"Captain's log, third day of voyage. En route to the coast of Africa. The crew is doing very well. And as for the young Ensigns Seiya and Lunara, both have been playing their roles perfectly, as well as being able to memorize the entire Maritime dialect. What we couldn't teach them, however, was that life on open seas can be tricky. And it's like the saying goes: smooth seas don't make good sailors. Medical officer June has had a lot of work with them."
Lunara was moaning from dizziness and stomach pain, as was Seiya, who wasn't much better either at the ship's infirmary. The two of them were sickened by the constant, unshakable sway of the ocean; they were dehydrated and very weak that second night at sea.
In addition to the four hand-picked by Captain Kaire to perform those important roles and be at his side on the quarterdeck and on the bridge, the Galleon of Athena also had half a dozen Rodorio sailors who were absolutely proud to serve in a such a prestigious ship and on such an important mission.
At the Captain's Cabin, however, an emergency meeting was called by him in which only the first-officer Geist and the medical-officer June reported. The three of them were dressed in their handsome dark overcoats, though Captain Kaire's was navy blue with gold details, while Geist's had red and June's light blue details.
"How are the two ensigns, Chameleon?"
"Still bad, as expected." she began, a little annoyed. "They spent the whole night with a high fever, but at least this morning they are showing some signs of improvement."
"You look fine." Geist argued, looking at her.
"I did my training on an island in the Indian Ocean and it was not rare for our Master to take us out to the sea for specific training. I got used to it."
"I need my navigator and my helmsman, Doctor." said the captain.
"I'm doing everything I can. They need to replace what they put out, but in the condition they are in, they can't eat anything." she retorted. "I'd like to reiterate my concern at having chosen those two for a mission like this. They have no experience at all on navigation."
Geist immediately looked at her, a little surprised by her courage.
"You already made your concern very clear when we left port. What I need now is for them to be able to perform their duties."
"That's a mistake!"
"Chameleon, this is the Captain you're addressing."
"No problem, first-mate." said Captain Kaire, and turned to June with resolute eyes. "Have you put out what you wanted to say yet?"
"I haven't even started."
"Then finish it, for we have seven seas to conquer. Seven. Seas." he repeated, before she could say anything else. "Return to the infirmary and update me on their condition within the hour. Geist, take the post in the crow's nest and come down with the necessary observations. We'll work together at the helm. Dismissed."
The end of that tense meeting, however, was interrupted by the voice of one of the sailors at the top of his lungs outside.
"Land ahoy!" announced the sailor.
The three got up immediately and went out on deck; Geist leaned over the ship's rail and watched a small island on the horizon, in the middle of the Aegean Sea and far from any shore. Kaire and June joined her on the ledge.
"This island is not on the Nautical Chart." pondered Geist.
"Recommendations?" asked Kaire.
"I suggest leaving it where it is and keep on course to the Canal."
"Agreed, first-mate." said Captain Kaire, but before giving the order to the rest of the sailors, June the Chameleon stood before him again.
"If we're really going to continue this journey, we need to replenish our stocks, because those two need help and we haven't even reached the first Ocean. This island could be a good opportunity for that."
Meko looked from June to Geist beside her and she didn't seem to object.
"Very well." he replied very seriously and turned to Geist. "Order the anchor to be cast overboard and the auxiliary boat to be ready." and then looked at June. "Ten minutes and we'll be off. Geist, you have the comm."
"Yes, sir.' she agreed, setting out among the sailors to see that all was done.
June went downstairs as well back to the infirmary, where she found Lunara moaning with nausea, slightly awake. She wiped the sweat from the girl's face and took a teapot off a makeshift stove where she was heating an infusion of herbs; she poured a mug and forced the girl to drink.
"Oh, Junie." she began, for that was what how she called her. "You said I was going to throw up a lot."
"You'll be better soon, Luna."
"What about Seiya?" she asked.
"I'm here, Luna." he replied from the other bed, still very dizzy. "See, you're like this because you poisoned me down in the valley that day."
"Oh, Seiya, I'm so sorry." she moaned, but he tried to laugh a little.
