Hikaru no Go

*cough* I had way too much time to think about this past weekend, as I spent some ~7 hours in a train...

Akira &!
“Hurry up, Akari! Put it on already!”
“Don’t rush me, Hikaru” the girl muttered, holding a big cardboard box gingerly in her hands. She raised it high and lowered it slowly on the boy’s head. Now he was completely covered with cardboard.
“So? What does it look like?” He turned around cautiously, and the girl gave him an approving look.
“It looks great! I’m sure we’ll get…”
Right then the door slammed open. A green-haired little boy appeared in the doorway.
“Akari! You’ll never guess what…” He stopped on his heels, stunned and wide-eyed. “What… what’s that?”
“Oh, hi Akira. That’s just…” Akari started to say, but she was cut off.
“What am I?” The cardboard boy waved his arms. “Haven’t you ever seen a robot before?”
“A robot!” The boy burst into the room, and circled the self-declared robot suspiciously. “You look like a pile of cardboard boxes.”
“Cardboard!” The robot’s toneless voice almost managed to be indignant. “This is not cardboard It’s the new synthesized ironite! It’s water, fire and vacuum resistant, undestroyable!”
“Vacuum resistant?” Akari muttered, but she was ignored. “Ironite…?”
“It feels like cardboard,” the boy said, poking it with his finger.
“Of course! That’s to fool my enemies. It makes them think I’m an easy target.”
“You’ve got enemies?” The boy’s eyes widened again.
“Certainly.” The robot nodded its cardboardy head. “All the evildoers of the world! I am… I am SAI, the champion of the weak and oppressed, the defender of justice and the enemy of all cheaters! I can fly, breath fire and shoot laser beams from my eyes. And I play go, too,” he added as an afterthought.
The boy’s eyes brightened. “You play go? That’s awesome!”
“That is awesome?” The robot, who had so far been talking in a flat, emotionless voice, sounded genuinely surprised.
“Yes! A go-playing robot! You need to meet my dad! Will you play with me?”
“What? I… well, in truth I don’t really have time to play with kids, but maybe we can have one quick game.”
“Yes!” Akira exclaimed.
“I go to get my brother’s go board,” Akari said, and gave a look at the robot as she went. “Laser beams,” she muttered under her breath.
The game wasn’t a long one. Akira sat by the board, facing Akari – the robot, apparently, might have been able to fly, but could not sit down. Or hold a go stone.
Akira was watching the board with a frown. “You’re not… very good,” he said, disappointed.
“Of course I’m good!” the robot exclaimed. “I played badly on purpose.”
The boy clearly didn’t believe it. “ Why?”
“To… to test you. To see how you deal with a bad player! You did very good.”
The skeptical look remained on Akira’s face. “So you can play better?”
“Of course!”
“Show me then!”
Silence fell. Akari looked from the boy to the robot and back, wondering how to stop this. The look on Akira’s face almost frightened her – she had never seen him so intense, it was a weird look on a boy so young. Talk about laser beams in eyes… “Maybe we should…” she started to say, but was again cut off.
“Okay, okay,” the robot muttered angrily. “I’ll get you that stupid tsumego book…”
“What?” Both Akira and Akari gave him a confused look.
“Sorry, a short circuit,” the robot muttered. “Let’s play, then! I hope you’re prepared to face the full power of SAI!”
“Sure,” Akira snorted.
“Wow,” he breathed when the game was over. “You’re incredible! You need to play with my dad!” He jumped on his feet, as if about rush right away to get his father.
“I don’t have time now!” the robot exclaimed hastily. “I really must be going. There is much evil going on. Can’t just sit here playing go.”
“Oh.” Akira looked disappointed. Then his face brightened. “Will you fly out of the window?”
“I…” The robot looked out. They were on the second floor. “Not this time. I’m here undercover, I must not attract attention.”
“It’s a shame,” Akira sighed. “Can we play again some day?”
“Maybe. Now, it’s time for a good-bye.” The robot walked to the door and left the room. Akira followed him, watched as he started descending the stairs, followed him down, and all the way to front door.
“Akira?” Akari said as he was about to start putting on his shows, clearly intending to follow the robot out. “Want some ice cream?”
The shoes dropped back on the floor. “Yes! Please.”
The robot stopped, looked behind. Akari gave it a smile. “I’d give you too some, but robots don’t eat ice cream, do they?”
The robot just gave her a look and slammed the door shut.