Hey, Minna! Here's part two! See, I didn't keep you waiting TOO long, ne?
Escape From Pain
Part 2
By Sailor Red
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A scream reverberated off of castle walls. An anguished cry for help and
then silence.
Two guards ran into the room from which the scream came and stared upon
their king in horror. He was shaking violently from head to toe, his
eyes shut into tiny slits as he held his side in pain.
"Van-sama!" The guards exclaimed, and then ran to get the doctor.
----
All Van could hear was her laughing. That madly kind laughter that
he now associated with the pain in his side. That burning pain that
had been with him for far too long. And then...
Another voice.
And the relief that came with it...suddenly floating around in his head.
"Van." Hitomi's voice. "I'll save you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi finished her silent prayer and got up to wake Merle. The cat girl
told her to get her up when Hitomi was ready to go to Austuria.
And Hitomi was ready.
Dear god was she ready.
"NYAAAOO!" Merle yelled when Hitomi started poking her. "NANI?!"
"Let's go, Merle." Merle focused her eyes, looked at Hitomi, and
smiled.
"Yeah. Better now then later."
They both gathered their belongings and started to head out. All was
quiet until Hitomi spoke up.
"Who do you think is doing this to Van?" Merle looked down to the ground.
"There's only a couple of leads...But they all lead up to the Austurian
palace..."
"Wait...The palace?! Who would want to..." Merle's head shot up to face
Hitomi's.
"Hey! I thought you asked me a question! Give me some time to answer it!"
Merle growled. Hitomi looked down.
"Gomen...it's just that...While you were sleeping, I was praying for
Van's safety...and had a vision of him in pain...I just...I just want
to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. I don't want him
hurting anymore." Merle felt the anger leave her.
"I should be the one apologizing. I didn't know...I didn't know you had
seen him that way. I remember seeing him the first time it happened...
and then seeing him collapse..." Hitomi put her hand on her friend's
shoulder. Merle smiled at her and then put her eyes back to the road.
She gasped.
"Well look at that. We're here already!"
"Nani?" Hitomi asked and then looked around. Just like Merle said, they
were in Austuria...albiet the outskirts of the city. From where they
stood they could clearly see the vast expanses of water throughout,
the beautiful foiliage, and the palace in the distance.
"It's like reliving a memory...It's the same as it was all that time
ago!" Hitomi said, marveling at the scenery before her. Merle smiled.
"Come on, we gotta go meet up with Allen-san..."
"Allen-san?!"
"Mo, what's up with you? He's the easiest way to get into the palace!"
"It's just that...How can I say this..."
"You're not still...hung up on him are you?"
"No way!! It's just that...you know how Van gets all worked up about
that guy...I mean what if he gets mad..." Merle rolled her eyes.
"Baka. Van-sama'll understand. The reason why you're here with me is to help
save him...he's not going to think anything of it...why would he?" She
paused. "Why are *you* making so much of it?"
"I don't mean to. It's just that I'm worried about doing anything to
upset him at this point...I don't want him to get the wrong idea."
"You worry too much." Merle said to the girl. "Van's kinda thick in the
head, yes, but I think he pretty much gets you by now. At least as much
as a man can really understand a woman." Hitomi laughed.
"That's not saying much." Merle burst out laughing.
"No, it's not." She sighed. "We should probably go find A-."
"You found him." Came Allen's voice from behind them. Hitomi and Merle
spun around.
"Allen-san!" Hitomi yelled out.
"Hi-Hitomi!!" He said in shock. "Good to see you."
"Same here."
"Come on, let's get you inside the palace. I'm sure Millerna would
love to see you both. I've heard about all that's been going on in
Fanelia...It's a shame to hear that the person behind all of this
is from Austuria. I hope you find who's behind this soon." Hitomi
nodded agreement. Merle had suddenly found the ground very interesting.
"Merle's been really stingy with the details, so I don't know much.
All I know is that there's something horribly wrong with Van, and
I want to help." Hitomi said. Allen smiled halfheartedly.
"I see you still..." Allen started.
