"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself."

-- Jiddu Krishnamurti


"Sai…"

Both Touya and Waya's heads snapped suddenly to the right, openly gaping at Shindou.

"This is Sai?!" they demanded in two unison bursts of outrage, giving Waya an excuse to glare quickly at Touya before turning back to his friend.

But he wasn't listening. Shindou stared at the tall, Hiean-period man in shock. "B-but how, Sai? I thought—I thought you were gone." His words were thick with unshed tears, punctuated by disbelief and a grief he thought he had left behind.

To the left of him, both boys looked slightly worried; Hikaru rarely if ever cried and Touya could remember only once having seen his rival do so, after his shattering loss to Ko Yongha at the Young Lions Tournament.

"I-I thought you had died," he admitted, eyes shining with tears and pain. He could not accurately describe how he'd felt at Sai's disappearance other than that; Sai had been as real and alive to Shindou as anyone, and his sudden departure had felt like death.

Sai gave him a sympathetic and understanding smile. "I'm back." He said gently, "I'm back, Hikaru."

Those words cemented it for him. For a moment, he for got his mentor was still a spirit as he began to cry, and launched himself at the older man.

Sai was firm—solid. Not warm, a little under room temperature in fact, but solid; Hikaru wrapped his arms around him greedily—finally, finally he could touch the man who'd had such a great impact on his life.

In response, Sai wrapped his arms around Hikaru as well, tilting he head downwards to gaze affectionately at the top of Hikaru's head and smiling slightly. He did not say anything, but silently allowed his pupil to cry, his robes soaking up the salty tears of the boy whose heart and mind he had inhabited.

Akira and Yoshitaka watched silently from the sidelines, feeling like intruders on this obviously private moment, but staying and watching anyway, not knowing what else to do.

Finally Shindou inhaled and released it in one great, shuddering breath, before pulling back from his old teacher and standing next to his friends/rivals. A small amount of tension disappeared from each of them when he did that; suddenly things seemed less surreal with Shindou back in charge of his emotions and standing next to them. And, it made things significantly less awkward.

"Sai, how…?" Shindou asked, more than a bit confused, "I thought—I thought when you left, that you were gone for good. That you'd moved on. Why'd you come back? Or did you…did you really just leave me?"

"I could never just leave you, Hikaru!" Sai exclaimed, protesting at once. "I've come back. But not completely of my on volition." He gave a pleased, if melancholy, smile. "I've returned here, to you, for a very important and complex reason. You, Touya, and Waya are going to help save the world."

There was a moment of thick, stunned silence.

"What?!" Waya asked, in a mix of outrage and disbelief. "What do you mean, 'save the world'?"

Almost immediately, Touya was covering up for the slightly elder boy's outburst with his politeness. Most likely though, he was close to doing his own version of what Waya had. "I think what Waya means, Sai-san, is could you perhaps please elaborate?" And, though his words were kind, his eyes held a steeliness to them that he almost certainly would not have had with any other stranger.

The spectral man nodded, seemingly amused, at either Touya's evident anger, or having been addressed as '-san.' "Of course." He said, and motioned that they should sit. Shindou and Touya did so almost immediately, though Shindou out of trust and Touya manners and curiosity. Waya huffed angrily, looking at the two as if they had just personally affronted him before crossing his arms in agitation and taking his seat.

Sai's raven hair swished slightly about him as he sat, assuming sheiza in front of them and exposing Touya-seniors still frozen, livid face. He glanced around once, looking mildly interested as he gained his bearings.

"Where are we?" he asked nobody in particularly, staring for a second at the time and color suspended stack of falling papers Waya had jumped earlier.

"A police station," Hikaru answered hesitantly, hoping for Sai's naïveté about this era to shine through as it had when they'd first met.

Unfortunately, such was not the case.

"What?" It was Sai's turn to raise his voice, eyes growing wide as he looked at his pupil, "Hikaru, what did you do?"

The boy with the bleached bangs blushed, "Nothing!" he protested earnestly, "The three of use accidentally got in a little fight, but we're fine. It was nothing, anyway; the restaurant isn't even pressing charges! We just aren't ever allowed back there again."

Sai looked unconvinced.

"We didn't eat there that often anyway," Hikaru offered, as his last line of defense.

