97 — EYES FULL OF SADNESS

If to the right flank of the mountain on which Asgard stood were the magma caves and the beautiful valley of mansions of those who once owned many possessions, the left flank of the ascent guarded a ruined temple and abandoned to the luck of the snow. Collapsed columns, collapsed ceilings, but an old stone floor still kept the beautiful mosaics that recounted the ancient history of the divine or mountain entities that frequented and were worshiped there.

An abandoned temple, as the hunger and misery of the people of Asgard kept him away from the most distant requests to the Gods who, at that point, seemed to have abandoned them to their fate. But if the ruined temple was sometimes inhabited only by the wild beasts of the mountains, where only the hiss of the wind carrying the snow could be heard, on that fateful afternoon, its ancient columns echoed the brightest violin sound that could be heard all around Europe.

A deep, burning wail played lightly and calmly in a low tempo, though the instrument wailed brightly and sharply. It was a requiem capable of suspending even the flight of birds, unable to fly, seized by deep sadness. Mime was the violinist of Asgard, a young man with a tragic history in his past who was said to have taken revenge on his father in the lower town, killing him in cold blood. An isolated parricide, but also much respected and feared; even before becoming God Warrior under Hilda's forgiveness, Mime was already known as one of the great warriors of the region.

It was just him and this sad song that Andromeda Shun found. His Chains, always so sensitive to the threats around him, didn't even notice the presence of anyone in that ruin, although Shun could already see him wearing the wonderful armor, of crimson and shiny metals, which was his Divine Robe. But the Chains seemed as enchanted as the birds that saddened in the trees; the music, Shun felt deeply, was indeed beautiful and charming, though terribly sad. It was the same violinist who had escorted him peacefully to Valhalla Palace, where he had been taken prisoner early in the morning.

"I'm glad you liked my music, Andromeda." said Mime's gravelly common-tongue voice, as if reading the boy's thoughts.

He sat on a stone counter, leaning against a column, eyes closed as the violin's bow arm strode solemnly over the instrument's bristles, producing the most wonderful northern trill.

"We meet again." the boy pointed out before introducing himself. "I am Andromeda Shun. Who are you, after all?"
"The star Eta, Benetnasch Mime." said the boy, without opening his eyes or letting go of his violin. "And this is a Requiem made for you."

Shun got on his guard and took a better look at his opponent, who, just like before, had a peaceful face, a calm and very serious voice.

"Have you come to beg for mercy again?" he asked, remembering their first meeting in the downtown square. "You don't like to fight, do you? But I will give you a good advice: your soft heart will irrevocably cause your death."
"I appreciate the advice, Mime, but my mission here is to seal Poseidon in his Relic of the Sea." replied Shun decisively. "You believed me before and walked me to Valhalla; I ask you to help me again."

Mime finally stopped the bow and looked at Shun for the first time, as if measuring him from head to toe.

"I did nothing of the sorts. I took you to prison, Andromeda." remembered Mime. "I am a God Warrior who serves Polaris Hilda. And to her alone I owe my loyalty."
"Listen, Benetnasch Mime." Shun began. "All we want is to seal the Sea Relic so that Poseidon can go back to sleep in the Ocean. Nothing more than that."
"There is no truth in your words."
"You have to believe me, Mime! You also don't look like someone who likes to fight for nothing, there's no reason for us to fight here."
"Two God Warriors have fallen with the invasion you are a part of, Andromeda."
"That's not true! The girl of the forest, Fenrir, understood our request and gave us the Odin Sapphire willingly."
"Fenrir and her wolves suffer from the ailment that ravages all of Asgard: hunger. Do you really want me to believe that her pack was convinced to go on starving just by your pretty words?"
"Well, that's the truth!"

Mime let out a grave smile.

"There is only one thing that can turn the wrath of Fenrir's wolves apart from fresh meat: my requiem."

