Author's note: Yes, this is my attempt at a "Hikaru is a girl!" story. Please remember that some time lines and events are different. This is an AU after all. And by and by, I don't intend to use a lot of Japanese words here; just maybe one or two when it fits. Thanks.

Disclaimer: As if I'd ever own any thing as awesome as Hikaru no Go. I can't even draw stick figures.

"Blah" represents speech

'Blah' represents thoughts

Blah represents everything Sai says/ thinks

And so we meet

"Ahhh…Ahhh… Ahhh Choo!" sneezed Hikaru, causing another cloud of dust to rise up in her face. "Moi, why is this place so dusty?!"

It was a typical Sunday afternoon. The sun was shinning, the birds were singing and everyone was outside having fun; everyone except one Shindo Hikaru. Hikaru was cleaning her grandfather's shed for money; money that she was going to use to buy her beloved cousin his birthday present.

'How am I going to finish clearing this mess by today?' Hikaru dipped her dust-blacked cloth into the pail of water beside her before walking over to her grandfather's goban. 'Whoa. This thing must be ancient. I wonder who…' Hikaru gasped in shock when she looked more carefully at the dark splats on the goban. "It's blood. It's someone's blood! Why would Grandpa keep such a thing?"

Can you see it child? Can you?

Hikaru stumbled backwards in alarm, knocking over the pail of watery dust; spilling everything. There in front of her was a woman. A really beautiful woman with long flowing hair and piercing eyes dressed in some kind of puffy white robe and a tall black hat.

"Hikaru! Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt?" called Hikaru's grandfather from the yard. He had heard the sound of the pail falling over and feared that Hikaru was hurt.

Can you hear me? You can hear me can't you?

The woman took one step towards Hikaru. Hikaru scrambled backwards in an attempt to get away from her. "I don't know who you are or how you got here but you better leave now." Hikaru tried to be brave and keep the tremble out of her voice.

I've finally found someone after waiting for so long. I thank the heavens that I may now, once more, return to the world of the living.

A bright light enveloped the both of them, and Shindo Hikaru knew no more.

Next morning in Hikaru's room

Hikaru gingerly opened her eyes. The world was blurry. She blinked a few more times and everything came into focus.

"AHHH! What the! Who the! Don't do that!" Hikaru had received the fright of her life. There before her when she awoke, less than three inches from her face, was the face of the long haired woman. In her shock, Hikaru had thrown herself off the bed and through the woman.

"What. How. Wait. Stop. Who are you? Why are you in my room? And did I just fall through you?!" Rubbing her injured bum, Hikaru tried to sort out her disorganized thoughts.

"Hikaru! Are you alright?" called her mum from downstairs.

"Why do I get a sense of déjà vu? I'm fine mum!" mumbled Hikaru before yelling to her mother downstairs. "So, who are you again?"

My name is Fujiwara no Sai. I taught the emperor Go at the capital during the Heian period. Day after day, I played Go and was very happy. However the emperor had another tutor of Go who one day declared to the emperor that only one tutor was necessary. We were to play a match and the victor was to continue as the tutor.

"What happened?"

The match proceeded evenly. It really was unbelievable that out of the many men in the court, I was the only one who noticed it. A white stone was mixed into his goke. And when his moment of chance came up, he placed that stone into his own agehama.

"Goke? Agehama?"

A goke is the bowl to hold the go stones and an agehama is the container to hold captured stones.

"So he cheated then?"

When I was about to reveal his disgraceful act, he accused me of cheating before the whole court. I was so distraught that I lost focus and hence lost the game. With a charge of cheating, I was expelled from the capital. Without my livelihood, I found no reason to live. Two days later, I drowned myself.

'You killed yourself over a board game?' Hikaru stared in wonderment at the person before her. She simply couldn't understand how anyone could kill himself over a game. Yet looking into Sai's eyes, she saw the raw passion that burned like wildfire. 'It's the same look, the same feeling I get with dance. Go is his life; just as is mine.'

Yet despite my death, I still wanted to play go. Unable to seek solace, my spirit possessed a Go board. After waiting for a long time, I heard the voice of a boy. His name was Tora-jirou. Tora-jirou changed his name to Shuusaku and later, he became Honinbou Shuusaku. However, at the tender age of 34, he fell victim to the plague and one night, he died.

"Are those his blood stains on the goban then?"

Hai.

A heavy silence fell between them as one gazed into the past with clouded eyes and the other out the window to the cloudless blue skies.

"Hikaru! Are you ready for school yet?"

Both heads turned towards the door. There stood Hikaru's mother, looking down at her daughter with a questioning gaze.

"Hikaru, what are you doing on the floor?"

"I'm err… I…" glancing between Sai and her mother, Hikaru realized that her mother could not see Sai. "I'm err… looking for my…hair clip! Yeah! My hair-clip dropped here earlier when I rolled out of bed so yeah."

"Well alright but hurry up or you'll be late for school."

On the way to school

Hikaru glanced at the woman beside her before facing the sidewalk again. 'Alright Hikaru,' she thought to herself, 'let's see what we know about her. She's a thousand year old ghost who is obsessed by Go and is for some reason stuck with me.'

"Why are you still here? I mean it's been a thousand years right, so why haven't you passed on?"

I am still here because I have yet to obtain the Hand of God.

"I see. So you are still here because you wish to play Go. But you're a ghost; how are you going to play go without the ability to touch things?"

I am hopeful that you will allow me to play go through you.

"You are going to posses me?!"

No, I hope that you will let me play go by helping my set down the stones where instructed.

"I… can't you just posses someone else? I'm quite busy, I don't think I'll have the time to play Go for you."

Hikaru jumped back in shock when Sai suddenly collapsed before her, crying sorrowfully. "Don't cry Sai-san, please don't cry. Alright, alright, I'll play go for you but only sometimes alright?" If Hikaru had one weakness, it was crying. She could be as stubborn as an ass, but cry and she would give in.

Really? You would do that for me?

"Yes but please don't cry again."

Recess

"So, let's see what we can find about Go neh?" Hikaru typed in "Igo" onto the search engine of the internet on her school's library computers.

Neh! Neh, Hikaru, what is this box?

'It's a computer eh… how do I explain this. It's like a really big calculator that can do a lot more complicated stuff.'

Calculator?

'Yeah you know, a calculator. Like an… abacus! That's right. It's like a really fast abacus. Here we go, Igo…'

The two companions spent the rest of the recess in the library. During which Sai learnt about the new Komi rule while Hikaru learnt the general rules of Go. They also discovered NetGo and upon checking out the local go salons, Hikaru found one that was near her dance school.

'Hey Sai,' thought Hikaru as she pushed in the chair, 'I may not be able to let you play go today because I have dance after school and it ends quite late so, maybe tomorrow? You've waited over a thousand years, one more day is alright right?'

Hai, it's fine.

After all, what could one day compare to a thousand?

Author's note: Well, that's done. Hope it wasn't too bad. Review please! It helps me improve. And feel free to point out my mistakes to me. Thanks!