Disclaimer: I am in no way the creator or owner of The Vision of Escaflowne. However, the characters of Shiryoku and Shiro are my own creations. If you would like to use them, e-mail me and ask before you do please.
Correction: In the prolouge, I wrote that Van had "...translucent green eyes..." THIS IS WRONG. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT VAN HAS BROWN EYES. I AM SO VERY SORRY. (AND HE'S MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!) Ah well, I wrote the prolouge very late at night so I blame the absent mindedness on sleep deprivation.
Note: This is supposed to be a second season for "The Vision of Escaflowne" describing what happens after the first season ends. I try my best to write the story as if the reader were watching it.
Now knowing all this...Let's get down to business!
~Escaflowne Returns: Shiryoku's Visions~
~Vision 1: Explanations for Van~
"Was it all a dream, another vision, or was it for real? Did my mother really jump off the roof of the house, commiting suicide? Did the infamous Prince Van, the king of Fanelia, really show up in my front yard looking for my mother...or I am just as crazy as the neighbors said my mother was? NO, I AM FOR SURE THIS IS FOR REAL!"
It has been a week since the passing of my mother but I remember the events of that night so clearly. Van had hid himself in the shadows while the police interragated me on the death of my mother. They were quite curt to me; they acted as if I had already gained a certificate that proclaimed I was insane and that I was a danger to the common people. After the police had decided it was truly a suicide caused by a "mental lapse" in my mother's mind, they arranged for an ambulance to carry her limp, lifeless body to the morgue.
Van stepped out of the shadows while the vehicles drove away into the navy velvet night. I stood by the pool of scarlet that marked where my mother's body had been. I simply stood there while the wind blew gently against my hair and face. I heard Van's soft footsteps rustle the grass until I saw his shadow behind me. Then he stopped walking.
He spoke. "How could you let them treat you like that? How could they say those things about Hitomi? Couldn't you have said something; you should have taken up for yourself!" Van changed his message from searching for answers to anger to frustration. I noticed in the shadow that I saw in front of me that his fist were clenched now, head hanging downward toward the blood puddle.
I folded my arms quietly and switched the weight from one leg to the other. "Van, this is Earth. People are a little different here from Fanelia from what oka-san told me...and yea, the way they treated mother and I, it did bother me when I was young...but you learn to block it out and ignore it," I say trying to comfort him knowing I was lying. It did bother me though. I had always felt out of place, sticking out like a sore thumb. Sometimes, when people say things so harshly, one just can't block it out... although I did try. I tried because I wanted to be strong for my mother. She had been so strong for me while my stupid father was out cheating on her, coming home drunk, and then abusing her in more ways then one. Still through all this loved me. Now, knowing that she really did go to Gaea and fall in love with prince, knowing that she could've had such a better life there had she been able to stay...
I clenched my hands even tighter around my triceps. I lowered my head so my long bangs would cover my face. I didn't want Van to see me cry.
She had given me everything...she had cared for me, protected me, and most of all, loved me...and I...I...doubted her...blamed her...and had even hated her when I was younger...I must have been an awful child! And now... no way to apologize...no time to make up for all that was lost...no chance to ever tell her how proud I had become of her.
"Why did you come here, Van Fanel...this is a wretched place to be...I'm sure it's nothing like the beautiful Fanelia, Asturia, and Fried my mother desciribed to me..." I say choking back tears.
Van finally walked up to where I could see his profile out of my poriffieal vision. He sighed and stayed quiet for a couple of seconds as if he were thinking of what to say. Finally, he looks at me and says, "I had to see her...the pendant...no the will of wishes, the column of light brought us together...but..." I cut him off mid sentence. I could see that it was hurting him to talk about it.
"I suppose you are searching for answers to questions that you couldn't possibly answer..." I say turning towards him and sniffling. "She didn't betray you, if that's what you are thinking..." I say with great conviction.
Van stood there in amazement. I could see he didn't expect me to be able to read his emotions and thoughts that well.
