Chapter 3

"Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine and forty!", shouted a young boy with golden eyes while counting all the push ups he was doing, sweat falling down on the floor from his forehead.

It was the day after Fuutarou arrived to Jamir with Mu, who showed him the day earlier the Apus Cloth that the boy would obtain after becoming a Saint and the Aries Gold Cloth as well. Since Fuutarou needed to know well the place where he had to live for at least 5 years, Mu let him freely go around the other three floors of the tower.

In this way, the boy had the possibility to see his bedroom on the first floor and also the other 2 floors that served for meditation and training.

In fact, he was currently training his body with a series of 50 push ups and one of 30 sit ups that Mu told him to do. Before learning how to awake the Cosmo that could be inside him, the young boy had first to make his body stronger physically.

But it wasn't something complicated for him; Fuutarou had always been athletic and strong at school as he liked helping some sport clubs. He also had fought various times with bullies, winning each fight that gained him the title of the strongest boy of his elementary school.

Of course there were times that some stupid bully managed to get a hit on him, but it was pointless; Fuutarou would hit him harder and scare him to death, like he did with those idiots that tormented the quints.

Speaking of them, the young boy had some phone line problems due to the place where Mu's tower was, so he could contact the 5 sisters and his family only through texts.

He remembered for example a text of an extremely worried Rena that asked him if he ate well and if the place he stayed was clean and all. Such text made him smile; it was like Rena treated him like she was her mother.

Mother. A word that since Shizuku's death made him smile sadly while some tears risked to fall from his eyes. He knew that she was gone forever and that he would never see her again, but he was still a young boy. Crying for such loss was normal in the end.

Still, that didn't make his resolve to train to become a Saint weaker or something; actually, it was one of the reasons why he told his decision to follow Mu. Because he couldn't stand the idea of other innocents to die by the hands of a demon like his mom's murderer.

After completing his series of sit ups too, the boy took a little break to drink some water from the bottle that Mu had given him before starting to train. He then wiped out his sweat with a towel, and it was in that moment that Mu entered in the room.

"I can see that you completed the series of exercises that I told you to do. Good job Fuutarou.", said the Aries Saint with a smile.

"Thank you, Mu-sensei. But I have a question: do you have other particular abilities other than using your Cosmo and teleporting?", asked him the boy with curiosity.

Mu smiled while closing his eyes and opening immediately, pointing his gaze on the water bottle in Fuutarou's hands. Said bottle started then to move away by the boy's hands and to fluctuate in the air as if it was alive.

"W-w-what's this? The bottle is moving by itself!"

"Haha, it's because of me using my telekinetic powers on it. It's another ability that you will learn during these years of training.", chuckled Mu at Fuutarou's reaction.

"I-I'm going to learn telekinesis too?! T-this is incredible!", exclaimed the boy with his golden eyes widening and a smile on his face.

"I see that it got you hyped up. In that case, I will also explain you the rang system of Saints. So you can understand better your own rang."

"I'm all ears, Mu-sensei.", replied the boy, eager to hear everything.

So Mu explained to him that there were only 3 rangs of Saint, each one based on the material used to create the Cloth in the ancient times: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each rang was also different from the other because Bronze Saints' attacks could reach only a speed of Mach 1 and Silver Saints' ones could overpass that limit and reach Mach 5.

But the biggest difference was with Gold Saints as their attacks could reach the speed of the light, thanks also to the Seventh Sense, which was the key to to achieve a Cosmo powerful like a Gold Saint's one.

And of course, there were 12 Gold Cloths based on the 12 zodiacal signs, with the Aries Cloth as clear example. And to control the actions and the order between Saints, there was the figure of the Grand Pope, who lived in Greece and only one of the 12 Gold Saints could have such role.

"Also, you must know that the Grand Pope lives in a big palace that can be reached only by passing through 12 houses, each one protected by a Gold Saint to impede the enemies to attack the Pope. And as you can guess, my house is exactly the first.", said Mu to finish his explanation.

