Yukari's Story
Part One - Present
"Hitomi sleeps on the school roof. Her friend Yukari sneaks up and awakens her, chiding her for skipping class again. Hitomi tells her about her dream. Yukari shrugs it off. She tells Hitomi that she is having strange dreams because she's bored. She should get a boyfriend, or join a school club. Hitomi rejects these ideas. She's too tired, she says, and her legs hurt.
Yukari notices a letter on the ground next to Hitomi's shoes and goes to pick it up. Hitomi tries to stop her from reading it, but is unable to get it away from her friend in time.
"Dear Uchida Yukari, I am going to die. Bye bye, Yukari. Yours truly, Kanzaki Hitomi."
Hitomi finally manages to snatch the letter away from Yukari and tears it up with embarrassment. Yukari watches her, amused. What was that nonsense all about? No grammar, horrible vocabulary - if Hitomi wants to kill herself, shouldn't leave a stupid note like that! Hitomi assures her that she doesn't have the guts to kill herself. She'll grow old, become a grandmother, and wait for her final day.
A montage sequence begins in which we see Yukari and Hitomi riding the subway, shopping downtown, and walking the streets of their city, laughing. Over it, Hitomi gives a monologue. She wonders how everyone else can be so energetic. She's tired all the time. She sleeps to escape, to disappear. But when she wakes up, nothing has changed. No one has even noticed that she was gone.
The subway train the two friends are riding on suddenly stops due to an accident. Yukari is annoyed, but Hitomi merely looks out the window apathetically. It can't be helped.
Later, Yukari and Hitomi chase each other down a sidewalk, laughing. Hitomi seems happy, but then a bird circling overhead catches her eye. She stops and watches it, hearing a strange, sad song. Yukari asks what's wrong. Hitomi has a vision of a cloaked man standing at the school stadium. "He's calling me," she says.
Yukari, probably wondering if Hitomi is on drugs, decides that its time to have a talk with her depressed friend. As they sit on the stadium steps, Yukari tells her that she's been acting strange, and tries to get Hitomi to explain. Hitomi tells Yukari to stop caring about her. "You're getting on my nerves. I don't like you," she says in a dead voice. Yukari backs away hurt. She claims that she has an appointment to get to, and runs away." (From Web Mistress Lizzard's Synopsis- Arigato! www.lizzard.net/escaflowne/index.html)
Yukari stops running and turns back to look at the stadium where she left Hitomi. I should go back, she thought, and talk with Hitomi. She turns and walks back to the stadium, wondering what to say to her friend. Hitomi had been her only friend for longer then she can remember and she didn't want to loose her if her friend really was depressed.
As she arrives at the stadium she sees Hitomi where she left her, but, what was that she saw in the center of the field? It was a person, but there was something different about him, besides his cloak. She crouched in the bushes watching the two of them talk.
"Come to my world, come to Gaea" she the strange man.
"But...who are you? Where did you come from?" Hitomi asked, wondering if this was all an illusion created by her mind to numb the pain that she felt in her soul.
What is going on, who is that man, why does he want Hitomi? The questions swirled around the mind of Yukari. He must he some weirdo, she thought, Hitomi would never believe what he's saying. Even as she thought this she knew that she was lying to herself.
She and Hitomi have been friends since the day that Hitomi had moved in next door. That was also the day that Yukari found out about Hitomi's ability to see the unseen, the past and the future.... It was a day that she would ever forget.
Part Two- Past
As Yukari crouched in the bushes the remembered that faithful day when she met Hitomi.
::Flashback::
Yukari had been playing in the front yard when a truck and a car pulled up next door. As the movers began unloading the truck, Yukari left her toys and went to see what was happening. The family had gotten out of the car, along with them a young girl got out with them; she was about Yukari's age. The girl just stood there watching the men unload the truck, unmoving. I wonder is she is dead, thought Yukari, better go see if she's okay.
Yukari tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Hello. My name is Uchida Yukari. We live next door, want to play with me?"
"It's going to happen, I've seen it... they will loose their grip and it will happen"
"What? What's going to happen?"