"Don't even start!" Hitomi said, rounding on him. She stopped when
she saw the hurt look on the blonde man's face. "Gomen." He smiled.
"All I wanted to say was that I see you still care a great deal for
him. Sometimes absence makes people forget. And then sometimes it
makes the heart grow fonder. I wasn't trying to say anything against
the man."
"Gomen, Gomen." Hitomi said and smiled. "Can we start over?"
"Of course." Allen replied. He looked up. "We're here."
"Merle-chan!" Millerna came running towards the gate. "Thank
goodness you're safe! I was so worried about you when I heard you
had run off from Fanelia! And...wait a minute...who...*Hitomi-chan*?
Masaka!!" Hitomi smiled and waved.
"Yeah, it's me. How are you, Millerna-san?"
"Forget me! When'd you get back?!"
"She popped up when I was midway between Fanelia and Austuria. Scared
me to death too. I thought one of the guards had caught up to me."
Merle answered.
"You poor things. Let me get a room set up for you so you can rest,
and then you can fill me in on the details, okay?" Hitomi and Merle
nodded. "Oh, and Allen-san," Millerna smiled. "Thank you for meeting
up with Merle."
"Of course, hime." he said as he knelt to kiss her hand. Hitomi
looked at Millerna mischeviously.
"You just spoke up to get a kiss out of him, didn't you, *Hime*."
Millerna smiled and stuck up her nose mockingly.
"I have *no* idea what you're talking about!" And Millerna, Hitomi,
and Merle walked into the palace, all laughing at Allen who they left
kneeling and looking like an idiot at the front gate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi started up to the room prepared for her, her head swimming in
her thoughts. A flash appeared before her eyes the moment she had
opened her door and closed it behind her. Not this again. I don't
want to see this again! . . . wait . . . NANI KORE?!
----
A woman in a palace room. A woman too familiar for comfort. A woman
who looked disturbingly like...Celena-san!!
Celena...Celena, sticking needles through a doll. Sticking needles
through a doll that looked like...that looked like...Van! Lightning
streaking through a dark room, illuminating for but an instant a
crazed look on an innocent face. A face that had developed blood
red eyes. Dilandau taking over his female counterpart. Celena's
soul quietly screaming as Dilandau raped her mind. As Dilandau
forced her to stick pin after heated pin into her doll. A doll that
looked like Van. A doll that...
----
Hitomi stood up and screamed, sobs racking her body. A second later,
Merle rushed into the room to find Hitomi curled up into a ball,
lying on the floor.
"Why?" Hitomi said to the cat girl. "Why didn't you tell me...why
didn't you TELL ME!!" Hitomi screamed. Merle stepped back.
"Hi-Hitomi...tell you what?!"
"Why didn't you tell me that it was Celena that was doing this
to Van?! Why didn't you tell me that her psycho counterpart, Dilandau
was making her do this to ... Does Allen-san know? Does...Is...?"
"Hitomi! What in god's name are you talking about?!" Hitomi froze.
"You mean, you didn't know who was behind this?" Merle looked
to her feet.
"Celena was one of my hunches, yes, but I didn't KNOW anything. Don't
tell me..."
"I had a vision. I had another one of those damn visions. Celena was
poking pins into a doll that looked like Van...except it wasn't Celena
who was doing it. Her eyes were red. I think, no, I'm sure, it's
Dilandau. He's back, and he's forcing Celena to..." She rose to her
feet. "We have to find her room."
"That's easy but...how are we going to fight...I mean...If what you
say is true, then we don't have any combat skills that could win
up against Dilandau...Van-sama even had trouble fighting him!"
"Then what are we going to do?! Enlist Allen-san?! He won't fight
him. It's his sister...we'll end up fighting the two of them!"
"I don't think it's Dilandau though, at least..."
"What are you talking about..."
"Hitomi, calm down and think rationally about this for a second. If
Celena had been completely taken over by Dilandau, don't you think
Van-sama would be dead by now?" Hitomi stopped.
"You're right."