And then the violin sounded the sad C minor again without the musician taking his eyes off the Andromeda Saint. Shun saw himself before an unyielding God Warrior, but his heart was brave, and if he had made his mission understood to a wild girl who didn't even understand him, he felt he could convince an artist as sensitive as Mime.

"Please give me a chance, Mime." asked Shun, his voice filling the music that the violin lamented. "If your loyalty is to Hilda, the governess of this land, then you must know that she is greatly changed, thanks to the evil power of the Ring of Nibelungs. It was her sister, Princess Freia, who told us about the misfortune that befalls this land. Do not think that we are not moved by the condition of your people. I saw with my own eyes the suffering in that square and I also saw that you did what you could to soothe their hearts with your music. I know there's someone inside you who doesn't want to fight me. This battle has no reason to be."

The music stopped.

"Your plea for peace is touching, Andromeda." Mime let out a single violin trill. "It goes perfectly with my music."
"Please, Mime..." Shun pleaded.
"However, there is nothing more hideous under this sky than the lie that hides death." he began gravely. "And those who serve Hilda suffer from the most terrible disease that can devour man: hunger. Whoever dies of hunger does not lie about what takes away their bread." Mime then rose in an accusatory tone. "Fenrir's blood spreads in the forest."
"That's not true, it's a mistake." protested Shun immediately. "That's the blood of Seiya, an Athena Saint who sacrificed himself for us!"
"Hagen's blood spreads in the caves." said Mime, as if listing sins.

Shun then couldn't counter and looked confused to hear that someone else had been injured in that battle; the God Warrior seemed to notice the Athena Saint's hesitation. Where Shun's silence was heard, the God Warrior was sure that that invasion was really evil.

"Your words are about peace, but the path that Saints of Athena walk are followed by death's footsteps, Andromeda."
"No, it's not true, there must be some mistake." tried still Shun.
"Get out of this land." said Mime sternly. "Take your companions away from here and leave Asgard with its sins in peace."

Shun seemed to consider that offer, being silent for a moment, but he also knew that they needed to seal the Relic of the Sea, and if earlier his compassion had been enough to convince Fenrir, here he didn't seem to have any chance of convincing the talented violinist.

"Do we really have to fight, Benetnasch Mime?" asked Shun, resigned.
"I won't let you go any further, Andromeda. But I give you the chance to go back to where you came from."

Then they would have to fight, Shun concluded. Because going back was never an option for him. Mime then looked deeply into Shun's eyes before ending the taunt.

"And we both know you don't like to fight."

He hated it, but then all he needed from that God Warrior was the gemstone that glittered at his waist: the Odin Sapphire. There was no reason for bloodshed at all. Even aware that Mime would not give him Sapphire, Shun believed that perhaps he could spare him a cruel fate and leave with the precious stone they needed to fulfill their mission.

Shun tightened his chains and took a deep breath.

"If you really stand in my way, I'll have no choice."
"Very well." replied Mime, calmly. "We will fight."

Shun burned his Cosmo and launched his Andromeda Chain towards the violinist, who never stopped playing his violin for a moment; maybe if it held him, he could take the gem from him, but the Chain broke in midair and stopped inches from the God Warrior's body. And then it simply fell limp to the ground, much to the Bronze Saint's astonishment.

"But why did the Chain refuse to attack? What's going on here?"

Mime laughed.

"Haven't you noticed, Andromeda?" he asked, his eyes hard on the boy. "Your Chain is fast and strikes deadly when an opponent shows a clear will to kill. But not all people are eager to take your life. Like me, for example."

Mime didn't lie, Shun thought. And the Andromeda Saint even felt, for the first time, that the Warrior before him didn't even exhibit the mannerisms of a bellicose aura as in his previous battles. On the contrary, it was as if the energy emanating from what appeared to be his cosmos was flooded with a deep sadness.

"You can't beat me." Mime said again. "You don't like to fight and your Chain can't attack me. You are right that there is no point in continuing this battle. Go home, Andromeda."
"I can't. Athena and my friends are counting on me to seal Poseidon in the Seven Seas, and I feel we owe it also to Princess Freia to free her sister from the spell that controls her."
"In that case, just sleep forever by my lights."

