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Magical Ghost Go Princess Akari
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Author's Notes: So, um, yeah. It took me hella long to write another chapter for this. Even the constant begging from #soulriders wasn't enough to encourage me. Why now? I just suppose it was time, and the story has been rolling around in my mind lately.
This story should conform to canon as much as possible. Any discrepancies in canon will be edited out, but you must tell me about them, because I lost my translations for the later volumes. cries It'll take Viz YEARS to put out the entire series, and in the meantime, all I have are my Japanese volumes to go by for the post-anime-series storyline.
Any and all feedback is appreciated, especially constructive criticism. Point out my typos, tell me about confusing wording, and explain any character inconsistencies. I will love you for it.
This story does indeed tie-in with Fujiwara. It's not exactly a sequel, but all the events as described in Fujiwara are considered to have occurred in this story as well. This will become very important in the future. I suggest you go read Fujiwara, because 1. It's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself, and 2. You won't be as confused in THIS story.
Needless to say, there are humongous-ass spoilers for the entire manga. Welcome, Viz newbies.
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Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Hotta Yumi and Obata Takashi. Not me. English manga rights belong to Viz. (YAY!) I subscribe to Shounen Jump and so should you.
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Chapter One
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Akari sat on the edge of her bad, looking at the ghost with a perplexed expression. How did he know her? Why did he seem so naggingly familiar?
The ghost sighed again. "I suppose I should start from the beginning."
"That's usually a safe place to start. You said your name was Fujiwarano Sai, right? From the Regency Fujiwara?"
Sai smiled then. "You're correct! I served in the Heian court, as a tutor to the Emperor."
"Wow," Akari said, a little overwhelmed. "You're almost a thousand years old then." Akari stood up, flipped on her reading lamp, and limped over to her bookshelf, where she pulled out a very old copy of "History of Japanese Go" and began to thumb through it. She didn't recall his name, but perhaps she had merely skimmed over it, as one of a dozen other Fujiwara of note.
"More or less. I was falsely accused of cheating by my rival, who didn't want to lose his favorable position in the court. I was banished from the Capitol of Heian-kyo, and died two days later."
Akari had found the listing of the late Fujiwara regency, and excitedly read a paragraph from it to the ghost. "I think you're in here! Listen: ' Kankou One: The tutor known as Fujiwara no Naritada retired, leaving his court position to both his nephew Fujiwarano Sai and his second cousin, whose name has been struck from history. Kankou Three: The tutor to the Emperor known as Fujiwarano Sai died. Kankou Four: The tutor whose name shall forever be banned from history began to teach his Majesty alone. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru, a student of Fujiwarano Sai, traveled to Heian-kyou to avenge his master. Kankou Seven: The tutor whose name has been struck from history was exiled from court for six month. He lived out his life in the provinces. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru died.' "
Akari blinked and paled. The ghost was immediately behind her, staring over her shoulder in disbelief, not noticing that he was standing through her chair.
"Oh my god," Akari said quietly. "I've read this book through, and never read that paragraph before."
"That's because . . . that paragraph was never IN there before," Sai said, frozen disbelief on his face. "My name was struck from history. And Hikaru . . ."
"You know Hikaru?" Akari asked, unable to look away from the name on the page. A man known as Shindou Hikaru had died, around one thousand ten AD. She brought her fist up to her face in horror. Surely she would have noticed the name before!
Sai's voice was shaking quietly as he spoke. "Your friend Hikaru . . . I lived in his mind for three years. Just as I am now in your mind."
It was all so overwhelming. Akari limped back to her bed and plopped down, forcing herself to breath and trying to calm her racing heart.
"I interrupted your story before," she said, still staring at the old book. "We might get some answers if you begin again."
Sai closed his eyes, and drifted over to the window, where he stared out at the landscape. "For over eight hundred years I wandered, until I found a young boy who was able to see me. You know that boy today as Honinbo Shuusaku. I stayed with him until the day he died, and then I remained in his go board until almost four years ago."
"Four years ago . . . " Akari pondered. She was in sixth grade then, still in elementary school. "And that is when you met Hikaru?"
"You were there as well that day, Akari," Sai said, turning to face her and smiling in a friendly manner. "You were there the day Hikaru found Honinbo Shuusaku's go board."
Akari's eyes bugged out. "When Hikaru passed out from shock! That was YOU? And that was Honinbo Shuusaku's go board! That thing must be worth a fortune!" And Hikaru was going to just pawn it off, Akari thought unkindly, but shook her mind clear of that thought as soon as it appeared.
Sai grew distant again. "I remained in Hikaru's mind until right after he passed his pro exams. Then, I knew that whatever I had been allowed to stay here for had finally been done. The Hand of God that eluded me so long was not to be mine."
Akari was carefully fitting that story into the knowledge of Hikaru that she knew. All these years, she had wondered as to why Hikaru had become obsessed with the game. And right after he became a pro . . . he had been so depressed . . .
"You two were very close, weren't you?" Akari said, choosing to ignore the damning paragraph for the moment.
"Hikaru was probably the closest friend I ever had. Torojiru -- that is, Honinbo Shuusaku -- was a student but also very, very close to me. Hikaru, however, was even closer . . . perhaps because Hikaru changed me even more than I changed him."
They were both silent for a little while, still adjusting to sharing one mind and to absorbing all the new information each had just received. To Akari, everything seemed so much clearer in retrospect. All the times Hikaru had argued with himself. How he kept insisting on attending go related events, even though he originally had no interest in the game, and then how he kept forcing himself to improve. And then there was his stint on the Internet, where for a whole summer he had visited Mitani's sister in the cyber cafe just to play go on the Internet for free. Who had really been playing go that summer?
And of course, there was Touya Akira. Hikaru had been almost more obsessed with that person than he had been with the actual game at some times.
"And what about me?" Akari finally said, bringing herself back to reality, or whatever her current situation could be called.
Sai turned to look at her, cocking his head a little to one side, looking almost perplexed. "Surely I was brought back for a reason. That reason we will have to discover together. You already play go, so perhaps I am to help you as I helped Hikaru."
Akari shook her head in denial. "I already decided that I don't want to follow Hikaru. I'm not good enough to become a professional. I don't even think I want to become a pro. If that's the reason you're with me, then you might as well be resigned to a long wait."
Sai smiled sadly, his violet eyes appearing hollow in the dim light. "I've already waited a thousand years."
"There is that . . ." Akari bit her lip, and returned to the bizarre little paragraph in the go history book. "I still can't believe what I'm reading here. I've never seen your name before. And here, connected to someone also named Shindou Hikaru, who claimed to be your student. Is my Hikaru the reincarnation of another Hikaru?" She hadn't even noticed the possessive she'd attached to Hikaru's name.
