In the Forests of the Night
A Hikaru No Go ghost story
To my new beta-reader, Imbrium -- sea of rains or not, you're definitely a life preserver.
part 7a: Aspiring Wings
The moon hangs bright in the sky, as the last sakura blossoms of the season drop their pink bunches like tears. Hikaru notices them with a slight smile. They have come year after year, century after century, but until he met the boy, such things had been below his awareness.
He knows now, however, that each day, even in its endless repetition, holds its own unique fragility. A flower only blooms once, after all, no matter how many there are in a field. It is late in the season, and the tender pink blossoms are giving away to the burnt gold of summer. Time grows short for other things, as well.
"Do not do this, my love, do not go tonight," his mate had pleaded as he finished his preparations, "What you have planned is wrong; it is like inviting death in, to bring a mortal to our immortal realm. And it is not fair to him, either. Do not do this, do not go tonight."
He had taken her soft fur in his mouth, gently, oh so gently, but he did not explain nor did he listen. He does wish, though, that he could have told her about the sakura blossoms and the importance of unique fragility, but he is not sure that he understands himself. All he knows is that the late spring night calls him onward, and he cannot hesitate. Faintly, though, he can still smell her scent upon his own.
The boy sits on the window ledge right outside of his family's sleeping room. He is idly swinging his legs and bumping the back of his heels against the wooden frame. Hikaru gives a small bark, just loud enough to alert him, but not loud enough to wake the family's guard dogs.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," he teases, as he always does whenever he comes for the child. And as always, he is rewarded by wide smile that spreads to cover the young face, which is bright even without the moonlight. "Come out, come out, little one."
"Osusuki! You're here!" the child leaps exuberantly from the windowsill, his long sleeves flapping wildly behind him. Once his feet touch ground, the cubling circles and whirls in the space around Hikaru. He dances in a pattern known only to himself, needing only his shadow as his partner, while the cherry trees weep beneath the silver moon. It is something Hikaru knows he will never forget, as long as he can hold memory within him.
Sai finally stops his cavorting, landing in a gasping heap against Hikaru's side. One small hand is thrown carelessly across Hikaru's back, while the other itches that certain special place behind his left ear. After a year, the youngster's boldness and lack of all pretense has stopped shocking Hikaru, Instead, he finds he rather enjoys the seemingly eternal energy that springs from the small human. He has yet to see another creature, kitsune, human, or otherwise, who can match this cub's joy in simply being.
"Did you see my room? It's all packed up! I'm going to Heiankyo tomorrow! Some big bald guy came last week and Father made me play him. Baldy-san was from our clan and he says that everybody can go back to Heiankyo if I play Go good! I might even see the Emperor! But I was scared we'd leave before I got to tell you where I was going. Now you can come to Heiankyo to get me for the night games, right? Mother and Father and the others can't go with me yet, cause I gotta play Go good first. I don't like going that, but I'll play good so they came come too. Did you put a sleeping spell on all the others again? Don't forget. I think Mother fainted when she woke up and I wasn't in the room and it made everyone mad at me when I got back. They all yelled! So make sure it's a good spell. Who are we gonna play tonight? I don't wanna to play Lady Spiderlegs again. She got so mad when I won."
"Kiyiii, little one, not so fast, or your mouth will run away from your words! No, Lady Manjushage is not to be your opponent tonight," Hikaru replies only the last question. He has learned how to screen the child's rapid speech to find out what the youngster really wanted to know.
And of course, the news of the child's pending entry into the human court has already spread amongst all the night wanderers. Sai may not be aware of it, but he is watched carefully, both day and night, though his watchers are unusually benign beyond their normal natures. For many days now, the wandering world has churned with the gossip about the cubling's departure; all wonder if this marks the end of the night games. The palace has many safeguards. Village monks are one thing; the monastery at Heiankyo is another.
If he is truthful, which he is sometimes, the Lord of the Kitsune has to admit that some part of him still remains puzzled that the games have lasted so long. Why? What is it about this human child that makes them all - particularly him - act so strangely? Hikaru cannot explain it any more than he can explain the sudden intrusion of the seasons into his thoughts. Why did he make these plans for tonight? The fresh spring breeze holds no answers, but it does heighten the urgency within him.
"Who's going to play me?" the child tilts his head. "Someone new? Will he have more than two arms or heads or tails or maybe he has legs for hands and tails for legs and fingers all over!"
The cubling bursts into an even wilder flurry of activity, jumping up and down with such force that Hikaru grabs a flying sleeve in his mouth in an effort to quiet him. His spell can only hold so long, and he does not want the child's family to wake.
"Oh, I'm being too loud again, aren't I?" the youngster subsides instantly.
"Father says I should shut up and not talk so much. He's says if I make a big mess at the court that he will be ashamed of me. I don't want that, cause Father already gets really mad at me when I'm here. He's going to get super mad if I'm bad at the Heiankyo, cause the court doesn't like kids who are rude like me. So I can't be a big crybaby or a disgrace cause ... c-cause if I am Mother and him will never ever come to Heiankyo , and um, I'm not gonna see them for a very very long time."
As his words slide to a standstill, Sai's hands fidget at the edges of his sleeves, his mouth twisting nervously. The child takes a deep breath, and his voice drops down to a whisper, as if he is now going to impart the world's most deadliest secret. "B-but that's not the worstest thing. If I don't change and behave, he says the court will throw me into the river for the toads to eat, cause that's what they do to bad kids like me. Right into the river, all alone."
Sai shudders, his expressive eyes wide with dismay. "I don't wanna be thrown into the river and eaten by toads, so I'm not gonna be loud, or jump so high, or play ball in the house, or mess up my robes, or cry, or stuff like that anymore..."
The cubling sighs. "There's lots to 'member, but I don't care, cause I still get to play Go, an' if I play good and be good, everyone can come and be happy. Hey, let's play now!"
"Climb on my back, then." Hikaru instructs the child, and the boy does so. His hands are warm, and they hold his fur gently.
"Where are we going?"
"To the kitsune court."
"Really?! You've never taken me there before!"
"Shh, not so loud! Or maybe I should go and get Gama-senin and his little followers."
"No! No toads!" Hikaru winces as Sai yanks on his fur. "I'll be good and I'll play good, okay? I don't like toads, and the big river scares me. It's dark and deep. Don't throw me away there, please?"
"Sai ..." Hikaru hides his smirk by ducking his head. Humans have such amusing little fears. Sai has faced the worst denizens of the night without a single flinch. Yet, a few fly swallowers and one insignificant river (which isn't even big enough to be inhabited by a god) could make the child shiver and shake.
Still ... a slight suspicion snarls its way through Hikaru; perhaps it's neither the water nor the toads that threatens terror as much as the idea of being thrown away.
