Touya Akira was dreaming. It wasn't a particularly pleasant dream, but it was incredibly vivid. He was playing a game with his father, one that he had often replayed by himself. But now, he watched himself move his hands, place the pieces, brush the fabric on his knees. He was strangely unnerved watching himself move from behind his eyes.

'Now he'll play below the top-right star point...'

=chk=

'…and I play…hmm?'

His hand wasn't moving on its own. It hovered, stone ready, waiting to be placed.

"Akira?"

'Right! It was there, but…I should play…here.'

=chk=

It was wrong. It was a different play; a better play than he should have been able to come up with.

"So that is your answer. Well, then—"

Akira sat up, hands shaking. He was sweating. It was still dark.

'What on Earth…' he wondered, chest heaving without good reason. 'Where was…' He rolled out of bed and stumbled across the floor to get to his goban, playing out the game.

'White beneath the star point…And then here…' He set the stone.

Touya stared at the board, wondering what the play was, where it had come from, what it was supposed to mean.

"Strange…" he murmured to the darkness. "It's almost…" His attention snapped back to the board.

'If I was my father, what would the answer be?'

The sun rose before he could think of an answer.

Neither girl was likely to give up at any point in the near future, so Hikaru settled in better to watch. Kawai had recently taken over the Go salon that Hikaru had trained at in his insei days, and having Akari and Yuka both playing there put the young pro at his old friend's mercy more than a few times, but the regulars really enjoyed having the girls play there. Yuka was facing off against Kawai and Akari was playing the previous owner without a handicap. Both were holding their own.

Is she stronger than before? Setsuko asked, watching the game being played half-heartedly.

'It's only been a week. She's a bit more confident, but she still needs time. She hasn't really developed any personality in her Go.' Hikaru ground his teeth. 'There might not be enough time before the pro exam…' He exhaled through his nose as Yuka made a grievous misread on Kawai's retreat. He would have her at her knees in three turns, and she wasn't yet skilled enough to turn it around. 'We're going to have to work much harder if she's going to pass.''

"I win!" Akari exclaimed as her opponent resigned.

"Kids today…" the old man chuckled. "I dunno where you found this one, Hikaru, but she's really something. Is she going to take the pro exam as well?"

Akari wrinkled her nose at the notion and made a noise of disgust while Hikaru simultaneously laughed out loud. Then they both glared at each other.

"I have more academic plans for my future," Akari said politely to the man, sticking her tongue out at Hikaru before turning her attention to Yuka's game.

"Yuka-chan? How are you…" She trailed off as Yuka hung her head. Her lips weren't moving in their usual flurry of numbers.

"I resign," she said quietly, though not weakly. Her eyes were still fierce. "Once more. I'll beat you without a handicap, Kawai-san." Her sweet smile made Hikaru's neck feel cold.

She's certainly…interesting, Setsuko commented with a laugh.

'Terrifying, more like…'

A more heated game commenced, one that Yuka steered with much less effort. Confidence blazed behind every move.

She's remarkable. Hikaru blinked at the spirit. Not only her playing; she is a truly remarkable girl. The young pro nodded, slipping into a kind of contentedness in watching his 'pupil' and Akari play. The intensity of both of the games surprised him. Akari showed distinct progress from the last time he'd played with her.

'Probably from playing with Mitani so much,' he told Setsuko. 'Mitani could pass the pro exam no problem this year, but he would never try. He's much too practical for that kind of thing. But I never expected Yuka to be the type to take it so seriously either…' He trailed off as he detected a rare smile from the girl that she masked almost immediately. He felt a surge of approval and amusement from Setsuko that he gladly shared.

She's coming along in her attitude, but there's still a long way to go before she'll be openly…pleasant.

'A big part of that is her family.' Hikaru chewed his lip. 'She shouldn't be living with her parents if they don't support her even a little.' Setsuko's thoughts withdrew as she internalized a flood of questions. Hikaru sighed, feeling out the gist of her concerns. 'I left home for much different reasons; and my family has always stood behind my decisions.' He turned his focus to Akari's game. She was winning, but she was about to get caught up in the kind of life-or-death battle that she so despised. He grinned as he watched her realize the way the game was heading.

