Title: Hoppípolla: Part II

Author: Reinamy

Pairings: Harria Potter/Shindou Hikaru/Touya Akira (eventually)

Warnings: AU, genderswap (fem!Harry), crossover, dimension travel, MOD!HP, OOC-ness, threesome, slash and het, age disparity, mild language, excessive POV switching, etc.

Disclaimer: This is non-profitable fan work. No copyright infringement intended.

Author's Note: It was always my intention to split Hoppípolla into three story arcs and post them in chronological order. However, due to having a hectic lifestyle I find that I have neither the time nor the will to work on Part 1. I feel terrible leaving everyone hanging, though, so I decided to start posting Part 2, which I managed to dig a sizeable dent into.

Keep in mind that Part 2 will contain spoilers of events that will eventually happen in Part 1. To those who haven't read it yet, I suggest starting from there first, though it's not strictly necessary in order to understand what's going on.

What you need to know: Part 1 is the story of how Hikaru meets Sai and Harria Potter and gets introduced to the game and world of Go. It focuses on the friendship between the three and Hikaru's budding feelings for Harria. Part 2 is about Hikaru and Harria's journey to become professional Go players in the wake of Sai's disappearance. It will also focus on the shifting relationship between them and the young Go professional Touya Akira.

Brief Timeline: Hikaru meets Sai, and then Harria, when he is 11 (2000). Sai disappears when Hikaru is 15 (2004). Part 2 takes place three months after that (2005). Touya Akira passed the pro-exam when he was 13 (2003).

Several new characters will be introduced in this chapter and we'll be seeing a lot of POV switching. To those unfamiliar with the HNG universe, I'm afraid it might get a bit confusing at first. Rest assured that chapters like this won't be common. After this, the POV will primarily be from Harria, Hikaru, Akira, and Seiji Ogata. If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Please enjoy Part 2 of Hoppípolla.

PART 2

Chapter 01 - Ripples

[1]

January.

Shinoda Taichi, current master of the insei program, sighed as he leafed through the application forms of the two kids who had just turned up. The kids, accompanied by an adult woman, were seated in the waiting area which Shinoda had a perfect view of from his vantage point. Now, normally Shinoda would have simply taken their applications and sent them on their way so it could be processed, but he made an exception for the two for several reasons.

The first was that they were seriously cutting it close to the deadline, which was in four days. Such tardiness was inappropriate of people who wanted to enter the insei program, even if they were kids. Still, Shinoda couldn't say he was exactly surprised, which brought him to the second reason: he had a feeling the practical portion of the interview wasn't going to last very long.

He shot another discrete glance at the trio and sighed again.

The youngest of the applicants was a boy—Shindou Hikaru, he read, after a glance at the application. He was fifteen years old, had been playing Go for four years, and simply put, looked like a delinquent. Shinoda couldn't help but feel disdain towards his flashy clothing and bleached bangs, which were pulled up at the top in a lose bunch. The kid was loud, lacked manners, and clearly wasn't taking the situation seriously if the manga his nose was buried in was anything to go by.

Shinoda glanced to the side and observed the other applicant. He exhaled slowly. It was difficult enough for women to advance to the main league, but she was a foreigner, no less. Potter Harria—Shinoda barely knew how to pronounce that. He only hoped she was proficient in the language since they didn't have many translators on hand. The girl was a few months older than Shindou and had come unaccompanied with a parent because she was apparently emancipated. Shinoda simply didn't know what to think about that.

While the girl hadn't spoken much she had at least appeared to be more respectful than Shindou. Unfortunately, she seemed to have similar fashion tastes as her friend—baggy khakis, a vivid shirt, painted nails, messy hair, and several earrings looped through her ears which had almost given Shinoda a heart attack when he'd first seen them.

The kids looked better suited to being pop singers, not professional Go players.

And then there was the fact that the two were basically attached at the hip. They weren't doing anything particularly indecent, but some would argue that showing any public display of affection was unprofessional, especially during an interview. The girl had her head on Shindou's shoulder and was tapping away on a phone that looked so technologically advanced Shinoda's head hurt just from looking at it.

Shinoda looked down at the sheaf of papers on his desk with another sigh. Kids those days never took anything seriously. If he had to take a guess, he figured only one of them had any real interest in Go (he'd personally bet on the girl) and the other had just come along to follow their love interest.

When Shinoda finishing making sure all the pesky little details were in order, he flipped to the back of the boy's packet where the true indicator lay. The game records were fastened on with a bright yellow paperclip (it figured), which Shinoda pulled free with a shake of his head. He scanned the three pages and his eyebrows drew together in confusion.