I wipe my face clean of the salt water tears that had dripped down it and look up to the chirstmas light dotted night sky. "It seems so silly to be telling you this...but she told me all about her adventures with you and everyone else in the form of a bedtime story..." I glance over at him. "You were the dashing young prince...headstrong, high and mighty, righteous, and always doing what was best for your people." Van turned a little red in the cheeks. "You were always my favorite character..." I say looking back up at the sky and closing my eyes. "In fact, I used to tell myself that someday, a great guy like you would come and find me...he'd come save me from this hell hole..." I said looking back at Van with a small smile.
By now, the poor thing was blood red in his face. "Hitomi made me out to be that great, huh?" He looked down at his shirt and grabbed a stunning red pendant. "I geuss this should be returned to you...it was hers that her grandmother had given to her..." Van says quietly as he takes off the pendant and offers it to me. "No, I can't possibly take that...she gave it to you as a gift right before she left...it's yours to keep...forever..." I say pushing his hand closed and back towards his chest.
"You really do know everything that happended, don't you?" Van says wondering how I could have possibly known that. "Hai, everything that my mother told me...from her point of view at least..." I turn back towards the house and let my arms go limp by my sides. I walk up on the first step of the porch and then plop down. Van follows and then props himself up against the porch post.
"So where do you want to start..." he says. I can tell that he is really baffled by all of the events taking place around him.
"Most likely the best place to start would be where you left off...after Hitomi got back from Gaea..."
"But that was only a year ago..." Van says trying to make sense out of everything.
"Maybe on Gaea it was...but here, that was seventeen years ago...where is Gaea in relation to the Earth?" I ask very randomly.
"I don't really know...we don't use science; it's considered an evil, corruptive thing because that's what Dornkirk used to gather his army and use the fate alteration machine," Van says very matter-of-factly.
"Oh...well, I was just thinking that if Gaea took seventeen Earth years to revolve around the sun, maybe that could be one Gaean year...maybe if it moved around the Earth like Uranus's rings do...vertically like this," I say while picking a flower and moving my pointer finger around it vertically. "That could also explain why Gaeans are able to see both the Earth and the moon in the sky at night," I hypothesieze to myself and Van at the same time.
Van looks blown away. He then very timidly says, "Uranus?"
"Yea...Uranus...you know, that planet out there before Neptune..." I say very sarcastically. "Neptune?..." Van says once again looking blown away. "Oh...you haven't ever heard about them I suppose if you weren't allowed to study science..." I say finally realizing that the boy is ignorant to things like this. "Well, what did they teach you in school?"
Van finally sits down next to me on the step. "Well, they taught me edict, royal diplomatics, swordfighting and war skills and strategy...Fanelian language and math, the history of Fanelia, and how to kill a dragon to ascend the throne."
I sit there absolutely amazed. The boy had been trained since he was young to be nothing but a king. I wondered if he had even had a childhood. "How do you know our language so well then? You speak it pretty fluently..." I say really randomly trailing off thinking.
"Hitomi taught me. She also taught me Algebra, Geometry, English, and she offered to teach me some science but I refused," he said with a little bit of a smirk on his face. He then sits down with his arms on top of his knees. He put his head on top of his arms and I can tell that he is thinking about something by the look in his eyes.
A muffled statement comes from him, but I can understand what he was saying. "Was your dad good to her?" His eyes peek just above his hands.
"No..."I shake my head and tilt it to the ground. I put my elbow on my knee and place my head in my hand. "He wasn't good to either of us. In fact, he just left us...he didn't even ask for a divorce...he just gives us-well me now- half of his check every month and roams around everywhere."
"Hey..." Van lifts his head up really quick, "it's gonna rain." He points to the dark, thick, heavy clouds looming over the moon. "We should go inside," he says as he grabs my hand and quickly drags me inside.
Sure enough, not long after a torenting rain begins to pour down. I watch the window as I watch the scarlet stain fade away into the green grass. Van sits at the table.
I look at him and notice for the fist time his clothes. He had on a red silk shirt with a pair of tan pants made for holding a sword sheath and various other things. Then, he had on a pair of brown gloves. "He's gonna look really out of place when he gets to school..." I think to myself.
