When Hikaru woke up that morning, it was to the sight of Sai anxiously leaning over him.
"Hikaru, something is wrong! I hear crashing from Yuki's hill!"
"Yuki is most likely throwing rocks at the sky again," Hikaru said dismissively, rolling over on the grass. "Leave him be."
Sai waved his hands around, agitated. "But this is different! Please, just take a look!"
Hikaru sighed, got up, and began weaving his way between the ginormous trees to reach Yuki's hill. Indeed, he could hear shouting, but it was much louder than he had expected. He had not time to dwell on it as he climbed the hill, panting. "It does not make sense to me that Yuki chose to live on such a tall hill. Why couldn't he have chosen a small burrow, or a river? Though, I suppose foxes are not accustomed to rivers...or to hills, come to think of it."
But his stream of conscious thought was cut off abruptly by a loud, angry yelp coming from the very top of the hill.
"Get off, you scaly skinned, marshmallow brained, cockroach eyed-"
It was Yuki. Hikaru sped up and finally reached the top of the hill, panting. He gasped as he took in the scene. Yuki was snarling and growling, apparently ready for a fight. Standing across from him was a mink, her body also tensed for combat.
"What is going on here?" He said loudly, his eyes darting from Yuki to the mink and back again.
"This fetid thing is trying to claim my hill!" Yuki spat, glaring at the other small animal.
"You would deserve it!" The mink said hotly. "You cheated me out of a fine pelt!"
"Cheated you?" Hikaru repeated with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Yuki, you didn't..."
"I did NOT cheat!" Yuki almost howled. "She is just terrible at Go! It was her own fault she lost!"
The mink lunged at Yuki, claws out, and the fox dodged, narrowly missing the blow.
"My fault?!" The mink roared. "I know a trick game of Go when I see it! You requested a fair game, a gamble for my precious pelt, and for you to do this with the game is...is..." She struggled for the right words.
"A kick in the teeth?" Hikaru suggested kindly.
"Exactly! A low down, dirty attempt to use me and my ability for petty gain!"
"It's not like you have much ability anyways," Yuki said with a smirk.
The mink hissed and launched herself at Yuki again, but this time Hikaru had had enough of both of them, and flung himself between the two.
"It is too early in the morning for me to deal with this!" He said crossly, flinging out both arms to protect Yuki from the mink's wrath. "You, mink, will go back home, and you, Yuki, will stay on your hill, without her pelt, and you will both keep your teeth in your mouth and your blood in your body! Am I clear?!"
The mink cast one last glare at Yuki, and skittered off down the side of the hill, descending to the trees below. Yuki spat in the dirt and finally relaxed, the tension going out of his body and becoming pensive. Hikaru rounded on Yuki and smacked him sharply on the nose, too angry to be afraid.
"You cheated, Yuki!" He shouted over the fox's complaints. "You did cheat, I know you did, and do not bother lying to me about it!"
Hikaru was rewarded for his actions by a sharp nip to the fingers. He retracted his hand as Yuki glared at him, no longer calm. "I have no idea what you are talking about." He said coldly.
Hikaru let out a frustrated breath. "You cheated last night, and I bet you cheated again today!"
Yuki shook his head. "You must be delusional."
Hikaru ground his teeth, hands forming fists. He was angry, angrier than he could explain, angrier than he knew he could be. He didn't know why he felt this way; only that he was fed up and tired of chasing after Yuki, begging for his help, and being rejected over and over again. Tired of trying to earn this infuriating fox's assistance in something he didn't even care all that much about. Why was he even here? Here, trying to talk a crazy animal into playing Go with other crazy animals that never put the stars back where they belong?!
Sai put an arm on the boy's shoulder and murmured, "Calm yourself. Take deep breaths."
But Hikaru couldn't hear anything but the blood pumping in his ears. Rationality, far from calming him, was only fuel for his rage at this point.
"What is wrong with you?" Hikaru snapped, sounding more venomous than he had expected, "Why do you feel the need to be horrible to the only things that will tolerate you?"
Yuki's eyes went wide, but Hikaru was on a roll now. "Why do you act like everybody is against you, like everybody is beneath your notice? Why do you cheat when you are perfectly good at what you do?"
Hikaru turned his back, fists clenched at his sides. "Never mind. If you want to stay here on this hill, than so be it. I'll find another player for our journey, and you can stay here, alone."