"We have to move" the strange girl replied and pulled Yukari away from the ramp that they were standing in front of. No sooner then they had moved that a Grand Piano came rushing down the ramp, the movers had lost their grip.
"Did you just see what happened? If we had stay there we could have been killed!" the flustered Yukari said, stating the obvious.
"I know... I saw it happen" the girl said turning to Yukari, "My name is Kanzaki Hitomi." Yukari stood shocked, waiting for a better explanation. Hitomi, sensing this, told her "Ever since my grandmother passed away I have seen what is unseen to most people, I know when something bad is going to happen. I also see people... they are not from our world, but they don't talk to me. No one believes that I can see these things, they think that I am making them up... you don't believe me either do you?"
"Well, I have to believe you. Otherwise I might be dead, besides I need a friend to play with."
Together the two girls went back to Yukari's house and spent the day together. As they grew older, they never talked about that day when Hitomi told Yukari her secret. They never talked about any of Hitomi's visions, but they were always there for each other.
Part Three- Present
I have to help Hitomi; she has always been there for me. Now, I'm going to be there for her. With a look of determination Yukari got up from the bushes just in time to see a light surround Hitomi. " NO!!! Hitomi!!!" Yukari yelled as she raced across the field.
But she was too late, she watched as water surrounded Hitomi and drowned her. "Hitomi!" she screamed "Come back!" It was at this time that she saw the pale face of the man that was in the middle of the field. The look of insanity and sadness was on his face.
"You monster! What did you do with my friend?" Yukari gave him a look that told her hatred and fear.
"I have simply given her what she wanted. A chance to leave this world and leave the sorrow that this world caused her" the man told her. He turned his back and vanished into thin air.
"...Where did he go? Hitomi!...Hitomi come back!" with tears streaming down her face she called to her friend. But after two hours she knew that her friend, her only true friend, was gone.
It seems that days had gone by, and Yukari still hadn't heard any news of Hitomi. She was numb, she'd never had to go more then two days with out seeing her best friend and now...Now Yukari had no idea where her best friend was. More days past and with each setting of the sun Yukari's faith that she would find Hitomi diminished. By the end of week, Yukari knew she was not going to see her friend again, her heart was broken, she was never going to find someone who understood her as well as Hitomi had.
Yukari went back to where it had all started, she went back to the last place she saw Hitomi, the stadium. As she sat down on the bleachers she tried to remember WHY she didn't stop Hitomi from going, was it because she hadn't seen Hitomi's depression and this was her revenge? No, it couldn't be, they were like sisters, surely Hitomi would forgive her if she hadn't been a good friend. But there was something that she was missing; she just had to figure out what it was.
Part 4- Gaea
"Yukari..." Hitomi sighed, it's been a few days since the mysterious man with blue hair had transported her to Gaea. She had no idea how to get back to her world, but she was not going to give up, she knew that Yukari would be worried about her. However, Hitomi also knew that deep down inside she wanted to get way from her life, she had wanted to for a long time, she knew that Yukari would never be able to understand her pain. The pain that tore at her soul, that taunted her, she loved Yukari like a sister but, the pain that she felt was even more powerful then even the strength of her friendship with Yukari.
It was a long time since Hitomi had realized that she was different, she could see the future and also people from another world, the world of Gaea. No one believed that she was able to see these things, they said that it was the trauma of the death of her grandmother that caused her imagination to run wild. She knew they were wrong, of course she was devastated when her grandmother died, but that night her grandmother came to her and told her that Hitomi had these powers.
She knew that Yukari would never be able to fully understand what she went through whenever she saw a horrible vision, then pain that she felt when she was not able to help the person. Yukari could never understand, no one could and that's why she kept her pain and her fears inside. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to get away from her visions, but she couldn't, no matter what she did, the visions kept returning. Eventually she had tried to kill herself, but it was Yukari's friendship that held her back, until she saw that vision. A vision that was so horrible, so terrifying, that she knew she was never going to be the same again. The vision was of the death of the world, the death of all who she cared about, the death of her best friend Yukari. So she made up her mind, she was going to kill herself, but Yukari saw her note, and then left her alone. Before she could even get up to go home the man had appeared before her. He offered her the chance to get away from the pain, how could she have refused him?
