8 — HOT BLOODED YOUTH

His eyes opened slowly as the late-afternoon light escaped the curtains of his hospital room and illuminated his face. Although in full recovery, Seiya had escaped long before he was discharged and again exposed his young body to an extreme battle situation. Naturally, he ended up passed out on the pier and didn't wake up until the next day. At the hospital again.

It wasn't true that only the sun had woken him up, as his bedroom television was also on and Saori Kido was making a statement to the press.

"Turn it off." he asked and the TV promptly turned off.
"Are you awake, Seiya?" asked Shun's voice.
"I think so." he replied.
"Doctors said you're just sleepy. Today you will be discharged."

Shun's voice brought back to Seiya some nightmares he had had the night before, but as his mind woke up, more and more he knew they weren't the result of a delusion.

"Have we been able to retrieve the Gold Cloth?"
"Some parts only." Shun replied and Seiya remembered the fights on the pier.

He remembered bitterly that he hadn't been able to do his part.

"And how are you, Shun?" he asked, finally remembering that the biggest pain there in that room was actually the one in his friend's heart.
"I don't know." he began. "It's so nice to know my sister is alive, but…"
"We'll figure it out, Shun." Seiya promised.

Shun was silent and brought Seiya a change of clothes.

"I'll go with you to the orphanage, Miho is waiting for you with the children."
"Maybe they'll kill me this time, Shun." Seiya said, already imagining Makoto on his neck.

The trip was made in a Foundation car; the two of them in silence watching the landscape roll out the window. The car left the young ones at the door of the Orphanage of the Stars, where Miho was already waiting for them.

"Seiya!" she came when she saw the car arrive.
"Hi, Miho. Thank you so much for asking the priest to let us stay for a few days." Shun thanked. "Can you help the poor soul to the house?"
"You'll see the poor soul, Shun. I'm fine." protested Seiya. "Where are you going?"
"I need to visit a place that is very important to me."
"I'll go with you." he offered.
"Sorry, Seiya, but I would like to go there alone. I will be back soon."
"Shun…" Seiya began. "Don't blame yourself for your sister."

Shun didn't answer and just smiled back awkwardly before leaving his friend with Miho. Seiya walked in, the kids were in another room taking math lessons and he had a few hours of peace with Miho. She told him that there was still no news from Seika, but all that everybody was talking about was the Galaxian Wars and how the abrupt ending brought everyone to a shock.

Alone, Shun decided to go to a stretch of many trees in the city, close to the coast. It was a place a bit far away in a park, but very important to him. In a clearing, a large tree stood out and in it Shun found what he had gone for: several fist marks and splinters beside the trunk. This was where her sister trained her moves as a child. It was where she also taught him to defend himself.

Shun placed his hand over the marks and tried to remember his childhood with it. About how she had to take care of Shun since the day her mother died, how she was the one who practically forced the Foundation to adopt them together and also she was the one who protested with the same Foundation to change Shun's destiny to go in his place. Suffering a hellish training, with the worst people and conditions.

"She said the only chance we had was to have our fists as strong as this trunk, so that we could be something on our lives." Shun said to himself, remembering his sister's words. "And now, so many years later, she uses her fists to destroy and cause harm. Why so much hate? I feel like I'm in a nightmare."

His sadness was enormous and what Shun wanted most was to ask his sister's for forgiveness. He wiped his tears, determined, and left the tree with one purpose: to go alone to where she was to face his sins.

But Shun was surprised by a sudden change in that forest. A mist invaded the space of the trees and spread in all directions, the temperature dropped sharply and then from the white sky a strange snow began to fall. Out of time.

The sky cleared and the snow rushed in even harder, covering the grass with a thin layer of snow. An impossible snow, as it was black. Shun soon guessed that this was not normal. He remembered the attack on Ichi. And he put himself on guard.

"Show yourself, Ice Saint!"

