There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

-William Shakespeare

If Sai was forgotten by history, what about the other? There should be more than one whose name had almost been lost to time...maybe I should do a few more. *grin*

The Disappearing Fox

Frankly, Hikaru had never believed much into the supernatural set, having been brought up, like most of his generation, not to. That had changed when Sai had entered his life. When Sai had left, Hikaru had almost been convinced that he was schizophrenic if not for the existence of the game between Sai and Touya Koyo. Looking at it gave him proof of Sai's existence. When Sai returned, Hikaru had been converted into a believer, convinced that there was a god up there, although he really wasn't ready to take a leap of faith.

Of course, having now seen a player disappear into thin air just after playing an earth-shattering game with Sai soon demented his beliefs in the supernatural. That belief was soon shelved as he noticed Sai, serene and serious, wearing an expression that could almost pass for grief as he studied the game. He must have really went all out against Inoue, Hikaru realised as he, too, studied the goban. In the end, White had won by one moku, without Komi.

Sai's expression was akin to grief, but no tears came, as if Sai had finally acknowledged his passing and of his greatness as a Go player. Grabbing a handful of stones from the board, Sai disrupted the beautiful arrangements into a senseless mass once more.

Like that, the game was now lost, lost to time with no other record than the witness of two players.

'There you are, Shindo, where's Sai?' Akira asked, noting the long-haired man's conspicuous absence beside Hikaru as the boys walked into the Institute building, Akira having caught Shindo outside the building. 'This is the form for Sai to fill in, if he still wants to challenge Shimano San for the right to represent Japan in the International Amateur Cup. There's also another message.'

'Oh, from who?' Hikaru asked warily, accepting the brown envelope proffered to him.

'My father wants a rematch...' Akira trailed off hopefully. 'Where is Sai anyway?'

'I don't know,' Hikaru truthfully replied. After the game, Sai had requested Seimei to pick up the goban and call a taxi to the temple. Hikaru of course wanted to know where the hell Sai was going but Seimei had asked him this: 'There are many people in the Go Institute who should probably know about Fujiwara San now. Do you want Sai to be surrounded by questions and curious Go players? Do not forget the Sai fans in Japan too.'

Seimei had a point. Ever since Waya Yoshitaka created the first ever Sai fan club, Ghost of Net Go Followers, Sai had attracted international attention from the Go world. Hikaru, having the closest style of play to Sai, had been branded as Sai's disciple. This would have been flattering if not for the Sai fanatics almost always pestering him. True, the numbers were dwindling, but Sai's reappearance was bound to raise them again...speak of the devil and he shall appear, Hikaru thought as Kosemura turned up on the scene.

'Oh, Shindo sensei, Sato sensei is sick today, so you won by forfeiture,' Kosemura told them. 'Touya sensei, about that Fujiwara Sai...'

'Why don't you ask Shindo, maybe he can help. After all, Sai taught you Go, right, Shindo?' Touya shot slyly at Hikaru.

'First, I want to show you people something,' Hikaru fired back at them as he took one of the fold-able goban the Go Institute had around and two sets of goke. 'This game was just played barely half an hour ago, I want you to analyse it.'

'Why me?' Akira asked suspiciously.

'Because you're better at analysis, and if not I'll tell Kosemura here the contents of our phone call just now,' Hikaru retorted, grinning as his hands expertly assembled a game on the board. 'If you didn't forget, the phone call where you used certain colourful terms...'

Akira, deliberately not facing Kosemura to hide his embarrassment, took a good look at it. 'White is Sai; he started out with a kosumi. Black is very good, he's very experienced, and you can almost tell that he's a high-dan, maybe eight- or nine-dan. He also plays a bit like Sai, strong classical influence but adapted to modern joseki. He's good, but not up to Sai's standard, seeing as Sai won. It's like Honinbo Shuusaku playing the ear-reddening move against Inoue Genan Inseki, but in modern joseki, right here. Still, this game...this is a player somehow even more experienced than my father. This is like one of the old masters of the Edo era revived. Shindo, who played Black?'