So she was transported to Gaea, and now, she knew that he lied to her, her visions just kept coming more often. She didn't know what to do or how to get home. She had never felt more alone.
Part 5- Earth
"Hitomi" whispered Yukari, it had been more then 10 days and Hitomi still had not come back, Hitomi's mother was now frantic, and everyone was worried about her. Yukari knew that Hitomi would find her way back to her, because Yukari had faith in Hitomi, she knew that Hitomi was special and that Hitomi had that inner strength about her.
Two weeks after the disappearance of Hitomi, Yukari decided to go back to the field where Hitomi disappeared, she thought that maybe just maybe Hitomi would come back if Yukari wished for it strong enough. As she was walking there she thought back on all the times that she was not there for Hitomi when she had been hurting, then she wondered how many other times that Hitomi had been hurting and she did not realize it. She felt horrible, Yukari figured that Hitomi was gone because she was a bad friend and was not there for her when she needed her the most.
As she walked up to the spot where Hitomi left she felt strange... "It's like some invisible force, could it be Hitomi's energy?" she paused "HITOMI...Hitomi can you hear me? Come back to Earth!" Nothing, it was quiet around the field. Yukari looked up to the overcast sky; "Will you ever come back?"
Then, suddenly, a blue light burst forth from the sky. It was the same light that had taken Hitomi to Gaea, and now it was returning the girl to her rightful world. Hitomi appeared lost and confused, she looked around "Am I back, is this the Earth?". Hitomi looked around again, her eyes adjusting to the dimness from the dark sky, not to far away she could make out a figure, "Yukari? YUKARI!!!!" She ran into her best friend's arms, and they stayed like that for a minute.
"It's really you Hitomi? I'm so glad you're safe!" crying Yukari asked, "what happened to you? Did you go because of me?"
"No, no" The other girl replied, "I was transported to another world called Gaea...."
As Hitomi told Yukari her incredible story, Yukari could only listen in silence at the tale that Hitomi was telling her, she could only cry at the end. From now on, Yukari promised herself, I will be there for you, I won't let you suffer alone any longer.
Part One - Present
"Hitomi sleeps on the school roof. Her friend Yukari sneaks up and awakens her, chiding her for skipping class again. Hitomi tells her about her dream. Yukari shrugs it off. She tells Hitomi that she is having strange dreams because she's bored. She should get a boyfriend, or join a school club. Hitomi rejects these ideas. She's too tired, she says, and her legs hurt.
Yukari notices a letter on the ground next to Hitomi's shoes and goes to pick it up. Hitomi tries to stop her from reading it, but is unable to get it away from her friend in time.
"Dear Uchida Yukari, I am going to die. Bye bye, Yukari. Yours truly, Kanzaki Hitomi."
Hitomi finally manages to snatch the letter away from Yukari and tears it up with embarrassment. Yukari watches her, amused. What was that nonsense all about? No grammar, horrible vocabulary - if Hitomi wants to kill herself, shouldn't leave a stupid note like that! Hitomi assures her that she doesn't have the guts to kill herself. She'll grow old, become a grandmother, and wait for her final day.
A montage sequence begins in which we see Yukari and Hitomi riding the subway, shopping downtown, and walking the streets of their city, laughing. Over it, Hitomi gives a monologue. She wonders how everyone else can be so energetic. She's tired all the time. She sleeps to escape, to disappear. But when she wakes up, nothing has changed. No one has even noticed that she was gone.
The subway train the two friends are riding on suddenly stops due to an accident. Yukari is annoyed, but Hitomi merely looks out the window apathetically. It can't be helped.
Later, Yukari and Hitomi chase each other down a sidewalk, laughing. Hitomi seems happy, but then a bird circling overhead catches her eye. She stops and watches it, hearing a strange, sad song. Yukari asks what's wrong. Hitomi has a vision of a cloaked man standing at the school stadium. "He's calling me," she says.
