Line
of Difference
by
Uenki
I do not own Hikaru no Go.
I only use them for fan fiction in terms of entertainment purposes.
The plot belongs to me, however, the characters maybe a little out of character.
CHAPTER 11
A child - with shoulder-length hair and unusually radiant eyes- strode into the ornately decorated room with a rolled parchment cradled in his delicate slender palms. Keeping silent and respectful, the frail child slowly approached the prince and knelt gracefully, with his arms held high presenting the pristine parchment to the – extremely aggravated - first prince.
"Akira," the prince growled his irritation clearly evident.
The child - Kouyo's, the first prince's, son - rose from his kneeling position and bowed politely after being acknowledged.
Kouyo made no attempt to even glance at the quiet child as he was too enthralled in his current game of Go that laid out before him, taunting him with hidden secrets and meanings.
The first prince was not one to have a placid personality, and thusly, was well known for his horrific – for lack of a better word – temper tantrums. Even despite the valiant efforts he took in order to keep himself relaxed by playing his favorite game, Go, seemingly constantly; no Go did nothing to help placate his ferocious temper, in fact, it probably made it worse.
Akira remained standing in place, unwavering in his diligence despite the obvious threat the first prince was soon becoming.
Huffing slightly, the prince grabbed the parchment roughly and skimmed through the contents not once, but twice for he was unsure he read it correctly.
His eyes widened slightly as he read, his anger rising to match. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded to know the answer. It was a well known fact amongst the servants, the first prince never questioned… only demanded.
"Father," the boy began, "the third prince had accepted the order to solve the problem of the flood in the West so…" the child stammered slightly his radiant eyes reflected apprehension.
The prince silenced him with a piercing glare before the boy could continue. Wincing Akira lowered his head, clearly understanding the message: shut up.
"He challenged me in return, Akira. He challenged me, not Kiyoharu, but me!" snapped the prince, highly infuriated by the turn of events.
Kouyo slammed his palms on the pristine Goban causing the delicate fragile stones to scatter to across the floor drumming against the wooden panels like rain would to a wooden roof.
Akira's heart almost skipped a beat as his body shivered in fear.
"No! I do not allow this," The prince bellowed, "Akira! I want you to follow him! Make known of my presence and my authority over him! I shall not be his puppet!"
The child bit his lower lip, almost drawing blood in fear. Akira knew and accepted the fact that he was just another one of the many stones in his father's hands. He knew, and he relished every moment of it. And thusly, if he was to be sent to the third prince then so be it. If by him tagging along with the third prince would somehow be of help to his father, then he would gladly follow his father's orders.
"Yes, father" the boy then headed out of the room, reserved and content with his fate.
Here they were, mounted on horses and traveling with the soldiers on a long journey into the west that Sai had ordered earlier. It has been several days since they began traveling, stopping only for replenishments and quick breaks. Even despite the fact that behind the prince were a few hundred soldiers that were tired out and feeling highly drained and yet Ogata Seiji, the prince and the child's enthusiasm and energy seemed not to have depleted at all.
There was – officially now – no doubt in Ogata Seiji's mind that that the third prince was without a doubt an extremely assertive eccentric person. He did what he wanted, when he wished, however he wished. And in an odd way, it all turned out for the best.
"Hikaru-chan, you have to move your hands in accordance with the horse's movements, or you'll be restricting the horse," lectured Sai who was settled comfortably behind the small boy on the saddle, while teaching him the proper manner to handle a horse.
The heart-warming scene caused furious bouts of hearty laughter from the soldiers. It was the first time they had seen someone from a superior heritage treating all people as equals, and he was not a noble, but a prince, a direct descendant from the Emperor himself. However, it was because of the prince's lack of stiff formalities that brought both the soldiers and the nobles together, and surprisingly enough they had bonded quite closely in a meager three days.
"Ouji, are you hungry?" called the tall strong soldier who was seemingly regularly in charge of food provisions.
Seiji tried extremely hard to reserve himself from striking the man, the rudeness was unbearable and almost utterly intolerable.
Sai upon hearing the call, turned from his gentle teaching and smiled in return; causing the soldier to huff in embarrassment.
Again Sai focused his attention back to onto Hikaru but seeing that the boy had gotten the grip of riding, Sai dismounted gracefully off the horse and then helped Hikaru to the ground which he then gave Hikaru a slight nudge who reluctantly trudged to the makeshift station for his ration of food.
"Ah, Seiji," greeted Sai after noticing Seiji coming up behind him while carrying some food wrapped in a cloth. Eventually Seiji came to stand beside him, although way too formally for his tastes.
"Look, Hikaru's such a cute child. He's pouting, can't you see?"
Seiji merely nodded curtly but his steely gaze lingered on the trained on Sai.
Seiji was utterly confused. He couldn't understand how Sai kept such a cheerful exterior all the time, nor could he understand – let alone comprehend - his plans to win the hearts of his soldiers. The meaning was simply way too deep, much like a dark abyss.
Finally noticing the food laying seemingly forgotten in Seiji's firm grip, Sai quickly snatched a portion of it impolitely and started to gracefully nibble. In all essences, the action was quite hypocritical of itself.
"Ouji-sama, perhaps it's not my place to say this, but would it not be good if you allowed the soldiers to rest, even just for a moment?" Seiji requested, his voice remaining calm, cool and collected, if not slightly strained.
Sai narrowed his eyes slightly with a frown marring his delicate feministic features, after Seiji's comment.
