Unbetaed, so I'd like to apologize in advance for any grammatical errors you might find in this fic.


Path of Light by Shinreizen

Prologue

o…oOOo…o

"For a thousand years, I thought that the reason my soul is allowed to survive in this world is because Kami-sama took pity on me and gave me a second chance to search for the divine move. Then I realized that Kami-sama gave me such a long time just to find you, Hikaru."

Fujiwara no Sai, a Go ghost from Heian period smiled at the tired teenager dozing off in front of him. He felt a little bit guilty demanding a game from the boy who just returned home from a Go seminar, but he wanted to spend his last moment with Hikaru and a Go game. The disappearing spirit said remorsefully, "Disregarding the fact that it was I who put an end to my own life, I stubbornly, selfishly want eternal time for myself to play Go. However, if Torajiro existed for my sake, then I simply existed for you…"

Unaware of Sai disintegrating in front of him, Hikaru blinked sleepily, jerking his head up at the fading voice. "It's your turn, Sai."

"…for you are me in the distant future."

The feel of gentle breeze against his cheek made him yawn. "Huh? What did you say just now?" Having no reply, he became alert and looked in front of him. There was no Sai, only a barely started game on his goban. Fighting the terrible feeling suddenly spreading in his chest, Hikaru frantically searched his room, hoping that Sai was just playing around with him.

'The divine move, I leave it to you…'

"Sai? Where are you?"

He was taking a step toward his door when a brilliant golden light exploded around him, swallowing him into a vortex of nothingness.

ooo…ooOOoo…ooo

Hikaru stirred slowly, resisting the lethargy he was feeling at the moment. He couldn't even move his hands. It felt like his whole body was cemented to his bed from neck to toes. A gasp was heard in the room, followed by rushed footsteps toward his bed. There was this curious sound beeping consistently despite the flurry of activities around him.

He was struggling to open his eyes when a male voice, suspiciously sounded like his father's spoke to someone near his bed. "He's waking up. Our prayers have been answered."

The teenager could feel a gentle hand caressing his forehead, while another grasped his fingers reassuringly. Staring blearily at the white ceiling, the comfortable feeling in such care lulled him into slumber again. However, his intention was prevented by soft palm tapping firmly against his cheek. "Hikaru, can you hear me? Please, open your eyes, son. Look at me."

His stubborn nature wanted to ignore the pleading tone, yet he could sense the urgency that told him that there was something wrong about the situation. Tiredly, he opened his eyes again to notice his mother in tears, and his father trying to console her. A smile formed on his father's weary face, as if a great burden had been relieved from him. Strange indeed. What was his father doing in his room? Why was his mother crying? On top of it all, where's Sai?

"Hikaru, you're awake. Kami-sama, he's really awake. Thank you. Oh, thank you!" Now his mother was bawling like a baby, she was leaning too close near him and the grip on his hand was getting stronger. Feeling confused, and a little bit upset that his rest was interrupted by the commotion, he tried to voice out his opinion. However, to his horror, there was something that felt like tube in his mouth helping him to breathe. Then he tried to raise his hand to his throat only to realize that there were tubes all over his body, hooked to various monitors and devices.

'Tubes? What the heck happened to me? And where I am right now?'

"Be careful, Mitsuko. He's still too weak to handle anything right now. Let the doctor take a look at him." His father finally managed to calm his mother down, gently coaxing her to leave their stools and gave way for people in whites to examine him.

Although his body was currently in a vegetative state, his mind was as sharp as a Go-pro during his match. 'Doctor? So I'm in a hospital then. Weak? True, I could barely turn my head. But why did my body feel so sore?'

His thoughts were distracted by a man in white coat. "Hello there," the man said, giving him a gentle smile. "Hikaru-kun? I'm Takeda-sensei, your doctor here. Please blink your eyes twice if you understand me."

Hikaru stared at the doctor, who looked like he was in his early forties, before doing exactly as he was told. The smile widened encouragingly. "That's good, Hikaru-kun, really good. Now Hikaru-kun, can you please, slowly squeeze my hand?" Takeda-sensei carefully held Hikaru's right hand with his, waiting patiently for him to follow the instruction. It required a bit of effort, but he managed to give the doctor a weak, yet firm squeeze of his hand.

"That's another great discovery. Wonderful, you're doing much better than I thought, Hikaru-kun." The male doctor then asked him to do a series of simple gestures, all of which he performed quite successfully. His parents watched his progress with wonder and amazement. Their gaze met, and he tried to smile uncertainly at them. He received a prideful smile in return. "Do your best, Hikaru..!" His mother mouthed the words. His father nodded imperceptibly at him.

