Chapter 2

The walk to school was uneventful. Hitomi arrived at the principals office only fifteen minutes before the first classes would start. She knocked on the door cautiously. She was actually very nervous about going back to school. She should be able to handle this. She had been through war!

The Principal answered and ushered her into the room. Her mother had called this morning and let him know Hitomi was coming, so he was not at all surprised by her arrival.

" Come in Ms. Kanzaki. Your mother tells me you would like to come back to school immediately."

Hitomi nodded.

"It won't be easy. You've missed a lot of work. You may not even get the same teachers. Do you think you will be able to handle that?" He motioned for Hitomi to take a seat, and sat himself on the other side of his desk.

"Yes sir." Said Hitomi as she nodded again, and took the offered seat.

"There is another option, you understand. There isn't that much of this school year left. You could wait until the next semester and start over again. You will be a year behind, but it will be as if this year never happened." It was very hard to read Hitomi's Principal. He was a stern man, but at the moment he almost seemed as if he cared.

"This year did happen for me sir, I would like it to stay that way if that is okay." Hitomi thought of all that had happened this year, and all she did not ever want to forget.

"Alright. Well then, let me add you to some classes today." The Principal turned to his computer and began to type.

Hitomi sat in front of the desk, small in comparison to the Principal. He kept typing, and she sat still, waiting for what would happen next.

After what seemed like forever the Principal turned to Hitomi. "You're all set. There were open seats in enough classes that you have a full schedule." He was quickly writing down all of her classroom numbers and teachers names on a small sheet of paper. "There you go. I hope you can keep up. Now be off to class, or you will be late." He handed her the piece of paper and motioned for her to be on her way.

Hitomi stood, gave a quick bow, said "Thank you, sir." and was on her way.

She made it to her first class on time and took her seat. She had a feeling it would be a long day.

The teacher began her lecture. Hitomi had never had this teacher before. She was moderately tall with black hair pulled back in a tight bun. She was fashionably dressed, but was dressed professionally as well. She obviously took her job very seriously. The way she spoke conveyed the same thing. A serious woman. She reminded Hitomi of a dark version of Millerna's older sister, Eries. She was stern too. Hitomi looked around the class. It was a very large class, and every student seemed to have glassy eyes, as if they were really somewhere else. Was it always like this? Had it always been like this before? Hitomi thought she remembered school being a little more exciting. The clock ticket, one second at a time.

Hitomi reached out her feelings for Van. She received a flood of comfort and longing in return. Van was still there. That was good to know. Hitomi drifted into thoughts of Gaea. It was probably day by now. She wondered if Gaea and Earth were moving in time together now because of her connection with Van. The sun would be shining on green fields. Van would be preparing to meet with his advisors. They still had a long way to go before Fanelia was a flourishing city again, but they had allies to help. With Chid as the new king of Freid in the wake of his father's death in the war, Van would have plenty of help. Gaea was united again. The air would smell very sweet at this time in the day, with a breeze from the east bringing the scents of Asturia all the way to Fanelia...

Every one of Hitomi's classes passed in this manner. She tried to pay attention, but her thoughts inevitably turned to wondering how everyone was doing on Gaea. She would occasionally get feelings from Van about what she was thinking. From what she could tell from the feelings, the restoration was going well. Allen was caring for his sister Celena, Merle was helping with the orphaned children of Fanelia, and Millerna had taken on the responsibility of ruling Asturia. Hitomi couldn't tell from the feelings whether King Aston was still sick or if he had actually passed on. Van didn't seem to care very much. Besides, he was busy with his own kingdom. Hitomi couldn't actually picture Van ruling a country. As much as he disliked violence on principal, he was a warrior.

Finally the day was coming to a close. Hitomi had yet to run into Yukari. She decided to go to the track field and see if she could find her friend. Many of her old friends had stopped Hitomi over the course of the day and tried to talk, but Hitomi didn't have very much to talk about. Her mind was in too much of another place. Yukari might at least be someone she could really tell her adventures to.

The track field was lively, as it always was, at the end of the day. The male and female teams were preparing to train. The final meet would be happening soon. Hitomi saw Yukari on the edge of the field, holding a stopwatch. Normally she would have run right over, but for some reason, this time she paused. What would she say? Well, "hello" would be a good start. But then what? Hitomi stood on the edge of the field, frozen.

Van, what do I do? She couldn't' feel any response this time. She was alone.

