Chapter Four:
Hitomi sighed, she'd been awake for almost a day now, and she was starting to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her. More than once she'd questioned herself if she was really with Van and Merle in Fanelia, or if she had really seen Minato drawn to Gaia with her. If she had seen her, why had she come with her? Was she connected to Gaia as Hitomi was? Hitomi did not notice that Van or Merle was watching her.
"She seems sad Lord Van, doesn't she want to be here with us?" Merle asked him. Van looked a bit saddened at the thought of Hitomi not wanting to be on Gaia with him.
"I don't know Merle, she keeps asking if anyone saw anyone else from the Mystic Moon with her when she arrived in Fanelia," he said quietly. Merle's face twisted with concentration then bounded over to Hitomi before Van could stop her.
"Hey Hitomi!" she yelled happily as she sat down on the banister in front of her. Hitomi blinked coming out of her trance like state.
"Oh, hello Merle," she said smiling. Merle looked at her, usually Hitomi would jump a mile high when she jumped up at her like that.
"Hitomi, what's wrong? Don't you want to be here?" she asked her turning serious for a moment, causing Hitomi to blink, Merle was never serious.
"Of course I want to be here Merle, I belong here more than I belong with my own family on the Mystic Moon. But…I know what I saw, Minato came with me to Gaia, I'm so worried about her," she said tears starting to form in her eyes. She couldn't stop them from falling down her face and she blinked as Van's gloved hand wiped away the tears.
"Don't worry Hitomi, we'll look into it, and we'll find this Minato person you say came with you," he said softly. Hitomi smiled and hugged him, causing Van to blush and blink a bit, not having expected her to do that.
"Oh, thank you Van," she said, only causing Van to blush deeper red, and Merle to laugh at Van's blush, almost loosing her balance and falling off the banister.
***
Allen looked to the girl that looked silently out the window, unknowingly in the direction of Fanelia. Millerna and Dryden had gone, leaving him to try and talk to the girl, hoping she would talk. She had uttered one word, and one word only 'Hitomi'. Maybe it was a sign that Hitomi had come back to Gaia, but he couldn't jump to conclusions. And even if she had come back, she would be with Van, her love.
"Please, could you tell me your name? I am Allen Schezar, a knight of Austuria," he said looking to her. At the sound of his voice her eyes came to catch his gaze and she blushed a tiny bit. In some ways she reminded him of Hitomi, and in other ways she was completely different.
"My name…is Minato Kanzaki," she said quietly but he still heard her, causing him to blink.
"Kanzaki? Then you do know Hitomi," he said moving a bit closer to her.
"Hitomi? How…how do you know my cousin?" she asked unsteadily. Allen smiled and looked down at her.
"Hitomi is a great savior of Gaia, in the Great Gaian war she stopped Ziabach forces from winning," he said, obviously proud of Hitomi and proud to know her.
"Hitomi was?" Minato blinked a tiny bit and leaned up against the wall to support herself from collapsing to her knees. It was odd, she had known the place she was in, and yet, she didn't know why, she'd never been here before, like Hitomi had.
"Yes, and I must ask you, Hitomi came with you to Gaia?" he asked her looking at her carefully to make sure that she was alright.
"Yes…or at least I think she did," she said slowly. Allen looked at her sort of confused.
"What do you mean, you think?" he asked.
"Well…we were doing a Tarot reading…and this bright white light surrounded us and lifted us up into the sky. I saw Hitomi come with me, but when I woke up, I was in here," she said motioning to the room they were in, she had not left it since she had woken up.
"I see…she may have been drawn to Van and Fanelia, she was before," he said cautiously.
"Fanelia? That…that sounds familiar," she said blinking a tiny bit. Allen went to say something but was interrupted by the door crashing open.
"Allen!" a girl yelled, maybe the same age as Minato, then she blushed and covered her mouth, "sorry, I didn't know you were in here," she said looking to Minato.
"Celene, what is wrong?" Allen asked her.
"Hitomi, I just got word from Fanelia's messenger, Lady Hitomi is back in Fanelia," she said excitedly.
"Hitomi! She's in Fanelia?" Minato spoke up and Celene nodded to her.
"Well, it seems we're going to be taking a trip, but we will have to wait for Millerna and Dryden, I know the princess will want to see Hitomi again before Dryden disallows her travelling," he said with a slight chuckle. Celene smiled, she loved to travel, she grabbed Minato's arm and started to pull her towards her room.
"Come on, I've got some clothes for you to try on," she said happily. Minato blinked, but trusting the girl followed her willingly, leaving Allen to shake his head before going to prep the Crusade II.