Saori Kido

Saori is described as a beautiful young girl. Her hair is light violet or lilac, and her eyes are blue-green. She used to wear her hair long, until she decided to cut it as payment to the witch Hecate; her hair currently reaches just above her shoulders.

As a child, Saori used to behave in a selfish and despotic manner towards the "orphans" of the foundation, physically abusing them and sometimes forcing them to act as her horses. The only one of them all who was not intimidated by her character as a capricious and wealthy princess was Seiya, in whom Saori did not hesitate to show a certain degree of interest. Quite the opposite happened with Jabu, who was the most submissive of all the "orphans", a fact that was criticized years later by Seiya when Saori did not give him answers about the whereabouts of his missing sister. Once Saori finds out that she is not the granddaughter of Mitsumasa Kido, but the goddess Athena, her attitude changes, becoming a little more aware of her mission and treating the Bronze Saints better as the story progresses, to the point that in the end they become her most loyal warriors. This great change in her personality is reinforced by an unbreakable willpower and a spirit of high determination that prevents her from giving up even in the most difficult moments where even her life is at risk. However, in the manga, the Bronze Saints once they discover the true identity of Saori who reveals herself to be Athena from the beginning, at first they do not believe her, partly due to resentment towards her grandfather and the biological father of the young people, so her acceptance as the goddess they must protect is broadly gradual and as such, Saori must earn acceptance. After assuming her position as Athena, Saori becomes humble and loving, caring for her knights and the people of the world. This can be seen in her sacrifices, as she decides to make herself suffer so that normal people of the world do not suffer or even offers her life to save the lives of the people of the world. Saori seems to have special feelings for Seiya but never says so.

As the present incarnation of Athena, Saori appeared as a baby at the feet of her statue (as legend has it, she returns to Earth approximately every 200 years) and was found by Patriarch Shion and taken to his chambers in the sanctuary. One night while she was sleeping (apparently the first night after her descent into the sanctuary), after having assassinated the Patriarch, Saga of Gemini infiltrated baby Athena's room and attempted to kill her, had it not been for the intervention of Aiolos, he would have succeeded. Aiolos escaped with baby Athena and was accused of treason by the usurping Pope when he was discovered. Aiolos confronted her while carrying Athena with the Gold Saints Aphrodite of Pisces, Shura of Capricorn, and Deathmask of Cancer. During the confrontation with Shura, Athena saved Aiolos from being killed by Shura by summoning Nike, thus immobilizing him and continuing her path to the exit of the Sanctuary, while when Deathmask attacked them with his Seki Shiki No Nami technique, it was returned to his aggressor. However, when they reached the bridge that led to the exit of the Sanctuary, Shura cut the ropes with his Excalibur technique, causing it to fall. Shura, with tears in his eyes, stopped Deathmask and Aphrodite from saving baby Athena, arguing that one day she would be reincarnated again. After falling from the bridge, Aiolos managed to survive and was able to escape from the Sanctuary with baby Athena, until he met the Japanese millionaire Mitsumasa Kido, who was visiting some ruins in Greece. Aiolos entrusted the baby's care to Lord Kido, explaining that she was the reincarnation of Athena, who comes into the world every 200 years, and that evil had infiltrated the Sanctuary. For this reason, he entrusted her care to Lord Kido, who entrusted him with the mission of training young people capable of defending her and world peace. Once Aiolos had entrusted Athena to Lord Kido, he finally passed away.

Mitsumasa Kido adopted baby Athena and named her "Saori." Thus, Saori grew up under Lord Kido's care as his heir, as Lord Kido had decided to make his one hundred children saints who would protect Athena by hiding the truth of their origins from them. Saori grew up without knowing the truth and behaving like a spoiled and capricious child, who mistreated Mitsumasa's children for pleasure and to make them fulfill her whims, although her grandfather always reprimanded her for such behavior. Possibly she acted according to how she saw Tatsumi treating the children despotically, in particular Seiya was the one who put up the most resistance to fulfilling Saori's whims and Jabu was the one who offered himself on his own to satisfy them, which generated rivalry between them. When Mitsumasa was about to die, he told her the truth about her divine origin and her mission in the world. Faced with such a discovery, coupled with the death of the man she believed to be her beloved grandfather, Saori became a little more aware of what she should do and continued with the preparations for the training of Saints that her grandfather had started by sending the children to get armor. After the death of Lord Kido, Saori became the head of the Kido family, in charge of her grandfather's business, his foundation, and the responsibility of organizing the galactic tournament between the Bronze Saints, to find the one who would be most worthy of wearing the golden armor that Aiolos had entrusted to Mitsumasa Kido. Little by little, those children who had managed to obtain bronze armor arrived and left them in Saori's care. When Seiya arrived and learned of Mitsumasa's death, he demanded that Saori fulfill the promise made by her grandfather, so Saori offered him a new deal: if he won the Galactic Tournament, she would ensure that the Graude Foundation searched for his sister, and Seiya had no choice but to accept.

