Cool, Cold and Frozen

Jayr POV - China, Lushan - 1984

After a long week going all around China, I'm finally back, it was a hard thankless task, but I did it, I brainwashed all the most powerful, rich, and important people of China, plus all the Martial Warriors and Immortals, and their families with only one objective, prevent the rising of others young masters, what I think are the source of all Cultivation Plot, now, no parent will spoil or protect their child when they do something wrong, but will strictly discipline them if they do something wrong, and if they did a major crime, they will call the police themself.

The effect of my cure can already be seen, just today 28 of them were caught by the police for r*pe, 12 for murder, and 69 for other crimes like bribery, blackmail, assault, corruption, domestic violence, drunk driving, fraud, hit and run, kidnapping, perjury, trafficking, and vandalism, in short, I think I did it, I made the China of my world, a young master free nation.

The last week in Lushan, quickly passed between, training, teaching Seika and Shunrei, helping Dohko train Shiryu, and my secret rendezvous with Seika that I enjoyed a little too much as I had to slightly heal her with my Cosmo as she couldn't walk, or even stand afterward.

On the last day, I talked with Seika about our next course of action "Seika, our next destination is in Russia, more precisely Siberia, a very, very cold place, as I don't want to put you under more hardship, what do you say if you remain here with Shunrei, while I go alone, and after I'm done, I will come back here and we will go to Japan together?" but she shakes her head and says "No matter how much difficulties I'll meet, I'll come with you, no matter what... I love seeing all the strange places and meeting all these wonderful people and I also like helping them, I wasn't this happy since the death of my mother, a little discomfort is no problem!".

And so, after a farewell party, I and Seika once again restarted my journey, taking a plane toward Russia our last stop, before Japan, where Athena's reincarnation, Saori Kido, is slowly preparing for the coming fight.

Jayr POV - Russia, Siberia - 1984

A few days after leaving the now young master-free China, an achievement that I will be proud of for the rest of my life, we finally reach the cold, cold lands of Siberia in the evening, a vast region in Russia that occupies the northern part of the Asian continent, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific in the east.

This region is the training ground of the Hyoga and is close to the region of Blue Graad, and as its geographical position suggests, it is a land devoid of any form of vegetation and permanently covered with ice, which reaches remarkable thicknesses, violent snowstorms rage over this region, driven by strong winds, but even if the conditions are harsh, a village manages to survive here, and luckily the locals are pretty nice people, and so we quickly find a simple but warm inn and book a room.

Once inside our room, I look over Seika to check on her and notice that even if she is wearing pretty heavy clothes, she is still shivering from the low temperatures, so I quickly hug her body and burn some Cosmo to warm her and raise the overall temperature of the room, and stop shivering, she quickly says "Thanks for that, Jayr! This cold is really awful, how can someone live and train in a place like this?"

Then looking at me she asks "And how the hell can you stand here dressed like that!?", as I'm still dressed the same as before, with a smile I reply "I trained my body to easily resist these temperatures even without burning my Cosmo, in fact, my body is now even more resilient toward cold after I learned the techniques from the Crateris Cloth, and to answer your question, the Saints and trainees, that train here are those that make full use of Cold and Ice to fight with their opponents, in fact, the training here is quite brutal, so much that at the moment only two trainees reside here".

With her still in my embrace, I move my lips closer to her ear and whisper "But, you know...? There is another way to warm you up..." then I pull her up in a princess carry and moved toward the bed, as she jokingly yells "Kyaaa!", and soon we start our fierce fight, that once again end up with Seika tapping out, after only 2 hours, and once again I spoon her and lull her to sleep.

The next day, we are on the road again, intent on reaching, the real training ground, and as we walk I'm careful in protecting Seika against the cold using my Cosmo, and to distract her, I explain the layout of this area "...It is an area made up of different regions that can be divided into three main ones, the low western Siberian plain, the central Siberian plateau, and eastern Siberia, formed by a complicated orographic system and imposing mountain barriers"

Then pointing at our objective I continue "The icy and inhospitable area over there, is where Hyoga is receiving the training of the Aquarius Saint Camus, it is only a small outer part of the remote eastern Siberia, and is located near the arctic glacial ocean, where the ground is deeply and perpetually frozen, only thawing superficially in summer forming swamps...".

Hearing that Seika asks "Just what kind of training can one do in this place?" and I explain to her "The training of the Saints here, consists basically in exerting themselves to break walls of ice producing an even more intense cold thanks to their Cosmo or even sometimes, according to the variant of the technique, to exert themselves on polar bears which have the misfortune to come to venture too close to them, but also swimming in the freezing water, and attuning themselves to the cold by standing still and let themselves be frozen...".

