[Glasser]
by onkoona
part one
Once Upon A Time, Part 2
"Dinner" consisted of sandwiches that Hikaru was very relieved to find in his fridge. Apparently in this version of his life, he still went down to the corner store every few days also, to stock up on sandwiches and fruit drinks. They were a guarantee that he'd have something to eat any time he wanted it and could grab food easily on the way out. The fact that he now had to go out on assignment and not to a Go client wouldn't make any difference. Oh god, he'd have figure out how to do his job soon! Arg!
He distracted himself from the problem by 'serving' dinner. He tore off the plastic wrappers and plunked two sandwiches each on plates and put both plates on the glass coffee table. He went back for a bottle of orange drink, two glasses and as an afterthought grabbed some paper napkins as well. He had a guest now, he really should behave accordingly.
He poured out the fruit drink and set one of the glasses next to the plate nearest Sai, who looked up questioningly. His own he put on the shelf next to the couch. He sat down and retrieved his plate from the table, sitting it in his lap. He gave a Sai an inviting nod and picked up his own ham and cheese sandwich in both hands and proceeded to bite a great chunk out of it.
All the while Sai had been watching in amazement. But after Hikaru had apparently not choked on his huge bite, Sai attempted to do as invited.
Hikaru nearly spit out his sandwich twice with laughter just watching Sai trying to eat with those sleeves; it was truly comical! Then he decided not to let the poor guy suffer on and he told him to take off his Kariginu. Sai looked shocked at the suggestion, but Hikaru insisted. Those clothes had to go sooner or later anyway; there was no way Hikaru was hanging out with anyone dressed like that on a daily basis; it had been bad enough before when Sai had been a ghost and no-one but Hikaru could see him, but now he could easily trip over that train! And anyway, the silk may have been fine once, but now it was just dirty, so at the very least it needed to go in the wash.
But at Sai's upset look, Hikaru let him keep his clothes. And also because Sai seemed to have found a solution to the problem by himself; he had folded over the 'cuffs' of his sleeves, picked up the egg sandwich and ate it close to his mouth so the sleeves could not fall back down. Good enough, Hikaru thought.
After the sandwiches and the drinks were gone, Sai immediately asked for another game. Hikaru glanced at the clock; 9:45 pm. He knew he had a lot of research to do before he'd be able to his job. There was no way he could afford to lose his job now that he had two mouths to feed and owed all that money to the Time Team.
So he figured what the very first question was: when did his job start? As he didn't know, he had to play it safe and assume it would be tomorrow morning, bright and early. That thought made him cringe; he was never much of a morning person.
'Sir?' came a whisper.
'Don't call me that,' Hikaru gave back without thought.
'Uh. What, in my humbleness, may I call you then?' Sai asked. Hikaru looked up at the hint of exasperation in the Heian Noble's speech. Oh, great; now we're both miffed.
'Call me Hikaru,' was Hikaru's brisk rejoinder. To this Sai smiled and all of Hikaru's thoughts of annoyance towards his friend evaporated; this was what he had wanted to have again!
'Hikaru-sama, wouldst thou condescend to play me again?' Sai ventured. Did he have to use "-sama"? Should he correct that? Nah, not right now; pick your battles, Hikaru thought to himself. So back to the question: would he like to play? Oh yes! But Hikaru knew he needed to get to know his new life and fast! So he declined, sympathizing with the disappointment that was clearly written on the handsome face.
It did bring to mind what Sai was going to be doing while Hikaru was working tonight. Ghostly Sai had spent hours sitting absolutely still while Hikaru had been at school or had done homework. While that was well and good for a ghost, it was not right for a living person! And anyway, Sai had always been happiest doing something Go related, like read Go Weekly and books with Kifu. Hikaru could easily let this Sai read his Go books, after all, he would be able to turn the pages himself now.
In his enthusiasm he turned around on the couch to face his bookcase. And found - apart from his old school books - not a single familiar book. There were a lot of photo books and 'how to take a great picture' kinda books. Also a few slim books on developing writing skills, urg! This was not good; there was just noth-. Hold on, there is on the lower shelve behind the couch; definitely the Kanji for Go.
Hikaru managed to wedge the book out from behind the couch. "Edo style Go" it said. Perfect! As he flipped open the old fashioned hardcover, the spine creaked with age and disuse. Dust wafted into his face. He flipped through the first few pages to find the date. There on the page opposite the tile page it said (c)1957. Great, a really old book. He was about to close it and pass it over to Sai when he spied some handwriting on the next page: "A fair win I'll admit, Inoue Rintaro." Hey, wasn't that that guy that Gramps beat at Go, way back when? The book is sure old enough. So this was Gramps' book, Hikaru guessed.
Gramps had died a few years ago and in Hikaru's original life he had left him his Go books and his Goban. The Goban that they had just been playing on, Hikaru suddenly realized. He looked at it, to confirm his thought and yes, it was that Goban. Apparently in this reality, Gramps had also left him his Go stuff, even though here Hikaru hadn't become a Pro player. Had he at least played Gramps? He did hope so as he sent a thought of his grandfather up to heaven. Thank you, Gramps, for providing these things when I need them.
'You read this, while I get some work done,' Hikaru said as passed the book over. Sai solemnly accepted, bowed, opened it reverently and started reading.
OOOO
Hikaru he had gotten incredibly lucky; he found simple books on photography, a company book from the Asagohan Shinbun detailing every part of the company with a extra booklet on the dos and don'ts of photo reporting and a complete job description. In his computer - after he had deduced the password and no, it was not "Fujiwara" - he found that he did most business with his employers by e-mail - on the computer and on his mobile - which he studied at length.
He was very relieved to find that he had the next day off. Apparently he had Wednesdays and Thursdays off, if he wasn't recalled for special events. He started praying he'd not be recalled tomorrow; he needed every second from now on.
OOOO
After some hours of work - and not a peep out of Sai, except the clacking of Go stones on the board - Hikaru decided to call it quits for that night.
It quickly turned out that Hikaru had not for a moment realized that a simple thing like going to bed could cause so many difficulties. He decide to start by getting Sai undressed but then it became clear that showing him how to use the toilet facilities first was a much higher priority.
Hikaru found he had to teach Sai the simplest things. Not only how to use the modern amenity but also that he should wash his hands after and how to use the soap. Apparently Sai had never seen soap. How can a person have hair like that and not use soap? True, Sai had been smelly when Hikaru had nabbed him - not that Hikaru was much of a clean freak himself - but Hikaru had assumed that that had been because Sai had been wandering around the woods for two days straight. Now he was not so sure.
Next came undressing and showering, it really couldn't be put off any longer. Hikaru turned on the shower for Sai, gave him a towel and left him to it. But when, after 10 minutes, no bathing sounds came out of the small bathroom, he went in the check.
Sai was standing in the fogged up room, looking forlorn. It was not a look that Hikaru liked to see on Sai's face
'What's up?' Hikaru asked.
At the sound of Hikaru's voice, Sai went down on his knees and bowed. 'Hikaru-sama,' he said and then fell silent.
Hikaru looked down at the Heian Noble, trying to work out the problem. It was then that he saw that Sai had slipped his arms out of his sleeves as if to get out of his clothing via that route. Did that mean that Sai couldn't undress himself?
Suddenly Hikaru realized that was it. Of course Sai couldn't undress himself; he had been a Noble in an Imperial Palace, with servants to do every least little thing for him, at any time of the day or night. As a ghost Sai hadn't had to dress or undress either. Nor wash, nor eat, nor sleep. But this Sai did and the poor guy didn't seem to know how!
Hikaru decided not to make big production out of it. He told Sai to get up and efficiently helped him out of his Heian clothing. It was all held together with belts and ties, some of which had gotten quite tangled, but Hikaru just kept at until they surrendered to him in the end. He only paused when he was confronted with Sai's underwear.
C'mon Hikaru, what had you expected? Boxers? Briefs? What was staring him in the face was an actual loincloth; a strip of material twisted into a cloth rope with a loop at the end, wrapped around the waist then threaded though the loop at the back, coming down between the legs where the strip was flattened out to catch the necessary before being draped upwards and tucked into the cloth rope at the waist.
Hikaru had Sai turn around so he could undo the knot on the loop; he did know that that was not the way of removing it, but right now he couldn't quite face what he'd see if he started at the front. And anyway, he didn't want Sai wearing impractical undies like these!
He left Sai with the knot undone and told him to hurry. He quickly got out of the bathroom, taking Sai's pile of silk with him, not in the least to hide is burning face. He busied himself converting the couch to a bed and got out PJs for himself and, uh, what should he get Sai? They wouldn't have had pajamas in the Heian Period, Hikaru felt sure, so what else? A kimono probably. Ah! He still some Yukata Kimono from the last few summers. Or he did in the other world any way...
A quick check yielded two cotton Yukata. Hikaru was unsure if these were the same ones he's gotten originally; his friends had always accused him of having no memory for clothing and that sort of thing. But it really didn't much matter what they looked like, as long as he had some. He picked the one with the big yellow flowers and put it inside the bathroom on the sink, calling out to Sai to wear it, over the sound of the still running shower.
When he came back to the living/bedroom he checked over the place and noticed a glaring omission; a bed for Sai. Hurriedly he grabbed the guest bedding out of his built in wardrobe and spread it out on the floor. Hikaru had never had many guests over, usually only Waya, 'cause Isumi liked to sleep in his own bed.
The thought made Hikaru drop the bedding from suddenly numb fingers. Waya. Isumi. Nase. Even bloody Touya! Would he still know any of them in this reality?
He tripped over the bedding in his haste to get to his phone. Sprawled on his front on the soft quilt he could just reach his phone. Quickly scrolling down his contact list gave him the bad news. No numbers for Isumi, Nase or Touya. But there was an entry for Waya with an added footnote "Nice dude, willing to do interviews. No good for photos. Great Go."
Intense relief washed over him; his other self knew Waya. Maybe not well, but it appeared they had at least played together and Hikaru could always get reacquainted with him! As for Isumi and the others, Hikaru fully intended to be a Pro again as soon as the exams came around, so he's meet all of them again then. And Hikaru truly looked forward to playing Touya Akira at pro level, 'cause, no matter how different the reality, he just couldn't picture Touya being anything other than a Go Pro!
He closed the phone, set it aside and got up to rescue Sai from the shower.
OOOO
Hikaru had a bad night that night. A hundred thousand questions kept circling around his head, all demanding answers right NOW. At about 3 am he just gave up. He slipped out of bed and tiptoed around a deeply sleeping Sai on the way to his laptop.
Once there he indulged in looking up anyone he had ever know. Waya and Isumi were doing well, 5- and 4-dan respectively. Nase had passed the Pro Exam 3 years ago and was still a 1-dan. Even Fuku had passed the exam. Touya was, quite expectedly, doing great; he had made it to the challenger's position on the Meijin Tournament, earning him an automatic 7-dan status. But oddly enough he held no titles and the Meijin Tournament was the only one he entered in, it seemed. It did look like Touya really only wanted that title and no other. Out of curiosity Hikaru checked who was the current title holder and got a bit of a shock; it was Touya Kouyo, Touya's dad.
