Akira stripped quickly, throwing his dirty kimono onto the floor with complete indifference. He stared at himself in the bathroom mirror for a few moments as the water for his shower heated slowly. He was too red. He was too disheveled. He could see the annoyance in the lines on his forehead. The impatience. The fear.

Shindo had no right to do those things and seemed disinterested in the effect he had on Touya. Unaffected. Touya stared down at his hand—the one Shindo had so carelessly clung to—as if to sterilize it with his glare.

'I don't understand,' he thought viciously. 'I don't understand him or his moods. I don't understand his connection to Sai or my father. I don't understand him. Grabbing me, touching me, acting so…'

Akira couldn't finish that thought.

'Ghosts and "Saio" and biwas and sakura…I don't understand at all!'

Steam began to fog the mirror, and he was glad to have his reflection blur. He couldn't watch himself blush anymore.

'I don't understand myself anymore.' He wrenched himself out of his thoughts to rush through a shower. The hotel's shampoo smelled nice and the conditioner worked well enough. The soap lathered pleasantly against his skin. He did his best not to think at all up until he heard odd sounds coming from the room.

'Talking? Who's Shindo…' Touya broke off to listen more fully, ear pressed against the wall of the shower. He shut off the water in annoyance. 'Music? The biwa…?' Shindo's voice carried well, though he only seemed to be humming the verses. Akira frowned as he toweled himself off and pulled on a sleeping yukata from the hotel, not bothering to dry his hair before barging back into the room proper. Surely his rival would have mentioned knowing to play the instrument when he picked it up…

He froze when he saw Shindo lying across his bed sideways, his back to Akira. His breathing was loud and heavy. The biwa lay off to the side. It seemed more vibrant in color than it had when they'd come across it earlier that day, though Touya admitted to himself that he hadn't had too good of a look at the wretched thing. He had been far more concerned with the strangeness his rival had been exhibiting at the time.

"Shindo?" he called. There was no response or movement from the other boy.

'He could just be asleep. Hikaru has been through a lot today,' Touya reasoned through the frown forming on his face. 'But the playing…' He turned his glare to the instrument.

The biwa's enamel plating had been fashioned to resemble koi fish, playing beneath the strings. They sparkled in their lovely orange enamel and ivory. Silver and mother-of-pearl inlaid in swirls imitated the flow of water. Though faded and chipped, the colors seemed to sing. Their iridescence and the dim hotel light made them dance. It was calling him. It wanted him to touch it.

'Is this what Shindo meant by the presence he felt?' Touya felt stupid for almost accepting a command from an inanimate object, but the longer he studied the biwa, the less idiotic it seemed. '…Just a touch, right?'

Akira approached it, wary of that strangeness and very concerned and annoyed and probably six other emotions that he had no name for. He regarded the relic with well-justified suspicion.

'If I were to touch the thing…' He covered his mouth with his hand thoughtfully. 'Shindo wanted me to. He thought if I did, I would feel…it. Whatever that means…'

Touya hesitated, about to turn and write off the entire affair, but he steeled himself against the impulse. After all, he finally felt so close to finding at last the answers he had been searching for. He took a small step toward the bed. The feeling emanating from the ancient biwa seemed to have faded compared to earlier in the day. It felt much more benign, almost calm. But it still had an aura that disturbed Akira deeply. Though his hand shook visibly, he reached out and lightly stroked the length of the instrument's body.

Nothing happened.

He looked from the biwa's neck to his hand on its body to the koi pattern at its heart, blinked, and looked back at his hand. He delicately peeled his fingers away.

Nothing had happened.

'I don't understand,' he thought almost angrily. This was supposed to be it: the big revelation. The reason why Shindo mattered to him so much. The reason he was different, special. It was supposed to make all of the questions fit together into a simple answer; spirits and spontaneous history questions, Shuusaku and Sai, Go and Hikaru, and all of the dozens of puzzle pieces that Akira had since been unable to cram together cohesively in the time that he had known his rival.

