Aishuu Offers:
Brightly Burning
mbsilvana@yahoo.com
~ A Hikaru no Go Alternate Universe ~
Disclaimers: Hotta and Obata. Shonen Jump. Not Mine.

Note: Prologue Previously posted.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter One: Miracles Out of Nowhere
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


When Waya Yoshitaka met the new insei, his immediate
impression was one of confusion. Shindou
Hikaru had no clue what he was doing there. Still,
there was a quality about Shindou that drew other
people to him like bears to honey, even though there
was the possibility of a being stung to death.

And Shindou did have a sting.

Most new insei languished in the lower classes for
months, vying for positions in the last ten slots,
but the Shindou won his first game. And his second.
When he won his third, people started to pay
attention. A winning streak was hard to maintain, but
Shindou had just breezed through the  first
three games of his insei class. That was when Waya, as
the top-ranked student in the class, came to
meet him formally.

Shindou's ranking was starting to inch up - next
month, he would likely be top of the second class...
practically unheard of for a new insei. Either Shindou
was a genius, or there was something else
going on.

Or both. 

Waya wanted to know. Waya had watched him come in on
the first day of classes in January, and
there was a feeling around Shindou that had made the
hair on the back of Waya's neck stand on end.
Waya had learned to trust his instincts, knowing that
in a Go game, sometimes listening to his
instincts would be what decided the game.

Shindou had just finished his fourth game against
another new insei, whose name Waya never
bothered to learn. Waya watched as the blond rose to
record his win, and made his move. He walked
to the table, coming up carefully from the side.
Something told him that Shindou wouldn't like
having people at his back. "Yo," he said. "You're
Shindou, right?"

The other boy nodded, not removing his eyes from the
record sheet. "Yes." He stamped the black
mark before picking up the stamp which indicated his
opponent had resigned to him."You're
Waya," he stated. He turned his head to regard Waya
carefully. An imp of mischief lingered around
his eyes, like he was on the verge of coming out and
cracking jokes.

Least he's not like Ochi, Waya thought, still annoyed
at losing last year's pro test to him. Isumi had
deserved to win, and that outsider Kadowaki had
totally been unforeseen, but Ochi needed to have
his ego stamped down firmly. If only the only person
who seemed able to do it wasn't Touya Akira...
Waya thought grumpily. Even though Isumi and Ochi
hadn't yet begun to play in official pro
matches, he had the feeling that Ochi was going to go
far, and Touya was going to be the only
person who could regularly thump Ochi back down to
size. The thought of the 2-dan made Waya
sigh inside. Oh, he hated him passionately.

Shindou tilted his head. "Something wrong?" he asked
curiously.

"Just thinking about something," Waya said, sitting
down next to Shindou without invitation.

"Must have been unpleasant. You look like you've
bitten a large slice of lemon." Shindou leaned
forward, tapping his fingers against the table before
leaning back to stare at the ceiling.

"You could say that. Someone I didn't like," Waya
replied. And then some...

Shindou lowered his eyes then to meet Waya's, and for
the first time, Waya noticed their color. They
were green, a dull faded green that looked dreamy and
distant. "Life's too short not to like people,"
he said in a melancholy voice, before perking up. "You
won today, didn't you, Waya? You're the top
insei..."

"Honda and I swap positions monthly," Waya said.
"Sometimes I'm number one, other times, he is."
Though I've been top for the last three months, Waya
thought with satisfaction. Being top insei
didn't mean anything when the pro exam rolled around,
but it did give good momentum going in. He
firmly intended on keeping the position, because this
year he was going to pass. His mother had won
the battle to make him go to high school, but if he
passed, he intended on dropping out.

Shindou rested his elbows on his knees, cupping his
chin in his hands. "It'd be nice to play you. The
matches I'm playing now aren't..." he bit his lip,
apparently afraid of being overheard. 

Waya stared at Shindou. The second-class insei who had
played him were terrified, and Waya didn't
blame Shindou for being bored. "Don't you play against
your sensei?" he asked curiously. "Or in the
Go classes or salons?"

