In the Name of the Go Spirit

When Hikaru Shindo awakens from a long darkness, he finds himself back in the summer when he was twelve. The regrets of his previous life burn into his soul like brands: the tears shed when Sai disappeared, the unreachable “Hand of God,” and his never-ending pursuit of Akira Toya. This time, he swears he won’t let any regrets happen again.

Yet fate has already quietly veered off course. Deep in an old storeroom, a dusty, ancient Go board engraved with the words “Yugen” and stained with mysterious ink awakens the Go spirit Fujiwara no Sai, who has slept for a thousand years. But this time, Sai’s eyes hold unprecedented sadness and weariness, while the ink stains on the board seem to connect to a past buried by time, one that even Sai himself is reluctant to speak of.

Bearing the Go skills and memories of his previous life, Hikaru carefully treads the line between reality and secrets. He puts on a clumsy act to reassure his grandfather and occasionally reveals his skill at the local Go club, only to attract the opponent fate has chosen for him: Akira Toya, whose cool gaze is fixed on the principles of Go. A victory by half a point sends ripples through destiny like a stone dropped into a lake.

When ancient Go records from the Heian era, spanning a thousand years, reappear on the Yugen board, when Sai uses Hikaru’s hands to face the modern Go master Ko Yo head-on in a soul-shaking match, and when the name “the child with terrifying Go skills” rings throughout the Go world, Hikaru knows that keeping up his disguise is pointless. The path to becoming a professional Go player lies before him, and his game must be tempered in the real clash of blades and wits.

But beyond the board, the mysteries only deepen: Who was the owner of those ink stains?