A/N: Hello~This is my first fanfiction written, please be nice. This will also be the first (and last) A/N posted in front of chapters, future chapters will have their A/Ns posted on my profile instead if they are unimportant, in order not to clutter things up :)

Warnings: I have not read or watched HnG past the first few episodes, fell in love with it, started reading HnG fanfiction, plot was spoiled, found out Sai disappears, spent the entire day crying, vowed never to go back to watch and complete HnG, read the wiki to get my facts right instead. Quite certain I'd cry everytime I see Sai in the anime or manga and end up dehydrated. I also do not play Go, so excuse me if I make mistakes when writing the games. Also expect sporadic updates. This story is also spontaneous - that means there is no concrete plan for it yet, I'm sorry! I'm also a super friendly person (I don't bite) and I like criticism, so do share with me your thoughts and point out any mistakes you spot!

Here's the prologue of my new story~ It is inspired by Esa Marie's Lost Memories, and other pieces of HnG fiction~ HnG authors please update faster, I live for this fandom. D:

Midnight Memories

Prologue

The first time Shindo Mitsuko realised something was weird and she found out what it was when her child asked her for a brush.

It wasn't Hikaru asking for a brush that tipped her off. It was what he did with it.

Now, Hikaru was a teeny weeny five year old, still cute enough to be passed off as a toddler. Mitsuko knew that children his age did arts and crafts in pre-school, so she logically concluded that Hikaru would like a paint brush to paint with. Finding nothing wrong with that, she bought Hikaru a brand new paint set that afternoon. The bright little boy smiled brilliantly as he received it, and rushed off as fast as his little legs could carry him. Hikaru was an active child even back then, so Mitsuko was understandably confunded when Hikaru did no more than come out from his room to grab a drink for the whole of that evening until dinner. He ate dinner as fast as Mitsuko had seen him eating, and went back into his room.

Mitsuko peeked into the room and to her great surprise, Hikaru wasn't doing anything untoward with the paint set, but instead was concentrating very hard on something spread before him- Mitsuko couldn't quite see it from where she was facing his back. She noted that her son had put two cushions out and placed a spare next to to the one he was sitting on.

Once again, Mitsuko came to the logical conclusion that Hikaru had an imaginary friend once she heard him mumble to himself (or the space next to him, rather), "like this?"

Knocking at the door and slowly opening it wider (pretending that she hadn't been spying on her child) and let herself in. "Hikaru, dear, can you let mummy see what you painted?"

Hikaru, what a cheerful boy he was, with that blinding smile of his that spread to his eyes, nodded and pointed his chubby little finger toward the table.

Mitsuko started when she saw what her child had been doing.

Calligraphy? She thought to herself in disbelief.

She made to sit down on the empty cushion next to Hikaru because she suddenly felt very confused indeed, but Hikaru's cry of "Mummy! You can't sit there, that's Sai's seat!" had her wobbling back upright.

"Sai?" Mitsuko asked her child gently, though her insides were churning over reasons why her child- who loved soccer and water balloon fights and running and never for a second showed an interest in anything related to art before that year- was doing calligraphy of all things, out of the blue. The most surprising thing was that the child was writing in an archaic Japanese syllabary, sogana, which is now only used for aesthetic purposes. Wherever had he learnt that?

Belatedly she also noticed that Hikaru's cursive handwriting wasn't bad at all.

".. He's teaching me calligraphy!" Mitsuko saw Hikaru's eyes flick toward the space on top of the empty cushion before answering her question.

"Is Sai your.. Friend?" Mitsuko asked gently. She read in a book somewhere before that imaginary friends are a unique and magical way for children to express their imagination, and that was something she didn't mind cultivating in Hikaru. Besides, calligraphy isn't a bad thing, it would help with Hikaru's penmanship in the future. She'd have problems if 'Sai' was teaching her child Bad Things- like how to punch people, or worse.

"Yes, mummy."

"Okay then," Mitsuko murmured as she turned to leave. "The two of you behave yourself. I'll be back in an hour to get you ready for bed okay?"

"Okay mummy!" Hikaru chirped, bright green eyes shining.

Before Mitsuko closed the door, she saw Hikaru's eyes dart toward the space above the other cushion again. 'Huh, an imaginary friend. That explains a lot.' Mitsuko mused as she washed the dinner plates. She often saw Hikaru talking to himself, ever since he was a baby, but that was something children did all the time, so she had always brushed it off. It was only today that she was aware that her child had an imaginary friend, apparently named 'Sai'. She wondered when it started, but put it to the back of her mind.

The next time Mitsuko heard about Sai from Hikaru was after she talked to her father-in-law on the phone.

"Mitsuko," he said, "do you know that little Hikaru wants the antique Go board I have in my attic? I'd give it to him, but only if I have your permission."

Mitsuko's eyebrows climbed up her forehead and were hidden behind her bangs. "What? Why does he want it?"

"I have no clue," confessed Heihachi. "I asked him if he's ever played Go before and he said no. He said he wanted it, and since his birthday is coming, I wondered why not?"

Mitsuko clucked her tongue and called him a cheapskate teasingly, but gave him permission to give the Go board to Hikaru.

Hikaru had lugged the entire Go board up the stairs and into his room himself after Heihachi had sent him back home that night.

Mitsuko stood at the side and offered her son a wet rag to clean the thing with. It had been in a dusty attic after all, and she was a bit particular about cleanliness.