His father's voice taunted him, 'You would not believe anything I told you.' Had this been what he'd meant? He stared down at his hand. 'Shindo obviously expected something to happen. I feel even more confused now than I ever have. What in the hell am I missing? It couldn't be something so ridiculous as—'

And there it was. Touya swallowed, his mouth apparently having become incapable of producing saliva. Had he felt out the truth?

'Is that what it is? Something so ridiculous I would never believe it? Could it really be the link for all of this?' he thought, doing his best to keep the thoughts inside his head. His ears were ringing. It couldn't be. It was impossible. But…

'Do you believe in ghosts?'

He sat heavily on the bed near his friend's head. His hand fell on the biwa again, two of the strings twanging dolefully at his touch. He recoiled reflexively, snatching his hand away and clutching it to his chest. So unnerving, the feeling of nothingness…

"I…didn't feel anything. It's just an old biwa," he murmured numbly, staring at his hand. "I really don't understand, Shindo, and I don't think I'm likely to."

A neutral kind of groan escaped his friend's throat.

"Shindo?" He leaned over his friend. Akira felt he was being far too loud. He wiped a solitary tear from his friend's cheek. Hikaru's eyes were blank. Had he really been asleep?

He wasn't moving. He wasn't talking. Akira hated seeing him so still. He hated it intensely. Anger built like fire in his throat. "Are you awake?" he whispered. Hikaru made pointless noises in his mouth.

Akira rolled Hikaru to lie on his back, leaning over him. His expression was a threat. Shindo's eyes remained cloudy, though they seemed to soften slowly.

"What's wrong with you?" Touya demanded in a harsh undertone. "I can't listen if you don't tell me."

"…Just gimme…a second…to breathe…" the words were garbled and slow, but it was progress. Akira grew a bit less livid, pulling back to sit normally in an effort to appear more patient. After a short while, Touya noticed a hand snake up to tug at the fabric of Hikaru's collar. Akira helped loosen the kimono and removed the obi. Shindo relaxed and allowed Touya to remove the dark outer layer, though it had to be yanked out from under the bleach-banged pro with more than a little effort on Akira's part. "Thank you…" was the murmured response.

Hikaru gradually gained enough strength to sit properly without support from Touya.

"I'm not sure if I can explain in any way you'll believe," Hikaru said after Akira moved to sit on his own bed to face his friend. It felt much more natural to be across from him.

"Then just answer my questions," Akira said. "I know you have a lot of things you still aren't ready to tell me, but I feel like I've earned at least this much." He held Hikaru's gaze pointedly. It was his challenging glare. Hikaru's eyes remained soft in response.

"I don't want to lie to you, Touya. Really, I don't. I just…" he trailed off, unable to break eye contact with Touya but unable to bear the glare that shredded his resolve. Akira knew he was close to forcing a response, but…

"Okay," Akira interrupted his own thoughts. Hikaru seemed surprised at the nonchalant response. "I get it—well, I don't really, but you still aren't ready to talk, so just go and shower. We'll play our game before bed."

"Game?"

"I promised to play with you when the sakura bloomed, didn't I?" The smile that spread across Hikaru's face was enough to ease a great deal of Touya's concern. He looked so close to himself then. So much of the light that Akira had grown accustomed to from his rival entered his expression as the boy heartily agreed, grabbing his own pajamas from his backpack and hurrying to the bathroom.

'I could easily bully the answer from Shindo now, but…' he thought, staring at the bathroom door, '…what if I hurt him this way? He still doesn't seem ready to talk about it for whatever reason. And even worse—' a teeth rattling shiver worked its way through Akira's spine '—what if I can't accept the answer?'

The idea would never have occurred to him the day before—when he and Hikaru had shared the image of his parents' gentle affection—that something so sinister as what he was beginning to expect could be lurking in Shindo's secrets. It was almost too much for the young pro to handle.

