Chapter summary:
Shun: My brother Ikki died nine years ago.
Ikki: Quit telling everyone I'm gone!
Shun: Sometimes I can still hear his voice…
[Nebula Chain by Make-Up playing in the background]
Changed days 2 and three of HyoShun Week, so this one has day 3: Family :p [Originally posted on Ao3 November 7th 2023]
I think all Shun fans have a pavlovian response to the phrase "sibling's bond" (kyoudai no kizuna); I know I do. [Pepe Vilchis voice: ESTE ES EL LAZO DE NUESTRA HERMANDAD—]
On another note, you would not believe how hard it was to translate Saori's honorifics ;v; Jabu and Tatsumi call her "ojousama" (お嬢様) which implies they are servants to Saori, while the rest call her "Saori-san/Athena". I was tempted to go with a manga translation I saw somewhere where Tatsumi straight up calls her "princess", but princess is just a veeery similar word instead of her actual title (oujosama/王女様). Istg the Spanish dub makes this like 1000x simpler, with just "señorita" and "Saori". In the end, I went with "the little miss" instead of "mistress" for Tatsumi (BC SHE'S THIRTEEN, HOW IS SHE EMANCIPATED? my suspension of disbelief starts in Greek legends reincarnated and ends in Japan allowing a thirteen year old to be a fully emancipated CEO) and "miss Saori" for the rest.
anyways on w the chapter.
a sibling's bond
There is something to be said about watching something you've worked on for years come into fruition.
Saori sat back in her private booth, Tatsumi standing beside her with some mineral water in one hand and the first day interest poll results in the other.
Today was the second day of the Galaxian Wars, the project her grandfather had worked on ever since she was little. Cygnus hadn't arrived yet, so the first battle was between Jabu and the Andromeda saint.
The public roared as Andromeda did a somersault to get into the ring, his cloth falling perfectly assembled on his body like domino pieces. He had a cheeky smile on, an angel's face that made him the favorite amongst the female fans, and he said something that completely riled up Jabu into attacking like a bull.
It had been six years, but Saori's eyes narrowed at the ease with which Andromeda evaded Jabu's attacks.
When they'd been small, he used to be a crybaby. Always bawling at the slightest provocation. He couldn't even throw a proper punch.
And yet, after some time, no one ever dared mess up with him. He'd say something creepy, or they'd get the feel of somebody walking on their grave. Saori still remembered that one time he'd gotten all serious with her.
"Stop treating your saints like pawns, for you will need their loyalty in the coming war."
Needless to say it had been bone chilling to hear that from a seven-year-old.
Lightning bolts jumped from the ring, making all the lanterns from Andromeda's fans (that they'd somehow smuggled past security) glitch in unison. Andromeda had won.
A couple of days ago, one of her informants told her someone had taken the Phoenix cloth. It would not be weird if they had sent someone to train to Death Queen Island, as it was, it looked like a ghost had taken the cloth and ran with it.
She had no way to prove it, but she was almost sure Andromeda had something to do with it.
"You should've swept the floor with his face." Shun rolled his eyes.
"Don't be mean, Niisan, remember I'm trying to win the tournament with as little bloodshed as possible." He walked to his dressing room, nimble fingers already loosening the straps around his shoulder covers.
"He's that little princess' bootlicker, it would hardly be bloodshed if his face is already friends with the floor." Ikki walked right behind him, phasing through the door as it closed behind Shun. Nobody would suspect him of being a ghost with how naturally he moved, if only they were able to see him, that is.
By this point, Shun had stopped wondering about the hows and whys of his brother, about the fact that he was still able to see his brother long after he had died.
"Regardless," he raised his arms to slip in a tee he'd bought at a flea market for three hundred yen, "it would bore the audience if they only saw physical violence; miss Saori promised them yesterday that they'd see mystical powers that could rival the gods, how disappointing would it be if they got a karate showcase instead?"
It was now Ikki who rolled his eyes. "You don't even know karate."
"Does it matter to someone who doesn't know martial arts?" He closed the locker where he was allowed to stash his cloth. "The Andromeda saint is one of the few who are allowed weapons; the chains are flashier, people like it. At the pace I'm going, I might win both the tournament and the audience." Coming from anyone else, those words might have sounded ominous, but Ikki knew his brother better than anyone else, and he knew his only motivation to have more power was to prevent more children from becoming orphans, and to prevent more orphans from dying in the streets.