"You silly little kit. I would never throw you away, no matter how loud or bad you might be. I'd eat you instead - why should the worthless tummy of a little frog be full when mine is so empty?"
"Osusuki, you always say you're gonna eat me, but you never do," the child hugs him tight around the neck. "I can't wait to go the the kitsune court! Why didn't we go sooner?"
"Well, you still haven't beaten me, now, have you? That was our deal, right? But as a special treat, I thought you might like to meet the `Emperor of the Foxes' and play a game with him. Though now that I hear you're going to be playing a real human emperor, perhaps we could go somewhere else. I bet the boring old kitsune aren't anything compared to the real court of the humans ..."
Hikaru tries not to let the bitterness seep into his voice. As his mate has warned him, he really shouldn't be taking this mortal child into the realm of mists and illusions, but it is the only way ... for the Lord of the Foxes has a plan tonight, come what may, and loosing the child to the mortal courts is not amongst this plan.
"Please, Osusuki! I wanna play Go with the Emperor of the Foxes!" the child bounces excitedly on Hikaru's back, making him wince again. "Oops. Sorry."
"Just hold on tight!" Once he feels that Sai is secure, Hikaru bunches his muscles and leaps for the sky.
"Where is the court?!" The child asks, leaning forward slightly. "Is it far? Will we be gone for a long time? I need to get back before the sun rises, so I can go to Heiankyo. I don't wanna miss that!"
"Slow down and stop fretting, little kit. It's not a matter of where," already the landscape is melting around them. "Where, when, how, and why are human things. The kitsune court is beyond all that, beyond the whens of your clock, the wheres of your maps, beyond anything mortal in your realm."
They landed in the courtyard with a small thump. The child does not dismount immediately. Instead he clings tighter.
"Sai? It's safe, I promise." Hikaru asks. Has he made a mistake in bringing the youngling here so soon? He has never brought a mortal to his realm before; how would a human mind react to the realm of mist and shadows, especially one as gifted as Sai's?
"Wow, this is GREAT! All big and swirly and sparkly and stuff. I wonder if Heiankyo looks like this!" The youngster gives what feels suspiciously like a kiss in the spot between Hikaru's ears and laughs when he shakes his head in annoyance. The child's breath brushes his whiskers, a benediction. "Domo arigato gozaimasu, Osusuki. It's beautiful."
Hikaru blinks as a sudden hesitancy seizes his steps. Perhaps ...
"Osusuki-sama! You've returned! Welcome back!"
Shaking off his lethargy, Hikaru turns as his courtiers, in two leg form, approach him and bow low, with their heads to the ground. The child obediently slides from his back, leaving him free to change. "You may rise."
"And ... you've brought back a ..." his followers draw away slightly, whether in fear or in awe, Hikaru cannot tell.
"Yes, this is the human child," He nods to the youngster, who makes a quick bow. "The one I've been talking about."
"Hi! My name is Fujiwara no Sai! I came to play the Emperor of Foxes!" the child capers around, drinking in his surroundings with a wide eyed expression. "Where is he? I wanna play now!"
"Where is Lady Akomachi? Why is she not here to greet our guest?" Hikaru scans the crowd for the familiar form his mate but finds only closed expressions and glances that shy away.
"She has locked herself away for the evening, milord, and asks not to be disturbed," one of his must trusted advisors finally answers. All of them back away from the snarl that rumbles out of Hikaru's throat.
His mate should have been here. She should have been supporting him, and she should have been calming the anxiety of their people. He had counted on her help on this matter. She has supported him in the past, even when she has disagreed privately with him. Couldn't she see how important this is to him?
"Eh ... Osusuki-sama ... the child ..." His second in command glances dubiously at the youngster, who is proceeding to open every sliding door and looking around wildly for the "Emperor of Foxes." Sai's boisterous presence is a sharp contrast to the calm fluidity and elegance of the Kitsune court. No wonder the child's father is worried.
"Sai, come back here," dampening down his anger, Hikaru forces a smile to his face. Tonight, there are more important things he must oversee, though Akomachi's disloyalty lingers in the air, like a hunt gone sour. "We kitsune don't have an emperor, per se ..."
"Oh," The child's face falls.
"But there is a Lord of the Foxes. Since we kitsune are all servants of Inari-sama, the kitsune lord dares not take the higher title," Hikaru explains, trying to erase the disappointed look that is plastering itself across the young face.
"Can I play him then? The Lord of the Foxes? Please?" the child asks politely.
"Well, I think you have played him before. You have lost many times, actually ... but lately you have begun to almost win ..." Hikaru's grin widens as the child's face twists in confusion. Sai is by no means a unintelligent child, and it takes only a few moments before ...
"Hey! Osusuki, you never said you --"
"Insolent wretch! You should call him Osusuki-sama," the nearest kitsune snarls, drawing back a clawed hand.
Quicker than thought, Hikaru grabs the flying fist, twisting hard enough to feel the tendons twitch underneath his grip. He would have gladly struck his own blow across the now frightened face of his follower, if a certain pair of large violet eyes had not been watching them both so closely. He growls at a level just below human hearing, promising future punishment.
"Kinyuki! Leave him be. He will call me by my title now, right Sai?"
"Okay. Osusuki .... sama. I wanted to play a new opponent, but I do like playing you. Let's go!" Sai bounces up cheerfully, all radiant joy and restless energy.
They finish two games. Sai loses both, though he has come within a whole moku of winning. Meanwhile, all night Hikaru has plied the child with sweets and gifts, until Sai is surrounded by a mountain of candy and toys, more than a hundred children can ever wish for. But the child pays the objects no mind; his eyes concentrate solely upon the goban in front of him. As they start on the third game, Hikaru cannot help but notice that the morning is drawing closer in the mortal world. Just a little longer, then.
"Osusuki, I'm gettin' tired. Can we go home after this game? I have to go to Heiankyo today," the child places his stone with a yawn. "It's your turn. Boy, it'll be weird playing in the day ... but I can't wait," Sai yawns again. "You will come and visit a lot, right? So I can play day AND night."
It is hard to hide the discomfort the child's words cause. "You know, if you win this game, I will be forced to call you sensei."
The child perks up immediately, his face aglow with a light that rivals the coming dawn. Again, Hikaru feels a pang deep in his chest. "Really, Osusuki? Cause I really really want to be a Go sensei when I growed up."
"Is that so, little kit? A Go sensei?" he places his next move and carefully watches the child's reaction.
"Yup!" Sai flips his next stone, catching it neatly between his index and middle finger. "Hee! Lookit what I learned, Osusuki!"
"That's very nice."
"See? I'm gonna be the best Go sensei ever, and I'm gonna teach my students to play good too!" Sai nods excitedly. "I think making other people see how fun Go is the bestest thing in the whole wide world! Better than even mochi!"
"Better than mochi?"
