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05 Fujiwara no Sai: Psychic Boy

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Mitani Yuki has no imagination: That's right. No indulgence in fantasy, no secret dreams about wishing to be a wizard, no "did that animal just talk to me?", no talking about espers, no even looking for alien spaceships in the sky. No big dreams either: Not any sort of particular ambition, no hoping that things will be better than adequate.

He is generally a boy very conscious of reality and its shortcomings. Maybe he's older than his years and maybe that's why he's so cynical too. He has learned that in life there's only one rule: that of survival.

There is much knowledge and many skills one needs for surviving in the modern society, Mitani has learned. One is to always look out for number one. Another is to always stay calm, no matter the circumstances.

Circumstances that could be alarming and/or shocking, such as: finding yourself lying on your bed with a 10.000 yen note in your hand with no recollection of how you got there, and how long you've been there.

Mitani blinks slowly and thinks furiously. Unbidden the image of a game comes into focus in his mind. A game that if he's not sorely mistaken, he started in a very familiar setting...

And here's where the crux in this happenstance lies. Mitani Yuki might not have that active an imagination, but one can't say the same for his memory or the logical conclusions one could make of it.

0000

"What are your plans for this year, Akira?"

Akira doesn't look up from the game he's been replaying on the goban in front of him. It looks like the Hagiwara-sensei's most recent league match, Kōyō notices. His son has always been very studious but lately his rigorousness would put even Koyo's most ardent students to shame.

"What do you mean, Father?" Akira asks without raising his head.

Kōyō purses his lips just , but otherwise doesn't change his expression. Very little can stimulate his facial muscles.

"Will you enter the pro-exam this year, Akira?"

Akira pauses mid-movement and stiffens. Then he straightens up and focuses his piercing eyes, so much like Kōyō's own, to him.

"Father... I'm not sure I am ready." Akira says softly.

Kōyō decides to trust his instincts. "Is this about Fujiwara Sai?"

The boy pales -straight at the tengen, Kōyō thinks-. He stares wide-eyed at his father. "How do you know that name, Father?" Akira asks tentatively.

"Ashiwara-kun mentioned her. A powerful opponent, he said. You seemed to know her."

The boy grimaces. Kōyō raises an eyebrow: He's rarely seen Akira this out of sorts.

"So you don't know her?"

"It's...uh, complicated."

Kōyō closes his eyes and sighs. He sits on the other side of the goban. Akira doesn't move to make the next hand.

"Akira, is Fujiwara Sai that important to you?"

Akira closes his eyes, resigned. "I don't care about the people around me right now. Father, it may sound arrogant, but my goal in Go has always been you. I've progressed towards that goal steadily until now. I thought all I had do was have you as my rival. I thought it would place me closer to the hand of god. But, I was wrong... I couldn't do anything against Fujiwara no Sai." Akira exhales sharply as if to steel himself. "He's different from you, or Ogata-san. His presence is a weight upon me. Right now, he's the only thing on my mind."

To be honest, this isn't a surprise. Kōyō has noticed his son's anxiety for a while now.

"Why don't you play her again?" he asks.

Akira sighs despondently and so uncharacteristically that Kōyō wonders if maybe they should have had this talk sooner.

"It's..." Akira flounders. He closes his eyes and straightens his shoulders. "I am actually not sure who or what Fujiwara no Sai is." he says and he sounds lost.

Kōyō feels Akira's pain at not being able to face his worthy opponent – a pain the Meijin is unfortunately familiar with, as immodest as it sounds-. He dismisses the rest of the nonsense though.

"I find it hard to believe that you'd have trouble finding your rival, Akira." Kōyō says, steel in voice. "No matter how powerful they seem right now, you must overcome your fear and face this. Face it like a man."

Akira looks kind of confused for a moment. Then his face fills with morose amusement. Before the Meijin has time to feel insulted though, his son bows respectfully.

"I shall take your advice to heart, father." he says, determination shining through his eyes.

Kōyō nods sagely. He knows his son will make him proud.

000

The room is very obviously a chemistry lab so the smell isn't entirely pleasant, and there's always the fear that they might accidentally break something. The goban is so old that if he was a less grateful person, Tsutsui would claim to hear the sound of rot growing, and the stones are so chipped it's a health hazard, but really all that matters is this: In the space of a few days they finally have a Go club. Oh, Tsutsui could cry.

"No, you can't do that." he says.

"What?" Shindou squints his eyes at the board. "Oh, yeah, damn."