Aware of her origins and who she really was, Saori devises the Galactic Tournament as a way to attract her assassins and be able to openly declare war on the person responsible for having usurped her rightful place of authority in the Sanctuary. After the Bronze Saints defeat the first group of Silver Saints sent by the Sanctuary: Misty, Moses, Asterion and Babel, they return to the coliseum, where the Galactic Tournament was held (which is now destroyed) with all the pieces of the Sagittarius Armor. Saori tells them that their fight is about to begin and reveals that she is the reincarnation of the goddess Athena. However, the Saints do not believe her and leave the place, each determined to continue with their lives. It is then that the crows of the Silver Saint Jamian de Crow appear, kidnapping Saori and the golden armor. The Bronze Saints recover the armor of the crows so Seiya must save Saori. Saori is taken before Jamian and Seiya does not take long to arrive to rescue her, after a hard fight and before the crows took Saori to the sanctuary in Greece, Seiya cuts the ropes that held her and throws himself to save her. The fall has broken Seiya's arm so he tells Jamian that their meeting will have to wait, but Shaina arrives to make things difficult for Seiya and Saori. Faced with this situation, Saori tells Seiya that she trusts him and that she is willing to risk everything for their escape, so Seiya jumps from the cliff where they were to protect Saori.

Saori wakes up after her fall with Seiya and thanks to her cosmo, she didn't suffer any harm in the fall but the same can't be said for Seiya, who is unconscious and seriously injured, and approaches him apparently to give him a kiss, but Jamian interrupts her and now it is she who decides to protect Seiya by starting to set her cosmos on fire. Just at that moment Ikki arrives (who managed to escape the collapse on Mount Fuji after the confrontation against the Black Saints) and defeats Jamian, then he was about to retreat when he is stopped by Argol, Capella and Dante, who will be defeated after a hard fight by Shiryu, Ikki and Shun. Finally Saori is brought to safety. Saori is accompanied by Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun to fight with the Pope and return peace to the sanctuary and the world. After defeating the Silver Saints, the Pope decides to send two Gold Saints to kill the Bronze Saints, but Aiolia says that he is the only one capable of taking charge, since the Golden Armor the Bronze Saints had was that of Sagittarius. After Seiya has donned the Golden Armor of Sagittarius and started a fight with Aiolia, Saori arrives to reveal to Aiolia the truth about the sanctuary. She tells him that 16 years ago Aiolos saved her from the "Pope" who tried to kill her and was framed for treason, so all these years they have been under the command of an evil man who does not look out for the best interest of Athena.

Aiolia is shocked by such a discovery, but is not entirely convinced and demands proof, so Saori volunteers to be attacked by Aiolia's Lightning Bolt technique. Aiolia hesitates, because if she is not Athena her power will kill her, but only if she is Athena will she survive and finally Aiolia launches his power against Saori, but it is Seiya who saves her, telling her that it does not matter if she does not believe that Saori is Athena, she should not attack a woman and helped by the Cosmos of Aiolos, Seiya returns his power to Aiolia. Finally, Aiolia understands the truth and tells Saori that she will only pay for her crime with her death, but Saori tells him not to do it, that it is better for her to amend her ways by joining her cause, so Aiolia swears loyalty to Athena and leaves for the sanctuary. Saori tells Seiya that very soon she will go to fight at the sanctuary to eradicate evil and that she hopes to be able to count on his help. Although Seiya is still not convinced to fight for her and finally Saori tells him that if he doesn't want to believe in her it's okay but asks him not to blame or hate Mitsumasa Kido, who also suffered knowing that his destiny was to have to sacrifice the children and submit to being hated by them. Saori is accompanied by Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun to fight with the Pope and return peace to the sanctuary and the world. Once in Greece, the Bronze Saints meet a hooded man who offers to be their guide, so he takes them to the entrance of the twelve houses and explains that to reach the Pope they must cross the twelve houses of the Sanctuary. At that moment, the hooded man reveals himself as Ptolemy of Sagitta and attacks them with his Phantom Arrow, Seiya and the others easily dodge the arrows that seemed to be illusions, but one of the arrows (which was real) sticks in Athena's chest.

