Sai sighed satisfyingly. He closed his eyes and smiled. It was an amazing game. One of the best he had played in a thousand years. Touya Koyo was definitely a valuable opponent. He opened his eyes and turned to Hikaru, who had the same satisfying face on him. The boy looked at Torichirou and smiled. They had both felt the intensity each move had released during the entire game. They all knew this game would be the hottest topic in the go world the following day, or even tonight.
"Thank you, Hikaru," Sai whispered. His current host turned and smiled at him, "Sai wants to thank you."
Hikaru shook his head and said, "No, Sai. Thank you. Thanks for letting me witness this stunning game of yours." Then he thought of something, "Hey, Sai. You've always wanted to play good people when you were with me. I'm sorry that all you could play against was me." He chuckled embarrassingly in guilt.
"It was good enough to play just you," the ghost replied, audible only to Torichirou. Hikaru continued, "What do you say if I arrange games with high-dan players for you?" Sai could only stare in awe. He could not believe his ears. What more could he ask without a body of his own.
"Of course it would take up a lot of Torichirou's time," Hikaru studied the other boy for any signs of objection. There was none but eagerness. The boy was as excited as his possessor.
"I'm free once I'm done exams, Hikaru!" the boy said, then hesitated. "But ... do you think the games can be played online?"
The pro smiled, "High-dan players would agree to anything just to play Fujiwara Sai. Don't worry."
"But would everyone be bugging us for games? That would be quite bothersome!" Sai expressed his concerns.
Hikaru replied Torichirou as he thought of a plan, "Hmm... We'll get Touya Sensei to help out. I'll sort everything out, ok?"
"Thank you very much, Hikaru!" Sai and Torichirou bowed together.
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
Ogata Sensei,
You've been invited to a game of Go with Sai. Your game has been arranged at 10:30am on Friday, June 30, 2000. There are several rules that you must follow:
1. Game must be played online. Please be on time. 2. Game must not be announced until after the game. 3. You must not question the identities of Sai and his fellow disciples.
If any of the above is violated, the game will be cancelled. The game will be 3 hours long with no handicaps. Please inform Touya Koyo Sensei in advance if you cannot attend. We regret to say that your game will not be rescheduled if this happens.
Thank you, Disciples of Sai
%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
"You think Ogata Sensei will treat it as a prank?" Torichirou asked doubtfully through the wireless phone, lying face-up on his bedroom floor.
"Hopefully not. I did mention Touya Sensei's name in the invitation. So he could always talk to him," Hikaru replied.
"Was your invitation professional enough? Or does it sound like something you write?" the younger boy asked, still worried that Ogata might treat it as a joke.
"Excuse me. Touya edited it for me, so it's all good," he assured him.
"That's better," he sounded relieved. "I'm glad that Touya Sensei agreed to give us a hand, eh?"
"Ya, I guess he wanted to thank us for the games with Sai," Hikaru said. "Or, maybe he just wanted to watch more of Sai's games. Either way, it's good. We can keep our identities a secret while pros can confirm the validity of the invitation with the reowned Touya Koyo."
"How many games will we be playing this summer?" Torichirou wondered.
"As many as possible," The pro answered, then asked the boy. "How many games can you play in a day?"
"3 hours a game," he calculated. "I think one is good. I need time to work on my summer homework and junk too."
"Cool, then we'll have one at 10:30am every weekday during the summer. How does that sound?"
"What about weekends?"
Hikaru blinked, then laughed, "You wanna play on weekends too? I wonder if there are that many 9-dans. How about us two will play Sai on the weekends? We'll have him all to ourselves?" Torichirou happily agreed the the genuine suggestion.
After he got off the phone with the younger boy, the phone rang again. "Shindou's residence."
"Can I speak to Shindou Hikaru please?" A low familiar voice came through the line.
"Yes, speaking."
"This is Ogata," Hikaru froze at the reply. He didn't know what to say other then, "Oh...hi."
"Shindou," the Meijin paused for a moment, as if trying to construct a sentence. "I...received an invitation to play against Sai."
"Oh," the pro simply uttered. "Umm...good for you. Haven't you always wanted to play him?"
"Yes, but I don't know if it's a fraud." the man tested.