He stomped off the side of the hill, tripped over a root, and crashed head over heels down the side, finally coming to a halt at the bottom, where he sat, fists clenched, teeth gritted, covered in dirt and grass stains, and so, so mad.
He let out a strangled growl, gripping the sides of his head.
"Hikaru," Sai said softly. "Look at me."
Hikaru slowly let go of his head and craned his neck to look directly above him. Sai was bent over his crouching form like some kind of guardian angel, his face serious and calm. His long hair fell down a bit and the tips brushed Hikaru's cheeks, the way he remembered his Mom's used to before she cut it. It made him feel not calm, but safe, looked-after.
He exhaled and closed his eyes for a minute. The darkness of his eyelids were all he could see now, but he knew Sai was still there, watching him.
"Tell me why you're angry." He heard Sai murmur.
"I...I just think..." Hikaru huffed, rubbing his face with his dirty hands, struggling to express himself for a minute. "...He's good. Perhaps I can't tell exactly how good yet, but he's good. He doesn't need to cheat. He shouldn't."
He heard the smile in Sai's voice as he said, "And you want to make him stop?"
Hikaru slowly opened his eyes, grimacing. "It will be hard to 'make him stop', considering I just hurled all those awful things at him."
Sai nodded thoughtfully. "You can always keep trying. After all, stubbornness is one of your defining traits."
Hikaru scowled and picked himself up off the ground. "Do you think I should go and apologize?"
Sai shook his head. "Give him some time to cool off. Perhaps try again in the morning."
"Yeah..." Hikaru conceded.
They began looking for a place to sleep.
The next morning, Hikaru wasted no time in climbing Yuki's hill, rehearsing his apology in his mind. But when he reached the top, Yuki wasn't there. Thinking he had just hiked out to the forest for some rocks to throw, he sat down to wait, Sai anxiously hovering next to him.
After an hour, he began to get irritated. After another hour, he began to get worried.
"Come on Sai, let's look for him."
He trekked down the other side of the hill and into a thick, wooded area he had never been in before. These trees weren't as humongous as the others, but they were much thicker and closer together.
How am I going to find a tiny fox in this?!
"Perhaps he got thirsty and went to find a stream." Sai suggested.
"Well...it's something to go on, at least."
They listened hard for the bubbling of a brook or even the splash of a lake, but heard nothing.
"Use your common sense, Hikaru..." He muttered to himself. "Yuki has to have some source of water if he lives on a hill. All you have to do is find it."
Confidently, he continued to stroll through the woods.
The plan backfired.
He kept going deeper and deeper into the woods, fruitlessly searching for even a pond, but only succeeded in getting himself hopelessly lost. He tried to climb a tree, but being much smaller than his regular size, made it half way up the trunk before Sai pointed out he had spent thirty minutes trying to climb it and that they were wasting time.
"Why don't you just climb the tree, Sai?" Hikaru had said, miffed.
"I don't like heights." Sai sniffled.
Hikaru gave the most obvious eye roll he could manage and muttered something insulting, but was too hot and tired to continue the discussion any longer, and so they moved on.
Now the sun was setting, they had spent the entire day in the forest, and Hikaru was getting seriously annoyed.
"I can't find my way to Yuki, I can't find my way back to the hill," Hikaru raged. "I am completely lost! What am I going to do now?"
Sai tapped his fan against his chin, thoughtful, his eyes cast to the sky. "Well...we could..."
"What? We could what?" Hikaru snapped.
Sai nodded decisively. "We could wait for something to happen."
Hikaru stared at him. "We could wait? That is your plan?"
"Sometimes you cannot force things to happen in life." Sai told him, sitting down resolutely on the ground. "Sometimes all you can do it stop forcing things and see where you end up."
"I don't like when things are out of my control." Hikaru admitted, still standing.
"There will be many times in your life when you are out of control." Sai turned to fix him with one of his hardened stares. "Would you rather keep winding in circles all over the forest?"
Hikaru heaved a sigh and sat down next to his friend, plopping his head in his hands.
"The last time you just 'let go' and saw where life would take you, you ending up dying, didn't you?" Hikaru scoffed.
Sai was silent for a long time, and Hikaru was worried he might have hurt the ghost's feelings, but when he spoke again, his tone was thoughtful, almost dreamy.
"Yes. I did die. I threw myself into the river and drowned."
Hikaru's eyes widened, surprised, but for once did not interrupt.
