The Never-ending Road: Chapter 73 – The Next Generation

By Leitbur

"Come on Matsura, hurry up already!”

Frowning at his fellow insei’s comment, Matsura worked his way through the crowd of subway traffic toward the entrance where Sakamoto and Akedo stood staring back at him. It wasn’t his fault, not really, it was the fault of that chubby man that had bumped into him as he’d been departing the train. If not for that, he would never have fallen behind the two.

Of the three Matsura was the youngest as he wouldn’t be turning twelve for another two months. Sakamoto on the other hand was already twelve going on thirteen, even if that birthday wouldn’t arrive until November. Then there was Akedo, she had just turned twelve last month, and yet out of the three of them she was also the strongest Go player. She had a rather pretty face too, not that Matsura would ever comment on it, as in Akedo’s mind the only thing that mattered was the strength of her game, which helped to explain the baggy, tomboyish street clothes she tended to wear.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, you don’t have to shout.”

“Well then keep up,” Sakamoto quipped back, resting his hands on the back of his fiery red hair as if in boredom. “That study group friend of yours gave you the directions to this place, so it’s not like we can get there on our own.”

Grimacing as he reached his fellow insei, Matsura quipped, “You make it sound like I’m only here for directions.”

“Stop it you two,” Akedo interjected before Sakamoto could respond, “we all have the same goal, to take this extra time to improve our games. Now let’s go, we don’t have all day.”

“Yes Akedo,” the two boys answered sullenly. She was of course right, school didn’t break for summer for another two months, meaning that the only day they had off was Sunday, the day they had insei classes. The result being that if they wanted to find extra time to practice on their own they had to do it after school got out.

Why Matsura had agreed to tag along he didn’t know, it felt like his mind would explode from all the Go he received every week as an insei as well as at Morishita’s study group. The latter was particularly grueling as Morishita, Waya, Shirakawa, and Hikaru repeatedly pummeled him in practice games. He’d yet to play against Saeki or Tsuzuki although it was just a matter of time. On top of all that he spent two nights a week at Morishita’s home receiving lessons, which depending on his teacher’s mood were either quite enjoyable or most exhausting.

By comparison his insei games were relaxing, a reward for his efforts of the previous week. Those games were also where the results of that effort were revealed, and so far they hadn’t been what he would have thought. Sure he was starting to move up the ranks of the B League but given that he was learning from top pros, being schooled and exposed in his practice games and having his play dissected and then corrected he would have thought he’d at least be at the top of the B League by now if not in the A League.

Checking the directions, Matsura then said, “Ok, it should be two blocks that way on the left.” Returning to their pace down the sidewalk Matsura sighed. It wasn’t that simple and he shouldn’t have expected it to be. He wasn’t the only one with good teachers and an exhaustive workload, Akedo for instance was studying under Hatanaka Meijin and the current top B Leaguer Hajime Mimura not only was a part of the old Koyo Toya studay group that Ogata now ran but his older brother was a professional 6 – Dan. The insei leagues were filled with players like that, all of them working their hardest to move up and succeed, to pass beyond the roadblock of the Pro Exam and enter the world of the pros.

More frustrating were players like Sakamoto who had no such formal mentorship yet seemed to push on ahead. Akedo had told him last month before she’d made the jump to A League that he shouldn’t worry, often players like Sakamoto hit a wall once they pulled out of the B League and began playing the real elite. Either way becoming a pro was proving to be far more difficult than Matsura had ever thought.

“Where is this place?” Sakamoto barked, his eyes scanning the signs on the left side of the street. “Are you sure you’re reading that correctly?”

Pulling out the pair of directions again Matsura checked. “Yes, these are the directions Waya gave me, Shindo’s directions were for a Go salon two stops after ours.”

Sakamoto’s eyebrow cocked as he heard that, then turned to look over at Matsura. “Shindo? You mean Hikaru Shindo 2 – Dan? You know him?”

“7 – Dan,” Akedo corrected, “Shindo-sensei is getting promoted tomorrow to 7 – Dan. It was in Go Weekly next to his game record from the Toyota Cup. Looked like a great game, too bad there wasn’t much of an article about it, just some quick comments about that sacrifice at the end of the game.”

“Never mind that,” Sakamoto quipped, “Matsura you know Shindo?”

