Hikago/Princess Tutu crossover
Yes, I’m well aware that there is very, very little (i.e. nothing) connecting Hikaru no Go and Princess Tutu... but why should I let that stop me?
Summary: Chapter of the Ghost. During a trip to Europe, Hikaru and Sai visit a small town in which impossible things can - and do - happen.
Characters: Hikaru and Sai, (and Ahiru and Fakir from Princess Tutu, but this is Hikago centric.)
There are some possible spoilers concerning Princess Tutu, but nothing big. Knowledge of that series helps, but it's not obligatory... You'll just be as confused as Hikaru is, is all. ^^
Word count: Almost 10k.
Language note: Hikaru and Sai speak, naturally, Japanese, and everyone else speaks German.
Yet Untitled aka Kapitel des Geistes aka Mukashi Mukashi aka Hikaru no Tutu
Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a man who loved a board game called go above anything else. He had acquired a high and a happy position in the court, being able to devote his days to his beloved game, but one day he lost everything - his position, his reputation, his life… all because of the jealousy of someone who should have been his peer. Unable to find rest, his spirit still remained in the world of the living, wanting to gain in death what had been denied him in life… but how could death be any kinder to him?
~~~
On a narrow and winding road somewhere at the edge of the Alps, a tiny old bus slowly made its way up the mountainside. Chuffing and puffing onward, it looked like it would stop any moment never to move again, but somehow it still rolled on, one mile after another.
A teenage boy was sitting at the back of the bus. Slumped against his seat he stared out of the window with a glum look on his face. On the other side of the bus, a man dressed in Heian period court clothes - quite out of place both in this time and this place - seemed much more enthusiastic about basically anything that happened to catch his eye.
“Ah, Hikaru, look!” he exclaimed, pointing out of the window. “There is such a lovely little brook there! It’s so beautiful here!”
“Sure…”
The youth’s apathetic reply made the man shoot a sharp glance at him and then return to the seat next to the boy. A moment passed in silence, then he went on, a bit hesitantly, “This is certainly nice variation, but… are you sure it was a good idea to leave on this trip on your own? I mean… keeping in mind the level of your language skills…”
The glum look transformed into a glower. “Shut up, Sai.”
Sai sighed and turned again to watch the scenery. This could be a very pleasant and relaxing trip, but if Hikaru insisted on moping the whole day… He shook his head.
They were currently on a two weeks’ journey in Europe, together with some other young pros of Japan, paying a visit to the European go community. Back home, they had both been quite excited about the trip, but Hikaru’s eagerness had somewhat petered out after losing two games out of three to the European players. The first loss, in Sai’s opinion, had been mainly due to the combination of bad luck and a simple misread, the second to trying too much and making stupid mistakes.
Nevertheless, the two losses gnawed on his young companion, and the language barrier didn’t help. A few years of school English hardly made anyone fluent, but there was a growing suspicion among their fellow travelers that Hikaru hadn’t been awake on a single English lesson. Waya, at least, was equally bad in languages, but he was amazingly good in getting along with non-verbal communication, and as for Touya Akira... unsurprisingly, perhaps, he had proven to be very good in English, and apparently also had basic knowledge of German. And perhaps it wasn’t too surprising, either, that Ochi as well seemed to have a good head for languages, a fact that the boy hadn’t forgotten to stress every single time he was interpreting for Hikaru.
One could always wish that this would prompt Hikaru to be more diligent with his other studies; a passion for go was well and good, but as far as Sai was concerned it really wasn’t a sign of a well-bred young man to spurn other education. Then again, whether even rivalry would be enough to get Hikaru devoted to something that simply did not interest him was questionable.
“Aa… this bus is creeping,” Hikaru muttered and looked at his watch. “Shouldn’t we be there already…” He fished his ticket out of his pocket to check the times printed on it. “I wonder if the fare was so cheap because the bus is a piece of crap…”
They - or, to be more exact, Hikaru, had decided, quite ex-tempore, to take a day off to cool his head. There was nothing obligatory in the program for this day, and so Hikaru had shaken off his friends and tutors and headed for the bus terminal, getting a ticket for basically the first bus that was leaving and didn’t cost too much. It could be fun, you know, was all he’d said. To see something else too than just the big cities. And as Sai had agreed with that, he had not protested but got on the bus that was now heading toward some countryside town. What was it called again? Gold…
“Goru…dene…kuroone…” Hikaru attempted to spell out the name written on his ticket. Goldenekrone. “Whatever it means.” He still sounded quite vexed.
Sai peeked at the ticket. “The beginning, I think, could be gold. It’s…”
“What, you know German now too?” Hikaru stuffed the ticket back into his pocket.
“No,” Sai said, a bit offended. “Just guessing from what little English I’ve learned in your classes. It could mean something else too.”
For a while the bus rolled on in silence.
“This sure is an ancient bus,” Hikaru finally said in a much lighter, conversational tone, and Sai knew him well enough by now to realize that he was feeling guilty of the way he’d snapped, and trying to make amends. “I bet it can’t go any faster than this.”
“Gives more time to enjoy the scenery,” Sai stated. “These days people are always in such a hurry to get from one place to another. Traveling should take its time, so that one can properly appreciate everything on the way.”
“Should?” Hikaru laughed. “That sure is a medieval thing to say. But I guess this is nice enough. Soft couches and no noisy people or crying babies.”
In fact, there were no other people on the minibus at all, they were the only passengers. It was a close thing that they were on it, either, for when Hikaru first had seen the bus at the terminal back in the city, he had almost gone to change his ticket. The only reason he hadn’t, was because he didn’t want to try to explain it to the non-Japanese-speaking lady at the ticket office. So he had scrambled on, muttering something about museum pieces, showed the ticket to the equally ancient monkey-faced bus driver, and slumped on the back-seat, already having misgivings about the whole thing.
Personally, Sai liked this bus much better than most of those big modern monsters. They might be quieter, faster, fancier, and, well, in a word, more modern, but there was something in the atmosphere of this old bus that they lacked.
“Look! I think we’re finally arriving there.”
He pointed toward a city wall that had just come into the view. There was a gate in the wall, and they were headed toward it.
“About time,” Hikaru muttered and leaned forward to get a better view.
As the bus rolled in through the city gates, Sai winced. “Ah…”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I just… feel a bit weird.” He frowned. “Somehow… heavy.”
“Heavy?” Hikaru frowned as well. “How can a ghost feel heavy?”
“I don’t know, I… I’m sorry, it’s probably nothing…” Despite the words and a quick smile the frown still lingered on his face, but as he said no more Hikaru shrugged and turned to look out.
“Charming town,” Sai muttered, and Hikaru nodded.
“Yeah. It looks pretty old, and - hey, look, a horse carriage! I guess we’re lucky our bus didn’t turn out to be something like that… though who knows, it might have been faster.”
Hikaru seemed to be in a much better mood now that they had reached their destination, and as the bus stopped he jumped out of it once again full of enthusiasm. Sai followed him with a small smile, trying to figure out if what he was feeling was a headache or not. He didn’t quite remember what one felt like - had he ever had a headache in the first place? He couldn’t remember. And anyway, how could he have one now?
The bus had stopped on a small square that had a tiny fountain in the middle of it. Sai found its rippling soothing, and he walked closer to it. “What do you want to do next?” he asked. “How long do we have before the bus leaves back?”
“It leaves in the evening, so we’ve certainly got more than enough time… this doesn’t look like any big place.”
Sai turned to look at the boy, but whatever he had been about to say died on his lips as he saw the bus driver jump out of the vehicle. A moment he just stared, disbelieving.
“Hikaru… was the bus driver always a monkey?”
“What?” Hikaru stretched a little, watching curiously the ornate houses around the square. “I know the guy certainly looked like one, but isn’t that a bit rude, Sai? Not quite like you.”
“Oh… I’m sorry, I just… didn’t notice…” Sai was still staring after the uniform clad monkey that disappeared into the bus company’s office. The boy didn’t notice his confusion, having spotted a restaurant on the other side of the square.
“That was a long ride! I’m hungry. I wonder if they’ve got ramen here…”
The ghost gave a sigh. “Somehow I doubt that. Why don’t you try some local specialty?”
Hikaru grimaced. “Whatever. As long as it’s edible.” He started striding toward the restaurant, and Sai shuffled after him, trying to ignore the strange feeling of heaviness which was still intensifying.
“Willkommen!” a cheerful waitress exclaimed as they stepped in. “Ein Tisch für zwei?”
“Huh?” Hikaru blinked. “Yeah, I… I’d like to eat…”
The waitress said something else and led them to a corner table by the window. Hikaru sat down and took the menu the waitress offered him.
“Che, it’s all in German…” he muttered. “I bet they don’t have one in Japanese here… umh… in Engrish?” he asked, looking hopefully at the waitress but she just smiled at him. “Well, big difference,” he stated and threw the menu on the table. “It’s not like I’d understand the English one either.”
Sai was still standing by the table, another hand pressed against his forehead.
Sai? Are you okay? Hikaru thought to him. The ghost really did look somehow nauseous. Sai?
He got no answer. “Sai!” he muttered sharply under his breath and the ghost gave a start.
“What?”
Hikaru was going to repeat his question, but the waitress cut him off.
“Ist alles in Ordnung?” Her smile had waded away and she was looking toward Sai with a worried expression. “Hier, setzen Sie sich, bitte.” She pulled a chair and nodded at Sai, who was staring at her with his mouth hanging open.
“Is… she talking to me?” he finally managed to say. He didn’t get any reply, though, as the wide-eyed Hikaru as well was opening and closing his mouth without getting anything sensible out.
Slowly and carefully Sai sat down on the chair, as if expecting it to disappear from under him. The waitress nodded and smiled, said something and left, leaving the two to stare at each other in utter confusion.
“What?” Hikaru finally got control of his tongue again. “What just happened?” Sai said nothing, but he reached his hand and poked at the menu Hikaru had dropped on the table.
“I can touch it,” he muttered. “I did think the ground felt weird… of course it did… it felt like something, after all.” He picked the menu gingerly up, and his mouth formed an astonished o. “If I can touch things…” he breathed, “I could play go!”
“Go!” Hikaru exclaimed. “How can you think about go at a time like this! I mean… of course it’s great that you… if you… but…” He flailed anxiously with his hands, trying to find the right words, but in the end all that came out, was “How would I ever explain you to mom?”
Sai wasn’t listening to him. He was watching his hands with a sense of wonder, as if he had never seen them before. “I’ve been feeling so anxious lately,” he muttered, “I thought I was going to… but could it have been… who’d have ever...”
The waitress came back. She placed two glasses on the table and poured water in them. Smiling once again she pushed another of the glasses toward Sai who took it and with an unreadable expression raised it to his lips.
The waitress said something and pointed at the menu on the table. Hikaru shrugged and gave it to her. “Yeah, I want to eat,” he said in Japanese. “Eat.” What was the German word again? He motioned with his hand as if eating something, and the waitress nodded, the bright smile plastered on her face, and left.
Hikaru sighed. “We’ll see what she’ll bring...” He looked at Sai who was still savoring the water, clutching the glass tightly with both hands. “This is just weird...” he muttered. “Saiii... listen to me. What are we going to do now?”
“Do?” Sai finally looked up from the water. “Play go.”
“Try to think of something else than go for a moment! This is... this is big, you know, it’s not just about you... oh, is that my food already?”
“Our food,” Sai muttered, as the waitress placed steaming plates in front of them both.
“Guten apetit!” she said cheerfully.
Sai nodded at her, smiling. “Danke.”
Hikaru stared blankly at Sai’s plate and watched as Sai carefully picked up the fork and the knife and poked the food on his plate with them.
“This will take some practice,” Sai said after a while. “Why do westerners use such weird things for eating?”
Hikaru didn’t seem to hear what he said. “I’ve got to pay for two now, right?” he mumbled quietly. “Sai... this really isn’t all good, I mean...”
“Hikaru.” Sai raised his eyes from his plate and gave him a level look. “This is my first meal in a thousand years. Please let me enjoy it.”
