"If I play Go again, Sai will…"
Hikaru's expression wavered.
"Hikaru, can you please play one more game with me, just for my sake!"
In a daze, Hikaru unconsciously sat down in front of the Go board.
"Hikaru, please… just one more game!"
"I'm sorry, I… I can't play Go anymore."
"Hikaru, I'll go back as soon as this game is over. Please…"
Maki stared at the manga page, watching Hikaru's hand reach toward the stone bowl, watching the confusion in his eyes slowly clear.
"I… I promise you…"
"Sai, I'm only doing this for Isumi. Not because I want to play Go myself. Sai, just one game is fine, right? Sai… it's okay, right? Answer me! Where did you run off to?"
Hikaru placed a stone.
Isumi followed.
Stone after stone was placed.
Yet as the game continued, Hikaru became more and more absorbed. When he realized this, his heart twisted in conflict.
Maki didn't blink once.
The empty Go board slowly filled.
Black and white stones spread across its surface.
To be honest, even after following Hikaru no Go for two years, Maki still didn't truly understand Go. But every time the manga depicted an intense match like this, she read it with absolute seriousness.
And then, at the most critical moment...
Hikaru, completely engrossed in predicting the flow of the board, forgot that he had sworn not to play Go. At that exact instant, Sai's folding fan appeared, pointing at the board.
At the very spot where Hikaru was about to place his stone.
Maki froze.
Hikaru froze as well.
Sai… came back just like that?
Goosebumps ran across Maki's skin. Her eyes burned as emotion surged uncontrollably.
In the black-and-white panels, as Hikaru placed the stone, she almost heard the crisp click of it landing.
Hikaru turned around.
There was no one behind him.
The folding fan from just moments ago seemed like a dream.
Isumi continued playing, but noticed Hikaru hesitate.
Tears welled in his eyes and slid down his chin.
"This way of playing, it's definitely him. He used to play like this too. I finally found him, the Sai I searched for everywhere. I never expected him to be right here…"
Maki's eyes filled with tears.
She understood now.
And because she understood, it hurt even more.
"Sai is here," she thought. "The Sai I couldn't find anywhere, is right here on this Go board. In this game."
"Now, the only way I can see you, is to keep playing Go."
"Sai, I…"
She turned the page.
Hikaru was crying uncontrollably, desperately wiping his tears.
"Can I, keep playing Go?"
"Isumi, I want to play Go again."
The match continued, but Maki could barely focus anymore.
Hikaru was crying in the manga, and she was no better off.
This was the sixth-to-last chapter of Hikaru no Go.
In the very week when countless people claimed that Shirogane had run out of ideas and was about to ruin the ending.
This chapter delivered the greatest emotional impact Maki had felt since she began reading the manga.
"So this is what Teacher Shirogane meant," she murmured, "when he said Sai wouldn't completely disappear…"
She flipped through the remaining pages.
Akira reaching the top eight of the title match. Hikaru reviewing his game records.
None of it stirred her emotions anymore.
Her heart was completely captured by the image of Sai's folding fan.
From early morning onward, manga fans, media outlets, and especially Hikaru no Go fans erupted into discussion.
The buzz surpassed even the uproar from Sai's disappearance weeks earlier.
"I cried!"
"This is Shirogane's writing? One chapter completely changed my view of Hikaru no Go. If anyone dares say it's going to have a bad ending again, I'll hunt them down!"
"I was wavering too. I really thought it was heading for disaster."
"Goosebumps and tears… all at once."
"My nose still hurts. Sai was always in the game."
"It's like the theory that a person dies three times: physical death, being forgotten, and having all traces erased. Sai died physically a thousand years ago, his spirit vanished in modern times, but his Go, his pursuit of the Hand of God, lives on in Hikaru's games."
"This is terrifyingly beautiful. How can a seventeen-year-old come up with something like this?"
"This is what genius looks like."
