Chapter 7

It was still dark.

Sai comforted himself with that fact as he walked down the street as briskly as he could. He had time, surely he had time. No need to panic before there'd be the first soft glimmer of dawn in the east. Although then it was probably too late to panic.

He walked on until he reached a crossing. Was this where they had turned? If only he had been paying more attention then. He hesitated, went finally left, and after a short while, seeing a park he was sure they had not passed rushed back to the crossing, heart in his throat. Maybe it was the next crossing.

It hadn't been a long drive. If he proceeded like this, keeping in mind those few spots he was sure they had passed, and always returned to the previous one if he lost his way… He sighed. If he proceeded like this, it would take him ages. But what else could he do?

He passed a building with a clock on its side. He stopped to look at it: 4:13. Now, if he only knew at what time the sun rose… That morning when he had woken Hikaru up, when the boy's parents hadn't returned during the night… it had been 7 in the morning, and he was pretty sure the sun had already risen some time ago.

So he had perhaps a couple of hours.

He rushed on through the empty streets. At times he saw people – a lone man hurrying home, someone homeless dozing in a recess, a dark figure staggering on the street after him – but he paid them little attention. Just ran on.

Until he again began to suspect he had taken a wrong turn. Sai stopped, spat out an uncharacteristic curse. He turned and started running back toward where he came from. He had no time for this.

The dark figure he had noticed on the street was still there, coming slowly toward him. At first Sai paid it no attention, but suddenly he felt a cold breath in the air which soon strengthened to a flood of freezing cold. He paused, hesitated. There was something weird in the approaching figure, in the way it glided across the ground, barely touching it, strangely graceful.

Sai blinked. He couldn't see the figure clearly, but he had a disquieting feeling that it was somehow disproportional, not quite right. It passed a streetlight, and Sai took a startled step back. The creature's face was skull-like, skin drawn tight across it, the eyes nothing but empty holes, mouth gaping open. Now he heard a scream from it, barely more than an ongoing gasp but still high-pitched and wailing. The creature approached him, reaching out with its hand that was made of just shreds of darkness that drifted toward Sai, and the cold feeling intensified even more.

Sai turned and ran.

Never before, alive or dead, had he run like that. He didn't waste time glancing behind – he could feel the cold following. He sped on, stumbled, crashed into a building and through it without slowing down. Finding such energy in himself he had never known he possessed he practically flew across the yards and streets and buildings, kept going until gradually the cold feeling following him started to grow more distant and in the end vanished away.

Sai stopped in the middle of a crossing, panting hard. Then he told himself to stop – he couldn't really be out breath. He straightened his back, looked behind a little fearfully. The street was empty behind him.

He let out a shivering breath. He had escaped the creature… but at what cost? He had just run on blindly, without any—

His eyes stopped on a statue in front of an old brick building, and widened. He knew that one. Barely daring to believe it, he turned left after the statue, right from the next crossing, and would have cried of relief seeing a familiar street if he had not been so completely exhausted.

He had arrived to Dresden's home street. He ran on until he was standing in front of the man's apartment, hardly being able to believe his luck. Then he paused. Blinked. Groaned.

The wards. He wouldn't be able to enter the place.

He fidgeted. Swore. Thought frantically. Yes, they had driven straight from here to the Carpenters' home, but he was certain he wouldn't remember the way. And he definitely didn't have time to start searching his way there.

He groaned again, pulling his hair. This couldn't be true. So close… Just how dangerous could those wards be, really? If he tried, very carefully… he had been invited in once, hadn't he…

He didn't dare. Blow you to Mozambique, Dresden had said. Exaggeration or not, he didn't like the sound of it. Sai sank to sit on the sidewalk. It was hopeless. Maybe he should just give up. Or try entering, despite the wards. Big difference, if he was anyway going to disappear at sunrise.

He had sat there a long while when he heard the sound of a car motor, but it barely registered in his mind, as he was wallowing in the depths of despair. The car stopped, a car door slammed, and now he did glance over his shoulder.

The multicolor car had stopped behind his back, and Dresden was currently staggering toward him. He jumped on his feet, eyes widening, and stepped aside before the man walked through him.