Yukari, probably wondering if Hitomi is on drugs, decides that its time to have a talk with her depressed friend. As they sit on the stadium steps, Yukari tells her that she's been acting strange, and tries to get Hitomi to explain. Hitomi tells Yukari to stop caring about her. "You're getting on my nerves. I don't like you," she says in a dead voice. Yukari backs away hurt. She claims that she has an appointment to get to, and runs away." (From Web Mistress Lizzard's Synopsis- Arigato! www.lizzard.net/escaflowne/index.html)
Yukari stops running and turns back to look at the stadium where she left Hitomi. I should go back, she thought, and talk with Hitomi. She turns and walks back to the stadium, wondering what to say to her friend. Hitomi had been her only friend for longer then she can remember and she didn't want to loose her if her friend really was depressed.
As she arrives at the stadium she sees Hitomi where she left her, but, what was that she saw in the center of the field? It was a person, but there was something different about him, besides his cloak. She crouched in the bushes watching the two of them talk.
"Come to my world, come to Gaea" she the strange man.
"But...who are you? Where did you come from?" Hitomi asked, wondering if this was all an illusion created by her mind to numb the pain that she felt in her soul.
What is going on, who is that man, why does he want Hitomi? The questions swirled around the mind of Yukari. He must he some weirdo, she thought, Hitomi would never believe what he's saying. Even as she thought this she knew that she was lying to herself.
She and Hitomi have been friends since the day that Hitomi had moved in next door. That was also the day that Yukari found out about Hitomi's ability to see the unseen, the past and the future.... It was a day that she would ever forget.
Part Two- Past
As Yukari crouched in the bushes the remembered that faithful day when she met Hitomi.
::Flashback::
Yukari had been playing in the front yard when a truck and a car pulled up next door. As the movers began unloading the truck, Yukari left her toys and went to see what was happening. The family had gotten out of the car, along with them a young girl got out with them; she was about Yukari's age. The girl just stood there watching the men unload the truck, unmoving. I wonder is she is dead, thought Yukari, better go see if she's okay.
Yukari tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Hello. My name is Uchida Yukari. We live next door, want to play with me?"
"It's going to happen, I've seen it... they will loose their grip and it will happen"
"What? What's going to happen?"
"We have to move" the strange girl replied and pulled Yukari away from the ramp that they were standing in front of. No sooner then they had moved that a Grand Piano came rushing down the ramp, the movers had lost their grip.
"Did you just see what happened? If we had stay there we could have been killed!" the flustered Yukari said, stating the obvious.
"I know... I saw it happen" the girl said turning to Yukari, "My name is Kanzaki Hitomi." Yukari stood shocked, waiting for a better explanation. Hitomi, sensing this, told her "Ever since my grandmother passed away I have seen what is unseen to most people, I know when something bad is going to happen. I also see people... they are not from our world, but they don't talk to me. No one believes that I can see these things, they think that I am making them up... you don't believe me either do you?"
"Well, I have to believe you. Otherwise I might be dead, besides I need a friend to play with."
Together the two girls went back to Yukari's house and spent the day together. As they grew older, they never talked about that day when Hitomi told Yukari her secret. They never talked about any of Hitomi's visions, but they were always there for each other.
Part Three- Present
I have to help Hitomi; she has always been there for me. Now, I'm going to be there for her. With a look of determination Yukari got up from the bushes just in time to see a light surround Hitomi. " NO!!! Hitomi!!!" Yukari yelled as she raced across the field.
But she was too late, she watched as water surrounded Hitomi and drowned her. "Hitomi!" she screamed "Come back!" It was at this time that she saw the pale face of the man that was in the middle of the field. The look of insanity and sadness was on his face.
"You monster! What did you do with my friend?" Yukari gave him a look that told her hatred and fear.
"I have simply given her what she wanted. A chance to leave this world and leave the sorrow that this world caused her" the man told her. He turned his back and vanished into thin air.
"...Where did he go? Hitomi!...Hitomi come back!" with tears streaming down her face she called to her friend. But after two hours she knew that her friend, her only true friend, was gone.
It seems that days had gone by, and Yukari still hadn't heard any news of Hitomi. She was numb, she'd never had to go more then two days with out seeing her best friend and now...Now Yukari had no idea where her best friend was. More days past and with each setting of the sun Yukari's faith that she would find Hitomi diminished. By the end of week, Yukari knew she was not going to see her friend again, her heart was broken, she was never going to find someone who understood her as well as Hitomi had.