'It's totally weird. They were looking at me like I just scored straight A's in my final exam.'

There was movement on his left, causing his eyes to change focus toward a young woman in a nurse uniform. "Hikaru-kun, I'm your nurse, you can call me Miyuki-san," the woman said cheerfully. "This might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but we're turning your body in bed to prevent pressure sores." Considering he couldn't even ask what the nurse meant by pressure sores, he just let them do their work quietly. At least he didn't have to suffer the pain of being in one position for too long, like playing Go while sitting in seiza did to him previously.

He eyed them wearily as Takeda-sensei wrote something on his clipboard and the nurse, Miyuki-san adjusted the position of his feeding tube. There was some discussion between the medical personnel and his parents, but Hikaru was too sleepy to focus on the contents of their conversation. He just ignored them and wondered where Sai had been hiding, hoping that the Go master would just appear and promise him a good game as soon as he woke up. They still needed to resume their unfinished game anyway.

"It's a miracle indeed, Shindou-san. His brain activity is so active even though he has been conscious for only thirty minutes. It is such a rare case for a comatose patient, a puzzling discovery. With such amazing progress, I'm sure he'd leave the ICU sooner than we thought." The doctor looked at bed-ridden boy and said, "Of course, he still needs to go through the rehabilitation program before he could lead a normal life again."

The shocking statement should jolt him out of his bed. However, the last thing Hikaru heard before sleep claimed him again was the worried cry from his mother.

ooo…ooOOoo…ooo

It had been two weeks since he found himself waking up in the hospital. It took him a few days after such miraculous event, according to the doctor, to realize that Sai had disappeared. He had been waiting everyday afterward for Sai to materialize in front of him again, but there was no trace of him whatsoever. The knowledge hit him hard enough to send him into a panic attack, one the doctor almost mistook as an epileptic seizure. Thankfully, they managed to calm his nerves down without causing unnecessary damage to his recuperating body.

It was a beautiful sunny day, though he couldn't really walk on his own to feel the comfortable weather outside. Hikaru had been transferred to a rehabilitation ward a few days ago. Before he left the Intensive Care Unit, Takeda-sensei had congratulated his remarkable development, mentioning about how rare it was to see a patient moving directly from coma to a state of full consciousness. Currently, he had passed all possible tests and assessments except for something called cognitive evaluation, so he was told.

One of the first sentences that came out of Hikaru's mouth after he was strong enough to speak at will had baffled everyone that heard him.

"Did anyone inform Japanese Go Association about my situation?"

"Japanese Go Association? Where did you hear of it?" His grandfather asked him, clearly surprised by his question. His father was nowhere to be seen, obviously busy with his work. Considering that he was the one working hard to pay for all of his medical fees, Hikaru wasn't so disheartened by his absence.

"Huh? I was talking about the game. I hope I didn't have to forfeit too many rounds of my Oteai match." He could see the desperate glances shared between his mother and his grandfather. Even the medical professionals in the room looked a little bit alarmed by his innocent remark. Ten minutes later, another doctor had come in, introducing himself as Satomi Kenichi, a psychiatrist that would assist in Hikaru's therapy.

He was asked a series of questions, all of which he answered perfectly. However, the more he explained to the doctor, the more he felt like they withheld crucial information from him. When he expressed his confusion and asked about whether his forfeits would affect his status as a pro, the doctor told him that he shouldn't worry about it and instead focus on his recovery.

Before Satomi-sensei left the ward, he was informed of another session on the next day. His guardians would have to wait outside, but they would be briefed on his conditions later.

True to his word, the very same doctor from yesterday had visited him again right now, no doubt to torment him with more questions and less answers. Satomi-sensei put his briefcase near the leg of the small table. He checked the condition of the IV drips on Hikaru's left arm then took his seat on the chair, maintaining a practiced distance between them. "Alright, Hikaru-kun. Let's do this again. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready, Satomi-sensei." Hikaru nodded his head at the doctor, adjusting his position on the wheelchair. He didn't really understand why he had to answer a lot of repetitive questions from the psychiatrist, but since he was promised a game of Go if he cooperated with their assessment, he simply stopped complaining.

"Good. Hikaru-kun, what day is today?"

"It's Tuesday, May 22, 2001." He answered briskly. 'It's been eighteen days since Sai's disappearance.'

