[Glasser]
by onkoona
part two
Once Upon A Time, Part 3
It wasn't until after the guy had resigned and the game was over that Hikaru realized Touya had brought the players tea on a tray and had stayed to watch the rest of the game from where he stood.
As the group started discussing the finished game, Hikaru saw Touya moving away from his spot and coming back to where they had talked before. Hikaru moved back a bit, with Touya following, until they were well out of the circle and Hikaru could lean his butt against a table behind him.
'Your styles are very different.'
That's our Touya, all of his brain on the job, at all times. Hikaru shrugged.
'Yours is modern, with a good layer of Shuusaku underneath,' Touya continued in the same reflecting tone.
Hikaru felt the corners of his mouth twitch upward. Pal, you have no idea.
'His is positively archaic, with some modern Joseki mixed in, but I still see Shuusaku in him, but somehow rawer, less refined.'
Talk all you want, bud, Sai's the genuine article, he's the one who... Oh? No! An icy panic ran up and down Hikaru's spine and he felt his jaw drop open and his eyes try to escape their sockets.
How can Shuusaku be known as a great player in this time line if Hikaru had taken Sai away from his original time, before he became a ghost and in that way preventing Sai from ever becoming the ghost that had played for Shuusaku over 150 years ago, so Shuusaku'd become a great player? Hikaru felt his breathing stock with the sock of the impossibility of it. A big black well seem to come up to him, wanting to swallow him when...
'Shindou?' Touya's voice, questioning but firm, a warm hand on his arm. The blackness retreated. The rumbling in his ears coalesced into the fast throbbing of his own heartbeat. The hand guided him to a chair and he sat down heavily. A hand pressed against the back of his neck, pushing. 'Head between your knees,' Touya sounded even firmer. Resisting took too much effort so Hikaru let his head just be pushed down.
After a minute or so he did start to feel better. And another minute later he slowly lifted his head a little, ready to go down again in the blackness came back, but thankfully it didn't. He lifted his head further, supporting himself with his elbows on his knees, and came face to face with Sai. Who sat in full Seiza on the cold floor in front of him, looking worried.
'Hikaru-sama, art thou unwell?' Sai's eyes were huge at this distance and they shone like priceless purple gems with fright. His face was pale, a bit paler than normal; making his always rosy lips look almost red. Hikaru reached out a hand and caressed the side of the handsome face.
'You are so beautiful,' Hikaru breathed and slowly he drew the noble face forward and...
'Ahem.'
Hikaru was startled out of his, well whatever that had been, only to look around and see a dozen or so people had gathered 'round. Having fully come back to himself with a shock, Hikaru snatched back his hand, sat up in the chair, scratched the back of his head with his left hand, making sure he stuck out his elbow as far as it would go and dead-panned, 'Ain't you guys've got homes to go to? Can't a guy faint in peace? Geez!'
The trick worked, the group broke up fast enough, unfortunately most of the spectators gave Touya a questioning look, rather than Hikaru. Hey, I'm the one that made a spectacle of myself, not him, Hikaru wanted to say. But he didn't.
'Hikaru-sama?' Sai still sounded worried, so Hikaru turned a reassuring smile towards him. 'Yes?'
'Doest thou not think, mayhaps t'were better if, uh, if we should return home at this time?' Sai looked more than a bit reluctant.
'Don't you want to play some more?' Ah, it had always been such fun to tease Sai. Hikaru really couldn't help enjoying the look of conflict on Sai's face when faced with the loss of as yet unplayed games.
'Ah, verily, my humble heart would swell with the continuation of play, but,' Sai stammered.
'No buts,' Hikaru said indulgently, 'I don't wanna go home yet either, so go play.'
Sai gave him one of those dazzling smiles before bowing haltingly - Sai kept forgetting not to bow so much - hopping up to his feet and quickly moving to join the group from earlier that had moved off a bit.
OOOO
While Sai played three more games with much abandon and a large audience, Hikaru and Touya played a more leisurely game of their own, all by themselves.
It was good game, but not quite of the same level the first one had been. In his Go career Hikaru had found that sometimes the flame just wasn't to be had in a game, no matter how good the players. Oddly enough Hikaru had never seen that happen to any of Sai's games...
After their game was over and they had discussed it - without any yelling, though Hikaru had been sorely tempted several times, but didn't want to chance alienating Touya - Touya had served them both tea. It was nearly 7 pm.
'Will come again tomorrow?' Touya asked after taking a delicate sip of his hot steaming beverage.
'Can't,' Hikaru answered, trying not burn his lips on his tea. Hikaru set the next day aside to deal with 'the hair problem'.
Mama-san had told him Sai's braid would need to be combed out and the hair washed at least once a week. Hikaru could see from where he was sitting that Sai's braid was getting frizzy around the edges. Mama-san knew her stuff, it seemed. So Hikaru had reserved the whole day for it, just in case he needed it.
'Friday then?' Touya asked, after another sip.
'Can't. Gotta work.' Hikaru tried blowing on the tea. He just couldn't understand how Touya could drink the still nearly boiling stuff!
'Hmm,' Touya drawled and sipped again. 'Maybe Fujiwara could come alone...?' He asked. Hikaru frowned. He really didn't want Sai to spend time with Touya without being there himself; too much chance of them ending up playing together.
'I guess not,' Touya answered his own question. 'Fujiwara is special, isn't he? Something like an idiot savant?'
Hikaru nearly spilled his tea when he sat up suddenly and rapped out, 'Hey, don't call Sai an idiot!'
Touya gave Hikaru's angry face an calculating look, put his tea cup on the table and said, 'Sorry, I meant to say that he has a precious gift, but is quite naive in matters other than Go.' He gave a small inclination of the head, that Hikaru translated as 'no offense intended'. He nodded back 'none taken', relaxed back in his chair and tried his tea again.
'He's just not from around here,' Hikaru said by way of explication.
'And you don't want him to run into any trouble? I can see that.' Touya sipped more tea. 'He's family, right?'
'Yeah,' Hikaru said and then realized that that was the exact truth; Sai had really been family since Hikaru had been 11 years old, blood or no blood, alive or not.
They sat and sipped their cooling tea for a while. Both were facing the backs of the spectators of Sai's game, two tables over. I should go take a look, Hikaru thought, but stayed seated.
'I can bring Sai again next Wednesday,' Hikaru proposed.
'I'll be here,' Touya stated.
Then Touya stood up and said, 'I'll get you some 7-dan amateur papers. It should make things easier when you go to other Go clubs.' He walked off before Hikaru could refuse.
The whole having to prove your amateur ranking thing was quite new, or had been in Hikaru's time line, Hikaru was assuming it was the same here. It had started with a sudden inrush of cocky youngsters a few years ago that had seen some kinda a Go drama on TV. They all wanted to play and they all felt they should have high ranks. And they weren't above lying through their teeth about it. So now you could only claim a rank if you had the papers to prove it. The craze had died down quite quickly but the ranking cards system had stayed.
Hikaru had been dumb enough to forget about it when he had signed Sai and himself in that afternoon as 7-dans. But he couldn't say he was sorry about the slip-up, 'cause it had put him directly in Touya's path.
Touya presently returned with a nice lacquer box, which he set down on the table as he seated himself in a chair that already faced in the right direction. Hikaru still sat with his back to the table, rocking his chair a little onto its back legs, gently bumping the table.
From the corner of his eye Hikaru could see Touya neatly laying out the contents of the box onto the table. Forms, pen, stamp.
'Just for Sai,' Hikaru said. Touya just nodded.
'Fujiwara, Sai,' Touya stated, writing on the form. 'Which Kanji for Sai?' he queried. Hikaru told him. 'Address?' Hikaru fished one of his business cards out of his pocket and handed it over. Hikaru looked at Sai's back while Touya wrote out the form and wielding the stamp about. Paperwork, bleh, Hikaru thought as the table shook multiple times as the stamp was used to make it all official.
'Here it is,' Touya said and Hikaru looked over at the card Touya was holding out to him. Hikaru righted his chair, put his tea on the table and took the card. 'Fujiwara, Sai. Amateur rank: 7-dan. Address:' Hikaru checked it; correct 'Signed, Touya Akira, Go Pro,' with a neat round Touya Go Club stamp on top. All it needed was a photo of Sai in the photo box in the left hand corner.
'All correct,' Hikaru announced and was about to put it away in his jacket when Touya held out another card. 'And here is yours,' he said.
'But,' Hikaru started, taking the card.
'Consider it an incentive,' Touya said. 'To become a Pro as soon as possible,' he continued, 'for the both of you.'
Hikaru gave him a questioning look, was he serious? The answering look was clear enough; deadly serious.
OOOO
Ceiling time was quite lengthy that night; there was a lot to think about.
They'd gone to bed quite early that night; Sai had been worn out by the busy day. And Hikaru found himself confronted with yet another way this Sai differed from the ghostly one. The ghost had, as far as Hikaru could tell, never run out of energy nor had he required rest or sleep.
This Sai had been so tired he had fallen asleep during the late dinner they had shared. Hikaru had let the poor guy off on the evening shower, on the grounds that washing his hair tomorrow would probably mean he'd end up taking a full shower anyway. And on the grounds that, now Sai washed every night, he was as clean as any other modern person, and could afford to skip a shower once in a while.
But joining a Sai who was already asleep, did mean that their together-in-bed-before-sleep-time was not very eventful. Well, it did leave Hikaru with more time to think and that's what he did.
Of course the subject of his thoughts that night was; to go Pro or not to go Pro? And when? And how? The first question was pretty much a no-brainer; they would both go Pro, of course. Hikaru did spend some time weighing pros and cons on this, but inevitably came to back that same conclusion.
The question of 'when' was just as simple; the Pro Exam was only once a year, so that would obviously be when.
'How?' quickly translated into 'how much money?' The Exam was not cheap and Hikaru still owed the Time Team all that money. Oh, bugger, this was a Biggy. Possibly a Biggy so big that Hikaru would not be able to solve it any time soon. Well, the Pro Exam Prelim was still 9 months away, hopefully something would come up in that time...
OOOO
The next day Hikaru put Mama-san's advice to the test. First was the combing out of the hair, starting, to Hikaru, quite unexpectedly, at the bottom and slowly working his way up. He wasn't even a quarter of the way up, before he started to appreciate Mama-san's knowledge of her craft; had he started at the top, he would have had the hair tangled beyond help in no time flat. And now he knew why it had taken over an hour for the servant in the Heian period to do it; it took Hikaru almost three!
After the combing - and a much needed lunch break - came the washing. Hikaru made Sai sit up on a towel on the shower floor, so Hikaru could reach the top of his head more easily. Sai wore a towel; Hikaru expected to get it totally wet, as he just didn't have the hairdressing facilities that Mama-san had at her shop. And Hikaru's finances really didn't allow for Sai to have visit with the hairdresser's every week, so they just had to make do. He himself wore a t-shirt and boxer shorts with bathroom slippers on his feet, expecting to get splattered, but not doused.
Mama-san had sold him a hair shampoo that Hikaru was to massage into the freshly combed hair, newly wetted from the top down. He had been cautioned not to use too much, because it wasn't cheap. She told him he'd know when to use more; when it stopped producing foam. Then he was to rinse it out three times, to be sure to get everything out. After that he was to carefully wring out the hair by wrapping it in a towel and squeezing it. Then he was to rinse the hair with a mixture he had to make himself from citrusy smelling crystals and tap water. That rinse should stay in.