Yukari went back to where it had all started, she went back to the last place she saw Hitomi, the stadium. As she sat down on the bleachers she tried to remember WHY she didn't stop Hitomi from going, was it because she hadn't seen Hitomi's depression and this was her revenge? No, it couldn't be, they were like sisters, surely Hitomi would forgive her if she hadn't been a good friend. But there was something that she was missing; she just had to figure out what it was.
Part 4- Gaea
"Yukari..." Hitomi sighed, it's been a few days since the mysterious man with blue hair had transported her to Gaea. She had no idea how to get back to her world, but she was not going to give up, she knew that Yukari would be worried about her. However, Hitomi also knew that deep down inside she wanted to get way from her life, she had wanted to for a long time, she knew that Yukari would never be able to understand her pain. The pain that tore at her soul, that taunted her, she loved Yukari like a sister but, the pain that she felt was even more powerful then even the strength of her friendship with Yukari.
It was a long time since Hitomi had realized that she was different, she could see the future and also people from another world, the world of Gaea. No one believed that she was able to see these things, they said that it was the trauma of the death of her grandmother that caused her imagination to run wild. She knew they were wrong, of course she was devastated when her grandmother died, but that night her grandmother came to her and told her that Hitomi had these powers.
She knew that Yukari would never be able to fully understand what she went through whenever she saw a horrible vision, then pain that she felt when she was not able to help the person. Yukari could never understand, no one could and that's why she kept her pain and her fears inside. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to get away from her visions, but she couldn't, no matter what she did, the visions kept returning. Eventually she had tried to kill herself, but it was Yukari's friendship that held her back, until she saw that vision. A vision that was so horrible, so terrifying, that she knew she was never going to be the same again. The vision was of the death of the world, the death of all who she cared about, the death of her best friend Yukari. So she made up her mind, she was going to kill herself, but Yukari saw her note, and then left her alone. Before she could even get up to go home the man had appeared before her. He offered her the chance to get away from the pain, how could she have refused him?
So she was transported to Gaea, and now, she knew that he lied to her, her visions just kept coming more often. She didn't know what to do or how to get home. She had never felt more alone.
Part 5- Earth
"Hitomi" whispered Yukari, it had been more then 10 days and Hitomi still had not come back, Hitomi's mother was now frantic, and everyone was worried about her. Yukari knew that Hitomi would find her way back to her, because Yukari had faith in Hitomi, she knew that Hitomi was special and that Hitomi had that inner strength about her.
Two weeks after the disappearance of Hitomi, Yukari decided to go back to the field where Hitomi disappeared, she thought that maybe just maybe Hitomi would come back if Yukari wished for it strong enough. As she was walking there she thought back on all the times that she was not there for Hitomi when she had been hurting, then she wondered how many other times that Hitomi had been hurting and she did not realize it. She felt horrible, Yukari figured that Hitomi was gone because she was a bad friend and was not there for her when she needed her the most.
As she walked up to the spot where Hitomi left she felt strange... "It's like some invisible force, could it be Hitomi's energy?" she paused "HITOMI...Hitomi can you hear me? Come back to Earth!" Nothing, it was quiet around the field. Yukari looked up to the overcast sky; "Will you ever come back?"
Then, suddenly, a blue light burst forth from the sky. It was the same light that had taken Hitomi to Gaea, and now it was returning the girl to her rightful world. Hitomi appeared lost and confused, she looked around "Am I back, is this the Earth?". Hitomi looked around again, her eyes adjusting to the dimness from the dark sky, not to far away she could make out a figure, "Yukari? YUKARI!!!!" She ran into her best friend's arms, and they stayed like that for a minute.
"It's really you Hitomi? I'm so glad you're safe!" crying Yukari asked, "what happened to you? Did you go because of me?"
"No, no" The other girl replied, "I was transported to another world called Gaea...."
As Hitomi told Yukari her incredible story, Yukari could only listen in silence at the tale that Hitomi was telling her, she could only cry at the end. From now on, Yukari promised herself, I will be there for you, I won't let you suffer alone any longer.