"Here's some more inside information. Celena acts normally in the
morning hours when she's surrounded by people, but at about six in
the evening she goes into her room and tells everyone not to disturb
her. The idiots over here have been chalking it up to her liking to
go to bed early and nothing more."
"When did you become the private investigator, anyway, Merle-chan?"
"Baka. Van-sama's been in pain for months. When the doctors couldn't
do anything for him...I did a lot of snooping around. A lot of
evesdroping around the city. I lost track of how many times I almost
got found out while snooping around for information. I don't want
Van-sama to die! If nothing else, he's the closest thing I have to
a brother. He's the only family I've got. I'm NOT going to lose him
to some psycho who finds joy in sticking needles into him!"
"Right. Then we wait until morning and...then what?"
"Simple. We go into Celena's room, and get that doll."
"Okay then. Oyasumi, Merle-chan. I'll see ya in the morning."
"Oyasumi."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi felt like the evening would never end. She woke up constantly
during the night from having horrible nightmares about Van. Van
screaming in pain. Van calling out her name. Calling for her to help
him. Nightmares that seemed disturbingly to be like visions.
I have to get that doll. I can't wait until morning!
She opened the door to her room and ran straight into Merle.
"Planning on leaving without me?" She smiled quickly and then
turned deadly serious. "Let's go." Hitomi nodded her head.
They both started throught the halls and eventually ended up
in front of Celena's room. Hitomi could feel her heart beating
in her ears. Merle opened the door, and Hitomi sliped in after
her. Hitomi pointed to a desk.
"Over there. That's where she was sitting." Merle nodded as both
of them rushed over to it. Merle held back a scream. Hitomi gulped.
"I was right. It's a voodoo doll." She said plainly. "It's a very
good likeness too. Whoever made this...they knew what they were
doing."
"Damn straight I knew what I was doing." Hitomi and Merle spun
around in fear to face crazed crimson eyes. Dilandau. Not a
Celena-esque Dilandau, but the full fledged thing. "I didn't
hang out with those bastard sorcerers for nothing, did I?"
he started laughing. "That little boy there, he wrecked my face..."
Dilandau started advancing towards Hitomi, knocking things over
as he walked."AND he killed my FRIENDS!" He was now practically
breathing down Hitomi's neck. Hitomi swallowed...and slapped him
across the face. Dillandau stumbled back.
"You know, I figured out about the voodoo doll last night, Dilly."
"DILLY?!"
"I also had a feeling that it wasn't going to be the easiest task
to get you should you figure out what was going on."
"Well, you stupid women could have been a little more quiet when you
were talking last night, too." Dilandau smiled. "I have spys of my own
you know. Too bad your little cat friend didn't figure that one out!"
Hitomi ignored him and reached into her pocket.
"You know Dilandau, I had a LOT of trouble sleeping last night. So,
you know what I did? I took up sewing." She pulled an object out.
"See this doll? Kinda looks like you." Dilandau started stepping back.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you! However..." she started
tugging at the doll's clothing.
"I'm just going to kill you." She pulled the cloth off the doll to show
another likeness underneath. The likeness of Celena. Dilandau screamed.
The sounds of bones crunching echoed throughout the room, and when they
stopped, there was a very tired looking Celena unconcious on the
floor. Hitomi ran over to Celena's desk and picked up the "Van" doll.
It started to glow, and then faded as each one of the pins in it fell
out and disintagrated. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief. Merle ran
over to her and gave her a hug.
"We did it, Hitomi-chan!"
"Yeah...we did. Now let's get to sleep. We'll be heading for Fanelia
in the morning."
"YATTA!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi woke to see the sun high in the sky. She flew out of bed.
NOONTIME! Ano baka neko! Why didn't she wake me up?! Hitomi got
dressed in record time and ran to Merle's room. She was sleeping too.
Hitomi sighed. Okay, so we both overslept. She took a deep breath.
"MERLE! WAKE UP!"
"NYAAAAOOO!!! What the! Hitomi-chan, why are you waking me up?!" she
whined and then turned over.
"We were SUPPOSED to start towards Fanelia this morning! It's noon
time!!"