The shampooing and rinsing took another hour, and by this time Hikaru was feeling like his arms would just drop off with fatigue. The whole affair suddenly turned into a watery event when the shower head escaped Hikaru's tired hand and went flying, dowsing both Sai and Hikaru in warm water.
OOOO
After drying Sai's hair, putting in the rinse and drying off themselves - no need for more showering after all that - they both dressed in Yukata.
Mama-san's instructions were that Sai's hair was supposed to be laid out to dry. Hikaru had suggested the use of a blow dryer, but she had vetoed that saying that domestic blow dryers could easily burn the hair and that the result would be frizzy at best.
So Hikaru decided to convert the couch into the bed, had Sai, wrapped in his yellow Yukata, lay down with his hair spread out over the edge onto dry towels on the floor. He made a big pot of tea, put whatever else he could think of that they might possibly want for the next few hours near at hand and joined Sai on the bed for a relaxing afternoon of cuddling.
OOOO
As Hikaru, clad in the purple Yukata, crawled next to Sai, he realized that this was actually the first time were neither of them had not been asleep, or near to it, while in the bed. Before this the excuse for sharing the bed was a sharing of warmth in the cold night. But now it was not night and they had no such excuse.
Also, since neither needed to sleep at 3 pm, Hikaru realized that this was a great opportunity to ask some questions. And the most burning of these - burning ever since Hikaru had realized he could not ask Sai, the ghost, because it was just after he'd disappeared - was:
'Sai?' Hikaru said, laying on his side next to the Heian Noble who lay on his back.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama?' Darn, Hikaru could still here the bow in the words, even if Sai didn't - couldn't from that position - bow to him.
'Uh.' Hikaru toyed with a short tuft of Sai's hair. 'Could you tell me a little about your life? I mean before you came here,' he added.
Sai looked up in shock at Hikaru and moved a little away from him as if in fear of him. Oh, now what? Hikaru thought.
'My liege,' Sai started. Hikaru frowned at him. 'Hikaru-sama, I, uh, well,' Sai stammered. Hikaru started to get worried, his question had been nice and innocent hadn't it?
'Whatever it is, I won't be mad, just tell me what the matter is,' he said, trying to sound both commanding and reassuring.
That tactic seemed to work because Sai's body seemed to relax somewhat as a look of resignation entered the amethyst eyes.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama.' Sai took a deep breath and let it out.
'I was untruthful to thee,' he said. Untruthful? Sai? Hikaru couldn't believe that. And his disbelieve was apparently clearly visible because Sai continued by adding, 'My sin was that of omission; I told thee not of my shame.'
Hikaru must still have looked doubtful as Sai spoke on. 'My humble self was disgraced before the Divine Emperor himself. My mere presence is a blot on your divinity and,' This was where Hikaru held up his hand and said, 'Listen to me, Sai, and listen closely; I am not a god and no man or woman you will meet here is divine either, is that understood?' He hadn't meant to sound harsh or angry but he could tell by the scared look on the Noble's face that he had done both. Well, as long as it got the message across, it would do.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama,' Sai answered in a small voice. Then Hikaru got a hunch. 'Say, if this is about that other guy accusing you of cheating when you didn't but he did, at that game with the Emperor there?' he asked point blank and Sai slowly nodded his head. 'Well, don't worry about that. The guy was an ass; you were just stronger at Go then him and he just couldn't take it, the schmuck,' Hikaru pontificated. Sai stayed quiet.
Hikaru who had hoisted himself up on an elbow, while delivering his tirade, flopped back down, put a hand over one of Sai's that lay on his chest and commanded, 'So, tell me about your life.'
For almost a minute Sai didn't say anything, visibly trying to adjust to Hikaru's lack of a bad reaction towards his confession. It wasn't until Hikaru made an encouraging gesture that Sai opened his mouth and started to talk.
'My humble self was born into a lower branch of the illustrious Fujiwara family. Until I was 11 summers of age, I was the third son. Never did I meet my brothers or my honorable father, for my brothers had moved to posts in the inner court, where my father also resided. It were happy days indeed, I played much Go with my honorable mother and my honorable aunt and my honorable tutor. I'm obliged to say I did very poorly at my studies of Music and Art. My effort, t'was so vile, my tutor begged me give it up.' Hikaru had to smile at that; he could just imagine the tutor with his fingers in his ears while little Sai practiced playing the flute.
'We secreted the fact we whiled away the lesson hours with Go form Mother, lest I'd be punished and my tutor suffer worse! One illustrious day, Michinaga-sama came to play me. I know not how he knew I could play to any level that might be of interest him. In my humbleness I tried to play him as best I could.' I'll bet you did, Hikaru thought, I wish I could've seen you demolish the guy!
'That winter I was adopted into a higher part of the Fujiwara family and I was tutored in writing and Go only. I never met my new mother, for I was a man then and could not meet females unchaperoned, and my mother was not interested in males or Go.' Urg, sounds like a cold fish. Wouldn't like to have that as a mother, Hikaru thought, shuddering.
'Art thou cold, Hikaru-sama?' Sai's earnest eyes, that had been on ceiling for most of the story, had moved to Hikaru's face, now giving him a concerned look.
'Nah, not really. Just go on with the story,' he said, waving Sai on. Sai returned his gaze back to ceiling and continued.
'After some years I became a Go tutor and played ever increasing numbers of fellow Nobles at court. T'was a most agreeable time! Then one illustrious day I was to tutor the Third Prince. And later the Second Prince. And then my humble self was given the most honored task of tutoring the Emperor himself.' Hikaru liked the way the memory of this event made Sai's face light up. Then Hikaru frowned as Sai's face suddenly dropped.
'But, how I know not, it was not to be. Afore I could take up my commission, I was told there would be a deciding game; he who winneth, shall be the tutor, he who loseth shall not. Michinaga-sama, once informed, was very vexed indeed, but not even one as mighty as he could undo the Emperor's decree and so the match was set.' Sai fell silent for a moment.
'And that's the game where you got cheated,' Hikaru continued for him.
'Verily, t'was that game,' Sai confirmed. Hikaru sighed.
'And then you tried to kill yourself,' he added to the story.
'To save my family's honor and at Michinaga-sama's command, yes,' Sai confirmed. Hey, hold on a sec, Hikaru thought.
'Whatsit-sama ordered you to go kill yourself?' Hikaru asked.
'But, of course,' Sai confirmed, sounding a little puzzled at Hikaru's indignation. 'It was my honorable duty to comply,' Sai added.
Well, this was something Hikaru had not known; imagine being ordered to go kill yourself! Hikaru knew of course that Japanese history was full of that sorta thing, but he lived in a suicide free society and was darn proud of it!
Hikaru's thundering thoughts must have been visible on his face, because suddenly he felt the feather soft touch of Sai's long hand on the side of his face. 'Thee must not be vexed; t'were my death that hath brought me dither. And I am most happy here, in heaven's bosom,' Sai said, a sweet smile on his face.
Heaven's bosom? Did Sai think he was dead? Oh dear, how was he gonna fix that misconception?
'Sai, look, you ain't dead, you get it?' he tried, but that dreamy look didn't seem to go out of the Heian Noble's eyes, his hand still on Hikaru's cheek. 'Uh, this is not heaven. C'mon! Does it look like heaven? Do I look like a God?' Hikaru demanded.
'Thee resembles the most beatific of Deities and where would such as thee reside but in Heaven?' Sai argued back, quite undaunted.
'Urg,' Hikaru returned, not being able to come up with anything better. He ran his free hand through his hair in exasperation. Then he saw the dreamy look on Sai's face fade into a sad one and he felt the hand drop away from his face.
'However, I fear that my humble self doth not please thee. But yesternoon thou hath called me beautiful, yet thou doth not take up thy servant's sincerest offer.' Sai had looked ahead when he said that, but now he turned his head and looked pleadingly directly in Hikaru's shocked eyes. 'Inform me how I hath displeased thee, so that I might make amends!'
Hikaru was more that puzzled now. 'You didn't do anything wrong and I would take anything that you'd offer me, but really I don't know what you're talking about!' he said.
Sai blinked twice in quick succession as if that helped process what Hikaru had said. Well, maybe it did, because Sai answered, 'Why, my offer of pillowing with thee.'
This time Hikaru blinked. Pillowing? Oh! He suddenly got it. So Sai's joining Hikaru in bed had been more than a wish to share warmth! Hikaru couldn't help smiling broadly. Oh yes, he would just love to pillow with Sai.
This time he figured it was his turn to place hands and that's what he did after he'd rolled on top of a very - and happily - surprised Sai. Once there he placed a hand to each side of the Noble's face, angled his head a little and let their lips connect.
OOOO
Much, much later, Hikaru introduced Sai to playing Go on Kifu paper, since he wasn't about to give up his snugly spot on the bed with Sai in his arms. Playing on Kifu paper was pretty much like playing on a Goban, except you 'placed' the stones with a pencil instead. It was exactly like writing a game up while it was still in progress; stones were placed by writing the number of the hand in the location the stone is placed with a pencil and drawing a circle around the white stones. Whenever stones were removed, Hikaru used the eraser on the other end of the pencil to erase it and then he wrote the stone down as a captured stone at the bottom of the page, with its co-ordinate and move number added, circled or not.
Sai was fascinated. Especially with the numbers used. And with a shock Hikaru realized his own stupidity; he should have realized that this Sai, fresh from the Heian Period, a thousand years ago, would of course not know the western numbering symbols used in all the Go books Hikaru had got him.
He quickly fixed his over sight by writing out the western numbers on the back of the Kifu paper pad. Sai seemed to pick up the new symbols pretty quickly and presently was writing down numbers of 6 figures.
Then Hikaru got another shock; it turned out Sai couldn't actually read any of the text in the Go books either. So far he had made do with just puzzling out the Kifu themselves, trying to learn from them even if he couldn't 'read' the play order at the time.
Sai explained that he could read the Chinese characters, the Kanji, but not the other characters that seem to hold the sentences together. So he could see that a sentence was about 'go' and 'attack' and 'strategy', but not the way these things related and might be informative to him.
Hikaru quickly tore a Kifu sheet off the pad and started drawing the Hiragana characters that every four year old in Japan knew. He gave their pronunciation and had an absolutely riveted Sai copy each one out a few times.
He left the school lessons at that for the day; Katakana could wait until tomorrow. But had made a mental note to himself to go raid a bookshop the next day for books on Kanji reading, 'cause the way that modern Japanese used their Kanji was very different from the way the Chinese used theirs - Hikaru knew at least that much - and Sai would need to know a lot more before he'd be reading complicated Japanese Go books any time soon!
Hikaru could kick himself for not thinking of this sooner. Of course ghostly Sai had read modern Japanese just fine, but then he had spend a good 30 years in the late Edo Period, - when Hiragana, Katakana and modern Kanji readings had already existed - and had probably picked it up then. This Sai had not had that opportunity and he had really come from a period just before the Kanas had come into common use. Even if he was there at the time of their conception, the Kanas had been the female writing system and Sai would not have been privy to that.
OOOO
They settled into a routine over the next few weeks. Hikaru would work most days and Sai would play NetGo and work on his reading at home at that time. Each evening they'd play Go and Hikaru would be surprised by something new Sai had learned that day from his NetGo games. Each night was heaven and Hikaru quickly learned that Sai knew a trick or two from his original period that had definitely not become obsolete.