"Drink you too, Seiya." June offered the boy the terrible tea.
"This is horrible."
"You can be there with your head spinning if you like." she retorted, and he finished drinking it all.
"It seems my destiny is to be in a hospital bed." he muttered.
"You'll be up soon." June assured.
"Where are you going?" Lunara asked before she left.
"We'll go get more food and medicine on an island we've spotted nearby. We won't be long. And you two should rest while we're out." she replied, leaving that wing and gathering in a backpack some things she needed in this endeavor.
Her attentive ears, however, still listened as Seiya and Lunara continued talking.
"Are you feeling better, Seiya?" asked the little one.
"Better than yesterday. What that you?"
"Me too. June is great, right?"
"She is the best. She took care of all of us for several days back in the cabin."
"She said it's only at the beginning, soon we will get used to the sea." said little Lunara, but he didn't answer.
She played with her little hands covering the light of a lamp suspended from the ceiling before asking something else to the recovering boy again.
"Seiya, do you like the sea?"
Little Lunara was terribly curious, as Seiya came to find out in those first two days, but he thought that this was indeed one of the first times he had sailed, but it was not uncommon for him to stand on top of the cliffs of Greece looking out to sea.
"I like to look at it."
"Looking is nice too." said the little one. "Seiya, June told me you have a sister, is that true?"
Seiya pouted slightly, but responded as best he could.
"Yes, it's true."
"Master Ikki also has a brother." considered the little one. "She came by to give me good luck before the trip."
"Did Ikki came to see you?" Seiya asked, and Lunara quickly confirmed it. "What a rascal, we haven't seen her in days."
"Seiya, do you think Master Ikki will let me be her sister too if I asked her?
The boy couldn't help but find Lunara's absurd question funny and let out a laugh from her, but before he could answer, little Lunara kept talking.
"That annoying Kiki doesn't want to be my brother. I wanted to have someone."
"Hey, shorty." called Seiya. "You have us now."
And he saw a small smile on Lunara's face break out before she went back to playing with her hands against that light. June finally finished packing her things to meet the Captain and walked out of the infirmary to the quarterdeck.
If Saori failed to include the mighty Graad Foundation fleet in that divine expedition, she certainly tried, throughout the week of preparation, to introduce modern advancements to aid the crew in a tense bargain with Captain Kaire. The uniforms were an enormous squabble between the Captain and Ensign-Navigator Lunara, who demanded the pretty coats with the gold insignia in exchange for her small presence; she also carried a music player hidden in her overcoat. A radio communicator in the main cabin, Captain Kaire himself thought it was a good choice, but the engine on the auxiliary boat took a lot of talking between them. Which was actually a defeat for Saori, as the initial plan was to install a nuclear reactor on the Galleon itself to make it faster to their destinations, but she ended up agreeing to just a silent but fast engine on the auxiliary boat. Captain Kaire was very capricious indeed.
"The boat powered by the Cosmos of Athena and the Goddess herself wanting to place a nuclear reactor. With all due respect and may she not listen to me." Meko muttered to himself one night.
For in the speedy auxiliary boat, which was smaller and perhaps only held four or five people, Captain Kaire set out at the helm and Chameleon June sat behind him. Both wearing a precious necklace around their necks that had been a unique and special gift from Aries Mu and Virgo Shaka, who reduced the huge Urn that held the Holy Cloths to gemstones that would activate and protect their bodies when triggered by their cosmos, thus giving an opportunity to act among the commons if necessary.
"I believe in you, June." Meko began, with his back to her. "I know they'll be fine."
"I still can't believe there was no one more prepared that could be chosen." June said, for the umpteenth time. "Lunara is a child, and even Seiya, as much as he has fought so hard, is just a boy. A boy I'd seen suffer night after night in that shack in Rodorio, hooked up to oxygen and some IVs so he could have a chance at life."
The Captain didn't answered her.
"And not a few times he spoke his sister's name while he was delirious while connected to the tubes. Seika. Shun told me that he was ready to leave Rodorio to go after her, as it is said that they split up when they were still a child and she went after him in Greece." she spoke, but the Captain just sailed along. "He looks so sad about it."
