A Side Story of --The love that transcends a thousand years.

By--sukishippo

Disclaimer: Do not own Hikaru no Go

Author's grouse (You can ignore if you want…) :

This story was supposed to come out on the eve of the Lunar New Year…but well…as you know, this author is a lazy person and thus procrastinated, even though I don't like people who procrastinate…I have a very contradicting mindset…and I hate myself for that…Haiz…

Anyway, wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year, even if it had past…(so what? It's still within the 15 days right :p) and enjoy the story!

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A rendezvous to remember---Their first meeting…

The streets of the Capital were bustling with people; they were either riding ox carriages or horses, or just simply walking along the streets. Most of them, regardless of the cold, participated in activities, engaging in the festive mood on the eve of the New Year. There were colourful and beautifully painted lanterns decorating the streets, lighting the night up. Many booths lined the streets; selling an assortment of things like painted masks, hair pins, face paints (or cosmetics), food etc. There were also performances eg. puppet shows and various plays, performed on stages along the streets. The faces of the people were that of a happy one as they embraced the New Year, with their new and colourful kimonos as they strolled through the busy streets with their families or friends.

It was especially busy on the street that was facing the Shrine as many people were heading towards the Shrine. There were also many booths around the place and this had made the flow of the people even worst, as people stopped to look at the goods while they were traveling towards the Shrine. The bells in the temple were pealing away non-stop, as people continued to pull the cords religiously when they finished praying, often wishing for good luck for the New Year. They would also wish for divinations in hope of a good year ahead or for young girls, the hope of being with their lovers.

This was all observed by a pre-teenager as he strolled through the streets. Another person was tailing that boy, who was most probably the servant, as the coarse garment of the latter, fails in comparison with that of the boy's expensive textile.

They had continued silently into a slightly isolated lane between the property of the Shrine and a river, when someone spoke.

"Akira dono…" The servant worriedly addressed his young master when the boy had shown no sign that he would head home.

"Yes?" Akira stopped his stride forward, and pulled his cloak tighter around him to ward off the cold as he looked back at his servant.

"It is now late in the night, would you like to go back to the household now? Or else both master and mistress will be worried." The servant replied while bowing.

"Alright, we should not let chichiue and hahaue…" Akira agreed reluctantly as there was nothing much left to see, but was soon distracted as his attention was captured by a small group of people surrounding two people in a pavilion that was near him.

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The group of people let out a roar of laughter and claps as they congratulated someone (Akira couldn't see the person properly as it was pretty dark there) seating on a stone seat. While in the opposite direction of the stone table, a person hung his head down in defeat, whom the people teased.

With his curiosity winning over him, Akira made his way towards the pavilion and approached the group.

There were two lanterns that were hung at different corners of the pavilion, which caused fade light to flicker across the darkness, causing a luminous effect on the people, objects in the pavilion, and the surface of the river beside the pavilion.

What had immediately caught his attention when he climbed up the steps of the pavilion, was a Goban on the table. He quickly assessed the finished the game and came up with the conclusion that this was an uneven game, as the skill of the white's was much better than that of the black's. Even as the white had given many chances to the black, the black had still lost.

Akira then turned his head to look at the players. First, he saw a person who had his head hung in depression. Judging from his attire, Akira assumed that the person was a scholar, and from his expression, that he had lost the game. Akira then looked at the person sitting at the opposite end, and was caught in surprised.

There, sitting at the other end was a person, no, correction, was a child

'No wonder the scholar looked so dejected' Akira thought.

With his small body perched on top of the stone seat, feet dangling down, the height of the seat was obviously unsuitable for the child. Akira assumed from the child's rough clothes that the child was male and that he was a commoner. And what made him most amused was that the child was wearing a straw hat with a black cloth or veil over it, thus covering the child's face.

When the scholar made his way from the stone seat, Akira immediately sat right on the seat without thinking. When Akira realized what he had done, he can only smile awkwardly at the child, and proceeded to ask for a game. He could feel surprise radiating off the child, but the child nodded in agreement, and they cleared the Goban to start a new game.

"Onegaishimasu."

And thus started the game that neither would forget.

