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: …Ready? …Set? …Go!

...

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

"You promised, Jii-chan!" Hikaru exclaimed as he pointed an accusatory finger at his grandfather. "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. If this were the first time, he would have been more surprised.

"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 favorite grandpa can't let your MVP award from your soccer team go uncelebrated."

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

Heihachi just chuckled, watching as his grandson scrambled up and ran 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 additional 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 at least have an expensive...thing this way.

"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.

His grandfather had spent countless hours trying to convince Hikaru that the board game was fun. Hikaru had not been impressed by it, but he at least recognized the pieces.

"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 stain."

Hikaru traced the dark mark with his fingertip.

"Is this blood?" Hikaru questioned with disgust. "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 then.

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

"Who is it? Jii-chan?" Hikaru shot up, wildly looking around the empty room. "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.

Hikaru did the only thing sane people would do in this situation. Hikaru screamed like a little girl.

"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! But I don't have a beta reader, so please excuse my clumsy mistakes.

2014.12.07
The original title of this chapter was "Go Ghost" but I've changed it to "…Ready? …Set? …Go!" to correspond with Chapter 46: "…Ready? …Set? …Again!".