All of this family business is new to me. I mean even for the times, my family wasn't exactly typical. My mother was a concubine to the emperor and was never too involved in raising me. She did love me—very much so, I imagine—but it was my caretakers that were the most excited when I was selected to be the Saio… Setsuko murmured. Her eyes closed as she recalled a now-distant memory. My mother was pleased, too. And my brother…he had just taken the throne and we were never close, but— A pang of nausea hit Hikaru as the spirit's grief set in.

'Setsuko…' He breathed heavily through his mouth until her sorrow faded. She didn't apologize, but smiled faintly at her host. 'Was it really so bad?'

I was young and I thought I was being abandoned. Her posture seemed too rigid. She was standing so straight. So tall. I was abandoned by them, but it was the best possible outcome for me. My life would have been meaningless if I'd remained in Kyoto. As Saio, I had real power. I had control.

There was more to it. Setsuko seemed to be keeping something back, but Hikaru didn't press matters. If she had regained her memories, she would let him know in due time. They had already shared so much in the brief time they had been together.

Thank you, Hikaru, she whispered with a trademark giggle and toss of her hair. This bond isn't something I take lightly, you know. Her eyes were rather dark.

'Me neither.'

I know.

"I resign," Yuka sighed, stretching her back. She and Kawai had both hunched over significantly during the course of the game, trying to limit their focus to the stones on the board. Both appeared equally embarrassed by their return to the larger world and the stiffness of their muscles.

"Play with me now, Yuka. Akari, see if you can show Kawai a good match." Yuka appeared somewhat insulted, but Hikaru shook his head at her, adding lightly, "You played very well. I haven't seen Kawai get so focused in a very long time." Then the girl looked distinctly uncomfortable, though quite pleased. Akari gave him a long, inquisitive look before shaking her head and clearing her board. She had yet to defeat Kawai, but Hikaru recognized a strong determination in those chestnut eyes; she was going to put up quite a struggle in this game.

Yuka set up the board for her game with Hikaru, hesitating over which goke to choose.

"Take white," he said, nudging the goke towards her. She took it with a slight frown. "Follow my lead." Her frown grew.

She's wondering what you expect from her, Setsuko supplied for him. She doesn't want to disappoint you.

'That's ridiculous!' Hikaru scoffed. 'I'm not her teacher or her dad or anything like that.'

Nothing like that, Hikaru. The ghost knelt behind him, painted lips whispering, She just doesn't want to look bad in your eyes.

'Now that's ridiculous,' he scowled. 'She doesn't have the same opinion of men as you do, Setsuko.'

Oh? And what's that?

'That we're all up for grabs.'

Setsuko shot several distinct images of the girl along with her own mental commentary for rebuttal as the game began. Yuka's hair, done up with care; her make-up, more elaborate than Hikaru had seen before; her clothes, obviously a step up from the casual wear she had worn before in his company…

Hikaru could easily play and keep the argument on the side of his mind, but the ghost's persistence was wearing him out and beginning to seriously annoy him.

She's obviously tried hard for today's meeting. A girl expresses herself best through the way she presents herself—take note of this, Hikaru. It could serve you well in the future.

'That just isn't how things are with us.'

"Atari," Yuka said softly, placing a stone. She chewed her lips, a habit she seemed to have adopted recently.

"Nice try," Hikaru said, "but that wasn't where I was headed." He placed his stone on the opposite side of the board. "Follow my lead," he repeated. Yuka nodded, impatience seeping into creases in her forehead. She ignored the fresh black stone and closed off her atari, still not seeing the big picture of the board.

"I thought you told me that we would never play shidougo," she grumbled, squeezing her hand into a brief fist.

"This isn't shidougo," Hikaru reassured her. "All you have to do is follow me." Yuka's irritation flared before settling into a dull, seething menace. Hikaru was almost afraid to look her way.

"Fine," she spat, snapping a stone down in another incorrect response. Then she froze, finger hovering above the mistake. "Oh…can I…?" She glared again, anger rising up again. "What do you mean this 'isn't shidougo'? What is it if it isn't shidougo?" she muttered, balling her hands and

"I'm not going to teach you. You're going to teach yourself. Pick up that stone. What are you supposed to do here?"

