I have recently read Lewis Carol's 'Alice In Wonderland' and am a little obsessed with it now. Of course, I had to make a Hikago version of the amazing classic.

Alice In Wonderland is known for it symbolism, references to mathematical theories or philosophical debates, and its complexity within apparent simplicity. Though I'm not as clever as Mr. Carol, I will do my best as to recreate his masterpiece.

Enjoy!

Hikaru was getting quite bored looking for items suitable enough to sell in his Grandfather's attic.

It was the only reason he came here, and he still hadn't found anything. Akari was getting very annoying, chattering on and on about how they shouldn't do this, how he hadn't gotten permission. Hikaru tuned her out, like always, and set to work looking through an old chest.

As he was standing up, his knee brushed the wooden corner of something. Curious, he bent down and dragged the mysterious wooden square out from where it lay, under piles of debris. It was a Go board. Hikaru at least knew what this was; however, being a child, he didn't recognize the value of such an old board beyond how much it would sell for.

"Amazing!" He exclaimed, elated. "See, Akari? Coming here was well worth it!"

Akari leaned over his shoulder, tucking a long strand of gray-black hair behind her ear. "I don't know, Hikaru..." She fretted. "Maybe your Grandpa doesn't want it sold!"

Hikaru wasn't listening to her. He was focused on the bloodstains he had spotted on the board.

"Odd." He mumbled aloud (Hikaru was fond of talking to himself) "How did these stains get on the board?"

"What stains?" Akari asked timidly.

Hikaru scoffed. Honestly. She cannot see what is right in front of her! He pointed to the stains on the old Goban. "Here."

"Where?"

"Here! I am pointing right at it!"

"I don't see it!"

Hikaru was frustrated and a little confused. "How can you not see it?"

You...can see the stains? A voice suddenly rang out clear as spring water through the small and musty room.

Hikaru stood up and looked around the attic. "Who said that?" He shouted out boldly. "Is that you, Grandfather?!"

Akari was looking very alarmed. "Hikaru, nobody said anything!"

Hikaru paid her no attention; it was almost as if the poor girl was invisible.

You can hear my voice, child?

Hikaru put his hands in his pockets, still glancing about for a shapeshifter or a specter. "Of course I can! Who are you?"

At last...at long last…

Hikaru gaped as a ghostly apparition rose out of the Goban as though it were a trapdoor, unfolding gracefully like a butterfly's wings. Its hair was dark, darker even than Akari's, like the depths of space, and was very long. Its eyes were gentle, looking like they belonged to a child, but the body structure was that of a man. It held a fan in one hand, the fingers pale and spindly. The whole impression was solid, yet wispy, real, yet so fantastical. For a moment, all Hikaru could do was gape.

"Who are you?" Hikaru said again.

The spirit smiled, a gesture that was almost softer than his eyes. "I am Fujiwara no Sai."

With a flourish, Sai wrapped his arms around the boy, and there was a bright flash of white light.

"I do wonder what is happening," Hikaru rambled as he blinked away the after-affects of the assaulting flash. "Perhaps he is possessing me. That's certainly possible. What will everybody at school say if I come to class with a ghost? Oh, it would be fun to shock them all! But maybe he wants to bring me harm. That won't be nearly as fun...if he kills me, will I have to put up with him in the afterlife?"

"What are you talking about, child?" The spirit said.

Hikaru roused himself from his haze by shaking his head roughly. He was laying on the floor, the ghost kneeling by his side, looking at him with some concern. Hikaru pushed himself up to a sitting position, head cocked, staring at Sai.

"Why are you here? Are you possessing me?" Hikaru said abruptly, never one for subtlety.

Sai shook his elegant head. "Yes and no. I cannot exactly move your body, you understand. However, I do share your soul. I have come out of the Goban for one purpose: to play and achieve the Hand Of God."

Hikaru scratched the back of his head, puzzled. "The Hand Of God? What is that?"

Sai's eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth to explain exactly what the Hand Of God was, and possibly a history of Go, but was interrupted by a squawking sound. Hikaru looked around for the source of the noise, expecting to see Akari, but instead laying eyes upon a Crane!

It was medium sized, its glossy gray-black feathers ruffled and puffed up, like somebody had insulted it. It was making quite a racket, trying to fly through the ceiling and screeching loudly every time it hit the wood. Always, it was chattering on, twittering and calling obscenely.

