Chapter Five
The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Kyu-Dan awoke feeling out of sorts with a cranky disposition. Something was just not quite right that morning and he simply couldn't put a finger on what. Then, he realized the problem: The bed was cold. And he was positively sure it had been warm some time before. Aki. Aki was gone. He sprung out of bed with a start. Where could the cross-dresser have gone? He ran to the bathroom. No Aki.
Quickly, he donned a pair of black pants and a decently presentable white dress shirt from his cupboard and ran out of the room. He ran up and down the stairs and hallways, searching for his cross-dresser, asking the maids if they had seen anyone by the other's general description, but the answer was 'no'. Aki was nowhere to be found and no one had seen her... him go by. Downcast, he returned to his room and sat on the bed he had shared with the longhaired boy the night before. He jumped up then and made his way over to the balcony; he needed to think. That was when he caught sight of a peach-coloured object on the granite floor.
He hurried over to it. Aki's shoe. But why was it only the left side? Surely, the other couldn't have... He looked in horror over the balcony railing. No mincemeat Aki splayed on the palace grounds, much to his relief. But that didn't explain why the shoe was on the balcony floor instead of somewhere in the courtyard. He brought the shoe in to place atop a chest of teakwood drawers, lost in thought. Still deep in contemplation, he wandered down the polished stone staircase to the dining hall. By the time he arrived at the breakfast table to face his parents, he had already made up his mind.
"Father, Mother, good morning and I have a request," was his greeting that morning.
Thus it was that Crown Prince Shindou Hikaru began a kind of Go pilgrimage, going from duchy to duchy, city to city, town to town, village to village, and house to house in search of a great player among the common populace based on the reasoning that there might have been some good players that did not join the competition because they were too impoverished to either make the journey or properly attire themselves. Of course, he was, in reality, looking for Aki, but no one was supposed to know that. There were still rumours spreading, naturally, that he had been dissatisfied with those that turned up for the competition and was now searching through the entire kingdom for a suitable wife. Well, they had no idea how close they were to the truth; he had already found his ideal wife, but he was lost somewhere in the kingdom.
He began his travels in the duchy of Tengen, skipping his own hometown temporarily, since it was a high-end area and no one who wasn't sufficiently affluent to attend the competition lived there, and meanwhile checked up on Yashiro's management skills. Having found them satisfactory, he penned a letter back to his parents before continuing his journey through the duchy and into the next, Gosei. There he paid the Grand Duke of Gosei a visit, only to find Duke Waya Kisei staying with his lover for the fortnight. He swiftly made his rounds through the duchy, enjoying Duke Isumi Gosei's hospitality and both the Dukes' company, before following Duke Waya and his entourage back to his next destination, the Grand Duchy of Kisei. There he continued his search to no avail, still finding no sign of his beautiful cross-dresser.
Bidding his best friend farewell, he moved on to Ouza, a duchy he tended to avoid because the current Duke was just plain scary in his attempts to gain universal recognition as the second best player in the kingdom –which he wasn't, since that was a certain Ko Young-ha, the Mayor of Baduk, who was most likely to be elected the next Grand Duke of Honinbou after Duke Kuwabara finally retired-. He wasn't really even third, since that would presently be Aki –going by the prince's personal ranking of all the opponents he had ever played, and fourth was either Duke Isumi Gosei or Hon Su-yon, 'wife' of Ko Yong-ha and Lady of Baduk, because players didn't improve simultaneously or similarly. Therefore, it was no surprise to his entourage that his stay in the Grand Duchy of Ouza was the shortest thus far and that he was in Jyudan by the tenth day after his arrival in Ouza.
He arrived at Duke Ogata Jyudan's castle late in the evening, just in time to shower before he was presented with a feast at dinner. His favourite food, ramen, was served that night because it was a rather well-known fact that he had something close to an obsession with the noodles, and he made polite conversation as he dined alone with the Grand Duke, who was still a bachelor with an aquarium of fish in every room for company and a paedophiliac. Prince Hikaru was rather thankful that he was Crown Prince of the Kingdom and thus protected from any form of assault by his superior rank. He was rather weary from his travels, and had by now, nearly given up hope of ever finding his lovely cross-dresser. He was, however, relieved to be out of Ouza, and the older man's quiet company was a pleasant respite from the noisy and narcissistic Duke Kurata Ouza.
"I hear that this journey is nothing more than a cover for your search of someone, Your Highness," the Grand Duke of Jyudan prompted.