I can't believe this! he exclaimed. Where did you come from? I need your help! I've lost Hikaru, and… and… hey, hello! Do you hear me?

Dresden walked to his door, muttered something and opened it without paying any attention to the ghost. Sai froze for a moment, then rushed after him at the last moment before he closed the door.

At least he was in now. But he still hadn't managed to get Dresden's attention.

The man walked into the room, took of his coat with a grunt of pain and threw it on a chair. He muttered a word, and fire flickered on in the fireplace. He headed to the kitchen, opened an icebox and took something out, pressing it against his left eye with another grunt. Then he sank down on his couch a leaned heavily back.

Only now the man's appearance began to register to Sai. There was blood on his shirt, and the knee of his jeans was torn and bloody as well. The fingers of the hand that held the icebag against his brow were scratched and dirty, and the way he was lying on the couch radiated an absolute exhaustion. As Sai watched, he seemed to fall asleep, and after a while the bag he had been holding on his face fell down, revealing a black eye and bloody nose.

He sighed. From the looks of it, it would be a while before he'd get any help from the wizard. Which left…

His eyes fell on the rug that covered the trapdoor. Then he glanced at the clock on the wall. Past 5 am. There was still time, but better not to waste it.

Sai floated down through the trapdoor. He wasn't overly eager to go to Bob for help, but he was running out of options. Perhaps being inside the wizard's home would be enough to protect him once the sun rose… but he wasn't willing to take chances.

He came down to the cellar and headed right away to the skull, which was still sitting on the shelf where he had first seen it. He stopped in front of it, drew a breath to compose himself, and ran a hand over his hair, hoping he wasn't overly disheveled after his frantic escape.

Hello, he said when he figured he was in control of his voice. I'm sorry to disturb you, but I find myself in the need of your help.

There was no reaction from the skull. He waited a moment and tried then again. Hello? This is Fujiwara no Sai. Do you hear me?

Still the skull remained silent, lifeless. Cold fear surged up in Sais's stomach. Maybe he was mistaken. Maybe this was only a skull, nothing inside it. He shot a look across the room and saw no other skulls.

Do you hear me!? he repeated, now shouting. Bob! I need help! What if the spirit had left the skull for some reason? What if he just couldn't hear Sai? What did he know about how this skull-sanctum thing functioned.

Help me! he shrieked, wanting to grasp the skull and give it a shake. Please, you have to help me!

"What?" an annoyed voice muttered sleepily. "The hell are you shouting 'bout, I'm trying to sleep here…"

A soft shimmer appeared in the skull's eye sockets, focused on Sai. "Oh, it's you. What's going on?"

Thank gods you're there! Sai breathed out, feeling a little weak in the knees. I need help! I've lost Hikaru and Dresden's just sleeping and Molly's gone too and soon it's morning and I've nowhere to go and you said if I don't have a sanctum I'll dissolve and I just don't know what I should do!

The light in the skull's eyes blinked, grew then sharper. "What? Hey, calm down, I couldn't follow you. What do you mean you lost the kid?"

I don't know! We were in Undertown, and he just disappeared! I can't feel him anymore. Tears started running down Sai's face. He didn't die or anything, did he?

"Undertown?" Bob asked sharply. "What the hell were you doing in Undertown, weren't you supposed to be at the Carpenters'…" He paused, and swore. "Less than an hour to sunrise. Damn. You said Harry's sleeping?"

He just came home, that's how I got in. Fell asleep on the couch. I think he's been in a fight, he looked a little beaten up…

"What else is new?" Bob said dryly. "Damn it," he repeated. "I guess we're out of options. Come in."

What? Sai blinked, not quite understanding.

"I said come in!" Bob repeated. There was a strange pulling sensation, the world swirled in his eyes, and suddenly Sai found himself standing in a room that might have well been from the emperor's palace in Heian-kyo. He stared at the screens and the paper walls and sliding doors, the low ornate table and soft cushions, and blinked again.

