Reaching Ithaka

by foreden

Summary:

When Hikaru takes Sai into a Go Salon to play, the first person they play is Touya Kouyo.

Chapter 1: Fated Meeting

It was a sunny day when he decided to make an impromptu stop at his Go Salon. His wife and son were spending some quality time together this afternoon, leaving him idle since he had no appointments or matches to attend to.

He had been meaning to stop by his establishment for awhile, though his busy schedule hadn’t permitted it so far. Usually the one that frequented the salon was his son, Akira. Akira spent many of his days after school studying go, playing go, and discussing go with the patrons at the salon. He was quite pleased to see his son’s interest and devotion to the game – go was an essential part of him that was passed down to Akira. His only wish would be for Akira to have a rival to play against; to help define his go and drive him to the height of his capabilities.

Not having a rival was also a problem he was facing. He accelerated through the ranks when he first became a pro before spending many years gaining and losing titles until he received the honored title of Meijin. He was fortunate enough to play against the best players in Japan; however, none of them managed to push him towards the hand of god.

The hand of god was the perfect match among equals.

He had yet to find someone that was his equal.

“Good afternoon, Touya-sensei.” The familiar voice of Ichikawa Harumi, the receptionist, greeted him from the front desk. Standing next to her at the front desk was a young girl with blonde streaked hair, still in her school uniform. It seemed that his presence had interrupted the conversation that they had been having.

He bowed his head slightly in greeting at the brunette. “Good afternoon, Ichikawa-san. I hope things are going well.”

The child was peering at him curiously, possibly finding him a strange sight dressed up so traditionally in public. Though she might consider his dress an outlandish sight, he could argue that she herself was an oddity. It was quite rare for children to make appearances in places like these. It was especially rare for young girls to have an interest in go.

“Ah yes. It is. I was just setting…”

“Are you here to play go, mister?” The girl rudely cut off the receptionist in the middle of her sentence. Touya held back his tongue about her lack of manners, knowing that it was not his place to teach other people’s children. He watched her as she seemed to survey the room; eyes darting at the patrons hunched over gobans, thinking hard about the next move before meeting his own.

“I’m looking for someone to play go with me. Ichikawa-san said there’s no one my age to play here today …”

“My son Akira is usually here,” acknowledged the professional.

The girl appeared to be quite bubbly; a contrast to Akira’s reserved demeanor. Akira had spent most of his life around adults and learned to behave at a young age. The girl’s carefree attitude and childishness, though a bit rude, were traits he would not have minded if Akira had possessed. He could not help but wonder if introducing Akira to go at such a young age forced him to grow up too fast. He was constantly surrounded by adults and did not have any friends that were his age.

“It looks like everyone else is paired up right now. I guess we’re stuck playing each other.”

The young girl spoke to him casually, without any acknowledgement that she was being quite brave to insist on a game against a titled go professional. Ichikawa balked at her declaration. It was quite obvious by her comment that the middle school girl did not recognize who he was. He wondered how much go the girl knew if she did not know much about the go world.

“Shindou-san, Touya-sensei doesn’t have time to play go with you.” Ichikawa clucked her tongue at the girl, disapproving at her lack of respect. The young girl furrowed her brows together in confusion at Ichikawa’s words, obviously finding the woman’s comment to be peculiar.

“I don’t see why you would say that. I mean, he came to the salon to play didn’t he?” There was no fault in her conclusion given her lack of knowledge. If she did not know much about the go world, than there was no way she would know who he was, let alone know that he owned the establishment.

He couldn’t help but find the girl interesting. Even though she did not know much about the go world, she still managed to challenge him, out of all people, to playing a game with her. The girl was bold, young, and mysterious. There was something that seemed to lurk beneath the girl’s childish veneer.

The air around her felt different.

He was unable to pinpoint what it was about her that stirred his spirit up. Anticipation welled within him and the need to play the adolescent was strong. He wanted to unravel the mystery and understand the reason why he felt that he needed to play against her.

“We can play in the back room.”