Wednesdays there would be mornings spend in the park, when it wasn't raining, and afternoons - and sometimes evenings too - spent at the Touya Go club.
Thursdays was 'washing & cuddling day' but as Hikaru got more practiced at hair grooming, there was more time available to do things like go out to for ramen in the evenings. Hikaru did decide to keep it a day just for them and not let any others encroach into their time together. In his usual agreeable way Sai didn't seem to mind at all.
At the end of the first month that Hikaru had brought Sai to this time line, Hikaru had the unenviable task of informing Kanzou-sensei that he couldn't give the man any money that month. The shopping for clothing, books and PC, not to mention food expenditure for two people had blown away considerably more money than Hikaru's salary had yielded. Hikaru did offer the sensei his emergency fund but was turned down on the grounds that it really wouldn't make much of a dent.
Kanzou-sensei did want answers from Hikaru, on how come Hikaru's life-path had been affected by the removal of one about to die Heian Noble one thousand years ago. And Hikaru did agree it was fair to explain to the man how ¥20,000,000 had gone up in smoke.
That night, on the phone, he told him the story of the boy and the ghost. He did it, sitting on the cold floor with his back against wall, keeping his eyes firmly on Sai's sleeping form on the bed, in the dark apartment. The regular movement of Sai's breathing steadied him as he poured out his grief over the death of the person who now lay in deep slumber on his own bed.
Only once he came to the end of his story, did he realize his face was wet and he had been crying for some time. Even the sensei was silent for some minutes, digesting the tale.
'You are a fool, Hikaru-kun,' he said at last. 'You've ruined your life by bringing him here!'
'No, sensei, you are wrong; with him here, I've made it worth living,' Hikaru answered.
OOOO
November turned into December, the coldest December in decades. But both Sai and Hikaru were unaffected by that; they kept each other warm.
Hikaru managed to keep his job, even though his boss yelled at him every day, without fail. Hikaru did feel he was getting a better grip on the job itself; he was taking better pictures and his reporting style improved so much he got a positive comment from one of the copy writers about that. And Hikaru took Sai out for sushi to celebrate it - after all, you had to create your own opportunities for parties, no one else would!
Hikaru even had a chance to play Go while at work. He had been sent to interview a CEO of a big local company, for a human interest story. But the poor guy had been so nervous; he only gave one word answers to Hikaru's questions. Then Hikaru spied the Goban that sat in the corner of the man's office and proposed a game.
The man didn't have much of a level of play, so Hikaru just played a veiled version of Shidogo while he talked amicably with the man. The resulting three column article the next day had made Hikaru feel quite proud.
It was actually a pretty big thrill to see the pictures he took one day, appearing in the paper the next.
Maeda and some of Hikaru's other colleagues were very friendly and asked him out for drinks and bowling nights. Even though he always turned them down, he appreciated being invited. But quite frankly, he'd much rather spend the time with Sai.
When they invited him to bowling once again, rather persistently that time, Hikaru told them why he preferred to go home. After some stunned looks from the men, Maeda surprised Hikaru by simply inviting Hikaru to bring Sai along.
Now if the proposition had been for going out drinking, Hikaru would have turned them down flat, but as it was blowing... Who knows, Sai might like that. So, still not quite sure if it was smart to do so, he accepted; they'd meet at the bowling alley in an hour.
Sai at a bowling alley was fun. Apparently in the Heian Period there had been a not too dissimilar game. So Sai picked up the basic principle quickly enough. All the rest was a matter of teaching him how to use the huge ball with the holes and how the points system worked. And after that it was just a matter of having fun. Which they did, in spades.
OOOO
December turned in to January and they had snow every day for three weeks. Sai was absolutely delighted; he said it reminded him of home.
Hikaru had more bad news for Kanzou-sensei; his and Sai's living expenses pretty much ate up Hikaru's entire salary. The rent on his shoe-box apartment was exorbitantly high, but if he didn't reside in the neighborhood, he wouldn't have his job at the paper. Their policy was to hire only locals. So it was a catch twenty-two, with nothing much left over.
Kanzou-sensei seemed to take it well. Or at least, he didn't say something. Actually he didn't say anything and Hikaru felt guilted into apologizing some more. The sensei told him to knock it off and hung up the phone.
OOOO
The third Monday of January brought a surprise phone call: Mama-san. Hikaru had long forgotten he had given the nice lady his card on that one visit to her shop. He asked her what he could do for her.
Mama-san replied that they might be able to do each other a favor. She then explained that she, next to the hair business, also ran a small modeling agency for traditional looking Japanese models. She was an agent for both women and men who could carry off authentically wearing the traditional outfits. And now she had commission for a Heian photo shoot and she really didn't have the right man for that in her portfolio. So would Sai be interested in earning some money modeling?
Hikaru had to sit after hearing that. Sai, a photo model?
Well, he was pretty enough, certainly in Hikaru's eyes, and it wasn't like he hadn't seen people look at the Heian Noble. And then there would be money involved, wouldn't there?
He asked Mama-san and she gave him a quote. Now Hikaru was glad he was sitting down; Sai could make - minus Mama-san's finder's fee and don't forget that taxes would have to be paid - in a day more than Hikaru made in a week.
Hikaru realized he couldn't say 'no' to that. Even without the big debt hanging over their heads, Hikaru was having trouble making ends meet without dipping in the emergency fund. No, they'd have to take the offer, that much was clear.
OOOO
Of course Sai didn't like it much that he had to give up his day at the Touya Go club to have his hair grooming a day early and then spend the next day in a chilly warehouse studio getting dressed and undressed all day. But Hikaru knew they had no choice and just as he had been against letting Sai go to any Go club by himself, there was no friggin' way he'd let Sai go to a possibly dodgy photo studio by all himself!
And that turned out to be wise decision, because as one of the last tableaus of the day - after several Heian Court scenes and a 'Noble commands Samurai' scene, all with bells on - the main photographer wanted Sai to pose for an archery scene, with his hair blowing in the wind and his top hanging down, so basically half naked.
Hikaru's inner little green eyed monster utterly vetoed the idea; that part of Sai was for his eyes only! His more sensible brain vetoed it on the grounds that the temperature in the warehouse was too close to freezing and such scenes had not been discussed beforehand.
Unfortunately Mama-san wasn't at the photo shoot or he would have discussed it with her and she might have mediated, being more familiar with the world of photo shoots. But in the end Hikaru's threat of just walking out the door with Sai right then, made the man see sense. The scene was shot with Sai wearing his top properly.
Sai looked amazing standing there on the stage, drawing the arrow back on the bow with confidence, amid blooming potted cherry trees with petals being blown everywhere by the three small wind machines. Behind him was a part construction of an old style Japanese arch and behind that an enormous canvas depicting the beginnings of a sunset.
Earlier, when Hikaru had helped getting Sai dressed, Sai had told him he had indeed practiced archery when he had been a boy, but then as his Go career took him to the inner court, he's become too busy for the hobby.
Well, the picture came out beautifully and later Hikaru found Sai had earned a bonus with it as it had been sold on to a liquor company, called Sakura Sake, to be used in their advertisements in Hokaido. Hikaru was happy to take the extra money; finally he'd have some good news for the sensei, when the man would call the week after next!
OOOO
The next Thursday had been another regular 'wash and cuddle' day. The day before they had spent entirely at the Touya Go club, as it had been much too cold to spend any time outdoors.
They had made themselves very cozy that Thursday, with lots of hot tea and lots of sweets, letting Sai's hair dry as much as it could, before Hikaru would braid it later, just before going bed. Hikaru had surprised himself at how good he had gotten at hair braiding; he could now do the whole length in 15 minutes, where the first attempt had been well over an hour.
At half past 3, when Sai went to refill the teapot for the third time that day, the door bell rang. Hikaru belted his Yukata and got up to open it. He had impressed upon Sai never to open the door to anyone, a long time ago, just for security. And he wasn't expecting visitors that night anyway, so he intended to look through the spy hole before opening the door. But he never got that far.
He startled as he heard a human shriek come from the kitchenette and then the unmistakable sound of crockery shattering. He whirled around and started moving towards the kitchen when he felt two large hands grip his upper arms in an iron grip from behind him.
He struggled hard to get free but the hands did not give a millimeter, while fear raged up his spine; what the H was going on?
'Sai!' he screamed in panic; he had recognized the shriek as being in Sai's voice. And then he felt something touch his neck and all the strength just flowed out of his muscles and left him dangling by the hands on his upper arms. As his legs lost their ability to hold him up, he felt himself being lifted up high enough that his now useless feet left the ground all together. From the side of his lulling head he could see someone very tall pass by him in quick strides. The figure walked all the way to the far side of the room and then turned around.
The man was huge. Thin and impossibly tall, dark hair and wearing something that Hikaru could only describe as a camp silver Flash Gordon outfit, with red stripes on his shoulders and around his wrists, waist and just under his knees.
'Where's the other one?' the man barked. Hikaru tried to speak, but found himself unable to utter a single sound.
'Here, sir,' came from over by the open doorway to the kitchenette. Hikaru put all his will into turning in that direction and managed to roll his head just enough to get a view. What he saw shocked him. In the doorway stood another impossibly tall man, same silver outfit, also dark hair, but with blue stripes, with his hands out in front of him holding the lolling body of Sai off the floor by his upper arms, in exactly the same way that Hikaru was being held. Sai looked the palest Hikaru had ever seen him, his mouth hung half open, his eyes were rolled back into his head with only the whites showing under his half closed lids. He looked dead.
Hikaru wanted to scream: what have you done to Sai, you monsters? but he couldn't. He tried to struggle, but he couldn't. He tried to cry, but he couldn't. All he could do was hang there and wait for whatever would happen next.
OOOO
Another tall man entered, blond, same outfit with yellow stripes, walking straight up to Red and taking a sci-fi laser type gun kinda thing from his belt. He carefully checked the settings on it while Hikaru again tried to get his body to obey him.
'Start with him,' Red ordered indicating Sai. Hikaru redoubled his efforts, with predictable results. What were they going to do? Yellow nodded to his captain and took the two steps over to Blue who held the unmoving Sai out to him, making Sai's legs dangle with the motion. Yellow put the gun to Sai's temple and pressed a button. Hikaru screamed internally as a high pitched whine was heard and Sai started to twitch like he was having an epileptic fit. Yellow only held the button down for some ten seconds, but they really were the longest ten seconds of Hikaru's life.
After releasing the button, Yellow took the nozzle of the gun away from Sai, who appeared to slump down even deeper, his eyes were closed now. Hikaru was extremely relieved when he saw Sai's chest move as he breathed. Other than that, Sai still appeared dead.
Yellow checked the settings on his 'gun' again. 'One thousand exactly,' he reported to his captain. Hikaru could just see Red's face from the corner of his left eye, without moving his head away from his view of Blue with Sai to the right. Red did not look happy. And Hikaru was pretty sure that that would not bode well for either Sai or himself.
'Now him,' Red commanded, indicating Hikaru with his head. Yellow stepped over to Hikaru's right and Hikaru could feel the nozzle touch his temple. The whiny sound started and Hikaru's world exploded in a bright hot all encompassing pain. It was like his flesh was being burned off his bones and all he wanted to do was scream and scream and ...