Further internet surfing of Touya Kouyo revealed that the man who had held 5 titles all at one time had never officially retired, but instead had elected to only defend the Meijin title. He successfully prolonged it for the past 13 years. And Touya Akira had reached the final challenge three times already, but had as yet not been able to beat his dad.
Hikaru was not surprised at all; Touya Meijin was really incredibly strong and he had years of experience on Touya Akira. Hikaru glanced over to where Sai still slept in the darkened room. No, Sai was supposed to be the Meijin's true rival and Akira was supposed to be Hikaru's. Hikaru knew that with taking Sai out of history, Sai had missed becoming Touya Kouyo's rival and Hikaru had fallen horribly behind on his rivalry with Touya. But he vowed that he would make up the distance as soon as he possibly could!
OOOO
The next day was pretty hectic. Hikaru pretty quickly realized that Sai had nothing to wear. He couldn't wear Hikaru's stuff 'cause Sai had longer legs and a much narrower waist. He was also too thin and Hikaru intended to make sure that Sai'd be eating plenty until that underfed look disappeared.
The first order of business was shopping for clothes. Then the first item became second as, when dressing Sai in both Yukatas - one just wasn't warm enough for that time of year - they ran into 'the hair problem'.
It turned out that at the Heian Court, a servant would comb out Sai's hair every morning. This would take an hour and a half, but only if it hadn't been over 3 days with considerable time spent in the woods. No, now it would need a lot more work, much to Hikaru's shock. Well, that was something Hikaru just wouldn't be having the time for, what with trying to not lose his job! But, on the other hand the only other thing they could do was cut the hair off and that was, to both of them, an 'over my dead body' kinda thing.
In the end Hikaru used pieces of string to tie the untidy hair together at intervals all along its length and he used his laptop to find the address of a hairdresser specialized in traditional and Geisha hairstyles, in a shopping center not too far away, that had lots of clothing outlets too.
Once at the 1980's style shopping mall, Hikaru was very glad he'd brought his camera and the camera manual, because fixing Sai's hair took over three hours. Hikaru spent that time going around the mall, taking as many different pictures as he could, working out how the camera worked. When he scrolled though his results, he did feel he had learned something about photography that day. He just hoped it would be enough to keep his job tomorrow.
OOOO
When he returned to the hairdresser's he saw Sai was surrounded by ladies of all ages that were, well, doing the fawning fan-girl thing, really. Hikaru felt a cold stab of jealousy; Sai was his! He couldn't stop himself from calling out 'Sai!' The sound drew Sai's attention and once again Hikaru nearly melted when Sai's warm smile was directed at him.
'Hikaru-sama, thou art back! Observe what Mama-san hath created.' Sai turned his head and eased his hair, now perfectly smooth and shiny and caught in a long braid, over his should to pool in his lap, in wide sensuous loops.
At that moment Hikaru was so indescribably glad that he'd never seriously contemplated cutting this beautiful hair. It would have been a sin; the kind that made you end up in hell. And now he felt saved, because Sai looked so good in his purple Yukata with the white firework's burst, his Geta and the long long hair, all neat and fresh, talking animatedly to his adoring fans of the day.
Hikaru had clung to the image of Sai in his Heian outfit, with hat and miles of sleeves for 11 years, but now he saw a different Sai, who not only looked differently but talked differently - oh, help! - and whose Go was different too. Hikaru suddenly found he didn't miss the old Sai quite so much at this instance as he had before. And Hikaru's body, well, it wasn't disappointed in what it saw, no, not at all.
OOOO
After having to shell out more than Hikaru had even spent at a hairdresser's in his life and having been loaded down with some hair care products and much advice, Hikaru took Sai clothes shopping.
This turned out to be both a frustrating and entertaining event, as Sai unerring zoomed in on the most colorful and most inappropriate garments in each shop. With childish glee he went around one store's bride's maids dress department, touching all the widest pure silk A-line strapless gowns. And it wasn't until the sale's clerk realized that Sai was a man that Hikaru took him up one floor to the male section, to prevent them from getting booted out of the store all together.
Hikaru had never been one for big clothing stores; he was more likely to get everything for the year in one small store. But going around this mall with Sai was a blast and Hikaru only felt a little guilty when he realized he really enjoyed dressing Sai up, almost like a fashion doll.
Hikaru did manage to behave and he made Sai behave too - even if the Heian Noble put on his best pout when being denied to try on one of the campier unisex outfits - and they came away with a complete wardrobe, underclothes, socks, shoes and all, for about ¥20,000.
OOOO
After they arrived back home, Hikaru gave Sai the Go books he'd bought when wandering around the mall. Sai wanted to play, of course, but Hikaru felt he needed to do more work on his job, so he called the local ramen take away for two meals and went to work while Sai quietly played out the games in the "Go institute Tournament games 1978-1999" book. Hikaru had particularly picked that book out at the mall, because it had the most Kifu in it from any book he had known in his own reality. Doubtlessly that was why Sai was started on it first, over the other two that Hikaru also had bought him.
Hikaru loaded today's pictures off the camera and started sorting them. One of the books that the other Hikaru had used most - seeing it's dog eared state - had recommended to take lots of pictures and then keep comparing them for best compositions, best technical - well enough lit, in focus, etc. - and best story content. It also said that the story content really was the most important. So Hikaru set himself the task of learning that. Or at least as much of that as he could; he wasn't dumb enough to suppose that he'd be able to learn that in a day. But on the upside, his other self had learned it well enough to keep his job for 7 years, so he knew it could be done. For now Hikaru only aimed to know enough so he wouldn't get canned on his first working day!
OOOO
Before he knew it, it was past midnight and Hikaru had a 8 am wake-up call to look forward to. That combined with last night's lack of sleep made him call it a night.
As he had the day before, Hikaru had made Sai shower again that night. Hikaru himself was a 'quick shower to wake up in the morning' kinda person, so the arrangement made so much sense to him, this way there's be no bathroom cue in the mornings. It wasn't like Sai was complaining.
In fact, apart from requesting Go games, Sai hadn't asked for anything at all, nor had he refused anything that Hikaru had asked of him so far. As Hikaru lay in his bed he gave the matter some thought.
Sai the ghost had been much the same as this Sai. He too had only asked to play Go and deferred to Hikaru in everything else. After Sai had disappeared, Hikaru had thought the ghost had acted like that because he was a ghost and was doomed to walk the earth until his mission was fulfilled. A mission that Hikaru had for a long time had thought was achieving the Hand of God, whatever that was.
But a year or so after Sai departure and after Hikaru had met the Heian ghost in that dream; Hikaru had realized it had more a case of passing on the torch. Since then Hikaru had tried to do just that; show the world Sai's brilliance to the best of Hikaru's abilities.
And it had worked too, or as much as it was possible for it to work. Hikaru did very well in the world of Go, with a high dan level and two titles that he managed to hold on to. But somehow it hadn't been altogether fulfilling and he felt he only could bring half the message across. Somehow an essential part of him was missing.
Hikaru turned his head and looked over the sleeping bundle on the floor.
He realized he'd made a very chancy bet by nabbing Sai from his own time. But even with the loss of his Go career and all of his Go friends, Hikaru could not feel sorry he had retrieved Sai. He did his best not to show it but his love for Sai, this living Sai, had grown today. And he felt that having him here would fill that hole in his heart quite nicely.
He turned his head and looked at the stark white ceiling that glowed with the little light it reflected from the street lights outside.
Of course losing all that lovely title money had been hard, but if Hikaru was honest with himself, in the original time line, apart from that one helicopter ride, he hadn't actually done anything with the money other than bank it. It wasn't that Hikaru was stingy or miserly, it was just that wherever he went and whatever he did, he felt it would have been more fun if he could have amazed Sai with the experience.
And so he had stopped doing these non-Go things altogether and had concentrated on his Go career instead. And that had been no hardship either; Go was a lot of fun, if a bit serious when playing in the Oteai or the Tournaments. So he'd played a lot with his friends also.
Hikaru knew he tended to have phases; for months he would play Touya every day, just to build up the rivalry and then he would hang out with the former Insei crowd for another few months, haunting shady Go clubs or cheesy bowling alleys and Karaoke clubs. And then there were the Black Days, where he only came out of his room for official Go business and spend his nights reminiscing about the Good Old Days when Sai was still there.
It had been after a Black Days bout of over two weeks that Isumi had broken down Hikaru's door - verbally, not actually, thank goodness - that Hikaru had sought some professional help and ended up at that grief councilor's office.
Going there had helped, if not terribly much. But at the very least Hikaru had realized that he really shouldn't indulge himself into that kinda behavior and since then he had done his best to only have two or three Black Days in a row.
Hikaru sighed deeply. The ceiling was still white. As it had been an hour ago, or how ever long it had been; he wasn't interested enough in the time to move his head to look at the clock. Clock. Tick tock, goes the clock. Ping goes the Bell. Ah, what a dumb thought to have, Hikaru thought. Go to sleep, stupid! Then he felt his quilt shift and being lifted.
'If thou wouldst allow it, my weary self would join thee, for the night is cool and the ground quite cold,' Sai whispered close to Hikaru's ear before slipping under Hikaru's quilt and curling into his side, the long haired head coming to rest comfortably on Hikaru shoulder.
Hikaru for the life of him couldn't think of anything to say and he found he could do nothing other than wrap the arm that Sai was lying on around the Heian Noble's waist and pull him tighter to his side.
As the bed warmed up with the extra body in it, Hikaru's contemplation of the ceiling was discontinued in favor of deep peaceful sleep.
OOOO
There is nothing worse in the world than the alarm clock waking you out of sweet dreams. Well, maybe there was something worse. How about being the person who was underneath a Heian Noble who had no clue about modern alarm clocks and who had a fit when one went off, right next to his head.
Hikaru solved the situation by grabbing Sai by his waist and pulling his down with one arm while he killed the alarm with the other. The both lay panting from the sudden exertion for about a minute before Hikaru decided it was time to brave the day.
Thankfully that was as exciting as that morning got, the rest was just the collection of actions that one usually does to start a day.
OOOO
Hikaru hadn't been able come up with a better plan than to just lock up Sai in the apartment while he had to go to work. He'd made sure that Sai had enough to drink and that he knew how to get the sandwiches out of the fridge - and not forget to close the fridge door - and had provided him with enough Go books to keep him busy and out of mischief for the day. All very safe and secure. But it really didn't sit right with Hikaru that he had basically treated Sai as his pet cat - complete with water bowl and cat toys - and he promised himself and Sai he'd think of a better solution ASAP.
Work, that day, was a photo reportage of the new head building of the Katsumoto company first and photos and a report on the Kendo competition at Hamaci High School that afternoon. Hikaru had packed a map of Tokyo, his laptop, his camera of course and a few books that had looked most promising to help him in his job.
As a fist job, the Katsumoto building was a very good choice. While Hikaru had mostly photographed people in the mall the day before and therefore was not very prepared for this job, he had hours to get acquainted with the subject and the possibilities of take some good pics. He had packed a book on the subject and after the doorman had let him in - Hikaru reminded himself to wear his press ID clipped to his jacket at all times from now on - he pretty much had the run of the building - provided he didn't disturb the employees.
