Chapter Text
“Hikaru!” Sai shook his shoulder. “Hikaru, look!”
Hikaru stopped staring out the window. It had been a long time since Sai had gotten worked up over something that wasn’t Go. He scanned the train car to look for what Sai noticed, trying not to make it too obvious he was staring at the other passengers. It was the middle of the day, so the car wasn’t too busy. Hikaru saw an old lady and her granddaughter, some older kids, and a young man reading a book. Overall, not much to look at, yet Hikaru could feel the hum of Sai’s excitement under his skin, the same way he got sometimes when his online opponents made an interesting move.
But of course they weren’t playing Go, and it’d been long enough that Sai didn’t interrogate Hikaru about every piece of modern tech that piqued his curiosity anymore.
“What are you looking at?”
“That boy over there,” Sai said in a hushed voice and waved his fan towards the guy with the book. “He keeps glancing at me.”
Hikaru’s first thought was that’s impossible, but Hikaru was possessed by a ghost, so who was he to talk?
“Maybe,” Hikaru ventured, “Maybe he’s looking at me?” It wouldn’t be the first time. Sometimes he’d forget and mumble to himself or shrug off an invisible hand. All the weird stuff people could see even if they had no clue Sai was right there next to him.
“He looked above you, Hikaru!” The fingers on his shoulder tightened. “At me, Hikaru!”
Hikaru struggled to process that. If Sai was right, that was big. “He can see you? Really, really see you?” If Sai was right, It meant that there was someone else out there who could see ghosts. Someone who knew Sai existed at all. Someone who knew what it was like.
Sai insisted, “Yes, really!”
Hikaru didn’t want to hope and be wrong. “Let’s try something, Sai. To make sure it’s not a coincidence. Or a fluke. Or something.”
Sai huffed. “He’s glancing at me, Hikaru. There’s no doubt he can see me.”
“Then it won’t hurt to double-check, right?” Hikaru wasn’t about to go over and start raving about ghosts to a complete stranger unless he was sure Sai was right.
Sai frowned, “If it means you’ll believe me,” his voice trailed off as Sai thought. Slowly, he raised the arm with his fan. He spread the fan open and and with a sharp flick of his wrist—
Snap!
The guy jumped. Small enough that you’d miss it if you weren’t looking. Enough that it wasn’t random.
The guy across the train car could hear and see Sai.
“Hikaru-” The intercom interrupted him with the muffled message that the train was approaching the next station. With it, as the train slowed and slid into the station, the guy closed his book, slipped it into his bag, and stood up.
Hikaru didn’t think and before Sai could even suggest it, Hikaru was standing up, too, trailing after him. The stranger had the benefit of being taller and having longer legs, which meant the distance between them was only growing.
“Hey! Hey, mister!” Hikaru raised his voice, but the stranger didn’t slow down. “Hey, mister, you dropped something!” At that, he only walked faster.Seriously? Hikaru knew that the guy could see Sai. Why wouldn’t he want to talk to Hikaru about how they both could see him? Hikaru gave up walking fast to run after him through the turnstiles and to the street outside. Hikaru cut in front of him and turned around, forcing the guy to stop.
“You can see him.” Hikaru wasn’t even going to pretend it was a question. “How?”
He stepped back from Hikaru, but there was no missing how his eyes flicked up behind him. Hikaru asked again, “How come you can see him?”
The stranger fixed his eyes on Hikaru. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do!” Hikaru was fed up with how he was being dense on purpose. Even if he looked like a crazy person by shouting at strangers in public, he wanted to know. “I’ve never met anyone who could see Sai before.”
Sai said his name, a small reprimand to not blow up on the guy they wanted to talk to.
Some of Hikaru’s frustration bled out of him. “Please?” he said, “I’ve never met anyone who knows what it’s like.”
Something in the guy’s face softened. He glanced up at Sai, then back to Hikaru, and sighed. “I suppose I have time to talk.” He readjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder. “But we should go somewhere more private.”
Oh, right. Hikaru had sort of forgotten they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “Yeah, sure.” Without saying anything else, the man waved for Hikaru to follow him.