Chapter 1. An encounter with destiny
In a surprisingly quiet district of Tokyo stands a row of houses, all rather nondescript. All with the same square structure, and small front lawn unguarded and not fenced. Each of whom have had, in one instance or another, the same reddish-brown Shiba Inu ceremoniously pee on during his daily walk. He had with him an elder women in tow, spine bowed with age, and internally grateful each time she didn't have to stoop her old back to pick up shit instead. It was peak summer time in Tokyo, and the cicadas were out in their full boisterous cry.
During this particular summer afternoon, the heat seemed to be radiating from the pavement in a heavy fog. As if daring anyone to stay outside longer than absolutely necessary.
Nodding a short greeting to the panting dog and his owner, a certain honey-brown haired woman quickly walked up the three steps of her parent's home. Jamming the key in into its slot as best she could with collapsed brown boxes under each armpit. A sharp right turn later the door swing open, and with it a refreshing gust of wind.
Hitomi let out a relieved sigh as the breeze passed by, caressing her heated cheeks.
Stepping into her parent's foyer, Hitomi kicked off her shoes and slid into house-slippers. It was only when she stepped into the kitchen and stood in front of the answering machine did she drop her boxes.
The machine blinked a familiar flashing red, and it was all the incentive Hitomi needed to press play. Rounding towards the cupboards for a glass, the machine slowly winded back to life. By the time Hitomi was able to fill her cup with cold tap water, the familiar low tenor of her father's voice called out to her.
"Hitomi, remember to pack up your old room by Sunday. We are having Hiro come in and repaint it that evening. Your mother and I will should be back by them."
There was a shuffling noise, and right after her mother's voice quickly pipped in, "You don't need to move your bed dear. Just empty out your closet, take everything off the walls…. Oh! And strip the bed of all bedding. Bye!"
There was a click, and the answering machine settled down. Red light no longer flashing.
Staring at the two lone boxes that leaned aging the wall. Hitomi muttered, "Dang, I should have brought more than two."
In a rather official looking room that overlooked a luscious garden stood two men.
Reynaud Vissili and Garo were simple enough to tell apart. First, Reynaud Vissili had the figure of a man who never picked up a sword in his life, nor engaged in battle. Garo on the other hand, towered a whole head above Vissili. He was also strong-shouldered, which spoke of many hours spent sparring, and had limbs that stretched to match his height. Reynaud wore his salt and peppered hair in a greased back style. While Garo's jet black hair did what it wanted. Reynaud also wore his greying beard in a clean trim, a style matching his hair. Garo on the other hand, had no beard at all. Reynaud Vissili's eyes were a deep brown, while Garo's was green. Simply put, they looked nothing alike.
Swirling the contents of his wine glass in his right hand. Reynaud suddenly stopped, memorized as the port continued to swirl counter-clockwise only to quickly knock the drink back in a single gulp. All the while Garo stood at his right, stoically examining the blossoming pink buds of the Amaryllis.
"Today is the day", Vissili drawled.
Sharp green eyes snapped back at him.
"Do everything exactly like we discussed", he retorted, placing emphasis on exactly.
"She is the final piece, and without her all is lost. Find her, befriend her, and bring her back here. Am I understood?"
Garo gave him a curt nod.
Satisfied by the other man's non-verbal response, Vissili turned back towards his desk and eased himself into his leather chair. Filling his glass one more with the bottle of port on his left. He took a sip and let out a sigh before lifting his glass towards his taller companion.
"To destiny" Vissili said, as if victory was already at hand.
With another curt nod, Garo spun on his heel and was out the door.
Placing the last strip of tape to the underside of the box, Hitomi pressed down the boxes center. Satisfied that all four strips were enough to keep the box from opening at the bottom. She turned the box right-side up, and scanned her room before deciding to start at her closet.