Once again Seika let out a sigh and says "You Saints are a crazy bunch... More than training, to me it seems, that you all just try to find new ways to kill yourself!" and I say "Come on, It's not so bad! While there are deaths, they are not so many, in fact, most of the trainee gives up and becomes guards or soldiers..." as I'm talking I notice something in the distance, pointing at it I say "...Oh! It seems that we have arrived".

What we see in the distance is a tall man of slim build, his hair is viridian, and his eyes are blue with pink complexion, wearing only a simple green sleeveless shirt and jeans, looking down at the ground, I easily recognize him as Aquarius Camus, and following his gaze I notice that in front of us there is a frozen lake, and through the ice, I see two figures quickly swimming in the freezing water.

(Image Here - Camus)

As we move closer, Camus notices our presence and I say in french "Bonjour, Je me appellee Jayr, et suis un Sainte de Athena...(Good Morning, my name is Jayr, and I am a Saint of Athena...)" but he interrupts me, and in a cold voice he replies in greek "There is no need for pleasantries, speak why are you here... Did the Pope summon me?".

I shake my head and reply "No, but what I'm gonna say has something to do with him..." and then I once again repeat the whole story, about Saga being corrupted by Hades' follower, him trying to kill Athena, the situation of the other Gold Saint, how I warned them about this and our plans, as I was telling my story, Camus' expression didn't change at all 'Just like show in the anime, he likes to keep a constant control on his emotion, and even if he appears a stoic, cold and distant person, that it's not true, as during the story he helped and protected his student many times even at the cost of his own life'.

After I finished my story, and before Camus could say anything, two figures quickly breaks out of the ice and landed in front of Camus with their back turned toward me, one is a young man with a slim build and 1.73 meters tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes and tanned complexion, dressed in a navy blue sleeveless shirt, black pants, yellow leg warmers and matching shoes, he is Hyoga, most used word is Mama, second most used is Master, and the third one is Isaak.

(Image Here - Hyoga)

The other young man has the same age and has a similar attire only the shirt is black, the pants are green, the leg warmers lilac, and the shoes purple, he has green eyes, tousled shoulder-length warm green hair, and long sideburns, he is the other disciple of Camus, his first one in fact Isaak, the one who will become a Marinas of Poisedon if I do not do anything about it, and I will certainly do something if I can, who quickly says "Master, we are done, what's next...?".

(Image Here - Isaak)

But soon both of them notice our presence and Hyoga raises his guard and yells "Who are you!?" while Isaak does the same and prepares to fight, but the only answer they receive is Camus' cold voice "It took you this long to notice that someone else was here... If it was an enemy you would have been already dead... Now, go and reflect on this by standing still in the Ice Cave until your legs are frozen!", and slightly dejected they both say "Yes, Master!".

Once they are gone, Camus turns his attention back to me and in an emotionless voice he says "While I had some suspicions on the Pope for some time, and what you say is logical, can you prove that what you said is the truth? If I'm gonna make a move, I want to be sure of it!" and hearing that I think 'For the love of Athena!... Just how many really suspect Saga or know what he is doing but do not do anything about it! There is Shaka, Mu, Dohko, Camus, Shura, Deathmask, Aphrodite... that is already more than half the Gold Saints... But they took the wait-and-see approach and got surprised with their pants down and a glowing sign on their back that said "Surprise me"!'.

With a sigh, I quickly let down my Pandora Box and open it, showing the Constellation Form of my Cloth, and say "Well, I can show you my Cloth ability to show an instance of a future connected to you, if you have any more doubts about me, you can simply contact Master Dohko through Cosmo, as I already meet him..." then taking out a bottle of frozen water, I lightly burn my Cosmo to melt it and pour the water in the Cloth, and make space for Camus.

Camus moves his gaze to me and the Cloth a few times, then he calmly walks toward it, and once he is near enough, he gazes at the water inside, which quickly begins to show an image, it shows the Image of Camus using his Freezing Coffin on Hyoga in the Temple of Libra, then after looking at the frozen figure of Hyoga, he does a strange series hand gesture and quietly walks away.

I can't help to say as I notice what the gesture means "Did you just talk to yourself through the vision using the sign language?", and with the slight hint of a smile Camus replies "It seems that what your Cloth shows is the most probable shape that the future will take at the moment that one gaze at the water, in fact before looking I decided that I will use what it will show to communicate with myself about something that I'm thinking at this moment...".