It was his intuition and curiosity that made him accept the girl’s offer to play against him. Following your instinct was something that he and Kuwabara often spoke about during their meetings with one another. Listening to your instincts in life, and especially in go, was crucial to your livelihood. Though go was a game of strategy and planning, instinct can help you avoid a trap your opponent skillfully has created for you and ensure your life for the rest of the game.

He led her to the backroom, exchanging greetings to patrons that noticed him walking by. Once they reached the room, he informed Ichikawa that he did not want to be interrupted when playing the game.

“I’ll make sure you two can play in peace.” Ichikawa bowed to him before retreating back to the front desk. The young girl fidgeted a bit when he motioned for her to one of the tables with a goban set up on it. She slid into her seat.

“How much do you know about the game, Shindou-san?” He asked her, recalling the name Ichikawa had called the girl earlier.

“I know enough to play it…” she mumbled, her eyes downcast.

“Do you know about the komi rule?” He asked her patiently. He watched as she looked to the space to her right quickly and then back to him, her eyes wide in confusion. “How much of a handicap would you like?”

“I…” she nibbled at her bottom lip. She seemed to be thinking hard before she shook her head. “I don’t need a handicap, sir. And could you explain what this komi rule is?”

He wondered how skillful the girl thought she was by not accepting a handicap from an adult. The girl was such an enigma. Akira had not even asked to play an even game with him – not yet at least.

While he explained to the girl the komi rule, he wondered if he should play a game of shidougo with the girl or not. The girl did not even hold the go stones properly in her hands. Rather, the way she held the stones were sloppy and inelegant, the way that beginners might go about holding the stones.

Before he decided to play a teaching game with the girl, he was swept away by the intensity that surrounded her as the game began. The intensity that he felt around her was like the feeling he felt when he played against the higher-dans in the Room of Profound Darkness. It was an intensity that a mere child should not be capable of. It took many years of devoting one’s life to go and playing game after game in order to attain that intensity. It was unfathomable how a mere child could have such a strength blazing from her as she played a game.

Her style of play was old. She played hands that once were conventional, but no longer commonly used. Her play style reminded him of the ingenuity of Honinbo Shusaku – adaptive to the circumstances and well thought out. He couldn’t help but think of how much more a monster she would become if she modernized her play. Already he was having difficulties keeping up with the girl.

He had studied Shusaku’s kufu when he was younger. He had always respected Shusaku and could not help but wonder how his go would have looked liked if he had the opportunity to play against the go legend.

Playing against the young girl made was like playing against Shusaku. Black and white battled each other throughout the board, fortifying what they could, attacking what they were able to until the game had entered yose.

In the end, he read far enough to know that he had won, by a few moku. Now all that was left was for her to realize it and resign.

“I have lost.” The girl bowed in defeat.

“Thank you for the game,” he responded.

He could not help but feel so exhilarated by the game that just unfolded on the goban. It had been so long since he felt so challenged and so excited when playing a game. The girl was a sleeping beast. Once she modernized her play, the margins between them will close in completely and who will win or lose would not be determined in advance. The titled go professional knew that he had finally found a rival to play against.

The hand of god was closer than he had dreamed.

---

 

She found his insistence with playing her again after she had lost to be surprising. It had taken her a moment of thinking to agree to play with him regularly. She mentioned something about how this should keep him happy before arranging weekly meetings at his house. He had even told her if she was uncomfortable with coming to his house to play go, he wouldn’t mind meeting her at the salon or even at her house.

It was a shock when she mentioned something about not having a goban at home. How she had become so skilled with the game had become a mystery. She was not like Akira, who had learned the game since he was two and studied it daily. Her skill was something that should not exist and he was unable to understand how she was able to play with the intensity that she had.

It was two months after their first match at the salon before she told him about Sai. Her story, as outlandish at it sounded, was the missing piece of the puzzle that helped him solve the mystery that was Shindou Hikaru. Everything started to make sense after Hikaru told him about Sai: her intensity when she played go, her skill level, her familiarity with Shusaku, and the insistence she had about hiding her skill at go to everyone but him.