So the Bronze Saints begin their desperate fight against the Gold Saints because in 12 hours the arrow will sink completely into her heart and kill her, and the only one who can remove the arrow from her chest is the Pope. Meanwhile, Mu dedicated himself to taking care of her. While Shiryu was fighting against Death Mask and was sent to Yomotsu Hirasaka, Shiryu met Saori (and Hyoga) in that place, which was the entrance to the world of the dead, indicating that both were at risk of death. But Saori was in full use of her consciousness and her powers in that spiritual world and helped Shiryu return his soul to the house of Cancer. While Hyoga was fighting against Milo in the house of Scorpio, the common soldiers of the shrine prepared to attack Saori, believing her to be an impostor and wanting to act on behalf of Athena. Mu retreated from this situation, foreseeing what would happen. Jabu of Unicorn and the other Bronze Saints who were defeated in the Galactic Tournament had returned after undergoing new training, defeating the soldiers and now staying by Saori's side to take care of her. Saori had prepared to return the Sagittarius armor to the sanctuary in its respective house, which revealed to Seiya and his friends when they were in Sagittarius that Aiolos had risked his life to save Athena believing that a day would come when young and brave knights would emerge willing to fight with honor for her. Likewise, Saori had taken the Nike staff with her.

After 12 hours of arduous fighting, Seiya manages to reach the statue of Athena and take the shield of justice from her statue to illuminate it with its light to Saori in her last moments. The light struck Saga and purified him of his evil and, more importantly, the light managed to illuminate the staff of Athena, which achieved the miracle of the arrow that endangered Saori's life dissolving, vanishing all damage caused. Finally, Saori was safe and ready to continue with her destiny. After recovering from her wound, the golden saints Mū, Aldebaran, Aiolia, Shaka, Milo and Dohko (the latter from a distance) come down from their respective houses of the sanctuary and swear loyalty to Athena kneeling where she is, so did the Bronze Saints who were with her and the soldiers of the sanctuary suddenly feel a precensia which was that of Saga badly wounded and repentant. Saga apologizes for his sins and strikes himself with a blow to the heart, much to the sadness of Athena, who wished that Saga would forgive his mistakes in life. Mu of Aries reflects, lamenting the "sickly" state of his former comrade. But Saori was worried about Seiya, so she hurriedly climbed the 12 houses to where Seiya was, but met Saga of Gemini, who, after being purified by the light of Athena's shield, asked Athena for forgiveness and committed suicide to clear his honor. Saori forgives him and thanks Seiya, Shiryū, Hyōga, Shun and Ikki for helping her understand her destiny.

A month has passed since the Battle of the Twelve Houses ended, and Saori must continue fulfilling her duties. Saori was at the Solo Mansion in Greece, celebrating young Julian's birthday in honor of the friendship her beloved grandfather Mitsumasa had with Julian's deceased parents. Julian spoke with Saori, telling her about his thoughts on the ocean and the world, and then suddenly proposed marriage, telling her that although it was their first time meeting, it seemed to him that they had met again and again since the mythological era. Saori politely rejected Julian's proposal, saying she must rest before returning to Japan, but Julian didn't seem to take it well. While sleeping in a room at the Solo Mansion, Saori was kidnapped by a mysterious soldier wearing armor resembling fish scales. Tatsumi realized the incident too late, but Leo's Aiolia was nearby to protect Saori and stopped the soldier, anticipating that it was only the first bullet from a dangerous enemy. When the floods and deluges began in the world, Saori was already in the Kido mansion, in contact with the main research institutes of the world to find out everything possible about the recent phenomena. But Saori was "visited" by Thetis of Mermaid who informed her that these phenomena occurred by the divine will of the god Poseidon and that he came to take her to his god, when surprisingly Seiya appeared and defeated Thetis and the soldiers, Thetis escaped.

Seiya had escaped from the hospital where he was with Shiryu, Hyōga and Shun, since none of them had woken up since they had finished their battle at the Sanctuary, in fact they had been worried at the hospital about Seiya's disappearance. Saori was now in the hospital, taking care of Seiya and the others. From the sanctuary Aldebaran of Taurus appeared with Saori to take care of her and guide her back to the sanctuary because they were worried about her recent attack, but since Saori wanted to stay taking care of the wounded Saints, Aldebaran offered to replace her. While Aldebaran was keeping watch, he was attacked by General Sorrento of Siren, but Saori arrived and interrupted the fight, asking Sorrento to take her to his god, to which Sorrento could not help but follow her orders. Thus, Saori met with Poseidon and discovered that he was Julian Solo. Julian explains to Saori that he is the reincarnation of Poseidon and that he has decided that the world must be cleansed of its evil, so he has started a flood that will last 40 days and nights until it covers the entire world. Julian proposes that she join him and together they rule the new world, since he still has feelings for her, but Saori rejects him again, telling him that she is in the world to prevent it from falling into the hands of evil. Julian reluctantly accepts Saori's rejection, telling her that it will not stop the rain anyway, so Saori asks if there is any way to prevent it. Julian tells her that the only way to slow down the rain that falls on the entire world is for her to enter the Main Breadwinner so that the rains that should fall on the world fall on her body and thus lessen the damage to the people of the world, Saori accepts this sacrifice. And soon the Bronze Saints will be involved to rescue Athena.

