Dear brain, if you ever manage to make sense, please inform me immediately.

Much love, Veltpunch.

"The Insei test?" Shindou Hikaru turned around fully at that, scooting the box until it rested fully onto the counter top.

Sai nodded fervently, scampering up the front steps with a box of his own. He dropped it with more force than necessary on the wooden flooring, looking up at his mother with wide, beguiling eyes. "Yes!"

"Why would you want to do that?" Asked the blonde dubiously, moving to the front door again with a baffled look to her face.

"Waya-kun said he's taking it this year!" Sai called from where he trailed behind her. "And I wanted to take it together."

"Waya-kun, huh?" Hikaru snorted exasperatedly, lugging another one of the boxes sprawled out on the front walkway in various sizes. It must be some sort of Shindou syndrome to have such a bewildering fondness for Wayas.

"Noburo said he could have taken it last year—but his dad wanted him to wait another year and think about it." Boasted Sai proudly, toting two bags wrapped in his small arms.

Hikaru rolled her eyes. "Noburo-kun might be showing off." An understatement, most likely.

But fortunately, the subject of the Insei test seemed to drop completely, as Sai's attention was directed ultimately to the subject of bedrooms; a conversation of about ten seconds before he bolted up the stairs in search of his room. Hikaru hefted a few more boxes into the bare kitchen, before wiping her brow from the work and standing in the glaringly empty diffused light of the house.

What a big, lonely thing, Hikaru thought. Nothing but austere white walls and the shining finish of glimmering wood.

And Sai, of course, who seemed to make enough noise for five small children up on the second floor.

"You better not be breaking anything up there!" Hikaru called half-heartedly, aware that there were few things to be broken, anyway,

Her reply was muffled, followed by another thump.

Hikaru blew the bangs out of her face and reached for a pocket knife to start slicing open some boxes.

.

.

.

Why Yeongha even needed a sabbatical when clearly his Go career was still increasing to it's zenith was quite beyond the young woman, but she knew better than to try and persuade the man out of his decision. Generally, whenever she attempted to do so, the two ended up in an explosive, mulish argument that soon descended into inconsequential territory, before spinning off hand entirely. Hikaru had given enough thorough introspection to realize that this was half her fault, seeing as though she was just as stubborn, if not more so, than Yeongha.

That didn't mean she was pleased any more, though.

"How's it going, anyway?" She asked over breakfast, attempting to be amiable regardless of the pinched expression to her face.

"Well." Replied the Korean professional. "There's much to learn from the Japanese Pros."

"You were saying the exact opposite four months ago." Hikaru pointed out wryly, stabbing her yogurt with more force than necessary.

It was true, though. Yeongha never held his Japanese counterparts with much regard, with the exception of Touya Akira, who seemed to be held with at least some amount of esteem. Hikaru suspected this was more of a jealous rivalry, however, as it was she who had clearly stated that she had valued the Japanese boy as a rival all those years ago. And Yeongha hadn't taken that very well, only made worse by his near-defeat at the Hokuto cup the following year.

Yeongha shrugged. "I've changed my mind." He said, stubbornly.

Hikaru rolled her eyes, before continuing casually, "You haven't met anyone named Yoshitaka, have you?"

"Waya-san?" Yeongha blinked, setting down his teacup. "I have. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, it's nothing." Hikaru wasn't sure if she wanted to bring up Sai's outburst from yesterday. After all, more than likely it was nothing to be too concerned about. Sai was continuously changing his focus depending on his mood. One day it was a professional skateboarder, the next a pro soccer player. She wasn't too worried that he'd acutely focus his attention on something he'd never been too interested in before. "Was he nice?"

"I suppose." He took a bite out of his toast. "I didn't really talk to him."

"I see." Was all she replied with.

Yeongha eyed her cautiously, as if judging whether to push the conversation. Ultimately, he didn't though—and for that, she was grateful.

He looked up to the clock; the only thing yet to find its way onto the walls amidst the sea of boxes piled up in corners.

"Eight o'clock." He muttered, looking annoyed that so much time had escaped him already. The man got up, running a hand through his hair as he trashed the paper. "I'll meet you at six in front of the restaurant?"

"Don't keep me waiting." Hikaru snorted, before looking up with annoyance. "I clearly remember you saying the same thing yesterday about unpacking—but that was a no show."

"And I'm sorry for that." Her husband said, sincerely. "I got tied up with an after-match discussion."

"I'm sure."

With that she got up as well, putting her bowl in the sink and moving towards the living room, where a tiny mountain was growing in the center near the wrapped furniture.

"Don't be mad." He sounded at least slightly worried. "It won't be like this all the time."

It hadn't been in Korea, she supposed, but this was Japan, and there were many differences to behold between the two countries. The woman turned around, arms folded. Her husband was waiting by the door, looking like he wanted something. With a sigh the blonde walked over.

"I love you." She said, looking resigned as she leaned against the doorway.

Yeongha smiled. "I know."

He bent down to give her a chaste kiss to the lips, an amused smile to his face as he spotted Hikaru's sour expression. "Onions." She said contrarily, smelling the vegetable from his breakfast, and he only chuckled as he walked out the door.