And at the end of that, Fuutarou was totally stunned, "W-wow…So this is how t-the Saint system to work. And the fact that you're able to move and attack at the speed of light is incredible, Mu-sensei."

"Don't worry, if you happen to awake the Seventh Sense in the future after becoming a Saint, you could become equal to a Gold Saint. So, are you ready to start another series of 60 push ups? If you want to of course.", told the Aries Saint, giving him the possibility to rest a little more, since he didn't want that the boy forced himself.

"No worries, Mu-sensei. I rested well enough!", replied the boy with a serious expression before starting another series of exercises.

'I guess that all that I told him made him eager to train even harder haha.', thought Mu with a smile before leaving the room to go the first floor to start preparing some food for dinner meanwhile.

Since the young man always lived alone in his tower in Jamir after he became the Aries Saint years ago, he had learned to provide for his food and to cook pretty decently. He was very good with Japanese cooking in fact, thanks to the time he spent in Japan by tasting various popular dishes.

Right now he was indeed preparing some curry udon and onigiri in a small kitchen while his apprentice was training. During this, Mu used his telekinesis to take the utensils to cook more easily. It was kinda cheating, but not a bad thing.

After a while, Fuutarou ended his 60 push ups, so Mu sent him to take a shower before eating. It took just 10 minutes for the boy to take a bath as he was already at the table with a huge hunger.

"All that training made you very hungry heh?", asked him Mu.

"Y-yeah, it's the first time that I train so much. I always helped the sport clubs at school and also fought bullies that harassed my friends, but I never trained so hard in so little time.", replied the boy while eating his udon.

"You will find developing your Cosmo a little more difficult, so it's better to train your body well first."

"Oh yeah, about Cosmo, can you tell more about it, Mu-sensei? I understood what you told about the Seventh Sense, but I want to know more."

Mu smiled, "Sure, no problem. As I told you when we first met, a Saint gets his power by burning his Cosmo, which is a particular and mystical energy that allows the user to perform superhuman feats. You know about the Big Bang, right? Well, we can say that Cosmo has its origins from that, so it means that when a Saint burns his Cosmo, it's like he a micro-scale reproduction of the Big Bang."

"R-r-really? B-but what's with the senses? Why are they so important?", asked a stunned and more curious Fuutarou.

"The senses like the sight, the taste, the hearing and even the sixth sense are important because when you don't use them for a certain time, once you use them again, the power generated by your Cosmo will be even greater. The Virgo Gold Saint keeps always his eyes shut for example, and when he opens them, his Cosmo's power is tremendous. Of course that doesn't mean you have to do the same.", replied Mu, smiling when he saw that the boy chuckled nervously as if he were busted.

'I-I wasn't even thinking about doing the same, geez.', thought Fuutarou while continuing to eat like his teacher.

They continued to have dinner for an hour, after which the boy helped Mu to wash the dishes. The young man told him that he could rest, but Fuutarou insisted to help him to thank him for the good dinner.

The Aries Saint was really glad to have decided to train the boy; his desire to help the others was really a great and important feature in order to become a Saint.

In fact, a Saint that fought only because he liked it and didn't care about defending humanity didn't deserve his Cloth. Especially if his heart was evil, because Clothes had always had a soul as if they were alive. So if a Cloth sensed that its wearer was wicked and all, it would abandon him instantly. But Mu knew that it wouldn't happen with Fuutarou; the boy had decided to fight to protect the innocents after all.

Once they finished to wash the dishes, Mu decided to help Fuutarou with his studies by using some books taken by his library; he and the boy had told his family and the Nakanos that Fuutarou had to go to a school abroad, so studying must be done.

Not that boy had something against it of course; Fuutarou had always been pretty good in his academics, so he could follow Mu's explanations easily and resolve the math problems received with no problem.