"Hai. Cause you see ... you can only eat a mochi once. Then it's gone. But if you teach somebody, you have more people to play, again and again. And they can teach other people, so everybody can be happy."
Sai concludes his reasoning by bringing down his stone. Hikaru licks his lips in surprise; this move is unexpected. Where is Sai going, by placing the stone there?
"I see. I hope you do get your dream one day, little kitling. I think you would make a very great teacher, a sensei of the stars," As soon as he speaks those words, all the hairs on his nine tails prickle. Destiny stirs the air electric, sparkling in his truesight. He has spoken like a prophecy; the child would be beyond an excellent teacher and his students . . .
No. He has plans for tonight, destiny be damned.
"Okay, if I win, you'll call me Fujiwara-sensei?"
"Yes, if you win. But you must call me Osusuki-sama in return."
"Deal!" the child places his next stone with such enthusiasm that the resulting starflash could only be equaled by a birth of a sun.
At the sight, Hikaru again feels something twist within him,a wound slowly widening. What if the child prefers the company of his own kind to that of the kitsune? He could not stomach the idea of losing the power in that star-soul ... or the child's belief in him.
Or the feeling that comes, deep within him, when the child gazes at him with those violet eyes, smiling as if he sees all the magic of the world in Hikaru. Mortals belong to the mortal realm, and they would easily forget that of the wandering, once faced with the reality of their own. What if Sai changes to a point that . . .
A hot, clawing sensation sinks its firelike fangs within his mind, and his claws tighten in reaction. He is a kitsune, no one would blame him for keeping the child. It is his nature, after all, to take that which is not rightfully his.
But ... it is not even that which has driven him to this point tonight. Again, Hikaru cannot put a name to it, but perhaps it has something to do with the falling cherry blossoms, and how he feels when he watches the child among the background of the seasons. It is the feeling of something, the only thing, forbidden to his kind -- the feeling of the one thing no wanderer can ever fully understand.
"Sai, how would you like to stay in my court? We could play Go every day ..." Hikaru pleads mentally for the child to say yes.
"But I want to go to Heiankyo. I can play all the time there too. And I gotta play good, for Father," the child places another stone with a resounding click. "
Unbidden, spells began to swirl in his head, ones that could shape and bend a human mind. Before he really can contemplate the implications of his actions, the first words of power have left his lips.
"Osusuki, are you gonna move or not?"
He places another stone and watches the bright starflash as Sai counters. The child's genius makes the goban glimmer like the heavens, but cubling would never grow to his full potential if he stays in the kitsune court. Sai needs other mortals to compete against, others to draw his strength from. Immortals, when they have them, expend their souls slowly; they do not have the sheer driving power that comes when time is not infinite. In the mortal world, with souls like his own to feed his fire. . .
Another bright starflash leaves its ghostly afterimage in Hikaru's eyes. The universe they have formed swirls gently. The incantation was nearing completion ...
"Osusuki-sama!! Osusuki-saaaaaama!" Kinyuki tumbles into the throne room and sprawls prostrate before them.
Hikaru feels the interruption like a slap. Sai or no Sai, he nearly rakes his claws against the offender's face, but something in Kinyuki's expression makes him stop cold.
"Milord, at the front gates ..." Kinyuki pants, his eyes wide with fear. "We don't know what to do. Lady Akomachi has gone to plead to Inari-sama, but ...."
"Spit it out, Kinyuki..."
"It's Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi. He's here. And he's demanding the mortal child. If you don't give it to him, he's threatening to destroy all of the kitsune court!"
An icy wave sweeps over Hikaru. The child is staring at him, waiting for him to finish the game. He does not know to be frightened, not yet ...
"Inari-sama," Hikaru prays. "Help us. He is trespassing on our lands ..."
"I know, Osusuki," comes the reply in his heart of hearts, "but you shouldn't have taken the mortal child outside of his own realm, and you shouldn't have tried to keep him. You have broken your sacred code by the last act, and by doing so ..."
"I opened the doors to the challenge ..."
"Yes. I cannot protect the boy. And since no one has truly claimed him before Mikaboshi showed up, no one can intercede."
Hikaru swears violently. If he had been just a little faster ...
"You should NOT have tried to ensnare him the first place. Nothing in the wandering night can ever own or keep a mortal by taking him as you did, Osusuki. The mortal world is by nature impermanent, and thus its very existence means loss. It is also why your worlds should never meet but in passing. But I think you've learned this a little too late, Lord of the Kitsune, if you've learned anything at all," His god's disappointment cuts Hikaru deeply, but not as much as the thought of losing Sai to ...
"There is little difference between the Hell Amatsu Mikaboshi offers and the one you would have created for him," His lord's voice is neither accusing nor fully forgiving. Instead, Inari-sama sounds resigned. "You saw his destiny and yet you still defied it. Even a kitsune must abide by some rules and you have broken so many. You have set these events in motion, you must let them play out as they will."
"Osusuki-sama, it'll be okay," the young voice is like a whip to his back. "I wanted to play a new opponent tonight!"
Hikaru does not have the heart to try to explain who that opponent would really be. The entire court falls silent as they walk towards the gates. His mate is there, among the downcast faces, but she does not look at him -- she looks at the child, and her eyes . . .
Suddenly, Hikaru realizes that his mate understands many things much better than he.
With each step toward the gate, Sai becomes more and more silent as well, and his eyes grow wider. His movements slow, then stop completely. Hikaru knows that with his truesight, the young child can probably see the full nature of what waited for him outside.
"Sai?" Hikaru asks. Though he should have expected it, he is still taken aback at the fear in the child's face.
"Osusuki, I don't wanna go there. Something bad's out there. Eats the light ...."
"That's your ... opponent."
"I don't wanna play him." Sai crosses his little arms. "Take me home, Osusuki, please? I don't wanna play him."
"OSUSUKI!" The voice booms loud, causing Sai to wince and bring his little hands over his ears. Hikaru wishes that he could do the same, but propriety forbids him to act in such a manner. "Bring me the boy! We shall have a game tonight .... a game for souls ..."
"Osusuki, I don't wanna." Sai whimpers, and something inside Hikaru crumples when he sees the shimmering trace of tears upon the small face. In all the time the child has played the wanderers of the night, he has yet to refuse a single game. However, his small form shakes so violently now that he looks like a pale, white leaf caught in a violent rainstorm.
"Osusuki, I am losing my patience. You have brought this upon yourself. Bring me star souled child or let your court be dragged to HELL!"
"Sai, I ...I'm ..." Hikaru whispers, the words little more than a rasp of syllables in his throat. Tiny hands cling to him as he forces the child forward. "My people ..."
It is a little too late to think of them now, Hikaru realizes, for he should have been thinking about them all along. The image of cherry blossoms drift through his mind. For the first time, he realizes that everything, mortal or not, shows its true beauty when it is about to be lost. He is so surrounded by beauty at the moment that he almost wishes to be blind. The faces of his people, the face of the child... they shine so brightly ... it is too much ...
