Reaching Ithaka
by For Eden

Chapter 4: Stairway to Heaven

He was able to recognize that there was something a bit off about the way Sai played go recently. Years of studying Shusaku's kifu when he was a young professional paired with the years he spent playing Sai allowed Kouyo to have a good enough sense of Sai's go for him to understand the ghost even if he was unable to directly communicate with him. Because of that, he was able to noticed that the ghost's go was off.

It was not as though Sai's go had deteriorated in skill. On the contrary, Sai's go grew stronger and even more profound. However, underneath his go, there was an underlying element of melancholy and urgency in the spirit's go that Kouyo was not able to understand. He was not sure what could have caused the spirit's slight depression.

Kouyo was unable to tell if Hikaru had noticed these changes in Sai. One would imagine that with Hikaru spending every waking moment with the ghost (Sai never did leave her side save for the few times when she required her privacy), she would have been the first person to notice the changes in her constant companion. It would have been true for most people except with Hikaru, things were a bit different. Like her namesake, Hikaru had a bright personality and had a carefree attitude to life that made her quite unobservant to the things around her. This attitude caused the young girl to be rude at times, she never was well with taking into account time, place, and the people around her when she spoke. However, there was no malice in her behavior. She did it only because that was what she did.

Given the way Hikaru went on about her day at school and the tennis match she saw her cousin play last week (and won with much ease), Touya knew that Hikaru had not notice these changes in Sai. Kouyo didn't think Hikaru was dense enough to have not noticed it if Sai had suddenly become depressed though, so he couldn't help but think Sai must be hiding his emotions from the girl. The only reason why he probably noticed the changes in Sai was the only way that he communicated with Sai was through go. When one's heart was clouded, one's go would change with it.

"Pa-chink." Hikaru's white piece made contact with the smooth wood of the goban. The sounds woke him from his contemplation of the ghost and back to the piece that Hikaru had just placed down for Sai.

It was an unexpected move.

It was not as though the move that Sai had placed was a bad one. In all actuality, the move was quite good. It was just the fact that the move was not something he had expected to come from Sai. Rather, the move was something Kouyo would expect Hikaru to play rather than that of her mentor.

How peculiar.

It seemed as though whatever was bothering Sai was directly linked to one Shindou Hikaru. He looked up from the goban to take a good look at the blonde seated across from him.

Hikaru had changed a lot since he first met her. She had lost all of her baby fat and was a bit taller than before (though Akira's growth spurt would have had his song son not song towering over the girl if ever they were standing in front of one another). Hikaru had also shed some of her tomboyish mannerisms and was trendy while spending a lot of her time socializing with the other girls in her class. She did still have the habit of being rude at times and for blurting things out without thinking it. But, from what Hikaru told her, Sai constantly nagged her about her manners so she put more of an effort to be polite.

Even though Hikaru had changed, her changing had been gradual. Nothing about these changes should have caused Sai to become worried or upset.

So what was it about Hikaru that had the ghost acting a bit off?

He sighed and looked back down to the board, knowing that the girl probably was wondering why he was staring at her for so long or else wondering why he was taking so long to put down the next piece.

However, Hikaru had not spoken about Kouyo's staring or about how long the game was taking. The girl tried to be patient when the two men played go against one another, but she was not someone able to sit down for such a long time without talking or doing something. She tended to fidget a lot while seated during her mentors' games.

Now that he thought about it, Hikaru had stopped fidgeting awhile ago. Rather, Hikaru left her trained eyes on the goban. She would play out different possibilities left in the game and try to foresee the end of a match.

When was it that Hikaru was able to read that deeply into a game? When she watched Sai or him play go, she would try her hardest to read ahead, trying to guess what the two rivals might have in store for one another. When Hikaru played go, she would set up intricate traps that required more foresight than she had possessed before.

It seemed as though Hikaru had grown serious about go. He previously felt as though Hikaru had learned and played go in order to please Sai and him and earn the two go players' affection. Though that might have been true initially, Hikaru's interest in go was now genuine.

He picked up a cold stone between his fingers and placed it in a cluster by at the of the board. He watched as a smile lifted Hikaru's lips, most likely because the girl had known he was going to put the piece there.

'What is it my friend, that makes you so concerned?' Kouyo silently asked the ghost.

As expected, silence answered him.

He had never been the type to dream too much. Throughout his lifetime, he dreamt the occasional dream, none he remembered anymore, but spent far more nights in a dreamless cycle only to wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. It had been years since he had a vivid dream.

Thus, he was almost certain that he was awake, seated in front of the goban in one of the rooms in his house. There doesn't seem to be anything amiss. However, the game that had been played out on the goban was not one that he had played.