And once again, I blurt out "And at this important moment you thought 'I want a chocolate ice cream with lots of creams'!?" and Camus calmly replies "It had to be something completely random so that you couldn't fool me using an illusion or something like that... By the way, it seems that from the vision, in the end, I choose to follow your plan, of using the unrest caused by Saga to train the other Saints in a controlled manner... but one thing baffles me, why is Hyoga the Cygnus Saint? Right now the most talented of the two is without doubt Isaak, Hyoga, while he is a good kid, is too focused on his own desire for strength to recover his mother's corpse, in fact, he doesn't even want to be a Saint, but he's got a firm will and he can become one...".

At that, I do not say anything, and Camus noticing my silence says "So you also know what is going to happen... I really don't know if that Cloth ability is a blessing or a curse" and at that I reply "Of course is a blessing, it is a flashlight that shows you the possibilities and danger in front of you, you just have to be careful to not depend on it, after all, it is like starting reading a book starting from the middle, you can at least understand a little what is going on, but you will miss many details and information told before, making you jump to the wrong conclusion".

'That if you don't already know all the details about past present and future, like me who saw the anime more than a few times', hearing what I said Camus nods, then he says "Very well, I'll take part in this plan of yours to train the new generations of Saints for the coming Holy Wars...", and he turns around and walks in the direction of Hyoga and Isaak.

Then a bold idea came to my mind 'This could end up really well or really bad, but if it goes well, Poseidon will lose one of his future Marinas, but if it goes bad, I'll lose the support of one of the main cast... Hah, screw it! The fortune favors the bold! I have already changed a hell lot of things, in case everything goes to hell and Hades win, I'll just pull all my close one in my Soulbound Territory and escape this Universe with them, then I'll come back and fix everything once I'm stronger!'.

So I quickly follow after Camus and say "Wait! I just had an idea! If this goes well, not only will Hyoga focus more on becoming a Saint, but we could also change Isaak's fate!", hearing that Camus stops in place and turn around, then he calmly looks into my eyes as if searching something, and after a few seconds he says "Go on...".

I think about how to put in words my idea then I say "I'm sure that right now you are still thinking about how to remove Hyoga's attachment to his mother his weakness, after all, you already created whirlpools and typhoons in the ocean where Hyōga's mother lie further sinking the ship into the water, so he can't go down to see his mother anymore, as you think that his emotions and his feelings of love for his mother are clouding his cosmos preventing him to achieve the awakening of the Seventh Sense, a crucial requirement if one wants to have the hope to survive the coming fight... Am I right?".

Camus's eyes widen slightly for a second, but he quickly calms himself and nods "Well your idea could work... If Hyoga's personality was like yours... But his love and attachment to his family and friends are one of his main strengths, and the things that will push him over his limits time and time again, so why not make use of it... we will pull out from the frozen sea the ship, and recover his mother's body, then we will protect it behind a wall of ice that can only be broken only by reaching absolute zero... I think that this will push him in the right direction, after all his mother's body will be in a safe place, that won't endanger his life and the life of his friend, but he will still need a certain level of strength to reach it".

Camus stays in silence thinking about my proposal for a few seconds, then he says "...So that is why Isaak didn't become the Cygnus Saint, something happened to him, while he was helping Hyoga or something like that... Very well, let's do it your way..." but then he raises his Cosmo and as a gold aura surrounds his body, he starts putting pressure on me and say "But if your plan harms my disciples... I'll come after you no matter what...".

I simply smile and raise my Cosmo to match his, and the pale blue aura that envelopes my body turns to gold as for the first time I fully show my control over the 7th Sense and say "You know, you and Milo are really alike... You don't like to show it, but you guys really care about the others... It's not a surprise that you guys are close friends!" and soon we both calm our Cosmo at the same time, as Camus turns around and say "Let's go!".

Hyoga POV - Siberia - 1984

It's been almost 5 years since I came here, to train to become a Saint under that bastard of my father's order, luckily the place I was sent is this, Siberia, the closest training ground to mom resting place, it is almost like fate, that I'm once again here where I forever lost my dearest person.

And luck once again smiles on me, introducing Isaak and Master Camus into my life, Isaak, my best friend, that even if he dislike my motive to become a Saint, he still supported me, unlike me who just need the strength of a Saint to reach mom's tomb, he wants to rid the world of injustice and evil, I'm sure that he would become a wonderful Saint.

