4 — AN UNUSUAL DAY
After enduring the biggest shame of the world the night before, Seiya spent the rest of the days running away from Saori or any authority in that huge Mansion they were staying. With his very partner Shun, however, he soon managed to become quite close on Xiaoling, who knew Alice and, more importantly, was going to go back to where they all had trained. And with her, he would have a much better chance than just talking to Alice.
"So, are you going back to your training ground today? Can I tag along?" Seiya asked. "Shun wants to go too." said he without even talking to his friend.
"Great! We should all go together! I'll let Tatsumi know."
"No, don't let him know!" Seiya said holding the girl. "He doesn't like Shun very much, I don't think he's going to let us go with you. How about a great adventure?" he asked, his face bright.
"I like adventures." she replied, intrigued.
"Don't listen to him, Xiaoling." Shun warned.
"What do you think of us running away from this place?" Xiaoling's eyes sparkled.
"I loved it! And then we can go out together. I know how to get there. It's going to be so much fun!"
"Awesome. We just need a plan to get out of this mansion without anyone seeing us then." said Seiya
"And how do you plan to do that? This place is full of people." warned Shun said. "There's cameras everywhere."
"Hm. The only way out is through the front gate where everyone comes from."
"But we can easily climb over the back garden wall." Shun said looking at his friend. "What kind of training did you do in Greece anyway, Seiya?"
"I wasn't jumping all the time." he protested irritably.
"Right. Let's go around the back. Shun's plan really is the best." agree Xiaoling.
"OK, but we need to create a diversion so that people don't mind us us."
"They don't even know we exist." said Xiaoling.
"I'm not so sure. I can use my fists and..."
"No, Seiya. Let's not brake anything." asked Shun.
"We don't need the distraction, every day at lunchtime, they change guard and let the staff in to work. We can use that time."
"Perfect. What about the cameras?" Seiya asked, but Shun had an idea.
"I have an idea.".
And off they went.
They ate their lunch meal, devoured the jelly, and the three of them crept out to the back of the Mansion, always closely watched by adults with sunglasses, cameras on fences and high walls.
When the agreed time came, the three were already in front of the wall that they would soon jump. The nearby lookouts left for the new ones to arrive soon, a fuss formed at the entrance, as it always did, according to Xiaoling. She smiled.
There was a single camera pointed exactly where they needed to jump. They walked until they were just below the camera and out of reach; it was time for Shun to work his magic. He aimed the camera with the palm of his hand and even though it was very high, Seiya and Xiaoling noticed that the camera slowly began to rotate on its axis, no longer focusing on that wall on the other side of the garden.
"Let's go." he said, finishing his part.
Shun crouched down and stood for Seiya to climb the wall and fall on the other side. Soon came Xiaoling and Shun out of the Mansion.
But in addition to the camera, there was also another pair of eyes that were very suspicious to what they were doing.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Shiryu, appearing behind them.
"You listen to me, if you say anything..."
"Then what?" Shiryu asked Seiya.
"I don't know! But you'll see." threatened him.
"Leave it, Seiya. The more the merrier. I can't believe it. Off we go to a great adventure!" said Xiaoling very excited.
"And where is this place you trained?" asked Shun.
"See that mountain over there? On the very top of it."
Seiya and Shun were shocked, as the Mountain was much further away than they imagined.
"Ah, Xiaoling, the way you said it, I thought it was closer."
"It's not that far." Shiryu pondered and asked: "What kind of training did you had, Seiya?"
Seiya shrugged and led the group for their great adventure.
Altogether, the four walked down the sidewalk toward the mountain, dodging dumpsters, adults cursing into cell phones; cars whizzing beside them, honking, braking. The first real obstacle appeared on the first block and Shiryu simply crossed the lane between the cars causing a traffic jam.
"What is happening?"
"Are you crazy, Shiryu? You have to wait until the green lights!" Xiaoling shouted from the sidewalk.
"But it is green."
"For them, not for us!" said Seiya.
They rescued Dragon and from then on Xiaoling would only cross the street if she went hand in hand with Shiryu who insisted that she already understood how it worked, although even more than once she was almost run over.
Seiya convinced his friends to stop by the Orphanage, a silly thing, he said.
"We're going to be late, Seiya." complained Xiaoling.
"Oh, we have all day. It will be quick. You will love the kids."
