Chapter 1

Beginnings Again

'I wonder what he's doing now'

Everything had changed that day for Hitomi Kanzaki, that day she visited Gaea…and met Van. A year had passed since, and Hitomi was sitting in her room waiting, staring into space. She had never mentioned anything about Van or Allen once she got back, not even to Yukari. Though her thoughts were often filled Van and Allen and the mysteries of Gaea.

"Hitomi" her mother called from the hallway. "They're here." That year the Kanzaki's were hosting a foreign student from England for 5 weeks. The English student practiced Japanese and Hitomi got to practice her English. Hitomi rushed to the top of the stairs to find a blond haired girl standing next to her mother in the hall, looking up at her. "This…is…Hitomi" said her Mother slowly "Hello" replied the girl "Nice to meet you, my name is Katherine, but everyone back home calls me Kat"

Kat's Japanese was rather good – though it sounded strange in an English accent. "I'll show you you're room" said Hitomi's Mother at a slightly faster pace. "Thank you" Kat replied she heaved her suitcase up the stairs and into her new room. It was nice and light, with a bed, nightstand and book shelf. It was simple but she felt almost instantly at home. "Dinner is at 6" Hitomi's mother said with a smile "Thank you" Kat replied. "See if you can teach Hitomi some English, she's a bit behind."

Hitomi blushed. It wasn't her fault languages, mainly English. Weren't her thing, but running, now that was a different matter.

"Did you have a good flight?" asked Hitomi as she stood at the doorway. "Yes, thanks it was nice" Kat replied opening her suitcase and literally emptying it out over the floor and then searching in the pile for something. "Habit…" Kat said as she saw the look on Hitomi's face. "Come in" she continued. "And tell me about any rules and stuff that I should know about. Like…curfews"

Hitomi smiled and walked in the room and perched on the windowsill, watching this new girl with some interest as she searched through the pile of clothes and bits and bobs.

"Well curfew is about 10 – 10:30pm, don't leave stuff in the living room – drives Mother mad and erm raiding the fridge at night isn't a good idea unless you know which stairs creak" Hitomi said with a smirk. Kat smiled back and scooped up a load of stuff and placed it on the chest of draws. A deck of tarot cards jumped out at Hitomi straight away. "You can do tarot?" she asked instantly. Kat looked confused, she obviously didn't understand. Hitomi pointed at the cards. "Oh….sorry I didn't understand the word….yes…well I try…sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

"Hitomi liked Kat and Kat liked Hitomi, within four days they had talked about almost everything under the sun, in both English and Japanese. They were seated on Hitomi's bed when Hitomi saw that Kat was wearing a small bracelet with… 'It can't be' "Can I see you're bracelet?" asked Hitomi

"Sure" Kat unclipped it and handed it to Hitomi. 'It's just like my old pendant...only it's….'

"Purple…." Hitomi's head shot up. "Its purple…it used to be pink…turned purple last year for some reason. I never figured it out." 'A year ago...' "You ok ?" asked Kat "You look kinda…."

"I'm fine, where did you get it ?" Hitomi asked "Oh, I found it, I was walking in a forest near home and I saw something sparkle and there it was caught in a tree. So I climbed the tree and got it out, I think the chain had been longer but it was broken, so I got my Dad to make it into a bracelet. Why?"

"Oh its…I just used to have something like this, I….err…lost it and was wondering if there was like a shop or something I could get another from" Hitomi said. "Well if I see one I'll let you know" said Kat

"Hey Kat?" Hitomi said quietly "Yeah" she replied. "You want to come to school with me tomorrow, I'll show you around" Kats face brightened up considerably "Wow, yeah please, will be interesting to look around a Japanese school" Hitomi's mother came in and looked at the two girls. "Well if you are going to school with Hitomi tomorrow you better both get to bed." She said kindly. The both nodded and bade each other goodnight.