"I never really had a sensei," Shindou replied. "And I
don't go to classes and I've never been in a
salon." He rose to his feet, and Waya hurriedly
followed him.

"You what?" he asked in astonishment. Shindou has won
four insei games, and never had a
sensei? No classes or visits to the salons? The
feeling of strangeness Shindou carried with him
came back full-force, and Waya wondered exactly how
Shindou became so powerful. How the Hell
did he learn?
				
Shindou didn't reply immediately, merely went over to
where he had been playing and lifted the
goban up to store it, since his afternoon opponent had
taken off. Waya followed him, still trying to
figure the other teenager out. "My sensei has a study
group. If you want, I can ask if you can
attend," Waya said. He had no idea what prompted him
to make that offer, but he was curious,  and
now that Isumi was gone, he could use a close friend
among the insei. Honda spent most of the time
studying with his teacher, and none of the others were
strong enough to give him a challenge.

"Study session?" Shindou asked curiously. "What's
that?"
Waya blinked. Shindou was genuinely naive - he
apparently had no clue what a study session was.
"Um... it's where a bunch of pros get together and
discuss kifu of recent games, or things like that.
Sometimes they play each other. My sensei is a 9-dan,"
he stated proudly. 

"Oh," Shindou replied. "That's nice." He started out
towards the hall, forcing Waya to trot to keep
up.

"Do you want to come?" he asked. Most insei would be
jumping at the invitation, but Shindou
apparently had no clue what he had been offered.
Studying with a 9-dan... doesn't he know that it's
a great opportunity?

"I guess." Shindou didn't seem too enthused about the
idea, his casual acceptance very off-the-cuff.
"Right now, I'd rather get something to eat." He
turned to the foyer to fetch his shoes, and Waya
rolled his eyes. 

A week later, Shindou showed up to Morishita's study
session ten minutes early, looking around at
the other men in the room a bit dubiously. Waya had
wondered if he would actually appear, but the
insei had surprised him again. Shindou was as
unpredictable as the wind.

Shindou bowed as he entered the room before coming
over to Waya. One of the pros still hadn't
arrived, so the others were just sitting around,
musing over a board and chatting quietly before the
session began in earnest. �Yo, Shindou. I�m glad you
decided to show.� Morishita-sensei would
have given me Hell if you didn't, was the unvoiced
thought.

"I like studying Go," he said. "My fuseki are a bit
old, so I'm working on updating them."

"Oh?" Waya asked curiously. Go was go, but there were
certain fuseki that were developed by
players as the game evolved and popular thought
changed. For Shindou to think his playing was out
of date was certainly intriguing. A thought tugged on
his mind... he had thought he had seen an
exceptional strong player with the same problem...

Impossible.

"Will you introduce your friend, Waya?" Morishita
asked from across the room, and Waya had to
stifle a laugh under his palm as Shindou shifted on
his feet uncomfortably as the pros all turned their
eyes on him. Grabbing Shindou's elbow, he dragged the
new insei over, almost overbalancing the
other boy. "This is Shindou Hikaru. He just became an
insei this month. Shindou, this is Morishita-
sensei. I've been with him for five years." 

Shindou bowed again, straightening slowly after
shrugging Waya's hand off his elbow. "Nice to
meet you," he said, glaring at Waya for the rude
treatment. 

"Only a month?" Morishita said. "Are you enjoying it?"

Waya could see Shindou was trying to decide between
the socially polite answer and the truth. "He's
won his first six games," he said hurriedly, since
Shindou had added more wins since he had
accepted the invitation. "He should be in the first
group next month."

"I will be," Shindou said. "Even if through some fluke
I blow the rest of my games, I have enough
wins to get into first class."		

"That's really good!" said one of the pros
encouragingly. "How long have you been playing?"
					
"Since I was twelve," Shindou answered. "Three years."