So instead, Touya made use of the hotel's electric kettle and set the horrible biwa to the side, placing his own magnetic Go board at the end of Hikaru's bed. He was just blowing the steam from his teacup as Hikaru emerged from the bathroom wearing his old black jersey and toweling off his hair.

"Tea?" Akira offered, gesturing to the still steaming pot. Any trace of anxiety that had remained on Shindo's face dissolved as he poured himself a cup. "If you don't mind, I wish to be white."

"By all means," Hikaru agreed easily, settling himself on the edge of his bed. Touya set his teacup on Hikaru's nightstand and arranged himself more comfortably. Playing without a proper goban was troublesome, but the two had no trouble once the game got going.

'He's attacking early.' Akira rubbed his jaw as he pondered his hand. 'Our formations are both vulnerable still, so why…' His glare cut through Hikaru's next twenty hands instantly. 'A simple response will not do; I will not allow him to gain sente so early in the game.' He struck a perfectly balanced play, a counterattack that would de-rail Shindo's gameplay.

The game continued from there. Hikaru played leading hand after leading hand only to be thwarted by his rival's wrench plays. Neither of them could fully get into the rhythm of play, and halfway through chuban, there was still no clear victor.

"Do you know why our Go is the best?" Hikaru asked after successfully claiming the right side for the third time only to have Touya pincer around the bottom, easily killing a fifth of the stones there.

"Hmm?" Touya scarcely looked up, surveying the board carefully.

"No one can feel the game as well as you can, Touya."

"Well, no one can upset a game as well as you can, Shindo." Touya didn't feel as bitter as he sounded, but it seemed he could somehow sense the overwhelming loss in his near future. Hikaru only smiled at the frustrated face that remained oblivious.

He played the hand that would surely mean victory, forming a broken bridge across the center of the board. He was almost stunned when Touya played the perfect counter, the only path out of Hikaru's trap without even blinking. Hikaru was almost positive that his rival wouldn't be able to spot the way out. It was too uncharacteristic of his usual, methodical gameplay. Hikaru gritted his teeth and threw down a wedge to the bottom formation.

"I still win by six moku, Shindo," Touya sighed. He somehow seemed disappointed to have pulled ahead so easily. "Face it; you were outmatched this time."

"Four games?" Hikaru exclaimed. "I lost four straight games?" Akira actually caught himself on a laugh at that, and Hikaru glared at him. "No, not funny. It is not funny!" He pouted, clearing the black stones huffily. Touya finally couldn't hold it in any longer, laughing in a way Hikaru hadn't seen in a long time.

"Oi, Touya! One more game!" Hikaru called, reclining on his bed and propping himself on his elbow. He unzipped the collar of his jersey.

"Okay, okay," Touya agreed easily, wiping at the corners of his eyes. Chuckles still spilled out the sides of his composure until Hikaru glared at him again. Then Touya fell on his side, his hoarse laughter shaking the entire bed.

"Really, Touya!" Hikaru threw his pillow at his friend. "Knock it off! I'm getting worried, here."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just a bit…" he rolled to his back, regarding his friend warmly, "…relieved, I guess is the right word."

'He was that worried?' Hikaru thought, feeling distinctly embarrassed.

"Oh! That's right!" A blur of black and Hikaru was crouching beside his backpack, rummaging through it determinedly. He grinned and pulled out a bottle of sake. "I bought this when we got off the bullet train. Wanna drink with me, Touya?"

Akira rolled onto his stomach, looking a bit dazed. "Isn't it a bit too late to be drinking, Shindo?" he asked, yawning for punctuation.

"Touya, most people worry about drinking too early," Hikaru scoffed, rinsing out his teacup and pouring the sake into it. "I wanted to drink it at the festival, but—" He felt his ears go red as he bit off the sentence and downed his entire cup. "See? So don't make me drink alone."