Hikaru sighed but fell silent.
~
“It’s not just my mom, it’s everyone else too,” Hikaru was saying when they left the restaurant. “How would I ever get you back to Japan, in the first place? You don’t have a passport… not even a birth certificate or whatever it’s called. You don’t exist in the real world…”
Sai walked behind him, quiet.
“It’s not going to be that simple. You can’t just suddenly pop up and say ‘Hi, I’m Fujiwara no Sai from a thousand years ago, and I want to play go’ and expect that all will go smoothly and you can just spend the rest of your days sitting in front of a goban....”
Hikaru sighed and stopped at the window of a watchmaker. The clocks in the window were beautiful and ornate, and looked quite old-fashioned. Not a place to buy a modern wristwatch, apparently.
Sai’s reflection appeared on the glass next to his own, something that had never happened before, and he looked away.
“Don’t get me wrong, I understand you’re excited and so on,” he went on. “But I sure hope this hadn’t happened, at least not here, of all places.... things would be a bit easier if we at least were in Japan.”
He fell silent and stared at the ground, still avoiding looking either at Sai’s reflection or Sai himself. Sai, in his turn, stared intently at his back, strangely stiff and silent.
Hikaru snorted, oblivious to everything. “I can so see myself trying to explain this at the hotel. This is my friend Sai, and so far he’s been a ghost but now he suddenly turned real, I’m sure you don’t mind if he comes back home with us... think you could get him a plane ticket though he has no ID of any kind?”
Sai had turned away from him, lowering his own gaze to the ground. The wind rustled quietly his clothes, an old, familiar and half-forgotten sound, and he watched the pebbles on the street with clouded eyes, without really seeing them.
“It’s just not going to work,” Hikaru was muttering. “And imagine the fuss it’d cause if people actually believed us. How could we keep it silent? I don’t want all kinds of weirdo reporters of crappy magazines running after me... I’m just getting started with my career, I’ve no time for nonsense like that. We’ll have to hide who you really are somehow. But...” Hikaru was silent for a long while before he finally looked up again. “But I guess if you are real, then you are; end of story. We’ve just got to deal with things as they come, right?” He looked back with a smile, only to find Sai gone.
~
“Sai?”
As he walked down a little by-street that had left from the corner of the watchmaker’s, he heard Hikaru’s confused voice coming from behind.
“Sai!”
He turned abruptly on yet another street and stopped right after the corner, lingering there, and listening, waiting for footsteps to come after him. He could still hear Hikaru’s voice calling for him, but now from somewhere farther away. Good, the boy had left to a wrong direction.
For a moment he felt guilt, hearing the worry in Hikaru’s voice, but it was soon overcome by anger. He had never even imagined something like this could happen, and now that this miracle had taken place, he did not want it to be dampened down with trivial worries and selfish complaints. Or... perhaps Hikaru’s worries were reasonable, but he wasn’t ready to think about things like that, not yet. He could feel the air in his lungs, the beating of his heart, the solid ground under his feet - how he longed to feel also the go stones, cold and smooth and perfect in his hands...
He drew a shaken breath. No, this wasn’t the time to think of explanations, passports and gossip magazines. He started walking again, aimlessly. This was a small town, he and Hikaru would certainly be able to find each other later. Now he needed a moment alone.
~
“Sai!” Hikaru dashed down the street glancing frantically left and right, but there was no sign of his companion anywhere. Passers-by shot curious looks at him, and an elderly lady asked what was wrong, but he didn’t even notice - not that he would have understood her, even if he had.
After running wildly around a while he found himself again at the watchmaker’s. “Sai,” he called once more, but with much diminished fervor. He cursed quietly to himself. Where had that idiot ex-ghost disappeared to? Why did he leave like that, without saying anything?
With an angry shrug Hikaru started walking on. Whatever, he would not play hide-and-seek any longer. He’d do what they’d come here to do - go sightseeing in this curious little town. Sai would surely pop up somewhere, sooner or later. So he set out to take a look on the town, determined to ignore his missing companion.
The first thing to strike him was the people. He hadn’t noticed it before, but they were quite strangely dressed - not that he had been an expert on western clothing, but he would have imagined seeing such clothes rather a hundred years ago than today. Or maybe this was how people dressed in countryside? What did he know.
He noticed he was unwittingly eying the people, trying to spot a high black hat, and, annoyed, he turned his attention to the buildings. This seemed to be a rather typical old European town with beautiful stone houses, rose bushes and well-fended gardens. Not much to see though - a church, some kind of a big school with a beautiful swan fountain in the yard, a small market place and different tiny shops...
He found himself unable to really concentrate on anything. That is, until something unexpected happened that demanded his complete attention.
It wasn’t any big incident, to be honest. A cow simply walked by him on the street. The thing was that the cow walked on its hind legs, wore a pretty blue dress, and had a basket with vegetables hanging on its arm. It - she? - was clearly coming from the market.
Hikaru stopped on his heels and stared after the cow, mouth hanging open. It took him a while to believe his eyes, but then he heard Sai’s voice in his ears... Hikaru, was the bus driver always a monkey?
“You mean... a monkey for real?” he breathed aloud. “What’s going on here?”
He glanced around, suddenly very eager for Sai’s company. A town in which ghosts turned real and cows went shopping... yes, certainly, quite interesting, but he didn’t want to be alone anymore.
No sign of Sai, though. He checked the bus stop - a logical place for a rendezvous - walked here and there on the streets, peeked into shops he thought Sai might find interesting. Nothing.
In the end he stopped, exhausted. “Sai!” he yelled one more time, but he didn’t really expect an answer.
“Sei?” someone said. “Was muss wer sein?”
He looked behind and saw three girls dressed in similar school uniforms. Two of them were watching him with rather suspicious expressions, but the third leaned forward and looked mainly curious.
“Kann ich Ihnen helfen?” the girl asked. She had very red, very long and very wild hair that had been tied on a single pigtail.
Hikaru blinked. “Umh... I... I’m looking for Sai. Sai. That is...” Now, how would he explain this? Maybe the girls had seen Sai - he would certainly stand out even in a weird place like this - but how to ask them? “Ehh...” He placed his fingertips against each other and formed a triangle with his hands. Then he put his hands above his head. “Sai. My friend. With big hat. Hiiiigh hat.” He raised his hands higher. “High. Hat.” What was hat in German?
The girl watched his hands with round eyes, mouth a little open, clearly doing her best to understand, but failing. Her friends were growing impatient and were urging her to move on, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“You know... hat,” Hikaru said and tapped his head. Then he put his hands again upon his head, as if putting a hat on. “A very high one.” He raised his hand as high as he could reach.
Now the two friends had had enough. Another of them said something, and they practically dragged the girl away.
“Sai?” Hikaru could still hear the red-headed girl muttering. “Sai?” He sighed and shrugged, and walked on.
~
“Sai?” Ahiru was still going on when the three reached the Goldenekrone Academy. “What do you think a ‘sai’ could be?”
“Who knows?” Pike said. “What a weird guy.”
“Have you ever seen hair like that?” Lilie continued. “Two-colored? Do you think it’s somehow dyed?”
“Of course it is,” Pike snorted. “Who’d have hair like that naturally?” She glanced at Lilie from the corner of her eye, and saw the dreamy look spreading slowly on the other girl’s face. “Don’t...”
“It was kind of cute, really,” Lilie cut her off. “Do you think he was lost? Maybe we should have helped him... such a mysterious stranger...”
“Cute? Mysterious? Didn’t you just call him creepy a moment ago?”
Lilie protested vehemently, and the two went on with their argument. Ahiru didn’t pay them any attention.
“Sai...” she was still muttering, and placed her hands above her head the way that strange boy had done. “Sai... sa...i...”
They had just reached the dressing room to get ready for their afternoon class when her face suddenly brightened. “Oh, I know!” she exclaimed, and the other two forgot their argument.
“Yes?”
“He had lost his hat!” Ahiru looked at them, beaming.
“Hat?” Pike and Lilie looked at each other somewhat incredulously.
“Yes!” Ahiru went on eagerly. “Sai must mean hat!”
“Then why was he calling it out like that?” Pike asked. “Did he expect the hat to answer?”
Ahiru’s excitement cooled down a little. “Well, maybe... I don’t know, but...”
“Oh, you’re so cute!” Lilie exclaimed happily and pinched her cheek. “Wrong, as always, and so cute.”
“Lilie!” Pike muttered sharply. “Cut it...”
“What?” The other girl turned to look at her, all innocence. “Cut what?”
“I’ll go to change...” Ahiru mumbled and entered the dressing room rubbing her cheek.
“Stop making her depressed!” came Pike’s voice from the corridor.
“Depressed? Me? I just said she’s cute...”
Ahiru sighed and sat down on a bench. As she changed into the practice clothes she was still trying to decipher this mystery of ‘sai’, but in vain.
~
The mystery of Sai was the only thing in Hikaru’s mind as well. He had searched the whole town, parts of it twice, but nowhere was there a trace of Sai. He had checked the restaurant where they had eaten, too, and the waitress had understood his desperate sign language much better than those three girls, but apparently she hadn’t seen Sai since they had left. He had tried to make her understand that if she saw Sai, she’d tell him to wait there, but he wasn’t sure if he had succeeded. At least the waitress had appeared to be quite sympathetic and ready to help, and had offered him a little snack, free.
But now what? He sat down by the fountain near the bus station. Time had passed quite fast as he’d been running around the town - evening had arrived, and the bus would be leaving soon.
He couldn’t leave without Sai. But if they missed this bus, they’d have to spend the night here. At least the ticket would be valid on the next day, too, he’d checked the dates on it. But still...
“Damn you, Sai,” he muttered as he dug out his cell phone. He’d have to call and say he wouldn’t be coming to the hotel tonight, and that he’d miss the games next day, too. How to explain it? The bus had broken? Something like that. It certainly was old enough to fall into pieces any moment.
He opened the phone, chose the number - and found he had no reception. “What the...” He shook the poor phone, as if that would make it function. “Just brilliant.”
“Hallo!”
He looked up and saw the red-haired girl looking curiously down at his cell phone.
“Was ist das?” the girl said.
“What, this?” he raised the phone up. “My phone. Pretty cool, isn’t it? I got it from my parents on my birthday. Hey... you’ve got a better reception somewhere? Or some place where I could make a call?”
As the girl stared at him, clearly not understanding what he meant, he raised the phone to his ear. “Make a call. Here, look.” He pointed at the place where four little pillars should have appeared on the phone’s screen. There were none. “No reception.”
The girl looked at the phone, then at him, then back at the phone. Her expression was one of pure confusion.
“Well, whatever!” Hikaru exclaimed, but right then an engine started, coughed, and, after a few tries, finally started running more or less smoothly. He watched sadly after the bus as it rolled away. “I should be on that,” he said. “I...” he tapped his chest, “Should be there.” He pointed after the bus. “But... no Sai.” He spread his hands helplessly.
“Sai.” The girl said. She burst into a long tirade, during which she pointed toward the bus, then toward Hikaru, then the bus again, and mentioned the word ‘sai’ a few times.
“Yeah, something like that, I guess,” Hikaru said and sighed.
Great. The bus had gone. No sign of Sai. What should he do? Where to spend the night?
“Umm...” he looked up at the girl. “Do you know a hotel? A cheap one. Very cheap one. A... hotel,” he said in English, pronouncing the L carefully. He made a gesture with his hands, as if sleeping, and the girl nodded. She pointed down the street and set on, and Hikaru followed her.
They came to some kind of a hotel, or an inn, a very beautiful one, as all houses in the town, but also a very small one. Hikaru dug out his purse, but it soon became evident that what little money he had with him wasn’t enough even for one night, and they didn’t seem to accept credit cards. The girl argued long with the innkeeper, but fruitlessly. In the end she had to give up, and they left the place.
Hikaru didn’t remember he’d have ever been quite this annoyed with Sai before. Disappearing like that was bad enough, but making them miss the bus... He didn’t want to spend the night on the streets in a strange town, however charming - especially if there were such strange things walking around there.
