Archive of Our Own

A woman stuck her head through the wall in front of him, Hikaru studiously looked away. It was a testament to his poker face that he hadn’t jumped this time. The last thing he needed was for his friends to think he was going crazy again. 

It had started with flickers of white in the corners of his vision. At first, he had been overjoyed, thinking Sai was returning, then angry at his mind for making him hopeful. After that it had gotten terrifying. 

He’d been staying at a hotel overnight for an away from home match. The bathroom in the middle of the night should have been safe, but the face in the mirror when there was no one else there had set him screaming. He’d woken their whole room block. 

No one else could see it. 

The faces and shapes had grown more distinct until Hikaru was seeing them everywhere. He’d never been able to see ghosts — and these had to be ghosts — before seeing Sai’s spirit.  Then it got worse. Some tried to talk to him. He was a little bitter that none of them were Sai, even though he knew now that the other had moved on. He’d tried to ignore one, but she had gotten angry — something Sai had never been able to do — things flew around his room. He’d finally managed to talk her down only to find out that all she’d wanted was someone to tell her she was pretty.

Not wanting that to happen again, Hikaru had gone to a priest. Someone who could allegedly see spirits. He had told Hikaru that he had a very tuned connection to the spirit world. It had developed over the years, and the man couldn’t understand why Hikaru had so little control.

So he’d told him about Sai.

Apparently being connected to a spirit for that long could change your oversoul and aura.
Go figure. Apparently, this meant that he could now see most spirits, even those he had no connections with.

So he dealt with it, ignored it, and tried to play Go.  

He hadn’t realized just how many places in Japan were haunted.

Hikaru knew his friends had noticed him getting twitchy and was sure some of them thought he was nearing another breakdown. He had had one once already when Sai had left and none of them knew those circumstances. To them, it had come out of the blue.

He learned to live with it until he met a ghost about his age clutching a go-stone. For the first time, Hikaru was intrigued. He had approached the ghost and asked for a game. Once the ghost had gotten over his shock, he had been over the moon to play. His name was Shinichi Ichihara. 

Hikaru had felt he’d done something good-until the ghost began to follow him. He wouldn’t leave Hikaru alone, and unlike Sai, Shinichi could touch things. 

But Sai had been a different sort of spirit.

Finally, Hikaru lost his temper — and Shinichi asked him for help.

He had been an insei, a promising one. He had lost to his rival in an important match, and realized his rival had been cheating. He had proof. His rival had called him to the roof of the institute, to apologize or so he had said.

Instead, he had killed him, hiding his body in the garden. A forged note claiming that he had run away to train further in the country had been found.

No one had investigated, and his rival had gone forward to become a pro. Hikaru was angry — even though Shinichi hadn’t actually killed himself, some of it felt similar to Sai’s story. Hikaru refused to let a cheater wear the pro title for long. 

“Show me the last game you played him.” 

Games like that were burned into your spirit. It was easy to memorize.

He had gone in search of the man and found him more quickly than expected.

“That’s him?” Hikaru stared at the man that Shinichi had indicated as his murderer. Hikaru wasn’t even surprised that he knew him. This creep had cheated people more than once and tried to help a swindler sell low-grade go-boards.  Being a criminal didn’t make you a murderer — but in this case he guessed it did. The man was playing teaching games with amateurs. Hikaru didn’t like the idea of a cheater being a teacher.

Hikaru wasn’t sure how he was going to do this, but when had that stopped him?. He got in line for a game “ Oi, Old fart!” 

Step one about annoying adults. Insult them. It worked better when he was younger, but the man still looked pretty pissed when he turned around. 

“Wanna play?” The pro glared at him, Hikaru was sure he’d recognized him. Hikaru had heard he had lost Dan ranking after the stunt he’d pulled last time. He honestly wasn’t sure why the man was allowed to teach. 

“Leave me alone, brat.” 

Hikaru persisted. 

“I just want a game, old man.”  The man turned, enraged only to see a woman and her child behind the teen also waiting their turn. 

“Fine. One game.”

Hikaru sat at the Go board, a calm coming over him. He could see Shinichi hovering in the corner of his eye, and it reminded him of the last time he had played this man. 

Sai, I hope you’re proud of me.

The thought echoed in his head as he placed his first stone. It was easy to force the game the way he wanted. The man’s skill was far below his own. It took him longer than Hikaru had expected to recognize the game. 

Finally, he faltered, wide eyes darting about the board. 

“What is this? Some sort of joke?” The man growled, seat skidding back as he stood and slammed his hands on the table making the stones rattle.

“Where did you find this game? What do you want.” 

Hikaru looked up at him silently, which seemed to unnerve the man even more. 

“A friend showed it to me.” He grinned cheekily at him, though his eyes remained serious. “His name is Shinichi.”
“He’s dead! This is some kind of joke!”  Hikaru blinked at him, noticing a security guard approach, called by the raised voices.

“How do you know he’s dead?” 

“I killed him myself!” 

Gasps sounded around them and the police were called eventually. 

Hikaru felt a sense of accomplishment as he waved goodbye to Shinichi. He was glad to have helped, and maybe he would help another spirit in the future. 

But for now —

“Shit… My match with Touya!”