27 — FAR AWAY MISSION
A huge frozen lake. Cold and snow as far as the eyes could see.
The young Hyoga was alone in this desolate environment with his icy cosmos outlining his body. He punched the ice on the ground in front of him, obliterating the layer and opening a crater, revealing the frigid water beneath the ice crust.
He jumped out and dove into the freezing water of the Siberian river.
Hyoga swam to the depth, where an icebreaker was wrecked near a pit. The boy swam purposefully, entered the main deck, crossed a few corridors, and finally arrived at his destination: a cabin with the only crew member still on board.
"Mama"
A woman lying down, her face at peace and her beauty fully preserved by the very low temperature of those waters.
Hyoga takes her hand and the flower, which he brought in his mouth, is placed carefully behind her ear. He straightened her hair that insisted on getting up and finally said goodbye.
Resurfaced panting and gasping for air. Someone handed him a huge towel.
"Lady Crystal."
"Hyoga, your Master will not like this at all." she said.
"It was my farewell." justified Hyoga. "What is this?"
"A letter for you." she began. "From the Sanctuary."
"Dear Hyoga,
Times are turbulent in Greece. There is an ongoing mission. One you will need to fulfill.
Rebels have broken the Oath of the Saints and has put the Sanctuary's secret at risk. They need to be punished and discharged.
When you complete your mission, come to the Sanctuary.
Remember, Hyoga, you are an Athena Saint.
Sincerely,
Your Master Camus"
Hyoga folded the letter and put it in his pants pocket. He had read those lines dozens of times during his journey and brief stay in that great city. He read it again as he sat in the audience for the big battle of the night announced on the huge screen: UNICORN X WOLF.
As soon as the lights dimmed and Saori Kido's huge hologram appeared, Hyoga got up from his place, crossed his row and went to the inner part of the Coliseum. He descended flights of stairs and passed to the lower levels where, technically, he had no access. His ice circle confused some security guards and he finally found himself on the lowest floor, right where he wanted to be.
The fight had started at the Arena and it caught his attention; through an opening in the wall, he saw how the Unicorn Saint and the Wolf Saint faced each other, to the delight of the audience. The stadium was full and his eyes darted around the three floors full of fans, but then he remembered why he was there and decided to move on; he stumbled lightly over the legs of a girl who was sitting on the floor with a sad face. Both he and she seemed not to be where they should be.
He ignored her, but she followed him with her eyes; Hyoga went ahead through the corridor, looking for the best way to get to the Coliseum's locker rooms when he stopped in front of a wall that seemed impassable, a dead end.
"You shouldn't be here." Someone spoke behind him.
The saddened girl was behind him, but her face was no longer that lost. She now had a wit in her eyes and a smile on her face when she caught Hyoga messing around where he shouldn't.
"Nor should you." he replied.
"I think you dropped this."
She had the letter. Hyoga immediately got desperate.
"This isn't yours!" he said.
The girl offered the letter to Hyoga, but backed off at the last moment.
"I'll give it back if you tell me what you're doing here."
He was silent.
"Let me guess. I bet you are also a fan of the Andromeda Knight and this letter is for him, isn't it?" she tried.
He looked at her and smiled.
"You got it right." he said, finally taking the letter.
He turned away and tried again to find a way forward.
"Forget it, that door won't reach the locker rooms." she said, following him.
He seemed to lose his temper a little, but he tried to make conversation.
"What about you, what are you doing here?"
"I don't like fights that much." she said. "They're staged."
"Then why did you come?"
She was silent and Hyoga realized that he asked the wrong question. Or the right one if he really wanted to get rid of her.
"A friend brought me. To cheer me up." she replied after a while.
He looked at her and they both stared at each other for a few moments, when they were interrupted by the scream of the crowd. The first round of the battle was over in the arena.
"Well, I…" she began. "I better go back, or my friend will be worried."
He didn't answer anything.
"Good luck with Andromeda. A lot of people like him."
Hyoga continued looking for the best route to find the locker rooms, but — let his Master not hear him — he felt like wishing the girl would be alright.