Yuka's eyes narrowed. "This is too shidougo, Shindo-kun. This is exactly what Touya-sensei makes me do." She picked up her stone and set it at a more appropriate spot, though it was still a far more aggressive play than should be made. "Well…you are much nicer about it…"

Hikaru laughed to himself for a moment, not doubting for a second that was true. He'd heard many stories about Akira's teaching methods, none of them too pleasant. "All right, then. Let's stop. But I want to see a game you played in class. Show me a game that you lost."

Yuka sighed, but swept the stones into her lap, replacing them on the board. But she didn't play out the game like Hikaru expected her to; instead, she counted out from the top row, filling in stones as she went. Row after row, she counted out and placed the stones. Her lips formed the stream of numbers that Hikaru was used to hearing.

"Yuka-chan…what are you doing?"

She looked up. "The game; I resigned after…hold on." She finished placing the stones. "I resigned here," she said, pointing to a random white stone. "Kanae-chan cut through my last formation here."

Hikaru blinked, able to see the path of the game with only a little difficulty, but what was more surprising was still…

'Photographic memory?' he wondered, bewilderment passing only to fill him with more doubt and confusion.

Photograph? Like the picture-box men? Setsuko asked. Hikaru still had no idea how to explain photos to the ghost though she frequently fixated on that aspect of technology.

'Never mind. I'll explain later."

"Replaying the game like that…Yuka-chan, have you always been able to do that?"

"Yeah," she nodded proudly. "Touya-sensei says it will be my secret weapon so long as I don't let it out. That's why he told me to stop saying the patterns out loud."

'I see. She learned the basic strategies and forms so easily because she memorized the context for each kind of move. Touya…did Touya know after just one game? Did he figure it out so easily?'

Setsuko frowned, observing her host. He fixated so easily over the smallest things when it came down to Touya Akira, as if losing to him was worse than anything he could imagine.

"Surely Touya taught you to replay games move by move, not by the end result."

The girl ducked her head. "It's easier if I can remember the end and play it backwards. The last frame is different for every game, but starting from the beginning, a lot of them play out the same way."

Hikaru wanted to shake his head, rid himself of the feelings of complete disgust and annoyance that he felt towards the girl, but he couldn't. The girl's apathy and confusion, her complete tactlessness, and the fact that Touya had probably known the whole time just what Ito Yuka was capable of…Hikaru settled on blaming everything on Touya.

The girl is strong?

'The girl is terrifying, Setsuko. When she learns more, sees all the different kinds of Go…' he shuddered. Yuka cocked her head and leaned forward slightly. 'This girl could change the face of Go. She is very weak now, but in a few years…Dammit.'

The day had grown late far before Akira was ready for it. He was exhausted and ready for bed the moment he got home. So when his doorbell rang as he was about to disrobe, he groaned audibly before going to answer it. He was both surprised and perturbed to see Shindo on his doorstep.

"It's been a while, Touya," Shindo said as he barged in.

"I've been very busy, Shindo. I still don't really know what was so urgent, but you must be quick. I'm very tired," Akira replied with a sigh.

"It's about Yuka-chan. Did you know when you sent her to me?"

"I have no idea what you're babbling about, Shindo." Touya yawned, slouching past a comfortable casualness but too exhausted to straighten his spine. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Photographic memory, Touya. Did you know after that time?"

Akira leaned against the wall in a feigned pose of nonchalance. "Not immediately. I suspected something after our second match, but…well, I'm surprised it took you so long to catch on."

Hikaru's face contorted in a complicated display of anger, frustration, and hurt. "Well, I'm sorry I can't just be a genius like you, Touya," he shouted. "Why are you always doing that? Testing me like that?" Touya straightened up and looked pointedly away from his rival's face. "We're supposed to be equals. You're always just looking down on me!"

"Well, I can't really say it wasn't similar to a test, but I—"

"No, don't even! I don't want some bullshit excuse from you. It was a test, Touya. Her playing reminded you of our first match, and you wanted to rub it in my face. That I wasn't 'special' or whatever it was that you thought I was."

"The counting…" Akira murmured. He had assumed that Yuka's numbers had been somehow related to the way Hikaru had navigated the goban in their first match, hesitating over each space. Hikaru accepted his words as a confession, continuing on his rant.