Matsura nodded as he scanned the street signs. “Yeah, he’s in Morishita-sensei’s study group, I guess he’s been going there since his insei days, Waya invited him, those two are pretty good friends. You want his autograph or something?”

“No, that’s the guy, the one I told you about, the pro that got me into the insei test!”

Coming to a halt, Matsura shifted his gaze to Sakamoto. “Really, wow you should have mentioned it before, maybe I could have gotten you that rematch you always talk about.”

“He’s not ready to take on Shindo-sensei,” Akedo replied with a slight giggle, “he’s Toya-sensei’s rival, those two are now the two youngest players to ever attain the rank of 7 – Dan, Toya’s just a couple months younger.”

“Shindo’s setting the record for biggest jump in rank though, from 2 – Dan to 7 – Dan, no one’s ever done that.” Matsura added.

“Right,” Akedo confirmed, “Sensei told me that while he’s never played him before he did see Shindo play a game against Kuwabara and said that Shindo’s talent is off the charts. I mean Sensei is the Meijin and he’s worried about Shindo, and Toya too.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right Akedo, no point in trying to get Sakamoto his rematch yet.” Matura remarked somberly.

“Shut up Matsura, I can still kick your butt on the board!”

Matsura grinned. “Maybe, but for the moment we’re tied if you recall.”

Growling under his breath, Sakamoto turned away. “Just you two watch, I’m passing the Pro Exam, I won’t let anyone get in my way!”

Half a block later they found the Go Salon. Making their way up the stairs, the trio entered the hallway and found the door. Entering, Akedo moved toward the desk and said, “Hi, we’re looking to play…”

She paused as the clerk at the desk seemed to be distracted, his eyes staring off across the room. Following his vision, Akedo spotted a table in the middle of the room surrounded by onlookers. Clearing her throat, Akedo said, “Um, excuse me.”

Jumping slightly in surprise, the clerk turned and said, “Hello there, how may I help you? Looking to play?”

“Yes,” Akedo answered, “but tell me, what’s going on over there?”

“Oh that, there’s a pro here playing against some foreign amateur. Wu I think the kid’s name was, looked to be around your age actually. Word has it he’s going to be taking the Pro Exam this year.”

“Hey like us!” Sakamoto interjected, “We’re insei!”

“Insei!?” the clerk repeated, “Well maybe you can play that boy afterward. Go ahead and take a look, but if you plan to play after please pay first.”

Nodding, Akedo replied, “Thank you, we will.” With that the three moved over toward the table and gazed down at the board. What they saw caused the hair on the back of their necks to stand on end.

Sitting before the board, Kazuo Yamashiro 3 – Dan rubbed his forehead in frustration. It had been ko fight after ko fight, the boy was just relentless. The problem was that the ko fighting had left him in a position where he had no choice but to fight back, engage the boy on his own terms in a life or death battle.

He’d underestimated the boy at first, even though his father had requested that he play for real and not as a teaching game. One soft move, that’s all it had taken for the boy to pounce on him, and Yamashiro had quickly discovered after that under that small, unassuming frame was the most vicious of predators, a hungry jackal looking to pick a fight with anything that got in its way.

Klak.

Releasing his white stone 2-5, creating another ko threat, Yamashiro sighed, wiping the sweat on his hand on his pant leg under the table. Given the appearance of strong young players as of late he shouldn’t have been surprised by this boy’s ability, especially given the reputation of Taiwanese players that had come here or opted to play in Korea. Sure they had recently gotten their own Go Association going, but to face the best players in the world a player in Taiwan still needed to look abroad.

Klak.

So he’d opted to end the ko fight and sacrifice that small group. Well it certainly helped Yamashiro in one regard but losing the ko fight meant that black now had control of the central part of the board. Still, first he had to take advantage of the end to the ko threat. Placing his stone down at 3-5, Yamashiro watched as Wu reached for a black stone and placed it down firmly at 2-14, threatening atari. It was a ploy to create life in the corner and if he could succeed then Yamashiro was done for. But he couldn’t make life without yet another ko threat.

He had known such players existed, pro killers, amateurs who had the skill to compete with the pros, amateurs only because they were too old to take the exam or because they had yet to take it. For the latter the other requirement of course was that they were not insei, and Wu here met that criteria, just as another young player had once, Akira Toya.