"Hope you..." he started, but she was gone.
The fight ended, people left excited, the lights went out and Hyoga was hidden in the corridors. He needed to find out as much as he could about those rebel Saints. And since everything was empty and dark, he figured he could break into the stadium and reach the locker rooms through the central arena. But as soon as he reached an entrance to the Arena, he noticed a strange movement a few floors above.
He hid himself.
He walked back down the hall and thought about approaching, because if they were really Saints his chance couldn't be more perfect. He climbed flights of stairs in silence and, following the loud voices, came close to the broadcast booths, where he hid so he could hear.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Oh, of course I know. It will be beautiful." said a child's voice. "Look, from here I can control the lights and effects. They have a wonderful equipment."
"Hurry up with it."
"Stop rushing me!" complained the little girl.
"What is that?" asked the second voice.
Hyoga paid attention and looked for what had called the attention of the pair inside the broadcast booths; he put his face beyond the parapet and saw that, in the center of the Arena, someone had appeared. He had a towel around his neck and was wearing a tracksuit.
"He will see us." said the girl's voice.
"Hurry up with it." ordered the boy's voice, more urgently.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
Hyoga pressed against the wall, because the door beside him opened and a boy came out of it who jumped the parapet in front of him and ended up in the center of the Arena, calling the attention of the boy who was training alone.
"Who's there?" he heard the boy's voice in the Arena ask.
Next to Hyoga, a light cannon lit up and lightned the center of the Arena. The boy wore no armor and had his hair combed into a white mohawk; he was on guard but was surprised by a Black Saint who used a freezing cosmos on the helpless boy.
Soon he fell, defeated.
"Black Swan! Come back, I got it!" cried the little girl inside the room.
The Black Saint inside the Arena disappeared into the shadows, as the light also went out again. The door opened and Hyoga saw that a stump of people came out of it, with two pigtails in her hair, to escape from there. At the center of the Arena, the boy attacked by the icy warrior was rescued by another young man.
Hyoga recognized that one, as it was precisely the boy who had fought earlier: Unicorn. It was his chance as one of them was already frozen.
But something bothered Hyoga.
"Black Swan? Black Saints?" he thought, hesitating. "What is going on?"
Hyoga spent the night hiding in the shadows of the city and saw how the frozen boy's body was taken to a hospital near the Coliseum. At the entrance to this hospital, the other boy, Unicorn, was very sad and mad at himself. To Hyoga it was but one less, it all seemed.
Alone, Unicorn walked around the city and soon it would be two down, on Hyoga's account. He saw how the boy, however, suffering as he returned home alone, grumbling and kicking whatever he found in front of him.
He arrived at a huge mansion with lots of windows and a giant front yard. Large, dark gates where the boy was stopped by some security guards, searched, and only then admitted to the big house.
Hyoga looked forward to the many windows lit and others unlit. And he saw the crestfallen boy entering one of the back entrances.
It was a night of party for the semifinal of the Tournament. The hard core fans were super excited and, as Hyoga had been one of the first to arrive, he saw how happy the children, young people and even adults entered the stadium. Many stores inside the premises selling all kinds of souvenirs, action figures, printed shirts and many other trinkets.
He sat, cursing his benefactors who had bought him tickets to the same chair every day, so he had to get up as soon as the lights went out to try to break into the organization's inner compound.
And as soon as the lights went down for the opening show to start, Hyoga again got up, crossed the row and went to the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw a tired boy, his hair disheveled and much longer than the clean-cut visitors at that event.
He splashed water on his face and, watching the water fall through the tap, Hyoga remembered the events of the night before. The Black Saints. Hyoga knew who they were, as his region was heavily harassed by strange visitors who sought renegade warriors to join their factions. And he knew that one of those renegade factions was the Black Saints.
But unlike the men and women who were banned from the Sanctuary, these two Black Saints were young; the girl was just a child. Why were the Black Saints interested in this Tournament?
He left the bathroom and climbed a few flights of stairs, wanting to be close to the broadcast booth, as any sabotage would likely take place at that location where all the press gathered.
