Happy New Year, everyone!

Chapter 4: Akari

The last year of elementary school reached its end quite uneventfully. Hikaru's mother was shaking her head at his grades, but at least the school life had been void of any watery disasters after that event on the second grade, something that made her extremely thankful, not to mention – after what happened in Tokyo – somewhat astonished.

Hikaru didn't change his mind about moving to Tokyo, and his parents didn't stand against his decision, perhaps a little unnerved, not quite understanding exactly what had happened at that New Year's party. So they kept their arrangement, with Hikaru and Mitsuko living in their little house a few hours' drive from Tokyo. Hikaru's new middle school was in a neighboring town, a half-an-hour bus trip away, which was a bit of a pain. Akari went to the same school, so they often traveled together, with her chatting of this and that, and Hikaru nodding off or attempting to read the newest volume of the Go Weeklymagazine, which his parents had ordered for him for his birthday.

The school was clearly bigger than their old elementary school. Once again, the initial curiosity his hands aroused was great, but this time Hikaru took it much more calmly, answering the questions shortly and to the point, not wanting to dwell on the matter. He was aware he was fast beginning to gain the reputation of some kind of a lone freak, what with his hands, aloof behavior and interest in go. He didn't care, though; he was perfectly happy to spend his days as he had so far, with Sai as his company. There was one annoying thing in middle school though: mandatory club activity.

Hikaru stood by the info board, eyeing through the ads. Basketball, soccer, kendo, swimming club, art club, literature… none of it really appealed to him.

Is there no go club? Sai asked.

Apparently not. But that's fine, I don't think I'd be joining it even if there were one.

What? Sai sounded genuinely astounded. Why not?

Hikaru snorted. You actually think they would know how to play go in a school club?

Hikaru! Don't be nasty. You could teach them!

"What," Hikaru muttered aloud. "You want me to become a go club tutor? As if." Besides, if there isn't a go club, there isn't. Can't be helped. "So, what about the swim club?"

I really don't think that's a good idea.

"I guess." Hikaru sighed. "Well, there's no hurry with this yet, so. Let's think about it."

He most likely would not have thought much about it, but in the bus Akari came to sit next to him.

"Have you decided which club to join?" she asked after a cheerful greeting.

Hikaru took a more comfortable position and closed his eyes, planning to sleep if she'd only let him. "Not yet."

"So, how about… a go club?"

"What?" His eyes snapped open and he frowned at her. Akari was watching him with an excited look in her eyes. "There isn't a go club, you know!"

"I know!" she agreed cheerfully. "But you could start one!"

Hikaru's brain paused for a moment. "…what?"

"I'd join!"

He gave a snort and leaned back again. "So you haven't yet found a club either, huh? What makes you think I'd want you in my go club?"

"Hikaru! Why not? I heard from your mom that you still play. And she said you're possibly pretty good? So why shouldn't you start a go club? There could be others who want to join!"

She's right Hikaru! I think it's a great idea! Sai sounded excited.

You start the go club, then.

Hikaru~! Why not? Sai wailed at the same time as Akari asked, "Hikaru, why not?"

"Gah!" He grimaced and placed his hands on his ears. "Be quiet!" Both of you. "I want to nap."

Next day Hikaru went to see the principal.

"A go club?" The principal was watching the boy with a rather surprised look on his face. "Yes, it is true that our school hasn't had a go club for years. There was one but it died out. There hasn't been much interest for one."

"There is now," Hikaru stated shortly. He didn't like the principal. It was something about the smell of the man, some strange personal odor he couldn't quite name and barely felt, but it tickled his noise and made him annoyed.

"Well." The man sat behind his desk, giving him a heavy-lidded look. "Well. If you get enough members, we can consider it."

"A go club!" Akari exclaimed excitedly. "I'm pretty sure I can at least get Kumiko to join! And I can ask around! Surely we get enough members!"

"Yeah," Hikaru muttered. Sai too was bubbling with excitement, but somehow he couldn't quite feel it. "I guess we should make a poster too, or something."

Within the next week they had three more members – Akari's friend, and two boys. Hikaru was watching the little group thoughtfully in the classroom where they were meeting.

"So?" Akari asked, still brimming with enthusiasm. "What shall we do?"

"Do?" Hikaru glanced at her. "Play go, what else?"

"Do we even have boards?" one of the boys asked.