"What kinda of clothes do you like?" I say being the first to break the awkward sileince. "Huh?" he replies. I walk over to the table and take the seat opposite of him. I put both elbows on the table and fold my hands in one another making a little table for my chin to rest on. "You have to go to school and you need a uniform to attend, so I already need to get you a school uniform...but that's the only outfit you have right? I mean you can't just go around wearing that one all the time; it'll get to stinking." I say in a tone of voice that makes it more than a fact. Van looks down at his clothes.
"You're right..." he says as he looks back up at me. "I like things similar to this...I don't like clothes very much..." he says kinda arrogantly. "Cool...I'll call Yukari-san and Amano-san and tell them what has happended and they'll take care of the funeral arrangements...that way we can go shopping tomorrow," I say as I reach behind me to get the phone off the kitchen counter.
"Amano?!?" Van yells very surprised. "Hai...Amano..." I say not knowing why he was so surprised. "The man Hitomi was trying to get back to..."he drifts off in mid-sentence. "Oh...so she talked about him to you...then you mustn't know that she realized that her best friend, Yukari, loved Amano but stepped out of the way and helped Hitomi when she realized that Amano liked her. But oka-san was gone for so long that Yukari and Amano became close. They recently got married and had a little one...happy little ending for those two, isn't it?" I ask him as he is still looking stunned. "I am going to go call them now...you can help yourself to anything in the fridge or in the cabinets...afterall, my house is your house now..." I say as I leave the room with the portable phone.
I hear a couple of rings and I hear Yukari-san pick up. "Konnichiwa," she says very groggily. "Yukari-san...Gomen-ne, but it's urgent..." I say quietly. "Shiryoku! Are you all right?" she asks very concerned. "No, I'm fine thanks; it is oka-san though...she ano...ano...ano..." I begin searching for the words...
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Van walks around in the kitchen for a couple of seconds before finally digging into the fridge. "I am famished...I haven't had anything to eat since Merlu cooked me breakfast this morning...Gaean morning...or however it works out..." he says outloud to himself while shoving things around in the fridge. "Some of this stuff I've never even layed eyes on before...AH HA! A sandwhich!" he says triumphantly. Van takes the sandwhich out of the fridge and grabs a plate out of the cabinet. He wanders into the living room and begins looking at all the pictures that adorn the walls and various surfaces.
Van comes across one picture of Hitomi, Shiryoku, Keiichi, Amano, and Yukari. "They all look so happy except for Shiryoku..." he says as he takes a huge side bite out of the sandwhich. He sits down and stares at the picture some more. "That man...he looks a lot like Allen...and that girl...she looks a lot like Shiryoku..."
Van's thoughts are interrupted. "I am afraid that it would be the other way around...I look like Yukari," I say announcing that I was back. "Oh," Van says as he looks really startled, " ummm...I got the sandwhich...I hope you don't mind." "No worries," I reply. I take a seat next to him.
"The man standing next to Hitomi-that's my father...Keichii Akane...then Hitomi...me...Amano...and Yukari...Yukari and Amano are my godparents so that if anything ever happened to my mom...someone would be there to take care of me...that's why I am going to let Yukari do the funeral arrangements...she said she would...she also doesn't know about you yet...we have to figure you out something to tell everyone..." I say just spouting out information to Van.
"What does that mean?" he says really rudely still munching on the sandwhich. "It means you can't just go around telling people that you're from Gaea!...you'll have to play like you're from Earth...OH I KNOW! You are our foriegn exchange student from Fanelia-the prince to be exact- and it's a country even smaller than Monaco and that's why no one's ever heard of it! Perfect! Sometimes I amaze myself..." I say very satisfied.
"Uh huh..." grunts Van polishing off the crusts of the sandwhich.
"What time is it?" I ask. "Nightime..." Van says really sarcastically. "Hardy-hardy-har-har, Van," I quip back just as sarcastic. "No, really, what time is it?" "How should I know," he says," I don't know Earthly time," and whith that he gets up and takes his plate back to the kitchen. "Well, I'm really tired," I call to him in the kitchen, "so I need to show you your room, but you're welcome to stay up and do whatever..." He walks back into the room and props himself up against the wall. "Nah, that's ok...I'm pretty tired myself...so lead the way."