Sliding the door aside, Hitomi was reunited with all her old high school self. From her old black and white uniform with the red bow, and matching black pleated skirt to her white running shirt. Caressing the fabric like it was a cat, Hitomi found herself reminiscing on a time when the very same clothes found themselves on an entirely different world. A bud of a smile was forming at the corners of her mouth, but it was gone as Hitomi shook her head. Either reprimanding herself because of her thoughts, or as if physically shaking the memories from her mind would knock them out, it seemed unclear. Even Hitomi seemed unconscious of her actions. Picking her clothes up, she compactly folded and stuffed them down the bottom of the box.
A full box of jeans, shirts, socks and skirts (that would be far to revealing now if she wore them) later Hitomi collapsed onto her bed in an exhausted groan. She turned to her side and spied the poster of some band she already forgot the name of, and the faces of Amano, Yukari and herself smiling back at her, decked in her graduation gowns.
Swinging her legs back over the bed, she rose again. Hitomi blew the strands of hair out of her face before striding up to the wall and stripping it of its character.
Fifteen minutes later, a naked white wall in need of paint faced Hitomi. Pleased with herself, she turned back to her bed and made quick work of removing the sheets.
Dropping down to her knees to check underneath the bed, she was surprised to see an orange shoe-box tucked in the far left corner, where the two walls met. Laying completely flat on the floor, and stretching as far as possible Hitomi was able to grasp the lip of the lid and proceeded to drag the box closer to her body.
Soon enough Hitomi sat seated on the floor, back leaning on her bed. Removing the lid, she felt another wave of nostalgia hit. Inside her old shoe box was an old Maya Sakamoto CD, a grey CD player with matching grey headphones, buttons she had snagged from the annual school club festival, and a familiar set of cards bound in an over-stretched hair tie.
Picking up the deck, and snapping the band around her wrist Hitomi leafed through the Taro cards. The Lovers, the Knight, Temperance, Death, the Fool, and the Wheel of Fortune, they were all here. Old friends, whose edges were softened from use. Hitomi found herself shuffling them out of habit, and laid the entire deck face down.
The sight of it there before her was thrilling.
And a little thought started to creep from the back of her mind. What would the cards say now? After all this time would she still be able to read?... Accurately?
Shaking her head once more, she snatched the deck up and snapped the hair-tie back around it, casting it back into the shoe-box. Ten years was a lifetime ago.
Eyeing the cards as they lay cast aside with the other memorabilia of her past, Hitomi felt a pang in her heart. All remaining traces of her young self had been removed, neatly packed into two boxes. Her room now lay bare, the walls an off-white. Even with the lone bed still occupying the space, it felt void.
Gazing back at the shoe-box, she finally let her eyes fall on a single white object she had been avoiding all this time.
Gingerly she lifted the feather from its abandoned home, and felt its soft caress as she ran it across her cheeks.
Even after all this time, the image of a dark haired young king never grew faint in her heart.
In a swift movement Garo plunged his sword through the skull of the dragon, stopping only when the body sagged and its eyes dimmed.
Wiping the blood and other matter on his pant leg, he walked back towards the dragon's chest.
The tall man, in a moment of respect, bowed his head at the dragon's crushed skull before stabbing it in the heart.
Cutting a neat cross in its chest cavity, Garo managed to find the pulsing energist. Pink with geometrical lines, it fit in the palm of a single hand.
Suddenly a deafening shriek cut through the forest hum. The second one was close by.
Gripping the energist in his left hand, he slid it into this front pocket.
Then opening his stance, and pulling his sword back with both hands, he strained his ears to listen for movement.
Garo knew he only had one shot to do everything perfectly.
To his left he heard the snapping of trees, as a heavy creature made its way towards him. Like an arrow drawn back to hit its mark, Garo flew off in that direction. In a flash of armour and a glint of his sword, he disappeared into the bush.
Throwing her arms up in a quick stretch Hitomi starred at the slowly rising sun. Having had a restless sleep the night before on her brother's old lumpy bed. It seemed like now is the perfect time to throw in a quick run, just before the heat of the day came out and stayed till the dusky evening night.
Clad in an old white t-shirt and blue shorts, Hitomi took off. Passing the same square houses and lawns, along a route she took everyday training for her high school competitions.