All in all he managed to take over a hundred pictures, which he intended to reduce down to the five he had to e-mail in by 1 pm.
The Kendo competition at the high school was great. Hikaru, in his original time line, had not been to a school that had had a Kendo club. And he had left school altogether at age 15, so before ever entering senior high or collage, so he hadn't even had any chance to attend Kendo events as a spectator. It was a new world for him really.
Kendo was wonderful to watch but a bit hard on the ears as it involved a lot of shouting. Hikaru, just to be safe, took over 300 pictures. He was very worried that a lot might fail because of the soft lighting and he wouldn't really be able to tell until he saw the pics properly on his laptop.
As he sat in a cafe two hours later, he realized he had been right to take so many; the lack of light and the fast motions of the contestants had yielded only very few acceptable pictures and really only one that Hikaru was actually happy with. He sent in those few and hoped for the best.
Hikaru also had to report on this event and he had read the Asagohan Shinbun instruction booklet's section on reporting very carefully. It had warned that all names must be mentioned correctly or people will be angry. And they had to be spelled with the right Kanji or again people will be cross. On the positive side Hikaru had learned from the book that his job was not actually to write a newspaper article - he had been very worried about that, 'cause he'd never been any good at that sort of thing! No, all he had to do was give the writing department as much information on the event as possible and they'd write it up into a proper story. He did so as well as he could and added a photograph - not having a scanner on hand - of the leaflet with the names of the contestants, with Hikaru's own notes on who had won from whom and by how many points.
The last item of the day was reporting back in person to the newspaper's head office before 5:30 pm.
After he'd survived his meeting with his boss Hikaru took a vacant chair next to the coffee machine in the 'reporter lounge' - a glorified storage room without windows, but with a tap and sink, rickety old fridge, many mismatching chairs, a huge wonky central table and cupboards full of coffee supplies and sweets. He rested his head back against the wall, rocking his chair on its hind legs, waiting for the coffee machine to go 'ding!'
Survive. Yeah, he had survived the meeting as in he had not been outright fired. He had been yelled at though. And 'severely reprimanded'. Hikaru was very sure of that part, 'cause the red faced man had yelled that at least seven times at him. Oh H, Hikaru just knew he was going to get fired tomorrow for sure.
'Hey, Shindou!' a cheery voice came from the direction of the door. Hikaru brought his gaze back down from the ceiling - letting his chair land back on all of its four legs with a clank - and looked at the owner of the voice. The man was a chubby bloke, taller that Hikaru himself, about Hikaru's age, with hair just long enough to be able to be messy, which it was, toting an impressive camera with a long lens in his hand and a heavily padded black photo equipment bag on his shoulder. Hikaru's eyes quickly read the man's ID that hung from his neck: Maeda Sora, Photo Reporter, with the Asagohan Shinbun logo next to it, just the same as Hikaru's own.
'Hey, Maeda,' Hikaru gave back the same greeting, just to be safe; this dude sounded he knew the Hikaru of this time line, better be very careful now.
'Had your chewing out yet?' The question shocked Hikaru, how did this guy know about that? But before Hikaru could think up a good answer, the coffee machine chimed. 'Ah, coffee!' Maeda said and almost made a dive for the machine. The man took two mugs off the dry rack next to the sink and poured two generous cups. He passed one to Hikaru and inhaled the vapors of his own before saying, 'Ah, now that is what a person needs before facing the firing squad.'
Neither Maeda, nor Hikaru, had a chance to actually drink anything before the lounge door opened and the Boss, Tanaka-san, stuck his head inside and yelled, 'Maeda! My office! NOW!'
Maeda gave Hikaru a shrugging look, which Hikaru returned, being blocked from his boss's view by Maeda's broad frame and therefore not in danger of getting yelled at for it. The photo reported parked his undrunken coffee on the kitchenette's counter and quickly left, following his boss to his doom.
Maeda had forgotten to close the door. Hikaru let the boss's yelling at Maede - and the taste of the strong warm coffee - ease his nerves; at least he wasn't the only one who got picked on.
OOOO
Hikaru got home as soon as he could, but it was still 6:30 and after dark when he finally came through the door. The apartment was dark and Hikaru started to worry that Sai might have somehow left. Not that was possible of course, 'cause Hikaru was sure he'd locked the apartment properly. He quickly switched on the overhead lights and scanned the room.
He found Sai's eyes as the Heian Noble had turned his head in surprise, from his position next to the big window that had a nice view of the city. After Sai's initial startled look, came of recognition and a genuine smile formed on the soft lips. Sai quickly changed position to face Hikaru by sliding himself around while still in his seated position. He neatly placed both hands out in front of his knees, finger tips touching the ground and bowed deeply while keeping his back perfectly straight.
'I bid thee welcome back to thy abode, Hikaru-sama. I have greatly wished for the effect of thy day that hath been spent and now is no more,' he said gravely. Hikaru got the gist of it - or something of it anyway - and smiled back.
'So glad to be back!' he replied, setting down his bag by the door. And he realized that that was exactly true; never had he been more happy in his life to be back at this apartment now that Sai was here to greet him.
That night Sai again claimed that the floor was too cold as he slipped into Hikaru's bed with him. Ah, Hikaru thought that he could get used to evenings filled with Go playing and cuddling with his warm living Sai at night. And even better: it was only autumn now, the 'cold floor' excuse would be good until March, at least!
OOOO
The next day was the start of the weekend and Hikaru found he got so many assignments that he'd be gone from the apartment from dawn to past midnight for the next two days. The thought of not being able to spend any significant time with Sai for that long a period put Hikaru in a foul mood early that Saturday morning. But it wasn't until he was about the leave that he realized he wasn't the only one affected. The look of shear desperation that appeared for only a split second in Sai's amethyst eyes, just before Hikaru was out of the door, worked like an icy shower on Hikaru.
He cursed himself all the way to his first assignment. Keeping Sai locked up inside for days on end, what was he thinking? He vowed then and there to think of a solution.
It was a good thing that Hikaru's first assignment was photographing a mini-carting tournament, 'cause he was no fit company for the rest of the morning.
With much fiddling with time Hikaru found a two hour slot he could spend on Sai that day. It would mean Hikaru would have to do all his photo editing and report writing at that time as well, but at least it meant he could break Sai out of 'jail' and take him to a park or something. Oh god, that made Sai even more sound like a pet; one the he took out for walkies! Soon, Hikaru vowed, I'll find a solution, soon!
OOOO
The solution, or at least the first version of it, came to Hikaru the next Monday night over their Go game, when Hikaru had forgotten to switch his laptop to silent and it had beeped when a new mail had arrived, breaking his concentration. He'd grouched as he had gotten up to shut the thing up, but then had an idea.
He ran a net search to see if it all was still there. It was. It even looked the same: . Hikaru's thoughts ran a mile a minute. Sai could at least play real Go instead of recreating old games as he had been for the past few days. Hikaru would have to teach him how to use it. Could a Heian type brain learn a modern type thing like this? Ghostly Sai had never really learned but then it wouldn't have done him much good anyway; he wouldn't have been able to touch the keys on the keyboard to make it work. But this Sai could touch things. And Hikaru would just have to teach him how to work it.
Hikaru had gotten straight to it, telling an unwilling Sai that A. they would finish the game later - which seemed to relieve Sai greatly - and B. that inside the laptop lived many people that could all play Go. Now that perked the Noble's interest, even if he looked a bit incredulous.
So they got to work and the next day when Hikaru left for work he left his laptop home with Sai.
OOOO
And he promptly realized he'd made a grave mistake; he really needed that laptop for work. He solved the problem that day by going back to the apartment and using it there. But that never going to work as a permanent solution as he wouldn't always be close enough to the apartment when on assignment and he'd had to make Sai break off a game he was in the middle of and Hikaru wasn't sure if he could survive that much pouting ever again.
So that afternoon he got a very cheap but serviceable secondhand PC - there went another ¥20,000. It was installed that night by the nice vender's terse nephew. Well, friendly or not, the man was quick and had NetGo running for Sai in 20 minutes flat.
That night Hikaru lay looking at the ceiling while worrying. Sai was already fast asleep, curled against Hikaru's side, as he had since that first night that the Noble had joined him in his bed. After three nights of cuddling, Hikaru hadn't bothered to make up the guest bed on the floor anymore; Sai hadn't even come near it the few nights before, so why bother.
It was a bit presumptuous of himself, Hikaru realized; Sai might not want to sleep in the same bed with him every night. And he did worry that Sai's, so far, unwavering acquiescence to anything Hikaru wanted, would someday put Sai in a situation where Hikaru demanded something that Sai really didn't want to do and that he would do it anyway and it would harm him.
That was really the reason Hikaru had let their bed-sharing not go any further, even if he desperately wanted it to. So far Sai had not made any move that might indicate he would want to do more than just share warmth and all Hikaru could do was just accept that at face value. Hikaru had no idea how experienced or inexperienced Sai truly was; Sai the ghost had certainly never talked about his own past intimate past to Hikaru's younger self. And Hikaru would not for the world push this Sai into anything he might not be ready for.
Hikaru tightened his arm around Sai's slumbering form and studied the way Sai's eyelashes fluttered just the tiniest bit as the Noble dreamed. No, he never wanted Sai to get hurt, not ever.
He looked back at ceiling. Hikaru couldn't stop worrying, though. About the practical things like money and about what he could do to get Sai out of the house during the day.
Money was simple enough; he had to not lose his job. 'Simple', right, sure, whatever. Every day after having reported to the Boss at the end of the day, Hikaru had feared for his job and every morning after, he found he hadn't been fired just yet. So far so good. But he had had a reprimand today from Boss's Boss, 'Big Boss', and that was bad. Luckily it was for an error that Hikaru felt he could avoid in future; he'd gotten two names mixed up, so the wrong one had appeared under the photo of a company president. He'd have to be more careful from now on, he did not ever want to get yelled at by Big Boss ever again. Man, that guy was loud!
Sai shifted in his sleep as Hikaru's chest shook with silent mirth; Big Boss's face had turned a very interesting shade of purple. Hikaru stopped snickering as he remembered how scared he had been that this time he'd get fired for sure. Very sobering thought that. Well, all he could do was his best and he sure as H would be doing that from now on!
This left the problem of what to do with Sai. Sai the ghost had always been fully satisfied with being allowed to play Go. And yes, this Sai was ecstatic about Go too. But every night so far - even after Hikaru had taught Sai how to turn on the lights at night - Hikaru had come home to a dark apartment, finding Sai sitting by the window looking out over the city with a whist full look on his face. It hurt Hikaru's heart to see it.
Spending the day playing NetGo had helped, this last evening Sai had seemed a lot more, well, perky. And the day after the next it would be Wednesday and they would be able to spend the day going out together. That should help too.
Hikaru had given serious thought to just taking Sai to a Go club and leaving him there while he worked. He knew that if he told Sai to stay put, the Heian Noble would do just that and he'd not wander off on his own. But what if someone convinced Sai it was safe to leave with them?