Sai conceded, sighing as his shoulders slumped and his eyes closed.

"Can we…get back to the whole, saving the world thing?" Waya asked, slightly agitated at the detour from the topic.

Sai's eyes snapped open, tension suddenly back in his shoulders and posture. "Yes!" he said, "As we speak, dark forces are moving steadily towards earth. They have one objective: find the key to ultimate hidden somewhere here on earth, and use it to destroy the universe. The three of you will be joined by three others, and the six of you are to prevent that from happening."

There was another stunned silence.

"Oh, yeah, and what do you expect us to do when they get here, throw Go stones at them? Because that's all any of us are good at, playing Go!"

"Speak for yourself," Waya muttered resentfully, shooting another glare at Touya, origin of the outburst. In an instant the teal eyed boy had gone from passive and polite to annoyed and angry.

Sai, however, was not offended by Touya's anger, and was about to expand when Hikaru spoke.

"He's right, though. What can we do?"

"The six of you," started the ghost, "were chosen for some unique ability you posses. They've been dormant for most of your lives, and will only begin to manifest now that you need them. Each of the other three are in some way connected to you, and it's up to you to find them and tell them this. But, you've little time to do so; there's barely a week left until they arrive."

For a long while, they could think of nothing to say. It was hard to believe. But also, somehow, hard not to believe.

Hikaru had no reservations. "A week, right?" he confirmed, "And there are three others. Do we know them?"

"I don't know," Sai shook his head apologetically.

Waya shook his head. "No way," he said, "This sort of stuff happens to people who are ready for it. Not three don't-even-know-what-sort-of-powers-they-have teenagers!"

"Yeah, but, doesn't that make it sort of more believable? The fact that it goes against every sort of movie?" Touya asked, torn between belief and disbelief himself. It was a kind of ache, a need to belong to something other than Go, which led him to half-believe this fully-baked idea.

Shindou agreed, nodding. "Right. Besides, we could be ready, you don't know!" he exclaimed in boisterous excitement that hadn't really shown since he was younger.

Again, Sai smiled. Then, having delivered the message the Gods had asked him to, brought his hand to his mouth to hide it. He was normal again, amused at Hikaru's boundless excitement.

"But," Waya protested, "There's no way this can be happening. It's way to surreal!"

Shindou's smile dropped, "I know." He said seriously, "And it'll take some getting used to, but—But guys, I trust him."

Slightly awed by his friends words, Waya detoured slightly. How could he so easily trust this "Sai"? "Shindou, who—"

"Okay." Waya was cut off by Touya, whose eyes had suddenly narrowed, face as serious as if he were going into an extremely important game. "I trust you, Shindou."

"…Touya…" Shindou said, staring at him.

"You told me once that you'd tell me about the mystery surrounding you and Sai someday," he expanded, "but if that someday isn't someday soon…" he broke off, shaking his head and fighting off the urge to say something as childishly as "then I won't be your friend anymore."

Shindou nodded, swallowing thickly. "Alright."

Slightly thrown by Touya's sudden acceptance and seriousness, as well as this revelation, Waya couldn't say anything.

Hikaru looked at him. "Waya," he started, "It's hard to believe, I know. But weather or not you believe doesn't matter. It this is real, you'll be pulled along for the ride regardless. You won't have a choice, and sooner or later you'll have to believe it. Even if you don't now, come along and try to."

"I—" Waya's shoulders slumped, defeated. "Okay. I'm not saying I believe you, but okay. I'll come along."

Shindou and Sai beamed, laughing merrily.

"Good!" they said.

"Then," Sai said, "I guess everything can start again." The long haired man stood, bringing his fan to his mouth.

"But—" Shindou looked worriedly form Sai to Touya's father.

"Don't worry," Sai said, following Shindou's trail of sight and becoming briefly surprised. Apparently he hadn't noticed the elder Touya until now. He continued, eyes still trained on the former Meijin. "Only the six of you will be able to see me; if he can, then he is one of the six." He spread his fan and in a flash everything was back to normal; phones were ringing, Touya Kuyou's face had flushed back to it's angry red, and the stack of papers finally fell to the floor with a crash.

The only thing different was Sai. He stood slightly in front of but to the right of Kuyou, nearest Akira. The former Go pro did not notice him.

