1st Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Video

[uccellodifuoco]

[When he wakes up, he still believes he's in Nautilus. The last he remembers is going to sleep with Leanne like usual, did something happen? Another storm? Something worse? He can't remember anything else but there must have been something since not only he wakes up in a place he doesn't recognize but he is also wearing his armour.

It's not until he finds the hologram that he understands what has happened, and those sensible to Cosmo, ki or similar energies will most likely feel a huge burst of energy as Ikki's Cosmo rages. To his credit he doesn't damage anything in the area. But it takes everything he has to not do so. Kidnapped again, this time more blatantly and without made up excuses about there having been a call. It was bad the first time, but this time is even worse. Apparently he's not allowed to continue fighting to save Athena and Seiya, nor he's allowed to have a family and a "normal" life.

He makes his way out, with his Phoenix Cloth on and carrying its Pandora box on his back. He doesn't bother to try to use his Cosmo to reach anyone for he doubts that whoever is responsible of this would be so kind as to let him reunite with anyone he knows and cares about. It's not until he reaches the beach that a thought occurs to him which leads him to strip down his armour and shirt, so he can check his right shoulder and confirm that the tattoo that Ace made for him is still there. A red spade (from the cards) surrounded by two flaming wings, one blue, the other orange, and with what seems like a white crescent moon crossing over it, the only thing he has, aside from his memories, to remember his time in Nautilus. It brings some relief to his heart, but it does nothing to calm his temper, so he goes on to strech his joints and muscles, giving anyone watching the video a nice show without realizing it. It's not the coliseum he's used to, but the beach seems like a good enough place to do some improvised training.

It should help to release his anger.]

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[fierybluebird]

[DROPS OUT OF THE MOTHERFUCKING SKY IN A GIANT TACKLE GLOMP AND CHIRPS AT HIM RAPIDLY IN PHOENIX AND HUGS THE STUFFING OUT OF HIM AND NOOGIES AND LAUGHS AND CLINGS ON!]

Fuck Ikki! YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!!! [LAUGHS AND HUGS HE IS SO HAPPY THOUGH!] Every time! AHHH!!! [PICKS HIM UP IN A HUG ANYWAY.]

Wait. Your tattoo's different. But you gotta remember something, aye? You remember me, yoi? [Points to the pineapple face.]

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[uccellodifuoco]

[WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK- The ONE time he doesn't actually expect an enemy to jump on him right after waking up in a strange place and, of course, it's the time someone jumps on him. That said, while he's caught by surprise, Ikki's not someone slow on reflexes, so he quickly wrestles back against the other, even when he realizes that the other isn't really attacking him but more like hugging and clinging.

For a man like Ikki that's still pretty much the same to an attack.]

What the hell!?! Put me down!!

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[uccellodifuoco]

[All the fighting against being picked up. Until the other talks about his tattoo and finally, finally Ikki pauses to look at the other, realizing belately that the other had been... Chirping in phoenix? It only really takes that and a glance at the man's chest to have Ikki's eyes widening in realization.]

... Marco the Phoenix?

[Ace's older brother. Ace's oldest brother. But wait, how does he know him? Ikki's sure he has never met the man in person, despite wanting to.]

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[fierybluebird]

[OH NO HE DOESN'T REMEMBER--]

[But he knows him.]

[............]

[Marco put him down and then just headtilts.]

Aye.

What do you remember, yoi? [In phoenix, of course.]

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[uccellodifuoco]

[Ikki's frown is just one of pure confusion, he doesn't get it. He doesn't get why this man is here, nor why he knows him. Has he actually forgotten something? Did he arrive here before and forgot that? But it doesn't feel like his memories have been tampered with... At least, not recently. After Shaka and Pandora later on undid their own seals, Ikki had come to realize there were some similarities on how memories felt when there was a seal around them. But he couldn't feel anything like that now.

And even then... Why is this man here? Ikki woke up minutes ago and suddenly Marco is here, glomping him and asking him what he remembers. What he remembers? Ikki replies in phoenix unconsciously, mostly because that's how the other spoke first.]

I remember being in Nautilus with my wife and my brothers. And without you there, I had been talking with Ace about you and Thatch and your other brothers and your father before going to bed and-

[And he had gone to bed thinking how much he wished he could meet them all. Or at least Marco, because he was a phoenix as well and the idea just... Tugged at his soul more than he would want to admit. He had gone to sleep thinking that... In a world where will made things real.]