He didn't know what he had been expecting, but certainly not this. After a short moment he realized he wasn't alone. He turned and saw a rather ordinary (though strangely familiar) looking young man watching with an amused expression the screens depicting tigers resting by waterside. He was dressed in jeans, white shirt and a black leather jacket, looking quite out of place in this room. Not that he seemed entirely comfortable in his clothes. Sai's eyes focused on the little embroidered skull on the jacket, right above the man's heart.

"Bob?" he asked, and was startled by the sound of his own voice.

The young man turned to face him and gave a deep bow, perfectly adequate but still there was something mocking about it. "Welcome to my humble abode," he said.

"This?" Sai said, watching the beautifully painted slide doors. "This is what it's like in your skull?" He wouldn't have minded to have a place like this of his own.

"Of course not," Bob said. "This is just your mind interpreting what it sees in ways you can comprehend." He shot a look around. "A fresh take, I must admit. Or not that fresh? Kind of dated, from a thousand years ago. But," he turned back to Sai before the ghost had time to say anything, "You'd better tell me now what has happened."

Sai took a breath and started talking, telling him about Molly wanting to check out the residual magic in the Undertown, Hikaru being determined to do this, and he himself… "I should have stopped them," he said miserably. "But… it was so important to Hikaru, and I was afraid what would happen if we didn't go there and later realized we could have found something there to help save his parents. I knew it was a mistake once we were there, but then it was too late."

He explained how Molly had disappeared without them even noticing, and then Hikaru after her, severing their connection."It took me so long to find my way out of there. There were no buses anymore, and then I tried to walk to the Carpenters' house but I kept on losing my way, and then I ran into… into… something." He shuddered at the memory.

"A wraith," Bob said when he had described the creature. "A ghost, like you, but one that has lost its purpose. They live on by eating the memories of other spirits they can catch – eating other spirits, that is, for in the end you consist of nothing but memories."

Sai shuddered again. "I can't believe I managed to escape it," he muttered. "But it made me get completely lost – except that it turned out I'd been running to this direction. I was incredibly lucky there…"

"It had nothing to do with luck. You should be able to find all places where you have been here, following the ley lines and energies of the city. Perhaps when you were escaping and not actively thinking about it, you just followed your instincts and headed toward what you knew was a safe place."

"Ley lines?" Sai asked. "Oh, never mind, that's not important. What happened to Hikaru? And to Molly," he added as an afterthought, feeling vaguely guilty of forgetting her.

"I'm not sure." Bob was rubbing his chin, forehead wrinkled in a frown. "But I have some thoughts. Don't much like them. But when people disappear without a trace, into thin air… well, there's only one thing that comes to mind right away."

Sai said nothing, as nothing came to his mind.

"Nevernever," Bob went on, quietly. "But I need to talk with Harry… though if he just came home from some fight, I'd probably need to set this place on fire to wake him." He shook his head. "Well, make yourself comfy. You probably know how to do it in this place. Didn't you guys really have any furniture?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I? Think. That's what I'm good at."

Sai nodded. Swallowed. "Okay," he said in a small voice and sniffed. "I… I'll just… wait, then. But please," he looked at Bob with tears swelling again in his eyes. "If you just can, please help Hikaru. I don't care what happens to me, but he… he's just a kid. I, I shouldn't have… why did I let him…"

He turned away and covered his face with his sleeve as he started to cry in earnest.

"You…" Bob's voice sounded strange, and he did try to control his sobbing, but that was just impossible, the mere thought of Hikaru got him started again.

"You sure are an emotional one," the other spirit finally stated dryly. He tapped Sai's shoulder. "Hey. Come here, take a look."

Sai tried to dry his eyes with his sleeve and followed him, attempting – and failing – to control his sniffing and hiccups. Then his eyes widened.

There was a go board in the corner of the room. An old one, worn in countless games, with beautifully carved legs, two bowls of stones set upon it. He knelt down by it, reached out with his hand and barely dared to breathe as he let his finger run across the board's edge. With shaking hands he took one of the bowls, feeling its weight, and opened it. Black stones.

He took one, held it between his fore and middle fingers, and started crying again.

Bob gave an exasperated sigh. "What the… That was supposed to cheer you up, not to make you cry more! Seriously, don't you do anything but cry?"