The Captain put his eye on the golden spyglass and noticed among coconut trees and some small mounds that some buildings seemed to rise.
"It looks like the island is inhabited." he said, offering the spyglass to June.
She hid the urge to hit him right there and looked through the gold bezel. It was true, some low buildings did seem to rise in the distance.
They arrived at a beach where they got off into the shallows of the sea to pull the auxiliary boat until it stuck in the sand and, with a huge rope, the Captain tied it to a nearby tree trunk.
"I can't hear anything." June observed, looking away.
"The island doesn't look very big, it must be a fishing post with some merchants. Let's take a look."
As they climbed a short rock, they soon found themselves in the streets of an old village completely abandoned. The streets taken over by vegetation, some buildings still standing, others in ruins, broken crates, bags and scaffolding, lots of glasswork scattered around; the setting was bleak and completely abandoned. The architecture of what appeared to be shops in an old harbor passage had old and very warped signs on the facades, as well as a few scattered across the street.
Captain Kaire walked down the deserted street looking at the facades and looking for any living souls. June, on the other hand, would look in the windows for any indication of a grocery store or apothecary to fill the large bag she carried to bring whatever was useful back to the boat.
"It's as if time has stopped." commented the Captain.
"Where is everyone?"
"It must be a long-abandoned outpost, since the shipping lanes stopped passing through here."
They walked together to what appeared to be a central square, where there was a mound of rubble with a number of things abandoned in a large pile of trash. As they walked unsuspectingly, there were eyes that watched them from half-open windows and doors. At the base of this pile of rubble was a curious blue tricycle that didn't look as old as the things around it; Captain Kaire knelt down and observed that its wheels were still working, as well as the bell still ringing clearly. He left the toy next to the rubble when his attention was interrupted by the hoarse screams of someone behind him.
"It's mine! Take your hands off. This is mine." repeated a very, very old gentleman with his voice already hoarse and flawed.
His steps were shaky, but he rushed with some speed towards the pair. Frightened, June moved away and the very small, fragile old man got on top of the tricycle, hugging it and mumbling.
"Someone broke it." he said with his very fragile hands touching the handlebars, the ripped leather seat. "Please fix it, can you fix it?" he asked tearfully.
As he repeated the request, his voice became more and more shaky as he smoothed the blue tricycle; he hugged it sitting on the floor and June noticed how his body subtly leaned against the rubble mound and he just seemed to fall asleep. His voice stopped and June looked at Meko, who was frowning in confusion. He looked around that square and there was no one else but that withered old man.
June, in turn, knelt beside the little man and took his hand.
"He... he's dead." she announced, noting the lack of a pulse.
And she also got up absolutely confused by what could have happened; Meko also knelt down, as if to make sure what was happening, and in the face of that shock, June wasn't even offended by the Captain doubting her diagnosis. For she was right: the old man was dead indeed.
"What the hell..." he said to himself.
Both confused in that abandoned central square where there didn't seem to be any other living souls, when finally they clearly heard the sound of many footsteps inside one of those ruined buildings.
"We're not alone, June. Stay alert."
A door creaked to their left and the Captain asked her to folloe him; the two of them ran towards the noise and found themselves inside what looked like an old abandoned inn, with its entrance hall destroyed, old paintings on the floor, others destroyed on the wall, a staircase to the second floor collapsed, the rugs gnawed and lots of rubbish scattered all over the place. Not only did that place looked abandoned, it also looked looted and devastated.
Alert and on tiptoe, the Captain and his doctor heard a noise behind a nearby door. Now they could be sure of everything in the world: someone was hiding behind that room. Meko and June each stood on either side of the door; she looked at her Captain and he asked her to wait.
"Get out. We won't do you any harm." he asked aloud to whoever was hiding.
There was no response; the two looked at each other again and decided to open the room, putting themselves on guard to face whoever was inside. But the eyes that looked back at them were from a boy a little younger than Seiya, who had a swollen face, tears in his eyes, and a shaky voice.
"Please don't hurt me."