The first two were kifu printed from the Internet, which wasn't uncommon those days, and the third was done by hand. The username Shindou apparently played under was blondie55—and Shinoda peered at the printed user-verification form to make sure it wasn't a random printout—and the name niggled at the back of his mind. It sounded familiar, though for the life of him he couldn't remember where he might have come across it. The only written kifu was a record of a game played against Potter, which wasn't surprising…but the level of play definitely was.

Shinoda scrutinized the kifu with escalating astonishment and disbelief. If this was actually Shindou's level of strength—which he'd have to confirm through a match against the boy—then…

Shinoda quickly flipped to the back of the girl's application and pulled the game records from its atrociously pink paperclip. He looked through them—like the boy's, hers also consisted of two Internet printouts and one written one—and swallowed. It appeared that she, too, was at an incredibly high level…

Shinoda glanced at her username, hariko-p, and felt the same niggling sensation that insisted he'd overheard the name before. He filed the thought away to contemplate later and continued to study the third kifu. Her opponent had been Shindou, but she'd at least had the good sense to record a separate game. While he had to make sure that Shindou and Potter had legitimately played those games, he was absolutely certain that the two players were one in the same. Their joseki and playing styles were similar.

Shinoda cleared his throat and, with some wariness, called Shindou into the room. While the boy's mother looked fretfully between her son and Shinoda, he observed the boy closely, noticing that he didn't appear to be nervous in the slightest. The girl said something quietly, which made Shindou laugh, then pushed him to his feet with a hair ruffle. Shinoda wondered if he'd misinterpreted their relationship because the display seemed to be that of close siblings rather than anything romantic, but he pushed the thought away when he remembered that it was none of this business either way.

After a brief conversation about how long he'd been playing ("Four years,"), who he had been taught by ("Harria first, then a skilled amateur," whose name he didn't disclose), and his goals for the future ("To be a professional Go player, duh. Why else would I be here, mister?"), they slid into seiza. Shinoda set up the goban and passed him the go-ke full of black stones.

"Okigo?" Shindou said, somewhat disdainfully. Shinoda bit back a smile because that, at least, was something all young Go players had in common.

"Yes," Shinoda said. "I'm a 4-dan, so it wouldn't be fair to play against a potential insei."

"What about the komi?"

"That won't be necessary," Shinoda appeased the boy, then bowed his head and said, "Please."

With a disgruntled sigh Shindou returned the greeting, then placed the first stone on the upper right star.

[2]

"P-Potter Harria, if you would come this way, please?" Shinoda said in a daze, watching as the newest addition of the insei program practically skipped his way to the other side of the waiting room. The boy dipped his head and grinned, and Shinoda didn't have to be told what he'd conveyed. His acceptance into the program was obvious.

Potter ruffled the boy's hair again and sauntered over to him, hands tucked in her pockets and shoulders loose. She was the epitome of ease with a relaxed gait and a lazy smile, and if she was anywhere near the level Shindou was, he didn't have to guess why.

With a shaky breath Shinoda gestured her into the room and closed the door behind them. As he walked over to the goban, which had been cleared, his thoughts circulated back to the game he had just played. He knew it was unprofessional of him and that he really should be focusing on the current applicant, but he couldn't help it. To say that the match had been astonishing would be the understatement of the century.

There was a reason that Shinoda had been given the position of insei master, and it wasn't just because he was an exemplar teacher. Shinoda was a good player. He had been taught and sponsored by the current Honinbou title holder himself and would have been a 5-dan by then if his obligations to the insei didn't require so much of his time. Crushing Shinoda in a game was no small feat, even for higher dans, and yet he'd been thoroughly defeated by an unranked fifteen year old who'd been taught by an amateur and had only been playing for four years.

Shinoda knew many things factored into his humiliating defeat. For one thing, he'd underestimated Shindou (as he tended to do with all potential insei), and for another, he'd been handicapped by three stones. And yet he could not discount his loss as a fluke of bad luck. When Shinoda had realized just how skilled his opponent was, he'd promptly started to take the game seriously, rather than treat it like a demonstration to reveal the boy's potential. And he'd still lost. Horribly so.

Every attempt to gain territory or cut off black's advancement was intercepted before Shinoda could even put the plan into action, indicating an ability to read ahead that far surpassed his own. Shindou was a quick thinker and a strategic player and nothing got past him that he didn't allow.

And then there were the traps. Simple moves that made Shinoda frown and wonder if perhaps the boy wasn't as talented as he had thought, only to realize that they weren't the mistakes he'd thought them to be. Shinoda had felt like a man struggling to clear an area that was littered with explosives. By the time they'd reached yose he'd been a paranoid mess. He'd actually feared playing a move just in case it was another trap he hadn't the foresight to see and ended up right where Shindou wanted him. Despite his cautiousness, he'd ended up there anyway.

