Disclaimer: Me? Own Hikaru no Go? IF I did Sai never would have left Hikaru!

"Blah" talking

'blah' Dragon Hikaru talking

::blah:: Mental link/Dragon Hikaru talking to only one person.

/blah/ thinking

Warnings: Slight Out Of characterness, AU

Hikaru stared listlessly up at his ceiling. He hated trying to fall asleep. Even after three years, even after finding Sai's Go in his own, and using a fan while playing, it still hurt that Sai had left. It was his own fault. Hikaru knew it, it was his own selfish desires to play Go on his own, he should have let Sai play more, as much as he wanted, then, perhaps, Sai wouldn't have faded. Hikaru would have done anything to get Sai back, to make him happy, but he was gone, and Hikaru knew that he had pushed him away. With these tortured thoughts, he fell, as he did more often then not, into a dreamless sleep.

Hikaru opened his eyes and saw a clearing. It was ringed with trees, and the grass was soft, thick and a beautiful shade of green. With some melancholy he thought /Sai would like this place. / But something wasn't quite right. The grass was farther away than normal, and the trees were smaller than they should have seemed. A highly unpleasant voice asked "Why are you taking me here?"

"As you know, our youkai(1) servants, though effective, prove less than satisfactory against Fugiwara and the other court members." A second, rather snake like voice answered.

"Yes." The unpleasant voice testily answered "And you promised that you had a solution."

"Well I and my fellow sorcerers had and idea. Fugiwara defeats the youkai the quickest, and the most. So we summoned a being that could stop Fugiwara." The snake like voice answered "So I am showing you the creature."

/Creature? / Thought Hikaru angrily. Then he looked down at what used to be his hands. He had dragon paws. Twisting around he found that he was, in fact a dragon. His front half was gold, his back half was amber. / I will not fight a Fugiwara. Besides he said could, not would. /

"And how am I to control this creature?" The unpleasant voice demanded.

"I have a magical leash on it. It will have to obey the one who holds the leash." The snake like voice replied smoothly. "The leash allows mental communication with the creature and physical… prods to obey the leash wielder."

"What do you mean by 'prods'?" The unpleasant voice queried.

"Mild to acute pain depending on whether or not the beast is being stubborn or an attempted to escape, disobey or help the enemy. You have to touch the leash though. But the beast is asleep so reaching the leash should not be a problem." The smooth voice answered.

During that conversation, Hikaru was frantically trying to find and sever the leash with his claws. The two men were getting closer, and when Hikaru came in contact with the leash a wave of agony swept through him, so Hikaru took off, flying as fast as he could. The two men had gotten into the clearing as Hikaru was gaining altitude. One of the men wore all black flowing robes like Sai's; the second man was wearing a sorcerer's robe and cape. Hikaru was moving on instinct alone, and the one in sorcerer's clothes lunged for the trailing leash but missed.

A couple hours later Hikaru's wings started to shake and his muscles screamed with exhaustion. He landed as best as he could in the forest that had been stretching endlessly beneath him. He hid as best as he could, yet because of his new form (and size) it wasn't very good and he didn't know how or even if he could return to human form. Mush as he was loathe to, Hikaru fell asleep as soon as he got into a comfortable position in his makeshift hiding place.

Hikaru awoke to whispers. It sounded like at least three people near him. "Why is it here?" One person whispered.

"I do not know, what should we do?" A second answered.

"He has a subjugation leash, I wonder why?" A third mused.

Hikaru was sore from his mad dash flight, but he figured that he might be able to escape the people that were talking. He prepared to fly, eyes opening and saw several curious looking villagers. 'Hello my name is Hikaru.' Hikaru said, hoping that they could understand him.

The villagers jumped in surprise. "You're awake." One of them yelped.

'Unless you wish to control me I mean you no harm, if that is what you seek, then I will escape you.' Hikaru stated plainly.

One of the villagers made a wild grab for the leash, but Hikaru's tail whistled out to meet him, then Hikaru flared his wings and fled. An hour and a half later, Hikaru found that he was starving and thirsty. He searched around and saw a lake. He landed at one side of the lake, leaned over and drank for a good ten or fifteen minutes, he also noticed that there were fish and ate three or four of them. He noticed that there was a building on the other side of the lake. Curious, but extremely wary he inched towards the building. Half the way there he heard sounds of a city; calls of vendors, chattering voices and for some reason, clattering of hooves. Hikaru had noticed that the attire worn by the people he had met thus far had been old fashioned, from the Heian era. Retreating deeper into the fringe of the forest, yet still moving towards the building and the city until he stopped in shock. It was a graceful, elaborate and expensive looking palace.

The city looked like a typical Heian era city, full of people and horses moving about. A dark shape, followed by several more of the shapes entered the sky over the city. Alarm bells rang throughout the city and the people scattered, trying to avoid the dark shapes. The shapes made Hikaru's hackles rise and he started to growl without realizing that he was. Then when the shapes attacked the people, he darted out from forest, roared and attacked the demonic creatures.

One of them hissed in a voice of broken glass and steaming charcoal "You were sssssummoned for massssssster. Whyy do you not help ussss?"

'Because I don't think that harming defenseless people is a good idea!' Hikaru growled in reply 'And because I don't want to serve your master.' Hikaru put as much venom and disgust as he could in that last word.

A second youkai in a voice of icy waters and darkest shadows challenged "And why do you serve these humans? You are a dragon, wildest of all, yet you protect these mortals, why?"

'Because they have no way to defend themselves. And you work for a human as well idiot.' Hikaru spat as he kicked four of the youkai away from a group of humans that had frozen in shock.

The first spoke again "That is not true, he is a sorcerer. But you do not fight for them. I can tell. You fight for the whisper of the last name of someone who took your heart, soul and mind then later shattered the first two of those. Why would you do that?"

