Hikaru No Go Fan Fiction ❯ Outplayed ❯ A Perfect Hand ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

 
As you probably know, I don't own Hikaru no Go and appreciate the owners letting me play in their universe. I definitely don't make any money from this fic.
 
 
 
 
 
Akira and Hikaru were at their usual table in the go salon, bent over some kifu and playing out the game on the goban. It was about two weeks since Akira had seen Kadowacki's kifu and for once there were not a lot of patrons gathered around listening to their discussion. The people who were in the salon were busy playing their own games.
 
“Look at this shape. It's terrible. Then he fell apart here. He must have been completely overcome by nerves,” Hikaru pointed out. What a waste of time. Why did Akira want to review these kifu.
 
“That's true,” Akira agreed. “Ichiryu-sensei certainly didn't go easy on him. Usually the high dans play a little more gently against the Shodan in their Shinsodan match.”
 
“He was probably still angry from having lost to you in the Honinbou League last month. Still, how could Ishikawa shodan have let it get this far out of hand? If he'd played here…” Hikaru pointed out a spot.
 
“Then Ichiryu-sensei would just have gone here and attached there a play later,” Akira added. “Even in a slump Ichiryu-sensei couldn't have missed that position.”
 
“Hmm, this kifu is a waste of our time. Why are we bothering to study the kifu from these new pro Shinshodan matches anyway? This one is really bad and the other two aren't that great. No one covered himself with any glory. What were you thinking when you brought them here. There is nothing to be learned from them except how not to play a Shinshodan match.”
 
“This from the guy who didn't even play his own Shinshodan match?”
 
“I know. That really bites. I had so looked forward to it, too.” Hikaru froze and looked up at Akira. Akira was wearing his battle eyes and had a satisfied smile on his face as though he had just laid a perfect hand. `That was so easy,' Akira thought. `All I had to do was get him on the subject and get him arguing. Shindou's mouth does the rest. These kifu made a perfect excuse.' Akira held up his hand to stop the obvious denials which were about to come out of Hikaru's mouth.
 
“Shindou, please, you do not have to explain but at least tell me this. Will anyone ever play Sai again?”
 
Hikaru sighed, dropped his head and then looked at Akira with sad eyes that held a trace of tears. “No, I don't think anyone in this life will ever play Sai again.” Akira just nodded. Hikaru was silent with his fist on his thigh. Akira didn't say anything. He just waited. Hikaru sighed again.
 
“Sai, he was the…” Suddenly Kitajima-san slapped Hikaru on the back.
 
“So here you are again you little beginner dan, trying to get learning from Touya-sensei. You little weakling shouldn't keep arguing with sensei when he tries to give you the benefit of his experience and brilliance. You couldn't begin to understand the quality of teacher and training that Touya-sensei went through.”
 
Hikaru went stiff and silent and Akira was suddenly enraged. He had been SO close. Without warning he leapt up and confronted Kitajima-san with the full brunt of his disappointment. “Shut up! You are always insulting Shindou. Who are you to insult him? You're an old man who is too weak to possibly understand the strength of Shindou's go. I'm stronger than he is right now, but I study and fight tooth and nail to stay ahead of him. You have no idea what he knows or what training he went through. What right do you have to call him weak?”
 
The entire Salon watched in shock as Akira stormed out of the building. Then they all turned to look at Hikaru, who looked just as shocked as anyone. Kitajima looked as though he had just been hit by a truck at top speed. Akira-kun sure has changed more than a bit since Hikaru-kun started coming around, Ichikawa thought. The room was silent for a good minute or more.
 
“Umm, Kitajima-san? It's o.k. I'm sure Touya will apologize to you tomorrow.” Then he slowly walked over to Ichikawa's counter. “I guess we're through for the day. May I please have my pack?” He walked silently out the door. Everyone in the salon watched him go and then Ichikawa turned to Kitajima.
 
“Why do you constantly put Hikaru-kun down? The poor kid's only 16 years old and he comes in here to face constant insults from a man old enough to be his grandfather. He's an excellent go pro. We all know it. Akira-kun knows it and finally defended his friend,” she said. That surprised Kitajima-san.
 
“Do you really think they are friends?”
 
“Of -course- they are friends. Are you so old you can't remember what it was like when you were a teenager? I've got a couple of brothers only a few years older than those two. They'll fight and argue and scream and yell at each other, but let someone else insult the other one, and the two will proverbially stand together back to back to defend the pack. Do you truly not remember getting into fights with your buddies in grade school? Wasn't it always over stupid petty garbage? It didn't mean they weren't your buddies, did it? What if someone from the next school insulted your friend? He got smacked down quick enough, didn't he?” Ichikawa was a lot younger than Kitajima but she had had more than enough of listening to his `fanaticism on the subject of the go-messiah, Akira-sensei.' It was starting to creep her out a little bit, if she was honest and she had thought she was second to none in her admiration for Akira-kun's go skills. Kitajima was beyond `enough is enough.' She was also worried that Hikaru-kun would get so fed up with the harassment he would stop coming to visit Akira-kun and that would be really unfortunate. She thought Hikaru-kun was good for Akira-kun. He got him to act a little more childish sometimes, instead of always acting like a carefully controlled adult.
 
