I do not have a beta for this. I do so want a beta for this. Please, if you are interested in betaing, get in touch with me.

This takes place during the series, focusing mostly on Mitani, with occasional glimpses of Sai's perspective of things or Akari's. It's a pairing I have never seen before, a completely unheard of Sai/Mitani, but one I wanted to explore.

I am rating this R from the outset because of suggestions made in this chapter, events that happen next chapter, and more events in another chapter or so, maybe. This is not the most pleasant story, with mentions of underage sex, almost NCS situations, a character death (but it's Sai's, and if you didn't know that he died, you really don't know enough about HnG to read this), and eventual spoilers near the end of the series. So don't read if you don't want to know what happens.

A note: I see Sai as having been very young when he died – 17-18 ish. I have several reasons for this. First of all, he isn't all that much taller than a 14 year old Hikaru (see the final opening of the anime for proof). Secondly, he looks youthful. Thirdly, he acts childish at times, not the behavior of a fully mature adult. Thirdly, he lived 1000 years ago, where people didn't live as long as they do today. Which means they would grow up faster and take on jobs younger. Had he been female, he probably would have been wed and a mother by the age of 17-18.

A disclaimer: If these were my characters, I would not be writing fanfiction. I would be continuing the story for real. Since I'm writing fanfiction, you can tell these are not my characters. I'm just borrowing them for the moment.

And finally, a warning: Relationships of a homosexual nature will be portrayed in this story. If you cannot stomach this, please, do not torture yourself and continue reading. Take some Pepto-Bismol and lie down in a cool, dark room in a comfortable bed. I will not be held responsible if you do not follow my suggestion.

With His Luck

There was a reason Yuuki had avoided the Haze Jr. High Go club, and it wasn't because it was no fun. On the contrary, Yuuki craved the opportunity to play with people his own age. While the Go salons gave him some spending money, he didn't appreciate the heavy smokescreen surrounding each opponent or the way some of the men's eyes would linger on him too long, sweeping over his body in a definitely predatory way.

There were reasons Yuuki Mitani played to win in those salons.

But with the Haze Go club, the only smoke came whenever Tsutsui hung around Kaga too much, and then it was only a faint scent from his uniform where the taller boy's arm had been. The club members were too young to worry about appraising his body, and their desire to play Go came from a love of the game similar to the one Yuuki's grandfather had fostered in him when he was five years old.

No, Yuuki preferred playing at the Go club over the salons… except for one thing.

Hikaru Shindou.

It wasn't the boy himself who frightened Yuuki (not that he'd ever admit it). No, it was the shadow, the cold, which lurked right behind the enthusiastic boy. Yuuki had seen such shades before, but usually just around cemeteries or in ancient shrines, and then his parents had dismissed his frightened cries as those of a little child making up stories or just being paranoid. So Yuuki learned to hold his tongue when he saw the shades.

Shindou was the first person he had ever met who had a shade constantly at his side. Sometimes, the shades would try to follow Yuuki home, but they never could go far from their place of rest, so if he ran fast enough, they were left behind. Shindou's shade never left his side. Yuuki worried that if he joined the Go club, if he hung out with Shindou, that shade would detach itself from the brighter boy and cling to him, constantly torturing him with his presence.

So Yuuki avoided the Go club.

Naturally, with his luck, Shindou found him. Hunted him down in a Go salon. Watched him play against one of those men who looked at him too long and required him to cheat to prevent a loss and subsequent humbling against an alley wall somewhere. Cornered him in front of the shoe boxes and dragged him to the Chem. lab to join the Go club. Yuuki had wanted to bolt. He had wanted to grab his bag and get the hell away from Shindou and his shade. But, naturally, with his luck, Yuuki suffered from a great amount of pride and wouldn't allow himself the shame of fleeing from the boy his own age.

When Tsutsui offered to play a game with him, he almost squealed happily. Almost. The presence of Shindou's shade lurking behind him and the other kids around him allowed him to keep his head and detached image, grudgingly accepting one game.

Tsutsui sucked. Majorly. But Tsutsui kept his mind on the game and not the possible outcome should he win. Tsutsui played the game to play and enjoy it, not to try and pick up some extra yen. Yuuki almost didn't want to end the game so soon. He tried to ignore Shindou and his shade, but every moment spent in their presence was difficult. He could almost fell the icy breath of the dead being behind him, rolling down his neck and back in merciless, freezing waves. Yuuki leaned as far forward as he could, praying Tsutsui would give him an opportunity… yes! Tsutsui was still concentrating on the goban after a move, all it would take is one tap of the stone on the side and there! Tsutsui made his second move in a row; Yuuki tossed the stone back in the go-ke and fled as gracefully as he could.

It was his own fault Shindou found him again. The boy wasn't as stupid as he acted some times; it wasn't really that much of a stretch for him to assume Yuuki would return to the Go salon he had been at earlier. Dake was new to the salon, but Shu seemed to know him. Yuuki no longer even felt a desire to shudder when the ugly man leered at him – too many months of suppressing the urges eventually killed them. He just met Dake's gaze coolly, judging his Go based on what little he saw of the game Shu played with him.

He should have known it was a trap. He should have recognized that Shu never gambled with his customers, yet collected money from Dake. He should have recognized that the alcohol smell came from Dake's clothes, not his breath. He should have seen through the false slur and the overall weakness of Dake's right hand.

Should have, but he didn't.

