I'm sorry I'm such a terrible replier to reviews but I would just like to thank Jinchuuriki, ochibisatori, VanillaTopping, amakasutook, SilverShiningStar, RisuNga, GoldenRat, dragonshadows, and Firehedgehog for taking the time to let me know that you like it! Jinchuuriki, I will see if I can revise the summary to make it better. I do tend to prefer to bludgeon people harshly.

Anyway, here's the latest chapter! I hope that you guys will like it and please let me know what you think.

NOTES:

These are several facts MS that I have basically ignored or tweaked in order to fit into the story (and I hope this clears it up for people who have been wondering):

1. The typical age for a person to come down with MS is around their early to mid-twenties. It's rare that children are diagnosed with it, though there have been some cases.

2. MS is rare in Japan and so Hikaru could be considered a medical anomaly.

3. From what I found over the net, Japan's medical system is mainly handled by employee insurance. Someone pointed out that Japan has a universal health care system (I didn't find this in my research but am willing to stand corrected), which means that Hikaru's medical bills are more or less covered. To my knowledge, though, regardless of what system it is, usually insurance companies are reluctant to cover someone with a degenerating disease. So while visits to the hospital for broken bones may be covered by both the government and the employer health care insurance, conditions as rare as MS would probably not even be included in the package. In addition, there have been articles on how the Japanese government doesn't provide any kind of welfare for people who are mentally ill or in wheelchairs or otherwise incapacitated, that these people are discriminated against. In this fic, it is assumed that because Hikaru's condition is so rare and unknown his family doesn't have the insurance to cover the special tests, medication, and other treatments related to his condition.

4. I have been assured by people that many MS patients can have a lifespan as long as a person without MS has, and that most live normal lives that aren't as affected by the disease. Please keep in mind, however, that Hikaru and his family are Japanese, who have never heard of MS and who live in a culture that puts emphasis in being a conforming, contributing member of society. Some of the ideas on MS shown here are stated the way they are because they were written with consideration to who was thinking them. So the doctor's view of MS will be radically different from Masao's from Hikaru's.

5. 'saakaa' - Romaji pronounciation for soccer; 'basukebooru' - for basketball. They are rather difficult to find so if I'm wrong, please point it out and I'll try and correct it!

WWWW

III.

To the secret inhabitant of the goban, time's passage was unnoticeable. All Sai was aware of was a timeless darkness that was all encompassing, with periods of light. It was as if Torajirou had just died a second ago yet centuries ago at the same time.

Then a strange feeling came. Sai found himself being drawn out of the darkness, and he closed his eyes, exulting at the realization that he was free once again.

But there was something strange. There was no mental connection. Instead, Sai could only get a flurry of images, all concentrating on a child in a strange white room on a strange white futon. He could feel sadness, anger, despair, hope, a bevy of emotions that seemed to be isolated from him by an unbreakable wall.

For some reason, Sai found himself studying the images of the boy. His own pain was forgotten as he realized how ill the child was. The more he stared, the more Sai felt a desire to help, to be with that boy as he had been with Torajirou until his death. The desire was a tiny seed of flame that grew until it became an all-consuming wish: Would you open your heart to me that I might live in you so all your sorrows may be halved and all your joys doubled?

Sai found himself engulfed by an incandescent light.

WWWW

When he opened his eyes, he was in a strange new meadow. There was green grass as far as the eye could see, and beautiful trees swaying tall from a distance. Sweet-smelling wildflowers dotted the landscape, adding beauty to the overall picture.

Sai pushed himself to his feet, carefully dusting the grass off his white robes. He looked around and eyed the mysterious square baskets standing to his left, several meters away from each other. To his right was a rectangle of gray mud with two pairs of upright poles and nets at each far side. Then from somewhere to the north there were sounds of splashing and giggling. Sai followed the echoes, a smile touching his mouth as the sheer joy he can hear in that laughter filled the aching void within him.

There he came upon the sea.

Sai gawked. For all of his life, he had lived amidst the rich forests and cities of ancient Japan. Being one of the Fujiwaras, even though he was a lesser cousin, he had grown up in a palace where every wish was catered to. All around him were the rice fields, lakes, and the jagged mountains where hermits and monsters lived. Even when he travelled to the Imperial capital, Sai had never been able to come close to the sea. Instead, he had only heard stories of it from travellers or the few nobles who had lands by the shore.

It lay before him like a glittering carpet of silver. Waves softly came onto the white, sandy beach where shells and crabs lay, half-submerged. Sai inhaled deeply, savouring the unforgettable, briny scent of the sea.

A small boy that looked vaguely familiar was standing waist-deep in the water, intently looking down before him. As Sai watched, quick brown hands lashed out and pulled an enormous, unrecognizable fish from the depths. The boy triumphantly heaved the writhing creature up in the air before tossing it back.

