Chapter 5 – Cloth!!!
Jayr POV - Greece, Sanctuary - 1982
Right now, I'm in the middle of a crowd of Sanctuary soldiers, guards, and trainee Saints, in the stands of the Colosseum, which is located very near to the foot of the Gold Zodiac and is used mainly to hold fights between the trainees to decide the wearers of certain Cloths, as a place for practice and also a place for a specific ceremony, the bestowing of the Saint title from the Pope, practically becoming an official Saint in service of Athena.
And right now on the podium, there are three people, one of them is wearing a long white tunic, a medallion on his neck, and is donning a silver mask and a gold helmet, he is Saga, still disguised as the Pope Shion.
(Image Here - Pope)
The other two are kneeling in front of him and are very familiar to me one is an athletic woman with light green hair, donning a mask and her attire consists of a brown leotard, a grey leotard on her right arm, green leggings, pink leg warmers, and yellow high heels, she is, of course, my sister Shaina, and behind her, there is a silver box with the image of Ophiuchus engraved on it.
(Image Here - Shaina/Box)
The other one is another athletic woman, but this one had light marron, almost red, hair, she too has a mask and her attire consists of a black leotard, black fingerless gloves, red tights, white leg warmers, and black shoes, she is Marin, and behind her, there is a silver box with the image of an Eagle engraved on it.
(Image Here - Marin/Box)
Those boxes are called the Pandora Box and contain and lightly repair the Cloth of the Saints, they are called so because they are often said to hold the hope for all the human race, but also because one could make much damage with the power that it contains.
Then I hear the fake Pope's voice "We are all here today to welcome 2 new Saints among our ranks, and not any Saints but 2 strong and talented Silver Saints, Athena acknowledge your title as a Saint, the Cloth next to you are the best proof, now rise, I present you the Silver Saints Ophiuchus Shaina, and Aquila Marin" and deafening applause and cheering came from the stands, as everyone shouts their names.
'I have to admit that sister and Marin are popular...and they didn't even see their faces... But now that I look around I do not see Seiya and Cassios anywhere...they are now the official disciples of respectively Marin and my sister, in fact they became so after a year of my guidance, as soon after I stopped going to the trainee area and started training alone, and the same happened to Shaina and Marin, as we grew too strong, but the Sanctuary assigned us some trainee as disciples instead...and mine is Geist my little sister, that already reached the full mastery of the Bronze Saint level'
After the ceremony I wait for the fake Pope to go away and then move closer to the duo and say "Shaina, Marin congratulation, now you are full-fledged Saints, did you already try the Cloth?" and Marin replies "No, you know the law, a Saint is not authorized to wield the Cloth to settle personal scores, and may only do so in the name of justice or Athena, but I did put it on when it chose me the first time... it felt amazing".
And Shaina says "Of course, I tried, and it feels incredible, I felt invincible with it, of course, you have to burn your Cosmo, because like they told us many years ago, without it becomes so heavy that you can barely move" then I ask "By the way were are Cassios, Seiya, and Geist? I do not see them here" and Marin once again "Seiya yesterday felt and burned his Cosmo enough to create a 3m crater, so I let him rest a little more today as a reward..." and Shaina "And Geist went to the Plaka Village near the Sanctuary to relax while those three trainees follow her like a queen... Really sometimes she is so vain... Meanwhile, Cassios is doing the cliff climbing exercise, with his legs and arm tied to boulders."
Then I ask "And how is he doing in the Cosmo training..." and Shaina ruthlessly "He sucks, he trusts too much on pure physical might, at this rate he'll never become a Saint... By the way how were you able to teach Geist so fast?" hearing this made also Marin curious and I reply with a wicked grin "Pretty simple, I just cut off her sense of sight, then I throw rocks at her so that her sixth sense increase, and help her feel her Cosmo better..." and Marin "Wait you just said that you blinded your sister?"
