12 — SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN
The valley tumbled into a deep precipice; at half of it, was Seiya's unconscious body that Shun was trying to rescue with his Chain. The Black Dragon watched from a cliff above. Shiryu learned about Seiya's bad injuries and that he needed immediate help; Shun started to go down the precipice using his Chains, but the Black Dragon had other ideas. And from the top of the cliff, he jumped to hit them both.
Shiryu blocked with his shield and Black Dragon had to back away.
"Take care of Seiya, Shun. I will fight him."
"How foolish. Why work so hard for someone who's probably already dead? It's pointless."
"It's not foolish if there's any chance that he's alive. That's what we do for friends." Shiryu said and the Black Dragon mocked with a wry smile.
The fight broke out between the two and the sound of the metal clashing echoed in the valley. It was a very similar combat in which, as they advanced on each other, they actually ended up pushing each other into the cave.
The Black Dragon then lured Shiryu to a corner where the light was weaker and hit her from behind, causing Shiryu to fall into an indentation where she found herself completely blind. And again she was hit, this time in the face.
"Where is he?"
It was a deep darkness and although Shiryu could hear Black Dragon and guess his location, the darkness of the cave confused her too much. She was hit hard in the chest and fell from a height to another platform even deeper in the dark. She was confused because the attack was spot on.
She sensed another charge and managed to jump back to where she had fallen, only to be shot again in the stomach.
"It's not possible!" Shiryu felt like she was blind and fighting someone who could see her perfectly.
"You don't stand a chance, Shiryu. I can see your every move in the darkness." said the Black Dragon, curiously from a direction she had not expected.
She turned to the voice and was hit again from the opposite side, dropping to the ground. She raised her hand over her face and felt it bleed. The blows weren't necessarily strong, but because she was unprepared, she ended up cutting herself on the cave rock or an unprepared tumble.
In the darkness she tried to pay more attention to what she heard and the movement of the air, but whenever she thought she knew where her enemy was, she was surprised again. And then she started getting beat in the dark of the cave.
When suddenly something changed: a strong voice sounded in the cave and it wasn't Shiryu who screamed in pain. Someone had been beaten in the dark and it hadn't been her. The attacks ceased while someone suffered and then the cave lit up as a sphere rose from floor to ceiling bringing light.
Shiryu clearly saw the Black Dragon in front of her and, looking back, another Black Dragon, fallen. The same helmet, the same shield, the same likeness as your opponent, as if they were duplicates. But one was suffering and the other was standing with his arms crossed in front of her.
"Are you okay, Shiryu?"
"Miss Saori?" Shiryu asked, realizing, even further away, that it was Saori who was there.
"Just Saori." She smiled.
She wore a White Armor and had a helmet on her head with a visor over her eyes.
"I think this Black Knight can also see in the dark and was attacking you without you having a chance." she said.
"He's blind." said Black Dragon to Shiryu.
"Blind?" Shiryu looked at the boy on the ground slowly getting up.
"Very well, there is no need to keep this charade. I can finish you off myself, Shiryu". said the Black Dragon.
"No brother, I can help you!" said the one suffering on the floor.
But Black Dragon rushed Shiryu with all his strength and hit her terribly, throwing her to the roof of the cave. He then grabbed Shiryu by the collar of her Cloth and dragged her out of that dark cave. Shun had not yet returned to the surface.
"That's much better, I should be able to see you lose." he said menacing. "Get up, Shiryu. You're not as weak as this. I heard you can change the course of a waterfall. Show me that."
Upon getting up, Shiryu was soon surprised by the Black Dragon's fierce attacks and, a series of blows later, she was back on the ground, bleeding. The strength of the Black Dragon was impressive; Shiryu thought there was no need for that whole trick of taking her to the cave.
"Are you by any chance hesitating to fight?" he asked. "You won't stand a chance as you are. Here, look." and pointed at Shiryu with his finger. "One finger. I can beat you with just one finger. It's all I need to beat you like this."
"Don't underestimate me! You must have gone mad if you think you can beat a Bronze Saint with just a finger. Have you lost your mind because your friends and your brother were defeated?" she asked, rising to her feet.
"You're wrong. I don't mind those who get defeated."
And the Black Dragon cosmos arose in the valley and with that single finger he sent a mighty shock wave forward against Shiryu. She just noticed the eye of the hurricane forming in front of her, with no time to dodge or avoid the blow. She instinctively brought the Shield to her face, but was eventually engulfed by the mighty wave of the Black Dragon and was sunk against the valley wall.
She fell at the feet of Black Dragon, covered in blood; Shiryu reflected that perhaps she was really in no condition to fight that battle.
"I'm impressed." Said the Black Dragon while Shiryu suffered at her feet. "Not with you, of course, but with your Cloth that remains intact despite my blows."
"You shouldn't be surprised, Black Dragon." said the childish voice of Black Andromeda, who was slowly waking up from her knockout, although with great difficulty. "Master Mu is truly amazing and her restorative skills are the best there is. Your blows will hardly make a scratch on her Cloth."
"The restoration?" he mused. "So that means…"
The Black Dragon then took Shiryu again by the collar and knelt before her.
"Now I get it. You lost a ton of blood so you could restore that Cloth, didn't you? That's why you're fighting so badly. Why did you come to fight with a body like that?"
Shiryu on the ground pulled her breath and when she opened her eyes, she saw Shun's chain swinging in the rock of the cliff, in the distance the sound of the very faint golden bell ringing. The little Black Andromeda was also looking at him, surprised.
"For my friends." she replied.
The valley wind howled between them.