The question was hanging there like a heavy fog as Hikaru deliberated the answer. Somehow he doubted Touya would accept that a supposedly dead Inoue Genan Inseki played this in his afterlife. He himself would not have believed it if not for that he witnessed this game being played. 'He's a friend of Sai, Hattori,' Hikaru said, somewhat thankful for Sai having mentioned that name. 'This was his deathbed game. Hattori died after that.'

'Oh, I'm so sorry,' Akira replied sympathetically. Another Go prodigy departed from this world, he thought.

'He died smiling,' Hikaru lied. He couldn't had seen the other's face, but he had seen the hand move, and heard the satisfaction of a ghost having finally found peace at playing such a final game.

'You knew,' Sai stated as the pair of them stood to watch the goban burn at the shrine.

'So I did,' Seimei sighed. 'I am an onmyoji before I am Inari's help. Hattori needed to play Shuusaku before he could leave, and any magic I could use were invalidated before Inari. Naturally, I allowed him, to some extent, to play Shuusaku, who is you. I have known that you were Shuusaku, and at that time, I thought that you would merely create a legend, but not become one yourself. Another great rival has gone, but there are still others.'

'Hattori...he would have been happy,' the small voice whispered.

'He is,' Seimei sighed. 'Cheer up, he's gone.'

Slowly, the wood burned white-hot, white ash and heaps of little glowing splinters of wood slowly crumbling into a mass of white, black and brown. The flames crackled, and, throughout the tiny shrine's sanctuary, there was an echo, as if a breath of wind had sighed, a parting sound, a farewell sigh of one Go player to another, in the midst of death.

'You showed me to him for a reason,' Sai abruptly accused.

'How astute of you,' the dry reply came.

'You knew he was here and yet you...you never told me,' Sai sounded hurt. 'I would have wanted to play him again.'

'Do not worry, I had notified him two years in advance. Of course, I never revealed your existence out loud; I told him that Honinbo Shuusaku would play him again two years from now, and he should get his affairs in order. Being the grouchy person he was, he told me to get back to Kyoto and drag you here right there and then for the game, in not so nice terms,' Seimei chuckled. 'I would miss him.'

'Do you play pranks on all your charges, Seimei Sama?'

'Now you're just being cruel. I did tell him in advance, I just didn't tell him that Shuusaku had a backer.' Seimei replied.

'Yes, you're a tricky old fox who deliberately withheld information,' Sai shot back as the pair slowly made their way out of the shrine.

'Ouch,' Seimei winced.

Sai didn't know how on earth the driver managed to get so fast from a Shinto shrine on the outskirts of Tokyo to Shinjuku in under ten minutes. Of course, he had realised that anything involving Seimei would be fast-paced enough to possibly endanger the road. Briefly, he wondered what would had happen if Seimei was to ever get behind the wheel of the...what was that term...ah yes, car. Almost immediately he concluded that there would be several traffic accidents, almost certainly not just involving pedestrians, but possibly the evening rush hour as well.

'Nonsense, I don't care about traffic, traffic should know better than to block me,' Seimei had snapped at the driver. Frankly, Sai thought that perhaps being around Seimei could land him in several accidents sooner or later. The very thought made him panic...

'Now then, let's give Shindo Kun a call first,' Seimei exclaimed happily,fishing out from his pocket a white handphone. A very familiar white handphone.

'You stole my phone!'

'Nonsense, I merely adopted it for a while. After all, I most certainly do not think you have mastered the art of using a cell phone. Furthermore, I have even taken the liberty to key in you student's cell phone as well as several seemingly relevant numbers. In fact, I have even organised them. Therefore, you must thank me for doing this out of the kindness of my heart.' Seimei chided over the beep beep of the phone buttons.

The handphone rang in the Go Institute. It would have been normal except that it had rung in the middle of a game. Hikaru would have been irritated if the caller ID had not shown that it was Sai who was phoning.