“Thanks anyway,” he muttered to the girl. “Dan-ke,” he attempted his first word of German.
The girl looked at him, lips in a tight line, grasped his arm and started to drag him onward. His attempts to ask where they were going to were ignored, and soon he saw they were approaching the big school, whatever it was.
They walked by it, but then went through a gate not so far from it. The yard they entered was big and wide, and had - what else? - a fountain in the middle of it. On both sides of it, there were two big buildings.
~
Ahiru walked on, dragging the weird boy with her quite determinedly. She still didn’t understand what was going on, but obviously he needed help. Now, the question was where to put him for the night… Suddenly she let out a little “o!” and started running, fluttering as she went. “Fakir!” she shouted. “Fakir!”
A dark-haired boy who had just been about to enter one of the buildings stopped, glanced behind, and as he saw who was calling him seemed to consider whether to just go on. In the end he did turn to wait for the pair running toward him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as the two came to a stop.
“This...” Ahiru panted, “this is a friend of mine, and he’s got trouble, because he’s lost ‘sai’ and he didn’t have money for the inn and he was supposed to take the bus - at least I think he was - and he needs a place to spend the night so maybe you could take him to the boys’ dorm?”
Fakir stared at her a moment with an unreadable expression. “Why... would I?”
“Silly!” Ahiru breathed. “It’s not like I could take him to the girls’.”
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Fakir summoned his patience and explained, “No, I meant why would we take him into the dorms at all. It’s against the rules, you know. Or...” he narrowed his eyes a little, “is he somehow connected to...”
“No, no,” Ahiru cut him off hurriedly. “I don’t think he’s in any way connected to anything. But...” She drew a circle on the ground with her toes and looked at him pleadingly. “I don’t know where else to take him...”
“Certainly someone in the town...”
“Please?” Ahiru looked up at him with big, begging eyes, and he groaned, passing his fingers through his hair.
“Well, whatever. It’s not like they were checking our rooms or anything. But you can be sure that if we are caught, I’ll tell them you’re behind this.”
“Thank you so much!” Ahiru smiled brightly at him. “So, it’s all arranged.” She turned to the stranger. “This is... this is... hey, what is your name? I’m Ahiru.” She tapped her chest. “Ahiru.” Then she pointed at Fakir. “Fakir.”
“Shindou Hikaru,” the boy said at the same time as Fakir muttered, “I thought you said he’s your friend... how come you didn’t know his name?”
“Oh, never mind that! Thanks a lot again!” She was already backing away. “Fakir will take care of you,” she said to the stranger and turned to run away, waving her hand. “Good night!” After a short distance she stopped. “Oh, he doesn’t speak any German!” she yelled back at them before dashing off toward the girls’ dormitory.
“Doesn’t speak...” Fakir blinked at the strange boy who was staring after the girl in apparent confusion. “Oh well. Let’s go, then.” He turned around and beckoned with his hand.
Hikaru followed the black-haired boy quite hesitantly. A friend of that girl’s? He seemed a little cold, not the friendliest soul in the town. But... if there was a place to spend the night here (free? That would be great), he wasn’t going to miss it.
They went in - no, rather, sneaked into the big building and from the way they crept along on the corridors he figured that most likely he wasn’t supposed to be there. Perhaps this was the school’s dorm? If that was the case, bringing in outsiders must have been forbidden, and so he tiptoed on as quietly as he could. Finally they arrived to a door. Fakir opened it, pushed him inside, and closed it behind them.
They’d come into a rather fancy room with two big beds, rich carpets and furniture that could have been from some Renaissance castle. Quite a dorm. On another of the beds sat a white-haired boy, who looked at them in surprise. Fakir said something to him, gesturing toward Hikaru. The only word he could understand was ‘Ahiru’, and the general tone sounded somewhat annoyed.
“Umm...” He bowed. “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. Eh... danke.”
Fakir waved his hand dismissively. He sat on his bed, kicked off his shoes and pointed at the floor, saying something. Hikaru figured he meant he’d have to sleep on the floor - made sense, as there were three of them, and only two beds. Not the most comfortable accommodation, but given that it was free, he wasn’t about to start complaining.
The two boys talked some more, and this time Hikaru thought - though he wasn’t sure - that Sai was mentioned. Then the two turned to look at him and Fakir said, inquiringly, “Sai?”
“Well, eh...” Hikaru passed his fingers through his hair and tried think how to explain it. His pantomime wasn’t, overall, very successful. Then he had an idea.
“Do you have pen and paper?” he said. “Pen.” He pretended to be writing.
Fakir got up and took out of a drawer a paper, pen, and... an ink bottle. Hikaru took the pen into his hand - a dip pen, sure enough - and stared at the ink bottle his mind gone blank. Then he looked at Fakir. “Uh...”
Without saying anything he opened the ink bottle, took the pen from Hikaru’s hands, dipped it in the ink, and gave it back to him.
It wasn’t easy to draw with it. Still, Hikaru managed to make some kind of a crude picture of Sai - at least it was kind of a human figure with a tall hat and flowing clothes. Close enough. He pointed at the picture. “Sai.”
Fakir nodded, glanced at his friend, said something and returned to his bed, shrugging. The white-haired boy looked at Hikaru and his picture and shook sadly his head. Hikaru sighed and put the picture into his pocket.
Night arrived, and Hikaru tried to figure out the best place to lie down. On the carpet, surely; at least it’d be a bit softer. As he was trying to make himself comfortable, the white-haired boy - his name apparently was Myuto or something like that, Hikaru wasn’t quite sure - jumped up from his bed and put down the book he’d been reading. He took the blanket from his bed, and then, after a moment’s consideration, took also his pillow and gave them to Hikaru.
“Er, thanks.” He grasped the pillow and the blanket uncertainly. Fakir snorted on his bed and said something that sounded sarcastic. “Are you sure you don’t need this?” Hikaru asked and offered the pillow back, but ‘Myuto’ just waved his hand.
It took Hikaru long to fall asleep that night. Not so much because of the hard floor, but because his mind was much too restless. The more he thought about it, the stranger Sai’s behavior seemed. He could understand Sai was excited, maybe not quite himself, thinking of all that could happen now that he had a body, but staying away so long, even missing the bus... that was weird. Somehow... irresponsible, and irresponsible was one word he never would have used of Sai.
Had he left for good?
That thought squirmed in his stomach unpleasantly.
What if, now that Sai had a body of his own and could, apparently, go where he wanted to... what if he had decided to ditch Hikaru for good, and... and what? Start a go school in the Alps? He almost snorted at the idea.
But then again, when a thousand-year-old ghost suddenly got a body, who knew what he’d do.
Hikaru rolled over and closed his eyes, determined to get some sleep. He’d look for Sai tomorrow. And he would find Sai, somehow.
~
As was stated before, it was never Sai’s intention to stay away for long. Just a moment on his own, that was all he wanted. He walked through the streets where Hikaru would later rush around, frantically searching for him, looked at the windows of some of those stores Hikaru guessed would interest him, but still he didn’t quite enjoy his time. The excitement was slowly giving room to the old anxiety he had felt before.
The truth was that even though he tried not to think of all Hikaru had said, the boy’s words kept on returning to his mind. These days were so different from his time. Back then, it wouldn’t have any problem at all for a stranger to appear in the capital - he might have been poor and with no relations, but still no one would have said he didn’t exist just because he didn’t posses some little plastic card.
He didn’t exist? And if he were to be ‘real’, he would only cause problems for Hikaru?
Between one step and another, the unfairness of it all settled heavily on his shoulders. He was alive again, but would he not be able to use this new life to fulfill his dreams? His steps grew heavier still, and he stopped paying attention to the strange colorful people around him. Without even noticing it, he wandered out of the city. The day passed, turned into a night, and still he walked, lost in the despair, until he came to a small lake. The pale moonshine reflecting on its surface brought back memories of another time filled with despair, and he fell on his knees by the water.
~
Morning came, and Fakir and ‘Myuto’ rose together with the sun. Hikaru rolled into a ball, drew the blanket over his head, and slept on until the two returned. Someone poked his elbow, and when he turned around he saw ‘Myuto’ offering him a piece of bread. Apparently they’d gone for a breakfast, and he’d smuggled something for Hikaru too.
He munched the bread, gulped down the water he was given, and as soon as he was done, Fakir was already ushering him out. They sneaked out the same way they had sneaked in, and, after giving his thanks once again, Hikaru set off again.
Fakir stared after the boy with a frown. What a strange guy. Where had Ahiru found him? And just what was his role in all this? Ahiru claimed he didn’t have anything to do with anything, but - even if she was honest about it - she might be mistaken. He didn’t quite believe in coincidences, and for Tutu to bring someone to him and tell him take care of this stranger... that in itself was enough to make the boy connected, a part of the story.
Yes... there was something peculiar going on, and he was going to find out what. He took a step to go after the boy, to find out more about him and this missing Sai, but a cheerful voice stopped him.
“Morning!” Ahiru came to a stop next to him and looked up at him with a big smile. “So?”
“What do you mean, so?” he muttered. “And how are you awake this early? It is Sunday, after all.”
“Oh...” Ahiru rocked back and forth on her heels. “I thought I should start looking for the heart shards more diligently, now that we’ve come this far. But... how did everything go? Where is he? Did you find out what sai is?”
“Not what, who. Sai seems to be a person. Someone with a really tall black hat. …at least I think that thing was supposed to be some kind of a hat…”
“Really?” Ahiru’s eyes were wide. “So that’s what he was trying to say!”
“Indeed. Now, let’s see...” He walked out of the dormitory’s gate and looked around. “I think he turned right...”
“Who turned right?” Ahiru ran after him as he set on down the street.
“This ‘friend’ of yours. Where did you find him, anyway?”
“Oh, I just ran across him.” Ahiru looked at him curiously. “Are you... following him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why not.” They walked a moment in silence, and then Fakir went on, “Are you following me?”
“Well...”
“I thought you were going to look for the heart shards.”
“Oh!” Ahiru stopped on her heels. “I forgot! But I... would have wanted to see him... but then again... maybe... but if I go... I know! I’ll look for the heart shards and keep and eye out for Sai at the same time!”
“Sounds like a plan. Where are you going to start searching?”
“I don’t know... maybe, if you’re going that way, I might go this way.” She turned abruptly and was off with a wave of her hand, but turned then suddenly back. “Umm, say... how’s Mytho doing?”
“He’s fine. Stayed in our room, reading.”
“So. Great. Well, see you!” Ahiru ran off again, but Fakir didn’t pay much attention to her anymore, having just spotted a yellow-black head some way ahead on the street.
~
Hikaru kept on showing his picture to everyone he passed, but no one seemed to have seen Sai (or then his drawing simply was too bad.) Everything was beginning to feel infuriatingly hopeless, and he began to wonder what he would do in the case he wouldn’t find Sai this day either. He couldn’t stay here any longer, everyone had to be really worried… they’d probably called the cops by now. Mother would never ever let him go anywhere again before he was eighty. He checked the cell phone, but no, it didn’t work now either.
“Stupid Sai,” he muttered, and slumped down on a park bench. Hopeless. He leaned back and watched the sky. It was a beautiful day, and there were only a few cottony clouds floating against the blue. Almost like from a cartoon - he half expected them to have faces. After all, so far he’d ask about Sai from three cats, one donkey and one hippo. Perhaps he should ask clouds next, he thought absentmindedly. They might see much from high up.
A flock of black birds flew across the sky, cawing as they went. Birds, that was another thought. Perhaps he should ask a bird.
A bit farther away Fakir stared intently after the crows. Another flock joined the first one, and they circled over the city. He muttered a quiet oath, and rushed off. The boy and his Sai could wait.
Someone else had noticed that crows, too. Ahiru stood frozen in the middle of a square, and watched them flocking. After a while they scattered, but a few flew by her, cawing meanly as they passed her. She looked around, on the alert. Something was brewing. She fingered the pendant hanging round her neck, and wondered where she was meant to be. Then she noticed some of the crows flying out of the city, and she ran after them.