Suddenly, the memory of the last time he had stepped into a body of water, intent on drowning himself to erase his shame, came to his mind. He shook his head—he had been so young and proud then, so inflexible that he had broken like a sapling beneath a mighty typhoon. Now, Sai knew that he should have been like the elegant bamboo, then maybe he would not have wasted the precious gift of life the Kami-sama have given him.

"Hey, who are you?"

Sai blinked and stepped back, startled. The boy had come upon him quietly and now stood before him in an odd-looking loincloth, dripping wet. "I-I am Fujiwara-no-Sai," he replied with a slight stutter.

"Hmm, Sai, huh? I'm Hikaru! Nice to meet you!" Hikaru beamed at him. "Hey, do you want to fish with me?"

Sai looked askance. "Ah, er, no," he finally said, shivering at the idea of stepping into water, "you go ahead. I will look for shells." The boy shrugged and jumped back into the lake, continuing his fishing game.

Soon, Sai learned that his young companion remembered nothing of who he was, except for his name, or where they were. Instead, Hikaru seemed to treat everything as a playground.

After fishing, the boy dragged Sai over to where the strange implements had been set up. To the spirit's bemusement, he learned that they were supposed to be for strange games called 'saakaa' and 'basukebooru'. Hikaru disappeared into one of the forests and came back with two balls, one a leathery-brown one with black stripes, the other with white-and-black patches.

'Saakaa', to Sai's delight, was a fun game where he kicked the white-and-black ball so that it would go into Hikaru's net, or 'gooru' as the boy insisted they were called. The spirit was soon hoisting his wide-legged pants as he ran across the field, eagerly kicking the ball away from where his younger opponent was chasing after him. But Hikaru was canny and vicious; he was not above tripping the ghost or tricking him in order to steal the ball. In the end, it was Hikaru who won with 10 goals to Sai's 7.

Exhausted and laughing, they would sit beneath the trees where they would pluck ripe, juicy peaches and eat as many of them as they wanted. They drank sweet water from a bubbling brook, and ate fish raw. Hikaru showed Sai many new games, all of them physical, and they would play endlessly.

The two of them were lying on the grass, staring at the star-filled night-sky, when Hikaru asked Sai what game he liked best. The spirit smiled and said simply, "Igo."

"Igo?" the boy asked, turning his head to look at his companion in confusion. "That's the game my Jii-chan keeps talking about. The game with the board with lines and black and white stones, isn't it?"

"Your Jii-chan?" Sai asked carefully. He had tried asking his friend about his family, but Hikaru would change the subject or get angry and insist that he didn't remember. Sai would then keep his silence and go along with whatever the boy had in mind to do next.

"So what do you like about that game?" Hikaru replied cannily instead. Sai looked at him, then turned back to the stars.

"It may appear simple," he said dreamily, "but I have always thought of it as my star-laying game. In Go, I have the night-sky beneath my hands and I can create as many patterns of stars as I want. Together with my opponent, we can make a sky as beautiful as the one Kami-sama made for us."

"A star-laying game, huh? Did you know, Sai, that some of those stars out there aren't really stars at all?" Hikaru replied quietly. "Some of them are planets, like this world we live in. I have always liked that. I like that we are not limited by the sky, but that there is a universe before us."

"A universe," Sai repeated reverently. "A universe where worlds exist."

"Yeah. So maybe you should think of Go as a universe you can create, rather than simply think of it as a night-sky."

The spirit smiled enigmatically. "Go has many faces, Hikaru. To me, it is a night-sky, but to you, it may be a universe."

"…I'm tired, Sai. Let's go to sleep."

"Alright, Hikaru. Have sweet dreams."

"Good night, Sai."

When they awoke, Hikaru was sitting in front of a beautiful goban. As Sai watched, a smile behind his fan, the boy grumbled to himself as he clumsily picked up the slippery stones and put them on the board. First black then white, until a truly un-Go-like pattern emerged. To Sai, however, it was as lovely as any I hanami-ko /I he had ever seen.

"Oi, Sai, is this how you're supposed to do this?" Hikaru demanded.

Sai laid aside his fan and took up the go-ke. He let his hands wrap around the round bowl for long moments, savouring the solid sensation of warm wood against his palms. Sai looked deep into Hikaru's eyes. "Thank you, Hikaru," he said.

"It's no problem, Sai. So are there supposed to be rules to this game or are we just supposed to connect stones like this?"

Sai laughed and then set about correcting his young student on what to do.

small I Hanami-ko /I : "flower-viewing ko". This is a unilaterally favourable ko fight, where winning would inflict major damage on the other side but losing would only inflict minor damage to the player who started the fight. According to my sensei, they named it that way because it's like being at a cherry-blossom viewing, the pattern is very elegant and aesthetically-pleasing. /small

WWWWW

"Sai…I lied to you, you know," Hikaru whispered. It was night again in their timeless paradise, the time both had set aside for their hundreds of games of Go. He reached out to counter one of Sai's fierce offensive moves. "I…I didn't have amnesia…I remember everything…"

Sai dropped the white stone he had picked up and instead looked benevolently upon the boy who had come to mean so much to him. "I suspected, Hikaru. But why are you bringing it up now?"