Gods, but the boy was frightening. An insei had no business being that strong, and Shinoda didn't understand why he didn't just bypass the program altogether and take the pro exam, which he'd doubtlessly breeze through. The boy was easily at least a 4-dan, and because of that Shinoda had been reluctant to accept him. Every so often prodigies would pass through the program—like the recent Touya Akira and Ochi Kousuke—and they tended to accomplish one of two things: either they inspired the other insei to grow stronger, as had been the case with Ochi, or they'd intimidate the insei and dampen their spirits, as Touya had inadvertently done.

Considering the level of Shindou's play, he'd bet a month's salary that it would be the latter.

With a shake of his head and a mental chastise not to lose focus again, he once again slid into seiza and initiated the oral interview. Potter's answers were similar to Shindou's, though she was far more polite. She had been playing for two years longer than Shindou, had the same teacher who she also did not name, and had similar goals: to play Go professionally and play against stronger players.

Not only was she surprisingly fluent in the language, but she did not pout the way the boy had when he realized they were playing okigo. She simply accepted it with a polite, if perhaps indifferent, nod, and Shinoda was relieved to know that despite her liberal appearance she was at least well-mannered. If only she could be convinced to remove all those earrings…

"Please," he muttered, forcing his thoughts back on track. He bowed, which she returned in kind and placed the first stone with a steady hand.

Ten minutes into the game, and Shinoda was sweating.

Twenty minutes into the game, and he was finding it difficult to breathe.

There were similarities between her and Shindou's style, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say a familiarity, but that was where it ended. Where Shindou was a calculative player who hid his hands behind careful feigns and intricate traps, Potter was like a boulder. What she lacked in stealth she made up for in sheer force, dominating over the board like the black stones were her own personal army. She killed off stones with a frightening dexterity and her expansion was a hostile takeover he could not prevent.

Shinoda learned early on that she seemed to have some aversion to sacrificing her own stones and had tried to use it to his advantage, yet somehow it never worked out. The moment he aimed to kill a sensitive cluster of stones she would just do something—something unconventional and unpredictable that shouldn't have worked and yet somehow always did—and Shinoda's own play would backfire on him and he'd be forced to retreat.

Relentless, was the word that came to mind when yet another cluster of stones fell to her. Terrifyingly relentless.

When he finally resigned he felt almost relieved. With those two words the heavy pressure in the room seemed to dissipate and Shinoda found that he could breathe properly again. He was astonished to notice that his heart rate had actually picked up and his shoulders had become so tense that they creaked when he tried to loosen them. To think that someone so young, and a girl, no less, could replicate the kind of atmosphere one only felt when playing professionals the like of Touya Meijin and Ogata Juudan…frightening, indeed.

"Thank you for the game," she said, and for the first time since the start of the match she looked at him (that he was aware of—Shinoda hadn't been able to look up from the board to see) and he felt something tighten in his stomach.

She has old eyes, he thought, watching her with surprise. How had he not noticed?

"You're an exceptional player," Shinoda found himself saying. It was a stark contrast to how reticent he'd been after his match with Shindou, but he supposed it had a lot to do with how baffled he'd been by the unexpected talent…and Shindou's own blatant arrogance, which made him less inclined to offer praise.

"Thank you, Shinoda-san," the girl said with the tiniest hint of a smile. "I've had a good teacher, and Hikaru is a great sparring partner."

Sparring? he thought.

After a moment of quiet contemplation he finally asked, "Potter-san…why do you want to become insei?"

To her credit she didn't ask him to elaborate. "For the experience," she said with a small shrug. "Hikaru and I aren't familiar with the Go world outside of what we've read on the Internet. We also haven't had many matches outside of NetGo. We both decided it would be a good experience for us, as opposed to just throwing ourselves into the world of pro's," he noted that she had no doubt they would be, which he conceded to her, "and stumbling over the attention and newness of everything. We decided being insei would help us transition better, and this way we'd have instructors and professionals nearby to teach us what we need to know."

Shinoda blinked at her in surprise, not quite expecting such an well-reasoned response. It made a lot of sense when put that way, to be sure. For all their remarkable talent they were still kids, and ones without any links to the professional Go world. In lieu of that, Shinoda couldn't, in good conscious, keep either of them from being insei. They had just as much a right to the advantages and aid the insei program provided as anyone.

"Well, congratulations are in order, then," he said slowly, smiling even while he prayed he hadn't made a huge mistake by allowing not one, but two prodigies into such a mentally and emotionally stressful program with only seven months to the pro exams. "The Go Institute welcomes you to the official insei program. Are you familiar with the class system?"

"Yes."

"Good, good. Now, while the newest incomers are automatically placed at the bottom of D-class…I think it would be more prudent if we were to circumvent that a bit and place you at the bottom of C-class."

