Chapter 118: For the First Time, He Saw the God of Go

The game began.

Playing black and going first, Kirigaya Nuo's first move was the star point in the upper right corner.

Iyama Shota, the 3-4 point in the lower left corner.

During the opening stage, Kirigaya Nuo displayed a ruthlessness and maturity completely inconsistent with her age, quickly establishing an advantage.

Her control over the overall situation and the depth of her local reading caused the several professional Go players watching the battle to frequently draw in cold air.

"This... is this really Go that a seventeen-year-old girl can play?!"

"And this 3-3 jump, seemingly plain, but actually blocking all of White's escape routes... this depth of calculation, is simply..."

"A rare genius not seen in a century!"

O Rissei and Rin Kaiho looked at each other, both having shock in their eyes, as well as a trace of complex emotion:

"What a pity... Teacher cannot see this scene."

Entering the endgame stage, the gap on the board had quietly widened, with Black leading by more than twenty points.

The outcome had long lost its suspense.

Iyama Shota's brows furrowed tightly, feeling somewhat bewildered inside.

He gazed at the Go board, a rare bewilderment and sense of powerlessness surging in his heart.

He didn't know exactly where he played poorly.

His Go was upright and honorable, his moves conformed to Go theory, his experience was mature, and he even consciously felt he was in good form.

But unknowingly, he had already fallen behind by so much.

This feeling...

Didn't seem like playing Go against a human.

It was more like looking up at some higher-dimensional, absolutely rational existence.

Like a mortal, attempting to understand the Go moves of a god.

Iyama Shota suddenly raised his head, looking at the young girl opposite him whose waist and back were still straight, her expression calm.

Her eyes were clear, yet bottomless.

As if what she was looking at wasn't the Go board, but something more distant and grander.

At that instant, Iyama Shota's heart boomed and shook—

This was the first time in his twenty-seven years of life that he saw... the God of Go.

He slowly opened his mouth, his voice somewhat dry, yet carrying the dignity of a Go player:

"I lost."

Kirigaya Nuo bowed slightly, her tone still calm:

"Thank you for the instruction."

The Yugen no Ma was dead silent.

The holder of three major titles, the number one person in Nihon Go, actually couldn't hold on until the endgame in front of a seventeen-year-old girl, losing in the middle game.

The shutter sound of the "Kido" reporter's camera rang crazily.

The flashbulbs illuminated the young girl's side profile, as calm as snow, into a patch of snow-white, like a divine statue carved from ice and snow, awe-inspiring and inviolable.

The news swept across the Nihon Go arena like a storm, and subsequently rushed toward the Great Xia and Goryeo Go circles, and even the global Go community, at an explosive speed.

The front-page headlines of all Go media were occupied by the same news:

"Heaven-shaking massive upset! Seventeen-year-old girl crushes Iyama Shota 9-dan in the middle game, officially becoming a professional Go player!"

"Birth of the new Queen of Nihon Go? The prelude to a legend has already begun!"

"Magnitude ten earthquake in the Go arena! The old king falls, a new god ascends the throne?"

Kirigaya Nuo instantly became the hottest focus in the Go world, with controversy and praise flying together.

The media exhausted words of praise. Go fans frantically searched for every single one of her game records. On social networks, her name climbed onto the hot search lists of various countries at an astonishing speed, the topic volume exploding.

The Go world, in the final analysis, advocates that the winner is king.

Regardless of origin, background, age, gender—strength is the only and highest pass.

With a crushing, indisputable victory that even carried a trace of cruel aesthetic feeling, Kirigaya Nuo won indisputable respect, attention, and the qualification as a candidate for the throne for herself.

In the days that followed, Kirigaya Nuo's life entered a bizarre, almost schizophrenic dual-track parallel state:

During the day, she was the newly promoted professional Go player of the Go Institute, participating in study groups, replaying games, playing Go with various experts, accepting media interviews, surrounded by flowers, applause, and flashbulbs.

At night, she returned to the secret base of the Crescent Group, changed into training clothes, and continued the devilish training of combat, firearms, disguise, and intelligence analysis, tempering her killing intent amidst blood and darkness.

Two completely unrelated, even diametrically opposed fields, under Xu Yunzhou's arrangement and control, actually fit together seamlessly and ran parallel without conflict.

Like two sides of a coin.

Light and dark, white and black, angel and demon.

On her body, perfectly coexisting.

...

Soon, New Year's Eve of 2016 arrived.