After spending a long while lying quite lethargically on the bench, Hikaru finally dragged himself up. He’d keep on searching until evening. If he didn’t find Sai, then he didn’t. But he didn’t think of that yet. He went on, stubbornly, walking up and down the streets, until he realized he was leaving the town behind. The small street, or maybe it was a path by now, rather, wound its way through flowering meadows toward a forest. After a short hesitation he went on. Sai liked nature, didn’t he? Maybe he had gone for a walk in the forest and got lost, or something.
As it was, it didn’t take long for Hikaru to get lost.
He didn’t realize it right away. He’d been following the path but gradually it faded away. He didn’t think much of that - it was a nice forest, easy enough to walk in even without a path. He was beginning to feel exited. This was just the kind of place where he might find Sai.
Something fluttered in the treetops. He looked up and saw a black bird. “Hey, bird!” he yelled. “Have you seen Sai? A strange guy with a taaaall black hat?”
The bird looked at him a moment with black eyes before flying away.
Hikaru sighed. Either it was just an ordinary bird, or then it simply didn’t speak Japanese. All things considered, speaking Japanese was a bit too much asked from a bird in a German forest, he had to admit that.
He looked around. There was no sign of Sai, or anyone else what came to that. Perhaps he should turn back.
He did that, and blinked. He’d come from… that direction, right? Most likely. He started walking there, but after a short while came to a stop. Had he passed a big spruce like that on his way? Surely he would have noticed it… He glanced around. The sun had been on his left side… or perhaps behind? He wasn’t quite sure. The more he thought about it, he began to suspect it might have in fact been on his right. He stood there, scratching his head. Then he shrugged. He wouldn’t get anywhere standing here, so it was better to keep on walking. He’d come somewhere, sooner or later.
And so he walked. And walked. And walked. Had he called this forest nice? He was beginning to hate it. It couldn’t be this big… or could it? Who knew, perhaps he was on his way to cross the Alps or something.
Something rustled ahead, and he came to a stop. There was something big approaching him among the trees. A moose? No, it was… it was a horse. With a rider.
Hikaru blinked. He recognized the rider. It was that same boy who had taken him into the dorm. Fakir. And he had a sword by his side.
Hikaru blinked again. He had a rather unreal feeling, as if he had stepped into some strange fairytale, one that he did not know.
“Um,” he said. Fakir glared at him on his horse and said something.
“Sorry,” Hikaru said. “I still haven’t learned German. But… I’m kinda lost. Which way is the town?” He pointed onward. “That way? Or this way?” He pointed back. Then he shrugged and spread helplessly his arms. “Which way?”
Fakir pointed to his right and said something quite sharply. Then he spurred his horse on and went on his way. Hikaru watched after him a while. Then he decided that it was none of his business, and left to the direction Fakir had pointed at.
~
Fakir shook his head angrily as he rode on. What on earth was that boy doing here? But he didn’t have time to worry of such things now. The crows were on the move, and their activity seemed to center on this forest. Now, if he only knew what here was calling their attention.
He rode through the forest, examining it carefully, but saw nothing out of ordinary - which in itself, he mused to himself, was out of ordinary for this place. It was a long while later when he saw something moving among the trees. He stopped his horse and waited hand on the sword hilt, only to find himself again face to face with the strange-haired boy.
“I don’t believe this!” he exclaimed. “Why are you here? I told you to go that way!” He pointed to the direction from which the boy was coming.
The boy looked behind, then back to him with a confused expression. He pointed to the opposite direction and said something hesitantly.
Fakir shook his head in exasperation. “Don’t you have any kind of a sense of direction whatsoever?” he muttered. “Look, I’ve no time to babysit you. There’s something going on here, and…” He fell silent and stared at the boy through slit eyes. Whatever Ahiru said, this boy had to be somehow connected to everything. The likelihood of them running into each other twice like this was otherwise quite small.
“Look,” he said, “maybe you’d better come with me.” He waved invitingly with his hand, and the boy followed him, still with quite hesitant air.
~
Ahiru too had wandered long in this forest. She didn’t worry about such things as getting lost, or doing things systematically. She just went on, here and there, and trusted sooner or later to find the correct place. If only there had been fewer crows around. Otherwise it would have been a nice day to walk around in this nice forest (she thought she should come there some day with her friends and a picnic basket), but the crows made her nervous.
Finally her steps took her to the shore of a lake, and she frowned. She would have thought she knew all the lakes and ponds in this area, but she hadn’t had a clue there was one here. It was a rather nice lake, though there was something melancholic in the mist that floated on its surface, even in the bright day.
Suddenly she noticed something and gave a start. Then she clapped her hands joyfully. “Sai!” she exclaimed. “I found Sai!”
Sure enough, there was someone wearing a tall black had standing in the water near the shore. Ahiru frowned. In the water? Why? He was wearing strange long clothes, and they were getting all wet. She was about to yell out at him to get his attention, when the pendant on her neck started to shine.
“What?” She touched it, surprised. “Him? Does he have a heart shard?”
~
Sai stared at the clear water in front of him. It was cool and gentle, promising oblivion. And right now, that was all he wanted. He didn’t belong to this time, he had no place here. His days, his people were long gone, and so should he have been. He took another slow step, and felt the water rise to his knees.
“Wait!” came a shout from the shore, but he didn’t turn to look. “Where are you going to? Listen, you have something that does not belong to you. You’d be happier without it.”
That made him stop. “Happier? I doubt I could ever be happy again…” he muttered and glanced behind. The sight on the shore made him freeze, and he almost forgot his despair.
A young red-haired girl stood there, in a white dress the like of which Sai had never seen before. It left her arms and shoulders bare, and legs as well, forming a wide white cloud round her hips.
“What…”
The girl smiled and reached her hand out to him. “Come. Someone is looking for you. He’s very worried, you should go back to him.”
He shook his head slowly. Looked at the water. “No,” he said quietly. “I have… no reason to go back.”
He turned his back to the girl and took another step into the water.
“Hold on!” Suddenly the girl stood in front of him, tiptoeing in a strange way on the very top of her toes. Looking at the weird way she moved, it took Sai a moment to realize that she was in fact standing on the water.
He looked up at her again in amazement. She had blue, very gentle eyes, and they smiled at him. “Come,” she said and offered him a hand. “Dance with me.”
“Wah?” He stared at the hand. “I… don’t dance. I’m a go player, not…”
“Come.” She took his hand and drew him up from the water. “There is pain in your heart, but it’s not all yours. You should give it away.”
“No,” Sai muttered, still resisting her pull, and she swirled around him. “What would you know of it? I have nothing, no reason…”
“No reason to go back? Certainly that isn’t true. You said you’re a go player. Don’t you ever wish to play again?”
Sai gave a start and his eyes widened a little. “I…” The Hand of God. He hadn’t still reached the Hand of God.
“And what of the boy who is looking for you? Come, come now. You have people who care about you.”
Sai swallowed, staring at her wide, sky blue eyes, and this time he let her to pull him into a dance.
~
Hikaru scrambled after the riding boy as fast as he could. Now, as far he could tell, Fakir had told him to follow. It would have been considerate of him to take into account that Hikaru didn’t have a horse. The boy glared daggers at the rider’s back, and, not looking where he was going, stumbled on a tree root. He cursed, and Fakir glanced behind, but didn’t slow down.
“Where are we going to?” Hikaru muttered to himself. What was he doing, running around in the forest after this weirdo, anyway? As if this would help him to find Sai…
Fakir had stopped, and Hikaru almost ran into his horse. “What now?” he asked, annoyed. “Why did you stop like th…” The words died on his lips. There was a small lake in front of them. And…
Sai was there. Dancing. Above the lake’s water. With a girl in a ballerina costume. Now he knew he was dreaming.
As he stared, mouth hanging open, the two on the lake came to a stop. He saw something red glisten on Sai’s chest, and… it looked as if someone stepped out of him. A boy dressed in red. The red-clad boy turned to the ballerina who reached out her hands, and suddenly the boy disappeared. There was something red shining in her hands.
Hikaru rubbed her eyes. Then he realized that Fakir was moving again, and saw that Sai had somehow returned to the shore and lay there slumped on the ground.
“Sai!” he shouted and was about to start running, when a flock of crows suddenly flew by him. They rushed straight at the girl who pressed the shining red thing against her chest. “You won’t get this one!” he heard her yell. The crows attacked her, and suddenly among them stood another ballerina, this one dressed in black. Fakir spurred his horse onward, sword bare in his hand, yelling something that sounded like “Kraehe!”
Hikaru blinked. Leaned against a tree trunk and watched how the boy attacked the flock of crows swinging his sword here and there. They dispersed, the black-clad ballerina disappeared, and suddenly everything was so quiet it was almost deafening.
It took him a long moment to gain enough trust in his legs to leave the support of the tree and rush to Sai. The ghost… man… whatever he was, was slowly trying to get up.
“Sai!” Hikaru yelled and ran to his side. “Are you alright?”
“Hikaru?” Sai gave him a confused look. “I… think so. What happened?”
“You’re asking me? What’s going on here!?” He hugged Sai quite fervently. “Don’t you ever disappear like that again…” He muttered against his chest.
Sai patted his back a little awkwardly. “I’m sorry, Hikaru, I didn’t mean to… disappear? Did I disappear?” He blinked in confusion.
Fakir gave the two a long look. “So that’s Sai,” he said to Princess Tutu. “What a strange costume.”
“I think it’s pretty,” Tutu said with a smile. She was still clutching the heart shard strongly in her hands. “You came at a good time. Thanks.”
Fakir shrugged it off. “What is it this time?”
“Despair.” She sighed. “I wish I could find him happier emotions…”
“They’re all needed, in the end.”
“I guess.” Tutu gave a quick smile at the strangers who had turned to watch her in wonder. She curtseyed, ballerina style. “Good bye. I need to be going now.” And she jumped into the forest and was gone.
“I guess we should be going too,” Fakir said. “Come.” He snapped his fingers at the two who were still staring after Tutu. “Hey, wake up. Let’s go back.”
The three of them returned slowly to the town. Hikaru and Sai followed Fakir without a word, both of them feeling as if they were waking up from a long dream. Once they came to the town, the black-haired boy parted from them with a wave of his hand. Hikaru and Sai were left standing in a street corner.
“So,” Hikaru said but didn’t know how to continue.
“This is quite weird,” Sai stated after a while. “I take it some time has passed?”
“Yeah. We came here yesterday. And I haven’t been able to contact anyone… they don’t have a clue where I am.”
Sai looked a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“I know you didn’t,” Hikaru cut him off. “It’s fine. We can take the bus back today, it’s not a problem. We should try to think how to explain everything once we get back. There has to be a way to get you back to Japan, somehow.”
“I have a feeling that this might not be permanent,” Sai said a little sadly. “This is such a strange little town… but who knows what happens once we leave.”
“Yeah, well…” Hikaru ran his fingers through his hair. “Damn. In that case, I can’t use you as my excuse for disappearing.” He grinned. “Here I thought you’d be the perfect distraction - everyone would forget about me once I’d place you in front of a go board. Now I just need to face it all on my own.”
“I’ll be by your side,” Sai stated firmly, and Hikaru rolled his eyes.
“Much it helps…” he started to mutter, but then he saw someone running toward them. “Hey!” he yelled and waved. “Ahiru!”
“You know this girl?” Sai asked as Ahiru came to them. He frowned. “She seems familiar…”
“Yeah, she’s been helping me,” Hikaru said at the same time as Ahiru pointed at Sai and asked, “Sai?”
“Yep.” Hikaru nodded. “This is Ahiru,” he said to Sai. “And this is Fujiwara no Sai.”
The girl grinned, hands clutched behind her back. “Sai!” she said happily.
Sai bowed. “Nice to meet you.”
They walked into the town again, this time planning to enjoy their visit with their energetic guide to the last minute before the bus would carry them again back to the normal world.