Of course most people at Go clubs were perfectly decent people, but it really only took the presence of one bad dude for very bad things to happen. And if Hikaru had learned one thing from their trip to the mall the week before, it was that people really noticed Sai's striking appearance with that hair and that smile. At the mall all the attention had been innocent and rather sweet, but that might not always be the case. No, Hikaru did not feel safe leaving Sai at a Go club by himself.
Well, for now Hikaru decided he'd see if playing NetGo could lift Sai's spirit until Wednesday. Then there'd be two days that could be spent together, which Hikaru sure was looking forward to.
OOOO
Wednesday was marvelous. They spent the sunny morning in one of Tokyo's prettier parks, standing under the maple trees, letting leaves rain on them. Hikaru had brought the magnetic Goban he had bought the day before and they had a game sitting on the grass in the sunshine.
After a light lunch Hikaru gave Sai a choice, more time in the park or a visit to a Go club. Sai picked the Go club, once he had understood that there would be human Go players there. Hikaru smiled as he was reminded that Sai had told him the night before that he did not believe the players on NetGo were real at all. No, Sai was convinced they were Tengu, bird spirits, who liked to play war games and therefore liked Go.
Hikaru had given the choice of which Go club for him to take Sai to a lot of thought the night before, in his now customary stare-at-the-ceiling meditation. Being a responsible adult was sure cutting into his sleep time. And being with two adults in one bed sure didn't help. But that part at least really worked well against thinking the dark thoughts and having bad dreams!
In the end Hikaru had settled for the Touya Go club. It had been the first place he'd thought of; that's where all the good players were. But Touya Akira would be there too.
Hikaru had nearly lost his true rival to Sai in the other time line and had had to work damn hard to get him back. In this one, if Touya played Sai first, the jolly same thing might happen! No, Hikaru wanted to reclaim his position as Touya's rival.
So, instead of going to another club, Hikaru extracted a solemn promise from Sai that he wouldn't try to play Touya at all today. Sai had looked a bit upset at having to give up a potential playing partner, but Hikaru's assurances that there'd be lots of other great players there, seemed to ease the Heian Noble's mind.
OOOO
The Touya Go Club was just as Hikaru remembered it. The main room with its slightly stale air and its many tables with just as many Gobans. Then the smaller side room where Sai had first played an 11 Touya, while young Touya had thought he had been playing young Hikaru.
In his own time line, they'd been meeting every Monday and every Thursday afternoon, at the very least, for the last 10 years. Hikaru suddenly missed that intensely. That drive that they both would have. That will to win and show they other they were better. And oh H, all the yelling they used to do at each other; they'd each give as good as they got.
Suddenly Hikaru realized that he must tread carefully from here on in - not exactly his strong suit - because this Touya didn't know him from Adam. Hikaru had seen Touya around people the man didn't know before - really cold - and he knew that Touya didn't make friends easily, if at all.
It was clear Hikaru could not just come up to Touya and behave like he always did, that would chase the reserved man away for sure. No, Hikaru figured that the best way 'in' was by impressing Touya with his Go. With his plan of action - such as it was - finished he paid the fee for Sai and himself, signed them in and stepped further into the main room.
'Scuse me sir,' the receptionist - not Ichikawa; must be her day off - called after them. Hikaru did not let go of Sai's hand - or Sai might run straight up to a Goban without him, he was pulling that hard - as he turned back to the young lady with long red hair.
'Yes?'
'Uhm, you wrote up "7-dan" for both your friend and yourself,' she said, waving at the sign-in sheet.
'Yes?'
'Is that Pro level or amateur?' she asked.
Does it matter? Hikaru thought. But he said, 'Amateur,' instead.
'Uh, do you have proof of that?' she pressed, looking more than a little uncomfortable.
Proof? Oh. Yeah. He'd forgotten; amateur rankings that high were only given out by official Go Institutes or Pro players. As an amateur player, you couldn't just give yourself a dan level like that. Dumb. As a Pro he had gaged amateur players before and officially given out a few dan levels.
'Uh,' he said, trying to look innocent. He demonstratively checked his pockets and then added, 'I guess not, sorry.'
'YOU are a 7-dan amateur?' an incredibly familiar voice asked, causing Hikaru to snap his head 'round to the speaker.
A young man stood before him. Slim, just a little taller than himself, with a ruler straight page-boy hair cut, wearing deep red pants, pink button up shirt and an argyle wooly sweater with reds white and pink lozenges; Touya.
'Well, I guess the proof is in the game,' Hikaru shrugged.
'So it is,' Touya answered coolly. Then he said, 'This way,' before crisply turning around and heading off to the smaller room.
Hikaru and Sai followed him until Touya stopped in front of that self same table they'd played on almost 13 years ago. Touya went around the side he had before and motioned Hikaru and Sai to the other side.
'Touya, Akira,' he said, giving a polite bow.
'Shindou, Hikaru,' Hikaru said and bowed. Sai followed suit with a well rehearsed 'Fujiwara, Sai' and a shallow bow, just like Hikaru's.
They all sat down. Touya on the one side of the Goban, Hikaru on the other with Sai to the right of him; almost exactly as it had been all those years ago. 'Almost' yes, but this time Hikaru would be playing this first game together with his own ability; this time Touya would see Hikaru as himself from the word Go!
OOOO
Touya's Go had always been rock solid. And it was so now. This Touya may not have won a title yet, but that was really because he just didn't enter any title tournaments except for the one that his father still holds.
Hikaru had to work had to keep up. Nothing new there. But that had never meant that Hikaru couldn't win. Why, he had won from Touya before! Granted not too many times and most of those in the last few years, in the other time line. But Hikaru would definitely count himself as being closing in on Touya's level and without self-delusion or bragging either.
And this Touya wasn't too different from the one in the other time line. But he was definitely different. Most telling of these differences was a rigidity in the man's play. And a coldness that Hikaru had never felt before. This Touya was a hard, humorless man.
As the game went on, Hikaru also started to feel a certain lack of passion. 'His' Touya had had a very deep seated passion, that would come out in the game almost against Touya's will, making him angry whenever they reviewed those parts of the game and he found his emotions exposed on the board, for all to see. This Touya had apparently conquered that passion and Hikaru was not so sure that had been a good thing.
Touya's play was incredibly brutal in its efficiency, but still Hikaru could find ways to get around it and gain ground on the board. Hikaru smiled when he looked at Touya's frowning forehead after Hikaru had made yet another unexpected move; frowns were good, it showed that Hikaru was making his opponent work for it.
It ended with a moku and a half between them, in Touya's favor.
'You are good,' Touya said, running his eyes over the board once more.
'Thanks,' Hikaru said while he rubbed his neck and looked away in embarrassment.
'You're not a Pro, are you?'
'Nah.' Hikaru didn't want to too much lying nor give too much information at that point so he didn't add the 'not yet, again', but he did think it.
Touya was silently studying the board for a while.
'Uh, you wanna, uh, discuss the game?' Hikaru ventured. Touya nodded, his eyes still on the board.
Hikaru felt Sai's hand on his arm, drawing his attention.
'Hikaru-same, humbly begging thy pardon, yon gentleman hath offered my humble self a match. Might I accept?' Hikaru translated that as Sai having been asked to play by the guy sitting one table over. The guy even looked at Hikaru pleadingly. Urg; good look on Sai, not so much on this fellow.
'Of course,' Hikaru said. Then Sai whispered something in his ear and Hikaru turned to Touya, who still had his eyes on the board and a knuckle to his lip in deep contemplation.
'Excuse me for about five minutes,' Hikaru said before getting up and showing Sai to the bathroom.
That phrase had always been their way of announcing a pit stop, complete with Go related pun. (5 is 'go' in Japanese, get it? Bad pun? Oh, yes, really bad! They'd had a good laugh over that one in the other time line.) Hikaru figured he'd reintroduce it straight away.
OOOO
They did not discuss the game at that time, as it turned out, because after the B-break Hikaru had helped settle Sai in for his game against his first non-Hikaru, non-NetGo opponent. Then he didn't leave because Touya had come over to watch, that knuckle still at his lip, and Hikaru stayed where he was and did the same.
Hikaru actually vaguely remembered knowing the guy Sai was playing. It was a big dude, maybe 50 years old and Hikaru was pretty much sure the guy was a Pro. And quite possibly Hikaru had even played him in the Oteai; a game Kifu came to mind with that face attached, but no name to match. Well, didn't matter, the guy wasn't of too low a level for Sai, but not being anywhere in the Heian Noble's league, it meant that the guy was heading for a guaranteed defeat. And Hikaru was really going to enjoy seen Sai take this guy apart.
OOOO
As the game progressed, Hikaru was paying close attention to Sai's elegant moves. Both as in the strategy he used in the game as well as the way Sai moved to place the stones on the Goban. The strategy just oozed brilliance, making Hikaru's estimate of this Sai's Go rise; he had learned some new things on NetGo it seemed. And the way Sai's finger tips caressed each stone and eased them in their intended place, did a lot of Hikaru's body too. Possibly a bit too much. But forcing his mind back to thinking about the Go strategy kept things under control nicely.
'He's better than you,' came a whisper, almost in Hikaru's right ear and it surprised him so much he nearly jumped to the left, stumbling a bit instead. He looked over at the Touya, a look of utter affront on his face. Then his look turned angry when he spied that Touya was actually smiling behind that hand he held before his mouth.
'Sorry, didn't mean to startle you,' Touya stage whispered. Hikaru reluctantly decided to move back closer, so they could talk more quietly and not disturb the game. He came to stand next to Touya again and they both continued observing the game. 'No worries,' Hikaru whispered.
'Did you hear what I said before?'
'No. Do try not to scare the begeebees outa people, will ya?'
'All right,' Touya whispered, that annoying little smile back in his voice. 'I said: he's better than you.'
Now there was an understatement.
'Yeah, I know.'
'Is he your teacher?'
Hikaru had to think a moment before he answered. In a 'round about sorta way; 'Yeah, he is.'
Oh no, Hikaru thought, now he's gonna want to play Sai and then he'll end up chasing him again and forget all about me! Oh well, at least I got one great equal game out of it.
'So, you wanna play him next?' Hikaru whispered, jumping in with both feet first. He had never been one to wait for the other shoe to drop, not if he couldn't at least shake the tree a bit.
After a long silence Hikaru was surprised to hear Touya say, 'No, not really. I haven't finished playing you yet.'
Hikaru quickly looked over at were Touya had stood but found only an empty place. A quick look around the people that had gathered around the game, showed that Touya had walked around the group and was heading for the little self service coffee corner.
Hikaru's gaze turned back to the game and he was quickly absorbed back into it. It was utterly brilliant. While Sai's opponent was no real challenge to him, the Heian Noble was giving the guy a beautifully played game. Sai didn't at any time bully him, nor did he mollycoddle him either. No, He gave the guy a game that brought out the best in the guy's Go and that was something that the other Sai had done for Hikaru many times. And Hikaru realized that this was just the kinda thing he felt he had no hope of ever learning to do. Never mind effectively passing on the legacy of that kinda play; that was purely Sai's unique genius.
OOOO
End of part 2
Notes:
¥20,000 = about $250
Oteai = The ongoing professional Tournament in which Go Pros can rise in rank.