"It's completely different, Touya. I told you—I told you that I would tell you about Sai, but you can't just wait, can you? You can't just let things be! Everything has to be on your terms! You were hoping that girl's methods were the same as Sai's, but it's not even close!"

"You're contradicting yourself, now," Touya interjected. "You don't get to say that this is about us and then say it's about Sai."

"Everything about Sai is about us!" Hikaru shouted, dangerous glint in his eyes. "And everything between us is about Sai!" Touya took a step towards his friend, torn equally between confusion and apologetic worry. Hikaru gave him a small shove. "Don't!" Touya's hands rose in a gesture of peace. "It's always been Sai, hasn't it Touya?"

Touya couldn't speak immediately, unsure of just what he should say, and Shindo's anger cracked to let in some disbelief and sorrow. Akira took a small step towards his friend only to have Hikaru back away. "Hikaru? Listen, now—"

"Don't! Don't you dare, Touya! You don't get to act like I'm the one being unreasonable here!" he interrupted, breathing heavily.

"Make me understand, Shindo; I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

"Us. Chasing me. Playing me. Keeping me close. It's always been to find Sai, hasn't it?"

Shindo was shaking. His voice was unstable. Touya couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his friend so angry.

"Shindo, calm down. You aren't thinking clearly."

"Why else would you keep me around?" Anger devolved into self-pity, and Touya's worry became absolute annoyance.

"Stop it!" he shouted. Hikaru made a strange noise as he bit off his next exclamation. "You're being ridiculous now. I 'keep you around,' Shindo, because we are catching up to each other. Didn't you say to me that our Go is the best? What has changed since then, Shindo?"

"What's changed, Touya, is that girl. Every stupid part of how we used to be is coming back, all because you agreed to teach that girl, and you keep throwing it in my face! We can't just be grown-ups because every time we try to move forward, there's always something to bring us back to Sai!"

"We can't be 'grown-ups' because we can't ever just have a civil conversation when we don't agree on something." Touya's voice was colder than he had intended. Hikaru looked away, face tight and coloring with shame and embarrassment.

"Touya…I—"

"No, just listen to me." Touya closed the gap between them and placed a reassuring hand on his rival's shoulder. "We still have a long way to go together. Sai is a part of our history, sure, but he isn't the only thing between us." Hikaru looked up, expression a mixture of confusion, hope, apprehension, and countless other things. "We're going to grow together. We'll become strong and, someday, we will achieve the Hand of God. Shindo, don't run away from that. I need you; we can only do this together."

"Touya…" Hikaru's hand found Akira's, still on his shoulder. The anger was still somewhere inside him, but the 4-dan just gripped his friend's hand. Something about the atmosphere was making Hikaru uncomfortable. "Are you—"

"I'm right here." Touya's voice was distant and Hikaru couldn't make the words intelligible.

Touya turned those unfair aqua eyes to the hand that clung to his. He withdrew his hand and reached to grasp Hikaru's more conventionally. More intimately. More strangely. Long pale fingers slid over his palm and his knuckles. Hikaru found himself wishing that he hadn't gone numb from complete disbelief without even trying to wonder why he would want to feel such a thing. The fingers brushed over the lines in his palm, the callus on the end of his middle finger, the dimple in his pointer fingernail.

Hikaru was fascinated. He felt he should be repulsed by the intimate gesture or even disgusted, but he found himself spellbound watching Akira study his hand.

"You've come so far," the other pro said simply. His fingertips ran down the back of Hikaru's hand all the way to the wrist, then back up. Hikaru's other hand flexed as he willed himself to stand completely still. Setsuko's reticence worried him. He didn't know what to do. He was frozen, scared, nervous because of this new Touya standing in front of him. With him.

'He's just tired,' he reasoned. 'Or teasing me. He's probably mad at me for shouting at him. That's it: just some kind of weird revenge.'

"Touya…what are you doing?" he asked in a strained voice. Touya didn't even blink.

"Your hands…" Touya murmured. "I was just …it doesn't matter. Are you finished? I have a match in the morning and I need to get to bed before I fall asleep right here." He yawned and pulled back his hands to cover his mouth. Hikaru found himself nodding emphatically.