"It's such a pity this manga will end in five weeks."
"Why end it now? Akira entered the top eight, Hikaru returned to Go, this is exciting! Why stop here?"
"I want to see the title matches! I want to see Hikaru challenge Kuwabara!"
"Could it really be that he just doesn't want to draw anymore?"
"Or maybe… Shirogane already has a perfect ending, and we're the ones complaining before seeing it."
"I still don't accept it. Ending here can't be perfect."
"So Sai really disappeared, but his Go and his spirit live on in Hikaru, right?"
In just one chapter, the reputation of Hikaru no Go, which had suffered heavily due to the ending controversy, completely reversed.
Anyone who had even the slightest affection for the manga could feel the brilliance of this chapter, the emotional release that followed total immersion.
If Sai's disappearance was the chapter that brought the deepest sorrow,
Then this chapter was the one that finally allowed fans to let that sorrow out.
Search terms like "Sai lives in Hikaru's Go" shot to the top of anime and manga trending lists.
Though criticism of Shirogane still existed, many who had cursed him before began to reflect.
He wasn't wrong.
He was simply telling a story that moved him, and sharing that emotion with everyone else.
For an entire day, Hikaru no Go fans were more united than they had been in weeks. The insults dropped to their lowest point, and regardless of lingering resentment, countless fans voted for Hikaru no Go without hesitation after finishing the chapter.
In the internal statistics of Hoshimori Group, the voting numbers for Hikaru no Go showed a clear surge compared to previous weeks.
The next morning, Misaki woke up early.
Her younger sister woke up even earlier.
Both of them watched the breakfast-time news reports from various fan communities and media outlets discussing the latest chapter of Hikaru no Go.
"He's really incredible, Rei," Miyu said with admiration.
"He turned public opinion around with just one chapter."
"He is impressive," Misaki nodded.
"It's just that he's a bit too reckless in how he handles things. Although Hikaru no Go is still performing very well, if he had serialized it for a longer period, or avoided having Sai exit the story, this manga wouldn't have faced so much criticism over the past two months."
"If that were the case," Miyu said softly, "Hikaru no Go would only be remembered as a masterpiece in the history of Japan's manga industry, not as a divine work."
"You're the one who doesn't understand," Misaki replied calmly.
"A professional manga artist has to prioritize commercial viability over pure artistic pursuit. The reason is simple: serialization platforms and publishing groups are commercial companies, not charities."
"If Hikaru no Go weren't a Go manga, and if the Group couldn't extract additional value from it, do you really think it would be allowed to end so freely?"
Miyu clearly disagreed, but Misaki didn't continue the argument. After tidying up the table, she said,
"I'm heading to work."
She drove out of the villa's garage and arrived at Hoshimori Group's headquarters in the city center in under twenty minutes.
The moment she entered the editorial department, Misaki once again felt the complicated gazes directed her way.
Over the past several weeks, Hikaru no Go's reputation had been a roller coaster. Just when everyone thought it was about to soar even higher, Sai's disappearance and the announcement of the manga's impending conclusion shook fans' confidence.
When people believed the manga was about to collapse, its popularity surged instead.
This fluctuation also shaped how the editors viewed Misaki.
How would Hikaru no Go perform this week?
Everyone knew it would rise again.
The real question was by how much.
Shin, the editor in charge of Source War Chronicle, was especially restless. Every time he thought his manga was about to reclaim the top spot, Hikaru no Go managed to reverse the situation yet again.
What should he do now?
Hikaru no Go was ending in five weeks. If Source War Chronicle failed to surpass it before then, history would remember Hikaru no Go as superior.
Shin's mood was terrible.
He was even more anxious than Misaki as 9:30 approached.
But time did not wait for anyone.
Misaki, already prepared, opened the report without hesitation.
"1. Hikaru no Go. Total votes: 979,655."
She didn't bother reading further.
That was enough.
Not only had Hikaru no Go retained first place, it had once again broken its own voting record.