The answer was a derisive laugh followed by a bang on Shun's back: the tree so special to him had been torn apart, bringing down its crown and trunk. Shun had to jump to avoid being hit.

In the distance he saw a dark silhouette among the approaching snow. The snow was really an impossible spectacle, as it came from the black sky in flakes and dark crystals, to dilute and cover the grass with the white snow which Shun was more used to.

Before he could discern who the Ice Saint was, he was hit by his fist twice more, being hurled into another tree. Without his Cloth, Shun was an easy prey for an opponent like that.

His tormentor held him by the chin and Shun could clearly see that his helmet was a majestic Swan. More he couldn't see, as he found himself trapped by his hands and legs in a huge Black Ice Crystal.

Shun felt that perhaps he would die there, victimized by his sins of using his Cloth to find his sister, facing young ones in a Tournament, breaking his Saint oath and ultimately being the cause of his sister's madness.

He passed out frozen, only to wake up hours later, again under a free green grass, as if he'd awakened from a nightmare. No sign of the Ice Saint. No sign of the snow.

The destroyed tree behind him, however, reassured him that he hadn't been hallucinating. He was then left with a question in his head: who had saved him?

In a shared room at the Orphanage, Miho enters with a hot herbal tea. Shun is in bed, sitting, covered with a blanket, with Seiya in front of him.

"Thank you, Miho." said Shun.
"I'll take care of the kids so they'll leave you alone for a bit." she said as she left.
"Are you sure you're OK, Shun?" Seiya asked worriedly.
"Yes, I'm just feeling cold."
"So the Ice Saint really is Cygnus." pondered Seiya. "You shouldn't have gone alone, Shun. From now on, we'll stick together."

Shun was silent and took a sip of that invigorating tea. After arriving at the orphanage very dirty and wet, Shun was forced by Seiya to take a hot bath and warm up, to tell him everything that had happened. But Shun didn't tell everything that had happened that day.

He pulled a very battered and damp note out of his jacket pocket.

"This is a note from my sister. She left it at the Mansion last night."

Seiya was surprised and read the note in silence; Phoenix challenged the Foundation to take the remainder of the Golden Cloth to Death Valley within a week. A challenge and a threat. He handed the note back to Shun looking at him.

"You want to be there, don't you?" Seiya concluded, but Shun didn't answer. He went back to taking a sip of tea. "Well, I'm going too!"

Shun looked at him, smiling.

"What is it?"
"Shiryu was right."
"How so?"
"That you would want to go into this trap too."
"We're in this together, Shun." Seiya said. "And besides, Shiryu nearly died a few days ago. She has to take care of herself and stay with her Master. I won't leave you alone."
"You're wrong if you think she's going to China to rest."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that she knew you would want to fight, while your Cloth is completely destroyed."
"I don't care!"
"Exactly. And that's why Shiryu took your Cloth to be restored."
"Restored?" Seiya was surprised. "Is that even possible?"
"Yes. She left with the Dragon and Pegasus Cloths. Said she will be back here for the day of the battle."

Seiya sat up, surprised.

"Shiryu…"

The days went by. If they were going to stay at the Orphanage, Shun and Seiya, being older than the children, would have to help Miho with the day to day chores, mainly because they had one less person working.

Seiya swept, vacuumed, scolded Makoto, while Shun took care of the kitchen, dusted, put on clothes to wash, spread. And the two still needed to take care of the children: Shun taught something about self-defense and also took care when one of them got hurt; on the other hand, Seiya was caught by Shun teaching the secrets of Cosmo in a session in which Makoto was already punching stones left and right.

"Seiya! You can't teach them to use Cosmo like that without supervision, are you crazy?!"
"Ah, Shun, these kids aren't going to drop Meteor out of nowhere, right..."

The days were pleasant, as they gave them both the opportunity to live a simple life, very busy, but also very close to that of a normal kid. Like Miho, who went out of her way to do everything practically on her own. There was always a sadness in Shun when night fell; Seiya started to notice that in his friend. He knew that, deep down, Shun counted the days.

