Saint Seiya: The Legend of Seiya

29 - Born Under Maleficent Stars

Shoko sprints through the Coliseum entrance, Hyoga behind her. They cross the closed Avenue for the Tournament, pass among the passers-by and finally reach the sand of the beach.

"Wait for me, Shoko! Shoko!" called Hyoga behind her.

He reached the girl and stopped in front of her, hugging her. She was crying.

"Hyoga, I can feel it. It's my sister. I need to go to her."
"Calm down. We'll go together."

And he hugged her again.

"Shall we go together?" he asked.

She agreed.

And they ran along the beach, following Shoko's heart, who left the sand and ran towards a beautiful park with a well-kept wood. They crossed trees and descended a short hill to a strange entrance in a huge rising mountain.

Hyoga felt a terrible cosmo coming from that entrance and pulled Shoko to him.

"What is it, Hyoga?"
"No..." he said. "We can't go on."
"My sister is in there, Hyoga. This is my chance."
"Listen to me, Shoko." he said, looking at her. "This feeling inside of you has a name. We call it cosmo. And the one you're feeling right now is enormous. Like a universe."

He placed his hand on Shoko's pendant.

"All of us are made of the same thing as the stars up in the sky. And some of us are able to control this energy within us."
"What are you saying? What does all this have to do with my sister?"
"This feeling in your chest is the presence of a great cosmo. But it does not belong to your sister. It belongs to something very strong, but also terribly evil."
"No, you're wrong. It's my sister, Hyoga! You don't understand. I need her!" she said crying.

Then the boy hugged her very close and let his white cosmos ascend from his body shining the night. A warm energy that their close embrace made Shoko share that feeling, her face light up by the aura and her hair shimmering along that comforting energy.

He looked at her tenderly.

Her chest stilled and the feeling that had been pushing her heart was slowly dying and fading back to normal.

"I know. I understand."
"Hyoga..."
"I lost people who were very important to me as well. People I needed to give meaning to my life. I know what you're feeling."

He took her hands. And she no longer felt the anguish that hurt her before.

She looked at the entrance to that place, relieved.

"I felt something very similar in your arms." she said.
"That's my cosmo." he said.
"But it wasn't distressing. It was... comforting." she said, looking at Hyoga.

He was relieved, for all he wanted was to comfort her.

"I can control the universe I have inside of me. And I promise you, Shoko," he said, approaching her, "I promise you that I'll go into this place and if your sister really is there, I'll bring her back. But not today. Not tonight."

Shoko smiled at him.

"I believe in you, Hyoga." And she looked back at the entrance to that place. "I don't feel my sister there anymore. It's as if I never had."

Hyoga pulled her close to his arms once more, relieved. And together, they left those woods back to the city.

They returned in silence through the streets and Hyoga walked her to her house. They said goodbye with a long and warm embrace.

"Thank you, Hyoga." she said. "I'm so sorry I ruined our night. I don't even know who won at the Tournament. How silly of me."

Shoko seemed awake from a spell. And she said goodbye, smiling.