TRACING THE MEMO

Synopsis – Shindou Hikaru awakens to find himself hospitalized, seemingly having lost 3 years of memories. Despite his 12-year-old mind in his 15-year-old body, is it possible that a shadow of Sai still exists somewhere?

Note: This story takes place after Sai's disappearance, during Hikaru's search for Sai.

Disclaimer: All original characters rightfully belong to their proper owners. I only have the privilege of borrowing them.

CHAPTER ONE

Shindou Hikaru lazily opened his eyes and was instantly greeted by a fuzzy vision of darkness. He felt he had slept for a long time, feeling the heaviness of his body discomforting him, yet strangely luring him back to sleep.

He blinked in an attempt to cast his unfocused vision aside. After a few more tries, finally successful, he found himself staring at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room. By the amount of darkness around him, he assumed it was night. Yet, there was a stream of light reflecting a surreal glint of sunlight. Tracing the light back to its source with his eyes, he noticed a large window to the left of him. Apparently, the white curtains failed to shield against the intruding light.

He was surprised when he heard himself release a soft but relief sigh. For some reason, he welcomed the light. The shadows just seem too depressing at the moment. Still, there was something in that momentary surrealism that was a bit taunting. With another sigh, he tossed the matter aside and resumed to staring at the dull ceiling.

After fainting without notice in his grandpa's attic, he could pretty much surmise that he was in a hospital room.

Shindou scrunched his face in a frown. What did happen? He didn't seem to remember quite clearly. Something about a blood-stain goban. Akari, his best friend, was there too. As well as the –

"AHH!"

Without wasting a second, he covered himself with the large white blanket. He couldn't help but shudder, his eyes diluting slightly as he curled himself into a tight ball.

Yes. There was the ghost as well. Was it gone now? Or was he still haunted? Oh god! What had he done wrong to deserve being haunted?! Sure he did badly at school, played pranks, taunted, cheated, lied, dyed his bangs blonde, thought about selling other people's belongings without permission, and so forth, but seriously…were they THAT bad enough that God had to punish him like so?

He shivered again just thinking about it.

After a moment of silence, there was no sign of movement or sound. Curiously, he peeked from beneath the bedsheet. The room was as empty as it has always been. There was nothing indicating the existence of a ghost.

Was it all his imagination?

Shindou dared not to relax as he uncurled himself from his ball. It couldn't have been his imagination, could it? After all, when the ghost wrapped himself around Shindou and invaded his mind, Shindou hadn't been prepared for the sudden heavy migraine. So big and unprepared was he that he had fainted from the impact. Yes, that was what had happened.

At the moment though, it didn't seem like his head was aching. A big onslaught headache would have left a trail behind, wouldn't it? Honestly, Shindou didn't know. What if he were to call the ghost? Would it come? But if it did answer to his call…Shindou gulped his fear. Well, it's worth a try.

Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths, taking his time to muster the courage to confront the ghost. After what felt like hours, which were actually mere minutes, he mentally called the ghost.

Yo! Ghost person! Show up! I-I'm not afraid of you!

He stared into the silence. A minute passed. Another minute passed. Would it be better to speak out loud? With no response and the dragging silence, he felt more confident that it was all an illusion played by his mind.

"Hey! Stop being a coward and show up, Mr. Ghost!"

Answered again with only silence, Shindou couldn't help but feel a hint of disappointment. Ghosts really didn't exist after all. It really was all his imagination. But then, he couldn't understand the headache and why he fainted. Nor did he understand the feeling of disappointing he had a second ago. He should have been relief, but why did he felt like that disappointment was starting to gnaw on him?

Angry at himself, and the fact that he may be confused, he returned to sleep, or at least tried to.

"Hikaru! Finally! You're awake!"

First thing in the morning and this was his greeting. Hikaru looked at the teary-eye girl, the owner of the relief voice. He recognized her violet, shoulder length hair, some dividing into two mini pigtails. He remembered the unique violet hues of her eyes. But the face, it was much less chubby, much older and more defined, but the childish teary eyes were definitely the same.