"Just one for now. But as we have enough members, I guess the school could give us money to buy one or two more."

"And who's the captain?" the other boy asked.

"Hikaru, of course!" Akari gave him a look. "He founded the club, after all!"

The boy didn't bother even looking at her. "You're a first year," he stated.

Hikaru returned his look with a blank expression on his face. "So?"

"And we are third years," the boy went on emphatically.

Hikaru sighed. "Let's play a game," he just said quietly. He sat down by their one and only go board. "Which one of you is the better player?" The boys shared a look, and one of them sat down to face him, the one who had asked who was the captain.

Hikaru smiled at him. "Place as many stones as you want," he said quietly. The boy's eyes narrowed.

"You've got some nerve," he muttered through clenched teeth.

They started the game evenly. It didn't last long.

Hikaru's opponent was sitting very quietly in his chair, staring at the board. The other boy standing next to him was just as quiet. Slowly he looked up, at Hikaru, and the boy gave him a small, lazy smile.

"Want to discuss the game?"

The third year stood up and left, his friend following him close by.

"Hikaru!" Akari breathed. "Why did you drive them away like that? If they don't come back we've lost half our members!"

"All the same to me," Hikaru snorted. "I don't want them here."

"But…!"

Hikaru stood up. "Do you know go at all?" he asked Kumiko. She shook timidly her head. "Okay, Akari – tell her the basics. You can play a game of capturing stones or something."

"Where are you going to?" Akari asked, as Hikaru headed to the door.

"Out."

Hikaru, Sai said quietly as he left the classroom. What was that about? You didn't have to be so harsh with them.

Why not? Hikaru thought back to him. They were annoying. I don't want to spend my time playing against them.

So where are you going to?

The library.

It wasn't for the books. Hikaru reserved a computer for himself for an hour, and logged right in on net go. To his disappointment he saw Akira wasn't there.

The boy had finally stopped sending him messages. He was still usually around, and they played almost daily. Sometimes Hikaru wished he could have discussed the games with Akira (he had so many things he wanted to say… what did you think of that move, or, what were you thinking when you made that move.) Even so he maintained his silence, and Akira seemed to have given up on him ever responding.

He picked an opponent he knew to be strong, and started a game.

…

In Tokyo Akira had had long arguments with himself on how he should deal on this matter of 'sai' and Shindou. He wanted to respect his father's advice and stay away from sai, but if… if, somehow, it turned out that Shindou was sai, then… wouldn't that make it all different? Or possibly, he thought, remembering his old theory, perhaps Shindou was the student…?

He wished he knew where the other boy lived, but Shindou, although not the most common surname, was still common enough that it was nigh impossible to find one boy.

Almost daily he was replaying the game he had played against Shindou, comparing it to the games sai played, and the connection was clear to him. If Shindou wasn't sai, he at least was someone who had studied sai's game, he was sure of that.

And no matter who Shindou was, his game had been…

Akira let out small, breathless sigh. Once again he damned himself for letting the other slip away so easily. He had just been so startled when Shindou suddenly bounced up. Why did he leave like that? He had seemed somehow startled, even frightened… why?

Akira shook his head. He was the one who should have been frightened then, faced with such impossible strength.

He stared at the game on the board in front of him, and vowed he would yet find this strange opponent of his. No matter how long it would take, he would yet play another game against this boy, face to face.

…

After the little incident with the third years, the days proceeded quietly at the go club. They got one more member, also a girl, and a little grudgingly the principal agreed to make them a real club – on probation, though. Apart from that, not much happened with the club. Akari was clearly beginning to lose her patience with Hikaru, who showed up irregularly and very seldom did anything else but watched the girls playing, offering only some random comments about the game. One day she finally had had enough.

"Maybe we should just end the club!" She and Kumiko had again been playing, and Hikaru was nodding beside them, paying no attention to their game whatsoever.

He looked up with a start. "What?"

"You're obviously not interested in the club at all! So why bother with it? I thought it might be fun, but if it's just me and Kumiko playing, we don't really need a club for that!"

"That's not…" Hikaru started to say.

She's got a point, Sai put in, and he fell quiet. You're really not invested in the club at all. Why? I thought you'd find it fun.

"I don't know," Hikaru said with a sigh. He stood up. "Let's… talk tomorrow." He walked out, leaving Akari glaring after him.

