More Hikago recs

[shinra_lackey]

Courtesy of lyrebird who requested more Hikago recs for when he/she finishes the anime. Thanks for giving me motivation.

Tsumego by aishuu (varied one-shots, some shounen-ai)
Brightly Burning also by aishuu (AU, WIP)
Tea and the Paradigm by Alexandra Lucas (ficlet)
The Fun of Playing Go by vkempf (gen)
Balance by Sailor Mac (post-series, yaoi)

Tsumego by aishuu (varied one-shots, some shounen-ai) A series of Aishuu's challenge fics on temps_mort The fics range from Akira/Hikaru, Tsutsui/Kaga, to gen fics and all are good.

Brightly Burning by aishuu (AU, WIP)is done by the ever-talented Aishuu and occurs in a universe where Hikaru never met Touya Akira and he and Sai played go instead online. The story begins, however, timewise after the manga ended.

It was a slaughter, but one the insei master hadn't been expecting. Less than twenty moves in, he stared down, realizing that giving this boy a three stone handicap had been ridiculous and Shindou had been right to be insulted. There was no way he could save the white stones on the left, and the boy was quickly claiming enough territory on the bottom to win by over 10 moku.

This was like playing a pro.

He bowed to resign, and the boy stared at him. "Do I pass?"

Something about the way Shindou asked that drew Shinoda up short. There seemed to be a deep sorrow in his eyes, as though he really wasn't focusing. His blood chilled when he realized that Shindou wasn't even trying.

"Who taught you to play?" he asked. Surely if he had been trained by a pro, rumors of Shindou would have come to them. There shouldn't be a teenager this strong, not unless he was in the pro world.

Shindou's eyes lowered. "A friend," he said softly. "We'd play every night, and on the net..."

Tea and the Paradigm by Alexandra Lucas (ficlet) Could be classed future fic, but giving away any more would just spoil it. Go read for very nice writing.

The Fun of Playing Go by vkempf (gen) is a five chaptered fic and kind of a slice of life type of fic. It follows Hikaru and Akira in the Meijin's go salon after one of their matches when the two are pros. I really liked how vkempf wrote the two: their thought processes and dialog, both seemed very in character. He does a really good job in just showing what a possible day between the two could have been like.

It was a normal day at Touya Meijin's Go club, near the train station.
Ichikawa-san was drowsing behind the counter as nothing but the short pachi ! of a stone landing on a goban was to trouble the quiet atmosphere of the room.

It would be more accurate to say that nothing was to trouble it yet, since two of the most talented among the new generation of Go professionals were playing each other, and as the game had just ended, the time for discussion had come. Discussion consisted of technical comments, questioning of these ones, sharp replies, then not so technical comments, loud protests and finally big yells in each other's face. That one was not going to differ : it took hardly a few minutes before two juvenile voices raised in a fierce escalation. Everyone in the club sighed, longing for the storm to part soon, and the young lady at the counter put a yellow backpack on the desk to this end. Its owner had already stood up :

Balance by Sailor Mac (post-series, yaoi) I believe that this is the first part in a series, but it can stand perfectly well on it's own. After the series, Hikaru gets into the Honinbou League and finally catches up with Akira.

The game was entering the final stage, and Waya knew from personal experience that when Hikaru went into yose with the upper hand, he almost never lost. *Gods, he's going to do it,* he thought. *How the hell could anyone . . .*

He remembered all too well sitting in that very room with Ochi while Shindou was playing his Beginner Dan match against Touya Koyou -- an even more bizarre game than this one -- and the two of them wondering, over and over, "Who *is* Shindou?"

It was a question Waya had been asking himself ever since the day his friend first entered the Insei class, proclaiming himself Touya Akira's rival when he could barely play the game. And he wondered if he'd ever really know the answer.


P.S. Does anyone know how to link to a community rather than just a journal?

Comments

[orpheneritus.livejournal.com]

it is exactly the same tag as lj user for a community, it will automatically put in the right icon.

[shinra-lackey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info, and I just wanted to give you a heads up that I was planning to rec your Momo/Ryoma fics in one of my next posts. *crossing my fingers* It should be up in the next few hours.

[orpheneritus.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, I'm flattered. More POT on the way... long weekend soon.

Orphen