"No, absolutely not," Sai replied firmly clenching his fists as the words slipped past his painted lips "We only need one more day. I am sure that they could have more than enough strength and determination to last through… if not they can consider them selves unfit to be my soldiers."
Seiji hid a smile, finally some protocol!
"Our priority is to deliver the food for the people is it not?"
"I absolutely agree, Ouji-sama."
Sai smiled weakly. Oh he knew that the soldiers were tired, and hell if he had not already known it was quite plain to see that even during the quick break, the soldiers were wolfing down their food and taking the chance to close their eyes.
Sai knew he should be thinking about the soldiers' well being, but yet he also knew that the people of the West villages were his uttermost priority. Those starving people could not wait, because for every single second he delayed, there maybe a life lost somewhere.
"Seiji," called Sai, his eyes blazing with a certain unusual determination.
The guard went down on one knee and waited for orders.
"Immediately assemble everyone here which includes Hikaru."
Seiji nodded and went off to do his prince's bidding.
In a few minutes, the prince was standing in the middle of the soldiers, who eagerly awaited their orders. Little did they knew, what they are waiting for was something entirely different.
In a flurry of colors, the prince had dropped down on both of his knees.
The generals were unable to stifle their gasp as they were truly horrified. There was no royalty in the history that has ever knelt down to his servants, without something horribly wrong being the cause.
Seiji who looked upon the scene, knelt down immediately, followed by the soldiers and lastly, the generals. Hikaru, who never understood a single thing, noticed that everyone has been kneeling down, and he too went down on his knees hastily hoping not to displease his beloved Sai.
"Please don't kneel Ouji-sama, we are not worthy, we are not worthy at all," An older general, with long, white beard and wrinkled face spoke, followed by the soldiers who were in a total uproar.
"Yes! We are not worthy! Not worthy!" The soldiers chanted it at the top of their voice, but were slowly silenced by the prince's apologetic smile and sad eyes.
"I wanted to apologize to you all, my beloved soldiers," Sai spoke, his palms pressing the stony ground while his pristine snow white silk robes were dirtied by the mud from the ground. "Perhaps, I am not fit of being your prince because I am allowing my troops to be so bedraggled and worn out. I am here, for you to reprimand."
They were such simple words that and yet, because they slipped elegantly across the lips of their prince… it caused perhaps the biggest commotion ever.
"No!" The troops cried in unison, the generals kowtowing again and again to their lord.
Never ever in all of written history had they reprimanded a prince, much less ever wanting to. Sai was their lord, their ruler…their entire world, well…besides the emperor of course.
"I beg for you all, to last until we reach the far villages in the west. I beg you, the villagers cannot wait…" The prince trailed off, his head bowed low, his shoulders slack. Everyone could tell the prince was in a deep sorrow, even Hikaru noticed.
And thusly after seeing the state Sai was truly in after the seven days of hard rushed traveling, the child quickly stood up, and scampered over to the prince. And after kneeling back down again beside the prince Hikaru firmly grabbed his arm and tugged it.
"Ne Sai-niichan," whined Hikaru.
At this bold and – quite insulting act - he soldiers' attention fixated solely on the child.
"We are moving aren't we? I want to see more of this place! It's fun!" Hikaru mustered, cheerfully, his smile melting the frozen hearts of the battle worn generals.
"Yes, my lord," the old general from before spoke up, "we shall make haste, for the villagers."
As if he has just heard a magic word, Sai's head whipped up and leveled his gaze with the general that stood before him, who could not help but notice that there was a certain twinkle Sai's emotional lavender orbs that lightened not only the generals' mood, but everyone else's as well. And not a moment later, the prince smiled a most heartwarming of smiles. And it wasn't a cold fake one that protocol demanded and that they were all used to. No it was a genuine smile full of emotion and honest truth.
Minutes later, the soldiers broke into laughter as their moods soared to even greater heights.
Soon after though, the troops began to start moving again. But it was now that the generals were moving as a true team, their bonds that were formed earlier, strengthened.
"You're right," admitted one of the generals who was mentioning a referencing a previous conversation he had with one of his dearest friends.
"Like I said, our ruler is a benevolent man. If only the country would be given to him, then the world would be at peace…" Morishita Shigeo, a man with a cheerful light hearted smile murmured back as he glanced up to the vast cloudless skies, as if he was searching for something.
No, perhaps what Morishita Shigeo was searching for had been found it the moment the third prince entered the palace. He could not help but chuckle at his inward musings.
"What?" The teacup in his hands dropped and shattered on the ground.
"He knelt! The prince knelt?" cried the general who completely ignoring his shattered cup, his fiery orbs burning fiercely as they glared at the messenger.
As long as anyone could remember, the man had always hated the nobles. He firmly believed they were conceited creatures, who thought their commands were absolute. However, thanks to the appearance of the third prince, his entire cleverly assembled hateful world, crumbled.
The man could not help but shake in his anger, almost like a volcano that was ready to erupt at any moment, without any signal.
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A/N: Please pardon me, for I wanted Sai's journey of the West to be more detailed. He can't arrive at the West magically, having traveled to the west while I am writing, can he? ;D Sorry for the delayed chapter, I was moving house two weeks back and I was busy packing and unpacking. I swear the next chapter is about Isumi! (dodges tomatoes thrown by Isumi fanatics.)
By the way, I have a BETA now, it's Ally-chan! XD (Otherwise known as Kou-Shuurei.) Thank you Ally-chan!
To Ally-chan:
You did a fabbbbulous job. My goddess. -sniff-
As used by Ally-chan, this chapter soared to greater heights.