Paper Cranes is a supernatural Continuation fic for Hikaru no Go by spontaneite.
Synopsis From Archive of Our Own:
"Two years passed before Hikaru admitted, reluctantly, that possession by a spirit seemed to have long-lasting side effects which probably wouldn’t go away on their own."
Can be found on the author's tumblr page
, Archive of Our Own, and on Fanfiction.net
Tropes contained in Paper Cranes:
- Adults Are Useless: Utagawashi, despite being a Shinto priest and spiritually sensitive, is not a professional in regards to the supernatural. As a result, his advice ultimately worsens Hikaru's condition.
- Kaminaga, who was supposed to give out professional advice after Utagawahi's mistake, was too prideful to notice he was being possessed by his family's demon sword.
- Arakawa the monk not only took his sweet time in answering Utagawashi's pleas for assistance, but also, was killed off once he finally arrived.
- Asian Fox Spirit: Foxes! Lots and lots of foxes in this fic.
- Comes Great Responsibility: When Hikaru learns to sense emotion and intent, he is worried that it'll give him an unfair advantage against other Go players. Fortunately, he can turn it off.
- Energy Donation: The fight with the demon sword worsens the condition of Hikaru's soul, to the point that it is coming apart at the seams. Setsu and the other surviving foxes stave this off by inserting pieces of themselves into Hikaru's soul wounds.
- Failed a Spot Check: During the Net Go game between Touya Meijin and Sai, both players failed to notice that Touya could've won, and he would've performed the Divine Move in doing so.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Hikaru is alarmed to learn that he can potentially disembody people, which is fatal, merely by giving them a hard enough poke in the soul.
- Haunted Fetter: Torajiro's goban contained Sai's ghost until he started possessing Hikaru.
- Due to the poor condition of his soul, Hikaru intends to inhabit the same goban after he dies so he can heal.
- Genre Shift: Hikaru no Go is a Sports Stories AKA sports anime/manga first and foremost with the supernatural elements not that touched upon; in fact, it's hard to tell whether or not it could be Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. This fic is the reverse with the focus on the supernatural than the Go. Really, the Go has been so demoted that Hikaru is low-ranking dan even when he should've been playing of Akira Touya. Of course, the fic explained by Hikaru is still grieving Sai.
- Layered World: This is how the spirit layer and physical realm correlate to one another.
- Limb-Sensation Fascination: Upon taking a human form, Setsu couldn't help but molest a poor synthetic sunflower because of the way it felt to a pair of newly human hands.
- Malevolent Mutilation: Averted. Sai had no clue what possessing Hikaru for so long would do to his soul.
- Played very straight with Kaminaga's demon sword.
- Pillar of Light: The death of the demon sword created a massive pillar of light. It was so intense, the police got calls about it.
- Plot Armor: At the end of chapter 20, the author admitted that Hikaru has this, but his body parts do not.
- Possession Burnout: This is what usually happens to long term possession victims. Apparently, the end of Sai's possession only turned out as well as it did for Hikaru because of Sai's love for Hikaru
- Replacement Goldfish: Setsu may be becoming this after Hikaru notes its nice to be able to mentally reach out to someone only he can see again.
- Rugged Scar: Hikaru intends to treat his physical wounds from the demon sword as this.
- Shrine to the Fallen: Hikaru's shrine to Sai starts out as one of these.
- Signature Scent: Sai smelt of wisteria flowers. Hikaru always burns wisteria incense when speaking to his shrine to Sai.
- Soul Power: Those who've experienced soul trauma possess the potential to develop this. The greater the trauma, the greater the potential.
- Spirit Advisor: In canon, Sai is this before he disappeared. Later in the story, Setsu is this to Hikaru for the time being.
- Stepford Smiler: Hikaru tires very hard to pretend that he hasn't been dying on the inside ever since Sai left.
- The Empath: As Hikaru develops his spiritual powers, he becomes able to sense emotion and intent from other people.
- The Gadfly: Hikaru. Sometimes he'll rile people up either to distract from his suspicious behavior or as a means of petty revenge. Usually though, it's because he finds their reactions amusing.
- The Grotesque: The horrifying condition of Hikaru's soul leads Utagawashi to believe that Hikaru is an evil spirit upon meeting him. After his condition worsens, Hikaru's soul makes Utagawashi nauseous and causes Kaminaga to vomit on sight.
- Played for laughs, Hikaru considers the dog-shaped pattern he and Yashiro create during their drunken Go match to be an abomination.
- There Is a God!: Originally just an excuse given when his friends discovered his shrine to Sai, Hikaru becomes a bit more religious upon being able to perceive Inari.
- Train Escape: Type II variant. Invoked when Kaminaga stalks Hikaru, sending him fleeing to Osaka for the second time.
- Was Once a Man: Before undergoing an 'after-life soul change,' Meikai was once Setsu's human husband.
- Wild Teen Party: Played with. Hikaru rents out Heart of Stone, a Go Salon that serves alchohol, to celebrate his sixteenth birthday and his promotion to 3-dan. While underage drinking occurs en mass, adult supervision and the reserved nature of pro Go players keeps things pretty tame.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The wounds Hikaru received from the demon sword are fatal.
- You're Insane!: Utagawashi's response upon learning Hikaru wants to be possessed again.