I take him down the hall and then stop and think about what I was about to do. "There are three bedrooms in this house: mine, Hitomi's, and the guest bedroom which has stuff in it...do you think you could manage staying in Hitomi's room?" I say as I turn around to look at him. "Yea, I'll be fine..." he says. He steps in front of me acting as if this wasn't going to be a challenge for him at all.
I push the door open and flick the light on to see that the feathers and the blue writting is still strown all over the place. "Ano...as you can see, she was waiting-no more like expecting you...that's why the feathers are all over the place...they reminded her of you...," I say folding my hands behind my back. He turns around to look at me and he blushes. "She told you about that too, huh?" he says raising an eyebrow not knowing what I might say next.
Van steps over the threshold of the room and approaches a wall with the blue writting on it. He puts his pointer finger up to it and starts tracing over the markings one by one. He begins mumbling something to himself. Finally, he speaks. "It's the same thing over and over...'one angel falls to the green Earth below, the other takes to the skies forever flying high,'...it's Fanelian," he says solemnly.
I gasp. "Are you sure that is what this says?!? That can't be right!" I yell as I run out of the room and grab the tarot deck from in the living room. I race back down the hall and flip the deck over and start shuffling through the cards. "Look at this...La Torre, La Fool, La Serpent...then she wrote that all over the walls...I had a vison...I watched her tell that quote to you..." I begin to fear what I am concluding. "What does all this mean?" Van ask innocently. "Everything is pointing to you, Van...The tower is trouble, the fool means lies, the serpent stands for the dragon...one angel falls to the green Earth- Hitomi died, she goes back in the Earth...you have angel wings and as long as you're alive you can fly..." I begin to get really flustered. "Whoa...whoa...calm down...," he says bending down to the floor where I have set the cards,"are you saying that you think my coming here caused your mother to kill herself?"
I back away from him. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have said anything..." I push my head down to the side with teardrops flying as I realize how uncomfortable I have made the poor guy feel now. "I can sense that you are telling the truth but the cards and that quote...they are also trying to tell me something..." He takes my chin in his hand and directs my glance toward him.
"I want you to remeber this: I loved your mother...every single bit of her...even what made her unique; her ability to have visions and premonitions...you don't have to apologize for instincts..." he says very confidently.
I blush. I smile. Tears welp up in my eyes. I couldn't help but cry. No one has ever just fully accepted me as I am but here is this person I've known for only a few hours telling me that it's ok for me to be just me. "Hey! c'mon now, don't cry..." he pleads bending underneath all my hair to see my face.
"No...you don't understand...it's tears of joy...now I know why oka-san loved you so much...arigatou Van-sama. Goodnight for now," I say as I dash out of the room , slam my door shut, and jump on my bed. As soon as I hit the bed, I begin to fall asleep. But before I do, I remeber oka-san telling me that people's feelings reached each other...no matter how far apart. "Oka-san...is this your way of taking care of me? I'd like to think so..." I say as I finally dift off into the realm of dreams.
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(In Van's room) "She's more like her mother than she realizes...just running out like that for no apparent reason..." I say to myself with a slight smile. I begin to look around the room. Once again, there are many pictures hanging and sitting all around. They are mostly of the same people too. I begin to examine the still-lifes. "Still...Hitomi looks so happy but Shiryoku looks so sad...Shiryoku doesn't look like her father at all either..." I say picking up the picture on the night stand beside me. "What was I thinking Hitomi?...Trying to take you back to Gaea...I should have known better...Escaflowne would have tried to revive itself and that could have sparked something...I geuss we were both just feeling a little alone and under accepted..." I lay down on her bed while holding up the picture in front of my face. "...I geuss that is just what everyone wants out of life...to be accepted and loved by someone...to feel a place and a purpose...you found it with Shiryoku, didn't you?...I understand," I finish my little solioquy as sleep deprivation takes over my body.