"You must play, Sai. He only wants a game of Go ... remember how much you like Go?"
"Osusuki, you're my best friend! You said you wouldn't let me be eaten by toads ... don't throw me to him!"
"You're not going to be eaten, Sai. It's just a little game, I swear..." he knows that they both know it's a lie. "Please, for my people ..."
"No! Not him! Not in a game of Go! It's about stars, Osusuki, and he ... he's not. Please, don't make me!"
Hikaru closes his ears to the increasingly frightened wails. In his desperate bid to keep what was not his, he has opened the doorway for others to come forth and do so as well. He has indeed invited death in with the mortal, and the only way to expel it is the relinquish all claim to the child's mortality.
But the little hands ... oh, they are hard to pry from his own. And those violet eyes ...
To his everlasting shame, he must slap that face to make those eyes look away. The gates open, he leads the child through them. To the waiting claws of ...
"Noooo!" this time, the transition between his own mind and Osusuki's came as a razor sharp SNAP. Hikaru spent a full five minutes hanging on the table, panting heavily and clutching his head. Osusuki was not in much better shape.
"You foolish mortal ... don't ever try to cut off a mindlink like that!" The kitsune gasped. "Do how much that hurts?!"
"Well, it can't be enough!" Hikaru spat, although the fresh stab of agony made him wish it didn't hurt quite so much. "How could you ... he was a KID! You betrayed him."
He scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to convince himself that it really wasn't him that had forced the child Sai out to face the Demon King alone, that it wasn't him that had hit Sai, that it wasn't him that had betrayed his friend. It wasn't me, it wasn't my memory, it was Osusuki's .... oh Sai ...
"All of my people ... Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi ... he would have ..." Osusuki had bent forward, and his ebony hair hid his face. "I had to save my people. It was only one small life, in exchange for so many, ..."
"Bullshit!" Rage gave Hikaru all the strength he needed to rise to his feet and stamp toward the Lord of the Foxes. Faster than rational thought, his hand bunched into a fist, and he jabbed it at Osusuki. The resounding smack of fist meeting flesh echoed in the small clearing.
"Acccccccccccccck!" Hikaru howled, dancing around as the pain flared up and down his right arm. His hand felt as if he had rammed it repeatedly into a brick wall, and the joints looked rather misaligned. He didn't even try to move his fingers. "Itaiaiaiaiaaaaaaaa, that ..."
"Hurts." Osusuki's growled. The area below his left eye was beginning to swell even more than Hikaru's knuckles. Hikaru felt a grim sort of satisfaction; he had managed to give the Lord of the Kitsune a pretty good shiner. The satisfaction, though, was quickly muted as Osusuki rose to his feet and the rumbling growl became a full fledged, fang baring, claw slashing snarl.
The small, hereditary part of Hikaru's mind which still retained the instincts from when his ancestors had a tail, screamed at him to go find a tree and jump up it. Human form or not, the Lord of the Kitsune was first and foremost a predator, one which was now stalking him as Hikaru hurriedly backed away, aching hand cradled to his chest.
With howl that seem to shake the very earth, Osusuki lunged forward. Hikaru ducked, throwing his hands up to protect his neck. A fresh surge of pain burned through him as the kitsune clamped his hands around Hikaru's already injured right arm. Hikaru yelped as the agony increased until he was certain that nothing was left of his former arm but ashes.
Finally, Osusuki let him go. The pain abruptly vanished. Hikaru opened one eye in surprise. His knuckles weren't even swollen anymore.
"I am the Lord of the Kitsune. Remember that.You're lucky I didn't bite your entire arm off, " the kitsune's tone still held the last, harsh crackle of a growl.
"Well, seeing what you did to Sai, you're just lucky I didn't aim lower," Hikaru retorted. Unfortunately, the fact that his knees chose that moment to wobble probably ruined the impact of the statement. Those teeth are shaaaarp, his mind noted as his knees shook some more.
Osusuki glared, though the effect was also rather dampened by his rapidly blackening eye. Hikaru wondered why he just didn't twiddle a claw and fix it. Instead, the kitsune sighed deeply, staring at his hands. He turned his back to Hikaru. The silence stretched between them, with only the wind stirred leaves providing any sound.
Unnerved, Hikaru opened his mouth, but for once, he could not come up with any smart remark to break the tension. He was tired beyond anything he had ever felt before. In his mind, he could still see a pair of violet eyes watching him, hoping for deliverance. It did not matter whose memory it was. "What happened? After you abandoned him, what did Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi do to Sai? Did they play a game?"
"No. Sai ... refused to play. No matter how Amatsu Mikaboshi-sama threatened him or his family, he just stood there, refusing to play. The Demon Lord could not just take Sai's soul without a bargain however. I thought he was going to destroy the boy and make his soul wander the earth right then and there. But I was wrong. He did something far worse."
If his eyes could go wider, Hikaru knew they would soon pop out of his head. That was fine, he thought offhandedly, they could join his jaw on the ground. "What!? What could be any worse than that?"
"He cursed him." Osusuki headed back toward the table, his movements stiff and angry. Hikaru's scuffling had disrupted the tea setting again. The kitsune began to restore the items to their proper places, using his hands instead of magic. "Simply stranding Sai's soul was not enough, not to the Lord of Evil. He vowed to make Sai suffer. That night, he foretold that Sai, in the end, would be the one to bring about the destruction of himself and his family, and he would do so through the very thing he loved the most. Moreover, his death would not bring him rest."
Osusuki made a sound much like the rattling of old bones."You can see the splendid irony of it all, can't you? For refusing to play one game of Go, the only game he's ever refused, he must spend his afterlife being refused by the world in general. He must wander this plane forever, watching games, but never being able to fully join in them himself. You can't say that the Lord of Evil isn't well versed in his classical curses. "
Hikaru's mind felt as if someone had squeezed it hard, leaving only the hard, dry bits of reality behind. "But Sai never said it was a curse .... he said ... he went home afterwards, didn't he? And from there ..."
"The Heian court, with all its ensnaring politics. You may think us kitsune to be cruel, crafty, and amoral. But we are no more so than your own kind, Shindo Hikaru. Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi may have cursed Fujiwara no Sai, but in the end, it was you mortals who destroyed him," Osusuki finished setting up the tea set, and he sat down again. Although he still moved with enough grace to shame the most fluid of felines, there was also a new heaviness to his motions now. One hand rested lightly on his discarded mask.
"After that night, I saw him only two more times in mortal form," His head tilted up, in a clear invitation.
Hikaru swallowed hard. It's time for the final, territory deciding moves. Time to see on which side of the boundaries the victory will fall ... white or black, he thought. Okay then ...
"Show me."