Out on the street Hikaru walked slowly towards the station to put up the train to go home. He came across Akira walking slowly back towards the salon. They just looked at each other. Hikaru made a face.
 
“Wow, Touya, that's a new attitude for you.” He had never heard Akira raise his voice to anyone but himself and even that was only when they were arguing about hands and shapes over a goban.
 
Akira sighed. “I lost my temper.”
 
Hikaru laughed. “I didn't think you had a temper with anyone but me.
 
Akira was embarrassed. He had never lost control of himself like that before. He had just been so disappointed when it seemed Hikaru was about to finally tell him the mystery behind Sai and Kitajima had to come in and interrupt the whole thing. Akira had truly had been getting annoyed with Kitajima even before this happened. He just didn't understand why he kept insulting Hikaru. It was almost like a blind spot with him, as though he had to insult Hikaru to convince himself he was nothing and no threat to Akira himself. Then of course Hikaru couldn't just ignore Kitajima and rise above the insult. He wouldn't be Hikaru if he did. He had to respond and escalate the situation. Didn't Kitajima understand that even though Touya was the better player of the two of them, Hikaru was head and shoulders above the other pros his own age and better than any of the lower dans except for Touya himself? It just didn't make sense for Kitajima to have this driving need to insult Hikaru as though he was nothing. Touya didn't understand it but then Kitajima truly was not the world's best go player, even for an amateur his age. Akira liked having someone his own age to debate with even though Hikaru's opinions sometimes drove him crazy.
 
Unfortunately, however, Akira knew that Kitajima was older and he had been wrong to yell at him. He had been raised to respect his elders. “I will have to apologize to Kitajima-san.” He grimaced.
 
“That's o.k. I told him you would probably apologize to him tomorrow,” Hikaru said. Akira nodded in agreement. He really didn't want to return to the salon tonight and it was only his deeply ingrained manners which made him head back there. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
 
“Hey, how about some ice cream?” Hikaru asked.
 
“It is almost time for dinner.” Ice cream really did sound good to Akira but it was getting late.
 
“Yeah, but after the afternoon we've both had we deserve it.” The two boys bought their ice cream and were silent while they started eating it. They walked over to a bench in a small nearby park area and sat down. They ate in silence for a few minutes. Akira just waited. He was hoping Hikaru might bring up Sai again if he was patient. Hikaru sighed and studied the ground.
 
“I miss him every day,” he finally said slowly. “Not a day goes by that I don't want to ask him something, or tell him something or play go with him; not one single day.”
 
“Sai,” Akira said. It was a statement and not a question.
 
Hikaru just nodded his head. “Not one single day.”
 
“You don't have to tell me, but my mother says it helps to share things.” Akira said quietly.
 
“You'll think I'm a lunatic,” Hikaru said. Akira laughed softly.
 
“I've done battle with you over a goban. Do you really think I could ever think you're a lunatic?” Akira asked. Hikaru shrugged his shoulders. Akira decided to prod him. “Is Sai the ghost of Shuusaku?” Akira continued. Hikaru just stared at him, then sighed and finally said,
 
“Sort of; Sai was the ghost who played all of Torajiro's games. He was Shuusaku but he wasn't Torajiro.”
 
“Just as he was you before you started learning go for yourself.” All the little pieces were starting to fall into place.
 
Hikaru nodded and started talking. The ice creams were long gone and the sky grew dark as two boys sat on a park bench. One talked and one listened. Hikaru realized that something tight inside him he hadn't even realized was still there started to unwind and relax. Akira's mother was right. It was good to share with someone.
 
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I didn't go into any details on Hikaru's initial conversation with Akira since we all know the story ourselves and I thought it might be boring. There will be two more short chapters to this which will be conversations between Akira and Hikaru after he tells him about Sai. They both play into the theme of “Outplayed.” I just wanted to end this chapter with the warm and fuzzy bonding conversation.
 
I have always felt that Hikaru was being overly paranoid about keeping Sai a secret. It is frequently that way in anime. “The secret must be kept at all costs.” Once Sai left, and even really before he left, there was no major need to keep it such a deep dark secret. I have never felt the excuse of “you'll think I'm a liar or crazy” played well. His friends might not totally believe him at first, but most people in the world are at least a tiny bit open to the idea of ghosts or spirits, and the answer truly explains the otherwise inexplicable. Besides, Hikaru could always take the attitude “the heck with him if he doesn't believe me. I tried.”
 
On a related thought, I am also utterly convinced in the canon universe Touya Kouya has the basics of the truth by the end of the manga. There are at least two panels showing him in seiza in front of an empty goban with his opening move on the board. Waiting for Sai, are we? Sorry Kouya, not happening. He may not know the mechanics, but he realized the presence in front of him at the shinshodan was the same as the presence on the internet. Everyone talked about how Sai's joseki improved from incredibly strong but antique Shuusaku to modern and incredibly powerful. His go evolved as he learned the modern techniques. Then there was the conversation between Yan Hai and Kouya about how a spirit would only be able to play go on the internet. Kouya's face in the next panel shows a reaction. It hit a nerve when Yan Hai said “only play go on the internet.” Like I said, he may not know the mechanics or whether Sai was definitely Shuusaku, but he pretty much has figured out the truth.
 
I really like Yan Hai. He's my favorite of the side characters.