This is a very, very short chapter, yes I know, in fact I'm not sure if it's actually a chapter at all, but I just wanted to have some Akira in the story, and I decided it's best to post this separately. In the next chapter we return to Hikaru.

Thank you for your comments, 19x19, DYquem, and koryandrs! Warmly appreciated.

Interlude: Akira

Touya Akira had first heard of sai at his father's go salon. He hadn't paid much attention to it then, for although he had at times dabbled in net go, he preferred having real stones in his hands and opponents whose faces he could see, and he wasn't interested in some anonymous net players. And he knew how easily excited some of the patrons were – surely they would shortly find something else over which to obsess.

Next time he heard the name at the Ki'in when he was going to his father's study group – some insei were talking about this mysterious net player. Once again he walked by without giving it a second thought. When he ran across the name for the third time, though, it made a more lasting impression on him: Ichiryu-sensei and Zama-sensei were talking about sai as they came out of the elevator, and from the sound of it, Ichiryu-sensei had lost his game against this sai.

In addition to that, the people at his father's go salon were still talking about sai although nearly a month had passed. If anything, their obsession had just grown. So, he figured, it might be interesting to check out this sai one of these days.

And so, one day, he was sitting by his computer and watching how sai annihilated one opponent after another, and all he could think of was 'his game is beautiful!' He logged in (after he remembered his password, which did take a while) and asked for a game, but was declined. After that he stood back, just watching, until one day sai suddenly asked him for a game.

He was home alone. He had nowhere to go. The timing couldn't have been better. And, he knew, even if the timing had been worst possible, he would still have played this game.

...

"That was a fun game," Hikaru stated quietly in the computer class of Kanba elementary school. Akira had lasted longer than many – he was clearly a good player – but even he had to resign in the end. But it wasn't just his skill that Hikaru was talking about.

He played very inspiring go, Sai agreed with him. I wouldn't mind playing against him again some day.

Hikaru sat silently, watching the screen and the finished game. Hikaru? Sai asked. It's your turn to play.

"Oh? Oh, yes." The boy seemed to awaken from deep thoughts. "Sure. So, let's see, hmm… Zelda? Okay, I think I'll play him." Hikaru started a new game, and the one Sai had played with akira disappeared from the screen.

...

So, Akira thought after he was through revising the game for the third time, this 'sai' truly lived up to his reputation. He could understand why everyone was obsessing about his identity so. He wouldn't have minded finding out who sai was, himself. A pro? With his skills nothing else made sense, but he couldn't think of anyone who would be so strong. Strong enough that he wasn't sure if even his father would be able to win…

He wondered if his father knew about sai, and if he did, if he had ever watched sai's games. He thought about what an incredible game it would be if his father and sai were ever to play, and shuddered a little. He was, almost, happy that his father never played net go. The idea of that game was frightening.

He was very quiet that evening, and once he went to bed it took him long to fall asleep.

Next day when Akira woke up the first thing in his mind was sai. He thought about sai as he dressed up and ate his breakfast, couldn't really shake him off even during the game he played with his father. sai followed him to school and preoccupied his thoughts throughout the lessons, and as he left from school he was wondering how sai would have responded to his moves, if he had played some parts just a little differently.

He didn't go to his father's go salon this time as he usually did after school, but headed straight to the Ki'in. If, he figured, anyone had any idea of who sai truly was it would be someone there. He had no luck, though. He spoke with professionals, with staff, with editors of Go Weekly(who would have just loved to find out who sai was), but no one had a clue, and in the end he had to return home, having learned nothing. Apparently all he could do was just to swallow his disappointment and, together with the rest of the world, hope sai would reveal himself some day. And after all, he told himself, what did it matter who sai was? They were still able to play go against him (or her?) online. That had to be enough.

...

"Look, there's that 'akira' again. Want to play him or someone new this time?"

...

As days rolled by, turning into weeks and then months, Akira was able to play against sai a few more times. Every day after school he hurried to a nearby internet café, instead of his father's go salon where he was seen only rarely these days, for sai was usually online at that time (and when he thought what that might mean, he couldn't help feeling a surge of surely misplaced excitement – a player like sai simply couldn't be a schoolchild. Still, every now and then he did allow himself to dream.) He followed all the games he could, and when sai wasn't playing he studied countless game records. To his joy he had found a site online that had collected pretty much all sai's records, also from the early days when he didn't yet know of sai. He had a big bunch of them printed out in his room, neatly organized in folders for easy reviewing. And it was those old records that confused him.

"It's very peculiar," he told his father one evening when they had finished the dinner and his mother was cleaning the table. "Some of the games he played back then, although they were certainly excellent games too, were clearly weaker than his other games. It's almost as if… as if there had been two players then, and sometimes it feels like there still are, but it's frightening enough to think that there's one strong player like that, but if there are two…"

"Akira," his father said, but he didn't hear, eyes fixed into distance, as if he were trying to see through time and space and catch a glimpse of this "ghost in the net", as some had (half) jokingly called sai.

"I was thinking that maybe a student and a teacher, for their styles really are awfully similar, but even so, the student is learning too fast, much too fast, and I just…"

"Akira." The word was sharper, heavier, and now it got his attention.

"Yes, father?"

Touya Kouyou sighed. "I have been thinking," he said slowly, carefully, "that you spend too much time obsessing about this sai. I have seen his games, I know his strength, and I can understand why he enthralls you so, but you're overdoing it. You should stay away from him, at least for a while. It is not good to concentrate like that on the games of just one single player. Besides… I don't deny it that there is, potentially, much we all could learn from him, but there is something shady about a man who hides his identity like this, and something even shadier about his strength. I can't help feeling that this secret is best left unrevealed."

"But, father…" he tried to put in, but his father raised a hand, cutting him off.

"You have your future, your own career to think of. Concentrate on that, on the real, flesh and blood opponents who face you across a go board. It is with them you can find true go. Leave this ghost for others to chase."

"Yes father," Akira said quietly, watching his hands. Father had a point, he thought. Maybe he really was carrying his obsession too far. He had even been dreaming just about sai and his games nearly every night for a while. But even as he decided he would from now on try to avoid sai and net go, he knew it wouldn't be easy for him to ignore the existence of such a player.

A/N: Should I have written more about the game? I thought about it, but writing go games is not my strong point... and somehow, in this case, the game just didn't want to be written.

I'll try to get the next chapter finished soon. (note the word 'try'.)