"I kinda expected that you were smart, Fuutarou. If you study like this for all these 5 years here, once you get back to Japan, you will enter surely in one of the top high schools of Tokai.", said Mu to his apprentice.

"W-well, to tell you the truth, I-I'd like to go to the same high school of the Nakano quints in the future.", replied Fuutarou with a little blush.

"Haha, I see that you're quite affectionate to them. You miss them, right?"

The boy didn't reply as he only lowered the gaze and simply nodded while his blush increased.

Mu put a hand on his head, "Don't worry, you will see them again after completing your training. So when you get reunited with them, you will be also strong enough to protect them by whoever tries to hurt them."

Those sentences made Fuutarou look up to Mu and grin confidently. "Yes, I will do my best, Mu-sensei!"

The Aries Saint smiled back at him, so he continued to help Fuutarou with his studies for other 2 hours, after which they went to sleep.

In his room, Fuutarou was still awake while laying down on his bed and looking at his phone, where he could read all the texts received by Isanari, Rena and the quints.

They were all texts that asked how he was, if he was eating healthily, if the school he was in was nice and, most importantly, told him how much they missed him.

Knowing that they missed him already so much made him sad; it was unfair that he couldn't pass the time with his family and especially with those beautiful friends that got very affectionate to him. But unfortunately, he had no choice if he wanted to become strong enough to protect them.

He absolutely hated the idea of losing them like it happened with his mom, so he would do his best to achieve the Apus Cloth and become so powerful that demons and other vile monsters would tremble in fear before him.

'The Apus Cloth…Like Mu-sensei, it's a Silver Cloth, so it's more powerful than a Bronze one. Still, there are also the 12 Gold Clothes, whose wearer can use the Seventh Sense and move with lightspeed. Having such strong allies is really assuring, but that doesn't mean that I won't try to do my best. I will become a very strong Saint no matter what!', thought the boy with a will of fire and a great resolve before replying to the texts received by his family and the Nakanos while also sending them a good night text. He then put away his phone and started to sleep for the next day.

The day after, after having a little breakfast, Mu took Fuutarou to the meditation room to teach him the basis of telekinesis. Since telekinesis was an ability specifically connected to the human's mind, meditation and concentration could help to train the mind to develop such power.

While physical exercises and training served to Fuutarou to develop more strength for hand to hand fights and other feats, mediation would help him to develop strong telekinetic powers to fight by making use of his surroundings.

This was in fact Mu's idea while he observed how Fuutarou was meditating just like him: a calm but serious expression with his eyes closed, compared to Mu's that stayed open to glance at him.

Suddenly, the Aries Saint could notice a slight blue aura around Fuutarou's body, who started to sweat as if he was pulling off a great effort.

'T-this is incredible…He's already showing signs of his developing Cosmo. And from the color, even if slightly visible, I can tell that it's a Light Cosmo.', thought Mu, his eyes widening at the little aura of his apprentice.

In fact, during their dinner of the day before, Mu had explained to Fuutarou that a Cosmo can have an element between Light, Fire, Earth, Wind, Water and Lightning. And having a particular element could allow a Saint to develop very strong attacks.

Since the attacks of the Aries Saint were mostly correlated to Light, if the Stardust Revolution he used to kill Shizuku's murderer was an example, he could say that his apprentice possessed the same element as him.

And said apprentice's little blue aura suddenly disappeared while he started to pant. "W-what w-was this? I f-feel l-like I have m-made a great effort or something."

"That was your Cosmo showing signs of development. It seems that meditation helped you to develop a tiny amount of Cosmo.", told him his teacher with a smile.

"R-really? W-what was the c-color of my Cosmo?"

"It was light blue, so it means that you have Light as element. Just like me."

The boy's eyes widened and he grinned, "I have the same element of Mu-sensei. That means that I have to develop more my Cosmo to make you proud!"

" I like your enthusiasm. Now let's continue to meditate. You have to learn telekinesis too after all."