And as soon as he arrived, he saw the children on the swing or playing ball on the grass. Immediately everyone stopped and went straight to Seiya.
"Seiya! Seiya!" cried the children
"You are the champion, Seiya. How did you do that?" Makoto asked excitedly, kicking the air like crazy and falling on his ass.
"Hey, isn't that Dragon? It's Shiryu!" the kids soon flocked to Shiryu too.
"Teach me the Rising Dragon, Shiryu!" Asked a little girl already in her lap, all bewildered.
"Look a them. It didn't took five minutes and they're already loving her." complained Seiya.
"Whew, looks like they have a new favorite." Shun commented.
"Seiya, Seiya! There's candy!" Xiaoling shouted, who wasn't even beside them anymore, but had already gone straight to the kitchen.
"Wait, Xiaoling, those are for the children!"
Shiryu, Xiaoling and Shun were taking care of the children for a few moments of privacy for the old friends.
"We need to go now, Miho. I just dropped by to say hi."
"Seiya, you need to see the party they threw when you won. It was very exciting."
"I wonder if Seika saw it."
"I want to believe so, Seiya."
"We are now going to the place where she used to train. Looks like it's near here."
"Good, Seiya! Don't forget to tell me what you find."
"Thanks for everything Miho." He said smiling until he realized that there was a strange shadow between them.
"What is it?" Makoto flew past Seiya's head. "What is this, Shun?"
"They wanted to know what my technique was." he replied, smiling.
"I'm flying, Seiya!" Makoto yelled.
Leaving the orphanage, they walked to the end of a large avenue that turned into a highway away from the city. But before it left for other places, a great stairway started into an apparently closed forest.
"It's here. We'll probably arrive before sunset." Xiaoling perked up to everyone's astonishment.
"Well, I think I'll wait for you guys to come back right here." Shiryu said, dismayed by the size of that climb.
"You won't, you don't even know how to cross the street." Seiya said pulling her back.
Basically, they spent the rest of the day climbing the endless stairs that, the higher they got, the less cared for and the more overgrown with weed they became. And when everyone was out of breath from so much climb, Seiya seemed the most relaxed.
"What? You didn't climb stairs in your training? Let's go"
"I have a weird feeling." Shiryu added.
"I feel it too, Shiryu. It's like we're being watched." Shun said.
The sensation didn't stop them from going forward for a few more minutes until they were zapped by a massive shock wave and fell a few steps down.
"Are you all ok?" Seiya asked, more used to shocks. Everyone was fine. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
"The question is who… are you?" said a voice ahead and another one behind them.
"It's Xiaoling, you two idiots!" she cried.
Shiryu and Shun noticed that behind them appeared a boy dressed in a dark robe. Seiya and Xiaoling saw a tall girl come to them.
"What are you doing here Xiaoling? Why are you bringing visitors?" they asked intermittently.
"They came to follow me."
"Well, you can come back then. She is safe now." said the girl.
"I want to know about my sister Seika!" Seiya said stepping in front of Xiaoling. "She trained here, didn't she?"
"He is Seika's brother and would like to speak with the Master, Shinato." Xiaoling said.
"The Master is not here and even if she were, she wouldn't receive you." replied the boy from the back.
"I'll stay here until she comes back!"
"You'll waste your time, as we don't know when she'll be back!" he spoke again.
"I didn't come here to go back with my hands empty." Seiya rebelled.
"Seiya, but if she's not here…" Shun tried.
"I met Seika." Shinato said, silent until then. Seiya immediately turned to her.
"Then talk to me!"
"Hey-o, Shinato, what are you doing?"
"A little hospitality, Mirai."
"The Master will kill you."
"We can blame Xiaoling."
"Hey!" she protested.
Finally, they climbed the last steps and noticed a small temple, a huge boulder and very little habitable facility. Around a simple bonfire, they all sat down to deflate their feet as night gradually fell.
At Shinato's invitation, Seiya entered the small temple where incense burned and, in the back, in a kind of warehouse, Shinato entered and returned with a photograph. Seiya's sister.
"Seika…"
"She arrived here seven years ago."
"That's when we were sent to our trainings."
"She was very good at training. She was the best, actually. She didn't always stay with us, as she liked to go back to the orphanage she had grown."
"And what happened to her?"
