In the darkness of Tangaroa, a door opened and out of it emerged a beautiful face, followed by a young warrior with dark hair, but burned by the Pacific sun. It was the young Meko Kaire and his beloved Mia Kahurangi, who had entered the domain of monsters to seek something very precious: the Iris Shell, an ancient heritage left to the sailors of Wahitapu, the island where they lived.
It was said in the stories that the Iris Shell was used by Tāne when she herself gave rise to the various islands of Polynesia, making all the trees and flowers that inhabit the earth sprout from her own being. The old Te-Maia said that the shell was then given to Wahitapu navigators so that they would never forget that gift. But that gift was stolen by Ikatere many, many years ago, and all Mia Kahurangi would want to do is take it back.
She was a powerful, strong woman with dark hair and hard eyes, tattoos all over her arms and firm legs. When she opened the door to pitch black, at first they saw nothing, but deep in the grotto a glow revealed itself in the darkness.
"There." she said. "That must be the shell."
"Come." Meko said behind her.
But then they were attacked in the darkness, Mia's body hurled against the rocks; Meko calling out her name and brandishing the torch to find the creature that attacked them in the darkness, when he noticed only the outline of tentacles hiding in the shadows.
"Mia!" he shouted again, approaching her.
"Don't come, Meko!"
But he went and took the brunette in his arms to help her up, when his torch lit a single tentacle that attacked him, he dodged and Mia let go of him, rolling to the side. The second attack ripped out Meko's left eye, he bled and fell to the ground. Mia knelt before him to help him, but was then hit by something behind her.
"Mia, no! Mia!" he shouted.
In front of him, the torch lit a blade of water that had passed through Mia's body and then retreated, letting his lover's blood fall to his feet. She fell into his arms and mouthed her last words, which were forever echoing in his ears.
Meko Kaire there wept, and in his despair he still heard the dark voice of someone who cursed him.
"Wrong door."
Seiya, Geist and June arrived at an absurd place in that depth. A maze of doors. Of all styles, types and ages. The creator of that labyrinth may have looted all the boats that one day sank in the region, stealing their decks, their cabins and whatever else was at hand to create that dismal and frightening environment.
Some doors even seemed to give access to deep halls behind damp walls, while others lay on the floor like trapdoors, but there were also gates that seemed to lead nowhere, or even doors that stood upright with nothing around them, so that seemed completely useless.
"Watch out for the Labyrinth of Portals." Geist remembered, remembering Captain Meko's voice.
"What do we do?" Seiya asked himself, putting his hand on a doorknob. "We don't have time to open all these doors."
"Stop!" asked Geist. "We must not open any door. If this is a maze, we must get to the end of it."
"I don't see any path here." June warned.
Geist took a better look at the doors, as well as the floor and ceiling.
"Forget the doors, we must get to the bottom of this place. Let's go."
Seiya and June chose to follow the path through the doors and choose the directions that would take them further into the depths of the cave, because in fact the labyrinth seemed to make a slight slope where the light was slowly dying. The torch that had been with Captain Kaire was left behind, so that Geist was now leading them through the darkness, always forward.
There was the dripping sound and the constant feeling that they weren't alone, even though they hadn't been attacked by anyone as they descended. And yet doors and portals took turns in every direction they looked; the urge to open any one of them was almost killing Seiya, but he kept himself under control until they seemed to reach the end of that place.
A single door at the end of the path.
A beautiful door of dark wood, carved in the style of those people of the seas, with a tentacle embossed with many other sea creatures and, in the middle of it, a beautiful shell. Of all the doors and portals, gates and trapdoors, Seiya observed however that this one didn't have any handles that they could open.
"Look." warned Geist.
Above the door, in a semicircle, were sayings in a language none of them had any idea what it was about.
"Damn it." said Geist. "It's an enigma, but unless one of you can speak the Maori language, we'll be here for eternity."
"Geist!" June called, looking at her back.
When the first-mate looked back, she realized that the corridor they had come through had simply disappeared, giving way to that damp wall that now, incredible as it was, seemed to pulsate somehow. They were in an empty chamber with a single door before them.
Geist ran her hand over the door's relief, trying to understand what it could be, but she knew perfectly well that the secret lay in the words she didn't recognize above the door.