As Shun faced Sorrento and was subdued by his deadly melody, Saori began to emit a song, which resonated throughout his cosmos to give hope to his Saints. The melody helped Shun, as Sorrento stopped his attack upon sensing Athena's Cosmos of Love, remembering that she had interrupted his fight against Aldebaran (in the manga) and that through her Cosmos of Love, he felt compelled to take her to Poseidon. But Sorrento did not want to acknowledge Athena's love as it would have implied that his cause of purifying the world was meaningless. After Poseidon truly awakened in Julian's body, Seiya managed to break through the central pillar and rescue Saori. Saori awakens and confronts Poseidon, telling him that she will not allow the world to fall into his evil hands. But Poseidon is furious and throws his trident at her so that she dies, but it is blocked by Seiya, who takes all the damage, so Poseidon dedicates himself to attacking Athena with all his power. Saori confronts him and begins to repel Poseidon's attacks and when the Bronze Saints offer her their cosmos, Saori manages to enclose Poseidon's spirit in his vessel, freeing Julian. Finally, Saori gathers all the knights who were in the marine world and takes them all to the surface, which is now safe. Finally, Saori makes an oath in front of her knights that she will never let any evil god harm humans and that she will protect them in the name of Athena. Saori returns to the Sanctuary after the battle against Poseidon, which remains on guard by instructions from Master Dohko since the beginning of the battle with Poseidon.

On this occasion, Saori has given the order that none of the Bronze Saints go to the sanctuary, as she wants them to take a break after so many battles in her name and if possible live a normal life, both the Gold Saints and Tatsumi received this order and tried to keep the knights away. Athena was resting in her chambers when an old enemy appeared before her, coming to ask for her forgiveness and offer his help for the upcoming war, it was Kanon of Gemini. Athena, with her immense love, forgave him and allowed him to protect the house of Gemini from the Pope's chambers. But Milo sensed Kanon's arrival and went to see if Athena was okay and ignoring Athena's orders, Milo attacked Kanon to make her leave, but when he realized that Kanon was telling the truth and was heartfelt repentant for all his sins, he ended up accepting him as a comrade. After the battle for the resurrected Golden Saints began at the shrine, Saori received a few petals at the feet of her statue from the garden of the House of Virgo, bearing a message from Shaka of Virgo written in his blood. The message read "Arayashiki," asking her to make a decision. Athena made her decision and would approach death to awaken the Eighth Sense and join Shaka in the world of the dead. So, after Athena's loud exclamations, Athena asked Milo, Aiolia, and Mu to bring Saga's group before her. Once the renegade Saints were before her, she gave Saga the Golden Dagger with which he had tried to kill her 13 years earlier.

Everyone shuddered at Athena's decision but they were ordered not to interfere and so it was that, despite having given the dagger to Saga, Athena (apparently) had taken her own life. Unknown to them, Saori met with Shaka of Virgo, as her body lay with the Golden Saints who witnessed her apparent death but she did not continue with any of them but entered the world of the dead with the Virgo knight without the company of the others. Athena and Shaka infiltrated the world of the dead ruled by Hades without being discovered, their plan was to go directly to the Elysian Fields following the currents of the rivers of the underworld, Acheron and Lethe, but halfway there they realized that Hades was not in the Elysian Fields but in the depths of hell. Once they managed to reach Giudecca before Hades, they realized that he had already taken possession of his host body which in this case was the body of one of his saints: Shun. Shaka was about to attack him but Saori stopped him, saying that no innocent person should die because of Hades' ambition, so Saori knelt before Hades and asked him to stop his plan to turn the Earth into a world of death. At Athena's request, Hades agreed to take her life to spare the world, so he ordered Shaka to throw Pandora's trident to take Athena's life, but Shaka did not obey and threw the trident at Hades. Saori stopped the trident thrown by Shaka, stating that she would not let any innocent person die. Hades became enraged and threatened Athena with the trident, but when Athena began to bleed while stopping it, her blood reached Shun/Hades's hand and began to hurt him. Hades could not bear the pain caused by Athena's blood and along with Shun's cosmos, Hades was expelled from his body.

