Go? But I'm a Soccer Player!

Summary: Hikaru was a MVP regional soccer player when he met Sai. He took up go on the net to appease the hopeful ghost. Three years later, Sai left and Hikaru got an offer to the B-leagues. Now, a year a half later, Hikaru one again encounters the go world by chance.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go and never will no matter how much I want to own it.

Hikaru was almost twelve when he first encountered the childish go obsessed ghost in his grandfather's attic. He had received full scholarship offers to all the top schools in the region because of his soccer abilities and his grandfather decided to reward him by allowing him to pick anything from the attic where all the old heirlooms of the Shindo family were kept.

Four years ago…

Walking around the attic, Hikaru tried to make a decision. Almost anything in the attic would worth hundreds of thousands of yen if pawned, but he can't do that unless he had a death wish. His parents would kill him for sure if they hear about it. However, no matter the value, Hikaru just did not find any of the weird scrolls or paintings interesting and do not understand why such boring things can have such high values.

Walking around, Hikaru saw a wooden table with round legs; it looked like a small sized tea table. The table certainly stood out against all the painting and calligraphy in the room. Upon closer inspection, Hikaru found that there was a blood spill on the table.

"Hmm," Hikaru mumbled to himself, "if this table is in here, then it should worth quite a bit. Wonder why grandpa never tried to get the blood stain off?"

Suddenly, Hikaru heard a questioning voice, "you can see the stains?" Spinning around with the agility of a seasoned athlete, Hikaru saw with shock a man with long, dark purple hair and wearing a traditional outfit. "Kami, I thank you…" the figure, ghost? continued, but Hikaru paid it no mind as he found himself sinking into darkness.

Hikaru's life changed after that fateful encounter. The strange man told Hikaru that he was a go instructor from the Heian era who committed suicide after being banished from the court for loosing a game to a cheater. Hikaru found out that the table was in fact not a table but a go board.

After the incident, Hikaru's grandfather never mentioned the attic and got Hikaru a computer for his present instead. When Hikaru asks about the board, his grandfather would just change the topic.

Unable to put up with a ghost who constantly badgers him about go, Hikaru looked up the game on the internet and began playing a game or two for the ghost on the condition that Sai promises to not bother Hikaru during his soccer practises. Hikaru never knew of the chaos he caused in the go world that summer. As the summer vacation passed, Hikaru found that go was not as boring as he first thought and sensing his host's interest, Sai began to teach Hikaru go during Hikaru's limited free time in between all his soccer practices.

September that year Hikaru chose to chose to join Kaio junior high, the top school in the region. He was put into the special class with all the other top athletes in the region. Although he heard about Kaio's top of the class go club, Hikaru never had the time to visit. Neither did Hikaru know who Akira Toya is, therefore had no idea that the son of the current top go player in the world in the same school as him.

Because of Kaio's extremely high expectations of all of its students, Hikaru's hands were quite full to keep his soccer skill at the highest level he can manage. Most of Hikaru's limited free time was dedicated to learning go with the hyper ghost and sometimes playing net go for Sai, so he never had anytime to get any know the real go world.

Hikaru was watching the news one day for a current events assignment when he heard the name Toya Meijin, the person closest to the hand of god in the current era. Sai had demanded right there and then that Hikaru try to arrange a game between him and Toya Meijin. Unable to do anything, Hikaru decided to appease Sai by looking up all the information he can about go when he plays on the net for Sai during Sai's opponent's thinking time. It was during that time that Hikaru found out about the chaos he, or technically Sai, caused in the go world. Sai decided to not trouble the go world anymore and settle to just playing Hikaru at night with a foldable go board Hikaru bought behind his parents' back.

Three years later…

When Hikaru heard about Toya Meijin's heart attack in the school hallways from some chatting go club member, the soccer Regionals were just finished. Using the few days of break before Nationals, Hikaru managed find out which room the Meijin was staying at. Didn't want to be recognized, Hikaru snuck into the hospital room with a cap and arranged a game for Sai.

Toya Meijin lost the game and retired from the go world after loosing his Jyuudan title to Ogata Seiji like he promise Hikaru. However, during that game between Sai and Toya Meijin, Hikaru showed a great depth in his go knowledge by pointing out the spot that would have allowed the Meijin to win. Seeing that move, Sai finally realized his purpose for remaining in the living world, and realised that he fade away soon.

Not wanting to bother Hikaru who was focus all his energy on the Nationals, Sai did not tell Hikaru about his imminent disappearance. On the same day Kaio won Nationals, Sai slowly fade watching Hikaru's jubilant face with a content smile.

