Beautifully done!
Thank you for this heartachingly wonderful oneshot!

Augh, this is just wonderful. I actually first read this years ago, after reading 'desynchronization', and really enjoyed this. I like seeing Kouyo's perspective, it's not the usual kind of POV you'd see in a manga; an elderly, ill man, with no regrets, and a loving family. I think you captured his mindset very well, and I love how much consideration you put into his characterization and memories when it's not like canon provided a lot of information on his past.

I honestly just adore the interactions between Kouyo and Sai, two very different men with a common passion and a healthy and rewarding rivalry. The way that Kouyo just reflexively feels comfortable around Sai, how he can empathize with him and feel concerned for him or touched by him despite not knowing him well; it's just a really interesting way to show how their bond runs deeper than merely "we're both good at Go". So yeah, this is definitely a favourite of mine in the fandom. Argh, it's a shame there's not more fic for HnG. Thanks for writing, anyways!

Very well written ;w; beautiful atmosphere
Tragic but peaceful TTTT
I ca so see this happening in cannon sometime XDD
GREAT FIC SSU

Your story very interesting. I'm glad I read it. Thank you for writing such a great story.

Amazing story! I love it! I was on the edge of my seat almost from the beginning waiting to see what was going to happen! Brilliant idea and magificantly written!

I love you for writing this. I always like Kouyo-Sai relationship, and hope can see/read more about them, and this fic really portray their relationship (if they able to meet) really neat. Please write more about them.

))) very sweet ))

I think the only way to describe this story is bittersweet... I love that Kouyo gets to meet Sai at the end and that they will get to play many many games in the future X3 This is a beautiful story and i love that Hikaru and Akira are together and still arguing even in the future lol looking forward to more of your stories

yup, interesting indeed, thank you!

I read this story first time in the blind go commu, months ago, and it's just as brilliant as I remembered it to be. The tone is perfect, it really feels like Touya Kouyou, and the atmosphere is just so wonderfully... slow and waiting and at times a tad brooding, with Hikaru being so brilliantly himself and keeping it from getting too gloomy.

If I were to list all the things I loved in this fic, this review would get a bit too long... the dreams and how they transformed, the way you described Sai's enemy and the feeling of the game, everything Sai and Kouyou talked about, the phone call... and in general, all the great sentences, which were so simple and still seemed to reach somewhere deep... (Except for him, but Kouyou cannot grant himself more time.)

In fact, the only sentence I was wondering about was the last one - half of the time it feels to me that the ending would work just fine without it. "Everything goes black" sounds, maybe, a little used and not that necessary. Well, I don't know. And anyway, all the other sentences are just brilliant (and yeah, I do realize I'm overusing that word in this review, but my vocabulary seems to have left me.)

Well, whatever. I think this has to be one of my favorite fics ever.

Lovely story! I like your style of writing; I think it really fit Kouyou. He's very dignified and accepting of his fate, without being depressing. I like your insights into Kouyou's thought process, and how he views younger people and modern society. He's a traditionalist without being close-minded to modern viewpoints.

One of my favorite things to see in stories is a conversation where we know someone's secret and can read the deeper meanings. Reading Kouyou and Sai's conversations brought a smile to my face.

I've always felt sorry for him that he never got to play Sai again, but this story makes me feel better. I'm glad Sai was there for him.

A fic doesn't get much better than this.

Omg, the HnG fandom has a lot of great quality fics. Why did I never think of reading HnG ficcu?

This fic is love.

I really, really like Touya Kouyou. He's an amazing character, leaving behind his comfortable status-quo to play Go for Go's sake, with child-like entuthiasm. Learning, changing, evolving. And they say old dogs can't learn new tricks!

Your Sai is like an angel, beatific, ephimerous... I have this little theory, you see, that Sai, didn't really "pass on" because he'd acheived his "mission", if you will, but because he got a raise. I really do believe he turned into a, if not "the", God of Go.

At any rate, oh boy, the fun these two will have in the afterlife!

I loved how your Kouyou lived and died the same way he plays his Go: peacefully, with child-like enthusiasm. Thank you for this fic.

Beautiful. I teared up at the end.

I liked this story a lot, and think it's written well. I was thrown off by Kouyou referring to the ghost as a boy, then a young man, as they talked, but it fits well with his age perspective and by the end it was clear. (Mainly, I couldn't tell exactly /whose/ ghost it was until closer to the ending.) I'm not sure about the Akira/Shindo part; not against the pairing, and I liked Kouyou's reasoning and everything about how you wrote and used it, just not sure whether it's actually canon or writer's choice. :D

I had tears in my eyes at the end. Beautiful.