Hades couldn't believe that his host body managed to reject him, so Saori pressured him to take him to his true body, telling him that Shun wasn't his "authentic" body. Athena attacked Hades with Pandora's trident, the plan had worked and Hades enraged took Athena and took her to his temple in the Elysian Fields through the Wailing Wall. Athena was taken by Hades to the Elysian Fields and was given to Hypnos, Saori allowed herself to be sealed by Hypnos in Hades's vessel that would absorb her blood until it killed her and that is so strong that it would not be broken even by the thunder of the great Zeus in the sky. While Seiya and the Bronze Saints were being massacred by Thanatos, having destroyed their armor, the golden armor, and losing all hope, Saori made contact with Seiya, telling him that it doesn't matter if they have lost everything, as long as they remain alive humans will be able to achieve any miracle, because life is the most important gift that humans possess. Saori motivated Seiya, and so Seiya managed to make his cosmos burn like never before and awakened his divine armor. Seiya and Ikki managed to reach the vase, but all their attacks were returned to them as happened with Poseidon and Ikki, when his cosmos burned over Athena's blood spilled by the vase, he managed to awaken the divine armor of the Phoenix and continued to confront Hades. Hades tried to kill Athena with his sword while she was in the vase, but Ikki saved her by getting in the way of the sword. The Bronze Saints with Divine Armor fought fiercely against the true Hades, until Saori covered them with spheres that would return them safely to the world of the living, meanwhile the blood absorbed by the vessel was returning to Saori's body and Seiya finally gave her the armor of Athena.

Saori finally donned Athena's armor and broke the vessel that held her captive, revealing her plan to allow herself to be captured so Hades could show himself in person and be able to fight him head-on. Hades and Athena fought and argued about the existence of humans, as Saori was convinced that when humans who have committed a crime die, they should be forgiven and fall into eternal sleep, since there is no human who has never committed a crime. When Hades was preparing to attack Athena on the ground, Seiya launched himself from his protective sphere to attack Hades and defend Saori. But Hades also attacked him, plunging his sword into his heart. Seiya fell into Saori's arms, and Saori cried for him, telling him that he should not die, that he should return safely with them to meet his sister. Hades told Athena that she had wasted the opportunity that Pegasus had given her with his death by bursting into tears, but Saori spoke to Hades about love, telling him that he had no right to judge humans if he did not know the feeling of love. Saori was supported by Shun, Shiryu, Hyoga and Ikki and together with her cosmos she managed to pass through Hades' body and end his life. Finally, Athena and her saints returned to the world of the living with their great fallen hero, but now the world was safe and they could return to the world full of light.

•Aegis Shield: Better known as the Shield of Justice, it is the sacred weapon that Athena usually carries in her left hand, capable of repelling any kind of attack. The Aegis Shield is part of Athena's Cloth. It was located in the Temple of Athena, when Seiya manages to escape the Patriarch's Chamber helped by the Cosmos of his companions to take the shield and help Saori Kido. Besides repelling attacks or aggressions, it can nullify curses (like the golden arrow of Ptolemy's Phantom Arrow technique) and/or return vital energy to its bearer if the shield is directed towards her. Also, in the manga, the shield possesses the special quality of being able to purify a soul full of evil, as happens with Saga, by cleansing his divided heart and finally nullifying the chaos that inhabited it. Later, when the Statue of Athena awakens in its Object form and is worn by Saori Kido, the Aegis Shield helps Saori to evade Hades' sword attacks and defend herself against him. •Nike: She is the goddess of victory who has always accompanied Athena since the time of myth, taking on different forms. Most often, Nike is depicted as a completely golden scepter. The base of the scepter resembles an eagle with its wings open, which meet at the top forming a closed circle, surely referring to the "angelic" form of the goddess.

• Orb of Life: This is a technique that protects a person within a cosmic sphere from any attack. •Seimei no Tama: Using the Nike Staff, he concentrates a portion of his divine energy and fires it off in a golden ray. •Nike no Tsue: This technique gave them victory; it consists of piercing the enemy with Nike's staff, nullifying the opponent's power. •Shin Kyaku Issen: This technique involves igniting the Cosmos to deliver a kick with the right leg extended, the left leg bent, and the body extended towards the sky with the arms close to the body. •Tōteki Sei Tate: This technique involves igniting the Cosmos, flexing the entire body to launch the Aegis Shield towards the sky against the enemy, impacting and splitting them in half.