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Hikaru fell into bed and turned to face the ghost sitting neatly on the floor.
“You sure you don’t want me to turn the radio on?”
“I’ll be alright,” Sai said. “Really.”
“Well,” he said, “if you’re sure.” He pulled the covers up over himself.
“G’night, Sai.”
“Good night, Hikaru.”
Hikaru turned his bedside lamp off and the room went dark. Soon, Sai felt him drift off to sleep, leaving Sai alone by Hikaru’s side. Lately, Hikaru kept offering to leave the ‘radio’ or ‘television’ on at night for him. It was a sweet gesture, but unnecessary. Sai wasn’t lonely. Or bored. Not by any means. Everyday with HIkaru was leagues better than the centuries of waiting.
The hours Hikaru spent sleeping were nothing in comparison to the centuries of being trapped in a Go board.
Besides, all those years turned Sai into an expert at waiting. Though unable to interact with the world, he had come up with plenty of ways to entertain himself: music, poetry, plays, and, of course, Go.
While waiting for Torajirou to find him, he must have played thousands of games in his mind. His favorite games he replayed in their entirety, in others he fixed his mistakes and played out how it could have gone. Eventually, he created imaginary opponents to play against. Anything he could until he had the chance to play against another person.
Sai’s eyes drifted over to the Go board by Hikaru’s ‘fridge.’ Even though the sun set hours ago, it was easy to make out. It was one of the starkest reminders that he didn’t belong to this era.
In Hikaru’s room, it was dark, but not the kind of dark in his and Torajiro’s time. Complete, total darkness didn’t seem to exist anymore. Hikaru had tried to explain ‘electricity’ to Sai, but Sai figured he didn’t understand it either. Whatever it was, the results of it were everywhere. It made the city glow.
From the bedroom, Sai could see outside the window to the city sky. Ever since he’d taken up in Hikaru’s heart he rarely saw the stars, if ever. Most nights the clouds reflected the city light back down.
Beautiful, yet unsettling. Tokyo was not the same city as Edo.
Sai found the differences between Tokyo and Edo more stark than the ones between Edo and Kyoto. If Torajiro’s time was different, then Hikaru’s was alien. Some differences were everywhere, like how the buildings were made of ‘concrete’ and metal instead of wood or the cut of modern clothes. The change in spirit was less obvious, but it was there. From Hikaru’s history classes, it was easier to understand how the incremental changes had led to the foreign world he found himself in now.
The world as Sai knew it was gone and it wouldn’t come back. It wasn’t a good or bad thing, it simply was. Different, changed, and the connecting threads across time were there. The same moon, the same sunsets, the same game. All present across thousands of years.
Sai was excited to share that game with Hikaru. The boy who had been so adamantly against playing Go had come to love it, too. In return, Sai would make sure to nurture Hikaru’s talent to its fullest.
Kami-sama had graced Sai with the opportunity to play more Go. He wasn’t going to complain or squander his time with Hikaru. He was touched that Hikaru worried about his well being, but those fears were baseless. No, instead Sai was delighted to be here with him at all. Together, they would play a lifetime’s worth more of games.