"Oi, Akari. Did something happen to you? You look older. I didn't know that growing girls can quickly become so old over night. Ne, you're not going to become an old hag anytime soon, are you?" He asked casually.

Shocked by his words and his apparent innocent and oblivious face, Akari was speechless. Naturally, she would have made a retort, but her dear friend did not look like he was joking.

"Eh! Shindou! That was cruel! She was so worried about you! WE were all worried about you!"

Hikaru shifted his attention to the spiky hair boy. Well, he wasn't a boy. Perhaps a budding young man would be more precise? The young man looked like he was fast approaching the end of his teens. Shindou glanced at the unusual shade of red hair before staring at a face full of anger and disbelief, mixed with concern and…more anger.

"Who are you?" Shindou asked, narrowing his eyes.

All the anger was gone from young man's face. All that was left was a massive amount of disbelief.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT REMEMBER YOUR NUMBER ONE GO FRIEND, YOU JERK?! I'M WAYA DAMMIT! YOSHITAKA WAYA!"

"What the -! JERK?! I don't even know you! Why the hell are you yelling at me?! And what about an old man's game anyway? Tch."

Hikaru crossed his arms and turned his face away with a childish huff from the red-haired boy. 'Boy' was too nice of a word to call the rude stranger. He transferred his attention on another presence in the room. He glanced at the unspoken boy. …Or, was it a girl?

Nah, it was definitely a boy, and a pretty boy at that. There was no mistaking the finely sculpted face and straight olive hair that barely passed his chin, the long bangs hanging just before the top of his eyes, and the beautiful teal eyes shining with disbelief and horror. He was just as tall and looked no older than the red-haired.

"A-Are you okay mister?" Hikaru asked. There was a sense of fragileness around the pretty boy that made Hikaru uncertain of approaching.

Hikaru noticed his question did little good. The boy had only grown paler, despite his already natural paleness.

Hikaru sighed. Darn it. What the heck was wrong with these weird people?

"Um, Hikaru?" Akari began, trying to gain what little confidence was left while hiding her painful feelings. "Um, just how much do you remember?"

"EH?! What in the world do you mean?" Hikaru yelled, bewildered. "I'm perfectly normal. Nothing's damaged. I just fainted, remember?"

Akari couldn't help but glance at the two strangers as though asking for support.

"Just fainted?" the pretty boy mumbled, more to himself.

"Of course. I just fainted. Geez, what else is there to explain," Hikaru mumbled impatiently.

"Where did you fainted?" Akari asked.

"Why the stupid questions, Akari? You were there too, in Grandpa's attic. We went through his stuff remember? And there was this goban and you thought it was for chess."

Akari paled. Waya looked confused. And the pretty boy just didn't know what to make of it.

"I fainted a few minutes afterwards. Duh!" Hikaru replied arrogantly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world

"B-But, Hikaru. That was 3 years ago!" She cried, bursting with tears again.

Realization struck Shindou Hikaru hard. Had he been sleeping for three years ever since? Was that why there was no more ghost, no more signs of that massive headache? But more importantly, did he just wasted 3 years of his youth sleeping on a hospital bed, lost in a coma?! The horror if it gripped him tightly.

His intuition screeched impossible. Somewhere in the back of his consciousness and subconsciousness, that unknown thing agreed. It just didn't feel possible.

But it felt like the only conclusion.

A/N: Another Hikago fanfic! Yay? Anyway, this story, I noticed, started off a little slower than I'll liked, but I thought it would integrate the background information more naturally and make things more puzzle-like. Was it somewhat a success so far?

I know I haven't updated my first story in a long while. Still dissatisfied with the exorcism problem in "A Threesome Go". But I'm getting feedback on it and with those, I'm revising the chapter and rewriting the later ones. So I'm postponing updates on that and selfishly working on this one, keke.

"Tracing a Memo" was actually formed from two of my oneshots, but my good reliable friend suggested about combining them. Thus, viola! Tell me what you think of it! I greatly appreciate it! Especially you reading this far.