She looked quite relieved and happier around him after she confessed her secret. Hikaru told him about Sai because she thought it would be sad if he did not know of Sai’s existence.

“Sai considers you as a rival and equal. He thinks very highly of you … I want you to feel the same for Sai himself. I want someone to acknowledge that Sai exists.”

Touya could not help but find his affection for the girl grow after her confession. The girl was brash, selfish at times, and a bit rude. Overall though, she was a good child. She was fulfilling the wish of a ghost who was haunting her and allowing him with the opportunity to reach his own goal of achieving the hand of god with Sai.

He wondered what the young girl thought about go. She was witnessing some of the greatest games he had ever played against someone whose skill was legendary. Though she had the front row seat in possibly witnessing the hand of god to come about, she was still a distance away.

Maybe, he could not help but think, rather than have Hikaru stand a distance away, that he and Sai could possibly bring her into this world as well? To share with her their passions and love for go.

He observed the girl who sat across the goban with him. She sat cross legged, still not use to sitting in seiza when sitting in front of the goban. Since she had told him the secret of Sai, she had taken the habit of speaking to Sai out loud in front of him.

“What do you think of go, Hikaru?” He asked her when her conversation with Sai seemed to be at a pause. She tilted her head and looked at the titled go professional in surprised. Though he often spoke with Hikaru, the two rarely spoke about go.

“I’m not sure,” Hikaru admitted to him. “I don’t really know much about go – even after watching Sai and you play against one another week after week. I don’t understand why pieces go where and how you guys know who had lost even before you reached yose.”

“But … sometimes when you are playing Sai, it seems like you guys are building a universe. Each stone you place on the goban is like another star in the sky.” Her words resonated with him. What she had seen in their go was something that many go professionals saw before they decided to turn professional. The fact that Hikaru had seen it was proof that she was meant to the play the game.

“Learn how to play go, Hikaru, and Sai and I will teach you how to build universes of your own.”

There was a bit of hesitation in her after she heard his request. From the look of things, Sai must have been talking to her as well, most likely agreeing with him. The girl’s gaze was shifted to the goban, then grasping the stones with her fingertips then letting them fall back into the container. Eventually, her gaze landed back to him.

“Okay.” She agreed.

“We’ll start with some life or death problems…”

---

 

Originally posted on Fanfiction.net.

Chapter 2: Slowly, but Certainly

Summary:

When Hikaru takes Sai into a Go Salon to play, the first person they play is Touya Kouyo.

After Touya Kouyo’s initial meeting with Sai and Hikaru, the go professional’s schedule became difficult to keep up with. As an established go professional, he was asked to travel often in order to play official matches and attend go conventions and tournaments all over Japan. He continued to hold his weekly study group sessions for his students, while spending as much time as possibly with his family. Even with all this going on, Touya made sure that he was able to add Sai and Hikaru into his schedule.

Playing Sai was something he was unwilling to give up. Especially not when the hand of god felt like it was an arm’s reach away.

His body had grown weary with all the stress he was asserting on it. The constant traveling was draining his energy and the lack of rest he had at home caused his body to feel like it was atrophying. Though he could feel his body’s weariness, it was not until his family doctor firmly address the issue did he really think about cutting back on something.

“Your body will fail if you continue on like this, sensei,” the middle aged man warned him. “I recommend that you cut down on something in your life and start to enjoy life at a slower pace.”

Cutting back on his family was not an option. The time he spent helping his wife around the house and the time he spent playing or talking about go with Akira was precious to him. They were simple everyday moments that made him feel at peace.

Eight months since the fated meeting with Hikaru, Touya Kouyo retired from the world of professional go.

---

 

Life after being a pro was a lot less obligation and more opportunities to rest. The former Meijin title holder continued to play go, attend conferences and tournaments (as a spectator rather than participant), and spent a lot of time with his family. Each day continued to be filled with things to do, but the weight was much lighter. The pace for activities was spread leisurely and he scheduled things to his liking. He was beginning to relax and start enjoying his life like his doctor instructed him to do.

