A/N: Chapter 2 here.
Disclaimer: All was relatively peaceful. 'Relatively peaceful' because one particular electron, mass being one over one eight six three, was travelling towards a positrons at the daringly insane speed of five centimeters per hour...!
Whizzing through the air, letting out frightened spark of units, the poor electrons screamed out a horrifying truth in its high pitched, squealing voice.
"AO YUKI DOES NOT OWN HIKARU NO GO!"
And so, they collided in a flash of dazzling heat and light.
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Chapter 2
'..ru...ka..ru...karu!...Hikaru! Wake up, Hikaru!'
Hikaru thought he heard someone calling his name, telling him to wake up. He didn't particularly want to. He was comfortable enough, thanks, blissfully surrounded by floating clouds. He had absolutely no wish to 'wake up' like what the voice said. Why would he even do something as uncomfortable as that? He's rather be floating together with the pretty clouds…
But something seemed to be nudging incessantly and with great urgency at a corner of his mind... something... that was out of place...
Wait.
Floating clouds?
Was he dead?
He panicked at that thought. Groggily, Hikaru forced his eyes to flutter open.
Blurry shapes hovered inches off his face. They looked like familiar faces. Kinda. But for some reason he couldn't place them. Must be all those clouds. His first thought was 'I'm really hungry' and his second thought was 'Ouch'. Hikaru's head felt as if it had been abused as a baseball, soccer ball and tennis ball all at once. Possibly also a bowling ball. Groaning, he tried squinting his eyes further to see properly, but the lights were just too bright. The moment they touched his sensitive eyes, another wave of pain washed over his mind.
"Who put the Sun in my eyes..." He immediately winced and shut his eyes. Perhaps he should go back to that place with the clouds. At least no one was trying to blind him.
"Nii-chan? Hey, nii-chan, are you okay?"
Nii-chan?
Somewhere to his right, an irritating childish male voice threatened to split his head into half. He was half-tempted to smack the boy, whoever he was, but managed to barely retrain himself.
As his mind slowly cleared up, he realised that he probably knew the boy. His voice had a familiar ring to it. Could it be... Yoshiku?
At that moment, he couldn't quite care if it was the kami standing beside him as long as the person stopped trying to break his mind.
There was a few more 'nii-chan!' before Hikaru got irritated and mumbled fiercely a 'shut up!' before trying to recall what had happened.
Seconds passed. Then minutes. Hikaru couldn't remember a single thing. More minutes passed.
Vaguely, he thought he remembered something about water. A lot of water. Did he drowned? Snapshots began to flash through his mind.
Yes, there was water. Because it was raining. Before landing in whatever place he was in, he had been standing in front of Shuusaku's grave in Innoshima. He had been kneeling down talking, and was just about leave...
Then...
Then what?
Someone knocked him out?
No, there wasn't anyone there. No one living anyway. After he stood up, the ground started moving. He was just about to leave when there was an earthquake.
Right then, it was as if a dam had been broken. His memories flooded back into his mind.
Even mentally experience the scene when his head attempted to break the hard gravestone make him winced. Was it just his luck to have an earthquake happen on the day he decided to visit someone's grave?
Briefly, Hikaru thought about going back to sleep now that he had made sense of everything. Obviously he was in a hospital to recover from his injuries obtained from hitting a gravestone, and one of his annoying student was trying to wake him up from his coma (Had he been in a coma? It certainly felt like it) by squealing into his ears.
But somehow, he thought it would be too cruel to leave the person wondering if he was never going to wake up.
Reluctant to face the bright hospital light, Hikaru opened his eyes slowly.
Mercifully, someone seemed to have dimmed the lights and he didn't get another migraine. His forehead seemed to be throbbing slightly but otherwise he felt fine. Hikaru sighed and sat up gingerly. He felt around the bandaged for the bump. When his fingers made contact with it, he fought hard not to scream.