And I reply "Just temporary but yes I blind her... A blindfold is good too, but knowing her she could just cheat her way out..." and Shaina "Yeah for sure, and luckily you are the best healer in the Sanctuary, I really lost the count of how many came home to express their thanks".
After chatting with them some more, I went to the Asclepieion(Hospital) and waited for more patients to come while thinking about my improvement in these 2 years 'This year I got more control over my seventh sense, of course, I didn't show my true strength to anyone, not even Shaina, Geist or Aldebaran, everybody thinks that my level is at the peak Silver Saint, after all with psycho Saga as a Pope, I can't stand out too much unless I want to be brainwashed or sent to another dimension... He was titled the strongest Gold Saint for nothing... Even if now there is Shaka who just got the title of the "Closest Man to God"!'.
'... Shit, this Universe is weird, it is all Masami Kurumada's editor's fault... The mangaka just wanted to draw a wrestling manga, but the editor said no, and now my world is the result... I, at 11 years old, reached a level of power where I can literally destroy the moon and resist a nuke, on the prerequisite that I have a Cloth to protect my not so fragile human body'.
Then a man's voice called to me "Excuse me are you the healer Jayr, we need your help" I turn and see who was calling me, it is a pair of a young man and a girl, the man is tall around 24 years old long blond hair, blue eyes and round eyebrows and all-white training gear without any protection, he is in good health, no ailments, the girl seems about my age, but with the mask on I could be wrong, long silver hair and a simple green training outfit, she was clutching her right arm, 'The arm is probably broken, and she also has few scrapes here and there, but nothing serious, and from the way she stands her ankle is sprained, she probable cause, she fell from a high place, and was distracted enough to not balance herself in time.'
(Image Here - Nicole, Yulij)
I turn to the man and say "Yes I'm Jayr, please come in, but can you support the girl if she walks anymore the sprain will worsen" then the man turns to the girl and after sighing says "You have a problem with your ankle, why didn't you tell me anything..." and the girl in a low voice "...I'm sorry Master".
After that the man helped the girl move and then she sat on the bed, where I started checking on her 'Uhm...nothing new on a closer inspection, the break is clean and injuries aside she is healthy and her Cosmo is powerful, at least in Bronze class, so I can use that technique', then I say to the patient and her master "She just has a few scapes and a broken arm and a sprained ankle...but as she has awakened her Cosmo if I have your consent I can send my Cosmo inside her body and guide her own Cosmo to heal it, not only she will be healed by tomorrow morning, but the bone will be stronger as well, for the ankle with the same method it will take a half-hour to heal, but do not strain it today, as for the scrapes, I will use a more traditional method of disinfecting, then using an ointment to make it heal faster and repair the skin... But you have to be more careful when you are in a high place, this time you were lucky".
And the girl "How did you know that I fell?" and I "It was your injuries that told me that" then once again I turn to the Master that was still looking at me as if he is studying my every move then he says "Okay do it but when you inject your Cosmo I want to check" and I with a nod and a calm smile reply "No problem, you can stay here behind me".
I start with the scrapes as they are the easiest and fastest to heal, and after a few minutes with some disinfecting and some ointment that has Chinese origin, it is done and after bandaging I ask "Can I touch your hand?" but the girl just nods, so I take her hand and carefully send my Cosmo inside to guide her own Cosmo to heal her injuries, under the Hawk eyes of her master and after 2 hours I'm done, I bandage her arm an ankle as a precaution then I turn to her master once again and says "It is done, the arm will be fully healed tomorrow, while the ankle is healed, but do not do any exercise today, okay?".
Then the master says "Yes I will make sure she rest, by the way, I still didn't introduce myself, I'm Altar Nicole, and she is my disciple Yulij, nice to meet you" and I reply "As you know I'm Jayr, likewise" then after some more small talk they went away.
'Altar Nicole and Yulij, these names are unfamiliar... Wait Altar Silver Saint... He is the fucking next Pope after Saga... From what I read, the Altar Silver Saint is always the one chosen as the substitute of the Pope in case of his early demise... The hell, why they didn't show in the anime!? Oh, wait... Athena is alive in this era, she is the real head of the Sanctuary, the Pope isn't so important in this period... It only has the duty of taking care of the paperwork, and acting almost as Athena's secretary...'