"That's a quick answer, Hikaru-kun. Now, please tell me anything you remember about yourself and your family." It was not an easy question to ask to a coma survivor, but Hikaru was an enigma. At first, they found nothing wrong with him, except for the need of physical therapy to improve his motor skills and self-care activities. That was until they carried out neuropsychological assessment to test his cognitive function and probed deeper into further mysteries.

"I am Shindou Hikaru, son to Shindou Masao and Mitsuko, grandson to Shindou Heihachi. I'll turn fifteen years old by September 20. Currently, I'm a third year at Haze Middle School." He stared right into the doctor's eyes, reminding him that they still owed him some clarification regarding his career status. "I'm also a shodan Go professional, though I must have missed a few games by now. I hope my mum has contacted the Japanese Go Association to inform them of my medical leave."

If Satomi-sensei was hiding something from him, he didn't show it. "Please don't let it bother you, Hikaru-kun. As I've mentioned previously, the matter has been settled." The psychiatrist smiled reassuringly and asked another question. "What about your hobby, don't you have any other interest besides Go?"

Hikaru looked thoughtful for a while, wondering of the last time he enjoyed anything other than Go. "Hmm, nope, I think. I was a little bit crazy about soccer when I was in elementary school, but a few circumstances allowed me to learn about Go and made me fall in love with the game. I never stop playing it ever since."

"Circumstances? Can you explain the situation a bit?" The man jolted down a quick note on his clipboard, seeming interested to know how the kid learned to play Go.

There was no way he would ever tell them about Sai, so he picked his words carefully. "Err, there's not much to tell. It started when I stumbled upon a goban in my grandfather's attic. At first I didn't really care about the old man's game, but finally it managed to pick my interest. I did enroll in a Go class shortly, met a few players here and there, played online Go, joined the school club and tournaments. Then I became an Insei and the rest is history."

Then Hikaru realized that he just blurted something he wasn't supposed to mention and blinked his eyes nervously at his blunder. 'Oops! Sai was the one playing in the Net. Hope he wouldn't ask about my username...'

The therapist noticed that Hikaru was a little bit elusive in his story, like there was something he didn't want to share with other people. He didn't want to press the issue, so he changed their topic. "If it is possible, do you still remember the incident that caused you to collapse?"

"I told you I was playing Go in my room. When I stood up, about to leave it, there was this bright light surrounding me and I didn't know what happened after that," Hikaru answered truthfully, he just skipped the part about looking for his missing opponent, Sai.

"Hikaru-kun, can you tell me the date of the incident?" The psychiatrist asked the question carefully. A lot of coma patients couldn't recall what had happened to them after they were conscious, since memory was the slowest part to recover from a brain injury. In fact, certain questions could trigger their trauma, causing them to relapse. Hikaru, on the other hand, was totally alert and seemed to remember a lot of things related to him.

Including things that never happened in the first place.

"May 5th. I just got back from a Go seminar."

Satomi-sensei looked thoughtful for a second at his short answer, making some notes on his record. "You said you were playing Go before the incident happened. How long have you been playing the game, and who was your opponent at that time?"

Hikaru was feeling a little bit annoyed at the incessant questions. He remembered clearly telling almost similar things yesterday, though he was assured that it was a normal assessment for patients who had survived head injury. "I've played the game for about two years, since I was twelve. I was playing alone at that time. Haven't my family members told you all about it previously?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you agitated or emotionally disturbed. It's just routines to ensure that proper diagnosis can be done on every patient's case." The psychiatrist bent down, taking something out of his briefcase and put in on the table. Despite his physically weak condition, the boy almost greedily grabbed the magnetic Go set, his accumulated stress gone in a second at such dazzling view. A game, he was going to play a game!

"You sure you can play, Satomi-sensei? You're forgiven!"

The man chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm, though he was observing the young teenager calculatingly. Hikaru's grandfather had told him that while he himself had played Go, Hikaru was never given any exposure. His grandson was a bratty-half-pint who loved soccer more than anything else. To learn that Hikaru had claimed to know the game and even got an official shodan rank was something beyond belief.

He helped Hikaru to spread the 19x19 grid metal board, and carefully opened the plastic bowls for the white and black stones. "Hey, please don't look down on me. I might not look like much, but I used to win one or two amateur tournaments previously." He threw a good-natured challenging look at Hikaru. "We'll play an even game with komi."

"Oh really? You don't want to put a stone or two, sensei?" Hikaru grinned cheekily, waiting for the doctor to nigiri. He watched calmly as Satomi-sensei grabbed a handful of white stones from the bowl. Guessing the number of stones as even, Hikaru put two black stones on the goban.