The boy hidden inside an old hat shop trembled with fear of both of them, especially of Captain Kaire, who more than once swore to him that he would not harm him. Beside June, he seemed more relaxed, but he still sobbed and stuttered; the girl tried to understand if he was there alone; where all the people were; but he looked too scared to answer.
June knelt in front of the boy, who was trying to avoid her and the Captain's eyes, and tried to calm him down.
"We're not going to hurt you." she swore.
"Hurt Tritos." he said in a curious way.
"That wasn't us." lamented Kaire. "Unfortunately he... Unfortunately we found him that way."
"Was he your grandfather?" June asked.
"No. My friend. We play along." replied the boy, who at that point June was sure he hadn't been properly educated, because his speech was a little weird.
The boy had tears streaming down his face.
"Fear of grups. Burning, screaming, hurting." the boy spoke between sobs, in a scratchy language that was familiar to both her and the Captain.
"We don't do that." Meko said to him.
"Not hurt?" he asked.
"Of course not, never." assured Captain Kaire. "We're here to help."
His words caught the attention of June, who looked at him and found the Silver Saint very stern and really worried about the boy.
"Grups don't help."
"We will." June repeated.
"What happened here?" Captain Kaire finally asked, also kneeling in front of the boy. "Where is everyone?"
"Who are the grups?" June asked him.
"You are." replied the boy. "When the little ones get old ones."
"Do the adults in this place did bad things?" she tried.
"Before. They got sick in the time before. We hid and then they disappeared."
"Do you know where they went?" the Captain asked, but June pulled the hem of Meko's overcoat, looking deeply at him.
They were dead, she guessed.
"Didn't these bad things affected you?" she asked.
"Course not, we're still here."
"Others like you?" asked Captain Kaire. "How many more?"
"All there is."
June and Kaire looked at each other: there were probably more kids like him scattered around this place; the captain got up and June sat down beside the boy. Calmly, Meko walked out of that inn back out onto the street while June took care of that terrified child.
"What is your name?" she began.
"Tau." he replied.
"It's a pretty name. "she said. "I'm June. We're gonna help you and your friends. Do not worry."
"Be careful." he said with a worried look in his eyes, arousing June's curiosity. "You're grup. He will call for you."
Captain Kaire walked out of that destroyed inn to the abandoned streets of that port post, looked around without seeing anyone, as usual. But then he already knew that there were other children there; he walked and gradually heard a few chuckles in the distance, always from different directions and clearly orchestrated to confuse him. And whenever he approached, he heard footsteps running and running, always running away from him.
As he followed those laughter, Meko found himself walking away from the inn and into an old tavern, totally abandoned, even more destroyed than the few other low buildings of that forgotten outpost. The entrance was wide open, as the double doors were on the floor; and, for some reason, looking at the pitch black inside that tavern left Meko disconcerted.
He looked back and saw there at least a dozen children younger than Tau and all wearing clothes that didn't fit them; but when they were caught by the Silver Saint's eyes, they all fled like little mice across the island. Captain Kaire chased at least one group of kids and caught up with them in a grocery store full of food and fresh herbs, much to the Captain's surprise.
There, little by little, he finally saw the appearance of at least eleven boys and girls who were those who passed through the city laughing, making him lost. Among them was an older girl, close to the frightened boy's age, Tau; from her posture, as well as that of the other children, it was very clear to Captain Kaire that she was the one who took care of them as best she could.
"Let's play?" said a little one from the back, sitting on top of a crate.
"Not now, Kas." said the girl.
"But not much time for he." replied the little boy, and she asked him to be quiet again.
"Give us back the Tau!" she asked Meko.
"We didn't caught him. We only found him at the inn." Meko said.
"You lie! You're grup." said another child from the back.
"I'm not lying, he's fine, but he's worried about all of you."
"You should be worried about you." the girl finally said.
Captain Kaire took a better look at the girl, her dirty face and hair barely straightened out.
"What is your name?" asked the Captain, but a little boy interrupted.
"The water man will get you."
"Water, Water! The Man of Water." chanted some children around him.