Hikaru…? Sai sounded – and felt – worried. What's the matter? You're so gloomy these days – or maybe not gloomy, but somehow…apathetic. You don't feel like yourself.

"I don't?" Hikaru muttered aloud. "I don't know. I'm just… tired. I don't like this middle school." Don't worry about it, he added in his mind. He walked out of the school and stopped, watching up at the blue cloudless sky. Summer's coming… he added a little absentmindedly. And summer break. I'll relax then properly, that'll help.

He said no more about the matter, but from then on he tried focus more on the club, not skipping it anymore and playing teaching games with the girls. He brought his old go magazines to the club too, and sometimes they reviewed professional games. Akari seemed to be happier, probably thinking that she had made him more serious about the club, but Sai wasn't fooled. Hikaru knew that, and feeling Sai's worry made him feel vaguely guilty, but try as he might he couldn't truly make himself interested either in the club or in school – or pretty much anything that was going on around him these days. At times he wondered if it had been a mistake not to move to Tokyo. Perhaps exploring the city would have helped... though he somewhat doubted that.

Summer did come, and true to his word Hikaru did relax. He spent his days out, sometimes hanging around at town, but usually somewhere in the forest, lying at a spot where the ground water was closest to the surface. Sometimes he played blind go with Sai, sometimes not, but every evening he checked if Akira was online and played a game with him.

On one burninghot summer day Hikaru was strolling on the main street of the town, just hanging around as usual, watching the people and the few shop windows without really seeing them, when he suddenly noticed Akari and Kumiko waiting for the bus. In fact it was Sai who pointed them out for him, for his eyes passed right over them like everyone else.

"Hi." He walked to them, nodding. Akari turned to look at him, her face taking a carefully friendly expression.

"Hi."

He stopped by them, hands in his pockets, and a moment they stood in silence. "Where are you going to?" he asked then, to say something.

The girls glanced at each other. "To the beach," Akari said. "We're meeting with some of our classmates there, and…"

"Why didn't you ask me too?" Hikaru sounded annoyed, but his expression didn't really change.

"I…" Akari shifted from foot to foot. "We're going to the beach, you know? You never… you never come there, and your mother said… I didn't think you'd come this time either."

"You could have still asked!"

Hikaru? What's the matter?

Hikaru took a deep breath. "Well, whatever. Can you borrow me enough for the bus?"

Akari just stared at him. "…what?"

"For the bus! To the beach. I'm coming, too. I'm bored." Now the annoyance entered his face, too, and a frown appeared on his forehead.

"I… I guess I, I mean, if you're sure, you… shouldn't you tell your mother?"

"Why?" Hikaru shrugged. "She knows I'm out, it's not like she knew where I'm hanging around, anyway. Or don't you want me to come?" The frown deepened.

Akari looked a little uncomfortable. "Of course I do," she still said. "Just remember that I warned you, if she gets mad at you. And yeah, I can borrow you enough for there and back. But you don't have anything with you…"

"It's okay. I'm probably not swimming, anyway."

The bus trip to the beach took half an hour. The place, Hikaru thought as the water came into view, wasn't really much to talk about. A bay in the river, with a so-called beach that attempted to be sand, but mainly consisted of some rough gravel. Akari waved, having spotted her friends, and Hikaru frowned again, seeing some of the boys of their class among them.

Is that why she didn't want me to come?

What, are you jealous? Sai sounded amused.

Hikaru laughed out loud. As if. So. He turned to watch the river. So that is… He paused.

Hikaru? Sai asked, as the boy suddenly fell quiet. Are you sure it was a good idea to come here?

I can't be running away from water all my life, Hikaru thought quietly, as he started walking toward the river. Akari glanced after him but turned then away as she was chatting with her friends.

"It's beautiful," Hikaru said quietly aloud to Sai.

Yes, the spirit agreed, But… Hikaru. Have you already forgotten all I've told you? Hikaru?

The boy said nothing, just stood there staring at the water.

"Hikaru!" Akari ran to him. Blinking, he realized she had already changed into her swimming suit – when did she have time for that? "We're going for a swim!" She was laughing, light from the water reflecting in her eyes, and she dashed into the water, splashing as she went. A few drops flew on Hikaru's foot, and a shiver ran through him.

Kumiko followed her soon, shrieking something about the water being cold, and all the others joined them. They swam around, laughing and shouting, and the boys had a ball with them they started throwing to each other.