THE END
I didn’t have a clue where this story was going to when I started writing it. All I had was “Hikaru and Sai go to the Gold Crown Town and Sai turns real.” And it’s ages since I watched Princess Tutu… I’m sorry if I remembered something wrong. …now I want to rewatch it, really…
And pardon my German. xD
Summary: Chapter of the Ghost. During a trip to Europe, Hikaru and Sai visit a small town in which impossible things can - and do - happen.
Characters: Hikaru and Sai, (and Ahiru and Fakir from Princess Tutu, but this is Hikago centric.)
There are some possible spoilers concerning Princess Tutu, but nothing big. Knowledge of that series helps, but it's not obligatory... You'll just be as confused as Hikaru is, is all. ^^
Word count: Almost 10k.
Language note: Hikaru and Sai speak, naturally, Japanese, and everyone else speaks German.
Yet Untitled aka Kapitel des Geistes aka Mukashi Mukashi aka Hikaru no Tutu
Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a man who loved a board game called go above anything else. He had acquired a high and a happy position in the court, being able to devote his days to his beloved game, but one day he lost everything - his position, his reputation, his life… all because of the jealousy of someone who should have been his peer. Unable to find rest, his spirit still remained in the world of the living, wanting to gain in death what had been denied him in life… but how could death be any kinder to him?
~~~
On a narrow and winding road somewhere at the edge of the Alps, a tiny old bus slowly made its way up the mountainside. Chuffing and puffing onward, it looked like it would stop any moment never to move again, but somehow it still rolled on, one mile after another.
A teenage boy was sitting at the back of the bus. Slumped against his seat he stared out of the window with a glum look on his face. On the other side of the bus, a man dressed in Heian period court clothes - quite out of place both in this time and this place - seemed much more enthusiastic about basically anything that happened to catch his eye.
“Ah, Hikaru, look!” he exclaimed, pointing out of the window. “There is such a lovely little brook there! It’s so beautiful here!”
“Sure…”
The youth’s apathetic reply made the man shoot a sharp glance at him and then return to the seat next to the boy. A moment passed in silence, then he went on, a bit hesitantly, “This is certainly nice variation, but… are you sure it was a good idea to leave on this trip on your own? I mean… keeping in mind the level of your language skills…”
The glum look transformed into a glower. “Shut up, Sai.”
Sai sighed and turned again to watch the scenery. This could be a very pleasant and relaxing trip, but if Hikaru insisted on moping the whole day… He shook his head.
They were currently on a two weeks’ journey in Europe, together with some other young pros of Japan, paying a visit to the European go community. Back home, they had both been quite excited about the trip, but Hikaru’s eagerness had somewhat petered out after losing two games out of three to the European players. The first loss, in Sai’s opinion, had been mainly due to the combination of bad luck and a simple misread, the second to trying too much and making stupid mistakes.
Nevertheless, the two losses gnawed on his young companion, and the language barrier didn’t help. A few years of school English hardly made anyone fluent, but there was a growing suspicion among their fellow travelers that Hikaru hadn’t been awake on a single English lesson. Waya, at least, was equally bad in languages, but he was amazingly good in getting along with non-verbal communication, and as for Touya Akira... unsurprisingly, perhaps, he had proven to be very good in English, and apparently also had basic knowledge of German. And perhaps it wasn’t too surprising, either, that Ochi as well seemed to have a good head for languages, a fact that the boy hadn’t forgotten to stress every single time he was interpreting for Hikaru.
One could always wish that this would prompt Hikaru to be more diligent with his other studies; a passion for go was well and good, but as far as Sai was concerned it really wasn’t a sign of a well-bred young man to spurn other education. Then again, whether even rivalry would be enough to get Hikaru devoted to something that simply did not interest him was questionable.
“Aa… this bus is creeping,” Hikaru muttered and looked at his watch. “Shouldn’t we be there already…” He fished his ticket out of his pocket to check the times printed on it. “I wonder if the fare was so cheap because the bus is a piece of crap…”
They - or, to be more exact, Hikaru, had decided, quite ex-tempore, to take a day off to cool his head. There was nothing obligatory in the program for this day, and so Hikaru had shaken off his friends and tutors and headed for the bus terminal, getting a ticket for basically the first bus that was leaving and didn’t cost too much. It could be fun, you know, was all he’d said. To see something else too than just the big cities. And as Sai had agreed with that, he had not protested but got on the bus that was now heading toward some countryside town. What was it called again? Gold…
“Goru…dene…kuroone…” Hikaru attempted to spell out the name written on his ticket. Goldenekrone. “Whatever it means.” He still sounded quite vexed.
Sai peeked at the ticket. “The beginning, I think, could be gold. It’s…”
“What, you know German now too?” Hikaru stuffed the ticket back into his pocket.
“No,” Sai said, a bit offended. “Just guessing from what little English I’ve learned in your classes. It could mean something else too.”
For a while the bus rolled on in silence.
“This sure is an ancient bus,” Hikaru finally said in a much lighter, conversational tone, and Sai knew him well enough by now to realize that he was feeling guilty of the way he’d snapped, and trying to make amends. “I bet it can’t go any faster than this.”
“Gives more time to enjoy the scenery,” Sai stated. “These days people are always in such a hurry to get from one place to another. Traveling should take its time, so that one can properly appreciate everything on the way.”
“Should?” Hikaru laughed. “That sure is a medieval thing to say. But I guess this is nice enough. Soft couches and no noisy people or crying babies.”
In fact, there were no other people on the minibus at all, they were the only passengers. It was a close thing that they were on it, either, for when Hikaru first had seen the bus at the terminal back in the city, he had almost gone to change his ticket. The only reason he hadn’t, was because he didn’t want to try to explain it to the non-Japanese-speaking lady at the ticket office. So he had scrambled on, muttering something about museum pieces, showed the ticket to the equally ancient monkey-faced bus driver, and slumped on the back-seat, already having misgivings about the whole thing.
Personally, Sai liked this bus much better than most of those big modern monsters. They might be quieter, faster, fancier, and, well, in a word, more modern, but there was something in the atmosphere of this old bus that they lacked.
“Look! I think we’re finally arriving there.”
He pointed toward a city wall that had just come into the view. There was a gate in the wall, and they were headed toward it.
“About time,” Hikaru muttered and leaned forward to get a better view.
As the bus rolled in through the city gates, Sai winced. “Ah…”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. I just… feel a bit weird.” He frowned. “Somehow… heavy.”
“Heavy?” Hikaru frowned as well. “How can a ghost feel heavy?”
“I don’t know, I… I’m sorry, it’s probably nothing…” Despite the words and a quick smile the frown still lingered on his face, but as he said no more Hikaru shrugged and turned to look out.
“Charming town,” Sai muttered, and Hikaru nodded.
“Yeah. It looks pretty old, and - hey, look, a horse carriage! I guess we’re lucky our bus didn’t turn out to be something like that… though who knows, it might have been faster.”
Hikaru seemed to be in a much better mood now that they had reached their destination, and as the bus stopped he jumped out of it once again full of enthusiasm. Sai followed him with a small smile, trying to figure out if what he was feeling was a headache or not. He didn’t quite remember what one felt like - had he ever had a headache in the first place? He couldn’t remember. And anyway, how could he have one now?
The bus had stopped on a small square that had a tiny fountain in the middle of it. Sai found its rippling soothing, and he walked closer to it. “What do you want to do next?” he asked. “How long do we have before the bus leaves back?”
“It leaves in the evening, so we’ve certainly got more than enough time… this doesn’t look like any big place.”
Sai turned to look at the boy, but whatever he had been about to say died on his lips as he saw the bus driver jump out of the vehicle. A moment he just stared, disbelieving.
“Hikaru… was the bus driver always a monkey?”
“What?” Hikaru stretched a little, watching curiously the ornate houses around the square. “I know the guy certainly looked like one, but isn’t that a bit rude, Sai? Not quite like you.”
“Oh… I’m sorry, I just… didn’t notice…” Sai was still staring after the uniform clad monkey that disappeared into the bus company’s office. The boy didn’t notice his confusion, having spotted a restaurant on the other side of the square.
“That was a long ride! I’m hungry. I wonder if they’ve got ramen here…”
The ghost gave a sigh. “Somehow I doubt that. Why don’t you try some local specialty?”
Hikaru grimaced. “Whatever. As long as it’s edible.” He started striding toward the restaurant, and Sai shuffled after him, trying to ignore the strange feeling of heaviness which was still intensifying.
“Willkommen!” a cheerful waitress exclaimed as they stepped in. “Ein Tisch für zwei?”
“Huh?” Hikaru blinked. “Yeah, I… I’d like to eat…”
The waitress said something else and led them to a corner table by the window. Hikaru sat down and took the menu the waitress offered him.
“Che, it’s all in German…” he muttered. “I bet they don’t have one in Japanese here… umh… in Engrish?” he asked, looking hopefully at the waitress but she just smiled at him. “Well, big difference,” he stated and threw the menu on the table. “It’s not like I’d understand the English one either.”
Sai was still standing by the table, another hand pressed against his forehead.
Sai? Are you okay? Hikaru thought to him. The ghost really did look somehow nauseous. Sai?
He got no answer. “Sai!” he muttered sharply under his breath and the ghost gave a start.
“What?”
Hikaru was going to repeat his question, but the waitress cut him off.
“Ist alles in Ordnung?” Her smile had waded away and she was looking toward Sai with a worried expression. “Hier, setzen Sie sich, bitte.” She pulled a chair and nodded at Sai, who was staring at her with his mouth hanging open.
“Is… she talking to me?” he finally managed to say. He didn’t get any reply, though, as the wide-eyed Hikaru as well was opening and closing his mouth without getting anything sensible out.
Slowly and carefully Sai sat down on the chair, as if expecting it to disappear from under him. The waitress nodded and smiled, said something and left, leaving the two to stare at each other in utter confusion.
“What?” Hikaru finally got control of his tongue again. “What just happened?” Sai said nothing, but he reached his hand and poked at the menu Hikaru had dropped on the table.
“I can touch it,” he muttered. “I did think the ground felt weird… of course it did… it felt like something, after all.” He picked the menu gingerly up, and his mouth formed an astonished o. “If I can touch things…” he breathed, “I could play go!”
“Go!” Hikaru exclaimed. “How can you think about go at a time like this! I mean… of course it’s great that you… if you… but…” He flailed anxiously with his hands, trying to find the right words, but in the end all that came out, was “How would I ever explain you to mom?”
Sai wasn’t listening to him. He was watching his hands with a sense of wonder, as if he had never seen them before. “I’ve been feeling so anxious lately,” he muttered, “I thought I was going to… but could it have been… who’d have ever...”
The waitress came back. She placed two glasses on the table and poured water in them. Smiling once again she pushed another of the glasses toward Sai who took it and with an unreadable expression raised it to his lips.
The waitress said something and pointed at the menu on the table. Hikaru shrugged and gave it to her. “Yeah, I want to eat,” he said in Japanese. “Eat.” What was the German word again? He motioned with his hand as if eating something, and the waitress nodded, the bright smile plastered on her face, and left.
Hikaru sighed. “We’ll see what she’ll bring...” He looked at Sai who was still savoring the water, clutching the glass tightly with both hands. “This is just weird...” he muttered. “Saiii... listen to me. What are we going to do now?”
“Do?” Sai finally looked up from the water. “Play go.”
“Try to think of something else than go for a moment! This is... this is big, you know, it’s not just about you... oh, is that my food already?”
“Our food,” Sai muttered, as the waitress placed steaming plates in front of them both.
“Guten apetit!” she said cheerfully.
Sai nodded at her, smiling. “Danke.”
Hikaru stared blankly at Sai’s plate and watched as Sai carefully picked up the fork and the knife and poked the food on his plate with them.
“This will take some practice,” Sai said after a while. “Why do westerners use such weird things for eating?”
Hikaru didn’t seem to hear what he said. “I’ve got to pay for two now, right?” he mumbled quietly. “Sai... this really isn’t all good, I mean...”
“Hikaru.” Sai raised his eyes from his plate and gave him a level look. “This is my first meal in a thousand years. Please let me enjoy it.”
Hikaru sighed but fell silent.
