Chapter Text
Hikaru was almost twelve. He was a quiet child and very mature in ways that wasn't expected of him. The boy also had a wistful air around him, like he felt he was missing something even though he didn't know what. His parents were proud of him. Their little prodigy, the two told him and gave him deja vu.
Anyway, he was eleven going on twelve and staring at an odd feeling goban. A go board. Go. A game his Ojii-san liked to play with Hikaru sitting next to him, watching.
But odd feeling goban. With a blood stain. And teardrops. Oh so achingly familiar feeling goban. With something oh so foreign in it too. Contrasting each other and… reaching for him? He reached back and touched the corner of it. Light exploded out. Something touching his mind . Familiar, bright , his hisHis . Foreign, weird, welcomed .
Hikaru was overwhelmed by emotion, light, everything and passed out.
xXXx
Crying. Someone was crying. Familiar . His. Crying and relieved and sad and so so happy . He opened his eyes and saw a ghost of a woman with long light brown hair. Some of it in a bun on top of her head and two sharp and long hairpins in it. Old ones. Beautiful ones. Old clothes too, with long sleeves. She was crying silently while petting his own raven black hair.
'...Rina?' , he asked in his mind.
She sniffled even as a wide smile spread on her lips, "Hi. I'm here"
His mind couldn't comprehend for a second. Then he sat abruptly and tackled her in a hug. She might be a ghost now but he could still touch her because he needed to after finally finding what was missing . She was a part of him. Memories flashed through his mind and made his head spin and now he was crying too, shaking silently and clutching at her.
"You-", he sobbed out, continuing mentally, 'You weren't there. I was but you weren't and I was lost. You're the only thing keeping me sane in this!'
Rina's grip tightened, "And I'm back now. I'm back"
'You're the only one keeping me sane too' , she told him in his mind and Hikaru shuddered at the thought of her being alone in her head for- for who knew how long.
"I'm here too now", he told her, 'We're us again'
There was another hand on his back, comforting but not familiar and he looked up to find another ghost hovering over him. He had old clothes too and long blue-ish purple hair, a concerned expression on his face. The strange hat on his head was tall and oddly suited him. He also had a fan in his right hand.
Hikaru dried his tears and smiled, staying in Rina's lap.
'Hello. I'm Hikaru. Rina's outer self. Pleasure to meet you!' , he said mentally, feeling giddy.
They all were still in the storeroom at Grandpa's house. No one had noticed his dizzy spell and he was thankful for that.
The other ghost lit up, though the underlying concern was still there, "The pleasure is mine, Hikaru. I am Fujiwara no Sai, go instructor!"
'Go instructor?' , Hikaru blinked at them both, 'You play go?'
"Aaaaaalll the time", Rina sighed fondly, " Nothing better to do in there"
" You love it as much as I do, Torina-chan!", Fujiwara-san protested.
"Riiiight. No one loves go as much as you, Sai-sensei"
"You don't need to call me that!"
Rina just laughed and Hikaru smiled happily. Sai would fit in with them just fine. Go instructor, huh. Could he learn from him? Grandpa would be happy. And his other self seemed to like go too so learning to play was a must.
xXXx
He was right. Grandpa was ecstatic when he said he wanted to learn. Rina and Sai hovered over his shoulder as the old man explained the rules and showed him how to hold the stones. He smiled in delight when he learned to make the sharp clack sound on the board.
Of course, his first game ended in defeat. And the next one. And the next one.
Then Grandpa said they couldn't play more since he had to go home with his parents. Instead he tried to play mentally with Rina first and suddenly he knew she was way better than Grandpa. And thus, way, waaaay above him. Hikaru was ecstatic.
'Sai-sensei, are you even better than her?' , he asked excitedly.
"Uh…", Sai looked bashful and off-guard at the sudden declaration of 'sensei' and implication of being better than Rina.
The woman snorted indelicately, "Yup. He wins eight times out of ten"
"More like seven…", the long haired man muttered behind his fan, looking to the side with a blush.
Hikaru sniggered and they continued forward. Sai started babbling about how talented Hikaru was and that he 'picked it up as fast as Torina!'. Which wasn't really that surprising since they had most of each other's experiences. They had been together for sixteen lifetimes already. Even if this was the first time Hikaru was a boy. It was weird now that he knew he was a girl most of the time. Still was a girl in mind.
Mental go wasn't that hard to do after mental spell crafting, which included large numbers, complex calculations, arithmetic combinations, spell trajectories and a horde of other things you needed to perfect on the fly. Usually you needed paper and a pen for all of it. Or a computer but wizards didn't have those until she invented a magical one.
And she was a he now. Their life was strange.
xXXx
They didn't have a goban at home. It was a shame. He really wanted one. Maybe he could buy one? Or ask Grandpa? His allowance had been steadily building up over the years since he didn't really know what to spend it on. Well, he did buy that ink bottle and brush. Calligraphy had been a hobby. Calmed him. Made him feel a little more whole.
That's actually a reason why his parents thought he was some sort of prodigy. He made seals on the paper. Intricate patterns and letters intertwined with each other in a way that, in another world, would make a medical cure. Circulating blood flow, regrowing heart tissue, sealing bones in place… Of course he had also painted a lot and had even sold some of his pictures.
"Wah! Amazing! Hikaru, you're very good at this!", Sai praised as he ran an elegant ghostly finger over one of them.