Hikaru got to his feet. "I must catch it," He said determinedly to himself, Sai by his side observing everything with wide eyes. "Otherwise, it will escape into the house and knock everything over."

So he leaped at the bird, trying to grab it, but his hands might as well have been sieves for all the good they did him. The Crane ducked and dodged and swirled from one end of the room to the other, maneuvering around Hikaru until the little boy was very hot and bothered, face red and teeth gritted.

"Can't you help me catch this pest?!" He spat at the ghost.

Sai put up his hands, following the bird with his eyes. "I cannot do anything! I'm unable to make physical contact with anything."

Just then, the Crane made a leap for the attic ladder, diving awkwardly through the trapdoor that served as and entry-point to the floor below. Hikaru scrambled for the ladder, thinking, Now I've done it! Grandpa will be so mad…

He lowered himself in through the trapdoor, climbing down rung by rung. Sai followed him. Hikaru looked down, but was shocked to see that the ladder went on for infinity, stretching down into unfathomable darkness. Indeed, Hikaru could not see anything around him; it was blackness layered upon blackness, the ladder the only thing in sight. Hikaru steeled his nerves and continued to climb down.

"How much longer will we have to go?" Sai said from his place on the ladder above Hikaru.

"How should I know?" Grumbled Hikaru. "I don't remember this being a part of my Grandfather's house before..."

Down and down they went, never seeming to get anywhere. "It has to have an end," Hikaru said absentmindedly, looking up at his ghostly friend. "It's impossible for it to go on forever, you know."

"And why is that?" Said somebody very rudely and loudly.

Hikaru looked around wildly, but his eyes snagged on the ladder. The rung level with his head had a mouth and eyes, blinking up into the light above them filtering in through the trapdoor. Its eyes were big and electric blue, its mouth big-lipped and puffy. Sai gave a squeal of fright, and almost let go of the ladder, but managed to hold on. Hikaru felt oddly at calm with the way things were turning out, and only said, "Why is what?"

"Why does it have to be impossible?" The ladder sniffed. It had a very haughty voice.

"I don't know," Hikaru said defensively. "It just is. It has to stop somewhere!"

"Climb one more rung up," The ladder said, suddenly irritated. "and look me in the face when you're talking, it is very annoying to have to look at somebody out of the corner of your eye."

Hikaru climbed one rung up and looked down the little face uncomfortably. It was an awkward position, looking down at the rung on the ladder. "Is this better?"

"Your ghost friend as well," Snapped the ladder. "I want to see both of you."

Hikaru beckoned for the ghost, but Sai shook his head fearfully and clung on to the ladder.

"Why won't you just come down, Sai?" Hikaru called up.

"I don't want to," Sai called back. "He unsettles me."

"What did you say about me, punk?!" The ladder shouted, glaring as best as he could. "It's all the same these days, racists and bigots everywhere you turn, what's a ladder supposed to do, eh? You all act like you're so high and mighty, like we're just things to step on to you, eh?!"

Sai shook his head frantically, "I didn't mean any-"

"Oh, no!" The ladder was very angry now. "Don't try and take back what you really think! You said it, it can't be unsaid! Or can it?" It added in a more thoughtful tone. But it quickly reverted to its earlier state, "Well, if it can, you haven't done it, so why don't you say what you mean, come down here and take your licking like a man!"

Hikaru felt a rush of protectiveness towards his newly acquired friend, and said heatedly, "Don't talk to him like that!"

The ladder snorted, an action Hikaru wouldn't have thought it was would be able to do what with its position. "Oh, so he can talk about me all he likes, but I can't talk about him?! It's all the same, bigots and racists everywhere you turn-"

Hikaru thought this conversation was getting them nowhere, and so proceeded to climb down and away from the offended rung, until it exclaimed, "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Away from you. You are becoming increasingly unpleasant to be around, you know." Hikaru snapped at it.

"Don't try running from me," The ladder said calmly. "There are hundreds upon thousands of my brothers you'll have to deal with."

Suddenly, there was a great cacophony of noise, several voices at once shouting different phrases and affirmations and curses, and Hikaru looked below him in a panic to find that every single rung had eyes and mouths, and they were all talking incessantly. Sai gave a shout when he realized this, and let go of the ladder. He plummeted into the darkness.

"Sai!" Hikaru exclaimed, and, without thinking, let go of the ladder and fell after him.

...Well, that was a whole lot more chaotic and crazy than I intended. Than again, Alice In Wonderland is pretty crazy in general. Draw your own inferences about what these things mean symbolically.