Virgo Asmita

Virgo Asmita (乙女座のアスミタ) is the Gold Saint of Virgo, circa 1700's. He is one of the twelve legendary Gold Saints of Athena who sacrificed their lives in the Holy War against Hades. Asmita appears in Shiori Teshirogi's Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas.

Name
The name "Asmita" (アスミタ) is from lengthy Indian philosophies. One of its meaning is "The Ego". It is also used for "That which is not what it appears to be".

Special Techniques
Asmita shares many techniques with his later incarnation, Shaka. Each move cast illusional spells, and can be either offensive, defensive, or both.

"Kan"
A defensive barrier created out of Asmita's cosmos. It is strong enough to defend the gold saint from many attacks.

"Tenma Koufuku"
A strong offensive illusional technique. Various images of death and innocence overwhelm the opponent, while cosmos energies attack.

"Rikudou Rinne"
A defensive move that relies on powerful illusions cast upon its target. The enemy is sent to six different worlds, each more horrifying than the last:


 * The Jigokukai (Realm of Hell): Where those who committed sins in life must pay the appropriate price.
 * The Gakikai (Realm of Preta): Where those who were bound by greed in life must continue to eat for survival; however, as even swallowing itself is a constant torture, the souls must resort to drinking the blood of each other.
 * The Chikushokai (Realm of Beasts): Where souls are hunted and devoured by animals constantly.
 * The Shurakai (Realm of Warring Demigods): Where a never-ending war exists and souls must continually fight to the death.
 * The Junkai (Realm of Humans): Where kindness and evil both prevail in a constant struggle, with souls never knowing which side they stand.
 * The Tenkai (Realm of Heaven): Where reincarnation and the threat of being sent to any of the other five worlds constantly looms over souls.

"Tenbuu Hourin"
Asmita's strongest technique combines offensive and defensive properties. Once inflicted, the victim is bound to Asmita's cosmos, and the Virgo slowly removes each of the opponent's five human senses. Not even the sixth sense is immune from Asmita.

"Tenkuuhaja Chimimouryou"
A terrifying technique where Asmita summons ghastly illusions of various demons and monsters.

Nothing But The Truth
Before returning to the world of living, Pegasus Tenma, Unicorn Yato, and Crane Yuzuriha had one final task to complete in the Underworld: They were to locate the mystical mokurenji, a tree residing atop of a bloody waterfall in a section of the Underworld. Tenma, Yato, and Yuzuriha climb the fall, and as they advance to the top, suddenly, time stops -- for Tenma. Yato and Yuzuriha appear to be frozen, as does everything else. At that point, the blood from the waterfall explodes, revealing a figure hiding behind it: the Gold Saint of Virgo, Asmita.

Asmita was a mysterious man throughout Sanctuary, with whom even the Taurus Aldebaran found distrustful in a conversation with the Gold Saint of Libra. Tenma wondered why a Saint of Athena was within the Underworld, but Asmita had his own agenda for the bronze saint. Sitting in a meditative position, the Virgo denounced Sasha, claiming that she was a weak version of Athena and unworthy of following. Sensing a threatening cosmos, the Pegasus attacked Asmita with a "Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken" -- a move that proved to be ineffective against Asmita's "Kan" barrier. It was then that Tenma realized the Virgo Gold Saint was, in fact, a god in his own right -- the Buddha.

With his divine sources, the Virgo understood that Tenma was the reincarnation of the mythological Saint of Pegasus who had previously stood by Athena in the ancient fight against Hades. He was known as the man who had damaged Hades' true self to the point where the deity opted to store his immortal body and manifest into human bodies for the next wars. Knowing this, Asmita then asked Tenma a simple question: What were his reasons to fight for Athena?

Tenma replied that he fought for love and peace of the Earth, an answer that left Asmita unconvinced. The gold saint then used "Tenma Koufuku" upon Tenma, knocking him into the bloody pond below. Asmita once again demanded to know what drove the bronze saint into fighting for Athena, and revered that perhaps Hades was right and the young woman leading Sanctuary was unfit to bring peace to the world. The Virgo then used a powerful technique: "Rikudou Rinne".

Tenma was sent to the various six worlds one after the other, with Asmita declaring that Shurakai was most befitting of the bronze saint. In Junkai, Tenma recalled a memory of his childhood where he, Alone, and Sasha promised to never leave each other. And in Tenkai, the bronze saint saw a powerful premonition: An illusion of the Pegasus Saint, clad in the Bronze God Cloth, charging towards a surprised Hades donned in his divine God Cloth. The illusions ended, and Tenma was returned before Asmita. The Virgo informed Tenma that his older incarnation's actions was the direct result of his friend Alone becoming Hades' vessel -- that, if Hades hadn't been pushed to reincarnate into human bodies, Alone would certainly have been out of the current conflict. Upon hearing this, Tenma declared that he cannot comprehend much of the conversation, but he would still fight for Sasha and Alone due to the promise they made as children. With a newfound resolve, Tenma attacked Asmita with a "Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken". The Virgo's "Kan" deflected many of the fists, but he finally felt satisfied with Tenma's answer -- an answer that was rather simplistic and foolish, but subscribed to the basic of human nature. At last, Asmita stood up from his position, and decided to repay Tenma with his ultimate technique: "Tenbuu Hourin".