"There has only been one Shindou Hikaru that was my student. And he lived in this time, not the Heian."
Akari groaned and fell back onto her bed, imitating the dramatic swoon of her sister from earlier. "All this is making my head hurt. And my foot hurt more."
"Believe me, I noticed," Sai said with a little grimace. "Your emotions are more open than Hikaru's were. Now I understand why he got so sick every time I opened my emotions up to his mind."
"Oh. Sorry," Akari said, trying to erect some sort of mental barrier to hide her pain from the ghost.
"There's not much you can do to stop it, I don't think. Why don't you rest for the night? Perhaps the dawn will bring clearer thinking and answers."
Akari stifled a yawn. "Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and discover this was all a dream." She climbed into her bed, and then looked curiously at the ghost, who had settled himself into the empty chair next to her bookshelf. "What will you do while I sleep?"
"Rest as well. You are exhausted, Akari, and I can sense your fatigue. Sleep now."
Obediently, Akari snuggled into the covers and closed her eyes. She tried to recover the happy dream of Hikaru, but instead reflections of the past four years kept flooding into her mind. Hikaru had lived with this ghost for all that time. This Sai had been with him, through everything, and then had left. Hikaru had been devastated. He really had acted as though someone had died. And now, finally, she knew why.
I can't tell Hikaru, Akari decided. I can't. Hikaru never told me about Sai, and so I will never tell him about Sai, either. I'll just have to live with him until . . . until whatever he's here for has happened.
After Akari drifted off to sleep, Fujiwarano Sai returned to the book that she had left open, still not believing the words on the page.
"Shindou Hikaru . . . student of Fujiwarano Sai . . . died. Kankou seven. Four years after I died."
Sai was silent as he pondered the strange little paragraph.
"The gods must surely be crazy."
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The alarm blasted early the next morning, causing both Akari and Natsumi to throw off their covers simultaneously.
"I claim bathroom first!" Natsumi shouted, and leapt out of the bed, sticking her tongue out at her sister.
"No fair! I can't win the race today!" Akari cried, and winced when she moved her leg. Natsumi tripped out of the room lightly, singing a song about waking up that she had probably improvised on the fly. Both of the girls were morning people; or perhaps, Natsumi was the morning person and Akari had been forced to become one too out of self-defense.
"She's certainly perky for this hour," Sai said, and Akari instantly whipped her head around to see the ghost standing there, looking blankly at Natsumi's vacated bed.
Akari had forgotten about him.
The flood of yesterday's questions returned, along with Akari's headache.
Akari decided to just accept the weirdness for the moment, in the hopes that not thinking about it too hard would make her head stop hurting. She was either crazy, or she wasn't -- either way, she might as well acknowledge the ghost.
"Natsumi spends a full hour getting ready in the morning, you see," she said, with a sigh. "She's a senior in high school now, and while most girls spend their senior year cramming for the college entrance exams, Natsumi is spending it trying to be 'discovered' as an idol."
"An 'idol'? She wants to be worshipped?"
Akari smiled. "More or less. We use the English word 'idol' to describe a popular singer or actress. Natsumi plans on being an idol, and she has the talent to do so. She even saved up money and got a --" Akari shuddered suddenly, "-- nose job. She's saving up to get her eyelids done next."
"That sounds very . . . strange. Although the standards of beauty in the Heian required that women shave their eyebrows to dots and use walnuts to stain their teeth to black." The ghost tapped his fan against his lips, a knowing smile on his face.
"Yuck!" Akari grimaced. "I heard that in Europe, during the Victorian era, women would break their ribs to make their waist a few inches smaller. I suppose women are stupid for beauty no matter what time we're in." With a wince she lifted her foot out of the bed, and stood up gingerly. Natsumi would emerge from the toilet soon and go to the shower room, which was downstairs beside the family bath.
Akari limped over to the closet, and pulled her brand new uniform off its hook. Natsumi attended a fine arts school, so her uniform was different. At least the costly uniform hadn't been damaged in her fall the day before.
"Your uniform is different from what I remember," Sai commented from the peanut gallery.
"Yes. This is a high school uniform." Akari caressed the green wool skirt and long-sleeved blazer top. "It's a little less childish than the old junior high uniform, and a much nicer color." Without thinking, Akari started rummaging around in a drawer for fresh underthings, until she saw the ghost peering curiously at her. She glared at him.
"Is something wrong?" Sai asked, looking blank.
"I'm . . . sort of used to dressing without a guy looking on," Akari said, hoping he'd take the hint.
"Oh, don't worry, I've seen plenty of undressed women before." Sai smiled merrily at her.
"That's not the point!" Akari hissed, glad she was still wearing all-concealing pajamas. She blushed and hated herself for it. "Could you at least turn around or something?"
"Oh! Sorry," Sai said, understanding dawning on his face. He obligingly turned around. "Neither Torojiru or Hikaru were very modest with me after the first few days. I suppose it's different for a girl."
"Yes, quite different," Akari agreed, her smile returning. Sai was actually very nice and understanding, apparently.
Natsumi returned from the toilet then, brushing her hair. "What's different?" she asked Akari.
Akari smiled more brightly to cover her surprise, and improvised. "The uniform. It's very, very different."
Natsumi rolled her eyes. "Of course, dummy. Half the reason you picked that school was because of the uniform." She flounced over to their shared closet and pulled out her own uniform, which had originally been a severely cut black sailor suit with red trim, but which Natsumi had modified to be a bit more revealing. A few inches here, a bit of a trim there, and the thing had suddenly appeared to be tailored to her curvy figure. No one at her school had yet complained.
Not knowing there was a male presence in the room, Natsumi pulled out her underwear with nary a thought. Akari sighed. This was going to be very, very complicated.
She tried thinking to Sai in her head instead of talking aloud.
"Can you stay in here while I use the toilet?" she asked the ghost.
"I think I have to be in the same room as you," Sai said. "Torajiru and Hikaru never tried to leave me outside the door, however. Well, more than once, anyway."
"What happened?"
"When Hikaru tried to leave me behind . . . I think he forgot that doors mean nothing to me any more."
"Um. Then you haven't actually tried to stay outside the door while someone wanted privacy?"
"No." The ghost looked quite thoughtful. "Since I am in your consciousness, but separate from it, I don't see why I can't remain in a different room, as long as we stay in relatively close proximity. I've just never tried it before."
"Well, now's the time to start!" Akari flashed a genuine, brilliant smile at Sai, feeling better than she had since the ghost arrived. As long as she had some private girl time every once in a while, having a ghost in her mind wouldn't be so bad.