'Moshi moshi?' he asked, still waiting for his opponent to move, impatiently tapping his fan against the goke impatiently, waiting for the inevitable resignation. Part of him wondered exactly when had he given Sai his phone number.

'Good morning!' A supremely familiar and eerie voice happily told him. 'This is Abe no Seimei, calling Shindo Hikaru on behalf of Fujiwara no Sai, who is currently in a valiant attempt to recover from carsickness while the taxi is still moving and now we're somewhere in the Tokyo metropolis.'

'Abe San?' Hikaru asked, puzzled before remembering. Of course, that strange man. 'Is Sai okay?'

We must remember that Shindo Hikaru, although gifted in Go, and probably in sports too, does not have much common sense. Therefore, we must remember that in the phone call, he would have clean forgotten that seated beside him playing another opponent was Touya Akira. A pair of ears pricked up upon hearing that name.

'Oh, you two are coming over? I thought registration for the pro exam was next year.' Hikaru continued, unaware that in the Go Institute mass playing room there were already one insistent bug, but several lesser insects eavesdropping on their conversation. Most of the people in the room had heard of Sai, being part of the new generation of Internet savvy pros. Of course, they were now given proof that Shindo was connected to Sai on some level. Sai was not a common name, and anything connected to Shindo named Sai had a very high chance of also being called the Ghost of Net Go.

'Is that Sai retching in the background?'

At this point most wondered what had happened.

'Oh, he's violently sick as a result of the taxi driver's racing skills,' Hikaru cheerfully continued, before almost yelling: 'What the hell?' What kind of driver is that? Akira almost wanted to scream, despite the good news that Sai was coming over too. Touya senior was coming over today to ask about upcoming new talents [so that he could challenge and, more often than not, crush them] or overseas amateur competitions [so that he could hopefully find his rival], and therefore the two rivals could finally meet, face to face.

'Eh? What the hell happened?' Hikaru's voice became concerned. 'Another traffic accident? Outside the Go Institute?'

Akira was on his feet and rushing out for the main entrance to hear the rest of the conversation: 'Huh? You caused a road accident?'

Stepping outside the Go Institute, Akira realised that there indeed was a road accident. What Shindo had neglected to mention was that the cause of accident was what seemed to be a traffic light that had malfunctioned with spectacular pyrotechnic results and thus resulted in the entire stretch of road before the Go Institute to be caught in a state of chaos. Unfortunately, there seemed to be several cabs around, such that he couldn't see Sai...

'Akira San?' that familiar husky voice piped up, and Akira turned to see Sai hobbling up towards him in the company of someone Akira hadn't seen before. The man was taller than normal but slender, and had long black hair, but seemingly pulled back. What truly attracted Akira's attention was that the man was holding a pure white paper folding fan, much like what Shindo held. Then he wondered what relevance did this fact have.

'Fujiwara San, you're out of the hospital already?' Akira asked politely.

'Yes, the doctors said I could be discharged since I didn't have anything more than a bad sprain.' Sai had chosen to wear his hair free today, and one of the hip long strands was now curled around his fingers as he toyed with it, frowning slightly, as if the words were quite unfamiliar on his tongue. 'I am expected to recover within a month, if not sooner.'

'Good afternoon, Touya sensei,' the stranger greeted, bowing slightly as he was still supporting Sai. Akira didn't like how the other person appraised him. It felt like he was undergoing his last X-ray scan; a total lack of privacy. 'My name is Abe Seimei, and I'm currently acting as a stand-in for Chiaki San today.'

'Oh, where is Chiaki San?' Akira wondered, where was the other bespectacled young man he saw with Sai just the other day.

'Oh, he had a few...family problems in Kyoto,' Seimei answered. 'Ah, Shindo Kun, you're here. Did you record the game?'

'Yeah, and I even got in a bit of commentary from Touya here,' Akira heard Shindo's voice behind him.