Insei = official students of Go at the Go institute.
part three
part one
Once Upon A Time, Part 2
"Dinner" consisted of sandwiches that Hikaru was very relieved to find in his fridge. Apparently in this version of his life, he still went down to the corner store every few days also, to stock up on sandwiches and fruit drinks. They were a guarantee that he'd have something to eat any time he wanted it and could grab food easily on the way out. The fact that he now had to go out on assignment and not to a Go client wouldn't make any difference. Oh god, he'd have figure out how to do his job soon! Arg!
He distracted himself from the problem by 'serving' dinner. He tore off the plastic wrappers and plunked two sandwiches each on plates and put both plates on the glass coffee table. He went back for a bottle of orange drink, two glasses and as an afterthought grabbed some paper napkins as well. He had a guest now, he really should behave accordingly.
He poured out the fruit drink and set one of the glasses next to the plate nearest Sai, who looked up questioningly. His own he put on the shelf next to the couch. He sat down and retrieved his plate from the table, sitting it in his lap. He gave a Sai an inviting nod and picked up his own ham and cheese sandwich in both hands and proceeded to bite a great chunk out of it.
All the while Sai had been watching in amazement. But after Hikaru had apparently not choked on his huge bite, Sai attempted to do as invited.
Hikaru nearly spit out his sandwich twice with laughter just watching Sai trying to eat with those sleeves; it was truly comical! Then he decided not to let the poor guy suffer on and he told him to take off his Kariginu. Sai looked shocked at the suggestion, but Hikaru insisted. Those clothes had to go sooner or later anyway; there was no way Hikaru was hanging out with anyone dressed like that on a daily basis; it had been bad enough before when Sai had been a ghost and no-one but Hikaru could see him, but now he could easily trip over that train! And anyway, the silk may have been fine once, but now it was just dirty, so at the very least it needed to go in the wash.
But at Sai's upset look, Hikaru let him keep his clothes. And also because Sai seemed to have found a solution to the problem by himself; he had folded over the 'cuffs' of his sleeves, picked up the egg sandwich and ate it close to his mouth so the sleeves could not fall back down. Good enough, Hikaru thought.
After the sandwiches and the drinks were gone, Sai immediately asked for another game. Hikaru glanced at the clock; 9:45 pm. He knew he had a lot of research to do before he'd be able to his job. There was no way he could afford to lose his job now that he had two mouths to feed and owed all that money to the Time Team.
So he figured what the very first question was: when did his job start? As he didn't know, he had to play it safe and assume it would be tomorrow morning, bright and early. That thought made him cringe; he was never much of a morning person.
'Sir?' came a whisper.
'Don't call me that,' Hikaru gave back without thought.
'Uh. What, in my humbleness, may I call you then?' Sai asked. Hikaru looked up at the hint of exasperation in the Heian Noble's speech. Oh, great; now we're both miffed.
'Call me Hikaru,' was Hikaru's brisk rejoinder. To this Sai smiled and all of Hikaru's thoughts of annoyance towards his friend evaporated; this was what he had wanted to have again!
'Hikaru-sama, wouldst thou condescend to play me again?' Sai ventured. Did he have to use "-sama"? Should he correct that? Nah, not right now; pick your battles, Hikaru thought to himself. So back to the question: would he like to play? Oh yes! But Hikaru knew he needed to get to know his new life and fast! So he declined, sympathizing with the disappointment that was clearly written on the handsome face.
It did bring to mind what Sai was going to be doing while Hikaru was working tonight. Ghostly Sai had spent hours sitting absolutely still while Hikaru had been at school or had done homework. While that was well and good for a ghost, it was not right for a living person! And anyway, Sai had always been happiest doing something Go related, like read Go Weekly and books with Kifu. Hikaru could easily let this Sai read his Go books, after all, he would be able to turn the pages himself now.
In his enthusiasm he turned around on the couch to face his bookcase. And found - apart from his old school books - not a single familiar book. There were a lot of photo books and 'how to take a great picture' kinda books. Also a few slim books on developing writing skills, urg! This was not good; there was just noth-. Hold on, there is on the lower shelve behind the couch; definitely the Kanji for Go.
Hikaru managed to wedge the book out from behind the couch. "Edo style Go" it said. Perfect! As he flipped open the old fashioned hardcover, the spine creaked with age and disuse. Dust wafted into his face. He flipped through the first few pages to find the date. There on the page opposite the tile page it said (c)1957. Great, a really old book. He was about to close it and pass it over to Sai when he spied some handwriting on the next page: "A fair win I'll admit, Inoue Rintaro." Hey, wasn't that that guy that Gramps beat at Go, way back when? The book is sure old enough. So this was Gramps' book, Hikaru guessed.
Gramps had died a few years ago and in Hikaru's original life he had left him his Go books and his Goban. The Goban that they had just been playing on, Hikaru suddenly realized. He looked at it, to confirm his thought and yes, it was that Goban. Apparently in this reality, Gramps had also left him his Go stuff, even though here Hikaru hadn't become a Pro player. Had he at least played Gramps? He did hope so as he sent a thought of his grandfather up to heaven. Thank you, Gramps, for providing these things when I need them.
'You read this, while I get some work done,' Hikaru said as passed the book over. Sai solemnly accepted, bowed, opened it reverently and started reading.
OOOO
Hikaru he had gotten incredibly lucky; he found simple books on photography, a company book from the Asagohan Shinbun detailing every part of the company with a extra booklet on the dos and don'ts of photo reporting and a complete job description. In his computer - after he had deduced the password and no, it was not "Fujiwara" - he found that he did most business with his employers by e-mail - on the computer and on his mobile - which he studied at length.
He was very relieved to find that he had the next day off. Apparently he had Wednesdays and Thursdays off, if he wasn't recalled for special events. He started praying he'd not be recalled tomorrow; he needed every second from now on.
OOOO
After some hours of work - and not a peep out of Sai, except the clacking of Go stones on the board - Hikaru decided to call it quits for that night.
It quickly turned out that Hikaru had not for a moment realized that a simple thing like going to bed could cause so many difficulties. He decide to start by getting Sai undressed but then it became clear that showing him how to use the toilet facilities first was a much higher priority.
Hikaru found he had to teach Sai the simplest things. Not only how to use the modern amenity but also that he should wash his hands after and how to use the soap. Apparently Sai had never seen soap. How can a person have hair like that and not use soap? True, Sai had been smelly when Hikaru had nabbed him - not that Hikaru was much of a clean freak himself - but Hikaru had assumed that that had been because Sai had been wandering around the woods for two days straight. Now he was not so sure.
Next came undressing and showering, it really couldn't be put off any longer. Hikaru turned on the shower for Sai, gave him a towel and left him to it. But when, after 10 minutes, no bathing sounds came out of the small bathroom, he went in the check.
Sai was standing in the fogged up room, looking forlorn. It was not a look that Hikaru liked to see on Sai's face
'What's up?' Hikaru asked.
At the sound of Hikaru's voice, Sai went down on his knees and bowed. 'Hikaru-sama,' he said and then fell silent.
Hikaru looked down at the Heian Noble, trying to work out the problem. It was then that he saw that Sai had slipped his arms out of his sleeves as if to get out of his clothing via that route. Did that mean that Sai couldn't undress himself?
Suddenly Hikaru realized that was it. Of course Sai couldn't undress himself; he had been a Noble in an Imperial Palace, with servants to do every least little thing for him, at any time of the day or night. As a ghost Sai hadn't had to dress or undress either. Nor wash, nor eat, nor sleep. But this Sai did and the poor guy didn't seem to know how!
Hikaru decided not to make big production out of it. He told Sai to get up and efficiently helped him out of his Heian clothing. It was all held together with belts and ties, some of which had gotten quite tangled, but Hikaru just kept at until they surrendered to him in the end. He only paused when he was confronted with Sai's underwear.
C'mon Hikaru, what had you expected? Boxers? Briefs? What was staring him in the face was an actual loincloth; a strip of material twisted into a cloth rope with a loop at the end, wrapped around the waist then threaded though the loop at the back, coming down between the legs where the strip was flattened out to catch the necessary before being draped upwards and tucked into the cloth rope at the waist.
Hikaru had Sai turn around so he could undo the knot on the loop; he did know that that was not the way of removing it, but right now he couldn't quite face what he'd see if he started at the front. And anyway, he didn't want Sai wearing impractical undies like these!
He left Sai with the knot undone and told him to hurry. He quickly got out of the bathroom, taking Sai's pile of silk with him, not in the least to hide is burning face. He busied himself converting the couch to a bed and got out PJs for himself and, uh, what should he get Sai? They wouldn't have had pajamas in the Heian Period, Hikaru felt sure, so what else? A kimono probably. Ah! He still some Yukata Kimono from the last few summers. Or he did in the other world any way...
A quick check yielded two cotton Yukata. Hikaru was unsure if these were the same ones he's gotten originally; his friends had always accused him of having no memory for clothing and that sort of thing. But it really didn't much matter what they looked like, as long as he had some. He picked the one with the big yellow flowers and put it inside the bathroom on the sink, calling out to Sai to wear it, over the sound of the still running shower.
When he came back to the living/bedroom he checked over the place and noticed a glaring omission; a bed for Sai. Hurriedly he grabbed the guest bedding out of his built in wardrobe and spread it out on the floor. Hikaru had never had many guests over, usually only Waya, 'cause Isumi liked to sleep in his own bed.
The thought made Hikaru drop the bedding from suddenly numb fingers. Waya. Isumi. Nase. Even bloody Touya! Would he still know any of them in this reality?
He tripped over the bedding in his haste to get to his phone. Sprawled on his front on the soft quilt he could just reach his phone. Quickly scrolling down his contact list gave him the bad news. No numbers for Isumi, Nase or Touya. But there was an entry for Waya with an added footnote "Nice dude, willing to do interviews. No good for photos. Great Go."
Intense relief washed over him; his other self knew Waya. Maybe not well, but it appeared they had at least played together and Hikaru could always get reacquainted with him! As for Isumi and the others, Hikaru fully intended to be a Pro again as soon as the exams came around, so he's meet all of them again then. And Hikaru truly looked forward to playing Touya Akira at pro level, 'cause, no matter how different the reality, he just couldn't picture Touya being anything other than a Go Pro!
He closed the phone, set it aside and got up to rescue Sai from the shower.
OOOO
Hikaru had a bad night that night. A hundred thousand questions kept circling around his head, all demanding answers right NOW. At about 3 am he just gave up. He slipped out of bed and tiptoed around a deeply sleeping Sai on the way to his laptop.
Once there he indulged in looking up anyone he had ever know. Waya and Isumi were doing well, 5- and 4-dan respectively. Nase had passed the Pro Exam 3 years ago and was still a 1-dan. Even Fuku had passed the exam. Touya was, quite expectedly, doing great; he had made it to the challenger's position on the Meijin Tournament, earning him an automatic 7-dan status. But oddly enough he held no titles and the Meijin Tournament was the only one he entered in, it seemed. It did look like Touya really only wanted that title and no other. Out of curiosity Hikaru checked who was the current title holder and got a bit of a shock; it was Touya Kouyo, Touya's dad.