No...

Is that why I'm here?! I wanted to meet you, I tried to will it and Nautilus sent me here?! That's not what I wanted, you should have gone there with Ace!

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[pegasus_soldier]

[Meanwhile, somewhere deep in a forest, Dohko gave Seiya an assignment for his training. While his stay in Genessia has been a shy few days ago, up to his knowledge, it's only him and Dohko as genuine saints as they can sense each other's Cosmos even from miles away.

Of course, he was grumbling because Dohko gave Seiya an assignment, which is the same training he gave Shiryu. And that's using own one's cosmos and energy to reverse a waterfall. The point of the assignment? To give Seiya an enthusiastic exercise to get strong again. Still, punching water doesn't get much of anywhere. But he's still trying. Being the Pegasus, he doesn't give up. It was then he picked up a familiar cosmos, an energy that suddenly released. In contrast, thanks to Dohko's exercises, Seiya's cosmos is calmer and even out.

So watching the video, Ikki's smartphone gave off an alert.]

Hello? Ikki? Is that you?

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[uccellodifuoco]

[The smartphone... He had forgot about it for a moment, but it seems that those things work like the communicators in Nautilus. With the same tendency to record and send messages without the user's complete knowledge.

He answers while wondering what has been sent and who would send a message. The familiar face that greets him is the last one he expected to see and Ikki pales at it. Seiya, looking fine and healthy... Maybe not as fine and healthy as he used to be but... Definitively better than the last time he saw him, sitting in that wheelchair, unresponsive to the world and with his Cosmo slowly dying.]

Seiya...

[He's here as well? For a moment he wonders if, somehow, that's the answer. That Seiya's soul, consciousness, is in some other world, in this world, and that's why he's unresponsible back home. But that's not how those worlds work, Ikki knows that much. And so the next moment he... Panics a little, because it has been years for him since he saw his half-brother and talked to him, and even then he never did it outside of their roles as Saints.]

... What is the last thing you remember?

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[pegasus_soldier]

[His body is weakened, but not his soul. The pegasus soul within him, recognizable for never giving up and for its light. While he should be in the wheelchair due to his weakened state, with exercise and training, both his body and cosmos stayed connected, and it should help with his recovery.

Seiya is perplexed at his reaction, not knowing the complexity of his journey through other worlds. His emotions is that he's happy to see him, as it felt like it has been a long time since he last seen his half-brother, the same guy he fought with side by side, and the same childhood sibling and best friend from the same orphanage.]

You mean before I arrived here? Having faced and fought Hades...and Athena promised me to take me home.

[Seiya left out the details of the battles that is still fresh on his mind as if it happened yesterday, not wanting him to worry. The war is over.]

Did you just arrive?

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[uccellodifuoco]

[There's a sarcastic hurt sound that surprises Ikki himself, half a laugh, half a growl. Because it all just feels like a terrible joke.]

Of course that's the last you would remember...

[It would be too much to ask for Seiya to be from the future somehow, from a time where the fight is over and they are back in their right time and Seiya's recovering. Something that would indicate Ikki that there was hope in the crazy gamble that they were making. That would give Ikki some peace for his soul... And the multiverses don't want that.]

Yeah, I woke up in those pods not long ago. Already watched the hologram explanation and everything.

[After spending two years in another world, that is. But right now he's not sure if he should tell, or if he wants to tell. Hell, part of him isn't sure if Seiya's really there or if his mind is just playing a trick on him. He expands his Cosmo, reaching for Seiya's just to be sure, before actually daring to search for any other familiar energy.]

Are you the only one here? I don't suppose Shun and the others would be here, right? That would be too kind for those places.

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[goldtiger]

Phoenix. You need to calm your anger down.

[The words were said very much in a master's tone of voice. As soon as he felt the anger in the Cosmo and just who the Cosmo belonged to, Dohko hurried to the beach. Gold Libra Cloth shining in the sun as the old Saint reveals himself.]

This place is not meant for the Phoenix's fire.

[Besides the one who sparkles.... A lot. What is up with those sparkles anyways?]

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[uccellodifuoco]

[The voice makes him pause for a moment, he turns his head to look at whoever the other is, the Cosmo is familiar but still, he needs to see to confirm it. A Gold Saint. Is this a joke? Punishment for wanting to bend the multiverse and pull the Gold Saints to Nautilus? Instead he ended pulling Libra and himself somewhere else.