Oh god. He hoped his brain wasn't more damaged than it already was.
"Nii-chan?"
Hikaru turned irritated to the source of the voice. When he found out which of his student it was, he as going to give him a good talking to. Go players don't squealed. Ever.
He squinted his eyes again. Everything in the room had taken on an odd blurry edge as if the colours were trying to melt into each other. There was a boy standing beside his bed and a vaguely white humanoid shape standing some distance behind him. It didn't make sense. Why did everything look so blurry?
"Yoshiku? Is that you?" Hikaru said, still squinting his eyes.
"Huh...? Who's Yoshiku? I'm Daisuke."
Hikaru tilted his head in puzzlement. He didn't have any student named Daisuke as far as he could recall. But the good news was, things around him seem to come into sharper focus the more time passed, until he could just barely make up the features of the two people around him.
At first, his mind couldn't quite process who he was looking at. Hikaru stared blankly at the boy who called himself Daisuke, and idly wondered about the sort of food they had in hospitals, because he was really getting quite hungry.
Then, Hikaru was confused. The boy looked really familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.
When he finally registered that he was looking at himself, albeit a younger version of himself, his thoughts screeched to a halt. If he had been standing up, Hikaru was sure that his leg wouldn't have been able to support him. He swayed back and forth on the bed, almost toppling over and giving himself another head injury.
Hikaru continued to stare in shock at the splitting image of his twelve year old self.
And pinched himself.
"Ouch!"
Which brought his eyes to land on his second visitor that, if it were possible, gave him more of a shock. There were many other emotions along with the shock. But shock overrode all the others.
"Sai..!" Hikaru choked out.
His throat closed up and threatened to cut off his air supply. Rubbing his eyes to affirm that he was neither hallucinating nor dreaming, Hikaru's eyes darted between the two people. There was a part of him that told him that he must have gone insane, that the knock on the gravestone must have damaged his brain worse that he'd thought at first.
"You're..." Hikaru swallowed. "I mean... You... I'm..."
His leapt through a flurry of thoughts that hoped from one question to another idea without much pattern or lucidity. He wouldn't have been surprised he he'd been frothing at the mouth. On one hand, there was the younger version of Shindou Hikaru, looking quizzically at him. On the other hand, there was Sai.
Hikaru took a deep breath. One problem at a time. He tore his eyes away from Sai and focused on the younger version of him.
Who as he had just noticed, had darker coloured bangs?
"Nii-chan...? Are you okay? Cause you look really pale... You're not going to faint again, are you?" The boy asked anxiously.
"All right." Hikaru said out loud, trying to reassure himself. "I mean. I'm all right. Ok. Really fine. Good. So..." Hikaru stuttered a little. God. It was so weird to be talking to himself. A younger version of himself. Daisuke. Right.
"Right. Daisuke right?"
The boy looked at Hikaru strangely, as if he'd sprouted another head. Then his eyes widened.
"Did you lose your memories or something?"
Before Hikaru could think up of an appropriate response, he whirled around to face Sai.
"You!" He pointed at Sai accusingly. "It's all your fault! You made Hikaru lose his memories! Unless you get it back for him, I'm not going to let you play Go!"
Sai gasped and almost immediately, started wailing.
"Ehhh...!? But... but... I don't know how!"
Sai covered his face using his sleeves, and proceeded to sob.
"I am so sorry, Hikaru-san! I didn't mean to make you lose your memories..."
Hikaru startled. Sai had never called him Hikaru-san before. At that point, he really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had Sai back. But... he wasn't really the Sai that he knew, was he? Hikaru looked down at his hands, leaving Daisuke, his brother it seemed like, to continue to chastise Sai.
If Daisuke was the younger version of him... then who was he, Shindou Hikaru? It didn't make much sense. Daisuke had called him Hikaru. So... had he time travelled back somehow?