Further internet surfing of Touya Kouyo revealed that the man who had held 5 titles all at one time had never officially retired, but instead had elected to only defend the Meijin title. He successfully prolonged it for the past 13 years. And Touya Akira had reached the final challenge three times already, but had as yet not been able to beat his dad.
Hikaru was not surprised at all; Touya Meijin was really incredibly strong and he had years of experience on Touya Akira. Hikaru glanced over to where Sai still slept in the darkened room. No, Sai was supposed to be the Meijin's true rival and Akira was supposed to be Hikaru's. Hikaru knew that with taking Sai out of history, Sai had missed becoming Touya Kouyo's rival and Hikaru had fallen horribly behind on his rivalry with Touya. But he vowed that he would make up the distance as soon as he possibly could!
OOOO
The next day was pretty hectic. Hikaru pretty quickly realized that Sai had nothing to wear. He couldn't wear Hikaru's stuff 'cause Sai had longer legs and a much narrower waist. He was also too thin and Hikaru intended to make sure that Sai'd be eating plenty until that underfed look disappeared.
The first order of business was shopping for clothes. Then the first item became second as, when dressing Sai in both Yukatas - one just wasn't warm enough for that time of year - they ran into 'the hair problem'.
It turned out that at the Heian Court, a servant would comb out Sai's hair every morning. This would take an hour and a half, but only if it hadn't been over 3 days with considerable time spent in the woods. No, now it would need a lot more work, much to Hikaru's shock. Well, that was something Hikaru just wouldn't be having the time for, what with trying to not lose his job! But, on the other hand the only other thing they could do was cut the hair off and that was, to both of them, an 'over my dead body' kinda thing.
In the end Hikaru used pieces of string to tie the untidy hair together at intervals all along its length and he used his laptop to find the address of a hairdresser specialized in traditional and Geisha hairstyles, in a shopping center not too far away, that had lots of clothing outlets too.
Once at the 1980's style shopping mall, Hikaru was very glad he'd brought his camera and the camera manual, because fixing Sai's hair took over three hours. Hikaru spent that time going around the mall, taking as many different pictures as he could, working out how the camera worked. When he scrolled though his results, he did feel he had learned something about photography that day. He just hoped it would be enough to keep his job tomorrow.
OOOO
When he returned to the hairdresser's he saw Sai was surrounded by ladies of all ages that were, well, doing the fawning fan-girl thing, really. Hikaru felt a cold stab of jealousy; Sai was his! He couldn't stop himself from calling out 'Sai!' The sound drew Sai's attention and once again Hikaru nearly melted when Sai's warm smile was directed at him.
'Hikaru-sama, thou art back! Observe what Mama-san hath created.' Sai turned his head and eased his hair, now perfectly smooth and shiny and caught in a long braid, over his should to pool in his lap, in wide sensuous loops.
At that moment Hikaru was so indescribably glad that he'd never seriously contemplated cutting this beautiful hair. It would have been a sin; the kind that made you end up in hell. And now he felt saved, because Sai looked so good in his purple Yukata with the white firework's burst, his Geta and the long long hair, all neat and fresh, talking animatedly to his adoring fans of the day.
Hikaru had clung to the image of Sai in his Heian outfit, with hat and miles of sleeves for 11 years, but now he saw a different Sai, who not only looked differently but talked differently - oh, help! - and whose Go was different too. Hikaru suddenly found he didn't miss the old Sai quite so much at this instance as he had before. And Hikaru's body, well, it wasn't disappointed in what it saw, no, not at all.
OOOO
After having to shell out more than Hikaru had even spent at a hairdresser's in his life and having been loaded down with some hair care products and much advice, Hikaru took Sai clothes shopping.
This turned out to be both a frustrating and entertaining event, as Sai unerring zoomed in on the most colorful and most inappropriate garments in each shop. With childish glee he went around one store's bride's maids dress department, touching all the widest pure silk A-line strapless gowns. And it wasn't until the sale's clerk realized that Sai was a man that Hikaru took him up one floor to the male section, to prevent them from getting booted out of the store all together.
Hikaru had never been one for big clothing stores; he was more likely to get everything for the year in one small store. But going around this mall with Sai was a blast and Hikaru only felt a little guilty when he realized he really enjoyed dressing Sai up, almost like a fashion doll.
Hikaru did manage to behave and he made Sai behave too - even if the Heian Noble put on his best pout when being denied to try on one of the campier unisex outfits - and they came away with a complete wardrobe, underclothes, socks, shoes and all, for about ¥20,000.
OOOO
After they arrived back home, Hikaru gave Sai the Go books he'd bought when wandering around the mall. Sai wanted to play, of course, but Hikaru felt he needed to do more work on his job, so he called the local ramen take away for two meals and went to work while Sai quietly played out the games in the "Go institute Tournament games 1978-1999" book. Hikaru had particularly picked that book out at the mall, because it had the most Kifu in it from any book he had known in his own reality. Doubtlessly that was why Sai was started on it first, over the other two that Hikaru also had bought him.
Hikaru loaded today's pictures off the camera and started sorting them. One of the books that the other Hikaru had used most - seeing it's dog eared state - had recommended to take lots of pictures and then keep comparing them for best compositions, best technical - well enough lit, in focus, etc. - and best story content. It also said that the story content really was the most important. So Hikaru set himself the task of learning that. Or at least as much of that as he could; he wasn't dumb enough to suppose that he'd be able to learn that in a day. But on the upside, his other self had learned it well enough to keep his job for 7 years, so he knew it could be done. For now Hikaru only aimed to know enough so he wouldn't get canned on his first working day!
OOOO
Before he knew it, it was past midnight and Hikaru had a 8 am wake-up call to look forward to. That combined with last night's lack of sleep made him call it a night.
As he had the day before, Hikaru had made Sai shower again that night. Hikaru himself was a 'quick shower to wake up in the morning' kinda person, so the arrangement made so much sense to him, this way there's be no bathroom cue in the mornings. It wasn't like Sai was complaining.
In fact, apart from requesting Go games, Sai hadn't asked for anything at all, nor had he refused anything that Hikaru had asked of him so far. As Hikaru lay in his bed he gave the matter some thought.
Sai the ghost had been much the same as this Sai. He too had only asked to play Go and deferred to Hikaru in everything else. After Sai had disappeared, Hikaru had thought the ghost had acted like that because he was a ghost and was doomed to walk the earth until his mission was fulfilled. A mission that Hikaru had for a long time had thought was achieving the Hand of God, whatever that was.
But a year or so after Sai departure and after Hikaru had met the Heian ghost in that dream; Hikaru had realized it had more a case of passing on the torch. Since then Hikaru had tried to do just that; show the world Sai's brilliance to the best of Hikaru's abilities.
And it had worked too, or as much as it was possible for it to work. Hikaru did very well in the world of Go, with a high dan level and two titles that he managed to hold on to. But somehow it hadn't been altogether fulfilling and he felt he only could bring half the message across. Somehow an essential part of him was missing.
Hikaru turned his head and looked over the sleeping bundle on the floor.
He realized he'd made a very chancy bet by nabbing Sai from his own time. But even with the loss of his Go career and all of his Go friends, Hikaru could not feel sorry he had retrieved Sai. He did his best not to show it but his love for Sai, this living Sai, had grown today. And he felt that having him here would fill that hole in his heart quite nicely.
He turned his head and looked at the stark white ceiling that glowed with the little light it reflected from the street lights outside.
Of course losing all that lovely title money had been hard, but if Hikaru was honest with himself, in the original time line, apart from that one helicopter ride, he hadn't actually done anything with the money other than bank it. It wasn't that Hikaru was stingy or miserly, it was just that wherever he went and whatever he did, he felt it would have been more fun if he could have amazed Sai with the experience.
And so he had stopped doing these non-Go things altogether and had concentrated on his Go career instead. And that had been no hardship either; Go was a lot of fun, if a bit serious when playing in the Oteai or the Tournaments. So he'd played a lot with his friends also.
Hikaru knew he tended to have phases; for months he would play Touya every day, just to build up the rivalry and then he would hang out with the former Insei crowd for another few months, haunting shady Go clubs or cheesy bowling alleys and Karaoke clubs. And then there were the Black Days, where he only came out of his room for official Go business and spend his nights reminiscing about the Good Old Days when Sai was still there.
It had been after a Black Days bout of over two weeks that Isumi had broken down Hikaru's door - verbally, not actually, thank goodness - that Hikaru had sought some professional help and ended up at that grief councilor's office.
Going there had helped, if not terribly much. But at the very least Hikaru had realized that he really shouldn't indulge himself into that kinda behavior and since then he had done his best to only have two or three Black Days in a row.
Hikaru sighed deeply. The ceiling was still white. As it had been an hour ago, or how ever long it had been; he wasn't interested enough in the time to move his head to look at the clock. Clock. Tick tock, goes the clock. Ping goes the Bell. Ah, what a dumb thought to have, Hikaru thought. Go to sleep, stupid! Then he felt his quilt shift and being lifted.
'If thou wouldst allow it, my weary self would join thee, for the night is cool and the ground quite cold,' Sai whispered close to Hikaru's ear before slipping under Hikaru's quilt and curling into his side, the long haired head coming to rest comfortably on Hikaru shoulder.
Hikaru for the life of him couldn't think of anything to say and he found he could do nothing other than wrap the arm that Sai was lying on around the Heian Noble's waist and pull him tighter to his side.
As the bed warmed up with the extra body in it, Hikaru's contemplation of the ceiling was discontinued in favor of deep peaceful sleep.
OOOO
There is nothing worse in the world than the alarm clock waking you out of sweet dreams. Well, maybe there was something worse. How about being the person who was underneath a Heian Noble who had no clue about modern alarm clocks and who had a fit when one went off, right next to his head.
Hikaru solved the situation by grabbing Sai by his waist and pulling his down with one arm while he killed the alarm with the other. The both lay panting from the sudden exertion for about a minute before Hikaru decided it was time to brave the day.
Thankfully that was as exciting as that morning got, the rest was just the collection of actions that one usually does to start a day.
OOOO
Hikaru hadn't been able come up with a better plan than to just lock up Sai in the apartment while he had to go to work. He'd made sure that Sai had enough to drink and that he knew how to get the sandwiches out of the fridge - and not forget to close the fridge door - and had provided him with enough Go books to keep him busy and out of mischief for the day. All very safe and secure. But it really didn't sit right with Hikaru that he had basically treated Sai as his pet cat - complete with water bowl and cat toys - and he promised himself and Sai he'd think of a better solution ASAP.
Work, that day, was a photo reportage of the new head building of the Katsumoto company first and photos and a report on the Kendo competition at Hamaci High School that afternoon. Hikaru had packed a map of Tokyo, his laptop, his camera of course and a few books that had looked most promising to help him in his job.
As a fist job, the Katsumoto building was a very good choice. While Hikaru had mostly photographed people in the mall the day before and therefore was not very prepared for this job, he had hours to get acquainted with the subject and the possibilities of take some good pics. He had packed a book on the subject and after the doorman had let him in - Hikaru reminded himself to wear his press ID clipped to his jacket at all times from now on - he pretty much had the run of the building - provided he didn't disturb the employees.
