in their haste and accusing each other of creating a mess.
Kurata said, "I was going to say that Akira is first slot and that's final, but if you want to play anyway, be my guest."
Yashiro raised his hands to indicate that he was in no way getting involved.
For the first two games, Akira crushed Hikaru mercilessly. His rough playing caught up with him and in the third game he made a poor move. Hikaru leapt on the weakness and dragged out the game, finally drawing out a narrow victory.
With each game of Go lasting a couple hours, this was a long and tedious process. Kurata said pointedly, "Akira, Hikaru, I think we all want to go home now."
"I'm not done yet! I can beat him next time!" Akira exclaimed. He began to reset the timers for a game that would last at most half an hour—a speed game by Go standards.
Kurata and Yashiro exchanged glances. Then they left together, leaving the two still playing.
Kurata returned much later in the evening…and was astonished to see the two still playing. As they kept putting down stones, too engrossed to notice him, he perused the paper records lying next to them.
Akira still had a winning record. But Kurata couldn't deny that something about Hikaru's incredible improvement across the course of these games made him think that maybe the boy was on to something. Putting Hikaru in the first game would be an interesting strategy—it might confuse their opponents. And if they underestimated Hikaru, he might have a real chance. Akira could be counted on to win the second game, or just about any game, but they needed two victories to win as a team.
Kurata cleared his throat, and again until they noticed him. "I think Akira is still first for the Chinese game—but I would consider the first seat for the Korean game to be still in the air."
Hikaru made an exclamation of triumph. Akira protested, "The only reason Hikaru can beat me even occasionally is because of all the training I gave him!"
A thought occurred to the older professional. Kurata had been at the dinner at Akira's house where the boy had accidentally made Sai famous, and like all the players who had been defeated then, one nagging secret had been bothering him ever since.
Kurata said slyly, "How about we say that Hikaru gets first seat…unless Akira is finally willing to spill the juicy details on Sai's real identity?"
A dark look passed over Akira's face, and Hikaru could see that he was tempted. But he only scowled and stomped out of the room.
For the very first time, the full seriousness of his fight with Akira dawned on Hikaru. Akira would never tell, Hikaru knew that. But the Akira of just a week ago wouldn't have had that look on his face, as if he might be considering telling, for even half a second.
The heavy feeling in Hikaru's stomach might have had some guilt, and some anger. But it was mostly fear.
Fear of losing Akira.
Yang Hai had been working frantically at his computer for the last three days. His goal? To teach his artificial intelligence program Deep Orange every aspect of Touya Meijin's game against the Saint of Net Go, Sai. He really felt that this could be his breakthrough. Was this how earlier programmers had felt when they'd first began to topple the greatest human chess players? Yang Hai liked to think so.
Why would this game be any different from others? Well, besides the amazing skill and strategy in the game that players all over the world had been busy analyzing, Yang Hai had stumbled on one other remarkable observation. A Japanese professional named Morishita had posted a comment on the game from a member of his study group, Hikaru Shindo.
Shindo had identified the one move in the game where Touya Meijin could have been victorious.
As a result, Yang could finally simulate a game that ended in Sai's defeat. This was a breakthrough of epic proportions. He couldn't wait to test the new version against Sai—they'd see who would last twenty minutes this time!
His friend/long-suffering assistant Bao called, "Yang, can I come in? We have guests."
Yang swiveled around. "Yes, of course."
He was shocked to see the school president enter the room, along with an older Chinese man that he didn't recognize, a scrawny man with a long nose and thin glasses.
"Sir! This place is a mess, I'm sorry."
"No need to get up," the president said. Yang wondered why he looked so nervous—was the other man someone that important?
The stranger said, "Your president forwarded a rather interesting report from you, along with a Go computer program."
Yang couldn't resist talking about his favorite subject, "Yes, we've made a huge breakthrough after this last game. The program I sent you last night is the finished product, and I just finished confirming there aren't any bugs in it either. I'm finally ready to test it—we've been playing Net Go, but if we can manage to beat professional players online, then I'm hoping we'll be able to arrange a demonstration match with real players, like the famous Kasparov-Deep Blue chess match."