He did not regret retiring at all. The reason why he hesitated so long about stepping down as a professional was not having the same opportunities to play against many of his peers. He enjoyed playing against his fellow peers – even if they were all competitive matches. However, he had come to realize that retiring did not remove his ability to play go. He was still able to play great games even after he retired.

His announcement for retirement had shocked the go world. Many questioned the reason why he would want to retire when he was still capable of playing the game. It was not as if his skill was slipping or he was incapable of physically playing the game. Regardless of the disappointment with his decision, many of the higher-dans were quite supportive and took this occasion to push forth game challenges to him. He would often play these games in the sanctuary of his home. These games were more informal and held a lot less tension and mind games that official matches tended to harbor. It was refreshing to be able to take a break for tea in the middle of a game.

Along with playing against go professionals, his schedule had cleared up considerably. He was now able to meet up with Hikaru and Sai multiple times of the week. During this time, he spent time playing against the Heian era ghost, assisting Sai with teaching Hikaru go, discussing go, and general talking with the two characters.

Talking to Sai that was more difficult. He had not wanted to bother the young girl too much at first with being to go between. However, it appeared that the young girl did not mind playing the role of interpreter. She relayed messages often they familiar with the strange communication flow that developed between the three of them. From what he could tell, Sai was overall a happy ghost. He was excited to talk about go and spent most of his time wanting to do go related things. Sai seemed to hold an almost childlike delight with the devices of the modern world, so much in fact that Touya sometimes wondered if Hikaru were truly the youngest of them. However, it would be the occasional underlying tone of sorrow that the Touya felt under the ghost’s words that made him know that the ghost had experienced so much. It had been so subtle that he was not certain if Hikaru felt it, even after spending every day with the ghost.

It was not in her nature to dwell on the sadder aspects of life.

Rather, when Hikaru talked, she spoke in a tone filled with excitement. She was animated when she spoke, scrunching up her face in various expression while waving her hands in big, swooping motions as she spoke. She laughed a lot, grinned even more, and even when she was upset her lips curled upward. She told him about a lot of things – about events that happened during the day, her mother, friends, tennis, Sai, and go. More recently, her conversation had concentrated more on go than it had before. Especially since Sai started to play go against opponents all over the world on the internet.

Playing go had started when Hikaru had gotten a computer on her birthday. The girl had been looking up Shusaku’s kifu on the net when she stumbled on a net go site. Since then, the Hikaru and Sai had been playing go on the net.

Touya was able to see the influence that playing these new opponents were doing to Sai’s go. The ghost was adapting to his surroundings with incredible speed and his go was constantly changing with every new opponent he played against online. Sai managed to completely shed off his dated hands that he had been so familiar with and replaced them with modern moves. Like he had predicted, Sai was turning into an absolute monster.

The go world had gone into frenzy with Sai’s appearance on the internet. Sai’s level of skill was recognized by amateurs and professionals alike from all over the world. Sai had caused so much ruckus that he even heard his students bring up Sai during their discussion groups. Hikaru had complained to Touya about how the two would get swamped with challenges whenever they logged on. Apparently it made navigating the site much more difficult with the pop ups. The fact that the ghost was completely anonymous had only added fuel to his popularity and Sai hunts had occurred on many occasions.

The waves that were caused by Sai and Hikaru did not go noticed by the instigators. The two remained ignorant about the go world except from the occasional details he would tell them during their conversations and the sporadic issues of Weekly Go that the young girl would take from his house.

The way that Sai and Hikaru approached go was refreshing to the older man. To the two go players, the only thing that mattered was the game itself. They played go and talked about go and cared little about the politics involved in the go world.

Hikaru was energetic when she talked about go. She liked to share with her teacher the brilliant games she witness Sai play on the internet. The young girl would replay the games that she and Sai had played by memory (and when she was stuck on what the next move had been, Sai would point it out for her). When the young girl did not have a game she wanted to share with the older man, she would ask him to share with her a game he had played recently. She would watch him replay it with rapt attention, making occasionally comments to Sai and him while he replayed it before entering a discussion with her two teachers about the game.

