A couple of weeks pass by with Allen training himself in the Scherzade in the Fanelian woods. He crosses paths Hitomi and the two talk for a moment, Hi Allen, it's nice to see you again! Hitomi says with a smile.
Allen opens his cockpit and waves to her, It's nice to see you as well. Where are you headed? I'd be glad to give you a ride.
I was just about to go back to the castle. I'd enjoy a ride; the walk back would be terribly tiring.
Allen nods and closes his cockpit, picking up Hitomi with his guymelef's hand, sitting her on his shoulder and walks toward the Fanelian castle. During their journey back to the castle, an unmarked guymelef intervenes their path and draws its sword. Allen carefully puts Hitomi down on the ground out of the way of the impending battle and draws his sword as well. The fight begins as the opponent swiftly attacks his right side, nearly impaling his shoulder with the blade's tip. Allen counter strikes with an elbow to the attackers left side.
The battle between the melefs goes on, Allen almost stepping on Hitomi as he readies for another blow from his opponent. Just as his foot almost crushes her, the opponent's guymelef prevents him from injuring her with a blow to the chest plate, launching him into the trees behind him and saving Hitomi.
After saving the bystander, the opponent picks up Hitomi and flies off to a hidden waterfall valley in the middle of the woods where, Hitomi assumes this mysterious melef pilot lives. When the pilot exits the cockpit, Hitomi is surprised to see the challenger of the fight with Allen was a girl. While Hitomi analyzes her surroundings since she has a feeling she'll be staying at the hidden retreat for a while, the strange girl introduces herself and the pair begin to talk about their interests.
Hitomi learns that her mysterious rescuer is a girl named Ana, who is tall and slim, but surprisingly strong for her deceiving frame. However, Ana is not just any sort of girl, Hitomi learns that Ana is in fact from another dimension, not Earth like herself, but a totally separate one. Ana goes on to explain to Hitomi that she is of an elite race created in a laboratory for the soul purpose of defending her planet. Her race is known as the Krieger, a very small amount of them exist.
She also explains to Hitomi that about 8 to 10 years ago she accidentally traveled through a dimensional rift and ended up trapped on Gaia, cut off from her own home world. Hitomi also tells Ana about herself, and how she made it to Gaia from Earth, which seems to fascinate Ana a great deal.
* * *
Meanwhile, Allen looks for Hitomi, but isn't having much luck in finding her. During his search, Allen comes across Van practicing his swordsmanship in a field nearby. Van, please help me find Hitomi, I cannot find her anywhere since my surprise fight earlier. I know she's around here somewhere
Van sheathes his sword and nods, beginning their joint search for Hitomi in the surrounding area. Three days pass and they find Hitomi in a very well hidden valley, sitting on a boulder next to a waterfall humming softly, along with Ana, who is cleaning her melef quietly as Hitomi watches.
Allen and Van introduce themselves to Ana and the four of them go to Fanelia to spend a few nights at the castle. During her visit, Ana decides to explore the place and possibly find Allen to get back at him for trying to kill Hitomi. Eventually, she finds him and decides to stalk him by creeping along the ceiling using her enhanced abilities. She subconsciously finds out his weaknesses during her study of him as she crawls along above him. After a while, Ana gets bored of stalking Allen and goes to find Van, whom she had only met when he came with Allen into her valley. When she does find him outside the castle, she watches him intently. Van remains still, looking at the stars for a moment longer, starting to walk into the castle gardens. When he's well within the garden, Ana is surprised as he catches her and pins her. She panics, instinctively thinking he's going to kill her, and a set of wings emerge, a midnight black and very similar to that of a bat's. Which is to her complete surprise, but being opportunistic she makes an attempt to fly away, with Van in pursuit behind her on his own wings.
Van tries to calm her down and it helps, but causes her wings to disappear in mid-flight, sending Ana falling through the air to be caught by Van and brought back into the garden, a million questions racing through his mind. Why did you do that? he asks curiously.
I didn't even know I had wings, she replies, sounding clearly surprised.
Ana nods, Yeah. Mine aren't like yours though... Mine are ugly.
He smiles, I think they're just fine.
The problem is I can't seem control them at all.
I'll teach you to control them if you would like.
Thank you, I can't be plummeting down to earth whenever I try to use them now can I? she says with a smile.
And so they stay out in the gardens all night, working on Ana's wing control and trying to get her used to them. Noticing Van's disappearance, both Hitomi and Allen work together to find him. Soon enough, they find the Fanelian king with Ana and both are outraged at the scene before them, causing some jealousy to show between Hitomi and Ana. Van reads their expressions, We weren't doing anything like that, I swear! Ana stands her ground and starts talking in a foreign tongue while glaring at Allen. When the chatting subsides, Allen escorts Ana to her room and Hitomi goes with Van. While Allen leads Ana to her room, she decides to play some simple mind games with him to try to get him to find Hitomi. Because of her hatred of being near Allen, she quickly decides to trip him and quickly run off. Allen chases after her, but he isn't fast enough to find and catch her.
