Cherish the time

In December, the pace of Shindo's participation in the competitions slowed down significantly. Except for the competitions he had signed up for and ranked, he did not participate in other chess competitions.

Even so, for Shindo Hikaru, this month is still destined to be not a peaceful one.

First of all, Gao Yongxia and Hong Xiuying both defeated the high-level players in the Samsung Fire Cup, and then entered the high-level division with a high profile.

The Korean Go world calls these two people the leaders of the new era after Lee Chang-ho, and some media have even made articles about the master-student relationship between Gao Yongxia and Lee Chang-ho. The writing occasionally alludes to the fact that Lee Chang-ho was born in blue at the age of 15 and learned from his master Cao Xun-hyun. Take the title.

However, when they were asked the question "Who is the enemy they want to defeat the most" in their regular interviews when they officially entered the segment, Gao and Hong both spoke of a recently fired The fiery name - Shinto Hikari.

At the same time, a certain newspaper also learned from an unknown chess player that Hikari Shindo had played against Gao Yongxia and Hong Xiuying in the previous China-Japan-Korea team exchange match, and defeated them without any suspense. people.

As a result, the name of Shindo Hikaru began to spread rapidly in Korea.

Then came the long-awaited International Amateur Go Tournament, which finally officially kicked off in Tokyo.

Three days before the start of the match, a text message from the Dutch account Mercy.W was sent to an account named Sakou.

The main point of the letter is to respect my opinion and cancel the activity of looking for Sakou, but as a person who has long admired Sakou's undefeated myth, he hopes to meet the account holder during his stay in Japan.

Shinto did not see the letter.

——Even if he saw it, he probably wouldn't agree to such a request.

He won't appear as "Sakou" in the form of Hikari Shinto, as long as Sakou doesn't get what he deserves as "Sakou Honinbo" for a day.

One lives in illusion and the other lives in reality.

But they are one and the same.

——This is "Saguang", also known as Sakou.

However, although he had no intention of meeting the other party, as one of Japan's "Triple Crowns", he was still invited by the organizers to participate in the opening ceremony of the competition.

And among a group of senior chess players who are not young, his immature figure is so conspicuous.

Therefore, Nico Nijenhuis (Nicole Nijenhuis), who has been paying attention to him since he knew the pronunciation of Shindo Hikaru's Honinbo alias, discovered him in the first place.

At this moment, Shinto was talking with Ogata while holding a glass of orange juice.

"...the gift from last time was really too expensive," they were chatting, and somehow the topic of birthday came up, Shinto remembered that he hadn't thanked Ogata Masamune for that gift yet, " Although I like it very much, please don't spend so much money on me in the future."

"Do you like it?" Ogata smiled slightly, his phoenix eyes glanced at his wrist, "...but, for more than two months, I have never seen you wearing it."

"That's because I don't want to wear it if it's not an expensive occasion." Shinto smiled, raised his glass to him, and after taking a sip, he quickly changed the topic to another direction, "Mr. Ogata's ten-dan match how's it going?"

"If the current 'Triple Crown' is willing to give me some strength... I don't think there will be a big problem." He raised his eyebrows slightly, with an indescribably intimate and natural expression.

Shinto's heart moved, and suddenly he felt something was wrong.

In his previous life, he had a mediocre relationship with Ogata until his death, so when he did it again in this life, he habitually didn't put Ogata in a particularly important position in his heart—if he had to say it, he was probably a little more familiar with Ashihara friends.

But now if he is asked to seriously recall the time he spent with Ogata, and Ogata's various behaviors in front of him...

——This person obviously regards himself as a very good friend and a very promising junior.

When he came to this conclusion, he couldn't help showing a little bewilderment and doubt on his face.

Ogata, who had been paying attention to him, naturally saw the change in his expression, and asked subconsciously, "What's wrong?"

"Mr. Ogata..."

He just wanted to jokingly ask Ogata how he could give him some strength, so as to infer whether Ogata's attitude towards him was as he thought.

But as soon as he spoke, a silver-haired, blue-eyed foreigner ran over, shouting "Sakou".

Before Shinto Hikari had time to react, he knelt down and hugged him firmly into his arms, and then murmured a long series of words to him.

Shinto stared at his excited expression, his face blank and unresponsive.

——Even if he has lived for more than 50 years, his mastery of the magical language "English" is still at the level of a primary school student...

Standing aside, Ogata, who is also not good at English, said that he couldn't bear it any longer.

"You!" He forcefully stretched out his hand and pressed the excited Niko's shoulder, "Lethimgo!"

After being interrupted by him like this, Nicole realized that his actions were really too rude, so he apologized to Shinto exaggeratedly, and began to speak at length in English again.

"Stop, stopplease." Shinto said, adding gestures, "I can't speak English, you, understand?"

Although there is a little grammatical problem with his words, it is still easy for people to understand.

So Nico frowned in frustration, his lake blue eyes were full of melancholy.

Fortunately, this question didn't bother Nico for too long. After thinking about it for a while, he never got back a stack of paper and a pen.

Shinto Hikari and Ogata Seiji watched vigilantly as he spread the paper on the table and drew a few strokes casually, and then turned the paper over to Shinto with anticipation.

The little matchstick-like figure drawn on it was pointed from "Holland" to "Japan" on the shoulder, and "Sakou" was written under "Japan", and the two words were circled together.

Nico pointed to the stick figure, then pointed to himself, then pointed to "Sakou", then pointed to Xiaoguang, and added a question mark beside him.

His look of anticipation was like a puppy about to be abandoned by its owner.

Shinto was amused by his expression, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Even Zuo Wei frowned and smiled beside him, "Xiaoguang, this... Mister is really interesting." 』

Knowing that Sakou couldn't read English, Shinto explained in his head, "He's asking me if I'm 'Sakou'." 』

"Eh? Zuowei seemed to remember something, "Could this be that...something, Tatsu or something..."

"may be. 』While talking to Sakai in his mind, Shinto looked at Seiji Ogata beside him in a daze.

"...what is 'Sakou'?"