Especially if he could help her out with Hikaru problems, a particular part of her mind added.
"Are you just going to stand there staring into space all morning?" Natsumi asked, as she exited their bedroom. "Earth to Akari . . ."
Akari shook her head to clear it, and then smiled at her sister. "Just thinking to myself!" she said hastily.
"You think too much, sis."
Akari sighed as Natsumi rolled her eyes and left to go take a shower.
"Anyway, you stand in the hallway. I'll just be a few moments." She left the room and went to the end of the hallway, where she quite firmly shut the bathroom door, leaving Sai to float contentedly outside. Privacy was assured, at least temporarily.
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The morning passed without further incident. Sai had remained outside while Akari showered, and had obligingly faced the wall while she dressed.
For breakfast, he hovered behind Akari, listening with apparent interest to the morning news as being discussed around the table. Akari's mother was in the kitchen, ear firmly on phone as she chattered with Hikaru's mother.
"Stocks are down again," Akari's father said, frowning at the newspaper beside him.
"What's new?" Natsumi said with another of her famous eye-rolls. "This recession is killing my chances of being discovered. Every two-bit skinny girl out there is trying to win a contract, and in the meantime diamonds like myself are left in the shadows."
"I'm sure it will happen soon, sis," Akari said encouragingly. To Sai, she said, "And if it doesn't, then she can always just get married. She has enough admirers that she can have her pick of fiancés. But she never goes out with any boys." Akari had always found it strange, but Natsumi was so strange overall that a little more strangeness didn't change much.
"Oh, and Akari," her father said, gruffly, as he prepared to slurp down miso soup, "I'm sure you already know, but Shindou-kun has made it through the preliminaries for the Ouzo title."
"No, I didn't know!" Akari grinned widely. "He didn't even tell me, the sneak. I'll have to tell him congratulations the next time I see him."
"Ah, that's one of the titles that pros compete for, isn't it?" Sai said, smiling almost as largely as Akari. "I'm very proud of him."
Akari turned around to face him, and thought to him, "It's because of you that he became a pro, isn't it?"
Sai nodded. "More or less. It was his will and his talent that allowed him to do so, but I am as proud of him as any master whose student will someday surpass him."
"Hikaru will surpass you?"
"Yes. Of that I am sure. He is still raw in his strength, but someday, once he has tempered it, he will indeed be stronger than I."
Akari turned back to her plate, contemplating that statement. She had known Hikaru was powerful . . . she knew enough about go to respect his talent . . . but Sai, who had been the go of Honinbo Shuusaku, seemed like a formidable player in his own right.
She had to find out for herself.
"Sai, would you play a game of go with me?" she asked, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with an incredible feeling of joy. She nearly choked on the toast she had just bitten into.
"Oh! I would love to play a game of go! Do you have a go board here? Can we play right now?"
Akari looked blankly at the ghost, who was dancing around her family's breakfast table in excitement.
"Er, not right now," she said, and inwardly cringed at the disappointed look on the ghost's face. "I have to go to school now. And the only board I have is a flip board here at home. I was thinking that we might visit the salon after school today, the one where I attend go lessons."
"Is that the same one that Hikaru went to?" Sai asked, regaining control of his emotions.
Akari almost nodded before she caught herself. Holding a conversation in her mind was difficult -- she kept wanting to gesture like normal, but her family would think she was still sick and probably send her back to the hospital if she started gesturing without speaking.
"Yes! And we can play on a real board there. I'll just tell sensei that I want to play a game out that I saw someone else play, and he'll understand. You and Hikaru played games together, right?"
"All the time."
"How did you do it?"
"You've been awfully quiet this morning, Akari," her father said, interrupting the conversation she had been having with the ghost. "Are you sure you're well enough to go to school?"
"Of course! In fact, I should be leaving now, since I have to walk a little more slowly than normal." Leaving half her breakfast untouched, Akari stood up, grabbed her crutches, and began to limp out of the kitchen. She picked up her still empty school bag and shouted back at the breakfasting crew, "I'm going!"
"Have a safe trip!" her mom called back without even peering out of the kitchen.
"Come on, Sai," Akari said, and headed for the door. "We can talk more on the way to school."
"Okay!" Sai sang happily, and took up a comfortable spot behind her.
Akari had no sooner made it out of the door than she was greeting with yet another surprise.
"Hikaru?" She and Sai said simultaneously. Her breath frosted in the nippy air.
"He's gotten taller," Sai remarked.
"What are you doing here?" Akari asked.
Hikaru looked a little sheepish. "I came to walk you to school. Actually, my mom sent me, with the admonition that since you fainted because of me, it was my responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again."
"It wasn't your fault," Akari protested.
"Right! It was mine! Didn't you see? Can't you see me now?" Sai said, and Akari glanced back at him. He looked very sad. This was probably a difficult encounter for him.
Sai had lived in Hikaru's mind for three years. That was three years that they had done everything together . . . teacher and student, mentor and learner, master and apprentice.
And now he was with Akari, instead.
"Are you okay, Akari?" Hikaru asked, and frowned at her.
"Oh! I'm all right. I'm just a little surprised. Aren't you supposed to be at the Go Institute, or something?" Akari said, and reluctantly handed Hikaru her book bag. They began to walk down the sidewalk together, as they had done so many years before.
A thousand years ago, a man named Shindou Hikaru had died.
For three years, Fujiwarano Sai had lived in the mind of Shindou Hikaru.
And now they were walking beside each other, and he seemed like a perfectly normal fifteen year old, albeit one with an unusual career path.
The ghost floated silently behind them. Akari tried to squelch her nervousness.
"I don't go in for another hour," Hikaru said with a shrug. "It's only the old men that go in there right when the institute opens. I'll catch a train later."
"I heard you're in the preliminaries for the Ouzo title." Akari was a little hurt he hadn't told her himself.
"Bah. The preliminaries are nothing. When I make it to the final eight like Touya did, then that's something to mention." Hikaru waved his hand dismissively. "I'm also in the preliminaries for Meijin and 10-dan."
"Wow," Akari said, honestly impressed.
"Congratulations," Sai said softly from behind them.
Curiosity and a bit of cheekiness prompted Akari to ask, "If you had to owe one person for getting you this far, who would it be?"
Hikaru was silent for a moment, and then he replied in one of the most thoughtful tones Akari had ever heard him use. "Touya was the major motivation I had all along." He began ticking off on his fingers. "Touya-Meijin showed me a more distant target to strive for, in the future. Ogata-10-dan scared me into playing better than anyone. Kurata-san also scared me, but he also inspired me. And yet . . ." Hikaru trailed off.
