Madrid, Spain. 2018.

POV Shura

Shura had to come work at the restaurant, but he had to bring Mia along. Inez had a last-minute event (rich bastards who want everything on their time) and could not take care of the kid. As the nanny could not stay with her at the last minute either, it was up to Shura to bring the girl to his workplace.

But hey, this little girl is used to daddy's kitchen.

She had a safe space to play, away from the crazy things that were practiced in the kitchen, the splashing oils, sharp knives, and fire. And it is not like customers do not like it. Ropera, despite being big, was a restaurant with the intention of leaving that familiar air, of someone who takes their children and spouse for lunch or dinner, while eating good food. It is a family friendly space, where parents could leave their children playing in the playroom, while enjoying the food. The waiters and waitresses played with the girl, who was smiling, and the customers saw her, and did not stop commenting "it's not the cutest thing" and they felt at home, cozy.

Who knew his daughter would be a good marketing ploy.

But who was not enchanted by Mia's fat little arms, her present smile, her contagious joy? This part of Mia's personality came from her mother, and Shura thanked all the gods for it. He was not one of the best in social relationships.

"Good evening, is Shura here?" Shura heard a voice ask. "I had scheduled a conversation with him today."

He must be the guy Inez had mentioned.

"Miguel, will you take care of the kitchen for me, please?" Shura asked the boy. He nodded in agreement.

"I believe you are the guy who was looking for me" Shura said, as he walked to the restaurant reception "my wife spoke about you."

He took a good look at the guy in front of him. Dark, very straight hair that reached to his waist. Dark narrow green eyes, which showed his Chinese ancestry. His face was handsome and peaceful, giving him an air of wisdom, despite being quite young (he must have been Shura's age). He was strong and muscular, and dressed in a lilac shirt and white pants (Shura thought the combination of clothes was a bit strange and unexpected, coming from a representative of the Graad Foundation, but that is okay) and was right in front of him, holding out his hand.

"Are you Shura? Can we talk?"

Shiryu POV

Shura did not change anything. Absolutely nothing. It is as if he has just left Capricorn's house and decided to become a chef at a restaurant in Madrid. The same bristly dark hair, the same expressionless eyes, the same calm, serious countenance. The difference was, of course, in his clothes: instead of wearing Capricorn's glorious gold cloth, Shura wore a black chef's coat and black pants.

"Great" said Shura "do you want to sit at one of the tables? We can order something."

"Thanks. And no need, a coffee will do" Shiryu said.

Shura looked at him suspiciously, and Shiryu realized that he thought Shiryu would come here as a sommelier to approve or disapprove the chef's food. Stupid of me to refuse, Shiryu thought, slightly tense, but sending a farmer from the Rozan Hills to come and enjoy expensive Spanish restaurants was also stupid on Saori's part.

"I talked to your wife yesterday" Shiryu said "she told me you weren't at the restaurant at the time, if I'm not mistaken."

Shura's wife. A woman with red hair and very green eyes, but without her husband's calm features. She was eloquent and contagious, but her personality could change, becoming serious and imposing, which occurred when she found out that Shiryu was only interested in talking to Shura, not her. Her distrust when realizing that Shiryu wanted to hire only Shura for such "event" was such that Shiryu even wondered if she would be an enemy trap to prevent the Capricorn gold saint from returning to the Sanctuary.

"Oh yes, she told me about what happened" said Shura "she told me that you were interested in hiring me for an event."

"Yes, yes" said Shiryu "I am one of Saori Kido's advisors, and she would like a chef for an event at her house in Greece."

"In Greece?" Shura said, surprised.

"Yes" said Shiryu, taking a deep breath "the event is three weeks from now, and you will have access to the environment where the event will take place a week before."

"Yes, but in three weeks? It's very close" Shura said. Shiryu took another deep breath "my schedule is required sir, I can't..."

"We cover all the expenses and expenses you will have to make this event" Shiryu said.

"This is the minimum" Shura said.

My Gods, give me patience.

"In addition," said Shiryu, closing his eyes "we will also cover the payment of events that you will have to cancel to attend in the coming weeks, to come to our event. You can call your customers, cancel and send us any expenses, contractual fines and payments you will have; we will pay for everything."

Tell him we will pay everything, make sure price is no problem, Shiryu remembered Saori's advice. Make him feel confident it will be a good deal.

The problem is that he is not a sommelier, nor an event producer. He is a Chinese farmer who lives in a humble house in the middle of nowhere. None of that Shura life, expensive events, fancy food, imported wines, none of that was part of his life.

"Sir, understand that the situation is complicated" said Shura "it starts with the fact that you want to hire me as a personal chef. It does not work like that. I have to know the kitchen, prepare the materials, establish a menu..."