Waya blinked a bit. "Just three years?" Waya asked,
feeling cold. The thorough thumping Shindou
had issued to all of the second class insei was
becoming the stuff of legend, and he had only been
playing for three years? And he's never had a teacher,
played in salons, belonged to a club... 

"Yes," Shindou said. 

"That's like Kurata!" one of the pros laughed. "I'm
Saeki, and this is Shirakawa. Tsuduki is
perpetually late, so..."

"We'll give him another five minutes," Morishita
proclaimed. He considered the newest insei. "How
did you learn?" he asked, toying with his fan.

"From a friend... and sometimes on the net," Shindou
answered. His voice grew soft, and there was a
tone of closure to it, one that made Morishita quirk
his eyebrow at Waya, who merely shook his
head slightly, indicating he had no clue.

Tsuduki chose then to bustle into the room, stammering
his usual apologies for his tardiness. His
middle-aged face was flushed with embarrassment as he
bowed to his master, and then waited as
Hikaru was introduced to him.

"It's funny you should mention the Internet,"
Morishita said. "We were discussing a game that
happened on the net today."

"Oh?" Hikaru said in a neutral voice. "I didn't know
that pros were into net gaming." He came over
and took one of the two remaining spaces, the one the
furthest away from Morishita and stared down
at it. His breath caught slightly, and he glanced over
at Waya.

"This is..." Hikaru whispered, staring at it
intensely.

"Sai, a really famous net player, versus Touya Kouyo,
the meijin. Sai's the main reason NetGo has
been so popular in the past three years - everyone
wants to play him," Saeki grinned a bit sheepishly.
"I've played him twice, and he's squashed me like a
bug both times. We thought the meijin would
have better luck..." He trailed off, leaving the
thought dangling.
			
"Sai's such an amazing player," Waya inserted
enthusiastically, taking his seat. "When Touya-
meijin was ill, they challenged each other... and
Touya-sensei lost. Can you imagine? An amateur
beating a pro!"

Morishita stared at the game. "This happened about a
month ago, but I finally got a copy of the kifu.
Waya's been too busy to write it down before, and I
wanted to have a chance to look it over." He
stared at the board. "Ranking and titles aren't
everything. Sometimes there's people out there who are
exceptional," Morishita said. "We've been examining
the game, and..."

"Sai simply went above him," Shirakawa said in awe.
"I've watched some of his games, but..."

The pros fell into argument, discussing possibilities,
but finally came to the conclusion that Touya
Kouyo simply had been outplayed in a game between
masters. Shindou watched them, his eyes
studied their gestures, rather than the board.

Morishita waited until they had exhausted themselves
before pointing his fan at Hikaru. "What do
you think?" he asked.

Shindou didn't jump or look surprised at the sudden
attention. "This game? I saw it," Shindou said.
He seemed a bit indifferent. "Sai played well, but
Touya didn't rise to the challenge."

The other players looked at him in shock. "What do you
mean?" Morishita asked, training keen eyes
on Shindou's face, taking him seriously. Waya wanted
to yell at Shindou for being insulting to the
meijin, but the green eyes had darkened, and Waya's
stomach twisted in knots as his senses became
overwhelmed by a feeling that Shindou was about to say
something profound.

"Touya should have won," Shindou said. "Here." He
pointed to the corner. "White would have had
to respond, if Touya-sensei hadn't tried to save
himself from being cut. It would have gained black
more territory, and Sai would have lost by several
moku." Shindou stared down at the board,
speaking softly. "Touya-sensei couldn't think outside
of the traditional box."

The pro's stared at Shindou for a moment, and
Morishita looked at the board with hard eyes before
examining Shindou's face. "You're right. There's a
tendency among us older pros to get stuck in a
funk and entranced by our own power," he said. "Maybe
that's what happened to Kouyo."

Waya, though, barely heard him, and instead stared at
Shindou's hard face. There was no trace of
laughter or sorrow, merely determination and the sheer
knowledge of an expert player, one who
belonged in the roomful of pros... one who may have
had even more right to be there than Waya
himself.