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There was no noise between them as the two children (Akira is only a pre-teen, so he is still a child right?) battled out on the Goban. Neither had said a word since the start of the game, as both had put all their attention on it. The only noises that were produced were the sound of the Go stones hitting the wooden surface, and the occasional gasps and whispers of the group of adults as they looked in awe when the two pitted skills for skills.

It was an intense battle, and although Akira knew that it would be a tough game from the skill shown earlier by the match with the scholar, he did not expected that it was this difficult.

Akira looked up from the board to scrutinise the boy in front of him whom had piqued his interest and burning competitiveness, as he waited for the boy to answer his recent hand.

The boy was very small in stature, looking as if he was only five or six years old. But Akira had a feeling that that might not be true, even if he could not see the face of his opponent which covered by a veil. As in his opinion, it was impossible for someone so young to possess such skills (Author: How can you say that if you're young too?), and he had a niggling feeling that something was not right about his conclusion about the boy. But even if that was that case, Akira was still very interested in the boy; I mean his skills in Go, as finally he had met someone close his age that could make him feel challenged .

The boy's slim white hand placed a contrasting black stone on the Goban, and soon his thoughts were pushed aside as he was once again overcame with anticipation when he saw the next move. He proceeded to pick up a white stone and fingered with it as his mind went back to be fully engaged by the game.

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'I won.' Akira thought as he closed his eyes in relief when he finished counting the stones. He had won by a moku (note: in the past, there was no komi. So err…one can say that actually Akira won by 7.5moku?). It was a close win.

Akira then played the game in his head again. It was really a close battle, even when it reaches yose, as they fought viciously for every square.

Akira then opened his eyes and intended to thank his opponent for the game, when he noticed that the boy's hands that were clutching his Hakama (a type of traditional Japanese clothing resembling a wide, pleated skirt-like trousers) were trembling very strongly, and his shoulders were shaking. It was visible that the boy was trying to prevent himself from crying or was already crying.

"Are you…" Alright? Akira had wanted to say but was interrupted by the boy.

"Sai Onii san……" The boy choked out pitifully as he turned his tiny body on the seat and reached out with his left hand towards a man standing behind him.

"POP! CRACK! CRACK!"

Loud noises cracked into the silent night as a group of children lighted fire crackers and sparklers near the pavilion, causing the group of adults that were concentrating on the game to jump in fright and shock.

It was a good thing that Akira was someone who was not easily surprised or shock, and it was indeed very good luck for his opponent that Akira was paying much attention to him.

The boy was startled by the sudden noise which caused his body to jolt and lost his balance.

The man behind the boy could not react in time to catch the boy as he was lost in his thoughts, and had only managed to lift his hands before the falling boy was caught by Akira.

Akira managed to get to the boy's side in a split second when he saw the boy fell from his seat. He had skidded across the rough floor and caught the boy with his chest. Akira was a bit winded from the impact and had managed to get his focus back but only to lose it quickly again when he faced the person on his chest.

Brilliant green eyes looked in surprise at Akira, as the hat and veil was knocked off, and Akira could only stared back in dumb shock at the face of the boy…no, girl... The weight of the child was very light for a boy, and the hair style and the face of the child confirmed that he was indeed a she.

His mind had only managed to register that the child had beautiful eyes and someone was yelling "Hikaru!" before it was completely shut down by the fact that the child whom he thought was a boy, was actually a girl……

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Just in case you want to know, Akira is 12 years old in this chap, and Hikaru is 8 years old, so Akira is 5 years older, and this is their first meeting so they don't know each other yet. And why Hikaru was wearing a commoner boy clothing and a hat with veil? Well it's because she was in a disguise.

Author's note

I wasn't really planned on writing this kind of chap aka a side story, but ya…I just did…cause I've gotten a writer's block, and just wanted to write something different for a change.

The initial chap 10 was a big problem to me, still currently trying to get the story to fit and flow smoothly…as I kept changing the sequence of the events…Haiz……can't make up my mind…So ya, gonna take awhile to post it up, cause still writing half way…Sorry……

Well anyway, hope you like this kind of a chap :)