1 Author's note: I've heard that in the anime they did this odd thing with Emeraude's crown being "proof of the Pillar" or something. Not in the manga, in the manga it was the road to the Pillar. Only the Pillar knew where the road was. Once you found the road, you had to be able to enter it, travel it, pass a test, and come back. If more than one person could go down the road, one of them would fail the test, therefore, which ever hadn't passed had to disappear.

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3 Chapter 4: Partial Explanations

Hikaru frowned at them, searching for an explanation that would satisfy them and also answer her questions.

Hey! Maybe I could say, 'Hi! My friends and I would like you to leave. You see, we're discussing how to get me out of here and we really would like some privacy.' Oh yeah, that's really going to convince them to leave! Hikaru smiled wryly, thinking about what their faces would look like if she did ask them that.

How am I going to get answers to my questions if they're the ones interrogating me? This is not good.

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Eagle waited for the girl to come out of her thoughts.

She seems to have relaxed a little bit; she was smiling a few minutes ago.

But before he could ask any questions Geo jumped in.

"Who were they?" he asked abruptly, startling the girl out of her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she shook her head, as if to shake off her thoughts.

"Those girls, who were they? And who are you anyway?"

"I am Magic Knight Hikaru Shido, those were my friends, the other two Magic Knights, Umi Ruuyzaki and Fuu Hououji," Hikaru frowned at him, "And who are you?" A hint of disrespect entered her tone, as though she did not exactly approve of his gruff manner.

"Geo Metro."

"Pleased to meet you, Geo-sama," I'm starting to sound like Fuu. Hikaru thought, as she looked expectantly at the other two.

"I am Eagle of Autozam, and this is Zazu Torque." Recognition sped across Hikaru's face at his name.

"I thought you sounded familiar." She muttered to herself.

So, this is Autozam's spaceship. He must be the one who was in, what did Umi call it? The white-robot-thingy? That was it. I guess this isn't too bad, I'm stuck in the road of the man who is perhaps good enough to beat me, and he seems to know a lot about us Magic Knights as it is. What more could he want to know?

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Eagle watched her carefully, trying to tell what approach to take with this girl. She seemed a bit afraid of Geo, had disregarded Zazu as a threat and wasn't sure where to put him.

Well, it looks like she's better, not well enough to get out of bed, but well enough to talk. I'll have to get rid of Geo though, if I want any chance of talking to her normally, I'd better make sure he doesn't break in and scare her again.

"Geo, why don't you and Zazu go get your drinks?" he looked at Geo. Geo glared back. Eagle raised an eyebrow, waiting for the other man to back down as he had to.

"Fine, come on Zazu." They left, closing the doors behind them. Eagle turned back to Hikaru. She looked at him, puzzled.

I just can't figure him out. I would have sworn he'd keep the other two in here for back up. Oh well, I guess I don't look like much of a threat right now anyway. But still, you'd think.

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Fuu collapsed on the floor, looking like she had run for five days straight and hadn't stopped once. Umi wasn't any better.

So, that's where Hikaru is. She seems to be better. I just hope that nobody was in there when we showed up, I couldn't tell, but I think there might have been. But now that we can talk to Hikaru, maybe we can find a less painful way of doing so. Fuu stirred a bit and looked up, straight into the face of a very upset looking Ferio.

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Hikaru was waiting for him to talk, once again.

He seems to spend too much time thinking, which is not very satisfactory if you want answers. But I shouldn't be talking look what I've been doing for the last hour and a half. Hikaru was completely prepared to wait him out.

If he really is the same man in the robot, why didn't he kill me? He could of. I'm sure of it. He's had the chance to seriously hurt me before, but stopped because Lantis showed up. Why stop this time? Someone who wants to be the Pillar and knows what the Magic Knights are for should want to get rid of them, right? I don't understand.

She was so wrapped up in thinking she wasn't paying much attention to him. She looked up as he sat down, watching her.

"Would you care to tell me about it?" his voice held sympathy as he looked at her.

"What?" Hikaru was confused. What was he talking about now?

"The battle," they both knew which one he was talking about.

Hikaru stared at him coldly; she wasn't going to pour out her heartaches to a complete stranger, who just so happened to be an enemy as well, even if she thought he wasn't so bad.

So, he knows the legend behind us doesn't he? Is it that obvious that that battle scarred us? How can he tell? Did Lantis tell him when he was there? Did they know each other? I wonder. Hikaru thought of an idea.

"If you tell me why you want to become the Pillar, I will tell you what happened." Hikaru was hoping he'd say no, she didn't want to go into what really occurred that day.

It won't happen again, not ever again. But if we don't get another Pillar, Cephiro will crumble. What can we do? What is there we should do? Once we find the road to the Pillar, what will happen?

"All right, it is fair," he had taken a while to answer and was obviously reluctant to agree. "But you first."

"Okay." Hikaru launched into her story, starting with Tokyo Tower and continuing until they were sent back. By the time she was half way through she was holding back tears. When she was done, she was almost at the breaking point. It was only her determination to keep from crying in front of him that kept her from giving it up.

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Oh dear, she looks like she's going to start crying. I hope that doesn't happen.

Eagle wasn't very experienced in handling girls who suddenly burst into tears. He was even further distressed when she turned away from him and looked like she was going to do just that.

In a few moments she looked back at him, her eyes shining with tears held back. Hikaru was obviously upset, and wasn't going to be able to hold in her feelings for very much longer.

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Why can't he leave? Right now I don't care; I want to be alone. I want to sort this out on my own, without him seeing me like this.

"Please go away," Hikaru wasn't going to be able to hold in very much longer, she kept hearing Princess Emeraude's voice in her head begging them to kill her. "Please? I just want to be left alone."

"No." Hikaru looked up, surprised and angry.