Disclaimer: Tenkuu no Escaflowne is owned by Sunrise and Bandai, and a whole bunch of people who aren't me.
It happened four months after her return; just one week after she saw him at the train station. She was sitting in class, daydreaming as her teacher lectured on about functions or calculus, or something that she could not get herself interested in. Suddenly she was shaken from her reverie by a flash of unbearable pain. She fell from her seat with a cry, and lay quaking on the floor.
"Kanzaki!"
"Hitomi!" She heard Yukari cry through the blinding pain. Hitomi curled into a ball on her side as she struggled to open her eyes through the tears. Feathers floated around the classroom, burning into ashes as they touched the floor.
She screamed in anguish. Yukari grabbed her shoulder in concern.
"What is it, Hitomi?"
Hitomi just sobbed. He was dead.
He was dead.
Van was dead. And then there was the blackness.
Part 1
Five years later.
"So Hitomi, do you want go out with Susumu and I tomorrow?" Yukari asked brightly to Hitomi on the train as they came home from a day in the city.
Hitomi sighed. "I really don't want to intrude on you and Amano-sempai, Yukari."
Yukari pouted. "You should stop calling him that. He's not your sempai anymore."
"I can't help it," Hitomi shrugged. "Anyway, tomorrow I have to go shopping with my mother. I'm leaving next week, remember?"
Yukari dramatically flopped back in her seat. "Of course I forgot that my best friend in the entire world in leaving for two years in just six days. Jeez, that's only why I wanted you to come out, stupid."
Hitomi hugged her. "Later we'll do something, I promise. Call me tonight?"
Yukari rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. The things I put up with from you!"
The two women laughed as they exited the train and began to walk home.
Hitomi leaned back in her seat, stretching as much as she could in her small space of the airplane. It had been hours since her trip started but she hadn't even reached Vancouver to switch planes for another five-hour trip to Toronto. The thought of another minute in the air made her head hurt. The large man sitting next to Hitomi was sleeping and she wished she could do the same. She was bored out of her mind, and restless with it.
Her last month in Japan had been rather uneventful. She visited her family that lived out of town, received her passport and all of her other papers, shopped until she could not shop anymore, and had a very tearful goodbye with Yukari. She visited the Canadian Embassy for information and maps, and contacted her school for any updates. And of course, she called her aunt and uncle in Toronto to work out all the details of her arrival.
Shifting in her seat again, Hitomi took out an Advil and a Discman. She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling. Somehow along the path of life, Hitomi decided she wanted to travel, and in her third year of university, chose an exchange to Canada. Living with her relatives in Toronto, she would attend classes at the University of Toronto to finish her degree. Her friends and family were surprised at her change in direction, but supported her choice. But no matter how they tried, they could not get Hitomi to explain to them why she wanted to move to Toronto so suddenly.
It was seven months ago when a movie in the video store caught her eye. It was some Canadian independent film that had caught some international buzz a year previous, and ended up in her neighbourhood for local video rental. Hitomi wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been for the man on the cover looking so familiar. At first she thought the actor looked like Amano. Suddenly another name ran through her head – Allen. Shocker, she had dropped the tape. Alan Cruse it said in the credits, but Hitomi knew it was Allen Schezar. She racked her brain to remember just who that Allen was, but she came up empty handed. All she knew was that she had met that actor, in what felt like another time and place. Thoughts raced through her mind as she tried to take it all in. One thought was in the forefront though – I have to see him. She needed him to tell her where they had met, why he seemed so familiar... why she felt like she could not remember a crucial part of her life. A quick search on Google led her to Alan's address in Toronto, and she began to plan.
On the plane, Hitomi shook her head and pressed her palms into her eyes. She was delusional. She sounded insane and she probably was. How many sane people run off to foreign countries because they recognized a guy on a video box? How many sane people believe they lived another life that they couldn't remember? Hitomi smiled grimly at the thought. Yes, she was definitely insane. But she could feel that something was missing; that she was forgetting something important. She wasn't sure that that feeling rationalized her running off to Canada, but Hitomi needed answers. Hopefully, Alan Cruse would be able to supply them.
Hitomi put up her sandy brown hair she had grown out into a sloppy ponytail as she slowly walked to arrivals after the ordeal of customs and baggage claim. She stretched her legs and tried to get the kinks out of her neck and she made her way to the waiting area to meet her aunt. Having not seen her in seven years, Hitomi was surprised to hear her name being shouted before a short, skinny woman in a well-tailored business suit ran towards her.