"I, I'm… I'm sorry," Sai managed to say. "It did, it is… it is wonderful. I just, I had…"

He had forgotten. He wouldn't have believed it to be possible, but apparently in a thousand years he truly had forgotten what a smooth go stone felt like in his hand.

He played it on the board, in the lower right corner on the star point, and let his hand lie on the board.

"That game really is important to you," Bob said quietly. He had sat down on the other side of the board, watching Sai thoughtfully.

"It… it was everything," Sai whispered. "All that mattered. And when they, when they took it away, I just couldn't…"

"Suicide, huh?" Bob asked. Sai said nothing, just closed his eyes. A long moment they sat there in silence.

"Want to have a game?" Bob suddenly asked, and Sai's eyes snapped wide open.

"What?"

"Want to have a game of go? …unless you're interested in some other kinds of games?" Sai did not miss his suggestive wink.

He straightened his back, attempted to look as dignified as he could, what with tear marks still on his cheeks. "Weren't you supposed to think?" he asked sharply.

"I can think when we play," Bob said with a wry smile. "What?" he went on when Sai frowned. "Ever heard of multitasking?"

Sai rolled his eyes. "A proper game of go," he said strictly, "leaves no room for thinking of other things. If we are to play, you should give it your all, and you don't have time for that now."

Bob's smile broke into a grin. "You're a real zealot, aren't you? Don't worry about it, you don't know how my mind works. Let's play. Harry's going anyway to sleep a while, and there's little we can do before he wakes."

Sai hesitated. It was tempting. His fingers rested on the edge of his stone bowl – another old, old, forgotten feeling. How wonderful it would be to play a real game again, with real stones in his hands… but then he thought of Hikaru, possibly all alone, frightened, abducted by gods knew what monsters. Thought of the games they had played, and all the games he still wanted to play with the boy – and feared he might not ever get a chance for that again.

But there was nothing he could do about that, nothing but worry. If nothing else, a game would be a way to pass time, give him something else to think about. He closed his eyes for a moment. Looked then down at the board, at the lone black stone on it. Nodded.

Bob took the other bowl, opened it, and placed a white stone on the board, and the game was on.

It was soon clear to Sai that Bob truly knew the game through and through. He followed one of the more unusual opening joseki, with slight variations. Sai nodded in approval. It wouldn't do to become careless against this opponent; he didn't doubt that Bob would spot any mistake he might make immediately.

But even so… the other spirit wasn't truly a go player. His interest was purely academic, he knew the game but didn't feel it. To him it was just a game among all the others.

Sai's lips tightened. He would not lose this game. He made his move, the first attack that wasn't in fact yet real but just diversion… what he suspected Bob well knew. The young man raised his gaze from the board with a knowing smile – a smile that faltered as he met Sai's eyes, and his hand paused above the board.

Sai met his gaze, eyes sharp, unblinking. Bob's lips parted a little, then he gave a little laugh.

"Damn," he said softly. "Damn you're disturbing."

"I am disturbing?! Sai exclaimed.

"Yeah." Bob grinned at him, somewhat leerily. "Totally worth turning gay for. Or at least bi. Not going to abandon all the ladies…"

Sai closed his eyes, shook his head a little. The game. Focus on the game. He kept his eyes on the board from then on until the game had swept him away. When he next time looked up at his opponent, there were no smart comments or jibes, just a long, calculating look, evaluating his strengths and weaknesses.

He was, in fact, leading, but the game was very tight. As long as he made no mistakes, he should be able to make it. The stones snapped softly against the board, black and white in their turns, and a new plan began to formulate in his mind. If his opponent played where he thought he would on the next round, he could play tsuke next, just as Hikaru had, and…

Hikaru.

Bob's stone snapped on the board exactly where Sai had thought he would play, but his own hand wavered above his stones and dropped then to his lap.

Hikaru.

Where was the boy? Was he hurt? He had to be scared. What did he think, when he realized Sai wasn't there anymore? That his friend had abandoned him?