Then the pain stopped and the whine stilled. Hikaru could do nothing other than just hang there limply as Yellow checked his settings and reported, 'Only a few hours.'
'Hmm,' Hikaru heard Red say. 'Take that info to the Chief,' he continued.
'Yes, Sir!' Yellow said and walked out of Hikaru's field of vision.
Hikaru didn't get much time to wonder what would happen next as Yellow returned almost immediately. He walked past Hikaru and the guy who was holding him - whom Hikaru had not been able to see at all - straight up to his superior and reported, 'Chief says normalize.'
Red seemed to be surprised by that. 'Normalize?' he asked. 'Normalize,' Yellow confirmed holding out a surprisingly ordinary looking mania brown envelope for Red to take. Red took it and said, waving his other hand in a universal 'go right ahead' gesture, 'Well than, normalize.'
Yellow nodded and started fiddling with his settings again while he moved back towards Blue and Sai. Hikaru was in an utter panic now; what the H was normalize? Were they going to die?
Yellow put the gun against Sai's throat this time and a low rumble started as Sai started twitching again. Hikaru once more started to struggle, but it did no good. He wanted to scream, don't hurt him! but it was futile. Hikaru was filled with horror as a yellow symbol of a hour glass started to appear just under the nozzle of the gun. It appeared to glow and then to burn, with Sai twitching more violently, his legs being kicked around by the tremors, like he was a puppet with all its strings broken.
Then the rumble stopped and Sai was still once more. Hikaru panicked again when he couldn't see Sai's chest move and all he could think was: they've killed him, they've killed him! Then Blue let his arms drop slowly and it was as if Sai's lifeless body was spilled out on the floor as if he were a cup of ink, accidentally upturned. Sai's hair flowed to the floor as if in slow motion and Hikaru could do nothing other than follow its decent helplessly.
Then suddenly Yellow appeared by Hikaru's right side and the gun was at his throat before he could even blink. The rumble started up and everything went black.
OOOO
By the splitting headache that assailed him and the wave of nausea that washed over him, Hikaru knew he was still alive. As a reflex he had turned over to prevent throwing up, before he had even registered he'd been laying on his back on the floor. Turning over helped; he now felt would be able to stop his lunch from reappearing.
Suddenly memory returned; Red, Yellow and Blue, ridiculous silver outfits, laser guns, Sai falling to the ground. Sai! Hikaru scrambled up. Where was Sai?
He found his unsteady feet, gulped down noisily that which had threatened to come up at the sudden movement and he turned around to look over at the location he had last seen the Heian Noble.
Sai lay on the ground, just where Hikaru had seen him fall. Lying there, he reminded Hikaru strongly of that black haired, rosy lipped princess from that fairy tale where she had been laid out to rest in a glass coffin, because her friends could not bear to put her in the cold dark earth. Hikaru knew just how they felt; how could he ever bury his lover when Sai looked like that? Hikaru's heart screamed in sorrow, as his throat produced a sob. How could he live on without Sai? Not again, he couldn't take losing Sai again! He sank to his knees when he realized he couldn't. Just couldn't.
Then, even as tears started to distort his vision, he saw it. Sai's chest moved, he was sure of it. He scrambled up again and quickly sliding over the laminate's smooth surface to come to sit next to Sai's body. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with a rough swipe of his sleeve and then was elated when he saw the chest rise again, more clearly this time. Sai was alive!
Carefully Hikaru touched the still face. It was warm, not feverish and he could feel the eyelashes flutter against the side of his thumb, but the eyes did not open. 'Sai,' he called out softly, caressing the cheek again. 'Sai!' he said a little louder, now getting worried again. He jostled Sai's shoulder with his free hand. 'Sai!' But the eyes still didn't open.
He started to get worried again. Had Sai been injured? Was that why he wasn't waking up? Hikaru pushed the coils of hair that lay around Sai's face and upper body aside and checked his temple where that odd gun had rested first. The area was a little red, but the skin appeared unbroken, nor was there a bruise or anything. Hikaru then slid his hand around Sai's head to check for a bump on the back from the fall, but there was nothing. Moving the hair away from Sai's throat and pulling open the yellow Yukata revealed the general area where the hourglass image had appeared under the gun's nozzle. There was nothing there now; no hourglass, no burn, no bruise. It wasn't even a bit red, or anything; like nothing had ever happened at all.
So why did Sai not wake up? Hikaru tried again to rouse his lover but nothing happened. After some minutes he decided Sai would be more comfortable on the bed so, very carefully, he reached under Sai's legs and shoulders, trying to not get his hands tangled in the loose hair and lifted him up slowly.
Sai was not light, so Hikaru took it slowly. But he wasn't as heavy as Hikaru would have expected a man that was a little taller than himself to be. Hikaru had seen Sai naked many times now and hadn't failed to see that all his ribs were visible, something that should not be so on a well fed man. But as Hikaru had gotten used to Sai's physical appearance and his tangibility, Hikaru had chalked the thinness up as being just part of Sai and promptly had forgotten its implication; that of real malnourishment.
Now that he could actually feel that Sai was too light for his height, he kicked himself and swore to keep a closer eye on Sai's eating habits, 'cause just adding modern cookies - which Sai adored - to the Heian man's diet had apparently not been enough.
Hikaru very carefully laid him on the couch that was still in its bed form; they hadn't bothered to change it into a couch that morning, since they knew they would be wanting to use it as a bed all day anyway. Just as Hikaru was getting his arm out from under, Sai shuddered and Hikaru was just in time in turning Sai over and clearing his head away from the bed as the poor guy threw up spectacularly onto the laminate floor.
'A thousands pardons, Hikaru-sama, my humble self hath not volition in this!' Sai moaned, sounding aghast, his head still hanging down over the edge of the bed.
As he held stands of Sai's hair away from the floor Hikaru looked down at the mess he was kneeling next to. Most of it had misted him, but not all. Oh, well. Then he tucked the hair back onto the bed and gently touched the back of Sai's neck before getting to his feet. 'No worries; puking just shows you are alive and not dead.' And I'm mighty glad of it, he added in his head as he went to the hall cupboard for a bucket and mop.
OOOO
After the clean up - the mess in the living room and the broken teapot in the kitchen - Hikaru made fresh tea in the saucepan and tried to talk to Sai about what had happened.
The hot mint tea and the chocolate cookies seemed to revive the Heian Noble pretty fast, but after a slight language scuffle it became clear to Hikaru that Sai remembered absolutely nothing of the strange men who had broken into their peaceful home. In fact in Sai's mind he had become unwell suddenly and had thrown up, nothing more. Sai didn't even remember the teapot shattering, even though he did apologize for it. But then Hikaru already knew that Sai would start apologizing when stuff happened around him that he just didn't understand. So that was no proof of anything at all.
But Hikaru's memory was a as clear as crystal: the tall guys, the silver costumes, the gun, Sai on the floor, the Manila envelope... That was sitting on the coffee table next to him; Hikaru had seen it when he had cleaned the floor, but the thing's significance had only come up as Hikaru had started to think over the events again.
There was not even a question of not opening the thing; if those guys had left it here, it couldn't have been for any other reason than that Hikaru should see the content. At that moment Hikaru hadn't had any suspicion that it might be some type of trap. Later when he looked back, he kicked himself for not being cautious. But, and not for the first time, Hikaru got very lucky and no trap was sprung.
Out of the envelope poured a small avalanche of official papers and photos. Hikaru picked up the top item: a laminated ID card. It read:
Name: Fujwara, Sai
Born: 1985/01/09
Birthplace: Sendai
Nationality: Japanese
Gender: male
There was a long row of numbers at the bottom and a bad picture of Sai at the top right. Hikaru quickly checked through the pile; there was a birth certificate - listing Fujiwara Noa and Konoe Keiko as Sai's parents - school graduation papers, inoculation certificates, all with Sai's name on them, all official and absolutely real looking. There was a class photo with a young uniformed Sai, with his hair in a braid, in the right part of the back row of kids. Wedding party pictures, with an even younger Sai in a suit standing next to some other dolled up kids, looking uncomfortable with his waist length hair hanging loose. There were official family type pictures without Sai in them. Wedding photos of people that might have been Sai's parents and of his grandparents and even his great grandparents. Then Hikaru saw a page that had been typed on an old fashioned type writer; Gramps had had one of those. It showed the family tree of the Fujiwaras of Sendai. On the front side it traced a Fujiwara Nao (born 1955, Sendai) through many other Fujiwaras to a Fujiwara Tadajiro (born 1767, Kyoto). On the back side Fujiwara Tadajiro was traced back to a part of the Fujiwara clan that had been at the Emperor's Court since the 8th Century.
Hikaru's last find was a brand new piece of paper; a doctor's report on Fujiwara, Sai. Briefly it said that Sai had had an understandable breakdown after this home and family were destroyed in the tsunami. The doctor recommended rest and finding him (Sai) a useful occupation in his field of interest. And since Sai had shown a talent in Go, a therapy involving Go was highly recommended.
The report - and all the other official papers - was stamped officially and if Hikaru dared, he would be able to use them to give Sai a real modern identity. If he trusted those creepy tall guys not to have given him phonies, that is...
But for the life of him he couldn't think of why they would give Sai all this if it was all fake. It just had to be all real. They had said 'normalize'. Is this what they'd meant? Make Sai a person of this world, just like any other person born in this time? It sure looked like it, didn't it.
Hikaru looked over at Sai on the bed. He'd apparently fallen asleep with his empty cup still in his hand, while Hikaru had read the papers. Hikaru got up, reached down to gently extract the cup from Sai's sleeping hand and put it aside. He then spread the quilt over his sleeping lover before finding his laptop for a little research.
OOOO
The documents turned out to be absolutely genuine as far as Hikaru had been able to check. The schools listed in the certificates all had existed - or still did - the Fujiwara family tree seemed real enough, even the doctor who has written that report was real and turned out to be a famous military shrink who specialized in disaster victims. Hikaru had to wonder how those tall dudes had gotten the man to, well, write that report. Or had made him believe he had written that report? Or had forced him to write that report? God, he hoped it hadn't been the latter.
Still, all this evidence did make Hikaru wonder who those guys had been and what had been in it for them. Hikaru fully realized they could easily have killed both of them that afternoon and Red had looked more than willing to order that if that was what he thought would be best. But he hadn't done that, instead he had told Yellow to 'normalize' them, whatever that was. And Yellow had left that envelope... No, Yellow had given the thing to Red, Hikaru remembered seeing that before he got 'buzzed'. So it must have been Red who left the envelope. So leaving it for Hikaru to find was deliberate then.
And picking Sai's place of birth as Sendai, Hikaru had to concede, was a brilliant move; pure genius if cruel. But if Red and his men were what Hikaru was suspecting they were, then the 2011 earthquake and tsunami was of no more emotional importance to them than the war of 1185, that ended the Heian Period, was to Hikaru; just a part of history.
With the few facts Hikaru had, he concluded that Red and his men had apparently had done Sai and Hikaru the favor of letting them live and giving Sai a background, for reasons unknown. It wasn't much, but Hikaru (and Sai) could get on with living with it and that really was the main thing wasn't it?
OOOO
End of part 3
Notes:
Seiza = sitting with your legs folded under you on the floor
Kanas = collective name for Hiragana and Katakana scripts (does NOT include the Kanji)
Shidogo = a better player plays a lesser player to teach him about the game, not necessarily to win.
part four
part two
Once Upon A Time, Part 3
It wasn't until after the guy had resigned and the game was over that Hikaru realized Touya had brought the players tea on a tray and had stayed to watch the rest of the game from where he stood.