At the same time, Master Camus is like the father I never had, while he is cold, stoic, and strict, he always cares for me and Isaak, making sure that we can reach our maximum potential as Saints, but this aspect of his is also what makes me think that he is the one who caused mom's tomb to further sink, now protected by those strong currents, but that didn't change my objective, I just need to get a little stronger in order to safely reach that place, I'm close, I feel it.

All of the sudden, I hear Isaak's voice next to me, who brings me back from my musing "Hey, Hyoga! Who do you think those guys are? From what I saw one of them appears to be a Saint... Why do you think he came all the way here in this remote place", without thinking much I reply "Well, he surely come here for meeting Master, I do not know if it is for summoning him to the Sanctuary or for a personal reason...".

At the same time, I notice that our feet are starting to freeze, and ice is slowly forming up our legs, 'The first time few times this happened, I easily panicked and had to stop, now I find the presence of ice almost comforting...', as we were chatting, we suddenly stop, as we hear the sounds of footsteps coming from the entrance of the Icy Cave, and soon we see our Master together with a young man around our age, calmly walking beside him, with a young woman walking slightly behind them.

The next second something immediately catches my attention, while it is normal for the young man to easily withstand the freezing cold of the Icy Cave, the woman who is wearing very heavy clothes, and is obviously a normal person, such an environment should be lethal, but she is easily standing here, seemingly unaffected by the cold, but my confusion transform into admiration as I notice the young man's Cosmo protecting the woman from all the harm.

Once they stand in front of us, Master Camus starts speaking "Isaak, Hyoga, this is Crateris Jayr, Silver Saint of Athena, he is a guest, and came here to warn me about a coming danger and also helped me find an answer for a problem I was facing... Now, follow me!".

And still confused, we both break out of the ice and follow, Master and the two guests, while walking, I look at the young Saint 'Crateris Jayr, a Silver Saint... The second strongest class of Saint, does he have the kind power I need...?' but my thoughts were once again interrupted by Isaak's voice who asks "Mister Jayr... How many people you saved? And how many evil people did you stop and kill?".

Jayr looks at Isaak for a moment then he says scratching his cheek "Well on saving lives... I kinda lost the count... But on killing evil I can tell you in full confidence that the number is only 1!" hearing that both me and Isaak are stunned, but Jayr ignore it and with a smile continues "You have to know that before being a Saint, I'm a doctor, so if possible, I don't ever want to take the life of another person... I prefer to save it!" then he let out a sigh and say "But I also know that some people are just irremediable or pure evil that will force my hand to put an end on them, this is what my grandfather taught me..." then he starts telling us his experience, and as he talks to us with a sad smile on his face, the woman moves next to him and hold his hand, trying to comfort and support him.

After some time, I notice that we are moving closer and closer to mom's tomb and I start feeling a sinking premonition, that grows stronger as we stop in front of the frozen sea, where the ship in which mom died rest, and I can't help to ask "W... Why are we here, Master...?" and Master Camus without leaving his gaze from the sea says "We are here for you two... I know of your plan of visiting your mother once you think you are strong enough... But thanks to Jayr here I also know the result of your actions... So we came up with another solution..." and then he places his hand on the frozen surface as dread grows in my heart.

Soon a gold aura comes out of Master's body, and I feel his immense Cosmo, at the same time, I notice that in the distance, a huge circle of frozen surface melts, and at the same time with a rumbling sound the water becomes agitated, then after a few minutes, a big old damaged cruise ship that I'll never be able to forget emerges from the water, levitate high in the air and moves closer toward us, as tears unconsciously came out of my eyes, while I Clench my fist so tight that blood starts coming out.

Then as soon as the ship lands near us, I run toward it ignoring, Isaak's shout "Hyoga! Wait!!", with a leap I jump on the deck, and quickly run inside the ship following my memory to find, what once was our room, and now became mom's tomb, and walking through the broken door I find her figure resting on her bed, the cold preserved her body and she is just a beautiful as I remember, with pale skin and long blonde hair and the same light pink dress of that fateful day, my mom Natassia, as I'm looking at her lifeless body, my vision begins to blurry as I kneel next to her.

(Image Here - Natassia)

After a few moments, I hear a set of footsteps, that enters the room, but just as I was about to turn around and thank my Master for what he did, I feel something invisible pulling me toward the broken door, and then before I could understand what is happening I hear Jayr's voice that yells in an almost commanding tone "Quick, Camus! Use your strongest Freezing Coffing on her!", and in despair, I look at Master that even if a little confused, quickly follows Jayr's instruction and raise his right arm then as his Cosmo explodes he once again points at mom's body and sends out a freezing wave that quickly encases her corpse in a giant block of clear ice.