Whispers immediately spread through the editorial office.
"Nine hundred seventy thousand? How is that possible? Wasn't it only eight hundred ninety thousand last week?"
"Hikaru no Go fans are too easy to sway. They're voting in droves again."
"Why can Hikaru no Go make so many controversial decisions and still be forgiven? The manga I manage had two ambiguous panels between the female lead and the second male lead, and its popularity completely collapsed."
"Classic works and ordinary works are judged by different standards. Readers' tolerance is different."
"Can Hikaru no Go really stay first until it ends?"
Putting on her headphones, Misaki shut out the noise. Heavy metal music filled her ears, and a faint smile appeared as she began her work.
Over the next two weeks, Hikaru no Go shifted its focus to Hikaru's professional matches.
Hikaru's return to the Go world was nothing short of explosive. Eight consecutive victories sent his name straight to the front pages of Go-related media.
By late March, the match everyone had been waiting for finally arrived.
Hikaru versus Akira.
The storytelling was flawless, and fans could clearly feel the unique charm of this arc.
In their match, Hikaru displayed Go skills strikingly similar to Akira's.
At several moments, his moves reminded Akira of the game he played when he first met Hikaru and also of that mysterious online master.
Sai.
At the same time, the story began weaving in a new thread. A fourteen-year-old prodigy from the Korea, recently promoted to professional status, who had once lost to Hikaru and had already defeated a ninth-dan player.
The groundwork was being laid for an under-18 youth Go exchange tournament involving the Korea, Japan, and China.
The perspective shifted once more.
The story returned to the Go match between Hikaru and Akira.
The longer the game continued, the stronger Akira's sense of familiarity became toward Hikaru's style of play.
"In you," Akira said slowly, "I can vaguely see the shadow of another person… the shadow of someone I have been chasing for a very long time."
At this point, Hikaru's strength had grown to such a level that even Akira began to suspect whether Hikaru himself might be Sai.
In the eyes of the media within the story, Hikaru, Akira, and Ochi were now regarded as the three Go players most likely to shine in the upcoming exchange tournament.
Through seemingly casual dialogue, the groundwork for the Hokuto Cup was quietly laid in this chapter.
At the same time, near the end of the chapter, during the middle game of Hikaru and Akira's match, Akira spoke again.
"Hikaru, playing against you reminds me of Sai."
"Unfortunately," Hikaru replied, shaking his head, "I am not Sai."
"It is you," Akira said firmly. "He is another you. That person, is the Hikaru I just met. And that person, is Sai. There is another existence within you."
The second-to-last chapter of Hikaru no Go ended on Akira's words.
"He's still digging holes, still leaving cliffhangers, even in the second-to-last chapter. Teacher Shirogane, you're too much."
"Next week, Hikaru no Go is really ending!"
"I've followed this manga for one year and two months. It feels both long and incredibly short."
"I feel like crying. In the end, after Sai disappeared, someone finally noticed his existence."
"It had to be Akira. He figured everything out. He probably thinks Sai is Hikaru's split personality."
"I really want to cry… Hikaru no Go ends next week. What about the youth exchange tournament?"
"Can Teacher Rei really wrap everything up in just one chapter?"
"I don't know, brothers. See you next week."
"Saying 'see you next week' feels meaningless now. I won't criticize Teacher Shirogane anymore. If you still care about Hikaru no Go, please vote for it."
In late March, after the serialization of the penultimate chapter of Hikaru no Go, the Hoshimori Group's official website and the promotional displays at the Group's headquarters underwent a complete overhaul.
All existing posters were replaced.
In their place appeared large-scale promotional advertisements for the conclusion of Hikaru no Go, produced and distributed through multiple media channels.
Train stations, television screens, subways, and buses across the country all carried the same message:
The final chapter of Hikaru no Go will be simultaneously serialized and released nationwide in next week's issue of Dream Comic.