The woman stopped in front of her and gasped for air, holding a hand to her chest. "Ah, I'm sorry, Hitomi. I got caught up at work and then I couldn't get a taxi. Then there was the traffic and I forgot that I was supposed to meet you here, so I went to the terminal...and, oh, I'm Arisa Kanzaki, but you know that. Wait, you are Hitomi Kanzaki, right?"
Hitomi blinked. "Yes, I am. Nice to meet you, Aunt Arisa." She bowed, only to have Arisa look at her blankly.
"Not here in Canada," Arisa said as she crushed Hitomi in a hug. "And drop the 'aunt' bit. Your parents are a lot older than your uncle and I. I've barely hit thirty, so don't make me sound so old."
Hitomi was taken back at the informality. "Of course, A- Arisa." Her aunt smiled at her.
Her aunt was a shake-up to Hitomi's fairly strict upbringing but Hitomi was grateful to the woman for letting her stay in her home. Her father's brother's wife was a television producer, and looked and acted like a teenager. Her uncle Jiro was an accountant, and was as grounded as his wife was wild. Both had been ecstatic when Hitomi, their only niece, had asked to live with them for at least a year.
Arisa chatted and dragged Hitomi out of the building as Hitomi fell into auto-pilot. She was led to a taxi, then from the taxi to a house, in the house to a room, where the jet lag caught up with her and she crashed on the bed.
That night she dreamt of herself, and a mysterious man, tall and slim and with dark, Heathcliff-esque features. He was hauntingly familiar. Her heart tweaked as she awoke in the middle of the night, an unknown sorrow hanging over her. In confusion she hugged her pillow, desperately praying that Alan Cruse would bring everything to the light.
It was the sunlight shining through the gauzy drapes that woke Hitomi up the next day. Still groggy from hours on the plane, she tried to orient herself. Her room was small, with only a bed, a dresser, and a desk and office chair at furnishings. Her luggage lay haphazardly in a corner, where it was tossed the day before. Looking down, Hitomi was she still wore yesterday's clothes, which were wrinkled and stale. Pushing her hair back as she sat up, Hitomi saw a note on the desk with her name on it. She stumbled out of bed to get to it, and opened the drapes to let the light in. The clock on the desk told her it was ten o'clock, and that her aunt and uncle were at work. She picked up the note and a key dropped on the desk surface with a tinny clang.
The note confirmed that Arisa and Jiro were at work, and that the key was to the house if she felt the desire to leave. It also informed Hitomi that since it was Friday, the Kanzakis decided it would be nice to have a welcoming party for her that evening. It was summer dress, so if Hitomi wouldn't mind putting on something a little dressy, Arisa would really appreciate it. There was food in the fridge if she got hungry, and they would be home by five.
Hitomi sat down on the chair by the desk. She knew she was not up for a party, but she did not want to disappoint her family after all they had done for her. Standing up she stumbled out into the hall and searched for the bathroom, desperate to rid herself of that awful plane smell.
Hitomi sat nervously on a lawn chair in the garden. The small house was filled with loud laughing people that spilled out into the back yard. Light, jazzy music and candles set the mood for a summer get-together. Overwhelmed, she fidgeted with her hair and her sundress as she watched her aunt and uncle introduce their big, boisterous friends to her. And as nervous as she was, the friendly atmosphere caused a small, and the spectators would say sweet, smile on her lips.
There was a commotion inside, with the crowd calling out greetings to a newcomer and Arisa excused herself to go see who it was. Hitomi just sat there, sipping her soda and making small talk with a lovely old lady, a Mrs. Bolshiv, who lived down the street. Finally relaxing, Hitomi looked up as Arisa returned outside. Arisa was talking to a tall young man, wearing jeans and a button-down shirt. His longish dark hair fell into his face, and covered the back of his neck. After realizing her admiration for his rather nice build, she turned back to her conversation, a rosy blush staining her cheeks.
Arisa tapped her on the shoulder, and Hitomi excused herself to Mrs. Bolshiv. Standing up, she turned to face her aunt and her companion.
"Hitomi, I'd like you to meet our next door neighbour. He's a few years older than you, and works for his family's company downtown. Van Fanelli, this is my niece, Hitomi Kanzaki."
With wide, wet, green eyes, Hitomi stared at the man in front of her. From behind those long dark bangs stared garnet eyes back at her.
Author's note: This is the last time I'm writing this chapter ever again. After three years, and about four revisions, it is done!