****
To be continued
A Hikaru No Go ghost story
To my new beta-reader, Imbrium -- sea of rains or not, you're definitely a life preserver.
part 7a: Aspiring Wings
The moon hangs bright in the sky, as the last sakura blossoms of the season drop their pink bunches like tears. Hikaru notices them with a slight smile. They have come year after year, century after century, but until he met the boy, such things had been below his awareness.
He knows now, however, that each day, even in its endless repetition, holds its own unique fragility. A flower only blooms once, after all, no matter how many there are in a field. It is late in the season, and the tender pink blossoms are giving away to the burnt gold of summer. Time grows short for other things, as well.
"Do not do this, my love, do not go tonight," his mate had pleaded as he finished his preparations, "What you have planned is wrong; it is like inviting death in, to bring a mortal to our immortal realm. And it is not fair to him, either. Do not do this, do not go tonight."
He had taken her soft fur in his mouth, gently, oh so gently, but he did not explain nor did he listen. He does wish, though, that he could have told her about the sakura blossoms and the importance of unique fragility, but he is not sure that he understands himself. All he knows is that the late spring night calls him onward, and he cannot hesitate. Faintly, though, he can still smell her scent upon his own.
The boy sits on the window ledge right outside of his family's sleeping room. He is idly swinging his legs and bumping the back of his heels against the wooden frame. Hikaru gives a small bark, just loud enough to alert him, but not loud enough to wake the family's guard dogs.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," he teases, as he always does whenever he comes for the child. And as always, he is rewarded by wide smile that spreads to cover the young face, which is bright even without the moonlight. "Come out, come out, little one."
"Osusuki! You're here!" the child leaps exuberantly from the windowsill, his long sleeves flapping wildly behind him. Once his feet touch ground, the cubling circles and whirls in the space around Hikaru. He dances in a pattern known only to himself, needing only his shadow as his partner, while the cherry trees weep beneath the silver moon. It is something Hikaru knows he will never forget, as long as he can hold memory within him.
Sai finally stops his cavorting, landing in a gasping heap against Hikaru's side. One small hand is thrown carelessly across Hikaru's back, while the other itches that certain special place behind his left ear. After a year, the youngster's boldness and lack of all pretense has stopped shocking Hikaru, Instead, he finds he rather enjoys the seemingly eternal energy that springs from the small human. He has yet to see another creature, kitsune, human, or otherwise, who can match this cub's joy in simply being.
"Did you see my room? It's all packed up! I'm going to Heiankyo tomorrow! Some big bald guy came last week and Father made me play him. Baldy-san was from our clan and he says that everybody can go back to Heiankyo if I play Go good! I might even see the Emperor! But I was scared we'd leave before I got to tell you where I was going. Now you can come to Heiankyo to get me for the night games, right? Mother and Father and the others can't go with me yet, cause I gotta play Go good first. I don't like going that, but I'll play good so they came come too. Did you put a sleeping spell on all the others again? Don't forget. I think Mother fainted when she woke up and I wasn't in the room and it made everyone mad at me when I got back. They all yelled! So make sure it's a good spell. Who are we gonna play tonight? I don't wanna to play Lady Spiderlegs again. She got so mad when I won."
"Kiyiii, little one, not so fast, or your mouth will run away from your words! No, Lady Manjushage is not to be your opponent tonight," Hikaru replies only the last question. He has learned how to screen the child's rapid speech to find out what the youngster really wanted to know.
And of course, the news of the child's pending entry into the human court has already spread amongst all the night wanderers. Sai may not be aware of it, but he is watched carefully, both day and night, though his watchers are unusually benign beyond their normal natures. For many days now, the wandering world has churned with the gossip about the cubling's departure; all wonder if this marks the end of the night games. The palace has many safeguards. Village monks are one thing; the monastery at Heiankyo is another.
If he is truthful, which he is sometimes, the Lord of the Kitsune has to admit that some part of him still remains puzzled that the games have lasted so long. Why? What is it about this human child that makes them all - particularly him - act so strangely? Hikaru cannot explain it any more than he can explain the sudden intrusion of the seasons into his thoughts. Why did he make these plans for tonight? The fresh spring breeze holds no answers, but it does heighten the urgency within him.
"Who's going to play me?" the child tilts his head. "Someone new? Will he have more than two arms or heads or tails or maybe he has legs for hands and tails for legs and fingers all over!"
The cubling bursts into an even wilder flurry of activity, jumping up and down with such force that Hikaru grabs a flying sleeve in his mouth in an effort to quiet him. His spell can only hold so long, and he does not want the child's family to wake.
"Oh, I'm being too loud again, aren't I?" the youngster subsides instantly.
"Father says I should shut up and not talk so much. He's says if I make a big mess at the court that he will be ashamed of me. I don't want that, cause Father already gets really mad at me when I'm here. He's going to get super mad if I'm bad at the Heiankyo, cause the court doesn't like kids who are rude like me. So I can't be a big crybaby or a disgrace cause ... c-cause if I am Mother and him will never ever come to Heiankyo , and um, I'm not gonna see them for a very very long time."
As his words slide to a standstill, Sai's hands fidget at the edges of his sleeves, his mouth twisting nervously. The child takes a deep breath, and his voice drops down to a whisper, as if he is now going to impart the world's most deadliest secret. "B-but that's not the worstest thing. If I don't change and behave, he says the court will throw me into the river for the toads to eat, cause that's what they do to bad kids like me. Right into the river, all alone."
Sai shudders, his expressive eyes wide with dismay. "I don't wanna be thrown into the river and eaten by toads, so I'm not gonna be loud, or jump so high, or play ball in the house, or mess up my robes, or cry, or stuff like that anymore..."
The cubling sighs. "There's lots to 'member, but I don't care, cause I still get to play Go, an' if I play good and be good, everyone can come and be happy. Hey, let's play now!"
"Climb on my back, then." Hikaru instructs the child, and the boy does so. His hands are warm, and they hold his fur gently.
"Where are we going?"
"To the kitsune court."
"Really?! You've never taken me there before!"
"Shh, not so loud! Or maybe I should go and get Gama-senin and his little followers."
"No! No toads!" Hikaru winces as Sai yanks on his fur. "I'll be good and I'll play good, okay? I don't like toads, and the big river scares me. It's dark and deep. Don't throw me away there, please?"
"Sai ..." Hikaru hides his smirk by ducking his head. Humans have such amusing little fears. Sai has faced the worst denizens of the night without a single flinch. Yet, a few fly swallowers and one insignificant river (which isn't even big enough to be inhabited by a god) could make the child shiver and shake.
Still ... a slight suspicion snarls its way through Hikaru; perhaps it's neither the water nor the toads that threatens terror as much as the idea of being thrown away.
"You silly little kit. I would never throw you away, no matter how loud or bad you might be. I'd eat you instead - why should the worthless tummy of a little frog be full when mine is so empty?"