Shindou's shade flowed into the room, standing right behind him, beside him, over him. The cold from death drained his life warmth from him, and he was too distracted from ignoring the shade to notice the inconsistencies with Dake.

He lost. He lost, and he lost more than 10,000 yen. The way Dake looked at him, ran his eyes down the line of buttons on his shirt and below the table… Yuuki knew he'd be losing something else if he didn't move fast. He pulled his money out, flung it at the other man, and made to flee… but naturally, with his luck, he was 20 yen short, and Dake called him on it before he had time to make his getaway. And then Shu… Shu had called this beast here, called him here to trounce Yuuki… That hurt more than the loss. He had trusted Shu, but was now going to be ravaged because of what the old man had done. Damn his pride. He returned Shu's money and borrowed the 20 yen from Shindou, accepting that this meant he'd be running into the shade again, and dashed away, disappearing into the crowd, trying to get somewhere safe before Dake came after him.

Dake never reached him. Yuuki whispered a small prayer of thanks to whatever god decided to grant him some small respite. His dreams that night were terrible. Dake was there, tearing at his clothes, pressing him against a wall that suddenly gave way and the arms of Shindou's shade were wrapping around him and he was falling, falling, drowning in the shadow, the icy cold feeling like thousands of knives driving into his skin. And Dake was leering down at him as the shadows climbed his body, filled his mouth and nose, blurred his vision… and then he felt more solid arms around him, pushing him out of the shadows, and Dake had been replaced by Shindou, taking him from his savior and helping him onto solid ground, into warmth and light and the unending whine of his alarm to tell him it was time to get ready for school.

He owed Shindou twenty yen. So he gave Shindou twenty yen worth of his time, letting the shade-infested boy approach him before school to tell him that he'd return his 10,000 yen if Yuuki went to the Chem. lab after school. Of course, Shindou had to have told him this in the morning, giving him the full course of the day to dread the encounter. But he owed Shindou twenty yen. So he went.

Twenty yen, however, wasn't enough for Yuuki to look at Shindou, and it was no where ever even close to the price Yuuki would demand to look at that dark smudge right behind Shindou's shoulder. He looked at a flask… Erlenmeyer, wasn't that what the teacher called it? Or was it Erinmeyer? "I came to the science lab, just like you asked. So fork over that 10,000 yen." As Shindou handed the money over and took his twenty yen back, he related the tale of how he asked Dake to return the money.

Yuuki didn't buy it. Dake didn't seem like the type of guy who'd "feel sorry" and just hand over 10,000 yen, and Shu… Shu couldn't afford to just give 10,000 yen to a cheating brat. But whatever Shindou had done, he had unwittingly distracted Dake long enough for Yuuki to get away, and managed to make it through unscathed himself, if the unfazed grin on his face said anything. Maybe it was the shade's doing. Yuuki frowned slightly at that thought. No matter what had happened though, he was back in Shindou's debt, and the grinning boy didn't even realize it. Yuuki scowled, but he took a seat across the goban from Shindou, offering the game as a means of beginning to repay his enormous debt.

The game with Shindou was definitely interesting. Shindou had an odd, almost archaic, undertone to his moves, and he was even worse than Tsutsui… but it was his actions during the game that caught Yuuki's eye. His keen gaze caught Shindou glancing in the direction of his shade from time to time, occasionally grinning as though sharing an inside joke with someone who wasn't there. Sometimes the glance was no more than a flick of his eyes to the side immediately before or after playing a stone. Yuuki watched Shindou warily, wondering what would happen if he questioned the other about the shade. Would he be seen as insane, or would Shindou reveal that he too could sense the uneasy souls of the dead who could not rest?

Just as Yuuki opened his mouth to ask, deciding that he could risk a blow to his image for the chance to talk to someone else who could see a perfectly valid reason behind running past cemeteries without a glance, Tsutsui walked in. Fujisaki followed soon after. Yuuki's mouth shut with an almost audible click. A blow to his pride in front of Shindou and the shade alone was one thing, but no way was he chancing it in front of the entire Go club.

When they started going on about the tournament again, Tsutsui and Shindou, Yuuki had to damn his pride again. The two boys who barely knew a keima from a kosumi had defeated Kaio's team, yet claimed he himself didn't have a chance. Yuuki bristled. Go was one of the few things that held great meaning in his life, a way he remembered his grandfather. And they claimed that his Go wasn't good enough? Who were they to make that decision? So Yuuki's mouth opened on its own and the fateful words spilled out. "Let's beat Kaio." Let's. Let us. Yuuki had signed his soul over to the Go club, becoming the fourth member. Fifth if you counted the shade.

The more Yuuki watched Shindou's interactions with his shade, the more Yuuki believed that the shade really was a Go club member. It seemed less depressed whenever it was around gobans or conversations about Go. If Yuuki passed Shindou in the hall, the shade was almost always giving off a more uneasy aura. The cold had lessened too. The Chem. lab was only mildly cool when the club met, not the icy cold that Yuuki had felt in the Go salon, when someone was cheating… could that be it? Could this shade see himself to be a protector of Go? Yuuki smirked at the idea. If so, the shade picked a really lousy kid to be attached too. Shindou couldn't beat him with a nine stone handicap. Shindou couldn't beat Tsutsui in an even game. Shindou could barely beat the girl, Fujisaki. But… Shindou did have enthusiasm. Yuuki had to give him that. The boy seemed to honestly love the game, and he was improving pretty fast. Perhaps that was why the shade stuck to his side.

> > > > >

To Be Continued...