Shindou Hikaru Intro (OTA)

[lets_go_five]

 Open/locked?: Open
Who: Hikaru and anybody who wants to put up with him
What: Arrival (Auradon)
Warnings: Uh, nothing I can think of offhand, but I'll edit this if I need to?

Hikaru woke up in the snow.

Which was the first red flag, really. It wasn't like it didn't snow in Tokyo, it did, but usually not enough to do anything useful with. So this was... weird.

There were also a lot of meticulously trimmed hedges and things, which wasn't really a thing in Tokyo either. The middle of the city wasn't exactly the greenest of places, not like this, unless you were in a park or playground, but this didn't look like anyplace he'd ever seen. Red flag number two.

Three, and probably the most obvious, was the giant building in front of him. Was that a castle? Like, knights and dragons and stuff kind of castle? He'd only ever seen something like that in fairy tale stories (and Tokyo Disney, once when he was little), and even then, he hadn't seen a lot of it. Royal buildings in Japan were of a much different style, after all.

And four, was the fact that he was absolutely positive he'd been inside last he knew. He'd probably fallen asleep going over a game- it wouldn't be the first time.

Hikaru pinched himself in the arm as hard as he could. This had to be a dream. Never mind that he was freezing cold, it still had to be some figment of his imagination.

"Ouch!" he cried out at the sharp pain on his arm, and then looked back up. Nope, weird castle was still there.

"What the atari-" he murmured, then blinked. That wasn't what he'd said. "Joseki. Gote. Hane." No, no, and no. What was happening? How was he being censored in real time? And Go terms?

There was no way this was real. It couldn't possibly, this was all too weird, even for Hikaru, who had literally been haunted by a Go obsessed ghost. He had to be dreaming still, somehow. Or he'd hit his head on the goban when he crashed and now he was hallucinating? That was a sobering thought. Still, hallucination or not, he was getting cold just sitting here in the snow.

Time to figure out how to get warm, somehow, probably inside. He got up, dusted himself off- oh hey, he had his backpack, weird but cool, he wasn't going to complain- and started moving toward the castle. Maybe by the time he got there, he'd be awake and he wouldn't even have to worry about it.

Comments

[utauhoshina]

She narrowed her eyes more at his name. "Japanese?" she asked.

[lets_go_five]

Hikaru blinked again. "Um, yeah, ob-" he started, cutting off the "obviously" that started to come out. Mostly because again, he was trying to be polite to the dream figments. He really didn't need her turning into a demon or something and making it a nightmare. "Yeah."

What was this girl's problem, anyway? She was acting like she had a problem with him and he hadn't even done anything... yet.

[utauhoshina]

She huffed and turned partially away. "Then just to be clear, I'm not posing for a selfie, and I don't give autographs for free." She just presumed anyone Japanese from modern times - and his clothes looked modern - would know exactly who she was. Even here.

She refused to admit - at all - that it was actually comforting to have someone from home here. At least... someone from home that didn't hate her.

[lets_go_five]

Hikaru wasn't super modern, to be fair. He was from the early 2000's, before selfie culture and before smartphones. He didn't even have a phone. Though it certainly could've been much worse, timeline wise. At least he was from the last twenty years or so.

Needless to say, he was totally lost. "A what?" he asked. "And why would I want your autograph, anyways? I have no idea who you are."

[utauhoshina]

"I'm Utau Hoshina, the singer," she snapped. "The famous singer." She gave him a look about as mature as the one he was giving her.

[lets_go_five]

Hikaru's blank look should've told her everything she needed to know on that particular topic. Had Akari mentioned her or something? He didn't tend to listen when she talked, most of the time. She totally could've and it wormed its way into his brain somehow. Well. That was annoying.

"I don't really listen to music like that. Too distracting for Go," he said dismissively. "Listen, is there a reason you're here? I'm kinda trying to get out of... whatever this is."

