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Earth - One Day Ago.

They say you can never go back home again.

He thought about this phrase over and over again as he stood staring at the doorway. He was finally moving into a place all his own — a place that belonged to him alone — but he couldn’t find it in himself to open the door. Of course, nothing was on the other side of the door. He was just coming to see the place that he had rented for the first time — the place would be empty! But still, he stood staring at the door knob without touching it. It was as if, had he touched it with his own hands, something would happen, something he could never undo.

“Just open the door, Yuri.”

Tama was using Yuki’s name for him again. A term of endearment, it seemed.

The cat’s voice was the one thing that could bring him back into reality. Tama had been that way lately — the only thing that could break through his thoughts with so much as a phrase.

“I have been thinking about a few days ago... when my weapon changed —”

Ah, Tama purred in his mind, the boy is finally going to ask.

“When I transformed into a knight, I felt a warmth in my heart—”

Go on, child!

“I think... I need to tell Yuki that I am finally a knight and that I can be a worthy successor to my wonder now.”

So, he’s not going to question him at all! The boy who was nothing but questions and worries and fear of uncertainty — he was not going to ask Tama what he had meant that day.

“I will be here when you come back then.”

The Mauvian’s voice was cold and emotionless, like it usually was but also like it needed to be.

“Thank you, Tama! Wait for me, will you?”

His golden eyes shone for a moment as he looked up at the sun, now just starting to set. Beyond that sun, beyond this Earth. Beyond even the stars whose light could barely be seen from this small corner of the Milky Way. It was waiting for him there in the starlit sky as it always had — Erytheia.

Tama didn’t watch him go. He’d be waiting.

Erytheia - One Day Ago.

A star was low in the sky of Erytheia casting soft light on the blue-grey stones as if waiting for just the right moment. When the evening sky was just right, it would reflect against the vast barren plains that made up the island. The land itself would appear to shine — like when you hit a crystal just right in a certain light — and it looked like an endless field, a prismatic sea that never ended.

It was just this event that he knew Yuki would be waiting for just under the branches of the tree where the Code piece lay. Wasn’t it here that he found himself the first time he had come? But he didn’t see Yuki yet.

“You think you would have told me sooner, my dear.”

Erytheia was startled as he looked around for the source of the sound, but saw no one.

“You’re so precious when you’re flustered,” his ancestor said in a mocking, playful tone as he dropped down one of the strange tree’s upper branches. “I would have thought you would have grown out of that now that you are a knight, but even I can be mistaken.”

Erytheia let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the tree to catch his breath — why had he been so worried? It was only the two of them here. There was nothing else on the entirety of the planet, after all.

“I wanted to tell you...Tell you that I have finally become a knight.” Erytheia’s voice quickened as he said those words, his face flushed. It was as if he was embarrassed to say it. No, not embarrassed. Unsure. Surprised. Maybe a bit in disbelief.

“Well, I can clearly see that — your weapon has changed. Quite a simple wooden bow now, isn’t it? Besides...” He dropped right in front of him now and poked a spectral finger on the tip of Erytheia’s nose though he felt nothing. “... you never come here unless there’s something on your mind.”

There was something on his mind. Many things, actually. Why had he transformed when he did? Transformations were supposed to happen in moments when you needed power, when a change occurred.

But nothing had changed, right? Well, except Tama.

Earth - A Few Days Ago.

He had been laying in his bed in his parent’s house looking through the round window, everything he owned in all the world in boxes, waiting. There was nothing left in the room but memories now. It was his adopted home for so long. He was just moving for college.

He could always come home again, right?

“Well, I think that’s the last of it. Everything I need is packed away and ready for tomorrow.”

Everything he needs can fit in those few boxes, Tama thought as he lay on the floor. Everything...

“You’ll be fine with mom and dad and the twins, won’t you?”

There he was with that wide, sweet smile that always thought of someone else before himself.

And yet — the words hurt in a way Tama had not anticipated. Alphonse was leaving him. Why did that matter? What did he care for the boy, anyway? Cats were fickle creatures. Tama only needed himself. He was a cat. Cats needed no one. He needed no one. Yet...

Cats are fickle creatures.

“You can’t go.”

Tama’s grey form was on the bed now right above and his face was leaning over Alphonse’s, upside down, his piercing eyes staring into the boy’s like they had never looked before. His face was so close. Alphonse could feel the cat’s warmth and he closed his eyes.

“You’re mine.”

For the first time, he felt sure of himself but not because of himself alone — because of Tama.

And it was then that his chest began to glow — his starseed was so hot it almost burned him! — and the familiar starlight came over his form...

Tama watched as the weapon emerged from the boy’s — Erytheia’s — chest. It was different now. It was a dark, strong wood much unlike the white of the the staff it had formerly been. Its size dwarfed the boy’s form too, but, as the weapon emerged, Tama knew it could be none other than his.

It was a bow.

“What — What just happened?”