~*~*~*~

Shindou was in the first class the next month, and
Waya wondered if any of the other insei felt as he
did. He wasn't at all nervous; rather, he felt like he
was watching the inevitable flow of a tide.
Shindou was progressing towards something and he
was... privileged... to watch it happen.	

Still, it didn't mean that Waya didn't want to win. He
was scheduled to play him in five games, and
Waya fully intended on learning as much as he possibly
could about his fellow insei. Shindou would
smile and laugh with them, but every now and then a
distance would enter his eyes and he would go
unreachable. It was then that he became most
dangerous, playing games with moves that other
people hadn't dreamt of.

Waya badly wanted to see him play. Shindou had always
defeated his opponents before Waya's
matches ended, and at the study sessions, the players
had only discussed games lately, not actually
played. The pros listened to Shindou's occasional
words carefully, because he usually added
something very insightful, but most of the time
Shindou would just watch with sharp eyes. Waya
hadn't actually seen any of Shindou's kifu yet, and he
wanted to in the worst way. He couldn't wait to
play him; the insightful comments he contributed at
the study group made him burn with fire.

Before their match, though, Shindou had to get by
Honda, and that would be a true gauge of his
skill. Honda was currently second in class, and was
one of the top candidates to pass the pro exam,
as long as no strong outsiders made an appearance.
Waya had won their last match by a hair, and he
considered him his chief rival.

Well, as long as Shindou didn't shoot right by them.

Honda was to play him in the third this month, and
Waya was scheduled to play the other player
who had moved up from the second group. He anticipated
a quick win, and wanted to catch the end
of Shindou's game. It might answer that question that
had been plaguing him since Shindou had
casually derided Sai's game with Touya Kouyo, the one
he didn't dare voice aloud. He had been
watching Sai's games for three years, and he knew he
would recognize the distinctive style, the mix
of Shusaku and modern techniques.

Was it possible he had met Sai at last? a small voice
nagged whenever Shindou said something,
particularly after that first session, but he firmly
repressed it. Sai had defeated Touya Kouyo recently
- surely he wouldn't waste his time as an insei.
Waya's childish wish that Sai was around his age had
been blown away by that game, since Sai's experience
could only had come from years and years of
extensive practice. He dismissed the notion before the
idea had a chance to completely materialize.

He ran into Shindou the morning Shindou was to play
Honda as the blond was putting away his
shoes. The boy didn't seem at all concerned that he
was about to face one of the highest-ranked insei;
instead, he was irritated, muttering something about
being harassed by a group of tourists.

Waya had run into a group or two of tourists himself,
and could understand the sentiment, but
Shindou had absolutely no focus. "Morning, Shindou,"
he said. "Ready for the game today?"

"Always," Shindou said, leaning against the wall
casually as he waited for Waya to remove his
shoes. "Are you doing anything for lunch? Maybe we
could go together?" he suggested.

"Sure. There's a McDonald's that a group of us
occasionally go to during break. Maybe we can ask
Nase, Fuku and Honda if they want to come as well.
You're playing Honda today, and it should be a
tough game."

"Sounds good." Shindou smiled slightly, and Waya
wasn't sure exactly if it was lunch of the game
Shindou was referring. They went in, and Waya was
quiet, wondering why Shindou's words had
sounded so ominous.

Shindou waved cheerfully to Nase, and then went over
to where Honda was kneeling. With a bit of
awkwardness he took his place, still not used to the
traditional posture. Waya was willing to wager
that within ten minutes, Shindou would fall into a
more familiar cross-legged seat. 

Waya shook thoughts of Shindou from his mind,
realizing he would have to concentrate on his own
match before watching what anyone else was doing.
Curiosity was well and good as long as it didn't
interfere with his own path to the pros. His opponent,
an insei who had been with the program for
almost a year and had finally entered the class,
watched as he approached. She was nervous, and
Waya knew that he could use that against her. He had
control of the game before it even started,
because she believed he was better than she was. Go
was a meeting of minds, and he already had the
upper hand.

