A/N: THIS IS THE EPILOGUE (THE THIRD CHAPTER). If you've somehow managed to skip the second chapter (Sai's Viewpoint), please go back and read it first!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hikaru no Go.

Epilogue

It has only been a month but it already feels like a lifetime. Hikaru waits with a beleaguered air about him in the overarching corridors of the courthouse. It is a sterile, unwelcome place but he is too busy wondering if he'll ever sleep again to care about the people that pass him, terrified as they scurry from his unseeing gaze.

His thoughts are broken as the Fujiwara patriarch - his adoptive father, a role he has yet to rescind - stops in front of him and waves off his lawyers with nothing more than a hand. He looks tired and sickly, which is fitting because Hikaru knows he mirrors the look. He does his best to meet the man's eyes but it's difficult when all he can see is Sai's eyes looking back at him.

"I'm sorry."

This is not the first time the older man has apologized. That had been when he'd stalked into the police station where Hikaru was being held, grabbing the son he had no blood tie to by the shoulders before pulling back and bowing at the waist. Then the truth of the matter had come to light for the authorities who had been called to the scene, one of the neighbors in the apartment complex having come out in the morning to the sight of Hikaru sitting leaned against his front door, covered in blood and mute.

"My son was a monster," Sai's father continues. "And I could not save you."

Hikaru's lips twist into something reminiscent of a grin at the admission. That seems to be a truth only the two of them understood, as the Fujiwara patriarch's inaction at stopping the clearly unhealthy relationship between his sons had baffled the cops. But Hikaru knew nothing but death could stop Sai, and even then - Hikaru was not sure.

"I will remain your guardian. Your finances will be handled by myself and will never be a concern as long as you live. Hikaru - I know I have not done right by you but I intend to fix all this," Fujiwara says softly.

Hikaru shrugs. The older man must have picked up on the rumor that Hikaru would not be going back into the Go Pro leagues. Hikaru doubted he could; murdering the rising star of the Go world wasn't a good way to start off a career. Instead he leans back against the window and enjoys the way the sunlight hits the nape of his neck, warming him in a way that Sai never could.

"I don't hate him, you know," Hikaru admits, voice light and casual. "I could never hate Sai."

Fujiwara shook his head, turning with a solemn expression, "That's perhaps the worst part about this."

Hikaru laughs.

"Hikaru."

The blond-banged boy turns, nodding in greeting as the interloper moves closer. Touya Akira's eyes flit over the Fujiwara patriarch warily but he holds his tongue. The older man had paid for all of Hikaru's lawyers and agreed to the terms of Hikaru's release, so Akira wasn't going to test him now. Instead he moves closer to his rival and grabs his hand, a tight hold that Hikaru acquiesces to with a sigh.

"Let's go," Akira says with a huff. He always looks increasingly incensed the days Hikaru is not near, a matter resolved with Hikaru's willing relocation. The former Go pro has no inclination to go back to the apartment that laid the backdrop for a nightmare that suffocated him for years and instead goes into Touya's open arms; the apartment the rising two-dan rented the moment he'd heard Hikaru was being dropped of all charges in the murder of Fujiwara Sai.

Hikaru does not return the grip but doubts he needs to. Akira holds on to him with a cold, white hand that is more familiar than it should be and then Hikaru remembers.

Tragedies play out in three acts.

POSSESSION - END

A/N: I'll leave you wondering what happens afterward. (Does Hikaru go on to kill Akira? Is Akira truly like Sai - as both Hikaru and Sai theorized, or is it their own insanity that colors their vision and twists Akira to fit their mold?)

-This came about as my third attempt at writing SaiHika. Clearly my Writing Muses just will not let me write one happy SaiHika fic. One day, Muses, one day...