Prologue
Yuki Kudo was having a fairly normal day…
"YU-KAACHAN! RIKA WON'T GIVE ME BACK MY-"
"NOT TRUE! THIS DOLL'S MINE!"
"GIVE HER BACK!"
A crash sounded from the floor above, but Yuki continued to wash the dishes.
…Yup, it was a normal day at the orphanage.
Yuki sighed; it was almost time to take the ankle-biters to the gated park. She hurried to finish with the dishes when she heard another crash from above. The woman with hair in a messy bun wiped her forehead with a sigh before she raced upstairs to prevent a third crash. "ALRIGHT YOU TWO- KAI, RIKA, STOP THIS NONSENSE RIGHT NOW!"
Yuki and two volunteers relaxed on a park bench in the shade as they watched the children run around still full of energy. A nice breeze passed lazily. Yuki looked up at the cloudless blue sky far above her. Today really has been a normal-
"Excuse me," a man in a suit said from a respectful distance, one of her orphans stood next to him. "Is this little one with you?" The girl's name was Tomoyo Mori if her memory was correct. She was one of the smarter ones of the group, already years ahead of her peers in intelligence. She was made an outcast because of that; her poor social skills and inability to distinguish faces didn't help the situation either. Tomoyo had once told her that she was fine on her own as long as she had Sai. Sai, her imaginary friend that no one wanted to crush her by saying he wasn't real. She also wasn't one for making trouble, which made this situation an odd one.
"Yes, whatever Tomoyo-chan has done, I apologize for what happened." Yuki bowed apologetically.
"What?" The maroon-haired man said confusedly. "I just wanted to know who taught this little lady how to play to Go."
"I already told you, Jii-san. No one taught me; Sai just showed me where to put the stone." Tomoyo said respectfully. Sai again? And now he could play Go?
"That doesn't matter; you solved a pro-level life or death problem." The man countered.
Sai is a Go player that has the skills of a professional? –Alright! That's enough wondering! "I'm sorry, Jii-san, but Tomoyo-chan hasn't ever been taught Go."
"Really? Even so, I suggest she compete in a few tournaments. She could probably win." He said with a shrug. "Ah- I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Amano, a reporter for the magazine: Go Weekly." He gave her a card hurriedly.
Tomoyo coughed into her fist, her short breath could be seen in puffs in the cold weather around her hand. "Tomoyo-chan, are you okay? You're not getting sick, right?" A male ethereal voice called worriedly over her shoulder.
"Right, I'm fine. We're almost to the Go Association. I'll feel better when I'm warm." She wrapped herself tighter in the jacket, and pulled the hood lower over her face to keep the falling snow out. And soon enough, she was at her destination. The sliding glass doors opened automatically, and she rushed inside towards the warmth. Tomoyo took off the puffy jacket and let it hang on her arm as she entered the deserted elevator and pressed a button.
"Are you sure? Your face is pale, and that was a nasty cough." The voice said again.
Tomoyo faced where the voice came from. There floated a ghost from the Heian Period wearing court clothing and a fan in his hand. "Yes, and if it helps, I'm planning on going home as soon as we're done here." The girl sounded much too old for her age.
Tomoyo was twelve, and had been a professional Go player for four years. She would be attending Kaio Middle School- the one thing the matron from the orphanage demanded as part of the deal was the Go prodigy finishing her education at least up to high school- the next semester, which was fine for the girl in question.
The elevator doors opened to the second floor, and Tomoyo stepped out, the ghost floating after her. "Amano!" She called when she saw the reporter's distinguishing hair style.
The man was standing next to a vending machine, finishing off the canned drink he bought. "Hello." He said after he threw the can into a nearby bin. "You're early, as usual."
The girl bowed to the man slightly. "I think it's better to be early than late." She seemed to wobble on her feet, and her face had lost more of its color than before in the elevator.
"You okay?" Tomoyo couldn't tell if it was Sai or Amano asking the question. Her mind felt clouded- foggy all of the sudden. Certainly no one would mind if she slept for a bit? Gravity seemed to pull hard on her body, demanding her to give up and allow it to fall to the ground. It was getting harder to resist the force's temptation to rest, and she relaxed and fell in a heap on the ground. Now if only the yelling above her would stop…
The quiet steady beeping was the first thing she noticed when she awoke. Tomoyo had yet to open her eyes, but even so, she knew Sai was with her, and they were in the hospital.
She felt warmth against her skin and sunlight against her eyelids, showing her the veins hidden between the layers. Strange, she could have sworn the sun had already set. How long had she been asleep? She heard the odd snapping sound of Sai's fan over and over again.
The doctors thought a cold was the cause for her fever and collapse, so they had kept Tomoyo for a while longer to make sure she was back to normal. Three days later, a healthy Tomoyo left the hospital with a floating Sai in tow. The second day of school had already finished by the time she left, so Tomoyo left to go home.
But -of course- something crazy happened on the way.
There! On the other end of the crosswalk was Sai, floating towards them over the pedestrians! The girl looked around her to find her Sai floating behind her, who looked shocked at what he saw. Tomoyo looked forward, trying to act like she couldn't see a copy of her own friendly spirit; she bent her head down to hide her eyes so she could study the clone. The copy seemed to finally notice its other and called down to someone in the crowd below him. Ahead of her, Tomoyo could see a boy around her age in a Haze school uniform with strange black and blond hair jump and stare openly at her Sai.
Was the other Sai attached to this boy? He could see her Sai, and she could see his? Why was there more than one Sai?
The dual-haired boy turned to follow Tomoyo's Sai. She cursed her luck. The boy would soon realize who Sai was attached to by either Sai looking at her all the time, Sai following her when she left the group, or Sai taking to her out loud. This was supposed to be a good day, and now it could be ruined! "Sai, What should we do?"
"Run! Run, Tomoyo!" Was the mental reply, she could feel the adrenalin burst through her system (she wondered later if it was Sai's influence), and she was off.
She turned down an alley with a sharp turn, ignoring the "Come back! Stop!" from the boy now chasing her. The blond girl jumped high over a line of trashcans when she was suddenly seeing double; everything was swaying dangerously. Tomoyo stopped. She closed an eye, and the world seemed to return back to normal, even if her depth perception was gone.
A crash behind her had Tomoyo looking back to find the dual-haired boy on the ground with spilled trashcans around him. She could guess what happened there: the boy, rushing to get to her, tried to jump over the bins stretching from one wall to the other, but failed, causing him and the metallic bins to topple to the ground. "Tomoyo, now- he can't follow us!"
Tomoyo nodded, one of her eyes still closed. The boy was already starting to snap out of his shock from falling. She turned and ran away with a call to the boy behind her. "Sorry!" And she turned around the corner.
((A/N: I've been fiddling around with this new version for a while, hope you like it! This is SariauChan signing off!))