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Author's note: I switched with point of views this time from Shiryoku to Van...I'm not sure if i like it...reveiw and let me know what you think! PLEASE!
Correction: In the prolouge, I wrote that Van had "...translucent green eyes..." THIS IS WRONG. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT VAN HAS BROWN EYES. I AM SO VERY SORRY. (AND HE'S MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!) Ah well, I wrote the prolouge very late at night so I blame the absent mindedness on sleep deprivation.
Note: This is supposed to be a second season for "The Vision of Escaflowne" describing what happens after the first season ends. I try my best to write the story as if the reader were watching it.
Now knowing all this...Let's get down to business!
~Escaflowne Returns: Shiryoku's Visions~
~Vision 1: Explanations for Van~
"Was it all a dream, another vision, or was it for real? Did my mother really jump off the roof of the house, commiting suicide? Did the infamous Prince Van, the king of Fanelia, really show up in my front yard looking for my mother...or I am just as crazy as the neighbors said my mother was? NO, I AM FOR SURE THIS IS FOR REAL!"
It has been a week since the passing of my mother but I remember the events of that night so clearly. Van had hid himself in the shadows while the police interragated me on the death of my mother. They were quite curt to me; they acted as if I had already gained a certificate that proclaimed I was insane and that I was a danger to the common people. After the police had decided it was truly a suicide caused by a "mental lapse" in my mother's mind, they arranged for an ambulance to carry her limp, lifeless body to the morgue.
Van stepped out of the shadows while the vehicles drove away into the navy velvet night. I stood by the pool of scarlet that marked where my mother's body had been. I simply stood there while the wind blew gently against my hair and face. I heard Van's soft footsteps rustle the grass until I saw his shadow behind me. Then he stopped walking.
He spoke. "How could you let them treat you like that? How could they say those things about Hitomi? Couldn't you have said something; you should have taken up for yourself!" Van changed his message from searching for answers to anger to frustration. I noticed in the shadow that I saw in front of me that his fist were clenched now, head hanging downward toward the blood puddle.
I folded my arms quietly and switched the weight from one leg to the other. "Van, this is Earth. People are a little different here from Fanelia from what oka-san told me...and yea, the way they treated mother and I, it did bother me when I was young...but you learn to block it out and ignore it," I say trying to comfort him knowing I was lying. It did bother me though. I had always felt out of place, sticking out like a sore thumb. Sometimes, when people say things so harshly, one just can't block it out... although I did try. I tried because I wanted to be strong for my mother. She had been so strong for me while my stupid father was out cheating on her, coming home drunk, and then abusing her in more ways then one. Still through all this loved me. Now, knowing that she really did go to Gaea and fall in love with prince, knowing that she could've had such a better life there had she been able to stay...
I clenched my hands even tighter around my triceps. I lowered my head so my long bangs would cover my face. I didn't want Van to see me cry.
She had given me everything...she had cared for me, protected me, and most of all, loved me...and I...I...doubted her...blamed her...and had even hated her when I was younger...I must have been an awful child! And now... no way to apologize...no time to make up for all that was lost...no chance to ever tell her how proud I had become of her.
"Why did you come here, Van Fanel...this is a wretched place to be...I'm sure it's nothing like the beautiful Fanelia, Asturia, and Fried my mother desciribed to me..." I say choking back tears.
Van finally walked up to where I could see his profile out of my poriffieal vision. He sighed and stayed quiet for a couple of seconds as if he were thinking of what to say. Finally, he looks at me and says, "I had to see her...the pendant...no the will of wishes, the column of light brought us together...but..." I cut him off mid sentence. I could see that it was hurting him to talk about it.
"I suppose you are searching for answers to questions that you couldn't possibly answer..." I say turning towards him and sniffling. "She didn't betray you, if that's what you are thinking..." I say with great conviction.
Van stood there in amazement. I could see he didn't expect me to be able to read his emotions and thoughts that well.