"And yet?"
Hikaru laughed. "The person I owe the most was someone I played with online. Strange, isn't it? That person taught me more than anyone else. I wish I could thank him now."
"That was me!" Sai said, apparently for Akari's elucidation. He sounded quite excited. "I'm the only one he 'played with' online!"
"I see," Akari said, responding to both comments at once. She glanced back at Sai, who was looking a lot happier now.
They paused at a traffic light, and remained silent as they crossed the street, Akari hobbling as fast as she could.
"We're almost there," Akari said, and nodded off to the next block, where dozens of other green uniforms milled about already. "Let me know how your preliminary matches go, Hikaru."
"Sure. Believe me, if I make it to the final matches, you'll probably be one of the first to find out -- because my mom will tell your mom, and then between the two of them the entire ward will know."
Akari couldn't help but laugh, because it was really true.
At the gate he handed her the book bag, and waved goodbye. "Stay safe!" he warned. "Or my mom will kill me."
"Good luck on your matches!" Akari answered cheerfully.
To Sai, she said, "This is my high school. It's one of the better schools in the area, but more importantly, it's only six blocks away, so I can walk in just a few minutes. Natsumi has to take a train to get to her school."
"Do you have a go club here?" Sai asked as they entered the schoolyard. Akari waved to some of the people she knew, but headed slowly for the steps. She wanted to just sit in homeroom until the bell rang.
"Not yet. I want to start one. But I think I have to be a second-year to start a club on my own, so what I really need to do is find a junior or senior who is willing to take the jump with me."
"Ahhh."
She settled in homeroom, and was quite surprised when a cluster of girls, some who were familiar, others who were strangers, surrounded her.
"Hi! I'm Tanaka Hana! You can call me Hana-chan!" An exuberant girl that reminded Akari a little of herself greeting her with an extremely wide smile. "You're Fujisaki Akari, right? Is your leg okay?"
"Ankle," Akari corrected with a matching sunny smile. "And it will be fine, once it heals."
"And was that cute guy with you your boyfriend?" another strange girl asked.
"No, that's Shindou Hikaru," one of Akari's old friends from middle school contributed. "He's Akari's best friend. Or at least he was. They kinda grew apart in middle school. Oh, and I'm Suzuki Maria." The blonde was a bit shy. She was one of the girls Akari had roped into the go club so that she could go to competitions.
"Oh, so he's available!" the strange girl squealed. "I'm Yamada Makoto, by the way."
"What high school does he go to? He wasn't wearing a uniform."
"How old is he?"
"Why does he wear his hair like that? I mean, it's cool, but it's a bit odd . . ."
The cluster of girls continued bombarding Akari with questions. Fortunately, Maria helped her field them as best she could, but even so Akari's head had begun to pound again by the time the bell to start homeroom finally rang.
"Women really don't change that much throughout the ages," Sai remarked, a little sympathetically.
Akari answered with a mental groan in response.
The homeroom teacher took roll and handled the morning business. Akari wondered how she was going to survive the rest of the day. At least she wouldn't have to walk around all day.
"Do you need any help with your classes?" Sai offered. Akari looked back at him, surprised.
"No," she told him. "I'm actually pretty well prepared. I studied very, very hard to get into this school; so much so that a lot of what we're going over is practically review for me. Did you help Hikaru?"
"Quite a bit. He hated studying. At first, I'd help him in exchange for letting me play go."
"That sounds a bit like cheating," Akari said to Sai with a frown.
"Eventually, he just stopped caring about school. He barely graduated from middle school because he never studied."
"I know."
The nagging little paragraph from the night before entered her mind again.
A man named Shindou Hikaru, student to Fujiwarano Sai, had died in Kankou seven, or one thousand ten AD.
"Did Hikaru ever express an interest in your time?" Akari said, as the math teacher up front droned on about angles and lines.
"Not really," Sai said, looking thoughtful. "He was more interested in the actual game than its history. Touya Akira called him the most uneducated go player in the entire professional ranks."
Akari stifled a giggle. "Yeah, that's Hikaru. So what could that paragraph mean? If there was only one Shindou Hikaru that you taught, it means that the Hikaru in the history book is the same Hikaru that hates history."
Sai was silent for a moment, and then shook his head. "I am not sure I understand it at all. Either there was indeed another Shindou Hikaru that merely claimed to be my student, or our Hikaru has somehow mastered the ability to travel through time."
"That's impossible. The former seems more likely an explanation." Akari obediently began copying down the notes that the teacher was scrawling on the blackboard, grateful that she knew geometry and trigonometry inside out by now.
"It does seem more logical, but remember, I am a thousand year old ghost. Logic doesn't exactly apply to me any more."
Akari's ears perked up as she heard the teacher speak of a computer lab in the school.
"The lab will be reserved for our use once a week. Otherwise, it is open to you during all free periods, lunch periods, and before and after school begins. You may use the computers there to assist you with your math homework. I recommend attending no less than once a week on your own time. The computers are also connected to the Internet, so that you can do research for your math problems if needed."
"Hey, did you hear that, Sai?" Akari said, physically turning to face him, forgetting herself. "If we go during lunch, we can play a game on the computers. Hikaru said there are plenty of go games available online."
"Ah, yes," Sai said. "We played quite often on the internet. There was a whole summer that we played every day. It was wonderful."
"I remember that summer," Akari said. "I figured you had something to do with it, looking back."
Sai nodded eagerly, and then said, "You might want to face forward again. Your teacher is looking at you strangely."
Blushing, Akari turned around again and began to scribble notes furiously. She still continued to talk to Sai, however.
"Hikaru let me play every day. I understand later that I caused quite a stir. Everyone wanted to play with me. I did finally get to play a game with Touya Meijin over the Internet . . . it was a wonderful game." Sai closed his eyes, rapturously. Akari could not see him now, but she felt the glowing joy the ghost was emanating at the memory.
"So you played against other people, not just Hikaru?" Akari hadn't guessed that much.
"Oh yes. On the Internet, you see, no one can tell that I'm a ghost. Hikaru ran the controls. I directed him."
"That's a great idea! I can learn just as much watching you play as I can playing you myself." Akari smiled, and copied notes from the blackboard. "Let's go during my lunch break."
"Can you walk that far?"
Akari hid an unladylike snort. "I'll be fine."
Sai looked at the girl, who was diligently copying notes, and sighed peacefully. Whatever reason he had been brought back, at least the host was far more willing than the previous one had been to help him out.