The boy's small hand pointed through the dirty glass window to the open tavern door across the street. Captain Kaire remembered the foreboding he felt as he looked into that opening and pondered what it might mean.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
"Our boat sunk." the girl explained in that rudimentary language.
"The sea boat." completed very innocently a little boy next to him.
"You don't remember, Qui, you were a baby." commented another boy next to him.
"Be quiet." asked the girl.
"What is your name?" Captain Kaire asked her again.
"My name is Miri."
"Tell me, Miri, what happened to the loud ones that once screamed and broke things?"
"They all disappeared when they got water, then they got sick like crazy."
"What is this man of water?"
The children shuddered and Captain Kaire searched the girl's eyes, who looked very sad.
"We are thirsty. The water man gives us water."
"He is a very bad man. We don't like."
"When we grup, he makes us go there for water."
"He dyes our hair white!" said a little girl near the Captain's right leg.
"Whoever comes out of the water man, comes out old."
Captain Kaire then looked at the tavern mesmerized, not understanding what it could all mean, but then he saw through the dirty glass that Chameleon June was slowly heading towards that place. The children gathered at the window and the Captain became worried when they heard the door open again and the Tau boy reappear.
"The man of water man is calling." he announced. "She is grup."
"The man of waters." exclaimed the children.
"Tau, where's Tritos?" asked Miri.
The boy cried and did not respond.
And he didn't even need to, because Captain Kaire understood that Tritos was the man who had died beside his tricycle. For then Chameleon June was in danger; he asked the children not to leave for nothing, and he opened the door himself and all those young eyes saw him running towards the tavern where June had already disapparead into.
Under the scorching heat on the stony plain of an island, a dozen young men arranged in a circle watched in the center two figures fighting fiercely with the use of some chains. Clearly, however, one of the youths was refusing to attack, limiting himself to defending as best he could from a boy who was too intent on attacking. But then whoever attacked seemed more focused than whoever was defending, and Shun fell to the ground, being trampled mercilessly by his opponent.
"That's enough, Reda!"
June left where the other would-be Saints were and threw herself in front of him to prevent Shun from suffering even more. She was screaming his name that hot afternoon on Andromeda Island. He was clearly in no condition to continue, so she turned to Master Albiore, who was training everyone, and asked sternly:
"Master, he can't take it anymore. He will die if this continues. Stop the training for today."
Andromeda Island, where Shun and June had trained, was located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. It is said to have formed thanks to an eruption in ancient Ethiopia. During the day the temperature passed fifty degrees Celsius, while at night it kept temperatures below zero. A real hell. The ground was covered with rock and sand. Both day and night punished the life that lived there.
In a hut among many others rustically built, June took care of the wounds of Shun, who was much younger than she, who for all her life lived on that island helping in the training of aspiring Sanctuary Saints. The boy finally woke up briefly, and she went to him, somehow aggrieved with displeasure.
"You have to stop doing this, Shun." she complained. "I know you don't like fighting or hurting people, but this way you're going to die."
"June..." he began, and then let out a long breath. "I've decided to challenge the Sacrifice."
"You're delusional, Shun. The Sacrifice? You idiot, do you know how scary the Ritual of Sacrifice is?" she knew it, for she's seen a lot of boys almost die trying that ritual.
"I know. But until I try, I can't get the Andromeda Cloth, June." said the boy's sweet voice. "I need to try."
"It's impossible, do you really want to die?" she asked. "And besides, to participate in the Ritual you must first defeat Reda and the others."
Shun then looked from his bed to that hole-in-the-sky ceiling.
"I will do what I can. I swear." he tried, but June stood up, impatient with his stubbornness.
"Shun, you weren't made to fight." she began. "Someone like you will never be a Saint, for you are too sweet and kind. I know you can't hurt Reda or anyone else. Then you won't be able to challenge the Sacrifice."
He didn't answer, and she tried one last time.
"Give it up and go back to your home. Live in peace, Shun." she sought that, for those years when she helped the aspirants on that island, she had never seen anyone like him. "I beg you."
The boy then got up from the bed against his caregiver's wishes.
"June, I've told you many, many times. I will never return until I become a Saint, even if it costs my life. It's a promise I made."