~
“It’s not just my mom, it’s everyone else too,” Hikaru was saying when they left the restaurant. “How would I ever get you back to Japan, in the first place? You don’t have a passport… not even a birth certificate or whatever it’s called. You don’t exist in the real world…”
Sai walked behind him, quiet.
“It’s not going to be that simple. You can’t just suddenly pop up and say ‘Hi, I’m Fujiwara no Sai from a thousand years ago, and I want to play go’ and expect that all will go smoothly and you can just spend the rest of your days sitting in front of a goban....”
Hikaru sighed and stopped at the window of a watchmaker. The clocks in the window were beautiful and ornate, and looked quite old-fashioned. Not a place to buy a modern wristwatch, apparently.
Sai’s reflection appeared on the glass next to his own, something that had never happened before, and he looked away.
“Don’t get me wrong, I understand you’re excited and so on,” he went on. “But I sure hope this hadn’t happened, at least not here, of all places.... things would be a bit easier if we at least were in Japan.”
He fell silent and stared at the ground, still avoiding looking either at Sai’s reflection or Sai himself. Sai, in his turn, stared intently at his back, strangely stiff and silent.
Hikaru snorted, oblivious to everything. “I can so see myself trying to explain this at the hotel. This is my friend Sai, and so far he’s been a ghost but now he suddenly turned real, I’m sure you don’t mind if he comes back home with us... think you could get him a plane ticket though he has no ID of any kind?”
Sai had turned away from him, lowering his own gaze to the ground. The wind rustled quietly his clothes, an old, familiar and half-forgotten sound, and he watched the pebbles on the street with clouded eyes, without really seeing them.
“It’s just not going to work,” Hikaru was muttering. “And imagine the fuss it’d cause if people actually believed us. How could we keep it silent? I don’t want all kinds of weirdo reporters of crappy magazines running after me... I’m just getting started with my career, I’ve no time for nonsense like that. We’ll have to hide who you really are somehow. But...” Hikaru was silent for a long while before he finally looked up again. “But I guess if you are real, then you are; end of story. We’ve just got to deal with things as they come, right?” He looked back with a smile, only to find Sai gone.
~
“Sai?”
As he walked down a little by-street that had left from the corner of the watchmaker’s, he heard Hikaru’s confused voice coming from behind.
“Sai!”
He turned abruptly on yet another street and stopped right after the corner, lingering there, and listening, waiting for footsteps to come after him. He could still hear Hikaru’s voice calling for him, but now from somewhere farther away. Good, the boy had left to a wrong direction.
For a moment he felt guilt, hearing the worry in Hikaru’s voice, but it was soon overcome by anger. He had never even imagined something like this could happen, and now that this miracle had taken place, he did not want it to be dampened down with trivial worries and selfish complaints. Or... perhaps Hikaru’s worries were reasonable, but he wasn’t ready to think about things like that, not yet. He could feel the air in his lungs, the beating of his heart, the solid ground under his feet - how he longed to feel also the go stones, cold and smooth and perfect in his hands...
He drew a shaken breath. No, this wasn’t the time to think of explanations, passports and gossip magazines. He started walking again, aimlessly. This was a small town, he and Hikaru would certainly be able to find each other later. Now he needed a moment alone.
~
“Sai!” Hikaru dashed down the street glancing frantically left and right, but there was no sign of his companion anywhere. Passers-by shot curious looks at him, and an elderly lady asked what was wrong, but he didn’t even notice - not that he would have understood her, even if he had.
After running wildly around a while he found himself again at the watchmaker’s. “Sai,” he called once more, but with much diminished fervor. He cursed quietly to himself. Where had that idiot ex-ghost disappeared to? Why did he leave like that, without saying anything?
With an angry shrug Hikaru started walking on. Whatever, he would not play hide-and-seek any longer. He’d do what they’d come here to do - go sightseeing in this curious little town. Sai would surely pop up somewhere, sooner or later. So he set out to take a look on the town, determined to ignore his missing companion.
The first thing to strike him was the people. He hadn’t noticed it before, but they were quite strangely dressed - not that he had been an expert on western clothing, but he would have imagined seeing such clothes rather a hundred years ago than today. Or maybe this was how people dressed in countryside? What did he know.
He noticed he was unwittingly eying the people, trying to spot a high black hat, and, annoyed, he turned his attention to the buildings. This seemed to be a rather typical old European town with beautiful stone houses, rose bushes and well-fended gardens. Not much to see though - a church, some kind of a big school with a beautiful swan fountain in the yard, a small market place and different tiny shops...
He found himself unable to really concentrate on anything. That is, until something unexpected happened that demanded his complete attention.
It wasn’t any big incident, to be honest. A cow simply walked by him on the street. The thing was that the cow walked on its hind legs, wore a pretty blue dress, and had a basket with vegetables hanging on its arm. It - she? - was clearly coming from the market.
Hikaru stopped on his heels and stared after the cow, mouth hanging open. It took him a while to believe his eyes, but then he heard Sai’s voice in his ears... Hikaru, was the bus driver always a monkey?
“You mean... a monkey for real?” he breathed aloud. “What’s going on here?”
He glanced around, suddenly very eager for Sai’s company. A town in which ghosts turned real and cows went shopping... yes, certainly, quite interesting, but he didn’t want to be alone anymore.
No sign of Sai, though. He checked the bus stop - a logical place for a rendezvous - walked here and there on the streets, peeked into shops he thought Sai might find interesting. Nothing.
In the end he stopped, exhausted. “Sai!” he yelled one more time, but he didn’t really expect an answer.
“Sei?” someone said. “Was muss wer sein?”
He looked behind and saw three girls dressed in similar school uniforms. Two of them were watching him with rather suspicious expressions, but the third leaned forward and looked mainly curious.
“Kann ich Ihnen helfen?” the girl asked. She had very red, very long and very wild hair that had been tied on a single pigtail.
Hikaru blinked. “Umh... I... I’m looking for Sai. Sai. That is...” Now, how would he explain this? Maybe the girls had seen Sai - he would certainly stand out even in a weird place like this - but how to ask them? “Ehh...” He placed his fingertips against each other and formed a triangle with his hands. Then he put his hands above his head. “Sai. My friend. With big hat. Hiiiigh hat.” He raised his hands higher. “High. Hat.” What was hat in German?
The girl watched his hands with round eyes, mouth a little open, clearly doing her best to understand, but failing. Her friends were growing impatient and were urging her to move on, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“You know... hat,” Hikaru said and tapped his head. Then he put his hands again upon his head, as if putting a hat on. “A very high one.” He raised his hand as high as he could reach.
Now the two friends had had enough. Another of them said something, and they practically dragged the girl away.
“Sai?” Hikaru could still hear the red-headed girl muttering. “Sai?” He sighed and shrugged, and walked on.
~
“Sai?” Ahiru was still going on when the three reached the Goldenekrone Academy. “What do you think a ‘sai’ could be?”
“Who knows?” Pike said. “What a weird guy.”
“Have you ever seen hair like that?” Lilie continued. “Two-colored? Do you think it’s somehow dyed?”
“Of course it is,” Pike snorted. “Who’d have hair like that naturally?” She glanced at Lilie from the corner of her eye, and saw the dreamy look spreading slowly on the other girl’s face. “Don’t...”
“It was kind of cute, really,” Lilie cut her off. “Do you think he was lost? Maybe we should have helped him... such a mysterious stranger...”
“Cute? Mysterious? Didn’t you just call him creepy a moment ago?”
Lilie protested vehemently, and the two went on with their argument. Ahiru didn’t pay them any attention.
“Sai...” she was still muttering, and placed her hands above her head the way that strange boy had done. “Sai... sa...i...”
They had just reached the dressing room to get ready for their afternoon class when her face suddenly brightened. “Oh, I know!” she exclaimed, and the other two forgot their argument.
“Yes?”
“He had lost his hat!” Ahiru looked at them, beaming.
“Hat?” Pike and Lilie looked at each other somewhat incredulously.
“Yes!” Ahiru went on eagerly. “Sai must mean hat!”
“Then why was he calling it out like that?” Pike asked. “Did he expect the hat to answer?”
Ahiru’s excitement cooled down a little. “Well, maybe... I don’t know, but...”
“Oh, you’re so cute!” Lilie exclaimed happily and pinched her cheek. “Wrong, as always, and so cute.”
“Lilie!” Pike muttered sharply. “Cut it...”
“What?” The other girl turned to look at her, all innocence. “Cut what?”
“I’ll go to change...” Ahiru mumbled and entered the dressing room rubbing her cheek.
“Stop making her depressed!” came Pike’s voice from the corridor.
“Depressed? Me? I just said she’s cute...”
Ahiru sighed and sat down on a bench. As she changed into the practice clothes she was still trying to decipher this mystery of ‘sai’, but in vain.
~
The mystery of Sai was the only thing in Hikaru’s mind as well. He had searched the whole town, parts of it twice, but nowhere was there a trace of Sai. He had checked the restaurant where they had eaten, too, and the waitress had understood his desperate sign language much better than those three girls, but apparently she hadn’t seen Sai since they had left. He had tried to make her understand that if she saw Sai, she’d tell him to wait there, but he wasn’t sure if he had succeeded. At least the waitress had appeared to be quite sympathetic and ready to help, and had offered him a little snack, free.
But now what? He sat down by the fountain near the bus station. Time had passed quite fast as he’d been running around the town - evening had arrived, and the bus would be leaving soon.
He couldn’t leave without Sai. But if they missed this bus, they’d have to spend the night here. At least the ticket would be valid on the next day, too, he’d checked the dates on it. But still...
“Damn you, Sai,” he muttered as he dug out his cell phone. He’d have to call and say he wouldn’t be coming to the hotel tonight, and that he’d miss the games next day, too. How to explain it? The bus had broken? Something like that. It certainly was old enough to fall into pieces any moment.
He opened the phone, chose the number - and found he had no reception. “What the...” He shook the poor phone, as if that would make it function. “Just brilliant.”
“Hallo!”
He looked up and saw the red-haired girl looking curiously down at his cell phone.
“Was ist das?” the girl said.
“What, this?” he raised the phone up. “My phone. Pretty cool, isn’t it? I got it from my parents on my birthday. Hey... you’ve got a better reception somewhere? Or some place where I could make a call?”
As the girl stared at him, clearly not understanding what he meant, he raised the phone to his ear. “Make a call. Here, look.” He pointed at the place where four little pillars should have appeared on the phone’s screen. There were none. “No reception.”
The girl looked at the phone, then at him, then back at the phone. Her expression was one of pure confusion.
“Well, whatever!” Hikaru exclaimed, but right then an engine started, coughed, and, after a few tries, finally started running more or less smoothly. He watched sadly after the bus as it rolled away. “I should be on that,” he said. “I...” he tapped his chest, “Should be there.” He pointed after the bus. “But... no Sai.” He spread his hands helplessly.
“Sai.” The girl said. She burst into a long tirade, during which she pointed toward the bus, then toward Hikaru, then the bus again, and mentioned the word ‘sai’ a few times.
“Yeah, something like that, I guess,” Hikaru said and sighed.
Great. The bus had gone. No sign of Sai. What should he do? Where to spend the night?
“Umm...” he looked up at the girl. “Do you know a hotel? A cheap one. Very cheap one. A... hotel,” he said in English, pronouncing the L carefully. He made a gesture with his hands, as if sleeping, and the girl nodded. She pointed down the street and set on, and Hikaru followed her.
They came to some kind of a hotel, or an inn, a very beautiful one, as all houses in the town, but also a very small one. Hikaru dug out his purse, but it soon became evident that what little money he had with him wasn’t enough even for one night, and they didn’t seem to accept credit cards. The girl argued long with the innkeeper, but fruitlessly. In the end she had to give up, and they left the place.
Hikaru didn’t remember he’d have ever been quite this annoyed with Sai before. Disappearing like that was bad enough, but making them miss the bus... He didn’t want to spend the night on the streets in a strange town, however charming - especially if there were such strange things walking around there.
“Thanks anyway,” he muttered to the girl. “Dan-ke,” he attempted his first word of German.