"Because…" his friend hesitated. "Because…I cannot stay here…I need to go…go back…" Sai watched as the boy made tight fists, his face screwing up in misery. "I don't want to go back, Sai! I want to stay here and play with you! I want to stay here forever!"

"But you have your Jii-chan waiting for you, right, Hikaru?" Sai replied gently. "How do you think he feels back there, while you are over here? Do you think staying here would make anyone happy?"

"It would make Otou-san happy!" the boy retorted fiercely. To the spirit's shock, Hikaru violently swiped at the goban, sending stones scattering. "Otou-san hates me! He wishes I was dead! He'd be happy if I were dead!"

"Hikaru, your father would not wish any such thing!" Sai exclaimed, moving so that he can hug his friend to him.

"Otou-san doesn't want to have a sick son!" Hikaru sobbed into the spirit's robes. "Even when I tried to kill myself, Otou-san didn't care! I heard him! All he cared about was how expensive it was to keep me in the hospital! He says that since I'm going to die anyway, there's no point spending money on me!"

"Oh, Hikaru…" Sai rocked the boy, feeling tears flowing down his cheeks. That a father could say such a thing to his own son…

"I hate it too! That's why I tried to kill myself! I don't want to live as a cripple! I don't want to be a burden!" Hikaru kept whispering. "But the stupid doctors saved me! I wanted to die but they won't let me!"

At this, Sai thrust Hikaru an arm's length away. Firmly he grasped the boy's quivering chin and angled it so that green met purple. "Hikaru, never ever throw your life away!" Sai stated vehemently, "Promise me! Life is far too precious for you to throw it away so casually! Regardless of what your father thinks!"

The boy gaped, momentarily shocked, before shoving violently away. He clambered to his feet and glowered. "What do you know, Sai! I don't even know what you are! What you're doing here! What do you know about my life, huh! Its my life! Not yours!"

The spirit gracefully, majestically stood up. He towered over the small child, his face like carved stone. "I am Fujiwara-no-Sai of the Fujiwara Clan, and the blood of emperors flow in our veins. I am Fujiwara-no-Sai, the greatest Go player for a thousand years. I have taught the Emperor, I have played the greatest minds in Torajirou's time, and I understand more than you think, Hikaru."

Hikaru could only stare at him.

"Do you think you are the only one who has tried to kill himself? I too have tried and unlike you, I was unfortunate enough to have succeeded. You are the one who don't understand, Hikaru. I do not know how sickly you are, but I would give almost anything to once again be able to live in a physical body, even if it's only for a short time! Do you know what it means when you have thrown away this gift of life the Kami-sama has given us? It means that you have given up! It means that you have allowed your fears, your shame, to overcome you!" Sai lashed at the air with his fan, causing a loud, whistling noise. His sole audience jumped.

"Many soldiers have killed themselves rather than suffer shame. I too followed their path. But I didn't understand what I did! I didn't understand what I was giving up! To kill yourself, Hikaru, is to give up on the love your mother has for you, your Jii-chan, your friends!" Sai stated emphatically. "To kill yourself is to run away from life! What do you have in your life that is so difficult that you can no longer bear to live? That you are sick? That you are dying? If you are already dying, then why are you trying to hasten it? Why not spend what time you have left living?"

"Live what, Sai!" Hikaru screamed back at him. "Live a life as a cripple? Live with my dad who hates me? Live with my mom who is always crying every time she sees me? Live until everyone hates me and leaves me alone! I'd rather die!"

Sai fell to his knees before the sobbing child. Tenderly, he cupped his face. "Hikaru, you're not alone. I don't hate you, Hikaru---in fact I adore you. It is thanks to you that once again I can play my beloved Go. It is because of you that I have learned to play saakaa, and basukebooru, and gorufu, and can eat peaches and cherries and plums once more. It is you who have given me life again, sharing stories of your world and your time and listening to mine. All these things, Go, new games, friendship, love…these are all the things I have foolishly thrown away when I drowned myself in a river in shame…Hikaru, do not make the same mistake I did…do not throw everything away because of one man…it is not your father who will most regret it, it will be you…"

Hikaru cried harder. The spirit held him close. "Hikaru, I promise you that for as long as Kami-sama allows me to, I will never leave you. No matter what happens, I will be there. I will be your friend for as long as you want me to, Hikaru. I promise."

Sai repeated the words firmly, engraving them in his heart. "I promise I will never ever leave you, Hikaru."

-End Chapter 3-