I wipe my face clean of the salt water tears that had dripped down it and look up to the chirstmas light dotted night sky. "It seems so silly to be telling you this...but she told me all about her adventures with you and everyone else in the form of a bedtime story..." I glance over at him. "You were the dashing young prince...headstrong, high and mighty, righteous, and always doing what was best for your people." Van turned a little red in the cheeks. "You were always my favorite character..." I say looking back up at the sky and closing my eyes. "In fact, I used to tell myself that someday, a great guy like you would come and find me...he'd come save me from this hell hole..." I said looking back at Van with a small smile.
By now, the poor thing was blood red in his face. "Hitomi made me out to be that great, huh?" He looked down at his shirt and grabbed a stunning red pendant. "I geuss this should be returned to you...it was hers that her grandmother had given to her..." Van says quietly as he takes off the pendant and offers it to me. "No, I can't possibly take that...she gave it to you as a gift right before she left...it's yours to keep...forever..." I say pushing his hand closed and back towards his chest.
"You really do know everything that happended, don't you?" Van says wondering how I could have possibly known that. "Hai, everything that my mother told me...from her point of view at least..." I turn back towards the house and let my arms go limp by my sides. I walk up on the first step of the porch and then plop down. Van follows and then props himself up against the porch post.
"So where do you want to start..." he says. I can tell that he is really baffled by all of the events taking place around him.
"Most likely the best place to start would be where you left off...after Hitomi got back from Gaea..."
"But that was only a year ago..." Van says trying to make sense out of everything.
"Maybe on Gaea it was...but here, that was seventeen years ago...where is Gaea in relation to the Earth?" I ask very randomly.
"I don't really know...we don't use science; it's considered an evil, corruptive thing because that's what Dornkirk used to gather his army and use the fate alteration machine," Van says very matter-of-factly.
"Oh...well, I was just thinking that if Gaea took seventeen Earth years to revolve around the sun, maybe that could be one Gaean year...maybe if it moved around the Earth like Uranus's rings do...vertically like this," I say while picking a flower and moving my pointer finger around it vertically. "That could also explain why Gaeans are able to see both the Earth and the moon in the sky at night," I hypothesieze to myself and Van at the same time.
Van looks blown away. He then very timidly says, "Uranus?"
"Yea...Uranus...you know, that planet out there before Neptune..." I say very sarcastically. "Neptune?..." Van says once again looking blown away. "Oh...you haven't ever heard about them I suppose if you weren't allowed to study science..." I say finally realizing that the boy is ignorant to things like this. "Well, what did they teach you in school?"
Van finally sits down next to me on the step. "Well, they taught me edict, royal diplomatics, swordfighting and war skills and strategy...Fanelian language and math, the history of Fanelia, and how to kill a dragon to ascend the throne."
I sit there absolutely amazed. The boy had been trained since he was young to be nothing but a king. I wondered if he had even had a childhood. "How do you know our language so well then? You speak it pretty fluently..." I say really randomly trailing off thinking.
"Hitomi taught me. She also taught me Algebra, Geometry, English, and she offered to teach me some science but I refused," he said with a little bit of a smirk on his face. He then sits down with his arms on top of his knees. He put his head on top of his arms and I can tell that he is thinking about something by the look in his eyes.
A muffled statement comes from him, but I can understand what he was saying. "Was your dad good to her?" His eyes peek just above his hands.
"No..."I shake my head and tilt it to the ground. I put my elbow on my knee and place my head in my hand. "He wasn't good to either of us. In fact, he just left us...he didn't even ask for a divorce...he just gives us-well me now- half of his check every month and roams around everywhere."
"Hey..." Van lifts his head up really quick, "it's gonna rain." He points to the dark, thick, heavy clouds looming over the moon. "We should go inside," he says as he grabs my hand and quickly drags me inside.
Sure enough, not long after a torenting rain begins to pour down. I watch the window as I watch the scarlet stain fade away into the green grass. Van sits at the table.
I look at him and notice for the fist time his clothes. He had on a red silk shirt with a pair of tan pants made for holding a sword sheath and various other things. Then, he had on a pair of brown gloves. "He's gonna look really out of place when he gets to school..." I think to myself.