Now that boy had been the ultimate pro killer. Rumor had it that there were mid to upper Dans in his father’s study group that could not defeat Akira Toya at the time he’d made the move to turn pro, and his skyrocket to the top of the Go world once he’d had passed the exam suggested the rumors were accurate. Following in his footsteps had come a wave of young pros who had at least been insei first, but were decimating the lower ranks. Names like Yoshitaka Waya, Shinchiro Isumi, Kosuke Ochi, and Hikaru Shindo could drive fear into the hearts of many lower Dan player. The last one, Hikaru Shindo especially had that ability but thankfully tomorrow morning he’d become a 7 – Dan and move out of Yamashiro’s sphere of players. It was a relief in many ways, but at the same time it was a reminder of what he’d realized the first time he’d played Hikaru, that like Akira Toya, Hikaru was a player that Yamashiro would never be as good as, no matter how hard he tried.

Klak. Klak.

Klak. Klak.

Klak Klak.

And so, as he’d predicted, the next ko fight began. Unfortunately to win Yamashiro needed to win the threat, but to do so required that he also not surrender anything substantial and that was going to be the tricky part. It was strange really, he should probably just resign, after all this was just supposed to be some lesson, he was being paid the same regardless of the outcome and it wasn’t as if some big title was at stake. Yet at the same time the idea of losing like this to an amateur, one whom he might very well be facing as a pro in little more than a year, ate at him. If he couldn’t win here and now, what would that say in a year from now when the game did matter? No, he owed it to himself to at least play it out a bit more.

Klak. Klak.

Yes, he’d captured around the corner to start the fight. First Yamashiro would defend at 19-3 and in doing would gain the option to capture back.

Klak.

Yes, 1-12 that meant black needed two moves to capture, meaning he’d have to surrender two threats to win. Yamashiro could do this, his threats were few on this board but he had the advantage in that he had to win, and Wu was going to have to find one hell of a ko threat to overpower him.

Klak.

There now what would the boy…

Klak.

Yamashiro froze. He’d done it, he’d found a threat. If he ignored that threat he’d lose a third of the board, and what made it worse was that Wu could now prolong that fight, turn it into numerous ko threats that Yamashiro had to respond to. Recalculating Yamashiro sighed, his head lowering. There were more ko threats there than he himself had, he could not win the fight in the lower left corner, it was over.

“I resign.”

A murmur of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ erupted from the onlooking crowd of patrons, and discussion on aspects of the game picked up. Ignoring all the fluster around him, the young Taiwanese boy bowed his head and said, “Thank you for the game.”

“Excuse me,” a female voice to his right then said. Turning to look at the young girl, likely close to his own age of thirteen, although it was difficult to tell. The girl continued however, “Hello, my name is Kaori Akedo, and these are my classmates Daisuke Sakamoto and Kaito Matsura. We’re insei and we were wondering if you might be willing to play one of us in a game before you leave.”

At this news Wu inhaled and then took the three in once again. Insei, like him these young players were trying to become pros, might even be upcoming opponents in the Pro Exam. More importantly they were around his own age and might be fun to play with. “I’m Kevin Wu from Taiwan. Sure, I don’t mind if we-”

“I’m sorry Miss but Kevin doesn’t have time to play against insei,” a voice from the crowd interrupted. The four Go players turned and looked up as two patrons parted to reveal a tall, thin, middle-aged man, a bald spot just beginning to form atop his head of black hair.

Kevin Wu’s face seemed to drain of excitement. “Father please, just one game won’t hurt, besides they…”

“No Kevin, I can hire pros for you to play against and you’ll gain far more skill against them. You don’t need to be wasting your time with players like them, focus on the upcoming Pro Exam.”

Turning to look back at the three insei, a look of longing on his face, Wu sighed and said, “Yes Father.” Then to Akedo he added, “I’m sorry, perhaps some other time.” The boy then rose and followed his father toward the door, glancing back quickly one last time before exiting through the door.

Squirming in his suit as he made his way down the hallway, Sato adjusted his tie once more before the thing cut off circulation to his head. It felt strange, he’d never wore a suit before, there’d never been a reason for him to, and without a reason his parents had never seen the need to spend money on a suit that he’d simply grow out of.