Touya sighed, handing his teacup over. "But not too much. We have to head back to Tokyo tomorrow. It'll be a long day without being hungover." He cleared the magnetic Go set off the bed, setting it gently on the floor and resumed staring at the ceiling from Hikaru's bed.

Touya seemed remarkably familiar with the way Hikaru drank. He wasn't sure if he was amused, flattered, annoyed, or indifferent. He poured himself and Touya fresh cups, dragging the bottle over to sit beside Touya on his bed.

'Ugh…I'm glad Setsuko's asleep,' he thought, sipping the rice wine slowly. He froze, wondering if he jinxed himself, but soon felt her silent snores within his head.

"You should've warmed it a bit," Touya commented, propping himself to sip from his own cup. "It's rather nice, though."

"I wish I would've thought to get some plum wine instead," Hikaru sighed. At Akira's inquisitive glance he added, "It's sweeter. You don't drink much, so you'd probably like it more."

A strange version of Touya's challenging glare greeted Hikaru, and he gulped his sake a bit too fast. Touya was already pouring himself another cup, and Hikaru wordlessly held out his, too. He tried not to cough as the liquor tickled his throat.

"You shouldn't be overly concerned with my preferences," Touya sniffed, shifting himself to sit upright. He sat properly, distancing himself from the conversation. "I'm fine with whatever you care to share with me."

He seemed too proper to Hikaru then. He knew his friend didn't really mean anything by employing his full "young master" persona, but the way he tilted his head to drink, the way he sighed occasionally through his nose, the way raised his chin and looked down the slope of his face…Hikaru resented that. He knew it wasn't completely intentional, but that arrogance that he was only used to seeing from across a goban these days felt too much to handle.

He drained another cup, feeling his face grow warm. Even Touya was touching the hollow of his throat as if marveling at the heat that gathered there. His face alternated between peaceful and haughty too quickly, too easily.

"Hey, Akira?" he asked, leaning back a bit.

"Shindo?" Touya's face was turning the faintest shade of pink, the color of a sakura had a pressing urge to let him know that. He fought the impulse, deciding it was probably something to do with the slumbering priestess' influence on him.

"We're friends, right?" he said instead, wondering if he was about to embarrass himself more than he would have by telling his rival that he looked like a flower petal.

"Mmm," Akira agreed, smiling widely. "Best friends."

Hikaru sniggered, picking up the sake jug. He didn't bother to pour it, just pulling it straight from the bottle. He handed it to Touya who, after a brief inner debate, did the same.

"I'm glad." Deep green eyes closed solemnly for the briefest of moments. When they opened again, the aqua-mint eyes he was used to see glower dangerously were close in front of him, not glaring or glowering, but blazing regardless.

"I'll wait, Hikaru," was his whispery promise. "It might take days, it might take years. But I'll wait for you to be able to tell me all about it. So please…" The eye contact was taking its toll. Hikaru felt himself sweat, but that might have just been the alcohol. "…Please wait for me to be able to listen." Then Touya shook himself gently, almost like a dog, and took another swig of sake.

Hikaru sighed and ruffled Touya's slightly damp hair.

"Oi, Shindo, wha—"

"I know." He smiled at his friend, glad both that he could smile and that Touya was there to be his friend. "I know, so we'll just keep waiting together. Okay?"

Touya flushed even more and tried in vain to correct the damage that Hikaru had done to his hair.

"Shindo, earlier…" he trailed off, pink tingeing his ears and neck. "You held my hand." He looked so troubled, and Hikaru almost cringed.

"My body just sort of…acted. I was a bit dizzy, I guess," he explained, half-honest. Touya still looked confused and uneasy. "I'll explain better later, I promise. But it's way late and you need to sleep now or you'll be completely useless in the morning."

Touya relinquished the sake bottle at Hikaru's insistence and crawled into his own bed almost dejectedly, but it was late and there was a lot of distance between them and Tokyo.