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End Chapter One
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Magical Ghost Go Princess Akari
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Author's Notes: So, um, yeah. It took me hella long to write another chapter for this. Even the constant begging from #soulriders wasn't enough to encourage me. Why now? I just suppose it was time, and the story has been rolling around in my mind lately.
This story should conform to canon as much as possible. Any discrepancies in canon will be edited out, but you must tell me about them, because I lost my translations for the later volumes. cries It'll take Viz YEARS to put out the entire series, and in the meantime, all I have are my Japanese volumes to go by for the post-anime-series storyline.
Any and all feedback is appreciated, especially constructive criticism. Point out my typos, tell me about confusing wording, and explain any character inconsistencies. I will love you for it.
This story does indeed tie-in with Fujiwara. It's not exactly a sequel, but all the events as described in Fujiwara are considered to have occurred in this story as well. This will become very important in the future. I suggest you go read Fujiwara, because 1. It's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself, and 2. You won't be as confused in THIS story.
Needless to say, there are humongous-ass spoilers for the entire manga. Welcome, Viz newbies.
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Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Hotta Yumi and Obata Takashi. Not me. English manga rights belong to Viz. (YAY!) I subscribe to Shounen Jump and so should you.
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Chapter One
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Akari sat on the edge of her bad, looking at the ghost with a perplexed expression. How did he know her? Why did he seem so naggingly familiar?
The ghost sighed again. "I suppose I should start from the beginning."
"That's usually a safe place to start. You said your name was Fujiwarano Sai, right? From the Regency Fujiwara?"
Sai smiled then. "You're correct! I served in the Heian court, as a tutor to the Emperor."
"Wow," Akari said, a little overwhelmed. "You're almost a thousand years old then." Akari stood up, flipped on her reading lamp, and limped over to her bookshelf, where she pulled out a very old copy of "History of Japanese Go" and began to thumb through it. She didn't recall his name, but perhaps she had merely skimmed over it, as one of a dozen other Fujiwara of note.
"More or less. I was falsely accused of cheating by my rival, who didn't want to lose his favorable position in the court. I was banished from the Capitol of Heian-kyo, and died two days later."
Akari had found the listing of the late Fujiwara regency, and excitedly read a paragraph from it to the ghost. "I think you're in here! Listen: ' Kankou One: The tutor known as Fujiwara no Naritada retired, leaving his court position to both his nephew Fujiwarano Sai and his second cousin, whose name has been struck from history. Kankou Three: The tutor to the Emperor known as Fujiwarano Sai died. Kankou Four: The tutor whose name shall forever be banned from history began to teach his Majesty alone. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru, a student of Fujiwarano Sai, traveled to Heian-kyou to avenge his master. Kankou Seven: The tutor whose name has been struck from history was exiled from court for six month. He lived out his life in the provinces. Kankou Seven: The tutor known as Shindou Hikaru died.' "
Akari blinked and paled. The ghost was immediately behind her, staring over her shoulder in disbelief, not noticing that he was standing through her chair.
"Oh my god," Akari said quietly. "I've read this book through, and never read that paragraph before."
"That's because . . . that paragraph was never IN there before," Sai said, frozen disbelief on his face. "My name was struck from history. And Hikaru . . ."
"You know Hikaru?" Akari asked, unable to look away from the name on the page. A man known as Shindou Hikaru had died, around one thousand ten AD. She brought her fist up to her face in horror. Surely she would have noticed the name before!
Sai's voice was shaking quietly as he spoke. "Your friend Hikaru . . . I lived in his mind for three years. Just as I am now in your mind."
It was all so overwhelming. Akari limped back to her bed and plopped down, forcing herself to breath and trying to calm her racing heart.
"I interrupted your story before," she said, still staring at the old book. "We might get some answers if you begin again."
Sai closed his eyes, and drifted over to the window, where he stared out at the landscape. "For over eight hundred years I wandered, until I found a young boy who was able to see me. You know that boy today as Honinbo Shuusaku. I stayed with him until the day he died, and then I remained in his go board until almost four years ago."
"Four years ago . . . " Akari pondered. She was in sixth grade then, still in elementary school. "And that is when you met Hikaru?"
"You were there as well that day, Akari," Sai said, turning to face her and smiling in a friendly manner. "You were there the day Hikaru found Honinbo Shuusaku's go board."
Akari's eyes bugged out. "When Hikaru passed out from shock! That was YOU? And that was Honinbo Shuusaku's go board! That thing must be worth a fortune!" And Hikaru was going to just pawn it off, Akari thought unkindly, but shook her mind clear of that thought as soon as it appeared.
Sai grew distant again. "I remained in Hikaru's mind until right after he passed his pro exams. Then, I knew that whatever I had been allowed to stay here for had finally been done. The Hand of God that eluded me so long was not to be mine."
Akari was carefully fitting that story into the knowledge of Hikaru that she knew. All these years, she had wondered as to why Hikaru had become obsessed with the game. And right after he became a pro . . . he had been so depressed . . .
"You two were very close, weren't you?" Akari said, choosing to ignore the damning paragraph for the moment.
"Hikaru was probably the closest friend I ever had. Torojiru -- that is, Honinbo Shuusaku -- was a student but also very, very close to me. Hikaru, however, was even closer . . . perhaps because Hikaru changed me even more than I changed him."
They were both silent for a little while, still adjusting to sharing one mind and to absorbing all the new information each had just received. To Akari, everything seemed so much clearer in retrospect. All the times Hikaru had argued with himself. How he kept insisting on attending go related events, even though he originally had no interest in the game, and then how he kept forcing himself to improve. And then there was his stint on the Internet, where for a whole summer he had visited Mitani's sister in the cyber cafe just to play go on the Internet for free. Who had really been playing go that summer?
And of course, there was Touya Akira. Hikaru had been almost more obsessed with that person than he had been with the actual game at some times.
"And what about me?" Akari finally said, bringing herself back to reality, or whatever her current situation could be called.
Sai turned to look at her, cocking his head a little to one side, looking almost perplexed. "Surely I was brought back for a reason. That reason we will have to discover together. You already play go, so perhaps I am to help you as I helped Hikaru."
Akari shook her head in denial. "I already decided that I don't want to follow Hikaru. I'm not good enough to become a professional. I don't even think I want to become a pro. If that's the reason you're with me, then you might as well be resigned to a long wait."
Sai smiled sadly, his violet eyes appearing hollow in the dim light. "I've already waited a thousand years."
"There is that . . ." Akari bit her lip, and returned to the bizarre little paragraph in the go history book. "I still can't believe what I'm reading here. I've never seen your name before. And here, connected to someone also named Shindou Hikaru, who claimed to be your student. Is my Hikaru the reincarnation of another Hikaru?" She hadn't even noticed the possessive she'd attached to Hikaru's name.