"My trap captures everything"
The three looked back, startled, but came face to face with Captain Kaire and Lunara, who had finally caught up with them through the maze of portals. Seiya knelt down and immediately hugged Lunara as tightly as he could.
"When we get back home, I'll train you personally!"
She smiled, but Captain Kaire stepped forward with Geist.
"It's an enigma, Captain." she said.
"Yeah."
My trap captures everything
Never the same, always a-changing
Colors and all are mixed
Far too close, I steal your face
"What it means? It doesn't even rhyme." asked Seiya.
"It rhymes in his language, you fool." answered June while thinking.
Captain Kaire seemed absorbed in front of that door, looking at every detail, every character, every memory that made him feel. He touched his injured left eye and it immediately throbbed, as if his memories brought back the pain he felt, not only in his eye but also in his heart.
"This is where I lost Mia." said Captain Kaire to his crew. "It was behind that door that I became the Silver Saint of Cetus."
June remembered the story of the Captain in front of the big tree and mourned for him inwardly, while the others looked a little lost in that sudden sadness.
"Do you know what the riddle means, Captain?"
"The Mirror."
The one who guessed was Geist at his side, and Captain Kaire spoke in his soft voice outside the door.
"Te whakaata."
Everyone heard clearly as the door was unlocked, leaving a crack open through which a low light showed through; it was the Iris Shell, Captain Kaire imagined, reliving those hard moments back then. He took a deep breath and took a step forward to open the door when Geist caught his eye.
"Wait, Captain."
He paused for a moment, glancing at the door, as if awakened from a journey, and looked at his first-mate.
"It's a trap." she said. "A trap that captures everything. This is not the way."
The Captain looked back at the door and then at Geist and noticed, with surprise, that he had never noticed how the path had closed behind them to that wet, pulsing rock wall.
"The answer is the mirror. That's not the way."
She turned to that strange, pulsing, slimy wall and placed her hand between the fibers of what looked like a sodden tree; and, indeed, found the metallic touch of a doorknob. The roots of that strange pulsing matrix finally parted, revealing a perfect replica of that same door that had opened behind them, with the same inscription above the portico, but with its characters all reversed. Mirrored.
Captain Kaire looked out of breath as he joined his second-in-command, and with her eyes, she seemed to understand that he was grateful, but at the same time June knew that Meko Kaire was in some pain. What if he had hit the right door all those years ago?
Well this time he got it right.
The door opened onto a huge lighted space where water dripped from the walls and a small dark river flowed from a dammed wall where a shell the size of Meko's splayed hand glowed in a thousand different colors. It was the Iris Shell. It was the Relic of the Sea they needed to seal.
But they weren't the only ones there, for Ikatere's deep, syncopated laugh also sounded in that hall, and his floating body with its dark tentacles reappeared between them and that Relic.
"Congratulations, travelers, you have passed all the Trials of Tangaroa and reached the deep heart of the seas."
There was terrible sarcasm in his voice and in his sneer as he turned his attention to Meko.
"You didn't lose anyone this time."
The Captain gritted his teeth, wanting to rip off all those tentacles, but he tried to keep himself there.
"Get out of the way, Ikatere." he ordered.
But he didn't leave. On the contrary, everyone saw with amazement an incredible spectacle, which was the different types of shells that descended from the ceiling and covered his body as if he were wearing a wonderful iridescent armor. He was ready for battle, and behind Captain Meko, everyone else ready to fight too.
"Wait." said the Captain.
And staring deep into Ikatere's topaz eyes, Meko announced to everyone.
"I will fight him." his voice was hard, his cosmos of Silver. "Seal the Relic."
Ikatere smiled and Meko jumped to hit him with his fist, but the incredible son of Tangaroa seemed to be able to swim with his tentacles through the air, as if the air was the bottom of the ocean he commanded. Captain Kaire appeared next to the Iris Shell and immediately jumped up again to hit him, coming face-to-face with his beloved Mia's tormentor.
"Go at once, seal the Relic!" ordered Meko Kaire.
Geist and Seiya finally left the entrance to cross the hall with the Seal of Athena, while June took care of Lunara. Geist, however, was hurled into the wall by one of Ikatere's tentacles, and a second knocked Seiya away as well. Meko went to the ground, hit by the brute force of that monster, which forced its water blade to pierce his neck, while he tried with all his strength to hold his fist.
"Pegasus Meteors Attack!"