Hikaru watched him leave fondly, before turning back to the long stretch of hallway by the foyer.

"Sai-chan!" She bellowed, listening for the telltale thump as her young son fell out of his bed with a start. When it came, she smirked. "Get up! We're visiting your great grandfather today!"

There was another crash, followed by a loud, whining, "Whaaat?-!"

.

.

.

If there was one thing Hikaru wasn't particularly fond of in Japan, it was the fact that she had lived there before. Everything was half-familiar, buildings renovated from years past and the occasional landmark that held vague recollections to her. Driving Sai all the way to Heihachi's house was full of nostalgic anecdotes welling in the back of her head.

She had thought she'd left it all behind, but it seemed the past had a way of catching up to her.

Sai was, luckily enough, engrossed in his gameboy and the many, unending levels of pokemon to fully complain about the situation, much to her relief. He never had to deal with a lot of family, as her parents and grandparents lived many plane hours away, and Yeongha didn't have any at all. Aside form his perpetually sour mother, anyway, but she was mostly overlooked.

The car slowed to a halt at one of the lights, and Hikaru turned to look at her young son.

"Sai," She began slowly, wondering if she should even bring it up again. "Are you still thinking about what you said earlier?"

"What'd I say?" Mumbled the boy distractedly, various alarming beeping noises emitting from the console's sound system.

"You don't remember?" She asked, hesitant with hope.

There was a moment when Sai said nothing, and then;

"Nope."

The woman breathed out a sigh of relief.

So he had truly forgotten after all.

It wasn't that Hikaru had anything against the game—after all, it wasn't too long ago that she was obsessive over it herself—but it was only inevitable that, if Sai decided to join he'd soon be sucked into the galactic center of that little globular cluster, a condensed world where his presence wouldn't go unnoticed for long. And that would mean a lot of questions for the young woman to own up to—more than she'd ever care to answer, at any rate.

She pulled into the quiet suburban neighborhood, hand to her forehead in a berated expression.

She'd been naïve and frivolous then, with a ghost for her best friend, a truly frightening being with an insurmountable power that had forever shaken the world, tremulous aftershocks still rippling through the silence of the internet. The patron Go Saint would never log on again, but his essence remained trapped inside the hardware in the various kifu that many collected. And Hikaru, Hikaru had given up her dream to become professional, moving to Korea to continue her studies.

But even there, Go seemed to follow her.

By the time she had parked the car Sai had furiously shut off his gameboy, proclaiming that this particular gym leader was too hard to beat, and was already struggling with his seatbelt and picking at the child safety lock.

Suffice to say, his great-grandfather was more than delighted to see him.

Instead, he was downright ecstatic.

Hikaru was more concerned over the fact that Heihachi could possibly trigger a fatal heart condition with the way he was swinging about the house at his age, and was too busy to bask in the contentment of knowing that she had been right all along. Her family had been at odds with her clear, stubborn decision to start a family so early in her life, in a foreign country no less, with a boy they'd never met. Of course, in the face of the sprite-like Sai, with his bubbly green eyes and deceivingly lovely face, it didn't take long for them to melt into complacency.

As her grandfather hoisted Sai around his traditional house, Hikaru excused herself into the quiet, warm morning air, heaving a sigh of relief as the stunning silence seemed to overtake her. In front of her, the shed loomed among the shade of dotting trees.

Sai…

The curve of his fan, one eye visible and smoldering with a determined, elusive emotion, the long, pooling ends of his hair and the slight bow to his lips. Hikaru held the diaphanous images crystal clear in her head, yet the detailed panoramic eluded her. Sai was forever nothing more than the brief, hushed sound of a musical voice between the world of dreams and reality.

"Hey Gramps!" She called back into the house.

There was the muffled shriek of laughter, and what seemed to be her grandfather chasing her son around the corner with a broomstick.

When no reply came, she continued on. "I'm gonna be outside for a bit, okay? Don't kill him!"

And with that, she waltzed over to shed without any second thoughts, wrenched the door open, and ascended into the musty gloom.

The amount of dust that erupted from the mere movement of opening the door made her squint into the retrograde light of the sun, shuffling blindly up the stairs. She finally managed to make it to the ancient Goban, after causing a vesuvian explosion of dust when her shin hit a box, covering herself and the Goban entirely with dust.

She wiped it off slowly, wondering why her heart was beating so much faster as she carefully uncovered the Goban, inch by inch. Would she see the stains again? The blood, the tears, and the inevitable evidence that Sai had once well and truly existed?

"Mom?"

Hikaru jolted up in surprise, hand jarring against the olden wood and revealing all of it.

Nothing.

"Mom!"

The young blonde stared down at the board, all the anxious trepidation leaving her with one enormous swell of relief. Relief and… disappointment?

"There you are!"

The shed door was viciously swung open, as her young son beamed up at her with a silly expression to his face, with what seemed to be baking soda covering half of his face. "What are you doing up there?" He chattered, already wading through the sea of boxes. "You should've seen the mess me and Jiji made. His house is so cool! Let's come here everyday, okay? Right after school even. Hey, how about I just don't go to school and stay here instead?"