"Why are you asking me?" Hikaru hoped that Ogata did not notice the slight stammering.
"Are you a disciple of Sai?" Ogata asked boldly. Hikaru gulped at the sudden question as his palms started to sweat. He replied after a moment of silence. "Are there...rules on the invitation?" He gave himself a proud pat for fast thinking.
Startled, the Meijin understood what the boy was getting at. He had already broken two out of the three rules stated on the invitation. If Hikaru weren't the disciple of Sai, then he had broken the second rule. If he were, then he had broken the third rule. Either way, he would be disqualified. Ogata apologized immediately. Losing the only opportunity to play against the opponent of his dream would be the last thing he want. "I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, Shindou. I beg you to forget about this call," he stammered with fear, praying to God.
The pro fell silent for a moment and took a deep breath as he began to wonder whether this whole invitation thing was a good idea. "Good luck to your game then."
"Thank you, Shindou. Good night." Ogata put down the receiver as he closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
Summer months passed by quickly. The disciples of Sai had organized about 80 games. None of which had a different winner, although many were close wins. Hikaru had made sure the pros he had selected were all the well-respected pros, who would not even think about breaking the rules. A new "Sai vs. Top Pros" column had been added to Weekly Go. The kifus and commentaries of the games throughout the week would be shown. Calling it a column would be an understatement as it generally took up a page or two of the paper. It was hard to not include all the games, since every one of them was a genuine intense battle. The question of the identity of Sai still remained unknown regardless of how hard people try to squeeze information out of the pros who had played against Sai. Even if they wanted to tell, they couldn't as they knew nothing more than the connection to Touya Koyo. Although the former Meijin had been bothered often by questions of Sai, he had not stopped helping out with the games.
Hikaru walked out of the elevator to the lobby of the Go Institute after a match. He noticed Amano-san and one of his colleagues at Go Weekly were chatting about the challenges Sai had been making recently.
"Well, so far, he had never lost a game against any of the 9-dans or title holders. I wonder who he is. No way he's a pro, even though his technique is way beyond one," Amano-san commented, exhaling a puff of smoke.
His colleague agreed thoughtfully, "Sai's like ... the reincarnation of Honnibo Shuusaku!"
Hikaru turned toward them, dismayed. When Amano-san noticed his approach, he greeted him. "Oy, Shindou-kun!"
Without replying, the pro stated coldly, "Sai is not the reincarnation of Shuusaku. Sai is way better than him." It was obvious that Hikaru was not pleased. He knew well that Torajiro was only another 'disciple' of Sai, just like himself. "Please do not compare them as if they are on the same level."
Speechless, the two reporters looked at each other as Hikaru turned around to leave. "Amano-san, wasn't Hikaru the big Shuusaku fan?"
The older man could only shrugged, "I guess he's now a Sai fan."
Hikaru walked out the building. "Hikaru!" Torichirou waved, running toward the blond with a huge smile on his face. "We won this morning's game!"
"Well, so did I," the pro smiled with pride. "There are still some more skillful pros for Sai to beat. I've looked at their schedules. Let's go send out some more invitations."
"What happens when we run out of high-dan pros?" the young boy asked, concerned. He had enjoyed all the fascinating games. Influenced by Sai and Hikaru, he could not imagine life without Go anymore. Both him and the ghost stared at the pro, anticipated.
Hikaru raised his eyebrows and sighed with a smile. "You are thinking that far already?" He thought for a moment and said ambitiously, "Then we'll go international. We'll send invitations to top pros in China, Korea, North America etc. until Sai conquers the entire Go World!"
~ Internet Sai - The End ~
A/N: Whew~! My first HnG fanfic is finally completed. I hope you enjoyed the story. There were several filler chapters that were kinda boring but necessary...sorta like transition chapters. Make sure you review and let me know what you think, should I write more, should I not, praises/flames. Some of you might've noticed that I started a new fic called "Modern Sai". I started a Naruto fic too and I'm working on that one first. Ohoh, feel free to add this story or me to your favourite list!!!
TJ - Sorry. But seriously, I have no idea how to play Go (other than the Atari), let alone the Go World. So I thought 10-dan is just a level a pro can achieve, just like 3-dan etc. I didn't know it's a title. Oops...I made some changes. Thanks for pointing it out though.