"Osusuki, you always say you're gonna eat me, but you never do," the child hugs him tight around the neck. "I can't wait to go the the kitsune court! Why didn't we go sooner?"
"Well, you still haven't beaten me, now, have you? That was our deal, right? But as a special treat, I thought you might like to meet the `Emperor of the Foxes' and play a game with him. Though now that I hear you're going to be playing a real human emperor, perhaps we could go somewhere else. I bet the boring old kitsune aren't anything compared to the real court of the humans ..."
Hikaru tries not to let the bitterness seep into his voice. As his mate has warned him, he really shouldn't be taking this mortal child into the realm of mists and illusions, but it is the only way ... for the Lord of the Foxes has a plan tonight, come what may, and loosing the child to the mortal courts is not amongst this plan.
"Please, Osusuki! I wanna play Go with the Emperor of the Foxes!" the child bounces excitedly on Hikaru's back, making him wince again. "Oops. Sorry."
"Just hold on tight!" Once he feels that Sai is secure, Hikaru bunches his muscles and leaps for the sky.
"Where is the court?!" The child asks, leaning forward slightly. "Is it far? Will we be gone for a long time? I need to get back before the sun rises, so I can go to Heiankyo. I don't wanna miss that!"
"Slow down and stop fretting, little kit. It's not a matter of where," already the landscape is melting around them. "Where, when, how, and why are human things. The kitsune court is beyond all that, beyond the whens of your clock, the wheres of your maps, beyond anything mortal in your realm."
They landed in the courtyard with a small thump. The child does not dismount immediately. Instead he clings tighter.
"Sai? It's safe, I promise." Hikaru asks. Has he made a mistake in bringing the youngling here so soon? He has never brought a mortal to his realm before; how would a human mind react to the realm of mist and shadows, especially one as gifted as Sai's?
"Wow, this is GREAT! All big and swirly and sparkly and stuff. I wonder if Heiankyo looks like this!" The youngster gives what feels suspiciously like a kiss in the spot between Hikaru's ears and laughs when he shakes his head in annoyance. The child's breath brushes his whiskers, a benediction. "Domo arigato gozaimasu, Osusuki. It's beautiful."
Hikaru blinks as a sudden hesitancy seizes his steps. Perhaps ...
"Osusuki-sama! You've returned! Welcome back!"
Shaking off his lethargy, Hikaru turns as his courtiers, in two leg form, approach him and bow low, with their heads to the ground. The child obediently slides from his back, leaving him free to change. "You may rise."
"And ... you've brought back a ..." his followers draw away slightly, whether in fear or in awe, Hikaru cannot tell.
"Yes, this is the human child," He nods to the youngster, who makes a quick bow. "The one I've been talking about."
"Hi! My name is Fujiwara no Sai! I came to play the Emperor of Foxes!" the child capers around, drinking in his surroundings with a wide eyed expression. "Where is he? I wanna play now!"
"Where is Lady Akomachi? Why is she not here to greet our guest?" Hikaru scans the crowd for the familiar form his mate but finds only closed expressions and glances that shy away.
"She has locked herself away for the evening, milord, and asks not to be disturbed," one of his must trusted advisors finally answers. All of them back away from the snarl that rumbles out of Hikaru's throat.
His mate should have been here. She should have been supporting him, and she should have been calming the anxiety of their people. He had counted on her help on this matter. She has supported him in the past, even when she has disagreed privately with him. Couldn't she see how important this is to him?
"Eh ... Osusuki-sama ... the child ..." His second in command glances dubiously at the youngster, who is proceeding to open every sliding door and looking around wildly for the "Emperor of Foxes." Sai's boisterous presence is a sharp contrast to the calm fluidity and elegance of the Kitsune court. No wonder the child's father is worried.
"Sai, come back here," dampening down his anger, Hikaru forces a smile to his face. Tonight, there are more important things he must oversee, though Akomachi's disloyalty lingers in the air, like a hunt gone sour. "We kitsune don't have an emperor, per se ..."
"Oh," The child's face falls.
"But there is a Lord of the Foxes. Since we kitsune are all servants of Inari-sama, the kitsune lord dares not take the higher title," Hikaru explains, trying to erase the disappointed look that is plastering itself across the young face.
"Can I play him then? The Lord of the Foxes? Please?" the child asks politely.
"Well, I think you have played him before. You have lost many times, actually ... but lately you have begun to almost win ..." Hikaru's grin widens as the child's face twists in confusion. Sai is by no means a unintelligent child, and it takes only a few moments before ...
"Hey! Osusuki, you never said you --"
"Insolent wretch! You should call him Osusuki-sama," the nearest kitsune snarls, drawing back a clawed hand.
Quicker than thought, Hikaru grabs the flying fist, twisting hard enough to feel the tendons twitch underneath his grip. He would have gladly struck his own blow across the now frightened face of his follower, if a certain pair of large violet eyes had not been watching them both so closely. He growls at a level just below human hearing, promising future punishment.
"Kinyuki! Leave him be. He will call me by my title now, right Sai?"
"Okay. Osusuki .... sama. I wanted to play a new opponent, but I do like playing you. Let's go!" Sai bounces up cheerfully, all radiant joy and restless energy.
They finish two games. Sai loses both, though he has come within a whole moku of winning. Meanwhile, all night Hikaru has plied the child with sweets and gifts, until Sai is surrounded by a mountain of candy and toys, more than a hundred children can ever wish for. But the child pays the objects no mind; his eyes concentrate solely upon the goban in front of him. As they start on the third game, Hikaru cannot help but notice that the morning is drawing closer in the mortal world. Just a little longer, then.
"Osusuki, I'm gettin' tired. Can we go home after this game? I have to go to Heiankyo today," the child places his stone with a yawn. "It's your turn. Boy, it'll be weird playing in the day ... but I can't wait," Sai yawns again. "You will come and visit a lot, right? So I can play day AND night."
It is hard to hide the discomfort the child's words cause. "You know, if you win this game, I will be forced to call you sensei."
The child perks up immediately, his face aglow with a light that rivals the coming dawn. Again, Hikaru feels a pang deep in his chest. "Really, Osusuki? Cause I really really want to be a Go sensei when I growed up."
"Is that so, little kit? A Go sensei?" he places his next move and carefully watches the child's reaction.
"Yup!" Sai flips his next stone, catching it neatly between his index and middle finger. "Hee! Lookit what I learned, Osusuki!"
"That's very nice."
"See? I'm gonna be the best Go sensei ever, and I'm gonna teach my students to play good too!" Sai nods excitedly. "I think making other people see how fun Go is the bestest thing in the whole wide world! Better than even mochi!"
"Better than mochi?"