Erytheia’s eyes began to adjust to the light his own body had shed. He was still laying down on the bed, but now he held his hand aloft. He had grabbed the bow as it had formed without thinking — his arm was now draped in a soft, white fabric and his new knight’s uniform.

A small golden bird cage was at his waist. But he didn’t have time to wonder what it was for.

“You have grown in power into a knight now.”

He doesn’t need me anymore now.

Erytheia - One Day Ago.

Yuki looked at Erytheia wondering if he would ever say what it was he must say.

No matter. Yuki would give him all the time he needed to form the words. But the sun was setting now and the former knight of Erytheia had something to show him.

“Well, you tell me what you need to ask when you are ready, but not everything can wait — I need to show you the real Erytheia! Come!”

The real Erytheia. The new knight barely had time to think the words before Yuki ran off, quickly overtaking him.

“Wait. You’re always moving too fast... Yuki! What do you mean...”

He would have to catch up to him now — and Yuki was like the wind, always hard to grasp and even harder to understand. It felt like forever as they went. Past the lonely little wooden torii that were the only things that existed on the whole plain of Erytheia besides the tree.

Or so, he thought.

“These are the Shrine Gates of Erytheia — your wonder and yours alone!”

Earth - One Day Ago.

Yours. Mine. What had Tama meant when he said the boy was his — mine?

He had meant that he could not imagine life without Erytheia in it.

Home. Wherever the boy was, was home.

You could never go home again. Because home wasn’t a place.

Erytheia - One Day Ago.

It was a large gate — one far larger than any of the other torii he had seen on the island — and instead of being open to the sky, there was a double door made of an old grey stone between its arches. The massive door was carved with strange circles and the light of the sun was just beginning to shine through one of them. The beam of light hit a circular dais of a polished stone below it. The dais was just as large as the door, if not larger, and it had runes painted on it in blues and pinks and lavenders and golds and, in the center, a round indentation.

“These are the Shrine Gates of Erytheia. They have stood closed for generations and will be closed for generations more and they belong to you now. No one truly knows what is behind those doors. Even I have not seen them open. Legend says that they lead directly to the Cauldron, yet other tales say they lead to the truth, and countless others say the light on the other side of these gates can judge if a starseed is truly ready to return to nothingness to be reborn. What its true purpose is had been lost to time. All that is known is that the knight of Erytheia guards it and that it will only open when it is needed most.”

Erytheia did not know what to say. It was beautiful. Beautiful in a way that called to him. Like it was part of him. It spoke to his heart. It felt warm. Like then...

“This is your charge, knight, your celestial home. But you aren’t listening to me now — are you?”

Erytheia was standing by the Gates of Erytheia, that grand doorway, but his mind was back in front of another door back on Earth. By Tama.

“You are ready to say what you must say just as you are ready to protect this wonder at last. But this is just a place, after all. A place is nothing without meaning. You want to know why you transformed when you did, but you can’t see it yet. The power of Erytheia is one that protects and heals. It finds its power in giving. Someone gave you power, Erytheia.”

Erytheia hesitated for but a moment staring at the door yet seeing another.

“Well, go home, Erytheia! I’ll always be here waiting for you, but cats are fickle.”

Earth - Today.

Alphonse had left the Shrine Gates of Erytheia — the most wondrous thing he had ever seen — to stand once again at the plain, closed door of the apartment.

“You were gone so long I really thought you weren’t coming back. I’ve been sitting here since yesterday! I could have gone back to the twins’ place and by now and not have slept out here on the cold, hard ground all night!”

The cat was furious and full of contempt, but all Alphonse could do was laugh.

“What is so funny, you idiot!”

Alphonse was on the ground now, laughing like a fool, gasping to try and catch his breath.

“You waited. You waited for me, didn’t you?”

Tama’s voice was caustic as he threw his nose up in disgust.

“Of course, I did, idiot! You said to wait. So I waited.”

Alphonse looked down with caring eyes at the cat and let out one last laugh.

“Tama. Will you stay here with me? Even though I’m a knight and not a senshi, even though we are different and you don’t have a human form, even though I’m...”

Tama smiled. “I believe the word you are looking for is ‘idiot’.”

“Yes. Even so. Even if I’m an idiot who is always doubting himself and who can’t see what he needs even when it is right in front of him — even if I’m just myself, will you be here for me?”

Tama looked up at the stars. Morning was just about to break. The small and faint streaks of light were just starting to hit Alphonse’s skin. The light broke and shone on the still unopened door.

“I will stay with you. Besides, I’ve been around for two of your upgrades now. You better be around when I get my true form. You owe me!”

Alphonse smiled as he let the sun hit his face. If I could give you your true form, I would, Tama. After all, you’ve given me so much already.

“Well, can you open the door already? It’s not going to open itself, you know.”

To give you what you desire, I’d open any door. Even the Shrine Gates of Erytheia.

✪ / ☆