"What kinda of clothes do you like?" I say being the first to break the awkward sileince. "Huh?" he replies. I walk over to the table and take the seat opposite of him. I put both elbows on the table and fold my hands in one another making a little table for my chin to rest on. "You have to go to school and you need a uniform to attend, so I already need to get you a school uniform...but that's the only outfit you have right? I mean you can't just go around wearing that one all the time; it'll get to stinking." I say in a tone of voice that makes it more than a fact. Van looks down at his clothes.
"You're right..." he says as he looks back up at me. "I like things similar to this...I don't like clothes very much..." he says kinda arrogantly. "Cool...I'll call Yukari-san and Amano-san and tell them what has happended and they'll take care of the funeral arrangements...that way we can go shopping tomorrow," I say as I reach behind me to get the phone off the kitchen counter.
"Amano?!?" Van yells very surprised. "Hai...Amano..." I say not knowing why he was so surprised. "The man Hitomi was trying to get back to..."he drifts off in mid-sentence. "Oh...so she talked about him to you...then you mustn't know that she realized that her best friend, Yukari, loved Amano but stepped out of the way and helped Hitomi when she realized that Amano liked her. But oka-san was gone for so long that Yukari and Amano became close. They recently got married and had a little one...happy little ending for those two, isn't it?" I ask him as he is still looking stunned. "I am going to go call them now...you can help yourself to anything in the fridge or in the cabinets...afterall, my house is your house now..." I say as I leave the room with the portable phone.
I hear a couple of rings and I hear Yukari-san pick up. "Konnichiwa," she says very groggily. "Yukari-san...Gomen-ne, but it's urgent..." I say quietly. "Shiryoku! Are you all right?" she asks very concerned. "No, I'm fine thanks; it is oka-san though...she ano...ano...ano..." I begin searching for the words...
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Van walks around in the kitchen for a couple of seconds before finally digging into the fridge. "I am famished...I haven't had anything to eat since Merlu cooked me breakfast this morning...Gaean morning...or however it works out..." he says outloud to himself while shoving things around in the fridge. "Some of this stuff I've never even layed eyes on before...AH HA! A sandwhich!" he says triumphantly. Van takes the sandwhich out of the fridge and grabs a plate out of the cabinet. He wanders into the living room and begins looking at all the pictures that adorn the walls and various surfaces.
Van comes across one picture of Hitomi, Shiryoku, Keiichi, Amano, and Yukari. "They all look so happy except for Shiryoku..." he says as he takes a huge side bite out of the sandwhich. He sits down and stares at the picture some more. "That man...he looks a lot like Allen...and that girl...she looks a lot like Shiryoku..."
Van's thoughts are interrupted. "I am afraid that it would be the other way around...I look like Yukari," I say announcing that I was back. "Oh," Van says as he looks really startled, " ummm...I got the sandwhich...I hope you don't mind." "No worries," I reply. I take a seat next to him.
"The man standing next to Hitomi-that's my father...Keichii Akane...then Hitomi...me...Amano...and Yukari...Yukari and Amano are my godparents so that if anything ever happened to my mom...someone would be there to take care of me...that's why I am going to let Yukari do the funeral arrangements...she said she would...she also doesn't know about you yet...we have to figure you out something to tell everyone..." I say just spouting out information to Van.
"What does that mean?" he says really rudely still munching on the sandwhich. "It means you can't just go around telling people that you're from Gaea!...you'll have to play like you're from Earth...OH I KNOW! You are our foriegn exchange student from Fanelia-the prince to be exact- and it's a country even smaller than Monaco and that's why no one's ever heard of it! Perfect! Sometimes I amaze myself..." I say very satisfied.
"Uh huh..." grunts Van polishing off the crusts of the sandwhich.
"What time is it?" I ask. "Nightime..." Van says really sarcastically. "Hardy-hardy-har-har, Van," I quip back just as sarcastic. "No, really, what time is it?" "How should I know," he says," I don't know Earthly time," and whith that he gets up and takes his plate back to the kitchen. "Well, I'm really tired," I call to him in the kitchen, "so I need to show you your room, but you're welcome to stay up and do whatever..." He walks back into the room and props himself up against the wall. "Nah, that's ok...I'm pretty tired myself...so lead the way."