Now however there was a need for one… well in his eyes, not the eyes of his parents. They didn’t understand what being a professional Go player was like, that he had a career now. It explained why they weren’t letting him drop out of school and why they had refused to get him a suit for his shodan presentation. Wincing as a pain shot up through his left foot, Sato tried to wiggle his new dress shoes into a more comfortable position. Glancing around at the bustle around him, Sato smiled. These people were his peers, his rivals, his friends. In a way they were also his family now, as unlike his biological family they understood what he felt, knew what being a professional Go player was all about, they could relate.

He had to admit though, never before had Sato seen so many people at the Go Association at one time, particularly this many Go players. Sure the 2nd Floor often had amateurs present playing games against pros and each other, but today the 2nd Floor was all but filled to capacity with pros and other important members of the Go Association. Whether that meant staff, the press, or financial contributors it didn’t matter, they were present and roaming about, intermingling with the pros young and old, those who occupied the summit of the Go world and those who aspired to it, not to mention those who had fallen from it or never been able to achieve it. That of course was the sad reality, not every new pro that arrived would one day be playing in the Yugen no Ma, in fact for many pros here the Shinshodan might very well have been the only time they’d ever gotten to play in that hallowed room. Not that Sato had any intention of joining those ranks of players.

“Hey Sato, over here!”

Looking over in the direction of the voice, Sato spotted Nase waving her hand in the air at him, Komiya standing off to her right. Flicking his head in acknowledgement, Sato began making his way over at a heightened pace. While being surrounded by so many pros was a wondrous experience, it was nice to have some familiar faces to talk to. After all, it wasn’t as if the patrons here were interested in chatting it up with a new pro, not when there were Meijins, Kisei’s, Judans and Judan Slayers roaming about.

Passing around a small crowd that had formed between them, Sato finally made it over. Like Sato Komiya wore a suit and tie, although unlike the black one Sato wore Komiya’s was white. Nase meanwhile wore a dark blue dress with matching shoes. Looking at them though with the high heel in the back, Sato wondered which would be more uncomfortable to wear, those or his own. “Hey Nase, Komiya.”

“Hello Sato, your suit looks wonderful.” Nase replied with a smile.

“Yeah,” Komiya remarked as well, “you look like the very model of a modern Go professional.”

At that Sato and Nase looked at Komiya with an expression of surprise, disbelief, and curiosity. Blinking, Komiya said, “What?”

Shaking their heads, Nase answered, “Oh nothing that phrase just sounded familiar, like déjà vu or something.”

“Yeah,” Sato agreed, “must have heard it somewhere before.”

“Anyway,” Nase said, moving on, “you look great Sato, here let me adjust your flower.”

“Thanks,” Sato replied, blushing a bit. It rather felt as if Nase was acting like his mother, or would have been if his mother were more supportive of his career path. “The tie is a bit bothersome too.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Komiya remarked with a smirk, adjusting his own. “Didn’t think you’d be able to get a suit though, I thought you said your parents weren’t going to help you out there.”

Frowning as Nase finished adjusting the red flower, Sato replied, “They didn’t, I had to borrow the money.”

“From where?” Nase asked, stepping back to admire her work.

Hesitating a moment, Sato answered, “From Shindo.”

The pair blinked, surprise on their faces. Then recovering Komiya replied, “From Shindo? How’d you swing that?”

“I… I asked him last Saturday when we all went to lunch. Out of the whole group he’s the only one who I thought had some extra money he could spare, Waya works extra teaching games to pay his rent, the two of you just turned pro…”

“Yeah,” Nase said. “Well it was certainly nice of him to do that, I hope you thanked him.”

“I did,” Sato answered, again noticing how motherly Nase was acting at the moment. “I’ll pay him back once I get a few games in, I mean he said I shouldn’t bother but I don’t like being in his debt.”

“Why not?” Komiya asked. “I’d think given the situation that you’d be happy to receive a gift from a friend like that.”

“Ha ha, because the boy wants to play and beat Shindo as a rival of course!”

Turning toward the sound of the cackling voice, the three young pros found themselves standing at attention as Kuwabara Honinbo made his way over toward them. Sato then squeezed out, “K-Kuwabara-sensei, what are you doing here?”