Carefully, Hikaru inspected himself. He clenched and unclenched his fist, and looked at all his limbs. He was definitely smaller and shorter. How old was he? Hazy memories surfaced, providing him with a form of answer. He had been eleven years old when he first met Sai. Maybe he was eleven years old now?
Hikaru looked around him helplessly. He looked at Daisuke, and then at Sai. He didn't really know what to do in the situation. It was all quite confusing. Outside of Go, he really wasn't a thinking and planning type of person.
"Eh... Dai... suke?" Hikaru ventured.
Daisuke continued to rant away at Hikaru's mental state, as if in his own world.
"Daisuke! Sai!" Hikaru shouted.
Sai stopped wailing and Daisuke turned to look at him.
Now that he had their attention, he wasn't really sure what he wanted to say.
"How long had I been out for?" He motioned his hands to indicate the hospital ward. "What happened? And why is... Sai here?"
Daisuke shook his head.
"You've been out for the longest time! I think it's almost a whole day. Don't you remember what happened? Mom has been being angry and worried the whole time. I think when she comes back she's either going to hug you or kill you."
"It's not my fault!" Hikaru protested. "You think I like to hit my head? And you still haven't told me about Sai yet!" The words spilled out from his mouth easily.
Daisuke rolled his eyes.
"He's a ghost. From the goban you wanted to steal from grandpa's attic, remember?" He furrowed his eyebrows together. "He just appeared in front of us suddenly. I asked mom if she could see him... But she can't and now she thinks I'm imagining things. I thought at first maybe I was hallucinating. But then since you can see him he has to be real right?"
Daisuke's story seemed to be similar to how he actually met Sai, except...
"What about Akari?"
"She was frantic too! And she couldn't see Sai either. Or she would have said something."
Hikaru frowned.
Apparently, Hikaru didn't just time travelled back. Daisuke being his brother, twin brother from the looks of it, should have given it away. And now, Akari was not the one who had accompanied him to the attic.
Temporarily pushing the matter about Akari to the back of his mind, Hikaru's eyes landed on the other occupant of the room again. He couldn't ignore Sai any longer.
"Sai...?"
The ghost fixed his eyes on Hikaru and Hikaru swallowed. He had forgotten how intense Sai's attention could be.
"Sai... I... I mean. Hello." Hikaru finished lamely.
Gracefully, Sai bowed.
"Hello. I'm Fugiwara no Sai, the Go tutor of Emperor Seiwa in the Heian period. You are?"
From the bed, Hikaru bowed too, closing his eyes and forcing back the memories that threatened to overwhelm him.
"I'm Shindou Hikaru. Nice to meet you..."
Mentally, he added the word 'again'.
"Nice to meet you too, Hikaru-san."
There, with the '-san' again.
When Hikaru was younger, there were times when he had wondered how it would felt like to have a sibling of some sort. He knew siblings fought all the time and never did seem to got along well, judging by the number of complaints his classmates had about their siblings. But he'd thought that at least they had someone to fight with. And then he wouldn't be as bored at home. His parents never controlled what he did at home, but there were only so many things one could do alone.
Then Sai appeared, and he had never been quite as bored since. Sai introduced Go to him. Through Go, he met Akira, Tsutsui, Kaga, Waya, Fukui, and many other people. Go was something that they all had in common, and friendships developed from there. All the while, Sai continued to be his mentor, teacher, and friend.
He had never got over the fact that Sai just disappeared. Because somewhere in his heart, he never stopped blaming himself for it.
"Nii-chan? I'll go call the doctor now ok?"
Before Hikaru could reply, Daisuke had dashed off, leaving Sai and him alone. Even Sai looked taken aback at the speed which Daisuke ran.
"Erm..." Sai started. "Do you play Go, Hikaru-san?"
Hikaru nodded. "Yeah..." He hesitated for a while, before adding. "You can call me Hikaru, you know."
Sai smiled.
"All right, Hikaru. How long have you played Go for?"
At that, Hikaru paused. How long? Technically he had never played Go before, but in actuality many years.