Turning a left at the grocery store, she saw the high school fence a block or two away. Thankfully, the gate stayed open no matter the season, so it was a quick stride through the entrance and back onto the red rubber of the track and field turf.
Thankfully at this hour in the morning, no other person was on the field. So with a burst of energy Hitomi rounded the turn, only to feel the ground tremble beneath her.
She ground to a stop. Her breath catching in quick pants.
Looking left and right, she saw nothing and no one.
The track was bare, the bleachers void of human life, and the school on her left blank, except for the light always on at the main entrance.
Perhaps she stepped wrong somehow, which could explain why the ground moved. She reasoned to herself.
Shaking her head, a move she found herself doing a lot more recently, she took off again.
Only to be meet with a flash. An image. Of a man clad in armour, and definitely out of place against the blue seats, and the "Go Tigers Go!" sign beneath, which was painted in a similar blue.
Hitomi felt her heart seize. No, this can't be happening she frantically thought.
The desire to get away drove Hitomi into a sprint towards the gate. The ground trembling with each step.
Just as she was half way to the gate a familiar blue light emerged, and with it the very man she saw a couple of heart beats ago.
He seemed dazed, in his right hand he clutched his sword, and the other was in his pocket. Like he was afraid to lose something. The man seemed to be in mid-battle, sword slick with blue blood and pants equally bloody, the sight of him caused Hitomi to gasp.
As if the sound of her broke his reverie, the warrior turned and the pair locked eyes.
This was all too familiar. This scene, the blood, a soldier clad in armour.
But instead of a certain shade of brown Hitomi had longed to see, her eyes met green.
And just like that, the pulsating blue light engulfed them both, and with a sickening tug Hitomi and the green eyed man were pulled upwards towards the orange-yellow glow of the morning sky.
Merle was precariously perched at the thickest end of a tree, her claws gouged the wood for security. Just out of her reach was a perfectly plump peach, and despite all the other perfectly edible ones ripening around her, Merle was intent on this particular one.
Just as she was able to graze a single claw on the peach bottom, the tree, its leaves, and adorning fruit seemed to give a collective shudder.
Immediately, Merle shot down into a crouch. Surreptitiously eyeing the tree, as not to arouse the same response.
Satisfied that it wouldn't happen again, she went back to the ever elusive peach. But she was stopped when off into the distance a beam of vibrating blue light started making it's descend from the sky onto the unsuspecting ground below.
Merle nearly fell off the tree in shock, had it not been for her already secured footing.
Wasting no time she effortlessly leapt off from her perch, and switching to running on all fours as she sped towards the direction of Van's office.
Her heart seemed to be galloping from her chest as she left the courtyard, and scaled the flight of steps leading directly to the royal study. She didn't even bother to give the posted guards a polite acknowledgement, for they no doubt were more captivated by the emerging light behind her.
Springing herself back onto two legs, Merle threw open the old wooden doors.
Before her a head of black hair snapped up as the doors gave a resounding thud.
"Merle?" Van questioned.
He was seated behind a solid wooden desk, scrolls and various books strewn on either side of him. While a single, feathered pen lay poised in his ink stained right hand.
His office was stuttered off from natural lighting, and several candles were lit, the only sources of light in an otherwise dark room. No doubt he has woken before the sunrise, and had gotten so engrossed in his work that he failed to notice the time of day, Merle thought.
"Is everything alright?" he asked, as he scanned Merle up and down.
She looked unharmed but rather off kilter.
Van kept his eyes trained on her, as she strode towards his widows and threw them open.
Nothing in the world could have prepared the Fanelian King as he witnessed a familiar blue beam touch down onto the forest canopy. This light reappearing on Gaea only signified two events, the eventual arrival and departure of the love of his life.
Lost in a whirl of emotions, and his rapidly beating heart Van de Fanel failed to realize he had whispered a single word, a name really.
"Hitomi."
A/N: Well that was fun! I hoped you enjoyed. Also FYI this is more of a small thing I am doing for fun. Please do not have any expectations this will be updated regularly. You have been warned.
Also because this is more for fun, if there's going to be inconsistencies, or errors I apologize.