"For making such rookie mistakes though, you're advancing really fast, Shindou-kun." Tsutsui says smiling. Shindou rolls his eyes and groans, like the little twerp he is. Tsutsui's smile turns rueful. "With you getting so much better, it is a pity Tachibana-sempai isn't around anymore. We'd be able to enter the tournament then."

Shindou looks kind of uncomfortable. It's probably the fact that they'll be entering yose in a bit, and if there's one thing Tsutsui's really good at, it's yose. He never makes mistakes.

"And we didn't find that kid that managed to solve our tsumego either." he adds absentmindedly. Shindou shrugs stiffly.

"There's always next year."

Tsutsui sighs as he places his next stone. "If anyone comes next year. You don't know if anyone will get interested."

"Stop being such a grump-face, Tsutsu-sempai." Shindou says scratching his eyebrow in thought. "You'll get premature wrinkles."

"Shindou Hikaru! Can't you try to be a little nicer?" a girl's voice sounds from the door. Tsutsui turns to see that it's Fujisaki-san scowling at Shindou. Tsutsui smiles and greets her. He really likes her. Besides the fact that without her they wouldn't be able to form a club, she has a soothing sort of presence and her squabbles with the usually unperturbed Shindou are rather amusing. She's a beginner at Go and she doesn't seem to have Shindou's aptitude for it, but she's very pleasant nonetheless. Also, she's pretty.

"It's none of your business how I talk." Shindou grumbles, nearly throwing the stone he has in his fingers. His grip has become much better, Tsutsui notes with pride. The day Shindou will be able to beat him is coming closer and Tsutsui can't wait.

Fujisaki snorts inelegantly as she only does near Shindou and draws a chair near, so she can watch. As Shindou pouts looking at the board, searching for a way to save his territory, Tsutsui decides he can afford to not pay attention at the game and maybe pay attention to the pretty girl.

"Fujisaki-san, I don't think I have thanked you yet for joining the Go-club." he says earnestly.

Fujisaki blushes and offers him a cute smile. "You're welcome Tsutsui-sempai."

"No, really. If it weren't for you, this club wouldn't be able to exist and I understand you weren't exactly a Go enthusiast before this."

"Well, this seemed to be very important to Hikaru, and I wasn't interested in joining any other club in particular so-"

"Oi! I'm trying to concentrate here!" Shindou interrupts. Fujisaki rolls her eyes at Hikaru and shares a knowing glance with Tsutsui, who feels his hopes shrivel up and die. Not only was Fujisaki disinterested in Go, but she was obviously very interested in Shindou if she would join a club just because it was important to him. Tsutsui sighs. Obviously the squabbling is unresolved sexual tension.

Just as Tsutsui's about to sulk about the unfairness of the fair sex, the lab's door bangs open. It's Kaga.

"Hey, Go losers! What up?" he says, not stepping through the door.

Thoughts of dying alone and unloved forgotten, Tsutsui shivers in fear at Kaga's unholy glee, apparent by his incisor-revealing grin.

"Boss?" Hikaru says confounded, though only slightly worried about their imminent demise. 'The King of Shogi giveth and the King of Shogi taketh away', Tsutsui thinks bleakly. Then he thinks, 'What the?' as Kaga walks in dragging Toya Akira with him.

"What?" Shindou squeaks next to him. "What are you doing Kaga?" his tone full betrayed rage. Tsutsui gapes.

"Folks, I think you all know each other, but nevertheless, this is my close personal friend Toya Akira, son of the current Meijin! The Go Meijin, that is." Kaga says grandly, ignoring Hikaru. "Imagine my surprise at finding him at the gates of my kingdom, asking for one Shindou Hikaru." Kaga, grabbing him by the shoulder, manhandles Toya forwards.

Toya looks terrified.

"So tell him what you told me, Toya-kun." Kaga says still fiendishly delighted.

"What the hell is happening?" Tsutsui exclaims. Kaga throws one glare at him and Tsutsui reconsiders his stance. Obviously this is personal, what is he doing butting in. Should he offer Kaga a chair? Was everyone comfortable?

"Shindou, I want to play Fujiwara no Sai." Toya says, terror apparently forgotten.

Hikaru looks about ready to escape via defenestration. "What the hell makes you think that I can help you?"

"Yeah, we already told you, Tachibana-sempai is at Hokaido!" Tsutsui adds helpfully.

"Shut up, Tsutsui." Kaga barks from his corner. Tsutsui shuts up.

Toya raises his chin. "You have been there every time someone claiming to be Fujiwara no Sai played a game. You are the only one that knows what's going on." he takes a foreboding step torwards Shindou and his eyes darken dangerously. "Tell me."