"One day at dawn. Me, the Master and Alice just saw that she was no longer at camp. We thought she had gone back to the orphanage and that in a few days she would be back. But days passed. Weeks. Months. And nothing."
"Didn't you go after her?" he asked.
"We notified the Foundation and they guaranteed that they would search for her whereabouts. But…"
"What? Say it!"
"Wherever she went. She went because she wanted to go, Seiya."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"I do, Seiya." said Shinato.
"There's no way of knowing that!" protested Seiya.
"The dove talked a lot about you." interrupted a deep voice inside the temple.
"Master!"
Seiya turned and saw a lady in a wooden wheelchair, her body bandaged from head to toe and a dark sash covering her eyes.
"You are Marin's disciple." she said.
"You know Marin?"
"I know she should have been tougher on you."
"What do you mean by that?"
"That you shouldn't be whining about a photo. Why, your sister told me you were much braver than that."
Seiya looked at that mysterious figure and looked at the photo in his hands. A mixture of enormous happiness remembering her sister, knowing something her sister has said; but also a sadness that maybe he didn't measure up to what she had for him. He wiped the tears from his eyes.
"That's better. Now go back, boy. If you keep fighting with the bravery your sister told me you had, one day your paths will cross again."
Seiya was still embarrassed and with an enormous desire to insist on something that was already clear to be lost. He looked at the photo again, it was his sister smiling in front of that little temple. He felt his chest heat up as he imagined she was there and that she was happy. He felt a little guilty again for being so miserable.
"Thanks." he said leaving the photo with Shinato.
"You can take the photo if you want."
"He does not need." said the Master when she saw him leave the temple.
On the outside, they were all standing there waiting for Seiya who appeared with a smile on his face and a renewed spirit.
"Shall we go back then?"
"I will stay." Xiaoling said. "Like I said. I need to train to be as strong as Shiryu".
"I'm sure you will be much stronger." Shiryu added.
"And you better give Shun your hand when crossing the street!"
Defeated by the stairs, they returned to the great avenue worst than a sandbag. Luckily, going down is always much easier then going up and long before they thought about, they were on their way to the Mansion again. Seiya asked Shun and Shiryu to go ahead.
He wandered alone along the avenue near the Mansion, crossed a bridge remembering his sister and gathering the certainty he had to continue on his way. In the distance, he saw a huge poster with a photo taken of when he had won his fight against the Bear, intertwined with other Knights of the Tournament. If he could make it to the final, maybe she could actually see him out there.
Walking along, he noticed a girl alone; the sad face walking in the opposite direction to his. She stumbled into the bridge socket and dropped what she was carrying in her hands; Seiya anticipated and prevented the chain from falling between the rivets to go overboard. It was a pendant with a familiar figure.
"Pegasus?" he asked her. "That's my protective Constellation."
"Ah, you are…the Pegasus Knight of the Tournament."
"Ah yes. I'm Pegasus Seiya." And he handed the pendant to the girl. "It's important to you, isn't it? Watch out for it, huh."
He noticed the sad girl looking at the pendant.
"This is a gift from my sister." she said.
"Your sister?" he asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach. She nodded and the two looked at each other for a while.
The girl went back to walking with her head down as the words flitted through Seiya's mind. A memory. That sister was also far away, he thought; she also suffered from the longing that hit him. Seiya looked back at the girl and called her back.
"You know, I have a sister too, but she's far away now."
"Far away?" asked the girl looking at him.
"Yes. But I know I'll find her. If I keep fighting and never give up, I know I'll see her again."
The girl looked hopefully at the confident boy and surprised him with a hug.
"Good luck, Seiya!" she said.
"For us both. Let's do our best! For if we look like the fools we are right now, our sisters will kick our asses." and the girl laughed for the first time.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: This is a chapter that I sought to make an adventure to unite the main characters and start introducing Shiryu into the group. A light chapter for their personalities to surface, but at the same time keeping Seiya's focus on his sister. Using Mayura as the master of them all made perfect sense to streamline locations and different stories, to focus on a character that will be huge in the future. I added at the end of the chapter Seiya's meeting with Shoko that we see in Saintia Sho, because it's a wonderful scene and I love how the two have very similar griefs at the beginning of their story and I wanted to take advantage of that to make them find strength in each other.
NEXT CHAPTER: The Cosmos of Friendship
Determined to fight and reach the final, Seiya must face the terrible Dragon Shield.