After that meeting, the rest of the day was normal with some injured guards and soldiers all thanks to Docrates' training 'Last year I was really tempted to chemically castrate Docrates when we met at the spar between trainee and soldier... Also made it so that he can only get hard one time a month... In presence of animals only... But while I can consider myself a disciple of Asclepius now, and he came before Hippocrates, in my previous life I did take the Hippocratic Oath, and so while I can hurt, or thanks to grandpa even kill someone, abusing my healing art... I just can't do it... But I feel that I can refuse to help some real piece of shit like him... If he didn't really need it... Well, I'll heal him but make it painful...' then I let out a sigh and say "Haa, I thought I left that part behind me, but it is really ingrained in my soul...".
Then moving throught the montainuous pass, I reached the training zone and waited for Geist to come, and after she came I started the usual training of sense deprivation + fighting, 'Losing one of your senses does impact you and makes fighting harder, the order of difficulty is, from easiest to hardest, taste, you just do not feel any taste in your mouth, is disconcerting but not cripling, smell, not smelling anything is the same as taste, it bothers you but nothing more, hearing, first you can't hear anything so you have to use your sight and touch to the fullest and second your balance become really messed up, second hardest is sight, you do not see anything, so you have to use smell, hearing and touch to feel anything, but the top spot goes to touch, you literally can't stand or move correctly, losing your sense of touch is a living hell, you do not feel anything, feeling texture, temperature, pressure, pain or vibration nothing at some point you if you close your eyes you do not even know if you are standing, sitting or fell face first'.
After the training, I and Geist went back home to have dinner together with Shaina and after dinner a little workout in the form of sparring, then we all go to bed.
'Almost three years left and then shit will hit the fan...and badly... Saga's evil side will become even more prominent... Then Saori Kido, aka Athena, will call back all the "orphan" sons of her adopted grandfather, the man that fucked and knocked up more than 90 women in just 3 years at the age of 50 more or less, this is also one of the reasons he died just last year for kidney failure, but I digress... Where was I, ah yes, so she organize a tournament with the Sagittarius Cloth as a prize to gather back all the kids her grandfather sent to train, but the rebellious Ikki crash in with the Black Saints, then Saga hear the news of the Cloth and send the unlucky Silver Saint generation to die in hope of getting the Cloth back and kill Saori, then the battle at the Sanctuary'
'And after this, the things get confusing, after all I do not know if I'm in the manga version or anime version, but by the presence of my sister Geist and of that asshole Docrates, I lean more on the anime even more because it is the version I'm more familiar with... I never read the manga, I only know it exists, but even then I have to worry about Asgard, Poseidon himself, and big bad Hades, the arc with the highest mortality rate... All in one or two years... And after that, I have to survive a whole omniverse of weird shit... What should I do next to ensure my survival?', and while planning my future actions, I went to sleep.
Jayr POV - Greece - 17/12/1983
In the middle of the night, I was woken up by a sensation of something calling for me, like some kind of attraction, that pulls me in a particular direction, communicating with me through the Cosmo 'What is this strange pull could it be that a Cloth is finally calling for me... Well it's either that or some god is pulling a prank, I'm curious about what is my fated Cloth... I'm born under the Sagittarius constellation, but I doubt that the one calling me is the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, as these ones call for you as soon as you reach the Seventh Sense, and that didn't happen when I did it last year, and the rest of this generations Gold Cloth is all taken'.
So excited I get up from the bed and started dressing, then I looked at my image in the mirror and saw a fit youth 1,75m tall, with slightly tan skin, medium-length dark blue messy hair, and green eyes 'Dear Athena, this Universe hair is crazy in both form and colors, I almost look like a Saiyan, if not for the hair color... But at least I'm handsome...'.