Sensing an enormous pressure from Asmita's new stance, Tenma panicked and attempted to figure how what he should do. Asmita unleashed the attack, and paralyzed the bronze saint from moving. He began to remove each of his five senses, starting from Touch, the Smell, Taste, Hearing, and lastly, Sight -- all the while continually questioning Tenma's motivation for fighting. Only the sixth sense was left, and Asmita manipulated it into a horrifying hallucination: a vision of the Virgo impaling a praying Sasha with his left arm. An enraged Tenma vowed that he will never allow this to happen in the future, and raised his cosmos to the point of punching through the Virgo Cloth into Asmita's chest and shattering the "Tenbuu Hourin" at the same time.

Asmita was impressed by this display of power. The illusion cast from his technique broken and revealed the gold saint hovering above the mokurenji. The fruits of the tree scattered all around the two men. Confused, Tenma wondered if the entire fight with Virgo up to this point had been an illusion. Asmita explained that while that could be one way of seeing it, the fact that Tenma was in spiritual form meant their altercation was very real. And as such, the burst of the Pegasus cosmos had caused the mokurenji tree to bare its fruits. Asmita instructed Tenma to carry 108 of these back to the world of the living and deliver them to Hakurei, the elder of Jamir. Time resumed, and Tenma reunited with Yato and Yuzuriha.

While the trio made their way from the Underworld back to the living, Asmita was already en route to visit Sasha on Earth. He apologized for his actions towards her and vowed to fight for her side, a proposal that Sasha gladly accepted. She understood that Asmita, being blind, had stronger senses than any other saint, and had to journey to find the truth for himself. Sasha then asked him if he had met Tenma in the Underworld, and what he thought of him. The Virgo replied that he found the bronze saint to be foolish and emotonal, yet at the same time, a person with true humanity. Before leaving her, Asmita asked the goddess for a favor.

Some time later, Asmita ran into Libra Dohko on the way down from Athena's temple. Dohko was shocked to see the Virgo Saint out of his temple. Asmita commented that Tenma, the man Dohko considered a little brother, was an admirable man, and continued on his way. The Libra demanded to know where Asmita was heading to, and the Virgo Saint replied: "Where all Saints will eventually go. Under normal circumstances, it's the place to die."

The Path of 108
In Jamir, Tenma and Yuzuhiha would soon returned to the world of the living, with Yato following moments after. Their troubles weren't over yet, however, as spectres had been sent to invade Jamir to kill them after they had discovered the location of the invaders. As the warriors of Hades traveled across the bridge to Jamir, they noticed that the trail didn't seem to end. A mysterious voice informed them to pray that their path lead them back to their homeland, and a white silhouette appeared: Virgo Asmita! The gold saint immediately unleashed the "Tenma Koufuku" upon the spectres, killing them and sending their bodies down to the hazardous pit below the bridge.

Tenma, Yato, and Yuzuhiha ran out of the temple in Jamir to observe the chaos. Tenma recognized the immense cosmos, fretting out loud that he would have to see the gold saint again. The Virgo appeared, humorously offering to take away Tenma's tongue once more. The four of them them meet with Hakurei, and it was revealed that the fruits of the mokurenji has the power to seal away the souls of spectres and prevent Hades from reviving them. Asmita explained that in order to create such a formidable object out of the fruits, one must raise their cosmos to its very limits -- past the sixth sense where Saints can manifest their powers, and beyond the seventh where that very power reaches its limits. The existence of the mokurenji, a living thing, in the world of the dead had raised questions with Asmita, and he knew that the answers he seek lie with the eight sense -- the ability to be alive while in the Underworld. Due of his blindness, Asmita was the only one with the potential to raise his cosmos to this mystical height.

The group of spectres that Asmita had killed earlier had been fully revived, this time with Cait Sith Cheshire joining them. Only Tenma, Yato, and Yuzuriha were capable of fighting, as Hakurei was too old and Asmita now must focus his cosmos to form a sealing weapon out of the 108 mokurenji fruits. Before sending them off, the Virgo gave Tenma one last gift -- his blood, to revive his Bronze Cloth of Pegasus. As the bronze saints and Yuzuriha blocked off the spectres from invading the site of Jamir, Asmita took the 108 beads rosary that would form the basis of the mokurenji weapon and climbed the summit. He then burned his cosmos to the highest limit.

Meanwhile, Tenma, Yuzuriha, and Yato were defeating the spectres, but their efforts in vain since the warriors of Hades continued to resurrect. Eventually, the spectres made their way into the temple of Jamir and climbed up, looking to kill the gold saint above. At the same time, Asmita recalled an event from long ago, when he had first met Sasha, of whom the Grand Pope of Sanctuary introduced as Athena. Asmita was hesitant to accept the young girl, since he could not understand why a majestic deity such as Athena would choose to manifest in a child who had suffered through many hardships in her life. As Asmita meditated in the Virgo Temple, Sasha approached him and the two had a heartfelt conversation -- she could sense that Asmita kept his eyes closed to avoid seeing the suffering of the world, and he realized the truth behind Athena choosing to reincarnate in this young child. Smiling, Sasha explained that the life of a hardships reminded her to keep her promises.

Back in the present, the spectres were getting close to the summit, while being chased by the saints. Suddenly, they were hit with the "Tenkuuhaja Chimimouryou", followed in succession by the Virgo's ultimate "Tenbuu Hourin" move. The rosary had been completed, resulting in the permanent sealed deaths of the spectres from Asmita's attack. Tenma reached the very top of the pillar to find Asmita standing tall, his eyes open and the rosary in his hand. The Virgo Saint turned to the Pegasus Saint, and he noted that he could see his youthful face for the first time -- and, along with Athena's young smile, will remember it always. As Asmita's spirit faded away, he entrusted Athena and the 108 bead rosary to Tenma.

He returns near the end of the story as a spirit to help Shion and Dohko to defeat Hades with the other spirits of the fallen Gold Saints.