"I knew you would be here."
Hyoga turned around and saw the sulky girl from the day before with her arms crossed. She wore a t-shirt with a stylized photo of the Pegasus Saint, a pendant around her neck, and her hair in a ponytail. He wondered if she wasn't following him.
"How did you find me?" he asked.
"You're wearing the same outfit as yesterday." she commented. "And no one here wears leg-warmers."
A door opened and a man in a suit came out, hurried past them and Hyoga tried to see anything inside the broadcast room.
"What are we looking for?" she asked.
"Nothing." he disguised. "You better get out of here."
He really cared about the girl, after all, if something was going to happen, he could defend himself. She couldn't.
"You're so annoying, aren't you?" she commented.
He ignored her and walked past her up another flight of stairs; she came after.
"Hey!" she said.
"I thought you didn't like the fights." he said, looking at her.
"And I thought you liked Shun. He won't even fight today."
"He didn't fight last time either." replied Hyoga, arriving on the floor above.
"Wow, you really like him." she commented.
And Hyoga looked at her a little tired of the mockery. She looked over the parapet, the show was still happening below, and from there they were just above the broadcast booths; a lot of men and women yelling into their microphones.
"What are you looking for anyway? If you tell me, maybe we can find it together."
"I think something really bad can happen during the Tournament."
She stared at him gravely, her hand on the pendant.
The lights suddenly went out, causing her a big scare, and Hyoga stood in front of her, but actually it was just the beginning of Saori Kido's speech in the hologram.
"Hey!" a man shouted at them. "What are you doing here? Get out of here now!"
Hyoga and the mysterious girl went down at least three flights of stairs, being chased by a man who gave up the rush when they reached the audience level. She was laughing and he was worried.
"This Tournament is not so boring after all." she commented.
Hyoga leaned against the parapet of the floor and down there he saw how two figures entered to fight: a girl and a boy. The girl leaned beside him.
"It will begin." she said.
"I see someone here has a favorite too." he said looking at the girl's shirt.
"Yeah, he's cool." she said.
He didn't comment, but he noticed that the two entering the Arena to fight were without their Cloths. He found it strange and absurd.
They watched the first round together from the parapet and the audience didn't look happy. A few hoots of booing started.
"They're pretending." he commented softly.
"Only this time they're pretending really bad." said the girl.
End of first round.
"I don't remember your name." she said.
He looked at her and couldn't find a way to evade the question.
"My name is Alexei." he lied.
"Well, if we're going to lie our names... my name is Eiri."
"No one is called Eiri." said Hyoga.
"What a tool, one of my best friend is called Eiri."
He was silent.
"Isn't she missing you?"
"Oh, you are so annoying!" replied the girl hissing at him.
He didn't said anything to that, but after a while asked a stupid question.
"What are you running from?" asked Hyoga.
The girl hid her face in her hands resting on the banister. She got up and looked at him with sad eyes.
"My friend wanted to bring me so I could have some distraction." she began. "My sister disappeared a few days ago and unfortunately she hasn't come home yet. It's been very sad for me and my father."
She tightened the pendant around her neck feelingly.
"And with each day passing I feel a huge anguish inside me. So being here is a way to distract myself."
Her eyes were sad, but Hyoga said nothing, staring at them. She looked at the fight it was starting again in the middle of the Arena and said goodbye without looking at him.
"I think my friend really is missing me."
And she entered the stands, leaving Hyoga with his inadequacy.
He leaned against the railing and followed the girl down the stairs to her row with his eyes. Stupid, he thought. She sat in her place saved by her friend, who hugged her and began to tell her everything she had lost in the greatest excitement. The girl fixed her hair in her ponytail and looked straight at Hyoga higher up. He looked away.
He saw Pegasus and Dragon fighting.
And this time they didn't seem to pretend anymore.
"Seiya, I will show you the strongest Dragon stroke my Master taught me in the Five Old Peaks of Rozan."