"Of course not. Where could you have possibly heard that?" Hikaru lied with a reassuring smile.
"Well, you know the thing about rumours... Say, you know, I met this girl at the competition who claimed to be a distant relative of Ko Young-ha's but when I met up with the good Mayor later, I was informed that he neither knew a relative who fit her description nor had any connections with a certain house of Suji she claimed to be from."
"I see, how strange."
"She was a rather strong player and she declined to accompany me as she claimed to be looking for someone."
"Oh, so who was she looking for?"
"According to the Dukes of Kisei and Gosei with whom I spoke later, that would be you, Your Highness," came the Duke's reply.
"I see. Well, I met quite a fair number of ladies at the tournament, so I really wouldn't know which one you're talking about, my lord duke."
"Chin-length smoky gray-green hair, about your height...
Could it be? The prince felt his heart skip a beat.
"... Emerald green eyes, soft-spoken with a deep contralto..."
That was probably the only lead he had gotten thus far in his journey, which by now, was going on six-months long. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart's rapid pounding.
"... Very decently clad, unlike the others, but seems to always have a problem walking. Ring any bells, Your Highness?"
Oh, the good duke had no idea just how many giant church bells that description rung. Right now, the bleached-blonde felt like promoting the Duke to an Earl and making Jyudan an Earldom proper. But still, he calmed himself down, maintaining his expression. He still didn't know where to find Aki and besides that, he had just recalled something else important. "Well, yes, it does, in fact, ring a bell." So that was understating it big time. So he didn't care. "However, she introduced herself to me rather differently. She told me she was a poor farmer's daughter and that she had received the dresses from a kind merchant." Of course, now that he had found out about her lying about her gender, he doubted that was true either.
"I see. So she's been lying to everyone about her identity then."
"Indeed, among many other things," he agreed. "Well, I've made stops at nearly every house throughout my journey thus far and I have not seen that girl anywhere, really, be it in peasants' huts or rich men's houses," he quickly said before the older man could ask any questions.
"You know, come to think of it, she looked pretty familiar."
"Really?" Hikaru asked, feigning only mild interest.
"Yes, my prince. You see, the Duke of Meijin and I are rather close friends, or perhaps I should say we were rather close friends until he married the good Dowager 'Duchess'."
The prince, for once, simply remained silent and nodded for his vassal to continue.
"I'm sure you know he had a son from his previous marriage."
Prince Hikaru nodded again. He was beginning to understand, he thought.
"Well, I haven't seen the boy in some time, but that girl looked an amazing lot like the late Duchess Akiko, though."
"I see..."
"Oh, one more thing, Your Highness. She introduced herself by the name of Aki... I'm pretty certain the boy's name was Akira, Touya Akira. Do you..." the Duke of Jyudan trailed off into silence upon noticing that his liege lord had abruptly stood up.
"My lord duke, I'm afraid I will be cutting my stay a little short. I will leave to Meijin in a week."
"Certainly, Your Highness. As you wish," was all the duke had to say.
Akira sat by the riverbank in his father's estate, dressed in the normal drab grey tunic and washing Go stones as usual. It was a hot sunny day and he had just finished wiping a full thirty Gobans. He felt hot, thirsty, sweaty, and grimy, not a very nice feeling to begin with. Add to that the longings he kept hidden deep within his soul, and Touya Akira wasn't a very happy boy. Absently, he wondered how the prince was. He had heard that the prince had gone on a journey around the kingdom, travelling from house to house in a move to better acquaint himself with his people and find strong players among the commoners.
Despite the inherent possibility in the action, Akira absolutely refused to even consider the idea that the prince might be looking for him. So the prince had been interested that night. So what? It wasn't as if he was irreplaceable. The entire kingdom was probably queuing up in lines to marry the crown prince; what made him so special? There were probably tons of better people out there. Yet, still, he harboured that secret hope; he couldn't help praying that that whole Cinderella-style dream-come-true situation and happy ending might eventually be his, that somehow, he would be saved from this hell of an existence. That was when he heard it.
The horn sounded the arrival of royalty. Akira sprang to his feet in alarm. No, the prince couldn't be here. He couldn't let the prince find him. As quickly as he could, he tore back to the house, entering by the back door, and sprinted up the stairs to the attic. He shut the door tightly behind him and quickly threw himself onto his sleeping pallet and wrapped the blankets around himself, pretending to sleep. If the prince found him, he would most likely get everyone in trouble, or he might even be executed for running away without a word or rudeness or cross-dressing or... he didn't know, but it was best he remained hidden anyway. As if indifference or ignorance wasn't bad enough.