“He’s the Honinbo you moron,” Komiya remarked, “of course he’s here at the award ceremony.”

Laughing loudly, drawing a few glances from the other people around them, Kuwabara grinned and replied, “That’s true, but I think young Sato here had something else in mind huh son? And the answer of course Sato is that I came over here to see you, we had such a wonderful game back in January and now today you get your shodan certification so I thought I’d see how you were doing. Apparently though you’re having money problems, why you should have come to me, I’d have paid you to caddy for me last week when Murota and I took a little trip to get in a few holes. Get you some exercise hey?” Kuwabara gave Sato a small nudge with his arm, then turned his attention to the rest of the group.

“And what about you Miss, I remember you too, taking on Ogata like that, quite impressive. Shindo and Toya were there with me of course, yes quite a fine batch of players we got this year I see.”

“Th-thank you Kuwabara-sensei.” Nase replied, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

“Ha!,” Kuawabara barked in amusement, “don’t be like that, a Go player should always be confident. Why, given your display against Ogata, not to mention young Sato’s courageous battle against me I would think you’ll be up at the top trying to snatch away the titles from us old timers in no time. Straight to the top for you three right?”

Frowning, Komiya replied, “Well, um you see we’ll all be…”

“Well then I’ll be expecting to read your names again soon, don’t disappoint me now. If you’ll excuse me, I promised a sponsor who’s a huge fan of this old geezer a few words before the ceremony started. Best of luck to you all, although I doubt you’ll be needing it.” With that Kuwabara headed off, chuckling to himself.

Watching silently as the aging Honinbo moved off, the three young players then turned to look at one another wondering what, and more importantly how, that had just happened. Suddenly the silence was broken by, “What were you guys talking to Kuwabara-sensei about?”

Jumping in surprise, the three turned to look at Waya, Komiya grabbing his chest as it felt at the moment as if his heart had relocated to his stomach. Glancing between the three of them, Sato then said, “Um, nothing much, he just wanted to congratulate us on turning pro, stuff like that.”

Blinking, Waya shifted his head toward the diminishing image of Kuwabara and said, “Hmph, that’s strange, he never did that for Shindo and me when we turned pro.” Returning his gaze to the group, Waya then said, “By the way Sato, nice suit you have there, you look like the very model of a-”

“Hello there Waya.”

Grinding his teeth at the sound of that smug voice, Waya turned and forcing a smile said, “Hello there Ochi. I hear congratulations are in order.”

Sporting a superior grin, Ochi answered, “Thank you Waya, I must say I like this new promotion system, it rewards success quite well.”

Staring at the short teenager who barely seemed much older than himself, Sato eyed the newcomer as if sizing up whether he was a threat or potential prey. So this was Ochi, he’d heard a great deal about him from Hikaru, Waya, and Isumi, the other x-factor amongst the young upcoming Go talent. And right now the gloating did not make him look overly enjoyable, but then he supposed given the rivalry between Ochi and Waya, a little gloating was expected. “Yes, congratulations on making 4 – Dan Ochi, it must have been difficult.”

Shifting his gaze to Sato, Ochi’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Thank you. You’re one of the new pros I take it?”

Sato nodded and gave a bow. “Yes, I’m Kiyoshi Sato, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Kosuke Ochi,” Ochi replied, his eyes lingering on Sato a moment longer then shifting back to Waya. Under the new promotion rules a player was promoted if they won a certain number of games at a specific rank, or when it came to the lower and mid-level ranks, if they had pulled in the top two amounts of prize money from their games out of players of their own rank; Ochi had done the latter. Not by much granted, and his ego throbbed at that thought, but in the end his entry into the Tengen Tournament had barely put him passed Waya for the honor of the second largest amount of prize money amongst 3 – Dans. Thus while Waya would be stuck at 3 – Dan for the time being, as of today Ochi was now a 4 – Dan. “It was a good fight Waya, but perhaps next year you can rise in rank as well.”

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself before he introduced Ochi’s nose to his fist, Waya exhaled and replied, “Yes, if I don’t get enough wins or find some other way first. Too bad to hear that your new rank didn’t help you yesterday in the Tengen Tournament, I understand that Kurata forced you to resign?”