Hikaru sat down to watch them.

He didn't remember ever having been near to such a huge body of water – his mother had made sure of that, and yes, she would be mad if she ever found out where he was right now. Still, it felt somehow familiar. He heaved out a big sigh.

"It's not bad, Sai," he muttered aloud. "It's not bad to be here. Somehow it almost feels like… being at home."

That's what Torajiro said too, Sai pointed out gently. Please. Be careful.

Of course.

Everyone truly seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hikaru watched them keenly, noting those who were the most comfortable in water, and those whose moves were awkward and who were careful not to go so deep their feet wouldn't reach the bottom. Even they, though, were laughing and having fun, every now and then falling into the water and then surfacing with laughter, floating around, trusting the water.

Someone threw the ball to Akari, but she didn't catch it and it floated close to the shore.

"Hikaru!" she shouted. "Throw it to me!"

The boy looked at the ball and shook his head. "You missed it, so come and get it!"

Akari mumbled something under her breath but came after the ball. "Can't you even get your feet wet," she snapped at Hikaru over her shoulder as she threw the ball to her friends. The others laughed, giving Hikaru looks he remembered from years ago.

A frog that can't swim!

He closed his eyes.

Hikaru? It took him a moment to realize it was Sai who was talking to him. Maybe we should leave.

He didn't reply. Instead he stood up and in one swift movement threw his shirt away. His pants dropped down, forming two holes on the ground.

I don't think you should… Hikaru! The boy was already in water.

Akari laughed, seeing him. "Someone's going to complain if you swim only in your boxers," she said.

Hikaru didn't listen to her. In that moment he was aware of the water in a way he had never been, not even when taking a bath. Every inch of his body felt it, and he drew in a shaky breath, attempting to come over the sensation.

Hikaru, Sai said somewhere in the back of his mind. Concentrate. He heard the words, but couldn't quite comprehend them. With a little shaky legs he stood up, standing in the water up to his thighs.

"I'll teach you to swim, Hikaru," Akari said, floating in the water and watching him with a smile. "It's not…"

Hikaru bent forward and dove.

He glided slowly through water, watching the legs of the people around him. A pull, and he went by them, another, and they were left behind. He smiled to himself there, in a world of his own, unseen by anyone else, his ears water-deaf to the shouts that echoed above the surface. Carefully, experimentally, he kicked with his feet and gained speed, just heading away without any clear purpose or goal.

The silence of the water was soothing to his ears. He closed his eyes and floated, letting the water carry and caress him, listening to the quiet, sucking it into himself as if quenching a great thirst.

Hikaru...

There was a whisper in the water, going through him without so much as touching him, and he floated on, unbothered.

Hikaru!

He flinched, his eyes opened. It took them a moment to focus; then he noticed something beside him, a shadowy figure, human-shaped, with something gossamery flowing around it.

Hikaru?

He realized. Sai! Is that you? Although he was underwater, he couldn't help laughing aloud. I can see you!

Hikaru. You need to get back.

Why? He frowned. I like it here.

Akari is worried. Sai's voice was terse, anxious. She thinks you've drowned. Which, from their point of view, isn't far from the truth.

But I... Hikaru stared at him. He could see Sai more clearly now, and realized that the veil-like thing floating around him was hair, long and dark.

Do you really want to do this to her? To your parents? You'll be dead to them.

But I, Hikaru said again. He turned in the water. I... He paused, swallowed. It felt good to be in the water. It was home, Home, in a sense he had never felt like before. But even so... he remembered his mother, as if in a half-forgotten dream, and his father, and Akari.

Which way... which way is it? he finally whispered.

I'll help you, Sai promised and offered a hand, and started guiding him toward the shore.

It seemed to be a much longer way back, but finally he could see the swimmers ahead. There were more of them than he remembered, and most were diving, something frantic in their movements.

Now, you need to get up, Sai whispered.

Up?

Stand! Come, you can do it!

But I don't...Hikaru tried to say, but Sai was pushing him. He noticed Akari in the water, and the girl was diving too, though he knew she didn't like it because the water went into her ears. He pulled toward her and tramped the water, trying to gain his feet, and suddenly his foot touched the ground and his head hit the surface, and he gasped for breath.

"There he is!" someone shouted.

"Hikaru!" That was Akari. She was splashing toward him, fast. "What did you do! What happened?"