The go board grew hazy in his eyes. Where had he been planning to play? He blinked his eyes, trying to make the board to focus, but he had forgotten the plan he had had, couldn't anymore remember what that tsuke would have been supposed to accomplish. He shook his head. "I have lost," he whispered, and didn't mean only the game.

"What?" Bob looked up at him in surprise. "Seriously? The game is far from finished…" He fell silent as Sai raised up his fan to cover his face. "Well." Over his fan Sai saw him wave his hand above the board, and the board and stones disappeared. "We can continue the game later, if you wish."

Sai just nodded, but said nothing.

Bob stood up. "Okay, he's had his beauty sleep. Let's see if…" He got that far when a phone rang, somewhere far away. It kept on ringing as they listened. Stopped. Then it rang again. Bob grinned. "He's gonna be so happy when he answers that. Wish I could hear it…"

The phone did not ring as long this time as on the first. They both listened carefully, but heard nothing. "Well, he's got to be awake now," Bob muttered after a while. He took a deep breath. "Boss! Get down here!"

Sai gave a shriek at the sound of his voice and covered his ears.

Nothing happened. Bob took another breath and Sai slammed his hands quickly back on his ears. "BOOOOSS! Are you deaf! Harry Dresden, get your lazy ass down here!"

There was a moment's silence. Then Bob nodded. "Coming."

After a while something clanked. Sai waited anxiously, listening keenly. Then he heard Dresden's voice, anything but pleased. "Bob? What the hell you're screaming down here? What's on fire, bonehead?"

Sai blinked as Bob disappeared. He still heard the other spirit's voice. "Bonehead? Come now, you can do better than that, boss. Hit your head recently?"

"Yes, in fact I did. What is it? I've been out the whole night, and Michael just called, the kid and Molly went missing and I've got to…"

"I know," Bob said. "The ghost is here."

"…what?"

"Come, Sai. You can have the other eye." Again Sai felt the strange pull. It was as if he were floating upward, toward a small dot of light that gradually grew bigger, and suddenly expanded into a window to the cellar room.

Sai gasped. Dresden was standing in front of the window, staring at it with a stunned expression.

"Bob…? Your other eye… turned purple."

"I know," Bob said. "That's Sai. The ghost. He came here at the same time you returned. He has lost the boy."

"Lost the…" Dresden closed his eyes, shook his head, and then winced. "Damn…" He grasped the skull and carried it to the table, sitting down by it. Sai closed his eyes, getting a little queasy at the way the room spun.

"Okay. Tell me everything."

Notes:

(1) Re: Bob's 'living quarters' in the skull: I'm not completely sure if it'd look the same no matter who sees it, as there's been only one visit in there in the books, but given what they said about the visitor interpreting what they see into familiar things, I figured it could as well vary. I'm also wondering if Bob's appearance would vary similarly as well, and was kind of tempted to give him Heian age clothing… but in the end kept it the same as in the book.

(2) My freaking typos! I swear I'm not making these up!

"He couldn't really be out of print." (Out of breath. Okay, so I work at a bookstore, so maybe I'm more used to the phrase 'out of print', or whatever.)

Sai: "I am disrobing?!" No, Sai, please don't, though I guess Bob wouldn't mind. xD (That one is partly blamed on autocorrect, I'd written disrubing.)

Btw, if you notice any mistakes, please let me know! I dare say I'm pretty good in English, but I bet I am still making mistakes. Prepositions especially are my bane…

(3) Random links: in my profile, cause I can't put links here. A couple of things: Harry Dresden version of 'What x think/s I do' (it's seriously perfect) and clips from one of Sai's games. Go is serious stuff.

ETA: ...okay, just for the record, this site is kind of beginning to piss me off. I've a link on my profile to my AO3 account - or so I thought. It loops back to this place. Seriously, ffnet? That's just pathetic. I just might migrate there for good, once this fic's over. It's a bit of a hassle to post at two places, anyway, and there are far lass restrictions on AO3. Can add links directly to chapter notes, for one thing. Or even into the fic itself, what comes to that!

But anyway, the random links are in my profile, in one form or another, as apparently linking to DA either is not ok. *fed up* /ending the mini-rant