Potter nodded like she understood exactly what he had left unsaid but didn't seem particularly bothered by the precaution, so he continued. "Each class accommodates twelve students. Ranking tournaments are held monthly and they will determine what class you'll be in the following month. Every month, four of the top students from classes D through B will advance to the next class, while the lowest four will fall to the preceding one. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said again.

Shinoda inclined his head and gestured for her to stand. "Let us continue this conversation with Shindou-san, then. We'll also need to discuss the regulations, rules, and expectations of the insei as well as the schedule…"

After a half-hour of going over everything with the newcomers and the parent of the only minor in the group, Shinoda saw them to the exit with no small amount of relief. He desperately needed a strong cup of coffee, since he didn't think tea was going to cut it and he feared that if he took even a sip of alcohol he wouldn't stop. The day had been full of nothing but shocking revelations and unanswered questions and he wanted nothing more than to just take his lunch break and mull over everything that had happened.

Two young prodigies who'd been taught under the same amateur teacher…what were the odds? Shinoda expected a lot of activity in the Go world in the upcoming months with the appearance of those two. He could almost feel the ripples he'd created when he allowed them to become insei and had no doubt they'd be creating waves once they made themselves known, which likely wouldn't be as far off. Things had been stagnate as of late and everyone would be jumping at the chance to scrutinize the new flesh. Amano-san in particular would be jumping for joy.

"Bye, Shinoda-san!" the two said in unison, and waved at him.

Shinoda lifted his hand to return the gesture only to freeze when Potter's sleeve slid to her elbow and he caught sight of an intricate tattoo covering almost every inch of skin. His hand fell slowly to his side and he gaped at what he was seeing. When he looked up, Potter was staring straight at him, bright green eyes clearly laughing at his shock.

Shinoda closed his eyes and retreated into the sanctuary of the building, more than ready to get that coffee now.

He had just made an insei out of someone who had almost a dozen holes in her ears and an arm full of tattoos, and another who bleached his hair and dressed like a street punk. Shinoda ran his palm over his face and, for the nth time that day, sighed.

The Go world wasn't going to know what hit it.

[3]

March.

It was impossible not to notice them.

Both of them stood out like sore thumbs mainly because neither of them behaved, or looked, the way Go players ought to. Well, to be fair, Waya Yoshitaka didn't fit the mold of the traditional player either, but he liked to think that he wasn't as flashy as the two newcomers; one who had bleached hair and wore bright clothing and had a loud voice, and the other who had tattoos and piercings and an eccentric fashion sense.

Suffice to say, everyone noticed them on the first day of the new term, especially when it was discovered that they'd skipped D-class and had been automatically placed in C-class. And everyone kept noticing when they shot right up into B-class the next month, claiming the top two slots in half a month. It was now March, and the newcomers were already in A-class and they were only climbing higher.

And the worst thing? The only time they ever lost was to each other, constantly going back on forth on who was first and second in class.

It was unthinkable that the two had made it there so quickly. Even Ochi, stick-in-the-mud prodigy he might have been, had lost a few times. To think two newcomers were that strong…

And then there were the rumors.

The rumors were probably what unsettled Waya the most. He hadn't paid much attention to them in the beginning, choosing to focus on his own studies and keeping his position as first in his class. And then he started hearing their names whispered all the time, after ranking matches and before study sessions and always around the lounge. At one point Waya could swear that every single person at the Institute was talking about them, from the insei and teachers to the administrators and cleaning crew.

Potter Harria and Shindou Hikaru: the demon duo.

It had been demon couple at first, but somehow no one was able to verify whether or not they were actually dating. Waya thought it was pretty obvious as one was never seen without the other, they rarely spoke with anyone outside their little sphere, and honestly, they were downright touchy-feely with one another, but apparently one girl from C-class had asked and Potter had denied it. Well, if the rumors were true, she'd actually said "Not currently, no," which made absolutely no sense.

But nothing quite did with the pair.

"What are you thinking about? You're getting wrinkles between your brows," Nase said, poking said wrinkles for emphasis.

Waya batted her away with a scowl. "Stop that!"

"Well?" she pressed.

"The demon duo," Waya admitted.

A spark of interest lit her eyes and she nodded in understanding. "Yeah, they would certainly explain the frown lines."

"Watcha talkin' 'bout?" Fuku, the only other person in class-A who seriously threatened Waya's place as first seat (until the newcomers had come barging in, anyway) asked with his usual exuberance. He plopped down beside Nase and stretched languidly.

"The demon duo," Nase said.

"You guys are talking about the demons?" Honda's voice cut in, and Waya swiveled his head to the side to see the eldest of the group approach. He crossed his legs and dropped next to Waya with the air of someone looking for good gossip.

"Geez," Waya complained, "one mention of the pair and suddenly everyone's flocking to talk about them."

"Duh," Nase said with a snort. "They aren't called the demon duo for nothing, Waya."