The middle school girl was starting to grow confident in her knowledge of the game. She was beginning to point out the areas that she assumed to be significant turning points and would ask his opinion about why he had placed a move or what he might have done to counter such a move.

His discussions of games with Hikaru were a bit different from the ones he had with his other students. It could be the fact that since Hikaru had not been too influenced by the go world; she tended to be more unconventional with her thinking. While Hikaru would pick up on important aspects of a game that she was discussing, there were times when the young girl would also bring up parts of the game that were dismissible. However, occasionally when he looked deeper into the game, he caught on to a bit of what the girl saw. He could see how much more interesting the game could have been if it had taken that turn.

Hikaru had a lot of potential in her. He could see it when she talked to him and when she played against him. She was something that was missing in the go world, a piece of the puzzle that was outside of the box. She was developing fast and he knew that it was only a matter of time before she would catch up his son Akira.

He couldn’t help but wonder what type of go would result when the played against one another in the future.

 

Chapter 3: Children of the Sky

Even though Hikaru was a regular presence within his home, Touya Kouyo found it curious how Akira and Hikaru managed to evade meeting one another without purposely trying. It had been over two years since he had taken the young girl as his student and still Akira and Hikaru had not managed to run into one another outside or inside of his home, let alone meet.

It was not as if the two children did not know of the other’s existence. Quite the contrary, both Akiko and he spoke of Hikaru and Akira to the other frequently. They spoke to them about the other so often that the two had a general sense of the ongoing happenings in the other’s life. They would occasionally even inquire politely about the well being of the other.

Even Ogata, who made visits to his home two or three times a month, managed to have a brief run-in with Hikaru. The young girl nearly plowed the man over with her school bag as she was running out of his house at the same time Ogata had arrived. Luckily his former student had taken Hikaru’s rudeness lightly. The go professional had been quite curious about where he was able to find such a cute, energetic female student that was willing to learn go.

After that run in, the two had met up with one another a few more times. None of the encounters were long enough for his two students to sit and talk (Hikaru seemed nervous about others knowing she was his student, from what she had said she was afraid that she would embarrass him due to her poor go playing skills), but their meetings were enough for even Ogata to mention the young girl to Akira at the institute now and then. What else Ogata might have also said to Akira about the girl, Kouyo didn’t know.

However, as strange as it was, it was not completely unreasonable that Akira and Hikaru had not managed to cross their paths over the years. Given that the two youngsters were quite busy with his and her life respective lives, the two did not spend much time under Kouyo's roof.

Akira had taken the exams to become a professional a few months after Kouyo's meeting with Hikaru. His son had entered the go world with a bit of a bang. He had a spotless record, passing the pro examination with no losses on his record. Then, as a go professional, he had continued to stir the waters by steadily working his way up the ranks, devastating the lower dans with his skills. If Akira had strictly adhered to playing only the official games assigned by the Go Institute and taking only the jobs given to him by the Institute, Kouyo's son would have had a lot more free time in his hand to spend at home. Perhaps then he might have been able to interact with Kouyo's most unpredictable student. However, Akira was never one to sit idly by and so he spent the greater portion of his waking hours away from home and any accidental encounters with Kouyo's guests.

Akira had managed to stay on top of all his schoolwork even as he worked as a professional go player. Even though he missed at least one day during the week, his son always brought home high marks on his exams and assignments. His son had also taken extra jobs in addition to the ones given to him by the institute. Akira also made sure to continue to visit the go salon whenever possible so he could interact with the regular patrons there, many of them individuals that he had known since before he could remember. Another of his son's commitments was the time he dedicated to share with Akiko and Kouyo, himself. Of course the bonding time Akira spent with Akiko was doing something Kouyo was glad he wasn’t also dragged along with while his own bonding time with Akira had always involved sitting in front of a goban and experiencing his son’s growth as a go player.

However, now with Akira’s higher rank, all the extra things that Akira used to do had been cut down considerably as his games and assignments had increased exponentially since he had left the lower dans and started competing in title matches.

