Chapter 9: Hitomi Returns
Am I on Gaea?
Hitomi looked around to her surroundings, she saw a huge bustling city bigger than any city that she had previously seen on Gaea. She would have examined it more, but she noticed that the section of the town was in shade, when it was clearly day and with not many clouds in the sky. What's making this shade? I don't see any huge clouds in the sky. She looked up and saw a floating something up in the sky. It was connected or held down by various ropes, and even had stairs leading up at it. She wondered where the stairs where coming from, so she followed them with her eyes, and soon found her answer.
Hitomi's eye fell on an amazing sight. A huge white cathedral-like building, made out of a shining white material, decorated with huge banners, dominated her view. It was a very tall building, not as tall as a skyscraper, but tall for a building on Gaea. The cathedral-thing had various tall spires, catwalks that circled the outside walls of the building, even smaller buildings at its base. Hitomi noticed the perfect symmetry of the whole building, each side a mirror image of the other. She saw various red banners that contrasted with the white of the building, hanging from the outer walls. Even from afar Hitomi knew those banners would be soft. They looked like if made from a red silk, they hung down from the top of the wall they hung to nearly all the way to the ground. She could barely make out a symbol on the banners, squinting her eyes she asked, "Is that the Fanelian crest?" I should take a closer look. But before she could take another step several spears were pointed at her.
Van rushed down various hallways, making his way past various servants and Palace Guards, behind him he could hear Merle shout out in protest "Slow down Lord Van, I'm sure Hitomi will be there when we arrive!" Van mentally acknowledged that he was running fast, but he had waited for Hitomi to return all of these past 9 years, and if she were back he would waste no time in getting to her. As he reached the main doors for the Palace he saw a group of Palace Guards standing in defensive position, but what caught his eye was that someone was standing before them, decked out in a familiar looking school uniform.
Van waited for Merle to catch up to him. "Finally you stop running!" she said out of breath. "Mmh? What's going on over there?" "I think… I think that's Hitomi." Van said in a stupor. Merle suddenly had a burst of energy "well what are we standing here for? Lets go greet her before those guards think she is a witch or something and attack her!" No waiting any longer Merle ran over to the scene. One of the guards saw her coming and yelled out "No Lady Merle! She may be dangerous!" but she ignored him jumped past the guards and hugged Hitomi. "Hitomi I'm so glad your back! What's up with your hair how come it's still short? Did you bring me anything from the Mystic Moon? How have you been?" Hitomi didn't recognize this strange catgirl who was hugging her, but she didn't know many catgirls so she went out on a limb and guessed who it was "Merle! How have you been? I've missed you so much!" Is this really Merle? She sure certainly has grown up a lot. Merle suddenly asked with one eyebrow up "Really you did?" Hitomi was puzzled, by her remark, "well of course I missed you, didn't you miss me?" Merle was busy looking through Hitomi's purse, which had mysteriously vanished from under Hitomi's arm to Merle's hands, but had time to respond, "of course I didn't miss you! Why would I miss someone who just got us into trouble?" Hitomi stood there with her mouth wide open, "huh?" Merle let out a devilish grin, "Naw of course I missed you! But I know someone who missed you more!" Same messed up humor, yes this is definitely Merle. Wait what she say? "Who?" Merle looked at her with a blank expression, "by the gods you are dumb! Who do you think I'm talking about?"
"Hello Hitomi." As soon as that voice reached the group, the guards turned on their heels and stood at attention. Hitomi turned to look in the direction that the familiar voice came from. She saw a tall man standing there, well built with unruly hair. "What's the matter you don't recognize the King of Fanelia?" One of the guards spoke up "My Lord you know this woman?" Van turned to the guard and said in a relaxed voice, "you mean to tell me you don't recognize the Lady from the Mystic Moon?" The guards suddenly gasped, "This is the Lady from the Mystic Moon? We are deeply sorry, we did not know." They knelt down and started to pray forgiveness. Hitomi paid no attention to them, she could not help but to keep staring at Van. "Glad to have you back." He said, to which Hitomi responded "and I am glad to see you again." Van looked at her with a longing gaze, he had wanted to see her for the longest time. Hitomi knew Van still Loved her, his expression gave it away, but she didn't know how to tell him. To Hitomi this silence between them just made it awkward. They stared at each other for a long time, and then Merle coughed and said under her breath, "you guys are dumbasses."