"I'm still not convinced that they're that good," Waya said stubbornly.

"Then you're delusional," Nase shot back. "I caught half of Potter's game against Uchida last week and that was enough to tell me how strong she is. Uchida is no pushover and yet he was sweating bullets. He practically fled when they finished recording their game."

Waya frowned at her when she couldn't even bother to hide her awe. It was no secret between them that Nase held a bit of a hero-worship for the other girl. It was rare that girls climbed the insei ladder so quickly, and most never managed to make it to the main league. It was why the women's Go league had been created in the first place.

Fortunately for Nase, and unfortunately for the rest of them, Potter's presence had sparked frightening determination in her. "If Potter can do it so can I," she'd told him a month ago, and now it was a rare sight indeed to see Nase without her nose buried in a Go-related book.

The startling thing was that it was actually working. Nase had always been in the bottom half of the first class, shifting between seats 15 and 12, but now she was seated at 9. He hadn't had a match against her yet but Honda had, and he'd lost despite never having lost to her before.

Without ever talking to her, Potter had lit a flame beneath Nase, and Waya shuddered to think of how much more determined she'd become if they actually met. He already had enough threats to his seat with Fuku and Honda.

"You have a match against one of them today, don't you?" Honda asked Fuku, conveniently pulling the conversation in another direction before the two of them got into another argument. He and Nase had been arguing a lot those days, though Waya couldn't understand why. They usually got along pretty well.

"Yeah," Fuku said with a sigh of resignation. "I play Shindou at two," which was another hour away, "and then I'm up against Potter tomorrow. Just my luck I'd get them back-to-back."

"Oi! What's with that defeatist attitude?" Waya demanded. "Of course you're going to lose if you don't take it seriously!"

Fuku waved his hand airily. "Of course I'm going to take it seriously, Waya-baka, but that doesn't mean I'm going to win. Shindou's supposed to be an expert at reading ahead. I'm hoping if I play fast enough I can unnerve him enough that he won't get a chance to…"

Fuku and Honda started a heated conversation over whether it was better to play speed-Go against someone like Shindou or play more carefully, but Waya tuned them out. They argued about that all the time.

"Don't you play against Potter tomorrow, Waya?" Nase asked him, apparently ignoring their argument, as well.

"Yeah. First game. I play against Shindou two days after."

Nase nodded. "Tell me how it goes, alright? I'd love to watch but I'm playing against Homura and you know how he is."

Unimaginably slow. Homura refused to play any move before his time was up even if his move had been figured out early on. He would wait until the very last second to play and no one could get him to play faster. Fuku hated playing against the guy with a passion and Waya was often delegated to being his sounding-board after they played.

"Good luck," Waya said with a wince. It wasn't that Homura was a bad player…he was just boring as hell.

"Same to you," Nase said, lifting herself to her feet with a yawn. "I wasn't joking when I said Uchida was sweating currents. I thought he was going to die of dehydration before the game was over."

Before Waya could shoot off a retort Nase waved to him lazily and crossed the room to sit next to Yoshiku Mamori. No doubt to squeal over the Potter girl, as all the girls tended to.

Waya scoffed and looked away. There was nothing at all frightening about Potter. She was a foreigner for god's sake. Had none of them any national pride?

"Hey Waya, we're heading out to get something to eat. Do you want to come?" Honda asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," he agreed, grabbing the proffered hand and allowing the boy to pull him to his feet. "What are you guys going to get? Sushi?"

Fuku snorted. "No way. We had sushi last time. I was thinking dumplings from that place near the bus panel…"

Waya shrugged and followed after the two, not really paying attention when they broke out into another argument. His mind was firmly planted on the newcomers and whether they really were as strong as everyone said they were.

Well, Waya would be playing against one of them tomorrow, so he supposed he would see then.

[4]

Ringing. That was the sound that flooded Waya's ears as he stared at the intricate patterns on the goban. There were several insei milling about, peering over his shoulder to get a better look at the game. Distantly Waya realized that they were chattering excitedly, no doubt awed by the massacre that had taken place, but he couldn't bring himself to feel annoyed with them for their inconsiderate looming. Honestly, he couldn't bring himself to feel anything but stunned disbelief.

He'd…lost. And he hadn't even made it to yose.

With a heavy swallow, Waya tore his eyes from the board and leveled a gaze at his opponent, who was studying him intently, as if trying to puzzle something out. The idea was laughable—if there was anyone here who needed to be figured out it sure as hell wasn't him.

"Why are you here?" he blurted out, not caring if he sounded particularly rude. Someone at her level had no right to be here, where everyone was trying so hard to get strong and tenaciousness was such a fickle thing. "You…why didn't you just take the pro exam and be done with it?"

Waya was only vaguely aware of how quiet the room had become. His focus was entirely on the girl, the demon, across from him.