"Nothing," he panted. "I just... I just dove."

"Are you alright?" a man asked, and Hikaru nodded, confused. Why wouldn't he be?

"Sure."

"It's okay, just kids fooling," someone said, and the crowd began to break up, muttering something as they went.

"Be more careful in the future," the man said sternly. "You caused quite a chaos here. And do wear a swimsuit at a public beach."

"Umm, yeah, sure..." Hikaru was glancing around, still confused. Akari stood next to him, glaring at him, and the rest of their group were a little farther away, giving him strange looks.

"You could have told me you can swim!" Akari finally spat out. "Where did you go? Hiding somewhere while we were looking for you? Did you have fun?"

"I..." was all Hikaru managed before she turned and paddled away.

"Whatever! I'm not interested!"

"His hair," someone said. "Was it always that long?"

Hikaru ran his fingers through his hair and realized it suddenly almost reached to his shoulders. Damn. He'd better get it cut somewhere before his mother saw it. She'd freak out. Akari had stopped and stood in the water, staring at him. He looked back at her.

"Would you give me a haircut before I go home?" he asked, and Akari blinked.

In the bus Akari tried to ask him what truly had happened, but he remained stubbornly quiet all the way to their home town.

"Do you want the haircut or not?" Akari finally snapped. "I won't do it unless you tell me the truth!"

Hikaru considered a moment cutting his hair himself, but figured the result would be quite horrible. And he hardly had enough money to have it cut at a barber's.

"Fine," he muttered. "But later. Not now."

Akari gave him a long look. He was sitting a little lumped, hands in his lap, and his eyes were staring at them. Akari waited for him to blink, and when he didn't she in the end turned away, a little disturbed.

"Okay," she finally breathed. "But you'd better tell me some day soon."

Hikaru just nodded, not really listening to her. He still felt as if he were partly in the water, not really sitting on this bus bench. Sai was quiet, but he felt him quite strongly, as if the spirit were sitting right next to him, holding his hand. When they arrived to the town Akari took him to her home and smuggled him to the bathroom, where she cut his hair. The result was quite uneven, but at least it was much better than suddenly having shoulder length hair. Hikaru mumbled a quiet thank you to her, and shuffled home. His mother gave him a look when he came, as if realizing something had happened.

"Hikaru? Where were you? You were out quite long..."

He just muttered something incomprehensible and headed for her computer. He was lucky. Akira was online. He sent a game request, and then, to make sure the other wouldn't disappear anywhere, his first ever message: I need a game. S.

…

In Tokyo, Akira stared at his screen in confusion.

I need a game. S.

He blinked at the screen. As far as he knew, sai had never sent any messages to anyone, or replied to any he had got. Why did he now send this one? What was the point? He would hardly have declined the game even without a message. That strange signature was hardly needed either, he could see the message was from sai even without it. And it was just an S... that could stand both for Sai and Shindou, he realized.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, half willing to ignore the request. A moment he considered replying, asking why before making any decisions. Had something happened? But, he reasoned, if sai sent him a message like that, he probably had reasons for it, and most likely truly meant it. He clicked to accept the game request, deciding he would ask later. But as soon as the game ended, sai was gone.

Akira let out an annoyed breath, watching the now empty screen. He was beginning to lose his patience with this sai. Perhaps, he thought again, his father was right. Perhaps he should ignore this person in the future – after all, with the pro test fast approaching he really shouldn't let himself be distracted like this.

He knew that, and he knew as well that the next time he sat by his computer he'd log in on net go, and the next time sai asked him for a game, with or without a message, he'd accept.

With a sigh he turned off the computer. There was homework to be done. Not to mention that he had, once again, spent too much time studying just sai's game. That part of his father's advice he had taken to heart – not to concentrate on just one player, no matter how astonishing he might be.

But even so, he mused to himself, sai was astonishing. He thought about something he had been thinking quite often before, and decided that when an opportune moment came, he would take the chance and ask.

It took him a while to gather his courage, though. "Father?" he finally said one day when he had finished an evening game with his father and they were done discussing it. "Have you ever thought about playing a game against sai?"

Touya Kouyou looked at him, his face impassive.

"Sai again? I thought you didn't anymore care about him."

