Disclaimer: I own neither characters nor idea, Hikaru no Go belongs to its respectful creators and owners. I only own those more or less badly written words there. I also don't intend to make profit with this story. Only mental profit. Encouragement, useful criticism and the like :)

PROLOGUE

It was a sunny mid-summer day. The birds sang their lovely songs and the air smelled of heat. In the shade of the terrace there sat two figures, like any other sane person they were seeking out the cool outside of sun's reach. Those two figures were grandpa and grandson. Currently grandpa was telling grandson one of his bigger exploits, which had happened in, of course, Go.

Hikaru groaned. „Grandpa! Are you going senile on me now? That's about the 99th time I've heard about you winning the Amateur Meijin Tournament twice in a row!"

"Well, you can never tell good things often enough, can you." The old man cackled. "And with your life going as it is it might do you good to listen to an old man like me talking about his life."

Hikaru groaned again. "Grandpa, I'm only 12 years old! I don't know yet where my life will be going. What's so great about winning some tournaments in an unpopular game like that anyway? Ow!"

The bleach banged boy sulkily rubbed his head where his grandfather had just hit him.

"Only because YOU don't know about it!" The old man sputtered. "That doesn't mean it's unpopular. Hmph, kids those days. Only manga and video games in their brains!"

Hikaru sighed. Lamenting about the good old times was one of his grandfather's favourite past times. And with an audience such as his "already corrupted" grandson it was all the better. If it wasn't for this promise to his mother he wouldn't even have come. But the old man had asked kaa-san for a favour which had included ordering something online. The ordering had been done by Hikaru's father and the delivering, of course, by Hikaru himself. Thus he was sitting here listening to the old Shindou's ceaseless chattering.

Deciding to put an end to it he hastily stood up. "Oh it's already past 4 o'clock. I really don't want to miss dinner!"

Heihachi rubbed his balding head. "Could you do me a favour and deliver something on your way home?" He asked. Hikaru eyed him warily. "Let me guess, this weird package you had ordered?"

Old Shindou nodded. "I ordered it for an old friend of mine. He lives four houses down from my house."

"But there are only three houses down this street." Hikaru observed, confused.

"You forgot the one making this street a dead end, didn't you?"

The kid's natural fear and respect of anything stiff and stilted set in. He paled. "This awesome big loaded-looking mansion?! No way I'm going there!"

"Come on you coward! I'll give you 1.000 yen if you manage to deliver this package!"

Hikaru hesitated, but not for long.

"Deal!" He said, but he didn't even suspect that this deal would change his life drastically… yet.

"Hikaru?" Grandpa added like in after-thought.

"Yes?"

"Behave."

"…Hai."

Taking his grandpa's slyness and his own fear of over formalness into account Hikaru was not a happy camper. His stomach growled and the heat was killing him. Not a happy camper indeed. After following the narrow street enclosed by walls and houses down he had reached his great fear. The awe-inspiring mansion was surrounded by a fairy tale-like traditional garden. A spiked fence about five times higher than Hikaru was big made trespassing nearly impossible. The gate was not less intimidating, and not less closed for that. Hikaru didn't even want to consider what such an extreme safety measure said about its occupants. Was grandpa really friends with that kind of people?

'Now if only they had some really aggro watchdogs.' He thought sarcastically. Great, now he had the shivers too. Grabbing the thick package tighter to his chest he went about looking for something to make his presence known with.

After looking for a door bell for who knows how long he sighed and sacked in and put his back against the metal gate poles with force.

'How am I supposed to get in now?' he thought, exasperated. His stomach growled pitifully. 'Damn, I'm hungry and I'm thirsty.' Contemplating if going back to his grandpa's and telling the old man that a delivery was impossible wouldn't actually be the safest way. He nearly had a heart attack when the gate suddenly gave in. Seriously, what kind of a rich man's gate with an image to keep would cave in at the weight of a twelve year old athletic boy? This kind of gate did. With an undignified yelp the boy landed on his behind. Unfortunately for him the ground was plastered with tiny spiky stones. Now if someone had listened in they would really have thought that the Fujiwaras owned aggro dogs. Unbeknown to them it was Hikaru who was making those angry growling sounds while rubbing his poor abused behind.

Coming closer to the house he noticed the lack of anything that marked a house to be lived in. Actually everything, except the garden, distinctly lacked human touch and if he hadn't known any better he would have thought it to be abandoned. When he had entered the mansion's compounds he had immediately noticed a drop in temperature. Not knowing how it came to be but secretly relieved, he went in search of an entrance.

'What kind of era does this guy live in? No door bell again.' Ignoring the weird looking dog head on the front door he went in search of another entrance when he noticed a window wide opened, situated only about two meters above his head. Grinning, having completely forgotten his unusual anxious state which always set in when he got confronted with the stilted life-style of the rich, he headed over to one of the less delicate trees of the garden. Climbing up he somehow managed to go through the window. The room within wasn't really what he had thought it to be. Not only did it look like something his grandfather would have liked, the man occupying it was a lot younger than he would have expected.

"Uh… who are you?" Hikaru asked, in lack of anything better to say, since it was obviously a little bit too late to run. It came out a bit hoarse though. He cleared his throat. 'Behave.' He recalled dryly. His grandfather knew him well indeed. The elegantly dressed purple haired man looked at him silently for a while and then he slowly took out some paper and a pencil. With the pencil he wrote something on one piece of paper, but the boy couldn't well see from where he stood. The clock was calmly ticking time away and finally, before he started fidgeting, he walked over until he could gaze at what the man was writing.

'Who are YOU? Trespassing is a crime, you know?' was written there in elegant Kanji. Hikaru paled a bit and hastily said "My grandpa sent me. He said to give you this package." Nearly dropping it in his haste he put it on the desk in front of Fujiwara-san. With intent curiosity he watched as the package's recipient looked down at it for a while and finally, eyes filled with some kind of strange caution, moved his slim finger towards the wrappings. Not knowing the reason for the man's weird cautiousness the kind part of Hikaru couldn't help it but blurt out: "You know grandpa really only thinks nicely about you. He even ordered this for you. I'm sure it's some kind of gift."

A slight shiver went through the man's frame, but his next actions for sure seemed much less unsure. The wrappings fell away and the contents were revealed. "Oh, it's only a Goban." Hikaru said without thinking, disappointed.