It was a bit sad for Kouyo to see the time between the games he would play with his son had grow considerably. However, while that was true, he was at the same time both happy and proud to see his son make a place for himself in the go world. Akira seemed quite happy doing what he was doing, even if Kouyo's wife did complain about her son not having a social life.

Hikaru, on the other hand, had a calmer schedule compared to Akira. The young girl did not have the responsibility of being a go professional to weigh her down so she had more time to do things girls her age might do. Like Akira, Hikaru attended high school. From what Kouyo could gather, the partly blonde girl was not an ideal student at school. She studied only when she had to and tended to get average marks on almost everything, only excelling in literature or history.

Whatever Hikaru lacked in academics, she made up in social skills. The young teen had numerous of friends that she would spend time with, doing things that high school girls might do. Kouyo would sometimes hear Hikaru animatedly gush about her outings with her friends to Akiko, who listened attentively to the young girl’s words. Akiko had definitely taken a shine to the exuberant teen and could sometimes be found letting out heavy sighs about how she wished Hikaru was her daughter. And, just as frequently, Akiko would also mention how marvelous it would be if Akira would one day marry the bubbly girl so that her dream would become a reality.

The remaining time Hikaru had left in her schedule was dedicated to playing tennis or else playing go with or for Sai. It wasn’t surprising that Hikaru spent a considerably greater amount of time playing go than she did with anything else in her life. From what he could observe from the girl, Hikaru really wanted to make sure that Sai was happy, and playing Go always made the ghost happy. However, it seemed the ghost also made sure that he wasn’t too demanding on making her do everything for him. Kouyo had witnessed one sided conversations where the unseen and unheard participant still encouraged Hikaru to play tennis as a member of her school’s tennis club, though she was not a regular on the school team. With her status of a causal member of the club, Hikaru was not required to attend all the club practices and would play hooky and skip practices more often than she should have.

Kouyo would have reprimanded Hikaru for her lack of responsibility if it wasn’t for the fact that Hikaru mostly skipped practices in order to catch a game with him. In a way he was pleased that Hikaru thought highly of the time he spent teaching her and liked how she wanted him to play with Sai as much as possible, however he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for encouraging such behavior from the girl.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Hikaru brushed it off when he told her that maybe she should start taking tennis seriously. “It’s my cousin that told me to join the team. He’s likes teaching me and he’s a bit … strange. I think he wanted me in the club so he can keep a closer eye on me.”

Kouyo raised his eyebrow at her words. It seemed like Hikaru did a lot more things for the sake of others than just playing go. “Don’t you get in trouble for not attending practice regularly though?”

“Hahaha,” she nervously chuckled. “My cousin … is strange. They won’t say anything because they don’t want to be on his bad side. Plus, I’m not a regular member so it doesn’t matter as much …”

She shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Besides, there’s nothing else we can do … you’re busy sensei. And I much rather spend time playing go with you and Sai than play tennis.”

It was endearing the way Hikaru had warmed up to Go the way she did. She had started out as someone who knew of the game, but did not know the game to someone who showed extraordinary skills in playing Go. Her tactics and strategies were unorthodox and compelling to witness and play against. However, what was more amazing was the amount of time it took her to build up her skill in go. While Akira's current skills had been developed over his lifetime, Hikaru had risen to her current level far more quickly by comparison.

It would not surprise him at all if Hikaru had decided to take the professional examination in the upcoming year and passed it without much difficult at all. He was quite proud of the girl and couldn’t help but wish she would consider a career as a go professional. She would create waves, similar to the ones that Akira had created. She would also be able to show everyone even more of Sai’s go.

He could hear the sound of the front door sliding open before a telltale “tha-dunk”, undeniably it was the sound of sneakers getting thrown haphazardly by the door, followed. It was definitely Hikaru that had just arrived at his home. He couldn’t help but take a look at his watch as well. It had been nearly ten minutes since Akira had left for a two day conference a few towns north of here. The two had barely missed each other yet again.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” The bubbly voice echoed in his house. Kouyo got up from his chair, placing the book that he had been idly reading before she arrived on the table. His musings were forgotten as he began to focus on the reality of his young student rather than his private meanderings. She was a fascinating little enigma in theory but far more interesting in person, most especially when she was on the other side of the goban.