"Daijoubu!" Merle said with a mischivious grin on her face. "The
moment Van-sama realized that he wasn't in pain anymore, he sent a
message with Ruhm that he'd be in Austuria tonight!" Hitomi's face
lit up.
"Masaka! Why didn't you tell me..."
"I figured you needed your sleep. I know I did. Anyway, he should..."
"Nani?" Merle had a shocked expression on her face. "Ne, Merle-chan,
nani?" Merle started up the biggest grin Hitomi had ever seen on the
cat girl's face, tears started forming at the corner of her eyes as
she pointed to a place behind Hitomi. Hitomi spun around and locked
green eyes with brownish red.
Hitomi's heart flew to the sky.
"VAN!" Van looked like he was about to fall over in shock. He had
known she was in Gaea somewhere but he didn't know he was going to
run into her right now and here. Frankly, he was finding it hard to
breathe.
"Hitomi??" Merle ran over to Van and gave him a big hug.
"Van-sama, don't just stand there, go give her a BIIIIIIG kiss!" Van
turned a shade of red that Hitomi had never thought possible in a man.
She didn't joke about it though, because she was sure her face was
ten times redder than his. Van started scowling at the cat girl, who
tapped him on the nose and then ran off saying something about getting
lunch. Hitomi grinned.
"Man, that cat has caused me So much trouble!" Hitomi said nervously.
"Hitomi...Arigatou." Van said as he walked over to her and put his
hands on her shoulders. Hitomi felt butterflies in her stomach.
"For what?" she asked somewhat stupidly.
"For saving my life again." Hitomi was having a lot of trouble with
trying to avert her eyes from his gaze. She knew that if she looked
into those depths for just an instant, that she was never going to be
able to look away again.
"Hitomi? What's wrong?" Hitomi took a deep breath and looked up at
him. It turned out that her thinking was right on track. Now that
she had looked, she couldn't look away.
"I...I love you." Van laughed, the first real laugh in what had seemed
like ages. It was the first time she had said it TO him. She had
stated it before like she was telling herself. Van had tapped into
her thoughts. Now she was saying it to him. Straight at him. He never
had felt happier in his entire life.
"I love you, too, Hitomi." Hitomi started crying. She couldn't help
it. Her face was starting to hurt from the smile she had plastered on
it. She jumped at him and hugged him the hardest that she could. He
did the same. Van reached down to Hitomi's face and cupped it in his
hand, thumb brushing away her tears.
"I'm so glad you're okay." Hitomi whispered weakly. "I saw you...in
all that...pain...I'm sorry it took so long for me to help you..."
"Hitomi...don't worry about it. What matters is that everyone's okay
now...did you know that I heard you?"
"What?"
"You were praying. You saw me in pain and you said 'Van, I'll save
you.' Your voice, your promise was my escape from pain. Thought you
might want to know that." Hitomi laughed.
"You know, you've gotten a lot better at expressing yourself than you
used to."
"Have I?"
"Yeah." she smiled. "Ne, Van..." she started in a mock serious tone.
"Yeah?"
"Did I ever tell you how great you are?" Van smiled.
"Nope." Hitomi looked down, shook her head, and looked up again. She
tilted her head and smiled mischiviously.
"Well, I'm not GOING to tell you."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to show you."
.
And she tickled him to the floor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, minna, don't kill me. I didn't do the kissy thing. HOWEVER,
I left it wide open for a sequal. If I'm so inclined to write one.
Van: You better, or I'm going to get the Seki-gumi after you.
Red: Seki-gumi?
Chichiri: Yes, Van needs his kiss, no da!
Kamui: I'll blow you up!
Koji: I'll sick the Mt. Reikaku bandits on you!
Red: Alright! Alright! *mutters* I'll think about it!
Van: Good
Mata ne!
Sailor Red
Escaflowne belongs to Bandai/Sunrise. Chichiri and Koji are from
Fushigi Yugi, and belong to Movic/Studio Perrot, Yu Watase. Kamui is
from X and belongs to CLAMP. This fic is copyright August 2001 and
belongs to me, Sailor Red. ^_^
Escape From Pain
Part 2
By Sailor Red
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A scream reverberated off of castle walls. An anguished cry for help and
then silence.
