Fic: Next to NetGo 13/19
Title: Next to NetGo 13/19 (Edit: NO, it hasn't ended yet. Deepest apologies!)
Series: Hikaru no Go
Disclaimer: Characters except Fujimoto, Kaneda and Ohda are the creation of Hotta and Obata
Pairing: Akira/Hikaru
Type: AU. What if Hikaru had continued playing NetGo, and never became an insei (or a pro)?
Summary: Hikaru is dragged to the world of professional Go, but you can't make him drink.
-----------(13)-----------
Initially, Hikaru's parents had received the news that Akira and Hikaru were dating with shock and dismay, and had reacted by attempting to cut off all ties between them. Hikaru had put up with it for three days, before blowing up at them in a rage. Thrown objects had been involved, as had a threat to leave home.
Akira learnt all of this from Hikaru, and it explained how Hikaru's parents went from hanging up the phone on Akira, to inviting him for dinner, albeit nervously, all within a week. Since then, Hikaru's parents had approached any mention of their relationship with a bewildered acceptance that started with "Akira-kun is a very good boy-" and trailing off from there with nervous looks at Hikaru.
For this reason Akira decided not to bring Hikaru home yet.
Instead, Akira headed for the Touya residence. It was dark when he reached his home, with Hikaru at his side--dusk fell more quickly these days--and let himself in, leading him in with a firm hand-grip. They linked arms and walked together to his room, but they had to pass by the study on the way. "Fujimoto?" he said, seeing his student. "You're here?"
Hikaru roused, at what must have been the blatant surprise in his voice. "Huh. Akira?" he asked, and blinked, as though waking from deep sleep. "Kaneda-san? And Ohda-san?" He had spotted them before Akira did.
"You two are here too," Akira said, "but-"
Hikaru said, "Touya-sensei!" and clutched at him with both arms.
It was his father, Akira saw, in a kimono of sober blue, who had came out of the study. The insei made way for him, and stood behind. "You're back, Akira," he said, and glanced at Hikaru. "Shindou-san."
Akira looked briefly at Hikaru before nodding at his father in greeting. "Yes, I'm back," he rejoined belatedly, even as Hikaru began to bow fervently in his father's direction. He grabbed Hikaru from the back by the collar of his uniform before Hikaru could bow a second time. "Stop that," he said quietly to Hikaru. "Were you playing Go?" he asked his father, looking from him to his students.
At the question, Fujimoto made a mournful face from behind Akira's father, and was promptly elbowed by Ohda. Judging from the meaningful looks aimed at him, Akira deduced that his father had led the three of them on a merciless teaching session.
"Your students have worked hard," his father said, looking from Akira to Hikaru with mild curiosity.
Akira took that to mean that his father had trounced all three of them. "Yes. I'm sure they have," he said, pointedly not looking at Fujimoto's pantomime of fainting dramatically into Ohda's arms. "I didn't schedule a teaching session today, though."
"We were going to wait for you to get back from your game, Sensei!" Kaneda said immediately.
Both Fujimoto and Ohda glared at their co-student at that, Akira noticed, and wondered at their reactions. "Oh, I see," he said. "But you could have come to see it at the Go Institute." In fact, he had heard his students discussing it a few days ago, and was puzzled that they had not turned up.
"Um, we didn't want to distract you," Kaneda said, glancing at Fujimoto and Ohda.
"Yeah," Fujimoto put in quickly.
Ohda put in, "We didn't realize you'd be back so late!"
"I was having a bite with Hikaru," Akira said. Anxious to get Hikaru away before more questions came up, he added, "Excuse me, I have something to discuss with Hikaru. Father, we're going to my room now. Fujimoto, Kaneda, Ohda, we can discuss the game another time."
Ohda nodded. "Of course, Sensei. We can do that next time we meet. We should get back now. Touya-sensei," she said to Akira's father. "Thank you for your instruction today." She bowed.
Fujimoto and Kaneda did the same, and after a few more pleasantries, they parted ways. Akira kept his arm firmly on Hikaru's shoulder until they reached his room.
Once there, Hikaru sat down on the floor in a rush, as though his feet had refused to hold him up any longer. "That was Touya-sensei!" he said.
"Yes, it was," Akira said, sitting down beside him.
"Those were your students just now."
"Yes."
"You had no teaching session today."
"Not when I have an official game, Hikaru."
"But they came anyway."
"Yes, they did. They are rather informal with me."
"And people really think that Sai is a pro," Hikaru said.
"That's right."
"Oh, good." Hikaru rubbed his eyes slowly. "I was starting to think that I imagined all of that."
"No, it really happened," Akira said.
Hikaru swallowed, and was quiet for a moment, before he turned to his schoolbag, and pulled out the stack of kifu. He tried to smooth the crumpled ones, though with limited success, and laid them out one by one.
He was placing them in some unspecified order, Akira realized. He moved to the side, to make space on the floor for Hikaru and the kifu, watching as the pieces of paper spread out in front of Hikaru in a fan-like pattern, and wondered what Hikaru had in mind, now.
Hikaru closed his eyes for a second, then opened them.