"Not happening." Hikaru answered, more by habit than anything else. She was still a little dazed by the fact that she was here, in the presence of Sai's Goban after all these years. …And no ghost in sight.

Sai seemed to have realized this would be her answer, and twittered onwards. "Oh, and we might need your help cleaning it up, by the way."

"Of course you do." She shook herself out of her reverie. "And who told you to climb all the way up here? You might hurt yourself!"

"You did it, didn't you?" Sai struggled onto a taller box, jumping onto the ladder. "Jiji said you used to come up here all the time."

"That was a long time ago." Hikaru agreed. "He didn't have nearly half the crap he has in here now."

"Crap? This stuff is gold!" Sai leapt up next to her, and Hikaru belatedly realized this perhaps may not have been the best idea, as to her growing horror his eyes were drawn immediately to the Goban by her side. "Hey! Is that a goban?"

The young boy immediately reached out to touch it, but was circumvented by Hikaru. "Don't touch it!" She scolded lightly. "That's a priceless artifiact!"

That, and she was a little worried that if she couldn't see the stains, he might. Perhaps seeing ghosts was genetic? Regardless, she wasn't about to find out.

Sai pouted. "But it's a goban! And it looks pretty nice, too. Say, do you think Jiji will let me take it home?"

"Doubtful." Replied Hikaru, dubious. "He'd never part with that thing even for his life."

.

.

.

But apparently he would.

Sai was all too delighted to hoist the enormous, and expensive (priceless, even) goban into his room, refusing to let anyone help him totter up the stairs to what was quickly turning into his bat cave, what with all the batman inspired action figures and bedsheets he had commandeered his father into getting him. Men and Bruce Wayne, she didn't understand.

Boys and gobans, she understood even less.

Hikaru would admit that she never personally would have touched one of those, had it not been for Sai. She'd never have encountered the illustrious, fascinating game and all its complexities, never would have gotten drawn into it—and to that end, never would have eventually left that world, to come to where she was now.

And though she held no ill-feelings towards the game she once devoted herself entirely to, there was something a little worrying about seeing Sai follow right down her footsteps.

It was probably inevitable, She consoled herself, as she began to make some tea. After all, both his parents were obsessed with the game.

And then,

And even still obsessed. She amended.

The woman glanced at the clock, noting it was already almost five. And yet, the kitchen still was only half-unpacked, the living room almost completely untouched. Yeongha had, of course, come home and completely unearthed the flat screen TV, dvd player and his goban, and had curiously forgotten to do anything else. Hikaru scowled. Typical.

And if he dared to be late tonight, well, there would be hell to pay for that, too.

"Sai?" She called up the stairs.

"What?" Was the distant reply.

"I'm going to be leaving soon, okay?" She grabbed her tea, heading for her room to get changed. "You're grandparents are going to be coming over soon to watch you."

"Are you serious?" His voice—and high pitched whine—grew louder as she walked up the stairs. "Why can't Jiji just watch me?"

"You're 'Jiji' shouldn't really be walking around." Hikaru reminded. "And anyway, I don't know how I feel about letting him drive a car all the way over here…" He'd never been a particularly good driver, and now that he was growing a bit senile…

She paused at the entrance to his room, slightly surprised to already see he had set up his Goban and was halfway through some sort of recreation, but really shouldn't' have been.

"But Oji-san and Ojou-san don't play Go!" Sai pouted. "Not like Jiji does…"

Hikaru sighed, dropping down next to him. "Oh honey, not everyone plays Go… and just because they don't, doesn't mean they aren't fun. None of your friends in Korea played Go!"

"But they played pokemon." Sai argued, inanely. "And anyway, everyone who's really cool does. Otou-chan does, Noburo does, and even you do Okaa-chan!"

And then, at the thought, "Will you play with me?"

For a brief, startling moment, Hikaru contemplated it. Pondered on setting her tea aside, seating herself opposite of her son, and holding those stones after all these years. But it was a passing illusion, and she shook her head.

"Not right now bud." And then, with a rub to the head, "But what are you recreating right now?"

"The game me and Jiji were playing." Remarked Sai, offhandedly. He set another stone down. "We didn't get to finish though."

Hikaru blinked in surprise. He… had been able to remember it so easily? For his age, that was incredible. And to think, he'd only been playing the game these past couple days since they'd arrive. Sai had known the basics of course. It wasn't like Yeongha would let his only son grow up without it. But that he could already be progressing so quickly…

He's a genius. The woman thought, not really blindsided by the thought. It was karma, almost.

"That's nice." Said Hikaru, not really paying attention. And then, slowly, "Do you like it?"

"I love it!" Sai cried, grinning up at her. "I want to be an Insei, Okaa-chan. I want to play Go."

This is not another wth oneshot, I swear. There is more to it somewhereee. I have SO MANY of these random ass hng fics that are so Au that the mary sue's said 'fuck you' and packed up and left.

But at any rate, what do you think of these crazed plotlines? Should I continue to tweak them and update, or just leave them in the basement?