The stranger cut him off, "Yes, we've already done that. Your program was been confirmed to beat the top Chinese Go players, and we tested against some internationals as well. We are quite satisfied."
"You are? With what?" Yang asked. "No, I mean why are you interested in this? Who are you?"
"As you might not realize, young Yang, the upcoming Go match of young professionals from around the Pacific, the Hokuto Cup, has taken on some political importance. It is a clear chance for various countries to demonstrate superiority."
"This is just a children's project," the president protested weakly.
"I happen to think otherwise, and with my father's connections that is enough. We already have a copy of the program, but we are now confiscating this machine and all other copies you may have." He waved in some men, who began searching Yang Hai's room without asking for permission. One of them unplugged the computer and picked it up, rudely tearing off the cartoon of an orange with sun glasses that Le Ping had drawn and stuck on the side.
"As compensation for this, we will pay for all your school fees, and an additional 500,000 yuan."
Yang pleaded, "There is other work on my computer…I have a paper I'm writing! Can I at least copy some files?"
"Your president will ensure you get top grades in all your classes, so you should have no further concern about your schoolwork. I strongly advise that you not speak to this to anyone. Good day."
When they were alone, Bao said, "At least we were compensated for all the time we spent on this. My mother will be happy about the money."
Yang Hai could only sob, "My precious Deep Orange…what are they going to do with you?"
There was no melon bread left in Hikaru's house. All of his convenience store breads, which were supposed to last him a week, were eaten. Hikaru had consumed the last five this afternoon, and he still didn't feel better about the look on Akira's face when Kurata had confirmed Hikaru as top player for the Korean game. It almost made Hikaru want to say never mind, he didn't need the game after all, but he'd tried so hard to get it, and there was Sai to think of too.
The solution, obviously, was to get more melon bread.
Hikaru muttered to himself (and Sai) as he browsed the bread section of the convenience store. "That Akira…I don't understand him! I keep wanting to say I'm sorry, but then he makes me so angry and I start thinking that I shouldn't have to apologize. I hate this, Sai. I just want everything to go back to the way it used to be."
Sai nodded. Honestly, he felt the same way. "Hikaru, there's another thing I need to talk to you about."
"Is it important?"
"Well, yes. After my game with Touya Meijin-"
"I don't really have the time to set up another game for you, Sai. Can't you see I have a bigger crisis on my hands? I happen to—what the—"
Hikaru had rounded the corner to spot Seiji Ogata in the next aisle, examining boxed lunches. "Gah! We have to get out of here!" He began to back away, moving towards the store's exit.
Sai said, "No we don't, he's just shopping, Hikaru. I really do need to talk to you…"
"Is this about Ogata?" Hikaru asked suspiciously.
"Not really, no."
"Because I hate to be the one to tell you this, but even if you were still alive it would never work out. He's too—did you say no?"
"I said no," Sai confirmed. "Hikaru, ever since the game with Touya Meijin I've been feeling—wait, did the box-that-is-called-TV say something about Go?"
Sai's instincts were never wrong where Go was concerned. Sure enough, the announcer was babbling something about "Go" and "human interest."
An Asian man appeared on the screen. Thin glasses perched over a long nose. "My name is Professor Wen. I have an announcement to make. As many of you may not know, recently an Internet Go player has established dominance over every major professional in the world of Go. I am here to announce the identity of this player."
Hikaru's heart stopped. When had he gotten involved with the Chinese? Had someone bugged his house? Was Ogata behind this?
"The matches were played by a computer program known as SAI: Synthesized Artificial Intelligence. This program was created by Chinese experts in computers and Go. We will offer proof of our claim through public demonstration matches in-"
Hikaru had stopped listening. His relief at not having his name announced was predominant—but he didn't know what to make of this. People had made outrageous claims about Sai before, but this one had been on television, not even a special show on Go but regular television.
Behind him, Ogata said, "Not what you were expecting, was it?"
"Eep," Hikaru said.