Two guards ran into the room from which the scream came and stared upon
their king in horror. He was shaking violently from head to toe, his
eyes shut into tiny slits as he held his side in pain.
"Van-sama!" The guards exclaimed, and then ran to get the doctor.
----
All Van could hear was her laughing. That madly kind laughter that
he now associated with the pain in his side. That burning pain that
had been with him for far too long. And then...
Another voice.
And the relief that came with it...suddenly floating around in his head.
"Van." Hitomi's voice. "I'll save you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi finished her silent prayer and got up to wake Merle. The cat girl
told her to get her up when Hitomi was ready to go to Austuria.
And Hitomi was ready.
Dear god was she ready.
"NYAAAOO!" Merle yelled when Hitomi started poking her. "NANI?!"
"Let's go, Merle." Merle focused her eyes, looked at Hitomi, and
smiled.
"Yeah. Better now then later."
They both gathered their belongings and started to head out. All was
quiet until Hitomi spoke up.
"Who do you think is doing this to Van?" Merle looked down to the ground.
"There's only a couple of leads...But they all lead up to the Austurian
palace..."
"Wait...The palace?! Who would want to..." Merle's head shot up to face
Hitomi's.
"Hey! I thought you asked me a question! Give me some time to answer it!"
Merle growled. Hitomi looked down.
"Gomen...it's just that...While you were sleeping, I was praying for
Van's safety...and had a vision of him in pain...I just...I just want
to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. I don't want him
hurting anymore." Merle felt the anger leave her.
"I should be the one apologizing. I didn't know...I didn't know you had
seen him that way. I remember seeing him the first time it happened...
and then seeing him collapse..." Hitomi put her hand on her friend's
shoulder. Merle smiled at her and then put her eyes back to the road.
She gasped.
"Well look at that. We're here already!"
"Nani?" Hitomi asked and then looked around. Just like Merle said, they
were in Austuria...albiet the outskirts of the city. From where they
stood they could clearly see the vast expanses of water throughout,
the beautiful foiliage, and the palace in the distance.
"It's like reliving a memory...It's the same as it was all that time
ago!" Hitomi said, marveling at the scenery before her. Merle smiled.
"Come on, we gotta go meet up with Allen-san..."
"Allen-san?!"
"Mo, what's up with you? He's the easiest way to get into the palace!"
"It's just that...How can I say this..."
"You're not still...hung up on him are you?"
"No way!! It's just that...you know how Van gets all worked up about
that guy...I mean what if he gets mad..." Merle rolled her eyes.
"Baka. Van-sama'll understand. The reason why you're here with me is to help
save him...he's not going to think anything of it...why would he?" She
paused. "Why are *you* making so much of it?"
"I don't mean to. It's just that I'm worried about doing anything to
upset him at this point...I don't want him to get the wrong idea."
"You worry too much." Merle said to the girl. "Van's kinda thick in the
head, yes, but I think he pretty much gets you by now. At least as much
as a man can really understand a woman." Hitomi laughed.
"That's not saying much." Merle burst out laughing.
"No, it's not." She sighed. "We should probably go find A-."
"You found him." Came Allen's voice from behind them. Hitomi and Merle
spun around.
"Allen-san!" Hitomi yelled out.
"Hi-Hitomi!!" He said in shock. "Good to see you."
"Same here."
"Come on, let's get you inside the palace. I'm sure Millerna would
love to see you both. I've heard about all that's been going on in
Fanelia...It's a shame to hear that the person behind all of this
is from Austuria. I hope you find who's behind this soon." Hitomi
nodded agreement. Merle had suddenly found the ground very interesting.
"Merle's been really stingy with the details, so I don't know much.
All I know is that there's something horribly wrong with Van, and
I want to help." Hitomi said. Allen smiled halfheartedly.
"I see you still..." Allen started.