'You used me to provide a commentary?' Touya wasn't surprised at Shindo's actions. Shindo was, frankly, a bit of a brat.

'Come on, I couldn't write a decent analysis for my life,' Hikaru replied as he received Sai from Seimei.

'Okay, so let's get your sensei and his onmyoji friend indoors before Sai apparently collapses,' Akira inwardly chuckled at the strange names Shindo was associated with.

'Onmyoji?' Shindo was actually paying attention for once.

'Shindo, didn't you apparently damage my copy of Ancient History of Japan?' Akira replied impatiently. 'Abe no Seimei was Chief Court Astronomer and head onmyoji of the imperial court during the Heian era. Jeez, weren't you the one who threw a fit over that manga...what was it again...'

'Heian era?' Shindo's voice echoed. If Akira had turned back then, he would have seen that the question was directed at the pair of long-haired men.

Seimei grinned, and even Sai managed a weak smile. 'Give or take about eight decades,' the millennium-old men replied.

'It is not funny, Sai,' Hikaru whined later in the Go Institute's reception room. Actually, it was more like one big mess hall for Go players to stop for a snack in between games. 'Stop laughing!'

'Sorry, Hikaru, but your face...' Sai could not help but giggle. Almost silently behind his fan, of course.

Near the mess hall-I mean, reception room- entrance, two high-rank Go players were walking towards the doorway. One of them, a rotund, florid man was exclaiming loudly: 'Trust me, I'll find this player and challenge him!'

'Then I wish you luck in finding him, Kurata,' Ogata coolly replied. He himself couldn't find Sai, and only Providence had seen fit to allow him to play Sai for the second time. Judging from the expression on Shindo's face when he'd spotted the kid discussing a game, Shindo knew where was Sai. Later, he'd spotted the game they'd discussed, and he'd been impressed, but didn't know where to express his admiration to Sai without going through the brat known as Shindo Hikaru. So unless Kurata knew the connection between the two to begin with, he didn't see how Kurata could track down Sai.

Then they had entered the doorway, and he had spotted a familiar, very beautiful, Go prodigy. There was no doubt about the identity; Ogata had after all,run over him before.

Talk about the devil, and he shall appear.

'Oh Shindo, who's this friend of yours?' Kurata asked innocently.

'Oh, Kurata sensei, this is my friend, Fujiwara Sai. Sai, this is Kurata Atsushi 8-dan.' Hikaru made the necessary introductions. 'Sai first taught me how to play Go.'

'Oh, then he must be very skilled. I don't remember seeing him around,' Kurata good-heartedly replied. 'What's his skill level?'

'He's not a pro, but he's strong enough to be one,' Hikaru joked. 'Sai, you're entering the exam next year, right?' he directed coyly at Sai.

'Y-yes...' the teacher replied to his student. 'But first I may consider...an extended holiday, maybe.'

'Oh, Fujiwara San, why didn't you enter the exam earlier?' Ogata probed, interrupting the conversation. 'I've seen you play before. You could've become Japan's strongest pro.'

A few years ago, the Korean representative at the International Amateur Tournament had exclaimed that Sai had beaten Korea's Yun 7-dan, a feat previously unachieved even by Korean pros as Yun was regarded as one of the rising stars. Yun 7-dan himself had proclaimed that Sai was 'definitely Japan's strongest pro'. Now Ogata wanted to know why Sai wasn't.

Hikaru was about to start with a certain tall tale when Sai interrupted: 'I was in poor straits a few years ago. I had come down with a brain tumour, and had to go overseas for medical treatment. Not to mention, my medical bills took up most of my available funds and I couldn't spare the examination fee. I had spent the past two years recuperating in Europe and had only recently come back to Japan.'

Nice lie, Hikaru thought. Ogata was mollified somewhat, and Kurata was almost crying at Sai's tale. 'How sad, and yet you're still alive...*sob*' Sai had once said that Hikaru had gotten better at lying, due to the necessity of keeping the fact that Hikaru was haunted by a ghost secret. Now, Hikaru wondered if lying well was another aptitude learned from Sai.