Yukari looked up from where she was and saw Hitomi in the distance. Hitomi waved. Well, that was stupid... wave to a friend you haven't seen in three months. Good job.

Yukari was very still for a moment. She waved. Her hand dropped to her side. Suddenly she began running towards Hitomi.

"Hitomi! Hitomi? Is it really you? When did you get back? Why didn't you call me? Where were you all this time? I've been so worried. So has your mother! Have you seen your mother yet? Oh, Hitomi, what happened?" Yukari hugged her friend as if Hitomi had been gone for years.

"I got in last night, around 3. I saw my mother this morning. She made me breakfast. The rest of it... is kind of a long story." Hitomi didn't exactly know how to begin her long story. She didn't even think Yukari would believe her when she did find a way to start, but she would at least listen, and she wouldn't think Hitomi was crazy. "How is Amano, has he left the country?"

"He did, but we write to each other. I will have to tell him you came back! He was very worried when you... when you disappeared... into the sky...I mean..." Yukari seemed reluctant to talk about what she had seen. Perhaps she didn't even believe she had seen it. Perhaps once she had heard Hitomi's story, she would be able to talk about it.

"Do you have to stay here Yukari? Could we go somewhere else to talk?" Hitomi didn't exactly want to be talking about Gaea on school grounds, someone may overhear and think she was crazy.

"I suppose not. Let me go tell the team I am going. Would you like to go eat?" The prospect of Earth food cheered Hitomi.

"Absolutely." She smiled as Yukari ran off to let the team know she would be leaving.

Hitomi and Yukari walked to a restaurant not far away, but that wasn't often over populated. Hitomi asked for a booth in a corner so they would be less likely to be overheard. They both ordered their favorite items, and when the waiter left they sat across from each other with nothing to say.

"Hitomi... where have you been...?" Hitomi didn't know exactly how to start.

"You know the night I left, how that boy saved us from that dragon, and-"

"What dragon? Hitomi, you were just running, and some giant fell out of the sky and carried you away!"

"Oh." Hitomi paused. She had forgotten that she had come back once already... But she had come back before she initially would have left... Yukari wouldn't remember the first time. Yukari would have no memory of her fight with Van on that first night... It seemed so long ago... When they first met.

"You seemed happy to go Hitomi! I didn't know what to think. There was so much light, I could barely see what you were running so happily to! I thought you had gone crazy. I thought I saw someone on the metal giant, but I couldn't be sure." Yukari seemed like she was about to cry. That night must have been very hard on her.

"Yukari... That was the second time I had seen that giant... and the boy who rode it."

"Boy?"

"Well.. Man I suppose... But, it had all happened before. I had already experienced that day. The first time I was carried away by that boy as well, but there had been a real dragon, not just a metal one, and he slayed it, and he didn't know where he was, and he accidentally took me with him and -"

"Hitomi, you're going way too fast..." Yukari looked incredibly confused, and still on the verge of tears. Hitomi decided to start from the beginning.

It took her over an hour just to tell the basics of her adventures on Gaea. Yukari sat still and listened the entire time, her eyes getting wider and wider as the story unfolded. She blushed at the telling of Allen spilling about his past and asking Hitomi to be his wife. She cried when Van was stuck inside Escaflowne and Hitomi was the only one who could bring him out. She laughed when Merle stole Hitomi's pendant. Hitomi was beginning to feel at home, as if Yukari had been there the whole time.

When Hitomi was finished, when she reached the point in the story when she and Van said goodbye and she found herself once again on Earth in front of her house, Yukari sat back. She looked almost as sad and shaken as Hitomi had felt.

" I'm glad you came back, Hitomi, but how? You left so much behind?" She seemed genuinely concerned.

" I left a lot behind when I left here too. I can feel Van, just as he said. We are in each other's thoughts. I will be okay." She could almost feel Van with her now in the back of her mind. She wondered if he could feel her telling the story.

"But... What an adventure. I don't think I could have survived. Life must seem so... boring now."

Hitomi sat up. "You really do believe me Yukari?"

"Of course I do? You aren't all that creative you know, I would have known if you made that up. Besides, you're a horrible liar." Yukari grinned.

"Oh, be quiet!" Hitomi reached across the table and ruffled Yukari's hair.

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Yukari.

"Go on with my life I suppose."

"Without Van? Without Gaea?"

"I'm not really 'without' any of them. They are here." Hitomi placed her hand over her heart. "And I can feel Van there, even if I can't feel the others."