(Image Here - Jayr)
After admiring my handsome figu...getting ready, I got out of the house and kept following this feeling that was calling me, and so in the middle of the night, I moved through the various mountain passageways, my destination becoming clearer at any steps I take.
Step by step I'm moving closer to the core of the Sanctuary, the Gold Zodiacs, and this feeling keeps getting stronger, but soon my path is diverging and now I'm moving to the lower parts of the Sanctuary, and now my destination is clear, it is a place adjacent to the Gold Zodiac, the eternal resting place of all the fallen Saints, the Saint Graveyard.
Moving deeper and deeper into the Saint Graveyard I see the multitude of graves, all fallen Saints who fought to protect Athena and the World, from the other Gods who want to dominate, destroy or just have fun with humanity 'Really all the Gods I saw in the anime were pieces of shit... well not all Odin seemed good enough, and Poseidon isn't all that bad... Yes, he wants to purge humanity but only to clean the sins it made, and start anew... Hell, the Judeo-Christian God did almost the same and he is still loved, and almost all religions have a God that tries or did drow everyone to purify the corrupted humanity!'.
Then I finally reached my destination, a grave like the others deep in the Saint Graveyard, near the forbidden zone, a seemingly simple cave the Cursed Area, looking at the cave I remember its story 'From my research in the Library, that place is were the legendary Tartarus Pit is located, a place that leads directly to the Underworld, more specifically to the Eternal Prison, where the most dangerous souls are locked'.
Then I look at the grave where the pulling sensation is the strongest, it is a simple grave like the others, on it, there is only the name of the fallen Saint and his rank 'Hmm... Suikyō Silver Saint... Never heard of him...' and just as I was looking at the grave the pulling sensation grew even stronger, so strong that in fact, I have to burn my Cosmo to stop this force to pull me and make me crash into the grave.
As I keep resisting this force, from the ground near the grave something started to rise, and the next instant uprooting the earth nearby a silver Pandora's Box with a cup engraved on it came out, and the pulling force receded, then the Box opened by itself revealing the Cloth Constellation Form inside, it has the form of an ornate silver footed cup, with light blue borders and some gold decoration.
(Image Here - Cloth)
And as I burn my Cosmo, even more, the Crateris Constellation appears behind the Cloth and a phantom ornate golden cup comes out of the Cloth and moves towards me, then it enters inside my body and at that moment the Cloth disassembles itself and all the pieces became attracted to my body.
The first piece to come are the upper part of the stem that separated and became two legs protectors in the form of greaves that soon got equipped on my legs, then came the lower part of the cup that became the fauld and equipted itself on my waist.
Next came the lower stem and the base that became the arms protector in the form of a gauntlet with some kind of shield in the shape of a pointed weapon and equipped on my arms, and last the upper part of the cup that became my chest protector that covers up to half of my chest, robust shoulder pads and a head protector.
(Image Here - Crateris Jayr)
Once I wore what is now my Cloth, I felt a power and control over my Cosmo never felt before, and more importantly, I feel complete and protected, this is simply incredible 'And this is "only" a Silver Cloth, a mid tier one, it is normal that the Gold Saints are so sure of themselves... Right now I feel like I can do a Tidal Wave Punch with hundred or even thousands of impacts all day and not worry about my arm literally exploding from the overflowing power'.
Then I got even more shocked when this Cloth let me know its special characteristic 'My dear Athena... When water is placed inside this Cloth in its constellation form, looking into the water will reflect your own future, or a future connected to you...and the second one is drinking the water can return one's strength to them, and even heal wounds... This is crazy... Like really crazy... I practically have an excuse for plot knowledge, and even better I can in some way know if I'm in danger, of course, It won't be 100% reliable as the future always change, but some hint is better than being totally blind... And the healing function is good for both training and emergency aid... after all, I can't always pull out of nowhere the healing herb I have grown in my Territory... Now it's time to go back home and sleep'.
After thinking that I willed my Cloth to unequip itself, and once it returned in its Constellation Form, I sealed it once again in the Pandora's Box, and after strapping the box on my shoulders, I went back home to take a well-deserved rest.