"I suppose," she started, and Waya twitched in surprise at how soft her voice was. It was unfitting of someone who played Go like that. "It was because it wouldn't have been fair, among other things."

"And this is?" he asked, gesturing towards the utter annihilation on the board. That hadn't been a game between two insei. Hell, it hadn't even been a game between an insei and a lower dan. Waya hadn't been thrashed so thoroughly since Morishita-sensei had accused him of being arrogant and tried to bring him down several pegs. And how frightening was that, that Potter reminded Waya of a 7-dan?

Potter peered at him thoughtfully for several seconds then said, "Comparatively. How much better would it have been if Hikaru and I suddenly appeared to take the exam? Could you honestly say you would have preferred us to make an appearance then?"

Waya thought about it and blanched. She was right. Not knowing the extent of the competition would have been worse. And for them both to be outsiders, no less…she was right.

The girl across from him sighed and ran a hand through her hair, mussing it further. Waya's eyes flickered to the oddly-shaped tattoos that appeared when her sleeve slipped, then looked up when she said, "Don't think our reasons were entirely altruistic, Waya-san. That was only one of them, but it's a good one to think about, regardless." She paused, cocked her head, and added passively, "I guess the real question is whether or not you guys are brave enough to rise the challenge, or are you such cowards that you quit before the game has even begun?"

She narrowed her eyes and Waya felt himself freeze in the gravity of her hard stare. "So which one are you?"

"You ready, Harria?" someone's voice suddenly cut in, breaking her spell. Waya wilted when her head turned sideways, releasing him from her gaze.

Gods, but she was intense.

"Yeah, Hikaru," she called out, standing. "I've just gotta record the game. Give me a sec."

She left without a backwards glance, not even acknowledging all the people who were staring after her. Waya watched as she went up to the counter, stamped the game log, grabbed her shoes from the cubby, and sauntered towards the exit. Her friend, Shindou, slid his arm around her shoulder and pulled her out of the door. Waya caught a hint of a smile curling at the edge of her mouth before she disappeared, taking the heavy atmosphere in the room with her.

"She's so cool," he heard Nase breathe behind him.

Despite himself, Waya couldn't help but agree.

"So," Nase said, dropping down next to him, "which one are you?"

"Huh?" Waya turned to her.

She shot him a penetrative look. "Are you brave, or are you a coward?"

Waya's eyes widened at the question, then he glanced down at the game with a clenched jaw. That was certainly the question, wasn't it? Either he'd take the experience the newcomers gave him and use it to get stronger, or he'd let them intimidate him into giving up.

In the end, Waya didn't even have to think about it.

He looked at Nase, who was always so much cleverer than she let on, and glared at her, daring her to call him a coward again.

The girl stared at him for a long moment, then smiled. "Good," she said mildly, returning her attention to the board. "I fully intend to take the first seat next month and I'd hate for you to make it easy for me."

"Don't count on it," Waya said.

He'd worked his ass off to get first seat, and he'd be damned if he gave it up without a fight. If Fuku, Honda, Nase, or the newcomers wanted it…then they'd better be prepared to fight him until his last stone.

Yoshitaka Waya was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them.

[5]

With no small amount of reluctance, Ogata Seiji stepped out of the warmth of his car and into the frigid March weather. It was his rare day off, and rather than spend it relaxing somewhere warm (preferably in his beau-of-the-week's bed) he was forced to come to the Go Institute's Tokyo Branch to hand deliver his new address and telephone number. Not for the first time Seiji wished that the Go Institute were a bit more technologically inclined. It would make it easier for everyone, except perhaps the old coots who wouldn't know a cellphone from a GPS (one particular senile coot with a striking resemblance to a primate came to mind).

Seiji wrapped his scarf more firmly around his neck, rounded the hood of his car, and stepped onto the curb. It was fortunate that he'd been able to find an empty spot in front of the building so closing the distance was relatively quick. With a sigh of relief, he pulled the door open and stepped into the heated foyer just as two kids bypassed him.

Seiji glanced at the two with curiosity seeing as neither looked the type to be interested in a game like a Go, and inadvertently locked gazes with the girl.

He froze with one hand pressed against the glass panel as her gaze sharpened on him with an intensity that would put Touya Meijin's stare to shame. When she finally looked away Seiji remembered to breathe, and he shuddered as he stepped past the threshold—though whether it was the from the cold that clung to his skin or the weight of her gaze, he didn't know.

His curiosity expertly reigned, he watched them walk away until the building obscured his view and they fell out of sight. Seiji inhaled a large puff of smoke, exhaled it from his nose, and continued his trek to the reception desk, which was manned by Shinoda, to his relief. Shinoda was a sight more tolerable than many of the sycophants who occasionally took over.