I take him down the hall and then stop and think about what I was about to do. "There are three bedrooms in this house: mine, Hitomi's, and the guest bedroom which has stuff in it...do you think you could manage staying in Hitomi's room?" I say as I turn around to look at him. "Yea, I'll be fine..." he says. He steps in front of me acting as if this wasn't going to be a challenge for him at all.
I push the door open and flick the light on to see that the feathers and the blue writting is still strown all over the place. "Ano...as you can see, she was waiting-no more like expecting you...that's why the feathers are all over the place...they reminded her of you...," I say folding my hands behind my back. He turns around to look at me and he blushes. "She told you about that too, huh?" he says raising an eyebrow not knowing what I might say next.
Van steps over the threshold of the room and approaches a wall with the blue writting on it. He puts his pointer finger up to it and starts tracing over the markings one by one. He begins mumbling something to himself. Finally, he speaks. "It's the same thing over and over...'one angel falls to the green Earth below, the other takes to the skies forever flying high,'...it's Fanelian," he says solemnly.
I gasp. "Are you sure that is what this says?!? That can't be right!" I yell as I run out of the room and grab the tarot deck from in the living room. I race back down the hall and flip the deck over and start shuffling through the cards. "Look at this...La Torre, La Fool, La Serpent...then she wrote that all over the walls...I had a vison...I watched her tell that quote to you..." I begin to fear what I am concluding. "What does all this mean?" Van ask innocently. "Everything is pointing to you, Van...The tower is trouble, the fool means lies, the serpent stands for the dragon...one angel falls to the green Earth- Hitomi died, she goes back in the Earth...you have angel wings and as long as you're alive you can fly..." I begin to get really flustered. "Whoa...whoa...calm down...," he says bending down to the floor where I have set the cards,"are you saying that you think my coming here caused your mother to kill herself?"
I back away from him. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have said anything..." I push my head down to the side with teardrops flying as I realize how uncomfortable I have made the poor guy feel now. "I can sense that you are telling the truth but the cards and that quote...they are also trying to tell me something..." He takes my chin in his hand and directs my glance toward him.
"I want you to remeber this: I loved your mother...every single bit of her...even what made her unique; her ability to have visions and premonitions...you don't have to apologize for instincts..." he says very confidently.
I blush. I smile. Tears welp up in my eyes. I couldn't help but cry. No one has ever just fully accepted me as I am but here is this person I've known for only a few hours telling me that it's ok for me to be just me. "Hey! c'mon now, don't cry..." he pleads bending underneath all my hair to see my face.
"No...you don't understand...it's tears of joy...now I know why oka-san loved you so much...arigatou Van-sama. Goodnight for now," I say as I dash out of the room , slam my door shut, and jump on my bed. As soon as I hit the bed, I begin to fall asleep. But before I do, I remeber oka-san telling me that people's feelings reached each other...no matter how far apart. "Oka-san...is this your way of taking care of me? I'd like to think so..." I say as I finally dift off into the realm of dreams.
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(In Van's room) "She's more like her mother than she realizes...just running out like that for no apparent reason..." I say to myself with a slight smile. I begin to look around the room. Once again, there are many pictures hanging and sitting all around. They are mostly of the same people too. I begin to examine the still-lifes. "Still...Hitomi looks so happy but Shiryoku looks so sad...Shiryoku doesn't look like her father at all either..." I say picking up the picture on the night stand beside me. "What was I thinking Hitomi?...Trying to take you back to Gaea...I should have known better...Escaflowne would have tried to revive itself and that could have sparked something...I geuss we were both just feeling a little alone and under accepted..." I lay down on her bed while holding up the picture in front of my face. "...I geuss that is just what everyone wants out of life...to be accepted and loved by someone...to feel a place and a purpose...you found it with Shiryoku, didn't you?...I understand," I finish my little solioquy as sleep deprivation takes over my body.
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Author's note: I switched with point of views this time from Shiryoku to Van...I'm not sure if i like it...reveiw and let me know what you think! PLEASE!