In the early morning, Kirigaya Nuo was woken up by the continuous, rain-like notification sounds of her phone.

She opened her eyes, her eyelashes trembling, a trace of post-training exhaustion still remaining in the depths of her eyes.

Picking up her phone, dozens of unread messages popped up on the screen in an instant.

From professional Go players of the Nihon Go Institute.

There were seniors, peers, and even a few inseis she had only met once at a study group.

"Kirigaya-san, you must eat well today oh, replenish your nutrition~ Although competitions are important, the body is the foundation! — Xie Jiawen"

"First-dan Kirigaya, hearing that your esteemed mother came from Taiwan, presumably today has a special meaning for you. Wishing you a joyful New Year's Eve, and progress in your Go skills in the new year. — Cho U"

"Kirigaya-san, Happy New Year's Eve! Please continue to instruct me in the new year! Looking forward to playing a game with you again! — Iyama Shota"

Kirigaya Nuo scrolled down one by one, her fingertips gently sliding on the screen.

Most of these blessings were sincere and simple, carrying a purity unique to the Go circle.

This group of people put most of their minds on the 19x19 Go board, and the words they spoke were also cutely direct.

Nihon does not celebrate Great Xia's Lunar New Year's Eve.

Kirigaya Nuo knew very well. This meant that these blessings were not mass-sent pleasantries, but greetings sent intentionally after they specifically learned and remembered the detail of "mother came from Taiwan" in her background information.

Even top Go players like Cho U and Iyama Shota, whose statuses were lofty and schedules busy with tournaments, were willing to spare some mental energy to do such a "small thing."

Kirigaya Nuo felt an indescribable feeling.

Until she scrolled to the newest few messages.

"Kirigaya-san, um... Valentine's Day is coming soon. I bought two movie tickets for 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'... I wonder if you would be willing to... grace me with your presence? — Waya Shinichiro"

"First-dan Kirigaya, I am Isumi from the PR department of the Go Institute. I wonder if you have arrangements for New Year's Eve? I know a very good kaiseki cuisine restaurant in Ginza... — Isumi Yoshitaka"

"Nuo-san!!! I am Mitani Tetsuo from the insei group! I like you! Since the moment you defeated Teacher Iyama, I've liked you incredibly much! Please date me!!! — Mitani Tetsuo"

(TL: These 3 characters are all from "Hikaru no Go." xD)

Staring at that last message which was straightforward to the point of being reckless, Kirigaya Nuo didn't even twitch her eyebrows.

She began to reply:

"Thank you, Happy New Year's Eve."

"Okay, you too."

"Thank you for the invitation, I appreciate the thought but must decline with regret. I already have arrangements for New Year's Eve, wishing you a pleasant viewing/dining experience."

"Thank you for your profound love. You are a very good person, but I already have someone I admire in my heart, and cannot accept your feelings, sorry."

Standard social templates.

All sent completely.

Kirigaya Nuo put down her phone, sat on the edge of the bed, and looked at her own hands.

Yesterday afternoon, these hands played stones like flying at the Go Institute's study group, breezily winning a handicap game, winning the opponent's wholehearted conviction.

Last night, it was also these hands, in the shooting range of the training base, in a low-light environment, ten bullets, nine hitting the ten ring, one hitting the nine ring.

How schizophrenic.

How... absurd.

"Teacher,"

Kirigaya Nuo spoke softly in her consciousness, her voice somewhat undetectably hoarse,

"It's been a long, long time... since I received so much..."

She paused, as if searching for appropriate words.

"...pure care."

When was the last time?

Maybe three years ago, maybe four years ago.

In that spacious and bright home in Bazhou, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a piano, on a certain ordinary morning.

Her mother, wearing a floral apron, poked her head out from the kitchen, smiling and calling her:

"Nuo-nuo, little lazy worm, time to get up. Mom made your favorite red oil chaoshou. If you don't come soon, Dad might secretly eat them all!"

Her father should have been sitting on the living room sofa watching the morning news at that time. Hearing this, he would deliberately put on a stern face, yet his voice would be full of smiles:

"Nonsense, I am clearly waiting to have breakfast together with my Princess."

The film of memory was forcefully cut off here.

Like film severed by a knife.

Kirigaya Nuo raised her hand and rubbed her eyes forcefully.

No tears.

She had long lost the ability to cry.

"Ever since meeting Teacher,"

She continued to say, her voice very light, as if afraid of disturbing something,

"My life... seems to be getting brighter and brighter."