'Yes, and we even have the evidence to back it up,' a voice whispered behind Hikaru, who jumped out of his chair to get away from Seimei. 'Abe San, stop that! It's creepy!'

Who the hell is this person, Ogata grumbled, having not felt Seimei sneak up on them, much less heard anything Seimei had said. 'Say, Kurata, this is the great player I was talking about,' he said, motioning to Sai in the hope of influencing Kurata to do what the simple-minded Kurata almost always did...

'Oh yeah! Do you want an autograph?' Kurata proudly proclaimed, pulling out a marker pen. 'I can sign it wherever you want. You better get it now, before I get any titles and my autographs become worth a lot!'

Typical Kurata, Ogata silently cursed. Stupid enough to not pick up a suggestion. Play him!

Sai's eyes had narrowed at the mention of Kurata. 'Oh, is that so? I'll take that if you can beat me.' the man sweetly replied. One could hear Sai's intent to slaughter if they paid attention.

'Haha! Nice, I like people with guts. Shindo, is there a goban here? Looks like I need to teach your friend here his place,' Kurata was still good-natured as Shindo plonked a Go set in front of them. Obviously, Kurata wasn't one of those who paid attention to faces, otherwise he would have seen Shindo's grimace.

Ogata almost smiled. Regardless of Kurata's inability to pick up suggestions, the plan was working well. It would have been better if it didn't require Sai's involvement, he conceded. Sai could read him like an open book, an aptitude that had no doubt allowed Sai to dominate the board against him. Now I know what Touya sensei feels like, trying to find this person to play against, travelling the world in the hopes of finding him.

Kurata Atsushi was obviously a strong player. Everyone conceded this. Kurata could play on par with title-holders and still win, occasionally. Go Weekly placed him at one of the top ten most promising players today, and some of the older players occasionally had a bit of trouble with him, even on a good day.

Sai was excellent. No other words could be said from here.

Looking at Sai efficiently decimate Kurata's defence and control territory, Ogata could not help but admire the moves Sai had used to kill Kurata's defence. It was beautiful, and especially after breaching the defence, Sai had spread out from there, much like poisonous creepers, slowly setting up a minefield of traps the 8-dan couldn't extricate himself from. Ogata acknowledged that, given Kurata's tendency to charge full-steam ahead, Sai's method was very good to deal with it. Kurata's predictive ability, his intuitive moves, turned to Sai's advantage. Sai had, by the end of mid-game, effectively controlled the board, save for a few of Kurata's insurgent clusters. And through it all, Black stayed ahead.

White surrendered soon after mid-game.

Kurata had been struck dumb, gaping like a fish, even as Sai stretched out contentedly. 'Kurata sensei is a wonderful player, but that charge just now should have been two hands later. A lesser player would not be able to deflect it, but I did. Thank you for the game, Kurata sensei.' Sai acknowledged.

'Wha...what the...?' Ogata pitied him slightly. Kurata hadn't received prior warning of Sai, and just, out of the blue, Sai had challenged him, and he'd accepted, not knowing that Sai was the Internet's strongest player, or that Sai had challenged Touya senior, and won. No matter how irritating or obnoxious he found Kurata, even Kurata didn't deserve this fate.

Sai's expression was serene and calm, classically beautiful even, as handful after handful of stones were returned to their place in the goke. 'Kurata sensei is a strong player, isn't he, Hikaru?' the man playfully teased.

'Says the one who decimated him,' Hikaru irately retorted. 'Look at this game! You went at him like you did the other just now! Sai, I think you cut him in half, like you did Touya last time!'

'If I remember, the last time we played, all the games were tied,' Sai complained.

'Yeah, you were playing around with him!' Hikaru shot back. 'In this game, you didn't hold back at all!'

'Kurata sensei would not only have been insulted, but I couldn't have anyway, against Kurata sensei,I would have lost if I did,' Sai sniffed. 'Hikaru, you're horrible...'