"I was one of the two instructors to the emperor. The other wanted me out of the way...so he challenged me to a game for our position. He cheated...making it seem like I had cheated." A note of iron injected itself in the ghost's voice then. "I was exiled, and a few days later I drowned myself. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't, you know." Sai continued, softer. "Hadn't...killed myself. But you want to know something strange? I am almost thankful I did. I know what that sounds like, but I am. If I didn't, I wouldn't have gone on to play a thousand years worth of Go with Torajiro, and-"
Here, Hikaru did interrupt. "Who's Torajiro?"
"Another boy, like you, that I was with for a long time. He died at a young age. Not nearly as young as you, Hikaru, but still...too young for someone like him." He sighed. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Yes, Hikaru, I did let go to see where life would take me. And I am almost happy I did. Because everything, every scar, every bad memory, every day, led me to where I am now." Hikaru looked up at him to see that Sai was smiling again, surveying the forest around them. "Sitting here, with you, in this fantastical world. And I think this is a good place to be."
They were quiet for a long time, drinking in the moment, something Hikaru had never done before that day. Life in Tokyo was always rushing, rushing to get to school, rushing to get back, rushing to finish everything that needed to be done before he passed out in his bed to get up and do it all again.
He took a deep breath, wishing he could breathe it all in.
And that was where Yuki found them.
They both stood there for a second, staring, both not sure what to say.
"What." Yuki said flatly, his eyes burning like hot coals. "Are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Hikaru shot back. "You weren't at your hill and I went to find you."
"I was at the river, dummy. Drinking."
"For this long?" Hikaru said grouchily, getting up and dusting off his pants, which he realized were getting very ragged and dirty from all the days he had spent in them. "Anyways, I'm glad I found you finally, I'd started to think I would never get out."
"I found you." Yuki began walking, and Hikaru had no choice but to follow.
It seemed that Yuki was giving him the silent treatment as they tromped through the thick woods.
"And I can't really blame him." Sai huffed. "Come on, Hikaru, apologize!"
"Uh..." Hikaru cleared his throat. "Um, Yuki...listen."
"Whatever you're going to say, I don't want to hear it." Yuki interrupted him, cold as ice. "Whatever apology, whatever excuse, I don't want to listen. You meant what you said, do not try to take it back now."
"Of course I didn't mean it!" Hikaru objected.
"You did." Yuki still didn't turn his head. "You might not have meant to say it like that, but you did mean it."
Hikaru opened his mouth to say something, but Sai put a hand on his shoulder, looking calculatingly at the back of Yuki's head. "Don't try. I think...this will take longer than I thought."
They walked in silence the rest of way.
When they reached the hill, Hikaru doggedly followed Yuki up it, a question working its way up his throat. "What were you really doing all day, Yuki? You couldn't have been drinking the entire time."
"I challenge people to games. Lots of animals gather at the river to meet others, or to drink. Sometimes, they'll play a game with me at nightfall."
Do you cheat at those, too?
They said goodbye to a sour-looking Yuki and followed the lightly tread trail to where he had been sleeping recently.
"I don't know how to fix this, Sai." Hikaru said as he laid on his back, staring up at the sky. His eyelids grew heavy, and he drifted off before he heard his reply.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Hikaru groaned and opened his eyes slowly. Waking up to violent shaking by a ghost shouldn't be normal for me.
"What is it, Sai?"
"Yuki left the hill, I think he's going to the river again!" Sai practically vibrated like an overstimulated puppy, his eyes shining with excitement. "I think he's going to play someone!"
Hikaru didn't get up. "The last time we went looking for him we got lost in the woods." He grumbled. "I'm not in a hurry to repeat that."
"Please, Hikaru!" Sai shook him again. "I am begging you! This is the chance we have been waiting for!"
Hikaru sighed, rose from his bed of grass, and followed his ghostly friend into the woods.
They saw the faintest hint of orange through the trees, and the sound of footsteps. Hikaru slowed his pace so as not to alert Yuki to his stalking.
I thought I heard somewhere that foxes have an amazing sense of hearing. Oh my, maybe he can even hear my thoughts! I should stop thinking.
"That would be logically impossible," Sai pointed out. "though I don't think that would affect your actions much, as you always do things without thinking-"
"Shut up!"
Hikaru clapped a hand over his mouth. He'd accidentally said it out loud. He waited for Yuki to come bounding back through the trees to slice his throat open.