All in all he managed to take over a hundred pictures, which he intended to reduce down to the five he had to e-mail in by 1 pm.
The Kendo competition at the high school was great. Hikaru, in his original time line, had not been to a school that had had a Kendo club. And he had left school altogether at age 15, so before ever entering senior high or collage, so he hadn't even had any chance to attend Kendo events as a spectator. It was a new world for him really.
Kendo was wonderful to watch but a bit hard on the ears as it involved a lot of shouting. Hikaru, just to be safe, took over 300 pictures. He was very worried that a lot might fail because of the soft lighting and he wouldn't really be able to tell until he saw the pics properly on his laptop.
As he sat in a cafe two hours later, he realized he had been right to take so many; the lack of light and the fast motions of the contestants had yielded only very few acceptable pictures and really only one that Hikaru was actually happy with. He sent in those few and hoped for the best.
Hikaru also had to report on this event and he had read the Asagohan Shinbun instruction booklet's section on reporting very carefully. It had warned that all names must be mentioned correctly or people will be angry. And they had to be spelled with the right Kanji or again people will be cross. On the positive side Hikaru had learned from the book that his job was not actually to write a newspaper article - he had been very worried about that, 'cause he'd never been any good at that sort of thing! No, all he had to do was give the writing department as much information on the event as possible and they'd write it up into a proper story. He did so as well as he could and added a photograph - not having a scanner on hand - of the leaflet with the names of the contestants, with Hikaru's own notes on who had won from whom and by how many points.
The last item of the day was reporting back in person to the newspaper's head office before 5:30 pm.
After he'd survived his meeting with his boss Hikaru took a vacant chair next to the coffee machine in the 'reporter lounge' - a glorified storage room without windows, but with a tap and sink, rickety old fridge, many mismatching chairs, a huge wonky central table and cupboards full of coffee supplies and sweets. He rested his head back against the wall, rocking his chair on its hind legs, waiting for the coffee machine to go 'ding!'
Survive. Yeah, he had survived the meeting as in he had not been outright fired. He had been yelled at though. And 'severely reprimanded'. Hikaru was very sure of that part, 'cause the red faced man had yelled that at least seven times at him. Oh H, Hikaru just knew he was going to get fired tomorrow for sure.
'Hey, Shindou!' a cheery voice came from the direction of the door. Hikaru brought his gaze back down from the ceiling - letting his chair land back on all of its four legs with a clank - and looked at the owner of the voice. The man was a chubby bloke, taller that Hikaru himself, about Hikaru's age, with hair just long enough to be able to be messy, which it was, toting an impressive camera with a long lens in his hand and a heavily padded black photo equipment bag on his shoulder. Hikaru's eyes quickly read the man's ID that hung from his neck: Maeda Sora, Photo Reporter, with the Asagohan Shinbun logo next to it, just the same as Hikaru's own.
'Hey, Maeda,' Hikaru gave back the same greeting, just to be safe; this dude sounded he knew the Hikaru of this time line, better be very careful now.
'Had your chewing out yet?' The question shocked Hikaru, how did this guy know about that? But before Hikaru could think up a good answer, the coffee machine chimed. 'Ah, coffee!' Maeda said and almost made a dive for the machine. The man took two mugs off the dry rack next to the sink and poured two generous cups. He passed one to Hikaru and inhaled the vapors of his own before saying, 'Ah, now that is what a person needs before facing the firing squad.'
Neither Maeda, nor Hikaru, had a chance to actually drink anything before the lounge door opened and the Boss, Tanaka-san, stuck his head inside and yelled, 'Maeda! My office! NOW!'
Maeda gave Hikaru a shrugging look, which Hikaru returned, being blocked from his boss's view by Maeda's broad frame and therefore not in danger of getting yelled at for it. The photo reported parked his undrunken coffee on the kitchenette's counter and quickly left, following his boss to his doom.
Maeda had forgotten to close the door. Hikaru let the boss's yelling at Maede - and the taste of the strong warm coffee - ease his nerves; at least he wasn't the only one who got picked on.
OOOO
Hikaru got home as soon as he could, but it was still 6:30 and after dark when he finally came through the door. The apartment was dark and Hikaru started to worry that Sai might have somehow left. Not that was possible of course, 'cause Hikaru was sure he'd locked the apartment properly. He quickly switched on the overhead lights and scanned the room.
He found Sai's eyes as the Heian Noble had turned his head in surprise, from his position next to the big window that had a nice view of the city. After Sai's initial startled look, came of recognition and a genuine smile formed on the soft lips. Sai quickly changed position to face Hikaru by sliding himself around while still in his seated position. He neatly placed both hands out in front of his knees, finger tips touching the ground and bowed deeply while keeping his back perfectly straight.
'I bid thee welcome back to thy abode, Hikaru-sama. I have greatly wished for the effect of thy day that hath been spent and now is no more,' he said gravely. Hikaru got the gist of it - or something of it anyway - and smiled back.
'So glad to be back!' he replied, setting down his bag by the door. And he realized that that was exactly true; never had he been more happy in his life to be back at this apartment now that Sai was here to greet him.
That night Sai again claimed that the floor was too cold as he slipped into Hikaru's bed with him. Ah, Hikaru thought that he could get used to evenings filled with Go playing and cuddling with his warm living Sai at night. And even better: it was only autumn now, the 'cold floor' excuse would be good until March, at least!
OOOO
The next day was the start of the weekend and Hikaru found he got so many assignments that he'd be gone from the apartment from dawn to past midnight for the next two days. The thought of not being able to spend any significant time with Sai for that long a period put Hikaru in a foul mood early that Saturday morning. But it wasn't until he was about the leave that he realized he wasn't the only one affected. The look of shear desperation that appeared for only a split second in Sai's amethyst eyes, just before Hikaru was out of the door, worked like an icy shower on Hikaru.
He cursed himself all the way to his first assignment. Keeping Sai locked up inside for days on end, what was he thinking? He vowed then and there to think of a solution.
It was a good thing that Hikaru's first assignment was photographing a mini-carting tournament, 'cause he was no fit company for the rest of the morning.
With much fiddling with time Hikaru found a two hour slot he could spend on Sai that day. It would mean Hikaru would have to do all his photo editing and report writing at that time as well, but at least it meant he could break Sai out of 'jail' and take him to a park or something. Oh god, that made Sai even more sound like a pet; one the he took out for walkies! Soon, Hikaru vowed, I'll find a solution, soon!
OOOO
The solution, or at least the first version of it, came to Hikaru the next Monday night over their Go game, when Hikaru had forgotten to switch his laptop to silent and it had beeped when a new mail had arrived, breaking his concentration. He'd grouched as he had gotten up to shut the thing up, but then had an idea.
He ran a net search to see if it all was still there. It was. It even looked the same: . Hikaru's thoughts ran a mile a minute. Sai could at least play real Go instead of recreating old games as he had been for the past few days. Hikaru would have to teach him how to use it. Could a Heian type brain learn a modern type thing like this? Ghostly Sai had never really learned but then it wouldn't have done him much good anyway; he wouldn't have been able to touch the keys on the keyboard to make it work. But this Sai could touch things. And Hikaru would just have to teach him how to work it.
Hikaru had gotten straight to it, telling an unwilling Sai that A. they would finish the game later - which seemed to relieve Sai greatly - and B. that inside the laptop lived many people that could all play Go. Now that perked the Noble's interest, even if he looked a bit incredulous.
So they got to work and the next day when Hikaru left for work he left his laptop home with Sai.
OOOO
And he promptly realized he'd made a grave mistake; he really needed that laptop for work. He solved the problem that day by going back to the apartment and using it there. But that never going to work as a permanent solution as he wouldn't always be close enough to the apartment when on assignment and he'd had to make Sai break off a game he was in the middle of and Hikaru wasn't sure if he could survive that much pouting ever again.
So that afternoon he got a very cheap but serviceable secondhand PC - there went another ¥20,000. It was installed that night by the nice vender's terse nephew. Well, friendly or not, the man was quick and had NetGo running for Sai in 20 minutes flat.
That night Hikaru lay looking at the ceiling while worrying. Sai was already fast asleep, curled against Hikaru's side, as he had since that first night that the Noble had joined him in his bed. After three nights of cuddling, Hikaru hadn't bothered to make up the guest bed on the floor anymore; Sai hadn't even come near it the few nights before, so why bother.
It was a bit presumptuous of himself, Hikaru realized; Sai might not want to sleep in the same bed with him every night. And he did worry that Sai's, so far, unwavering acquiescence to anything Hikaru wanted, would someday put Sai in a situation where Hikaru demanded something that Sai really didn't want to do and that he would do it anyway and it would harm him.
That was really the reason Hikaru had let their bed-sharing not go any further, even if he desperately wanted it to. So far Sai had not made any move that might indicate he would want to do more than just share warmth and all Hikaru could do was just accept that at face value. Hikaru had no idea how experienced or inexperienced Sai truly was; Sai the ghost had certainly never talked about his own past intimate past to Hikaru's younger self. And Hikaru would not for the world push this Sai into anything he might not be ready for.
Hikaru tightened his arm around Sai's slumbering form and studied the way Sai's eyelashes fluttered just the tiniest bit as the Noble dreamed. No, he never wanted Sai to get hurt, not ever.
He looked back at ceiling. Hikaru couldn't stop worrying, though. About the practical things like money and about what he could do to get Sai out of the house during the day.
Money was simple enough; he had to not lose his job. 'Simple', right, sure, whatever. Every day after having reported to the Boss at the end of the day, Hikaru had feared for his job and every morning after, he found he hadn't been fired just yet. So far so good. But he had had a reprimand today from Boss's Boss, 'Big Boss', and that was bad. Luckily it was for an error that Hikaru felt he could avoid in future; he'd gotten two names mixed up, so the wrong one had appeared under the photo of a company president. He'd have to be more careful from now on, he did not ever want to get yelled at by Big Boss ever again. Man, that guy was loud!
Sai shifted in his sleep as Hikaru's chest shook with silent mirth; Big Boss's face had turned a very interesting shade of purple. Hikaru stopped snickering as he remembered how scared he had been that this time he'd get fired for sure. Very sobering thought that. Well, all he could do was his best and he sure as H would be doing that from now on!
This left the problem of what to do with Sai. Sai the ghost had always been fully satisfied with being allowed to play Go. And yes, this Sai was ecstatic about Go too. But every night so far - even after Hikaru had taught Sai how to turn on the lights at night - Hikaru had come home to a dark apartment, finding Sai sitting by the window looking out over the city with a whist full look on his face. It hurt Hikaru's heart to see it.
Spending the day playing NetGo had helped, this last evening Sai had seemed a lot more, well, perky. And the day after the next it would be Wednesday and they would be able to spend the day going out together. That should help too.
Hikaru had given serious thought to just taking Sai to a Go club and leaving him there while he worked. He knew that if he told Sai to stay put, the Heian Noble would do just that and he'd not wander off on his own. But what if someone convinced Sai it was safe to leave with them?