"Ah, Ogata-Juudan," the old man said, sounding pleased. "Ah, that's right, you came to update your billing address and phone number, if I recall correctly."

"Shinoda-san," Seiji greeted, stepping up to the desk and tapping his fingers against the polished surface as Shinoda ruffled through a file cabinet and produced the necessary forms. He slid them towards him and Seiji grabbed a pen from a selection of many and jotted down the required information.

After a moment he returned form to Shinoda, who scanned it quickly and slid it in a cubby behind the desk with a nod.

"Good, good. Thank you for the assistance, Ogata-san, and I apologize that you had to come all this way for such a simple matter."

"It's fine," Seiji lied.

Shinoda smiled knowingly. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Seiji opened his mouth to decline the offer but stopped short when he remembered the two kids—though perhaps teenager would be more a more appropriate description—he had bumped into earlier, and switched tactics.

"Yes, actually. I saw two teenagers leaving through the front a short while ago and I wonder if you'd be able to tell me who they were."

Shinoda blinked in surprise, but to his credit he only said, "If you could describe them, Ogata-san?"

Seiji recounted what he could. "The boy had bleached hair and the girl had several piercings in her ears…" he trailed off when he saw Shinoda nod.

"Ah, you're referring to the demon duo," he said with a smirk ghosting the corners of his mouth.

The cigarette in Seiji's mouth dipped low. "Demon duo?"

"Or at least that's what the other insei refer to them as."

That was surprising. "So they're insei, then?"

Shinoda's eyes took on an amused glint. "I know. Neither of them look the type, do they? Oh, but don't let that fool you. They're both exceptionally good. They came in at the beginning of the winter term and they're already in A-class."

Ogata's eyebrows shot up. "That's impossible. It's only March. Even if they rose a class each month—"

"They skipped D-class altogether," Shinoda cut in, which was uncharacteristic of him and a glaring indicator of how passionate the subject made him, which was odd in itself. Shinoda was one of the most strictly professional men Ogata knew and rarely got carried away with anything. "I would have sent them straight to A-class, but there are regulations, as you well know."

"That good?"

Shinoda peered at him over the rim of his glasses and said quietly, "Good? I suppose they must be, considering I was defeated in both their evaluation matches."

Ogata frowned and opened his mouth, but Shinoda shot the excuse down before it could be made. "Even if it had been an equal game I would have still struggled against them. Honestly, I'm not all that confident I would have won."

"But you're a 4-dan," Ogata uttered after a moment's pause, not quite ready to believe what Shinoda was telling him even if the man was hardly prone to embellishment.

"Indeed I am," the insei master said without any of the mortification most in his position would have leaked. That, more than anything, revealed the man's level of awe.

"I see," Seiji muttered, expelling another puff of smoke. "What are their names? Where did they come from? How long have they been playing? Who is their teacher? Do they have a sponsor? Will they be participating in the Young Lion's Tournament? And…how do you think they would fare against Touya Akira?"

The man took his rapid questions with more aplomb than Seiji would have if their positions had been reversed. He adjusted his glasses and answered with an indulgent smile that Seiji hadn't seen directed his way in years, "Shindou Hikaru and Potter Hikaru—"

"She really is a foreigner, then," Seiji interrupted. He'd only seen a glimpse of the girl and hadn't been sure.

"Yes," Shinoda nodded, ignoring his rudeness. "And quite fluent in Japanese, as well. I dare say she's more eloquent than Shindou-kun, and he's a native. Which ties in to your next question—Shindou-san is, of course, a national, however Potter-san hailed from England before she moved here. Apparently Potter-san has been playing for six years and Shindou-san for four—"

"Impossible," Seiji interrupted him again. "Even six years wouldn't be enough to master the game with enough proficiency to beat a 4-dan, handicap or no."

"I thought so too, at first, but neither of them come across as the type who'd lie. They're certainly secretive about certain subjects, but otherwise they're blunt to a rather rude extent."

Seiji frowned. It simply couldn't have been possible. Still, there more important things to find out, such as…

"They don't have a sponsor, as for a teacher…well, that's the funny thing, apparently he was a skilled amateur." Shinoda saw Seiji's dubious expression and chuckled, "They wouldn't divulge his name, and as far as I'm aware none of the insei have been able to wheedle it out of them either."

"Why the secrecy?" Seiji asked, peeved.

"I can't say for sure, however, I did notice that whenever they referred to him it was always in past tense. So either he's no longer their teacher or…"

Passed on, he didn't say. Seiji heard it anyway.

Seiji removed his glasses and rubbed the skin between his eyes, trying to stave off the impending headache before it started. "That still doesn't explain why they're so secretive about their teacher's identity."

Shinoda shrugged. "Perhaps not, but I could hardly pry it out of them."

You should have tried anyway, Seiji thought unkindly.

