A Hikaru no Go fanfiction "A memorial for Sai"
It had started with a casual comment from Waya which sparked an idea, and the idea had rapidly become an obsession. Now Hikaru sat in the middle of his living room surrounded by piles of frantically scribbled kifu the accumulated work of five days of cancelled appointments and sleepless nights. Hikaru pencilled in the final move of his unfinished match with Sai before adding it to the pile and throwing himself backwards to lie flat on the floor staring up at the ceiling. He had finally finished, he had a complete and comprehensive record of every game he and Sai had played in the years they had been together, all these games that would otherwise be lost. Now he needed to decide what to do with the work.
Any pro who knew him would recognise his style of play instantly and so know who he was. Would it be so bad though if they knew he had been Sai’s student? Shouldn’t that be something he was proud of? He had spent so many years hiding Sai, protecting his secret but was it really necessary? He wasn’t going to tell anyone Sai was a ghost all he would be admitting was that Sai had taught him Go, something that some people suspected anyway. Hikaru lay staring at the pattern on his ceiling considering the idea from every angle, trying to use his talent for Go to predict every possible outcome to the decision. Finally exhaustion won and Hikaru fell asleep staring at the cracks in the ceiling and considering possibilities.
When Waya Yoshitaka logged onto the message board he had set up the following evening he found that the board had exploded with comments about a single post.
The Sai kifu forum:
Subject Writer Comments
# 257 - A memorial to Sai Anonymous 177,892
Waya stared for several minutes, before clicking on the link to find a file marked Sai/student there was also a short cryptic note from the writer.
This is my eulogy for the man who taught me to play the greatest game ever made and so showed me how to live. It is also my apology to anyone who never had the opportunity to play him.
He has been gone for five years but so long as his games continue to touch those he played or those who watched him continue to be inspired he will never truly die.
My thanks, he loved playing you all.
.
Any pro who knew him would recognise his style of play instantly and so know who he was. Would it be so bad though if they knew he had been Sai’s student? Shouldn’t that be something he was proud of? He had spent so many years hiding Sai, protecting his secret but was it really necessary? He wasn’t going to tell anyone Sai was a ghost all he would be admitting was that Sai had taught him Go, something that some people suspected anyway. Hikaru lay staring at the pattern on his ceiling considering the idea from every angle, trying to use his talent for Go to predict every possible outcome to the decision. Finally exhaustion won and Hikaru fell asleep staring at the cracks in the ceiling and considering possibilities.
When Waya Yoshitaka logged onto the message board he had set up the following evening he found that the board had exploded with comments about a single post.
The Sai kifu forum:
Subject Writer Comments
# 257 - A memorial to Sai Anonymous 177,892
Waya stared for several minutes, before clicking on the link to find a file marked Sai/student there was also a short cryptic note from the writer.
This is my eulogy for the man who taught me to play the greatest game ever made and so showed me how to live. It is also my apology to anyone who never had the opportunity to play him.
He has been gone for five years but so long as his games continue to touch those he played or those who watched him continue to be inspired he will never truly die.
My thanks, he loved playing you all.
.