"What made you want that?" Mitsuko asked after a few moments of watching Hikaru clean the board very thoroughly.

Hikaru blinked up at her as if he forgot she was there. "Sai wanted it."

Mitsuko nodded slowly. While she still frequently saw Hikaru talking to himself, or the space next to him, around the house she hadn't thought about the imaginary friend in awhile. "Are you interested in Go then, Hikaru?"

Hikaru looked back down. "I'm not sure, mum. I still like soccer more though."

Mitsuko laughed and ruffled his hair. "Of course you do. Your birthday is in two days, so I'm thinking of getting you a soccer ball of your own, do you think you'd like that?"

Hikaru had squeaked out an adorable, "Yes!"

Mitsuko left the room feeling smug. Heihachi thought he'd gotten away with not having to spend a cent with giving the child an antique, but even the antique could be sold for maybe a few thousand yen. A soccer ball would at most cost her a few hundred. Normally, she wouldn't be particular, but her father-in-law brought out the mischievous streak in her.

Hikaru still had his imaginary friend with him when he was nine and attending his middle year of elementary school. Mitsuko was getting worried about him and wanted to get his mind checked, but Masao, her husband, had assured her that everything was fine.

"It's okay, Mitsuko. Heard that even young adults have imaginary friends sometimes, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Masao had commented quite flippantly when Hikaru had pulled out an extra chair for 'Sai' during dinner, as he had been doing since a month after Mitsuko found out about Sai's existence. Mitsuko had opened her mouth to do something about it, when her husband spoke up again. "Besides, it's not like it's hurting him. Kids will be kids, let him be, Mitsuko. "

"Dad, Sai is a he and he's not imaginary!" Hikaru complained as he dug into his food.

Like the good wife she was, Mitsuko decided to keep silent and let it be.

That was until Hikaru woke up crying one day, a month or so later.

"What happened, dear?" Mitsuko asked, alarmed when she saw him come down the stairs with a tear streaked face. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"M-m-mum, Sai's g-gone! Gone!" Hikaru wailed between hiccups. "W-where is he, mum? I want h-him back!"

Mitsuko fluttered around like a worried hen, having no idea what to do in this situation. The books she read gave her no directory when something like that happens.

Along the years, Mitsuko had gathered that 'Sai' was a Go tutor 'ghost' from the past. But that was it. She had never seen proof that Hikaru had actually been possessed by a 'ghost', or anything supernatural. Other than Hikaru suddenly having a passing interest in the arts, like his brief calligraphy phase when he was young, nothing was suspicious about his imaginary friend. It should have been a huge shock to Hikaru when he woke up and realised that 'Sai' wasn't real, and he never was.

"Hikaru, dear," a sigh passed through her lips, feeling quite helpless as Hikaru ran into her arms, loud, huge sobs wracking through his small body.

Mitsuko was filled with regret. Perhaps she shouldn't have encouraged her child's imagination so much..

... But thankfully Hikaru was back to normal the next day.

"Wow, you're cheerful today Hikaru," Mitsuko heard Akari, their neighbour and Hikaru's best friend since childhood, say as she met Hikaru outside the Shindo household's gate.

Mitsuko was just glad Hikaru was happy again, as she ruffled his black hair and bid him goodbye.

"Yep!" Hikaru said loudly, arms behind his head and walking with his eyes squinting at the sky as they headed off to school. "Remember I told you about Sai, Akari?"

Mitsuko, who had been standing at the lawn, froze and wondered if Hikaru was going to cry again. That was, until she heard what Hikaru said next.

"I saw him in my dreams yesterday night. He promised me that he'll never leave me and he'll be there every night. Sai never lies so..." The children turned around the bend and Mitsuko could no longer hear her son's words.

Will he really be there, in Hikaru's dreams, tonight? Mitsuko sighed and turned away, heading back into the house. She found herself standing in Hikaru's room moments later, looking around the various soccer paraphernalia, and zoomed her gaze onto an antique Go board, barely covered by a flimsy piece of cloth protecting it from dust in the corner beside the bookshelf filled with manga. She noticed there were some classical Japanese literature books tucked in a small corner of the bookshelf and tried to recall when she ever saw her son buy or read them as they were much too difficult for a child to read or understand without guidance, but she came up with nothing. The books seemed very new, so she thought that perhaps Hikaru hadn't started reading them yet?

Kneeling down, Mitsuko brushed away the cloth covering the antique Go board and ran her fingers over the smooth wooden surface. There was no hint of dust anywhere on it, not even in the intricately carved grooves of the board's legs. She couldn't recall ever seeing Hikaru dust the thing- only once when he first brought it back from his grandparents' house.

"Sai wanted this, huh?" Mitsuko said to herself as she examined the Go board. She couldn't think of a reason why Hikaru would have thought up an imaginary friend like Sai. She thought she might have an easier time thinking of one if Sai had been a soccer or baseball or some other sports playing ghost, but no, Sai had to be, of all things, a Go ghost. She remembered Heihachi used to play Go when he was younger, and most probably still did. Maybe it was from his grandpa that Hikaru's subconscious interest in Go manifested itself?

"Don't disappoint Hikaru, Sai," she murmured as she covered the board back up and left the room, thoughts still on her son's imaginary friend. She just hoped that her darling son would grow up to be happy and shine his brightest in the future.