But Yuki only paused for a second before moving on with his walking. Sai slapped him in the head with his fan and they continued to follow. After a surprisingly short amount of time he saw a break in the forest. He waited until Yuki slipped through it before entering himself.
A sizable river crashed and flowed, cushioned between two banks of soft, brilliantly white sand. Even in the darkness he could see where the dirt smoothly transitioned into sand. There was just a small dip from the forest to the river, and Hikaru knew that if Yuki looked back he would see him in all his guilty splendor.
But he didn't. The fox was sitting on the banks, and didn't seem to be focusing on anything else but the water. Hikaru understood his fascination. The river was beautiful in the dark, mysterious and eerie. Something about it gave him chills, but it took him a second to realize what it was.
Even though it was as violent as water could be, it made no sound. No slap of the water on the rocks. No bubbly, airy foam noises. It was silent like the grave.
Hikaru shivered. Don't think of graves at this time. Not now.
Something emerged from the forest on the other side, snapping twigs and crushing leaves. It was a bear, huge and black, lumbering onto the banks. It left monstrous footprints wherever it stepped in the soft sand. Hikaru and Sai spent a moment gawking at it, until they realized it was saying something, and promptly shut their mouths to listen.
"So, I see you showed up?" It had a good natured rumble of a voice.
"Of course." Yuki swished his tail. "Did you think I would not show up?"
"No, no, not at all." The bear chuckled. (Holy cow, bears can chuckle!) "It's just, you know, foxes have a reputation."
Yuki nodded stiffly. "Shall we begin?"
It was a short, cruel game. Hikaru never thought stars could be twisted into such an ugly shape until then. Halfway through the game, the Bear cheated, switching stones on the fox. His entire personality seemed to switch. Deep down in his heart, Hikaru knew that Yuki needed this. But…
"Are you wondering why I did this?" The bear was saying, smugly looking down on his opponent, who was staring resolutely at the ground, an unreadable expression on his face. "You've become too cocky, kid. Someone had to put you in your place. Nobody likes a cheater."
"Then I bet everybody hates you!" Hikaru shouted before he could stop himself.
Both animal's heads whipped around to face him, the Bear surprised, Yuki incredulous. Realizing his cover had been blown, Hikaru nervously stepped out of the woods and cleared his throat.
"Uh...You already played him. You already taught him a lesson. Now get lost." He pointed at the woods, inwardly shaking with fear. What was he doing, saying this to a bear?!
But to his surprise, the Bear only snorted and got up, preparing to plod off into the woods. He cast one last look over his shoulder at Yuki, and finally was lost in the leaves.
Their sad, sad game was still glistening in the sky almost mockingly over their heads, but neither Yuki nor Hikaru made a move to clear it. Yuki was staring at him.
Hikaru cleared his throat and approached him slowly. "Ah...Hey."
Yuki just blinked.
"So...I followed you. That much is clear."
Nothing. Hikaru was on the verge of turning tail and running, but Yuki broke the quiet, his voice sounding loud in the river's infernal silence. "I'm not ever going to be rid of you, am I?"
Hikaru grinned. "No. You never will. And that's a promise."
Yuki laughed hollowly and cast his gaze to the sky, his beetle-black eyes reflecting the starlight.
"Will...will you come with me?" Hikaru asked in response to Sai's prompting gesture. "Will you play on our team?"
"This river was the only place I could really play at." Yuki said, his head drooping a little. "Now I'm too ashamed to even show up here."
Sai finally burst. "Oh, just say you will! I can tell you want to!"
Yuki, impervious to Sai's antics, got up and started walking towards Hikaru.
The fox smiled wryly. "Sure, I'll play on your team. Why not?"
Hikaru whooped and flung his fist in the air, completely forgetting it was nighttime. "Yes! I knew you would, I knew it!"
"Don't push your luck." Yuki warned, pushing past him and into the woods.
Hikaru giddily followed him. "You're going to love it, Yuki. There's Tsutsui, he's a squirrel, he's really nice, but he looks sort of funny since he needs glasses. I mean, what kind of squirrel needs glasses? Oh, and there's Kaga. He's a cat, I don't think you'll get along with him...I certainly never could.
"Oh, you're going to have so much fun! Though we've got to fix that sun complex of yours..."
This took so long to write, for some reason. I've been caught up in other things, so sorry for the late update. Thanks to everyone that read this, I know it's sort of silly, but it makes me happy to know that someone enjoyed my silliness!