As the group started discussing the finished game, Hikaru saw Touya moving away from his spot and coming back to where they had talked before. Hikaru moved back a bit, with Touya following, until they were well out of the circle and Hikaru could lean his butt against a table behind him.
'Your styles are very different.'
That's our Touya, all of his brain on the job, at all times. Hikaru shrugged.
'Yours is modern, with a good layer of Shuusaku underneath,' Touya continued in the same reflecting tone.
Hikaru felt the corners of his mouth twitch upward. Pal, you have no idea.
'His is positively archaic, with some modern Joseki mixed in, but I still see Shuusaku in him, but somehow rawer, less refined.'
Talk all you want, bud, Sai's the genuine article, he's the one who... Oh? No! An icy panic ran up and down Hikaru's spine and he felt his jaw drop open and his eyes try to escape their sockets.
How can Shuusaku be known as a great player in this time line if Hikaru had taken Sai away from his original time, before he became a ghost and in that way preventing Sai from ever becoming the ghost that had played for Shuusaku over 150 years ago, so Shuusaku'd become a great player? Hikaru felt his breathing stock with the sock of the impossibility of it. A big black well seem to come up to him, wanting to swallow him when...
'Shindou?' Touya's voice, questioning but firm, a warm hand on his arm. The blackness retreated. The rumbling in his ears coalesced into the fast throbbing of his own heartbeat. The hand guided him to a chair and he sat down heavily. A hand pressed against the back of his neck, pushing. 'Head between your knees,' Touya sounded even firmer. Resisting took too much effort so Hikaru let his head just be pushed down.
After a minute or so he did start to feel better. And another minute later he slowly lifted his head a little, ready to go down again in the blackness came back, but thankfully it didn't. He lifted his head further, supporting himself with his elbows on his knees, and came face to face with Sai. Who sat in full Seiza on the cold floor in front of him, looking worried.
'Hikaru-sama, art thou unwell?' Sai's eyes were huge at this distance and they shone like priceless purple gems with fright. His face was pale, a bit paler than normal; making his always rosy lips look almost red. Hikaru reached out a hand and caressed the side of the handsome face.
'You are so beautiful,' Hikaru breathed and slowly he drew the noble face forward and...
'Ahem.'
Hikaru was startled out of his, well whatever that had been, only to look around and see a dozen or so people had gathered 'round. Having fully come back to himself with a shock, Hikaru snatched back his hand, sat up in the chair, scratched the back of his head with his left hand, making sure he stuck out his elbow as far as it would go and dead-panned, 'Ain't you guys've got homes to go to? Can't a guy faint in peace? Geez!'
The trick worked, the group broke up fast enough, unfortunately most of the spectators gave Touya a questioning look, rather than Hikaru. Hey, I'm the one that made a spectacle of myself, not him, Hikaru wanted to say. But he didn't.
'Hikaru-sama?' Sai still sounded worried, so Hikaru turned a reassuring smile towards him. 'Yes?'
'Doest thou not think, mayhaps t'were better if, uh, if we should return home at this time?' Sai looked more than a bit reluctant.
'Don't you want to play some more?' Ah, it had always been such fun to tease Sai. Hikaru really couldn't help enjoying the look of conflict on Sai's face when faced with the loss of as yet unplayed games.
'Ah, verily, my humble heart would swell with the continuation of play, but,' Sai stammered.
'No buts,' Hikaru said indulgently, 'I don't wanna go home yet either, so go play.'
Sai gave him one of those dazzling smiles before bowing haltingly - Sai kept forgetting not to bow so much - hopping up to his feet and quickly moving to join the group from earlier that had moved off a bit.
OOOO
While Sai played three more games with much abandon and a large audience, Hikaru and Touya played a more leisurely game of their own, all by themselves.
It was good game, but not quite of the same level the first one had been. In his Go career Hikaru had found that sometimes the flame just wasn't to be had in a game, no matter how good the players. Oddly enough Hikaru had never seen that happen to any of Sai's games...
After their game was over and they had discussed it - without any yelling, though Hikaru had been sorely tempted several times, but didn't want to chance alienating Touya - Touya had served them both tea. It was nearly 7 pm.
'Will come again tomorrow?' Touya asked after taking a delicate sip of his hot steaming beverage.
'Can't,' Hikaru answered, trying not burn his lips on his tea. Hikaru set the next day aside to deal with 'the hair problem'.
Mama-san had told him Sai's braid would need to be combed out and the hair washed at least once a week. Hikaru could see from where he was sitting that Sai's braid was getting frizzy around the edges. Mama-san knew her stuff, it seemed. So Hikaru had reserved the whole day for it, just in case he needed it.
'Friday then?' Touya asked, after another sip.
'Can't. Gotta work.' Hikaru tried blowing on the tea. He just couldn't understand how Touya could drink the still nearly boiling stuff!
'Hmm,' Touya drawled and sipped again. 'Maybe Fujiwara could come alone...?' He asked. Hikaru frowned. He really didn't want Sai to spend time with Touya without being there himself; too much chance of them ending up playing together.
'I guess not,' Touya answered his own question. 'Fujiwara is special, isn't he? Something like an idiot savant?'
Hikaru nearly spilled his tea when he sat up suddenly and rapped out, 'Hey, don't call Sai an idiot!'
Touya gave Hikaru's angry face an calculating look, put his tea cup on the table and said, 'Sorry, I meant to say that he has a precious gift, but is quite naive in matters other than Go.' He gave a small inclination of the head, that Hikaru translated as 'no offense intended'. He nodded back 'none taken', relaxed back in his chair and tried his tea again.
'He's just not from around here,' Hikaru said by way of explication.
'And you don't want him to run into any trouble? I can see that.' Touya sipped more tea. 'He's family, right?'
'Yeah,' Hikaru said and then realized that that was the exact truth; Sai had really been family since Hikaru had been 11 years old, blood or no blood, alive or not.
They sat and sipped their cooling tea for a while. Both were facing the backs of the spectators of Sai's game, two tables over. I should go take a look, Hikaru thought, but stayed seated.
'I can bring Sai again next Wednesday,' Hikaru proposed.
'I'll be here,' Touya stated.
Then Touya stood up and said, 'I'll get you some 7-dan amateur papers. It should make things easier when you go to other Go clubs.' He walked off before Hikaru could refuse.
The whole having to prove your amateur ranking thing was quite new, or had been in Hikaru's time line, Hikaru was assuming it was the same here. It had started with a sudden inrush of cocky youngsters a few years ago that had seen some kinda a Go drama on TV. They all wanted to play and they all felt they should have high ranks. And they weren't above lying through their teeth about it. So now you could only claim a rank if you had the papers to prove it. The craze had died down quite quickly but the ranking cards system had stayed.
Hikaru had been dumb enough to forget about it when he had signed Sai and himself in that afternoon as 7-dans. But he couldn't say he was sorry about the slip-up, 'cause it had put him directly in Touya's path.
Touya presently returned with a nice lacquer box, which he set down on the table as he seated himself in a chair that already faced in the right direction. Hikaru still sat with his back to the table, rocking his chair a little onto its back legs, gently bumping the table.
From the corner of his eye Hikaru could see Touya neatly laying out the contents of the box onto the table. Forms, pen, stamp.
'Just for Sai,' Hikaru said. Touya just nodded.
'Fujiwara, Sai,' Touya stated, writing on the form. 'Which Kanji for Sai?' he queried. Hikaru told him. 'Address?' Hikaru fished one of his business cards out of his pocket and handed it over. Hikaru looked at Sai's back while Touya wrote out the form and wielding the stamp about. Paperwork, bleh, Hikaru thought as the table shook multiple times as the stamp was used to make it all official.
'Here it is,' Touya said and Hikaru looked over at the card Touya was holding out to him. Hikaru righted his chair, put his tea on the table and took the card. 'Fujiwara, Sai. Amateur rank: 7-dan. Address:' Hikaru checked it; correct 'Signed, Touya Akira, Go Pro,' with a neat round Touya Go Club stamp on top. All it needed was a photo of Sai in the photo box in the left hand corner.
'All correct,' Hikaru announced and was about to put it away in his jacket when Touya held out another card. 'And here is yours,' he said.
'But,' Hikaru started, taking the card.
'Consider it an incentive,' Touya said. 'To become a Pro as soon as possible,' he continued, 'for the both of you.'
Hikaru gave him a questioning look, was he serious? The answering look was clear enough; deadly serious.
OOOO
Ceiling time was quite lengthy that night; there was a lot to think about.
They'd gone to bed quite early that night; Sai had been worn out by the busy day. And Hikaru found himself confronted with yet another way this Sai differed from the ghostly one. The ghost had, as far as Hikaru could tell, never run out of energy nor had he required rest or sleep.
This Sai had been so tired he had fallen asleep during the late dinner they had shared. Hikaru had let the poor guy off on the evening shower, on the grounds that washing his hair tomorrow would probably mean he'd end up taking a full shower anyway. And on the grounds that, now Sai washed every night, he was as clean as any other modern person, and could afford to skip a shower once in a while.
But joining a Sai who was already asleep, did mean that their together-in-bed-before-sleep-time was not very eventful. Well, it did leave Hikaru with more time to think and that's what he did.
Of course the subject of his thoughts that night was; to go Pro or not to go Pro? And when? And how? The first question was pretty much a no-brainer; they would both go Pro, of course. Hikaru did spend some time weighing pros and cons on this, but inevitably came to back that same conclusion.
The question of 'when' was just as simple; the Pro Exam was only once a year, so that would obviously be when.
'How?' quickly translated into 'how much money?' The Exam was not cheap and Hikaru still owed the Time Team all that money. Oh, bugger, this was a Biggy. Possibly a Biggy so big that Hikaru would not be able to solve it any time soon. Well, the Pro Exam Prelim was still 9 months away, hopefully something would come up in that time...
OOOO
The next day Hikaru put Mama-san's advice to the test. First was the combing out of the hair, starting, to Hikaru, quite unexpectedly, at the bottom and slowly working his way up. He wasn't even a quarter of the way up, before he started to appreciate Mama-san's knowledge of her craft; had he started at the top, he would have had the hair tangled beyond help in no time flat. And now he knew why it had taken over an hour for the servant in the Heian period to do it; it took Hikaru almost three!
After the combing - and a much needed lunch break - came the washing. Hikaru made Sai sit up on a towel on the shower floor, so Hikaru could reach the top of his head more easily. Sai wore a towel; Hikaru expected to get it totally wet, as he just didn't have the hairdressing facilities that Mama-san had at her shop. And Hikaru's finances really didn't allow for Sai to have visit with the hairdresser's every week, so they just had to make do. He himself wore a t-shirt and boxer shorts with bathroom slippers on his feet, expecting to get splattered, but not doused.
Mama-san had sold him a hair shampoo that Hikaru was to massage into the freshly combed hair, newly wetted from the top down. He had been cautioned not to use too much, because it wasn't cheap. She told him he'd know when to use more; when it stopped producing foam. Then he was to rinse it out three times, to be sure to get everything out. After that he was to carefully wring out the hair by wrapping it in a towel and squeezing it. Then he was to rinse the hair with a mixture he had to make himself from citrusy smelling crystals and tap water. That rinse should stay in.
