Something Different
Akumako Ronso

Series: Hikaru no Go
Rating: R-for language, adult situations, and possible sexual content
Chapters: 1/?
Disclaimer:
I don’t own any of the characters except for Ichikawa Sai, her high school American friends, and possibly her parents.

Author's notes:

This chapter will be in first person point of view, so that you, the reader, may understand the thinking of my character and her background. The rest of the chapters probably won’t be in first person. This is my first fiction, for this series and possibly my first ever. Please don’t criticize me to harshly. Some characters may be slightly out of character, but I will try my hardest to keep them in character.

Prologue...

Whole Once More...

I was born in Tokyo, Japan, but I was raised in the USA because, while on a business trip with my parents, I got sick. My parents were really worried. I wouldn’t wake up. My older sister was with us, and since they didn’t want her to catch whatever epidemic I contracted, they decided to send her to live with my aunt in Japan. ‘Just in case it was contagious,’ they would have said.

When they took me to the doctor, they were baffled about what was in front of them. They’ve never seen anything quite like it before! They just couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. What in the world could make a child freeze and act in such away?

One of the doctors examining me looked at my eyes. They were open, but unseeing. She told my parents that many people believed that ‘the eyes were windows to the soul,’ and when she looked, she said that it was like looking at a doll.

No Life...

No Light...

Soulless...

She diagnosed that I didn’t have a soul.

What in the world could a doctor prescribe for such a thing? Many doctors didn’t believe her. I mean, who would? But what other choice did they have?

My parents were shocked and scared. Or so I’m told. The doctor who called me a doll, said that I could learn, walk, do anything in the world, but I wouldn’t... be a ‘normal’ child. She said that I would be like an ‘AI.’ A machine that could learn and do anything, but not be able to truly feel, like a normal human could.

So I grew.

I grew and I learned and I made friends. How could I make friends you ask? I don’t know. It just happened. At first they didn’t understand me. They thought that I was stuck up, but I wasn’t. Then they tried to understand me after one particular moment in our history class.

~*~

It was fourth period, freshman year of high school, and the first semester. Our class was learning about WWII, and we were watching a movie about genocide. The move was gory to say the least, so prior to watching the movie, the teacher had us get a permission slip signed like in elementary school.

When the movie was finished, all anyone could take about was how horrible those people were that supported genocide. One of the students noticed that I wasn’t talking about the movie, but just sitting there. He asked me how I could be so calm after watching that movie.

Before I could answer, another student asked the same question. I recognized her because I’d heard that she was a nice person. She was of medium height, short golden-brown hair, one blue and one green eye, and her name was Katherine; Katie for short.

To answer their questions, I said, “Because when I watch it, I don’t feel anything.”

They looked at me for a second, trying to see if I was for real; not joking. The longer they looked, the more they came to realize that I wasn’t joking. They asked me how I couldn’t feel anything just by watching that movie, how I could be so cold hearted. And I told them tonelessly and without expression:

“I wasn’t born like you. And I’m not cold hearted. I was born without a heart that beats like yours.”

~*~

After that, them and their other friends talked to me, trying to understand what I meant. They talked to my parents and me. They were so happy that I had friends now; they always wanted me to have a little bit of the world’s ‘normality.’ What amazed them the most was how quickly we became friends! And great friends at that! Usually it takes years, upon years to have a strong friendship, but not for this abnormal child.

It was a blessing to have friends, that understood me, no matter how limited that understanding was.

But a few weeks before I was 16, everything changed.

I started to remember things I never did. Remembered games I never played! Felt things I never felt! And desired things I never desired. And one desire stood out from the rest of the other. The desire to play go.

So I learned to play and became the best at it. My friends didn’t understand the change at first, but they soon accepted, understood, and supported me. They welcomed the change in me! Now, we could communicate together better. I could understand what they were feeling better.

And I felt better…because it was then, in that moment, when I first remembered how to play Go, I gained my soul back.

When my parents saw that I was better, they took me to the doctor for a check up to see if everything was okay. When she was finished, she smiled and said, “I’m glad you are better and that you gained what you’ve been missing for the passed fifteen years.”

After that my parents were happier, and wanted to move back to Japan. I could finally see my sister after so long.

When we arrived, my sister was there to pick us up. We’d already made arrangements to live with her. She was staying in the same house that we lived in together when I was born, keeping it for when we came back. Mom and dad helped pay the bills of course. The first thing my sister said to me made me happy to be back.

“Welcome home…Sai.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

YAY! My first chapter ever finished!!! Please review! It would make me ever so happy! ^^ I’ve never finished before!

This isn’t the first I’ve ever started, but it is the first I am determined to finish now that I have the first chapter done! Please tell me what you think!

You can e-mail me at -white_-. And Sai is a girl, the reincarnation of the original, sort of.