Crown Prince Shindou Hikaru made polite conversation with his vassal as the Grand Duke of Meijin accompanied him into the former's house. He really didn't care for anything the man was talking about; he wanted to see his son. However, asking for the person in question directly would be rather strange and a tad bit impolite, especially if the boy didn't turn out to be the one he was looking for. Apparently, the duke himself had not been home in quite some time. They had bumped into each other as the prince and his entourage were on their way to the Manor.
The duke had apparently been travelling around as well, visiting an area that wasn't under direct vassalage to the Kingdom, but had pledged allegiance to it. The area was known generally as the Chess, since its inhabitants were a mixture of Kyu-Danes, Keimarians, and a rather large number of aborigines, who played just about any kind of chess in existence. The people there called themselves the Free Peoples of The Chess and one wouldn't think too highly of the security there. However, since harming a duke would mean treachery to the Kingdom, Touya Meijin had apparently escaped unscathed. The Free Peoples surprisingly had an official Grand Chieftain, a recognised Baron of the Kingdom, known as Li Ping and his 'Baroness' Chao Shii, the former being quite your idea of some kind of renegade chieftain and the latter being the Chief's ever cute and quiet 'wife' with some hefty Go skills (and thus, military tactics) to his name.
The entire Grand Duchy of Meijin was one large fort with defense towers at regular intervals, making it one of the hardest duchies in the kingdom to besiege. The only one with better defences was Honinbou, where the palace and Baduk, renowned as the City of Luxury, were located. It wasn't really the fortifications that made it stronger than Meijin; it was the fact that Honinbou naturally had the best army in the Kingdom, as well as some of the greatest military tacticians, namely Im Iruf-han and Wang Shi Chen, not to mention Duke Kuwabara Honinbou, Mayor Ko Young-ha of Baduk and his 'wife', Hon Su-Yon, as well as Royal Defence Advisor Yang Hai and of course, the Crown Prince Shindou Hikaru himself, who was currently looking to add to that collection of great strategists by bringing home his ideal Crown 'Princess'.
Anyhow, Komi Go Salon Estates seemed to be doing extremely well, the Gobans were clean and polished, the Go stones clean and oil-free, and the tables and chairs pristine and neatly arranged beneath large garden umbrellas for shade. It had grown in size, since the prince had last been here, and the number of tables had also increased. He looked on as the Duke greeted his current 'wife', a man the Crown Prince of Kyu-Dan had little to no love for, and stepchildren. The Dowager 'Duchess' of Ouza was always so overly zealous in his attempts to gain royal favour, it was having quite the opposite effect.
"Where's Akira?" he heard the Grand Duke of Meijin ask his 'wife' suddenly. That was precisely when the conversation drew his interest.
"I don't know, Kouyo-san."
He turned to his stepchildren. "Akari? Mitani?"
They both shook their heads.
"Well, go look for him, Akari. Tell him to come down to the hall dressed in his best. We have royal guests."
"Yes, father." She quickly turned and hurried off.
"Oh, and dear?"
"Hm?" The former 'Duchess' of Ouza answered absently. He was anxious. If the prince was here, then he would traditionally play the entire family this same night. That meant that he would end up playing Akira as well. No matter how he looked at it, there was no way to avoid that. And every single outcome from that situation was bad. Either the Grand Duke would discover that his son had been forbidden to play Go, or the prince might notice that the boy had greater talent than either Akari or Mitani and decide to commend him instead, or he would question why the boy had not attended the Kingdom Tournament nearly seven months ago. There was nothing good in the situation, but now that the Grand Duke was here... Then, there was nothing he could do about it. And if the kid found out that forbidding one to play Go was a criminal offence punishable by death, who knows what he would do.
"I said to please tell the kitchen to prepare a feast worthy of our guest tonight," the taller noble repeated upon finding that his 'wife' was still zoning-out, startling the other from his reverie.
"Ah, yes, Kouyo-san. Of course, immediately." And he hurried off to do as he was bid, still worrying about what would happen later that night.
"Oi, Akira."
"What is it, Akari-neesama?" Akira mumbled the question in feigned sleepiness.
"Father is home. He wants you downstairs in the hall. Go bathe and change in your other room."