"Even knowing it wouldn't do any good. You still couldn't stop coming?" asked Black Dragon. "Is this the friendship you believe in?"
"Yes." Shiryu replied.
"How ridiculous."
"I don't think it's ridiculous. And I don't think you believe what you say either." said Shiryu, at the mercy of the Black Dragon. "You lured me into the cave so your brother could fight by your side too, isn't that right, Black Dragon?"
"Now you're the one going mad."
He then lifted Shiryu by her Cloth; she was helpless and almost powerless.
"Go to hell with this friendship of yours."
He dropped the girl into the air to land a hook to her mighty chin that made Shiryu fly across the valley and fall forward on the rock. Subdued.
Shiryu, lying on the stone floor, noticed that her fingers and hand inside Dragon's Shield were soaked with blood. She slowly removed the Dragon Fist and realized that her wrists, cut for the sacrifice of the Restoration of Cloth, had reopened her wounds. It was her end, but she still had in her heart the hope that Shun would save Seiya and her efforts would not be in vain.
Black Dragon left her dying and walked to the Andromeda Chain, which swung alone on the rock; down below, Shun had Seiya in his lap and slowly climbed back. Little Black Andromeda was leaning against the cave entrance, still recovering from the shock she had taken.
"Give it up, Andromeda. I'm going to break your chain so you can die with Pegasus and with that nonsense you all believe."
"Wait, Black Dragon!"
Shiryu rose slowly. She knew she would need to defeat the Black Dragon and that meant using all her strength, despite being very weak. It meant using her Rising Dragon, which would take everything from her and yet leave her extremely vulnerable. But it was no time for doubts, or either Shun or Seiya could die on that precipice. She needed to do something.
"Give up, Shiryu. You are in no condition to save anyone. Friendship won't help you here." said the Black Dragon.
But Shiryu rose with her Dragon cosmos ascending and lighting up the valley. The flow of blood running down her Cloth from her wounds began to increase as she struggled to make her cosmos burn to infinity. She felt dizziness take over, closed her eyes and carried on, imagining the universe inside of her.
"I don't understand why you keep going. You'll end up dying that way. Why are you doing this, Shiryu?" he asked.
"There may not be anything in the world worth sacrificing for…" she began, her eyes closed, her hair flying around her.
"Except what?" snapped the Black Dragon.
"Except for our friends." Shiryu said opening her eyes. "We have never known the love of a parent. The love of a mother. Friends are all we have left."
Her cosmos was huge.
"If I have to die, then I'll die for what I believe in."
"That is right. You are going to die. And you'll die with your friendship, Shiryu!" threatened the Black Dragon.
The valley was filled with the fury of the Dragons and Shiryu broke the stars with her Rising Dragon, to which the Black Saint responded with his overwhelming hurricane. The impact reverberated off the valley walls and Shiryu slammed her Dragon Fist into the enemy's stomach before he managed to hit her. The Black Dragon pierced the wall and, as it fell to the ground, was buried by many stones that came down with its impact against the rock.
"I did it." Shiryu said on her knees.
She didn't remember a test as extreme as that one, but she felt complete for having won and helped her friends, even as her life was slipping away once more. Again the Dragon tattoo on her back was fading. Shiryu fell lying on the ground already losing consciousness. Lots of blood around her.
But again that voice sounded in the valley calling for her.
"Shiryu!"
It was Black Dragon. He was alive.
The Black Saint got rid of the stones that buried him. He got up and walked towards Shiryu who struggled but couldn't get back on her feet. Even on her knees, she was dizzy.
"I can't believe..."
The Black Dragon lifted her by the chin, braced her legs so she was on her feet and took the final blow with dignity. He again pointed his index finger at Shiryu, who had already experienced the enormous power that the Black Saint could unleash with just that finger. It was the end of them. The Black Saints would win.
But he only touched his finger to the chest shield of the Dragon Cloth; Shiryu then felt an enormous pressure in her chest to the point of being dragged backwards; the air around them stirred with fury.
"Shiryu, my power can both destroy but also save lives." said the Black Dragon seriously. "Soon your body will stop bleeding."
Shiryu looked at her right hand and the bleeding on her wrist had actually slowed down significantly just by the impact of that Black Saint technique. Her hands were still shaking, but it was clear the blood had stopped leaving her body.
"But… why are you trying to save my life, Black Dragon? Why?"
And then he saw in front of her that the Black Dragon fell to his knees and with a choked voice he spoke as much as he could.
"I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to believe in your friendship."
Seeing that the Black Dragon lost his balance, Shiryu went to him and held his body as it fell to the ground. Black Dragon then took off his helmet and looked up at the clouds in the sky.
"But now I think it's too late for me, Shiryu." he said in a choked voice.
"Ah, don't die now, Black Dragon." asked Shiryu beside him and realized that another person held the hand of the Black Saint that rested on his chest.
It was the other Black Dragon.
"Brother!"
And, beside her, the little Black Andromeda, who had tears on her girlish face.
Shiryu stood up with her chest heaved with sadness for having caused that death and felt deeply that he would die there before her eyes.
But when she lifted her face, she felt a certain comfort in seeing that, at the end of his life, Black Dragon was next to all that was important to him. Of people who loved him.
And she understood when his last breath turned into a smile.
ABOUT THIS CHAPTER: I love the idea of the blind Black Dragon and I didn't want to abandon that idea on the Manga, as the Anime did. So I brought it into the story to give Saori something to do, so that Shiryu would trust her a little more, but also to create a deeper plot about the Black Dragon and his feelings.
NEXT CHAPTER: HATEFUL MEMORIES
How big is the Phoenix's hatred?