Ikki clicked his tongue. "Maybe so. I still think you should've at least clocked his face; it would serve them right for being jerks to you."
Shun chuckled as he opened the door of the locker rooms to walk back to the ring. "Would you say the same thing if you were participating in this tournament?"
"I'd say it especially if I was participating in this tournament." In a weird moment of showmanship, Ikki floated on his back, both hands folded behind his neck and expression smug. "You know no one is allowed to be meaner to you than I."
As he walked down the darkened hallway that led to the ring, golden waist-length hair caught his attention. Like a hurricane tide, memories flashed through the forefront of his mind.
"Natassia…?" The name was foreign on his tongue, as he'd never dared vocalize it when anyone else was around. The woman turned around, and upon recognizing Shun, her eyes softened.
"It's so nice to see you've made it back. Hyoga missed you a lot."
Shun allowed himself to grin, "You didn't think I'd make it through a Saint's training?"
Natassia shook her head. "I'll admit I had my reservations, especially after Hyoga almost… well, it's all past." Shun arched an eyebrow, he felt that somehow that little something Natassia was leaving out was important, but he let it be for now. "Your brother too, he looks like he's growing with you." There was awe in her voice, her skin a little more translucent than his brother's. Perhaps it had to do with Shun's level of attachment, but he didn't actually make it a habit of talking to many ghosts to experiment.
"How's Hyoga been? Does he still speak with an accent?" Despite his grin and his words, there was no actual malice in his questioning. Nonetheless, Natassia still grimaced a little.
"He's uh… he's well?" She stole a glance at where her son was freezing someone else's four extremities. "Just don't take it personally if he's a little colder than you remember."
Shun chuckled. "What, has he become a cold-hearted assassin all of a sudden?" Natassia's silence made him drop his grin. "Whoa, what happened during his training? Wasn't he happy to go to Siberia with you?"
"It's not like something happened…" she fiddled with the scarf she was wearing, "it's just… his master is from Sanctuary, you see."
"Sanctuary?"
"The place where saints hail from," Ikki piped in, "it's also where the goddess Athena is born every two and a half centuries or so."
"Yes, Sanctuary lost baby Athena thirteen years ago, and they think the Graad Foundation has something to do with it…" Natassia's gaze wandered to where its current CEO, Kido Saori, sat in her booth, "especially since it's the Graad Foundation who's organizing this tournament between saints, which is forbidden by their sacred rules."
"So Hyoga's master, who comes from Sanctuary, ordered him to stop this tournament," Shun concluded.
There was something almost apologetic to Natassia's face as she nodded, "And to end all saints participating in it."
"Hmmm, I see."
It was now Natassia's turn to frown. "You don't seem worried about it."
Shun shrugged. "This isn't the worst case scenario, really. Sanctuary could be looking for me specifically. At least while being pitted with the others, I stand a chance."
A figure clothed in shadows rose from the Sagittarius cloth Pandora box, right as the announcer was about to declare Hyoga the victor from his fight against Hydra.
"My name is Django," the mysterious interloper said, "and I brought my dark saints because someone in this coliseum stole something very precious from me." From behind the shadows, Shun's eyes widened. He very deliberately avoided his brother's ghostly eyes. "The old justice declares that for a stolen cloth, I must steal one back."
And he disappeared with the Sagittarius cloth.
"Are you okay?" Hyoga held out his hand to Shun, who shivered a little from being soaked by dark Cygnus' snow. Natassia's expression was way more worried than her son's, but Shun kept in mind what she told him about his master.
Shun took his hand, pleasantly surprised by how warm it was. "Yeah, Andromeda Island is very warm, I guess I was just surprised by the sudden cold. His attacks were identical to yours, I thought it was you for a second!" Only noticed it wasn't because Natassia wasn't with him…
Hyoga's brows furrowed, with annoyance or worry he wasn't sure. "You shouldn't trust so easily, it will cost you your life one day."
Shun hummed as he brushed the snow off his clothes and armor. "My master said something similar not too long ago," right as he left and after showing him his true power, "I think that even if I saw my brother I'd falter the same."
"Your brother?"
Shun nodded. "He died protecting me when I was little. If I saw someone who looked like him, it's not like I'd actually believe it was him, but more like I'd want to believe some part of the deception is real, you know?"
"I'm sorry. About your brother, I mean." He finally released Shun's hand; his feet made a crunching sound on the snow as they shifted position. Shun shook his head.