A gentle gesture of Mime's right hand made the violin's bow draw precise lines that lit up brightly, like a conductor painting beams of light in front of him. At the command of his hand, that painting ripped through the air, attacking Shun at lightning speed. The Athena Saint had to dodge at first and then even hide in a fallen column so as not to have his body shredded by those white beams of light that seemed capable of obliterating matter. The column, which was already only half its original height, was cut by Mime's blow until it completely disappeared, so Shun had to jump into the white sky and protect himself with the Circular Chain.

The spinning array of chains successfully shielded Shun and the boy landed in the snow in front of Mime as the lights of his technique went out. He was ready for battle, though all he needed was to rip the Sapphire from his waist; without saying anything to him at all, Shun released his triangular chain once more, which, again, stopped inches in front of the violinist, who had returned to playing his beautiful instrument.

"I know what you're trying to do." said Mime, noticing the triangular chain a few inches from his Sapphire. "You're not trying to hit me in the most vulnerable spots or even my precious violin. It's the Sapphire you want, isn't it?"

Shun was still amazed that his chain was still stuck in the air without going forward, until finally it just fell to the ground, as if it was useless; again unable to attack the God Warrior for simply not noticing any violence coming from Mime. Shun picked up the chain.

"Give up, Andromeda."
"What the hell, Mime." complained Shun for the first time, arming himself again with his Chains at his side. "I really don't like to fight. But you leave me no other option. To be honest, I can't even feel anger or hatred towards you, because I don't feel like I'm fighting a horrible enemy. And to tell you the truth, I feel like you don't like to fight either, same as I."

Mime had his eyes closed as he sat with his violin in his hands.

"But there's no time to hesitate. I need your Odin Sapphire, Benetnasch Mime."

The Athena Saint ascended his burning Cosmos and shouted to the heavens for his Chain to obey his own willpower:

"Nebula Chains!"

Mime responded by pinching his violin strings in a G major scale; the chain ripped through the air and finally tore through Benetnasch Mime's body, only for Shun to observe that it was as if he were made of smoke.

What was once a delicate pizzicato on the instrument's strings became at once a ensemble of violins playing a more moderate-tempo theme than the earlier requiem. And around Shun appeared dozens and dozens of other violinists playing their violins everywhere, giving a greater tone of urgency to those impossible apparitions. They were all Benetnasch Mime, the violinist God Warrior; some apparitions played their violins standing up, while others propped themselves up on the ruins, some even sat on the ground, while others were standing on the columns in the air. Everywhere Shun looked, there was a Mime playing his shiny violin.

"Nebula Chains!" threw Shun everywhere.

The boy's voice echoed through the ruins and his chains passed through the columns making the false duplicates of Mime disappear, though the music continued to sound like a ballet soundtrack as the chain danced in the air. Shun really was a master of chains and it didn't take long for him to reduce all those dozen duplicates to just one figure that was finally caught in the chain, captured. But though the music ceased from his violin, the God Warrior chuckled gravely.

"You can't win, Andromeda." he said, first.

And if Shun was certain that he had captured the God Warrior, his form within the chain crumbled to reveal that Shun had actually captured an ancient column of ruin and the opponent was now behind him. And so it hit him terribly with its bright beams at the speed of light, causing Shun to be hurled against the stone wall, which shattered entirely from the shock.

With great difficulty, the Andromeda Saint forced himself to his feet again, when Mime approached him calmly playing his violin, like a bard of yore who cheered battles or watched funerals. There, his music was always tragic. It was disconcerting for Shun to have to attack such a talented and sensitive artist, but he still felt that if he could surprise him even for a moment, trap him in the tangle of his chains, then he could take the Sapphire without any blood being spilled.

The Nebula Chain again flew through the air, but it passed through the calm violinist, for his figure again became translucent, and around Shun again appeared the many Benetnasch Mimes echoing that funereal soundtrack. The result was the same: Shun hit as many as he could without finding the real one, and before he could reduce the number of shadows, he was hit again violently by Mime's light beams.