For one day a very imposing car parked in front of the Orphanage and immediately attracted the attention of the children - and even Seiya and Shun, who were playing with them in the front yard. The door of the car opened and it got out of the car Saori Kido in all her elegance.

She was received with a party by the children, mainly by the girls, who loved to see her on TV; it really was an event to have such a famous personality among them. Even Seiya was amused when he saw that Saori lost a little of her composure when dealing with that gang of brats.

She greeted them very politely and went in to speak with the priest in charge of the Orphanage.

"What does she want here?" Seiya asked himself.
"She said she would like to talk to you alone. I'm going in with the kids." said Miho, ushering everyone inside.

Seiya and Shun were sitting on the swing when they saw Saori leaving the office and walking towards them. They didn't got up and, to their surprise, she also sat on the third vacant swing, next to Seiya, and the boy felt that there was something strange about her.

"I'm glad you're better, Seiya." she began.
"How Jab and Alice are doing?" Shun asked and she looked straight ahead with a frown.
"They'll be fine." she said, swallowing hard, and Shun realized something was wrong.
"What are you really doing here, miss?" Seiya asked.
"I came to see how you were doing." she said.
"Don't tell me the Foundation Princess came to this simple Orphanage just to see if we were all right?!"

She did not answer.

"Are you all right, miss?" Shun asked, and she turned the subject away.
"Yes, I just hope Shiryu manages to restore the Armors in time."

Seiya got up, disgusted.

"She knows about this?" Seiya asked Shun, but his friend didn't answer. "And you only care about restoring the Armor? Armor? Do you even know that they are called Cloths?" Seiya asked Saori. "Aren't you worried about her, since it's been a few days since her heart stopped? And yet she was willing to go to China to give us a chance?"
"Of course I'm worried about her, but most of all I'm worried about you, Seiya."

And finally he was caught off guard, as he hadn't expected those worried eyes from the girl.

"With me? Worried about me?"
"Yes. I know that if Shiryu doesn't make it back in time, you'll want to be by Shun's side and fight the Black Knights without your Armor. And that would be crazy!"
"I don't mind fighting without my Cloth. I'll be by Shun's side whatever it takes!"
"And that's why I'm worried."

Despite all of Seiya's disgust with that girl and with everything she represented, there was a pain in her eyes that he hadn't expected to have seen it; and the concern of which he doubted, he had no doubts that it was from the heart. As much as he didn't want to believe it, Saori was really worried about him.

She then got up and said goodbye to the two, but Seiya noticed that something had fallen out of her clothes without her noticing. A pendant. He retrieved it from the ground and realized that he had seen that Pegasus before. He had already recovered it before.

"Miss…" he began.
"Seiya, I would like you to call me Saori from now on." she asked.
"Ah… Saori. You dropped this."

Seiya noticed that Saori let some of her pain escape when she saw that pendant; he himself felt an immense shiver in his body.

"Thank you, Seiya. This was from someone who was very important to me."

She took it and got into the car to leave.

For the first time, seeing Saori there on that swing with Shun and her pain with that pendant, Seiya thought that maybe she wasn't that different from them.

ABOUT THE CHAPTER: This is a building chapter, as I call it. A moment after a great battle that the protagonists reflect on themselves. I loved making Seiya and Shun closer and chapters like this one where the two of them live together at Star Orphanage serve to create that bigger connection. I tried to keep the mystery of the Ice Saint that attacks Shun, trying to keep his identity hidden for now. And the final scene with Saori is to show Seiya and Shun that although they are the protagonists, there are stories going on that they have no idea. And the idea was to start humanizing the tournament princess a little more.

NEXT CHAPTER: THE CEMETERY WHERE CLOTHS GO TO DIE

What will it take for Shiryu to repair the Dragon and Pegasus Cloth?