"Don't be, it was long ago. And somehow, I know he's always with me." Only years of practice made it possible to not react to the gagging motions Ikki was doing from behind Hyoga.
"When are you going to tell them you stole the Phoenix cloth?"
Shun looked around the kitchen to make sure he was alone. Miss Saori had dismissed the mansion servants to let them feel more at ease, Shiryu was packing his stuff to go back to China, Hyoga was who knows where, Seiya was at the police station to bring their dog back, and even his brother was off following Kiki because he found the little guy amusing.
He opened the glass bottle he took from the fridge, and his expression turned annoyed when some soda spilled on his tee. The ghost of the Sagittarius saint stared at him nonplussed.
"Why would I do that? I didn't steal it." He then took a gulp from the soda and closed the fridge, already thinking about getting a mop to clean the spilt soda on the floor.
There were many ghosts in the world, more than Shun would wish there were, but saint ghosts were always fascinating. Maybe it was because his cosmo had been very powerful when he was alive, but there was a golden aura surrounding the Sagittarius saint. This aura flickered with indignation at Shun's answer.
"I know you have it, I can feel its power." He glanced very purposefully at Shun's chest, where two pendants were warm with his body heat.
In Andromeda Island there was a very ancient ghost who had trained under a cloth smith, after much convincing he had told Shun how to turn his cloth into a compact pendant and how to order it around.
One of the pendants was one he had from the mother he never met (not even as a ghost), and the other was the Phoenix cloth. There weren't many who could sense a cloth even between the saints, so the Sagittarius saint must have been very powerful indeed.
"It's not for me and I didn't steal it," he said, just in case the next accusation was about using a cloth for his own gain.
"That does not matter. You painted a bull's eye on your colleagues by angering this fellow."
It was then Shun's turn to become indignant. "Oh? Like how miss Saori did by pitting us against each other on a world-wide televised martial arts showcase? Didn't she paint a bull's eye on our back by putting us in the watch of Sanctuary? Didn't her grandfather ruin our lives by sending us to such hellish training?"
The Sagittarius saint's aura flickered again. "That's different…!"
"Of course it is, because she's a goddess. She's allowed to play with our lives like mere toys and you call it fate, but we're not allowed to make mistakes because it makes us unfit to govern ourselves."
The Sagittarius saint had nothing to say to that, so Shun spoke up again.
"Tell me, Sagittarius Aiolos," the Sagittarius saint's posture changed, like a puppet when its strings were pulled taut by a puppet master. "Do you have a brother?"
"Yes, a younger one," came the monotone answer.
"Then I feel sorry for him, he must have felt like you didn't care for him when you left." He ignored the flash of hurt that managed to escape the Sagittarius saint's glazed over expression.
Shun knew he wasn't a good person. He would let the world burn for a person who had died almost a decade ago. But he believed in the bond all siblings shared; if Aiolos loved his brother even a fraction of how much Shun loved Ikki, then he would come to understand his motives eventually.
"If it comes down to it, I'll lay my life to atone for my sins," he said, and his defeated tone of voice seemed to drain Aiolos' non-existent body of its tension. "So you don't have to worry about miss Saori or the others."
Aiolos wasn't sure what to think about the Andromeda saint.
He'd heard once from Shura's master in Japan that kids who had near-death experiences sometimes became able to see ghosts. However, mere psychic sight didn't explain Andromeda's range of abilities, how he was able to command Aiolos by calling on his name.
He'd heard tales once from master Shion about the Holy War that took almost all saints but him and the old master in Lushan, about how they'd fought against the god of the underworld.
He didn't want to believe that the reincarnation of Hades could become a saint of Athena, but at the same time, he'd died after being betrayed by his best friend, who he'd believed to be the epitome of goodness. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
He watched with mild interest the way Andromeda tried to confront Django directly after knocking out the Dragon saint, his declaration that he was going to defeat this man on his own.
And as Pegasus borrowed on his friends' strength, Aiolos felt Andromeda's cosmo envelop all of their souls and keeping them tethered to their bodies despite the grave injuries they sustained in battle, he felt his subconscious help the cloth smith deceive the Lizard saint in their fake graves.
Aiolos decided he would hesitantly trust Andromeda to do good by Athena.
Shun had been to the beach plenty of times, and while none of them had been particularly pleasant, being buried three feet under in a fake grave took the cake of "unpleasant".
"Protect Athena."