"Sure, Mu-sensei."

So they started to meditate once again, but this time, Fuutarou's Cosmo didn't appear. In Mu's opinion, the boy strived too much earlier to concentrate his mind, so now he could only focus on developing telekinesis.

But unaware to them, the Apus Cloth Pandora Box kept on the ground floor reacted to Fuutarou's sudden show of his Cosmo by slightly shaking. It was like it felt the tiny power of its future wearer, showing like this how a Cloth had a soul like a living being.

Following 2 hours of meditation, during which they made a little pause so Mu showed his apprentice how he could move some objects like chairs by using his telekinesis, the 2 of them went to have lunch with some tamagoyaki and pork stew.

The golden eyes boy smiled while savoring the food while Mu ate calmly, despite being glad that his apprentice liked the food. He was also happy because it was nice that Fuutarou looked at him as example to follow and wanted to make him proud; it was like the boy considered Mu as an older brother.

Suddenly, they felt someone knocking kn the main door from outside, which confused them. Who would knock the door of a tower in a dangerous place like the Jamir?

After telling Fuutarou to wait at the table, Mu got up and went to open the door to see who knocked. Once he opened it, he was met by a young man with light brown hair and emerald green eyes wearing some sort of leather armor composed of pectoral, gauntlets and boots. Said man had a smile on his face.

"Mu, long time no see.", said the man while offering his hand to the Aries Saint.

"Aiolia, what brings you here?", replied Mu while shaking the man's hand.

"I just wanted to see how you were. It's a long time that you didn't come to-"

He was cut off by Fuutarou's asking, "M-Mu-sensei, who's it?"

The brown haired man looked Mu to see a young boy with black hair and golden eyes, who was looking at him with curiosity and bewilderment.

"Oh, you're the boy Mu decided to make a Saint. My name's Aiolia, the Leo Gold Saint. You must be Fuutarou, right?"

"U-Uesugi Fuutarou, yes. Nice to meet you. B-but wait, you said Gold Saint? Like Mu-sensei?", asked the boy with widen eyes.

"Exactly. Aiolia is a Gold Saint as well. The one of the Leo constellation.", was the reply coming from Mu.

"I see. So Aiolia-San can move at the speed of light too, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. If you want, I can show you one of my attacks to give you the idea of a Saint's technique.", told Aiolia to Fuutarou, making the boy smile and nod, curiosity winning him over.

Mu sighed, "Let's go to the training room then. I don't want that the kitchen or the books get destroyed or something."

The other 2 nodded, so all 3 of them climbed up the stairs to reach the training room. Once there, Aiolia walked towards the center of the room, gazing towards one of targets on the wall while Fuutarou and Mu watched.

Aiolia's body then started to emanate the same golden Cosmo that Mu had shown to the boy and Isanari in Tokai. The emerald green eyes man clenched his fist that started to glow brightly before preparing to throw it.

"Lightning Bolt!", he shouted, throwing his fist forward and shooting like this a big ball of electric energy towards a target, destroying it and reducing it to more ashes. It made also a hole in the wall.

Before such sight, Fuutarou was completely stunned; that was what the Cosmo allowed a Saint to do? Generating energy balls other than giving superhuman strength, speed and all? That was both astonishing and amazing!

"So, what do you think, Fuutarou?", aske him Aiolia, who stopped to burn his Cosmo.

"T-that was fantastic, Aiolia-San! That ball was so fast that I couldn't follow if with my eyes.", replied Fuutarou, showing fully amazement on his face.

"Haha, that's good to hear. Then you will be more surprised when I will show you one day an attack capable of hitting an enemy with over 500.000 fists.", said the Leo Saint with a smile.

Hearing that made Fuutarou gasp and stay still with a open mouth while Mu chuckled; he found his apprentice's reaction very funny. Aiolia laughed a bit too while promising that he will show the boy the attack he mentioned.