Akira bit his lip involuntarily when he saw the sharp focus in those eyes. Brilliant Go player Hikaru might be, but he seldom revealed that kind of concentration: the ability to calculate all possible permutations--at once. It was the stance of a master strategist, a type of Go player that Akira had always wanted to be. Akira was struck by the realization that he had never really seen Hikaru act like this with him before. It was as though Hikaru had not regarded him as a real opponent before. He started to bristle at the blatant challenge now.
Hikaru was talking. "I suddenly realized that there are a few weird things about these. Do you know, except for Sai, all the other players are pros?" he asked.
Distracted, Akira only said, "But my father-" In the next moment, he realized that Hikaru meant. "All the kifu are from the time the players were pros. Like the one with Father. Except for Sai."
"When I first thought that, I couldn't understand why Sai was an exception," Hikaru said. He glanced at Akira. "But if what those pro-friends of yours said is true, then people think that Sai is a pro as well."
Akira didn't bother to correct him about the part about 'friends'--besides, he liked to think that Yashirou counted as a friend--and only waited.
Hikaru went on, "All the kifu are incomplete, but they all show the same thing: Black threatening White." He paused, and looked at Akira. "And in NetGo, Sai always plays white."
That was true. Sai's reputation on NetGo was such that it had become an accepted practice for other challengers to play as Black and start the game in lieu of a handicap. Akira frowned as the implications became clear in his mind. "You mean-"
"Someone is challenging me to enter the pro world."
"Someone who thinks you're Sai," Akira said without missing a beat.
Hikaru nodded. "Yes," he said.
Akira took a deep breath, but did not know what to say next. That explained Hikaru's earlier reaction, he thought with the part of his mind that was still calm. He felt like shouting, for some reason.
"I think," Hikaru looked down at the tatami floor, where his fingers were picking uselessly at the woven strands, "that part of me had sensed that already, at the restaurant. But I had to study the kifu again, to be sure."
"And now you're sure," Akira said.
"Yes," Hikaru said again.
Akira looked at him, trying to keep the questions from his eyes. He remembered Hikaru's determined look that afternoon, the one that accompanied his declaration to turn pro, and his admission that he had been playing for Sai. His heart gave a wrench. "What are you going to do?" he asked.
Hikaru shook his head. "I have to stop them from thinking that I'm Sai," he said.
Yes, Akira knew that Hikaru would be horrified to be revealed as Sai, not least because he did not consider himself to be Sai at all, even though he had been playing as Sai for years. He would do anything to prevent Sai's legacy from being diluted by being 'exposed' as Hikaru.
"After that day-" Hikaru said suddenly, and paused.
Akira frowned, trying to think which day Hikaru was referring to.
"I began to chase you," Hikaru said.
He was talking about their second game, Akira realized. No, his and Sai's second game.
Hikaru went on. "I had no idea someone my age could be like that. I watched you throw your heart and soul into a game, and I wanted that. You were right then; I had never been serious like you. I wanted to be serious like that, but I didn't know how. But then... Sai taught me."
The renewed wonder in his voice made Akira's throat tight.
"Sai taught me his Go, which was really his heart and his soul." Hikaru looked up briefly in Akira's direction, but his head dipped again before Akira could hold his gaze. "How could I chase you, if I didn't have that?"
Akira froze. Could it be that Hikaru had been chasing him after all? He had always insisted it was Sai that made him take up Go.
"But you didn't really chase me, in turn; you were chasing Sai all along," Hikaru said. "And I told you, if you kept chasing my shadow, you'd be overtaken by the real me."
Akira stared at him, not understanding why Hikaru was bringing that up. "But what are you going to do?" he asked.
"I'm going to make sure no one touches Sai," Hikaru said. "And I'm making sure that everyone knows that Sai and I are separate people."
"Hikaru," Akira said, louder this time. "What are you going to do?"
"You'll see," Hikaru leant down and grabbed his bag, shouldering it without looking at Akira, before he walked out.
"Hikaru!"
The sheets of kifu fluttered on the floor in his wake.
-----
That night, Sai lost a game.
Back in his room after a late shower, Akira had not meant to turn on his computer at all. Between the game with Kurata and everything with Hikaru afterwards, all he wanted to do was to go to bed, and let sleep dull his emotions. He had no idea what Hikaru meant, but it had sounded ominous, and Hikaru had not turned on his cellphone.
The game had already ended by the time he logged into the website, but already there was a long discussion on it. His exhaustion forgotten as soon as he saw the news, Akira searched for more details, and stared at the screen showing the results of a two-hour game between "SAI" and "HAL2001." The bright screen hurt his eyes. It was only half a moku, but for the first time since anyone could remember, Sai had lost. Instead, he tried to sort through his feelings of disbelief and worry, and pushed down the impulse to go over to Hikaru's place right away.
Sai had lost. Looking at the kifu, he could find no sign of deliberate bad hands; only a slight miscalculation here and there that had resulted in Sai's defeat. Was it because Hikaru was too rattled by what happened that afternoon? His opponent was strong, but that had never stopped Hikaru before.
The next morning, Akira made his way to Hikaru's place.
----------to be continued------------
Chapter 12 | Chapter 14