'Thanks' , the boy smiled.
Then the ghosts began discussing the drawings and seals on his bedroom walls, Rina teasing the poor guy by telling what the seals actually did. It was a little amusing to see how he quickly withdrew his hands once she told him it stimulated muscles of coma patients. As in, made unconscious people move on their own. It was a little creepy to think about it like that, Hikaru had to admit. Rina was basically the one to teach Sai about the modern world. Hikaru just pitched in sometimes.
They settled into a routine of go lessons, paper drawn go games, school, other things, go. They loved it. Hikaru's parents didn't know what to think of it.
xXXx
It was on the next day after school when he abruptly stopped beside a cafe.
An internet cafe.
Hikaru lit up and dug some money out of his bag. This was a jackpot. Rina squealed in delight as she realized what he was doing. Then she rapidly informed Sai who was now vibrating with excitement and telling him to hurry up. He chuckled at their antics and steadily walked in and paid for a seat.
In fifteen minutes NetGo had three new accounts. One called Sai, another called Rina, and a third called Hoshi. Which meant 'star'. Not that far from Hikaru, which meant 'to shine'.
Little did they know how big an impact their trio would make.
It was only lucky that they were used to that kind of stuff just happening.
xXXx
In the month before Hikaru's twelfth birthday he didn't actually play that much go on the internet. It was more for Sai and Rina's benefit as they learned the modern systems and could play different opponents. Not just each other, like they'd done for the last century and four decades. Hikaru could barely imagine being stuck in a goban for so long . They had to split the screen in two more often than not so both of them could play.
To split it three ways… Crowded, much? Which meant Hikaru didn't play more often than not.
It was… strange to have three go players in one body. Usually it was just him ( her ) and Rina. And they were both doing things together so it was more like one person. Now she was so much better than him and he'd have to catch up. Sometimes it felt a bit much. Rina and Hikaru were nothing if not adaptable though, so everything was okay.
The two-way games often meant that they couldn't really stick around to chat with the opponents they… mostly demolished. They did get some comments that asked it but most of the time Sai's or Rina's game was ongoing and the mouse was needed to click on the board. To be fair, Hikaru had struggled to keep up with both games at once for a bit so discussion on top of that would've grated on his multitasking skills. He was trying to learn more form each and every game after all.
That showed. His Grandpa, Ojii-san, had beaten him soundly the first time they played. Now though… Hikaru found that he was steadily surpassing him. Alarmingly fast, actually, or so Sai said.
Just yesterday he'd won four games in a row for the first time. Ojii-san was impressed .
So impressed that he let Hikaru have the goban his ghostly companions had resided in. The trio was delighted and proceeded to play on it again and again and again until his mother came to tell him that it was time to sleep.
Life was perfect.
Then Hikaru found a go salon two weeks later and life was better than perfect.
xXXx
It went like this:
Hikaru decided to spend that week's allowance in going to the go salon he found. He was shown in and since he didn't really know what rank he was that spot was left empty in the registration paper. Then he spotted a kid around his age sitting alone at a go board. He looked confident. Like you did whenever you knew you were good at something.
There didn't seem to be that many other free people and he was curious so Hikaru walked up to the boy and asked for a game.
And he was good. Even better than Grandpa.
But Hikaru had surpassed Ojii-san and found he was just about as good as his opponent. The boy had started out with shudou-go. A teaching game. Which was his downfall. Hikaru all but matched him at every turn, laying traps and using his strategic mind to see where the game would go. It was a battlefield. It was exciting . He could finally see why Rina and Sai wanted him to find an equal. This could teach him a lot more than most other things. This could push him like nothing else.
In the end Hikaru lost. By half a moku.
His eyes were shining with eager happiness as he resigned, looking at the other kid with a dazzled grin. The sentiment of baffled excitement was clear in the green haired boy's expressive eyes. He hadn't played like that before either.
"How old are you?", he asked with tentative hope and disbelief that he almost lost to someone so young .
"Twelve", Hikaru answered, almost breathless from the game.
His opponent's eyes went huge, "...Me too"
They sized each other up and down and stared at the go board. Hikaru grinned brighter.
"I'm Shindou Hikaru. Do you want to play again?"
"I am… I'm Touya Akira. And… yes!"
After that it became a showdown. Hikaru won the next game, more vigilant and mind more engaged. Akira won the time after that. The whole salon was watching, marveling at the unknown who managed to beat Touya-kun once . They both could definitely feel that they were getting better and better. All fun must end sometime though and after the fourth game (he lost again) Hikaru had to go home.
"Are you coming here again, Shindou-san?", Akira asked him hopefully.
"Definitely! You can call me Hikaru if you want. When should we meet?", he asked brightly.
His maybe new friend and rival lit up and asked if the day after tomorrow was okay. Hikaru said yes. There was one more thing people wanted to know though.
"When did you start learning go, Hikaru-kun?", an elderly man asked.
The boy frowned in thought and then blinked in surprise.
"Huh. It's been around two months now, I think. But I really gotta go now", and he rushed out the door, leaving literally everyone flabbergasted and Akira feeling like a rug had been pulled out from under him.
" TWO MONTHS!? ", they all parroted in disbelief, Rina and Hikaru giggling on their way out.
Aahhh. Those kinds of reactions were always hilarious .
xXXx