Of course most people at Go clubs were perfectly decent people, but it really only took the presence of one bad dude for very bad things to happen. And if Hikaru had learned one thing from their trip to the mall the week before, it was that people really noticed Sai's striking appearance with that hair and that smile. At the mall all the attention had been innocent and rather sweet, but that might not always be the case. No, Hikaru did not feel safe leaving Sai at a Go club by himself.
Well, for now Hikaru decided he'd see if playing NetGo could lift Sai's spirit until Wednesday. Then there'd be two days that could be spent together, which Hikaru sure was looking forward to.
OOOO
Wednesday was marvelous. They spent the sunny morning in one of Tokyo's prettier parks, standing under the maple trees, letting leaves rain on them. Hikaru had brought the magnetic Goban he had bought the day before and they had a game sitting on the grass in the sunshine.
After a light lunch Hikaru gave Sai a choice, more time in the park or a visit to a Go club. Sai picked the Go club, once he had understood that there would be human Go players there. Hikaru smiled as he was reminded that Sai had told him the night before that he did not believe the players on NetGo were real at all. No, Sai was convinced they were Tengu, bird spirits, who liked to play war games and therefore liked Go.
Hikaru had given the choice of which Go club for him to take Sai to a lot of thought the night before, in his now customary stare-at-the-ceiling meditation. Being a responsible adult was sure cutting into his sleep time. And being with two adults in one bed sure didn't help. But that part at least really worked well against thinking the dark thoughts and having bad dreams!
In the end Hikaru had settled for the Touya Go club. It had been the first place he'd thought of; that's where all the good players were. But Touya Akira would be there too.
Hikaru had nearly lost his true rival to Sai in the other time line and had had to work damn hard to get him back. In this one, if Touya played Sai first, the jolly same thing might happen! No, Hikaru wanted to reclaim his position as Touya's rival.
So, instead of going to another club, Hikaru extracted a solemn promise from Sai that he wouldn't try to play Touya at all today. Sai had looked a bit upset at having to give up a potential playing partner, but Hikaru's assurances that there'd be lots of other great players there, seemed to ease the Heian Noble's mind.
OOOO
The Touya Go Club was just as Hikaru remembered it. The main room with its slightly stale air and its many tables with just as many Gobans. Then the smaller side room where Sai had first played an 11 Touya, while young Touya had thought he had been playing young Hikaru.
In his own time line, they'd been meeting every Monday and every Thursday afternoon, at the very least, for the last 10 years. Hikaru suddenly missed that intensely. That drive that they both would have. That will to win and show they other they were better. And oh H, all the yelling they used to do at each other; they'd each give as good as they got.
Suddenly Hikaru realized that he must tread carefully from here on in - not exactly his strong suit - because this Touya didn't know him from Adam. Hikaru had seen Touya around people the man didn't know before - really cold - and he knew that Touya didn't make friends easily, if at all.
It was clear Hikaru could not just come up to Touya and behave like he always did, that would chase the reserved man away for sure. No, Hikaru figured that the best way 'in' was by impressing Touya with his Go. With his plan of action - such as it was - finished he paid the fee for Sai and himself, signed them in and stepped further into the main room.
'Scuse me sir,' the receptionist - not Ichikawa; must be her day off - called after them. Hikaru did not let go of Sai's hand - or Sai might run straight up to a Goban without him, he was pulling that hard - as he turned back to the young lady with long red hair.
'Yes?'
'Uhm, you wrote up "7-dan" for both your friend and yourself,' she said, waving at the sign-in sheet.
'Yes?'
'Is that Pro level or amateur?' she asked.
Does it matter? Hikaru thought. But he said, 'Amateur,' instead.
'Uh, do you have proof of that?' she pressed, looking more than a little uncomfortable.
Proof? Oh. Yeah. He'd forgotten; amateur rankings that high were only given out by official Go Institutes or Pro players. As an amateur player, you couldn't just give yourself a dan level like that. Dumb. As a Pro he had gaged amateur players before and officially given out a few dan levels.
'Uh,' he said, trying to look innocent. He demonstratively checked his pockets and then added, 'I guess not, sorry.'
'YOU are a 7-dan amateur?' an incredibly familiar voice asked, causing Hikaru to snap his head 'round to the speaker.
A young man stood before him. Slim, just a little taller than himself, with a ruler straight page-boy hair cut, wearing deep red pants, pink button up shirt and an argyle wooly sweater with reds white and pink lozenges; Touya.
'Well, I guess the proof is in the game,' Hikaru shrugged.
'So it is,' Touya answered coolly. Then he said, 'This way,' before crisply turning around and heading off to the smaller room.
Hikaru and Sai followed him until Touya stopped in front of that self same table they'd played on almost 13 years ago. Touya went around the side he had before and motioned Hikaru and Sai to the other side.
'Touya, Akira,' he said, giving a polite bow.
'Shindou, Hikaru,' Hikaru said and bowed. Sai followed suit with a well rehearsed 'Fujiwara, Sai' and a shallow bow, just like Hikaru's.
They all sat down. Touya on the one side of the Goban, Hikaru on the other with Sai to the right of him; almost exactly as it had been all those years ago. 'Almost' yes, but this time Hikaru would be playing this first game together with his own ability; this time Touya would see Hikaru as himself from the word Go!
OOOO
Touya's Go had always been rock solid. And it was so now. This Touya may not have won a title yet, but that was really because he just didn't enter any title tournaments except for the one that his father still holds.
Hikaru had to work had to keep up. Nothing new there. But that had never meant that Hikaru couldn't win. Why, he had won from Touya before! Granted not too many times and most of those in the last few years, in the other time line. But Hikaru would definitely count himself as being closing in on Touya's level and without self-delusion or bragging either.
And this Touya wasn't too different from the one in the other time line. But he was definitely different. Most telling of these differences was a rigidity in the man's play. And a coldness that Hikaru had never felt before. This Touya was a hard, humorless man.
As the game went on, Hikaru also started to feel a certain lack of passion. 'His' Touya had had a very deep seated passion, that would come out in the game almost against Touya's will, making him angry whenever they reviewed those parts of the game and he found his emotions exposed on the board, for all to see. This Touya had apparently conquered that passion and Hikaru was not so sure that had been a good thing.
Touya's play was incredibly brutal in its efficiency, but still Hikaru could find ways to get around it and gain ground on the board. Hikaru smiled when he looked at Touya's frowning forehead after Hikaru had made yet another unexpected move; frowns were good, it showed that Hikaru was making his opponent work for it.
It ended with a moku and a half between them, in Touya's favor.
'You are good,' Touya said, running his eyes over the board once more.
'Thanks,' Hikaru said while he rubbed his neck and looked away in embarrassment.
'You're not a Pro, are you?'
'Nah.' Hikaru didn't want to too much lying nor give too much information at that point so he didn't add the 'not yet, again', but he did think it.
Touya was silently studying the board for a while.
'Uh, you wanna, uh, discuss the game?' Hikaru ventured. Touya nodded, his eyes still on the board.
Hikaru felt Sai's hand on his arm, drawing his attention.
'Hikaru-same, humbly begging thy pardon, yon gentleman hath offered my humble self a match. Might I accept?' Hikaru translated that as Sai having been asked to play by the guy sitting one table over. The guy even looked at Hikaru pleadingly. Urg; good look on Sai, not so much on this fellow.
'Of course,' Hikaru said. Then Sai whispered something in his ear and Hikaru turned to Touya, who still had his eyes on the board and a knuckle to his lip in deep contemplation.
'Excuse me for about five minutes,' Hikaru said before getting up and showing Sai to the bathroom.
That phrase had always been their way of announcing a pit stop, complete with Go related pun. (5 is 'go' in Japanese, get it? Bad pun? Oh, yes, really bad! They'd had a good laugh over that one in the other time line.) Hikaru figured he'd reintroduce it straight away.
OOOO
They did not discuss the game at that time, as it turned out, because after the B-break Hikaru had helped settle Sai in for his game against his first non-Hikaru, non-NetGo opponent. Then he didn't leave because Touya had come over to watch, that knuckle still at his lip, and Hikaru stayed where he was and did the same.
Hikaru actually vaguely remembered knowing the guy Sai was playing. It was a big dude, maybe 50 years old and Hikaru was pretty much sure the guy was a Pro. And quite possibly Hikaru had even played him in the Oteai; a game Kifu came to mind with that face attached, but no name to match. Well, didn't matter, the guy wasn't of too low a level for Sai, but not being anywhere in the Heian Noble's league, it meant that the guy was heading for a guaranteed defeat. And Hikaru was really going to enjoy seen Sai take this guy apart.
OOOO
As the game progressed, Hikaru was paying close attention to Sai's elegant moves. Both as in the strategy he used in the game as well as the way Sai moved to place the stones on the Goban. The strategy just oozed brilliance, making Hikaru's estimate of this Sai's Go rise; he had learned some new things on NetGo it seemed. And the way Sai's finger tips caressed each stone and eased them in their intended place, did a lot of Hikaru's body too. Possibly a bit too much. But forcing his mind back to thinking about the Go strategy kept things under control nicely.
'He's better than you,' came a whisper, almost in Hikaru's right ear and it surprised him so much he nearly jumped to the left, stumbling a bit instead. He looked over at the Touya, a look of utter affront on his face. Then his look turned angry when he spied that Touya was actually smiling behind that hand he held before his mouth.
'Sorry, didn't mean to startle you,' Touya stage whispered. Hikaru reluctantly decided to move back closer, so they could talk more quietly and not disturb the game. He came to stand next to Touya again and they both continued observing the game. 'No worries,' Hikaru whispered.
'Did you hear what I said before?'
'No. Do try not to scare the begeebees outa people, will ya?'
'All right,' Touya whispered, that annoying little smile back in his voice. 'I said: he's better than you.'
Now there was an understatement.
'Yeah, I know.'
'Is he your teacher?'
Hikaru had to think a moment before he answered. In a 'round about sorta way; 'Yeah, he is.'
Oh no, Hikaru thought, now he's gonna want to play Sai and then he'll end up chasing him again and forget all about me! Oh well, at least I got one great equal game out of it.
'So, you wanna play him next?' Hikaru whispered, jumping in with both feet first. He had never been one to wait for the other shoe to drop, not if he couldn't at least shake the tree a bit.
After a long silence Hikaru was surprised to hear Touya say, 'No, not really. I haven't finished playing you yet.'
Hikaru quickly looked over at were Touya had stood but found only an empty place. A quick look around the people that had gathered around the game, showed that Touya had walked around the group and was heading for the little self service coffee corner.
Hikaru's gaze turned back to the game and he was quickly absorbed back into it. It was utterly brilliant. While Sai's opponent was no real challenge to him, the Heian Noble was giving the guy a beautifully played game. Sai didn't at any time bully him, nor did he mollycoddle him either. No, He gave the guy a game that brought out the best in the guy's Go and that was something that the other Sai had done for Hikaru many times. And Hikaru realized that this was just the kinda thing he felt he had no hope of ever learning to do. Never mind effectively passing on the legacy of that kinda play; that was purely Sai's unique genius.
OOOO
End of part 2
Notes:
¥20,000 = about $250
Oteai = The ongoing professional Tournament in which Go Pros can rise in rank.
Insei = official students of Go at the Go institute.
part three