Oh, so it was just his father? Then, about the horn? He rose and made his way out of the attic, rubbing his eyes. "Aa."
"Oh, wear your best and finest. The Crown Prince is here."
He froze. Prince Hikaru. His worst nightmare had come true. No. Could he just feign sickness? No, his father would definitely come to check up on that. Then, the prince would be obliged to come pay the son of the second most powerful Duke in the Kingdom a visit too. Looks like there was no way out of it then. Who knew what fate the prince had in mind for him when he was found out? And even if the prince left him alone, he would suffer an even worse fate at his 'stepmother's' hands once his father left home again.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" his stepsister demanded from behind, hands on her hips.
"Aa, I'm going." And he quickly made his way back the room he used only when his father was home to perpend the situation.
"Mou..." Akari complained. (Geez...)
Well, then, what was he to do? He could always run away and disappear temporarily, but his father was here, and besides, where could he run? He didn't really have anywhere to go. Akira sat in the room he only got to use once in a blue moon, on the four-poster-bed he only slept in whenever his father was around and his 'stepmother' could not proceed with his usual torment. He entered the bathroom and undressed before stepping into the shower. Even as the warm water rained down on him, he weighed the matter heavily in his mind. There really didn't seem to be a way out of this fix. He cleaned himself thoroughly, but quickly; he didn't want to keep the prince waiting, lest it be added to his list of crimes. He stepped out quickly and dried himself on a fresh clean towel before going to his cupboard. He hoped he had not outgrown any of his fine raiment in the time that he hadn't worn them. He browsed through the rows of clothes hanging there, wondering what to wear, when he suddenly heard the familiar shower of falling Go stones that he hadn't heard in some time, since the fairy had only appeared once after the Kingdom Go Tournament and that was a month ago. He spun around to face the familiar goose-like Go Fairy.
"Sai! Thank goodness, you're here! The prince is here! What am I to do?" he asked quickly, hoping the fairy had a way to get him out of this fix he was in.
"Go see him, of course," came the easy reply.
"That's not what I wanted to hear," Akira informed him, turning back to face the rows of clothing in his cupboard.
"Not going down in a dress tonight?" Sai teased.
"No! Not with father there!" the longhaired boy exclaimed in horror at the other's proposal.
"Well, don't bother looking anyway." Before the boy could say anything, the fairy had already waved his fan, and in a shower of Go stones, Akira was dressed in a viridian coloured long-sleeved waistcoat with silver buckles going down the front left and tight-fitting black corduroy pants complete with a pair of black polished leather boots with silver buckles.
"Do I really have to go down now? What if he decides to punish me? What if my father and 'stepmother' find out about what happened? What if..."
"They wouldn't dare touch the future Queen of Kyu-Dan. Hikaru's been looking all over for you."
"How do you know that?" the longhaired boy demanded then.
"I've been watching him. Come, I'll go down with you." The Go Fairy ushered his charge out the door and towards the staircase.
"What do you mean, you've been watching him?" Akira queried as they descended the staircase and ended up at the entrance to the hall.
"You'll see."
The former cross-dresser simply blinked at his fairy 'godmother' and pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the great hall.
"Father, welcome home," he greeted. Then, he looked up... right into those same murky green orbs that had threatened to swallow him whole only slightly more than half a year ago. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight of the Crown Prince in his yellow silk dress shirt and Prussian blue corduroy pants. "Y-Your Highness, I apologise." He dropped to his knees quickly.
Yet, instead of the expected reprimand about his lack of courtesy... "SAI!" the two-toned-haired boy exclaimed suddenly, jumping up. "You're here!" The prince tore over to engulf the chubby fairy in a bear hug. "Where have you been! I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Wait, you can see him?" Akira turned to ask, forgetting all protocol in his surprise.
"Of course, I can see him, Aki! I've known him all my life!" the other enthused happily.
"All your life!"
"Your Highness? Is something the matter?" asked a very confused Duke Touya Meijin.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot. Sai! Quit being invisible to the world. You're making me look like a madman talking to thin air!"
There was a shower of Go stones as the Go Fairy grew visible to a very, very confounded Duke and his family who had just walked in in their finest clothes. "Well, I guess that wouldn't do for a prince."
"W-Who are you! What are you doing in our house!" demanded a mortified Mitani loudly.
"Mitani! Don't be rude to His Highness's friend," the Duke of Meijin reprimanded sternly.