"Yeah, s-sure. I'll just, uh, see mys-self out…" he stammered, stumbling towards the door.

"Hikaru?" Touya called, half yawning again. "Don't get lost, okay?"

Hikaru got himself out without bothering to answer. His mind was reeling. He felt inside out. He'd fought with Touya before, but never in such a personal way. It was never so…

'…inti—no! Definitely not…that. Anything except that.'

Hikaru? If you'd like, you could—

"I do not want to talk about this. Not with you." Setsuko's hurt made him cringe. "You've already made up your mind about me and Touya, and I'm sick of hearing it. It's making me…strange." The hurt didn't fade as Hikaru made his way to the train station and to the correct line. After a bit of thought and only slight hesitation, he pulled out his phone and called Isumi.

"Can you talk now?" he asked when the man answered.

'It's kinda late, Shindo. Where the hell are you?'

"Oh, the noise. I'm at the station. I can be there in twenty minutes; please, Isumi!"

'Is it important? I have an early morning tomorrow.'

"I had a fight with Touya."

'Is that all?"

"Not exactly..." Hikaru mumbled. His neck warmed. "He, um…He was…er…"

Isumi sighed. 'I got it. Come on over. You can stay for a bit, but if you keep me up all night, I will end you."

Hikaru's tension abated. "Thanks, Isumi. Seeya soon." He hung up and boarded the train, Setsuko sticking close to him. Her pout was wearing on him.

'Setsuko, I don't want you in my head right now,' he told her quietly. 'Not while I can't think.'

Hikaru, you're going to have to face this, she murmured back. Her guilt trip along with his own distress was eating away at his sanity. Something he had bottled inside of him was swelling, seeping out the edges, forming new cracks in his resolve. He pushed the ghost back.

"Just give me some time!"he hissed, refusing to meet the injured look on her face.

Hikaru…her hurt lingered as she pulled back and disappeared into the niche she had made in his mind.

A niche that had belonged to Sai.

A niche that never should have existed.

Shindo looked like hell when he turned up in Isumi's door. Waya knew that he himself had no business being there when his two friends were about to stage some horribly serious talk, but he was too curious to want to leave and too stubborn to excuse himself.

Years ago, Shindo had vanished form the Go world suddenly and inexplicably, and no one knew anything about it except for Shindo himself and Isumi. And neither of them would give anyone a straight answer. All Waya could put together was that Isumi had managed to convince Hikaru to return when even Touya couldn't.

'Are they finally gonna tell me what the hell that was about?' Waya wondered, somehow giddy to see one of his closest friends in such a bad state.

"Thanks for letting me come over," Shindo said. His gratitude rolled off of him in waves and the tension he had brought in with him began to fade.

"Well, I can't really say it's a bother when the biggest bother of all is busy eavesdropping from the kitchen." Isumi's tone made Waya cringe.

"You want anything to drink, Shindo?" he called sheepishly, poking around the wall that separated the rooms.

"Oh, hey Waya," was the deadpan response.

"Oi! I'm your friend too, you little prick! Why can't you tell me your shit, too?"

"Maybe I just don't feel like it!" The pair stuck their tongues out at each other and Waya withdrew, rejoining the conversation with a beer for each of them.

"Okay. Speak," Isumi commanded as if Shindo was a dog. Hikaru looked quickly at Waya then down to his beer. Isumi sighed.

"He's just gonna tell me after you leave, so you might as well," Waya interjected. "It must be important if it's got you overthinking things."

Hikaru scoffed and popped open his beer. "Cheers," he said before downing half of it in one breath.

"So, there's this girl," he began. Waya and Isumi made similar sounding snorts that Shindo ignored, continuing, "Ito Yuka. She's a student of Touya's and I've been meeting with her too, just for her to have some fun." Waya snickered, but Isumi looked a bit interested. "She's a good player. Smart, adaptable…oh, and she has photographic memory." He took another swig as the other two worked on absorbing that tidbit.

"Hold on, what was that?" Isumi looked like Waya felt. "How is that legal?"

"There's no rule against it. I mean, it's not like she's cheating. She can just catalog every move of every game ever played is all." Waya felt his brain press against his skull.