"There has only been one Shindou Hikaru that was my student. And he lived in this time, not the Heian."
Akari groaned and fell back onto her bed, imitating the dramatic swoon of her sister from earlier. "All this is making my head hurt. And my foot hurt more."
"Believe me, I noticed," Sai said with a little grimace. "Your emotions are more open than Hikaru's were. Now I understand why he got so sick every time I opened my emotions up to his mind."
"Oh. Sorry," Akari said, trying to erect some sort of mental barrier to hide her pain from the ghost.
"There's not much you can do to stop it, I don't think. Why don't you rest for the night? Perhaps the dawn will bring clearer thinking and answers."
Akari stifled a yawn. "Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and discover this was all a dream." She climbed into her bed, and then looked curiously at the ghost, who had settled himself into the empty chair next to her bookshelf. "What will you do while I sleep?"
"Rest as well. You are exhausted, Akari, and I can sense your fatigue. Sleep now."
Obediently, Akari snuggled into the covers and closed her eyes. She tried to recover the happy dream of Hikaru, but instead reflections of the past four years kept flooding into her mind. Hikaru had lived with this ghost for all that time. This Sai had been with him, through everything, and then had left. Hikaru had been devastated. He really had acted as though someone had died. And now, finally, she knew why.
I can't tell Hikaru, Akari decided. I can't. Hikaru never told me about Sai, and so I will never tell him about Sai, either. I'll just have to live with him until . . . until whatever he's here for has happened.
After Akari drifted off to sleep, Fujiwarano Sai returned to the book that she had left open, still not believing the words on the page.
"Shindou Hikaru . . . student of Fujiwarano Sai . . . died. Kankou seven. Four years after I died."
Sai was silent as he pondered the strange little paragraph.
"The gods must surely be crazy."
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The alarm blasted early the next morning, causing both Akari and Natsumi to throw off their covers simultaneously.
"I claim bathroom first!" Natsumi shouted, and leapt out of the bed, sticking her tongue out at her sister.
"No fair! I can't win the race today!" Akari cried, and winced when she moved her leg. Natsumi tripped out of the room lightly, singing a song about waking up that she had probably improvised on the fly. Both of the girls were morning people; or perhaps, Natsumi was the morning person and Akari had been forced to become one too out of self-defense.
"She's certainly perky for this hour," Sai said, and Akari instantly whipped her head around to see the ghost standing there, looking blankly at Natsumi's vacated bed.
Akari had forgotten about him.
The flood of yesterday's questions returned, along with Akari's headache.
Akari decided to just accept the weirdness for the moment, in the hopes that not thinking about it too hard would make her head stop hurting. She was either crazy, or she wasn't -- either way, she might as well acknowledge the ghost.
"Natsumi spends a full hour getting ready in the morning, you see," she said, with a sigh. "She's a senior in high school now, and while most girls spend their senior year cramming for the college entrance exams, Natsumi is spending it trying to be 'discovered' as an idol."
"An 'idol'? She wants to be worshipped?"
Akari smiled. "More or less. We use the English word 'idol' to describe a popular singer or actress. Natsumi plans on being an idol, and she has the talent to do so. She even saved up money and got a --" Akari shuddered suddenly, "-- nose job. She's saving up to get her eyelids done next."
"That sounds very . . . strange. Although the standards of beauty in the Heian required that women shave their eyebrows to dots and use walnuts to stain their teeth to black." The ghost tapped his fan against his lips, a knowing smile on his face.
"Yuck!" Akari grimaced. "I heard that in Europe, during the Victorian era, women would break their ribs to make their waist a few inches smaller. I suppose women are stupid for beauty no matter what time we're in." With a wince she lifted her foot out of the bed, and stood up gingerly. Natsumi would emerge from the toilet soon and go to the shower room, which was downstairs beside the family bath.
Akari limped over to the closet, and pulled her brand new uniform off its hook. Natsumi attended a fine arts school, so her uniform was different. At least the costly uniform hadn't been damaged in her fall the day before.
"Your uniform is different from what I remember," Sai commented from the peanut gallery.
"Yes. This is a high school uniform." Akari caressed the green wool skirt and long-sleeved blazer top. "It's a little less childish than the old junior high uniform, and a much nicer color." Without thinking, Akari started rummaging around in a drawer for fresh underthings, until she saw the ghost peering curiously at her. She glared at him.
"Is something wrong?" Sai asked, looking blank.
"I'm . . . sort of used to dressing without a guy looking on," Akari said, hoping he'd take the hint.
"Oh, don't worry, I've seen plenty of undressed women before." Sai smiled merrily at her.
"That's not the point!" Akari hissed, glad she was still wearing all-concealing pajamas. She blushed and hated herself for it. "Could you at least turn around or something?"
"Oh! Sorry," Sai said, understanding dawning on his face. He obligingly turned around. "Neither Torojiru or Hikaru were very modest with me after the first few days. I suppose it's different for a girl."
"Yes, quite different," Akari agreed, her smile returning. Sai was actually very nice and understanding, apparently.
Natsumi returned from the toilet then, brushing her hair. "What's different?" she asked Akari.
Akari smiled more brightly to cover her surprise, and improvised. "The uniform. It's very, very different."
Natsumi rolled her eyes. "Of course, dummy. Half the reason you picked that school was because of the uniform." She flounced over to their shared closet and pulled out her own uniform, which had originally been a severely cut black sailor suit with red trim, but which Natsumi had modified to be a bit more revealing. A few inches here, a bit of a trim there, and the thing had suddenly appeared to be tailored to her curvy figure. No one at her school had yet complained.
Not knowing there was a male presence in the room, Natsumi pulled out her underwear with nary a thought. Akari sighed. This was going to be very, very complicated.
She tried thinking to Sai in her head instead of talking aloud.
"Can you stay in here while I use the toilet?" she asked the ghost.
"I think I have to be in the same room as you," Sai said. "Torajiru and Hikaru never tried to leave me outside the door, however. Well, more than once, anyway."
"What happened?"
"When Hikaru tried to leave me behind . . . I think he forgot that doors mean nothing to me any more."
"Um. Then you haven't actually tried to stay outside the door while someone wanted privacy?"
"No." The ghost looked quite thoughtful. "Since I am in your consciousness, but separate from it, I don't see why I can't remain in a different room, as long as we stay in relatively close proximity. I've just never tried it before."