The shampooing and rinsing took another hour, and by this time Hikaru was feeling like his arms would just drop off with fatigue. The whole affair suddenly turned into a watery event when the shower head escaped Hikaru's tired hand and went flying, dowsing both Sai and Hikaru in warm water.
OOOO
After drying Sai's hair, putting in the rinse and drying off themselves - no need for more showering after all that - they both dressed in Yukata.
Mama-san's instructions were that Sai's hair was supposed to be laid out to dry. Hikaru had suggested the use of a blow dryer, but she had vetoed that saying that domestic blow dryers could easily burn the hair and that the result would be frizzy at best.
So Hikaru decided to convert the couch into the bed, had Sai, wrapped in his yellow Yukata, lay down with his hair spread out over the edge onto dry towels on the floor. He made a big pot of tea, put whatever else he could think of that they might possibly want for the next few hours near at hand and joined Sai on the bed for a relaxing afternoon of cuddling.
OOOO
As Hikaru, clad in the purple Yukata, crawled next to Sai, he realized that this was actually the first time were neither of them had not been asleep, or near to it, while in the bed. Before this the excuse for sharing the bed was a sharing of warmth in the cold night. But now it was not night and they had no such excuse.
Also, since neither needed to sleep at 3 pm, Hikaru realized that this was a great opportunity to ask some questions. And the most burning of these - burning ever since Hikaru had realized he could not ask Sai, the ghost, because it was just after he'd disappeared - was:
'Sai?' Hikaru said, laying on his side next to the Heian Noble who lay on his back.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama?' Darn, Hikaru could still here the bow in the words, even if Sai didn't - couldn't from that position - bow to him.
'Uh.' Hikaru toyed with a short tuft of Sai's hair. 'Could you tell me a little about your life? I mean before you came here,' he added.
Sai looked up in shock at Hikaru and moved a little away from him as if in fear of him. Oh, now what? Hikaru thought.
'My liege,' Sai started. Hikaru frowned at him. 'Hikaru-sama, I, uh, well,' Sai stammered. Hikaru started to get worried, his question had been nice and innocent hadn't it?
'Whatever it is, I won't be mad, just tell me what the matter is,' he said, trying to sound both commanding and reassuring.
That tactic seemed to work because Sai's body seemed to relax somewhat as a look of resignation entered the amethyst eyes.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama.' Sai took a deep breath and let it out.
'I was untruthful to thee,' he said. Untruthful? Sai? Hikaru couldn't believe that. And his disbelieve was apparently clearly visible because Sai continued by adding, 'My sin was that of omission; I told thee not of my shame.'
Hikaru must still have looked doubtful as Sai spoke on. 'My humble self was disgraced before the Divine Emperor himself. My mere presence is a blot on your divinity and,' This was where Hikaru held up his hand and said, 'Listen to me, Sai, and listen closely; I am not a god and no man or woman you will meet here is divine either, is that understood?' He hadn't meant to sound harsh or angry but he could tell by the scared look on the Noble's face that he had done both. Well, as long as it got the message across, it would do.
'Yes, Hikaru-sama,' Sai answered in a small voice. Then Hikaru got a hunch. 'Say, if this is about that other guy accusing you of cheating when you didn't but he did, at that game with the Emperor there?' he asked point blank and Sai slowly nodded his head. 'Well, don't worry about that. The guy was an ass; you were just stronger at Go then him and he just couldn't take it, the schmuck,' Hikaru pontificated. Sai stayed quiet.
Hikaru who had hoisted himself up on an elbow, while delivering his tirade, flopped back down, put a hand over one of Sai's that lay on his chest and commanded, 'So, tell me about your life.'
For almost a minute Sai didn't say anything, visibly trying to adjust to Hikaru's lack of a bad reaction towards his confession. It wasn't until Hikaru made an encouraging gesture that Sai opened his mouth and started to talk.
'My humble self was born into a lower branch of the illustrious Fujiwara family. Until I was 11 summers of age, I was the third son. Never did I meet my brothers or my honorable father, for my brothers had moved to posts in the inner court, where my father also resided. It were happy days indeed, I played much Go with my honorable mother and my honorable aunt and my honorable tutor. I'm obliged to say I did very poorly at my studies of Music and Art. My effort, t'was so vile, my tutor begged me give it up.' Hikaru had to smile at that; he could just imagine the tutor with his fingers in his ears while little Sai practiced playing the flute.
'We secreted the fact we whiled away the lesson hours with Go form Mother, lest I'd be punished and my tutor suffer worse! One illustrious day, Michinaga-sama came to play me. I know not how he knew I could play to any level that might be of interest him. In my humbleness I tried to play him as best I could.' I'll bet you did, Hikaru thought, I wish I could've seen you demolish the guy!
'That winter I was adopted into a higher part of the Fujiwara family and I was tutored in writing and Go only. I never met my new mother, for I was a man then and could not meet females unchaperoned, and my mother was not interested in males or Go.' Urg, sounds like a cold fish. Wouldn't like to have that as a mother, Hikaru thought, shuddering.
'Art thou cold, Hikaru-sama?' Sai's earnest eyes, that had been on ceiling for most of the story, had moved to Hikaru's face, now giving him a concerned look.
'Nah, not really. Just go on with the story,' he said, waving Sai on. Sai returned his gaze back to ceiling and continued.
'After some years I became a Go tutor and played ever increasing numbers of fellow Nobles at court. T'was a most agreeable time! Then one illustrious day I was to tutor the Third Prince. And later the Second Prince. And then my humble self was given the most honored task of tutoring the Emperor himself.' Hikaru liked the way the memory of this event made Sai's face light up. Then Hikaru frowned as Sai's face suddenly dropped.
'But, how I know not, it was not to be. Afore I could take up my commission, I was told there would be a deciding game; he who winneth, shall be the tutor, he who loseth shall not. Michinaga-sama, once informed, was very vexed indeed, but not even one as mighty as he could undo the Emperor's decree and so the match was set.' Sai fell silent for a moment.
'And that's the game where you got cheated,' Hikaru continued for him.
'Verily, t'was that game,' Sai confirmed. Hikaru sighed.
'And then you tried to kill yourself,' he added to the story.
'To save my family's honor and at Michinaga-sama's command, yes,' Sai confirmed. Hey, hold on a sec, Hikaru thought.
'Whatsit-sama ordered you to go kill yourself?' Hikaru asked.
'But, of course,' Sai confirmed, sounding a little puzzled at Hikaru's indignation. 'It was my honorable duty to comply,' Sai added.
Well, this was something Hikaru had not known; imagine being ordered to go kill yourself! Hikaru knew of course that Japanese history was full of that sorta thing, but he lived in a suicide free society and was darn proud of it!
Hikaru's thundering thoughts must have been visible on his face, because suddenly he felt the feather soft touch of Sai's long hand on the side of his face. 'Thee must not be vexed; t'were my death that hath brought me dither. And I am most happy here, in heaven's bosom,' Sai said, a sweet smile on his face.
Heaven's bosom? Did Sai think he was dead? Oh dear, how was he gonna fix that misconception?
'Sai, look, you ain't dead, you get it?' he tried, but that dreamy look didn't seem to go out of the Heian Noble's eyes, his hand still on Hikaru's cheek. 'Uh, this is not heaven. C'mon! Does it look like heaven? Do I look like a God?' Hikaru demanded.
'Thee resembles the most beatific of Deities and where would such as thee reside but in Heaven?' Sai argued back, quite undaunted.
'Urg,' Hikaru returned, not being able to come up with anything better. He ran his free hand through his hair in exasperation. Then he saw the dreamy look on Sai's face fade into a sad one and he felt the hand drop away from his face.
'However, I fear that my humble self doth not please thee. But yesternoon thou hath called me beautiful, yet thou doth not take up thy servant's sincerest offer.' Sai had looked ahead when he said that, but now he turned his head and looked pleadingly directly in Hikaru's shocked eyes. 'Inform me how I hath displeased thee, so that I might make amends!'
Hikaru was more that puzzled now. 'You didn't do anything wrong and I would take anything that you'd offer me, but really I don't know what you're talking about!' he said.
Sai blinked twice in quick succession as if that helped process what Hikaru had said. Well, maybe it did, because Sai answered, 'Why, my offer of pillowing with thee.'
This time Hikaru blinked. Pillowing? Oh! He suddenly got it. So Sai's joining Hikaru in bed had been more than a wish to share warmth! Hikaru couldn't help smiling broadly. Oh yes, he would just love to pillow with Sai.
This time he figured it was his turn to place hands and that's what he did after he'd rolled on top of a very - and happily - surprised Sai. Once there he placed a hand to each side of the Noble's face, angled his head a little and let their lips connect.
OOOO
Much, much later, Hikaru introduced Sai to playing Go on Kifu paper, since he wasn't about to give up his snugly spot on the bed with Sai in his arms. Playing on Kifu paper was pretty much like playing on a Goban, except you 'placed' the stones with a pencil instead. It was exactly like writing a game up while it was still in progress; stones were placed by writing the number of the hand in the location the stone is placed with a pencil and drawing a circle around the white stones. Whenever stones were removed, Hikaru used the eraser on the other end of the pencil to erase it and then he wrote the stone down as a captured stone at the bottom of the page, with its co-ordinate and move number added, circled or not.
Sai was fascinated. Especially with the numbers used. And with a shock Hikaru realized his own stupidity; he should have realized that this Sai, fresh from the Heian Period, a thousand years ago, would of course not know the western numbering symbols used in all the Go books Hikaru had got him.
He quickly fixed his over sight by writing out the western numbers on the back of the Kifu paper pad. Sai seemed to pick up the new symbols pretty quickly and presently was writing down numbers of 6 figures.
Then Hikaru got another shock; it turned out Sai couldn't actually read any of the text in the Go books either. So far he had made do with just puzzling out the Kifu themselves, trying to learn from them even if he couldn't 'read' the play order at the time.
Sai explained that he could read the Chinese characters, the Kanji, but not the other characters that seem to hold the sentences together. So he could see that a sentence was about 'go' and 'attack' and 'strategy', but not the way these things related and might be informative to him.
Hikaru quickly tore a Kifu sheet off the pad and started drawing the Hiragana characters that every four year old in Japan knew. He gave their pronunciation and had an absolutely riveted Sai copy each one out a few times.
He left the school lessons at that for the day; Katakana could wait until tomorrow. But had made a mental note to himself to go raid a bookshop the next day for books on Kanji reading, 'cause the way that modern Japanese used their Kanji was very different from the way the Chinese used theirs - Hikaru knew at least that much - and Sai would need to know a lot more before he'd be reading complicated Japanese Go books any time soon!
Hikaru could kick himself for not thinking of this sooner. Of course ghostly Sai had read modern Japanese just fine, but then he had spend a good 30 years in the late Edo Period, - when Hiragana, Katakana and modern Kanji readings had already existed - and had probably picked it up then. This Sai had not had that opportunity and he had really come from a period just before the Kanas had come into common use. Even if he was there at the time of their conception, the Kanas had been the female writing system and Sai would not have been privy to that.
OOOO
They settled into a routine over the next few weeks. Hikaru would work most days and Sai would play NetGo and work on his reading at home at that time. Each evening they'd play Go and Hikaru would be surprised by something new Sai had learned that day from his NetGo games. Each night was heaven and Hikaru quickly learned that Sai knew a trick or two from his original period that had definitely not become obsolete.