"That's…no, not incredible. It's monstrous. Ito…?"

"Yuka. Ito Yuka. And Touya's been teaching her. And probably using her as a way to evaluate me. Well…" Shindo trailed off, tapping his beer can thoughtfully. "She's only an insei right now. And she hasn't had any kind of instruction up till now, so her strategy's really rough. But if I hadn't noticed it now…He wanted her to spy on me!" The injustice in his voice almost made Waya lose his composure. The idea of Touya Akira training a highly skilled Go super-spy for the sole purpose of taking down Shindo Hikaru was almost laughable.

Almost.

Touya had always been strangely interested in Shindo, and Waya had seen more than a few justifications for such interest.

'And Touya's batshit crazy and completely obsessed with Go. Doesn't help Shindo sound any less like a paranoid headcase…'

"So….that's what you wanted to talk about?" Isumi asked gently. "I mean, yeah, it's a bit much, but—"

Hikaru shook his head. "I found this out earlier today," he continued, rubbing at his temples, "so I went to confro—well, I basically went to his house and shouted at him." Waya laughed at the mental image. Hikaru looked as if he might join in, but he continued speaking.

"But Touya was really…strange. He shouted for a bit too—which is fine; I started it—but he…" Hikaru finished his beer and set the can down. "He got really quiet and touched my hand and stuff. It was…I mean, we've touched each other and stuff before, but it wasn't…It wasn't like that."

Waya prayed that he wouldn't burst out with the hysterical giggles that were building inside of him. He stood and made it to the kitchen, hiding his silent spasms of laughter behind the dividing wall. He re-emerged with a fresh beer for Hikaru, reminding himself repeatedly that Shindo was his friend and his feelings were important and—

'Christ, here it comes again.'

"So, you're worried that Touya might have…feelings for you?" Isumi reasoned. Waya coughed around a rogue chuckle that tried to rip out of his throat. Isumi glared at him in a fluid motion that ordinarily wouldn't have been so hilarious, but the circumstances were becoming too much.

"Dammit Waya, just laugh already. It's absurd, but that's what happened to me today."

"It's n-not funny at all," Waya lied, stammer making the last telling crack in his efforts to behave and he started laughing so hard he spilled his beer and almost fell out of his chair. Even Isumi laughed and Hikaru managed a sheepish grin, all of his exposed skin glowing bright red.

"Ha fucking ha, guys," he grumbled. He looked more relaxed than he had since he entered the apartment. "This is why I didn't want to tell Waya." This had them laughing all over again and Hikaru did join in, if a bit reluctantly.

"What now, though?" Isumi asked after the mirth faded. "I mean, you don't have feelings for him too…?"

"God no," Hikaru snorted, taking a heavy swig of beer. "I don't want our friendship to change at all! But how the hell am I supposed to…I mean, I've never had to reject a guy before, much less one I'm friends with."

"Really?" Waya asked casually. "I thought you'd get the gay thing a lot with that hairstyle and questionable wardrobe."

"Get fucked, Waya," Shindo replied lovingly.

"Now children," Isumi sighed. "Behave yourselves or I'll make you leave. Shindo, try talking things out with Touya, but don't just spring it on him. It's not like he actually confessed to you or anything. If something strange happens again, just let him know that you're uncomfortable. Honestly, not talking is the worst thing you can do for your friendship, whatever the case."

"Isumi the diplomat," Waya mocked, trying to figure out why Shindo looked positively guilty.

Updates will resume on my profile. Basically, I have a lot of written material that just has no place in the story just yet and I'm not sure if I want to make the context for all of it. What I'm left with is pages and pages of crap with some good bits thrown in that I can't bring myself to get rid of. Some of it will be included, other stuff might get its own section of cracky, smutty, or just meaningful garbage that I had too much fun writing to throw out. Revisions are in the works-nothing major, just typos and the like. Please PM me if you noticed anything glaring in grammar, spelling, or even inconsistencies in the storyline. I know the team Go section is a bit rough, but I originally wrote it out much differently and it didn't get revised too well initially. Lalalalala I won't abandon this story, promise. I just need to get my head on straight. Thank you for your time, dear readers. TTFN~