uccellodifuoco | 1st Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

[Ikki is walking through the village with relative calm, he's not pleased and it's obvious in his body language that he's stressed and annoyed. Who wouldn't be, having found himself in an unknown place, a place where he didn't intend to be?

The fact that no matter how much he expanded his Cosmos, he couldn't find his brothers' Cosmos or the Cosmos of anyone he knew didn't help in the situation. Still, he looks quite sure of where he's going, even if he's not, and only the loose-fitting white cotton pants he's wearing point out that he's new in the place.

Those particularly sensible to spiritual energy may notice his strong Cosmos -full of contained anger and hate, directed to no one but obviously there- constantly reaching out and basically checking everyone he can reach. Searching for something, or someone, that would explain him being stuck in that place. Unable to return to where he intended to go or contact his friends, so far he's not having any luck and the idea he's starting to get doesn't please him.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Most anything could be a weapon. She had seen them brandished, hidden, disguised as another common object, and so forth. Even one's words could be a weapon. She had witnessed it herself. The world seemed to turn upside down, inside out, or turn around just with the power of speech.]

Although I'm not familiar with very many weapons in the typical sense, in the end they are only tools. It's how you use those weapons and for what purpose that give them their power.

[There didn't seem too much room or reason to debate justice since it did have several definitions. Justice in the legal sense she came to believe much more in. Then justice in the more spiritual sense, that any one's actions would return to them in some way, positive or negative.]

You've been killed before? [It shouldn't have surprised her. She had also seen the dead come back to "life" through channeling.] You may return and you have thus far, but the experience must still be rather harrowing.

It seems the Cloths are alive, not only as sentient beings, but they seem to possess personalities or feelings, if they are free to judge, accompany, or abandon those who don them. There is something to be said in how it gains strength after its destruction and thus reconstruction. Some would believe that a second or subsequent version would be inferior to the original prototype.

[She did take another look at the headpiece again, knowing that she was holding something that was really alive. She returned it to him so all the pieces would be together, even if he did say the parts could be reunited despite distance.]

[Ikki simply nods, agreeing with her. It's like with the tails of his Cloth, he has often taken the feather parts from them and used them as throwing knives to stop an attack or catch his opponent's attention. But not many ever think of the possibility of using them for that, not even the Black Phoenix Saints despite having had their copies for longer than him.

Then again all the Black Saints ended being just pathetic excuses of wannabe-Saints. If it hadn't been because it served to his plans to be more than one he would have destroyed them as soon as he got his Cloth. At the end they were destroyed all the same, and in the process Seiya and the others become stronger and more united, enough to be able to defeat him. He would deny that the idea made him even a bit proud of them, specially Shun, thought.]

I haven't bothered to keep a count, but I can say you would need more than one hand's fingers to count them. [He shrugs at the next part.] Dying isn't as bad as people think.

[The worst part is the time in between. After his death and before his resurrection, in a space that isn't the death realm, feeling Esmeralda in the distance but unable to reach her. As if trapped in a small room before he gets pulled back to life. The only bitter comfort on it all is that he can always feel Esmeralda pushing him back to life as well, she wants him to life, unfortunately it also means she doesn't want him with her there and given the nature of his Cloth he may never get to be reunited with her.

Ikki's expression betrays none of those thoughts, but an air of distance grows around him at the subject. At least until she switches back to talk about the Cloths.]

I heard that the Cloths become stronger upon being reconstructed because they synchronize better with their current owner. Except for mine every Cloth has had several owners since they were created, at least one per Holy War, which have been repeating each century. When a new Saint is named they receive the Cloth that has fought countless of battles but that doesn't know them. As they fight together, get wounded and survive, they become closer and thus can reach the real potential of strength the Cloth has.

I don't know if it's really that the Cloth has a personality or that it's just the echo of the will of the warriors who donned it in the past. Though seeing mine it would seem the first idea is the correct one.

[He takes the piece and puts it back with the rest of the Cloth.]

1st Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

[Action]

[Action]