When the boy, Hyoga, first set foot on the remote terrain of Siberia on the start of his training to become a bronze saint,
Camus Aquarius welcome his young, new disciple with icy-cold look and the utmost-important question, "What's your purpose of becoming a saint?"
Hyoga replied honestly, "When I am powerful enough, Master, I plan to salvage my mother's body, buried in a drowned ship in the Arctic."
The prince of ice turned and shook his head.
"No, Hyoga," he said. "If you fight for such a reason, you will only end up dooming yourself."
He then pointed at the icebergs, stretching miles and miles on end, and told the boy, "Look, Hyoga. Only when you've become as tough and emotionless as the eternally frozen icebergs of Siberia will you be able to become a true saint and formidable fighter."
Hyoga didn't understand. The memory of his mother was the most priceless matter in the world to him. Even after he did become the
Cygnus Bronze Saint, he still couldn't leave the memory behind. Camus noticed, but kept the matter to himself.
To Hyoga, even as he so highly respected his master and found him a fatherly figure, Camus always appeared as a cold, emotionless person. Little did he know that deep within, his master was a selfless man who always fought for the greater good and would not hesitate to sacrifice at any cost.
His life goal was to train a prodigy that would one day succeed him as the
Aquarius Gold Saint.
It so happened that after
Hyoga Cygnus finished his training and rejoined his band of bronze saints, war broke out between the saints of Athena and the gold saints of the Sanctuary. This would mean that Hyoga and Camus would stand on opposite sides.
Camus knew at that time who was on the right, yet he refused to choose side. His concern was on Hyoga alone.
Nevertheless, as the guardian of the
Aquarius Temple of the Precious Urn, he had to return to Greece and guard his post.
As Hyoga and the other bronze saints arrived at the Sanctuary and fought their way, Camus took his disciple aside to the empty Temple of Libra, and taught him one last lesson.
Hyoga had to understand that to be able to challenge a gold saint in a fair combat, he had to master the "seventh sense," the ability to reach the highest cosmos and utilizing the power of the universe to the zenith. In order to reach this level, Hyoga had to go beyond the physical plane and every single matter that tied him to the present dimension, including the loving memory of his deceased mother. Camus had long seen this as Hyoga's ultimate weakness that hindered him from becoming a true saint.
But still, the boy wouldn't let it go. Even after Camus drowned the ship to the deepest trench of the Arctic, even after he gave Hyoga such blows to wake his seventh sense up, he still wouldn't let go.
"This isn't going to work," Camus thought to himself -- and finally decided to hit his disciple unconcious with the
Aurora Execution, his most powerful attack.
Gazing down at the boy lying on the cold floor, Camus sighed heavily. It was most likely that, if Hyoga couldn't master the seventh sense, he would waste his life in unfair combat.
"It will be better if you die by my hand than another's," Camus whispered. "I will spare you a painful death."
Upon thinking so, Camus locked his disciple in an ice coffin, weeping bitterly as executing the boy, yet still believing that it was for the best. Tears running down his cheeks,
Gold Saint Aquarius left the Temple of Libra, shattered within.
But Hyoga hadn't died. Several hours later, his friends arrived at the spot. And
Shiryu Dragon, who happened to be the disciple of
Gold Saint Libra Dohko, "borrowed" his master's weapon to break the ice coffin and set Hyoga free.
Finally, Hyoga returned to combat, to encounter Camus' best-friend,
Milo Scorpio, in the next temple. Under excessive torture in the hand of Milo, eventually Hyoga succeeded in surpassing the present dimension and reaching the seventh sense.
Milo congratulated the boy and granted him permission to continue to the next temple.
In the end, Hyoga came face to face with his master once more -- and Camus did his best to train the boy to master his newly-achieved seventh sense, teaching him the
Aurora Execution.
Upon reaching complete mastery, as both master and disciple were using the Aurora at the same time, Hyoga eventually defeated Camus.
The Gold Saint Aquarius fell onto the floor, dying in contentment. At last he succeeded in creating a true saint, the one he had been waiting for his entire life.
Hyoga fell down in total exhaustion, crying remorsefully. Only then did he find out how much his master had loved him, what price Camus was willing to pay to make him a better man and a true saint.
After his death, Camus' spirit remained in his
Aquarius gold cloth, and whenever Hyoga was in great danger, the cloth would come to aid and protect him. Camus kept guiding his disciple even after his departure, until Hyoga was qualified enough to become the next Gold Saint Aquarius.
The above story was part of the anime
Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac, a TV series I used to watch 17 years ago. Out of the blue, the memory returned so vividly to me that I decided to give a thorough look:
The master, the disciple...
The lessons, the forging...
The selflessness, the sacrifice...
The iceberg without, the flaming love within...
The boy who became the saint!
And was it fate or coincidence that I was born an Aquarian?