This made Fuutarou get out of his shock and smile as looked forward to that occasion. Then Mu told him that it was time to study, so he sent him to the ground floor to get prepared while he had to talk with Aiolia. The boy nodded and went downstairs while Mu and Aiolia stayed where they were.

After Fuutarou was out of the room, the 2 Gold Saints started to talk about the Gransd Pope and the demons that Aiolia killed while hunting them down. Mu also told him about the boy's show of a little bit of his Light Cosmo, making Aiolia gasp.

The young boy had already started to develop his Cosmo? And this while meditating to develop some possible telekinetic abilities? That really was a proof of the boy's potential to become a warrior as well.

"T-that's incredible. To think that he s-showed a hint of Cosmo by merely meditating…", muttered the stunned Saint.

"Yeah, I was surprised me too to be honest. I knew that he had great fighting skills, but I couldn't imagine that he'd show his latent Cosmo already.", said Mu, understanding his friend's state.

"Also, since you're here, Aiolia, I must ask you a favor."

"A favor?"

Mu nodded, "Yeah, I wanted to ask you if you could keep an eye on Fuutarou's city to avoid that other demons kill other innocents for at least 5 years. Until Fuutarou didn't become a Saint. As you can see, I have to take care of him and his training, so you're the only one that I can ask this favor.", answered Mu with a serious expression.

Aiolia was surprised by the request before smiling and saying, " There's no problem with that. I can keep an eye on his city and the people he holds dear as other Saints are already taking care of demons in other parts of the world."

"Thank you, Aiolia.", told him Mu, shaking also his hand to show his gratitude.

And while the 2 Gold Saints were talking about that, Fuutarou was busy with reading a book of history regarding some particular concepts about Cosmo and Clothes.

For example, he found out that a damaged Cloth could be repaired only by using the blood of a Saint and some special utensils and that Saints could perceive also the nature of other Cosmos, which could then show the emotions and the attitude of a Saint.

'Now that I think about it, when Mu-sensei showed his Cosmo to me and Dad it was like it was calm and collected while in Aiolia-San's case I perceived his seriousness and great courage. This book also explains how strong emotions like anger and sorrow can influence a Cosmo by making a Saint stronger. I wonder if that little hint of Cosmo that I showed was influenced by similar emotions.', thought the boy while remembering what happened in the morning.

Of course he wasn't still vengeful, since Mu had killed the murderer of Shizuku, but Fuutarou felt a strong hate towards demons anyways. Thinking that they tormented humans for since ancient times truly enraged him.

Nonetheless, his will to become a Saint to protect who he held dear like Isanari, Raiha, the quints and their parents. Letting himself consume by the hate wasn't the right path; he didn't want to forget about love and compassion.

And unbeknownst to him, Mu and Aiolia were observing how he was getting more knowledge about Saints and Cosmo. A sight that made them smile.

"He's very interested to know about what he will become and all, huh?", said Aiolia.

"Yeah, he's very studious. If he studies like this already for 5 years, he won't have problems to enter in a private high school or something then.", replied Mu, totally agreeing with his friend's statement and imagining already his apprentice's a future. A future that would be full of various and important events.

A/N

Chapter 3 for you, everyone! As you can see, I removed the crossover tag to make this story easier to find here on FF. After all, you can see notice the crossover etiquette in the summary.

Fuutarou's training started pretty well as it seems because he didn't have problems to complete the series of push ups and all that Mu told him to do. He also managed to show a hint of his Cosmo, which happens to be a Light Cosmo like Mu's.

And to the boy's surprise, another Gold Saint appeared and showed him what a Saint's attack can do, which amazed him. He also won't have to worry about his beloved ones as Aiolia will make sure to keep an eye on Tokai to get rid of potential demons' attacks for the next 5 years. So Fuutarou can concentrate in this amount of time to become a strong Saint. How will his training go? Stay tuned to find out.

See ya!