Ogata continued, "Plenty of people will be skeptical of that claim, I'm sure. And there hasn't been a computer program yet which could play Go on the professional level. Unlike chess, Go is too complex to be played by mindlessly running through every possible move. To create a computer that could strategize would require true artificial intelligence."
"I wouldn't know anything about it," Hikaru said faintly.
Ogata said, "I'm asking you to pass the message on. Someone shouldn't be threatened by this, although if he does chose to reveal himself he would be welcome."
"That guy terrifies me more with every passing encounter," Hikaru commented as Ogata walked away. "And the guy on television had glasses too. What is it with evil and glasses, Sai? Sai!"
Hikaru was horrified to see that Sai was disappearing around a corner, waving his hands as if he was being dragged away. His mouth moved but no sound came out.
Hikaru took after him in a run. As he rounded the corner, he saw Sai continue to drift away.
He tried to grab the ghost's hand, but needless to say his grasp went straight through. Sai was trying to mouth something but Hikaru was terrible at reading lips.
At other end of the aisle was a young Japanese woman, heavily pregnant, adding a box of cereal to her shopping basket. Standing behind her was Ogata.
Struggling frantically, Sai impacted with the woman. Needless to say, there was no real impact; the woman didn't even notice. But something very odd happened—Sai didn't tumble through her. He remained stuck. He kept trying to frantically jerk away, but his body was growing thinner.
A very horrible suspicion occurred to Hikaru. He wasn't sure if he was right—but the fact remained that Sai was disappearing, and this woman was causing him to disappear. The connection between her and Sai had to be disrupted somehow. Hikaru was too far away to reach her in time.
Hikaru shouted, "Lady, move! Get out here!" She seemed to have headsets in her ears, up to maximum volume since she didn't even look up. "Someone pull her away from that spot!"
Seiji Ogata poked his head around the woman, giving him a questioning look.
"You have five seconds to move her away from that spot or no one will ever hear from Sai again!" Hikaru screamed.
Without hesitation, Seiji Ogata tackled a pregnant woman.
Hikaru ran from the store as fast as he could move, pausing only to urge Sai on. It wasn't until he was three blocks away that he was able to heave a sigh of relief and collapse to the sidewalk.*
"What happened back there?" he demanded.
Sai said, "I can only speculate on the same information as you. But I do have to ask, what are your beliefs on reincarnation?"
Hikaru said, "I think I'm more open-minded on the subject than I used to be. Because that definitely looked to me like you were about to be forcibly reincarnated."
"I have been trying as hard as I could to stay in this world, even after it became obvious that my presence was fading away. But it seems I have an ultimatum: even if I stay here, it will no longer be as a ghost."
"You're disappearing? Why didn't you say something before?"
"I tried," Sai said.
"I'm sorry."
"I would have tried to tell you sooner, but I didn't want to worry you. And at first I was able to resist. But I think that after the last game with Touya Meijin, my time finally ran out. I should be grateful, I suppose, that this might mean a second chance at life, even if that is not what I want right now. And now this fake me—if I disappear I will never be able to clear my name."
"I'll stay far, far away from pregnant people, or anyone who looks like they might be either fat or pregnant," Hikaru promised.
Sai said gravely, "Thank you, I appreciate it. But although I don't want to go—I don't think I have a choice. We can delay this, but we can't stop it."
Hikaru's face crumpled and Sai seriously thought he might be about to cry.
XXX
*Sure, he'd left Ogata behind to be dragged off by the police, but it was only Ogata.
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who helped me make my goal of a hundred reviews! You guys are awesome!
This chapter wasn't as funny as usual (despite a mild helping of crack), but is necessary to set the stage for the climax of the story. Don't worry, it will be a funny climax! Also, I will be taking some liberties with how the Hokuto Cup is set up, for the sake of the plot. Events have already gone very differently from the original storyline, so it shouldn't be surprising.
Reference my previous note at the end of Chapter 7 on computers and how they can't play Go, or look it up on Wikipedia. But basically, there has never before been a show-down between the top world Go players and a computer before, because computers aren't on the level to challenge yet. But there is every expectation that someday this will happen, as it did with chess.
Don't worry about Ogata, he got off with a warning.