Dragon's voice echoed through the speakers and drew Hyoga's curiosity to the battle, after all. He saw from above how that girl's cosmos ignited and how her fist made Pegasus fly very close to the huge screen that showed them in much more detail.
"What the hell, they're fighting for real!" Hyoga said to himself.
The battle continued and Hyoga didn't take his eyes off that fight anymore; the suspense of the Dragon's Fist and Shield, their dramatic destruction, the madness of the two fighting without their protections, Andromeda's invasion of the Arena.
That boy and that girl were fighting for something more than the glory of that fake Gold Cloth. But why?, asked Hyoga.
Close to him, he saw how people didn't understand Dragon's situation when she fell unconscious after the final collision, because for them it was just another scene of that huge spectacle, when he was sure Pegasus' fist had wounded the girl's heart.
And when Pegasus slammed his fist into Dragon's heart and brought her back, the audience roared beside him, the loudspeakers echoed the voices of the commentators and a lot of party took place inside and outside the Coliseum. He knew they were both seriously injured.
"What the hell is going on here?"
The audience began to climb the stairs and the corridor he was in filled with people; all very excited, slowly returning to their homes. Among the thousands of heads that rose, Hyoga lost the ponytail he was looking for.
He went back into the bathroom and stayed there until everyone left the Coliseum.
As soon as he left, what he expected happened much sooner than he thought. He saw from his floor how there was a strange movement on the other side of the floor he was on, immediately in front of him. Shadows in the dark.
"Black Saints…" he said softly, guessing that he hadn't been the only one hiding in the Coliseum to do his after-hours adventures.
What did they wanted there? Hyoga hid and tried to approach a group larger than the pair he had met the day before. Close and a few floors above, Hyoga saw and understood perfectly what was happening. Some guys were going to steal the Golden Urn.
"Are you sure we won't be seen?" asked a voice.
"Yes, no need to worry. I've taken care of all the cameras." replied a child's voice; he recognized that voice from the other night. It really was the Black KSaintsnights, but they weren't wearing their cloths.
"And how do we open the box?"
"It's called an Urn." corrected the little girl. "They all have a mechanism for opening."
Hyoga clearly saw how the little girl found the device and the Urn opened slowly and majestically, letting it cover the Arena with a golden glow.
"Lunara!"
"Shoosh!" complained the little girl. "I said no one will see anything on cameras and there's no one else here."
"How beautiful." said a third voice.
And Hyoga, a floor above them, could see all the splendor of a golden totem made with various parts of a golden protection. The figure was that of a winged centaur with a beautiful bow in his hands.
It was true.
The Gold Cloth was real.
And they were stealing it.
One by one, the parts of that Gold Cloth were removed from its form by the three people there. Carefully, the little girl closed the open sides of the box and left another device inside. And finally she closed the Urn.
"Let's go." said someone.
And off they were.
The stolen Gold Cloth. How could it be?, thought Hyoga. What would a Gold Cloth do in that place? The Black Saints, the Bronze Saints fighting to death?
What was happening?
Hyoga left the Coliseum to follow at a distance that convoy of four young people with backpacks walking along the still busy street. The Avenue of the Coliseum was wide and facing the sea, so the young ones crossed a huge street and were soon walking along the shore.
They were going towards the mountains and Hyoga behind them to better understand what, after all, was happening.
As soon as they entered the beach and passed some groups of young bohemians, Hyoga stopped following them.
For he saw the girl with the ponytail sitting on the sand.
Crying.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: This chapter and arc was one of the most fun things to write. The idea came from Saintia Sho, which shows another side of the story we already knew. I was inspired by this and transformed the story of Hyoga from the manga, that he is sent as an assassin, to use him as a guiding thread for a story that takes place while Seiya and the others were fighting in the Galaxian War. Hyoga's perspective here is important and it was a lot of fun to bring Shoko into the story, in addition to the casual encounter with Seiya earlier.
NEXT CHAPTER: WATERMELONS AND SEEDS
The theft of Gold Cloth, Bronze Saints fiercely fighting each other and the presence of the Black Saints will make Hyoga's mission more confusing. No more confused than that curious presence on the beach.