The buzzer sounded, and Waya bowed to his opponent,
waiting for her to play.  He loved watching
the pattern form, and he lost himself in it. The game
evolved, and he realized she was beginning to
relax, but it was too late, since her shape was too
weak. He would cut it in half easily... 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Honda stumble
from the room. What happened? he wondered.
The game had been only going for an hour! His hands
trembled as he studied the board in front of
him, determined to keep his attention on his own
match. He would need another twenty moves to
force her to resign, but he could see the final
pattern. It was only through sheer discipline he made
it
happen. By that time, Shindou had disappeared.

Waya found Honda in the lobby, staring down at his
hands. "What happened?" he asked, wondering
if Honda had been having an off day. It happened
sometimes.

Honda's eyes were haunted. "Do you remember when I
played Touya Akira in last year's Young
Lion's Tournament?" he asked softly.

Waya nodded. "Of course." Honda had been the insei
unlucky enough to draw the prodigy in the
first round and be thoroughly humiliated.

"It was like that. No matter what I did, Shindou just
cut me down. He had control from the
beginning and didn't let go... why the hell is he
here, Waya?" Honda asked, his eyes wide. "He's...
Waya, it was like playing my sensei when he feels like
knocking me down to size." He ran irritated
hands through his hair, taking deep breaths in a
somewhat successful attempt to regain control over
himself.

Waya felt his heart rate quicken, knowing that
Shindou's mystique was starting to envelop them all.
"Shindou... I don't know. He was going to join me for
lunch today - you're welcome to come, if you
want."

Honda nodded and took another deep breath, letting his
hands fall to his sides. "I want to understand
him." He forced a very fake smile.
						
"Where is he?" Waya asked.

"I think he wandered off to see the building."

"Let's find him. Hopefully Nase and Fuku will be done
by then, so we can all go." Waya clouted
Honda on the shoulder in a companionable manner.

They found Shindou lounging in a waiting room, paging
through Weekly Go. "Hey, Shindou.
Studying?"

Shindou gave an embarrassed grin. "I'm looking at
Touya Kouyo's latest match. Meijin, Jyudan,
Tengen, and Kosei... he's pretty good."
			
"You forgot Ouza," Waya said.

"Ouza?" Shindou echoed. "Is that a title?"

Waya felt irritated again; Shindou left him confused
and fascinated, and Waya was starting to get
used to it until Shindou said something amazingly
ignorant, arrogant or just plain stupid, rousing a
dragon of irritation that rivaled Waya's feelings
towards Ochi and Touoya Akira. How the hell was
Shindou so damn good if he didn't even know that Ouza
was a title? "It's a title, too. His most
recent."

"Really," Shindou said. "So do I call him Touya Ouza?"

"Um... no. He uses Meijin - that's his most
prestigious title, and his first."

Shindou tapped his fingers thoughtfully against his
chin. "Really." A wicked grin lit up his face. "I
wanna be Meijin."
						
"We all want to be Meijin!" Waya said, wanting to
shake him. "But it won't happen unless you can
pass the pro exams, the preliminaries.... it takes
years and years! And most players never reach that
level!" Doesn't he know what a title means? Waya
wondered. There's only eight!

"But it's not impossible," Shindou said. His eyes
focused on the kifu in front of him. "Somebody's
gonna beat him in a title match, and it's gonna be
me." Something hard came into his green eyes, a
predatory look that Waya had only glimpsed
occasionally at Morishita's study sessions.

Waya turned his eyes to Honda to shake his head at
Shindou's arrogance, but Honda's face was pale.
Honda was focused on Shindou's eyes, and Waya wondered
what he was thinking. He doesn't really
think that Shindou can do it, does he? Waya wondered.
It's Touya-meijin, and Shindou may be
really good, but he's just an insei....

"Come on, Shindou. We're going to lunch," Waya said.
 
"Food!" Shindou said cheerfully, and in an instant
reverted to the cheerfulness with a speed that
made Waya wonder if he had split personalities. "Let's
go!"