Standing again, Seiya wouldn't let his Captain fall, and his meteors at least pushed that creature away from Meko, while Geist lifted him off the ground so he could stand up.
"We're going to have to beat him first if we're going to seal this Relic, Captain."
"Damn it." stammered Meko.
The tentacles again attacked the three, but they dodged as best they could; Seiya jumped towards the creature and hit it with his Meteors, but was hit by other tentacles. Ikatere found himself being attacked, however, by a huge cyclops, which surprised Tangaroa's son for a brief second until he realized that it was an illusion; too late, he had his shell breastplate destroyed by Meko's fist, hurling him against the pulsating wall of that huge hall.
Together they might have a chance.
But Ikatere rose even more furiously, his tentacles now seemed to release fumes of hatred, which were actually his golden cosmos manifesting through the pores of all his tentacles, his crimson eyes and what was left of his shining armor.
As he opened his arms in fury, he manifested such a strong impulse that he threw everyone, even June and Lunara, who were in the back, against the walls of the hall. Ikatere's strength was truly amazing, but Meko Kaire was determined to keep fighting for his crew and for Mia; he wanted to avenge her, wanted to hit Ikatere and make him feel the pain he felt.
But before he even got to his feet, he saw someone else standing.
Pegasus Seiya.
Seiya shone his Cosmo enormously in that place, his Pegasus Cloth illuminated by his bright cosmos, his eyes closed, his senses heightened, as if he were part of that entire ocean. It was the Seventh Sense that Seiya manifested so enormously.
"Seal the Relic and I'll finish off this monster." Seiya said, and Meko Kaire had never felt such a bright cosmos in all his life.
He rose to his feet and sought Geist with his gaze.
Seiya ran towards Ikatere and shouted for all the Seven Seas that certainly that night heard his voice.
"Pegasus Comet Fist!"
A ray of golden light invaded the hall and the comet illuminated everyone crashing into the powerful arms of Ikatere, who was dragged back, his right arm protection destroyed, his flying hair burning with Seiya's cosmos; but he eventually reduced the Pegasus Comet with his bare hands, bursting Seiya's technique, causing a burst of light at the scene. But when Ikatere opened his eyes again, he saw before him the Marvelous Silver Cosmos of Meko Kaire.
He took Ikatere in his own strong arms and made his Silver Cosmo shine as bright as Seiya's.
"Seal the Relic!" he shouted.
Geist ran across the hall with the Seal of Athena.
Ikatere's tentacles left her alone, as they were all around Meko, on his legs, on his neck, on his torso, all to try to beat him in that duel of forces. The two face to face. Eye to eye.
"I will avenge Mia's death."
"You will join her, Meko Kaire."
But Meko had the Goddess Athena by his side.
Ikatere saw that Meko's Cosmos glowed gold, a bell rang on the horizon and the impossible seemed to happen: his oceanic strength was slowly succumbing to Meko's Seventh Sense, whose eyes shone gold in front of him.
"It's your end, Ikatere. Cetus Explosive Force!"
Embracing the monster, Meko's Cosmo exploded, obliterating those tentacles and decimating the presence of Ikatere, whose guttural roar still sounded across the oceans trying everything to stay alive.
The glow hid them all under the light of Meko's cosmos, and when Geist saw herself again she was standing before the Iris Shell. She removed the Seal of Athena and stuck it to the Relic, causing the entire hall to stop pulsing and a low noise to silence.
"Very well, first-mate!"
Meko Kaire was on the floor, panting, but Geist noticed that the Relic of the Sea detached itself from that silenced wall and floated above their heads to the ceiling of that hall. Seiya went to Captain Kaire to lift him up, as he was having a hard time getting to his feet, but they were all surprised by a tidal wave.
The entire hall was shaking.
Where the Iris Shell was previously inscribed, the wall seemed to gradually give way, letting strong flows of water leak out, as if behind that wall there was an entire dammed ocean. There was no time to do anything. The wall exploded and they were all swept out of the hall by a violent, deep current, drowning them all immediately and carrying them away from Tangaroa.
The sound of ocean waves on the beach.
Seiya opened his eyes slowly and the first thing he saw was the corona of the sun disappearing in the horizon of the sea, a day far too long that was setting. He had sand in his hair and on his hands. He looked around and saw that he was lying on the beach, his Pegasus Cloth on his body, the taste of salt in his mouth.