The girl looked at him, lips in a tight line, grasped his arm and started to drag him onward. His attempts to ask where they were going to were ignored, and soon he saw they were approaching the big school, whatever it was.
They walked by it, but then went through a gate not so far from it. The yard they entered was big and wide, and had - what else? - a fountain in the middle of it. On both sides of it, there were two big buildings.
~
Ahiru walked on, dragging the weird boy with her quite determinedly. She still didn’t understand what was going on, but obviously he needed help. Now, the question was where to put him for the night… Suddenly she let out a little “o!” and started running, fluttering as she went. “Fakir!” she shouted. “Fakir!”
A dark-haired boy who had just been about to enter one of the buildings stopped, glanced behind, and as he saw who was calling him seemed to consider whether to just go on. In the end he did turn to wait for the pair running toward him.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as the two came to a stop.
“This...” Ahiru panted, “this is a friend of mine, and he’s got trouble, because he’s lost ‘sai’ and he didn’t have money for the inn and he was supposed to take the bus - at least I think he was - and he needs a place to spend the night so maybe you could take him to the boys’ dorm?”
Fakir stared at her a moment with an unreadable expression. “Why... would I?”
“Silly!” Ahiru breathed. “It’s not like I could take him to the girls’.”
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Fakir summoned his patience and explained, “No, I meant why would we take him into the dorms at all. It’s against the rules, you know. Or...” he narrowed his eyes a little, “is he somehow connected to...”
“No, no,” Ahiru cut him off hurriedly. “I don’t think he’s in any way connected to anything. But...” She drew a circle on the ground with her toes and looked at him pleadingly. “I don’t know where else to take him...”
“Certainly someone in the town...”
“Please?” Ahiru looked up at him with big, begging eyes, and he groaned, passing his fingers through his hair.
“Well, whatever. It’s not like they were checking our rooms or anything. But you can be sure that if we are caught, I’ll tell them you’re behind this.”
“Thank you so much!” Ahiru smiled brightly at him. “So, it’s all arranged.” She turned to the stranger. “This is... this is... hey, what is your name? I’m Ahiru.” She tapped her chest. “Ahiru.” Then she pointed at Fakir. “Fakir.”
“Shindou Hikaru,” the boy said at the same time as Fakir muttered, “I thought you said he’s your friend... how come you didn’t know his name?”
“Oh, never mind that! Thanks a lot again!” She was already backing away. “Fakir will take care of you,” she said to the stranger and turned to run away, waving her hand. “Good night!” After a short distance she stopped. “Oh, he doesn’t speak any German!” she yelled back at them before dashing off toward the girls’ dormitory.
“Doesn’t speak...” Fakir blinked at the strange boy who was staring after the girl in apparent confusion. “Oh well. Let’s go, then.” He turned around and beckoned with his hand.
Hikaru followed the black-haired boy quite hesitantly. A friend of that girl’s? He seemed a little cold, not the friendliest soul in the town. But... if there was a place to spend the night here (free? That would be great), he wasn’t going to miss it.
They went in - no, rather, sneaked into the big building and from the way they crept along on the corridors he figured that most likely he wasn’t supposed to be there. Perhaps this was the school’s dorm? If that was the case, bringing in outsiders must have been forbidden, and so he tiptoed on as quietly as he could. Finally they arrived to a door. Fakir opened it, pushed him inside, and closed it behind them.
They’d come into a rather fancy room with two big beds, rich carpets and furniture that could have been from some Renaissance castle. Quite a dorm. On another of the beds sat a white-haired boy, who looked at them in surprise. Fakir said something to him, gesturing toward Hikaru. The only word he could understand was ‘Ahiru’, and the general tone sounded somewhat annoyed.
“Umm...” He bowed. “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. Eh... danke.”
Fakir waved his hand dismissively. He sat on his bed, kicked off his shoes and pointed at the floor, saying something. Hikaru figured he meant he’d have to sleep on the floor - made sense, as there were three of them, and only two beds. Not the most comfortable accommodation, but given that it was free, he wasn’t about to start complaining.
The two boys talked some more, and this time Hikaru thought - though he wasn’t sure - that Sai was mentioned. Then the two turned to look at him and Fakir said, inquiringly, “Sai?”
“Well, eh...” Hikaru passed his fingers through his hair and tried think how to explain it. His pantomime wasn’t, overall, very successful. Then he had an idea.
“Do you have pen and paper?” he said. “Pen.” He pretended to be writing.
Fakir got up and took out of a drawer a paper, pen, and... an ink bottle. Hikaru took the pen into his hand - a dip pen, sure enough - and stared at the ink bottle his mind gone blank. Then he looked at Fakir. “Uh...”
Without saying anything he opened the ink bottle, took the pen from Hikaru’s hands, dipped it in the ink, and gave it back to him.
It wasn’t easy to draw with it. Still, Hikaru managed to make some kind of a crude picture of Sai - at least it was kind of a human figure with a tall hat and flowing clothes. Close enough. He pointed at the picture. “Sai.”
Fakir nodded, glanced at his friend, said something and returned to his bed, shrugging. The white-haired boy looked at Hikaru and his picture and shook sadly his head. Hikaru sighed and put the picture into his pocket.
Night arrived, and Hikaru tried to figure out the best place to lie down. On the carpet, surely; at least it’d be a bit softer. As he was trying to make himself comfortable, the white-haired boy - his name apparently was Myuto or something like that, Hikaru wasn’t quite sure - jumped up from his bed and put down the book he’d been reading. He took the blanket from his bed, and then, after a moment’s consideration, took also his pillow and gave them to Hikaru.
“Er, thanks.” He grasped the pillow and the blanket uncertainly. Fakir snorted on his bed and said something that sounded sarcastic. “Are you sure you don’t need this?” Hikaru asked and offered the pillow back, but ‘Myuto’ just waved his hand.
It took Hikaru long to fall asleep that night. Not so much because of the hard floor, but because his mind was much too restless. The more he thought about it, the stranger Sai’s behavior seemed. He could understand Sai was excited, maybe not quite himself, thinking of all that could happen now that he had a body, but staying away so long, even missing the bus... that was weird. Somehow... irresponsible, and irresponsible was one word he never would have used of Sai.
Had he left for good?
That thought squirmed in his stomach unpleasantly.
What if, now that Sai had a body of his own and could, apparently, go where he wanted to... what if he had decided to ditch Hikaru for good, and... and what? Start a go school in the Alps? He almost snorted at the idea.
But then again, when a thousand-year-old ghost suddenly got a body, who knew what he’d do.
Hikaru rolled over and closed his eyes, determined to get some sleep. He’d look for Sai tomorrow. And he would find Sai, somehow.
~
As was stated before, it was never Sai’s intention to stay away for long. Just a moment on his own, that was all he wanted. He walked through the streets where Hikaru would later rush around, frantically searching for him, looked at the windows of some of those stores Hikaru guessed would interest him, but still he didn’t quite enjoy his time. The excitement was slowly giving room to the old anxiety he had felt before.
The truth was that even though he tried not to think of all Hikaru had said, the boy’s words kept on returning to his mind. These days were so different from his time. Back then, it wouldn’t have any problem at all for a stranger to appear in the capital - he might have been poor and with no relations, but still no one would have said he didn’t exist just because he didn’t posses some little plastic card.
He didn’t exist? And if he were to be ‘real’, he would only cause problems for Hikaru?
Between one step and another, the unfairness of it all settled heavily on his shoulders. He was alive again, but would he not be able to use this new life to fulfill his dreams? His steps grew heavier still, and he stopped paying attention to the strange colorful people around him. Without even noticing it, he wandered out of the city. The day passed, turned into a night, and still he walked, lost in the despair, until he came to a small lake. The pale moonshine reflecting on its surface brought back memories of another time filled with despair, and he fell on his knees by the water.
~
Morning came, and Fakir and ‘Myuto’ rose together with the sun. Hikaru rolled into a ball, drew the blanket over his head, and slept on until the two returned. Someone poked his elbow, and when he turned around he saw ‘Myuto’ offering him a piece of bread. Apparently they’d gone for a breakfast, and he’d smuggled something for Hikaru too.
He munched the bread, gulped down the water he was given, and as soon as he was done, Fakir was already ushering him out. They sneaked out the same way they had sneaked in, and, after giving his thanks once again, Hikaru set off again.
Fakir stared after the boy with a frown. What a strange guy. Where had Ahiru found him? And just what was his role in all this? Ahiru claimed he didn’t have anything to do with anything, but - even if she was honest about it - she might be mistaken. He didn’t quite believe in coincidences, and for Tutu to bring someone to him and tell him take care of this stranger... that in itself was enough to make the boy connected, a part of the story.
Yes... there was something peculiar going on, and he was going to find out what. He took a step to go after the boy, to find out more about him and this missing Sai, but a cheerful voice stopped him.
“Morning!” Ahiru came to a stop next to him and looked up at him with a big smile. “So?”
“What do you mean, so?” he muttered. “And how are you awake this early? It is Sunday, after all.”
“Oh...” Ahiru rocked back and forth on her heels. “I thought I should start looking for the heart shards more diligently, now that we’ve come this far. But... how did everything go? Where is he? Did you find out what sai is?”
“Not what, who. Sai seems to be a person. Someone with a really tall black hat. …at least I think that thing was supposed to be some kind of a hat…”
“Really?” Ahiru’s eyes were wide. “So that’s what he was trying to say!”
“Indeed. Now, let’s see...” He walked out of the dormitory’s gate and looked around. “I think he turned right...”
“Who turned right?” Ahiru ran after him as he set on down the street.
“This ‘friend’ of yours. Where did you find him, anyway?”
“Oh, I just ran across him.” Ahiru looked at him curiously. “Are you... following him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why not.” They walked a moment in silence, and then Fakir went on, “Are you following me?”
“Well...”
“I thought you were going to look for the heart shards.”
“Oh!” Ahiru stopped on her heels. “I forgot! But I... would have wanted to see him... but then again... maybe... but if I go... I know! I’ll look for the heart shards and keep and eye out for Sai at the same time!”
“Sounds like a plan. Where are you going to start searching?”
“I don’t know... maybe, if you’re going that way, I might go this way.” She turned abruptly and was off with a wave of her hand, but turned then suddenly back. “Umm, say... how’s Mytho doing?”
“He’s fine. Stayed in our room, reading.”
“So. Great. Well, see you!” Ahiru ran off again, but Fakir didn’t pay much attention to her anymore, having just spotted a yellow-black head some way ahead on the street.
~
Hikaru kept on showing his picture to everyone he passed, but no one seemed to have seen Sai (or then his drawing simply was too bad.) Everything was beginning to feel infuriatingly hopeless, and he began to wonder what he would do in the case he wouldn’t find Sai this day either. He couldn’t stay here any longer, everyone had to be really worried… they’d probably called the cops by now. Mother would never ever let him go anywhere again before he was eighty. He checked the cell phone, but no, it didn’t work now either.
“Stupid Sai,” he muttered, and slumped down on a park bench. Hopeless. He leaned back and watched the sky. It was a beautiful day, and there were only a few cottony clouds floating against the blue. Almost like from a cartoon - he half expected them to have faces. After all, so far he’d ask about Sai from three cats, one donkey and one hippo. Perhaps he should ask clouds next, he thought absentmindedly. They might see much from high up.
A flock of black birds flew across the sky, cawing as they went. Birds, that was another thought. Perhaps he should ask a bird.
A bit farther away Fakir stared intently after the crows. Another flock joined the first one, and they circled over the city. He muttered a quiet oath, and rushed off. The boy and his Sai could wait.
Someone else had noticed that crows, too. Ahiru stood frozen in the middle of a square, and watched them flocking. After a while they scattered, but a few flew by her, cawing meanly as they passed her. She looked around, on the alert. Something was brewing. She fingered the pendant hanging round her neck, and wondered where she was meant to be. Then she noticed some of the crows flying out of the city, and she ran after them.