Geist POV - Greece - 17/12/1983
This morning is different from the usual, my dear big brother and teacher Jayr didn't gently wake me up today with a kiss on my forehead to start our usual morning workout, but instead, it is my annoying big sister Shaina who knocked on the door of my room and yelled "Wake up Geist! Today is Jayr's birthday, so before he wakes up we have to prepare breakfast and make the traditional "Happy Birthday" wake up".
Hearing that I got up from my bed, and started dressing while thinking 'Right!! Today is Jayr's birthday, he is 12 now, when will he be chosen by a Cloth and officially become a Saint of Athena? Even Shaina and Marin already got their Cloth, while Jayr, who is stronger even without a Cloth, and is named the strongest under the Gold, but more because of the fact that he often trains and is friend with mister Aldebaran, mister Aiolia, and mister Milo, the Gold Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio Saints, he is also respected and loved by the others as he is the best healer in the Sanctuary and is always ready to help, he even takes some time to go to the village and heal who need it without asking anything back'.
Then I make sure that everything is perfect and look at the mirror and I see my reflection, a beautiful 11 years old young girl, with fair skin, long straight dark blue hair, and blue eyes 'Yes, I'm perfect, beautiful and powerful, it is normal that even without seeing my face all the men fight for my attention!' thinking that I remember to pick up my mask, as I do not want to kill some poor soul that for the mistake of seeing my face first thing in the morning... Again, Jayr scolded me for an hour for that incident.
(Image Here - Geist)
After that I went to the kitchen and with Shaina prepared the breakfast, then we went toward Jayr's room and Shaina kicked open the door and then both jumped on his sleeping form, hitting him in the stomach with an elbow drop screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" and of course, the bed was smashed, as we maybe put a little to much force.
Then Jayr let out a grunt of pain and says "Come on girls we are a little too old for this now... couldn't we do it the normal way now!?" and Shaina replies "Nope it's a family tradition..." but I stop listening to them as my gaze is focused on a Silver Box in the corner of Jayr's room, on it is engraved an ornate cup, at that moment I realized what is it and so I scream "UWWWAHHH!! Jayr! From where in the holy Elysion did that Cloth come?!?".
Jayr POV - Greece - 1983
I'm once again in the Colosseum, but this time I'm the one kneeling on the podium, and in front of me there is big bad Saga... but from the feeling I have right now I think Good Saga is in control 'After all his good personality is very loyal to Athena, and he was the candidate for the Pope position, as one of the most powerful, loved and respected Saint, it is just, from what my Cloth showed me, the fault of the Goddess Ker, one of Hades' subordinate, that made it so that he was possessed by an evil spirit as an infant, that birthed his evil personality, and that led to all these events where the evil took control and now we are deep in the shit'.
Then Saga finished his speech and says "Raise now, Silver Saint of Athena, Crateris Jayr!" and as I stood up a torrent of applause came from the stands, with a cursory glance I see my sisters, Marin, Seiya, Cassios, Aiolia, Aldebaran, Milo, Nicole, and Yulij, plus a whole lot of masked females trainees that are yelling and cheering and calling my name 'Well it seem that I'm more popular than I thought...'.
After the ceremony I spent my time talking with my close friends, then I took Geist away to train once again, and as I looked over Geist training while I sat on my Pandora's Box, I'm planning my future steps 'Now that I'm officially a Saint, I have a lot more freedom, so I can make some moves to have a better chance against Saga, Poisedon, Asgard, Hades, and other shitty Evil Gods... First, I should give Jes... Wait let's not call him like that as he is somewhere still alive in this world, anyway I should give Ikki some help... Then go to Andromeda Island, and warn Cepheus Daidalos about the future... After that maybe I should check on Athena... but before all that I have to wait for Geist to receive her Cloth she is aiming for a bronze one hidden in a mountain near the Sanctuary, the test for it is quite brutal, but it seems that she is quite compatible with it'.