Hikaru did not discover Sai's absence until the next day, having partied with his team mate all night. He looked everywhere to find the ancient ghost in vain. A week after Sai's disappearance, Hikaru received an invite to join the B-leagues of the Kanto region based on his performance in the nationals.

With pressure form his grandfather, his parents, and all of his team mates to accept the once in a life chance deal, Hikaru accepted the invitation.

Wanting to distract himself from thinking about Sai's disappearance, Hikaru threw all of his energy and spare time into soccer and quickly became a rising star in the Japanese soccer scene. Nine months later, an A-league coach saw Hikaru's immense potential and drafted him into A-league.

With Hikaru's hard work and a little luck he made it on the Japanese National team as a substitute because of an unfortunate accident that happened to two players just days before the world cup.

However, because of the lack of those two players, Japan was behind by 3-0 in their top sixteen match at the end of the first half. Half way into the second half, Japan was down to 5-0. Seeing that is not chance for recovery for team Japan, as stamina is team Japan's biggest weakness and if the team stand no chance when they are full of energy, they won't be able to do anything without energy. The coach sent on all the substitutes giving them a chance to gain a valuable experience that they wouldn't be able to gain otherwise.

It was during that time Hikaru manage to force a goal because of a great assist and the opposing team's underestimation of a substitute team. Hikaru and his team mate because an instant national focus even though Japan was thoroughly slaughtered in that game. During that game, Hikaru also gained the title of "Light" (1) curtsy of the kanji of his name.

After that game, Hikaru's grandfather gave Hikaru a pleasant surprise. As a congratulatory present, Hikaru's grandfather gave Hikaru Sai's board. Heihachi Shindo said to Hikaru as he handed over the board, "I don't why were keep on asking about the board three years ago, but out of the thing in that attic, this is the most valuable, belonging at one time to the greatest go player of al time Honinbo Shusaku. I think it must have been some sort of fate that you fainted right next to this goban. I have kept this goban as my most prized possession, and now I give it to you. Maybe," Hikaru's grandfather continued in a much lighter tone, "you'll become the Honinbo Shusaku of soccer."

It was then Hikaru finally remember the other sport he neglected in favour of soccer. That night Hikaru fell asleep next to the board and dreamt of Sai again. In his dream Sai was smiling at his and holding out his paper fan for Hikaru.

The next day, Hikaru bought a paper fan for himself.

A few weeks later, a magazine poll indicated dissatisfaction among parents because children are now focusing too much on sports such as soccer instead of school work or something more brain stimulating. Some parents even indicated that they were not happy with Hikaru because of the "ridiculous" dream of become a young sport star that he seem to have injected in a lot of the minds of the children who chose him as idol after the world cup.

Hikaru's coach talked with Hikaru on how to soothe the parents' displeasure. They decided to have Hikaru reenroll into the high school counter part of Kaio junior high that Hikaru dropped out of for the world cups. Kaio was of course to have a student of such high profile even that school would not be Hikaru's main focus. Looking deeper into Kaio high, Hikaru's coach discovered Akira Toya, who made it into the Honinbo tournament finals. Although he lost, he still walked away with a 7-dan rank and a nick name of the "brightness" (2) the go world, also curtsey to his name.

Hikaru's coach suggested a joint interview of Hikaru and Akira, the two "bright ones" to show Hikaru's acknowledgment of traditional games as a joke. However Hikaru's coach was shocked to find out that Hikaru actually used to play go. Although Hikaru claimed to be "no good at it", the his coach still saw this as a way to lessen the discontent against Hikaru and the rift that is gradually forming between the traditional and the reforming parts of the school.

The go association took almost no time to convince as they saw this as a great way to spread the popularity of go. The soccer association had also though that a joint interview is a good idea to lessen the tension and the blond banged rising soccer star.

So on this fateful day, Hikaru stepped into the go association for the first time in his life for a interview, with no idea that the skill he displays will cause a major commotion in the world of go.

To be continued

(1) The Kanji for Hikaru's name is 進藤光 the Kanji "光" literally means "light"

(2) The Kanji for Akira's name is塔矢亮 the Kanji "亮" literally means "bright"

Ok, that was the prologue. I got this idea when I read a fanfic that tell what would happen if Hikaru had never met Sai. It's been stuck in my head for sometime and it's really bothering me so I thought I'd throw this out and see what you people think. If enough people respond I might turn my attention to this fic instead the other ones that I am stuck on without ideas on.

The main reason I didn't want to put up this story was because I thought that I might be making Hikaru way too perfect. But the more I think of it, the more I think it might not matter that much. Also I read "Light of a Beautiful Stranger" where Hikaru is good at soccer, so I thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Do tell me if you think that I'm making Hikaru into too much of a perfect person.

Well, tell me what you think anyways!