The game had been a fierce battle between black and white. There were many clusters of conflict and the two players seemed to be even in strength. He couldn't help but think both styles of go were quite familiar to him. In the end, it was white that was the victor.

"It's here," a white fan pointed somewhere near the corner. Kouyo looked at the stone that the ghost pointed out. "If my opponent had connected to here soon after he played this piece, I would have been forced to defend."

The retired go professional watched as a few of the stones rearranged itself on the board. One by one another ending was playing out. "If my opponent had played it out this way, I would have lost."

Kouyo looked up from the board and to the man that was speaking. He recalled Hikaru's voice from a year ago, as she described the way that Sai looked after she failed at drawing a picture of the ghost. Apparently, her art skill was so bad that Sai had cried after seeing the picture she drew of him.

The figure across from him smiled at him. His long violet hair was tied back and his white robes were arranged nicely around him. He held a white fan in his right hand.

"Sai…"

"It's nice to finally meet you," the ghost bowed his head down in greeting. He returned the ghost's gestures. If that was Sai, then the game that was on the goban was definitely one that was played by Sai online.

Taking another look at the board, Kouyo was able to recognize Sai's brilliance in the game. It was a bit of a surprise to him that there was someone else out there that was able to play Sai this equally. He watched as the pieces played out in proper order as white and black rallied against one another. Black responded to Sai in the manner similar to what he would have done.

The pieces stopped appearing when it came to possible turning point of the game. Now that he had seen the game unfolded, he was unsure if he would have noticed the alternative ending if it had not been pointed out to him.

"It was Hikaru that pointed it out, didn't she?" Kouyo asked the ghost as he watched the pieces on the goban slowly disappear until all that was left was a blank surface staring back at him. "Hikaru managed to go beyond you with that one move."

Sai nodded. The ghost was quiet for a moment before flipping his fan open and then closed again.

"When Hikaru pointed it out, I came to realization that god did not send me back to earth in order to attain the hand of god. All these years I spent on earth and all the games I have played while here was for an entirely different reason. I went sent to earth to play this one game and teach Hikaru go."

"As soon as I realized it, I also knew that my time was now up. I had served my purpose. This meant that now it was time for me to move on. However, moving on meant that I was to leave Hikaru soon." Tears began to freely flow down the ghost's face. Opening up his fan, he hid his face behind it.

"I love her. Hikaru has always listened to my selfish desires and tried her hardest to grant my wishes. The years that we spent together, the games that we played, the fights that we fought are all precious to me."

"Touya-sensei, please grant this selfish man one last wish," Placing down his fan on the goban, Sai bowed his head low at his rival. "Take care of Hikaru for me."

"Of course," he answered automatically. He had already known what his rival's request was going to be such that the answer was already on the tip of his tongue. Even without asking, Kouyo would have made sure to take care of Hikaru to the best of his abilities. Hikaru was precious to him as well.

The ghost had a serene smile on his lips before he began to slowly fade out of existence.

"It has been an honor having you as a rival."

Morning came soon after, followed by a frantic Hikaru at his doorstep. The words that left her mouth made little sense, other than the words "Sai" and "gone". She searched his home, as if the ghost was only hiding from her in his home. He stopped her by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to a tight hug.

All Hikaru was able to do was cry.

AN: And thus the end of the first part of Reaching Ithaka, which will be flagged as "completed" and a new sequel will pop up in its place (hopefully sooner than later). The first part of Reaching Ithaka sort of maps out a bit of this universe that I created with the different changes in events, being that Hikaru is a girl and the first person Sai and Hikaru played against was Touya Kouyo. Hikaru never does have any motivation to becoming a go professional since she never Akira chase after her and likewise, she never chased after Akira. However, with Sai entering Kouya's dream and telling him that his purpose was to teach Hikaru go made Hikaru take go more seriously and strive to become a go professional with the encouragement of Kouyo.

Thus, the second part of the fic will be Hikaru making waves and will finally depart from Kouyo's point of view in favor of a more general narration.

For some extra explanations to this chapter: The game is where Hikaru points out Sai's loss is actually one played by Sai versus Ogata, which is why Kouyo felt it was familiar to him. I did not feel like having it a game with Sai versus Kouyo because of many reasons, though I'm not sure if they were any special reasons.

I like to thank everyone for the kind reviews that they have been giving me. I appreciate them all and am very happy every time I read a new one.

Beta's Note: Anna's awesome. She got this out so fast it's amazing. : ) And it's so sad… tears Ah well, at least Hikaru has Kouyo to take care of her!! Feed us reviews!! Torina Archelda from skyehawke