He brushed off the sand, and really hoped it wasn't hard to wash off of the cloth like it was to wash off of his clothes.
"Did you write this?" He asked Aiolos, who had a pensive expression on his face.
"No, it was Pegasus' master." He looked like he wanted to say something else, so he turned towards Shun. "The silver saints said she was his lost sister."
It wasn't phrased like a question, but Shun still wondered about Aiolos' curiosity regarding Seiya. "She could be," he said diplomatically. "Seiya didn't talk a lot about his sister, other than the times when he was fighting with miss Saori. But he talks a lot about his master." He frowned. "I wasn't aware enough to really see her, but there was something that felt… not quite right with her soul. It's almost like she was only half-there." Even between men and women, a sibling's bond was the same. Shun could feel the same pull on her soul that he saw on his reflection in the mirror. It was like her brother was dead.
"Speaking of," he turned to look around. For some reason, he was the only one left on the beach. "Have you seen my brother?"
"I think he stayed on Mount Fuji." Aiolos blinked a couple of times. "He might have gone back to the mansion already."
"Huh, that's weird. He can usually find me after we get separated." Maybe he had wanted to investigate something. "Let's go back, I bet Seiya and the others want to talk about the writing in the sand."
When Hyoga had returned to Japan, he had expected to complete his mission within a week. He had been trained by Aquarius Camus, one of the twelve gold saints, after all. His master had instilled in him the need to be rid of his emotions, what better training could there be for a saint, and what's more, one who would need to become an assassin?
But his determination faltered the second he laid eyes on Shun again.
Despite his oddities, there was an undeniable warmth that came from him. Even after all these years, he had never once treated Hyoga like a foreigner, like a gaijin.
They were standing in the ruins of the coliseum, talking about the silver saints and how they had been sent to kill all five of them.
"I was actually ordered by my master to kill all the saints that participated in the tournament," he confessed, taking in the other's muted reactions, "but during the fight against Django's lackeys I remembered that… you guys aren't half bad."
Shun snorts quietly, did he find Hyoga's confession funny or just straight up ridiculous?
"I think the real question," Shiryu said, with all the airs of a confucian scholar, "is who this Athena that Seiya's master ordered us to protect is."
"That would be the little miss." Hyoga was more surprised by the sheer reverence in Tatsumi's tone than in his words. It was like he actually believed miss Kido to be the reincarnated Greek goddess Athena. "Her grandfather entrusted me with the truth right before he died."
Seiya snorted, Shiryu looked on slightly disbelieving; but it was Shun's reaction that fascinated Hyoga—or lack thereof. He had his arms crossed, he looked to his side for a moment, then continued his blank stare towards the gaping little miss Saori.
"That can't be true…!" Saori's face twisted with grief, whether it was because of the lengths her (adoptive) grandfather had gone to protect her or because of the cruel fate that awaited her as Earth's protector, Hyoga wasn't sure.
Tatsumi then proceeded to tell a story about a gold saint who gave his life to protect his goddess, and about a millionaire that decided to do his part in saving the world by taking orphans off the streets and training them to become Athena's protectors.
"This is bullcrap," Seiya was the first to break out of it. "There's no way a spoiled brat like her is the reincarnation of a goddess, and even if she was, I would not move a single muscle to protect her." And he left, followed closely by Shiryu.
"Don't worry, he'll come back." Hyoga wasn't particularly worried about whether Seiya came back to protect Miss Saori or not, and Tatsumi was too far away to hear, so he wondered to whom Shun had spoken.
In all his years of speaking to ghosts, Shun had never seen one try so hard to possess him.
"Let me talk to him, just once." He was regretting just a little his harsh words from a couple weeks ago, as Aiolos' grief was apparent in his constant flickering. The Leo saint would not listen to a single word Seiya was saying, and he could feel Saori coming. No matter if she was a goddess, her body was still that of a mortal girl's and it could get destroyed with the attack of a saint.
"Fine," he relented. He lit up his cosmo, just enough so Aiolos could project his spirit and talk to his brother—
"Aiolia, you are such an idiot."
—and then he cringed.
As he was walking in the direction of where they were taking the helicopter, Shun felt a familiar cosmo.
He turned around to greet his almost sister with a smile, but then froze when he noticed the other person accompanying her.
Or rather, his ghost.
Impaled by a red rose in the chest and wearing his cloth, his master's eyes stared vacantly at him.
He barely heard his own voice ask June: "What happened to Andromeda Island?"