"Well, I…" Akira didn't meet his gaze. He was sure his father had to know how he had again started following sai online. Certainly someone had to have mentioned the games he was constantly playing with sai to him... But his father had never said anything, and he had remained very quiet about it, taking care not to let anything slip. "I…" he started again, and fell quiet, embarrassed. It suddenly occurred to him that technically, he was lying to his father, and he wouldn't have thought he'd ever do something like that. "I've still been watching his games, every now and then," he confessed. "They are very… I mean, I think he's still growing… and I can't help thinking… that if you were to play with him… it would be, it would…"

"Yes?"

"It would be a wonderful game," Akira said very quietly, eyes still on his hands. "One I would love to see."

"You know I don't play net go," the Meijin stated with such finality in this voice that Akira could but sigh and bow his head.

…

One day a little before school started Akari came to meet Hikaru at his home.

"So," she said, dropping to sit on the floor in his room. "When are you going to tell me?"

Hikaru froze, staring at the manga he'd had in his hands. "Tell you what?" He swallowed. How to wriggle out of this? "I don't..."

Akari raised a finger. "I gave you your haircut. I haven't said a word to your mother. What happened at the beach?"

Hikaru sighed and lowered the manga, giving her a look. The silence stretched longer, drawing out between them as Akari met his gaze evenly, obviously not planning to give up. Sai too was quiet, though Hikaru was sure he was close by, listening.

"You won't say a word to anyone else, then," he stressed, making up his mind. "Not to Kumiko or anyone."

"Okay."

"There isn't really much I can tell you. I dove, that's all. Very far."

Akari was shaking her head. "Don't lie to me! You can't stay underwater that long, it's... it's impossible!"

"Not to me." Hikaru watched thoughtfully his hands. "Actually," he whispered, "I almost didn't come back. I liked it there. I didn't… want to…"

He hadn't been planning to say that. Akari stared at him, eyes a little wide, mouth half-opened as if she were about to say something, just not knowing what.

"But," she breathed. "You…" She paused. "I don't understand," she finally said.

Hikaru laughed out. "You don't? Well, neither do I. Just that I'm drawn to water, I've always been… and water is drawn to me." He raised his hand, palm up, and concentrated. It had been a rainy, humid day, and it was quite easy to draw a tiny drop of water out of the very air. Akari stared at the little pearl glistening on his palm, breath stuck to her throat.

Hikaru gave her a lopsided smile. "So, what do you think of that? Freaky?"

She raised her eyes to Hikaru's. "I'm glad you did come back," was all she whispered.

"Yeah, well…" Hikaru looked awkwardly away, wiped his hand on his pants. "Of course I did. What'd I do in the water? So, that's all. If you've got no other questions, I'll continue reading." He picked up the manga again and opened it. Akari stood up quietly.

"See you," she said quietly as she left. Hikaru just mumbled something without even looking at her.

Next time they met Hikaru gave her a searching look, wondering how she felt now she had had time to think about it. Did it freak her out? Or did she even believe it? She behaved quite normally, though, talking of other, ordinary things, and he couldn't quite bring the matter up. Only when they were parting she stopped and grasped his hand, watching the thin skin between his fingers. Then she gave it a hard squeeze.

"Next time we go swimming I'm so not inviting you with us either." She was smiling and her tone was light, but there was something serious in her eyes.

Hikaru just snorted at her and pulled his hand back, and they went their way. They didn't talk about the beach anymore after that, but there were others who hadn't quite forgotten it yet. The school started again, and one day as Hikaru was leaning against the wall, waiting for the class to start, he noticed someone stopping by him.

"So what happened at the beach?"

Hikaru looked up. A few boys from his class were standing around him. "What do you mean?"

"We heard you disappeared, for a long while. And then just suddenly dove up. Matsuda said there was something freaky about it, that everyone thought you'd drown, that no one could stay under water so long, and that your hair had grown really long too…"

"He's an idiot," Hikaru snorted. "And I didn't dive for that long. They just panicked cause they thought I can't swim."

"How can you swim?" another boy asked. "I mean, you never take part into the swimming lessons. We thought you had some condition so you can't swim. And now you're suddenly diving around like nothing!"

"Has it something to do with… with water?" yet another asked, very quietly.

Hikaru barked out a laugh. "Yeah, I think swimming does have something to do with water, Einstein!"

"I just meant… that time in elementary school," the boy went on, an annoyed tone in his voice, and suddenly Hikaru realized that he was one of those who had once cornered him in the school toilet.

