Not Just a Game

A/N: Another story! I hope this one is successful too. I don't know why, but it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to write a Hikaru No Go fic. Here ya go! I hope you like it… although this chapter doesn't really have anything about any of the characters except for a really quick run in with Ogata. I'm basically introducing my original characters to you now.

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Thief

He was merciless. Every move, every stone he slammed gently onto the board. He was taking everything from me, invading my every weakness, luring me into a wild frenzy of defending what I had left. That day, I did what I shouldn't have—I panicked. Before, I was unbeatable. No man ever came near to beating me. But he took everything without hesitation, without effort, without even noticing what exactly he was taking.

He took my heart.

I got up, turned, and bolted. The stones lay scattered upon the ground.

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A teenage girl with long black hair and dark brown eyes stared out of the window from her hotel bed as if there was nothing else going around her—a sign of sheer boredom. She yawned and stretched, her light flowing hair falling around her and wiped away the resulting wetness in her eyes. She was dressed in a striped green shirt and a forest green skirt that went up to her knees, and was eyeing her socks by the dresser in an extremely lazy manner.

"Vivian! Where are you?" Her father called. "We're about to leave! Hurry up!"

Vivian let out a deep sigh and got up from the bed. After murmuring back a, "Coming!" she put on her socks and a light brown coat and exited the room. Her dad was standing by the door impatiently.

"Are you ready now?" he asked. His hand was on the doorknob already.

Vivian ignored the question and asked, "Why would you ask where I was if there's only two rooms in this suite? And hold on, I need to get something."

"You won't need your Ipod, Vivi! Come on quickly!"

Vivi sighed and blew away her bangs in exasperation. She decided to leave the Ipod in case her dad spontaneously combusted while he waited. As they left the hotel, she asked him, "What's the hurry?"

"What's the hurry?" He nearly exploded at that one. "Vivi, we're in Japan. Our first and foremost task must be tooo (he knelt down in a dramatic pose) visit the splendid Go Institute right next door!"

Vivi sweatdropped and thought, I should have known. Her father was a complete Go freak. Back in China, he would play Go with his buddies every weekend and whenever he had time during the week. "Dad, you're the one who keeps remarking on the wonders of Chinese go players. How come the Japanese are so interesting now?"

"You speak the language, Vivi," he sputtered, "so they aren't bad at all. Besides, the institute's a place, not a person."

"Okay then," she answered, "But why are you so interested in this game anyways. You can't even win against me and you taught me how to play, AND I absolutely suck at the game anyways."

"It's not about skill," he insisted, "It's about spirit! Go is FUN! You have to enjoy it to play it! Oh, here we are. Quick, Vivi! Get the camera out and take a picture of me."

She obliged without any useless arguments. Immediately after the flash he bounded through he door in an ecstatic manner. Vivi tried as hard as she could to avoid being recognized as his daughter. Unfortunately for her, her dad had already started on his task of reciting the history of the institute to her and squealing madly at everything he saw at the same time. It was hard to avoid the curious and sometimes sympathetic glances from the various incomers without looking down in embarrassment. A brown-haired boy that looked a little younger than her started laughing so hard his friend had to drag him away because he was too weak to move.

"Erm… dad? Dad!" Vivi poked him to get his attention. "I need to go to the bathroom."

"Oh… just when I was about to get to the good part! Well meet me back here okay?"

Vivi nodded in agreement and left walking as fast as she could. She turned the corner and let out a deep breath of relief.

As she went along trying to find the bathrooms, she noticed that the Go Institute was very open to public. Although… there weren't a whole lot of people walking around either. Just as she thought this she caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. An orange-haired man in a white suit rounded the corner and as a result they ran straight into each other.

"Oh I'm sorry," she apologized both with surprise and embarrassment. He was probably a professional player, and a good one too because she actually remembered seeing his face somewhere before.

He brushed himself off and replied, "It's fine." Then he adjusted his glasses a little higher and turned to leave.

"Um…," she started. He gave her a questioning look. "Where are the restrooms?"

"Keep going and you'll see them," he answered as he left.

She found them, and then after all that she decided to explore on her own as an excuse for delaying return to her dad. The first room she tried was locked, so all she could do was peer through the glass on the door. She gasped in recognition. This was the room where the Japanese Title matches were held. Feeling a sense of accomplishment in recognizing the room, she continued in trying random doors and poking around.

Nothing else was of interest until she noticed an open door. It was a small room with stacks and stacks of papers and books. The light was on, but whoever had opened it wasn't there at the moment. She stepped in, and immediately became aware that this was the records room. She peeked at the small pile of books that were on the table and saw the name Hon'inbo Shuusaku. The books were extremely old. Vivi hoped her father wouldn't get the chance to see these. Just hearing Shuusaku's name usually made him go off the rocker.

She picked one up curiously and took a peek inside. To her dismay, a loose paper fluttered out from it. Her heart momentarily pounded faster as she tried to fit it back inside. It didn't work.

Okay Vivi, calm down, she thought, Just match up the page numbers. But when she tried to do this, it didn't work either. The loose page had its page number on the upper right-hand corner while the rest were on the lower right. Upon closer inspection she noticed that he colors of the pages were different. The loose one looked much older as a result. On it was just another kifu (record) of another game that was completely beyond her understanding. With nothing else to do, she sat down and tried to read it as best as she could. All she could make out was that white was loosing and that the game was unfinished. Go players can actually understand this stuff, she thought, Amazing.

The lights flickered a little as she turned the page over. It had originally been blank, but Vivian could make out some faded characters. It was completely illegible now, but judging from the layout it was a letter for somebody.

That was a problem. It was completely illegible, and yet she knew she could read it.

Vivi looked up when she thought she had heard a noise. A faint, irregular buzzing came from the lamp. The light dimmed and then suddenly flashed just as she heard a loud electrical zap. She shielded her eyes from it because it was so bright.

All of a sudden, she heard a loud pop and the lamp went out. She was about to take her hands away from her eyes when she noticed that the room was actually getting brighter and brighter. She squinted and saw that the faded letters on the paper were glowing a blinding red. The whole room was white, and there was hardly any shadow, so that it felt like the walls and the ceiling and the floor was disappearing…

Where am I? What happened?

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A/N: I lied. You met three characters. That boy who started cracking up was Waya and the friend was Isumi. There, you happy now? Well, the next chapter won't have so much to do with Vivi so it won't seem like she's the center of attention, okay?

Vivi: What do you mean? I AM the center of attention.

Me: Of course you are. You're wanted by the FBI. Now go away.