"Well, now's the time to start!" Akari flashed a genuine, brilliant smile at Sai, feeling better than she had since the ghost arrived. As long as she had some private girl time every once in a while, having a ghost in her mind wouldn't be so bad.
Especially if he could help her out with Hikaru problems, a particular part of her mind added.
"Are you just going to stand there staring into space all morning?" Natsumi asked, as she exited their bedroom. "Earth to Akari . . ."
Akari shook her head to clear it, and then smiled at her sister. "Just thinking to myself!" she said hastily.
"You think too much, sis."
Akari sighed as Natsumi rolled her eyes and left to go take a shower.
"Anyway, you stand in the hallway. I'll just be a few moments." She left the room and went to the end of the hallway, where she quite firmly shut the bathroom door, leaving Sai to float contentedly outside. Privacy was assured, at least temporarily.
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The morning passed without further incident. Sai had remained outside while Akari showered, and had obligingly faced the wall while she dressed.
For breakfast, he hovered behind Akari, listening with apparent interest to the morning news as being discussed around the table. Akari's mother was in the kitchen, ear firmly on phone as she chattered with Hikaru's mother.
"Stocks are down again," Akari's father said, frowning at the newspaper beside him.
"What's new?" Natsumi said with another of her famous eye-rolls. "This recession is killing my chances of being discovered. Every two-bit skinny girl out there is trying to win a contract, and in the meantime diamonds like myself are left in the shadows."
"I'm sure it will happen soon, sis," Akari said encouragingly. To Sai, she said, "And if it doesn't, then she can always just get married. She has enough admirers that she can have her pick of fiancés. But she never goes out with any boys." Akari had always found it strange, but Natsumi was so strange overall that a little more strangeness didn't change much.
"Oh, and Akari," her father said, gruffly, as he prepared to slurp down miso soup, "I'm sure you already know, but Shindou-kun has made it through the preliminaries for the Ouzo title."
"No, I didn't know!" Akari grinned widely. "He didn't even tell me, the sneak. I'll have to tell him congratulations the next time I see him."
"Ah, that's one of the titles that pros compete for, isn't it?" Sai said, smiling almost as largely as Akari. "I'm very proud of him."
Akari turned around to face him, and thought to him, "It's because of you that he became a pro, isn't it?"
Sai nodded. "More or less. It was his will and his talent that allowed him to do so, but I am as proud of him as any master whose student will someday surpass him."
"Hikaru will surpass you?"
"Yes. Of that I am sure. He is still raw in his strength, but someday, once he has tempered it, he will indeed be stronger than I."
Akari turned back to her plate, contemplating that statement. She had known Hikaru was powerful . . . she knew enough about go to respect his talent . . . but Sai, who had been the go of Honinbo Shuusaku, seemed like a formidable player in his own right.
She had to find out for herself.
"Sai, would you play a game of go with me?" she asked, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with an incredible feeling of joy. She nearly choked on the toast she had just bitten into.
"Oh! I would love to play a game of go! Do you have a go board here? Can we play right now?"
Akari looked blankly at the ghost, who was dancing around her family's breakfast table in excitement.
"Er, not right now," she said, and inwardly cringed at the disappointed look on the ghost's face. "I have to go to school now. And the only board I have is a flip board here at home. I was thinking that we might visit the salon after school today, the one where I attend go lessons."
"Is that the same one that Hikaru went to?" Sai asked, regaining control of his emotions.
Akari almost nodded before she caught herself. Holding a conversation in her mind was difficult -- she kept wanting to gesture like normal, but her family would think she was still sick and probably send her back to the hospital if she started gesturing without speaking.
"Yes! And we can play on a real board there. I'll just tell sensei that I want to play a game out that I saw someone else play, and he'll understand. You and Hikaru played games together, right?"
"All the time."
"How did you do it?"
"You've been awfully quiet this morning, Akari," her father said, interrupting the conversation she had been having with the ghost. "Are you sure you're well enough to go to school?"
"Of course! In fact, I should be leaving now, since I have to walk a little more slowly than normal." Leaving half her breakfast untouched, Akari stood up, grabbed her crutches, and began to limp out of the kitchen. She picked up her still empty school bag and shouted back at the breakfasting crew, "I'm going!"
"Have a safe trip!" her mom called back without even peering out of the kitchen.
"Come on, Sai," Akari said, and headed for the door. "We can talk more on the way to school."
"Okay!" Sai sang happily, and took up a comfortable spot behind her.
Akari had no sooner made it out of the door than she was greeting with yet another surprise.
"Hikaru?" She and Sai said simultaneously. Her breath frosted in the nippy air.
"He's gotten taller," Sai remarked.
"What are you doing here?" Akari asked.
Hikaru looked a little sheepish. "I came to walk you to school. Actually, my mom sent me, with the admonition that since you fainted because of me, it was my responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again."
"It wasn't your fault," Akari protested.
"Right! It was mine! Didn't you see? Can't you see me now?" Sai said, and Akari glanced back at him. He looked very sad. This was probably a difficult encounter for him.
Sai had lived in Hikaru's mind for three years. That was three years that they had done everything together . . . teacher and student, mentor and learner, master and apprentice.
And now he was with Akari, instead.
"Are you okay, Akari?" Hikaru asked, and frowned at her.
"Oh! I'm all right. I'm just a little surprised. Aren't you supposed to be at the Go Institute, or something?" Akari said, and reluctantly handed Hikaru her book bag. They began to walk down the sidewalk together, as they had done so many years before.
A thousand years ago, a man named Shindou Hikaru had died.
For three years, Fujiwarano Sai had lived in the mind of Shindou Hikaru.
And now they were walking beside each other, and he seemed like a perfectly normal fifteen year old, albeit one with an unusual career path.
The ghost floated silently behind them. Akari tried to squelch her nervousness.
"I don't go in for another hour," Hikaru said with a shrug. "It's only the old men that go in there right when the institute opens. I'll catch a train later."
"I heard you're in the preliminaries for the Ouzo title." Akari was a little hurt he hadn't told her himself.
"Bah. The preliminaries are nothing. When I make it to the final eight like Touya did, then that's something to mention." Hikaru waved his hand dismissively. "I'm also in the preliminaries for Meijin and 10-dan."
"Wow," Akari said, honestly impressed.
"Congratulations," Sai said softly from behind them.
Curiosity and a bit of cheekiness prompted Akari to ask, "If you had to owe one person for getting you this far, who would it be?"
Hikaru was silent for a moment, and then he replied in one of the most thoughtful tones Akari had ever heard him use. "Touya was the major motivation I had all along." He began ticking off on his fingers. "Touya-Meijin showed me a more distant target to strive for, in the future. Ogata-10-dan scared me into playing better than anyone. Kurata-san also scared me, but he also inspired me. And yet . . ." Hikaru trailed off.