Chapter 4: Stairway to Heaven

He was able to recognize that there was something a bit off about the way Sai played go recently. Years of studying Shusaku’s kifu when he was a young professional paired with the years he spent playing Sai allowed Kouyo to have a good sense of Sai’s go well enough for him to understand the ghost even if he was unable to directly communicate with him. Because of that, he was able to noticed that the ghost’s go was off.

It was not as though Sai’s go had deteriorated in skill. On the contrary, Sai’s go grew stronger and even more profound. However, underneath his go, there was an underlying element of melancholy and urgency in the spirit’s go that Touya was not able to understand. He was not sure what could have caused the spirit’s slight depression.

Kouyo was unable to tell if Hikaru had noticed these changes in Sai. One would imagine that with Hikaru spending every waking moment with the ghost (Sai never did leave her side save for the few times when she required her privacy), she would have been the first person to notice the changes in her constant companion. It would have been true for most people except with Hikaru, things were a bit different. Like her namesake, Hikaru had a bright personality and had a carefree attitude to life that made her quite unobservant to the things around her. This attitude caused the young girl to be rude at times, she never was well with taking into account time, place, and the people around her when she spoke. However, there was no malice in her behavior. She did it only because that was what she did.

Given the way Hikaru went on about her day at school and the tennis match she saw her cousin play last week (and won with much ease), Touya knew that Hikaru did not notice the changes in Sai. The girl was not completely dense to the point that she was unable to see the changes in Sai if the ghost had been seriously depressed or different. Thus, Touya couldn’t help but suspect that Sai was hiding his emotions from Hikaru. The only reason why he probably noticed the changes in Sai was the only way that he communicated with Sai was through go. With one’s heart being clouded, one’s go would change with it.

“Pa-chink.” Hikaru’s white piece made contact with the smooth wood of the goban.. The sounds had woken him from his contemplation about the ghost and back to the piece that Hikaru had just placed down for Sai.

It was an unexpected move.

It was not as though the move that Sai had placed was a bad one. In all actuality, the move was quite good. It was just the fact that the move was not something he had expected to come from Sai. Rather, the move was something Kouyo could see Hikaru play out rather than that of her mentor.

How peculiar.

It seemed as though whatever was bothering Sai was directly linked to one Shindou Hikaru. He looked up from the goban to take a good look at the blonde seated across from her.

Hikaru changed a lot since he first met her. She had lost all of her baby fat and was a bit taller than before (though Akira’s growth spurt would have had his song towering over the girl if ever they were standing in front of one another). Hikaru had also shed some of her tomboyish mannerisms and was trendy while spending a lot of her time socializing with the other girls in her class. She did still have the habit of being rude at times and for blurting things out without thinking it. But, from what Hikaru told her, Sai constantly nagged her about her manners so she put more of an effort to be polite.

Even with all these changes in Hikaru, all of them were gradual changes that were developed through time. Nothing about these changes should have caused Sai to become worried or upset.

So what was it about Hikaru that had the ghost acting a bit off?

He sighed and looked back down to the board, knowing that the girl probably was wondering why he was staring at her for so long or else wondering why he was taking so long to put down the next piece.

However, Hikaru had not spoken about Kouyo’s staring or about how long the game was taking. The girl tried to be patient when the two men played go versus one another, but she was not someone able to sit down for such a long time without talking or doing something. She tended to fidget a lot while seated during her mentors’ games.

Now that he thought about it, Hikaru had stopped fidgeting some time ago. Rather, Hikaru’s eyes were trained on the goban. She would play out different possibilities left in the game and try to foresee the end of a match.

When was it that Hikaru was able to read that deeply into a game? When she watched Sai or him play go, she would try her hardest to read ahead, trying to guess what the two rivals might have in store for one another. When Hikaru played go, she would set up intricate traps that required much foresight that she did not have before.

It would seem as though Hikaru had grown serious about go. He previously felt as though Hikaru learnt and played go in order to please Sai and him and earn the two go player’s affection. Though that might have been true initially, Hikaru’s interest in go was now genuine.