"—disgrace! What do you have to say for yourself?" The older man demanded, drawing the other three's attention back to him.

Touya paused only to realize what was going on. "I am sorry, Otousan," he bowed his head slightly; "It was a brief lapse in judgment. I lost control of myself. It will never happen again."

The former Meijin considered him for a moment. "Alright." He stopped a passing officer. "May we leave?"

The young officer nodded. "All four of you are free to go. It was only a warning next time, so there's no need to detain you any longer. But next time, they could end up facing charges, and it will go on their record."

Touya nodded, "Thank you," he said respectfully, and motioned for the boys to follow him out.

"We'll continue this discussion at home, Akira." He said gravely, "I'm late for a meeting; can I trust you not to start any fights once I leave?"

"Yes, Otousan," Akira said obediently, bowing his head to show remorse.

"Good." The adult folded his arms into his sleeves, gave a brief, intimidating look to each of them, and left, rounding the corner quickly.

Shindou sighed, placing a hand over his heart and looking comically relieved. "You're dad is scary, Touya!"

Touya said nothing, staring silently after his father.

"We have to find the other three "chosen ones", right?" He asked finally, turning. The other three began to walk with him, but before anyone could answer, and ambulance blared by, cutting off any answer someone might have had with it's loud siren. A moment later, a car stopped abruptly next to them, and the passenger window rolled down, showing a panic-stricken middle aged woman.

"Hikaru!" she called breathlessly.

"Obaasan!" Shindou's eyes widened in surprise, "What's wrong; did something happen?"

"Oh, thank goodness we saw you, Hikaru! It's Akari's grandfather—he suddenly collapsed and is on his way to the hospital, but we can't find Akari anywhere! Everything just happened so fast and then we had to go, and—oh, Hikaru, can you please go look for her?"

"Of course—always!" he declared immediately, suddenly worried and serious.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, reaching out and holding his hand in hers a moment. "Start at the house, we only had time to call for her."

Shindou nodded, and waited only until their car had started moving again to take off, running in the direction the care had come.

"Shindou!" Touya yelled in surprise.

His rival didn't slow, and said nothing even as his friends drew up and ran with him. Memories of what he'd thought was a forgotten friendship welled up in him all at once, fueling his worries and forcing his legs to pump faster.

In his mind's eyes, he saw Akari, when they were six, crying because she'd scrapped her knee. At ten, when she'd come to him, upset, because her parents were getting a divorce and she hadn't even known anything was wrong. At twelve, fussing over him the day after Sai'd first appeared in his conciousness, and thirteen, declaring that she would be a member of the Go club, even though she didn't know anything about the game, just because Hikaru was getting farther away from her. And then Graduation, the last time he had seen her for more than five minutes and talked to her.

…how long ago had that been? A year? More? It hadn't seemed that long until he actually thought about it. How could he have gone a year without really talking to the person who'd been his best friend since before they hadn't even been an inch long?

He hopped the electronic card swiper with ease once he was underground, and ran onto the subway.

Touya and Waya followed, Waya mimicking Shindou and Touya swiping his card. The car took off almost as soon as they were all in.

'Missing,' the word echoed in Shindou's brain, taunting him, 'Akari is missing,'


A Note To All My Readers: (if I still have any)

Aaa, damn, you all probably wanna kill me--if you even remember me, that is. Sorry, sorry! ((rubs neck sheepishly)) With updates and stuff.. it's not that I lose interest, or have suddenly died, or have lost my muse or anything like that...it's just pure laziness. I usually have pretty much the entire story mapped out in my head (which is why I have trouble handing off prompts), and then it's just a matter of putting it in print.

I haven't even updated this story in, what, like a year? And a half? That's changing though, I promise! This is going to be the first fic I finish, before I move on to any of the others. I might put new stuff up, though...can't really stop those plot bunnies. But, this I'm going to finish, with the help of the livejournal community ficoff.

It's like a support group for constant WiPers...

...like me...-.-;

Just so you know though, I'm going to try and possibly go for a weekly update thing. My friend's'll be mad--I'm also working on a Naruto fic with them shamelessly inserted into it--but, tough.

So, love and cookies to all though who remember me and will continue reading.