Wednesdays there would be mornings spend in the park, when it wasn't raining, and afternoons - and sometimes evenings too - spent at the Touya Go club.
Thursdays was 'washing & cuddling day' but as Hikaru got more practiced at hair grooming, there was more time available to do things like go out to for ramen in the evenings. Hikaru did decide to keep it a day just for them and not let any others encroach into their time together. In his usual agreeable way Sai didn't seem to mind at all.
At the end of the first month that Hikaru had brought Sai to this time line, Hikaru had the unenviable task of informing Kanzou-sensei that he couldn't give the man any money that month. The shopping for clothing, books and PC, not to mention food expenditure for two people had blown away considerably more money than Hikaru's salary had yielded. Hikaru did offer the sensei his emergency fund but was turned down on the grounds that it really wouldn't make much of a dent.
Kanzou-sensei did want answers from Hikaru, on how come Hikaru's life-path had been affected by the removal of one about to die Heian Noble one thousand years ago. And Hikaru did agree it was fair to explain to the man how ¥20,000,000 had gone up in smoke.
That night, on the phone, he told him the story of the boy and the ghost. He did it, sitting on the cold floor with his back against wall, keeping his eyes firmly on Sai's sleeping form on the bed, in the dark apartment. The regular movement of Sai's breathing steadied him as he poured out his grief over the death of the person who now lay in deep slumber on his own bed.
Only once he came to the end of his story, did he realize his face was wet and he had been crying for some time. Even the sensei was silent for some minutes, digesting the tale.
'You are a fool, Hikaru-kun,' he said at last. 'You've ruined your life by bringing him here!'
'No, sensei, you are wrong; with him here, I've made it worth living,' Hikaru answered.
OOOO
November turned into December, the coldest December in decades. But both Sai and Hikaru were unaffected by that; they kept each other warm.
Hikaru managed to keep his job, even though his boss yelled at him every day, without fail. Hikaru did feel he was getting a better grip on the job itself; he was taking better pictures and his reporting style improved so much he got a positive comment from one of the copy writers about that. And Hikaru took Sai out for sushi to celebrate it - after all, you had to create your own opportunities for parties, no one else would!
Hikaru even had a chance to play Go while at work. He had been sent to interview a CEO of a big local company, for a human interest story. But the poor guy had been so nervous; he only gave one word answers to Hikaru's questions. Then Hikaru spied the Goban that sat in the corner of the man's office and proposed a game.
The man didn't have much of a level of play, so Hikaru just played a veiled version of Shidogo while he talked amicably with the man. The resulting three column article the next day had made Hikaru feel quite proud.
It was actually a pretty big thrill to see the pictures he took one day, appearing in the paper the next.
Maeda and some of Hikaru's other colleagues were very friendly and asked him out for drinks and bowling nights. Even though he always turned them down, he appreciated being invited. But quite frankly, he'd much rather spend the time with Sai.
When they invited him to bowling once again, rather persistently that time, Hikaru told them why he preferred to go home. After some stunned looks from the men, Maeda surprised Hikaru by simply inviting Hikaru to bring Sai along.
Now if the proposition had been for going out drinking, Hikaru would have turned them down flat, but as it was blowing... Who knows, Sai might like that. So, still not quite sure if it was smart to do so, he accepted; they'd meet at the bowling alley in an hour.
Sai at a bowling alley was fun. Apparently in the Heian Period there had been a not too dissimilar game. So Sai picked up the basic principle quickly enough. All the rest was a matter of teaching him how to use the huge ball with the holes and how the points system worked. And after that it was just a matter of having fun. Which they did, in spades.
OOOO
December turned in to January and they had snow every day for three weeks. Sai was absolutely delighted; he said it reminded him of home.
Hikaru had more bad news for Kanzou-sensei; his and Sai's living expenses pretty much ate up Hikaru's entire salary. The rent on his shoe-box apartment was exorbitantly high, but if he didn't reside in the neighborhood, he wouldn't have his job at the paper. Their policy was to hire only locals. So it was a catch twenty-two, with nothing much left over.
Kanzou-sensei seemed to take it well. Or at least, he didn't say something. Actually he didn't say anything and Hikaru felt guilted into apologizing some more. The sensei told him to knock it off and hung up the phone.
OOOO
The third Monday of January brought a surprise phone call: Mama-san. Hikaru had long forgotten he had given the nice lady his card on that one visit to her shop. He asked her what he could do for her.
Mama-san replied that they might be able to do each other a favor. She then explained that she, next to the hair business, also ran a small modeling agency for traditional looking Japanese models. She was an agent for both women and men who could carry off authentically wearing the traditional outfits. And now she had commission for a Heian photo shoot and she really didn't have the right man for that in her portfolio. So would Sai be interested in earning some money modeling?
Hikaru had to sit after hearing that. Sai, a photo model?
Well, he was pretty enough, certainly in Hikaru's eyes, and it wasn't like he hadn't seen people look at the Heian Noble. And then there would be money involved, wouldn't there?
He asked Mama-san and she gave him a quote. Now Hikaru was glad he was sitting down; Sai could make - minus Mama-san's finder's fee and don't forget that taxes would have to be paid - in a day more than Hikaru made in a week.
Hikaru realized he couldn't say 'no' to that. Even without the big debt hanging over their heads, Hikaru was having trouble making ends meet without dipping in the emergency fund. No, they'd have to take the offer, that much was clear.
OOOO
Of course Sai didn't like it much that he had to give up his day at the Touya Go club to have his hair grooming a day early and then spend the next day in a chilly warehouse studio getting dressed and undressed all day. But Hikaru knew they had no choice and just as he had been against letting Sai go to any Go club by himself, there was no friggin' way he'd let Sai go to a possibly dodgy photo studio by all himself!
And that turned out to be wise decision, because as one of the last tableaus of the day - after several Heian Court scenes and a 'Noble commands Samurai' scene, all with bells on - the main photographer wanted Sai to pose for an archery scene, with his hair blowing in the wind and his top hanging down, so basically half naked.
Hikaru's inner little green eyed monster utterly vetoed the idea; that part of Sai was for his eyes only! His more sensible brain vetoed it on the grounds that the temperature in the warehouse was too close to freezing and such scenes had not been discussed beforehand.
Unfortunately Mama-san wasn't at the photo shoot or he would have discussed it with her and she might have mediated, being more familiar with the world of photo shoots. But in the end Hikaru's threat of just walking out the door with Sai right then, made the man see sense. The scene was shot with Sai wearing his top properly.
Sai looked amazing standing there on the stage, drawing the arrow back on the bow with confidence, amid blooming potted cherry trees with petals being blown everywhere by the three small wind machines. Behind him was a part construction of an old style Japanese arch and behind that an enormous canvas depicting the beginnings of a sunset.
Earlier, when Hikaru had helped getting Sai dressed, Sai had told him he had indeed practiced archery when he had been a boy, but then as his Go career took him to the inner court, he's become too busy for the hobby.
Well, the picture came out beautifully and later Hikaru found Sai had earned a bonus with it as it had been sold on to a liquor company, called Sakura Sake, to be used in their advertisements in Hokaido. Hikaru was happy to take the extra money; finally he'd have some good news for the sensei, when the man would call the week after next!
OOOO
The next Thursday had been another regular 'wash and cuddle' day. The day before they had spent entirely at the Touya Go club, as it had been much too cold to spend any time outdoors.
They had made themselves very cozy that Thursday, with lots of hot tea and lots of sweets, letting Sai's hair dry as much as it could, before Hikaru would braid it later, just before going bed. Hikaru had surprised himself at how good he had gotten at hair braiding; he could now do the whole length in 15 minutes, where the first attempt had been well over an hour.
At half past 3, when Sai went to refill the teapot for the third time that day, the door bell rang. Hikaru belted his Yukata and got up to open it. He had impressed upon Sai never to open the door to anyone, a long time ago, just for security. And he wasn't expecting visitors that night anyway, so he intended to look through the spy hole before opening the door. But he never got that far.
He startled as he heard a human shriek come from the kitchenette and then the unmistakable sound of crockery shattering. He whirled around and started moving towards the kitchen when he felt two large hands grip his upper arms in an iron grip from behind him.
He struggled hard to get free but the hands did not give a millimeter, while fear raged up his spine; what the H was going on?
'Sai!' he screamed in panic; he had recognized the shriek as being in Sai's voice. And then he felt something touch his neck and all the strength just flowed out of his muscles and left him dangling by the hands on his upper arms. As his legs lost their ability to hold him up, he felt himself being lifted up high enough that his now useless feet left the ground all together. From the side of his lulling head he could see someone very tall pass by him in quick strides. The figure walked all the way to the far side of the room and then turned around.
The man was huge. Thin and impossibly tall, dark hair and wearing something that Hikaru could only describe as a camp silver Flash Gordon outfit, with red stripes on his shoulders and around his wrists, waist and just under his knees.
'Where's the other one?' the man barked. Hikaru tried to speak, but found himself unable to utter a single sound.
'Here, sir,' came from over by the open doorway to the kitchenette. Hikaru put all his will into turning in that direction and managed to roll his head just enough to get a view. What he saw shocked him. In the doorway stood another impossibly tall man, same silver outfit, also dark hair, but with blue stripes, with his hands out in front of him holding the lolling body of Sai off the floor by his upper arms, in exactly the same way that Hikaru was being held. Sai looked the palest Hikaru had ever seen him, his mouth hung half open, his eyes were rolled back into his head with only the whites showing under his half closed lids. He looked dead.
Hikaru wanted to scream: what have you done to Sai, you monsters? but he couldn't. He tried to struggle, but he couldn't. He tried to cry, but he couldn't. All he could do was hang there and wait for whatever would happen next.
OOOO
Another tall man entered, blond, same outfit with yellow stripes, walking straight up to Red and taking a sci-fi laser type gun kinda thing from his belt. He carefully checked the settings on it while Hikaru again tried to get his body to obey him.
'Start with him,' Red ordered indicating Sai. Hikaru redoubled his efforts, with predictable results. What were they going to do? Yellow nodded to his captain and took the two steps over to Blue who held the unmoving Sai out to him, making Sai's legs dangle with the motion. Yellow put the gun to Sai's temple and pressed a button. Hikaru screamed internally as a high pitched whine was heard and Sai started to twitch like he was having an epileptic fit. Yellow only held the button down for some ten seconds, but they really were the longest ten seconds of Hikaru's life.
After releasing the button, Yellow took the nozzle of the gun away from Sai, who appeared to slump down even deeper, his eyes were closed now. Hikaru was extremely relieved when he saw Sai's chest move as he breathed. Other than that, Sai still appeared dead.
Yellow checked the settings on his 'gun' again. 'One thousand exactly,' he reported to his captain. Hikaru could just see Red's face from the corner of his left eye, without moving his head away from his view of Blue with Sai to the right. Red did not look happy. And Hikaru was pretty sure that that would not bode well for either Sai or himself.
'Now him,' Red commanded, indicating Hikaru with his head. Yellow stepped over to Hikaru's right and Hikaru could feel the nozzle touch his temple. The whiny sound started and Hikaru's world exploded in a bright hot all encompassing pain. It was like his flesh was being burned off his bones and all he wanted to do was scream and scream and ...