He picked up a cold stone between his fingers and placed it in a cluster by the center of the board. He watched as a smile lifted on Hikaru’s lips, most likely because the girl knew he was going to put the piece there.

‘What is it my friend, that makes you so concerned?’ Kouyo silently asked the ghost.
As expected, silence answered him.

---

 

He was never the type to dream too much. Throughout his lifetime, he had a few dreams, none he remembered anymore but far more nights where he just fell into a dreamless cycle only to wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. It had been years since he had a vivid dream.

Thus, he was almost certain that he was awake, seated in front of the goban in one of the rooms in his house. There doesn’t seem to be anything amiss. However, the game that had been played out on the goban was not one that he had played.

The game had been a fierce battle between black and white. There were many clusters of conflict and the two players seemed to be even in strength. He couldn’t help but think both styles of go were quite familiar to him. In the end, it was white that was the victor.

“It’s here,” a white fan pointed somewhere near the corner. Kouyo looked at the stone that the ghost pointed out. “If my opponent had connected to here soon after he played this piece, I would have been forced to defend.”

The retired go professional watched as a few of the stones rearranged itself on the board. One by one another ending was playing out. “If my opponent had played it out this way, I would have lost.”

Kouyo looked up from the board and to the man that was speaking. He recalled Hikaru’s voice from a year ago, as she described the way that Sai looked after she failed at drawing a picture of the ghost. Apparently, her art skill was so bad that Sai had cried after seeing the picture she drew of him.

The figure across from him smiled at him. His long violet hair was tied back and his white robes were arranged nicely around him. He held a white fan in his right hand.

“Sai…”

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” the ghost bowed his head down in greeting. He returned the ghost’s gestures. If that was Sai, then the game that was on the goban was definitely one that was played by Sai online.

Taking another look at the board, Kouyo was able to recognize Sai’s brilliance in the game. It was a bit of a surprise to him that there was someone else out there that was able to play Sai this equally. He watched as the pieces played out in proper order as white and black rallied against one another. Black responded to Sai in the manner similar to what he would have done.

The pieces stopped appearing when it came to possible turning point of the game. Now that he had seen the game unfolded, he was unsure if he would have noticed the alternative ending if it had not been pointed out to him.

“It was Hikaru that pointed it out, didn’t she?” Kouyo asked the ghost as he watched the pieces on the goban slowly disappear until all that was left was a blank surface staring back at him. “Hikaru managed to go beyond you with that one move.”

Sai nodded. The ghost was quiet for a moment before flipping his fan open and then closed again.

“When Hikaru pointed it out, I came to realization that god did not send me back to earth in order to attain the hand of god. All these years I spent on earth and all the games I have played while here was for an entirely different reason. I went sent to earth to play this one game and teach Hikaru go.”

“As soon as I realized it, I also knew that my time was now up. I had served my purpose. This meant that now it was time for me to move on. However, moving on meant that I was to leave Hikaru soon.” Tears began to freely flow down the ghost’s face. Opening up his fan, he hid his face behind it.

“I love her. Hikaru has always listened to my selfish desires and tried her hardest to grant my wishes. The years that we spent together, the games that we played, the fights that we fought are all precious to me.”

“Touya-sensei, please grant this selfish man one last wish,” Placing down his fan on the goban, Sai bowed his head low at his rival. “Take care of Hikaru for me.”

“Of course,” he answered automatically. He had already known what his rival’s request was going to be such that the answer was already on the tip of his tongue. Even without asking, Kouyo would have made sure to take care of Hikaru to the best of his abilities. Hikaru was precious to him as well.

The ghost had a serene smile on his lips before he began to slowly fade out of existence.

“It has been an honor having you as a rival.”

Morning came soon after, followed by a frantic Hikaru at his doorstep. She made little sense with her words rushed and her sentences incomplete. She ran around in his home, opening doors to rooms and desperately searching before he stopped her by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight hug.

All Hikaru was able to do was cry.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Ithaka