Scowling at that, Ochi shifted his eyes away. “Well he is the Kisei, and he’s being awarded for having the best win percentage out of anyone this year.”

Waya nodded with a grin. Score one for me, Ochi 1, Waya 1. “Yeah, not to mention the most wins for the year and best player. After Ogata won that last one the year before I thought he’d continue it this year but Kurata is really coming on strong now.”

As Ochi was about to respond another voice rose up causing Ochi to blanch. “Hey everyone,” Hikaru said, waving his hand as he approached.

Watching the young prince of Go marching on over, Ochi bit his lip to keep his teeth from grinding. That carefree smile on Hikaru’s face, as if things like Kisei’s and Honinbos meant nothing to him, and in some ways that might have been true, it was irritating. Since turning pro, no even before that, Ochi had worked diligently, studying the game, being tutored by numerous pros, and all so that he could one day rise to the top and be the premier player in the Go world. Then along came Hikaru, some kid who it seemed one day decided that he would be Akira Toya’s rival and showed up on the Go scene. Before he knew it not only was Ochi’s claim to being the best young rival for Akira Toya thrown into disarray, but whether he was even the best pro from his own class. Now here he stood as if to rub salt in the wound that Waya had opened, the newly minted Hikaru Shindo 7 – Dan, making his own 4 – Dan promotion seem pitiful by comparison. And that wasn’t the worst of it either.

“Hey Shindo,” Waya replied returning the wave. “ready to receive your award today?”

“I guess so,” Hikaru replied.

“Award?” Sato asked curiously. This was news to him.

“Yeah,” Waya answered, “Shindo here is being given an award for longest winning streak last year. He almost got best winning percentage too but Kurata beat him out for that one.” Hikaru merely shrugged.

“Yes, congratulations Shindo,” Ochi added in, “if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get something to drink before the ceremony starts.”

Blinking, Hikaru nodded as Ochi turned away. “Ok, so long Ochi… oh, and congratulations on the 4 – Dan promotion!”

Making his way toward one of the drink tables, Ochi cursed to himself. Congratulating him like that, as if it were an afterthought, it was infuriating. He’d just have to keep working at it, pushing his game and one day he’d match Hikaru, and that would be a great day. Until then, whether Hikaru was aware of it or not, he was the most annoying eyesore in Ochi’s world.

Watching Ochi leave, Hikaru scratched the back of his head then said, “Does Ochi seem upset about something to you guys?”

“Ignore it,” Waya replied, “that’s just Ochi being Ochi. He’s probably just sulking that you finally passed him in rank. If Toya were here he might have exploded in envy. ‘Hello Shindo 7 – Dan,’ ‘Why hello there Toya 7 – Dan’, heh, that’d teach him to act so superior. Speaking of which, now that the big day’s here do you feel 7 – Dan-like?”

Hikaru just shrugged. “Wasn’t really thinking about it much.”

“Liar.” Nase replied with a grin. Even if she hadn’t begun to pick up on some of Hikaru’s expressions in this case it was quite clear that Hikaru was trying to downplay his accomplishment. Why he would do so with such an honor she didn’t know, but then she also didn’t know why that downplaying made him seem so much sexier either.

Chuckling at that, Hikaru answered, “Ok, maybe a little, but I think it’ll sink in once I play my first match as a 7 – Dan besides… Akira!”

“Hello Hikaru,” Akira said as he appeared out of the crowd, stealthy as a shinobi. Seeming to either ignore or simply not notice the others standing there, Akira continued, “So Hikaru, did you get the schedule for the upcoming Go event tour yet?”

Hikaru nodded. “Yeah, first one’s in two weeks in Nagoya. We’re playing teaching games in the morning, then playing a demonstration match in the afternoon.”

“Yes, about that,” Akira replied, “I’ve been talking with the association and it’s been decided that I’ll be skipping the first event. That weekend is the best time to fit in my NHK Cup match, my schedule is just too busy right now.”

Blinking, Hikaru sighed. “Well that sucks, won’t be the same. Have they found a replacement yet?”

Akira shook his head. “The Association said they’d contact you when they did.”

Nodding, Hikaru’s brow contorted in deep thought. Then he turned toward Sato and said, “What about you Sato, you want to play me at the event?”

Sato gulped. “Me? Play you?”