[utauhoshina]

"To distracting for... what?" she asked, baffled for a moment. And a little disgusted.

[lets_go_five]

He stared at her. "Go. You know. The game? I play professionally." Not that she'd have any clue about him if she wasn't into the game.

[utauhoshina]

"A game?" she scoffed. "Must be nice to have such an easy job... playing little games for a living."

[lets_go_five]

"Easy? Little?" Hikaru gaped at her. This, this was absolutely karma for how he'd spoken to Touya on their second meeting. No wonder he'd bitten Hikaru's head off. He was SO over this little girl who thought she was somebody important.

"Playing Go at a professional level is VERY difficult. Most people never even pass the exam. It's something people dedicate their whole lives to."

And even their afterlives, but Hikaru just barely managed to avoid saying that.

[utauhoshina]

"Oh please. That's like saying You're a professional jump rope expert. I'd rather dedicate my life to learning an actually useful skill." She tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

[lets_go_five]

Hikaru snorted. "Go's been plenty useful to me," he argued. "If you're not smart enough to play good Go, just say that."

[utauhoshina]

She snorted. "I can play any game I wanted to. I just don't see the point. But if it is useful to you to... what? Win someone's lunch money on the playground?"

[lets_go_five]

"Helped a friend get 10,000 yen back from a guy who'd cheated him. Keeping up with Touya. Taught a lesson to some creep who was trying to sell fake stuff for way too much money... a few times, actually," Hikaru said, ticking off each thing with his fingers. "And that's besides it just being fun and a way I've made a ton of friends. So yeah, plenty useful."

"But it's fine, girls aren't as good at it anyway. All of the top players are men. So don't even worry about it."

He didn't entirely believe that, he was mostly trying to annoy her, but... he also wasn't wrong about the top players being men, so there was that.

[utauhoshina]

And his insult scored exactly as intended. she FUMED. It was a good thing he couldn't see the charas or he might have seen the small black wings that appeared on her back. "There is nothing that a spoiled little nothing like you could do that I couldn't do better!" she snapped. "But what would someone like you know?" she asked, advancing on him. "Poor baby your life was so soft that a game seems important. One day you're going to learn what is really important," she said, her heels clacking as she walked towards him, not stopping unless he stood his ground and even then only once she was practically touching him. "I hope I'm there to see it," she snarled.

[lets_go_five]

It probably would've been better if he had been able to see them, because as it was, he didn't take her seriously in the slightest. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked her up and down and raised an eyebrow at her like she wasn't anything, like he'd seen Touya do a million times. It ticked HIM off when he did it, so he thought it might tick her off too.

"Oh, please. You're the one throwing a fit that I don't care who you are, just because you're supposedly famous or whatever. Like it matters. I know what's important to me, and it isn't you," Hikaru said. He was SO done with this girl and her attitude. He wasn't usually mean to people on purpose, unless they were jerks to him first, but, well... she'd been a jerk first. His eyes darkened a little bit and his voice lowered, more serious now. "Don't act like you know the first thing about me. You don't."

[utauhoshina]

"Yeah? What have you done that's made you so tough then? So far all your boasts are about some little kiddie game. I'm hardly impressed."

[lets_go_five]

Hikaru couldn't help it, he laughed. "You say that like I'm trying to impress you," he said. "I don't care what you think."

Though the truth was, she wasn't entirely wrong. He'd been through some things, but overall? He really wasn't that tough off the goban, and still very much a kid.

[utauhoshina]

"Well good, because I don't think much of you at all," she said, crossing her arms, nose in the air.

[lets_go_five]

"Good," he rolled his eyes and moved forward, just to start getting away from her. Not that he had a single clue where he was going, but never mind. He'd figure it out- he always did, somehow.

[utauhoshina]

She moved to stand in the doorway, to see where he would go if she didn't let him in. But after a moment she heaved a large sigh and turned on her heel, stalking inside. Clearing the door.