Then the pain stopped and the whine stilled. Hikaru could do nothing other than just hang there limply as Yellow checked his settings and reported, 'Only a few hours.'
'Hmm,' Hikaru heard Red say. 'Take that info to the Chief,' he continued.
'Yes, Sir!' Yellow said and walked out of Hikaru's field of vision.
Hikaru didn't get much time to wonder what would happen next as Yellow returned almost immediately. He walked past Hikaru and the guy who was holding him - whom Hikaru had not been able to see at all - straight up to his superior and reported, 'Chief says normalize.'
Red seemed to be surprised by that. 'Normalize?' he asked. 'Normalize,' Yellow confirmed holding out a surprisingly ordinary looking mania brown envelope for Red to take. Red took it and said, waving his other hand in a universal 'go right ahead' gesture, 'Well than, normalize.'
Yellow nodded and started fiddling with his settings again while he moved back towards Blue and Sai. Hikaru was in an utter panic now; what the H was normalize? Were they going to die?
Yellow put the gun against Sai's throat this time and a low rumble started as Sai started twitching again. Hikaru once more started to struggle, but it did no good. He wanted to scream, don't hurt him! but it was futile. Hikaru was filled with horror as a yellow symbol of a hour glass started to appear just under the nozzle of the gun. It appeared to glow and then to burn, with Sai twitching more violently, his legs being kicked around by the tremors, like he was a puppet with all its strings broken.
Then the rumble stopped and Sai was still once more. Hikaru panicked again when he couldn't see Sai's chest move and all he could think was: they've killed him, they've killed him! Then Blue let his arms drop slowly and it was as if Sai's lifeless body was spilled out on the floor as if he were a cup of ink, accidentally upturned. Sai's hair flowed to the floor as if in slow motion and Hikaru could do nothing other than follow its decent helplessly.
Then suddenly Yellow appeared by Hikaru's right side and the gun was at his throat before he could even blink. The rumble started up and everything went black.
OOOO
By the splitting headache that assailed him and the wave of nausea that washed over him, Hikaru knew he was still alive. As a reflex he had turned over to prevent throwing up, before he had even registered he'd been laying on his back on the floor. Turning over helped; he now felt would be able to stop his lunch from reappearing.
Suddenly memory returned; Red, Yellow and Blue, ridiculous silver outfits, laser guns, Sai falling to the ground. Sai! Hikaru scrambled up. Where was Sai?
He found his unsteady feet, gulped down noisily that which had threatened to come up at the sudden movement and he turned around to look over at the location he had last seen the Heian Noble.
Sai lay on the ground, just where Hikaru had seen him fall. Lying there, he reminded Hikaru strongly of that black haired, rosy lipped princess from that fairy tale where she had been laid out to rest in a glass coffin, because her friends could not bear to put her in the cold dark earth. Hikaru knew just how they felt; how could he ever bury his lover when Sai looked like that? Hikaru's heart screamed in sorrow, as his throat produced a sob. How could he live on without Sai? Not again, he couldn't take losing Sai again! He sank to his knees when he realized he couldn't. Just couldn't.
Then, even as tears started to distort his vision, he saw it. Sai's chest moved, he was sure of it. He scrambled up again and quickly sliding over the laminate's smooth surface to come to sit next to Sai's body. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with a rough swipe of his sleeve and then was elated when he saw the chest rise again, more clearly this time. Sai was alive!
Carefully Hikaru touched the still face. It was warm, not feverish and he could feel the eyelashes flutter against the side of his thumb, but the eyes did not open. 'Sai,' he called out softly, caressing the cheek again. 'Sai!' he said a little louder, now getting worried again. He jostled Sai's shoulder with his free hand. 'Sai!' But the eyes still didn't open.
He started to get worried again. Had Sai been injured? Was that why he wasn't waking up? Hikaru pushed the coils of hair that lay around Sai's face and upper body aside and checked his temple where that odd gun had rested first. The area was a little red, but the skin appeared unbroken, nor was there a bruise or anything. Hikaru then slid his hand around Sai's head to check for a bump on the back from the fall, but there was nothing. Moving the hair away from Sai's throat and pulling open the yellow Yukata revealed the general area where the hourglass image had appeared under the gun's nozzle. There was nothing there now; no hourglass, no burn, no bruise. It wasn't even a bit red, or anything; like nothing had ever happened at all.
So why did Sai not wake up? Hikaru tried again to rouse his lover but nothing happened. After some minutes he decided Sai would be more comfortable on the bed so, very carefully, he reached under Sai's legs and shoulders, trying to not get his hands tangled in the loose hair and lifted him up slowly.
Sai was not light, so Hikaru took it slowly. But he wasn't as heavy as Hikaru would have expected a man that was a little taller than himself to be. Hikaru had seen Sai naked many times now and hadn't failed to see that all his ribs were visible, something that should not be so on a well fed man. But as Hikaru had gotten used to Sai's physical appearance and his tangibility, Hikaru had chalked the thinness up as being just part of Sai and promptly had forgotten its implication; that of real malnourishment.
Now that he could actually feel that Sai was too light for his height, he kicked himself and swore to keep a closer eye on Sai's eating habits, 'cause just adding modern cookies - which Sai adored - to the Heian man's diet had apparently not been enough.
Hikaru very carefully laid him on the couch that was still in its bed form; they hadn't bothered to change it into a couch that morning, since they knew they would be wanting to use it as a bed all day anyway. Just as Hikaru was getting his arm out from under, Sai shuddered and Hikaru was just in time in turning Sai over and clearing his head away from the bed as the poor guy threw up spectacularly onto the laminate floor.
'A thousands pardons, Hikaru-sama, my humble self hath not volition in this!' Sai moaned, sounding aghast, his head still hanging down over the edge of the bed.
As he held stands of Sai's hair away from the floor Hikaru looked down at the mess he was kneeling next to. Most of it had misted him, but not all. Oh, well. Then he tucked the hair back onto the bed and gently touched the back of Sai's neck before getting to his feet. 'No worries; puking just shows you are alive and not dead.' And I'm mighty glad of it, he added in his head as he went to the hall cupboard for a bucket and mop.
OOOO
After the clean up - the mess in the living room and the broken teapot in the kitchen - Hikaru made fresh tea in the saucepan and tried to talk to Sai about what had happened.
The hot mint tea and the chocolate cookies seemed to revive the Heian Noble pretty fast, but after a slight language scuffle it became clear to Hikaru that Sai remembered absolutely nothing of the strange men who had broken into their peaceful home. In fact in Sai's mind he had become unwell suddenly and had thrown up, nothing more. Sai didn't even remember the teapot shattering, even though he did apologize for it. But then Hikaru already knew that Sai would start apologizing when stuff happened around him that he just didn't understand. So that was no proof of anything at all.
But Hikaru's memory was a as clear as crystal: the tall guys, the silver costumes, the gun, Sai on the floor, the Manila envelope... That was sitting on the coffee table next to him; Hikaru had seen it when he had cleaned the floor, but the thing's significance had only come up as Hikaru had started to think over the events again.
There was not even a question of not opening the thing; if those guys had left it here, it couldn't have been for any other reason than that Hikaru should see the content. At that moment Hikaru hadn't had any suspicion that it might be some type of trap. Later when he looked back, he kicked himself for not being cautious. But, and not for the first time, Hikaru got very lucky and no trap was sprung.
Out of the envelope poured a small avalanche of official papers and photos. Hikaru picked up the top item: a laminated ID card. It read:
Name: Fujwara, Sai
Born: 1985/01/09
Birthplace: Sendai
Nationality: Japanese
Gender: male
There was a long row of numbers at the bottom and a bad picture of Sai at the top right. Hikaru quickly checked through the pile; there was a birth certificate - listing Fujiwara Noa and Konoe Keiko as Sai's parents - school graduation papers, inoculation certificates, all with Sai's name on them, all official and absolutely real looking. There was a class photo with a young uniformed Sai, with his hair in a braid, in the right part of the back row of kids. Wedding party pictures, with an even younger Sai in a suit standing next to some other dolled up kids, looking uncomfortable with his waist length hair hanging loose. There were official family type pictures without Sai in them. Wedding photos of people that might have been Sai's parents and of his grandparents and even his great grandparents. Then Hikaru saw a page that had been typed on an old fashioned type writer; Gramps had had one of those. It showed the family tree of the Fujiwaras of Sendai. On the front side it traced a Fujiwara Nao (born 1955, Sendai) through many other Fujiwaras to a Fujiwara Tadajiro (born 1767, Kyoto). On the back side Fujiwara Tadajiro was traced back to a part of the Fujiwara clan that had been at the Emperor's Court since the 8th Century.
Hikaru's last find was a brand new piece of paper; a doctor's report on Fujiwara, Sai. Briefly it said that Sai had had an understandable breakdown after this home and family were destroyed in the tsunami. The doctor recommended rest and finding him (Sai) a useful occupation in his field of interest. And since Sai had shown a talent in Go, a therapy involving Go was highly recommended.
The report - and all the other official papers - was stamped officially and if Hikaru dared, he would be able to use them to give Sai a real modern identity. If he trusted those creepy tall guys not to have given him phonies, that is...
But for the life of him he couldn't think of why they would give Sai all this if it was all fake. It just had to be all real. They had said 'normalize'. Is this what they'd meant? Make Sai a person of this world, just like any other person born in this time? It sure looked like it, didn't it.
Hikaru looked over at Sai on the bed. He'd apparently fallen asleep with his empty cup still in his hand, while Hikaru had read the papers. Hikaru got up, reached down to gently extract the cup from Sai's sleeping hand and put it aside. He then spread the quilt over his sleeping lover before finding his laptop for a little research.
OOOO
The documents turned out to be absolutely genuine as far as Hikaru had been able to check. The schools listed in the certificates all had existed - or still did - the Fujiwara family tree seemed real enough, even the doctor who has written that report was real and turned out to be a famous military shrink who specialized in disaster victims. Hikaru had to wonder how those tall dudes had gotten the man to, well, write that report. Or had made him believe he had written that report? Or had forced him to write that report? God, he hoped it hadn't been the latter.
Still, all this evidence did make Hikaru wonder who those guys had been and what had been in it for them. Hikaru fully realized they could easily have killed both of them that afternoon and Red had looked more than willing to order that if that was what he thought would be best. But he hadn't done that, instead he had told Yellow to 'normalize' them, whatever that was. And Yellow had left that envelope... No, Yellow had given the thing to Red, Hikaru remembered seeing that before he got 'buzzed'. So it must have been Red who left the envelope. So leaving it for Hikaru to find was deliberate then.
And picking Sai's place of birth as Sendai, Hikaru had to concede, was a brilliant move; pure genius if cruel. But if Red and his men were what Hikaru was suspecting they were, then the 2011 earthquake and tsunami was of no more emotional importance to them than the war of 1185, that ended the Heian Period, was to Hikaru; just a part of history.
With the few facts Hikaru had, he concluded that Red and his men had apparently had done Sai and Hikaru the favor of letting them live and giving Sai a background, for reasons unknown. It wasn't much, but Hikaru (and Sai) could get on with living with it and that really was the main thing wasn't it?
OOOO
End of part 3
Notes:
Seiza = sitting with your legs folded under you on the floor
Kanas = collective name for Hiragana and Katakana scripts (does NOT include the Kanji)
Shidogo = a better player plays a lesser player to teach him about the game, not necessarily to win.
part four