"Ah, I'm sorry, Your Highness," he quickly said, dropping to his knees with the rest of his family.
"I don't suppose you've met my son, Akira, my prince."
"Why... Yes, I have, I believe. He was dressed rather interestingly at the tournament," the prince replied easily, much to Akira's horror.
"Tournament? But he didn't go," the 'Duchess' spoke up suddenly.
"Oh? Well, maybe it's someone else then. But why didn't he go with you then, my lord duke?" Hikaru asked Touya Meijin.
The older man blinked. "Well, if I remember correctly, he claimed to not be feeling very well that day."
"I see..."
"He did go, Hikaru," Sai said suddenly. "Play him yourself and see the truth."
"What?" Everyone had abruptly turned to face the fairy.
"But weren't you ill?" Touya Meijin asked his son then.
"No, he wasn't," the fairy answered for his charge.
"But how? He had no transportation... no..." Mitani sputtered.
"I helped him get there," answered the Go Fairy with a wave of floppy white sleeves. "Hikaru, you felt it then, didn't you? The connection."
"Connection?"
"The Hand of God. He's the other half of the key."
"Oh, so that's why you left! You could have at least informed me!"
"I did!" the fairy protested, reverting to his three-year-old personality suddenly. "You just weren't paying any attention! Hikaru no baka!"
"You! Do you have any idea what I went through!"
"Well, that didn't mean I could simply come back!"
"Bah! I'm not playing with you!"
"Well, Akira will play with me! Na, Akira?"
The presently dumbfounded Akira opened his mouth to reply, but didn't manage to get any words out before the Crown Prince, who wasn't currently acting very princely at all, grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the table where the Duke and said prince had been playing. "No, he won't. Aki's my 'queen'. He'll listen to me!" the bleached-blonde declared. And he wasn't even asking for the other's opinion.
The Grand Duke of Meijin and his family were, however, thunderstruck at that statement. "Say WHAT!" The 'Duchess' demanded, a dangerous edge to his voice.
"I don't suppose you have any objections to Akira and I playing a game, do you, my lord duke?" the prince asked his vassal calmly, as if not even hearing the other man.
"No, of course not, Your Highness. However, I'd like to clear up some things before we begin." He turned to his 'wife'. "What is the meaning of this?"
"W-What do you mean?" The 'Duchess' faltered beneath his husband's intense gaze. Well, one would expect no less from the eyes of the Duke of Meijin.
"You said, no, all of you claimed Akira was sick, even the boy himself. Now, the Akira I know would have been dying to go to the tourney. So, if he wasn't sick, as we have apparently found out today, why would he lie to me and feign illness in order not to go?" the second most powerful duke in the Kingdom questioned the rest of his family calmly in the usual soft voice, but this time with an undertone sharp enough to slice cleanly through an iceberg.
He didn't get a reply from either his 'wife' or his stepchildren and he was about to turn to his son, when a voice spoke up.
"Perhaps because he couldn't go. Say... because he was perhaps... forbidden to do so?" Sai suggested somewhat slyly from beside the prince, trying to be subtle and like any Go player who was that good at the game, failing miserably due to utter social ineptitude.
"And they call me tactless," Prince Hikaru muttered beneath his breath. "Obviously, they never met you. You're a sledgehamer, Sai, on and off the board."
"I'll grant you that off the board, Hikaru, but not on it."
"Fine, a katana on the board," the Crown Prince acquiesced.
There was a bubbly nod from the chubby fairy with a cheerful 'Un!', before the mood of the room again turned serious as Touya Meijin once again turned to his 'wife'. "Forbidden?" he pressed gravely, the subtle threat to his quiet voice almost unnoticable.
"Now, that, Sai, is what you call true subtlety," the Heir Apparent to the throne decided to point out to his magical friend.
The fairy gave a huffy 'hmph' and turned away like a spoilt child that had just been denied his favourite treat. Akira, on the other hand, looked for all the world like someone who had just woken up to find himself on another planet. Maybe that wasn't all that far from the truth. He was so, so confused. His father on the other hand had not quite done interrogating his stepmother and was not getting a reply. That was when Akari burst out loudly and abruptly.
"That's it! That's enough! I won't have this on my conscience any longer!"
End Chapter 5
A/N: Just to keep in with my promise. Will update the full finale as soon as I can. Sorry, I know it's short, mad, and kinda rushed... Well, you know that thing about reliability and deadlines...