"What?" The others turned to him. "What time?" They'd come from a different school, so they didn't know about it.

"Nothing," Hikaru said, but the boy went on, watching him with a suspicious frown.

"There was one time in the elementary school we had big water damage at the toilet. He was there, and he got angry… and suddenly all places were sprouting water, just like that."

The boys stared at him with wide eyes. "Did you cause it somehow?" one of them said, turning to Hikaru.

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Don't be stupid. How could I?"

"But that'd be so cool!" the boy went on, not listening to him. "Kind of like water bending, right? Can you really do stuff like that?"

Hikaru just stared at him a moment. "Don't be stupid," he then repeated, quite flatly, and turned to walk away.

"Water bending," the other boys' laughter carried from behind his back. "You believe in stuff like that?"

"Hey, who knows!" he heard the boy defend himself. "And you said yourself there was something strange about what happened at the beach!"

The boys kept on laughing, but from that day on they started to call Hikaru the Last Waterbender.

You know, Sai, Hikaru thought quietly one night, lying in his bed on his back, arms under his head, I think you're wrong. People have changed. They aren't such cowards anymore to get scared of weird things. Well, not all of them, anyway. They're worse! He paused. "They're curious," he said then aloud. "Imagine, if people found out about us! We'd never have a day of peace! There'd be journalists running after us and all kinds of freaks wanting to do experiments and scientists too, and who knows what. We'd better keep quiet about this."

You might have a point, Sai conceded quietly. This time of yours is really quite strange.

…

Hikaru might have found his new nickname annoying, or at least claimed so, but in truth there was something about it that appealed to him. Sai was mildly amused, once he explained the joke to him, though overall he found it quite silly. Like I once told Torajiro, no one controls water. Or bends it. But... are you sure it's alright that they joke like that? What if someone believes it?

Hikaru snorted. Only a fool would believe a tale like that. And we don't have to be afraid of fools, do we?

Even fools can be dangerous, Sai said thoughtfully. But in truth what worried him more than that was the constant aloofness that was following Hikaru day after day, and the way the boy had almost lost himself in the river. He remembered the effect this had had on Torajiro, and watched Hikaru for any signs of trouble. The boy seemed to be perfectly normal, though; or as normal as he had been in the recent days. Perhaps, he mused, it was just because Hikaru hadn't entered the water quite as wholly as Torajiro had, and also, this had been a strange river for Hikaru, while Torajiro had most likely been in his own birth waters. Even so, he couldn't quite believe that what had happened wouldn't have any effect on Hikaru, and this time, he vowed to himself, he would not lower his guard. Ever.

Whether or not the boy realized how closely he was being watched he couldn't tell. Hikaru went on as before – somehow lethargic, uninterested, not really concentrating on anything. His grades were falling, again, and though both his parents and Sai attempted to make him study more diligently, it seemed to be useless. Sai couldn't quite understand what had happened, and when. It had started before the events at the river, that he knew. And after Tokyo... but what could have caused such a change in the boy?

Hikaru, he said one day, quite seriously, when the boy was lying on his bed with a manga he didn't read, what's the matter?

"What do you mean?" Hikaru muttered aloud.

You... you're still not yourself. You're not happy. What happened?

"Nothing." Hikaru turned a page, his eyes skimming over the pictures.

That can't be true. Something... something is going on. Please, talk to me. Torajiro didn't let me help him. I don't want you to end up the same way.

Hikaru paused for a moment. Then he rolled on his back. You can't really think I'm going to drown myself or something? Sai?

I... I don't think so, but... you seem somehow, depressed. And that's not you.

"I'm not depressed," Hikaru muttered. But somehow the way he said it was wrong too. He should have snorted, laughed, called Sai an idiot. Now he just stated it as a dry fact.

Maybe it's true, Sai thought to himself. But... but you're not happy either, he finished aloud.

Hikaru sighed, and closed his eyes. I don't know. Happy? I was happy in the water. And when I play go with Touya. Other than that... it's just pointless.

What is pointless?

"Everything!" Hikaru sat up suddenly. "Everything," he repeated, muttering, his eyes wandering over his room. "I think I... somehow understand what Torajiro meant when he said he wasn't sure if he was meant to live like this."

But... I don't understand it. Hikaru, why? What is it in life that made you both so... so, restless?