"Hai. Cause you see ... you can only eat a mochi once. Then it's gone. But if you teach somebody, you have more people to play, again and again. And they can teach other people, so everybody can be happy."
Sai concludes his reasoning by bringing down his stone. Hikaru licks his lips in surprise; this move is unexpected. Where is Sai going, by placing the stone there?
"I see. I hope you do get your dream one day, little kitling. I think you would make a very great teacher, a sensei of the stars," As soon as he speaks those words, all the hairs on his nine tails prickle. Destiny stirs the air electric, sparkling in his truesight. He has spoken like a prophecy; the child would be beyond an excellent teacher and his students . . .
No. He has plans for tonight, destiny be damned.
"Okay, if I win, you'll call me Fujiwara-sensei?"
"Yes, if you win. But you must call me Osusuki-sama in return."
"Deal!" the child places his next stone with such enthusiasm that the resulting starflash could only be equaled by a birth of a sun.
At the sight, Hikaru again feels something twist within him,a wound slowly widening. What if the child prefers the company of his own kind to that of the kitsune? He could not stomach the idea of losing the power in that star-soul ... or the child's belief in him.
Or the feeling that comes, deep within him, when the child gazes at him with those violet eyes, smiling as if he sees all the magic of the world in Hikaru. Mortals belong to the mortal realm, and they would easily forget that of the wandering, once faced with the reality of their own. What if Sai changes to a point that . . .
A hot, clawing sensation sinks its firelike fangs within his mind, and his claws tighten in reaction. He is a kitsune, no one would blame him for keeping the child. It is his nature, after all, to take that which is not rightfully his.
But ... it is not even that which has driven him to this point tonight. Again, Hikaru cannot put a name to it, but perhaps it has something to do with the falling cherry blossoms, and how he feels when he watches the child among the background of the seasons. It is the feeling of something, the only thing, forbidden to his kind -- the feeling of the one thing no wanderer can ever fully understand.
"Sai, how would you like to stay in my court? We could play Go every day ..." Hikaru pleads mentally for the child to say yes.
"But I want to go to Heiankyo. I can play all the time there too. And I gotta play good, for Father," the child places another stone with a resounding click. "
Unbidden, spells began to swirl in his head, ones that could shape and bend a human mind. Before he really can contemplate the implications of his actions, the first words of power have left his lips.
"Osusuki, are you gonna move or not?"
He places another stone and watches the bright starflash as Sai counters. The child's genius makes the goban glimmer like the heavens, but cubling would never grow to his full potential if he stays in the kitsune court. Sai needs other mortals to compete against, others to draw his strength from. Immortals, when they have them, expend their souls slowly; they do not have the sheer driving power that comes when time is not infinite. In the mortal world, with souls like his own to feed his fire. . .
Another bright starflash leaves its ghostly afterimage in Hikaru's eyes. The universe they have formed swirls gently. The incantation was nearing completion ...
"Osusuki-sama!! Osusuki-saaaaaama!" Kinyuki tumbles into the throne room and sprawls prostrate before them.
Hikaru feels the interruption like a slap. Sai or no Sai, he nearly rakes his claws against the offender's face, but something in Kinyuki's expression makes him stop cold.
"Milord, at the front gates ..." Kinyuki pants, his eyes wide with fear. "We don't know what to do. Lady Akomachi has gone to plead to Inari-sama, but ...."
"Spit it out, Kinyuki..."
"It's Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi. He's here. And he's demanding the mortal child. If you don't give it to him, he's threatening to destroy all of the kitsune court!"
An icy wave sweeps over Hikaru. The child is staring at him, waiting for him to finish the game. He does not know to be frightened, not yet ...
"Inari-sama," Hikaru prays. "Help us. He is trespassing on our lands ..."
"I know, Osusuki," comes the reply in his heart of hearts, "but you shouldn't have taken the mortal child outside of his own realm, and you shouldn't have tried to keep him. You have broken your sacred code by the last act, and by doing so ..."
"I opened the doors to the challenge ..."
"Yes. I cannot protect the boy. And since no one has truly claimed him before Mikaboshi showed up, no one can intercede."
Hikaru swears violently. If he had been just a little faster ...
"You should NOT have tried to ensnare him the first place. Nothing in the wandering night can ever own or keep a mortal by taking him as you did, Osusuki. The mortal world is by nature impermanent, and thus its very existence means loss. It is also why your worlds should never meet but in passing. But I think you've learned this a little too late, Lord of the Kitsune, if you've learned anything at all," His god's disappointment cuts Hikaru deeply, but not as much as the thought of losing Sai to ...
"There is little difference between the Hell Amatsu Mikaboshi offers and the one you would have created for him," His lord's voice is neither accusing nor fully forgiving. Instead, Inari-sama sounds resigned. "You saw his destiny and yet you still defied it. Even a kitsune must abide by some rules and you have broken so many. You have set these events in motion, you must let them play out as they will."
"Osusuki-sama, it'll be okay," the young voice is like a whip to his back. "I wanted to play a new opponent tonight!"
Hikaru does not have the heart to try to explain who that opponent would really be. The entire court falls silent as they walk towards the gates. His mate is there, among the downcast faces, but she does not look at him -- she looks at the child, and her eyes . . .
Suddenly, Hikaru realizes that his mate understands many things much better than he.
With each step toward the gate, Sai becomes more and more silent as well, and his eyes grow wider. His movements slow, then stop completely. Hikaru knows that with his truesight, the young child can probably see the full nature of what waited for him outside.
"Sai?" Hikaru asks. Though he should have expected it, he is still taken aback at the fear in the child's face.
"Osusuki, I don't wanna go there. Something bad's out there. Eats the light ...."
"That's your ... opponent."
"I don't wanna play him." Sai crosses his little arms. "Take me home, Osusuki, please? I don't wanna play him."
"OSUSUKI!" The voice booms loud, causing Sai to wince and bring his little hands over his ears. Hikaru wishes that he could do the same, but propriety forbids him to act in such a manner. "Bring me the boy! We shall have a game tonight .... a game for souls ..."
"Osusuki, I don't wanna." Sai whimpers, and something inside Hikaru crumples when he sees the shimmering trace of tears upon the small face. In all the time the child has played the wanderers of the night, he has yet to refuse a single game. However, his small form shakes so violently now that he looks like a pale, white leaf caught in a violent rainstorm.
"Osusuki, I am losing my patience. You have brought this upon yourself. Bring me star souled child or let your court be dragged to HELL!"
"Sai, I ...I'm ..." Hikaru whispers, the words little more than a rasp of syllables in his throat. Tiny hands cling to him as he forces the child forward. "My people ..."
It is a little too late to think of them now, Hikaru realizes, for he should have been thinking about them all along. The image of cherry blossoms drift through his mind. For the first time, he realizes that everything, mortal or not, shows its true beauty when it is about to be lost. He is so surrounded by beauty at the moment that he almost wishes to be blind. The faces of his people, the face of the child... they shine so brightly ... it is too much ...
