A/N: A little thing for @esamastation’s Random HikaGo Event (if I’m not too late). A sort of B-side to my series (En)Closure, but this ficlet can be read alone since it’s from Hikaru’s POV and my character is only briefly mentioned and doesn’t actually show up.
Enjoy!
~
Sai has barely begun telling his story before he is rudely interrupted by Hikaru. It is something that he will grow accustomed to in a bewilderingly short amount of time.
“Does this mean I can see ghosts now?” Hikaru asks, looking at his own hands in amazement as if that will explain his sudden supernatural ability.
“Perhaps it is–”
“Or is it only you,” Hikaru continues, turning his gaze toward Sai, narrow eyed and suspicious, “Because if it’s the first one then that means I have a cool new skill that I can do stuff with. But if it’s the second one, then that probably means I’m possessed and you need to exorcised.”
In the bare handful of hours that Sai has known Hikaru, he already knows this: children in these times are willful or, at the very least, Hikaru is. Which means it’s not an idle threat.
There were onmyouji in Sai’s time–and in Torajiro’s time, too–no doubt there are still some to this day. No doubt they could very well exorcise Sai, and how will he play Go then?
“No!”
Hikaru’s face only pinches up into even more suspicion.
“I, that is,” Sai rescinds, “I am sure such a thing is not needed. Yours is a fledgling talent, perhaps I am meant to teacher you.”
After all, Sai was an instructor for both the Emperor and Torajiro. No doubt, he is meant to do the same for Hikaru. He just didn’t specify which talent; it’s not a lie.
Hikaru considers for a moment, then nods, “You better not be as annoying as Navi.”
A non sequitur, but seeing as how it’s not an outright refusal, Sai will take it and gladly.
Then, Hikaru cheers, “Let’s go find some more ghosts!”
(It’s at this point that Sai realizes he has very little control over what happens next. This is also something that he will grow accustomed to soon enough.)
—
Given the sheer size, population, and history of Tokyo finding supposedly haunted places is easy.
Getting into them is another story.
“This is the… fifth time, Shindou-kun,” Ueno, the unimpressed police officer, says way more exasperated than the situation calls for. It’s not like Hikaru was actually doing anything wrong besides, maybe, the whole trespassing thing.
“I didn’t know it was private property?” Hikaru tries, because it worked pretty well the first time and decently the second…
And then it got less effective each time. Apparently, going by Ueno’s expression, it’s not going to fly at all this time. Especially since she was the same officer that found him three of the other times.
Sai, too, has gotten used to inside of the small police station–no longer flitting from desk to desk and asking about each little detail while Hikaru tries not to answer out loud. Getting brought in for trespassing is one thing–he doesn’t want the police to think he’s crazy.
This whole ‘seeing ghosts thing’ is way harder than he though it would be.
“You’re…” A grimace flashes across Ueno’s face, before quickly fading into carefully crafted calmness. “Is there a reason why you don’t want to be at home, Hikaru-kun?”
If anyone else were able to see Sai, they’d know that both he and Hikaru had shared a quick glance of mutual confusion.
“… No?” Then because it looks like that won’t be enough of an answer to satisfy Ueno, he admits sullenly, “I just wanted to see if that place was really haunted.”
“Oh god, not another one,” Ueno blurts out, horrified at the prospect and herself. One desk away, another officer bursts out laughing.
Again, confusion.
“I’m not saying I believe,” Ueno begins, rummaging through her desk for something, “but the number of cases solved speaks for itself.”
She then hands Hikaru a business card with a phone number on one side and two lines on the other:
KUWABARA
Consulting Medium
“Pretentious, isn’t it?” Ueno says with a shrug, “But I’d rather have you call her than have you running around unsupervised.”
“That’s like telling one puppy to guard the other,” says Ueno’s fellow officer, “Though puppies wouldn’t charge each other an arm and a leg for it.”
At the, no doubt, blatant confusion, Ueno explains, “Kuwabara is a teenager, too.”
Everything goes back on track–Ueno letting him off with yet another warning, though this time far more stern and believable–and when Hikaru and Sai leave the station they both decide to stop trespassing in their search for other ghosts.
When Hikaru doesn’t throw the card away, but he definitely shoves it in a pile of random stuff in his room and forgets about it immediately. He doesn’t need to meet some other psychic kid who’ll just boss him around.
(They’ll end up meeting each other in a few months, anyway, but as an insei and the Honinbou’s granddaughter. She definitely ends up bossing him around.)
—
The second ghost Hikaru sees isn’t haunting a place but a person. A weird blonde guy in a white suit who has a job involving Go because that’s how Hikaru’s life works, apparently.
Hikaru doesn’t realize it’s a ghost, at first. Actually, if it weren’t for the fact that no one else could sense Sai, Hikaru probably would have thought that he was just a weirdo wearing really old-fashioned clothing.
The second ghost’s clothes isn’t nearly so out of date, but it’s definitely not something a kid would wear now. Because that’s what the ghost is–a kid.
At first, Hikaru thought it was a just that blonde guy’s son or something, just some kid making comically exaggerated disgusted faces as the adults next to him flirt. That is, until one of adults’ arms swings right through the kid’s head.
Hikaru stares.
The kid–the ghost–stares back.
At least until the blonde guy walks away, the ghost following as if compelled, into some building which, aggravatingly, kids aren’t allowed into unless they’re insei or, apparently, ghosts.
Sai is perhaps a bit too enthusiastic to voice the obvious solution.
And far too pleased when Hikaru grudgingly goes along with it.
(Hand of God or Destiny? Do all roads lead to the same place?)
~
A/N: This has nothing to do with esama’s Fallen Stars but I swear I’ve read it SO MANY TIMES IT’S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL.
edit: changed HARU to KUWABARA, to make it in line with one of my previous posts in the series
Part Two was more difficult than Part One, but I hope you enjoyed it! I think I have maybe one or two more DSS Requirement fic remixes, but I think I’ll give my brain a bit of time to rest.
JackSGreyson Says 