"And the tournament?"

"Ah, yes. I have little doubt that they'd qualify before the tournament administrators configure match arrangements. In fact, Potter-san defeated the top student in the first class just a few hours ago, and, well, Shindou-san is just as good."

"…And Touya Akira?"

Shinoda's eyes gleamed with something Seiji couldn't name, but made him apprehensive regardless. "You know I can't predict such a thing, Ogata-san," he rebuked mildly, "however, I will say this: Touya Akira might finally have the rivals he's been without."

"You aren't ser—no, you are," Seiji muttered, seeing the man's expression for what it was. There was excitement there, no doubt at the prospect of new talent in their relatively small world, but there was also steadfast confidence in his intuition. Potter and Shindou were, if nothing else, going to give Akira a reason to finally feel challenged, and he was sure of it.

"I see," Seiji said, mind whirring. What was the likelihood of two prodigies, and one who was female, at that, entering the Go world at the same time? Prodigies who were Touya Akira's age and might just be able to rival him. Prodigies who literally came out of nowhere and refused to disclose who their teacher was.

They were, frankly, a mystery, and Seiji had never been patient with those.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about them?"

Shinoda hummed. "Well, I could describe to you their playing styles, though I suppose you'd prefer to see kifu of some of their matches," he cocked a questioning brow at Seiji, and continued briskly when the other man nodded, "but aside from that…would you care to know their NetGo usernames, Ogata-san?"

The man looked positively mischievous. Ashiwara was going to die of shock when Seiji relayed the entire conversation to him later.

"Yes," Seiji said.

"Blondie55 and Hariko-p," Shinoda reported, peering intently at him.

Seiji went still. He knew those names. Blondie55 and Hariko-p had both appeared on the Internet four years ago, and everyone had been scrambling to find out who they were since. Oh, they hadn't started out particularly strong, which their kifu records showed, but no one had been blind to how quickly they'd grown in strength.

Several users had made attempts to find out who they were (even by illegal means) but nothing had ever turned up. Both users were frustratingly tightlipped about who they were, where they were from, whether or not they were pro's, and so on. Since their debut, they had never interacted with anyone and the only friends they'd added to their contact list was each other…

And SAI. The mysterious SAI who appeared around the same time, who was just as infuriatingly private, and who had started out at the level of a higher dan with an old joseki that heavily resembled Shuusaku Honinbou and only got stronger. The same SAI Seiji had played against a year ago and had been utterly defeated by. The same SAI who had disappeared from the face of the Internet three months ago and had left every NetGo user (and otherwise) paranoid by his absence. Not a day went by where the public forums on WorldIGoNet weren't crowded with people wondering where SAI had gone and when he would return.

There had to be a connection between the three. Why else would those two be the only people who SAI ever friended or interacted with? Seiji's heart slammed against his ribcage at the thought of finally knowing who SAI was. And the key had been standing a few scant inches away from him only a few minutes ago.

Seiji hissed between his teeth and tapped his cigarette against the ceramic ashtray on the desk. The cinders flittered down as he stubbed the end into the bottom, extinguishing the red glow.

"I ask that you do not interrogate my insei while they are here, Ogata-san," Shinoda said dryly, knowing Seiji's obsession with SAI and likely having figured out the connection himself. "Or stalk them, for that matter. The Young Lion's Tournament is only a few weeks away. You can speak with them then."

Seiji shot a narrowed glance at the man while he pulled out a box of cigarettes from his coat pocket. "Fine," he said shortly, slipping a slender stick between his fingers and tucking the rest away. "Thank you for time, Shinoda-san. I appreciate it."

"Yes, yes. Take care, Ogata-san."

Seiji nodded once and slid the fag between his lips as he turned on his heel and walked away. Once lit, he returned the lighter to his pocket and inhaled a large whiff of desperately needed nicotine. No matter how many things in life changed, this, at least, would always remain the same.

And Seiji had a feeling that a lot of things were about to change within the Go world. He wasn't sure if he was looking forward to it or not.

to be continued.

Author's Note: So, what did you guys think? Yes/No?

To those who don't know/remember, Waya is Zelda, the internet opponent Hikaru played against in chapter 1x03. No, neither of them realize it at this point. Anyway, see you all in chapter 2!

TERMS: dan - refers to pro ranks, 1-dan being the lowest and 9-dan being the highest | Insei - Go apprentice at an official program | Kifu - game records | Goban- Go board | Go-ke - bowl that holds Go stones | Seiza - traditional sitting position/posture | Okigo - handicap Go where one player sets down a set number of stones pre-game| Komi - compensation points, since black has the advantage of going first | Yose - end game | Joseki - studied sequences/patterns of moves | Honinbou/Juudan/Meijin/Ouza - professional Go titles, won via tournaments.