"Don't even start!" Hitomi said, rounding on him. She stopped when
she saw the hurt look on the blonde man's face. "Gomen." He smiled.
"All I wanted to say was that I see you still care a great deal for
him. Sometimes absence makes people forget. And then sometimes it
makes the heart grow fonder. I wasn't trying to say anything against
the man."
"Gomen, Gomen." Hitomi said and smiled. "Can we start over?"
"Of course." Allen replied. He looked up. "We're here."
"Merle-chan!" Millerna came running towards the gate. "Thank
goodness you're safe! I was so worried about you when I heard you
had run off from Fanelia! And...wait a minute...who...*Hitomi-chan*?
Masaka!!" Hitomi smiled and waved.
"Yeah, it's me. How are you, Millerna-san?"
"Forget me! When'd you get back?!"
"She popped up when I was midway between Fanelia and Austuria. Scared
me to death too. I thought one of the guards had caught up to me."
Merle answered.
"You poor things. Let me get a room set up for you so you can rest,
and then you can fill me in on the details, okay?" Hitomi and Merle
nodded. "Oh, and Allen-san," Millerna smiled. "Thank you for meeting
up with Merle."
"Of course, hime." he said as he knelt to kiss her hand. Hitomi
looked at Millerna mischeviously.
"You just spoke up to get a kiss out of him, didn't you, *Hime*."
Millerna smiled and stuck up her nose mockingly.
"I have *no* idea what you're talking about!" And Millerna, Hitomi,
and Merle walked into the palace, all laughing at Allen who they left
kneeling and looking like an idiot at the front gate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi started up to the room prepared for her, her head swimming in
her thoughts. A flash appeared before her eyes the moment she had
opened her door and closed it behind her. Not this again. I don't
want to see this again! . . . wait . . . NANI KORE?!
----
A woman in a palace room. A woman too familiar for comfort. A woman
who looked disturbingly like...Celena-san!!
Celena...Celena, sticking needles through a doll. Sticking needles
through a doll that looked like...that looked like...Van! Lightning
streaking through a dark room, illuminating for but an instant a
crazed look on an innocent face. A face that had developed blood
red eyes. Dilandau taking over his female counterpart. Celena's
soul quietly screaming as Dilandau raped her mind. As Dilandau
forced her to stick pin after heated pin into her doll. A doll that
looked like Van. A doll that...
----
Hitomi stood up and screamed, sobs racking her body. A second later,
Merle rushed into the room to find Hitomi curled up into a ball,
lying on the floor.
"Why?" Hitomi said to the cat girl. "Why didn't you tell me...why
didn't you TELL ME!!" Hitomi screamed. Merle stepped back.
"Hi-Hitomi...tell you what?!"
"Why didn't you tell me that it was Celena that was doing this
to Van?! Why didn't you tell me that her psycho counterpart, Dilandau
was making her do this to ... Does Allen-san know? Does...Is...?"
"Hitomi! What in god's name are you talking about?!" Hitomi froze.
"You mean, you didn't know who was behind this?" Merle looked
to her feet.
"Celena was one of my hunches, yes, but I didn't KNOW anything. Don't
tell me..."
"I had a vision. I had another one of those damn visions. Celena was
poking pins into a doll that looked like Van...except it wasn't Celena
who was doing it. Her eyes were red. I think, no, I'm sure, it's
Dilandau. He's back, and he's forcing Celena to..." She rose to her
feet. "We have to find her room."
"That's easy but...how are we going to fight...I mean...If what you
say is true, then we don't have any combat skills that could win
up against Dilandau...Van-sama even had trouble fighting him!"
"Then what are we going to do?! Enlist Allen-san?! He won't fight
him. It's his sister...we'll end up fighting the two of them!"
"I don't think it's Dilandau though, at least..."
"What are you talking about..."
"Hitomi, calm down and think rationally about this for a second. If
Celena had been completely taken over by Dilandau, don't you think
Van-sama would be dead by now?" Hitomi stopped.
"You're right."
"Here's some more inside information. Celena acts normally in the
morning hours when she's surrounded by people, but at about six in
the evening she goes into her room and tells everyone not to disturb
her. The idiots over here have been chalking it up to her liking to
go to bed early and nothing more."