Hikaru's entire body shook as if he had been punched. 'I… I pushed him away with my own selfishness… It was my fault he… You're just trying to distract me!'

The second youkai spoke, easily avoiding the young dragon's tail, landing lightly on a rooftop "Yet sssstill you fight. How do you know if the name isss not the sssame perssson, just a clan member?"

'I... I still couldn't fight that person. Why won't you GO AWAY like the other… Whatever-you-ares ?' Hikaru demanded in frustration. The first one managed to strike Hikaru's tail. Hikaru roared in pain and flames shot out of his mouth and badly singed the youkai who had hurt him.

Said youkai flew away from the battle and the remaining demon (the one who had spoken second to him earlier) stated "We shall meet again. You may want to come with us after being incarcerated by those humans in the palace." And he flew after his fellows a moment later.

Hikaru flopped down in the city's main square, exhausted. He had forgotten for a minute that there had been others and that they had watched the fight and heard his and the youkai's words. Then a crowd gathered around him and he tensed as best as he could, but the long flights coupled with the fight had completely drained Hikaru.

One of them spoke in a refined voice, reminiscent of Sai's formal tones "I thank you dragon for defending us, but some of us can beat them back. Why did you help us?"

Hikaru's emerald eyes showed his fear, youth, and exhaustion. 'I saw creature that gave me a bad feeling attacking people who, as far as I could tell, couldn't fight back. Those things attacked without provocation as far as I could tell. Those things would have slaughtered without mercy if they were able, correct?'

"Yes they would have, but what they said about your motives, is that true?" The man asked.

'I… It's very complicated… Who are you? Where am I?' Hikaru answered honestly, hoping that he might actually get some help, and not have to escape (or, since he could sense several very powerful auras heading his way try to) again.

The crowd murmured its shock, but the man smiled gently "I am the ruler of Japan. You are in the royal city Kyoto. You are young, are you not?"

'Err, yes, why do you ask s-sir?' Hikaru stammered slightly, nervous of the man.

"How old are you, young one, and what is your name?" the emperor asked kindly.

"F-fifteen years old Sir. I am Hikaru." Hikaru answered shyly.

The crowd again murmured its shock, and a likewise shock flitted across the emperor's face, before his mask of calmness was back in place. "Why are you so tense?" The emperor asked quietly.

'I have had bad interactions with humans in the past… How long? Two days. The first was when I found out I was summoned here by those two weirdos. The second was a couple of people, they tried… So I am a little tense…' Hikaru answered, forgetting for a split second that he was probably in the Heian era, and thus they hadn't a clue what weirdo meant. He did sense that the powerful auras were surrounding him, and that there were more of them.

"You are quite striking, partly gold, part brown scales, and emerald eyes. What does 'weirdo' mean?" The emperor remarked, genuinely curious about what Hikaru had meant.

'I-it means strange Sir… And why are those powerful auras surrounding me? What have I done?' Hikaru asked, his last question filled (to Hikaru's consternation) with unexpected vulnerability and a sadness of one who has been unfairly prosecuted.

For the first time both the crowd and emperor noticed the injured tail and slightly trembling muscles of one exhausted but expecting the need to run. One of the powerful auras came forwards. The man bowed formally to the emperor and stated "He truly means us no harm my lord. We all agree on this." The other auras came forward, the group as an even mix of men and women.

Hikaru's eyes for the first time left the emperor's as he looked at the group. They all had clothes similar to Sai's on, meaning that they were nobles. They each had a fan, though as he looked none of them had Sai's color until he looked at the one nearest the emperor. Elegant white clothes, pale yellow fan in slim alabaster fingers, the delicate, soft scent that Hikaru remembered from the times that he had been glomped or strangled by the person, long dark purple hair that reached slightly below the man's knees, amethyst painted lips, pale cheeks, and amethyst eyes that matched his lips and hair. Hikaru shivered in recognition. That man, he was the most powerful by far the most powerful aura including the black robed man and his sorcerous servant that Hikaru had ever met.

The crowd, nobles and Emperor noticed the young dragon's sudden stillness as he looked at Fugiwara no Sai. Those intelligent emerald eyes of the dragon's had looked at each of the nobles in turn, but froze, then widened as he beheld the noble. The dragon had stopped shaking, in fact it looked like the dragon had stopped, or was having trouble breathing. A white-gold light surrounded the dragon, making it impossible form them to see him. A couple minutes later A tanned, half blond, half brown haired, unusually clothed teenager who looked seventeen was where the dragon had stood, a gash on his leg and emerald eyes over bright and brimming with emotions that no one could quite discern. The teen crumpled to his knees, falling away from the injured leg, eyes still on Sai's own. Sai stepped forward, knelt down in front of the teen and murmured something quietly in a language they couldn't understand. The teen's eyes were filled with raw emotion as Sai spoke and the former started to sob. It was a heartbroken sound that brought a lump to everyone who heard the sobs throats. The look in the teen's eyes was one of a hope that something was real, crushing guilt, pain and a deep sadness. That broken gaze was softly placed up at Sai's own face, as the latter gently murmured to the former, before the expressive emerald orbs closed and tears rolled down the teen's cheeks.

Sai, still murmuring quietly in that unknown language, gently hugged the shuddering teen, stroking his hair. "Lord Sai, do you know this… Hikaru?" The emperor asked, not quite sure what to call the dragon-teen.

"Yes I do my lord. We met while I traveled. We've known each other for a long time." Sai responded softly, before switching back to calming the dragon teen down. "When I was… Called (a/n summoned by the court literally, like Hikaru was) back to the court, I had no time to say farewell to Hikaru."

youkai means demon