Hikaru nodded with a smile. “Sure, it’s just a demonstration game so it’s no big deal, and you could use the extra money and all.”

“Well I…”

“I doubt the Association will go for it Hikaru,” Akira interjected. “They’re trying to showcase all the top young talent and I doubt they’ll want a new pro without a record to take my place on the tour.”

Sato felt a twitch in his gut as he pondered what was greater, his appreciation for Akira’s honesty or his frustration at the frankness of his statement that Sato simply wasn’t good enough yet.

Scratching the back of his head, Hikaru frowned. Then another smile popped onto his face. “How about you Waya? You’re always looking for a bit of cash and playing you is always fun.”

Inhaling, Waya hesitated a moment. “I don’t think you should be basing this on how fun it would be to play me Shindo.” That and Waya wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about being Akira Toya’s pinch hitter. Still, the idea was intriguing. “I suppose I could do it though, if I can make it into the Hokuto Cup this weekend it’d be easier to sell to the fans too.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself Waya,” Akira remarked pointedly, “you have to win the games before you start planning your victory tour.”

“Shut up Toya,” Waya remarked angrily, “I am going to make it this year.”

Nase interjected, “Not if Sato and I have anything to say about it.”

Akira just stood there nonchalantly. “We’ll see.”

“Thank you for coming today Toya-sensei.”

Nodding his head slightly as he took a seat, Koyo Toya sighed contently. “It was no trouble at all Mr. Sakamati, and may I say that it was a wonderful awards ceremony you put on today.”

Sakamati smiled proudly. “Yes everyone worked quite hard this year to make it special. I’m sure for you it must have been gratifying to see your son promoted to 7 – Dan.”

“I suppose.” Toya replied. “For me though Akira’s strength has never been in question, he is becoming a fine young player, one that will only continue to improve as he continues to play.”

“Yes, about that…” Sakamati began. As he did so however the door to the office opened to reveal a square built aging man with glasses, the hair surrounding his increasingly large bald spot showing more gray than black these days. “Ah, Murata-sensei, I’m glad you could make it.”

Murata inclined his head slightly. “Yes I apologize for my tardiness, today’s a busy day for me and it’s hard to step away. It’s good to see you Toya-sensei.”

Toya bowed his head in acknowledgement to the Head of the Japanese Go Association. “It’s good to see you again Murata, I hear you’ve even found time for a game or two, making it into the Honinbo 3rd Preliminary.”

Murata nodded. “Yes well I doubt I’ll get too far, the Go Association keeps me quite busy these days, but you never know. This is one of my favorite events though, especially watching the faces of the new pros when I give them their certificates. That one boy, Sato I think, he looked so nervous it was quite adorable.”

Toya chuckled. “Yes well I doubt he or any other Go player would like being defined as adorable. I understand you were the one responsible for increasing the komi here in Japan?”

“Yes,” Murata answered, “given the consensus by many players that black still held the advantage along with some of my own beliefs on the matter I finally convinced the association to increase the komi to 6 ½ points. Mind you I still think it a bit small, but that’s a fight for another day.”

Toya nodded. “Yes, well had komi been increased before your last Honinbo match you wouldn’t be in the 3rd Preliminary now.”

“Proof enough that the komi was too low.” Murata replied with a grin.

The three men broke out in laughter. Calming himself, Toya cleared his throat. “So then, what was it you wanted to speak to me about?”

Taking a seat across from the former Meijin, Murata glanced at Sakamati and then cleared his throat. “Ahem, well I suppose I’ll just get straight to the point, given certain events as of late regarding Korea and China and the upgraded status of the event, we would like you to be the manager of Team Japan at the Hokuto Cup this year.”

Author’s Notes:

Another chapter completed, and within a relatively quick time period. Sadly I have a feeling that this will not be continuing much longer as upcoming chapters are going to take a bit more planning out, not to mention I have to update a few of my notes, mainly the game dates in the story. This is so I don’t trip over games, forget them or create confusion by stating different playing dates in multiple chapters. Still I intend to do my best to get the next few chapters out in as timely a manner as I can.