Nase and Fuku met them in the foyer, and the quintet
headed out to the local eatery. After placing
orders, they found the seats they usually took, and
Waya reflected that it was strange how things had
changed. A year ago, Isumi and Ochi would have been
with them... now it was Shindou.

"How did your game go?" Nase asked Honda and Shindou.
She separated the pickles from her
hamburger and ate them with mustard, a weird habit
that they all teased her for.

"I won," Shindou said casually. 

Honda nodded, staring at his food. "Sliced me in
half..."

"You're good," Shindou said. "But your opening moves
were conventional. You were expecting me
to use a standard joseki before we started the fight,
and when I went outside of it, you didn't know
how to reply," he said. "It's a problem a lot of
people have, trying to do things differently. If you
don't take risks, you can't win."		

Nase sighed. "That's just what Sakurano-pro told me
when I played her in the Young Lion's
Tournament. I can't wait to play this year...."

"Young Lion's Tournament?" Shindou asked. "What's
that?"

Waya blinked, shaking himself out of his funk. "You
don't know?"

"Would I be asking if I knew?" Shindou said irritably,
taking a slurp of his soda.

Waya almost slammed his head into the table in
frustration. Shindou had just totally slaughtered
Honda in a game, and he didn't know what the Young
Lion's Tournament was? Who the Hell was
Shindou? he wondered for the umpteenth time since
meeting him.

Nase saved him from saying something he would regret.
"The Young Lion's Tournament is a
tournament between young pros and insei," she said.
"The top sixteen insei play sixteen young pros.
It's a lot of fun, and serves as good practice for the
pro exams."

"Oh," Shindou said. "When is it?"

"May. You have about four more months to get a high
enough ranking..." Waya said. "I don't think
you need to worry," he admitted, realizing that
Shindou's defeat of Honda would seriously raise him
in the rankings.

"What happens if I win?" Shindou asked curiously.

Waya snorted. "Insei are lucky if they make it to the
third round. You're not going to win," he said. 

Shindou looked at the other insei in disbelief. "Why
don't you set your sights higher? If you don't
think you can win, then you won't."

Waya exchanged looks with the others. Shindou
obviously didn't understand.

Honda set down his hamburger. "I hope I don't play
Touya Akira this year." He shuddered. "Last
year he utterly slaughtered me. I'd like to make it to
the third round...."

"He's related to the meijin?" Shindou asked, dribbling
a disgusting amount of ketchup onto his fries. 
The others stopped and stared at him. "You haven't
heard of him?" Nase asked after a moment, her
voice carefully neutral.

Shindou shook his head. "Nope. Should I?"

"He won the tournament last year, and he's got the
longest winning streak going on record. He's
going to be a 3-dan very shortly," Waya said. "People
are saying he's going to be the next meijin.
He's practically unbeatable, and he's a year younger
than me." Waya was careful not to add any
epithets about Touya Akira's sheer arrogance, though
he knew he could write an entire book on why
he didn't like the 2-dan.

"No one living is unbeatable," Shindou said, crumpling
his napkin. "You've given him the game
before you're even played, by being so afraid. But
he's not invisible." A slight smile played across
Shindou's lips, but it seemed terribly sad. "In the
end, there is no one who doesn't lose."

~*~*~*~

At the next insei day, Waya's first game was against
Shindou... and he finally got to see what had
everyone else so amazed and so terrified.

And it utterly blew him away.

He arrived a bit early, not wanting to meet Shindou in
the foyer. Shindou was notoriously tardy,
usually arriving only five minutes ahead of time. He
took out a goban and set it up, then shut his
eyes, trying to calm the nervous beating of his heart.

"Good luck, Waya," someone said, and he opened his
eyes to see Honda in front of him.

"Any advice?" he asked.

Honda looked thoughtful, crossing his arms over his
chest. "Just... learn from him."

Dammit... I'm going to win! Waya thought. If I go into
this thinking I'm going to lose, Shindou
has the game!		