Ikki clenches his teeth before he goes back to stretching as if the other hadn't said anything. As if he wasn't there.]

Then whoever was responsible for bringing me here should have thought twice before doing so.

[Except that it's not possible because Ikki's starting to think that it was his own fault after all. And that makes his anger grow even more, because he had been an idiot who dared to ask for more than he was allowed to have.]

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[goldtiger]

[Dohko goes to slowly walk towards the other, keeping tabs on his Cosmo. He never really dealt with Ikki before, it was still surprising to see a Phoenix Saint.]

I was also pulled here against my will. It will do you no good to allow your anger to consume you.

[He finally stops when he was within arm's length.]

Whatever is going through you, it's not your fault.

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[uccellodifuoco]

[Dohko's words do nothing to calm the phoenix, instead Ikki's Cosmo flares even more, raging and for an instant it seems to do it even against Ikki's own wishes.]

Anger is what feeds the phoenix, Roshi. I wouldn't have been able to reunite with what I missed without it.

[He wouldn't have been able to claim the cloth if not for his anger and guilt for Esmeralda's death and for what their father had done to them, the lies and the pain.]

And don't say that something isn't my fault when you don't even know what you're talking about.

[Video]

[myfayevalentine]

*Isn't this a nice bit of deja vu for Faye? She grins with her chin propped on her hand as she watches*

Well, look at this - another man in a costume giving a free show.

*Because it wasn't that long ago that she watched Dohko do the same thing*

[Video]

[uccellodifuoco]

[He couldn't care less about "giving a show", as far as he's aware there's nothing in him to do that. He's just shirtless, that all.]

Another man in a costume?

[It's not a costume but that she would refer to it that way...]

Did the "costume" look like mine? Like an armour? Did the man have a dragon on his back?

[Wait, Shiryu's dragon only appeared when he flared his Cosmo so it shouldn't have shown unless he was fighting.]

Did he have long black hair?

[Video]

[myfayevalentine]

Yeah. It was like yours, but all shiny and gold.

*Faye shakes her head at his question, an amused smile on her lips*

This guy was a tiger...

[Video]

[uccellodifuoco]

[Well, the shiny and gold is enough for Ikki to know who she means.]

So Libra Dohko is here... He's the only guy I know who would have a tendency of stripping, because I'm sure that's where Shiryu got it from.

[A pause.]

Do you know how long ago that was?

[Video]

[mother_of_monsters]

[Well, that's quite the unexpected show.]

Nice abs.

[Video]

[uccellodifuoco]

Huh? Thanks?

[That makes him look at them, they are just normal abdominals, aren't they?]

[Video]

[mother_of_monsters]

You are welcome.

[Dray moves his ears up and down, then smiles.]

New here, I take it?

[Video]

[uccellodifuoco]

Pretty much, though it's not the first time I'm thrown into a world that likes to bring people from other places.

At least in this one it doesn't seem anyone is trying to hide the fact that we were kidnapped.

[It's a small welcomed change.]

[Action]

[om_nom_namur]

Dude, the beach ain't a good sparrin' partner.

[Looks like all kinds of folk are showing up near the Bay today.]

I'll hit y' a lot harder, if y' ain't too big a guppyshit t' spar with a fishman.

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

[Ikki turns to look at Namur, raising an eyebrow. He didn't expect an offer but... Yes, why not? He could use a good fight, though he would have prefered Ace or Zoro, mostly because he knows their strength and, most importantly, that they could take his hits. Then again... Fishman, he remembers Ace mentioning them, like his brother Namur, and saying that they were very strong.

It should be fine, right?]

Why would it be a problem to spar with a fishman? Is it a fight to death?

[Action]

[om_nom_namur]

Sheheh! Mean, it could be, but 's hard as hell makin' friends with folk if y' keep killin' 'em soon as y' meet 'em.

[Namur squares off and puts his fists up in guard position. It's a good starting stance, but also serves to show off the Spade Pirates tattoo on the back of his hand. Look familiar, Ikki?]

[Action]

[uccellodifuoco]

Fair enough. Dying right after arriving isn't among my plans either.

[Ikki gets in fighting position, his eyes clearly falling on the Spade Pirates tattoo. So definitively from Ace's same world, unless it's just all a huge coincidence.]

Nice tattoo. Seems to be from a crew with a good captain.

[That's all he says before he actually throws the first punch. He's curious about the other, sure, but he also has some anger to release, may as well do both things at the same time.]