Disclaimer: I do not own Saint Seiya: the Lost Canvas. It belongs to Shiori Teshirogi and Masami Kurumada.
Characters: Leo Regulus, Cancer Manigoldo, Capricorn El Cid, Aries Shion,
Mentioned: Sage, Libra Dohko, Tenma and Sagittarius Sisyphus.
I"O"I
''Hmmm…'' Regulus leant against the wall of his temple and looked at the scene below. It was sunny afternoon and most of the saints decided to spend it outside their temples. Few meters away he saw Libra Saint, Dohko, with his new pupil, Tenma, talking about his training, probably theory of the universe, judging from the rocks, used by Libra Saint to demonstrate the problem. On the other end of the training grounds he saw silhouette of the Cancer Saint, Manigoldo, taking a nap on the sun-warmed field. Somewhere not far away from the place Regulus was standing, he felt familiar, warm cosmo of his master, Sisyphus, mixed with another one, older and stronger one, belonging probably to the Pope himself. Other ones he could not recognize, too weak and similar to tell the difference.
''I wonder which one is heavier.''
''Who?''
Leo blinked, surprised, hearing familiar voice. He turned his head and met calm gaze of the Capricorn Gold Saint, El Cid. He stood up quickly, to show the respect to the older Saint.
''What's on your mind?'' repeated Capricorn Saint, experienced enough to know that thoughtful look on face of the young Leo was the first sign of upcoming troubles.
''Well… '' Regulus rubbed his neck, looking strangely embarrassed and guilty at the same time. ''I just have been wondering, whether the Libra is heavier than Sagittarius or not…''
El Cid raised his eyebrows, bewildered.
''The Saints?''
''No, no,'' Regulus shook his head hurriedly. ''The cloths.''
''See, I heard that the Libra Cloth has twelve weapons, but I can't see where Dosho hides them. He only carries his shields, but nothing more. And Sisyphus's wings seem to be really heavy. They are just golden feathers, but still big and long and I have never seen him flying. It's bugging me. The Saint using heavy cloth must be really strong, doesn't he?''
El Cid nodded slowly, hesitantly.
''I see what you mean, but… I think that the weight is not really that important. Not for someone like Dohko or Sisyphus''
Regulus looked still unconvinced, so El Cid sighed.
''We'll talk about it later, alright? Now, I must leave you because there is something I need to do here.''
Regulus nodded and stood aside to give a way to gold saint. He watched him walking slowly across the training grounds, then shifted his gaze back to the Libra Saint.
''I wish I could check it…'' he muttered to himself.
I"O"I
''Coming, coming'' groaned Manigoldo impatiently. He opened one eye and fixed it on El Cid's face. ''Ah, it's you,'' he said and opened the other one.
He sat up, looking around to check who else is around and disturbs his rest.
''The Holy Father wishes to see you, Manigoldo.''
''Yeah, I could see this coming,'' muttered Cancer, standing up and yawning. ''All right. Here I go.''
''What's up?'' he asked after the while, seeing slightly disturbed face of the Capricorn.
''Well…'' began El Cid, hesitantly. ''I just wonder about one thing…''
I"O"I
''I see.'' Manigoldo continued to walk up the stairs leading to the temple of his master. Following him El Cid frowned slightly, seeing smug look on the Cancer's face. ''That Sisyphus's brat, you say? That's interesting indeed.''
''What do you mean?'' El Cid seemed to be more worried than before. Having Regulus up to something and Manigoldo scheming too just had to end up with something big. He began to regret saying everything to the Pope's pupil.
''You see,'' Manigoldo was walking firmly on the stone stairs, ''I've been wondering about that once, too. But it was when I was still a kid,'' he added. ''Back then I was prone to think that the Libra was heavier, though, but I couldn't check it myself with the old man watching my hands all the time…''
''…''
''But today, my friend,'' continued Cancer, still moving quickly towards the Pope's Chamber, ''we have the advantage. If we don't have a chance to check it ourselves, we'll call for backup.''
''That is?'' El Cid's concerns were constantly growing, reaching their peak.
Manigoldo's grin became even wider.
''We're going to ask an expert.''
I"O"I
''What?'' Shion looked surprised from above the cloth he has been repairing so far. Manigoldo, who just returned from the audience (scolding, actually) with his master nodded firmly, a gesture followed by encouraging smile from Regulus. Standing behind them El Cid tried to look as much serious as possible. Turning for help in such a trivial problem to the only cloth engineer in the whole Sanctuary didn't seem to be good idea after all. Standing in the cramped workshop of his Aries friend, he wondered once more during this afternoon what exactly was he doing there.
''Why are you asking?'' suspicious gaze of the Aries Saint shifted from Manigoldo to honest face of Regulus. ''Hey, don't tell me… You didn't, did you?''
''Not yet,'' grinned Cancer Saint. ''We'll wait with an experimental stage until your Libra friend will set off and come back from his mission to the Italy. Besides, I wanted to have your advice on this case first, so that no cloth will be damaged in the process.''
Shion sighed and put aside his tools.
''I still can't understand why it is so important to you,'' he said after a while. He walked around the broken bronze cloth, moving to stand right before his unexpected guests ''Besides, I doubt that the weight of the selected parts of an armor decides upon the level of difficulty of using it.''
''Why?'' asked Regulus, before he could stop himself. Shion's gaze shifted to the young Leo.
''If I was to compare the difficulty level of using particular cloths, I would took into consideration all of the parts plus its owner's weight. However, If only the weight of the cloth interests you… then, of course, I would have checked all of its parts, not only the chosen ones.''
''Ah. Interesting point.'' Manigoldo looked at his other companions, who seemed losing their tracks of the conversation. ''But see, if we were about checking it like you just said before, we would've ended up messing with some troublesome quantities, such as psychical strength – I'm sure that our friend from the second temple would be an interesting case to consider – and I doubt that it will ever be understandable to at least one of us." Next to him, Regulus frowned, uncertain. "So, let's stay with the old, good, numeric weight, 'lright?'' He looked again at the cloth engineer with a bright smile. ''Let's try to compare the whole cloths.'' He turned to stand right next to the engineer and, ignoring weak protests of the saint, surrounded his neck with one arm in a friendly hug, the other arm still on Regulus's shoulder and then looked straight into El Cid's eyes.
''So, the Libra's side we've got agreed on,'' said Cancer, mischievous sparks now fully visible in his grey eyes. ''Now, let's talk about the Sagittarius one…''
In the next chapter:
Tacti(ethi)cal preparations…
''So, to sum up, we must either check the weight of the cloth alone, but before that somehow get our hands on them, or just lift them with their owners still in them. Who's for the first option? Second one? Good. Any questions? ''
''Shouldn't we just ask their permissions?'' asked El Cid, resigned.
Some last reflections…
''Stealing someone's cloth is considered a serious crime,'' explained Shion patiently.
''But as long as we consider both cloths and saints, our results will not be authoritative!''
…and demons of the past
''Why are you doing this?'' asked Regulus, hesitantly. Manigoldo raised his eyebrows. ''It was me who gave the idea of this silly experiment…''
Manigoldo's smile turned into something deeper, but more dark and evil than that one from the moment before. ''Well… lets say that I have some accounts to settle…''