Ana decides to return to Van's chamber and wait for him there while hiding herself in the room. When Van enters his room, he walks to his desk to finish some contracts for building to be done in the city. The only thing that distracted him was the feeling of being watched by some unseen person. Ana reveals herself with a very direct question, Why are you still in love with Hitomi even though you know she loves Allen?
Hearing this, Van does his best to mask his surprised reaction, What took you so long to show yourself? hiding his true thought at the moment.
I have a habit of observing others, it's programmed into me. she continues to watch him, I've been here for a substantial amount of time, but it seems that old habits don't die for me. My masters would be pleased.
A puzzled look comes across his face, How did you get here?
Ana proceeds to tell him what she had told Hitomi while they remained at her secret valley.
Why do you despise Allen as you do? From the tone in your voice earlier as you spoke that odd language, it sounded as if you wanted to kill him on the spot.
Of course it did, because I do! she answers as if it was obviously so.
Why do you want to kill him so badly?
I owe a friend for the guymelef I pilot.
Who is this friend' you're referring to?
I could tell you, but I'm not sure if that would be wise.
Why not?
You may overreact because this particular person isn't welcomed here in Fanelia.
I doubt I'll overreact over a person.. Who is it?
He's known as the Dragonslayer Dilandau.
Van sighs, Of all people it had to be him. How in the world did you meet him?
He managed to find my hiding spot and he challenged me to a duel, which I won.
That I can believe, but exactly how did you manage to beat him?
He lunges forward on his attacks, so all you have to do is jump over him and kick him in the back of the head and he's down. At least that's what I did.
Van smiles, I'd like to see you in a sparring match with Allen. That in itself would be quite a show-
Which would result in his death. I still owe Dilandau, she says to finish his sentence. However, he has good fighting form, and his weakness isn't in his technique.
Then what is his weakness if it isn't his technique? he asks curiously.
It's Hitomi, he still seems to have some strong feelings for her. If you have her, it leaves him totally open to attack, as I found out when I saved Hitomi from him.
If you had the advantage earlier, why didn't you kill him then?
I didn't want Hitomi to get hurt or see something like that, I've been trained to keep civilian trauma as low as I can.
Van nods in agreement, I'd do the same.
Ana clenches her fist, I'll get him though, one of these days. He better watch his back and not be caught alone at any time.
Van smiles at her enthusiasm, knowing that Allen would be in a deep pile of a mess when he met her, judging from what he already knew about her.
A confused look crosses Ana's face, You surprised me earlier when you found me in the garden. How did you know I was there when Allen remained clueless to my pursuit?
Van smiles, Just a little something an old friend taught me.
Do I know who it is, or is this one of those untold sort of things?
I'm almost positive you don't know who it is, but I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later from the side you're working on.
Ana ponders for a moment and then decides that learning more may come to her advantage, Van, have you ever met anyone with wings like mine?
Well, not exactly like yours, more like mine, but they are black like your own. But this black represents the sin on the owner that cannot be forgiven. his voice lowering at the end of the statement.
Then why are mine black? I have no sins. Sure, I've fought in great battles, even wars, but that was at the command of the Elders.
Maybe that's their true color, I'm not sure why.
* * *
Meanwhile, in her room, Merle can't sleep and has to get up and satisfy her cat instincts to prowl the darkened hallways to find some means of entertainment. During her midnight stroll, Merle nears Van's room and listens to the conversation through the door. Van looks up from the conversation and looks at the door, which Ana also turns to look at. Merle opens the door and makes to pounce on Van, only to be intervened by Ana. Van introduces the two, and Merle slinks off to Van's bed and joins the conversation.
Being intrigued with the cat girl, Ana asks, Where did you come from?
I was found by the swords master Balgus in the Fanelian forests and have lived with Van ever since then.
Ana proceeds to ask her, What kind of training do you have?
What kind of training are you talking about? I don't have any that I know of...
Oh, I thought maybe you would. We have people like you on my planet who are very skilled warriors and fiercely loyal friends.
Merle's ears change their direction to her reaction, Her eyes go wide, People like me?
Yes, I knew many. I do remember three of them in particular because they were my best friends. Their names were Sari, Desa, and Koda, for most of the cat people had two syllable names because it was tradition. When I was very young I remember a pink cat girl like you, though her name escapes me at the moment... She went missing one day, which deeply upset her tribe, and since that day I have always looked for her despite other duties. However, once I was transported here I stopped my search.