"You must play, Sai. He only wants a game of Go ... remember how much you like Go?"
"Osusuki, you're my best friend! You said you wouldn't let me be eaten by toads ... don't throw me to him!"
"You're not going to be eaten, Sai. It's just a little game, I swear..." he knows that they both know it's a lie. "Please, for my people ..."
"No! Not him! Not in a game of Go! It's about stars, Osusuki, and he ... he's not. Please, don't make me!"
Hikaru closes his ears to the increasingly frightened wails. In his desperate bid to keep what was not his, he has opened the doorway for others to come forth and do so as well. He has indeed invited death in with the mortal, and the only way to expel it is the relinquish all claim to the child's mortality.
But the little hands ... oh, they are hard to pry from his own. And those violet eyes ...
To his everlasting shame, he must slap that face to make those eyes look away. The gates open, he leads the child through them. To the waiting claws of ...
"Noooo!" this time, the transition between his own mind and Osusuki's came as a razor sharp SNAP. Hikaru spent a full five minutes hanging on the table, panting heavily and clutching his head. Osusuki was not in much better shape.
"You foolish mortal ... don't ever try to cut off a mindlink like that!" The kitsune gasped. "Do how much that hurts?!"
"Well, it can't be enough!" Hikaru spat, although the fresh stab of agony made him wish it didn't hurt quite so much. "How could you ... he was a KID! You betrayed him."
He scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to convince himself that it really wasn't him that had forced the child Sai out to face the Demon King alone, that it wasn't him that had hit Sai, that it wasn't him that had betrayed his friend. It wasn't me, it wasn't my memory, it was Osusuki's .... oh Sai ...
"All of my people ... Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi ... he would have ..." Osusuki had bent forward, and his ebony hair hid his face. "I had to save my people. It was only one small life, in exchange for so many, ..."
"Bullshit!" Rage gave Hikaru all the strength he needed to rise to his feet and stamp toward the Lord of the Foxes. Faster than rational thought, his hand bunched into a fist, and he jabbed it at Osusuki. The resounding smack of fist meeting flesh echoed in the small clearing.
"Acccccccccccccck!" Hikaru howled, dancing around as the pain flared up and down his right arm. His hand felt as if he had rammed it repeatedly into a brick wall, and the joints looked rather misaligned. He didn't even try to move his fingers. "Itaiaiaiaiaaaaaaaa, that ..."
"Hurts." Osusuki's growled. The area below his left eye was beginning to swell even more than Hikaru's knuckles. Hikaru felt a grim sort of satisfaction; he had managed to give the Lord of the Kitsune a pretty good shiner. The satisfaction, though, was quickly muted as Osusuki rose to his feet and the rumbling growl became a full fledged, fang baring, claw slashing snarl.
The small, hereditary part of Hikaru's mind which still retained the instincts from when his ancestors had a tail, screamed at him to go find a tree and jump up it. Human form or not, the Lord of the Kitsune was first and foremost a predator, one which was now stalking him as Hikaru hurriedly backed away, aching hand cradled to his chest.
With howl that seem to shake the very earth, Osusuki lunged forward. Hikaru ducked, throwing his hands up to protect his neck. A fresh surge of pain burned through him as the kitsune clamped his hands around Hikaru's already injured right arm. Hikaru yelped as the agony increased until he was certain that nothing was left of his former arm but ashes.
Finally, Osusuki let him go. The pain abruptly vanished. Hikaru opened one eye in surprise. His knuckles weren't even swollen anymore.
"I am the Lord of the Kitsune. Remember that.You're lucky I didn't bite your entire arm off, " the kitsune's tone still held the last, harsh crackle of a growl.
"Well, seeing what you did to Sai, you're just lucky I didn't aim lower," Hikaru retorted. Unfortunately, the fact that his knees chose that moment to wobble probably ruined the impact of the statement. Those teeth are shaaaarp, his mind noted as his knees shook some more.
Osusuki glared, though the effect was also rather dampened by his rapidly blackening eye. Hikaru wondered why he just didn't twiddle a claw and fix it. Instead, the kitsune sighed deeply, staring at his hands. He turned his back to Hikaru. The silence stretched between them, with only the wind stirred leaves providing any sound.
Unnerved, Hikaru opened his mouth, but for once, he could not come up with any smart remark to break the tension. He was tired beyond anything he had ever felt before. In his mind, he could still see a pair of violet eyes watching him, hoping for deliverance. It did not matter whose memory it was. "What happened? After you abandoned him, what did Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi do to Sai? Did they play a game?"
"No. Sai ... refused to play. No matter how Amatsu Mikaboshi-sama threatened him or his family, he just stood there, refusing to play. The Demon Lord could not just take Sai's soul without a bargain however. I thought he was going to destroy the boy and make his soul wander the earth right then and there. But I was wrong. He did something far worse."
If his eyes could go wider, Hikaru knew they would soon pop out of his head. That was fine, he thought offhandedly, they could join his jaw on the ground. "What!? What could be any worse than that?"
"He cursed him." Osusuki headed back toward the table, his movements stiff and angry. Hikaru's scuffling had disrupted the tea setting again. The kitsune began to restore the items to their proper places, using his hands instead of magic. "Simply stranding Sai's soul was not enough, not to the Lord of Evil. He vowed to make Sai suffer. That night, he foretold that Sai, in the end, would be the one to bring about the destruction of himself and his family, and he would do so through the very thing he loved the most. Moreover, his death would not bring him rest."
Osusuki made a sound much like the rattling of old bones."You can see the splendid irony of it all, can't you? For refusing to play one game of Go, the only game he's ever refused, he must spend his afterlife being refused by the world in general. He must wander this plane forever, watching games, but never being able to fully join in them himself. You can't say that the Lord of Evil isn't well versed in his classical curses. "
Hikaru's mind felt as if someone had squeezed it hard, leaving only the hard, dry bits of reality behind. "But Sai never said it was a curse .... he said ... he went home afterwards, didn't he? And from there ..."
"The Heian court, with all its ensnaring politics. You may think us kitsune to be cruel, crafty, and amoral. But we are no more so than your own kind, Shindo Hikaru. Lord Amatsu Mikaboshi may have cursed Fujiwara no Sai, but in the end, it was you mortals who destroyed him," Osusuki finished setting up the tea set, and he sat down again. Although he still moved with enough grace to shame the most fluid of felines, there was also a new heaviness to his motions now. One hand rested lightly on his discarded mask.
"After that night, I saw him only two more times in mortal form," His head tilted up, in a clear invitation.
Hikaru swallowed hard. It's time for the final, territory deciding moves. Time to see on which side of the boundaries the victory will fall ... white or black, he thought. Okay then ...
"Show me."
****
To be continued