'Your student is quite right,' Seimei interjected. 'Although I do concede that he's a pro and thus needed it. Fujiwara San, enough Go already, you have even forgotten to eat.'

'Huh? It's this late already?' Hikaru jumped up to check his phone; true enough, it was already five, nearing six pm. 'Sai, I'm going home, you take care of that paper!'

'Yes, see you,' Sai replied gently as Hikaru rushed out of the Institute back home. Sai looked at the strange brown envelope that would allow him to play against another strong player. He was glad that he'd come back. He was glad that he got to play Go, to move the stones himself. He was glad that Fushimi had allowed him to come back.

Still, what was the price he had to pay for this? And for how long will he wander? So he thought.

Instantly, he banished the thought. He was here, beside Hikaru, and he could play Go, and, eventually, hopefully reach the Hand of God. Life was good; what more to consider?

Still, underneath, the doubt persisted.

'Is there any upcoming tournaments coming up?' Touya senior politely requested at the Go Institute's reception counter. Although he was technically retired, the older Touya did not see any reason to stop playing and now, almost two years in his retirement, spent his time globe-trotting with his wife. A successful career as a Go player for several years had already assured the pair's living in comfort for life, with a substantial sum left over even should any of them turn out to be a centenarian. Personally, he doubted that; his own health attested to it. Either way, it meant that the receptionist had a monthly visitor requesting for flyers to amateur tournaments.

As the receptionist made some comment about several flyers left by Kuwabara Honinbo in the mess hall for when Touya senior came over [the older man wondered privately how on earth did Kuwabara deal with the drawbacks of age, still alive and kicking and apparently as irritating as ever even after several years of the sedentary, high-stress lifestyle of Go professionals], it felt as if someone had walked over his grave.

No, that wasn't right. It was, more accurately, like that time during a lightning storm where all his students had stared at him and he felt something tingling in his fingers until he'd realised that the static electricity in the air was making his hair lift slightly off. Having seen his own face in the mirror at that particular time, he could see why they looked slightly afraid. He had remembered the feeling, though; it felt like what he would have felt when he played a high-level game. He had felt that exhilaration playing Sai, and, short of jumping into a lightning storm [he was eager, not suicidal], would do almost anything to feel it again.

Two figures went past him. Or, more accurately, one hobbled past him on crutches, the other walked, supporting the hobbling figure. As he continued to study them, ignoring the receptionist's comments on the phone right now, the hobbling figure's head rose and turned to his direction.

Abruptly, he noticed the contracting of the eyes, the dilating of the pupils, and a slight curving of the mouth before the man hobbled off. It was odd for more than one reason; one being that he had never seen that man before, the second being that his eyesight wasn't so good as to spot a change in facial features three metres away, the third and last being that the man had smiled at him before leaving without a word.

Somehow, he doubted that boded well. Why on earth would strange people smile at him?

He was about to ask the young man [yes, he had noticed that, the eyes of Touya Koyo were slightly better than many assumed] about that, but the pair of them had already walked out, and, amid the fading light, disappeared into the shadows.

There is a belief in Japan that after a hundred years old items can gain sentience and actually become possessed. This is known as a Tsukumogami. They cannot be destroyed or exorcised except by a priest. That is why, when they burnt the goban, it allowed Inoue to go to the afterlife. Otherwise, Inoue Genan Inseki would still be trapped.

Also, remember that Sai only just got a phone. He doesn't have much prior experience with a handphone.

An onmyoji is a practitioner of onmyodo. One of their duties is exorcism. A few more include fortune-telling and feng-shui. Abe no Seimei is an onmyoji, but he's also a half youkai, as he was said to be born of a union between a fox and a human. Of course, in the crude sense, Seimei would also know magic. This would be a good explanation to how he caused a traffic accident. In fact, it would be the explanation to how he did it.

I hope I did a good job on this.

Please read and review!