He was hurled against columns, crashing against a wall of the ruin that still stood; but it came to sag on top of Shun on impact. For the boy did not give up and, with difficulty, got up again, putting aside the block of stone that had buried him.

"Why do you insist on fighting?" asked Mime, approaching again. "Why, Andromeda?"
"I already told you. I need to seal Poseidon and protect this Earth." he spoke with difficulty.
"And do you think you can protect this poor, miserable Earth? Do you think this Earth deserves you to stake your poor life for her? Or perhaps you think the time will come when there will be peace all around without fights and crimes? Do you happen to believe that? Think about it, Andromeda."

Shun was surprised by the sadness in Mime's eyes before him and the gravity with which his voice sounded dismayed. He really was different from those the boy had fought in previous battles; it was as if he could read Shun's mind and guess all his deepest anxieties.

"You must have hurt a lot of people, didn't you, Andromeda? Just as I can see that you've also suffered too many wounds." said Mime to him. "And what did you get in return? Just another fight."

The boy got up and staggered back, swallowing hard, his eyes wavering, for an immense sadness began to burn in his chest, for that Warrior God forced him to remember all the people he had to face.

"That many?" Mime seemed surprised.
"I needed to fight to rid the Sanctuary of its evil."
"The evil." repeated Mime thoughtfully. "So that makes you the good."

Shun was silent, because it reminded him of a lot of suffering he lived and made others live; and he wondered in his heart how many more people he would hurt. Shun always asked himself that when he went into battle, or even when he knew someone was going on a mission. An Athena Saint seemed to have the sole function of fighting to the death. And the justice he fought for sometimes didn't seem like enough of an excuse for the pain he made his enemies feel. And in that moment he remembered how he had hurt Jabu in the Galaxian War show, or else how he had knocked out a child in the battle against the Black Saints, caused the death of a Silver Saint on the beach and finally destroyed the life of an honorable but unyielding Gold Saint.

Shun was on guard, but his chest there was shattered, for if he could take a deep breath and move on when he reflected alone in the Greek nights, it was painful to see a man as sensitive, talented and suffering as Mime putting all his nightmares before him.

The truth was that Shun had already hurt a lot of people. More than he would like. He fell to his knees, saddened, wondering if what Mime had told him was really true: that the result of a fight is that there is going to have another fight. Peace would never come. And here he had none of his friends to tell him to go on; or even Saori, the Goddess Athena, was now far away to answer his prayers. He thought of his sister, who was also fighting not far from there, and that he had already lost once in the course of those battles, as he also lost Xiaoling, without her having the second chance that Ikki had.

"I know your heart. Your eyes bleeds with every wound you have caused and suffered. Run from here, Andromeda Saint." said Mime to him.

Shun put his hands to his head and asked in a painful way to the only person there who could help him, or at least hear him.

"Why do we fight?"
"For nothing." replied the God Warrior. "Peace will never come."

Mime's words were as powerful as the sad chords of his violin, which veiled his hopeless speech. And that land really seemed to be able to feed on people's vitality, for Shun felt faint; the white sky hid the sun's glare, the lightly falling snow wasn't beautiful but icy to the touch, the wind that sometimes carried his sadness away there was so freezing it hurt his skin. The only comfort in that ruined temple was Mime's sad music. Shun thought about Ikki and how he wanted her to be by his side.

ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Ahhh, the tragedy of Asgard. Mime is one of those who has the saddest story and, along with his music and the dialogue about wounds and peace with Shun, makes this battle one of the most tragic of all. I thought it was important to keep Mime's motivation, the confusion he causes by being an 'enemy', but at the same time so peaceful and sensitive, leaving Shun really in doubt about his mission.

NEXT CHAPTER: THE STRING REQUIEM

The tragic fight between Shun and Mime continues in a deadly way, while Hilda and her advisers are at a loss as to what to do with those invaders.