Hikaru was just about to reply, when the door opened and there was the sound of a loud thud.
"Hikaru!
His mother rushed forward and embraced him, smoothing his hair over and over again.
"Thank kami you're all right..."
Even if everything else didn't convince Hikaru that he was no longer in his own world or time, then the appearance of his mother did.
His mother had died several years ago.
While his younger self would have squirmed and protested at being hugged, Hikaru wasn't that young boy who took everything and everyone for granted. Hikaru hugged back just as hard, if not harder, than his mother.
"Don't make me worry like that, Hikaru... I nearly had a heart attack when your grandfather called and told me you were sent to the hospital! I thought something really bad had happened..."
Hikaru didn't say anything. He just continued to hug his mother.
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Daisuke managed to get the doctor faster than expected. The doctor announced that Hikaru was allowed to be discharged, but ought to go back to the hospital for check-ups just in case the bump on his head was worse than it looked like. From then on, things proceeded at a pace that defied logic. Within the span of three hours, Hikaru, Diasuke, and Sai were all in a taxi. Hikaru's mother sat at the front of the taxi.
The whole journey had been strange. Hikaru paid minimal attention to his surroundings, directing it inwards instead. Daisuke fell asleep almost the moment they sat down. He seemed worn out. At first Sai made a few comments about the scenery. But then he soon fell silent when he realised that Hikaru didn't really want to talk at that moment.
Hikaru had a lot to think about.
He never thought that ghosts existed. But Sai's appearance negated that argument. There had been a period of time that he thought he was crazy but even if he was, Hikaru sincerely doubted he had the imagination to come up with Go-ghosts from the Heian period. He didn't even like history all that much.
But now, he was presented with an even more bizarre situation than a ghost. He was Shindou Hikaru but not really the Shindou Hikaru at the same time. All of a sudden he had a brother, Sai was back, and so was his mother.
Hikaru ran a hand through his hair tiredly. He didn't really know what to make of all of it. Maybe the earthquake that sent him to the hospital had something to do with it. It didn't really make much sense. He had never heard of earthquakes sending people back in time or to another universe. But then again, what did he know about earthquakes? He despised geography as much as history.
With more questions than answers and answers that gave him more questions, Hikaru gave a sigh. What was the use of school if it didn't prepare him for emergencies like this? What could he do?
Yet when he saw the three people in the taxi with him, he couldn't help but wonder if kami was giving him a chance. A chance to do things in a... different way. Even if he had to experience growing up all over again.
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It was soon that the Sun set and the skies grew progressively darker. Rain followed. Hikaru had been taken aback by the realisation that he would be sharing a room with Daisuke. He wondered if having two human and one ghost living in the same room was going to be a bit of a squeeze. Not that Sai took up much space. Or any space at all. He was just uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a room. He wouldn't be able to blast his music out loud any more...
Surprisingly, his bed felt very familiar. The moment he laid down on it, his mind started emptying itself of all thoughts and prepared itself for sleep. He watched the rain splattering on the window. Abruptly, there was a flash of lightning, soon accompanied by a clap of thunder. Hikaru snuggled under his blanket.
He had been on the verge of falling asleep, the point of time between dreams and reality, when he felt someone climbing onto his bed.
Annoyed, he looked back to see Daisuke's back facing him.
There was another clap of thunder, and even his back disappeared under a blanket that seemed to have come from nowhere.
Had he been more awake, Hikaru might have pointed out that they were in the house and there was no way the thunder could hurt them. Or maybe he would have kicked Daisuke off his bed. If it wasn't for the fact that he was eleven years old again, there was no way both of them could sleep on the same bed without kicking or punching each other.
But Hikaru was really tired, and frankly he couldn't be bothered.
So he turned back again, and fell asleep.
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A/N: Well... that's chapter 2 for you. For some reason, I can't say I'm entirely happy with this chapter though. Opinions?