In front of him was Captain Kaire standing, looking at the sun that was dying on the horizon. Already without his Cloth, scattered on the sand. With his mission accomplished and the Sea Relic sealed.
Seiya got up little by little and realized that, in the vegetation that rose after the strip of sand, the crew of the Galleon and even the inhabitants of that festive village were there to receive the victorious warriors.
A smile crossed Meko Kaire's face.
"Seiya." he began. "What an immense privilege it was to see how brilliant your Cosmo was by my side."
"Captain?" he asked, getting to his feet.
"I'm absolutely sure you'll find your sister again. Sooner than you think. I'm sure of it. You are capable of performing miracles and Athena trusts you."
Seiya didn't seem to understand, but Geist at his side noticed the mortal wound that Meko Kaire had in his abdomen, pierced from one side of his torso to the other; probably one last terrible attack from Ikatere before disappearing. She, who was so restrained, punched the sand where she was, for she knew there was no going back.
"Geist, my first-mate." he began, before correcting himself. "No. Captain Geist. The Ship of Argo returns to its rightful owner. It is your Constellation and you will carry it forward on your mission."
"Is that it then?" complained June, with tears in her eyes, which was her way of showing her immense sadness. "Are you really going to die? Will I really fail in my mission?"
She had a huge pain in her chest and Meko recognized her way of feeling sad, letting a smile escape his face.
"What a privilege it was to serve by your side, Chameleon June. For you have failed in absolutely nothing: I am exactly where I should be. And where I want to be."
Lunara was very young, but she had also seen much suffering and death; her little eyes were sad and she ran to Meko, trying to hold his hand, so that he wouldn't leave, but realized that she couldn't touch him, because Meko's right hand was translucent, as if it was slowly melting into light.
"Captain." she whimpered in front of him.
Meko Kaire knelt down and, with his left hand, wiped Lunara's tears and hugged her again, one last time.
"Little Luna." he said harshly to her. "The family is in those who are always by our side and live our dreams with us."
She burst into tears and grabbed the Captain.
He stroked her hair one last time, but then it was time to leave. Meko Kaire broke the hug and looked at the little girl with a smile on her face. He got up at last; Seiya hugged the little one and Captain Kaire saw around him the sad face of Geist, his right hand, of June, who tested him so much, and of the young Seiya and Lunara, so young, so huge.
He smiled at them and then took his steps towards the sea.
The voices of the inhabitants of that island rose in a mournful and beautiful chant when Meko Kaire little by little entered the ocean. And with each step he took, the water receded and parted for the Captain to return to his place.
The sea water receded in such a way to make way for Meko Kaire that came to accumulate in a wave that reached the height of his own eyes. And with the ocean water he adored so much before him, he stopped, as it slowly and magically took the form of a beautiful woman whose silhouette Meko Kaire would recognize anywhere in the universe.
"Mia... Goddess Tāne." he cried. "I'm back."
"Forever Mia, my Meko Kaire."
The woman revealed arms in that silhouette, which enveloped Meko Kaire, covering him with the crystal clear water of that ocean until she broke completely in the air in a show of lights, making both the woman and Meko Kaire's body disappear. And at the same instant of that spectacle of light, a pulse of wind seemed to blow the trees away from the island at once; all the villagers, while singing low, raised their hands to greet Meko Kaire to the sea.
A glow of light shot out from under the crystalline waters at enormous speed until it disappeared over the horizon, where a beautiful whale with golden details on its body leapt into the ocean, singing one last time before disappearing into the sea.
Old lady Te-Maia, in her shrine at the top of the hill, had tears in her eyes and black ink on her fingers.
"For Tāne. And for Athena."
She drew on a wicker curtain the story of her grandson Meko Kaire, the brave Captain of Athena and valiant Silver Saint of Cetus. That he would now rest in peace next to the one he loved the most.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: The farewell of the best captain there is. =) The death of a dear characters is a hallmark of Saint Seiya, so I always keep thinking that from time to time, someone needs to die, because the world of Saint Seiya is really cruel and the characters don't come back. And as soon as the story of sailing the 7 seas and Moses returned to his home island, it gave me the perfect chance to create a really cool character and give him an exciting passage.
NEXT CHAPTER: BOARD MEETINGS
At the Sanctuary, Saori is torn between her divine roles and her past mistakes at the Graad Foundation, while the Bronze Saints face their training.