While this chapter was what many of you would call a ‘light chapter’ I rather disagree as the last couple chapters have been the source of a lot of information that needed passing along. I know some of you wanted to actually see Hikaru presented with his promotion but that would have been a big chunk of chapter with basically little happening, Hikaru’s thoughts on the promotion being explored already. More importantly I had the first and last scene to include as the other plot lines continue to unfold, and believe me balancing them all is not easy but I think the story is better off for it. In case you’re wondering we will be seeing more of Akedo, and she’s currently ranked 18th in the A League.

Note: While brief, the Wu’s game in this chapter is based on a match from the 3rd Taiwan Donggang Cup, 1st Round of the Loser’s Section played on 9-11-2003 between Cai Wenhe 1 – Dan (White) and Chen Yida 2 – Dan (Black).

Special Note: Again I remind everyone that a forum for discussing this story has been started on the fanfiction site in the Hikaru no Go section and I’d like to encourage all of you to participate. Chapters like this one especially ought to create plenty of things to talk about.

Terms:

Rank Promotion: Just a brief touch up, for Ochi or Waya to rise to 4 – Dan they had to either win 50 games as a 3 – Dan or be one of the top two prize money winners amongst 3 – Dan’s for the year. As the average 3 – Dan might play 20-30 games a year without the Oteai depending on how much they win, rising in rank might take several years without the prize money route. As Waya has missed out this year on it, he will likely have to wait another year to make 4 – Dan.

Komi: In case some of you had forgotten in 2004 the komi rule in Japan was changed to make komi worth 6.5 points rather than the 5.5 previously. This was due to many feeling that 6.5 was too small a compensation for white, and due to other countries using higher komi already. Since it is 2004 in the story I felt it was time to introduce it as well.

Go Association Head: This is the Chief Director of the Japanese Go Association, who oversees many aspects including rule changes, tournament patronage, and issues that may arise concerning players including disciplinary actions. In 2004 the Chief was Kato Masao, and it is he that brought in the change to the promotion system, increased the amount of komi to 6.5 points, and shortened the time limits of games. Murata is briefly mentioned in the manga and would have been the one handing out all the awards at the Go Awards Ceremony. The chief is voted upon and isn’t always a professional player.

Now onto questions. Will we be seeing more of the reporter? I assume you mean my namesake in this story, and the answer is no. That being said, should an appropriate plotline occur that would warrant his return we might see him again, but as of now there are no plans for him to have another appearance. However we may be seeing a translated copy of his article on the match coming up.

No I cannot publish this story, at least not for profit. Posting it on free online sites like I currently am is about all I can do.

When I say that his games against Ko Yeong Ha and Akira are games of destiny I mean that no matter what else may happen in the story, he WILL play them again. In what tournament, where or when it will happen is up for grabs, but they will be playing again, it is fated to happen in this story. Basically in regards to the former, no matter how much he may wish to try and avoid it, he cannot get away from playing Hikaru again unless he quits playing Go all together.

I understand that I might be too technical at times, and part of this is due to not having any visual aids within the story like the manga or anime had. They didn’t have to describe the moves being played in the manga because we saw them in the artwork. This is why I’m beginning to include the game records at my yahoo group so that people can look at the games and perhaps I’ll be able to tone down a bit of that. As for the commentary in say last chapter those scenes are a form of character development as it’s an interaction amongst peers. I suppose they could all be hanging out other places at times too, but in this particular instance the scene worked better and made more sense at the study groups.

My son will be 2 years old next month. As for managing without stress, whoever said I don’t have stress? Being a parent is stress 25 hours a day. I have to realize that everything I do can and likely will effect my son’s life. Work, my family, dealing with my ex, everything has some form of stress attached to it. Writing my stories is about the only relaxation I get.

I don’t think that Hikaru is necessarily mean to his mother, I think he simply doesn’t quite appreciate what he has. His interactions with Yashiro and Sato likely are helping him better appreciate it but her lack of understanding of the world he lives in is a hard barrier to break. There will be more on that front though. Also as for Akira’s match, quite often games between top players come down to one mistake or miscalculation. Think of Ogata’s Judan match against Toya Meijin in the manga, Ogata basically screwed up one part and the rest was good Go.

Next chapter, as you might have guessed, we’ll be heading into the Hokuto Cup Qualifier. This will last a couple chapters as we have three rounds of it to go through, but when we’re done the 3rd Board position will be decided.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a review. I always appreciate them and hope to see them continue to come in. R&R!