Shindou walked in with three minutes to spare, cutting
it closer than usual. He gave Waya an
embarrassed grin as he settled down. "Maybe I should
start taking an earlier train," he said.
Waya just shrugged; he was already in battle mode and
small talk was not high on his priority list.
Shindou's eyes narrowed, and he reached over and
grabbed one of the go kes. "Should we nigiri to
save time?" he offered.

Waya open the lid and saw he was holding the white
stones. Wordlessly he drew a small handful and
placed them on the board, to which Shindou replied
with one. "Eight," he said.

Shindou handed him the black stones and they sat
together, staring at the clock without saying a
word. Waya felt tense, the same way he had during the
pro exams. This game... this game...

The buzzer rang, and Shinoda spoke. "Begin."

They bowed to each other, and Waya placed his first
stone down on 5-4. He had had time to
consider where to move, if he was black, and he
thought the takamoku point was perfect. If Shindou
was going to play unconventionally, so was he.

Shindou took the parallel star, his fingers firmly
pressing the clamshell stone down with the surety of
one who knew his mind. Waya looked over at Shindou,
his eyes distrusting. Then his jaw dropped,
seeing the look on the other's face.

SCARY, was his first thought.

Shindou's eyes had narrowed, and the color has changed
to shade of brilliant green that resembled a
pair of lambent cat's eyes. His intensity radiated
around him, and Waya dropped the stone he was
holding back into the go ke before he could place it.
Is this what others see? Are they too scared to
play him properly? Waya had to take a deep breath,
find his center before he laid his next move
right below the next star.

Pa-chi! 

Shindou took the remaining star, the lines on the
board clearly drawn as fuseki began.

Pa-chi! 

Waya consider the board, ignoring the timer before
making his move carefully. It was hard to
release the stone, to commit, but he forced himself
to.

Pa-chi! 

Shindou slapped down his next hand with less than
fifteen seconds thought. It took Waya a moment
to get over the surprise, before taking his turn.

Pa-chi!

Pa-chi!

Pa-chi!
						
The hands came faster, and Waya felt himself being
thrown into a game that was way above his
level. Shindou was controlling the pace, and Waya felt
beads of sweat form at his hairline.

I can't... I can't win this... he realized as the game
entered chuban his shape wasn't going to stand up
to Shindou. The other insei was going to kill his
stones, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Learn from him, Honda had told him... but he knew it
was time to resign. "I'm losing," he said,
bowing.

"Thanks for the game," Shindou replied. He swept his
hands towards the board, but he was stopped
when Waya caught his hand.

"Shindou, why are you here? You're too powerful...� he
demanded.

Shindou was quiet as he stared at the game. "There's a
lot about Go I don't know," he said. "Every
game, I learn something." He smiled at Waya sadly, a
smile that held mysteries that Waya burned to
solve. He looked across the room as where the score
sheet was kept, one that he hadn't had to claim a
loss on yet. "As for why I play... I'm looking for
something. When I find it, that's when I won't need
to play anymore."

"You'd just stop?" Waya asked in horror.

Shindou sighed a bit to himself, leaning forward so
his hands rested on his knees. "Waya, there are
some things we never find."

END PART ONE
	
~~~~~~~~~~

		
Credits:					

Thanks to Saul and Russ Williams, who looked over this
to correct my Go. There is one thing I didn't correct:
Saul says three years isn't THAT unreasonable to get
into the pros (though it's uncommon), but we're doing
the Hikago-verse. The series made a deal over how fast
Kurata rose (and Kurata had pros teaching him).
Shindou is scary because he had no one... and is a
mystery. Insei do rise rapidly in some cases, as Ochi
did, but others languish for years. Allow me a bit of
artistic license.

For those who wondered, yes, Touya is a 2-dan. He will
be a 3-dan in the next chapter, to reflect the passage
of time.

I will be correcting some of the minor flaws in the
prologue when I get a moment, but these are all
go-related and make no difference to the flow of the
story. 

Credit to tenshihanafubuki for the edit!

=====
i won't search beyond the sea from now
the shining thing is always here
it can be found within myself
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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