"But you don't seem happy anymore... you were always so happy." Yukari gave Hitomi a long look. "You seem much more serious. You seem older."

"It's not like I could go back anyway. I told you, I gave Van the pendant. That was the link between our worlds. That's how I travelled the first and second times."

"But he sent you here without it, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but he used an Energist, it's more powerful. I think this was a one way trip."

"But you're not sure!"

"Yukari! Stop!" Hitomi was getting frustrated. She had already gone through all of this in her head. "I'm getting used to the idea that I am stuck here, don't open it up again, or I don't think I'll be able to..." Hitomi began to cry. She didn't mean to, but that knot in her chest tightened up again, and she couldn't help it. How could everything be okay if she felt like this all the time? She could feel Van's sadness as well as her own. She knew it was his as well this time. He never could stand to see her cry. Even before he realized his feelings for her.

Yukari switched sides of the table and put an arm around Hitomi.

"Mother is going to be asking what happened. I don't think I can tell it all again. I don't think she would even believe me. She'd think I had gone crazy while I was gone..." Yukari seemed stiff.

"I think she would believe you." Hitomi looked up at her friend.

"What?"

"I think she would believe you. I think she already knows some of it."

"What?!" Hitomi didn't know how that could be possible, or how Yukari would know a thing like that. "How do you know?"

"While you were gone... Amano and I helped your mother out a lot. We spent a bit of time with her. One day she called us over and pulled out an old photo album... She told us a story her mother told her that has some similarities to yours. You said your grandmother got the pendant from Allen's father? I think your grandmother told your mother about that. I don't think your mother really believed it at the time... but now... if she never told you... you couldn't possibly have the same story unless it was true."

Hitomi was dumbstruck. Her mother knew?

"You're mother told us you were okay, that she could feel you, much like you say you can feel Van. Your mother was your link to this world. The pendant probably just emphasized it. So..." Yukari stopped, not wanting Hitomi to break down again.

"I can't tell her now..." Said Hitomi. "I can't... I don't want her to worry that I will want to go back... " Hitomi slumped over with her head in her arms. "I don't know what I'm going to do... I wanted to come back so badly... Now all I want to do is smell the breeze on Gaea and look up at the sky to see Earth hanging there... waiting for me to return someday..."

The next few weeks passed in a similar manner to Hitomi's first day back. She spent her days doing her best to concentrate on her school work. She was back on the track team, and was spending most of her time, when not working on school work, practicing for track meets. She left herself very little time to think. The time she did spend thinking was spent wondering what life was like on Gaea now, and occasionally she would get feelings from Van that let her know how they were doing.

Sometimes Hitomi thought she could see Van, as if he was visiting but didn't quite exist in her reality. Sometimes she wondered if she really was feeling Van in her mind or if she was just making it all up to make herself feel better. As time went on she felt more and more that all the feelings she was getting, and some of the thoughts, were just her imagination; that she didn't really have a mystical connection to her dragon warrior at all. Sometimes that even made her feel like she could be normal again, like she could go back to how things were before she ever knew about Gaea. Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe she made it all up.

Yukari never talked about it. After Hitomi's initial conversation with her, she seemed to get very uncomfortable whenever Hitomi brought it up, so she stopped. She never talked to her mother about it. Her mother never asked about it after that first day. Everyone seemed to go back to their normal routine as if nothing ever happened.

Hitomi even began to convince herself that she was happy.

Amano came to visit a few times. He and Yukari seemed to be getting very close. Hitomi was happy for them. It was right for them to be together.

It was a couple months after her return that Hitomi's mother finally confronted her.

Hitomi was sitting in her room working on school work, as she normally did in her free time since she got back, and her mother knocked at her bedroom door.

"Hitomi? Are you busy?" She asked.

"No. Just working on school work." Her mother entered her room carrying a large photo album. She walked over and sat beside Hitomi on the bed. She heaved a sigh. "Mother, what is it?"

"Honey... It's you, and your school work. I've never seen you work so hard in your life. You barely spend any time with your friends anymore." She sighed again. "You don't even seem to enjoy running like you used to, though you spend so much time practicing?" She sat with the photo album in her lap, her hands folded on top of it.

Hitomi stared at her homework without moving. She couldn't even read what was written on the paper anymore. Her mind was frantic.

"I probably should have talked to you sooner... but I was hoping you would come to me yourself... and tell me." Her mother fingered the edges of the photo album, and finally, reluctantly, opened it.