And Shura began to talk about a series of problems he would have for an event like this, in which Shiryu would nod his head in acquiescence, with a forced smile, pretending that he understood absolutely all the terms of haute cuisine that Shura spoke (and pretending he was not desperate because he understood absolutely nothing), and asking forgiveness for Shunrei and his son for the thousands of swear words and curses that were going through his head, directed at Saori, for having made him come to a posh neighborhood in Spain to look for Shura, instead to seek his master in China (much closer to home), studying History. She was supposed to be here, cursed Shiryu.

"Mr. Shura" the receptionist came running to the table where the two were sitting "Mr. Shura, Mia is crying. I don't know what happened, I..."

"What?" Shura said desperately "what happened?"

"I think she got hurt, but it wasn't serious..."

Shura did not even give the receptionist time to finish talking. He ran to the restaurant's playroom, which Shiryu followed, curious. Who is Mia?

Arriving at the place, they are faced with a girl with very red hair, but with features similar to Shura, crying, with her little fat hands resting on the floor. Shura picked the girl up and saw that she had a slight knee injury, which was probably due to the fact that the girl was running with the other children. Nothing serious, Shiryu thought, after all, children are not used to pain, so they cry for any hurt. He himself was experienced in this, since Shoryu (1) was always hurting himself at home, knowing full well that calming the child and applying a medicine was enough. That is what Shura was doing as he sprayed the girl's knee.

"It's over, baby. It's gone."

In exactly three minutes, the girl had already stopped crying and was already asking to get off his lap and go back to playing with the other children. Shura placed a kiss on the girl's plump cheek and gently placed her on the floor.

Shura was a father. As much a father as Shiryu was.

As soon as he received Saori's call to summon the gold saints, Shiryu had a serious discussion with Shunrei. The reason for the argument was the same as it had been decades ago: Shunrei did not want him to risk his life (again) to fight a pointless battle against the gods. It was not fair, she repeated, after all these years, does she want to prepare for a war that she doesn't even know if it will exist or not? What if they were resurrected by a divine blessing so that they have a normal life, so that you have a normal life?

And Shunrei was right. Absolutely right, as always. And Shiryu asked himself these same questions. After all, would it be worth taking people, untrained, from their normal lives, for yet another mad battle against the gods, just because in their past lives they were saints? Nor would death be able to free them from the bloody war against the gods? Were these your destinations?

Was it Shiryu's destiny to send a family man to die?

Father. Husband. Brother. Nephew. Son. Friend. All of them, in that world, were loved ones of someone they did not know and who were not even born when they were knights. They had a normal life, with normal tasks. Greek gods and knights were things to keep in the history books. Bloody battles were a far-removed affair from what they lived. Their daily lives were filled with small daily chores. They were those people Shiryu swore to protect when he became Athena's knight. It was those people that Shiryu was taking into yet another battle.

Was Saori aware of this? Saori saw the cruelty they were doing? He tried to remember the importance of having the gold saints in the Sanctuary, as knights who were already doomed to eternal suffering, roaming the world without divine protection could attract enemy gods, who could kill them. But would that really happen? Perhaps the gods had forgiven them and, instead of punishing them with eternal suffering, they had given oblivion as a punishment. They would not suffer, but they would not remember the glory days as a saint of Athena. It seemed fair to Shiryu.

He looked at the girl again. Daughter of a family man. Daughter of saint of Athena, as his son was. Possibly doomed to live without her father. How his child would live.

He was not going to continue this madness. Saori could do anything, but he would not summon any saint to his death. He could even fight, but he would not force a child to live far away from his father, as she wanted Shura to do. He decided that he would cancel with Shura, that he would not be able to hire him and...

"Look" said Shura, recovering from the shock "I accept the proposal, okay? I do the event that Saori Kido wants. My secretary gives you the expenses, and in two weeks' time I'm going to Greece to adjust the details of Saori's event. Ok?"

Shiryu stared at Shura, astonished. Too late, he thought.

So, he left the restaurant with Shura's personal contact and stared at him for a long time while waiting for a taxi to the airport. He thought of Shunrei. He thought of Shoryu. He thought of the red-haired girl, and how she and Shoryu seemed to be about similar ages. He thought of Shura's wife, with her long red hair, indignant to see her husband being summoned to a last-minute event, just as Shunrei was indignant whenever he was summoned to a new battle against the gods. He took a deep breath.

Too late. May the gods forgive the sin he was committing.

(1) As I only use the classic SS plot, who will be the son of Shiryu is Shoryu (Next Dimension), and not Ryuho, as in Omega. In the fic lore, I use spin-offs only as inspiration or to add to the characters' personality, but not as a fact.