"When did you become the private investigator, anyway, Merle-chan?"
"Baka. Van-sama's been in pain for months. When the doctors couldn't
do anything for him...I did a lot of snooping around. A lot of
evesdroping around the city. I lost track of how many times I almost
got found out while snooping around for information. I don't want
Van-sama to die! If nothing else, he's the closest thing I have to
a brother. He's the only family I've got. I'm NOT going to lose him
to some psycho who finds joy in sticking needles into him!"
"Right. Then we wait until morning and...then what?"
"Simple. We go into Celena's room, and get that doll."
"Okay then. Oyasumi, Merle-chan. I'll see ya in the morning."
"Oyasumi."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi felt like the evening would never end. She woke up constantly
during the night from having horrible nightmares about Van. Van
screaming in pain. Van calling out her name. Calling for her to help
him. Nightmares that seemed disturbingly to be like visions.
I have to get that doll. I can't wait until morning!
She opened the door to her room and ran straight into Merle.
"Planning on leaving without me?" She smiled quickly and then
turned deadly serious. "Let's go." Hitomi nodded her head.
They both started throught the halls and eventually ended up
in front of Celena's room. Hitomi could feel her heart beating
in her ears. Merle opened the door, and Hitomi sliped in after
her. Hitomi pointed to a desk.
"Over there. That's where she was sitting." Merle nodded as both
of them rushed over to it. Merle held back a scream. Hitomi gulped.
"I was right. It's a voodoo doll." She said plainly. "It's a very
good likeness too. Whoever made this...they knew what they were
doing."
"Damn straight I knew what I was doing." Hitomi and Merle spun
around in fear to face crazed crimson eyes. Dilandau. Not a
Celena-esque Dilandau, but the full fledged thing. "I didn't
hang out with those bastard sorcerers for nothing, did I?"
he started laughing. "That little boy there, he wrecked my face..."
Dilandau started advancing towards Hitomi, knocking things over
as he walked."AND he killed my FRIENDS!" He was now practically
breathing down Hitomi's neck. Hitomi swallowed...and slapped him
across the face. Dillandau stumbled back.
"You know, I figured out about the voodoo doll last night, Dilly."
"DILLY?!"
"I also had a feeling that it wasn't going to be the easiest task
to get you should you figure out what was going on."
"Well, you stupid women could have been a little more quiet when you
were talking last night, too." Dilandau smiled. "I have spys of my own
you know. Too bad your little cat friend didn't figure that one out!"
Hitomi ignored him and reached into her pocket.
"You know Dilandau, I had a LOT of trouble sleeping last night. So,
you know what I did? I took up sewing." She pulled an object out.
"See this doll? Kinda looks like you." Dilandau started stepping back.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you! However..." she started
tugging at the doll's clothing.
"I'm just going to kill you." She pulled the cloth off the doll to show
another likeness underneath. The likeness of Celena. Dilandau screamed.
The sounds of bones crunching echoed throughout the room, and when they
stopped, there was a very tired looking Celena unconcious on the
floor. Hitomi ran over to Celena's desk and picked up the "Van" doll.
It started to glow, and then faded as each one of the pins in it fell
out and disintagrated. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief. Merle ran
over to her and gave her a hug.
"We did it, Hitomi-chan!"
"Yeah...we did. Now let's get to sleep. We'll be heading for Fanelia
in the morning."
"YATTA!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitomi woke to see the sun high in the sky. She flew out of bed.
NOONTIME! Ano baka neko! Why didn't she wake me up?! Hitomi got
dressed in record time and ran to Merle's room. She was sleeping too.
Hitomi sighed. Okay, so we both overslept. She took a deep breath.
"MERLE! WAKE UP!"
"NYAAAAOOO!!! What the! Hitomi-chan, why are you waking me up?!" she
whined and then turned over.
"We were SUPPOSED to start towards Fanelia this morning! It's noon
time!!"