Shun walked out of the cabin into the frigid night and June watched him from the doorframe as he looked up at the sky and thought of his sister, who had taken his place in an even darker place. Even though she couldn't hear his thoughts, she knew he was doing it for something more. Something beyond him.
A few days later, June watched Shun defeat Reda and everyone else. Shun defied the Ritual of Sacrifice and parted the sea with his Cosmo.
The Cetus Saint, still wearing his handsome and detailed overcoat, entered the darkness of the tavern and found a bar completely disfigured, with rubble and bottles smashed into shards strewn across the floor. The countertop cracked in half and no sign of a man or June. The back of the building, however, had a huge trapdoor gaping open to a dusty cellar where one of the walls had been destroyed to clear a path inside a cave.
Meko knew that the path was one for what could only be a big trap. He stepped onto the wet stone, rushed a few feet, rounded a sharp turn into the darkness, and saw June's Cosmo glimmer floating in the air, as if something invisible was holding her in suspension. Captain Kaire called out her name and ran towards her, when he finally saw the owner of the Cosmo who kept her in a trance, for inside a lake, with his arm extended to June — floating on the surface of the lake — there was a bare-chested man above the water.
"You were not summoned." said his deep voice.
"And you are?" asked Captain Kaire.
"The man of water." he limited himself to answer.
"Let her go!"
Meko's Silver Cosmo manifested and he opened a rift in the small lake, pushing that figure away from June's body, which Captain Kaire took in his arms and brought to him and out of the lake. She was still unconscious. The Silver Saint turned his attention to the lake and saw the figure struggling with agility and his torso reappear with a smile on his face. What startled the courageous Captain in that low light was a slight movement of what was undoubtedly a fish's tail.
"A merman". babbled June, slowly waking up.
"No. Much worse than that." guessed Captain Kaire. "A telkhine."
From there they heard a low growl and again the deep voice spoke to them.
"You're not from here."
"I can imagine that you are the one responsible for the fate of the people who lived in this place." accused Captain Kaire.
"They weren't people, they were monsters." replied the monster, letting its tail reappear briefly.
"They were sick and I can bet it was the spell of an abandoned telkhine like you!" snapped the Captain and the dog laughed.
"The violence of men is in their very nature. They were not affected by anything or sick with any disease. They were what they were."
"What about the kids?" June asked. "Now you're busy sucking the life out of helpless children?" she asked firmly, but the man in the underground lake laughed.
"Helpless? They are of the same blood as those terrible corsairs, marauding bandits and filthy humans."
"They are children!" shouted Captain Kaire.
"And soon they will be men and women equally wretched."
"So you lure them here to suck their vitality little by little and prolong your life, is that it, telkhine? Living a long life abandoned in this place cannibalizing children?"
"Not just children." said the fierce voice in the darkness.
June noticed how, beside her, Captain Kaire seemed to freeze in some way; she took a few steps back, as she was still feeling very dizzy from the spell that soon put her into a trance before being saved; the cave slowly lit up with the cosmos of that telkhine, which rose from the small lake in which he was. His chest was still bare, but now what she'd once sworn were fins at the end of a tail revealed this time to be a blue, oceanic protection on two strong legs. He was a Marina.
He extended a single arm covered by his oceanic protection toward Captain Kaire's mouth, but was stopped by June's Chameleon's whip.
"I will not let it."
The telkhine tugged at her with his strength and June let herself be pulled to land a terrible knee kick in his stomach, knocking him far into the cave. She cracked her whip to her right and left, effectively breaking the rock of that grotto, and then she hit some stalactites that fell on the enemy's body, hitting his arm and causing him to shed blood in the lake.
The interruption of his concentration seemed to snap Meko out of his trance, which immediately ignited his Silver cosmos, and June saw in his one eye an overwhelming rage. That enemy would not be spared, those children would not have died in vain.
His overcoat opened to reveal the silver pendant that gleamed in the Cave, and his body was clad in the marvelous Cetus Cloth; his silver cosmo lit up the entire cavern and the wounded telkhine jumped back into the lake trying to escape. His pointed tail reappeared and he quickly submerged, disappearing, but Meko Kaire's Cosmo opened a crack in the lake and his voice sounded brutally in the cave.