As they walked through the Palace Halls, Hitomi just had to ask, "forgive me if this will sound stupid" before she could finish Merle thought in her head It already sounds stupid. Still, it would sound dumb if she asked if we are in Fanelia. But she's not that stupid. Hitomi went on, "but I was wondering, are we in Fanelia?" Never mind I guess she is just that dumb. Van could understand her answer and said, "Yes this is Fanelia, you are in the Rebuilt Palace." Hitomi marveled at how much Fanelia had changed, "but it looks so different now, it looks more Roman and Greek now than Japanese." Merle and Van just turned and looked at her with confused looks. "Must be some Mystic Moon thing." Merle added shrugging. "Van what was that floating thing I saw outside?" "Oh that's the Shrine of Escaflowne, it was built to house Escaflowne in peace time." Hitomi suddenly remembered the feeling she had that Van was in trouble. She immediately stopped and asked, "Van have you been in any fights recently?" Van shrugged "a while back a group of mercenaries attacked a small tribal camp near he border, I tried to stop them but when I arrived it was too late." Hitomi felt some of Van's sadness, being half psychic did that to people, and she could tell he blamed himself for the loss of the camp. Hitomi tried to comfort her friend, and went over to him and gave him a gentle squeeze, "It's ok Van, you did what you could." Van felt relief, besides Merle no one else had tried to tell him it was ok, no one tried to tell him 'you did your best' but it felt a lot better coming from Hitomi. He returned her hug and gave a kiss on the forehead, and said "I Love-" but before he could finish the Chief Advisor of Foreign Affairs came up to him and interrupted, "Lord Fanel, I need to speak with you immediately." Van sighed and withdrew from Hitomi, "ah the Lady from the Mystic Moon. It is a pleasure to see you again." Hitomi turned and said, "we've met before?" "Yes I was a shop owner in Old Fanelia, you purchased a strange disk from me." "Oh right the CD! Now I remember! Good to see you again." Van asked "Chief Advisor shall we go deal with the matter at hand?" "Oh yes of course fallow me." As they walked of Van turned to Merle and said, "oh Merle? Could you please take Hitomi to her room?" Merle suddenly smiled when Van talked to her, and said with a smile, "sure anything for you Lord Van." "Thank you Merle." And then he walked of with the Chief Advisor.
Merle and Hitomi were walking up one of the many stairs, that in Hitomi's opinion were endless, "I liked the Palace better when it had less stairs." She announced, as they went through some stairs that seemed to be going in a spiral. Merle stopped in front of a door and said in a sarcastic tone, "here you go your Majesty I hope our humble rooms will be enough for you." Hitomi didn't like the way she was being talked to, even if it was from a friend and asked, "And what do you mean by that?" "I'm just saying maybe you'll want more, as you always do." She was about to leave when Hitomi added in, "listen Merle I'm getting real tired real fast over your attitude now tell me what is this about!" Merle turned around and responded in a pissed-off tone, "well I don't know, lets see you get Van so involved with you that he falls in Love with you and then you mess around with Allen, then forget about Allen and go back to Van, only to screw around with some other guy on the Mystic Moon!" Hitomi suddenly felt very ashamed, she couldn't even look at Merle, so she adverted her gaze towards the ground, and quietly asked, "how did you find out?" Merle shook her head, "As a catgirl I am part of the Beast People, we can tell things like this. I smelled someone else's scent on you when I hugged you. Your whole body reeks of his scent." Hitomi felt like crying, she started to talk trying to hold back her shame, "it just happened, it was an accident it wa-" Merle cut her off, "are you involved with this man?" Hitomi answered, "yes I am." "How long?" "huh?" "How long!" Merle asked again in a more serious tone. "3 years." Merle couldn't believe what she was hearing, "3 years! Van has been so depressed without you and you go 3 years being with someone else, and never even tell him!" "I wanted to tell him! But I didn't know how to get here!" Merle was furious by now, "You know what Hitomi? You're here now! So unless you tell him, I will!" Merle stormed off, and Hitomi couldn't hold back the tears anymore, she ran into what she assumed was her room, and found the nearest bed, and she cried.
I can't believe I did this to Van! How am I going to tell him? How? It'll break his heart, but I have to tell him! I can't give him a false hope about us! She cried until she fell asleep, 3 hours later.
Merle ran through the Palace, in no particular direction at all, when she ran into Van. "Merle what's wrong?" he asked when he saw tears down flowing from her eyes. She just hugged him and sobbed quietly. Oh Lord Van I am so sorry this had to happen to you. I will still be here for you though, I don't know why this happened to you, but want to help you get through it. Lord Van I am so sorry.
Both Hitomi and Merle were crying over Van. Yet he was unaware of the heartache that would follow, that would devastate his heart. Poor soul.