Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go was written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. I do not, in any way, profit from this story.

Go, Soccer Player, Go!

Chapter 1: Go Ghost

...

Twelve-year-old Shindo Hikaru had arrived at his grandfather's house with a plan.

"You promised, Jii-chan!" Hikaru exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger. "I made good on the deal, so now it's your turn!"

Shindo Heihachi sighed, not that disturbed to be at the end of his grandson's pointing finger.

"Hikaru, I just bought you that fancy notebook for your schoolwork. That was a lot of money."

"But that was for my birthday." Hikaru pouted, before adding with tired exasperation. "And it's called a lap-top com-pu-ter, Jii-chan."

Heihachi rolled his eyes at his grandson's foolishness. The salesperson had called it a "notebook" when he had been shopping for it. It was called a notebook to him.

"Besides, what kind of birthday gift was that anyway? You bought it for doing homework!"

"A very expensive one." Heihachi huffed grumpily under his breath.

"And my birthday was in September!" Hikaru continued, deciding not to hear his grandfather's cheap-skate ways. "That was forever ago. And mom and dad didn't even give me extra pocket money for making MVP. At least you cared, Jii-chan. I won't be able to live if you don't make good on your promise now."

Heihachi shook his grandson off of him, but Hikaru knew that he already had his grandfather in the bag with the no pocket money bit.

He put on his best attack face just to make sure though.

Heihachi sighed again. He was helpless against the puppy dog eyes, especially since his grandson was still so small and short.

"Fine, fine. Like I promised, you can pick out one thing from the storehouse. I suppose your grandpa can't let your MVP award from your soccer team go uncelebrated."

"Yay! Jii-chan is the best!" Hikaru cheered.

Heihachi just chuckled, watching his grandson scramble up and run for the storehouse. Well, he supposed most of that stuff had just been gathering dust anyway.

What Hikaru needed the most was money. But his pocket money was given out based on his grades in school, and that was probably the worst system ever. But even worse than that, his parents had forbidden both Hikaru and his grandfather from giving Hikaru any money, even as an award for his accomplishments.

His grandfather had had to resort to more creative ways of awarding Hikaru since then. Even parents couldn't deny a grandfather's right to give gifts to his beloved grandson, after all.

Of course, this arrangement still didn't get Hikaru any money. But at least he would have an expensive...thing even if he didn't have any money.

"Jeez!" Hikaru mussed up his hair in frustration. "There's nothing in here but broken pots and ugly scrolls!"

Throwing aside the latest piece of junk (according to him), Hikaru moved deeper towards the back of the upper story. He had thought that all of the good stuff would be near the front too.

"Hey, a goban!" Hikaru exclaimed, crawling towards the vaguely-familiar shape.

"It looks old too! Must be one Jii-chan used a long time ago. Probably during his regional go champion days." Hikaru snickered, holding back a snort of laughter.

Hikaru plopped down in front of the goban and began to wipe off the dust with his sleeve. He easily located two bowls of go stones placed nearby.

"Hmm..." Hikaru looked closer at the wood. "Maybe Jii-chan stopped using this because of this blood stain."

Hikaru traced the dark mark with his fingertip.

"Can you even get blood out of wood? Stupid stain."

He wiped harder, wondering whether or not applying some of his spit would work better.

"Can you hear my voice?"

"Huh?" Hikaru jerked his head behind him. He had thought he heard something.

"You can hear my voice, can't you?"

"Who is it? Jii-chan?" Hikaru shot up, wildly looking around. "Come out and stop playing your stupid joke, Jii-chan!"

"You can! You can! Oh, benevolent Kami-sama, I thank you."

Hikaru turned around...

...and saw a ghost.

"AHH!" Hikaru screamed.

"I will now return."

"Return to the world of the living."

Hikaru fell with a thud onto the floor.

When he regained consciousness, he would find that he really had no choice but to become the owner of an antique goban.

...

Author's Notes:

This is my first fanfiction! Yay!

Also, I don't have a beta reader, so please excuse any mistakes. Also, this story was partially inspired by the fanfiction "Go? But I'm A Soccer Player!" (Oh, you'll see).

I just thought it would be fun to write Hikaru as a dedicated soccer player. But I feel as if this first chapter was kind of rushed. I wanted to establish the premise quickly, so I wrote this chapter very quickly. I'm kind of unhappy about that, but it's not all that different from what happened in the canon and I don't like to waste time.