"Cetus Explosive Force!"
The lake convulsed in its waters, and from within it, as if sucked into a typhoon, the telkhine's body reappeared, being flung violently against the cavern ceiling and crashing back into the lake. And when he reappeared on the surface, he had clearly been vanquished, for he floated up with his face to the water.
Dead and defeated.
As they left the destroyed tavern together, Captain Kaire helped June walk and, as soon as they gained sunlight, they realized that all the children of the island were there to welcome them. And as soon as they saw them, they started a huge party and racket, dancing a huge merry-go-round the two of them. Captain Kaire let out a smile and looked at June, seeking her eyes. His speech was firm and confident.
"That's why we're doing this." he said, pointing to the children, all happy and singing. "That's why we're going to cross the Seven Seas and seal Poseidon."
"Captain..."
He looked back at those kids and back to June.
"I understand your concern, but don't think for a second that I'm insensitive to both of them. That boy and girl suffering in your ward are always in my thoughts too, because I chose them for this mission."
She looked at him and found a Captain firm in his convictions.
"I couldn't recruit the Gold Saints or even the Silver Saints, but even if I could, I wouldn't call anyone different." he continued. "There is no one as talented as that girl. That is not an ordinary ship, and on it we don't need ordinary sailors. And as for Seiya..."
He looked deeply into June's eyes and continued talking with a smile that was slowly opening on his face, as if he were covered in pride.
"If you could only see the determination with which that boy stood up to three Silver Saints to save his master. If you could feel the strength of that boy's Cosmo. If only you could have listened to the stories Marin told me about him. That boy raised the Shield of Justice and saved Athena in the battle of the Twelve Temples. Our voyage is beyond the sea and he is capable of working impossible miracles." if the Captain was Kaire, Meko had perhaps his greatest source of inspiration in his helmsman. "I want and need these miracles by our side, June."
And then he showed the happy faces of the dancing children.
"So they can dance."
June finally let a smile slip across her face. In any case, they were already deep in the Aegean Sea and there was no turning back; that would really be the crew of the trip and it would be up to June to pray and do her best that not only Lunara, but she and the entire crew would return safe and sound, preferably with all of Poseidon's Relics of the Seas sealed. She sought to trust her Captain and nodded to him that she would be by his side.
"As I wouldn't call anyone else to take your place either." he said again, smiling at her. "I have full conviction that you are the right person to keep us all ready to fight, as well as the right person to disagree with your Captain when it's necessary."
"You can count on it." she replied stubbornly.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: This is a completely new and original arc, none of the sea stories we'll see from here on have been adapted from any Saint Seiya story. I tried to use various elements to create something new, but I also used this moment to adapt another series that I really like, mixing it with Saint Seiya. This more adventurous arc of sealing Relics came from Omega, that they need to 'seal' the elemental temples and I love those adventures and thought it would fit in very well with this moment in the series. Then it was easy to decide that there would be seven, one for each pillar. At first, I thought about doing it on the surface, but it soon became clear that it was obvious that the ideal would be for these seals to be in the seas. Hence the idea of using the boat that appears in Lost Canvas. And with a boat, we would need a crew. And as soon as I decided on that, I immediately got excited because it really could be a chance to do something similar to Star Trek that I like so much too. And there it was. At first, all the Bronze Saints would be in the crew, but it ended up being a lot of people, so I gave them different roles and took only Seiya, creating this separation that will be important later on.
In this first chapter, I adapt an episode that isn't even the most incredible of the series, but it fit exactly what I needed here: to better introduce who the Captain is and who is June, since they were the two that needed a better introduction. As material about Moses (Meko) and June is not so much on the series, I gave myself the freedom to create their personalities a little deeper and, based on June's healing properties in the Mobile games, to make her the 'doctor' of the ship. And so we began our journey.
NEXT CHAPTER: THE FIRST RELIC
The crew arrives in the Maldives to find the first Relic of the Sea!