Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

15 - The Neverending Night

A cold night and a serene snow is pouring outside Saori Kido's Mansion.

A room filled with antique paintings on the walls, figurines in many corners, rich tapestries on the floor and crystal chandeliers on the ceiling. A grand piano with a beautiful arrangement of flowers on top is leaning against one of the windows.

Seiya and Saori are taking care of Shun's injured hands; the boy sits very quiet and sad, his gaze lost on the coffee table in front of him. Shiryu is on the floor leaning against the sofa, her head thrown back, exhausted. The Cygnus Saint is the only one standing watching the snow falling outside through the window.

The television is on and the News Broadcast is running an article about the wrath of many fans from the Galaxian Wars, absolutely enraged with the event's unexpected ending. Saori finished a bandage on Shun's hand and immediately turned off the TV when she saw him sad with the images of his sister on the screen. There was some tension in the room.

"It was time for this Tournament to end." finally spoke the calm voice of Cygnus.

Seiya looked at him with the urge to grind that expressionless face into the wall, as if the comment was much more to tighten Shun's wound than about the actual Tournament.

"Who are you anyway?" he asked angrily.
"An ally." Saori replied, as he didn't even look back at Seiya.
"You were the one who saved me that day, weren't you?" Shun's calm voice spoke, remembering his attack in the woods.

Again, Cygnus was silent.

The atmosphere in the room was heavy and, in fact, since they returned from the valley, silence was the most heard sound between them. In such a way that everyone could clearly hear that outside that room, strong footsteps were running across the carpet, approaching their room; the door opened sharply and Xiaoling came running from it, jumping on Saori's neck making them both fall off the couch.

"Miss Saori!" she cried. "My god, why are you all hurt? Who did this to you? Seiya! You were supposed to protect her! How did she got hurt like this?" She said looking disgusted at the boy.
"It's okay, Xiaoling." smiled Saori, getting up.
"No it's not!" she protested.
"Xiaoling!" Alice shouted behind her.

She, the oldest of them all, soon realized that something horrible had happened by the blue atmosphere on the room and tried to hold the energy of the youngest one; Mii looked at Saori and without needing to exchange a word realized that again she was very sad. She walked towards her, composed by Xiaoling's attack of affection, to see if the bandages were enough. Of course they were, but Mii wanted an excuse to be closer to Saori.

"Where were you gals, huh?" Seiya asked and Saori felt in Mii an enormous discomfort that only she could perceive.
"We came back so we could train with our master." Xiaoling replied. "Jab and the others are also training to get stronger. But from now on we will not leave your side!" she said to Saori.
"The Gold Armor..." Alice said lightly, noticing that only the Helm was on the table.
"Where's the rest of the Armor?" Xiaoling asked, amazed.
"Doesn't matter." interrupted Saori at once.

Shun looked at her and realized that the girl was really sorry for her sister's fate. And he was really devastated inside, because all he wanted most was to see Ikki. But Shun had also learned a lot from his sister and especially during all the years of his strenuous training. Though his throat was tight with sadness, he had a serenity in his face that impressed even Alice, older than him.

Saori got up.

"We all must rest, there's a room prepared for you to spend the night." she announced. "The Foundation will be available for whatever you need from now on."
"I don't think you'll be able to get rid of us that easily this time." Seiya said.