Not the least bit offended by Hikaru's teasing, the doctor responded in a friendly manner. "Hmm, let's see who really needs handicap after we play." He placed the white stones in his hand on the board, arranging them in pairs so it was easy for both of them to count the exact figure.

It was even. "Ten. You're going first, Hikaru-kun."

"Alright, sensei. Onegaishimasu." The boy bowed slightly towards the doctor, who returned the formal greeting. He proceeded to take a black stone from the bowl between his index and middle finger, aiming to place it on one of the line intersections in the upper right corner. The sudden foreign feeling of holding an object between nail and fingertip had forced the magnetic stone out of his hand, causing it to clatter clumsily on the goban. It fell on one of the squares with a firm clicking sound.

Hikaru looked at his right hand disbelievingly, thinking that it was impossible to lose the muscle memory of his well-trained fingers in just a few days of coma. It was as if he had never held a Go stone in all of his life. Then he noticed that the nail on his index finger, which should be worn from placing thousands of Go stones, was as smooth as before he had learned the game.

Satomi-sensei studied his patient's reaction with clinical precision, before gently breaking Hikaru out of his shock. "Hikaru-kun, are you alright? Please look at me."

The teenager refused to acknowledge his instruction, instead he kept staring at his hand like it was a curse. The doctor easily picked the misplaced stone from the goban and cautiously offered it to Hikaru. "It's fine, Hikaru-kun. Holding a Go stone requires fine motor skills. It's not unusual for someone who had suffered head injury to forget how to do daily things. You're doing fine with your rehabilitation. I'm sure you'll regain your physical strength in no time."

Ignoring the offered stone, Hikaru thrust his right hand at the doctor. His words were shaky and full with confused, repressed anger. "Here. There should be callus on my fingers, and my nail should be worn. I've played hundreds of games previously. There's no way they are missing just like that!"

His shout might have upset his mother and grandfather for they suddenly burst into the room. They looked worriedly at Hikaru and Satomi-sensei for a few seconds, before shifting their attention to the goban on the table. Mitsuko immediately blanched at the sight, but Heihachi grasped her daughter-in-law's arm and whispered in her ear, "He deserves to know, Mitsuko. Let the situation decide itself."

The psychiatrist calmly stood up and returned the black stone into the bowl. He shared a look with Hikaru's grandfather, who nodded at him. Hikaru's mother tried to approach his son, only to stop at his sudden outburst.

"I hate that look! I've had enough of you people hiding things from me! Just please, please tell me everything..." He begged in a resigned voice, wishing that Sai was there to help him cope with his misery. They were so many things he wanted to know, like where Sai had gone to, why he fell into coma in the first place when he wasn't actually involved in any accident. And most importantly, what did they mean by saying that he had suffered brain injury that might lead to memory impairment when he clearly remembered everything that happened to him since he was four years old?

Shindou Heihachi sighed, looking at his grandson with mixed feelings. Then there were movements everywhere. Satomi-sensei gave the elderly man a polite gesture towards Hikaru's bed, while her daughter-in-law started to push Hikaru's wheelchair and the drip stand away from the table. After the doctor adjusted the head of the bed into 60 degrees Fowler's position, they helped to put the disoriented Hikaru on the hospital bed. "Easy, child. Let's hope you can handle the truth," the old man grunted softly at the boy.

Somehow, his mum's tender stroke on his temples didn't really alleviate the growing uneasiness he was feeling at the moment.

"Hikaru-kun," Satomi-sensei said his name firmly, causing him to switch his attention toward the left side of his bed, meeting the man's eyes. "Did you know how long you've been in coma?"

The boy made a weird face, as if puzzled by the question. "Uh, I'm not really sure myself. Perhaps for a few days?" He didn't realize that his mother was holding her breath while his grandfather became rigid, waiting for the doctor to deliver the final blow that might shatter his belief and sanity.

"Hikaru-kun, you had been in coma for two years and half, since you were eleven years old. On May 5th, you woke up for the first time as a fourteen-year-old boy."

To be continued…


I made up the psychiatrist part. I was never hospitalized all my life and I was even born at home. Let's hope it continues that way. :)

I changed the place where Hikaru found the goban from shed to attic. I haven't watched the anime yet, so I'll be using the manga version for my reference after this. Is it even possible to make an attic as a shed?

And I just realized that Hikaru should already be in his third year, so I've corrected that part as well.

Reviews and insights are very much appreciated. Ja ne!