After spending a long while lying quite lethargically on the bench, Hikaru finally dragged himself up. He’d keep on searching until evening. If he didn’t find Sai, then he didn’t. But he didn’t think of that yet. He went on, stubbornly, walking up and down the streets, until he realized he was leaving the town behind. The small street, or maybe it was a path by now, rather, wound its way through flowering meadows toward a forest. After a short hesitation he went on. Sai liked nature, didn’t he? Maybe he had gone for a walk in the forest and got lost, or something.
As it was, it didn’t take long for Hikaru to get lost.
He didn’t realize it right away. He’d been following the path but gradually it faded away. He didn’t think much of that - it was a nice forest, easy enough to walk in even without a path. He was beginning to feel exited. This was just the kind of place where he might find Sai.
Something fluttered in the treetops. He looked up and saw a black bird. “Hey, bird!” he yelled. “Have you seen Sai? A strange guy with a taaaall black hat?”
The bird looked at him a moment with black eyes before flying away.
Hikaru sighed. Either it was just an ordinary bird, or then it simply didn’t speak Japanese. All things considered, speaking Japanese was a bit too much asked from a bird in a German forest, he had to admit that.
He looked around. There was no sign of Sai, or anyone else what came to that. Perhaps he should turn back.
He did that, and blinked. He’d come from… that direction, right? Most likely. He started walking there, but after a short while came to a stop. Had he passed a big spruce like that on his way? Surely he would have noticed it… He glanced around. The sun had been on his left side… or perhaps behind? He wasn’t quite sure. The more he thought about it, he began to suspect it might have in fact been on his right. He stood there, scratching his head. Then he shrugged. He wouldn’t get anywhere standing here, so it was better to keep on walking. He’d come somewhere, sooner or later.
And so he walked. And walked. And walked. Had he called this forest nice? He was beginning to hate it. It couldn’t be this big… or could it? Who knew, perhaps he was on his way to cross the Alps or something.
Something rustled ahead, and he came to a stop. There was something big approaching him among the trees. A moose? No, it was… it was a horse. With a rider.
Hikaru blinked. He recognized the rider. It was that same boy who had taken him into the dorm. Fakir. And he had a sword by his side.
Hikaru blinked again. He had a rather unreal feeling, as if he had stepped into some strange fairytale, one that he did not know.
“Um,” he said. Fakir glared at him on his horse and said something.
“Sorry,” Hikaru said. “I still haven’t learned German. But… I’m kinda lost. Which way is the town?” He pointed onward. “That way? Or this way?” He pointed back. Then he shrugged and spread helplessly his arms. “Which way?”
Fakir pointed to his right and said something quite sharply. Then he spurred his horse on and went on his way. Hikaru watched after him a while. Then he decided that it was none of his business, and left to the direction Fakir had pointed at.
~
Fakir shook his head angrily as he rode on. What on earth was that boy doing here? But he didn’t have time to worry of such things now. The crows were on the move, and their activity seemed to center on this forest. Now, if he only knew what here was calling their attention.
He rode through the forest, examining it carefully, but saw nothing out of ordinary - which in itself, he mused to himself, was out of ordinary for this place. It was a long while later when he saw something moving among the trees. He stopped his horse and waited hand on the sword hilt, only to find himself again face to face with the strange-haired boy.
“I don’t believe this!” he exclaimed. “Why are you here? I told you to go that way!” He pointed to the direction from which the boy was coming.
The boy looked behind, then back to him with a confused expression. He pointed to the opposite direction and said something hesitantly.
Fakir shook his head in exasperation. “Don’t you have any kind of a sense of direction whatsoever?” he muttered. “Look, I’ve no time to babysit you. There’s something going on here, and…” He fell silent and stared at the boy through slit eyes. Whatever Ahiru said, this boy had to be somehow connected to everything. The likelihood of them running into each other twice like this was otherwise quite small.
“Look,” he said, “maybe you’d better come with me.” He waved invitingly with his hand, and the boy followed him, still with quite hesitant air.
~
Ahiru too had wandered long in this forest. She didn’t worry about such things as getting lost, or doing things systematically. She just went on, here and there, and trusted sooner or later to find the correct place. If only there had been fewer crows around. Otherwise it would have been a nice day to walk around in this nice forest (she thought she should come there some day with her friends and a picnic basket), but the crows made her nervous.
Finally her steps took her to the shore of a lake, and she frowned. She would have thought she knew all the lakes and ponds in this area, but she hadn’t had a clue there was one here. It was a rather nice lake, though there was something melancholic in the mist that floated on its surface, even in the bright day.
Suddenly she noticed something and gave a start. Then she clapped her hands joyfully. “Sai!” she exclaimed. “I found Sai!”
Sure enough, there was someone wearing a tall black had standing in the water near the shore. Ahiru frowned. In the water? Why? He was wearing strange long clothes, and they were getting all wet. She was about to yell out at him to get his attention, when the pendant on her neck started to shine.
“What?” She touched it, surprised. “Him? Does he have a heart shard?”
~
Sai stared at the clear water in front of him. It was cool and gentle, promising oblivion. And right now, that was all he wanted. He didn’t belong to this time, he had no place here. His days, his people were long gone, and so should he have been. He took another slow step, and felt the water rise to his knees.
“Wait!” came a shout from the shore, but he didn’t turn to look. “Where are you going to? Listen, you have something that does not belong to you. You’d be happier without it.”
That made him stop. “Happier? I doubt I could ever be happy again…” he muttered and glanced behind. The sight on the shore made him freeze, and he almost forgot his despair.
A young red-haired girl stood there, in a white dress the like of which Sai had never seen before. It left her arms and shoulders bare, and legs as well, forming a wide white cloud round her hips.
“What…”
The girl smiled and reached her hand out to him. “Come. Someone is looking for you. He’s very worried, you should go back to him.”
He shook his head slowly. Looked at the water. “No,” he said quietly. “I have… no reason to go back.”
He turned his back to the girl and took another step into the water.
“Hold on!” Suddenly the girl stood in front of him, tiptoeing in a strange way on the very top of her toes. Looking at the weird way she moved, it took Sai a moment to realize that she was in fact standing on the water.
He looked up at her again in amazement. She had blue, very gentle eyes, and they smiled at him. “Come,” she said and offered him a hand. “Dance with me.”
“Wah?” He stared at the hand. “I… don’t dance. I’m a go player, not…”
“Come.” She took his hand and drew him up from the water. “There is pain in your heart, but it’s not all yours. You should give it away.”
“No,” Sai muttered, still resisting her pull, and she swirled around him. “What would you know of it? I have nothing, no reason…”
“No reason to go back? Certainly that isn’t true. You said you’re a go player. Don’t you ever wish to play again?”
Sai gave a start and his eyes widened a little. “I…” The Hand of God. He hadn’t still reached the Hand of God.
“And what of the boy who is looking for you? Come, come now. You have people who care about you.”
Sai swallowed, staring at her wide, sky blue eyes, and this time he let her to pull him into a dance.
~
Hikaru scrambled after the riding boy as fast as he could. Now, as far he could tell, Fakir had told him to follow. It would have been considerate of him to take into account that Hikaru didn’t have a horse. The boy glared daggers at the rider’s back, and, not looking where he was going, stumbled on a tree root. He cursed, and Fakir glanced behind, but didn’t slow down.
“Where are we going to?” Hikaru muttered to himself. What was he doing, running around in the forest after this weirdo, anyway? As if this would help him to find Sai…
Fakir had stopped, and Hikaru almost ran into his horse. “What now?” he asked, annoyed. “Why did you stop like th…” The words died on his lips. There was a small lake in front of them. And…
Sai was there. Dancing. Above the lake’s water. With a girl in a ballerina costume. Now he knew he was dreaming.
As he stared, mouth hanging open, the two on the lake came to a stop. He saw something red glisten on Sai’s chest, and… it looked as if someone stepped out of him. A boy dressed in red. The red-clad boy turned to the ballerina who reached out her hands, and suddenly the boy disappeared. There was something red shining in her hands.
Hikaru rubbed her eyes. Then he realized that Fakir was moving again, and saw that Sai had somehow returned to the shore and lay there slumped on the ground.
“Sai!” he shouted and was about to start running, when a flock of crows suddenly flew by him. They rushed straight at the girl who pressed the shining red thing against her chest. “You won’t get this one!” he heard her yell. The crows attacked her, and suddenly among them stood another ballerina, this one dressed in black. Fakir spurred his horse onward, sword bare in his hand, yelling something that sounded like “Kraehe!”
Hikaru blinked. Leaned against a tree trunk and watched how the boy attacked the flock of crows swinging his sword here and there. They dispersed, the black-clad ballerina disappeared, and suddenly everything was so quiet it was almost deafening.
It took him a long moment to gain enough trust in his legs to leave the support of the tree and rush to Sai. The ghost… man… whatever he was, was slowly trying to get up.
“Sai!” Hikaru yelled and ran to his side. “Are you alright?”
“Hikaru?” Sai gave him a confused look. “I… think so. What happened?”
“You’re asking me? What’s going on here!?” He hugged Sai quite fervently. “Don’t you ever disappear like that again…” He muttered against his chest.
Sai patted his back a little awkwardly. “I’m sorry, Hikaru, I didn’t mean to… disappear? Did I disappear?” He blinked in confusion.
Fakir gave the two a long look. “So that’s Sai,” he said to Princess Tutu. “What a strange costume.”
“I think it’s pretty,” Tutu said with a smile. She was still clutching the heart shard strongly in her hands. “You came at a good time. Thanks.”
Fakir shrugged it off. “What is it this time?”
“Despair.” She sighed. “I wish I could find him happier emotions…”
“They’re all needed, in the end.”
“I guess.” Tutu gave a quick smile at the strangers who had turned to watch her in wonder. She curtseyed, ballerina style. “Good bye. I need to be going now.” And she jumped into the forest and was gone.
“I guess we should be going too,” Fakir said. “Come.” He snapped his fingers at the two who were still staring after Tutu. “Hey, wake up. Let’s go back.”
The three of them returned slowly to the town. Hikaru and Sai followed Fakir without a word, both of them feeling as if they were waking up from a long dream. Once they came to the town, the black-haired boy parted from them with a wave of his hand. Hikaru and Sai were left standing in a street corner.
“So,” Hikaru said but didn’t know how to continue.
“This is quite weird,” Sai stated after a while. “I take it some time has passed?”
“Yeah. We came here yesterday. And I haven’t been able to contact anyone… they don’t have a clue where I am.”
Sai looked a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“I know you didn’t,” Hikaru cut him off. “It’s fine. We can take the bus back today, it’s not a problem. We should try to think how to explain everything once we get back. There has to be a way to get you back to Japan, somehow.”
“I have a feeling that this might not be permanent,” Sai said a little sadly. “This is such a strange little town… but who knows what happens once we leave.”
“Yeah, well…” Hikaru ran his fingers through his hair. “Damn. In that case, I can’t use you as my excuse for disappearing.” He grinned. “Here I thought you’d be the perfect distraction - everyone would forget about me once I’d place you in front of a go board. Now I just need to face it all on my own.”
“I’ll be by your side,” Sai stated firmly, and Hikaru rolled his eyes.
“Much it helps…” he started to mutter, but then he saw someone running toward them. “Hey!” he yelled and waved. “Ahiru!”
“You know this girl?” Sai asked as Ahiru came to them. He frowned. “She seems familiar…”
“Yeah, she’s been helping me,” Hikaru said at the same time as Ahiru pointed at Sai and asked, “Sai?”
“Yep.” Hikaru nodded. “This is Ahiru,” he said to Sai. “And this is Fujiwara no Sai.”
The girl grinned, hands clutched behind her back. “Sai!” she said happily.
Sai bowed. “Nice to meet you.”
They walked into the town again, this time planning to enjoy their visit with their energetic guide to the last minute before the bus would carry them again back to the normal world.
THE END
I didn’t have a clue where this story was going to when I started writing it. All I had was “Hikaru and Sai go to the Gold Crown Town and Sai turns real.” And it’s ages since I watched Princess Tutu… I’m sorry if I remembered something wrong. …now I want to rewatch it, really…
And pardon my German. xD