"You died so young, Sai," Hikaru said softly. I didn't die, really, Sai tried to put in, but Hikaru didn't listen. "Yes you did. In a way. You were, what, thirteen?" Now he did snort. "You call a thirteen year old an adult? Idiotic. Anyway, do you really remember what life was like for you? Truly?"

Sai stayed quiet, trying to recall. He remembered his mother and their home, his father too, though much more dimly. He remembered his mother's go board, and playing on it, and the white walls of the city when he had ventured out. The colorful sleeves of ladies hanging from the windows of the carriages...

But all that came to him was pictures. How had he felt? He remembered a certain kind of restlessness, the one that had driven him out in the end, the will to see the world. (And now he had seen it, traveled across it with the water, to such strange lands he had never even imagined they could exist.) Other than that, there was nothing.

...maybe it's the fire pendant I had, he said a little lamely in the end, and Hikaru sighed, falling back down on the bed.

"Yeah. Maybe."

Sai went on thinking about it later, when he Hikaru slept. He attempted to return in his memories to his childhood, but he couldn't quite catch it, just some fleeting moments, and they were of no help. So instead he started to think of what had happened to Torajiro, going through all he remembered of their time together, to catch even the smallest clue of where the trouble lay. He wasn't quite sure when Torajiro had started feeling the restlessness... he had been seventeen when they first spoke of it, but he was quite sure it had been troubling the boy for a while. Torajiro had always been a much more closed personality, one who kept his worries to himself and didn't want to trouble his friends with them. Whereas Hikaru was an open book. Perhaps, he thought, their trouble had started approximately at the same age.

Did it have something to do with growing older? He remembered Hikaru's biology lesson, the one where they had been talking about the development during puberty. He had found it a very peculiar subject, but still a bit fascinating. Could this have something to do with those changes? He felt quite at a loss there.

What did happen to a child of water when he grew older? Torajiro... had coped well, or so he had thought. But what did he know, in the end? Perhaps he had just drowned his troubles in the constant go, and in the love he felt for his family.

At least Hikaru had go, too. He thought about the boy they had met at the Tokyo go salon. Touya Akira. Maybe... maybe he shouldn't have told Hikaru not to tell anything to that boy. Maybe it was a mistake to try to keep them apart... would go played only on a machine be enough?

He thought long about it that night, and next day when they were returning home from school, he told of his thoughts to Hikaru.

So... I was wondering if you should, in the end, contact that boy and... well, I don't know if you should tell him all, but at least... maybe you could play, face to face, again?

Hikaru was quiet for a long moment. "You're weird, Sai," he muttered then. "You kind of sounded like he'd be my family or something. What do you think he is, my wife? Well, he was girly enough..."

I'm serious, Hikaru! Sai exclaimed indignantly. Something must be done, you must realize that!

"Yeah. I guess." Hikaru stepped in and kicked his shoes off. "I'm home!" he yelled to his mother. I just don't know what, he added quietly to Sai.

He dropped to sit by the kitchen table to eat the snack his mother had prepared for him.

"How was your day?" she asked as he munched his toast, and he shrugged.

"The usual."

"You didn't yet get the math test back?"

"Tomorrow," he mumbled, grimacing inwardly. He didn't want it back.

"Hmm." She, most likely, wasn't too eager to see it either. "Oh, this came today." She gave him the newest number of Go Weekly, and his face brightened considerably. He started leafing it through as he ate.

"You know, Hikaru," his mother said. "We've been thinking that unless your grades start getting better we have to hire you a home tutor."

"Mmmh," he uttered, not listening.

"You must understand that this can't go on," Mitsuko went on. "I know you can do better than this. You will never get into a good college unless your grades improve a lot, and… Hikaru? Are you listening to me? Hikaru!"

Hikaru was staring at the magazine, eyes wide. The first to pass the pro exam, the headline read. And underneath it was the picture of a familiar face.

Sai, Hikaru whispered in his mind. Touya's a pro.

A/N: No chapter title here, as I didn't know what to call this chapter. (I considered "The Last Summer" but that sounds kind of final...) The story is closing to its end, though. The next chapter will be the last one, I think, unless something unforeseen happens.

ETA: Following 19x19's suggestion, I decided to cal this chapter Akari. It does fit, kind of.

Thank you, once again, to all reviewers! Every comment is warmly appreciated.