For a moment, Hikaru contemplated crawling in bed beside Touya but shook the idea from his head as soon as he realized exactly what he was thinking.

'Damn Setsuko, getting in my head like that…' he grumbled at her, though she still dozed peacefully. He finished off the sake, throwing the bottle in the waste bin responsibly before falling down horizontally on his bed, barely dragging a pillow under his head before exhaustion took over.

Hikaru got to enjoy the rare sight of his rival wearing sunglasses all through the next morning. The long-haired pro clung to them like nothing Hikaru had ever seen before. During the train ride and the first half of the drive back from Nagoya, Akira would lean his temple to the cool window to try and dispel his probably massive headache and Hikaru again blessed his seeming inability to get hungover.

"It's because we were drinking so damn late," Touya grumbled for the sixth time, trying to mumble under the noise of the car's engine and failing miserably.

"I apologize again, Touya-sama. I forgot that you require so much beauty sleep." The half-hearted punch he received meant more to him than he would have thought.

It was already late afternoon when Shindo dropped his rival off at his house. Akira still had a very visibly intrusive headache. Hikaru carried Touya's bag to his front door and then hesitated as if unsure what was to come next.

"You should come in and at least eat some supper before going back to your apartment," Touya offered feebly, his heart already set on his warm bed and perhaps a liter of water.

"No, but thanks. I'm meeting with my mom and Akari for dinner." He regarded Touya carefully. "Make sure you eat something, yourself. You've got tutoring in the morning, right?"

"Just a bit of instruction at a local amateurs' event," he waved off the responsibility with utmost disregard. "You just make sure you get into top form for your oteai match with Isumi-san on Wednesday. You're still very far behind in your ranking matches, so don't let Isumi-san intimidate you."

"Relax, Touya. I've been studying Chinese kifu for a short while, so a bit of study tomorrow and I should be all right." Touya didn't seem convinced, not that Hikaru could blame him; he'd always had a particular bit of trouble in playing well against Isumi. "I'll study all day tomorrow."

Hikaru couldn't tell if Akira decided it was good enough or if the other pro was just that exhausted, but he let it go with a wave of his hand as he retreated into his family home.

What, no kiss goodnight? a familiar voice purred. Hikaru suddenly missed the silence of her sleep. He couldn't recall feeling her so much as stir the entire drive to Tokyo.

'Dammit, Setsuko! Go back to sleep!'

He slammed himself into his car, starting up the car and punching it down the street.

You injure me. Her tone disagreed. What now? Where are we going? Her yawn took up most of his attention, forcing a yawn from his mouth as well.

'My mother's house.' She was too excited for him to handle. 'Just rest. I'll let you know when we're there.' He couldn't bring himself to let the spirit know he had worried about her even the smallest bit.

Mmm, I suppose I am still rather drained. Her tone was still light enough that Hikaru allowed his concern to fade almost completely. I don't suppose you'd allow me control again…?

'Definitely not,' he replied without pause. 'My body was trashed after you were done. Did you have any idea what you were doing?'

Not really, she admitted shamelessly, but I think we can figure out the limitations better if we work it out together! The ghost seemed too excited at the prospect of having Hikaru's body.

'What do you even want with it?' he asked. Setsuko paused, searching for the answer in an uncharacteristically reserved manner. 'What business do you still have in the living world?'

I guess I still have something unfinished to see to…?

'Sai didn't have these issues of forgetfulness,' Hikaru thought. He shook his head. 'Never mind. It's only been a little bit. We still have time to sort you out.' As he reassured his companion, he wondered to himself if he would be driven mad before anything came to light.

Well, I'm sorry this chapter's so short, but...well, I don't really have an excuse. Forgive me anyway? :D
My reviewers remain wonderful and gorgeous. Much love! Next chapter will be at least 4,500 words just for you guys. Promise! No real questions that I can answer right now, but stay tuned, readers: more to come. Soon!

disclaimer: Do I have to say it anymore?