Shindou has backed himself into the wall. He and and Toya are doing some really intense eye-battling and the taller boy is very obviously about to body check Shindou or something -though it would probably not hurt, the boy is like a twig- when Fujisaki steps forwards. Tsutsui had completely forgotten her, what is she doing?

"Tell him the truth, Hikaru!" she exclaims.

"What?" Hikaru squeaks again not looking away from Toya's determined glaring.

"If you won't, I will!" Fujisaki says and shoves Toya to face her. Toya looks unbalanced for a moment, but the hope in his eyes is unmistakeable.

"What? No, Akari, you can't!" Shindou yells.

"Please tell me!" Toya begs unashamed. Tsutsui eyes Kaga. The King of Shogi looks like one more heartfelt exclamation away from grabbing for pop-corn.

"I'll tell you!" Fujisaki says dramatically, despite Shindou trying to wrestle her. "Hikaru is Fujiwara no Sai."

For a moment both Shindou and Toya are still. Then Shindou straightens up and coughs.

Toya is wide-eyed. "Is this true?" he asks Shindou.

Shindou nods awkwardly. "Yeah. Uh, I am Fujiwara." he says. "No Sai." he adds belatedly.

"What?" Tsutsui squawks in shock.

"Shut up, Tsutsui-sempai." Fujisaki barks at him. Tsutsui shuts up.

Toya is squinting at Shindou. Shindou fidgets a bit.

"Why didn't you tell me when I asked you before?" he asks in disbelief.

Shindou scratches his head and scowls at the other boy. "Why should I? I don't know who you are-"

"And why make a nick-name and make other people play for you?" Toya continues raising his voice. He looks thunderous.

"'Cause I felt like it, what do you care!" Shindou yells throwing his arms in the air. Toya doesn't look intimidated in the slightest. Tsutsui wonders if anyone would notice if he decided to bail. Kaga is blocking his path to the door, and if his expression in anything to go by, an interruption of whatever this is, won't be welcome.

Toya yells back at Shindou. "And helping someone in a tournament: that's illegal!"

"So sue me! I don't care-"

"And when I first played Fujiwara you weren't even there!" this time Toya outright shouts.

Shindou opens his mouth, obviously about to shout back, but he stops, lost for words. He raises a finger as if to make a point, then looks at Fujisaki for help.

She crosses her arms. "He had a camera-button." she says very seriously.

Toya lets out a hysterical laugh. "You can't possibly expect me to believe you!"

Hikaru punches the Go board. Tsutsui who was sitting in front of it, startles.

"What are you doing! This board is already frail as it is-!"

"Shut up, Tsutsui!" Hikaru shouts at Tsutsui's face. Tsutsui is about to rebel against this sudden grunge everyone apparent has against him, when Kaga pulls Tsutsui's chair away from the boards and slides in an other.

"Yay. Go time." Kaga deadpans and pushes Toya on the chair. The boy looks bewildered, but once again determined. Shindou sits on the chair. Tsutsui gulps anxiously: this is all happening so fast. And he doesn't even know what it all means.

"And after this, I never want to see you again." Hikaru growls.

Toya narrows his eyes. "Deal."

They nigiri. Hikaru takes black. He scowls at the air expectantly. He even nods at it.

"Shindou-kun, you play first." Tsutsui reminds him. Fujisaki and Kaga both telepathically shout at him with their eyes. Tsutsui gulps again. They look like Yakuza bosses.

Suddenly Shindou springs into action. His hand dives into the goke completely inelegantly, almost dropping it. He looks Toya Akira in the eye, an alien eerie gleam in his gaze.

"I hope to not disappoint you, Akira-kun." Shindou smiles serenely.

For the first time in this whole debacle, Tsutsui understands and sympathizes with Toya's expression of crippling fear.

0000

"I... have nothing." Toya Akira bows his head in defeat, his voice trembling.

"Thank you for the game." says calmly the ghost out of Hikaru's body.

"Bring me the bucket." says Hikaru a beat afterwards. Akari, already prepared, all but shoves it in his face.

"What wrong with him?" Toya Akira asks to the soundtrack of Hikaru's puking. That's apparently enough to get him out of his defeated zone-place.

"What do you think, genius? He's obviously allergic to playing Go directly." Kaga says with a most affronted expression. Akari is impressed. "Now leave the premises before I spray you with something toxic." His lips widen enough to show some teeth. "This is a chemistry lab after all."

0000

A/N: To those who asked about the survey, it went a bit like: "So you are the son of Bobby Fischer, and you are at your dad's chess place, when all of a sudden..." etc. My favourite answer was the aliens one. I'll never look at my mother the same way again.

Next up: Fujiwara no Sai: Ghost without a Host