"Daijoubu!" Merle said with a mischivious grin on her face. "The
moment Van-sama realized that he wasn't in pain anymore, he sent a
message with Ruhm that he'd be in Austuria tonight!" Hitomi's face
lit up.
"Masaka! Why didn't you tell me..."
"I figured you needed your sleep. I know I did. Anyway, he should..."
"Nani?" Merle had a shocked expression on her face. "Ne, Merle-chan,
nani?" Merle started up the biggest grin Hitomi had ever seen on the
cat girl's face, tears started forming at the corner of her eyes as
she pointed to a place behind Hitomi. Hitomi spun around and locked
green eyes with brownish red.
Hitomi's heart flew to the sky.
"VAN!" Van looked like he was about to fall over in shock. He had
known she was in Gaea somewhere but he didn't know he was going to
run into her right now and here. Frankly, he was finding it hard to
breathe.
"Hitomi??" Merle ran over to Van and gave him a big hug.
"Van-sama, don't just stand there, go give her a BIIIIIIG kiss!" Van
turned a shade of red that Hitomi had never thought possible in a man.
She didn't joke about it though, because she was sure her face was
ten times redder than his. Van started scowling at the cat girl, who
tapped him on the nose and then ran off saying something about getting
lunch. Hitomi grinned.
"Man, that cat has caused me So much trouble!" Hitomi said nervously.
"Hitomi...Arigatou." Van said as he walked over to her and put his
hands on her shoulders. Hitomi felt butterflies in her stomach.
"For what?" she asked somewhat stupidly.
"For saving my life again." Hitomi was having a lot of trouble with
trying to avert her eyes from his gaze. She knew that if she looked
into those depths for just an instant, that she was never going to be
able to look away again.
"Hitomi? What's wrong?" Hitomi took a deep breath and looked up at
him. It turned out that her thinking was right on track. Now that
she had looked, she couldn't look away.
"I...I love you." Van laughed, the first real laugh in what had seemed
like ages. It was the first time she had said it TO him. She had
stated it before like she was telling herself. Van had tapped into
her thoughts. Now she was saying it to him. Straight at him. He never
had felt happier in his entire life.
"I love you, too, Hitomi." Hitomi started crying. She couldn't help
it. Her face was starting to hurt from the smile she had plastered on
it. She jumped at him and hugged him the hardest that she could. He
did the same. Van reached down to Hitomi's face and cupped it in his
hand, thumb brushing away her tears.
"I'm so glad you're okay." Hitomi whispered weakly. "I saw you...in
all that...pain...I'm sorry it took so long for me to help you..."
"Hitomi...don't worry about it. What matters is that everyone's okay
now...did you know that I heard you?"
"What?"
"You were praying. You saw me in pain and you said 'Van, I'll save
you.' Your voice, your promise was my escape from pain. Thought you
might want to know that." Hitomi laughed.
"You know, you've gotten a lot better at expressing yourself than you
used to."
"Have I?"
"Yeah." she smiled. "Ne, Van..." she started in a mock serious tone.
"Yeah?"
"Did I ever tell you how great you are?" Van smiled.
"Nope." Hitomi looked down, shook her head, and looked up again. She
tilted her head and smiled mischiviously.
"Well, I'm not GOING to tell you."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to show you."
.
And she tickled him to the floor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, minna, don't kill me. I didn't do the kissy thing. HOWEVER,
I left it wide open for a sequal. If I'm so inclined to write one.
Van: You better, or I'm going to get the Seki-gumi after you.
Red: Seki-gumi?
Chichiri: Yes, Van needs his kiss, no da!
Kamui: I'll blow you up!
Koji: I'll sick the Mt. Reikaku bandits on you!
Red: Alright! Alright! *mutters* I'll think about it!
Van: Good
Mata ne!
Sailor Red
Escaflowne belongs to Bandai/Sunrise. Chichiri and Koji are from
Fushigi Yugi, and belong to Movic/Studio Perrot, Yu Watase. Kamui is
from X and belongs to CLAMP. This fic is copyright August 2001 and
belongs to me, Sailor Red. ^_^