"And yet?"
Hikaru laughed. "The person I owe the most was someone I played with online. Strange, isn't it? That person taught me more than anyone else. I wish I could thank him now."
"That was me!" Sai said, apparently for Akari's elucidation. He sounded quite excited. "I'm the only one he 'played with' online!"
"I see," Akari said, responding to both comments at once. She glanced back at Sai, who was looking a lot happier now.
They paused at a traffic light, and remained silent as they crossed the street, Akari hobbling as fast as she could.
"We're almost there," Akari said, and nodded off to the next block, where dozens of other green uniforms milled about already. "Let me know how your preliminary matches go, Hikaru."
"Sure. Believe me, if I make it to the final matches, you'll probably be one of the first to find out -- because my mom will tell your mom, and then between the two of them the entire ward will know."
Akari couldn't help but laugh, because it was really true.
At the gate he handed her the book bag, and waved goodbye. "Stay safe!" he warned. "Or my mom will kill me."
"Good luck on your matches!" Akari answered cheerfully.
To Sai, she said, "This is my high school. It's one of the better schools in the area, but more importantly, it's only six blocks away, so I can walk in just a few minutes. Natsumi has to take a train to get to her school."
"Do you have a go club here?" Sai asked as they entered the schoolyard. Akari waved to some of the people she knew, but headed slowly for the steps. She wanted to just sit in homeroom until the bell rang.
"Not yet. I want to start one. But I think I have to be a second-year to start a club on my own, so what I really need to do is find a junior or senior who is willing to take the jump with me."
"Ahhh."
She settled in homeroom, and was quite surprised when a cluster of girls, some who were familiar, others who were strangers, surrounded her.
"Hi! I'm Tanaka Hana! You can call me Hana-chan!" An exuberant girl that reminded Akari a little of herself greeting her with an extremely wide smile. "You're Fujisaki Akari, right? Is your leg okay?"
"Ankle," Akari corrected with a matching sunny smile. "And it will be fine, once it heals."
"And was that cute guy with you your boyfriend?" another strange girl asked.
"No, that's Shindou Hikaru," one of Akari's old friends from middle school contributed. "He's Akari's best friend. Or at least he was. They kinda grew apart in middle school. Oh, and I'm Suzuki Maria." The blonde was a bit shy. She was one of the girls Akari had roped into the go club so that she could go to competitions.
"Oh, so he's available!" the strange girl squealed. "I'm Yamada Makoto, by the way."
"What high school does he go to? He wasn't wearing a uniform."
"How old is he?"
"Why does he wear his hair like that? I mean, it's cool, but it's a bit odd . . ."
The cluster of girls continued bombarding Akari with questions. Fortunately, Maria helped her field them as best she could, but even so Akari's head had begun to pound again by the time the bell to start homeroom finally rang.
"Women really don't change that much throughout the ages," Sai remarked, a little sympathetically.
Akari answered with a mental groan in response.
The homeroom teacher took roll and handled the morning business. Akari wondered how she was going to survive the rest of the day. At least she wouldn't have to walk around all day.
"Do you need any help with your classes?" Sai offered. Akari looked back at him, surprised.
"No," she told him. "I'm actually pretty well prepared. I studied very, very hard to get into this school; so much so that a lot of what we're going over is practically review for me. Did you help Hikaru?"
"Quite a bit. He hated studying. At first, I'd help him in exchange for letting me play go."
"That sounds a bit like cheating," Akari said to Sai with a frown.
"Eventually, he just stopped caring about school. He barely graduated from middle school because he never studied."
"I know."
The nagging little paragraph from the night before entered her mind again.
A man named Shindou Hikaru, student to Fujiwarano Sai, had died in Kankou seven, or one thousand ten AD.
"Did Hikaru ever express an interest in your time?" Akari said, as the math teacher up front droned on about angles and lines.
"Not really," Sai said, looking thoughtful. "He was more interested in the actual game than its history. Touya Akira called him the most uneducated go player in the entire professional ranks."
Akari stifled a giggle. "Yeah, that's Hikaru. So what could that paragraph mean? If there was only one Shindou Hikaru that you taught, it means that the Hikaru in the history book is the same Hikaru that hates history."
Sai was silent for a moment, and then shook his head. "I am not sure I understand it at all. Either there was indeed another Shindou Hikaru that merely claimed to be my student, or our Hikaru has somehow mastered the ability to travel through time."
"That's impossible. The former seems more likely an explanation." Akari obediently began copying down the notes that the teacher was scrawling on the blackboard, grateful that she knew geometry and trigonometry inside out by now.
"It does seem more logical, but remember, I am a thousand year old ghost. Logic doesn't exactly apply to me any more."
Akari's ears perked up as she heard the teacher speak of a computer lab in the school.
"The lab will be reserved for our use once a week. Otherwise, it is open to you during all free periods, lunch periods, and before and after school begins. You may use the computers there to assist you with your math homework. I recommend attending no less than once a week on your own time. The computers are also connected to the Internet, so that you can do research for your math problems if needed."
"Hey, did you hear that, Sai?" Akari said, physically turning to face him, forgetting herself. "If we go during lunch, we can play a game on the computers. Hikaru said there are plenty of go games available online."
"Ah, yes," Sai said. "We played quite often on the internet. There was a whole summer that we played every day. It was wonderful."
"I remember that summer," Akari said. "I figured you had something to do with it, looking back."
Sai nodded eagerly, and then said, "You might want to face forward again. Your teacher is looking at you strangely."
Blushing, Akari turned around again and began to scribble notes furiously. She still continued to talk to Sai, however.
"Hikaru let me play every day. I understand later that I caused quite a stir. Everyone wanted to play with me. I did finally get to play a game with Touya Meijin over the Internet . . . it was a wonderful game." Sai closed his eyes, rapturously. Akari could not see him now, but she felt the glowing joy the ghost was emanating at the memory.
"So you played against other people, not just Hikaru?" Akari hadn't guessed that much.
"Oh yes. On the Internet, you see, no one can tell that I'm a ghost. Hikaru ran the controls. I directed him."
"That's a great idea! I can learn just as much watching you play as I can playing you myself." Akari smiled, and copied notes from the blackboard. "Let's go during my lunch break."
"Can you walk that far?"
Akari hid an unladylike snort. "I'll be fine."
Sai looked at the girl, who was diligently copying notes, and sighed peacefully. Whatever reason he had been brought back, at least the host was far more willing than the previous one had been to help him out.
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End Chapter One
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