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31_days2010-03-07 11:59 pm
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2010-03-07 11:59 pm
7 March/Hikaru no Go/Spirited Away crossover/Twice the River 7/?
Title: Twice the River 7/?
Series: Hikaru no Go/Spirited Away crossover
Day/Theme: 7 March/All we ever see of stars are their old photographs
Chihiro bowed her head, struggling with her disappointment. She had always thought she and Haku would meet again, when the time was right. But she had never seen him again after that time. She had gone to that abandoned amusement park which was supposed to be a doorway to the bathhouse. She had walked miles of railway lines and she had searched for the source of Kohakugawa, buried though it was, but of that other world there was no sign.
"But I am still here," Sai said.
She looked up at that. "What do you mean?"
"It is with that trace of his magic that I'm still here, and--" Sai raised both hands to regard them, "--and that I am alive in body and soul. I suspect that where your beloved is, he is not beyond reach."
The first glance she had seen of Sai had been that of an unconscious man, barely breathing, messy and on the verge of death. It had been unbearable to see him and not Haku.
Now, he was healed and it seemed, he wanted to help.
"How, then?" she asked.
"His river will know him."
"But his river is--"
"All but gone? And you brought me the river stones, Ogino-san."
"Those?"
It had been an impulse, that was all. She thought of how she had gone back to that pond where Sai appeared, the day after Shindou Hikaru had turned up. In her disappointment, she had waded into the water and pulled out handfuls of weed and mud, walking ever deeper as a fisherman might, except what she fished for remained elusive.
"They were buried in the mud," she said, daring Sai to ask how she had unearthed them. "I washed them and saw that most of them were small enough to be Go stones."
Sai was shaking his head. "They were his Go stones, Ogino-san."
"What?"
"Why else would you think of collecting them for such a use?" Sai asked her. "And he did know Go, if only briefly."
It was so surprising to be told a personal detail like that, something she had never know, when for years she had subsisted on what she remembered of him, that she gaped. "Then--"
Sai looked down ruefully at the goban that showed a game just beginning. "Hikaru once told me that the goban was the universe, and the stones are the stars," he said to her. "If your beloved is no longer on earth then we must seek him among the stars. Not the old, fixed ones in the skies, but here." He waved a hand over the goban, then brushed the surface with a hand and swiftly put the white and black river stones into their respective go-ke. He inclined his head in a half-bow. "Would you like to play, Ogino-san?"
Series: Hikaru no Go/Spirited Away crossover
Day/Theme: 7 March/All we ever see of stars are their old photographs
Chihiro bowed her head, struggling with her disappointment. She had always thought she and Haku would meet again, when the time was right. But she had never seen him again after that time. She had gone to that abandoned amusement park which was supposed to be a doorway to the bathhouse. She had walked miles of railway lines and she had searched for the source of Kohakugawa, buried though it was, but of that other world there was no sign.
"But I am still here," Sai said.
She looked up at that. "What do you mean?"
"It is with that trace of his magic that I'm still here, and--" Sai raised both hands to regard them, "--and that I am alive in body and soul. I suspect that where your beloved is, he is not beyond reach."
The first glance she had seen of Sai had been that of an unconscious man, barely breathing, messy and on the verge of death. It had been unbearable to see him and not Haku.
Now, he was healed and it seemed, he wanted to help.
"How, then?" she asked.
"His river will know him."
"But his river is--"
"All but gone? And you brought me the river stones, Ogino-san."
"Those?"
It had been an impulse, that was all. She thought of how she had gone back to that pond where Sai appeared, the day after Shindou Hikaru had turned up. In her disappointment, she had waded into the water and pulled out handfuls of weed and mud, walking ever deeper as a fisherman might, except what she fished for remained elusive.
"They were buried in the mud," she said, daring Sai to ask how she had unearthed them. "I washed them and saw that most of them were small enough to be Go stones."
Sai was shaking his head. "They were his Go stones, Ogino-san."
"What?"
"Why else would you think of collecting them for such a use?" Sai asked her. "And he did know Go, if only briefly."
It was so surprising to be told a personal detail like that, something she had never know, when for years she had subsisted on what she remembered of him, that she gaped. "Then--"
Sai looked down ruefully at the goban that showed a game just beginning. "Hikaru once told me that the goban was the universe, and the stones are the stars," he said to her. "If your beloved is no longer on earth then we must seek him among the stars. Not the old, fixed ones in the skies, but here." He waved a hand over the goban, then brushed the surface with a hand and swiftly put the white and black river stones into their respective go-ke. He inclined his head in a half-bow. "Would you like to play, Ogino-san?"